#kinda goes against the point of loa

[xoxoshifts]

Can we start using like idk shifting¹ as shiftblr shorthand for "I may not have shifted to my dr but you shift every time you try so I'm not calling it an 'attempt'"

[starry-bi-sky]

I am absolutely loving your Danyal Al Ghul au. While I have a soft spot for the whole plotline of Danny becoming his canon personality almost right after breaking away from the LOA all because of Jazz, I'm just as much for your take in which he goes through the same character development as Damian.

Now I'm curious. You already tackled his relationship with Dani, will you eventually take a stab at when he, Sam, and Tucker meet Gregor? Given that it's one of my hated episodes as I couldn't stand Sam's infuriatingly hypocritical attitude to Danny's suspicions of him, I'd kill to see your spin on it.

Aw, thank you! Danyal Al Ghul aus are what got me into DPDC first, so I have a major soft spot for them. That being said, uh, its exactly that soft spot that causes me to have Many Opinions about the trope you just mentioned. Like the trope is all fine and dandy, i don't blindly hate it, my main issue with it is that most aus i've seen treat his backstory as an ex-assassin more like a pretty cosmetic accessory rather than something that actually should have had an impact on him. Especially if he remembers being in the league.

Like i cannot stress enough the fact that being in an ecofascist assassin cult (regardless of his standing in it) should've left him, in some way or another, screwed up morally and psychologically because that's just how development works. Nature vs. Nurture is like a game of tug-o-war that never ends, where they are constantly fighting against each other and one side usually has the upper hand or greater influence. Children model the behaviors of the adults around them (ex: bobo the clown doll experiment), and what impacts them in childhood can stick with them permanently.

Like how my psychology professor put it: a baby's brain is like wet cement; if you slap your hand on it, it leaves an imprint, and the cement dries that way. The same rings true for small children.

I could go on, but I frankly have so many thoughts on that alone that I would end up completely derailing from the second half of your ask, and I don't want to be more critical than I already have. Especially since you just mentioned you have a soft spot for the trope.

[Okay, hold onto your hats because this is long. Naturally lmao.]

Gregor! Man, I'll admit I last watched the show back in middle school on a dodgy illegal website (it had surprisingly good audio and visual graphics, and full episodes. But really annoying porn ads.) but I only made it to like season 1 before my hyperfixation faded and I lost interest. So I never actually saw the Gregor episode.

But... it is relatively easy to find free websites that stream Danny Phantom :), so finding the episode took me like. Thirty seconds. Plus the Tv.Tropes recap page because my damn earbuds just died and im out in public as of rn.

I'm not sure if I'll write something for the gregor episode like I did with Dani, since Dani's a bit of a special case in that she's a clone and tends to be a reoccurring presence in DPDC, and I thought the new dynamic with Danyal would be interesting.

Plus, I'm not a big amethyst ocean shipper for the pure reason of I'm just not all that interested in it; its kinda bland to me. I'll admit I've entertained the thought in this au due to the whole balcony scene i wrote, but I would've entertained the thought anyways if it was Tucker in that position instead. Big multishipper, me.

But, if I had to make it official? Danyal is not interested romantically in Sam when the Gregor episode happens, regardless of his relationship with Valerie. Who, speaking of I'm trying to think about how that would go, and I'm torn between including him almost-dating Valerie or not.

Because on one hand it helps point out Sam's hypocrisy (and i love her but i am always happy to point out her flaws and address them in au) in this episode in terms of Danny spying on them, but on the other hand I'll want to include a lot of set up in order to make Gray Ghost work in this au and wow will that take a while.

Especially with the Flirting with Disaster episode because it happens due to Technus' meddling, and Danny is, well, the son of the Batman? A trained assassin? An ex-assassin nonetheless, but still an assassin? A prodigy child in this au? He might not have needed to use most of his skills in the last few years, but like... there's just a bunch of 'what if' and 'well technically...' and 'would he? he could, but would he?' things that is getting in the way of my thought process and making my head spin.

.

Mmm. Okay. Flirting with Disaster occurs relatively the same as canon with a few exceptions; like Danyal noticing the strange coincidences, and he might take the idea into proper consideration because Sam has a point it is strange, especially out of nowhere.

However,,, he really enjoys Valerie's company, and he does really like her. He's been adjusting to civilian life for the last four years and while he's made a lot of progress, he's still. an ex-assassin child living like a wolf amongst sheep. This is normal, typical teenager stuff, and usually his friends like to encourage him doing normal teenager stuff.

So he's stubbornly holding out on the thought that this is normal, that ghost stuff isn't interfering here. He's a little hurt that his friends are discouraging this, he's not bothered by the fact that Valerie is a ghost hunter and he a ghost -- his mother is an assassin, and his father is Batman, and they still had a relationship. (Granted, he's not gonna tell them that)

If anything, being diametrically opposed to each other but still being in love is part of the family! Granted, usually both parties are aware of said opposition to each other, but he'll make a special exception this time around.

(And man now that i'm thinking about gray ghost, im now thinking about various like. scenes i could write between the two of them. maybe in a reblog.)

Anyways uhhh things relatively go the same as canon. Yeah. I think Sam still has a crush on Danny and still spies out of jealousy with Tucker.

.

Now, the Gregor episode! With that out of the way; the TVTropes recap for this episode isn't the best because it doesn't go into detail about the entire episode like it does with Flirting With Disaster and Shades of Gray.

(which i looked at earlier because I made a section of this post talking briefly about what changes I'd make to the Shades of Gray episode to help set up Gray Ghost, but ended up deleting because it was kinda irrelevant for the matter at hand.)

So I'm taking in bits of the episode clips at a time, I'll try not to get too nitpicky about how each scene goes because then it's gonna take me a longer time to write this.

But! First thing's first; since Danny is not romantically interested in Sam, he is also not jealous of Gregor. He is however, a bit eyebrow-raisey at him in their first introduction, but that's because Gregor is coming off as obnoxious.

Danny thinks he's kinda annoying, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Gregor is trying to impress Sam. But since they've only known him for five minutes he takes the good faith assumption and assumes that Gregor is genuinely trying to show interest in Sam's interests too because he likes her, so he keeps mum. The fake hungarian accent is weird, but it's overall harmless, so he doesn't point it out.

He does do the spying thing when he starts suspecting that Gregor might be working for the GIW. The episode only has this happen twice, but for the au this happens a handful of more times over the course of the week, with Danyal's suspicion steadily rising more and more each time.

Hah, when he brings up wanting to spy on Sam and Gregor because of this reason, Tucker still does his "woah! you wanna spy on Sam?" thing.

Danny immediately turns to him, completely unimpressed, and crosses his arms. "Tucker," he says, deadpan, "you and Sam spied on me and Valerie."

He uses a combination of his ghost powers and his regular stealth ability to spy on them. He's hiding in a tree when they're skipping rocks, close enough that he can use his powers to hear them talk but far enough away that he has a good view of their surroundings.

He's invisible in the cinema, but doesn't accidentally get in front of the projector. He checks the inside of the room for the GIW, and then waits outside the actual room itself, keeping an eye on the area and occasionally flying in to watch the movie out of boredom. It reminds him of being back on a recon mission with the League, but it doesn't end with him orchestrating someone's death.

Then when they're at the mall he stays in human form, blending in with the crowd. He runs into the GIW there, but realizes that they're not there because of Gregor; they're just shopping. They didn't show up at either of the last two locations, and he follows them to make sure they're not also trying to blend in. But they're literally just there for shopping.

Danny is rather pleased with this turnout; so far Gregor isn't a spy, he's just annoying. The next day at lunch he asks Sam how her date with Gregor went, and that's how she figures out he spied on them, because well, she didn't tell him that.

"Have you been spying on me?"

Danny messes with his food a little bit, and Tucker is sinking into his seat with embarrassment. He frowns, "Only last night. Those incompetent government dodos--"

His lip curls up; he gets all 'Shakespeare-y' (as Sam and Tucker put it) when he's insulting someone, "--kept appearing whenever Gregor did. I followed you and him last night to make sure he wasn't a spy."

A roundabout way of saying, "I was worried".

Sam is, as canon, furious. Danny understands why, he knows generally speaking that people don't like being spied on. But he's confused on just how angry she is, and is a little irritated by it.

"Why would you do that!" She exclaims, "That's way out of line, Danny."

"How? You spied on me when I was going on dates with Valerie." He narrows his eyes, and points his fork at her, "I'm not blind, I noticed."

"That's different, we told you why we were suspicious. And we don't have ghost powers like you do."

"I don't need ghost powers to sneak around, Sam, you've seen this firsthand. And I just told you why I followed you, I thought he was working with the guys in white--"

"So you think someone can only be interested in me if they're after you?" (this is a paraphrased quote, folks ;D)

"No! If that was the case I would have voiced my concern the moment I thought it. I don't get why you're so angry, you spied too."

Iiits.... a mess. Sam storms off with Gregor, Tucker tags along because okay, yeah, maybe Gregor isn't with the GIW, or maybe last night was a fluke. Either way he ends up tagging along. Danny overhears that conversation between the GIW and Mr. Lancer, and maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong; but something is up.

I've gotten to that scene in the locker room where Gregor tells Danny that he knows he doesn't like him, and I've paused at Danny's reply to say this: Danyal doesn't even bother trying to deny it.

"I know you do not like me."

"You're right; I don't."

"Ah, let me finish. I know you do not like me because you want to protect your friend, Sam, and I respect that."

"...That's correct."

"Good! Because I am going to ask her out."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," he stands up, claps his hand tight on Gregor's shoulder, and leans close to him with a threatening smile, "so you understand me when i say; if you break my best friend's heart, you're as good as dead, right?"

"Ah,, yes. I am so glad we got that cleared out of the way, and now I hope after we can.. how you Americans put it, hang out?"

In the episode he hugs Danny and gives him a la bise (which is that french greeting where you kiss someone on the cheek two or more times) after they end their conversation. But here, when he goes to do that to Danyal, Danny leans away, points an accusatory finger at him, and says; "Absolutely not; we are not close."

The next scene after that is like, end of day. Sam, Tucker, and Gregor walking away. Sam looks over her shoulder to glare at Danny, then gets forlorn. Tucker looks back and just looks forlorn.

(When did I start narrating each scene?? Eh, I'm writing this in brief spurts of time throughout the day. Don't fix what's not broke)

After that there's this whole scene with the two GIW agents that have been chasing Phantom all episode. They're there because they have Tucker's PDA that Skulker took, and it's got the information of their purple backed gorilla assignment on it. They've been going around seeing who Tucker associates with in hopes of catching Phantom.

Uhh ahaha and that is where this gets a little interesting imo, and also allows me to mention that im retconning Danyal's (already) redesigned ghost form. Which I've wanted to retcon even before this moment bc it was just too busy. I'll get to that in a moment.

The GIW suspect Gregor for being the Phantom because of his white hair and green eyes, which is all fine and dandy until you remember: Danyal (and by extension Phantom) has that very noticeable, rather identifiable facial scar that goes across the middle of his fucking face. The GIW could easily suspect that Phantom hides his scar with makeup if he's in disguise, but if they meet a kid with a seemingly identical facial scar and similar disposition? Hoo boy.

Solution? I've got two: Gregor is canonically a kid from Michigan who faked everything to impress Sam. Considering he knows she's gothic and knows that she's ultra-recyclo vegetarian? He probably watched her from afar or got information on her somehow. His hair is dyed, his eyes might just naturally be green, but if he notices that she's got a crush on either Danyal or Phantom? A little sfx makeup could help him recreate a similar looking scar.

My second solution that's gonna happen anyways bc its that suit redesign; Danyal does hide his face as Phantom. Ghosts are emotional creatures and its a popular headcanon that their interests, ambitions, etc, influence the way they look as a ghost, not just their death. A big reoccurring theme of my au is that Danyal did not leave the League unscathed, and that being an assassin is an important part of his identity.

So i'm discarding the hazmat suit look entirely and leaning into the 'assassin' thing. But the general (stylized) feel is like, white ribbon/cloth vambraces that he has used as a garrote at some point, a hood, a gaiter scarf-type thing. I'm keeping the cape. I did a doodle a few days back that's not the official redesign, but a redesign for Phantom. I may reblog this post with that attached because it's got the general feel down. There's very little white involved, but the inside of his cape flares out and looks like the night sky.

Now, the hood and gaiter scarf gets rid of most of the problem, but Danny's hood doesn't stay on all the time, so the GIW have likely seen the upper half of the scar. :] Gregor's own drawn-on scar doesn't have to be 1:1, but it looks close enough, right? A small scar cutting through the edge of his brow and ends right below the corner of his eye. A 'cool, badass' one opposed to Danny's 'garish' scar.

But! Back to the episode scene. Canon Danny gets written off as being 'too prepubescent' to be Phantom, and honestly it'd be hilarious if Danyal was written off for the same reason (he's calling them idiots in his head if they do). But instead -- leaning into the GIW's incompetence here -- he gets written off as being too mature or too talkative. Or something equally as absurd.

Sam breaks up with Gregor for canon reasons, but when Gregor does his "i really like you, but, come on-!" and gestures to tucker, he adds on "and that scary friend of yours too, seriously!"

Things go relatively the same as canon after that. Danny does end up apologizing for spying, however. Sam does it first. Sorrows, prayers, all that.

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Things usually end up changed or different when I actually write it down, so I'd likely add more or adjust different scenes according to the flow of the oneshot. This is just like, a general vibe of how things would go, and where some of the more obvious changes would be if I did write this oneshot.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the ask :]

[maybeiwasjustjade]

The in-canon explanation for mates makes little sense. If mates are supposedly matched for their equal powers, only one of the three canon mates makes sense: Lucien and Elain. And I say this mostly because of how they found out + their respective power levels.

Elain is a Made female and a seer, and Lucien—while the son of the current HL of Day—is just an ordinary, if particularly powerful, Fae male. Elain has no idea what she’s capable of yet, because no one lets her do anything. Even before Nesta’s magic began manifesting as silver flames or her connection to the Trove, the IC used her for the war by scrying and stuff. Elain is so far untrained even in the one gifts she’s aware of. In a way, it matches with Lucien and the heritage he’s still blind to (potentially anyway). And just like Elain has to potential to be very powerful someday, Lucien may very well be HL of Day.

Plus, they make sense in ways Rhys/Feyre didn’t. Elain became Lucien’s mate after she was made fae, because then the canon theory works. But Rhysand somehow knew Feyre was his mate even before she became Fae, but that makes little sense when you think about it. If the canon theory is accurate, why would the Mother pair the *most powerful* HL with a mere human girl? You can’t even say its about the potential of her becoming fae, because that’s bargaining on fate.

What if Feyre hadn’t been chosen by Tamlin, or she had died before the events of ACOTAR? Or if Nesta or Elain had been brought to Spring instead, and Feyre remained human. What if Feyre never died UtM? Would the HL of Night spend a meager 60ish with a human mate? And while I disagree about Feyre’s power levels, the canon given one is on par with a HL’s, so at leats they match in that.

The same problem with Nesta/Cassian. The bond didn’t snap when she was human, and neither really had a clue before she became Fae, which works. But the power disparity between them is odd. For all that Cassian is a powerful Illyrian, he doesn’t hold candle to Nesta, power loss or no. He has six siphons and nothing else; she has command over life and death, has the power to Make (and Unmake probably), and the Trove answers to her alone. Paired with Gwydion, Nesta rivals Rhysand. So how are they equal to one another? It would make more sense if Nesta’s mate was Azriel even, or Lucien like the original plans. Eris, even.

And honestly, I really abhor the whole “mates are chosen for the sake of breeding powerful children” theory so goddamn much. I know Rhysand said it so most readers accept it as truth, but it really shows SJM’s values if she goes through with it. The idea that a woman is only worth a mate if she can give him children is gross. It also goes against both Feyre and Nedta being mated to Illyrians given the whole wings debacle. But mostly it’s just disgusting that even in a fantasy book, the females are just incubators for powerful heirs. Even the Helion/LoA being mates thing fall under this considering the whole point of it was to birth Lucien.

And it’s also just really homophobic? Because then it means mates can only happen in a heterosexual relationship that would inadvertently result in babies. Kinda disgusting to imply that two males or two females aren’t deserving of such a *beautiful* bond just because they can’t pop out children from it.

[luna-the-cretar]

First impressions of EOM (after finishing episode 1)

Story thus far: ?????? How can I verbally express how much I love it so far????? The train???? The mystique????? The conductor (who may or may not also be the narrator)????? The fucking MOON???? I just. I can’t verbally express how much this campaign already has me hooked. This campaign got me hooked faster than Icebound did, and I thought that Icebound hooked me pretty quickly (since I was all on board for Icebound by the end of Ep 1). But EOM? I was on board (heh) by the time the train first appeared to collect Jericho. Oooohhhh I’m so intrigued.

Jericho: I love him. He’s, admittedly, the character I knew the most about going into EOM, and I still knew next to nothing about him. I just knew that he was a living scarecrow and I knew about Virgil. I did NOT know about the demon, holy fuck. I’m curious. Also…he’s just so…I wanna hug him. So much. Poor guy deserves it. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I think it was inevitable I’d immediately fall in love with him. I mean, the first clue should’ve been that I immediately fell in love with Torbek (to the point where he literally got me into LOA in the first place), who is also a sad character with…oof. Iykyk. But also Jericho was, admittedly, the main reason why I finally decided on EOM as I was done catching up with Icebound. With the mixture of the couple of EOM shorts I’ve seen revolving around Jericho in some way, the bunch of Jericho fanart I’ve seen on here, and the Jericho song they revealed during the anniversary stream? Yeah…it was inevitable. Idk why I’m even surprised (actually, I think I’m mostly shocked that I fell in love with him the moment he started speaking)

Lethica: when Andy said during their BG3 gameplay on the stream on Saturday, that he was surprised that Lethica and Shadowheart’s stories were eerily similar, with Mace then asking if Shart was a cleric of Shar, I didn’t even begin to wonder as to WHY Mace even thought that. I was just shocked that he was right on the money for Shart. Then comes my absolute bamboozlement when reading Lethica’s card, seeing that she was ALSO a cleric of Shar, that suddenly Mace’s question and Andy’s comment made sense. Character-wise, she’s interesting so far. I love that she was immediately just. Very kind to Jericho. I’m interested to see where her character goes.

Marius, Briggsy, and Farryn: don’t have much to talk about either of these characters so far, so I’m combining them. Like Lethica, I weirdly love the fact that he was immediately very warm to Jericho upon meeting him. Also that he’s a very…hopeful person? It’s hard to say what I’m trying to get here, I’m just intrigued by his standpoint, and his relation to Lathander. All I really knew about Marius before going into EOM was his ship with Lethica, and I find it kinda funny that it’s—quite literally—Light x Darkness, just because of their respective gods. Very fun. I like Briggsy’s personality so far. And also, if I had a nickel for every time Richie played a lizardfolk warlock with some relation to death, well…I’d have 2 nickels. That I know of, anyway. And Farryn…I’m sorry but I didn’t even know you existed until I saw you paired against Gideon in the “which is gayer” LOA polls that’s going around. You’re cool so far tho. Like the accent.

Tl:dr: the story has me hooked, I will die for Jericho if he asked (tho he probably wouldn’t bc he’s such a sweetheart), Lethica is really cool so far, and the others are there too, I guess.

[beesfairlyland]

Hi honey! May I ask your opinion about this post?

https://www.tumblr.com/4dkellyreblogs/727000092676128768/mysticc-i-need-your-help-im-a-17-years-old

I’m sorry it might be a bit long, please ignore me if you don’t want to read it!

Personally, I agree with her opinion. But since lots of bloggers are speaking aggressively against loa, I’m not sure if it’s the right way to look at it.

Hii cutie!!💗

Damnn that was long... Anyways i read it and yeah you do you.

She's kinda correct but there's actually no creator here....no one Manifesting anything. No Reality. All just Illusion. The only Reality is just YOU.

There's literally nothing happening rn it's all just picture placed over another picture in continuity. That makes everything appear as seemingly moving reality.

And the blogger speaking about loa agressively as far as ik is because....ppl who actually don't know much about non dualism have started their blog... teaching ppl about something in what they are themselves naive. Ofc you do you but that can mislead ppl into thinking that nd is some method to get something. Their core understanding is of loa and they kinda mix up loa and nd .... making it sound like some failed science experiment.

Ofc follow whatever you wanna follow but it's your responsibility if you are posting your opinions online.

I was talking to @illusionaurie about it and she said:

"ND is not a method to get desires or manifest. It has nothing to do with manifestation or shifting. There is no manifestation or creation. What is being “created” or “manifested” when everything already just IS. It’s like saying you must create eyes when your eyes are already just there. ND is merely a pointer concept to “who/what” you are. The only similarity between ND, Law of assumption and shifting is that they are all just empty concepts and appearances like everything else. That’s why most “ “ bloggers have “no concepts” in their bio. Also there is nothing to believe in, because who is “believing” and in what? What is a belief actually? Nothing 🤷‍♀️ Baseless and empty just like everything else, everything is nothing. Nothing is as it seems.

And what is faith? You’re not a human who needs to have faith in thinking they are God. There is no human. No faith. No creation. Your very “nature/being” is “God”. God / THAT / Awareness whatever you want to call it is all that there is."

" "Everything” just IS. As for the I guess main point of her answer: “The main objective is: freedom from a false sense of self-identification.” I see what she is saying, but it’s more recognising that you never were a human being. What is there to dis-identify with when it doesn’t exist. Merely the subtle noticing that it never was, “everything” is just nothing. And what she said about ND being a “lifestyle of living” I don’t really understand because it’s just a pointer concept to your “true being/nature”, whether your lifestyle is of one as a monk in the mountains or billionaire CEO that goes golfing every Monday it doesn’t matter. And I saw something of needing to disbelieve but who is believing and what is a belief really? And who is understanding? What is there to understand? There’s no desires, no manifestation, no faith, no creation. “ “ just is."

In the end it all boils down to nothing. All this knowledge we are gaining....the books we are reading it's all of no use.

You can only EXPERIENCE THAT!

[msallurea]

Queen I know this is kinda overreacting, but a few minutes ago I scroll in my TikTok and some random video saying that the consciousness and soul is a lie like I literally, my whole world crushed down like they want me to doubt my abilities, idk how am I gonna relieve myself help me , I know God is real😭😭😭 I'm kinda doubt today

It sounds like a faith and belief problem. If you know that God is real for yourself why are you letting someone else's opinion or beliefs shake yours so easily. I think you should break away from social media intake for a while and recurate what your beliefs are and what you truly believe in. This may not be the same thing but, I'm a Christian (even though personally I believe I have tons of work to do to truly be deserving of that title) but I also believe in law of assumption/manifestation. Why? Because I've had personal experiences with both that are too beyond coincidence to just be labeled as a regular everyday experience. Most things I went through I can't even explain to you how it was even possible and the answer is really that it couldn't be nothing but God and Loa.

In my personal opinion the person who said we as humans have no soul is the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard in my entire life. If we had no soul how on earth could we even call ourselves human now THAT is just impossible. If you had no soul you would have no love, no passion, no drive, no dreams, no desires, no kindness, you would literally be nothing without out. Yes you could have everything but with no soul it is nothing at all even God himself said "what could is gaining the world if you lose your soul", it is the most priceless thing man could ever possess so much so that things beyond our human capacity, beyond anything us mere humans could ever comprehend, our things that exist that simple human eyes can't see but our spirits could feel our willing to destroy and take away from us because without it, you are nothing.

As for consciousness not being real or it being a lie makes no sense either, consciousness is literally awareness, there is never a point in time when you're not aware, you're always aware of something even if that something isn't right in front of you. Even if your eyes were closed you're still aware, you're aware that your eyes are closed and all you can see is black behind your eyes. When you're imagining you're being conscious of something aka being aware of some thing in your mind. That's something literally everyone has done and can do.

So do you see how neither one of that tik tok person statements make no sense at all? And because it makes no sense and can be debunked by not only personal experience but pure common sense even though I don't want to bash anyone's personal beliefs, I said all that to say that you as well as anyone else who has this mindset that when someone says something that goes against your beliefs and it starts to make you doubt your own mind do yourself a favor and STOP DOING THAT. If you're gonna doubt yourself anytime someone says something questionable or different or even go as far as blindly believing it all because youre unsure if your thinking is good enough you're gonna always be led astray in someone else's ocean not even realizing they're leading u right into a waterfalls edge to die. If course its fine to hear other people's opinions and see how they view things but that is still THERE perception NOT yours unless of course it resonates to how u feel please stop making others viewpoints question yourself.

[blossom-skies]

Life Update

It’s been forever since I’ve posted since life has been crazy. It’s been soo long since I’ve posted that I’ve even forgotten how to edit my titles of my posts and make them bold 😂. I’m so very sorry for my absence to my tumblr friends. Life as I’ve said has just been crazy and between juggling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, it’s hard to keep track. Like I really don’t use my Twitter anymore and the sites I do use more actively are Instagram and Facebook if I’m truly being honest. But, you guys definitely deserve an update on my life since the Pandemic hit and so here goes and bare with me on my life story for the past couple of years.

Ok so right around the Pandemic I was a hostess at a restaurant. We all went on lockdown naturally because of the pandemic so I was out of a job for a bit. But before that I was having some severe back issues so I was already on LOA for a while like a year and going between different practices to try and figure out the problem with my severe back pain. I waisted a whole year on one practice in which they really had no idea what was going on and thought a rib was causing the issue and was planning surgery to remove one. One comment that was said and that stuck with me to this day and still has me fuming was when the doctor whom we were referred to legitimately said “ I don’t care if she gets the surgery or not I’m still going to get paid.”

I was so so angry I was crying which I don’t normally do but he mistook it as pain and he tried to back track his comment and tried to be all sympathetic. Not only that I failed to mention that that specific appointment we had to wait 3 hours in the waiting room before we were even sent back. Anyway we left that practice shortly after for a more competent team. They figured out that the two rods I had in my spine since I had scoliosis correction surgery were doing the opposite of what we wanted them to do since I am now years old and grew out of them.

Long story short I’m fused from the base of my neck all the way down to the last two joints of my spine which are unfused. Because of this the rods are resting on top of one joint and rubbing up against it and risking a degenerative disc. There’s not much we can do now except pain blocks every three months until my body gets used to the medication. Once we get to that point then the doctor will talk about a big surgery.

The surgery if I recall correctly would be to take out the rods and do it over since I’ve grown out of the old ones and put new ones in. So for right now I’m just sticking with the pain block procedure’s every three months because my doctor doesn’t want to risk paralyzing me since I’m only 31.

Oh yeah and during the pandemic when everyone was trying to keep the amount of people in a room small and social distancing, my second grandfather died of Parkinson’s disease. Almost a year later my brother got a divorce from his wife as well and went to Chicago for finishing school at NorthWestern University to study Prosthetics. He was able to come home within a year and finish the rest of his studies online. Apparently I was his inspiration for his choice of career in Disability and Prosthetics ( long story short and could be another post entirely if you truly want to know my life’s story. I’ve kinda been hiding it from you guys but I do in fact have a disability. It’s called DiGeorge Syndrome. It’s relatively new in regards of a field of study but if you want to know more I can either make a post about it or tell you directly in the Ask Box. I’m just so used to people going Huh? Whenever I mention my disability. I kinda have to follow up with an short explanation of it.)

Anyway back to my update. As I said Lockdown happened I was out of a job, grandpa died, brother divorced and went to Chicago but is now back. I’m now not a hostess as I had quit the job because I felt like I was being taken advantage of. Plus they had people working the grill line who had Covid and that’s just ew. I was also at that point becoming my grandmother’s caregiver on my moms side because she was starting to fall down a lot. My uncle is paying me a whole lot more than I was working as a hostess and my grandmother who is now 99 and will be 100 this year doesn’t fall as often or hardly ever since I’ve been working for her. Although she is developing a small bit of Sundowners Syndrome and im usually getting the brunt of it such as life but I still love her deeply and would rather do this than be a hostess. It’s not like I can stand on my feet for 5 hours straight anymore. I can barely even sit through a 2 hour movie at the theater without my back being upset at me and needing two days to recover. Not so sure how I’m gonna be able to fly to my brothers graduation in March. Oh! Now that all the negative news is over, it’s definitely time for some good news. This Christmas my dad finally got his big dog he’s been wanting which is a Chocolate Lab puppy named Kate. She’s a handful let me tell you.

That mouth never stays closed. Always teething on me, her toys, her leashes, etc. She’s a cutie tho. I’ll include photos of the teething monster in the post. Her adult teeth are already coming in.

That’s not all the good news. My bestie for 18 years is getting married this year (ironically to my ex boyfriend who were still on good terms) and she asked me to be apart of the wedding as one of her bridesmaids. I’m super stoked! Of course I said yes to that. Even better she and her fiancé will be moving into the same apartment complex that my grandma lives in so that’s just super exciting 😁.

@aurora-the-kunoichi

@fyreball66

@the-four-terrapins

@thelostandforgottenangel

@southernblossoms

[that-darn-clown]

Hi I audio recorded my plot synopsis to dandy and I'm gonna post it here just because it took so long so haha get fucked

Below the cut is my rambling ass plot synopsis of the loa too many games oneshot. Spoilers ahead (obv)

So i'm voice recording this so I hope it turns out right. Basically, the plot of this one shot is that cirque du jolly (jolly is chuckle's ex wife) kidnaps Gideon so they can steal his laughter and use it to keep their carnival in business. Basically keep everyone happy. Anyways, so there's like little kerfuffle at the beginning. Like chuckles won't tell them about the note that was hammered onto their door telling them where gideon went because he doesn't want to see his ex wife.

But they eventually head to cirque du jolly and find at the front that there is a clown, a mechanical clown, that won't let them through without either five hundred gold pieces per person for tickets or a funny story from each of them, making the clown laugh. Torbek just states his life story because he says that him living in a dumpster tends to make people laugh. Chuckles goes on a rant about the horrors of marriage which isn't funny but he thinks it's kinda funny I guess. Kremy tells his famous 3 cocks and a joke story. and frost just fucking says and I quote "there was a kid who ate fire. he died." All of these stories are good enough to get them each a ticket and they head inside.

This is kind of where some misc. Fuckery goes on. The part where kremy understands gideons joke is here. The note that they got at the beginning hammered to the door said that they would have to do the funhouse to get to Gideon.

So they do the funhouse and it's fucking insane like there's a mirror room where only Kremy really knows what's going on because he actually rolls well, like rolls perception well, everyone else is freaking the fuck out they think they are each other, it's wild.

Anyways, they get into this bubble. It's like a big bubble and they can't figure out how to pop it for some fucking reason. They get fae curses whenever they eat 1 of the bubbles that's being blown inside of the bubble and one time chuckles eats one and gets a fucking deck of many things which is a big deal!!! Anyways, he draws a card and it's the motherfucking skull card. Which means he summons a wraith and has to fight it on his own. Everyone else is put in stasis. They can't help, if they do help they would get a wraith of their own and they couldn't do that cause the one shot was like two hours they didn't have the time. Anyways, before this torbek had drawn a fate card which gives you a wish but Torbek's fae curse that he got drastically lowered his intelligence. So he didn't know what the card did. He proceeded to say and I quote "I wish that were me" because there was something about getting sucked and torbeck's real into getting sucked. That's like a big inside joke. Anyways, that was a good thing because chuckles doesn't have any attack spells. So torbek fights and wins against this guy, this wraith. Frost eventually figures out he can puncture the bubble with his claw. Because he's a tiger. He can just do that.

and they get out and they get into a swan boat in the tunnel of love. For a moment here there's a weird thing where I can't remember. Someone thinks that someone is evil. And so there's a whole deal where chuckles has to like. Get them to shut up, like to forget that they ever got the fae curse. I don't know, maybe I'm remembering that wrong. Oh, also, chuckles pulled the sun card at some point. Which levels you up like 50000 experience points. So he's level nine now in a party of level threes holy shit. So they go on this boat in the tunnel of love. They have to roll to see if they're affected by another fae curse. And. And kremy and chuckles are fine but torbek and frost lose the roll. Now earlier torbek's hands had been shrunk. So now he says to frost "You'll notice that my hands are torbek sized now. And that's not the only thing that's torbek sized" So they fuck.

And eventually they make it into the part with the wheel and gideon. And I am voice recording this so I'm sorry if this part gets really weird. 'cause I'm still sad about it. Jolly has shackled Gideon to a wheel. And he's unconscious and she comes down from like the rafters. And. And she talks to chuckles and basically says that she doesn't want to get back together with him. Which is what the party thought she wanted this whole time. But she wants to kill him to use his laughter in place of Gideon's, only if the party can win gideon back. A box of knives appear and jolly states that if they hit Gideon 3 times then they lose him and if they hit the board behind Gideon 4 times then they win him back. Torbek volunteers to throw the knives. He throws one and it plunges into gideons thigh. He throws another and it hits gideon in the ribs. He's bleeding and writhes in pain. He's still unconscious but he can clearly feel it. Hooo boy. Um. Then I believe torbek draws a card. Which I can't quite remember I was crying at this point. I believe torbek draws a card which allows him to gain the like agility or dexterity needed. And he throws four knives at once and each hits the back of the board successfully. Then Gideon's mechanical fake laughter fills the room. And jolly reveals that she was never going to give gideon back.

And then they fucking end the session.

[wrestlingisfake]

The New Beginning in Osaka preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA - Naito is defending both the IWGP heavyweight and IWGP intercontinental championships.  He became a double champion on January 5, but before he could fully celebrate his big moment at the Tokyo Dome, Kenta blindsided him to ruin everything.  That doesn’t seem so sacrilegious from my perspective as an American fan, but the Japanese fans seem to really really despise Kenta, so I guess it works.

Naito is hardly the first person to hold two major-league championships at the same time, but it feels like it’s been a long time since a double champion put both titles at stake in the same match.  (The last time I clearly remember was Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe at TNA Hard Justice 2007.)  Since New Japan has actually made both titles feel very important, the significance of winning them both at once has not been lost in the storyline.  The question of whether Kenta truly “earned” this opportunity (since he’s coming off losing the NEVER title and was basically rewarded for beating up Naito) keeps coming up.

I’ve been watching these two in the tag matches they’ve had during the current tour, and I’m noticing that the action is pretty dull.  Kenta has really stepped up the mindgames of slowing down the pace to frustrate his opponent and the audience.  The problem is that Jay White (Kenta’s frequent partner and Naito’s last big opponent) does the same general stuff, and Naito is still doing it from back when he was a total heel.  I’m hoping this doesn’t become a slog like Naito vs. White, but signs are not promising.

It wouldn’t be totally ridiculous to put one of the top titles on Kenta.  But giving him both of them, right now, at the expense of Naito’s long-awaited push, coming off of him ruining Naito’s big moment, might be insane.  I can see Naito dropping one of his championships down the line, but if he’s going to lose both of them in a single match, it needs to be a lot bigger than this.  Naito will almost certainly retain.

Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki - Moxley’s IWGP United States title is on the line.  He regained the title on January 4 and successfully defended it on January 5, but then Suzuki suddenly appeared to issue a challenge.  Suzuki went on to pin Moxley on February 1, to cement his right to go after the championship.

On January 15, AEW ran an angle where Chris Jericho “stabbed” Moxley’s right eye, to build to their AEW championship match on February 29.  Moxley has been wearing bandages and/or an eyepatch over his right eye ever since.  For some reason I was surprised he used the eyepatch in his recent New Japan appearances.  I guess that’s because I thought the idea of fighting Minoru Suzuki with only one good eye is suicidal.  I suppose it’s no different than New Japan wrestlers competing with one shoulder heavily taped up.  But Suzuki projects the feel of being a legit fighter, which forces me to think about how Moxley would never be cleared for this fight if it weren’t totally fake.  

Logically, Suzuki should target the eye, get Moxley to the ground, and just grind his knuckle into the eye socket until the referee stops the match and awards him the title.  However, we’ve already seen them face off in a couple of tag matches on this tour, and they’ve mostly just done the same spots they’d do if the eyepatch wasn’t there.  Maybe they’re saving all that psychology for this show.  But I think it’s going to be tough to maintain Suzuki’s credibility as a sadistic shootfighter if he doesn’t at least pretend to shoot on the eye, and then it’d be tough to maintain the credibility of the match if he doesn’t win.  I suppose Moxley could overcome all the odds, but I’ve convinced myself that he shouldn’t.

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryu Lee - This is Takahashi’s first defense of the IWGP junior heavyweight championship since he regained the title on January 4.  Lee, as Dragon Lee in Ring of Honor, is the current ROH television champion, but that title is not at stake.  Interestingly, Takahashi is a member of Los Ingobernables de Japon, an official spinoff of Rush’s stable in CMLL, while Lee is a member of La Faccion Ingobernable, which Rush started in ROH after CMLL fired him.  New Japan has alliances with ROH and CMLL, so I’ve been real curious if/how they acknowledge that.

Obviously the story here is that this is the first meeting between these two since July 7, 2018, when Takahashi suffered a devastating neck injury from a botched dragon driver by Lee.  Hiromu managed to finish the match and retain the junior title, but he collapsed backstage and spent over a year recovering.  As soon as Takahashi recaptured the title, he requested Lee as his first challenger.

That last encounter in the Cow Palace would have been one of the best matches I’d ever seen, if I didn’t have to deduct points for “wondered if one guy died for a minute.”  Based on their history together, you’d figure Takahashi and Lee will pull out all the stops and have another wild intense flippy match.  Based on how worried everyone has been for the past 19 months, though, you’d expect them to gear down a little, especially against each other.  But it’s pro wrestling, and I’m pretty sure they’re counting on the audience being terrified of another accident, and they’re going to work a close call or two to scare us.  (Here’s a dragon driver spot from 2017, if you want to see the move done correctly, so you’ll know when to be afraid.)

I have mixed feelings on this one, because I’m not sure I want to see these two scare me to death, but they kinda have to do this rematch and I’d like to get it over with.  Assuming all goes well, it should be very good.  It’s just, well, we already know things might not go well.  I kinda have to pick Hiromu to retain, seeing as he already beat this guy with a broken neck.

Jay White vs. SANADA - I’ve forgotten if there was any particular reason these two are fighting.  As I recall Bullet Club faces LIJ on January 6 and White targeted Sanada for some reason. 

White obviously wants back into the heavyweight title picture, but the story is that he’s graciously tabled that so Kenta can chase Naito.  On the other hand, the story with LIJ is that they’re all a bit jealous of Naito winning two titles, and he wants them to keep him on his toes.  (As it happens, Sanada is currently the only man in LIJ without a championship, and there aren’t a lot of titles he can go after without challenging his buddies.)  They haven’t said the winner of this match will be the #1 contender for the winner of Kenta-Naito, but it would not shock me if that happens.

White’s whole deal is that he’s a prick that doesn’t care about having a fun match, and Sanada’s whole deal is that he always looks like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.  So I’m not sure this combination is going to be all that exciting.  If Sanada does all his cool moves and dismantle’s White’s array of heel shenanigans, that’ll be great.  If he just falls for all the shenanigans like every other face (“oh, Gedo is standing on the apron, so I’d better completely ignore Jay while I see what that’s about”), I’m going to get pretty bored.

A win for Sanada would be a big push that would shake up the topcard, so I’m pretty sure Jay wins.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Taichi - We already saw Okada vs. Taichi and Sabre vs. Ospreay earlier in this tour, so this is sort of a last look at those feuds.  (Although Ospreay has already secured a rematch with Sabre at a RevPro show next week.)  I’m sure the announcers will put over what a valiant effort Taichi gave in his loss to Okada, because New Japan is determiend to push him without putting him over anybody.  I’m thinking Okada will just pin Taichi again.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi - These guys are just back from the US tour, where the Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga and Loa) won the IWGP heavyweight tag team title from Robinson and Finlay.  Tanahashi and Ibushi seemed to be trying to get in line for a tag title shot, but things got messed up when Ibushi had to miss the whole US tour.  Ibushi has been suffering from Mallory-Weiss syndrome, and while he could be ready to return for this show, there’s no guarantee of that.  Assuming Ibushi makes it to this match, I can easily see him or Tana pinning one of the tag champs.  Otherwise, they’ll probably just punt and have the other team win.

SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) won the IWGP junior heavyweight title on January 5, but then El Desperado pinned Sho the next day, so his team earned a title match.  The heels worked over Sho’s left knee on February 5 and 6, so that looks to be a major factor going into the match.  This is something like the 300th time these teams have faced one another, and I’m pretty sick of it.  I could see the champs making the heroic babyface comeback to retain, but then again if they dropped the title they’d make sense chasing the junior singles title or the NEVER openweight belt.  The only thing I’m sure of, though, is that they’ll never let this feud die.

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare - Nakanishi is set to retire on a February 22 show, so this is one of his final matches.  Everybody else in this match are guys who regularly team with and/or against Nakanishi in the undercard.  They’ve got all the oldest guys on Nakanishi’s side, so that suggests the other team will get the win.

[babyprime]

i was Utterly Fuckin Star Sabered earlier and was thinking about a college au featuring my fantasy ocs and i came up w the following:

nex: clear and obvious theatre major. theatre kid to end all theatre kids, as usual. going thru kind of a weird clowncore phase and everyones kinda just rolling with it for now. Resents being called a juggalo. into memes and vines. hes like that one benevolent weirdo every school has that everyone knows like some schools have No Shoes Guy some schools have Daily Cosplayer and then this school has Twunky Gym Clown.

aureus: you know that one jock thats always going around looking like he was brought to life as a physical manifestation of bodybuilding forums but always has a thoughtful comment on the lecture and gives u the handout when u miss lecture? yeah. he like never studies but he’s the worlds leading expert on Winging It and is great to have in group projects. probably late daily but no one cares because he makes friends with every professor and its only by like 3 minutes. changes his major way too much. roommates with nex freshman year.

loa: look we all know hes an english major. takes school WAY too seriously and finishes essays in like two days. actually does the readings. hes a good boy but like Rebels a lot in harmless ways after agonizing over it for like 3 weeks. almost definitely befriended nex with a conversation about kuroshitsuji, hes like Squad with the other two after being dragged along with their antics 100% of the time; makes sure neither of them fail

eri: we’re doing this aged down for convenience but. complete and utter art hoe. worlds biggest art hoe, both metaphorically and physically. skips class occasionally to wander off into the woods but spends the rest of the week worrying about it. got married super young but only half for financial aid purposes, The Gag Is theyre soulmates also. hes the best to have in group projects if youre going to hell because even tho it stresses him out he WILL do the whole entire thing by himself and get everyone a free A without saying a word to anyone if u frustrate him enough (but dont do that to him, dont do that to ANYONE are you kidding me)

trouble: no one even knows if he goes there. hes a little older than the rest of the gang but theyre not entirely discounting the possibility that he might just have taken longer or taken time off or w/e. but the jokes on them because all he ever does is lounge in a highly visible spot with some instagrammable beverage while looking really good, hes never gone to class there and probably never will. he just likes the Aesthetic of it all. nex lives there n the gang hang out at his and eri’s place but he hates it because aureus never goes the fuck home

espynn: manic pixie dream classmate. lives the life that tumblr user vampireapologist does apparently. forestry major. eats in class but never gets caught doing it when theres rules against it. theyre that super kind person thats ALWAYS carrying around something for people like spare pencils, paper, pads, medicine, whatever, like they got u. carries a knife around also. always ready to show u the cool frog they saw earlier

bonus! boys content!

annie: he doesnt Go Here but hes around socially because of the others+friends. had to take an extended break over Severe Brain Injury related things, but a lit major and surprisingly into it. on first name basis with absolutely every faculty member in his department and due to overwhelming Big Dick Energy he gets by with fucking around for the time that hes in school

barry: law boy. he dresses like a southwestern farm dad and if he werent hot someone might question the fact that he wears at least two pieces of denim together every single day. gets WAY too stressed about academics and its The End Of The Fucking World if he fails one (1) test. for how charming he is always u would think he would be good socially but no! theres like a 90% chance u will be ghosted by this man! he will forget to reply to u for three weeks then get nervous about responding again after the wait and then just never speak to u again. but also hes the guy that like,,,, talks complete strangers out of a crisis like he finds u sobbing in the student center and then becomes ur new dad and brings u a coffee

jd: doesnt sleep because he takes 8 ams and regrets them. needs mental health accommodations but was nerfed by how much of a pain in the dick they are to get. really passionate about being a good good science boy but not to the point of getting stressed. he’ll absolutely destroy you if you challenge him in an in class discussion and wont tolerate being fucked over in group projects, he WILL put his name and only his on the finished product and send Receipts to the prof if you never respond to group chats. he is the Polar Opposite of eri

k: hes made of anxiety and existential dread so hes good at handling any workload or failure or other fuckup because hes just like Guess I’ll Die. has no fucking clue what he’s doing after school but he majored in probably philosophy or something. wretched little sjw. probably missed class on the mere Promise of a dog on campus

hank: bold of u to assume hank can read

[overcome-mentalblock]

What are the best tips to manifest your desires faster by using Law of Attraction?

Loren Vanderschoot, Life and Business Coach, Author, Telcom Engineer.

Grab a snack and a drink. This is going to take a minute.

Many people who first hear about the Law of Attraction form a belief that there is some magic incantation that, when performed correctly, brings everything that one desires to their doorstep without any effort.

This is simply untrue, but the reality is that once you understand how it really works it is just as simple. The truth is that you are already using the LoA every minute of every day. All you really have to do is learn how to direct it and use it on purpose.

I cannot fully explain the Law of Attraction to you in one article today. Understanding how this works so that you can use it to change the circumstances in your life will take a bit of time and study. I am currently working on putting together a complete library that will allow people to come to one place and learn about this great law. If you will follow me here at Quora, I will keep you up to date on the progress.

The LoA is a set of principles that, when understood and applied, can help you to achieve just about anything in life.

We like to say that you can do anything your mind can believe, and this is true. The trick is getting your mind to believe, and this is where the learning begins.

You have the most wonderful gift inside your head. It is the human brain. Unfortunately, it does not come with a user-manual.

Our brains are a three-pound mass located entirely within our skulls. The brain itself has no nerve endings and never actually FEELS anything. It never sees the light of day (hopefully) and never has any real experiences of its own.

The brain receives reports from our senses, logs the information, checks for memories of prior outcomes and keeps it all stored orderly. It knows everything we have ever experienced, yet has experienced none of it. It is our hard drive. Our brain is responsible for keeping track of what we have learned and experienced over the course of our lives, and for trying to make sense of it all. It is well-equipped for the task.

Our brains are under constant development, continually re-wiring as new experiences are recorded. Every new experience is recorded by the brain by making new physical connections between neurons. Every thought is a physical thing, created in your brain.

The more often this thought is remembered, the stronger it gets. So, thoughts are things and they can be made stronger. If a thought occurs often enough, it can become the default response. It has now become a part of a paradigm that shapes our behavior.

It is a well-known fact that repetition is a great teacher. Now you know why, at least from the brain's point of view. As new information is processed, over and over, the memories are reinforced again and again. This is a wonderful mechanism the brain uses to decide which actions to take in a given situation. It is a physical process that you can learn to use easily.

When we act a certain way repeatedly, the action becomes habit. Habits, my friends, are the single most important factor that determines our success or failure in any given situation.

Need proof? I tell my students who need reinforcement of this principle to choose 3 or more successful people that they would like to pattern their success after and read biographies/autobiographies about those persons.

Read the books and pay close attention to the habits of those people. They will be similar.

Wealthy people have common traits/habits. Great inventors share the same. So do famous actors, scientists…. all people who achieve certain things have a common core of beliefs and actions. This is part of the Law of Attraction in action. They are a vibrational match.

I do not choose the subjects of study because I know that whoever they choose will have the same habits. It is law. If they were significantly different in these areas, they would have different results.

These differences in behavior are almost all controlled in the subconscious mind. Little is really understood about this mind of ours, but we can learn to use it to change our circumstances.

Your subconscious mind is what keeps your heart beating, regulates your temperature, remembers to breathe for you and all the other things that are needed to survive. It also controls your behavior far more than you realize.

Have you ever had to make a sudden choice with no time to think - just BAM, choose left or right, right now? As you struggled to think about what to do, you suddenly just kinda knew. You actually just relaxed a little and made the call.

Sometimes the subconscious just takes over. And once it does, it protects its decisions. If you ever have made that snap decision without thinking, did you notice that you didn't question it afterwards? Or that you couldn't concentrate on it at all?

Automatic driving is a good example, where you arrive after driving for a long time with little recollection of the day. You made dozens of turns, but cannot easily recall them. These are just shifts between your conscious and your subconscious being in control.

Sometimes the deep mind can take over to allow the conscious to focus elsewhere. Your subconscious mind is believed to be able to perform over 50 million calculations at any given time, awake or asleep. The conscious mind? For most of us, it's around 7. And only while awake. The subconscious mind is one of the most powerful things we can measure. It is the driving force of our lives.

The subconscious mind is not just a physical thing contained in our brain. It is the part of us connected with everything else. Consider this: Why does a tree grow? Seriously, what makes a tree grow? There must be mind involved to make this happen. This is what I refer to loosely as the universe. A larger consciousness that connects us in many different ways. Our subconscious, or 'deep' mind is what connects us with the universe. It is the translator between what is and what could be.

The subconscious prefers to communicate with pictures, and it is believed by many that it may not use language at all. When the subconscious is presented with a picture, it connects that picture to whatever other input it has at that moment: Taste, smell, temperature, etc., but what it looks for the most is how much attention you are giving it and how strongly you feel about it. These things are what the deep mind uses to determine the level of importance the experience is given.

When you feel great about something, 'feel-good' chemicals are released in your brain. They can be much more powerful than some illegal narcotics, just in very small doses. When the deep mind gets rewarded with feel-good chemicals, it looks to re-create the circumstances that brought the reward. This is why it is so important to feel, as strongly as you can, all the happy emotions attached to your goal.

Message to deep mind: "When I am in this circumstance, I feel this way. Find a path to this future as quickly as possible and draw to us everything we need so that we can feel this great all the time!"

The frequency goes out and changes start to be made. Some changes are inward, and if you are careful to notice and approve them, they will arrive faster. Working in harmony with your desire shows that you really want this outcome and opens up paths the universe can use to bring your whatever to you.

In learning to use the LoA, we generally begin with affirmations (verbal reinforcement of that which we desire - always spoken of in the present tense, i.e.., “I am so glad now that I have this thing in my life” while feeling the emotion of having it) and vision boards (visual reinforcement of that which is desired) that are stated repeatedly and seen repeatedly until our subconscious gets the message that this is who we are.

This absolutely works. It can even be done against our will.

Some people have used this knowledge to control people against their will. When it is used this way, it is called brainwashing. We all know that brainwashing is real, so if this can be done effectively to someone against their will, how much more effective can it be when we choose to use this tool to improve our lives and our surroundings with permission?

There are thousands of free inspirational videos available online today. Find a YouTube channel full of the kind you like most (if you don’t know, explore!) and watch them for 30 minutes a day. Play them in the background when you can. Choose only messages you consciously wish to incorporate into your life, then listen to them until you do.

The Law of Attraction always works. What you show to your deep mind, attached with emotion, it will immediately begin to create. Pictures you reinforce over time will have more power the more often you reinforce them. If you can see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.

As you practice these things, your habits will change. As noted earlier, habits are what make the difference in people’s lives.

The second of the main principles is that using the LoA will change the way you see things. What once was ignored will become urgent, while what you used to focus on will begin to fade away.

Dr. Wayne Dyer said it best: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”.

John Assaraf tells a great story of a man who must repeatedly travel through the desert to a remote village.

On this journey, he must avoid the dangerous cacti that fill the land. One day he becomes too tired to continue and considers turning back. He is thirsty and tired and the obstacles seem too many and too difficult to overcome. He stumbles and cuts himself on the cactus before him.

At that moment, he remembers that some cactus contain water. He cuts it open and drinks the water. Refreshed, he completes the journey. The ‘obstacle’ has become a resource.

The resource was always there, but the traveler did not see it as such. When he changed the way he looked at it, it changed.

But did it actually morph into something different? No, it did not. The person changed, not the cactus.

The Law of Attraction is partially about becoming the person who has the things desired. It is many, many other things as well.

Many teachers who introduce people to this great law focus on the things coming to the student with little effort. Let’s be honest, that’s what sells books and videos. And what they teach is true, but it is not the complete story.

I’ll close with this:

If you want a certain kind of mate, first become the kind of person the desired mate will want to be with. In doing so, you will attract them to you and they will compete for your attention.

If you desire to be wealthy, first learn what wealthy people do (and do not do) and learn to become more like that. The wealth will naturally follow.

If you want [insert desire here] then learn what people who have this thing do and DO THAT.

The mechanics of vibrational tuning are confusing to most and trying to learn just those principles will lead many to disappointment.

I liken it to learning to drive a car. Thinking about how the internal combustion engine works will not get you where you want to go. It may be helpful to know how to maintain the vehicle, but learn to drive first so you can get to the store and buy the parts needed for maintenance.

[wrestlingisfake]

Destruction in Beppu preview

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. - Tana won the RPW British heavyweight championship from Sabre on August 31, so this is the rematch.  I really figured that title change in London would be the blowoff for this feud, but I guess not.  I wouldn’t say I’m tired of watching these guys fight, but I’m not sure what the point is to dragging this out further.

The problem with this championship, I think, is that RevPro lets New Japan guys have it for months/years at a time.  That gives the belt the prestige of being defended “around the world” by top stars, but there’s no sense of it being booked toward a long-term direction.  It doesn’t feel like New Japan is grooming the next contender for the winner of this match, because it’s note even a “real” New Japan title.  And it’s hard to believe RevPro is offering any input, because the next three title defenses will probably be against New Japan guys anyway.

I assume Sabre will get the belt back sooner or later, but there’s probably no rush to end the feud, as Tanahashi doesn’t seem to have anything else to do until they set up Chris Jericho’s return for the Tokyo Dome.  I’m not sure what that means for the finish of this match, though.  I’d personally have Tana retain, seeing as he’s only had the belt for a couple of weeks.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI - Ishii and Yoshi are challenging the Guerillas of Destiny for the IWGP heavyweight tag team championship.  This originally was booked as a non-title match, but then they announced the belts were on the line for some reason I missed.

This issue started on August 12, when Kenta betrayed Ishii and Yoshi in a match against GOD and Bad Luck Fale.  Ishii tried to give Kenta a receipt back on August 31, but that didn’t work out, so now he's going after GOD instead.  Ishii is hella tough and could probably with the tag titles with a bag of hammers for a partner.  Unfortunately the bag of hammers had prior commitments writing WWE scripts, so Ishii has to team with Yoshi-Hashi instead.

I feel like I dunk on Yoshi all the time, so let me be clear--he is an even bigger joke now than he was one year ago when he tripped during a big angle and got sidelined for three months.  Yoshi was left out of this year’s G1 Climax, then Sabre was mocking him as a weak challenger for the RevPro belt, and then Sabre beat him to reinforce that the aforementioned mockery was justified. 

Yoshi is on his way to being the next Captain New Japan unless they can turn him around.  A title win would help.  Putting him in a tag title match with Ishii as his partner is a bit like lifting a kid up so he can dunk a basketball, so if he screws this up I don’t know what to tell you.  We’re either going to see a midcarder’s career come into focus or totally collapse in this match.  I suppose that’s perversely exciting?

Guerillas of Destiny retain, I think. 

Tetsuya Naito & EVIL vs. Jay White & Chase Owens - This is a preview of Naito vs. White on September 22 for the intercontinental title.  Not much to this, and I expect Chase to do the job so the LIJ team can win.

Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Rocky Romero vs. SANADA & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI - Okada is set to defend the IWGP heavyweight title against Sanada on October 14.  Goto and Shingo have a match set for September 22.  Rocky just frigging hates Bushi in general.  It kinda doesn’t matter who wins, but I’m thinking one of the LIJ guys pins Rocky.

Kota Ibusi & Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. KENTA & El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi - This one previews two matches for September 16, Ibsuhi vs. Kenta and Ospreay/Eagles vs. ELP/Ishimori.  Those six guys in one match could be pretty wild, really, although the other four are just kinda there.  This could go any which way, no idea how it ends.

Jushin Thunder Liger & SHO & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI - I assume this means we’re coming back around to the Liger/Suzuki feud, which was heating up earlier in the spring but kinda got sidetracked.  They were clearly building to a one-on-one match but I still have no idea when it’ll happen.  It’s also worth noting that Douki is back for this tour, after being hastily recruited into Suzuki-gun to fill in for El Desperado back in June.  Douki is kinda neat in that he looks like a low-level ninja in a 90s beat-’em-up video game, but he’s basically a jobber so I think Liger’s team will win.

Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Toa Henare & Clark Connors & Michael Richards - Strange as it may sound, this is to preview Narita vs. Richards and Uemura vs. Connors in the prelim matches on September 16.  Those matches are part of the Young Lion Cup tournament, which is important because it’s a tournament but also not important because it’s just the prelim guys, so yeah.  Nagata and Nakanishi are playing the role of old dudes showing the young boys how to kick ass.  Taguchi and Henare are just there to make it more interesting, I suppose.  I hope Nagata wins because he’s pretty cool.

Syota Umino vs. Alex Coughlin - This match is worth two points in the Young Lions Cup tournament.  A win is worth 2 points and a 15-minute time limit draw awards 1 point apiece to each guy; all other outcomes are worth 0 points.   Umino is at 6 points right now and Coughlin sits at 4.  I haven’t been paying much attention to this tournament (not sure doing this during everybody’s G1 Climax hangover is such a good idea) but the action is good since these rookie jobbers are evenly matched.  The big angle is that the Japanese dojo guys are trying to prove they’re better than the Los Angeles dojo guys.  I’m pulling for Umino but in the end I’m not sure it makes any difference what happens.

Yota Tsuji vs. Karl Fredericks - Another Young Lions Cup match.  Fredericks has 6 points and Tsuji has 2, so Tsuji better pick up the damn pace if he wants to stay alive in this thing.  They seem to want to get the LA guys over as big manly men so I’m guessing Fredericks goes over here.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax in Dallas preview

This is the first day of the 29th G1 Climax tour, featuring the first five of 91 (!) tournament matches.  The ten men in A Block will meet on this show, while the ten men in B Block team with undercard guys to preview their tournament matches on July 13.  I’ll probably go over the tournament as a whole later, but this show deserves some special attention.

Each tournament match is worth two points--two points to the winner, zero for the loser, or one apiece if it goes to a 30 minute draw.  (Any other outcome gives everybody zero points.)  Whoever has the most points in his block faces the leader of the other block in the final match.

The first night of the G1 is always a special occasion, but this time is more special because it’s the tournament’s first show outside of Japan.  Everybody is bound to be working hard to make a big impression.  The show will air live on AXS TV in the US and everywhere else on NJPW World.  (Americans who don’t have AXS will have to wait a few days to see it on-demand on NJPW World.)

Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Okada is the IWGP heavyweight champion, but titles aren’t at stake in the G1 Climax.  This will be the 14th match between these two, but Okada was just a rookie in the first one in 2010.  The rivalry really began when Okada returned from excursion in 2012 and won the heavyweight title from Tana in a huge upset.  Tanahashi is currently 6-5-2 against Okada in singles matches, but the more interesting stat is that Tana is 1-0-2 against Okada in the G1 Climax.  They’ve met in the tournament three times and went to the time limit twice.

This is the biggest match New Japan could deliver in 2019.  They didn’t do it at Wrestle Kingdom, and they didn’t do it at Madison Square Garden, but they’re doing it here in Dallas.  I feel pretty privileged to get to see it live.  That being said, it’s technically the ninth year of the rivalry, and we’ve come full circle from Tana in his prime versus a young boy to Okada in his prime versus a beat-up veteran.  Sooner or later Tanahashi won’t have enough left in the tank to live up to the standards of this series, and we’ll see a bad Okada/Tana match.  It could happen here.  So I’m trying to keep my expectations from soaring too high.  Then again, Tana is probably as rested as he can be, and it’s the first night of the tournament, so conditions are good for him to leave it all in the ring.  But I worry about him, y’know?

Under the circumstances I have to predict a time limit draw.  That’s probably not the right finish for this show, but on paper you expect this matchup to go either way and to go long, and history supports a tie.  Okada “deserves” to even up the series and avenge his losses last year, but that only makes him a slim favorite.

Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA - Ibushi would be one of the best wrestlers in the world except he keeps doing crazy spots where he damn near breaks his neck, to the point that I kinda dock points from his matches over it.  Kenta Kobayashi may be best known to American fans as Hideo Itami on NXT and 205 Live, but he was frustrated with his WWE run and recently returned to Japan.  He goes by KENTA to avoid confusion with the legendary wrestler Kenta Kobashi, although I personally find that just makes it more confusing.

This is Kenta’s first New Japan match, aside from a one-off very early in his career in 2002.  He started out in All Japan, staying there only briefly before joining Mitsuharu Misawa’s big exodus to found Pro Wrestling NOAH.  Kenta rose through the ranks to be a key guy, and held every championship in Noah.  It was widely expected that he would return to Noah once he departed WWE, but he instead chose to join New Japan, making his first appearance...on the tenth anniversary of Misawa’s tragic in-ring death.  Noah loyalists were not thrilled with that.

New Japan is clearly trying to book an instant classic by starting Kenta out on this show with Ibushi.  Expectations will be through the roof.  I may be watching this one through my fingers, though, considering how many injuries Kenta has sustained and how quickly Kota has burned through his nine lives.  Kenta should get the win here, but the real point is whether they can steal the show from Okada/Tanahashi.

Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. SANADA - Sabre is the RevPro British heavyweight champion, but again titles aren’t at stake in the G1.  The match should be decent, but these are two middle-of-the-pack heavyweights.  They occasionally build up these guys as serious threats to the top stars, but it never lasts and they end up fighting each other in the midcard.  The winner will have momentum in the early going of the tournament but I don’t expect either man to be a major factor in the endgame.  A bigger issue for Sabre is his opponent for the London show shortly after the G1, since that could be a major challenge to his title.  If Sanada wins here, it would make sense to give him that spot.  But I’m kinda thinking Sabre will get the two points this time.

EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale - Fale is a big fat man and his G1 tournament matches are generally lowlights.  He’s in there so that not every match is about lean well-conditioned dudes killing themselves for a four-star rating.  The idea is that each of the wrestlers in the block get “a night off” selling for Fale’s power moves.  This probably won’t be a mat classic but somebody has to work with Fale on this show so the other matches can be good-to-great.  Evil is one of the bigger guys in this tournament so even if this Fale match won’t be a technical marvel, it can be a good BIG MEAN GUY MATCH~! and that’ll be a fun change of pace on this show.  Evil will probably finish the block with more points, but he doesn’t have to win here--I could see Fale coming out ahead here to hype his upcoming matches.

Will Ospreay vs. Lance Archer - Ospreay is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion and the winner of the 2019 Best of Super Jr. tournament, the junior heavyweight equivalent to the G1.  He’s been lobbying to do double duty as a junior and a heavyweight, and being in this tournament fulfills that dream.  He’s at the top his game this year, but he’s in Dallas, Texas, with hometown boy Lance Archer, who is big and tall and scary.

This is Archer’s first big match since news got out that his tag team partner Dave Boy Smith, Jr. decided to quit New Japan.  It’s also his first appearance in the G1 in several years, since he’s been primarily a midcard tag team guy for so long.  He’s got a lot to prove, then.  More to the point, Ospreay eliminated Archer in the New Japan Cup tournament earlier this year, so Lance has revenge on his mind.

My guess is that, at the end of the tournament, Ospreay will have a much nicer score than Archer.  But for right here and now, the story should be that this won’t be as easy as Ospreay might have hoped, and he should struggle in the early going to find his footing.  Also it’s pretty clear the local fans are going to vocally support the most American/Texan guy on this entire show.  Lance Archer really ought to win.

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Juice Robinson & Toru Yano & Jushin Thunder Liger - Since Naito vs. Yano and Juice vs. Shingo are the tournament matches scheduled for July 13, here’s a sneak preview.  Aside from Archer, Juice is the biggest American name on this show, so he may be unusually popular here.  Of course, Naito’s LIJ stable is the cool thing these days, but in the US it’s more of an underground sensation so far compared to Bullet Club.

Let’s talk about Jushin Thunder Liger.  He looks like the Ultimate Warrior had a baby with a Power Ranger, and the baby was a villain on the Japanese Spider-Man TV show.  This old dude’s been around forever and he’s cool as fuck and he’s retiring in January 2019.  This won’t be his last match in the US but it’s pretty much my last chance to see him live and I’m kinda stoked.  I hope they play his entrance music and he showboats for the crowd and stuff.

The LIJ team should probably win, but fuck that.  Give me Liger.

Jay White & Chase Owens vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI - White and Goto have been feuding of late, and they’ll be meeting in a tournament match on July 13.  Chase and Yoshi are here to carry the load and lose falls.  This should be a pretty basic match but at least it ensures we get to see White on this show.  Chase is the biggest jobber here so I think he’ll probably get pinned by Goto.

Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino vs. Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita - Ishii is facing Cobb on July 13.  Ironically the biggest storyline here may be Shota Umino, the young boy that Jon Moxley “adopted” to be his tag partner in this tour.  Moxley himself can’t appear on this date (AEW has exclusivity on his US appearances), but he’ll be here in spirit through Shota.  I don’t expect much advancement of the story on this show, but the Dallas crowd might have some amusing chants about Moxley’s curious, one-sided relationship with Umino.  Obviously Umino and Narita are there to lose, but I can’t decide which of them will get beat so it could go either way.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. SHO & YOH - Tama and Loa, the Guerillas of Destiny, are currently the IWGP heavyweight tag team champions and the ROH tag team champions, but neither title as at stake here.  I hadn’t expected them to be on this show at all, let alone wrestling a non-title match with a junior heavyweight team like Roppongi 3K.  R3K have held the junior tag belts several times, and you’d figure a win over GOD would be an unexpected turn to propel them in the heavyweight division.  So this match is kinda out of left field, and it’s hard to guess what the purpose of it is.  The simplest explanation, though, is that New Japan wanted to showcase two top tag teams (albeit from separate divisions) for the US audience.  If that’s all it is, the Tongans should easily cruise to victory in a hot opener.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax A Block finals preview

Hiroshi Tanahasi (14 points) vs. Kazuchika Okada (12 points) - This is for 2 points in the G1 Climax tournament’s A Block.  The winner gets 2 points, the loser gets 0; if the match goes to a draw, both men get 1.  If Tana can win or draw, he’ll finish the block with the most points and go on to the G1 finals against the winner of B Block.  Otherwise, it gets complicated.  If Okada wins, either he or Jay White will win A Block, depending on the outcome of the White/Evil match. 

Aside from being a G1 Climax tournament match, this is part of the long-running rivalry between the top two guys in NJPW.  Currently Okada leads the series with 5 wins, 4 losses, and 2 draws.  Tanahashi has not defeated Okada one-on-one since 2015.  You could argue that it’s time to even the score, but Okada is 30 and Tanahashi is 41; sooner or later this is going to get pretty one-sided, if it isn’t already.

The biggest storylines in this match don’t even directly concern Tanahashi.  Okada is getting his groove back following the end of his 720-day title reign and a long stretch without a singles victory.  Okada and White are in the same stable, CHAOS, but White smells weakness and is maneuvering to take over the group by winning his matches by any means necessary.  White takes every shortcut, cheating to win, weaseling out of non-tournament competition, and generally expecting Chaos to help him without offering any loyalty in return.  The question isn’t whether White will interfere in this match to serve his interests, but how.

The smart money is that Okada will win A Block, since he’s the favorite to win the whole tournament and headline Wrestle Kingdom.  But that’s nothing’s for certain--Okada could get that spot without winning the G1, or they could be setting up someone else entirely.  It’d be perfectly fine to have Tanahashi win the whole thing, or to go to the finals and put over the B Block winner.  Of course, you can’t rule out White, and if he wins the block you can’t assume anything anymore.  I’m sticking with Okada, but there are a lot of ways this could go.

Jay White (12 points) vs. EVIL (8 points) - This is another G1 tournament match for 2 points.  White can only win A Block if he wins this match and Okada beats Tanahashi.  Evil can’t win no matter what happens.

White has really kicked it up a notch lately, playing a pitch-perfect heel for the NJPW product.  Most heels in the company at least believe in fighting spirit even if they’re bullies about it, but Jay is all about working around that shit.  There was a great moment in one match (I think with Suzuki) where he did the “I dare you to take a free shot so I can prove I’m tough” thing they do all the time in Japan, but instead of letting his opponent just punch him in the face Jay kicked him in the knee.  He’s really great, and it’s a huge deal that he’s as close as he is to winning the tournament, less than a year after graduating from Young Lion status.

There’s really no reason White shouldn’t go over Evil, except that this would prevent Okada from winning A Block.  So that kinda makes the match more interesting.  Which is more important: White’s push or Okada’s path back to the top?  I’m inclined to say Okada takes priority, but White’s run in the G1 has me second-guessing that...

Minoru Suzuki (8 points) vs. Bad Luck Fale (6 points) - Suzuki is a legend and he’s over as a killer heel, but realistically he’s booked like an old-timer and his middling score reflects that.  Fale normally does much, much better in the G1 but the ongoing “Tongans turn on the rest of Bullet Club” storyline has him getting disqualified a lot for cheap heel heat.

I’ve been looking forward to this match because the “Bullet Club OGs” have been making a mockery of Fale’s matches with their blatant interference, but it all feels like a play out of Suzuki-gun’s book.  Hypothetically Suzuki just needs to bring out Desperado and Taka to counter Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, and the whole thing breaks down into a wild brawl.  Or maybe Suzuki just says “fuck that” and beats the shit out Fale.  Or maybe Fale just says “fuck ‘em!” and throws Suzuki into the fifth row.  It doesn’t matter who wins, but it ought to get pretty ugly.

Hangman Page (6 points) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (4 points) - Page has been presented as the rising star of this year’s tournament, coming up short a lot but still exceeding expectations.  Yoshi has been cast as guy with the potential to do better than he has been, but he’s testing the patience of those hoping for him to step up.  The English broadcast team has been downright cloying in their efforts to put over both guys, even in failure.  So it’ll be kind of interesting to see how they handle both guys in the same match.

Honestly, I gave up on Yoshi ever amounting to anything years ago, so the “he’s on the bubble” act feels belated to me.  The most forward-looking thing they can do is give Page this win to set up a stronger run next year.  Still, it’s New Japan Pro Wrestling, and it would be understandable to protect the domestic guy rather than add to the already-crowded field of foreigners getting pushes for the US expansion.  I could see this going either way, except that I always count on Yoshi to fail.

Michael Elgin (6 points) vs. Togi Makabe (4 points) - Makabe won the G1 back in 2009, but he’s been less and less important each year.  Elgin is pretty much in the same level as his first G1 in 2015, and I don’t get the sense that NJPW is ever going to push him any higher than that.  So this is just a mean guy match with no real significance.  Elgin should probably get the 2 points, but it’s not that big of a deal at this level.

Kenny Omega & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Kota Ibushi & Marty Scurll & Chase Owens - This is a preview of Omega vs. Ibushi in the B Block finals on 8/11.  All of these guys are basically on the same side, so in theory they should try to keep it clean, but it’s Bullet Club so you can’t count on them not to fuck around.  We’ll probably see one of the Bucks pin Owens, in order to hold off on Omega and Ibushi doing anything flashy.

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & TAKA Michinoku - Naito is facing Sabre on 8/11, so this is a teaser for that.  Naito defeated Sanada earlier this week, so I’m sure the English announcers will make a big deal out of that, but there won’t be any actual signs of dissension between them.  Zack and Taka have been perfecting a little pre-match promo formula (since it’s Japan, Taka does all the talking and Zack just stands there and nods), which seems to be catching on, so this duo could become a force in the tag division.  I’m guessing Sanada pins Taka.

Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay - Goto and Juice are meeting on 8/11.  Usually Yoh teams with Sho as Roppongi 3K, but for this tour they’ve been split up teaming with the various CHAOS heavyweights in these undercard matches.  Robinson and Finlay are more of a regular team, which might give them the edge here.  I’m picking Finlay to pin Yoh.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Toru Yano & Gedo - Tama is set to face Yano on 8/11.  Seeing as Tama and Loa have been heavyweight tag champions a couple of times, and Yano and Gedo are both comedy guys, this looks pretty one-sided, so I gotta pick the Guerillas of Destiny to win.

Tomohiro Ishii & SHO vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino - Ishii is supposed to face Sanada on 8/11, but Sanada has been teaming with Naito on this tour, so we don’t get a preview of Ishii/Sanada here.  Umino is a Young Lion (NJPW-speak for “jobber”) and Henare is a recent graduate from the Young Lions (NJPW-speak for “jobber to the stars”).  So yeah, Ishii’s team is going to win.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax B Block finals preview

Kenny Omega (12 points) vs. Kota Ibushi (10 points) - This is for 2 points in the G1 Climax tournament’s B block.  Omega’s IWGP heavyweight title is not at stake, although if he loses that would virtually guarantee Ibushi gets a title match later, regardless of who wins the G1 tournament.

I already ran through all the scenarios of who can win B block (to face the A block winner in the finals).  If Omega wins this match, he wins the block.  If Ibushi wins, then either Ibushi or Tetsuya Naito wins the block, depending on whether Naito loses his match.  If this match goes to a 30-minute draw, either Omega or Naito will win the block, depending on the outcome of the Naito match.

As far as I could determine this is the first one-on-one Omega/Ibushi match since August 2012, when Ibushi defeated Omega to retain the DDT championship, during their original run as the Golden Lovers tag team.  I haven’t seen the match, but people talk about it in awestruck tones, and the NJPW English announce team has alluded to Kota and Kenny refusing to rematch for fear that they would go too far trying to top it.  Watching both of them damn near kill themselves against other opponents, I can see why there’d be concern about them working with one another.  So the hype for this thing is off the charts, and it’ll be very difficult to live up to.

The Golden Lovers gimmick is that Omega and Ibushi aren’t just friends but in an ambiguous romantic relationship.  I mean, it’s not ambiguous to the fans, but the wrestlers themselves don’t directly spell it out and New Japan seems to actively avoid commenting on it.  Regardless, the idea is that Kenny was damaged and incomplete while the team was disbanded, but their reunion this year has turned everything around and contributed to Kenny winning the IWGP title.  What matters here, then, is that neither man wants to seriously harm the other, but they can’t go easy either, so we’ll be seeing a lot of mixed emotions beyond the usual “friends have to fight” match.

The “Bullet Club OG” group (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale) have basically made it their mission to ruin this tournament, especially where it concerns Omega and Ibushi.  They started out taking blatant disqualifications to protect one another from being pinned, but then they escalated to interfering in matches they had nothing to do with, and then to forcing a no-contest in the Omega/Young Bucks vs. Ibushi/Scurll/Owens match.  I can’t see this match ending in a draw or a double-disqualification, but the NJPW bookers clearly want the idea in your head.

Given the choice between Omega, Naito, and Ibushi to win B Block, I’d pick Ibushi just because I think that’d be more novel.  However, I’m increasingly thinking that Omega is going to pull off the big “win the G1 as reigning champion” feat.  One way or another, I think he’s going to come out on top here.

Tetsuya Naito (12 points) vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. (10 points) - Sabre is already mathematically eliminated from winning the block, and Naito will be too if Sabre wins this match.  If Naito wins, he’s still alive, but he needs Omega to lose or draw.  Even if this match goes to a time limit draw, Naito is still alive, but he needs Omega to just plain lose.  Sabre has scored some key wins to get him into the midcard title hunt, but I don’t see him beating Naito unless it’s necessary to set up a plot point in the Omega/Ibushi match.  And maybe it is, but since I’m not sure I gotta pick Naito to win.

Juice Robinson (4 points) vs. Hirooki Goto (6 points) - Robinson is the United States champion and Goto is the NEVER champion, but neither title is on the line.  Juice cannot strike with the “cast” on his left hand (more like a plastic splint wrapped in wrist tape) or he will be disqualified.

Robinson’s run this year has been interesting.  On the one hand, he’s stepped up his game since his G1 debut last year, and he’s a champion.  On the other hand, he suffered a (legit?) broken metacarpal a few weeks back, which is particularly disastrous because his specialty is his left-handed knockout punch.  Robinson gutted through the injury (and the added stip about the cast) to win the US title, but competing in the G1 is a longer, more relentless task.  After mounting losses (which translates into many future challengers), Juice started removing the cast to bring his knockout punch back into play, but that also increases his risk of aggravating the injury and prolonging his recovery time.  It’s a simple and delightfully effective storyline.

It’d be a nice feel-good moment for Juice to get one last victory to end on a high note, but this isn’t the part of the story for feel-good moments.  That will come later in the year, I think, when he has to defend the title against all the guys who beat him in this tour...but his hand will be 100% and he’ll be steamrolling through them.  (I hope.)  So for now, the right finish is for Goto to get the win.

Tomohiro Ishii (8 points) vs. SANADA (8 points) - Ishii always gets rave reviews for his G1 matches, but I can’t ever get fully invested in them because I always know he can’t actually win enough matches to constitute a push.  He does have a win over Kenny Omega and I’m sure he’ll get a title shot this fall, which will be well-received.  But I don’t believe for a second he’ll ever be IWGP champion, so it all feels kind of hollow.  Sanada is more or less in the same boat, though, so at least this match should be competitive.  It doesn’t matter who wins, really.

Tama Tonga (6 points) vs. Toru Yano (4 points) - Tama has basically stopped giving a shit about winning his matches or even trying to prevent the referee from noticing his rule-breaking.  Yano, on the other hand, has turned sneaking things past the ref into an art form.  In other words, they’ll both cheat like crazy, but Yano is more apt to get away with it, which means either Yano wins by DQ or Yano wins by sneaky pinfall or count-out.  The only thing working in Tama’s favor is that it’s a running gag that Yano acts like he’s literally a spooky demon or something.  Me too, Yano, me too.

Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma - Okada and Tanahashi are coming off of their big match to determine the A Block, but the big story here is actually Honma, who suffered a neck injury during a March 2017 match, which nearly left him paralyzed and required surgery.  Honma returned to the ring a couple of months ago, but this is only the second match in his comeback.  This was originally going to be an eight-man tag with Elgin on the Tanahashi team and Jado on the CHAOS team, with the idea that Honma could seek revenge on Jado for the move that nearly left him paralyzed.  But Jado hurt his foot recently so he had to pulled from the tour.

I’m concerned Honma’s comeback is premature or ill-advised, and I’m not sure it’ll be much fun watching him work knowing how important it is to keep him safe.  You’d hope the other five guys can carry the match for him, but if that’s what it takes he probably shouldn’t be back in the ring yet.  Or maybe he’s really made incredible progress and he’s back to 100%. But I doubt it.  Honma should probably get the pin on Gedo, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they just have him set Gedo up for Makabe to finish him off.

EVIL & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado - Just a random undercard tag match, doesn’t matter what happens.

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Marty Scurll vs. Jay White & SHO & YOH - Scurll and the Young Bucks are the NEVER trios champions, but that title is not on the line here.  (Neither are all the other championships the Bucks currently have.)  This could get interesting since White has been teaming with Yoh, and treating him like shit, throughout this tour, but now he’s also teaming with Yoh’s regular partner Sho.  Also, Yoh and Sho’s coach, Rocky Romero, has been losing his fucking mind about White’s shenanigans on English commentary.  In theory a win for White’s team would put them in line for a trios title shot, but I can’t believe this trio can coexist for more than ten seconds.  That won’t stop White from trying to direct traffic, I would imagine.  The Bucks will probably pin Sho or Yoh after slapping their thighs a lot.

Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens - Page and Owens have been regular partners on this tour, but they’re kinda fucked against two of the Bullet Club OG group.  This is either gonna be a win for the Tongans or a DQ loss preceded by a savage mugging.

Michael Elgin & David Finlay vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino - This was originally going to be Finlay vs. Henare, but Jado’s injury caused Elgin to get bumped from his match, so here we are.  If you’ve been listening to English commentary you’ll recall that there was some ironic hype about Finlay/Henare--which had been the one and only non-tournament singles match on the schedule--which was jokingly referred to as “C Block.”  So Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero might be unusually jazzed for this one.  I’m pretty sure Finlay will just pin Umino, but watch the announcers treat it like Wrestlemania.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax A Block finals preview

This airs Friday, August 11th at 5:30am Eastern time, so plan on spending all morning avoiding spoilers until you have time to watch it. 

Hiroshi Tanahashi (12 pts) vs. Tetusya Naito (12 pts) - There are five A block tournament matches on this card, but this is the only one that can still decide which wrestler wins A block and goes to the G1 Climax finals on 8/13.  Tanahashi is not defending the current IWGP intercontinental championship here, but a loss would almost certainly set up a rematch for the title later.

The winner of the match gets 2 points, the loser gets 0.  If the match goes to a 30-minute draw, both men receive 1 point apiece.  (I think if it’s a double count-out or double disqualification, both men get 0 points, but that’s probably not going to happen anyway.)  So whoever wins this match will end up with 14 points--more than anyone else in A block can possibly score at this stage--and win the block.  If we do somehow end up with a 13-13 (or 12-12) tie, I don’t know what the hell happens, but this show gets English commentary so I suppose they’d explain it pretty thoroughly.

This match was booked as the main event of this show weeks ago, and it’s not exactly a shock that the entire block comes down to this.  Naito and Tanahashi had a damn good match for the IC title back at Dominion 6.11, so this should be at least pretty good.  However, it’s been tough watching Tana work with that torn biceps--particularly since every match has been about his opponent targeting it--and you have to figure everybody’s pretty wiped out this deep into the tour.  I’m not counting on a repeat of Dominion, but chances are Naito and Tanahashi have been saving something up for this big stage.

Of the two, I prefer Tanahashi, but in light of the arm I would much rather see Naito be the one to win and go on to work another grueling main event and Tana take it easy in the midcard.  Naito (and LIJ) have been super over throughout this tournament and he really makes the most sense to go the finals, whether or not he can actually win this year.

Kota Ibushi (10 pts) vs. Hirooki Goto (8 pts) - Another A block match.  Kota was a cult favorite to win A block, mostly because it might set up an Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega dream match, but I had a feeling they’d cockblock everybody for now to tease it for later.  On the bright side, Ibushi did get a win over Tanahashi, which puts him in line for an intercontinental title shot later in the year.

If Kota scores 2 points here and Naito and Tanahashi both score 0 points in their match (which I’m not even sure is possible), I guess Ibushi is in the picture for a tiebreaker?  I mean, I can’t see it actually coming up, but I don’t want to act like it absolutely can’t happen.  It just seems weird to me that they’d have him get so close and then make it impossible for his last match to matter.  I would have at least booked him to have 12 points coming into this match and then lose to Goto.

Goto is just sort of...there.  I can’t really get into the guy.  I could see them giving him the win here just to maintain a nominal push, but meh.  I’d put Ibushi over to see where you can go with him.

Tomohiro Ishii (8 pts) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (8pts) - Neither of these guys can win A block, but only one of them can at least finish with a winning record.  I really liked their match in Long Beach, where Sabre is being a British twink and Ishii is like “fuck this” and pounds the shit out of him.  I wouldn’t expect the exact same dynamic this time, but in any case it’s a good mix of styles.

I’m guessing Ishii goes over because New Japan loves to protect its old big guys up to a certain age.  But I think Sabre can build on the momentum of having an impressive G1 debut (including a big win over Tanahashi), and I’d take it as far as possible.

Togi Makabe (6 pts) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (4 pts) - Nothing against either guy, but they’re starting to feel like filler in the G1.  I suspect this match is going to be very skippable.  Not because they’re both so low in the scoring (if you expect  every G1 match to matter, you’re gonna have a bad time), but because they both feel like they’re just...there, and it’s bad enough to have just one guy like that.  I guess Makabe wins.

Yuji Nagata (2 pts) vs. Bad Luck Fale (10 pts) - This is Nagata’s final match in his final G1 tournament.  (He’s not retiring but, at 49, he probably doesn’t need to be one of the top 20 heavyweights in the promotion anymore.)  The booking logic seems to be that Nagata should lose almost all of his matches to justify his decision.  Fans don’t like this because they’re sentimental and don’t want to see him jobbed out, but I kinda get it.  I want to believe Yuji is this wise old master who can sense that he’s past his peak, so a miraculous swan song would undercut that.

At 10 points, Fale is in the same “Bernie can still win” zone that I mentioned with Ibushi.  But it’d be weird for NJPW to pull a goofy stunt just for Ibushi to win the block, and it’d be absolutely insane to do it for Fale.  Also I’m still pissed at Fale for tearing up Daryl.

On paper, I think Nagata should be able to take this fucker and get his badass theme music played one last time.  But Fale is deceptively tough to beat in the G1, so you shouldn’t bet against him.  At least that’ll keep the match exciting while we’re waiting for the main event.

Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano vs. Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi - Okada and Omega will be meeting in the B block finals on 8/12.  Yano also has a B block match, but it’s against Minoru Suzuki, so I don’t blame him for getting booked as far from that guy as possible. 

If you ask me Yano’s had a particularly great run of comedy bullshit this year, notably including his matches against Okada and Omega.  Add to that the fact that they’ll want Okada and Omega to rest up, and I suspect this will be a fairly nothing comedy match.  Oh, and Okada will have Gedo at ringside and Takahashi will have one of his bikini models with him, so I bet that’ll mean even more HIJINX~!  Works for me.  I’m predicting Yano pins Yujiro with a nutshot.

Cody Rhodes & Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Hangman Page & Chase Owens vs. Michael Elgin & Raymond Rowe & Hanson & Ricochet & Ryusuke Taguchi - All the guys who haven’t been on the tour are coming in for the finals weekend.  On 8/13 Cody and Page are facing War Machine (Hanson/Rowe), and Tagushi & Ricochet are facing the Young Bucks (Nick/Matt).  Elgin is the only one in this match that’s part of the G1 tournament, so I’m just saying maybe he should score the win.

Satoshi Kojima & Juice Robinson vs. EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi - Kojima will be facing Evil on 8/12.  Robinson is also in B block but he’s set to face Elgin on 8/12 and Elgin isn’t on Evil’s team, so that’s how Hiromu ended up here.  A quick Daryl update for those of you who don’t follow New Japan (but somehow made it this far down a New Japan post): Daryl is reportedly on the mend, but I haven’t seen him back on TV, and at this point I suspect we won’t see him until at least the 8/13 show.  I’m sure the New Japan side of Tumblr will keep you posted.  I don’t know who wins here, but New Japan sure likes Evil a lot so I’d bet on him.

SANADA & BUSHI vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa - Sanada and Tama are booked for 8/12.  Tama and Tanga are usually a tag team, but Loa’s been nowhere to be found on this tour until now.  I assume this means they’ve got a tag match in the works for 8/13.  Tama insisted before the tournament that he has nothing to prove, and so far he’s 3-5 so I guess he’s succeeding at proving nothing.  It’s kind of a shame and I hope his team wins here to make up for it.

Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado & Taichi vs. Katusya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka & Hirai Kawato - Suzuki leads his thugs against the rookie jobber guys.  I like the Young Lions but Suzuki is going to fuck them up pretty bad.