#oct 6th is speaking 2 me

[drsonnet]

I can't sleep. I'm lying in bed every night, and images of Gaza are running through my head. Fathers holding their babies, dead, caked in dust. Bombs dropped on homes [1], on hospitals [2], on schools [3]. Tens of thousands of dead [4] in indiscriminate bombings [5]. Children crying, pulling through rubble to find their families [6]. The inhumanity of the soldiers is unbearable. They shoot civilians in the street [7], imprison and torture children [8], and strip and humiliate innocent men [9]. But the soldiers are having fun [10]. They're posting to TikTok [11], doing some war crimes [12], then celebrating on the beach [13]. I hate them. I hate them. I can't work. I code for 5 minutes before their bodies come back. I must work, but who can do a startup through a genocide, when 20,000 are dead [14], when the Israeli-imposed starvation is setting in [15]. I try though; the distraction is good for me. I look at my colleagues – the founders, the investors, my network, my friends, my advisors. I'm afraid to open their twitters. Each time I do, it's a roulette: is it business as usual – a new fundraise, the latest in AI, a new model released. The blasé posts are a relief. I can tell myself that they're censored, afraid to speak up about the genocide. Unable or not knowing how to do it. That's understandable. The propaganda kills me. People I thought were friends, were allies. So much humanity for those killed on October 7th, none for the people killed on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, or in November or December [16]. 20,000 people, killed by deliberate, indiscriminate bombing [17]. None either for the people killed on Oct 6th, 5th, 4th [18]. For the people massacred in 1948 [19] and since. No protest of the illegal occupation [20], the illegal settlements [21]. The razing of the villages [22] and the olive groves [23]. They don't exist to them; they didn't happen.

Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

I can't sleep.

I can't sleep (paulbiggar.com)

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

Title: Bryan360's OC - Emme, Scottie, Windy & Jo

Here’s my May’s “Secret Art Trade” for my A-Pal, Bryan360/BryanVelasquez87. 🙂

• His OC trio has come to an end, with these Final three slots in one artwork. Or rather, "four" OCs because my A-Pal wants me to draw two OCs under one middle part. Nonetheless, here are the three OCs that my A-Pal asked for:

• Emme 🦌🌻: A lovable deer who's interested in flowers & seeing cute pictures that will be fitted through her smartphone. Not to mention, Jo's long-time friend & Maxwell's love interest.

• Jo🐆🏃‍♀️: Speaking of, here's Emme's best friend & Sam's love interest who can do fast on either track & field or in the wild through the landscapes of Africa (Hmm... From Morocco to South Africa... Can she handle the long mile?).

• Scottie 🐰📚🍌& Windy 🐰🎤: And finally, the father & mother of Maxwell, May & Sam (which is adopted). Scottie is an illustrator who can draw animated cartoons with his traditional art skills of paper & notepad. Plus, he's a huge fan of "Donkey Kong" when he was a childhood playing with his Nintendo game console. And, Windy is an amateur singer who can sing with her wonderful voice. No wonder, that she's a “Carrot Princess of Pop” from her throwback school years. Nowadays, since she's an adult stage, will she participate in the U.S. singing competition (you know, "American Idol", "The Voice", or "The X Factor")? Who knows?

Aww, man! His entire OCs are now complete! Yeah, even though, I've lost my other files, which I won't talk about it, but hey, I'm happy that I've drawn 34 OCs in 2 years! 😁📝🎨 And who knows? I predict, that my A-Pal will make a brand new OCs, in his future plan(s).

But for now, I deserved a toast to myself! 🥂😊

Well, that’s all for now.🙂 If you haven’t seen my previous revamp digital artworks from this year, then I’ll provide some links down below.↓😉

Previous [Bryan360’s OC Trio]:

• Noteson, Brown & Wilson (Apr 9th, 2021)

• Sallie Chip, Choco & Jumbo - Revamped (June 13th, 2021)

• Heffy, Todd & Marco - Revamped (Aug 6th, 2021)

• Cheddars, Stripes & Bucky - Revamped (Aug 19th, 2021)

• Maxwell, May & Sam - Revamped (Sept 13th, 2021)

• Foofie, Oinks & Joey (Oct 11th, 2021)

• Ziggy, Bearo & Beara (Jan 25, 2022)

• The Red Panda Kids [Niu, Yuan, and Little Yang] (Apr 22, 2022)

• Leo, Mikey & Katie (Jul 10th, 2022)

• Batty Midnight, Jazzy & Cinnamon (Jan 25th, 2023)

Emme, Scottie, Windy & Jo are owned by @bryan360

[sstudiess]

I decided to torture myself and read my old journals. This is what I found and here is the wrapped:

Iconic/cringefail quotes from my old journals:

Dec 2015

"There are some things man can't change and on that list the top spot is reserved for the never ending chatter of kids."

April 2016

"i want to be a wanderer who travels in search of Justin Bieber songs and Hollywood movies"

Sept 2016

"Now I will tell you the biggest tragedy of my life. I've decided to not get into the 'gf and bf' stuff before I join NASA so I'm in a kind of dilemma."

Jan 2017

"My love life is as bad as ever but I'm looking forward to this year because according to the horoscope, my love life is gonna be amazing!"

"Now, I think that the whole school is going to know that I and xxxxx are gonna have a secret rendezvous!"

"She said that I would've aroused doubt in her mind by saying that cause nobody says I hate you to someone in private!"

March 2017

"...And the fact that life has nothing romantic to offer me, makes me more into these books! Reading people's stories when my own love story is at mortal peril!"

"What she gets after giving her best shot is almost equal to what I get after doing almost nothing at all!"

Jan 2018

"Speaking of fictional boyfriends, I'm totally over xxxx now."

Feb 2018

"I am not the chosen one nor I'm half-angel but I do have a shitty life"

"If i were in America, people would make fun of me still, but not in this way"

"I am too creative to handle my thoughts for sure."

"I know this world is big and full of possibilities but just for once, i want this world to be small for me, i want just one possibility."

"I said my love life was a square but then she said it was a triangle. I didn't agree, so we ended up calling it an 'angle', or rather, a traingle with no base."

March 2018

"I am scared for the future, for everything that is gonna come after this one year. All i have right now is a mantra 'padh le beta, 12 hai' "

"We need to find a rebound crush for me."

May 2018

"I've been binge watching thirteen reasons why. I am on the 6th ep of season 2. I kinda like that show. It was soo depressing, it helped me forget my depression"

August 2020

"I have never been this lonely, but i have never been this happy either. I needed this more than i can ever admit"

"I know I'm capable of being loved, of loving again, so I will root for that hope."

"Being a popular author is a dream only a few people get to live. Rest others are forced to live a life of oblivion, their books and creations tucked into darkness." 

Oct 2020

"It seems as if I have forced myself to stay within these walls"

Jan 2021

"Why do I hold my thoughts like Atlas holding up the weight of the entire world? I do not feel like I'm crumbling from the weight but there's this haze of heavy thoughts upon me that I cannot seem to lift."

"I have been building this world of thoughts and words. These thoughts in the form of books, movies, songs, they belong to someone else. All they do for me is dampen the intensity of the ones that actually belong to me."

"It's waiting, the spirit in me, she will burst me open with exhilaration when she thinks the time is right. She is fickle, she needs beauty, she needs a constant change of scenery."

"This will be your fall, you are Icarus, dying to touch the sky so much, you are dying to die. No no, you do not want to die. You are just agitated, angry, your defiance is performative. You're just bored out of your wits." 

"I should not want it, I am aware, but due to reasons completely irrational, i will be forgoing my last two braincells in favour of the straited muscles (the heart)."

"I JUST FOUND OUT LADY ADA LOVELACE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF THE ICONIC LORD BYRON. Hence for reasons completely irrational, i will be passing away."

"Hope is a dangerous game to play with yourself."

"My love for him is an ocean with unfathomable depths. He is a swimming pool. If he jumps, he will drown in my intensity. If i jump, I will hit my head. We both will die. Death is romantic, say the poets of old. Well, not this one, this death will be humiliating."

"We are academics, we explore the world through books, always living on the sidelines, we do not participate. We live in the past. We love art, yet we fail to make any. We love the world, we want to change it but we never try. We will never be heard except one day, sorting through dusty books, another lover will find us in pages, but we will never be able to create any real change. We deal with the mind, sometimes the heart, with the art we create. We cannot touch the tangible, our realm is the intangible and that is where we come alive. The problem however, is that we will never be remembered. John Keats was right when he said his name was written in water. Isn't everyone else's too? Ours specifically, is written on the waves. We do not create an effect, we are only felt. But I believe there are some who change the world like a Tsunami does. Shakespeare, remember? What did he do for the world? Nothing. He just wrote plays."

"I believe in love as the driving force that makes this ugly and unbearable world tolerable and meaningful." 

"You cannot nullify love just like you cannot nullify the existence of God." 

Feb 2021

"Valentine's day is a capitalist holiday. Even if it wasn't, there is no reason for celebrating it." 

"I am going for the crazy poet/scholar look these days so it hurts when i have to cut or comb my hair."

"We carry our home in our hearts. I do too, because if I didn't, I'd be homeless." 

April 2021

The Generation Z are a faithless and purposeless generation. We believe in equality, we have opinions- a lot of them but we don't have ideologies to follow or governments to overthrow. We have a fire in us that burns bright, but with no purpose, it seems to me that we're getting wasted." 

"I got a cousin baby brother! I'll admit, I did not like him much in the beginning, he looked like a shriveled potato but after they washed him up, I saw in the pictures that he looks like me!"

"Realism, pessimism, optimism- they're all words. We're all three and neither."

"Majority of the content in my journal includes me pining over a guy I dated for a month."

May 2021

"It's like looking at your scars years later, you see a fair patch of skin, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't make you feel the past pain, but it fills you with a sense of awe and wonder at your body, at its strength and its resilience." 

"I have learned the unbearable art of silencing the voice in my head. It is boring without it." 

July 2021 

"I didn't get any gifts and I was barred from buying more books" (on 20th b'day)

Jan 2022

" I have 99 problems and 110 of them would be solved if I lived alone in a small cottage on top of a hill."

"When it comes to the Romantics, I think I'm like John Keats. The sad but joyful/optimistic bastard that coughed blood and died. In all seriousness, I don't think I'm any more special or unique than this particular sad twink. It's a bummer really, because I actually aspire to be like Lord Byron. The bisexual disaster, obnoxiously charming and smart asshole that you want to punch in the face but then are too enamored by. Byron, the accidental hero, the adventurer and the rebel. That's who I want to be….. but Byron is Byron, I am not him. I am not mentally ill enough to pull off that sort of charisma." 

"I can exist and others too and we all can be the main characters. Existence isn't a competition. Not everything is." 

"I have always been single in my entire life of 21 years except for a month. I have been happy in my entire life of 21 years except for a month." 

"I made up things, I wanted a story. I look for a story everywhere- that's what we do." 

[alittle-annihilation]

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG • 20 OCT 2024

finally got to do warped 2004 😭 this weekend was beyond incredible and i am so glad i was able to go! acknowledging that wanting a band to keep putting out the same album is Bad, i really did love the concept of celebrating a particular album, especially those that came out at an approximate time period. how many of these were in the same rotation on my fucking ipod shuffle clip in 2007?! i’ve said this before but this era has always been a fave musically to live through initially as an angsty pre/teen and now finally getting to see live as an adult has been such an experience. it really felt like a rare treat

anyway, every year from 2002 to 2012 was shouted out during the say, the number of “who had this on your myspace” or “who ripped it off limewire” was hilarious. i got to see so many bands that i didnt think i’d get the chance to see and even if i hadnt listen to them in literal decades, it was a nice reminder of why i did like it back in the day. even if everything was crap as a teen, the music was always a highlight and i’m glad we got to come together to celebrate that

highlights / thoughts

pierce the veil ft kellin quinn king for a day LIVE 😭😭😭 the way it was on my soccer pre-game playlist. the way i BLOGGED about that song on THIS blog

i always forget simple plan was early emo exposure to me. i had no business listening to no pads no helmets just balls in the year when when i was 7, but i did, and i sure was a kid whose life is a nightmare. i sure was writing lyrics to welcome to my life in my history notebook in 6th grade. like damn those are roots! ANYWAY THEY PLAYED MY ALIEN!!!!

unfortunately unironically the entirety of 3OH!3’s set was So Good. i listened to want so hard late middle school / early high school and it was like a sleeper agent was activated inside of me and i remembered every word perfectly. yes this shit was absolutely cringey as hell to watch, but i still got down

TRAVIS MCCOY OF GYM CLASS HEROS CUPID’S CHOKEHOLD ‼️

i really liked fob’s different background nods to their different ~eras. i would love to see an extended set for these bc the attention to detail was BEAUTIFUL (patricks hat changes, album art rendering, call backs, etc) for just 2 songs per section

but also lets talk about folie a deux. and las vegas. and how the CD was a christmas present for me 2008 when we were there visiting family and how i spent every night in the desert with my walkman listening to that album and hanging on to every word. and how fob played SO MANY FOLIE SONGS!!!!!! including my love headfirst slide. anyway all that said she’s my winona is the ultimate folie/vegas song for me and i would have Died if they dragged her out

also taking a moment to be grateful that they did not bring out brendon urie. like that could have been a reality. i had the thought that it could happen for a 20 dollar nose bleed sitch and did NOT speak that into existence. thank u emo gods

my chemical romance literally puts on a good performance every single time. THE CHILLS

also seeing the moment gerard sits down, looks up, and smiles into the camera (u know what im talking abt) in real time made me cry

it was so interesting seeing the different bands interpretation of “play this album” the ones who faithfully did it front to back by tracklisting. those who changed up the order but stuck to the album. to sneaking a few other crowd favourites in here and there. to just playing what the fuck ever

not band related but i was pretty impressed with accessibility & visibility at the festival. it’s likely i simply wasn’t paying attn at other fests, but so many ADA sections, so many ASL interpreters, kulture city, and lots of water/med tents every few steps. i was glad to see everyone getting to enjoy what has been one of the best music experiences i’ve been to in a while

that said holy fuck my joints, my wrists are still not ok, and im completely sleep deprived. i am feeling 30 babey

bands seen (*denotes full set)

neck deep

mayday parade*

underoath

we the kings

3OH!3*

the story so far

coheed and cambria

cobra starship*

simple plan*

taking back sunday

the starting line

motion city soundtrack*

bayside

pierce the veil

jimmy eat world*

a day to remember

boys like girls*

fall out boy*

my chemical romance*

[knifesxedge]

for some god forsaken reason i’m back on my astrology bullshit n now im thinking abt the fab 4’s birthdays n zodiac signs...........i think it would b funny if ghoul and kobra had the same birthday

[just-like-playing-tag]

A totally self indulgent compilation of my favorite works on this blog of the year June 13, 2019 - June 13, 2020

I wanted to do this for the blog's first anniversary but then completely forgot about it lol.

The following lists are all in chronological order according to the date each post was first published.

Top 10 panel edits:

#1: Don and Gilda - Chapter 138: Demon serch (1)

Date: Jun 14th, 2019

Time: ~ 1:30 h

My very first redraw from my very first edit posted here, so it deserves an honorable mention. Back then I was young and inexperienced, I didn't even apply a gray filter (lmao I was so unskilled I even unintentionally scratched the picture, I hadn't realized until today). I'm actually very happy my first redraw was of Don, boy deserves all the love.

#2: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 28th, 2019

Time: ~ 1 h

Back then this looked like so much work to me!!! And to this day, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm particularly proud of how the bow turned out. This is one I was really proud of right after having finished it; it gave me the confidence to try redrawing bigger areas. Also, the edit were I first applied the opacity of layer / opacity of brush for the gray filter that would have stuck with me.

#3: Krone's birthday edit

Date: Jul 15th, 2019

Time: 15 mins

I don't know I just really like how Krone's hair vanish to a more sketch-like style here– and consequently, how I managed to replicate such effect. I think Krone's beautiful.

#4: Emma, Norman and Ray - Chapter 153: Coward

Date: Oct 4th, 2019

Time: 4:07 h (and 67 layers lmao)

Probably the single panel redraw I'm the most proud of. That Norman panel was beautiful and very poignant at the end of a chapter I adored, so I believe it deserved all the time I've spent working on it. It's far from being perfect - the back of his head is too plain, and the difference between my brushes and the original brushes is pretty visible - but I still like it very much and am extremely attached to it. The horn looks kinda big but I honestly believe it to be more of an issue with the original than with what I had redrawn lol. Funny enough, the whole picture didn't make it to the final edit and had to be trimmed.

#5: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 11th, 2019

Time: 29 mins

I don't have a particular reason for this I just think Emma's hair turned out amazing. It took just half an hour and I didn't even use references like. Wow. @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back

#6: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 17th, 2019

Time: 2:09 h

Sis I love this so freaking much. The shift from redrawing almost exclusively people and clothes to redrawing this mess was so fun and refreshing. Even though it's a mess I think it turned out very clean and overall it looks beautiful? I remember after finishing this I felt so powerful, like now that I had redrawn this thing I would have been able to redraw anything I set my mind on lol.

#7: Emma - Chapter 161: Never Be Alone

Date: Dec 13th, 2019

Time: 57 mins

Again no particular reason except this is a very cute Emma and I think the redraw turned out pretty well. There's this big lock on the left that doesn't make a lot of sense but overall I really like it. Cute Emma is cute, and I love her determination.

#8: Emma - Chapter 166: Going Back Home

Date: Mar 9th, 2020

Time: 3:45 h

I'M SO FREAKING PROUD OF THAT RIFFLE I have not the slightlest idea why this took so damn long BUT I'M SO PROUD OF IT

#9: Norman's birthday edit

Date: Mar 21st, 2020

Time: 1:04 h

This is cool! I didn't know I could manage to draw this, but I did it! The feathers were particularly hard to clean but I think they turned out fine.

#10: Full Score Trio - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 6th, 2020

Time: 2:11 h

I just think they're very pretty? I can't understand if I like Ray's face a lot, or not at all, but I think overall there was a lot to redraw and it turned out pretty cute! Sorry Gillian.

(Also insert pretty much every panel from the chapter 177 Isabella edit– I've spent so many hours on basically every panel there's no way I could choose only one).

Top 5 edits as whole:

#1: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 29th, 2019

Complessive time: 2:57+ h

The very first edit I'm actually proud of; I'm really attached to it. It's the first edit I had put all of my effort into, and I remember feeling anxious people would have left it without notes. It kinda feels weird to think about it now, because I really don't care about notes anymore; yet, it somehow makes me happy to think that past-me wasn't let down. Thank you @neverlandstrio for your support, you may not remember but it really meant a lot to me back then! And it still makes me smile. You're the best!!!!!!

#2: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 20th, 2019

Complessive time: 7:12+ hours

This whole edit was an hella wild ride. It's midnight before a school day, when I think: "Mh, it's been a while since I last made an edit, why not make one about Musica and the queen from the last chapter?" And seven hours after this was born. I'm particularly proud of the queen's redraws on the 3rd, 7th and 9th picture (ofc), the areas which have been redrawn are pretty huge yet I think the difference with the original is almost impossible to notice?? @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back (part 2)

#3: Emma - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 12th, 2020

Complessive time: 6:53+ h

I think the panels that were selected work very well together, especially considering the close-up / full body alternation. I love Emma, and I've always been kinda sad noticing that edits that focus one her take the less notes... She deserves all the love. Also, fun fact: for the last but one panel, I had redrawn Emma's whole left ear before remembering she doesn't have one, so I had to redraw the panel from the start. Besides from the error with the ear, the reason why this (and all the others after) took so long is because official panel take way longer to clean.

#4: Isabella and her children - Chapter 177: Mother

Date: May 22nd, 2020

Complessive time: 13:41+ h (ahah.)

Lmao tbh I can't understand how this has so few notes it's like. Technically speaking, probably the best edit I've ever done. I don't even like Isabella that much, I haven't got the slightlest idea why I decided to spend so many hours on this. Anyway, I find the composition (full body on the left / headshots on the right) really good looking in this as well! And I think the redraws turned out fine, especially Isabella's.

#5: The Promised Neverland manga ending countdown→ 1/7 chapters: chapter 1 - Grace Field House

Date: Jun 9th, 2020

Complessive time: 1:59+ h

I don't know how I came up with that idea for the composition but I find it really beautiful??? I think it does a pretty good job conveying the sudden, terrific shift of atmosphere from the first chapter, and I think that sharp bridge is very nice. I'm very, very proud of this.

Honorable mention #1: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 13th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:44+ h (+ 1:13 h of working on a panel that ultimately didn't make it to the final edit)

A very good chapter, and the edit turned out surprisingly amazing??? All the redraws look great and make it almost impossible to distinguish them from the original; honestly I feel like I'll never be able to redraw so neatly again lol.

Honorable mention #2: Don and Gilda (+ Norman) - Chapter 160: Shackles

Date: Dec 11th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:14+ h

That one is really one of my favorite scenes; I'm telling you peoples, Gilda and Don are a blessing to the earth. I think I've never mentioned it, but Gilda's hair is a nightmare to redraw??? More specifically, it takes me h o u r s to fill the texture without making it look too weird, it's the worst.

Honorable mention #3: Norman and Ray - Chapter 179: Compensation

Date: Jun 6th, 2020

Complessive time: 4:16+ h

I was so glad to finally be able to make a Norman / Ray edit, and it turned out it was just in time before the series' finale. I like how it turned out and I'm pretty satisfied with the redraws (even though my sister helped me with the lineart of some panels - it was exams time and I really couldn't afford to spend more time on it), too bad we didn't have more chapters that focused on the boys. Ray sweetie one day I'll fix your ear it's just today's not that day.

Btw, I justed realized I have never done an Emma / Norman centered edit? I'll have to make one eventually. I remember considering focusing on them alone for the chapter 154 one, but then I thought "even if the manga is gonna ignore Ray, I will chose to do not" lol.

Top 5 long posts:

#1: Reconstruction of how the Grace Field children were settled in the three bedrooms

Date: Aug 28th, 2019

I just had really a lot of fun doing it. I love putting all the little things to their own place, it's so calming to do and that's why I love making this kind of things. Also, loved how @temporoom contributed to the post! It was so nice of them to add what they had noticed to come up with more exact conclusions, that's one of the things I love the most about the internet.

#2: A study of how many times the characters of The Promised Neverland call each other through the first season of the anime

Date: Sep 10th, 2019

I REALLY LOVE IT! I mean it *was* kinda stressing to note everything, but it was very also very satisfying to see everything methodically divided and organized! And it's not just that– it's also the fact that it looks good. That's one post I have fun rereading because it's actually pretty! Also, even though it can be very stressing to learn to use new programs and sites, it's always very satisfying to look at the final result. Again, I really adore compiling these tiny little details! I would love to make more posts of that kind if i had the time.

#3: The Promised Neverland musicals headcanons

Date: Oct 27th, 2019

I mean it's literally. Putting my two favorite fandoms together how could I not love it. This is another one I really enjoy rereading, I find all the musical / character associations so fitting! I really want to make a second part, I hope to find some time to do it.

#4: Considerations on the reward / eventual series' finales (and Emma's sacrifice)

Date: May 7th, 2020

It's always nice to put down all your thoughts regarding a particular matter. It can take a lot of time (at least for me it does because... I need time to think about things), but it's so satisfying to see all of them there once you're done. Bonus points when, like in this case, it was something asked by someone else because “Wow! Somebody wants to hear my opinion on this subject! I'm flattered (◍•ᴗ•◍)”

#5: Some other considerations on the series' finale and Emma sacrificing herself

Date: Jun 13th, 2020

Pretty much the same as above. It's like some kind of clarity when the post is done and signed. Another fun fact, I had to censore the post a lot; the first version was extremely sharp and harsh, but I believe it's right to express your opinions calmly and politely.

Bonus: A thread of what the tpn characters would wear at the Oscars

Date: Feb 9th, 2020

Imagining all the children in those pretty dresses makes me so incredibly happy (╥﹏╥) I go back to look at that post a lot. I really love red carpets, I love looking at pretty dresses!!!!!

Lmao it's so funny how the post of mine I like the most are also the ones with the less notes

Anyway this was just a personal report! You don't have to read it all (or any of it actually). But it was indeed fun making it! Here's to many more months in the fandom!!!

[kouei116]

Jakou no Lyla - Trap of musk: European night

Come, look at me. In return, I'll show you the most wonderful dream.

Well, I'm supposed to study for an exam, I thought I'll only procrastinate & play for a litttle bit, but... Welcome to the newest hell I'm currently stuck in - Jakou no Lyla (人´ω｀*)♡

It is originally a 3 part PC otome game but has been ported to the Switch. This game is one out of 3 games from triAngle project, so... there is a Spy Ending where MC will be with both guys ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Longer details under cut. 

Part 1 European Night - Vince Lugan (seiyuu Taniyama Kishou, e.g. Amnesia Memories Ikki) on the left hand side of the above photo - Rolan Crydelle (seiyuu Tachibana Shinnosuke e.g. MidCin Louis) on the right hand side of the above photo, my 2nd fav

Part 2 Asian Night - Korei Rin (seiyuu Okitsu Kazuyuki, e.g. Brothers Conflict Masaomi) the white hair guy sniffing MC's shoulder in 1st photo, my fav :3 - Kirei Rin (seiyuu Sato Takuya) the black hair guy at top right corner in the 1st photo

Part 3 Arabian Night - Lizaru Shanasa (seiyuu Morikawa Toshiyuki, e.g. DL Carla) the tan-skin guy with a whip in 1st photo - Jemiru (seiyuu Murase Ayumu) the guy with upside-down net bra(?lol) over his eyes in 1st photo 

The popular ranking (voted in Oct 2019) result is Lizaru (1), Jemiru (2), Kirei (3), Korei (4), Vince (5), Rolan (6). 

Vince: ... I want you

MC uses her special tattoo to seduce Vince, it is working... kinda. But Vince is a tough cookie, he realizes something isn't right with himself, grasps his short sword and squeezes his right hand on the sharp blade in front of the  speechless MC. He wants the pain to pull him away from the desire for MC.

V: Come in... Hey, turn this way. Look at me, Y...

During the Conference break, V saw MC talking with Rolan on the way to the market. He got very grumpy aweee. At the market, R fell down, MC helped R get up and her clothes got muddy too. When she returns to the palace, grumpy Vince saw her muddy clothes and told her to take a bath with him. He tried to kiss her but she pushed him away, poor V :’(

Y: Rolan-sama, please sto..

The special tattoo doesn't last long so the salon master comes to the palace to help her refresh. I thought she only has one on her chest, but apparently there is one on her back too :/ She has to keep it uncovered for 2 hours to dry. R came by and accidentally was affected by the tattoo. He started touching and kissing her back. She knows she has to push him away but she doesn't want to because she already knows abt his tragic past. She’s afraid pushing him will hurt his feeling (I'll explain his past in his route summary). She tried very hard to grab the veil, cover her tattoo and R turned back to normal, frantically apologized to her. 

R: You don't need to think about anything. Surrender everything to me...

MC (name is Shirien) is a dancer at show salon Kamal. Her parents were killed, the village was destroyed. The salon master took care of her and her best friend Aisha so she wants to do everything to repay him. The master also helped another kid (who arrived heavily injured) named Jermiru and asked MC to look after J as his older sister. MC and J works as secret spies for the master. MC has a special henna tattoo (made from teromeana mixed with medicine herbs) that can seduce men to the point they lose all reasoning. Then she uses a sleeping needle on them to make them sleep & dream that they are ichaicha-ing with her but in reality, she tries to find materials/info in their rooms for her spy mission. In addition, she collects blood of young healthy ‘excited' men to help research a cure for the salon master's sickness. The master also prohibits her to kiss the men targets because it can sway her heart (hence she pushed Vince away in the bath when he tried to kiss her). 

In part 1 European night, her clients are Theo (Vince's best friend) and Rolan Crydelle. Her mission is to seduce Vince to find out the whereabout of Pamela - Rolan’s younger sister - who they think was kidnapped by Vince when V destroyed the Crydelle kingdom. Theo will pretend to lose the drinking game and gives MC to V as a winning trophy.

V is a tough cookie to crack though, he pays 100% attention on his country/work, doesn't want to waste any time with women. In his country Lugan, women are not allowed to speak unless they are given permission. This is because in their history, a king lost part of the territory bc he spent too much time on women. That territory becomes the Crydelle kingdom. In contrast, Crydelle is led/dominated by women, while men only stays inside the house and cannot go out unless given permission by women. Rolan is a shy and naive because he is indoors all his life, he cares deeply about his younger sister Pamela, he carries a doll that looks exactly like her.

I only know a little bit about V from the common route and his appearance in Rolan's route, but he isn't as cruel as the rumour says. The more time MC spends with him for her spy mission, she realizes he (and his touch on her) are gentle and kind. Everything he does is for the benefit of his country. He did destroy the Crydelle kingdom, killed the royal family (except Rolan who was living in a secret room) so other princes at the Conference sneer at Vince during the policy discussion. Personally, I think the choices Vince suggests are actually effective and to the point, not wasting time trying to be merciful. In Rolan's good end, he even helps Rolan save MC. He gives me the IkeSen Nobunaga and MLQC Victor's vibes. 

The last Rolan photo above the cut is after the confrontation with Eleanor (who looks exactly like his sister Pamela but said she is not Pamela), R is very sad and ran to the old harem area to be alone. MC chased after him and tried to comfort him. He hugged her and started kissing near her chest, offered to make her feel good and begged her to not leave him (poor bb ;u;) MC stopped him, tried to calm him down asking him to tell her everything. In short, due to his past, R always wants to keep people happy, he thinks pleasing people is the only thing he can do to make his life has some values, the only way to keep people staying with him. MC told him none of these are true. Even after hearing his past, MC didn't look down on/feel disgusted abt him, and told him from now on, he will learn many other ways to make people happy. This makes him very happy, he asked to hug her for a bit longer ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇ‸இﾟ)ﾟ｡

---

Tbh, when I first looked at the suitors, I thought I'd go with Vince, but oughhh Rolan stole my heart during the common route. I guess not likely many people will like Rolan (he actually ranks 6th out of 6 suitors, my poor bb ;u;). It’s okay, I luv Rolan. I love his character growth throughout the route, desperately trying to grow stronger to protect MC. And his yandere doll-carrying creepy vibe. His 2nd bad end broke my heart badly ~ like CxM Shiraishi's bad end 4 level of heartbreak（ｉДｉ）I will write his route summary after I (hopefully) pass my exam.

I enjoy this game much more than I expected: kisses sound yayyy (not DL’s level of kissing & blood sucking but enough to burn my ears huehue), nice arts and BGM (melancholy music to stab on my heart even more while reading bad ends, nice!). I prefer the bad ends, they are more haunting and memorable to me; good ends everything get solved quite easily, but overall the story is fine so far. I get completely sucked into this game and finished all 6 ends for Rolan and Korei in 4 days (what is sleep, what is exam :3) Normally I only play the routes of the guys I’m interested in then move on to next game, unless I want to collect PS Vita trophies and autoplay. But I have high hope that since this game can surprisingly change my favourite from Rolan to Korei (still very close, I luv both of them lotsss) from the route story, I should read everybody’s routes properly and see who my favourite are in the end. My 2020 otome game year is off to a wonderful start already ahhh~ (*´╰╯`๓)♬

[onisiondrama]

(Note: I’m not repeating stories he’s told before and just putting them in parenthesis. I have a lot more videos to go until I’m caught up so that would save me a lot of time. If he gives details I never heard from him before, I will type those.)

“Should I Get A Divorce?” Speaks,  Oct 6, 2020

- This video is weird. He’s trying to make himself seem smart and insightful about marriage because his marriage is “successful”, while most people complain about their marriage. - There’s one part where he says people don’t understand you don’t have to be lied to or cheated on in a relationship. Which is pretty ironic coming from him. He shows a clip of an upset wife asking her husband what he’s doing with a woman in a bedroom. The husband and the woman are getting dressed. The husband keeps asking “Who?” “What?”, pretending the woman isn’t there. Later he shows more of the clip where the wife is still questing him. He keeps pretending he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She looks in the bedroom again and the woman is gone. The wife looks confused. Love that gaslighting. Just like when Jamsey boi cheats. “I didn’t cheat. It was the other person who cheated on you, my spouse” “You said I can’t have oral or vaginal sex with your friend. You didn’t say anything about anal.” - In another part he says there are people who constantly complain about their s/o and they hide away in a man cave.. he says this while in his garage man cave. 😑 Which we know he spends most of his time in. Like, way longer than normal working hours.  - He says he used to look angry in his old Speaks videos because of his marriage at the time. That’s total crap. He only shows clips from videos where he used his old militant persona for videos like his anti-meat videos. He made plenty of mushy Speaks videos talking about how happy he was with Skye back then too. 🙄 - I think he made this video during his short guru / advise phase.

“gotta say goodbye for a little bit” Speaks, October 8, 2020

- Tells his viewers they can listen to this video without watching it if they like to listen to people talk, like Kai used to do. [This is definitely meant to be another guru / advise type video. I can tell by his tone.] - Says he’s married to Kai for almost 8 years. (How Kai found James story) Says he married a fan and had children with them. He says they now have an awesome dynamic, but he knocks on wood because people who are together 18 years still get divorces. Says you never know, things can suddenly fall apart. - Says it’s cool because at the time he didn’t listen to social standards. Kai was 17 at the time, but lied about his age. Most people would have said don’t go for the relationship because Kai lied and the age gap, even though it was legal. He listened to the law and his heart and now he’s in the happiest marriage of his life. - “F society.” If he listened to society, he wouldn’t know where he’d be or what relationship he’d be in. Says you have to follow the legal system or your life is ruined. - Says he was an air force cop at one point because he believed in justice. He doesn’t think he wanted to shoot people, but he excelled in the cop program. He says he met Magic Johnson in the cafeteria at Lackland Air Force Base. He barely knew who Magic Johnson was, but he thought it was cool a famous basketball player was there. James asked him if he could take a picture and he said yes. He says he took a picture of him like a reporter and not a selfie. He still regrets that. - Says he wants to talk about the future of this channel. Some people appreciate he’s been uploading every day, but he wants to focus on sites that aren’t shadow banning people or algorithmically demoting people. He feels like Youtube is king in letting negative opinions prevail, even if it’s invalid. If the engagement shows people are mad at you, Youtube used to go the harsh truth route. He says that was nice. He says he once made a fake meltdown video in response to a video Leafy made about him. He says it’s fun for him to make fake meltdowns. - He says he and Kai took a quiz today and found out Kai’s IQ is 136 and his is 129, so Kai is smarter than him. - After the meltdown videos, Youtube algorithm didn’t favor him as much. He says maybe it was because he said they were fake. - He says he has been thinking about websites and how they treat users. Says Twitter is one the best because they don’t care about what your opinion is. They just care about their rules. Says if people don’t like you on other sites, they will shadow-ban you and you’re done for. He says his reaction video to Leafy’s video got 1/6th the views Leafy did, so there was a bleed over of traffic. Now when someone says something negative about you, YouTube will only promote videos that agree with that narrative. Says if you only want to hear negative stuff about Joe Biden, you’ll only see negative stuff. He says it’s financially productive, but it’s not ethically productive.

[I just want to pause here and vent a second. Yes, James fell out of the YouTube algorithm, but he’s had plenty of chances to sweep back into it. Like when he was getting tons of views on those fake meltdown videos in January. The reason those viewers didn’t stay is because there is nothing good for them to watch. His Speaks videos are boring, long, rambling messes. He repeats himself, contradicts himself, talks about the same topics over and over. These videos are mind-numbingly boring. His comedy videos are extremely outdated. The characters, topics, and humor he uses are not going to get him anywhere anymore. Like is the Death Note fandom really that strong in 2020? That anime came out 14 years ago for Christ sake. His music is not particularly good or interesting. On top of all this, his reputation is complete garbage.

People just don’t want to watch Onision. If the algorithm tried promoting his Speaks videos, I guarantee most people are actively choosing not to click on his videos. The non-subscribers that do click probably regret it. He’s made ZERO effort into making interesting or engaging content. He’s ONLY been making Speaks content that either fuels his ego or defends himself using the same old arguments he’s used 100+ times before. He’s got to be in some kind of deep denial if he thinks his Youtube views are down because of the algorithm. 

There used to be a saying that whenever Onision’s fans grow out of him, there will always be a crop of young teens that start watching him. That’s not happening anymore. It’s not cool for the alt / loner kids to watch edgy Youtube videos anymore.]

- Says people only want to hear things they agree with, people want to take what he says out of context, blah, blah. I’m only 1/4th of the way through this damn video. - He asks why he’s busting his butt when there’s no chance for him to prevail on Youtube or anywhere. He says he’s on TikTok, OnlyFans, Twitch. [This video was from before his partnership was taken away on Twitch.] He says those are slightly less problematic because they are driven by human beings and not drama. - He says when you see him posting less to Youtube in the future, you’ll understand why. He says he wants to wait you guys out, 2 years, 20 years. (He tried to call out Shane story.) He says he had to wait a year or two until people admitted he was right about Shane. He says he has conflicting feeling about Shane because they had a personal friendship. Says Shane told him they were friends. - He says you guys seem to drive your narrative and agendas by emotion rather than science and facts. He can’t reason with them unless he picked a greater evil and wages war on that. You would have to join forces with him because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He says he wouldn’t do that because he’s not interested in being a professional wrestler and making fake drama. - In time you will feel passionately about other things. You don’t actually care about anyone involved because none of you are consuming yourself with anything that is not pop culture. You’re only interested in things other people are pretending to care about. None of you would care if someone found three bodies in a basement. If they were not celebrities you wouldn’t care. You only want justice for things that will get you attention. - If someone builds their whole platform about anti-person they might get bored and become anti-you. That’s why you don’t want to be friends with dramatic people. - He says he was dramatic about things, but that’s because he did care about those things. He wasn’t talking about 3 bodies in the basement either. - Says a long time ago when a celebrity died, he pointed out 30 people were murdered and washed ashore in another country. No one was talking about it because they probably didn’t hear about it. Nobody actually cares about human lives. If you did, every second that a human dies you’d be tweeting about it. - (Sarah blackmail story.) He says in a number of words Sarah said she wouldn’t ruin his life if she slept with him, then went back on it. [Wow. He really morphed his original story. It used to be: One time she jokingly said she could ruin our lives. Later we wanted her to sign an NDA and she said only if she gets something out of it, meaning sex. James said it was “good vibes” that day and he perceived that as her being kinky. She also said it was just a joke in the “proof” clip he always uses. They signed the NDA, then James pressured / tricked Kai into having sex with himself and Sarah. Then Sarah later came back and he decided they should have anal while Kai was out of town because Kai didn’t say no genital to butt. He only said no genital to genital and no genital to mouth before he left.] He says he decided to no longer sleep with Sarah because it was toxic and he decided he would rather be ruined than be with Sarah. [I have a theory he stopped sleeping with Sarah because he was afraid of Kai finding out. If he was truly afraid of Sarah ruining his life, why did he make those videos about weed smokers and BPD that would piss her off? She didn’t speak about their relationship publicly until he started bashing her through those videos.] Says Sarah went ahead and ruined his life and you fell for it. - He keeps mentioning Joe Rogan. - He says others have said he built an empire, uploaded thousands of videos. He gave so much of his life entertaining people and making them laugh. It was so important to him. He changed a lot of lives for the better. Says if you look on Twitter before the drama, you’ll see a lot of people thanking him. Says he was a positive influence to millions of people. That’s a fact. It all came crumbling down because people lied. They’re all criminals he kicked out of his life. He tries to play hero and he was only right with Kai. Kai wasn’t playing victim, he was on his way to college to be a surgeon. Once he was in the process of having kids, he lost the taste to be in a surgery room. Instead he got a bachelor’s in psychology. Kai’s diagnosis of James is aspects of narcissism, but says he doesn’t meet the qualifications to be a full blown narcissist. - He is investing a lot of time in people who don’t listen and don’t appreciate his content. Social media is a drug that tries to take up as much of your time as possible to make advertisers money. He doesn't create content that lies to you or brainwashing you into thinking your opinion is valid. He doesn’t pander to you to make money. Says when he says he’s one of the most honest people on Youtube, the bar is low. OnisionSpeaks is snake poison because snakes don’t survive on this channel. They aren’t going to have a voice that isn’t questioned. Most snakes on Youtube don’t even know how to activate charities on their channels. - Says he had a conversation with Kai about someone who said they vote for the economy over people. Humans are divided between helping their neighbor and helping themselves. - Says he was never taken to court because he never did anything. He’s still posting to places that he thinks is beneficial to himself and his family. Why would he stop because people have a bad idea of him? You shouldn’t alter your life just because people have an opinion of you. If you quit it makes you look guilty. If you quit you’re either guilty or incapable of dealing with it. He says he’s used to dealing with abuse since he began social media. - He wants to create content and help people and make them laugh. He wants to be socially capable and experienced. His ambitions are aligned with what he’s doing. - He says he can’t forgive his father if what people say about him is true. Everyone else he can forgive. If you are at odds with him, he doesn’t have any hate for you. He understands people can hear the wrong narrative and make mistakes. Says we are both imperfect people and have gone through different things. Says if we went through the same experiences, we’d think the same. Says we aren’t so different.  - Says he’s going away and he hopes you watch all his videos so you’ll know a little bit about who he is instead of listening to what Youtube manipulates you into watching. Says his advise is to quit social media. He wouldn’t quit because he’s passionate about it.

[ssoastronaut]

I logged on my lvl 21 primary acc Veronika Darklord, for the first time since Dec 2019.

But I'm not sure whether I should start playing on it again or not. But I bought my 6th Arabian (who's Fairy), because I can and I want Veronika (me) to enjoy the same horse on every account.

Pineapple Mountain (old name WE2) is really dead. But if someone is still around and wants to hang out. Idk give me a hint? Chat me? Comment on this post? Let me know? ANYONE? I NEED FRIENDSS. hERE IS AN ADHD MANIAC WAITING (just a strong suspicion for now though)

more rambling down there

I also logged on my third lt account Francesca as well, but I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry. Both Fee and Veronika are in the same position. Fee a bit less than Veronika. I checked Fee last time around the time the ''new'' Andalusian arrived sep 2019, but I haven't really played on either in a long time. Maybe 2-2,5 years (after I created Oksana whom I created Nov 2018).

And to be fair I haven't been playing much at all since 2019. 2020 I played practically only Oct-> but I pretty much had a year long hiatus when I didn't play SSO much at all, apart from logging on at random times.

And even now I'm still discovering new things (like Fashion Barn not existing anymore, changed names, new places I've never been to or seen)...

If stars had been aligned right I would start playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition tomorrow, but they aren't, thus I don't have 70€ to spare and I'm not gonna. I might as well play SSO while I'm at it.

But should I play on Veronika and Francesca? I really like Oksana, but I'm stuck on a server I don't speak the language in. I created Oksana because I thought I could learn Russian on the side, but I'm still stuck at reading first names, I really miss being able to read people's names dammit :D

Like here is me realizing that what the fuck, none of those people are my friends or have ever been my friends. I have no idea why they're on my high score list.

Mind you my (German) best friend is on that list (Roksana Cometrain, haha I chose the name for her, you know Oksana and Roksana, Spacewalker & Cometrain). But she's studying so she's not very active.

And Francesca is on a Swedish server, and while I'm not a native speaker, Swedish is 100% easier (for me) than Russian.so meeeehhhh

[lifesbecomings]

The email

Hi Drew— I just wanted to  clarify something and share some perspective. First off, I want to say that I understand and respect Denison’s admissions process. I reached out a few days ago to everyone just curious about the process and wanted to talk about options to continue my education, IF even possible, through Denison! With the positive feedback from everyone and your first email, and then mention, even as a slight possibility, of spring enrollment...one certainly can understand my excitement and push for more discussion and my initiative to get applied/enrolled. With that said I am still curious about steps in general. And maybe I applied as the wrong type of student.  I know there are openings still this spring, and especially in the EDUC classes (like EDUC 390), and thought "wow, maybe this is all aligning because it's meant to be."  If it is or isn't meant to be, I'm at peace with whatever the decision is or remains. But Denison will always be my first choice. I did leave in 2017 as a medical leave student, and technically I wasn't pursuing a degree through CCS, just taking classes, many students take summer classes or semesters (like if on academic suspension), and then come back and return to campus. I know usually students typically return 1-2 years, and I understand there are deadlines and I know their importance. In no way shape or form am I trying to surpass these. When I first reached out, I said I'd be happy to discuss ANY options in a return.  Others, throughout the thread, were mentioning a spring return and spring availability and how fantastic this could be. Both Karen Graves and Baker were on board in the Educ. department, where I am majoring, presumably for a spring enrollment.  Maybe it is the fact I only have art credits as transfers. Was it that they were hoping for more core class transfers? Either way, to be perfectly transparent, whatever the outcome is, I will be taking spring classes. As well as summer classes. I want to get my degree. My first choice is Denison. If there is anyway to make this a possibility still. You already know, It would be my pleasure to stay in touch, and I will happily move to Ohio and take classes back on campus in the fall. Denison holds a special place in my heart. I hope my time on campus impacted those I came into contact with, as much as they impacted me. The Briefing: Within the last 2 weeks. Literally, two weeks, a series of events occurred that made me see the potential I could have. It started with a ski lesson, we had philosophy lessons up the chairlift, and the technical skiing lessons going down the hill. It was eye opening. I realized I need to work on my patience, but It also made me realize that I don't have to do something I do not enjoy. Moreover, it made me recognize I need to stop running from what satisfies me the most, people, education, learning, and teaching. I shut myself off in 2017 to the idea of "traditional schooling". I thought, "It's not for me". " I'm not good at it".  It stuck.  That is, until January 6th 2021, when I had this ski lesson. The ski lesson in combination with my parents friend, a teacher from Brother Rice High School,  got me thinking. I was thinking and analyzing myself. My change in perspective was shocking. I needed to accept my talents and embrace them, instead of shutting them out and rejecting them. It is so funny how we sabotage ourselves.  This is the start of my story. About how I found my drive and fulfillment. Below are three personal stories I would like to share. 1.  Monkey Bars. 

There is a story my mother always would tell me growing up about my perseverance and determination. When I was very young, 4 years old, there was a set of monkey bars on the school playground. After school one day I told my mom I wanted to go across the monkey bars. The only problem...I did not know how to do them. But, I had watched other kids that day at recess. So I was determined to figure it out. We were there for 2-3 hours. I was bound and determined to do those monkey bars. I knew that was what I wanted. I had numerous failed attempts, failure after failure, my mother began to beg me to leave with her because my hands were all beaten up, blistered, and bloodied, I still kept going. I made it all the way across those monkey bars that day, and every day after. There is another story, too, a similar story about me riding a two wheeler. Same determination, different goal. Both accomplished. 

2. My Miracle.

A senior in college, to the modern western world, is still considered "young". If you're in school, attending high school or even attending university, to have a child anywhere, at any time in that mix, It is looked down upon, plain and simple.  I chose to not tell any of my peers, while I was at Denison, my fall semester, that senior year, in 2017. I kept this knowing to myself. I told my parents, and told the father/ fathers parents. Guess what was encouraged? An abortion. Whether verbally spoken (which it was) or unspoken, I knew this is what was wanted from me, wanted for me. I mean, it was, after all, the easiest thing to do. I could still finish my degree and the family could always come later in my life. So, I did just that. I went in for that appointment, at 5 weeks. 

Statistically speaking it is 99% effective. Did you know, 1:4 women will have had an abortion in their lifetime. It's neither here nor there, just an incredible statistic. I actually came back to Denison to finish out my degree after. Putting the past behind me. I enjoyed a fantastic fall break that year in Philadelphia with friends, because through Denison my Junior year, I did a "study abroad," in Philadelphia (the best experience ever. Cannot speak enough about that program! So grateful Denison is a part of the Study in Philly!) 

Anyway, after coming back from break I wasn't myself that week at school. I came home, went to a doctor's appointment. Pregnant. I was 11 weeks pregnant. 1-2 weeks away from being in my second trimester. I knew. In that instant, I was keeping him. No one else understood, at the time, my decision. I was blamed on one side, entirely, for this outcome, the father still lives in denial. This is important information in my story, as it describes where I have been, who I am and who I've become. The father isn't, and has never been involved. This is fine. It's been uncomplicated. I'm actually very lucky. Besides, I know that my son and I deserve someone 100% interested in me AND my son, not an either or situation. So once making my decision, to continue with the pregnancy, I took one day. One day to be broken hearted, to feel like it was me against the world. Later, to my surprise, I found I had a support network bigger than I could ever have imagined.

I am blessed. I am loved. "We" are so loved. But it took me that one day to realize, the easiest thing is not always the right thing. I knew honestly from the day I first found out, I wanted this baby. And my god, has it not only blessed me, but this child of mine blesses and brings joy to anyone and everyone he meets. As a biased mother would say, he truly is something special. My choosing to bring this new life into the world, is an amazing and miraculous testimony to my dedication and character. Being a mother (parent) is one of the toughest jobs in the world. 

3. My Bakery.

First, back story: I tried to take some classes at College for Creative studies in 2018. Knowing I was more than "just a mom". I've done a lot of "soul" searching and self love in my time away. I didn't reach back to Denison at this time because I was convinced traditionally schooling just must not be for me. The root of it, I later would find, was that I was somehow undeserving of it. (super messed up mental ideal). Disclaimer: I, like many, struggled with self worth. Therapy is necessary and beautiful.  Anyway, continuing---I had a hobby of sketching.  Homes and houses always intrigued me, so I picked up some classes at CCS, interior design classes. This is where I realized a hobby does not make for a career. More importantly, I remembered the promise I had made to myself, that I didn't want anyone else raising my baby boy.  I was spending 60hrs + a week on projects and classroom time, leaving him home with my parents and babysitters, a little bit at first, then, more and more. So, I pulled the plug. 

When I give of myself I want to give 100%. If I was giving my school work 100% there was none left for my son. I had to pick between the two, and clearly, without a doubt, my baby boy was the sure pick. Schooling this time round failed because It was in person, he was not in school yet, and it was not practical or logistical. I stopped in OCT of 2019. Between October and December of 2019 I went stir crazy. I was 24/7 with my son, living at my parents home still, and my mental health was on the decline. I felt trapped. I needed a way out. And thus "A Degree Above Bakery" was born. I have made over 5,000 dollars in profits from this business. I have a standing order, weekly, with Westborn Market. However, this flow, and work is at my grace.  I can shut it down, permanently, or temporarily. I can drive it forward more, or scale it back, starting tomorrow.  I was determined to find a way out and give myself some "me" time, as well as doing something I enjoyed that gave me flexible hours to work with my son present. I originally started in my own home. Operating under the cottage food law. That is, until I started to rent space in Plymouth MI from Westborn Market in April 2020.  I bake Sundays currently. 

I created and established then registered my name. I created and bought a web domain.  I have my own labels and packaging I created. Every aspect of my business I have built and created. The brand, the marketing, getting into a grocery store. My point here, being, when I think of something, I do everything in my power to try to reach my goal, whatever the road block. When I get an idea, I see it through. To the best of my ability. __________ My overarching theme is determination. You will have nothing without it. I will be respectful and understanding of any final decisions, acceptance, reinstatement, or lack thereof. If there is still a slimmer of possibility to qualify for spring semester at Denison or be considered again... It would be an honor and mean more to me than any words could begin to describe. I had to take one last shot with you all,  before seeking another institution.  Rules and regulations will be forever. I understand this, but If there is anything I can do to help enhance my application/reinstatement/case/enrollment/scenario please don't hesitate to ask. I would be honored to commit to in person class on the hill in the fall, after taking summer classes, and taking the spring classes online at Denison, I also will be able to pay, in full, for the spring tuition as well as on campus next fall/winter. I also paid in full while being on campus every year from 2013-2016. Please also hear me when I say, yes, obviously I would do whatever and help to see a successful spring enrollment, but I would be happy to transfer credits from this spring (elsewhere), and summer, to complete classes on campus in the fall.  I will stay open minded to all possibilities, as I know Denison does! 

With much respect and appreciation, and excitement,

Sarah McNaughton

[official-alan-dabiri]

So how about that CCL?

For those of you unaware, the CCL is a semi-pro league for Heroes of the Storm being run by Heroes Hearth. A lot of old familiar faces came back for this, either to play, or to operate the organizations (henceforth: orgs) in charge of the teams. They had their draft just this past weekend, and for those of you who care to follow the pro side of this game, I want to talk about those drafts, and hopefully shine a light on what to expect when the season gets underway.

For those of you here for memes and memes alone, I have considerately put the rest of this behind a read more for you to scroll on past. Thank you for your patience.

Names at the top are the team names (the orgs), names in blue cells are tank players, green are supports, red are dps, and orange are offlaners. Though there are some discrepancies - many players have wide hero pools and can fill multiple roles. As you can see, every team has a pretty solid mix of former pros, top-shelf streamers, Storm League GM regulars, and more than a few unknown names. There was one irregularity during the draft: 30k traded their 10th pick spot to Chilly Mountain to get the 16 and 17 double pick in the 2nd/3rd round. No other trades were made.

Largely, if you know these players, you can see that every team except Oxygen very highly prioritized shotcallers, which did lead to a bit of a tank choke early in the draft. Turk - the leader for Crowd Control - confirmed that he picked up Nightvision - a tank player who also plays supports - to intentionally force a tank choke down the line. Supports didn’t get choked, but many teams picked up a second support player, especially in the 6th pick sub position, owing to the power of double support strategies. The high priority on shotcallers, though, led to an unseen problem: many teams have two - or even more - strong leadership personalities on their team, which could lead to some butting heads and clashing strategies.

That said, let me talk about the teams.

Chilly Mountain

As mentioned, CM had a good position to start strong with the draft. They had the first pick, and then they had second pick in the second round. True to that expectation, the first half of their draft is extremely strong. Fury is considered one of the best tanks in the region, and one of the most flexible shotcallers in the whole talent pool. Similarly, Makke is a strong leadership figure and a good DPS. Darkmok is another very strong player in the offlane role, and while DarkChimera isn’t the best support - or even the best support available at that point in the draft - he has great personal synergy with Fury. The back half of the draft, though, is a bit of a joke. CPogX (more commonly known as CPX) is a talented player mechanically, but has a terrible attitude. He’s also known in the community as a transphobe and misogynist. If the CCL has any respectability, he’s going to need to be kept on a tight leash, or else he’s going to get the boot really quick. And then their last pick was Mysticleez, another offlane player, who is going to struggle to step into CPX’s role if he runs his mouth on social media and gets punted.

Side Step Kings

This team - selected by veteran player Fan - has the most potential. Fan was the only one brave enough to pick Korean players, highly prioritizing KyoCha, and then picking up Hide at the end of the draft. He also went for a few of his old friends, starting the draft with Cattle, and later picking up Jun, his former teammates from Tempo Storm. Jun has the added bonus of being bilingual in English and Korean, allowing him to bridge the gap between the Korean players and the English-speaking players. Also, he’s Fan’s roommate, but that’s beside the point. Three teams on this draft banked on ping not being a big issue, and SSK banked on it the hardest. If ping actually doesn’t matter, this team is easily at the top. The only remaining struggle is the language barrier. I’m hoping that Fan brings that big streamer money into it to hire a real translator. Jun is fluent enough in both languages to serve for right now, but he’s one of the best healers in NA. He shouldn’t be on the roster just to fill an admin role. I have high hopes for this team, but there’s a lot of room for mismanagement.

WildHeart

Now this is my pick for the dark horse underdog I want to see run away with the league. Justing (piTkiD) and Buds are old friends from Oct/R20/TT, my favorite NA team from the old HGC. Justing was NA’s mad scientist, pioneering weird compositions and developing his own unusual meta that demands respect, and Buds works extremely well with him. The rest of the team is very well-positioned to accommodate him. Unaverted is a strong DPS pick, with Zergling and Funz having very diverse hero pools to work around Justing’s unique brand of bullshit, and Wearyday to sub in when double support is the call. This is also the only team with 6 NA players. If ping does matter, WildHeart is poised to take over the whole tournament, and even if it doesn’t, Justing has been given the tools he needs to redefine the meta for the whole league. Win or lose, these will be games worth watching.

Crowd Control

On the other end of the spectrum, the next two teams banked on ping not mattering; Turk - the leader for CC - picked up five EU players, asserting confidently “EU are just better than we are” when announcing his first pick of Lauber. From there, Turk was one of the players leaning hard on his first pick’s advice, following up with more strong EU players. Reportedly, Lauber got to build his own personal dream team, especially with Dynouh and Kwazaa. Turk confirmed that the Nightvision pick was for his offrole as a support (It’s been said that he’s ten times better in his offrole than his main role) while at the same time draining the Tank pool since GG, SIM, and OXG hadn’t picked up their own tanks yet. Their sixth pick, Hebi, is the only NA player on the roster, and an obvious pickup in anticipation of a double support meta. If ping doesn’t matter - and if SSK are slowed down by language barriers - CC is lined up and ready to flatten everyone.

Granit Gaming

GG had a similar strategy to CC. They have five EU players, with a single NA on the team in Nintorii. The difference is that they’re more likely to field their NA player. Svampgroot can fill in the offlane, but he is much more likely to play his signature heroes in the 4-man than his goofball offlane picks. As with CC, GG picked a dream team of EU players, headed up by Nic, and followed by Burger and Henning, a serious powerhouse for teamfight, with Nintorii as the macro god who ran with Scythe Esports through the open division and into HGC just before its untimely demise in 2018. All things considered, I think CC has the stronger players individually, but GG can make up the difference on raw synergy. Between the two, there are ten of the best players EU has to offer, even if the games are going to be played on NA servers.

Simplicity

Back to a strong NA roster, SIM followed GG and CCs lead, but with an NA player. Kure got to build his own dream team with his old Team Freedom teammates in Killuzion and Lutano. Wit is the odd man out on this roster, as an EU player in the tank role, but at that point in the draft, all the best NA tanks had already been picked out of the pool. They also picked up the man, the myth, the legend, this Hosty guy I’ve heard so much about. There might be some smaller interpersonal struggles - three of these people are all from the same HGC team, leaving the rest of the team as odd men out, if conversations get too clique-y. But if everyone meshes together, this team is the quintessential standard NA roster. They aren’t going to break the meta, but they’re going to play standard, and play it as well as any NA team could. If ping matters - and if Justing’s weird homebrew meta doesn’t take off - SIM is going to dominate.

30k

The man who stole the draft: Michael Udall. Trading his 10th pick away for the double pick between rounds 2 and 3, he got literally the exact team he wanted, man for man. HasuObs was his first pick for a leader to build his team around, and then BBJ and Liam are bar none the best players in their respective roles, picked up while everyone else was still squabbling over shotcallers. Udall later admitted that he wanted to first pick Mascarade - his fourth pick - if it looked like the tank pool was getting pinched too hard. His last two picks were reportedly under a time crunch - Sammy is an EU player who was a rush pick to fill the DPS role alongside Hasu, and then Udall overrode everyone else to pick up Breakwood as a player he wanted to mentor into a force to be reckoned with in the next season. 30K has one of the strongest mixed-region rosters in the league right now, but that may be to their detriment. Big names come with big egos, and if the team hits adversity, there’s a chance that communication starts to break down as people butt heads. We’ll see if Udall - the biggest ego of them all - can keep everyone in line. It would also be a serious crime if Breakwood got picked up to warm the bench all season.

Oxygen

The last team has a dramatically different draft strategy compared to the others. Every other team picked up strong leadership and worked with them to build a cohesive strategy, or had a strategy already that they drafted for. Meanwhile, Oxygen hit the draft as if they had a list of players sorted by skill level and they just picked whoever was still up from the top down. Despite this unusual strategy, they have a scary-looking roster. Prismaticism and Nazmas are two very strong players to start with, even if neither is a real leader. Their subsequent picks are similarly very strong players. Reportedly, they wanted Ultralisk as their 4th pick, not Madara, but were mistakenly told that he wasn’t available, because he was listed in the pool under his current battletag “GuessWhoIAm” which is honestly peak comedy. Just the same, their pick of Madara echoed through the rest of the draft; everyone else claimed that they had their eye on him for the later stages to fill. Their sixth pick of Cascon put the truth to all the memes about him being unskippable, too. But the problem remains: someone needs to step up to lead this team. If nobody does, they’re just going to be a SL fiesta and get rolled over by more organized competitors.

Every team obviously has their faults and flaws. Many of them come down to how big a problem ping is. Considering that the EU and even KR players performed admirably in the inhouse games and the exhibition matches, it may be that it’s less of a factor than traditionally thought. However, there were indeed some strategies built around punishing their slower connections. It was said that Cassia’s Valkyrie was the key anti-EU heroic: their ping made it impossible to dodge. We’ll have to see where it lands when the games really start. Some of the teams have bigger concerns that will take longer to figure out. There is no clear winners and losers here.

Except Chilly Mountain. How do you throw away a perfectly good draft for CPX, the XQC of HotS?

[kheirfakhreldin]

Summary of Franklin D. Cossitt’s Claim by the Southern Claims Commission for His Losses During the Civil War, December 4, 1876.

No. 20.459, 43.163,

CLAIM of Franklin D. Cossitt

OF

Fayette Co.,

Tennessee

SUMMARY REPORT.

Amount Allowed $14,102.00

SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS

December 4, 1876

BY THE

COMMISSIONER OF CLAIMS

UNDER

Act March 3D, 1871

No. 20459

The Claim of Franklin D. Cossitt, of Fayette Co., in the State of Tennessee

42 items. Amount of claims as per 1862. Statement in petition—hereto

Nov & Dec. annexed in detail.

Amount claimed: 31620.00

Amount allowed: 14102.17

Amount disallowed: 17516.83

Mr. Cossitt was a native of Connecticut. At the age of fifteen he went to Tenn. He there became a merchant & planter. He owned four plantations, vis, “Myrick”, “Urquhart”, “Sykes”, and “Adams,” and 127 slaves. He never held any civil or military office in the Confederacy & it does not appear that he ever gave any aid or comfort to the Confederacy. In the summer of 1862 he went to Bolivar where Generals Grant & McPherson were camped with their Army & told them that the Confederate forces did not amount to much & that they would have no difficulty in coming into and taking possession of the country. They had supposed that the Confederate force was large. The next day Genl. McPherson came to La Grange & took possession of the country. In Exhibit No. 2, Genl. McPherson, under date of Nov. 13, 1862 says “Mr Cossitt has rendered good service at different times & deserves compensation for articles taken from him.” Genl. McPherson also under date of Nov. 5 ’62 “certifies that Mr. Cossitt has shown himself a good loyal man & has rendered important services to the Federal cause” &c.—

Genl. Hamilton, who for 6 weeks in Oct & Nov. ’62 had his headquarters at his house, says—“I have known Mr. Cossitt since Nov. ’62,—have at all times found him a reliable & thoroughly loyal Union man, from whom I have received much useful information at times & have always found his sympathies with the Union Gov’t & Armies.”—Genl. Hurlbut, under date of Nov. 18, ’62 says—“Mr Cossitt has been known to me since June last as a reliable Union man,--I became acquainted with him at La Grange on the first occupation of that place by Union troops. I have reason to believe that he has always been loyal to the Gov’t & have received from him valuable information.”

Genl. Hurlbut was examined orally before us & his evidence is very full & satisfactory to prove claimant’s loyalty. We deem it sufficient to refer to it.—Many other papers are filed to show that other officers of our Army in 1862 regarded him as loyal.—He was threatened and molested by the rebels, & in April 1863 was obliged to leave. He went to Chicago where he has since resided. In regard to the necessity of his leaving Genl. Hurlbut says—“his life would not have been worth a straw outside of the range covered by the U. S. troops.” In June 1862 he was extracted by Genl. Sherman with the charge and repair of trestle work, which service he faithfully performed. See Genl. Sherman’s letter. Exhibits 6 & 7.—

Loyalty fully proved.—

As to the taking of the property. Genl. Hamilton encamped on the Myrick place with a large body of troops in Oct. ’62 & staid about 7 weeks.—At the same time Genl. McPherson with a still larger body of troops camped on the Urquhart place. The first 11 items & the items from 26 to 42 inclusive were all taken from the Myrick place, by the troops of Genl. Hamilton in Nov. 1862. Items 1 to 11 are shown by the evidence of Mr. Myrick, the superintendent of the Myrick place, also in part by Mr. Cossitt, & by the papers filed in the case which fully corroborate the testimony. Items 26 to 42 are proved by receipts by receipts given at the time and which are proved & filed in the case. But a small part of the property taken from the Myrick place was receipted for. Exhibit 1 is a statement drawn up by Mr. Cossitt in Nov. ’62 from the declarations made by Mr. Myrick at the time. The Myrick place contained about 1000 acres of cultivated land.

1862

1st to 30th Nov.

1 10 mules. 1500.—

2 90,000 lbs. fodder. 900.—

3 10 stacks, 15000 lbs. hay. 150.—

4 2625 bu. corn, taken from field. 2100.—

5 1125 bu. corn, taken from cribs. 1125.—

6 150 bu. sweet potatoes. 150.—

7 150 fat hogs, 150 lbs. ea. 2250.—

8 17 beef cattle. 714.—

9 250 lbs. brown sugar. 40.—

10 1/2 bbl. 20 galls. molasses. 20.—

11 100 stock hogs. 500.—

[Above amounts taken by Gen. C. S. Hamilton, U. S. vols. from “Myrick’s Place”]

12 63 stacks, 94500 lbs. fodder. 945.—

13 46 stacks, 46000 lbs. hay & pea vines. 460.—

14 7 stacks, 7000 lbs hay & pea vines. 70.—

15 400 acres corn, 10,000 bu. 8000.—

16 16 mules. 2400.—

17 150 fat hogs, average 150 lbs. 2250.—

18 100 stock hogs, average 150 lbs. 500.—

19 66 cattle, cows & calves, 50 cattle. $2000. 10 cows. $300. 6 calves. $60.}2360.—

20 25 bu. corn meal. 25.—

21 2 sacks salt. 20.—

22 13 bags, 13 bu. dried peaches. 13.—

23 1200 bu. sweet potatoes. 1200.—

24 17 sets [qeer? geer? green?]. 85.—

Total: $27,777.

[Above was taken from “Urquhart Plantation” by Gen. J. B. McPherson, from 1st to 13. Nov./1862]

(See Exhibit #2.)

Subtotal: 27,777

1862 Nov. 7

25 19 mules.

26 2 loads, 30 bu. corn.

27 2 loads, 2000 lbs. fodder.

[Above taken by Lt. Conynham [Cunningham?], Actg. Q. Mr., 16th Iowa Vols., under command Gen. J. McArthur, 6th Divis, Army of Tenn. See exhibit No 4]

28 3 loads, 4500 lbs. hay. 45.—

29 7 loads, 7000 lbs. fodder. 70.—

30 8 loads, 200 bu. corn. 200.—

[Above taken by Capt. E. D. Ostrand, Comdg. Co. “A”, 4 Ills. Cavy. See exhibits 5 & 6]

31 2 loads, 30 bu. corn. 30.—

[Taken by Lieut. Jones, Q. M. 16 Wis. Vols. See Exhibit No 7]

32 255 bu. corn. 255.—

33 1600 lbs. fodder. 16.—

[Taken by J. F. Stouffer, wagon master, 2 Iowa Cavy. See Exhibit No 8]

34 4 loads, 1200 lbs. fodder. 12.—

35 5 loads, 75 bu. corn. 75.—

[Taken Nov. 6. 7. 8. 10. & 12 Nov. 1862 by B. S. Williams Lt. & A. R. Qr. Mr. 8th Wis. Vols., Col. J. M. Loomis, Comdg 2 Brig. 2 Div. Army of Tenn. See Exhibits 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. & 14.]

36 4 loads, 1200 lbs. fodder. 12.—

37 3 loads, 45 bu. corn. 45.—

Subtotal: $31,437.—

38 300 lbs. hay. 3.—

[Taken Nov. 6, 7, & 10, 1862 by Lt. Spring, Qr. Mr. 26th Ills. Infy. Command of Col. J. M. Loomis, 2d Brig. 2 Div. Army of Tenn. See Exhibits 15, 16 & 17]

39 2 loads, 30 bu. corn. 30.—

[Taken by R. Kennedy, Qr. Mr. 13 Iowa Infy as per certificate of Leslie Bassett, 1st Lt. Co. “K,” 13th Iowa Infy. See Exhibit No 18]

40 10 loads, 80 bu. corn. 80.—

41 2 stacks, 3000 lbs. hay. 30.—

[Taken by Enos P. Searls, wagon master, 5th O. V. C. See Exhibit 19]

42 1 steer. 40.—

[Taken by Lt. Joshua Ricketts, Co. “C”. Eng. Reg. of the West. See Exhibit No. 20]

Total: $31,620.—

The other items from the Urquhart place are proved and therefore are allowed, except item 22 & a part of No. 23 of which the Estimate is too large.—The prices of pork & beef were very low in Nov. ’62.—

We allow as follows:—

Items 1. 16. & 25 For mules—$4000.00 & reject the rest.

2 For fodder—562.50 & reject the rest.

3 For hay—105.00 & reject the rest.

4 2625 bus corn in field—1050.00 & reject the rest.

5 1125 bus corn in cribs 562.50 & reject the rest.

6 150 bus potatoes—75.00 & reject the rest.

7 150 fat hogs—750.00 & reject the rest.

8 17 Beeves—340.00 & reject the rest.

9 250 lbs Sugar—17.00 & reject the rest.

10 1/2 bbl. Molasses—10.00 & reject the rest.

11 100 stock hogs—200.00 & reject the rest.

12 63 stacks of fodder—309.37 & reject the rest.

13 46 stacks of Hay & pea vines} 140.00 & reject the rest.

14 7 stacks of Hay}

15 400 acres of standing corn 3200.00 & reject the rest.

16 Included in item 1

17 150 fat hogs (Urquhart)—750.00 & reject the rest.

18 100 stock hogs (Urquhart)—200.00 & reject the rest.

19 66 head of cattle—980.00

20 25 bus corn meal—25.00

Amount carried over $13276.37

Amt. brot. forward—$13276.37

21 2 sacks salt—$10.00

22 13 bags dried peaches—

22 1200 bus sweet potatoes—300.00—

24 17 setts of Gear—85.00

25 Included in item 1.—

26 30 bus corn—15.00

27. 28. 29 Hay & fodder (receipts) 25.20

30. 31. 32 Corn as per receipts—202.50

33. 34. Fodder as per receipts—21.00

35 Corn as per receipts—37.50

36. 37. 38 Hay, corn, fodder as per receipts—33.60

39. 40 Corn as per receipts—55.00

41 Hay as per receipts—21.00

42 A steer—20.00

$14,102.17

Making in all fourteen thousand one hundred and two dollars and seventeen cents—and rejecting the rest of the claim.

A. O. Aldis

J. B. Howell

O. Ferriss

Commissioners of Claims

On the hearing Col. McAllister of Counsel for Clmt. moved that an item for 6375 bus. of corn taken from the field on the Myrick place be added to the petition & claim, as that amt. at 25 bus per acre would be equal to the “255 acres corn gathered” named in No. 1 (2 by Audem) which was filed when the petn. was, & is referred to in it.—But many other items in Exhibit 1 are not included in the petn., & unless specially named in the petn. can not be considered as a part of it. The exhibit is referred to as proof of the items of claim stated in the petn., but not as being intended to present other claims than those named in the petn.—Again the claim now is for 6375 bus corn taken from the field, while the Exhibit speaks only of “255 acres corn gathered.”—So the “45 acres gathered” agrees exactly with item 5. at 25 bus per acre.—We have no doubt that the Army took as much corn from the Myrick place as is charged in items 5 & 6 & in the items from 26 to 41 for which receipts were given & so allow. For corn in cribs in Nov. ’62 we have always allowed 50 cents per bus, & we do so here though the receipts estimate it only at 25 cents. Mr. Cossitt is entitled to that fair price which in all other cases has been allowed claimants. For corn in the field we allow 40 cents per bus., about the difference the clmt. makes in his charges.— The Urquhart place contained 1600 acres of which about 1000 acres were cultivated. The witnesses say there were about 600 acres in corn, & that deducting what was trodden down by the Army there were at least 400 acres gathered by the troops.

Exhibit No. 2 (marked 2A by Mr. Audem) is a paper which clmt. drew up from a statement made at the time by Gilchrist, the Supt. Of the Urquhart place under Myrick, & which he then presented to Genl. McPherson, who then, Nov. 13, 1862 referred it to Qr. Mr. Burr for investigation saying—“Mr. Cossitt has rendered good service at different times & deserves compensation for the articles taken & damages done him. This contemporary claim made & thus certified by Genl. McPherson is entitled to much weight as evidence. It is sustained by the testimony of his foreman Wm. Cossitt, a colored man, and to some extent by Mr. Myrick who had a general supervision of the place tho residing 6 miles off. The other papers strengthen the proof of the claim. We are satisfied that the “400 acres of corn” claimed in Exhibit 2 must have yielded to our troops at least 10,000 strong who were camped on the place for several weeks at least 8000 bus of corn & for which as taken from the field we allow $3200.00

The items from 12 to 25 inclusive were all taken from the Urquhart place & are all named in Exhibit 2 except the item 25 for 19 mules.

As to item 1 for 10 mules taken from the Myrick place it is fully proved by Myrick, & Cossitt & is in Exhibit No. 1.—

As to items 16 for 16 mules, & 25 for 19 mules all taken from the Urquhart place: in all 35 mules. There is no proof that these mules were taken from any other place than the Urquhart place. There were mules on the Sykes place but there is no proof whatever as to their taking. These two items make up 35 mules, & that is just the number mentioned in Exhibit No. 3, the paper given by Genl. McPherson.—In that paper he says—“Mr Cossitt has permission to retain for the present the 3 mules which he obtd. From the Qr. Mr. Dept. He has had 35 mules taken from him by our Army & the above 3 mules are required by him to secure his crops.”—The clmt. assumes that the 35 mules do not include the 10 taken from the Myrick place. But we think this statement, made on the 20th Nov., after all the mules had been taken, was made at an interview between clmt. & Genl. McPherson, & referred to all the mules taken from clmt. whether from the Myrick, the Urquhart or any other place.—Clmt.’s object was to keep the three by showing how many had been taken & that none were left;—and without reference to any particular plantation. 

[mikewhittakermusic]

December/January Progress

Throughout December and January I gave myself a lot to do, possibly too much as not everything was completed. However, I still feel that I am making good progress with what I have done so far:

Business cards have been designed and created (see Appendix 1), however the company that printed them has made an error in the printing and so have agreed to print them again for free; this could even be considered a positive as now I have double the amount of business cards than I anticipated as a result.

An orchestral template has been created and put to use (see Appendix 2) and works well as an idea generator. As this template uses Pro Tools stock plug-ins Xpand!2 to maximise the amount I can create without running into CPU and RAM issues the resulting sound is not as good as it could be, so another template needs to be created which includes better VST instruments to move tracks onto after the initial ideas have been created.

Work with Alexander Macrae took place on his D’Cafe series throughout January (see Appendix 3). My role was to record Foley sounds for the first 6 minute (approximately) video. This is almost entirely finished now, and the composition for the video will be discussed, considered and composed with Alexander before this can be included within a showreel.

Potential theatre collaborators were found throughout Bristol and back home in Ludlow, Shropshire. An email was sent out to them asking if they would like any free composition for a project/theatre show (see Appendix 4). I am awaiting replies from these emails at present. 

6 quick one minute compositions in different modes were to be composed, 2 of which have been composed to varying levels of success. The compositions are basic and mainly consist of chord sequences, melodies and harmonies. A further 4 will be composed to be critically assessed by peers.

Further research was done into Music theory and quick composing techniques as the Theatre World can be a quick paced environment with music for a scene being needed very quickly. This knowledge comes from a discussion with Set Designer Frances Norburn who explained that on one of her recent projects (See Appendix 5) the director would tell the musician what sort of a feel was needed for the incidental music during rehearsals and the musician would have to compose this on the spot. This means that template creation is an absolute must, and quick compositions in different styles with short deadlines would be a good practice tool. Research included looking into modes in more detail in regards to brightest to darkest (12tone); changing keys in a range of manners whether it be augmented 6th modulation (reference), diminished 7th modulation (reference) or pivot chord modulation (reference). As my skill set means I am weaker at electronic elements including sampling and synthesis I looked into Youtube videos making the most of Ableton's Simpler, Sampler and Operator (reference). 

Masterclasses were attended at dBs music (Appendix 6), of particular interest were the classes on experimental music composition and using Arduino: 

The experimental music class showed how using a cello bow with a guitar can create an interesting effect and can be made into a full instrument using reverb and sampler. The sound created from this sounds epic yet suspenseful and would be perfect for film composition or theatre, as my main instrument is a guitar this appealed to me greatly. 

The Arduino class was a new discovery for me in seeing how electronics can be controlled and programmed with relative ease using Arduino’s coding programme. This would be especially useful in some areas of sound design for theatre, such as controlling a puppets mouth automatically when someone speaks into a microphone (reference). 

Odd time signatures was another compositional tool that was looked into for creating compositions in different moods. Of particular interest was their use for creating unrest, and how they can create a swing like vibe (reference). 

In conclusion December to January was very productive, but I didn’t achieve everything I set out to do: I still have to create a website; my business cards need re-doing; previous projects need to be mixed and mastered to a better standard for inclusion into a showreel; collaborators are still needed; and the showreel needs to be up and running.

References: 

Viers, R. (2008) The Sound Effects Bible. Michael Wise Productions. 

Ament, V. T, (2009) The Foley Grail, Focal Press, Elsevier.

Felipe Tellez (Oct 19, 2015). 1. Big Orchestral + Mockup Templates for Pro Tools 0 Session and Channel Setup. [Video File]. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nzwGxbagJ0&t=97s

12tone (Sep 25, 2017) Building Blocks: The Modes [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWQC4pdEco

Music Matters (Nov 21, 2019) Modulation using the German 6th - Music Theory [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI7LGdCEc4k

12tone (Mar 18, 2016) Diminished 7th Modulations and the Swiss Army Pivot Chord [Video File]. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6HLn6d05Y

Music Matters (Dec 5, 2019) Modulation using a Pivot Note - Music Theory [Video File] Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQbHSEDpE6s

Seed to Stage (Aug 15, 2019) Ableton Operator Synth Tutorial Deep Dive [Video File] Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBl25OB0E58

Caulfieldcosplay (Jul 5, 2017) Akulva animatronic speech demo using Arduino, Picotalk and servos [Video File] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKzLxwR_qgo

MusicTheoryForGuitar (Dec 9, 2019) The COOLEST Odd Time Signature [Mission Impossible, Music Theory]. [Video File].  Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=948iIiI2kmQ&t=704s

[mystech-master]

BBTAG ages

the ages of the characters in the 4 series, either from official sources or my headcanons.

Keep these in mind when you make your crossover ships.

I’m looking at YOU, Ragna/Ruby shippers. fucking pedophiles

Blazblue (from the year 2200), mostly going off of my headcanon here

Ragna the Bloodedge (March 5th): 23

Jin Kisaragi (Feb 14): 22

Noel Vermillion/Mu-12 (body “born” on Dec 25th 2194), body is 5-6 chronologically, but biologically is 19 (see theory)

Rachel Alucard (born Oct 31st): 100+ (chronologically, I don’t think adding on the time loops counts), like preteens (12-13) biologically.

Tager (Nov 23): he seems pretty middle aged from Bullet’s flashbacks, so I’d say late 30s early 40s

Hakumen (April 6th, 2100. When Jin arrived in the past after falling into the cauldron). Adding on Jin’s theorized age of 21 at the end of year 2199, “Hakumen” would be 31 by the end of the Dark War when he was sealed. Adding on the 99 years after he’d be 130 after his Boundary nap, so now he’d be like 131.

Nu-13 (”born” December 31st, 2199): only a few months old chronologically, 19-20 “biologically”

Jubei: 100+

Tsubaki Yayoi/Izayoi (March 14 THE DAY THAT KRABS FRIES): 20

Makoto Nanaya (April 2): 19-20

Hazama (”born” April 29th), as Relius was consumed by the Black Beast when it first appeared in 2100 and was subsequently tossed into the year 2179, Hazama would be (at max) 21 years old chronologically. Assuming he just got to work and made Terumi’s new vessel IMMEDIATELY. But, he does carry himself as someone older, like mid-late 20s imo.

Platinum the Trinity (born December 13): 12-13 (Luna/Sena body biologically), 2 (Luna/Sena body chronologically).

Konoe A. Mercury/Nine the Phantom (April 30th): (okay this is where fighting game ages shit on me), In XBlaze Lost: Memory, where you play as a young Nine, we see her already being able to speak and think for herself before Celica is even born. At MOST she’d have to be 4, because she isn’t that much older than Celica b/c both are students at the Mage’s Academy in Ishana at the same time during the dark war. Nine becoming a ten Sage’s member during her time there AND it being during the Phase Shift novels, thus in the year 2106. It’s hard b/c while Nine looks like a woman, it doesn’t seem like Celica changes physically at all. I mean she looks like late teens, but doesn’t exactly look like her 20s later. Then again the Mercury family ages REALLY well.

Back to my point, XBlaze takes place in 2050, The Dark War takes place from 2100 to 2110. Nine and Celica must both be over 50 years old then, assuming that “Myself” and “Little Sister” from XBlaze Lost: Memories ARE in fact the Nine and Celica from the main Blazblue timeline (even though XBlaze and Blazblue are two different canons, read “Possibilities”). But hey, some people complain that Es, Nine and Celica don’t have any interactions despite them being friends before, so who knows who is right.

So, b/c age is bullshit with these girls and the Mage’s Academy’s curriculum can fuck itself, we’ll say Celica is 19-20 like the Remix Heart girls, and Nine is 23-24 biologically.

Azrael (Oct 10): Seems middle aged, like his mid-late 30s I bet.

Mai Natsume (April 4th): 19-20

Es (Oct 15), assuming this Es (being made from the Azure) is simply based on the actual Es from XBlaze, who was able to pose as a second year high school student to keep an eye on Touya, so she must at least appear/ be biologically 16-17.

Persona (assuming they’re taken post P4AU but before summer break, as the P4 cast don’t have their Golden True Ending looks, thus they’re taken from the year 2012. The latest we can say is May-April, since Golden Week ends on May 5th)

Yu Narukami (born 1994): 17-18

Yosuke Hanamura (born June 22, 1994): 17

Chie Satonaka (born July 30, 1994): 17

Yukiko Amagi (born December 8, 1994): 17

Kanji Tatsumi (born January 19th, 1996): 17

Naoto Shirogane (born April 27, 1996):16

Aigis (”born” September 10th, 1999): 13

Mitsuru Kirijo (born May 8th, 1991): 21

Akihiko Sanada (born September 22nd, 1991) 21

Labrys (”born/activated” April 20th, 1999) 13, possibly “older” as a prev generation Anti-Shadow suppression weapon

Under Night In-Birth (mostly taken from the profiles made by @sistema-celeste)

Hyde Kido: 16-17

Linne: 7-13 (biologically), 200+ (soul)

Waldstein: 200+

Carmine Prime: 17-18

Orie Valadier: 16-17

Gordeau: early to mid 20s

Merkava: unknown, presumably was an adult before transformation

Vatista: 200+ (chronologically)

Yuzuriha Sougetsu: 19?

Mika Returna: unknown

RWBY

Ruby Rose: 15

Weiss Schnee: 17

Blake Belladonna: 17

Yang Xiao Long: 17

[alienpanicroom]

RNM To Be or Not To Be

Between the return of Amber (Rosa) and another what appears to be a joint merch drop the speculation out this week has become more desperate for answers that have yet to come.

The same person who claimed Tyler would be back by Oct 11th is now saying Dec 6th.

Silence regarding Malex is to sell more merch.

Silence is to keep people watching the show.

And the ones I tend to agree with.

Another round of trying to give the fans a little more of what they wanted, but the show failed to deliver.

Tyler has been sending a message he’s no longer on the show through IG by posting a lot more than he usually does from home and everywhere except Santa Fe.

Vlamis has been silent and not answering fans questions because he knows fans will be upset.

Now my mind keeps going back to Sep 1 and these pics Tyler posted about 2 hours apart with nothing else in between.

Their contracts can be and usually are very NDA. Obviously this could mean nothing, but it very well could’ve been Tyler’s only way of trying to let the fans know what’s going on. Vlamis would consistently rise to talk about Malex and he hasn’t since the last merch drop, aside from a few tweets while watching the remaining episodes and a recent video where he tells his girlfriend he had a bad dream about Malex and asks if they will be ok, to which she replied, “They’re not real.” and he laughs. That speaks louder to me than any of Tyler’s pics.

The unanswered questions remain.

Why has Tyler not been in Santa Fe as much as previous seasons filming?

What does this mean for Alex and Malex?

Was Tyler let go?

If so was it the show’s decision or was it Tyler’s to leave?

Bringing back up what I said in another post. If it was the show and they decided it would be best to write Alex out, I hope they’re prepared for the backlash. If they went the OG way and killed Alex off, there will be a shitstorm. The complaints regarding the original showrunner and the threesome won’t even come close in comparison.

However, if Tyler chose to leave, he had more than good enough reason. My hope is the RNM fandom will find some sort of peace with it and not lose their shit on him.

Back to waiting.

[ranty-ramblestein]

(captions~)

Oct 5th: I caught Raymond calling Croissant ‘cu beb’ again, huehue~ And Mira wanted more pumpkin stuff around, since it’s all in one corner, heh! Oct 6th: Speaking of the Halloween Corner, Nook’s Cranny finally had one of the new Halloween items, so I put it up near the rest, deciding to put it in front of the the lily of the valley there as a bit of, uh, dissonance?  Pretty sure that’s the right word...

Oh, and Raymond didn’t put the shawl shirt on the floor, so he might wear it!  His viking shirt is in his closet, too!  Wear more costumes, Raymond!! And make me a new halloween DIY, already!!

Oct 7th: Oh, apparently Elvis heard my wish, because he was making the tricky lamp! (customization looks and placement is under the cut!) I also caught a bit of a crowd in front of Axel’s house, lol.  Ken later decided to sit in the cafe later, nice!

pic 1: Caught a natural cu beb from Raymond! pic 2: "It's only in one little corner!  Halloween needs to be /everywhere!!/" Mira insisted. pic 3: "Oh, no, I just wanted to know how you're doing!" Croissant explained. "Have a good recovery, okay?" "Oh, yeah, thanks!" Axel smiled. pic 4: His clothing wasn't on the floor, so I was hoping the shawl might be in here...  Well, at least the viking shirt is in here!  Now, I just have to spot him wearing either of them... pic 5: "Oh, one of the new items!!" Croissant gasped. pic 6: I'm sticking with the all green pumpkin look! pic 7: I know where to place the new lamp, but I was lost on this one... Maybe this'll be fine? pic 8: I caught the Smug Boys and Axel hanging out in front of his house! pic 9: Elvis heard my complaints, and... gave me the one that was second place in my ranking of these three new diys.  Basket when!? pic 10: One cool thing is, when you click on the image when crafting, it's open in the more zoomed-in version!

The obvious decision was made, lol. Almost went with spiders, but that hay is already white enough...