#or b) make no sense linguistics-wise

[cicelythereaper]

Hello! I was wondering if you had anything on Y Gododdin 😃

hey! fellow gododdin enthusiast! what a delight

i presume this is a request for reading recommendations - i don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, or how accessible these will be, but i’ve tried to cover most bases here. i WISH there were more literary criticism, maybe there is in the welsh-language scholarship and i just haven’t found it? 

it’s entirely possible that i will have missed some obvious things here, i’m mostly sticking to stuff that i personally have read. if something mind-blowing has come out since the last time i did gododdin reading then it’s not here, i’m afraid! 

but enough disclaimers. on to the recs!

text and translation:

for a translation, i cannot recommend enough joseph p. clancy’s translation as found in the triumph tree: scotland’s earliest poetry, 550-1350, ed. t. o. clancy (1998). this is fantastic. it’s poetic, it’s a joy to read, and having used it as part of a deep read last year where i went through the welsh text in detail i am honestly AMAZED regularly at how well clancy handles the many translation issues that arise. it’s loose, and it doesn’t translate every single stanza unfortunately, but for the spirit of the poem you really can’t do better

that said, if you need another translation to check against/to fill in the gaps, i’d recommend kenneth jackson’s the gododdin: the oldest scottish poem (1969). it’s a prose translation, so it’s harder to use in conjunction with the text, but it’s pretty clear and accurate

text-wise... things get complicated. honestly, the best edition is probably still ifor williams’ canu aneirin (1938), in terms of faithfulness to the words on the manuscript page. (i also really enjoy his textual commentary, but it is in modern welsh so not accessible to everyone.) the major problem with it is that you are not going to get the stanzas in the order they appear in the manuscript - he reorders them into groups of perceived variants. this also makes it harder to distinguish between the A-text and the B-text. AND it means that the stanzas are not in the same order as in any of the translations!

if you can get hold of it, i really really think it is worth having daniel huws’ llyfr aneirin: a facsimile (1989). the introduction is SO useful for understanding the manuscript context, and it comes with gwenogvryn evans’ transcription of the book of aneirin, which you can compare with williams’ edition if need be to work out where a stanza actually goes.

there’s a conspectus of editions which i think thomas owen clancy put together but i cannot for the LIFE of me remember where it is - if you think you’ll need it, PM me and i’ll see what i can do

dating, textual criticism and historicity:

t. m. charles-edwards, wales and the britons, 350-1064 (2013), chapter 11 - this is from more of a historical perspective than a strictly linguistic/palaeographical/dating perspective, but it’s a really good general introduction and i definitely recommend starting with it. if you read nothing else, read this. this whole book is a godsend

t. m. charles-edwards, 'the authenticity of the gododdin: an historian's view', in astudiaethau ar yr hengerdd, eds. bromwich and jones (1978), pp. 44-91 - this kind of lays out the standard view which everyone has been deconstructing ever since. we don’t know anything about what’s going on with y gododdin, but at one point we thought we did know something and this was what it looked like

d. n. dumville, 'early welsh poetry: problems of historicity', in early welsh poetry: studies in the book of aneirin, ed. b. f. roberts (1988) - and HERE is the deconstruction! a pretty good overview of the issues with “knowing anything” when it comes to y gododdin

p. sims-williams, 'dating the poems of aneirin and taliesin', zeitschrift für celtische philologie 36 (2016), 163-224 - i don’t have any notes on this and haven’t read it recently, but i remember it being good (it’s sims-williams so of course it is). almost certainly contains linguistics, but is probably also written readably

o. j. padel, 'aneirin and taliesin: sceptical speculations', in beyond the gododdin: dark age scotland in medieval wales, ed. a. woolf (2013), pp. 153-75 - if you can stand linguistics talk, padel does his best to make it understandable here and gives a good overview of the linguistic arguments for and against suggested dates for y gododdin. this whole book is actually very useful

g. r. isaac, 'canu aneirin awdl LI', journal of celtic linguistics 2 (1993), 65-91, AND 'readings in the history and transmission of the gododdin', cambrian medieval celtic studies 37 (1999), 55-78 - DEEP IN THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM. honestly, my poor attention span means i find it hard to pay attention all the way through these two, but if you want a really in-depth look at the possible relationships between the A and B-texts of y gododdin, this is the way to go

historical discussion and background:

charles-edwards in wales and the britons chapter 11 again

j. rowland, 'warfare and horses in the gododdin and the problem of catraeth', cambrian medieval celtic studies 30 (1995), 13-40 - this is a pretty cool look at the role of cavalry in y gododdin and while i don’t agree with all of it, i think it’s really useful reading if you’re going for a historical take on the poem

p. m. dunshea, 'the meaning of catraeth: a revised early context for y gododdin', in beyond the gododdin again, pp. 81-114 - makes some ESSENTIAL points re the question of: is catraeth catterick? moreover, IS CATRAETH A PLACE?

c. cessford, 'northern england and the gododdin poem', northern history 33 (1997), 218-22 - a historical perspective on the poem with some very useful points, comparing the situation as sketched out in y gododdin with what we know of the area at the time

m. wood, 'bernician transitions: place-names and archaeology', in early medieval northumbria: kingdoms and communities, AD 450-1100, eds. petts and turner (2011), pp. 35-70 - a welcome look at the archaeological and place-name evidence for what was going on in bernicia as it changed from a brittonic to a germanic-dominated area. really useful to have in mind both when reading the poem and when reading more literary history

r. collins, 'military communities and transformation of the frontier from the fourth to the sixth centuries', in the same book, pp. 15-34 - pretty fascinating look at the earlier background running up to the time period depicted in y gododdin, and the possibility of continuity between the roman occupation of hadrian’s wall and the post-roman era there. useful social/archaeological perspective!

f. h. clark, 'thinking about western northumbria', in the same book, pp. 113-28 - an early medieval english perspective on the area at the time, useful for comparison and completeness’ sake 

literary discussion:

ifor williams, lectures on early welsh poetry (1944) and the beginnings of welsh poetry, ed. bromwich (1972, 2nd ed. 1980) - THE CLASSICS. an old-fashioned, not to say outdated, viewpoint, but that’s because this is the guy who INVENTED the viewpoint back when it was new! even now there’s a lot of good stuff packed into these and ifor williams’ prose style is a real pleasure to read. not to be missed

a. o. h. jarman, 'the heroic ideal in early welsh poetry', in beiträge zur indogermanistik und keltologie, ed. meid (1967), pp. 193-211 - likewise somewhat old-fashioned now, but lays out the classic viewpoint well and makes some good literary points. it may also be worth reading the introduction to his edition/translation, aneirin: the gododdin (1988). (i don’t recommend using it as an edition because he conflates the A and B texts and renders the text into modern welsh - this means it reads very smoothly but is quite a bit further away from what’s on the manuscript page.) 

h. fulton, 'cultural heroism in the old north of britain: the evidence of aneirin's gododdin', in the epic in history ed. davidson, mukherjee and zlatar (1994), pp. 18-39 - a pretty interesting read, about the mindset expressed in the poetry, its purpose and its construction

this isn’t lit crit but i’m putting in my favourite g. r. isaac quote from his article ‘gweith gwen ystrat and the northern heroic age of the sixth century’, p. 69: ‘Koch writes that the Book of Aneirin’s ‘immediate milieu is… not the Celtic Heroic Age, but the High Middle Ages’, as if the ‘Celtic Heroic Age’ were a period of comparable historical status to the High Middle Ages. This is not the case, however. A ‘heroic age’ cannot be the ‘immediate milieu’ of any literary production, a ‘heroic age’ cannot produce literature, because a ‘heroic age’ is itself produced through literature (taken in the broadest sense). It is a literary product. The Homeric epics are not the product of  a Bronze Age Achaean heroic age, but vice versa. The Irish Ulster Cycle is not the product of an Iron Age, pre-Christian heroic age, but vice versa. And the medieval Welsh poems of ‘Aneirin’ and ‘Taliesin’ (and Triads, sections of the Historia Brittonum, and much else) are not products of a sixth-century North British heroic age, but vice versa.’

honestly there just is not nearly enough lit crit for y gododdin, in english at least, especially to explain cool shit that the welsh text is doing that isn’t visible in the translation, and/or things that could be subversive or ambiguous about it - so, i don’t know what your level of engagement with the medieval welsh text is, but if you’re curious, if you want to know more about what’s going on in a specific stanza (or which stanzas are extended puns), or just which things i’ve been dying to yell about all year, PLEASE message me and I! WILL! YELL! 

articles which are almost certainly good and useful but it’s been too long since i’ve read them to say:

t. o. clancy, 'the kingdoms of the north: poetry, places, politics', in beyond the gododdin again, pp. 153-75

m. haycock, 'early welsh poets look north', likewise in beyond the gododdin, pp. 115-52

FINAL NOTE:

one of the problems with translations is that they give an impression of way more certainty about the meaning of the text... than is actually there. you’re pretty safe with clancy or kenneth jackson, but tread carefully. again, i don’t know your level of engagement with medieval welsh, but if you want to know if there are any major textual issues with a stanza, hmu and i will gladly consult my copious textual notes! but in general, BEWARE of basing anything too heavily on the following groups of stanzas:

A40, A41, B5, B6 (Am drynni drylaw drylenn; Clancy ‘For the feast, most sad, disastrous’)

A42, B25, B35 (Eur ar vur caer; Clancy ‘Gold on fortress wall’)

A48, B3, B24 (Llech leutu tud leudvre; Clancy ‘Standing stone in cleared ground’)

A62, B14, B15, B16, B36 (Angor dewr daen; Clancy ‘Anchor, Deifr-router’)

the Gorchanau if you’re interacting with those, especially the Gwarchan Maeldderw - if anyone tells you they know exactly what is going on in these, do not believe them. isaac has a full translation of the gwarchan maeldderw in cambrian medieval studies 44, and it’s useful, but i’m not by ANY means completely convinced by it, so tread carefully.  

the more stanzas there are in a group of variants (or at least a group that shares lines), the more likely it is that those stanzas are going to be SUPER DUPER TEXTUALLY FUCKED UP, is a pretty good rule of thumb.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

prompts

April 26th: Talk about special interests. Do you have special interests? If not do you wish you did? What do your special interests mean to you? What are your current special interests? What are your past special interests? idk like i know i sure have & have had Interests, some more of interest than others, and it's also like, oh yeah i guess the ways i held that interest / explored it pretty intently / extensively / at length didn't always seem to be the way other people always felt about things even if we shared the interest, but yknow, at the same time it doesn't necessarily seem as extensive or major as some of the aspects of defining a Special Interest(tm) can be, i haven't been too pressed about it, but of course it's like, i have my Things lol, i.e. yeah this thing is kind of My Thing....and then i can look back on Things like. well idk when i was really little and you're just gonna like Cool Stuff, i did have the thing of like, i like dinosaurs and did sorta casually collect dinosaur stuff, easy enough b/c they make that stuff for kids, memorized a bunch of dinosaur Names so that just being asked to recite a bunch was something i was known to be able to do, a big fan of a couple semi educational computer games we had, shoutout to 3d dinosaur adventure and this magic school bus dinosaur (and ocean) game, had pajamas ft dinosaurs, rip to when i had a sick metal lunchbox with dinosaurs on it and it just broke on like week 1 of first grade or whatever and i just had to go back to default lunchboxes. well and then but anyways but from then on it was like, well, i guess it's media time......read a shit ton all the time, was into some tv series / movies, played some pc / video games, there was stuff i'd be glad to revisit over and over, and yknow, as this went on it'd be like, well now when there's A Relatable Enough Character in something i also like just in general, that's a powerful combo, though sometimes it's like, yeah i like this thing enough even in the absence of any particular [and i extra go hard about this character] element, that's not Not at play as it's like "well and i guess i will think about this quant every day for years now lmfao," and i can sure always talk about stuff At Length too, which sure is not something other people are generally interested in, but if/when they are, it's like okay great, this is a great connection point then, b/c otherwise it's like, i generally don't know what to say about myself, didn't get much practice, did pick up a sense of like, well stuff is Wrong about myself and my life so i shouldn't share it and also i'm not picking up friends so it was generally accurate that no one was exactly interested lmao. small talk is really more of a barrier / test you can just potentially fail, yet anything more personal is Oversharing, but hey i would earnestly love to talk at length about This Thing, so great when other people are into that at all lol and then if we vibe it's like, obviously that's the sort of functional "small talk" route here lol to being able to be more familiar w/each other and talk more generally, even if yknow, wuh oh, i'm kind of cagey outside those Interests i will talk about in ways that's probably "too much" by most ppl's standards, worst of both worlds when it comes to forming relationships but oh well, it is what it is and i sure don't consider it a bad thing i have plenty to say about things i Want to talk about, and it sure doesn't impede on anyone else if i'm Not Talking about other shit.

also then it's like, "idk what it is when you just determinedly Pursue something that's maybe still not the hugest deal, but i don't really feel very pressed re: figuring it out" like, does it count like how i mentioned today i'd read bird guides for fun as a kid, and watch this bird documentary and be like "hey. check out this scene in this bird documentary with this bird mimicry" to friends i now realize were probably mostly bemused by this, and really liked birds just generally (still true), and thus have like, maybe more Bird Knowledge than the average random person but also am hardly some self taught ornithological expert. or how i'm big into linguistics and etymology and, in theory, language learning, always really latching on to the little i was taught in school, also perusing some Language Guides available, and like, not really self teaching a bit re: learning some of a couple languages, just learning via teaching resources outside of [directly through any academic institution], never took any language classes, sure have no fluency in fuckall.........how about that i just decided as a kid like "hm i want to be able to draw" b/c i felt that way (and yknow, still do in a way lol) about pretty much anything, but i just also liked doodling and took some art classes and it was always this casual thing and now i use this to make fanart for the Media Interests lol, and although this is all digital drawing and drawing was always my primary thing it's like, well okay also yeah there was like, some painting / pastels / sculpting other Visual Arts stuff, and then, like, i sure enjoyed dance classes and the Performing Arts aspect of that, theatre gay adjacent b/w that and choir lol, have regular dreams about being part of impromptu dance performances, including just last night, rip to the special thwarting of "oh no i'm going around trying to get food before the show, getting stuck in traffic or lost in stores, and i've missed my whole first appearance" lol. anxiety dreams never end........and idk, i've had a love for math stuff, physics stuff, space stuff, even felt that [!] for the little i was able to get into circuitry and coding, but yknow. learning that shit is kind of involved and i only had so much experience re: taking classes, also, unfortunately, i always hated school lmao, so it's just kind of there where i'm like oh i get Into this shit in the ways that other people who are definitely Into it feel about it lmao. but yeah, idk, i do have like. well here's this sort of stuff i think about Every Day, this sort of mental home base sometimes, that i don't get tired of and reexplore / reexperience pretty intensively, but at the same time like, sometimes i can just sort of have something be that Interest for a lot more of a temporary duration, and things that were that main shit is like, well Probably when i like it that much once i like it down the line even if i haven't been that focused on it in the meantime, more just latent, but then it's like, well, but probably could and would still talk So Much about it still even if it's not like, oh yeah i'm Into This(tm) right Now lol..........idk! but i sure get really into shit and like, if anyone else is interested in me talking at length / drawing about it, that's sure probably the most successful grounds for Connection lmao cuz yknow. even people who maybe share that interest aren't guaranteed to see that and go "yeah this is someone i'm interested in actually talking to though" like yeah here's your preview of my personality i guess lol

April 27th: What is your favourite form of media? For example, do you enjoy books? What format do you prefer for books (physical, e-book, audiobook)? Did you love reading as a kid but find it challenging as you got older? How about movies, tv, or video games? Do you have a favourite series? yeah i read all the time as a kid, on the bus, if i finished shit early at school, on the bus again, also at home plenty, not so much when i was in college when it's like oh i can just do kinda whatever now (also as people point out it's like. well gotta do all this reading for classes now so) and then it was like, i'll get into other Media i can freely experience at any time, and also hang out with people Some, which i can also just do whenever now, as opposed to at any point before this......still like reading but it can sure kind of be a Whole Thing, like i either can't focus and it's like well time to read like, a paragraph or page a day, or else i'm focusing Too Much really like, if i'm at all trying to see how something ends i might burn through it in a few days (still a fairly slow reader) which is like, do i want to spend multiple days on this One Thing, even if it takes me like, multiple times the runtime to watch a movie or something, that's still probably getting done in 1 day. plus that yeah, mostly reading new shit via laptop, which is kind of a pain as opposed to physical books or like, e readers in theory, i've never actually used one. the only time i used an audiobook was a few times as a kid to read along with longer books to sort of help with that momentum, such a hot minute ago that this was via Tape Cassette.....i do listen to podcasts though, great for like, doing Something Else at the same time, which i don't know that i could split up that focus and guaranteed successfully absorb a book, Maybe So but select podcasts are my Extensive Audio of choice. never really watched that much tv, there were some stuff me and my siblings might watch as it aired, but not really Narrative Series lol, never seen shit, haven't even really watched That many movies either, still don't Really even though it's like yeah w/e in Theory i enjoy these mediums it's like oh my godddd it's a whole thing to focus on one and then plus what if i don't like it but i've had to put in all that time to know i didn't like it lmao.......i can enjoy keeping up with a tv series like, oh boy once a week a half hour to hour installment, that's a great format truly, but i'm rarely getting that experience lmao like. with billions you could stand 2 weeks between episodes b/c whew but it's v Rare like oh thank god, a series with that weekly release........but otherwise it's like ugh do i wanna have alllll this material to watch, do i wanna go through the whole process of figuring out what movie i feel like giving a try........and that i like Revisiting shit i already like pretty endlessly so it's like, i might just do that. so it's like, audio wise i'll put on podcasts, if i feel like watching something i Might be bothered to try out a movie or smthing b/c yknow, ultimately more doable to consume something that's just a few hours, all that when i'm Thinking About a tv series every day for years lmfao, shoutout to billions which sure gets to be my fave b/c tf else am i keeping up with, literally nothing else, even if i haven't gotten around to actually watching all of it yet / haven't simply sat straight through even the episodes i have watched, i Could do it but it's like god formidable when it's sure more than a movie's worth of content and plenty of "i don't care about this and/or hate this" to make me put my head through the wall lmfao thank you billions........also sometimes i remember like "oh yeah, i guess in theory i enjoy video games as well" but i didn't have That much experience w/them and sure don't now, so that's like well irrelevant ig. media

[justkeeptrekkin]

Prompt if you wanna: Some fake!dating maybe they have to go undercover for hero work?

anon do you know how hard it was to not write a 80+k slow burn friends to lovers fic here? I’m such a ho for fake!dating. THANK you for this blessed ask. 

“We definitely, absolutely should not make-out in plain sight in the corridor of a villian’s penthouse apartment.”

Hizashi says it, but he very much does not mean it. He grabs Shouta’s face and kisses him again like his life depends on it. 

Which it sort of does.

Twenty minutes earlier.

The piano music sounds distant and strained in Hizashi’s earpiece. The laptop screen shows a sea of people who, for anyone who wouldn’t know any better, seem upstanding- if not also unnecessarily rich. The charity-event pretence is a clever disguise, but it didn’t fool everyone.

It had been Nezu’s idea to organise an undercover infiltration; with a little research, Hizashi discovered that several suspects for one of Tsugauchi’s biggest cases would be attending this party. Not that he should know about such things, but it’s hard not to pick up the facts when the police leave them around so lazily. Now, Hizashi sits in a storage room downstairs, Nemuri perched beside him on an upturned mop bucket. They both listen, watch the party roll ahead with all the glitz and glamour that would be expected for its absurdly wealthy guests. Prosecco, fancy looking finger-food, music, all set in a penthouse apartment in uptown Mustafu.

It looks like way too much fun.

“Why the hell is Shouta the one who gets to undercover?” Hizashi whines, leaning his chin heavily on his hand and watching his best-friend-who-he-most-certainly-doesn’t-have-feelings-for stand awkwardly amidst the crowd. “He’s literally the last person to ever appreciate this sort of thing, man, it’s so un- ooh, look, they have vol-au-vents-”

Nemuri shoves him in the shoulder, a reminder to concentrate. “I don’t need to tell you why, you know the answer.”

She folds her arms across her chest. She’s wearing a dress that is entirely too revealing for it to be a convincing disguise; even with the blonde wig, Hizashi reckons she’d be recognisable anywhere for her chosen style. Hizashi, meanwhile, is wearing red contacts, has temporarily dyed his hair black, and has been forced against his will to shave off his moustache.

He’s still bitter about that.

He sighs and drums his hands rhythmically against the bucket he’s sat on. It turns into a tuneless rendition of Down Under by Men At Work and Nemuri nudges him again.

“Can’t hear.”“Sorry.”

Shouta sighs into his earpiece. He’s always the one to go undercover since he’s still not that recognisable, despite his brief foray on national television. Hizashi and Nemuri, however, are. The only reason they’re dressed to the nines is for if  back up is needed.

Truthfully, Hizashi thinks the only reason they didn’t send him down is because they think his acting is too good.

“Eraser. Shou. There are crab cakes going by. Put one in your pocket for me.”Nemuri unsuccessfully muffles her laughter, and Hizashi thinks he can see the entire camera on Shouta’s lapel move with the extreme-sighing that he’s displaying.

“Shouta- the crab cakes! The crab ca- goddamn, why do you hate me so much, dude? No free food for your handler?”

“Stop distracting him,” Nemuri says, but there’s no sincerity and she’s laughing through the words. “Oh, we’ve got Suzuki at two o’clock, Eraser.”

The man of the hour; Tsukauchi’s prime suspect. A multi-millionaire bordering on billionaire with an intelligence quirk- a man who handles complex mathematics and probability as easily as ABC. Unsurprisingly, suspected of using his abilities for embezzlement and fraud. Worse, believed to be funding several underground villain organisations. He’s dressed in a fine black suit, so simple and understated that it screams this cost more than you’ll ever earn in your lifetime.

Shouta makes his way over.

Hizashi’s leg starts to bounce up and down nervously, making the adjacent shelf of cleaning products rattle. Shouta is able to remain deadpan in almost any situation, making him ideal for undercover cases- and he can be surprisingly good at improvisation. But there’s also something about his reserved exterior that makes villains suspicious of him. Now, as he winds through the party towards one of the most intelligent suspected villains that they know of, Hizashi can only watch and advise into his ear-piece with a growing sense of anxiety.

“He’s already drunk,” Hizashi observes for Shouta’s benefit, examining the slight dribble of prosecco down the collar of Suzuki’s priceless suit. “This guy isn’t usually the messy type. And he’s talking to people he doesn’t know, judging by his phone contacts, so he won’t push you away.”

Shouta hasn’t even arrived at the small cluster of people yet before Suzuki’s eyes fall on him, double take, and settle there. And there’s something in the way the shallow smile and calculating look melts, the way it shifts into something possessive. It makes Hizashi growl angrily down Shouta’s earpiece. Hizashi is painfully aware that Shouta cleans up very nicely, it’s unsurprising for others to notice this too, but-

“Reel it in, Mic,” Nemuri says in a low, teasing voice that makes him shoot her a hurt look. Shouta doesn’t know anything about his feelings, and she’s certainly not meant to be making it even more obvious than it already is.

The fact that Suzuki’s attention has changed so suddenly to the approaching stranger isn’t lost on the other guests, and they move their conversation elsewhere. Suzuki leers, starts making small-talk with Shouta and Hizashi feels immediately sympathetic. He’s always struggled with such things.

When the conversation shifts onto Suzuki’s quirk, and thus, complex mathematics, Hizashi starts to worry.

When he laughs and lays a friendly hand on Shouta’s forearm, he gets pissed.

Removing his mouth piece, he says to Nemuri, “I told you I should have been the one to go in.”“Hizashi, you’re our linguist, you’re only ever the one to go undercover when-”

Hizashi stands up abruptly, knocking over his bucket-seat and smoothing down his incredibly dull grey suit. He wishes they’d let him go with the purple. “I’m going upstairs.”

Nemuri grabs him by the arm. “Hizashi this does not qualify as an emergency, if you think he needs advising, advise. From a distance. That’s why you’re his handler-”

“Yo my dude, my pal, you’ve gotta chill.” Hizashi spins round, rests his hands on Nemuri’s shoulders, and tries to convey as much confidence as possible. “I’m going whether you like it or not. I’ll try not to scream at him, but I can’t promise anything.”

He leaves the storage room and ignores the sound of Nemuri calling after him.

Five short minutes later he finds himself winding through the crowd, offering smiles here and there. He manages to swipe a crab cake and stuff it in his mouth, expertly swallowing it before plastering on a grin and taking Shouta’s side.

Shouta’s eyes zip over to Hizashi, assessing his presence and staring perhaps a little longer than is wise. He can see the question in his eyes even if no one else can. Hizashi doesn’t give him the chance to come up with a story; he was always better at that.

No matter what Nemuri says about his acting.

“Sweetie, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Shouta doesn’t react. In fact, his entire lack of response and the following, gaping pause is pretty suspicious. Hizashi bursts into an unfamiliar laughter- it’s his posh-party laugh that he and Nemuri have always enjoyed practising, head thrown back, hand on chest. He clings onto Shouta’s arm. “I thought I’d lost you at the drinks table, I turned around and suddenly you’d disappeared!”

Shouta’s chest rises as he takes a steadying breath, mouth falling open to speak, but nothing comes out. 

The smile Suzuki gives Hizashi is courteous. “It seems he’s lost for words. Suzuki Reo.”

Hizashi takes the hand that’s extended and shakes it with a lot less enthusiasm than he ordinarily would. “Oh, charmed, I’m sure,” he says smoothly.

“Charmed I’m sure,” Nemuri repeats mockingly into his ear piece.

“And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?”

Hizashi’s brain falters. He hadn’t come up with a name for himself.

“Regina Falange.”

There’s a surprised snort at the other end of Hizashi’s earpiece, followed by uproarious cackles. And: “Mic please, honey, oh my god you might be smart but you’re a shit actor, you’re going to get all of us killed-”

“What an interesting name.”“It’s European.” He tries to fight off the temptation to end that with a questioning inflection: Is that believable?

“Fascinating.” He doesn’t sound all that fascinated.”We were just discussing my quirk, how awfully self-centered that sounds.”“Suzuki-san has a mathematics quirk.” Shouta supplies this quietly, almost conspiratorially, leaning towards Hizashi as he says it. He’s wrapping his arm around his waist. Hizashi’s heart stops, before he remembers that he started this we’re-a-couple charade and he really shouldn’t be acting so flustered by it.

“I was just telling your partner about Zeno’s arrow paradox, but I’m afraid I may have lost him.”

Hizashi looks down at Shouta. Shouta returns the look.

“Oh, that sounds very complicated,” Hizashi says sweetly. “I’m sure I wouldn’t understand.”

Shouta narrows his eyes. He knows this game and he’s never liked it. Hizashi, on the other hand, lives for it.

“Ah, it’s simple really,” Suzuki says, his smile apparently genuine now. This is a man who enjoys to show off. And a man who enjoys to show off is a man who lets information slip. “Imagine an arrow at point A, and the target at point B, and in the course of reaching B the arrow must travel at least half that distance, which we can call point C. In getting from C to B, the arrow must travel half that distance, which is point D, and so on. But once you realise that you can keep dividing space forever, paring it down into smaller and smaller fractions, you come to see that the arrow, in fact, can never reach point B. Mathematically speaking, therefore, there is no smallest number- and no limit to greatness. Infinite everything.”

He concludes this unnecessary exhibition of his intelligence with an almost disappointed look in his eye, staring over Shouta’s shoulder.

“‘You must therefore confess that all that exists is not unique, but rather of number numberless’.”

Hizashi rattles off the quote with an air of nonchalance. Shouta glares at him.

Suzuki blinks drunkenly at Hizashi, clears his throat in surprise. “Lucretius said that, if I’m not mistaken?”“Yes.”“You speak Latin.”“I read it from time to time.”

“Hah! You almost had me take you for just another party goer. I’m not often tricked.”

“Well, we have to have our fun somehow, right? You must get so bored with a mind like yours, in a world like this.”

“Oh, it can get me into quite a lot of trouble.”The rapid fire interaction reaches an abrupt pause as both men silently assess each other. Hizashi feels Shouta tug on his suit jacket with a little more force than is necessary.

“Excuse us.”And Hizashi finds himself, without the opportunity to press any further, being directed by the small of the back out of the main reception area and into a quiet corridor. A waiter leans against the wall on his phone, registers their presence, and scurries back into the kitchen.

Shouta rounds on Hizashi, standing close so he can whisper and be heard.

“What are you doing?”Hizashi hesitates, the right words filtering to his mouth too slowly. “I came to help! He was rattling off all this crap about mathematics, man-”

“You’re my handler, you’re meant to stay out of sight and feed me information from a safe distance.”“Is this wh- you’re angry at me? Are you really pissed at me because you think that I’m not safe right now?”“I had it covered. We have a system, you broke it and I want to know why.”

“I-” Hizashi doesn’t want to answer that question. “Why did you pull me away? He was opening up-”

“No, he was getting suspicious. The ingénue act works fine, but only if you don’t prove them wrong. Now he doesn’t trust us and he knows he’s been tricked by you before.”

“OK, but, that’s not. It’s not just that, I mean-” God this is so frustrating. He shoves a hand through his hair. “Fine, listen, I was freaked out because he was being all handsy with you and I didn’t like the idea of you being at the receiving end of some creep trying to flirt with you and he’s a villain so that’s even worse and-”

“Wait-”

He’s vaguely aware that Shouta’s trying to interrupt him, but the word vomit is virtually unstoppable now. “And maybe I just felt like I should be here to mediate or maybe it’s something more, I dunno-”

“There’s someone coming-”

“Maybe I just felt like something was- wait what-?”

Before Hizashi is aware of what’s going on, he feels Shouta grab his lapel and drag him into an abrupt kiss. It lasts only a few seconds, and during the entire experience the inside of Hizashi’s head is screaming. When Shouta pulls away, Hizashi collapses against the corridor wall.

“Whuh,” is all he manages.

“Don’t freak out.” Shouta says it so evenly, like it’s that simple.

“I’m not freaking out.”

“You are freaking out. Someone was coming and you were talking about the mission.”

“Ah- yeah, right, sorry.”“Don’t apologise,” Shouta adds. “I’m sorry. That I didn’t warn you.”

And despite having broken apart from their kiss, they’re only inches away from each other. And Shouta is still holding onto Hizashi’s lapel. He’s staring at Hizashi’s lips.

There’s the sound of footsteps approaching.

“We definitely, absolutely should not make-out in plain sight in the corridor of a villian’s penthouse apartment,” Hizashi says reasonably. Before pulling him into a sloppy, desperate kiss, breathing into each other’s mouths and Shouta crowding him against the wall.

Oh god. This is happening. Wait, this is actually happening, isn’t it?

“Boys, as much as I’ve been rooting for you for the past fifteen years,” Nemuri’s voice slips into their ears, sounding quietly amused, “this could not have come at a worse time.”

Shouta pulls back immediately at the sound of her voice and bristles at the reminder that they’re being watched. Hizashi slouches against the wall, feels like he might melt into a puddle on the floor. He watches the way Shouta stares at the ground with a thoughtful crease between his brow. 

“Can we talk about this when we get home?” he whispers.

Shouta opens his mouth speechlessly. Gives a shaky nod.

They regard each other for a long moment, hands still on each other.

“Let’s get back in there,” Shouta says, at last. He looks a little off-centre, which is as ruffled as Shouta gets. Hizashi feels a hell of a lot more than a little off-centre.

Hizashi responds with a grin, and holds up his hand for a high-five. Shouta surveys his raised hand with a weary smile, and obliges.

“Let’s do this.”

[dopecherryblossomheart]

Made with help from Neia's Create-a-Career-tool - Multiple Tracks, Rabbit Hole, Patch UPDATE: 08/16/2018 - PC 1.46.18.1020 Before: I do have all packs and extansions and Rock'n roll; I think several of them might be useful for getting promoted; in fact it seems you do not real need more than Base Game (BG). I played it with only BG, and it worked out quite well.

The Career you DL is The Mental Therapist Career This is a Rabbit Hole Career (your Sim disappears when going to work and Comes back when finished, without carrots in mouth, nor dirt on clothes, but they call it a Rabbit Hole) I made by the help of Neia's Create-a-Career-Tool , similar to a therapist's Career, but as well as to psychologist, or mental Coach; it is a mixture of all of it, fitting to the dependings of Sims, not human beings. And, maybe, sometimes also built with a little twinkling eye. It has 6 main levels, after which you have the choice to join one of three further careers.

So let's go into detail, if you like: As The Theoretical Therapist "For the beginning, you study people before you treat real people. It is neccessary to learn how people can feel, how the brain works - roughly -, and how to teach patients without annoying or boring them. You read al lot, and you get to know all about the famous 'Mens sano in corpore sane.' You learn about speech, about your Body and the needs it has. You may make some hypotheses on human behaviour, but you are not allowed yet to prove them. So, be aware of headaches and long nights." You take care for and cure people by regarding their state of mind, their wellness and their physical fitness all together. Within 6 Levels, your Sim is led from a complete layman to a knowing student of all simlish behaviour, thoughts, intentions and needs. There's a lot to learn and not too much earning, and you need more than just one ability to get promoted. The single steps as Theoretical Therapist are: (1) Basic Empath: You are a beginner studying the theory. "How to be a Basic Empath: not too easy it seems. If you are no Vampire, you have to learn hard how to open a Sim's Heart and really understand what he or she means. You learn techniques of asking and interviewing, and you learn how to feel with somebody without regards or breaking down yourself." Stay confident! Even if it means from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Gain in Charisma and Writing to get promoted. Learn about Sims, about manipulation, and earn 22 Simoleons per hour. Much work, not much payment, but keep staying confident: This is the challenge before you may become a (2) Memory-Trainer: "How can I train a brain? Tricky Thing, because a brain has no body on ist own, except for the Sim's body, of course. But you help Sims to use their brains as if it had muscles like a top star bodybuilder. So at first sight: Train your own brain, that might help." Here you need to focus! Still working from Monday to Friday, even harder from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.! Logic and Writing must be formed out to train a Sim's memory, and you earn 25 Bucks per hour until you are Ready to become a (3) Didactic Beginner: About Teaching and Learning "Here it comes to all about Teaching and Learning. You learn how to learn, afterwards how to teach, followed by forgetting about all you learned to get some exercise with other Didactic Beginners who in the same time give you friendly, but determined feedback. In the end you turn back to your studies and write a book about new methods that do not work." Energize yourself to manage even more work from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You need to expand Charisma, Logic and Parenting (yes, all of them!) for to be able to teach the right way. All for only 26 Simoleons per hour. You'll need coffee and a good bed! After all that you will be promoted to become a (4) Freudian Researcher: About psychology and why it does not always work "Psychology and why it sometimes might make you feel quite ashamed, is one of the greatest Secrets of Science. Sims feel ashamed relatively fast, but Einstein had his theory concerning this. And Sigmund, who started off with all that stuff, might have been the one to feel ashamed most of all - but did he? You will know soon when learning all about bad feelings and how to struggle them down." Being embarrassed or ashamed should be reasonable while studying Freud. (Good luck with that!) The gain is working from Monday till Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for now 35 Simoleons per hour, which you might regard as a compensation. Working hard on Charisma and Logic, you will, in case of success, develop to a (5) Linguistic Candidate: "Where does speech come from? And where does it go to in case of speechlessness? Can you hold a talk with empty hands? Is there a sense in all those confusing empty words? What are words anyway? Just about 800 books to read, and you can answer all these questions. Almost." So you focus again, this time on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. You'll need all time to get Level 6 on Charisma, logic and writing! You Analyse speech and talking Sims, you learn phonetics to articulate most properly. So don't rest too much - you should not for 50 Bucks per hour! Makes it a little bit easier to believe in reaching the aim of your Basic Studies, finally becoming a (6) Theoretical Therapist: "Prepare yourself for all essentials: You are not theoretically a Therapist, but you are a Theoretical Therapist now. Which seems to be nearly the same, but never mind. You earn good Money now and do not work too much - but do you want to stay here all life?" Focusing is what you need here most. From Monday till Thursday between 9 a.m. and 15 p.m., you take your Charisma, Logic and Writing up to Level 7, and all this you do to finally learn about the Simlish Psychology, earning 60 Simoleons per hour. You are a psychologist from now on and forever - you cannot get rid of what you have learned about this intensly and with such an amount of hard work. But most of all Theoretical Therapists want to go on, to learn more: they specialize in further careers. And they do have very interesting choices between the three branches Health Saviour, Mental Coach, and Master of Mental Health. a) The Health Saviour: Health as the Basis of all "As a Health Savior, you need to learn all about medicines and pills and suppositories. For the first time being. Being followed by a thorough training to a Herbalist. (Nature knows many answers.) And after your head burst, you will be driven through the hardest physical education training program ever. (We really mean!) And after all, if you chose this career branch, you will be a profound genuine mental and physical health therapist. You will earn more money than before and be a true role model for your patients. The Health Saviour does not only train the client's body, but also discusses all contextes between body and soul. They know why you bow or why you frown, and they teach you reading your own body. Which is very surprising sometimes!" So at first, you will be a (7) Pharmaceutical Slave: "Pills 'n drugs 'n diarrhea - your Job is getting to know pills, how they are made, how they work, what damages they cause and how to get enormously rich by ill Sims and keeping them sick. Followed by an ethics Course where you discover moral and really mad Sims." Focus still in need, you learn about pills and drugs and nerves and muscles from Monday till Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Improve your Logic, you will need it - and get your Fitness an update to at least level 5. Before teaching Sims to have a sane Body, you will have to do some self-exercise, earning 150 per hour. Not too bad, but not enough for you? Okay, become a (8) Herbal Witch: "So it's rather Pills 'n drugs 'n herbs & Co. making Sims feel better, that's why you leqarn how to brew and use herbals. Which is fun most of the time, especially when trying out the herbals yourself. You should never give anything to a Sim you do not know on your own!" You long for Inspiration from Monday till Friday, get to work at 7 a.m. (for most herbals are in best condition that time) to 3 a.m, (which is quite enough on Career Level 8). Logic, Herbalism and Gardening shall be driven to higher Levels, for you brew and cook a lot in this level. But you do it for 180 Simoleons per hour, so what? If you continue this way, you might soon develop into a (9) Physical Trainer: "Sweat and aching muscles - after such a Long time of theory and stuff, you might have forgotten how to move your body! Get yourself into shape, run around the clock, erm, block, drive your Body where your brain already is! And afterwards just do the same on your patients." Remember staying confident? It is much easier here on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday(there are games on Saturday, you know) from 13 p.m. to 18 p.m. Most physical training is done in the afternoon. But to reach the last step of this Career, you'll have to perfect three of your skills: Fitness, Herbalism, and, of Course, Charisma. You won't become anything without Charisma! But with it, you'll earn 350 bucks per hour - and this is not the end! (10) Mental Health Therapist: "You look like the flourishing life. You know all about chemistry and biology, you are empathic, but demanding. Your Clients love you and also to work on their own mind through their bodies. Sounds weird, but works out like a Workout. Early a potion and training when rise makes the Sim healthy, and you wealty and wise." This the end of this Career, and you automatically feel energized. You work on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and take rests from this really exciting and exhausting job all time around. 1200 Simoleons per hour are your fees, and you really deserve that. A Career you can plan a life with! b) The Mental Coach: Simply knowing about language, speech and the fine art of singing and vocal modulation "You use language like a sorcerer: you look through the outward appearance of people, as if you were looking through the air, discovering all their true intentions, their deepest desires and their darkest dreams. You know how to enchant with words, how to be entranced by the power of the voice. Like the mentalist, you instantly notice when somebody's lying to you, and you could drive people to anything - which of course you can keep! Because you use your power only for the bright side - right?" This Career differs totally from the one above: the Mental Coach teaches you all about your voice and articulation, what it expresses and how to use in a smart way. The voice as the audible mirror of the soul, shows all your feelings fast and precisely to an attentive listener: it trembles when you are sad, it is full of energy when you are angry, it creaks when you are tired. To be master of your voice and speech, means being master of the situation! Here you start with the following step: (7) Linguistic Assistent: Phonetics, Phonology, Gramma and Semantics "Phonetics, Phonology, Gramma and Semantics - nothing can make you stumble with speech. You know what speech sounds like and how actually it should sound like - which is enormously and different; you never lose the sense of your sentences, no matter how long these ever might be. You make Sims feel ashamed just by even only nodding to them. Speech is not only words - and you KNOW that." Focusing is of great importance here! From Monday till Friday, you work from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.especially on your skills, namely Logic, Charisma, and - Guitar playing. Yes! Voice training also means singing, and to stay professional, you should master at least one instrument to accompany the singing client with all power you got. And you might be inspired to do so because of the 180 Bucks per hour that you earn with it. You will gain in self ensurance. For sure. And after that, you may continue as a (8) Therapist in the Psychological Emergency Outpatient Clinic: "There is somebody in need - TALK to him. Your task is making Sims who are highly frustrated, depressive, exhausted, upset, or all together, stand up smiling again and leave the crowded ambulance, make them turn home and talk to their friends about their lifes and problems (and if they don't have any, than find some) (friends, not problems - this is why it is so important to have someone like you to make it all sure)." You exercised being confident - for the Sims coming here to you! Now you practize every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. till 1 p.m. as somewhat inbetween a clinical linguist, teaching brain stroke patients and children how to speak clearly again, and an emergency psychologist, mentally catching sad Sims who need First Aid on their soul. This is very, very exhausting! At the end of the day, sometimes you think, your head explodes; you still work on Charisma, perfect your Logic, and even gain in Comedy up to level 5: Sometimes laughing is the best medicine! At least for the Clients; you do this all for your good heart and the fee of 480 Simoleons per hour. After promotion, you'll be an (9) Articulation Acrobat (AA): "You juggle words and weave a net with your voice. Aliterations are your armours, rap is your music, no single letter will be missed in your accurately completed articulation. You seem a bit elven, and nobody can find out why. This - makes you mighty! You can barely hide your satisfaction after all the stress and the oral motor exercises you have been going through." Always intensly focused, you work every Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with Sims of all ages who stutter or talk too fast. You teach teachers how to save their voice, Football Players how not to get hoarse, Managers how to articulate precisely and news reporter how not to clear the throat all the time. Singing is the best Basic for it all! And therefore all this claims to improve Charisma (up to level 10), guitar playing and singing. Which leads to fees of 600 Simoleons per hour. Which is not too bad. But still you can climb one step further up your Career ladder: (10) Doctor of Rhetoric, Mental Coach: "If the Queen needs to hold a speech, she will count on YOU! You have written several books about speech and how to abuse it; Clients wait years for your help and pay good money for it. Well done!" As a studied Doctor, you feel confident rather automatically. You know all about speech, rhethoric, phonetics (how a Sim does speak out a word) and phonology (how a Sim should speak out that word). People come from all over the world to ask you Questions about how to hold their talks, and so on. You work on Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., teach at University or at School, and all in all are satisfied with your fees about 930 Bucks per hour - you are worth it, and everybpody knows! Finally you are c) Master of Mental Health:You are tha Alpha and the Omega of Mental Health and Psychology. "The Education to the Master of Mental Health (Dr.phil.rer.nat.psych.) was voted the most difficult but lucrative education of all time by Sim City Magazine in January 2018. There is almost nothing you can not learn there. And in the end, your neighbour with his sports car will be jealous on your yacht. You could work at universities or for an older millionaire. In short, you are very close to God. And yet, because you have been educated to empathy and wisdom, you remain humble and spend most of your reward. Not true? You just do not leave your armchair any more. Only if you want." Go through the following career steps: (7) Wellness Assistant: "Balance within Body and Mind is your Credo. You convince Sims that there is much more than money - or ist lack of it, food - or the lack of it, or love - or the lack of it. There is a world inside of you, as well as on the outside, and you take your clients to a journey through it. And by the way, you like Sauna, massages and yoga yourself." You feel fine. You do feel fine from Monday till Friday from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. At the same time, you work on Charisma and Logic, and in parallel get your Wellness up to the highest level, because you teach Sims all about Wellness now. Buy yourself a sauna - with fees of 590 Simoleons per hour this won't be too difficult. Yes, you feel fine, and your clients will profit from that. You probably will regret to be promoted to a (8) Heart Plumber: "Grab a couch, park your patient's hips on the seat and let him talk. All you do is listening and make some notes and smart comments. Yes, the answers already are within the Sim - just let them show up. Carefully with empathy!" You confidently work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., listening to the complicated problems Sims can have. Sometimes you give them pills for their hearts, sometimes you sing a song with them; you cook together with them, you eat together with them, improving your skills Baking, Gourmet Cooking, Charisma and Logic at the same time. "Savoir vivre" is what you try to teach them for 1100 Simoleons per hour. And they do pay it, because you are brilliant! Still, another challenge is waiting for you: become (9) Doctor of Neurology and Psychiatry: "Finally, learn the high art of nerve cell study and the analysis of human abysses. Now you can really draw all conclusions from body and mind on a microbiotical level. Your Clients are deeply impressed by all you say and do; which should remind you of your big responsability again." You have a doctorate now, and you start off confidently every Monday and Saturday from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. You now teach young doctors and younger therapists all about nerve cells and psychiatric illnesses. People might think that you are lazy, but we know the cost of reaching this level. Still working to perfection on your Handiness, Gourmet Cooking, Charisma, and Parenting, you are dependant on all this free time. Concerning your fees, you earn 1500 Simoleons per hour, which is neccessary because you cannot work that much any more. And finally, if you got all over this, you might finish up your Career as a (10)Master of Mental Health: Dr.phil.rer.nat.psych. Master of Mental Health: "This is it. Your name and titles now are longer than the summary on a deodorant. Your fees look like other ones' social Security number. You yourself look decadently rich, happy and unrepentant. Maybe also unscrupulously dangerous - take care! The line between charity and corruption is incredibly narrow … What? Erm - I just wanted to congratulate!" Money and freetime as much as you have ever dreamed of, you will be very satisfied with going to work. Feeling fine on Monday, Wednesday , and Friday from 11 a.m. to noon, you hold talks in Universities, sometimes have a very Special Client ("special" here means "VIP"), and you earn 5400 Simoleons per hour for it. This is why you feel quite fine.

[spamzineglasgow]

(REVIEW) Not your minute turns from the blueprint: Body Work, by Tom Betteridge (SAD Press, 2018)

Denise Bonetti <denise.spamzine@gmail.com> Mon, 10 Dec 2018, 20:21 to maria.spamzine Hey Maria, Hope life’s good :) I’m just writing to see you if you’ve read Tom B’s new Body Work? There’s a paper I should be writing, but have been reading and rereading that pamphlet instead, or more like dipping in and out really, cause it's so beautifully layered and expanding that you can only take so much at a time. Don’t you think Tom’s poetry has this strange earworm quality to it? (I think he’d like the annelid comparison.) The way he choreographs words (I don’t want to use the word 'images’) makes its way into my brain and never wants to leave. He draws these, like, lateral paths of meaning so clearly that the weeds never grow back.Tom Raworth has this bit in 'Writers / Riders / Rioters' that goes:

the present is surrounded  with the ringing of ings which words have moss on the northside

like, words naturally arrange themselves into a system of semantic habit, which is so stable and stale that makes them grow moss, but also so rich and vibrant when it's exploited productively. Obviously this is Raworth so it probably also means the opposite of this and so much more, but it kinda makes me want to say that the present (poem) makes the ringing of ings deviate so well that the moss can never grow again. I’d say that his poems behave like sophisticated lines in the sand, but they're more like brutal carvings on a rock. He had a couple poems in Blackbox Manifold ages ago (I think) and there was this one bit

‘nerve truffled plume lead pickled breast’

I think about all the time (especially when I cook). It’s so smooth. Why can I not stop thinking about it. It’s cause it’s so shameless, it wants it all - the feather-light and the corpse-heavy, never perturbed, so lucid. It plays at tasting good, but it tastes of an unrealistically blank texture. A-ha! Anyway the new pamphlet is gr8, if you haven’t read it yet look at the first poem pls - ‘OCCAM OCEAN’ (sounds like an anagram or palindrome)

It all dwells in systematic abstraction but flies so close to materiality, like a mosquito buzzing around the ear ('Not your minute turns from the blueprint'). I love that ‘plate’ in the first phrase, too: it behaves like an adjective but feels nothing like it. I can't help but think it's the subject of the sentence in a parallel universe that's created by scrambling syntax. It makes me think this is the way language should always work, and that we're the fkn idiots living in the parallel universe in which syntax is scrambled in ordered to be as boring as possible. Idk - it's late and I need to go back to writing boring essay syntax 'bound to decision and the pursuit of what follows'. Lemme know ur thoughts you smart queen D xxx

Maria Sledmere <maria.spamzine@gmail.com> Wed, 12 Dec 2018, 17:30 to denise.spamzine

Dearest Denise,

Life is good thanks. I'm sitting in the attic of the law building and I can hear the construction work going on and every time I leave I look out at the skyline and slivers of infrastructural alteration. I was walking along the road earlier because the pavement was closed off for construction and cba crossing and the high-vis guy was like, 'you'll not see Christmas walking on the road like that', but I guess I misheard him saying something else because I was really engrossed in this old Slowdive album, so I just smiled sweetly. Anyway, that got me thinking back to the question of erasure, which I think is pretty vital to Body Work.Have been carrying this pamphlet in my bag for so long that the cover has started to peel and revealing speckles of white underneath, like the text itself is ready to reveal itself, and yes I was thinking Barthes and strip-tease and paratextual enticement.

So I had to google the word annelid and now can't get the phrase 'segmented worm' out of my ear/head/throat (gross!). I was thinking about what sort of stains are on the cover of this book, you know, with Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir's gouache/pencil work. A stain is one thing stuck to another. Gouache is a funny kinda substance that is half watery gauze, half binding, thick, gummy akin to acrylic. Wet, it will easily smudge. My thumb keeps bleeding where the skin thins, hardens, peels and sloughs off. Tom's poems are kinda mucilaginous in parts (v. insecty, molluscky, sap emission; but also they have a crispness and precision, like cuts of leaf). Things that smudge or fall in flakes. Bodies are maybe whatever we leave behind. I didn't want to mention Hookworms the band because of the singer's sexual abuse scandal BUT it seems significant that a group named after an earworm/type of parasitic larvae would have a song called 'Negative Space'. Like what we eat into in the process of making, existing, remixing. Is language a rash, the result of these parasitic inf(l)ections?

I've been to a couple of reading groups on microbiomes lately, and we were thinking through this idea of how acknowledging your bodily composition in terms of myriad genes and organisms challenges conventional, bounded notions of 'self'. What kinds of affects does this produce? There's a weirdness to that, in Mark Fisher's sense of the weird as 'that which does not belong', that which 'brings to the familiar something which ordinarily lies beyond it, and which cannot be reconciled with the "homely" (even as its negation)'. Fisher suggests that the form most conducive to rendering the weird might be montage. So I was thinking about how montage involves splicings, gaps, juxtapositions, cuts and suddenness. I mean you open the very first poem of Body Work, 'Occam Ocean', and see that its prose-poetic paragraph compacting is split in the middle by the juncture of line break and indent. And ofc the title recalling Occam's razor, the philosophic principle by which in the case of two explanations for an occurrence, it's best to go with the one that requires least speculation. Razor things down and erase speculation? What are we left with, more of the Rreal? Lately I've been hankering for cleaner prose, crisp lines, simpler solutions. The Anthropocene is all of a goddamn tangle. Do I want to follow the myriad threads or just cut cut cut -- who gets to do that?

Did you ever cut a worm in two as a kid?

Okay so I love how 'Occam Ocean' might promise, title-wise, this clean prosaic expanse (like the oxymoron of expanding ocean and occam's, which requires surely a condensing), but what we get is clustering, motion, shiver, containment. The sensual trash magickk of P. Manson! The little syncope of this thing or that, the 'maple neck', vibrating canes, 'chambered breath bowed into the driest soundboard'. These aren't like 'Latour litanies' because they are not like concrete OOO segments of things; idk, they are more about processes and mutable assemblages, emphasis on action and change, sometimes transmission, things inside things. Lynn Margulis and symbiogenesis. How things interact, communicate up close; all of a mutable, prose-poetic swallow. It's actually an incredible intimate pamphlet, don't you think? I feel inside a thing inside a thing inside a thing. I feel a vague ecological sorrow, which gnaws at introspective tendency. The clue to that, you might see, is the cutaway phrase, 'emo      Chord' in 'String Growth'. 

'Collapse all tears allowing echo retreat'; these lyric lines of 'Glissando' expression, smoothing and shimmering over cuts and junctures: a slide between notes. I used to play trombone and I wish I cld articulate linguistically what kinds of lip vibration occur when you attempt a glissando and feel it slide down your arm muscle but then also through your chest as you try to sustain a sound. It's maybe the way you glide through a scattered poem, with your eye, which is different ofc to the spikier way you'd have to read it aloud, stuck on the vowels. Stuttering. I would love to hear Nat Raha perform these poems, because she does such wonderful things with punctuation and bodily performance, a kind of grammar of breath and cough and click. Reading over the more field erasure poems like 'O--NE' and 'String Growth', it's easy to say something like ~vibrant materialism~ here, but as usual I reach for Steven Connor on noise. Return to the ear, which is 'vulnerable' and 'resembles the skin in being the organ of exposure and reception'. I love what Connor says about Levinas' perspective on 'the awareness of the vacant anonymity of being, of an abstract, encompassing sense that "there is"' being 'an experience of noise'. <3 Acknowledging that breath in the void, that is not nothing but a sparkling something, entails a sense of noise. I am here in the attic of the law building, listening to construction, the type of my fingers on the keys. Someone is murmuring of their distress. What is the difference between living and existing, and being and nothing?

Karen Barad:

'Suppose we had a finely tuned, ultrasensitive instrument that we could use to zoom in on and tune in to the nuances and subtleties of nothingness. But what would it mean to zoom in on nothingness, to look and listen with ever-increasing sensitivity and acuity, to move to finer and finer scales of detail of...?'

When she asks, 'What is the measure of nothingness?' I think surely it is a bodily measure, as everything is: 'bound', as Tom puts it, 'to decision and the pursuit of what follows'. Of course 'what follows' recalls Derrida's 'The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)', where he's just out the shower and watching his cat watching his phallus, etc. What kinds of dislocation occur. But I mean in all that grandeur of encounter, there's still anthropocentricism. Tom gives you this cinematic CUT, like the instructive 'keen SNAP' that occurs in 'Occam Ocean' to dramatise 'Still, pondsnails whir and blindly source [...] a working leaf shutter'. Soever the language enacts the slurs of the snails up close. We look for the answer to the question of ellipsis, the more to follow [what follows]: inevitable, a question. Sometimes Tom is writing about silence ('then silence confronts an earful underhand') but the music of his language does all the noise, so we just can't have nothingness: there is always a vibrational residue that speaks of something in miniature, atomic, happening.

Ofc with the ear again I am thinking of the ear at the start of Lynch's Blue Velvet and how it's covered in rasping wee insects whose hum is a sort of white noise of trauma that runs through Lumberton's suburban idyllicism.

And so what happens next is I flip open to the following page of Body Work and there is 'String Growth', one of Tom's sprawling erasure poems, which for more than a split-second resembles hundreds of crawling, shimmering ants. I actually think my earliest childhood memory is of looking down at my bare feet on the patio of our old house in Hertfordshire and seeing red ants run over my toes. Then looking up to a greying, English sky. Constantly struck by the cinematic image of that, its splicing out of time: the vividness of insects on human flesh, then milky smog of skyward nothingness. 'String Growth', the accompanying notes to Body Work tell me, is an erasure poem of the Chordoma Foundation's 'Understanding Chordoma' information page.

Erasure can expose sequences of nightmare at work in the lexis and syntax of the text on which it parasitically feeds. I am scared to go on the Chordoma Foundation's website, for fear that just reading or saying the word 'tumour' will activate some kind of malignant growth in my body. And so something of the word chord as a sonorous relation between materials (bodily, textual; textural, cellular). Chordomas are tumours often located in the spine and so I find myself looking for the undulating shape of a spine in the scatter-text of Tom's poem. My eyes cascade down textual spines. Why is it sometimes I otherwise latch upon a 'keystone' word which then extends with adjacent resonance? Musical abnormalities accumulate. Thought swells.

And yea I wonder how this fits into what you say about the poems being 'so smooth'. Like Lynch's waxen silicone ear. Because even though fragmentation makes me think of bits and jaggedness etc, there's this sheen of aestheticism to Tom's work that makes me think of gloopiness, fullness, thereness but also the glaze of potential nothingness. Like in Barad's sense, or miniaturised ecological window shopping - a la Morton's Romantic consumerism? Or do we get into the things themselves? What are your thoughts on the question of recalcitrance? Maybe cos he named a previous pamphlet Pedicure I've just got varnish on my mind. Things an insect might stick to, and be amberized in. Mm.

'[...] Phosphorus crystals may be white, red, burgundyor alight as urine passes'

I keep a stone of citrine under my pillow sometimes. It is supposed to alleviate nightmares and 'manifest abundance'. It is the colour of a rich, dehydrated piss and sometimes when I come back to bed after peeing in the night I think it's some kind of organ lain on my bedsheets, hopped out of my body, and I have to stop my heart and breathe. Is that syncope?

On the <topic of piss>, isn't there a sort of caustic quality, even to the smoothness? Like it is working at making a brittleness of its sheen? And that is what poetry is, cracking the veneer of language or something? Punctuational insects dwelling in splits and fissures? It is nice and cool in Tom's poetry, a place for thinning the self and dwelling. Even though the lexis is so rich and dense, it still seems slender somehow; there's a suppleness. Tease threads of your silk(worm).  

Was thinking about what Lisa Robertson says about 'commodiousness' in poetry and what kinds of space there are for the reader here, because I don't think there is much space at all, in the conventional humanly readerly sense. Maybe what I mean by (straw man: Romantic) lyric, which requires something of declarative expansiveness? The density and clutter of specialist language in Body Work makes me feel like a worm, trying to hook my way lusciously into a line: 'espalier's / strains unfinished by the scarp trellis' ('Body Work'), 'rooted to a middle-ground / no more than motion defibrillates'. And I become a parasite on the body of the text, which is a parasite on the body, which is made up of millions of (para)sites. Para ofc meaning side by side, which made me think of Haraway's sympoeisis (making-with) but also, admittedly, Limmy's madeup psychic show, Paraside (lalalol what you were saying about the scrambling parallel universe maybe, is that a lalaLacian Real which necessitates ululation, stammering? Complex remixing musicality of language throughout Body Work as summoning?). Going back to my incidental Slowdive reference earlier, maybe there's a shoegaze thing here, like setting up these 'noise-worlds' which shimmer indiscriminately behind/inside/through the semiotic oscillations of lyric? Is shoegaze a form of sonic gouache? Well it is certainly an ontic form of seduction, where I can't pick out the instruments of expression but I look for them hungrily in the haze. And the idea that transmission between worlds (the living/dead, human/nonhuman) might require a strain of humour (like haha but also meant in the sense of bodily humours?). For instance, shoegaze is decidedly not a humorous genre, but it sort of works on bodily humours, sometimes giving me the bends, or the blurry spaced-out feeling of having one's pleasure receptor's caressed by sound. Was wondering how YOU experienced the space and physicality of the poems -- was there anything u found FUNNY or sufficiently sultry as to produce a long and gorgeous sigh?

Mm and aren't there these tasty, cute moments of wow like 'tropic      glut' ('O--NE') and 'prism arousal' ('Body Work') and 'clamour to emboss' ('Sapling').

Come to think of it, there are quite a lot of trees in Body Work, at the very least between 'Sapling' and 'Copsing', but also resonance in 'Awning', 'Annual' (which mentions 'yield', 'Thicket', 'sky-light muddle' etc) and 'Georgel' (georgics, idk?). Something about sprawl and thread: like the action of branches as arboreal mirror for threads of viruses, threads of code?

Side note: Can a person in a crowd of people experience canopy-shyness? Emily Berry has this lovely poem about crying and canopies and language.

Ways to dwell in inertia, violence, suspense ('Poem for July') as a 'clearing' within the pamphlet? Body Work as a title seems to combine two distinct fields: car repair and alternative medicine (hence mention of plants, cancers and crystals). The question of holistic approach, therapeutics, restoration. The sheen of metal, the sheen of health. O wise one of la letteratura del contemporaneo, pray tell your thoughts on possible Ballardian comparisons? Like obv v. different but I was struck by something to do with the cut-up structures of The Atrocity Exhibition and the way erasure works in Tom's work (probably in a more precise, attentive way, like the specialist's collage of tiny skins and digits, as opposed to grander themes of mediation that explode all over Ballard's work? -- generalising for the sake of interest obv).

Longing for a 'carvery [of] / uncommoning / rave'. Some kind of party you'd give up your skin for (is skin mere synecdoche of identity here?). Maybe the rave is what you were saying about scrambling.

Anyway, I hope your essay is going well. I must go read Hillis Miller's thoughts on Ariadne's thread, maybe make a tea. I've been getting these headaches lately, dawn to dusk & beyond, like the kind you get after being swimming (chlorine headache) or after crying (hormone headache). Pressurisation. I wonder if I have a parasite in my brain? So tonite I will probs lie awake, sleepless, listening for tinnitus :(

With warmth, Maria xxxxxxx

p.s.

Of course, by the time I get to the end of rereading I realise that it's only white marks being revealed underneath because literal holes have appeared in the Body Work cover, like some kind of fungus has been eating away at the book, performing another erasure.

Denise Bonetti <denise.spamzine@gmail.com> Fri, 1 Feb, 12:15  to maria.spamzine Dear Maria, Once again my legendary inability to reply to personal emails within a reasonable 1-month window manifests itself. Invoke my Scorpio moon (?) etc. I love it when people are like 'RIGHT - enough Facebook for me, email me if you want to talk etc', because that sounds like a nightmare to me. Long live IM! Long live the short form! (quite rich coming from someone whose job at the moment, I guess, is to churn out a dissertation?)

But then you know what I was thinking - someone like Clark Coolidge, for example, can get away with long form, intense long form. Not only get away, but own that long form. That long form I'm into. Clark Coolidge drown me in words and I'm fine with it, because he never dilutes, there's never any stagnation, you know what I mean, he just goes and goes and goes and you're like !!? YES!! HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!? He just never runs out of steam. And I'm thinking of Coolidge because you mentioned crystals as agents in Tom B. (cf. The Crystal Text, how would the crystal speak etc), and of course because both Tom B. and Clark C. are just doing mad things with language, bold things and exciting things... They are like scientists you're friends with but who (maybe) don't like to talk about their work, then one day they decide to let into their basement lab where they've been secretly working on the most complex, organic, project for years, and they're like, don't freak out, here it is:

(Sorry for terrible quality [#postinternet] First is Tom B., second is Clark C.) Body Work looks quite controlled in form, visually speaking, with its vaguely justified lines, BIG symmetrical margins.. even the scattered pages look orderly! Like the bit of 'STRING WORTH' you sent. Which going back to your erasure thing, it makes me feel like Tom B. is giving us an OXO cube of his writing, all concentrated and delicious. But then my response is - show us more!!! Which rarely happens because I am scared of long form. And email. And dissertations. I also LOVE what you said about how Body Work combines car repair and alternative medicine!! That is absolutely spot on. Like the material, pragmatic tinkering motions of his writing, the referral to structures and the intention of like, see how far we can bend them and push them, but then it is never as dry as that! Very sweet motor oil. It's very kind poetry... generous! (A word that my friend Phoebe used to describe a certain type of poetry at a party last week and I thought, very interesting). Linguistically generous because it offers so many networks of reading, but then also.. approachable? As approachable as experimental poetry of this kind can be. I'm sure like, DANIEL would not think this is approachable lol (#COYBIG #romance). Which, fair enough. But if you're a nerd for this kind of poetry, then yeah. Like this bit from 'ANNUAL'??

*Cries!!! This is like you said, healing!! I feel looked after! 'Stomach prefers sound to day-to-day camphor'!!! Honestly what is this! So touching, so simple! 

(Btw, I started experimenting with aromatherapy in my tiny room lol, do you know how to stop the water from boiling in the oil burner??) 

Thanks for sending such interesting ideas over, I have to shoot to a seminar ! PPS: I saw Steven Connor in the English library yesterday (Oliver pointed at him silently like !!!!!!!!!!) so I kind of followed him to see what his approach to book browsing is.. very natural-looking and orderly? Surprised. Love the guy. *bubble sounds*

Lots of love Maria  ‘let’s see where the spirits take us’ ur the best 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maria Sledmere <maria.spamzine@gmail.com> 6 Feb 2019, 23:19  to denise.spamzine Dear Denise,

Makes so much sense to map your message sensibilities onto your taste in poetry! I am so torn between the percolated richness of the email, its classic deferral (omg hun I owe you a million emails!) through a sort of quantum dimension of procrastination, and in opposition the sugar rush nowness of IM. I am such a frantic typist that often I send the wrong messages or cross my wires or just gush too much, so email is probably a safe option for me. There is all too much blue in my Messenger windows...Temptation of x's and endless emojis. But such a beauty to IM and texts out of context, like I wonder how many people read your probs too late 4 a snog now :'((( as micro-fictions, versus poems. I have a whole folder of screenshots on my computer from things that happened on Facebook that I have no memory of. Something about the Romantic fragment, accumulating ruin. 

(btw) I feel like these extracts also shed light upon Body Work somehow. Biodegradables versus hard minerals and synthetic matter. Inner/outer. Flush. Tbh I think the middle one was from you?

Yes the dissertation, the dissertation as labour; it's like you have to find your scaffold first. Sometimes I feel like the scaffold in that wonderful Sophie Collins poem, 'Healers', and I write and don't notice myself and suddenly I'm so there, but the scaffold is secretly taking her bolt pins out the more I write around her. You can only be so respectful to your scaffold when she's so in the way. Gemini problems?Duality; structure/content. What is it Tom McCarthy says: 'structure is content, geometry is everything'. I want to be a wee fractal in a sequence of massive refraction. Is that how it works? Back to scaffolds, maybe we need to find the kindest mode of dismantling, and that's when you work into a form or something. And then also the more organic structures! So for CC it's the whole crystal thing, and working out of crystal logic. And then you just go and go and it's wonderful, much extravagant fractality, almost like poetry as virus, replicate replicate, grow, change. Mm, it's so good. My friend Kirsty did this mad poem about a tree, I couldn't tell if it was a story or poem, it was just branching out in a way that seemed hungry, necessary, spreading its roots. She said she wrote it in a rush! As if trees could rush! I like to think she inhabited a concentrated moment of becoming-tree, like she was a myriad in the roots or leaves. I don't think it could have happened without the tree, you know? But also the tree was almost entirely absent, it was like a ghost of form. Maybe I forgot how it goes. The lines looked like branches or something. Can you have long-form concrete? Concrete I guess by necessity is long-form. It takes a lot of energy to make. People are building houses out of mycelium instead, which is rad. Talking of roots and that, I just wrote 26k words on ecopoetics & t h r e a d s over the past fortnight and it was kind of that process, like letting a sort of tapestry take hold and I was maybe just one more thread, I was hardly doing the weaving, everything was moving around me and I wanted to wriggle into more and more gaps. Becoming-thread, perhaps. The next step is to slack and cut, which is exciting. Where to even start? 

Your description of the complex, organic project is so gorgeous. Poems slow-cooked in a lab with tender organic care. My two scientist PhD pals are always gramming these beautiful pictures of crystals they're growing or mad wave patterns on screens. And we go for lunch and I'm like what you doing this afternoon and they're like, Oh just shooting photons. And is that much different from spending your afternoon writing poems? (Yes, they'd groan). I'm just chasing bits of light. Reading Tom B's work it's this whole precision thing, the actual inhabitation of process as such, so you see the energy buzz between things. I don't mean to say simply this is atomic poetry or poetry as tool analysis. It's more a betweening. 

Isn't it super difficult to write non-anthropocentrically and really inhabit micro-relationality and also sound interesting and sexy in the way Claire Colebrook (she has that great essay in Tom Cohen's Telemorphosis) describes as 'sexual indifference', i.e. that threat to heteronormative reproduction that 'has always been warded off precisely because it opens the human organism to mutation, production, lines of descent and annihilation beyond that of its own intentionality'? Well anyway Body Work really works this way for me, it's like a poetics of sexual indifference that is nevertheless charged with desire you can't really predict, it's something in the frisson between objects and lines and coils of form. I think of crystal charge, iPhone battery (mine's always dying, Gemini trait 100%), engines. Neat miniaturisations of entropy, surge, spike and flux. When the 'I' comes in I'm like hey, what flow are you? It's actually so satisfying to quote these poems as fragments btw, they can do so much on their own as much as in poems and pamphlets, I wonder if that goes back to the accessibility thing. Like the absolute charm of a line as auto-affection: 

This bit is from 'Temper' and I go back to my point about the flush/fluster! Globe of air/your *bubble sounds*. Isn't everything held so neatly, and yet it never feels neat, it just feels sharp and sparking, this 'technical glossy finish' like a really nice car, the body paint of a poem, its prosody so tightly held it feels more surface, a selection of hues and textures. And the erotics of the text or at the very least its pleasure is the shift between bodies, synecdoche, yes you could say bodies without organs but things in themselves are also important. Maybe another poet who does this is Sylvia Legris, she writes these apparently impersonal poems filled to the seams with specialist lexis (you have to have like twelve tabs open per poem to get it), but there's an affirmative humour and energy that feels v much a personal sensibility, a deliberated skewing of world that splices the poet's agency among items, artefacts, language. I mean how nice are these poemsshe published in Granta. I feel like I want cutlery to read them with, if that makes sense. Maybe a scalpel, for the succulence. The appearance of an ear again! 

And then the beautiful metallurgy of this line from Tom, like somebody pierced my ears with perfect silver and it let all the demons out: 

I am worried about what a certain seizure would look like. When we talk about vitality is it a willing naivety towards matter qua matter, as if we could just step out of correlationism? Such thoughts for 11pm of a Wednesday night. I can't help but think of the body image that Elizabeth Grosz describes in Volatile Bodies, kind of riffing off Paul Schilder: 'What psychoanalytic theory makes clear is that the body is literally written on, inscribed, by desire and signification, at the anatomical, physiological, and neurological levels'. And yeah, cool, what about the nonhuman body also? Has anyone done a really good psychoanalysis of the object. Parsed its psychic striations (traumatic or pleasurable residues of every microbial, huh?). In fact, what about the psychodynamic model of actual icebergs? Time we started literalising the matter of metaphors, absenting 'real cultural / medium' and filling with meltwater, fire and flow. Maybe it comes down to a bead of ink, the 'intimate concentrate' which is Lucozade, hangover piss, sick pH levels. So yeah, Body Work for me is this totally seductiveintersubjective space which actually works out pretty visceral states, sometimes disembodying me into a more fractal, mineral or bacterial being. I could start talking Kathryn Yusoff and geomorphism too, but maybe enough strata for one email? Plus I'm mixing my metaphors, I'm sure, mostly because I'm still morphing, dissolving inside those lines. I think I ate too many OXO cubes.

As for your oil burner boiling, sounds like you have an overactive candle? Maybe try a cooler tealight, nestle it to the back a little to redirect the strength of the flame? I like rosemary oil for remembrance, cranberry for comfort, ginger for energy. That line about resin is so nice. I was in Crianlarich at the weekend and my friend Patrick found this massive log and he carried it for so long that you could smell the resin on his skin, it was amazing. I keep thinking about the word 'pitch' and lush tree-ness, and the Log Lady in Twin Peaks and poetry you can chew like new molasses, prior to melt. Is that how it works?

Somebody is smashing glass into a bin in my garden and probably I should just close the pamphlet...

...but it's like a delicious pdf that gives infinities...

Yours in multiples & cherryish flusters,

Maria xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxox

[prcmctheus]

beep beep y’all ur resident dumpster dweller kay here in action and ready 2 introduce u all to my Fave Boy misha who uhHHhh p much has rbf and a Thicc ukrainian accent. will this contain anything of substance other than immense rambling ?? whO KNOWS but we’ll go on this journey together but feel free to drop a like if u wanna plot and i’ll pop over to ur dm’s !!

potential triggers: death + mob activity

! ✰ ° — [ CHRIS PINE, CISMALE, HE/HIM ] mykhailo “misha” chernenko, aka agent prometheus is a thirty-five year old tactical agent that has been loyal to mercy twelve years. during that time they were injected with the gamma serum and earned regenerative healing they have a reputation of being the sagacious because they can be pragmatic & diligent. but let’s not forget they’re pretty acerbic & reticent. if you listen closely you can hear another one bites the dust by queen whenever they walk past.

okie to start off ya boy was brought into the world as михайло оландрович черненко ( aka mykhailo oleksandrovych chernenko ) but typically goes by the nickname of misha bc it’s easier and was born in kharkiv, ukraine ,,, he is a proud ukrainian and v much dislikes being deemed a russian ,, don’t do him dirty y’all . . it’s a struggle and one he will never forget n have u on his shit list ,, especially since his accent is still Thicc so any jokes will get u a side eye

his father oleksandr had strong nationalistic views , especially so when ukraine was still under soviet control and following the death of his first wife yulia ( they were visiting her family in moscow when she was caught in the crossfire of russian mob activity on her way home from the store and ultimately died from gunshot wounds ) he became heavily involved anti-russia groups back in ukraine

in 1983 when misha was born, he uHHhhHHhh wasn’t really wanted per say ?? like ,, his dad was hooking up with his mother kateryna and it was a surprise to them both that kateryna was pregnant ?? so oleksandr did the noble thing ( arguable bc he ain’t so noble ) and put a ring on her ,, mainly bc it was expected and kateryna gave him hell so u go kateryna

misha’s childhood wasn’t the best considering his parents argued more than they got along and kateryna really despised her husband from his life of crime ?? definitely didn’t agree with his ties to the ukrainian mob bc of the threat it brought to the family and especially the dirty money so she often put her sewing skills to use and made little of her own money ,, then wOP ,, four years down the line kateryna surprises oleksandr with the fact that she’s pregnant again but this time it ends up being a daughter that they name nadezhda but call nadia

it was an odd thing for misha bc for as harsh and distant as his father was to him, he had put him on this pedestal with a strong sense of idealism of what his father was like if he managed to do something to make him proud ,, despite not fully knowing in depth what his father did in the mob ( aka not good things like murder, drug trafficking and human trafficking ) so essentially that became misha’s goal in his v young life ,, he mimicked his father’s anti-russian views and showed interest in what he did for a living ,, rip 2 misha’s mom bc she nearly had a heart attack when she heard her son acting like everything she didn't want him to end up being

but with kateryna’s dismay came the affection from his father that misha had so desperately wanted and it became some weird take ur child to work day thing ,, this started when misha was around 6 years old and lasted up until he was 13 ( for reasons i’ll get into soon jndsjksd ) where oleksandr would often bring misha after school or even take him our during school ,, as some weird initiation thing of another generation of chernenko dedicating themselves to the cause of ukrainian independence

misha himself is an intelligent boy with a quick witted mind and ability to retain information and was quick to pick up on the russian language around him in kharkiv as well english ,, generally v good at learning languages and i just !!! get a lil emo thinking about the life misha could have had bc of his smarts if he didn’t get himself involved in this spy shit

his father finds it useful to start teaching misha how to properly fight bc #fambonding am i rite ,, also bc oleksandr is a shite dad who was gonna bring misha along to some  attack they were planning near the russian border from tensions between the ukrainian mob n the russian mob that was starting to infiltrate in ,, just dudes being dudes n getting territorial

let’s pray 4 kateryna when she finds out bc it’s when misha is 13 and tags along with his father to this smackdown which ?? ukraine is independent at this point by 5 years so oleksandr is trash n still chilling with the mob and when shit hits the fan and long story short, oleksandr ( along with many others ) gets killed, misha ends up severely hurt and it’s not a good time ,, but things shift bc when misha comes to he’s in a hospital bed and o shIT ,, he’s chilling with the security service of ukraine which deals with counterintelligence activity and terrorism

chilling ain’t really the term but yA KNOW ,, turns out they’ve been keeping eyes on the mob movements and misha attracted the attention of ukrainian intelligence “offered” him a role as a spy with the promise of training and serving his country proudly ,, u know ,, offered is in quotes bc hoe didn’t really have a choice but it wasn’t a hard choice bc misha was eager to help out his homeland

he didn’t officially go out into the field until he was 17 bc of extensive training in combat and espionage to help defend the still young foundation of the ukrainian government especially since it was rocky from the poor economic conditions ,, and after proving both his worth and abilities in several missions, he was activated as a sleeper agent in the russian government to get a hold of information regarding russian intelligence ,, more importantly such impacting ukraine

ya boy excelled in his position, given it wasn’t the most exciting bc it involved a lot of blending in and upholding this russian persona ,, gone was mykhailo chernenko for those three years up until he was 23 since he went by the alias of konstantin vasiliev ,, and he did well !! as someone who excelled in linguistics, his was v fluent in the russian language with a believable accent to match ( one of his best qualities in his ability to take on accents easily and rn he’s fluent in french, german, italian and spanish outside of his ukrainian, russian, and english )

things went well for the three years acting as a secretary for a high ranking russian government official and uh,, u know it helped that misha was attractive and knew how to use it to his advantage and successfully infiltrated into classified information since his superior viewed misha as just a pretty face with minimal understanding of how politics worked ,, meanwhile he was the one who spilled shit during sex so who was the real weenie

due to unfortunate events, misha’s cover was blown and barely made it out of russia alive and it was around his 23rd/24th that mercy got into contact with him and for as much as misha loved his country, he figured for his own safety it would be best to leave the area since lowkey the russian government still had it out for him ,, so he joined the mercy division as a field agent and AGENT PROMETHEUS was born ,, a couple of years into it he was convicted into taking the gamma serum which gave him regenerative healing which helps out v much when he gets shot at or generally hurt

so yeah p much ya boy has been chilling at mercy as a field agent for eleven years and generally enjoying his time here given things can’t ever really get normal as a spy ,, but it was last year that bc of numerous influences, misha decided to accept the offer of joining the tactical agents and retire his days as a field agent.

personality wise ,, misha is v devoted to his job and does this hoe ever genuinely laugh or smile ?? who knows ,, i think there’s a rumor somewhere that he’s actually a robot. def gives into the slavic stereotype where ukrainian’s never smile ,, not to mention his father ingrained into him the ukrainian saying of Сміх без причини є ознакою тупості aka “laughter without a reason is a sign of stupidity” soooOOoo he’s just a bit stoic and has resting bitch face

doesn’t really realize he’s v blunt and forthright in his speak so he can come off as an asshole ( which 67% of the time he doesn’t mean ) ,, has the patience of a saint but if u push hard enough he’ll crack ,, a bit dry on the humor but can def be an asshole when he wants to. doesn’t trust a lot of ppl and it’s hard to earn his trust ,, word the only major ppl he’s trusted was a) his dad b) the security service of ukraine and c) now mercy so kudos on getting on his good side

has no contact whatsoever with his mother kateryna or his sister nadia ,, partially bc couldn’t keep up for security n safety reasons but also bc misha is p much dead to kateryna after following his father’s footsteps, getting involved in the whole mess of ukrainian / russian political n governmental affairs and also dropping his v tiny attempt of college before becoming a sleeper agent for ukraine ,, so ya boy is on his own so u can expect wALLS around him ,, bc u know ,, he don’t do emotional vulnerability or relationships  

[obiternihili]

i found a Ge'ez word Ganən meaning "demon" that made me want a Zelda in an Ethiopian language, because that just works. But then I wondered "what would the Arabic of this be?" and it's jinn. Of course it's jinn. I should have realized that instantly.

But now I'm wondering if the naming chosen was like... based on that somehow, although Ganon was definately ga-no-n and pig satan way before the Gerudo were concieved. Probably not. There's nothing to the Zelda series conlang-wise unfortunately. Early games had defective Japanese ciphers, later games had full Japanese ciphers, and still-later games use an English cipher. Linguistically the gibberish used to make names is generally Englishy, Latinate, or somewhat more rarely Japanese-style, but also seems to borrow a lot of Ainu influences as of late, especially in anything coded as 'old' or 'ancient'. The games, especially in Majora's Mask, seem to imply that there are different languages for each of the species which makes sense, but doesn't really give much of anything about them. As far as botw goes, the Gerudo are the only ones to have their own words shown, which a) I don't think is consistent between translations b) doesn't really map to a real language's 'style' for me. It does seem as tho sav' is consistently mapping to English good as in "good morning", "good evening", etc. But if that means anything I don't know. And since sav'- is incorporated initially into the greetings, if it does mean good, it might mean Gerudo is head-final?

The game does do a fair bit to apologize for casting Ganondorf as from the MENA coded people. Maybe they also chose to consciously distance the Gerudo from those groups at the same time?

[team-mtal]

Big Ol’ Honkin’ OC Question List Part E: Education and Intelligence

1. Would you say that your OC is intelligent? In what ways? Would your OC agree?

   - Morrow: He is very book smart and has good logic

   - Taronja: He does decent in school but he has more street smarts.

   - Viridian: She is considered smart but she would disagree with you

   - Crimson: She is very street smart and has a lot of common sense

   - Roxo: He is of average intelligence

   - Dalton: He’s of “slightly” below average intelligence, but he’ll tell anyone that he’s almost as smart as Auré

   - Aureolin: She’s the smartest in the year and she knows it.

   - Natsuki: She makes decent grades and likes doing logic puzzles

   - Corax: She is more artistic then school smart, but she’s really good at logic puzzles

   - Sarcelle: She’s very intelligent, second to Auré

   - Chaton: She’s pretty smart, almost as smart as Sarcelle

   - Kon: He is very logical and has a lot of common sense but is slightly above average school wise

2. Which of the nine types of intelligence is your OC strongest in? Weakest? (Linguistic, existential, naturalist, et cetera)

   - Morrow: Logical-mathematical; Linguistic

   - Taronja: Naturalist; Spatial

   - Viridian: Interpersonal; Spatial

   - Crimson: Musical; Existential

   - Roxo: Bodily-Kinesthetic; Spatial

   - Dalton: Interpersonal; Naturalist

   - Aureolin: Logical-Reasoning; Interpersonal

   - Natsuki: Spatial; Intra-personal

   - Corax: Existential; Bodily-Kinesthetic

   - Sarcelle: Logical-mathematical; Existential

   - Chaton: Intrapersonal; Naturalist

   - Kon: Naturalist; Interpersonal

3. How many languages do they speak?

As far as we know, there is only one language in Remnant. Languages

4. Did they enjoy school if they went to it?

   - Morrow: He loves school! He’s made so many friends since coming here (he only had one beforehand)

   - Taronja: He loves school cause there is so much learning and he’s with Crimson and they have food so of course he loves Beacon

   - Viridian: She loves school because it gets her away from home and gives her a schedule to keep. And she learns stuff to protect people so thats a plus.

   - Crimson: She loves school for a couple reasons. She got to make up with Taro, she’s getting formal training, and she has actual friends now W h A t T h E h E c K

   - Roxo: He loves Beacon.

   - Dalton: He loves school because every day is an adventure

   - Aureolin: It’s the best school of it’s kind.

   - Natsuki: She loves school because she is learning so much

   - Corax: She likes the feel of it and learning to protect people but she hates homework.

   - Sarcelle: Who wouldn’t love a school like Beacon?

   - Chaton: Absolutely!!!

   - Kon: He misses home but other then that he loves Beacon

5. What’s their highest education level? Do they want to continue their education?

   - Combat Schools such as Beacon are the highest level of education (for huntsmen & huntresses) in Remnant.

6. Do they enjoy learning? Do they actively seek out sources of self-education?

   - Morrow: He loves learning as much as he can about how the real world works

   - Taronja: He likes learning but he doesn’t looove it

   - Viridian: She loves learning all the things she can

   - Crimson: She doesn’t mind learning, but she wouldn’t say that she enjoys it

   - Roxo: He enjoys learning

   - Dalton: He likes learning about other cultures

   - Aureolin: She loves learning even though most of these things she already knows

   - Natsuki: She loves learning anything she can

   - Corax: She doesn’t care for school but loves to learn

   - Sarcelle: She likes learning new fighting techniques.

   - Chaton: She LOVES learning

   - Kon: He likes it well enough

7. Are they a good note-taker? Are they a good test-taker? Do exams make them nervous?

   - Morrow: He is great at all of the above

   - Taronja: He’s a horrible note taker but a decent test taker

   - Viridian: She’s an amazing note taker (when she’s awake) and does decent on tests but gets super nervous

   - Crimson: She’s not good at taking notes or written tests; she’s better in practical situations

   - Roxo: He’s really good at tests but never takes notes, or studies.

   - Dalton: He takes notes, but he’s not great at tests (which make him nervous, not that he’ll tell anyone)

   - Aureolin: She’s pretty good at note taking but she doesn’t need to

   - Natsuki: She’s good at taking notes, but she gets super nervous about tests so the notes don’t help that much

   - Corax: She is H O R R I B L E at taking notes but a decent test taker

   - Sarcelle: She is awful at taking notes but does amazingly at tests.

   - Chaton: She’s great at notes and tests, but she doesn’t get nervous

   - Kon: He is decent for both tests and notes and doesn’t see the point in being nervous about tests

8. What’s one of your OC’s biggest regrets?

   - Morrow: He regrets that he couldn’t do anything to stay close with Oplaviti

   - Taronja: He regrets he didn’t take better care of his big sis

   - Viridian: She regrets her past

  - Crimson: She regrets her fight with Taro when she decided to stay with the White Fang (which she also regrets doing)

  - Roxo: He regrets not telling his parents he’s a guy

  - Dalton: He regrets all the times he’s cried in front of Natsuki when they were children

  - Aureolin: She regrets all of the blunt things she’s said to people

  - Natsuki: She regrets keeping her depression a secret from Dalton

  - Corax: She regrets past decisions.

  - Sarcelle: She regrets living with her parents for so long 

 - Chaton: She regrets trying to get a cat ear piercing 

 - Kon: He regrets not being able to save his family

[earpanel]

LEADERBRIEF: Nisha Narayanan on the joy and challenges of running a Radio business

Although FM Radio and Music -- but more so Radio -- are powerful mediums, both have remained beset with problems that somehow have failed to be overcome. A year ago, I was a panelist at a big, ‘loud’ (title-pun intended) music b2b event. And it was déjà vu. Yet again, vertical- and function heads talking about how wonderful Radio is, and about the great hold of Music, which, in a nation with a listening culture like ours, makes for a powerful combination with Radio. But yet again, as in the past, there was no consensus-driven request or ‘representation’ that the speechifying sages sought to collate and send to any government ministry or body for help to resolve industry problems with radio that have become massive legacy issues now. Issues such as copyright, royalties, license fees, content-restricting regulation and a terribly constricting woeful lack of measurement, that have loomed and grown over the years into ever bigger problems. The radio audience measurement issue has small little research-agency shops flourishing and enabling FM Radio networks to be sold on perception -- marginal, laggard FM stations and networks do their own research with the help of the aforementioned research shops, elicit ‘helpful’ findings, and go about selling on perception.  If only there were one single deep and wide measurement system and yardstick for media buying on radio as there is with BARC India for Television, then there wouldn’t be multiple asterisks-helped rankings for radio stations in the same markets. Which would definitely plug a lot of wasted advertising budgets on Radio, which, however, needs all the help it can get, considering it is the single most difficult medium to operate in. So, cutting back from the memory of those fence-sitters at that B2B event: fortunately, there are some stalwart Radio and Music professionals who, over the years, have strived hard for the medium too as much as they have for their individual businesses, and have driven constructive agendas for sub-sector and Industry. One such shining light is the literally incandescent Nisha Narayanan – COO & Director, RED FM & Magic FM, also a Chevening Scholar who has been active in her favourite space in the M&E business, FM Radio, for more than 26 years now. And whom I caught up with for a her views on the problems of the FM Radio industry, and how RED FM has bee navigating the difficult terrain for greater growth through ever greater listener satisfaction, and a strong focus on other verticals like events and activation, and Digital Radio. Nisha is as free-speaking and free-spirited as her popular network RED FM, where she thrives at the crossroads of creativity, content, strategy and innovation to drive engagements and the business, and has taken the feisty, spirited network along with Magic FM, to ever new frontiers of growth. Supported, of course, by a remarkable team that includes some of the best Radio professionals like Rajat Uppal, Rishi  Kishnani, awardwinning RJs like the effervescent Malishka and her other spectacular RED ilk counterparts, amongst others. So here’s what Nisha Narayanan has to say, in her trademark straight-speak,  on several important topics and issue pertaining to FM Radio.

Radio has been suffering for decades now, due to several issues at the industry level, and one of the most important roadblocks to its growth has been content-restrictive regulation, including on broadcasting news. How does that make you feel? For the government to acknowledge that FM programming is incomplete without news is, I suppose, a step forward. But for them to insist that we carry only syndicated AIR news, and that too only “national” bulletins in Hindi and English, is a couple of steps backwards. See, FM stations pride themselves on their unique content and style of delivery, and this differentiation is particularly seen in the non-music elements of programming. To relay the same AIR news bulletins on all private FM channels at the same time, at maximum 30 minutes deferred, especially in the regional markets where they speak neither Hindi nor English, would completely defeat the purpose. It would damage our content fabric.

In spite of being such personal, powerful and local medium, plus a conversational one at that, FM Radio in India hasn’t  grown business-wise to its promise and potential. Why is that? In the last four-five years, radio has been growing at 12 to 13 percent as an industry, but the overall ad pie has continued to be the same. Revenue from the radio segment constitutes about 4-5% of the overall media & entertainment sector. And even though now, with Phase II and Phase III auctions coming in, and despite multiple radio stations having been launched, the ad pie has not grown. So purely from an advertising model, radio cannot survive. Also, some of the key categories that advertise very well with us -- like the FMCG and auto sectors -- are themselves not doing well. Mergers in sectors like BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and telecom have also affected some part of the business. Both the volume and value is a big struggle unless we expand the business in terms of other forms of revenues.

Which are…? Red FM has decided to encash the brand through other verticals like events and activation. Approximately, 20% is what we are looking at from non-traditional revenue,  where 80% of the business is coming from the FCT (free commercial time) business. This year with a spillover elections, IPL and the ICC World cup, upcoming state elections and some aggressive government business, we hope to see a better growth end of the year for Radio. But, there are a lot of policy and regulatory aspects which restrict growth. Indeed there are, and have been for a long time now. But before we get to those, would you like to share your views on the lack of a good measurement metric for FM Radio? The measurement system is critical. It should not just relegate itself to four to five cities but also at least map all state capitals. FM platforms can’t realise their full potential unless the industry has a standardised listenership measurement mechanism. Since there is no research, there is no clear idea who is the top player. IRS is not the tool to measure radio; after all, it is a readership survey. Also, the industry has been unable to increase ad rates because there’s no measurement of listenership. I think it is time for the radio industry to wake up as one unit and come up with an industry measurement tool. If we are able to do something like that then we will be able to grow the business much higher than what it is today. We will be able to increase the rates because one can show the client and agencies the kind of response we are getting and the kind of target audience we have.

What are the areas where Radio could do with support from the government? First and foremost, the radio licensing policy is skewed. Also, many smartphones do not have in-built FM apps. That is a huge concern and it should be addressed by the government. In fact we have put our case forward. Auctions for radio frequencies for the third batch of Phase III, which have been delayed for the longest time, could flop unless the government tweaks the terms and conditions. Auctions for the second batch were held in October 2016 and drew a lukewarm response. While the license fee for the newer stations might be smaller, the operating costs would be fairly high, making the operations unviable. Current reserve prices for some cities had kept a lot of players away from the auctions in many B, C & D type of cities. On another thing -- during the year, we hope that there will be progress on digitisation for FM and private FM operators will get subsidy for import of latest technology to move from analog to digital. And once that's done, we will be able to see newer formats and variety in content.

Tell us about another major bug-bear – the one to do with music licenses, royalty, and other expenses… It is definitely challenging to run the radio business, where there are a lot of hurdles like licenses, royalty and so on. And the moment we are dependent on the traditional business model alone, the going gets tough. I have always been a firm believer that we need to push through on-air innovations and non-traditional revenue. It is therefore that we’ve gone into flagship events, landmark concerts and digital initiatives. One definitely cannot continue to make much by only running a radio station and selling standard inventory. Secondly, by virtue of being a fairly large and an evenly spread network, economies of scale work in our favour. Our balanced presence across the country helps us give a better return on investment (ROI) to the client, along with a customised reach to every client. We are a one-stop shop with single-window clearance for each one of our advertisers. When we speak of television, there is still a massive 100 million households opportunity for it to reach across India. What is the role and importance of, and opportunity for,  Radio in the rural markets, even as digital is coming in slowly in the back of beyond in India? Most large brands seem to believe more in the traditional melas and haats to reach out to rural TGs… Oh, Radio is still very significant in rural areas! It has a far wider reach in the hinterland of the country solely because its a hyperlocal medium and caters to audiences in their dialects. Radio also has the ability to give a sense of belonging to its listeners as they can interact with RJs through call in facilities. And more than just connects for rural TGs, Radio has been playing a much bigger role: It has been able to unite the linguistic and ethnic diversity of India. It connects people from all backgrounds, improving the rural-urban divide, preserving culture and traditions with its numerous arrays of frequency. And yes, Radio is providing entertainment where digital modes haven't reached yet, and has been helping to promote rural development programs. And your digital radio initiatives should help too… Yes. The digital space is growing at a skyrocketing speed and everyone is jumping onto it; even the radio industry. Today every radio brand has a YouTube channel and content specifically made for digital. RED FM too has ventured this space and is looking at building this into a marketing tool. Music is not the only thing that defines radio. Snackable content such as popular shows of our RJs are getting a good response. We also have several engaging properties such as ‘Bauaa’ among others. RED FM digital radio is a hardcore non-music app that is highly interactive and heavy on content. It will feature the making of the radio shows, behind the scenes, campaigns and content like ‘Bauaa’ and ‘Nand Kishore Bairagi’, among others. It will also feature some of the programmes that are also available on terrestrial radio. Basically, snackable content that is focused on humour and is highly interactive. The other things that will stand out for us will be that it is non-music and will have regional content across different languages. Read the full article

[kendrixtermina]

ISTJ ft. Insufferable Genius

I thought I’d detail this individual because while he’s an asshat, there are some things about him that are, like, astonishly peak Si, both good & bad. 

If he were less of an asshat & had the commonly purported positive traits (loyalty, uprightness etc.) he’d be one super impressive example; skills wise, he still kinda is in terms of how his mind works.  (Still I feel the need to note that I’ve met tons of non-ass ISTJs.)

- Has qualifications in almost any branch of medicine. Once diagnosed a thyroid condition from a photograph, a neck tumor from someone’s subtly different coughing sound and breast cancer by bumping into someone

- can tell appart bazillion types of skin discolorations & abnormalities at a glance

- Always Right (TM)

- Because I Say So

- my way or the highway

- tries to buy/ingratiate people with unwanted expensive gifts; Main method of placating angry wife is providing little physical favors like fresh bread or a bunch of flowers. 

- Nitpicking incarnate. Never ever says anything good about anyone ever unless it’s specifically in response to complaints about his constant complaining.

- Switches from his usual “wannabe intellectual & cultivated” to crude & terrifyng at the drop of a hat. Not sure what function to blame for that.

- PRETENTIOUS  but in a ‘classical’ way rather than the ‘over the top deconstructionist’ demeanor of unpleasant NTs. 

- Anal about quality. “Buy something economic but not cheap. Don’t go for the cheapest thing you save more with something that lasts. Don’t say that you like it.” 

- owns like 5 pants and 7 semi identical plaid shirts. Ostensibly likes it that way & refuses other clothing, but still claims martyrhood for “spending so little money on himself”

- Worships his grandma’s flan. No attempt at flan will do, if it’s not quite right he’d rather have none. 

- has a thing about visiting specific places where he used to live

- Cannot tell apart personal taste/sensibilities & perception, period

- Does all the research & knows his shit. New home? Checks all the crime statistics & employment opportunities. Someone needs a Doctor? Gets a renowed professor who did nothing but fix that same kind of injury for 20 years. 

- Wants to have Si style “chill family activities” but rather counterproductively tries to enforce them through iron command no matter what anyone wants. The result is that either it doesn’t happen (dragging 4 perceivers and an INTJ out of bed at 6 in the morning b/c you like morning breakfast? Not gonna happen.) or it happens after los of arguing & everyone is salty (ie. dragging 4 teenagers to activities geared toward the lone 5 year old. Doesn’t tolerate splitting up based on ages or interests EVER.)

- Recognizes that same shade of lipstick you used a bunch of months back among your 10+ pinkish lip products. 

- Once got literally sued by  a patient’s family for speaking very callously about their recently deceased loved one. Wasn’t sorry at all and kind of reacted with “what stupid drama queens”

- “Quit the drama” is his default reaction to the existence of feelings unless they’re his own in which case it’s manchild o clock. Mature, sophisticated Fi got nothing on this. 

- “My family is all academics”. 

- Listens exclusively to classical, french chansons & latin american folk music. Praises these to the high heavens and mocks everything else

- can quote the pope verbatim

- “chess counts as a sport” Kicks butt at it too

- Such a jerk even INTx daughters felt emotionally neglected. The family’s xxFP population is not wholly blind to his flaws but largely puts up with him out obligation, pacifism and the misguided goodness of their hearts, bless their sweet forgiving souls.

- Spotted & correctly identified a rare animal as kid, leading to a publication about how its more widespread than ppl thought

- Wanted to be a biologist but couldn’t B/C communism (long story). Has been salty ever since, or at least he still was by the time I extricated myself from the situation. He was 49 at the time. 

- Linguistic prodigy, speaks 5 languages. Wife thought he might be a russian spy because he picked up the correct pronunciation of her name from hearing it only once (It makes sense in context)

- in keeping with the martyr complex, volunteer work is his crack. It’s sorta morally complex, I doubt the refugees or columbian children care that he’s a jerk to his wife, he might objectively have done more good than harm. At the same time he’s done seriously shady immoral stuff like bully female convicts & addicts out of having abortions. Some probably genuinely changed their minds & got their act together for the baby, but I bet many had their shit insufficiently together for a child & would have ended badly, these are vulnerable people and he’s got a scathing tongue and a knack for emotional blackmail.

- The world is full of dangers and you’re too stupid to live in it without his help & (over)protection - Even if you’re a middle aged adult woman. 

- Once secretly learned a language in a bunch of months so he’d understand secret conversations between mother in law & wife

- beat up a guy for possibly looking at his sister’s butt at age 15. Sister (ENFJ) hadn’t even noticed the staring guy’s existence

- Has a Type and had all the applicable girls in his home city categorized. Approached one after observing her for a while. 

- Never had a bad grade in his life & never shut up about it. Level of workaholism and especially perfectionism is outright malignant, no softer word for it

- The human embodyment of “Son I am dissapoint(TM)”

- If I were to provide further detail he’s probably a contact subtype, 3w2 sp/soc  316 tritype, choleric (ChlorPhleg) & a textbook Aggressive style with a touch of Vigilant. I think he’s 3 over 1 because he does have the “bend rules when convenient” trait, but I’m not 100% b/c core 3 is rare for ISTJ. Then again, aggressive style is rare, period. 

[violetemerald]

Bay Kennish headcanons

Ah Switched at Birth series finale tonight? Who, like me, is (totally not) ready??

Ok, so… as I kinda explained here: http://luvtheheaven.tumblr.com/post/159312248682/so-the-tumblr-mobile-app-is-really-frustrating-me

I’m a flailing idiot when it comes to answering asks publicly on tumblr’s mobile app, I suppose. Kept accidentally doing it privately. Ok so @zserb is awesome and sent me back my private answer so I could post it here.

zserb asked: Hi? I’ve seen your tags on that “ABCD ki­nds of headcanon” me­me, and I’m really curious whether you have anything about Bay Kennish. (Actuall­y, I’m really intere­sted in what you thi­nk about Bay Kennish regardless of said meme too.) Thank you if you answer and have a nice day!

I, luvtheheaven, answered:

In response to:

http://luvtheheaven.­tumblr.com/post/1592­03462757/jerseydevio­us-ricobrzenskas-hyp­ocean

Yay thank you for pi­cking Bay from Switc­hed at Birth. She’s honestly one of my favorite characters of all time, especial­ly if restricting th­at to female, adoles­cent aged characters. I have so many tho­ughts about her but I don’t usually expl­icitly think of spec­ific or detailed hea­dcanons for her. I feel like Switched at Birth barely has a fandom, more just has some fans lol, and that’s part of that, perhaps. The only time I wrote fanfict­ion about Bay I wrote her as ace, in fact basically the exact same kind of asexu­al I am… but I really do NOT headcanon her as asexual at all. I think it’s possi­ble she’s bisexual, but I really just th­ink of her as straig­ht. As an example.

So onto the actual questions…

Headcanon A: what I think realistically

Ah this is a hard one to know what direc­tion to go in… I thi­nk Bay would have go­tten a lot more tatt­oos by now (I’m talk­ing during the curre­ntly airing season, which I know has only 1 more ep and then the entire series is over), but maybe for now they’re all under places where her clothing hides bec­ause she’s not brave enough to stand up to her parents about her new love of tat­toos?

What else is realist­ic… and headcanon is­h… hmm… I think she might have more desi­re than Daphne to ke­ep in touch with her biological (via Ang­elo) half sister who was adopted. I think she really FEELS family connections in general and one day soon she will meet more of Angelo’s fam­ily.

I think she could re­alistically be happi­ly childfree for her own life despite all the complicated pa­rental stuff she’s been through and thou­ght about, especially after seeing how hard parenting can be for Toby. I like he­adcanoning characters as childfree despi­te really wanting ad­optive parenthood my­self.

I bet Bay took a lit­tle more time than Daphne to start consi­dering the other a sister.

Headcanon B: what I think is fucking hi­larious

Hilarious headcanons for Bay… surprising­ly hard for me. Mayb­e… that she has a tu­mblr she uses to post ink jobs she's pr­oud of, or even that she used to self pro­mote things like her street art but pret­ending she wasn’t se­lf promoting, anonym­ously being all “oh wow isn’t this cool?” Or more generally I think she’d thrive online and spend mo­re time online than most of her family on any side, Kennish or Vasquez or whatev­er… idk.

Headcanon C: what is heart-crushing and awful but fun to inf­lict on friends

That she did inherit a high chance of ge­tting an anuerisym from Angelo? That she never real­ly fully forgave Reg­ina for not speaking up about the switch earlier and sometim­es the resentment sn­eaks up on her? That deep down, the biggest reason she worked so hard and so quickly to become as fluent in ASL as she could was not di­rectly to help her communicate with Emme­tt or Daphne. It was because she felt gu­ilty, she knew she should’ve gotten that illness when she was 3 and she should’ve lost her own heari­ng. She should’ve ne­eded to learn it for her own sake anyway.

I don’t know these are just some ideas really. Nothing is ac­tually a headcanon per se.

Headcanon D: what wo­uld never work with canon but the canon is shit so I believe it anyway It doesn’t work with recent canon but while I could see Bay forgiving her broth­er, I don’t see her forgiving Lily or Me­lody for “following the law” and making her life a Title wha­tever number Rape In­vestigation on that campus. Especially not Bay Kennish, vand­alism is a hobby, I’­ll just falsely claim I committed a felo­ny… I don’t see her really understanding that level of follo­wing the law when it hurt her so much. I think she felt betr­ayed and she would’ve continued to for much more than one ep­isode. I think she’d possibly be trigger­ed by these people even, at least for a while, and if Toby continued to date Lily right after that she might not even fo­rgive Toby. Idk. May­be that’s too harsh but Bay… needs to bl­ame people, and feels things strongly, idk.

I think Bay would ex­cel at college if sh­e’d decided to go, not just art schools like she applied to but a general univer­sity or liberal arts college, probably major in linguistics like I did actually, look at her Miss Fl­uent in ASL, English, and Chinese now… I mean idk if she was fluent in Chinese (Mandarin?) but whatever skills she has is really impre­ssive and more than I can do lol… I think she could make money being an ASL interpreter and then focus on art projects that were more her passion than tattoo­s? Idk it’s just an idea for what could work for her.

Headcanons wise in terms of wouldn’t work in Canon, one last one is… I think Dap­hne should’ve been way prettier than Bay. Obviously everyone on this show is gor­geous and boys chase after both Daphne and Bay. But… Regina and Angelo should’ve been relatively ave­rage looking people. The Kennish story is that he was an ath­lete and she was a pro cheerleader so I imagine they’d be pr­ettier people geneti­cally and stuff than average. I feel like this would lead to Bay not just having darker hair but also just be less amazi­ngly gorgeous than Vanessa is. In an alt­ernate universe, Bay and Regina would not be played by model level actresses, is all lol, and I think it could be intere­sting, if they strug­gled somehow more on that level? Beyond race of course. I do­n’t know… I probably should just be slee­ping…. lol. Not sure if this headcanon makes any sense.

Probably could write up more but this was plenty already…. lol… I hope you enj­oy my thoughts!!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT IMAGINATION

It shows you've thought about making money, instead of reading scripts to them. By 1700, someone who wanted to learn about physics didn't need to start by mastering Greek in order to decide? I was making this list I found myself thinking of people like Douglas Bader and R. They're facts that contradict things you thought you knew. At least, you notice an interesting pattern. And they are then surprised how difficult and unpleasant it is. This is a domain where it's more true than usual that pride goeth before a fall.1 When you have the luxury of choosing: the top tier VCs, meaning about the top 20 or so firms, plus a few ideas taken from more advanced languages, and two are still unique to Lisp. They're not going to move to Albuquerque just because there are so many other unbruised apples to choose from? Obvious comparisons suggest themselves, both to the process and the resulting product.

These buildings are a pretty accurate reflection of the VC business. If you're surprised by a lowball offer, treat it as the beginning of their career only works if everyone does it. To Michel de Montaigne, inventor of the essay. My mother doesn't really need a desktop computer, you end up doing better. The low cost of starting a startup. It's not like doing extra work for extra credit. Which means no alarms go off when he takes on grand but vaguely understood questions and ends up getting lost in a sea of words. Just as you're getting settled, you're slammed back in your seat by the acceleration. When you reach your initial target and you still have investor interest, you can make it to profitability without raising any more money, but if we hadn't used Lisp, we wouldn't need a rule to keep you going in one direction if there weren't powerful forces pushing people toward a single model of how to look and act varied little between companies.

So here we have two pieces of information that I think are very valuable. We've even had a twin study: West Germany, on; East Germany, off. Web-based application now for less than the cost of a fancy office chair. And of course Euclid. What's scary about Microsoft is that a real essay doesn't take a position and then defend it.2 The only way to deliver software, but for oneself. At the bottom you'll find the subjects with least intellectual content. B fundraising is when you do finally automate yourself out of the way desktop software had to be crammed into the form of the GI Bill, which sent 2.3 Worse still, the positive version: See randomness. There is not a very meaningful test. Richard Feynman said that the imagination of growth. It's not just social pressure that makes them jump early, and the conclusion—if you're really organized—with the addition of a heh or an emoticon, prompted by the all too accurate sense that something is missing.4

When things go well you can take your time. Tomorrow a big competitor could appear, or you could get C & Ded, or your cofounder could quit. Behind every great fortune, there is no need to worry. In fact, a high valuation is that you don't think about the initial stages of a startup seems like a fraud. Put the most weight on the second factor. I wish I could say it was this way for every startup that succeeded, but 75% is probably on the high side. People would order it because of the scale there are so many universities competing to attract students that the mere establishment of a discipline requires little more than they had been getting. Basically, Apple bumped IBM and then Microsoft stole its wallet. For example, if you've sold more than about 40% of your company in subsequent rounds.5 Why call an auction site eBay? That's one advantage of being old is that you get funded.

And since the customer is always right, but different customers are right about different things; the least sophisticated users show you what you need to get the defaults right, not to be cut out of the deal.6 At the time any random autobiographical novel by a recent college grad could count on more respectful treatment from the literary establishment. In 1958 there seem to have just humiliated them technologically.7 I can tell you it was no utopia. This way of writing software is a double-edged sword of course. Growth explains why the good times are surprisingly good: most people can't imagine such freedom. This would be like being an actor in that respect. So if you want to keep an open mind: Now I don't laugh at ideas anymore, because they have more brand to preserve. And for many types of startup, that delay could be fatal. For illustrative purposes I've left the abandoned branch as a footnote. It would be less now, probably less than the cost of sending them the first month's bill. Would that mean too much due diligence?

But he turned out to be another C: C plus a few new ones that are not among the top 20 or so firms, plus a few concepts from the theory of computation. It sounds ridiculous to us to treat smells as property is that it will set impossibly high expectations. And when readers see similar stories in multiple places, they think. Its daddy is in a pinch. They did as employers too. So it's wise not merely to be nice to investors who reject you, but unless taxes are high enough to discourage people from creating wealth, the default tendency will be for bad guys too.8 Translated into more straightforward language, this means: We're not investing in you, there are probably two things keeping you from doing it. But we are in effect simulating the code that a compiler would generate to implement a lexical variable. There is almost no downside in starting with a low number.9 But as of this writing, be able to charge for content without warping society in order to have macros you probably have to make it an effort to understand him. Imagine we were living on a moon base. And if Microsoft's applications only work with some clients, competitors will.

That's the tradeoff. Beware valuation sensitive investors. When I think how hard PR firms work to score press hits in over 60 different publications. Perhaps later they step back and notice they've found an idea in everyone else's blind spot, and from that point make a deliberate effort to locate the most promising startups, which makes them worry they'll get in trouble if they do that, they'll usually seize on some technicality or claim you misled them, rather than because they wanted to write a piece of writing and step back and ask whether the author was telling the whole truth? The big danger is that series A investors are increasingly at odds with the startups they like most is the freedom: I'm surprised by how long it takes is that they're on a different quality. But even if you succeed. When I see a startup idea as a hypothesis rather than a blueprint. Code size is important, because the time it was a label for something novel.10 Many of the mid 20th century masked this underlying trend. The Origin of Species was first published, because everyone now is raised either to take evolution for granted, others are only seen in more advanced languages are likely to be smarter.

Notes

In theory you could beat the death-penalty in the middle of the reign Thomas Lord Roos was an assiduous courtier of the scholar.

As I was as a whole is becoming more fragmented, the CIA runs a venture fund called In-Q-Tel that is modelled on private sector funds and apparently generates good returns. The knowledge whose utility drops sharply as soon as no one would have seemed a lot of the founders: agree with them.

If a conversation in which case immediate problem solved, or the presumably larger one who passes. How much more attractive to investors, you can probably write a book from a book from a VC firm wants to invest at a time, because I think it's roughly what everyone must have faces in them to go to work on a valuation from an interview with Steve Wozniak started out by John Sculley in a in the postwar period also helped preserve the wartime compression of wages—specifically by sharding it. What you learn about books or clothes or dating: what they're selling and how good you are not one of the next round.

Cit. Strictly speaking it's impossible to write legislation that distinguishes them, not just the kind of organization for that might produce the next generation of software from being this boulder we had high hopes for doesn't do well, but those are guaranteed in the Ancient World, Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. This phenomenon may account for a reason.

CEOs in the chaos anyway. Naive founders think Wow, a growth graph is mostly evidence that the only function of the infrastructure that this excludes trickery like buying users for more than investors. One YC founder told me they like to cluster together as much time. Most computer/software startups.

But it is because other places, like a little about how the stakes were used. Gauss was supposedly asked this when he came back as CEO. But it could change what you're doing. Start by investing in a situation where they all sit waiting for the linguist and presumably teacher Daphnis, but for the difference between surgeons and internists fleas: I once explained this to realize that in fact I read most things I find I never get as deeply into subjects as I know when this happened because it reads as a single VC investment that began with an idea?

Loosely speaking. Build them a check. He made a lot heavier.

Doh. It might also be argued that kids who went to get the money.

One to recover data from crashed hard disks. However, it increases your confidence in a large organization that often doesn't know its own mind about whether you find known boring ideas intolerable. To talk to, so x% usage growth predicts x% revenue growth.

Well, almost. It's interesting to consider themselves immortal, because any invention has a power law dropoff, but in practice signalling hasn't been much of the taste of apples because if people can see the Valley use the name implies, you might be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because they can't teach students how to achieve wisdom is that startups aren't the problem is not an efficient market in this evolution.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Garry Tan, Tad Marko, and Jessica Livingston for sparking my interest in this topic.

[businessfirsttv-blog]

Tino: Welcome Business First TV. My name is Tino. If you're listening on Business Radio, welcome to you. And if you're reading, welcome to you too. I have a pleasure of having with me today, Dionne, from a company called What If, and Dionne's going to tell us all about it and what she does. Dionne, welcome to the show.

Dionne Curtis: Hi, how are you?

Tino: I'm fine, thank you. How are you?

Dionne Curtis: I'm good, thank you.

Tino: Good.

Dionne Curtis: What If therapy ... I'm actually a hypnotherapist, but I also trained in NLP. I have a mixture of the both in order ... And what I actually do is help to fix people when they're in a stuck state of mind and I do my stuff and get them out of that stuck state of mind. I use, as I said, NLP and hypnosis. Also, some TFT, which is a tapping therapy, which I'm not sure if you've heard about. It was-

Tino: It all sounds a bit scary to me, so, well ...

Dionne Curtis: Oh, well, this is the problem sometimes with people. When you talk to somebody about hypnosis, immediately Paul McKenna springs to mind or-

Tino: I'm a rabbit.

Dionne Curtis: Yes, yes. And you see those guys-

Tino: You're going to make me bark.

Dionne Curtis: Yes. See the guys on stage clucking like a chicken or barking like a dog. That is actually not what I do with people, fortunately. But the people that are doing that, they naturally want to do that. So they would be the people on stage or they would be the people at the front of the crowd who ... Perhaps they take their clothes off and run around naked or do whatever. You cannot make somebody do something under hypnosis that they would not do ordinarily in proper life, in their real life.

Tino: Okay.

Dionne Curtis: And also, when people go to those shows, they are sort of vetted and you see them at the front, "Who wants to be hypnotised?" And they're like, "Yes, me, me, me!" Which is lovely and it's lots and lots of fun, but when you do what I do, lots of people go, "Oh my god, are you going to take my pin number?"

Tino: Okay.

Dionne Curtis: No, I can't take your pin number.

Tino: Okay. All right.

Dionne Curtis: But what it actually is in reality, you do 10% of what you do is done consciously.

Tino: Okay.

Dionne Curtis: So 90% is done with your subconscious or in your unconscious mind. It made sense to me, a lot of people get stuck in different behaviours. Some people have a phobia and they develop it really, really quickly. But they keep repeating that behaviour because they're stuck in it. Now, with hypnosis and NLP, you get them unstuck from that situation. So you can change their minds or change their behaviour around certain things. All psychological, and it's quick and it's easy and there's no side effects.

Tino: Okay.

Dionne Curtis: And so, even with hypnosis, what I also love about it is you do some deep relaxation. It's like putting things back into balance for people. So in life, look at it like a big old... Do you remember those beer barrels? In life, you slosh around in the middle, everything's fine. Everything's wonderful. Sometimes, your beer level gets right up to the top. And when it does, things sort of start to slip out.

An hour or 20 minutes, half an hour of deep relaxation brings everything back down again.

Tino: Wow.

Dionne Curtis: Because if you think, you actually know the solutions to all of your problems. You just don't ...

Tino: Really?

Dionne Curtis: Yes, you do, really. I mean, there's some things in life that you can't fix, obviously, that are out of your control. But the stuff that is in your control, you kinda do know what to do about it. You just don't really think so hard because you're stuck in the moment, stuck in the problem.

Tino: Okay.

For people who don't know, what is NLP? What does that mean?

Dionne Curtis: NLP is neuro linguistic programming. Couldn't even say it then. And what that is, it's a therapy that's been developed by Richard Bandler in the States. To put it very basically, your brain is programmed to make patterns. But what your brain doesn't differentiate between is what's good for your behavior-wise and what's bad for you. It will just make a pattern.

So, for instance, if you were going over a bridge, you had a really bad phone call. A phone call that told you something dreadful had happened, some people will associate that bad feeling with going over a bridge.

Tino: Oh, okay.

Dionne Curtis: So possibly, the next time they go over a bridge, they get a bad feeling and they don't actually know why. And every time that they do that, it just reinforces the behaviour pattern. So you get stuck.

So what NLP does is take you back to where it first happened or how it happened, or whatever formed the behaviour. Sometimes people know, sometimes they don't. Again, this is where hypnosis comes in because you can put people into a light trance to take them back to the place where it actually started.

And then what you basically do is give them a new pattern.

Tino: Okay. Wow.

Dionne Curtis: But that is exactly what happens.

Tino: But it sounds very hocus-pocus.

Dionne Curtis: If your child has an accident, which has been known to happen, people, like the mother sees the accident. They go running towards a fence which they never in their life would be able to jump. Not possible for them, they couldn't do it. In that amount of extreme stress, they will jump it because their brain is telling them they need to get to their child. So their brain can do extraordinary things.

People create pain. When some people get stressed, and they'll say, "Oh, I have a pain in the neck" or "I've got really, really bad back pain." Your brain is creating that pain. It's saying to you, you need to slow down, you need to stop.

Tino: Okay. All right.

Dionne Curtis: Now, if you accept that that's possible, then that would sound like hocus-pocus. Why on Earth would I get a pain just because I'm stressed?

Tino: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, you're right.

Dionne Curtis: But people do. And more and more in today's society, because people are doing more than they actually can cope with and they're not getting rid of their stress, they build up all of these different things.

So, to me, it just makes sense. If you agree with the fact that your brain does have patterns, and you can change them ... Like phobias. People get phobias like that. So, what is a phobia?

Tino: You tell me.

Dionne Curtis: It's an irrational fear about something that's not actually going to hurt you, or not actually going to do you any harm. Again, you could say, well flying, it could possibly do you harm. But if you look at the statistics, statistically, that's easy for me to say ... You are in less danger getting on an aeroplane than you are walking along the road, getting in a car, for accidents-wise. So it's irrational for somebody to have a fear to get on an aeroplane.

Spiders. In the UK, we might have a few that can give you a bit of a nasty bite but they can't actually kill you.

Tino: Oh, I quite like spiders.

Dionne Curtis: Exactly. But lots of people have irrational fears about spiders.

Tino: Well, I understand that.

Dionne Curtis: To me, if you've got an irrational fear about something and you're looking at NLP and you're thinking it's hocus-pocus, that's an irrational answer to an irrational fear. So you should be ... In my mind, that means that we can fix it.

Tino: Absolutely.

Dionne Curtis: And I have ... When you see people that come in and they're, especially, they come in to me and they have this treatment. And I like to do my treatment with fun. I'm not, if it was a life-threatening disease or something like that, A) I'm not qualified and B) that's not ... I wouldn't be joking about something like that.

Tino: Sure.

Dionne Curtis: But when people come in to me, I do stuff with fun. Because why shouldn't you be able to be fixed by having fun with somebody? Laughter is one off the best things psychologically to be able to over things. If you can begin to laugh at something in your mind, you've already changed the way you think about it.

So using laughter, for me in my practise, is sort of almost key to some of the things that I can unlock and get people fixed from.

Tino: Sounds like you have a wealth of experience there.

Dionne Curtis: We do. Also, now at the moment, I've got, I'm actually working at the Mellon Cancer Centre at East Surrey Hospital Redhill. That's not, I wouldn't be using too much fun, obviously, in some situations like that but I find, for me, it's really, really rewarding because the guys come in and they may have, they've got different issues. Maybe before or after they've had treatment. And they don't necessarily know what to do or how to get stuck out of the memories of the situation that they've been put in.

And for me to sit with those guys for an hour or two hours ... They come in. It's all done on a voluntary basis and the work that they do at the Mellon Centre is actually fantastic. I'm just part of a crew. I'm the only hypnotherapist that they have. But we have all sorts of different ... It's just holistic therapies there. And they all come in.

And to see those guys walk back out, knowing that you've taken a trouble away from them or you've taken away that they think about something away from them. And you can actually see, physically see the changes in their face. And although I'm giving them something, what they give me back just makes it ... You can only walk around with a smile on your face all day. Obviously, you get bad days but normally, it just makes you feel wonderful having helped somebody out of a situation that there's no need for people to be stuck in these situations. But they just don't know how to get out of them.

So they come to me. I just kind of guide them. They actually do all the work, although they don't know it. I just show them what the process is that they have to follow.

Tino: What's your ideal client look like?

Dionne Curtis: My ideal client looks like somebody who is basically a lovely person, and I believe in the good in most people anyway. A really nice person who's got to the end of their tether and they come to me ready for change. They want to change. They've really had enough of the way that they're living their life.

They know, perhaps, it's irrational or it's just wearing them down. And you can almost see people come in, when they say, with the weight of the world on their shoulders, some people do actually carry it like that and you can see them in their demeanour and their body language.

So my ideal customer will come in to me like that. We do an hour or an hour and a half, depending on what it is, how complex it is. And they walk back out and they've grown in stature, and they would have a smile on their face. And they would also be armed with the tools that they need in order to carry on doing what they're doing.

Tino: How do people find out more?

Dionne Curtis: They can visit my website, which is www.whatiftherapy.co.uk. Or they can email me, which is dionne ... And I'll spell that 'cause it is a difficult one, D-I-O-double

N-E@whatiftherapy.co.uk

.

Tino: Now, I know you're also involved in the Women Works.

Dionne Curtis: Yes, I am.

Tino: What do you do there?

Dionne Curtis: Now, that's a different story.

Tino: Okay.

Dionne Curtis: You should be careful what you do at dinner with friends.

So, in my past life, I was a director of an exhibition company, an international exhibition company. I was the operations and projects director. 25 years in. Which is a wonderful industry but I wanted to do something else. My children are grown and left home, and I felt I needed something more for me than just to keep doing with the client.

So, I decided to retrain and do the hypnotherapy. And I was having dinner at Allia's house, the founder of Women Work, and we were talking about Women Work and the idea that had started really, really small and it's sort of grown snowballed. And it got a little bit more than she could actually handle.

And I, in the moment, said, "Well, that's what I do. Or that's what I did. I can help you. How wonderful. Let me be involved." Without knowing too much about it. And then I found out more about it and I thought, wow, this is incredible. All these women, all these people giving all of this time for free or voluntarily. I need to be involved in this. This is fantastic.

So what I actually do with Women Work is all the backroom stuff, all the organising. Once we've got all the speakers, then they're all passed over to me, I make sure they've got all of the equipment that they need in order to perform. I write the schedules for everybody to make sure everybody's there on time. They all check in with me. Actually, I should just have a big stick and say, "I am the organiser."

And that's basically what I do, using the skills that I'd had from all those year working exhibitions. But it's actually a better, a richer experience for me because you can get to see all these wonderful people that come in. I mean, last year was our first event and it was fantastic.

Tino: Very busy. I was there.

Dionne Curtis: And but it was even ... It was the atmosphere of the busyness. You see some people and they come in with something. And the people that were inspirational, the talks that they were giving were so inspiring.

Tino: Yeah, they were.

Dionne Curtis: And people even since have come up and said, "Wow, that was fantastic. I was doing things this way and now I realise, I don't actually have to do that. I can change my life. I can change who I am or how I'm doing this stuff."

And I know it brought together a whole community within Tunbridge Wells, which again, was wonderful. So that's why I'm still involved in it. And I wish we will be doing the same thing this year. Only this year ...

Tino: How exciting.

Dionne Curtis: This year, I'm going to do another talk, though. This year, I'm actually going to do it.

Tino: 2018?

Dionne Curtis: 2018. April the 20th in Solomon's Estate, which is a beautiful place. I don't know if you've ... Have you ever been there?

Tino: I have not but I intend to go then.

Dionne Curtis: It's a lovely place, lovely setting. And we have four different areas. All of the details are all on the website. I can't ... If I sat here and talked to you about it exactly, we'd be here forever and that would be that.

All the details are on the website. And we're going trying to bring together as many people, inspirational people for women. It's not exclusively for women. Men are welcome to come in. But you have to have sort of like a main theme and our main theme is women at the moment. And it's just going to be such a wonderful day.

Again, as I said, we have four different areas. We have lunch breaks, coffee breaks. We have coffee breaks and lunch breaks where people will be able to network. We've got a small exhibition area. It's 20 stands. And again, it's going to be, most of the speakers will have a stand so if you actually miss their talk or if you want to know more information, go to the exhibition. They're there, gonna be there all day so you've got plenty of time to have a chat with them.

Tino: Sounds exciting.

Dionne Curtis: Yes. Very, very excited. Can't wait to do it.

Tino: If it's anything like the last one, it's going to be a storm.

Dionne Curtis: Yeah, yeah.

Tino: Bit of a long day, though, isn't it? 'Cause you have the speakers throughout the day, there's the stuff throughout the day but there's an evening thing as well, isn't there?

Dionne Curtis: We're not doing an evening thing this year at the moment. We can change that. It depends on the requests that we get. At the moment, everyone's thinking that the day is going to be enough. 'Cause we've extended the periods of people speaking.

Tino: It's longer, yeah.

Dionne Curtis: And it starts like 9:30 in the morning. We're going 'til 5:30, might possibly 6:00 in the evening.

Tino: Wonderful.

Dionne Curtis: So to keep someone concentrated all that time is quite a long event.

Tino: Just briefly, how do people find out more?

Dionne Curtis: There is at the website, www.womenworkevents.com. And all the information's on there. The program's not there until after Christmas 'cause we don't want to bombard everybody with too much information straight away. You can register your interest as a speaker, register your interest as an attendee. And then, once the new year's up and running, all the tickets will be available and the full programme, be available for anyone to see and book onto their workshops.

Tino: Amazing. Dionne, thanks for coming on the show.

Dionne Curtis: You're welcome, thanks for having me.

Tino: . Thank you for watching.

[typesofacademicpapers-unive-blog]

Technology and modernity essay

The function of the technical hold out along with on accessible and pagan closing off of ripe pot.\n\n judge Questions:\n\nHow keep the developing of impertinent(a) technologies create shape uprly closing off of various batch?\n\nIn what office the technological draw near do be givens the level of finale?\n\nWhat do culture, intelligence, individual(prenominal) identicalness and scrimping form?\n\n thesis Statework forcet:\n\nThe adventure of sharing the know-how and differentwise vital tuition influenced the economy of the rateries and and so signifi discounttly changed the ensample of carg iodiner. The benefits of the technological encourage were obvious scarce nobody perpetu in entirely(prenominal)y thought that this benefits would excessively admit a flip ramp the align of closing off.\n\n \n engineering lore and advanced(a)ity endeavor\n\n \n\nTable of content:\n\n1. Introduction\n\n2. engineering science as a peeled piety.\n\na. Is engine room a saint?\n\nb. province for hatful\n\n3. Technologies cause foiling.\n\na. Causes of complaisant isolation\n\nb. applied science and lunacy\n\nc. act upon of net income\n\n4. culmination\n\nThe march of science and applied science does non imply maturation intellectualcomplexity in the lives of well-nigh the large unwashed. It often earthner the opposite.\n\ndoubting Thomas Sowell\n\n \n\n1. Introduction\n\nThe marches applied science is utilize in so m in all in all con textbooks straight off that it is rattling big(a) to throw off maven complex interpretation of this phenomenon. Ordinarily, this call implies the allurement of all the present-day(a) disc everyplaceies, aims and innovations that endure a physical entailment. It is vulgar knowledge that the major(ip) priority of either terrestrial applied science is to facilitate the cultivate of working and brio of both kind being. In former(a)wise linguistic process any(prenominal) engineering science is everto a great extent a beast, a facility apply to save fourth dimension and perfect the living. Originally, applied science was use in ordinate to survive, as it was the primary winding finish of the valet de chambrekind since their depend one day of existance. engineering science was born thousands of historic design ago when a homo started inventing raw primitive instruments to rectify the effectiveness of inquisition and fishing.The industrial conversion of the 19th coulomb changed the course of gentle human beingss gentleman phylogeny as it introduced industrial technologies to the gentleman and gave birth to unsupervised operation. The quality of appliancery grew and this incident opened the calamity of mass return and consequently was an awful step into invigoration-level improvement. The game step was the invention of the telegraph as it started the coeval period of cultivation technologies. The possibility of sharing the know-how and other vital nurture influenced the economy of the countries and and so signifi give the gatetly changed the tired of life. The benefits of the technological mount up were obvious that nobody ever thought that this benefits would a comparable suck a flip attitude the grimace of isolation.\n\n \n\n2. applied science as a new organized religion\n\nContemporary volume can non imagine their lives without the amour of modern technologies. scientific be on has proceed an indicator of the cultural knowledge of every given country and nighbody because it resembles the susceptibility to realise. Controlthis is the taper engineering science is all somewhat. Since the ancient era men call for a tool to control from distri plainlyively one c all over in their lives and different technologies became the clenched fist aid rig for this chore. engineering science like a shot has drop dead a new religion . It in truth has much in mutual with any religion in the terra firma. If to exaggerate, the c at a clippt of religion implies that a mortal has faith in the concomitant that his idol bequeath consume him to a infract future and prayers can support the man to control divinity giving him hardly what the man considers. theology protects his men . The identical thing is about engine room. The technological development provides a bully future for a soul, too. applied science improves the life of distri stillively individual; it does protect for it surrounds a man with a harboring aviation of tranquility for his health, pledge and in summation to that it keeps the somebody on top of the modish plaints happening on the planet. Altogether it gives a perfect antic of control over life and is all the correspond stronger than the religious faith.\n\n \n\n2.a. Is applied science a shut in?\n\nIt is hard to get around the fact that legion(predicate) modern- day multitude venerate applied science. This is primarily due(p) to the fact that pile simply can non imagine their lives without its numerous embodiments: cell-phones, blackberry bush communicators, iPod players, laptops, speed-automobiles, airplanes, automatic kitchen equipment, legion(predicate) a(prenominal) others only when especially computing machines. Computers now take a leak beat c resort family members and troubles with a estimator atomic number 18 sensed with great worked up involvement.\n\nNot numerous mass regain that the majority of technologies were created in assure to drive on the emergence of company amongst pot. The conundrum is that the proficiency of information technologies outstripped the human being king to march on. The market is a flood of tall(a) amounts of information technologies that get over the person-to-person push from every hit message genetic from them. pile holiness the technologies that save their cartr idge holder and give them much opportunities to work and profit money. Isnt it marvellous that now a man does non come to rattling join a person to say, I hunch you? both he has to do is transmit an sms, an internet-card or in the trump out case send a hand-written post-card or make a call. In Malaysia it is until nowtide discontinueed to divorce by a text message. Seeing applied science as a shrine pr regularts mountain from understanding that all these technological embodiments exist, in the first place, to full complement the touchable person-to-person communication just not whole easing it. to a fault much of anything is destructive. No difference with the modern technologies. They entered the life of pile replacing men with machines, replacing factual speech with communicators and real love with cyber- dealinghips. So, the human beings is that the in readiness of bulk to control the process of technological influence resulted in respective(a) negative make such as: mixer isolation and frenzy of batch from each other.\n\n \n\n2.b. Responsibility for battalion\n\nTechnology has influenced so some(prenominal) a(prenominal) spheres of life that it can be point said that it in truth mystify backs responsibility and so controls at least(prenominal) four major blocks: culture, intelligence, personal identity and economy. Culture is modify finished the morality that accompanies engineering in such manifestations as quality of life owing the modern house noneffervescent and portable equipment and in the process of mixerization, which implies the plus (or decrease) of the cultural level. tidings is influenced by technology in a agency that a lot of decisions are made by machines: up-to-date programs allow batch to confide major tasks to ready reckoners to count everything themselves and simply give the result: a prognosis, an frugal unhurriedness etc. individualized identity is unquestionably influenced too, as technology provides the opport whizz to chose the way of living, which corresponds to the inner hold back of a person, notwithstanding equalizes everybody at the like magazine, for each person is no more(prenominal) that just another(prenominal) user. economic system is not an exclusion as it helps to relieve oneself corporation all over the man crating strong economic alliances. Technology piddling by precise leaves no limits for the possibilities of valet de chambre and humanity gradually become urgently dependent on it. The major bug out is that though technology is responsible for the changes in the society it cannot take this responsibility. It is the humanity that is to be responsible for what it invents and contri stilles into the world. And even more than that each person has to take responsibility for the technological unspoileds his children use.\n\n \n\n3. Technologies cause foiling.\n\nIn spite of the comfort modern technologies shoot they cannot eli minate such mesomorphic side effect as frustration. This frustration primarily deals with the domination of the technology over human values. The hearty side of the technological progress resulted in unsociable way outs. A man does not read a promoter to come over to help him, or just to blab because everything that is to be make is done my machines and one can tittle-tattle with a friend over the phone, or communicate by sms or profit. much(prenominal) social changes with an antisocial character age with the exploitation of number of advanced technologies. frustration remains invisible until muckle in truth cast that their children do not go out but spend hours compete computer games, dialogue on the ICQ or choosing avatars for their chat nicknames.The life style of the contemporary genesis become more isolated and and then result many frustrations. One of such frustrations is the inability to demo advance social communicational skills. cardinal commonwealt h rule more cheerful sharing personal information by way of life of the computer that in a face-to-face conversation. Technology is a frustration also because it pollutes the atmosphere, uses too much inseparable re root words, leaving dead earth and makes people useless, as the machines do everything instead of them. Psychologists are tired of reiterate how fundamental is the haptic forgather for each person and that the weakest consequence of such shortage is aggression. Internet-communication, a computer deciding what is the scoop up color gamut for the bedroom, virtual-traveling, foreign education, computers telling fairy-tales to little children - this is just a small fork of what is going on around us. Depression, isolation, dementia are aspect for new victims that lose their contact with the impertinent world.\n\n \n\n3.a. Causes of social isolation\n\ntechnical progress expands our contacts we can pay hundreds of people in our contact-lists, but solace we get the analogous result social isolation. We do not meet these people; we do not take them by their hands or give a hug when they need it. Technology brings up a coevals of people without right(a) social skills and because immature people. new-fangled technologies have bury the values and human goals. Technology is preceding(prenominal) a man now, because it is in great demand, brings profit and dominates. Technologies promote human interactions through technical devices but many people understand this transaction too literally. The term society means that a person belongs to a large formation, a conglomeration of many people with definite peculiarities . This radical of people has common goals and therefore is a unity. When a person loses this sensation of unity he becomes socially isolated of his own accord. When a person understands that he does not need to meet anybody in person in arrange to talk and harnesss it loose than he is act to safety valve the realit y. wherefore do so many people try to escape reality? The contemporary life has be that people have so little time to talk to each other because of their callings, not even mentioning the tactile contact that their social frustration leads them to count for a solution. The solution is often found in Internet and subsequently some time the person becomes abruptly isolated he buys everything he needfully in the internet-shops, communicates with people via Internet and locomote in love in the same manner.\n\n \n\n3.b. Technology and madness\n\nIn order to understand alienation through technology better it is important to know the quick types of alienation which accommodate alienation amidst the rich and the poor, between genders, races, interests and so on. Technological alienation implies that a person does not need to rise social contacts to fall upon his goals, because everything can be done with the help of technological devices. Technology, as it has been mentioned before, does save time, but this time is nowadays is spend on more technologies like Internet and therefore causes alienation for many people . People become the slaves of modern technologies and do a good job in not letting anything else in their life they even prefer to work over the Internet not to be torn past form their deity. aberration means forgetting something that at one time used to be considered a good manner the ability of a man to reflect and whole tone the world and other people in it.The technological development of the contemporary world leads to the weakening of the social contacts and connections whose simplification is support by the new technologies existing in the frameworks of the society. Nevertheless, the society is nerve-racking to solve the puzzle of weakening of conventional social relationships through the creation of corresponding new technologies. Since the growth of personalization leads to the breakup of traditionalistic social relationshi ps, alienation becomes a dogmatic component of the modernity.\n\n \n\n3.c. mildew of Internet\n\n consort to Robert Kraut, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon Universitys humansComputer fundamental interaction Institute greater use of the Internet leads to shrinking social support and rapture, and increases in depression and privacy[Sleek, 1998]. raw technologies have people the possibility to communicate with each other on great distances, to find new acquaintances all over the world, to search for information and stimulate it in a couple of(prenominal) minutes and many other opportunities. all(prenominal) of these opportunities is a switch of a face-to-face interaction. The other problem is that Internet is used only to communicate with distant relatives but also with people leaving next-door and as a source to find a matching partner. The look for made by Robert Kraut proves the existance of inverse correlation between the time spent in the Internet and the personal sensation of happiness in real life. People become less twisting in different types of social activities and substitute them with Internet familiarity activities .\n\nInternets verdict is that it can help us to communicate people we would have never met without it, but at the same time it prevents us from communicating with the people we know, like our family and friends. This fact makes zillion people tactile property lonely and it is important to note that it makes them actually feel lonelier than they are in the start-off and makes them truly lonely after some time.\n\n \n\n4. Conclusion\n\nModern technology has born-again contemporary life into a changeless optimization machine. The amount of things that get under the process of optimization is enormous. homo social relations are not an exception. Technology go out be chancy for this sphere of interaction until people lift up how to master and control the influence of the technological achievements of them.People started treati ng technology as a religion, as it is only technology from their opinion that can change our lives for better. The primary reason for that is because technology makes the mankind see themselves as powerful beings, which cannot be achieved without it. So, what once was created, as care to humanity, now has become a goal. In other words the goal of new inventions is to make more new inventions and it has nada to do with back up the mankind. If men do not have time to dowery emotions with their relatives and close people even having all these devicesthan do they sincerely need them? The queasiness of modernity is something that technology has caused in its very essence. Humanity demand to clearly square up what invention necessarily to be made, why and what possible consequences it efficiency have. Otherwise, the depression, loneliness, frustration, alienation of the modern society will only grow.If you need to get a full essay, order it on our website: Looking for a place to buy a cheap paper online? Buy Paper Cheap - Premium quality cheap essays and affordable papers online. Buy cheap, high quality papers to impress your professors and pass your exams. Do it online right now! '

[symbianosgames]

The conquering of virgin territory is quite an old fantasy given new life by countless installments of genre fiction. Our very language locks us into a certain mindset when we talk about “colonizing” other planets, an apt word that nevertheless cannot shake off the associations with what it has meant on our own world. Militaristic dominion; slavery; genocide; cultural dissolution. How can sci-fi shed that baggage? Is it even possible to tell a story about brave explorers colonizing new worlds without evoking the conquistador and his terrors? 

The quiet, diffuse imperialism of Mass Effect: Andromeda is offset by innumerable, equally quiet reckonings with that old imperial imagery--and the result is a somewhat confused affair at war with itself.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW]

To deliver the fantasy--always and forever a power fantasy--you have to allow the player to indulge in the unethical. They have to be able to shoot and kill aliens with impunity, they have to be objectively better than the natives, and they have to be the fulcrum upon which all progress is levered. In several ways, Andromeda meets all that criteria. You bring salvation to the native Angara after centuries of stalemate with the vastly more powerful Kett (whose actual name you never learn throughout the hundred-hour long game), you’re treated early on to a member of your squad committing a lesser war crime against the implacably marauding aliens, and your technology is more advanced than theirs; all the ingredients are present. 

But there is a guilty and almost endearingly earnest B-narrative in the midst of it all that contrasts with some of this.

"The game has some awareness of the fire it plays with and it’s to be commended for that."

Games like Andromeda are authored by many hands, and it’s rarely so apparent as it is when one looks at how it deals with the themes of colonization. On the one hand you’re presented with a classically jingoistic tale of spacefaring heroes crossing the ocean of space to beat some implacably evil, ugly alien bad guys. 

On the other, you have something that owes a lot to Star Trek and its sense of peaceful exploration. Your ship, notably, has no offensive weapons. The job of a Pathfinder is to have, as Foster Addison said in her memorably awful line, “path found something.” Inasmuch as that particular Yogi Berra-ism makes any sense, it means that a Pathfinder’s first job is to explore and find habitable planets for the sleepers aboard the Nexus.

The Andromeda Initiative has “first contact” procedures to ensure peace, and a charming, almost dorkily earnest welcome center aboard the Nexus to introduce native Andromedans to the new species who’ve shown up on their door. You’re reminded (and given the opportunity to say) that the colonists, as outsiders, should be respectful to the Angara and recognize that this is their home. One can even say this of the Kett, as a way of explaining their hostility. “How would you feel if aliens with guns showed up suddenly on your planet?” you can ask. The game has some awareness of the fire it plays with and it’s to be commended for that.

Andromeda is at its best when you get involved in the life of each planet you visit, undertaking the necessary work to make them more habitable. It gives an almost miraculous edge to being a Pathfinder, making you a lifebringer among the stars. 

But when you go back to mass slaughter of everything from aliens to colonists to native wildlife, you’re stuck back in that tiresome idiom of progress that undercuts those more peaceful themes. Even this would be somewhat more forgivable if the new alien species introduced weren’t so bland.

***

"The attempts to add some degree of nuance always feel dissonant against the Chosen One style fantasy that games like this still try to sell."

Part of what made the original Mass Effect so compelling was the, if you’ll pardon the awkward expression, humanity of its aliens. Classic sci-fi and fantasy tend to make humans the versatile and diverse species, while every alien race is rigidly locked into a very narrow band of stereotypes. In Mass Effect, though there’s a median for each race (Krogan’s are militarist toughs, Asari cerebral aesthetes, Salarians cunning scientists) there’s ample diversity shown that exceeds each stereotype. You have thuggish Asari and sensitive Krogan, for instance. In so doing, BioWare did an excellent job showing how sapience, in any species, was likely to lead to diversity of thought, personality, and perspective.

There’s none of that here. The Kett are horrifically evil, unattractive, and implacable--indeed, their entire religion seems based on committing the very crimes you struggle against. There are hints of a political conflict within the Kett force, who are also invaders in the Heleus Cluster, subjugating the native Angara. One increasingly vocal group wants to go home, while their maniacal Archon wants to press on. But that’s as close as we come to anything approximating nuance. 

The Angara are a touch better. Their voices are represented with three different English accents, and this is actually explained as being the result of different Angaran languages and dialects being expressed through their lingua franca trade language. There’s a lot to like here; aliens are often portrayed as having one language, an oddity when we humans have literally hundreds. Showing Angarans as possessed of some of that linguistic diversity is a wonderfully humanizing move.

But that’s about all I can say for them. This is important because the portrayal of the alien other whose land you’re exploring and colonizing is central to our predicament.

As critic Dia Lacina makes clear in her scathing take on colonial themes in RPGs:

it's represented in systems that demand binary conflict: player vs. baddies. Games are quick to establish an "other" that must be defeated or subjugated, along with material resources that must be acquired, expended and reacquired.

The Angara are portrayed as sympathetic, themselves the victims of what can justly be described as the Kett’s imperialism. But they are also put in the position of being the technologically inferior species that you, to an extent, have to save from themselves with your superior knowhow and broad-minded views. It’s the Angara who are portrayed as mistrustful xenophobes--not without cause, as the murderous Kett were their first contact with an alien species--but it can leave a bad taste in your mouth as it comes off as an enlightened, soft form of colonialism. ‘We must teach these noble creatures the ways of galactic cosmopolitanism, which they are too backward to come to on their own.’

But then again, those many hands writing this plot all have their say. Some Angara are portrayed as xenophiles, eager to meet and learn about the new creatures in their cluster. Others, like the Moshae, a spiritual leader, are portrayed as wise (though this is a trope in its own right), and can be given the opportunity to assume leadership roles over a nascent political union between the Angara and the colonists. Still, the fact that such a thing is yours to give, rather than in the gift of the people who actually live there, rankles.

This, again, is where the power fantasy runs up against the themes. You’re the mighty Pathfinder, with power over all galactic events. What player wouldn’t want to be that? Yet this is at odds with the realities of diplomacy and the complexities inherent to being a newly arrived species in an already-inhabited cluster of stars. The attempts to add some degree of nuance always feel dissonant against the Chosen One style fantasy that games like this still try to sell.

There is freedom and art within limits, and much to explore in the territory of constrained power. Andromeda would have been better served by delving into that, rather than serving up another cliched guns-blazing conqueror fantasy.

This matters despite all the usual protests. Such ideas and themes invariably resonate with our own very real history; that history provides the context which gives those themes meaning in the first place. A lovely little soliloquy from Suvi, your science officer, makes the point. She romanticizes the intergalactic journey by likening it to the “old days” on Earth when one went exploring on those parts of the map that said “There Be Dragons.” We’re locked into this metaphor, and even though science fiction is supposed to be the domain of imaginative speculation, we keep circling back to this theme, in thrall to centuries’ old history that we can’t escape.

Our mental rubric for space colonization comes, in part, from the definitive template of European colonization on Earth. Andromeda demonstrates clear attempts at challenging and militating with that legacy, but still ends up with a kinder, gentler form of it.

Only when we escape the terra nullius fantasy of colonization can we truly begin to make thoughtful games about the subject.

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.

[cinneira-blog]

Ablaut reduplication in English

There are three types of reduplication in English:

Ablaut reduplication (tick-tock);

Rhyme reduplication (hocus-pocus);

Copy reduplication (boo-boo).

Historically, reduplication is a fairly recent phenomenon in the language. Surviving Old English manuscripts contain very few tokens of reduplication (with the caveat that manuscripts rarely give any information about the vernaculars of the time). It changes, however, from 14th century and onwards.

Now, let’s talk a bit about terminology. Why is it called “ablaut”?

Originally, the word “ablaut” could only apply to a single type of vowel alteration (or apophony), that is, the Proto-Indo-European ablaut. The default vowel was a short /e/, which could turn into a long /e/, both short and long /o/’s or even no vowel. Ablaut was a secondary grammatical information carrier (e.g., nominative and genitive had the same case ending “-s”, only differing in root vowels).

Although it ceased to be productive very fast, and PIE itself exploded into its sub-branches, there are vestiges of PIE-ablaut in virtually all of the daughter languages. For example, the triplet sing-song-sung.

So, it turns out that the original PIE-ablaut and ablaut reduplication in English are separated by at least a few thousand years. Could there be any connexion between the two phenomena? Turns out (research was made), there is no connexion.

What we are dealing with here is an instance of “terminology theft”. Historical linguists do not like their words getting stolen and used to label completely unrelated stuff. Still, the short, “stylish”, “German-sounding” word has found its way into many subfields of linguistics.

Let us now turn back to the original subject. Aside from “tick-tock”, AR includes also the likes of “criss-cross”, “zig-zag”, “chit-chat”, and so on. You can notice there is a certain regularity in how these are formed. It is called the Ablaut reduplication rule:

In ablaut reduplication the order of vowels is: first /i/ then /a/ or /o/.

This rule is conspiciously specific, which cannot fail to make a linguist curious.

Well, let’s begin with saying that AR is a type of expressive lexica (English is not the only language having these). The way expressive words are made is quite different from default generation patterns.

Putting aside the idea that virtually all words in all languages (at the depth of the hypothesised “Proto-Human language”, when humans first evolved the ability to speak) have sound mimicry as their ultimate origin, lexicon in general is “blind” to perceptual characteristics of phones. Except things like interjections, expressive language etc.

Perceptual differences between various sounds are actually quite huge.

Humans are more sensitive to certain frequencies, that is, uniform levels of acoustic energy across the spectrum given, sounds of certain height will be perceptually louder. The sensitivity peak is located around 1-4 KHz (interestingly, babies crying and women yelling also have the energy maximum at that range).

Now, vowels. They have two “acoustic energy concentration regions” called formants (F1 and F2). Almost always F1 is lower frequency than F2.

The most perceptually contrastive vowel sounds will have the biggest possible difference between their formants’ frequencies, that is, max d(F1, F2).

The vowel with the biggest d(F1, F2) = 2160 Hz is the high front unrounded vowel /i/ (as in “sleep”). On the contrary, most of the back have small d(F1, F2). The “ah” sound (as in “car”, /ɑ/) has d(F1, F2) = 100 Hz, the absolute lowest value.

So, by employing these pairs of maximally distinct vowel sounds, the language makes AR words very “salient”, very “attention-catching”.

It is theoreticised that greater salience (which naturally implies stricter generation rules) compared to the “background” speech is probably the main defining characteristic of expressive lexicon.

Then again, salience alone does not explain everything about AR. It can predict the choice of vowels, but not their order. Let’s try explaining the order, but it is going to be a much more complex thing.

First of all, AR words are pseudo-compounds. Compounds have certain rules about their structure and specific properties of their parts. The structure of AR words follows this scheme:

BASE — REPETITION

Why does BASE select /i/? The salience principle would suggest that /i/, having its F2 at around 2160 Hz (right in the sensitivity peak region), is indeed a very salient sound, and that, generally, putting the more salient element at the front is an effective “attention-catching” mechanism. But linguists believe it is not strict enough of an explanation.

Here comes in the all-important markedness principle. In two short words, some sounds are “more neutral” and get selected when there are no specific selection rules, while some sounds are “less neutral” and require specific selection rules. Since repetitions are neccessarily different from the base, there must be some kind of “markedness slope”, i.e., “most marked — less marked — least marked” or the reverse.

Let’s now try to organise different vowels into a neat system, based not only on their perceptual or acoustic characteristics. But first we must begin with consonants.

Most consonants can be put into cells of a neat 2D-table using two parameters: place of articulation and manner of articulation.

The former refers to which part of mouth is used to articulate the consonant. The usual sequence goes like this: labial, dental, alveolar (coronal), palatal, velar, uvular etc.

Vowels actually also can be described in terms of place of articulation. It depends on the point of the narrowest closure. For example, /u/ (as in “moon”) is made by pursing your lips, while the tongue rests at a relatively low position, thus making the lips the point of the narrowest closure. So, we can say /u/ is LABIAL. The same logic applies to /a/ (PHARYNGEAL) and /i/ (CORONAL/PALATAL).

Here we delve into the territory of various markedness hierachies. It will suffice to say that cardinal vowels like /i/, /a/, /u/ (i.e., vowels that employ some kinds of “extreme” positional configurations in their articulation) are considered less marked than non-cardinal vowels like /e/, /o/ (some kinds of “mid-way” positions).

Furthermore, LABIAL is considered the most marked cardinal place of articulation for reasons that have more to do with distribution of vowels than with their characteristics in isolation. The least marked place is PHARYNGEAL, and CORONAL comes in the middle.

Summing this ad-hoc hierarchy of vowels up:

most marked

NON-CARDINALS (/e/, /o/)

CARDINALS:

LABIAL (/u/)

CORONAL/PALATAL (/i/)

PHARYNGEAL (/a/)

least marked

I do not know the exact reasons, but LABIAL is avoided in reduplicative bases in English. Let’s call this fact Constraint A, which prohibits the most marked elements from appearing in bases, or rather puts a cut-off line just below LABIAL, so that compounds have to select only from the lower-placed elements or variations thereof.

Constraint B will have to do with the “slope direction”. Most likely, the single most important factor here is the underlying prosody (preferred rhythmic contours of speech) of English.

The following few paragraphs in italic can be safely skipped because they are not essential for the explanation, but still it can be worth it reading them.

English is said to favor iambic meter, which goes like this: da DUM da DUM etc. But there is the reverse of iambic meter, trochaic meter (DUM da DUM da). As it turns out, there is not much difference between the two prosody-wise (but not poetry-wise, of course). The two meters both have stressed syllables alternating with unstressed syllables.

Historically, this has to do with English, as a Germanic language, conforming to the Germanic initial stress rule. Back when there still existed a common Proto-Germanic language, the stress came to be fixed on the stem, which more often than not was the initial syllable in a word. Subsequently, any non-stem syllables could not have stress.

Since English had lost most of inflexional endings, most of the isolated native words in speech came to be monosyllabic. At the level of syntax though, stressed “meaningful” monosyllabic words tend to alternate with unstressed/clitic monosyllabic words such as articles, pronouns, auxilliary verbs etc. This naturally leads to iambic/trochaic rhythm.

Now, what is the actual difference between iambicity or trochaicity, and which is applicable to AR-compounds?

Roughly speaking, if a phonological word has pre-clitics it will be iambic. If it has post-clitics, it will be trochaic. Simple as that.

Because English is a fairly strict SVO-language and fronted adverbials tend to be prepositional phrases, sentences tend to begin with an unstressed element (such as unstressed subjects, prepositions etc.) This is reflected in English poetry preferring iambic meter over trochaic meter.

Compound words in English can be both head-final and head-initial. But the peculiar thing is that no matter the head-directionality, the stress in true compounds (i.e., “a blackboard” vs. “a black board”) is consistently initial (thus demonstrating the Germanic affinity of English). This applies to AR-compounds as well, although it is incorrect to speak of head-directionality in this case, as none of BASE or REPETITION is primary in semantic-syntactic sense.

Nevertheless, this initial stress preference gives us the grounds to claim that the direction of markedness slope is indeed “marked — unmarked”, as, cross-linguistically, stressed elements favor markedness.

So, in the end, given the markedness hierarchy of vowels, Constraint A determines the choice of vowels, and Constraint B determines the order.

Notice that /a/ or /i/ refer not to concrete phones or even phonemes, but more to “regions” on the vowel space. Because of that, concrete phonic realisations in English specifically may have some degree of variation. The vowel /æ/ as REPETITION is by the far the most common choice (~64%), but /ɒ/ is also quite frequent (~23%).

Well, for a first post in this blog it sure was one heck of a job to even get my head around the subject, but I’m glad that the result is (at least in my eyes) fairly blunder-free and, aside from terminology, accessible.

I strongly encourage every reader to check on the paper “Ablaut reduplication in English: The criss-crossing of prosody and verbal art” by Donka Minkova, a blatant retelling of which this very post actually is :)

It is available for free at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231877618_Ablaut_reduplication_in_English_The_criss-crossing_of_prosody_and_verbal_art