#like the other three's who at least explored their individual motivations and ideals

[bb-fennelposting]

Sorry but Le'garde as Clear Sky fucks so much

A pale grey cat in the catacombs with a single minded determination for godhood no matter the cost. And it would be commendable if he also wasn't a war criminal and a huge dick about it.

Clear Sky just going into the Eldritch horror hole to become a god is just so in character, trying to become the god of the "Open Sky" Vast from TMA style, or maybe the God of the Clans, since he embodies the clans pretty well, single minded determination and bravery while also being a complete asshole.

Also it sorta works out but not really, which is also very Clear Sky to me

oh man that DOES fuck really hard. also ties the themes of F&H and BB!DOTC really damn well

we're just making a warrior cats funger AU now. and i am 10000% on board

[n-amit]

Who Can Become An Andromeda Partner?

In the dynamic landscape of financial services in India, Andromeda Loans stands out as a beacon of opportunity for aspiring loan agents and Direct Selling Agents (DSAs). As one of the leading loan distribution companies in the country, Andromeda Loans offers a diverse portfolio of financial products, ranging from personal loans and business loans to home loans, insurance policies, credit cards, and even real estate solutions. 

In this blog post, we will delve into the eligibility required to become an Andromeda DSA partner and the skills and attributes that make one successful as an Andromeda Loans DSA partner. 

Understanding Andromeda Loans

Before we can look into the eligibility required to become an Andromeda DSA partner and the attributes for success as one, we need to understand more about the company itself. 

Andromeda Loans was launched over three decades ago and over that time has positioned itself as a comprehensive financial solutions provider, catering to the diverse needs of individuals and businesses across India. Not only does the company offer an array of loan products, but it has also expanded its product portfolio to include insurance policies, credit cards, and even real estate solutions. 

Thus, whether you are a personal loan agent, home loan agent, business loan agent, or a DSA who wants to provide a full spectrum of financial solutions, Andromeda is the DSA company for you to partner with. As an Andromeda partner, you are sure to be able to find and offer your customers the right financial solution for their unique requirements. 

Becoming an Andromeda Loans DSA Partner

Now that we know more about Andromeda Loans, let’s take a look at what it takes to become an Andromeda partner. 

You must remember that the role of a Direct Selling Agent (DSA) is a crucial one in the financial ecosystem. DSAs act as a bridge between financial institutions and potential customers, and  Andromeda Loans recognizes the value of this dynamic. That is why they always attempt to motivate individuals who want to play this role and contribute to the growth of the company. 

The eligibility to become an Andromeda DSA is simply to be an adult Indian citizen with a high school education and a willingness to learn all the skills and knowledge that will be provided by Andromeda once you sign up with them. Additionally, having a good credit score and a working knowledge of the local language of the area you are planning to operate in would also be ideal. The former shows that you are responsible with your own finances, which is always a plus, and the latter makes it easier for you to establish yourself and allows you to form long-lasting relationships with your clients. 

Additionally, when you apply for the position, you would have to provide identity, address, and income proof, along with tax and bank details and a filled-out Andromeda registration form. Your Aadhaar card, PAN card, or voter’s ID would work as identity proof, while your passport, driving license, or utility bills would be required for address proof. Similarly, salary slips, business licenses, or payment invoices could account for your income, while income tax documents like Form 16 would suit for tax details and bank account statements of at least three months before the application would be enough to provide bank details. 

Opportunities in Andromeda

Take a look at some lucrative options, but not limited to, that you can explore with us:

You can become a personal loan agent, even if you are a housewife, IT professional or any other DSA agent.

You can associate with us as a business loan agent, even if you are a CA, tax advisor, ex-banker or any other DSA agent.

You can partner with us as a home loan agent, even if you are a real estate broker, property consultant or any other DSA agent.

Becoming Successful As An Andromeda Loans DSA Partner

We’ve already discussed the eligibility and documents required to become an Andromeda DSA partner. So, let us now consider the attributes and skills you will need to succeed as one: 

Financial Acumen and Industry Knowledge

To excel as a DSA partner with any company, including Andromeda Loans, a strong foundation in financial acumen and a deep understanding of the lending industry are essential. This would include knowledge about various loan products, interest rates, repayment structures, and industry trends. You would also have to stay updated on the latest financial news and regulations to provide accurate and informed advice to potential clients. 

Sales and Networking Skills

To become a successful Andromeda DSA partner, you must possess excellent sales and networking skills. You must learn to build relationships with clients, understand their financial needs, and effectively communicate the benefits of Andromeda Loans' products to be an effective DSA partner. A strong network in the local community or industry would also significantly enhance your ability to connect with potential customers. 

Ethical Conduct and Integrity

Andromeda Loans places a high premium on ethical conduct and integrity. As an Andromeda DSA partner, you will be representing the company, and maintaining the highest standards of honesty and transparency is non-negotiable. Besides, upholding ethical practices builds trust with clients and also contributes to the long-term success of your partnership with Andromeda Loans itself.

Customer Service Orientation

As you may know, exceptional customer service is a cornerstone of success in the financial services sector, and Andromeda Loans is very particular about this. Thus, as an Andromeda DSA partner, you should be able to prioritize the needs and satisfaction of clients, thereby ensuring a positive experience throughout the loan application and approval process. Additionally, prompt responses to inquiries and effective problem-solving also contribute to customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth referrals. 

Digital Literacy

In the era of digital transformation, being tech-savvy is a valuable asset, and Andromeda Loans is well-known for its ability to leverage technological advances to streamline processes and enhance customer experiences. As an Andromeda DSA partner, being digitally literate will enable you to navigate Andromeda’s DSA app, OneAndro, and use its customer relationship management (CRM) tools and other services to stay connected with both clients and the company's evolving digital ecosystem. 

Compliance with Regulatory Requirements

Adherence to regulatory requirements is imperative in the financial services industry, and Andromeda Loans expects its DSA partners to stay informed about all relevant laws and regulations governing the lending sector. This is to ensure that all transactions are conducted ethically and within the legal framework, safeguarding the interests of the clients, the DSAs, and the reputation of Andromeda Loans itself. 

Entrepreneurial Mindset

The last requirement to be successful as an Andromeda Loans DSA is to have an entrepreneurial mindset. This means being someone who is driven, self-motivated, and capable of taking initiative. While this skill set cannot really be taught by another person, you would have to learn it yourself anyway. This is because DSA partners are often required to work independently, and the ability to proactively identify opportunities, set goals, and execute strategies is crucial for success in this role. 

Conclusion

To conclude, whether you are hoping to become a personal loan agent, home loan agent, business loan agent, or a full-finance DSA partner, joining Andromeda Loans opens doors to a rewarding and dynamic career. While you only need to be an adult Indian citizen with a high-school education and a willingness to learn to actually join up as an Andromeda DSA, succeeding in that role will require a lot more from you. 

Aspiring loan agents would have to learn the right mix of financial knowledge, sales skills, integrity, and a customer-centric approach to thrive in this partnership. Additionally, being driven by the desire to help individuals and businesses achieve their financial goals while establishing yourself as a key player in the financial services industry would be the way to success as an Andromeda DSA partner.

[iturbide]

What do you think could have been done to improve 3H? Given the budget/time, what changes would you have done? Also, what elements do you consider KEY to a good story?

fffffff I would have done so many things differently in 3H it requires a read more but to your second question: I feel that characters are a key element of a good story. Possibly the most crucial element, to me. You can have the most epic, incredible plot in the world -- but if the characters taking part in it aren't interesting or able to engage the reader, then the story loses a huge part of its impact. It's only by caring about the people taking part that a reader can get invested in the story and its outcome; if you don't care about what happens to someone (either in a good or a bad way) then you're at best apathetic to the events, at worst bored by them.

Frankly everything else in a story -- narrative structure, conflict, etc -- is so malleable that I can't consider it key. You can easily make stories that have no classic conflict if you have characters that people care about, because just watching them interact with the world and each other can be beautifully engaging. So at least to me, the key is in the characters: whether you love them and want them to succeed or love to hate them and want to see them get their just desserts, they're the ones that do the heavy lifting in a story, so making sure they're compelling is one of the most important things to me when writing.

As for 3H though I have a lot of changes I would make. Throughout the whole game.

Academy Phase

Giving each House their own unique set of missions. I feel that part of why the Azure Moon route is considered so strong is because it's the most character driven, something that starts in the Academy Phase: everything from Lonato's rebellion to Miklan's theft of the Gautier Relic are highly personal to the Blue Lions students, with Ashe being Lonato's adoptive son and Miklan being Sylvain's estranged older brother (and someone who's well-known to Dimitri, Felix, and Ingrid on top of it). While these are both important events, for the Black Eagles and the Golden Deer there's not the same level of personal engagement: it's just a thing that's happening rather than a devastating blow to the students we love. While there are certainly missions that can and should stay the same (the raid on Seiros' tomb, Flayn's kidnapping, the Remire incident, etc.) having select missions be personalized by House to give that same level of engagement would have made for a far stronger narrative, since it enhances the player's connection with the students of their chosen House.

Just as an example: for the Black Eagles, rather than putting down Lonato's rebellion, maybe have their mission be aiding a small sect of the Church in the Empire that's being plagued by monsters or bandits. It gives us the chance to learn more of the history between the Church of Seiros and the Adrestian Empire, how close they were and how it fell apart a century before the game; Rhea might explain that she wants to improve these failing relations by having Imperial students go to aid this disconnected branch, and in private Edelgard could hint at her distrust of the institution and of Rhea herself even if she is following orders. Not only that, we could hear on returning that the Blue Lions students accompanied the Knights of Seiros in dealing with Lonato's rebellion, so we still get the fallout from those events and have a reason to choose the Blue Lions in another run.

Another example: for the Golden Deer, rather than going after Miklan and witnessing his transformation, maybe a report arrives that someone stole Failnaught and task the Alliance students with retrieving it. It lets us learn more about the situation in the Alliance, giving more details about Duke Oswald's situation, Claude's appointment as the heir to the Riegan House...and while he would never do it personally, have there be subtle implications but no hard proof that Duke Gloucester is behind the theft, just as he was the death of Claude's Uncle; on top of that, we could still get a battle against a Black Beast when Failnaught transforms the bandit, giving Claude a very personal look at how dangerous these Relics can be (something he likely wouldn't have had deep insight into, given his Almyran roots). And again, on returning to the monastery we could see the Blue Lions dealing with the fallout from Miklan.

More interaction between the House Leaders in general. There are only a handful of scenes where all three of them interact together, and I can only think of one instance where they're even in each other's company at the monastery (Claude and Dimitri in one of the early chapters). Having more of these moments where they're apparently interacting on the grounds or where we can see them together in cutscenes, giving us more insight into the leaders of the other Houses we didn't pick, would give us a lot more investment in them as people and make the eventual revelations at the end of the Academy Phase hit a lot harder.

Especially with Claude's ambition being what it is, it would have been a far better show of his character to have him hanging out with different students every month -- not just from his own House like Hilda, but from other Houses. Have him be talking with Petra in the dining hall one month, or with Annette at the reception hall another; if you sided with the Black Eagles or the Blue Lions, it would be very easy to suspect that he's up to tricks and trying to figure out individual weaknesses...but if you picked the Golden Deer, you'd likely realize very quickly that he's got no ulterior motives because you've been seeing him in action and getting Supports with him.

More Supports period. We were robbed of some fascinating interactions, like Ashe and Dorothea or Dedue and Petra, and some really strong Support chains stop before they reach their full potential (several Sylvain supports, including Marianne and Bernadetta). I want to see so many more of these and I would add in a ton if given half an opportunity.

Giving Byleth more agency. This bleeds over into the War Phase, too, but one of my biggest complaints about the game is how limited the response options are, especially when it comes to Edelgard and her frightening rhetoric as early as chapter 3. Give us more options with real varied outcomes, rather than it changing one immediate line of dialogue; give us real dialogue trees rather than minutely altered responses so that we have an opportunity to affect change. This runs the risk of drastically altering Byleth's relationship with the various House Leaders, but that potential is undeniably fascinating in and of itself.

War Phase

Azure Moon: Make Dimitri's turn more gradual. Show him grappling with Rodrigue's words more, have more scenes where he and Byleth talk and he tries to work through his understandably complicated feelings. It doesn't even have to take that much longer, honestly: every week for the next month, give us an extra cutscene and let there be a small change in how you can interact with him. For example, maybe he still doesn't attend the round table in the first week, but you do have the option of assigning him to a task around the monastery; in the second week if you explore, you have the option to invite him to a meal; in the third week he finally attends the roundtable and you're able to work on his skills again; and in the fourth week his supports finally unlock.

Azure Moon: Make Claude recruitable. Don't have him leave Failnaught and go waltzing back to Almyra, have him actually head up the Alliance in this time of need and volunteer to join forces with the Kingdom forces. You can have the option of turning him down, if you really want, at which point he might leave Lorenz in charge and go back home, but give us the option of bringing him on board along with any other former Deer that fought with him at Derdriu -- and furthermore, let us have some supports with Dedue and Dimitri to go with it. Ideally those Support chains would be available in the Academy phase and maybe you'd have the recruitment option only if Dimitr's Support level with Claude is at least a B (since you can get to A during the Academy Phase but not unlock it until the War Phase as I experienced many times). But still: Claude recruitment. Yes.

Verdant Wind: Make Dimitri recruitable. Having him die offscreen after Gronder is absolutely terrible, especially since we know for a fact that at least two people from the Alliance army saw what was either going to happen or directly happening. At the end of the battle, give us an option of going after Dimitri: if you choose not to, he still dies, but if you do you have the opportunity to save him and recruit any other former Lions with him. As abve, Supports between Claude and Dimitri would be great, and you could even keep Dimitri's Supports locked for a while and include scenes of Byleth and/or Claude and Dimitri talking and working with him until he starts turning around the way he does in Azure Moon. Dimitri's death in Verdant Wind is a travesty and it needs to be changed.

Verdant Wind: More character stuff in general. One of the things that makes Azure Moon such a strong route is that it's so deeply character-driven. Verdant Wind is much more plot-driven, and while it's still strong, it could have been more impactful if the characters were more directly affected and/or we got to see more of their individual actions. For instance: after securing Myrddin, have weekly missions where you actually go along and meet with the Great Lords and discuss with them before the final round table. Have Byleth and Claude go with Lorenz to talk to Count Gloucester and try to get his buy-in, and give us more dialogue trees where Byleth can contribute (for better or for worse) so that in the end you either get his full agreement or only grudging consideration because Lorenz intervenes. Get us engaged, show us more of the situation in the Alliance, and let us have a role in moving from this uneasy state of neutrality to full agreement that it's time to take action.

Silver Snow: A unique story in general. Basically everything in the route is a weaker copy of the events in Verdant Wind, and regardless of which came first, Verdant Wind handles the events in a way that makes more logical and narrative sense than Silver Snow does. So even if things could be changed in Verdant Wind to make it stronger and more unique, Silver Snow needs the most work and ideally should have a new plot made just for them that gives the Knights of Seiros a chance to really shine.

Silver Snow: More for Seteth to do period. Despite the fact that he's ostensibly our Lord stand-in for the route (since he's the one who meets you after the timeskip, where it's either Claude, Dimitri, or Edelgard who does in the other routes), he barely has a chance to do anything and doesn't make much of an impact on the route overall. Silver Snow could -- and ostensibly should -- give him a chance to showcase his talents and stand as a unique and engaging character, since his role in the Academy Phase was so minor; relegating him to the same general role in Silver Snow does him a great injustice.

Crimson Flower: Have Edelgard suffer consequences. This is one of my biggest complaints with the game on the whole: that Crimson Flower goes out of is way to glorify imperialism and Edelgard gets a rosy perfect ending with nothing ever going wrong according to her endcards. Logically the way she achieved her goal would have led to massive dissent, unrest, and civil conflict in the territories she conquered and subjugated; her route needs to show that, and make it clear that there are in fact consequences for her actions, both within the original Adrestian territry and without in the newly conquered ones.

Crimson Flower: Deal with the damn Agarthans. Given that she knows about them in detail the way neither of her fellow House Lords did, it's an absolute travesty that we never saw her go after them in her route: all she did was show her hand too early and cause hundreds of senseless deaths when the Agarthans fired on Arianrhod. Her route should have ended with a conflict against the Agarthan menace -- and likely a very hard one, harder even than the battle against Rhea, because she left them for too long and gave them time to bolster their defenses before she arrived. And given that she's killed Rhea, the end of that conflict would likely be a massive loss of life when Thales bombs Shambhala -- further consequences for her actions.

All Routes: Give Byleth agency. This is especially pertinent in CF where canon reduced Byleth to Edelgard's enabler: give them a chance to fight her, push back against things that either don't make sense or are only going to hurt people, argue and maybe force her to change her mind or see another viewpoint rather than continuing to barrel down a path of bloodshed and loss because she selfishly decided that war was the only way. But giving Byleth that same agency in other routes would be equally powerful: let them talk candidly with Dimitri, let them encourage Claude to trust his companions and reveal his Almyran heritage, just...let them have a chance to be their own person, with complicated relationships and the ability to speak freely.

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Yancy x Illinois - First Impressions Aren’t Always the Best

I decided to try properly writing Yanois, just to see how I’d manage it. After rewatching Illinois’ scenes, I think he would get on the nerves of the Yancy I write at first.

Word Count 2,122

(Read more because Illinois talks so much...)

-

Happy Trails Penitentiary was renowned for its rehabilitation initiatives. They had a wide variety of classes and visitors to help prisoners. Educational courses, chances to learn new skills, pen pal projects. Many prisoners would never have the opportunity for such experiences, and it was an integral part of helping them prepare for a better life outside of prison when their sentence was finished.

There was one visitor that most prisoners in Yancy’s ‘Gang’ adored. His name was Illinois, a renowned adventurer and archaeologist. Between his job in the university and research trips, he only had time to visit once every few months. It worked in his favour, as those that wanted to visit were able to to hear the various stories that Illinois was more than happy to tell. Not only that, it would encourage the small ‘fan club’ among the younger prisoners.

It was one of the few events that Yancy avoided. Something about Illinois rubbed him the wrong way. He was so arrogant and cocky, acting like the world revolved around him. It wasn’t an act, either. Yancy had spotted Illinois speaking to the Warden on his first visit two years earlier, and he acted the exact same way as he did in the talk that happened that day. After that, Yancy decided he didn’t want anything to do with the adventurer. But if Illinois were to ever become an inmate? Yancy would make sure Illinois had the snot beaten out of him within the first week.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Gang were of the opposite view, especially those around Yancy’s age. To them, Illinois walked straight out of an adventure movie and lived the ideal life. What prisoner didn’t dream of going exploring in uncharted territories? It meant that they would frequently share Illinois’ tales in rec yard when he came to visit. Yancy would roll his eyes, but keep quiet. Let them have their fun.

Today was the day that Illinois visited the prison. It had been over three months since the last visit, so there was an excited buzz among individuals in the Gang. Yancy spent the morning bracing himself. There was a talk after lunch that the others would go to, which would mean the rest of the afternoon and evening would be nothing but historical chatter and “Illinois is so cool!”. He would grumble, but he would keep that to himself. It wasn’t fair to deflate their excitement. He went to the library, found some random book and focused on that for the day. Then, once they had their excitement, it would die down and Yancy could enjoy more casual conversation.

Which was the plan… Until Bam-Bam pleaded for him to go to the last talk of the day. It turned out that his shift clashed with the talk everyone else they knew went to, and he didn’t want to go alone. Begrudgingly, Yancy closed the book, returned it to the shelf, and followed Bam-Bam. A flaw of being a loyal friend was knowing when to swallow your pride and do something you would rather not do.

-

When you go to something with low expectations, it can be incredibly difficult to feel the time was used in a worthwhile manner. Some might have memories of a teacher they hated, or a family gathering they had been dreading. This was a similar position to what Yancy found himself in. One of the ‘classrooms’ had been adjusted slightly to allow various displays to take center stage, with the chairs in neat rows in front of it. Bam-Bam and Yancy claimed two seats at the back, allowing the greaser to slouch in the chair with his arms crossed. Then, once more prisoners had arrived, the talk began.

On and on Illinois went, droning endlessly in that slow drawl. Yancy wished he had a TV remote to speed up the talking a fraction. Was Illinois focused on making sure everyone could understand him, or did he want to prolong the joy of hearing himself talk? It might have been more tolerable if Bam-Bam wasn’t genuinely engrossed in the lecture. They could have made amusing comments throughout. Instead, Yancy was stuck. Sure, history was interesting, but Illinois really drove home the stereotype of boring history teachers. The ‘adventures’ even sounded cliché and fake. Maybe he should have taken the book with him after all...

A painfully slow half hour passed. Once the talk was over, Illinois would literally open the floor to the other prisoners. The chairs would be pushed aside and those that wanted to look at the items Illinois brought were welcome to do so. Yancy was dragged along to view the pieces. Most of the articles were dated to be approximately eight thousand years old. What caught Bam-Bam’s attention was a stone carving that vaguely resembled a cat.

“Ahhh, I see the ‘White Jaguar’ has caught your attention.” Yancy had to repress a shudder at the smooth voice interrupting their own questions back and forth. Illinois stepped over, resting an arm against the perspex container. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? A miracle we even found her in the first place. She was why I wasn’t able to visit like I said I would last month.” Bam-Bam’s eager question had Illinois chuckle and shake his hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m sure you two gentlemen have much better things to do than hear about how I nearly lost my right hand in my most recent adventure.” When Bam-Bam insisted otherwise, Illinois smirked (and Yancy nearly gagged).

“If you insist. While on our recent dig, I noticed one of the ruins had a floor panel that looked a little different from the rest. It took a little persuasion, but I got that pesky stone up. There, sprawled out before me, was a staircase leading down into the earth. I picked up one of the torches and made my way down. Slowly, I delved deeper into the darkness. One step gave way under me to set off a series of poison-dipped darts, but I was able to dodge them all without breaking a sweat.” Illinois continued, dramatically regaling every single trap that he encountered until he found the White Jaguar. When taking everything around it, he surmised that the owner of the house had been a thief. The jaguar motif was familiar, as he had noticed something similar in a nearby cave that had been repurposed at the time as a sacred spot.

“- Now, this heart of this cave was still guarded by ancient jaguar spirits. They rattled the large statues as I approached, obviously sensing the treasure I carried. In the middle, there was a jaguar’s head carved out of stone. Its jaw was open wide and I couldn’t help but feel as though it was just the right spot for this precious lady. But then, skeletons of what I assume were magic users from an era long gone by pounced and tried to wrestle the statue off me, but I was too fast for them. At last, I reached the carved head, put the White Jaguar in the mouth… and the stone head moved, trapping my arm in a ferocious bite!” He gestured to the cloth wrapped around his right wrist. It was unwrapped just enough to show the healing bite marks. “It had the strength to bite it clean off, but relented when it realised what I had done by offering my arm as blood payment to return -”

“Wait wait wait.” Yancy’s interruption had Bam-Bam elbow him, but it didn’t stop the objection. “That can’t be right. If youse managed to bring this back to where it’s meant to be, why the fuck is it here?”

“An excellent question. This is my recreation of it. I am no thief. I return artefacts to where they belong. Archaeology has a rotten connection with thievery, and I try to rectify the mistakes of my predecessors.”

“So then this entire thing could be bullshit!” Yancy scoffed. “Bam-Bam, this guy just got bitten by someone’s dog and has made this pile of baloney to hide that.”

“Are you accusing me of being a liar?”

“Well, I ain’t calling you a ‘truther’, that’s for sure!”

Yancy was ready for a proper argument. In fact, he was hoping for one. Instead… Illinois laughed, and it wasn’t that typical ‘cocky chuckle’. It was a bright, genuine laugh. He could almost see Bam-Bam go starry-eyed at such a rare moment. Typical Yancy. Getting more attention from Illinois when he wanted to rile him up.

“I suppose it all does sound rather suspicious when you put it that way. Let me show you something.” Illinois gestured for the pair to follow him toward a display of photographs. Instead of pointing to these, he instead reached for his briefcase. A small photo album was pulled out. Yancy noticed that it was dated three months prior. While Illinois flipped through it, both prisoners could see what looked like an area that had been dug up. It matched the pictures in front of them of an excavation site. At last, Illinois found what he was looking for.

“One Guardian Jaguar, complete with the White Jaguar in its mouth. As you can see, the teeth have fresh blood on them. It was an… Oddly tranquil sight, despite the unfortunate situation.”

“So then why act like these are the real deal? People just take youse’s word for it?”

“Normally those that attend my talks know that what I show are my artistic recreations for purely educational purposes. I suppose I do take for granted that those who attend here are invested regulars.” Illinois gave a small shrug. “It’s an easy mistake to forget to remind people who might be new to my talks. I’m sorry if you thought I was a fraud, but I am the real deal. Too good to be true, yet here I am.”

“Yeah yeah, ‘sucks that I’m perfect as shit’, I get it. Least you knows not to make that mistake again.” Yancy rocked back on his heel with the intention of turning and walking away.

“Now now. I can’t let you walk off like that. Take this.” Another item was pulled out of his briefcase. “I made this smaller model of the White Jaguar as a ‘first draft’. I was intending on using it as motivation to my first-year students but… I think it should stay here with you.” Illinois took the opportunity to reach for Yancy’s hand. The small clay model was gently placed in it before Illinois curled Yancy’s fingers over it to keep it in place. His hands stayed where they were as he continued, “We think the White Jaguar was a symbol of good fortune. Perhaps it might bring you some good luck.” He smiled at Yancy, only to have the moment broken by the guard announcing that there were five minutes before the prisoners had to return to their cells for the afternoon count. Yancy took the chance to quickly leave the room without as much as a ‘goodbye’. At least his friend, who introduced himself as Bam-Bam, quickly thanked Illinois before darting out.

A few more questions were asked of him by other prisoners and curious staff; and then it was time to tidy up to bring everything back to the university. It was only when he reached the White Jaguar model did Illinois hesitate. There was something about that abrasive prisoner he couldn’t put his finger on. Was it because he seemed uninterested in the adventurer? Or was there something else? It was a rare moment that Illinois wished he’d had an excuse to chat to the prisoner longer. Maybe not here, but somewhere quieter. Just the two of them.

Huh… Was this what an attraction felt like? He joked about others falling in love with him so often, he wasn’t sure if this was payback for never returning interest in others. He was drawn toward a prisoner that seemed keen to dismiss his hard work and reputation. And worse! Illinois didn’t even know his name!

Then again… A good adventurer always loves the thrill of a mystery. Maybe he could try and find that prisoner next time he visited. Now that the university was open again, he’d be able to drop by more frequently…

--

For what it was worth, Yancy also had a mystery on his hands.

Namely, how to get away from Bam-Bam - who would not SHUT UP about their prolonged conversation with Illinois - and half the gang - who were incredibly jealous Yancy got a gift from the Illinois!

He dropped his head against the chow hall table with a low ‘thunk’. This was the opposite of getting the others to stop talking about Illinois around him!

[guiltybystanders]

Beastars has ended! Two days ago, but I didn’t realize until today... And that ending... I have thoughts about it. Mostly that Beastars was a great story that completely lost its way in the last arc.

Warning for spoilers for the whole series, though this is focused more on a few big picture problems instead of individual characters and plotlines that got shafted.

I still really like Beastars, even if I'm no longer as gung-ho about recommending it to people after the last arc. The characters (when being paid adequate attention) were complex people with compelling flaws and fascinating worldviews. The worldbuilding (apart from a few bits of weirdness and the end) was some of the most interesting and thought-out I've read this past year, especially for something that starts as a slice of life story. And the commentary on gender (because this is definitely a story about gender) was nuanced and explored from many angles, and honestly a very thoughtful take on (non-toxic but still distinctly masculine) masculinity. Tho, for a story about gender and forbidden love, the fact there was next to no acknowledgment of LGBT themes was strange and actually made it a weaker story. Louis should have been gay tbh. Overall, there's a lot there to recommend.

Unfortunately, the best parts of the series (the complicated worldbuilding and how that society affected the characters, and the psychology of those characters) were less focused on than external forces and fighting towards the end, as the pacing rocketed up and many subplots were dropped to speed to the ending as soon as possible. Beastars was never super realistic in its drama (Haru was captured by the fucking mafia back when it was still mostly slice of life) but before the last arc, it still mostly felt internally-focused—it was a character-focused drama despite crazy action subplots. For instance, Legosi's training arc was undeniably an anime training arc, but more so it was about him struggling to be strong without eating meat, culminating in the scene where he does take a life by eating a bug. Even when shit got shonen, it was still a story of masculinity and finding your place in society, and I didn't mind the crazier aspects of that because it still felt mostly dedicated to the characters' emotional states (and the crazy shit was often sick as hell tbh.) I didn't feel the same way later on—Legosi still thought about what he was feeling, but almost always through dramatic monologues (often during fights) instead of moments of true self-reflection, and many of the supporting characters were sidelined with their potential wasted (such as Haru, who not only was never given her own storyline like she deserved, but also was still treated as Legosi's main motivation and yet was barely shown in his life.) The plot wasn't what drew me to Beastars—the characters and world were—but the plot is what got the focus in the end. And with the ending and the worldbuilding; the complete destruction of the Back Alley Market after one single moment felt pretty antithetical to a lot of other parts of the series—the Back Alley Market was challenged throughout the whole series as something to change and overcome, but we were also shown it was not so simple to completely end carnivore urges. To wrap it up in one big dramatic moment kind of destroys a lot of the best aspects of the worldbuilding, which was so horribly morally complicated.

There are parts of the last arc I did like, or at least think had potential if done differently, but none are enough to justify the last part of the manga. I liked Melon, at first. I think he brought some fascinating ideas to the story, ones that would have really shined had his arc been better written and paced. As it was, he became less compelling to me as time went on and the story became about defeating him instead of who the characters were as people, and his own character became more melodramatic. I liked the story of Legosi's mom, which only came after Melon's introduction. But then the part with Gosha's wife's suicide didn't really make much sense and felt shoehorned in to me. I liked Yahya’s introduction and his dynamic with Gosha. But I feel like his character was never fully unpacked, and his past with Gosha (while fun) sometimes overshadowed learning about his ideals or what it meant to actually be the Beastar. I loved seeing the "world of adults" in the city, and all of Legosi's neighbors. But they were largely written out as well, just as surely as most of the Cherryton students were. And the Cherryton characters were written out, even ones that seemed important, like Juno and Bill. The most egregious example of a character being written out was Haru: she started out as one of the three main characters with her own complex problems and worldview—and it was Legosi's feelings about her that motivated him throughout the entire story—but by the end, she was barely even a character, her own problems inconsistently addressed and glossed over, mostly showing up just for Legosi to Feel A Thing He Needs To For Plot. As it is... I can't help but think that it would have been best to end the story when Legosi caught the killer and left school, when things were relatively tied up, even if that would have come at the expense of some parts I really did like.

The ending dropped the ball on a lot of accounts—forgetting subplots, sidelining characters, oversimplifying the worldbuilding, bizarre pacing—and that really is a damn shame. However, I still like the beginning and the middle enough that I like this series overall, and in the end I'm glad I read it.

[agent-cupcake]

Dimitri and mental illness

**Warnings for Blue Lions spoilers and armchair psychology

Depending on who you ask, Dimitri is an innocent sweetheart whose actions are entirely excusable and justified or an unforgivable war criminal and overall terrible character. Arguments for both sides have been exhausted, usually in the form of the popular Edelgard versus Dimitri debate, but I feel that both statements are heavily flawed and, truthfully, I think I take more issue with the former. Does it strike anyone else as rather patronizing that the audience (and the game, to an extent) treats Dimitri like an innocent, broken uwu soft boy both before the time skip and once he begins his recovery arc? Of course, a lot of this can be blamed on the awful pacing and poor writing of said recovery (which is the most valid structural critique of his character imo), but there’s a lot to be said about the fan depiction of Dimitri and the way people treat his mental illness. I think the reason this gets me is because I see it as an extension of the problems I have with the romanticization of male-specific mental illness. In this case, “all depressed boys are emasculated, soft, sad bois” and “anger is an accessory that is vanished once the cute boy takes it off” with the related sentiment of “the only two real mental illnesses are depression and anxiety, with a splash of PTSD for argument's sake”. And, speaking of arguments, while many people bring up mental illness in regards to the discussion around Three Houses characters, it is often supplementary to support their points rather than the main point unto itself. Dimitri’s mental illness (aka, the thing his entire arc is predicated upon) is mostly given only a passing recognition in the discussion of his actions. Even then, it’s often used as a justification to defend or lambaste him.

TL;DR Dimitri is a flawed person with a debilitating and incredibly well written mental illness that, while not excusing his actions, allows for further exploration of his character and a well-deserved shot at a recovery arc that is not usually awarded to people with the “non-traditional” mental illnesses. Furthermore, the game offers a wealth of insight as to what they intended his mental illness to be, the symptoms that manifested, and a plausible background to match up with it all and I have the receipts to prove it. Let’s go~

“Me? Oh. Um. Please forgive me... It's difficult to open up on the spot, don't you think? I'm afraid my story has not been a pleasant one... I do hope that doesn't color your view of me, but I understand if that can't be helped.”

I know that mental illness can be singularly caused by a traumatic event or events. That is, generally, how I see people framing Dimitri’s mental illness. My argument, however, is that the Tragedy of Duscur was not the genesis, but the trigger for issues that would exist otherwise. Perhaps it’s due to my own personal experience with mental illness, but I’m almost always more inclined to believe that issues stem from an unlucky combination of many things. 

Regardless, my evidence to entertain the idea that he would be naturally predisposed to mental illness is slim. Aside from arguing that it wouldn’t be out of the question for his mother to have been unwell while she was pregnant with him considering she would later die of plague (a cause that in and of itself is subject to skepticism), I would bring up his Crest. In-game there is clear proof that Crests have wide-reaching effects on the person, there are actually a few analysis posts that hypothesize that Crests could be the reason for certain character motivations. In ng+, the Crest of Blaiddyd is called the Grim Dragon Sign. There’s no definitive proof to point to here, but if his Crest was one of the reasons for his mental deterioration it would follow other rules set in-game. Rather than inherited human genetics creating the blueprint for mental issues and the writers having to face that issue on its own terms, it was the Crest’s influence. This goes along with the fact that the game never overtly references Dimitri’s illness, essentially using “the dead” as a blanket symptom of his problems. Both these things are cool ways to imply a possible way to read more deeply without having to use anachronistic medical terms.

Side note: There’s something uncomfortable about the idea of a Crest that gives the individual inhuman strength and mental issues. Grim Dragon indeed.

My next point is one that I don’t see being brought up too often in regards to how it might have affected Dimitri, likely because the events that came later in his life far overshadow it, but Dimitri lost his mom when he was young. The date is not given, but I think it’d be when he was about six-ish. Admittedly, the timeline is strange and non-specific around here but if that were true, it would mean that the plague, Dimitri’s mother’s death, and Lambert and Rodrigue’s war campaign to subjugate the southern half of Sreng would all have happened around the same time. Dimitri says he doesn’t remember it, but that doesn’t necessarily matter. At six years old he had lost one parent and the other one left him to go on a battle march, leaving this child without any sort of parent figure to console him in a country that is culturally opposed to expressing emotion. Lambert will probably always remain a mystery, but I think it could be fair to say he was a poor father. Or at the very least a distant one. Dimitri was undoubtedly a sensitive child (if we’re to judge by the sensitive person he grew up to be) and during the years where he was actually becoming old enough to remember, he had nobody to teach him how to properly navigate and manage his emotions. Emotional neglect in a child who is predisposed to being emotional and empathetic can leave them suffering from a sense of isolation, an inability to ask for help, and a predisposition to having break downs as they get older.

But three-ish years later, possibly one of the best things that ever would happen to Dimitri came to pass and Lambert married Patricia. Dimitri adored her. 

“I share no blood with my stepmother, but to hear you say that... It pleases me greatly. She was the one who raised me. I suppose it makes sense that we would share certain mannerisms.” (Dimitri’s B support with Hapi)

I don’t think Dimitri’s feelings about Patricia can be overstated, as I feel it’s one of the most defining aspects of his reactions to things that happen later on. Dimitri talks about Patricia more lovingly than he talks about Lambert. She was in his life for around four to five years but had such an impact on him that even his mannerisms are similar. 

Soon after, a ten-year-old Dimitri made his first friend that wasn’t knightly, who didn’t embody those Faerghus ideals of stifling emotions and swinging swords.

People point out the Faerghus crew as Dimitri’s best friends, and yet Edelgard is the one associated with his best memories. It’s just my own assumptions, but I think that it’s because both Edelgard and Patricia gave Dimitri space to be an emotional child, to not have to be the knightly prince who had no emotions and engaged only in the most masculine of activities. And, I mean, look at them. He’s learning to dance and she’s bossing him around, absolutely no regard for propriety.  

It’s pretty clear that Dimitri doesn’t feel romantic feelings towards Edelgard in the academy phase, but I think it would be fair to say she was his first love when they were young. He essentially says this was the best year of his life and establishes Edelgard as someone very precious to him (as well as the daughter of one of the most precious people to him). Strong feelings beget strong feelings, do they not? 

Google says that eleven to fourteen is the general age of male puberty. It’s the time that kids begin to more fully define how they’re going to emotionally interact with people and the world at large. Meeting Edelgard was at the cusp of this period of Dimitri’s life, and the Tragedy of Duscur was right in the midst of it. 

And we all know what that turned out.

Dimitri’s accounts of what happened during the Tragedy are... conflicting. This CG of an unharmed Dimitri in a field of corpses is... conflicting.

“My father...was the strongest man I knew. Someone I loved and admired deeply. That said, he was killed before my eyes. His head severed clean off. My stepmother, the kindest person I had ever known, left me behind and disappeared into the infernal flames.”

I’ve seen people create a plausible scenario in which Dimitri’s recollection is entirely accurate, where he saw Lambert call for revenge and get beheaded, saw Glenn’s ruined body and face twisted in pain, saw his step-mother disappear into the flames, and all despite the raging chaos of the battle and how people would undoubtedly be targeting the prince, but I think it makes more sense that his memories are unreliable. Dimitri suffered a severe head injury (very important to keep in mind) at Duscur. Maybe that happened early on, after seeing who attacked Lambert but before he was an actual target himself, which merely made him look dead. Maybe he saw a version of the events he described, but through the filter of confused head trauma, smoke inhalation, and intense terror. To think that his recollection isn’t exactly entirely reliable sets a precedent for his later skewed take on reality. 

Regardless of opinion, though, the facts are that Dimitri left Duscur with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

After that, from thirteen to seventeen, Dimitri was pretty isolated. Most of the people he cared about were dead. His entire emotional support system (Patricia) was gone. He saved Dedue (although they were definitely not on even terms, that relationship is unbalanced to the extreme) and occasionally saw Rodrigue (who I have no reason to believe was emotionally accommodating in any way considering the way he sees Dimitri as an extension of Lambert to his dying breath). Again, it’s strange. People act like Dimitri was super close friends with the Faerghus crew, that he was surrounded by people who loved him (although it is clear there is a lot of love there), but he never presents things in a way to imply that’s the case. In fact, he highlights his isolation:

“In Duscur, I lost my father, stepmother, and closest friends. I didn't have many allies at the castle after that. In truth, I had only Dedue for companionship.”... “I once had people I could confide in. Family, friends, instructors, even the royal soldiers. But they were all taken away from me four years ago.” (Dimitri’s C support with Byleth.)

Two years passed before the next time Dimitri saw his friends and it was a war campaign, putting down the rebellion in western Faerghus. Dimitri speaks about those battles from a place of deeply affected emotion, expressing empathy, pain, and disgust with his actions and the killing.

“I recall coming across a dead soldier's body. He was clutching a locket. Inside was a lock of golden hair. I don't know to whom it belonged. His wife, his daughter...mother, lover... I'll never know.... in that moment, I realized he was also a real person, just like the rest of us… Killing is part of the job, but even so... There are times when I'm chilled to the bone by the depravity of my own actions.” (Dimitri’s B Support with Byleth)

I love this support, honestly. It’s so very telling about the destructive quality of empathy. Although caring can be a good thing, it’s also arguably one of the most destructive of Dimitri’s qualities. His empathy is what presents him with situations he cannot accept, the thing that pushes him to disassociate from reality so he can be rid of it and fight without remorse like he was taught to do by his father and other soldiers. Dimitri is a man of extremes. Either total control or none, without any room for error. This dialogue is also the first time Dimitri brings up reconciling himself with reality and hints to the fact that he has been unable to do so. This is contrasted perfectly in this line from Felix,

“The way you suppressed that rebellion... It was ruthless slaughter and you loved every second. I remember the way you killed your victims. How you watched them suffer. And your face...that expression. All the world's evil packed into it...” (Dimitri’s C Support with Felix)

Dimitri doesn’t deny this. Just like all of the other terrible things Felix says, he takes it without protesting in an act of what I think is stilted contrition. Although, it’s not just in supports that Dimitri’s contrasting behavior is brought up. The Remire incident probably works as a good reference for what Felix saw all those years back.

This is the first time we see Dimitri’s darker side in full. The similarities in the situation to what is shown to have happened in the Tragedy of Duscur are interesting. The fire, the utter chaos, strange figures watching it all from above. This is another case of a perfect disaster. I wonder if his ultimate snap would have been so destructive if not for Remire.

Anyway, this draws parallels to his and Felix’s separate recall of the rebellion because later Dimitri apologizes.

“Professor... I...I'm sorry you saw that side of me in the village… When I saw the chaos and violence there...my mind just went completely dark.”

Dimitri is unreliable. A lack of control, a separation of self, and becoming consumed by a dark rage only to come to his senses later, full of shame and a sense of confusion about why. From my own experience, it’s not unnatural to come out of an episode like this without being able to explain what was happening and being baffled by your behavior. This firmly establishes Dimitri’s uncomfortably fast mood shifts in relation to his trauma from the Tragedy and confirms all of the warnings Felix had given. When Dimitri was faced with a reality he could not accept, he lost control of his emotions and his mental state shifted to adapt accordingly.

This is when I’d also like to note something interesting about how Dimitri discusses his trauma. He is very honest and open about his experiences, explaining exactly what happened to him to Byleth. However, he uses the truth to hide. In recounting the events of the Tragedy of Duscur, in talking about how his family died and saying how badly it hurt him, he does not make himself vulnerable. When he admits weakness, he does so in the past tense or apologetically, vowing to be stronger. “Stronger”, aka, he’ll be better in suppressing his emotions. 

“I always strive to keep my emotions at bay, but... Sometimes the darkness takes hold and...it's impossible to suppress. It just shows you how lacking I am... I have much to learn.”

Dimitri lies by using the truth, shoving down his feelings, and blaming himself rather than attempting to figure out how to handle his emotions. In his own words:

“Everyone has something that is unacceptable within them. I certainly do, and I'd wager you do as well. I wonder which is best, Professor... To cut away that which is unacceptable, or to find a way to accept it anyway...”

Good advice Dimitri. Might want to keep that in mind.

It is at this point is when I’m going to get into my personal thoughts and armchair psychiatry nonsense.

First off, when I mentioned earlier about “non-traditional” mental illness, I did not mean abnormal or rare. Although people mostly just point to Dimitri having PTSD (and depression) as the source of his issues, I’m going to use all of my above information to make the (decently common) argument that Dimitri is schizophrenic, which is, contrary to popular belief, not too unusual. I state that with the caveat that I understand that there’s a lot to be said about schizophrenia and the tumultuous relationship between mental health and fiction. However, now is not really the time to go into mental health politics and representation or the many lies spread about the illness so instead, I recommend that you read into the topic if you’re personally interested (This has some good information). 

At the very least be aware that this IS sensationalized.

That said, Dimitri does not, to my understanding using grossly simplified terms, meet the qualifications generally (very generally) used to diagnose schizophrenia through the majority of the White Clouds chapters. These qualifying symptoms include, but are not limited to, the duration of the psychotic episode, the concurrent presence of hallucinations and delusions, and a greatly lowered ability to keep up with basic quality-of-life tasks. You only see these symptoms in the final chapter of White Clouds and the first few of Azure Moon. This isn’t unusual, however, because schizophrenia manifesting fully in younger individuals is extremely uncommon, sometimes taking years to trigger during a person’s late teens. And since the diagnosis generally relies on the occurrence of a psychotic episode, it can be mistaken as other mood disorders. Actually, the idea of him having a mood disorder was one of the things that caught my eye originally. Prodromal symptoms such as depression, irritability, headaches, sleep disruption, and mood swings are common in bipolar disorder (and, of course, schizophrenia). 

Still, I don't deny that Dimitri has PTSD and depression, only that I don’t think PTSD is his main (or only) issue. In reality, PTSD and schizophrenia are closely tied. They share many symptoms, even the symptom of psychosis. There’s also evidence that those with genetic precedent to develop PTSD overlap with those at risk for schizophrenia, and that the nature of PTSD triggers can act as a severe stressor to aggravate a schizophrenic episode. 

(From here)

This falls into the realm of being uncertain where one ends the other begins, highlighting the lack of concrete understanding about schizophrenia and the dependency of diagnosis and treatment to rely entirely on the individual experience, but that’s not a conversation I’m actually qualified to have. 

The study that truly caught my eye and while researching for this was one called “Psychiatric disorders and traumatic brain injury”. As I mentioned, at some point during the Tragedy, Dimitri sustained severe head trauma. We know this because of his development of the rare inability to taste called ageusia. I was originally interested in following this narrative thread because, as you might know if you follow true crime cases, there are many murderers who recall having sustained a head injury as children. Not that Dimitri shares similar psychology to people that kill and eat their victim's feet... Although his body count is higher. Besides that, head trauma, in general, is known to be linked to mental illness and altering a person’s behavior. There is even a correlation between TBI (traumatic brain injury) and schizophrenia. 

From the study I linked above:

To put it more simply, patients in the study who had suffered TBI and developed schizophrenia reported that their most common symptoms were delusions of persecution, auditory hallucinations, and aggressive behaviors. The auditory hallucinations were often voices. Many of the subjects experienced psychotic episodes two or more years after the initial incident (although, as I mentioned, Dimitri’s age could also have something to do with the timing as children rarely have fully developed schizophrenic episodes). Furthermore, the behaviors classified as an absence of normal behaviors called “negative symptoms” (which include apathy and disordered speech) were rare in this testing group. 

Dimitri exclusively displays “positive” symptoms of schizophrenia (“positive” meaning the presence of symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions). He also clearly suffers from delusions of persecution in his belief that Edelgard is the sole instigator of Duscur and the war and that he immediately accuses Byleth of being an Imperial spy upon meeting them post time skip. I think it’s pretty fascinating how closely Dimitri’s symptoms follow the outline of the study, especially with the aggressive behaviors, as those aren’t actually very common in schizophrenics. 

In very, very simplistic terms, if I’m right and Dimitri was born with the genetic blueprint for schizophrenia/PTSD (through Crests, inheritance, or environmental causes) and later suffered severe head trauma in an event that also gave him PTSD in combination with his pre-existing parental issues and stilted emotional development, then this could definitely create the type of person who loses all sense of reality, can’t control his emotions, and is prone to episodes of murderous rage when being reminded of the trigger (however tangentially) of losing everything he loved.

However, I’ll add real quick that the study I mentioned should be taken with a grain of salt. 

I use it mainly because I thought the similarities were interesting and it shows that there was more thought put into Dimitri than maybe people appreciate.

This brings us to my final point; Some kind of twisted joke.

A major point I saw being made as proof of how terrible Dimitri is as a character was that he blamed Edelgard for the Tragedy of Duscur (a time where she would have been twelve). More accurately, he blamed her for everything that had happened and the thing is, I don’t disagree with that critique entirely. However, this is a case of him being a bad person, not a bad character. This might seem like an odd distinction, but I think it changes the scope of deserved criticism.  

As I’ve been trying so desperately to illustrate, Dimitri snapping wasn’t just because of Edelgard being revealed as the Flame Emperor. Rather, it was an unlucky combination of many things. His grasp and interpretation of reality were already hazy at best by the time she was unmasked, slowly falling apart as his prodromal symptoms worsened. Going into the fight, he believed the Flame Emperor to be responsible in whole or in part for the worst thing that had ever happened to him, guessed at Arundel’s involvement, had found (and lied about) the dagger, and was rapidly mentally deteriorating. While Dimitri suspected Edelgard’s involvement to some degree, he did his best to act like it wasn’t true.  

Dimitri didn’t want it to be true. To the extent that he was willing to lie to Byleth (and to himself) to avoid reality. He cared deeply about Edelgard. The best year of his life was spent with her, she was his first love, and she was the daughter of the step-mother he adored. Strong feelings beget strong feelings, do they not? This reveal confronted Dimitri with something that he could not accept, so his mind sidestepped the issue altogether. Delusion convinced him that all of the fears and worries he had beforehand were related, all into one larger delusion that Edelgard had sole responsibility. It’s not right and maybe not even excusable, but it falls in line with everything else.

Edelgard and Dimitri. Bound by some twisted fate but forever doomed to be separated, unable to understand the other’s chosen path. 

I do recognize the flaws of Dimitri’s character and arc. There are some pretty major flaws. I have parts of a post typed out about his shoddy recovery and how I’d fix it that, hopefully, one day will see the light of day as well as many complaints about the way the story is hindered by the need for flexibility to accommodate gameplay and a happy ending.

But, despite that, this has all been a very long-winded way of praising Dimitri’s writing. His mental illness has a surprising amount of depth and I loved studying it as intently as I did. I learned a lot about his character as well as about mental illness in general.

Ultimately, Dimitri is neither an innocent sweetheart whose actions are entirely excusable and justified or an unforgivable war criminal and overall terrible character. You can feel bad for his pain and his struggle with his illness and understand that as a reason for his actions, but you shouldn’t use it as justification. He had the opportunity to seek help before things got too bad. He was selfish with the mismanagement of his emotions and goals. However, he also was a victim. Dimitri worked to recover and mend the mistakes he made while he was unwell, which is a side of this mental illness that is rarely shown in media.  

I wholeheartedly believe that, love him or hate him, Dimitri is the most well-written of the Three Houses characters,

[firesfelt]

hi hello ! i’m pace ( she/her ) and i have really horrible timing, as i need to go to bed like asap and also have a packed day tomorrow so can’t be on then either ( rip ) but i rlly wanted to get at least one thing posted before i go ! i’m in the gmt, and am just realising now while i think about intros that all my fcs ( for the moment ) have names beginning with ‘a’ ? inch resting. but i’ll hopefully be able to get intros up for my gals too asap & i rlly wanna do the tasks for everyone and get writing and just have a Hoot. this is the exact environment i need, u know ? exciting !!! anyway, lemme introduce my first character before i end up writing some rambled essay about,,, literally nothing.

( asami zdrenka, 26, demigirl, she/her/they/them ) EMIKA BLAKE was seen listening to HEARTBEAT BY SCOUTING FOR GIRLS on their way to TATTOO ARTIST. EM is known to be CREATIVE & STANDOFFISH.

➜ i always find emika’s personality hard to describe, but i think the best way to begin is ‘misunderstood’ ? she has good intentions, and a kind soul, but the social skills of a wet trout. she’s quiet, and reserved, and has a serious case of resting-grump-face, and it very much leads people to get the wrong sort of impression of her, through no fault of their own. the sarcasm doesn’t help, either. she’s very much a loner ( and therefore a pain in the arse to plot with ) but i always enjoy developing relationships of any kind with her and seeing how things unfold.

➜ obviously, her job has a very social side, and that’s the one thing she can manage. she has no problems communicating in a consultation, getting ideas out there, easing the nerves of an anxious first-timer, expressing herself and what could be best, but that’s often because she knows exactly what to do. she does it day in, day out, and can almost follow a script in a way. sit the same person she had the consult with down for six hours to actually have the tattoo done, and unless they make the effort to keep the conversation going, em has nothing. it’s not even that she doesn’t want to talk, either, she just struggles. and then when she does think of something to say, it can come out abrupt or abrasive, so it’s often best to just keep her mouth shut.

➜ is it obvious yet that emika’s autistic ? she has no idea of this, herself, but it’s canon, just undiagnosed. and it was, admittedly, unintentional. i’ve revamped em from a character from long ago, and the first time i played her, i didn’t set out for her to have autism, and then when i realised that she’s definitely, definitely autistic, everything made sense. it just never got picked up on at school for her, and her mother never paid enough attention to notice or care to do anything in terms of getting a diagnosis or trying to help, so it’s gone undetected. thus far, anyway, who knows ? that could be interesting.

➜ speaking of her mum, let’s talk upbringing. emika was actually born in brighton, england, to her mother, mayumi, and father, stephen. on account of him being a cheating bastard, their relationship fell apart when em was seven. stephen made an attempt with his daughter, but he was in and out of her life for the following five years. at aged twelve, she realised that he really wasn’t worth the effort it took to force a relationship with him, and told him where to stick it. three years later, mayumi would want to uproot to huntsville to follow the latest in a long line of boyfriends --- and stephen didn’t so much as protest. the relationship between mayumi and her canadian lover didn’t last ( here is where em would bitterly mutter ‘they never do’ ) but they never went home.

➜ growing up, she had two escapes: art, and books. she’d always been creative, and always been trouble. think drawing on the hallway walls in crayon at four, getting paint on the living room carpet while creating a ‘masterpiece’ at seven. aka, not trouble, just a kid being a kid, but w/e. try telling her mum that. it was easy to get lost in a drawing or a painting, and she found comfort in reading, too. she’s still a bookworm now, despite not having much free time.

➜ em works too hard. she adores her job, and doesn’t take a single day of it for granted, but she works too hard. there’s nothing she’d rather be doing, and it’s by her own choice, but her time isn’t filled with much else. she specialises in neotrad, but likes to dabble a little and expand her styles when she can. she’s so unbelievably grateful to be doing what she does, especially as it very easily could never have happened for her.

➜ with a home life that was rocky at best, em definitely struggled. as a teenager, she turned to alcohol, and long before she was even legally allowed to drink, she developed a dependency on it. even now, she’d never say she was an alcoholic, but she’d definitely admit that it was a problem, and steers clear from the stuff now. wanting nothing more than to become a tattoo artist was the motivation she needed to get sober, and she knows it very easily could’ve gone in the opposite direction. she got an apprenticeship in the end, and the rest is history.

➜ but ! she’s still young !!!! like super young !! i always like to pick a fc a couple of years younger than however old i’m playing her, because it’s kind of a thing that emika looks even younger than she is. but where a lot of asami’s resources are from a couple of years ago, i thought a year’s difference would do ! but em knows she’s young and still has so much room to learn, and she’s eager to. she just wants to get better and better.

➜ so as an individual who speaks to her mum as little as possible, has no other family in canada, and has very few friends ( if any ? ) who keeps emika company, i hear you ask ? why, it’s her two goldfish and  her chinese softshell turtle, of course. named fred, george, and dobby, respectively. she loves her tank full of friends far more than she’d ever care to admit. ideally, she’d love a dog, but doesn’t have the time to dedicate to caring for one, nor does she have the space. emika moved out at eighteen, the second she could scrape enough money together to do so, and moved into the tiniest box of an apartment, and hasn’t moved since. despite its size, she truly loves her little flat ---- and hates change.

➜ going forward, i’m open to,,, anything. with all three of my goblins, i’m really open to absolutely anything. including just vibing and seeing what happens, but i’m coming in really open and just wanting to Explore. i have an idea for a wc for em, which should be super interesting, but other than that, it’s all just vibes and goin with the flow !!

➜ i hate to wrap things up abruptly, but i really gotta go to bed lmao ( i should’ve written my intros out earlier, rip. isn’t hindsight amazing ? ) so just some things to note: when it comes to gender, em mostly idenifies as ‘ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ‘ and really just doesn’t think about it. she’s probably never talked to anyone about it, either, not properly/in depth. she doesn’t really think about it, and it doesn’t really,,,, matter ?? to her ?? it just sort of,,, Is. she/her absolutely flies with her, they/them is also appreciated, she really just,,, doesn’t mind. sexuality is one she did have a big crisis over ( and is it still ongoing ? kinda ) but eventually just decided that bi was the label that fit best so that’s what she goes with. she still,,, has no idea. and doesn’t know if it even matters. she split her life between brighton and huntsville, so it was never like she’d never be accepted, but it was all a big Internal Yikes for her.

➜ tldr: dog loving, artistic book enthusiast, who has more coffee in her system than blood and loves her job and her fish more than anything. a total pain in the arse, but a hard worker and bringer of sarcasm. and bitterness. but also bad jokes and gossip --- it’s easy to forget she’s there when she’s so quiet; she hears all kinds of shit.

➜ ooh ! one thing to note ! while em is obviously covered in tattoos, she doesn’t actually share any of asami’s irl ones, so pls keep that in mind ! and ignore in photos/gifs ! will have more details when i do her stats/first task, but for now i really have to go bed !! i’m v excited to be here though, ty for having me and i’ll be here properly soon <3

[smuttymess]

bts astro soulmate reading | for kristen

sign: leo sun | libra moon | taurus rising

lover: kim seokjin | soulmate: park jimin

This reading is for Kristen, a Yoongi/Hobi double bias with Taehyung wrecker. Your life must be such bliss? Please enjoy this reading <3

A Leo sun with a heart of gold, you are known for your caring, friendly, and intelligent demeanor. There is a naturally positive and regal energy to you that people are highly drawn to, making your social circle a vast one. More than anything you are popular - not prone to anger or unpleasantness, which your Libra Moon avoids like the plague. A natural motivator, you are able to bring people together and inspire them to reach higher. As a result, people often seek out your enthusiasm as it simply radiates from you and is very attractive. Your Libra Moon lends to your more emotional heart that seeks balance, fairness and kindness across all areas of your life. It also explains why you are able to remain quite optimistic even when surrounded by a group of pessimists - for you, there is always an upside and something to be appreciated or grateful for. Your boundless optimism and idealism in others can ultimately prove to be a double-edged sword, however, which people can take advantage of and you try tirelessly to protect yourself from. Being so in tune with those around you and direct feedback, you are extremely sensitive to the critiques and opinions of others, often seeing yourself through their eyes - potentially contributing to a weak sense of self behind a boisterous, confident persona. It may sound like you are all fire and emotion, but in fact you are rounded out quite nicely with your Taurus rising, which gives you the gift of effortless calm and coolness at least when people first meet you. Deep down, want people to perceive you you as calm, reliable, and deserving of the utmost respect.. Beneath this persona, however, is someone who desperately wants to be loved, cared for, and appreciated for their innate goodness as a source of comfort and nurturing for others. It is this goodness that attracts close friends and relationships into your life, and once they pass the initial barrier of your discerning Taurus rising, they are gifted with your limitless loyalty and dedication. 

A fiercely romantic individual, you are very much a believer in soulmates and deep, emotional connection. While there certainly may not be a "one" you know that there may be several individuals that are perfect for you and it is up to you to explore these options, making sure that you only date those who give you the high level of respect and affection you desire. You know that you cannot meet these potential love matches in the comfort of your own home, so it is not unusual to find you at some sort of event or gathering wherein you can be your sociable, friendly self. You certainly do not go out with the intention of meeting someone, but are highly open to any and all possibilities, of which you know there are many. Ever the center attention even when you are just minding your business, it is not usual to find a small circle in your orbit as you tell an amusing story to your adoring fans. While out with friends karaoke bar, you find yourself wrangled on stage to sing your favorite Bangtan song to rousing applause and laughter - your infectious charisma proving more important than your lacking fluency in Korean. After coming off stage, you're approached by an extremely handsome stranger. Excuse me miss, he says while extending his hand out to you. Sorry, I couldn't miss the chance to talk to the famous singer. Usually I'm the King of Karaoke but it looks like I have some competition. This sparks your playful, competitive spirit, daring him to show you what he's got. Your friends laugh at you when the shock emerges from your face once you're informed that the handsome man goofily singing on stage while staring directly at you is the infamous Kim Seokjin. 

In your early days with Seokjin, you two vibe extremely well, with you attracted to his very confident, humorous demeanor and he to your abundant positivity and charm. With his Mercury in Scorpio, he is known for his sociability and naturally strong communication skills, and together two are the life of any party. You are the pair that other people simply want to be around but also envy in that you two know how to have fun, above all else. While your Taurus rising may make you slightly more hesitant before acting spontaneously, Seokjin takes your hand and pulls you right off the ledge with him (a true Sag!) This level of adventure does not stop in your sex life, which is both a means of expression and an olympic sport. When you two get together, there is nothing (or nowhere) that is off limits, and there is adventure around every corner. Jin is traditional in many ways, but Venus in Capricorn provides him with high levels of creativity and romance, which when combined with his Sag Sun results in taking things to new heights - literally. It is not unlike him to have you straddle ride him in the back of the private jet on your way to some foreign locale, unable to wait until you land, frantically running his hands over your hips, curves and ass before sliding your panties to the side. While a gentleman in public, he is unafraid to let loose in bed, your moans likely heard by the the pilot as he flips you over, legs up propped on his shoulders as you soar thousands of feet above ground. Even hitting some turbulence wouldn't kill the mood, with the highly adaptable Seokjin able to make any situation work to his benefit - in this case, an immediately change in sensation or angle.Overall, sex between you Jin is always a fun and fully enjoyable experience, one not to be taken too seriously and bogged down in any fuss or worry.

While Seokjin adores you, ultimately his Sag tendencies is not able to give you all of the care, affection and attention your Leo heart requires. Not wanting to rock the boat in your relationship, you attempt to convince yourself that you are fine to live with less than what you desire. This, of course, fails as your resentment comes to the surface resulting in passive-aggression and avoidant tactics to get attention, and even the occasional outburst - which is quite out of character for you. Your Libra Moon makes you prone to jealousy - despite your own flirtatious ways - which only worsens when you feel your needs are not being met. All of these indirect behaviors are directly at odds with Seokjin's Sagittarius sun which fears being controlled or restrained in any capacity, causing him to distance himself further to the point where you barely know each other. It is after a lot of internal grief and increased loneliness on your of pain that you decide to part ways, making way for a new partner who can suit your needs better. While you know it is the right choice, you hate to see close relationships - especially romantic - to come to an end. 

Your three placements in Leo, Libra and Taurus lend you to over-indulging in the finer things in life. One of the most romantic signs in the zodiac, you regularly fall in love with people, ideas, and material things. There is so much beauty to be experienced in the world, and you want it all. In a perfect world, you would only be surrounded by the most beautiful and enjoyable things - especially after such a painful breakup, wherein few things can soothe you more than a bit of frivolous distraction. Despite the caution afforded by your Taurus, you may occasionally spend irresponsibly, preferring to live in the moment and enjoy the present - you can't take it with you, as they say. You are known to have expensive taste, and are known to enjoy life's many luxuries from art and culture to food and drink.  This is what brings you to Paris where you soak in all of the romanticism at your fingertips and perhaps even window shopping along the Champs-Élysées, your eyes growing wide at the magnificent architecture and the pieces lining storefront windows. Parched, you a break at an outdoor cafe space, not realizing the table next to you is occupied by another patron. It is not long before he leans over and introduces himself as Park Jimin and you find yourself sharing a drink with him, discussing your travels and what brought you here. Jimin knows exactly how to approach you, immediately drawn in by your regal nature. You two are quickly drawn to each other's very evident kindness, conversation flowing easily as expected between fire and air, and you can both sense a fire that lies beneath the surface of the other's charm, curious to learn more. Are you busy right now? My hyungs ditched me for the afternoon and I could use some company. 

Maybe its the romance of Paris or the beautiful Libra you've met, but you two are practically inseparable from the start. You turn heads, but people admire your genuine adoration for each other - your shared enthusiasm for one another comes naturally. The relationship exists on a pleasurable note, with both of your signs highly averse to drama, ugliness or vulgarity. Another natural leader of the zodiac as a Cardinal sign, Jimin intrigues you with his passionate, driven energy that is at once determined and strong (Mars in Scorpio) but upbeat and relaxed (Saturn in Pisces). He is drawn to the grace and sensuality in your mannerisms and your speech that is attractive as he cares a lot about how he and the people around him are seen and perceived, and like you he is very invested in putting forth his best self through his style and behaviors. You both exist on a similar wavelength of high quality in your appearances and actions, which allows you to quickly become confidants friends even before things deepen into romantic territory. 

Even in your initial interaction, is not lost on each other than you are attracted to each other, so why wait? Under Jimin's angelic, ethereal aura is a bit of a deviant with a rebellious side, and with he feels comfortable in existing more freely by following your fiery lead once he breaches any protections your Taurus rising may have put in place. In a way, he lives vicariously through your strong sense of creativity and individuality, which allows him to become a truer more version of himself without fear of judgement from others. Your shared desire to be the center of attention and adored, with the potential for volatility in other astrological pairings, is actually understood between you and Jimin. His Venus in Scorpio makes him more amorous and flirtatious but also jealous and possessive of his partner. You're both attention whores in a way, wanting to the adored and admired, but instead of resenting each other for it you are able to accept that your partner is a flirt and will have eyes on them - and it doesn't matter so long as they only have eyes for you. It is not unusual for you two to play in public, using your jealousy to your advantage as you find it makes for incredibly make-up sex after the night is over. Sex with Jimin is gentle but passionate, with each session bringing new exciting intimacy and closeness that comes from earning each other's trust and devotion so soon. Like you, Jimin likes to indulge in intimacy and savors it like a delicious meal. You're happy to be devoured - his hands grabbing the back of your neck as he pulls your mouth to meet his with your back against the wall the second you walk in the door. You two know how to rile each other up, your teasing smirk igniting him as he presses firmly into your frame, gently separating your legs to slide two fingers into you to make you immediately crumble to his touch. My girl loves attention, hmm? You loved how everyone checks you out and wants you? Tell me you're mine, baby, I want to hear you. 

In time, the home and life you build with Jimin is an idyllic one of beauty, comfort, and harmony. While things are not always perfect (don't dwell too much in jealousy or moodiness!) in each other you find that the scales are balanced equally, which both of you desire above all else. This match is prepared to keep navigating life's ups and downs, mastering the art of working hard in their respective fields and playing harder once the day is done, affording each other the space and closeness you crave in a relationship.You are both committed to living luxuriously but not irresponsibly, and that shared ethos affords you a very harmonious life where you are secure and rarely wanting for anything more. Your relationship is involved in a lifelong dance of playfulness, flirtation and romance, wanting to maintain the union by any and all means necessary - whether that is a nice home cooked meal or a trip to Paris to revisit where you fell in love.Ultimately, this pairing is an example of two like-minded, intellectual, caring and peace-loving signs come together - a great match!

[blackasteriia]

🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all. 

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun. 

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey. 

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master. 

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset. 

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it. 

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie. 

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs. 

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account. 

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is. 

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass  of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters.  What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot. 

 And it’s not like plot is  complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Anarchy: The Life and Joy of Insubordination

In this essay I substitute “wage-slave” for “worker” since there are many different ideas of what “work” could mean. I am also considering the fact that “worker” is socially loaded with congratulatory appraisal as it conceals the true nature of it’s meaning: slave. Here I criticize “wage-slave” as a role and identity assigned to individuals by a system that requires their physical and mental subjugation en masse. The “wage-slave” is only such, as long as one fulfills that role and identity. Beneath that role and identity is a chaotic uniqueness which arms the individual with emancipatory potential.

When people ask “What is “anarchy”?”, my answer is rarely a reference to the popular philosophers of history who define it academically as an “ism”. My personal relationship to anarchy is one of constant exploration and discovery. For me, what differentiates anarchy from any other political idea is the anti-politics of its practice. As an anarchist, I have no inclination to recruit a mass of people to overthrow the establishment. I have no desire to construct persuasive programs encouraging the “worker” to join a party, vote, fight for better wages -let alone remain as a wage-slave. All I have is an anarchist project of my own: the reclaiming of my life from wage-slavery and social control. It is a project of self-preservation armed with hostility to all that attempts to categorize, confine, and control me.

Things we come to familiarize ourselves with like presidential elections, the police, banks, and wage-slavery are all social systems constructed to maintain order – an order maintained through coercion, disempowerment, and fear. Together these things make up the governmental establishment which occupies and applies ownership to geographical locations. The maintaining of this occupation relies heavily on an apparatus that monopolizes violent force, as well as the subjugation of any persons residing in these locations. The subjugation of a population of people wouldn’t succeed without the normalized logic of submission and psychological warfare. In order to gain access to the monopolized resources needed to survive, the conquered population of people are forced to reproduce and maintain the establishment through wage-slavery: enslavement in exchange for a monetary wage. At the root of this social control is the domination of the individual – a domination which reinforces the logic of individual submission to the group. For the sake of the leftist wet-dream, imagine every individual wage-slave deciding to quit their job, all at once, and all those who didn’t have a job deciding against getting one. Those few who monopolize resources would quickly lose everything and everyone they needed to protect them. With the expropriation of violent force, these individuals could unite and destroy those maintaining hierarchical power. But as years have shown, the continuity of capitalism and the slave-master relationship is complex and reinforced in a variety of ways.

As an anarchist against work, I will still validate the wage-slave’s stress and fear of poverty, their personal justifications for submitting to slavery and the colossal misery that accompanies these things. I can not deny the power of materialist accumulation, consumerism, and the toxic escapism which acts to distract and pacify outrage. I have seen apathy personalized as a lifelong commitment, embraced by those too emotionally defeated to break the chains of capitalism’s captivity. The idea of mass revolt would be ideal, but is unfortunately utopian. The workplace is constantly evolving to be more accommodating to the wage-slave. This includes, but not limited to, serving as a remedy for boredom, a platform for social networking and emotional comfort through economic security. These small personal relationships with work play a big role is stunting efforts to organize mass worker revolt. In other words, many people enjoy wage-slavery, and will even sabotage efforts to organize against it. It is inaccurate to assume people are one monolithic mass willing to rise up against the establishment. But rather than relying on a mass revolt, there is the power of uncontrollable, unpredictable individual revolt. These revolts are composed of cells or “lone wolf” individuals who make revolt a daily practice rather than a future phenomena to wait for. As an ex-wage-slave, I will validate the unique history and personhood of a wage-slaving individual, their desire for freedom and the suppressed rage that accompanies their contempt for what they do. I will validate their hatred for every social construct of domination that compresses them. I will validate a wildness they keep caged up in fear of being called “crazy” or “weird”. I will validate a behavioural uniqueness they possess which society would attempt to pathologize and eliminate to maintain psychiatric standardization.

So many norms, roles, and identities shoved down our throats from birth - is it really a surprise that the oppressed “workers of the world” haven’t smashed capitalism to pieces by now? Where in the prison of society do we find the encouragement to not only be our unique wild selves, but to also weaponize our hostility towards the societal apparatus of control? Individuality, often promoted within the confinement of a pre-constructed identity – one assigned at birth and necessary for the functioning of capitalist society – is defined by society rather than the chaos of indefinite, ungoverned self-discovery. Due to the anthropocentric lens through which we view the world, wildness is moralized as an evil savagery in need of domesticating and management. Wildness is the enemy of the technological colonization of the natural world. So what does anarchist wildness look like? Anarchy as wildness refuses the control and domination of socially constructed systems which subjugate individuality. Where ever there is social constructs attempting to subjugate individual uniqueness, there is a politicized program at play. This program (which often attempts to acquire a dominating position) is responsible for normalizing a standardized way of life in which individual people are reduced from complex ever-changing beings to the identity of “worker”, or - for the sake of this essay -“wage-slave”.

What does it mean to be ungovernable? Within ungoverned self-discovery come questions of survival. Without the instinct of survival, the capitalists who profit from the products of my labor would have no leverage to enslave me. Food, shelter, etc. are essentials that require the labor of others to maintain. Under systems that require a mass of people to maintain, individuals are discouraged from finding the power to acquire their own food and/or create their own shelter. Today, shelter (industrial buildings fixed up with plumbing, electricity, etc) are manufactured by one group of people (wage-slaves) and sold to, and occupied by others (consumers). Alienation can be found here where those purchasing or renting space have no direct connection to its construction. Just the same as when people purchase food in grocery stores, they are disconnected from the true source of that food (slaughterhouses, for example) since someone else puts in the work to harvest, process, and package it. The leverage capitalist society maintains over every individual is that of survival. Through monopolizing resources, those with the most can enslave those with the least. So what way do anarchists survive if they refuse the role and identity of “wage-slave”? If an individual decides to arm their desires with action, how does that individual refuse enslavement to a boss or master and continue maintaining access to resources? Under capitalism, the expropriation of resources from those who monopolize them is considered illegal. This is where anarchism breaks away from the civilized notions of social reform and finds affinity with illegality.

I can only speak for myself when I talk about illegalist anarchy since for every individual, their interpretation will be influenced by circumstances unique to their experience. There is also an entire history rich with illegalist anarchy taking place in the early 1900s around the globe, and continuing on today. For the purpose of this particular essay I will be focusing on illegality related to resource expropriation as an argument against wage-slavery. So from this perspective, illegalist anarchy is the refusal to confine my anarchist activity to an above-ground, liberalized, mass-appeal activity. It is the daily practice of experimenting with methods of survival that refuse the limiting moral code of law and order. It is the weaponizing of chaos from which I find courage and strength in joyfully discovering new ways of surviving – all of which circumnavigate wage-slavery. I have grown sick and tired of bosses, workplaces, and forcing my body to wake up with the sound of a blaring alarm. I am in full retirement from wage-slavery at the age of thirty-three, and I have absolutely no desire to turn back. So, how do I eat? How do I survive without a paycheck from a workplace to sell my labor? A reality that is often difficult to remember is that everything one needs to survive already exists all around. In addition to poly-crop guerrilla gardening and foraging, food is stockpiled high in grocery stores. Tools for creativity and sabotage are hoarded by hardware stores. Dumpsters are filled to the brim with a variety of resources. What has been stolen from the individual is a sense of direct connection to these resources. Through learned consumerism, people see themselves as merely consumers- basically, “If I don’t have the money for this food, I just go hungry tonight.”. Through fear, capitalism along with the state has pacified a healthy outrage that could motivate us to take the resources needed to survive. This is another form of alienation – but one that keeps the consumer passive: if you make something with your own hands, you feel more connection to it as yours. But when someone else makes it and you see it in a store window, there is no direct connection. Therefore, there is less emotional justification for outrage or motivation to break the barrier of law and fear. Similar to the factory jobs I worked where a single product was put together by multiple people. If each person is only responsible for producing a piece of the whole product, there is no direct connection between the production of that product as a whole, and the individual worker. Therefore, the wage-slave doesn’t develop a relationship with what they produce, because a single product is produced by multiple people.

Rather than celebrating individualism, this process glorifies workplace collectivism- a useful tool in encouraging productivity and unifying “workers” for the common good of capitalism. What is socially discouraged in the individual is a creative rebellion that crafts plans and ideas on how to undermine the security apparatus that protects resources. Store cameras, Loss Prevention officers (or as some of us call them for short “LP’s”), magnetic security devices attached to items, etc. While one individual spends their time and energy at work and maybe planning what bills to pay next, the ex- wage-slave individual has the opportunity to utilize free time to experiment with different ideas on how to get shit for free. Eight hours of committed work at a factory (or grocery store, office place, etc.) could be eight hours of strategic planning, assessing, and experimenting with illegalist activity.

Another opportunity is the wage-slaving individual experimenting with illegalist activity within the workplace. Of course, the stakes are a little higher since the individual would have surrendered personal information to obtain the job, but an inside-the-workplace perspective can offer an opportunity to exploit weaknesses in work-place security. Though, personally, I haven’t met many people who take much advantage of this. And this is probably due to the fact that they depend on the job in a way that outweighs any advantages of work-place theft.

Coming back to the anti-work perspective on illegalism, when it comes to the resources of survival, the time not surrendered to wage-slavery can be time put towards careful planning, personal fear-assessment, and target seeking.

As society forces us into schools to begin the indoctrination sequence of behavioural conformity and obedience, we have very little opportunity to learn about ourselves and our capabilities. Between school and our homes, playgrounds and neighbourhood streets, we’re allowed a regulated time-frame of play. From my own perspective, play is the materialization of imaginative desire, exploration, and discovery. Each of these are fundamental tools necessary in observing and comprehending one’s environment and their relationship to it. Embedded in that relationship is a “self” that is composed of experiences and personal desires. But with such a narrow time-frame, a young individual only has a limited scope of exploration and instead, with development, begins internalizing the rhetoric of consumerist, productive, and responsible adultism.

For real though - what can most people say about themselves and the lives they live? Aside from a few forms of escapism or maybe hobby activities that stem from personal desire, many peoples lives are just wage-slavery, paying bills, paying for materialist shit and wage-slave some more to stockpile (save) money. Shit, people spend most of their lives using the present to prepare or secure a future- the existence of a future which is often taken for granted in the first place. So how much can one know about their self when so much of the “self” is being constricted, conditioned, and defined in terms of wage-slave productivity? Whether class or social, the status of an individual under capitalism is determined by their access to, and relationship with, materialism. But what about a “self” unbound by capitalism, and insubordinate to materialist representation? Or a “self” that refuses the traditional categorical assignments of social constructs and embraces life as anarchistic existence? A life of illegalist anarchy then allows for the limitless possibilities of creating one’s self day by day.

In my opinion, refusing the wage-slave role and identity destabilizes social control on an individual level. Since it is a firm work ethic that must be drilled into the individual to secure the foundation of capitalism (or any system that requires massified subjugation for its sustainability), individuals who refuse wage-slavery are subjected to a variety of social pressures including personal judgement, ridicule and the threat of poverty. To build up a confidence in one’s self that is immune to the social pressures of being talked down to (as well as a confidence in ones creative, determined self to avoid poverty), is to reclaim power as an individual. It is a power that reclaims “self” from the role and identity of “proletariat”, “worker”, or “wage-slave”.

Like chaotic negation to all socially fixed identities, there is power in contradicting the social identity and expectation of the “wage-slave”. This power also undermines the assumption that “the group” (or formalized organization, society, the masses etc.) is stronger than the individual. If “the group” is unable to subjugate an individual, that individual carries the potential to inspire the emancipation of other individuals from “the group”. A group, or systemic establishment, is only as powerful as the subservience of the individuals who comprise it. Without subservient individuals to reinforce the power of “the group”, there is no group - only empowered individuals.

The power of presidents, politicians, the police, and the military industrial complex, economic systems of every form and social constructs require the subservience of individuals. Without individual participation, the continuity of any system unravels. This is what makes individuality not only important but also powerful. Under capitalism, refusing wage-slavery requires courage; assimilatory subservience is psychologically coerced with the threat of starvation and poverty. The logic of submission is only negated through a fearless self-confidence and the desire to become socially ungovernable.

Could an individualist anarchist change the world? As unlikely as it seems, who am I to say no? Different people are inspired by different things. To some, a personal relationship with someone else’s words can shatter a worldview. Those same words armed with the actions of an individual could spark flames of social insubordination, possibly multiplying into spontaneous fires of joyful emancipation. It is not the leadership of deceptive, double speaking academics or committees (invisible or not), political schemes, or popular catch phrases that ignite personal rebellion. In my opinion and experience, it is the discovery and re-claiming of “self” as powerful, unique, and wild. From this perspective, anarchist illegality negates the domesticated conformity of internalized workerism. Illegalist anarchy confronts law and order with insurgency, preserving wild chaos as individuality against the homogenizing effect of society. To reclaim and reinvent one’s life as a daily exploration of personal adventure is anarchy against the socialized guilt and pressure to abandon rebellious youth.

Wage-slavery is the enemy of play, individuality, and freedom. Social systems require the subjugation of individuality to either homogenized membership or fixed group-identities in order to maintain their existence. With all social systems the formula is similar: individuality is surrendered to the group in order to be granted access to resources. Under capitalism, the wage-slave - or in Marxist terms, “the proletariat” - is an identity pre-configured with the role of reproducing capitalist society. This includes an individual surrendering their mind and body to a master in exchange for a wage that serves as the permission slip to access resources. But to the anarchist individual armed with the illegality of resource expropriation, anarchy is survival without permission.

Anarchy can not be experienced through history books, the reformation of work places nor the confines of a new societal system. Anarchy breathes with the rhythm of the wild in constant flux, ungoverned by anthropocentric laws and order. I rejoice my anarchy in the transformative abandonment of the role and identity of “the proletariat”. There is no great future revolution on the horizon to organize or wait for. There is only today, with no guarantee of tomorrow. There are no charismatic leaders to open the door to freedom. There is only the power of anarchist individuality defined by the liberating ammunition of desire.

[greenyachtcrewsolutions]

Hi there! 

Visit Site

 Please note this is an in-depth explanation intended to inform you of what you can expect from this dashboard and lifetime access to the Dashboard That Defeats Dockwalking.

Below you will find what tools you have at your disposal to craft the person you desire to become one day. Whether it be now, tomorrow, or ten years from now, this material, the community of like-minded and motivated individuals, continues to grow, expand, and increase standards. The Only question I ask myself as the developer of the dashboard is, how big can this thing go?��

Before We Even Get Started, there are a few things you should know. 

Qualifications required to work on a Yacht. 

The Yachting industry is continuously expanding. Thus, the demand for qualified yacht crew has also increased. Working on a yacht is a dynamic, exciting, and rewarding career, and at the same time, it's an exhilarating opportunity to explore and circumnavigate the world. To become eligible to work in the yachting industry, professional qualifications are required depending on the niche you are interested in, be it on the deck, in engineering, or the interior.

Either you are an aspirant who wants to launch their career in the maritime industry or a professional striving to progress in their career, professional qualifications will make you stand out from the rest of the candidates.

Yacht Deckhands:

This is an entry-level position on the deck. The minimum requirements for this role are STCW Basic Safety Training, and ENG1 Seafarer Medical Certificate, which, combined with the following essential certificates and skills, will strengthen your resume to beat the competition.

MCA Efficient Deckhand (EDH)

Deck / Yacht Rating

VHF Radio

RYA Radar

RYA Competent Crew

MCA Proficiency in Designated Security Duties (PDSD)

RYA Powerboat Level 2

RYA Tender Operator

PWC Personal Watercraft Proficiency

General GRP and carpentry repairs

Yacht Stewards/Stewardesses:

Usually, a chief stew leads a group of assistant stews responsible for the yacht's interior. To become a stew, STCW Basic Safety Training is the minimum requirement. However, to improve their skills, stews can further pursue the following certificates:

An interior crew-training course or courses, such as the PYA GUEST Program

STCW Proficiency in Medical First Aid

STCW Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats

MCA Proficiency in Designated Security Duties (PDSD)

Yacht Chefs:

Chefs are responsible for preparing quality food for the crew and guests. In addition to STCW Basic Safety Training and ENG1, and substantial experience, the chef must complete the Ships Cook Assessment if cooking for ten or more crew-members. Moreover, chefs will be required to obtain pertinent health and hygiene certificates, such as the Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC) Level Two and Three.

First Mates/Chief Officers:

The First Mate/Chief Officer is in charge of the deckhands and other exterior crew members and is Captain's right-hand person. To become a First Mate/Chief Officer, it is compulsory to acquire the STCW II/2 and Medical Care on Board Certificate. In addition to these two certificates, the following certificates are valuable for this role:

Deck / Yacht Rating

Master 200gt

Yachtmaster Theory

Yachtmaster Practical

Sea Survival

GMDSS GOC

Navigation Radar

General Ships Knowledge

Oral Preparation

Oceanmaster Theory

Advanced Firefighting

Medical First Aid

Oceanmaster Cert Comp

Yacht Engineers:

Yacht engineering is a highly rewarding career. They are responsible for the smooth operation of the yachts. To become a junior engineer on the yacht MCA STCW III/1 Officer of the Watch Certification is required. Additionally, the following certificates are valuable for this role:

Deck / Yacht Rating

AEC Approved Engine Course

MEOL Marine Engine Operator License

Y4 Yacht 4

Skills Test

Marine Diesel Engineering

Operational Procedures & Basic Hotel Services

Auxiliary Equipment & Basic Ship Construction

MCA Sea Survival for Yachtsman

Advanced Fire Fighting

STCW Proficiency in Medical First Aid

Chief Engineer Statutory & Operational Requirements

Marine Engine Theory

Applied Marine Engineering

Captains/Masters:

To become the Captain, leader of the boat, it is mandatory to have the STCW II/2 and the Medical Care on Board Certificate. Along with extensive onboard experience, training and following certifications can be pursued:

All STCW Certificate levels

Deck / Yacht Rating

Master 200gt

Yachtmaster Theory

Yachtmaster Practical

Sea Survival

GMDSS GOC

Navigation Radar

General Ships Knowledge

Oral Preparation

Navigation and Radar

Stability

Medical Care

Business and Law

Seamanship

Oral Preparation (500T)

Oceanmaster Theory

Advanced Firefighting

Medical First Aid

Oceanmaster Cert

Your Basic Breakdown.

To work as a crew, you will require two compulsory certificates STCW Basic Safety Training and ENG1 Seafarer Medical Certificate.

ENG1 Seafarer Medical Certificate, a U.K. medical examination, is issued by an MCA-approved doctor.

This certificate establishes that individuals are fit to carry out their duties at sea and are allowed to work on U.K. flagged yacht. A person with an ENG1 certificate is allowed to work on most non-UK flagged yachts. Nowadays, to fully cover the yachts, insurance companies want yachts to comply with safe-manning requirements, thus requiring all crew to be fully STCW compliant and that ENG1 is a prerequisite. 

Cost Of ENG1 ( South Africa ) R2500.00

List of Doctors approved to do the ENG1 

 STCW 2010

All crew working on a commercial or charter yacht is required to have STCW. This certificate, however, is not demanded by a team working on a private or non-chartered yacht. Day workers and delivery crew are also excluded from this certificate. Still, it is highly recommended to obtain this certificate as it will increase your chance to get a job because hiring managers prefer candidates with this certificate. All seafarers must undertake the 5-day STCW Basic Safety Training course (STCW95 & STCW 2010) under section A-Vl/1 of the STCW Code. The course is intended to ensure that seafarers are aware of the hazards of working on a vessel and enables you to respond appropriately to an emergency. The course modules below make up the mandatory familiarization, and basic safety training requirements for all seafarers is an ideal course for anyone looking for Seafarer basic safety training at a recreational level or those wishing to make a career at sea.

Cost Of the 11day STCW 2010 ( South Africa)  R8750.00

Here is a list of schools in Cape Town That Offer the Course:

https://www.maritimesafety.co.za/

https://www.sstg.co.za/

https://www.certifiedtraining.co.za/

https://www.pulsetraining.co.za/index.htmla

 Competent crew:

Experience living on board and get to know the boat. Virtually all the course is hands-on. You are the crew - without you, the sails won't go up, and the boat won't be steered. By the end of the course, you should be able to steer, handle sails, keep a lookout, row a dinghy, and assist in all day-to-day duties on board. You should also have visited some interesting places and had an enjoyable holiday. R8 800.00

 Day Skipper:

RYA Day Skipper is a qualification that enables you to safely take charge of a 30-45ft sail cruising yacht and its crew by day in familiar waters. There's no getting away from it – passing involves some work, some practice, and some dedication. But RYA Day Skipper is your ticket to freedom.

Yachtmaster:

What's the difference between RYA Yacht-master Offshore and RYA Yacht-master Coastal? The RYA Yacht-master qualification has long been recognized by many as the premium sailing qualification for the experienced leisure sailor. In recent times, the Yacht-master qualification has been further defined and is now split into three subsections, namely Yacht-master Coastal, Yacht-master Offshore and Yacht-master Ocean. Unlike the RYA Day Skipper qualification,

all three qualifications are gained through external examination.

The holder of a Yacht-master Coastal qualification should be competent to skipper a yacht of up to 24 meters L.O.A in waters up to 24 miles from a safe haven. A Yacht-master Offshore is qualified to skipper a vessel of the same size up to 150 miles from a safe haven. Yacht-master Ocean extends the Yacht-master Offshore qualification and qualifies the holder to skipper a vessel of the same size and up to 200t anywhere in the World. As one would expect, each examination requires that the candidate have a minimum level of experience prior to the examination.

Prior to the Yacht-master Coastal examination, a candidate must have a minimum of 30 days at sea, with 2 days as skipper and at least 800 miles logged, including 12 night hours. If you hold the Coastal Skipper course certificate already then this is reduced to 20 days at sea with 2 days as skipper, 400 miles logged, and 12 night hours. Half the qualifying sea time must be conducted in tidal waters. To qualify to undertake the Yacht-master Offshore examination, you must have a minimum of 50 days at sea, 2,500 miles logged, including at least 5 passages over 60 miles measured along the rhumb line from the port of departure to the destination, acting as skipper for at least two of these passages and including two which have involved overnight passages.

The candidate must have 5 days' experience as a skipper. At least half this mileage and passages must be in tidal waters. All qualifying sea-time must be within 10 years prior to the exam. In both instances, you will also need to hold a GMDSS short-range radio certificate.

 RYA Day Skipper Theory. Duration: 6 days High Season Price: R9,990.00

RYA Day Skipper Practical. Duration: 5 days High Season Price: R9,990.0

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal/Offshore Theory. Duration: 7 days High Season Price: R10,490.00

Yachtmaster Coastal/Offshore Mileage. Duration: 5 days High Season Price: R9,900.00

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal/Offshore Practical. Duration: 5 days High Season Price: R10,490.00

 RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Exam Prep & Exam Duration: 5 days High Season Price: R10,490.00

RYA Yachtmaster Career Package: Duration: +/- 9 Weeks:

•             Accommodation for the full duration of the course

•             All course materials and training with Sail Due South

•             STCW (Including PDSD)

•             RYA Power Boat Level II

•             RYA VHF

•             RYA Competent Crew

•             RYA Day Skipper Theory

•             RYA Day Skipper Practical

•             RYA Coastal Mileage

•             RYA Coastal/Offshore Theory

•             RYA Coastal/Offshore Practical

•             RYA Coastal Skipper Exam Prep & Exam

 Excluded Costs: Exam Fees (not included)

RYA Coastal Skipper Exam Fee: £200 (payable to RYA) RYA VHF exam fee: £60 (payable to RYA) RYA Online PPR Course (commercial endorsement): £39  RYA Commercial Endorsement: £34 (payable to RYA)

Visa Fees: Pending on Covid.

Flights and Other Costs are complicated to price right now, but seeing as we have some time, we can monitor and check it out. 

My Services, Software Solutions, Affiliates, and Coaching costs are listed below. 

Package #1:

Price:

R5000.00 once-off or

R1000.00 for 6 months.

12 calls a month for 60 days. (60min) Calls

Lifetime Access to Dashboard.

Access To Marketing Software. Note: You will have time within your 60min calls to use the software. I will be using it on your behalf.

Customer Value Journey Analysis and the 12A's to Online Success And Influence.

 List Of Software Available:

Skillshare:

2 Months Free Skillshare Account. Download Classes on any category of your choice.

https://www.skillshare.com/r/user/chadschannel

Marine Traffic:

Augmented Reality ( live viewing of vessels in port. )

Vessel Locations In Any port - Arrivals and Departures.

Ships Particulars.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-2.2/centery:38.4/zoom:7

Connectio:

Facebook Audience Extractor using Keywords. Take the guessing game out of it.

Audience Tester.

https://connectio.io/

SocialMakeo :

Content studio – Content Marketing is by far the best method of gaining a larger and more engaging Audience. Content Studio is a content-generating machine! Find topics and articles regarding your industry in seconds and post it to all your platforms with 1 click.

Schedule Posts on all your platforms for weeks in advance

https://contentstudio.io/

Video Blaster:

Have your videos Rank #1 on youtube and google within minutes.

Extract Keywords.

Get The Best and Most Recommended Video Details.

Niche Analysis.

Video Report.

Rank Tracker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkCumK8lGYg

Social Kickstart Live

Social kickstart – Facebook and Youtube live videos get ranked much higher than any other type of content. With Social Kickstart, you can record a video, and I then schedule it, so it appears live on these platforms.

https://socialkickstart.co/live/

Email Scraper:

I have software to extract email addresses from websites and from Facebook legally! Then you upload them to your email marketing platform and watch how your audience grows.

Find any email address you want.

https://skrapp.io/

Dashboard Contents:

Creative Designing

Videos on how to create logos, stationery, letterheads. You name it.

Learn how to write an eye-catching resume and where to find incredible resources and top-class resume templates.

Learn how to make your photography more engaging.

Access over 100 000 powerful and industry-leading templates to use for resume designing, ads, contracts, marketing, planning events. The list goes on.

Details on how and to do a software search. - Find the correct filter for functionality.

Learn Copywriting.

A 24-month Content Calendar.

 Social Media Marketing:

Utilize Social Media Marketing and get hired from anywhere in the world.

A How-To Digital Marketing Library.

Facebook Business Page.

Learn how to use a CRM ( Customer Relationship Manager )

Learn how to install, read, and use Analytics. (Facebook and Google).

Facebook Business Manager account – Run ads on Facebook and only have the people that are most likely to buy, see your ads. Access software to extract people via the keywords and their demographics.

You will understand how to grow your audience organically and how to use Facebook ads.

You will discover how to fully Integrate Facebook Business Manager and Marine Traffic To Find A Yacht Job.

You will learn how to build a brilliant brand for yourself and showcase online authority.

You will learn how to get an incredible amount of followers and grow your audience in your sleep.

You will learn how to prospect employers on social media.

You will learn how to use Facebook groups to find work.

You will learn How To Convert Leads Into Jobs While You Sleep.

You will learn How To Attract More Recruiters.

SEO optimizer technology – The Best Tool for ranking and checking what your competitors are using to scale their businesses. You can also extract keywords and within minutes you can be #1 on google. This is obviously doable once everything else is in place.

Coaching:

Understand what level of commitment you require.

How to Leverage Your Past Story to Accelerate Your Future.

Customer Value Journey Analysis and the 12A's to Online Success And Influence.

How To Make A Powerful Impact With Effective Communications.

Understand the definitions of all courses related to your department.

The correct and incorrect way of looking for work.

Body Language. - You will be equipped with the necessary body language to flawlessly speak with an industry senior. By giving you updated information related to the industry and by exposing you to the raw power of body language, you will be far better prepared to thank your competitors.

Understand what level of commitment you require.

Jordon Belfort a.k.a. Wolf of Wall Street was and is my sales coach. I shall be yours.

Which jobs to accept and when to be more patient.

What to expect from the crew.

How to initialize banter and not offend anyone.

Which information to keep confidential.

What questions to ask Captains or the interviewer.

Marine Traffic and Facebook.

Find out particulars in order to plan your approach perfectly. eta’s, port calls,

Weather Reports.

Ship Particulars.

Arrival and Departure Destinations.

Past and future tracks - Place yourself in port before the boat even gets there.

Augmented Reality ( live viewing of vessels in port. )

Vessel Locations In Any port - Arrivals and Departures.

Ships Particulars.

 Package #2: Includes All Package #1 Content.

Price:

R10 000.00 once-off or

R1000.00 for 12 months.

18 calls a month for 60 days. (60min) Calls

Access to Dashboard.

Access To Marketing Software. Note: You will have time within your 60min calls to use the software. I will be using it on your behalf.

Customer Value Journey Analysis and the 12A's to Online Success And Influence.

One Time Payment and Lifetime Access Too Pipeline Pro CRM.

Facebook Business Manager Account Done For You Set Up With Ad Account and Audience Extracted.

The Most Insane Library Ever - Marketing Madness. Access to 500 gigs of every Marketing Strategy Course By Every Marketing Guru Ever Created.

There you have it!�� You will have the following Modules Included in any package: As a free gift, I have included some templates for you to use.  I hope you consider my assistance. 

[dianamjackson]

How To Achieve World Peace (2020)

I have figured out a few things that explain common phenomena in society but are routinely overlooked.

I can explain why conservatives and liberals have always existed, and why conservatives are often in power. I can explain ‘black sheep’ of families and why almost everyone has a ‘weird aunty’ or a ‘weird uncle.’ I can explain why artists are so often depressed, so creative and so misunderstood. I can explain conformity and non-conformity. I can explain Michael Jackson’s attraction to shiny things, and everything else about him.

The thing to remember is that we are animals like all the others, and that our evolutionary history shaped us — not culture. People who think culture is stronger hold that individuals choose their preferences in life, which is false. People choose the things they do because they’re programmed that way by evolution, and it is not one size fits all.

There are two main sorts of humans on the earth: family types (making up at least 80% of the population) and leaders (making up the rest).

Family types evolved to survive, raise families and do exactly what their parents did. For this reason they are conservative, incurious (because any new thing is a potential threat to existing conditions), blinkered and have a practical and deductive intelligence rather than a synthetic and inductive one. Leaders are explorers — their education never ends. Their permanent curiosity ensures they are forever exploring, making new connections and forming new hypotheses.

Without this neat ~80/20 balance, human society would not progress. Without the leaders, no new inventions would be created and we’d all still be living in caves. Without family types, nothing could be instantiated and there would be anarchy. Nature or God or whatever is responsible for the order we see in the universe worked this ideal ratio out so that beings could develop and differentiate and proliferate — basically, to make manifest the creativity of the universe.

I remember a few years ago reading Satoshi Kanazawa’s book The Intelligence Paradox, wherein he describes the traits of people with above-average intelligence: they are usually night owls, are less likely to marry and have kids, enjoy experimenting with drugs, are highly curious and creative. I think he was fired from Psychology Today for stating his findings. Ah, political correctness getting in the way of science, again.

Growing up I noticed a pattern in every family I encountered: the parents were normal enough (after all, they were parents), one child was robust and similar to the parents, and the other was a highly sensitive, interesting and curious type. If there were more than two children, there were more robust types than sensitive types.

Growing up I had a hell of a time in my family. I loved staying up late reading, writing and playing music. I loved the night so much that I covered my windows during the day, which is something Jimi Hendrix also did. My parents were dismayed and couldn’t understand why I was so different to them. I also liked going out for days, exploring and experimenting. I was, of course, extremely artistic from the beginning. I understood concepts at school very quickly, and got in trouble for breaking the rules and prioritising my own ideals over that of my superiors.

All these behaviours label children, and the adults they become, ‘troublemakers’ and rebels. “Why can’t they just behave?” parents and teachers lament. Well, because evolution programmed them that way. But back then I would’ve utilised a far shorter answer.

Leader types, being highly sensitive, experience the discord of growing up in families of followers very intensely and in far higher resolution. If a father is strict and domineering, the sensitive child will feel he is ruled by a tyrant. Off-handed criticisms will be stab wounds that are nursed for years and years. Their deep processing will have them mulling and stewing over the slightest things that followers forget in the very next moment.

Thousands of years ago, human tribes had to hunt animals, gather foods, build shelters, live in the shelters and raise families. Distinct human types evolved to carry out these different tasks.

Leaders are the hunting and exploring type. They were the ones who went out, probably at night, to look for food. To be good at this, they had to be highly sensitive so they could hear every noise, smell every smell, feel the vaguest touch on their skin and see the slightest movement. They had to be brave and bold to explore scary places. They had to be graceful and silent as cats to sneak up on prey, but aggressive enough to actually kill. They had to have loud, developed voices in order to communicate with other members of the hunting party. They had to be confident of their own opinion and communicate it effectively to others in order to lead.

They also had to be able to imitate other animals they encountered, to seem less threatening. They also had to be ingratiating in order to win the trust of people they only just met — and they would have met many people on their travels. They had to be highly adaptable to quickly get used to ever-changing environments. They had to be physically robust and agile to withstand the rigours of their itinerant hunting life. They developed the classic ‘rolling stone’ personality — Jimi couldn’t stand being in the same place for three months, let alone years. They also needed great and detailed memories, to remember where they’d been.

With their keen vision they would spot anomalous objects in the environment — shiny things might indicate water, and colourful things (especially red and yellow) would indicate food. Look at the colours and shiny things Michael wears and is attracted to. Watching him shopping is literally watching a leader type hunting in the forest thousands of years ago.

Their sensitivity is responsible for their artistry. As I read somewhere (possibly in Elaine Aron’s book The Highly Sensitive Person), not all highly sensitive people are geniuses, but all geniuses are highly sensitive. Charles Darwin lined his room with cork to keep the noise out. Jimi, as mentioned, covered his windows with black fabric. All this is to minimise stimulation. Because highly sensitive people take in so much more information from their environment, and process it so much more deeply, they need to restrict it only to what is most important to them.

Being a night owl, as Kanazawa found in his research, was related to higher intelligence. Much hunting probably occurred at night, when the animals were about, or it was easier to travel without being seen. The peace and stillness of the night also minimises stimulation for highly sensitive leader types. Intelligence itself is required to make connections between disparate phenomena, entertain several possible explanations, and synthesise information to decide on a verdict and course of action. The activity of hunting would have honed the intelligence of leader types. Any kind of physical bodily movement and coordination increases brain power — dancing for example. Moving the body in space. I relate this to moving ideas around in one’s head. This is how I did philosophy at university: I literally saw concepts as interacting forms in my mind. Einstein also thought in visual-spatial terms.

Something fascinating about stimulation is that leader types seem to become rapidly overwhelmed by experiences that family types consider quite routine and harmless, but at the same time, they crave intense stimulation. Paradoxical personalities, innit? Clearly, not all stimulation is created equal: a normal day in an office as an employee would be intense and overwhelming for a leader, but then they go out at night, attracted by the bright lights and shiny things of the city, loud music and the stage, and crowds.

A hypothesis of mine is that leader types are born with ‘happy’ neurotransmitter deficits. The strong correlation of substance use and abuse with artists, I think, is related to this deficit. In general, almost everything that makes us feel good — no matter what type of animal you are — does so because it fulfils some evolutionary prerogative. Leader types evolved to be sad — is what I’m saying. They are naturally sad. Therefore, they are forced to do things of a specific kind to alleviate that sadness. Michael is really good at being sad, but he’s also really good at alleviating that sadness. Drugs, alcohol, excitement, driving fast, athletics, dancing, bright colours, shiny things, movement, strong sunlight, making people feel and do things, eating certain foods, exploring, romance, helping and educating people, learning, discovering, conquering, mystery — all of these things alleviate the natural depression of the leader type. Fasting, too. What could more blatantly inspire a person to go out and hunt, besides hunger? Both Michael and myself had anorexia, but his was more extreme perhaps because he was more sensitive or his upbringing was more damaging, and he was constantly in the spotlight. But apart from the self-soothing reason, and the aesthetic reason (wanting a “dancer’s body”), I think we literally like to be hungry, as it were. I do believe he said, in his delightful hyperbole: “I hate food.” It keeps us searching. Anything that inspires a leader type to go out and be a leader will feel good, because that’s what nature wants us to do.

Mystery is integral for the leader type. It’s one of the main motivators of action and a guarantee of happiness and flourishing. I finally understand the propensity for this type to entertain idealistic romances and muses. Try making a person give up something that guarantees them happiness! As C. S. Lewis said so well “Desiring desire is the fullest possession we can know.” I finally understand this. What I want is to be in a state of desire, because it’s animating, life-giving, exciting. Why else would I love improvising so much? I love the mystery of not knowing what will come out of my guitar, what I will sing, or what dance moves I will come up with. I love mystery so much that all my essays are pretty much streams of consciousness.

Everything is on a spectrum, including family type/leader proclivity, and gender too. Effeminate men prefer masculine women; masculine men prefer feminine women. It’s all about balancing genetics to bring about the best complementarity. Who you’re attracted to is not a choice. Those with feminine hips are attracted to masculine hips; those with deep-set eyes are attracted to protuberant eyes; square-jaws are attracted to heart-shaped jaws; pinched-in cheeks are attracted to smoother, convex cheekbones. You can set your watch by this stuff.

Leader types also tend to be gender-indeterminate, or “in the middle” with respect to the male-female spectrum. This gives them the best of both worlds — e.g. deep empathy and nurture from the female side, and single-minded determination and action from the male. I do not think this is a degeneracy. Rather, in my view it is actually a requirement for leader types. To be too male or too female would be a hindrance for a leader.

In politics, there will always be conservatives and liberals, and more conservatives than liberals, because these represent the two primary types of humans, and their ratio, on earth.

The way to achieve world peace is to acknowledge the two broad types. Both are necessary for the survival and continuation of the human species. Conflict can seed change, but oftentimes we could do with a little less conflict and a little more understanding. Understanding of the millennia-old biology of our species that is — not politically correct ‘tolerance’. We need to understand things instead of merely tolerating them.

But the sobering reality is that family types can never fully understand leaders, and leaders can never fully understand family types. Each has a very different evolutionary prerogative that is very deeply ingrained. For one to understand the other, the one needs to literally inhabit the physical body of the other — which is currently impossible. Type ‘goes all the way down’ — the nervous system is different, the brain is different, the emotions are different, the values are different — everything is different.

This is why ‘black sheep’ — a derogatory term that betrays a lack of understanding on the part of the family types (but it is after all in their nature to demonise difference because it is threatening) — get along better with friends, aunties and uncles and other leaders unrelated to them instead of their own families. And it’s interesting that they’re called ‘black’: I have noticed highly sensitive leader types do often wear black, and I think this is to minimise stimulation. It’s one less item for them to process.

This is why certain kids act out at school, and why every person I admire from Debussy to Miles Davis to Isadora Duncan to Walt Disney quit the schools they were at. This is why Michael left the Jacksons and struck out on his own. This is why Zappa stayed up all night drinking coffee making the music he wanted to hear regardless of what other people thought about it.

This is also why the majority of people — the followers — shun, disbelieve and are afraid of leader types. The reason J. K. Rowling had to pitch her book to 200 publishers was because she saw the value of her work, but the publishers — who aren’t leaders — could not. The more innovative a thing, the less followers can comprehend its value. Followers are biologically programmed to play it safe and not take risks. This is infuriating for leaders, but the solution is not anger, but rather perseverance. Think of J. K. being turned away from the 199th publisher. Perseverance. Bang on long enough about something and family types will eventually stop feeling threatened because now you’re part of the furniture.

Another paradoxical thing about family types feeling threatened by leaders is that leaders are, in almost every instance, seeking to make the world a better place with their works. Think of Tesla. Leaders need family types — the two are in symbiosis — so it is definitely not in a leader’s interests to harm their followers. They are shepherds, not wolves. Empathy for their pack is high, because a leader who doesn’t care for their flock will not be followed for long. The extremely high degree of similarity between myself and Michael can be, to a great extent, explained by the fact that we are of the same human type (and probably share some genetics too). He has all the characteristic leader type qualities: he’s highly sensitive, an artist and a musician, he’s obsessed with the way people and animals move and is very curious. He loves bright colours and shiny things, which are food. I believe he said he loved Disney films so much “I could just eat (them)!” (I told a friend once that his photographs made me hungry; he looked at me like I was insane.) And of course the beautiful — Michael loves beauty — he goes weak in its presence. If there’s something he doesn’t understand, he’s fascinated by it and will obsess over it. He has a highly developed somatic-neuronal ability (that’s my term; I don’t know the correct neurological term), which is why his movements are so fluid and why he can imitate others so easily. He’s both male and female, has a great strong voice, resists authority, is ingratiating and immediately loveable, likes climbing trees and running around, staunchly believes in his own vision and he made looking after his ‘tribe’ the central mission of his life. He owned thousands of books and was constantly reading, usually by himself. All Michael’s searching made him very knowledgeable, of course. He liked to associate with fellow talented and driven people, from whom he gathered even more leadership advice. Michael’s not messing around — the advice he gives you is the advice he’s given himself. He experiments on himself. He’s a leader — a real leader — so he wants to help. One day I was dancing at home and came up with a certain move. Two weeks later, I happened to be watching a video of Mike’s and saw him do the exact same move. I couldn’t believe it. At the time I came up with it, I had no memory of having seen him do any such move. I was dancing in the mirror, and happened to trace the outline of my thigh with a finger — it was totally spontaneous and improvised. I liked that I was drawing and dancing at the same time — I do draw and dance, so it was exciting for me to do them simultaneously. In his video he was dancing to Dangerous, and he did that move. I thought “So now he’s copying me?!” This kind of thing happens often, and not just in dancing. For example, I’ll have some opinion about something, then later hear that he has the same opinion about that thing. Or I’ll happen to think of something I did when I was a lot younger, and it turns out he did the exact same thing. Then there’s the Star Wars thing, the one glove thing, the cape thing, the cutting the front of our shirts thing, the liking the same colours thing, the gum and TicTac thing, the similar music taste and compositional style thing, the sitting down with one leg or arm stretched out thing, the liking the exact same part of the flight attendant demonstration thing... We even have the same taste in women. Type, type, type. Once you know someone’s type, you can pretty much get out your checklist and starting ticking things off. Although, I don’t at this point know where type ends and genetics begin, because a lot of these similarities must owe to genetics, not type. I’ll work on this.

Being childlike is, I am positing, an integral part of the leader-hunter-HSP type. Mike and I both retained our childlike attitude to the world. For me, I distinctly remember the day I made the decision to never grow up. I was 14, on the basketball courts in junior high school near the end of the day. I thought “It’s just so much fun being a kid, I’m not going to grow up. Why should I?” It was also around that time that I decided what my life’s goal would be, having just read Freud: to be myself. I didn’t want to be a fireman or a lawyer or a teacher — I wanted to be myself, my truest self. Even back then, I knew this was a worthy goal, and I knew that it would be difficult.

Mike famously identified with Peter Pan, and passionately championed a childlike view of the world. He often claimed this was because he was denied a childhood, but I think there’s more at work here than that fact alone. Even if he had had a more normal childhood, he’d still probably have remained pretty childlike, because that’s an integral characteristic of the leader type. Being childlike — being open, innocent, relentlessly curious, able to withhold judgement, and trusting — is essential to being a leader. If leaders weren’t open to new information (i.e. adaptable), etc — they wouldn’t be effective leaders. If a leader didn’t trust his advisors, he couldn’t get anything done. Suspicion is poison.

It’s known that Mike was trusting. He advised his friend Brett Ratner that one of the big lessons he learned was “not to trust everybody in the industry; there are a lot of sharks.” But a person who is naturally trusting has a hard time trying to become the opposite, let me tell you. To be trusting is beautiful; when a trusting person is betrayed, it is not they who have erred.

It has fascinated me over my lifetime to observe the way sexual desire can be completely decoupled from child-rearing. Leader types definitely have sexual desire: just think of Jimi. Mike too, Madonna, Greta Garbo, Picasso. With men it’s fairly straight-forward, but I always wondered how female leaders could get away with it, seeing as they’d be having so many children but no desire to look after them — clearly a less-than-ideal situation. Maintaining a pregnancy and then a baby would definitely slow them down and make them vulnerable to attack. Nature may have solved this problem by making leader types infertile. After all, their genes will be passed on via their siblings’ children, so there’s no need for them to do it personally. It prevents overpopulation. And besides, their legacy is cultural innovation, not physical progeny. Some say that Mike was infertile. It could well be that this is by nature’s design.

Barbara Sher calls leader types ‘scanners’. Scanners are people who flit from one thing to the next, seemingly at random, are reading 50 books at any one time, and change careers frequently — you get the idea. But my contention is that leader types do this in order to get the best ‘lay of the land’. If they didn’t, if they were a specialist in some tiny nook of expertise, what would they know about the world? Nothing! All they’d know is their little area (which there’s nothing wrong with by the way, it’s just not the scanner approach). Scanners scan. They try to get the best view of everything — figuratively and literally.

I know this type is rare, but I don’t know how rare. I’ve certainly never encountered anyone as similar to me before, but then I don’t know everyone. Surely a person with such obvious and anomalous qualities would rise to prominence, almost by default. They’re generally in art, but not just anywhere. They’re in the ‘I’m either myself or dead’ camp. Michael’s well-known because he’s well-known, and because he so strongly felt the need to share his values with the world, he thereby revealed himself. There could be many of us. Some may prefer to remain unknown. I don’t know yet.

As I said before, everything is on a spectrum, so you could be a more or less extreme leader type, and a more or less extreme family type. There may be sub-types. The ‘lone wolf’ is an extreme leader type. Aldous Huxley said “The more original and powerful a mind, the more inclined it is to the religion of solitude.” I think lone wolves relate best to other lone wolves; other types will simply be too different. They’re introverted because there’s a whole world inside their heads, and much of the outside input they’d encounter would actually hinder their progress. As a leader, stepping outside of the leader pack can be incredibly demoralising. Out there, there's a flattening going on. If you have a sleepover with kids, all of a sudden it's about sex. If you say the n word, it's suddenly all about race. And you think, “Why is everything about sex and race? Are there not more things to discuss? Develop some granularity in your approach already!” The flattening is in full swing at the moment, with so many red herrings slapping around that you can’t hear yourself think. (Contemplating that kinda makes me hungry... All those shiny fish...) Maybe the majority do this in order to feel safer: if they can reduce indeterminate phenomena to something simple, then they can feel like they know what they're dealing with. Simplify and blame. It’s a stupid game, and so boring. I'm not at all surprised that artists feel the need to invent entirely new worlds to escape this shit.

So there you have it: there is a naturalistic, evolutionary explanation for so many of the specific human behaviours that we observe in society. The choices people make are, in large part, due to their evolutionary type. Encountering Michael was the icing on my cake of investigation, because I reasoned there had to be an explanation as to why we’re so similar and I knew that it wasn’t due to mere chance.

So if you’re a sensitive, introverted kid who likes doing their own thing and your family gives you hell for being strange and different — for God’s sake, understand that there’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all. You’ve been designed to be the way you are over millions of years of evolution, because this is the only way humanity can work. You are the reason we have electricity, cars, great works of art, beautiful films and music, incredible dancers and athletes, mathematics, poetry, physics, philosophy, engineering, comfortable houses and beds, heating, space exploration, wonderful stories and the rule of law. All of these things were invented by leader types. The most important thing is to know who you are. It’s Quincy Jones’ first rule too. Once you know that, you will make much better decisions in all areas of your life. “A guy can dig ditches and enjoy it”, as Jimi said. If you want to be happy and effective, you must be doing things that align with your particular nature.

Don’t waste years doing things other people tell you to do. What do they know about you, anyway? Do they know your deepest desires? No they don’t, because to discover them is long, personal work. No-one can do it for you. Your mum can’t do it for you. I don’t care if she’s your mother and she wants the best for you -- she’s not you. Don’t do things for extrinsic rewards like money or fame. I recall reading a teacher who complained that all his kids just want to be famous, but then he asked them “Famous for what?” People who become famous do so because they’re passionate and obsessed with something and thereby become very good at it. Don’t desire to be famous, desire to become obsessed with something. Fall in love with something. Then you’ll probably become famous anyway, but by then you won’t care, because all you want to do is the thing you’re obsessed with.

But family types are essential too. Just because they don’t innovate, they create a stable society in which everyone — including leader types — can live. They create and maintain order, follow instructions and implement your ideas. They start families and actually create the people society needs, including all future leaders.

The two types must know about, respect and be thankful for each other, for neither could live without the other.

Masses of conflict rage each day because people think that other people act the way they do by choice. But things are so incredibly ingrained, that it’s quite absurd to think that anyone makes any kind of choice. We do have free will, but can only exercise it to the point our fundamental orientation allows. Can’t fight one’s nature, as Orwell said. Fight it too long and she’ll make you pay, with your health or your life.

It is apparent to me that my entire discussion has remained completely materialistic. I’ve not touched upon so-called ‘supernatural’ phenomena at all. I don’t like the term ‘supernatural’ because, if something exists, it is natural — no matter how perplexing or odd, everything is Nature, everything is natural. It’s not like the earth and its rocks are natural, and then precognition of the future and witnessing midnight processions of long-deceased people — as Jung and others did, centuries apart mind you — are outside of the natural. Everything is natural. If it happened, it was natural, and there is an explanation.

Now it might seem boring to learn that all these things in fact have a boring materialistic explanation. But as usual, there are many more things that we don’t yet know. The perplexing nature of time, for example. I suspect that time is very different to how most people conceive of it, but that discussion is for another time.

Back to the strictly material. A few hundred years of culture won’t put a dent in millennia of evolution. Culture is itself an outgrowth of evolution, and it needs to humbly acknowledge this fact instead of thinking that now it is king. The patterns and drives of Nature are king, and they explain everything. DS 06-07/2020

[illegalastrology111]

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RETROGRADES: PART 2

THE “OUTSIDERS”

When the planets beyond Saturn are retrograde, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, there is a degree of subtle sabotage, undermining, deceit, deception and things hidden, all of which, often don’t reveal themselves until the planet has moved forward.  In all retrograde cycles there is less power and potential for outward success.  Inward motivations are more beneficial. Retrograde planets can also indicate the withholding or suppression of information.

When the three planets beyond Saturn, sometimes known as the “outsiders”. subtle subversion is usually at play.  Often what is subverted, or will be subverted, is only revealed when the planet concerned turns direct.   These planets are retrograde for long periods of time and there is debate in Astrology as to whether, because of the lengthy retrograde duration, usually 4 - 5 months,  deceit, undermining and hidden agendas are gong on.   Personal experience will show each individual whether this is the case or not.  For the most part, from personal observation, it would seem the answer, unfortunately is yes.

Outlined below is a brief description of the “Outsiders” at work.

URANUS: Uranus was discovered in 1781 and has a nature similar to Mercury, with its nervous mental impact.  However it’s much more powerful violent, disruptive, unexpected and fanatical, if the energies are not tempered and balanced.     In retrograde motion the desire to free Self from restrictions will be strong and to make drastic changes in life, with extreme possibly erratic behavior.  To erase old habits and make way for new behavior patterns will be at the forefront.   However this must be done with balanced, orderly thinking (Saturn), in order to avoid causing hurt and harm to Self, ones life and others.

Awakening latent talents and unique abilities that set one apart from others is a good place to start, depending on the sign of the Uranus retrograde. Plans to rebel, disrupt, experiment and detach will all be brewing during this cycle, to be released later.    The key is to not to go in a direction that is :explosive” and destructive.  Exploring, inventing and developing stronger intuitive senses that are for the good of others too is the best way to use this retrograde cycle.   Uranus rules the sign of Aquarius, highlighting groups, friends, hopes, wishes and ideals.  Altruism is the highest vibration of Uranus, strongest when it is retrograde.  However, only those who are self-aware enough to sense and feel this energy during the retrograde cycle and able to develop a unique persona, empowering enough to be of help to others, will benefit from Uranus retrograde the most.

Anyone new that enters a person’s life during Uranus retrograde is likely to be a disruptive force, under the guise of friendship.   The same applies to joining groups with an idealistic focus.  Just know, retrogrades can be  deadly!

NEPTUNE:  Neptune is often considered the higher vibration of Venus, it is symbolic of receptivity, passivity, impressionability and nebulousness.   Neptune in retrograde will bring either tremendous spiritual strength, spiritual growth, escapist tendencies - seeking the path of least resistance and avoid all responsibility.   Being deceitful to Self and others, careless and scattered are other traits of this retrograde planet.  

The key to getting the best out of this transit is to focus on spiritual growth, creativity that inspires others, frequent meditation to clear the mind and absolute discernment, in order to avoid people and situations that are likely to bring sorrow and self-undoing. Escapism using alcohol, drugs, medication or anything that shuts one off from reality are a big NO!  The outcome of indulgence during this retrograde would be extremely negative.  Keeping things secret are another trait  of Neptune retrograde depending on what it is that is being hidden.   The only problem with keeping things hidden, is that once the retrograde is over, the secret will be revealed.

Neptune represents the “veil”, illusion and delusion and ultimately the veil is lifted in direction motion.    Therefore, this particular retrograde is one to really develop a greater understanding of the spiritual Self and creative Self, in order to be more self-expressive and a greater force for good in the world. Caution and care should be taken while getting involved in spiritual pursuits. It would be wise to go with referrals that are tried and tested, instead of taking a chance with someone unknown.    There are also some spiritual activities that should be left alone.   Neptune rules spiritual protection.  Therefore make sure that this is top of the list of things to learn and be aware of before “opening” oneself up to any spiritual energies.  Individuals that enter one’s life during the retrograde period are very likely to be delusional, deceitful liars with a hidden agenda and secrets.

PLUTO:  Pluto can e considered the higher octave of Mars, named after the God of Hades.  It was discovered in 1930.    

Pluto represents transformation and regeneration bringing endings and rebirth. Pluto rules the sign of Scorpio with the planet Mars.  In retrograde motion, Pluto of all the planets can be the most destructive influencing a person to be self-destructive, vengeful, jealous, obsessive, addictive, resentful, stubborn and undermining. During this cycle it’s very important to be extremely wary of joint financial partnerships with new people.   Anyone new that promises they can make a situation or life better in some way, will probably cause devastating harm in a person’ life, that isn’t obvious until after Pluto has gone forward.

The best way to make use of this cycle is to work on inner transformation, rejuvenation, getting rid of fear and insecurity, “ending” situations and getting rid of people that  are not “healthy” to be around etc. A time to make Self and life better, to “clean house”.

Pluto is a very powerful force even when retrograde.   If its power is used correctly it can have a healing and empowering affect.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, although far away, affect individuals as they do large groups of people.  Paying attention to detail during these cycles is important, because the Universe provides every “tool” necessary for success and happiness.  If a person is attuned to their inner-self and things going on around and in their life, these are the people that will benefit most from retrograde cycles.   Other than that, retrogrades are perceived as negative, stagnating and irritating.    

If you remember that nothing is as it appears on the surface, retrogrades, especially Uranus, Saturn and Pluto,  can be “hidden helpers”.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Continuum Season Four Full Review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

50% (three out of six)

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

27.31%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

None.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

None.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Ten.  Seven who appear in more than one episode, seven who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-three. Sixteen who appear in more than one episode, fifteen who appear in at least half the episodes, and four who appear in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Despite being less balanced when it comes to gender than previous seasons, the series continues to thread the needle of being nothing special in this regard.  (Average score of 3.0)

General Season Quality:

While the storytelling can still be quite good, the actual stories the season chooses to tell are largely not great. A disappointment.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

If Continuum has an ace in the hole, it’s its commitment to telling a story about the evils of unchecked capitalism.  Even with its dubious arc transitions and occasional plotlines that don’t pan out, it has always been a series with a message and a point of view, and that has always counted for a lot.  

This season, then, shows us what happens when you don’t have that center. Granted, the show hasn’t quite abandoned its sensibilities, but with only six episodes with which to tell its story, there’s nowhere near enough time to use them to its advantage. What remains, then, is a merely decent action show.  

Let’s talk about Liber6—the group of time travelers from Brad’s hometime, introduced at the end of last season—since they’re both at the center of the story, and the center of the season’s issues.  On paper, they’re necessary in order for the show to continue, particularly after Liber8 evolved past its antagonist role at the end of the previous season. What’s more, the idea that time travelers from a future different from Kiera’s would want to prevent their own timeline from taking place is not only a logical extrapolation of the show’s premise, but explores time travel in a way one doesn’t usually see. Given proper execution and time, there’s no reason why the new characters couldn’t have gotten integrated into the show’s ecosystem with relative smoothness.  

The problem, then, is twofold. The first issue is that with only six episodes in the season, there’s little opportunity to develop time travelers as characters—especially given all the other things Continuum has on its plate. The most prominent of the time travelers, like Vásquez, get enough development to fit into familiar archetypes, but even that is only just enough to make them among the least compelling characters in the series. 

The second, related, issue is that the group’s motivations are too far removed from the series’ core themes to allow it to be anything beyond the standard genre show antagonist group.  Yes, the time travelers’ goal is survival at all costs, and yes, their hometime came about because of the war between corporations and people that Liber8 facilitated. But what does Liber6′s ideal world look like?  Are they looking to replicate the feudal military state they came from? Are they sympathetic to corporations? Would they have been content in the 2077 we see by the show’s end?  What specifically do they like about the present, aside from it not being a general shithole?  With Liber8, the series spent a lot of work having the characters acclimatize themselves to the present, and to have individual reactions to it; furthermore, they had a specific future they were working towards, and everything they did visibly advanced that agenda, or was at least related to it. The new time travelers have none of that, and what they get instead is a mysterious plan that requires them to stand on a warehouse until the season finale. While Continuum has had factions that operate outside of the main thematic conflict—see: the freelancers—these tended to operate at a secondary or tertiary level; they were complications to the existing conflicts, rather than the primary source of conflict.  

In the end, the new time travelers end up feeling like a diversion: while their existence does alter things—for one, it leads to the deaths of several major characters—their influence on the larger story is frustratingly incommensurate with the focus they obtained. Liber8′s actions, we’re told, successfully prevented the original timeline from taking place. The characters who survived the finale, we’re told, were able to bring about the version of 2077 we see at the end.  The new time travelers, after they are done with, appear to have no larger effect on the world.

It’s not a total loss. The season, in general, works much better when telling smaller stories about  established characters. While not all of them get the focus they deserve—the remaining Liber8 members, for example, end up in a sort of storytelling limbo; with the exception of Kellog, they’re all rendered secondary—those that do help provide some of the season’s best moments.

Female representation-wise, this season does...quite badly, really, which isn’t a great shock, after the series killed off many of its more prominent female characters last season. Furthermore, with no futurebacks or cases-of-the-week to showcase characters besides the regulars, the show lost another major source of characters and interactions between women. Not only that, the series continues to act identity-blind, which while refreshing in some respects, is annoying in others—as always, one can’t talk about oppression without dealing with privilege—more on this when talking about the series as a whole. 

In a 2014 interview, Continuum’s creator, Simon Barry, indicated that he envisioned the series lasting seven to ten seasons. While I’m deeply skeptical  that the show had those sorts of legs—I feel it’s also clear that this season was ultimately harmed by its compression. I’ve repeatedly mentioned that Continuum has a lot of things on its plate, and what this season demonstrates is that the series actually needs all of those things. Take away its room to breathe, and the series loses a lot of what makes it special.

[thepllreviewer]

PLL: Comparing/Differentiating the ‘A’ Reveals

Over the course of 7 seasons, Pretty Little Liars presented us with turns, twists, and revelations galore; all resulting in the form of 3 major A reveals throughout the shows juncture. While there’s been a myriad of differing opinions on each A and their motivations and overall storylines, each one provided a completely unique contribution to the show and a different kind of twist each and every time.

I’m going to break down each A reveal, and go into the depths of their particular strengths and weaknesses; what worked and what didn’t work; and my overall stance of each one. Mona, Charlotte, and Alex each had their own individual reasons for tormenting the girls and ‘playing the A game.’ If there is one commonality among the three, is that the game was an addiction that none of them were able to resist once the opportunity presented itself. So alas, let’s explore!

Original ‘A’: Mona Vanderwaal                        

There is no doubt that Mona stole our hearts as the original ‘A’ of Pretty Little Liars. It was her genius and motivation that propelled so much of what was to come on the series, all stemming from her motive to punish the Liars for the torment she endured under the PLLs queen bee, Alison, as the rest stood by and watched it happen. Not only did they watch, but ultimately they let it happen. By the time ‘Alisons’ body was discovered and the Liars were reconnecting, Mona picked her ‘A’ persona back up in order to break the girls apart, in fear of Hanna being taken away from her.

What worked: one of my favorite parts of Mona’s storyline of being the shows first A was the genuine feeling of a betrayal to both the audience and the Liars, something that was severely lacking in the following A reveals. We felt the betrayal just from the look on Hanna’s face as she discovered her best friend was the masked villain under the black hoodie who had been stalking and tormenting them throughout their junior year. You feel the emotions as the girls all huddle together in tears after Mona has just fallen off the cliff, in an attempt to recruit Spencer on the A Team goes awry. All in all, we FELT this reveal. Mona was a character who had been established from the shows pilot, and was someone’s journey we cared about. We were able to form a connection to her, and held stock in where the story took her, thus we felt just as betrayed as the Liars.

What didn’t work: while it’s liked in some ways, it most be noted that while Mona’s reveal succeeded in The Who and the why, it lacked on backstory and exploring the history of how she became A in the first place. We weren’t given flashbacks into the moments Mona had enough of Ali’s torture, and decided to take matters into her own hands. She didn’t have the intricate back stories of Charlotte, nor the long awaited twin shock that Alex Drake gave us. Mona wasn’t rooted in the deeper mythology of the show, nor connected to the Dilaurentis or Hastings family, where the true heart of all the drama began.

Alas, Mona will always be known as the instigator of the ‘A’ saga, and was first to wear the famous black hoodie. And let’s be honest, she rocked it quite well. Without her introduction as ‘A,’ there would have been no one for Charlotte to steal the game from, and then no death of Charlotte to then lead into A.D avenging her. It all began with Mona, so even without all of the intricate plot points that the other reveals had that she lacked, Mona made up for it with the simplicity of being the classic who of it all.

2) ‘Big A’ : CeCe/Charles/Charlotte

The triple name in itself shows the dynamic complexity of this character, and all of the depth that comes along with understanding the backstory, motives, and mythology of this person. When I think of CeCe, an enigma is what comes to mind. She had this allure from the first moment that she appeared on our screens. Sasha had it right when explaining in an interview before 6x10 premiered that this ‘A’ was someone who we had seen enough, but they weren’t around all the time either. They achieved the perfect balance with her scheduling, and the timing of her appearances and mentions on the show. This furthered the enigma quality of this person being so seemingly omnipresent.  

What worked: Charlotte came into the show knowing everyone, and everything about them. She somehow seemed to connect into all these people, situations, and places, yet we were just now meeting her. Her Alison like persona, and striking energy made it hard to figure her out. Looking back on it, it was obvious what she was doing, but you didn’t know why she was doing it and how. Those answers were to come later, and that always only gave us enough to wanna know more about her. Her backstory was intricate and full of depth, emotion, and tragedy.

What didn’t work: the very thing that made Charlotte’s story work is also what made it not work all at the same time. Big catch 22 there. The trans twist, as shocking as it was, didn’t receive the proper care that it deserved. The death of Charlotte the very next episode only proved this point even more. As well, while her connections to everything and everyone were so important, it also created many holes and gaps in the story that needed to be properly filled in. Because the story went on for 3 1/2 seasons, and connected back to the first two seasons before her arrival, there was lots of tracks to be covered. While I commend the writers for filling in most of it with care, there were still many plot points that were left blurry or completely unattended to altogether. Many timeline and continuity errors ensued as a result. Emotionally connecting to Charlotte was also difficult to do by the time the reveal rolled around, as we weren’t made to connect with her previously on that level. They always kept her on the sidelines to keep that enigma persona up, and while that worked on one hand, it backfired upon the big reveal.

All in all, CeCe was the most dynamic reveal of all, and credit must be given where it’s do in the sense that the writers really did pull that one off. The moment CeCe turned around in that black hoodie, my jaw dropped in disbelief as it came to light she was trans, and had orchestrated all of this madness. The dollhouse was a huge milestone, and this genius of a villain pulled that off. Only in the end, we came to see what led to this damaged soul becoming villain, which made her much more human in my eyes. Even in Charlotte’s death, we continued to delve deeper into her complexity, coming to find she had a secret history with the Drakes, Jenna, Noel, and Archer. Just when you think you know her, we come to realize there’s so much more to her. Sara hit the head on the nail when saying in 6x15: “no one ever really knew all of her - Charlotte. But maybe if we put our pieces together when we can understand things a little better.”

3) ‘A.D’: Alex Drake

A.D, the third and final A of the saga, took us out with a bang, and truly landed somewhere in the middle of the spectrum; thus striking a balance needed for this type of reveal. In choosing Alex, Spencer’s secret twin, the writers gave us a reveal of someone we sort of knew with them being a twin, but not someone who was too close either. The twin twist payed homage to the book series, and thus created an even more dynamic backstory into the history of the Drakes. We learned so much more about the history of these three crazily interconnected families, and tied in loose ends that had been hanging for quite some time. The reveal was shocking, yet to the point. It was connected to the deeper mythology unlike Mona’s reveal, but it wasn’t so rooted like Charlotte’s to the point that you get lost in all the details, thus eliminating continuity errors and gaps in the story.

What worked: Unlike most, I was happy for Alex not to be connected to the pilot or beginning of the show. They tied her back just far enough to intertwine with Charlotte’s story, but not so far back that it confused the plot even more. That night was done and dusted. Much of the fan base was unhappy with the answers they were given, therefore wanted the show to create new answers to already closed cases. This would have been counter productive, and I for one am glad that they steered clear of this. Wrens involvement with this plot, and tying him into the mythology made me so happy. There were so many lingering questions surrounding him, and they really did a job well done at plugging him right into it. It was a completely organic fit.

What didn’t work: I would have preferred to have seen Alex on our screens from at least 6B on. I was pleased that we got flashbacks dating back to 4B-5A, but if we had actually met Alex initially in 6B that would’ve been ideal. We have 5 instances specifically in Season 7 that we can look back on and go “wow, that was Spencer’s twin!”  - and while those were so well done, I wanted more of that! Especially since A.D took over the game right after Charlotte’s death. You can tell the writers were scrambling around in 6B with what to do story wise because the network didn’t green light Alex Drake until 6x20.

For the third A, Alex Drake delivered beyond measured. I had my small gripes, but I do feel she was the most fluid story they had presented so far in the A saga that was both rich in mythology and fact based details. It went deeper than the Mona story, but without all the clutter and messiness that Charlotte’s plot brought about. The moment Alex yelled ‘booo!’ on the other side of the glass to Spencer will forever be one of the most iconic PLL scenes! Well done, writers!

[justlondonjobs-blog]

Top 25 Suggestions For Finding A More Satisfactory Job

Is a job change to be able? Peruse the 25 most effective methods to job hunt. Whether it's time for fresh beginnings, and if you are searching for employment, it's a great time to ensure your priorities are in balance. Begin with some fundamental soul-searching, move to innovative networking, and conclude with the foremost ways to investigate prospective businesses. They are all sure approaches for getting a competitive advantage in the job market. But finding a job means more than becoming competitive. In the bewildering " new world " of technology-online boards, career centers, and growing amounts of complex internet sites-it does mean knowing the right path around. Listed below are 25 suggestions to figure out how to maximize your time and effort, your effectiveness, and your likelihood of success in the next career search! First and foremost-take an individual inventory. Job hunting offers you the chance to get back to "square one" and inventory yet again what you are about, what abilities and understanding you have obtained, and what you want to do. Who are you? What would you like out of life? Employment? A profession? Where are you heading? Do you know ways to get there? Are you happy in your work/career/profession? What do you want to switch? An inventory like this is the best job hunting method ever devised since it focuses your watch of your skills and talents plus your internal desires. You begin your job hunt by first identifying your transferable, practical, skills. Actually, you are determining the essential building blocks of your projects. Learn more information at JustLondonJobs.com

Apply right to an employer. Choose the employers that curiosity you the most from any resource available (web listings, yellowish pages, newspaper ads, etc.), and acquire their address. Appear on their doorstep at your 1st opportunity with resume at hand. Actually if you have no idea anyone there, this work hunting method works nearly half the time, in case you are diligent and continue your pursuit over weeks or months.

Ask relatives and close friends about jobs where they function. Request every relative and friend you have finally or have ever endured about vacancies they could find out about where they work, or where other people works. It might take a village to improve a child, nonetheless it takes a whole network to find a new job! If you tell everyone you know or fulfill that you are job hunting and that you would value their help, you more than quadruple your chances of success.

Search hidden job marketplaces. Networking is the "Hidden Job Marketplace." Because each time you speak to someone who is in direct line with your career interest, you setup the probability that he / she will cause you to more people, or to the work you would like. People are connected one to the other by thousands of pathways. A number of these pathways are available for you, nevertheless, you must activate them to create them work in your favor. The majority of the available jobs are in the concealed job market. They aren't outlined in the classifieds or positioned with a headhunter. See them through your network of contacts. This is your most effective resource!

Question a professor or aged teacher for job-leads. Nobody knows your capabilities, commitment, and discipline much better than an instructor or professor who experienced the opportunity to use you in college. Since more folks find their sort out immediate referral by other folks than by any various other way, that is a target viewers you do not want to miss

Spend more hours each week on your own job hunt. Finding employment is employment! Treat your task hunting just as you'll a normal job and function a standard number of hours weekly, at least 35, ideally 40 along the way. This will decrease dramatically on the amount of time it requires you to find work. Did you know the average indivdual in the work market only spends 5 hours or less per week looking for function? With that statistic, it is not surprising that it could be a long, tiresome process.

Improve your probabilities and demonstrate your self-discipline and dedication. Devote Sundays to answering advertisements and planning your technique for another week. Don't spend valuable weekday hours behind a pc. You have to be out there researching prospects, networking, and interviewing. Function smarter for yourself!

Concentrate your job hunt on smaller companies. Most new jobs should come from smaller sized, growing businesses, typically with fewer than 500 employees, not large, restructuring companies. Although larger companies are more visible, popular and aggressive within their search for workers, it is with small companies that you will find the best potential for success to find work. Pay particular focus on those businesses that are growing and on the way to prosperous development...they are easier to approach, simpler to contact important personnel, and less inclined to screen you out.

See more employers every week. If you only go to six or seven employers a month in your task search (which may be the average, incidentally), you will prolong your search and delay your successful outcome. That is one reason job hunting takes such a long time. If you want to see 45 companies to look for a job, it only is practical to see as many employers weekly as possible. Determine to observe no less than two employers weekly at a minimum amount! Do this for as much weeks as your job-hunt lasts.

Continue until you discover the type of employer who would like to hire you! Looking for a work is a numbers video game. The even more contacts you make, the more interviews you'll get. The even more interviews you have, the more offers you'll receive.

Be prepared for phone interviews. Would you think that over 50% of potential candidates are disqualified following the first phone contact is manufactured with them by an company? Nowadays, employers don't possess time any longer to interview every feasible applicant and so are using calls as a more affordable, less time consuming method to weed out possibly unqualified candidates. The telephone interview catches many people off safeguard. You might receive more than just one telephone interview, and you must pass all of them. The interviewer usually accocunts for his or her brain within the first 5 minutes. The remainder of that time period is spent just confirming first impressions.

Create a support group. It really is easy to obtain discouraged, depressed and despondent (the three D's) in the job-hunt procedure. This can be among the toughest and loneliest experiences in the globe and the rejection you might have to handle could be brutal, but it does not have to be. The key is in knowing that you aren't alone. There are literally hundreds of thousands of individuals looking for work, and you can synergy with one in the event that you select. Many job-hunting groups already can be found, such as the regional Chambers of Commerce and on the web organizations through the Internet.

Look for a partner, or a more substantial group, and support and motivate each other. The road to success generally is a telephone call away.

Contact potential employers straight through professional associations. Professional associations provide excellent networks to save you time. Almost all committed experts are users of at least a couple of professional networks. Generally membership carries a directory, which gives you with a primary networking source for verbal contact and mail promotions. Additionally, most professional associations keep frequently scheduled meetings, which offer additional opportunities to mingle together with your professional peers on a casual basis. Finally, professional associations all have newsletters that certainly are a valuable resource for other trade publications, associations, and help wanted sections.

Post your resume online. In today's world there are many resume databases on the web. Job hunters is now able to tap into giant on-line databases when launching a search just before interviewing. There are three main ways to work search electronically or on the web: Joblines, Bulletin Table Systems (BBS), and the web. Many employers today have their occupations accessible through a straightforward phone call.

You may also use the advanced Resume Caster feature in ResumeMaker to create your resume to all or any of the top career centers on the internet for a large number of hiring employers to examine. You can also utilize the Work Finder feature to find from among a lot more than 1 million online-listed job openings for a particular job name in the condition you specify. The info is all there, looking forward to you.

Promote yourself in exclusive ways. Advertising is creating an market of potential companies and making them alert to your qualifications. There are numerous non-traditional ways to make this happen task. For instance, use electronic resume solutions to broadcast your resume. List yourself in suitable trade association news letters. Prepare 3 x 5 Rolodex cards which contain your name, address, and contact number on the front side as well as your objective and abilities from your own resume on the trunk. Keep them behind wherever you go and present them to whoever has reason to contact you later in regards to a job.

Accept a temporary position or volunteer function. Be your own operating advertisement by accepting a short-term position. This gives you with valuable encounter, contacts, and references. Volunteer for organizations and actions with business sponsors and associations that increases your presence and personal contacts. Explore your options and leave all choices open. You by no means know which technique may ultimately property you your ideal work.

Make cold-calls. Up coming to face-to-face meetings, calling is the most reliable method available to find a work. Every call you make is a chance to sell you to ultimately a prospective employer, to pursue a fresh job opening, or even to get yourself a referral. Your technique in the original telephone call can possess a categorical effect on your chances to acquire what you need from the decision. Complete at least 15 calls each day. You'll be astonished at the outcomes. Always be agreeable, mild, and positive.

Smile when you speak; the listener will listen to it. Make a brief outline for every contact and rehearse it. Create short statements that outline ways to help your prospective company accomplish their goals. Usually, always, always ask for referrals.

Re-define your job hunt when it comes to alternative possibilities. Successful job hunters will have alternative plans prepared in the backdrop and put into action them at the initial sign of problems. Prepare alternative means of describing everything you do, substitute avenues of work hunting, choice leads and get in touch with lists, alternative target businesses and employers to get hold of, alternative methods to approach prospective companies, and alternative programs to continue your task hunt through its effective completion. The careers are out there-you simply need to become sure you are employing the right solutions to look for them.

Seek profession counseling or job hunting help online. Many providers, through the Internet, are providing career counseling services, work hunting guidance, and reference equipment that you can change to in your job hunt. The best of the services are free of charge, and the quantity is growing astronomically every year. Your first approach would be to go to the online career centers integrated with ResumeMaker and visit each site to know what services they need to offer. There exists a virtual community simply waiting to listen to from you.

Consider federal and municipality sources. The government is an enormous resource of potential job search information, accessible to you at little if any cost. Several Division of Labor publications, for instance, may take you through your task search from starting to end, and help with profession counseling and industry analysis. Call your neighborhood employment workplace and take benefit of the services they provide.

Make sure you may survive financially between careers. Cover the time you'll be searching for a job. It is usually helpful when you can get an overall view of how your cash will bring you through any work search or teaching you may want to take on. You should have enough concerns and issues to cope with and do not really want to take into account your finances.

Arranged and prioritize goals while job-hunting. You should know what you need, if not you can't require it. There are actually thousands of jobs open up around you. Know what it is definitely that you would like, set your targets for attaining this, and prioritize the actions that you'll ultimately have to take. The even more particular you are about your objective, the better your likelihood of obtaining the job you want.

Zero in on a profession position and research the market. Before you begin meeting people, you should know something about the market or field you would like to function in. The more you understand, the better your conversations with potential employers will be-and the even more impressed they'll be with you.

Interview others for info. Interview people whose occupations curiosity you. You can usually find anyone who has done a thing that at least approximates what you would like to accomplish. Find the titles of such individuals, and go see, mobile phone, or write them. Become familiar with a great deal that's highly relevant to your dream.

Organize a job search marketing campaign. Organize your job search campaign. Failing woefully to do so is usually a common flaw in lots of people's job search technique. Make an idea for your task search.

This entails: preparing and organizing your job strategy, establishing a base or procedures center for your task hunt, preparing components, and undertaking job search tactics.

Revise your resume and become prepared. Update that resume! A resume can be what almost everyone you strategy in your job search will ask for. Obtain your resume in good shape. Use a professional support or Resume Maker to get ready a show-stopping resume!

Keep yourself dedicated, strong, positioned, and constant. Job-hunting could possibly be among life's most stressful encounters. You have significantly more power to keep carefully the pressures of work hunting in order, however, than you might think. The main element is to concentrate your task search and stay solid, dedicated and consistent. Among the curious reasons for having the mind is that it targets only one point at a time. Therefore keep it centered on you-and finding employment!