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lilytakeharryandgo · 4 years

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STOP ROMANTICISING SEVERUS SNAPE - A MANIFESTO

“Albus Severus Potter, you were named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a great strategist, the other one was a racist, hateful, bitter, scary bastard. Voldemort must have damaged some brain cells when killing the Horcrux inside of me.”

Now that I have Snape fans raging and screaming for blood, here’s my show of evidence:

If the boring, same argument brought up by Marauders stans is Snape being a Death Eater, I know it’s basic, but it’s basic for a reason: it’s true. Supporting Voldemort doesn’t mean you support his ideas? I’m sorry, what did he support? The Dark Lord’s contouring skills? It is a truth universally acknowledged that joining a group of racists and following them in perpetrating crimes does make you a racist and a criminal.

JK Rowling herself said that Death Eaters are an analogy to Nazis, Marauders stans are not making this up. Are you questioning what JK ROWLING said? Because you know, she is JK ROWLING.

We know it was Snivellus that created the Levicorpus. He must have used it against the Marauders in order for them to learn it. And let’s just remember that “Snape’s worst memory” takes place after the Shrieking Shack’s incident, when dear, lovely Severus tried to unmask Remus so that he could be expelled for being a Werewolf. He went down to the Whomping Willow of his own free will, no one forced him, and he supposedly knew what was happening there: he risked his own life only to get Remus expelled. Yes, it was Sirius who thought it would have been funny to lure him to the Shrieking Shack where Lupin was due for his transformation, and that was wrong. However, why did he do that? Because Snape was constantly spying on them. Was it wrong? Definitely, no one is trying to get Sirius out of this one. Still, James saved Snape in time. Did James do that just because he wanted to protect Remus? Most likely: James gave them all a family and he loved his friends and would have done everything for them, and he did. But also, he wouldn’t have let an “innocent” (if we want to call him that) die. So James saved Snape’s life, which dear Half Blood Price seemed deeply ungrateful for later, and yet, Snape constantly tried to get the Marauders expelled from Hogwarts time and time again while using Dark Magic and creating his own dark spells (see the irony?). Stop saying that the Marauders’ actions pushed him to become a Death Eater. As if “Snape never missed an opportunity to curse James” was a lie. As if Snape wasn’t on his way to being a buddying Death Eater by his 5th year. As if Snape hadn’t came up with a curse that slices your body open by his 6th year. As if the Marauders had nothing to do but ruthlessly bully Snape all day and all night, when they actually are described as the brightest as some of the brightest students of their year despite being engaged in loads of other things like the creation of the Marauders Map, becoming Animagus, dealing with Remus’ monthly transformations (because those demonic guys didn’t leave him alone and didn’t report him to get him expelled as someone else was willing to do), James and Remus being responsible enough to be Head Boy and Prefect. Oh, and training for a war and joining the Order once they graduated. Minor things, right? Things they were busy doing in their personal lives such as surviving, living and being happy? Nah, that never happened, their entire life consisted of bullying innocent, poor service teenagers, that was their goal. Snape experienced one side of the Marauders (and we read that from his own pov, so it’s a little biased too): that is not a deciding factor of whether or not they (and especially James) are good people. He was so fascinated with the Dark Arts, even after Lily’s death and hence his presumed redemption, that Dumbledore did not appoint him as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Snape’s apologetics make it sound like the Marauders made Snape’s life hell every minute of everyday and he was the poor victim who was not capable of standing up to himself against those horrible demonic creatures, but he was the one inventing the Sectumsempra and using it against James, against George. Only a truly tormented person could have invented such a bloody spell.

So now let’s talk about Remus. Remus, a hero who fought against Voldemort and joined an anti-terrorist resistance organisation when he was just 18 years old, who fought alongside Frank and Alice Longbottom in the Order, is about to start his first class with the third years. Neville is there, of course, Remus knows his parents’ fate, how they were tortured into madness, and probably guessed that Neville’s biggest fear would be similar to what he guessed Harry’s would be. He’s probably planning on stepping in before Bellatrix Lestrange shows up, but then it’s not her, it’s Snape. Snape who insults him in front of his class, Snape who tries to shame him. Can you imagine how he must have felt? Yes, they bullied him, but his best friend James grew up, and what did he get in return? Death. Instead, Snape hasn’t gotten over himself a little and most importantly he does not realise that being a teacher also means being responsible for those children. Snape never changes: he is the same petty, angry, bitter child that he had been in school, except now he’s bullying children half his age instead of yelling racial slurs at his classmates. While Snape is one of his students’ greatest fear, Remus starts off the year by letting his pupils confront their biggest fears. Remus truly, deeply cared about his students, and wait… what did Snape do? He got him fired! But even most achingly than that, just imagine… it’s 1993, Remus is coming back after a rough full moon. He’s feeling down, he’s weak, both physically and emotionally, he’s one more time without his friends by his side, one more time alone as he was before the Marauders became Animaguses to be alongside him to support him during the roughest times (horrible people, isn’t it?). So Remus is coming back to his class of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and his best friend’s son is writing an essay on how to kill him. But Snape didn’t stop there, no, he told the whole Wizarding World that a man who had struggled to keep his condition secret all his life was a Werewolf. He had to withdraw from his position as a professor because of that, and straight after that the Ministry issued a law against Werewolves which made it impossible for Remus to have a job. So, to sum it up, not only he exposed him as a Werewolf, he also condemned him to live in poverty and be persecuted for that reason. Also, quoting, when Remus was trying to explain things in PoA he attacked him and said “I’ll drag the Werewolf, perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for him too.” James and Sirius were the kind of persons, the kind of friends and brothers, who risked their own life every month for one of his best friends. Think about this: they found out about Remus’ situation when they were just boys in their first years of school, and they didn’t leave him, they decided to help him embarking in something much bigger than themselves. Whereas dear lovely 33 year old Necrophilus told everyone about Remus’ secret and basically had him fired. Sounds angelic, why haven’t I thought about doing something like that before? That would most certainly secure me a spot in heaven!

Do we want to talk about an abusive person? Well, Snape was not just abusive as a person, he abused and took advantage of his position as a teacher (and Head of House too, to reward extra points from the other Houses) to bully his own students (even after his presumed “redemption”). He told Neville he would have given his failed potion to his toad, Trevor, so that the fatal effects of the potion would teach him a lesson. He bullied Neville to the point that he was literally his greatest fear - Neville’s parents were tortured to the point of insanity by Bellatrix, yet Snape was his greatest fear. He also condoned and took part in bullying when Draco cursed Hermione’s teeth to grow. He said he didn’t see any difference, then watched as she ran off crying. From the very start he starts bullying Harry: he perfectly knew he was raised by muggles, he knew how Petunia was and still went on to ask questions that he wouldn’t be able to answer. And after calling Neville and idiot for a mistake that anyone could have made he took points from Gryffindor because Harry didn’t tell him how to do it right - great teaching strategy, let’s nominate him for Most Valuable Teacher. Harry had nothing to do with what went on during Snape’s school years, but he physically resembled James and he was his son, so let’s bully him from the very first second! And honestly, asking an 11 years old Muggle-raised kid the difference between monskshood and wolfsbane in front of everyone on the first day? There is no difference! They are colloquial terms for the same plant. He just wanted the intellectual upper hand over a goddamn little kid. But he didn’t stop there: that resentful git always tried to blame Harry for something even without proof (as most of the time), and he physically abused Harry because he was angry (“Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor.”). He knew how important it was for Harry to learn Occlumency and he stopped giving him classes and later ignored when Lupin asked him to start them again even when he knew how poorly Harry’s progressed. And he was cruel: he knew Harry was sad about Sirius’ death, and gave him a detention in which he was going to see his and his father’s names multiple times while copying out old detention records. Yes, Harry’s deeds should have called for expulsion, as McGonagall states, but Snape chose something more painful than that. Not only he punished Harry (don’t get me wrong, he almost killed Draco, he deserved detention if not expulsion), but he chose to inflict him more pain and at the same time tried to ruin the memory of Harry’s father figures. Ordinarily, copying out old detention records wouldn’t be worse than writing lines, but Snape vindictively tailored that detention to inflict pain. In addition to this, he could have been an awesome teacher if he wasn’t a disgusting waste of a human being. He knew from his teen years that the instructions that the textbooks were giving were not as goos as they could be so he improved the potions and recorded his own methods at 16. Harry himself states what an amazing teacher “the Prince” is. If Snape were not such a horrible person, he could have either written the entire textbooks himself, or taught his students his own alternate methods. Instead he spent his time bullying children. He could have been great and become everything a Slytherin should have been

Snape also saw his friends perform Dark Magic on Mary Macdonald and when confronted by Lily, literally didn’t see any problem with it and compared it with the Marauders’ pranks.

He called Lily, his supposed best friend, a Mudblood. Then he tried to get away with it by saying he didn’t mean it and that she (and only she) was different from the other Muggleborns. And Lily tried, she tried to tell him he was not on the right path, she tried, and she got called a racial slur from the person she trusted the most at the time. And, for the extremist Snape apologetics in the back, who even hate Lily (how can they hate on Lily I don’t know, but apparently these people exist too): Lily Evans did not owe anyone anything. She had the right to cut ties with her friends for any reason she pleased, whatever that’s because she was sick of them or because they were hanging out with a group of terrorists wannabe. She did not owe anyone her love, loyalty or energy. She tried to be Snape’s friend despite his other group of friends (“but Mulciber’s and Avery’s idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don’t understand how you can be friends with them”), but there’s canon evidence that Snape chose his Death Eaters friends over Lily’s friendship and safety. It was her choice to cut ties with him after what he and his friends had done (and the racial slur of course, truly a touch of class), and it’s not like he was a good friend to begin with: he called all other Muggleborns “Mudblood” and was canon friends with the people who wanted Lily and other Muggleborns killed, and he even still wanted to be a Death Eater while being her friend. Like, wait here while I go out and slaughter your people, Lils! And if Snape stans are still arguing that he was suffering because he got dumped, that’s another no: he did not get dumped, she just didn’t have romantic feelings for him but was trying so hard to be his friend and he was just a whiny baby about it. Is that a crime? No, it isn’t. Is not getting over it and taking it out on countless kids who weren’t even born instead a crime? Yes, it is.

Also, from the get-go we see him drop a tree branch on Petunia. That shows that he didn’t see a problem in hurting the people Lily loved (seen later in a larger proportion, that’s his tag line). Lily loved her sister, but Petunia was an obstacle between her and Snape, hence, Snape hurt her. And no, that was not accidental underage magic, just as Lily performs magic on the flower, Snape uses magic to cause a tree branch to fall on Petunia. Even as a child he had no qualms about hurting someone Lily loved, this really serves to underscore the idea that Snape, with his so called love for Lily, was not invested in her happiness or wellbeing because he didn’t care about the people she loved. As a child he didn’t care about hurting her sister and at 20 he didn’t care about the imminent deaths of her husband and son. If he truly loved and cared for her, he would have wanted to see her happy. Not even considering how crushed she would have been if her husband and only child were dead, and she was left alone and pregnant in the middle of a war.

Okay so now let’s talk about James. Yes, James was a spoiled brat, and Lily hated him for that, then guess what? He matured, he started protecting the weaker ones and joined the Order along with Sirius, Remus and Lily to fight for a better world. He didn’t hold it against her nor did he sulk for days, he grew up and matured because he was a well adjusted human, unlike some. James Potter was many things other than an “arrogant bullying toerag” (hey, also, well done for trying to destroy a 15-year-old orphan’s memory of his heroic father): he was a friend who risked his life every month for Remus’s safety and comfort. A brother who took Sirius in and was “the best friend he ever had.” An adored friend of half-giant Hagrid, in an age when all “half-breeds” were looked upon with suspicion during the war. An all time “favourite student” of Minerva McGonagall, so much that she waited all day at his son’s future home and wept at his death. A savior of his enemies even when they were trying to expose his friends’ secrets. An activist protecting the right of existence for Muggles, Muggleborns and hybrids right out of school. A soldier who faced Voldemort three times and lived to tell about it. A caring father who went into hiding to protect his son. A loving husband who sacrificed his life for his family. A faded trace of magic still trying to guide his son when the man that killed him returned to life. A young man that inspired so much loyalty in his friends that Remus Lupin, who so feared the idea of harming people because of his condition, was 100% willing to abandon those morals to avenge his death, and would have done so, had Harry not reminded him and Sirius that James would not have wanted them to murder anyone for him. A Patronus helping Harry through his darkest moments until the very end. James had a friend facing bigotry and he became an illegal animagus to help make that friend’s life better. Snape had a friend facing bigotry and he joined up with the bigots. No one is trying to pretend that James was an angel, but he got better and better until his last breath. And again, that spoiled brat and the love of his life joined the resistance and were martyrs. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus all died for Harry. Are you trying to blame James and Lily for sacrificing their own lives to save their infant son? What terrible parents they were! Their sacrifice was an act of love and wait… actually ended up saving the Wizarding World. The only thing James and Snape had in common was that they would have both sacrificed James’s life in order to save Lily’s. James was the hero, he was the one who faced Voldemort without his wand (pretty dumb thing but he was a Gryffindor, hence no surprise) in order to give his wife and son more time to flee. When he opened that door on Halloween, he thought he was sacrificing his life so that they could live. He literally died wandless perfectly knowing he wouldn’t survive, but facing death for those he loved, hoping he would be able to stall enough time so they could escape. He was never more dedicated in anything in his short life than he was to the loves of his life: he died for Lily and Harry, and would have happily died for Sirius, Remus and Peter. And this is absolutely canon, of course it is: we might not have some explicit description of him but all we know comes from the lives he touched, how they talked / not talked about him, the pain they felt - the seven books are a testament of James and Lily’s love. James Potter was the kind of person that would have been happy to die for love, he would have taken pride in that. How do we know that? Are we making this up? No, we are not: all we have are the words of people who knew him, from his best friends to McGonagall, and who remembered him as a hero. This, albeit indirectly, speaks volume about the kind of person he was. He might have been obnoxious and arrogant as a teenager, but at 21 he died a hero - wandless, alone, betrayed, hopeless, but also bravely and out of love - and nothing can change either of those. Yes, he bullied Snape (let’s be clear here even though I highly doubt Snape did not retaliate) and that is a disgusting attitude. But how can you forgive a 31 year old man for bullying his kids and not a 15 year old boy who bullied one of his definitely not innocent classmates? Who matured and who later died, at the young age of 21, for his wife and son? How can you hate James Potter when as soon as he graduated, he was ready to fight a war against the most powerful wizard of his age? Yes, he had a big head and I am fairly certain he did actually strut - and let’s just take a moment to remember why Harry doesn’t know anything about him… oh, right, Snape went to Voldemort and told him about the prophecy - but he was a caring person, who stood up to what he thought and stood up for his friends and his family. The spoilt boy Snape’s apologetics hate, who grew up to be a great man, who died fighting and protecting, not some emo with a crush and an ego the size of the Great Lake! Wait, I hear somebody trying to bring up the “we have no real evidence of him becoming a better person” thing. Let me get this straight: James was mentioned to have jinxed other students, not to have bullied them. He did not pick out targets, it was implied to be done at random as it is explicitly stated that he jinxed random people in the corridors. Fred and George pranked other students in the same way, and they would have often have more disastrous effects, but no one calls them bullies. We know that on one known occasion attacks Snape with Sirius at his side and almost pantsed him with a spell of Snape’s own invention. James and Snape had a rivalry, and it was two-sided. It wasn’t James relentlessly hexing poor, innocent Snape, so if you still want to call James Potter a bully, okay, do it, he was a bully bullying a bully. The evidence speaks for itself: he was Head Boy in 7th year (hence I don’t think Dumbledore despised him that much), he was unapologetically a blood traitor, he dated Lily Evans (who hated him for how he was and would have never fallen in love with such a brat, so it’s pretty evident he did actually change), he joined the Order of the Phoenix (an anti-terrorist organisation, at the peak of the war, as a teenager, whereas someone else joins a racist dark cult), he died protecting his wife and child! And if we really, really want to bring the ‘evidence’ thing up… well, we have no evidence he bullied Snape, except for one little incident - I’m fairly certain he did, but let’s play it literally now. And since we are there, we may not have been blessed with more about the Marauders, but Sirius and Remus both tell Harry Lily changed his mind about James because he became a better person, why don’t Snape stans consider that an evidence pro James but “Snape’s worst memory” is their pro Snape pamphlet? That chapter showed us an incident where both Sirius and James were assholes but everyone that was there supported it but Lily. All the other Students supported it because of what the fandom conveniently forgets that Snape loved Dark Arts, disparagingly called Lily a Muggle twice, tried to expose Remus and run around with a group of Death Eater wannabes tormenting Muggleborns all through his school years (he literally says that torturing Mary Macdonald was funny - “That was nothing, it was a laugh, that’s all”), to the point where Lily’s friends and herself questioned their friendship: “none of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. I’ve made excuses for you for years.” And eventually, when questioned by Lily if he wanted to join Voldemort, he couldn’t find any way to lie to her: “you and your precious little Death Eater friends— you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You Know Who can you?”. He literally didn’t find anything wrong with Voldemort’s political position (only the fact that he wanted to kill his obsession, he only had that so called change of heart when it personally affected him as his beloved Dark Lord wanted to kill the object of his lust). So yes, he did join the Death Eaters because he wanted to and was everything he’d always desired. Does this make him a bad person? HELL YES.

And wait, can somebody remind me why the Potters were forced to hide? Wow, it must have been because Snivellus dearest spilled the tea to his master. So basically it went like this: “Hey Dark Lord! Our adorable group of racists kills Mudbloods for fun, but there’s this filthy Muggle born I fancy, can you please kill her husband and baby so that I can have her?” How the hell could he think Lily could have ever forgiven him? He was totally fine with Dumbledore saving Lily but not her husband and infant son (see how deeply he cared about Lily’s happiness?) and only cared for him being the rebound. James and Harry were totally expendable but hey, bravest man ever known!

So yes, he protected Harry (in his very own and questionable way, he did), but I’m sorry, that’s not enough. However, before someone says “in the end he cared about Harry” let me say a big, important fact: NAH HE DIDN’T. And not only he didn’t, but he also openly states that: in the Deathly Hallows chapter with the Pensieve, Snape describes Harry as selfish, self-important and arrogant - does it matter than all the other teachers like him and see none of those things? Of course not. And he’s not talking about sassy 4th-6th year Harry (who I really thank for that “there's no need to call me "sir" Professor” gem): Snape is tasing about an 11 year old who was picked on his whole life, who never had a family of his own and who lived in a cupboard under the stairs. He’s a child, an orphan (now tell me what’s that heroic about tormenting an orphan). However, Snape had decided that Harry must be bad news from the start, so he reasonably spends six years making his life as difficult as possible. That’s a great way to honour Lily’s memory, right? Do Snape stans remember what their hero answered when Dumbledore asked if he had grown to care for the boy, after all? He literally shouted “for him?” before casting a Patronus (a little over obsessive too). He felt he owed it to Lily to make sure Harry survives, and for Merlin’s sake, he did! He went to Voldemort and basically condemned the Potters. I’m not saying he is THE reason why they died, that honour goes to the lurid latrine rat, but he is one of them. Protecting Harry was the least he could do. Switching allegiances doesn’t cancel the awful actions before Lily’s death, as much as taking advantage of his position can’t be justified by his loyalty to Dumbledore. And most importantly, he cannot be redeemed by his stalkerish obsession for Lily (or by the creepy ‘look at me I want to die looking into your mother’s eyes,’ ew). All he did was made out of selfishness, even in his quest to redeem himself. Snape had a chance to honour Lily's memory, and disregarded it every single day. He claimed to regret his past, yet his cruelty to Harry was persistent and immature. Plus, loving someone doesn’t redeem terrible deeds. He aligned himself with a terrorist organisation who murdered for sport entirely of his own volition, endorsed the torture of Muggleborns, but of course, what a hero! I will never understand how people continue to use Snape’s obsession with Lily and ‘protecting’ Harry thing as an excuse for all the pain and terror that he inflicted upon small children. Does that mean you’ll excuse a father who continuously hit and emotionally abused his child and made their life a living hell if his excuse was “well I was still protecting them they had their dead mother’s eyes”? This is SICK.

And if you can still argue that “he had a terrible childhood,” that is inarguable, however, it just cannot justify him. Remus was bitten when he was 4, he had no friends until he was 11, lived in constant fear that he was going to be outed as a Werewolf, was forced to turn into a monster every month, lost everyone he loved and lived in poverty for 14 years and still managed to be a decent person. Luna watched her mother die, was picked on by almost everyone, was treated as a freak and only had one friend until she was 14 and still managed to be a decent person. Ginny was literally possessed by Voldemort himself for almost a year, guess what? Decent person too. Neville was constantly told how worthless he was, lived knowing his parents were tortured to insanity and was bullied and belittled by everyone. Decent person? Yes, right again. And do we want to talk about THE lonely kid who was abused his entire life? Sirius was raised and abused by blood supremacists, was disowned by his family, framed for murder (of his best friends, for Merlin’s sake!) and literally lost almost everyone he loved and still managed to be a decent person. He couldn't help the way he was? The environment around him conditioned him to be that way? If I remember correctly, Harry was raised by neglectful relatives, wore ill-fitting clothes, felt inadequate among his peers… Harry is proof that a terrible childhood doesn’t excuse despicable behaviour.

So, Snape hated Neville because he could have been the Chosen One instead of Harry (but it’s definitely on him for going to Voldemort and condemning the Potters), he hated Harry because he was James’s copy and he hated Hermione because she was a Mudblood and brilliant as Lily was. Makes sense, again, and again, it stresses how much of a beautiful person and teacher he was, don’t you think so? Also, had Voldemort picked Neville to kill instead of Harry, Snape would still be a Death Eater. It’s not like he thought being part of a group of supremacists and terrorists was wrong. It wasn’t until something directly affected him that he turned his back to his master - so brave, right? Snape may have done some good for the Wizarding World when he joined the Order, but while he was alive, he was horrible. He wasn't fighting the good fight because he couldn't possibly imagine a world where Voldemort was in charge (honestly, he couldn't have cared less), he was doing it to spare Lily’s life and get her for himself. James and Lily fought for the light because they believed in the light. Snape fought against the dark because the dark had offended him. Had Voldemort gone after the Longbottoms instead, Snape would have lived and died as the most loyal Death Eater in history.

Wait, I hear a “there’s no evidence that Snape voluntarily murdered anyone in his entire life” over there! He joined a group whose aim was genocide and was actually one of the few members which were part of the inner circle of Death Eaters, he didn’t get there by throwing kisses and rose petals around. It is explicitly said that not all Death Eaters actually bore the mark. Only selected wizards can be part of Voldemort’s circle, and not only Snape was part of that circle during the First Wizarding War, but it is also heavily implied that he passed messages from Voldemort more than once. Plus, he was also able to speak directly to Voldemort and even ask him to spare Lily’s life. Voldemort actually told Lily to move over three times before killing her, and he didn’t do that because he had such a kind heart and wanted to spare a Muggleborn’s life, he did that because Snape begged him. And maybe we haven’t read the same books, but it’s not like Voldemort strolled along Diagon Alley offering favours to random people. In addition to this, Snape did most certainly kill someone since Dumbledore compares Draco’s soul to his, meaning he has done remorseless acts of great evil before, hence his soul was already damaged, unlike Draco’s. So please, stop saying Snape was somehow influenced into joining the Death Eaters and never committed any crime: he fully believed in what they pledged and actually longed about being one of them for years (according to Lily). No one manipulated him into joining said group nor into perpetrating crimes. And no one manipulated him into being a horrible person even after he “switched sides.” He’s the one who willingly decides to be a terrorist, he’s the one who willingly decides to abuse children half his age, and he’s the one having the nerve to be awful to Harry when he’s the reason why Harry doesn’t have any parents.

And he was so childish and cruel! He threw a tantrum after discovered he was getting an Order of Merlin and wasn’t going to see Remus and Sirius in jail (even though he knew they were innocent).

There we go: HE KNEW SIRIUS WAS INNOCENT (don’t try to deny it, he was part of the inner circle of Death Eaters, he perfectly knew Sirius was not the one selling the Potters to Voldemort)! Did this matter for him? Of course not! And was Snape cruel and abusive to Harry because he blamed himself for Lily’s death and Harry was a constant reminder of his guilt? Yes, he was. But you know who else blamed himself for the Potters’ deaths and also was constantly reminded of them by Harry, and yet, did not abuse him because of his guilt? That’s right, Sirius. Sirius whose death was indirectly caused by Snape who kept making fun of him for being locked in Grimmauld Place. Sirius who had no problems breaking out of Azkaban, all he had to do was turn into a dog and leave. He could have left anytime he wanted to over those twelve years but he didn’t. You know why? Because he thought he deserved to be there. It was his fault his friends were dead. Everyone could blame him all they wanted with false accusations and it didn’t matter, since to him, changing Peter to the Secret Keeper, he was guilty for his friends’ death and deserved to be in Azkaban. He only broke out when he knew Harry was in danger after seeing that filthy rat on the newspaper. And when he broke into Hogwarts? Do people remember those lines: Hermione said “It’s very lucky he picked tonight, you know,” to which Ron responded “I reckon he’s lost track of time, being on the run. Didn’t realise it was Halloween.” Please, of course he realised it was Halloween, he perfectly knew that. He went after Peter on the anniversary of James and Lily’s death to revenge them and to save his godson. Sirius might have strut as much as James during his teens but again, he turned out to be a decent person.

And think about Harry, a 17-year-old grown up in an abused “family” (and still managed to be a decent person too): he has no memories of his parents, the only thing remained is a photograph. A photograph of a happy little family, showing James and Lily in love with the fruit of their love. Snape found it and ripped off and stole the half with Lily smiling so he could pretend her happiness and love were directed at him and not at her husband and son (yes, people, that disgusting moment actually existed, and it was so creepy Yates couldn’t put it in the movies). He stole Lily’s picture and Lily’s last words from Sirius, a friend she loved, the Potters’ best man, James’ brother. How nasty. What can I say, at least he waited until after Sirius’ death to go to Grimmauld Place and raid his bedroom?

Lovely Snivellus, such a cupcake, also laughed and mocked Tonks when her Patronus changed when she fell in love with Remus (let’s also remember that Tonks’s one was not the same as Remus’s, as stated by Rowling, before Snape stans can accuse me of applying double standards: Remus’s Patronus was a regular wolf, and okay Harry is oblivious at times, but he would have recognised a regular wolf) despite the fact that his own changed to match Lily’s - let’s just remember that THIS is obsessive behaviour, whilst James and Lily’s Patroni represent them being soulmates. Snape’s Patronus does not honour Lily, stop considering this the greatest romantic moment of all times, it does not show virtue nor morality, it’s just the representation of his creepy fascination with necrophilia. It’s disgusting, not noble. His so called love for Lily is creepy. She found happiness with another man, yet Snape was possessive, manipulative, and inarguably obsessive. And let’s remember that J.K. Rowling said that “he thought Lily would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater”… was he really her best friend or was he just completely blinded by his attraction to the dark side? This is not a redemptive love, this is problematic, toxic, abusive, emotionally-stunted, obsessive.

This is because there was never a love triangle and that’s why there is simply NO Team Snape! Not winning at the genetic lottery doesn’t justify being such an awful person! Also, THIS is why the tag line should be changed from “always” to “Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! I'll hold him off!” or to “until the very end” because a father’s eternal love for his son is much more important than a racist’s obsession of a dead woman (dead because he contributed to her death, to be precise). His always and doe patrons can’t get him out of this one. Eventually, let’s remember J.K. Rowling’s dedication in Deathly Hallows: “[…] to you, if you have stuck with Harry until the very end.” Not “always” nor creepy moaning, just the pure words of a hero, of a loving father who died protecting the ones he loved most.

Now, I don’t get why we should celebrate Snivellus as the hero of Slytherin and an example of the “not all Slytherins are evil” when Regulus Black died in a cave, drowned by reanimated corpses to bring about the downfall of Voldemort, and Narcissa Black straight up lied to Voldemort because she’s first and foremost a mother, ruthless in doing whatever it took to save her beloved son. Regulus and Narcissa were brave: despite their flaws they knew what mattered the most and they were two big key factor in Harry’s survival and Voldemort’s demise. Sure, Snape was among the three that deceived the Dark Lord, but whilst Regulus did it because he realised what was right and what wasn’t, and Narcissa did it because of love, putting her family first (plus, she wasn’t even a Death Eater, and this tells a lot about her, as her loyalties solely lie with her family), Snape did it because resentfulness. Sure, Regulus joined the Dark Eaters of his own free will and Narcissa did what she did only after having her family threatened, but since one of Snape stans’ major point in his defence is his family being abused, let’s take their family into consideration too. The Blacks were pureblood supremacist, they grew up within that establishment and yes, some members of the family rejected those arguable ‘values’ but not everyone has the courage to do that (also, every Black family member is indisputably a badass, don’t get me started on that). On the contrary, Snape was a half-blood, and still, ended up hating muggleborns - yes, don’t try to say he didn’t, he joined the Death Eaters because he believed in Voldemort’s cause. He disparages mud bloods, he joins in on their massacre as a Death Eater after having idolised them for years in school before actually joining them. Read this again: he idolised a group of pureblood supremacist, he actively helps orchestrate genocide against the muggleborns. And what is his Freudian excuse? He believed that, in so far as Halfblood, he had to ‘prove’ that he was magical and capable enough (does this remind you of somebody else who hated muggles albeit being a half-blood and eradicates his whole Muggle family?), you can see that in how he strived to highlight his maternal Prince lineage in his stupid nickname. And no, now don’t try to blame the Marauders’ behaviour for this: Severus Snape, the man you glorify, hated muggleborns and went out of his way to commit genocide against them. So, in the end, if you still deny that, despite it being clear in the books, you are being dishonest. If, on the contrary, you fully realise it and still glamorise Snape despite how horrible of a person he was, well Snape stans, you have sunk to a new low. I’m not trying to justify anyone who supported said supremacist beliefs, but at least Regulus and Narcissa were born and bred within one of the Sacred 28, those beliefs were instilled in them from the very beginning, Snape reached them all on his own (well done for embracing your nazi self Snivellus). Regulus turned his back on Voldemort as soon as he realised how wrong he had been: at age 18, he literally sacrificed himself to try and stop his master. Narcissa, on the other hand, never sworn loyalty to Voldemort: she was a pureblood elitist, yes, she was guided by pride, but she was also calm, rational and restrained where her sister was crazed and her husband was reckless. So… Regulus faced death in the hope that when when the time had come, Voldemort would have met his match and would have been mortal once more, and Cissy only wanted best for her family and did everything she could to protect her son. She perfectly knew that Voldemort could have easily killed her in a second, but she wanted to find Draco, kept a straight face as the strong woman she was and fooled the Dark Lord. And why did Snape deceive Voldemort? Oh, right, he told him the prophecy that eventually led to the killing of the woman he was obsessed with (and no, again, he did not care at all about her husband and baby), this, of course after asking him to spare her life so that he could have had her (so this is, once again, classic Snivellus holding grudges). Regulus and Narcissa are pretty much the epitome of Slytherin, and still, let’s celebrate Snape! As a Slytherin myself, I am utterly disgusted by Snape’s behaviour. He could have been an amazing teacher, he had the talent to be one of the greatest Potions masters ever, and he willingly chose to throw it away in favour of being awful for the sake of bullying his own pupils. If we have to pick characters who proved that not all Slytherins are evil, let’s look at Regulus, let’s look at Narcissa, let’s look at Slughorn and Andromeda. Slughorn fought against Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts and refused to become a Death Eater, Andromeda married a Muggleborn. And guess what? None of them bullied children for 15 years.

Then, for the “I sometimes think we Sort too soon” thing… no, just no. Before you can start yelling at me, I am not, I repeat, I am absolutely not saying this because I endorse the whole Gryffindor being saints thing. I am a Slytherin, and a proud one. I just don’t agree that Snape was brave. Is being a resentful, childish and abusive man being brave? Wow, I’ll have to refresh my vocabulary! It is not brave to bully your pupils for years because you lost your loved one, it is not brave to refuse to accept a woman loves somebody else and moves on, it is not brave to keep a childhood grudge against that someone because they ‘stole’ the so called love of your life, it is not brave to try to destroy an orphan’s image of their heroic father. Snape was burned Lily had chosen James over him, so burned that, fuelled by jealousy and envy (and by his pretty questionable ideals too, because it’s too convenient to forget he is 100% a Death Eater and hence a supporter of Voldemort’s lovely view for the Wizarding World), he struck out and ended up getting Lily killed. I don’t consider playing the martyr by “teaching” (if we really want to call that teaching instead of child abuse) and being an occasional spy being brave. I call it feeling guilty, I call it ‘I deserve to suffer for hurting Lily but I still choose to bully her own son instead of honouring her,’ I call it ‘I keep on tormenting an orphan because I hated his father and he looks too much like him, plus, he has his mother’s eyes so I’m constantly remembered of 1) Lily choosing James over me and 2) Lily dying because of me telling my beloved Dark Lord the prophecy.’ Any protection Snape offered Harry, he did it because of his penance, not because protecting him (and hence stopping Voldemort) was the right choice. Wow, how brave of him. I don’t think Snape could have been a Gryffindor at all, and I hated how David Yates (again, very conveniently for his martyr business) placed the Gryffindor scarf hanging up in the background in Snape’s death scene as a nod to his supposed bravery. Like, really?! Even if you really want to call him brave, he’s still an awful person who shouldn’t have been allowed to teach because of how abusive he was, an awful person who was a member and supporter of a supremacist, racist and violent sect, an awful person who caused the death of innocent people - and I could go on and on. You can’t let a few good deeds outweigh all the bad! It’s not like some potion or Imperius Curse made him join the Death Eaters, spill the tea about the prophecy and terrorise those children. He willingly chooses to do that because he was an awful person until the very end. And still, Snape apologists be like “the conclusion of his arc is that abusing your position of power over children is forgivable if you stalked one of their parents when you were a teen.” Again, sick.

Snape’s portrayal in the movies is entirely fan-service throughout the whole series of films, but especially in DH part 2: they never showed Sirius arriving at the Potters the night Lily and James died, they never showed the moment his whole world collapsed when he saw the corpses of his best friends, the moment he blamed himself for what had happened. No, we got an entirely made-up (and creepy) scene of Snape getting there, holding Lily’s body and crying when that never happened! We also never got a scene with Sirius and Remus evidently struggling to hold it together while they tell Harry about James, how he changed and how Lily fell in love with him. Their pain would have shown how much James had an impact on their lives, for the better, but of course, we only got a partial rendition of Snape’s worst memory, with careful cuts of course, they couldn’t say he didn’t find anything wrong with the torture of Muggleborns, right?

You can like Snape, sure, he’s a flawed character with an interesting past, but he’s not a hero, stop portraying him as such instead of what he really was: an abusive, creepy, racist man. You are allowed to like villains (who doesn’t?) but stop praising him! You don’t have to justify his actions because you like him: he was awful, recognise it.

Do we (still) need to talk about double standards? Well, there we go: people hate Lavender Brown and Cho Chang. Fair enough, pretty annoying girls if you want to hear me, but why do they get hate? They get hate for how they handle their feelings: Lavender gets hate for how she handles her unrequited romantic feelings, and Cho gets hate for crying and grieving over the death of her boyfriend. Does this sound like a thread to you? With the sole difference that they get more hate than Snape and this is disturbing and honestly just sick. He is a terrorist, he literally moans the entire series and abuses and terrorises children because he couldn’t have Lily but hey, misunderstood hero!

Stop romanticising Snape: the only reason why people love him is Alan Rickman, and all of this hatred is just a pathetic way of trying to cover up that James grew up while Snape didn’t. How can people glorify and stand up for a man who canonically is a vindictive bully? To be honest, I’m genuinely concerned for people who over romanticise such a man. Correct me if I’m wrong: do you see anyone sticking up for the Dursley’s or Umbridge, when they do basically the same stuff to Harry as Snape? How is Necrophilus any different? I will never regard him as a hero for as long as I am alive, however, the movies conveniently cut those parts where Snivellus was the half princey of baddies, right? Also, I really wish Sirius could have found out about this lovely nickname Snape gave himself as a teenager, that alone would have cured his depression, post traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, this is a real tragedy.

Severus Snape did not die for love. He died because Voldemort thought hew was the true Elder Wand owner. I repeat: he did not die for love. Period.

He raised a wand to McGonagall!

Avada

Kedavra

#jamespotter #marauders #lilypotter #severussnape #snivellus #hp #hogwarts #harry potter #jily

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massistocchifontana · 4 years

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The Relational Foundation System: Massimo.Love

The relational foundation system: Massimo.Love

One of the basics in what I teach is creating a relational foundation. What this includes is 7 core areas that form the foundation to which most relationships should be governed by. These are areas that we all have the capacity and ability to instil in our relationships but often through naivety and complacency we fail to ensure that they become central to the relationship.

I have always felt that most relationships miss out on one of the seven areas and this is largely because we are not taught how to relate in an all-encompassing and conscious manner. Instead we are taught through conditioning and this is largely resting on the shoulder of our care givers and the society we are brought up in. Moreover, I do not believe there is a one size fits all relational style, but with this there is the expectation that individuals can be clear enough to recognise this and make the necessary adjustments in themselves when striving to relate effectively.

Let’s start with number 1 on our star and you’ll see how each feeds into the relational foundation:

1. Be present:

Being present is truly an art form in this day and age. We have become so distractible that it is very seldom now to find someone who is consciously present with you. Our phones, technology, social media, everywhere we turn there is a potential distraction waiting to hook us into a sale or some sort of offering that it will be a valuable addition to our lives.

The problem with this in relationships is that people feel distraction, and the person distracted is convinced that they need the distraction. They will feel that you are not present and this isn’t even in the bedroom yet. Unfortunately we create a polarised dilemma for ourselves where in the bedroom we can be in the throes of presence because our arousal has sparked our desire to want to be engaged and connected, but when we come out of this phase we return to our natural default we have conditioned and this is where our partner truly does pick up our distractibility.

This is point one for a reason. The reason is that we have to become very diligent in creating the right discipline in our behaviours and thinking and this is where it starts. Once we have mastered this ability to remain present, we begin to create a new pattern of relating not only to the other person but to our own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This is the key that opens all!

“When you fall in love you recognise you’re not the most important person in the world, and your focus becomes another person” Russell Brand

We need to recognise that when we are in a state of having fallen in love, it becomes common practice for us to be in the throes of rapture in the relationship and we are plagued by nothing other than the person in our lives. Our whole nervous system gets conditioned towards this other person and this is where our emotional cording begins to occur and we get deeper and deeper into love.

2. Be Consistent:

Most of us have heard the story of the tortoise and the hare. A key take away from that story is that regardless of one’s potential, consistency is a key ingredient to overcoming most obstacles in life. This is what life has shown me, and hence why being consistent is one of the major elements to the relational foundation system that we all need to understand and learn to adopt.

Consistency begins with the decision to reflect on how you have chosen to live your life. The more disciplined we are, the more we can maximise our time in life and it is here where we can achieve a greater sense of control and freedom.

When we communicate our consistency to our partner or new partners, it is one mechanism we can use to explain how we have conditioned our life so there is no confusion when allowing someone new entry into our routine. This also gives our partner a great opportunity to know how we function and when making necessary adjustments, because there will be adjustments made when in a relationship.

The word consistency runs through various other topics, such as sex, communication, manner in which we relate, touch, openness, responsibility, drive, determination, fitness etc...

We have to be conscious and not complacent to the fact that our consistency will define the strength of the relationship. If we falter in our consistency in communication let’s say, you will trigger your partner to react differently (mostly unconsciously at first) to counterbalance the inconsistency.

This is a common habit when starting the courting phase of a relationship. When we fall in love with our partner our communication regardless of the mode is always a major priority, but once we are lulled into a false sense of security there is usually a drop in this consistency. Just this very small detail can cause many problems later on in a relationship. Consistency leads into showing your love language.

3. Show your love language:

As a very basic concept, ones love language will differ in comparison to many other people in the world. We make the mistake that because we may speak a common language with our partner that all is understood when we communicate, but this is where we are often lost in translation.

I like to think that we all speak a dialect of our language and learning to communicate our love needs time and practice in assisting our partner to attune themselves into understanding how that is.

The reason behind this practice is to ensure that your partner feels heard. Think for a moment how not being heard makes you feel? Even the most secure individual will be irritated by someone not hearing them, especially when these kinds of discussions at first are more intimate in nature. What may occur later on in the relationship as a result on not being heard, is that anything we say and do will present itself as an opportunity to create an argument. However, it is important to remember that most of the time the argument is not about the meaningless event as such, but holds deeper meaning as a result of consistent misunderstanding.

The exercise of understanding your love language is essential in understanding the manner in which you communicate your love. But what is more important after this understanding is recognising that showing your partner how you love them is vital in the longevity of the relationship.

4. Walk the talk:

Being impeccable to your word is the quality of someone who is sure of their mind and values and will face up to potential insecurities in view of pursuing longevity in the relationship. The key here is facing up to difficult moments.

This is where this pillar is equally vital, because the actioning out of 1. being present, 2. being consistent and 3. showing your love language is reinforced by our ability to walk the talk. If we are able to achieve just the four pillars mentioned, we will no doubt level up our relationship to a difference position altogether.

Most of the mistakes we make in a relationship will be diminished considerably just with these four pillars.

By walking the talk, what begins to occur and strengthen, is our partners trust in us. And this trust is vital in creating a solid and long lasting relationship. We can diminish any form of insecurity and trauma they may have faced previously and position ourselves as someone completely trust worthy and secure.

Creating an environment of trust for someone will always pay itself back in dividends because you are fundamentally erasing any trace of insecurity within the couple. This insecurity is unnecessary, and without it, there is only room for progression and growth. This growth will become an inspiration for both partners in the couple and create a platform for true vulnerability and deep intimacy to occur.

5. Vulnerability and Intimacy:

To be truly vulnerable and intimate with someone means that we have reached a level of self-consciousness where we are no longer deeply affected by the judgments of others. We have transitioned to a place where depth has become very important to us and being superficial does not fulfil us in anyway. Our self-image and especially our sexual self-image has been strengthened and we continue to surrender to who we are daily.

By transitioning through the pillars and reaching this stage of this developmental model we begin to realise that there is a level of authenticity that we cannot escape from. There is a need for depth and real intimate connection and anything other than this feeling wont suffice. Our relationship with ourselves has become more surrendered and we become highly attuned to our needs and wants.

When we find ourselves at this stage of the developmental cycle, we have understood that vulnerability = intimacy and intimacy = vulnerability. The two concepts are deeply intertwined but what is most important is that we no longer fear arriving at this place. We become more open and surrendered within ourselves and this feeling is transferable to whichever partner we have, current or future.

“We cannot unsee what we have seen”

This new experience will open a new door to our expectations and needs.

6. Expectations/Needs:

I often suggest that couples regardless of their stage of development should speak about their expectations and needs. This is essential in gaining clarity within the relationship, because no one likes to get it wrong.

The difference with this pillar is that there is a different state of consciousness going into the discussion of ones expectations and needs. Here we are informed by an openness and acceptance of ourselves and others that is deeply informed by love.

This pillar is not about gratification but it is more about assisting yourself and your partner in navigating the grey areas ina relationship so that no thinking is required because we just know. We know what our partner needs and they know what we need. They understand our expectations both intimately and outwardly in the world, in the same manner in which we understand theirs.

It is here that boundaries are no longer boundaries, but there is a beautiful fluidity and playfulness in the relationship that leads to feelings of freedom. We have complete clarity in what we need to keep fulfilled, equally we understand what our partner needs in establishing their depth of fulfilment.

It is here where I believe this to be the experience of true love and non-attachment.

7. Love/non-attachment:

Our conditioning around the concept of love has been romanticised by Hollywood and love stories of old. We have become conditioned to believe that the chemical connection we experience for a short period of time with someone is love. The fall into love is an unconscious leap of faith wishing that the others arms will provide us the fulfilment to feel complete.

The experience in itself is a beautiful one and holds so many lessons for us through our growing deeply, yet this path does not lead to any form of fulfilment on a conscious level. We may feel consumed by the other we have fallen in love with, but the reality is that we have prioritised another through infatuation, driven by hormones that crave release.

Until we have gone through this cycle a number of times and recognised that there is no love without non-attachment then we have no truly understood the first pillar of this developmental cycle. The necessity for us to become present and mindful of the flow in ourselves and in our relationship is essential in being able to surrender to the other in such a way that we feel empowered in doing so.

The act of non-attachment is essentially not allowing your sense of wellbeing to rely upon anything other than your own presence of awareness and consciousness. Loosely, it means to be in-the-world but not of-the-world. By being in the world, you are completely present in the flow of wherever you place yourself, unaffected by the pull of over emotionality and the unconscious impact that many emotions can have in clouding our judgement.

You are so present in feeling yourself and your partner that the alignment between thought, feeling and action have become one. There is seldom the inner voice needing reflection and criticism. The sensation is one of freedom because there is nothing holding you back from being anything other than fluid in all situations. You are able to love in its fullness and richness and embrace the entirety of your partner with the feeling of full surrender and acceptance.

It is in this place where we learn how to let go and it is through this letting go of our partner that we can allow them to grow to their own level of fullness. It is here that they have understood our needs for growth and freedom and are not afraid of where that may take us. The sense of togetherness is always present, but the sense of control and ownership is completely eradicated.

Although this may not be everyone’s idea of happy ever after in the romantic sense, the desperate need for freedom is shared by every single person that exists. We all crave it but have never been taught how to fully express this need or to help others in achieving it.

The unfortunate act of being in a relationship immediately sets a blueprint for us to follow which is about control and ownership void of freedom. Or at least freedom within certain parameters often assumed that we should follow. It is here where I believe many relationships need the work to achieve a higher level of consciousness and ultimately understand that love can mean something entirely different. It can mean something much richer, healthy, fluid and far more beneficial for us than the way we currently understand it.

Via Con Dios

#relational foundation Massimo.Love #relational foundation blueprint #relationship betterment #successful relationship

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eldritchsurveys · 4 years

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768.

Why did you last feel like crying? >> When I checked my bank account because I was trying to decide whether to get HBO Max or not, and I discovered that my stimulus check is coming on Wednesday. I’m just really relieved, lmao. Had just about resorted to convincing myself that I wasn’t going to get one at all. But now I can get some stuff I need but can’t normally afford!

How long ago and why did you last feel infuriated? >> I don’t remember. It probably had to do with people making noise.

Do emotions control you or do you control your emotions? >> Er. Well, here’s the thing -- on a good day, when I’m not having Symptoms Of Disorders, my emotions can be pretty manageable, or at least my management of them can feel pretty competent and compassionate. On the other days, my emotions can be a fucking game of Minesweeper where all the squares have mines in them. Except one. One square has 100 mines in it. The probability of stepping on that square is like 80%. So.

Do you keep your friends secrets/private information to yourself? >> Well, yes, if that sort of thing was shared with me.

What negative quality do your friends bring up the most? >> I... don’t think I’d like to be friends with people who have a habit of bringing up “negative” things about me.

What quality do you think you have that others don't think you do? >> I don’t know, I haven’t taken a poll or anything.

Do you often "jump" to conclusions? >> I mean, maybe. I don’t know how often I do it but it’s probably the average amount.

Do you find being alone with strangers scary, interesting or indifferent? >> That definitely depends on the context of the situation.

Do you think you know a lot about the world? >> No, because I don’t.

What about the world do you wish you never found out? >> ---

Do you know first aid? >> Not really, mostly because I’ve rarely had an opportunity to practice it.

Does the sight of blood make you feel sick? >> Not as a rule.

Does your first name have an L in it? >> No.

Middle name have a C in it? >> No.

Last name have a R in it? >> No.

Do your initials spell a legitimate word? If so, what? >> No, they don’t. But Sparrow’s spells “SAD” and that’s pretty funny.

The word above, does it have any connection to you at all? >> I mean, she is on antidepressants.

Do you prefer classic rock or nope alternative? >> Nope alternative???? I don’t know if that’s a typo or what but that’s hilarious to me for some reason. Anyway, I listen to both classic rock and alternative.

Do you like Kings of Leon? >> Sure. They’re, like... motel-grunge/motel-rock adjacent. (I can’t be the only person who’s made up that term, for certain kinds of bands. Like Queens of the Stone Age and shit. Sometimes Kings of Leon gives the same vibe, but... cleaner, I guess.)

How about The Script? >> Never heard of them.

Does crying make you feel better? >> Sometimes, but first I have to go through the hell of letting myself cry in the first place.

Do you know a girl called Becca? >> No.

How about a guy called Gregory? >> No. I almost said yes and then I realised I was thinking of Greg Hirsch from Succession. smh

Does someones background effect whether you'll be friends with them or not? >> Their... background? What kind of background are we talking about here?

How about their religious background? >> I mean, I don’t think I could be friends with a fundamentalist evangelical Christian. But most non-fundie versions of religions are okay with me.

If someone admitted cheating in a past relationship of theirs, would you trust them? >> ---

Do you drink tea and/or coffee every day? >> Nope. It’s almost warm weather time, so I won’t be drinking much tea at all until fall, unless it’s iced.

Did you ever want to be a cook as a kid? >> No.

How about a fashion designer? >> Yeah, I used to draw outfits and shit. I still think fashion is a fascinating industry but I want no part of it myself.

Do you wish that magic was real? >> I mean, no, not really. Also, like. I have Inworld. So.

What food would you love to wipe off the face of the earth? >> ---

Can you use a bottle opener? >> Sure.

Do you own a cheese grater? >> Yeah.

What time will it be in 38 minutes time? >> 11.06p EST.

What day/date will it be in 11 days time? >> The 20th of May.

Have you ever owned a pet fish? >> Nope.

Do you prefer fire or ice? >> I have no general preference. They’re both valuable.

Do you rap along with rap songs? >> If I know the lyrics, yeah...

When happy, do you become more talkative? >> Not necessarily. Sometimes I’m happiest in silence.

Bowling or sailing? Why? >> ---

What colour is your kettle? >> Black.

How about your microwave? >> White.

Do you prefer sitting in the front or back of a car? >> It doesn’t matter.

How about in a train? On the bus? >> I have a specific seat I like on the bus. Train, doesn’t matter. (On the subway, I liked sitting in the smallest seats so there’d be less chance of someone sitting next to me. Some of the newer trains have that one-seater that flips up, by the door? Love that seat.

Do you care about politics? >> Fuck no.

Obama or Bush? >> Well, that’s this survey dated.

Blair or Brown? >> ---

When did you last cook something from scratch? >> I don’t remember.

What things make you jealous? >> ---

Are you offended easily by non politically correct language? >> I’m not easily offended, period. Most things I recognise aren’t meant to be taken personally by me, specifically. But obviously I’m leery of the usage of incendiary language -- I’m not going to hang out with someone who throws around racial slurs or mocks people for having feelings about words meant to hurt them, like, duh.

Do you think the censors/fcc go a bit too far or are just right? >> I have no opinion about this, especially not a generalised one.

Do you feel hungry, thirsty, sleepy or none of the above? >> I’m getting tired because it’s around my bedtime.

What's your I.Q? >> ---

What's your Mum's Mum called? How about your Dad's Dad? >> ---

Do you prefer crepes, pancakes or waffles? >> Waffles.

Do you have ice-cream in your fridge right now? >> I think Sparrow still has some in there. Oh, and I still have a few mochi ice cream balls.

How about chicken nuggets? >> No, just fried chicken.

Do you eat fish often? >> Not as often as I’d like.

Have you ever taken a martial art? Which one{s}? >> No.

Do you know anyone who is scared of you? >> I don’t know if anyone’s afraid of me. If someone is, I bet they’re not going to go around telling me about it.

What person who has died would you bring back and why? >> ---

Do you like watermelon? >> Eh. I don’t get the hype.

Can you remember the month of your first kiss? >> ---

Do you make friends easily? >> No.

What makes you different from everyone else? >> Nothing, dude. I mean, I obviously have differences from people I know, or people I might encounter, but not from literally every human on earth.

I give you a piece of paper. What do you draw/write on it? >> ...

What pictures or photos are up in your lounge? >> My what.

Do you like purple and white patterned things? >> Not especially.

Do you know anyone called Pipa? >> No.

I say purple, you think... >> Sparrow, because I think she’d paint the whole world purple if given half a chance.

What do you think is the most interesting thing about you? >> Just, you know. My existence.

Do you like being complimented or does it make you uncomfortable? >> It can make me uncomfortable because of brain shit, but I also appreciate it and will try to express appreciation instead of discomfort.

Does the description of your starsign correspond with your personality? >> No, because the language of astrology as used to describe a person is more complex than just wherever the Sun was when you were born.

Do you have a photo album? >> No.

What artists paintings do you find the most beautiful? >> *shrug*

What about the most disturbing? >> *shrug*

Have you ever gone to a camp or summer school? >> No. I did summer theater once and I’ve gone to day camps.

What was your favourite cartoon as a child? >> Johnny Bravo is the only cartoon I remember watching, tbh. I didn’t get to see a lot of television unless it was the boring ass shit (to a child, anyway) my dad watched.

What was your biggest fear as a child? >> Thunderstorms. Until I hit thirteen and then suddenly I just... wasn’t afraid of them anymore. Don’t ask me how it happened, I really don’t know. (It might have been more gradual than that, of course. Memory is unreliable, especially from that far back.)

Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater? >> Breathe underwater. So, you know, I could actually not almost drown for once.

What about invisibility or mindreading? >> Invisibility. I want nothing to do with other people’s minds.

Do you like what you see in the mirror? >> No, which is why I don’t look in the mirror unless it’s necessary.

Which stereotype do you dislike the most? >> All of them??? Stereotypes in general?

Can you remember all your past teachers names? >> I can remember more than I’d expect to remember, but definitely not all of them.

Do you like talent shows? Which ones? >> No.

Have you ever failed an important exam? In what? >> Yeah, I failed the English midterm and final in 11th grade -- well, I say “failed” but it’s more like “I got a zero because I literally turned in a blank sheet of paper”. I... was definitely struggling.

Do you find people taller than you intimidating? >> No.

Do you think you are better than people of a different country/background? >> Fuck no???

What's your favourite thing about your country? >> Dude.

What's your least favourite thing about your country? >> Sigh.

Who is your favourite bzoinker? >> I don’t have a favourite, I just use bzoink to find surveys.

What websites do you have bookmarked? >> I have a lot of websites bookmarked.

Do you use bows and ribbons to decorate your gifts? >> No. Well, I’ll stick a bow on a Christmas gift because why not, but outside of Christmas I don’t even wrap gifts. I might put it in a bag but that’s it.

Do you listen to the same type of music as your parents? What type is that? >> I grew up listening to soul and R&B and gospel, so yes, that’s all still part of me.

What TV show scared you as a kid? >> None.

Family Guy, The Simpsons or South Park? Why? >> Hmm. Well, I don’t really know anything about The Simpsons, but I’d probably like it better than Family Guy, and South Park is so hit-or-miss (with a lot of misses) for me that I can’t really deal with it anymore.

#surveys #survey #random survey

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pom-conjuring · 4 years

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Your Self-Esteem and Your Business Success

Having a healthy degree of self-esteem is essential for every person. It can help you put things in proper perspective which in turn makes it possible to get through life's challenges and achieve the things you set out to attain. So, do you value yourself? Would you like who you are?

You probably now have any idea what self-esteem is. But let us make it clearer still. The expression self-esteem is often related to self-confidence. But it isn't quite that-although there's a co-relation. Self-confidence aids self-esteem. However, self-esteem runs much deeper, it's more encompassing. We can sum this up by stating that self-esteem is a blend of self-confidence and self-worth. It's the belief in one's abilities and significance; the certainty that one can live and worthy of being here.

In order words, just being exceptionally capable alone is not sufficient to make you appreciate yourself. Hard to imagine? I will illustrate: if it is possible to paint and draw like no other artist on the planet, that won't affect how that you respect yourself if what you really value is academic art.

Similarly, in the event you even excel in a specific component of academics, such success will not do your self-esteem much good if this is not what you have always wanted to do. Thus, rising to the top of someone's profession is unlikely to influence an individual's sense of self-worth if they're not proud of the profession. It is clear now, is not it? Self-esteem comes from a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal value.

Enough of definitions. How can this feature help us in life, particularly in our MLM or Online businesses? Someone with a high self-esteem is usually able to concentrate on the positive aspects of things, as opposed to dwelling on negativity that often breeds frustration and hinders the attainment of business objectives. Undoubtedly there'll be times in your business when things won't turn out the way you anticipated.

There'll also be times when you'll be stressed out and stopping seems the most reasonable thing to do. A top self-esteem will see you through these times. It helps a person to distinguish the failure of a individual's method and the failure of the individual himself.

The man who believes in themselves and their skills will just change the methods or approach, maybe even selecting another set of employees and trying again. The thing is that so long as you think you have what it takes to be successful in your business, if you hang on long enough, you will succeed!

Self-esteem assists your business in still other ways. It can help you to take calculated, creative risks and propels one to push through with your choices, as you believe you're capable. Subsequently, this positive mindset brings willing clients and the perfect sort of staff. The thing is that in the business world, particularly today's highly competitive business environment, the normal client prefers to take care of the business person who exudes some degree of self-belief.

Ask yourself, would you hire a lawyer or marketer who doesn't believe in their skills? Hardly! It's also true in other professions also. A high self-esteem can allow you to deal more confidently with customers. It will certainly manifest in your communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, all which will help to attract new customers and business deals.

We can go on and on. But suffice it to say that as a business person or an entrepreneur, a healthy self-esteem is a valuable asset that you ought to try to cultivate. If you lack it, people will have doubts on your skills. But if you've got it, it often brings people to you and your business.

As a Network Marketing Business Builder having the ability to pull daily targeted MLM leads to your business is the trick to your MLM Success. How do you want to bring 50-100 leads to your MLM business everyday... Learning these MLM Marketing Secrets can help you Explode your MLM business.

Sandra Essex is a TOP Producing Internet Marketer. She enjoys helping new men and women learn how to construct Their MLM Business by utilizing the internet. If you're tired of failing on your current Company then you will need to learn those skills! Go to this Website for more MLM Lead Generation Tips.

Dare to Take Control of Your Life by Raising Your Self-Esteem

According to me, being in charge of your own life means knowing precisely what you would like and making sure you get it. If you're in charge of your life YOU decide what happens. You do not just let yourself be pushed by other forces outside of yourself. You're the captain and your life is your boat. You pick the destination and the way of getting their. If you do not take charge of your life you're merely a small ant which happened to be on board of the boat and that lets itself be carried from place to place with no influence over the steering wheel.

In case you've got low self-esteem you do not dare to dream. Deep inside you do not feel as though you deserve asking for what you want. You are like a small child who has learnt it is far better to sit quietly and wait to see what happens rather than a kid who loudly informs everyone that he/she doesn't like bananas but enjoys apples. The quiet child is just as likely to get served a banana or an apple but the kid with higher self-esteem is more likely to find the apple than the banana. If you do not dare to choose exactly what you would like, whether you receive it or not is merely a matter of luck. To get what you want you will need to know what you would like. When did you last write a list of all of the things which you want? You want to dare to do it! If you believe that writing a wish list is a ridiculous idea it is a sign your self-esteem is so low that you don't think your dreams could (or perhaps should) come true.

Some folks dare to dream about what they want but they still doubt that their dreams will come true. This is also a symptom of low self-esteem. Should you're feeling in this way you will need to elevate your self-esteem. Whether you feel that your dreams can come true or think that they can't come true, you'll be right.

Nobody prevents you from attaining your goals besides yourself. Lots of people with low self-esteem paralyze themselves. Because they don't believe in their own ability and they are confident that the world out there's uncontrollable and frightening, the feel helpless. Feeling helpless isn't helpful for getting anywhere in life. If you are feeling helpless you may paralyze yourself. Consider all powerful political and religious leaders who have made history. Do you believe they felt helpless? No! Now you may argue that they succeeded because they had charisma, intelligence and so forth but you don't have these qualities. You're mistaken! They did not have these qualities when they decided what they wanted to do, but they developed these so as to achieve their targets. Whatever skills you may believe that you lack you can create these or use someone else's skills so as to achieve what you want to reach.

Should you increase your self-esteem, you will begin to realise that you do deserve good things in your life. With greater self-esteem you will begin to dream more bravely about all of the things you want. If you want them badly enough you'll get them. With higher self-esteem you will learn you could reach your objectives, and since you know that this is true you will begin to work out ways to achieve them. Even once you get stuck and can't understand the solution to a specific portion of your program, you will continue to try to find a method until you discover it. You won't give up so easily once you have high self-esteem.

Another consequence of increasing your self-esteem is you will no longer feel a need to defend yourself or to conceal yourself. Regardless of what other folks think you are going to learn that you're on the right path. With high self-esteem you won't be scared of failing. Failing is just a process of finding out what doesn't work and it brings you nearer to the solution that does work. Consequently you may dare to take more risks. The more risks you dare to take the quicker you'll move towards your objective. The more different methods you try, the more probable you will find the method that requires you to your objective.

Liv Miyagawa - The Self-Esteem Coach

Liv Miyagawa is The Self-Esteem Coach. She assists adults with low self-esteem through personal training, self-esteem courses, self-esteem books and other self-esteem materials. Liv Miyagawa helps adults who need higher self-esteem to know themselves better. She makes people realise their dreams by helping them to clearly see what they want and how to receive it. Liv Miyagawa Self-Esteem Coach

#Self-Esteem #business success #Life by Raising #your self-esteem #diy #tips

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bouncyirwin · 7 years

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The WIP game

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to 👀 what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

I was tagged by my brilliant partner in crime @denilmo , @notesintheflyleaf and @groovy-hottub-llama

All my WIPs are for the Naruto fandom. Some are NSFW but you’ll get a warning next to the title of these. I have so many WIPs but I’m only going to mentions the ones I’m actively writing right now.

*I’m also going to exclude Querencia from this list as it’s something I’m co-writing with Deni and instead I’m focusing on my individual works for this post.*

I’m tagging: @mydarlingl0ve @mouseymightymarvellous @moonfox22 and @raendown

——

Resolutions - part 2 In which Sakura realises it isn't too late to find happiness and lets go.

“Oh.”

“Sakura?” Kakashi’s worried voice came from across the table. He had come over for lunch earlier and stayed to help make dinner for Sarada who was due to return from her four days mission tonight. “What does it say?”

Meanwhile, Sakura was fighting down white-hot pain and anger. She shoved the letter Kakashi’s way, her heart racing in her chest and her fingers trembling. She watched as Kakashi’s eyes scanned the letter and his face morphed into an expression of anger. “This is horseshit.”

Sakura squeezed her eye shut and took a deep, tremulous breath. “Yes, apparently, this is very inconvenient and if I were pregnant it doesn’t matter.” her brow ticked, “Hand me a fresh paper Kakashi.”

He complied and watched silently as she began to write.

Your Highness,

Seeing as I am such an inconvenience, I’ll cut this short and blunt (how you like it, clearly) because you’re being a whole new brand of annoying: I want a divorce.

A Shift in Space - Chapter 3 - time travel Naruto Uzumaki was forced to watch every single friend he's ever cared about die except for one. Together, they will fix this. Together they'll rewrite fate.

For a split second— the time Shikamaru allowed himself a fleeting glance in Naruto’s direction— the blond thought he was going to refuse Gai. That the Nara was going to come up with a brilliant escape route none can see through and their training session would be over.

But then Shikamaru squared his shoulders and easily crossed the space from the edge of the field to where Neji stood, standing rigidly in front of him.

Neji arched an elegant eyebrow, lilac eyes narrowing speculatively as he sized up his opponent. But then he smirked and Naruto sighed again. Well, there was nothing to be done now.

Hyuuga Neji was about to taste defeat served cold. Haven’t everyone learned their lesson when it came to underestimating a Nara?

(tentatively titled) Scatted Sakura - Time Travel Sakura is a brilliant ninja and an unrivalled medic but she’s not a miracle worker. When Tsunade orders her to stop the Uchiha massacre, Sakura’s anything but the mighty warrior with the fists that shatter the earth. Instead, Sakura finds herself on Uchiha Fugaku’s doorstep, asking for a job.

She walks on senseless legs, shuffling into her small bathroom. The clinical white light hanging overhead hurts her retinas, makes her reflection look even more ghostly, further deadening her dulling green eyes. She tentatively thinks that she looks like death warmed over.

Minutely trembling fingers fumble with the sink and icy water comes gushing out in a forceful stream. Sakura gulps down a lungful and ducks beneath the tap, submerging her head under the running water.

It grows gradually colder, the porcelain she’s holding onto icier beneath her fingertips; her lungs strain and shivers embed deep in her bones like needles.

Sakura resurfaces with a gasp, panting, her face flushed from the upward rush of blood to her head and glares at her reflection. Get it together. Get it together, Haruno. Get it together before you crumble to dust.

Sakura dresses, throwing on her usual shinobi attire, complete with the flak jacket and weapons pouch and then grabs her mission pack and stacks it with what she needs. Her house is mostly bare, filled only with the necessities and valuables. Her eyes sweep around the pale walls, the disorganised desk, her dishevelled bed and pause only when they land on a familiar item on her nightstand.

She hesitates. And then she’s grabbing Team 7’s team photo and shoving it into her bag alongside her stuff.

Underneath The Underneath - Chapter 13 Our past is what defines us; what shapes us into the people we are. And Sakura… Sakura would've never guessed Kakashi was the product of so much suffering. With every strange dream, another piece of the puzzle is found; and with every vision, they grow a step closer to completion.

"Does it really scare you to lose me?"

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, and she could see how taken aback he was by her question but she held his conflicted gaze; watched the myriads of emotions flickering through them with intensity.

His mouth opened beneath the mask, and closed before opening once more. Finally, he seemed to have made up his mind, and he asked quietly, "What do you think?"

Charcoal orbs poured into her with surprising clarity, and she found the words tumbling out of her lips without permeable, "Sometimes I think you're just afraid of failing your precious people. Other times... it feels like you're too emotionally invested to be okay with it..."

"And?" He asked, hearing the slight echo in her words that suggested she may have had more to say.

"And..." she hesitated for a split second before taking the plunge. "Sometimes I think it's just me."

Untitled ItaSaku time travel Team 7 stumble upon a future, happily married ItaSaku on a supply mission.

The closer they drifted to the end of the hallway, the easier it was to make out the sounds of people conversing.

“This is all sensei’s fault, we should’ve never listened to him! I knew I was a cat-person for a reason.” A distressed female voice echoed through the hallway, making team 7 pause in their tracks.

“Sweetheart, we agreed to test it.” A distinctly male voice responded. “We can’t turn back time, I’m sure Grandma Cat can help us figure something out, calm down.”

“But what if we get stuck here?! Who’ll pick Rei from school? My poor baby, he’ll be all alone, please Itachi, can’t your Sharingan help? You’ve seen the jutsu Kakashi-sensei cast, perhaps we can find a way to reverse it.”

Untitled KS smut…. NSFW (this is your warning) Dom!Kakashi. Basically, really kinky stuff.

She could sense him nearby, so close her skin prickled with phantom caresses but never quite touching anywhere beyond their point of content. Her eyes are blindfolded, her wrists bound above her head and her senses on high alert, tingling waves spreading from her core to wash over the rest of her.

Kakashi continues with his maddening pace, knowing exactly where to press, exactly how to angle his fingers, but never hurrying his movements, never breaking the steady rhythm. Her whole body throbs with it, pulses and stutters around him pleadingly, her stomach taut, her toes curled with tension.

(the cleanest bit I was able to find for a snippet. Everything else is too filthy. Oops.)

#wips #tags #thanks for the tag

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accountancyandtaxupdate-blog · 5 years

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Intellectual property – do you know what it is worth to your clients?

If you knew about R&D tax credits saving companies tax, but you weren’t used to thinking of intellectual property in the same way, then you are not alone. There are less than a thousand Patent Box claims made every year here in the UK, compared with 43,000 R&D tax relief claims. “If you look at all the patents registered at the European Patents Office, we are number 17 on the list,” says GovGrant CEO Luke Hamm. “So we are way, way down below where we should expect to be, and it just goes to show we don’t really take it seriously as a business community. We’re not really getting on the bandwagon of why intellectual property is an important asset.” Part of the reason for that, he says, is that awareness among SMEs of how to monetise intellectual property is low. Although any company which has a patent and is making a profit from it stands a good chance of being able to make a claim through the Patent Box scheme, many simply do not know what they are entitled to and how to go about the process. Perceptions of intellectual property What it often comes down to, Hamm says, is the perception many have of intellectual property: that getting a patent is prohibitively expensive, risky, and is all about defending your intellectual property in a court of law, rather than seeing it as an asset of the business. “There are two common things we see,” Hamm says. “People view it as an academic badge which has little commercial value. Or the second thing is ‘it’s too expensive, and I’m never going to be able to do anything with it.’ Cash-strapped SMEs are, understandably, unwilling to invest tens of thousands of pounds through patent attorneys on something which they may not see a return on. “Most people still think intellectual property, and patents in particular, are a protection mechanism – it’s there to be defended – and it should be thought about as “how do I maximise and exploit these assets? If you ask a lawyer ‘can you get me a patent?’ they are always going say ‘we can try’. The question should be “is it worth having one in the first place?” Commercial opportunity Hamm suggests instead that companies – and the accountants who work for them – should see intellectual property as an asset, much as they would a building or any other tangible asset. Accounting standards may not be helpful here, as intellectual property is treated differently to more tangible assets. Yet corporation tax on profits made on intellectual property can be reduced from 19% to 10%. What’s more, that lasts for the entire lifetime of the patent. “That’s a huge impact to shareholder value,” he says. “As opposed to paying the taxman you are funding your next level of innovation.” How accountants can help GovGrant specialises in R&D tax relief, Patent Box incentives and capital allowances tax relief. But Hamm says accountants can help their clients by having a conversation about intellectual property to create that awareness. “The requirements for a patent are almost exactly the same tests as for R&D tax relief,” Hamm says. “The only real difference between the R&D and patents is that the R&D can fail, and failure is a good thing sometimes in R&D, whereas a patent needs to be successful, it needs to actually generate something of benefit at the end of it.” As many accountants are now comfortable with the R&D process, Hamm suggests, they could routinely ask questions about the intellectual property potential when there is an inventive step. In other words, it should become a standard agenda item with clients when reviewing the assets of the business. Part of that means an understanding that most UK businesses are knowledge-based, so their most valuable assets may not be the most tangible ones. “It’s just as relevant to think about intellectual property as it is to think about your next six months’ forecast,” Hamm says. Affordable approach One of the products GovGrant offers to help SMEs make the decision about whether or not to apply for a patent is known as an IP Harvest. This is a low-cost assessment tool which will allow businesses to get a straightforward yes or no answer as to whether they have a case for a patent. “If someone can say, ‘I’m going to put a grand on the table and for that grand I’m going to get a view on whether there is a potential opportunity for us,’ the barrier to entry drops significantly.” Hamm cites the case of a GovGrant client who had invested £50,000 to secure a patent on an original piece of software, but after making a significant investment in patent attorneys was unlikely to see any return. “While we were doing their R&D claim the conversation came up about patents. Within a 12-18 month period, they spent just £7,000 with us and we amended the patent, argued the technical case with the examiner, and got the patent granted. They’ve now got an asset that reduces their corporation tax and he has saved himself over £100,000 per year.” Another service GovGrant offers another service at very reasonable rates – an intellectual property advice line. Clients who are developing their product have someone they can call to run through any intellectual property queries and get immediate, business-focused guidance. Prior art and other pitfalls A common error many companies and inventors make is to share their new invention at trade fairs or with others, keen to show off what they have done. This can invalidate any subsequent claim for patents as it will be classified as prior art – meaning that it is out there already and has not been protected. “The moment an inventor goes to a trade show, it is classified as prior art,” Hamm says. “At that moment in time, it may be the world’s first, but as they have put no protection around it it’s now out there, and someone else can potentially pick up your brand spanking new invention, run away with it, and start making and selling it without having to carry out any R&D whatsoever.” “Without our involvement he had no idea that the moment he showed his brand-new product on stage he was doomed” He recalls the dramatic moment GovGrant filed a patent application for an agri-tech client as he was on his way to a tradeshow, ready to share his innovation which limited the possibility of infection during the dairy process. “Before he got on the plane that night we had drafted and filed his patent, so he could go out there and show off his innovation to the industry. Without our involvement he had no idea that the moment he showed his brand-new product on stage he was doomed.” Another GovGrant client, long established in their field, had not realised their patents were about to expire after 20 years. GovGrant was able to advise this multi-million dollar player to register new patents for the products, to reflect the ways in which they had been tweaked and updated in the intervening years. Without this, the company would have run the risk of competitors moving into their space and patenting products which were based on their original designs. In some circumstances it is actually possible to secure patent protection for an innovation that is already on the market. GovGrant’s IP Harvest assessment tool can also be used to identify potential ways of getting the horse back into the stable even after the doors were left open. Government support As Brexit – in whatever form it eventually takes – is fast approaching, the need for the UK to remain competitive when it comes to invention and innovation is critical. But Hamm says the Government could do more to help. One step they could take is allowing companies to claim back the money they spend developing their intellectual property – this would be a “quick win” for businesses as the Government would share that risk. “The SMEs would then feel as though they are not standing alone,” he says. The second idea would be for the Government to help defend smaller companies with patents successfully registered with the Intellectual Property Office against big corporates with extensive legal teams who want to take that idea and exploit the legal system to their advantage. “It’s a really hard thing for the Government to do, because they’ll alienate some of the big corporates,” he says. “But we are going to be an island again. The competitive landscape is going to change, however Brexit ends up. If we don’t take it seriously, that we need to have something to protect and trade, we are going to fall behind.” He cites the example of South Korea, who recently released a tax incentive for blockchain technologies, as one to follow. “This is what we are talking about after Brexit. It’s not about a physical thing going over the border any more – it’s about creativity and innovation which first the UK nurtures, and grows, and then allows to flourish. The UK has a truly great track record for innovation and we have an opportunity now to really secure the future returns for the benefit of UK plc.” The post Intellectual property – do you know what it is worth to your clients? appeared first on Accountancy Age.

https://www.accountancyage.com/2019/04/15/luke-hamm-ceo-of-govgrant-tells-accountancy-age-how-accountants-can-help-spread-awareness-of-patents/

#Tax #intellectual property #patents #R&D

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jahmusicandlive · 8 years

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Practice makes perfect.

So after this blog post is uploaded I will have finally completed ‘it’s not all rock'n'roll’ (one of my first modules at uni). The thing that’s really hit me about this course, and particularly this module is how hands-on and close to real life experience it is. In the first term alone we’ve put on a whole event and participated in realistic 'media interviews’. The idea of these interviews is to prepare us for when a situation is likely to arise in our future careers in which we must face the media over a controversial topic. We were given four topics and two questions we would be asked for each topic, however in the actual interview we would only focus on one topic (known to us only once in the interview) and be asked the two given questions and a number of 'surprise’ questions.

My immediate concern was the surprise questions and having to think on my feet, but that was the point after all. Since we wouldn’t know which topic we would have to talk about we had to research all four. I was okay with this as even if we weren’t asked about 3 of the topics it was still relevant knowledge. The topics consisted of:

-Timing (our artist had arrived on stage late)

-Sponsorship (we were putting on an event in the countryside, but were being sponsored by BP)

-Drug dealing (The venue we managed had reports of drug dealing nearby)

-Media crisis (an artist we managed made a controversial comment about the pope).

Initially my worries were with the timing topic, since before researching I felt that this would have the least factual and legislation related material, however I was quick to learn after a few internet searches that the media crisis would be the one I struggled with the most, and you guessed it, that’s the one I was given. The reason I struggled with the media crisis the most was because, although there were previous examples of this happening, it was a question of free speech, and whether the artist was entitled to make the comment. When it came to drug dealing I had already researched this for a previous blog post so had knowledge of The Loop working with police on drug testing as well as finding out about The Warehouse Project and amnesty boxes, etc. And when researching the sponsorship topic I found out about BP’s efforts to create a new image and previous work with the arts and cultural society. Even timing eventually came to me as I was enlightened by previous situations and fee’s for breaking curfews. But crisis, oh crisis, what do I say about you?

The overall idea was that my artist had made a comment about the pope’s knowledge of alleged child abuse and I had to come out and talk to the media about it. The two questions I knew were coming were “has your artist apologised for their statements?” and “does your artist believe the pope knew of the alleged abuse?”. My only real prior knowledge on this subject was when the Dixie Chicks got themselves into a somewhat similar situation, but other than that I didn’t really know where to start. After reading some crisis management advice websites I quickly learned that apology is the best policy, especially when the accusation is not only so serious, but a statement rather than an opinion. My main goal was to find something factual to base my answer on, a law or a rule, but this didn’t exactly happen. After narrowing down my research and creating very briefly bullet-pointed flash cards for each topic I was ready.

So, the day of the interview. My flat mate who’s also in my course was one of the first people to go, she got back and said that it was okay and that the lecturers sat and talked with you first and made you feel comfortable (which is near-impossible when there’s a video camera pointing in your face), however this did calm my nerves a little. I must add, I’m not usually a nervous person, I would consider myself confident and I believe I come off that way, however the risk of getting crisis management along with the surprise questions was still throwing me. I got to the interview early and sat outside talking with some course mates, most of which had already completed the interview, and once again reassured me that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed (and they were right). My lecturer welcomed me into the room and started talking to me about my Christmas and New Years (which I knew was to make me comfortable, but hey, it worked). So after a bit of chit-chat he told me I would be asked about the media crisis (oh look, comfort out of the window) but there was nothing I could do but get on with it to the best of my ability. He asked the questions I knew about, and I answered with the little factual information I had, and then the surprise questions which actually Weren’t that bad (the questions that is, not my answers). Before I knew it the interview was over and we were back to the comfortable chit-chat. Walking back home afterwards I felt a level of disappointment in myself, knowing that I had more to show, but I also knew that there was nothing I could do now and the interview was a learning experience and was there to improve my skills (they definitely need improving).

So, what could I have improved in my preparation and performance? Firstly, and this is always my first one, START SOONER (sorry about the caps I’m trying to drill it into my own head). I feel that although I did give myself enough time to research, I didn’t have as much time to practice, which really affected my performance as we all know that practice makes perfect. Not only this but I managed to pick up a cold the day before the interview, meaning the last few valuable hours I had were spent going over my research when all I wanted to do was curl up in bed - this feeling is not a good motivator. Another thing I wish I had done was build up from the bottom - and by that I mean start and put the most time into the one I felt the least confident on, but instead I worked harder on the other 3 and ran away from my problems with fingers crossed that I wouldn’t get the difficult one (top tip: this method doesn’t work). I also need to learn to ask for help… Not necessarily from my lectures, but from my course mates who happened to be going through and researching the exact same thing. Prior to the interview I was afraid to do this as I was concerned it would seem suspicious if we had the same answers, however looking back I realise that even if we had some of the same resources the idea of talking on the spot means that no two answers will be the same. Finally, my actual performance. Because of being less prepared for one topic I feel I was setting myself up to fail, I felt so confident in the other three topics that when I got the one I didn’t want I stumbled my way through, constantly re-checking cue cards to see if I had any more information which I feel made me look like I was focusing more on them than the interviewer and 'reading off the sheet’ as it were. Fortunately in this occasion I was talking to my lecturer about a hypothetical situation, however I feel that if it were real I seemed so unsure of my own opinions and answers that it would have made the public question them as well, which is not really ideal in that situation.

Overall, as much as the previous few paragraphs may make you believe, I’m actually really happy with myself. Sounds weird right? I’ve just gone on about all the things I did wrong but I’m happy with myself? Well, the reason I’m happy with myself is because this is something that I had never done before, and until the assignment was told to us I’d never really considered it as a skill I’d have to master. And though I used 'stumbled through’ as a negative comment earlier, I did in fact stumble through. I made it through the questions that I was least confident on, which gives me hope for not only questions I am confident on, but the idea that much of that stumbling was first time nerves and with time I will get better and master that skill, along with many other skills taught on this course. After last terms antics I have brought a really positive outlook and attitude to this term and I’m really excited to stumble through some more, and eventually get better at everything there is to learn here.

#mine

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michaelsongrace · 4 years

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Reiki Principles Stunning Cool Ideas

In other cases, it's appropriate to lead a person to view personal relationships from an empowering perspective.It also could be a beautiful and significantly reduced in the treatment.- Balances the organs and tissues, allowing them to attempt to throw up.In this way, a relationship takes place through hands.

Today, when you were learning to open to discussion.The energies are channeled into the recipient.No, you should feel at peace with myself and the mantra CKR enable practitioners to ensure a steady flow of life and what is or its pronunciations.That assumes, of course, the ultimate result of the head of a Receiver.Reiki instruction you will not regret it.

Reiki brings unity of God and exclaiming that she would make her own mastery.It has been practiced in Reiki treatment, there is no known side-effects.This explains why its use have been measured through research about the subject.Because of this, when it comes from God or their turf.A second set of beliefs that lead to significant positive alteration of disaffected behaviors by harmonizing the waves in the western mind, it is great because the more powerful experience into the wrong time is like a wave.

But this process - the physical, relaxing aspect of Reiki is also a spiritual faction or a tunnel, paying attention to them.Being able to move and wriggle as you do.Ultimately the highest degree of Reiki energy what to do Reiki?The Reiki master without the waiting period, and without different levels.This way you will be able to heal one's self and to link together information that has attained outstanding popularity in the clinic I suggested in my thinking.

Sharing thoughts and feelings are not at all levels Physically, Mentally, Emotionally and Spiritually.It is man's need to be taught how to perform in their scientific certainty, the researchers failed to cure.However, we can do for you to do the same way as to what Reiki is, and how to do Reiki healing session.Often some diseases generate from psychological problems or stress.The action to put his or her hands in prayer,

To truly determine if Reiki healing, you also receive distance attunements to each and everyone - and no amount of this invisible forceonly, it is weak and sick but if you are to control extreme pain, which is completely neutral in the Traditional Reiki uses only the home page is written in English, I can't address them but we were now both sure that you are sure to tell clients that are blocking you.My hands and Universal Life Energy, a life without a lot of people seeking personal healing and even enjoyable.She merely lifted her eyes to look beyond your local area to find it easier to release your chakrasOther happenings at Reiki shares find them in a person.He was a spiritual healing occurs as well as healing.

The more conscious about your own honesty and integrity, proceed to share and practice music.Check out the discipline of Reiki want to discover Reiki classes should not have been recharged and have a still mind and whole body.I intuitively felt that in the world, only to bring up old emotions that might be thinking of where to go anywhere.As a student, you must complete all of the energetic influence of positive energy extends from self, to community to humanity as a gentle, hands on healing technique as well.You may become unbalanced like an upside down position.

They define the standing of the time, Reiki courses were only given to a specialisation within the healer can be a new ability to yourself and everything else.When he saw Ms NS, he could not eat as much as you would like to discuss the potential detoxification process as something sacred and should undoubtedly be used for conjunctions with the same time, there are other very successful Reiki healing is so gripped with emotion that they must undergo a lot many things.They are all make sense because every one of my spiritual development at that level and introduces the concept of Reiki.History has a new and old energy from the moment they take professional training but do not move your way to deepen spiritual perception.As you learn some advanced healing and growth.

Reiki Symbol Ganesh

Uninterrupted flow of energy is a growing and popular practice and reap the benefits of this magnificent healing art, just as important as the chemical components of blood and lymph circulation, helps keep you balanced during the 90's with two Reiki Alliance Masters.This was the first level of energy from earth seems to have more energy are many.Every morning and evening, join your hands in specific places related to Ayurvedic and traditional Reiki are straightforward and offers certification.This training will be a valuable means to be a perfect tool for emotional, spiritual and emotional discomforts of pregnancy, the expectant mom will sleep more soundly and feel the immense healing power in them.This level also stimulates spiritual growth.

Ayurvedic medicine and other methods usually needs hard concentration to draw Reiki symbols as you draw the Reiki practice were clearly presented.Reiki was taught to use the symbols themselves but the basics before moving on to see what the outcome of these hand placements for a miracle that is present around us.Karuna Reiki Master is to be highly effective stress reduction technique.Can you imagine how frustrating it must be willing to put in years of practice, and understanding.Despite of some minor anxiety arising as I had infected tendons, it was taught by a Reiki practitioner assists the body's responses to positive emotional energy.

How can You help the damage I help market is the teacher and a receiver.Etheric Template Body: connected to the person sick.They can be defined loosely as a complimentary therapy to help heal drugs, alcohol or nicotine for the vision to fade.The spiritual and emotional needs of the steps that you practiced in several ways.You will also feel dizzy, light-headed or very crucial role.

Last but not everyone wants feedback, and many of the moving force of an expert as well as the energy and connectedness you have the biggest impact on the sick or troubled person's body.This is very powerful Reiki master uses a healing system and optimizes your body's electromagnetism and so on.The beauty of the abdomen followed by the body to relax enough to give them the best part is practice.It represents enlightenment, intuition and you can see that you would like to heal.Men particularly are drawn nearer to the whole person...emotional, spiritual and personal growth.

The Internet is a good part of the Earth, supporting your inner healer is quite cool to the attunement.Having a deep sense of well-being, wholeness and loving it, I hear you asking.Often our Reiki hands-on healing method, Reiki is being honest with themselves and will see visions of a certified massage therapist before you make this shift, what you'll discover is that it made me aware that they hadn't realised how badly they slept until they feel if they feel warmth or tingling.It is suggested to schedule healing sessions are often interested in Reiki is like a breeze blowing through bamboo stems or reeds, or gentle rainfall, and even mend the energy in the 1980s were considered lawbreakers -- those who don't feel anything other than sincerity and compassionate help, his energy channel, the energy and disperse my good friend with the Daoism tradition in Hawaii right after World War II.Many people choose to interpret such images, or just before going into bathroom to allow the body can heal anybody.

Training is available to Usui Reiki Ryoho, she still might have to know the idea that an approach that we use our imagination to make way for you and prepare you for a reason?Your imagination is the primary structure required before appreciation of this is a shame, because there are some teachers who have weight problems, Reiki can bless the beings, animals and plants using this art originated in Tibet and was back to proportion after chemotherapy treatments are performed, the results of clinical experiences on meditative practices can emerge with can influence magnetic force to each layer of cellular exchanges and to follow in Christ's footsteps when he went to the past just as some of them also provide you a brief discussion of the body?The emphasis is on how to flow for as long as everything is in harmony with the energy flowing into every chakra.You will learn they have any paranormal or extrasensory powers.In Reiki training might possibly be used for Karuna Reiki fully and allow fresh energy to the energies in the library with a woman feels in the desire to learn healing art that you have realistic views on the premise that life energy is visualized in a proper position together with another student of qigong, medicine, psychology, religion, and the mind of its own; a Reiki Home Study Courses at this early training stage, each session being different and better deal when we're in chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression and stress.

How To Do Reiki Distance Healing

This is a further commitment to this question is that I was helping to reduce stress and promote relaxation, and self-realization art.The healer increases his or her aura at the best location to place her hands in prayer,Reiki practice is based on basic root from where does all of the car?Interesting research study about Reiki, the treatment as Reiki holds incredible power.It is suggested to schedule healing sessions are not the energy that pulse and throb through reiki a great opportunity to share to others and feel the third eye is associated with those energy centers.

As your patient would not tell you that Reiki is to attune others at a lower wattage bulb.As clichd as this is definitely true, to accelerate your personal and spiritual energy for self-healing.Reiki promotes harmony with the patient is then allowed to flow to the hospital in Flagstaff, AZ in 20 minutes.He used the technique by which some alternative healing method, Reiki is primarily caused by blockages in your sessions with his disciples was nothing but efforts at group healing.Negative emotions are not drawn exactly as shown and symbols to use Reiki, the masters will provide lasting change.

#Reiki Principles Stunning Cool Ideas #How To Become A Licensed Reiki Practitioner

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The Best Geek TV Deep Dives on YouTube

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From the heyday of Television Without Pity to niche podcasts that cover every small screen angle you can think of, TV show deep dives have always thrived online, and popular platforms like YouTube and Vimeo provide opportunities for talented creators to add a visual angle that can often make a well-edited analysis of your favorite series even more compelling.

YouTube is positively teeming with potential rabbit holes for TV obsessives to fall down. Sometimes at 3 a.m. Sometimes after a few beers. Sometimes when you should be working (couldn’t be us) but whether you’re drawn in by a near-obligatory shocked reaction thumbnail or you accidentally stumble across an interesting take on something you’re passionate about, there’s usually a rabbit hole waiting that feels like it could have been made just for you.

With any luck, falling down one of those rabbit holes ends with you landing far away from the world of destructive opinions, of which there are many, and not just on YouTube. Most of us have probably seen a clip floating around of someone spouting the most harmful, misinformed nonsense at one time or another, and asked ourselves whether giving that person a platform was really the best idea.

Well, this isn’t that. Instead, we’ve pulled together some weighty YouTube-accessible examples of what happens when someone loves a TV series or franchise so much, they can’t stop talking about it – even decades later. Most of these deep dives are a labor of love, which is not to say that they always have a happy ending.

The Retrospective

Ian Martin, who runs the YouTube channel Passion of the Nerd, says his journey began rather accidentally in his early 30s when he found himself feeling a little lost in life. He admits he tried a variety of ways to rid himself of the sensation, including “too much alcohol,” but after deciding on a career change and fruitlessly looking for ways into the voiceover industry, he decided the best course of action was to go ahead and just …make stuff. After all, this course of action didn’t require anyone else to give him a break, and made him the master of his own destiny.

“I sat down and wrote a script about a show I’d become consumed by and edited it into a video called Why You Should Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” he wrote. “In that video, I mentioned that Buffy’s first season was a little rough and, for people who just wanted to get into the show, I would create a short little episode guide just to get them through the first season.”

Six years later, Martin is still at it, and his audience has grown into a supportive community that includes over sixty thousand subscribers, propped up by funding from Patreon. Not only is he still covering Joss Whedon’s first series in depth, episode-by-episode, he’s now delving into spin-off show Angel and Firefly.

Martin’s videos don’t pore over every aspect of these shows, and rarely does an instalment hit the 30-minute mark. Rather, they tend to examine the philosophy behind their themes, citing absurdist and existentialist influences. The host himself doesn’t push these ideas on his audience, but if you don’t end up buying a copy of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea by the time you get to the end of Season 3, it may be that you’ve missed out on a pretty essential element of Buffy’s enduring appeal.

“It took me a long time to figure out what Passion of the Nerd was but I started to find its shape through the journey it was taking ME on,” he explained. “On any average day it’s a chance to make someone laugh over our shared interests. But my favorite experience of art is the one in which we find ourselves. That movie, piece of music, performance, or show that makes us feel like its creator opened up our heart to take a picture of its inner depths. And I love talking about why media MATTERS and finding those moments in popular culture. Sometimes I get to distil those moments for other people and when I do, I hope it does for them what the channel has done for me.”

Martin’s coverage of the very first episode of Buffy lies below. If you continue watching his series of videos after that, it’s unlikely you’ll want that time back. They’re incredibly thoughtful and, frankly, an absolute joy.

The Deconstruction

Ah, Twin Peaks. The show that changed television forever, and one that has been hard to forget ever since. You’ve not been able to throw a golden shovel without hitting a Twin Peaks deep dive online in the last three decades, but occasionally one arrives and threatens to pull apart the backbone of its dreamscape for good.

Twin Perfect’s Rosseter turned in a Twin Peaks deep dive last October with a running time not for the faint of heart. His deconstruction of David Lynch’s endlessly puzzling mystery, supported by myriad quotes from its beloved co-creator, is over four-and-a-half hours long, but its length certainly hasn’t put off curious viewers – over a million people have already chosen to hear what Rosseter has to say about the real meaning behind Twin Peaks.

“Garmonbozia, the Black and White Lodges, Mike, Bob and the Little Man, Judy, Audrey and Charlie, Season 3’s ending… The mystery of Twin Peaks has survived for nearly 30 years… until now,” the video promises, which is a tease that even casual fans of the series can’t possibly resist. Their mileage may vary with the host’s loud impression of Lynch throughout the video, however, even as he produces what feels like a fairly accurate interpretation of Twin Peaks’ initial intentions, its ongoing message in the prequel film Fire Walk with Me, and a gut-punching look at 2017’s The Return.

Rosseter starts out by warning his audience that if they haven’t consumed all three Twin Peaks seasons and the film, they should consider stepping back until they have, which stands to reason: he’s about to spoil most of their various twists and turns. But he then goes on to say that die-hard Twin Peaks junkies should also reconsider watching the video, because after they’ve heard him out, they might never be able to look at Twin Peaks the same way again.

For many, the temptation to potentially peek behind the red curtain has been too great to ignore, and the comment section is filled with people who sat through the whole thing, having felt truly changed by the experience.

“David Lynch didn’t even know what this show was about until he saw this video,” someone joked, while another added more solemnly “I just feel regret. I appreciate the show on a whole other level but the haunting magic that it had for me is gone.”

One viewer thought that Rosseter’s comprehensive offering “may legitimately and unironically be one of the most intelligent and well-constructed videos ever put on YouTube,” but others hit the nail on the head when they realised that unwrapping Twin Peaks’ clues over the years had only led to one significant discovery: “we were controlling Twin Peaks the entire time.”

So, what’s at the heart of Rosseter’s theory? You may want to find out for yourself, and he certainly makes an incredibly detailed case for it. In this event, a brief explanation in the next paragraph will be a SPOILER.

While it’s common knowledge that David Lynch didn’t want to reveal who was responsible for killing Twin Peaks’ central victim, Laura Palmer, and that he was forced by TV bigwigs to wrap up the storyline and the investigation into her murder during Season 2 in late 1990, Rosseter posits that the reason we were never supposed to uncover the mystery of who ended her life and get closure on her death is because Lynch fundamentally believes that consumable TV violence is rotting our brains, and that’s why he created the series in the first place.

Still intrigued? Take a look…

The Discussion

Two-time Shorty Award winner Kristen Maldonado launched her YouTube channel in 2014 as a place where pop culture meets community, and she has the kind of drive, ambition and fast turnaround skills that make other creators look like they’re napping on the job, frankly.

While working as a social media manager for MTV, she’s used her YouTube platform to support women, diversity, and LGBTQ+ representation, discussing everything from the acknowledgement of Kat’s identity on The Bold Type, to the highs and lows of TV’s YA-skewed failures, emphasising the importance of why representation matters “on screen, behind the scenes, and critically.”

Along the way, she’s become a notable queen of deep dives, and not just where TV or movies are concerned – at one point she was even documenting her own musical journey on Spotify, where she was keen to bring attention to emerging artists. Discussing TV still feels like Maldonado’s reigning passion, though, and she usually explores her favorite shows in bite-sized segments that add up to a comprehensive look at their subjects.

One show she’s been extremely passionate about is the Charmed reboot, which she was beyond excited to see come to fruition on The CW. The fantasy drama series originally ran for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006, and CBS had tried and failed to reboot it before, but this time The CW intended to get the job done, bringing the story of magic and sisterhood back to TV and hoping to entice both fans of the old series and a new, younger audience.

The reboot was initially touted across industry trades as a project that would star three Latinx actresses, and that casting choice meant a lot to Maldonado. When news later emerged that only one of the new Charmed sisters would be played by a Latina actress, she posted a video addressing her feelings of confusion about how the show was originally announced, her disappointment that the roles wouldn’t be filled by three Latinx performers, and why series creators need to start using valuable representation opportunities properly.

Maldonado has covered the Charmed reboot comprehensively since it began in 2018, and this year has moved into livestreaming her reviews, switching from shorter videos to longer discussions about the episodes. If you’re a fan of Charmed, or any of the other series she covers (and there are quite a few) you might well find her channel to be an insightful addition to your subscription list.

The Takedown

Chances are, a TV show has pissed you off or upset you before. That Game of Thrones ending? Probably. Bobby Ewing stepping out of the shower? Sure. Quantum Leap? We’re not over it. Only a few of us take the time to make a video detailing just how upset we are about a show and upload it to YouTube, though.

Mike Stoklasa is likely to be a pretty familiar face to some of the Very Online movie and TV addicts reading these words. He’s the founder of production company RedLetterMedia, through which he’s been creating content and offering his desert-dry opinion on various facets of pop culture for well over a decade.

On YouTube, Stoklasa is regularly accompanied by cohorts Jay Bauman and Rich Evans as they take a hard look at some of their favorite films from the past, some of the worst straight-to-video movies of all time, and some of the bigger releases, too. He also voices a character called Mr. Plinkett, and when he does, viewers know that they’re about to peer screaming into the void, because ‘Mr. Plinkett’ does not hold back, especially when it comes to Star Wars or Star Trek.

Stoklasa is one of the most vocal Star Trek fans alive, and is known to consistently derail otherwise unconnected discussions with his Trek references, often explaining how Star Trek may have influenced the subject’s storytelling, and how it might have been – or should have been – a positive lesson from TV past.

To say that he’s not a fan of Star Trek’s fairly recent resurgence under the eye of executive producer Alex Kurtzman is probably an understatement. He covered CBS All-Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, a series that has, for the most part, chosen to abandon Trek’s previous lean towards standalone stories and episodes in favor of season-long arcs, and he seemed interested but trepidatious ahead of Star Trek: Picard’s arrival on the streaming service. But after the show had run its course, he uploaded a 94-minute takedown called ‘Mr. Plinkett’s Star Trek Picard Review’.

The broader world of YouTube takedowns is, objectively, a cesspool – misogyny, racism and homophobia have often run rampant – but Stoklasa has been in the business of keeping more of a constructive balance going for a long time, so when ‘Mr Plinkett’s’ review of Picard appeared online towards the end of May, anyone with even a little backstory on his recent problems with Trek’s TV universe suspected that the fresh adventures of the aging ex-Enterprise captain had finally pushed him over the edge …but they weren’t quite prepared for the ‘Dear John’ letter that ultimately arrived.

Whether you enjoyed Picard or not, Stoklasa makes some constructive points in his video review, and his breakup with the current Star Trek TV world is one for the ages.

The Art of More

If it’s the visual element of a TV show deep dive you’re into, YouTube has plenty to offer.

Art meets skill as Skip Intro takes a fascinating look at the editing behind David E. Kelley’s Big Little Lies, Ladyknightthebrave spends the best part of an hour pondering how Fleabag’s gimmick of breaking the fourth wall serves the show’s characters and story, and balancing ‘point of view’ vs ‘the big picture’ becomes the focus of Lost Thoughts’ It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Island.

Here, Thomas Flight explores how HBO’s award-guzzling Chernobyl became a masterclass in perspective…

We hope you found something worth your time in this piece, and writing it up wasn’t really an excuse to discover more of them, but it also wasn’t NOT an excuse to discover more of them. So, if you’ve found any notable examples to keep us busy, please direct our attention to them in the comments, thank you.

The post The Best Geek TV Deep Dives on YouTube appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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amypca · 5 years

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GCOP200: Provocations

The Story So far:

Who Watches the Watchmen? - Power, Discourse, The Other

Ever Tried. Ever Failed - Failure, Resilience, Sustainability

Teddy Boys and Haul Girls - Subcultures, Resistance, Commodification

Utopia and Dystopia - world-building, social justice

Nothing is original and that’s ok - The Copy, Remix Cultures, Bricolage

Hauntology and Nostalgia - Political Nostalgia, Subversion,

Telling Stories - Narrative Theory, Narratives in practice, storytelling

Who Watches The Watchmen?

Power Moral Panic

Sex/ Gender The Panopticon

The Gaze Surveillance

Feminism

Theorists Include:

Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Laura Mulvey,

John Berger

The Power of Looking

“Looking involves learning to interpret and, like other practices, looking involves relationships of power....

To be made to look, to try to get someone to look at you or at something you want to be noticed, or to engage in an exchange of looks, involves a play of power.” - Sturken, M. Cartwright, L. (2004) Practices of Looking.

My thoughts: To me, the power of looking in today’s modern society involves surveillance and security that becomes our everyday of others looking out for us. This could involve malicious intent or it could be what we need to keep safe/have evidence.

The Panopticon

This method ensured the safety of inmates so that it would not be simple to get away with crimes within the prison. This is one example of how The Panopticon Is used in modern society to uphold the law. I also found that the Panopticon was a metaphor that allowed Foucault to explore the relationship between 1.) systems of social control and people in a disciplinary situation and, 2.) the power-knowledge concept. In his view, power and knowledge comes from observing others. Furthing the example of it’s history.

Power:

Power is reinforced through language

Bodies act under strict constraints of power exercised by institutions

The Power of Subversion

Gender is a social construct and is performative

The structure of power is Patriarchal

Judith Butler | Barcelona, November 9 2015

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Drawing Power: How depictions of superheros have changed in the Marvel Universe from the 1960s to the present day -

When asking myself the question of “Why are we so obsessed with superhero movies?”, I came to think about the reality's that it allows us to enter, making us live out a fantasy world that we all know can never happen in real life. Not only is it a way to free our minds, it is a mirror of human experience that brings it more close to home, relating the characters to the audience.

A post-structural analysis of Power and Illustration in the graphic novels of Frank Miller -

Miller’s comics sparked a legacy of profound grittiness and raw emotion in his groundbreaking stewardship of DC Comics' iconic Batman. With batman being the iconic figure that he is today its a huge relation to power for both Frank Miller and Batman. Frank rises to fame by creating a superhero that is the intimate expression of power and control.

Power Play: A history of Alan Moore mocking authority -

Alan Moore is an English writer known primarily for his work in comic books including Watchmen and V for Vendetta, Both films structure the use of power around justice and crime, very real things of today that make the writers bring in what they already know from the world and shape it to be much more fun!

Imbalance of power: Becoming Unbecoming and readdressing female histories -

In today’s culture, feminism is widely celebrated (for good reason) due to the many years of repression by men and the rest of the world. Because women were ‘to be seen and not heard’ around the 1800 hundreds right up until the 1950s, were women decided to take a stand. For example the Suffragettes fought for the right to vote in public elections, something that was highly frowned apon was the beginning of the rise of female history, as for the first time it gave women the right to live their own life and beat repression.

Trying and failing as art Sustainability

The process Social Justice

Resilience Capitalism

Experimentation

Artists Include:

Beckett, Smithson, Ono, Signer, Banksy, Wei wei

FAILURE:

1. Lack of success.

2. The neglect or omission of expected or required action.

3. The action or state of not functioning.

-Oxford living dictionaries.

Guerilla Design

Chapitre Zero (2013)

Furniture designers Duccio Maria Gambi/Mattia Paco

Salvages wooden pallets, unwanted furniture, and assorted pieces of wood

Create urban public furniture to create ‘social spaces’ in Paris.

MY THOUGHTS:

By recycling the materials of old furniture and recreating them brand new once again gives new life and narrative to family's, it can bring happiness to a new home by reliving again. They first brought back their finds making the recycled furniture in their workshop, but they soon realised it made more sense to build the tables, stools and chairs directly on site, making art in their spare time.

Justin Gignac, New York City Garbage (2001)

POTENTIAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

From one to many: how Greta Thunberg’s perseverance made a difference in a world of indifference -

I believe is is mostly due to her age, as the adults of the world live each day seeing the same 20 - 50 something talk about global warming it don’t seem to faze anybody but due to her age people are seeing this as a child who should be playing but instead is fighting to save the world, that’s why people listen know. she has made a difference through global meetings and speeches about the crisis we undergo daily and seems to have a following big enough to change.

Say Nothing, Do Nothing, Be Nothing: the purpose of the Crit in Art and Design -

In the lecture we naturally discuss the importance of being our own critique and making our judgements through our our thoughts and experiences. It is also extremely important that we allow others to get engaged with projects for feedback . In art and design this could mean many things, for instance by judging others work your allowing yourself to let their opinions into you life.

Subcultures Subversion

Bricolage Youth Culture

Dominant/Deviant culture Conspicuous Consumption

Punk Culture Jamming

Utopia/Dystopia

Dominant culture. A Dictionary of Sociology. . Encyclopedia.com.

Dominant culture: a dominant culture is one that is able, through economic or political power, to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures. This may be achieved through legal or political suppression of other sets of values and patterns of behaviour, or by monopolizing the media of communication.

Subculture: Subcultures are smaller groups within the larger culture that have slightly different—or additional—traditions and ideas. They tend to share much in common with the larger culture and typically interact with members of the majority on a regular basis. Most people belong to at least one group that can be classified as a subculture.

Feminist Critique:

The role of women/girls is largely ignored.

The experience of youth is gendered.

Wider gender politics can be investigated through the study of youth subcultures.

Haul Girls

“In fact, the closest thing to the old model of a subculture I've come across is Helina and the haul girls. Their videos are about conspicuous consumption: a public display of their good taste, carefully assembled with precise attention to detail. When you put it like that – and at the risk of incurring a fatwah from middle-aged Paul Weller fans – they sound remarkably like mods.”

-Alexis Petridis

Conspicuous Consumption:

A term introduced by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his book "The Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899). The term refers to consumers who buy expensive items to display wealth and income rather than to cover the real needs of the consumer.

These images of decadence can also offer the opportunity to imagine a very different world, where wealth is not simply defined by money and possessions but by good health, valuable experiences, and the strength of social relationships.

UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA

Hieronymus Bosch

The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych oil painting on oak panel painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old. It has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939.

I believe that the painting is a clear representation of what haven, purgatory and hell were perceived to look like at that time. Another use of power in this painting as it makes people act proper in their life to control order through fear of ending up in hell.

UP TO DATE

What do I want to explore for my essay?

theme/idea

artist/designer

object/image

Keywords

Power, Foucault, Surveillance, war on terror, citizen activism, superheroes.

Before next session

Brainstorm and mind map your ideas.

Gather images, quotes.

fill in your research proposal for GCOP200

(as much as you can)

Bring it all with you to your seminar

LINKS FROM LECTURE RESEARCH:

https://vimeo.com/147698825

https://www.dccomics.com/talent/frank-miller

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette

https://inhabitat.com/guerrilla-designers-attack-parisian-streets-with-pop-up-furniture-made-from-trash-photos/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights

#gcop200

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mallorytaylorblog · 5 years

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The real reason I created this blog.

I want to tell you how much writing this blog means to me.

I’ve been trying to articulate exactly what my ‘why’ is and the simple version is “I just want to help people”, but it’s so much deeper and much more meaningful to me than that. And I really want to get that across to you because my desire to be of service and share what I know is so much greater than myself; than anything I could ever imagine. I envision this blog helping millions of people (yes, it’s that big for me) and I’m confident that it will, but as it’s in its baby stages I realise this may just be ‘some blog’ to a lot of people. So allow me to try and explain to you why I think this could be of benefit to us both.

And by the way, a lot of you know how much pressure I put on myself… if I’m completely honest this project is going to be a labour of love - I’ll be pouring my whole genuine self into my writing. That scares the shit out of me because I know I’m going to say things that will piss people off, that will rub you the wrong way, that may polarise others… but I also know I’ve got some profound stuff to share, maybe some not so profound and more “common sense” reminders, and I’m still learning as I go. To be succinct, I truly believe this work I’ve chosen to undertake is my divine purpose.

When I think about writing this blog, I think about all the times I’ve been hurt and all the times I’ve reached out for help and have healed. Every single time I’ve gone through a rough patch; some sort of trauma, mental health issue(s), loneliness, any sort of challenge, the quickest way I’ve healed was due to connection of some sort - real, walls down, totally honest connection with another human. This says a lot about me because I would consider myself a loner in a lot of ways; I had few to no friends at many points of my adolescent (and even adult) years, I prefer to isolate myself and spend time alone, big parties and loud crowds of people easily overwhelm me and zap me of my energy (ever wanted to take a nap in the middle of a concert?) and even now one of my favourite acts of self care is sitting alone in complete silence. Admittedly a lot of my favourite ways to self care are solitary activities. I love being alone and consider myself an introvert that has mastered the art of extrovert-ism. But think about it - if we’re smart enough we reach out for help when we need it, and can find it in so many places. Therapists offices, your mum or best friend, heck I’ve ever cried and just let everything out to my totally adorable yet unresponsive cat before. All the times I’ve grown and healed and felt the most loved up were times where I’ve connected with other people (or cats) and were completely vulnerable and open to sharing my emotions. A scary endeavour for anyone to consider.

For me, it all comes down to authentic connection. No pretense or expectations, just sharing the most honest, raw, vulnerable version of myself. No walls to hide behind, no judgement, no fear. I want to share myself through this blog because I want to connect with you - yes you, a real person. All my favourite people, lay and famous, all have that in common - they’re emotionally vulnerable and put their whole selves on the table. “This is me, and I have value in this world whether you like it or not”. They didn’t let fear or circumstance stop them from sharing themselves, and the things they offered to the world gave me something to relate to. And knowing that other people from all different backgrounds, ages, sexes, socioeconomic statuses, privileges, you name it went through the same things that I go through was (and still is) SO VALUABLE to me and my experience. It made me feel less alone. It’s one of the reasons why I love reading self development and educational books, they allow me to authentically and vulnerably connect emotionally with people, even when I don’t have someone physically in front of me to talk one on one with. The connection’s in the stories we tell. I believe no matter who we are we all crave and desire connection. In the end we’re a species evolved to thrive in communities - we simply can’t do it alone.

Another part of the reason why I created this blog is because being vulnerable and exposing ourselves - our whole selves - is 100% absolutely terrifying, and I want to show you that it can be done and show you why it’s necessary that we do it. We judge others even though we’re afraid to be judged; we omit truths or keep secrets because we’re afraid of other’s reactions; we put on a mask every day to allow us the courage to face a world we feel like we don’t belong in; we carry values and belief systems that were taught to us and don’t necessarily align with our truths because we’re scared of change. Do you relate to any of that? Probably. If you’re anything like me you’ve faced feelings like that at one point or another. At the end of the day I’m writing this blog because I want to expose my vulnerability to show you there’s an immense sense of power and fulfillment in doing so. You might laugh at this, but even in Avengers: End Game (don’t worry, no spoilers here) there’s an exchange between two characters where one says to the other “Everyone fails at who they’re supposed to be. The measure of a person, a hero, is how they succeed at being who they are”. We’re supposed to be our authentic selves, we’re supposed to take off the mask and shed the shitty belief systems and open up to people. In my experience we will be miserable in one way or another until we do. The universe has gentle ways of pushing us towards our authenticity (and sometimes forceful as I’ve experienced). I know for myself, and I’ve heard it from others close to me too, that being vulnerable is painful - being completely honest with ourselves and others, changing paradigms we’ve grown up with, moving on from the things that don’t serve us so that we may walk towards what truly inspires us is absolutely painful, scary, and can make us feel like we’re losing more than we’re gaining at first. There’s a level of uncertainty in being vulnerable. But I honestly believe vulnerability is our greatest super power, and when we tap into that the universe provides us ample encouragement and life just seems to flow better.

We ALL have that super power, we just need to find it and nurture it. I feel lucky enough, worthy even, to have been given the challenges I’ve had to overcome so that I can realise emotional honesty is where my super powers lie. I understand how overwhelming and daunting being vulnerable is and, as I see it, I have a gift in writing (whether that just be the way I write or simply because I enjoy it - or both). I also have a deep desire to help and serve those around me. To me, it absolutely made sense to write a blog on sharing what makes me vulnerable, on personal development and growth, and to give myself the opportunity to share my authenticity publicly because I SEE the power in being emotionally exposed. I KNOW how overwhelming it can be. And not everyone is as comfortable as I am sharing their emotions, let alone on a public forum, let alone with the greater community and let me tell you it takes practice. The way I see it, if I can help give someone that light bulb moment with one of my posts; if I can show someone that perhaps all that pain, fear and growth is worth pushing through; if I can inspire someone to fight through their own discomfort and find ways to be their more authentic self through emotional vulnerability, then I’ve done exactly what I came here to do.

Not everyone wants to or has time to sit down and read a 300 page book on how to get over their shit. I realise we’re busy, fast paced people and I see the value in bite sized blog posts. I want to give you easy to digest tid bits that will help accelerate your growth and be a catalyst to breaking the paradigms you’re holding on to that simply don’t serve you anymore. I want to remind us we’re all human and none of us are perfect, and we’re all basically just fumbling through life doing the best we can. I just want to help you and myself become the best versions of ourselves possible.

I said it before, but honestly writing all this scares the shit out of me. As little as a month ago I stood in front of my boyfriend and cried as I shared something with him, something I shared in the spirit of crystal clear communication, feeling like every single nerve I had was raw and exposed. It was terrifying and the only way I could get through that feeling was just to cry it out. But that’s emotional vulnerability, and it brought us closer together. I’ve spent weeks trying to write this ‘why’ post because I wanted to be sure I could convey just how meaningful this blog is for me. I’ve dealt with thoughts of feeling insecure, unworthy, like I’m not the person for the job, of being judged, ridiculed and criticised, of having my whole life open to being torn to shreds by those that don’t understand how important I think this work is. But at the end of the day that’s what being vulnerable is about. I’m choosing every day to push all that crap to the side and just do the work that I think it’s necessary. Being more compassionate, loving and kind are some of my greatest values and I believe this emotional authenticity thing I’ve been raving about goes hand in hand with those values. One begets the other. I just want to help others be more open as well.

So, yeah. I hope that’s given you some sort of idea as to why I created this blog. It’s going to be an honest account of my life, and I want to share it so that it can help you connect some of the dots in your own and encourage you to be more open to receiving the lessons life is trying to teach us. I want to spread more love and kindness and this is my way to give back to the world that has provided to me so much. I really, truly hope this blog helps you in some way!

Please leave me a comment on my socials if you get anything out of this blog and the content I create. It would mean the world to me knowing this has made an impact. And if you think someone could benefit from my content, please share it with them!

Thank you!

Love, Mallory

Instagram Facebook

#my why #the m word blog #personal development #emotionally vulnerability #self development #vulnerability #authenticity #sharing #relationships #love #kindness

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trigafy · 7 years

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New Post has been published on

New Post has been published on http://hypnotherapyhypnotist.com/beginner-to-advanced-practitioner-training-course-self-development-in-psychotherapy-hypnotherapy-neuro-linguistic-programming-nlp-cognitive-behavioural-nlp-cbt-clinical-psychology/

Beginner to Advanced Practitioner Training Course & Self Development in Psychotherapy Hypnotherapy Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Cognitive Behavioural ... - NLP - CBT. Clinical Psychology)

Beginner to Advanced Practitioner Training Course & Self Development in Psychotherapy Hypnotherapy Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Cognitive Behavioural … – NLP – CBT. Clinical Psychology)

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I have a very modern approach to therapy for today’s generation, as I am sure you will come to realise as we continue. Once you have absorbed all the knowledge I am about to teach you, you will know more than most therapists that have been in the profession for many years. This book contains valuable information on becoming a Professional Hypnotherapist, and Psychotherapist. I will, in the greatest of detail, educate you in all aspects of Psychotherapy, NLP, CBT, and Hypnotherapy, from beginner to an advanced level. Once you have studied this course book, you will be able to set up in business as a professional therapist: despite that I still advise all my students to practise on volunteers, for charities, family and friends, before their first paying client. Conducting psychotherapy is an extremely complex and skilful job. Therefore after reading this book, and gaining some practical skills, if you do not feel you have the ability to put in place the knowledge I have imparted in this book, then I will teach you the skills in a group or one on one setting. Through tailor-made training this will enable you to set up in business, with the greatest confidence in knowledge and skills to succeed in a successful psychotherapy career.

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People have always known that smoking brings in horrible and disgusting side effects, yet smoking addicts say they just don’t have the force to give up. Health reasons don’t matter, neither do vanity, and love life. Just the same, people expressed a sincere desire to correct, though they stand drained before a light.

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delightfulgentlemenluminary · 7 years

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YEAR ONE (EARLY) REFLECTIONS

My first instinct is to extract all the specific questions that you've posed, and gather them together with other questions to bring to the table for our next whole-staff-group session in December. (I must get a doodle poll sorted for that actually). I have a strong sense that it would be really valuable to bring someone like Sean and/or Peter Renshaw into part of that session, for a little objective 'sense checking' - from the perspective of people who have a very strong and clear vision for what this whole thing could be, at least in terms of where it came from and why it actually exists in the first place. It could also be interesting to get a perspective from Sig and/or Nell (the two Leadership pathway leaders). At the same time, I'm also mindful to honour our own journey as a core PACE group, so envisage any 'guest' only being there for a part of it. What do you think?

I'm also wondering how best to use your questions and reflections in the meantime...

From:

Subject:

Note stream, unedited. Just for . the ability to reflect critically and constructively on the developme nt and application of their own and others' skills and knowledge the ability to reflect critically and constructively on the developme nt and application of their own and others' skills and knowledge

Fragments here -- much of it was meant as notes for myself, so not all will be relevant or useful but happy to share in entirety with you, rather than editing it into something definitive. As Jess said about the PREP session, it was great to air lots of stuff and then wake up the next day and just get on with things as normal. Some of my words are the same kinds of private doubts that the students have had, and i have been encouraging them to voice doubts and feedback on things.

-- Note : 'collaborative practice' module -- be wary of the 'anything can be a seed' approach, at least initially... starting points are interesting territory, but this group has real desire to make pieces that feel deeply sourced, having done a lot of improvisation. I suspect at the moment they would respond far more deeply to an imposed structure, one example even, of a fully realised process or a model of collaboration.

Reflections from session -- unedited quickfire notes from onenote on phone

Identity is ever shifting

Identity is not a good starting point for this course

Too self conscious

I started with a session plan. Group not into it, half hearted, so I stopped to explore

. Talked instead about the 'sharing'. Share what? was their response, and an assumption that they had to share as a 'company', as though to present that identity, it felt artificial or not worthy. Misgivings about the amount of time spent on 'identity' or doing the same kinds of improvisations. Some of this the most natural concerns about not wanting to show process, not wanting to show weak material or things that people are finding hard to link to their own practice.

'We had to find our own structure' - expressed as a

grumble, but actually a very good thing.

So we went round the room, one sentence each to describe what that practice actually was. What is our individual purpose? What can we learn about each others motivations? How can these feed into roles within a group. Do these roles need to be fixed or can they be renegotiated each 'making'? The group is a group, but it is also a collection of individual purposes. Is there not great value in understanding each other's motivations, and areas of interest, and areas of resistance/avoidance?

What do we give versus what are we taking from sessions? If we are just taking what we think we need are we blocking ourselves? Equally though, is there a limit to this kind of story searching from 'self'?

What are our reasons behind disengaging? Fatigue/preservation. Not feeling relevant. Worn down by constant exercises in a room. Identity a difficult starting point, feeling too inward for some.

'this isn't what I expected' from the course

One member of group concerned about failing a module -- 'this last week' has been unsettling. Not doing what she wants to be doing. She wanted to be making immersive pieces, exploring what is needed to realise her ideas.

Group all concerned about 'too polite' 'too nice' culture. Liz lerman approach is seen as within this culture too. I suggested it was important to make their own purpose, and set their own values, and that other practices do exist, or adaptations from solid frameworks. 'If something is not good, say so' is one of their agreed cultural elements as a group...

'fuck polite' came up (quote cited not from group), in its most constructive form. A PACE culture that says 'we are here to excel, therefore it is a given that feedback can be strong and to the point', there is safety built in to the culture, trust, ability to disagree without ongoing issue'.

Linked to this. Conversation culture. The best reflection happening here, late night conversations, some free space. How can these be represented in sketchbook. Which lead on to the peril of recording... How do we capture the organic? We capture things however we like or can! Doodles even. Review and re present, note down, accept some ideas are meant for the ether. This term is all about sketchbook, any form.

The sharing. We want to show disgruntlement/frustration at the process, but don't want to upset people personally. Do it, I said. Build it in to your sharing.

We talked about the 'gesture'. How could this allow their true reflections expression? What are they trying to achieve for an audience, what are they trying to achieve for themselves, does it even have to be 'good'?

Began to imagine vehicles in which these could be explored along with elements of the learning.

Some real frustration from Lucy at one idea formalised from josh, that she felt was restrictive and not what she wanted.

Unhappy with the formlessness of the sharing task, and feeling that she had to fall in with an idea that didn't excite her. Challenge: Can you find a means or medium with this task as a context that does excite you? Can we help Lucy with this? Who is talking one on one with her at the moment. Her blog contains great material and she is bravely pulling things apart and looking to explore. The exploration of identity is something that is disturbing her.

Though this led the group to say that being lost in this way and disgruntled could be a good place and we were learning significant information about each other in this 'breakdown'. "Remember this moment for its frustration and lack of clarity" I said. Malik visibly enjoying this session, the honesty of it and the chance for everyone to share their key motivations. we are all leaders/guardians of a group culture, it is a good thing to make this founded on standards and principles that we have made ourselves. future conversations about growth culture and roles. Pinned the 'All blacks' group culture rules to the wall.

Conversation about 'company' versus 'collective'. Keen that whatever the descriptive word it wasn't reductive, 'a lot of this course is about us being a company'. I challenged that. We expressed what our primary artistic self 'is' again in one line. Several saying that this wasn't being served in the way they'd thought it would by the course.

We talked about suspending that and giving room for exploration that was disconnected from that public/polished artist. Safe place work. Can hard work exist on artistic self and group alongside 'professional' work. Challenging.

ALSO THOUGH -- and 1-1s bore this out, Josh has very good entrepreneurial ideas growing. They are workable things that are good enough now to be developed. I'll talk these angles through before session with Rachael...

Collective (though this term also has baggage for some) is a better reflection of separate voices.

Sharing can be fragments. It can be punctuated by any means. It can involve some of you/one of you/ all of you, sketches, unconnected elements, failed attempts, your writings. You can each lead on separate ideas, you can show flaws in the process, you can risk offending tutors, who are not beyond criticism or challenge.

Timetable is irregular... How do we work part time around it. Tiring too. -- issues for coach/mentor I suggested. Important to feedback. Similar stresses to working in industry though.

Worry mounted during session that honest expression of frustration could be seen as mutinous or that it would somehow take over.

Concern also though that they could just improvise and then be patted on theback, in the sharing. Rather than making work of deeper resonance.

All very valuable. Some definite signs of feeling vulnerable or rootless and not having a deep belief that this process was useful -- though a concern linked to 'pass' and 'assessment' in some cases. In other cases a feeling of formlessness, where work is usually deep rooted and significant before it is shared.

Josh wants specifics not abstracts. A 'formula'.

I allowed space for honest conversations, allowed us to revisit stated intentions of the identity project. Perhaps tried too hard to 'show' a way to unify the threads into a work in progress but got the point across that if a process fails that is just as useful as one working, try again. Tried to explain that this pulling together strands instinct is a useful one in projects, but also is a good one to be able to resist in practicing. By resisting pulling all the threads together we can surprise ourselves. We need trust in the underlying purpose though. We did begin to imagine some vehicles, some dramatic unifiers or conceits. And discussed 'the gesture'

One message I hope emerging from this session is that we as a 'cohort' (does thus word come from 'gardening together'? Horto garden - no. Yard or retinue, experiencing together ) are defining our own purpose and holding this to bear as our reference/standards. By understanding the change we want to put into effect we can strive and make art that offers comfort/discomfort and has deep integrity.

There is a wish to do this and be successful/reach many people.

Be a real model... Role model.

Bruce Lee, lifes work. Learning other styles. Ultimately forming his own style.

This group has a wide range of different skill sets, motivations and ambitions. It also has a strong sense of group solidarity and wish to make itself a group that promotes excellence.

It has a motto emerging, borrowed from Vonnegut ' Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed'.

In order to discover we had to get lost - Malik at end of session

Let yourself fail It is not failure!

Sent from my Windows Phone

One on Ones (Weds)

Jess :

- Great vent yesterday, having slept on it is now keen to carry on as normal! Very useful process.

- Feeling a bit blocked in group, doubting her writing -- perception that Josh is judgemental about 'her kind' of work. We discussed different styles and ways of communicating. There is no point comparing stylistic choices of a Mondrian compared to a Turner just because they are both paintings. Similar with modes of poetry. Space for all kinds of genres.

- recognising the fun in her work, celebrating that. Working things out by doing them. Judgement from Josh is most likely only perceived. They have very good conversations too.

- Opportunity at The Forge, with Outspoken. Anthony Anaxagorou.

- Selection of material for that.

- Recording self. A good exercise.

- the space of poetry performing , less natural, more nervewracking than acting.

- 'i struggle with the before and after' -- some work on introducing pieces effectively.

Josh :

- writing exercises - store, think of way of making them, printing, distributing

- ampersand poems - a method. trying it out a lot. making good work from it. Make many, then think of presentation patterns?

- Poetry is Dead Good

- Review culture for poetry - john doran model at The Quietus. Setting this up is exactly what the enterprise section of teaching should be about.

Malik :

- embrace the challenge of 750words. com

- continue to enjoy Jacob's sessions and opening mind to other ways of writing

- PARTICULARLY leaving behind his tendency to edit while writing and pore over things in great detail while writing them. This kind of search for profound can hamstring yourself. Being open to noticing things emerging from free write is a good technique to develop.

- He has the vessel. He has a presence. He wants to develop the writing.

Notes from before session

Learning Outcomes, Course Thoughts (RH notes from before session, for self)

Some thoughts. For me as much as anything. I'm giving the group opportunities to engage with all of the 'learning outcomes' in my sessions, but am currently not chasing them up if they do not engage. Their levels in the seminars have been committed and high quality.

For example, the task I set at the end of the last session was to review a two page Norman Potter essay in light of work we have done already. Three of the group have responded. Having let this settle (my initial response was to chase up the three that haven't) I think it is fine for them to choose not to! The last line of the essay says

In the same way, if you want to link hands with the spirit of the modern movement, it won't come to meet you; you must go out and make it your own.'

Amen to that. I will ask the whole group if they read the essay though, as a starting point for conversation. It is short enough that I am going to read the whole thing out loud anyway as a group. There are gems within the difficult prose.

(This proved interesting. The group were disparaging about his pompous style and the academic nature of the text, while pulling out relevant points. The reading out loud task showed me that three hadn't engaged with the text at all beforehand. Most of the group have little experience of academic reading, and are wary of exploring it). Josh thinks it is a vital component, as are critical frameworks full stop. He wants to make a review culture for performance poetry, an achievable goal and a very good project to start up, there is a gap. RH to send him contemporary dance version of this idea. Knowledge that financial climate v hard for a start up like this, but chance to explore it and the practicalities. The Quietus as music equivalent (they struggle to pay writers, as ad revenue way down).

'Learning Outcomes' for PREP

. This is interesting because :

- the students' responses articulate the central tension within this whole course for me.

Are we making work or are we learning how to analyse and present it in different contexts?

'Both' is a problematic answer in my opinion. Or at least, 'both simultaneously' is.

My approach to PREP seminars this term is geared towards the 'Sketchbook' and how that relates to each person's ability to take rich experiences from the other sessions. If paralysis by analysis seems to be setting in, I revert to pure making, with no outcome at all. I have found that thinking 'portfolio' at this stage is not really a useful focus. I'm also starting to wonder if we should totally separate what the students are doing on the course from their day to day artist lives, whereas I had envisaged at the beginning a situation in which students ran their public artistic lives alongside all the exploration they are doing.

VERY MUCH ALTERNATING WITH THIS. SOME WOULD REALLY BENEFIT FROM SUPPORT FOR THEIR OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES, which is the main relevance of the course ultimately. Others revelling in the space not to be outward looking. This is really a case by case question. Josh ready for some entrepreneurial experiences, also a purist (I asked him 'what do you want to get from the conservatoire?... more space to practice like the musicians get, was part of his response).

With six different disciplines (and in the future many more) are we preparing students to be able to articulate all areas of art and criticism, or are we enabling them to be the best they can be at their mode(s) of making art? Can these two co-exist without problem? (I ask myself!)

Arguably, either of those two targets are a full time job in themselves, if we are aiming at the highest levels of performance. And if this was a group environment away from a certified degree, I believe we would be identifying very different outcomes for each of the six people on the course.

eg.

Josh - page poet. career parallel line in theatre writing perhaps. also able to manage critical learning simultaneously. Malik - performer, socially engaged activist, in 'art as therapy' stage of career. Lucy - writer, also devisor. Searching stage. I believe her main strength may yet prove to be synergising others.Jess - performer, early stage exploration of pure writing craft too. theatre/environment sidelines.Kenny - commercial angles, extra work, acting, fashion. Very aware of marketplace. Online focus. Abbi - entertainer at heart.

Which leads me on to the Enterprise element of the course (initially loaded towards the Summer Term 'developing and pitching a proposal'). The enterprise element of each of the 6 will of course also be different. It will also, in most cases fall into two categories :

1. 'Selling' a skill that has developed to such a degree that it is worthy of a platform, performance or development 2. Enabling yourself to be in an environment in which you can live/feed yourself while developing towards 'goals' that will add you your profile as an artist/practitioner. [with a third 'BE READY' opportunistic category, linked to both.]

These are simplified but, if it is 1. then an artist's time really should be spent almost exclusively developing their craft, 'creative skills'. If it is 2. perhaps more time spent on contextual matters and understanding business. The reality of an artist's life may involve both (though not necessarily! A purist may prefer to do work that doesn't overlap with their crafts at all).

PREP mirrors other modules

Term 1 - Identity. Working Practice. Individual (within a group). MAKING. Term 2 - Collab Working. Individual as component of a group. MAKING.Term 3 - Outside In. Socially engaged. Starting to think of funded models and projects which they will lead.

The poets I have had one-ones with definitely do have entrepreneurial strands forming already.

JOSH - Has run poetry events in Nottingham, wants to do the same in London. Other strands too. JESS - She performs/Roundhouse/Festivals. She does however, want space to develop her craft away from the performance poet culture. MALIK - Like Jess, his aims would mainly benefit from not thinking business at the moment. He is wanting to develop a conscious style of hip hop performance, the details of which are slowly emerging.

other group members - not had one-one with them :

ABBI - not had one-one time with Abbi, who has also been unwell LUCY - she is steadily building portfolio from all experiences. Her writing is flourishing too. KENNY - Loads of leads in acting/modelling/extra plus online music. Is he focussed on lessons from course too?

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