#she woiuld say this.

[naiamaree]

[angelicdemonrp]

*Breaks out her list* Alright! I want to know for Midnight: 2, 9 (cat and human form), 16, 47, 56, 57. Aria: 85, 76, 64, 61, 56, 57 Aurum: 1, 2, 5, 12, 25, 27 Shiela: 12, 18, 61, 75 Ok, I'll stop for now XD Sorry I went a bit overboard. But I'm curious.

I'm going to type out the questions in order from 1 going up so bear with me.

What does Aurum smell like? Wine and woodsmoke.

What is Midnight's voice like? Kinda deep a little smooth, can be a very soothing sound when he tries.

What is Aurum's voice like? Snarky and rough, deeper than Midnight's and always has a tone that gives off that "I know more than you" type of voice if you know what I mean.

How does Aurum deal with/react to pain? He doesn't react well to being in pain. He would thrash and scream if he actually got injured to the point of steadily bleeding. Does not know first aid and refuses to acknowledge that he very well should learn how to do the basics.

Describe how Midnight sleeps as a cat. Uhhhhhhhhhhh..........gif

Describe how Midnight sleeps as a human. Splayed out with an arm and a leg hanging off the bed, effectively taking up enough room for one person laying normally but with only one arm and a leg taking up that space.

How does Aurum dress? Like he's always going to an important business meeting.

How does Sheila dress? Like a princess half the time, and the other half like a homeless teen. There are no inbetweens.

What is Midnight like when he's gotten too little sleep? He acts 100% like a cat. He would barely be recognizable among 2 other cats. You would think he's a stray, wanting a warm, super soft and comfy place to sleep and stealing your food right off your plate, hissing at yoiu if you don't let him do either.

What kind of music does Sheila enjoy? Pop and rock.

What is Aurum's eye color? Depends on how he wants to look that day.

What is Aurum's hair color? Also depends on how he wants to look that day.

Is Midnight romantically interested in anyone? Dusk. He probably would avoid answering if you ask about it though.

What Hogwarts House woiuld Midnight be in? Gryffindor, I would say. He a brave boy.

What Hogwarts House would Aria be in? Ravenclaw. She's wellinformed and uses her intelligence at every obstacle that comes her way, wether it ends up failing her or not, she uses it in as many cases as she can.

What D&D alignment is Midnight? Chaotic good for sure. He'll do anything for what he would view as right.

What D&D alignment is Aria? Leaning between true neutral and neutral good. Almost regardless of her customers' intents, she allows them to shop, and in her everyday life, she mostly does things for herself, whether she means to or not. Though sometimes she is considerate of others.

When bored, how does Aria pass time? Walks in the forest and potionmaking.

When bored, how does Sheila pass time? Read and train.

Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, what is Aria's first reaction? She would make sure nobody was looking before swiping a small piece and shoving it her mouth. Then she would ask who it's for.

How patient is Sheila? Surprisingly patient for having mostly impatient immediate family

Is Aria good at cooking? She knows how to make some basic things, but if she doesn't have a recipe in front of her, expect a disaster.

What kind of personalities does Aria find attractive? Mild flirts, gentlemen/women/people, loyal people, and honest people

[polarfarina]

Tag meme! I was tagged by @casua-aria! Thanks!

Rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 10 followers you want to know better!

Age: 19 (I cant read)

Birthplace: Portland, Oregon (or somewhere close who knows)

Drink you last had: tropical citrus Vitamin water

Easiest person to talk to: I love talkin to my friend Hannah, she’s so positive about everything and is always understanding and patient, especially when I talk about stuff that’s botherin me. Also she can keep telling me the dnd stuff I love to hear about it

Grossest memory: Umm….one time at work I knocked an entire 24 oz glass jar of salsa off the shelf and it pretty much exploded.... had to stop everything I was doing to clean it up. Thankfully my Sort Of Manager was understanding about it (I guess there are grosser things I could mention but uh. I don't wanna)

Hogwarts house: I have no clue I'm not much of a potterhead and every test I take turns out differently

In love: Hm yeah maybe

Jealous of people: Yeah I guess I’m jealous of a lot of people, but I try not to turn it into hate towards them. It’s more like “oh, you’re so lucky to have what you have,” and then I try to make myself better so that maybe one day I could be there. I use it as inspiration I suppose? I’m mostly jealous of all the good artists out there, but if I look at someone’s really amazing art, it just makes me want to draw more for myself!

Killed someone: Are you kidding they would hate me for that

Love at first sight or walk by again: Hm I’m not sure on that. Guess it woiuld depend …. On what exactly, I don’t know.

Middle name: Rose (which is the middle name of about HALF the people on Earth!!!! I’m named after my great grandmother tho)

Number of siblings: One fantastic younger sister. Her drive to create inspires me every day, and I’m glad we get along so well.

One wish: For enough money to be comfortable in my life, and to make it better for everyone around me. I want to commission every artist, donate to everyone’s patreon, buy fanart and merch every day. I want to take my friends out more often, to be able to live in a house without worrying about the upcoming bills. To be able to eat out twice a week, buy fancy Christmas presents for my family, everything. I try to donate now but if I had the money I’d be spewing it everywhere, to everyone. Gigantic tips to the servers who deserve it, and even the ones who might not. Some of my friends are in places right now where they could really use some extra stability, and if I had enough money, I could give it to all of them. They deserve it, every single one. What a dream. I wish I had more to give.

Question you are asked the most: “Do you work here?” or alternatively “Are you awake yet?” because question no 1 is technically no longer applicable anymore

Song you last sung: The Merlin tv show theme song. Say what you want about the show but I like the music for sure.

Time you woke: The first time today, I woke up at just after 11 am, but then after being awake until about 9 pm, I fell asleep again and woke up at about 10:45. Regular sleep schedule whom?

Underwear color: light grey. uh thanks for this question

Vacation destination: Hawaii. I was lucky enough to go on a trip there last summer for about a week and a half, expenses paid (except for some of the meals and the 7 tshirts I bought for $20), and it was so good. I wish I could visit again but I don’t have the money for it. If I could afford it, I’d take all my friends with me. It’s the most relaxing place on Earth.

Worst habit: My mind wanders sometimes when I’m talking to someone, most often when I’m on the phone or doing a voice chat online, so I try to do things like draw to keep the restless part of my brain at bay, but that can sometimes overpower my focus and I end up missing some of what was said. I don’t know why I struggle with this so much now; when I called people on the phone on the daily back when I was like eight, I didn’t have a problem. 

X-rays: I had an X-ray once, when I fell off a swing set during the summer after third grade. They wanted to see if my left arm was broken, but determined that it was only sprained. I don't know how accurate that is because it’s been over a decade and it still hurts sometimes, and there’s a small but definitive lump in my wrist. I should probably ask someone about it but it’s not impairing me in any way so I haven’t put a priority on it yet. My dad says sometimes that he thinks it was broken, and they just didn’t catch it. But who really knows? (the doctors who I just have to ask. I just have to go there. it’s not that hard, me.)

Your favorite food: Mashed Yukon gold potatoes with my specialty onion and rosemary topping. It melts me whenever I make it. Second favorite is Thai food: Thai curry, tom kha soup, curry chicken on a stick. It also melts my insides because it’s like eating gold, if gold actually tasted good.

Thanks for the tag! I’m going to tag: anyone who wants to do it! I hate @ing people so I’m not gonna! If you see this post: you’re tagged! Do it if you want!

[lucy-shining-star]

Do you find it disturbing how after Varian lost his father he was shown no compassion and denied help from everyone in Corona, Rapunzel never follows up with him after the storm, and Fredric sends guards to harass Varian to cover up the truth about he rocks yet, at the end of season 1, we’re supposed to side with the abusive dictator abd the people who abandoned and betrayed Varian, and side against the traumatized orphan. I know what Varian did was wrong, but the Royal family was wrong too.

To be honest with you, I looked at this ask and thought ‘oh. that discourse. damn’

Ok, so my thoughts on the matter-Yes, it’s disturbing. I mean I understand why Rapunzel didn’t initially follow him-growing up in a tower, she might even be naive enough to think he dealt with it himself, and also she was at pretty bad place mentally. I’m really wondering why Cassandra did not do anything, though, since she was supposedly his friend too, knew about rocks, and saw him pleading Rapunzel. Anyway, why I understand Rapunzel’s behaviour, I don’t understand, why show treats it as bad, when she did something to help him. And I thought that her proscrastination on this woIuld be more critized by the show.

Yeah, the fact that main writer expect us to sympathize with Frederic over Varian is stupid. Not even just disturbing, plain stupid too. Like...you make show for which target audience is 10-14 years old, and expect most of the audience to side with middle ages man not 14 year old boy? Even if their faults were similar, that would not happen.

And when, some people would say that it’s Varian’s own fault that his dad was encased. Well, it was, but it’s not like he did it on purpose. Or that royal family even knows about that, for that matter. And I must also admit one thing-Varian was kinda not right when he was screaming ‘You promised’ during storm, since she promised him to help him after her father comes back. But she didn’t go right after her father came back, so she did not have keep her promise.

Also I’m surprised how Coronians were on Frederic’s side in the end, despite him hiding such important stuff. I lowkey blame Eugene, if the didn’t stop Frederic for talking too much of something, maybe they wouldn’t( I don’t remember what exactly was Frederic saying there, I don’t have energy to check)

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #35

Information overwhelming. Coronavirus motivated directly and indirectly. Impossible to provide any semblance of order. Ergo, a Morning Stew!

I have made the decision to remain in as much as possible. The virus concerns me. Eighty four makes me susceptible, especially when tied in with my maladies.

My day yesterday would have been ok because of the Syracuse/Louisville game in the evening. The game was cancelled. The balance of the season cancelled.

Watched TV, read, and dozzed on and off all day.

Media and White House at odds as to what should be done re the virus. Better to rely on TV and the experts rather than the White House. Ineptness leads us in Washington.

Spent a bit of time reading my friend Dot Downs’ Her Soldier of the Queen. Interesting. A U.K./Ireland war tale. Much romance. I can’t wait to see Dot again. She is my age. I want to know where in her early life experiences (if correct) she picked up the love/sex scenes.

What goes around, comes around. Trump screwed China with the trade war. China reciprocated. China’s impact nowhere as harsh as Trump’s hit.

Prior to coronavirus, the U.S. imported most of the raw materials to make pharmaceuticals, especially vaccines, from China. It was reported in yesterday’s Party newspaper that China may cut or reduce their supply of raw meds to the U.S.

Are school administrators losing it?

Last friday, State Police were called to the Union School District in Rimersburg, Pennsylvania, after a “known” juvenile allegedly robbed the school cafeteria of a juice box valued at 80 cents.

Paid leave during the virus crisis under consideration. A good idea!

Problem is where the money is to come from.

Trump proposes a “payroll tax holiday.” He is wrong again. Such a holiday would hurt Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. It would also inure to the benefit of the rich. It would provide them with more disposable income than the poor.

How long will it take to make up for the recent market losses. History the best indication.

The 1987 Black Monday crash was 508 points. Market lower back then. The 508 points was equal to 22 percent of the market.

Took 2 years to recover.

The Great Depression of 1929 took 20 years to recover. And then only because of World War II which created employment for everyone.

It will take a long time for this market to return.

The American people are afraid. Properly so. Especially when our leader does not seem to know what he is doing.

Our world is closing down around us. Sport seasons and big time frames have been instituted. Some extremely quick. The Big East Tournament an example. The League called an end to the season at the half time of the St. John/Creighton game yesterday.

Sport stadiums, Broadway, political rallies, etc. The lights have gone dark.

Some do not want to recognize the reality of the virus nor the ineptness of Trump. One of the comments to my blog recently read, “Why is everybody trying to hurt him when all he is trying to do is what’s best for the country, not for himself…..The more they try, the more ‘we real people’ can see what a Hoax it really is.”

Signed “Anonymous, ” of course.

Is Steve Bannon or his thinking still involved in U.S. governing? He has been out of the White House for at least 2 years. I recall back in 2017 when he was part of Trump’s staff saying the deconstruction of America was “a daily fight.”

Everytime Trump or one of his cohorts speak of “testing,” the American people are assured “soon.” We are still waiting. When? We will never get a handle on the problem in the U.S. till we know what the numbers are and where.

As the virus becomes more acute, the number needing medical attention rises. We do not have enough hospital beds nor ventilators. Few plans are being made as to what to do. A few areas are making plans to go to tents.

While all this nothing is going on, Trump this morning was attacking Obama via tweeting.

We are still sitting on our asses re testing. Not my fault or yours. Donald’s.

Tell me why New York’s Governor Cuomo has drive through testing going on in New Rochelle. Trump has not implemented the procedure anywhere in the U.S. Where did Cuomo get the test kits? He seems to know more than the President.

Yesterday, Tom Hanks and his wife tested positive for coronavirus. Today, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s wife Sophie.

Why is Donald not testing? We know he has had 2-3 contacts.

Perhaps he does not want to know. And, doesn’t care if he infects anyone.

Trump lied several times in his Oval Office report to the nation. The 2 most egregious included testing.

One his statement that all people coming in from Europe were being tested “Heavily tested.” In fact, there was and is no system set up to so test.

The other is that the testing is “going very smoothly.” Of course it is. There is no testing! How can there be any screw-ups?

Dr. Fauci reported yesterday that the system is “a failing…..admit it!”

Another Governor taking the bull by the horns is California’s Newscom. He signed an order to take over California hotels for use of coronavirus patients. Solves the anticipated shortage of hospital beds problem.

New York’s Mayor de Blasio declared a state of emergency for the City yesterday.

Many universities are closing down. Going off line. Beside class room lectures, all activities canceled till April 6.

California finally finished its count. As anticipated, Sanders won. He took in 34 percent of the vote as opposed to Biden’s 27 percent.

Room was found this week for a bit of news re global warming.

Polar ice caps are melting 6 times faster than in the 1990’s. The loss in Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating.

Your cell phone is “dirty.” Possible carrier of the virus. A wipe with a product having 70 percent isopropyl alcohol recommended. Clorox suggested. Wipe easy.

I have been suggesting for 2 years another recession was going to hit. Thought it would last year. I was wrong.

My motivation was two-fold. The banks were playing the same games they did in 2008 and the banks were losing funds.

The Fed saw this happening. They began playing the Repo game. I first reported on Repos 2 months ago.

Banks sometimes do not have enough money. If all depositors wanted their money back at the same time, banks doors would close. There would not be sufficient funds.

The problem especially concerning smaller banks.

To avoid bank defaults, the Fed would lend money today to a bank and the bank would pay the money back tomorrow. Simple. Then the monies were probably reborrowed for another day on the tomorrow.

The amounts were relatively insignificant. In the millions. Then billions.

Beginning to day, in the trillions!

Bigger banks involved. Money needed for longer periods. Twenty four hour rule out the window. Now banks can “borrow” for up to a 3 month period before repaying.

What is happening is no less than a bank bailout. A bailout to Wall Street.

Who bails us out?

South Carolina’s James Clyburn turned the Democratic primary in Biden’s direction. He is an elderly black man. He was there with Martin Luther King Jr. Majority Leader today of the House of Representatives. One of the most respected men in Washington.

An Axios HBO show will be run this sunday at 6 pm.

In a portion of the show already released, Clyburn said, The U.S. “could very well go the way of Germany in the 1930’s.”

I have been saying it for 2 years.

Ian Welsh is a Canadian blogger who I frequently read. In a blog published 3/12 titled Coronavirus Bungling Is What We Voted For, Welsh wrote, “Donald Trump is a blittering idiot and incompetent at the actual mechanics of running a government. This is not to deny his other competencies at bullying and running a campaign, but he’s seriously mentally deficient. He is bungling the Coronavirus response. That’s going to lead to a lot of dead people, including a lot of old people who, forgive me, voted for him.”

Zeroing in on Keys coronavirus cases.  It must safely be assumed they are on the rise. However, not all the sick are being tested.  Actually few.

Bob Eadie is the Director of the Florida Keys Chapter of the Florida Health Department. A full time job. He has held it since 2007. One problem. He is not a doctor. He’s a lawyer.

The past few weeks he has been the politician…..Speaking as Washington and Tallahassee do. Not as a Dr. Fauci.

For example, he claims tests are available. All one has to do is go to a doctor. Then be directed to the Health Department for a test.

The Health Department cannot test everyone. Would result in an “overload.” It would be a “wasting of resources.”

So some tests are being done. How many, we do not know.

The reason we do not know is Eadie cannot tell us till Tallahassee gives him permission.

So much for transparency.

Dana Milbank is the much respected Washington Post columnist. His most recent column was titled: “Got A Medical Question? Ask Dr. Trump!”

Cartoons were big time in my youth…..1930’s and 1940’s. Especially Walt Disney ones.

The Disney ones generally closed with Porky Pig saying: That’s all folks!

I sign off in a similar fashion today…..That’s all folks!

Enjoy your day!

        MORNING STEW #35 was originally published on Key West Lou

[exmphades]

Hospital Visit | Krystal & Hades

@mpxkrystal continued from here:

Not many people were out in the hospital courtyard, probably because it was unforgivingly cold out. That didn’t stop Krystal though. She simply pulled her warm coat over her white doctor’s coat and sat on a bench with her coffee. Her eyes were flitting around the courtyard as she admired all the dormant plants and trees. Her mind began to wander as she was imagining what they would all look like covered in the inevitable snowfall that would grace the island soon. She was so deep into her daydream she didn’t notice someone had joined her until they sat on the bench next to her.

Krystal cleared her throat and shook her head before turning to see who had sat with her. She was quick to recognize Hades, it was hard not to seeing as they had met before and his wife was one of her closest friends. She took a sip of her coffee before speaking up.

“What brings you here, Hades? Business inside?”

It’s always a little bit like coming back to an old home, whenever he walks into the hospital, but not because there is warmth and familiarity there, more because the home has changed from what you used to know it as, and though you can still recognise it from your memories, you can no longer find the peace and comfort there that it used to bring.

So he wanders the hospital hallways and eventually leaves them behind again, his gaze in a faraway land perhaps. That is, until he spots the doctor sitting on one of the benches in the courtyard, and he casually walks over to her. It’s only when he takes a seat that she, too, seems to return from faraway lands and he smiles at her warmly when her gaze falls upon him.

“Not anymore,” he replies to her question, not a hint of his own melancholy audible in his voice or visible in his face. He doesn’t ask anything in return, merely leans against the back rest of the bench, tucks his hands into his pockets and then looks out over the garden. It’s not long before the hellhound guarding him jogs over to put its head on his leg, and he reaches out to quietly pet the creature, as of yet still invisible to the doctor.

“The weather’s getting colder,” he says, his breath turning to fog in the cold air, and he remembers how these words woiuld have once lightened his heart, because it meant his wife would be with him in the Underworld. He wonders if she will go down this year as well, even if they’re both living in Mount Phoenix now. Wonders if she will grace her subjects with an extended visit. “Soon we will have snow.”

[clandestine-rabbit]

Wattpad Anon, I was actually wondering if you were ever going to continue Choke on an expensive mistake? if not then can I ask whether or not Bunny was ever going to leave River because he seemed like a huge dick

.sorry to say but no, I don’t want to finish that story. 

as for Bunny what I planned was that later on in the story Celeste was going to be kicked out not becasue she kept upsetting Bunny but because she stole one of Ash’s guitars and sold it. Her replacement would’ve been someone named Gemma and Bunny and Gemma would later end up hooking up. 

As for River sorry if this does upset you a little but there would’ve been a scene where Jack and him were at the house after Bunny asked if River could clean up a little, they would’ve gotten into a fight and River would’ve hit Bunny and at this pint Jack’s charqacter would’ve been more explored and Jack woiuld reveal he was going to try going to rehab and Jack would’ve stopped River from hurting Bunny and River would be sent to rehab. 

Bunny would’ve ended up getting to know Gemma more over the period of time, they would’ve hooked up, and been happy togther. 

River would come back and try the whole “Imn better now can we start iover” but Bunny would admit that while she was happy and loved him she could’nt go back to him because she was happy with Gemma and that if River wanted they could stay friends. 

Overall as much as I didn’t mind writing this story I did kind of get sad sometimes when writing it so I don’t know if i’ll ever go back to it.

[joedunphy]

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

I saw this sequel on Saturday. I wasn’t sorry to have gone or to have paid full price, though I probably should have gone to an earlier show. At 11 pm, the theater was almost empty. Comedies don’t benefit from being seen in a dead house. Perhaps that will color my views a little, as I say that while this movie was worth the full admission cost, it didn’t come close to measuring up to the original. If you didn’t see that original, stop here.

There is a line in the original that other reviewers hated so much that much strawmanning of it followed, but I loved.

“Being a gentleman isn’t about being better than other people. It’s about being better than the person one used to be.”

or something like that, which at least one reviewer distorted into “looking down on one’s former self”, as if any attempt at self-improvement were inherently snobbish. At whose expense, one might ask, as I probably would have had I not been locked out of my account when “Secret Service” was in the theaters (long story), but with confidence, I’ll say that I won’t have any such controversies relating to this movie to address. There’s nothing in it as memorable.

Not that it’s without interest or relevance. Consider the president’s coldblooded willingness to let the victims of Poppy’s poison. It’s horrible, and yet it’s precisely the policy that would be seen if the “tough love” espoused by many repectable grass roots conservatives guided the government’s actions. Have we not heard people we know say things not so different from what the president says in this movie? We are left with the question “if it woiuld be morally repugnant as a policy, how can endorsing it be compatable with respectability.” At this point, the movie holds a mirror up to us and maybe gets us to shudder almost as much as we should, and ask ourselves just how tolerant a decent person can be of hateful attitudes.

Then the movie, having raised a thought provoking question, will fail to do much thinking itself. Consider the sight of the soon-to-be-impeached president in handcuffs - one would be pleased to see it happen, at that point, but what exactly is he being charged with? “Genocide”, one hears in the movie, though Poppy’s actions wouldn’t fit the definition of that word, and those of the president, even less. Under the American system of law, as we all know, one can’t be arrested for being an evil person, one can be only be arrested for doing supposedly evil things of the sort that have been written into the criminal code. Not yielding to terrorism and suspending the enforcement of the laws against drug possession certainly would not qualify, no matter how vile the motivation of the president who refused to act might be.

Having Elton John take down some of Poppy’s henchmen might have been intended to please the crowd, or maybe Mr. John in order to get him to do the movie, but come on. Since when is Elton John a martial artist? Plausibility was being stretched past the breaking point in order to get applause which I did not hear on Saturday.

Aside from Fridge Logic concerns (though that last one was really more of a “shifting in one’s seat” logic concern), Poppy is poor successor to Samuel Jackson’s Richmond Valentine from the first movie. Valentine was a monster who the heroes had to stop, but he was a strangely likable monster, with motivations that weren’t purely evil. We could enjoy watching him on the screen. Poppy, on the other hand, is little more than a psychopath with an entitlement mentality, somebody who feels deeply offended that she can be rich and yet not get a presidential pardon as a reward for her wealth, somebody who has one of her own associates fed head first into a meat grinder for reasons which we never learn, and which one can’t help be guess don’t exist - she had him killed for the lulz.

There’s nothing compelling about a character that self-absorbed. One might well wonder how she got as far in her illicit trade as she did, given that the sociopathic president she tried to blackmail is right about her - she’s a dumb ... female dog. She’s smart enough to run a criminal syndicate (that somehow less than a dozen men guarding the headquarters), and yet so stupid that she can’t figure out that poisoning her own customers would be bad for business. Let us say that the president compassionately yielded to her terrorism and signed the demanded executive orders. After the artificial plague and the horrible deaths, what would happen to the demand for her product? She’s be pardoned, but she’d be without a revenue stream, at a time when literally millions of people would want to see her dead because of what she had just done. On those terms, she’d want to move back to America? She wouldn’t live long.

No presidential order would keep her from being sued into oblivion, “wrongful death” being a tort that comes rapidly to mind, and without money, she isn’t even going to be able to maintain the token security force we saw taken out within minutes, let alone the massive presence she’d need after that. While this is true to a psychopath’s nature - they aren’t noted for their ability to think or care about the consequences of their actions - this is precisely psychopaths (as the term is usually defined online) don’t get far in life. In one sense or another, they wander into traffic and get run down. They don’t run multi-billion dollars businesses or syndicates. The sociopaths do that.

While she’s not completely a cartoon, totally divorced from reality (her comparison of drugs to white cane sugar being something I’ve heard in real life), she’s still difficult to believe.

But having vented about that, I’m left thinking that you’re going to wonder how I could enjoy such a poorly written sequel. To that, I’ll say that Golden Circle had its moments and that maybe I’ll write about them later on, and that the original film was a tough act to follow. Also, I hadn’t been in a movie theater for a very long time.

Maybe my standards are slipping?