#i love seeing which celebrities wikipedia likes based on their photos

[wisteriander]

it’s not the Only reason but an actual reason i donate to wikipedia is because of their dedication to using the worst photos possible for celebrity pages

[hms-chill]

RWRB Study Guide: Chapter 10

Hi y’all! I’m going through Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue and defining/explaining references! Feel free to follow along, or block the tag #rwrbStudyGuide if you’re not interested!

Earl Grey (267): Earl Grey tea is an incredibly common caffeinated tea. It is the base of a London fog.

Hamilton to Laurens, “you should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent” (267): This quote is from an April 1779 letter and is immediately followed by “But, as you have done it, and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on one condition; that for my sake, of not your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into me”. Essentially, “you were rude to me, but I love you so much I forgive you as long as you look after yourself”. Just before it, Hamilton’s like “you taught me what it means to love”. (You can find it here)

Pyramus and Thisbe (268): The pair of lovers whose story inspired Romeo and Juliet, they were separated and could only talk through a wall between their houses (I’ve written a very in-depth analysis of this myth, which you can find here).

Dulles International to Heathrow (268): Dulles International is the airport in Washington, DC, and Heathrow is the classy airport in London.

John Cusack (270): An American actor largely known for his roles in the 1980s. This line in particular likely references Say Anything..., a romantic comedy known in part for a scene where Cusack’s character stands outside a girl’s window and plays music from a boombox.

Y’all had to marry your cousins (270): A reference to the royal tradition of only marrying other royals, which led to a whole lot of inbreeding.

Consummation (275): To consummate a marriage is to have sex for the first time, therefore making it “official”. 

Wilde’s complete works (276): Oscar Wilde is an Irish author famous for writing satires and also defining gay culture in the late 1800s. 

Fit of pique (277): If someone does something in a fit of pique, they do it spontaneously and out of anger at being wronged.

Mr. Darcy brooding at Pemberley (278): In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (spoilers, though it’s been out for 207 years), after Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first marriage proposal (which is essentially “your family sucks but you’re hot; marry me”), he goes back to the house his family owns and thinks about it and misses her.

Anmer Hall (278): A house owned by the Crown in Norfolk, England; it is currently home to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

Mel and Sue (280): A comedy duo and hosts of The Great British Bake Off. Sue was outed in 2002, but claims that “being a lesbian is only about the 47th most interesting thing about me”.

South Kensington (284): A district of West London known for its high density of museums and cultural landmarks.

Prince Consort Road (284): Prince Consort Road is a street in London named after Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. A consort is a royal’s spouse or partner (hence Alex laughing at the idea of his being a prince’s consort)

Ferris Bueller/ Sloane (284-285): Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a popular movie from the 1980s about Ferris, who skips school for a day of wild shenanigans in Chicago. Sloane is his girlfriend who’s roped in for the ride. 

Victoria and Albert Museum* (285): The Victoria and Albert Museum, often abbreviated “V&A”, is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative art and design. (you can explore their collections here)

Renaissance City (285): Room 50a of the V&A is full of Renaissance sculptures. (photo here) 

Seated Buddha in black stone (285): The V&A has a bunch of Buddha sculptures, but this one is the only one I saw that’s in black stone.

John the Baptist nude and in bronze (285): Possibly this piece from 1881 by French sculptor Auguste Rodin and is in the V&A’s collection.

Tipu’s Tiger (285): A nearly life-sized semi-automaton that shows a tiger mauling a man in European clothes. The tiger makes growling sounds and the man screams and waves his hand when a handle on the side is turned; it also contains a small pipe organ on the inside and was created to show the power that the Tipu Sultan of India held over invading Brits. The “give it back” that Catherine argues for is officially called repatriation, it would mean that (Western) museums have to give back stolen objects; British museums are famously bad at doing this. (see Tipu’s Tiger here)

Westminster (286): Westminster Abbey, a church in London where royals are crowned and buried. It is covered with intricate carvings and beautiful stained glass.

The Great Bed of Ware (286): A bed made by Hans Vredeman de Vries from the 1590s; it is ten feet wide and made of oak. (see it here)

Twelfth Night (286): A Shakespeare comedy full of chaos that includes a woman cross-dressing, then her twin brother being mistaken for her. 

Epocoene (286): A 1609 play that includes a boy dressing as a woman to dupe a man into giving his son an acceptable inheritance. 

Don Juan (286): A Spanish figure known for his powers for wooing women; the first text published about him was in the 1630s.

Florence (287): Florence is a city known for its art; it was the cultural center of the Italian renaissance. 

Gothic choir screen in the V&A’s Renaissance City (287): This Roodloft, or choir screen, carved by Coenraed van Norenberch is in the back of the Renaissance City in the V&A. It’s a stunning piece; the link above has great pictures and a more in-depth description than I could give.

Zephyr statue by Francavilla (287): You can see this statue here; it was one of thirteen statues commissioned for the garden of a villa near Florence. According to Greek mythology, Zephyr (the west wind) was married to Chloris, goddess of flowers.

Narcissus (by Cioli) (287): This statue may have once been the centerpiece to a fountain with Narcissus looking into an actual pool; it depicts him in the moment he sees and is mesmerised by his reflection.

Pluto stealing Proserpina (287): Likely the statue “The Rape of Proserpina” by Vincenzo de' Rossi. I couldn’t find it on the V&A’s site, but there’s more info here.

Jason with the Golden Fleece (287): This is a sculpture of a very naked Jason, the Greek hero who stole the golden fleece. He was helped by its owner’s daughter, who was in love with him, but whom he later abandoned. You can see the statue here.

Samson Slaying a Philistine (287): You can see this statue here. Henry does a pretty good job of explaining the incredible history behind it; all I have to add from my (limited) research is that it is remarkable in part for the fact that there is no one point on it that draws the eye-- it demands to be looked at completely or not at all.

Victoria and sodomy laws (288): Queen Victoria famously instituted a whole lot of anti-sodomy laws.

Viau on James/George (288): A 1623 poem by Théophile de Viau:

“Apollo with his songs

Debauched young Hyacinthus

Just as Corydon fucked Amyntas,

So Caesar did not spurn boys.

One man fucks Monsieur le Grand de Bellegarde [a friend of Viau],

Another fucks the Comte de Tonnerre.

And it is well known that the King of England

Fucks the Duke of Buckingham.”

“Christ had John, and I have George” (288): This is an actual thing that James I/VI said to the heads of the church. Here’s the full quote, from wikipedia (emphasis is my own): “I, James, am neither a god nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore I act like a man and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here, assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George.”

George iii (289): George III was the king against whom the American colonies revolted. He was deeply religious and instituted laws declaring that royals could not marry without the approval of the court.

Convent church of Santa Chiara in Florence (290): This church is no longer a church, but the altar chapel is in an alcove in the V&A. It is the only Italian Renaissance chapel outside of Italy. (you can see photos of it here and here)

Santa Chiara and Saint Francis of Assisi (290): Saint Francis of Assisi founded a few different monastic orders and is one of the most celebrated saints; Saint Clare of Assisi founded a women’s monastic order and wrote the first set of monastic guidelines by a woman. 

Blessed Mother (290): Mary, the mother of Jesus, one of the holiest figures in Catholicism. 

“Come, hijo mío, de la miel, porque es Buena, and the honeycomb sweet to thy taste”** (290): “My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off” -- Proverbs 24:13-14, King James Version (yes, that King James. He translated the Bible to make the church stop hating him). 

David and Jonathan (290): An aggressively gay couple from the Bible who have been presented as friends for centuries. Jonathan was a prince and David a shepherd, but God promised that David would be king one day. Rather than argue this or hate David for it, Jonathan welcomed David into his household and loved him despite the prophecy that he would one day usurp him. Following Jonathan’s death, David took in Jonathan’s son and looked after him. 

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen (291): Many Christian prayers end with “in the name of the Father, the son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen”. It’s a way of celebrating the god who gives you all of the good things in your life while also giving up control to them. 

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A fill in from chapter 1, as requested by someone on AO3: 

Deputy Chief of Staff (Zahra’s position, 23): The Deputy Chief of Staff is the top aide to the president’s top aide, and is responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly within the bureaucracy of the White House. 

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*This museum puts out books called “maker’s guides” that teach you how to make pieces based on things in their collections; they’re super duper cool.

**I’m not a theologian, but I am a pastor’s kid, and just... this gets me. This whole bit, but this Proverb especially. Like obviously there’s the “oh we’re kissing and I’m thinking about honey tasting sweet”, but verse 14 coming in with the “when you’ve found what’s right, you will be rewarded with the confidence of that rightness and you will have hope”? Just kill me outright next time. Don’t make me google my own murder weapon.

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If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! And if you’d like to/are able, please consider buying me a ko-fi? I know not everyone can, and that’s fine, but these things take a lot of time/work and I’d really appreciate it!

—–-

Chapter 1 // Chapter 9 // Chapter 11 

[spnfanficpond]

January 2020 Pond LiveChat Recap - Writing RPF

We had a great time chatting with Taylor,  @impalaimagining​! Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your thoughts and experience!

Our topic this month was Writing RPF, and we talked about the legal, moral, and emotional aspects of writing about real people.  A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

We started off the chat with the legal side of things, most of which was covered back when we talked about Monetizing Fan Works back in May. Here are the related links that were brought up:

Wikipedia: Legal issues with fan fiction (The section dealing with RPF is near the bottom under Right of Publicity.) Boiled down, RPF has to deal with a celebrity's Right of Publicity. Famous people have the right to control the commercial use of their name, image, and likeness, sometimes even their broader identity or persona. Most states’ laws on this only apply to uses for commercial gain. So, don't try to get paid directly for RPF, and you're safe.

From NPR: We Stan: Real Person Fan Fiction Comes To Life. This is a fascinating discussion about RPF, the legalities, and how it’s been changing in recent years. This argues that basically since “fiction” is right there in the name, RPF is inherently more legal than regular fan fiction based off of characters. No one is trying to say that the real people involved are actually doing these things, it’s just fiction.

Goodreads Genre: Fan Fiction - Real Person Fiction. When I was researching, this link came up, and I clicked it, not knowing what to expect. Finding that Fan fiction, much less RPF is on Goodreads was surprising to me. (I thought Goodreads was only about books that could be purchased and didn’t touch “unpublished” works, but I guess not?) What I found most interesting was exactly how many of the titles listed on that page are J2-related. There are more J2-related titles than all of the others COMBINED. As a fandom, we rock!

The discussion started with most folks saying they hadn’t considered the legalities of fan fiction, or RPF in particular, when they began writing. Their first concern was just getting the story out of their head and onto the paper. Also, since no one was getting paid for it and it’s so popular, no one questioned the legalities. Also, since it’s fiction, there’s no defamation of character.

@mrswhozeewhatsis​ (Michelle): Most people know that I generally don’t read RPF, unless it’s an AU. Way way way back, when I first started reading fan fiction, I used to read the occasional RPF. Honestly, before SPN, I never really liked an actor enough to want to know more about them. (I've been burned by some jerk actors in the past.) One of the first RPFs I ever read was from Jared's POV, and it contained a scene where he was on stage at a con, and detailed his thoughts. I forget what the inciting incident was, but suddenly he was thinking, "Great, now they're all thinking about how big my dick is," and it made him spiral. Something about that stuck with me, to the point that I cringe every time I see Jared on stage and anything remotely sexual comes up. That's pretty much what stopped me from reading RPF. I have no problem thinking about how big Sam's dick is, but I can't ponder too much about Jared's dick, or I can't look him in the eye when I see him at cons!!!

Taylor: I definitely think there is a very fine line to be walked when you write RPF, and I generally don't cross into the area of writing from an actor's POV.

Q: Is that how you keep it separate so you don’t stare into their faces at a con during a photo op and think about the smut you wrote about them?

Taylor: It can be hard to keep it separate sometimes but it's actually very easy in the moment of a split second photo op. They move so quickly, I don't genuinely think I have ever had the time to consider the things I've written about them while I was talking to and hugging them!

Q: Anyone else who doesn’t read/write RPF, do you think that the whole not being able to look them in the eye is an internal thing for anyone in your life, or just celebs? 

@manawhaat​ (Mana): For example, I have A. FUCKING. LOT. of sex dreams. With tons of people, celebs and people I know in my real life... and I don't want to say that it's jaded me as far as thinking sexual thoughts about people, but in a way it kind of has. I don't have that moral dilemma of not being able to look Jared in the eye after thinking about his dick.  Taylor: I completely agree. I think writing it has made me kind of impervious to it bleeding into my daily life. I see Jared and my heart goes ohmygodwelovehim first and in person, then later when he's not around is when the wowowowbutwhatabouthisdick comes in. Michelle: I don’t think I could write about anyone in a smutty way. Just characters.

Q: I wanted to talk about 'characterization' of rpf. Do other rpf writers out there think of the people as characters and treat them that way, or do you humanize them? Idk if that question makes sense but it's along the same lines of keeping them separate. 

@fogsrollingin​ (Alex): I cast them in other stories when it's rpf. I always write rpf AUs with only a couple exceptions. We know their onscreen mannerisms, so making them astronauts terraforming a new planet with evil aliens on it is like "oh easy". Taylor: Characterization is huge for me. If someone writes an actor outside of the way they portray themselves, it's impossible for me to read. While we don't know these people personally, we know how they act outwardly and in the public eye, and that's enough to get a good idea of the kind of person they would be.  Michelle: I have no trouble reading AUs, because it's just another character who happens to look like and have the name of one of my favorite actors. In AUs, they're characters. If they are actors on a show called Supernatural, then it's too humanizing for me. Taylor: See, Michelle, my mind can't separate it to that degree. If I'm reading about someone named Jared who looks like our Jared? It's Jared. AUs give me a lot of trouble, to be honest.  Both writing and reading. Alex: I feel like it's no different than if Jared did a scifi movie during his summer break from spn & it's so low budget they just kept his real name for his character name.

Q: Do you feel differently reading ship RPF than reader insert RPF?

Michelle: Most of the RPF stories I read are ships, but I do read some reader inserts, too. It’s not an intentional choice either way. Alex: I don't feel differently about it, rly. I know I prefer reading ships over reader insert but that's just my personal jam. Mana: I have a hard time reading ship rpf mainly because I like the versions of my ships that I've built in my head, so when someone deviates from that it is a little turn off for me. Like, your version of Cockles is not the same as my version, which is totally fine, you do you, but it isn't gonna tickle me the same way ya know. so when I get into like non-mainstream ships it's extra difficult to find writers who represent them in the 'right' ways. Taylor: I feel that way about pretty much everything I read, and I think that has a lot to do with the whole characterization piece of it. I know that my idea of and the way I portray Jared or Jensen is probably a million times different than the way other people, including my readers, think of them. I try really hard to make sure the way the actors come across is "right". Mana: I think the one big piece of characterization is kind of using the way they have presented themselves as a moral compass. Obviously they don't present their whole selves so there's always wiggle room and areas where you are free to project your ideas of them into the fic, but that's also the trickiest area and where so many people drop the ball.  Taylor: YES. So, so many people take that wiggle room and take it leaps and bounds beyond what is public (fandom) knowledge. 

Q: How do you feel about RPFs that support certain theories about the wives being beards and such?

Mana: I try to not write anything that would feel as if I'm slandering anyone, etc. I wouldn't want to write a Jensen x reader fic where Danneel cheats on him and that's how they get together. If I mention it at all I just say that they've peacefully and amicably parted ways. If I don't mention it then they simply don't exist in the timeline. But never anything negative about anyone, especially the wives.  @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish​ (Kaisha): I don't write smut (only read) so I have a very different interpretation on a lot of the things being discussed. I tend to stick with non-AU, sister/daughter!reader insert RPF fics because I don't feel creative enough branch out beyond that. I feel the same as Mana, and I actually won't read fics that are based on the premise that someone cheated for the storyline to work. Alex: I'm okay if ppl deviate far into fantasy realms tho. As long as it's not too support a real life conspiracy theory about the actors, if ppl wanna write it & others like it, all the more power to them. I mean as long as you're like "I killed the wives during the zombie apocalypse in my fic but I love them in real life please don't kill me" I'm like "cool". Taylor: I avoid bashing fics or beard fics. Admittedly I have one where Jensen and Danneel never got married, but they still had a daughter together and Danneel hid the kid from him until her 5th birthday. That doesn't feel like a bash/slander fic to me because I'm not painting anyone as a bad person - things just played out differently. 

Q: The person who suggested this topic mentioned “how to write your first RPF.” Any suggestions?

Michelle: Have Mana finish it for you! (The only one I’ve ever written, she had to finish for me!) Alex: My first rpf was a ballerina!Jared & yogi!Misha romcom. It was so goofy! Taylor: I don't know if I can even answer that question. It literally just poured out of me when I started. I took the tiny little idea I had in my head (my daydream, as it was previously and so aptly named), and put it into words and it ended up being a 10 part series. Mana: How to write your first rpf: READ RPF FROM A LOT OF DIFFERENT WRITERS. find what works for you and for the people you're writing about. do a couple of trial runs with shorter fics. you have room to play, but try not to stray too far from what they've presented themselves as in real life. Kaisha: For me, when I wrote my first RPF (which was also my first fic), I was in a mental place where I was watching a lot of con videos and reading a lot of sister/daughter fics. It was more "I need an outlet for how I am feeling right now and I don't have anyone to talk to"...so I talked to the image of the boys I had made in my head from what I saw of them online.

Q: Does character shipping affect the RPFs you read? Like, if your OTP is Destiel, do you mainly only read Cockles?

Kaisha: I will read almost anything that's related to one of the Js, either RPF or SPN. But I don't have strong ship feels one way or another that changes what I read/write for RPF. Taylor: I don't know if character ships have any kind of effect on RPF ships. Because there are a lot more people involved in cons than we see on the show, and cons are my primary source of RPF inspiration. Like, we see Henry, what, twice in the show? But Gil McKinney is a whole other story. He's all over the convention circuit (or at least he used to be) and also all over fandom twitter. It just feels easier for me to write RPF because I see these actors in my real life, interacting with other real people. I have interacted with them, which makes things feel a lot more real than writing about two hot fictional dudes from my TV screen. Alex: I'm definitely up for Sam/Dean as much as I'm up for J2. Oddly tho it's Mishalecki at real life con panels that's gotten me totally happy to write/read Mishalecki.

Q: (From Taylor) The piece of RPF I struggle with the most is bringing events from the actors' real lives into my stories. Writing about Jensen and the brewery, about their kids and stories they tell about them at cons, that's where my already grey area turns even more grey. 

Kaisha: I am right there with you Taylor! My fic started as mostly the reader and JJ interacting and then I remember the twins existed, too. And with my new fic I am trying to figure out if the San Jac and FBBC will work in or not. Mana: I'm interested in this, because I don't seem to have that issue or gray area. It just doesn't exist for me and I'd like to hear more about it from you guys. Taylor: It's so hard haha. I have something coming up that deals with Jared being arrested and of course I didn't post it before that whole event went down so now it looks like I'm taking that part of his life and twisting it for my personal fiction needs. Which feels kinda (adult word for "not good").  Kaisha: For me the gray area thing is because I want to write a believable story. A believable story has realistic details and if I am ignoring or overlooking things that my audience knows to be true, I feel it takes them out of the story. Mana: So it's a case of omit it entirely or commit to it entirely? I ask in regards to like FBBC and the kids. Do you feel differently about incorporating those aspects into your fics? would you be more comfortable writing about fbbc than you would the kids? Or does that gray area cover the same on both? Kaisha: The same thing goes for when I beta read something. A detail that I don't remember or agree with will take me out of the story and send me on a research rabbit trail to know if the author is correct with what they said. I want to stay in the story as much as possible and I want that for my readers too. That's probably a good way to differentiate it. If I state in the A/N that J1 only has 1 kid, then I don't have to consider what year the story is occurring in. But if I tell you it's non-AU, well then everything that is happening in our universe should be happening in my story (otherwise, it would be AU, even to the slightest degree). The kids vs. FBBC thing I think could be very personal on which someone feels more comfortable with. I say that because I know ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING about alcohol. Kids on the other hand I get. Taylor: For me it's the same. Just, actual concrete aspects of Jensen's life are harder for me to write about. Because then - again, just for me - that feels like writing from their point of view, which is something I try to avoid.

Q: Do any of you read/write RPF outside of SPN?

Taylor: SPN is my only fandom. Michelle: I tried to read fics from other fandoms, and just couldn’t get into it. I might be getting sucked into The Witcher fandom, though. Haven’t found any Geralt fics that really align with my image of him, though. Alex: There are CW network RPF AUs I read. Taylor: I feel like, as SPN fans, we have a wonderful privilege and incredible pool of writers to choose from when we want to read. I don't know, because like I said SPN is my only fandom, if any other fandom has this level of talent or dedication.

Q: Have you ever read an RPF fic that changed the way you viewed an actor? Or given you a sense of gained insight into their lives?

Michelle: That's actually why I don't read “canon-compliant” RPF, actually. Because then I might think that idea is real, and won't see that it's not, even when proven wrong. Like, maybe Jared actually loves it when we think about how big his dick is? But I can't stop thinking that it embarrasses him and makes him uncomfortable because I read it in that one fic. Kaisha: @crashdevlin​  has a Jensen x reader series that also heavily features Tom Hiddleston. My view of Tom has forever been changed because of her story!  Michelle: My brain is very malleable. Sometimes, I'm so open-minded, my brain falls right out. I have to be careful what I let influence me. Kaisha: It wasn't something that I intended to happen. Crash just wrote a very compelling character and I think my opinion would have been altered no matter who it was that she used as the face. Taylor: I've never read anything that has changed the way I view the actors. I've certainly read things that have given me new ideas about the things they enjoy (bitey and/or rough smut), but nothing that's changed the way they appear in my mind. I think the biggest part of all of this is just remembering that all of this is 100% FICTION and should never be taken as reality in any way, shape, or form.

To close out the chat, Mana requested fic recs! Here are the recs that were mentioned:

Michelle: If you're into serial killer AUs, There's a J2 AU in my AO3 bookmarks that's genius. Adoration. The other RPF bookmark I have is called Beholder. Jared runs an animal shelter, and Jensen is a homeless man with a TBI who gets dumped at the shelter one night.

Alex: My favorite rpf fic is Tails by keep_waking_up. Werefox!Jared & kitsune!Jensen law enforcement murder mystery AU.

Taylor: One of my favorites to read is by @thecleverdame​: Modern Technology. (Jared x reader) This is unfinished but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite Jensen-things I've ever written, AND IT'S AN AU!!! Rockabye. Also, there’s You Saved Me (Jared x Reader). And have a J2 x Reader for funsies! Something is Happening

Kaisha: This is my favorite RPF. Underneath verse (series) - J2 -  Jensen is the undercover FBI agent sent to take out Jared, the boss of Chicago. #Self-promo, but I am pretty proud of this one, too: Nanny, Sister, Daughter...Family (Jenneel with sorta daughter!reader)

Mana: Here’s the Cockles x Reader fic that Michelle and I wrote: Rumor Has It And, of course, (Jenneel x Reader) Fools In Love.

Feel free to reblog with your favorite RPF fics!!

Also, the February LiveChat info is still TBD. Feel free to send in your topic ideas and suggest guest speakers!!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever! Next up is organizing the tagging system on the blog to make it easier for readers to find the stories they’re interesting in and for writers to find the help they’re looking for!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

Say hi to December’s New Members and January’s New Members! (If we missed someone, let us know!)

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We’re getting lots of requests for more Big Fish, lately, but so far, only one applicant! If you know someone you think would be a good Big Fish, tell them to apply!!

[jbeverywhere]

Easter in Poland

Ok, so if I wrote about Christmas (<-link) I should write about Easter as well. Second big holiday in Poland with many traditions!

And to remind, those traditions are in my family, in my little village and probably many of them are not known in the other parts of Poland ;) I won’t be surprise, but the main idea is the same ;) 

Easter doesn’t mean only one weekend. The beginning is much earlier. I wrote already about Fat Thursday (<- link) - is last Thursday before Lent. So we can say we start from Fat Thursday eating as much pączki as possible. Then on Tuesday there is like last night before Lent so last night of parties etc, we call it Ostatki. I think it’s quite popular to party that night (but remember only till midnight because then is Ash Wednesday).

Ash Wednesday - first day of Lent, we go to church and the priest puts on our heads a little bit of ash (from palms from the previous year). Ash means disability of human life, fleetingness (przemijalność), mortality and also purification, revival. This day we can eat only 3 times (2 light meals and one heavy) and without meat. During 40 days of Lent you can try to be better human, like e.g. stop drinking alcohol, stop eating sweets, etc, like you make your own challenge.

So now we have 40 days of Lent. Are they different days than others during the year? Yes. It’s like schools together with parishes organize days of reflection. There are like 1-3 days off but students should go to the church and listen to special sermons. Some priests (or others) can do it really well, but not all… And there are different ones, for children (with games, questions, stories), for teenagers, for students, for adults, about their “problems” etc. Some people like to do it even more intensive so for example you can go to monastery for few days to spend them with your thoughts, reflections. Why all of this? To start being better human, it’s like New Year’s resolutions. Because Easter is about revival.

Droga Krzyżowa - Way of the Cross - it’s a lenten service (english is strange xD), which takes like ~30 min. Every church has those 14 stations of Jesus way with the cross to Golgotha. And this can be done really well, really heartbreakingly but depends of the church and involved people.

The example from the village next to mine:

It’s like in the theater. When I was like 10-15 years old I used to take part in those performances ;)

Gorzkie Żale - Lenten Lamentations - another lenten service (every week) where are sung special prayers.

Palm Sunday - one Sunday before Easter. In polish palm is palma xD The day before (or days) we are preparing at least one palm for the house/family. Mostly it’s for children so when we were younger we had even 3 palms in my house. Now just one ;) The original one should be prepared from twigs of willow (or others) but you should put at the end some twigs with willow catkins (it’s the symbol of spring). Ok, so we have the base. That’s all? Of course no! It should be colorful! With maaaaany flowers. So we make flowers from tissue papers. Look:

So beautiful! There are many techniques, we even learn them in the school. And then you put also ribbons and voilà!

Why? In remembrance of Jesus arrival to Jerusalem. We prepare those palms, take them to church to sacrifice them. There are even competitions who has the biggest palm (like really really long ones - hard to suit in the church!) or the most beautiful palm.

What do we do with them next? We keep them till Easter, then I’ll tell what is next.

Some my childhood photos. Notice the difference of the weather. One year during Easter there is snow, another so sunny beautiful day.

One week before in the small city next to my village there is a market of handmade eater things. Women from my village were selling this:

Palm Sunday starts Holy Week.

Holy Thursday - normal working day but in the evening we go to the church to the Mass of the Lord's Supper (Msza Wieczerzy Pańskiej). It inaugurates the Easter Triduum (3 days to recall passion and death). The Mass doesn't finish like normal, is like cut. The Blessed Sacrament is taken to the altar of repose (ciemnica). And then there is time to keep vigil and prey there. Like suddenly the silence everywhere.

Good Friday - in many countries is a day off, in Poland not yet.

The only day during the year when there is not any mass. It's passion and crucifixion of Jesus. There aren’t any bells or music.

The Blessed Sacrament is taken to the tomb and then the firemen stand there to keep guard. They change ie every 30 min. It’s like a choreography. I’m always impressed, they stand like rocks, no moves, no smiles, true guards. This I’ve never done as a firewoman but read more.

During the day you can eat only 3 times (2 lights meals, one heavy) and without meat.

Holy Saturday - and here we start traditions! So in my family in the morning just after breakfast we are painting the eggs! Yes! I love it :D You can buy in the shops some special colors, markers, etc or you can use natural staffs to paint your eggs. There are many different ways to do it, you learn it from your parents, grandparents and also in school.

drapanki - you scrabble the shell of the egg, of course with some sense, beautiful picture.

kraszanki - you boil the egg in the natural dye, like onion - brown, beetroot - pink, etc

pisanki - you draw something on the egg (using wax and some niddle) and then you put it to the dye

oklejanki - you stick something to the egg, like some material - lace, etc

nalepianki - you stick some paper decorations

and much more...

Credits to Ruda! It took her ~2h for 1 egg!!! WOW szacuneczek!

-> Inspiration <-

My mum started to crochet “eggs”, just look:

Do you want to order? ;)

But why we do it? We prepare full basket of food which we will eat the next day for the breakfast (and later because there is a lot). Each thing in the Easter Basket has a meaning.

lamb - not the animal, calm down. It should be baked bread in the form of lamb but in my house we use sugar lamb (which we buy days before from Caritas) or butter lamb - a fundamental symbol of Jesus

bread - it’s like foundation, it symbolizes Jesus body

egg - triumph of life over death

salt - life-giving mineral, catharsis

cooked-meats - health, fertility and wealth

cheese - friendship between human and the nature (oscypek hej!)

horseradish - strength and lustiness

cake - special biscuit cake called: babka, symbol of abilities and perfection  

That’s the base, but you put there also what you want for that special breakfast. So in my family we put - oranges! I don’t know why xD I think it’s because it was something special in Poland in the past so to make the basket really special they put oranges and we keep the tradition. Also butter (for the bread) and the best - chocolate bunnies and eggs <3 mmm my favorite! Especially when you challenged yourself for 40 days without sweets then this breakfast is very special.

Basket should be made of wicker, decorated with the white napkin and the lace, with some twigs of boxwood.

So we have the basket ready, what is next? We go to church (yes I know, again) and there is food blessing. It’s a short ceremony, after that you can stay longer and adorate the cross or just you can come back during the day to do it.

Aaaaand! I did it in Valencia too! I mean, I prepared the basket and with Fede we went to polish parish to sacrifice it. Good girls :D My parents were so proud of me :D

Aaaand from childhood xDD

Those clothes <3

That day is also a day to cook and prepare a lot of food for Sunday and Monday, and of course last cleaning to have “perfect house to welcome Jesus”. We even sometimes laugh that before Easter there is like a total cleaning in all polish houses.

Then in the evening (depends on the church, but should be late - after the sunset) there is Resurrection. In the past (like 10 years ago) it was on Sunday before the sunrise. But they changed to Saturday night. So it’s a big celebration because Jesus resurrected. So you should dress pretty elegant. As a fire brigade we all meet dress in elegant uniforms to go to the church together and stand in the front the whole mass. Almost always I’m standing with our banner 😎 Then at the end there is procession, 3 rounds around church singing about Jesus resurrection and being happy.

After the mass as a fire brigade we go to our fire house to eat together easter food (eggs and sausages) and spend time together. I like this tradition :) 

Easter Sunday - the day of happiness, food, food and food. The day when the whole family sits together and eat big breakfast. All food which was sacrificed the day before. You take the “scented-so-good” basket and put it on the table, all eggs, bread, sausages, chocolates - it’s time!

And Valencia 2019:

In my home we use to drink cacao and/or chicory coffee that morning. That breakfast it’s very unique. And after it you are sooooo fuuuuuull. To remind - 40 days of lent, less food, less sweets. So now explosiooooon. Just after 12:00 my mom’s sister comes with her family to have lunch together. So more food. The soup should be żurek z kiełbasą (sour rye soup with the sausage).

credits: https://gotujmy.pl/zurek-kujawskii,przepisy-zury-przepis,230935.html

But in my home only my parents would eat it so we have rosół which is the best of the best :D

And the second dish schabowe and more meat :D For the dessert there are some special easter cakes:

babka - we put it to the basket

makowiec - poppy seed cake - this one depends which part of Poland, for me it’s christmas cake, for others easter

mazurek - wikipedia - with all the decorations, but to be honest I’ve never made it and it’s not a cake which you can find in my family table.

And you think we finish eating? No way. We just clean the table after the lunch and we put food “to snack on”, drinks, cakes ;) 

click to see the gif ->

Easter Sunday night is also special. At least for us from Moszczenica ;) It’s a night of fire (we say that we burn Judas) and a night of jokes. What? We meet (cousins, neighbors) and we make a bonfire - it’s to say goodbye to winter, hello to spring.

We drink and we dance, it’s a great outside party (like 5-10 degrees xDD).

And when the village, the rest is sleeping we go! We go to our uncles, neighbors to change something, like block the front door with some big planter, move the car, wrap a car with a stretch foil, just move things, to make the morning a little harder BUT still using brain and not being bad ones. For example, the road was blocked :D 

In the Monday morning you can hear many gossips. But shhhhh nobody knows! 🤫🤭😇

Easter Monday - Wet Monday - Śmigus-dyngus - this day we split the water on each other :D “I don’t care, I love it”. Why? The tradition was really old,and has changed. In the past it was like that: the boys hit (like a little bit) the girls with pussy (xD) willow branches and now we use only the water and the war is on the both sides. The gender doesn’t matter. In the past it was a little bit about “love” but now it’s just fun. When Easter is late, like the end of April and that day is sunny... wow! Then in the villages you can not be dry. Amazing day! And when Easter is in March and it’s so cold then yes... we still do it xD but more in the houses and praying that mom will understand xD With my uncle I have always a good fight. In the past I threw water over him from the window when he was outside he he ! :D But last year he was prepared as well and he knew... Also his method was to take me to the bath, too strong to fight... I could just scream but everybody was laughing so don’t expect any help that day. Sounds crazy no? But it’s really nice. And yes, villages, in the cities don’t try to split the water on a stranger.

Also that day my father (the man of the family) takes the palm from Palm Sunday, split it to many parts and takes each of it to different part of the house and places which belong to that house, like fields, forests, etc. It’s kind of protection from bad things (fires, droughts, etc). But it’s my father and he does it on Monday because his father did it on Monday as well. In my village you do it normally on Sunday. 

So this is our polish Easter, especially in Moszczenica ;)

[muggle-writes]

do I have that book challenge

tagged by @elizabethsyson and while photos were absolutely helpful (for example, in explaining the first question) I did this mostly from memory in downtime at work so I couldn't exactly take pictures as I went, and tbh I don't trust tumblr not to eat my post if I upload a bunch of pictures at once

Do you have a book with deckled edges?

thank you so much for the picture because if that's the thing with the pages not exactly matching up, (but within a small deviation from perfectly square) yes, my copy of the first three Dragonriders of Pern books in one volume has deckled edges. also probably some other books, but I've been reading that one recently so I'm sure about it

Do you have a book with 3 or more people on the cover?.

yeah: Inverloch (Volume 1)

it's the printed version of (the first portion of) a webcomic, which I didn't know when I picked it up at a garage sale or something. I hadn't even heard of webcomics yet

and. hm. don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the premise of the story and it was never really bad... I was thrilled when I realized it was a webcomic and still online and i could read the whole thing.

but

the major plot twist, one the author had apparently planned from the very beginning, honestly had some very unfortunate implications that would haunt me if I ever attempted a reread.

Like, it was set up well enough to be a surprise but not a shock. and it enabled the happy ending. but I probably would have preferred almost any other happy or vaguely positive ending, or even a meaningful depressing ending, I was that disappointed

on the other hand the rest of it was written well enough that I cared so.... eh. it is what it is

I'm just not sure I still love it enough to recommend, but I also wouldn't stop someone from picking it up off my shelf to read, you know what I mean? Especially just that first part, which was plenty good.

Do you have a book based on another fictional story?

D&D guidebooks are totally based on Lord of the Rings, right?

lol in reality uh

the copy of Scandinavian folk tales including my favorite fairy tale ever was always my dad's, not mine, no matter how many times I read it before moving out

uh

my wife has several Halo books? like the video game. I'm not actually sure which came first and I haven't read any of those, but they are on "my" (our) shelf

I also have a lot of Harry Potter meta/derivatives, including that themed Haggadah I think I posted a picture of recently. But the phrasing of this question makes me think the intent is "fiction based on other fiction" so none of those quite count.

so yeah, Halo's the closest I've got. also there's a Star Trek book on that shelf that I didn't even know we had until I went looking for clocks on covers

Do you have a book with a title 10 letters long?

Sadly I don't have my own copy of Dragon's Kin, which kicks off an excellent subseries of Pern books, (nor Dragonsong but I didn't expect to have that one) but what I did find was

The Visitor (which is animorphs#2)

Do you have a book with a title that starts and ends with the same letter?

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye

Do you have a Mass Market Paperback book?

does my solid half of the animorphs series all on one shelf count or is this looking for specific branding?

Do you have a book written by an author using a pen name?

(immediately thinks of Lewis Carrol) um Edwin Abbot was also a mathematician but sadly not a penname, but I do I have a copy of Flatland

Oh, but I'm pretty sure I have some of the ghostwritten animorphs books, do those count? Specifically someone mentioned recently that animorphs 25 was the first of the ghostwritten books and I definitely have that one

Do you have a book with a character’s name in the title?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Ender's Shadow on my shelf, the rest I mostly have as ebooks. also the first Erec Rex book (mentioned above) and the entire Kirsten (American Girl) series plus the first Kit book.

Do you have a book with 2 maps in it?

the first one I found was The Malloreon Volume 1 (also has 3 characters on the cover). it's got a map of the western kingdoms before the first book and a map of Mallorea in the middle of the third book

Do you have a book that was turned into a TV show

Animorphs again

Do you have a book written by someone who is originally famous for something else?(celebrity/athlete/politician/tv personality…)

I definitely had a phase of buying books by famous people, so I have the worst bulkiest copy of Origin of Species which is printed in a terrible font (it also has deckled edges for that matter), and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, that I could find at a quick glance. Probably something by Steven Hawking hiding somewhere

my phenomenal copy of The Elements (Euclid) doesn't quite count because he's most famous, now, for writing those so...

(Einstein's Relativity - in translation obviously because I know very little German - is deceptively short but that was my parents' book that I tried and failed to read, not my own)

Do you have a book with a clock on the cover?

Disappointingly, An Uncommon History of Common Things does not. I do have a Doctor Who coloring book with a clocklike gear pattern on the cover which is the closest I'm finding

Do you have a poetry book?

yeah someone once gave me a book of Japanese death poems, translated of course. I've been meaning to read them. for that I have to find it, and I can't right now :/ now that I remember the book I want to go read it

Do you have a book with an award stamp on it?

not that I can find? apparently Dragonflight or Dragonquest won "a Hugo or Nebula award" (bc McCaffrey was the first woman to win one of those) but wikipedia isn't telling me which award or which book, and I don't have the dust jacket for the original-trilogy-in-one-volume copy that I have so there's no telling if it "should" have an award printed on the front

Do you have a book written by an author with the same initials as you?

ooh wouldn't that be fun. I don't seem to :/

what I do have is a book written by an author with what my initials would be if I had taken my wife's last name instead of the other way around which I guess is close enough

Do you have a book of short stories?

yes, surprisingly. The Girl Who Heard Dragons and I haven't read any of them, not even the story I got it for

oh, and First Meetings, which is a bunch of short stories in the Ender universe

Do you have a book that is between 500-510 pages long?

That's... really specific. Closest I could find was 483 pages and 513 pages (Volume 2 of The Belgariad and The Malloreon, respectively) In general I have a lot of books around 300-350 pages and a fair few over 700 pages, but not many close to 500

Do you have a book that was turned into a movie?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for sure. I think Flatland was also made into a movie and it was as phenomenally terrible as you would expect of a story about 2d shapes. not even shapes with faces, just shapes, and one sphere.

Do you have a graphic novel?

I was going to make all sorts of qualifications of "well... if something originally published as a webcomic is now in physical book form.... (Inverloch again) but actually I have volumed 1 and 3-7 of Tomo (manga-style "preteen protag moves in with Christian family members and has both fantasy adventures and learns the benefits of being Christian" no-subtlety series that I picked up at Family Christian Stores when they were still everywhere. also I probably still have the first six Serenity "books" but I can't find them (not fantasy: rebellious "sinful" teen moves to new school and hangs out with the Christians because she wants to sleep with one of them, eventually sees the errors of all her ways, un-dyes her hair, and converts. Also no subtlety)

I had a phase when I was "too old" for veggie tales but still thought FCS was the best place ever but if that really was the best of their "teen" content it really wasn't great

Do you have a book written by 2 or more authors?

are we limiting this to novels? I have The Great Snape Debate (meta published before Deathly Hallows, with short chapters by two alternating authors, plus they got Orson Scott Card to write a chapter to draw reader attention with the big name and hey it worked, I bought it, arguing (between all of them) both sides of "will Snape turn out to be on Harry's side after all" and also The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern which as the title implies, is more of a guide than a real story.

Oh, but I do have a copy of Invasive Procedures (Card & Johnson).

Did I miss any questions? tumblr's being particularly weird today.

anyway I suppose I should tag some fellow bookworms. @knightbusofdoom @copperscales and if anyone else wants me to edit to in so you're "really" tagged, just may me know, and if you just want to do it please do and tag me back

[ablanariwho]

Yashoda And Kaikeyi – Fantasy vs Reality Of A Step Mother

Are stepmoms really evil or are they simply victims of circumstances in a patriarchal society?

Disclaimer: This post talks about those women who do not have a say in marrying a widower or divorcee with children. However, those who chose to be a second wife or a step mother, may or may not relate to some parts of this post It is not intended to malign any individual, but highlight the plight of women in a patriarchal society where stepmotherhood is imposed on them and then they are judged for not being able to love their step children like a real mother.

She was standing in front of her new home. There was no one at the door to receive her. No floral decoration, no banana tree branches flanking both sides of the door with decorative earthen holy pots at its feet; no gathering of married women, led by a mother-in-law, waiting happily with anxious anticipation to receive her with all the customary preparations. There was no shehnai playing in the background, no uludhwani to welcome her.

She slowly and hesitantly pushed the half open door with her palm. There was no sacred brass pot kept at the threshold of the main entrance of the house, filled with a heap of rice over its brim that a new bride is supposed to gently tumble down by her toes before stepping in. There was no platter of water mixed with ‘Álta’ (a red dye Indian women, especially Bengali married women use to paint the sides of their feet) in which a new bride is supposed to dip her feet and then walk inside, stepping onto a new cloth rolled out on the floor, leaving her footprint on it, symbolizing the arrival of ‘Lakshmi’ – the goddess of wealth .

She knocked at the door. A young adolescent boy came out. He was, at first, a little startled to see her there. But he did not ask her who she was. He guessed who she could be. The fresh sindoor along the woman’s hair parting was enough introduction. The woman did not miss to notice the awkwardness, the slight shadow of resentment mixed with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. She tried to smile and slowly and shyly asked, “You are the eldest one, right?” The teenager nodded and then turning his gaze towards the floor, said in a low voice, “Please come in.”

She stepped into her new home.

Illustration by Vidya Bhamre

Arrangement of convenience

She was the second wife of a middle-aged man – a widower with half a dozen children. All those matrimonial rituals to receive a new bride into her marital home were not meant or required for her. Her marriage took place over the tragic incidence of the untimely death of the man’s previous wife. Hence, there was no celebration. In some cases, a second wife may arrive after a sad separation with the first one. In that case, some ceremonies may still happen. But in this case, there was none. Her marriage was truly an ‘’arrangement of convenience’’ without all these frills. The man in his early forties needed a woman firstly to manage his household and family of half a dozen children aged between 6 months and 16 years and secondly as his spouse and companion.

The average looking, slightly dark-complexioned woman, much younger than the man she had just got married to, came from a poor family. They could not get her married to an eligible bachelor. When they received this proposal, they were more than happy to give away their daughter’s hand to him. There was no demand for dowry, jewelry or anything. The only pre-condition and expectation was that the woman would readily accept the role of a ‘mother’ and deliver the responsibility of nurturing a big family of children left by the previous wife of the man, besides playing other roles of a new life-partner to him. The woman had no choice or say in this arrangement. She accepted it as she knew it was always better to be someone’s wife than spending all her life as a single, unmarried woman in her maiden home, depending on her poor father or brothers. She knew, that wouldn’t be a much honorable life.

The woman, who arrived alone without any ceremonious reception, died after spending around five decades of her life in that home. She did not have her own children. She took care of the six children of her husband’s previous marriage. I could see her depart as a sad, defeated, unfulfilled soul. The boy, who received her on her arrival for the first time, did the funeral rites. He was in his fifties by then. As per Hindu norms, a son is supposed to shave off his head as a mark of respect and a part of the last rites of his parents. In this case, the priest conducting the ceremony said a stepmother is not entitled to that right by the scriptures. Today, there is no photograph of the woman in his house. The photograph of his own late mother sits rightfully next to his late father’s photo. The stepmother, the second wife, the childless woman is remembered and still criticized only for all her frailties and misdeeds and nothing else.  After all she was a stepmother.

Can 'motherhood' be imposed?

This has happened with scores of women. They were picked up from underprivileged circumstances and right away assigned to the responsibility of a ‘Mother’ – the most important and difficult job of parenting. Her age gap with the step children, mental maturity or emotional strength, nothing was considered to check if she was fit for this role or not. In case of stepmothers, the complexities of parenting are further compounded. Hence, it should be thought about more.

Has society ever spared any thought on this? I don’t think so.

Painting by Raja Ravi Verma of Yashoda adorning baby Krishna

Source: Wikipedia

Is motherhood misunderstood?

Despite having heard scores of stories of stepmothers being bad to their stepchildren, men, while bringing a stepmother in their children’s lives, prefer to believe that in their personal cases, she would definitely and unfailingly turn out to be a divine “Yashoda” and not a cunning and jealous  “Kaikeyi”! They have no choice but the need to justify and base their decision to marry again on this belief and hope. Many a times, this belief makes them turn a blind eye to the reality of a woman’s psychological and emotional complexities in raising a stepchild. They end up never realizing the fact that their second wives could never really replicate a “Yashoda” and love the children of their husband’s first wives same as their own biological offspring.

This proves, patriarchal society has not understood motherhood in its true sense or from the perspective of a woman. It has either over-hyped it or downplayed it. In one hand it has deified motherhood. On the other hand, it has taken motherhood, so much for granted. It doesn’t understand that a woman, just for being a woman, does not have an obligation or instant inclination to feel motherly towards anyone she is expected to or asked to, especially towards stepchildren.

In most of the cases, quite naturally, a stepmother fails this humongous  expectation of the society and thus, earns the bad reputation of a stereo-typical ‘stepmother’. Despite serving this difficult role, most of the time not as their own choice, step mothers carry this tag of evil human beings, through-out ages in folktales, mythological stories or epics, worldwide, barring exceptions such as one “Yashoda” in the Mahabharata. (She was not a stepmother though; she was a foster mother who raised and took care of Krishna for a while without knowing that he was not born out of her womb).

In one hand, the society labels a stepmother negatively. It does not understand her predicament. On the other hand, it casually imposes the unrealistic high expectation of being Yashoda on them which requires almost divine power to overcome all ordinary limitations of human emotions. This is unfair and an example of mindless double standard applied by the patriarchal society on women.  

I think this happens due to the following reasons:

1)     Ignorance, lack of insight and awareness of the society (read men) about female psychology, her sexuality, her motherhood, her emotional complexities.

Being male, men do not have the direct experience of bearing and giving birth to children. That makes them incapable of experiencing firsthand what motherhood is in terms of physical and emotional attachment with the child from the day of conception. They do not, hence, realize how difficult it is for a woman to love and care for a child, who is not her own, with whom she does not have that intimate physical and emotional connection to develop the sense of belonging and bonding. If it would have been so easy to mother children, not one’s own, there would not have been so many orphan children in the world, waiting to be adopted.

2)     Women widowed or divorced, especially with children, cannot marry second or third time as easily as men. Hence, men hardly get the chance to experience what is it to be a stepfather. It restricts their ability to put themselves in the shoes of a stepmother and imagine what or how she feels like towards her stepchildren.

All over the world, it has always been much easier for widowed, divorced or separated men with children, to marry second or third time, same age or much younger women. Society, legal and religious systems, predominantly patriarchal, have always been favorable to men in this matter, in the pretext of his legitimate need for a companion and a wife to manage his household and children.

This is not the case for women, who are widowed or divorced and have children with them from previous wedlock, left behind or deserted by their fathers. Marriage is not a socially acceptable solution for them for the same reason – need for a companion and support to raise her kids and run the household.  Women in such situation, rarely marry for the second or third time. Hence, men hardly get the chance to experience how it feels to take the role of a father of his wife’s children from her previous marriage. There is no popular male role model, idol, example, inspiration or reference point either for them to emulate, such as there is ‘Yashoda’ for women.

3)     Men do not understand how stepchildren can remind a woman of her husband’s intimate relationship with his first wife and can make her feel extremely jealous and angry.

It is natural to feel jealous for a woman about their spouse ’s or partner’s ex. This sense of jealousy often manifests into angry, apathetic and unjust behavior with the child who was born out of another relationship of one’s partner.  

To sum up, society never thought how emotionally challenging and draining it could be for women to be stepmothers. It just takes advantage of women’s underprivileged and weaker position in the society (especially in Indian context) and makes them play this difficult role. Most of the times they fail in it and also end up being judged and bad mouthed.

To me these women are misunderstood and sad victims of circumstances. People need to understand that and stop judging stepmothers. Mothering is considered to be exclusively subject to a woman’s own offspring. A stepmother can, at the most, be as humane as possible, if not motherly, towards the stepchildren.

At the same time the entire world, including the stepmothers, also need to realize that the stepchildren, who lost their own mothers at an early age or never received and experienced their own mother’s love and care, are the most unfortunate victims of circumstances. Rarely someone else can substitute the role of one's own mother or compensate for her absence.

Hence, patriarchy should stop fantasizing the story of Yashoda and Krishna happening in real life and expect the same from women. 

[myrosesunflower]

Easter is also called Pascha (Greek, Latin), or Resurrection Sunday. Easter is a festival and holiday to remember the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the Third day after his Burial, following his Crucifixion, by the Romans at Calvary c.30AD. It is the whole happenings of the Passion of Jesus, which is observed after Lent (or Great Lent), a 40 day period of Fasting, Prayer, and Penance. Most Christians refer to this week, before Easter as ‘Holy Week’, which is made  up of the days of the Easter Triduum, which included Holy Thursday, and The Last Supper.

As well as Good Friday,  which remembers the Crucifixion and the Death of Jesus.  In Our Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday, and lasts for Seven Weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th Day, which is Pentecost Sunday.

In the Eastern Christianity, the season Pascha begins on Pascha, and ends with the coming of the 40th day, the Feast of the Ascension.

The Easter Date?

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are Moveable Feasts, they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian Calendars, (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons).  (in the Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia)

The date for Easter is determined on a luni-solar calendar, similar, to the Hebrew Calendar.

In the Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter falls on a Sunday, between 22 March and 25 April, inclusive, within about seven days after the astronomical full moon. The Easter Monday, is a Legal Holiday in many countries, with Christian Traditions.

Eastern Christianity bases their dates on the Julian Calendar. There is a thirteen day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, 21 March, corresponds, during the 21st Century, and the 3 April, in the Gregorian Calendar.

The Julian Calendar, is No Longer Used as the Civil Calendar of the Countries, where Eastern Christian traditions, predominate.  https//www.ancient-origins of Easter.net…

In the Oriental Orthodox, some churches have changed, from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, and the dates for Easter and for other Fixed and Moveable Feasts is the same as in the Western Church.

What is Easter?

Easter is the Primary Act that Fulfills the purpose of Christ’s Ministry on Earth— To Defeat Death by Dying and to Purify and Exalt Humanity by Voluntarily Assuming, and Overcoming Human Frailty. (In the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia)

Easter Festivity 

Holy Week begins Sunday April 14 and Ends Saturday April 20.

Easter 2019 Date-— April 21 (Western),     April 28 (Eastern)

Observances— Prayer,  all Night Vigil,  Sunrise Services

Celebrations— Church Services, Festive Family Meals, Easter Egg Decoration, and Gift Giving.

Easter Gifts for You. I made these Easter Cards for Easter. I made them using the Itisi Bitsi, Gel Pens, which come in a packet of 24 Gel Pens. I got the idea for the cards, from free photo stock, on the internet search, for Easter. I used a Sharpie Fine Liner, Black Marker to complete the outlines of the Pictures. I hope you like them and print them on cards, to give to your family… Have a Safe, Healthy and Great Easter– 2019…

      The Best Chocolate treats to buy for this Easter. https://www.heraldsun.com.au

Easter Videos

The True Story of Easter (You Tube)

The True Easter Story with Roy Vander Laan (You Tube)

The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegan / Easter Book Read. (You Tube)

The True Story of Easter, Respawn Inbox (You Tube)

The True Easter Story–  https://www.truthbook.com/jesus/the true-Easter-story

Easter is the time to remember Jesus’s Death and Jesus’s Resurrection. Easter is the Celebrating by All People in the World, of our Human Fragility. Jesus, at his Resurrection, promises to give us A New Life, after Our Death. After mourning, Jesus Death for 40 days by Fasting, Praying, and doing Penance, we celebrate the Risen Jesus. We celebrate by believing that a new life, in Jesus awaits us All, after our Death. So we rechoice and attend sunrise Easter Service’s, share Family meals, give gifts, and Easter Eggs, on Easter Day.

Our Love and Belief in Jesus is Alive, every Easter, because we live this Mystery Of Easter Every Year, and actually know that Jesus does show up, at the End Of Our Lives. Jesus made this Promise to Us… Do have an Excellent and Happy Easter, and Eat all the Chocolate you Want, at Easter you CAN… See you all in my next BLOG… I am creationsbymariec.art   and Artpaperdesignsmarie

      Easter Festivity, 2019... and My Art Creations. Easter is called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday. Easter is a festival to remember the resurrection of Jesus from the Dead. Which occurred the third day after Jesus Burial... Easter is also called Pascha (Greek, Latin), or Resurrection Sunday. Easter is a festival and holiday to remember the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead, described in the…

[attract-mode-collective]

Ready To Wear, Ready To Play

As previously noted, there’s been yet another change in direction for the Attract Mode blog… which I have dubbed Version 2.8 Final CE EX Λ Core Plus Alpha. BTW/FYI. But yeah, been posting on Twitter, a lot. So much so that you may have missed something, so here’s a recap!

Note: was originally going to cover everything tweeted throughout the month, but because there’s so much to cover (and February’s short)… am guessing bi-weekly might be the way to go. Am also going to present things mostly in order.

K, enough chatter: at the very top is another fine example of a Famicom being the ultimate in fashion accessory (via nintendu). And here we have, not designer threads but designer plastic (via gamefreaksnz)...

Speaking of plastic, Sega (or someone who got Sega’s blessing, or maybe not even) made Super Monkey Ball figures? Guess so (via magimacaque)...

I was under the belief that, if I truly wanted to make an impact with the relaunch of the Attract Mode Twitter, I couldn’t just post one single piece of Klonoa fan art, but two... 

And I only have one example of Cuphead fan art, but it’s the one that counts (via jothelion)...

It was Kyle who helped kick the Attract Mode Twitter’s rebirth into high gear, with the reveal of his Nintendo Power covers. So to help replay the favor, I must insistent that everyone purchase the hard copy of RPG_Friends (which I first mentioned here)...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing such a dense assortment of Japanese game stuffs (via peazy86)...

... Yet that being said, I also believe less can be more, plus a nice breeze while playing Secret of Mana is... well... nice (via sixteen-bit.tumblr)

These gamer chairs perfectly embody Japanese sensibilities when it comes to furniture, plus are a total 180 to the junk they peddle in the US (via shmups)...

Time for another excellent toco toco vid, this one features your fave old school Capcom illustrator, and mine, Akiman…

There's so much I love about this interview with the creator of Hong Kong 1997, whose goal was "to make the worst game possible”. Though this picture of the guy is near the top of my list... 

I love these kooky kids, thinking they could possibly get away with  stealing an entire Final Fight arcade cab (via videogamead)...

Yeah, I feel the same way kid (via tvgame)...

"This is Jesus. He lives inside my Neo Geo MVS cabinet. He was there when I got it. He is glorious." (via arcadephile)...

The pathos that is Sub Zero at the bat, in four modded screenshots(via lanceboyles)...

The pathos that is the Kachō interacting with kids, in just three YouTube screengrabs (via gaijira)...

And the pathos that is Splatoon 2, via two screengrabs and the piece of fan art that resulted (via lunaticobscurity)...

Though in addition to pathos, Splatoon is also filled to the brim with intensity (via thewaragainstgiygas)...

Welcome to VIOLENT CITY (via shmups)...

Also, STAY CHILL (via paperbeatsscissors)...

Not that any band in which music is performed via guitars hooked up to Famicoms is all that typical to being with, but this one is most definitely not typical (via miki800.com)...

This "what the hell is going on exactly" illustration has motivated me to finally Wario Land a spin at long last (via it8bit)...

Remember Absolutely Rose Street, the Beverly Hills 90210 meets Degrassi meets Wayne’s World-esque show that was actually an infomercial for the Sega 32X in disguise that I wrote about a little whiles ago? Well here's ad for it (via oldgamemags)...

I'm a total sucker for old Japanese video game mags, primarily ones featuring models/statues on the cover (via miki800)...

Another cover to an old Japanese game rag, this one featuring the very first Metal Gear; I wonder if this slightly cutesy take helped to inspire the Metal Gear we meet in Snatcher (via mendelpalace)...

Here we have a page from an 11 page comic, done in a single sitting, for an event that celebrates various pairings of Solid Snake/Otacon, one that's called Snot Week for whatever reason (via millionfish)...

I want this woman to be my mom (via cyberfights)...

Am obsessed with this image of a man playing Xevious in the middle of a desert that's clearly fabricated and clearly from the 80s (via shmups)...

mendelpalace sez: "This picture gives me anxiety" and I feel exactly the same...

This is comparable to my own morning commute, except for the lack of floating cherry blossom petals and various other differences (via tightenupthe)...

Spring is almost here, which means it's time for a new wardrobe, which really means it's time to get new PaRappa attire (via miki800.com)...

If a glitched Nintendo logo when booting up a Game Boy looks fashionable to you, you're in luck (via gameandgraphics)...

Tho if a glitched Game Boy Advance start up is more your style (via corruptionasart)...

Has anyone received this Mega Drive/Genesis chiptune album on a cart (described as a "16-bit VMU") yet? (via catskullelectronics)

Ever wonder what a 3 part symphony, one performed via 5 different Nintendo DSs and 5 different copies of Electroplankton, sounds like? Well wonder no more (via mendelpalace)...

And ever wonder what an Italian-based, US-born R&B, blues and disco singer (which is how Wikipedia describes Ronnie Jones) thought of video games in the year 1980? Again, wonder no more (via aestheticoftheday)...

The new DDR, which will record your performance and also add snazzy video effects, is my early contender for GOTY 2018 (via @Sega_AM2)...

I will never grow tired or bored of watching this run cycle, ever (via shmups)...

What appears to be a Nier motion study (via sixteen-bit)...

Sakura-ha (via rosscountertv)..

To commemorate the discontinuation of the Kinect sensor (via prostheticknowledge)...

Google Translate took the original Korean & translated it as: "Ittsumi! Maria", which @NotLikeFreddy re-translated as: "It's-a me, Mary-o"...

The medium of video games most certainly has many mountains to overcome yet, but there's little denying that we've made some progress nonetheless (via videofame)...

"I have to go now. My planet needs me.” (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz it's been a while since I shared a gif from Sin & Punishment (via n64thstreet)...

The SNES & Genesis had cool accessories and all, yet I often wonder what it would have been like if 3D printers & Etsy were around back then...

Pretty much the cutest lil thing you'll see all day is this Genesis CDX hooked up to a 5″ Sony PVM (via decideweapons)...

“'Club Sega during the Snow' is a top-tier aesthetic, I think." (via pr0jectneedlemouse)

I love old VG sound team photos, especially when they double as old band photos, like Capcom's Alph Lyra here (via videogamesdensetsu)...

You all have no idea how happy I am to finally see a decent sized version of the flyer for Deadly Sport... again, no idea (via melvanainchains)...

Here's an illustration of Terry Bogard eating a hot dog (with the rest of his Fatal Fury posse chowing down as well)...

... Turns out, Terry's affinity for hot dogs is somewhat of a thing (via busterwolf)....

... Or, perhaps SNK as a whole are simply huge fans of hot dogs? (via meldowiseau)

I absolutely love this familiar, yet thoroughly refreshing take on Samus (via lady--peaches)...

And nothing new to report, as it pertains to @deimosremus's Metroid redesign, so am just going to continue staring at this some more...

Love Hultén is mostly known for their handheld creations, like the Pixel Vision, though I mostly dig their full-sized cabinet, the Kabin 1...

"Damn Tecmo never let Microsoft live that design down" (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz I recently began replaying Breath of the Wild...got the Switch version for the gf on her birthday... some fan art (via it8bit)...

I've seen my fair share of comics with Sonic & Tails, but never one that addresses the debug mode from the original Genesis games (via vg-libary)...

Here we have two cats, from the game Jingle Cats, occupied with the fridge (via obscurevideogames)...

And here we have just one cat, from the Sailor Moon anime, occupied with an arcade game that I am unable to identify (via sailormoonreblogs)...

Can you believe the music video for @MissyElliott's Sock It 2 Me is over 20 years old? Crazy, I know...

Speaking of Mega Man, I guess I need to finally check out Mega Man Zero, cuz apparently X goes through some kind of religious conversion or something (via omnilunary)...

And here we have Cut Man, the one we all know (and love) from Mega Man meeting his Captain N doppelganger (via mewymarsher)...

I absolutely need this on a shirt or jacket (via @buzz_clik)...

It's always a thrill, seeing a fighting stick made out of tupperware in the wild for the very first time, isn't it? (via @silva_hime)

Yes. Fighting Layer is that game in which you jump off a folding chair to smash another one on the head of a gigantic falcon (via lordmo)...

Tonight’s episode: PINBALL ALCHEMIST (via tonights-episode)...

Here we have a Tumblr thread giving suggestions on how to access a seemingly inaccessible area of a hotel lobby; my fave, for perhaps obvious reasons, is the ring path/light speed dash combo from Sonic Adventure...

Am kinda hungry atm and feel like slicing & dicing some celery & onions, plus making some Julienne Fries; anyone got a copy of Sonic 2 handy? (via sonicthehedgeblog)

A. thanks to this fan art, I now know you can also play OutRun in Hokuto no Ken PS4! & B. great piece & all, but...still a shame that Alex Kidd is missing (via inspiredfatty)...

I've legit been staring at these rotating NES and SNES gifs all day long (via 3d-bear)...

These photos from the Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, circa the late 90s, right before the system's launch are very... and I mean VERY... 90s (via posthumanwanderings)...

"What will your next dream be?" (via 081594)

You know that UK/US reality show Undercover Boss, in which a billionaire CEO disguises himself as the new mailroom guy? Well there's apparently a version in Japan, with an episode starring the president of Taito (via @MMCafe_Prof)...

On Valentine's Day I came across a horror movies blog that presented various horror movie Valentines, including one for Jason Voorhees that references Friday The 13th for NES (via cameraviscera.com)...

Also, for Valentine's, my girlfriend made me pixelated chocolate; the pic does the blue hearts in particular zero justice, which look like plastic toys, but most assuredly are made of milk chocolate...

... And that’s it for now! The rest of February coming up in a few!

[riichardwilson]

A deeper dive into more of the Bing Search ranking factors

In our ongoing coverage of Bing’s search ranking factors, which the company listed out when it published its new webmaster guidelines, I sat down with Bing to talk to them about some of those factors.

This is from our interview with Microsoft’s Christi Olson and Fabrice Canal, on Live with Search Engine Land about What SEOs need to know about Bing Webmaster Guidelines. We already dug into the fact that Bing uses user engagement metrics in its search ranking factors. Now we cover author and site reputation, completeness of content, transparency of authorship and negativity as signals Bing uses in rankings.

This conversation begins at the 36 mark into the video and ends at about the 47 minute mark:

[embedded content]

Author reputation ranking factor

I asked Bing about how it uses author reputation as a ranking factor. Canal, principal program manager at Bing, Microsoft, said “I will take the example of coffee. If you search for ‘coffee grinder’, most customers want the basic coffee grinder that is, I don’t know, $25 in a shop and that’s it; this is good, they are satisfied by this. But professionals or the people who really love coffee are not interested in the cheap coffee grinder. They want the expert things that will grain the coffee in a special way and so on. And for this customer, they really want to get the expert answer from specific individuals in the U.S. that are writing high-quality blogs, high-quality information, that have high-quality reviews.”

“What really matters is having knowledge and understanding that the people who wrote this content are trustable — it’s high quality. So coming back to you, Barry, obviously you are one of the top [reporters], if not the top on search engines, and when we search for [search engine-related content], we may be more interested by your articles than by some others people that do some random SEO Company comments about SEO Company or ranking. You become the authority, we believe that we know and we will know even more moving forward that you are a celebrity, knowledgeable on search engines, and so we will promote your content because you write high-quality documents.”

“But, we probably wouldn’t rank you for COVID,” said Olson, Head of Evangelism at Microsoft.

I asked a hypothetical question, “Would Bing know that Barry Schwartz published an article on The Verge?” a site I have never written anything on, but my author name is there? Canal said, “we may not know at the start because you may have another Barry Schwartz.” But over time, Bing may learn that if I continue to write at that site, he explained.

Site reputation ranking factor

How does Bing determine the reputation of a specific website? Canal shared another example, he said, “Let’s take the example of a virus today: if you type COVID-19, what matters? Is it Wikipedia because we see some interesting content on each and everything? Or, are you more interested in WebMD or some government sites that provide the latest on this thing? Or, are you interested in a document that you may post on COVID-19 that you did in Search Engine Land? And at the end, it is really about mapping and understanding that this website is an authority for this specific domain. And, it’s all about understanding that authority means there is very trustable content there that we can use to link customers and satisfy the intent of a customer. And so [there are] a lot of techniques in play to really understand and classify internet content, internet domains, internet hosts and so on, and associate ‘Okay, this is reputable on [this] specific topic.’”

It sounds like Bing, over time, can learn and then classify a website to be about a specific topic.

Completeness of content ranking factor

Olson shared an example of what this means, she said “you don’t have to have the history of everything on a single page. There are so many websites, and this falls in a couple of different areas, [for example, a page with the title] ‘You won’t believe the amazing change between Mary Kate and Ashley on Full House versus today,’ and it’s an article that every page is just links or ads everywhere, and instead of showing the before-and-after photo you have to go through 75 pictures to get there.  It is not complete content — you have to literally go through 75 different pages. So that would be considered not complete in my mind.”

“Just making sure that you have an article that’s a full article: If you’re talking about a topic, that you don’t just say one word or a sentence or an H1 tag, but you actually are then completing that thought, you complete the answer. So again, going back to the quality, it’s useful and relevant based on the query and to the user set so they don’t have to click through 40 pages to get the answer,” she said.

Transparency of authorship ranking factor

I asked them whether every article needed an author. Olson said, “No, not every piece has to have an author. Part of the transparency was the understanding: Is this written by a person? Is it a corporate entity?  Because there’s content that gets scraped and republished, so for me on the transparency side was understanding is there an actual author or person,” she said.

Olson gave an example, citing her own writing. “I write on the Microsoft Advertising blog and that gets associated with me but sometimes I write for Microsoft Advertising where it’s not necessarily me as Christi talking about a topic.” She explained that it is about “being able to say did someone write this, or is this on behalf of a brand or a subject.”

Negativity as a ranking factor

Part of the ranking factors include negativity. For example, Bing might demote name-calling and offensive statements.

“Back to when Bing participated in something called the Trust Project they asked questions such as ‘Is it a true statement or is it just derogatory? Am I saying horrible things about somebody that are unsubstantiated claims, is there any truth or backing behind it?’” Olson said. That goes back to knowing who the author is, are they a trustworthy source or quality source, are you citing websites that are known to have false information, she said. “I can say that I held a party and it was the biggest party in the world, but if you see my living room, could I really hold the biggest party in the world in my living room?”

How can you know if you can trust the source or not? She explained that it goes back a bit to the level of discourse. For example, does an article have citations and references to data sources? “If you’re making a statement, whether it’s positive or negative, do you have data to back it up, is it a trustworthy data source, do you provide those links?” she said.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-deeper-dive-into-more-of-the-bing-search-ranking-factors/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/627502933334999040

[scpie]

A deeper dive into more of the Bing Search ranking factors

In our ongoing coverage of Bing’s search ranking factors, which the company listed out when it published its new webmaster guidelines, I sat down with Bing to talk to them about some of those factors.

This is from our interview with Microsoft’s Christi Olson and Fabrice Canal, on Live with Search Engine Land about What SEOs need to know about Bing Webmaster Guidelines. We already dug into the fact that Bing uses user engagement metrics in its search ranking factors. Now we cover author and site reputation, completeness of content, transparency of authorship and negativity as signals Bing uses in rankings.

This conversation begins at the 36 mark into the video and ends at about the 47 minute mark:

[embedded content]

Author reputation ranking factor

I asked Bing about how it uses author reputation as a ranking factor. Canal, principal program manager at Bing, Microsoft, said “I will take the example of coffee. If you search for ‘coffee grinder’, most customers want the basic coffee grinder that is, I don’t know, $25 in a shop and that’s it; this is good, they are satisfied by this. But professionals or the people who really love coffee are not interested in the cheap coffee grinder. They want the expert things that will grain the coffee in a special way and so on. And for this customer, they really want to get the expert answer from specific individuals in the U.S. that are writing high-quality blogs, high-quality information, that have high-quality reviews.”

“What really matters is having knowledge and understanding that the people who wrote this content are trustable — it’s high quality. So coming back to you, Barry, obviously you are one of the top [reporters], if not the top on search engines, and when we search for [search engine-related content], we may be more interested by your articles than by some others people that do some random SEO Company comments about SEO Company or ranking. You become the authority, we believe that we know and we will know even more moving forward that you are a celebrity, knowledgeable on search engines, and so we will promote your content because you write high-quality documents.”

“But, we probably wouldn’t rank you for COVID,” said Olson, Head of Evangelism at Microsoft.

I asked a hypothetical question, “Would Bing know that Barry Schwartz published an article on The Verge?” a site I have never written anything on, but my author name is there? Canal said, “we may not know at the start because you may have another Barry Schwartz.” But over time, Bing may learn that if I continue to write at that site, he explained.

Site reputation ranking factor

How does Bing determine the reputation of a specific website? Canal shared another example, he said, “Let’s take the example of a virus today: if you type COVID-19, what matters? Is it Wikipedia because we see some interesting content on each and everything? Or, are you more interested in WebMD or some government sites that provide the latest on this thing? Or, are you interested in a document that you may post on COVID-19 that you did in Search Engine Land? And at the end, it is really about mapping and understanding that this website is an authority for this specific domain. And, it’s all about understanding that authority means there is very trustable content there that we can use to link customers and satisfy the intent of a customer. And so [there are] a lot of techniques in play to really understand and classify internet content, internet domains, internet hosts and so on, and associate ‘Okay, this is reputable on [this] specific topic.’”

It sounds like Bing, over time, can learn and then classify a website to be about a specific topic.

Completeness of content ranking factor

Olson shared an example of what this means, she said “you don’t have to have the history of everything on a single page. There are so many websites, and this falls in a couple of different areas, [for example, a page with the title] ‘You won’t believe the amazing change between Mary Kate and Ashley on Full House versus today,’ and it’s an article that every page is just links or ads everywhere, and instead of showing the before-and-after photo you have to go through 75 pictures to get there.  It is not complete content — you have to literally go through 75 different pages. So that would be considered not complete in my mind.”

“Just making sure that you have an article that’s a full article: If you’re talking about a topic, that you don’t just say one word or a sentence or an H1 tag, but you actually are then completing that thought, you complete the answer. So again, going back to the quality, it’s useful and relevant based on the query and to the user set so they don’t have to click through 40 pages to get the answer,” she said.

Transparency of authorship ranking factor

I asked them whether every article needed an author. Olson said, “No, not every piece has to have an author. Part of the transparency was the understanding: Is this written by a person? Is it a corporate entity?  Because there’s content that gets scraped and republished, so for me on the transparency side was understanding is there an actual author or person,” she said.

Olson gave an example, citing her own writing. “I write on the Microsoft Advertising blog and that gets associated with me but sometimes I write for Microsoft Advertising where it’s not necessarily me as Christi talking about a topic.” She explained that it is about “being able to say did someone write this, or is this on behalf of a brand or a subject.”

Negativity as a ranking factor

Part of the ranking factors include negativity. For example, Bing might demote name-calling and offensive statements.

“Back to when Bing participated in something called the Trust Project they asked questions such as ‘Is it a true statement or is it just derogatory? Am I saying horrible things about somebody that are unsubstantiated claims, is there any truth or backing behind it?’” Olson said. That goes back to knowing who the author is, are they a trustworthy source or quality source, are you citing websites that are known to have false information, she said. “I can say that I held a party and it was the biggest party in the world, but if you see my living room, could I really hold the biggest party in the world in my living room?”

How can you know if you can trust the source or not? She explained that it goes back a bit to the level of discourse. For example, does an article have citations and references to data sources? “If you’re making a statement, whether it’s positive or negative, do you have data to back it up, is it a trustworthy data source, do you provide those links?” she said.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-deeper-dive-into-more-of-the-bing-search-ranking-factors/

[laurelkrugerr]

A deeper dive into more of the Bing Search ranking factors

In our ongoing coverage of Bing’s search ranking factors, which the company listed out when it published its new webmaster guidelines, I sat down with Bing to talk to them about some of those factors.

This is from our interview with Microsoft’s Christi Olson and Fabrice Canal, on Live with Search Engine Land about What SEOs need to know about Bing Webmaster Guidelines. We already dug into the fact that Bing uses user engagement metrics in its search ranking factors. Now we cover author and site reputation, completeness of content, transparency of authorship and negativity as signals Bing uses in rankings.

This conversation begins at the 36 mark into the video and ends at about the 47 minute mark:

[embedded content]

Author reputation ranking factor

I asked Bing about how it uses author reputation as a ranking factor. Canal, principal program manager at Bing, Microsoft, said “I will take the example of coffee. If you search for ‘coffee grinder’, most customers want the basic coffee grinder that is, I don’t know, $25 in a shop and that’s it; this is good, they are satisfied by this. But professionals or the people who really love coffee are not interested in the cheap coffee grinder. They want the expert things that will grain the coffee in a special way and so on. And for this customer, they really want to get the expert answer from specific individuals in the U.S. that are writing high-quality blogs, high-quality information, that have high-quality reviews.”

“What really matters is having knowledge and understanding that the people who wrote this content are trustable — it’s high quality. So coming back to you, Barry, obviously you are one of the top [reporters], if not the top on search engines, and when we search for [search engine-related content], we may be more interested by your articles than by some others people that do some random SEO Company comments about SEO Company or ranking. You become the authority, we believe that we know and we will know even more moving forward that you are a celebrity, knowledgeable on search engines, and so we will promote your content because you write high-quality documents.”

“But, we probably wouldn’t rank you for COVID,” said Olson, Head of Evangelism at Microsoft.

I asked a hypothetical question, “Would Bing know that Barry Schwartz published an article on The Verge?” a site I have never written anything on, but my author name is there? Canal said, “we may not know at the start because you may have another Barry Schwartz.” But over time, Bing may learn that if I continue to write at that site, he explained.

Site reputation ranking factor

How does Bing determine the reputation of a specific website? Canal shared another example, he said, “Let’s take the example of a virus today: if you type COVID-19, what matters? Is it Wikipedia because we see some interesting content on each and everything? Or, are you more interested in WebMD or some government sites that provide the latest on this thing? Or, are you interested in a document that you may post on COVID-19 that you did in Search Engine Land? And at the end, it is really about mapping and understanding that this website is an authority for this specific domain. And, it’s all about understanding that authority means there is very trustable content there that we can use to link customers and satisfy the intent of a customer. And so [there are] a lot of techniques in play to really understand and classify internet content, internet domains, internet hosts and so on, and associate ‘Okay, this is reputable on [this] specific topic.’”

It sounds like Bing, over time, can learn and then classify a website to be about a specific topic.

Completeness of content ranking factor

Olson shared an example of what this means, she said “you don’t have to have the history of everything on a single page. There are so many websites, and this falls in a couple of different areas, [for example, a page with the title] ‘You won’t believe the amazing change between Mary Kate and Ashley on Full House versus today,’ and it’s an article that every page is just links or ads everywhere, and instead of showing the before-and-after photo you have to go through 75 pictures to get there.  It is not complete content — you have to literally go through 75 different pages. So that would be considered not complete in my mind.”

“Just making sure that you have an article that’s a full article: If you’re talking about a topic, that you don’t just say one word or a sentence or an H1 tag, but you actually are then completing that thought, you complete the answer. So again, going back to the quality, it’s useful and relevant based on the query and to the user set so they don’t have to click through 40 pages to get the answer,” she said.

Transparency of authorship ranking factor

I asked them whether every article needed an author. Olson said, “No, not every piece has to have an author. Part of the transparency was the understanding: Is this written by a person? Is it a corporate entity?  Because there’s content that gets scraped and republished, so for me on the transparency side was understanding is there an actual author or person,” she said.

Olson gave an example, citing her own writing. “I write on the Microsoft Advertising blog and that gets associated with me but sometimes I write for Microsoft Advertising where it’s not necessarily me as Christi talking about a topic.” She explained that it is about “being able to say did someone write this, or is this on behalf of a brand or a subject.”

Negativity as a ranking factor

Part of the ranking factors include negativity. For example, Bing might demote name-calling and offensive statements.

“Back to when Bing participated in something called the Trust Project they asked questions such as ‘Is it a true statement or is it just derogatory? Am I saying horrible things about somebody that are unsubstantiated claims, is there any truth or backing behind it?’” Olson said. That goes back to knowing who the author is, are they a trustworthy source or quality source, are you citing websites that are known to have false information, she said. “I can say that I held a party and it was the biggest party in the world, but if you see my living room, could I really hold the biggest party in the world in my living room?”

How can you know if you can trust the source or not? She explained that it goes back a bit to the level of discourse. For example, does an article have citations and references to data sources? “If you’re making a statement, whether it’s positive or negative, do you have data to back it up, is it a trustworthy data source, do you provide those links?” she said.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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source http://www.scpie.org/a-deeper-dive-into-more-of-the-bing-search-ranking-factors/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-deeper-dive-into-more-of-bing-search.html

[writingtoroyals]

We’re drawing closer to the most magical Royal Mail time of the year...

Christmas!!!

I know you guys are probably like “omg chill it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.” Well guess what? The preparation starts now!

In this post I’ll go over some basic questions you may have regarding Christmas mail. Let’s go!

Before we begin, if you have general questions, you can find my different posts here regarding format and topics. 

Now let’s get started!

Can you write EVERY royal for Christmas (read; Do they celebrate it?)

Although I do not know the religion of every European monarch, they all celebrate Christmas (or a form of it). However if you are writing outside of Europe, you may have to do some research. 

However, if you are unsure, or if you don’t celebrate Christmas yourself, you can always wish a royal “happy holidays” to cover all bases, including the New Year. 

Who should I write to?

Whoever you want! It can be overwhelming to think of everyone at the same time. I usually go by family. I’ll start with the British for example, and go from top to bottom. To see the Brits (and the rest of the monarchies), you can visit the address page or of course, Wikipedia.  

I always determine who I definitely want to write to first. Most of the time my favorite royals or royals I know will send very nice responses. Then I think of who I would like to write to and see if I haven’t made a long enough list already!

What should I send?

Christmas cards are acceptable, either store-bought or handmade (I buy mine). Letters are still an option, as well. Personally I prefer the Christmas cards because I just love Christmas cards. I try to find some that are pretty generic so I can use them for all the families. 

What to expect?

Some royals will continue to send their normal forms of responses, altering the message to mention your holiday greetings and returning the sentiment (such as Luxembourg and Denmark)

Other families send out specific Christmas responses, which are my personal favorite. Belgium, Spain, and Monaco always send out special Christmas cards and the Dutch send out Unicef cards. These are very special and usually include a photo (except the Dutch). 

The British send out their usual postcard replies, with special Christmas/Holiday messages on the back. The photos are usually not specific holiday photos, but rather were taken during the year (not posed). 

When should I send cards out?

There is no specific time to send out cards for any occasion. But remember, usually the earlier you send, the earlier you get a response. I try to send mine out towards the beginning of December, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. Last year I was only able to send them out about 10 days ahead of Christmas and the year before I even sent some out after Christmas. I still got responses, although it took a while. 

How long does a response take?

Christmas is a very busy time for royals and their secretaries. I would guess this is when they get the most mail. The staff also takes some much deserved time off during the holidays. Because of these factors, it can sometimes take a little longer to get responses. As with all occasions, response times will vary. 

My last reply to arrive last year was Queen Elizabeth. I imagine she probably got the most mail out of everyone I sent cards to. Obviously that wait time was far longer than say..Monaco, who probably doesn’t get near the amount of letters.

Will everyone respond?

As per usual, nope. Sweden and Norway never respond to Christmas as far as I’ve heard/seen. Most royals that respond to other events (birthdays) will respond to Christmas as well. 

If you’d like to know who I’m sending cards to, keep checking the Mail Out part of the blog. I will post them all as soon as they are sent!

I hope this helps with any Christmas questions. If you have any more, please send them in! I will probably keep updating for Christmas as we get closer 

[junker-town]

What was most popular the last time the Chiefs and 49ers won a Super Bowl

The last two times these two won the Lombardi Trophy, things were pretty different.

It’s been quite a long time since the Kansas City Chiefs won a Super Bowl. In fact, it’s been a whole 50 years — the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV in the 1969 season. Kansas City had the fourth-longest active drought without a Super Bowl appearance until it earned a bid this season.

The San Francisco 49ers, on the other hand, have won a championship more recently. Their last Super Bowl win came in the 1994 season, when the Steve Young-led 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers in Miami.

This year’s Super Bowl is also in Miami, but that’s about all that remains the same. A lot has changed in the world since the last time these two won championships.

Let’s take a look at what was happening in sports, TV, movies, pop culture, and technology the last time the Chiefs and 49ers won the Super Bowl.

1969 vs. 1994 in sports

1969

The New York Mets won the World Series, 4-1, over the Baltimore Orioles. Nicknamed the “Amazin Mets,” the victory was one of the biggest upsets in World Series history. The Mets it had a losing season each year before that.

The Boston Celtics were the NBA champions, as they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. We saw the Celtics-Lakers rivalry heat up during this decade, and the two played in the finals six times — Boston won them all.

In college football, the Texas Longhorns won the national title, beating Notre Dame, 21-17, in the Cotton Bowl, and thus, Texas was truly back. What’s also interesting about this season is after the Longhorns defeated No. 2 Arkansas in December earlier that season, President Richard Nixon presented Texas with a plaque claiming the Longhorns to be the No. 1 team in the land.

1994

Major League Baseball strike: 1994 was a chaotic year for the MLB. Owners wanting to implement salary caps led to a players’ strike in August. It didn’t end for 232 days, the longest stoppage in MLB history, and there was no World Series. The strike cost management close to $1 billion, and players lost millions. It effectively ended Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson’s MLB careers, too.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers won the college football national championship by beating then-No. 1 Miami in the Orange Bowl. It marked head coach Tom Osborne’s first national title, though he’d go on to win two more in the 90s.

The Houston Rockets won their first-ever NBA championship, taking the seven-game series against the New York Knicks.

The O.J. Simpson chase: During Game 5 of Knicks-Rockets, NBC’s telecast was interrupted for the police chase of Simpson in his white Bronco:

Tonya Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. As you probably know, that was before she was later stripped of her title for her role in the attack on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, which happened that same year.

1969 vs. 1994 in music

1969

The Billboard No. 1 song in 1969 was “Sugar, Sugar,” by a cartoon band named The Archies, from the animated TV show The Archie Show. Yes, this is incredibly weird to me, too.

Other big hits during this year included “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones, “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension, and “I Can’t Get Next To You” by the Temptations.

The Woodstock music festival was held in August 1969. More than 400,000 people gathered on a farm in New York to see artists like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin.

Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

The festival is known as one of the biggest and most important music events in history, lasting four days (it was originally supposed to be only three) while heavy rains caused delays of several acts.

The Beatles recorded their final album together, Abbey Road, which included classics like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Come Together.” That year, the group gave its final live performance, which took place on the roof of Apple Records.

1994

The No. 1 Billboard single for 1994 was “The Sign” by Ace of Base, which was the title track of the Swedish group’s debut album. This one was an absolute banger:

Other hits like “Don’t Turn Around” and “All That She Wants” were on this album.

Some other popular songs from this year included Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do,” and Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You.” This year Mariah Carey released her Christmas album, which is the greatest holiday album in history. I’m not 100 percent sure about that fact, but I’m right, OK? Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rearview Mirror album was released, though it became more popular the following year in 1995.

This was a pretty big year for debuting artists. Some of the more notable ones, to name a few: Weezer, Outkast, Beck, Notorious B.I.G., and Oasis.

Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain sadly died in April 1994.

1969 vs. 1994 world events

1969

One of the biggest moments in both the U.S. and the world history was the Apollo 11 mission, which successfully put the first-ever man on the moon. The mission, led by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, launched on July 11, 1969, and landed on the moon on July 20.

Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

On July 18, 1969, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off of a bridge in Chappaquiddick, which resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker of Robert Kennedy’s. Although the news made headlines in the beginning, it ultimately was largely overshadowed by the Apollo 11.

President Richard Nixon was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1969, for his first term.

On Dec. 1, 1969, a draft lottery was reinstated, for the Vietnam War. It was the first since World War II.

1994

Bill Clinton was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones while serving his first term as the President of the United States. The accusations Jones brought forward were allegedly from when Clinton was the governor of Arkansas in 1991. Judges allowed Clinton to avoid trial for the lawsuit until after he left office. Jones later settled her lawsuit in November 1998 after Clinton won the 1996 election.

The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America. Before Republicans took control. Gingrich signed the contract which laid out legislation that would be passed within the first 100 days of Congress.

Nelson Mandela was elected as South African’s president, in the country’s first-ever democratic election. The elections marked the end of apartheid in South Africa, and Mandela later established a commission to investigate human rights and political violations that happened during apartheid. Beyond his time in office, which lasted until 1999, Mandela is considered to be one of the greatest champions of peace and social justice, both in South Africa and around the world.

1969 vs. 1994 television and movies

1969

The No. 1 grossing movie was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It later won four Oscars, including for Best Original Screenplay.

The children’s television show Sesame Street debuted on PBS in 1969. Sesame Street is still airing new episodes on TV to this day!

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was the most-watched TV show, a sketch comedy show hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. The show featured actresses like Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn as performers, too.

1994

Seinfeld was the most-watched television show, while Friends and ER premiered this year. Nearly 22 million people watched the Friends premiere, and ER had over 23 million viewers. All three shows were the anchors of NBC’s Must-See TV lineup.

Disney’s The Lion King was the top-grossing movie that year, and other greats like Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, and Pulp Fiction were released.

Frasier won its first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. It went on to win 112 Emmys until it last aired in 2004.

1969 vs. 1994 celebrities

1969

Celebrities born this year included: Brett Favre, Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd (who’s a huge Chiefs fan), and Jennifer Lopez, who coincidentally is performing the halftime show at Super Bowl LIV.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Judy Garland passed away. Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure. Garland was just 47 when she died of a barbiturates overdose.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney both got married this year, McCartney to Linda until her death in 1998, and Lennon to Yoko Ono until his assassination in 1980.

1994

Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson. The marriage lasted two years before the couple filed for divorce.

Time to feel old! Celebrities born this year include Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Dakota Fanning, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid.

Richard Nixon and Jackie Kennedy both passed away. Nixon was 81, and he died after suffering a stroke. Jackie O passed away of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at just 64 years old.

Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley divorced after 10 years of marriage. Brinkley was said to have partially inspired Joel’s hit “Uptown Girl.”

1969 vs. 1994 Technology

1969

The first-ever ATM was installed in the U.S.: On Sept. 2, 1969, the ATM became available to the public at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.

This one could only give customers cash, though more ATM advancements came soon after.

Televisions looked a lot different!

On July 3, 1969, the internet’s first message was sent from UCLA: Two machines on campus that were linked together through ARPANET. There was an attempt to send “login” over the network to a group of Stanford students, but the program crashed after “l” was typed in.

1994

DirecTV’s first satellite digital television service launched. That year, there were just 320,000 subscribers.

Something called “Netscape Navigator” was the leading web browser at the time. I am 27 years old, and have no idea what this thing is:

Screenshot via Wikipedia

The IBM Simon debuted as the first-ever “smartphone” for sale: Thank God we have iPhones now.

Via Microsoft

There have been many changes in the 25 years since the 49ers last won a Super Bowl, and in the 25 years before that, when the Chiefs last earned the Lombardi Trophy. Fans of both teams are hoping they won’t have to wait as long to see them play in the Super Bowl again. But if they do, one thing’s for sure: the world will look a lot different.

[golshxd-blog]

The original glass is in this window

The 2nd May 2019 marked the 500th anniversary of the death of one of the most multi talented people who has ever lived. He died at Château du Clos Lucé, Amboise, in France, and was often referred to as a Universal Genius.

A glimpse into his atelier

Another shot of his atelier

Yes, that’s a very bold statement, but consider this, he dabbled in, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography.

Of course I’m talking about Leonardo Da Vinci.

© Château du Clos Lucé

Discussing Anne & my recent visit to Château du Clos Lucé with Philippe we both agreed we would love to have been able to swap brains with him.

Just imagine the photos you could create with his intellect, talent and artistic perception and perspective.

Of course, that age old question came up with Philippe, what camera would the great LdV use if he were alive today.

Leonardo’s final sleeping place.

Hang on before you get excited and say XYZ camera.

Firstly we need to exam the different Genre of photography and ask ourselves which he would have favoured LdV.

Portraits – Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, maybe he could be the new celebrity photographer to the rich and famous, but would he be so frivolous.

Macro – I’m sure this would’ve been of substantial interest given his interest in engineering and inventions for one.

Landscape 

Street

Architecture

Would he want to be the next Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Vivian Maier, Edward Weston, HCB, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, or just an enthusiast photographer. IMHO LdV would excel in all genres he decided to pursue.

Before we get to the topic of which camera, in our modern age of school media would LvD be a YouTuber, Facebooker or Instragramer and chase likes and emojis.

From what I could glean from some quick research very little is known about his actual life. Freud concludes by saying “that we actually know very little about Leonardo’s life, especially his youth, so his analysis of the man’s life and mind is based mostly on speculation”.

I will hypothesis and say that LdV would be oblivious to social media and that creative experimentation and the results is what would drive him, not notoriety on the web. Of course some of you may disagree.

Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, Pentax, Hasselblad, Phase One to name a few or a Leica.

Of course Nikon immediately sprang to mind from me, being a user of the brand since 2012. Whilst a D850 with excellent glass Zeiss Otus (28/55/85/100) what else, would fit the bill for landscape, portraits, architecture. Add a Zeiss Milvus 100/2 for macro, what Nikon AF lens for street. Some of you may say well a Z7 with the new Z35/1.8S. Yes that would be excellent kit that most of us would be very happy to have.

As for Canon the 5DsR is getting a little long in the tooth but is still a good camera. I’d match it with the same lens as above. For street mmm, I’m unsure what Canon would be best fit for use, I’m guessing some of you will have a thought and suggestion.

Sony has been kicking goals and continues to do so for some years so a A7R111 with the appropriate G Master Glass would be the order of the day, a one stop shop.

Fuji like Sony have been doing many things right in the camera world firstly they listen to their customers, from what I can glean from the media. The GFX 100 and the appropriate lens would fit the bill for all genres except macro and they don’t have a specific Marco lens that I know of. For street an XT-3 would fit the bill nicely with say a XX lens.

Ah, now the big names, well old ones that have been around for a long time and are spoken of with reverence but most photographers and are on the wish list only if…..

First up, Hasselblad maybe I should let Pascal comment here, on second thoughts here are my thoughts. H6D or X1D? Both have the glass to meet the requirements of LdV. The H6D would meet the requirement for all but street. But would the X1D make it as a street camera. After watching Pascal shoot during a photowalk (inset link to article) I have my doubts that you could capture people in the street, but cityscapes would be no problem.

Phase One again like the Hassie would be let down for street.

Leica ah you say yes a big tick for street as the great HCB used one. So for street an M10 with Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. As for landscape etc, well the SL and appropriate lens should fit the bill.

The burning question is what Camera System would LdV use is……

To be totally honest I have no idea as the choice and ranch of systems he would have to choose from is very large and wide, price of course doesn’t come into to it.

All the above mentioned have their pro’s and con’s, weight, size, DR.

IMHO whatever system he decided upon would do the job. The other question to ask yourself would one system perform at the highest levels for each genre. I don’t think so…….. over to you.

    Pascal adds

  Dallas kindly asked me to make a few suggestions of my own and, to me, there can only be one answer: a large format view camera. Let me explain.

    Leonardo da Vinci is credited as being one the most brilliant inventors in human history. Some now suggest that he may have been a great curator of inventions, but that wouldn’t lessen his talent in my eyes, on the contrary. I think it takes even more genius to recognise brilliance in the work of others and develop them in your own, than to huff and puff as a hermit, which is what he was reported to do. Wikipedia writes :

He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on subsequent science.

Wikipedia entry (greatly saddened italics, my own)

Whatever the case, the man seemed interested in everything. A man fascinated by a holistic view of the world, to speak the modern tongue.

    Needless to say I can only imagine the irony of his satire on what the photographic industry has evolved into. One strange land filled with denizens who at the same time worship only speed and turn their gaze and social drumming nearly exclusively to such fast-moving subjects as the Eiffel Tower, the Matterhorn and Icelandic glaciers.

In fact, I rather fancy the idea of Lisa del Giocondo quietly wetting herself with laughter at the thought, while he described it to her, during their sessions together.

No, Leo wouldn’t have been one to let a piece of baked sand tell him where to focus and how to set aperture. The very idea would have driven him to refine some dire variant of his steam cannon.

    A man of his intellectual stature and insatiable curiosity would have revelled in the subtleties of the Scheimpflug principle. He would have considered the chemistry of collodion and paladium a sublime form of photographic haute cuisine. He would have elevated the hands-on experience of print making to the same heights as tempera and oil.

There’s a reason many of the most eagerly collected artistic photographers today use, or have used, large format view cameras. And the grand daddy of them all would have too. Only, he’d have made them even better.

    Philippe adds

  Ahhh…to write about Master Leonardo…. no easy task, the man was such a giant among men. But, for sure, he wouldn’t have wanted to be “just a photographer”. He would leave that to lesser men, like (his opinion)… Michelangelo. Remember, one of the reasons we have so few works from him is that he wasn’t interested in “just” painting, or sculpting. He wanted each piece to break new ground in some way. So it would have been the same with his photography.

Yesteryear’s selfie…

The power of his inventive mind would have pushed the boundaries, if only on paper. In what direction? I see at least 3 of them, based on his work and interests.

I see his deep study-based understanding of human anatomy. And, at the time, that was no mere fancy. The Church frowned on anything like opening up cadavers, so Leonardo did it at great risk. I posit that he would have invented the camera that would let hm fully uncover all the mysteries of the human body. How? By not only capturing the outside of his subject, but actually by looking inside. Yes. inside matter. Not only inside tubes, the way of an endoscope, no inside matter itself. Leonardo, the genius!

The second camera would serve Leonardo the architect. For that, he would have designed a camera that would so fully capture perspective and depth as to be fully 3D in virtual reality. You will counter that VR is video and not still-photo. That, my friends, is not the sort of limitation that would hold Leonardo back

The third camera is of course the most interesting. It captures objects in time. A time-travel camera. Actually, I could tell you how it works, having deciphered Leonardo’s secret, coded papers, and it is INCREDIBLE. Unfortuntely I haven’t heard from the Patent Office just yet, so you’ll have to wait. But I make you a promise. You will be the first to know. Yes, here on DS. No-one gets it sooner than you. Just, for your own sake, don’t hold your breath…

  Posted on DearSusan by Dallas Thomas.

[marxpobert-blog]

I was one of the many crores (millions) of people who headed to the Prayag Kumbh 2019 – which was the  Ardh Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, earlier known as Allahabad.  Media reports say that the numbers are estimated to be 15 crores or 150 million or more this year. And while apparently the Guinness Book of World Records pronounced the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013 as the “largest ever gathering of human beings for a single purpose” it is believed that the Ardh Kumbh in Prayagraj this year would have more people thronging the shores of the Sangam – the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

Pic Courtesy – UP Tourism

Kumbh Mela – a melting pot of faith and devotion

Beckoned by “Mother Ganga” or “Ganga Maa”, the  banks of the river are filled with crores of pilgrims who have nothing else to offer but their faith and devotion . An old man clutching his aging wife, a young boy carried by his doting father on his head, a mother with her teenage daughters staying close together  – families bonded by love and duty are here to pray to the goddess river.

At the Sangam it’s their devotion and belief that bathes their minds as they dip into the river. The water is warm , like the affection of a mother welcoming them into an embrace . She welcomes the  crores of people who believe that a mere dip in her lap will wash them off their sins . 

Faith has many dimensions to it and this is probably the most profound aspect of it . And that is the single purpose that has drawn millions of people to the Prayag Kumbh 2019. 

Kumbh Mela – A spiritual journey

However for me it was curiosity that had initially drawn me to the Kumbh Mela. And when I received a media invite from Uttar Pradesh Tourism and Lonely Planet Magazine, I decided to accept it to understand the underlying motivation that brings people in hordes to the Kumbh.  And waves and waves of them arrived, carrying their bundles upon their heads, holding their near and dear ones close lest they get lost in the madding crowd.

I have a phobia for crowds and yet, I stood there, transfixed and watched.Wearing their finest clothes, they greeted me with beaming smiles and readily posed for photos as they told me their stories. And while they came from nooks and corners of the country – on foot, on bullock carts, on overcrowded buses and trains, chartered helicopters and flights, they all came for the one single dip in the lap of mother Ganga.

And as I watched them immersed in their faith, something stirred inside me as well. The curious onlooker in me was swept away by the force of spiritual fervour that filled the air. And I was simply overwhelmed.

Just then, the voice of my guide, Sandeep interrupted my reverie as I heard him say , ” All Bollywood films begin with a lost and found story in the Kumbh.” And as we smiled,  we listened to the voices of people calling out to their lost loved ones over the loudspeaker. I suddenlyrealized that I had indeed embarked on a different journey this year.

But this post is not about me or my inner journey and my tryst with spirituality. It is about a guide to the Prayag Kumbh 2019 with some information on the importance of Kumbh mela.  There are three other venues for the Kumbh Melas besides Prayagraj – Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik -Trimbakeshwar being the other three and it is celebrated four times over twelve years. While it is the Sangam of the three rivers in Prayagraj, the venues for the other spiritual festivals are the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar, the Godavari in Nasik and Shipra in Ujjain.

The story of Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh is referred to as the sacred pitcher which carried the nectar of immortality or Amrut. The ancient Puranas or the Vedic texts talk about the samudra manthan – the churning of the oceans when the Devas and the Asuras – deities and demons. fought over the Kumbh of Amruta or the immortal nectar. According to the legend, Lord Vishnu disguised as a beautiful woman called Mohini tricked the demons and gave the nectar to the gods. And as he flew heavenward with the Kumbh, a few drops of the nectar were spilt on the four sites. The entire legend takes over twelve days which in human calendar translates into twelve years. And astrologically the dates of the mela are planned keeping in mind the planet positions and the auspicious time. Over the period, the rivers become symbolically filled with the nectar and a mere dip is enough to  cleanse people of all sins.

The origin of Kumbh is not known historically but it was Shri Adi Shankaracharya, the Hindu saint and philosoopher who established the Kumbh Mela and the Ardh Kumbh and brought all the different sections of the Hindu faith together to the Kumbh. The word, “akharas” is believed to have derived from “akhand” which means indivisable. It is believed that Adi Shankaracharya established ten akharas.

The ritualistic dip in the rivers find mention in the travels of Hieun Tsang or Xuanzang who apparently witnessed several devotees celebrate the festival in a town. It is believed to have been identified as Prayagraj during the reign of King Harsha. However historians are still divided as to whether the Chinese traveller was recording the Kumbh Mela or if it was a Buddhist ritual.

There is the Maha Kumbh which happens every 144 years besides the Kumbh Mela and the Ardh Kumbh At Prayagraj it is the Ardh Kumbh this year and it is from January 15  to March 4. Although every day is believed to be a divine experience, there are specific auspicious days for bathing – referred to as Shahi Snaan. In Prayagraj Ardh Kumbh the dates are January 15, February 4, February 10, February 19 and March 4. For more Kumbh mela infomation, you can refer the official website and wikipedia as well .

Pic Courtesy – UP Tourism

Kumbh Mela and Naga Sadhus

Coming back to my experience of the Prayagraj Kumbh, I was there during the second Shahi Snaan on February 4. While it was an overwhelming experience to see waves and waves of devotees, the Naga Sadhus are the showstoppers. Out of the millions of people who throng the Kumbh it is amazing how everyone’s attention is veered towards the naked Naga Sadhus .

Pic Courtesy – UP Tourism

Of course they are dramatic in their appearance , sometimes stark naked but at many times covered in rudraksham beads and many have a fancy head gear as well . Smeared in ash from burnt wood of dead trees, they have an aura around them. They are friendly enough but most of them will pose for you and chat you up if you offer them money . And they know the US dollar from the Singapore Dollar .

I would have personally liked to spend more time with them , understand what made them give up their normal life .Shedding clothes is just a metaphor for shedding their inhibitions . While most of them are colourful personalities, I read somewhere that some of them were indeed professionals who had given to their regular life to become Naga Sadhus .

But my guide says that they live in cities like Varanasi in their communes and sometimes they may even merge with the locals , bereft of their identity as a Naga Sadhu. Indeed some of them apparently carry even fancy smart phones and drive cars – but then I have only heard of it from people. Perhaps one day I will get to speak to a couple of Naga Sadhus and understand the mysticism around them .

My Kumbh Mela Experience

However it was the entire atmosphere of positive energy that overwhelmed me. And I am not just referring to the pilgrims. Even though we are a media group, we walked around for miles and merged with the milieu. From the smiling cops to the selfless cleaners, everyone was so selflessly dedicated to the Kumbh Mela. I am completely impressed by the immaculate arrangements. I walked around for miles and everywhere it was clean and spotless. From toilets to tents, there were facilities for every kind of traveller and pilgrim. There were even helicopters that will fly you to the Sangam .

  Everything functioned as clockwork. There was security everywhere , even police on horseback. CCTVs awere installed everywhere. Helpful and friendly voices reached out to you , if you were lost. I have a phobia of crowds and yet I could barely feel the chaos of the five crore people as crowds were regulated. There were several bathing ghats and boats took you around.

Where to stay in Kumbh ?

Tent cities surrounded the Kumbh and you could stay in luxury or in simple tents with basic accommodation near the sacred site. We stayed in Indraprastha Tent City which was on the other banks of the Kumbh and there were e-rickshaws that would take us to the pontoon bridges which would take you across to the mela grounds.It is better to take the contact of the e-rickshaw driver and ask him to meet you at the pontoon bridge when you head back.

There are many bridges and hence make a note of the sector and number . The administration regulates these bridges based on the crowd and the cops are always helpful. However a bit of patience is requested from our side. Although it is advisable to stay near the mela grounds, there are shuttle buses from the city to the sacred venue in case you want to stay there.

When to visit the Kumbh Mela ?

While most pilgrims like to visit during the Shahi Snaan days, I would have personally preferred to be here on a regular day to soak in the atmosphere in a relaxed manner. However there are several restrictions on the days of the Shahi Snaan to ensure that there is no stampede and the people are safe.

Pic Courtesy – UP Tourism

It is important to understand the traffic arrangements as well as there are several check points and most of the routes are closed. It is advisable to spend at least a couple of days before and after the Shahi Snaan so that you get to understand these regulations and you can experience the Kumbh Mela without any hassle.

My Kumbh Momemt

My Kumbh moment came actually in Ayodhya and not at Prayagraj. I was overwhelmed by the faith of the millions who had travelled all the way from small villages and towns just to have a dip in the Sangam and then they visited Ayodhya where their pilgrimage is considered to be “complete” . I met a family of 30 members who had come from a small village near Uttar Pradesh – Bihar and Nepal border to Kanakbhavan in Ayodhya after the Shahi Snaan.

The serene temple nestled inside the sprawling palace was believed to be gifted to Sita by Kaikeyi after the wedding to Rama. And this family took a break after their long journey while the children played . “Hamara ek photo le lo” they requested . While I complied , they told me with beaming smiles that they will now begin their long journey back home. It would take them another week to get home as they have to travel by trains, buses and bullock carts to reach their village. I was humbled by the singular devotion, the unshakable faith and the immense positive energy . As I showed them the photograph, they thanked me and said , ” Sab Ganga Maa ki Krupa hai. ” (Its the mercy of Ganga ) I am grateful to have been part of this soulful journey.

    The post My tryst with spirituality in the Prayag Kumbh 2019 appeared first on Lakshmi Sharath.

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mandala

A lot of adult coloring books these days use intricate mandala designs. It’s supposed to be a representation of the entire universe. In different branches of Hinduism and Buddhism the practice is a little different (read the wikipedia page for more info); in Tibetan Buddhism, mandalas are commonly done as a sand painting. It takes weeks to complete one, and after a few days or weeks, the sand would be brushed together into a pile and spilled into a river or something to signify the impermanence of life and all things. It’s really rare to see a sand mandala preserved since the whole thing is a meditation on the impermanence, but I saw a preserved mandala last weekend! 

The San Antonio Museum of Art has one of only four preserved mandalas in the US on public display. They had to get some kind of special permission from the Dalai Lama for it. The whole thing is so beautiful; I couldn’t stop myself from taking photos of it knowing that none of my photos will capture the beauty of it. 

I was San Antonio to attend a very good high school friend’s graduation ceremony from his basic military training. He was allowed two days to leave the air force base for the first time and explore the city of San Antonio with his friends and family. It was very cool and a little surreal to see the high school friend being an airman. He had to be in his uniform the whole time, and people would come up to him and thank him for his service. 

San Antonio is a very nice city. We walked along the riverwalk, visited old missions, the art museum, and went to a Spurs game! They lost. There was really good Mexican and German food. We also went to this one restaurant that’s “Chinese Mexican”, but it wasn’t fusion food. The menu had literally one page of all Chinese food, and the flip side was all Mexican food. The restaurant had old Chinese music playing and the Mexican food was served on Chinese plates.. it was interesting and delicious.

The weekend before, Dennis and I got engaged :) we’ve been dating for more than seven years now and the engagement feels to me more like an event that gives a point in time to celebrate this whole time we’ve been dating. I had to let myself process it a little before making it public on facebook; it’s a fuzzball of crazy and happy and exciting.

When I was standing next to the preserved mandala, trying to take all the little details in (which was impossible @.@) I thought about life, the beauty and transience of it all, and this poem by Mary Oliver:

To live in the world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.