#i read an entire article on this position btw so i didn’t get it wrong

[dipperscavern]

Cregan/Jon + Lotus position???

YES GAWDDDD 🙌🙌🙌

eye contact YES GAWD 🙌 heavy breathing YES GAWD 🙌 the closeness YES GAWD 🙌 their head falling to the crook of your shoulder because you feel that good (say it with me now) YES GAWD 🙌

[serenagaywaterford]

I am reading up on Phyllis Schlafly, really infuriating stuff. Definitely seeing a lot of her in Serena (on the show only), right down to even her looks... so I can see why people hate her so much. I don’t know without Yvonne’s nuanced performance, I would’ve had much sympathy and empathy. Or maybe I am just a slut for Yvonne. Oh well... Btw, any interest in Mrs America? It’s got a great cast, although for some reason, I get a sense you aren’t a big Cate fan? Or I got it all wrong?

Well, Schlafly was one of the prominent anti-feminists Atwood based Serena Joy off of so it’s only natural to see the similarities! (The other was Tammy Fay Baker. Amongst, I’m sure, many other women of that ilk during the time period Atwood was writing.) They did strip basically the entire Tammy Fay aspect of Serena out of the TV!Serena. (Which is a shame in some ways, but sort of understandable in others. Book!Serena was a lot to translate, and yet strangely less developed somehow than the show version. Or am I crazy?) I have read some of these women’s essays and such, originally not voluntarily lol but part of a feminism course at uni and the prof thought it was absolutely necessary to read the other wide’s views in order to understand the entire scope of the issues. 

I think it’s pretty much majority opinion that without Yvonne’s specific acting choices and skill (and I suppose–let’s admit the director’s get some credit too lol) for bringing Serena to the screen, most of us wouldn’t find the character so fascinating. And I am not going to pretend to even lie, her looks help too. ;)

Of course I’m interested in Mrs. America. The content of this series is exactly up my alley. I love shit like this. And I have a gross little fascination with cults/terrible social movements and terrible conservative women and why they are so fucking awful lol. (Which leads into my slight preoccupation about how to change their minds so they can be feminists too. So many of them are intelligent, driven women who… my God. If they just could break that patriarchal bullshit mindset… Although admittedly, some seem to be just plain horrible to their bones. And I’ll admit it’s more appealing in fiction, than reality cos in real life people don’t change as easily or dramatically.) 

I’ll tell everyone here a little secret:

I know I probably give off a different vibe lol, but I don’t choose TV shows to watch based on who the actors are. (Subjective opinion time: If I did, I probably wouldn’t have watched THT cos I don’t like Fiennes, Bledel, or Moss all that much. Well, Moss as an actor has grown on me in time, lbr. Fiennes has always bothered me, so he’s perfect for Fred then lol but I still don’t think he’s an excellent actor, and Bledel is such a one-note actor imo. I know, sacrilege. Throw me to the lions, or whatever. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by some of her scenes in THT, and not shocked when she didn’t deliver in other ones. And, I will fully admit, I didn’t care who the fuck Yvonne Strahovski was prior to her becoming Serena. I’d seen her in Dexter and she never really left an impression. So, based on casting alone, THT would not have been something I particularly cared about. Ann Dowd is about the only actor in THT that I had positive thoughts about cos she is stellar and always is, but she is hardly a main character in THT lol.) 

So, disliking an actor isn’t really an issue unless I particularly loathe one and know I wouldn’t be able to stand watching them under any circumstances. (This is rare.) Yes, sometimes I’ll give something a shot I otherwise wouldn’t cos I love a specific actor in it, but that doesn’t mean I will stick with it even if it sucks or say it’s great when it’s clearly not. I’m not one of those completists that must watch everything a certain person has been in. (Not anymore, anyway lol. When I had time and money in my youth, that was a different story. You bet I watched everything I could that had Natalie Portman, Laura Linney, Olivia Wilde, or Amy Adams in it lol.)

About Cate Blanchett. Um. I don’t dislike her? I actually enjoy her work as an actor… mostly, from what I’ve seen. (I very much disliked Carol, which is perhaps where you’re getting my dislike of her from? I thought it was a slow, boring, underwhelming movie. And I hated the age gap. But that’s not Cate’s fault. I also dislike Rooney Mara…so, yeah.) 

I’ve watched quite a few other films with Blanchett. Some were great, some sucked. As most actors have in their filmography. I adamantly don’t follow the tumblr/twitter lesbian trend of mooning over Cate because I am firmly and obstinately opposed to stanning straight people as “lesbian icons uwu” or “honorary lesbians” (See also: Hozier, Taylor Swift, Rachel Weisz, Harry Styles, etc etc.). I hate it (esp when it’s straight MEN) and I will not join in, even if they are outspoken activists for gay rights. Which none of them are. That just makes them a decent person, not a gay icon/honorary gay.

“Rather, I mention it as a reminder to myself, and to you, of an unfortunate yet undeniable fact: Heterosexuality is an overwhelmingly common trait for our so-called gay icons.

Celebrity fandom is really just a bizarro reflection of ourselves: who we are, what we value, who we want to be, and, sometimes, who we want to fuck. Our faves are us, basically, just in that creepy sexy lady Snapchat filter. And as fans, we invest in the celebrities we love. We help their interview clips go viral; we see their movies in theaters then stream them at home; we loudly cheer their awards season campaigns on social media. The celebrities we choose to uplift reap our time and our attention and our clicks and our money. They accumulate both our cultural and literal capital; they gain buzz and caché and glossy magazine profiles; they get bigger roles and bigger paychecks.” [this article is a basic explanation, but doesn’t get nearly as nasty as I would if I wrote it, lol.]

That doesn’t mean I don’t like Blanchett. It just means I don’t have the energy to waste on gushing over her cos she wears suits really well, goes to a drag brunch, and has played a lesbian once (that I know of, like, I’ll admit I don’t follow her career lol). She’s good. She’s done good roles. She’s not gay and shouldn’t be a lesbian icon, nor is she my fav ever. So, meh. She’s fine. I do appreciate her… energy? If that’s a thing. It’s a very self-assured, self-sufficient female energy that she emanates in her acting, and offscreen I would argue. It’s refreshing. I love confidence without arrogance or egoism. (Altho, lbr, all famous actors are egoists. It’s basically a pre-req. Some are just excellent at not letting it show.) But if I want to talk about an otherworldly tall lanky blonde actress, I’d prolly lean towards Tilda Swinton lol.

I’m looking forward to her in Stateless and Mrs America. I think she has potential to do both roles quite well. Although… I will say her American accent often leaves a lot to be desired lol. But it’s getting better. If I’m going to gush over any “lesbian icon” in Mrs. America, it’ll be Sarah Paulson. 

[migleefulmoments]

Abby has a 'CC 2017 A Year in Review' post. It's fascinating. Totally convinced me they are 100000000% correct. Darren and Chris were both at 2 events. Darren wore his God Save the Queer shirt. TLOS is definitely a representation of CC.Oh, there are pictures of them in similar poses!!! They tweeted on the same day!! Darren sang songs from Glee. I'm convinced. She really knows her shit. #sarcasm is dripping off this message, btw. She's a certifiable nutcase. Go read for yourself. its Hilarious!

I cracked up when she said they were both at the LA Women’s March with the several million other people who went. How is that different from “they both live in LA”?  

The God Save the Queer T-shirt is her most treasured post-Glee “proof”. She is sure that he wears that because he is saying ‘I’m queer’.  It isn’t simply that  he is wearing a LGBTQ-positive shirt to an LGBTQ events. Darren and Mia’s entire group carried pro-LGBTQ and women’s signs at the women’s march.

They also both went to a huge Adam Lambert concert thousands of their friends.  The man was on Glee and Darren never misses a music event... of course they went.  One rando posted a Tweet claiming that Darren and Chris were talking and Abby buys it.  His 27 likes and 4 retweets is proof enough for me!  It’s cclove. 

Darren and Chris both went to spirit day- a LGBTQ support event.  That’s huge...why would both men attend an LGBTQ-positive hosted by their friend Justin Trantor if they weren’t together? It makes NOOOO sense.  THEY WORE MATCHING OUTFITS, FFS!!!! Jeans, a Jean jacket and a t-shirt is not a common outfit for a 30-ish yo man at a causal event so IT’S PROOF.  History is not wrong!

We cannot forget TLOS 6: A Love Letter to Darren Criss by Chris Colfer.   Darren released a song called Lost Boys Life written by his brother that is clearly about a man on the road missing his love. But ccers immediately declared that Darren actually wrote it -plausible deniability-because it “reeks of CC”. That along with it’s Peter Pan reference and Chris’s dedication  “Let’s never grow old together” is PROOF PROOF PROOF PROOF OMG ITS PROOF.  And O.M.G. Froggy is on the cover in the Mirror that MorInA put him in and Chris is a petty dick so we know that is about Darren.  He also called MorInA a goat - he’s such a misogynistic dick and I LOVE IT. 

“And this amazing quote that speaks for itself:“Only idiots listen with their eyes” she said. “if people don’t hear your words, that shout them. If people silence you, then write your message with fire. Demanding respect is never easy but if something you love is at stake, then i’d say it’s worth the price”.   (Ok, I gotta be honest, all sarcasm aside, how the fuck does she not see this is what she is doing and realize he was calling out people like her?  How does she believe this was something cc positive? Also all the STFF stuff...how is she so obtuse?).

Oh I forgot they both posted childhood photos on the same TBT -nobody else did that...nope never.  

Chris denied he watched AVPM -not because it’s been a decade and he forgot-or it doesn’t really mean anything to him but   because CC IS SO ON. “Denial of AVPMI know for a fact this was not a planned question. He was caught by surprise and instead of answering truthfully, Chris got flustered and denied seeing AVPM when it has been documented countless times that not only has he seen it, he was a huge fanboy.” 

Also these two nonsense statements “That time when Chris was asked if he kept in touch with D and he said “Kind of Sort of”The Promo Interview right before TLOS was released on the SocialIf it’s on social media, you’re not happenin’. I try to keep my personal life personal, and not mix the two. It’s hard to do, but I try.” All CC positive moments in 2017. 

I’m just going to leave this one without sarcastic comment because it speaks for itself: 

A Doll’s House Part 2.  

“A show chris saw when promoting TLOS and that months later we discover Darren saw as well yet not one photo or tweet placing him there unlike the myriad of other shows he sees where there are copious pics and accounts. Both loved it.” (Ok, I give it a Huh? Darren goes out all the time and we don’t know most of the time. He has said so but of course he didn’t say so with a social media post so ccers don’t count it).  

Chris wore his “cc” scarf in London...yes a scarf he wore in an actual picture of Chris and Darren from an early event is somehow a cc scarf.  Oi vey.  

and Darren’s ccfamous tweet where he used a Batman gif saying “I don’t want this” is ccproof becuase he was telling us he doesn’t want his life but he’s in too deep to get out now

When will this end? 

This was followed by Chris’ Epic Snap Chat, Don’t you wish your bunny was cute like me that can be found here (x)” in which Chris posted a filter of a bunny on his face and voice singing “don’t you wish your bunny was hot like me’ I would imagine that Mia must have used a similar filter somewhere int he last 6 months prior to this “so much shade” from Chris. Again he’s a dick.   

And there was the time Darren waited over a week to respond to a tweet, a tweet posted on May 27.  It should be noted he chose his tweet to respond of the likely thousands he was tagged in as i was right after the selfie and the CG show. Further, he replied right after Chris posted his Peru pic where he claims to have spent his birthday. (In other words I”m really grasping here) 

I Don’t Mind” a song that is so clearly about Chris even though he has since mentioned he wrote it during his teenage years in San Fransisco. Her 2017 proof isn’t that he wrote the song about Chris but that he didn’t play it in 2017 even though it was on two playlists and he made a big to do about no playing it at Elsie Fest. 

“Remember that Variety Article, an Exclusive About Indigo that originally contained this quote:Colfer’s news comes a day after his former on-screen love interest Darren Criss reunited with Murphy with a starring role on season three of anthology American Crime Story. So mysterious how it was edited out almost immediately”. 

TLOS movie and ACS Versace moving to season 2 happened on the same day- I believe that movie news is in Variety on the same day hence it gets out to press on the same day.  

Then we come to more mirror imagine photos -years apart 

Darren sang Glee songs which means he loves Chris- Hopelessly Devoted 

“The Day the Dance is Over  The video from the first time we heard this beautiful and incredibe love song about a dedicated love full of obstacles (and every version since as continued to amaze)” Another song that plausible deniability was written by Darren not Chuck.  

“And Critical to Remember, 2017, the year both C&D made a deal with Fox. This is going to majorly contribute to 2018″

(X)

[kweebtrash]

Universe Challenge Day 10: Pentaversary

Dear Pentagon,

I probably should have made a graphic or something but instead I'm doing a sappy letter a day late. Most of my followers kind of know my pentagon story but if I ever meet you guys (again) I want you to know how much you've made an impact on my life. I first found out about PTG because of 365 So Fresh. Everyone was saying the MV was "so controversial". 365 So Fresh was amazing and I found out about Hui and Edawn whom I fell in love with instantly. When I googled Triple H (which as you can imagine is weird for a WWE fan like myself) I found that Hui and Dawnie were part of PTG. Not long after I found Shine and I can't remember how exactly but I think it might have been randomly recommended in YouTube. When I watched it I thought the song was absolutely amazing and it instantly became one of my fave songs. I was watching it over and over and showing my friends, and just screaming my head off because I loved it so much. 2018 was the year I got to go to my first KCON in New York and you guys were preforming there. That year had one of the best line ups but I swear at least once or twice an hour they were playing Shine, which made me happy. The people I went with weren't the greatest but hearing Shine all the time made me have fun. I even went to a dance workshop to try and learn the chorus dance. Then the concert came and I had never been so excited to hear a song be played live so much in my life. It was the first song you guys did and I have so many videos of me screaming while singing. After KCON I spent the next few days learning who everyone was, watching Pentagon Maker, and binge watching all of the MV's. I quickly grew to love all ten of you so much and you guys were becoming one of my fave groups quickly.

I didn't get to enjoy tentagon that much though as that August after, Edawn was kicked out. Edawn was my bias and I loved him a lot. Like so so so much (I still do btw). He was always so weird and screechy but also was affectionate and cute towards the other members. Everyone compared him to GD but I felt like Dawnie was just...Dawnie. He wasn't anyone else but himself. And hes great at what he does, be it rapping, producing, or dancing. I remember when the rumors were floating around, I just had hope that nothing would go wrong. When it was finalized and I found out that Dawnie had been kicked out I cried. I remember the day exactly. I had to get up early for a dentist appointment. My friend had sent me the article on Facebook and the tears were instant. I cried for so long and my entire heart hurt. I even called my mom to tell her how upset I was and though she didn't understand completely, she knows how important kpop is to me so she tried to comfort me as best as she could. Tentagon will always remind me of the happy times I had at KCON, about the new friends I made on Tumblr, and about helping me reignite my passion for writing and improving myself.

Thumbs up was a hard comeback for me. I didn't like anything about it at all; the styling, the theme, Paul jack, nothing. Though I'm still proud of you guys for barreling through such difficult times to put out a comeback it just made me sad. I know Dawnie wanted you guys to continue being successful but it hurt to see tentagon disbanded (but not forgotten). I always thought about Dawnie and Hui because they were so close. I would always picture Hui crying over Dawnie having to leave, move out, and maybe feeling guilty because I'm certain he knew they were dating. But Hui is a great friend and I know that he's happy for them and Dawnie is happy for all his brothers as well.

It used to hurt hearing 'Tentastic' but now it's a sweet reminder that tentagon will be forever.

Fast forward a bit and you guys announced your first world tour! I knew instantly that I wanted to go and see you perform again! I got VIP and hi touch because I couldn't live without seeing you guys up close (ok, Im being dramatic but you get the picture). I was so excited that I literally almost threw up 4 times. I didn't even know that you could throw up from excitement. I also got my very first lightstick. I don't normally like lightsticks but I felt like I definitely needed a pentagon one. The concert was so amazing and I cried so many times; seeing yuto smile, dying because the havana performance was so sexy, uptown funk being so fun, shinwon and hui's English getting better, Yeo one waving at me, and of course seeing my bias Hognseok being perfectly beautiful. It was easily in one of my top 5 favorite concerts. I was nervous to do hi touch, especially because it went by so fast. I will forever remember looking at Kino and telling him how beautiful he was (is). And him telling me thank you was like...I don't know. I fangirled a lot ok? Lol. And hongseoks smile was....😭😭😭

After that I think I finally admitted that PTG is my ult group. Through everything that we've gone through as universes and you guys as a group, we've come out stronger than ever.

I love Hui for always crying and trying your best and being such a sweet leader

I love yuto for how shy you are but so very affectionate around your brothers and how you tried very hard to be an idol so far from home. (And also that voice♥️)

I love wooseok for always screeching and being that one weird brother I never had

I love kino for your creativity and dance (and being ridiculously good looking) and giving me the best memory from the Pentagon cocnert.

I love jinho for being so sassy and as angry and short as I am. I thank you for all the hard work you put into Magazine Ho's and how beautiful they always sound.

I love yanan for trying your best and having such a sweet voice. Youre still confused on how to navigate through Korea but you have great friends to help you. Also king of shade.

I love shinwon for literally NEVER failing to make me laugh. I love you like I love mcnuggets (which is a lot).

I love Yeo one for always being so sweet and bubbly and having the cutest laugh. Your birthday celebration vlive will always be my favorite because everyone was having so much fun and being so goofy and it was all for you.

I love hongseok because you always brighten up my day. youre so gorgeous in more ways than one. Your a giant marvel nerd and it's so cute how much you love Ironman, I love that you like reading and have lots of passion. You're also a giant dork with a heart of gold.

And I love dawnie and will always love dawnie. I love how weird you are, that :] face you always make, how you were never afraid of skinship, how you always held hands, kissed, and hugged everyone, how positive you always seemed to be and how freaking talented you are at everything. (Please propose to hyuna already my god we've been waiting for like a year now).

Happy three years Pentagon! I can't wait for many more to come. And happy (over) 1 year of being a universe to me!

Universe Challenge

[wanna-one-imagine]

PSA: on hating Wanna One

If you hate, dislike, or harbor any negative feeling whatsoever regarding Wanna One, I strongly encourage you to read this post. 

The way we learn is not through affirming our mentalities and ideas, but instead by questioning and listening to other opinions. 

As someone who is strongly multi-fandom, I’m going to keep this as unbiased as possible here. The group doesn’t have much time left, so I’d say give this a go. It won’t take long to read.

(@ wannables: please rt so we can spread the word! this is honestly the best time to be a multifandom wannable because we have so many interactions rn!! and if you’re a wannable that hates other groups, you better read this too)

Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of interactions between Wanna One and other (especially male) idol groups. 

So, a lot of us Wannables have become increasingly multi-fandom (more than we were already: nobody begins their run with kpop with a survival show) - but, alas, we have found that a LOT of people from international k-pop fandoms, for some unknown reason, hate Wanna One with a burning passion. 

For the relatively small international fandom, the amount of international hate towards Wanna One is overwhelming and hard to deal with.

So, without further ado, let me clear up some of the misconceptions you may have about the group!

Wanna One is friends with or looks up to the GROUPS YOU STAN.

tl;dr they friendly. Wannables know this, so a lot of us are multifandom - after all, not many people got into kpop BECAUSE of Produce 101. A lot of us have been around for a while and stan other groups.

Kang Daniel: Friends with Woozi (SEVENTEEN), Suga (BTS), Zico, Xiumin (EXO), Chanyeol (EXO), Mark (NCT) and many more - let’s be real Kang Daniel can be friends with whoever he wants, role model is Kai (EXO), TWICE Fanboy

Ha Sungwoon: Friends for years with Jimin (BTS), Taemin (SHINee), Kai (EXO) and also many more

Park Jihoon: Is literally in love with V (BTS), has said multiple times he looks up to V and pursued K-Pop because of him, in a gaming group with Jin (BTS), Eunkwang (BtoB), Youngjae (B.A.P), Ken (VIXX) - seen eating out together

Lee Daehwi: BFFs with Somi (Produce 101, JYP Sixteen - the show that formed Twice), remixed Got7 Hard Carry for produce 101 audition, Heize fangirls over him, friends with Bang Chan (Stray Kids), TWICE Fanboy

Ong Seongwoo: Friends with Mark (NCT), Kwangjin (N.Flying), Mina (gugudan), Namjoo (APink), role model is Kai (EXO), worked with Heize

Hwang Minhyun: caught fanboying over Red Velvet on insta, got acknowledged by NELL

Lai Guanlin: friends with Sehun (EXO), is in love with Wooseok (Pentagon), fanboyed over him in front of HyunA herself

Bae Jinyoung: EXO Fanboy, Sehun Fanboy

Park Woojin: Zico Fanboy, knows Zico irl now

Yoon Jisung: probably has friends but he won’t tell us, acknowledged by NELL

Kim Jaehwan: Embarrassed himself in front of Zico

Why do international fans hate Wanna One?

tl;dr Essentially, Wanna One is really popular in Korea - and not internationally - so the international fans hate them, pretty much because they’re successful. Large biased, sh*t reporting media sites like Allkpop and Netizenbuzz recognize this, and spew out bad articles on them with wrong translations and incorrect info because it gets them attention

Produce 101 season 2, the group that formed Wanna One, was hugely popular in Korea, not so much internationally. A large part of this may be because international fans couldn’t vote in the show

After produce 101 finished airing, it was obvious Wanna One would be popular in Korea. However, a lot of international fans didn’t know about this

So, when Wanna One debuted, their popularity was obviously very high. They began playing with the best, with groups that had been around for years

This resulted in the Wanna One members being called ungrateful, achieving fame “too fast”, even though it’s just a different means of getting there. 

All of these boys weren’t just lucky. They worked extremely hard in their own way to get to this point, and they are aware that the group isn’t permanent. They know that it’s not going to all be smooth sailing from here - they’ve written songs on the impermanence of this feeling (see: hourglass, forever+1, always, I promise you, hell they have an album called “nothing without you”)

Sungwoon, Minhyun - both in “unsuccessful” groups for years before (Hotshot, Nu’est), had to strip off their “idol” image and perform as “trainees”

Daniel, Jisung - trainees for years under an unknown entertainment label (MMO) that likely wouldn’t have debuted them but instead used them for backup dancers (Daniel was actually going to leave to live in Canada - pd101 was his last resort, Jisung would have had to go to the military)

Jihoon, Jinyoung - have you ever heard of maroo or c9 entertainment? Likely would have debuted into a no name group

Daehwi, Woojin - Daehwi has already gotten so much hate from the start of the show even though he’s already 16, yet remained positive. Woojin rose from the 70s rank up until 6 through hard work alone.

Guanlin - moved from Taiwan by himself at 16 without knowing Korean to pursue his dream, is always showing thanks to fans, trying to speak in both English and Taiwanese as well

Jaehwan - won an entire TV show but nobody paid attention to him. Busked on the streets.

Seongwoo - nobody can deny that he is always thinks of the fans. writes his own freaking poetry for us

All of them always express their thanks to the fans, and even the man of the year, Kang Daniel, is commonly reported by outside sources (producers, tv show directors, other idols, etc) as simple - friendly and humble. Even though he’s always tired and in the public’s eye, he is one of the most active members on fancafe, even tries to respond to foreign fans in English

Haven’t they been involved with a lot of controversies?

tl;dr They’ve all been refuted. This is an unusual situation that happens when a group is popular, and the international fandom isn’t big enough to fight it. 

Sites like Allkpop and Netizenbuzz just add fuel to the fire, releasing articles on untrue information, and then not releasing articles quickly or at all on clarifications

Also YMC/Swing sucks and doesn’t protect the boys (literally and figuratively) or the fandom. Instead of explaining situations or taking legal actions, they will either use the boys as a shield for their own mistakes, or force the boys to apologize for things they didn’t do.

Wannables in their natural habitat are fighting YMC (and now Swing entertainment) for something or the other. Right now the big deal is that Swing has banned fansites from taking pictures and Wannables are irate af lemme tell u

They’re not talented.

untrue

produce 101 was a show that if a mistake was made (all live btw), mnet would repeat the same clip 11 times with different angles and reactions

and wanna one is who we are left with. so make what you want of that

(lots of live performances to go around also)

I just don’t like their music.

Not a reason to hate a group.

Their music is pretty much generic K-pop. If you like K-pop, chances are you’ll like their music

Also, for their recent comeback they’ve worked with really incredible artists (Zico, Heize, NELL, Dynamic Duo). Try one of those

If you like kHipHop/kR&B

Kangaroo (prod. Zico)

Hourglass (prod. Heize)

11 (prod. Dynamic Duo)

If you like ballads/sad sh*t

Forever+1 (prod. NELL)

Always

I Promise You (confession version)

Beautiful

I wanna have (this is the GOAT)

If you like k-pop

Energetic (prod. Hui of Pentagon)

Light

Boomerang (okay we don’t really talk about this one tho)

Wannables are a toxic fandom.

This is something that gets thrown around a LOT. But in reality, most wannables are very multi-fandom. I will repeat it for a third time: nobody starts liking K-Pop because of a survival show, especially internationally. A lot of us are fans of other groups, so it sucks when our other home fandoms reject us.

The international Wannable community is extremely small (case in point: the company reducing the concert venue sizes by thousands in the US due to tickets not selling). This means our influence is also very small. It’s very unlikely that you have experienced such toxicity from a true Wannable.

On the topic of akgaes: look we don’t like them either, but even though the show was based on voting for your fave, most Wannables aren’t hating on the groupmates and literal friends of their biases. You could help us get rid of this image by promoting ot11!

KWannables are commonly seen supporting other groups, because they are very well aware of the fact that Wanna One is friends with/looks up to/likes other kpop groups.

They don’t want the group to disband. Of course, there’s a part of every Wannable that dreads that day. But, most of us understand that there’s more waiting for them, and we’ll continue to support in the future!

There’s more to say. But life and Wanna One’s run are both too short to spend hating a group of sweet, talented boys. There’s so much toxicity in K-pop. Imagine how your bias would feel if they knew you were attacking their friends or people that look up to them. 

Let’s spread positivity, not all this hate.

[mermaidylluria]

Warning to all you mers on Tumblr out there: The purge has officially begun. My account just got flagged, and the only things I have on here are my own event photos (which are all family-friendly & fully clothed), and mermaid art (both classical and new, some of which has an LGBTQ focus- and may, at times, *gasp* in some cases feature kissing). So.. just as a heads-up, the whole Tumblog censorship hubub is a real thing. My hope was that in a page FULL of mermaids, it would be obvious what the space was about- that it was absent of pornographic or ANY kind of child-endangering content, n’ be subsequently left alone.  But it appears that’s not the case.  So now that we know mer art is going to be targeted (after all, “NEKKIT BEWBIES, ER MAH GURD!!”), I suggest we all get ready to either defend our posts (via disputing flagged content), participate in some kind of (peaceful, preferably meaningful & artful) protest, or just leave the platform all together. 'Cause this tells me that they're not only flagging classical art, they're also trying to eradicate LGBTQ content, and NONE of that is okay.  Personally, I’m going to do all 3.  Fight and dispute, while making preparations to move my space elsewhere.  Where that’ll be I’m not sure yet, but if we loose, I want a place for my mermaid stuff to go, and the demigods at Tumblr better be aware, I’m taking my decently-well-known bellydance n’ other blogs w/me too, if I’m forced to leave.

And just for my personal 2 cents on the matter?  Dear gods, not ALL of the internet has to be child friendly. XP Censorship like that happening on YouTube, Facebook & now Tumblr stifles creativity (look at channels like Glam&Gore, who can’t barely do SFX makeup anymore because she keeps getting demonetized), silences valuable artistic and minority voices, removes audiences for burgeoning creators (who, btw, may NOT be engaging in pornographic content in ANY way), and forces narrow-minded, puritanical standards of "decency" (which are by FAR the minority), over others' ability to operate successfully in that medium. This smothers decent, AWESOME things like art, science, expression and SO much more. XS  See, it’s not about the p0rn.  It’s about the CENSORSHIP.  This is the internet. It was designed to dispense and SHARE information, ideas, inspiration, fun, etc. Not be a surrogate nanny for your kids. XS

ANNNNYWAY, if you want to read more about what is and is not allowed on Tumblr now, you can visit: https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231885248. (And be sure to read to the bottom, where users can find out how to appeal post & entire blog flags under the last 2 questions.)  And if you have a mermaid blog where ANY kind of toplessness is involved, note that "female presenting nipples" is distinctly mentioned, which, as I'm sure lots of you already know, directly impacts classical AND modern art- one of the few things on Tumblr that can be shared WITHOUT a copyright, as well as a TON of mermaid art, classical and otherwise. XP 

What does this mean?  Well.. in simple terms, it means that stuff like Botticelli and Picasso are no longer welcome on Tumblr.  It means that Reubens, Waterhouse and Rodin, if they have artistic interpretations of naked women in their work, cannot be shared on Tumblr.  Even though their works are featured in international museums of the highest callibur, lauded all over the world as legends of innovation, vision, unparalleled beauty, & precision, expression & creativity, and world-famed for their social and economic value.  Those.. are not welcome here now, apparently.  Meanwhile, images & videos stolen from present-day & other modern hard-working artists, photographers, cartoonists, writers and other creators from allll over the world arrre hunky-dory. XP  DaFUQ, Tumblr??? (At -least- they mention mis-attribution & non-attribution on their new guidelines now. That at least, is an improvement. X*)

But now.. let’s see how that’s directly affected my blog, shall we..?  ‘Cause, as I mentioned before, I figured surely since I didn’t actually have any pr0n on my pages, I & other mer pages should be safe, right?  BZZZZZZZT, WRONG.  After getting this e-mail (pictured above), I went through my whole blog and found the 4 posts that were "flagged" as having adult content. *rolls eyes* 

3 of them were reblogs &1 was an original post. 

2 of those posts were queer-positive modern art. 

1 was a photographic collection of pieces FEATURED IN "W" MAGAZINE, 

And the last is a piece of classical style, queer-positive art. XS 

One of the modern pieces doesn't even show nipples, just saggy bewbies COVERED with small seashells. 

The other modern-style piece was a Rackham style drawing, where the tatas are but a mere suggestion of simple lines and dots. 

One was shown in a INTERNATIONAL FRICKING FASHION MAGAZINE SPREAD, which was apparently suitable for SOMEONES' interpretation of public consumption, 

and the last only shows suggestions & curvatures of breasts! (Showing the side and outer portions of the female chest, with no nipples. XP)

-And WHY AM I HAVING TO JUSTIFY THIS???? THIS IS ART. THIS IS NOT P0RN. Again I say "WTF, Tumblr????" XS

As you can see, 3 of my posts were reblogs, so I had no means of disputing those posts.  (According to their new guidelines, the owner of the original post has to do that, and if they are found as having “inappropriate content,” there’s no further means of appeal.)   But one of them, one of the very first posts I ever made in this blog, was an original, so I was able to refute its being deemed as inappropriate.  FIrst, you have to go through allll of your posts to find.. whatever it is someone’s had issue with.  (Whether it’s a person who’s flagged it or something chosen by Tumblr’s algorithms/keyword alert systems, I have no idea.)  But they don't even bother to link you in your notification e-mail, so first you’ve gotta FIND what’s being flagged before you can repeal it.  (I didn’t even know what I was looking for at first.  They never specify.  Would it be a tiny new icon near the Edit and Share buttons at the bottom?  A wee little flag pointer, outside of the post itself..?  Do I got to my posted page n’ try to find it?  Or will it be in my Posts stream, & the whole post be red..?  Who knows?)  But eventually, after enough scrolling, I found what I was looking for.  A big red bar across the affected posts.  -And if it’s a post you can do something about, they give you a button to push on the designated "flagged" work, at the top right. After you hit the "dispute" button, you’re given a largely blank page.  In the center, you get to choose between Dispute, Cancel or Learn More.  No “tell us why you feel this should not be flagged, why it doesn’t violate our rules,” nothing.  Nowhere to speak your peace.  You just hit a button, and you’re done.  You get no say, other than “I object, your honor!”  NOT COOL, people. NOT COOL.  You clearly don’t wanna hear the voices of your content creators, or, at least, enough to allow them to speak for the work they felt appropriate enough to post..

Reading this from another media source?  Please don’t discount this issue if you don’t personally have a Tumblog.  It doesn't really matter whether you use tumble or not, whether you think it's lame or not, etc. The problem is much, much larger than that, and it’s growing.  This is another very large, social media platform that's being affected by censorship in the name of marketing- and thus, be child-friendly.  They want the whole family to be able to come and see all the ads they wanna put here, and without that, they don’t make their money.  So anything not child-friendly, even vaguely PERCEIVED as not child-friendly (by God only knows whose standards), is being wiped out from the whole platform.  Don’t believe me?  It’s happened on YouTube, on Facebook, and likely, many others.  Do some googling and check it out for yourself.  YouTube is a platform that’s being strangled by this phenomenon right this very second.  There are videos on it.  Go see. Now.  ‘Cause if we don’t educate ourselves about this n’ do something to fight it, what’s happening to YouTube is our future.  Not just here on Tumblr, but EVERYWHERE.

Big Brother isn't just watching, guys, he's stealing your open arenas for personal and creative expression, so he can better market to you & yer kids.  He wants EVERYONE to buy his Stuff.   And if the kids can’t see it here, they won’t ask mommy and daddy to go get it for them.  So out classical art, and LGBTQ content, and mermaids go.  Out the door.  (Meanwhile, who do kids love?? UM.. MERMAIDS.  HELLO!!!  What should be educating them about history and the arts?  UMM.. FINE ART, HELLO.  Who teaches them about tolerance and diversity and SO MUCH MORE?  Umm.. THE LGBTQ community!  Who teaches them about what human bodies look like, and that it’s okay to have ANY kind of body?  UM.. BODY POSITIVE ART, THANK YOU.)  

We need to put the kaibosh on this somehow, now. Not just for Tumblr, or Facebook, or YouTube. We've got to find SOME way of letting the Big Boys know this is not activity we will tolerate. 'Cause the places to freely express ourselves are going to continue to diminish, get scarcer, and fewer.. until they're all.. gone.

ART =/= PORN, YOU IGNORANT, PURITANICAL, MONEY-GRUBBING FISHTITS.  LEARN TO POLICE YOUR OWN CHILDREN, MORE EFFECTIVELY POLICE GENUINE CRIMINALS, AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE INTERNET ALONE.  Please.

♥

[hayjeon]

hey hay I’m an i-army, and I was reading this article that translates basically Korean reddit into English and basically noticed that there are a lot of misunderstandings btw k-fans and I-fans. As a Korean person who lives in the us, what is your perspective??

Hey wow

That’s a really interesting and good question

First off let me say that I read the Pann (actual korean) versions of these posts so I understand what you’re talking about. For those who don’t know, Pann is basically a reddit for Koreans where anyone can post anything and anyone can reply to posts and upvote comments, etc.

English blogs like netizenbuzz or pannchoa will translate such posts and their top comments as well to English, and from wht I’ve seen, are pretty reliable/accurate. Note that however, these English blogs will only translate popular posts/top 10 or so comments, meaning that these posts are also the posts that are most controversial/have the strongest opinions.

Ok so to respond to your question, I will try and be careful to answer, but pls remember I’m not a representative of Korea or anything lol my parents are KoRean my friends are KoRean but I’m still very Americanized. So I am a…ki-fan lol

Anyway, i think a lot of the disagreements just come from the fact that korea is still a very conservative country at this point, and their society has been shaped and molded in a way ours has too. So a lot of things i-fans may blame/critique k-fans for, actually really lack a true understanding of Korean culture. For example, yes Koreans prefer lighter (both in context of less heavier + lighter colored) makeup. Don’t ask me why, lol but I guess it’s the same thing as why many girls in America prefer darker foundation colors + bronzers + heavier/smokier makeup than white. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it’s the trend.

Koreans blend their neck to their faces, while Americans blend their faces to their necks. Both look great, but if a KoRean sees someone with American Kylie Jenner insta makeup, they will critique it for being too heavy.

In the same way, idols and their makeup and even their digitally edited photos will follow this trend: lighter skin, bigger eyes, smaller faces. Because this is the beauty standard in Korea. In America, editing will lean heavily towards emphasizing the lips, the golden skin tone, or the body, whatnot. So when i-fans exaggerate that a lot of fan-taken photos are edited too much and whitewashed, yes some are heavily edited, but when they critique Koreans for being “racist” or “color-biased” because the k-fan chose to up her exposure a ton or brighten the skin, its a bit intense for me and makes me uncomfortable. It’s just the beauty standard for them, leave them alone, edit it again if you want, but please don’t call them trigger words like that without truly understanding the culture/society :(

Orrrr another example is when i-fans defend against plastic surgery rumors adamantly. Usually, plastic surgery is SO common and rumors and speculations exist bc Koreans are super observative when it comes to that. Tiny tiny nuances trust me, THEY WILL NOTICE. even me and my friends will notice right away the difference between someone who did and didn’t get double eyelid surgery done. It’s not that we’re obsessed with it, and neither did we get it done ourselves, but we have been raised within a group of people where discussing things like that is quite natural and common. So don’t be so offended when k-fans accuse or talk about an idol getting smth done, it’s very common for people there to talk about it so naturally, they don’t really know that some i-fans might actually feel offended/feel like it’s wrong for them to talk that way. And tbh usually k-fans are pretty spot on for finding and pointing out any procedures. Cause they’ve done it themselves too lmaooooo

But anyway my advice is just be patient...don’t fight or accuse, but instead spread positivity. Korea is still v conservative and narrow-minded, buT has so much room for so much improvement socially, mentally, emotionally, etc. so give them time, and know that changing an entire culture/shifting a society’s norm is a long and slow but sure process :)

Idk what else, I mean there are so many things but these two are a few things I’ve noticed recently, I think there was a post like this in Pann but I can’t find it anymore lmao

I’m happy to explain this further to anyone who’s curious!!! Or if you’d like to comment further on this, I am open to discussing! :)

[misssophiachase]

Happy AU Week! So, this is my take on a Klaroline fusion with the Bold Type (which is an amazing TV Show if you haven’t seen it yet, and btw I’m so excited they got another two seasons). Image not mine FYI. 

Three twenty-something girls working for a women’s magazine in New York City navigating their way through life and love. Although not expecting the heads of a rival publication to ruffle their feathers so much. 

Living Out Loud

Butter, Midtown – 70 West 45th Street

The magazine’s 30th anniversary party was in full swing. Caroline Forbes looked around proudly knowing that every element carried her signature style, even down to the colour coordinated macaroons.  

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. She ran her palm along her lace, violet dress, thankful that even with her dismal salary the magazine had a perfectly stocked, designer wardrobe to borrow from in times like these.  Their Editor-in-Chief was in the middle of the room, champagne flute in manicured hand and from the satisfied smile on her face, Caroline knew she was pleased with the event she’d so meticulously planned for the past six months

If anyone could organise an event it was Caroline Forbes and, sure, she loved it but wanted more and after four years at Arabella Magazine, she was ready for a new challenge. Unfortunately, what she wanted was highly competitive to obtain. Positions in the magazine’s fashion department were extremely rare and even then they required some kind of relevant experience. Something Caroline, as a finance major, didn’t possess.  

“Kat is pissed,” Bonnie interrupted.  She turned to her friend; dressed in a stunning, pink, halter neck, floor length gown, her dark tresses falling in waves past her shoulders. As much as she loved her deeply thoughtful, writer friend Caroline knew she had a tendency to worry over nothing.

“So, what’s new?” Caroline asked, taking a long sip of her champagne. “Kat is pissed when the guy at Starbucks gets her coffee order wrong. Between you and me I don’t blame him given her long list of unrealistic demands.”

“She’s currently in a twitter war of words with GQ Magazine.”

“About what exactly?”

“She retweeted their article about dating a feminist and told them if the magazine was going to write something they might like to look up the definition in the dictionary first.”

“Ouch. Watch out GQ,” she chuckled. No one ever entered into a debate with Katherine Pierce about feminism and emerged unscathed.  She was Arabella’s Social Media Director and, although incredibly impulsive at times, their editor loved her passion and commitment. “I hardly think she needs our assistance, Bon.”

“You know who their new Editor-in-Chief is, right? That guy can hold his own.” Caroline gave her a look which plainly said she didn’t before she continued. “Enzo St John.”

“The same Enzo St John from Esquire Magazine?”

“Formerly of Esquire you mean,” she shot back. “He’s finally joined the Mikaelson family empire since marrying Rebekah last month.”

Mikaelson Publishing was well known, especially throughout New York City where their headquarters were based and had an impressive number of quality publications, including the highly popular Men’s Magazine GQ, in their stable. Although Caroline didn’t know the family personally she’d read an article in Time about their metaphorical rise from meagre beginnings in rural England to becoming media royalty in the Big Apple.

It didn’t hurt that they weren’t entirely bad to look at either. Elijah, the eldest, was the revered CEO and rumoured to own at least five hundred suits, Kol the Chief Financial Officer was often described as a cheeky womaniser and youngest sister Rebekah, the Communications and Marketing Director, was stunningly beautiful but incredibly icy. 

However, it was Chief Operating Officer and middle brother Klaus that made Caroline slightly weak at the knees. He was a Harvard Law and MBA graduate. She wasn’t quite sure whether it was the steely blue-eyed gaze, sexy stubble, sinful crimson lips or those deep set dimples. She’d come to the conclusion it was probably a mixture of everything, including the power and intelligence he exuded in the accompanying photographs.

Still, if Caroline knew anything looks and brains didn’t guarantee a winning personality and from all reports they were incredibly difficult. She figured you didn’t get that far career wise if you weren’t.  

“Lucky Enzo,” she joked.  

“Kat’s going crazy,” Bonnie said, holding up her cell and showing her the increasingly terse twitter exchange. “I’m not sure she can be responsible for her actions.”

“Fine,” she conceded, noting the tweets had moved on from decidedly terse to slightly offensive. “Where is she now?” 

“According to Friend Finder, she’s at the fountain in Central Park no doubt shouting insults and punching the cell keypad beyond repair.” Caroline rolled her eyes, gesturing to the exit as they made their way towards it.

“How many times have I told you not to walk around the park by yourself at night?” Bonnie offered as they approached their best friend, dressed in a stunning, gold gown that brought out her naturally olive complexion.

“I wouldn’t have activated ‘Find My Friend’ if I knew you were going to go all protective like on me, mom,” she scowled, not even bothering to lift her eyes which were focused on her phone screen intently.

“Someone’s in a mood,” Caroline teased, taking a seat next to her friend on the side of the fountain while Bonnie took the other.

“Whoever this guy is, he’s an ass,” she growled. “Apparently I’m the one who needs a dictionary, can you believe that? At least I stand by my convictions and my identity, this coward is hiding behind GQ’s twitter account. 

“You don’t know who it is?” 

“It’s probably best I don’t given I might be tempted to go over there and kick his chauvinistic ass.”

“Why do you care what some idiot from GQ thinks anyway? You’re Katherine Elena Pierce, the fiercest Social Media Director in New York City.”

“I am, aren’t I?” She murmured, finally lifting her gaze from the screen, a satisfied twinkle in her brown eyes.

“You’re also incredibly modest,” Bonnie chuckled, taking her hand and squeezing it affectionately. Caroline laid her head on Kat’s shoulder, enjoying the relative solace that came from being with her friends and listening to the rhythmic cascading of the water from the fountain.

“That fountain is really making me want to pee,” Kat broke the silence. So much for solace.

“Way to ruin the moment.”

“I came here straight from the party and have been a little a little preoccupied with…”

“How about we go back to our apartment, watch a really bad movie and stuff our faces with Chunky Monkey?” Bonnie suggested and Caroline nodded, there was no way they wanted to get her all riled up again tonight. 

“Gigli?”

“Anything but that, Care,” Kat groaned as they made their way through the park. “Please? I can only take so much Ben Affleck before bed.” 

“Well, Bonnie did say bad.” Before either could respond, Katherine’s phone beeped signaling a new email. She lifted up her phone expectantly. “Kat, you need to get off that thing for your own good.”

“It could be important,” she said, the light from the screen illuminating her face as she read. “That’s strange.”

“Strange?”

“That it’s 11 PM and from the Magazine’s Legal Department.”

“What’s wrong?” They both asked in unison as Kat stopped in her tracks. 

“Mikaelson Publishing is suing Arabella Magazine for defamation,” she uttered in disbelief. Caroline stood there, mouth agape. And here she thought Gigli was the worst possible fate they’d face tonight. 

The Penthouse, One Madison Avenue, NYC

“You did what?” Rebekah demanded, her Jimmy Choos stomping on Klaus’ floor. Rebekah’s temper tantrums hadn’t changed much since she was a toddler and they were threatening to ruin his beautifully polished hardwood. “How dare you hack into the Magazine’s twitter account without my bloody consent?”

“It barely constituted hacking, little sister.”

“What because you’re CEO and think you can do whatever you like, Elijah?”

“Well, that too but I was actually referring to the fact you still have the same password as when you were eleven.”

“Princess?” Klaus asked, finally entering the discussion. To be honest he’d been annoyed to find out Elijah had decided to get into an unnecessary twitter altercation but even more frustrated to find out he’d slapped Arabella with a law suit without his consent given his position as the highest ranked legal officer at their publishing company. “You are still using that?”

“It was her desperate attempt to acquire Prince William and a royal title all those years ago,” Kol teased, taking a sip of orange juice. “And yet here you are title-less and married to…”

“Watch it, little Mikaelson,” Enzo growled unappreciatively. “Funnily enough this issue isn’t about passwords, it’s Elijah’s unwise and completely rash decision to enter into a twitter war with Arabella and about feminism of all things.”

“I couldn’t let that woman get away with making such false accusations.”

“You mean Katherine Pierce?” 

“What?”

“If you’re going to slap a defamation suit on someone you should really know her name,” Klaus offered, throwing the legal brief on the table for his benefit. “I’ve organised a meeting with their legal team later this week. I’m sure we can reach a private settlement agreement.”

“A settlement? This woman has tarnished the reputation of one of our most popular publications,” Elijah argued. “She can’t be allowed to get off so lightly. Surely I’m not the only one who thinks this?”

“Maybe if you’d come to me or Enzo, you know the editor of said magazine, with your concerns,” Rebekah growled. “I would have told you that fighting with a women’s publication, especially about the definition of feminism, is futile.” 

“But there was nothing wrong with the article. If anything it was giving all those Neanderthal males out there advice on how to treat women with dignity and...”

“Even so, waging a twitter war isn’t going to help. If anything you’re inciting a media storm this company doesn’t need given the recent drop in share prices.”

“Everyone’s feeling the share market pinch. I stand by my actions,” he huffed stubbornly to Enzo, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the expansive windows like a caged animal, albeit one in an immaculate, grey suit. “That woman is always shooting her mouth off impulsively without correct information and cause.” 

“Oh, the same woman you didn’t know the name of about two minutes ago?” Kol enquired, sending his brother a mischievous grin. “And here I thought you were asexual.”

“As much as I love these little family gatherings,” Klaus intervened before Elijah could. “I wanted to meet here first to discuss this before going into the office so we can present a united family front.”

“Well...” 

“You’ve said enough, Elijah,” he interrupted. From the looks on his other siblings’ faces they agreed. It was unusual for Klaus to be the calm one over his usually sensible elder brother but he was quite pleased to be right this time. “Settlement talks will be held on Friday.”

Klaus was never the responsible one, that was obvious. In fact; Kol and Klaus were considered the more playful members of the Mikaelson family. He was surprised to see Elijah’s unexpected social media outburst and equally annoyed about the lack of consultation. At least his brother would owe him one now.  

Looking at the case he figured this settlement would be reached within five minutes and forgotten immediately. Klaus was someone who dealt with things swiftly and clinically. He detested unwanted drama and emotional entanglements. The way he saw it they were just distractions he didn’t need.

“And here I thought we were actually going to be enjoying some more positive and upbeat vibes given it’s your birthday, big brother,” Rebekah offered.

“Didn’t I tell you all to take that particular day off the calendar when we were teenagers?” Klaus was not a fan of birthdays or surprise suffocation by sibling. 

“I would, except I need to mark the day you came into our lives and ruined them forthwith,” Kol chuckled.

“Just tell me a poorly baked cake and off key singing isn’t involved this year.” 

“That was one time,” Rebekah growled. “And I was ten.”

“Yet, your singing or cooking hasn’t improved much since,” Kol teased while Enzo attempted to stifle a laugh. 

“Someone’s not getting any for a while.”

“Rebekah,” Elijah complained, covering his ears for added effect. “Must you torment us so?” 

“Serves you all right,” she shot back her tongue poked out. “Don’t worry Niklaus, there’s no cake or party. Heaven forbid anyone we know should have to put up with you during their social hours given they do it every work day.” 

“Well, I did happen to reserve a table at the Whiskey Ward tonight. And, before you whine like a petulant child, it’s dark and located on the lower east side so pretty sure no one will even notice your sullen ass.”

“Well, when you put it like that Kol, how could I refuse?”

Mikaelson Publishing, 1705 Fifth Avenue, New York City    

“You said we were coming here for Mexican food,” Caroline growled half annoyed and equal parts famished as she looked at the foreboding structure ahead on Fifth.  

“What can I say, you’re always so easy to fool when it comes to food, Forbes,” Katherine offered gruffly. “And Bonnie hates being left out so really it was a win-win.”

“I don’t break rules, Kat,” Bonnie hissed. No surprises there. After being friends for the better part of four years, they both knew Bonnie loved order and breaking rules of any kind was severely frowned upon “And I’m a terrible liar, my skin breaks out into this red, weeping rash and…”

“Now, not so hungry,” Caroline muttered. “What the hell are we doing at Mikaelson Publishing? Last time I checked they’re suing your ass so walking into the lion’s den not such a great idea, Kat.”

“You didn’t see the way Jenna looked at me,” Katherine admitted. “She was so disappointed. All I need to do is go in there and explain myself and this legal suit will vanish as soon as it appeared in my inbox.”

“And against the explicit wishes of our legal department,” Caroline hissed.

“I did nothing wrong,” Katherine baulked. “All I want to do is talk to them personally and they’ll understand it was a slight misunderstanding. It’s the least I can do for Arabella.”

“They won’t care, all Mikaelson Publishing understand is profits, popularity and success.” 

“Fine,” she conceded, nervously perusing her conservative black, skirt suit one last time. “I’m hoping to appeal to their sensitive side.”  

“What does Katherine Pierce know about sensitive?”

“I think she’s still drunk from the weekend,” Caroline suggested to Bonnie.

“If you want to stay here and mock, that’s fine,” she scoffed, striding away towards the revolving doors. 

Caroline looked at Bonnie helplessly. She knew this was completely stupid and reckless but for some reason she felt this overwhelming responsibility to her best friend. Damn her. The look in Bonnie’s warm, brown eyes told her she was thinking the same thing.

“All for one?”

“And one for all,” Bonnie finished, quoting the famed Three Musketeers motto. “Although I’m fairly certain Alexandre Dumas never imagined this particular scenario.”

“Hold the lift!” Caroline yelled, running into the fast closing doors.

“You came?” Katherine asked, her usually determined expression softening slightly.

“To be honest, I just wanted to see Bonnie break some rules,” Caroline joked, swatting her serious friend on the ass playfully. “So, what’s the plan exactly?”

“What plan?”

“Don’t tell me I jumped into this suspended steel trap on a crazy whim,” Bonnie mumbled nervously. She’d never been a huge fan of lifts.  

“I’m going to appeal to his sen…”

“Oh, we are so screwed,” Caroline growled, noticing for the first time a young delivery guy in the corner laden with boxes. Even with the earphones, she could hear the steady musical and familiar beat. Who knew the emo looking guy had a thing for Taylor Swift?

“Excuse me?” She yelled for added benefit, gesturing for him to take out his earphones. He complied, albeit reluctantly. “I couldn’t help but overhear your music.”

He looked immediately nervous at being sprung and Caroline knew she could exploit the situation to her benefit given her contacts at the magazine. “It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone. In fact, I happen to have a spare ticket to Taylor’s concert next month and…” 

“I’ll take it,” he blurted out, obviously not caring about any embarrassment with the promise of a ticket to see his secret idol.

“Well, I’d be happy to give it to you but there’s something I need you to do for me first.” 

“We hardly look like delivery people,” Bonnie said, gesturing to their heels and fitted skirts five minutes later.

“Speak for yourself,” Caroline laughed, pulling down the Boston Red Sox cap she acquired for her trouble over her golden waves. The delivery guy may have been extremely weird but he had good taste in baseball teams.

“We have a delivery for…” Caroline paused, reading the name on the box aloud to the receptionist. “Klaus Mikaelson.” Wait, what? Caroline didn’t sign up for this assignment. If anything she was kind of afraid that he might look even more irresistible in person.  

“Another delivery for the birthday boy. His assistant is down the hall, first door on the right, she can sign for it.”

“Birthday boy? Of all the days we decide to break and enter,” Bonnie murmured nervously.

“It’s hardly a felony, Bon,” Kat drawled. “No. This is perfect; their guards will be down so we can strike…”

“If this is you supposedly showing your sensitive side then I’m a little worried about your upbringing. You weren’t dropped on your head as a baby were you, Kat? You know just asking.”

“No brain damage as far as I’m aware,” she muttered, obviously unimpressed. “Where is this office, didn’t she say first on the right.”

“It must be that one,” Caroline gestured. What they found was completely unexpected. It wasn’t a personal assistant but the entire Mikaelson family seated at an expansive boardroom table.

“Someone needs to learn their left from their right,” Bonnie growled under her breath.

“Now, this is more like it,” Kol grinned taking in the three girls. “This is how every board meeting should take place.” They were all silent, rooted to the spot. 

“Excuse me?” Bonnie enquired. She may have been straight laced and prone to hives but she also detested cocky males with no respect.

“You’re excused,” the attractive blonde scoffed, flicking her hair in obvious frustration. Rebekah Mikaelson was as beautiful as she was scary.

“Is there any reason you’ve interrupted our meeting?” Elijah’s pristine suit looked even more immaculate close up.

“We have a delivery,” Katherine announced. By the slight blush that crossed her face, Caroline was pretty certain the suit was doing its job on her too. “For the birthday boy.”

“Please tell me you’re going to sing or…”

“Smack you out?” Bonnie replied defensively.

“Well, if you like it rough, darling…” he teased. From what Caroline could make out Kol Mikaelson didn’t have a subtle bone in his body. Given Bonnie’s unimpressed glare she knew her friend was ready to rumble.     

“Last time I checked this was a boardroom not a circus.” A demanding English voice enquired. He seemed annoyed by the interruption but as soon as she placed her box on the boardroom table his steely expression seemed to soften, only slightly though.

“I think we all know who the clown is in this scenario and it’s not us,” Caroline challenged thinking just how precious his siblings had been since they entered the room unwittingly. “We obviously took a wrong turn, so if you’ll excuse us.” 

“Now that you’re here it would be a waste not to open some presents, hey big brother?” Kol teased, leaning across greedily for the package Bonnie had in her grasp.

He opened it slowly, his eyes widening at its contents. “As long as Rebekah didn’t make this I think it’s actually going to be edible.” Caroline would know that Magnolia marble cheesecake from anywhere. Suddenly the fact she’d had no lunch was beginning to effect her resolve.

“And what do you have there?” Klaus asked unexpectedly, a stray dimple flashing in her direction. She knew he was just being an arrogant ass but for Kat’s sake needed to keep up the ruse.

“How would I know? I’m only the delivery girl,” she shot back thinking just what a smug bastard he was. She decided to take back all that initial misplaced infatuation and blame it on temporary insanity, even if his aftershave was messing with her composure. 

He smirked knowingly, his blue eyes flickering over her body hungrily before pulling the package towards him. What he uncovered beneath the tissue paper she wasn’t quite expecting, a black, lacey thong to be exact. He held it up slowly, his eyes dancing over every detail of its intricate design. Caroline was mortified but had no intention of betraying her feelings. 

“You really shouldn’t have, love but I’m not sure…” 

“What? Not your size?” If she could have captured his shocked expression in that moment, Caroline would have framed it. It was obvious no one spoke to Klaus Mikaelson like that and got away with it but right know Caroline had no intention of placating his over inflated ego.

It was at that point his assistant Lexi decided to make herself known, breaking the tension and stray snickering from his siblings. His gaze never wavered as she was ushered from the boardroom. 

Given the unexpected and unfolding events, the supposedly brave Katherine had actually wilted under pressure, no doubt due to a well fitting suit, and Bonnie was decidedly incensed about the chauvinistic younger brother for good reason. 

Caroline had chosen to stay behind five minutes to sign the paperwork and made her way to the elevator, the relief rushing over her as the doors began to close. It wasn’t until she heard the metal doors halt abruptly that she noticed a familiar face making his way inside.

“Thanks for holding the door.”

“I didn’t,” she barked. How she thought this smug idiot was attractive Caroline would never understand.

“You know, for a delivery person you seem to have quite a bit of attitude,” he said, leaning against the wall as the numbers began to descend the floors. 

“Sounds like something we have in common then,” she muttered. “Although given your earnings I figured you might have a lot more to smile about.” 

“Don’t tell me that little snippet of Mikaelson family drama back there didn’t pique your interest?”

“I have no interest in your family dramas.” Before she could expect a witty retort, the lift came to a grinding halt as the lights flickered and then they were plunged into darkness. The force from the motion causing Caroline to fall into his broad chest as a result.

“Well, you could have fooled me.”

“Seriously?” She growled pushing him away, albeit shakily. “We are stuck in a lift and all you can do is use one of your cheesy and recycled lines?”

“You really don’t like me, do you?”

“At least your skills of perception are slightly better than the rest of your repertoire,” she uttered. “Given you practically own this building; I’m really hoping help is close by so I don’t need CPR with that over inflated ego.” 

“I’m certain of one of those things…”

“The over inflated ego? Yeah me too,” Caroline answered, sitting on the ground and placing her head against the wall in frustration. And not just because he was an idiot either but causing a few untoward feelings to venture south.  

“I was actually talking about your thoughts on my perceptiveness,” he quipped, taking a seat beside her and crossing his right leg over the left. “Like the fact you’re not a delivery person.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve never met a delivery person who has questioned my underwear size,” he chuckled. To be honest Caroline was surprised by his change in demeanour.

“It seemed fitting given you are such a man whore.”

 “A man whore?” Klaus baulked. “I didn’t send that underwear last time I checked.”

“But it seems like someone else did and you obviously entertain that fact.”

“Oh, I get it,” Klaus deduced, standing up and beginning to pace back and forth impatiently. “You are some college psychology major that is trying to mess with my feelings for an experiment.”  

“Excuse me?”

“Even down to the Red Sox cap.” Caroline rolled her eyes, this guy obviously had more than family issues and it was threatening to mess with her beloved baseball team.

“Do I need to add sore loser to your file, Yankee?” She drawled. “Call me crazy but I thought birthdays were supposed to be a happy occasion.” 

The lift suddenly jolted back to life, Caroline losing her footing briefly but making sure not to make any further body contact. The brief and hurt look in his blue eyes was telling Caroline that there was more to this guy than she first thought.

The elevator dinged announcing their arrival on the ground floor. He continued to stare, Caroline felt her breath hitch in her throat. Before she could work out what it meant, Klaus Mikaelson was gone in a flash. If she was being honest, the guilty ache she felt in her stomach wasn’t entirely coincidental.

“Finally!” Bonnie exclaimed as she made her way through the revolving doors outside.

“The lift got stuck,” she admitted, not willing to go into further detail. Caroline figured it was the last she’d see of Klaus Mikaelson, so it didn’t really rate much of a mention.

“After today I think we all need a good drink,” Katherine smiled. “And given my extreme stupidity, I figure it’s my shout.”

“Well, I do have a story to research,” Bonnie smiled mischievously. “I’m writing about the best places to meet men in New York City.”

“I’m almost too afraid to ask,” Caroline mumbled.

“Well, guys love whiskey but when it comes to a fine woman over a fine scotch the decision is decidedly blurred and not just due to the alcohol content. I’ve heard the Whiskey Ward on the Lower East side is the place to be if you’re interested?”  

“Well, we can’t do worse than we have today,” Katherine joked. “Can we, ladies?”

Caroline had to agree. All she needed to do was get him out of her head and maybe a night of whiskey with her friends was all she needed to rid herself of the memory.

On FF Here

TBC? It became much longer than expected. Thoughts on another part would be appreciated. Thanks so much for reading : )

[siliconwebx]

Why Being Resilient is Essential to Success

The day my boyfriend moved his furniture out, a week after I’d ended our six-year relationship, my Mom called as I was curled up on my temporary makeshift couch of two oversized pillows pushed together. “I’m okay,” I said. “Oh, I know you’re okay,” she replied. “You’re strong as steel.”

Steel. I love that word. It’s a noun, of course, but it’s also a verb: to steel oneself, to mentally prepare for a difficulty that’s coming. Life is hard. Steel is harder.

There’s a storm before every calm. We’ve all faced one and will face more. You will not escape it. Some of us are probably in the middle of one right now.

Flailing and complaining, worrying and unraveling – these reactions don’t help us. They’re natural and honest, and they deserve acknowledgment, but the next steps are release, acceptance and bracing for impact.

Success isn’t found in the breakdown. It’s in the buildup.

We Need Resilience in Small Doses, Too

Resilience isn’t required for just the big things. Anyone who freelances, runs a business or is striving to level up in their career – or who has a newborn, is healing from an injury or is going through a divorce – knows that it takes bite-sized resilience multiple times a day. I’d argue that it’s more difficult to stay strong in little moments than in big ones. When life-or-death isn’t the conundrum, it’s much easier to buckle under lesser pressures, especially as they build up.

Rock Bottom Doesn’t Have to Be the Springboard

When the worst has happened, either by fate or your own fault, the way up is obvious because it’s the only way. You can be resilient before you stretch that rubber band that is your life as far as it’ll go, though. In so many situations, you have the ability to stop, shift and change the outcome; to improve your day now instead of waiting for tomorrow; to foresee bigger problems ahead and start making repairs now to avoid them.

Mister Rogers has a song called, “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?” and even though it’s to help children make better decisions when they’re angry, it’s applicable to adults, too – because let’s be honest, we can all turn into toddlers when we don’t get our way. Here’s the best line: “It’s great to be able to stop when you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong, and be able to do something else instead.” Whether the difficulty you’re facing is within your control or outside of it, you can choose how you’ll recover.

(Have you see the Mister Rogers documentary? Watch it. Be prepared to cry.)

Maybe It’s a Good Time to Bail

When I was in high school, there were these two cousins who wanted to beat me up, tough, mean girls who wouldn’t have hesitated to punch me right in the face. They told me to meet them down in the parking lot after school. All day long, people came up to me to ask what I was going to do. I just shrugged, unflustered – “I’m not going to go down to the parking lot.” I left at 3 p.m., walked to my after-school job and nobody ever clucked another word about it.

We’re always bouncing back from something. Sometimes you have the luxury to choose what you want to cope with. I didn’t have to learn how to be resilient after getting a black eye. Instead, I bounced back from a scary threat and school-wide speculation, which taught me an entirely different – and more worthwhile – lesson.

Get real with yourself. What’s required here? What do you want to deal with? What are you even capable of dealing with? Is there a better, smarter choice with positive, long-lasting impact?

Life doesn’t reward you for taking the harder, tougher route for toughness’ sake alone. Your choices should make you a stronger person.

5 Ways to Be More Resilient

Assuming you can’t bail right now, here’s how to become more resilient, both in the moment and in daily life – think of it as your resiliency training.

1. Ignore the finish line. Believe in your abilities.

Few things turn out the way we envision them. A lot of the time, they end up way better than we could have pictured. Or way worse.

Goals are necessary so there’s something to strive for, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll know exactly how a situation is going to turn out. (I dive into this some more in my article about the illusion of control.)

Personally, the best things in my life have come from two ideas working simultaneously: (1) utter acceptance that I have no idea what the future will look like and (2) complete and total faith in my abilities. Sometimes my ability is as abstract as making good decisions and leading myself in the right direction, and sometimes it’s a lot more tangible, like being able to write well and provide good customer service to my clients.

The point here is that if you’re more confident in your capability than hung up on the outcome, you’ll have an easier time bouncing back because you’ll be relying on the most trustworthy person in your life: yourself.

2. Gamify it.

Right now, you can’t do the last thing – you can’t solve the entire problem – but you can do the next best thing. Sometimes that’s super hard, like the time I hiked Giant Mountain, fell three times, hurt my knee and realized I didn’t bring my headlamp as the sun was setting (or the right boots or enough water). Or like when climber Joe Simpson shattered the Hell out of his leg at 19,000 feet – spoiler alert, he survived and then wrote Touching the Void about the experience, which I recommend you read.

Joe and I both gamified the experience. He created a pattern of movements to use for each step; I got up and down that mountain in 100-step groups. I’m sure we both cried, but we also both lived to tell the tale.

The point isn’t necessarily to make the situation fun but to make it bearable, to keep the mind distracted and focus on one crisis at a time. If you’re not in something as threatening and unforgiving as the wilderness, you can even give yourself small treats as you reach mini-goals.

3. Manage your impulses.

If you’re generally an impulsive person in life, you’re going to be an impulsive person under stress – possibly more impulsive and with worse consequences. Staying calm and making rational decisions can help you be more resilient because you won’t make a situation worse before it can get better.

Since most days you’re going to deal with minor problems and not major ones, get used to acting less impulsively. Don’t make decisions out of pure frustration or even pure excitement – think them through first. Write a pros and cons list if you need to. Or see what happens if you make no decision right now and give yourself plenty of time to sit on it.

4. Move through the stages of grief quickly.

There are seven stages of grief:

Shock: Paralysis when facing the situation.

Denial: Avoiding the inevitable.

Anger: Bottled-up emotion and frustration pour out.

Bargaining: Trying to find a way out of the situation (but not in a healthy or productive way).

Depression: Realizing the inevitable is…inevitable, and being upset about that.

Testing: Looking for realistic solutions to the problem.

Acceptance: Finding a way to move forward.

People who are resilient move from the shock stage to the testing and acceptance stages quickly. They may even skip some of the stages in between, especially if they’ve faced the same difficulty in the past. Laurence Gonzales writes about this in Deep Survival (great book, BTW): “The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly.”

Forcing your way through the stages of grief takes a lot of willpower, especially because the middle stages are so tempting to sink into. Getting it all out can help, whether that’s out loud to someone you know or down on paper. If you need to, write out the different stages and how you’ve experienced them. Then start listing those solutions.

You can definitely practice this in everyday life. When something small-but-totally-annoying happens, force yourself to skip over the “I’m so upset about this” stages. Go right to solving the problem. The next time you spill an entire carton of orange juice on your kitchen floor, start cleaning it up without hesitating. If you forgot to buy something at the store, put your sneakers on and head back out before you can beat yourself up over it. If you get a splinter, gather the rubbing alcohol and the tweezers and get that sucker out. Just get it done.

5. Learn from others.

“Others have been through it too” isn’t comforting for everyone, but it’s always been comforting for me, especially when I can tie my experience to that of a specific person, not just the general public. We’re all unique butterflies, but honestly, one person’s heartbreak or firing from work or fight with a family member is a billion other people’s, too. Knowing that others came before, labored through and walked out the other end healed, employed or on speaking terms is supremely hopeful. Pardon my penchant for sappy stories, but this quote from P.S. I Love You pinballs in my head whenever I feel alone in disappointment or sadness: “Thing to remember is if we’re all alone, then we’re all together in that too.”

In practice, this can mean telling people about what you’re going through – you’ll hear similar stories in return. I’m not a “spill your heart out” person usually, so my solution has always been to pick up a book or read a magazine article about how Joe Famous Person faced something horrible and got through it. And if you really need a jolt of “everyone’s been here,” listen to Nate Berkus’ interview called “Surviving the Storm” on the SuperSoul Conversations podcast.

On the same note, this is a perfect time to give back. Helping others can give you a fix of “my life isn’t so bad,” or just shake you out of whatever slump you’re in. If you get a confidence boost from being selfless, I give you permission to enjoy that – it’s not selfish to feel good about yourself.

Wrapping Up

If you’re not a person who can handle daily life and all its teeny struggles, you’re going to have a difficult time moving through those stages of grief in order to help yourself when the you-know-what really hits the fan. Your habits and the way you handle your emotions on a normal day are the training and preparation you need to be truly resilient when you need it most. Get used to helping yourself in small ways so that it’ll be second nature when serious drama or trauma blows through.

Excited about being less impulsive and more cool, calm and collected? Check out this article about how responding instead of reacting can improve your business relationships.

The post Why Being Resilient is Essential to Success appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

[positivederivative]

January 09, 2017 at 04:06AM

Today I Learned: 1) Supreme Commander is a really fun game. Some things I really like about it, from a design perspective: * It has big maps, and unit movement takes a while. That means that a) you have time to react to enemy actions, but also b) you have to plan ahead a bit. * The "streaming economy"! Unlike most RTSs I've played, Supreme Commander lets you set buildings to auto-build queues of units forever, which takes up a constant stream of resources. Resource management is about matching constant, steady inflows and outflows of resources. Decisions about unit construction are much more long-term, strategy-level decisions than in, say, Starcraft. Instead of doing something like "build 5 marines", you decide something like "I'm going to dedicate this naval yard to constructing a frigate fleet". It also means less jumping from building to building making sure everything's building stuff at maximum speed, which is nice. * There isn't really a tech tree. Which is to say, there isn't really research. There are different kinds of factories that build different kinds of units, and you can upgrade each factory (individually), but there aren't things like "research this to give unit A its signature ability" or "research this for +10% attack damage for infantry". You can either build something or you can't. * You can split your monitor and have two play screens at once! The obvious way to use this is to zoom all the way out on one screen to use it as a sort of high-resolution minimap (the zooming in Supreme Commander is incredible, btw. If you zoom all the way out, you can see the whole map, and it's surprisingly easy to tell everything that's going on). I tried using one map for production management and the other for battlefield control, but I didn't really master it. It's a cool feature, anyway. 2) ...what a limpet is! I had a vague sense that limpets are some kind of little shelled oceanic thing, but I'd actually... looked up a picture of one? Well today I did. They're basically either clams with one shell removed or slugs that decided to grow clam shells on their backs... which is basically what they are. Limpets are a polyphyletic group within Gastropodia (the same as snails and slugs -- by the way, did you know that Gastropoda is the second-largest class of animals, after insects?), containing any shelled gastropod without a noticable twist in its shell. Notably, clams and scallops and other bivalve molluscs are *not* Gastropodes, despite the apparent similarity between their shells and those of limpets. I don't know whether the common ancestor of the clam and the limpet had a shell. 3) There is such a thing as negative temperature, and it has been experimentally achieved (albeit briefly). Negative temperature comes from a weirdness in the way temperature is defined, which I do not entirely understand (I think it comes from the statistical mechanical definition of temperature, which I have not yet managed to grok). Negative temperature actually means an inversion of the usual Boltzmann distribution of energies in a mix of particles. Usually, most particles are clustered around the mean energy, with relatively few high-energy particles. At negative temperatures, the opposite is true -- most of the particles have very high energy, with a low-energy tail. You may note that this requires gasses with negative temperature to have *higher* total energy than gasses with positive temperatures. In fact, in most systems, negative temperatures require more than infinite energy -- as you add energy to a system, entropic effects dominate over energetic effects, and as you approach infinite energy, the distribution of particles over states approaches a flat distribution (where the probability of finding a particle at any energy is the same as the probability of finding that particle at any other energy). As you add *more* than infinite energy, you start to get a clustering of energies at *high* energy states. Except that you can't add infinite energy to anything. For the rest, I recommend reading this secondary source article from phys.org, which is much better written than most pop sci I've encountered. Or maybe this field is just farther from my usual field than most pop sci articles I've read, so I don't know all the things that are wrong with it? http://ift.tt/2i9sN5w

[bigk1337]

Rambling Rant: 2017 is Off to a Great Start

2016 was a hell of a year!  Everybody were at each others throats.  So many celebrities have died.  A gorilla died.  A gay bar was shot up.  Police are killing black people.  Black people rioting and wanting to kill police officers (some even act on it).  The Syria Refugee Crisis happened.  No Man’s Sky and Mighty No. 9 scammed many gamers.  DC’s movies, Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad, are major disappointments.  Marvel’s comics aren’t faring any better what with Civil War II and their treatment of the X-Men.  The Powerpuff Girls reboot sucks.  The Ghostbusters reboot sucks.  The controversy surrounding both reboots REALLY suck.  I was sent to the hospital on multiple occasions (diabetes are a bitch to have).  YouTube are screwing over their users.   Bojack Horseman Season Three ended on a really depressing note.  This year’s election was very heated.  On said election, both candidates are obvious villains with one being an orange Dennis Hopper and the other is an older Lena Headey.  WE FUCKING ELECTED KING KOOPA INTO OFFICE (which, now that I think about it, is the better option than having a Lannister rule over us)!  Everybody riots because they don’t like the election results.  FUCKIN CLOWNS EVERYWHERE!  And the final celebrity to die on this year was Carrie Fisher; one of key stars to my favorite sci-fi series as a child, Star Wars.

2016 kind of sucks

Well in spite of those negatives, there are some positives.  For starter, the Deadpool movie was really great.  Marvel continues to produce good films to this day.  DC Rebirth fixed all the mistakes that the New 52 created back in 2012.  Not all reboots suck (Voltron The Legendary Defenders, ).  The Loud House debuted in that year.  Also Mighty Magiswords.  One Punch Man and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures aired on Toonami.  Young Justice is officially announced to get a third season.  Speaking of season 3, Bojack Horseman’s was really good.  Supernoobs, the show made by the creators of Johnny Test, is surprisingly not bad at all.  And while I have yet to seen the movies, I heard good things about Fantastic Beasts and Rogue One.  Let’s not forget some of the times internet memes actually is being used for good (Hugh Mungus and Robbie Rotten, never thought memes can help save lives).  So yeah there are some good things coming out of that year.

2016 was indeed a year of great controversy and strife, but 2017 can be different. We, as humans, can improve ourselves after the shitty year we went through.  All we have todo is  be nice to each other, treat everyone as equals instead of enemies, and not be assholes to people we don’t like.  Its so simple that we should love, not hate . . . well we can forget about those plans after coming across this event I found on Know Your Memes.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/2017-chicago-kidnapping-livestream

So while browsing through Know Your Memes, I came across this event titled 2017 Chicago Kidnapping. What I read in that page was that 4 black people kidnapped and abused a mentally handicapped white man . . . what the fuck?

Worse, the site linked a video from Live Leak which shows the incident proving that it did happened . . . WHAT THE FUCK!?!

Even worse, as I can’t stress this enough, they are tormenting a mentally impaired individuals under the pretense that he is an easy target to express their rage against white people in general . . . do I need to say it again?  Its clearly a fucked up thing to do as a human being.

To illustrate how disgusting it is, I would like to talk about the wrestler New Jack.

A.K.A. Huge Piece of Shit.  New Jack is a hardcore wrestler known for his violent fight style and recklessness in the ring.  But what separates him from other hardcore wrestlers is that he tends to legitimately hurt his opponents.  Wrestling is after all a work, and most of the action in the ring are planned out; even hardcore matches (bloody and harmful as they are) makes sure that nobody die for real in them.  New Jack, however, is the opposite as when he wrestles sometimes (okay a lot of times) he intends to kill somebody.  Highlights of his career includes the Mass Transit Incident where he blades too deeply his opponent’s forehead, the time he stabbed a wrestler that was green nine times because the newbie doesn’t know how to sell, his shoot fight with Gypsy Joe because he does not want to do a comedy match, falling on Vic Grimmes with the intention of killing him (which was payback for Grimmes accidently falling on his head in a scaffold spot, even though Jack was to blame for not listening to Grimmes who doesn’t want to do the spot anymore), and many cases of him turning a work match into a shoot because he was pissed off.   Yeah I hate the guy.  The worst part is that he couldn’t even wrestle yet still finds work in the business.

Now imagine that guy, but split into four people and really pissed off at the fact Trump won.   Not a good thought is it. Unlike New Jack, however, they didn’t try to legitimately kill the man.  But very much like the piece of shit, they beat the man, psychologically torment him, scalp his head (which is a very New Jack thing to do) and laugh about their actions.  And I’m not sure if New Jack would want to humiliate somebody by forcing them to drink out of the toilet, but I am inclined to believe that he would.

Thankfully the assholes are very stupid and posted the video of them torturing this man live on Facebook.  They were all arrested for their actions.  Thank God!  Cause honestly if they were shot by the police like the other police shootings, I wouldn’t complain since after all THEY KNOWINGLY TORTURE A MENTALLY CHALLENGED MAN!

So they got arrested.  That should be the end and couldn’t get any worse, right?  If you answered yes, then you clearly failed the cynacism test and are in face wrong on that.  

But first, something not entirely rage inducing, the whole #BLMKidnapping that started on Twitter in response to it.  As much as I don’t like Black Live Matter, I have to say they have nothing to do with this as the criminals never stated they were a part of it.  The hashtag is clearly using this controversy (yeah, I know, I will explain soon how this became one) as platform to attack the actual group is not cool.  The people in the video are racists and are against Trump, but at this point have no ties to BLM whatsoever.

Now for the REAL rage inducer.  The media’s reaction to this is by far the most sickening part of this shit storm: they all tried to excuse and defend the thugs’ action!  I repeat: the news, Chicago police AND activists are defending the criminals who torment a defenseless person.

The defense: they are just young kids who don’t know any better and its the fault of the environment they grew up in.

For that matter, those football playing rapists at Steubenville aren’t entirely at fault; after all they are hormone driven teens who couldn’t help but fucked the shit out of that girl (who is clearly attractive btw).

And the Aurora shooter, James Holmes, should be reproach of his crime; clearly Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger are to blame for creating the Joker character in The Dark Knight who is the warped inspiration for the shooter.

For that matter, we should also blame video games for inspiring the Colombine and Virginia Tech Massacre.

Speaking of killings, Chris Benoit did nothing wrong; it was the steroids and unprotected chair shots to blame for killing his wife and son, not him.

And the mass murder suicides in Jonestown isn’t Jim Jones’ fault; clearly its all the political opponents and US government’s fault for trying to put an end to his glorious vision which lead to the tragedy.

 Let’s not forget good ol’ Adolf Hitler; he had a rough childhood and clearly the Jews were ruining his coun . . . yeah I think you get the point here.

Just because there is a reason behind their action, does not excuse them of doing it.  Shit, I like Chris Benoit.  He is one of my favorite wrestlers, and still is.  But frankly, I can’t really pretend that my hero in his final day did not commit a heinous act that is just plain disgusting.  I don’t care if its because all the trauma to the head that damage his brain, what he did is unforgivable and I blame him for killing his family.

And what the black thugs in that Facebook stream was also unforgivable, and I couldn’t believe the media are trying to make a debate out of whether or not their crime is a hate crime.  For fuck sake’s, in the video they chant “Fuck White People” as they scalp, beat up, and degrade a white person.  THAT is clearly a hate crime.  And don’t give me that bullshit excuse on how racism is prejudice plus power; cause with that logic they have both as they were able bodied black people tormenting a mentally challenge person.

It’s not up to debate; these so called human beings are a bunch of racist sociopaths who pick on a innocent special needs man (which also makes them ableists).  Fuck these niggas!

Anyway, here is the source to the Know Your Meme article I read for details on the incident: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/2017-chicago-kidnapping-livestream

Like the site or not, it does a pretty good job in presenting current news even though it just wants to post some dank memes.