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pompomqt · 2 months

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Journey to the West Chapter 50

This chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest marks the end of book 2, and is the midway point of the entire story. We're halfway there everyone, so let's get into it shall we?

So the gang are walking along, and since we've had to many river adventures lately, it's time for another mountain one. Tripitaka as usual expresses his worry over wolves and tigers, and Monkey once again assures him that he has nothing to worry about since he has them. Anyways so they walk along the mountain for a while before Tripitaka starts getting hungry, and just in time to since he spots some lights in the distance that must be a village or something they can stay at.

However once Monkey takes a look at the place he goes 'Nope. Can't do it. It's demon infested.' Luckily Tripitaka is willing to take his word for it, at least for the moment, but the problem that he is still hungry remains. So Monkey has Tripitaka dismount so he can rest while Monkey goes to fetch him some food from somewhere. He gives Sandy the reins to the horse an tells him to just wait here and guard master until he comes back. With that settled, Monkey is about to leave but seems to think better of it with Tripitaka's track record of summoning man eating demons by just breathing. So he uses his staff to draw a protection circle around them. He tells them not to leave the circle because it will be able to protect them, when Tripitaka agrees and settles in, Monkey finally feels secure enough to leave him for the time being.

So Monkey finds some random village 1000 miles due south from them, and goes to beg for some food. The random village person he asks is surprised to see him, and says if he wants to head west he's probably better off trying to find the main road then beg for food here. Monkey tells him that's not a problem, and that his master is waiting for him there now. When the villager questions if Tripitaka won't starve to death by the seven days it should take Monkey to travel that far, Monkey assures him that such a journey will only take him a few minutes at most. The villager decides that, that is a major red flag, and he'd really rather not deal with something like Monkey, who must be a ghost or something and tries to turn him down.

The man tries to tell him to just go somewhere else, after all, their dinner isn't even ready yet, but Monkey insists that he can wait. The man tries whacking Monkey with his staff to get him to go away, and Monkey just kind of lets him to get it out of his system. He says the man can hit him as much as he wants, but each hit will cost him one pint of rice. Hearing this the man slams his door shut and runs into his house screaming about ghosts and whatever. Since the man said that they were currently in the process of cooking dinner, Monkey decides to just go to the kitchens to serve himself, so he turns himself invisible and waltzes right in. Seeing the cooked rice he fills his alms bowl before taking off to return to Tripitaka.

Meanwhile Tripitaka is getting bored of waiting for Monkey, and Pigsy, the voice of unreason, agrees. He says that Monkey is probably just playing around while leaving them imprisoned here at the mercy of the tigers and demons, after all, how can a circle possibly protect them? They should just go to that village they saw before and get some food and shelter there, Monkey is fast anyways, he'll be able to catch up no problem. Thoroughly persuaded by this plan, Tripitaka leaves the circle and the four of them head towards the demon infested buildings. Dang it Sandy, Monkey left you in charge to be the voice of common sense!

They make their way to a fancy manor, and since no one is outside to greet them, Pigsy says he'll go in and talk to them. Which is not the usual plan of Tripitaka using his pretty privilege to let them get their way, but he agrees to it anyway, and just tells Pigsy not to offend anyone. Pigsy say's he'll be fine since he's acquired some manners since becoming a bhuddist, so he walks inside in a civil manner. Before abandoning all civility when he goes to the second floor to find a large skeleton, and three silk vests, which he of course immediately takes. In Pigsy's defense he does spare a few tears and words for the skeleton before stealing from his house, so I guess he really has learned some manners.

Pigsy comes back outside and tells them about the skeleton and the three vests he found. He encourages Tripitaka to wear one of them to get warm. Tripitaka however is horrified, and reprimands Pigsy for stealing, and tells him to put it back. Pigsy however says that it's not stealing if there are no witnesses around and puts a vest on anyways, with Sandy following suit. As soon as they put them on however, the vests immediately constrict turning themselves into straitjackets and binding them. Whaaaaat? A trap? What a turn of events! Who could have seen this coming? Tripitaka makes sure to yell at them loudly enough to wake the whole demon town while he tries to untie them. And sure enough the whole group is then captured.

So Tripitaka is forced to kneel to the demon of the week, and try and explain why they were stealing their garments. Tripitaka of course tearfully explains the story and says that they were of course going to return the vest, and begs the demon to spare their lives. The Demon of course has no intention of sparing them, especially not since Tripitaka is the delicious golden cicada he has heard so much about. Luckily before he can go to far into making his dinner plans, Pigsy chimes in that their other disciple is the Great Sun Wukong who caused great havoc in heaven five hundred years ago. As usual this gives the demon pause, so he decides to just tie them up and wait until he's captured Sun Wukong so he can kill and eat them all together.

Meanwhile, Sun Wukong has returned to where he left them, only to find his protection circle empty, and not only that the demon village from earlier is also gone. So Monkey starts dejectedly following the horse tracks to try and find his wayward master, when suddenly he comes across two travels, an old and young man. Monkey decides to ask them if they have seen his companions, and the old man answers that he saw them get kidnapped by the Great King One-Horned Buffalo, who is a rather powerful demon apparently. Monkey isn't fussed about the possible danger, and is about to offer the old man the rice he got as thanks, when suddenly the two reveal themselves to be the local mountain gods. They offer to preserve the rice for him to give to Tripitaka later, Monkey is pissed at the subterfuge, but allows them to take the rice anyways.

So Monkey finds his way to the demon's lair, and tells the minion demon's that are guarding the door to go tell their master to release his master. So the minions tell the Buffalo demon that Wukong is here to pick a fight, which the demon is hyped about, after all he's been looking for a good fight. So the demon gets dressed in his armor and grabs his spear and goes out looking for a fight along with his minion army. So Monkey once again repeats that the demon should give him back his Master, but the demon replies that, he only captured Tripitaka because he was stealing from him. Monkey says that Tripitaka would never do that! Which is right, but unfortunately Pigsy would do that, so the two begin to fight.

The two fight for a while and the Demon is very impressed by Wukong's abilities, saying his abilities really are worthy of someone who caused so much trouble in heaven. Eventually though, the Demon orders his demons to attack- which is never really a problem for Sun Wukong. And indeed Wukong throws his staff into the air to duplicate it and take out all the minions at once. Turns out this is what the demon was waiting for however, since the demon then tosses up a shiny fillet and tosses it into the air and sucks up Monkey's staff. Monkey now unarmed, flee's the battle to re-evaluate his life choices.

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 + 94,000 years Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod (Sucked into a fillet) Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction, vanishing in a flash of light, super healing, transforming others, and invisibility Demon Kill Count: 9+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1009 God's Defeated: 22 + Unknown number Defeats: 6 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat, animal abuse, Assisting or Instigating Escape, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption and Identity Fraud. Cry Count: 7 + 3 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka and the Tang Monk Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization, Heart Sutra and Meditation. Cry Count: 26 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 31 Paralyzed by fear: 5 Bandit Problems: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 8 Falling Off Horses: 8

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, and Sword Dancing. Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 1

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement and CPR Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 2 Kidnapped by Demons: 4 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 3 Cry Count: 2 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson, defamation, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud and Theft

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater and Cloud soaring. Demon Kill Count: Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 3 Human Kill Count: 1 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, desecration of a human corpse, Damage to Religious Property and contaminating a substance for human consumption

#journey to the west #jttw read through #jttw #journeythroughjourneytothewest #sun wukong #tang sanzang #zhu wuneng #sha wujing #quite a few stat updates for our last chapter of book 2 #See everyone next time!

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pixelgrotto · 3 years

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Saltmarsh stories

One more Dungeons & Dragons campaign comes to completion! For over a year and a half, I’ve been running Ghosts of Saltmarsh for my girlfriend and her best friend, and the pair of them finally finished last Saturday after 23 sessions and nearly 100 hours of playtime. We started playing in person December 2019 and had to move online in March due to COVID, and eventually my gf’s best friend moved out of town and then out of the country. But in spite of global transitions and pandemics, we still surmounted the odds and finished without missing a single month.

Since Ghosts of Saltmarsh was my gf’s introduction to D&D (minus a few games she played as a child), it took up quite a bit of space in my crusty Dungeon Master mental cave of planning. Luckily, I found it to be a very enjoyable campaign to run, mostly because as an anthology of classic adventures, it lacks the overly convoluted storyline that plagues a lot of other D&D fifth edition campaigns I’ve either played through or DMed, like Tomb of Annihilation, Out of the Abyss and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains eight adventures united by their seaside themes. Three of them are updated versions of the classic U1-U3 Saltmarsh modules, which were among the first British D&D products produced from 1981 to ‘83. These three tales revolve around the players befriending local villagers and helping a lizardfolk tribe fight off invading sauhaugin, and they’re good, mostly as an example of early D&D material that required players to treat so-called “monstrous races” with diplomacy rather than violence. The other adventures are from old issues of Dungeon magazine, and run the gamut from a decent lighthouse dungeon crawl (Isle of the Abbey, from Dungeon #34) to a nifty survival horror-style ship romp (Salvage Operation, from Dungeon #123). Additionally, Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains rules for ship battles, which are good enough considering that D&D isn’t a naval combat simulator, and the book also devotes its first chapter to describing a great new version of the town of Saltmarsh to serve as a central hub.

I think Ghosts of Saltmarsh’s anthology format is my preferred style of D&D hardcover book at this point. Just give me a main town that I can detail and populate with my own NPCs, a bunch of adventures taking place around the vicinity that I can hack as necessary for my players, and I’m good. This format is also reflective of D&D’s early roots, where campaigns weren’t 250-page books with save-the-world plots, but short modules focused on building clout in a certain region and establishing a base. I think it’s also a very newbie-friendly format, since beginning players can really become invested in one central location and the people residing in it.

Since I was only running this game for two people, I had plenty of time to help the girls grow attached to Saltmarsh and its denizens. These consisted of several faces from my other games, including the very first D&D character I played as - a ranger who settled down in Saltmarsh as the head of the city guard and served as mentor for the next generation of adventurers. Other NPCs evolved depending on what I thought might make my gf and her friend laugh. For instance, Oceanus the sea elf, a Saltmarsh mascot since the '80s, started out as a surfer bro but eventually morphed into a douchebag/dingbat a la Schmidt from New Girl, which I started watching with my gf sometime over the course of 2020. And Captain Xendros, the tiefling owner of the local magic item store, was only supposed to be a minor shopkeeper until her sassy banter stole everyone’s heart, winning her a place as a major character by the end of the game.

I also gave the girls their very own house to decorate and return to in between missions, which was another fun ode to the older D&D roots that Ghosts of Saltmarsh embraces, but also a chance to insert Animal Crossing-style interior decoration into our campaign. My girlfriend clocked a staggering 300+ hours into Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the start of the pandemic, and seeing her and her friend derive great pleasure from using Roll20′s wonky drawing tools to sketch out every room of the house (and create a shrine in the bathroom with random bits of gold on the floor, no less) was stellar.

Aside from a house, the gals also received two animal companions - a pseudodragon and a shadow mastiff. The pseudodragon appears as a familiar that can be found after Ghosts of Saltmarsh’s first adventure, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, but the shadow mastiff was an inclusion of my own because my girlfriend really wanted a dog for the longest time, and I figured I would give her one in-game before we got one in real life. (Yup, we now have one in real life.) Generally, I’m a huge fan of injecting a little Pokémon into my games with animal buddies, but in this case the pets also served as valuable fighting companions that helped balance Ghosts of Saltmarsh’s combat encounters, which are meant for four people.

On the topic of inclusions, I stuck a bit closer to the content in Ghosts of Saltmarsh than I usually do when running a campaign based on an official D&D hardcover, probably because the book in question was just more usable this time around. The final split was maybe 60% book material and 40% my own stuff. The end of the campaign was nearly all me, since I couldn’t quite formulate a way to include the final two adventures in the book, Tammeraut's Fate and The Styes. So instead, I gutted them for concepts and created an overarching story that tied Saltmarsh’s threats to H.P. Lovecraft’s Esoteric Order of Dagon. There’s a ton of Lovecraft influence in The Styes, after all, and Dagon was included as a demon lord in third and fourth edition D&D, not to mention Pathfinder. I drew inspiration from all of those versions, along with the stats included in Sandy Peterson’s Cthulhu Mythos book for fifth edition.

Ultimately, it all made for an entertaining story that scaled mightily. At level 2, Thea the tiefling rogue (played by my gf) and Zora the half-elf bard (played by her best friend) were utterly outclassed by smugglers in a haunted house and had to use a door as a shield to escape. At level 12, the pair defeated a demon lord and closed a portal to the Abyss. (To be fair, both accomplishments are pretty epic. The door escape was one of the most creative D&D moments I’ve ever seen, and we’re still talking about it today.)

While I wish we could’ve rolled physical dice together for a little longer, I’m glad Roll20 was available to keep our game going through a period of global strife. In the midst of it all, there was always D&D to fall back on. And hopefully, there will be more to come. I’ve got Candlekeep Mysteries on my shelf, another anthology of D&D short adventures...and it’s just waiting for me to formulate a plot to tie ‘em all together!

#pixel grotto #musings #tabletop games #dungeons & dragons #d&d #ghosts of saltmarsh

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fairstarlights · 6 years

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Peanut-butter

Summary: Based off of this OTP Prompt

Pairings: Analogical (Peanut-butter/Jelly)

Chapter Word Count: Enough.

Genre: Romance/Fluff

General Story Warning: None! Unless you count a really minor flip out and kissing?

Notes: Romance. Just. Yeah. All my fics are sad. I need a happy one.

Dating sites weren't Virgil's thing but Roman had hounded him for months about Valentines Day and how he needed a date. It was still a month away and not nearly enough time to find someone. Finally, Virgil caved and with some online searching he found a free dating site and signed up. Without telling Roman. If that guy ever found out he had one, he'd never hear the end of it and would probably be subjected to a Roman-ized version of twenty questions.

Which would be twenty billion questions until he temporarily blocked him on his phone. Some how Roman always found a way around that and it was infuriating. Virgil dipped his spoon into the peanut butter, swished it around then stuck it into his mouth.

Virgil stared at his profile for few minutes and seriously considered deleting it. One thing, he would be interacting with total strangers. Stranger danger. He didn't know any of these people. They could be serial killers or rapists or- something. Virgil didn't really want to think too much about it. Two, there was the 'About me' profile. He had done his best to fill it out, without giving too much away. Both for conversation purposes and for not wanting people to know how weird he was before they even started talking. Three, he probably wasn't going to message anyone, ever. How do you even start a conversation of a dating site? It was all just ridiculous and a waste of time.

Virgil furiously stabbed at the peanut-butter with his spoon, scooping out a spoonful and shoving it into his mouth. He then grabbed his phone off his desk, opened up the tumblr app and mindless began scrolling.

It day two when a 'pop' sound was heard from Virgil's laptop. Said boy was sitting on the couch and reading one of his poetry books when he heard it. It wasn't a familiar sound so, as curious as he was, he stood up, grabbed his peanut-butter jar, and walked over. He ran a finger over the track pad and the screen came to life. He pulled up the minimized Chrome browser. The dating site was still open and noticed a (1) over the envelope at the top of the screen. Virgil's heart sped up a bit as he scrolled up and clicked it, as he waited for it to load he scooped up some peanut-butter, but this time keeping a hold on the spoon.

The message appeared and displayed the username the message.

[IntellectuallySuperior] at 2:03pm 6/21/18

Salutations,

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Logan. I have read over your profile and it strikes me as peculiar but also quite interesting. I see that we both have the same love for poetry. Although, yours seem to be more on the morose side, I think we could both find a neutral ground in the poetry department. I know some of our interests conflict, but upon further reading we also have a multitude that we share. If you would like to discuss, feel free to message me back at your convenience.

- Logan

Virgil stared at the message in disbelief. Was this for real? This guy talked like he was emailing a college professor. Virgil scrolled up and clicked on the guy's name. His profile appeared and Virgil let out a snort. This guy looked like he screamed, 'Oh, you want the manager? Sure, I'll go get him.' He would do a turn around and say 'Hello, how may I be of service?' In all of his pictures he was his dark brown hair was nearly completely slicked back, he wore black thick rimmed glasses, with a black or blue polo and a different assortment of ties. His facial expressions seemed strained, like he didn't know to smile for a picture. It looked painful.

Virgil scrolled through the rest of Logan's profile and learned he was in grad school earning his doctorate in medicine. He liked poetry. Virgil hmm'd. He wondered if he wondered liked Slam Poetry. More things included, writing, reading, cooking, puzzles,and several other things that Virgil didn't know what they were without googling it. Under his 'Profession' he had written 'Tutor'. Huh, interesting. Virgil licked his lips and tasted peanut-butter, he took another bite as he read his 'About me'. It was arrogant and he seemed quite full of himself, he chose his username quite well.

Virgil clicked back the messages and clicked reply. They didn't seem very likely to date or anything but if anything, they could humor each other for a while. Virgil moved the spoon around in his mouth and it make clanking sounds as it hit his teeth. What was he even going to say?

[OrchestratorofHumanSuffering]

replying to

[IntellectuallySuperior] at 2:26pm 6/21/18

Sup, Logan. I'm Virgil. Sorry you didn't like my type of poetry, maybe you could share some of yours and I could share some of mine, the less 'morose' ones. Do you like to listen to Slam Poetry? I could give you a couple YouTube links to a few of my favorites. If I know what kind of poetry you prefer I could find some slams that might be more your style. Anyway, let me know or whatever.

- I guess.

The sent button was clicked and Virgil leaned back in his chair, pulling the now clean spoon out of his mouth with a 'pop'. This probably wouldn't last long.

It was a week before Valentines Day and Logan had asked Virgil out on a coffee date over the phone. The conversations on the site escalated so quickly it made Virgil nervous but an excited kind of nervous. Of course there was those nagging thoughts and feelings that told him to run away cause this was all just a set up. Why would Logan, an insanely attractive, and intelligent grad student want to be with him of all people?

Virgil wasn't always the most pleasant to be around. He snarked, was rude and snappy, had so many walls built up that not even the bravest or talented of devolishish people would attempt to break down. Virgil wasn't that attractive, he wasn't too cheerful or bright. He tended to look on the negative a lot. His posture was bad and rarely looked at people in the eyes because he was shy.

Logan must have seen something in him that Virgil didn't. Or, his glasses were expired and they needed updated immediately. Though, he wouldn't mind if either of those things. Logan could be quite difficult to talk to but he acted like he really cared. He hadn't seen Virgil go through any anxiety or panic attacks yet, he hoped he never would, but if that day did come...he hoped Logan would still stick around anyway.

Virgil was already in the coffee shop, seated. He hadn't ordered yet, figuring it would be polite to wait. He did go up and ask for a plastic spoon and a small plastic cup of peanut-butter. He nibbled on that as he waited, watching the clock. Logan said to meet at 3pm. Three more minutes. The door chime rang and Virgil turned his head and then immediately turned back around. It as Logan and he looked more gorgeous in person. Virgil swallowed the last bit of peanut-butter in his throat but it felt like glue and, oh god, why did it have to turn to glue.

“Virgil?” Logan said, his voice right next to him. Said boy accidentally knocked his plastic cup to the floor with his elbow and stood up fast. Logan blinked in surprise and Virgil immediately felt like an idiot. He swallowed and coughed a few times.

“Uh...” Nice. “Hey, Logan.”

“Hello, Virgil. I didn't expect you to be here so soon. Have you been waiting long?”

“No, not really. I probably came about ten minutes ago.” Logan raised an eyebrow but didn't anything. Oh my god. You're meeting the most gorgeous man in the world and you look like some desperate idiot. Virgil stuck his thumb in the direction of the register. “Lets order us some coffee?” Logan nodded and motioned for Virgil to lead.

Once up to the register Virgil desperately wished he had a spoonful of peanut-butter to help him relax. “You seem a bit tense. Are you nervous?” Logan, who was standing beside of him, asked with a concerned look. Fuck yeah he was always nervous. Every god damn day, and right now he needed a heaping spoonful of peanut-butter stat.

“A bit. I'll be fine though.” He gave Logan a small reassuring smile and Logan's face looked like it went on a 404 screen. Virgil's smile faded and the line moved, it was their turn. “Logan.” He touched the others arm and shook it. Logan blinked and his face turned red as he seemed to have realized he was staring. He cleared his throat and moved up.

“You can order first.” He prompted. Virgil shrugged and ordered a plain black coffee. He went to reach for his wallet but Logan stopped him. “No, I invited you. I will be the one paying.” Logan ordered a decaff coffee with double cream. Logan paid, their drinks were handed to them and they went back to the table Virgil had been sitting at earlier.

The conversation went better than expected. Logan talked about the many Slam Poets he found on YouTube and had memorized quite a few. Logan eventually pulled out a poetry book, just one of their shared favorites, “Pictures of the gone world” by Ferlinghetti. They took turns reading and Virgil all but long forgot about his peanut-butter. It turned into chit chat, then into more of their daily lives and expanding on their interest. Soon it was nearing six and Logan had to leave to leave to study for a test he had on Monday.

They exited the coffee shop and they both looked at each other. Virgil's eyes glanced shyly away and he shoved his hands into his jean pockets, “I had fun, today. Thanks, Logan. And thanks for the coffee.”

“I had fun as well. I expected nothing less, honestly.” Virgil looked over at Logan, who had a small smile on his lips. It quickly fade and his face flushed a bit. “I do, however, do not know how dates end. In movies I have watched, they normally kiss.” Virgil's eyebrows shot up and he could feel his face turning redder than Roman’s Christmas sweaters. Logan looked at him, “Do you mind? I don't want to be presumptuous and make you uncomfortable. I wouldn't do anything without your clear consent.”

Virgil licked his lips and could still taste the peanut-butter, that was somewhat comforting. Though if he could reach inside and scoop some out with his hands and shoved it into his mouth, he would. That would be embarrassing though and he would have to kill himself after pulling a stunt in front of Logan like that.

“Is that a no?” Virgil's heart pounded in his chest.

“No- I mean- yes- no! I mean-ugh! Yes, you can kiss me.” He whispered the last half. Logan looked amused and took a few steps forward. He leaned down and was inches away from Virgil's lips but stopped and pulled back. Virgil blinked, “What? Change your mind?”

“No. No, I do want to kiss you.” Logan looked confused, and was staring at Virgil like he was some sort of puzzle.

“Then why didn't you?”

“Why do you smell like peanut-butter? I don't recall you eating peanut-butter.” Virgil rubbed under his nose nervously and looked away.

“I had some before you showed up?”

“I see. Well, I know you didn't know, but I am severely allergic to peanuts.” Virgil's eye's widened as he looked at Logan in shock and he put his hands over his mouth.

“I'm so sorry! I-”

“It's fine, Virgil. I didn't tell you so you couldn't have known. That was...” Logan paused, adjusting his glasses, “...an error on my part.”

Virgil uncovered his mouth and bit his lip nervously. “Okay. Well, next time, I'll be prepared.” Virgil quickly backtracked, “If you want there to be a next time.” Logan let out a small laugh though his nose.

“Yes. I do.” Perfect. Opportunity opened. Time to strike.

“I do have a...” Virgil tried for a better word. “...proposition.” Logan looked curious. That might not have been the right word to use. Best to use your own vocabulary. Now he had to make sure that the word he used made sense. Virgil stared at Logan for a few beats before Logan's face went from curious to concerned.

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah, okay, I used the wrong word! I messed up!” Virgil looked away in embarrassment and it took Logan a second before giving Virgil an highly amused look.

“That is fine, Virgil. Express whatever you say in your own words.”

Virgil sighed and looked back at Logan, who still looked amused. “My friends are having this party on Valentines Day and I was wondering if you wanted to, ya know, go with me.” Virgil shrugged and looked down as he fiddled with the strings of his hoodie.

“I think that would be a great idea, I would love to meet your friends. I also never have celebrated Valentines Day. I see it as some unneeded marketing tool and some pointless 'holiday' to celebrate the people that you love, when you should be doing that every day anyway.” Logan blinked, realizing he was rambling and looked at Virgil, who was grinning.

“I like you.”

It was the day of the Valentines Day party and Virgil had invited Logan over to his apartment to stay for a few hours till it was time to leave. Of course, Virgil was nervous and had cleaned the apartment so well that he didn't think it had been even been this clean when he first moved in. He should take pictures and show his landlord and have HER pay HIM for once. There was a knock on the door and Virgil looked at the clock, the party started at six and he told Logan to be by at four. It was exactly four. What a nerd. Virgil couldn't help the grin that spread over his face as he rushed over to the door, he tried to compose his face into at least a regular smile.

“Good afternoon, Virgil.”

“Logan.” Logan walked in and looked around, but staying in once spot.

“It quite pleasant.” Virgil rolled his eyes and shut the door.

“Yeah. It's nice. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to own a house.”

“That would be ideal.” Virgil hmm'd in response and grabbed a bag of chocolates off the coffee table in the living room.

“Hey, Specs, catch.”

“Specs-?” Logan barely had time to respond as a piece of chocolate candy was coming towards his face. He ducked and hit the wall behind him. Virgil laughed and popped one his mouth.

“Nice.” Logan looked up at Virgil with a frown.

“A warning would be 'nice'.”

“I did. I told you to catch.”

“A better warning next time. Also, why did you call me 'specs'?”

Virgil tapped his temple and with his free hand, “Glasses.” Logan looked unamused. “Lets try again. Do I need to count to three this time?” Virgil tried to bite back a smile as Logan gave him a 'are you serious' look. Virgil shrugged and threw the candy. Logan caught it and looked down at it. It was a Hershey kiss. Logan raised an eyebrow and walked towards Virgil as he fiddled with it.

“I have an idea.” Virgil made a questioning noise in response but wasn't paying attention to Logan. He turned back to Logan who was almost completely up in his space. Virgil nearly jumped out of his skin and his heart began to race. No, no, not now. He willed himself to calm down and surely enough, he did. Logan looked serious, he usually did but there was something in his eyes. Something playful? Mischievous?

“How about we...retry our parting attempt from last time?” Virgil licked his lips and nodded. Logan looked mildly nervous for a second before he unwrapped the kiss and stuck it between his lips. Virgil looked confused and Logan waved a hand in front of his face, as if telling him to go just go with it. Logan took a deep breath, cupped Virgil's face with both of his hands and pressed their lips together.

The kiss was now shared between them and it was sweet and Logan tasted a bit like cinnamon tea. The kiss was melting the longer their lips stayed together. Virgil licked the inside involuntarily, also brushing Logan's and making the man shiver and pull away, a small thin string of saliva following then breaking apart.

“Gross.” Logan deadpanned.

“The kiss or the kiss saliva?” Virgil laughed. Logan rolled his eyes and licked his lips then opened his mouth to say something then froze.

“You had peanut-butter.”

“What?”

“I can taste it.” There was a bit of panic rising in Logan's voice.

“Logan, calm down it's not-”

“I need to get to the hospital. Of all day's I didn't bring my pen!” Logan looked as frantic as he sounded as he tore out his cell from his pocket. Virgil reached over and took it from his hands. Logan looked dumbfounded then furious, “What do you think you are doing?!”

“Trying to explain to you that you aren't dying!” Virgil said in a frustrated tone. Logan opened his mouth but Virgil held up a hand. He walked into the kitchen, opened up a cabinet, walked back into the room and shoved the jar into Logan's hands. Logan looked down at it and then tilted it so he could read the label.

“SunButter...?”

“Yeah...” Virgil traced the outside of Logan's phone with fingers, “its a peanut-butter alternative. Its organic or some shit. It's nut free and healthy is what I'm saying.” Virgil looked up. “So, are you done freaking out?” Logan stared at Virgil blankly. Virgil curled in on himself reflexively, “What?”

“You gave up eating regular peanut-butter for me?”

Virgil averted his eyes then they went back to Logan, he shrugged, “I need to eat something healthier anyway. I tastes better too, honestly.”

Logan put the jar down, walked over to Virgil and pushed their lips together and wrapped his arms wrapped around Virgil's waist. Virgil melted into it and the phone dropped onto carpet as he slowly and carefully, put his arms around the back of Logan's neck. Who knew peanut-butter could taste this good.

#analogical #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfiction #sander sides promps #my work #fanfiction #analogical prompts #virgil/logan #romantic analogical #peanut butter and jelly

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pullcarol0-blog · 5 years

Text

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/21/2018

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

*** Ruth Bader Ginsburg Health Update: Supreme Court Justice Has Cancerous Lung Growths Removed ***

Trade

They issue press releases:

#China's Central Economic Work Conference news release promising on external reforms: pic.twitter.com/crz2zeKEFg

— Bert Hofman (@berthofmanecon) December 21, 2018

“How to fix America’s dysfunctional trade system” [Ryan Cooper, The Week]. “Timothy Meyer and Ganesh Sitaraman at the Great Democracy Initiative have a new paper that presents a solid starting point for developing a fundamental reform of American trade structure…. Then there is the problem of pro-rich bias. Put simply, the last few decades of trade deals have been outrageously biased towards corporations and the rich. They have powerfully enabled the growth of parasitic tax havens, which allow companies to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions, starving countries of rightful revenue (and often leading to companies piling up gargantuan dragon hoards of cash they don’t know what to do with). Corporations, meanwhile, have gotten their own fake legal system in the form of Investor-State Dispute Settlement trade deal stipulations…. Meyer and Sitaraman suggest renegotiating the tax portions of trade deals to enforce a “formulary” tax system — in which profits are taxed where they are made, not where they are booked.” • This is well worth a read for all the policy suggestions. And then there’s this:

[F]or all its other disastrous side effects, Trump’s haphazard tax on aluminum has dramatically revived the American aluminum industry. Ensuring a reasonable domestic supply of key metals like that is so obviously a security concern — for military and consumer uses alike — that it wouldn’t have even occurred to New Deal policymakers to think otherwise. It takes a lot of ideological indoctrination to think there’s no problem when a small price disadvantage causes a country to lose its entire supply chain of key industrial commodities.

Yep.

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

2020

“The Democratic Party Is Getting Ready for a Very Messy 2020 Primary Race” [New York Magazine]. “The basic debate schedule itself acknowledges the likely massive field, and the potential for a drawn-out scrap for delegates that will ultimately determine the nomination. Perez said the first debate will be held in June 2019 — earlier than Republicans’ late-summer kickoff in 2015 — and the last one is scheduled for April 2020 — deep into the primary calendar, once the early-voting states and Super Tuesday have passed, and by which point the field is (usually) much winnowed. Perhaps not this time.”

“Critics Say Bernie Sanders Is Too Old, Too White, and Too Socialist to Run for President in 2020. They’re Wrong.” [The Intercept]. “Despite refusing to join the Democrats in the wake of the 2016 election, the party’s base still adores him. As of October 2018, he had a whopping 78 percent approval rating with Democratic voters.” • Yeah, but who cares about them?

2018 Post Mortem

“Americans Actually Voted in the 2018 Midterms” [Bloomberg]. • These are very interesting charts, but marred by being two-dimensional. It’s really absurd to put AOC and CIA asset Spanberger in the same blue box, or consider them both “left.”

Mattis Flap

Let The Hagiography Begin (1):

All Americans should take time to read General Mattis’s letter of resignation. It is a truly beautiful letter that speaks to our very best values as a nation. https://t.co/XY0mvqfv9q

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 21, 2018

Let The Hagiography Begin (2):

Sen. Schumer: "Sec. Mattis was 1 of the few symbols, the few items of strength & stability in this administration. Everything that indicates stability, everything that indicates strength, everything that indicates knowledge is leaving this administration." https://t.co/Bd79j1n4xF pic.twitter.com/22Byt1iZkh

— The Hill (@thehill) December 21, 2018

Breath of Sanity (1): “Random Observation” [Eschaton]. “Whatever the brain worms are telling him, I’m pretty sure that I’d generally prefer Donald Trump be running Not War instead of War, almost no matter what.”

Breath of Sanity (2):

Holy crap. I agree with Stephen Miller on Wolf Blitzer’s show on #CNN. He’s calling for US to get out of other nation’s wars!!! The world is upside down.

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) December 20, 2018

Breath of Sanity (3):

1. I support withdrawing US troops from all these wars, overt and covert. 2. Trump is an unstable authoritarian who cannot be trusted. 3. “Mattis was an adult” is bullshit. He’s a hawkish war criminal. 4. It’s very telling that the war party in DC is furious.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 21, 2018

“How the Trump-Mattis alliance crumbled” [CNN]. “Eight months before his resignation, Mattis managed to forestall the Syria troop withdrawal after the President announced during a rally in Ohio that US troops would soon be coming home. Meeting later in the Situation Room, Trump told his military and national security advisers they had six months to wrap up the mission in Syria.” • Interesting…

“Fear Mounts as Mattis Quits Pentagon” [Daily Beast] • And fear means clicks!

New Cold War

“Prosecutors win court fight over secret subpoena of a foreign company” [WaPo]. “A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday against a foreign company embroiled in a secret subpoena fight… Officials have not confirmed who the prosecutors on the case are, but on the day the court order under appeal was issued, two lawyers were observed exiting a sealed hearing before Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — who oversees grand-jury proceedings — along with five prosecutors with the special counsel’s office, including appellate specialist Michael Dreeben… The framing of the debate suggests that whatever the company is, it is not one that has a significant business presence in the United States, because foreign firms operating in America typically comply with demands from U.S. authorities for evidence.” • Hmm.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Democrats Just Blocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Push For A Green New Deal Committee” [HuffPo]. “Democratic leaders [***cough*** Pelosi ***cough***] on Thursday tapped Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) to head a revived U.S. House panel on climate change, all but ending a dramatic monthlong effort to establish a select committee on a Green New Deal. Castor’s appointment came as a surprise to proponents of a Green New Deal. … Despite weeks of protests demanding House Democrats focus efforts next year on drafting a Green New Deal, the sort of sweeping economic policy that scientists say matches the scale of the climate crisis, Castor told E&E News the plan was “not going to be our sole focus.” She then suggested that barring members who have accepted donations from the oil, gas and coal industries from serving on the committee could be unconstitutional. “I don’t think you can do that under the First Amendment, really,” she said.” • Cool. Liberals totally on board with Citizens United. I don’t think this appointment is the end of the issue.

“Liberals No Longer Feel Your Pain” [Ted Rall, Counterpunch]. “I noticed the de-empathification of the Democratic Party during the implementation of Obamacare. I lived in one of many counties with zero or one plan on offer…. On Facebook I complained about the paucity of affordable plans in my online health insurance marketplace. “I don’t know what you’re going on about,” one of my friends snarked. ‘I found an excellent, affordable plan.’ My friend lives in Manhattan… In the 1970s right-wing Republicans like Richard Nixon promoted the cliché of the “limousine liberal”: self-righteous, hypocritical, privileged and disconnected from Joe and Jane Sixpack. I don’t know if it was true then. It certainly is now.” • Falling life expectancy in flyover isn’t even on liberal Democrat radar as a policy issue.

“Do America’s Socialists Have a Race Problem?” [The New Republic]. The deck: “Inside a raging debate that has split the country’s most exciting new political movement.” The paragraph that caught my eye: “In one notable dispute, a brake light repair initiative in the [Momentum (democratic centralist?)] East Bay DSA was flatly rejected by the chapter’s co-chairs, who refused to put it up for a vote. The repair clinics first sprouted in New Orleans as a strategy to combat police brutality, as people of color are often pulled over for problems as innocuous as broken taillights. These traffic stops can even lead to—as in the case of Philando Castile—killings by the police. While DSA chapters across the country soon began replicating the program, and embraced it as an effective way to build a stronger working-class base, East Bay leadership remained strongly resistant to the campaign. In a private conversation, one East Bay co-chair insinuated to a member of color organizing the clinic that it would look like ‘white saviorism.’ A former member of the chapter’s leadership referred to it as ‘charity’ in a blog post.” • Well, that’s just dumb. Super dumb. FWIW, I thought the headline was a bit clickbaity, and the author, though writing in good faith, probably missed plenty of local nuance. That said: (1) America’s socialists have a problem with race, because America does; and (2) America’s socialists also have a problem with class, for the same reason, and (3) the Democrat Party has a substantial presence among aspirational policy entrepreneurs of color, shall we say, who have their own strongly felt institutional objectives. Worth noting that back in the 30s, the CPUSA was one of very few institutions to defend the Scottsboro Boys (the NAACP being the other). So it’s not like there’s no heritage here to build on.

Stats Watch

GDP, Q3 2018: “The third quarter was a strong one for the economy, getting a boost from an overdue inventory build but driven once again by the most important factor and that is consumer spending” [Econintersect]. “Whether continued strength for the consumer can be expected in the fourth quarter will get an indication later this morning with the personal income and outlays report for November.”

Personal Income and Outlays, November 2018: “November was a mixed month for the consumer as personal income managed only a lower-than-expected … gain which is offset, however, by a solid and higher-than-expected … rise for consumer spending” [Econintersect]. “November was a mixed month for the consumer as personal income managed only a lower-than-expected 0.2 percent gain which is offset, however, by a solid and higher-than-expected 0.4 percent rise for consumer spending.”

Durable Goods Orders, November 2018: “A swing higher for the always volatile aircraft group gave an outsized lift to durable goods orders” [Econoday]. “The biggest disappointment, and the heart of the capital goods group, is machinery where November orders sank a very steep 1.7 percent.” • Not good, in a capitalist economy.

Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index, December 2018: “This morning’s durable goods report proved no better than mixed as have many of the recent regional manufacturing reports including Kansas City’s composite index for December which slowed” [Econintersect]. “And flattening is a reasonable description for the nation’s factory sector in general, ending what was a strong 2018 with a bit of fizzle.”

Consumer Sentiment, December 2018 (Final): “Consumer sentiment ends this month at a stronger-than-expected index level” [Econintersect]. “The feeling of this report is very much like personal income and outlays, hinting at consumer spending strength at a time of limited income growth and very flat inflation.”

Corporate Profits, Q3 2018: “After-tax corporate profits rose a year-on-year 6.1 percent” [Econintersect].

The Bezzle: “Wall Street’s Billionaire Machine, Where Almost Everyone Gets Rich” [Bloomberg]. “Eric Smidt is a new kind of super-rich. He made his fortune by transforming an old-fashioned business into a giant ATM, an overhaul aided by one of the hottest plays on Wall Street: collateralized loan obligations. Meet the new aristocrats of debt—the people and companies cashing in on a record boom in these once-marginal investments whose relatively high returns have attracted yield-hungry investors. They’ve fueled a rapid buildup in corporate debt that some think could become the epicenter of the next credit crisis but has been minting money for many.” • Oh.

The Bezzle: “Personally I’ve Never Experienced Anything Like That” [Current Affairs]. “Amazon pays employees specifically to tweet that they are well-treated and not exploited. And they’re very vigilant—I recently wrote an article pondering the ethical quandary of shopping at Amazon while being critical of its labor practices, and the very same “Fulfillment Center Ambassador” from one of the news articles about the practice (“Phil”) popped up to tell me that he himself feels he is treated fairly…. [A]ssuming they are people and not robots (however much Amazon is intent on blurring the distinction between those two categories), and they are treated well and sincere in relating their positive experiences, I think it’s worth pointing out the very simple problem with what they’re saying. ‘I have not experienced this problem personally’ does not make a very good case that ‘This problem is not experienced by others.'”

The Bezzle: “Uber’s entire business model is in jeopardy after losing its latest legal battle over the rights of UK drivers” [Business Insider]. “Uber has lost its latest court bid to stop its British drivers being classified as workers, entitling them to rights such as the minimum wage, in a decision which jeopardizes the taxi app’s business model…. Uber said it would appeal the verdict, meaning the legal process will continue.”

The 420

“The world’s biggest beer company is looking at making cannabis drinks” [CNN]. “Could Budweiser drinkers soon be swapping beer for pot? AB InBev (BUD), the world’s biggest brewer, said Wednesday that it’s teaming up with Canada’s Tilray (TLRY) to research cannabis-infused drinks. It’s the latest major company to start exploring the pot market following decisions to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada and a number of American states. AB InBev and Tilray will invest a combined $100 million into researching non-alcoholic drinks containing cannabis elements.” • My vision of marijuana legalization was always small, local growers and no corporate advertising. Oh well.

“Pot Unites Democrats, Republicans as Ex-Party Chiefs Join Tilray” [Bloomberg]. “Tilray Inc., the first cannabis company to list directly on a U.S. exchange, announced Thursday the formation of a 10-person advisory board including Howard Dean, a former presidential candidate and chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 2005 and 2009, and Michael Steele, head of the Republican National Committee from 2009 to 2011.”

Gaia

“What a Newfound Kingdom Means for the Tree of Life” [Quanta]. “The tree of life just got another major branch. Researchers recently found a certain rare and mysterious microbe called a hemimastigote in a clump of Nova Scotian soil. Their subsequent analysis of its DNA revealed that it was neither animal, plant, fungus nor any recognized type of protozoan — that it in fact fell far outside any of the known large categories for classifying complex forms of life (eukaryotes). Instead, this flagella-waving oddball stands as the first member of its own ‘supra-kingdom’ group, which probably peeled away from the other big branches of life at least a billion years ago…. Impressive as this finding about hemimastigotes is on its own, what matters more is that it’s just the latest (and most profound) of a quietly and steadily growing number of major taxonomic additions. Researchers keep uncovering not just new species or classes but entirely new kingdoms of life — raising questions about how they have stayed hidden for so long and how close we are to finding them all.” • Like Hollywood, nobody knows anything. Or at least not much. Although I have known some flagella-waving oddballs, generally in corporate environments…

“Widespread, occasional use of antibiotics in U.S. linked with resistance” [Harvard School of Public Health] (original). “The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the U.S. appears more closely linked with their occasional use by many people than by their repeated use among smaller numbers of people, according to a large new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…. ‘Our findings suggest that combatting inappropriate antibiotic use among people who don’t take many antibiotics may be just as important, or more important, to fighting resistance than focusing on high-intensity users,’ said lead author Scott Olesen, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. ‘More antibiotic use generally means more antibiotic resistance, but it seems like the number of people taking antibiotics might matter more than the amount they’re taking.'”

Police State Watch

“Alabama police department blames Satan for spike in homicides” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]. This was the now-deleted Facebook post from the Opp Police Department:

THIS PAST SUNDAY, A YOUNG MAN WAS SHOT AND KILLED IN KINSTON. MONDAY NIGHT, A MOTHER WAS SHOT AND KILLED IN NORTHERN COVINGTON COUNTY. THERE HAVE BEEN FIVE MURDERS IN COVINGTON COUNTY IN 2018. THESE MURDERS HAVE BEEN DONE BY OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. THIS IS HAPPENING BECAUSE WE HAVE TURNED AWAY FROM GOD AND EMBRACED SATAN. WE MAY HAVE NOT MEANT TO DO SO BUT, WE HAVE. IT IS TIME TO ASK FOR GOD’S HELP TO STOP THIS. IT IS TIME TO BE PARENTS AND RAISE OUR CHILDREN, NOT HAVE THEM RAISE US. IT IS TIME TO FULLY SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT AND STAND BY THE OFFICERS AND DEPUTIES THAT ARE FAR TOO OFTEN HAVING TO WALK INTO THESE DANGEROUS SITUATIONS AND CLEAN UP THE MESS. FRIENDS, IT IS TIME TO STAND UP AND BE RESPONSIBLE, GROWN UP LEADERS IN OUR COMMUNITY. BOTTOM LINE, THERE ARE SHEEP; THERE ARE WOLVES AND THERE ARE SHEEP DOGS. WHICH GROUP DO YOU BELONG TO?

I am successfully resisting my urge to mock (well, except for the ALL CAPS) because of the multiple levels of tragedy: So many deaths in a small town, and the evident inablility of the local elites to cope. And it’s not any more crazypants than what you hear from a typical neoliberal economist. Just no pseudo-mathematics.

Class Warfare

“Is It Merely A Labor Supply Shock? Impacts of Syrian Migrants on Local Economies in Turkey” (PDF) [Doruk Cengiz, Hasan Tekguc, Political Economy Research Institute]. “We use a large and geographically varying inflow of over 2.5 million Syrian migrants in Turkey between 2012 and 2015 to study the effect of migration on local economies. We do not find adverse employment or wage effects for native-born Turkish workers overall, or those without a high school degree. These results are robust to a range of strategies to construct reliable control groups. Our analysis suggests that migration-induced increases in regional demand, capital supply, and productivity enable local labor markets to absorb inflow of migrant labor.” • Contra post-Mariel studies of Florida.

Xmas Cheer

“Hackers Celebrate Holidays With Fake Amazon, Apple Receipt Attacks” [NewYork Magazine]. “You get an email about an order from Amazon or Apple you’re not quite sure you placed — but who knows in the last-minute rush to make the Christmas deadline? You click through to see what exactly you ordered, and congrats, you’ve just got spear-phished. Happy holidays! Two recent phishing attacks outlined over at Bleeping Computer, work slightly differently but use the same basic principle to lure users in: send them a receipt for a purchase, get them to click through to a link to see what the purchase was for, and then hope the user makes some unwise choices.” • Stay safe out there!

News of the Wired

“The intertwined quest for understanding biological intelligence and creating artificial intelligence” [Stanford HAI]. “Thus both neuroscience and AI have deeply shared scientific goals of understanding how network performance and decision making arises as an emergent property of network connectivity and dynamics. Therefore the development of ideas and theories from theoretical neuroscience, and applied physics and mathematics could help in analyzing AI systems. Moreover, the behavior of AI systems could change the nature of experimental design in neuroscience, focusing the experimental effort on those aspects of network function that are poorly understood in AI. Overall, there is much to be gained from tighter connections between neuroscience, AI, and many other theoretical disciplines, which could bring about unified laws for the emergence of intelligence in biological and artificial systems alike, as we suggest next.” • If we really understood biological intelligence — the epigraph for the article is from Richard Feynman: “What I cannot create, I do not understand” — would handing that understanding over to, say, Jeff Bezos be a good thing? Why?

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (4Corners):

Everything is still sunny inTucson, AZ! I love floral tapestries like this, made up of different colors and textures.

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser, now completed. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor that trickle in when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click below! (The hat is temporarily defunct, so I slapped in some old code.)

Or Subscribe to make a monthly payment!

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Water Cooler on December 21, 2018 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/200pm-water-cooler-12-21-2018.html

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svetlanawagner-blog · 5 years

Photo

Welcome to our income reports where we share ways we’ve been making money through the , the challenges and lessons we learned each month, and finally to celebrate successes however big or small. Though we have a few side hustles, we’re happy that the travel is our main hustle.

Life Updates

We spent the first week of June at the IPW conference, where they shut down Disneyland for IPW, and we got to preview the new Star Wars Land. I usually opt out of conferences, and let Jacob do what he does best, but I couldn’t pass up going to Disneyland!

The second week, we were in Alaska, where we experienced 24 hours of daylight for the first time. It tripped me out, but I loved that golden hour lasted forever.

Back in Vegas, we’ve been spending more time climbing both indoors and outdoors, which has been the only way to have any work-life balance. It also helped that this month, we were able to send two of our writers to Czech Republic. Maybe I’m getting too old for back to back travel, but I like being able to come back to a home base and decompress in between.

BTW, I’m completely done with my training for setting at the climbing gym, so now I just need lots of practice. You can follow along my route setting and climbing journey @petiteclimbing or come by Origin and let me know how I’m doing.

This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Originally Published: July 5, 2019

How We Made OVER $13.1K in JUNE - Travel Blog Income Report

Why We Share Our Income Reports

If you’re new here, you might be wondering why on earth we would share something so personal. We’ve been hesitant to share our income reports for the last 5 years, and we’re super nervous about this post, but since we’re all about trial and error, let’s see how it goes! We’re putting out these income reports for these following reasons.

To Show You How We Make Income Blogging

We always want to be 100% transparent about how we make money through this . The amazing thing about the ging world is that every we’ve talked to does things a bit differently. There are also countless ways to grow and improve your business. When we started, we made most of our money through affiliate sales. Since then, we’ve shifted heavily to sponsored content. A big part of this is because my background is in sales and it’s what I’m good at. You can learn more about my sale method below. As time goes on, this will continue to change, but we want to share how we focus on our strengths to effectively meet our goals.

To Show You the Potential of Blogging

Whether you have a or are starting a , we want to show you that you can make a career out of ging.

Even if you don’t want to , there are a ton of ways to be financially and location independent and we hope to inspire others to go after it too. If you want to keep your day job, ging can be a great way for you to make some extra side money.

Esther started the 6 years ago and I joined her full time 3 years ago. Even until last year, our parents were worried about us financially, wondering when we would stop “playing” and start taking our lives and work more seriously. Neither of us ended up being “good Asians” (namely a doctor, lawyer, or engineer). It’s an unconventional job and where most people don’t understand all the work that goes on behind the scenes.

More: The Ugly Truths of Being a Travel Blogger told by Top Travel Bloggers

We love that our jobs give us flexibility in what we do, but being your own boss isn’t all that it’s cut out to be either. You have to be disciplined and work hard at your business to grow it.

If you’re not getting the results you want, again, keep in mind that we’ve been ging for 6 years now and the first month I tried monetizing my , I made less than $20. Give it more time and failing in the process is okay. I didn’t have the correct tools that are out now and a lot of it was trial and error. Consider it all an A/B test to figure out what will best work for you.

To Track How We're Doing

I’ve always loved sharing goals online and tracking them. Putting them out in the world (via the ) has helped me so much with accountability. Since we’re constantly tweaking trying to improve the , looking at these numbers will help us learn whether we’ve been making the right changes. It’s amazing to see how the sources of income have changed over time and to see where we still have room for improvement.

Ultimately, our life goal is to make enough to live on half our income (right now we’re at 30%), where the rest will go back into the community or support organizations we love.

Breakdown of Income for June 2019

In June 2019 we earned a total of $13,160.63.

Affiliate Income

Avantlink: $1,061.06

Commission Junction: $222.35

Misc (Ebay, Skimlinks, AWin, etc): $191.58

Sponsorships

Sponsored Product Posts: $3,038.89 *our fave marketplace lately: IZEA

Display Ads

Mediavine: $8,646.75

Income Comparison to Other Months

Total in 2019 Year Income: $135,125.49

Last Month Income: $30,944.79

Difference: 42% decrease from last month

Expenses

Web Hosting: $429.94 (Want to start a ? Here’s how you can start a in 5 easy steps)

Keysearch: $18.60

Social Media Manager, Virtual Assistants, Subcontractors: $979.17

Teachable: $89 (check out their free weekly webinar)

Office Supplies/Services: $4,272.33

Test Products/Shoot Supplies: $963.68

*Taxes: $1,192

Insurance: $613.89

Travel + Meal Expenses: $4,408.37

$193.65

*Roughly 30% of your income will go to taxes at the end of the year. The number above shows the money set aside for taxes to offset how much we have to pay at the end. It makes it less painful at the end of the year.

June 2019 Blog Traffic Breakdown + Stats

Monthly Pageviews: 664,585

Daily Average: 22,152

Monthly Sessions: 513,929

Monthly Unique Visitors: 428,569

Social Media Followers: 322,028

Email Subscribers: 8,459

Goals for June 2019

Blog Goals

Follow up IPW leads

Post once a week minimum

Update Affiliate Links for top 25 Posts

Finish moving servers (running into a few hiccups)

Document the first trip funded by Local Adventurer (more on this later)

Life Goals

Try intermittent fasting

2 date nights

Finish a book

Workout or go to the climbing gym 3x a week

Work only 40 hours a week (on weeks not traveling)

What's Working on the Blog

We’ve been so bad about posting new posts the past few months, but in June, we had at least 4! Go me! haha It’s so hard to balance creating new posts and updating older ones that need maintenance.

IPW has been a great conference for us. We always have a few good leads coming out of it. We’re excited to follow up and see if we can build new partnerships.

What Didn't Work + Lessons Learned

We’re in the process of moving servers, which will increase our site speed significantly. It’s taken longer than expected, but we want to do it right. As for income, it was a slow month in terms of payments, and a big month for spending. A lot of it is for future trips, so hopefully we’ll be seeing income come back to us later in the year.

We also haven’t had time to market the course. It’s a full time job of its own, so we’re currently looking to hire someone for marketing.