#really good read

[nebulaoftheprimes]

BOOK REVIEW

very sorry for not posting, this week has been hectic, play practice every day, homework, and life stuff. Anyway, here's a book I've read (more than once).

The Oath by Frank Peretti

I highly recommend this book; it's quick-paced, action-packed with morals, and published in 1995. Here's a quick summary;

Unconvinced that his brother was really killed by a bear while camping in the Pacific Northwest, Steve Benson, a wildlife biologist, decides to investigate on his own and discovers a town controlled by evil.

It's a Christian thriller, kinda graphic but a really good read. It's 550 pages long, filled with romance, death, secret deals, treachery, and nail-biting adventure.

[alexbkrieger13]

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/5Bd4Wb/ryden-magdalena-eriksson-ar-tillbaka-pa-allvar-igen

Good read

Rydén: Back seriously – it needs Blågult

She may not see herself as a star, but in the Olympic qualifiers she has taken a leading role. 

After two tough seasons, Magdalena Eriksson is back in earnest and Blågult needs it. 

A single careless mistake and the Olympic dream goes down the drain

The national team has bused down to Malmö for the fourth match in the Nations League, also the Olympic qualifier. The fourth match with the knife to the throat.

There is no room for carelessness or mistakes, then the Olympics are far away.

That's why it's nice to see a smiling Magdalena Eriksson , with lowered shoulders, entering the field in the bright sun. The 30-year-old has had two tough seasons behind him. The injury against Wolfsburg in the Champions League in December 2021 was the start of something that Magdalena Eriksson was probably not prepared for. The ankle injury kept her off the field and even though it was only for three months, it took longer before she was really back as we are used to seeing her..

A thinking player

In EC 2022, the centre-back had problems getting up to level and finding the flow. It can perhaps be partly explained by how it was rotated between a three-back and four-back line and partly by the fact that Eriksson played both left and centre-back. It was clear that something was not right and it was quite telling to see how the day after the Switzerland match she walked around Camden Park alone with her eyes downcast and headphones in her ears.

Magdalena Eriksson is a thinking player and she is probably her own harshest critic.

Left in tears

Then came an injury to Millie Bright and Eriksson not only got playing time, she also had to score. In the big meeting with Arsenal, she scored her first goal in the league since November 2021 and tearfully left London as champion.

In the World Cup, she was included in the Swedish starting eleven and after a little recovery, it seems to be the case in Bayern Munich as well. And if there is something the Swedish national team needs right now, it is a defense general with self-confidence.

Because now Magdalena Eriksson shines again.

Close to squealing

In the World Cup, it was Amanda Ilestedt who took that role and more or less brought Italy down on her own, with her own head. Now she has, once again, left the collection and it is up to Eriksson and the gang to deliver.

Although Blågult overcame Italy 5–0 in the WC, the result did not reflect the match picture. On a deserted mountaintop in Italy, in an arena without a match clock and a grass field that left something to be desired, Sweden won 1–0.

Italy, who have changed their national team captain after the World Cup, have played in the Nations League. They were close to beating Spain and will land in Malmö with good confidence.

It will be a physical match, a jerky match. It applies to Sweden to fast on fast.

And why not let Magdalena Eriksson get in another perfectly timed run and score on Swedish soil for the third game in a row?

[darkwood-hollows]

i love and hate finishing books in a single day. it's like being in a drunken haze, brought in by the prose of the book. i'm enamored by it, live in it, and then it's over and i return to reality feeling numb and listless.

[nutelladoesstuff]

I am parched parchment I have lines I have holes 😘😍🎶😶‍🌫️Get me wet😩😩, and I melt

[praise-suns-and-chill]

Did I make OCs again after reading a new book?

Yes. Yes I did.

Meet Selene

And Soleil Dexter

Selene, a very sweet, genuine girl. She values honesty, mostly because she can barely be honest with anyone. So when she can actually really trust someone, she will never lie about anything.

Also a very good actress though. When she lies, acts and makes her way through Kelestri, everyone believes her no matter what she says. Just has an air that she could never do any wrong.

Soleil though... A cynical and very blunt fella, honest to a fault. He might not look intimidating, but every threat coming from him will still be taken serious as he is a lot stronger than he seems. And everyone knows, he's a terrible liar, best he can do is lie by omission. However, he will do his best to behave around his sister, who he is VERY protective of. Despite her being the older twin.

When he warms up to someone (mostly due to not wanting to make Selene mad) he can be more friendly though, and again, very protective. It's just very rare that he happens to like someone.

His mother always tended to pay more attention to him, for better and for worse. Mostly worse.

[certifiedceliac]

A very informative and insightful article. While I don't have Crohn's, having Celiac (and really any major GI-related disease) can have a tremendous impact on the relationship one has with food. Chapman hits it right on the head--"What you cook, how you cook for others, and when you eat provide structure to your days and a sense of self. Food is a form of communication. Without it, you are adrift and missing a functional language".

A Life Without Eating 

“Inflammation from Crohn’s disease had connected the tissues of my small intestine and my bladder together via fistula, and I did not want to pee out a roast chicken.”

Eating is about more than just nutrition. Eating makes us human. Read Andrew Chapman’s powerful new essay on living without food here. 

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[ciderbird]

academic bias is so funny because you’ll be reading about the same historical event and one person is like “Despite the troubles that befell his homeland and near constant criticism of the court King Blorbo remained strong in the face of adversity” and the other one is like “after letting his people carry the brunt of his cringefail decisions Blorbo the Shitface refused to listen to any reason and continued to be a warmongering piece of shit. Also he was ugly.”

[peppermintack]

everyone come look at this fucking AITA post i just saw

[flourmelon]

“And as for the people around here, well, I’m very sorry that my rocket might crash through their roofs and put a premature halt to their careers as professional television watchers, but given the state of the economy, I might actually be doing them a favor.”

Grady Hendrix, BadAsstronauts

05.16.2024

🐎🚀⛺️🕶️🍺

[valtsv]

my main advice for writing an enemies to lovers relationship is to resist the urge to make the characters' loathing and attraction mutually exclusive opposing forces. it's okay if they're getting weirdly into it and having Thoughts whilst also sincerely wanting to kill each other with hammers.

[alexbkrieger13]

Good read probably behind a paywall later-ish

https://www.dn.se/sport/sa-byggde-gerhardsson-sin-hyllade-ledarstil-man-maste-fa-tillatas-att-tanka-pa-sig-sjalv/

This is how Gerhardsson built his celebrated leadership style: "You must be allowed to think about yourself"

Several national teams have been torn apart by internal contradictions.

In the Swedish World Cup squad, cohesion is celebrated like never before.

Here, players can be themselves, say several stars.

Union captain Peter Gerhardsson explains his leadership philosophy:

- Many people talk about the team before the self, but for me it's just the opposite. You must be allowed to think for yourself to create a good group

Spanish footballers have rebelled against their national team captain and boycotted national team games. In France, the contradictions between the former leadership and the big stars were so great that the national team captain had to be replaced. And in Norway, one of the World Cup squad's biggest players has completely cut off the national team leadership, indirectly put himself above his teammates - and was forced to apologize.

Yes, it has stormed around several national teams before and during the WC.

In Sweden?

- The team cohesion that we have right now, not many teams have, says midfielder Elin Rubensson.

- This is what I think is one of our greatest strengths, that we work a lot on personal relationships, adds colleague Kosovare Asllani.

- That people dare to relax and be themselves.

If Asllani is to be believed, it hasn't always been that way. The Milan star told this in a long interview with DN before the World Cup:

- In previous years, before Peter took over (2017) I would say, I felt that everyone would fit into a square, no one was allowed to stand out, but you looked for more mistakes and tried to set a standard how you "should" behave. But since Peter took over, it doesn't matter how you are.

The Peter she is talking about is the union captain Gerhardsson.

- He has an openness, explains national team captain Caroline Seger.

- We are very open with each other. Then there won't be these little moments of irrationality that maybe other teams experience.

When Gerhardsson himself has to explain how he worked with group dynamics, he refers, as often when he has to put the words out about something, to the time when he was club coach for BK Häcken's men.

- There were many who were young, many were older, many players were from other nations. That dynamic was fantastic to work with, says the union captain to DN.

When he took over responsibility for the women's national team, he wanted to create a similar climate.

- Many people talk about the team for the sake of the self, but for me it's just the opposite. Self before the team.

- You must be allowed to think about yourself and be allowed to think about yourself in order to create a good team, a good group. That doesn't mean you should be stupid, you should also have respect. But in order to end up respecting someone, you have to have a slightly broader view of how people work - background, where you come from and so on.

He exemplifies:

- In a way, I am perhaps dependent on my upbringing, where I come from. But no one can be exactly like me. Then I'm stupid if I believe that.

The national team must work as a group and strive towards the same goal, say both Gerhardsson and several players. But especially during championships – week in and week out together – there must be room for individual adaptation. Not least when it comes to training and recovery.

When Sweden takes on the USA in the World Cup round of 16 in Melbourne on Sunday, it will be after several weeks together in Oceania - but it is not written in stone that everyone had the same schedule.

- We set up training based on some kind of median. Then someone may need to train more and someone may need to train less. We cannot set up collective training sessions for everything, says Gerhardsson.

Even outside the pitch, the individual must have a place, he continues.

- Our entire group, both leaders and players, is based on an individual freedom to say what one thinks and thinks. Then of course there are frames in it.

- But just like in Häcken, I wanted players who stand for their opinions, who are not anonymous. One way is to create a trust in people and talk to people. You can have different opinions, but you respect each other.

His celebrated group dynamics are not just about the atmosphere among the players either.

Several Swedish WC names mention how the management team is close to the playing squad, in a way that - perhaps - stands out.

- If there is something, we have promised each other that we will take it immediately, and then move on. Then it's easier, says Seger.

After the EC last year was such a period.

DN has previously told about how injuries, covid infection and shaky results affected the mood in the group.

- I want to believe that everyone is always very happy, but you have to keep in mind that there can always be a player who is disappointed, who was substituted, substituted late or not substituted at all, says assistant national team captain Magnus Wikman during this year's WC.

- Then it is important to communicate, take it early and have regular contact - not have a development meeting once a year.

A key person in this context is, in addition to Gerhardsson, the football psychological advisor Rasmus Liljeblad, who the national team captain brought with him from Häcken, say several players.

The role was new in the national team in 2017, and deals with group and individual calls, Liljeblad has previously explained his mission to DN.

But he is often also the spider in the web in well-being activities and team building. During the WC, for example, the entire Swedish squad competed in a well-known tournament in a so-called cornhole (which involves throwing bags on a board with a hole in it).

- I think every single player and manager was involved in the final. We had physical therapists who were cheerleaders and someone else was a DJ, it was a cool experience. That is what will take us far, says Elin Rubensson.

It might sound silly , but just such things create harmony in a group, says striker Olivia Schough.

- I've been in teams where there hasn't been harmony in the group and then there hasn't been good football either. You want to have fun at work, that is very important.

[blanketforcas]

i think what saves me from a lot of discourse is that i'm simply Not Reading All That

[heartorbit]

if we could stay connected, just like this

[autumn-may]

Mostly spoiler free summary of my viewing experience

[stump-not-found]

A Lifetime Served in a Little Cup

pt.1 / pt.2 / pt.3 / pt.4

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bill, babygirl, the red flags get outta there