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reginrokkr · 3 months ago

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𝐂𝐗𝐈𝐗. On the second Apocalypse.

It's important to describe what exactly makes an apocalypse be considered such and not described by other name (like cataclysm) if both are events harmful to Teyvat itself and the living beings that inhabit it. For this, I will make a comparison between Phanes' arrival to Teyvat and the Second Who Came + Nibelung descent with forbidden knowledge.

In the former, although it's unquestionable that the war waged between Phanes and whoever fought alongside him (if any), and the Dragon Sovereigns must've scarred Teyvat one way or another (we know from Sapientia Oramasdis II about the consequences it would take if Apep passed away by releasing all the Dendro energy within it as well as we know that some dragons perished in the combat be it during the first, the second fight when Nibelung brought forbidden knowledge and the Second Who Came arrived or in both, which must've led to consequences on a planetary level), it isn't stated to be in a relevant way worth mentioning. Here, the outcome was clear: the winner would inherit the right to reshape the world, whereas the loser would be subdued. Such was the dynamic between Phanes as the former and the Sovereign Dragons as the latter, and so Teyvat was recreated which caused it more hospitable for the soon-to-be created humans after that.

In the latter, however, it's different. Not only the fact that Nibelung, in all his wish to dethrone Phanes and the Saints, brought forbidden knowledge worsened matters both to himself, his fellow dragons and everything else— but the Second Who Came's presence as well made it so that the entirety of Teyvat as a planet was endangered and it ran the risk of being dying. Not the living beings that inhabit it alone, but the world in itself too. Among the consequences that have been stated, it's known that: forests turned into sand in Sumeru, there was an immense flood that drowned the unified civilization (Enkanomiya fell into an extraplanar conjunction point between the Human, Light and Void realms) and a breakthrough of the plague brought to this world (presumably Abyss energy-related). In order to mend this, Phanes dropped sapphire nails to prevent the world from crumbling so these would purify the land, thus destroying adjacent civilization as an undesired side-effect to his determination to protect Teyvat. Because of the importance of events that befell and what nearly caused to the world, this historical event would be more accurate to point as an apocalypse versus the former discord.

Given everything we've learned about the Cataclysm, even if one could argue that its relevance and what it caused to the world was negative and harmful (which it was), it wasn't on the same level as the apocalypse.

Although it has been teased before that in Snezhnaya it's known that the world will face a new Long Night (or at least among the Fatui, Harbingers and the Tsaritsa) and in René's notes that a catastrophe must be avoided at all costs, this patch of Fontaine shed more light onto what that means: the coming of a second apocalypse. An apocalypse described as a world where no more flowers will grow, a disaster defined for seeing a pool of blood past one's ankles, a world in which after a few hundred years, all birthing waters will dry up and after that, the world will be devoid of light with destroyed civilizations and a shattered sky that can be seen via two methods: through the Book of Revealing or the Looking Glass.

Whatever will lead Teyvat to this state remains unknown, but the Abyss Order's intentions are tellers of an outcome for the world far from desirable given their determination to plunge the whole world to darkness and overthrow Celestia with the power of the Abyss. In essence, the Abyss Order may not be any different than Celestia is due to their determination to potentially change the threads of fate in a similar fashion as there seems to be a divine control over fate that not all gods have access (the Archons) for their own purposes. Even if forbidden knowledge has been erased, there is still a latent star-devouring darkness that endangers Teyvat. Tsaritsa's involvement alongside her Fatui and Harbingers may also lead to undesirable consequences that could lead the world to its downfall, or Celestia's awakening and action may assist in that as well. Perhaps it's all three deeds at once.

This second apocalypse has been prophesied by René de Petrichor and Jakob Ingold, which is not an unlikely thing to happen. A relatively recent element, the Sign of Apaosha, is said to reflect the Abyss and corrupt the land around it (the sign), and it's believed to be a reflection of the "reality" beyond Teyvat's skies. Given that as per René's notes it's known that research on the Abyss [energy] was being conducted as well as other future research that I'll mention briefly, it's not impossible to have witnessed a catastrophe to come. Moreover, according to the Book of Revealing written by René, it's implied that other ancient civilizations might've been aware of this fact (at least the one of the Nameless City or underground palace in the depths of the Chasm, given that these ruins are displayed in the prophetic vision of the future).

On Fortuna.

Fortuna [that which happens without design, remarkable occurrence] (or world-formula, as termed by René) is described as the phenomenon that takes place when a civilization is destroyed and a new one is born from its ashes. Besides prophesying a second apocalypse to come in centuries (since 400 years ago), calculations made in regards of this subject reflect the outcome that no new civilizations will be born unless new variables are introduced "from outside the system". This would increase the magnitude of this catastrophe bound to come.

On the Neohuman Project.

This is the chosen variable by René de Petrichor in order to face the incoming crisis, or better said, ensure humanity's survival in the context that this apocalypse will take place no matter what, hence Teyvat will become an inhospitable world incompatible with life. Starting first with himself and then with Jakob Ingold, René's discoveries led him to learn that the composition of their bodies (changed as a result of these experiments) are closer to that of the Abyss and the Khvarena, paradoxical as it may be. Their bodies don't need nourishment like normal humans do and they possess terrifying self-recovery properties (fact-checked by extirpating ingrown organs close to vocal chords [albeit not for this purpose] and watching them regrow in a matter of few days) and in order to grow stronger, these bodies are nourished with the blood of fell beasts of the Abyss (Elynas in Jakob's case, albeit it was discovered that the Crimson Agate of Dragonspine and Elynas' blood share the same properties). In the present day, Jakob, in the body of an adult human, has been seen taking the form of an Iniquitous Baptist.

This project is seen as a manner of human transcendence in order to adapt to the hostile world that Teyvat will become if the prophecy becomes true. When the neohuman project proved to be difficult and a failure on a new experiment, a new variable has been introduced. Experiments were conducted in more humans and, albeit anti-intellectual and counter-intuitive, it's presumed that in order to transcend one's physical form and personality must be shed and lost and thus a gestalt where memories and other human souls are merged together similar to the principle of merging Oceanids into one by returning to the primordial waters. Ancients (presumably those of the Nameless City) have been already successful in this in the past. René, as the first subject in more modern times (400 years ago), was successful and he was able to see the memories of those human subjects that took part in this project.

#◟༺✦༻◞ events to be remembered in blue veins ┊addendum.┊#◟༺✦༻◞ when twilight mirrors the passages of time ┊queue.┊

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generalb2 · 4 months ago

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Someone said, "reading is fundamental" true, however, understanding what you read holds more sway

This essay will explore the interplay between reading and understanding, emphasizing why comprehension holds more sway in personal, professional, and societal contexts.

The famous phrase "reading is fundamental" has long been a cornerstone of educational advocacy. The idea is simple yet powerful: the ability to read is a foundational skill, essential for academic success, personal growth, and engagement with the world. However, while reading is indeed a critical skill, there is another, perhaps deeper truth: understanding what you read holds greater sway in shaping a person's knowledge, decision-making, and worldview. This essay will explore why comprehension is the key to making reading truly meaningful, examining the relationship between reading and understanding, the implications for learning, and how critical thinking enhances the reading experience.

The Foundation of Reading

Reading is a critical skill that underpins much of human progress. From early childhood, we are taught to decode letters and words, enabling us to access a vast world of information. The ability to read unlocks doors to literature, science, history, and more, providing individuals with opportunities for growth and self-improvement. It is through reading that we gain exposure to diverse perspectives, broaden our horizons, and foster creativity.

However, reading in its most basic form—merely decoding words—is a limited tool. Without understanding, the words are stripped of their meaning and purpose, rendering the act of reading hollow. For example, one may read a complex text on economics or philosophy without grasping its concepts, leaving them no closer to enlightenment than if they had not read at all.

The Power of Comprehension

Understanding transforms reading from a mechanical act into a meaningful experience. Comprehension involves the ability to decode not only words but also their deeper implications, context, and connections to other ideas. This intellectual engagement allows readers to critically analyze, question, and apply the knowledge they encounter.

Consider a student reading a history textbook. While reading the text might provide a surface-level awareness of dates and events, true understanding allows the student to discern the causes and effects of historical events, draw parallels to contemporary issues, and appreciate the nuances of human decision-making. In this way, comprehension deepens the impact of reading, fostering critical thinking and informed perspectives.

Moreover, comprehension extends beyond individual growth to influence societal progress. Leaders, policymakers, and educators rely not only on the ability to read but on the capacity to understand and synthesize information. Misinterpretation or shallow understanding can lead to poor decisions with far-reaching consequences.

Barriers to Understanding

Achieving true comprehension is not always easy. It requires effort, context, and often guidance. Several barriers can impede understanding, including:

Language and Literacy Challenges: Limited vocabulary or unfamiliarity with the language of a text can hinder comprehension.

Complexity of Content: Technical or abstract writing may require background knowledge or specialized skills to fully grasp.

Distractions and Lack of Focus: In today’s fast-paced world, distractions can prevent readers from engaging deeply with a text.

Preconceived Biases: Personal beliefs and biases can color how readers interpret information, sometimes leading to misunderstanding.

Overcoming these barriers demands active engagement, critical thinking, and sometimes collaboration with others who can offer clarity or alternative perspectives.

Reading and Understanding in Harmony

While comprehension may hold greater sway, it does not diminish the importance of reading. The two skills work in tandem to facilitate knowledge acquisition and application. Reading introduces us to ideas, while understanding enables us to make sense of them and use them effectively. Together, they form a powerful duo, empowering individuals to navigate complex information landscapes and contribute meaningfully to society.

To maximize the benefits of reading, individuals can adopt strategies to enhance comprehension. These include active reading techniques such as annotating, summarizing, and questioning the text, as well as seeking external resources or discussions to clarify challenging concepts.

Conclusion

Reading is indeed fundamental, but understanding elevates it to a transformational experience. While the ability to read opens the door to knowledge, comprehension ensures that knowledge is meaningful and actionable. In a world inundated with information, the power to discern, analyze, and apply what we read is more critical than ever. Thus, while we should celebrate and encourage literacy, we must also emphasize the importance of understanding as the ultimate goal of reading. Only then can we unlock the true potential of the written word and harness it for personal and collective growth.

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dwellordream · 4 years ago

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“Entertainment held an important place at the English royal court under Eleanor and Henry II, in contrast to Louis VII’s court, known for its sobriety and solemnity. Eleanor’s second husband invited jongleurs and performers of all sorts to his court, doubtless encouraged by her. English moralists, much like critics of the court of Eleanor’s grandfather at Poitiers, condemned the Plantagenet court for immorality, complaining of actors, mimes, and dancers who fostered debauched conduct among the courtiers.

Just as with other princes new to power, Henry Plantagenet, after winning the English Crown, attracted to his court singers and writers to compose poems and songs, glorifying him and his lineage. Among the crowd of courtiers were serious writers in Latin and in the Anglo-Norman vernacular, and during Eleanor’s years as English queen, troubadour lyric poetry, courtly love, and courtly romances spread to the Anglo-Norman world. A former poet turned monk at Eleanor and Henry’s court noted ruefully, “When I frequented the court with the courtiers, I made sirventes, chansons, rimes and saluts [types of secular lyrics], among the lovers and their mistresses.”

Yet a cause and effect relationship between Eleanor’s arrival in England and the advent of courtly literature there is dubious. Certainly a uniquely productive literary culture flourished at the royal court under Eleanor and Henry, and learned men flocked there, as evidenced by an extraordinary flowering of literary works in several genres. The queen, of course, had grown up at a court where literature and learning were valued, as had Henry. A contemporary described his father Geoffrey le Bel as “most highly lettered, commanding eloquence which set him far above both clerics and laymen, replete with all good manners.” Even before Henry became king, writers were dedicating works to him.

It is unlikely that the young duke of Normandy commissioned their works, however; they were dedicated to him in anticipation of his patronage once he took the English throne. Certainly, the court of Eleanor and Henry II earned a reputation as a beacon for courtly writers. As king of England, Henry was eager to encourage authors writing on varied subjects, no doubt expecting their works to reflect favorably on him as a powerful monarch. He sponsored both Latin language and Anglo-Norman vernacular works, among them historical works written in England and Normandy and also in Anjou that would give an illustrious past to both his Plantagenet predecessors as counts of Anjou and his Norman ancestors who had captured England’s royal Crown.

He wished during his quarrel with his archbishop of Canterbury to shore up the English monarchy’s sacred character with writings pointing up the sanctity of his predecessors. In his competition with the Capetian kings he needed to claim as forebear some heroic figure equaling their prestigious predecessor Charlemagne, and King Arthur or Edward the Confessor could potentially fulfill that need. Both of Henry I’s wives had been known as patrons of literature, and Henry II, who modeled himself on his grandfather, associated his queen with him in extending patronage to writers, even if no explicit evidence for their commissions of works survives.

Yet dedications or eulogies inserted by authors into their works afford indirect evidence that they viewed their monarch or his queen as prospective if not actual sources of patronage. Not all clerics wrote in search of material gain, however; some were impelled to write in the hope of instructing and correcting their prince, and others simply sought to show themselves loyal subjects through passages praising their ruler. There is no evidence that the nun of Barking who translated a Latin life of Edward the Confessor into Anglo-Norman had a commission from Henry II or his queen, although she would have known of the king’s support for the Confessor’s canonization. Perhaps she hoped to win their favor for her convent through her work. She inserted into her translation a passage calling on God’s protection for the king, the queen, and their lineage, and their divine sustenance in sanctity, peace, joy, and plenty.

For clerical authors at court who often doubled as royal clerks, it is impossible to separate patronage of their literary activity from payment for their secretarial services. Their reward from Eleanor or Henry often came in indirect forms, as presentations to churches or to cathedral prebends, whether in return for activities as royal scribes or as authors. Best known are clerics writing in Latin at the court of Eleanor and Henry, such as Gerald of Wales, Peter of Blois, or Roger of Howden; but Wace, a writer of histories in Anglo-Norman, was awarded by the king with a prebend at Bayeux Cathedral in the 1160s.

Eleanor had grown up at the Poitevin court that gave birth to troubadour poetry, and she certainly heard, read, and encouraged courtly literature. The royal court of Henry II attracted singers of songs, viol players, pipers, and other musicians; and among these entertainers were poets and composers. No doubt scores of songs were commissioned as propaganda in praise of the monarch and his queen or to commemorate special events such as celebrations of victories or the births and marriages of royal offspring, and once sung were soon forgotten.

Occasionally a pipe roll entry records payments to a storyteller (fabulator) or a harpist (citharidus). Although no documents survive to register Eleanor’s own commissions of literary works, handsome sums were regularly handed over to her from the royal treasury that could be used for distributing patronage to writers without leaving any trace in the exchequer accounts. The absence of documents recording Eleanor’s payments to writers does not preclude her showing favor to them with cash from her personal treasury or with gifts of precious objects.

Royal reward to writers, like favors to other courtiers, could take the form of gifts of robes or other clothing, gold cups, or even horses and mules. A Catalan troubadour writing a decade or more after Henry II’s death wrote of hearing how “Sir Henry, a king of England, gave horses and mules as gifts.” A week spent entertaining a generous patron could win a singer or poet robes worth more than most peasants earned in a year. Lacking other documentation, however, the poems themselves must bear witness that their authors expected to win the English queen’s favor through their writings.

…During Eleanor’s early years as English queen, she seems to have shared her husband’s taste for histories, especially those written in the Anglo-Norman vernacular. Henry II commissioned writers experienced at composing romances who could make historical writings available to a courtly audience not well educated in Latin. In about 1155 a royal clerk Wace won a commission to write the Roman de Brut, an Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Latin history. Layamon, a priest who translated the Brut into English in the first decades of the thirteenth century, claims that Wace had dedicated it to Queen Eleanor and that he wrote of her, “Generous is Eleanor, gracious and wise.”

Possibly Layamon had seen a now lost presentation copy that contained a dedication to the queen. While his statement is no direct proof for Eleanor’s patronage, at least it indicates that she was thought to be a queen interested in literature and capable of offering favors to authors attracting her attention. Hardly accurate history, the Roman de Brut presents the story of the early Britons from the arrival of Brutus, a refugee from the Trojan War, to the Saxon invasions as if a translation of an ancient book in Breton (or Welsh). Although Wace incorporated oral traditions transmitted in minstrels’ songs, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain was his chief source.

His vernacular reworking of legends of the ancient Britons, adding courtly elements, would play a pivotal part in medieval literature as the source for the “matter of Britain,” for it proved appealing to composers of later twelfth-century romances centering on King Arthur, Guinevere, and the knights of the Round Table. As a result, the legendary Arthur, his queen, and his knights became as much a part of history for twelfth-century readers as biblical personages or as heroes from the Latin classics, and Wace may have modeled his depiction of Arthur’s queen on Eleanor.

Perhaps courtiers hearing or reading these romances were tempted to see Henry and Eleanor in the portraits of Arthur and Guinevere. If modern readers can see parallels between fictional characters and historical personalities in twelfth-century romances, then Eleanor and Henry’s contemporaries could have seen them even more clearly. Medieval readers expected to uncover more than one level of meaning during their reading, and they were attuned to the allegorical nature of poetry.

Henry II, though materially more powerful than his rival Louis VII, felt himself “ideologically inferior” because of the Capetian king’s prestigious ancestry, traced back to Charlemagne. Arthurian material is sometimes said to have provided useful propaganda for Henry in his rivalry with Louis and later with his son Philip II, offering King Arthur as a prestigious royal predecessor from an even earlier time than the Capetians’ Frankish predecessors. Yet Henry made only fitful and desultory attempts at constructing an Arthurian ideology to counteract the Capetians’ use of Charlemagne.

Seeking ideological advantage from Arthurian material was not without risks, for King Arthur and Arthurian legends could serve better the purposes of rebellious English nobles, who found in Arthur and his faithful men gathered at the Round Table an idealized view of earlier kingship. Arthur was closely identified with the inhabitants of the Celtic fringes, people looked on by the English as savages, and Arthurian tales had an especially subversive effect on the Welsh and the Bretons. Henry II commissioned another book from Wace, the Roman de Rou, a history praising his Norman ducal ancestors from Rollo (or Rou), the Viking invader of Normandy, down to his grandfather Henry I; and the clerk prepared himself for the task by reading early Norman chronicles, listening to epic poetry, and even examining charters in Norman churches.

…Eleanor may have had some connection with another scientific work, a medical text in Latin brought from Sicily to England by Robert Cricklade, prior of Saint Fridewide’s, Oxford (d. c.1171). He was the compiler of a scientific text, an abridgement of Pliny’s natural history, that he had dedicated first to King Henry I, then later to Henry II. Like a number of English scholars, Robert traveled in Italy, going to Rome and Sicily in 1156 and returning in 1158. While in Sicily, he was given a copy of the Gynaecia Cleopatrae, originating in Constantinople, to take back to England to the queen.

Eleanor would have learned of the reputation of Greek medical learning while in Constantinople during the Second Crusade. It is plausible that the English queen, anxious after the early death of her son William, had asked the prior to bring from Sicily medical books on childbirth, care of children, and female disorders. At the time of Robert’s departure, Eleanor was left with only one boy, Young Henry. Given her record of bearing only daughters in her first marriage, she may have had dynastic concerns about producing more sons. If so, her fears proved unrealistic, for she quickly produced two more sons in 1157 and 1158.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “ A Queen’s Work: Regent for an Absentee King, 1155–1168.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England

#eleanor of aquitaine #eleanor of aquitaine: queen of france queen of england #history #high middle ages #medieval literature #ralph v. turner #henry ii of england

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mui-lucknow · 3 years ago

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Understand the Importance of History

Nothing is more fascinating than history. Many people find it tedious because of the usually unimaginative manner it is taught in schools, simply getting students to remember names and dates in preparation for an equitably dull test. It is easy! Definitely easy! We make history and history reminds us what we are. Well the best method I’d say is to obtain Historical inroads towards topics that already fascinates you. It might be your hobbies, sports, or even your local district, or your family. From my own point of view, ancient history fascinates me because of its inexplicable nature.

Because bitterly, lots of people fail to recall about the fact that History isn’t just about the big happenings that build civilizations, it is also about very minute happenings that either led to much bigger events or local consequences or overall very predominant things.

History is so fascinating because learning about prominent and everyday people, events, narratives, and the successes and failures of people, nations, civilizations, and organizations can be important and worthwhile. Learning about history gives people an outlook, lessons for the present and the future, and many life lessons to contemplate, wonder and think about.

For most people, history is fascinating because the causes and effects of significant happenings can be analyzed. It is really fascinating to probe into our past. We master and we can change. People tend to contemplate history as mere facts but it is far from being mere facts. It is quite fascinating to know how the political, social, religious and economical fields of the world have emerged in their present form through centuries. We discover answers to many of our queries. Because learning about the world’s past happenings is fascinating. History takes us away from boring modern life, usually reminds us how fortunate we are, helps explain the present and puts modern life in outlook.

#Importance of History

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ladyherenya · 4 years ago

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I’ve taken forever to finish this post. Such round-ups are easier when I haven’t read so many books, and when the pandemic isn’t being so distracting.

Also read: A Bride of Convenience by Jody Hedlund, Cutie and the Beast by M.E. Carter and “Dueling Magics” by Stephanie Burgis.

Total: sixteen novels (including four audiobooks), two novellas, one short story, one graphic novel and one comic volume.

Cover thoughts: Tarashana is my favourite, followed by A Natural History of Dragons. I altered the covers for the Stevenson trilogy -- I like my versions more!

Did not finish: The Long Distance Playlist by Tara Eglington.

Still reading: Love in the Blitz: The Greatest Lost Love Letters of the Second World War by Eileen Alexander.

Next up: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho.

My full reviews are on Dreamwidth and LibraryThing.

A Portrait of Loyalty by Roseanna M. White (narrated by Susan Lyons): Romantic historical mystery, set in London during 1918. Christian fiction. Features characters from the The Number of Love and On Wings of Devotion.

I was surprised by how long it took before I really cared about the characters and their relationships. It was interesting to consider the way dark-room photography could be used -- and manipulated -- in aid of the war effort. 3 ★

Playing Hearts by W.R. Gingell: Portal fantasy based on Alice in Wonderland. Novella.

I like retellings and Alice in Wonderland references and Gingell’s storytelling, so I was a bit surprised by how long I took to warm to this. I liked the final section a lot. 3 ★

Dawnshard: From the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson: Fantasy. Part of the Stormlight Archive, set after Oathbringer. Novella.

I struggled to focus, distracted dredging up and searching through my memories of this series. But Sanderson is a successful storyteller, and the end of this adventure was satisfying. 3 ★

Game of Hearts by Cathy Yardley: Contemporary fandom-y romance. Features characters from Level Up and One True Pairing.

The characters’ respective family issues were resolved far too readily, but I find this sort of fluffy romance is acceptable if it comes with fandom references.

Bel Lamington (1961) by D.E. Stevenson (narrated by Patience Tomlinson): Romantic fiction. Features characters from the Dering Family trilogy.

Delightful. A very gentle sort of story, although it’s not just gardening and picturesque scenery and new friendships -- Bel also encounters stressful difficulties at work. I could predict how everything would all ultimately turn out -- but was surprised by some of the turns the story took getting there. 3½ ★

A Bride of Convenience by Jody Hedlund: Historical Christian romance set in 19th century Canada.

An interesting glimpse into an aspect of history I didn’t know about (bride ships), but neither the pacing nor the tone appealed to me. 2 ★

Torch by R.J. Anderson: YA-ish fantasy, faeries and shapeshifters. Sequel to Swift and Nomad.

A satisfying conclusion with some surprising developments. I was glad to see things resolve happily for Ivy. 3 ★

The Dering Family trilogy by D.E. Stevenson: Romantic fiction set in England and Scotland.

Vittoria Cottage (1949) (narrated by Leslie Mackie): Nothing too dramatic happens but it’s a fascinating insight into postwar life in England, still with rationing. I like that Stevenson considers the concerns of a middle-aged widow worthy of this sort of attention -- and of this sort of romance. 3 ★

Music in the Hills (1950): James Dering goes to stay with his aunt and uncle in Scotland, and learn about farming. I knew how James’ romantic endeavours would unfold (from reading Bel Lamington) but even with that foreknowledge to make things extra predictable, I wanted to keep reading. This has such a strong sense of place! And the characters are very likeable. 3½ ★

Winter and Rough Weather (1951): Follows on from Music in the Hills. A vivid insight into how poor roads and poor weather can isolate one from the outside world. I didn’t mind spending time with James and Rhoda’s friends, but they rather became the focus towards the end and maybe I’d have liked this book more if that hadn’t been the case? 3 ★

“Dueling Magics” by Stephanie Burgis: Short story set after A Most Improper Magick. Children’s fantasy. Verdict: cute.

Fangirl: the manga, vol. 1 by Rainbow Rowell (story adapted by Sam Maggs and illustrated by Gabi Nam): First installment in the manga adaptation of a young-adult novel about a fangirl going off to college.

A lovely way to revisit Fangirl! Judging from my memory of the novel, this is a remarkably -- and satisfyingly -- faithful adaptation. I really liked the artwork. 3½ ★

The Tuyo series by Rachel Neumeier: Fantasy.

Nikoles: A prequel side-story about a minor character from Tuyo. A thoughtful look at what causes a conflict between two peoples to escalate -- or to be resolved -- through the eyes of a likeable protagonist. 3 ★

Tarashana: A direct sequel to Tuyo. I loved it. It’s a journey into the unknown, full of difficulties and danger in that way that good fantasy quests so often are. Very tense! I was also impressed with the way this story explores the challenges of justly judging people, and how this gives Ryo a more nuanced perspective, but the events of the novel thematic cohesion. 4 ★

The Long Distance Playlist by Tara Eglinton: Epistolary Australian YA. Unfinished.

Two teenagers reconnect through email and share Spotify recommendations for dealing with breakups. I didn't finish this before my loan expired -- maybe I'll read more when it becomes available again.

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne: Contemporary romance between two 20-something employees at a retirement village.

Thorne has a gift for vividly capturing the quirky personalities of two people and capturing the different ways in which they like each other. There were a few small-ish things in this story I didn’t personally like. Mixed feelings, I have them. 3 ★

Copper Mountain by Rachel Neumeier: Urban fantasy. Part of the Black Dog series, set after Shadow Twin and Black Dog Stories III.

Dimilioc deals with demons. I was reminded that I do care about these characters. This wouldn’t have been so tense if I wasn’t so invested! 3½ ★

The Year’s Midnight by Rachel Neumeier: Death’s Lady, book one. Portal world fantasy.

Compelling. I really like how, even though Dr Daniel Dodson doesn’t believe his patient Tenai is from another world, this doesn’t actually undermine his ability to help her. Because he believes that Tenai fully believes her story and that it’s important for understanding her anger. 3½ ★

A Natural History of Dragons: a memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan (narrated by Kate Reading): Fantasy. Isabella tells of her childhood obsession with dragons, and how, aged nineteen, she joined an expedition to Vystrana.

Such a novel and interesting approach to dragons. Isabella’s adventures are eventful, and her observations are astute and often delightfully expressed. But I came away feeling unsure if I found the ending satisfying, because as a reader, I’m HERE for the emotions. 3½ ★

The Murderbot Diaries: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells: Science-fiction. Set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. Novella.

A less intense installment. On the other hand, I would happily read about Murderbot solving any number of mysteries. ANY NUMBER. It was interesting to see Murderbot working under a different set of restrictions. 3½ ★

Cutie and the Beast by M.E. Carter: Contemporary romance, single-parent co-coworkers, roommates-to-lovers.

I finished it but it wasn't really my thing.

Runaways: Canon Fodder (volume 5) by Rainbow Rowell (illustrated by Andres Genolet): Marvel superhero comics.

The previous volume had more scenes which stood out to me as memorable or quotable, but this volume had a strong, complete story arc and that was really satisfying! As is the rather pointed commentary about being a superhero. 3½ ★

#Herenya reviews books

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raisansgrapeon · 4 years ago

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Ghostbur Through the Lens of War

When analyzing a text (text being used as a general term), it’s important to establish what lens your analysis is going to be run under. It helps specify thoughts and arguments under set pretenses and brings focus to the discussion. Instead of looking at an article or a story through broad strokes, using a specific lens focuses on one stroke and allows for deeper analysis to be achieved.

It is safe to say that most of the Dream SMP is either seen under then lens of politics or mentality/interpersonal relationships. Viewing the story as a grand political battle and the consequences of the mighty leads us right down to the more specific lens of war. Yet, despite this common viewpoint under which we, as a community, digest the story of the Dream SMP, the character of Ghostbur is often left out of the equation in those terms, favoring to shed light on him for what he represents mentally. While his character is very much geared towards that line of thinking as an individual, his representation of innocents in the portrayal of war in the DSMP is nothing to scoff at.

The scale of the DSMP is far too small to truly represent the role of the common man within the cogs of war. With (at the time of writing) 31 characters within the story and a vast majority too disconnected from the story line to feel any real impact from the major players, we only ever really got to feel the way war impacted the warring factions and the leaders. The way war impacted countries as government system. The way war impacted the individual. We saw how war warped Wilbur and how war pitted father against son. We saw how war tore apart L’manburg because the leaders in charge never learned when to quit. We saw how abstaining from war left the Badlands relatively unharmed until a new external force came into play.

In all these instances, we see either the characters as individuals in positions of power, or the overarching bodies and governments that share the land, but we never see the people. The innocents trying to live life as best as they can under dire circumstances. Until, we look at Ghostbur under the lens of war as well.

Ghostbur is a prime vessel to carry the weight of the general population and how war impacts the people caught in the crossfire. He is the essence of the common people living their life only to have it viscerally uprooted and destroyed by war and by ignorant leaders gunning for their own gains. This can be seen in nearly every aspect of Ghostbur’s character.

Starting off with what inspired this essay and these thoughts in general is Ghostbur’s conversation with Philza on the 6th of January. Within this conversation is where the most blatant characterization and solidification of Ghostbur as a representative of the people comes into play. The line, “I read the history books,” and Ghostbur recounting his warped idea of how Wilbur’s death came to be reflects on how history is written by the victors, and that is the version taught to the population. We are told of the great triumphs of the heroes of history, even if those heroes will never see themselves as such. The people are told of all the good that came out of a horrid historical event without the whole picture because details will always be lost within the wash of time. And during conflict between parties and during horrid events, Ghostbur continued to just live his life. He became the foundations of the country that those in charge put on the line. “...I just wrote books... I built a house for people... I built this town, just like I built Logstedshire...” Ghostbur built L’manburg and Logstedshire as places for him, as a representation of a community, to live.

Even beyond this conversation, the way Ghostbur acts and how everyone interacts with him continues to support the idea that Ghostbur represents the innocents in war. Again, Ghostbur learns everything from word of mouth and history books. They are all skewed to paint a simplified version of events that leaves everything black and white, like how so much of history is formulated and taught. Ghostbur is always happy and cheerful and naive, chasing ideals and chasing that happiness. People just want to be happy. They just want to live their lives freely and enjoy it. Ghostbur covers the more mundane tasks of L’manburg, such as building aesthetic things or extra houses or the town center. When interacting with Ghostbur, everyone treats him like a glass vase. They fight to keep him complacent and content and happy. The way Phil talks to Ghostbur during their conversation, how Phil lies to him about Friend’s canon lives and Dream brings another Friend to keep Ghostbur complicit and feeling positive towards Dream, how everyone practically tip toes around him whenever something serious comes up. They all talk to him softly, like a child. At least the way I see it as an American Citizen, the government is all to happy to leave the people thinking there is nothing wrong, and to actively keep them from getting too close to whatever the truth may be. All parties try to keep the innocents innocent and complacent.

And yet, “I sowed the seeds of peace, yet I am the one who pays for war.” The people always pay. The innocents always pay with their lives and their homes for those in charge to play their games. “You knew everything everyone owned was in this town.” The greater powers at play, whether they be governments or leaders or what have you, know that in this land is where people live. They know, but they enact war anyway. The decimate their lands anyway. They blow up their homes anyway. They kill their loved ones anyway.

Phil’s final, “...maybe you’ll understand someday,” is saying, “one day, you will look back on this day in history and see all the good it caused. One day, the innocents will move on. One day, the people will forget why they lost what they lost.”

And Ghostbur does.

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A bit disorganized. I wrote this off the cuff so it’s more like a train of thought loosely formatted as an essay. I hope you all liked my small rant. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and just wanted to write it, you know?

Edit below the cut:

A small amendment to this post in retrospect in terms of one of my arguments and how I presented it along with some added hindsight and sleep, since I had written this at 2 in the morning.

This was spurred on by the tags of @asmoljay in their reblog of this post.

In their tags, they bring up the point that my argument on how people treat Ghostbur is placating and dismissive, mentioning that people are actually very confrontational with Ghostbur about Alivebur’s actions and its effect on them.

I will concede, my original claims are unfounded and far too broad. What I should’ve said, and what I have come to the realization of, is that Phil is placating and dismissive and trying to keep Ghostbur, for the most part, complacent. He never actively confronts Ghostbur about Alivebur’s actions and hardly has anything to say when Ghostbur brings up his death by Phil’s hands.

Overall, Philza is the only one engaging with Ghostbur thematically. He’s the only one playing into what Ghostbur represents, acting as a representation of the instigators of war to contrast with Ghostbur’s representation of the innocents.

I also feel I was a tad bit unclear as to why I was specifying that I was looking at Ghostbur through the lens of war. In doing so, I was taking a stance on Ghostbur’s thematic relevance and role in such an analysis and subsequently ignoring aspects of Ghostbur’s character that builds him up as that, a character. Looking through this lens, I am only looking at a small facet of how Ghostbur acts and interacts with the story at play. I am by no means disregarding how he works as a character or as a representation of guilt, unhealthy coping, drug use, etc. Ghostbur is multifaceted and I wanted to bring light to one facet that I found really interesting and didn’t really see anyone acknowledge. In the end, I am blatantly ignoring how different events feed into different aspects of Ghostbur as a character and bringing to light how other events pertain to him as a representation of a general populous and how that plays into the theme of war that is (or at the very least was) going on between Phil and Ghostbur.

Ghostbur isn’t defined by this characterization that I have illustrated, but it is certainly an interesting way to look at him under new context.

#dsmp #dream smp #dream smp writing #dream smp analysis #dsmp analysis #ghostbur #ghostbur analysis #philza minecraft #dsmp philza #dsmp doomsday #wilbur soot

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camillasgirl · 4 years ago

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A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Central Remembrance Ceremony in Berlin, 15.11.2020

Mr. President,

President of the Bundestag,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a particular honour to have been invited to speak here today, on this solemn and special occasion, and to join you in eternal remembrance of all victims of war and tyranny. In this memorable year, marking seventy-five years of peace and friendship between us, it gives my wife and myself such great pride to return to Germany, and to renew those enduring bonds between our two countries.

I have been coming to Germany since I was just thirteen years old, and first visited Berlin nearly fifty years ago. Over the decades, I have been struck by the ways in which this remarkable city embodies so much of the history of our continent, and all that we have been through. After the devastation of conflict, and the tragedy of division, it has not only endured but triumphed, liberated from flawed and distorted ideologies so that hope and the human spirit could prevail.

Berlin reminds us that the fortunes of all Europeans have been dependent on one another for centuries. The relationships we enjoy today are built on foundations dug deep in the bedrock of our common experience, anchored by bonds running North and South, East and West, through our diverse communities and across our borders.

The connections between the British and German people go back at least as far as the Roman Empire, evolving within a shared civilisation, and woven with threads drawn back and forth through the years. For many of us, those ties are personal, with family connections and associations which remain greatly treasured to this day.

Our people have prospered from one another through commerce, since the Hanseatic League established a trading relationship which continues to drive our shared prosperity. However, the relationship between us has always been so much more than a transactional one. We have long viewed each other with fascination - admiring of each other’s culture and inspired by each other’s ideas, we have influenced and borrowed from one another in a virtuous circle of reinforcing connections that have strengthened and enriched us both.

The examples are myriad. It was a German, Hans Holbein the Younger, who became the first celebrated artist in England. Half a century later, German was the first language into which Shakespeare was translated. The English landscape garden was brought to Germany by Prince Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau who, inspired by the models of Stourhead and Stowe, laid out the magnificent gardens at Wörlitz of which I am proud to be Patron. Onecan scarcely imagine where the British musical tradition would be without the influence of Bach, Beethoven or Brahms; and the music of Georg Friedrich Handel, who was born a German but died British, has been played at the Coronation of every British Sovereign since that of my seven times great grandfather, King George II.

Throughout the nineteenth century, German scientific and artistic thought shaped British life, encouraged, in part, by the leadership of my great, great, great, grandfather, Prince Albert, The Prince Consort. German was a vitally important language for British academics to acquire, at a time when German immigration to Britain grew significantly and Schroders Bank and Reuters News Agency helped shape London’s global role. It was not as remarkable as it perhaps now seems, that at the outbreak of the First World War four members of the British cabinet had studied at German Universities. It is similarly striking, that in the years after that conflict, British students flocked back to Germany for the exposure to German culture that they, and their parents, considered to be so essential to their education.

Looking back through the prism of two world wars, with all the cruel distortions rendered by conflict and loss, so many of those close connections between Britain and Germany became obscured. And yet, as our countries, and our people, set to the difficult task of rebuilding this continent – and our trust in one another – the deep and historic well of shared experience from which we drew, enabled the seeds of reconciliation to take root and flourish.

And so, over these past seventy-five years, our two countries have been restored to our natural position of allies and friends. Britain was by Germany’s side through those extraordinary years of post-war reconstruction. We have watched, with profound admiration, the remarkable success of Germany’s peaceful reunification over the past thirty years, and with deep respect for the example that she has offered the world.

Today our countries stand together as indispensable partners in almost every field of endeavour imaginable, conscious of our past but confident about our future. As the message read on the wreath that you, Mr. President, laid at the Cenotaph in London two years ago this week, let us “remember side by side, grateful for reconciliation, hopeful for a future in peace and friendship.”

Reconciliation is a difficult but essential process, as I have seen in almost every corner of the globe, as well as on the islands of my own country. That we have healed so much division on our continent is cause for sustained gratitude and the utmost pride. However, as thankful as we should be for how far we have come, I know that many of you share my view that we must take nothing for granted.

We can never reconcile ourselves to the horrors of the past as simply the events of another age – distant, time bound, disconnected from our present lives. Nor can any of us assume that they are someone else’s burden to bear. Instead, the searing relevance of the past to the present day, and to our future, makes it our solemn and shared responsibility to ensure that heartbreaking lessons are learned and heeded by each successive generation.

The former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Lord Sacks, who so tragically died earlier this month, wrote that “a future of reconciliation can, in some measure at least, retrospectively redeem the past.” He was quite right, of course. Otherwise not only do we compound past wrongs and amplify their effect, but we fail all those who struggled and died for a better tomorrow.

In this, we must work together. We must remain vigilant against threats to our values and our freedoms; and never rest in seeking to create mutual understanding and respect. We must be resolute in addressing acts of unspeakable cruelty against people for reasons of their religion, their race or their beliefs, wherever they occur in the world. We must stand alongside each other in determined defence of the future we owe our children and our grandchildren.

The challenges to that future are manifest – whether from this dreadful pandemic which threatens not just our public health but our prosperity and security; or from the existential threat to our planet, and our way of life, from climate change and catastrophic biodiversity loss.

These crises demand that we act together, and the partnership between the United Kingdom and Germany offers such a vital opportunity in this regard. We are heavily invested in each other’s futures, such that our national interests, whilst distinct, will always be entwined.

Our countries are instinctive problem-solvers, working together to find innovative and practical solutions to the challenges we see in the world around us – on global health and vaccine development; clean growth and renewable energy; forest protection and biodiversity; and climate action in developing countries. Together, we stand resolutely in defence of our shared values, as champions of human rights and the Rules Based International System. Together, we are an indispensable force for good in our world.

The English poet, John Donne, famously wrote that “no man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” One might equally submit that no country is really an island either, other than in the wholly literal sense. Our histories bind us tightly together and our destinies, although each our own to forge, are interdependent to a considerable degree.

Mr. President, President of the Bundestag, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The United Kingdom has chosen a future outside the European Union, and the relationship between our countries is evolving once again. Its shape is a matter negotiated between our governments and its essence is defined by the enduring connections between our people. It is, therefore, my heartfelt belief that the fundamental bond between us will remain strong: we will always be friends, partners and allies.

As our countries begin this new chapter in our long history, let us reaffirm our bond for the years ahead. Let us reflect on all that we have been through together, and all that we have learned. Let us remember all victims of war, tyranny and persecution; those who laid down their lives for the freedoms we cherish, and those who struggle for these freedoms to this day. They inspire us to strive for a better tomorrow – let us make this our common cause.

#Prince Charles #brexit #speech #this speech was/ is amazing #loved it

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theexleynatureblog · 4 years ago

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The Bundy Group

So I just learned something startling I thought I should post: In Jan 2016, a group of extremists seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The act was in protect to the incarceration of two ranchers who purposely set fire to their land, which spread onto the refuge. Untimely, the acts were rebellion against federal control of land. Below are some quotes from the protestors. primarily from the Bundy brothers who orchestrated the assault:

"All comfort, all wealth ... comes from the Earth, and we cannot have the government restricting the use of that to the point where it puts us in poverty."

"I will say this refuge from its very inception has been a tool of tyranny."

“This refuge here is rightfully owned by the people and we intend to use it.”

“The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control.”

While protesting in a nearby town, a small but armed group split off and occupied the Malheur NWR center. The standoff lasted 41 days with the occupants saying they wouldn’t leave until they regained their rightful land. The occupancy resulted in property damage to the building, land damage from unauthorized excavations (trenches used for toilets), broken fences, fights with conservationists, neighboring tribe members, and law enforcement. One confrontation resulted in several arrests and one protestor fatality who apparently threatened police. The final days of the occupancy was with four people who protested the shooting until they were seized by police.

Now, on the surface this may seem like a ‘noble’ display of patriotism and rebellion, but let me inform y’all what a wildlife refuge actually is.

Map of the current refuges in the US.

The first wildlife refuges were created by Theodore Roosevelt, who was an active sport’s hunter and a member of the Boon and Crockett Club - a rich-person’s sporting club. Roosevelt’s goal was preserving North America’s ‘big game’ for future generations to enjoy.

Wild spaces were not created out of concern for the environment, but preservation for human use. When colonizers came to the America’s, they disregarded the thousands of years of management for wildlife by native tribes. A mixture of market hunting (commercially hunting to stock restaurants and stores) habitat loss, and introductions of invasive species changed the landscape and its animals drastically, sometimes to a point beyond repair. The recognition of the loss of timber and water sources sparked the designation of national parks and refuges for the identical reason - preservation for human use.

President Theodore Roosevelt on Pelican Island, casually allowing one of the islands inhabitants devour his hand.

Pelican Island was the first Wildlife Refuge created in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt, who would later add many more designated wildlife areas. Despite the purpose of the refuges being anthro-centric (and further, only accessible to upper-class white society), the refuges served an important function to wildlife. As regulated hunting laws were still in development or lacked enforcement, it gave animals a place to escape hunting pressure. The actual shooting is only one factor - the influx of foot and vehicle traffic, noise from ammunition, startled herds and flocks, human camps, and later-on effects of pollutants from lead shot all contribute to stresses that impact individual survival. These refuges were not open to hunting or any resource harvest at certain times of the year or in certain sections.

The Malheur Refuge was one of the original areas designated by President Roosevelt himself. Many of these refuges were focused on protecting birds, victims of the millinery trade. Feathers of adult birds (mainly targeted during breeding seasons) and sometimes entire birds were used to decorate woman’s hats. This attack on the breeding population led to a sharp decline that alarmed outdoor enthusiasts and bird-watchers alike. Read more about the Feather Hat Trade.

Today, the refuge has multiple uses. A stop along the Pacific Flyway, it is an important space for migrating waterfowl. Besides biology, refuge also is used in studying geology. Having once been inhabited by native tribes, the refuge provides members of the Burns Paiute Tribe to continue cultural traditions and hunting/fishing practices.

Map of habitats.

The refuge does important work for wildlife, but it comes at a cost. Roosevelt designating ‘wild’ areas to be free of human contact also meant native tribes had no access to the resources they depended on. Today luckily, some of that is changed, and tribal members play an important part of managing in some of the refuges.

Read some of the Tribal Wildlife Conservation success stories!

The loss of access also sparked problems with ranchers. In the Western US, large expanses of grazable land were claimed by farmers ready to make money on their stock. The history of homesteading ranchers is messy, often colliding with native groups, conservationists, and others.

All human activity has environmental impacts, and ranching is no exception. Whether those impacts are good or bad depends on the responsibility and knowledge of the rancher. For example, grazing in an important management technique that can both reduce grasses and spread them. A herd of cattle can save a grassland from desertification or cause it. Its all on the rancher to be environmentally caution - but caution is often more expensive and risky.

For the past centuries, fragmenting the landscape with barbed wire, fences, and roads and rails that have caused problems for wildlife also cause problems for ranches trying to move their herds. National Parks with grazable (or even in some cases areas that were sensitive to grazing but used anyway) areas became available for livestock owners to rent. But still remained constant competition with multiple interests - mining, development, hunting, and conversation efforts.

The events from the Malheur Occupancy seemed to stem from these kinds of frustrations.

Now here comes the part where I make people aware of my personal opinions and biases, because I believe its important to understand what I am trying to say. My biases lean towards environmentalism based in western scientific technique. This is because I have a passion for wildlife and a drive to protect it. So far, I have acquired most of my knowledge from institutes that teach the important of science - mostly from western sources, though I do hope to learn from other parts of the world as well. To be bluntly honest, I don’t give a darn about ranchers, especially in light of the historical impacts of grazing in the Western US - that being said, I do try to understand their position. I can understand the lure of working with animals and the outdoors. Its also important to understand that this kind of work requires a lot of time and a specific skillset. If you donate your time to mastering a career like this, odds are your haven’t mastered much else. You can’t afford to ‘just change jobs’. If you livestock or crop fails, you’re screwed financially. This is why some farmers just can’t risk going organic, or not expanding their fields. They can’t always consider the environmental impacts. A farmer/ranchers whole life is quite literally tied to the land they have to work on. This is why they feel so strongly about federal lands.

I really hate that sometimes it comes down to farmers versus wildlife. It shouldn’t be this tug-o-war, we should all be working together to do what’s best for the land that so many different people and animals have to use. Land managers have to consider farmers, wildlife, and public interest when planning lands for use. Each of us should also have consideration for each other.

The occupation of the facility costs approximately $6 million in damages and facility security. That is money that could have gone to wildlife projects. There was also the damages of mental trauma, emotional trauma, and damages of Burns-Paiute cultural artifacts desecrated.

The Malheur refuge was also working on an important Invasive Carp Control project. These fish, introduced from Eurasia, caused big problems for native fish, plants, and even birds. They are known for muddying water quality, which inhibits the functions of plants and fish.

"Carp are so hard to eradicate because they're the perfect invasive species," Beck said. "They're kind of like the feral pig of the waterway."

The project has gone on for many years with many different methods tested, from dynamite to robotics. Controlling invasive species is a time-sensitive operation. There are moments - spawning/migrating - that occur only a few weeks out of the year that are prime for removing large numbers of individuals. Work is also non-stop. Fish like carp are prolific breeders. A few days rest could result in a few hundred extra.

The occupancy of Malheur made the carp project and other work come to a total halt for months. This has ultimately set the projects back by decades.

In Oct. of 2016, the leaders of the standoff, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were Pardoned by the Trump Admin.

In regards to how this whole thing started, I sincerely can’t say whether who was in the wrong. The ranchers claimed to be practicing brush control by fire, but Federal investigation suspected the fires were set to hide evidence of poached deer. Whether it was in the right or not, the fires spread onto Refuge land, which put the farmers in violation. Burning private land for management purposes was legal in this case, but it is the manager’s responsibility to keep the fire under control. Fires should be kept low to the ground with bounders (roads, rivers) to prevent it from spreading. Wind direction should be constantly monitored, and there should be a small team of people at the ready in case the fire gets too big. There’s no evidence to suggest the group took the proper precautions.

While the street march and protect was entirely within the group’s rights, I believe the occupation of the Malheur refuge was unjustified. There was no reason for the protestors to be armed, and the individuals acts of desecrating the building, grounds, and cultural artifacts went well beyond what the group stated to be their original purpose. The occupancy had no regard for the safety of the workers or surrounding residents, and certainly no regard for the conservation work currently taking place.

The group wanted to protest the Federal authority over land they believed was theirs, and they did so by damaging the refuge and threatening the workers there.

I believe all action taken on lands should be done with environmental and ecological impacts considered, which was not the case in this instance.

Sources:

The NY Times

NPR

The Washington Post

Reuters

Fish and Wildlife Service

KGW8

The Oregonian - events timeline

#science #enviromentalism #history #nature #animals #national parks

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chilenosvivientes · 4 years ago

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Politics, an underrated topic

Welcome or welcome to a new blog

How are you dear readers? Together with my lifelong friends, today we bring you a somewhat peculiar blog because we are going to talk about politics and yes, I know that many people are not attracted to this field at all, since they are only discussions about who is right, but these are important to know, to know which one may be more convenient for your country, province or city

In this blog we will talk about 3 types of political forms of governing, classical Liberalism, Nationalism and Liberal Conservatism, all with different ways of thinking and contributing to society, now, each of us will express each one with a slight summary and history of thes

--THE NATIONALISM--

Nationalism is a third-position political ideology, which considers that the most important thing for a country is that it possesses sovereignty and that it knows how to act effectively towards its compatriots, that is, prioritize the success of the nation.

It is called third position because it follows a path contrary to the Left (communism) and to the right (capitalism), added to this, they are against globalism, therefore against LGBT, uncontrolled emigration, Antifascism, abortion and totalitarianism, but this does not mean that they are racist or homophobic, it refers to the fact that they are against profit and indoctrination, in addition to excessive emigration, or as the saying "Chile for Chileans" says, it can be applied with any country.

Its economic proposal is to value national trade and industry, they could greatly benefit the development of the country and should improve the quality of life of people and life in general, therefore this can cause the problems of international interventionism by Powers like the United States or China, finish.

Nationalism was created by the people who wanted a nation free from foreign interventions, as at present this is difficult, nationalist movements have been created such as: "National Order Front" "Social-Patriot Movement" "We still have a homeland citizens" etc.

They only seek a strong national sovereignty and that their homeland can develop with growth and social justice.

Here I will put some important phrases from prominent Nationalists:

Nicolás Palacios created this phrase: "The Chilean belongs to a superior race, combining brave Mapuche blood with bold Spanish blood"

Pablo Rodríguez Guez created this phrase: "When the Right and the Left fail, the only way is Nationalism"

Pablo Pedro Kunstmann created this phrase: "We can all die, but if we know how to defend our homeland, it will live forever"

By the way, here are other data about nationalism, in Chile more than 3 movements were founded, the national agrarian movement was created by Ibañez del Campo, Patria y Libertad was created by Pablo Rodriguez Guez and finally the Patriot Social Movement was founded by Pablo Pedro Kunstmann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAX4Ehkp2iE

(A nationalist anthem)

--Classic Liberalism--

The best way to improve the country could be classical liberalism, but first what is classical liberalism, it´s a political and legal philosophy that defends the individual and his freedom, also private property and market freedom,t he greatest exponents Of this they could be Milton Friedman, Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

This thought eliminated mercantilism and was the generator of capitalism in the nineteenth century, classical liberalism is the one that best respects on the economic issue, since the Market freedom would be a greater economic progress than a market in which the state participates, since the 19th century Until today it has eliminated poverty from 95% to 10% (extreme poverty), and with the free trade promoted by capitalism has increased the quality of life and human prosperity, in Chile the prosperity in 1900 was 23 years and the quality of life improved, currently it is 80, and capitalism has defects such as exploitation, and the state has done it, but the state must ensure the absolute possible efficiency in public institutions and social aid, we know that a Part of the taxation is misused and this should be controlled in a better way, we cannot allow the people with more power to do everything wrong and not have any repercussions, if a businessman does his job badly, he loses it, politicians can have all his work done, but it does not mean that they do it well or even decently, classical liberalism wants the state to have to do their job efficiently, to be one more worker, to be able to do it. lose everything if a serious error is sent, and thus improve the country by making politicians have to give their best efficiency.

---CONSERVATISM---

In political philosophy, Conservatism is called the set of doctrines and political movements that favor the use of political power or the force of the state to preserve or restore traditions- beliefs or customs- of a people or nation that can be religious, social or political. This Is a preference for the historically inherited rather than the abstract and ideal. In the authoritarian right sector of the political compass, is situated this classic ideology. Therefore, in this model of thought, there must be order. Elements of other political ideologies- such as liberalism o socialism can be rejected by the conservatism.

For example, when communism was installed in the east, The United States was at the top of capitalism, an ideology contrary to the first, so it can´t have established in any way. Now, it is true that some infiltrated agents of the Soviet Union could have entered the country, but most were discovered during close periods and these were only exceptional cases. It couldn´t have been easy for Gorbachev to dictate the end of the Soviet Union…. Anyways, this context is so important when it comes to conservatism during the twentieth century, since it was a beginning of the struggle of the Republican Right of North America against the doctrine of Lenin. This event brought multiple consequences in the sphere during the following years, such as the advance of liberalism and the resurgence of progressivism. Nodaway’s, for a close example, there is no longer the same vision about this thought that is practically obsolete by the new generations.

Well.....we have already talked briefly about the political ideologies that we were going to present, even if they seem different, they all seek the same thing, the development of their country based on following certain ideals and traditions, but all with the aim of improving both the quality of life, such as the development, progress and advancement of the country, added to defending the values that they follow and defend, but we believe that these can very effectively benefit a large number of the countries that surround us.

And so far our blog, it may be very extensive but believe me it is worth reading it, you will be able to learn much more about politics, you will have more general culture and it may even lead you to be interested in it, since it is an interesting topic, remember that if You liked it, do not hesitate to share it, give it your heart and tell us more ideas or ideologies that we could touch in the future, I hope you have an excellent and beautiful day, your favorite authors say goodbye, byeeeeeeeeee.

Enviar mensaje a #general

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rahenning · 4 years ago

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Forgotten and Overlooked Cartoon Movies

On this week’s discussion we will explore two cartoon movies that you either may have watched when you were a child and got you disturbed giving you nightmares or you watched as an adult but probably had the same reaction as if you were a little kid. Or maybe it was just me who felt very confused watching it. This brings to my mind a thought. Are cartoons/ animation movies strictly designed for a young audience? Can a cartoon that is designed for children bring themes that may bring valuable discussions at home and teach good lessons to a little mind in development? Finding Nemo suggests to kids that step out of your comfort zone is important and to never give up even having so many obstacles on your life journey. Mulan is a great representation and inspiration for little girls to know that they can and should fight for their rights with confidence and independence. The list of animation movies that can be very inspiring for children is extensive. Although not all the cartoons/ animations movies have a young audience target. Titles such as “Fritz the Cat” (1972), “South Park” (1999) and the outstanding autobiographical “Persepolis” (2007) are definitely movies that probably wouldn’t be a good idea to have your child sitting next to you in the living room while you watch it.

Some movies sometimes either get forgotten or overlooked in the history of cartoon movies. Today we will give the attention necessary and deserved to two adult cartoon masterpieces; “Fantastic Planet” (1973) directed by Rene Laloux and “Watership Down” (1978) directed by Martin Rosen. Both movies are incredible on bringing to the table topics such as violence and power, authoritarian leaderships, division of social classes, democracy, the seek of home and belonging. We will cover that in a moment but excuse me on giving you some spoilers first. Both movies are modeled and gives to the audience historical lessons about specific times, events, and political aspects in society.

“Fantastic Planet” (1973) was a landmark in the history of European animation directed by Rene Laloux. The movie is a completely though-through science fiction vision which may be for many breathtaking or an unnecessarily experimental miserable detour. The movie resonates with historical allegories and radical politics based on European aesthetic principles. I personally find the aesthetic of this movie very surrealistic and resembles Salvador Dali’s artworks. The film takes place on the planet Ygam and shows two tribles of organisms that live against each other. The gigantic, intellectual, and blue Draags and the small and pinkish Oms that were removed by their masters Draags from their planet. The Oms are domesticated and enslaved by the Draags. The story unfolds and is narrated by Terr, one of the members of the Oms who grows and matures being domesticated next to the Draags. Terr learns about the culture of the Draags and their strange rituals of learning, meditation, wisdom, and development. Through mental inducement devices to transmit knowledge to future generations the Draags open the collective wisdom of their race. Terr escapes his captors and joins a renegade group of Oms. As the Draags try to control the radical Oms the film concludes in the final confrontation between the two groups and a satellite known as the Fantastic Planet.

In 1968 the film faced obstacles in the middle of its production. Soviet tanks invaded Prague, where the film was being produced, and occupied the city. After the invasion, the production of the film was extended for four years and was only released in 1973. In many ways the film represents these events. The communist occupation not only in Czechoslovakia but also in other Eastern European countries, is directly reminiscent of the convenient enslavement of the Oms by the Draags. In addition, the analogy of the relationship between owner and animal is effective between representing the relationship between the Soviet Union and its satellite states. While animals and Oms experienced modest degrees of autonomy, this was always monitored and limited by their masters. In both cases these masters maintained the fate of their servants. During that time, the illusion of this need was fabricated and often promoted to praise the positive attributes in the master. Besides that, the illusion of freedom has always been available at a distance, but it was collected in small doses. The masters reinforced and affirmed the hierarchical relationship that subordinates had with their servants. Two other elements are also symbolic of social and historical phenomena. Firstly,the tactics and techniques used by the Draags to destabilize the Oms and the camps where they lived that resemble the Nazi concentration camps and gas cameras. The film does an excellent job portraying the terror that the Draags cause in the Oms. The threat is greater than the attacks themselves. Didactically shows how to psychologically demoralize a society. Fear and oppression can have much greater causes and penetrate the coincidence of their victims. The film is then a provocative incursion into the state-sponsored psychological terror and its behaviors.

The second movie in discussion is “Watership Down” (1978) by Martin Rosen. The movie is a British animation based on the novel “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. The film was successful in the UK but not so much in the US. The controversy around it is what brings more attention. At first the audience may think it is a movie about cute bunnies living on a field. Well, its not extremely wrong but it goes far beyond it and its sensitive and explicit content is what labels the movie as an adult animation. The plot focuses on a group of rabbit living in the countryside. The group learns that their land is being invaded and poisoned by a construction company. They try to persuade the chief to evacuate. The chief refuses and they make a breakthrough with other members of their community. Many altercations happen between the group and makes the plot more excited and intriguing. The violence and the rage of the rabbits are shocking for many viewers. This film was U rated, which means it is suitable for all ages. And that’s what makes it more controversy. It creeps adults out and I can only imagine all the nightmares kids would have after watching it. The story is simply enough to follow with some tips of comedy in between the dramatic violent and swearing scenes.

What most of the viewers may not know is that “Watership Down” was inspired by its novel author Richard Adams real life personal experiences. He revealed that many of the animals in the movie were designed and based on officers that he, as a lieutenant, commanded in the World War 2. Not just the characters but many of the stories lived by the bunnies were also based on his real-life experiences and specifically the Battle of Arnhem, which he fought for over nine days in September 1944. Many soldiers were killed, and it answers why we see so many deaths and violent scenes in the movie. The character Hazel was inspired in his commanding officer Gifford. Gifford survived the war, and so did Hazel. According to the author, Bigwig was based on Captain Desmond “Paddy” Kavanagh. Adams describes him as “afraid of nothing and sensationalist”. “Good stories ought to be exciting and if they are exciting, they are inevitably scary in parts”- Richard Adams.

Learning more about the two films and its context, I believe it is easier now to understand and visualize the shared topics prior mentioned. Both movies are a tremendous critic to abuse of power and the use of mental and physical violence by the leaders in both fictional and real society. Our contemporary society lived and still experiences all these aspects. The movies simple used real-life events to base their narrative on. The division between social classes is clearly visible specially on “Fantastic Planet”. In todays age we still see and fight against this variance. Socio-economics class division happens in every and each country around the globe and it can be even more endured when we add race and sexual orientation for example. The seek of home and belonging are also very well covered in both movies. All the groups in both films wanted a place to be free from oppression and without fearing for their lives. I believe that everyone around this planet first goal in life is to feel secure, free and have a place that they can finally have this feeling of belonging inside their hearts.

Movements such as the Black Lives Matter are a great example of an oppressed community who is (and has always been) standing up for themselves, making them and their stories heard and fighting against an oppressive system in order to gain equality, safety and freedom.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

In reference to the movie “Watership Down” I would like to also use the MST (Landless Workers Movement) as an example of fighting for the right of obtaining living and a sense of belonging. The Brazilian social movement defines it’s as goals access to land for the poor workers through land reforms.

To learn more about the movement please visit their page.

https://mst.org.br/english/

We already know that in “Fantastic Planet” the system the Draags kept the Oms in is oppressive and limit their capability of learning. They were labeled as savage and domesticated Oms. This system pretty much reflects the society we live in. The system intentionally takes out the chances of the less fortunate on learning and growing as people. It creates a division either in the movie and in our society between the “intellectuals” and the “anti-intellectuals”. What happens is that most oppressed group does not even have the eager of gaining more knowledge and that is all a consequence of the system they live in. It is all meticulously orchestrated by the system and it only makes the so called “intellectual” group of society more powerful over the other groups.

To be able to overcome their reality, the Oms had to finally come together and unite against the Draags. They had to listen to the domesticated and now more educated Oms who had more information and knowledge at the time. Without uniting, the Oms would not be able to defend themselves and attack the Draags.

Back to “Watership Down” we also see how internal conflicts inside a group or community may ruin or delay a common goal. In the movie we have characters that could fall into the label of intellectual and anti-intellectual. The protagonist of the movie, Hazel, may fall into the label of “intellectual”. He is the lead of the group and his actions were always to benefit all the band of rabbits and specially protect the small ones. Blackcherry is Hazel’s main source of knowledge and guidance. For this reason, he can also be called an “intellectual” in the group. In other hand we have Strawberry, a large rabbit but with no knowledge of how to live in the wild. He wanted to learn, although his lack of understanding of the wilderness could always affect their group.

To make a quick correlation to our society, we could divide the rabbits into a younger and older group. For example, in the younger group we have Hazel, Fiver, Strawberry and Dandelion. A group of young but very loyal and fierce rabbits. All of them with their specific positive characteristics that could be substantially important to a success of a group. In the older group we have General Woundwort, Captain Campion, and Captain Holly. Although they may be strong and experienced some of their actions may be destructive to the well being of the group. The older group often questions if the younger really knows what they are doing by their lack of experience. It is often seeing in our society too. An example is how our society keep only trusting in old candidates for important positions in our government. Why not to trust in new faces and new ideas for our society? The chances to keep repeating the problems are high. Maybe new minds and new ideas can make a lot of positive changes.

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aerial-ace97 · 5 years ago

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Chrono Buster

This class is built for a 3.5 D&D homebrew world known as Sekrezia.

Base Description: Chrono Busters have scratched only the very surface of the elemental properties of time. They study the cosmos and ripples of time that come forth from the past and use the little bits that they can grasp to harness simple tricks of timing to impossibilities.

Races Opinion on Chrono Buster*

Preferred Class: Hoata are obsessed with history and often travel around large archaeological sights with the presence of many Chrono Busters. Marelienths have studied the workings of time for centuries and hope to use this to find a time where logic prevails over emotions.

Common Class: Dwarves, Jaebrins, Grimlocks, Gorems, Rathens, Neothoids, Blazedeads, Luminians, Masquerions, Pendragons, Spellscales, Goliaths, Seacalled are commonly Chrono Busters.

No Preference: Implins, Litesprites, Purgatorians, Aurashades, Troglings, Duergar, Gremlins, Sinneans, Viscerans, Hexborn, Cullhearted, Titanhearts, Lyroshi, Scoprix, Karioliths, Murklongs, Ordenfey, Ishims have no preference when it comes to the Chrono Buster class.

Rare Class: Elves, Irinaga, Rutoths, Hordelings, Ogres, Lizardfolk, Shinobi, Melcrians, Ursocans, Castleclad are rarely Chrono Busters.

Never Happens: Orcs are dull witted and strong. Why on earth would they bother with time, especially as that is a power of the gods they so fear and nor for mortals. A certain monastic segment of Avens defended the time properties that first gave rise to Chrono Busters, and despise its theft. Out of malice but also out of their interest in its protection, they swear off the powers of chronomancy. Orashta see time as something that should not be toyed with and have history with the Boneruned that puts both of them against time magic (though only the Orashta have a great memory of this). Boneruned see time in a very different way then most and see their lives very quickly and playing around with something that they don’t really understand is uninteresting to them, especially as they see it as being a construct of the fey only. Their dealings with historical findings make them feel as though they are enough a part of history that they need not mess with time.

*(A note on race options - There are no hard limits on the classes a race can be. Even if a class is listed as one a race would never become, you can still choose that class. In this case though, your backstory should almost entirely be dedicated to why they took that class. This is only in my world though, and can be altered for whoever would desire to. Also on races, it should be noted that humans have no preference on anything and are not listed in the above. It should also be noted that until races are released or you learn more about them in the world, you won’t know most of these races.)

Abilities: Their main stat is Intelligence and low stat is Dexterity. Their most important stat after Intelligence is Wisdom.*

Hit Die: d4

*Each class has a main ability. To be this class, you must have at least 14 or more in this ability without racial abilities, therefore you cannot play a character without a 14 in something. The low stat and second most important stats are simply recommendations and the most common way the class will be built when seen as NPCs.

Class Language (Each class has access to a language which they were granted by the God Jiaren. Teaching this to anyone who isn’t already granted this language immediately loses them all of their powers in this class) - Veilwords - Spoken by Clerics, Path Wanderers, Dream Caster, Chrono Buster, Astral Watchers, and System Breakers and clergies.

Class Skills: Spellcraft, Craft, Disable Device, Knowledge (Arcana), Use Magic Device, Knowledge (History), Search, Decipher Script, Knowledge (Planes), Perception, Survival, Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Dungeoneering)

Weapons and Armor Proficiency - A Chrono Buster cannot use armor or shields. They can use guns, crossbows, bows, and slings.

Inherent Abilities – A Chronomancer draws from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list and uses an Intelligence modifier. It changes out spells by the spell stripping method. Almost all time events can only be performed in a battle situation and are highly adjustable by the DM.

Time Shielding – By bending time around you, you can add your Int modifier to your dodge bonus of AC.

Arcane Time – You can manipulate any of your spells to trigger down the line instead of right away. If it is a spell with a duration it must be triggered within the same time as the duration would be. If it is not a spell with a duration then it must be triggered within as many rounds as your level.

Timed Precision – By bending and calculating the precision of a shot as well as the time currents of both the enemy and the projectile, a Chrono Buster is able to add his Intelligence modifier to any ranged attack (this applies a secondary time for Sniper Rifles). If they have a negative value to Dexterity, this still applies.

Timewinder – At 2nd level, you gain timebending devices. This can be thrown like an Alchemist’s bomb, so as a Standard. This causes an area of the slow spell within 5 ft of it residing on a corner. In addition, projectiles that travel through this area are at a -6 to the attack. You also can make an additional attack as with haste in these zones. You can create 1 Timewinder per day and you can have up to 10 + your Int modifier at any time. This cannot stack with Haste.

Extend Spell – At 3rd level, you gain the Extend Spell Bonus Feat.

Phase Rush – At 5th level, you can choose to slow down time slightly to allow you some extra speed in attacking. You attack as if affected by a flurry so that you get an extra attack at your highest BAB but all attacks are at a minus 2. You can do this as many times per day as your Intelligence modifier. At 11th and 14th level, you can add one additional attack on to the front end of this at your highest BAB. This cannot stack with flurries.

Spell Manipulation – At 6th level, as many times as your Int modifier per day, you can choose an active spell of an enemy you know of that has a duration and halve the time it has left to be active.

Time Slow – At 8th level, you can use a move action to slow all entities in a battle. They then all have a -8 to AC until the end of your turn.

Quicken Spell – At 9th level, you gain the Quicken Spell Bonus Feat.

Time Hop – At 12th level, at the end of a turn, you can choose to warp back to wherever you started at the beginning of that turn. You can do this as many times per day as your Int modifier.

Reverberating Time – At 12th level, you can make a touch attack against someone that causes them to lose all free and bonus actions for the next turn.

Alternate Timelines – At 13th level, once per day, at the start of your turn you can cause two different timelines to be created for yourself. You can then perform two separate full turns for yourself. At the end of this, you choose whichever turn you think turned out better. What happens in one timeline does not happen in the other and all events from the one you didn’t choose are cancelled.

Time Interruption – At 16th level, once per day, you can choose to take a turn at any time that is not your own. This then becomes your new initiative.

Split Second Swap – At 16th level, once per day, you can choose to make two standard actions in a turn instead of taking a move action.

Rearrange – At 17th level, by bending the properties of time at the start of a battle, a Chrono Buster can buff or minus 4 from all unit’s initiative. You can only do this once per day and must expend 100 xp to do so. All units affected can attempt a Will Save with a DC of 12 + your Int modifier to resist this effect.

Timeless – At 18th level, you no longer age and cannot be affected by aging effects.

Time Stop – At 19th level, you can stop time for as much time as the Time Stop ability as well as an additional Intelligence modifier number of rounds.

Chrono Bust – At 20th level, once per day, you can go back in time a whole round in battle in order to reverse all damage and events in that round. A Chrono Buster must keep track of damage from the previous round themselves if they wish to do this.

Temporal Shift – At 20th level, you are able to travel into the Temporal Plane and use your abilities to manipulate it to your advantage. You can go back or forward in time up to Xd6 hours. The X is equal to your level. This ability only allows you to travel around and observe this time period and only for half the amount of time as how far you can travel and in this form you cannot be seen nor can you interact with the world. This ability negates any situations where you or player characters would be involved in the event as the Temporal Plane assumes that things will change based on your will in that regard.

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inkstains-coffecups · 4 years ago

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Procrastination and writer’s block

And how thwarting one can help beat the other.

[Image ID: Open books on a bed, a notebook opened in pages full of writing, printed papers of information with penciled scribbles, an opened laptop and a cup of coffee next to it.]

I swear I’m not full of BS. Just listen for a sec. I have been writing for half a decade now and I know that while writing is quite a fun and rewarding process, oftentimes it seems impossibly daunting and nothing you write seems good enough. All of these are valid feelings; as fun and rewarding as writing can be, it is also incredibly hard and you may procrastinate yourself into a writer’s block (and I should know, since I’ve done it an embarrassingly high amount of times myself). The connection between the two might not seem visible from the get-go, so let me elaborate further.

Why do you procrastinate?

You procrastinate about things that make you feel uncomfortable. Yes, you read that well. You think about writing that one scene you are dreading and, bam, the pain centers of your brain light up. So, you shift your attention to something more enjoyable, like, say, searching writing memes to laugh and commiserate with other writers in the same situation (even the best of us do it). This causes you to feel better at least temporarily. But sadly, the long-term effects of habitual avoidance can be nasty.

Now, what makes procrastination dangerous and hard to break out of is that, funnily, it shares features with addiction. It offers temporary excitement and relief from sometimes boring reality. It's easy to fool yourself, for example, into thinking that the best use of the writing time you’ve assigned for yourself is researching the historical ramifications of X event that happened that one year instead of actually writing the scene.

Breaking down procrastination.

In itself, procrastination is a habit. The thing about habit is that it’s an energy saver for you. It allows you to free our mind for other types of activities. You go into this habitual “zombie mode” far more often than you might think, that's the point of habit. You don't have to think in a focused manner about what you're doing while you're performing the habit. Habits can be good and bad, they can be brief like absently brushing back your hair or they can be long for example when you prepare a cup of coffee before sitting down in front of your laptop to write. You can think of habits as having four parts:

The cue is the trigger that launches you into “zombie mode”. A cue by itself is neither helpful or harmful. What matters is what you do in reaction to such a trigger. Cues usually fall into one of the four following categories: location, time, how you feel, and reactions, either to other people or to something that just happened.

The routine is the habitual response your brain is used to falling into when it receives the cue. Zombie responses can be useful, harmless or sometimes harmful. Your brain wants to automatically go into this routine when you've gotten your cue.

The reward is... pretty self-explanatory, really. Every habit develops and continues because it rewards us. It gives us an immediate little feeling of pleasure. Procrastination is an easy habit to develop because the reward, moving your mind's focus to something more pleasant happens so quickly and easily. But good habits can also be rewarded.

The belief is the crux of a habit. Habits have power because of your belief in them. To change a habit, you'll need to change your underlying belief. You may find that when the going gets stressful, you long to fall back into a old more comfortable habits.

Okay, so how do you stop?

Now, that you understand the problem, we can move on to fixing it. The first thing you should know, and I cannot stress this enough, is that it's perfectly normal to start with a few negative feelings. Maybe you think your writing is absolute garbage and that you’re bothering for nothing and that is perfectly normal. The key here is the way you handle such negative thoughts and feelings. Giving into these dark thoughts is what undermines your efforts, and doing so systematically is what sends you into a writer’s block. Instead, allow yourself to suck from time to time. Re-frame things, put them in a better, more positive light, like saying: “Future-me is going to love me for this.” (Remember that 300 words of bad writing is so much better than no words at all. After all, you cannot fix something that doesn’t exist).

What I want you to learn, though, beyond that, is how to focus on process not product. By process I mean the flow of time and the habits and actions associated with that flow of time. As in, I'm going to spend 20 minutes writing. Product, on the other hand, is an outcome, like the chapter you need to finish. To prevent procrastination you want to avoid concentrating on product. The product is what triggers the pain that causes you to procrastinate. Instead, your attention should be on building processes. Processes relate to simple habits, habits that allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done.

By focusing on process rather than product, you allow yourself to back away from judging yourself and to relax into the flow of work (which, coincidentally, is also the antidote to writer’s block). Equally important to remember is when a distraction arises, which it inevitably will, you want to just let it flow by. This is when the Pomodoro technique comes to save your ass. You push the distraction, a text from a friend or a notification on Tumblr, away for a fixed amount of time, say, 20 or 25 minutes or even an hour, it’s up to you, and you reward yourself during the break by dealing with it, shifting your focus away from writing. Then, repeat.

We can delve in deeper by analyzing how to stop yourself at different stages during procrastination.

The cue. If you want to stop it before it’s even begun, this is where you start. You should try to recognize what launches you into your procrastination mode. The issue with procrastination is that, because it's an automatic habit, you're often unaware that you've begun to procrastinate. You can prevent the most damaging cues by locking away your phone or disconnecting from the internet for brief periods of time.

The routine. This is your best bet of stopping yourself. As in, this is the reaction point where you must actively focus on rewiring your old habit. The key to rewiring is to have a plan. Developing a new ritual can be helpful. Your plan may not work perfectly at first, but just keep at it. Adjust the plan if necessary and savor those victories when your plan works. Don't try to change everything at once. The Pomodoro technique can be especially helpful in shifting your reaction to the cues.

The reward. This can be a powerful way of thwarting procrastination. Doing so, however, can sometimes require a little bit of investigation. Why are you procrastinating? Can you substitute an emotional payoff? Maybe a feeling of pride for writing that scene, no matter how short, a sense of satisfaction. Can you win a small internal bet or a contest about something you've turned into a personal game, like, say, writing 500 words every day? 200? 20? Remember that habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want to overcome your previous cravings. Only once your brain starts expecting that reward, will the important rewiring take place that will allow you to create new habits. Don't feel bad if you find that you have trouble getting into a flow state at first.

The belief. The most important part of changing your procrastination habit is the belief that you can do it. Belief that your new system works is what can get you through. Part of what can underpin your belief is to develop a new community. Developing and encouraging culture with like-minded friends can help you keep on track. Do you know what that means? WRITING BUDDIES.

And there you have it, the secret unveiled. As a little footnote, this is information I learned in a MOOC I took at Coursera, called Learning How To Learn.

#procrastination #writing #writebrl #writing advice #stop procrastinating #wa: procrastination #wa: writers block

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blackjack-15 · 5 years ago

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A Surprisingly Thoughtful Spin — Thoughts on: The Haunted Carousel (CAR)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

This game also has an additional section between “The Mystery” and “The Suspects” entitled “The Theme”, where I’ll talk about the philosophy within this game, and how it stands out and solidifies its place as a truly “Expanded” game due to that thoughtfulness.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: CAR, brief mentions of CLK, CRY, HAU, and ASH, brief but slightly spoiler-y mention of the opening act of SPY.

The Intro:

The Haunted Carousel is, without preamble, a fantastic game.

I know I normally start these with a brief analysis of what stands out about the game or what it’s done for the series as a whole — and I will do that, never fear — but I think it’s important to establish first and foremost that, while it’s not an Overtly Beloved game, it very much should be, and it doesn’t get enough near enough credit. Especially since, in my opinion, the many great modern games’ tight plots and varied protagonists have their roots in this excellent game.

With a logical and ever-progressing plot, characters who feel like actual people, beautiful visuals, and historical backstories that round out the present day plots (plots!! In the plural!! Huzzah!!), Haunted Carousel may not be a wild ride, but it is a consistent, fun, and surprisingly thoughtful one.

CAR is perhaps the odd one out of its fellow Expanded games (SSH through SHA) in that its location isn’t really anything immersive. You don’t spend your time outdoors in thick atmosphere nor surrounded by trinkets of the Maya nor stuck on an old ranch, but between a bright hotel room and a shut-down (but not rundown) amusement park during the day. Its historical background isn’t linked to a specific area, there isn’t a “standout” scene featured in every gifset or trailer, and the wackiest the game really gets is expecting the player to enjoy Barnacle Blast.

In most ways, in other words, CAR is an exceptionally quiet game in the middle of quite a few loud ones, which might account for it not getting as much credit as it deserves. There are flashier games, there are longer games (CAR is quite short), and there are games with better and more memorable cutscenes…but there’s not many games in the series (and none of out the expanded games as well-told and sincere as CAR.

Not only is CAR a lot of fun to play, but it also takes care to mean something – to tell an actual story rather than a bare-bones whodunnit. The characters all have their reasons for being there and being involved, and they all have something to say as well — some directly contrasting each other. CAR doesn’t feel really like a computer game where everything is laid for the Convenience of the Plot and the suspects are only there to robotically deliver plot points and incriminate themselves. Rather, it feels like a whole story with real people where a crime happens to occur, but not everything revolves around that central plot point.

It’s also remarkable in the presence of a protagonist, which isn’t really something that Nancy Drew games have done yet. Nancy herself doesn’t count because at this point, Nancy doesn’t gain or lose anything from the mystery; she’s not the one with a problem, nor does she discover anything about herself. The Nik-era games are notable for their strong protagonists (or, often, dual protagonists with Nancy acting as one out of the two), but CAR really is the first one to take a character and have Nancy be a part of their story, rather than having Nancy act as a magnet to four pieces of metal and a mystery.

Mechanically, CAR is much the same as games that have come before it, as we won’t see another big upset until SHA, with the addition of Nancy’s cell phone (oh blessed day) and, most importantly, a task list. Fans had been asking for a task list since MHM (which sorely needed one so that you could at least identify which hanzi you had already seen) and CAR delivers that long-needed mechanical update.

The historical backstory is more recent than in most games, happening not in Antiquity or even during the 1700s but instead in the modern(ish) day, featuring the man behind the titular Carousel’s horses, Rolfe Kessler. The backstory doesn’t feel like an appendage like in DOG, but really establishes why the Carousel is so important and helps serve the theme of the game (more on that later).

The last thing that’s really important to note in CAR is its villain. By now, HER is reasonably okay at camouflaging its villain for at least the first third of the game, and here does a good job keeping the player in the dark for the first bit. CAR is also HER’s first successful attempt at the friendly villain archetype. Elliott Chen is pleasant, accommodating, friendly, funny, and incredibly likable. He just also happens to be a forger stretched thinner than he’s comfortable with.

Ultimately, The Haunted Carousel is a great game with a huge thematic presence, likable characters, and an honest character arc. Not only should it be a must-play for any new fan, it should be on the top of any older fan’s re-play list, both for its intrinsic value and for its obvious influence on the plots and protagonists of the modern Nancy Drew games.

The Title:

As far as titles go, The Haunted Carousel is a meh one – admittedly, it’s probably the weakest part of the entire game. It does tell us what our focal point will be — the Carousel — and the mystery surrounding the focal point – that it’s haunted — but, like DOG, it doesn’t really go much past that.

After completing the game, the title does mean a little more — the events of the game are a carousel of hauntings in that they seem to be cyclical and mysterious, but are really a farce — a simple fair ride with pretty decorations but simple parts. The carousel itself also points towards the villain, who’s the only artist out of the cast, and seems to allude to Joy’s cycle of sadness — she’s haunted as well.

It’s not a brilliant title, all things considered, but because the game is so good, it’s only a minor blip on the radar rather than something symptomatic of the game’s value.

The Mystery:

Paula Santos, a friend of Carson Drew’s, hears about Nancy’s penchant for solving mysteries and decides to call her in to investigate some thefts and sabotage that Captain’s Cove, an amusement park in New Jersey, has been encountering.

Nancy learns that first, the lead horse on the carousel was stolen, followed by the roller coaster losing power and causing a serious crash. The last straw for Paula was the merry-go-round turning on in the middle of the night, and Captain’s Cove has been shut down until someone — perhaps a badly-attired ginger fresh out of high school — can figure out what’s causing these problems.

It’s Nancy’s job to explore the shut-down amusement park, talk to the leftover staff, help reconstruct a carousel horse, and use such Astoundingly Modern Technologies as a cell phone and a laptop in order to crack the case behind The Haunted Carousel.

As a mystery, CAR is a pretty good one; it’s the age-old Nancy Drew Sabotage set up, but with the twist of happening at an amusement park. There are plenty of clues and even more red herrings, and the attempt to keep you guessing until the 3/4ths mark is a solid attempt.

I don’t know if this mystery feels more fun because it’s at a place like an amusement park or if really is that fun, but the overall effect is the same, and CAR is a delight to solve. The backstory and present story fit together like jigsaw pieces, and the suspects are both interesting and a ton of fun to question.

Is CAR an overly difficult or surprising mystery? Not to the modern mind, I would say, especially given the mystery fans’ inclination to suspect the friendliest suspect (a hole-in-one suspicion here). But it is incredibly fun to see how everything is put together, and it’s a water-tight mystery, if not air-tight.

It’s okay that the mystery isn’t the absolute greatest, however, because it isn’t the most profound part of the game.

The Theme:

Prior to CAR, Nancy Drew games didn’t really bother with the concept of theme. It was new and novel and difficult enough to design detective computer games that ran efficiently with decent graphics and to put them out twice a year that HER focused, quite rightly, on that rather than on trying more complex ideas.

With the formula and the game engine firmly established, however, and a small but fervent fanbase ready to devour the latest game — and being in charge of their own distribution — HER was ready to expand their games in a way separate from technology or location: it was ready for a strong theme.

As a character, Nancy deals with some pretty heavy stuff during the course of her mysteries. In the early games, we don’t really see it affecting her that much, which is a product of simple writing and, in my opinion, the child-like resilience of an 18 year old. While she has her occasional line like “to think I almost made friends with a jewel thief!” in TRT, these cases tend to engage Nancy on an intellectual level rather than an emotional one.

CAR shifts that narrative slightly and allows Nancy to bond with a suspect — Joy Trent — over their shared loss of a mother. Joy has also lost her father recently and is stuck in mourning over both her father and her childhood. Her father, having realized how both repressed and depressed Joy is, decided to build her a robot to help her get in touch with her childhood again. In other words, the jumping off point of the story is a father who wanted good things, happiness, and safety for his daughter, and tried to go about it in a way that he thought would be best.

If you’re hearing echoes of SPY here, you’re correct. The difference here being that Joy’s repression of tragedy leads her into a pit of inaction while stewing over that tragedy, while Nancy’s repression (which I’ll talk about more in my TMB meta) pushes her to action while ignoring the driving force of that tragedy.

CAR is also, I believe, the first time that Nancy mentions the death of her mother to a suspect, and it’s a really humanizing moment for her. As much as Nancy can be driven, tactless, and goal-oriented, she’s not a robot, and she does have personal as well as professional reasons behind the things she does and the characters she tends to bond with.

The first big thematic point in CAR is the importance of connection. It juxtaposes morose, prickly Joy (who doesn’t want a friend but gets one anyway) against our villain, who is friendly and smiling and charming but is by no means someone Nancy should make friends with. It also asks a question to tie into this theme: are those who are mean bad, and are those who are bad always mean? It’s almost a Shakespearean theme (“one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”) and it’s well-placed here.

The second theme comes up in the backstory about Rolfe Kessler, a genius who struggled all his life with mental illness, eventually ending with him never getting the credit he deserved and without the companionship of the woman he loved, Amelia.

It’s a tragic story in a way that HER hasn’t really done tragic stories yet — MHM has a basically happy ending, in TRT by the end the implication is that Marie is finally going to get the credit and un-blackening of her name that she deserves, FIN’s is a whole mess so we’re not even gonna try to dissect that, and in SSH the Whisperer is vindicated.

There’s no descendant of Rolfe in this game; no historian ready to exculpate him, no family members or friends to remember him fondly to Nancy over the phone. Rolfe is in the game, as in his life, alone. It’s a tragedy, and the way that Nancy and the player discover his genius and his story is quiet, as befitting the man.

Through Rolfe’s story we address the twin themes of remembrance — that how you’re remembered will generally be the way you lived (think DED’s dénouement for further insight) in the time that you lived — and of the role of trauma and struggle in life. Rolfe’s struggle against his illness didn’t make him a genius, but it did stand in his way of achieving all that he could.

And that’s where we tie into Joy and the main theme of the game. Once again, we see a person being limited by their mental illness and their struggle against it, and a world that doesn’t really take that struggle into effect. Instead of Joy being alone in this struggle, however, she has help — not just the small help from Nancy, but the help and support of her father through Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine.

Miles was created by Darryl Trent to help Joy unlock her childhood memories and move past her trauma in a healthy way – and only if she was actually dedicated to the task. The riddles, while not hugely difficult, are enough to dissuade Joy from ever really trying to get past them, as she’s not ready to open that lid just yet. As anyone who’s experienced mental illness (or had a close loved one experience it) knows, there’s no way for you to improve and grow if you’re not ready to receive the help you need.

Opening up just a little bit to Nancy and having someone who doesn’t have to care about her problems actually care is enough to springboard Joy to take the first step and try to tackle the riddles again with a little help. Over the course of the game, Joy gets more and more ready and less resentful towards her past and finds the strength to confront herself and her illness.

While the trauma of losing her mother in the way that she lost her (not to mention the added weight of her family’s financial situation) didn’t make Joy strong, the choice to struggle through and come out the better on the other side does make her end the game stronger than when she started and with more — pardon the pun — joy in her life. That progression is what makes her the protagonist, but is also sets her up to have the theme hand-delivered to her.

Miles states that it was Darryl’s belief that life is simply made up of memories. This is why it’s such a big deal that Joy’s memories of her mother are repressed, because her brain is actively erasing her life. As Joy moves through those memories with Nancy and Miles’ help, she gains back her life and is shown that, while struggle is a part of life, it doesn’t define life — and that a good life isn’t necessarily a life made up of only good things.

The presence of these themes (and of the final theme in particular) is what makes CAR such a strong game. Though the characters are delightful, the aesthetic is fabulous, the Hardy Boys are here, and the history and puzzles are fun, it’s CAR’s strong thematic elements interwoven with its plot that really makes it something special.

So let’s get on with those characters, shall we?

The Suspects:

Joy Trent is the current bookkeeper of Captain’s Cove and basically the man in charge apart from Paula. Her father Darryl used to work at/own half of Captain’s Cove, but died poor (specifically of a heart attack in bankruptcy court, poor man) after having to sell his part of the park to Paula. Thus, Joy holds a grudge against Paula even as she does good work for the park.

She’s also suffering a bit of childhood amnesia due to the trauma of her mother dying when she was young — the first of the women featured in this game series to share that backstory with Nancy. This forms a lot of the story’s B plot (with the historical backstory of the game being relegated to the C-plot) as Nancy and a funny little computer help her to move past this emotional block, confront her past, and progress to a better future.

As a suspect, Joy isn’t a bad pick at all, in part because she is responsible for a portion of the sabotage — the shut-down of the roller coaster while it was in operation – over bitterness for her father’s ignominious end. This little instance is helpful for diverting attention away from the true saboteur — though she doesn’t mean to — and it helps round out Joy as more than just the sad daddy’s girl (and resident protagonist) that she would be otherwise.

Well, other than her magical talking robot companion.

Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine isn’t really a culprit, but he definitely needs to be noted here, as he’s the best help that Nancy has outside of the Hardy Boys. Miles knows everything about Joy, yet he can’t move the story forward without Nancy completing a little task after task that unlocks the next portion of his (rather, by proxy, Joy’s father’s) quest to help Joy become a well-rounded, non-traumatized person who can face her past.

I’ve said enough about Miles’ part in the Theme section above, so I’ll move on without too much in this area.

Harlan Bishop is the security guard of Captain’s Cove and an ex-forger in a past life. He’s also voiced by Jonah Von Spreecken, best known for his long-running stint as Frank Hardy and for his writing of Francy fanfiction, God bless the man.

Harlan went to jail for forging checks and had a hard time getting a job once he was free, but Paula offered him a job as a security guard at Captain’s Cove and he’s been loyal since, even taking a pay cut in order to keep his job as the park was shut down. He’s also hilarious, giving such immortal quotes as “the whale is getting impatient” when trying to summon Nancy to the security office.

As a suspect, Harlan is interesting. He shares the key identity of the villain — a forger — as a red herring and as a way to complicate the mystery, and he does do something wrong in that he spies on Ingrid to get the passcode to her office. Sure, he does it for a good and innocent reason — he wants to be the best security guard he can possibly be, and that means learning everything about the park — but it’s still wrong to do, and Nancy (in a rather supercilious way) doesn’t hesitate to call him on it (and, once again rather arrogantly, for his past. Nancy’s done way worse than forgery in her hobby as a detective, after all).

Ultimately, Harlan is too good a guy to actually cause the problems and thefts at Captain’s Cove, and stays on with Paula even after getting other job offers once he helps Nancy recover the stolen lead horse for the carousel. He serves as Nancy’s “buddy” character after the mess with Nancy reporting him finishes its business.

Elliot Chen is the art director — and perpetually behind art director — of Captain’s Cove and our friendly neighborhood villain for the game. Elliott is the first to greet Nancy with a smile and a joke, and is friendly in a way that instantly suckers the player in.

HER has been trying since TRT’s Lisa to create a villain that’s actually a sort of friend to Nancy – or at least passes off as someone becoming her friend throughout the course of the game, and they nail it with Elliott. He even mentions Poppy Dada as a sort of inside joke with the player that makes one easily warm up to him.

As a suspect, Elliott is perfect. He’s sly enough to take advantage of what others do and fold it into his plan (the roller coaster) and to use people’s superstitions to his advantage both for privacy for his schemes and for driving the price of the carousel horses up.

He’s got just enough clues pointing towards everyone else — taking the eccentricities of his coworkers not only in stride but in good humor and flexibility towards his plans — and a pretty water-tight excuse for falling behind (procrastination — everyone knows artists and other creative types are the Worst Procrastinators) to help him pull off the vast majority of his plan without anyone being the wiser.

In short, Elliott is exactly the kind of character that this game needed, and his presence is a joy — even if (or perhaps especially because) he’s the villain.

Ingrid Corey is the chief engineer of Captain’s Cove, a graduate of OSU, and resident hippy-dippy “nutritionist” who can diagnose a B3 deficiency just by looking at Nancy. She’s a little crazy to talk to, but seems like at first she could just be using that to throw our resident teen detective off the trail.

As a suspect, Ingrid checks all the boxes once again, and not just because she, like everyone else, does something wrong. Ingrid, genius engineer that she is, decides to let a friend borrow the roller coaster’s blueprints to study them for a hefty fee, garnering her enough money for a 20K$ watch and enough left over to look for a new car.

Nancy also suspects her of insurance fraud with a man who got injured on the roller coaster when Joy sabotaged it, but it turns out in a show of startling naiveté, Ingrid just wanted to recommend a neck cream to the unfortunate man rather than help him profit off of his injury.

She doesn’t really become Nancy’s buddy, but she is remarkable in that she sort of disappears for most of the game. At the beginning, it makes her look a bit suspicious, but towards the end it just becomes clear that the game is less focused in Ingrid, who doesn’t really support the theme or move the plot along, and more worried about establishing its meaning and helping Nancy solve the case in time.

The Favorite:

While it should be obvious that my favorite part of this game is its theme and the associated thematic elements, I’ll try to branch out here a bit….though not so far out as to ignore the Hardy Boys, who are once again wonderful in this game. Honestly, most games with the Hardy Boys present are better than most games without the Hardy Boys. (Though of course, there are a few exceptions (notably ASH and SPY).)

CAR has one of my favorite casts (and favorite villains) of the entire series, so they’ll be here as well. It’s such a nice change of pace from games like FIN and DOG where the casts are lackluster to go to games like CAR that are so strong in making you care about the characters.

My single favorite thing about CAR, however, is the presence of a protagonist in Joy Trent. The first games (and quite a few of the middle games, it should be noted) treat Nancy as the main character and lack a protagonist completely, ignoring the fact that Nancy really can’t be a main character in the half-ghost (personality-wise) state she’s in, especially given that most of her dialogue is “ask a question, get an answer” rather than showing any real personality or particular motive beyond solving the case. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why that was the case given the limitations of the early 2000s and of HER in particular, but it does remove any possibility of Nancy being able to be the protagonist.

That’s why Joy’s presence is such a delight, honestly. She’s the character with the problem to solve — her past traumas — and the game carries Nancy through helping her in a way that Nancy’s never really helped anyone before. Sure, Nancy solves the mystery, but what she really does is offer peace to Joy, who can now grow up a little further and move on. CAR gives Nancy a purpose that will be improved and expanded upon in games like CLK, CRY, HAU, and GTH.

My favorite puzzle is the entire puzzle track with the carousel (including the conversation with Tink, who is a wonderful phone friend). There’s something super cool about going inside a carousel and finding out how the magic works, and there’s so much to explore in it that it’s really a magical place, even though it’s not actually anything supernatural.

My favorite moment in the game (other than the final ‘battle’) is the conversation with the Hardy Boys after Nancy nearly gets run over due to her own clumsiness. A classic.

The Un-Favorite:

Because of the care taken with CAR, there won’t be a lot in this section.

My least favorite puzzle is probably the mini-plot revolving around fixing Barnacle Blast — and then playing Barnacle Blast. While it’s not a horrible game in and of itself, it just doesn’t really fit the overall aesthetic of the puzzles of Captain’s Cove, and for me it sticks out quite a bit as a “oh we need a puzzle here what can we think of that the kids like” and came up with an arcade game in a vintage-style amusement park. It’s a bit off.

The stenography isn’t a great one as well, but I give it props for fitting the atmosphere and theme, so it’s not my least favorite.

My least favorite moment in the game…is probably where Nancy knocks over Elliott’s paint, as it seems to be a Big Moment but — Nancy doesn’t actually ruin anything, and it makes Elliott look a little silly.

I know that most of the games (especially as early as CAR) didn’t want to have Nancy do anything wrong in the non-second-chance story of the game, but actually having Elliot forgive her for messing up something important would have been a big step in establishing his character and throwing suspicion off of him — not to mention justifying his even further behind schedule as the game goes on.

The Fix:

So how would I fix CAR?

There’s not a lot of work to be done here, honestly. Take out Barnacle Blast and substitute it with a more on-theme mini-game, lengthen out the game a bit by playing up Ingrid’s plotline along with everyone else’s and perhaps giving Elliott something to do in the latter half of the game so it’s not so obvious by that point that he’s the Villain, and you’ve pretty much clinched it without any real re-working.

Like I said in the last paragraph of the above section, a tweak of the cutscene with “ruining” Elliott’s work would help his and Nancy’s storyline to have a different and improved feel, but that’s pretty much it as far as concrete changes go.

The beauty of CAR is that its simplicity actually works, rather than feeling bare-bones or underwritten. It’s not a difficult or complex mystery, but that’s not the point of Nancy’s being there or of the game as a thematic whole.

Sure, CAR deals with some pretty heavy themes such as loss, loyalty, debt, revenge, trauma, shades of mental illness, and even the question of is a bad person necessarily a mean person, but it accepts those bad things in stride and knows that they’re necessary in order to tell a tale of resilience and a happy ending. Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine delivers that theme to both Nancy and to the player, after all: “even bad memories have a place in a good life”.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #the haunted carousel #nancy drew meta #my meta #CAR #video games

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