#not only was that unnecessary but i'm also changing the map so it's no longer accurate

[aplaceforstellasscribbles]

WIP Introduction- Walk Against the Wind

Officially announcing my WIP novel Walk Against the Wind!

For those of you that have been around since 2018 (or earlier) this is actually the same story I've been working on since then. However, it has undergone extensive changes since I last posted about it. Hence, a new introduction post.

Setting

Time Period: Late 1800s, mid-Industrial Revolution. Most scenes in the "Present Day" take place in the late 1870s or early 1880s, but there are some "Past" scenes in the 1860s or earlier.

World: A secondary world very similar to Earth. I'm in the process of drawing a world map, which I may eventually post here. This is a realistic setting with no magic and mostly real-world period-appropriate technology.

Place: The majority of the story takes place in a city called Remmord, set in a valley which controls access to the Silvercape Peninsula on the west coast of the country. Two steep mountain ranges meet at the base of the peninsula, making it difficult to get to from the east. Remmord is one of the major cities of the kingdom of Themidis, a large country known mostly for its unfriendliness towards its neighbors and its large standing military.

Miscellaneous

Remmord and its surrounding region used to be a separate country (called Dalatras) from Themidis, which is a fact completely unknown to the majority of the populations of both Remmord and Themidis

Remmord's government is a dictatorship imposed on them by the Themidian king that was responsible for the absorption of Remmord. Succession of this position must happen through single unarmed fatal combat, by order of the king

Characters

Gilsen Sheridan: Main character, primary POV. He's in his mid-twenties, returning to his hometown after retiring early from his career in the Royal Guard (a blend of police and military). His family is one of the oldest families in Remmord, part of a group of people called the History Keepers that secretly record accurate history and folklore. When Gilsen was a child, he was separated from his family, and he's wanted nothing more than to return to them and help them continue their work of preserving Remmord's history. His name comes from an old Germanic word for "pledge." He's observant, intelligent, compassionate, tenacious, creative, and kind. He has a strong sense of justice and always tries to do the right thing. Like many people of Remmord, he's pale, has curly brown hair and brown eyes, and is tall (by America's standards-he's on the taller end of average for Remmord). He's aromantic and asexual, which will be a significant part of his story (in the lack of a romantic subplot, and also in the importance of his platonic relationships).

Amalia Glenfield: The other main character with a POV. I'm aiming for giving her a roughly equal amount of screentime with Gilsen, but she may end up getting a little less, depending on how things work out. She's the daughter of the Consul of Remmord, which resulted in a sheltered and lonely childhood. Growing up wealthy also gave her certain worldviews that she spends her early adulthood trying to unlearn. She and Gilsen have been friends since early childhood. In the process of trying to expand her understanding of the world, she comes to realize that many things about Remmord are deeply flawed, and she decides to try to change them, mostly through a "tear it all down and rebuild a better version" mindset, fueled by resentment of her father. She blames him directly for most of Remmord's problems, and is convinced that removing him from power is the only way to fix anything. Her name means "unceasing, vigorous, brave." She's impulsive, strong-willed, dedicated, and loyal. She feels intense righteous anger over the state of her city. She also struggles to see the forest for the trees, getting a little lost in the small things. She's pale, with brown hair and green eyes, and is on the shorter end of average height. She's also aromantic and asexual, which will also be a significant part of her story.

Ryan Glenfield: The Consul of Remmord, a position he gained as a teenager when his (also teenage) brother abandoned it. He begins his rule with the best of intentions, but naivete, ignorance, and years of bad advice mean that his actions aren't always good for all of Remmord. His people largely see him as someone who's better than his predecessor, but who does make plenty of bad decisions they disagree with. He's too separated from his people to really realize the full effect of his policies on their daily lives, so he thinks he's doing a great job. He wants to do the right thing, but often doesn't know what that would be. He tried to be a good parent to Amalia, and doesn't really understand why she's so distant as an adult. He's stubborn and thinks he always knows best, but he's also willing to learn if someone shows him he's wrong. I haven't settled on an appearance for him just yet.

Henry Glenfield: Ryan's older brother. He couldn't handle the responsibility of being Consul when he earned the position as a teenager, so he abandoned his post to travel the country. He returns to Remmord after several years to find out that Ryan has taken his post and doesn't really want to give it back. By the time the story begins, he's spent years regretting his choice, believing that Ryan isn't the ruler that the city needs. Outwardly, he's supportive of his brother, but he wishes there was a way for him to make things better without opposing Ryan. He takes in Gilsen when he's separated from his parents, believing it to be his fault that Gilsen's parents are gone. When Amalia and Gilsen come to him with concrete ideas for how to help Remmord in a way that doesn't pit him against Ryan, he's all ears and eager to help. I haven't settled on an appearance for him either.

Plot

When Gilsen is a child, Remmord's most culturally significant holiday is outlawed, leading to protests that result in the arrest of Gilsen's parents. He comes back to his family as an adult ready to hear their plans for how they're going to restore the holiday now that so many years have passed, only to be told that the family has no such plans. He decides that he'll just have to try without them, and begins strategizing for that. Meanwhile, Amalia is also seeking ways to undo many of her father's decisions, so the two scheme together. Amalia attempts to convince Gilsen to challenge her father, but he refuses. She then attempts to convince Henry, but he won't kill his brother. Gilsen thinks that there's another way to achieve their goals: by simply educating Ryan and appealing to his need to do the right thing. With Henry's encouragement, Gilsen exposes the lies Ryan has been taught. When he sees the truth, Ryan is distraught, and agrees that many of his laws should be overturned and that the dictatorship should be abolished. The four of them work with each other and their people to set up a democratic government. Henry is elected as the new leader. He and his council decide that one of the first things they should do is bring back the banned holiday. There's still a lot of work left to do, but it's a good beginning, and for the first time in years the four are hopeful for their future.

[sehnsuchts-trunken]

I'll Show You Just How Sad I Am

a raymond smith x reader quick little blurb, just 1k words

there's mentions of smut in this so read at your own risk <33 who knows, maybe raymond will make a more regular occurrence on my blog over the next few weeks

here's my masterlist in case you want to check out my other works

"Should be the door to your left, honey."

Your voice is sweet in his ear, a pleasant distraction from the run-down building Mickey had sent him off to. It's smelly and dirty and even though he knows he should most likely feel pity, he's still just as disgusted. He'd be with you in a heartbeat if he could, safe and clean in the comfort of your home.

"Mickey should've sent a cleaning lady", he grunts as he knocks at the door, your chuckle almost making up for the very truthful, thinly veiled anger behind his words.

"Mickey wanted you because you're the best", you recite - you've told him often enough by now that it really is reciting. "And because he trusts you to keep this clean."

Which is easier said than done.

Twenty minutes later, the whole thing's anything but clean.

Sure, he'd very much accomplished bringing Laura home - but he'd also left a dead teenager in a puddle of blood about two stories down from where he should've been sitting.

"Left, left!", you call into the mic. Even though you're far from panicking, you're still much too loud, your voice flowing from his earpiece and stinging his brain.

"I'm trying, darling", he grunts back, breathless and panting as he pushes on, one foot in front of the other on the pavement of some random South London streets.

"I know, I know", you sigh. He isn't sure whether he's actually hearing you chew on your lip or imagining it, but he doesn't really have the capacity to think too much about it at the moment. "He's right in front of you. You've got him, Ray."

Yeah... The only problem is that what you must be seeing as a moving, flashing dot on a digital map, he's seeing as a bunch of teenagers trying to look intimidating. Probably feeling intimidating too. God, this is exactly why he didn't want the job. He isn't made for the fucking low-classed youth.

"You've seen enough?", that bastard of a boy spits at him. "Now I've got backup."

Raymond steadies his hands on his thighs and takes a deep breath in.

"You couldn't back up a phone, you cunt", he rasps, his erratic heartbeat slowly starting to calm back down.

"Raymond", you scold. "That's a child."

"That's a bastard", he mutters, before he finally straightens and tries his best at a somewhat mannered bargain. He's really only here for the fucking phone. He needs those pictures, then he's gone. He doesn't want to leave more unnecessary corpses to take care of.

So he offers them money. Which is something that they should definitely take, just judging by how they look. Plus a visit to a very good psychiatrist. But they don't. It's the same fucking bastard who's taken the pictures in the first case and got him into this mess that refuses - and in such a really stupid way, too: "How 'bout you give us that bag and be gone anyway?" - god, even you let out a choked up laugh at that, your breath carrying through the mic and into Ray's earpiece.

He drops his chin to his chest and shakes his head. What a fucking bunch of idiots. Goddamn it. He can feel his blood boil, hot and hotter.

"It's bait", you mutter, your voice low. "Calm down, love. You've got a machine gun. Use it."

Yeah, fucking hell, it's bait, he knows that. It doesn't change the way he's feeling. But your voice in his ear at least brings him back down to reality.

"Right", he grunts, then he swipes his coat to the side, closes his hand around the grip of the gun and steadies his fingertips against the trigger. He pulls it out in one swift motion, points it at the sky and shoots. For a good three seconds longer than necessary.

"Just like that", you breathe, your grin dripping down onto your voice and melting into his ear like honey. You've really got to stop that, he actually loses his focus for half a moment there and in his line of work, next time that means sure death.

The entire bunch of teenage boys flees - as expected - and in less than a minute, Raymond has the phone pressed into his palm.

"God, sometimes I really hate that I'm not there", you sigh, something in the background ruffling, probably as you shift into a more comfortable position on your chair. "Kinda wish I could've seen you."

"Run after a little cunt like that? You didn't miss anything, darling", he says, turning his head left and right before he strides back towards the car, his steps long and purposeful.

"Turn the corner here", you mutter, your voice taking on that specific tone that tells him there's a lazy grin licking at your lips. He can just imagine how you're looking (especially now that he has the time and freedom of mind for it) - one foot propped up on those bar stools that you'd bought for the kitchen, your equipment organised on the table top in front of you, his shirt hanging from your shoulders and pooling in your lap, your head tilted back and your eyes half-closed as you talk to him.

"I don't mean the little idiot", you go on, undeterred even as he narrowly avoids a trash can. Fuck, you really distract him too much. "I'm talking about you. God, you sounded so hot I wanted to jump at you. Actually scratch that, I still do."

He lets out a chuckle as he spots the car, his steps slowing. He should hurry up, he knows that. But he's got you in his ear, talking in that sweet voice of yours about just how much he affects you. He can't pass up on that.

"You're a little fuckin' minx, darling", he mutters with a grin, throwing a glance over his shoulder to check if there's any possibility he could be overheard. He doesn't necessarily feel like making your conversation public, even as you hum into the microphone.

"Yeah, but yours", you mumble. It sounds like you're almost proud of that. "Here's an idea, love: Get back home before I finish my shower and I'll show you just how sad I am that I couldn't watch you."

[trans-beast]

https://youtu.be/jqrSAWAaC9s?si=ZjiRYDhJf97dXveo

I'm not usually super political. I don't even fully agree with some of the statements made in this video, particularly involving veganism, which felt unnecessary at best and biased at worst. But to those who would be negatively impacted given the current political climate, this video has value. Most of that value is at the start. Study the policies and laws in your state. There may be more of a safety net for you than you know.

There is also a chance you may find safety in specific parts of the state you live in, even if it's a state that shows up red on a map. Dallas, Texas has a reputation for being very queer-friendly, as an example. Knowledge is power, get yourself some knowledge.

The gist of the video is that getting involved with community stuff can help. And I don't mean "let's all work at a soup kitchen", I mean find a group you vibe with and go hang out with them, and be open to new folks seeking refuge in your pack. It can be a soup kitchen, it can be a gardening club, a D&D group that supports its players and isn't run by an asshole, it can even be a club that does BDSM on the weekends and watches horror movies at Dave's house once a month. As long as it's not closing itself off to new members and everyone is willing to contribute in some form, even if it's something as small as cleaning up something someone else spilled or offering to do a chore or lending your friend a $5 bill to buy a beer to take the edge off, that is enough to do some good.

Fascism lives in the mundane. It starts growing in the spaces where justice and community are absent. Don't let it grow. By having a community you stand together with, you WILL make an impact, even if you don't know it. You will make a snowball effect. We need to change the way people think, and it starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with everyone. This is the kind of societal upheaval that leads to people being more mindful and considerate, the kind of tragedy that makes people look back and say "we should have known better", but that better future only comes if we use our heads and stick together.

We've been conditioned to think a single person can't do anything, and that only a majority can make a change. That's bullshit. Every single person in a majority is just that - a single person. We need to foster bonds and form tribes, because that's what we've been literally born to do. We evolved to survive together, not alone. We evolved to help each other out, to lend our talents to the group so we can all make it, rather than just some of us. Selfishness feels bad because we literally were programmed for this through millions of years of evolution. We are not a species that banded together out of hate, we did it out of love. We have seen fossil evidence of ancient humans caring for their injured and disabled, ensuring they live far longer than they would have on their own. We care for our own.

And even outsiders aren't exempt from this evolutionary predisposition to pack-bond. We tamed wolves and made them dogs. We barely did anything and cats decided they liked our vibe enough to stick around. We used to be ENEMIES with wolves. Humans and wolves hunted a lot of the same prey, with the same methods, and we STILL managed to befriend them and become stronger together. Even now we are keeping all kinds of weird stuff in our homes like snakes and lizards and birds and spiders and rats, we are STILL taming animals, and they don't even serve a survival purpose anymore. We just like having them around. Human instinct isn't about bloodshed, it's about bonding with another creature and protecting that bond you have made.

Go outside. Go touch grass and socialize. Some of you severely underestimate the benefit of just living your life and inviting others to join. Find a safe space with people who don't justify doing harm to others by wearing a MAGA hat. If that safe space can't be found, do what you can to build one. Build a bond with that community, look out for each other. We're pack animals. Go find a pack.

I hope everyone found this helpful and I invite discussion. Suggestions, questions, comments, concerns, whatever! Go for it! Let's talk. Put the "commune" in "community".

[anheliotrope]

So yeah, it's kind of impressive how one little thing makes Resident Evil 1 remake significantly worse than it should be.

Chris has 6 inventory slots, Jill has 8 inventory slots.

The game has numerous quest items whose usage is not clear at all. This lack of clarity can arise from simple things like "how the fuck am I supposed to know which doors are opened by the helmet key" and it can also arise from things like "what the hell does this red gem even do".

Without a guide, it's really difficult to know when you should be carrying each quest item. Even if you check locked doors and see what key they need, you would need to actually remember or type that down, and let's be real, you're probably not going to do either. You're going to remember one locked door, not 3-4.

Changing subject -- RE1 Remake had a great feature added. It's called Crimson Heads. Zombies you down, whose head is not destroyed, will rise as Crimson Heads after a certain amount of game time has passed. They are 3-4 more threatening than a normal zombie, and much harder to avoid. A huge drain on your resources at best.

You can destroy heads in three main ways:

There's a 5% chance to decapitate a zombie with the handgun. I have no idea if this requires actually shooting its head.

There's a 60% or 75% chance to decapitate a zombie with a shotgun blast to the head.

You can use kerosene and a lighter to burn the zombies.

You really don't have enough shotgun ammo to waste on regular zombies, and your handgun is entirely unreliable here. So you will be using a lot of kerosene. And this is the problem. Suddenly your 8 inventory slots become 6 inventory slots.

The game constantly forces you to choose between backtracking until you wish for death and having so many slots occupied by quest items and kerosene+lighter that you won't ever be able to pick up resources you run across -- causing you to backtrack anyway.

Did I mention you can only carry two charges of kerosene, there's dozens of zombies, and you can only refuel at canisters that eventually run out forcing you to go to even farther away canisters and waste more of your time?

Crimson Heads in isolation are genuinely a good idea. The best way to avoid dealing with a Crimson Head is to not kill the zombie at all. A scary prospect when you've not yet mastered avoidance! But the kerosene and lighter take what was a medium-sized problem in RE1 and make it planet-sized.

Playing this game with a guide vastly helps with this issue as you will minimize unnecessary backtracking. But this in turn makes the game much less scary and definitely doesn't help with immersion.

I'm absolutely obsessed by how hard people can work on a game but one small decision involving two funky inventory slots almost ruined my ability to enjoy the game.

This is just a thing in video games, I guess.

Also, it might not click with you why the backtracking is so bad. So I'll explain:

It takes way longer than it should because every single door you open triggers a 5 second door opening transition.

When you play blind you don't know how many zombies are going to spawn on your way back. Ultimately it's less than you'd think, but you have no way of knowing that, there are just arbitrary static spawns triggered by progression + visiting an area again.

You have to avoid every enemy you left alive.

You have a limited amount of saves because saving uses up an item that has a finite quantity in the entire game. The more time you spend doing things, the more time you can lose by dying.

(Chris always has the lighter without it taking an inventory slot, just random fact.)

RE2 remake vastly improves the situation by showing you what quest items you need on the map, provided you've explored there before and examined your items. You have more inventory slots and fewer quest items. It's basically almost solved. But I'll get into what RE2 remake screws up later.

[dapperfvck-arc]

🔥 The TV show... (Because I really want to know exactly why you don't like it [or hate it?] because i'm so freaking curious. Also I think in general a Constantine TV show would do best on AMC rather than NBC... FEEL FREE TO COMPLETELY RANT. I WANT TO KNOW. Please.)

Unpopular Opinion Time!

Oh boy. Hooooo boy. I’m still going to be relatively gentle, because honestly, I’m saving my true vitriol for the times that I must defend my choice not to RP it or for the hysterical consensus opinion from the fandom that TV show was an improvement over the film (lol nope, aside from Matt Ryan “looking the part” but that’s a whole other can of worms). 

Note: Cut for length and maybe a bit of brutality in my honesty.

*sighs* Ok, I’ll first preface this with that I still have like four episodes to go. Obviously, I have massive issues in the needless changes made to the adaption of comic canon. It was unnecessary to make Chas American while retaining the fact that he’s John’s oldest and best of friends. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but who knows. Maybe it’s explained a little better in one of the last few episodes, but you know. My hopes aren’t high. I don’t like Chas’s virtual invulnerability, not just because it takes away the stakes of the danger he’s putting himself in, but also? It’s a plot device scarcely used? So why make that choice if it’s not going to be capitalized on with meaningful frequency? I hated that Zed was portrayed as a novice, and that the teeth were taken out from the Newcastle Incident. Now obviously, I understand why they’d have to alter a bit of it due to Network censorship, but at the same??? I mean child abuse and sexual violence are nothing new on shows like Law and Order: SVU and Criminal minds so…Idek, it kind of comes off as an excuse. It’s not a child’s show. Maybe it could be argued that it was marketed toward teenagers, but it’s not like they’re ignorant to those horrors in the world. I’m not asking them to show Astra’s rape, just to acknowledge the true horror of the situation instead of making it all about John’s failure. So yeah, I was annoyed by the occasional attempt to adapt source material and completely mucking it all up.

Now to begin with, I completely get the SP/N’s fandom bitterness more than ever. Before watching it I thought they were just trying to be like “whaaaat, another show about magic and exorcism? Of course it’s a ripoff because don’t you know our fandom invented those things?” I honestly believe the crux of the issue is that NBC clearly wanted their own SP/N as well as to cash in the popularity of comic book based media, so there’s that. To me, it comes off as a shameless cash grab. I honestly believe if I felt like there was some kind of passion from its creators, I could have dealt with some of those changes, but I don’t get that. It’s been a soulless experience overall. Like it’s not been a matter of me nitpicking like “oh this is wrong, this has been changed, boo hoo, it’s not all existential horror and fucking and drugs.”

Because frankly...I just think it’s a bad show. It’s poorly written, poorly made, poorly researched, poorly acted, it’s just bad. The main issue I have with it is that it’s a lot of telling and not showing. There’s not a lot of tension or foreshadowing, just “boom this is how it is” and so much exposition. John, for example, about half of his dialogue in any given show is verbal exposition. It’s frustrating, tbh. Like, it doesn’t make sense for me in this day and age for a TV show, even on a network channel, to be this bad. Over the past several years, television series have improved exponentially in content and writing. It’s not shameful anymore to start off on TV anymore. We’re in a very exciting time that television and cinema are almost completely on equal par of perceived quality. So yeah, it’s been an even greater disappointment for me because it’s not just that they fuck with the source material but because on top of that it’s literally a bad show. I’m not one bit surprised that it wasn’t renewed because there just...Isn’t enough to like about it. It’s not faithful enough to the comic to secure that base of fans and it’s not good enough to be taken for face value. 

The other massive issue I have is the portrayal of magic, which honestly extends to DC’s handling of Hellblazer and John as well. See, what you have to understand is that predominately, throughout the Vertigo series, it’s clear to me that most of its writers either have some awareness of how magic works or at least have done their research. I can follow the logic and ritual in what he’s doing. ​Let me tell you a little something about magic. It's all about focus and will. You can do and say whatever the hell you want as long as you're putting your intent behind it. The ritual of spell work, use of candles, crystals, incense, chanting, incantations, etc. are meant to be the focus of a magician's energy and will on a particular result, but it could be attempted without as well. To explain it in more fantastical terms, in Harry Potter casting without a wand is considered impressive. This implies that the wizard's focus and will is so strong that they no longer need a wand to draw out their intent. Now I get it. By this understanding magic doesn't make good TV viewing (I guess...), but my main concern with this series is there's no attempt to portray an iota of witchcraft's reality along with the fantastical. Now part of this problem is that they've removed a great deal of John's innate ability. He can no longer see spirits/ghosts and there is no mention to his connection to synchronicity (as far I’ve seen, mind). Instead of happening to end up where he needs to be or what have you, he's following a map, and he uses a lot of artifacts and other implementation to get the job done. Which bothers me on a few levels. For one, it imbues the focus, not the caster with the power, which is not how magic works (at least in the sense of portraying gritty urban fantasy), and for two, it's very much against character. Let me give you an example: In the two part story Newcastle Calling, at the end of it, John hands a dying man a twig, telling him it's the finger bone of St. Cavartigan and that it's known to bring relief to those in need. He tells him to squeeze it tightly and focus on the pain going away. Near the end of the scene, the young man tells John that it's working. A couple things can be taken away from this scene: John's will was that the dying man would believe as he was told and his instructions were rote ritual. By contrast, in the series, John would probably had actually given him a Saint's fingerbone. You see the comparison takes the power of the scene away, as well as the mystery. Is the power of John's suggestion so strong that he could make the guy believe by holding that twig his pain would do away? Or was he so desperate to believe in order to not die in pain? You can interpret it either way. Hell, I could invent other interpretations, but going by what I believe would happen in the show, it can only be interpreted in the most literal sense. Now, to be honest, most television shows portray magic poorly. Even movies do a better job while keeping fantastical elements. The Craft, for all it’s 90s cheese, is a great example of this. So I suppose I could be blamed for getting my hopes up to be dashed because it’s just following the formula of 95% of all TV shows that feature a magical element or theme, but I mean...it’s not like Buffy or Charmed that was working without a script, so to speak. The TV series had a ready made blueprint and still chose to take the mumbo-jumbo bullshit route. Now, I have a lot of theories on the why for this, but that’s another post altogether and this has already gone on for way too long and I still have more to say.

Now, I guess I should, at least briefly, touch on the elephant in the room: Matt Ryan as John. What did I think? Because a lot of people have told me that he’s the shining beacon of this show, even literally admitting that yeah, it’s a poor representation of Hellblazer but that Matt Ryan man, he’s great! The problem that I have is that it’s not a good a show, and so no, I don’t like him in the role. I’m not going to compare him to Keanu because that’s not fair for a number of reasons, and maybe I’m a little biased because I adore Keanu (there’s also that can of worms I mentioned earlier, which is honestly yet another separate post lol). The way John’s written for this show, he’s positively insufferable. He’s not charming at all, which is find the most offensive, because one thing that can be said across all series and iterations of the character is that John is magnetic even despite xyz (he’s dangerous, he can be an asshole, he’s unreliable, etc.). Here he’s just a know-it-all, condescending prick. Now I do think with better writing, in a better representation of John’s character and Hellblazer in general (and maybe with a voice coach or director to discourage that Welshy intonation because yeah, his accent does irritate the shit out of me, but I’ve been very vocal about that before and honestly, at this point, I’ve come to realize that Ryan’s vowels are the least of this show’s problem), I think he has potential to be a fine John. As it stands in the media he’s portrayed John in so far (idk, maybe he was good on Arrow, but I’m talking the TV Series here and the JLD animation, which I’ve admittedly not seen, but I hated the comic so I’m not real likely to give that a chance considering my disposition toward the source material), I’m not entirely sold on him. Like if they tried another TV series for Hellblazer and didn’t cast him in the role, I wouldn’t be upset over it. 

I do agree that it probably could have been better on another channel, but here’s the rub, all the blood and gore and sex and loose censorship in the world could not save that show without better writing and direction. It could have been a fine show even on network if it had been crafted with some degree of caring. Let me give you an example off the top of head, namely the handling of the Newcastle incident. It was laid out pretty plainly within a few episodes. Alterations from canon aside, it doesn’t portray the horror of it at all and is one of the show’s many missed opportunities to really play up the scarier, more mysterious elements of John’s backstory. For example, instead of laying it out in a sloppy flashback with a laughable puppet, picture this scene instead: ​John is having a chat with someone, maybe Zed or Chas or some b-plot character. Something reminds him of the Newcastle incident and he gets a far off look in his eyes. The folly drops away to an eerie silence as the camera comes in tight on John's expression. Filling up the silence is a little girl's scream, then the voices of his friends, perhaps some sounds of violence, an inhuman sound or voice, it all blends together to become a hellish cacophony of sound as John's expression becomes more strained. Then suddenly the other person calling his name snaps him out of his reverie. The screams stop, the folly returns, and the scene appears jarringly normal. John shakes his head, makes a joke, and they move on. Yeah, that kind of scene has been done before, but the reason for that is it’s effective without giving away the whole story. It shows that this is a man haunted by something horrible. It’s also cheap and doesn’t necessitate straining the no doubt thin budget of a TV show that has yet to prove itself worthy of having more money thrown at it. 

Honestly, the issues I have with this show are innumerable and I’m just scratching the surface here and laying out my biggest problems. I could nitpick for days, and that’s the reason I’ve stayed mum about my opinions. There are people that follow me and that I write with that really like and care about the show, and I don’t want to make them feel...you know, bad about it or that they can’t talk to me or whatever. You know, if they found it enjoyable more power to them. I just didn’t and that’s maybe on me. By no means am I trying to bash the show here (because lord if I wanted to, I could), but to offer up what was requested, and that’s my undiluted opinions and feelings about the series. Of course I’m sorry that I couldn’t share the joy and that I couldn’t even like it on a similar level that I do the film (as a very solid AU, which people have tried to sell the show as to me, knowing my previous understanding of some of the changes made that deviate strongly from canon. As I said, maybe if it had been better made and written, I could, but as it stands currently, I can’t and unless real changes are made in the future, I’m unlikely to alter my opinion of it).

So yeah that’s it. Apologies that this got so very long, but as you can tell, there’s been a lot that I’ve been holding back.

[tortuga-aak]

I'm a college professor — here's what happened when I made my students turn off their phones in class

aidanmorgan/Flickr

A professor required her students to put their phones in lockable pouches during class.

Students immediately found workarounds, like keeping the pouch unlocked or texting on their laptops instead.

By the end of the semester, half of the class reported a better learning environment.

  As a teacher who has long witnessed and worried about the impacts of technology in the classroom, I constantly struggle to devise effective classroom policies for smartphones.

I used to make students sing or dance if their phones interrupted class, and although this led to some memorable moments, it also turned inappropriate tech use into a joke.

Given the myriad deleterious effects of phones — addiction, decline of face-to-face socialization, deskilling, and endless distraction, for starters — I want students to think carefully about their phone habits, rather than to mindlessly follow (or not follow) a rule.

After reading my Aeon essay on the topic, a representative from a San Francisco startup called YONDR contacted me.

YONDR makes special pouches that keep audiences from using their phones at shows. You silence your phone, slide it into the pouch, and lock it at the top. After the performance, or if access is necessary before then, you can unlock the case in the lobby by touching the lock to a metal base, similar to anti-theft tags on clothing.

Performers such as Dave Chappelle and Alicia Keys have used YONDR — whose motto is 'Be here now' — to curtail unsanctioned recordings and, when they look into the crowd, they see faces, not phones. The approach seems less draconian than forcing people to part with their tech, as separation anxiety defeats the goal of increased engagement.

YONDR sent me pouches to use in class. At the start of the winter semester, I introduced my students to the routine: before each class, they'd silence their phones, get a pouch from the box, and lock their phones in. Before leaving, they'd unlock the case and put it back in the box.

Thomas Lohnes/Getty ImagesDuring class, I didn't care if they put the pouches on the desk, in their pockets, or if they clutched them tight. I told them this was an experiment for an eventual article, and that I wanted their honest opinions, which I'd collect via surveys at the beginning and end of the semester.

Initially, 37 per cent of my 30 students — undergraduates at Boston University — were angry or annoyed about this experiment. While my previous policy leveraged public humiliation, it didn't dictate what they did with their phones in class.

For some, putting their phones into cases seemed akin to caging a pet, a clear denial of freedom. Yet by the end of the semester, only 14 per cent felt negatively about the pouches; 11 per cent were 'pleasantly surprised'; 7 per cent were 'relieved'; and 21 per cent felt 'fine' about them.

Workarounds emerged immediately.

Students slid their phones into the pouches without locking them, but because they still couldn't use their phones in class, this became a quiet act of rebellion, rather than a demonstration of defiance. Some of them used their computers, on which we often search databases and complete in-class exercises, to text or access social media.

I'm not comfortable policing students' computer screens — if they really want to use class time to access what YONDR denies them, that's their choice.

The pouches did stop students from going to the bathroom to use their phones. In previous semesters, some students would leave the room for 10 to 15 minutes and take their phones with them. With phones pouched, there were very few bathroom trips.

A quarter (26 per cent) of my students predicted that YONDR would make the classroom 'more distraction-free'. At the end of the semester, twice as many (51.85 per cent) said it actually had. I can't tell if this is a grudging admission, as though conceding that broccoli isn't so bad after all, or an earnest one.

Once, after class, I noticed a pouch left under a desk. A few minutes later a student raced in. 'I totally forgot about my phone after I put it in the pouch,' she said. 'I guess that means they're working.' Perhaps she daydreamed about something else or produced a magnificent doodle, but chances are she was actually engaged in the class.

When I asked whether society would benefit from decreased phone use, only 15 per cent said no. Two-thirds (65 per cent) said yes, and 19 per cent said: 'I think so.' Half (50 per cent) of students mentioned better communication and more face-to-face interactions as benefits of using phones less.

'I started to notice how my cellphone was taking over my life,' one student wrote. '[B]eing in the shower is a time I really appreciate because it forces me to spend some time away from my phone, just thinking rather than mindlessly scrolling.'

My goal with this experiment was to get students thinking about their habits, rather than to necessarily change them. Students should question authority, including mine.

It's easy for me, and, I suspect, much of the older generation, to seek evidence to support the idea that life was better before smartphones. My students admit they can't read maps, that they find reading and writing on paper antiquated, that they don't memorize information they can google.

Yet these are not confessions — these are realities. Some changes are simply changes.

Not everything needs to be a value judgment, but students generally agree that phone use in the classroom is inappropriate — only 11 per cent believe a class phone policy is unnecessary.

MjZ Photography/FlickrAt the beginning of the semester, 48 per cent said that a more distraction-free environment would help with learning.

Given that, I asked why we still surround ourselves with phones in the classroom. A fifth (20 per cent) used the word 'addiction' in their responses — a word they often avoid.

Many mentioned boredom. Unfortunately, societal norms suggest that phone use is an acceptable response to boredom. But as philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard and Bertrand Russell have argued, boredom is essential — it ignites imagination and ambition. Boredom isn't something from which students need rescuing.

One student voiced a reductionist explanation: 'We are idiots. We cannot control our behavior.' While I appreciate the pithy observation, the resoluteness of these statements troubles me. If we write ourselves off as idiots, then why bother examining the way we live? If we have no control over our behavior, what's the point of trying to change?

Technology is part of humanity's narrative.

That's neither inherently good nor bad — the implications are up to us. While 39 per cent of my students said that studying the effects of phone use didn't change their thoughts or behaviors, 28.5 per cent try to use their phones less and 21.5 per cent now try to be more aware about how/when they use their phones. Half of my students think more critically about the role of phones, and that's the first step in guiding our relationship with technology, instead of letting tech guide us.

Still, I wanted some sense of where my students' generation will take this story.

I asked them whether they'd ever implant their phones in their bodies (as predicted by industry leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum in 2016) and here's what they said:

 7%: Yes! The closer I can be to my phone, the better

 7%: Yes — it's inevitable, so I might as well

 7%: Depends on the cost

 11%: Depends on how many other people are doing it

 36%: Depends on the physical risks

 32%: No way

Two-thirds of my students would at least consider making their phones part of their bodies, which would mean accepting all the consequences of screens, instant gratification and information-dependency.

Getty Images/Spencer PlattBut as with all hypothetical questions, perhaps when the possibility arises, some will decide to preserve the ability to put down their phones. Perhaps they'll remember that time with the kind of nostalgia I feel for the experiences of childhood that no longer exist.

In the novel Ishmael (1992) by Daniel Quinn, the ape Ishmael tells its human pupil that it's an expert in captivity.

'I have this impression of being a captive,' the pupil says, 'but I can't explain why.'

'[You're] unable to find the bars of the cage,' Ishmael replies.

I keep returning to this idea when I think about the YONDR experiment. Ishmael is talking about the destruction of the environment, but his observation applies to human use of technology too. Participation in modern-day civilization requires technology, particularly smartphones. We pay bills, communicate with friends and family, get our news, and apply for jobs, college and healthcare via websites and apps. The old-fashioned way doesn't work anymore. We have to adapt.

But it's up to us exactly how to adapt. Do we line up to fork out more than $999 for the new iPhone? Do we text someone across the room or keep our phone on the table during dinner? Do we opt to interact with other humans as little as possible and rely on technology as the go-between?

Ultimately, that's what the YONDR pouches represent: choice. Perhaps agency won't lead to a different narrative, but it could offer my students a workaround. If they are going to implant smartphones in their bodies, I hope they do so not because it's the path of least resistance but because they thought about it and truly want it. And if they power down their phones, I hope it's not (always) because a professor asked them to.

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