#much more of an effective strategy than 11 year old me could figure out

[likeaustralianotcrosby]

One time when I was like 11 my friend was telling me about a bunch of mean things her mom did/said to her and I said something along the lines of “your mom sounds mean” and then she got upset because I called her mom mean and I still think about that like 2-3 times a week.

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

101 Open MHA Gen Prompts

I had a very long ask game where people gave me fake titles and I came up with fic ideas to go with them.  Multiple people asked to use some of them as prompts, and some of my friends have lately maligned the lack of gen prompts out there, so I decided to compile them all into a single post.  Almost all of these are gen, aka not shipping, but you can do what you want I’m not your boss.  Everything is free and open to use WITH CREDIT, so have fun with my word vomit.

1. In Dreams I Had the Sun - Being the number one hero isn’t all it’a cracked up to be, Toshinori realizes early on

2. The Chainlink Fence that Held the Ocean - In his new book post-retirement, All Might opens up about his regrets, struggles with mental health, and his issues with the hero system as a whole.  The backlash is swift and intense.

3. Welcome to the Loud Silence - After an injury, Izuku is rendered deaf.

4. Water Since Turned Red - After a villain attack nearly kills All Might, the beach where Izuku used to go to find comfort now feels tainted.

5. all scrap left untouched is bound together - A group hero students who failed the provincial license exam for the third time, effectively ending their careers before they start, get together to take revenge on UA’s first years who beat them out.

6. You’ve saved more more times than you know - Times All Might saved people without his powers, just by being a cool, nice dude.

7. No Amount of Tragedy Can Justify Your Actions - A dying All for One tries to justify his centuries of cruelty to an uncaring Toshinori.

8. To Leave a Cage Locked - One for All is conscious and has a will of its own, one that doesn’t always line up with Izuku’s wellbeing.

9. Okay, who let in the Kraken? - Izuku is the reincarnation of an ancient eldritch horror.

10. keep us alive up above - Izuku and Shigaraki get trapped together somewhere.  Izuku knows he needs the villain’s help to survive and escape, but the other would rather they both die.

11. The world will revolve around me neither less - The ebbs and flows of AFO’s influence over the years.

12. More Roulette, Not Russian - Kids get their quirks swapped.

13. Patron Saints - Toshinori teaches a class about pre-quirk superhero comic characters and their influence.

14. Don't Come Back - Touya Todoroki’s first few weeks after a severe injury resulted in his father abandoning him.

15. The Blessed and the Fool - Toshinori meets up with a few of his ua classmates after retiring.

16. Not Your Sacrifice - Some of the other kids have started adopting some of Izuku’s self sacrificing habits and the teachers are concerned.

17. Break in the Storm - Villains use a power outage as an opening to break into ua.

18. One Day Those Consequences Will Finally Catch Up - Even though the teachers don’t take her concerns seriously, Inko saves every piece of evidence regarding people hurting her son.

19. a garden in their eyes - Izuku meets a fan who got injured after trying to step into a villain fight, just like he did, and it makes him question some things.

20. what could have been, if not for you - After Inko divorces him, Hisashi’s goes to the press to say All Might stole his wife and son.

21. Promised Misery - All Might finds out the severity of Bakugou’s bullying, and warns him he’s on thin ice with him.

22. Fly Up Higher, Blossom Brighter - Izuku has to write a paper for middle school about being positive, intercut with all the bullshit he has to deal with.

23. Libre Me from Hell - One of Izuku’s new quirks is spiral related.

24. No One to Blame but Yourself - Izuku’s kindness doesn’t extend to murderers, tragic backstory or not.

25. At Its Finest - Izuku accidentally gets involved in a hero commission coverup.

26. A Rising Issue - Izuku starts developing more severe side effects of his injuries.  He’s convinced he’s under the influence of a quirk, while the adults thing he’s finally gone too far hurting himself.

27. What you are in the Dark - Izuku usually keeps most of his anger to himself until he can’t.

28. nowhere to go - Inko moves into UA after their home was destroyed.

29. Something Without - My theory about the 2 OFA vestiges that are blurred out is they don’t approve of izuku as a successor.  Izuku tries to figure out why. 

30. Walking with a Ghost - Toshinori joins the OFA dreams while he’s in a coma.  He gets to reunite with nana, and is more open to Izuku about his past and feelings.  Part of his starts to wonder if it’s worth waking up, since he will die and join the others eventually.

31. Death By Crying - Izuku is affected by a quirk that will suffocate him if he expresses any emotion.

32. Justice is Subjective - The hero commission gets to Shigaraki before AFO does.  

33. Undo / Underdog - Death loop fic.  Izuku keeps reliving the day he met all might after being killed by the sludge villain.  he has to find a way to break the loop and survive, but he gets s little weaker every time he restarts.

34. Like Wildfire - A rumor that Izuku is All Might’s bio son picks up steam, and the characters have to decide whether to deny it but risk suspicion or play along and add a new layer to the lies protecting one for all.

35. Once Upon A December - All Might and Inko actually met in the past trope.

36. Some Legends Are Told - All Might’s first interview post-retirement.

37. Will The Real Mentor Please Stand Up - Aizawa considers himself the better teacher, but a lot of the kids seem to like All Might more.

38. I don't want the cure, I want the POISON! - Inko is killed in a hit and run, and Izuku becomes desperate to find the killer.

39. I will kill my heart before I dance on stage for these bigots - Izuku is interviewed as a rising star of UA, and the interviewer brings in some of his old bullies because they claimed to be his friends from middle school.  Izuku does not play along.

40. Split Ends - A quirk gives Izuku brief visions of what would have happened if he made different decisions.

41. Dreamless Sleep - A One for All dream leaves Izuku with a cryptic half-warning, and he desperately experiments to try and figure out how to trigger the visions to get the rest of it.

42. toxic flowers and pretty blades - Young Inko escapes the constricting life of her cruel wealthy family by becoming a vigilante.

43. The Suns we Orbit - Some of the other teachers believe Izuku is too codependent on Toshinori, and separate them for a time.

44. Submerged - Similar to those buried alive fics only someone’s in a box at the bottom of the ocean.

45. Deprive - Izuku also loses his stomach to an injury, and struggles to adjust to the necessary lifestyle changes.

46. The ashes fall like snow - Post Kamino cleanup.

47. Home will always be here - Inko cares for Izuku after he’s sent home due to “trouble at work study” but he refuses to clarify what that means.

48. Playing Favorites - A look at several times where Izuku was punished, while Bakugou got off scot free.

49. Elusive Dreams - Some kind of training or issue forces the kids to stay away for several consecutive day, and they start losing it.

50. Fracture - Izuku struggles through physical therapy after a severe injury that leaves his hero career in question.

51. Starlight, Starbright - Space cadet au

52. Someone in Your Corner - Gran Torino looking after Nana, Toshi, and finally Izuku through the years.

53. I cast magic missile into the darkness - Generic “the gang plays d&d” fic.

54. One Month At A Time - Izuku breaks a limb, and has to let in heal naturally over the course of several months.

55. Head Above Water - Izuku runs out of his pain meds and can’t get access to more doses for a while, so he has to endure not only the pain, but the withdrawal symptoms.

56. Are you going to leave a path to trace - All Might uses a new strategy to try and get Izuku to be less self sacrificial: what about all the young kids who are going to look up to him?

57. The View from Halfway Down - Izuku realizes that a risky move has just landed him with a potentially life threatening injury, but the fight it still going.

58. The Dust Bites Back - A villain All Might defeated early in his career is back and out for revenge.

59. The Absence of your Worth - Nighteye thinks he’s put together a rock solid case for why izuku isn’t worthy of One for All.  All Might’s response is to ask if he has something against quirkless people.

60. Behind the Screens Nobody is Afraid - All Might explains some of the context of his most popular hero videos to Izuku.  They are much more tragic than the media has spun them in hindsight.

61. Under the Light of the Moon - Someone gets turned into a werewolf.  And I ain’t talking the wattpad piss shit.  I’m talking full-on back-breaking monstrous transformations into a bloodthirsty abomination set to Bad Moon Rising.

62. some dreams were made to be broken - Bakugou crosses a line and finally gets expelled.

63. You Say You're Into Closure - Izuku finally beats Bakugou in a one on one fight fair and square, but Bakugou is a sore loser.

64. Something or Someone Missing - AU’s memories of Izuku get wiped, but those closest to him can’t help but feel an absence.

65. Too Little Too Late - Izuku’s father returns to find he’s been replaced.

66. Collecting Dust - Inko goes through the stuff Izuku didn’t take to the dorms.

67. Where the souls of wanderers go - Toshi meets up with a retired hero support group.

68. Fragility of Trust - Suspected traitor au

69. no one answered - Izuku is trapped in a cell in a building that’s collapsing in slow motion due to a quirk.

70. Eye of the Storm - One of the other kids has a panic attack for the first time between public appearances.  izuku has never seen from from the outside.

71. To Whom It May Concern - The kids find a mysterious collection of letters from previous students hidden in the ceiling of the classroom.  Some are ominous, some are incomprehensible.  Aizawa has no answers.  They enthusiastically go to try and solve the mystery within, but that excitement quickly diminishes the more they find out.

72. Of Popsicles and Ponytails - All Might gets in a discussion with the other teachers about whether the Clark Kent glasses thing would actually work.  All Might bets them it does, so he goes around town with no disguise other than his hair being up, and no one bats an eye.

73. All Men are Not Born Equal - Word gets out to the public that izuku used to be quirkless.  Everyone finds out just how deep anti-quirkless sentiments run when some begin to question whether a quirkless kid should be at ua, regardless of whether or not he has a quirk now.

74. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies - Something about encountering death in person for the first time being the dividing line between child and adult.

75. Sins of the Father - All for One has had many children over the centuries, and has made numerous attempts to groom them into the ideal heir with several different methods.  None of them worked though.

76. Where The Dead Come To Rest - The kids come home after a long, grueling mission where they saw some shit, and are too tired to process what they went through.  They take off their gear for plain clothes, then sit in the common room in silence long into the night, not wanting to open themselves up but also not wanting to be alone.

77. Rivalry - Nighteye tries to pit Izuku and Mirio against one another.  It goes right over Mirio’s head, but Izuku becomes convinced the other boy is in on Nighteye’s plan to wear him down until he gives up One for All.

78. A Subtle Language - All Might and Nana never said out loud that they loved each other, but little things told them that they did.  All Might hopes to pass a similar love down to his own successor.  But Izuku is very different than himself as a kid, and he needs to learn a new subtle language of affection.

79. It’s Gone - One for All stops working one day.

80. A Sight For Sore Eyes - All Might looking after Izuku in the aftermath of the second movie.

81. Loose Lips (sink ships) - Bakugou blurts out something about One for All during a rage, so the rest of the class jump on him and Izuku for answers.

82. No Expectations - Word gets out that All Might is going to choose a successor.  None of the theories or speculation online resemble Izuku in the slightest.

83. Eden was Only a Garden - Izuku gets hit with a quirk that erases some of his most traumatic memories, but in doing so loses part of who he is.

84. Run it Down - With all Izuku’s new quirks and his incredible skill, some of the other students with similar powers (Iida, Sero, Uraraka) start to feel like izuku is upstaging them.  And it affects their friendship.

85. Fool's Gold - Bakugou grows even more jealous of Izuku having One for All, and his relationship with All Might.  He thinks that if he could just prove himself to be more worthy, All Might would change his mind and name him his successor.  But in reality, he ends up jeopardizing the relationship they already have.

86. somewhere down the road - The final deadline for Nighteye’s predictions passes, and All Might lives.  He debates telling Izuku, as even though it would be a weight off the boy’s mind, he doesn’t want to jinx it.  He will still die eventually after all.

87. Just For You - All Might has certain rules and boundaries for fan interactions that he completely ignores for Izuku.

88. if these walls could talk (their whispers would be maddening) - Montage of training accidents in a ‘cursed’ ua gym

89. If Only I Could... - Nighteye tells Mirio about One for All, including that he thinks he’s more deserving than Izuku and he plans to pressure him into giving it up.  Mirio struggles with the knowledge that his mentor, someone he respected more than anything, only saw him as a replacement for All Might, meanwhile watching Izuku strain under the pressure of that mentor’s impossible expectations.

90. This is a Test Designed to Provoke an Emotional Response - shameless Blade Runner AU

91. Once and for All - Retelling of the Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” with All Might.  Some new heroes use much more aggressive and violent tactics against villains while also upstaging All Might.  That, and there general approval from the public cause All Might to question his moral code.

92. Sitting In The Rain - Tsuyu likes to just sit out in the rain sometimes.  Not do anything, just sit there.  Some friends decide to join her.

93. At Sundown - Mysterious creatures start attacking ua every night.  The gang works tirelessly during the day to find the cause and a solution, while defending their school and each other at night.

94. The 1000th time's the charm - Uraraka has been practicing a new move in secret but they just can’t get it right.  She wants it to be perfect before showing it off.  But one attempt gets her seriously hurt while training alone at night in one of the gyms, and she’s too hurt to get up to the phone to call for help.

95. Sunflower Seeds - All Might attempts to start a garden as a new hobby.

96. What It Means To Be Human - Sun god Toshi starts living among people.

97. Eyes on Me - All Might teaches Izuku some unarmed fighting moves to defend himself from bullies.

98. one remains - Izuku has developed all but one of the quirks he’s slated to, and he has no idea what it will be.  Anxiety ensues.

99. Come Back Home - Izuku vanishes from campus and everyone assumes he was kidnapped, but in reality he ran away to try and clear his head after a depressive spiral.  He goes by train as far away as he can until he comes to his senses and calls the others.

100. I Won - Izuku accidentally managed to kill Shigaraki during a skirmish, and while everyone around him praises his heroics, he struggles to deal with the fact that he killed someone.

101. Ivory Tower - All Might grapples with how much izuku suffered as a quirkless person, how he could have done more for quirkless rights in his time as a hero, and how now people may not care as much because he’s retired.

Reminder to credit me if you use any of these prompts, and a special thanks to everyone who submitted titles!

[robininthelabyrinth]

Three Gates - on ao3 (for content warnings check Ao3) - on tumblr: pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4, pt 5, pt 6, pt 7, pt 8, pt 9, pt 10, pt 11, pt 12, pt 13

- Chapter 14 -

“I would like your advice on something,” Meng Yao said to his mother.

Meng Shi was wearing silk again, rich colors that suited her – she had fully recovered from the serious illness she’d had a few years back, something for which he would be forever thankful to Qinghe’s doctors because he knew she wouldn’t have made it if they were on their own –  and a fur-lined jacket that made her look especially comfortable. She finished pouring the tea and smiled at him.

“You do?” she teased. “Still, after all these years?”

“I’m never too old for your advice,” he said and kissed her on the cheek before sitting down.

The weiqi board in the corner was midway through a game, he noticed, and was glad: Sisi was terrible at weiqi, and the only other person who routinely played against Meng Shi was Nie Huaisang. Things between them had grown better as he’d grown older – he loved to paint, to play, to keep birds and raise flowers, and those were the things Meng Shi liked the most.

It was good to see them spending time together. Meng Yao hoped that Meng Shi could show Nie Huaisang how to forgive, and to remember how to be as carefree as he had once been.

After all, Nie Huaisang had taken up what had once been Meng Yao’s duties, during the war, all the intelligence work and strategy, the battlefield clean up and the politics, and it had left its marks. Indeed, if Meng Yao had been anyone other than Nie Huaisang’s dearly beloved brother, he would probably be the subject of a decade-long plan of utter obliteration right now, good motivations or not – in fact, he was pretty sure that Nie Huaisang had one already plotted out, and was still considering it an option if Meng Yao didn’t make regular deposits on the infinity of fans he apparently owed him.

(The brat wouldn’t take duplicates, either. Meng Yao had put in an order for someone to send him an entire ship’s worth from Dongying in the hopes that that would earn him a little credit. The relevant someone being Wei Wuxian, who was off exploring the world with Lan Wangji - possibly for no other reason than to get away from the rest of them all teasing them about the long and overly dramatic way in which they’d confessed their affections for each other.) 

Still, Nie Huaisang had forgiven Meng Yao, even if he hadn’t forgotten, and they were most of the way back to being as they had been before – which admittedly was closer than he’d ever been with Meng Shi, who Nie Huaisang seemed to treat as a casual acquaintance instead of a mother. He treated her about the same as Sisi, actually, and usually acted as if he thought Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue were his birth parents instead of his brothers.

And possibly Lan Xichen as some sort of rich uncle he could (and routinely did) extort for gifts.

(He still called him ‘pretty gege’, though he’d recently started up several debates – mostly monologues –  as to whether Lan Xichen ought to now be called ‘er-ge’ and Meng Yao ‘san-ge’ according to their ages, being that he was now part of the family, or if they should just all go ahead and get properly married already so that he could call him ‘sao-zi’ instead. They’d all collectively decided to ignore him.)

“Is it about those sworn brothers of yours?” she asked, lips curving up into a smile that was entirely unlike the practiced ones she had once used most of the time, a real one that was a little bit crooked, and that made it all the more beautiful in his eyes.

Meng Yao batted his eyelashes at her. “I will of course let myself be guided by Mother.”

She laughed. “I think it’s a good cover,” she said. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, now, and she didn’t try to hide it with make-up or anything else. Meng Yao treasured every blemish and imperfection. “You three can spend all your time in each other’s pockets, putting each other above everything else, and no one will question it – or, well, question it too much.”

“Let them talk,” Meng Yao said. There would never come a day when people didn’t whisper about him behind their sleeves, calling him the son of a whore, and nothing he could do, no matter how hard he tried, would stop it. He could only adjust his own thinking and ignore them, at peace in his heart with the knowledge that they were wrong about him. With the knowledge that he was better than they were or indeed would ever be.

Perhaps there was something to Lao Nie’s old exhortation after all.

“But do they have something to talk about?” his mother asked, arching her eyebrows at him. “You retire to the same room to sleep, but I’ve never seen any of you walking strangely the morning after – what are you waiting for? Actual marriage vows?”

“The sworn brother oath served that purpose,” Meng Yao said dismissively, just as he’d explained time and time again to Nie Huaisang. It was just as permanent, after all; they would be bound together in this life and the next, each name forever placed alongside the others in the annals of history. “And we’re just moving slowly.”

He’d explained, in the end, what Wen Ruohan had wanted, what Nie Mingjue was, what that meant; he didn’t want to keep it hidden and risk anyone later thinking that he was taking advantage.

He didn’t want to keep even one more secret from his lovers in this lifetime.

Nothing. Not even surprise parties.

Nie Mingjue hadn’t cared one bit about finding out that he was a furnace, because of course he didn’t; he was still an idiot after all these years. Lan Xichen, at least, had been rightfully alarmed – neither he nor Meng Yao wanted to risk harming Nie Mingjue by accident, no matter how much he argued that his cultivation was high enough that he wouldn’t even notice a setback, and anyway that he trusted them not to try to steal away from him.

Nie Mingjue had finally convinced them to try, the night after they’d taken the oath. Emotions had been running high, and they’d all fallen into bed together, their blood running hot.

It had been – an experience, to say the least.

Sex was pleasant, something Meng Yao knew intellectually from his days in the brothel and personally from the few experiences, male and female, he’d forced himself to have in order to ensure he didn’t have any demons in his heart on the subject. He’d been glad to confirm that although he liked it well enough, it wasn’t so good that he would become addicted to the feeling, descending into dissipation and cruelty the way his father had.

What they’d shared together on that night, however…that wasn’t just sex.

That was something he could become addicted to.

Meng Yao had insisted on a strict moratorium on any further activities until they could process what had just occurred, and it had been telling that neither Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen had argued.

It had been mindblowing, a combination of overwhelming physical pleasure and emotional satiation, and then there was the spiritual ecstasy of cultivation – Meng Yao’s own cultivation, never especially strong, increased at an almost frightening pace for the next week, and Lan Xichen had confirmed a similar effect had occurred for him. Nie Mingjue’s cultivation seemed just as high as ever, unharmed, but obviously they had to do more research before they did anything else lest they accidentally cause harm to him somehow.

That meant they were back down to the basics, limiting themselves to rubbing up against each other at night and offering each other helping hands, given that Meng Yao and Lan Xichen weren’t willing to do anything together if it meant excluding Nie Mingjue – though recently they’d figured out that Nie Mingjue could narrate pornography without batting an eyelash with that frankly magnificent voice of his, and also that he liked telling people what to do (they knew that already, but still)…

They were going slowly. That’s how Meng Yao thought of it, and it was fine – he had no doubt that they’d figure out how to move to the next step sooner or later.

Sooner rather than later, given how quickly Lan Xichen was pouring through their respective sect libraries; apparently sexual frustration was a very effective motivator for him.

“If you’re sure you’re happy,” his mother said, and he smiled. “You seem to be. I’m glad.”

He nodded.

“So if it’s not about that, what do you want advice on? You haven’t needed to consult me on political matters in years. A-Sang would be better at that.”

“It’s not entirely political,” Meng Yao said, “though it’s not entirely apolitical, either, and don’t worry, I’ll consult Huaisang as well. Nevertheless, I wanted your views on the subject. You see, a rather complicated situation has arisen…I’ve been made an unusual offer.”

“An offer? A-Yao…”

“I know, I know,” he said, smiling. “Be careful of offers from strange men, especially bad men, and this is exactly that. But I still thought it was something worth considering. After getting the benefit of your insight, of course.”

“Well, then,” she said. “Now I’m curious. What’s the offer?”

He gave her the letter that he had received and drank his tea while she read it, her eyes going wide and then even wider.

“So,” he said, when he judged that she was done. “What do you think? Do I look like a ‘Jin Guangyao’? Or should I tell my father to go commit anatomically improbable acts on himself?”

“A-Yao…”

“I’m serious,” Meng Yao insisted. “This was always your dream, well before it was mine: whatever you decide, I’ll do. If you’d like for me to claim what should have been mine from the start, I’ll do it, though obviously if he thinks a mere name is enough to convince me to leave Qinghe in favor of Lanling he’s got a nasty surprise coming his way. But if you want me to tell him to his face that I’d rather be your son than his, I’ll do that too.”

He leaned back in his chair, and smiled.

“After all, I already have everything I want.”

- END -

[leechonspeeddial]

Midnight Shift: The Serpent at Burger King - A Seduction of Kevins Summary: The Devil comes disguised as everything you want, Alice Cullen comes with fondue fountains and Bugattis. wc: 1.7k Read on ao3

There was one simple lesson I learned from a young age and quickly internalized while living as a Cullen.

Never play chess with a psychic.

You think a mind reader is a problem? No, you just have to add on geographical distance and then you're back on an equal playing field; as long as you keep apart, you can use your best strategies and winning is still possible. A psychic though, there is no distance you can go to be hidden from their sight. Once they get their teeth in you, your odds at winning are – for a lack of a better word – shit. So, as I held Alice's gaze at our local Burger King, I reminded myself this one very important rule.

Never play chess with a psychic.

Too late.

If you did find yourself playing chess with a psychic, the best course of action would be to become irrational and flip the board. You might not win, but neither would they and you'd save yourself the effort. I took a deep breath and assessed the situation. There were currently five humans with ten pairs of working human eyes at the restaurant; flipping the board would be disastrous, either people would die or they'd bear witness to vampiric activity. So that's out of the question, next strat.

Though Alice had gotten used to reading around the blind spots caused by me, she hadn't totally mastered it yet. My best choice was to act without thinking and take over the conversation as much as possible. That, well, that I could manage no problem.

"Well, well, well. What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Assistant Manager?" I addressed Gay Kevin, hoping to also neutralize Jasper. Mr. Emotional Roofie was another obstacle here, trying to goad my coworkers so that they emotionally overwhelm him was my best shot. "Showing up two hours late to your shift with no warning?"

Gay Kevin looked exhausted.

"Please, not in front of the customers," he sounded embarrassed. Not Kevin snorted and took the interruption as an opportunity to make Milkshake boy his drink and get away from Alice. Meanwhile, Straight Kevin hopped over the counter and directly headed towards the old fries – if we didn't do our duty to eat them, they would be thrown out.

I also took notice of the guy that came in with the Kevins; he was shorter than Gay Kevin but slightly taller than Straight Kevin, he had thick black hair, but more importantly, he carried a video camera with him. He observed us, brown eyes full of amusement, and I sincerely hoped he was a vlogger.

"They aren't customers," I chirped with a predatory smile.

"I am a one though," Milkshake boy frowned. I waved him off.

"You're Not Kevin adjacent. You don't count," Gay Kevin looked increasingly irritated despite Jasper's attempt at giving chill vibes. He crossed his arms.

"So, what's this? You decide to throw a party while I was gone?"

I was about to retort when Alice interrupted me. I glared.

"There IS a party involved, but not here and not right now. Alice Cullen, nice to meet you, I'm –"

"Resentment's sister," Alice scrunched up her nose but nodded.

"Yup! And I came here to personally invite you, other Kevin, and Not Kevin to Nessie's party"

"You said you were born on 9/11," Straight Kevin's said accusingly with a mouth full of fries.

"It's not a birthday party," Alice tried to clarify, only to be drowned out by Not Kevin.

"You were born on 9/11?" I turned to address him and realized he was making Milkshake boy a chocolate shake, ruining all the hard work I put into my performance. Today was definitely not my day.

"I mean, yeah, but not like 9/11 9/11. I'm only 16," Not Kevin nodded but then his eyes widened as a realization seemed to hit him.

"Oh fuck. I forgot that was 20 years ago…"

"I wasn't even born 20 years ago," Straight Kevin added and it seemed to act as a punch to Not Kevin's gut.

"God, you guys are babies. I remember my parents picking me up from kindergarten early and being glued to the news for the rest of the day," Gay Kevin's statement also appeared to have a negative effect on Not Kevin, making him look even more miserable. Camera man looked like there was no place he rather be. Alice, well, she looked endlessly irritated.

"I feel so old" Not Kevin whispered, shell-shocked.

"You are old. What are you, like 50?" Not Kevin glared at me.

"What's 9/11?"

I blinked. Everyone went quiet and stared at Milkshake boy, who looked very confused. No one spoke for a full beat.

"Jack's 19 and, uh, Canadian," Not Kevin shrugged helplessly and said as if that explained everything. He handed the kid his milkshake.

"Hey, I thought there weren't any Oreos –"

"ANYWAY," Alice said loudly and we all looked at her, "it's not a birthday party. It's more like a celebration of Nessie's first job. Our family would love to have all of you for dinner"

"She means that we'd love to have you at the event. Not that we want to eat you for dinner," Jasper added unnecessarily and made me want to face palm. So, I did.

"I wasn't worried about possible cannibalism when she said it, but now I am," Straight Kevin took a wary step away from Jasper. Alice rolled her eyes.

"There will be plenty of free food and you can take as many leftovers as you want with you," Straight Kevin seemed to seriously consider this.

"I'm in," Alice handed him a pink envelope and smiled. Fuck.

Improvise.

"Speaking of customers. We have one right now," I pointed at Camera man, "so we can't deal with you right now," I tried to push Alice out the store but she held her ground.

"I'm also not a customer," he shrugged, "I came for the rats"

Shit.

"Tài…don't do this" Gay Kevin pleaded.

"My hands are tied. I promised my audience," so he was some sort of vlogger. This was admittedly the only good thing that has happened today.

"See, he's not a customer. I can stay," I groaned at Alice's smug tone.

"Technically, you're both loitering. So, neither of you should stay"

"I agree with the Assistant Manager"

Alice and I stared down at each other while Camera man and Gay Kevin had a silent conversation with their eyes. For the next while, the only sounds that could be heard in the restaurant were Straight Kevin loudly chewing, Milkshake boy slurping, and Olivia Rodrigo's drivers license playing on the speakers.

Suddenly, Not Kevin snapped his fingers, drawing our attention to him.

"You know, it occurs to me that since both Kevins are finally here, I can take my break. Come on Jack, I'm taking you home," he quickly made his way around the counter and grabbed Milkshake boy. "I'll make sure to call if I'm somehow two hours late," I smirked at Alice as her eyes narrowed. I greatly encouraged any action that made her look like that.

Milkshake boy tilted his head and didn't let himself be dragged out of the joint. I had half a mind to help Not Kevin.

"But dad said to –"

"Your dad will be ok with this as long as you don't set the house on fire. Again" Milkshake boy frowned.

"It happened once. I said I was sorry"

"Yeah, yeah. Come on bud, time's ticking"

Finally, that seemed to get Milkshake boy moving and heading to the door.

"Don't forget your invite!" Alice called out.

"We're good," Not Kevin responded with a hand on the door and the other pulling the teen along.

"Did I mention there will be a fondue fountain?"

Not Kevin hesitated by the door and I could only feel horror as my stomach dropped. Not Kevin was weak for cheese and cheese related by-products.

"Chocolate or cheese?"

"Both," I held my breath. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fucking fair.

"Shame, I'm on a diet"

"You aren't –"

And they were both gone before Milkshake boy could finish calling out Not Kevin's blatant lie. I fist bumped the air and stuck my tongue out at Alice, fully intending to gloat over this minor victory.

That is, until I saw Alice smiling.

Fucking psychics.

"What's got you so smug," I snarked, hoping to get a hint of whatever vision she just had. She smirked and I could tell she could see right through me. So much for not playing chess with psychic.

"I had a sudden revelation that everything will be alright," her eyes twinkled with mischief and, not for the first time, I was very jealous of Edward. Why the fuck did he get the mind reading powers? Tactile thought projection was so stupid and useless the majority of the time.

"You're so fucking annoying"

"I prefer the term persistent," I'd prefer if she was set on fire. "Which reminds me, hey boys"

Camera man and Gay Kevin stopped doing whatever the hell they were doing and paid attention to Alice, who was holding up one her dumb little pink envelopes.

"What do you say, a chance to eat fancy rich people food and see some fancy rich people cars," Camera man turned to Gay Kevin.

"Babe"

"Is this like, appropriate. Professionally speaking," Gay Kevin scrunched up his nose trying to figure out the etiquette of this weird ass situation.

"I'm more than happy to take you guys on a spin in my brand-new Bugatti"

"Babe"

"Why does this feel like bribery?" Gay Kevin narrowed his eyes at Alice, he seemed incredibly suspicious.

"Because it is," I growled and attempted to set Alice on fire with my stare.

"And I fully admit it. I just want to throw a good party, and guest are a very important part," she stretched out her hand towards Camera man, "think about it, that's all I ask"

Camera man and Gay Kevin shared a look, and Camera man grabbed the envelope. Ugh.

"Wonderful! Remember to R.S.V.P., we'll leave you to it," she waved and grabbed Confederate hubby.

They walked away and I could hear Alice speak, her voice far too low for human ears, but just the right volume for me.

"There's been a change of plans, we're meeting up Esme"

I scowled. I knew it was bait, I knew Alice wanted me to hear her, and it was driving me insane. Why would they need to see Esme? Why would Alice want me to know this?

I fucking hated my life.

[dawnwave16]

Not what I Expected

One chapter left!  I’m going to put a “Keep Reading thing at the bottom of the actual chapter as I name-dropped four celebs and I don’t know how many people know of them so I figured it would be better to at least let people know who they are :)

Start; 11; 12(here); 13(Last)

  Chapter 12:

For now, though all she could do was have a good night's sleep.

In theory, the plan was simple, in actuality, it was much more complicated to pull off then one would think. They had all the evidence they needed, as did the Italian embassy, who had deemed it appropriate to revoke their diplomatic immunity. As soon as everything started Mrs Kelly would be arrested for conspiracy to commit murder and for aiding a terrorist. That was the easy part. The hard part was going to catch Hawkmoth and Nekane.

The Parisian police had set up a very discrete perimeter around their prim suspect's residence with camera's trained on every window and door to catch any butterflies that left. They had a special camera focused on a window that looked like a butterfly and had what looked to be blast shields that would slide open or close depending on what the operator wanted. They had seen movement within on their infrared camera earlier but they needed more than circumstantial evidence to move in and make an arrest. If necessary, Commissaire Clement had the turtle miraculous and would move in to do the arrest, but that was the last resort only. 

Nekane's takedown was where things would get complicated. Essentially it would be announced to the school as a careers day. Marinette had organised for the school to be called into the main courtyard at 10 am. There was a stage set up at one end of it where the various guest speakers would be speaking from there were chairs for them to sit in once they were done. There had been an announcement on Monday to let everyone know that they would be hosting guest speakers for the careers day and Nekane, although she was still known as Lila to the rest of the students, had claimed she had organised everything. She even claimed that Marinette had tried to talk her out of it.

Everything proceeded well, Prince Ali had spoken about his work with children's hospitals and how he wished he could do more. When they allowed questions, Nathaniel had pointedly asked about his go-green projects to which Ali had replied that although he supported the idea, he didn't have any projects like that as otherwise, he would be too busy.

Jagged Stone had gone next and spoken about life as a rock star and being on the road. He spoke of how Penny had been such a big help and as a result, he emphasized the idea of having reliable people to support them when they were busy. This time it was Luka who spoke up and he asked about Jagged's kitten and despite knowing the question was coming, Jagged had looked highly offended and declared he'd never had one. He wasn't allergic nor did he have anything against them, he just didn't think it would handle the travelling lifestyle.

The next few speakers continued in much the same way. As they all had roughly 30 minutes to talk, plus 10 minutes extra for questions if they so wished, it seemed like everything was going well. They had talks from Steven Spielberg, Michael Houlie, Diane Sawyer, Shinya Yamanaka* and a few more. Each one of them got asked a question by a member of Marinette's class or group about one of Lila's lies about them only for those questions to be answered in such a way that it showed Lila had lied. With each lie that was exposed Lila got angrier and angrier so the team was on high alert for an Akuma. 

By this stage, the whole class had realised she was lying and they were subtly trying to shift away from Lila. It was the perfect time for their last two speakers. First Reid stepped onto the stage. He didn't like being a public speaker but he was good at it when he needed to be. He spoke about what it was like to gain multiple doctorates and to be the youngest person in your workforce. He also spoke very briefly about bullying and what it could do to someone. His main topic, however, was about teaching and how you should make sure to look at all sides of an argument within your class before calling anyone out. As he could quote anything he had read he used their school's code of conduct to do this effectively calling out Mlle Bustier on her behaviour. When he finished his talk he could see several teachers glaring at her and at M. Damocles, both of whom were trying to make themselves look invisible.

Finally, it was time for the final person to speak. Lila watched in horror as David Rossi walked onto the stage and started talking about the work the BAU did and about criminal psychology in general. He spoke about some of the different unsubs they had convicted and what lead to those convictions. He didn't give all the details but enough for everyone to be able to understand the cases. When the time came for the questions and Lila's lie about him came out, Lila's temper finally exploded.

“Oh, I see what this whole thing was. Let's make everyone humiliate Lila in the worst possible manner! Let's make Lila the bad guy!” As she shouted they kept an extra careful eye out for the Akuma they were sure would come. They were so focused on Lila however that they missed it taking over someone who had an even better reason to be angry, Jack.

Jack had been sitting quietly next to Mireille and had been content to simply watch everything but he had slowly been realising that there was more going on then what had met the eye. Although he was generally slow to anger he was still his father's son and the person that the whole day was aimed at taking down had been attacking his big sister. A big sister he thought the world of. A big sister who he had come to love wholeheartedly.

He hadn't realised that his temper had attracted a different villans attention but when he heard the voice inside his head he still tried to fight it, knowing that these were not his thoughts. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth knew just which buttons to push to make Jack give in. Due to nobody suspecting that Jack would be Akumatised, Candid was able to strike hard and fast. Where had once been a bubbly 9-year-old boy who loved his sister now stood an Akuma that they knew they would have to be careful facing. He wore what looked to be Captain America's costume, however, it was done in shades of blacks and blues mixed together as a camouflage pattern that made it hard to tell if he was solid or liquid or even if he was really there at all. His weapon was another nod to his favourite hero as it was in the form of a utility belt that he could draw pellets from, with each pellet having a different effect based on what he needed it to do.

The first they knew of him was when he made his first move which was to hit Lila with a pellet that contained a sort of truth serum. This made her start bragging about everything she had done. As the cameras were still on her from when she stood up after Rossi's talk, they decided to keep recording her but to not let anyone know as they didn't know if they would be able to use the knowledge in court. Even if it couldn't be used it would give them a surefire way to be able to pull her lies apart later.

As Lila was currently the centre of attention, Marinette signalled to the other's to get away and transform, then come back. She wouldn't be leaving to transform. Kitsune would make a mirage of ladybug purifying the Akuma and she would do so after everything had settled slightly. Chat could catch it in his bell to keep it contained for the meantime. She had let them know that she thought that the Akuma was in his belt so they had that going for them at least. The battle strategy that she had come up with on the fly didn't work out as she hoped though.

Candid hit several people with a different type of pellet that turned them into his own version of the Howling Commandos who worked together to stop people getting away. The Miraculous team had thankfully already transformed when Candid did this but it also meant they couldn't leave if they needed to. Marinette finally managed to get away and transform, using her Dragonbug form, and rejoin the group. She sighed softly then called for her team to listen carefully, as much as she didn't want to do it, she would have to use the dragons lightning body against Candid. She knew he would be healed when she used the miraculous cure but this was still her little brother and she hated hurting him. 

“Right, Viperion, be ready in case everything goes wrong. Kitsune see if you can get out to recharge if not just make sure no-one can see you as you drop the illusion. Akira I need you to be ready to use howl to distract him long enough for me to immobilise him. Tigris I'll need you to use your claws on his belt so that we can get rid of his belt, if the Akuma isn't in the belt, it'll be the shield so Chat be ready to use cataclysm on it. Honey, Oilarrak keep the commandos away from us as long as you can.”

Once she got nods from everyone, she motioned for them to move and they all sprang into action. A mild shock had Candid unable to move and a broken belt later the Akuma was free. She purified it quickly, used her cure and dashed away to detransform, making sure to run in from a different direction when she scoped Jack up into her arms. Soon they were surrounded by everyone wanting to make sure Jack was okay. Police had arrested Nekane, who had revealed her true name while under the effects of the pellets. 

She looked to Hotch and Quietly asked, “Did Commassaire Clement...?” She couldn't finish her question, nor did she have to as Hotch nodded. She looked down and swallowed. Gabriel Agreste had been caught as Hawkmoth while transformed and had been arrested. Nathalie hadn't had the chance to transform before she had been taken into custody as well. She sighed and moved away from her family, she had to go take possession of the two broaches and check for any other Miraculous related objects within the mansion. This was not going to be pleasant. 

This is the camo used:

Shinya Yamanaka

Yamanaka is a Japanese Nobel Prize-winning stem cell researcher. He received the prize in 2012 for his co-discovery that existing cells of the body can be converted to stem cells. He also received the 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, worth $3 million.

Extract taken from:https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/top-ten-greatest-scientists-alive-today

Diane Sawyer

Sawyer is an American journalist who was the first female 60 Minutes correspondent and most recently anchored for ABC World News until September 2014. She currently does high-profile interviews and specials for ABC News. Beginning her career at the local news station and then the White House press office in 1970 at a time where there were very few female journalists, she was considered a great pioneer for the women who followed in her footsteps. During her long-standing career, Sawyer has co-anchored Primetime Live, 20/20 as well as ABC’s morning show Good Morning America, which she held for much longer than anticipated due to her popularity in the position; one she also received an Emmy Award for in 2000. She also won an Emmy in 2007 for her reporting on ABC World News, along with numerous others like the Peabody Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award during her time on the show. Sawyer has also frequented the annual Forbes Magazine’s List of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women since 2004.

extract taken from here:https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/top-12-influential-journalists-today/

A little of my heratige pushed it's way forward for this choice!  For future refrence I was born in South Africa but currently live in New Zealand

Michael Houlie

, South Africa

Michael Houlie turned a ton of heads last year at the Youth Olympic Games. His unabashed front-half speed on the 100 breaststroke is something that few elite internationals (Adam Peaty comes to mind) have the turnover to put in. Houlie moved to the US and started at the University of Tennessee (Molly Hannis, PJ Stevens) in the spring semester. After just a few short months with his new team, his NCAA Championship results didn’t quite match the hype – he was 23rd in the 100 breaststroke and skipped his other individual, the 200 breaststroke. But, that wasn’t really a fair data point – we don’t know how good he is in short course, and it was such a short turnaround after arrival, all while adapting to college and a new country. This week, Houlie is the top seed in the 50 and the 12th seed in the 100. He’s the youngest #1 seed in the meet on the men’s side.

Extract taken from:https://swimswam.com/top-10-male-swimmers-to-watch-at-the-2019-world-university-games/

Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

Extract from:https://www.imdb.com/list/ls056848274/

@moonlightstar64​; @northernbluetongue​; @wargraymon0709​; @winter-gardenflower​; @bee-wrecker​; @starsshineandgivehope​; @goggles-mcgee​; @vivilakitty​

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Do all younger Democrats have an Uncle Joe that they hate or something? Because there’s a good chance that Democrats under the age of 45 will prove crucial in preventing former Vice President Joe Biden from winning — or even getting close to winning — the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Younger Democrats, particularly younger white Democrats, are emphatically rejecting his candidacy. That cohort is a big reason why Biden has struggled in the first three states and fallen from front-runner status.

In fact, age might be the most important fault line in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Of course, Biden’s weakness among younger Democrats is in part the result of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s strength with that group. But Sanders’s appeal doesn’t totally explain Biden’s struggles. In Iowa, for example, Biden received just 4 percent of the under-45 vote, according to entrance polls. That trailed Sanders (41 percent), but it also lagged behind former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (21 percent), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (16 percent) and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang (10 percent). Biden also finished in the single digits among voters under 45 — and behind Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren — in New Hampshire and Nevada. A recent poll of Democrats in California, a Super Tuesday state, found Biden at 9 percent among voters under 45. He’s not faring better in other Super Tuesday states, as recent polls have him at 4 percent in Colorado, 11 percent in Texas and 11 percent in Virginia with this group.

Biden has a real problem with young voters

Candidate vote shares from entrance polls in Iowa and Nevada and from exit polls in New Hampshire, by age

Voters under 45 Over 45 Iowa N.H. Nev. Iowa n.h. Nev. Biden 4% 5% 8% 25% 10% 23% Buttigieg 21 22 13 24 25 16 Klobuchar 5 8 4 19 27 13 Sanders 41 42 56 8 18 21 Warren 16 10 13 17 9 13

Sample size was 1,636 in Iowa, 2,774 in Nevada and 2,932 in New Hampshire

Source: Edison Research

If you start breaking down that under-45 group, there is some variation in how well Biden does, but not a ton. His numbers are especially bad among the youngest cohort of voters, 17 or 18- to 29-year-olds,1 but he generally does only slightly better in the 30-to-44 bracket. And we don’t have a lot of data breaking down the views of voters under 45 by race, but national polling and a recent survey in South Carolina suggests Biden is at least in double digits among black Democrats under 45. So the results in Iowa and New Hampshire and in other surveys make me think that Biden is particularly weak with younger white Democrats.

Not surprisingly, Biden’s weakness among these voters has a huge effect on his overall viability. In the first three states, exit and entrance polls suggest between one-third and 45 percent of Democratic primary voters were under 45. In other words, this is a big group.

And it’s not like this weakness for the Biden campaign came out of nowhere. HuffPost did an extensive story on Biden’s struggles with young voters in December. At the time it was written, though, the primaries had not actually started, so Biden’s lack of appeal among younger voters was just theoretical. And back then, it looked as if Biden and Sanders’s support simply mirrored one another: Sanders seemed as weak with older voters as Biden was with younger ones. But so far in the actual voting, these problems have not been equivalent: Biden beat Sanders by 2 percentage points among voters over 45 in Nevada, according to entrance polls, while Sanders beat Biden by 48 points among voters under 45.

The natural question is … why? Why is Biden struggling so much to win the support of younger people — not only trailing Sanders, but Buttigieg and Warren too? Here are the four most obvious explanations:

1. Younger Democrats are more liberal and anti-institutional

In some ways, 2020 is just a repeat of 2016: The party establishment and older Democrats embraced more center-left figures — Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Michael Bloomberg, Buttigieg and Biden in 2020 — while younger voters got behind the more liberal Sanders. Clinton lost to Sanders among younger voters by around 50 points in New Hampshire in 2016 — an even larger margin than Biden’s deficit this year.

Indeed, the Democratic Party appears to be in the midst of a generational fight that started in 2016 and is continuing now. For example, the left-leaning but gray-haired commentators on MSNBC have been deeply frustrated by the rise of Sanders. Conversely, it’s hard to find much Biden support on Twitter, which tends to be used by younger people and more liberal Democrats. Buttigieg and Warren, while not as liberal or as anti-establishment as Sanders, are also to the left of Biden, which in part explains why the ex-vice president isn’t the clear second-favorite of younger Democrats either.

The big difference between 2016 and 2020 is that Clinton was dominant among voters over 45 in many states, so she could overcome being the establishment candidate who young people weren’t excited about. In contrast, Biden has not consolidated that older bloc.

2. The electability argument doesn’t land

Polling suggests that the majority of Democrats this year are prioritizing a candidate who can defeat President Trump (a mantel Biden has claimed) over a candidate who they agree with on major issues. But that varies by age — older Democrats are more likely to say they prioritize “electability,” while those under 45 are much more split on this question.

This data may be a bit circular — perhaps the younger voters who support Warren or Sanders tell pollsters that they don’t prioritize electability because that is not a big part of either senator’s message, and maybe older people who are inclined to support Biden and Buttigieg point to electability because it’s been core to both candidates’ messages. But I think it’s also possible that many voters who are more liberal and interested in seeing systemic change genuinely don’t find Biden’s electability message that compelling. In this sense, I wonder if Biden’s struggles with young voters were almost inevitable — presenting himself as the party’s best hope for the general election may have required Biden to keep the Democrats’ younger, more liberal cohort somewhat unsatisfied during the primary.

3. Biden isn’t wooing younger voters well

In 2019, the former vice president and his team seemed to deeply internalize the conventional wisdom among many establishment and center-left figures: that “Twitter is not real life” and that Democrats should not be too “woke.” Biden has seemed very frustrated at times with young liberal activists who have confronted him at rallies and argued that he was too conservative on some issues. He was fairly dismissive of criticisms of his handling of the Clarence Thomas hearings and his touching of women in ways that some of them considered inappropriate. He suggested the views of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t represent those of many other Democrats. His campaign aides downplayed the power of “Pod Save America” and did little to court the “black left.”

This all looked fairly savvy (or at least somewhat harmless) … until voting started. And you wonder now whether the Biden campaign could have at least competed for young voters by taking a different approach.

4. Younger Democrats don’t want to repeat the Obama presidency

This overlaps a bit with No. 1, but it’s worth mentioning because carrying on Barack Obama’s legacy has been such a central part of Biden’s message. (The former president is immensely popular among Democrats.) But a HuffPost/YouGov survey conducted in April 2019 found that 42 percent of Democrats ages 18-29 want the next Democratic nominee to be more liberal than Obama, while only about a quarter of Democrats 30 and over had that view. So Biden’s strategy of positioning himself as Obama’s heir, while probably not costing him voters, may not help him court younger Democrats.

It’s still possible that Biden wins the nomination without carrying young Democrats. If older voters really mobilize behind him, he could defeat Sanders the way Clinton did in 2016. Perhaps more voters, old and young, will come to the vice president as the field narrows.

But it’s hard to see Biden securing the nomination without improving his appeal among voters under 45. If I were Biden, I might lean into strategies to excite younger people. At this point, I think it’s unlikely that younger elected officials in the Democratic Party are going to endorse Biden in meaningful numbers. But there’s nothing stopping Biden from effectively endorsing them. He could, for example, strongly imply that he would tap Stacey Abrams for vice president if he wins the nomination. (At 46, Abrams is not that young herself, but her campaign events during the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race were, I noticed throughout the course of my reporting, often packed with young Democrats.) Or perhaps Biden could shift his message a bit.

[jackoshadows]

There was a recent discussion on another forum about the most disappointing media in the last decade and naturally Game of Thrones won the poll beating even the recent Star wars trilogy by a large percentage. Someone linked to a Rotten Tomatoes review of the final season and it struck me how much the show veered from the books in terms of it’s underlying themes and stories – not really surprising considering D&D felt that ‘themes were for 8 grade school reports’.

But the thing that stood out for me, was how much so many folks saw GOT as some kind of feminist work about women rising to the top in a man’s world. 

On Rotten Tomatoes, pretty much most of the reviews are similar to this:

Critics Consensus: Game of Thrones' final season shortchanges the women of Westeros, sacrificing satisfying character arcs for spectacular set-pieces in its mad dash to the finish line.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/game-of-thrones

After season 6, we get these interviews:

After several seasons of troubling character starts and vocal backlash after season 5, the women of Westeros are now “running the show.”

“In the beginning it starts off with something of a stereotypical view of women, ss the wives, the girlfriends the ones that are always under other people’s control,” Sophie Turner explained to Variety. “And as the show moves forward you see these women rising to power and the evolution is phenomenal.”

Where did the change stem from, the fans. “We heard what audiences want, and what they want are more female characters,” Gwendoline Christie said. “And they want more complex, female characters.” 

https://variety.com/video/game-of-thrones-the-women-of-westeros/

Now it’s their turn: On HBO’s Game of Thrones, the show’s powerful female characters are about to take center stage more than ever before.

The ascension of Thrones’ female characters isn’t a new strategy. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, working from the narrative template established by author George R.R. Martin, introduced Westeros five years ago as a male-dominated world ruled by figures like Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) and Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance). One by one, these strong and commanding men have suffered tragic turns of fate that have cleared the way for a fleet of heroines who have learned new strategies to survive and conquer in a brutal world.

https://ew.com/article/2016/03/24/game-thrones-ew-cover/

With covers like this:

How many of these women ended up winning at the end?

Did people really think that an old white dude writing a fantasy story in the nineties was writing about female empowerment in the medieval ages? Really?

GRRM’s books did have complex female characters - Catelyn Stark comes to mind. But the last thing he was doing was writing about how the women of Westeros were going to win in the end using their wily ways. Characters like Cat and Cersei have to navigate their world having less power than their husbands and sons. Arya has to go around in disguise as a boy, Sansa has to endure abuse and stay silent to survive.

At the end of the day, GRRM was writing about female characters in a man’s world and as such they were limited in what they could do. Quite a few times, they are the characters pulling the strings behind the men (Lady Olenna), but there are rare open displays of their power - because they only get that through the men.

The audience complaining about all the rape and violence on the show? The books are much worse in terms of what happens to female characters. What was done to Jeyne Poole in the books is far, far worse than what was done to Sansa. Jeyne suffered a torturous existence - getting send to LF’s brothel and then to Ramsay because she is unimportant in the grand scheme of things  while Sansa escaped that fate because she was a noble woman belonging to a great house.

GRRM’s romances? We get Dany wanting to die after being repeatedly raped by Khal Drogo and then she falls in love with him. We have 27 year old Sandor Clegane in love with 11-12 year old Sansa as GRRM writes his beauty and the beast romance and Brienne falling for a guy who mocks her appearance and verbally abuses her. Even Jon/Ygritte has consent issues because 19 year old Ygritte coerces 15 year old Jon into sleeping with her by threatening to out him to Mance as still being a brother of the NW watch. GRRM’s romances all belong to the ‘forced seduction’ trope commonly seen in the bodice rippers of the eighties and early nineties.

In GRRM’s world if Sansa snarked at Littlefinger about ‘seizing the last word’ she would be lying dead in a ditch somewhere, Cersei would be dead/deposed if she blew up a sept full of people and Arya would not just magically recover after getting stabbed 10 times and then go take out the entire house Frey. 

And that’s why the show became more and more nonsensical over the seasons as D&D threw out GRRM’s world building and rule book and characters could do whatever they wanted with no consequences.

In the books the only female character who has real, hard power is Daenerys Targaryen. And that’s because she has what are the equivalent of nukes. Dany did get a semblance of power before her dragons grew - but she got that by charming Drogo, convincing him to invade Westeros for her and slowly and surely grabbing power away from her brother. When she stopped the rape of the  Lhazareen women, she was only able to do that because she was the Khaleesi - Drogo’s wife.

This changes when she hatches the eggs and her dragons grow - what happens in Astapor is a game changer with a new power in town. That’s why the moment was celebrated and enjoyed by book fans. This shit?

This is what actual power looks like in the books.

Dany is pretty much the only female character who can actively effect change and fight for the throne like the other male contenders because she has the weapons to do so. That’s why she’s unique in the books.

And that’s why the show ending was so disappointing to many fans. Because the men ended up back in charge (other than the nonsensical part where Sansa alone is able to randomly remove the North from the 7K by way of shit writing) despite all these proclamations from the showrunners/cast/HBO about how the women were now running things. Because, ultimately, GRRM was not writing about female empowerment or defeating the patriarchy or about women getting to the top in a man’s world.  He was writing a coming of age story for his main characters that included 3 men:

Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process. In a sense, my trilogy is almost a generational saga, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women. The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow. All of them are introduced at some length in the chapters you have to hand.

If D&D and HBO wanted female characters at the top in the end, they could have just written their own ending incorporating these ideas.  The disconnect happened because of their ‘The women are winning!’ writing and then ending up with GRRM’s ending.

Write a ‘feminist’ adaptation of the books. Kill off Jon Snow in the battle against the AOTD - it’s not like he had any story that was about him for the last 3 seasons. Have Dany kick out Tyrion for his bad ideas and defeat Cersei. Let her reward Arya with Storm’s Landing for killing the Night King. Let Brienne dump Jaime after realizing he’s a waste of space.  We would have Dany on the Iron Throne, Arya in the Stormlands, Sansa up North and Brienne setting off to start a school for young girls like Gwendoline Christie wanted. All of this makes more sense than the farcical King Bran/queen Sansa ending we got, so they could have done this.

It is disappointing as a book reader to know that the ending involves GRRM disposing of the only female character who actually has real power in the world of the books, and that of the main 5, she is the only one who ends up dying.  But maybe that’s why she ends up dying  - because Dany is an anomaly in GRRM’s fictional world and with her death Planetos reverts back to the usual patriarchal structures with the men in charge of everything. That’s a depressing thought. I can only hope that book Arya at least ends up with more power to effect change rather than getting shuffled off in a boat to some ‘west of westeros’.

[shachaai]

[Fic] A River to Cross and No Boat to Get Me There

Pairings/Characters: America /& f!England Rating: Teen Summary: Brussels, Belgium, July 2018. Over drinks, England and America (do not) talk politics. Really.

Notes: Written for @aph-fanficchallenges’ Shipping & Platonic Week 2019, Day 1: Old-Fashioned. It’s late. orz The way I write these two always feels like it straddles a line somewhere between platonic and strangely romantic/sexual, and I think you can choose to read this as either shippy or not - either way, there’s a kind of (resigned, exasperated) love there. Also on AO3.

   July, 2018 A bar in Haren, City of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium

  The bar is all suits and badges, but, as long as a guy knows what he’s looking for, the woman sitting nursing her drink at the bar - smart, dark grey skirt suit, name and face on her badge hidden by being tucked away behind the lapel of her blazer - stands out from the other people in the room.

She’s the only Nation in the room.

Well, she’s the only Nation in the room until America sidles in, quite proud of himself for his tracking abilities in an urban landscape without the use of spy satellites. He takes himself to the bar beside his quarry and leans over its polished top to nab the bartender’s attention, body angled towards his colleague.

“An Old-Fashioned for me, sir, and -” he begins, and eyes up the drink in front of his companion: a tumbler about a third full of booze and ice, deep brown with shimmering tones of gold - someone is hitting the spirits early (earlier than him) -, “another one for the lady too, I think?”

The bartender gives him a look and America is just about to repeat his order, a bit more clearly this time, when England sighs beside him, looking up from her one-woman stare-off with her drink and repeats his request for him. In French. (America assumes it’s French. There’s a L’Old-Fashioned in there anyway, rolling off England’s tongue in the way it never does in front of France, and a rather pointed s'il vous plaît.)

The bartender nods and gets to it, leaving England to give America her trademarked suspicious look. She’s foregone pretty hairclips today so has to sweep back some of the side-fall of her sharp bob to glower at him effectively, and that sort of effort usually means business.

“This place isn’t your usual. Why are you following me?”

Blunt.

“Everyone else was busy,” says America, and tries a charming smile that hopes England won’t point out how unlikely it is that all of the Nations involved in NATO apart from England and America have found something else to do with their lunchtimes. There’s always at least one Nation at loose ends for another to pounce upon.

England’s frown deepens and her eyebrows arch for the sky, so America lets his smile drop. There’s no real point lying, though the waste of his acting talents does make him pout. (In another life, Hollywood would be just eating this up. Begging for his time.)

“Alright , I came seeking refuge in audacity?”

“I’m audacity?” England asks, sounding undecided on whether she should be offended by that or not, only to swing her legs round hastily when America goes to pull out the barstool beside her and stomp down an unladylike heel on the foot rest, preventing its movement. “Oh - no, no, no, no, no, Jones. I think you’re a blithering idiot at the moment as well.”

“Oh, come on. ” America protests, and gives the barstool another halfhearted yank. (Not a serious yank, because if he did that he might break England’s ankle, and England and the British and Washington all of the rest of NATO would eviscerate him about him with their tongues and Russia would be a smug asshole about it again, and God, England would never let him forget it if he broke her leg. Ever. ) “I’m buying you a drink!”

“Caveat emptor,” says England snippily, and doesn’t let up on the barstool. Whoever said the English were civil, gracious and polite? “I came here for some peace and quiet, for a change.”

“Yeah, well, I came to join the club.”

America had figured England had someplace to go when she’d pretended she’d not noticed the way France was deliberately ignoring her and swanned out of the NATO headquarters like she had better things to do. Without talking to any of her own people either. It usually meant England was taking herself directly to the nearest source of both dimness and decent alcohol so she could bitch-text whoever wasn’t at the latest conference with her about how much she hated everything.

A drink and getting away from everyone glaring daggers into his back or offering gentle ‘suggestions’ about his boss had sounded pretty great to America, so he’d followed her. There isn’t enough time allotted for lunch for England to get totally wasted (something the world and certainly America must be very grateful for), but some mild inebriation for the both of them would probably make the afternoon’s meetings a lot easier to get through.

America toes one of the barstool’s feet, letting the dull thud shake up through England’s heel. “We can’t be social pariahs together?”

England still looks suspicious. “Alone, together?”

“With alcohol,” says America, right as the bartender slides their drinks over to them. The guy might hate English, but he has pretty good timing, so America digs out one of what he thinks is one of the more high-value pieces of rainbow paper most of Europe calls money out of his wallet and tells him to keep the change.

England huffs at him, but she withdraws her heel so America can finally pull the barstool out to sit, distracting herself by fishing the maraschino cherry out of her Old-Fashioned to pop it between her lips. “I swear: if you try to talk shop with me right now, I’ll stab you somewhere unpleasant.”

“Didn’t know there was somewhere pleasant to stab a guy,” America comments as he finally takes a seat, holding up both hands in the universal gesture for whoa there when England grins a grin that looks entirely too mean for an elaboration to be anything America wants to hear about in public. “I’ll take your word for it; I don’t wanna know!”

“Where did your spirit of adventure disappear to?” England teases him, and finishes her first drink in one long swallow before reaching out to her new cocktail.

America picks up his own, gesturing in the vague but not explicit of England beside him as his fingers slide in the condensation on the glass, “There’s adventure, and there’s…”

“Where angels fear to tread?” America takes a swallow of his Old-Fashioned so he doesn’t have to answer, the bitters heavy on his tongue under the whiskey burn, and England snorts at him. Flicks back her hair again, but thankfully doesn’t reach out to pat his cheek. “It’s been a long time since you were a cherub, darling.”

America squints at her, because he might have to recalculate just how quickly England can get herself shitfaced when the mood strikes. (He really needs to clean his glasses.) “How many drinks have you had? ”

“Not enough,” sighs England, which is a feeling America can definitely empathise with. At least as long as England isn’t sliding sideways off her barstool. “I keep hoping the alcohol will drown out all their squabbling.”

“S’it working?”

“Like fuck is it.” England toasts him idly, takes a sip of her drink, and then grumbles, “And you don’t help.”

“Thanks,” says America with the same amount of cheer. Maybe he can drown himself in whiskey.

“I’ve my own shit to deal with without my people harping on about your shit,” England continues unnecessarily, because America, of course, could not have possibly heard any of this same spiel from any of the other Nations or their people gathered in Brussels that day already. “If your tit of a boss could just not do what he did in Canada and leave one thing unfucked for the rest of us, that’d be smashing.”

“That’s the plan,” America sighs - and then hurries on before England can harangue him further, “but what’s your strategy?”

The element of surprise works - for once - in his favour, and England is distracted. “Hm?”

“For winning over Europe,” America clarifies - and then pauses with his glass against his mouth, sweet cherry bobbing against his lower lip, realising something. “Is that why you’re wearing a new suit?”

He’d thought England’s skirt suit had been smart: it’s all crisp lines with a nipped waist, dark grey herringbone blazer against the stiff white collar of her blouse, but the straight skirt is definitely showing off a lot of her legs.

America has heard far too many people compliment England’s legs in front of him over the years, and he groans at the mental images. “It is, ain’t it?”

England has the decency to blush - or at least allow all the booze she’s imbibed so far to do it on her behalf. The colour bleeds down her throat, and America groans again into his Old-Fashioned, taking a large swig from his tumbler and tucking the cherry into his cheek. “I -”

“I don’t wanna know,” America gripes, and hopes the whiskey will burn his revelation out of his head. Europe.

Still pink, England coughs, and takes another sip from her own cocktail. For a few moments, they have quiet.

“...Probably for the best,” England admits quietly, eventually, and then shifts enough over on her stool so she can nudge her knee up against America’s. “Thanks for the drink.”

     The 2018 NATO summit was held in Brussels, Belgium, July 11-12. It took place in the (new) NATO headquarters found there, in a complex in Haren (part of the City of Brussels municipality). I don’t know if there are any good bars nearby the complex, but you’d think there would be with all the demand there must be.

The 44th G7 summit was held in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, in June 2018 - obviously, before the NATO summit. It received a lot of attention internationally because of (as others have more tactfully put it) ‘a significant decline of relations of members with the United States’, and was dubbed G6+1 by France and parts of the media as a result. The US withdrew in what seemed like a huff from several important international agreements, and was widely condemned by international politicians, climate change scientists, trade policy experts, foreign policy experts… etc. The US President left the summit early in order to travel to Singapore for the USA’s first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and was dubbed ‘the democratic world’s worst nightmare’ - all of which, of course, led to a rather fraught political atmosphere for all nations going to the NATO summit the following month.

...Do I really need to make a note about Brexit?

All the titles for this ‘verse come from poetry/literature created around the time the fic is set. This one is taken from a few lines from the poem Running, by Joy Harjo, which was published in July 2018 in The New Yorker: Now I have to find my way, when there’s a river to cross and no Boat to get me there, when there appears to be no home at all.

[tetrakys]

Trois Allumettes - Chapter 11

It had been a few days since classes had started and I wasn’t ‘single’ anymore. And, strangely enough, nothing had changed. I still hadn’t had time to see my ‘boyfriend’ since we made things official between us. That word still seemed unreal when I thought about it.

I’d just left my room when I run into Alexy, jumping excitedly around the hallway announcing the network was back on. It was great news, I had basically stopped checking my phone at this point and I was worried about my parents. After exchanging a few texts with Chani, and a quick reassuring call with my mother, another message came through… it was Lysander!

“Good morning Candy, hope you have been well these past few days. I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to see each other, I miss you terribly and my thoughts are always with you. At least now we will be able to write to each other, but I wish I could see you soon, I long to feel you in my arms again…”

I felt a warmth in my chest, I almost couldn’t believe that the most reserved and silent guy I knew was sending me this kind of messages. However, it was true that the written word was how he truly expressed himself. I replied immediately:

“I’ve been thinking about you too, I wish we had at least another class together. I hope we could meet during the weekend…”

Well now, that was all I needed to get my day started the best way possible. I headed to class with a smile on my lips.

—————————————————————————————————-

A couple of days went by, it was quite late and I was getting back to the dorms after spending the evening with Nathaniel. He had finally opened up and his story was crazy, nothing I could have ever imagined on my own. I was surprised, a little disappointed but, most of all, scared for him. I wanted to help him but had no idea what to do. My head was so wrapped up in these thoughts that I jumped when I heard a spooky sound I hadn’t heard in months.

A rusty, screechy, loud sound coming from the small door at the back of the art building.

The first time I’d heard that noise I had been scared out of my mind. This time, I felt my heart skip a beat, and I run immediately towards the building. When the familiar figure I so longed to see showed on the doorstep, I threw myself into his arms without a second thought.

At first I felt him stiffen, but the moment he recognised me he hugged me closer to his chest.

A few seconds went by where we just stayed there, enjoying the quiet of the empty quad at night and each other’s presence. His familiar scent and his arms around me where the best feeling in the world.

“I missed you so much,” I said hiding my face in his chest. “It’s been just a few days, but it felt like an eternity since I last saw you.”

He hugged me even closer, then said with his deep voice, “No minute has gone by that I haven’t thought about you. You’re constantly on my mind Candy…” his tone was shaky when he added, “I have no idea what I’m going to do when…”

He stopped himself, but I knew exactly what he meant. If we missed each other that much just because we hadn’t met for a few days, what was going to happen when we said goodbye at the end of the year? I didn’t want to think about it. Not now. I took a step back and, looking at his beautiful face, I changed topic.

“Are you still helping out the music department?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “I’m collaborating with several bands and solo artists studying at Anteros.”

“You don’t work just with Castiel, then?” I asked curious.

“No, since the beginning of the school year I have actually started several collaborations with many artists. That’s why I am so busy these days, between this and classes… I’m afraid I put too much on my plate.” He looked tired, but he had a glint in his eyes, I could tell he was also happy, doing something he loved. “I’m actually right in the middle of a writing session with one artist at the moment, I just came out to get some air.” He took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers. “A little voice in my head really wanted me to get out of that stuffy room this very moment, and look who fell into my arms,” he added with a smile.

“Yes… sorry about that.” I replied a little sheepishly.

“Don’t be, it was the best surprise I could hope for. Come, let me walk you back to the dorms. That’s where you were going I suppose?”

I nodded and we walked silently the few meters that separated the two buildings. I was enjoying his calming presence and the feeling of my hand in his.

“I wish you could come upstairs with me,” I said timidly, when we got to the dorms.

He took a lock of my hair between his fingers, his eyes were warm when he replied, “You have no idea how much I wish I could.” After a small pause he added, “Are you free this weekend? I don’t have any work on Sunday night so I was hoping…”

“Yes!” I interrupted him, “yes, I am free, whatever you want to do.”

I only barely registered that my words could sound extremely bold, but he simply smiled and said, “What about a movie?”

We agreed to meet at 10pm at the new movie theatre in town and he went back to his rehearsal, not before having left a small tender kiss on my lips.

—————————————————————————————————

I had just stepped into the hall of the cinema when I spotted him immediately. There weren’t many people, the Sunday night slot wasn’t usually one of the most popular, but I would have recognised him in a crowd of people with no difficulty. His high, his sophisticated style, and his striking presence were enough to capture anyone’s attention.

He was waiting for me with two tickets in his hand. With an apologetic look he told me that the only movie showing at that hour was the original IT. I wasn’t a big fun of horror movies in general, but this one in particular I had seen once as a child and had scarred me for life. I swallowed my anxiety and followed him into the theatre.

“You are very beautiful tonight, Candy” said Lysander looking at me appreciatively, after we had taken our seats far enough from the few other people in the room.

I was wearing one of my favourite and sort of doll-like outfits, with a close-fitting top and puffy knee-length skirt.

“Thank you, sometimes I worry my stile may look a little childish.”

“You are beautiful whatever you wear. But believe me,” he said, his eyes running along my figure, briefly pausing on my legs, “there is nothing childish about you.” The movie had just started when, leaning towards me, he whispered in my ear, “you are the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.”

I felt myself blush uncontrollably. His words were both sweet and slightly bolder than usual… I wanted to jump on and literally have my way with him. He had always had this effect on me, since the first moment we had met I had felt incredibly attracted to him. I had been with other guys in the past, but for no one I had felt even a fraction of the desire I felt for him.

When he put his arm around me and I rested my head against his shoulder, I had to remind myself we were in a public place, and decided to focus solely on the movie. It wasn’t the best strategy because now I was both aroused by the feeling of his body tightly pressed to my side, and scared by the angst of the movie.

Lys must have noticed I was a little on edge, because he tightened his hold on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry about the movie, maybe we should have gone somewhere else.”

I shook my head, I didn’t want him to think of me as a scaredy cat, “It’s just that I had a bad experience with this movie when I was a child. I must have been six or seven years old, my father was watching it in the living room and I just went and sat there with him. It scarred me for life, completely conditioning the way I’ve seen clowns ever since.”

I heard him chuckle lightly and I turned my head to give him a disapproving look. “I’m sorry,” he said apologetically, “I can see how it must have been traumatic for a child. We can leave if you want, but I think this is a good chance to overcome your fears as an adult.” I thought about it, then he added, “let me help you distract a bit.”

His arm was still around me, and I felt his hand moving lightly on my shoulder, drawing soft circular shapes with his fingertips. His other hand came to rest on my knee, and I felt all my attention shift completely on it and its caresses. If his intent was to distract me just a bit he was definitely failing, the movie was totally forgotten.

He gently grabbed my leg, the one farthest from him, and pulled it on his lap, so that now I was partially turned toward him. My skirt had risen to my mid-thigh, and he was taking advantaged of the newly exposed skin by caressing my outer leg with sensual movements that were giving me goosebumps.

I raised my eyes to meet his, and despite the darkness of the room I could see that he was looking at me with heat, completely bewitched. His hand kept moving higher and higher, almost reaching the curve of my hip. When, with the corner of my eye, I noticed they were showing the scene of the movie I hated the most, the one with the head in the fridge, he took my lips with his, effectively blocking my vision to anything that wasn’t him.

His lips were soft and demanding, he had never kissed me like that before. The combination of his caresses and his kisses was making me feel hot and completely excited. My hand came to his hair, fingers entwining with his locks, pushing him even closer, responding to the kiss with the same heat. Our tongues were caressing each other with hungry sensual movements that seemed to demand for more.

I wasn’t sure for how long this went on. Every time we came up for air we felt like we couldn’t stay away for even a moment, and started kissing again and again. At some point we heard an insistent coughing noise. Who knows for how long it had been going on, we were completely lost in each other.

We stopped the kiss and raised our heads to see a cinema usher looking at us embarrassed.

“I’m sorry but you have to stop, otherwise I have to ask you to leave.”

Oh my God… I looked around and saw that the people sitting closer to us were all staring and sniggering. No way we were staying there a minute longer. Lysander got up and, taking me by the hand, lead me out of the room, while I inconspicuously tried to fix my skirt.

Once we were out of the theatre we looked at each other and… burst out laughing.

“Oh my God” I said, “I’ve never felt so mortified in my life. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

“Are you kidding?” he replied, tears in his eyes, “if Leigh knew I have been kicked out of a movie theatre for something like this he would be shocked… Rosa too, but she would also cheer.”

“Oh totally!” I replied grabbing my belly.

We headed back to campus, laughing and chatting. Our night had been cut short and we were both heading back to our rooms, occupied by our roommates, and we had to say goodnight soon. But I had never felt this good in a long time. I had never felt anything like this for anyone before. Maybe it was…

I wasn’t going to think about it. I had no idea what the future had in store for us, but in that moment, walking at night, hand in hand with the man I adored, I was simply completely happy.

——————————–

Back to Chapter 10

Go to Chapter 12

I usually really can’t stand fluff, but I feel like we deserved a cute lighthearted chapter, and I also managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of smut (our boy is sweet but also hoooot). Who knows what tragedy is going to happen in the next since we are in the middle of Nath’s drug cartel arc… ugh!

[espeneldritch]

2. This is the post with abuse mentions I was talking about please stay safe

Alright so first off so nobody gets confused: yes. I'm ftm. I don't list that on my bio because I just want to be male you know? Being trans isn't as big to my identity as being bisexual and it's not like I would probably date anyone off Tumblr anyways so it's really none of anyone's business unless it comes to stories like this, in which, you need that context.

If you don't know what that means, it means I'm trans and yeah I still go by he/him. I'm male.

Anyways here's the story

I have waited a little over 2 years to be seen by my local gender specialist. This is not optional in Canada no matter your money, and he was booked up that far because the old one retired and I live in a fairly densely populated area. I was very excited when I received the phone call and was solely focused on the gender aspect of my mental health because I've been living as male since 17 and not being on T while seeing trans peers in other areas get to medically transition faster felt like torture. I had completely forgotten that these gender specialists are trained psychiatrists prepared especially for the issues we can face.

I came in, gave him my med list, told him about my transition, he agreed on my disagnosis of gender dysphoria and referred me to an endocrinologist within the first five minutes. He even apologized for the wait and said he would refer me for top surgery, but he needed to wait for fat redistribution on T.

Here is where things got interesting. He had us booked for a full hour like a therapy session. It really caught me off guard how he started going through questions off the beaten path for therapists.

He asked me about previous disagnosis and we went into detail about how they interacted with my dysphoria and suddenly something old came out of his files. My letter from my childhood doctor for concerta. He asked about how my ADHD was off medication. Nobody I'd seen since I was 6 had asked about my ADHD, and there was a good reason for that.

I was absolutely shocked. It all came flooding back. No, my mom had taken me out of the doctor's because she said it changed my attitude too much and she wanted me back. I was bilingual, mandrin immersion when I was little. On the meds, I was finally catching up with my tutors a year in but my mom took me off them and my attention crashed so hard that I had to be removed from my multilingual program and put into special Ed to recover the damage done. I had to switch schools, she didn't try different meds she just took me off them. I figured out how to make my understimulated brain work with special Ed and was thrown back into regular schooling by grade four. Chances of learning any other languages pretty much completely ruined even with learning strategies.

But it didn't stop there. I was ill allot as a kid and my Mom wasn't experienced enough to handle it. I don't think it was malicious, she's just always been my only parent and... not really ready for a kid. I was severely iron deficient throughout my childhood which may or may not have been her fault but between the both of us being victims of actual abuse and living in shelters for a few years I'm not willing to call the trauma she put me through abuse.

Yet, when I developed chronic migraines in Jr high (a risk factor for migraines is chronic iron deficiency) she refused to treat me after one bad medication interaction along with refusing recommend MRIs due to budding working symptoms. She stopped taking me to doctors, I lost contact with my neurologist. As always she had that same inexperienced fear of repetition instead of a willingness to be on my side to help me. As a result of that my migraines were out of control up into highschool. I was missing weeks of school a month because I couldn't talk without slurring and they would stack up and trigger each other.

Mysteriously, they stopped in grade 11-12. But they came back when I was 18 (I graduated at 17 and was working for half a year at this point) but this time with hemipeligic symptoms. But, because of my neglect growing up, I had no idea that a) people didn't just deal with half their body getting paralyzed or b) what to do about it as an adult who has never been taught how to take care of my mental or physical illnesses. I refused to tell my coworkers what was wrong. I valued my privacy, and if I had had the supports behind me, this would have been fine. But I didn't. I had love behind me, but no supports.

I suppose what this is. I see everyone bonding over abuse, including me. I've talked about my abuse tons of times and that's not for the public eyes but I want to know if you all can relate to having so much love behind you from so many different people. So many people from different places that you have healthy relationships from, but you know, none of them behind you are resilient. It hurts you, but it's not their fault. My mom is so important to me. She's a good person, a strong person. We get along as adults. But our roles feel kind of flipped and it's not abuse but it's not healthy either. I don't know how much people really talk about that kind of dirty laundry, but there's a certain kind of burden that comes with this structure. I'm the eldest son. I live in and pay her rent even though I want to move out because she wants to keep the house and I want to make sure my little brother is never alone like me. She's always crying on me. She brings home her boyfriends to me, asks for advice. I break up arguments between her and her long time boyfriend all the time. From before I was in school I was helping at her work and I continue today, despite that being one of the places I was abused.

She never seemed abusive to me because she's always seemed naïve. She just didn't know better. Yet, there's research coming out that they're finding white matter scarring on MRIs of people with hemipeligic migraines. I can't blame her, but her mistakes might have left physical scars on me.

I could have brain damage because she was scared of me getting locked in with a migraine medication again. I was afraid too, but I was a child, I needed her to be strong more than I needed to be strong. I needed her to continue looking for treatment, but she didn't, because she had love for me. She was just there for me, but not to fight for me when I was sick and too young to understand. She was just an inexperienced mother who saw her kid suffering and wanted to hide because of it. Unfortunately I just happened to hurt so much more because of it and I didn't even want to think about all that before my gender therapist asked.

Today, I am 4 months HM free on preventative medication despite bad side effects and ages of dosage adjustment. It's still not perfect, but compared to what I had, it's incredible. I just tried a different of ADHD medication and even some gaps in my vision I thought were permanently ruined due to my migraines were fixed. I'm going to do some research on this tonight, but I'm overjoyed. My vision problems are nothing glasses could fix, I didn't think my ADHD could effect my vision, but I think it might make sense especially with my migraines at the same time and also depression. But that's another post and just my thoughts as a dumber than average non-neuroscientist

TL;DR

Going in for gender therapy is actually not just gender focused. Sometimes you can be surprised with big honking problems you forgot you had. You'll probably walk out of that room with a referral, just prepare yourself for all the other things you were barring behind your gender. Because, I didn't believe them when they said there's always something; but there's always something. Don't be afraid, just be ready. You might bite off more than you can chew like I did, but take it slow. The prescription for ADHD meds at the gender clinic has probably been both the strangest and the best thing that's ever happened to me.

[carocofiego]

-- Prompt 01: Questionnaire

 (content warning for: ...violence? vampire adjacent material?)

01. Tell us about your character’s name. Was it given to them or chosen? Does it hold any special meaning? If your character has aliases or nicknames, how did they get them and what do they mean?

caroc was given to him by his clan, though he dropped his clan name when he left. sound is really important to the maelibi so it probably means something special but fuck if he ever bothered to find out. 

sometimes if he really needs a surname for something, he’ll steal his partner’s. one of the softest things he ever does. 

02. What is your character’s relationship to their homeworld? Do they hold fond memories of it, or do they hate it? Are they still here, and if not, do they miss it?

he’ll get back there someday babey. no but really, people aside, caroc loved his homeworld-- there’s something special about the relationship between the maelibi and the force surrounding iego, and it tugs at him a little no matter how far he gets away. also like... time is weird in the rest of the galaxy? and people are weirder about being munched on out here. please. he just wants a snack. 

there are experiences out here that he wouldn’t get back home, though, so maybe he isn’t Always thinking wistfully of home. he could be convinced to stay. maybe. 

03. Describe your character’s relationship with those who raised them. Was it positive? Negative? Neutral? What sorts of ideologies were they raised with, and do they still stand by them now?

not..... the greatest. maelibi children are few and far between, given how long-lived they are and how few natural threats they face. when caroc was born, he’d been the first child in.... a long time, and there ended up being pressures that came with that. pressures that he appreciated about as much as his elders appreciated caroc’s interest in exploring the surface. 

after enough arguments he hoofed it north and established his own den, far closer to the surface and the other planetary residents than most of his clan dared to sleep. he didn’t keep contact with any but a couple of them, and doesn’t miss them much now. 

there was a lot of group-based thinking baked into him from the moment he was born that never sat well with him, being primarily inclined towards a solitary life. it’s still all in there, though, urging him to look after those nearby and other pesky shit. 

04. What is your character’s relationship with the Force? Is your character Force-sensitive? Whether or not they are, do they believe in it? Do they lean more towards the dark or the light or are they somewhere in between?

the force is caroc’s whole life. i mean, he wouldn’t have called it that before encountering the sith, but he’s very well familiar with the life song that thrums through the universe, using him as its instrument. it sustains him, he sustains it, the force colors everything about how caroc interacts with the world. they’re inseparable. 

dark and light aren’t really concepts that occurred to him before leaving iego, but there is... something different about the way that the sith wield the force. the jedi techniques sound even more foreign, though, so if caroc was forced to define himself he’d say he was gray. 

05. What three word would you use to describe your character? What three words would your character use to describe themself? What three words would someone close to them use?

me: cranky, slow, curious 

caroc: leave me alone

dhirh, the only person caroc suffers intimacy for, says: a whole meal 

06. Describe your character’s aesthetic. Do they tend towards fashion or function? Do they like to accessorize? How does this extend into their own personal spaces, such as their home or their workspace?

if he could get away with wandering around nude he would. no one’s allowed to touch his bunk cause he’s stolen like ten blankets and has them arranged as the Perfect cozy hole. 

07. What are your character’s vices? Guilty pleasures? Bad habits? Weak spots?

what.... aren’t.... i mean like his whole personality is drive people away before they can hurt you so. i mean i guess at least he doesn’t really do alcohol or anything but that’s only cause it has no effect on him? 

in terms of more concrete bad habits, though, he tries to keep it to himself but he’s a habitual tinkerer/fidgeter. only he’s not really that keen on the putting it back together part. what i’m saying is if you hand him a piece of technology and don’t impress upon him how important it is that it stay together, you will be getting it back as component parts. he and luro went through like three rounds of com sets before this was figured out. and then one more out of spite. 

08. Tell us about your character’s relationship with food. What are their favorites? Do they enjoy cooking? Are they adventurous? Will they eat absolutely anything or are they hard to please?

people..... tastey. or at least, their force essence is. the more force sensitive the meal, the better. caroc doesn’t need to eat all that often-- strangely, even less often since leaving iego, but that’s a mystery for another time-- but when he does, he’s not very picky. whoever happens to be wandering nearby is perfectly fine. or at least it WAS before he had a JOB and RULES. 

now he has to like.... ask permission and shit. unless they’re an enemy. at least he can refrain from killing a friendly snack, though, when enemies are thin on the ground. 

09. How does your character feel about engaging in relationships—romantic and / or sexual—with others? What is their history like? Do they fall in love easily? Are they constantly in and out of relationships?

caroc loves One person, so it has been, so it always will be, unless they break up with him and then he’ll go back to not believing in the concept of love. 

i’ll have to get back to u on the sex question cause idk what the maelibi even get up to 

10. What is your character’s pain tolerance like? Can they hold their own in a fight, despite injury? If someone hurts them with the aim of gaining information, how much can they take before they cave?

pain isn’t a very common experience for caroc. it’s less like he has a high tolerance and more like it’s just.... really difficult to get through his blaster-proof hide. pain is rare enough that he has a Big reaction when it does happen, as can be attested to by a couple of the luro’s coworkers. when you bust through the hide he’s very vulnerable. 

and honestly chances are good that whatever someone would be hurting him to try and learn, he’d just tell them right off the bat. he doesn’t really want to experience much pain again, if he can avoid it, so it’s either he’s not locked up well enough and they’re dead or he capitulates immediately. unless it’s about dhirh and then everything else becomes unimportant and he’ll die first. 

11. What is your character’s weapon of choice? Are they more skilled as a melee fighter or do they have more skill with ranged weapons? What’s their fighting style like? What sort of training do they have behind them?

body...... he doesn’t get ‘weapons’ 

which i suppose you wouldn’t if you had like, talons and the ability to drain someone’s life essence

caroc’s durable enough that his combat strategy is usually just to let the opponent tire itself out and then move in for the kill. he’s generally pretty slow but does have occasional bursts of speed, they wear him out tho so he usually doesn’t bother. 

training..... in the arena of life babey

12. Does your character have any words or catchphrases that they say frequently? Tell us about how they picked them up.

you know that phase it seems like every three year old has where the only thing they can say is ‘why?’ and they say it in response to literally everything? that’s pretty much caroc when he’s forced to interact with someone 

he is genuinely curious but he’s just also invested in annoying the shit out of whoever he’s talking to

i mean even he gets tired of shenanigans like that eventually, but.... he usually has more patience than his opponent does

13. Tell us about a negative experience your character has had with either the Jedi or the Sith, and how this has affected their standing. Whether currently aligned or unaligned with either faction, if forced to choose, how would they side?

caroc doesn’t think he’s met a jedi yet (if he has, he wasn’t paying attention). he doesn’t think much about them other than wondering if they’d taste different than sith and unaligned people do. 

the sith have kidnapped and tortured him and the person he loves most. but one is also promising a reunion, so. the jury is out. 

though he’s technically aligned with the sith at the moment, all things equal and situations resolved, he’d probably align with the jedi just out of spite. not that they would be likely to take him, but, you know. theoreticals. (also he just really wants to know what a jedi would taste like) 

14. How would your character react to seeing a relative or friend on the opposing side of a battle or mission?

unlikely. he’d do his job, though, to the minimum requirement. caroc wouldn’t willingly kill someone he considered a friend, but if they were attacking him specifically he’d be willing to knock some sense into them. more often than not in a battle, though, he’s acting as a shield more than a weapon so it would probably be a moot point. 

unless the friend was dhirh or Maybe one specific other maelibus, in which case he’d likely switch sides immediately. 

this is subject to change as he potentially makes new friends, as unlikely as that seems

15. Describe a memory that your character finds embarrassing.

literally every social interaction 

especially any one where he genuinely doesn’t know what’s happening 

16. What goals does your character hold for themself and what steps have they taken towards achieving them? How far are they willing to go to reach them? What is their be-all and end-all?

find dhirh. no method is off limits. next question. 

after that?? doesn’t exist yet. not worth worrying about, so no concrete plans. only vague ideas. 

17. What is the one thing your character would change about their life if they were given the chance? What other lives could they have lived as a result?

caroc doesn’t think about things like that. things happened. it’s not worth wondering about alternatives. if he’s going to do any dreaming it’s going to be about the future, where things are still mutable. 

18. Living in such a high-conflict time, how does your character feel about doing what they must to survive? Will they hurt or kill others—either directly or indirectly—to protect themself and / or those close to them? If so, do they regret it when all is said and done?

caroc has been killing people since he was a child, it’s second nature. 

only.... something is changing, a little bit. as he gets to know people, for the first time, that he would’ve considered exclusively prey before. he’ll never admit to it, but questions do keep him up at night. who were all those people that he killed? what lives did they lead before he ended them? 

it may not change his behavior, but caroc has a newfound respect for the fact that other people also have lives and loves and that that’s not always something to be taken lightly. 

19. What is the biggest problem your character is currently dealing with?

his whole life. is a problem. at the moment. everything

it’s cool tho he can wait it out

20. Give us 3+ headcanons of any length or subject matter.

1. tinkering: this isn’t something caroc just spontaneously picked up after leaving iego, it’s something that’s been part of him for a long time. at home, his den was littered with machinery and engine parts from dismantled shipwrecks. he’s always been curious, about the surface and the other life on iego especially, and one of his few joys came from reconstructing machinery (all wrong) to make himself small useless machines. not that he’ll share this with anyone new willingly. 

2. Force Flavor(tm): due to his.... appetites, one of caroc’s abilities is a sense for the ways in which the force clings to people, and the different ways it dances around them depending on how they call to it. he characterizes the force, always, as a song, but he can hear an individual’s song well before he takes a bite. it’s become an unexpectedly useful tool in managing social interactions since he left home. 

3. games: caroc loves to play dumb, seriously, it’s one of his favorite things to do. BUT he pays a lot more attention than he pretends to. he’s vastly more comfortable knowing more than people think he does, in all situations, he feels it gives him an advantage and lessens the chances of making a genuine misstep. also because i named this section games: he fuckin loves games, man. card games, numbers games, not so much reaction time based games but you get the picture. he eats that shit up, even if he does everything in his power not to appear to.

bonus. Give us a list of any length telling us why our “fave is problematic.”

1. eats people

done

oh, also, loves to make interacting with him as unpleasant as possible

[lightofsveta]

40  top  rated self improvement podcasts in 2021

Self-improvement podcasts are an efficient and handy method to make positive changes. I have gathered numerous podcasts in this post, focusing on developing oneself and how to view life in a more positive manner. Whenever you need or want to, you may listen to it. There is an infinite quantity of stuff to listen to.

1.The Happiness Lab

The Happiness Lab's host, Dr. Laurie Santos, is a Yale Professor of Psychology. Although many of her episodes are aimed at improving the mental health of college students, her lectures on stress are relevant to anybody involved in the rat race known as society. The tone of the show, which is occasionally evocative of a TED Talk, is akin to that of the much-missed The Cut on Tuesdays. Dr. Santos understands how to deliver an enthralling speech. She offers a full tool kit in a style that will appeal to people who are skeptical of other types of "New Age" thinking, making ideas like meditation accessible to those who need it the most.

2.Life Kit

NPR's Life Kit series is important self-help listening, with a no-frills approach focused only on tried-and-true counsel. The podcast covers a wide range of subjects, from how to talk to kids about our tumultuous news cycle to how to find a mentor or get better sleep. I discovered Life Kit while waiting for the proper opportunity to inform my then-manager that I was leaving my job — and the country — in a couple of weeks. Timing was everything: if I started too soon, I could miss out on valuable training; if I started too late, I wouldn't be able to seamlessly transfer my successor. Procrastination web-surfing led to Life Kit's episode "Want to Quit Your Job? Here's How to Do It Properly" on my radar.

3.The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll's commitment to long-distance running may be reflected in the speed and consistency with which he produces his podcasts, several of which are over two hours long. Roll, a 53-year-old plant-based ultramarathon runner, just hit the 500-episode milestone on his famous podcast. Roll provides a forum for scientists, athletes, and thinking leaders to discuss their perspectives in a conversational environment that strikes a mix between casual and rigorous. Roll is a fantastic interviewer, putting his guests at ease but never being afraid to challenge their opinions.

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4.Under the Skin with Russell Brand

Russell Brand’s development from promiscuous addict to spiritual guru is almost too bizarre to believe. His personal evolution was documented quite publicly, and it is perhaps because of this exposure that thousands have followed him into this new realm of “consciousness.” His experiences inform his discussions on the show, which feel intuitive and provoking in a way that appeals even to those who aren’t a fan of his political ventures. His recent conversation with Brené Brown is one of his best, the flow of their discussion revealing new elements to two personalities we thought we had figured out.

5.H.E.R Space

Hosted by Dr. Dominique Broussard and Terri Lomax, H.E.R Space intends to give women of color a resource to inspire them through conversation. An acronym for Healing, Empowerment, and Resilience, H.E.R addresses universal issues, such as one’s life purpose, through a lens of a particular experience. It’s a valuable and refreshing approach, as these existential topics often aren’t discussed alongside the nuances of gender or race. Broussard, who is a psychologist, and Lomax, who is a motivational speaker, make for an effective hosting duo. Their subjects range from the practical, such as the importance of assertiveness, to the magic of manifesting your dreams and goals. Listening to their weekly episodes feels like having a coffee with two highly successful friends, and I defy you to leave uninspired.

6.How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail explores self-improvement through her interviewees’ worst moments, asking us to find lessons in our challenges. Her attempts to humanize the rich and successful work for the most part, although many of her guests overlook the benefits they’ve received coming from a privileged background. But the show offers an alternative look at career development, with Day’s experience in media giving it substance. Whenever I ask friends to recommend self-help podcasts, How to Fail is invariably mentioned. With an unexpected guest list and an approach that isn’t focused on self-aggrandizement, How to Fail’s success should come as no surprise.

7.Feel Better, Live More with Dr. Chatterjee

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee broke into the mainstream following the success of his bestselling books on stress and nutrition. What makes him effective as a podcaster is not merely his eloquence, but also his softer approach to interviewing. Where other hosts dictate into the microphone, Chatterjee questions everything, facilitating discussions with a unique mixture of scientific skepticism and New Age optimism. This style makes the topics he covers accessible to those at the beginning of their health journey, yet the discussions contain a depth that will attract even self-help veterans as well.

8.Routines & Ruts

If you’re the sort of person who looks for life inspiration by scrolling through Instagram, then Routines & Ruts will speak to you on an aesthetic level. But don’t let its cutesy imagery fool you; there is much of concrete value in this new self-help podcast. Host Madeleine Dore is the woman behind Extraordinary Routines, an interview project examining the everyday patterns of the creatively-inspired. On her website, Dore conducts experiments designed to test out concepts like “digital detoxing,” but her podcast is a platform to broadcast the conversations she has with writers, artists, and designers. It is a well-executed concept that is original enough to make the dull reality of other people’s daily routines intriguing. Dore acknowledges that different techniques work for different people.

9.Help Me Be Me

After listening to too many self improvement podcasts, you may find yourself disillusioned by the advice — because, let’s be real, not all of us feel will better after taking a cold shower. Help Me Be Me, a self-help podcast that doesn’t make unrealistic promises, knows how you feel. With over 150 episodes on topics like tackling shame and overcoming loneliness, Help Me Be Me believes that feeling overwhelmed by self-help advice can be alienating and risks driving you even further from the life changes you want to make. The show’s host, author Sarah May B., isn’t going to flatter your ego. In a recent episode on journaling, she tells us: “We all kind of know, deep down, when we’re resisting something, we’re resisting it because we already know the answer — and we don’t like it.” May B. pairs her opinions with tried and tested methods for dealing with feelings of sadness, stress, or lethargy. With talk of “accessing your truth” and cultivating “self-forgiveness,” Help Me Be Me might sound like those other self-help podcasts, but below the surface, the show is a toolkit of well-intentioned, gimmick-free advice.

10.For Procrastination

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock…If that’s the tune that plays in your head when trying to complete a work, school, or home project, then you might be dealing with a bout of procrastination. Check out one of these podcasts to see if you can learn some new tricks that will help keep you on-track.

11.The Joy of Procrastination

What if procrastination could be reframed as a good trait that would allow you to accomplish more in life? That's precisely what Dean Jackson and Dan Sullivan aim for when they produce The Joy of Procrastination podcast. Jackson and Sullivan assist listeners in developing strategies for utilizing procrastination in a constructive manner by eliminating the guilt associated with procrastinating.

12.Beyond the To-Do List

If procrastination is keeping you from being productive, then Beyond the To-Do List is for you. Host, Erik Fisher talks with guests on all aspects of productivity in order to reach the end goal of living a meaningful life. In each episode, he takes a deep dive into why we are not meeting our goals at work and life and how we can implement productivity strategies to get unstuck and move forward.

13.For Anxiety or Depression

Anxiety and depression are the two most common mental health conditions in the United States, with anxiety impacting more than 40 million adults each year. Despite the sheer number of people living with mental health issues, it’s not uncommon for many of us to feel isolated and alone. To help feel more connected and less alone, consider listening to one of these self-help podcasts.

14.The Hardcore Self-Help Podcast

Dr. Robert Duff, a psychologist and the presenter of the Hardcore Self-Help Podcast, knows a thing or two about living with and treating mental health issues. He also knows how to address concerns regarding anxiety, depression, relationships, sex, perfectionism, PTSD, eating disorders, and a variety of other issues without making listeners decipher all the psychobabble and medical jargon. You can also depend on a weekly rendezvous with Duff the Psych because he goes live every Thursday.

15.Not Another Anxiety Show

“A podcast for all,” is how host Kelli Walker describes Not Another Anxiety Show. While not a mental health expert herself, Walker does an excellent job of interviewing psychologists, doctors, and other experts to give listeners guidance and practical tips on managing the day-to-day struggles that come with living with all ends of the anxiety spectrum.

16.For Eating Disorders

If you or someone you love is struggling with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, body dysmorphic disorder, binge eating disorder, or any other specified or unspecified eating disorder, finding support and guidance is key to the recovery process. While these podcasts are not intended to take the place of therapy or any other medical interventions, they can provide support and encouragement as you work through the recovery process.

17.The Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast

Licensed psychologist Dr. Janean Anderson not only knows how to treat eating disorders, but she also knows firsthand what it’s like to live with and recover from anorexia. Twice a month, she hosts The Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, where she covers the psychology of eating disorders, what the recovery process looks like, and how the cultural context of eating disorders impacts recovery. Through personal stories and insight from expert guests, Anderson helps listeners unpack and begin to understand the seriousness and complexity of eating disorders.

18.The Recovery Warrior Show

Think of The Recovery Warrior Show as your monthly dose of motivation and inspiration to help guide you through the recovery process from an eating disorder. Host Jessica Flint interviews eating disorder recovery warriors and treatment experts to get their take on how you can begin to heal your relationship with food and your body.

19.For Grieving

There is no right or wrong way to grieve, but sometimes when you’re in the middle of tragedy, it can be downright challenging to put one foot in front of the other. Finding solace and support with people who understand what you’re going through is often one of the best ways to cope. If you need connection, check out these two podcasts dedicated to grieving.

20.Terrible, Thanks for Asking

Nora McInerny shares her personal stories of loss, and there are several, along with countless stories from others in her podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Each episode, McInerny interviews guests and explores issues around emotions, trauma, loss, mental health, and finding community, hope, and happiness after grieving.

21.Grief Out Loud

Grief Out Loud tackles the challenges many people face when discussing grief with others. Hosted by Jana DeCristofaro, this podcast comes from The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, which specializes in grief and loss. Through expert tips from bereavement professionals and personal stories from the real people she interviews, DeCristofaro brings awareness to the importance of talking about grief.

22.For Making a Major Life Change

Making a major life change can be both exciting and stressful — and often at the same time. The good news? We’ve all waded through new territory and come out on the other side. That’s why these podcasts on major life changes are so inspiring.

23.What It Takes

We all know people that have “made it” in life, despite obstacles or major changes that might have prevented them from achieving their goals. What most of these people have in common is a desire to tackle major life changes with the mindset that growth will occur regardless of the outcome. What It Takes shares stories of perseverance from some of the most famous visionaries and leaders of all time.

24.The Tony Robbins Podcast

“Why live an ordinary life, when you can live an extraordinary one?” This is undoubtedly the most famous line from life and business strategist Tony Robbins. It’s also the foundation from which he has built The Tony Robbins Podcast, a weekly show that tackles major life changes related to business, health, finances, relationships, and more. Through interviews and stories from some of the most influential people in the world, Robbins gives listeners proven strategies and tactics for how to help live your best life.

25.For Forming New Habits

Breaking old habits and forming new ones can be challenging, especially if you’re not sure where to start. The good news is, you’re not alone. These podcasts will help you feel inspired to dive in and get things done.

26.The Habit Coach

If you need encouragement to make permanent changes in your life, then The Habit Coach With Ashdin Doctor is for you. Each episode is centered around tips and motivation that encourage you to create new habits that impact your daily life. Host Ashdin Doctor covers topics like nutrition, fitness, health, sleep, and productivity. And the best part? The majority of the episodes are less than 10-minutes long.

27.Tiny Leaps, Big Changes

Forming a new habit takes time. It also requires tiny leaps along the way, and no one knows that better than the host of Tiny Leaps, Big Changes, Gregg Clunis. This personal development podcast dives deep into the most common daily behaviors and looks at how those behaviors determine results, both positive and negative.

28.For Weight Control

When it comes to weight loss, it’s easy to get bombarded by the massive amount of information available at your fingertips. And with so many claims of fast fat loss and quick results, it can be challenging to find the truth and the motivation to lose weight and keep it off. That’s where podcasts come in to play.

29.Food Heaven

It takes both diet and exercise to lose weight and keep it off. Unfortunately, it’s the diet part of the equation many of us struggle with. The good news? Each Wednesday, you can get the most up-to-date information about all things food, health, and nutrition on the Food Heaven podcast. Co-hosts Wendy and Jess are both registered dietitians with master’s degrees in nutrition, and they are also BFFs who share a passion for helping people live a healthier life.

30.Cut the Fat

Cut the Fat podcast delivers science-based strategies and facts about weight loss along with a message of hope and motivation to help listeners find their own formula for weight loss. Co-hosts Dr. Ray Hinish, a pharmacist, and Blythe Wagner, a personal trainer, break down the complex and often conflicting information about fitness, fat loss, and wellbeing.

31.For Coping With Addiction Whether you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, finding ways to cope is a critical part of the recovery process. Podcasts can be a valuable tool to help you learn how to identify addiction issues, ask for help, find support, and connect with others during your recovery process.

32.Recovery Unscripted Recovery Unscripted, a podcast powered by Foundations Recovery Network, takes a deep dive into the most complex topics related to addiction and recovery. Through guest interviews with some of the most influential figures, like Glennon Doyle and Herschel Walker, and expert advice from clinicians, host David Condos takes listeners through the ins and outs of addiction treatment, mental health care, and recovery.

33.That Sober Guy When Shane Ramer got sober in 2013, he decided to share his story, along with many others, on his podcast, That Sober Guy. Relatable, real, and raw, Ramer gives listeners a glimpse into the world of addiction, alcoholism, recovery, and so much more. While his focus is on the person coping with or recovering from addiction, he also provides family and friends a place to get information, tips, and support.

34.For Improving Relationships We can all use a few tips and tricks to help improve the relationships in our life. From suggestions to help you get out of a relationship rut to tips on keeping the lines of communication free-flowing with your boss or co-workers, tuning in to one of these podcasts can help improve your relationships both in love and life.

35.Where Should We Begin When you don’t have time to go to couples counseling, why not bring the therapist to you? Where Should We Begin, the brainchild of relationship therapist Esther Perel, tackles complex issues many of us face with our partner including sexlessness, infertility, communication problems, infidelity, trauma, regret, roles, and so much more. And the best part? Each podcast features a different couple, so listeners get to be a part of a private therapy session as the couple shares the intimate details of their relationship.

36.Savage Lovecast When it comes to talking about sex, Dan Savage leaves nothing off the table. And we mean nothing! In his long-running, incredibly popular podcast, Savage Lovecast, Savage, answers the most intimate questions about love, sex, and relationships. Plus, listeners can call in their most-burning questions for Dan to answer in a later podcast.

37.For Spiritual Growth Spiritual growth is a journey unique to each of us. While each path may look different, connecting with your inner soul can help you find meaning and purpose in life. Discovering what is possible by working from within is the focus of these two podcasts about spiritual growth and self-discovery.

38.The Chasing Joy Podcast When Georgie Morley talks, people listen. Through her own struggles with an eating disorder, depression, and bipolar ll, Morley guides listeners as they take a look at their own spirituality on The Chasing Joy Podcast. She explores a new topic each week related to spirituality, wellness, and personal growth. Her hope? That you leave each episode feeling more joyful, energetic, and focused on your journey.

39.Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations If you need a weekly dose of inspiration and spiritual awakening, then Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations podcast is for you. With guests like spiritual pioneer Eckhart Tolle, Father Richard Rohr, Gretchen Rubin, and Brené Brown, Oprah takes listeners on a unique and purposeful journey of spiritual growth.

40.Design Your Dream Life

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Design Your Dream Life is all about the journey we all take in trying to attain fulfillment and contentment in our lives and careers.

Hosted by renowned personal growth writer and life coach Natalie Bacon, the podcast is both uplifting and inspiring to listen to.

After turning her back from a successful career in finance and law, Bacon transformed herself into one of the country’s premier life coaches; and helps women realize and reach their greatest life goals.

If you want a podcast that can help you change your mindset for the better, teaches you how to persevere through challenges, while allowing you to attain financial freedom doing the things you love, then Design Your Dream Life is a must-listen.

41.Bulletproof Radio

Dave Asprey is all about “biohacking” things that take a lifetime to do.

Personally referring to himself as a “biohacker” Asprey is a world-class public speaker, a best selling author, and the creator of Bulletproof Nutrition.

The concept behind Bulletproof Radio is to combine all of Asprey’s in-depth work towards hacking human biology for the purpose of achieving the apex of good health.

Each episode of Bulletproof Radio is an exploration of the question “What are the simplest things you can do to be better at everything?”

And in each show; Asprey tries to answer the question using the opinions and findings of experts around the world.

If you are the type of person that is health-conscious; this is one of those self-improvement podcasts that will definitely pique your interest.

A must-listen for anyone who wants to “upgrade” their life, mind, and body.

42.Optimal Living Daily

With a step-by-step approach to personal growth and development, host Justin Malik takes his listeners on an inspirational, motivational, and educational journey.

Listening to Justin Malik is educational, motivational, and inspiring.

His Optimal Living Daily podcast is a treasure trove of developmental and personal growth teachings.

And unlike some of his peers, Malik presents all of this in a way that is very easy to understand and apply.

Episodes revolve around topics like strength training, productivity, and minimalism to name a few.

With each episode only lasting around 10 minutes; it is quite surprising how Malik presents arguments in an enlightening manner.

43.Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, is on a mission. And that is to discover the solution to a question that many of us face on a daily basis: "How can we be happier?"

Happier with Gretchen Rubin is a book in which the renowned author offers her expertise and ideas on how and what she considers to be pure "happy."

Listening to her program, it is clear that Rubin is happy and pleased with her current situation.

And after a few episodes, you'll understand that all she wants is for you to be happy as well.

44.The Tony Robbins Podcast

A name that needs no introduction. The Tony Robbins Podcast is nothing more but an audio manifestation of the teachings and philosophy of one; if not the most recognizable name in the self-help industry around the world.

In typical Tony Robbins fashion, each episode is a deep dive into practical teachings about relationships, health, finance, and business.

With famous people like Wayne Gretzky, Serena Williams, and Bill Clinton singing his praises, it is no wonder that The Tony Robbins Podcast has amassed a very huge following.

If I was asked to personally pick and recommend one from all the self improvement podcasts out there, this has to be it.

45.Kwik Brain Podcast

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If you had the chance to be able to be really good at learning something; what would you choose?

Would you like to be great at learning Math, Languages, or maybe people’s personalities?

What about being ridiculously good at “learning”? Would that be something you would be interested in?

This is what Kwik Brain Podcast is all about; “meta-learning” or being good at “learning how to learn”.

Jim Kwik has established himself as an authority in this field. He has trained numerous company CEO’s and even played the role of consultant for some of the cast of the movie Dr. Strange.

If the idea of meta-learning is something that you’re curious about; I suggest you give the Kwik Brain Podcast a listen.

46.Unlocking Us

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Unlocking Us revolves around topics of vulnerability and shame to name a few.

Conceived and hosted by Brené Brown, the #1 New York Times bestselling author talks about her 20 years of research and experience with human psychology in a way that is unpolished, raw, and honest.

As far as self improvement podcasts go; Unlocking Us takes on a different route and forces its listener to reflect on the core of what does it actually means to be human.

The idea is that by being uncomfortable, realizations unfiltered, thus more honest.

I admit that the approach is not for everyone. But it is definitely refreshing and quite interesting.

47.Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu

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The Impact Theory podcasts revolve around the question of what are the secrets to success.

Hosted by co-founder of Quest Nutrition and globally known serial entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu; Impact Theory is all about Bilyeu discussing his philosophies and secrets to attaining success.

With the reputation Bilyeu has, it is no wonder as to why his podcast has played host to other notable industry names such as Vishen Lakhiani, Jim Kwik, and Peter Diamandis.

Each episode presents a diverse spread of methodologies and teachings around how to reach the pinnacle of success.

This is one of a handful of self improvement podcasts that can really keep you glued; and left wanting for more.

48.The Good Life Project

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The Good Life Project by Jonathan Fields takes its listeners on an explorative journey into real-world approaches on how to live a much better and fulfilling life.

With different guest teachers on each episode, Fields and his guests present real-world-tested systems that inject better meaning; and more love and connection into a person’s daily life.

And these guests are not your everyday people as well.

From the author of The 4-hour Workweek and Tools of the Titans, Tim Ferriss to professor and Buddhist philosopher Robert Thurman; each guest on the show provides a unique insight into personal development.

A great podcast to listen to for those that are looking for self improvement podcasts with a spiritual component to it.

49.The Lively Show

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Hosted by Jessica Lively, the podcast’s claim to fame is its rating by Inc. Magazine as the “#1 Podcast That All Female Entrepreneurs Should Listen To”.

Lively, a former business owner turned life coach, inspires, and uplifts her listeners to move away from a ‘hustle’ based mindset; teaching them to find balance between life and work.

Though self improvement podcasts are seen by many as nothing more than emotional porn wrapped in spirituality; Lively presents talking points that can actually make skeptics second guess their stand on things.

The Lively Show is intriguing as it is motivating.

And after listening to a few episodes; I’m certain that your general approach to life will be much clearer and with a more profound intent.

50.School of Greatness with Lewis Howes

The School of Greatness podcast, hosted by former pro athlete, lifestyle entrepreneur, world record holder, and New York Times bestselling book Lewis Howes, seeks to answer the question, "what makes individuals great?"

Howes attempts to discover a solution to the issue by engaging in thought-provoking talks with guests about how to demonstrate.

Each episode is a rich mine of philosophical information and enlightenment, featuring important thought leaders, world-class athletes, and forward-thinking business executives.

This is one of those self-improvement podcasts that not only helps you grow as a person but also feeds your creativity.

Anyway, that's my list of self-improvement podcasts.

I'm sure there are still a lot of things out there that I'm not aware of. So, if you think one of them should be in one of our future lists, please include a link to it in the cement area below.

[covid19updater]

COVID19 Updates: 08/17/2021

RUMINT(Texas):  My kids were exposed to covid and have tested positive. I notified the school and they told me the absences will be unexcused and they will also not be notifying any of the parents. This is so dangerous

New Zealand:  All of New Zealand has been put on lockdown after 1 new case of coronavirus, the first since February 

Nevada:  Henderson elementary transitions to distance learning because of COVID-19 LINK

World:  P681R mutation drives #delta advantage over #alpha #covid19 variant. Collaboration between PY shi lab, @scottweaverutmb @utmbnews @ihii_utmb @UTHealthHouston LINK

India:  Today number of #COVID19 cases in #Kerala shoot up to 21,613 with a high #TPR of 15.48%.

Rwanda:  More than half of the people in the city of Kigali considered to be in the COVID-19 risk group have been vaccinated, paving way for further reopening of activities in the coming months, according to health officials

Japan:  #Japan decides to expand #COVID19 state of emergency to 7 new prefectures: report LINK

Canada:  PPE must guard against airborne transmission of COVID-19, nurses' union demands> "[We] still, after all this time, we have nurses and health professionals out there that have restricted access to the proper PPE LINK

Thailand:  Thailand seeks 12 million Sinovac Covid-19 shots for mix-and-match vaccine strategy #Thailand #news #ThailandNews #ThailandUpdate LINK

World:  Wildfire smoke linked to higher COVID-19 death ratesA new study finds 2020 wildfires may have caused more than 19,000 COVID-19 cases and 700 deaths. LINK

RUMINT (US): Doctor:  We have had at least five fully vaccinated previously healthy people in our ICU with Delta, at least one of whom has died. That’s really making me nervous. It’s still rare & no vaccine is perfect, but what about the next variant? I really hope I’m wrong, but I’m getting scared.

World:  A grim warning from Israel: Vaccination possbly blunts, but does not defeat Delta LINK

UK:  Latest ONS deaths data (to week ending 6 August) has been released. 1,151 more deaths were recorded in-week compared to the 2015-19 year average. That’s 13% higher. Year-to-date there have been 354,283 deaths recorded, which is 8% higher than the 2015-19 average.

US:  NEW: Number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 tops 85,000

District of Columbia:  Health workers in DC are now required to be vaccinated against #COVID19 This requirement covers 121,844 licensed, certified, or registered persons. #TakeTheShotDC http://TakeTheShotDC.com

World:  How COVID-19’s origins were obscured, by the East and the West LINK

Florida:  7 fully vaccinated COVID-19 patients die in what doctors say is extremely rare situation LINK

Bahrain:  *BAHRAIN APPROVES SINOPHARM VACCINATION FOR 3-11 AGE GROUP

Japan:  Japan extends its virus emergency as record infections strain the health system

US:  NYT reports Biden administration has decided that most Americans should get a coronavirus booster shot eight months after they completed their initial vaccination, and could begin offering the extra shots as early as mid-September LINK

Tennessee:  UPDATE: Dr. Adrienne Battle, Director of Metro Nashville Public Schools, says she will defy Governor’s order on masking to “further review this order and explore all options.”

Op/Ed: Doctor:  I've heard about clinicians who only believed long COVID is real when either they, or someone they loved developed it. I sometimes wonder how different our responses to the pandemic would be if people just believed the suffering of others, without having to witness it themselves.

Florida:  5K+ Hillsborough Co. students in quarantine/isolation, emergency meeting called for Wednesday LINK

Arkansas:  COVID long-hauler down to 80 pounds, says everything tastes and smells like rancid meat She was once a marathon runner LINK

US:  The US reported 250,000 new cases yesterday. 7-day average now at 140k.

Arizona:  UA expert: Arizona could see 300+ coronavirus deaths a week by end of month LINK

Florida:  BREAKING Florida: HUGE new record: BOTH hospitalizations & ICU occupancy. 16,832 beds occupied. Almost 54% ICU beds occupied by COVID patients.

UK:  In Scotland, temporary emergency powers to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners early could become permanent in the event of future public health threats, according to a new consultation put before the country today

UK:  The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given emergency authorisation for the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine among 12- to 17-year-olds in Britain. The JCVI will now consider whether to recommend the use of the jab to the government;

Europe:  Latest EU database figures on Pfizer-BioNTech jab’s safety show (as of July 29), out of 330M  doses given, a total of 244,807 cases of suspected side effects reported to EudraVigilance by EU countries. 4,198 involved a fatal outcome,  “unclear whether  was the cause”;

Australia:  The federal government will deploy five teams of Australian Defence Force personnel to western New South Wales as part of an urgent push to vaccinate vulnerable Indigenous communities, as the region scrambles to get ahead of a Delta outbreak;

Australia:  Sydney’s hospital system is under “enormous pressure” after a (+) Covid case resulted in 80 staff being forced into isolation at St George hospital. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard stated. Ambulances carrying coronavirus patients waited for hours outside another facility;

Japan:  The Japanese government and Pfizer have reportedly broadly agreed to a contract supplying an additional 120 million doses of the latter's coronavirusin 2022, as part of efforts to administer "booster" third doses.

New Jersey:  161 fully vaccinated and 119 unvaccinated COVID-19 cases in Hoboken since June, mayor says

US:  American Hospitals Buckle Under Delta, With I.C.U.s Filling Up LINK

New Zealand:  FOUR NEW CASES OF COVID-19 IN NEW ZEALAND, RNZ SAYS

Florida:  Palm Beach County, Florida is to declare state of emergency due to COVID-19

India:  Much lower than expected AstraZeneca vaccine efficacy against #DeltaVariant during India’s surge—only 28% efficacy 2-doses (after 14 days) against symptomatic #COVID19, 67% against moderate/severe, & 76% against needing oxygen. VE drops with runaway surges it seems. @SatwikRuma

Illinois:  CHICAGO TO ANNOUNCE INDOOR MASK MANDATE: CRAIN'S

Iceland:  It looked like #Iceland was getting on top of the outbreak, but a big spike today. New #Covid19 cases rise from 56 last Tuesday to 104 today. The 7 day rate is back over 230/100k

California:  BREAKING: Los Angeles County will now require people to wear masks at outdoor events like concerts & festivals - KABC

World:  Researchers May Have Discovered the Root Cause of Long COVID Syndrome LINK

New Zealand:  NEW Covid outbreak in New Zealand grows to five cases confirmed as Delta variant  VIA

Texas:  Texas Gov. and noted anti-masker Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19. LINK

Texas:  Hours before the announcement that he tested positive, Gov. Abbott posted pictures to his Twitter account of himself sitting with Texas musician Jimmie Vaughan, brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Vaughan’s family. They were not wearing masks.

US:  @TSA extends the Federal mask mandate for people in transit beyond September, 13 to January 18, 2022. The agency says this is “to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation.”

Texas:  First, Greg Abbott received a third booster dose of the vaccine, something not yet available to the public. Now he’s receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, something the FDA has only authorized for those with “high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.” Must be nice.

Israel:  Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis (head of public health services at the MoH) voted against vaccinating people under the age of 60: "Israel is going for a massive vaccination without having sufficient safety data..." "We saw more cases of Myocarditis in younger ages"

Florida:  Dangerous move from the DeSantis admin: Florida education officials have voted to punish the Broward County and Alachua County school districts for requiring students to wear masks.

[cryptocoinguides]

Ethereum Rallies BEYOND Expectations

After what felt like an eternity of fud coming from all directions, the crypto news cycle appears to have turned a corner and the markets are responding. Bitcoin has reclaimed several supports, levels and Ethereum is doing the same. I’m not saying we’re out of the woods just yet, but the negative sentiment seems to be falling behind.

Just like the Atlanta Falcons, [ Music ] today, we’ll be looking at giving you the lowdown on all the stories affecting Ethereum as well as some of the most exciting developments coming on the blockchain. Let’S get it welcome to bitboy crypto home of the big squad, the largest and greatest crypto community in all the interwebs.

My name is ben every day on this channel. I show you how to make money in crypto. If you like money and crypto, then make sure to hit that subscribes button and smashes the like in this content, I’m covering the latest on what’s happening with Ethereum.

The last few days saw markets rally in anticipation of the long-awaited b-word conference virtual summit between three of the most influential people in business today hand to the king, jack Dorsey, Kathy wood as well as crypto’s, very own court. Jester the muskrat.

The discussion was mostly about bitcoin, but in a surprise, move Elon also revealed that he’s a fan of Devi and personally holds some Etherium as well as a stack of doge, probably worth billions of dollars. Didn’T hear it from me. The news sent crypto twitter into a minor frenzy with its value climbing around 11. In only a few hours. Now don’t get me wrong.

I was as happy as anybody to see some big green candles, but as much as I wish, crypto would truly decouple from Elon’s influence, there’s no denying that he still holds significant sway in the space and that likely will continue for many years to come. Speaking of Twitter, there may just be a new kid on the block, with divi project ave gearing up to launch an Ethereum-based alternative to the social media giants later this year.

While this wouldn’t be the first attempt to build a meaningful decentralized rival to challenge twitter’s monopoly. Ave is a serious player in the device space with over 11 billion dollars, total value locked tom, this recording. Personally, I love ave and I have plenty of it in my portfolio.

This comes in the wake of Jack Dorsey’s plans to create a new division in his payment company square intending to bring device services to bitcoin wow in response ave, founder Stanley, Kulichov tweeted. That ave should build Twitter on Ethereum and it seems that’s exactly what they intend to do.

Citing concerns over censorship and a monetary structure that benefits shareholders over users. Will it work well, those that have tried so far have failed, pretty dismally Justin’s on. Is it possible for a decentralized Ethereum based Twitter alternative to succeed?

Well, you could do a lot worse than having AVI at the helm. Smart money interest in Ethereum also continues. Reports hit the headlines this week. Jp morgan is now allowing all its wealthy clients, exposure to crypto-assets. What noble leaders jp morgan clients can now invest in a series of five trusts, which includes the grayscale, Ethereum trust and the Ethereum classic trust.

Ask yourself if Jamie Dimon still has no interest in crypto, then why is he allowing his clients to get exposure to it? Go figure? Also, in the headlines, was the Rothschild investment corporation with data from the sec, showing they added to their investment in the grace, kill.

Ethereum trust bringing their treasure chests to almost 280 thousand each I’m no ross child, but I do want 280 000 likes on this content, so don’t forget to hit that button and smash the subscribe button. It really helps us out keeps you in the loop on the latest in crypto.

Meanwhile, at the legion of doom, I mean Goldman Sachs. A report has come out indicating that over half of the family offices associated with the firm are already investing or interested in investing in crypto assets. Unsurprisingly, the reason behind this level of interest was a growing concern about higher inflation, prolonged low rates and other macroeconomic developments.

This comes only a few weeks after a Goldman Sachs memo suggested they believed Ethereum could overtake bitcoin as the dominant store of digital value. It seems jp morgan is on the same page on this one, with some analysts at the investment bank predicting staking rewards to hit 40 billion dollars by 2025.

It’S nice having others support my predictions, even if they are wall street scumbags. Look. I’ve said it here before, but if you’re new here listen up, Goldman Sachs and jp morgan are the same institutions that have been spreading fud in the markets in a bid to drive prices down.

What’S important is that we ignore what they say: pay extremely close attention to what they do, while always remembering they call it smart money for a reason and just look. Data from the glass node shows how sharply the interest of eath held on exchanges has dropped.

In recent weeks, that’s crazy low and it’s just accumulation across the board, from both institutions and retail alike. Someone who’s never doubted crypto in Ethereum’s use case is a real vision. Ceo and former Goldman Sachs hotshot Raul Powell. In a recent interview on the defiance, Raul would double down on his belief that Ethereum was the number one crypto asset he put simply if you could only own one asset over the next 12 months. What would it be?

It would be Ethereum because it’s the least risky, with the highest rewards Raul, also expects a big pump coming soon. Signing Ethereum 2.0 transition to proof of stake, as well as the eip1559 upgrade scheduled for August 4th, and it seems he’s put his money where his mouth is revealing.

That 55 of his portfolio is in eth only 25 in bitcoin, and the remaining 20 percent is a range of other ALTs, a well-known advocate of Metcalfe’s law and the network effect. He recently tweeted this interesting graph, showing how much more growth Ethereum has experienced since 2018 than any other network out there.

As far as he’s concerned, though, this is just the beginning, in a recent interview on the defiance podcast, Raul goes all-in on what he believes to be the next big thing coming to Ethereum, bigger than DVI and NFTs combined social tokens. That means tokens for brands. Influencers sports teams, you name it – uses Disney as an example, a global brand, with a legion of fans as big as 3 billion.

I think 3 billion might be a stretch, but hey either way it’s a huge number. But what if there was a Disney token that worked within the Disney ecosystem, not only allowing token holders to spend it benefiting from exclusive deals, discounts and access, but also sharing in the economic prosperity of that community.

According to Raoul Powell, this would represent a whole new value system. Culture is something you can invest in where consumers become aligned with their favourite brands or influencers in a totally unique way. Last but not least, the Rumors of NFT’s deaths are turning out to be a bunch of bunk.

One particularly vocal proponent is entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, who couldn’t be more bullish, comparing the NFT space of the early days of the internet and social media, hopefully, picked up some space jam NFTs last week, which played a major part in the marketing strategy to go with the film’s Release these non-fungible tokens also served as a vehicle to launch nifties a new NFT marketplace with backers, including our old shark tank bro Mark Cuban and thinking about it. Space jam is the perfect movie to champion the use of NFTs.

The story of a man who goes down the rabbit hole only to find himself transported to a new shiny digital world full of weird characters and high stakes plays sounds like many of our journeys into crypto. So a big-money player is super bullish on Ethereum and the network effect, proving just how versatile the network is it’s hard to believe it will continue to stand in bitcoin shadow much longer if you’ve been following this channel you’ll know, we’ve been calling for.

What’S dubbed the flipping for a long time – and I maintain it is inevitable, if not this year, the next, why well, sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on our portfolios and forget what we’re actually investing in Ethereum isn’t just a number on a chart. It’S a technology that has the power to change the world in ways. We can’t even imagine yet with a use case that extends into almost every aspect of modern life.

Read More: Top 3 Low Cap BSC Launchpad Altcoins

The post Ethereum Rallies BEYOND Expectations appeared first on Crypto Coin Guides.

via Ethereum Rallies BEYOND Expectations

[axiomabstractions]

The Progression of My Relationship With Women

For as long as I can remember, I have always struggled psychologically with my lack of success connecting with females. I do think it’s important to note that I had difficulty forming connections in general from a very young age. The main contributing factor to this difficulty, I believe, was what I learned to identify with as a child. For a lot of complicated reasons, not particularly relevant to describe here in detail, my sense of personal identity as a child was built up around the notion of my own intelligence being superior to that of my peers, specifically those peers who treated me in ways I did not appreciate. This aspect of my identity persisted as the focal point for my interaction with the world, mostly unchallenged, until I was about 18 years old.

I had my first and only girlfriend for a couple of months during high school. When I first met her, during summer school of 2010, I thought she was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. I wanted her. I didn’t want to get to know her for who she really was, I didn’t want to participate in a mutual exchange of friendship, support, and knowledge with her. I only sought to gain from my interaction with her, never to give. I wanted her to be mine. In hindsight, I do believe this had been my general attitude toward interacting with females for my entire life. I think females have a strong intuition to see through these sorts of things, which could very likely account for the fact that she was utterly disinterested in me for the entirety of summer school, as every other girl I’d ever been interested in had been. I was unavoidably frustrated by this, to the point of even muttering the phrase “bitches are stupid,” one evening while we were hanging out in one of the commons areas. Yeah, I know.

Motivated by this all too familiar sense of frustration, when I returned home from summer school (I was attending a residential high school at the time), I decided to spend the rest of the summer researching how to convince a girl to like me. What this amounted to was me filling my head with manipulative pick up tactics, tactics and methods intended to coerce women into engaging more substantially with men who aimed only to gain something. I studied a lot. I learned a lot. Not much of what I learned was good, but it was effective. When I returned to school in the fall, I began employing these tactics. Within a few months, I’d manage to convince her to be my girlfriend. I should note here that I did not aim to manipulate, I simply aimed to win at getting what I wanted, and was too young to understand how misguided the things I was learning were. However, the result was the same.

So I got what I wanted, and my work was done, right? Wrong. Again, I was too naïve to know better, but I hadn’t even thought of what It meant to be in a relationship with a woman, want it meant to contribute meaningfully to her experience. After all, this had not been the essence of my intention. I wanted to win her for my own benefit alone. I wanted to feel good knowing that a beautiful woman wanted me, and was willing to share herself earnestly with me. It didn’t take her very long to see through the façade I was unaware I was putting on. It didn’t take her long to realize I was not adding any real, substantial value to her experience. I thought I’d changed into someone who was now magically attractive to women. I had won the game. This is why things only lasted a couple of months.

She expressed to me, towards the end of our short relationship, that she felt I didn’t care about her. She felt I wasn’t doing the small things anymore that had shown her I appreciated her. I think this sentiment was expressed for a couple of weeks, before I realized I would lose her if I failed to change. I didn’t want to lose her, because having her made me feel good about myself. I did love her in my own selfish way. I wanted to keep her for what she provided to me. So, one night, I sent her a very long text message detailing how much I cared about her and about fixing things. This was when T9 prediction was still a thing. The message was 14 pages, which, if you’re old enough to remember what T9 prediction was, was a long ass message. I poured my heart and soul into that message to her, or so I believed at the time. The only problem was, at that age, I was unable to see myself and my intentions for what they truly were. Though my subconscious intentions were misguided, consciously I really did want to make things work, and I was willing to do whatever it took to keep her.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be for us. The next day, she plainly told me in the school hall that she did not believe me. This, for me, was crushing, as trust was one of the most important things to me in our relationship, in any romantic relationship. I pretty much held trust as the highest value, and I had always been honest with her. The problem was, I could not see myself well enough at the time to be honest with myself about who I was and what I was motivated by. I processed her disbelief in my intentions for a few hours, then I broke up with her via text message. I had been convinced by 4 words that things could no longer work out between us… “I don’t believe you.”

I think she really wanted to believe me. I think her statement of disbelief was a test, a test that I failed. Had I truly been resolved, for unselfish reasons, to make things work as I had said the night before, whether or not she believed what I told her would not have shaken that resolve. I would have made things work anyway. I would have shown her. I did not. I showed her that exactly what she had suspected intuitively was indeed true. I was not committed to her the way I had led her to believe I was. I was only committed to protecting my ego. This was crushing for her, I believe because she actually had placed a very high degree of trust and faith in me, and I utterly let her down. I not only shattered her trust in me, I most likely made it more difficult for her to genuinely trust men again. I gave her cold, hard evidence that men were manipulative pigs, only devoted to the process of self-validation. I’m sure she’s gotten over it by this point.

Still in all, the result of this for me was I only saw one way in which I was able to dependably please women. That way was through sex. Learning to please a woman sexually was really not that hard compared to the task of learning how to please them emotionally and spiritually. It’s been over 11 years since I’ve had a girlfriend, and I think I’m just starting to really figure it out. However, in the time between then and now, my self-validating behavior continued, and in many ways only got worse. See, just as I had broken her trust in men, she also did break my trust in women a bit. For different reasons, but I’m aiming to address how I was affected by this experience, not whether I was in the right or in the wrong.

In the years following, I believe I sought to validate my own value by reaffirming my ability to please women sexually. Of course, this was not a conscious process. I, as many of us tend to do, was simply responding to the biological reward systems put in place by hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. What I really always wanted was something substantial and true through my socialization with women. I wanted a woman who truly cared for and about me. Someone I could love and pour my heart and soul into, form a meaningful bond with, and possibly spend my life with. This is what I’ve always wanted, it’s just my strategies for obtaining this have always been misguided.

Mostly, I believe I was still seeking a woman who would add value and validation to my life. I still hadn’t reached the point where I wanted to give. As I stated earlier, I believe women have a natural intuition about these things. As you may have gathered by now, I was unsuccessful in finding anything substantial though this process. I became increasingly frustrated with my inability to do so over the years, and participated in countless fleeting sexual interactions with the women I came into contact with. This was the only form of validation I was ever able to acquire from them, so it’s what I defaulted to.

That shit got old after some years, and actually it was never spiritually satisfying for me. I don’t think it’s spiritually satisfying for anyone, but many people still participate in this behavior because they haven’t been taught how to provide value to others first. This manipulative, validation seeking behavior is highly prevalent among American men, which is something women have become increasingly vocal about and frustrated with in recent years. I think they’ve always been frustrated with it, but never quite figured out how to nurture and raise better men. They have definitely become more vocal though, and we should start listening to them, because I see many women beginning to default to the same types of manipulative, validation seeking behaviors. This isn’t good for any of us. It’s not good for the ethos of our society.

All this being said, I’ve struggled through a lot and grown a lot over the past two years. I truly believe I’ve grown more spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically since June 2019 than I did in the 25 ½ years prior. However, my level of success forming connections with women has remained largely unchanged. I have some guesses about why I haven’t become any more successful. A lot of that has to do with the environments I’m choosing to place myself within.

I’ve been using dating apps for several years now, probably since I was about 19. I’m now 27. I was reasonably successful in my use of dating apps until about two years ago. Now, I’ve become more and more motivated to forfeit them as part of my toolkit. As I’ve evolved, and seen through the errors of my past, my standards for my own behavior and for the behavior of women I view as dating prospects have only increased. I know I have a lot of value to give, and am committed to the process of giving everything I possibly can to benefit others. This includes my commitment to my relationships with women, and providing whatever value I can to them by default. So I’m in this place now where I feel I need to start making better choices about the environment I’m providing myself in my quest to establish meaningful connections with women, platonic or otherwise (it will probably come as little or no surprise to most of you that I have very few female friends in my life).

Dating apps have consistently proven to be unfit environments for my pursuit of female companionship, more and more so these past two years. Now, I’m in a place where I seek better, more wholesome avenues to participate in this pursuit. I’m thinking about hiring a dating coach, this will be an introduction for her into the beast she’s dealing with lol. Hopefully, If I approach this mindfully and honestly, she’ll be able to help me produce a more full and abundant social life for myself in the coming months. Cheers!

[your-dietician]

How do college football players feel about Playoff expansion? Past, present voices on more games, the same grind – The Athletic

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/ncaa-football/how-do-college-football-players-feel-about-playoff-expansion-past-present-voices-on-more-games-the-same-grind-the-athletic/

How do college football players feel about Playoff expansion? Past, present voices on more games, the same grind – The Athletic

— This story was written by Nicole Auerbach, Tyson Alger, Scott Dochterman, Jason Kersey and Chris Vannini.

Raekwon McMillan knows what it’s like to play more games than ever before. As a freshman linebacker at Ohio State in 2014, he played in the Buckeyes’ first-ever 15-game season, ending in the inaugural College Football Playoff with a national championship. The victory was sweet, but the adjustments the Buckeyes had to make for an additional game were very real. From shifting strength and conditioning strategies to adding rest and recovery time, it was a new experience.

Now, as college football heads toward a 12-team Playoff model that opens up the possibility of a 17-game season for those who take a certain path through the postseason, McMillan thinks back to the additional grind he had to go through. His Buckeyes played in 14 games when they reached the CFP semis in 2016, too.

“Ohio State did a great job of taking care of players … but during the second run, I felt like my body was breaking down toward the end, kind of like at the end of an NFL season,” McMillan said. “And that was with a month break between our last game and when the Playoff started (in 2016). That window (between games) will have to go down. I don’t really understand how it will work with the new structure of the Playoff.”

McMillan, who was drafted in the second round in 2017 and now plays for the New England Patriots, said the later the season went, the longer his recovery time after games would be. He wasn’t ever injured, but “it was little things here and there — ankle started feeling tight, knees, shoulders, head, neck.”

Last week in Dallas the CFP’s Board of Managers, a group of 11 university presidents representing all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision leagues and Notre Dame, discussed the new 12-team proposal and greenlit it for further discussion. CFP leadership will spend the summer meeting with bowl and television partners to determine the feasibility of the new model and how soon it can take effect.

Commissioners and presidents have said they want to get feedback from current and former players about the additional wear and tear that would come with extending their season — a listening process that’s only happening after the favored Playoff model has been selected. College athletes often have little to no say in what happens in their sport, and they have so far been absent in the expansion conversation. What will they have to say about this in the coming months? Don’t expect a consensus. The Athletic spoke with several current and former players to see what they think right now. Some aren’t concerned about playing more games, while others seriously question if it’s too much.

Oklahoma redshirt senior H-back Jeremiah Hall said he’s “not really” worried about potentially playing more games in an expanded Playoff because every other level of football requires multiple rounds of games in its postseason format.

“In high school, you have a series of four to six rounds, depending on your state,” Hall said. “If you think about it, after the Big 12 championship, we’re really waiting and sitting around Norman for two or three weeks, especially when we’ve made it to the Playoff. We’re not really doing too much. A week off between whatever championship game you may have in your conference, and then maybe go two weeks on for the playoff games and then a week off, then your national championship — I think that’d be fair. We’ve been doing the same thing since high school. I don’t think it would be any worse.”

“I can wrap my head around adding games,” former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry said. “But where the issue comes for me is when we talk about ‘student-athletes.’ … As long as we keep using the terminology of ‘student-athlete,’ we have to think about how that actually impacts the student side.”

Conference championship games already often fall during finals week in early December. If the College Football Playoff pushes the postseason’s end point further into January, players could also be juggling the start of a new semester with the preparation for the biggest games of their season. “How can you manage a course load and be the type of student that a program would expect you to be when now the whole year, basically, you’re spending preparing for games?” Perry said. “We have to stop with this idea of student-athlete.

“But in terms of body management, they’ll figure that out. Sports science is evolving rapidly.”

A longer college football season would prepare future pros for the grind of a long NFL season, Hall said. (McMillan pointed out that it will also shorten the time some potential pros have to decide whether or not they want to declare for the NFL Draft, if the customary mid-January decision deadline does not change.) For those who aren’t headed to the NFL, it still creates more excitement. “The more football, the better,” Hall said. But Perry speculates that load management could come to college football, with star players opting not to play certain games in November if their team has already all but locked up a Playoff spot.

“Or if you’re one of the last teams to get in, does somebody make a decision like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what our chances are in this game, but I don’t necessarily want to risk this when I know I’m staring at a $30 million contract in just a matter of months.’” Perry said.

McMillan believes his CFP experience was well worth it because of the magnitude of the games and the opportunity to compete for a national championship. It certainly helped, too, “how many coaches at the next level were able to see those games,” he said. “It was beneficial in many ways, but you will have to watch and see how it affects the players. What is the benefit for players who are not going to the NFL? What extra benefit do they get?”

It’s clear that the programs that can better weather the extra practices and games — and keep players engaged — will be best positioned for success late in the long season. “That’s the game, staying healthy and being the strongest, most physical team,” Iowa junior wide receiver Nico Ragaini said. To him, this is just a natural extension of what already happens in the regular season.

The path to 17 games in a 12-team Playoff world is not necessarily likely to happen on an annual basis: A team would need to play a standard 12-game regular season, reachits conference championship game, make the Playoff as a No. 5-12 seed and then advance through all three rounds to the national title game. The CFP’s Management Committee has stressed that in most years the title game’s most likely participants will come from the top four Power 5 conference champions who earned a first-round bye and would play a total of 16 games, including the national championship game. The losing teams in the new first round of the Playoff will not play in bowl games later in December, either. According to Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, because of those parameters, a third of the teams involved in the CFP would play the same number of games they would in a normal year with a bowl trip.

“The route to get to 17 in this model isn’t impossible, but there have been a lot of things built in to make that highly unlikely,” said Swarbrick, who was part of the CFP’s four-member working group that proposed the 12-team model.

“For the vast majority of the field, at best there would be a one-game expansion,” said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, a member of the CFP Management Committee. “For many, it would be the same or less, depending on if you’re in a conference championship game or not. We have to take a look at all of that. We need to look at the construct of college football from a total-year process.

“It’s the one sport in the NCAA where we literally have a calendar that accounts for every day, whether it’s recruiting, in-season, out-of-season workouts, access to things. We need to go back and look at that. Is how we’re laying this out the appropriate way to do so, or is there another way?”

Commissioners and presidents will spend the next few weeks and months talking to athletes with a range of experiences, and it’ll be important for them to talk to those who still feel the long-term effects of pushing through a season. Take former Oregon linebacker Tyson Coleman, for example. He started 15 games in 2014, when the Ducks made the Playoff, beat Florida State in the Rose Bowl to reach the national title game and then lost to McMillan and Ohio State. Coleman started 13 games the following season, too. He said it’s important to understand both the physical and mental toll that an extended season will have on 18- to 22-year-olds.

“My last two years at Oregon I had bulging discs in my back and neck that were kind of undiagnosed, so those seasons were miserable for me,” Coleman said. “Those added extra weeks, I know for guys in my similar position, it wasn’t ideal. It was really cool to play in the Rose Bowl and the first College Football Playoff ever, but it wasn’t great on our bodies.”

Coleman said he didn’t practice much during the second half of either season; he’d do walkthroughs and jog around.

“Before games I would take Toradol,” he said. “I’d take it 30 minutes before the game, my muscles would loosen up and then I would go run into people. A lot of guys will do that, you know, being held out of practice all week just so they can get through four quarters of a game, and that’s in a normal season.”

Coleman had to have a disc replaced in his neck eight months ago, after being in so much pain one night that his mother and father had to help carry him to the emergency room because he couldn’t walk. He underwent surgery a week later and came away with a $10,000 hospital bill that his insurance didn’t cover. Coleman’s experience has impacted how he views college football and the way it’s run.

“This is nothing specific to Oregon. It’s part of the business and the issue with the NCAA,” Coleman said. “I played in four or five of the most-watched games in history, contributed to billions of dollars coming into our school and the NCAA, but I can’t get $10,000 to get my neck back in the position it was before I started playing.”

Coleman believes the athletes who play in the games deserve compensation. Like all players, he understands that an expanded CFP will mean even more money. The initial four-team field was worth about $470 million annually from ESPN, and that was for only four teams and three games. The 12-team proposal triples the amount of teams and adds eight more postseason games.

“From a player’s perspective, I think the Playoff is cool. I think the system is awesome. But the toll on the body? I don’t know if it’s worth your scholarship.”

(Photo: Jamie Schwaberow / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

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