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widgenstain · 3 years ago

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Together and Oslo

I decided to let the barns rest for a night and treat myself to a Celtic fave double-feature instead. I hadn’t seen either movie before and I ended up loving them both, not just because of the eye-candy but because I think they’re both smart, slightly different attempts at movie story-telling and that’s my thing. Here are my thoughts on them, if anyone is interested; I won’t post any big spoilers, but there are some plot details mentioned below the cut.

Together

Man that was a pleasant surprise! I didn’t expect to like a pandemic drama/comedy/romance this much, but this was excellent. Don’t get me wrong, it absolutely is about the pandemic, it gets political too, some may find it too preachy, but fuck it, some points need to be hammered home, because these times revealed atrocious misgivings in our society and people are already forgetting them again. The thing this movie very cleverly does, is tie those larger misgivings into the personal relationship between a couple that’s been on the rocks from the start and by making them tackle them, it gives us solutions for how to tackle the bigger picture in the only, very small way that we can. The solutions aren’t ideal or necessarily super healthy, but you can work with the situation if you try and they actually do try.

I loved that, I feared that this would be terribly cynical and yes, they both are arseholes at some points, but the story presents a very refreshing take on two people hating each other. Some may say realistic, I’m not quite sure it is, the critics weren’t completely wrong when they called it a bit stage-y, but I don’t see the stageyness in the setting or story, I see it in the dialogue, which is a bit… too poetic to seem natural sometimes. That’s not a criticism btw, I loved the dialogue, but it’s meant to serve a bigger narrative goal than showing us two real people fight.

This brings me to the one thing I’m not 100% sure about, the 4th wall breaks. Maybe I’m too spoilt by Fleabag, but I found this choice a little inconsistent. Sometimes they talk to you, sometimes they don’t, what is this supposed to imply? Are we a part of this or not?

Anyway, the performances were SO GOOD! Both actors (well, three, but the boy had like three sentences) were amazing, but as a fan it felt so good to see James back at the top of his game again. Don’t crucify me for this, but in some of his recent projects *cough* IT2 *cough* the good man has rather phoned it in*. He’s marvelous in this, such control over all his character’s many sides and the CHEMISTRY between them! Urgh so good. This would have fallen very flat if these two hadn’t had this energy between them, it really is a masterclass in fugitive glances and comedic reactions and damn, do I hope they get recognised for it at some awards! #GIVEJAMESHISDAMMENDBAFTA

*James phoning it in is still better than 85% of other actors, but you get my drift.

Oslo

I was surprised by this too, but for different reasons: I had read quite a few reviews of this before I saw it and I once again wonder if critics actually watch the movies they review.

It, funnily enough, is quite similar to Together, even if it’s a wholly different genre and topic. It’s a political drama, based on a play, a play on negotiations between Israel and Palestine in the 90s, super fun, light and not dry at all stuff, right?! Nonetheless, I found it incredibly captivating. Yes, it drags a teensy bit in the end, yes, a lot of it is men sitting around tables fighting about politics, but it flows incredibly well, the way this movie builds tension and resolves it again, man I loved that! Apparently the play does that even better, but well, I haven’t seen it and I loved it in the movie too.

The movie of course had the misfortune of coming out at a time the clusterfuck that is the Gaza conflict violently flared up again, but all the reviews saying it is Israel biased? Because *reads smeared antisemitic notes* Jews produced it? Wth? The character with probably the most/most impressive screen time is Ahmed Qurei, the head negotiator from the Palestinian side, he comes across as the most sympathetic person too, passionate about what his people are going through, but also determined to try and change it. Loved Salim Dau in the role and I definitely will check him out in more things. The Israeli bureaucrats are the arseholes in this and it’s pretty clearly spelled out that yes, while they have their legit reasons to hate the Palestinians, they hold all the power in the situation and they are the ones using tanks against people throwing rocks.

There’s also no white saviour in this. Ruth’s and Andrew’s characters are, as they say roughly 15 times, the facilitators, two bonkers people from Norway who serve as the lube in those talks, nothing more, the Middle Eastern guys are the main players. There’s one bit in the end that gets slightly cringe-y but even that one I read as a last attempt at “please guys, try!”. That moment I’m actually sure works better in the (longer) play btw.

The Norwegian couple aren’t painted as the heroes, they’re quite reckless and self-satisfied, well, Terje mostly is, but Mona has her moments too and I loved the dynamic between them. There was one review that said they had no chemistry and that person clearly is crazy, because they are excellent with their different energies that come together perfectly for what they’re trying to do, they’re team and you get why they work and live together. The glances they shoot each other, always watching each other, man this was good.

Lastly, the movie most certainly doesn’t claim that everything’s ok now. It’s a historical film that focusses on one moment almost 30 years ago, when people tried, tried really hard to change something for the better. Did it work? Nah, not really, the situation still is deadly and devastating, but it doesn’t change the fact that, like in Together, people took something out of the intimidatingly large context and dealt with it in smaller circles (that hold the power anyway) and that is an often-forgotten factor in changing things (Google what Corona did to politicians having a drink after work and what that did to the general political climate). I loved that message and I loved the implication of “keep trying, keep trying to find solutions” and also, very importantly “don’t let the Americans fucking touch anything” :DD.

PS: Andrew was the comic relief in this wasn’t he? Can we get him in a proper comedy now? One without war and genocide?

#james mcavoy #andrew scott #oslo #together #back on hiatus in 3 2 1

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sinagrace · 4 years ago

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Iceman’s been back on my mind lately. It started with the internet rumor that Shia Labeouf was being considered to play the role of Bobby Drake in a Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the X-Men. My DMs and @Mentions on social media were a mixture of intense reaction and then asking my take on who would make a great Bobby Drake (for the record: in my head I always saw him as a younger Antoni Porowski with a theater background, ‘cuz playing the funny guy with a vulnerable streak requires serious acting shops). My mind went back to the time of BC, when I was doing a lot of touring, and answering this very question because of my work on the Iceman book at Marvel. One thing led to another, and I decided to take a trip further down memory lane to look at my favorite volume of the series: Amazing Friends. Now, I know I’ve spent equal amounts of time publicly stating what a gift working on Iceman was, while also calling out the challenges that came with the experience, but the third volume really was a pure blessing. I was able to take every valuable lesson I learned as a writer, and apply it to telling a story that would be interesting to one person: Me. I’ve been a lifelong X-Men fan, I live and breathe comics, so my own expectations for a return to the series seemed like the only ones to really worry about meeting/ surpassing. The first two volumes had been so bogged down by rotating editors, complex continuity, company-wide events, multiple artists… The third volume was my chance to focus on what an Iceman series was outside of so much context. All that mattered was challenging myself to do an X-Men story that focused on the aspects of the franchise I felt were valuable and relevant, meaning: excuses to have Emma Frost be an asshole and finding an opportunity to make fun of Kitty Pryde’s haircut. Before moving on from Marvel, Axel Alonso made time to call me for a pep talk about the series. I wanted to get the series extended, and he wanted to help me succeed with the ten issues he could commit to. First, he offered an eleventh issue to give me more time on the stands. He took a look at everything I had planned, and basically told me to restructure with an eye for ramping up the pace. My writing background comes from prose and essays/ think pieces… both of which are methodical and provide some allowance from the reader to really take your time and set up the world before diving into the meat. That’s not the case with comics. You gotta work fast. Especially in today’s market, there is less and less room for a retailer to say, “give it two volumes, because shit starts really coming together by the third trade.” That was literally my speech for hooking people on such iconic series as Invincible, Fables, and Strangers in Paradise. Nowadays, every single issue is not a brick to be laid down as foundation so much as a bullet in your gun. Conflicting imagery, but that’s the point. Axel told me to think about the Big Moments in my life and sort out how to inject the mutant metaphor into it and make the most compelling comic book story I could. This was epic advice that I took with me into the new arc, but I struggled a bit with what could be bigger than the “coming out” storyline in volume one. Love was off the table because I wanted to keep Bobby single and ready to mingle. Death was off the table too, because my editor felt like we’d done enough with Bobby’s parents in the first two volumes. Upon looking at my own life, and considering the stuff me and my friends were dealing with, I landed on something a bit more reflective than LIFE or DEATH. I wanted to focus on that moment when a gay guy looks outside of himself and realizes the folks around him may not have it so easy. After everything we’ve been dealing with this summer, Iceman’s “big issue” of the arc feels oddly prescient. Bobby Drake had to reconcile his accidental complicit role in keeping the Morlocks down, and he has to investigate new approaches to being a better ally to those who don’t want to or can’t live under the protection of the X-Men. I used the Morlocks to allegorically speak to the issues that the trans/ NB community face today. Considering that trans folks are facing higher rates of homelessness and murder than other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, all I needed to do was find a perfect villain to treat the Morlocks as “lesser-than.” Cue Mister Sinister, who I wrote as particularly Darwinist with a major flair for interactive theater. While Amazing Friends definitely is the most fun I’ve had working on the book, it was also full of the heaviest shit I’ve written about. I’m so grateful that my editor let me use Emma Frost for a story about the trauma of gay conversion therapy with her brother Christian, but I’m still annoyed he wouldn’t let me put her in a sickening Givenchy outfit for her reveal. Similarly, creating the Madin character required that I chat with several mental healthcare professionals and members of the NB community to respectfully portray them as a resilient and fleshed out hero. I included personal lessons that I learned from years of the therapy (the sandcastle / sea image, a Jay Edidin fave moment). My editor and I weren’t always aligned, but we definitely were on each other’s side. He understood what I was trying to do and asked questions when something flew over his head, and he even had the good instincts to stop me from going too heavy handed with the ending. My original idea for the arc’s finale was to have Bobby become permanently scarred in his fight with Sinister, where he’d have a cool ice gash running across his face or something, a la Squall from Final Fantasy 8. The goal was to show Iceman stripping himself of his ability to pass as non-mutant to save the Morlocks, but the Mutant Pride fight scene being a stand-in for the Stonewall Riots kind of already made enough of a statement. Plus, no one in editorial wanted to deal with remembering to track his scar in other books. At first I tried to balk at his point of view, but when I looked over my original notes for the series, the point was to focus on optimism and hope. Giving Bobby a permanent scar and emphasizing the notion of sacrifice was too bleak a message for a series wherein the hero carbo-loads hoagies while riding an ice scooter and mutant drag queens emcee local festivals. Of course, the crowning achievement of the series… my mutant drag queen :) I’ve witnessed a lot when it comes to the world of pop culture and myth-making, and I 100% believe that you can’t plan the success of something. I’ve seen bands forced into breaking up because labels spend six figures failing at making listeners connect with an album. I witnessed firsthand how The Walking Dead was built from relatively humble beginnings as a buzzy cable drama into a literal international phenomenon over the course of its first three seasons. Everyone hopes for the best, but you never know how something will land with audiences. When the Shade character took off, I was truly astounded. Things I posted on Instagram while half-asleep became official quotes on major news sites. Queens and cosplayers were interpreting her like Margot Robbie had unveiled a new Harley Quinn lewk. The impact was so legit and immediate that we had to jump in and give Shade a proper Marvel hero alias, to truly welcome her into the X-Men canon. Hence the name change to Darkveil. (Funny story: I tried to fight hard for Madame X as an alias, but CB didn’t want another Agent X / “X-Name” character. Three months later, Madonna announced the Madame X album. Phew!) There was a time where I felt uncertain that the folks in charge at Marvel would bring Darkveil into any stories outside of the ones I wrote. My understanding was that Hickman was like the Cylons and had A Plan-- one that didn’t include her character. I made peace with my contribution to the Marvel Universe being contained, but then someone on social media pointed out that Darkveil showed up in an issue of Marvel Voices. After breaking down and reading Hickman’s House of X, I saw that his Plan was one of endless possibilities, and that he was moving EVERY character into new and dynamic places. I have hope now that he sees the possibilities with Darkveil, and takes advantage of her and all of her many body pouches. Amazing Friends really is my favorite thing I’ve done for the Big Two. I made a lifelong friend out of artist Nate Stockman (DC, please hire us for a Plasticman book), and I got to run a victory lap with the most encouraging and supportive readers out there. It was worth every dreadful conversation, every shitty thing a person said to me online, and all of the fun nonsense that goes into being creative for a living. Being stuck at home in quarantine has given me a lot of time to reflect on the gift that my career to date has been, and I feel so grateful to be where I am today. Other people may groan when they have to talk about something they’ve moved on from, but not me. I made people happier, I got to work with my favorite characters at Marvel, and and I'll say it again: it’s a frickin’ gift to make people move from your work. So, I will engage every tweet or message asking me my thoughts about who should play Bobby Drake in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… I’ll just never have a good answer.

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randomnameless · 4 years ago

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To that anon about sub and dub :

I’m sorry I accidently deleted your ask (:’( )

Short story long story, I prefer sub because FR dub isn’t up to par, i can only remember RD and cry (and in a way, for people who don’t use english as their maternal language, US!Dub is also some kind of sub?)

Also I feel like sub - which is a translation - allows you to understand the meaning by reading, but having a better understanding or feel about the characters hearing them. Like I know shonen protagonist with a gratting/childish voice is annoying, but when he suddenly becomes serious you know something big is going to happen or happened. Protag stopped being the carefree doofus. But if the dubbed version gives the protag a more serious voice since the beginning, you won’t be able to make him “more serious” to show shit hit the fan. Or it would have less impact.

I wanted to illustrate with FE16 since the datamine is now fully voiced but, hey, I noticed the script, even for small things like support or battle quotes, has been altered in the localisation so of course the dub feels different, they’re not talking about the same thing !

Like, lizard wise :

When Flayn disappears, localised!Rhea’s goes :

I think of your...sister as family as well. You know that.

Leigh!Rhea marks a very very small pause between “your” “sister” and “as”.

JP!Rhea?

あなたの大切な……妹は、私にとってもかけがえのない家族のようなもの……

which gives, with google translate some sort of : “your precious sister... is like an irreplaceable family to me too...”

Inoue!Rhea marks a defined pause between “precious” and “sister”.

From JP!Rhea, I get that she casts more shade on the “sister” bullshit but she’s also more emotional and calls Flayn irreplaceable. She shares his grief. Localised!Rhea added a “you know that” which wasn’t in the og script and I don’t feel like it’s supposed to add or translate something ? (but then i only use GT as my translator so...).

When Seteth tells Cyril he’s totally not like Rhea’s family nope not at all :

Localised!Seteth goes :

But she and I are actually very old friends. In fact, we think of one another almost like family.

Whitten!Seteth doesn’t pause (save at the end of the sentence) at all and delivers in a straight... line.

Jp!Seteth script goes :

だが本来、レアと私は同志…… いや、家族のような間柄なのだよ

GT : But at the origin, Rhea and I are comrades ...... No, we're like family

There’s that gap marked with the “....” which isn’t present in the localised script.

Koyasu!Seteth adds another pause after the “no” (comma?) when Whitten!Seteth, who also has the comma, gets a much shorter pause.

I feel like Jp!Seteth delivered the usual bullshit he had to learn when someone would ask him why he is so close to Rhea, but then, he reconsidered while still being careful, marked by his pauses.

He trusts Cyril with this info (not with the full beans though, they’re still “like” family). Interesting enough, maybe it’s only because this convo happens in their B support, but Seteth pulls the “comrades” card with Catherine, without revealing, like he does to Cyril, that they’re closer than that.

Localised!Seteth feels like he adds a precision to what he said earlier when Jp!Seteth’s like checking right and left and up and down to see if anyone isn’t spying on them to reveal what was obvious since the beginning.

Also useless tidbit, but the localised script went with “ I am, of course, Rhea's servant. So, in a more formal context, I must maintain a deferential distance “ to translate the jp “ かつての私は、レアに仕える者として立場を弁えた言動を取る必要があった” which, google translated, means “ In the past, I had to speak and act as a servant of Rhea” - suggesting that there used to be a period where he didn’t have to act or speak as a servant of his younger sister!

It blows me away that this important (one day i will stop kidding myself) tidbit was erased!

Anyways, it’s not a case of difference between voice actors here because I can’t reproach to Whitten!Seteth to feel different from Koyasu!Seteth since they don’t even have the same script to begin with...

OTOH, Rhea remembering Willy in CF is more or less the same thing (per google translate, as always) in the localised or the og version :

Localised!Rhea goes :

He saved me. Supported me. Gave his all to the cause of defeating Nemesis.

That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion...

Even if it’s not marked with “...” like the above lines about Flayn, Leigh!Rhea makes a pause between “Supported me” and “Gave his all”.

Jp!Rhea goes :

私を助け、支えてくれました。ネメシスの討滅に尽力してくれたのですよ。

その裔を、このタルティーンの野で我が手にかけるとは……。

Translated with the bestest tool ever goes :

Helped and supported me. He was instrumental in eradicating Nemesis.

To get that seed in my hands in this Tarteen field ...

I’m sure a more accurate translation would be “scion” and not “seed” rhea isn’t recalling her kinky days during this battle

So it’s roughly the same stuff, there’s no hidden intel like Seteth’s backstory with Rhea or something. However, Inoue!Rhea marks a longer pause between “supported me” and “he was instrumental”. Inoue!Rhea catches her breath during that pause, something Leigh!Rhea doesn’t.

When Leigh!Rhea delivers her “ That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion” in a monotone voice (still a small pause after tailtean with the comma), Inoue!Rhea catches her breath again between uh, what was translated as “that seed” (again thanks to the comma), after the “tailtean plains” (no comma here!) and the rest ; at the end of the sentence her tone breaks.

IMO, with Leigh!Rhea’s performance you get that she remembers Wilhelm as Edel’s ancestor who helped her, but now she has to end Wilhelm’s descendant. It’s a sad twist of irony but I supposed she’d be “it’s regrettable, but oh well.” Leigh!Rhea’s sad but will live over this.

Inoue!Rhea remembers more fondly Wilhelm (longer pause?) and catches her breath several times, maybe to focus but it fails because her voice cracks at the end - Inoue!Rhea isn’t only sad or inconvenienced, she’s legit upset and shaken (maybe she’d apologise to wilhelm’s memory or the golem after the fight?).

I know the general meaning is the same “Rhea faces Edel and is saddened by having to kill her first friend’s descendant” but the tone is different. Even if the Google Translate Sub gave me random handjobs, comparing Inoue!Rhea’s tone to the dubbed Leigh!Rhea’s tone was worth it.

As one of my old uni teachers said, if you want to write about something, check the primary source. If you can’t, learn the language. And if you can’t learn, don’t write.

Google translate is a far cry, i know, from a professional translation, but I’m not writing an academic paper and I still have enough material to look at the secondary sources and spot the differences in interpretations.

#anon #replies #dub vs sub #FE16 #maybe it's only me but #why should i listen to the dub when it's not dubbed in FR? Like hopefully i can understand english else i wouldn't be there #but if you have to read translated subtitles anyways why does it matter if the audio is in jp or english?#but then it'd still be a sub-title version for french people who cannot understand english #french dub is hilariously bad historically like they censored a lot of stuff and City Hunter became a meme #like Hokuto no Ken #Then we had the 4kids era #i'm not here to crap on voice actors nope at all everyone has a different take on a character and that's why it's interesting to fandom #if everyone agreed on everything it'd be boring #but when the script itself is edited it's like wow this isn't the same game #so you're not having a take on that character because that's not the same character #hopefully FE16 didn't have that #Lolcalised!Effie though...#I haven't found bloopers like lolcalised!Effie in FE16 yet #tbh i hope i'll never do #Seteth's like 'I haven't always been her servant you know'#'one day I told her her drawing sucked without deference'#'then she cried and I felt like the worst brother ever so I had to carry her on my back for the 3 next years as an apology'

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shinneth · 4 years ago

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What was ‘that scene’ for Gem Ascension?

You sure you don’t know this one already? :P

Okay, really it was a little earlier than this point. Also, GA spoilers for anyone who’s still not read this giant-ass series but still might one day.

I’m sure I mentioned this a few times before, but this is something I’ll gladly talk about as many times as anyone asks. :D

So! Depending on which version you read, that scene for GA is the climax of Act II (vanilla Gem Ascension)/the climax of Act I, Chapter 8 (Gem re:Ascension).

Namely, the part where Peridot very nearly succeeds to pull off a “fuck you, destiny!”, only for her clumsiness (largely absent for this entire mission up till this point) to fuck her over at the worst possible time, which leads to Peridot getting separated from the Crystal Gems and abandoned on Homeworld, where White Diamond apprehends her shortly after and we don’t hear from her for a while.

Gem Ascension, besides being inspired by other great Stevidot works, first came to life in a dream I had one night. Change Your Mind hadn’t aired yet, so my imagination cooked up a bit of the above scene as a possible “what might the finale bring us/what I want the finale to bring me”, only with a lot less context and detailing.

Basically, I just dreamed up the Crystal Gems in an escape sequence where they had rescued Steven and Connie and the OG-CGs, and they were all fleeing down a tunnel (I was imagining a super-elaborate airline-like tunnel); White Diamond was giving chase some great distance away, but she’d catch up soon.

Peridot was bringing up the rear, and just as she was about to reach the jump-off point/safe zone, she tripped and fell super-hard. Poor Steven saw the whole thing, but he (nor anyone else) had the time/opportunity to help her out, so she ended up getting forcibly separated from the CGs. Peridot, knowing she’s well and truly fucked, just smiles at her friends and tries to shrug off her fate to make sure they all escape rather than be dumbasses trying to save a lost cause.

Next thing Peri sees is White Diamond’s face in a Slenderman-style static-filled close-up before everything fades to black.

...

Yeah, that alone is what drove me to write Gem Ascension. Well, beyond wanting to contribute for Stevidot and all that, this dream just kept persisting in my head while gradually becoming more coherent and detailed and I decided to just bite the damn bullet and write a whole story around it.

You might (not) be shocked to learn that in order to get to that scene I dreamed up, I’d have to write over 70,000 words of set-up.

Mind you, the entire GA trilogy is collectively around 190,000 words.

Yep! A solid 70k later, I finally got to write the scene I dreamed about: the one that actually started it all. And thanks to said set-up, the scenario was much more dramatic and fleshed out compared to the original dream version. With the 70k setup, I structured this around Peridot stepping up to become a legit leader figure and learning what that truly meant. I added the element of Peridot’s misfortune being the result of a very stubborn future foreseen by Sapphire: one that technically had many varying outcomes, but the only variation was in which singular Crystal Gem got left behind. The cause was never determined, but apparently fate was hellbent on making sure someone didn’t finish the mission.

Peri nominated herself, as this was her rescue mission she was heading, and she couldn’t tolerate letting anyone getting left behind on Homeworld. She’d only compromise with her own life, but being her stubborn and logical-minded self, Peri also refused to give in to fate and vowed to fight it as best she could.

And she came close. Damn close.

Got to add some cool stuff like the cruelest Hope Spot I ever created, shattering Peridot’s visor to reveal her heterochromia (something that became its own major plot point in later acts), circumstances not allowing Peridot to properly speak to Steven or Garnet (the only two witnesses to the in-story version of the scene) and only communicate her farewells with gestures (including the forced smiling, as well as laughing), and... the pose in her pic here? This is after she manages to get Steven and Garnet to leave without her, but their ship ends up unable to escape and White Diamond’s almost right on top of them.

Peridot, fighting a goddamned concussion, uses the last of her strength to free the CGs’ ship using her metal powers.

So yeah. The definitive that scene of GA will always be Peridot’s botched escape/heroic sacrifice.

And it’s since become my measuring stick for my effectiveness as an author. If I don’t make you feel like utter dog shit after reading it, then I’ll consider myself a failure. Because I put my heart and soul into making that entire climax hurt like a bitch. Just like it first hurt me to dream about it. :D

#answered asks #pikablob #gem ascension #gem re:ascension #peridot #su peridot #that scene

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cards-onthetable · 6 years ago

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A little justified complaining to go with your morning coffee

A summary of my thoughts on last week: WHY DOES ANTHONY EVEN EXIST? LET ERIN BE A LAWYER RATHER THAN USING ANTHONY TO TURN ALL HER POTENTIAL LAWYER STORYLINES INTO DETECTIVE STORYLINES.

A not-summary of my thoughts on last night’s episode:

Erin:

Erin prosecuting a doctor who “killed” his own child trying to cure her of a life-threatening disease? 👀👀👀 I’m listening don’t fuck this up.

This scene with the victim’s mom exists, I don’t care about it.

ERIN IS SO RUDE. In what world is it okay for a ~respected professional~ such as herself to make demands of a fellow professional whose service she relies on, and then get frustrated at a totally reasonable answer and storm out? God no wonder Eddie acts like a damn first-day-on-the-job rookie when she walks into Erin’s office. This poor medical examiner lady, ugh.

This is pretty interesting actually. And I have some Opinions about this euthanasia topic but I’ll keep them to myself. But this is a decently interesting ~what’s in the news~ adaption for this show.

Frank:

Who’s this Lenny dude? I vaguely remember him from somewhere but meh, as usual I don’t care about this.

“He can be charged in the court of public opinion!”

“Sometimes we’re blindest to those who’re closest to us”

Spare me all this Sage Wise Wisdom from these lame ass old white dudes yo.

This is going to turn into YET ANOTHER example of Frank getting caught between a rock and a hard place, and coming up with some brilliant solution that keeps everyone reasonably happy (JUST LIKE LAST WEEK’S EPISODE, THERE’S MY OTHER COMMENTARY ON THAT). Snore.

I’m sad Lenny isn’t wearing a bolo tie with his suede blazer.

Danny:

This dead chick has a hella cool tattoo (and a hella cool apartment how do I afford a place like that?)

Is this the same medical examiner who made me all 👀👀👀 last time she showed up? Ugh what happened to those cool vibes? Apparently she’s had one too many drinks with Frank and the Sage Wise Wisdom crew or something because snoooore.

On a serious note, this shit about drugs laced with fentanyl is legit and scary. Last year an old friend of mine OD’d on what he thought was Xanax, but contained 4 times the lethal dose of fentanyl per pill. Be careful yo.

So someone killed this artist with the cool math tattoo to up the value of her art? I’M ACTUALLY INTRIGUED. 👀

“Do yOu hAvE aLmOnD MiLk?” LOL LOOK AT THIS SILLY MILLENIAL HIPPIE ARTIST! 🙄🙄🙄😂

I enjoyed this interrogation scene actually. It’s refreshing to see Danny use ~brains~ to get the info he needs rather than storming around everywhere roughing people up.

Jamko:

Y’all in this opening scene we just got more information about Maya than we’ve ever gotten about Eddie.

A cop taking money from crime scenes? Maya telling the dude to get the hell in the car while Eddie hangs back, a Thoughtful Look on her face? LOLOLOL don’t tell me this is how the show is about to get rid of Maya rather than revealing Jamko’s engagement.

LOLOL I was happy about this normal, casual, not-gross Jamko scene in Jamie’s office UNTIL Jamie said incredulously “you think there’s a dirty cop in the precinct, and you and I haven’t noticed?” YOU’RE NOT SOME ALL KNOWING MASTER OF COPS, YO. Did it ever occur to you that maybe a dirty cop would be careful, cover their tracks, and have the training to pull off such an operation successfully without drawing any suspicion from other cops? He’s so damn prideful and ridiculous it hurts (and lol gives me some Insight as to how/why they haven’t disclosed their relationship yet).

“So we’re just going to let this go?” “No, we’re going to leave this to IAB, LiKe wE’Re SuPpOsEd tO” ugh Jamie you’re so gross. Y’all we KNOW if Jamie had been the one to come across this information from some random collar, he’d be Personally Investigating regardless of protocol and The Rules, So this is a cool fun double standard.

MAYA HAS MOTIVE YALL. 😂😭

Don’t tell me Eddie’s about to turn around during this crime scene walkthrough and see Maya shoving cash and diamond rings into her pockets. RICH.

Okay, so Jamie saw her on a mysterious surveillance camera? I WAS CLOSE.

This is 100% an excuse to get Maya off the show rather than try to deal realistically with whatever ~fallout~ would happen between her and Eddie whenever Maya finally found out her partner is shacking up with the boss. YOU WON’T CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE. This dumbass show y’all.

Jamie’s being awfully brash, bringing up “Maya’s partner” to an IAB suit who supposedly has no idea the commissioner’s son was dumb enough to propose to said partner at a putt-putt golf course at 10am on a Sunday.

DID YOU GUYS CATCH HOW JAMIE JUST STRAIGHT UP LIED TO EDDIE? THIS IS EXAMPLE A OF WHY I HATE THIS ENTIRE ARRANGEMENT. It is to be expected that a boss would be privy to confidential information that can’t be shared with subordinates. It is to be expected that the boss would dodge/ignore questions about said information when the topic comes up. IT IS NOT EXPECTED THAT A DUDE WOULD LIE STRAIGHT TO HIS FIANCEE’S FACE because of his position knowing information he can’t share with her. I’m sorry, but what’s appropriate between a boss and subordinate, and what’s appropriate between two adults in a loving, trusting relationship are two different things. When those lines get blurred you can’t reasonably expect them to KeEp WoRk aNd hOmE SePaRaTe and objectively refuse to allow ~work conflicts~ to affect their home life and vice versa. UGH UGH UGH.

Um, Sarge, is it Normal to humiliate this poor officer by having her hauled away from roll call? ALSO SHE’S YOUR FIANCEE’S PARTNER and I presume they like each other or at east don’t want to kill each other, so I’m sure Eddie will be super happy with you for this little stunt.

OH HERE WE GO, BACKLASH! 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

AYE YALL WHAT DID I SAYYYY? This whole work/home situation is NOT SUSTAINABLE and I don’t know why I’m still having to remind people of this.

How long have I wanted to hear Jamie say “I’m sorry” and “Eddie, you did the right thing”? A LONG TIME BUT NOT IN THIS SELF-RIGHTEOUS CONTEXT OR TONE OF VOICE, I AM DISSATISFIED, DO IT AGAIN.

Family dinner:

Jamie looks good in this color sweater. BUT ALL IS NOT FORGIVEN.

Eddie punching him in the arm is a little cute BUT ALL IS NOT FORGIVEN. EDDIE, GIRL, YOU’VE GOTTA DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE YOUR WHOLE SITUATION BECAUSE 5 MINUTES AGO YOU WERE FIGHTING OVER WORK RELATED BS, AND that’s not the kind of thing that’ll just go away if you keep up this work arrangement.

Gross @ Eddie all “maybe I could’ve done something, maybe I missed the red flags, ~this is somehow partially my fault~...” Sister you’ve got to take a lesson from your idiot fiancé and give yourself a whole lot more credit, which in your case, unlike his, will be deserved.

IN SUMMARY: This Jamko situation is driving me nuts and something needs to change in a big way. But I don’t have high hopes for that to happen. Also this was a thinly veiled scheme to get Maya off the show rather than let her find out about this Secret Relationship that should not still be a secret at all. YAY BLUE BLOODS! I hate it.

#sandy hates it all #jamko #blue bloods #two faced

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quarterfromcanon · 6 years ago

Text

Strategy

Heather & Valencia - Femslash February - Day 3 - Sports Euphemisms [1,212 words]

“Wait, why do I keep seeing flashes of something on the screen? Like a person. Does it matter that I didn’t catch what I saw?”

“It’ll all make sense later,” Heather assured her. “They explain it.”

Valencia leaned forward while she scrutinized The Narrator’s every word. Heather relished the chance to show someone Fight Club for the first time, and her current company made the perfect audience. Valencia somehow made it through almost two decades without having the ending spoiled, which made the shared experience even more entertaining. Now that she knew there was a twist, Valencia’s competitive streak was in high gear as she made an effort to catch every clue and guess correctly before the big reveal. Heather shook her head with a quiet laugh. They were in for an interesting two-and-a-half hours.

Marla Singer was walking through traffic when Valencia’s phone buzzed. “Damn it. Can you pause for a second?”

Heather froze the scene in place and draped her arms across the back of the couch.

“Aww, poor kid.” Valencia pouted sympathetically at the contents of the message.

“Elena?” Heather sat up a little straighter. “What’s wrong?”

“She asked if we could postpone hanging out tomorrow. Her right arm is bothering her. It feels really weak and, when she tried to get some sleep, the pain kept her awake. Mom’s taking her to the doctor in the morning.”

“It sounds like it might be her rotator cuff,” Heather surmised. “The doctor will probably send her to an orthopedist. If it’s Dr. Hoffman, she’s super chill. That’s who I went to see when I got that tear from archery. Or it could be Dr. Kogan. She’s a little intense but she knows what she’s doing. That’s who helped me with my back the second time I took Men’s Hockey. They both do legit work, though. They’ll be able to fix her up, so tell her don’t stress.”

Valencia typed the information Heather shared as quickly as she could. “I told her all that was from you. She says to tell you thanks.”

Heather shrugged. “Anytime.”

Valencia kissed Heather’s cheek. “Thank you from me, too. It means a lot.”

“It helps to know what to expect. Doctor visits can be scary.”

“At any age,” Valencia concurred. She sat for a moment and then stole a sideways glance at her. “Nice job sliding in the sports history while you were at it. Did I detect a little humble bragging in there?”

Heather turned the remote over in her hands. “If I don’t apply my studies to everyday life, it’s like, why did I even go? Any athletic or academic flexing is just a coincidental byproduct.”

“Mm-hmm.” Valencia swung her legs off the floor and draped them across Heather’s lap. “It’s not a bad idea. You know I have a thing for jocks.”

“It’s been heavily implied,” Heather acknowledged as she tossed the remote next to their empty takeout box. “Multiple times. Especially when you found out I still had a jersey.”

Heather lolled her head to one side and looked at Valencia through the darkness, in no evident hurry to continue the film. Valencia returned the stare for a moment before a mysterious glint appeared behind her eyes. Her fingers hastily typed something on the phone and then began scrolling through information.

“What are you Googling right now?” Heather tried to peek at the search results, but Valencia scooted backward across the cushions.

“I’m educating myself about your special interests.”

“So we can talk about them?”

“Sort of.”

“Babe, are you about to hit me with some corny sports pickup lines? Because you really don’t have to --”

“Oh, it’s happening.”

Heather grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and hid behind it. Her mouth turned down in an exaggerated show of disapproval. “I hate them already.”

“Actually, some of these archery terms sound dirty all on their own.” Valencia hovered over a few. “Bare shaft. Butt. Cushion plunger?! They’re like those cheap romance novels they sell in supermarkets!”

“Yeah, I definitely got a couple of stern looks in class for laughing,” Heather admitted.

“I can’t say I’m surprised. You cackled at least three times about ‘wieners’ at Marty’s disaster of an engagement party.” She arched an eyebrow but Heather’s expression remained unrepentant. Valencia returned her attention to the digital word bank. “Ooo, here we go!”

Heather groaned. “Nooo.”

Valencia reached for her wine glass on the coffee table, sipped, and cleared her throat. “Oh, baby, you make me quiver. I’ll be your chest guard and you can find my pressure button.”

Heather curled into a ball. She shook her head vehemently and covered her ears. “It’s worse than the writing from SheSmash. I’m gonna cringe so hard I die. Have fun explaining that one to the medical examiner.”

“You’ve gone almost full armadillo already, so I’m off to a good start.” Valencia typed new words into the search bar. “Hockey now. Get ready.”

Heather let herself slump sideways and shut her eyes.

Valencia sat up and rubbed Heather’s kneecap while she tried out a new line. “Hey, girl, if you skate into the house and use your mitts on me, you’ve got a scoring chance.”

Heather peered over her shoulder. “Weirdly, that one wasn’t as bad, because it almost makes sense in context... if you were talking as the hockey stick.”

“Does that mean I’ve finally got game?” Valencia joked.

“Embarrassing themed valentine instead of a failed ice breaker. I guess you could call that an improvement.”

“Just wait until the next one.”

Heather made a dive for Valencia’s phone. She fell on top of her but continued to reach desperately. Heather punctuated each word with a little extra stretch. “No. More. Athletic. Glossary. Puns. For. The. Love. Of. God.”

Her fingers finally gained purchase and she swiped the phone away with a relieved sigh. Valencia made no move to get it back. Heather suddenly became aware of their proximity and smiled. “Hi.”

“Hey there.”

“So, when they talk about using pick-up lines to get a woman on top of you, it’s not supposed to be because she’s trying to steal your script so you’ll stop reading from it.” Heather set the phone beside the wine glass without breaking eye contact.

“It still worked out pretty well for me though, didn’t it?” Valencia teased, meeting her gaze.

“You’ve got me there. Truce?”

“Truce.”

Heather gave Valencia a quick kiss and then reached for the remote. She pulled the blanket over them both and nestled against Valencia’s torso.

“Ready?” Heather checked with her finger over the play button.

“Ready.”

They resumed the movie in peaceful silence. A few scenes passed and Valencia started to toy with the hair at the nape of Heather’s neck.

Heather shifted to rest her cheek over Valencia’s heart. She waited for a pause in the dialogue before she spoke again. “Looks like I ended up being your chest guard.”

Valencia snorted. “Looks that way. Hey, Heathe, does it breach the contract of the truce if I ask for a favor?”

“You want to see me in the jersey later, don’t you?”

“So damn bad.”

“Just the jersey?”

Heather looked up in time to see Valencia’s lips twitch with a scarcely suppressed smile. “That’s the goal.”

#H+V FF #CEG Writing by Me #Helencia #Heather x Valencia

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sunlitroom · 7 years ago

Text

Gotham s4e06 - Hog Day Afternoon

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham.

Harvey promises Jim they'll bust Oswald some day. Oswald needs to know Sofia isn't on a fools' errand. Oswald apparently still needs the Falcone name. Jim wants to know what Sofia's plan is. Ed used to be smart. Butch is Solomon Grundy. Butch and Ed are besties now. Ed decides that since he still has some brains, and Butch has the muscles, they should make lots of money. Lee is now doctor in an underground fightclub.

As always, long post will be long - reaaally long. There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot may appear (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)). There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism. Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

In Cherry’s club, we see, blurrily, a fight taking place. Cherry raises the victor's hand, while Lee resets the loser’s nose. Well – that’s not how you would do it, but, anway.

Ed watches her wide eyed and, grinning, follows her to the bar, with an oily,

Dr Lee Thompkins. What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?

He follows it up with a sleazy laugh. That's a bad Ed laugh right there, but then – bad Ed did seem to be in charge of the libido before, and Lee has always rung Ed's bell, ever since he commented dreamily to Harvey and Jim that she smelled nice.

(An aside – hang on, last episode – Lee was coming out to patch Butch up. Did Ed somehow not see her then?)

Lee curls her lip, and tells him she had heard a rumour that he was frozen. Ed notices the disdain dripping from her, and smilingly says that she surely can’t still be mad at him.

Lee asks why she would be mad at him, and mentions him killing Kristen, and framing Jim for murder so that he was inside when she lost their child.

(An aside. This is true, and Ed is an ass, but there were actual murders that Jim could have been in jail for at the point. Ogden Barker. Theo.)

Ed’s smile dims. Lee pastes on an extra sarcastic one, and says that hey – she’s over that,

Let's be friends

Ed smiles

I’m sensing sarcasm

Lee makes to leave. Ed tries to stop her by putting his hand on her arm, and Lee aims a punch. She’s only prevented from landing it by Butch, who grabs her arm. Lee turns, spots him, and is wide-eyed.

Butch! Holy hell, Butch Gilzean!

(An aside – Right, ok – now I’m baffled. Did Lee just not treat Butch in the previous episode for some reason? Doesn’t seem legit – I think Cherry would want a new fighter checked over – and she specifically wanted that burn checked. So…..?????)

Lee is aghast, and asks Ed what he’s done to him. Ed gets rid of Butch by telling him to go lean against the wall. Ed tells her doesn't know what happened, but now Butch is super strong, has amnesia, and seems to love him.

While he still has Lee’s attention, he hastily adds that he too is hoping to get back to who he was – and that the whole being frozen thing left his head scrambled. He wants Lee’s help. She snorts incredulously and tells him he really must be dumb. Ed persists. He tells her that she must be here for some reason, even though he can’t figure out what it is, and if she helps him then he’ll help her.

Leslie fixes him with a dismissive stare, and tells him that she will never help him. She leaves, and Ed is left thoughtful.

Sofia’s mansion.

Oswald is protesting something, telling her that he was

Raised to be a gentleman

(An aside. Meh. Gertrud certainly seems to have raised Oswald with some old-fashioned manners – but whenever we heard her talk about women, they were hussies and harlots – out to get Oswald. Oswald is accused of ‘tomcatting’ around when he gets home. None of that seems particularly in step with being raised a gentleman, but whatever)

Sofia cuts in that he’s also practical. They been seen out at dinner together. They’ve had three dates. No-one is watching them now. She smiles. Oswald blinks awkwardly. Her smile widens.

I’d just like to know where I stand

This seemed garbled to me. Is she saying he should be seen leaving her mansion the next morning to imply that they’re genuinely having a relationship? Is she honestly asking him if this is a relationship?

Oswald's wide-eyed. He’s disbelieving, but there’s something hopeful flickering there. He tells her it isn’t easy for him to have someone he can trust. A real friend.

Sofia smiles, and we can see, suddenly, that Jim is watching. This is objectionable on a number of levels but – principally – I hope Jim is choked with guilt, because this – this – is low. He knows everything that Oswald has gone through.

Sofia takes Oswald’s hand and smiles – telling him he can trust her. Oswald smiles back She says they’ll have lunch tomorrow

Just us

Oswald gives a tremulous little until then and leaves. It’s shot in such a way to make sure that we see Oswald’s stick, and his limp, making sure of where our sympathies are.

Sofia watches him leave, and then looks down, walking to the fireplace. As in previous episodes – she can be hard to read because her facial expression doesn’t immediately drop when she’s alone. I previously thought that she might be emotionally involved – but given the level of manipulation we’ll see from her later, I think she just stays in character from whatever game she’s been playing.

Jim walks further into the room, and asks her if she had a nice dinner. She turns, surprised, and smiles – asking him how long he’d been there.

(An aside - Jim: have you just been lurking around without permission? That’s pretty creepy and invasive. Aside from that – does this point to a growing mistrust whereby Jim feels a need to keep tabs on Sofia?)

Jim makes his disapproving face and says he’s been here long enough. He wants to know what she’s planning, since all she’s done is make Oswald stronger.

(An aside – gee, Jim. It’s almost like this was a terminally fucking stupid idea. You have no leverage over Sofia at all, which means – bluntly – she can do anything she wants.)

Sofia looks amused, and asks what he plans to do if she refuses to reveal her end game. He tells her he’ll put her on the train home. Jim seems to have forgotten he’s dealing with someone who told him flat-out that she’s a gangster, and who had been running Falcone’s business down south for the last ten years. And if he had forgotten that, and just sees her as Falcone’s misbehaving, spoiled daughter – juvenile enough to be packed on to a train and sent home – then banging her is pretty gross.

They face off. Jim is teeny tiny, which also emphasises how powerless he is here.

Sofia tells him that in a matter of days, she’ll have Oswald in the palm of her hand. If she fails, he can do whatever he wants. She holds out a drink, which he accepts, but he looks dubious.

(Another aside – presumably, we’re also to assume that Jim will hang around and they’ll have sex, which – given the overall situation – just seems pretty sordid)

(Another another aside. How much time has passed since the last episode? How much time was there between Oswald and Sofia’s dates? Has Jim interacted with her at all between times? Has it been long enough to perhaps explain his growing suspicion? Long enough to explain the attachment Oswald seems to have developed? Couple all this with the earlier confusion about Lee apparently just meeting Butch, despite being told to treat him last episode – and you have a bit of a mess)

An alley in the rain, where two cops are exchanging cash. One drives off. The other hears a noise, and goes to investigate. Entering a nearby building, he sees a cute little cat. Stopping to pet it, he doesn’t see the creepy guy in the pig mask behind him until it’s too late. Hearing oink oink, he turns and gets a cleaver to the skull for his troubles.

Same location in the daytime, where Jim and Harvey have found the corpse. Jim asks Harvey who it is. Harvey says they don’t know yet, and shows Jim that the corpse is wearing a pig mask. Jim is shocked.

They take the mask off and reveal someone Harvey knows as Dave Mesker - a grade A bastard. Harvey says he’s the candy man, delivering the pay-offs from Oswald. Jim decides to go see Oswald to figure out what’s going on. Harvey pleads with him not to stir the pot.

The Iceberg Club. A waitress finishes laying a table for two, and tells Oswald to enjoy his lunch. Oswald inspects the glasses. Jim strolls in and tells Oswald he needs to talk to him. Oswald seems quite perky, and tells him that if it takes less than three minutes, then he’s all ears.

Jim relates the story of the murder, and says that the cop was one of his. Oswald tells him that a general doesn't need to know every foot soldier. Jim tells him that someone is sending him a message. The cop might have been dirty, but he was still a cop, and the killer is making a point.

Oswald is unruffled. He tells Jim if someone had a problem with him, he’d already know about it and have dealt with it. Jim says he guesses that Oswald is always one step ahead, obviously thinking to himself how that isn’t the case right now.

(An aside – Fuck you, Jim. I’m going to enjoy the moment you discover that you’ve been played for a fool. If I squint and try very hard to think the best – I can pretend to myself that this comment maybe, maybe had an indulgent familiarity/fondness to it, but it feels like a reach (given the context), and I will need to see qualms of conscience pretty fucking soon)

Oswald smiles, and comments airily that that’s why he’s alive. He gives Jim a little wink – a nod to the fact that his first escape from likely death came from thinking ahead and betting on Jim’s good nature.

He prods Jim’s chest, and says that he would like to help, though. Calling Mr Penn to assist Jim in doing his job – he’s able to tell Jim that someone applied for a burglary license to rob a butcher.

Jim thanks him for the lead, the words obviously sticking in his throat, and tells him to enjoy his lunch. Oswald tells him not to thank him, but to thank the licensing system he hates so much. Jim grimaces. Oswald adds that he should be sure to let him know if he needs to get more involved – but, until then, he’ll be rooting for him.

(An aside – this is something else that makes Jim’s scheme so unpalatable. Oswald’s licensing system is – of course – corrupt, and impractical, and flat-out wrong. However, while his reasoning might be twisted, and while there is a lot of self-interest involved – part of Oswald genuinely believes that it is beneficial for the city. It’s why he was so moved by Bruce’s approval.

In contrast, Sofia thinks that Gotham should be hers because it’s her birth right. She’s entitled to it. That’s it.

Just to ramble on – it adds a class dynamic to their interactions, too. On top of her sense of entitlement, we see that Sofia has an automatic entrée to much of Gotham’s society. She knows how to act, how to behave – is effortlessly smooth, very wealthy. Oswald – in contrast – has clawed his way up. We saw Gertrud’s faded apartment with the rat traps. He has the van Dahl name behind him in a sense, but it’s tainted because of the context – the illegitimate son of the cook. He’s frequently socially and physically awkward, raising eyebrows and attracting sneers. It all adds to the power dynamic at play)

In a creepy warehouse somewhere, of which Gotham has many, we hear opera. The creepy pig mask guy is doing unsavoury things to some skinned pig heads, putting makeup on one of them. Whatever. I immediately hate this guy – so summaries of him may be irrationally salty.

Jim and Harvey interrogate a suspect. My wrist is sore – so long story short – they find out that he was hired by a man he refers to as ‘Professor’ because he talked all fancy, and stole four pig carcasses. Jim and Harvey look alarmed, because this likely means three more murders. Jim says they need to find out who Oswald’s other bagmen are.

Oswald sits alone while sad 1950s music plays. Victor arrives, and says that Sofia isn’t coming – she’s cancelled their lunch date. Oswald over-protests that it’s not a date. Oswald asks if she said why – but Victor stopped paying attention and just tuned out of the call at that point. He sits down opposite Oswald and starts to eat – commenting that it’ll all just go to waste.

Oswald stares furiously at him, and says he wants her followed. Victor nods, asking if he thinks she’s two-timing him. Oswald yells that they are not dating – it’s just that this lunch was her idea.

Victor just watches him, amused. Oswald tells him to do it now.

(An aside. I think lunch with Victor was the better deal, but hey.)

At Cherry’s club – a treat is being announced – a new fighter, Butch. Lee watches from the sidelines, but looks unhappy. The other patrons cheer. Who goes to something like this, anyway?

The fight begins, and the other fighter beats Butch with a hammer. It’s quite horrid, actually, because Butch doesn’t fight back – just allows himself to be beaten, underlining his vulnerability, despite his size and strength

At the sidelines, an irate Ed tells Butch to fight now. Getting up, Butch takes the other guy out with one punch, and then wallops him with the hammer. Lee winces. The crowd chants Butch’s new name. Ed cheers, and hugs him. Cherry grins that she's got a new cash cow, and tells Lee to clean up.

Elsewhere Harvey is talking to cops, trying to get names amicably. Jim is using his usual method of growling and grabbing. No-one will talk to them, because they won’t snitch on another cop, and because they suspect it’s a trap to catch corrupted cops.

Eventually, Harvey’s method not working, they try Jim’s technique – punching the guy and putting him in the trunk of a car. Jim and Harvey talk loudly about how hot it is, and how they’re off to get lunch, and the guy breaks and gives them a name, and tells them he’s at court all day.

Outside the courthouse. Harvey and Jim have another name: Jenny Butler. Harvey comments that it’s bizarre that Jim is running around saving cops on Oswald’s payroll. Jim sanctimoniously comments that they should be prosecuted, not butchered. I say sanctimoniously, because his posturing here reeks – given that his stunt with going to Falcone for help has so far resulted in the murders of three of Falcone’s former associates. Did they not deserve prosecution over murder too?

They hear a scream for police. Heading towards it, we see two bodies on a bench, both wearing pig masks. Everything goes weird, and we get distorted sound and vision like someone is hallucinating – to heighten the horror of the scene, I suppose.

Harvey and Jim talk. No-one saw anything apparently. These cops must have been abducted which would have taken work. The message is important to the killer. Jim comments that it’s no wonder the cops nearby all look on edge – and fails to take in the strain on Harvey’s face. Harvey says he’ll work on the fourth name, and leaves.

Cutting this bit short – through actually using his brain and being observant, Jim gets a lead from a saxophone player busking nearby. A white plumber’s van was parked all morning.

Lee is stapling Butch’s wounds. She asks him what happened to him, sounding both curious and concerned. She comments that his hand has grown back, he has swamp water instead of blood, and no apparent heartbeat. He seems to be doing OK though.

She tries to explain to Butch that Ed is not his friend, that he’s only using him. Butch says that Ed is his best friend. Lee persists. She says Ed just wants to make money and make his brain better and then will discard him or kill him if possible. She grabs his chin, desperate to get her message across.

Do you understand?

Butch just repeats his assertion that Ed is his friend, and a smirking Ed wanders up to them

That's right - best buddies

He waves a wad of cash around. Butch is the new attraction – which means they’ll be sticking around. Ed slyly remarks that if she fixed him, then they’d be gone. He’d pay her. She refuses again – and says she’ll only patch up Butch as long as she has to. Cherry enters the room. Lee tells her she’s stepping out. Cherry remarks that this is fine, but to remember they have a deal. We exit on Butch’s face – looking thoughtful

Lee is walks down some stairs (is this directly from the door in the ‘treatment room’?) into a Dickensian-looking scene. She aims for a cheerful tone.

Hi everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll be right with you

Lee is running some sort of free clinic. As she enters the room at the bottom of the stairs, we see Ed lurking at the top, listening to her. He creeps down and eavesdrops on her conversation in the treatment room – lifting a little girl up onto the examination table. He looks serious for a moment, then smiles unpleasantly.

Victor is taking pictures of Sofia from a car. She’s meeting with some grey haired guy. Victor says aloud,

Sofia Falcone. What are you doing?

(An aside. Victor is hot all the time)

GCPD – Harvey’s office. The press have wind of the murders, so they need to move fast. Jim wants to take their list of potential names to Oswald – but Harvey’s apparently already narrowed it down to the likely next victim. Jim is ready to head off – but Harvey stops him, and asks whether this doesn’t seem weird. The killer would have had to have had access to a lot of information about the cops’ schedules to pull of the abductions. It’s maybe an inside job and – Harvey argues – they should be tight-lipped outside the office about what they say and who they talk to.

Harper knocks the door and delivers another lead. Harvey tells her not to say a word to anyone else about it.

(An aside – is Harper someone’s mole? Maybe Sofia’s? Falcone’s – at a stretch? They seemed to arrive at just about the same time. Her timing in this scene seemed pretty deliberate, just as Harvey talked about an inside job.)

We see what must be the abducted officer in the back of a van, bound and gagged. Pyg approaches. The man is terrified, breathing fast. Pyg does his stupid oink oink again, which is pretty redundant when you’re wearing a pig mask.

Back at fight club. Lee and Ed are watching, unimpressed, as a large man from an 80s fantasy movie attempts to beat Butch. He wraps a chain around Butch’s throat – but Butch only pulls him in, grabs the guy’s makeshift mace, and beats the bejesus out of him

Cherry hold up his hand and announces the new champion. Ed laughs, and Butch looks round as the crowd chants his name.

Oswald is at his desk, angrily eating chicken from a bucket.

(An aside – I’ve never understood the big fuss over KFC)

Victor arrives, he tells Oswald that Sofia broke their date to see the mayor. They had lunch at Angelo’s, then Sofia went to the Heritage Hotel, which has apparently been vacant for years.

(An aside – there’s red wine on the desk. Red wine and chicken? I thought that was a no-no? Is this old hat?)

Mr Penn cuts into say that the hotel recently sold for over the asking price and he assumes the buyer was Sofia. Victor adds that she met with the zoning commissioner there. She has permission for new walls and a gate.

Oswald laughs, eyes bulging with rage. She’s been pretending to be his friend while allying with politicians and building a fortress. She’s planning a war.

(Another aside. See, now. Given that Oswald’s suspicion is still running so close to the surface, his starry-eyed-ness doesn’t ring true to me. I think it’s supposed to ring true– but it doesn’t work for me in terms of writing).

Victor looks happy to see Oswald’s rage - knowing it means work. Oswald tells Victor to bring her in for a chat. Victor clarifies whether they’re having a chat, or a chat chat – where they put Sofia in the trunk. Oswald smiles, and tells Victor to bring a shovel. Victor smiles and leaves, and Mr Penn looks like he’s wondering how he wound up here.

At fight club, Ed is waving his money about in front of Lee, and wondering about renting an apartment. Lee says he’d be better finding himself a neurologist. Ed is insistent that it must be Lee, who is aware of his previous intellect

You know me and what I'm capable of

Lee says that’s why the answer is no. Ed tells her he knows about the clinic, and guesses that she gets to keep it in return for being club medic. Lee shrugs. Ed points out that this means she’s vulnerable – but can’t find the words ‘threat’ or ‘blackmail’. Lee asks what his brilliant scheme is then.

Ed can only manage a feeble threat that if she doesn’t help him he’ll do something to the clinic. Lee snorts in laughter at this.

Oh my God- you really aren’t smart.

Under a bridge at night, Jim and Harvey prowl about with torches, searching for their missing cop. In the warehouse, they find him. He’s not a corpse yet, though – still moving. They reassure him as he makes muffled sounds.

Jim removes the mask – but we can see a thread attached to it – which goes down his throat – and an odd wound in his gut. As Jim pulls, the thread snaps. Jim’s eyes widen, and his army training kicks in. Grenade! The cop yells at them to run with his last breath, but the grenade goes off, and they’re knocked to the ground as they run.

Jim wakes taped to a chair. In a scene I’m not going to describe in great detail because it irritated me, Pyg prances about sounding like a cross between Frasier Crane, Charles Winchester, and Stewie Griffin.

He tells Jim that Harvey is a dirty pig who’s holding Jim back. Harvey has – over the years – held Jim back from running into a variety of dumb and deadly situations, and generally had his back, worth remembering at this point.

Whatever, he’s Jim’s biggest fan, they both hate corruption (he obviously doesn’t know about Ogden Barker), they both want to cut out the cancer, he has flair.

Jim lacks enough self-awareness to sincerely tell him that he’s delusional, and just has his own agenda – neatly forgetting Carmine’s astute observation about Jim smarting over a loss of power. Pyg claims to have suffered profound loss at the hands of the greedy pigs in power. Jim tries to wheedle, says he’ll make it right – but Harvey yells from another room and Pyg runs off, Jim yelling after him that backup is coming. As he twists in his chair, he sees a ledge, and edges the chair towards it.

Pyg tells Harvey, strung up in a noose, that he deserves what’s coming. There’s a crash, and they turn to see Jim is free.

(An aside – I think he’d more likely have damaged his spine and broken some bones – but ok)

Pyg chortles that he hates to cut and run as he slits Harvey’s throat and scampers off. Jim cuts Harvey down from the noose and tries to stop the bleeding from his throat, telling him desperately to hold on, as we hear sirens approach.

Back at Lee’s free clinic, a woman with a cough is telling Lee she can’t afford to miss work. Lee reassures her that she’ll give her antibiotics – but the cupboard, to her frustration, is bare. We hear crying from outside, and get an impression of the enormity of her task.

Sofia is looking in a compact, checking her makeup. Oswald approaches. She seems surprised but pleased – but can’t fail to notice that he’s brimming with anger, pointing again to her game-playing. Oswald tells her he thought he’d surprise her. She says she has to go elsewhere, and says that Oswald sounds strange. She claims that she wanted it to be a surprise. Oswald tells her the cat is out of the bag, and he know about her plan to attack him while pretending to be his friend. He should have known - she has her father’s blood in her veins. She insists she’s his friend, but he only tightly says he can’t wait to see her surprise.

At Cherry’s, Ed is drinking something green. Lee tells him that won’t help his brain – but adds that she’s willing to go along with his scheme, she needs cash.

Ed grins, and asks what changed her mind – was it his charisma?

Lee tells him that he asked why she was here. She never wanted to be here – or to come back to Gotham at all. But she couldn’t stay away. The Tetch virus hit the Narrows hard, and it was her fault – because she prevented Jim’s efforts to stop the virus. She was infected – but nonetheless. She doesn’t have a choice but to be here, doing this.

(An aside – she was infected, but she did knowingly infect herself, though – but, hey, this is the most morality we’ve seen from anyone in weeks, and Lee’s been pretty likeable this week - so OK.)

Ed absorbs this. Lee also comments that if he’d wanted to blackmail her he should have used Butch’s popularity to force Cherry’s hand. Ed grimaces, and she tells him to come by the clinic tomorrow. Butch wanders over.

Hi pretty lady

Lee gives him a little wave as she leaves

Ed crows that he’s going to be smart again, and almost spills his drink when a pleased Butch claps him on the shoulder.

Victor opens the car door for Oswald and Sofia. She tells him that she wants him to know she forgives him. She has apparently opened an orphanage. It’s essentially all a ploy to defuse Oswald’s suspicions by drawing them out with a decoy – making him contrite and less likely to believe anything suspicious about her in future.

Oswald stammers, embarrassed. She tells him, in saccharine tones, that she understands the pressure he faces, and that his survival depends on being constantly aware of potential threats. She doesn’t want him to bear that burden and end up like her father.

Oswald asks her to forgive him. She asks how she can possibly do that, since she forgave him already. She does tell him she owes him lunch, though, and asks if he likes macaroni cheese. He smiles shakily that he loves it.

A hospital room. Harvey slowly wakes. Jim is sprawled in a chair, but gets up – saying that he gave him a scare. Harvey says he owes Jim. Jim tells him to pay it back with the truth, and asks how long Harvey has been on the take from Oswald. They both look pained.

Harvey insists that it’s only since the license. He’s practically tearful, and says that he didn’t do anything he would have done anyway – but he has bills, and debts. Jim is grim-faced and tells him it stops. Now. As he leaves – Harvey looks miserable.

(An aside – Jim presumably excuses his own actions by reminding himself of his high and noble motivations, but he’s full of it. Even if you accept that his current actions are acceptable – literally in bed with the mob – he trotted off to Oswald in season 2 largely to get back at Loeb, and he murdered a man to do it.

Also – you kind of wonder about Jim and Harvey’s friendship. Harvey knows all of Jim’s burdens and sins – but Jim apparently doesn’t even know that Harvey has constant money problems. Is Harvey reticent about his troubles, or doesn’t Jim ask?)

There’s a tv in the corridor outside, telling us Gotham is gripped by terror, and that citizens should report anything suspicious to GCPD.

Nighttime. We see a barn full of pigs. Pyg (I’m not giving him an academic title he possibly hasn’t earned) is there. He’s singing a threatening little song as the sweet little things all fall asleep, about how the axe will fall tomorrow. Ugh, fuck off, creepy. You can’t die fast enough for me.

General Observations

A lot of the ambiguity is gone from Oswald and Sofia’s interactions. Before – they were both wary, and everything felt very knowing and cagey. Now, though, Oswald now seems genuinely emotionally invested, and she’s much more obviously playing him.

I’m not sure in-character I find this. Yes – Oswald is emotionally needy, but he’s not stupid – and he’s been burned before. Plus – it’s not even like Sofia is some random Liza-esque woman. He knows she’s Falcone’s daughter. The notion he’d have taken this as far as he has seems very far-fetched.

Also – he has that little comment about not being able to trust anyone, and not having a real friend. Did they remove Ivy from the storyline to make all this less glaring? He did have this. Ivy stayed with Oswald and faced down Ed – even though she was scared. Ivy and Oswald’s whole storyline is a terrible muddle and makes no sense.

Sofia holds all the cards right now. She’s playing Oswald, and Jim seems suspicious – but mostly frustrated and impotent. She’s presumably going to make fools of them both, and seems to be enjoying herself.

Jim is on his moral high horse and overdue a fall. He’s out of his depth with Sofia, and Oswald was presented as deserving of our sympathy in those early scenes: making Jim look low.

He’s self-righteous with Harvey – but it’s one of those tricky situations where I can’t tell whether the show expects me to remember Jim’s past, and is deliberately presenting him as hypocritical, or whether I’m supposed to have forgotten and see Jim as straightforwardly heroic.

I enjoyed Lee this week. Her guilt feels believable, and her actions plausible. She got to be funny as well as sympathetic in her scenes with Ed and Butch. More like this would be good.

I can’t stand Pyg.

Victor is hot.

Thoughts?

#gotham s4e06 #gotham commentary #hog day afternoon

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jujyfru1t · 7 years ago

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Dear Markiplier

*throws confetti/blows noisemaker* HAPPY BIRTHDAY @markiplier YOU FABULOUS HOOMAN BEAN!!!! (ur 4 moths younger than me *quietly fangirls*)

I can’t art or anything but I can write, so. I’ve been a fan of yours since about 2013, and I’m really happy I discovered you. And it’s so heartwarming to read your video comments and see that you were/are a lifeline for so many people. I can’t claim the same, but I do know my life is a lot better with you in it.

I touched on some of this in my donation comment for AbleGamers, but I don’t know if it gets to you and I wanted to expand on it a little bit. (it’s so weird spending a happy b-day comment talking about myself but???)

(this gets ramble-y so have a read more and my apologies to mobile dashes)

I’m a twin. My brother David died in 2009, right before our 20th birthday, when his heart gave out from fighting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic, incurable muscle-wasting disease. I will always be a twin. That’s how it works.Duchenne is a rare form of MD that only affects boys. Most DMD boys don’t live past 25, but my brother and I were born 3 months premature (I have moderate cerebral palsy bc of that) so that hastened the progression. By 7 he could no longer walk, though he could still use his hands and upper body.

D and I were lucky enough to be homeschooled by our parents and I am eternally grateful for everything that gave us. It also meant we were together nearly every minute of the day. We had differing interests, of course, but we also had a lot in common. Like... video games. My older-by-11-years sister got an NES for one of her birthdays, and we still had it when bro and I turned 8 (and still have it today actually). That year my brother needed glasses. Turned out the headaches he’d been having were a result of poor eyesight. At that point we’d watched my sister play NES for years (there’s a pic of toddler me derping around with a disconnected controller next to sis) but never played ourselves. The minute my brother wheeled into the front hall, brandy-new glasses on, the first thing he said was “I wanna play Nintendo.” So we fired up Mario Bros. 1 and he was 10000% hooked forever. I was the observer, sitting by biting my nails whenever the “running out of time” jingle played; I don’t think I started playing until we got Nintendo 64 for one of our birthdays, with Mario Kart. And I didn’t play by myself until Ocarina of Time came out. We even played that “together”, me consulting the strategy guide and using the “C” buttons during boss fights while he moved and swung the sword.

Pokemon arrived, I got a Game Boy Color with Pokemon Yellow when I was ten, next thing you know bro and I are Pokemon experts/fans/cultists and IT’S ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE. We were console/Nintendo devotees for sure, though we had a handful of computer games later on too.

All this is to say that gaming was a huge part of our lives and still is in mine. I’ve branched out to PC gaming (still with a controller, as my hands are not dexterous enough for mouse+keyboard gaming), and several of those games I learned about through YOU, lovely Markimoo!! Dead Space (an hour in, too scared to go back for now) Undertale. To the Moon (the only one I’ve completed, also AUGH MY FEELS). Transistor. Even Outlast, which I haven’t even Steamstalled yet bc I’m legit terrified (D was the horror movie/game fan, I had to watch through my fingers at Resident Evil 4; he patiently put up with my screeching).

So, yeah. 2013 was year 4 of After David. The pain’s never going away, it will just dull. I found a lot to sustain me through the years. I don’t remember 99% of 09, 2012 was also awful grief-wise, for some reason. ’13 was more of an up year. I can’t recall how I discovered you, guess it was my YT account recommended videos. I knew about LPs for a while but never much cared until “ohhhh I can watch games I’m not gonna buy but wanna know about!!” pretty sure my intro to you was an Amnesia compilation and then Electronic Super Joy (where I tripped and faceplanted onto a massive crush on your voice and then you im so sorry). So I can’t say I’ve always been there or I’ve seen every one of your vids but *shrugs*

you made memories come back I hadn’t thought about much because they hurt. D and I screaming and hollering over whatever games we played, D patting my arm saying “it’s ok Juj” every time I freaked out trying RE4’s first level, attending our first Pokemon convention for its 10th anniversary… and so many memories didn’t hurt anymore bc your enthusiasm and joy and epic silliness reminded me of happiness, not sadness. And when you cried I could cry with you, over similar and different things. Which reminds me, your 6mil subscriber gift video? That one song and your reaction to it single-handedly made me want to play To The Moon. And also cry buckets bc the lyrics are… very relevant. I only joined Steam a few months ago, having got a new computer with better hardware and running into a freaking $1.99 sale of the Tomb Raider reboot which almost made me buy a new console just for it but yay I didn’t have to I DIGRESS SORRY.

So I refused to watch more than part 1 of your TTM LP, I wanted to experience it for myself and boy howdy that was the right decision. [spoilers ahead if anyone’s still reading *sweating*] By the time Everything’s Alright started playing in context? After everything that happened in-game?? I was a goddamn mess and didn’t go back until a week later and then!!! The big reveal of Joey being restored in Johnny’s memories in place of River destroyed my heart.. TTM brought up so many questions. If I could have D back, but lose another important person in my life… if it wasn’t even real… would I take the opportunity? And River coming back… maybe my memories too would restore that other person, but it wouldn’t change my life as I’d lived it. I can’t never bring David back, DMD-free or otherwise.

“He’ll only have one brother.” So many heartrending moments but THAT LINE. That one hit my soul because I’ve been through it. I knew TTM would be emotional but had no idea that it would speak to me more personally than anything I’ve ever played. And I probably wouldn’t have known about it if not for you, Mark.

I don’t even know if you’ll see this, or read to the end if you do see it. But I had to let this out, and hope you do see it and know you’ve touched yet another person’s life. And I really really think that if D were alive today, he’d be your fan too.

Love and appreciation,

JujYFru1T, aka RitsukaYukiLuvr on YT, aka Julia

#JujYblather #markisahero #markiplier #Markimoo #HERPLE BIRFLEDUR MARKIMOO U ARE VERY IMPORTANT AND A GOOD #and yeah i still have a crush on you for a boatload of reasons *hops into trashcan*

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djsamaha-blog · 7 years ago

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New Neuroscience Reveals 2 Rituals That Will Make You More Mindful

***

Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here.

***

You want to get to work but instead you surf the internet. You want to diet but instead you eat enough candy to give an entire 2nd grade classroom type 2 diabetes. Why?

You might think you lack self-control. Or that you make bad decisions. But none of these explanations ever seems to get to the bottom of why what-you-think and what-you-do all too frequently don’t line up.

What the heck is going in your brain that causes these inconsistencies? Sometimes it’s almost like you’re 2 different people. Or 3. Or 19.

There’s a very simple answer: you are 19 different people. Or 4. Or 107. But what you aren’t is one person. Yeah, sounds crazy, I know. Stay with me…

Over 1000 years ago Buddhism — where mindfulness techniques come from — said that there is no singular “you.” The “self” does not exist. Sound like crazy nonsense? I’m with you. (All 27 of you, actually.) But here’s the thing…

Both neuroscience and psychology are starting to agree. Sometimes you don’t act like you because there is no singular “you.”

And this positively perplexing proposition holds the answer to why you do dumb things, procrastinate, can’t follow through on your goals, and why some days it seems like everyone – including you — is a total hypocrite.

Strap in — we’re gonna turn everything you know about your grey matter upside down and give you a completely new way of looking at your mind and how it works. Of course, we’ll also cover how to address this issue and start getting your act together.

Alright, enough foreplay. It’s time for me and you (and you, and you and you) to get to work…

Walt Whitman, You Do Contain Multitudes

There is no “you.” There are a lot of yous in your head. But do legit scientists really agree with such a seemingly ridiculous statement? Here’s Duke psychology professor Dan Ariely:

…our models of human behavior need to be rethought. Perhaps there is no such thing as a fully integrated human being. We may, in fact, be an agglomeration of multiple selves.

What we’re talking about is the cutting edge theory of the “modular mind.” (Okay, it’s old news to Buddhist monks but cutting edge to the rest of us.)

The human brain wasn’t built top to bottom as a single project like Apple builds a computer. It evolved over millions of years in a very messy fashion. Various systems (or “modules”) came about to drive you to accomplish different tasks like seeking food, fighting, reproduction, etc. But here’s the problem…

They were never integrated. So these systems compete to steer the ship that is your brain. Your mind is less like a single computer operating system and more like a collection of smartphone apps where only one can be open and running at a time.

Here’s noted science author Robert Wright:

In this view, your mind is composed of lots of specialized modules—modules for sizing up situations and reacting to them—and it’s the interplay among these modules that shapes your behavior. And much of this interplay happens without conscious awareness on your part. The modular model of the mind, though still young and not fully fleshed out, holds a lot of promise. For starters, it makes sense in terms of evolution: the mind got built bit by bit, chunk by chunk, and as our species encountered new challenges, new chunks would have been added. As we’ll see, this model also helps make sense of some of life’s great internal conflicts, such as whether to cheat on your spouse, whether to take addictive drugs, and whether to eat another powdered-sugar doughnut.

So you want to diet but you see donuts and your brain’s hunger module (like the “Grubhub” app) hjacks control and says, “Food! Eat it. Now.” Or you want to be nice but your mind’s anger app (“Angry Birds”) takes charge and you’re saying things another app is really going to regret tomorrow. You’re like a walking live performance of Pixar’s “Inside Out.”

Now this isn’t as alien as it might sound. When you do something while drunk or tired what’s the phrase you often pull out? “I wasn’t myself.”

Yeah. Exactly. Upside: you can now use the royal “we” to describe yourself.

(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my new book here.)

So how do we prevent hijacking by the wrong module at the wrong time and make better decisions? First we need to learn how those inappropriate modules get hold of your steering wheel…

Feelings. Nothing More Than Feelings.

Whichever module has the most emotional kick attached to it at any point wins the competition to be “you.”

You see a pizza commercial and it stirs up feelings of hunger and that “Grubhub” app hijacks control. Then you see someone attractive, feelings stir in your nether regions, the “Tinder” app takes charge and your brain is under new management yet again.

Under this lens, many of the confusing and frustrating things about human behavior start to make a lot of sense:

Of course people are hypocritical. They’re made up of competing “selves” with very different goals and different information. Uncle Al is the most reasonable guy in the world — unless his “politics module” takes charge.

Are people good or bad? They’re both. The metaphorical angel on one shoulder and devil on the other are just different modules in the brain with different motivations.

Those emotional persuasion techniques? They’re an attempt to switch the other person’s dominant module. To get them to go from that competitive Chess app to something more friendly like Facebook.

Why do you lack self-control? Because now the word doesn’t make any sense. It’s actually “selves-control.” Your behavior isn’t inconsistent; the “you” in charge is inconsistent.

Is it starting to click now? Here’s University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Robert Kurzban:

Some modules are designed to gather benefits, others are designed to deliver benefits, and they exist in the same head, sometimes in conflict. In the same way, this analysis does away with the question of whether individual acts are “really” self-interested. Different kinds of acts advance the goals that some, but not other, modules are designed to bring about. So, both meanings of “self-interest” seem to be a problem because different modules have different designs, and are therefore built to bring about different outcomes.

You’re often a slave to your emotional reactions to the world around you. You react to your context with feelings, those give one module more power than another, and that one hijacks decision-making in your brain…

Until new feelings are stirred up and another module takes charge. And this happens over and over and over all day long.

Here’s Robert Wright:

The human brain is a machine designed by natural selection to respond in pretty reflexive fashion to the sensory input impinging on it. It is designed, in a certain sense, to be controlled by that input. And a key cog in the machinery of control is the feelings that arise in response to the input. If you interact with those feelings… via the natural, reflexive thirst for the pleasant feelings and the natural, reflexive aversion to the unpleasant feelings—you will continue to be controlled by the world around you.

But you have this horrendous automatic transmission and so often your brain is in 1st gear on the highway and in 5th gear backing out of a parking spot and the results are far from what you desired.

(To learn the 3 secrets from neuroscience that will make you emotionally intelligent, click here.)

So how can we replace your automatic transmission with a nice stick shift? How do we prevent your grey matter from being continually hijacked by whatever emotions well up inside you?

How To Prevent Brain Hijack

Buddhism recognized this problem over 1000 years ago. And it also came up with a solution: mindfulness meditation.

But wait a second — Buddhism is a religion, right? Hold on. You can improve your body with yoga without being Hindu. And you can improve your brain through meditation without being Buddhist. Meditation is a secular tool for strengthening mental muscles.

And neuroscience gives it a big thumbs up. Studies show meditation trains your brain to be less reactive to emotional swings and can prevent the wrong module from hijacking control of your brain.

From

The meditators’ brains were scanned while they saw disturbing images of people suffering, like burn victims. The seasoned practitioners’ brains revealed a lowered level of reactivity in the amygdala; they were more immune to emotional hijacking. The reason: their brains had stronger operative connectivity between the prefrontal cortex, which manages reactivity, and the amygdala, which triggers such reactions. As neuroscientists know, the stronger this particular link in the brain, the less a person will be hijacked by emotional downs and ups of all sorts.

And this helps you make better decisions.

Here’s Robert Wright:

After all, one virtue of mindfulness meditation is that experiencing your feelings with care and clarity, rather than following them reflexively and uncritically, lets you choose which ones to follow—like, say, joy, delight, and love.

(To learn the 4 rituals from neuroscience that will make you happy, click here.)

Great. So how do you meditate to get those powerful brain benefits?

Meditation 101

Dan Harris wrote the most accessible — and most entertaining — book on meditation out there: 10% Happier. And when I spoke to him, here’s how he explained the dead simple way to build those brain biceps:

It really involves three extremely simple steps.

One: Sit with your eyes closed and your back straight.

Two: Notice what it feels like when your breath comes in and when your breath goes out, try to bring your full attention to the feeling of your breath coming in and going out.

Third step is the biggie. Every time you try to do this, your mind is going to go crazy. You are going to start thinking about all sorts of stupid things like if you need a haircut, why you said that dumb thing to your boss, what’s for lunch, etc. Every time you notice that your mind is wandering, bring your attention back to your breath and begin again. This is going to happen over and over and over again and that is meditation.

By the way, you’re going to suck at this. Meditation is the hardest simple thing you’ll ever do. Dan agrees:

It’s not easy. You will “fail” a million times but the “failing” and starting over is succeeding. So this isn’t like most things in your life where, like if you can’t get up on water skis, you can’t do it. Here the trying and starting again, trying and starting again, that’s the whole game.

But do you need to be in the midst of meditation to get the improvements? Nope. Neuroplasticity to the rescue! Over time, meditation produces trait changes in the brain so that the effects persist.

From

…there are hints in the research that these changes are traitlike: they appear not simply during the explicit instruction to perceive the stressful stimuli mindfully but even in the “baseline” state, with reductions in amygdala activation as great as 50 percent. Such lessening of the brain’s stress reactions appears in response not simply to seeing the gory pictures used in the laboratory but also to more real-life challenges…

I get it. What’s truly fascinating is that recent research has shown a tiny bit of meditation can actually be used acutely — in the moment when you’re having a push-the-red-button-level emergency.

From

As these stressful thoughts were presented, the patients used either of two different attentional stances: mindful awareness of their breath or distraction by doing mental arithmetic. Only mindfulness of their breath both lowered activity in the amygdala— mainly via a faster recovery— and strengthened it in the brain’s attentional networks, while the patients reported less stress reactivity.

(To learn more about how to meditate from Dan Harris, click here.)

We’ve covered a lot. Time for the yous to gather ’round. Let’s pull it all together and learn how the modular vision of the brain along with mindfulness can lead to that little thing called wisdom…

Sum Up

Here’s what you and you and you need to know about how to be more mindful:

There are many yous: Like apps on a smartphone, different systems in your brain with different goals can take control at different times, which is why you can behave so inconsistently.

Feelings are what give a module control: You get worked up by what your buddy said and suddenly your brain is hijacked by “Angry Birds” instead of “Words With Friends.”

Meditation can prevent hijacking: Over time, meditation can rewire your brain to be less impulsively reactive and allow you to thoughtfully respond to your feelings.

Mini-meditations help in the moment: By focusing on your breath during a tense moment you can get some of the long term effects of meditation right when you need them.

Less reactivity means fewer hijacks which leads to better decisions and more alignment between thought and action. Over time, that leads to wisdom. Neuroscience PhD and meditation advocate put it best:

On one level, wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.

Observe a couple breaths. Stay calm so you can get back to your home screen. Choose the right app for the situation.

Trust me: you don’t want Natasha running the show.

Join over 315,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.

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Posted On: October 5, 2017

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http://www.successwize.com/new-neuroscience-reveals-2-rituals-that-will-make-you-more-mindful/

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universallyemo-blog · 7 years ago

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This started out as cowboy bebop posting but it got HELLA philosophical lmao

I really relate a lot to Spike in Cowboy Bebop and that’s part of why I’m liking it so much. Spike doesn’t have any goals other than to get by. And he doesn’t have a special talent like the rest of the crew he’s with. Yet he just knows that whatever he gets himself into will work out. The worst that can happen is he dies, and that just means he doesn’t have to face failure so how bad can that really be. And if he doesn’t die then it could have been worse. Spike and Jet face every day like a new canvas and that’s a lot like how the anime works too. Every episode could be a story of its own without needing context from previous episodes in order to enjoy it. They also struggle constantly with finances but do whatever they have the power to do to keep making it. They have a lot of doubts but also do not care enough. Life is crazy and it would be sad but not surprising if tragedy fell and they lacked the means to go on or died trying to survive. So, a lot like Spike, I don’t have a real goal or any aspirations. As a kid I never knew what I wanted to be. I decided “Architect” sounded cool one time so I always said that to people when they asked so I didn’t sound like a weirdo and a loser with no future. Because like I always talk about everybody expected me to have such an amazing future because I looked like such a genius. Surprise I’m in my 20s now and I’m burnt out and it’s been revealed that I’ve never known where I was going. Not that I’m unhappy, I’m just drifting. Which is kind of a beautiful thing in itself. Because one of these days I’m bound to drift into something and it will be everything I want, and all I’ll have to do is get a hold of it and go. But for now I can just live on and do what I want. And if I never find that “everything I want” then what’s the worst that happens? I keep living the way I am, with an ok job that pays enough and a life outside that job that makes me happy? It’s important for me to keep looking up, and to see if I find my opportunity. But I don’t need to let everybody who keeps trying to push me off make me jump on a decision I don’t want. I also don’t believe I’m particularly good at anything which is probably a little weird considering the confidence I usually carry. DEFINITELY relative to the lowest level of things I’m much better, but I really consider myself mediocre at everything I ever try. And that makes it hard to point out one really special thing about myself. What really makes me special is how I think and not a lot of people see that. I don’t need other people’s validation either, I’ve had like one person in the last year that I’ve really truly cared what they thought about me. Nobody really gets to me. I follow what I really want inside and let people around me choose to support it or not support it. It gets me comments like “lol so what’s the new game you’re gonna be pro at this month gage” which like i GET it you’re memeing haha but like this is a real thing for me that my interests change all the time and it bothers me a little but it’s nice because I never get bored. I hate routines I’m incapable of them it’s a miracle that arriving at and leaving from work at the same times every day doesn’t drive me insane. I think I make my life interesting enough outside work though that my brain doesn’t think much about it. Which my job isn’t the same every day either so that’s the only reason I’ve managed to stay here for 2 years so far lol. But if I had to pick one trait about me or a characteristic or skill or something that sets me apart it’s my memory. I can remember the smallest details about a person or a conversation or an event or a photo. I can bring up something somebody said to me that they don’t remember, and I can think back to the 3rd time I saw somebody and remember what they were wearing and how long their hair was. I can think of a meme in my head and see the entire thing. But I’ve talked to other people who have really good memories, some more powerful than mine, but nobody’s is actually the same as mine. I can even select things to remember if I just go “lol i bet i’ll remember this even though it’s silly” or “okay this is important to remember” or if it gives me some kind of emotional connection or sometimes really for no reason I will remember small things that aren’t very significant. But so I have to wonder all the time how I’m really supposed to use this to be good at something. I know me better than anybody else does, so I know I really am great and worth a lot, but I just feel like I’m not really accomplishing anything and that’s just something I think about often that bothers me. But then (and I posted this on my old tumblr, like the 3rd post i ever made or something so I hope it’s on here) I have this really big life philosophy I like to simplify as positive nihilism. Because one day I will be dead. I don’t know what day. Tomorrow? The end of this year? 5 years from now? 40 years from now? Dude no clue lmao. So like, if I spend literally ANY of my time being worried about shit I’m wasting it. I could have used that time to just be happy playin a videogame or watchin an anime or talkin to a friend or making a legit plan for my future instead of worrying about it. And like, yeah so I’m scared to fail right nobody likes failure. But I can (probably) survive failure right? And so if I try and I fail it will have been a better use than to never try at all. And if I fail and it’s REALLY bad then like, I’ll be dead one day and so that makes every bad feeling and every consequence ever GUARANTEED to be temporary. I can’t suffer forever so like whatever it’s gonna be okay eventually. And the worst that can happen is always bam I’m dead I can’t do anything now get fukt nerd. But like, okay then see previous statement about if I’m dead there’s no more consequences no more failure no more feeling bad. And that’s not to say I want to die lmao absolutely not I have too many nice things to live for and people who really count on me and root for me. But just like, look how small we are. How small everything is. If i fuck up, no matter how big, time keeps moving. Particles keep moving. People keep living. Assuming everything we call real is really real and all the assumptions we have to make about existence are true, then the world keeps going on even if I’m dead or if I make a mistake that requires me to pick up after it, or just face whatever change it has to bring. The same goes for all tragedy. People die, time goes on. People break up, time goes on. Family fights, time goes on. Friends leave you, time goes on. Whatever happens in this world, the world is still moving and you have to move with it or you’ll get behind. Things hurt, things are sad, life is cruel and humans are evil. But we had no choice but to exist so here we are might as well see how much we can get out of it. Find whatever you want and go after it, always.

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zydrateacademy · 7 years ago

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Review: Final Fantasy X (Remastered)

I’ve recently been playing the Remastered version and while I will talk about some of the extra bits and baubles it has to offer, it has largely remained the same. The textures are of course crisper but the models are unchanged so don’t expect a remake akin to what they’re trying to do with FF7. Some of the NPC’s still have older looking potato-faces, and even the prerendered cutscenes are there in their whole 2002 glory. For the record, I will likely be reviewing X-2 separately, because my experience with it is minimal. Chances are you know about, or have already played, FFX. I remember it being somewhat divisive on the earlier days of the internet but current research tells me that it was, over all, well liked. It charmed people with its story, characters, progression. Almost everything about it is aces and remains solid to this day, and my complaints aren’t even related to most of that. I’ll catch everyone up to speed regarding the story and I’ll move on to how the game works. You play as Tidus, a star player of a Blitzball team which is basically underwater soccer. You spend the first twenty minutes or so of the game in Zanarkand, a remarkable futuristic city that wouldn’t look out of place in a Mass Effect game.

During a Blitzball game, a mysterious creature (quickly revealed to be named “Sin”) attacks the city and completely levels it. Tidus meets up with Auron, the game’s resident badass (which actually translates well into the game itself, as he’s the anti-tank, hardest hitter), who seems to have been with him throughout childhood as a sort of father figure. They fight some growth-like offspring of this giant beast, but eventually get sucked up into a Sin-bourne vortex which transports him a thousand years into the future. His city in ruins, most of it underwater. Now he has to navigate the new social norms of a new world called Spira, with the help of your general ragtag team of misfits. Most of the story is Tidus asking “What is this thing”. To be fair he has some of his own motivations as he is trying to get back home. Since this is an expansive RPG, this proves harder than it seems and he quickly realizes that. Now, some people love their stories with their game but I have found it irritating at my age and gaming experience to have control constantly wrestled for me. Far too many times you’re given control of Tidus to walk a few feet and right into another cutscene or conversation. Most don’t last terribly long, but I still wonder why they gave me control to begin with. Sometimes it makes sense, like giving you a save sphere nearby before walking into the next encounter. Yes, a save sphere. This game was made back when you couldn’t really save anytime you damn well please. Thankfully it does have an autosave if you find yourself needing to leave, but don’t rely on it when you’re on a grind session. It does seem strange to complain about story in a game often revered for that very same story. I just sometimes feel there’s more of a point and click adventure game going on, and I once went a full hour without any actual gameplay. Once on a boat between points in the story, I ran around talking to everyone and couldn’t figure out why the game wouldn’t progress. Only to find some easy to miss stairs up to two characters for Tidus to effectively eavesdrop on them. I do love the story, but I also love the combat and leveling system here and I do get twitchy if the game doesn’t let me kill another Basilisk.

I never liked Tidus as a character, either. That said, I could appreciate that his evolution as a person was actually noticeable. During the Blitzball game, the crowd starts cheering for Wakka, who was wounded the previous match. Tidus himself dips out to let Wakka retake his place as the team lead, stating in a voice over, “This is their show, after all”. This is a far cry from how he was a few hours ago in gameplay, where he was running into forbidden temples yelling “Like I care”, as a damn child would. I can always appreciate character arcs, and everyone here has one. Lulu (resident black mage) warms up to Tidus over time once he proves he’s not useless. Yuna (resident white mage) gets more assertive as time goes on. Wakka matures a bit. Even Kimahri does begin to speak after a while, and has his own side plot that you end up helping with. It’s all pretty much a smooth run as far as stories go, and is some of the best pacing you’ll find in a game. The mechanics are aged but still fairly solid. I mentioned in another review that turn based mechanics fell off the mainstream for a few years, because they’re a bit of a flow-breaker. Encounters can still be fast paced and intense, and I enjoy boss battles the most because it requires you to figure out what they do and counter it. Without a guide, you may not know what they do outright which makes things more interesting. There’s a myriad of stats to focus on and everyone has their own grid to work on (except Kimahri, whom starts in the middle and can delve into other roles as you see fit, but since all roles are accounted for he’s not important and is weaker in late-game), each have specific stats that are clearly focused. Wakka and Tidus have a fair amount of agility and accuracy, while Lulu and Yuna have a lot of magic on theirs.

I once read a guide that tells people to treat it like a board game. Leveling up gives you points that are like dice rolls. You move forward in the grid and you can tap into any stat that is adjacent to your position. In that regard, I usually wait until I have three to five “Sphere levels” to move so I can hit around three upgrades at a time. The game is pretty smooth overall and progression feels constant, giving you just enough challenge without having to grind at all, though some people recommend some grinding at certain points of the game which I am certainly taking advantage of. Know what else I’m taking advantage of? The extra features and parameters the new remastered version comes with. Some of which are game breakers, comparable to downloading an outright hack or trainer for older games.

You can also get full stacks of all basic items, unlock all skills for every character immediately, and max out your gil (money). I took advantage of the “get all items” and “Enemy encounter override”. Having potions helps keep my people alive and I like the major encounter rate because it helps me farm, even the early game. I basically move on when I start one-shotting things. There is no command that gives you gear, though. So I won’t be breaking the damage limit for a little while yet and bosses still take some doing. I am overkilling most basic enemies though, to great hilarity.

I played and beat this game fairly legit over a decade ago, so I’m treating these new parameters to help me get through it to refresh myself on the story, so I can play X-2, which I did very little of. Presumably these mechanics also exist in X-2 which will help my run be a bit more smooth, because I remember not really understanding the leveling system there. That’s an anecdote for another time. If I had one other point of contention, it’s the sound design. The voice acting is hit or miss, and while the infamous “HAHAHA” scene is taken out of context (the characters were force laughing on purpose, it was supposed to sound stupid), I find it to be solid overall. However the sounds itself seem irrelevant in this game, I could practically play it muted. Enemy attacks are practically telegraphed, even in text on the top of the battle screen and there’s status effect icons that pop over your character’s heads if they’re suffering from something. Attacks are flashy with fancy particle effects and sounds but what really matters is the numbers of damage you can do. Other than the rather enchanting music, you can play this game muted and miss next to nothing from the experience. All in all, I just can’t stop smiling while playing it. I don’t give FFX enough credit towards my gaming career, which starts in the 96′s and 98′s with things like Unreal, Quake, and Starcraft. FFX would come into my life a few years later and it just captured my imagination and was able to play through it more than once. Here I am again, enjoying the ride. I recommend anyone who is a fan of the genre to give this one a go.

#Final Fantasy X #FFX #Final Fantasy

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aion-rsa · 8 years ago

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Arrow’s Lexa Doig Explains What Makes Talia al Ghul A True Badass

Considering Oliver Queen’s previous encounters with Ra’s al Ghul and Nyssa, it was probably only a matter of time before his other daughter, Talia, entered the “Arrow” picture.

RELATED: Arrow’s Talia al Ghul Won’t Be a Nyssa Knockoff

A lethal assassin in her own right, in DC Comics’ lore, Talia has been an ally, a lover and an enemy to Batman. As there is no Batman in the Arrowvrse, this Talia instead finds herself involved with Green arrow. This season, it’s been revealed that she was the one who rescued Oliver from Ishmael Gregor and then proceeded to push him into fulfilling his destiny. Talia has trained Oliver, but she’s also an al Ghul. Can she be trusted? Does the apple fall far from the psychotic family tree?

Doig recently spoke with CBR about making Talia a badass, mentoring Oliver, her possible connections to Prometheus and the inevitable showdown with Nyssa.

CBR: Obviously, “Arrow’s” writers didn’t simply want to recycle what had been done with Ra’s al Ghul or Nyssa. How is Talia different than her father and half-sister?

Lexa Doig: It’s hard to say. This is my interpretation of it: Talia left the League of Assassins and forged her own way in the world, and her way is more in the real world as opposed to influencing events from the periphery. She may have a more direct hand, yet she’s very Talia al Ghul in that mentality of, “Why do it myself when I can get someone else to do it for me?” She is still someone who is a bit of a chess master. That would be my interpretation. All of my stuff has been with Stephen Amell, and it’s all been the flashback training. There hasn’t really been a reference for me of how she operates outside of that context.

In Talia’s first appearance, she disposed of Oliver’s assailants and rescued him. What did you enjoy about what that said about Talia?

The funny thing that I enjoyed about that introduction, from a completely technical perspective, is that it was one shot. That was the only thing I did the entire episode, but what a cool entrance. What it said was how badass the character is, taking out all those guys without batting an eyelash, and just stepping in with this mysterious, “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you.”

Genre fans know you from “Jason X,” “Andromeda,” “Stargate SG-1,” and “Continuum.” What’s it been like joining the DC Universe?

It’s been so much fun. My ultimate goal – and I really want this, so I am putting it out in the universe – is I want Talia to have a Funko Pop! character. In my mind, I will have arrived if I can bring home a Funko Pop! character, a little figurine, and show it to my kids and say, “See. Mommy is cool.”

What did you make of Talia’s costume? Did it help you get into character?

What I love about the costume is how badass it makes me look. What made me laugh about the costume is the logistics of being in a superhero costume. They don’t tell you the quirks. For example, the quiver that goes in the back is often like a cone that your cat wears when he comes home from the vet. You’re not aware of it, you go to walk through a doorway, you slam your quiver into the side and you get stuck. Or the hood, when it’s up. My hood has to have a certain thickness. It’s made out of leather, so it stands up and looks nice, but then you have no peripheral vision and you can’t hear anything.

Then, there are these amazing side harnesses they have for me and they squeak a bit when I walk. The thing that I found funny about my very first day on set was walking around and looking so incredibly badass, but sounding like [makes squeaking noises]. As I walk, I’m bumping into things. I can’t hear what anybody says. I can’t see anything. It was just funny. Those are the hilarious things you discover about playing a badass, and how awkward it is. I have such respect for everyone on the show who has to wear these incredible costumes and stand there, looking badass and fighting and doing all the cool stuff. You have to overcome this hurdle of [squeaking sounds] and catching your cape on the back of your quiver.

When she arrives, Oliver was a lost soul. What does Talia see in him?

I think she saw potential. Oliver is somebody who is savage. He’s incredibly adept at what he wants to accomplish, but is a little directionless. He is on the side of good in those circumstances. It’s a bit murky and gray in the question of how he’s going to accomplish his goals, though. I don’t think that moral gray area is a difficult place for Talia to inhabit. She’s quite comfortable living there herself. What she saw in Oliver is the fact that he’s an incredible killer, and he’s doing it for the right reasons. She’s trying to point him in the right direction of what he really wants to accomplish.

Do you consider Talia a hero, wanting to make the city a better place out of the goodness of her heart? Does Oliver serve her agenda?

He sort of serves her agenda. I used to play Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger, and Talia strikes me as someone who is neutral in that it’s a balance, but maybe adding into that a little bit on the chaotic evil side. She has things she wants to accomplish, and she’s going to accomplish them by any means necessary. If it turns out to have positive ramifications and be a good thing, then “Yay” for everybody. If it doesn’t, it sucks to be anybody but her.

She’s described as “an elite warrior.” Where do you feel she ranks among the other League of Assassin members and Oliver?

Right up there. After a certain point, when you’re that good, it’s a matter of substance. Anybody can accomplish the things they need to accomplish. It’s just a matter of how they go about doing it. When you compare all the various superheroes and supervillains – and you have these wonderful theoretical discussions of who would win between Nyssa and Talia – it largely ends up being a draw. Or, when you get two really good hockey teams playing against each other, sometimes it just goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t. I think they’re all elite.

Audiences have only gotten a taste of what Talia is capable of. Are we going to see more of her fighting prowess?

A little bit. I had a really great stunt double. I didn’t do a ton of it. You do see a little bit of it, but not a ton. The storyline really isn’t about how badass she is. It’s more about Talia helping Oliver find himself and find the Hood. Again, what seperates Talia from Nyssa and Ra’s is her ability to operate in the real world, the not-so-secret world. As accomplished as she is as a fighter, some of Talia’s strengths may lie in her intellect and her ability to read or manipulate a situation and play the long game. She’s someone who knows things and has the patience to play the long game.

So far, the series has only scratched the surface between Talia and Oliver. What can you tease about how that relationship unfolds?

She does what she set out to do. She very rarely doesn’t succeed at what she wants to accomplish. At this point, what she wants to accomplish is to help Oliver make peace with the savage side of himself and find a way to partition that into a place where he feels very comfortable with his alter-ego, whether the alter-ego is Arrow or Oliver Queen. That’s for him to decide, but it’s for whatever part of him that needs to exist in the real, above-ground, legit world versus the one that exists in the shadows. I do believe she actually accomplishes her goals.

Will viewers eventually get to see Talia in present day?

I don’t know. I will plead the fifth. I will say that Oliver seems to think that some of her interactions from the past may leave echoes in the present day. I can’t tell you whether it’s correct or not, but he does have that theory.

Fans have speculated that Talia shares ties with Prometheus. Have you come across those presumptions? What are your thoughts on that possibility?

I have no idea who Prometheus is. I only ever work with Stephen because of the nature of the flashbacks. It’s funny, because even on the call sheets, when you are shooting scenes that have Prometheus in them, he’s not technically listed on the call sheet. The character is listed, but no performer or actor is listed as Prometheus. Even I, who works on the show, have no idea who Prometheus is. So, if Talia has connections to Prometheus, I don’t know about it.

Katrina Law has told me she would love for Nyssa and Talia to square off. How would you like to see their dynamic play out?

I would love that. Here’s my problem. My instinct is to always go for funny and comedy. It doesn’t always play well in the comic book world, because everything is always very high stakes, which is also fun. I think it would be hilarious if the two of them didn’t get along, but in a very modern-day, sibling kind of way. Maybe they butt heads, but it’s over somebody taking too much time in the bathroom. That would be hilarious, although the fight scene would look pretty badass. It would be a killer fight sequence. I’m also a family sap at heart, so I’d also love to see Talia and Nyssa fighting on the same side – and arguing with each other at the same time.

The post Arrow’s Lexa Doig Explains What Makes Talia al Ghul A True Badass appeared first on CBR.com.

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#Aion_Rsa

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djsamaha-blog · 7 years ago

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New Neuroscience Reveals 2 Rituals That Will Make You More Mindful

*** Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here. *** You want to get to work but instead you surf the internet. You want to diet but instead you eat enough candy to give an entire 2nd grade classroom type 2 diabetes. Why? You might think you lack self-control. Or that you make bad decisions. But none of these explanations ever seems to get to the bottom of why what-you-think and what-you-do all too frequently don’t line up. What the heck is going in your brain that causes these inconsistencies? Sometimes it’s almost like you’re 2 different people. Or 3. Or 19. There’s a very simple answer: you are 19 different people. Or 4. Or 107. But what you aren’t is one person. Yeah, sounds crazy, I know. Stay with me… Over 1000 years ago Buddhism — where mindfulness techniques come from — said that there is no singular “you.” The “self” does not exist. Sound like crazy nonsense? I’m with you. (All 27 of you, actually.) But here’s the thing… Both neuroscience and psychology are starting to agree. Sometimes you don’t act like you because there is no singular “you.” And this positively perplexing proposition holds the answer to why you do dumb things, procrastinate, can’t follow through on your goals, and why some days it seems like everyone – including you — is a total hypocrite. Strap in — we’re gonna turn everything you know about your grey matter upside down and give you a completely new way of looking at your mind and how it works. Of course, we’ll also cover how to address this issue and start getting your act together. Alright, enough foreplay. It’s time for me and you (and you, and you and you) to get to work…

Walt Whitman, You Do Contain Multitudes

There is no “you.” There are a lot of yous in your head. But do legit scientists really agree with such a seemingly ridiculous statement? Here’s Duke psychology professor Dan Ariely:

…our models of human behavior need to be rethought. Perhaps there is no such thing as a fully integrated human being. We may, in fact, be an agglomeration of multiple selves.

What we’re talking about is the cutting edge theory of the “modular mind.” (Okay, it’s old news to Buddhist monks but cutting edge to the rest of us.) The human brain wasn’t built top to bottom as a single project like Apple builds a computer. It evolved over millions of years in a very messy fashion. Various systems (or “modules”) came about to drive you to accomplish different tasks like seeking food, fighting, reproduction, etc. But here’s the problem… They were never integrated. So these systems compete to steer the ship that is your brain. Your mind is less like a single computer operating system and more like a collection of smartphone apps where only one can be open and running at a time. Here’s noted science author Robert Wright:

Now modules aren’t physical structures in the brain, just like apps aren’t hardware in your phone. They’re software; the human nature algorithms that Mother Nature coded over thousands of generations of evolution. So you want to diet but you see donuts and your brain’s hunger module (like the “Grubhub” app) hjacks control and says, “Food! Eat it. Now.” Or you want to be nice but your mind’s anger app (“Angry Birds”) takes charge and you’re saying things another app is really going to regret tomorrow. You’re like a walking live performance of Pixar’s “Inside Out.” Now this isn’t as alien as it might sound. When you do something while drunk or tired what’s the phrase you often pull out? “I wasn’t myself.” Yeah. Exactly. Upside: you can now use the royal “we” to describe yourself. (To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my new book here.) So how do we prevent hijacking by the wrong module at the wrong time and make better decisions? First we need to learn how those inappropriate modules get hold of your steering wheel…

Feelings. Nothing More Than Feelings.

Whichever module has the most emotional kick attached to it at any point wins the competition to be “you.” You see a pizza commercial and it stirs up feelings of hunger and that “Grubhub” app hijacks control. Then you see someone attractive, feelings stir in your nether regions, the “Tinder” app takes charge and your brain is under new management yet again. Under this lens, many of the confusing and frustrating things about human behavior start to make a lot of sense:

Are people good or bad? They’re both. The metaphorical angel on one shoulder and devil on the other are just different modules in the brain with different motivations.

Those emotional persuasion techniques? They’re an attempt to switch the other person’s dominant module. To get them to go from that competitive Chess app to something more friendly like Facebook.

Why do you lack self-control? Because now the word doesn’t make any sense. It’s actually “selves-control.” Your behavior isn’t inconsistent; the “you” in charge is inconsistent.

Is it starting to click now? Here’s University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Robert Kurzban:

I had a girlfriend named Natalia who, whenever she got caught doing something naughty, would smirk and say, “That wasn’t me. That was Natasha.” I would roll my eyes but it turns out Natalia knew a lot more about neuroscience than I did. (Um, or Natasha did. Whatever. You get the point.) You’re often a slave to your emotional reactions to the world around you. You react to your context with feelings, those give one module more power than another, and that one hijacks decision-making in your brain… Until new feelings are stirred up and another module takes charge. And this happens over and over and over all day long. Here’s Robert Wright:

Your brain is like a car with a terrible automatic transmission. Any car fanatic knows if you want total control, you want a stick shift. You want to be able to choose which gear is engaged to best suit the current challenges ahead. But you have this horrendous automatic transmission and so often your brain is in 1st gear on the highway and in 5th gear backing out of a parking spot and the results are far from what you desired. (To learn the 3 secrets from neuroscience that will make you emotionally intelligent, click here.) So how can we replace your automatic transmission with a nice stick shift? How do we prevent your grey matter from being continually hijacked by whatever emotions well up inside you?

How To Prevent Brain Hijack

Buddhism recognized this problem over 1000 years ago. And it also came up with a solution: mindfulness meditation. But wait a second — Buddhism is a religion, right? Hold on. You can improve your body with yoga without being Hindu. And you can improve your brain through meditation without being Buddhist. Meditation is a secular tool for strengthening mental muscles. And neuroscience gives it a big thumbs up. Studies show meditation trains your brain to be less reactive to emotional swings and can prevent the wrong module from hijacking control of your brain. From Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body:

And this helps you make better decisions. Here’s Robert Wright:

When you’re better able to cope with feelings and not just instinctively reacting to them, you’re able to stay calm and resist hijacking. And astronauts, samurai and Navy SEALs all agree that the key to making good decisions — especially under pressure — is keeping your cool. (To learn the 4 rituals from neuroscience that will make you happy, click here.) Great. So how do you meditate to get those powerful brain benefits?

Meditation 101

It really involves three extremely simple steps. One: Sit with your eyes closed and your back straight. Two: Notice what it feels like when your breath comes in and when your breath goes out, try to bring your full attention to the feeling of your breath coming in and going out. Third step is the biggie. Every time you try to do this, your mind is going to go crazy. You are going to start thinking about all sorts of stupid things like if you need a haircut, why you said that dumb thing to your boss, what’s for lunch, etc. Every time you notice that your mind is wandering, bring your attention back to your breath and begin again. This is going to happen over and over and over again and that is meditation.

By the way, you’re going to suck at this. Meditation is the hardest simple thing you’ll ever do. Dan agrees:

But do you need to be in the midst of meditation to get the improvements? Nope. Neuroplasticity to the rescue! Over time, meditation produces trait changes in the brain so that the effects persist. From Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body:

But getting your grey matter to seriously change itself takes time. A lot of time. Hundreds or thousands of hours of meditating. I know what you’re thinking: I don’t have 10 years to sit cross-legged on a mountaintop. I have a job, pal. I get it. What’s truly fascinating is that recent research has shown a tiny bit of meditation can actually be used acutely — in the moment when you’re having a push-the-red-button-level emergency. From Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body:

When you’re feeling stressed out, when it seems like a hijack might be coming, just do a “mini-meditation.” By focusing on your breath for a few moments you can get some of the long term benefits of meditation right when you need them. (To learn more about how to meditate from Dan Harris, click here.) We’ve covered a lot. Time for the yous to gather ’round. Let’s pull it all together and learn how the modular vision of the brain along with mindfulness can lead to that little thing called wisdom…

Sum Up

Here’s what you and you and you need to know about how to be more mindful:

There are many yous: Like apps on a smartphone, different systems in your brain with different goals can take control at different times, which is why you can behave so inconsistently.

Feelings are what give a module control: You get worked up by what your buddy said and suddenly your brain is hijacked by “Angry Birds” instead of “Words With Friends.”

Meditation can prevent hijacking: Over time, meditation can rewire your brain to be less impulsively reactive and allow you to thoughtfully respond to your feelings.

Mini-meditations help in the moment: By focusing on your breath during a tense moment you can get some of the long term effects of meditation right when you need them.

On one level, wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.

You don’t want your internal Grubhub app taking charge when you’re on a diet. And you certainly don’t want that Tinder app active when you’re with someone you know isn’t right for you. (Swipe left!) Observe a couple breaths. Stay calm so you can get back to your home screen. Choose the right app for the situation. Trust me: you don’t want Natasha running the show. Join over 315,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert The post New Neuroscience Reveals 2 Rituals That Will Make You More Mindful appeared first on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.

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