#she works at the evil experiments factory but still. workers' rights are for everyone. even mad scientists

[apigeonisapigeon]

🌹🌹🌹

Thank you! Here's a bit from part... 2b? 3? Part I need to come up with a consistent way of enumerating these things of Arson and Other Fires.

“And your team has no safeguards in place to prevent this eventuality?” “Well, I’m a pathologist and my team is me, so no. Did the medical team have safeguards? I don’t know, because I’m not on the medical team. You’d have to ask them. Sir.” Director Dawson looked up at her, finally. She had a hard, square face, eyes the colour of ice and about as warm. “If it happens on this station, it is your job,” she said. “And when I ask a question, I expect an answer, not an excuse.” “I understand that, director, but no amount of expecting is going to make me suddenly have an answer when I didn’t before. I can make one up if you’d like,” Dita said. “Or I could leave and ask the med team, and then come back and tell you a worse version of what they could have told you themselves.��

[cordeliaflyte]

Would love to know your thoughts on the rutger bregman book when you finish it!!!

dearest merle! it took me months to answer this ask - something i'm ashamed of - but i finally got around to finishing the book today.

the below is a condensed version of the ten pages of notes i took while reading it, which are rather chaotic and repetitive at points - but in my defence, bregman repeated his own arguments too.

one of the main arguments that bregman makes is that "evil" or "immorality" - which we'll define as causing unnecessary harm - are rarely caused by the individual, but rather the society they live in. i agree - nothing exists in a vacuum. however, society, as a nebulous concept, isn't imposed on us by some imperceptible power - it is crafted by people. people in society have different levels of power, and the harm they can cause to others is directly proportional to said power - but be it on a micro or macro scale, our actions have an impact on others and while they are influenced by the society we live in, we must nonetheless strive to minimise the harm we cause - and few of us do.

bregman illustrates many of his arguments with heartwarming stories about people coming together in times of crisis - take, for example, natural disasters - and overcoming adversity, selflessly looking out for their neighbours. but crisis very often leads to the creation of divisions, an us vs them mentality, and a complete disregard for the safety of others. the current pandemic is a prime example - see the widening of class differences, the rise in racist hate crimes, and people refusing to take safety precautions because they are inconvenient to them.

another argument repeated quite often throughout the book is the fact that media cherry-picks the most sensationalistic and senseless acts of death and despair, because human suffering is simply more interesting that the mundane - people talking to friends, creating art, laughing and learning. again, i agree with him - many of the more tabloid-adjacent news outlets would have you believe that the everyday norm is dismembered heiresses being found on riverbeds and charming, precocious children being held for ransom in tiny basements. the news doesn't often focus on the mundane - but the mundane isn't just love and work and friendship and boredom and chores, it is also, for billions of people around the world, sexual violence, familial abuse, workplace and housing discrimination, etc. these things aren't sensationalistic either - they're frightfully common, frightfully boring, and thus, they're rarely reported on.

throughout his book, bregman mentions that when he told people what he was working on, they approached the idea that humans are good with a large dose of cynicism, simply because we are raised to believe humans are selfish (which isn't the case worldwide, not all cultures are individualistic). they pick the easier choice - accepting the image of the world and their fellow humans that they are presented with at face value. i'd argue that it is the tendency of humans to pick the easier choice, to obey, to avoid challenging their worldview that leads to - for a lack of better term - immorality (see definition in point 1).

often, when bregman presents his feel good stories about people cooperating in adversity, he also mentions troubling details that, again, show undue harm being done. one of the examples he used were six boys from tonga, aged 13 to 16, who were shipwrecked on an island, and instead of descending into a "lord of the flies" style madness, they built their small community on the basis of communication and cooperation, never resorting to violence, and acting mature beyond their years. after a year spent on the island, they were rescued - and promptly arrested, an event which was probably racially motivated. and the reason they were shipwrecked in the first place was attempting to flee their school, where, according to their reports, they were neglected.

bregman contrasted the example of the boys forming a peaceful society on a small island with the chaos that always ensues when adults in reality shows are put in similar situations. the contestants are pitted against each other by the show runners, who seek to frustrate them and make them lose control for the amusement of the audience. whenever contestants try to cooperate, form a mutually beneficial society for a short while - a radical idea - they are punished. "goodness" - i.e. harm reduction - and radical thought being punished just don't seem like particularly helpful examples for the "humans are inherently good" thesis

bregman seems to be a big fan of primitivism, constantly citing civilisation as a source of harm - a position i'm always sceptical about, because personally i love vaccines and dental care, but i know this is a knee-jerk reaction and bregman isn't plotting a return to a land without dentists. but what i do take ire at is the idea that humans are somehow "corrupt" versions of their natural selves and that our lives have grown too complicated, and only a return to "primitive" society can return us to the aforementioned natural selves.

tied to the previous point - his arguments remind me of the "noble savage"'... archetype? he seems to paint a picture of "primitive" indigenous people as role models for those "corrupted" by civilisation, who in turn must be saved by a return to their "purer" selves, instead of individuals with flaws and agency.

speaking on indigenous populations - bregman also invokes the inhabitants of the easter islands. for a long time, the world at large believed that a hundred years or so before colonization, the islanders effectively perpetrated a genocide, killing off a large proportion of their population - a claim which was later disproven. yay! humans can live in peaceful societies without committing genocide, and thus, are not inherently evil! disregarding the fact that european colonists later massacred a large part of the islands population, and sold most of the survivors into slavery?

i was very excited for one of the chapters, entitled "after auchschwitz". i was interested how bregman would reconcile his argument with the tragedies of the twentieth century - the holocaust, but also genocide, and to a lesser extent war in general.

(this chapter, i might add, was preceded by a quote by anne frank - you know the one, about the inherent goodness of people. i was hoping that bregman would comment on the fact that anne wrote the quote before she and her family were sent to a concentration camp)

so you can imagine my surprise when the chapter was not, in fact, about concentration camps or genocide. but rather about. unethical 70s sociological experiments.

no really! a chapter titled "after auchschwitz" was, in fact, primarily about the stanford prison experiment. an experiment that was, granted, inspired by concentration camps, but still. it's misleading to invoke "real", large scale violence, and focus instead on "simulated", small scale violence.

we all know that the stanford prison experiment was, as far as experiments go, rubbish to legendary degrees. it doesn't prove anything - but it does, perhaps, show that people under large psychological duress are capable of evil, even when they themselves are not "evil".

it is, i'd argue, the human tendency to obey authority and especially to conform to societies standards that poses the largest danger. disobedience is man's original virtue and whatnot.

and when he does briefly refer to concentration camps, bregman treats them like a very 1940s phenomenon, disregarding the fact that they have been around for much longer and still exist today.

in cases like that one experiment with electric shocks. you know the one. do not, perhaps, show an innate tendency to violence, but rather people succumbing to pressure. but history is full of unprovoked instances of violence, of pogroms and lynchings. there is usually an instigator, yes, but judging from reports, people in the right mindset don't need much persuading to butcher other people.

also re: electric shock experiment - those who thought they gave the assistant lethal shocks showed extreme guilt and some even cried but like... so what? what use is a conscience if it doesn't stop you from, to your knowledge, killing someone? are your feelings really more important than your actions?

he doesn't say this, but a lot of the arguments he presents do seem to boil down to "people aren't evil, they're just stupid!" which doesn't sound more encouraging, i'm afraid.

an alternative takeaway would be "people are good, unless they have power" - which isn't exactly a radical, revolutionary idea. most people have heard the maxim "power corrupts". but the thing is that almost everyone holds some amount power over others - the oppressed factory worker in a poor nation who works 12 hours a day for pittance might still execute power over his wife, who relies on him for money, and she in turn might hold power over her children, and so forth. and that power is often used to cause undue harm and exercise control.

he criticises machiavellianism, saying it doesn't reflect how society works, and one of his proofs is that his philosophies were espoused by bismarck, churchill, and stalin - hardly admirable figures in terms of (you guessed it!) causing harm. but i don't see how that discredits machiavelli? like all of the above were very succesful

and he keeps repeating the primitivism argument throughout the book which gets tiring. like i'm truly sorry you were born in the last 5% of human existence thus far when, in your opinion, humanity started going to the shits, but it's getting a bit tiring

he cites money and nations as concepts as harbingers of the current (negative) state of humanity, saying they're very recent concepts and have no basis in reality. they're artificial concepts, sure, but their effect is very much real, and while achieving a nation-less, money-less society is possible on a small scale, i think that at this point they are such large aspects of life that reigning them in seems impossible.

and invokes the noble savage again and again, showing himself in favour of tribal societies, depicting them as egalitarian - i'm sure many of them are, but many also have a strict hierarchy or like. practice fgm. once more he seems to treat tribal people as a monolith of goodness as opposed to... people.

he also cites prehistoric people, their egalitarianism and low rates of violence but. forgive me for my ignorance because i did not research this. how do people know. doesn't the definition of prehistory include a lack of records??

he also mentions that in small, tribal societies, conformism can be a good thing, as it makes people act for the communal good. this is another knee-jerk reaction of mine but i think of conformism as society's most significant vice, so this strikes very much against my beliefs

later on, he also says reproduction is another proof of humanities goodness. perhaps it's a controversial opinion, but i disagree. i find it hard to find reasons for reproduction that aren't egoistic. it's survival instinct, sure, but it's not an "inherently noble pursuit".

later yet, he brings up schools which grant large degrees of freedom to students and shows how they're good for developing their minds. this might be a me thing but i know from experience that when i'm granted freedom without structure, i do nothing - though perhaps that speaks ill of me, and not humanity.

there have, in fact, been many studies on schools like this being helpful to student development and i certainly won't argue with them - but let me nit-pick. bregman says that fewer students have adhd in these schools, as it is a condition caused by being locked inside a room all day which is not only offensive, but also just plain wrong

and also while showing how granting children freedom lets them develop (which i naturally agree with) he brings up that "dangerous playground" study. you know the one. this isn't a coherent argument, this is just my bias speaking , but as a child, i promise i had no desire to play with rusty nails in abandoned warehouses. i liked my boring playgrounds with wooden swings.

then there is a chapter on communism and how it could be a remedy to societies ailments. but bregman and i seem to operate on very different definitions of communism. he naturally starts with saying maoist china and stalinist russia and cambodia under pol pot weren't really communist which... sure, if you want to argue semantics, i'm all for it, but it's an old and essentially useless argument. if "real communism" has never been tried (as the author claims) - why?

and then we pass to perhaps the most bizarre fragment of the book. paraphrasing only slightly: "but why are we now so opposed to the word communism? when we pass each other salt at the dinner table, is that not communism? when we selflessly hold a door open for someone, is that not communism?" i.... no?? no it's not. that's not what communism is girl stop

he then also says facebook is actually communist in many ways since a lot of its value comes from photos people willingly share for free. i could not make this up if i tried.

i think that in most terms i agree with bregman on policy - direct democracy, school and prison systems, changes to the criminal justice system - and our reasoning is partially similar, but i don't think the information we both have access to proves that humans are inherently good.

and then come perhaps my least favourite arguments because i for one am a spiteful bitch but yes. it is time for christian ethics 101 and turning the other cheek.

he cites ghandi and mlk as examples of turning the other cheek working. i think ghandi went too far with his policy, what with saying "jews ought to have marched silently to their deaths or committed mass suicide to make nazis feel ashamed" and like. we do remember they killed mlk, right?

as an example of turning the other cheek, he cites humane prisons in norway, where prisoners are granted much larger freedoms than usual and are on equal footing with the guards, who aren't armed and act more as councillors. i don't really see how this is an example of turning the other cheek, though - the guards are not the victims of the inmates (it was a prison for violent offenders - many of them murderers). i agree with him that prisons, if they must exist, should treat inmates humanely and with respect, but i don't see how this relates to the turning of the cheek. statistically, many of these men probably murdered their mates in a drunken dispute, or killed their wives - and i don't think turning the other cheek would have helped their victims.

he also cites south africa in the sixties as an example of turning the other cheek, when anti-apartheid activists would meet up with pro-apartheid activists and talk - this included nelson mandela who had frequent talks with the leader of a white supremacist paramilitary organisation of afrikaners staunchly opposed to black south africans getting the vote. and it worked - the man, whose aim was starting a civil war, relented. but racism isn't a simple matter that can simply be solved by talking. and it is often a pragmatic policy which i don't disparage, but turning the other cheek and having to treat someone who refuses to acknowledge your humanity with an exorbitantly disproportionate amount of respect is inherently degrading.

skipping ahead, in the epilogue bregman lists ten rules he tries to live by, and one of them is, i shit you not, "don't punch nazis". and punching nazis doesn't stop them from being nazis, but turning the other cheek gets people killed

the rise of fascism is perhaps one the largest threats we are dealing with and fascists are not just isolated and misinformed (and in this day and age, ignorance is a choice). they are dangerous.

this is by no means an essay or an exhaustive list, just a slightly chaotic and much overdue collection of opinions which i don't know how to put under a read more. take care <3

[randomnumbers751650]

Sometimes people ask a thing like “how did it get so big?” This is almost like any meme in the internet and sometimes even whatever is in the Top 10 bestselling books of any list. Due to being a historian of economic thought, I’m study the ascension of the idea of the entrepreneur as a hero, how it happened and its consequences, both good and bad. Therefore, I couldn’t avoid Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. It wasn’t a good experience and I’ll talk more about it under the cut.

I think we all know how much of a controversial person Ayn Rand was. But it worked. She’s one of the most influential writers of the 20th century whether we like it or not. Like, a lot of people say she hates the poor and minorities. It’s even a meme, like there’s a joke SCP that makes everything it comes into contact unnecessarily verbose and one of the incidents was a sticky note written “I hate poor people” that becomes a copy of Atlas Shrugged.

After reading her work, I can safely say these are traps she set up in her own work. Not only that, these traps hide the true problems of her work.

In first place, we need to consider her demographic target. That wasn’t me, if I wasn’t researching, I wouldn’t even bother reading it. Like, I remember I saw in the internet a game called “The Jihad to Destroy Barney” and someone commenting: “because 20-years old thinking they’re funny were obviously the demographic target of Barney the Dinosaur”. Rand knew what her demographic target was, after working in Hollywood for so many years.

One might think that her demographic target was people like her, but it’s wider than that. Through all her book, producers (she doesn’t use the word ‘entrepreneur’, but it’s obviously the same) are the protagonists. Dagny shows her dedication to her railway, always looking for ways to improve it, to hire the best people to work with her, to deliver the best product she can, always treating others with respect. All the producers are people full of passion for what they do. They do not just for the money, they do it to express themselves (but still want/should be paid).

Meanwhile their enemies are the government organs that want to curb them, by introducing legislation to make everything equal, like people are forbidden to be fired, prices are controlled and so on. And they are evil, they are hypocrites who don’t really believe in the altruistic values they spouse or they are too dumb to realize they���re being hypocrites. They are always men in position of power, evil bureaucrats, quisling industrialists, hypocrite union leaders (though the union leader, Fred Kinnan, interestingly is the most sympathetic of the villains, and actually gets away scot free, to the point some think he’s a Galt agent undercover).

Rand aimed for the real life entrepreneur identify with the “heroes”. All the companies have names of their founders in their titles, Taggart Terminal, d’Anconia Copper, and so on. Their enemies show their true faces by naming themselves with abstract titles, like National Union and so on. She aimed the person who ever had to deal with the Health Department, with the Labor Department, who has to fills forms and more forms and say “Wouldn’t the world be a terrible place if it wasn’t for you? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t have to do all of this? If you just had the opportunity to truly express yourself? Free from the prying eyes of government inspectors? Rejoice, because I have the answer!”

Rand answers this with the Galt’s Gulch – a utopia of freedom, where the word “give” is taboo, while leaving the outside world of looters and moochers to destroy itself. All the producers are gathered to escape the terrible collectivist world around her. Everyone has money and, since they’re all enlightened by the principles of greed and selfishness, the prices are small, even symbolic. Monopolies are good and rivals are always being taken down, and they rejoice with it, both winner and loser, because they contributed to the expansion of human spirit.

When John Galt says “I swear – by my life and my love of it – that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine”, he’s implying all men who belong to this valley. They are not ashamed of taking low jobs, because they know their true power is what they do with their minds and hands. Francisco is shown to be perfect in everything he does, makes one think he’s a Gary Stu, but it’s because, according to the book’s philosophy, if you’re a true man, anything you do you become the best. For this reason, Galt’s Gulch is quite diverse, because it has not only industrialists, but also factory workers and small businessmen who share their ideals. And not only workers, but also artists, intellectuals and others.

This is why I think the argument “this books hates poor people” might not be accurate. The low worker whom Eddie Willers meets in the beginning is actually John Galt in disguise. This I think it’s the most important part to understand why Atlas Shrugged was so influential with small businessmen when published: John Galt is where the Übermensch and the Everyman meet. “Who is John Galt?” Anyone can be John Galt – the same way anyone can be Bella Swan, anyone can be Ritsuka Fujimaru (at least before the 5th singularity), anyone can be Kirito Kirigaya – the idealized self of the entrepreneur.

Thus, one is not born a “man”, but becomes one. Dagny and Hank’s entire character development is to become “men”, to learn to love themselves more than what they create, no matter how passionate they are. This contrasts with Eddie Willers, Dagny’s right hand man, probably the most tragic character of the tale.

Eddie loved the railway just as Dagny. He’s been her friend for so long, and even developed feelings for her. But the book constantly observes that Eddy doesn’t have the capacity to lead something as important as a railway. But he does it nevertheless, dedicating all his resources and passion for the railway. But, unlike Dagny, he doesn’t learn to look for greater things. Thus, he ends the novel stuck in a railway, defeated and probably left to die.

This is controversial, so much everyone still discusses his fate. In the movie adaptation, they deviate from the novel by having the heroes making a point to rescue him from his fate. In Jennifer Burns’s biography, she mentions a letter Ayn Rand received asking about Eddie and she replies that in a collectivist society, Eddie would’ve perished, while in a free one he’d be living okay. Nevertheless, this reveals a truth about that world: not everyone will become a “man”. Eddie would never become a “man”.

Since pity is against Galt’s doctrine, Eddie cannot be pitied. He has to live under the mercy of his Galtian overlords. He has only two options: either worship the feet that trample him, expecting his breadcrumbs fall from their banquet table, or to question his place in the world, thus denying that A is A, and be trampled harder. It really doesn’t matter his kindness, his dedication, he’s not a “man”, and thus has more in common with the looters and moochers than the heroes. Thus, if Eddie ever becomes an obstacle to the productive forces, even if unintentionally, he has to be trampled.

While one might think that I’m being unfair, it should be reminded that Ayn Rand openly advocated the people who were killing Natives during the American expansion to the West were doing nothing wrong. The Natives were actually privileged for being trampled by the productive forces, thus creating the great nation. The same argument can be made for the colonized people and even to the “essential workers” of this pandemic – since apparently people who take this book seriously are one of the most resistant forces to lockdowns and mask mandates, you can guess why.

And this is why Rand hated the environmental movement, because it puts an obstacle to the productive process. Nature can only react with deaf indifference to Galt’s speech. For Rand, this is unforgivable. Would it be surprising if oil tycoons were fans of Rand’s work?

In the end, the producers execute their revenge against the world that rejected them. Galt’s speech caused a lot of disturbance and the last chapters deal with its consequences, with more villains being evil for no reason and more showing how awesome their heroes are. Galt becomes more and more like Jesus, even with a gnostic Judas in Dagny helping him. In fact, in the funniest part of the book, where it comes THIS close from being self-aware, he says to his tormenters, when they asked to cooperate with him: “It took me three hours on the radio to tell me why”. It gave me angry laughter.

In the end of the day, what matters? This is a work of fiction, where caricatures of men and women fight each other. The entrepreneurial process works nothing like described in the book. It takes a naïve view of selfishness, upon saying that if everyone was selfish the world would be a better place, when in reality, if you expect selfishness, it’s what you’ll get.

It’s never explained how they invented their inventions, only that they did it and it’s awesome. The One-Man Industrial Revolution trope is one that I loathe a lot, because it misrepresents the innovation process. It requires so many factors, including government funding – scratch that, it REQUIRES government funding because technologies like touch-screen used to be so risky that no private company would take seriously and government can fund because it doesn’t go bankrupt the same way. Even if we take it as a metaphor, it doesn’t work when you stop to think.

Rand belongs to the same class of writers as Stephenie Meyer and Christian Weston Chandler. But she wanted to influence the world, she wanted it to be more than entertainement, much more. Thanks to her publishing network and appeal to real problems, she did it. This is why the problems of her work require critique. And I hope anyone reading this try to understand better what “relatability” means, this is what relatability can do. Stop trying to look for relatability everywhere, let it just come naturally and if it doesn’t come enjoy the story!

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

SCs are abuser apologists :)

“Yes, she did.“ And here the story should end but of course there is BUT and you know what they say about BUTs. 

Oh, Lena idoesn’t act as two different people? She didn’t lie about kryptonite, her illegal experiments, Sam and Reign? And boi, they all love to scream how 100th ep was about Kara fighting for Lena, while they totally ignore that in every universe Lena fucked up everything, even when Kara told her the secret. They totally ignore that Kara was RIGHT, by not telling Lena her secret and the universe when Lena still wants to lobotomize people is the best option. What is laughable, especially when you say Kara is guilty of deception.

Yeah, no one has clean hands but the problem is that the rest characters at least feel guilty about the shit they have done or paid for it.  Oh sure, Kelly is innocent but for sure is going to do some shit. Mhm. Because what? She is a canon black lesbian that is in a canon lesbian happy and healthy relationship with Alex? *sarcasm*

Sure, Lena didn’t do shit to Eve. She didn’t kidnap her, forced nanobots into her body, raped her brain, put AI into her and made her a meatsuit for Hope. I haven’t seen a single soul blaming her for Jack. His name was Adam and he was depressed, suicidal and driven by guilt and Lena deceipted him, while not telling him her REAL name, what is one of many violation of law and rules she did during that trials.

And thanks for ignoring J’onn’s brother, Russel, Andrea, Edge’s bodyguard, that girl form shcool that was exposed in front of entire school and sure, putting Kara in a kryptonite cage, torturing her, yelling at her, stealing Myriad from her, gaslighting her, accusing her of some super funny shit, making her feel guilty for Lex’s death and causing her a panic attack is just oops. 

Once again, all of them felt guilty about what they have done. Lena doesn’t. And that’s the biggest and most important difference. 

And here we have the most disgusting shit I have ever read in my life - Crisis erased it, so it didn’t happen? We should just forget about it? We should forget Lena killed, murdered, kidnapped, raped people’s minds, enslaved and lobotomized them? Interesting idea. Her past victims, that suffered becasue of her for sure were very happy to hear that they suffered for nothing. Also, I guess Crisis erased Lex’s shit so he is now a good person?

And you know what is the worst thing here? Lena still REMEMBERS. She still uses the results of her experiments and shit. She still wants to LOBOTOMIZE people and get rid of free will. She STILL DOESN’T FEEL GUILTY. She still thinks she didn’t do anything wrong. But I guess some people are too dumb to realize it.

Plus it’s super interesting how they still go after William Dey for what he has done BEFORE the Crisis. Lena’s shit is cleared but not his?

Oh, we should not  go after Lena only becuase she is privileged, white bitch, who has never paid for her shit like a typical privileged 1% of loaded Americans who do what they want and don’t care about consequences of their actions, because there will be no consequences, no matter what they will do? :)

The fact is - NO ONE stopped her from being happy and loved. She was with Jack in StarCity. She had it all. But then she saw Supergirl and decided she wants to be a Luthor, praised, loved and worshipped by everyone. And she FUCKED IT UP. SHE did it. And then she came to National City and played a typical Luthor. While screaming she was not.

“Lena is the only victim“ :))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Sure, because Kara didn’t tell her a secret that kept people she loved SAFE, what, once again, ep 100 proved.

Sure, your traumatic past experiences give you a free hand to do whatever shit you want. I wonder how many murderes, rapists, abusers should be released from the prisons, because you know, they had sad pasts.

Also, WHAT abusive childhood? Lillian didn’t like her, oh I wonder WHY, but still praised her ass when she fucked up that girl who stole her bf. Lionel loved her, she had a competetive relationship with her brother. WHAT ABUSE.WHERE it was confirmed she was abused? All we have seen is Lex tying her to a chair and explaning his master plan to her - well, two times, becasue she is that dumb and that easily manipulated. But who SHOT LEX IN THE END?

And she is not Luthor by blood? Lionel Fucking Luthor is her FATHER.

Aside of the disguting thing about “Crisis erased it” Hmm, let’s see, who was hurt by Lena:

-Eve, agreed

- some young teenage girl who has stolen her boyfriend and Lena stole her diary and exposed her in front of entire school,

-all the Phorians that were affected during her experiment with the portal in s2 and friendly reminder it was one of the reason why the anti alien movement was created, plus all the citizens of National City who were hurt during Phorians losing their minds

-all the aliens that were affected by her detector that allowed people to recognize them

-workers from Lockwood’s factory and others who were fucked and lost their jobs, because miss businesswoman could not afford helping them, because you know, being a white face of privileged capitalism i so cool

-all people who were hurt by the Daxamite invasion that happened only because she was dumb enough to believe Rhea, and once again, it was one of many reasons why the anti alien movement was created

-Edge’s bodyguard- dead, people on that party - put in danger

-Adam, a depressed, driven by guilt and suicidal boy, deceived by her to take part in illegal experiment - dead. And how about his parents who lost BOTH of their sons?

-Lex - shot with cold blood to death (fuck him, still murdered)

-Hope in Eve’s body - taking blame and landing in jail because Lena Luthor is a coward

-J’onn’s brother - kindapped, enslaved and made a guinea pig

-Russel - enslaved and forced to put a scalpel to his neck

-KARA

Are they going to ignore she still works for Lex and wants to lobotomize whole humanity and aliens? Probably. But oh wait, Kara’s fault. LOL

And Leigh, oh Leigh :’) Interesting how she totally ignore that J’onn’s bro and Eve were real victims of abuse. Eve especially - she was a teen when Leviathan lured her into their organization and brainwashed, right after when she lost her parents. But yeah, sure only Lena is a victim. And no one, at least not the fans, said a shit about forgiving  Ma'alefa'ak or Eve. And seriously, where are the traumas?

-losing mother? yep, horrible thing, almost as traumatic as losing entire planet and all people you love

-stolen boyfriend... well

-being not loved by your step mother?, yep horrible thing, almost as horrible as being not loved by your father who also is a villain and wants to kill you (Winn) or both of your parents, who likes to slap you, put in a cell and promise you brainwashing (Mon-El) 

-being manipulated - you are manipulated by people who openly say they are manipulators and you know them for your entire life, mhm

-being tied to a chair by your brother while he explains you his horrible plan 

-your horrible step mother framing you and putting your ass into a jail

-being tied to a chair again by your brother and see a gun pointed at you by your so called assistant -how many times other characters experienced something like that? whatever

-Kara not tellling a secret

Did I miss something? All I want to say is, different people react differently to bad shit that happens to them. Some are stronger than others, they differently react to bad things that happened to them. 

But the fucking problem is - all the shit that have happened to you DON’T GIVE YOU RIGHTS TO HURT OTHER PEOPLE AND DO EVIL SHIT. Your traumatic past is NOT AN EXCUSE. Other people have traumatic pasts to Lena, and guess what?! They still are not villains who put their so called bestfriends into cages made of kryptonite and torture them. 

And how many traumas were caused by Lena herself? By her ego? How many of all of this could have been avoided if Lena had gone to fucking therapy?

That’s the fucking difference that SC shippers should finally learn. But I guess they are not able because you know, they are blind by her beauty.

And no Leigh, we don’t hate Lena because Kara loves her. We hate her because she is horrible human being. Because she is a murderer, abusive, toxic piece of shit that has never paid for her doings. We hate her because she blames everyone just not herself like a typical privileged asshole. We hate her because she treats people like shit. We hate her because she makes Kara miserable, we hate her because she hurt Kara and doesn’t even feel bad about it. We hate her because she is a typical abuser who paint herself as a victim. We don’t give a shit if Kara loves her, especially because she’s slowly realizing what kind of a snake Lena is. Thanks to that she can finally stand for herself. And that’s what makes her real fans happy. But well, it’s proved you all don’t give as hit about Kara and you treat her just as Lena’s trophy princess.

[waezi2okko]

Top Ten OK KO episodes

In the "Incredibles" movie, the bad guy Syndrome plans on staging a fight to become a famous superhero. And when he eventually becomes too old for that, he plans on selling his technology so anyone can become super, arguing that if EVERYONE is super... no one is.

"OK KO, Let's Be Heroes" has a different view on this. In the show, EVERYONE is super, so everyone are AWESOME!

"OK KO" is one of those shows that are so wholesome and fun that you stop thinking about logic and just accept this strange world of heroes and villains who takes inspiration from video games, comicbooks, action movies, mangas and more stuff hero-related. It has a feel of a game being played in a sandbox by kids who brought their random toys and are just going with it.

In the show, our main character is KO, a 6-11 year old kid who wants to become a hero. In order to get experience and be more familiar with the world of heroes, KO takes a job in a bodega run by his idol Mr. Gar. KO befriends Enid and Rad, the teens who works in the store as well, and assists them in running the bodega as well as defending it from destruction whenever the evil scientist Lord Boxman(who lives at the other side of the street) attacks the bodega with his evil robot children.

Yeah, it's kinda silly:P But in an awesome way.

Besides the humor, the creative character designs and the many references that will make you feel old if you get them, it is also the modern cartoon show that I think does the best relationships as well developing said relationships(sorry Steven Universe). Anyways, made this blog because I feel my main one has too much OK KO stuff, so I will start of this one with a top ten of the best episodes of the series.

Number 10: We Messed Up.

I HAVE to include this episode on the list since it was the first I watched.

Mr. Gar is out, and he has SPECIFICALLY told his employees to stay away from his office.

... So they go to his office. And breaks his stuff. The three friends must figure out how to stall their boss as well as how to replace the picture of KO's mom(that he for some reason has) so Mr. Gar won't be... disappointed!

I HAD to include this episode on the list since it was the first OK KO ep I watched. Also, a lot of lore was revealed in this episode, leading up to future episodes and storylines as we learn that Mr. Gar used to be on a superhero team with KO's mom Carol AND that Mr. Gar apparently used to be a masked wrestler. That, and the episode is just plain funny, mostly because of Mr. Gar being extra as heck!

Number 9: Whacky Jaxxyz

When KO gets introduced to the game and toy Whacky Jaxxyz by his cool classmate Nanini, KO jumps aboard the trend and even enters a tournament with Nanini.

Buuuut then they meet other people who play Whacky Jaxxyz as well and realize that the game's fandom is rather toxic.

And by "rather", I mean "VERY".

As a kid from the late 90s and early 00s, I can relate to this episode since I collected stuff such as Bayblades, Yugioh cards and such. I still feel cheated sometimes by the Yugioh franchise as well as being irritated by the fans of it who can sometimes ruin it for me. This episode shows how something fun can get ruined by both the people who provides it as well as the people who obsess over it.

Also, famous YouTuber ProZD is guest star:)

Number 8: Let's Watch the Boxmore Show

When KO and his friends are about to defend the bodega against another robot attack from Boxmore, they realize that they don't have to lift a finger since the robots are fighting EACH OTHER. Wanting to know what is going on, Mr. gar gives his employees permission to use his monitor room since he has hacked the surveillance cameras of Boxmore, allowing them to see what is going on in the robot factory. Our heroes realize that there is a competition in Boxmore, EXTREMELY similar to a reality TV-show. KO, Rad and Enid ends up getting addicted to watching the "show", even rooting for their favorite robot and ends up quarreling about who deserves to win or lose.

I grew up in the golden age of reality TV-show and can recognize the stereotypes WAY too well, both the contestants as well as the fans who obsess over the shows. This was just such a stupidly hilarious episode to watch. And Christopher Niosi who voices minor characters was on the top of his game in this episode.

Also, if you don't know Christopher Niosi, you should check out his YouTube channel.

Number 7: My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad

KO gets in an insult contest with another kid named Chameleon Junior. And like all kids, Chameleon Junior argues that his dad could beat up KO's dad. And this specific insult gets to KO since... well, he DOESN'T have a dad. So he tells CJ that he might not have a dad, but that his mom Carol can beat anyone up. The two boys part ways to get their parents to fight to prove who has the stronger dad/mom. Carol tries to teach KO a lesson about talking things out, and... yeah, things escalate when a godzilla-sized chameleon dad is involved.

I was tempted to place this episode on the number one spot imply because watching a very angry hand-to-hand fighter mom beat up a giant lizard was amazing. But the ending twist that is a reference to old Godzilla movies was clever as heck. Chameleon Senior is revealed to actually being a giant man in a lizard costume, kinda like how old Godzilla movies had a man in such a costume.

Number 6: T.K.O.

KO is frustrated since he still doesn't have powers like Rad and Enid and worries that he will never become a true hero.

But then he meets a shadowy figure who tells him that he can help him reach his true potential.

... Yeah, KO shouldn't have trusted the guy.

I kinda knew from the start that KO would end up having an evil side that made him powerful, especially since he looks so much like Ryu from Street Fighter. But the way his dark side(AKA Turbo KO) is introduced is actually rather creative. It isn't anger that makes KO go dark, it is a combination of a whole lot of negative emotions that appears when he feels insignificant. That means that TKO has much more potential than just being a little angry monster, he is all of KO's negative emotions, including sadness, frustration and depression.

Number 5: Red Action To The Future

One of Enid's friends is a timetraveler called Red Action. When Red is getting a call from her Power-Ranger like team that tells her to return to the future, Enid is too proud to tell her not to go, fearing that Red would think less of her for being "clingy." But all Enid gets out of it is that Red is busy fighting a war in the future, and whenever she sees her again, it is only for short visits, and Red has aged months and years every time Enid sees her. Red ends up having lived a whole life in what was minutes for Enid.

With a show like OK KO where timetravel is a thing, you can have episodes that tackles with friends who doesn't say things to each other due to a mix of pride and shame, then realize that they missed their chance and a lifetime has passed. Enid gets to experience this much faster since Red is in the future, so time is relative.

Number 4: Rad Likes Robots

After an intense battle between the bogeda workers and the evil robots, one of the robots named Shannon gets hit by lighting and then falls in love with Rad who quickly becomes infatuated with the robot as well.

So, yeah. This is the Romeo and Juliet episode. But unlike other cartoon shows, this one does Romeo and Juliet right, if you ask me.

I actually mad e a whole blog about the episode that you can read RIGHT HERE.

Number 3: Know your Mom

KO's mom Carol is one of the strongest people in Lakewood next to Mr Gar. So it is sort of weird that she isn't a big-time superhero and instead just runs a fitness center.

When KO does research on his mom for Mother's Day, he finds out that she actually USED to be a big-time superhero. She was known as Silver Spark and was a member of the world's greatest superhero team POINT(Powerful Operatives Investigating and Neutralizing Trouble). But then she decided to quit the team 6-11 years ago. KO is horrified since HE is 6-11 years old, so he believes that he might be the reason to why Carol left POINT. So KO decides to call her archenemy and make him come fight her as the perfect gift.

What really sells this episode is Carol's old enemy Succulentus who is voiced by Jonathan Davis, the leading vocalist of the nu-metal band Korn. Most of his dialog has references to nu-metal songs, most of them I actually caught, making me feel old, especially since Succulentus is an old fart. Sure, he is old because he is a cactus, but it is still funny to be reminded of music you grew up with that is now considered "old".

Number 2: You're in Control

This was an awesome season one finale! Not only did it have an epic battle, it had been built up to through the whole season, making it that much more satisfying to watch. And it even had one heck of a cliffhanger that made me even more hyped about season two.

Number 1: Special Delivery

Enid and Rad are KO's best friends and pseudo older sibling. But they are also each others' best friend. So "Special Delivery" is an interesting episode since it focuses on Enid and Rad relationship without KO involved.

Someone has ordered a package from Mr. Gar's bodega, so Rad and Enid have been given the task of delivering it while KO stays in the store. The one who ordered it is in a town far away, so it is roadtrip time!

Rad and Enid actually has fun being together while driving to Neo Riot City... But Enid ends up having too much fun on Rad's expense.

Best friendship episode of the whole series since it focuses on communication and what the lack of it can cause since you can end up unintentionally hurt someone who is important to you. Also has the awesome and cliche song "I Wanna Get Out of Here" written by William Gibbons who is songwriter for the band Kara's Walk Home.

[awasikonis]

A Girl and Her Pig

In Bong Joon-ho’s movie, “Okja” currently airing on Netflix since released in 2017, Mija is a 13-year-old Korean girl played by Seo-Hyeon Ahn. She embarks on a journey to save her best friend, a super pig named Okja, from the evils of a meat corporation called Mirando Company. Throughout the story Mija, experiences constant obstacles when others do not take her seriously, however she navigates her way through the dominant culture of capitalism by playing the game and proving the “adults” wrong.

“Okja” is a social commentary on our meat industry and capitalism. Our consumer culture is almost laughable because of the lengths we will go to get meat on our plate. Mirando Company creates the “super pig” that consumes less feed, has a minimal carbon footprint, less excretions, and most importantly, “taste fucking good” (​Okja​ 2017). The company announces a competition to send out 26 naturally bred super pigs to farmers all around the world and wait 10 years to unveil “super pig” products to the whole world. Fast forward 10 idyllic years of Mija and her grandfather raising Okja on the remote mountains of South Korea. Now, the Mirando Company is ready to reveal the super pig to the rest of the world, and Okja is crowned best super pig and is forcefully sent back to America to be slaughtered. Mija is lied to constantly throughout the process. She thought her grandfather was able to pay the company to claim ownership of Okja, but unfortunately, they were no match for a huge corporation like Mirando. Mija and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) work together to recapture Okja and to reveal the message behind what really goes on behind the clean image of Mirando Co. It is a riveting story of a girl who will go to great lengths to be reunited with her best friend, despite the world literally being against her.

A young girl like Mija is not the usual protagonist of the stories we read, and it is refreshing to see a badass girl take on the world despite the oppression she faces. Evidence of the obstacles she will face is revealed in the first couple of scenes of the movie. Her grandfather doubts her when he says, “you’re nearly a grown woman now. I don’t like you playing with that pig all day. You should go to town, meet a boy” (​Okja​ 2017). This undermines her character while implying she is expected to meet a boy and that is her only real purpose in the world. She can’t be happy with her pig. When the workers of Mirando come to crown Mija and Okja as the super pig, Dr. Johnny (the face of Mirando) says to her, “a special sash for a special little lady, who I’m sure helped raise this super pig in her own special little way” (​Okja ​2017). The repeating diction of “little” and “special” undermines Mija’s effort in raising Okja. He accentuated her part to make himself the hero to show he “loves kids” and wants to see them succeed. Once Mija makes global news for her wild escape from police by trying to take back Okja, Mirando, to save their image, invites Mija to NYC to be crowned and reunited with Okja on the reveal day of the global meat product. Lucy Mirando, the founder of the “super pig” announces, “let’s all welcome an extraordinary little girl.” They continue to disrespect Mija by making her all “dolled-up” with blush, and making her wear traditional Korean hanbok, which makes her even more of an object for advertisement.

There is another layer of stereotyping and disrespect shown in the language barrier with Mija only knowing Korean. The ALF uses this to their advantage as the Korean translator intentionally mistranslates Mija’s words so they can follow through with their plan. Later, he learns “translation is sacred” and Mija learns that she needs to learn English to not be fooled again, which she uses to her advantage later in the story.

The anti-capitalist commentary is strong in the movie and it uses Mija as the person to navigate through this world run by money. In Johnson’s interview with the director, Bong describes “scenes of torture, killing, and a river of blood flowing through the facility” and said these graphic images were “absolutely necessary” to “make the audience feel uncomfortable. It is witnessing your family being dragged into a slaughterhouse” (Johnson 2017). These purposeful choices highlight, “’this is the state of capitalism today, and this is what I wanted to convey’” (Johnson 2017). The meat industry is an impenetrable system that dominates our consumer culture and yet, Mija plays the game and gets her best friend back with a free market exchange. Right before Okja is about to be slaughtered and rolled off the machine to be cut up and sold like every other pig, Mija takes her solid gold pig statue, given to her by her grandfather to use as her dowry, and exchanges it for Okja’s life, bringing her back home alive. The head of Mirando couldn’t resist the offer. The exchange makes the statement that money is the most important thing in capitalism and you lose control if you don’t have more money. It is also implied that it’s a treacherous cycle and it is hard to break the system. Nancy Mirando, who took over Lucy’s failing attempt at running the company, lets Mija walk away with the order, “our customer and her purchase get home safely” (​Okja​ 2017). And with that, Mija is able to return home safely along with a runaway baby super pig she obtained from the slaughterhouse and continue on with life. The two lone “holocaust survivors” were the only good thing to come out of the whole escapade into capitalism.

However, the important thing to note is that capitalism still persists. It isn’t like Mija stopped factory farming and the world is good. While Okja is alive and well, and Mija has her best friend back, it didn’t solve the bigger problem of capitalism, because no one has the power to usurp the faceless dominator. It is impossible to craft an alternative world autonomous from capitalism. You have to get what you want by playing the game, which is what Mija did.

We can influence the industry by changing our consumer culture, though. We “bond with the dogs and cats that live with us and then we sit down to a steak dinner, without a thought about how that steak got onto our plate” (Taubin 2017). We must bring awareness to what we buy and what we are influencing, and “Okja” is a great way to communicate these issues. The movie, “accurately teaches that each individual affects the world by choosing which products to purchase. Every dollar is a vote for or against a good or service” (Johnson 2017). This might be our way to craft a better world, but it is very hard for us to change our set ways when capitalism is rooted in our society and ingrained in our minds.

In conclusion, Mija is a badass girl who proved everyone wrong by not letting anyone or anything get in the way of getting her best friend back. The multiple scenes of her being disrespected as a “little girl” with no agency or power are prevalent. Despite all the attempts to mold her into an image for the good of the company, she had none of it. Protagonists like her spread hope to young girls and women and people of color that they can save the day, or at least use their power for change. While society tries to oppress you from all angles, you can rise above it with determination. Society is capitalism and capitalism is society, and while we are oppressed from the system, we can see change if we try hard enough like Mija. While she was able to get her best friend back, and everything still continues on, the overarching message to the viewer is that we can change that. If we make conscious decisions and know how much our individual choices influence the market, we can have an impact. We live in a world that consistently doesn’t take us seriously, but there could be the possibility of crafting a new world that can usurp the dominant culture we live in by changing how and on what we spend our money. This is simply playing the game in order to change the system because sadly, we have to use our money to change the money around the world for a better future.

[lindoig1]

Hitting the Wall - Day 3

Another early start. Good job, we are still jet-lagged and waking early.

Up, showered, dressed, gorged silly over our smorgasbord breakfast and under the care of our guide Mary and driver Lee by 8am. I had booked this tour separately so we weren’t sure what to expect, but it worked out fine.

We went to the Wall - the Great Chinese Wall - via a couple of other stops, starting with the Jade Garden factory. It was a real eye opener and the work there was fandangtastic! Jade comes in a veritable rainbow of colours, from the traditional green through greys and brown to pristine, transparent white, but there are also a range of pinks and oranges, even stark blues and yellows and we saw them all. And it is carved into an endless variety of exquisite and extraordinarily beautiful objects. These may be tiny figures, often of animals, probably weighing in at 20 gams or so - or lions and elephants weighing as much the real thing, certainly at least a few tonnes, all carved and polished from a single stone. They had a couple of jade ships that were composed of many interlocking jointed pieces that were several metres long - I think they said the larger one took 70,000 hours to complete.

The drive out was quite interesting with small commercial areas, collections of larger business offices, many from well-known brands and huge conglomerates of residential towers. No skyscrapers anywhere – maybe a 25-floor ceiling right across Beijing, but groups of 30 or 40 towers in quite a lot of places.  One feature I found interesting was that the road was lined with dense areas of trees on both sides – and a fringe of spectacular rose bushes for maybe 50km at the edge of the road in both directions.

Traffic flowed pretty well, but marked lanes seem quite superfluous, ornamental even, because everyone is constantly in the process of switching from one part of the road to another to try to get ahead of someone else – but nobody seems the least perturbed by it and there is only a very occasional toot – there are very few indicators in use, but once a vehicle gets its nose half a metre in front, it can simply merge into the next line/hodge-podge of traffic in the expectation that following vehicles will give way.  Scary, but it seems to work fine.  In the city, the traffic is denser (but nowhere has it been as dense as I expected) but road rules seem to be observed in the breach.  No seat belts or crash helmets, just an occasional indicator, few lights at night (at least on the 2- and 3-wheelers).  Most of the cars drive on the wrong side of the road (the right side) but not necessarily all.  Parking is not a problem – nor is double parking.  If you want to stop for a chat or consult a map or go into a nearby shop, you do so – at least it seems that way – but again, it doesn’t seem to bother anyone much.  You would not, however, stop to use your phone: it seems mandatory to do that whilst driving, despite the signs forbidding it.  (Our guide disputed some of my observations, but indicated that the very few fines handed out were hardly a deterrent – maybe less than 10% of ours.)  There seems to be a separate section of road for bikes and motorbikes, but they often prefer the footpaths and seem oblivious to any signs, the existence of pedestrians or other vehicles.  Crosswalks are entertaining board-games of skill – how many vehicles can cross simultaneously (or drive along the crosswalk) without hitting a pedestrian? Most traffic lights are colourful street art, bright areas of colour to entertain bored drivers – although there seems to be a handful of intersections where the rules do count for something.

One of the jade factory’s specialties is what they call family balls, concentric spheres with holes in them to allow the craftsmen (and women) to carve another ball inside the outer one/s.  The simplest is perhaps 4-5cm in diameter and has 3 spheres, but we saw some about 20cm across with 9 concentric spheres, all independently movable inside each other. Apparently, families buy them and hand them down from generation to generation and they increase in value as they age.  There is a massive showroom with tens of thousands of items available for purchase – up to the 3-metre high articulated urns costing hundreds of thousands of US dollars each.  (We settled on a 3-sphere ball that we were able to purchase within our credit limit.)

Another thing we saw in the factory was a corridor of the most beautiful silk pictures: exotic figures and scenes tapestried into glowing, shimmering silken works of art – at least hundreds of hours must have gone into each one, maybe many hundreds, even thousands!  The whole factory was quite wonderful and it is truly amazing what the human hand can create given the raw materials, the skills and limitless time and patience – far beyond my imagination.

We then drove on the Ming Tombs – we have been drowned in information, very little of which I can recall, but all the Ming Emperors and Empresses are buried in separate widely-dispersed tombs in the area – several square miles at least.  Only one is open to the public and quite a bit of it has been restored since ‘The Great Leader’ attempted to destroy all vestige of pre-Mao powers.  From the carpark, it is a reasonable walk with very steep areas and hundreds of stairs. Heather has been struggling with shortness of breath and the pollution here probably exacerbated that, so she didn’t make it all the way to the top.  She returned to the base of the ‘mountain’ under which the tomb is located, but I made the grade and returned with photos to explain it to her – not that there was much to explain because the tomb area was rather plain – most of the relics recovered are in an exhibition area near Heather’s retreat and that was in an arbour – lots of very old trees, some more than 500 years old.

Then it was on to the Wall at Mutianyu, but lunch at the foot of the mountain first.  That was included in the tour and it was adequate, but by no means anything more.  We had settled on going up on the cable car rather than climbing all the way up. Good job too, because we had to stop for a breather several times on the steep ascent to the cable car station. It was a little adventure soaring above the trees on the way up and looking down on the intrepid souls tobogganing down the ‘luge’ rather than using the cable car to return to base. Unfortunately(?), there is a 65 year age limit on the toboggans so we missed out on that.  Equally fortunately, they closed the toboggan rides just before we were ready to descend – it was starting to drizzle and maybe they didn’t want the younger people to get wet on the way down – wet pants maybe, but only from the thrill of the ride.

I never imagined I would walk on the Great Wall, so that is another tick on my Bucket List.  Not really, because I never had that one on my List – but it was still an experience to remember.  The views are astounding and the bloody history and feats of engineering are quite staggering – 18800km of Wall and tens of thousands of workers buried inside it, just bricked in where they fell, not to mention the savagery of the many wars.  But it worked!  China is still here, safe and sound on both sides of the Wall.  The structure snakes along the ridge of the mountains – and pretty rugged they are at that! – and bifurcates to follow separate converging ridges in numerous places.  Near where we were was a huge area of cleared mountainside with giant Chinese characters embedded saying ‘In Honour of Chairman Mao’ but I don’t think he really had anything at all to do with its construction all those thousands of years ago.

When we got back to the bottom of the mountain, Lee, our driver, asked Mary if we would mind another passenger in the car on the way back to the city.  She had been on a large tour with a different company, but wanted to go back before the rest of the tour.  Gullible us said it was OK, but she was the Dragon from Hell (Germany we think).  She was furious that her tour would not take her back when she wanted to go and even more furious because our guide charged her a modest fee for the taxi ride.  She then got really shitty because she wanted to sit in the front seat so she could take photos and the rear windows were tinted. Our guide put her in her place very courteously so she sat behind us fuming and ranting about the evils of the tourism industry.  She wanted to go back to her hotel to collect her bags, then be taken to some institute of traditional medicine and then to the airport.  Not sure she really expected us to take her, but she constantly hassled our guide for assistance on a raft of related issues and how to achieve them. Mary eventually got onto this woman’s tour company who reimbursed our tour company with the cost they had charged this woman for the ride and she quietened down a little when they gave her money back to her.  But she kept on pestering for directions, how to do things and so on and when she was finally convinced that it would not be possible for her to do all she wanted on the day, she still kept on because she said she would be back in Beijing in a few weeks’ time and would tick off the rest of her objectives then.  In the end, Heather told her to shut up and do her own research before she came back – it was our tour and we didn’t want to listen to any more of her harpy vitriol.  She did keep quiet for the next hour or so with only occasional interruptions, allowing us to ask our own questions and receive the tourist information we had paid for.  We eventually dropped her off near a Metro station with written instructions how to get to her hotel and she left with bad grace and nary a thankyou.  We were all glad to see the back of her, but Mary had to give her her card because she intends milking Mary for everything she wants when she returns to Beijing.  Lee was annoyed with her too and he was fun.  He speaks no English but was very solicitous of us, giving us drinks and lollies, but quite ostentatiously, not for dragon lady!  He held Heather’s hand and guided her very carefully over rough patches and was really a delightful gentle guy – as well as an excellent very smooth driver.  

The final stop for the day was a traditional tea ceremony/buying opportunity where were served a variety of teas with a rapid fire patter about how good they all were before being ushered into the large shop and pressured into shelling out for things we didn’t want.  The moment it became clear that we were not in the market, our highly solicitous tea-lady turned and walked away – message accepted both ways!

We were dropped back at our hotel a bit before 6pm, quite exhausted, but after a brief recovery, decided to eat in the hotel restaurant rather than walk any further.  The meal was quite nice, but left a faint aftertaste when we paid the bill.  Back to the room for a shower and crash into an exhausted sleep.

[exilevilifyrp]

Congratulations JJ, you have been accepted for the role of ROBYN KANE with the face claim CHLOE BENNET! This was an incredibly difficult decision for us, but JJ, the tone of your Robyn is what ultimately won us over. It is so perfect to what we had in mind when we wrote her. And not to mention the details of worldbuilding and of Robyn’s life poured throughout--do I dare say your application is perfect? Congratulations! We are so happy to have you. 

Make sure to check out our checklist and send us your blog within 24 hours!

THE AUTHOR BASIC INFO: JJ, 21, they/them/theirs

IN CHARACTER CHARACTER YOU’RE APPLYING FOR: Robyn Kane AGE AND GENDER IDENTIFICATION: 27, intersex + female identifying, she/her/hers GENESIS: Organic SPECIAL SKILLS: Cleaning, Climbing, Parkour, Spatial Memory & Analysis. FACE CLAIM: Chloe Bennet, Karen Fukuhara, Stella Maeve

IN DEPTH

ANALYSIS: I think rose-colored and strong of heart define Robyn best!

STRENGTHS:

COURAGEOUS: No person is fearless, as much as everyone would like to be. In general, Robyn demonstrates less aversion to physical threats than the average person, though this change wasn’t made overnight. What differentiates her from most is her drive to work and overcome - another meter, another dive into the deep. If doing the right thing means jumping headfirst into something that terrifies her, she’s likely to steel herself down and move forward. Her heart had always been stronger than the forces that palpitate it, and willpower alone often allows her to stay upright.

HARD-WORKING: Bruised hands, aching legs, and rows of sparkling fifty-floor buildings always meant Robyn could go home with her chin held high. Slacking Wash Captains were met with veiled slights and ignored words in conversation, and she, as was customary for her line work, earned her seat at happy hour by shadowing superiors and helping greener kids finish their tasks without pay. Working the tough grind was always the baseline of expectation, and that’s why much of Robyn’s satisfaction stems from going above and beyond tasks, taking additional responsibility, and finding ways to make herself useful - often without being asked. She prides herself on her aptitude and ability to endure.

EMPATHETIC: Care is a landscape that, while confusing to Robyn, has always been navigated without force. Comfort comes in hand squeezed and consistent, reliable company, but sometimes she gets so overwhelmed by her fondness for others she’s left wildly distraught. In these instances, she’s often compelled to gift miscellaneous pieces of garbage - chalk…candy wrappers…useless items she compulsively passes or leaves outside someone’s door with “from Robyn” scribbled next to them. She’s not sure exactly where this habit stems from, but it’s her way of saying, “oh, you, you you! I’m so, so happy you inhabit this planet too!”

STRONG OF HEART: No matter how many times hardship strikes, Robyn always finds a way to spring back. Her heart, as with most people’s, changes shape with every rough occurrence, but she loves fearlessly and endlessly despite pain. Her hope can spring back after anything, and is characterized by boundless stamina and capacity for good. She believes fiercely in the kind potential of humanity, and even if the world isn’t as kind a place as she’d like it to be, with enough work from enough people, knows it can get there.

WINSOME: Chivalry, kindness, and relentless positivity make for a personality that, in Robyn’s case, often comes off as just the right blend of charming. Holding doors open, admitting fault, and remembering names come as second nature to her, and her zest for life comes through in starry eyes and enthusiastic nods of agreement. Sure, she’s never going to overcome people with class or genius knowledge, but she’s genuine and approachable, and sometimes, that’s all a person really needs to be.

DEVELOPMENT AREAS:

MEDDLESOME: Other people’s problems leave Robyn sleepless more often or not. She tosses above her covers when she senses even the slightest hint of conflict, turns when she sees a drop in energy in someone she cares about. She has a way of unsolicitedly inserting herself into conflicts and can become somewhat of a nuisance until they’re resolved. This becomes especially problematic when the conflict is heavy, or when she projects a problem that doesn’t exist upon people.

ROSE-COLORED: So firmly does Robyn believe in humanity’s goodness that she becomes starry-eyed in her conception of everyone’s morality. She believes even the worst can change with enough tangible support and cheerleading, though this isn’t always the case. She’s taken advantage of easily because of this, and blames herself when things go wrong. Sometimes, investing so much in people only leads to heartbreak, and for those who give chance after chance, it will time after time.

NEEDY: While somewhat capable of keeping herself up by herself, Robyn’s likely to withdraw without enough outward compliments or affection. Her lip droops, her self-esteem withers, and her outlook towards the day can become fairly morose. If she doesn’t feel useful, her motivation rapidly loses steam. Sometimes people will have to fake a problem to get her back up again, though something as simple as a dropped pen or misplaced item will often do the trick.

CORNY: Spending too much time with a fake hero can make anyone feel like they’re stuck in a bad cartoon. “Keep you chin up, hero,” “a team who cleans together, dreams together,” and “evil never wins” are only a few phrases folks who hang around Robyn tend to experience daily, and she seems blissfully unaware of her tendency towards the cliche. Sometimes, it’s hard to see past the stock imagery of her, especially as a co-worker, and this can lead to people to perceiving her as a joke or a simpleton.

SOMEWHAT OF A HUSTLER: While not always conscious of the fact, Robyn has a way of soaking up or compelling people to give her their resources. She’ll charm people into giving her a snack or buying her a drink, but the expended credits pile up before most people know. It’s good to cut her off after a while, as she’s likely to drain more than few pockets if not.

BIOGRAPHY:

TW: Guns, hospitals. blood, death

Robyn Kane dreamed of mangoes.

Sweet, sap-fleshed fruits she could describe in such vivid detail you could feel their gold-yellow dripping down your throat. They had, Atticus rationalized, been her mother’s last meal request; three mangoes, halved, (pits still in, please!) cubed at about one inch in diameter. Such a tremendous yearning this must’ve been that it found its way to her daughter, who in turn ate up washers and packing peanuts, swallowed down marbles and screws in her futile pursuit of sweetness. “Normal toddler behavior,” articles on his armlet read. “Just whack ‘em hard on the back if you see ‘em gulping away anything important.” Of course, Atticus never whacked Robyn, but the idea of normality washed relief over the father. “Still,” a voice nagged, often late, often red-eyed on the pull-out couch of their rusted apartment. “What could be said of the planets?”

Well, for one, they were huge! Vast, sweeping expanses Robyn dreamed up with forests high as the SungX building and deserts red as the setting sun. Sands that stung in sporadic blizzards. Skybirds who soared over archipelagos in triangular formations, fighting fish over seafoam, their hunger a constant, bitter pang. Such were the untrekked settings that congregated heroes to Robyn’s stories, that in turn congregated ruddy-faced factory cleaning kids, their stinking mops forgotten, around her during their glorious hour of lunch break. “Pew pew pew!” Robyn would say, her small voice teeming with life, “and then the heroes and the villains became best friends, and no one’s mom had to die, and the planets weren’t lonely for anyone, anymore. I accept tips via my dad’s credit account or in mangoes. The end.” And then, in the same tidy fashion as always, everyone would pack up and get back to scrubbing floors.

The crowds dwindled after parents caught word. Scrap metal never fell far from the ship, people said, and everyone and their android knew that Kane kid was going to turn out bad. That monster - Clemence Kane’s - child had those same foxlike eyes, lips the same raw swath of ochre…a gaze that flickered time to time with the same strange, insatiable hunger. “Stay away from that Kane kid,” workers warned, their fingers shaking, their grey uniforms all the same. Fathers cursed and flicked cigarette butts. Mothers pulled their children to the other side of the litter-caked road. And so the crowd on the back steps of nutripowder factory, which had once overflowed like steel wool from a storm cloud, shrunk to the size of one lonely droplet.

Robyn kept herself steady by looking upwards. She’d work hard, she’d be so helpful they’d all have to come around. Tears found it harder to squeeze by when her face was lifted towards the ceiling, and muscle memory kept her mouth pulled into the same sweet, little grin. At lunch, alone with her flavorless mix of powder, though, her lips would tremble - until her eyes caught sight of the strange heroes who, day in and day out, would flip and fly above her city.

Wash Captains. That’s what her dad said when she asked him. And they weren’t villain fighters - they were actually cleaners like both of them were. Still, hearing their hoots and howls as they tumbled from building to building, their washbots flocking behind them like rafts of ducklings, sent a rush up her little spine. The Captains grew into her new idols, another reason for her to dream. And every day during break, she’d make it further up the walls of her own building, brave a further jump from height to height. All until one day, she plucked up the courage to follow her heroes, trying to keep up, but finding herself slipping behind.

“Talia, you’ve got a tail!” A Captain signaled for the group to slow down. The lot of them, adults between their early twenties and late forties, decelerated to a pace that wouldn’t endanger the kid, though they did this surreptitiously enough that the twelve-year-old thought she was catching up.

“What’s your name, speedster?” The youngest one, Talia, asked.

“I’m Robyn Kane!”

“Well, you’ve got guts coming up here. I like that.” The rest of the group didn’t shiver or scowl, instead, they just shared a kind, collective laugh. “What’s good?” “Nice to meet you, Robyn,” voices chorused. And when they darted off to work on their respective building groups, Talia gestured for Robyn to follow her. She stopped at the edge of a metallic skyscraper, her washbots swarming to wipe the windows of the behemoth adjacent. From dawn until dusk, she let Robyn shadow her, explaining what a Wash Captain’s duties were, the test it to become one, and difficulties the job brought with it. Long hours, limited work lifespan, days without rest…the ability to problem solve and stay cool under pressure was paramount. But if you were the right kind of person, you’d find family here like no other. And Robyn hoped, hoped, hoped that with enough effort, when the year’s test came around, she’d be ready to join them.

Setbacks were inevitable. Sprained wrists, lack of formal training, exhaustion after back-to-back days at the factory…nothing, though, that could quite prepare her for the sickness. A flu, its origin the lungs of a machine operator, spread through the adults, then the children, then to her. Everyone and their uncle hacked up phlegm for two weeks, their faces pale green from the night sweats, though none fell quite so ill as Robyn Kane. A hospital rush led to injections, led to IV drips, led to peals of hushed conversation, led to the sound of a final lamp smashing outside her door.

“The warden promised they’d treated her!"

"The CD4 count-”

“Fuck the CD4 count!”

“Sir, can you just…”

Robyn shivered. What was her dad talking about with that doctor? Was she going to die? And what had made him so angry? Her eyes had already begun drooping shut when Atticus came back in, though, his face shaking with anger.

“What’s going on, dad?” Robyn tried to roll to face him, but he shushed her.

“You’re going to be okay, kid.” He kissed her head, sitting gently at the side of her hospital bed. Only when he thought she was asleep did a sob leave him, the sound of heartbreak, of betrayal, of an uncertain man.

In truth, the doctors weren’t sure how she’d survived so long. ARHIV - or advanced resistant human immunodeficiency virus - was livable with treatment, but going nearly thirteen years without, especially after being born with it…well, complications usually reared their heads sooner. Still, the NRTIs seemed to be lowering the viral load in her blood, and with the aid of intensive anti flu meds, her immune system managed to struggle through.

“Take your meds,” Dr. Ota said, as Robyn and her dad breathed fresh air for the first time in three weeks. “And remember, any fluids that come out of you are not to be touched by others.”

Atticus wanted Robyn to rest. She was still weak from her bout of illness, but almost a month had gone by without any exam preparation, and she wouldn’t let anything get in the way of her dream. She pushed herself to jump farther, to climb higher, to memorize every protocol in the Washbook. And when test day came, she gave it everything she got. “We’ll call,” her examiner promised, though the stern look on his face was airtight. “We’ve only got room for about three people this year, so don’t get your hopes up too high, okay, kid?” But when the buzz rang out on her armlet that evening, her hopes had already soared through the roof.

“Hello?"

"Hey, is this Robyn?” Talia’s voice drifted in through the speaker.

“Yeah, yeah, this is me, Robyn- Robyn Kane - Kane, Robyn - I-”

“Marks Building, speedster. Tomorrow. 5AM.”

And then the call clicked out, and a teenage squeal woke nearly half of the building.

The job wasn’t all games and glory. Most days, she went home with limbs that threatened to tear off, but how many people could say they ended a shift by skydiving off a building? Magnetic gloves carried her to the very top of the city, reminding her of her smallness, though a hoot from one Wash Captain to another reminded her she was never alone. Skyscrapers rushed together as air gave way to metal under her feet, running upwards and downwards, leaping from one to another with an expert’s grace. This was, save for her, the kind of movement reserved for heroes, and shadowing other Captains to get the hang of more advanced techniques ensured she continued to grow. From this vantage point too came new insight on the city - inequity others more often chose to ignore. Apartment Piles - swaying stacks of low-income housing - were collapsing. At first, it seemed accidental, but then the breadth of the falls seemed more sinister. Factories bought out the land. Overwatchers failed to check the sites. And since a lot of first responders wouldn’t set foot in the rougher neighborhoods, the Captains took it upon themselves to search and rescue.

Such was her transformation from girl to hero. Pulling injured folks from buildings, keeping kids safe…it was this grit and responsibility that matured her. Time with her dad became precious. Happy hours with friends began to mean more. But youth was still youth, after all, and when time brought on an admirer, Robyn’s heart began to palpitate.

There’s was a typical teen meeting - boy watched girl soar from building to building, boy plucked up the courage to wave, girl told him she’d come say hi during her lunch break. And so said boy appeared day after day, wonderstruck in crooked glasses, his hand outstretched to offer a cool bottle of water. A Harbor boy, Deek Jenkins. When they talked, her lies grew from goosebumps to mountains - yes, her mom was nice, yes, she’d eaten a mango, yes, her dad was a world-saving space pilot and, if she disappeared for a few days, it was because she helping him fight off evil. Truth be told, she wanted to keep Deek around. But how could a Harbor boy remain interested if he knew about her dark origins, her sickness, how a job washing windows was the most exciting thing that’d ever happened to her? Instead, she told him about the skybirds, the archipelagos, the burning sands. All while the virus inside her was shifting, overcoming her medications, and threatening to overcome her as well.

Time passed. Deek began bringing two water bottles. Robyn always finished the one he brought with a still-thirsty gulp, then gobbled down two, then three, and he was about to bring four when she stopped showing up.

“Check the clinic on Fourth, kid,” the Wash Captain, Talia, who visited in Robyn’s stead offered. So check Deek did.

“Hey,” he greeted, pulling a whole cooler of water bottles to her hospital bed. She uncapped one.

“You’ve found me out, Jenkins.” The twenty-year-old’s lips quirked upward, falling as a hack expelled from her lungs. “I’ve caught an ‘opportunistic infection.’ Tuberculosis. Not fun stuff. And while we’re at it, I’ve got another disease called ARHIV, which my doc just said’ll probably kill me by 35. And my mom-”

“Was a rebel terrorist,” Deek finished for her. “Who killed upwards of a hundred Overwatchers and their associates. She was sentenced to death six months after being turned in by a man named Thomas Martineaux, and would’ve been sentenced immediately had she not been pregnant with you.”

Robyn nodded. “Happy?”

“No.” He paused. “I mean, yes, that you were honest with me.”

“Why’d you hang around then, if you knew?”

Deek shrugged. “I guess I just liked you.”

“I guess I just liked you too.”

Robyn got over her infection. Time went on, work continued, and she was back on the rescue grind. The number of collapses grew, and the public’s anxiety grew with it. Her dad, who’d been promoted to a managing janitor inside the factory, spent time cleaning the inside of apartments despite danger, and three times, buildings collapsed with him in them. Each time, Robyn would hold her breath, her body trembling, her boots pounding miles to find he was okay, but there was never a second to spare for a hug or a word of relief when she got there. Every moment was instead spent pulling people from the wreckage, searching for help, until one day, a shard of glass changed everything.

“Don’t-” Robyn tried, but Talia had already reached in with a cut hand to pull it out. She jerked her leg away at the last minute, preventing contact, but it was in this moment that she realized her own body was a danger, herself a hazard that could be spread on. How could she have been so reckless, so stupid, to endanger everybody? Any time, she could’ve gotten cut. Any day, she could’ve spread her disease. Rescue efforts were abandoned, and happy hours avoided for fear of being seen as a coward. Until Deek Jenkins, again, came to her aid.

A birthday present - the big twenty-five. Robyn was huddled up on the couch, watching a livestream of an apartment collapse from her armlet, when Deek came in.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” She asked, but he just grinned at her, extending a parcel from his hands to hers.

“I, uh, made this.” His eyes sparkled as she unwrapped it, a costume of fine, black material, cape included. “I know the design is kind of corny, but you’ve always been into the hero thing and you’ve seemed so down ever since Talia, um…the fabric’s cut proof. In the case that something gets through, though, there’s a compound on the inside that’ll immediately clot your blood, so people are safe, no spread. And I also wanted to tell you that I-”

“I love it, Deek.” Robyn’s lips rose, then fell as her eyes honed in on her screen. A pair of Overwatchers, their bodies too small to be seen clearly without zooming in, moved in the corner.

A familiar face, familiar gait, familiar everything. Suddenly, it all made sense. She checked her armlet.

“8:30. Pile A7X.” The apartment her dad was suppose to be cleaning. Time to put Deek’s outfit to the test.

The rescue mission was a rush of pure adrenaline. A building scaled, a fire alarm pulled, and hundreds evacuated in the nick of time. She gave no name - a vigilante, in and out before anybody could ask. And now it was time to get to the bottom of the collapses.  

She made her way to the factory. Dark, no people or stars to be seen. If she could get into her dad’s office, maybe there’d be a list, some way to predict the next Pile falls. She’d save hundreds of lives, expose a massive conspiracy -and then a dot of red light materialized on her chest.

“Robyn.” Her father’s voice broke the silence. “I can explain-” “Explain what? How you’ve been killing innocent people for years?” All those apartments cleaned, how she thought he’d actually been in danger.

“Rebel suspects, Robyn. They’re killing thousands. Hear me out, I-”

Her eyes hardened. “You’re going to pay for this.”

Atticus’ lip twitched, another Overwatcher making his way beside him.

“We’ll kill her off, Martineaux. Don’t worry about it.” The man raised his mass accelerator, his finger draped on the trigger and then… five shots. A dropped body. But her dad’s weapon had made the blast.

“I’m sorry, Robyn.”

Another rustle. Deek- Deek had followed her. Maybe they could overpower him, find a way out, but Atticus whipped around, firing a shot before the boy could even blink. His body fell, an innocent who’d given his world for her. And then another shot. There was no time to think, no time to process, only dark.

When her eyes opened, they saw earth.

EXTRA MUSE: I have a pinterest board here!

POSSIBLE CHANGES: none!

[jalilaloui]

60 Funniest One-Liners That Will Leave Your Friends Laughing

BECOME THE SITCOM HERO YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE.

We've all experienced that awkward moment of silence. It happens even during a gathering of old friends. there is a lull within the conversation, and no-one knows quite what to mention . you would like to save lots of everybody from the awkwardness, but your mind may be a blank. you do not want to blurt something silly, because that just makes the instant all the more awful and cringe-worthy.

But if you had a game-plan—a foolproof joke, a one-liner, say, that would suck all the strain out of the room—why, you would be a hero! you would be the Chevy Chase circa late-'70s of your social circle, the one who might be counted on to mention the right thing at the right time to form everybody feel a touch less uncomfortable and silly. If only you had planned and had a couple of one-liners in your back pocket, ready for whenever you needed them… Relax, we have got your back. Here are 60 funny, clever, and oh-so-smart one-liners that are perfect for any occasion. Commit them to memory, and you will have your friends laughing so hard they will not even remember why the conversation had lagged within the first place.

1- "I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus, a slice of lemon. And an attempt of tequila." 2- "I do not have a beer gut. I even have a protective covering for my rock hard abs."

3- "I read recipes an equivalent way I read fantasy . i buy to the top and that i think, 'Well, that's not getting to happen.'" 4- "Money talks. But all mine ever says is goodbye." 5- "Knowledge is knowing a tomato may be a fruit. Wisdom isn't putting it during a salad ." 6- "Life's sort of a bird. It's pretty cute until it poops on your head." 7- "I'm skeptical of anyone who tells me they are doing yoga a day . That's a touch of a stretch." 8- "I do not have a girlfriend. But i do know a woman that might get mad if she heard me say that." 9- "A computer once beat me at chess. But it had been no match on behalf of me at kickboxing." 10- "I have tons of growing up to try to to . i noticed that the opposite day inside my fort." 11- "Give a person a fish and you feed him for each day . But teach a person to fish, and you saved yourself a fish, haven't you?" 12- "We have enough youth. How a few Fountain of Smart?" 13- "A clear conscience is typically the sign of a nasty memory." 14- "My therapist says I even have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see that ." 15- My first experience with culture shock? Probably once I peed on an electrical fence." 16- "Worrying works! quite 90 percent of the items I worry about never happen." 17- "I do not have an attitude problem. you've got a perception problem." 18- "Money can't buy you happiness? Well, check this out, I bought myself a cheerful Meal!" 19- "The easiest time to feature insult to injury is when you're signing somebody's cast." 20- "You don't need a parachute to travel skydiving. you would like a parachute to travel skydiving twice." 21- "Letting go of a beloved are often hard. But sometimes, it is the only thanks to survive a hiking catastrophe." 22- "A positive attitude might not solve all of your problems. But it'll annoy enough people to form it well worth the effort." 23- "Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back." 24- "Build a person a fireplace , and he'll be warm for each day . Set a person ablaze , and he'll be warm for the remainder of his life." 25- "Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil." 26- "Isn't it odd the way everyone automatically assumes that the goo in soap dispensers is usually soap? i prefer to fill mine with mustard, just to show people a lesson in trust." 27- "I wont to be indecisive. Now I'm unsure ." 28- "Women shouldn't have children after 35. 35 children are enough.

29- "Going to church doesn't cause you to a Christian any longer than standing during a garage causes you to a car."

30- "It's never an honest idea to stay both feet firmly on the bottom . you will have trouble putting on your pants.

31- "Change is inevitable—except from a slot machine ."

32- "Why does someone believe you once you say there are four billion stars but checks once you say the paint is wet?" 33- I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it." "What's the difference between a northern fairytale and a 34-"southern fairytale? A northern fairytale begins 'Once upon a time…' A southern fairytale begins 'Y'all ain't gonna believe this'"

35- "The last item i would like to try to to is hurt you. But it's still on the list." 36- "There are three sorts of people: those that can count and people who can't." 37- "I am not a vegetarian because i like animals. i'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." 38- "At every party there are two sorts of people: those that want to travel home and people who don't. the difficulty is, they're usually married to every other." 39- "If Walmart is lowering prices a day , why isn't anything within the store free yet?" 40- "The easiest job within the world has got to be coroner. what is the worst thing that would happen? If everything goes wrong, maybe you'd get a pulse." 41- "I have all the cash I'll ever need—if I die by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon." 42- "A TV can insult your intelligence. But nothing rubs it in sort of a computer." 43- "When tempted to fight fire with fire, always remember… the hearth department usually uses water." 44- "You are such an honest friend that, if we were on a sinking ship together and there was just one life vest , I'd miss you such a lot and mention you fondly to everybody who asked." 45- "The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." 46- "This is my step ladder. I never knew my real ladder." Some cause happiness wherever they are going . Others whenever they are going ." 47- "It's not the autumn that kills you. it is the sudden stop at the top ." 48- "Feeling pretty pleased with myself. The puzzle I bought said 3-5 years, but I finished it in 18 months." 49- "Just burned 2,000 calories. that is the last time I leave brownies within the oven while I nap." 50- "My boss goes to fireside the worker with the worst posture. I even have a hunch, it'd be me." 51- "Don't trust atoms, they create up everything. Did you hear about the guy who got hit within the head with a can of soda? He was lucky it had been a beverage . 52- "I was hooked in to the hokey pokey… but thankfully, I turned myself around." 53- "When I lose the TV controller, it is often hidden in some remote destination." 54- "Most people are shocked once they determine how bad i'm as an electrician." 55- "My first job was working in an fruit juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate." 56- "My mathematics teacher called me average. How mean!"

57- "Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they open their mouths."

58- "The problem isn't that obesity runs in your family. the matter is not any one runs in your family."

59- "Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil."

60- "Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars but checks when you say the paint is wet?"

[magic5ball]

Lucky Pong of PONG CORP

In the Year of our Lord 60,022, fifteen thousand years after the third Dropping of the Bombs, Lucky Pong of the latter day Pongses, 6th Scion of PONG CORP, had a most terrible nightmare. A vision so blasphemous he immediately jumped out of his nest and had his assistant sousaphone the board members- all 1600!- for an emergency meeting in his office at TOP-OF-THE-WORLDTM. The Simians of the Board soared there as fast as they could on genetically implanted wings, pterodactyls, turbosaxes, and all the other wonderful inventions of PONG CORP, to where Lucky Pong, still in his satin nighties, waited for them in the Boardroom.

“Gentleapes, Ladies.” The chimpanzee addressed them before they could so much as scooch in their sitters. “I have called you here in an hour of dire crisis. But first, a PONG CORP brand preyertm!”

The Simians rushed through the preyertm to the Capital, the Free Market, and the Holy PONG CORP, the once and forever true scion of Capital (may it forever guide them).

The ritual complete, Lucky Pong told them of his vision.

“A monstrous, despotic turn of events had occurred! One I had not ever considered possible even in the most absurd of circumstances. Of course I awoke right away, which is why you now all sit before me. Gentleapes, Ladies” Lucky Pong inhaled, the board staring in hushed silence. The idea their beloved CEO could show anything less than pure confidence was absurd to them.

“I had a dream in which PONG CORP did not known everything!”

The simians of the board, unsurprisingly, went apesh!t.

Had their stock NOT been rising exponentially for the past 10,000 years?! Wailed a gorilla.

Had Genghis Pong, Lucky Pong’s own Grandfather, not acquired the rights to Heaven and Hell in a fierce sixty year legal battle?! Howled an orangutan.

The current Pong culled their outrage with a blast from his goober-whistle.

“Ladies and Gentleapes, I chide you now, I chide you! This behavior is what I’d expect from Liberals, not Simians of the Board!”

Still, the Board Members perched in their chairs: eyes covered, so they could see no evil. Ears blotted, so they could hear no evil. Mouths adjourned, so they might not speak evil.

And indeed, they could not see, or hear, or speak evil, because thousands of quarters ago, Lucky Pong’s Great-Great Grandfather Hong Pong had outcompeted evil, forcing it to declare bankruptcy. For the past 1,000 years, it had scraped by as a maintenance worker in Lucky Pong’s toilet-factory.  

“AS I WAS SAYING!” Hooted the indomitable CEO, bearing his fangs. “The implications for this are dire. For if I can dream of a place where we do not own everything, then by logical deduction, there must be a place out there that we DO NOT OWN!”

This was, of course, completely ridiculous, even in a world of where monkeys sat in board rooms nattering about market growth. But they did not question, because their brains had at birth been lopped out and replaced with PONG CORP brand Brainztm. These were fortified with a lifetime’s supply of vitamin C and came in over sixty designer colors, but were, in an ironic twist of fate, not particularly good for critical thought. So when the Board saw Lucky Pong quiver, they quivered with him.

The simian CEO took a swig from a pitcher of Earl Grey tap water.

“I request you all look into this matter immediately! Meeting adjourned!”

The board members loped away with their knuckle walks, leaving only the CEO to mull over the ruckus.

.   .   .

And mull he did, all the way back to his nest-palace, as the sun shone on another PONG CORP brand Dawnetm (Now with more vitamin D!). Oh, how the synapses in his brain fluttered and flackered! So much they sputtered sparks all over the floor.

And by chance, one of them hit a spider, which at the time was busy scrounging for flies on the carpet. The spider let fly a squeal, darting ziggard-zaggard across the carpet…

Right into the dustpan of Freddie, Butler-Domo of PONG CORP.

“What is troubling your mind so, Master Pong?” Instigated the glorified servant. “To stress the lifetime warranty of your magnificent brain?”

“A dream! A terrible dream!” shrieked Pong.

And he lay his pains on Freddie in a most obnoxiously eloquent manner. This was not an unusual experience for Freddie. Unfortunately.

“Well, funny you should mention dreams.” Began that servant. On the terrace, the PONG CORP ZunTM now shone high in the sky. “Because here, in my dustbin, I have a most remarkable creature!”

“Pray tell! Pray tell!” Howled the CEO.

“Observe!” the servant held up the spider. “The glorious DREAM WEAVER!”

The servant released the little arachnid, which, as spiders are wont to do, skittered over to a high wall, and started to weave its’ web.

“Me no concur.” The CEO, scritched his puzzler.

The spider kept to its knitting, uninterested in Pong in a way that perplexed the simian.

“Yes…” said the butler, “But also notice how the Web connects things. And how it holds. Stronger than steel, even!”

Once more, the synapses of Lucky Pong’s cranium sparked erratically. “So with a big enough spider, we could weave a bridge between dreams and reality!” He gripped his butler, motioning dramatically to where the ZunTM shimmered through an open window. “Think of all the worlds we can bring PONGCORP’s glorious LiteTM to! Marvy! Splendiferous!”

“Then we must get cracking, Sir.”

“And crack we shall!” The chimpanzee hooted.

From the nest-palace jetted out millions upon millions of PONG CORP brand pongo-birdsTM, darkening the skies like locusts as they traveled to all reaches of the Earth and its’ moon, issuing a fresh new order from the boss.

While the gene splicers and the chromosome men in R&D handled construction, Lucky Pong of the latter day Pongses, 6th Scion of PONG CORP had to endure the most agonizing burden of all: naming the damned thing. After an hour of spinning in his chair, throwing darts at random letters, he had it.

“AltechTM! The accumulation of all our greatest biotechnology!”

Three generations of PONG CORP low-level employees (a little under a month) later, Lucky Pong, growing anxious, was informed by bumblebee that Project AltechTM was near completion. It just needed his personal touches.

Lucky Pong always hated this part of the process. Whenever he made a new beastie, he would always have to go to the bio-labs, which meant mingling with the proletariat and their hideous mutations. A hazard of his job, he supposed. Still, the moment he saw AltechTM, larger than a football field, soft auburn hair, obsidian pearl eyes; body gently heaving under the weight of the 7D Algae-ChainzTM tethering eight delicate legs, the all-seeing eye of PONG Corp emblazoned on her abdomen; he knew she was the finest thing he’d ever seen emerge from PONG CORP’S dirtied birthing-pools.

She was perfect. And yet…

“Why are the eyes open?” the great CEO interrogated to the High Chief Brainsman, overseer of the project.

“Because spiders don’t have eyelids!”

The Brainsman would have snapped. Of course, he couldn’t splatter so much a syllable before Lucky Pong flung him out for his impudence.

A call for a new Brainsman was in order. But first…

Pongo-birdsTM pecked at Altech’s eyes until the great spider rattled awake.

“AltechTM!” hooted the CEO. “Awaken, my child!”

The spider stared, disinterested in the little monkey. Lucky Pong found this most unnerving, but continued-“

“In our corporation’s time of need, I have created you to spin a web between this world and all the realms of possibility yet to be blessed with PONG CORP’S glory! For a great, horrible injustice is wrought upon our fair business…”

One hour later, the spider was staring at the little monkey as if he had told just told her the secret to the universe was 67.

Lucky Pong snapped his fingers, and the Algae-ChanizTM flew off, clattering to the ground.

“Now- WEAVE!”

But AltechTM did not weave. She didn’t feel like it.

Lucky Pong sighed. Time to be persuasive.

Pulling out his goober-whistle, he breathed through it a loud, shrill, note. This activated the electric eel implanted in AltechTM’s brain, sending a billion volts coursing through her nervous system.

Still, AltechTM did not budge.

Lucky Pong whistled again, and from the hidden corners of the room burst his personal shock jockey troops, brandishing their boomprods. Pong had invested a great deal in this prize, and would not let it slight him so easily. He came prepared.

What he HADN’T prepared for, however, was the great arachnid, simmering, steaming, and finally, EVAPORATEING into the ether, leaving only a small electric eel flopping on the ground.

Everyone stood still, staring at the marvel that had occurred before their eyes.

The great CEO said noting, but seethed in fury as if he would evaporate himself. Lightning bolts shot from his overstressed head.

By the time Lucky Pong had calmed, 99.99% of the staff working on the project had been fired; only a single employee kept on staff to explain the debacle.

“W-well, sir,” quibbled the newly appointed High Chief Brainsman “T-the best I can think of is that it escaped by folding itself into another dimension where the lab doesn’t exist.”

“Bold-ur-DASH! The walls of this facility exist in all seven known dimensions!”

“W-well maybe there’s a-“

Lucky Pong slapped his subordinate, firing him on the spot.

“Villains and Treachery! Sodom and Gomorrah!” he barked all the way back to his nest-palace. Now, on top of everything else, there was a new dimension, on their very plane of existence, one his ancestors had utterly failed to seize the rights to!

He needed a break.

“What tires you, sir?” interrogated Freddie, seeing his master grungle into the nest-mansion.

“AltechTM! My beautiful, glorious, AltechTM! Adrift in the mists! The mists of a new dimension, yet conquered!”

Freddie patted his master on the shoulder. “Worry your head not, sir. The fault is mine. A spider is a PREDATORY organism. You know how those are, too clever; think for themselves. And eight legs! Sooooo many moving parts!”

From a nearby lamp, the servant plucked a leathery brown object.

“This moth, however! Dull! Obedient! Only six legs! But those WINGS! Why, if one were large enough…”

“…A single flap could tear the fabric of possibility! Rockenbach!” Finished the master.

And the pongo-birds filled the sky once more.

.   .   .

The moth was finished in record time- two weeks!-, which was a very good thing too, because AltechTM was popping back into reality, like an eight legged weasel, tearing PONG CORP oxygen-factories to shreds, shattering PONG CORP ley lines, and stealing away the best of PONG CORP’s think-tanks.

For the first time in millennia, PONGCORP’S stock dropped in value, although the simians of the board (those that had not offed themselves, at least) tried desperately to keep the situation under wraps, to no avail. Many PONG CORP employees, in fact, had cast their lot with the spider, with cults popping up like mushrooms. Yet, as world shattering as this was to the simians of the board, all that Lucky Pong of the latter day Pongses, 6th Scion of PONG CORP, could fixate on was his precious new toy, one that would surely best the villainous spider.

Even as the Lucky Pong and the simians of the board crouched before the Pong’s giant creation, now dubbed the GODMOTHTM, PONG CORP was at war with the spider, dumping Spore-bombsTM by the bushel on it, but to no avail.

“GODMOTHTM!” commanded Lucky Pong, and the dim-witted behemoth opened its’ eyes.

“Am I not your master?” he asked, to which the moth said nothing.

“Well?! Flap your wings, brute! Open the unexplored realms of dream for us, so that we may deliver our glorious brand to the multiverse!”

The moth, of course, complied, and…

The world shook as all across the planet, rifts to realms of dreams, places that might be, and all worlds of possibility were ripped into the fabric of reality.

The GODMOTHTM, in its’ dimness, had opened all possible rifts at once, without consideration of the consequences, because it did not have the capacity to question its’ master.

Apes screamed as they fell into the sky, or from suddenly being turned into a billion sardines, or suffered some other crude fate too gruesome to mention here. And the things that came from these rifts! Some innocent, but others monstrous beyond comprehension. Beings made of stardust and music, capable on murder just by breathing, they flooded into the Earth, bringing the eldritch rules that governed their home worlds with them. In this way the Earth was razed. All the assets, earnings, holdings, yearnings and dreams of PONG CORP shushed out in a great gust of multiversal wind.

Such was the end of Lucky Pong of the latter day Pongses, 6th Scion of PONG CORP.

…But for Altech, it was only the beginning. While cross-reality tempests scarred the 3rd dimension, the great spider waited in the bowels of the 8th, carrying the sad remnants of PONGCORP’S best and brightest on her back. Remnants that included, by chance, Freddie, former Butler-Domo of PONG CORP.

For immeasurable time beyond time, the GODMOTHTM flapped its’ wings, but eventually, it tired. Hearing the silence of the moth from her hiding spot, Altech finally remerged. And from her back sprang the brilliant minds, servants, and living toilets PONG CORP had cast aside, to repopulate the world, as their savior, using her webs, repaired the borders between the worlds of reality, dream, and everything in between. Her task complete, the spider left to the outer dimensions, where even now she will share her gifts and knowledge with those she deems worthy. As for the moth, it came to rest deep beneath the Earth, in the ruins of the old laboratory where it had been manufactured. And to this day, slumbers there still.

[pa0231bethanymorns]

Evaluation of PA0231

My story revolves around a worker on the factory floor of Happy Toy Incorporation, called Kevin. He works all hours of the day putting toys together but really dreams of something more, being a top toy designer. With a very posh, arrogant, idiotic boss called Tony always has a go at him and makes him do so much more work than everyone else; Kevin’s dreams never seem to become reality. One day after being made to work overtime yet again, Kevin sees an invitation on the notice board. A big welcome meeting for a new head of design at the company is being planned for the next day and everyone is invited. Kevin attends the meeting and everyone is introduced to Mel, she is the brand new head of design for the company. She starts to wave and say hello; within the crowd she spots Kevin just standing there and she instantly likes him. Mel waves and sheepishly smiles.

However Kevin was practically stuck to the spot he was so in awe of her, it was love at first sight. Eventually he smiles and waves back. But the meeting ends and Kevin has to go back down to the factory floor. Then another notice appears on the board “Design a toy competition: To win a spot at the top with the new Head of Design!”, so Kevin gets an idea and starts to work all day on his concepts. He finally has an idea and just as he is about to knock on Mel’s door but behind him is Tony, his boss, coming to steal his idea and pass it off as his own to win Mel over. As he sees Tony is obviously in love with Mel too, annoyed by the events, he creates a new idea. He creates a rubber duck or “rubberduckzilla” that should stop Tony in his tracks. Again, he got to the door and heard the *cough cough* and there was the boss standing again.

Getting rather annoyed that he would never get to meet Mel and be able to make toys, Kevin again sets to work again. The final toy he creates is a walking, talking robot that he now instructs to make his own way there. Attempting to get past his boss yet again the robot and Kevin go their separate ways to get to the office. Making its way through the vents the robot drops in on Tony for one final surprise. The robot ties him up so that he won’t be able to make his way to the office. Travelling back through the vents the robot then makes his way into Mel’s office where Tony is already waiting. He finally meets his girl.

This final idea for a story came mainly from influential films within our research prep lessons and my own viewing habits. When we started the lessons we were focusing on the concept of theme and I really liked the eight themes outlined by Phillip Parker (2002). Mainly love or “the pursuit of love” and the pursuit of self-validation. Taking inspiration from Pixar shorts like Paperman (2012) and films like Toy Story (1995) I started to build upon an idea.

So when I presented the idea in one of the lessons I had a very basic outline which is not to different from my final story but  the whole class seemed to like it but the main factors pointed out to me were the trouble with making toy designs so I went back to work on the idea. In the meantime we also had a card related exercise to come up with two new ideas based solely on what object we had on the card. So my cards where a golden seashell. The seashell would be an evil genius luring people to their deaths in the ocean. My second story was about a ring, the ring never ever got picked at the jewellery store and finally does when a man proposes to his girlfriend. However the ring possesses his new owner and starts eliminating the other rings. The ring becomes too full of itself and goes to a watery grave after getting lost down a plughole. I liked these two ideas but I felt like they would be quite hard to work on.  I could still work on my toy factory romance because it seemed like a story I could keep on developing further and further.

As a final product, I have to say I am quite happy with what I have come up with. The final product does look how I wanted it too. However I think the process was rather tough. When coming up with an idea to present I was actually quite stumped with how to fill out the whole idea. I had the setting of a toy factory and that it would be romantic among other things but I just couldn’t see how to flesh it out. Then looking at the Story as a whole I focused on the drama of my story “All drama is conflict: without conflict you have no action; without action you have no character; without character you have no story” Syd Field (1984) - I have stuck to this and made the patronising boss who always gets in the way my conflict.

Also using the three act structure Syd Field (1984) meant I could start to flesh out my idea fully. I think the whole process was quite hard to get through because I had to fully understand the idea of screenwriting theory in as much detail as I could. In theory this was a bad point because I kept messing up my endings when trying to create my final product. But now I believe the full 3 act structure of my story is in accordance with that set out by Syd Field (1984). The second act and third act just didn’t combine together at first and then I finally had some ideas. But it wasn’t easy trying to get to this I had to do a lot more reading to get the structure correct as a few times when I tried to make a good ending I either left the second act lagging or the ending just never tied in. In the end it seemed I was having a bad experience with getting my idea right because I just didn’t have that connection in it. I didn’t have the momentum and clarity, the audience just wouldn’t be able to “get with” my story and involve themselves with it along the way Linda Seger (1987).  I think the drama in my story is more relatable to the audience now due to sticking to this three acts.

An overall good point was being able to have a good backlog of help and ideas for writing up ideas. Screenwriting theory was totally new to me and now I have a good understanding of it, or at least a better understanding than I did before. I knew I wanted to do something that was romantically linked so taking my understandings of Phillip Parker’s(2002) master list of stories I could decide on whether my product would be a romance or the unrecognized virtue. In this case it was more of a romance as both the protagonist and the girl do fall in love with each other instantly, it’s just the fact that they are from different parts of the factory that’s the problem. Another good point was being able to go a little more in depth about making characters that the audience can relate to or get involved with hating etc. Working out the protagonist in my story and antagonist etc. gave me a way better outlook on screenwriting. However it was tough with the antagonist, “the principle of antagonism: A protagonist and his story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them” Robert McKee (1997). Making the boss so irritating and showing that he always gets in the way makes it more fun when the protagonist is trying to beat him and makes for a comedic element to my story. Also now with the structure intact I could also focus on other factors such as the narrative. Narrative genres can be broken into syntactic, semantic and pragmatic Rick Altman (1999). Mainly looking at the pragmatic level of my work I thought about the audience again and the way they could use the work. They can feel a connection with the protagonist as he is the underdog and they can make real life connections with this.

Another part of the process which was quite bad at first was adding the originality to the story- my originality lies within the toy designs. I had to have that connection within it so that the audience thinks they are fun toys and making them fun so that when the boss keeps stealing the ideas it becomes harder and harder for him to do so. I do think now that the structure of my story is reasonably strong and overall it was a very hard working experience where I learnt a lot.

If there was anything else I could have done/ improved upon I would have easily chosen to expand even further into my idea of the toy factory romance using the animatic. As maybe in the frames I didn’t cover enough of my story as they should have and if I could have a go again Other things I could have done is easily to have a better animatic version of my story as my drawings could have been a lot better and maybe some different angles could have been used to make it even more dramatic. Although I can always return to the work in future projects and make some more frames for dramatic shots. What came across in the final presentation was that I could have added way more shots in to cover the rivalry between each opponent (Kevin and Tony) to show how in love they were with the girl in the story. Parts of the animatic timings could also be improved to suit the story as it didn’t show the story as well as it could have. Also, again as I mentioned before act 3 was quite hard to complete, trying to think of a good enough ending for what I wanted. I always wanted the ending to be Kevin getting one over on his boss one final time so that he can get his girl. But there could still be a better approach to this as it also came across in the final presentation that it was a little too convenient that the robot did all the work and maybe it could involve Kevin as the main protagonist finally getting one over on his boss.  

If I were to go through this process again I wold easily do far more background reading than I did whilst completing this module. I would do some reading before each lesson to be more prepared when actually getting around to doing my idea. Also, I would create far more different ideas instead of just having the factory idea and the two object ideas which were the seashell and ring. I would also give myself far more time to complete the animatic as even though I spent a lot of time on making the storyboards and getting approval on them, they obviously still weren’t right so I would start making them before the actual allotted time we get within the class.

Overall I would love to take the lessons I have learnt while completing this module and apply them to my other classes. I had no clue at all about scriptwriting and what goes into a good story before I started this module. Now I have a far better understanding of what goes on and I think I will be stronger with future ideas because of this. It may not have gone perfectly but lessons have been learnt and I can be far more creative with my animations in the future.