#shows that even with a tough childhood/youth you can reach your goals in life

[hammill-goes-fogwalking]

Siouxsie Sioux. What a woman. I LOVE her.

[all-about-seggs]

Gojo Satoru's Good Side

Warnings- Gonna be spoliers for Volume 0, and Gojo's school days arc (I forgot the actual name but I think it was something 'star plasma vessel arc'?) anime episode no. 6 and 21. And some latest fanbook spoilers as well. And some theories about his past as well.

So right now we know little about Gojo's family and childhood but to me it's kind of apparent that he may have had sort of an oppressive childhood and his rebellious nature stems from being made to carry the responsibilities from a very young age.

Not only he was the next in line head of the clan in his childhood but also the carrier of the 6 eyes that was born after 400 years and with the pressure of inheriting the clan's technique limitless I have enough reasons to believe he lost a huge part of his childhood in order to be the 'honoured one' he is now.

He's someone who's learned the importance of youth after losing his own.

He longs for freedom with a dream to have an uncorrupted Jujutsu society where the people don't have to be bound to the irrational rules and outdated ideals of people just bec they are a few decades older.

He's ambitious and have the power to become a mass murdered on loose to reach his goal but he knows nobody will follow him down that path. He wants a world where everyone lives their own way not the way that is forced upon them. And as a teacher makes it a point to pass that knowledge on to his students that he low key cares about a lot.

The parallels-

Why he supports Yuuta and Yuuji-

His words are similar and so are his actions in both cases.

At first glance Gojo comes off as a selfish jerk that only seems to care about making things go his own way and it may be true to some extent but inbetween those self entered and reckless nature there are moments of pure kindness and generosity, the subtlety of which can easily be overlooked if you're not careful.

He never makes it a point to boast about his sentimental actions. Sure he's kinda narcissistic in other ways but the fact that he tries to help his students from behind the scenes without a word shows he is not just a simple 'anti hero' troupe.

He tries to protect both Yuuji and Yuuta during what's supposed to be the 'best years of their life'. He knows the value of every mundane things of Highschool that will soon become a memory. Something that everyone's supposed to look back with fondness.

This was one of the first out the very few times we see Gojo emotional, like Shoko comments, it was very unlike him bc he prefers to treat things indifferently and unemotionally.

Not only was Yuuji in a somewhat similar situation with Yuuta but he was also someone who Gojo saw potential in.

Now let's go back to his school days arc. Even tho he makes it clear how he hates that ' strong should protect the weak' charade, after finding out about Amanai Riko's situation he goes out of his way to not only protect her but make sure she has fun during the little time she had left before merging into a state of unconsciousness ( correct me if I'm wrong).

He lets her have as much fun as she wants all the while exerting himself to keep his limitless technique on (when he couldn't control all that well back then), untill he was exhausted to his breaking point. And in the end even tells Geto to let her run away with some money so she could live her life as a normal girl.

⚾ He is aware how hard the Jujutsu soccer lifestyle is and how it will only get harder after they all graduate. The need to have fun during their school time is something he truly believes in and it shows when he seekily changes the individual battel event into a fun and relaxing baseball game.

How he pays attention to the details, he's insightful when it counts-

His concerned face and tone when Megumi gets out so easily. He wanted Megumi to have fun too. It's obvious how much he cares about his students or atleast Megumi.

Even if he didn't experienced all the joys of childhood, he didn't let it change his views on them or forget about their value and importance in life.

His kindness can easily go unnoticed bc of his usually laid back and nonchalant demeanor that comes off as rude and frivolous but in actuality he doesn't make it a point to show off how much he cares nor does he expects for this care to be returned.

His love is filled with complexities and inconsistencies bc he doesn't believe in coddling up his loved ones, like he said He's more of a 'tough love' kinda guy.

One moment he's spending all his energy in making your life hard with his ridiculous and outrageous pranks and his unofficial position as the no. 1 troll teacher and the next thing you know your day becomes a little bit brighter, filled with a little more laughter bc of its light hearted moments that he brings in.🧁

Ending this with a 🧁 bc Gojo Satoru can be sweet and hell

A/n: Word Vomit to its max. Sorry to everyone who thought these were gonna be headcanons bc as you can see it was just a rant. But anyway! Pls let me.know what you think of this 'analysis' and if I've gotten anything wrong and how I can improve it. Your headcanons or thoughts are welcome in my inbox! Thank you for reading this💮💮

[cutienami]

Zeah Pala: Behind Spotlight

Colors, hues, and textures form the different shadows, lines that contribute to the significance of any given picture. They blend together and complement each other to provide the essence of details of the image portrayed, just like in pageants, Beautiful face, fair skin, long legs, and beautiful smile, sexy, intelligent, are some of the descriptions that a beauty queen is defined. But behind the spotlight, most people don't know what those queens are going through.

Zeah is one of the million beauty queens that not everyone recognized but she is one of the few beauties that will genuinely melt your heart.  She is the only princess and the only child of the family, who is born in Tarlac City and raised by her grandparents in La Union since she was seven months old. Her parents were both OFW back then so she has to live with her grandparents. Even beauty queens experience bullying, at a young age she has dark skin so other kids call her "Negra", “tuyo” and teases her a lot. She is a shy type of kid before, compared to who she is today. Her life before as a kid is far away from what we see on her Instagram because she experienced living on the farm away from the city, living her life as a typical "probinsiyana kid”. She never anticipated being a beauty queen someday because during her childhood she is a boyish type who is I believe wears a dress not too often.

The life of Pageantry changed her a lot, most especially much disciplined compared to before who is a very hardheaded person. She learned to love herself more and to set time for everything, for her family, her friends, her school, everything she does is set according to her priority. Through pageantry, she learned to help other people without expecting anything in return. Through pageantry's, she is able to voice out her advocacy's on charity programs, youth education, and livelihood programs, or more likely being a volunteer to different programs.  

She joined much amateur pageantry and she did fail at some point but she never gives up, instead, she always considers it as her stepping stone in reaching her dream and serves as a lesson to her to be a better version of herself. According to the beauty queen, her struggles during the journey are something to do with building her self-esteem as a beauty queen because Pageants are not the same as just joining your favorite sports game, you have to be prepared, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. To boost her self-esteem she had to undergo a lot of training for her to be the image she wants to portrait during the contest.  She is the kind of person that doubts everything she does in life, her decisions, and simple choices of things, she doubts herself.

“Sa dami rami ng mga sinabi sa akin ng mga tao na magaganda , nag seself doubt ako..... I think most of my decisions in life, nag seself doubt ako. Kung kaya ko ba ito?,kaya ko ba niyan, may laban ba ako?, kung tama ba yung gagawin ko?, or parang hindi ko naman kaya, Huwag nalang kaya? Mga ganung doubts…… lahat ng decisions ko sa buhay nag dodoubt ako pero at the end of the day,desisyon ko parin yun na kahit nag doubt ako at least nag work man o hindi, may natutunan ako.” says  Zeah.

Every individual has their own weaknesses and strengths, and most of the time we feel insecure about ourselves. Insecurities sometimes affect our holistic perspective about life. As a beauty queen, being insecure is not new at all. Zeah has her own insecurities too, and her biggest insecurity is her height. Personally, as a commoner, as a 5 footer, I really wish I had her height but we all are not the same.  When it comes to pageantry, Height is one of the qualifications to be a beauty queen, but her height is only average and it is not qualified for any international pageants, it means she can only join pageantries according to her qualification and it makes her feel insecure that she had limits on the thing she is so passionate about.  It is not easy to meet the expectation of other people towards you, but you just have to show them you are tough and brave enough to face anything just to reach your dreams.

Change is the only permanent in this world as they say. We all experience changes and sometimes we are the ones who made changes. It is a big decision in life to make changes for us to be better so I asked if given a chance to change anything about herself what would it be? And she said,

“It’s a cliché if sabihin kong wala akong gustong baguhin sa sarili ko……but with all honesty…ang gusto kong  baguhin sa sarili ko is through physical, or so-called enhancement, sa ilong,sa color,mga ganun but when it comes to personality, I believe kase na….through your experience dun ka matututu and dun ka din magbabago, so it’s natural.”

We always wanted to be like somebody else so, we don’t just make physical changes in our body for fun, but instead to help us reach our dreams and do the things we are passionate about with confidence.

In the process of metamorphosis, a caterpillar must first turn into larvae and into a cocoon until it develops its wings to be ready for flight. It then shed into a beautiful and colorful butterfly. The transformation of Zeah to a beauty queen is never easy. She had experienced different types of pains during the process.  She experienced hate from her family, relatives, friends, and even those people she had an intimate relationship with. This stage aims to bring out her inner spirit of ones to prove if she deserves the career path she chooses.

“I always cry, nilalabas ko, I cry until I feel relieved, hindi ko siya hinhayaang maipon and at the end of the day after I cry, I pray, after I pray, I sleep, then when I wake up in the morning, another day to spend," Zeah said.

We all have different ways of dealing with pains but the most important thing is that at the end of the day we have learned our lessons. Strengthening your faith in God always comes first.

"When you have faith in God, God will always shower your blessings in life, many blessings in fact.. . … When you believe in the right timing, God will give you the right time for all the things you have prayed for," Zeah said.

To be someone who is successful, there is no such thing as luck; it’s all about hard work. Zeah is someone who works very hard to achieve the goals she set in her life. She never fails to make her parents proud and never set aside her faith in the Lord.  She is a very sweet person to begin with, and a very approachable one.

“As a child, in the eyes of my parents, I’m not matured enough to handle things up, but in the eyes of my friends, I am more matured enough than them . . . But as a daughter, I am very sweet in my own way. “

Beauty Queens all came from different walks of life, but despite their differences, they learn to rise up from the challenges they all face. The traditions they uphold strengthen their unity and deepen their sense of responsibility towards each other. It may vary from time to time but the significance of its value remains rooted in the heart of the people and of course the crown. Despite the diversity among the beauty queens, despite all the failures she experienced, Zeah Pala rises up.

“Sumuko ka pero, Hindi ka hihinto” _- Zeah Pala-_

[englishvisualnovels]

Craft Items, Get Rich, and Find a Husband — The Bell Chimes for Gold Now on Sale on Denpasoft and Steam

Developer: OTUSUN Club Publisher: Sekai Project (All-Ages ver.) & Denpasoft (18+ ver.) Release Date: April 6, 2018 Platform: Windows Age Rating: All-Ages & 18+ Price: 

$9.99 (All-Ages ver.)

$14.99 (18+ ver.)

Note: This post contains links that may lead to NSFW content.

Earlier, Sekai Project released The Bell Chimes for Gold on Denpasoft and Steam. The 18+ version is available through Denpasoft while the all-ages version can be purchased through Steam.

The Bell Chimes for Gold is an indie otome RPG/visual novel hybrid developed by OTUSUN Club. To celebrate its launch, fans can purchase the game for 10% off until April 13th.

Sekai Project and Denpasoft are also running a drawing where winners will receive a cloth mousepad featuring the characters from The Bell Chimes for Gold. Please note the giveaway is available to only residents of the United States. The giveaway ends on April 12th.

Relevant Links:

Where to Buy (Digital): Denpasoft (18+ ver.), Steam (All-Ages ver.)

Official Site

Launch Giveaway

Sekai Project

Denpasoft

Features, via Sekai Project:

Woo the hearts of 5 potential middle-aged grooms with tough and unique personalities.

Explore through different dungeons such as forests and mines to collect materials.

Make useful items in battle with Maria's Herbalism skill or you can sell them for money to add to your funds.

Contribute to your favorite character with your hard earnings to unlocks special scenes.

Enjoy your favorite love interest speaking to you in full Japanese voice-over.

Replay through your favorite scenes  with the Memories section.

Switch between English and Japanese languages in-game.

Synopsis:

Maria is a plain old herbalist training diligently under the watchful gaze of her loving mentor.

Her skill in crafting items gets her within arm’s reach of her goal of getting enough money to marry. But then, her mentor who she was supposed to be a happy couple with suddenly marries his pretty childhood friend!

“With your skills in crafting, you can just buy any man you want.”

After getting turned down with such cruel words, Maria resolves herself and declares:

“I’m gonna make a buttload of money and marry someooooneeeee!!!”

What encounters are in store? Earn, save, and marry. A happy end awaits you ♪

Cast:

Maria Scissorland (Name cannot be changed.)

The main character; a highly skilled herbalist.

Because she is so dedicated to her research and her craft, she has almost no chances to get into contact with men.

The only man she’s had a relationship with is her mentor. Without ever having done the deed, he broke up with her.

The items she makes are first-class, and fetch a high price.

Samuel Double Voiced by: No Name

Although well-built, muscular, and a great warrior, he destroys his body with alcohol.

His main weapon is a great sword. However, it’s currently being pawned. Has has so many tabs running with bars that he’s on the verge of running dry.

Though he’s not really a bad guy, he’s still a drunkard of an old man, so there aren’t many prospects for him. He can often be found sipping on booze at bars.

Ben Koo Voiced by: Shiraiwa Kazuma

A thief, and compulsive gambler.

His luck in anything related gambling is as exceptionally horrible as he is excellent in his other skillsets. The debt has piled up so much that he isn’t even allowed into any casinos or gambling dens. In fact, his own life is already at risk.

A dagger and sling are his primary weapons. He often sits in dark corners of bars so that he doesn’t stand out.

William Bloom Voiced by: Takeda Naoto

An elven ranger. He is also a skilled user of the spirits, as well as being skilled with the bow, but he is so naive that he is easily fooled.

Having been tricked into shouldering a debt from a complete stranger, he is always chased after by debt collectors. Also, he has a problematic tendency to just give money away whenever he sees anyone in need. His main weapons are his mythril short sword and his bow.

He can often be found in the adventurers’ guild, looking for work.

Ben Starly Voiced by: Sugiyama Atsushi

A priest coming from fallen nobility. Though he grew up well, his family had lost all of its assets due to his father’s debauchery.

Despite being absurdly poor, he can’t help but show off. He dreams to one day buy back his family’s estate, furnishings, and treasures.

His main weapon is a mace.

Often, he can be found in the adventurers’ guild looking for work.

Walter Pleasant Voiced by: KK

A necromancer dedicated to his work. He has been placed under special surveillance, and is not allowed into cemeteries. His primary theme of research is to create zombies who retain their conscious reasoning. As a practitioner of his craft, his skills are top-notch, at a level where he can make use of the undead, prolong life, and even restore youth. He has no interest in anything but his own research, so his social skills are terrible.

He has no sponsors so he is extremely poor. Because his research deals with raising the dead, he was kicked out of the sorcerers’ academy, and so he can’t get a job. He can often be found rummaging around the garbage bins around town.

[elusivepeacecom-blog]

Happiness Comes With These Skills

Emotional competence is a set of abilities that really does not get the attention it should have. Emotions are vibrant, dramatic, remarkable, and vital measurements of everyone's experience. Emotions send out a continuous stream of effective signals that can direct us along the tough path of survival or quickly send us off on devastating and uncomfortable tangents. Feelings obey their own strange rules that we can study, understand, listen to, find out from, master, and even delight in. Emotional Competency or Emotional Intelligence Much has actually been blogged about psychological intelligence. If you have been frustrated in your attempt to increase your emotional intelligence, you are not alone. The issue is that emotional intelligence can not be discovered due to the fact that it is a test of emotional competency. You can learn to end up being emotionally competent; you can not learn to be mentally intelligent. If you wish to score high on an emotional intelligence assessment, master the skills of emotional competency. This post will get you began. Comprehending The Difference Between Affect And Emotion Affect is the experience of feeling pleasant or unpleasant. Affect develops as a physiological reaction to your environment, your thoughts, and your memories. Sylvan Tomkins, a 20th-century psychologist, identified 9 impacts. They are: Excitement. Happiness/Joy. Surprise/Startle. Fear-Terror. Distress-Anguish. Anger-Rage. Disgust. Dissmell. Shame-Humiliation. All humans are born with these impacts. The Neuroscience of Affect and Emotion. From a neuroscientific point of view, affect outcomes from the interactions of the amygdala (fear and anger, startle-surprise), hypothalamus, insula (disgust, dissmell, shame, embarrassment), and striatum (joy, pleasure, pleasure). These brain structures are modulated through the ventromedial prefrontal cortex into the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. The hypothalamus receives signals from the amygdala. The hypothalamus then uses the endocrine system to transform the signals into effect through powerful chemicals called hormones. The believing part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex, has no function in producing affect. However, the prefrontal cortex has a significant interpretive function because it produces emotions from impact as symbolic representations. Humans are not born with feelings but must discover them starting at about 18 months of age. Comprehending The Difference Between Self And Emotions. You are not your feelings. Sometimes, nevertheless, feelings can be so overwhelming that you can confuse yourself with them. One essential ability of emotional competency is discovering how to identify yourself from your emotions. You might feel angry, but your self is not mad; you are merely experiencing the emotion of anger. The sense of self is more or less long-lasting, while the experience of emotions is typically short. Developing Emotional Self-Awareness. Psychological self-awareness is the capability to acknowledge and call your emotional experience in the moment. Most of the time, you probably experience a neutral affect and no emotion. In other words, neither sensory inputs ideas, or memories are triggering effect. When you are activated, you will feel emotions. Since your brain has different functions of thinking and generating emotions, you wish to be cognitively familiar with your emotions in addition to feeling them. Notice that there is a sharp distinction in between awareness of feeling and sensation emotion. Even if you feel a feeling does not indicate that you know the feeling. There are 4 reasons self-awareness of emotions is important to emotional competency: . 1. You concrete emotions into your consciousness, which develops self-awareness. 2. Once you are self-aware, you can take a look around to see what is triggering your feeling. 3.Self-awareness enables you to make informed options about what to do next. 4.Self-awareness enables you to interact with your psychological experience to others. Emotional self-awareness is likewise the ability to understand why you are experiencing emotions. Psychological self-awareness suggests that you understand the links between your feelings and what you believe, do, and state. Emotional self-awareness permits you to comprehend how your emotions affect your efficiency. You can evaluate what you are feeling with what you are doing and decide if your actions follow your goals. Self-awareness assists you see that your feelings are driving you far from your objectives. Psychological self-awareness assists you see how feelings drive your worths and objectives. Suppose you are upset about racial injustice and are self-aware. In that case, you acquire the insight that working resolving injustice is crucial to you. Without this self-awareness, you would simply be angry. Developing A Vocabulary Of Emotions And Emotional Expression. Emotional competency consists of an ability to express your emotions accurately. If you can not call your feelings, you may struggle with a condition called alexithymia. Your ability to call your feelings needs you to develop categories of feelings. Psychological classification begins at about 18 months of age as the limbic system begins to develop. Children have to be assisted to learn what words describe what feelings they are experiencing. Many kids are denied the chance to establish emotional classification since they are often mentally invalidated by their moms and dads and peers. Psychological invalidation occurs whenever somebody tells you how to feel, diminishes, dismisses what you are feeling, or judges you for feeling. Typical examples of emotional invalidation are: . "Stop weeping.". "It's ok.". "It does not harmed.". "Don't be a sissy.". "Don't be such a drama queen.". "Be a male.". "Toughen up, buttercup.". "It's not that bad.". "You're making a mountain out of a molehill.". "It's unworthy getting upset about.". "Things will be better tomorrow.". Numerous research study studies show that emotional invalidation is among the most prevalent and perilous kinds of youth abuse. Psychological invalidation is painful and prevents children from correct psychological brain development. Psychological invalidation tells a kid that she is an enemy for having feelings. The moms and dad may not intend for the child to believe that, but that is how the child gets the message. As a result, children end up being mentally stuck when they can not navigate a tough emotional situation. Their brains will wall off the emotion as a method of self-protection. Over time, with duplicated invalidation, a child becomes emotionally closed down and not available. When a child no longer feels feelings, her brain can not move her forward. The impulse towards maturity is halted. Suppose you have become emotionally stuck in childhood. If you are stressed out as an adult, you will revert to the time and age you ended up being mentally stuck. That will be the limit of your emotional self-discipline. Developing Emotional Self-Regulation. Emotional competency indicates that you have a high degree of psychological self-regulation. Psychological self-regulation develops from the prefrontal cortex. It is the ability to control impulsivity and emotional reactivity. Psychological self-regulation establishes with emotional self-awareness. If you are not emotionally self-aware, you will not be able to control your behaviors. Rather, you will be emotionally reactive. Developing Awareness Of Others' Emotions. Emotional competency likewise includes the ability to read other individuals's emotional information fields. Everyone sends out signals or data about their psychological experience. Our brains are hard-wired to scan this information. Because western culture avoids emotions as appropriate, we are not taught how to utilize our natural ability to read others' feelings. Establishing Reflective Emotional Listening (Cognitive And Affective Empathy). Empathy is the capability to reflect back another person's feelings precisely. Compassion needs to be learned and practiced. There are 2 sorts of compassion: affective and cognitive. Affective compassion is the ability to feel without believing what another individual is experiencing mentally. Cognitive empathy is the ability to observe, determine, and consider another individual's emotions. Empathy is constantly revealed with a "you" statement. You would, for instance, say, "You are upset.". Compassion ought to never ever be expressed with an "I" declaration. "I" statements and the associated ability of "active listening" were created by psychologist Thomas Gordon and modify into nonviolent interaction by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. Sixty years of experience has taught us that "I" statements do not work. What does work is a "you" declaration? Coping With Aversive Emotions And Developing Emotional Resiliency. Life is difficult. Often, we have bad experiences or memories. With them come unfavorable feelings. Emotional competency includes our ability to manage extreme negative and unpleasant emotions so that we are temporarily hurt by them. Emotional resiliency is the ability to move through unpleasant emotional experiences, such as unhappiness and sorrow, to reach a state of psychological stability in satisfaction, happiness, and satisfaction. Resiliency is not well-understood from a neuroscientific viewpoint. Resiliency appears to be greatest in people who can accept a wider perspective on life, have strong and diverse identities, and develop relationship networks. Establishing Interpersonal Emotional Negotiation Skills. Emotional competency includes interpersonal psychological settlement abilities. Interpersonal psychological negotiation abilities are the skills we utilize to manage our feelings and help those who have a relationship with us handle their feelings. - We establish the capability to state our psychological expectations plainly to others. - We establish clear boundaries about what is emotionally acceptable and what is not. - We listen to and honor the expressed emotional expectations of others. - We acknowledge and honor the expressed emotional limits of others. This skill is missing out on in co-dependent, please, calming, and passive-aggressive behaviors. Teaching Others (Especially Children) Emotional Competency. The final emotional competency is your ability to teach emotional competency to others, especially children. One of the leading factors kids melt down is communicative frustration. Without the abilities to process intricate emotions, children are helpless. They are terrified when they don't understand why their body and mind experience intense emotions. Numerous kids do not have the vocabulary or language skills needed to identify their feelings and express themselves. Rather, they automatically repress their feelings. This can lead to negative ideas and embarassment connected with feelings. Showing back emotions helps children identify, show, and solve their sensations. When you have the ability to teach emotional competency to others: . - You design emotional competency for others to mimic. - You explain the science of feelings properly and appropriately. - You explain and show the numerous skills that make up emotional competency. - You coach others towards incremental improvement of their emotional competency. This is a key function of leadership and a crucial function of parenting. Emotional Competency Is The Secret to a Fulfilling Life. We spend years discovering how to be task-focused. Official education highlights understanding acquisition, crucial thinking, thinking, and analytical. We spend almost no time on developing emotional competency. Misery typically arises from not being taught how to be emotionally competent. Think of poor leaders, relationship failures, dependencies, co-dependent relationships, among others, and the outcome of psychological incompetency is all over. Being emotionally competent is the secret to a satisfying life. Knowing these skills is not challenging, but does take a dedication of some time and effort.

[healingmusejamilah]

Oh yes!! Here we are at one of the most potent sky of the lifetime with the Massive Karmic Cleansing factors and more. Well..I did start writing the Full Moon Partial Eclipse in Cancer happening on the 9/10th of January a few days ago. But I got a bit unwell from the detoxification after the healing sessions that have happened to me in quite a nice unplanned way and I felt deeply grateful for. Anyhow, this healing crisis didn’t allow me to finish my writing in time for the full moon. And things always happen for a reason because I can share with you the broader perspective of what is happening in this super active sky in during this period. I’ll still covering a bit of this past Full Moon eclipse as it played quite an important role in the whole scheme. And the energy of the eclipse lasts about 6 months. So it’s not that obsolete to talk about it. We are living a very strong Capricorn time with 7 celestial elements all in one sign. Capricorn is an Earth sign having mountain goat as a glyph. Mountain goat is a strong and perseverant animal that can walk up to the mountain top no matter how rough the path is without getting tired. So this sign is about working hard through slow and sturdy steps towards goals and achievement. The 7 elements are: 1. The South Node of the moon - the point pertaining what we have carried with us from the past, childhood and the deep cellular memory from the past lives. It’s the aspect we have to learn to let go in this life time for the the next soul evolution step. 2. Jupiter the Benefic Lord of Abundance, Luck and Expansion, the planet of Faith, Wisdom and Truth. Jupiter usually expands the energy of whatever he touches. In this case, he has the direct touch with the South Node of the Moon enhancing the letting go of the South Node in certain area of our life depends on where it lies in the natal chart. 3. The Sun represents our soul essence and identity. It’s the main power and the centre of the whole solar system. The Sun shines the light enhancing each zodiac sign in which it travels to every month and illuminates the celestial elements that it interacts with. 4. Mercury is the planet of news, communication, creative expression and intellect. Mercury is notorious to be the trickster and it also represents youth and juvenile energy. 5. Pluto, the Lord of Transformation, Power, Death and Rebirth, a big karmic cleanser. He is the Lord of Underworld that rules our deep psyche and subconsciousness. After we tap into our inner power to have strength to dive deep in the underworld, Pluto will also support us to be born again like a phoenix rising. 6. Saturn is the Lord of Karma, Rules, Restrictions, Boundaries and Fear. He is Chronos, the Lord of Time that put limit on everything. He is the rule setter founding the structure and stability to all matters. He rules leaders, and authority figures and the fatherly energy. 7. Ceres, or Demeter in Greek Mythology is an asteroid representing Goddess Energy, Earth Mother, Harvest and deep motherly energy. And all of this mega stellium is in the lime light on the Capricorn stage right now!! What I would love to emphasise here is the exact conjunction of Saturn and Pluto. These two big Lords conjoin each other every 33-34 years in different signs. But we won’t going to have them coming together in Capricorn again in this lifetime. it’s a rare celestial alignment we are talking about here. These two comes quite close together already for many months in 2019. When they comes together, it’s super INTENSE!! And their meeting was given a big jolt by this recent Full Moon Partial Eclipse in Cancer - the first Full Moon of the decade that had such a grand overture into 2020. It brought us quite a destabilising energy. And this one is pretty much related with our emotional body and deep feelings. It could eclipse something or someone out of our life in quite an unpredictable way. This is part of the flow of the Nature. This might happen in the area connecting with Cancer, the highly sensitive and emotional sign that rules our roots, mother figure, home and family. It could may involve home improvement, moving or relocation. It’s also a big time to clear family karma through some healing modalities. The conjunction between Saturn and Capricorn affects us on many levels. On the personal plane, it concerns big transformation. Pluto energy has ask us to dive deep into our psyche to face our shadow and old patterns, to face, clean and clear stuff that no longer serves us. Saturn stands there as a controller to make sure we won’t or can’t give up until we work enough to clear a big bunch of those out of our system. They ask us to be responsible with our shadow and become accountable with our behaviour, to use our power in the right way, to get rid of the unhealthy ego and old patterns that hinder us from growing internally. And if we manage to learn from this rough lessons, the rewards we reap after will last long for Saturn represents a very long shelf life. This change can create new structure and foundation for the area of life we are working at. The energy of this high potency conjunction may spread pretty much through out 2020. But it hits the peak point having the exact same degree on Sunday, Jan 12th. On this same day Mercury also joins this configuration. This mercurial meeting can be seen in a few aspects. On one regard, it may bring intensity or even conflict in communication. On others, I personally feel that this is the reminder for the juvenile Mercury to grow up, get real and be responsible. And on the 13th, the Sun has destined to come shine the light on these 3 parties still in very tight conjunction raising the potency even higher. This could also bring us to internalise the whole process and see what do we learn from these so to get closer to the essence of who we truly are. Well, this is why this cycle of Pluto-Saturn bonding is extremely powerful. We also have the participation from Uranus the Lord of Awakening and Sudden Change coming into play. Uranus is in a very powerful stage in the sky in the sign of Taurus right now. And this might give us a big surprise or bring us a sudden change in certain areas of our life depending where the Uranus lies in the natal chart. On the collective level, since Capricorn reflects the energy of the government, world’s leaders and authority figure, which are parts of the Old World, we are witnessing many intense incidents around the globe. This shows us the declination of the “Old System”. Pluto is about the power. We can see the power game being overly exploited in so many countries in the world. Of course it’s not a new thing that we or the generation before us has seen the violence and conflicts happening one after another. But is it about time for us to seriously question this? Do we want all this to continue for the following generations? Is it time to check in and assess how we personally use our power? Is it constructive or destructive to self and to others? We can be part of the change from understanding, accepting, love and compassion starting from doing the inner-self work so to cultivate the loving awareness and stop feeding more energy into the pattern of conflict and separation. We are all the co-creators of what’s going on in the world. Love-base action is the key to peace and harmony that we want to see in the world. And we have to start with ourselves. It’s time we get real in keeping raising our vibration to create positive ripple effect for the collective consciousness. I feel like the whole Earth is in the birth canal, pretty dark and contracted before the delivery of the New World. Kesenya Moore, one of my favourite astrologers has explained beautifully in the video that I put the link below about Saturn, Pluto and the Cycle of the Earth Evolution from Aeon to Aeon. For example, she explained that we are at the end of Kali Yuga or Dark Age transitioning to Bronze Age stepping into the Age of Aquarius. We are in a tiny spot in time of the ascending cycle. And it will take about 12,000 years to reach the Golden Age again. Please don’t be discouraging to see this number. For me, it’s a good reminder that it literally takes lifetimes for our soul to learn and grow. So please be compassionate and gentle with yourself on the path of soul growth and give yourself lots of TLC.. The last element here is Ceres, the archetype of Earth Mother and Nurturer. Ceres is also in the same area of this big conjunction. This for me reflects the environmental incidents that are happening around the world and I don’t want to go in details here. The planet Earth is now suffering like never before. This shows how human being has been using their power in such a destructive way. Saturn here suggests us to seriously restructure all issues pertaining the Earth and environment ASAP. Well, may be you want to take a few deep breaths here..as I’ll give you a bit of fresh air. From Jan 13th to Feb 7th, Venus the planet of beauty, love, relationship and finance is going in the dreamy Pisces where she is exalted! Venus lo..o..ves to be in Pisces. This is the gift for everyone and especial for those who are Libra and Taurus Sun, Moon or Rising. They may enjoy this energy more for Venus is their ruler. This may be a good time to fall in love, pair up with business partner, allowing your creativity to flow and make something beautiful especially if you are a poet or artist of some kinds. Well, overall this is how the Universe sometimes give us a tough love to bring us to the place we suppose to be. We are voyaging through the cycle in the moment in time having hard lessons. To be realistic, the transformation process is not always easy. It’s may be rather chaotic for we are pushed to step out of our comfort zone. That’s why I keep encouraging you to start some holistic practice whether it be yoga, meditation, qi gong, listening to the sound healing, receiving energy work, walking in the Nature, cooking, gardening, writing, creating art, floating in the ocean, walking bare feet on the ground,...to equip ourselves with the tools that support us to stay grounded and in Grace as much as possible during the tough period in life. This will help us not to get caught in the “Victim Mode” and cultivate the awareness, the courage and embrace them as part of the soul development process. Whatever works for your unique soul, please practice. And if you are not in the place to walk this path by yourself, feel free to reach out and check one of my holistic healing class and one-on-one services that might be resonating with you (Reiki, Akashic Record Reading, Meditation, Breathing, Yoga) Please check www.healingmusejamilah.com for more details. Right now I’m offering my services in Bangkok, Thailand. And you can also reach me online from wherever you are. I’m honoured to walk you through the path of healing and transformation. With much love and deep thanks.. 🙏🏼💖☮️ And if you can send an extra prayers to Australia right now, that will be amazing! 🦋 Jamilah 🦋 #BigPlutoSaturnConjunction2020 #StelliuminCapricorn2020 #KarmicCleansing Please check Kesenya Moore’s report here.. 🙏🏼💖 https://youtu.be/HGwnqpSj4D8

[waylonjywq971]

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[poisonousforyoureyes]

HIT ME WITH THE FEELS AND ANGST! So throughout Furuba we never see Shigure ever get emotional even when the curse breaks, it just makes me wonder is he completely unshakeable? Like how would he react if Akito ever died? (Either during the curse or after when they've reconciled)

Aw man, that’s a tough one.

That’s not the first time I’ve had cause to think about it though! Funny anecdote: I was already in the fandom back in the days when Fruits Basket was being pre-published in the Hana to Yume magazine (at the rate of one chapter a month or so). People who lived in Japan managed to get their hands on a copy and the scans would reach us within a day or two. Anyway chapter 117 ended on a huge cliffhanger because Akito was having a breakdown and the last image was her grabbing the knife Ren had brought to her chambers. For some reason everyone was convinced she was going to kill herself back then, and we spent the month speculating about how the other characters would react, especially Shigure.

ANYWAY it’s easy to see Shigure as unshakeable because he’s not dramatic about his own feelings, like I can’t really see him breaking down in tears on Akito’s casket or anything like that. He’s passionate and intense, as seen numerous times throughout the series, the most striking example being IMO his conversation with Hatori in chapter 16 about his feelings for Akito, but completely self-possessed in demeanor. Yet that doesn’t mean he’s emotionless or unflappable, even though he looks it: he can get overwhelmed by his emotional reactions to the point that it clouds his judgement, leading to Well-thought-out Decisions such as sleeping with Ren. Takaya often said when asked about him that she was careful not to infuse him with any of the emotional dispositions often found in her other characters, making him unique in personality. Which is why he shows his feelings in ways that seem completely obscure to the readers (and to the other characters in-universe! Hence the ripple/jellyfish comparison that’s often brought up), and why he’s the only one who doesn’t cry when the curse breaks. Yet you can see something somber and bitter in his eyes at that moment, so I wouldn’t say he’s not affected at all. Overall Shigure was always shown having a deep awareness of how fucked up the Sohma family was, of the strain the curse situation was putting on everyone and the part it played in distorting their personalities (including his own), even when he was only eight (as seen in the flashback scene of the four boys in their youth in chapter 115), so I can’t imagine he didn’t feel at least some relief in feeling it go away. Also you have to take into account the fact that the curse didn’t affect him the same way because he was bound to Akito anyway. 

So in answer to your question lol, Shigure’s character was constructed differently than the others in the sense that he’s the only one whose behavior and personality didn’t get explained in a chapter dedicated to a traumatic backstory of some sort. Yet he did have one life-changing experience in his childhood, being of course the night he dreamt about Akito. While not traumatic per se, it had a huge impact on the formation of his character, mainly in the fact that from that moment on everything he did was in service of her and his love of her. As a consequence, he was rendered unable to attach importance to other aspects of his life in what could be considered normal degrees, going as far as rejecting his parents love for example, as he says himself in chapter 111. Which is why he designed for himself an easy-going, goofy, carefree persona and presented it to the world. This is what Mayuko’s ripple metaphor is meant to express: Akito consumes his heart entirely, to the point that he can’t feel that depth of emotion for anyone else. Of course, that doesn’t mean he can’t get attached to anyone else or forge genuine relationships. But she captured his mind and heart in such ways that he’s unable (and unwilling) to engage emotionally on a significant level with anyone or anything else. Hence why people like Mitchan accuse him of not taking anything seriously. And I think if Akito had died, prior to the curse breaking, he would have simply retreated behind that construction of himself for good, his true self beyond reach. He would have remained aloof and elusive with nothing remaining beneath the surface. Also I think there would have been a fair amount of guilt involved, because that’s a feeling Shigure is capable of contrary to popular belief, and if Akito had died still constricted by the chains of the curse when his goal was for her to be relieved of the burden that’d been killing her since infancy, not to mention that at that time she was convinced that he hated her and that his dearest wish was to be rid of her (once again due to some fake exterior of his, the cold and uncaring facade he presented to her), well it would have been too hard to bear, I think. Even more so if she had killed herself out of desperation. 

If she died after the curse broke, well that’s more complicated, because Shigure did reveal himself to her and to the world after they reconciled, when he returned to the main estate to live with her, so I think it would be harder to come back from that and hide under his dispassionate mask than it was when they were estranged. Anyway all convoluted reasoning aside she’s the love of his life so I imagine it would be hard no matter what. 

SO THIS GOT VERBOSE jfc, but that’s my long-winded answer to your question I guess :D

[hestiasroom]

Where Do We Go After Ferguson?

By Michael Eric Dyson

Nov. 29, 2014

367

WASHINGTON — WHEN Ferguson flared up this week after a grand jury failed to indict the white police officer Darren Wilson for killing the unarmed black youth Michael Brown, two realities were illuminated: Black and white people rarely view race in the same way or agree about how to resolve racial conflicts, and black people have furious moral debates among ourselves out of white earshot.

These colliding worlds of racial perception are why many Americans view the world so differently, and why recent comments by President Obama and the former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani cut to the quick of black identity in America.

From the start, most African-Americans were convinced that Michael Brown’s death wouldn’t be fairly considered by Ferguson’s criminal justice system. There were doubts that the prosecution and defense were really on different teams. The prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, looked as if he were coaching an intramural scrimmage with the goal of keeping Officer Wilson from being tackled by indictment.

The trove of documents released after the grand jury’s decision included Officer Wilson’s four-hour testimony, in which the 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound cop said that his encounter with the 6-foot-4-inch, 292-pound teenager left him feeling like “a 5-year-old holding on to Hulk Hogan.” He used the impersonal pronoun “it” when he said that Michael Brown looked like a “demon” rushing him. To the police officer and to many whites, Michael Brown was the black menace writ large, the terrorizing phantom that stalks the white imagination.

These clashing perceptions underscore the physics of race, in which an observer effect operates: The instrument through which one perceives race — one’s culture, one’s experiences, one’s fears and fantasies — alters in crucial ways what it measures.

The novelist Ann Petry vividly captured this observer effect in her 1946 novel “The Street,” in which the African-American protagonist, Lutie Johnson, remarks that racial perceptions of blacks “depended on where you sat.” She explains that if “you looked at them from inside the framework of a fat weekly salary, and you thought of colored people as naturally criminal, then you didn’t really see what any Negro looked like,” because “the Negro was never an individual” but “a threat, or an animal, or a curse.”

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After a black man is killed in a failed robbery, she notes that a reporter “saw a dead Negro who had attempted to hold up a store, and so he couldn’t really see what the man lying on the sidewalk looked like.” Instead, he saw “the picture he already had in his mind: a huge, brawny, blustering, ignorant, criminally disposed black man.”

Our American culture’s fearful dehumanizing of black men materialized once again when Officer Wilson saw Michael Brown as a demonic force who had to be vanquished in a hail of bullets.

IT is nearly impossible to convey the fear that strikes at the heart of black Americans every time a cop car pulls up. When I was 17, my brother and I and a childhood friend were pulled over by four Detroit cops in an unmarked police vehicle. This was in the mid-70s, in the shadow of the infamous Detroit Police Department task force called Stress (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets), which was initiated after the 1967 riots. The unit lived up to its name and routinely targeted black people.

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As we assumed the position against the car, I announced to one of the plainclothes officers that I was reaching into my back pocket to fish the car’s registration from my wallet. He brought the butt of his gun sharply across my back and knocked me to the ground, promising, with a racial epithet, that he’d put a bullet through my head if I moved again. When I rose to my feet, cowering, showing complete deference, the officer permitted me to show the car’s registration. When the cops ran the tags, they concluded what we already knew: The car wasn’t stolen and we weren’t thieves. They sent us on without a hint of an apology.

My recent dust-up with Mr. Giuliani on national television tapped a deep vein of racially charged perception. In a discussion on “Meet the Press” of Ferguson and its racial fallout, Mr. Giuliani steered the conversation down the path of a conservative shibboleth: that the real problem facing black communities is not brutality at the hands of white cops but brutality in the grips of black thugs. He cited the fact that 93 percent of black homicide victims are killed by black people; I argued that these murderers often go to jail, unlike the white cops who kill blacks with the backing of the government. What I didn’t have time to say was that 84 percent of white homicide victims are killed by white people, and yet no language of condemnation exists to frame a white-on-white malady that begs relief by violent policing.

This doesn’t mean that black people aren’t weary of death ravaging our communities. I witnessed it personally as I sat in a Detroit courtroom 25 years ago during the trial of my brother Everett for second-degree murder, and though I believe to this day that he is innocent, I watched him convicted by an all-black jury and sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.

Many whites who point to blacks killing blacks are moved less by concern for black communities than by a desire to fend off criticism of unjust white cops. They have the earnest belief that they are offering new ideas to black folk about the peril we foment in our own neighborhoods. This idea has also found a champion in Bill Cosby, who for the past decade has levied moral charges against the black poor with an ugly intensity endorsed by white critics as tough love and accepted by most black journalists as homegrown conservatism.

But Mr. Cosby’s put-downs are more pernicious than that. How could one ever defend his misogynistic indictment of black women’s lax morals and poor parenting skills? “Five, six children, same woman, eight, 10 different husbands or whatever,” he liked to recite. “Pretty soon you’re going to have to have DNA cards so you can tell who you’re making love to. You don’t know who this is; might be your grandmother.”

Journalistic mea culpas are now accompanying Mr. Cosby’s Shakespearean fall from grace. He has been recast as a leering king who is more sinner than sinned against as the allegations of drugging and raping women pile up. But these writers avoid mentioning the sexist blinders that kept them from seeing how hateful Mr. Cosby was toward black women long before he was accused of abusing mostly white women.

Bill Cosby didn’t invent the politics of respectability — the belief that good behavior and stern chiding will cure black ills and uplift black people and convince white people that we’re human and worthy of respect. But he certainly gave it a vernacular swagger that has since been polished by Barack Obama. The president has lectured black folk about our moral shortcomings before cheering audiences at college commencements and civil rights conventions. And yet his themes are shopworn and mix the innocuous and the insidious: pull your pants up, stop making racial excuses for failure, stop complaining about racism, turn off the television and the video games and study, don’t feed your kids fried chicken for breakfast, be a good father.

As big a fan as he is of respectability politics, Mr. Obama is the most eloquent reminder that they don’t work, that no matter how smart, sophisticated or upstanding one is, and no matter how much chastising black people pleases white ears, the suspicions about black identity persist. Despite his accomplishments and charisma, he is for millions the unalterable “other” of national life, the opposite of what they mean when they think of America.

Barack Obama, like Michael Brown, is changed before our eyes into a monstrous thing that lacks humanity: a monkey, a cipher, a black hole that kills light. One might expect the ultimate target of this black otherness to have sympathy for its lesser targets, who also have lesser standing and lesser protection, like the people in Ferguson, in Ohio, in New York, in Florida, and all around the country, who can’t keep their unarmed children from being cut down in the street by callous cops who leave their bodies to stiffen into rigor mortis in the presence of horrified onlookers.

President Obama’s clinical approach to race was cemented after the 2009 Henry Louis Gates Jr. incident — in which the Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him for breaking into his own house were invited to the White House to commune over a beer — convinced him that he should talk race only when his hand was forced.

He has employed a twin strategy: the “heroic explicit,” in which he deliberately and clearly assails black moral failure and poor cultural habits, and the “noble implicit,” in which he avoids linking whites to social distress or pathology and speaks in the broadest terms possible, in grammar both tentative and tortured, about the problems we all confront. It’s an effort that hinges on false equivalencies between black and white and the mistaken identification of effect for cause.

MR. OBAMA spoke twice in the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury’s decision. He spoke Monday night about America as a nation of laws and said that we must respect the jury’s conclusion, even if we don’t agree with it, and make progress by working together — not by throwing bottles, smashing car windows or using anger as an excuse to vandalize property or hurt anyone.

On Tuesday, the president doubled down on his indictment of “criminal acts” and declared, “I do not have any sympathy” for those who destroy “your own communities.” While he avoided saying so, it was clear that his remarks were directed at the black people who looted and rioted in Ferguson. But their criminal activity is the effect of going unrecognized by the state for decades, a crime in itself. As for the plague of white cops who kill unarmed black youth, the facts of which are tediously and sickeningly repetitive and impose a psychological tariff on black minds, the president was vague, halting and sincerely noncommittal.

Instead, he lauded the racial progress that he said he had witnessed “in my own life,” substituting his life for ours, and signaled again how his story of advancement was ours, suggesting, sadly, that the sum of our political fortunes in his presidency may be lesser than the parts of our persistent suffering. Even when he sidled up to the truth and nudged it gently — “these are real issues,” the president acknowledged — he slipped back into an emotional blandness that underplayed the searing divide, saying there was “an impression that folks have” about unjust policing and “there are issues in which the law too often feels as if it is being applied in discriminatory fashion.”

Whose impression is it, though that word hardly captures the fierce facts of the case? Who feels it? Who is the subject? Who is the recipient of the action? Mr. Obama’s treacherous balancing act between white and black, left and right, obscures who has held the power for the longest amount of time to make things the way they are. This is something, of course, he can never admit, but which nevertheless strains his words and turns an often eloquent word artist into a faltering, fumbling linguist. President Obama said that our nation was built on the rule of law. That is true, but incomplete. His life, and his career, too, are the product of broken laws: His parents would have committed a crime in most states at the time of their interracial union, and without Martin Luther King Jr. breaking what he deemed to be unjust laws, Mr. Obama wouldn’t be president today. He is the ultimate paradox: the product of a churning assault on the realm of power that he now represents.

No wonder he turns to his own body and story and life to narrate our bodies, our stories and our lives. The problem is that the ordinary black person possesses neither his protections against peril nor his triumphant trajectory that will continue long after he leaves office.

More than 45 years ago, the Kerner Commission concluded that we still lived in two societies, one white, one black, separate and still unequal. President Lyndon B. Johnson convened that commission while the flames that engulfed my native Detroit in the riot of 1967 still burned. If our president and our nation now don’t show the will and courage to speak the truth and remake the destinies of millions of beleaguered citizens, then we are doomed to watch the same sparks reignite, whenever and wherever injustice meets desperation.

[tumblngdice]

Peter Bosz’ Reviersport Interview Translated

Lars Pollmann, 1/10/2017

Borussia Dortmund’s head coach Peter Bosz has been on his new job for about three months now. The Dutch manager gave his first newspaper interview to Reviersport this weekend. Here’s a translation of parts of the interview.

Mr. Bosz, you’re sitting here and looking out into the stadium. Have you become accustom to the vista of your new living room?

Can you ever become accustom in the sense of it becoming routine? I don’t think so. I’m in Dortmund for three months now but it seems as though it’s been only three weeks. Everything came about so quickly, I was the coach of Ajax in the summer.

How did you react when BVB’s offer reached you?

That was a very good feeling. Dortmund are one of the two best teams in Germany. When such a big club from one of the most important leagues in Europe asks for you, you’re proud and excited.

But?

No but. I had a very good year at Amsterdam. At the end it was clear to me that I wouldn’t continue at Ajax. We decided that together.

Sounds like you’re very consequent.

I’ve always been that way.

An example: I always wanted to become a professional football player when I was young. That’s why I didn’t commit many sins of one’s youth, alcohol or cigarettes, for example. My friends went clubbing and I was home to get enough sleep. When I was 16 years old I went to Vitesse, turned pro at 17 and played there for three years. But that was before the Bosman ruling. When your contract ran out clubs still had to pay a transfer fee for you.

I found that outrageous.

I wanted to be free after those three years, that was logical for me. Then I negotiated with the president of the club — I never had an agent when I played. He said I could earn more money, I said I didn’t care about that, that I’d rather be able to leave on a free transfer at the end of my contract. He called me crazy.

I voluntarily returned to the amateur ranks and bought myself out of my contract.

What is important to you, then?

Family, friends, friendship, honesty. That I can trust the people I work with. And that they can trust me in return. Living your life is also important. Sure, we have to work very hard, but everyone has to let loose now and then.

That’s tough, but you can learn it.

How did you learn it?

When I was a young coach I thought the days needed to have more than 24 hours. I thought I had to work even at 11 pm, had to talk to this player and prepare that other thing. Today I say: Okay, it’s 11 pm, we’re done now, let’s drink a glass of wine and unwind.

Experience helps knowing when and why you have to do something. And I believe the quality of work gets better this way, as opposed to getting too little sleep constantly and becoming a chased person. We have long days, put in the hours, do all the important work diligently. But when I come home it’s important to me that my wife is there and that we’re together and we can relax.

How do you relax?

Red wine helps (laughs). I spent three years as a professional in France, at Toulon, and there I learnt a lot about French wine culture from my team-mates.

Those experiences teach you a lot. I’m very happy I spent time in France. I’m very happy I saw Japan and played in the Bundesliga, for Hansa Rostock.

Those are interesting stations in a career. Just like my decision to go to Israel as a coach. Everyone asked me: What are you doing now, going to Israel? When you’ve been a coach in the Netherlands you go to Spain, Germany or England, they said.

Why did you do it?

Jordi Cruyff was the sporting director at Tel Aviv at the time and asked me on the phone almost every month if I didn’t want to come.

I always refused until a friend told me: “You’re always saying no to a thing you don’t even now. Why don’t you say: Okay, I’ll take a look first.” I did that.

And when you’re there, it’s fantastic. Tel Aviv is beautiful.

What role did sporting considerations play?

The sporting challenge is always the most important. Just like it is here at Dortmund. I’m trying to soak everything up and strike roots here. I didn’t go to Tel Aviv because the beaches are so pretty. That was a sporting decision.

But I’m also trying to learn the language and soak everything up. The whole life.

You also met Jordi’s dad, the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, in Tel Aviv.

That’s right. I’ve been a fan of his from my childhood days.

For me and my football philosophy he was very important. I knew at 15 or 16 that I wanted to become a coach. I had all my licenses at 19 already. My friends and I collected everything Cruyff said about football. There was no internet at the time, we bought papers and cut out articles. One friend ended up writing a book about how Johan thought about football, youth football, about offense, defence and organisation. And all that over a span of 20 years. Very, very interesting.

At Ajax I worked with someone who worked as an assistant of Cruyff’s for six years at Barcelona. Before that European final against Sampdoria he had to analyse the opponent and talked about a striker called Gianluca Vialli after his return: “Johan, I’ve never seen someone like that guy, you can’t mark him.” Cruyff said: “Then we won’t mark him. You said he can’t be marked. He’s used to everyone being close to him, he doesn’t know the feeling when nobody does that. We don’t mark him!”

Everyone threw their hands up in despair. Barcelona won 1-0.

Those things interest me.

How often did you meet Cruyff?

I met him once when he was a player at Barcelona. We only shook hands quickly. Later again when I coached Vitesse. I talked to him for 30 minutes and shyly asked whether he had watched my team play.

When he came to Israel and I was able to talk to him for a week it was the greatest thing for me.

That was shortly before his death. How was he doing back then?

I’ve never met a man who was so positive. He had cancer and the treatment visibly took a lot out of him. But he never said he was tired or not doing well.

Are you continuing his idea of “Voetbal total” in the present age?

I believe we have a different opinion in some details. But our philosophies are similar in the sense that we want to play attacking football for the fans. Of course, we want to win. But we also want to entertain the fans. They want to see Messis and Ronaldos, no destroyers like I was one.

We want to inspire the fans. Which teams or players from the past do we all remember? Those that entertained us. And those two worlds — the attractive and the successful — can come together.

I truly believe that.

But it’s more difficult.

That’s true. When you’re trying to play attacking football and make mistakes, the defence is open and it gets dangerous.

So we have to defend well together.

Are you surprised at how incredibly well that’s working in the league so far?

A little, yes. Because for me as a coach who hadn’t been in the Bundesliga over the last few years it wasn’t easy to gauge whether that would work in the Bundesliga.

I believe Pep Guardiola had the same problem in his early days at Bayern. He had his style at Barcelona. But does that work here in the Bundesliga? I didn’t know, I believe he didn’t, either.

But we’re also far from where we want to be.

Might there be a moment when opponents adapt to BVB’s playing style?

That moment is there constantly. It’s a continuous process. We switched up against Real Madrid during the game.

But the principles remain the same: We want to play attacking, brave, attractive football.

Do you need some different, faster players to show that at a higher level in the UEFA Champions League?

We analyse every game for itself. The Real match was totally different to the Tottenham Hotspur match. Against Tottenham we did very, very well but the result was terrible.

I don’t think we deserved this, especially because a good goal wasn’t allowed for us. Tottenham was before our goal twice and scored on both occasions. But against Real the opponent was the better side. Madrid were too good for us in this instance.

Now we have to analyse again: What can we do to win regardless? It’s not about the defenders. We have to defend as a team. If — to bring up a fictitious example — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doesn’t press well at the front, the opponent can easily string up his buildup play. And when the midfield isn’t compact, our defenders are in trouble. But when we apply pressure on the opponent on the ball it gets tougher.

Everything has something to do with everything.

Dutch coaches such as Rinus Michels were regarded as stubborn and stoic…

I can see that. I can only say about Michels: He was an absolute authority.

When he was the Bondscoach and I played for the national team you had the utmost respect for him. His assistant was Dick Advocaat…

He had the nickname “the Little General”…

(Laughing) When we laughed in training, Advocaat looked at us sternly. He was very structured. Michels was the man to lead team talks. Once he said before a game: “We have to defend!” Then he said: “Where do the best defenders in the world? In Italy! Why are they the best defenders?”

Than Michels explained en detail why that was the case. Impressive!

And you soaked up his words like a sponge?

Yes. I went to my room, took out my notepad and wrote everything down.

Do you still have those notes?

Of course.

Do you still write down your impressions as a coach in a book?

Yes. After our win at Wolfsburg I wrote down my thoughts in that book. What I liked, what didn’t go so well. When we play Wolfsburg again, I take out my book and take a look: How did it go back then? What was the lineup?

The pictures return to me all of a sudden.

Is it some sort of a coaching diary?

Yes, if you want to describe it that way. I also give out grades for my players.

Like in school?

Almost. I give out grades for my players between one and 10. One is bad, 10 is perfect. But I can reveal to you: Nobody has ever got a 10 from me.

Why not?

Everything would have to have been perfect, every pass, every movement, every duel, every shot. That doesn’t exist in football. Mostly the ratings are between five and seven.

How do you lead a team? As a dictator? Or a team worker and someone who understands the players?

You can be both. An authority and all the same someone who understands the players. I speak my players, the management and the sporting director and other directors. But at the end I decide who plays!

Do you take a calm look at everything before you make changes?

Yes. I don’t come to a place and say: Now I’m doing everything differently. When something is good, it can stay that way.

Dortmund is a big club after all. They must have done something really well in the last years. Otherwise BVB wouldn’t be this high up the pecking order. I can’t come in, turn everything upside down and say: Now we’ll do everything the way I want it!

I’m not like that.

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[englishvisualnovels]

Sekai Project Launches Steam Page for The Bell Chimes for Gold

The Steam page for the all-ages version of OTUSUN Club’s The Bell Chimes for Gold is now available to the public. Sekai Project will release the 18+ version of the game through Denpasoft, their adult game brand.

The Bell Chimes for Gold is an upcoming fantasy otome visual novel/role-playing game hybrid that is “coming soon,” according to Sekai Project’s official Twitter account. An exact release date for either the all-ages version or the 18+ version has not been announced at this time.

Relevant Links:

Where to Buy (Digital): Steam

Official Site

Features, via Sekai Project:

Woo the hearts of 5 potential middle-aged grooms with tough and unique personalities.

Explore through different dungeons such as forests and mines to collect materials.

Make useful items in battle with Maria's Herbalism skill or you can sell them for money to add to your funds.

Contribute to your favorite character with your hard earnings to unlocks special scenes.

Enjoy your favorite love interest speaking to you in full Japanese voice-over.

Replay through your favorite scenes  with the Memories section.

Switch between English and Japanese languages in-game.

Synopsis:

Maria is a plain old herbalist training diligently under the watchful gaze of her loving mentor.

Her skill in crafting items gets her within arm’s reach of her goal of getting enough money to marry. But then, her mentor who she was supposed to be a happy couple with suddenly marries his pretty childhood friend!

“With your skills in crafting, you can just buy any man you want.”

After getting turned down with such cruel words, Maria resolves herself and declares:

“I’m gonna make a buttload of money and marry someooooneeeee!!!”

What encounters are in store? Earn, save, and marry. A happy end awaits you ♪ 

Cast:

Maria Scissorland (Name cannot be changed.)

The main character; a highly skilled herbalist.

Because she is so dedicated to her research and her craft, she has almost no chances to get into contact with men.

The only man she’s had a relationship with is her mentor. Without ever having done the deed, he broke up with her.

The items she makes are first-class, and fetch a high price.

Samuel Double Voiced by: No Name

Although well-built, muscular, and a great warrior, he destroys his body with alcohol.

His main weapon is a great sword. However, it’s currently being pawned. Has has so many tabs running with bars that he’s on the verge of running dry.

Though he’s not really a bad guy, he’s still a drunkard of an old man, so there aren’t many prospects for him. He can often be found sipping on booze at bars.

Ben Koo Voiced by: Shiraiwa Kazuma

A thief, and compulsive gambler.

His luck in anything related gambling is as exceptionally horrible as he is excellent in his other skillsets. The debt has piled up so much that he isn’t even allowed into any casinos or gambling dens. In fact, his own life is already at risk.

A dagger and sling are his primary weapons. He often sits in dark corners of bars so that he doesn’t stand out.

William Bloom Voiced by: Takeda Naoto

An elven ranger. He is also a skilled user of the spirits, as well as being skilled with the bow, but he is so naive that he is easily fooled.

Having been tricked into shouldering a debt from a complete stranger, he is always chased after by debt collectors. Also, he has a problematic tendency to just give money away whenever he sees anyone in need. His main weapons are his mythril short sword and his bow.

He can often be found in the adventurers’ guild, looking for work.

Ben Starly Voiced by: Sugiyama Atsushi

A priest coming from fallen nobility. Though he grew up well, his family had lost all of its assets due to his father’s debauchery.

Despite being absurdly poor, he can’t help but show off. He dreams to one day buy back his family’s estate, furnishings, and treasures.

His main weapon is a mace.

Often, he can be found in the adventurers’ guild looking for work.

Walter Pleasant Voiced by: KK

A necromancer dedicated to his work. He has been placed under special surveillance, and is not allowed into cemeteries. His primary theme of research is to create zombies who retain their conscious reasoning. As a practitioner of his craft, his skills are top-notch, at a level where he can make use of the undead, prolong life, and even restore youth. He has no interest in anything but his own research, so his social skills are terrible.

He has no sponsors so he is extremely poor. Because his research deals with raising the dead, he was kicked out of the sorcerers’ academy, and so he can’t get a job. He can often be found rummaging around the garbage bins around town.