#smash! 2015 - judges' choice

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 1: Anticipation

Introduction

What is your most anticipated game? Not the upcoming game that you’re excited about, the game that, more than any other, made you count down the days until its release. No game has ever made me as excited for its release like Fire Emblem Fates did.

Fire Emblem Fates was first announced in January 2015. Back when that trailer was first released, I was still obsessively playing through Fire Emblem Awakening, the game Fire Emblem Fates was meant to be a successor for. The trailer hooked me and I eagerly waited for more information on this bold new entry into the Fire Emblem series. The trailer showed a battle between two armies, a monster destroying a castle, a woman dancing, and a duel between two swordsmen. Between these clips, the trailer showed a return of Awakening’s gameplay, the addictive gameplay that’d taken away hundreds of hours of my free time. This trailer told us nothing, leaving me eager to learn more about this new story.

As the months went on, it was announced that Fates would tell the story of two kingdoms at war. More interestingly, the player would be given the opportunity to choose which kingdom to support, adding a layer of moral ambiguity and complexity to the story. I loved this concept and had no doubts it would be executed perfectly. The game released in June 2015 in Japan, but American fans had to wait until January of the next year to play it.

I bought the game as soon as it came out.

And I loved it. I played through all three routes half a dozen times each. For about six months, Fire Emblem Fates was the main game I played.

I haven’t played Fates in four and a half years. I don’t know why I went from spending multiple hours each day playing it to dropping it and never going back. I’ve played Awakening about once a year since then, but I haven’t gone back to Fates for some reason.

Since its release, Fates has gained a certain...reputation among the Fire Emblem fanbase. Put bluntly, it’s widely considered to be the worst Fire Emblem game. And, to be honest...I can kinda see why. Looking back, the game’s writing was filled to the brim with problems. But still, I can’t bring myself to hate the game like other Fire Emblem fans. I still remember asking my mom to preorder it for my Christmas present when I was fifteen. I still remember devoting hours of my life to this game.

So, I’m left with this quandary. Who should I trust? Other fans, or the memories of my youth? Is Fates really as bad as people say? Well, I kinda want to figure that out for myself. And I think the only way to figure this out is to obsessively play the game.

Over the next few months, I’m going to do a deep dive through Fire Emblem Fates and post my thoughts on this blog. I’m going to go through every chapter, every support conversation, every part of this game to answer the question: is Fire Emblem Fates a good game?

Opening Cutscene

Booting up my copy of Birthright for the first time in years, I’m greeted with an opening cutscene containing much of the footage from the trailer. It’s worth noting that the two armies from the trailer have very different aesthetics, one being heavily influenced by feudal Japan and one being heavily influenced by medieval Europe. The transition from the battle to the woman dancing is done by zooming out, revealing that this battle is actually taking place inside a painting. I actually really like this, it shows that the hostilities that this game is centered on have been going on for a long time.

Another thing to note: the song the dancing woman is singing has been translated into English. I’ll be going through the Lost in Thoughts All Alone’s lyrics and analyzing them when they appear in the actual story. The dance scene leads into circling shots of two families; judging from their different styles and fancy clothing, they are presumably related to the two kingdoms at war. The eastern family has a red and white color scheme, while the western one has a black and purple color scheme.

After that, the camera pans into a deep chasm until it arrives in a land of floating castles and islands, which looks interesting. Next, the opening cutscene shows the dancer in a lake, being choked by a large dragon-like creature. As the creature pushes her further underwater, its scales turn into light and fade away, turning into a humanoid form. Finally, the trailer shows the two swordsmen clashing as the dancer freaks out, setting her up as being an in-between that doesn’t want this conflict to grow. Her necklace flies off as she panics and lands in a pool of dark blue water, bringing us to the main menu.

The opening cutscene, like the trailer, hooked me in and made me excited to play this game. Even though I know that the game is going to bungle the story beats it sets up, I’m still excited to dive right it.

While staring at the dark title screen, which features only the quiet sound of waves for background noise, I get a strange hint of nostalgia. It’s a weird type of nostalgia, though. When I replied Awakening last fall, it felt familiar and comforting. Coming back to Fates, it doesn’t feel familiar. I recognize it, and it’s nostalgic, but it isn’t comforting. It’s like nostalgia for something I’ve forgotten, if that makes sense.

Character Creation

Jumping in, I am presented with three settings each for two types of difficulty. Normal/Hard/Lunatic control the strength of enemies, while Phoenix/Casual/Classic determine whether or not units come back to life. I’ll be checking out the other difficulties in a later entry, but for now, I create a Normal/Casual save file. Yes, it’s taking the easy path. But I barely remember this game and am playing it on a deadline, I don’t have the time to restart every level multiple times.

Next comes the character creator. We’re shown the player Avatar standing at the bottom of a lake and given the ability to customize gender, build, hairstyle, hair decoration (if a girl), hair color, face, scars, and voice. None of the options look bad, but the fact that it’s just choosing from a set list of faces is a bit disappointing. Understandable, considering the fact that these assets are drawn in, but that just raises the question of why there needed to be customization in the first place.

A few oddities about the character creator: hairstyles are sorted on two axis chart of Stylish/Simple vs Wild/Slick for boys and Long/Short vs Cute/Wild for girls. I don’t have time to go into each hairstyle, some are better than the canon versions, some are absolutely ridiculous, some are just boring. The short build is the canon design for Male Corrin while the tall build is canon for Female Corrin. This is probably for the best, because Short Girl Corrin looks like she’s eight. Finally, while both choices have three voice choices, two of Male Corrin’s choices are played by Cam Clarke (Corrin’s other male voice is Yuri Lowenthal, while Female Corrin’s voices are performed by Danielle Judovits, Marcella Lentz-Pope, and Stephanie Lemelin). Later games featuring Corrin stick with Clarke and Lentz-Pope.

I flip a coin and end up deciding on Female Corrin. I go with the generic design, because I really don’t care enough to customize her. Speaking of design, Corrin’s design is a mixed bag. Regardless of player choice, Corrin always wears the same outfit: a grey, black, and white suit of armor with a blue cape. Corrin’s generic hair color is also grey, but like a pinkish grey. I do appreciate Corrin being associated with grey, gold, and blue, making them visually appear to be between worlds, but I personally think the armor looks too complicated, looking more like a striped suit than actual armor. I also don’t get why it has a neck cuff.

Also, Corrin is barefoot. Always. This does give Corrin a sort of animalistic appearance, but that design element isn’t present anywhere else in Corrin’s design. Fire Emblem Awakening was kinda infamous for the fact that none of its characters had feet on their models and I get the vague feeling this game is overcompensating.

Next, we get to the details that actually matter. Name (I went with Corrin, because it’s the canon name and I don’t relate to this character at all), Birthday, Boon, Bane, and Talent. Boon and Bane determine stat growths, but they are labeled by personality traits instead of the actual stars, which is both more immersive and slightly annoying. I made Corrin Quick and Unlucky. Talent determines what Classes are available to you. I didn’t care, so I spun it randomly. It landed on Mercenary.

Prologue: The Ties that Bind

Now that we have our character created, let’s start the game. The game starts with the dancer singing Lost in Thoughts All Alone at the shore of a lake before walking into the lake and sinking below the waves. The song continues as she goes underwater, which means she must be amazing at ventriloquism. As she goes deeper underwater, ruins start to appear, floating in the water. The dancer swims into a bright light and disappears.

Smash cut to the Western prince riding on a horse, commanding an army as they charge into battle. The Eastern prince charges through his army, wielding a sword surrounded by lightning. The anime cutscenes in this game are beautifully animated and incredibly cool to watch. The Eastern prince introduces himself as Ryoma of Hoshido and challenges the Western prince, Xander of Nohr, to a duel. Xander accepts and charges into battle, wielding a sword surrounded by shadowy purple fog. The two clash as the cutscene ends.

We then see Corrin and a Hoshidan Pegasus Rider named Hinoka fighting an enemy, This fight is rendered as an actual game cutscene. Side note, the fact that this scripted battle features Hinoka guarding an attack for Corrin is a great way to foreshadow that mechanic. Hinoka mentions that Corrin looks distracted and reassures her, pointing out that all of Corrin’s siblings are here.

The game then moves onto introducing basic mechanics. If you move your cursor away and look at the other units on the battlefield, you’ll notice that all of them have unique names and designs. Fire Emblem Fates shows both armies off to you during the prologue, which is really interesting. Still, it must be noted that the Nohrian Units are marked as enemies and the Hoshidan Units are marked as allies. This isn’t super important now, but keep it in mind.

Between turns, Ryoma asks Xander why he’s invading and mentions a cowardly attack. Xander tells him to surrender and the two fight some more, both doing decent damage. The camera pans over to Xander’s siblings. The youngest of them, Elise, mentions that, due to a bridge collapse, they can’t get over to Corrin. Her older sister, Camilla, tells her not to worry, because their royal blood allows them to manipulate dragon veins. Camilla moves over to the river and a fireball flies out of her, striking the river and evaporating it. The third of Xander’s siblings, Leo, tells Elise to stay back as they attack the Hoshidans. The Hoshidan royals remark that Camilla’s use of a dragon vein means she’s royalty and the Hoshidan prince Tamuki smirks, saying that he’s always wanted to use a Nohrian royal as target practice.

The two armies of named characters start fighting and a Nohrian general named Hans shows up with an army of reinforcements. He then refers to his own army as cannon fodder and says king Garon sent him to kill them all, because he’s very obviously an evil person. A Hoshidan general shows up and we get some more tutorials as Corrin and Takumi beat up a single redshirt. And then the level just ends.

Corrin and the Hoshidan royals run up to the bridge to help out Ryoma. Xander calls out to Corrin, happy to have found her alive and well. He beckons her to come back to her family, which angers Ryoma, who shouts that Corrin is his sister. Xander counters, saying that Corrin is HIS sister. The other royals argue over which family owns Corrin and Hinoka states that the Nohrians kidnapped her. Xander points out that the Nohrians raised Corrin since she was a child and are her real family. As the two families fight over Corrin, the screen fades to white and we hear voices yelling for Corrin to wake up.

The prologue features some good teaching of mechanics, some bad teaching of mechanics, and an introduction to the game’s plot. It introduces two countries at war and Corrin, a bridge between the two that is caught up in this war. I just have one question.

What even is this chapter? It isn’t in media res, the actual point in the game this chapter is playing off of happens differently. The fact that it cuts to Corrin waking up implies that it’s a premonition of the future, but Corrin can’t see the future in other parts of the game. At least, I don’t remember that ever happening. Sure, this chapter introduces the plot, but it does it in such a confusing way.

Awakening did something similar to this, admittedly, but Awakening is a game about time travel. That scene happened, just in a different timeline. Awakening’s use of media res both set up the plot and helped foreshadow the game’s main twist.

Also, the Hoshidans are allies and the Nohrians are enemies. In a game about a morally grey conflict between two sides made up of real, suffering people, it’s not great to start out by calling one of them evil.

These two traits, aping Awakening without knowing why it worked and failing to be a morally grey story, are going to become much more apparent as the game goes on...

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Pluralistic: 21 Mar 2020 (Cool Tools, scientists predict cooperation, Don't Look for the Helpers, after the crisis, a people's bailout, judge vs unicorns, Marc Davis's Haunted Mansion)

Today's links

My appearance on Cool Tools: My favorite gadgets.

UK emergency science panel predicts mass altruism: Reality has a well-known collectivist bias.

Don't Look for the Helpers: The text version of my essay for the new Nightvale anxiety podcast.

After the crisis, a program for transformative change: Pandemic reveals the systems' failures, and what to do about them.

Pandemic stimulus, realpolitik edition: Stephanie Kelton and AOC on a people's bailout.

Beautiful judicial snark: "No, your unicorn trademark is not an emergency."

Marc Davis's Haunted Mansion: What if Marc Davis had sole control over the ride's design?

This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

My appearance on Cool Tools (permalink)

This week, I appear on the Cool Tools podcast to discuss my favorite, most indispensible gadgets and services and why I love them.

https://kk.org/cooltools/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-author/

My top picks were my Crkt Snap-Lock knife – a one-handed-opening, lightweight, super versatile pocket knife that I carry everywhere.

https://www.crkt.com/snap-lock.html

I also chose my Chinese OEM underwater MP3 player. I swim every day for my chronic pain maintenance and this is how I make it bearable, getting through 1-2 audiobooks/month.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00GWV6GUO/cooltoolsshow-20

My third choice was Libro.fm, the DRM-free, indie-bookseller friendly way to listen to audiobooks. Basically the same catalog as Audible, at the same price, the only difference being that buying from them supports neighborhood booksellers, not Amazon.

It was a really fun! @Frauenfelder and @kevin2kelly are super smart about gadgets.

Here's the MP3:

http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/7810/13374488/779800513-cool-tools-218-cory-doctorow.mp3

UK emergency science panel predicts mass altruism (permalink)

SAGE is the UK Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. This is their hour to shine.

They have just published a spectacular, plain-language set of technical reports on the pandemic.

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response

This is the most interesting: "on risk of public disorder."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/873736/08-spi-b-return-on-risk-of-public-disorder.pdf

The expert panel affirms the conclusions of Rebecca Solnit in her indispensable book "A Paradise Built in Hell," a closely researched history of disasters that finds that they are the moment in which people spring to the aid of their neighbors.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/05/a-paradise-built-in-hell

SAGE's expert panel on disasters: "large scale rioting is unlikely. It is rarely seen in these circumstances. Acts of altruism will predominate, and HMG could readily promote and guide these."

"Where public disorder occurs, it is usually triggered by perceptions about the Government's response, rather than the nature of the epidemic. A perception that Government response strategies are not effective in looking after the public may lead to an increase in tensions."

"Promote a sense of collectivism: All messaging should reinforce a sense of community, that 'we are all in this together.'"

For decades, Britain has been poisoned by Margaret Thatcher's sociopathic maxim, "There is no such thing as society."

It turns out that reality (and pandemics) has a well-known collectivist bias.

Don't Look for the Helpers (permalink)

I wrote a short essay about how I'm coping with The Current Situation for Our Plague Year, a new podcast from Joseph Fink of Welcome to Nightvale, called "Don't Look for the Helpers".

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/17/pluralistic-17-mar-2020/#ourplagueyear

Today, PM Press published the essay in a new digital collection, "All We Have Is Each Other."

https://www.pmpress.org/blog/category/blog/all-we-have-is-each-other/

"Assuming things will break down does not make you a dystopian. Engineers who design systems on the assumption that nothing could go wrong aren't utopians, they're idiots who kill people. 'Nothing could go wrong' is why there weren't enough lifeboats on the fucking Titanic."

"Every disaster ends with mutual aid. By definition. That's the only way a disaster can end: with people pulling together. If there's one lesson to take from Mad Max, it's that pulling apart only deepens the crisis, and the it will not end until we pull together."

"I've been telling stories of humanity rising to crisis for decades. Now I'm telling them to myself. I hope you'll keep that story in mind today, as plutocrats are seeking to weaponize narratives to turn our crisis into a self-serving catastrophe."

https://www.pmpress.org/blog/2020/03/19/dont-look-for-the-helpers-by-cory-doctorow/

After the crisis, a program for transformative change (permalink)

The Current Situation has revealed deep cracks in our system: replacing public transit with gig economy drivers who don't get health care or sick leave; the gig economy itself; the lethal inadequacy of private-sector broadband and private-sector health-care, and beyond.

The fact that we can simply abolish data-caps (without networks falling over) and the liquid ban (without planes blowing up) reveals that these supposed existential threats were, in fact, arbitrary, authoritarian, rent-seeking bullshit.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/14/masque-of-the-red-death/#security-theater

The people who've spent 40 years convincing us that we're just not free-marketing hard enough continue to insist that all of these problems are merely the result of not having fully dismantled the state (so much for "state capacity libertarianism"):

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-20/coronavirus-killed-the-progressive-left

They're licking their chops for a 2008-style reboot: eviscerating public services, immiserating workers, fattening plutes and dissolving regulatory safeguards.

It's a playbook developed by Milton Friedman: the scheme to have "ideas lying around" when crisis strikes.

But as Naomi Klein reminds us, the Shock Doctrine cuts both ways. The manifest failures of plutocracy in the Great Depression got us the New Deal and the "30 Glorious Years" of shared prosperity and growth.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/17/pluralistic-17-mar-2020/#disaster-socialism

We haven't been idle since 2008. We have "ideas lying around" too. Ideas for a just and resilient society that reorients human life around sustainable and just practices. Motherboard's editorial staff gives us a manifesto for that society, so that this crisis doesn't go to waste:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxekvw/the-world-after-coronavirus-healthcare-labor-climate-internet

Free and universal healthcare ("healthcare is a basic human right" -B. Sanders)

Abolish ICE and prisons ("ICE is now a public health hazard")

Protect and empower labor ("Without these protections, everyone's safety and health is put at risk")

A healthier climate ("If the 2008-09 financial crash is any indicator, carbon could shoot right back up as soon as the crisis is over")

Fast, accessible broadband ("Community owned/operated broadband networks, long demonized and even prohibited by law are looking better than ever")

Smash the surveillance state ("This pandemic mustn't be used to infringe on the civil liberties and privacy of millions")

Billionaire wealth ("They're sending people to work while jetting off to luxurious doomsday bunkers, getting Covid-19 tests while normal people can't, and also singing 'Imagine' from bucolic getaways.")

Public transit that works ("Congress is poised to prioritize bailing out airlines and the cruise industry before it takes a look at public transit")

The right to repair ("Right-to-repair has become a matter of life and death.")

Science for the people ("We were caught flat-footed by a fixation on 'innovation' and lack of public options")

The future will not be like the past. Whether it is worse or better is our choice to make. It is in our (well-scrubbed) hands.

(Image: Jolove55, CC BY)

Pandemic stimulus, realpolitik edition (permalink)

I've been thinking a lot about what a covid stimulus package could and should look like, and what the possible failure modes and transformative changes could be. Obviously, there's real risk of inflation if handled wrong, because production has halted, so more money could end up chasing fewer goods. That gets ugly quick.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/18/diy-tp/#covid-stimulus

Then there's the risk that we just infuse trillions of no-strings-attached dollars into the finance sector, who use it to make our society even more brittle and unstable by hollowing out reeling companies and grinding down brutalized workers.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/19/gb-whatsapp/#peoples-bailout

Writing about this stuff in public makes a lot of Twitter people with "investor" in their bios very, very angry. They want giant bailouts for the companies they own stocks in, not transformative change. They use the neolib tactic of throwing out a lot of jargon to instil a sense of your technical illiteracy. Complexity is a con-artist's go-to tactic, after all – it's why proposition bets are so complicated, so you can't do the odds in your head (see also: craps tables).

But not every economist believes that sociopathy is pareto optimal. Leading lights like Stephanie Kelton, the mother of Modern Monetary Theory, who can go toe-to-toe with oligarch-apologists from the Chicago School, explaining how public debt really works.

Kelton and AOC appeared on this week's Deconstructed podcast with Mehdi Hasan to discuss the true scale of the bailout that will be needed (far more than $1T) to get the economy working again. That number can come down (by lowering working peoples' outgoings through rent/mortgage/student loan holidays, etc). But the lesson of 2008 is that to be credible, stimulus must be transparent and aimed at the public good, not the donor-class.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/20/deconstructed-podcast-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-coronavirus-economy/

https://dcs.megaphone.fm/FLM7803427023.mp3

Otherwise, Congress risks having its hands tied: it might inject an inadequate and corrupt stimulus that benefits its cronies, then be unable to follow that on with a people's bailout that would help us all.

AOC: "Look at this kind of trash pile of legislation the Republicans have just introduced. I've never seen such a thing in my life of, we're going to give the neediest people less. And we're going to give people who are you know, need help but don't need as much help more."

Kelton: "What people mean when they say, you know, oh, Senator Sanders, you want Medicare for All or you want to make public colleges and universities tuition free, you want to cancel student debt, how are you going to pay for it? Where is the money going to come from? What that means in beltway speak is how are you going to offset all of that spending with new revenue from somewhere else, or by spending less in defense or some other category, the budget?"

"When you do a piece of legislation that's 'paid for,' it means you're putting the 50 billion in and it goes to some parts of the economy, and you're taking 50 billion out of some other parts of the economy so that you're not deficit spending."

"We've been so badly educated to respond to deficits as something that's fiscally irresponsible, reckless. It isn't. The government is committing to dropping dollars into the economy without ripping them right back out again. It's exactly what we want them to do right now."

Kelton's work on Modern Monetary Theory is transformative. Her lectures present both a powerful descriptive account of how money works in the economy and a prescriptive account of how we can use that knowledge to make a better, more prosperous world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS9nP-BKa3M

She has a new book about this coming in June, The Deficit Myth. This would be a good time to pre-order it. These are scary times for writers with books about to come out (signed, I have three new books out in 2020).

https://stephaniekelton.com/book/

Beautiful judicial snark (permalink)

As Ken "Popehat" White is fond of reminding us, no one snarks quite like a federal judge. And despite being a Trump appointee, Steven C Seeger manages to rip off a couple zingers in this ruling.

http://loweringthebar.net/2020/03/unicorn-case-not-an-emergency.htm

At issue: Art Ask Agency is upset that someone is counterfeiting their unicorn-logo merch, such as this unicorn-scented candle:

https://artaskagency.com/our-licenses/anne-stokes/unicorn-candle/

But Illinois is in covid lockdown, so its case against a bunch of John Doe (alleged) counterfeiters is on hold. Their lawyer has sent a string of motions to the court asking for an emergency hearing so they can proceed, despite the fact that the court clerks are operating on reduced staff and only dealing with matters of the utmost urgency.

The judge is Not Impressed: "At worst, Defendant might sell a few more counterfeit products in the meantime. But Plaintiff makes no showing about anticipated loss of sales. One wonders if fake fantasy products are experiencing brisk sales at the moment."

The judge takes notice of the time a telephonic hearing would consume, "especially given the girth of the Plaintiff's filings."

"Plaintiff argues that it will suffer an 'irreparable injury' if this court does not put a stop to the infringing unicorns and knock-off elves."

"The world is facing a real emergency. Plaintiff is not."

(Image: Karen Neoh, CC BY)

Marc Davis's Haunted Mansion (permalink)

Along with Passport to Dreams Old and New, the Long Forgotten Blog is the best source of information on the history, design, and evolution of Disney theme-parks.

https://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/

But Long Forgotten focuses on a single ride, the glorious, brilliant Haunted Mansion.

The history of the Haunted Mansion was completely upended in late 2019, when Christopher Merritt published his "Marc Davis in His Own Words," a two-volume compendium of journals and interviews with the legendary Imagineer, who was Merritt's mentor.

https://books.disney.com/book/marc-davis-in-his-own-words/

This is probably the best book of Disney/theme-park history ever published, and that's no surprise, as Merritt has already written the definitive history of Knott's Berry Farm:

https://www.angelcitypress.com/collections/authors-christopher-merritt

And Pacific Ocean Park:

https://www.yesterland.com/pacificoceanpark.html

Merritt is an Imagineer, an artist, and a historian, who has direct, lifelong connections with the original Imagineering team. He has unparalleled access, inside knowledge and perspective. So yeah, that is a fucking great book.

Marc Davis was the best character designer in the original Imagineer cohort: he created the Country Bears, the Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion ghosts. He was a spectacular visual gag master, too. And he was one of the (many) legendary Imagineers who had a hand in designing the Haunted Mansion. That ride had so many different iterations, drafts, plans and schemes, and the final product is so wonderful in part because of their remnants.

But Davis actually designed a full-on Haunted Mansion attraction, from start to finish, and those plans are kicking around. Based on those, Long Forgotten has created a narrative account of what it would be like to tour "Marc Davis's Haunted Mansion."

https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2020/03/marc-daviss-haunted-mansion.htm

It's…interesting. Davis had some really fun ideas like meeting up with a talking bust (or raven).

And there are great gags (Davis designed the "three-part" stretching portraits, after all).

I mean. this would have been so freaking boss.

But the real meat is something called "The Most Dangerous Ghost":

"The final picture is perhaps behind black drapes which raise as the ghost host calls out attention to it. As the drapes part we see a painting that has everything in it except a figure. There is perhaps a vague image where the figure should be. The ghost host reacts in a frightened manner. He explains that this is terrible because this is the most dangerous ghost in the mansion. When he climbs out of his picture he mingles with the guests until he has turned one of them into a ghost. He describes the ghost's appearance and its omnipotent powers. He suggests again that everyone should stay in a tight group; this evil ghost loves to pick off stragglers. He suggests that the group be wary of sliding panels, gusts of cold air and etc."

Long Forgotten: "The MDG character undercuts the intellectually sloppy notion that all Davis cared about was making the HM funny."

LF goes on to make a good case that Davis wanted to incorporate many of Rolly Crump's gorgeous "Museum of the Weird" designs into his Mansion.

Davis's seance room seems to flirt with MDG some more: "The presence of the villain ghost makes itself felt and these older retired ghosts are frightened. Whatever we have used to indicate the nearness of the villain ghost would be repeated here."

Davis once planned for a Mansion filled with "working class ghosts" (carpenters, soldiers, boxers, etc). The only ones that survived were the coachmen in the graveyard sequence.

And his bride sequence was very explicit about wedding-night murders, culminating with MDG manifesting amid the guests: "He starts a wild mocking laugh. It clouds up outside. The curtains blow inward. It starts to rain along with thunder and lightning. "Outside we see a figure take form and it moves into the room. The rain comes into the room with the figure and a pool of water forms around its feet."

This is gorgeously scary, but as Long Forgotten points out, it has little re-play value (similar to Tomororwland's Alien Encounter): "The gag about the Ghost Host revealing himself as the Most Dangerous Ghost has the obvious disadvantage that it can surprise you only once. Pretty soon everyone knows the 'secret,' and as its usefulness as a genuine shock or scare tactic fades its status as pure camp inevitably increases."

That all said, "We learn what we should already know but sometimes forget: Marc Davis was never an imperious, one-man show. He was a team player. He interacted creatively with the work already done by previous Imagineers, displaying in this outline nothing but respect for what was good in what they had done."

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Disney busts amateur Disneyland tour guide https://web.archive.org/web/20050323133504/http://jimhillmedia.com/mb/articles/showarticle.php?ID=1356

#10yrsago James Randi is gay http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/914-how-to-say-it.html

#5yrsago Windows 10 announcement: certified hardware can lock out competing OSes https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/windows-10-to-make-the-secure-boot-alt-os-lock-out-a-reality/

#1yrago Two arrested for hiding cameras in motel rooms and charging for access to livestreams https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/20/asia/south-korea-hotel-spy-cam-intl/index.html

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Ok børge (https://twitter.com/forteller), Beyond the Beyond (http://www.wired.com/category/beyond_the_beyond/).

Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: The Masque of the Red Death and Punch Brothers Punch https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/16/the-masque-of-the-red-death-and-punch-brothers-punch/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

[berkcwitz]

❛ ✶ (   madison beer, cisfemale, she/her   )   spotted   !   jalissa   berkowitz   was   spotted   singing   along   to   find   my   way   by   dababy   in   hilton   grove  .   you’ve   heard   of   them   right   ?   they   are   a   twenty   two   year   old   pornographic   actress   /   internet   personality   who   has   already   amassed   a   net   worth   of   550m  .   you   should   really   follow   them   on   insta   @callmejalissa  ,   they’re   about   to   hit   89m   followers  .   the   tabloids   have   been   calling   them   the   vixen   because   they   are   known   for   being   whimsical   but   also   a   bit   abrasive  .   though   most   people   recognize   them   by   a   drunken   gaze   staring   into   the   mirror   as   she   holds   finger   guns   to   her   head   ,   a   laugh   too   contagious   ,   leaving   notes   in   lipstick   on   bathroom   mirrors   &   echoing   of   her   mothers   longtime   disapproval   .    —   ooc info   (   mia.   twenty.   est.   she/her.   )

GUYYYSSSS ?! this group ? a masterpiece , wow . im hella excited to get to roleplay with you all . im mia by the way , im twenty ( i’ll be 21 in june what a vibe ) & i live in the est ( a clam chowder eating , dunkin donuts chugging , no Rs havin , boston sports loving new englander ). also i go by she/her pronouns ! i am going to be so honest with you guys . this intro is dummy long . like , i promise i will not judge you if you hmu asking for a quick synopsis of my girl because this shit below this cut ? is a novella & a half , sis . if im very honest i really just needed to flesh her out completely because she’s a new baby of mine ? and i wanted to make sure i really knew her before i put her out on the dash . im so anal about this , i know . anyways , before this little note section gets as long as the intro without further a do ? adu ? idfk ... here’s jalissa , she’s ... a piece of work . also if you'd prefer to plot on discord hmu @ 𝖒𝖌𝖐'𝖘 𝖜𝖍𝖔𝖗𝖊#9789 .

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐇

full name: jalissa  billie-jean  berkowitz nickname: lissa , jals , jb , berks , jalissa cadden ( porn name ) birthday: october 13th birthplace: fort lauderdale , florida hometown: hilton grove residence: hilton grove nationality: american ( est. 1997 through birth ) , british ( est. 1997 automatically a citizen due to mother’s citizenship , passport was claimed est. 2012 ) ethnicity: askenazi jewish ( maternal & paternal , 100% ) religion: judaism orientation: pansexual , panromantic ( she never really came out per say , people just kind of know she’s attracted to all genders . her family is very religious and she’s very involved with her synagogue so she’s made the choice not the necessarily put a label on her sexuality but is open about loving people no matter gender ) languages spoken: english ( fluent , first language ) , yiddish ( fluent , second language ) , spanish ( fluent , third language ) , german ( conversational , fourth language ) . father: henry  christian  berkowitz  ( 50 years old )  was born & raised in fort lauderdale , florida by a politician / banking heir & talk show host / philanthropist . henry himself went on to follow in his father’s footsteps and serve as a us senator for two terms & currently is the ceo of berkowitz capital . ( relationship:  it’s never been perfect but the love is clear in the relationship & he’s been much better at being supportive of her in recent years . certainly a daddy’s little girl even when you do wrong you can’t do much wrong type of situation ) mother : austen  sylvia  rachelson-berkowitz  ( 48 years old ) was born & raised in westminster ,  england up until her teens when she & her mother moved to washington dc after her mother had become the incumbent uk ambassador to the united states . austen was crowned miss usa at the age of 20 & later went on to follow in her families long time involvement in politics ( holding former offices as a us representative as well as governor for two terms ) . today she spends much of her time putting her law degree to work on criminal cases . ( relationship: they’ve never been close & have never quite seen eye to eye . since jalissa was nineteen she & her mom haven’t said more than ten words to one another & if they have it’s never necessarily positive ) brother: kenneth  patrick  berkowitz  ( 24 years old ) was born in fort lauderdale , florida & raised in hilton grove . he shares the same parents as jalissa and is the couples first born & only son . kenneth is following in the berkowitz footsteps & is heading the uk sector for berkowitz capital since graduating from columbia university a couple years back . ( relationship: the two siblings have always been close. they had a similar friend group growing up & alot of the same interests . they’re still rather close to this day despite being countries away from one another ) sister: sariah  rachel  berkowitz ( 19 years old )  was born in fort lauderdale , florida & raised in hilton grove . she shares the same parents as jalissa and is the couples last born . sariah currently attends stanford university where she’s on a pre med track . ( relationship: the two were often at each other’s necks growing up . mostly because how similar they are to one another . as of recently the two have grown close , though , with sariah fessing up to looking up to her older sister ) social class: upper education: highschool diploma ( hilton grove highschool g. 2015 ) career: youtuber ( from 2014-present ) , pornographic actress ( from 2016-present ) , podcaster (from 2018-present ) notoriety: being apart of the prominent berkowitz family , having one of the top 10 most watched pornographic movies , her podcast with her best friend tickets to our downfall  & her youtube channel callmejalissa . weight: 122lbs  height: 5′4″ hair color: brown ( with blonde highlights ) eye color: hazel ( wears blue contacts sometimes ) positive traits: whimsical , astute , extroverted , affectionate , quick , intelligent , friendly , ambitious , passionate , humorous , loyal , compassionate , effervescent negative traits: opportunistic , recalcitrant , hypocritical , vain , critical , stubborn , distant , sneaky , abrasive , sarcastic , obsessive , vengeful , reckless , arrogant likes: black coffee , birthday parties , lying , sunshine , baby pink , glossy lips , gossiping , stand up comedy , sunkissed skin , dogs , peanut butter , popping champagne bottles , driving with the windows down , swimming , mimosas , oversized sweaters , taco bell , cranberry juice , makeup , football , cosmetic work , arguing , online shopping , exotic foods , jewelry the price of a car , fresh berries , roller skating dislikes: liars , driving in the snow , her mother , jelly , basketball , bad drivers , when people lie about their cosmetic work , sushi , hateful people , disloyalty , overly emotional people , romance , being alone ,  astrology enthusiasts , hospitals , silence , cheap perfume , criticism , traffic , being late , red wine , short hair , anything banana or grape flavored  hobbies: reading magazines , dancing to her newly curated playlist in the mirror , gossiping with her grandparents , video editing , meddling , going for brunch , goat yoga , drinking alcohol while snuggled up in bed , painting alternate universe cartoons , attending big soirees , making impulsive decisions , smoking weed , sleepovers with her closest friends , suntanning on yacht decks , late night instagram lives , marilyn monroe movie marathons  chara inspo: kourtney kardashian , emily nelson ( a simple favor ) , tan france ( queer eye ) , evie zamora ( thirteen ) , rebekah mikaelson ( the vampire diaries ) , jennifer check ( jennifer’s body ) , gabrielle solis ( desperate housewives ) , regina george ( mean girls ) , lucifer morningstar ( lucifer ) , kathryn merteuli ( cruel intentions ) , veronica lodge ( riverdale ) , chanel oberlin ( scream queens ) , samantha jones ( sex and the city ) , andie anderson ( how to lose a guy in 10 days ) , blair waldorf ( gossip girl ) , naomi lapaglia ( wolf of wall street ) , maddy perez ( euphoria ) , kat hernandez ( euphoria ) fashion inspo: fran drescher , bella hadid , alex chung , madison beer , romee strijd , kendall jenner , selena gomez  career inspo: tana mongeau , jordan lipscombe , sofia franklyn , alexdandra cooper , lana rhodes , abella danger headcanons: she has one hundred percent smashed the windows in an exes car , she drives a black range rover , vandalized an exes home before , says “ harely quinn is my spirit animal “ once a day , is not the type of ask if you’re okay with her vlogging , has slept with rock stars and couldn’t care less that they’re basically the age of dirt at this point , is actually very sad when she’s not putting on the vivacious front in front of people , dances on tables whens she’s drunk , its not a party unless someone has offered her a line  

𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀

the   berkowitz   family name has long been one that holds prestige & power . among the 1% for over a century . they are a prominent banking family that has had their hands in the pots of nearly every big banking company across the nation . coming into the united states after word broke of the california gold rush back in 1849 , the berkowitz brother’s were of the lucky few to acquire pounds of gold by the thousands . later founding what would become a leading investment bank known as berkowitz capital . the generations to follow would capitalize on the head start given to them by the two brothers . expanding the family company as well as the knowledge of the family name through heavy involvement in politics alongside the kennedy’s . since as early as 1953 there has always been a berkowitz family member actively appointed to a political role ( governor , senator , representative , us ambassador , etc ) . although the families roots within the states are documented in the capital of california , as generations went on they made their way over to the east coast , with most of the family members now residing in southern florida . 

the   rachelson   family is a prominent political family . synonymous with power & eloquence . with their rise initially taking place in the british parliament . many escaped to england from germany between 1933-1935 . they hadn’t settled into the states until jocelyn rachelson ( jalissa’s maternal grandmother ) was appointed the united kingdoms ambassador to the united states in 1987 . the rachelson’s have since had heavy involvement in the us government , both behind the scenes and at the forefront . much of the rachelson family have stayed within the european union ( germany & poland ) as well as england . although the few that followed jocelyn to the states now reside in washington dc and the tri-state area .

henry & austen had met through their mutual friends . it didn’t take long before the two became a rather public couple , a supercouple if you would ( similar to that of a brangelina of the 1% ) . although they’d met in new york the two decided that when it was time to start a family they wanted to move to hilton grove , an island austen had eyed for years . instead they found themselves moving down to fort lauderdale where henry had grown up . before they knew it , they were three kids deep in settling down in fort lauderdale . austen’s anger from never wanting to build a life in florida started to tumble into the relationship & the daily life of the family & so in an effort to recover the marriage henry agreed to moving the family up to hilton grove , where they have resided ever since .

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀 𝐄𝐑𝐀

jalissa was born the second of three children and oh boy does she suffer from middle child syndrome , riddled with a envy and a need to be in the mix . the berkowitz household , although , from the outside looking in looked like a fabulous family life was anything but . jalissa , like her siblings , was born on a pedestal & what came attached with that was even higher expectations from her parents . her parents found a way to be extremely authoritarian & uninvolved all at the same time . they were very dismissive if you disappointed them & everything jalissa did seemingly did just that .

for a long time she was obsessed with getting her parents approval , she’d turned life into a silent competition between herself & her siblings . she befriended only the people her parents approved of , did all the events they asked her to do , did everything she could to excel academically & only dated people who were of benefit to her parents ( people who’s parents where also in high places ) . 

during highschool she joined the model un , debate team , and soccer team . if it were up to jalissa & not her parents she’d probably had joined the cheerleading team but her mother would never let that fly . it was too “ self indulgent “ to fit the family brand ( if only she’d known what would be coming years later lol ) .

it wasn’t until she was seventeen that she started to deviate from her parents wishes . of course , the catalyst to this was a boy , one her parents hadn’t really approved of but jalissa was completely head over heels for him . he really helped her boost her confidence to be her own person ? and not allow her parents to treat her like a puppet . with his encouragement she started her youtube channel , something she’d wanted to do for years but her mother had shot down the idea anytime jalissa brought it up . it was once again too “ self indulgent ” . the channel known as callmejalissa was an outlet for her , talking to a camera was the most heard she’d felt in seventeen years of her life . and god she knew that was hella sad . she really grew to view her subscribers as family & by the time her channel was brought to her parents attention ( more like her mothers , her dad had found her channel just four months after she’d made it and promised not to tell her mother so long as she was smart about what she posted ) she was about to turn eighteen and there wasn’t much they could do to stop her from doing it .

at eighteen she’d graduated highschool salutatorian with offers from university of pennsylvania & brown university . in all honesty she didn’t wnat to go to college , she saw it as a complete waste of her time . it wasn’t like she was going to do anything with the degree anyways . it would simply be a point of bragging for her parents at events & at this point she really could care less about them being able to brag to their friends . she knew she had to play along though , because this was the same year she was going to receive her first half of her trust fund ( a whoopin 500m , yes her trust fund in total will be 1b her parents are grossly wealthy guys ) so she bamboozled ? her parents , promising she’d committed to attending penn just so they’d allow for the money to be released to her account . she moved out of the house , literally moving into a house of her own a couple blocks from her parents house & claimed she was living in pennsylvania for college . we stan a sneaky binch .

two months later her parents were at her front door , though , ready to give her an ear full . her mother basically disowned her at this point . telling her how every year jalissa found a new way to be a bigger disappointment . her dad kind of played good cop , like he normally would because her mother often dug into her pretty deeply . to the point where any insecurity ( even though with the way she carries herself you’d never think she has any ) she has stems from something her mother has said / called her in the past . if henry berkowitz had a soft spot , it was certainly jalissa , it that had only grown clearly with the harsher austen became on the girl .

a few months before her nineteenth birthday a sex tape was released of jalissa cheating on her boyfriend at the time . it was a drunken mistake she’d made around the time of her mother basically disowning her , but that explanation did suffice for her boyfriend who inevitably broke things off with her . although this was a horrific time she’d received an abundance of offers to film more tapes . it was enticing to say the least . she was someone who loved intercourse but also had this deeply rooted desire to get back at her mother ? and what better way to do so then to something so far left from what her mother was about . this was next level disappointment in the eyes of austen berkowitz . the only thing that made sense ( in her mind ) was to dive head first into the porn industry .

like you’d expect her parents had a fit when they found out about her new career choice . although her internet fame had soared to new heights and her youtube & instagram followers were loving every second of this move . her mom was currently serving as governor and has since not been able to get elected in the political world since jalissa became one of the top porn stars around . they basically blacklisted her & jalissa feels no remorse , she’s gone so far as telling her mother “ sucks to be shunned , huh? ” .

although it took her dad a while to come around , he cares far too much to shut her out . 

not to long after jalissa & her best friend started their podcast tickets to our downfall , it’s a mix of call her daddy & the basement yard , basically two besties talking on a level that most people wouldn’t want to leave the privacy of their own space , giving advice , hoe tricks , and telling funny stories of their past . it a total hit & one of jalissa’s favorite things to do .

she live sin the same house she has since she was eighteen . she lives on her own with three dogs and a cat . she absolutely hates being alone and so maggie ( a tan corgi puppy ) , louis ( a  yellow lab puppy ) , humphrey ( a chocolate lab ) , and cedric ( a orange scottish fold ) are her babies that keep her sane in her big ole home . 

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 

as you can tell jalissa is chaotic , impulsive , reactive , and overall just searching for attention . she doesn’t care if the attention she receives is for the wrong reason or not , as long as she’s getting it . despite this she’s a good person ? i promise . she’s very friendly , loves a good joke & having a good time . very fun loving . she’s the type of person to try and bring up everyone else’s mood even when she isn’t feeling 100% herself . she’s loyal to those she deems are loyal to her . sometimes she’s bad a seeing who is actually loyal to her though & will be disloyal to someone who actually has her back ? oops . she’s definitely not the type to sugar coat anything for you , she tells it like it is & refuses to apologize if that hurts your feelings . if you cross her ? i’ll be praying for you . she’s the type to fuck your s/o , tell your boss some wild story about you & dump alcohol over your head at an event all in the matter of a week . don’t get her going , she’s absolutely relentless . with that said she’d very affectionate ... ? you can catch her hugging up on whoever is next to her at all times . touch is her love language , because lord knows she’s no sweetheart . she hates the stereotype of porn stars / internet personalities being ditzy , although she didn’t attend university she was accepted into two ivy leagues based off her academic abilities alone . the girl is intelligent & enjoys having a clever conversation from time to time .

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

a girl squad or just a squad in general really , give my baby her lil group of people please

her ex boyfriend from when she was seventeen ( he’s mentioned above ) but basically he’s the one who encouraged her to not let her parents make her their puppet , they didn’t approve of him , jalissa fell head over heels for him . they would’ve dated for nearly two years because the sex tape of her cheating on him came out .

the person she cheated on her ex with ? maybe they’re the one who leaked the sex tape ? maybe they never even told jalissa they were recording ? 

her best friend that she does the tickets to our downfall podcast with ? these two are literally like twins , just two peas in a pod ( pun intended )

fans of her work ? and im not taking about her youtube channel or podcast 

ex hook ups that think she’s crazy ? she probably gave them reason to think so lbr

frenemies give me blair & serena circa season one type of shit

just plain old enemies , they were probably friends at one point or maybe just have always disliked one another ? 

smoking buddies were they literally just hot box cars together and munch on taco bell talking about why sound vibrates & shit 

someone who isn’t afraid to confess their love for jalissa but her damaged ass refuses to confess her feelings for them ? so it’s just this constant cycle of them having a good time , them being sweet & her just gets weirdly quite & starring at them before she complaining about them going and ruining the vibes

she’s a bad influence on them ? they’re a good influence on her ? ride or dies ? partners in crime ? only friends when there is a substance involved ? sugar baby vibes ? unlikely friends ? flings ? crush ? friends with benefits ? everytime they are around one another its a fight ? someone she lets crash at her place sometimes ? someone she’s backstabbed & maybe they don’t even know she has & they still think she’s a ride or die for them ?

[desperationandgin]

Deep As The Road is Long (Part I, Chapter 9)

Rating: P & S for pain and sadness

Also Read On: AO3

A/N: Just to clarify because someone asked and I didn't realize it might be slightly confusing--there are sometimes weeks in between moments. For example, November took place on Thanksgiving and the few days after. December picked up again on December 23rd. So some time has obviously passed. These events aren't happening back-to-back-to-back. I hope that clears things up! ALSO, I can’t keep up with the comments here. If I don’t reply to you personally, feel free to message <3 Finally, new mood board by @smashing-teacups :) thank you love!

December 2015

They know, or at least Claire and Jamie know, that Faith won’t be going home, and the day Claire told Jamie is seared into her memory and etched into her soul forever. She knows on a logical level that it isn’t her fault, that she’s done everything she can for his little girl, but to say words that gut him so badly is crushing. She feels as though she might as well have stuck a knife in his heart herself. It’s her job, it’s been her job for nearly a decade now, and it never gets easier to go down this final, sad path when she must. But this is different, this is personal, and she can’t tell anyone, can’t express it, can’t be caught weeping, because she crossed a line and fell in love with Jamie and his daughter.

She has to do what she would for any single one of her patients and their families, which means she has to be strong within the walls of the hospital. Professional. With Christmas so close, and considering Faith’s concern over Thanksgiving about Santa finding her, Claire decides to make sure there’s no doubt in her mind that she hasn’t been forgotten, even though she’s stuck in a bed far from her own. Claire’s promise to Jamie, that she would do everything she could for his daughter, is still ongoing; it just means something different now.

On the night before Christmas Eve, Claire somehow, against all odds, gets one of the busy radiologists to dress up as Santa with a large sack of toys over his shoulder. Making sure Faith is awake, Claire steps aside and lets ‘Santa’ in to charm and delight her. It’s worth it; the bright but sleepy smile on her face, her questions about all of her cousins getting toys all the way in Scotland answered patiently. When he asks Faith what she wants for Christmas, she thinks for a few seconds quietly, then shakes her head.

“Nothing, Santa.”

Of course, he asks if she’s sure, asks if there isn’t anything she wants, and again she refuses. She does get a hug and presents anyway (books, a doll, an assortment of Disney movies she can watch in her room) before ‘Santa’ leaves to go visit the other children on the floor.

“A leannan, ye dinna want anything at all on Christmas Day?”

“I want to go home, Da,” she says quietly, looking down at the doll in her hands and putting it aside. She reaches for Trunky instead and holds the stuffed elephant to her chest. “To Lallybroch.”

Claire looks down from where she’s standing, unable to meet Jamie’s eyes, feeling the guilt of not fixing Faith churning in her belly so hard she’s afraid she might vomit. Excusing herself, she leaves the room and simply stands on the other side of the closed door, a hand over her mouth as she tries not to break down into tears among the cheery ho ho ho’s she can hear echoing in the hall.

When Christmas arrives two days later, Claire brings two wrapped gifts. One is flat and wide, the other a smaller box. She can see it on Jamie’s face when she walks in, the relief to see her, but she doesn’t feel as though it’s deserved. He should be angry at her, the last person he wants to see in the hospital. Still, she plasters on a small smile mostly for Faith’s benefit. Kissing her forehead, she’s not there as ‘Doctor Claire.’ She’s simply there, trying to make the holiday the best it possibly can be. She’s brought a tin of Christmas cookies, the only thing she’s truly good at baking and decorating (God help her if she tries to make a cake), and lets Faith pick whatever she wants, which then turns into her picking a cookie for Jamie and Claire each. The smaller gift is placed aside, and after the cookies are finished, the larger one lays across Faith’s lap. Despite her insistence of wanting nothing, the grin on her face betrays the fact that she’s delighted. Any child would be, and it’s incredible to simply watch her open the present with eagerness. It’s a large sticker book; the stickers able to be removed and placed in any sort of background or scene. Dinosaurs can float in space, a girl on a bicycle can ride through a jungle. Faith may be stuck in bed, but Claire knows her imagination is sharp.

Showing her how to use it, that the plastic stickers simply come right off of the glossy pages to be reused, she sits back and finally meets Jamie’s gaze, smiling just a little. It isn’t more than an hour later that Faith is dozing off even as she struggles to keep playing. Eventually, her head bobs to the side and Jamie lays her back, moving the sticker book and tucking her in. When he sits, he looks over at the other gift. “Ye didna want her opening that one?”

Claire almost startles, so lost in her own thoughts in the quiet that his voice pulls her out of the dark. Glancing over at the gift, she picks it up. “No. It’s for you.” Standing, she relocates herself beside him, handing the gift over. “I thought it might save you some bleeding.”

Curious, Jamie opens it only to find a nice razor, refill cartridges, and expensive looking soap. Raising the bar to smell (spicy; patchouli, the slightest hint of cinnamon, a touch of tarragon) he hums appreciatively. “The disposable razors do a number on my face, ye ken?”

Smiling just a little, Claire nods. “I do know. I figured this might help.” Because he hasn't gone home once. The furthest he’s gone is down to the cafeteria, but even then, he’s back in record time and she can’t even be sure he’s actually eating anything substantial.

“Could I ask for another part to the gift, Sassenach?” he asks, pulling the razor out of the kit.

In confusion, she looks at him with a slight tilt of her head. “What?”

For a moment Jamie says nothing, just holding her gaze, looking for all the world like he’s going to say something other than what comes out of his mouth. “Would ye give me a shave?”

Oh.

Oh.

“Of course, Jamie. I can do that for you.” Because it’s one of the only useful things she’ll feel like she’s done for him in weeks. Standing, she reaches out for his hand and leads him to the bathroom.

Tugging off his shirt, he takes a moment to splash his face with water to get it damp before sitting on the closed lid of the toilet. He watches her move, watches her take the bar of soap between her hands and lather up before standing between his legs and looking down at him, hands hovering. “It’s alright, Sassenach. I’m ready.”

Letting out a breath, Claire smiles just a little and begins working the soap over his skin until she’s satisfied. Wetting the razor now, she murmurs. “Hold still and don’t speak.” Once she knows he won’t move her hands begin sure work, trying to remember the way her husband taught her once before he died. She’s so close to Jamie, able to feel his breath against her forearm as she shaves. Once she’s pleased with a job well done (not clean shaven, but neater and shorter), the razor goes to the countertop, hands grasping a towel to wipe his face clean.

“I canna tell her, Claire,” Jamie says, breaking the silence, and she freezes, towel in hand and pressing to his chin as she watches him open his eyes to look at her.

“What sort of father am I? Too much of a coward to tell his own daughter that she’s…”

His jaw tightens and he takes the towel from Claire, wiping at his own face now.

Standing between his legs, she feels too close, out of place. “Jamie, you aren’t the first parent who hasn’t been able to say it. Some never do. And at her age, it’s...it’s too big for anyone, let alone a child, to wrap their mind around.”

“I dinna want her to be afraid,” he confesses, choking a bit on the words. “If she’s afraid, I’m no’ sure I could be strong for her. Because Christ, I’m terrified, but as long as she thinks she’s only sick and will go home, she doesna ask questions I canna answer.” The sound that leaves him is choked off, a sob he attempts to stop but isn’t quite successful. “I’m a selfish bastard for that, and I ken it.”

All that Claire wants to do is soothe him somehow, both hands cradling his face as a tear slides down her cheek. “No, Jamie. Christ, no. Right now she isn’t afraid, she isn’t terrified to close her eyes, she’s calm. I think it’s your choice. And if you choose not to tell her, that’s okay. It’s alright, Jamie,” she whispers. She won’t judge him for it, whatever he decides. It could be a completely different story when her symptoms get worse, as the cancer begins to take a much larger toll on her body.

For a few minutes, the two of them are in silent communion with one another; Claire still in front of him, cheek pressing to the crown of his hair as her arms wrap around him, his head resting against her chest.

They part, but she’s there every evening with him, sitting in the quiet of the room, holding him close at the end of each day. Christ knows he needs it after letting Faith take every ounce of strength he has. At midnight on January first, as Claire hugs him goodnight, Jamie lets his lips briefly brush against hers.

A soft way to usher in a year he knows is going to destroy him.

Next Chapter

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Potential seizure trigger like whoa, sexual imagery

Title: Professor Pilk presents: Contest Trolling 101

Editor: Mr Pilkington

Song: Pop 101

Artist: Marianas Trench feat. Anami Vice

Anime: Tokyo Ghoul, Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Uta no Prince-sama, Nichijou, Kill la Kill, Dangan Ronpa: The Animation, Ben-To, Free!, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, K-On!,  Golden Time, Mirai Nikki, Black Bullet, Chuunibyou demo koi ga Shitai!, Maria the Virgin Witch, Super Sonico the Animation, Tiger and Bunny, Hyperdimension Neptunia, The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya, Afro Samurai, Angel Beats, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu LOVE!,  Watamote, Code Geass, Yuru Yuri, One Piece, Durarara!!, Hayate the Combat Butler, Haikyuu!!, Sword Art Online, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, Maria + Holic, Space Dandy, Vividred Operation, No Game No Life, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,  C - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Monogatari, Detroit Metal City, Futurama (cartoon), and some unknown anime

Category: Comedy

Awards: Momocon - Director’s Choice Animazement - Best Upbeat Animethon 22 - Best in Show SMASH! 2015 - Judges’ Choice AWA 2015 Expo - Pop Will Eat Itself

[the-schwayest-batman-around]

Opinions on Robin Beyond

So per some mild interest by some followers and my own interest in talking about it. In the effort of spoilers, I’ll be placing a read more for those interested. In addition, I’ll list the pros and the cons of the choices made so far. Finally, these are my opinions about the choices. If you agree or disagree, that’s completely understandable and I respect those opinions.

So let’s get going!

So while it’s been hinted at several times, Matt McGinnis, Terry’s younger brother, appears to be taking up the mantle of Robin. This is a huge shift in the Beyond dynamic as Terry McGinnis has never had a Robin despite several attempts as far back as the television show to give him one. In fact, the execs at Kids WB wanted Matt to be a larger focus and make him go on his own adventures that Terry wasn’t a part of (going as far as having a little motorcycle or Batmobile hidden behind a dumpster outside his window as an idea).

Pros:

A Brand New Dynamic: We’ve had several Robins and several different with dynamics with each of them. The most common is the father/son bond with Batman and Robin (Bruce and Dick/Jason/Tim/Damian being the most straightforward). There are exceptions, such as Stephanie, Duke and Carrie. However, this one is between two brothers. Once again, one can draw a comparison to Dick/Damian for a Batman and Robin that were brothers, yet Terry and Damian have known each other far longer. This is a unique approach to a Batman and Robin dynamic that (to my knowledge) has not been seen in other Batman media.

Character Development: This may seem surprising to have this big change only 14 issues into a series, but Matt’s evolution as a Robin candidate has actually been going on since the DCYou era of Batman Beyond (2015). Compared to the animated Matt McGinnis, who mostly served as a bratty little kid who would mess with Terry when he got home, this Matt was more active. When we were first introduced to him, he and several others were battling a Brother Eye controlled hellhound before saved by a time displaced alternate version of Tim Drake (it makes sense in context). Since his reintroduction, he has helped defend the city against an invasion of Brother Eye robots, helped rediscover and save the Justice League Beyond, made his way to Metropolis after it was highly dangerous and filled to the brim with Cuvier’s splicer army, was trained briefly by Tim Drake, saved his brother from Spellbinder’s mind control when Tim and Barbara couldn’t, repeatedly ran into Jokerz controlled territory to help his brother and several other things. In this arc alone, we’ve learned he’s been spending hours watching training videos on Damian (but likely the other Robins as well). For several years now, Matt has been grooming himself to become an ally to Terry. Going back to Tim, even he took a while to be groomed into his role as Robin.

Fan Favorite Choice: This may not be a surprise for most people, but fans have been using Matt as the ideal candidate for Terry’s Robin. Doing a quick image search on Google, Deviantart or even tumblr with Robin Beyond or Matt McGinnis Robin yields plenty of results and ideas of what Matt would be like. Fans have wanted Terry to have a Robin for some time and Matt has repeatedly been the main choice. There is a precedence and several fans may be excited to have this finally come true.

Effecting the Family: Matt’s introduction as Robin is going to yield a lot of big story potential. This has been hinted in the solicitations that there’s going to be several people unsure of letting Matt into this life is a wise choice. Whether or not the events of Return of the Joker occurred in this new DC Comics universe is up in the air (Terry and Matt’s parentage has changed according to current writer Dan Jurgens). However whether or not this is the case, how will Barbara, Damian, Dick and Tim, former sidekicks of Bruce, react to Terry finally getting a Robin? Will Bruce justify it? How will Terry react to finding out his flesh and blood brother wants to join in the battle? We saw a lot of push back from Terry when Max began to be a larger part of the Bat-family life. The Bat-Family in Beyond is growing and changing and this could lead to several conflicts and disagreements in the future.

New Audience Surrogate: In the 1940s, Dick Grayson (Age 12) was created to be Batman’s sidekick to attract new readers. In theory, Dick would serve as an audience surrogate to imagine life as fighting as Batman. Young boys who wanted to be Batman but were too young could suddenly put themselves in the pixie shoes of Dick and imagine themselves fighting crime against the Caped Crusader. This was a smash hit and a massive influx of child sidekicks flooded the market and are still around today. Matt may serve as a new audience surrogate. Terry, while originally a good audience surrogate when he started off, has now grown. He is out of school, living an apartment and has been Batman for several years. It may be seen as a way to bring new readers in to have Matt serve as this new window into the world of Batman Beyond. If it worked in 1940, it would suddenly work well in whatever year Batman Beyond takes place.

Cons:

Too Many Rookies: A draw for several people to Batman Beyond was a very unique pitch to the series. Terry, a young novice Batman, was trained by a much older, wiser Bruce Wayne. This was something very unique and Terry fit into an interesting in between. He was older than most of the Robins we had seen but still had the sass and charm of Dick, Jason and Tim. Yet he was what many little kids wanted to be: Batman. It’s been almost 20 years since the beginning of Batman Beyond, and we know several years since Terry has taken up the mantle of Batman. However compared to several of the Robins, it appears he’s still learning and refining himself. More than once, he has needed support from Bruce on the field (look no further than the previous arc where Terry had to be rescued from a smack down by Damian). Adding someone new to the table, someone who still needs to be trained, may make people uncomfortable.

Balancing Failure: Dovetailing off the previous point, a new balance will need to be established and figured out with Matt. As Matt is likely becoming a brand new Robin, he will be judged by his lack of failures or amount of failures. To refresh people, Terry has failed several times and needed help in his time as Batman and has struggled. Some people found it frustrating to see a Batman struggle while others found it sympathetic. The problem with Matt is there hasn’t been many noticeable consequences for his actions. In fact, several times he hasn’t had many failures, instead being rewarded for his actions since the start of his comic appearances. He may end up in a tough situation (captured by the Beast Men, dive into the middle of a battle with Spellbinder, running into Jokerz territory) and end up fine or saved by someone else (saved by Jon Kent Superman, snaps Terry out of his illusion, is unscathed by the end of the story and never captured despite Terry and Dana being discovered and captured).

Wandering Focus: In this 2017 run of Batman Beyond, the Bat-family has actually grown quite a bit. While we’re unsure about the canon of Beyond Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, we have gained Mayor Luke Fox, League of Assassins Leader Damian Wayne and the return of fan favorite Nissa aka Batgirl. This is on top of pre-existing Batman Beyond supporting characters Bruce Wayne, Max Gibson, Melanie Walker, and Barbara Gordon. These are 7 characters and not much time has been spent on some of these characters. With the addition of Matt and his subsequent training will take away from focus on the other characters. For an example, we were introduced to a character that was initially pushed in the first two arcs of the DCYou. Nora Boxer, Matt’s caretaker in the apocalypse and a possible nod to Kamandi at Earth’s End character Ben Boxer, vanished very quickly with the return of Terry McGinnis with no mention or nod to the character. The question remains just how much focus other characters will get with Matt now taking a larger role as Robin.

The Loss of Personal Life: Matt slowly entering this role as Robin is a step towards something that has been growing increasingly rare: Terry’s life outside of Batman. While his animated life got the most attention to Terry going through High School, seeing friends, we still saw snippets of it in the other comics. Several of the original comics had Terry going on dates with Dana, camping trips with Howard, Max and Dana, a field trip and more. Adam Beechen’s run had Terry spend time with his Mom and Dana with integration between the two intersecting. Kyle Higgins run showed Terry going through college and nods of trying to deal with a roommate, classes and being a superhero. However with the Dan Jurgens run, there has been barely any focus on a lot of life outside of being Batman. Dana and Matt served as two bastions of a life outside of superheroics. With Terry’s mother absent, no school and the only interactions he seems to have being Dana, Max and the Bat-family, it appears that Terry’s life may be nothing but Batman. This may again, turn people away from the story, as several people enjoyed Terry’s cast, friends and exploring Neo-Gotham outside of just the lens of a superhero.

My Personal Opinions:

I make it no secret that I am a vocal minority being against Matt becoming Robin. I feel with after the events of Return of the Joker, Old Wounds, and if you want to count them as canon, Killing Joke and Death in the Family, Terry would likely not want to have a kid sidekick of his own, let alone a sidekick on the field. We also saw in the comics the last partner he had, Vigilante, did not go well. While I’m not opposed to giving Terry an eventual partner with proper character development, I felt this would be better suited years after college and distance from the events of Batman Beyond 2.0. In addition, he would likely not follow the same formula as Bruce had and pick a sidekick that was not a child, let alone his brother.

However, I will admit I can see a lot of good story potential with Matt as Robin. Matt can make a very unique Robin and really force Terry and the Bat-family to adapt. Matt is hardly a carbon copy to any of the allies trained by Bruce, especially any of the Robins. He could bring a lot to the table and change the story for Terry in a big way, maybe a good way.

Dan Jurgens writing has been a tough egg to crack for me. There’s several ideas and moments that I feel are perfect. Several of the interactions between Terry, Bruce and Matt have felt on point. Plots and some writing have been very questionable though. The man can be a great writer when he really cares for a project (look no further than his Rebirth run on Action Comics or older examples being his Tangent Universe imprint). I want to hope that these stories are going to get really good because I did enjoy the first arc of Rebirth and several ideas of his second arc (and while not written by him, Nissa’s issue was awesome). So let’s keep our fingers crossed for the future of the Batman and soon to be Robin of Tomorrow.

[orbemnews]

How Space Became the Next ‘Great Power’ Contest Between the U.S. and China Beijing’s rush for antisatellite arms began 15 years ago. Now, it can threaten the orbital fleets that give the United States military its technological edge. Advanced weapons at China’s military bases can fire warheads that smash satellites and laser beams with a potential to blind arrays of delicate sensors. And its cyberattacks can, at least in theory, cut off the Pentagon from contact with fleets of satellites that track enemy movements, relay communications among troops and provide information for the precise targeting of smart weapons. Among the most important national security issues now facing President Biden is how to contend with the threat that China poses to the American military in space and, by extension, terrestrial forces that rely on the overhead platforms. The Biden administration has yet to indicate what it plans to do with President Donald J. Trump’s legacy in this area: the Space Force, a new branch of the military that has been criticized as an expensive and ill-advised escalation that could lead to a dangerous new arms race. Mr. Trump presented the initiative as his own, and it now suffers from an association with him and remains the brunt of jokes on television. But its creation was also the culmination of strategic choices by his predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to counter an emboldened China that raised bipartisan alarm. “There’s been a dawning realization that our space systems are quite vulnerable,” said Greg Grant, a Pentagon official in the Obama administration who helped devise its response to China. “The Biden administration will see more funding — not less — going into space defense and dealing with these threats.” The protective goal is to create an American presence in orbit so resilient that, no matter how deadly the attacks, it will function well enough for the military to project power halfway around the globe in terrestrial reprisals and counterattacks. That could deter Beijing’s strikes in the first place. The hard question is how to achieve that kind of strong deterrence. Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired four-star Army general who was confirmed last week as Mr. Biden’s secretary of defense, told the Senate that he would keep a “laserlike focus” on sharpening the country’s “competitive edge” against China’s increasingly powerful military. Among other things, he called for new American strides in building “space-based platforms” and repeatedly referred to space as a war-fighting domain. “Space is already an arena of great power competition,” Mr. Austin said, with China “the most significant threat going forward.” The new administration has shown interest in tapping the innovations of space entrepreneurs as a means of strengthening the military’s hand — what Mr. Austin in his Senate testimony called “partnerships with commercial space entities.” The Obama and Trump administrations both adopted that strategy as a uniquely American way of sharpening the military’s edge. Experts clash on whether the United States is doing too little or too much. Defense hawks had lobbied for decades for the creation of a military Space Corps and called for more spending on weapons. But arms controllers see the Space Force as raising global tensions and giving Beijing an excuse to accelerate its own threatening measures. Some go further and call it a precipitous move that will increase the likelihood of war. In decades past, especially during the “Star Wars” program of the Reagan administration, conflict in space was often portrayed as shootouts in orbit. That has changed. With few exceptions, the weapons are no longer seen as circling the planet but as being deployed from secure bases. So, too, the targets are no longer swarms of nuclear warheads but fleets of satellites, whose recurring, predictable paths while orbiting the Earth make them far easier to destroy. A main question is whether the antisatellite moves and countermoves will lower or raise the risks of miscalculation and war. That debate is just beginning. Beijing’s Surge For years, the Chinese studied — with growing anxiety — the American military, especially its invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The battlefield successes were seen as rooted in space dominance. Planners noted that thousands of satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles had rained down with devastating precision on Taliban forces and Iraqi defenses. While the Pentagon’s edge in orbital assets was clearly a threat to China, planners argued that it might also represent a liability. “They saw how the U.S. projected power,” said Todd Harrison, a space analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “And they saw that it was largely undefended.” China began its antisatellite tests in 2005. It fired two missiles in two years and then made headlines in 2007 by shattering a derelict weather satellite. There was no explosion. The inert warhead simply smashed into the satellite at blinding speed. The successful test reverberated globally because it was the first such act of destruction since the Cold War. The whirling shards, more than 150,000 in all, threatened satellites as well as the International Space Station. Ground controllers raced to move dozens of spacecraft and astronauts out of harm’s way. The Bush administration initially did little. Then, in a show of force meant to send Beijing a message, in 2008, it fired a sophisticated missile to shoot down one of its own satellites. Beijing conducted about a dozen more tests, including ones in which warheads shot much higher, in theory putting most classes of American spacecraft at risk. China also sought to diversify its antisatellite force. A warhead could take hours to reach a high orbit, potentially giving American forces time for evasive or retaliatory action. Moreover, the speeding debris from a successful attack might endanger Beijing’s own spacecraft. In tests, China began firing weak laser beams at satellites and studying other ways to strike at the speed of light. However, all the techniques were judged as requiring years and perhaps decades of development. Then came the new idea. Every aspect of American space power was controlled from the ground by powerful computers. If penetrated, the brains of Washington’s space fleets might be degraded or destroyed. Such attacks, compared with every other antisatellite move, were also remarkably inexpensive. In 2005, China began to incorporate cyberattacks into its military exercises, primarily in first strikes against enemy networks. Increasingly, its military doctrine called for paralyzing early attacks. The Biden Administration Updated  Jan. 23, 2021, 12:05 a.m. ET In 2008, hackers seized control of a civilian imaging satellite named Terra that orbited low, like the military’s reconnaissance craft. They did so twice — first in June and again in October — roaming control circuits with seeming impunity. Remarkably, in both cases, the hackers achieved all the necessary steps to command the spacecraft but refrained from doing so, apparently to reduce their fingerprints. Space officials were troubled by more than China’s moves and weapons. The modern history of the American military centered on building global alliances. Beijing was rushing ahead as an aggressive loner, and many officers feared that Washington was too hidebound and burdened with the responsibilities of coalition-building and arms-control treaties to react quickly. “The Chinese are starting from scratch,” Paul S. Szymanski, a veteran analyst of space warfare, argued in an Air Force journal. They’re not, he added, “hindered by long space traditions.” Washington’s Response In its second term, the Obama administration made public what it called an “offset strategy” to respond to China and other threats by capitalizing on America’s technological edge. Just as the United States had developed, first, a vast nuclear arsenal and, second, smart weapons, this so-called third offset would seek an advantage by speeding the rise of robotics, high-speed arms and other breakthroughs that could empower the armed forces for decades. Unlike earlier offsets, officials said, the objective was to rely less on federal teams than the tech entrepreneurs who were fast transforming the civilian world. “We must really capture the commercial sector,” Robert O. Work, a deputy secretary of defense, said in a 2015 speech explaining the new initiative. The advances in space were to be defensive: swarms of small, relatively cheap satellites and fleets of recycled launchers that would overwhelm Beijing with countless targets. For Mr. Obama, innovative leaps were to do for American space forces what Steve Jobs did for terrestrial gadgets, running circles around the calcified ministries of authoritarian states. After decades in which adversaries — from stateless terrorists to those with traditional militaries — sought to exploit narrow advantages over the more powerful United States, the Pentagon was now finding an unconventional edge all its own. The Obama administration was already applying the commercial philosophy to NASA, turning the space agency into a major funder of entrepreneurial strides. It was pumping billions of dollars into the development of private rockets and capsules meant to carry astronauts into orbit. The military joined in. The beneficiaries included Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Their space companies — Mr. Musk’s SpaceX and Mr. Bezos’s Blue Origin — sought to turn rocket launchers from throwaways into recyclables, slashing their cost. Military officials believed that the new system would make it possible to quickly replace satellites in times of war. The third offset also sought to shrink the size of satellites. Over decades, the big ones had grown into behemoths. Some cost $1 billion or more to design, construct, outfit, launch and keep in service. One type unfurled an antenna nearly as large as a football field. But civilians, inspired by the iPhone revolution, were building spacecraft as small as loaves of bread. Military planners saw smaller, cheaper, more numerous craft as making antisatellite targeting vastly more difficult — in some cases impossible — for an adversary. The initiative aided companies such as Planet Labs, which sought to build hundreds of tiny Earth-observing satellites, and Capella Space, which designed small radar-imaging satellites meant to see through clouds. It also bolstered SpaceX, where Mr. Musk envisioned a fleet of thousands of communication satellites. The administration, increasingly worried about Beijing’s strides, also raised its spending on offensive space control — without saying exactly what that meant. Federal investment in the tech entrepreneurs totaled $7.2 billion, most of it during the Obama years, according to a NASA report. It said the funds went to 67 companies. The approach differed from the usual Pentagon method, which dictated terms to contractors. Instead, the private sector led the way. As predicted, the small investments made a big difference. By the end of the Obama administration, SpaceX was firing payloads into space and successfully returning booster rockets to Earth in soft landings. Mr. Obama tweeted his congratulations in April 2016 when, for the first time, a SpaceX booster landed successfully on a platform at sea. Two years later, Mr. Trump unveiled the Space Force, prompting jokes on Twitter and late-night television and even a Netflix sitcom. But in March, the unit said it had taken possession of its first offensive weapon, calling the event historic. Based on land, the system fires energy beams to disrupt spacecraft. Lt. Col. Steve Brogan, a space combat specialist, said the acquisition “puts the ‘force’ in Space Force and is critical for space as a war-fighting domain.” The Trump administration last year asked Congress for a start on what it called counter-space weapons, putting their expected cost at many hundreds of millions of dollars. The military’s classified budget for the offensive abilities is said to run much higher. In word and deed, the administration also backed new reliance on the swarms of commercial strides. Trump officials described their steps as a response not only to Beijing’s progress but its plans. In 2019, the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency warned that China appeared to be deploying a new generation of extremely powerful lasers that could flash to life by the middle of this decade, putting new classes of American satellites at risk. Analysts say the Biden administration might keep the Space Force, which has bipartisan support in Congress. Military experts see its high profile as sending Beijing a clear message. “You have to have an organizational constituency,” said James E. Cartwright, a retired Marine Corps general and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011. “That’s starting to happen. You’ve got a new emphasis on space — on people who get up every day thinking about how to manage these threats.” Gravity’s Pull The stars of the current space age include not only famous entrepreneurs but a new generation of unknown dreamers and doers. Developing states, small companies and even high schools are now lofting spacecraft into orbit. New Zealand hosts a spaceport. Turkey and Peru have their own spy satellites. Tiny Luxembourg runs more satellites than Spain, Italy or Germany. India in 2019 fired an antisatellite weapon into orbit. Last year, Iran launched its first military satellite. The United States leads in satellite tallies, mainly because of its space-age legacies and its many entrepreneurs, including those now aiding the military. The Union of Concerned Scientists, based in Cambridge, Mass., currently lists 1,425 for the United States, 382 for China and 172 for Russia. But China is pushing hard. For three years in a row, it has fired more rockets into space than any other country. It is now a dominating force, analysts say. The rush includes not only antisatellite weapons but many other military and scientific projects, as suggested by its recent retrieval of moon rocks. In June, Chinese scientists reported new progress in using quantum physics to build what appeared to be the world’s first unbreakable information link between an orbiting craft and its controllers. Laser beams carried the messages. The test raised the prospect that Beijing might one day possess a super-secure network for global communications. That same month, China finished deploying the last of 35 navigation satellites, the completion of a third-generation network intended to give its military new precision in conducting terrestrial strikes. A rugged area of mountains and deserts in northwestern China hosts a tidy complex of buildings with large roofs that can open to the sky. Recently, analysts identified the site in the Xinjiang region as one of five military bases whose lasers can fire beams of concentrated light at American reconnaissance satellites, blinding or disabling their fragile optic sensors. Mr. Biden is inheriting a range of responses to Beijing’s antisatellite moves, including arms both offensive and defensive, initiatives both federal and commercial, and orbital acts both conspicuous and subtle. Analysts call the situation increasingly delicate. Mr. Work, the third-offset official from the Obama era, and Mr. Grant, his former Pentagon colleague, warned in a report that Beijing might eventually beat Washington at its own game. “The Soviets were never able to match, much less overcome, America’s technological superiority,” they wrote. “The same may not be true for China.” Source link #China #contest #Great #power #Space

[opedguy]

Biden Must Pivot on Iran

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Getting some familiar hands on deck, President-elect Joe Biden returned to the Obama administration to staff his new administration, selecting 74-year-old former Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Jane Yellen for Treasury Secretary.  When you consider the hobbled U.S. economy, Yellen was the right pick for Biden, picking the former Fed Chairwoman over 58-year-old Fed Governor Laeil Brainard. ��Brainward was considered the front-runner until Yellen made herself available, bypassing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) someone also named as a possible pick. But with the economy sputtering from Covid-19-related shutdowns and restrictions, Yellen was the right choice, going back to an old hand at helping the economy recover from the 2008 Financial Crisis the left the U.S. economy in a deep recession.

          Current Fed Chairman 68-year-old Jay Powell should work hand-in-glove with Yellen working on today’s zero interest rate policy to help stimulate the economy. Yellen and Powell are big proponents of fiscal policy too, encouraging Congress to pass a new round of stimulus, something 77-year-old Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been reluctant to do because to the economy’s whopping federal budget deficits now running at $3.1 trillion with the national debt exceeding $27 trillion.  If Powell and Yellen aren’t concerned about adding to the federal budget deficit or national debt, neither should McConnell, whose blocked 80-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.)  $3.4 trillion Heroes Act that would provide new payroll protection, expanded unemployment benefits and, most importantly, help to cities and states.

Once Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke retired as Fed Chairman in 2010, Yellen took over at a time of economy growth, especially improvements in the stock market.  Yellen kept interest rates near zero until starting to raise them again in 2015.  Yellen raised the Federal Funds Rates four times in 2015 before handing the baton to Powell.  Powell kept things steady until raising rates in 2018, something 74-year-old President Donald Trump didn’t like, eventually slashing rates to zero again in 2019 before the Covid-19 crisis hit.  Powell admitted that the Fed doesn’t have much experience dealing with global pandemics, something that confounds the Fed’s job of dealing with monetary policy. Bringing Yellen back to run Treasury was the right step for Biden, who inherits economic uncertainty due to the Covid-19 crisis.

            Yellen’s been a big advocate for more fiscal stimulus something stuck in Congress. Yellen agrees with Powell that there’s only so much the Fed can do with monetary policy needing Congress to step up with more stimulus. “When unemployment is exceptionally high and inflation is historically low, as they both are now, the economy needs more fiscal spending to support hiring,” Yellen wrote Aug. 24 with Biden’s chief economist Jared Bernstein in the New York Times.  Yellen thinks deficit spending is preferable than balancing the budget because employers need cash infusion to continue hiring, something essential to economy recovery.  What’s lost in the shuffle, is that the economy was heading into recession before Covid-19 pushed it over the edge.  It’s didn’t take long for the unemployment rate to spike to near record levels.

            Trump warned during the campaign that a Biden presidency would plunge the economy into another Great Depression.  But judging by whom Biden has put in place, he doesn’t intend to let the economy get much worse.  Yellen has also said she supports tax hikes to help whittle away at federal deficits.  But Yellen isn’t saying that it’s exactly the right time to raise taxes during a severe recession.  She fits with Bernstein’s view that before raising taxes, Congress must pass more stimulus to drill down the unemployment rate to at least 5%, where it was before Trump got in office.  Trump brought down the unemployment rate to 3.5%, a 50-year-low that was expected to increase U.S. Gross Domestic Product [GDP] to about 4%.  Under Trump GPD growth hit 3% before Powell started hiking rates in 2018.

            Yellen was the perfect pick to work with Powell and others at Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers to get the economy out of its current recession.  Wall Street has done everything possible to keep generating capital in economic markets but needs some help from the Fed and Congress to keep things going.    Yellen justified her rate hikes in 2015 saying the staved off more inflation. But today’s situation is different with Covid-19 still escalating before vaccines can be distributed to the public. When you consider Yellen was willing to serve a Treasury Secretary, Biden got the best of both worlds, someone with widespread respect and a good working relationship with Powell.  Yellen becomes the first woman in U.S. history to lead the Treasury Department, yet another glass ceiling smashed as Biden continues his Cabinet picks.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analzying spin in national and global news he’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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Repaired login procedure on brand-new Tribalwars home page. In Tribes of Horror," my essay in the current Claremont Testimonial of Books, I tell the story of a tribal battle in South Waziristan in between the Wazirs and also the Mahsuds in the mid-1970 ′ s. The tutorial is incredibly detailed and also educates everything there is to understand about the activity so due to the end of it you'll understand precisely just how to make your way through the world of Tribal Battles 2.

It is actually basically nothing a lot greater than clicking, wait around for thirty minutes to 1 several hrs, and afterwards review principle Tribal Wars 2 Video game in your inbox to find if you succeeded or not. This occurs in Forge of Empires, Tribal Wars, Elvenar, plus all various other games. Add an explanation, picture, and links to the tribal-wars-2 subject page to ensure that creators can easily extra conveniently find out about it.

The Increase Of Skywalker Review Tribal Wars

2012-02-18В В. Among my several to find Tribal Wars Contents is this, The Velocity Shot Overview. Thus, there you possess it. The Tribal Wars Pecking Order of Necessities. Tribal Battles 2 is offered in the web browser as well as on your tissue unit. Being actually a tactic video game like Tribal Wars 2 it is actually indicated to be this way. Noble Train through Opera Tribal Wars US. Read Tribal Wars Video Game Strategy as well as Strategies Guide by JHFSEO from the account Tribal Wars Wars throughout the holiday seasons by Abdo Velocity #guide #guides #medieval #tribal, 2015-02-28В В. Insight on how to break a defence.

Prior to the agreement finalizing led by Edduba, the pupils, professionals as well as various other migrants coming from the two people must return to their towns to get ready for the tribe war. Incrypt's brand-new launch is an EP entitled 'Tribal Wars' and includes 5 brand-new songs (one is actually an introductory) that are actually each of a wonderful premium, along with the band conducting along with a much more chiselled as well as grew initiative.

The combat in Tribal Wars 2 is actually utter rubbish. You'll be actually assisted by means of the game's fundamentals with the assistance of an Tribal Wars Hack Tool action by step tutorial sequence when you begin off in Tribal Wars 2 for the 1st time. However that led Afghanistan to however another 10 years of savage interethnic as well as tribal battles urged on by the regional proxies, specifically Pakistan.

Perform we (broadcasters) answer by putting in even a whole lot much more in presently being impartial, storing the ring, becoming the judge, or even are our experts destined obsolescence if our team are actually not permitted to participate in the awesome Tribal Battles propaganda battles?" he sought piously (without recognizing that regulated show news nonetheless mainly demands its straight from the press).

Tribal Battles 2 is a kingdom-management simulation MMO that includes comprehensive foundation-creating, economic administration, and also wartime approach. The wars want a little improvement and needs to be battled along with graphes of all of them like they reside in Forge of Empires or to a degree activities like Middle ages: Total Amount Battle Still, Tribal Wars 2 is certain in its own type as well as still deals with to occupy much more than a lot of rival headlines.

[yesborg9]

Oktoberfest-Off 2019

The previous year’s Oktoberfest-Off was a smashing success, despite my vote being the only dissenting of the winner. Many of the contests were close and all of the top 8 were very good. 

I was looking back on my failure to log any results in 2017 but my attention to detail in the 24 beer bracket in 2016. I decided to bring back some of those eliminated and try to put more time into detailed descriptions of the beers this year. My wife did a great job cooking up sauerbraten, currywurst, and chicken schnitzel dishes for everyone, as well as decorating and cleaning up. Shout-out to sister-in-law Justine for pouring and serving our blind samples. 

Here are the sixteen 2019 Oktoberfest-Off contestants:

Ayinger (Aying, Germany) - This solid Bavarian brew finished in the final four twice including last year, eliminated by its big brother from Munich, Spaten.

Capital (Middleton, WI) - A multi-time champion looking to regain the crown.

Erdinger (Erding, Germany) - A newcomer to the ‘Fest-Off; a brewery that specializes in wheat beers. I went on a tour of the brewery two years ago.

Good City (Milwaukee, WI) - A newcomer that’s already building a reputation.

Lakefront (Milwaukee, WI) - A previous winner, but was eliminated early last year.

Leinenkugel’s (Chippewa Falls, WI) - Brought back despite my disdain for the product.

Odell (Fort Collins, CO) - Another newcomer to the contest from a city well-known for beer.

Potosi (Potosi, WI) - Eliminated early in 2016, this is too good of a beer to not give a 2nd chance.

Raised Grain (Waukesha, WI) - A newcomer from a fairly new brewery.

Revolution (Chicago, IL) - Our reining champion.

Spaten (Munich, Germany) - Last year’s runner-up.

Schell’s (New Ulm, MN) - A last-minute inclusion in the 2015 contest, and it did well.

Sierra Nevada/Bitburger (Chico, CA/Bitburg, Germany) - Sierra Nevada continues their tradition of collaborating with a different German brewery each year.

3 Sheeps (Sheboygan, WI) - A newcomer with some promise.

Titletown (Green Bay, WI) - Another early elimination from 2016 that deserves another shot.

Wisconsin (Verona, WI) - A slightly darker, maltier “Patron Saint.”

Some missing notables: 

O’so O’toberfest - While this was the first ever champ, it has failed to regain the crown in 5 attempts.

New Glarus Staghorn - This is definitely a local favorite and I often choose it when it’s on tap, but it has never placed in the final four. It’s a great beer, but a little light on flavor comparatively.

Paulaner Märzen - I strongly considered adding this one. I wish I had, as it placed well in 2017.

Central Waters Octoberfest - eliminated very early in 2015. Rather weak-flavored. I’ve seen it in other “best Oktoberfest beers” lists and I have no idea why.

Samuel Adams Octoberfest - My first ever Märzen. But it can’t hold a torch to the field.

Big Eddy Über-Oktoberfest - A defunct side project of Leinenkugel’s, it was put to bed by the lame stiffs in corporate. BRING IT BACK!

Round 1

I decided to split up the first round and the subsequent rounds, to avoid everyone being so drunk they couldn’t drive home. We would eliminate 8 beers, then come back a 2nd day to finish the rest and determine the champion.

The first matchup of the day was Lakefront vs Titletown. This was one of the more difficult choices of the day for most people, as both were very good. Lakefront seemed a little sweeter, to its detriment. Titletown “Bent Tuba” won 2 votes to 1.

The second matchup featured Schell’s vs Potosi. This was another close one where everyone liked both samples except for the tiebreaking judge, who voted for Potosi. It was very close but I went with Potosi as well. I did feel like both were good, but the 1st matchup was better. Little did I know, I was foreshadowing their matchup in round 2.

The next sample had Sierra Nevada vs Wisconsin Brewing Company. I chose WBC as I felt it was smoother, but everyone else voted for Sierra Nevada as it “felt like a solid lager.”

I was totally overruled again when in the following match I voted Odell but everyone else voted Ayinger.

The next battle was two German beers head-to-head, Erdinger and Spaten. The first thing I noticed was a big color difference. Erdinger was much lighter colored, and I felt it had less flavor so I voted Spaten. For the third matchup in a row, I was totally overruled. Erdinger moved on.

I felt bad for the next match, as it pitted together two great newcomers (3 Sheeps vs Good City) and one would have to be eliminated. This one was very close and ended up needing a tiebreaker, who chose Good City. 

The next matchup was odd in that no one really cared for either sample. There was even a debate to whether we should just eliminate both. We had no idea that one was last year’s champion, Revolution. Something that was not surprising was that no one cared for its competitor Leinenkugels. Revolution moved on by a 3-2 tiebreaker.

The final matchup of the day featured newcomer Raised Grain vs previous champion Capital. Knowing how hoppy many of RG’s beers are, I was a bit surprised when I wrote in my notes that it was smoother. I really didn’t like the Capital sample at all. The former champion was ousted by a 3-1 vote. What happened to you, Capital?

Round 2

We only had three judges the second day. Our first matchup was Revolution vs Good City. Everyone seemed to like both beers a lot and we agreed the choice was difficult, but Revolution won 2 votes to 1. Again, this was interesting because in the previous round everyone agreed that Revolution wasn’t good. Perhaps a bad can?

Our second sampling was Erdinger vs Sierra Nevada/Bitburger collaboration. While Sierra Nevada won in a rare unanimous vote, no one disliked Erdinger.

The next matchup was Titletown vs Potosi. This was once again a very close one for everyone to decide but Potosi won 2-1. Interestingly, I reversed my stance from the previous round when I said both Lakefront and Titletown were better than Schell’s and Potosi. That’s why we do this blind!

Our next sample featured Raised Grain and Ayinger. The German beer Ayinger moved on to the final four with a 2-1 vote.

Final Four

Sierra Nevada powered through the bracket and defeated Potosi with another unanimous vote. 

Revolution moved on to the championship round once again with a 2-1 vote over Ayinger.

Championship

For the second year in a row, Revolution is your Oktoberfest-Off champion. Also for the 2nd year in a row, my vote was the only one dissenting. Pretty impressive run after almost losing to Leinie’s, arguably the worst beer on the bracket. I also look back to when I voted against Sierra Nevada in the first round. If I did this whole thing myself it would have looked a lot different. But everyone’s tastes are different and that’s why I prefer to have more judges.

Some final thoughts: I’m not sure I’ll include Capital next year. What a fall from glory. I don’t really dislike Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest; I’ve had worse, but I just find it to be highly overrated much like Summer Shandy. Leinie’s will definitely not be included in future Oktoberfest-Offs. Aside from those two, I highly recommend each of the beers sampled in this contest. It really is difficult to decide which is the best when they’re all very good.

[helloaashlyheo-blog]

Hashtags & Social Media Revolutionizing Change

The hashtag phenomenon began on August 23, 2007, on Twitter by Chris Messina. It has been over ten years since the introduction of hashtags; however, I’m speechless in how far and revolutionizing it has become. Back then, little did society know the impactfulness and differences a simple hashtag can do. Furthermore, the combination of a hashtag and social media can create. However, hashtag movements are designed for a reason. It’s a way for individuals, groups, and communities to share their information with the public, allowing them to raise their voices and make a difference. 

Hashtag and social media do not only create groups or a community but also brings them together. Hashtags on social media have the ability to bring individuals with like minds, interests, and passions together. In this blog, we’ll talk about the hashtag #effyourbeautystandards and how it brought women of all age and color to come together and resist societal view on modern beauty. It is essential to acknowledge that social media is not only a platform for communication but multitude purposes such as strength, reason, and identity. It allows us to connect with anyone around the world, opening opportunities, and solving problems that seem impossible. Furthermore, social media and hashtags can develop ones’ self and identity. It can give them a purpose, and strive upon their ideologies establishing uniqueness and change.

                            What is #effyourbeautystandards 

It is a hashtag movement pushing back on modern beauty pressed upon both women and men. The #effyourbeautystandards campaign was launch in 2013 by a model named Tess Holliday, who is a plus-sized model changing the fashion industry with her looks and fashion. The hashtag was a way to revolt against the fashion industry that stated to individuals that you can’t be beautiful if you happen to be over a size ten. She wanted everyone to embrace his or her daring fashion and body, and oppose society’s constriction (Gordon, 2016). She quoted, “We’ll will take back our right to be a total babe regardless of our size…big OR small we all deserve to feel beautiful”. Within days, the #effyourbeautystandards circulated and appeared in over a million Instagram pictures. This movement allowed women to share positive images of themselves and find support from others all around the world (Peoples, 2016). Most importantly, there are more to the #effyourbeautystandards movement than revolting against standard beauty; it combats the issue of feminism, changes society’s outlook, and forms real change.

                              Society’s Standards Are Toxic

Society’s projection on modern beauty brings a toll on a woman or man’s self-esteem. For the past decades, there’s always has been a great emphasis on how women should look, which has been primarily proliferated through the media (Ossola, 2010). In today’s society, women are constantly bombarded to attain a standard of beauty, and the unrealistic beauty standards give women a sense of worthlessness. It forces women to exercise excessively, take diet pills, diet, binge, and purge and develop eating disorders. As the media constantly surrounds us, we construct our identities through the images we perceive. It controls how women should feel about themselves and how they are prisoners in their own body. 

                                 Resisting Media’s Mainstream Beauty Standards

This hashtag offers women the opportunity and hopes that beauty does not pertain to one size but multiple shapes, looks, and sizes. It encourages women that their body is beautiful and they shouldn't be ashamed of it. It inspires other young women and men to follow their steps. It's inspiring to see how social media and the digital sphere were once not a safe space for body positivity, but now through this hashtag, it has become a body positivity movement (22 WORDS STAFF). 

                                             Not Alone

Although Tess Holliday has started the movement, many other reputable women are continuing to fight the change of society’s beauty standards. Iskra Lawrence is a plus-sized model for Aerie who regularly promotes self-love and body positivity through social media. Ashley Graham is another plus-sized model that cultivates beauty goes beyond size through interviews and social media. Lastly, Olakemi is model and founder of the #PlusIsDiverse movement who promotes acceptance, love of all body types, and diversity.  

                                      Fat is a Feminist Issue

The #effyourbeautystandards movement opens the doors to so many issues that are wrong with society today. It signifies that fat is a feminist issue because fat women are an embodiment of what our patriarchal society insists that women should not be" (Brown, 2018). Fat women are considered second-class citizens and treated differently than those who are slimmer. For example, fat women lack in clothing options, seen as the second choice in employment, paid less, judged, and verbally harassed on the streets. To make the matter worse, they are considered to be "less desirable" to look at. Therefore, the hashtag movement is imperative because it provides women to have a collective voice especially since a woman's place in society has always been hidden or invisible. For centuries, a woman's place was in the kitchen cooking or cleaning the house. The hashtag embarks women to upheaval to societal expectations, and slowly change society's mindset.  

                                         Loving Oneself 

It's challenging to accept one's body when growing up in an Asian household and community. The rule was that if you were bigger than a size four, you were considered obese and ugly. I felt as if everyone were mocking me of my size whenever I went out. That's why this movement holds close to my heart. It's incredible to see how this movement and the power of social media can project confidence to young individuals. I'm envious of this woman's confidence being able to post this photo and loving her body. Hence, communities like these constructs modern individuals identities. It gives them purpose, love, and recognition.  

                                   Spreading The Issue

Since the launch of the #effyourbeautystandards in 2013, other hashtags have emerged following its’ step. In South Korea, the hashtag #escapethecorest was founded. It encouraged women to destroy their cosmetics and cut their long hair, in order to rebel against the country’s long-held ideals of beauty standards they’ve been subjected to in a male-dominated country (Lee, 2019). Another famous hashtag is the #Metoo movement. 

                                         Final Thoughts  

The hashtag #effyourbeautystandards makes a difference in our generation and changes long. It explores that there are more to society’s viewpoint on standard beauty. By changing society’s viewpoint, we open doors to self-love and greater forms of beauty standards for younger generations to appreciate and acknowledge. Also, it is a space allowing young individuals to feel beautiful. It’s amazing to see the relationships formed and encouragements are given to young women struggling with self-acceptance. However, there will always be counterattacks on this movement. Tess Holiday was attacked for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle, and there will be individuals that continue to fat-shame others online such as Canadian comedian Nicole Arbour. Nicole Arbour posted a video online claiming fat shaming is not a thing, but a concept made up by obese people (Hetter, 2015). However, it is crucial we overcome these negative connotations from networked counterpublics and strive for acceptance of all women of color, size, shape, and ethnicity.

                                           References 

Brown, Gillian. “Why Is Fat a Feminist Issue?” The Body Is Not An Apology, 21 Jan. 2018, thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/why-is-fat-a-feminist-issue/.

Gordon, Bryony. “'Eff Your Beauty Standards': Meet the Size 26, Tattooed Supermodel Who Is Changing the Fashion Industry.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 14 May 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/eff-your-beauty-standards-meet-the-size-26-tattooed-supermodel-w/.

Gordon, Bryony. “'Eff Your Beauty Standards': Meet the Size 26, Tattooed Supermodel Who Is Changing the Fashion Industry.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 14 May 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/eff-your-beauty-standards-meet-the-size-26-tattooed-supermodel-w/.

Hetter, Katia. “Fat-Shaming: Celebrities Battle It Out.” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 Sept. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/09/06/entertainment/fat-shaming-nicole-arbour/index.html.

Lee, Seulki. “South Korean Women Ditch Makeup and 'Escape the Corset' in Rebellion against Ideals of Beauty.” The Japan Times, 2019, www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/22/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/south-korean-women-ditch-makeup-escape-corset-rebellion-ideals-beauty/#.XMsC_5NKgWp.

News, Guardian. “South Korean Women Destroy Makeup (and Smash the Patriarchy).” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=r80pp5qSlNo.

Ossola, Alexandra. “The Media's Effect on Women's Body Image.” Hamilton College, 1 Sept. 2010, www.hamilton.edu/news/story/the-medias-effect-on-womens-body-image.

Peoples, Lindsay. “How Tess Holliday Is Single-Handedly Changing Beauty Standards.” The Cut, 22 Nov. 2016, www.thecut.com/2016/11/how-tess-holliday-is-changing-beauty-standards.html.

22 WORDS STAFF. “These Instagram Models Are Leading the Body Positive Movement by Example.” 22 WORDS , twentytwowords.com/radical-body-positivity-is-taking-instagram-by-storm-and-its-incredibly-inspirational/.

[mitchgilderman-blog]

What Occurred On Dancing With The Stars Fall 2009: Week Four

The initial week of Dancing with the Stars season 9 is in the history books, and there was plenty of action featured on tonight's initial results display. The solid of Broadway's musical smash The Lion King and Sean Kingston offered up performances, and there was a touching tribute to actor Patrick Swayze, who recently died of most cancers. And of program, no Dancing with the Stars outcomes show is total with an elimination: Two celebrities and their professional partners had been sent packing by show's finish. So now you want to know who went house on Dancing with the Stars! Study on for a complete recap and the large reveals. "I Want Sweet" by Aaron Carter. Although it was initially recorded by The Strangegloves in 1965, most children are more familiar with the 2000 discover this info here version.

The choice to consist of Tom Delay in this cycle is questionable at best. While he proved to be charming in a self-effacing way, it was clearly not heading to have him extremely much. Furthermore, his dropping out of the competition denied viewers one of their preferred pro dancers (Cheryl Burke).

Aaron Carter Trump

Today's Dancing with the Stars 2009 Period 9 announcement on Great Early morning The united states launched the country to its latest dancing icons. Some new solid associates seem apparent, some are out of the blue - and one in particular is a little bit of a shock.

Donny Osmond was a hit! His sister Marie was on back again in season five of "Dancing With the Stars," and she made it all the way to the final 3 regardless of becoming one of the weaker performers. Talent-sensible he's most likely stronger than Marie, and he has a fantastic capability to play the group. He finished his foxtrot with a 20. Throughout the team salsa, he was also easily declared the winner. In a dark green suit with a white shirt and a foam green tie, Carter danced with Smirnoff who wore a foam green aaron carter 2015 gown to "Three Occasions a Lady" by the Commodores.

I Want Candy Aaron Carter

With ABC promoting the show's lights out each period, starting with the yearly Great Early morning America new solid announcement, Dancing with the Stars 2009 ought to be as big as at any time. Donny Osmond is an entertainer and he's made this period extremely entertaining--on and off stage. The kiss with judge Bruno Tonioli was surprise that Tonioli and Osmond continue to perform on. However Osmond is a competitor and he took the criticism to coronary heart, making certain his moves were sharp. Last evening, during his Argentine tango, it payed off. He scored a 29--two tens and a 9 (from Len Goodman). Three women and 1 man remain as we go into the semi-finals of Dancing with the Stars Period 9. Kelly Osbourne beat out published here final 7 days displaying that getting followers might be much more essential than getting skills in this competition. Every few would perform 3 dances, including a "knock-out" dance that is intended to wow the judges and the viewers.

Aaron Carter Movies And Tv Shows

Snowboarder Louie's smile on the dance floor seemed like the greatest illustration of deer in headlights: he danced like a truck was about to strike him. Louie got some pretty hefty praise from the judges, even if he did get known as a "little dancing hobbit" by Bruno. I guess Louie can dance all the way to The Shire with a score of 19, and with a very fantastic impact on the group salsa. Macy Grey. Sweet mercy that voice is back. Allow's hope for an early exit, or for her to wear one of these attire advertising her new album like she did on MTV's VMAs that one year.

Aaron Carter Instagram

Donny Osmond - While this entertainer may not be the very best dancer, he has a huge enthusiast foundation, and continues to entertain the viewers. Kym Johnson will pull out all stops to make his Charleston exciting. Furthermore, he's extremely active on Twitter in purchase to develop his fan base and encourage votes. He and Kym will transfer on to 7 days 5. "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. The theme tune to the popular movie strike #1 in 1984 and stayed there for three months. It's still a well-liked song for Halloween festivities and events. Who will be this season's worst dancer that inexplicably lasts until the finals? Who will go home initial? Who will fluster the judges by talking back again the most? Who will be the first to pull out thanks to a sequin-related damage? Share your predictions beneath.

[filligan-universe]

TOP 5 Games of 2018

5. Octopath Traveler

Despite all of its shortcomings and lack of depth, I was entranced by this jewel. I wrote a full review here.

4. Spider-Man

Another one that took a lot of my time this year -- to the point where I platinumed it. But I haven’t returned for any DLC. I wrote a full review of this one as well, and it touches on why I probably won’t be back to web-slinging until a proper sequel.

3. Red Dead Redemption II

I still haven’t finished RDR II, but it really is the most polished game I’ve played all year. And maybe it’s unfair to judge this game before I’m done with it, but that’s part of why it’s both so high and so low on my list. The previous game sank claws into me that I couldn’t escape for the better part of a year. This game wants to be more cinematic. Rockstar wants to push the art in the art form, and while that’s admirable and we should have A-list games striving for the very best the medium can produce, it also seems to have come in the progression of gameplay. I’m in the absolute minority on this so I won’t say much on it -- at least not until I’ve completed the main story. And the game still plays well. Quite well. But I dunno. The last game was still a game. This sometimes feels like the most boring parts of a film.

2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I don't know if I need to recalculate my score for Smash Wii U after this, because for all intents and purposes, Ultimate IS the better game. It's like the Mario Kart 8 of the franchise: refined to the point where improvement is impossible. The roster is madness, the single-player modes are grindy but better, and it feels like there's nowhere left to go. But I'm sort of okay with that. I'm ready for this franchise to retire. And maybe my score reflects that more than anything.

1. Into the Breach

Into the Breach is deceptively crystal in its presentation and gameplay. Every possibility, option, and strategy is communicated to the player at all times, and failure to exercise the best method is always your own fault. The amount of abuse I allowed this game to inflict on me is lunacy, but I felt like I gained new knowledge and motivation with each failure, and if I started over then I could finally win. I am no battle chess player, but this sucker is so simply addictive.

Something different:

I’ve been making personal GOTY choices for a very long time now and I got curious about the stack of them -- what possible stats or preferences I could glean from seeing them all together. They’ll also fluctuate more commonly than my favorite films of the year because games are expensive, I often wait for them to go down in price to try them, and by then we’re in the next year and my list has already been made. So, I wanted to look back through my choices, make any appropriate changes if I’d played anything else since those lists had been made, and see what I’ve chosen. Here’s what I found:

1998: StarCraft 1999: Super Smash Bros. 2000: Paper Mario 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee 2002: Super Mario Sunshine 2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2004: Halo 2 2005: Mario Kart DS 2006: Gears of War 2007: Halo 3 2008: Grand Theft Auto IV 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum 2010: Red Dead Redemption 2011: Portal 2 2012: Journey 2013: Grand Theft Auto V 2014: Mario Kart 8 2015: Super Mario Maker 2016: ABZÛ 2017: Super Mario Odyssey 2018: Into the Breach

Obviously, some of these I reviewed in retrospect. I wasn’t makin’ GOTY lists way back in 1998, I can tell ya that much! No sir! What a lame hobby for a child! Ha ha!

Wins by exclusives: Nintendo - 8 Microsoft - 3 Sony - 1

Wins by franchise: Super Smash Bros. - 2 Mario Kart - 2 Halo - 2 Grand Theft Auto - 2

Wins by genre: Action - 4 Shooter - 4 Platformer - 4 (5 with Mario Maker) Strategy - 4 Racer - 2

I feel pretty well-rounded. More so than I used to consider my tastes to be, anyway.

Personal surprises: I thought I chose Nintendo far more often, but 8/20 isn’t too dominating. True enough, there was a near ten year gap where I barely played much Nintendo had to offer. The Wii U might have been a financial crater, but the Wii was a creative one, and even when Nintendo cracked it (Super Mario Galaxy), there were still better games on the market. 

2001 is a funky year. I flip back and forth between Melee and Combat Evolved all the time, but I think I’m happy to leave it here. I can’t fathom how much time I spent on either of them. And speaking of time spent, that appears to be my number one criterium for determining what’s worthy for top spot. Other things can factor in when it’s close (this year, for example, I had spent far more time on Octopath and Spider-Man, but neither of them had moved me to sit down and play them like Breach -- they felt more like personal obligations I’d given myself). But it’s a fair, I think: my strongest memories of games are going to become stronger with more game time. The only reason I stopped playing Halo 2 (at 2800 matches) was because Halo 3 released, and I left that game at almost 2950 matches. Compare that to Reach, which struggled to reach 1000, or even the MCC (914), and there’s an argument for playtime = GOTY. Also, we’re not gonna talk about the INSANE stat my Xbox says about my Halo Wars 2 playtime: 233 hours. What a load! Ha ha!

My affection for Nintendo is no surprise, and neither is my love of certain franchises, but I’m surprised to see the pattern shaken up with regularity. I’ll be shocked if my GOTY for this year isn’t Mario Maker’s sequel, and thus the Nintendo/franchise love will continue, but you never know. Little gems like Journey, ABZÛ, and Breach keep popping up these days. I know my tastes are very mainstream, but I love to be surprised by excellent indie ventures. I consider Journey to be the best game of the previous generation, so we’ll see how my tastes continue.

[junker-town]

Mike Mayock has a pretty decent track record of draft takes (unlike Jon Gruden)

That should give the Raiders some hope — just as long as Gruden doesn’t get in the way too much.

Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock has been providing the football watching world with his opinions of draft prospects for over a decade. But — like all of us here on the internet — it never mattered before if he was wrong.

His belief that Johnny Manziel should be a top-10 pick didn’t set back a franchise. His thoughts that Cam Newton shouldn’t be picked until the latter half of the first round didn’t cost a team an MVP and a trip to the Super Bowl.

On the other hand, a few teams could’ve benefitted from listening to Mayock when he said he’d take Khalil Mack with the No. 1 pick in 2014. Jadeveon Clowney went first overall that year, while Greg Robinson, Blake Bortles, and Sammy Watkins were all taken before Mack was selected by the Raiders.

Now for the first time in his career, it matters that he winds up right more often than he’s wrong.

Mayock, 60, spent a brief period as a defensive back in the NFL in the early 1980s before his broadcast career began. He eventually joined NFL Network in 2004 and gave us 15 offseasons’ worth of opinions. Inevitably, he missed sometimes.

But does his history of draft takes give us reason to believe he’ll be a disaster for the Raiders? Or, conversely, that he’s the man for the job? Let’s investigate.

Mayock’s best takes

Khalil Mack

As mentioned earlier, Mayock was a huge fan of Mack.

“I’m going to tell you right now, I’d take him with the first pick,” Mayock said in February 2014, via PFT. “You talk about a guy like Clowney, who’s just got superhuman abilities, versus this kid, if I had a choice between the two, I think I’m going Mack.”

He stuck with that evaluation and had Mack at the top spot in his rankings into May, just ahead of Clowney — even when it was obvious at that point that the latter was going to be the No. 1 pick.

Mack has since proved Mayock right with three first-team All-Pro nods, the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year Award, and 53 career sacks. That’s nearly double Clowney’s 29 career sacks.

Mayock could’ve had Mack on his team too, but Raiders head coach Jon Gruden forced the pass rusher out with a trade to the Bears a few months before the new general manager was hired.

Alvin Kamara

For reasons that are still hard to explain, Kamara was a backup at Tennessee who touched the ball, on average, fewer than 13 times per game. That’s why the Saints got a steal in the third round.

But it’s hard to imagine he would’ve been on the board if Mayock had been the general manager of a team with a second-round pick:

Watched Alvin Kamara from tenn last night...WOW...burst, accel, COD...exc in pass game... Special talent- should be in 1st rd conversation

— Mike Mayock (@MikeMayock) January 11, 2017

He even made Kamara a first-round selection in his only mock draft of 2017 — slating him at No. 29 to the Packers.

Kamara has made two Pro Bowls in as many years, won the 2017 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, and already has 31 career touchdowns.

The 2013 pass rushers

Mayock isn’t a guy who is negative on many prospects, but he dumped some water on a couple of overhyped players in 2013.

“I have a little different opinion than what I’m hearing a lot of people have on these — quote — 4-3 defensive ends,” Mayock said in February 2013, via NFL.com. “I’m not as high on these guys as some people are. For instance, I don’t think Bjoern Werner or Damontre Moore are top-10 players. They might go in the top 10, but I don’t see it that way.”

At the time, that was quite the statement. Here’s a mock draft from analyst Tony Pauline for USA Today from just a couple weeks prior that had Werner at No. 2 and Moore at No. 3.

A horrible NFL Combine for Moore dropped him all the way to the third round. Werner’s hype slowed too and he wound up at No. 24 overall to the Colts. Moore finished his NFL career with 10 sacks, Werner only managed 6.5. Moore is now a pass rusher for the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football.

Mayock’s worst takes

Johnny Manziel

In a decade of ranking quarterback prospects, Mayock doesn’t have many big whiffs. His worst year was easily 2014 when he raved about Manziel.

It’d be one thing if Mayock had been judging Manziel solely on his abilities on the field, but it was his persona that apparently won over Mayock most.

“If I’m a GM in the top 10 and I had to take a quarterback today, it would be Johnny Manziel,” Mayock said on Path to the Draft in March 2014. “A lot of it is on the strength of defensive coordinators not wanting to deal with that style of play, and me buying into the kid. I’m buying into the kid as a competitor more than anything.”

Manziel flamed out of the NFL after two tumultuous seasons that included substance abuse and accusations of domestic violence. He’s now making a comeback bid with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, but had five touchdowns and seven interceptions for the team in 2018.

Mayock’s opinions of the rest of the 2014 quarterback class weren’t great either. He had Blake Bortles at No. 2 — one spot ahead of the quarterback Mayock inherited with the Raiders, Derek Carr. The Vikings’ first-round pick Teddy Bridgewater was tied at No. 5 with Zach Mettenberger, who is now in the AAF.

Blaine Gabbert/Cam Newton

His other worst quarterback take was three years earlier in 2011 when he loved Gabbert but wasn’t so sold on Newton.

“He’s my No. 1 quarterback,” Mayock wrote of Gabbert in April 2011. “He comes out of a spread offense, and his footwork needs to improve, but he has all the rest. He’s athletic, has a big arm, loves the game of football, has anticipation to throw into small windows, and the accuracy to back it up. He could be the first guy off the board.”

Gabbert proved to be a bust for the Jaguars, who traded up six spots to pick him. Now, the quarterback is a journeyman backup with a 13-35 career record as a starter with 48 touchdowns, 47 interceptions, and a 71.7 passer rating.

The best quarterback of the class — by a significant margin — turned out to be Newton.

“It’s always been about the kid, not the quarterback,” Mayock wrote before the draft. “I buy into Newton the quarterback. Mechanically, he’s so much better than Tim Tebow or Vince Young, both first-round picks. I’ve never been positive that football was critical in his life, but I’m starting to buy into the fact he cares. My only concern is after you pay him millions, will he still want to be the best quarterback in football?”

Newton was MVP in 2015 and has smashed the NFL record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. He’s not a perfect player, but the Panthers have to feel great about picking him instead of Gabbert.

Aaron Curry

Many were very convinced that there was zero chance the Wake Forest linebacker wouldn’t turn out to be a good player in the NFL. Mayock was one of those people.

“Aaron Curry might be the safest pick in the draft,” Mayock said in 2009, via the Los Angeles Times. “He’s done it over time. He’s a fifth-year senior. He’s clean off the field; you’re going to hand him $30 million or $40 million and he’s going to be like Matt Ryan. He’s going to put it in the bank and he’s going to go to work.

”He can play in the 3-4 scheme or the 4-3. He does everything well, and he’s extremely coachable. You can insert him Day 1, and he’s a starter, your defense is better, and you don’t have to worry about him getting in trouble.”

Curry wound up as the No. 4 overall selection for the Seahawks, but he definitely didn’t make the defense better. He was a complete bust and got traded away to the Raiders for peanuts in his third season. Curry started only nine games for the Raiders and retired in 2013.

So, what’s the ruling?

Everyone who shares draft thoughts publicly is just asking to get owned, eventually. All things considered, it’s pretty impressive how few terrible takes Mayock presented in over a decade at NFL Network.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden had more whiffs in way less time at ESPN. A brief sampling:

Jon Gruden is comparing Paxton Lynch to Cam Newton.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 29, 2016

ESPN analyst Jon Gruden on former Penn St. QB Christian Hackenberg: "I'll be shocked if he doesn't go in the first round."

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 19, 2016

Jon Gruden comparing Detroit's second-round pick, Oklahoma WR Ryan Broyles, to former Raiders WR Tim Brown.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 28, 2012

Mayock’s biggest mistakes were opinions that probably weren’t that unique either. Curry was an extremely popular prospect, and Gabbert over Newton wasn’t too controversial at the time.

For the most part, Mayock didn’t have many hot takes. He kept things positive and talked about most players without going overboard with superlatives. The few times he really loved a player more than most, he was often correct.

It’s probably not the best idea to hire Smart TV Man to run your NFL team, but the Raiders have reason to be optimistic that Mayock could be a GM who drafts well. That’s especially important this season, when the Raiders have three first-round picks.

Hopefully — for his sake and the Raiders’ — Gruden will stay out of the way.

[theeternalsun]

Roleplaying Profile Meme

PLEASE REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG!  Feel free to add to any of your answers!  The purpose is to tell your partners about the way you write!  For the multiple choice ones, BOLD all that apply and, if you want,italicize if it’s a conditional answer!

– B A S I C S –

NAME: Skells ARE YOU OVER 18? Yes/ No IS YOUR MUSE?  in book based threads, yes? I guess?; in show based threads, yes?? I guess??? But mostly game based. WHEN WAS YOUR BLOG ESTABLISHED? In 10th of June, 2015, holy shit I did 2 years here and I didn’t even remember wtf skells

ARE YOU SELECTIVE ABOUT WHO YOU WRITE WITH ON THIS BLOG? No (anyone) / Semi (most people) / Yes / Highly / Private (mutuals only)

ARE YOU SELECTIVE ABOUT WHO YOU FOLLOW ON THIS BLOG? No (anyone) / Semi / Yes / Highly

IF YOUR MUSE IS CANON, HOW MUCH TO YOU ADHERE TO CANON? Not at all / A little / Some / Mostly ( it’s mostly headcanon don’t judge me ) / Strictly / NA

WHAT POST LENGTHS DO YOU WRITE? One Liners / Single-Para / Multi-Para / Novella ( I can’t write anything shorter rip )

DO YOU USE ICONS AND/OR GIFS? No / Gifs / Icons / Gificons

DO YOU WRITE ON OTHER PLATFORMS? No / Yes ( I barely have time for tumblr pls *weeps loUDLY* )

WHAT LEVEL OF PLOTS DO YOU WRITE?

Unplotted / Open Ended Plots / Semi-Plotted (a few steps ahead) / Fully Plotted Epics (plotted beginning, middle, and end)

HOW QUICKLY DO YOU USUALLY RESPOND TO THREADS? Very Slow (more than a month) / Slow (3-4 Weeks) / Average (1-2 Weeks) / Fast (Less Than One Week) / Very Fast (Less Than Three Days)  ( I actually write all my threads on the day that they come in but I queue unless I actually want to just smash it on the dash right away )

WHAT TYPES OF THEMES DO YOU LIKE? (feel free to add!) Fluff / Angst / Smut / Action / Tragedy / Domestic / Family / Conversational / Hurt-Comfort

WHAT GENRES DO YOU LIKE? (feel free to add!) High Fantasy / Supernatural / Science Fiction / Historical / Horror / Comedy / Romantic/Drama / Action /Adventure / Espionage

ARE THERE ANY THEMES YOU’RE UNCOMFORTABLE WRITING ON YOUR BLOG? (not triggers) No / Yes ( I mean it depends but like there’s stuff that unless you are specific people I probably won’t write )

DO YOU HAVE ANY TRIGGERS?  HOW DO YOU REQUEST IT TAGGED? No / Yes

– S H I P P I N G –

WHAT TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS ARE YOU OPEN TO? Romantic / Platonic / Familial / Platonic Queer

WHAT TYPES OF PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS ARE YOU OPEN TO?

Romantic / Platonic / Familial / Platonic Queer ( plotting is always needed )

DO YOU HAVE OTPS? No / chemistry only / Yes

DO YOU HAVE NOTPS? No / Yes (?? oc ?? I mean )

WHAT IS YOUR MUSE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATION? Heterosexual / Heteroflexible / Bisexual / Homoflexible / Homosexual /Pansexual / Demisexual/ Sapiosexual / Asexual 

WHAT IS YOUR MUSE’S ROMANTIC ORIENTATION? Heteroromantic / Heteroflexible / Biromantic / Homoflexible / Homoromantic/ Panromantic/ Demiromantic / Sapioromantic / Aromantic (alternate modern verse)

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WRITING SMUT? No / Selectively / Yes

HOW EARLY IN A RELATIONSHIP DO YOU SHIP ROMANTICALLY? Autoship / During Plotting / After A Couple IC Interactions / Several IC Interactions In / Slow Burn

ARE YOU OPEN TO TOXIC SHIPS? No / Selectively / Yes / Never Tried It

ARE YOU OPEN TO PROBLEMATIC SHIPS? (canon history, age difference, complicated, etc.) No / Selectively / Yes

ARE YOU OPEN TO POLYSHIPPING? No / Selectively / Yes ( it wouldn’t happen with the priestess, it just wouldn’t )

ARE YOU AN EXCLUSIVE SHIPPER? No / Sometimes / Yes (?? I don’t kn o w? )

DOES CRACK SHIPPING EVER HAPPEN? No / Yes

DOES CROSSOVER SHIPPING EVER HAPPEN? No / Yes

– T A G G I N G! –

Tagged by: @killthebxy​ ( kissy noises @ fil. espero que estejas a derreter tanto quanto eu )

Tagging: and you get tagged and you get tagged :’))

[nyyankeesdailynews-blog]

Thanks Jeter!!! RE2PECT

The bronze plaque has been cast and a space is waiting in Monument Park to welcome Derek Jeter as the last of the Yankees' single-digit uniform numbers is set to be officially removed from circulation. The organization will celebrate the Captain's legendary career and retire his No. 2 between games of today's doubleheader against the Astros.

All Yankee Stadium gates will open to guests with valid tickets (dated Sunday, May 14) beginning at 1 p.m ET. The first game of the doubleheader will begin at 2:05 p.m.

The Derek Jeter Night pregame ceremony is scheduled to take place no earlier than 6:35 p.m. ET. The second game of the doubleheader will start at the conclusion of the Derek Jeter Night pregame ceremony, but no earlier than 7:35 p.m.

"Derek Jeter was a very special player," Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "He was kind of representative of an entire generation of great players. One thing the Yankees know how to do is ceremonies. I'm sure it'll be a wonderful event for the fans and for Derek, as well."

Jeter will be the 22nd player in franchise history to have his number retired and the first since teammates Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte during the 2015 season. YES Network will broadcast the first game of the doubleheader, and ESPN will broadcast the second game.

Joe Torre, MLB's chief baseball officer and Jeter's manager for the first 12 years of his playing career, is among the many luminaries expected to be in attendance for Sunday's festivities.

"I think any time Derek comes back, it's special, but this will be even more meaningful," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We've all been looking forward to it. I'm sure he's looking forward to it. I'm sure his family is really looking forward to it, and the one who seems to steal the show all the time is his nephew [Jalen], so I'm looking forward to that, as well."

The longtime Yankees captain and five-time World Series champion recently told Yankees Magazine that he specifically selected to have the ceremony on Mother's Day as a tribute to his mom, Dorothy.

"It was my choice," Jeter said. "I thought it would make it even more special. I have close relationships with my entire family, but I thought it was a great opportunity to do something special for my mom. She's been very important to me, always being positive and telling me from a young age that I could do anything I wanted to do as long as I worked hard at it. I thought it was a good day to not only acknowledge my entire family, but especially my mom."

Jeter's No. 2 will be the 21st number retired by the Yankees, as No. 8 was retired for both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey on Old-Timers' Day in 1972.

A 14-time American League All-Star, Jeter is sixth all-time with 3,465 career hits and tops the Yankees' all-time list in hits, games played (2,747), doubles (544), stolen bases (358), at-bats (11,195), singles (2,595) and hit-by-pitches (170).

"It's going to be fun," said the Astros' Carlos Beltran. "I got the opportunity to play with him the last year. It was a great experience for me as a player. I got to see him grind every single day, coming to the ballpark with the mentality of going out there, playing shortstop and doing his job every single day. I'm happy to see him getting celebrated the way he deserves."

Earlier this year, Jeter spoke to the Yanks' top prospects, and outfielder Aaron Judge said that Jeter shared some of the mantra that helped him be successful over his lengthy career.

"He was big into 'stay even-keeled,'" Judge said. "You're going to have those times where you're going to go 0-for-20, 0-for-25, 0-for-30. You've got those months where you can't get out and the ball looks like a watermelon, but just try to stay even-keeled and stick to the process. If you have a bad April or a bad May, you might bounce back in June or July. Just keep the pace and focus on whatever you can do to help the team."

Born in New Jersey and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan Jeter played his franchise-record 20th and final season with the Yankees in 2014, and he recorded eight seasons with at least 200 hits.

"To me, the easiest way to define Derek Jeter is, he's a winner, plain and simple," Girardi said. "Whether it's on the field or off the field, the guy does things the right way, he does it with class, he works extremely hard, he's there for other people. He's a winner."

Along with Girardi, Torre and bench coach Rob Thomson, the following Yankees are expected to be in attendance for the ceremonies on Sunday: • David Cone, former teammate • Reggie Jackson, former Yankee, current Yankees special advisor • Tino Martinez, former teammate • Hideki Matsui, former teammate • Paul O'Neill, former teammate • Andy Pettitte, former teammate • Jorge Posada, former teammate • Willie Randolph, former Yankees coach • Mariano Rivera, former teammate • Bernie Williams, former teammate • Gerald Williams, former teammate • Gary Denbo, Yankees VP of player development, also Jeter's first professional manager at Class A Greensboro • Steve Donohue, Yankees head athletic trainer • Dick Groch, area scout who signed Jeter • Gene Michael, Yankees SVP and special advisor, also the GM who drafted Jeter with sixth overall pick of 1992 MLB Draft • Gene Monahan, former Yankees head athletic trainer • Jean "Soot" Zimmer, wife of former Yankees coach Don Zimmer

The Yankees enter the double header with a 21-12 record tied for first place.

Well, thanks for checking in this week and I’ll see you guys next week. Make sure you follow and smash that like button. Peace.