#sometimes i feel really dramatic but every time i leave my house and see trump signs on literally every street i feel so unsafe lmao

[poorlittlevampire]

voting blue in my deeply red town feels like this but so much worse

[leoprincess777]

♦ busting SYNASTRY MYTHS ♦

11th HOUSE SYNASTRY - THIS SYNASTRY DOESNT MEAN SOMEONE SEES YOU AS A FRIEND OR YOU ARE BETTER OFF AS FRIENDS, STOP REPEATING THIS SURFACE LEVEL SHIT YOU’VE BEEN EATING UP FROM MODERN ASTROLOGY POSTS. This is the house of wealth and gains, it’s the fullfillment of our desires and sudden profits. It’s an indicator of your sources of income and allies. So of course, you will have strong foundation with someone you have 11th house synastry with because it will be built on a ground of trust and support. Along with emotional connection, there’s also a mental connection that makes you share your secrets and ideas to them as you would do to a friend but that’s only one piece of the puzzle WHICH DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU WILL BE GOOD FRIENDS (you can’t make that comment for any type of relationship in this synastry because if 11h is afflicted by malefics that will most likely bring a negative result which can make you enemies or drain one another’s life force lmao). More than anything, especially if you have your 7th house lord in your partner’s 11th house you will gain so much from them in so many ways including oppurtunities and finances and helping you achieve your earthly desires. They will be your ally and support, supporting you in your pursuits and opinions. It’s like a debate team with financial support lol. It can also indicate you will go back to university and complete your education or get a new degree after you get together with this person. Most of this also goes for 3rd house synastry.

5th HOUSE SYNASTRY - “This indicates a fleeting romance” FUCK NO. That’s one of the most trumped-up interpretations i’ve heard. You CAN’T predict the longevity of a relationship based on house overlays. Ever heard of Davison charts? Anyway, prominent 5th house is anohter EXCELLENT synastry. It often donates a relationship where you can discuss ANYTHING - your wildest thoughts, plans and experiences. Someone you jump from topic to topic. Very often the planet person is the “childlike” one which the house person adores and takes inspiration from. Planet person becomes a ball of joy and energy that makes the house person destress and cheer up, thought it can feel like an ‘overdose’ sometimes. Both parties become some sort of an energy source for each other. You play games together, indulge in fun activities, create things (can even be an invention) together. Even doing nothing and just talking to each other feels fun and full of laughter (unless there are some other placements disturbing this synastry). This is the synastry of never-ending honeymoon. A couple with rahu/mars in 5th house might have a son as the first child. If venus is there with the nodes, it might be a son with venusian qualities. You can also get more popular or lucky if you are with someone you have 5h overlay with. The house person also pushes you to focus on your studies more.

12th HOUSE SYNASTRY - There’s a lot of stigma around his house (8h as well) and people often fear it. Weeeeeell...It IS a karmic house so people you have this synastry with are likely to be karmic partners. HOWEVER, don’t take this to oH NO this is not my TWIN FLAME this is a KaRmiC pErson shit. Literally almost everyone is a karmic partner lmfao, there’s a difference between good and bad karma. This synastry can play out good or bad depending on your own individual karma with this person and how you are managing your life. You can look to Rahu/ketu & saturn to get more info on the karma and to see how it’ll play out. Basically the planet person becomes your escape especially if their sun/moon falls into your 12h. They can end up being your savior. There’s an undeniable theme of profound change that this synastry brings. It often leads you to liberation, through a path of restriction. You need to overthrow the restrictions the other person brings to achieve total liberation. This is often a part of the soul’s karma. A couple with this overlay often keeps a secluded relationship from their relatives (maybe even ghost their families lol) and tend to travel together. They often open up to each other surprisingly quickly about their past and traumas, though there’s a really odd distrust within the couple.

6th HOUSE SYNASTRY - People have a very poor understanding of the 6th house, it’s often condensed to ‘service’. 6h synastry is similar to 12h synastry as they are the same axis anyway, but the difference is 12h’s effects are more abstract meanwhile 6h’s effects are much more physical and can be observed on a practical level. The theme with this house is “either serve or die” and has a karmic tone to it too. It’s not often this dramatic tho lol but usually a couple with 6h synastry feel a deep sense of responsibility towards each other which can make it hard to leave even if it turns toxic. Planet person often triggers the house person’s instincts to ‘serve’ the planet person in one way or another - the house person may do random gestures, buy lots of gifts, support them every way possible etc. so in this way it’s a very cute and beneficial synastry, because they are very much involved in each other’s lives and make a visible impact. They often make one another’s daily routines change, so they can spend time better. Though, one of them can treat the other like an assistant or in worse case scenario, a slave. Think I’m a slave 4 U by Britney Spears lol. They can begin constantly demanding things and get mad when the other doesn’t live up to their expectations. They can also become a disciplinarian for the other (this can also apply to 10h synastry) 

OTHER NOTES ♥☺

If you have a mutual mars overlay with someone in 10th house (your mars in their 10h, theirs in your 10h) your aggressive energy as a couple will most likely be public. Meaning you are prone to have public arguments or fights. Alternatively you can also do illegal business or outlaw activities together, often involving some sort of violence or marsian quality.

If someone’s rahu falls into your 4th house, they will feel peace in our presence but they might drain the peace out of you, meaning they can emotionally and physically drain you, bring conflict and chaos into your life. It may become addictive in some cases. Rahu person will keep wanting more. If at the same time your rahu falls into a water house in their chart (so if ur rahu falls into their 4h,8h,12h houses) you will keep giving more and also find it addictive and hard to get out of. It will push you to surrender.

Rahu in 7th overlay indicates a pre-destined marriage/partnership

Moon in 1st or 2nd house is a very common overlay between soulmates and married couples. Moon in 2h is especially a very auspicious placement in terms of material wealth. The planet person often spoils the house person and knows EXACTLY what to get to the house person as a gift, they have a natural understanding of what the planet person would like and their needs (unless afflicted or outweighed by other malefics placements)

[personal experience] Gemini moon men always try to make me talk about myself so they can gather and store information about me, all the while i’m a sagittarius moon (so sidereal scorpio and in opposition to their moon) and i never reveal anything important or “deep” about myself - i can make myself look like i’m being vulnerable and intimate but when the conversation is over, they realize i didn’t reveal to them anything that is actually valuable and important SHDAIWHJGJGKJG which is why after some time...like in about 2 days they even start trying harder. One of them literally begged me to talk about myself and i think this is a good example of the synastry between this axis

[ts1989fanatic]

A more in depth personal review of Lover, the album dropped last week and because I had issues downloading it from iTunes (what else is new) I did not really have time for anything other than a cursory listen before heading to bed.

So now a week has past and I have had more than a few listens (who am I kidding) a hella lot more than a few, my wife and I went on a road trip Sunday 250 Blissful Kilometers of just me and my Lovers.

Still a little haunted by Soon You’ll Get Better I was very emotional after listening to this song and still am truth be told, almost everyone has that person in their life who has been touched by cancer. And just like Taylor when it’s someone close to you like a parent or a Lover it’s downright terrifying.

Lover the parent as opposed to Lover the child (more on her later) is a more mature in control Taylor Swift bringing us the wild abandon of Red’s lay it all out on the floor with the sonic cohesion achieved with 1989.

To me Lover nods in passing to reputation, but as I listen to the album in more depth it to me is a continuation of where Taylor was heading after 1989, it still holds a little shade in the finger snapping I forgot That You Existed a song all about as Taylor herself has said letting go and stepping into the daylight don’t confront the haters and exes just be indifferent to them it’s a lot less toxic.

If there is one consistency on Lover, though: it’s Taylor’s love for, love. The entire album is predominantly romantic and seems to track the timeline of a relationship, from its beginnings to the final realization that the situation is serious. Taylor leaves it up to us the listener to theorize that Lover is about her relationship with Joe Alwyn.

There’s nothing on Lover that mentions him directly but there is more than enough within the lyrics on various songs to speculate. Half the fun of being a Swiftie is coming up with theories, you have your opinions I have mine. So go through the track by track list below and decide for yourself what song is about who.

“I Forgot That You Existed”

Taylor starts Lover not with a love song, but a song in which Taylor Swift seems to have moved past the drama on “I Forgot You Existed.” Who it is heavily speculated on that this song is about CH, is it only Taylor herself really knows. Looking at the lyrics it could also be about any of her exes that did not end the relationship on the best of terms.

“How many days did I spend thinking about how you did me wrong?” “I lived in the shade you were throwing till all of my sunshine was gone.” Then in the chorus she declares, “I forgot that you existed, and I thought that it would kill me, but it didn’t the meaning behind this song for me? Taylor has shed the snakeskin from the reputation era and is has moved on not with hate or anger JUST INDIFFERENCE

“Cruel Summer”

Those early flirtatious sometimes tumultuous stages early on in a new relationship. “It’s new, the shape of your body. It’s blue, the feeling I’ve got,” “It’s cool, that’s what I tell him. No rules…. We say we’ll just screw it up. In these trying times, we’re not trying.” This speaks to the drama that can happen in any new relationship before things stabilize and you can think about introducing them to friends and family.

“Lover”

To me this song and video are a throwback to the 70’s era country songs about love that I grew up on and after listening to Keith Urban cover it live you can see how it would be a smash on country radio stations. These lyrics cry out COUNTRY to me.

“Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years?” she sings later on. “Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? ’ve loved you three summers. Now, honey, I want ’em all.”

“The Man”

Not a love story, here, on “The Man.” Here more of a social commentary on society in general and the gender bias that still exist today despite the best efforts of a lot of WOKE people.

Taylor highlights how her career and reputation would have played out in the media if she were born a man rather than being named after one.

“Every conquest I made would make me more of a boss to you,” “I’d be just like Leo in Saint Tropez.”

“They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve, what I was wearing, if I was rude…. If I was a man, I’d be the man.”

“The Man” is one of the boppiest bop on Lover and deserves to be the next single.

“The Archer”

On “The Archer,” Taylor finds herself questioning her situation with her partner. Is it the real? How long will it last? These are relatable questions most of us ask once the honeymoon phase of a relationship draws to a close. “They see right through me. Can you see right through me?” Taylor sings. “Who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?”

“I Think He Knows”

By the time Taylor reaches this song,” She has answered that question: she wants her new relationship to work, and she’s not afraid to say so. “I think he knows when we get all alone, he’ll want me to stay,” “I think he knows he better lock it down, or I won’t stick around” cause good ones never wait.”

“Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”

Some see this as a love song, personally I see it more as a protest song, Taylor has become much more political and outspoken on the issues since Trump took office  this is an “us against the administration” mind-set. At first listen it may not sound like a protest song, but to me and I follow US politics very closely it certainly speaks to what has happened over the last few years.

When the White House responds to a song then I think you can safely say DAMN STRAIGHT it’s a protest song. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince is not a Rage Against The Machine protest song, it’s a song full of metaphors and because of this it draws you in and makes you listen closely and get behind and beneath the symbolism.

“American glory Faded before me now I’m feeling Hopless”

“Paper Rings”

Taylor joking about marrying her lover one day or is she joking. “I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings. That’s right, darling. You’re the one I want,” definitely a love song about a serious relationship, does it mean Taylor and Joe are engaged (not according to Tree)

 “Cornelia Street”

“Cornelia Street” is when our story takes a dramatic turn.  It’s important to know that, at one point, Taylor rented a carriage house on Cornelia Street in New York City while her place was being renovated. The lyrics of this song suggest Taylor associates Cornelia Street with a relationship getting more intense.

“I hope I never lose you. Hope it never ends. I never want Cornelia Street again,” “That’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend.”

“Death by a Thousand Cuts”

This comes through as a breakup song, but a breakup with who not Joe from all appearances, possibly to a past relationship. “I get drunk, but it’s not enough, ’cause the morning comes and you’re not my baby,” Taylor sings shortly after saying, “Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts.

"I look through the windows of this love, even though we boarded them up” and “You said it was a great love, one for the ages. But if this story’s over, why am I still writing pages?”

“London Boy”

With a Cat’s co-star cameo from Idris Elba, Taylor is back to singing about love of a guy and a city, not with great accuracy I might add as an ex-pat who lived and worked in London for ten years. But hey she’s a writer and allowed poetic license.

“Something happened, I heard him laughing. I saw the dimples, first, and then I heard the accent,” “They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not where mine lives. You know I love a London boy.”

“Soon You’ll Get Better” (featuring Dixie Chicks)

Sorry for the language but this song fucked me up, Still a little haunted by it. I was very emotional after listening to this song and still am truth be told, almost everyone has that person in their life who has been touched by cancer. And just like Taylor when it’s someone close to you like a parent or a Lover it’s downright terrifying. I lost my mother to cancer my father in law to cancer and the love of my life has been diagnosed three times twice benign once malignant (God that’s an ugly word)

“In doctor’s office lighting, I didn’t tell you I was scared,” “Soon you’ll get better. You’ll get better soon, ’cause you have to.”

If I am honest here I really want to fast forward past this song but it’s so emotional and raw that I find myself having to listen to it over again.

“False God”

On “False God,” Taylor recognizes the issues that can lead to the breakup as in “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

“I know heaven’s a thing. I go there when you touch me. Hell is when I fight with you,” “But we can patch it up good.” She doesn’t dig any deeper here, though. That comes later.

“You Need to Calm Down”

After the backlash Taylor faced from 2016 she found her voice not just in speaking out about equality but encapsulating it into her music. YNTCD is a synth heavy pop bop that calls out Internet Trolls and boldly champions the LGBTQ community, franklt it’s a fucking bop with a message and both my wife and love it.

“Say it in the street, that’s a knock-out” “But you say it in a Tweet that’s a cop-out” (advice to live by Mr. President)

“Afterglow”

“Afterglow” Is an apology song.” Here Taylor opens up about how a relationship can implode with a partner and the role her own behaviour played in it imploding. “I blew things out of proportion, now you’re blue,” she sings. “I put you in jail for something you didn’t do…. Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves.” “Why’d I have to break what I love so much? It’s on your face, and I’m to blame,” “Hey, it’s on me in my head. I’m the one who burned this down, but it’s not what I meant. Sorry that I hurt you.”

“Me!” (featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)

A tongue-in-cheek, extension of “Afterglow.”here Taylor can laugh about the drama. Not only that but she own up to her faults on this song, Taylor lays out that it’s those faults that make her the perfect match for someone.

“I know that I went psycho on the phone. I never leave well enough alone. And trouble’s gonna follow where I go,” “Afterglow.” “Baby doll, when it comes to a lover. I promise that you’ll never find another like me.”

“It’s Nice to Have a Friend”

A lot of the theories I have seen about this one revolve around her relationship with Joe “Church bells ring. Carry me home. Rice on the ground, looks like snow.” It certainly sounds like they might be gearing up for that next step. But I don’t read this the same way, it reads more like a first love narrative.

“Sidewalk chalk covered in snow lost my gloves, you gave me one” “Twenty questions, we tell the truth”

“Daylight”

A dreamy romantic song that is filled with words one would say on their wedding day or just after getting married. They sound a lot like vows. “I don’t want to look at anything else now that I saw you. I don’t want to think of anything else now that I’ve thought of you. I’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night, and now I see daylight.”

Taylor says “I want to be defined by the things that I love. Not the things I hate. Not the things I’m afraid of, or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night. I just think that you are what you love.”

This is Taylor Swift at her ultimate best, crafting lyrics that we can all relate to at whatever stage of your relationship you are in. This is Speak Now and Fearless Taylor all grown up but still crafting a story of life with her lyrics in her own unique way.

Where reputation was dark and moody even though in my opinion still a very relatable album, who has never faced criticism and wished that they had the skills heart and wit to respond as Taylor did, Lover is all vivid colors and predominantly bright and cheerful music with certain exceptions this is Taylor in full flow and form. Taylor the story teller Taylor the lyrical master Taylor the ARTIST.

[yoey-writes]

PROLOGUE

This was written a while ago.

A WARNING

This is going to hurt.

Not just me. This story will hurt all those who even so much as brush the spine of it – that includes you. Or, at least, it should hurt. It’s supposed to, after all.  

Something I’ve learnt about humans in my time here, is that you rarely make effort towards anything unless Hurt is involved. Unless you’re forced to diverge from ‘the path of least resistance’, as your scientists so eloquently put it. You may think you’re driven by a positive force. Love trumps Hate, right? Well, I’m here to prove you wrong.  

Every time you’ve seemingly acted from the Good in your heart, your body is simply reacting to the Hurt it knows you’ll feel when your happiness is taken away. You’ll be nice to someone, not because you’re a good person, but because you don’t want to feel the pain of them being mean back to you.  

I know what you’re thinking, and this isn’t just me being a cynic. I never was. Not even when I was alive on your Earth. At least, not mostly. But I can still tell you with absolute certainty, that Hurt fuels your world, makes your trees grow, carries you to work in the morning, and home in the evening. You may still not believe me, but I will convince you. Can you tell me, in all honesty, that it’s Happiness that makes you do what you do? Or is it the wish to no longer Hurt?

Right now, you’re probably thinking over every important decision in your life and wondering if it really was for a positive reason. Even you philanthropists out there. Giving to charity makes people feel good. You do it because it makes you feel good, to make yourself hurt less, or you do it to make others hurt less. Either way, even your most charitable men; or should I say, especially your most charitable men, are fuelled by Hurt. It is how it is.

PART 1

Never in my not-life.

WHO AM I?

Who are you?

Now, I won’t tell you exactly how long ago I wrote that first chapter, however, I will now tell you what this book is really about. It’s about a girl. It’s that simple. You want to know what she did?

She changed my mind.  

Hundreds of years I believed the world was fuelled by Hurt and Hatred, but I’m writing this novel now to assure you it’s not, and to tell you exactly how this revelation of mine came about.  

There is a reason for my telling this now, and not, say, fifty years ago, or fifty hence. That reason is your world. I admit, it’s always been somewhat like this. Someone is always in charge, and that someone always hates certain groups of people, and then a bunch of other people start to hate that certain group of people. Then you fight for a while. Then things go back to normal, with another someone in charge, who hates another group of people.

That’s how it is.

It’s how it was for me.  

Oh. Me.

You don’t know who I am. Do you?

Except for the simple fact that you do.

Everyone does. Well, anyone old enough to comprehend me.

Some of you even claim to have seen me. And I hesitate to say some of you have. Some of you have looked me straight in the eyes and begged me; mostly to stay, sometimes to leave. Sometimes to take you with me.

I don’t think you have a name for me, but I’m the closest thing you have to Death, or the Grim Reaper. Such a colourful language is yours. This all sounds very dramatic, I know, but true nonetheless.

And noteworthy, might I add. For, now, you may start to see the true weight of what that girl did to me in changing my mind.  

A SIMPLE FACT

Jocelyn didn’t have a surname.

And she didn’t want one. Not many people like their names exactly how they are, but Jocelyn was quite content with hers. She didn’t like the finality that came with having a surname, because she couldn’t change it as and when she pleased. As it stood, she could ask someone to call her Joyce or Jo or Lynn, and claim it to be her nickname, and she liked it that way, assuming different identities for each name.

As Joyce, she was a schoolgirl from the South who would buckle up her Mary Janes and braid her hair into pigtails before leaving her family’s three-bedroom house, and heading to catch the school bus, which arrived promptly at eight in the morning every morning and deposited her in the same place at four in the afternoon every afternoon. She’d never miss a day of school and she’d always be top of her class and have the prettiest stationary, and the neatest class notes.

As Jo, she was an athlete. She would have her hair tucked up to the nape of her neck so it could be short and wouldn’t get in her way as she ran laps of the track and practised her long jump. Her sweat-soaked shorts and t-shirt would stick to her body as she ran through the crowds after winning the finals of the sprint.

As Lynn, she was a businesswoman, with her hair up in a sleek bun at the back of her head, and a pencil skirt, like she’d seen some women wearing. A blazer, too. She’d walk around all prim and proper in her best attire, on her way to her boss’s office for a meeting, where she’d hope for a promotion.

She didn’t like to be Jocelyn.

Jocelyn was the little girl whose parents never came home from the supermarket. She didn’t know if they’d ever made it to the supermarket. I’ll tell you now that they had. I picked them up on their way home.

As humans are expected to do, especially the young ones, she didn’t react well to the news that her only remaining family wouldn’t be coming home. And she ran. And as of yet, no one had found her. Again, I’ll tell you now, no one ever would, or at least, not anyone who was actually looking for her.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recap: Volume 6 Episode 9 “Lost”

Welcome to Volume 6, Episode 9 where “Lost” truly encompasses all of my feelings today! Sorry for the late recap, but let’s not waste anymore time.

We open on Emerald and Mercury as they hang out in Salem’s palace, the woman in question nowhere to be found. She’s probably still off seething over Ozpin’s latest reincarnation. There’s some pretty heavy symbolism attached to how each character navigates the room: Mercury energetic and full of purpose as he trains in the open space; Emerald static and curled in on herself on the floor. She admits that she hates “being in the dark like this” and Mercury agrees. Cinder was annoying, but at least she kept them both filled in.

Of course she did, because Cinder craves power in a way Salem doesn’t. She wants a particular type of submission tied up in validation. Qrow reminds us in Volume Four that Salem keeps to the sidelines. She’s—to borrow our Wizard of Oz vernacular—the man behind the curtain, happy to pull strings that lead to everyone pointing accusingly at one another, with no inkling that someone more powerful is really to blame. Can we picture Cinder laying out plans that didn’t result in her taking credit for the plot? I can’t. She needs to be in the thick of things, monologuing her victories, and by extension she has a closer relationship with her pawns than Salem ever will, by pure necessity. Cinder would have eaten up the kind of attention from Tyrian that Salem brushes aside unless acknowledging it directly suits her purpose. It’s that faux intimacy that’s convinced Emerald they have a real connection.

With these kinds of thoughts on her mind, Emerald asks Mercury why he bothered to come with them all those years ago. He reveals that his father was an assassin, trained him to be the same, and the night he manages to kill him a group comes along that just happens to need his particular type of expertise? “Just felt like it was meant to be.”

Emerald: “That’s it?”

I agree. Though Mercury is by far the more convinced of the two, he’s still demonstrating the same lack of clear convictions that our heroes have been grappling with. You signed your life over to this war because a bunch of strangers happened to be passing by? That sort of coincidental justification can’t sustain itself. Even Pyrrha’s firm belief in destiny grew shaky once she was faced with a truly difficult decision and Mercury has had pretty smooth sailing lately, especially compared to the life he had with his father. He beat up a bookseller, framed Yang, helped destroy Beacon, had a minor role at the Haven battle, and has been hanging in the palace ever since. He’s actually been doing pretty well, especially since losing Cinder is no real blow to him, so why wouldn’t he think he made the right choice to impulsively follow her and Emerald when they met? The problem is, these victories won’t last. What’s Mercury going to do when his “it just felt like it was meant to be” collides head on with a truly difficult situation… like oh, say, having Salem turn that anger on him as an abuse survivor? As others have already pointed out, Mercury was pretty damn spooked by her reaction to the news about Oz and saw it coming far faster than the other characters. One of these days he’s going to realize that it’s not going to be continuous smooth sailing to Salem’s new world where he’s a top dog no one can touch. Then he’ll have a choice to make.

Of course, Tyrian is already anticipating that. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you ever discover those true convictions. Even if Mercury some day realizes he wants to get out from underneath Salem’s thumb, good luck with that. Hello, difference between her and Ozpin. Ozpin let’s people leave, no matter the cost to himself and the war effort. I doubt Salem provides such luxuries.

Emerald tries to get Mercury to understand how her motivations were tied up entirely with Cinder: “[She] was the only family I ever had. She cared about me…” Mercury interrupts with the cruel truth that no, she doesn’t care about either of them, and Emerald is so enraged that she attacks.

You can easily see her heart isn’t in it though. In a nice parallel to Oscar’s line at the end of the episode, she’s been worrying about the exact same stuff. After her initial attack Emerald is barely keeping her fists up and backs off as Mercury starts advancing on her.

He brings up an interesting conundrum: is it worse to have been denied the love of a parent, or to experience the hatred of another? Of course, the truth is that both are horrendous, but Mercury is clearly of the mind that his trauma trumps Emerald’s. Surprisingly calm while also housing great fury, he reveals that some semblances can apparently steal others. At least I’m assuming this power came from his father’s own semblance. Whatever it was (omg tell us lol) apparently made Mercury “weak” in his eyes and after taking it he said he could get it back when he proved he was “strong.” Well, Mercury proved his strength by killing his father, but he didn’t get his semblance back. So it apparently doesn’t revert back after death.

Before things can get anymore heated Tyrian sneaks creepily out of the shadows. His usual entrance. The highlight of his hastily justified visit—just saying goodbye!—is the reveal of his new tail. Did he have the rest of his tail removed? I’m assuming that only the end is new with the rest of his tail just encased in that armor. Later we can clearly see a drop of his poison on the tip (along with the purple visible on the underside) so I suspect in order to create an apparatus that could draw it out again they’d have to keep the rest of the limb. Regardless, it’s too bad for our heroes. It looked like Ruby had done some permanent damage back in Volume Four.

I’m actually rather fascinated by how RWBY treats its disabled characters. There’s a very heavy focus on the psychological trauma as opposed to the physical. Meaning, once the character “gets over” the injury (I use that awful phrase not literally, but just to describe the moment when the arc focused on their injury is complete and the narrative needs to move on) the focus then segues to how much stronger they are now. Again, physically if not mentally. Mercury’s legs are now more powerful than the average human’s, as is half of James’s body, Yang’s arm, Tyrian seems to be able to do everything he previously could with his tail, except now it won’t be so easy to slice through it with a scythe. We also get moments where the act of being disabled is the factor that tips the scales: such as when Yang detaches her arm to get into the vault. On the one hand this is an incredibly positive and potentially inspiring trend. On the other hand real life disabilities sometimes still suck in a way that really isn’t portrayed here, especially since everyone has access advanced tech to “fix” the problem. Yang is right. There’s a part of her missing that she’ll never get back, but that doesn’t change the fact that her new arm is portrayed as more powerful and versatile than her original could ever hope to be. Putting aside the trauma of losing it for a moment, the fact that she’s missing an arm is itself no longer presented as a disability.

I’d actually like to see more moments where the tech isn’t portrayed as such an easy fix: Someone doesn’t have the money to get fancy Atlas stuff, Yang’s arm breaks down in the middle of a fight, whatever dispenses Tyrian’s poison jams up, someone with a tech or metal-based semblance gets a huge advantage when they realize a bunch of the allies are reliant on metal limbs, etc. AKA, more like Fullmetal Alchemist where disabilities are both an asset (I always have a weapon on hand!) as well as a hindrance (…that often gets destroyed) depending on the situation. I think the closest we get is with Maria. Losing color meant that she didn’t pick up on Ruby’s eyes until the very last moment, putting them in more danger. Beyond that she says her specs need a tuneup, but so far we haven’t seen any downsides to not getting them upgraded.

ANYWAY. I should get back to the actual episode…

Tyrian points out that Mercury is too afraid to leave the pain and violence that he’s always known and Mercury gives the expected line that Tyrian doesn’t know anything about him. Makes me wonder what Tyrian’s past was like and why this conversation out of them all would bring out his more philosophical side.

We see more of Emerald’s need to hang onto what little family she has left. Despite attacking Mercury just moments before she lets out a furious, “Hey!” when Tyrian pins him and uses “we” when asking whether they’re just supposed to leave, despite the fact that Mercury has expressed zero interest in considering that option. Emerald considers them a set and, like with Cinder, is projecting more love than might actually be there. She expects that if she leaves, Mercury will follow.

Boy, that might be another kick in the teeth if it ever came down to it…

Tyrian gets his line about how they should love what they do… but ultimately you don’t have much of a choice. Not when Salem is involved. Watts appears reeeeeal far back to let him know it’s time to leave for Atlas.

Could you be more dramatic?

With the ominous knowledge that literally every semi-notable character is heading to Atlas, we cut to JNR looking for Oscar. Jaune gets some excellent lines here:

“This is all my fault. I overreacted…he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Damn straight. Most of the fandom was willing to absolve Jaune the moment he showed a guilty look, but in this volume particularly looking guilty isn’t the same thing as an apology and a change in behavior. Qrow hasn’t apologized to the group yet. The group hasn’t apologized to Ozpin. There’s been a lot of shots of people looking regretful, but not doing much to act on that regret. Given this theme I wouldn’t have been surprised if Jaune hung onto his anger and tried to justify his reaction… but he didn’t and I’m so glad to see this glimmer of maturity, especially coming from one of the more violent characters this volume. He’s doing everything right here: being frank about his mistakes and responsibility, implying that it won’t happen again, apologizing the moment he sees Oscar. Good job, Jaune.  

We see how with a few hours to calm down JNR is totally on board with continuing the mission. They’re concerned about what they’ll do, not whether they’ll do anything at all. “It’s going to be a lot harder than we thought” implies that they’ll be continuing the fight and Nora and Ren are back to their endlessly optimistic selves. Honestly… while I’m glad to see this characterization in general, it feels cheap after last episode. As said, RT has given everyone an identical reaction to the information about Salem, undermining their individual temperaments and outlooks, all so we can build up this hatred of Ozpin. But if you’re going to give characters unlikely reactions (like Nora going full pessimism) at least commit to it. By skipping over their thought process and discussion, by jumping straight back to, ‘Of course we’ll fight!’ it paints their original reactions as inauthentic. Nora isn’t really doubting whether all their work meant something, Ren isn’t really mad at the rest of the group, Jaune doesn’t really think Ozpin has taken over Oscar—those emotions were just tools to fuel the drama of one scene. And yeah, some people will read that as a legitimate response to getting horrifying news. I personally don’t. That scene could have achieved everything it needed to without making JNR a carbon-copy of RWBY in their grief.

We also get another example of how the team is happy to keep secrets when it serves their own purposes—“I know, I know. Top secret”—and how less stock they put in the traditional huntsmen lifestyle now. Saphron says that if they’re not sure what to do they can always get their licenses and help out in Argus. “There’s a lot of good you can do here” and this is juxtaposed with images of safe and smiling people who only have that happiness because of the everyday huntsmen doing their work. Saphron points out that they don’t have to be the ones to complete this mission and “it’s not the only mission that needs doing.” She doesn’t have any of the details… but she’s right. Someone needs to get the relic to safety, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be 10+ people. If anyone has doubts about continuing the fight against Salem specifically, now’s the time to bow out, especially since not being committed is dangerous to everyone else. It’s what Ozpin said back in Volume 5: abstaining isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but you’ll reach a point where you can’t retreat.

This suggestion is brushed off though and I don’t think it’s because JNR has some inspiring drive to face Salem no matter the cost. It’s because everything else still feels ‘useless.’ It’s hard to learn about the Big Bad and then go back to fighting the small fry, even though that’s primarily what keeps Salem at bay. Fighting grimm, bandits, her subordinates, promoting peace… these are the things that keep her from getting a foothold. JNR may be willing to continue to Atlas, but they haven’t quite acknowledged yet that this war doesn’t always have straight-forward quests for them, the heroes, to complete. Secure the relic! Kill Salem! I mean this will never happen because it’s a show and we need plot, but in-world it’s totally possible that after Atlas the thing to do is just the sort of stuff Saphron suggests. Salem’s plans are usually years in the making and we can’t go kill her… so I guess all we can do now is go back to being just huntsmen. 

I hope RWBY addresses this pseudo-superiority that’s developing; the idea that their group always has to be on The Mission To Save The World. I just want someone to acknowledge again that keeping magical relics safe is important… but so is, say, saving a random village from their geist grimm. The world needs both.

Which brings us to Pyrrha.

(Ah, look at that Volume 1 opening callback.) 

Ren and Nora try to cheer Jaune up with drinks at a cafe (coffee! shop! a! u!) but he hangs back on a bench. Everyone’s heart rips out when a familiar leaf drifts by and lead’s Jaune to Pyrrha’s statue…

Let me be clear here. I love the emotion of this scene. I love that JNR finally got to have this conversation. The only thing I don’t love is how heavily it pushes the idea that it’s noble to die even when you didn’t have to, even when it accomplishes precisely nothing.

Woman: “[Pyrrha] understood that she had a responsibility to try… I don’t think she would regret her choice, because a huntress would understand that there really wasn’t a choice to make. And a huntress was what she’d always wanted to be.”

This viewpoint makes sense for whoever this woman is, Pyrrha’s mom, her older sister, etc. Of course that’s how she’s going to rationalize the tragedy, especially when she presumably doesn’t know the details of Pyrrha’s death. I truly doubt anyone from Beacon told her Pyrrha went off after someone who she knew she’d lose against and died uselessly. But JNR and the narrative itself? They can afford to be more critical.

Of course there was a choice to make. If Pyrrha was here she SHOULD regret the choice she made! There was no reason for Pyrrha to die. She didn’t die out of ignorance by underestimating her enemy. She didn’t die to save someone else’s life. She didn’t die to buy someone time. RWBY was careful to make sure that Pyrrha’s death served absolutely no purpose and has brought only hardship to those around her. That was her fatal flaw—fighting for the sake of fighting—and Ruby at least recognizes this as something they need to learn from. JNR? Apparently not. They parrot the woman’s words and talk about how they “have to try,” clearly conflating Pyrrha’s situation with Salem’s immortality, but they’re in no way the same thing. They actually don’t have a choice when it comes to Salem because the only other option here is death/enslavement for all of humanity. You know what other choice Pyrrha had though? Listening to her headmaster, not throwing her life away, sparing her friends their grief, and living to do more good later on. I’m used to the fandom endlessly twisting Pyrrha’s death into something inevitable (Ozpin manipulated her!) or something purely noble (she was so close to beating Cinder!), but I didn’t expect the show to do the same thing. It’s a disservice to her character to pretend that she didn’t have any faults… and that one of those faults got her killed.

So yeah. The lessons in general are important ones, just not when they’re applied to this specific context. Regardless, it solidifies their feelings that they’ll continue on to Atlas and after some more apologies from Jaune for being a “terrible leader” and friend, they decide to head back to the house. Jaune takes one more look at Pyrrha’s statue with an airship flying overhead, a very non-romantic choice that won’t make sense until the end of the episode.

After all that emotional upheaval we cut to Ruby. Looking like this:

This child is so fucking done.

I suppose the one silver lining is that Qrow managed to make it back to the house before he passed out? Yang comments that she’s “never seen him this bad” as these poor kids drag him back onto his feet. As Ruby angrily fills him in about Oscar being missing Jaune goes, “Don’t worry. We’re not going to Atlas without him.”

Ruby: “We? :D”

As everyone basks in their newfound determination, the door opens to shed some literal light on them all. Our farm boy is there, safe, sound, and sporting new digs.

Oscar: “Oh. I was wondering when you’d get back.”

I know I joked last time about how Oscar probably just went for a walk since everyone agreed to take time to themselves, but RT could have given us some indication of where he went, what he did (besides shopping), what he thought… basically anything that would show us some actual development, rather than having it all happen off screen. Like Nora, Ren, and Jaune suddenly 100% on board after their pessimism last episode, we completely skip over Oscar’s thought process. We don’t get to see how he went from this

to this.

The fact that this time skip proceeds Jaune’s apology makes it a highly uncomfortable scene—for me at least. Because Oscar went from flinching in his company to making them all dinner and interrupting Jaune before he can even finish, claiming it’s fine because he’s had the same worries. In short, it feels like Oscar is the one apologizing here because we haven’t gotten any insight into what else might explain this sudden mood change. He’s a “like minded” soul to Ozpin though and Ozpin blames himself for everything. So Oscar watches how no one gives a damn if he’s okay after Jaune assaults him and, instead of being angry at them for that, makes everyone casserole with the hope that they’ll be pleased with that gesture. He doesn’t let Jaune take full responsibility for his actions or complete his apology because Oscar thinks that reaction was justified. Oscar implicitly apologizes for making them worry all day even though he had every right to leave. He talks about himself like he’s dying—“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be me”—and instead of being upset about that anymore he says that he’s going to help others with “whatever time I have left.”

Oscar is doing exactly what Ozpin did a few episodes ago, trying to please those around him instead of calling them out on their shitty behavior. For Ozpin it was giving them a life without him; for Oscar it’s playing the supportive outsider who’s determined to not be a burden. He can’t help that he’s merging with Ozpin, but he can be better prepared for their next battle (combat gear), take care of little things he has control over (dinner), and accept their apologies instantly with a smile. He’s not giving them any reason to hate him anymore than he thinks they already do. 

If this is at all a reflection of how Ozpin’s comeback will go, it’s not a good sign in my opinion. I’m still worried that Ozpin will be the one apologizing and will just brush off any half-hearted apologies he gets in turn.

Of course, a big portion of the fandom is theorizing that this isn’t Oscar at all, but rather Ozpin controlling him. I’m not buying that theory right now. Mostly because Ozpin wouldn’t do that. We just watched Jaune lose it because he thought Ozpin might be tricking them by pretending to be Oscar…so Ozpin’s gonna turn around and do exactly that? And to what purpose? Take back the relic from Ruby? If he could hear during his self-imposed isolation then he knows that RWBY is still determined to get to Atlas. If he couldn’t then he woke up in Argus and can infer the same thing. It’s foolish to go off on his own in a body that, to be frank, is still barely trained, especially when time has proven that it takes a team to make it out there. The only way I might buy this is if Ozpin thinks he’s sparing everyone by taking the relic himself; unburdening them from the mission.

I can see why people are suspicious. Oscar is indeed acting off, though I attribute that to the fact that, again, he’s clearly rattled by what happened and is trying not to show it. I can also kinda see why people would be suspicious of him buying combat gear now—he’s planning to go off on his own!—but this was also just a decent time for him to get an outfit change. Plus he needs combat gear regardless of whether he’s with the group or not.

In the end, believing that this is Ozpin in control here is rooted in the fandom’s belief that Ozpin is a horrible manipulator who would turn around and do all the things Jaune just accused him of. If this ends up being the case I’d be incredibly disappointed in RT, because this goes against so much of Ozpin’s core characterization. Until it’s actually proven, this isn’t a theory I’m subscribing to.

With Oscar’s Jaune’s apologies out of the way Qrow tries to leave and Ruby finally loses her temper, snapping that he can at least sit with them. Qrow is once again entirely dismissive of Ruby. He sarcastically says how he “wouldn’t want to get in the way of your celebration,” callously brushes off whatever Oscar and the group apparently made up about, and reiterates that they don’t have a plan. Hell, he doesn’t even know that JNR has learned about Salem and he clearly doesn’t care. Jaune tries to diffuse the situation by mentioning that he has thought of a plan... though it’s the “no going back” kind. 

Steal an airship. Please look at everyone’s horrified reactions. Except for Nora.

She’s so proud!!

Why the shock though? Objectively speaking this group has never cared much for laws or rules. Ruby and Yang come from a family with bandits in it. Blake was a member of a terrorist group. Ren and Nora clearly had to steal in order to survive. Jaune got into Beacon with forged transcripts. They happily let Ozpin bend the rules for them at school. They never reported all the illegal activity of the White Fang. They then started acting as huntsmen despite not having licenses. Weiss snuck out of her own Kingdom as cargo. And they just straight up lied to a military figure to try and cross the boarder. Like I get that stealing a ship is a bit bigger than this other stuff (with the exception, perhaps, of Jaune’s transcripts and Blake’s past), but it’s not like this is a group of totally law-abiding citizens. They’ve been working outside of the Kingdoms’ laws for a rather long time now.

It’s the perfect excuse for Qrow though and he tells them to drop it. There’s a clear visual divide between him on the stairs and everyone else below, reinforced when Ruby says that she wants to “hear [Jaune] out.”

Interesting choice of words. Jaune just admitted that ‘steal an airship’ is all he’s got. There isn’t anything more to hear out. Ruby is just making it very clear who she’s siding with.

She says she knows Qrow is worried for them and thinks it’s all hopeless, but “right now I don’t really care what you think.”

To quote the popular meme, you can pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks!

Needed to be said though.

However then… then. Oh boy. Then Ruby spouts this absolute nonsense about how the kids have never needed adults and definitely don’t need them now.

“We’ve been in tough situations before and we didn’t need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We did it our way.”

I’m sorry, Ruby. When the hell was this?? Was it when you tried to take on the White Fang by yourself instead of providing Ozpin with information that might have helped him figure out Salem’s plan? Or was it when an experienced huntsmen had to come save you with your team when you went off alone at Mountain Glenn? Was it when the adults did just as much work to win the battle of Beacon as you? How about when you were traveling to Haven and didn’t have any grimm to deal with because the adult was following behind and taking care of them all, then saved you from being kidnapped? Was it when Ozpin trained you for weeks and finally gave you a plan to follow? Or was it two days ago when Maria’s experience literally saved you all from certain death?

To say nothing of the reverse. It’s because of the kids’s actions that they’re in this position in the first place. It’s because Ruby went and used a question that Ozpin isn’t around to help them anymore, to help recognize the Apathy for what it was, to gain them entrance across the boarder. Kids thinking they know best is precisely what started all this nonsense.

But yeah. Apparently there’s no remorse for how they treated Ozpin yet. Rather than regretting their inhumane treatment now that they’ve had time to cool off, they’ve settled on a ‘Who needs him anyway?’ mentality.

This viewpoint came totally out of left field and I honestly hate it. Everything from the rousing shots of everyone’s smug expressions—Yeah! Bonding over how much we don’t need you!—to Maria cheering them on, I absolutely hated it. Ruby isn’t mad at adults, she’s mad specifically at Qrow and his drinking. She could have easily called him out on his shit (something that needs doing) without charging her team up with the misguided idea that they’ve somehow been surviving without adults when they haven’t. We could have re-asserted Ruby’s convictions to keep fighting without throwing all her 20yo+ allies under the bus. Apparently they’ve learned little from their impulsive decisions this volume.

However, RWBY is acknowledging a common issue with child protagonists: how do you make them the star of the show when presumably adults should be fighting in their stead? There are a couple ways to get around this:

Adults are available but we don’t trust them (Harry’s abuse in Harry Potter)

Adults are around but are fundamentally useless (HP again - Harry is brushed off by McGonagall in the first book, dealing with evil or idiotic DADA instructors, etc.)

Adults are forced to hand over the reigns to kids (any story with a Chosen One plot)

Adults might want to help but can’t for reasons outside of their control (they all died off, they’re hypnotized like the parents in It, etc.)

The problem with RWBY is that adults have always and will always be an integral part of the plot. The narrative hasn’t given Ruby a distrust of authority figures (she grew up with a loving father and clearly respected her instructors), it hasn’t painted her as Remnant’s inevitable savior (in-world at least. We as the audience know she’s the primary protagonist, but to the cast she’s only a little special because of her silver eyes), it hasn’t forcibly removed adults from the battlefield, and it hasn’t characterized them as useless. Yes, RWBYJNR has had some of their faith undermined given Ozpin’s fall from grace and Qrow’s drinking, but those are balanced out by Maria’s endless help and the Cotta-Arc family giving them sanctuary. RWBY is suddenly trying to push a YA-esque ‘kids know best’ viewpoint without doing any of the work to justify that. As an adult watching this show, that scene didn’t make me go

like I think it was supposed to. It just reinforced that they are, in fact, kids. Literally. Only kids look at adults and go, “We don’t need you! We’d be just fine on our own!” I mean yeah, as semi-trained huntsmen they’d probably survive, but that’s not what Ruby is saying. She’s taking her frustration with Qrow’s individual problem and twisting that into a failing of everyone who’s not her age... while standing next to the adult who saved her life and finally explained silver eyes, while her hosts finish making her dinner, in the house they’ll all be sleeping in tonight, while prepping a mission that hinges on getting to Ironwood. Sure, Ruby. Your way doesn’t rely on adults at all. 

God I hope this view was just a one-time thing that I can forget ever happened. If Ruby’s leadership gets tied up in a kids vs. adults mentality the rest of this volume is going to be very uncomfortable to watch. Maria’s,“Looks like you didn’t give her enough credit either!” is great, just not in this particular context. A lot like Oscar’s kindness and JNR’s determination to “try.” This episode was filled with things I wanted to see, but then they all got twisted in ways I never expected—and largely don’t like.

Oh well. I’m gonna hang onto Oscar’s BAMF new nutcracker outfit and that glorious image of the gang prepping to dog-pile on him.

Until next week!

Other Details of Note

I’ll admit, I did like the apparent threat behind Tyrian’s goodbye while he had his tail poised over Mercury’s face. He’s good at messing with people.

Nora’s gasp when she sees Pyrrha’s statue : (

But she still got Jaune a drink! :D

I’m wondering now why Pyrrha chose Beacon over Haven…

Terra freaking out about the neighbors was pretty hilarious.

Interesting that Ruby says, “We got this far without Oz.” Normally I’d be thrilled to see her treating him as a peer with a nickname, but considering that the rest of the speech is about how they don’t need adults, it feels more like a dig. He was still “Professor” after Jinn’s vision. Now that she’s decided he’s useless? No more respectful titles.

[uprootedandrelentless]

2020 Review  - Miraya

2020 was a year we’ll always remember. At first glance it’s the year of COVID-19, a global pandemic, Trump, BLM, shelter in place, businesses closing and so much loss and sickness. Future textbooks will need many pages to cover the history of this year. Zoomed in (get it?!) at the smaller scale of my little bubble it has also been a year of lots of virtual experiences, career change, working from home, and sweatpants. Obviously there were so much bigger and more monumental issues than my own but for the sake of this year in review I’m just zooming in on my day to day life. There is so much out of our control, that this year was a reminder to be grateful for our relationships. Despite the craziness of the year, there were many joyful and happy moments that I want to remember of 2020, so I’ll focus on those. 

It’s hard to think about this year pre-Pandemic/pre-March, but I am grateful that I squeezed in so much in the beginning of the year. In the first few months before lockdown, I luckily got to see so many friends and travel to all my favorite cities (London, New York and Palm Springs). Matt and I rang in the New Year in London, so we started 2020 there! I celebrated Claire’s Bachelorette party with 20 of her friends in Los Angeles, went to New York for my first Dessert Goals corporate event on Valentine’s Day, spoke at Alt Summit conference, and planned Clarissa’s bachelorette in Palm Springs. These trips feel like distant memories besides scrolling through photos on my phone. I can’t wait until we can travel again.

Since March my days have been much less glamorous, but there have still been moments I’ll treasure. Matt and I love watching movies, playing games and eating and luckily got to do a lot of these from the safety of our home. Some favorite moments of the year:

Snuggling on the couch with Matt and Rocky, watching movies and eating popcorn with Trader Joe’s ghee spray and truffle salt

Working out while playing Just Dance with Matt, our favorite song is “What Does The Fox Say”

Lots of cooking - using our air fryer, crockpot and Matt becoming a mixologist and creating a 50+ page Google Doc cocktail book

Every time we leave a grocery store with a giant cart full of food and I say “we will not starve”

Supporting small business with fun experiences at home, like Pop Up Mag in a Box and Mama’s Date Night Kit 

Playing Pandemic Legacy co-op game season 1 and 2

Celebrating my 30th birthday at Claire’s house and learning a choreographed dance of Aaron Carter’s I Want Candy with Claire, Evan, Matt

Creative socially distanced activities like picnics with my parents and friends, playing croquet with Matt’s family, renting out a nail salon for Claire’s birthday 

Virtual events like Six Degrees Society, monthly Pizza Party mastermind group, Dreamers & Doers, The Assembly entrepreneur group, my 30th Birthday with friends and family across the country 

Solo workouts and dancing on my rooftop in the middle of the day

Home improvements like painting our bookshelf blue, getting a new coffee table and buffet table 

Sleeping With Other People 5 year anniversary watch party with Rom Com Fest and IFC Zoom with Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis 

Seeing Instagram Story photos of people across the country receiving Dessert of the Month boxes

Spending a week in Los Angeles in an Airbnb with a pool and hottub and going to our favorite restaurants while working from a different desk than our usual at home

Finding our wedding venue and booking a date for March 2022

Sadly the year has also included many not so great moments:

Closing of Eco Goods, my parent’s shop of over 20 years

Closing of The Assembly, my co-working space and slice of heaven in SF

Clearing out my LA storage unit of all my event supplies, many of which I just purchased in November for Dessert Goals and have sat unused since then

Getting Covid in May - luckily it was mild I just had a high fever and was achy and sick for a few days then quarantined for 10 days

Having to let my employee go because I couldn’t keep paying her

Having to cancel all of my festivals

Moments of feeling totally defeated and lost and not sure how to keep my business going

Shock at the country and that there are so many stupid and selfish people

In my little world, the hardest part about this year for me has been my struggle with my identity as an event planner when I can’t plan events. I’ve always felt such an association of what I do with who I am and when I suddenly am forced to stop doing what I love, with no end in sight, it’s been really tough, both for my identity and my business. I had my year all mapped out, three festivals, sponsors, and first I just postponed my events, and now they are cancelled until the foreseeable future. I tried some virtual events, launched a Dessert of the Month club, but nothing was enough. Dessert Goals and Rom Com Fest are so much about the IRL experience and I couldn’t figure out how to translate that at home. 

With a wonderful stroke of luck I was connected with someone in August looking for help with his event hosting software platform, Mixily, and he brought me on to do customer success and marketing. It’s the first “real job” I’ve had since 2014, and first time I’ve worked at a software startup. It’s been like MBA training, sink or swim. We have a small team all across the world and it’s been exciting getting to Slack and Zoom with others all working on the same project together. I’ve transformed a corner of our bedroom into an office (with a desk from The Assembly), bought a laptop stand, keyboard and mouse, and it’s the most official work setup I’ve had in years. Considering this crazy year and not being able to plan events, I am so  grateful I got this opportunity to keep working and flexing my muscles in a new industry. I’ve joined many new communities to connect with others in the software world, such as Indie Hackers, and have learned a lot of new perspectives about startups, that sometimes you’ll work on something for years and then have to call it quits. With Dessert Goals and Rom Com Fest I hope it’s not quits forever, but I’m coming to accept that they can be on the back burner for now. 

This year I turned 30. The biggest milestone the year has had in my mind is the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, which I never made it on. Obviously it would have been great, and I can’t say I’m not bummed that I didn’t, but I do know it’s not everything. Besides that, and wishing I could have a big party for my birthday which wasn’t totally possible, 30 hasn’t felt dramatically different yet. I know that I compare myself to others more than it is healthy, it’s hard to prevent it, especially when scrolling through Instagram. I hear from others as you get into your 30s you feel more confident in your skin, I hope this clicks for me and I quit the comparison game soon. I’ve started paying attention to my phone’s screen time and it’s pretty scary how many hours of each day I spend  on Instagram. I’m juggling accounts for my personal, Rom Com Fest, Dessert Goals and Mixily, so it’s a lot. A mix of research, posting, and inspiration, but it’s not a good use of time. Over the holidays I logged out of all my accounts, so if I wanted to check I had to go through the extra step of logging in, and it’s decreasing my scroll time drastically. I know Instagram is not a good use of time and adds to my comparison feelings, so it is something I want to decrease next year.

One of the new communities I joined because of Mixily, Reality Bites, asked me what three things I want more and less of in 2021. Here they are, plus a few more. 

More: travel, exercise, picnics, walks with friends, outdoor time

Less: stress, snacking, guilt, Instagram, comparing myself to others, sweatpants 

Last year I included lists of my favorite books, movies and TV shows of the year and want to keep the tradition. I’ve been tracking books in Goodreads, movies in Letterboxd, and TV shows in Notes. Here are my top picks of the year. 

Books

Last year I read 27 books and set a goal for 30 books this year. I ended up reading 32! My top 5:

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner  

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Not Like The Movies by by Kerry Winfrey

Body Love Every Day: Choose Your Life-Changing 21-Day Path to Food Freedom by Kelly LeVeque

The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick 

Movies

Matt and I watched A LOT of movies this year! Many older movies, including many from 1999 and a ton of Tom Hanks. Matt always creates his top 10 movie list of new release films. Here’s my top 2020 movies in alphabetical order: 

An American Pickle

Bad Education

How to Build A Girl

On The Rocks

Palm Springs

Save Yourselves!

Soul

The Half Of It

The One and Only Ivan

To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

TV

In between movie watching, and while multitasking, I was able to watch quite a lot of TV shows this year, some with Matt and some on my own. Matt and I watched all the seasons of Veronica Mars which started a marathon of all other Rob Thomas (the creator of Veronica Mars) shows including Party Down and iZombie. Of new 2020 shows, here are some of my favorites, in alphabetical order: 

Dash & Lily

Dead To Me season 2

Emily in Paris

Love Life

Never Have I Ever

PEN15 season 2

Queen’s Gambit

The Bold Type season 4

The Home Edit

The Morning Show

Trinkets

At the end of my post last year I wrote of all the things I was looking forward to next year including 4 weddings and 3 festivals, all of which were cancelled. 2020 felt so planned out and yet everything was changed. I have no idea what next year will bring. It could feel exactly the same as this year, working from home and wearing a mask all year. Or we could be able to host events by summer. Every virtual event I’ve attended about the future of events seems like a similar level of uncertainty. It feels impossible to set goals or make plans for 2021. We just have to roll with the punches, be kind to one another, stay safe, wear our masks and ride this out.  

Here’s to a brighter and safer 2021!

-Miraya

[aod4909]

One through thirty (if you can) for the "Hi, I'm not from the US" ask set :D ♥

Wow let me make some tea first*makes tea and sips it dramatically*here we go!damn, this took a while to write… mostly because I spent 2hours laughing at anecdotes but…

I HOPE YOU ARE PREPARED!

1. favourite place in your country? I’m honestly incapable of picking.

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad? HOLIDAYS ARE TO BE SPEND WITH FAMILY, GO TO CHURCH AND EAT YOU LITTLE SHIT! xD But what about summe-ORTHODOX CHURCH HAS THAT COVERED TOO

3. does your country have access to sea?

4. favourite dish specific for your country? most would go with souvlaki and gyros but I’ll go with most things they serve in fish taverns x)

5. favourite song in your native language? I don’t listen to Greek music like at all :| a shame really cause we have a lot of amazing musicians. I’ll go with Κάγκελα Παντού  by Πανούσης (who passed recently, may he raise hell wherever he is ♥) It’s that one song that most people know. Back on September at art exams we were hanging in the cafeteria and my friend started singing it and the entire place joined him x) or those who were over 25 and their parents’ was listening to it cause it’s old af…

6. most hated song in your native language? the majority of them? XDDDD Idk I really fucking hate everything that’s popular here… then again I pretty much hate what’s popular everywhere but whatever x)

7. three words from your native language that you like the most? ντιβανοκασέλα ειμαρμένη ταλανίζω and all the new words we keep making every day like my own word for coat racks “καμπαρντινοκαπελιέρα”

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom? Idk what image you get when you think greek people but let me tell you we are diverse af… Like my friend is dark skinned with black hair, deep brown eyes and busy eyebrows (prob what you would imagine) but I’m white as milk with brown hair that turns reddish/yellowish in the sun and brown eyes, my grandma has blue\purple eyes (fuck my DNA) my cousin has green eyes and light brown hair (fuck my DNA στο τετράγωνο), my other friend is a redhead… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What I usually hear from my people is that they were told that they don’t look “Greek enough”

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best? I’ve been to Bulgaria so far and I’d like to visit Constantinople some day. What? It’s called Istanbul these days? No, in Greece it.is.not.

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language? You’ve heard about how spanish is amazing for swearing? Greek is too! (για να λέμε την αλήθεια σα το ελληνικό το μπινελίκι άλλο τίποτα, καθαρίζ’ η ψυχή ‘ς) And we swear a motherfucking lot… and we have great imagination too

11. favourite native writer/poet? I still feel school is too fresh and I kinda “hate” everything we studied and it’s a freaking shame… I’ll pick Ευγένιος Τριβιζάς who writes children’s books because I can still read them and enjoy them! And he made my childhood better!

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem? I kinda believe that poetry can’t be translated…Like when I read Poe in greek it sounds silly to me even though the translation is pretty good… the words don’t have the same meaning, you know…But that could be just me… I mean I’m learning Polish so I can one day read the witcher books properly xD

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

We celebrate name days! birthdays too but name day is more important cause the church said so. (and if your parents dared give you a name that is not a name God himself would give you, and most importantly if it isn’t the name of your grandma or grandpa (even if they already have three grandchildren named after them) bitch think again we are gonna call you Maria now! or Eleni/Yannis/Giorgos.

If someone says something like “tomorrow your parents are gonna die what will you do?” you hit the wood to avoid jinx (often the person who says it hits the wood as they say it…)

Friday the 13th is a normal day to us! It’s Tuesday the 13th that is unlucky (cause that’s when Constantinople fell)

If in a conversation two people say the same word at the same time you gotta say “touch red” and you have to touch something red… idk why….

Talismans! to protect you from the evil eye, or bring good luck. They are usually a small eye shaped thing or crosses but it can be anything that has been blessed :P I know mothers who got pens from the church that were blessed so their kid would pass the exams T________T

Now if you do get the evil eye (like if someone was looking at you and talked/thought a lot about you (good or bad) and you get a headache you pretty much call your grandma for “ξεμάτιασμα”. It’s a ritual of shorts that you put water in a small cup and cross it repeatedly while you say a prayer and put drops of olive oil in it. And the oil will either stay in drops or dissolve in the water… the person who does the whole thing starts yawning during it and they then get the headache the other person had. My uncle calls my grandma EVERY.SIGNLE.DAY. Oh and you have to learn that prayer on a specific day. Only women can learn it and they have to write it down and give it to a man to give it to the woman that wants to learn it or some shit?!?!?!?

also grandmas tend to cross you and spit (they don’t actually spit they pretend …some do spit actually) on you so nothing bad will happen to you

We also tend to spit ourselves if someone speaks of misfortune…

Did you sneeze? Someone is talking about you :^) Ask someone to tell you 3 numbers put them together and count the alphabet. The letter is the first of the name of the person who’s talking about you.

Did someone come to your house and you want him gone? No problem get some salt and sprinkle it behind them!

Is that a priest? Kiss his hand! But wait! Is he on the street?? Σκόρδα! (garlic)

Actually, say σκόρδα!! whenever something bad is said and you’re good

Are your palms itchy? Great!!! You’ll get money!

Is your nose itchy? You’ll get beaten…

Is it christmas or easter? You gotta call ALL your relatives! yes and that ninth cousin you haven’t seen since you were 5. Btw Easter is the most important holiday of the year and we celebrate it on a different day than the rest of the world cause fuck you we know better XD (idk what the actual reason is I’m not religious) oh and there’s a 40day fast before the easter binge!

There are SO MANY superstitions and traditions in this country it should be illegal!!! And everywhere you go they have more and more and more and jesus fucking christ Y____Y in villages they tend to get annoying pretty fast.

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV? I don’t watch tv or movies, but I know of two pretty good comedies atm.There used to be so many amazing shows that I will keep rewatching till I die!S1ngles gotta be my fave ♥ and it’s been 10 years since it ended ;__;

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?that will be 90% of them? But here are some not so funny? I found…

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

I’ve heard that we are lazy.

Well let me tell you that my grandfather started working when he was 7years old. He was working every day, weekends too! All day and on holidays! And I’m talking hard work here, building houses. He also got mostly deaf from an accident at work and the bones on his right hand started to… idk what it is but it’s from too much work and he needs painkillers (He was never paid extra for that btw) Now he “retired” the government gives him enough money to pay bills, taxes and live for 15 days… he is 82 years old and he still works with no insurance now of course, so he can pay doctors and get through the rest of the month.My mum is a chemist. She leaves for work at 7:30 in the morning and comes back anywhere between 18:00 to 20:00 (depends how fucked up are the roads are today :^) sometimes she works on Saturdays, she is owed around 2k euros from her job and over a month in days-off and whenever she gets them they call her at home to ask her questions cause apparently nobody there knows how to do the job! Oh, she also does private math/physics/chemistry lessons to students after work so she can come home at 22:00 and then cook :^)My dad is officially unemployed (but still has to pay income taxes!!!! cause this is Greece! and shit like that make sense!) and he works with no insurance at my uncle’s store. He also often works on Saturdays.And my family is doing kinda “ok”

Then you have those fucks that sit on their chair all day long, playing Farmville and get overpaid for it, or they just steal it ;P In fact our government consist solely of such fucks!

Now guess who everyone sees and says “all greeks are like that!” I heard that we blame Germany or anyone else that isn’t us. I heard that we don’t value our money or shit.Well, there are a lot of people like that, here and everywhere. The problem is that stupid people are loud af… So you only get to hear them and their stupid opinions that they pulled out of their asses.

A small part of me was glad Trump was elected, cause now yall Americans know what it’s like :\

17. are you interested in your country’s history? yes and no? It’s been shoved down my throat so much that I need a long break before it gets interesting again… I’m mostly interested in ancient Greece.  Byzantium is the most boring shit I’ve ever had the displeasure to study and more recent history… I could be interested but boy school made it that way that whenever I hear the name Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος I want to throw up.Plus the whole thing “our ancestors made this and that and I today should get credit for” pisses me the fuck off

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?  Sometimes, my mum is from the Serres(North) and if I go there I’m from Athens! but when I’m here and something slips they look at me funny like where are you from?

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem? Our flag is ok I guess :P Our anthem is beautiful but I don’t like the tune… don’t tell anyone they’re gonna kill me, I lack patriotism tbh…at least compared to everyone here XD

20. which sport is The Sport in your country? Football I guess? In my house it’s basketball. sports and I never heard of each other…

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be? *cough* Τα γαμημένα σεμεδάκια της γιαγιάς που είναι πάνω στη τηλεόραση… και τη Βουλή. *cough*

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?Our compassion makes me proud ♥ Like with the refuges- and when I say “we” I don’t mean the government. I mean the everyday people who barely get by themselves and will still share what little they have with those in need.

And then there isthose people. The stupid, lazy, racist, egotistical etc, pieces of shit… That tend to be all those things together at the same time

One thing that is certain in this forsaken country is that the good, hard working people, the innocent and those who follow the rules and respect everyone are those who will be cheated, taken advantage of, beaten to the ground, get punished and suffer. The heartless bastards will be given a praise and a raise.

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country? We have some good wine here ;) and Ouzo and my fave Tsipouro, cause it does the job and smells amazing.

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country? Well…. everyone?? xD I’m sorry

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country? Sometimes… I love my country, I love the land itself, the people, our culture sometimes gets on my nerves… and it hurts me so unbelievably much how this it is treated… but it’s mine you know? Even if I often feel like I don’t really belong here… And even though I would love to live abroad I doubt I could… I would just miss us…και η πίτα της γιαγιάς με κούριερ δε λέει ρε

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

I don’t really watch many movies so I wouldn’t know what little they say about us… but like they usually get some shots of a club with people partying non-stop on an island and that is true… non-stop parties for tourists is how they stay alive :P

27. favourite national celebrity? Μαρία Σολωμού  I love that woman and her hair ♥ and her voice and face and personality ;-; She’s been my celebrity crush since I was a kid

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites? a lot of all of the above and no I don’t have faves, I haven’t even seen half of them.

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country? Look… if you find one place in the entire country that doesn’t have a beef with someone it’s probably in Crete and that’s because they killed them.

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?If by family you mean close relatives, no. But if you mean it the greek way… yes quite a few… but I don’t pay attentions when my grandma tells me the family news x)

THAT WAS LONG AF. AND TOOK ME HOURS but it was fun lol If you read it congratulations! If i made mistakes… fuck you I ain’t reading it again XD

[bellyofkorea]

Becoming a Local

Aside from working like crazy I’ve had some downtime to continue to explore my neighborhood. I’m starting to reap the benefits of familiarity and routine. I now know my favorite coffee shop, my favorite cheap lunch spot, the closest grocery store, and my favorite bar. 

I always loved feeling like a local. There is something deeply satisfying about walking into an establishment, being recognized and greeted differently because of it. Weirdly, I’ve found that this time around in Korea people have decided that I look Korean enough to warrant me being spoken to and greeted in Korean. This has been oddly flattering, but mostly anxiety inducing because I hate the look on peoples faces when they realize I have no idea what they’re saying. Additionally, if the person speaks English, this only opens the door for them to ask me all sorts of questions about where I’m from and, of course, how old I am. 

So becoming a “local” so to speak, in this area, has been really wonderful and helped me feel more at home in Seoul. The coffee shop has several young boys are baristas and they always giggle and shove the one guy who speaks English to wait on me. He always blushes and they all laugh more. 

But, by far and away, my favorite find has been the bar. I don’t know the name of the bar because this place is so local that everything is in Korean. A lot of places in the busier or central areas have menus in both Korean and English, or at the very least photos that I can grunt and point to. This bar is literally half a block away from my Uncles and is thus located on a residential street. Almost everyone in there live locally, because I doubt anyone would find this bar otherwise. 

It is small, with a wooden wrap around bar with about 12 stools. There are two tables in the “front” but otherwise it’s all about the bar area. The bar is self-service - meaning that when you walk in and find a spot to sit, you then get back up and walk over to the two tallboy refrigerators at the front and select your beer. The bartender then pulls down a clean glass and a bottle open for you. 

There is also a menu with korean bar food. My first few times at the bar I was too intimidated to try and order anything because the menu is entirely in Korean, no pictures :(. However, I did eventually get to try some of the menu because I figured out that the bartender speaks perfect English and she is also always there - but that’ll be explained in a moment. 

The bar also has bobble heads on display on all 3 exposed walls. There are a lot of them and they are vary in category - some Star Wars, some cartoons, some old school, etc. etc. This strange addition has given this bar a level of local quirkiness that charmed the shit out of me. 

On my second visit there I went on a Saturday night. It was after my first real shift at Flower Child and my brain was buzzing with recipe ideas that I needed to write down and flesh out. I also think that I have a somewhat bad association with the end of a shift at a kitchen and badly wanting a nice cold one to ease the adrenaline or caffeine (or both) that I am amped up on. 

I settled in and nursed a beer while writing. There were several other solo diners - mostly older men drinking heavily. There was one guy who had 13 empty beers lined up in front of him and he was working on his 14th while staring blankly into space. Koreans are funny about drinking - they’re either very chaste (my relatives don’t drink at all and if they do, it’s in very small amounts) or they’re wildly out of control (like these men at the bar). 

One of the men kept glancing at me. Eventually he blurted out, “ARE YOU A TEACHER?” and the whole bar went silent and looked at me. I awkwardly laughed and said no. Everyone went back to their conversations, but with continual glances over at me. The man though was not sated with this answer and started digging. He was excited to speak English with me he said. He lived in Hawaii for 10 years. Wasn’t his English impressive? How old am I? Where am I from? Do I have a boyfriend? 

As most women have learned from any experience of being female and alone at a bar - I employed various tactics to show that I was either 1, busy and extremely focused on something 2, texting someone, or 3, blatantly not interested in talking. I don’t think he was interested in me or thought he had any remote chance of getting my full attention, but I think he was drunk, lonely, and was having fun provoking me. He would not stop, even when I told him I was trying to work on some things and that I couldn’t really talk. Eventually I gave up and left. The bartender gave me a sad smile and told me I should come back when it wasn’t so busy - a hint/nod to her awareness of why I was leaving. 

The next time I went the bartender greeted me enthusiastically. There was no one else in the bar - I had lucked out. I plopped down my bag and asked her to pick anything on the menu for me to try. I told her I was hungry and that I had been dying to try some of the menu but that I couldn’t read anything on it. She got very excited, although she acknowledged that she had overheard me mention that I was a chef and she was worried I would judge the food. I assured her that I’m not going to judge. 

She sent me pork intestines sautéed with cabbage, onions, garlic, and korean spices and chili paste. It was amazingly simple and delicious. My mouth is watering just remembering it. While I ate we talked.

She told me that she never went anywhere to study English, that she just learned it in school. Her accent has a slight britishness to it, but otherwise it’s flawless. I told her as much and she blushed and fanned herself. She explained that she hasn’t spoken english in such a long time - that I’m the first foreign to walk into this bar. I was so surprised and yet delighted that I had truly stumbled into local territory. We talked at length - the way two people do who see the potential for a friendship emerging. She told me her Korean name but then gave me her english name - surprisingly the exact same name as the chef of Flower Child, Jamie. Although I wanted to use her Korean name, she insisted that I used her english name. 

My fourth time going to the bar, there were a couple people at the bar, but otherwise quite. Jamie gave me another surprise item off the menu - this time chicken dumplings with an extremely spicy cole slaw. She also gave me, on the house, some fried chicken gizzards and a taste from a local brewery. We shared the drink and talked about the past couple days. Then, to both our dismay, the man from the night before stumbled in. 

He yelled my name. He remembered every detail he had managed to get out of my from the other night. Jamie whispered “I’m sorry” before turning her attention to some other customers. 

The man stared at me while taking shot after shot of soju. I ignored his stares and continued to talk to Jamie whenever she had a free moment. The subject turned to North Korea and several people tuned in for this convo. 

Heres the thing - I’ve been very blunt about asking about North Korea with anyone. I want to know what the atmosphere is like and I’m assessing how worried I should be depending on how the locals feel. 

My aunt, who was born and raised here has the mentality of bewildered apathy. She said she grew up with this looming monster of North Korean threats and that these recent ones are no different. I asked if she thinks theres any solution and she said no - thats why they’re still at a stalemate and that’s why nothing is going to happen this time around or any time in the future. 

Jamie, the chef, and Inhee both had the same sentiments. They also feel like this is just the same posturing that has been happening for a long time. However, they do feel like it’s taken on a sinister turn only because of the US president, Donald Trump. Inhee said she’s mostly worried because she thinks Trump is more of a wild lunatic than North Korea. Jamie, the chef, pointed out to me that while people seem to think this is all old news, that is seems like people are scared. She has noticed a dramatic drop in customers to the restaurants. Additionally, it seems that across the board restaurants have been suffering. The theory is that those with enough money to be eating at fancy restaurants also have enough money to leave the country for an extended amount of time. Additionally, tourism is extremely down. There are definitely still tourists like me around, but it’s significantly less than normal. 

At the bar, everyone seemed to express the same sentiments. They’re worried - but what can they do? Everyone said they hated Trump and worried about what he would do more than what North Korea will do. However, the drunk man announced “I like Trump!’ He then proceeded to slur together an explanation that made little sense. He said that as a man he understood Trump. He also said that because of his military training in Korea, he has a military mind so he understands Trump and thinks that it makes sense the escalations that Trump is making. This man, obviously drunk, was a stand alone on this stance and has been the first person I’ve met that supports Trump. 

I left soon after that. The man bought himself another bottle of soju and went out for a cigarette. I asked Jamie if he was there often and she sadly said yes. She said he’s like that with everyone - but that she didn’t know he spoke english and that he was probably giving me more attention because he was excited to be showing off. I asked when he wasn’t there and she said the best times were earlier in the day - so I told her I’d see her next time sometime earlier in the day. We laughed and I went out. 

In a week, Chris gets to Korea and the two of us are going to move to an Airbnb apartment located in a different neighborhood. I’m excited to get to learn a new neighborhood, especially because the one we’re headed to is more central in the city of Seoul with a lot more going on. However, I’m going to miss this area. It feels kind of suburban, despite being very urban. It’s been a great introduction to living in a foreign city and I feel very at home here now. Ultimately though, I’m excited to get the chance to do that same thing else where and find the local haunts in a new area of the city. 

[lumos-star684]

All of them. Just to be a pain

Can’t believe I’m about to answer these but its either this or a marketing assignment so here goes…

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

more cereal

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

Yes! 

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

blank revision cards and raffle tickets

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

white with sugar

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

yes

6: do you keep plants?

non but i would like to (in fact, I’m going to buy one next week)

7: do you name your plants?

nope

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

none im not very creative :(

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

yep

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

side or stomach usually

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

hmmm can’t think of this (wait you should know this any idea?)

12: what’s your favorite planet?

Pluto

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

my little niece started talking to me about flying pigs

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

like the friends apartment with loads of little quirky shit

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

Venus is the only planet that spins backwards relative to the other planets.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

good ole simple pasta with tomato sauce and cheese

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

dark purple 

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

i have no stories omg 

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

non

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

don’t have one in particular, depends on the person really 

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

there was my little karrimor rucksack that i had all throughout (most of ) secondary school and it broke on the day before the last day of Year 11 but still holds a special place in my heart

22: are you a morning person?

nooooooooo (unless its morning where you’ve been up all night)

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

make tea and watch tv

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

nope (i don’t have a lot of secrets though??)

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

a hotel kitchen (by accident i should add)

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

at the moment, my black boots

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

mint?? idek

28: sunrise or sunset?

sunset

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

there’s this one little shit that always sends me asks on tumblr

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

yes

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about sock

socks, my friend, are a fucking brilliant invention. i have a bit of love-hate relationship with socks because i feel like they confine your feet (i mean why would you want to lock your feet into little pockets of cloth?) but on the other hand THEY’RE SO CUTE. little socks with funky patterns and little animals and the super soft house socks as well. having said that, all my socks are black with either pink purple or blue on the foot and heel parts. SO, my favourite thing to do is always wear mismatched socks - but nobody can tell because the main part of the sock is black. It’s like a little secret I can wear all day knowing that my socks are not the same even though it looks like they are.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

we’d just left a club in prague and headed over to burger king. we sat down and then out of nowhere in the middle of prague this group of gujarati kids came and sat down next to us. I had a conversation with them and forgot that the other girls hadn’t the foggiest idea what the fuck we were talking about. we were leaving and then one of them asked me to marry him……

33: what’s your fave pastry?

er…something with chocolate? or apples

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

there was this little black dog that used to be my sister’s, i can’t remember what i used to call him but I’ve still got him somewhere

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

I absolutely love them but can never bring myself to use them (I eventually did and my Latin notes are so fucking pretty)

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Bahamas

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

messy but organised messy

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

when people walk slowly in the middle of the street and when people think they’re better than you

39: what color do you wear the most?

black

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

i have a little harry potter necklace i got for my 16th which i wear almost every day

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

me before you

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

don’t like coffee shops much

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

nobody

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

last sunday

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

no lol they’re shit

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

all puns are good puns

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

ermm dunnoo

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

can’t remember exactly what my biggest fear was, but it’s not the same as today (although probably quite similar)

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

nope don’t own any

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

empty glue sticks

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

you - la vie en rose

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

LOOL some of the trump and theresa may ones have been pretty good

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

no but they’re all on my list to watch

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

probably a stranger on the train

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

moved out 

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

people tagging in posts and memes

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

currently ill in bed so i didn’t even move -_-

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

keef is the wine mom and i reckon you will be the vodka aunt :)

59: what’s your favorite myth?

there was this one where zeus was cheating on hera and when he got caught he turned the woman into a cow

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

yes! usually just snippets i read on the internet though

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

given is what we gave keef and received…i don’t think ive ever received a stupid gift?

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

sometimes yes, either the innocent strawberry and banana smoothie or the orange and passionfruit tropicana

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

music yes, it all has to be in particular playlists and books no, they’re just stacked randomly

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

bright blueee

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

you :( and a couple of people from school actually

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

tiny little black red and purple flowers

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

a bit eh actually, but also nice if i’m inside and in bed

68: what’s winter like where you live?

not great, just a bit grim and rainy and no snow

69: what are your favorite board games?

monopolyyyy

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

nope

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

breakfast tea

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

1000000% yes

73: what are some of your worst habits?

picking at the skin around my fingers and overthinking (the standard tbh)

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

newcastle born and bred sarcastic little shit who can be a bit annoying but also has a heart of gold

75: tell us about your pets!

MY LITTLE BABYYYYY Goghi is my cat - black with little white paws, a white stripe down her front and a white moustache. Softest fucking fur EVER. She has one funny eye, hates people and sleeps all day. I also have about twenty fish in the pond and two little ones in a tank inside. Varying sizes and no names

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

a marketing assignment, the laundry and cleaning my room 

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

noooo idea..

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

fanclub. they’re one in a minion those things

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

little things like when people come and see me i cant think of a particular example

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

beige and nope we just painted the whole house that colour

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

*can’t remember what anyone’s eyes look like*

82: are/were you good in school?

yeah i was a pretty good student

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

the airborne toxic event and green day’s american idiot

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

yesss but not sure yet!

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

nope

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

i have never heard of concept albums (upon googling it appears i do like some of them, yes)

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

3 idiots, dead poets society and kuch kuch hota hai amongst others

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

non

89: are you close to your parents?

eh

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

Londonnn - its just….everything (but also expensive)

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina  and hopefully a couple of other city breaks

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

drowns

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

hair down if its straight or pony tail if its curly

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

my little cousin’s birthday was yesterday

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

stay in be all weekend drink tea and eat soup

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

procrastinate, all the time

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

INTJ/INTP, gemini and ravenclaw

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

ncs? loved it but also hated it because i don’t like climbing

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

Current favourites: Sometime Around Midnight, Vampire Smile and Wasn’t Expecting That

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

Future - five years ago i was there and twas a bit shite

oh my god you don’t know how long those took me YOU BETTER READ THEM ALL @findinganiqa XXX

[republicstandard]

The Standard Conversation: YouTuber 'The Iconoclast'

The Iconoclast is a content creator and now hard copy magazine publisher from the north of England. His growth since beginning his channel a year ago has been nothing short of meteoric, having just passed 60,000 subscribers. His videos make insightful commentary on politics, demographics, Islam and Western culture.

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RS: What led you to start your YouTube Channel?

My friend and I, both avid viewers of other YouTube channels at the time, would sit in the pub and rant about politics every day. We'd talk about the latest content creator we'd discovered and recommend channels to each other. One day my friend told me I should start a channel of my own, considering I have a background in video production and an endless supply of obnoxious opinions on the world. I kept making excuses not to do it though as I was still pursuing various things in my “real life”, and I knew starting a channel of that nature could jeopardize those ambitions. Well, to make a long story short, those other plans fell flat on their arse, and suddenly I had nothing to lose. I started making videos slowly and enjoyed the feeling of finally being able to get so much off my chest, as there was nobody in my life (other than my mate) who aligned with me politically, and I always felt as though I needed to keep my head down and mouth shut for fear of social exclusion. Soon enough, an audience began to grow, and here we are.

RS: What's the purpose of 'The Iconoclast' as a name? Why not go public?

I knew I'd be discussing controversial topics on my channel, so I felt having an internet moniker was the safest way to go. Also, just from a production standpoint, having my face on screen wouldn't really add anything to the content. I know a lot of people enjoy getting to know the personalities behind the YouTube channel, and there will be a day where I appear as myself, but I didn't want to make my channel about me. Plus, The Iconoclast is just a cool name in general.

RS: White genocide is real. How do you see the next 30 years or so playing out? Is there a way back for The West?

Despite the depressing nature of the topics I cover in my videos, deep down I am an optimist. Hard to believe, but it's true. Sometimes my optimism gets severely tested (most days) but I truly think the European people have the will to survive. I don't think this survival process is going to be pretty though- I think we're in for some really rough times, but that was always going to be the case when you have a political class who routinely ignore and talk down to the people they're supposed to represent. Eventually, the populations of Europe will have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, and in some respects, they're already starting to do so. The dramatic rise of populist movements across the continent, as well as street protest groups, signals a Europe-wide mentality shift. If our leaders don't take this seriously, they will be replaced.

RS: Your channel has exploded in popularity. Any ideas why that is?

Authenticity. I think people can see that I'm just a normal person trying to make sense of what's going on and they identify with that. I don't try to put on a performance with my videos, I just present the information and give my opinion. Pretty simple. Of course, I try to keep my production standards high, which is part of the reason why I'm not an every day uploader, but I believe in quality over quantity. I'll never make a video where I talk down to my audience, and I'll freely admit when I'm unsure on something. Some YouTubers go out of their way to let you know how many books they're currently reading, or which online course they're taking in an attempt to paint themselves as some sort of expert – I'm not interested in that. I also stay away from YouTube “drama”, and I know my audience appreciates it.

Or subscribe to me instead. https://t.co/CenDlM5ARe

— The Iconoclast (@IconoclastPig) February 14, 2018

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RS: Brexit is going ahead -slowly. Do you think the British political elite are capable of delivering on their obligations?

I think they're capable but it's clear they don't want to. Like I said earlier, our political class regularly ignores the concerns of the public, and even when we had a majority of the country vote to leave the EU, they're still trying to derail the process. It's quite amazing actually, these people constantly blow hot air when they talk about “British values”, but here they are blatantly trying to reverse democracy. Not all of our politicians are bad, however, I'm a big fan of Jacob Rees-Mogg, and I hope he takes some inspiration from House Of Cards and positions himself as the new Prime Minister pretty soon. But the fact remains, the majority of our elected officials hold the British people in contempt. Brexit is up in the air right now. I think we'll end up completely crumbling and getting some bullshit half-in half-out sort of deal with the EU, which would mean we'd effectively still be inside it. But you never know, we may be pleasantly surprised (although I doubt it).

RS: Is there a peaceful way to resolve the problems (rape gangs, jihad, Islamisation) posed by large Muslim communities in the United Kingdom?

Unfortunately, I don't think so. Ten years ago, maybe. Now we've allowed things to go too far. Our immigration system is broken, our police are cowards, and our left-wing press tries desperately to cover up crimes committed by certain demographics. After every terror attack the narrative is “Don't be Islamophobic!”, after every new rape gang that's discovered it's “White people rape girls too!”, instead of tackling the problem of jihad we should really be concerned with “far-right terrorism” etc. To be honest I'm shocked things haven't kicked off already! After the Rotherham scandal was made public, I thought for sure people were going to lose their cool. Maybe it's the typical British attitude of rolling with the punches, or that stupid slogan “Keep calm and carry on”, but there's only so much people can take. If the government are really so concerned about revenge attacks against UK Muslims, they need to sort out the core problems associated with it - end Islamic immigration, deport those who don't have legal rights to be here, end foreign funding of mosques, and police Muslim neighbourhoods properly. But like I said, as of now things are looking grim. Purely from a demographics standpoint, many cities across the UK will be majority Muslim in the near future. Most of the school kids in Birmingham are Islamic. Even my small town in the north is starting to experience Muslim immigration. My local city recently had a rape gang scandal hit the news. Things are bad. Of course we'd all like to avoid blood running through the streets, but the way successive British governments have continuously brushed this problem under the rug, a boiling point is simply unavoidable.

RS: America is seeing a growth of motivated and often violent leftist groups in response to Donald Trump. Have you noticed anything similar in the UK post-Brexit vote?

They exist but they're nowhere near the level of ANTIFA in the US. Our leftists spend more time crying on the floor than punching people. Although recently we had a small group of them crash a Jacob Rees-Mogg speaking event at a university, but the only thing that happened there was a bit of shoving and pushing. If you're asking me whether the potential is there for these groups to grow and get violent, I'd say definitely, but as of now, they're relatively tame.

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RS: You've made the decision to publish a magazine to accompany your YouTube Channel- what led to that?

To put it simply, The Iconoclast magazine is a platform for regular people to express themselves politically. It's an open-submission format where I encourage people to come out of their shell and talk about what's on their mind. I don't agree with all the opinions I decide to publish, but I think that's important. There were a few reasons why I started it.

As amazing as the internet is, I've always sort of resented it for damaging physical media. One of my favorite things to do when I was younger was to spend my Friday nights at the video rental store picking a selection of films to watch, then I'd go next door to order a pizza, and my night was all set. I know these days you can fire up Netflix at the touch of a button, but to me, that only means you can discard media just as quickly as you can acquire it. Back in the day you had to commit to your choices because you had to invest so much more time and effort. I wanted to bring a sense of that back. Having something “real” you can hold in your hands creates a sense of legitimacy. I also didn't want to get trapped in a small little corner of YouTube, because in the grand scheme of things it's actually not that influential. There are so many people out there who are just as politically frustrated as the rest of us, but they have no connection to the YouTube sphere at all. We need to reach these people, and I've found one of the best ways to do so is by putting physical media out into the world. So The Iconoclast magazine aims to bring a wide range of political and cultural essays to people in a different format. I get a lot of messages from readers who tell me they've let older family members borrow the magazine and they now watch my content (and others) on YouTube. The writers and contributors to the mag are normal people from all over the world who desperately want to express themselves, but aren't comfortable with video production, or prefer the pure anonymity and freedom writing can provide. If a magazine like The Iconoclast was around before I started my own channel, I think I would have contributed to it myself.

Sometimes I look at other YouTubers who have 10 times my audience, and I imagine to myself “God if I had that many subscribers I'd have done this, this and this”. I don't think people are taking enough risks. YouTube provides a false sense of comfort and security for a lot of creators and they stop pushing themselves. I wanted to try new things, get into different mediums, and actually try to influence things and people in the “real world”. Whether my magazine does that effectively in the future, I'll have to wait and see, but it's a start. The enthusiasm from my audience for the first edition was off the charts, and I only hope the project continues to grow and I can build something really impressive and exciting.

RS: Best of luck with your career- keep fighting the good fight. Thanks for your time.

The next issue of Iconoclast Magazine will be released in early March and will be available to buy in physical form as well as digital. You can subscribe to The Iconoclast YouTube channel here.

Thank you for reading Republic Standard. We publish this magazine and the Freebird Forum because we believe in free speech- but it doesn't come cheap! We are currently under sustained attack on our revenue sources. Will you make a small donation towards our running costs? You can make a difference by clicking here.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine http://ift.tt/2EY4DDT via IFTTT

[blurrredwings]

I'm not sure if you wanted the ask thingie but all of them!!

AHHHH ANON WHY. 1. What is your middle name?- My middle name is Nicole !!2. How old are you?- I turned 20 in February lolz3. When is your birthday?- Feb 19 !!! 4. What is your zodiac sign?- I'm a pisces but mainly air/fire dominant. 5. What is your favorite color?- Pink !! But like a really soft pink. 6. What's your lucky number?- I don't really have a lucky number but I would say either 2 or 11. 7. Do you have any pets?- My family has a female blue-nose pit bull and a baby female calico cat !!8. Where are you from?- I'm from Rosemead, California but I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2nd grade. So I'm basically from Vegas. 9. How tall are you?- I'm 4'11. Short, I know. 10. What shoe size are you?- Usually a size 5 but sometimes a size 6 !11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?- 4 pairs of sneakers, 4 pairs of heels/bootie/wedge, 1 pair of sandals, and 1 pair of flats. 12. What was your last dream about?- I don't remember it but it was a mix of bts and my boyfriend. 13. What talents do you have?- I can pinch with my toes buuuut I think that's it ??? "Photography and you have an eye for fashion." ~ my boyfriend14. Are you psychic in any way?- Uhmmmm not really ? I just have a strong intuition when things feel like it'll go wrong or for certain situations. 15. Favorite song?- I don't have one favorite so here's too 5: All My Friends by Snakehips, Hard Times by Paramore, Stand Tall by Childish Gambino, Autumn Leaves by BTS, Photograph by offnoff16. Favorite movie?- I don't have one either so here's 5: All Harry Potter movies, One Day, Comet, Stardust, August Rush. 17. Who would be your ideal partner?- Namjoon from BTS oooooorr my boyfriend. Either or. 😁18. Do you want children?- One day !! I want 3 kids. Two my own, one adopted. But I would adopt more maybe after them. 19. Do you want a church wedding?- It doesn't really matter to me honestly. But I mainly want an outside wedding. 20. Are you religious?- Not anymore! Mainly spiritual. 21. Have you ever been to the hospital?- Yes I have! Quite a few times actually. 22. Have you ever gotten in trouble with the law?- Nope. I'm a good girl! ;P23. Have you ever met any celebrities?- I met Frankie J actually when I went to a Baby Bash concert. And thennnnn I met Go Radio I think they're name was. 24. Baths or showers?- I prefer to just shower but baths are nice. 25. What color socks are you wearing?- I'm not wearing socks right now. 26. Have you ever been famous?- Nooo????27. Would you like to be a big celebrity?- No lol. I'd want to be like slightly famous but not to where I'm bothered by people all the time. 28. What type of music do you like?- Any!! It really just depends on the song. I mainly listen to kpop, acoustic, alternative, hip hop, rap, r&b, SoundCloud type music, indie/indie pop, aaaaand that's all I can think of right now. 29. Have you been skinny dipping?- I haaaaaaaave but it was weird lol. 30. How many pillows do you sleep with?- I like sleeping with two pillows but right now I only sleep with one. 31. What position do you usually sleep in?- Fetal position mostly but I'm also comfortable sleeping on my back and hugging my pillow. 32. How big is your house?- It's an average sized house. 33. What do you typically have for breakfast?- I don't really like breakfast foods. Lol34. Have you ever fired a gun?- A paintball gun and a BB gun but that's it. 35. Have you ever tried archery?- Once! At camp and a few times in P.E.36. Favorite clean word?- Plump!!! It's so fun to say. Try it!!37. Favorite swear word?- Uhhhhhh.... I don't really have one bc I try not to cuss lol38. What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?- Maybe like 2 or 3 days?39. Do you have any scars?- I have lots because I'm very super clumsy. 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?- Not that I know of lolol41. Are you good liar?- I think I am actually! 42. Are you a good judge of character?- For the most part. 43. Can you do any accents other than your own?- I can do a Russian accent when saying vodka but that's all I can do really. 44. Do you have a strong accent?- I don't think so???45. What is your favorite accent?- Scottish, Irish, Southern, and French. 46. What is your personality type?- I'm an ENFP !!! "You're really like a soft kind of bubbly. You're like sunshine to me... I could go on." ~my boyfriend 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?- I'm not quite sure. Maybe my light pink satin bomber jacket?48. Can you curl your tongue?- I can actually !!!49. Are you an innie or an outie?- An innie lol50. Left or right handed?- I'm right handed but slightly ambidextrous. 51. Are you scared of spiders?- Only when they're within my space. Like if I see them in person. 52. Favorite food?- Steak and onion over white rice, Canes, enchiladas, and pork anyhow. 53. Favorite foreign food?- ????? I guess ramen ???? Like actual authentic ramen 54. Are you a clean or messy person?- I'm an organized messy.55. Most used phrase?- "I hate you", "You're so dumb/stupid."56. Most used word?- "Whatever" or "Same"57. How long does it take for you to get ready?- About 30 minutes !58. Do you have much of an ego?- Not really??? I'm not sure. 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?- Mainly biting. >;)60. Do you talk to yourself?- I doooo. Especially when I'm looking for something. 61. Do you sing to yourself?- I hum a lot. I only sing when I think I'm alone or someone won't hear. 62. Are you a good singer?- No. ~ me "Yes." ~ my boyfriend 63. Biggest fear?- I would say fear itself. I'm not really scared of any one thing right off the bat but when I'm in the situation I'd be scared. 64. Are you a gossip?- Sometimes. I mainly listen but I don't tell it to anyone but my close friends. 65. Best dramatic movie you've seen?- It was a Nicholas Sparks movie where her love interest died and her son got his heart as an implant. Also!!! In Your Eyes was really good and cute. 66. Do you like long or short hair?- I prefer short hair !!67. Can you name all 50 states of America?- Why would I when only the states that voted Democratic actually exist? Whoever voted for Trump? Ion know them. 68. Favorite school subject?- Art, English, Social Studies, and Science. 69. Extrovert or Introvert?- Ambivert but leans towards Introvert. 70. Have you ever been scuba diving?- I have not!!!71. What makes you nervous?- Is everything an answer? Just kidding but mainly social situations. 72. Are you scared of the dark?- I used to be, now I thrive in it. 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?- I do but not harshly. I try to be nice about it. 74. Are you ticklish?- I am but only in certain spots. Hint: it's not my tummy. 75. Have you ever started a rumor?- I haven't. I don't see the point in it. 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?- I don't think I've ever been????77. Have you ever drank underage?- All I can say is.... IT'S LIT. 78. Have you ever done drugs?- Nah I don't fw that. 79. Who was your first real crush?- I guess a boy named Jonathon in 2nd grade after I moved to Vegas. 80. How many piercings do you have?- None currently but I had my ears pierced twice. 81. Can you roll your r's?- No I caaaaaaaaaant. :(((((82. How fast can you type?- I used to be able to type fast but now I'm average. I can also text without looking at the screen. 83. How fast can you run?- Not fast bc I can never breathe. 84. What color is your hair?- Dark brown then like a golden blonde at the bottom. 85. What color are your eyes?- Dark brown but sometimes a honey or almond. 86. What are you allergic to?- Cats but I think I'm also allergic to peanuts???87. Do you keep a journal?- I do but it's not like an every day thing. It's a journal for poetry and sketches and whatnot. 88. What do your parents do?- My dad is in Cali and my mom works at a call center asking people surveys. 89. Do you like your age?- It's okay I guess ?? Nothing bad or good about it. 90. What makes you angry?- People acting dumb and playing the victim, people not changing their ways, closeminded-ness, and not taking responsibility for your actions. 91. Do you like your own name?- Only recently. 92. Have you already thought of baby names? And if so, what are they?- I haaaaaave. For a boy I like the name Elijah or Eli. For a girl, I was thinking Marie; after my mom. 93. Do you want a boy or a girl for a child?- I don't care what they are. I'll love them either way. 94. What are your strengths?- Uhhhhhh funny, kind, smart, artistic, good with words, and I have a good eye for stuff. 95. What are your weaknesses?- Doubt, impatience, and giving up too easily. 96. How did you get your name?- My mom thought that she couldn't have any more kids. I'm her "angel". 97. Were your ancestors royalty?- I don't know and I don't really care. 98. Do you have any scars?- already answered.99. Color of your bedspread?- Pink, grey, white, black. 100. Color of your room?- I don't have a room but the walls in the living room are white.

[fatimakhans12345]

Speech by Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to the German Bundestag on the German Government’s motion on continuing the participation of armed German forces in EUNAVFOR MED Operation SOPHIA

Speech by Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to the German Bundestag on the German Government’s motion on continuing the participation of armed German forces in EUNAVFOR MED Operation SOPHIA

Madam President, Fellow members of this House,

We are discussing the extension of the mandate for EUNAVFOR MED Operation SOPHIA today. In the first instance, this is of course a very concrete and specific question. But I think we must be aware in this debate that we are experiencing a period of fundamental shifts in the world; a period in which old certainties no longer apply in many ways – a period of escalating conflicts, unstable countries, increased migration flows towards Europe, but above all, migration between poor countries.

On the one hand, there is growing insecurity. On the other hand, we face the problem of no longer really knowing which countries in the world are still our partners in overcoming such challenges humanely, democratically and peacefully. Yesterday’s decision by the new US Administration under Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement naturally has the dramatic consequence, should this decision be upheld in the coming years, that there will be yet another reason for people to migrate or flee, yet another reason for war and civil war. The reason has to do with water and the few patches of agricultural land that that will remain in some regions.

That is why we not only need to address the traditional reasons for forced migration, which are bad enough, but also very long‑term developments such as climate change, which robs people of their livelihoods. That is why withdrawing from an international climate agreement also means turning one’s back on the fight against the causes of forced migration, displacement and migration. I see this as an extraordinarily bad development.

It shows that even with those we used to refer to as “the West”, we no longer have the same point of view on topics such as migration and its causes, let alone the same vocabulary.

The German Government firmly believes that in view of these shifts, Europe must step up and take on greater responsibility for its own security and for shaping international policies. That is certainly no easy task, as Europe was not founded as a global political actor, but rather with more of an internal focus. We are only learning now that we must express our ideas on cooperation and on tackling the great tasks and challenges in the world more as Europeans and not only as individual member states. More than ever, we need to take joint and decisive action in order to overcome the challenges posed by unstable countries in our neighbourhood, displacement and unmanaged migration.

At the start of the week, I hosted high-level actors from this field – UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They all said that the challenges we are experiencing as a result of refugee movements and migration are only just beginning.

They all agreed that we will sometimes need to use military means to prevent worse things from happening. But we will not resolve any conflict anywhere or foster stabilisation through military means alone. On the contrary, we only stand a chance of truly overcoming these challenges if we invest in crisis and disaster prevention and the fight against hunger and poverty and if we create opportunities.

The organisations say that 240 million people worldwide are migrants – 65 million of them are refugees. Contrary to what we in Europe and Germany may sometimes feel, 90 percent of all these flows of refugees and migrants are not in our part of the world, but rather in the global South. However, that simply means that the main burden is carried by those who are already poor and already face far more difficult circumstances.

There are also the devastating effects of human smuggling, pursued as a business model by criminal organisations and people smugglers, as well as corruption, poor governance and of course terrorism and trade in weapons and drugs. Human traffickers have no compunction about putting people’s lives in danger on the Mediterranean every day.

The main aim of EUNAVFOR MED Operation SOPHIA is to put a stop to the people smugglers’ inhumane practices. The soldiers in the operation, 100 of whom currently come from Germany, have saved over 38,700 victims of these criminals from drowning since June 2015. They have sunk 416 boats owned by smugglers and arrested 112 alleged smugglers.

I am aware that there are sometimes discussions on whether we are perhaps actually encouraging the smugglers, letting them think “Well, other people will rescue the refugees”. However, I believe that there is no alternative to such a rescue operation. It has saved the lives of almost 40,000 people. This enormous figure shows clearly that the operation is truly needed.

German units alone have inspected 202 ships to help enforce the arms embargo. So first and foremost, I would like to thank all those who rescue people from drowning in the Mediterranean.

We are grateful to the women and men of the German navy who serve on the ships. But I would also like to thank the volunteers from NGOs, the helpers on the merchant vessels and the European and Italian coastguards who are on duty every day.

I would also like to expressly thank Italian Prime Minister Gentiloni’s Government. Italy provides safe harbours for refugees and migrants. Above all, it is a sign of solidarity that Italy takes in so many people who have been rescued.

However, this gratitude should not lead us to believe that such help can be provided forever. My fellow member Müller has rightfully interjected to say that we cannot leave the Italians to cope with this alone. They are currently helping us to avoid a situation whereby many of those rescued come to Germany, as they have not been waving them through. It is time to say many thanks.

But the increase of almost 50 percent compared with last year’s figures shows that Italy is of course reaching its limits. That is why we must agree on a fair distribution system in Europe. However, I do not think we will achieve this if we do not also work better together in general on other issues in Europe.

I firmly believe that other countries such as Italy, France and Greece will only be more willing to work with us on migration issues if we - Germany and other strong European countries - foster initiatives on growth and tackling unemployment and youth unemployment in Europe and thereby help them.

Ladies and gentlemen, a policy that refuses to budge on one thing but demands action on another will fail. Other countries will only be prepared to get involved if we make progress on policies aimed at stronger growth, flexibility towards countries that undertake reforms, and help for southern and western Europe. After all, not only eastern Europe opposes the distribution of refugees – in particular, we are seeing opposition from the countries that belong to what was formerly, in inverted commas, “West Europe”, and which see Germany more as an obstacle to their economic growth and thus soundly refuse to work together on migration issues. These two things go hand in hand.

However, the people smugglers’ cynical business model is inhumane. A human life means nothing to them – all they care about is that the journey has been paid for. The smugglers use the money they make to subvert stability in Libya, as the collapse of the state in Libya has left them with a lawless area in which to operate. The operation that we are voting on here today plays a vital role in curbing the smugglers’ activities and destroying their business model. Obviously, we do not want Libya to be further destabilised.

But the operation is only part of what we are doing and what we need to do with regard to the situation in Libya. We need to look at it objectively. The security situation is unstable. The implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement brokered by the United Nations is faltering. The Presidency Council and the Libyan Government of National Accord are still not in a position to govern the entire country. When there are positive signs, as was the case recently, the process quickly comes under pressure again due to violent extremists.

In this situation, we cannot simply watch and wait, no matter how difficult it is to achieve results. We Europeans must realise that an unstable Libya at the outer borders of the Schengen area, even if we are talking about a maritime border, poses an immediate threat to us as neighbours and entails the risk of the Mediterranean increasingly becoming a gigantic cemetery.

We will only be able to stabilise Libya and end the refugee drama in the Mediterranean if we take a joint European approach. The fact that different countries are active in Libya, including countries such as Italy and France, which are perceived as former colonial powers, and others such as Germany, leads to considerable difficulties in Libya. What the country needs is a joint European approach and a joint European strategy. It does not need a policy that reflects the various countries’ national interests.

Naturally, the German Government’s long‑term goals are to work with the EU to foster stability in Libya and in the countries to the south of the EU, to support state structures, conflict resolution and better migration management in the region's countries of origin and transit countries, and to improve opportunities for people in their native countries. We share the view – I am also saying this because Gerd Müller is here – that military means are sometimes needed, but that ultimately stability is only created by all these things together. That is why what we do there together is a good investment.

Bilaterally, Germany provides support as one of the largest donors to Libya. Through the international Stabilisation Facility for Libya, which we initiated, we are carrying out concrete projects all over the country. This fund makes it possible to provide tangible help rapidly. We support endeavours to make the municipalities stronger and improve services. We foster initiatives aimed at reconciliation and mediation. The German Government also provides humanitarian aid to alleviate suffering.

The European Union has a civilian mission for Libya, EUBAM Libya, and is continuing its efforts to create a working basis for this mission from Tunis. Germany and the European Union also support the United Nations mission led by Special Representative Martin Kobler. Furthermore, the German Government is working to implement the EU migration partnerships.

But we need to make one thing clear – under the conditions currently prevailing in Libya, we cannot think about organising external reception centres for refugees in the country. Anyone who has seen pictures of these detention centres there, which are nothing but the worst type of prison, will understand why an ambassador made the rather politically incorrect comparison when he informed us by letter a few months ago that the conditions were like those in a concentration camp.

The international community must succeed in bringing these detention centres under the control of the United Nations, with adherence to UNHCR standards. If needs be, we must also be willing to provide security forces for this. There is no other way to do it. I think we agree on what we want to achieve in the mission, but also on what needs to happen in the near future in Libya, especially as regards these detention centres.

Thank you for listening.

from UK & Germany http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Reden/2017/170602-BM-BT-SOPHIA.html?nn=479796

[softk1ller-blog]

An Individual Response to Capitalism - A Love Story

I considered Capitalism: A Love Story in a cellar movie house in Midtown Manhattan, along in the base of the Trump Towers. As I left the movie and delivered to street-level, my surroundings along with the message of the movie clashed dramatically. After two hours of watching the evils of capitalism or, as Michael Moore puts it, "legal greed," I discovered myself looking up at the gleaming high rises named after the nation's richest developer, housing the 1% that live atop the chart... Many days I really don't think much about this, but today the comparison is stark. I enter the subway and find out people who participate in the bottom 1% settling down for a miserable night on wooden benches-pulling their cord shoppingcarts closer, and covering their ragged covers somewhat stronger. As an individual who works together homeless New Yorkers on the daily basis, I can place titles to people who have been compressed by capitalism and swept under its beautiful rug. I also experience daily the mad dash of the who have been swept up in the ratrace for more here in the administrative centre of the capitalist world. I am no better-I also have the widespread pull of materialism sometimes, along with the sights with this town's harmful pleasures. I am susceptible to its propaganda too. But this movie has definitely made me believe, and left me with a lot of new issues. I guess that is the whole point of it. Oneman cited within the film said that Wall Street is just a "holy place," and intended that capitalism-each individual making the maximum amount of money as he is able to-is God-provided. Additional voices in the film called capitalism "evil." Who's correct? If materialistic greed is Moore's key goal (and it obviously is, in this video), why will so many people shy away from viewing it? What are they afraid of? Is it "socialism," a concept several people inside the picture appeared nervous of? Am I a socialist if I assist the poor and discuss my plenty together with the unhappy? In my opinion, every thinking American should see this movie and chew on it. Why? Very simply, since it will prick your mind. On one level, it is basic Moore, with language-in-cheek humor, irreverence (especially toward self-important people), simple exaggeration, and the deft use of people's own words to incriminate themselves. In broad strokes, every position Moore makes is painfully accurate, as well as in this picture a lot more than in his past ones, you feel the guts of a man who has compassion for the downtrodden.

Moore's best difficulties in this video are directed at those people that state we are Christians. He needles those who claim to follow Jesus yet advocate something that's totally contrary to His example. Moore does not quote these verse from James 5 in his picture, but on leaving the movie, it found mind: Now listen, you rich people, leak and wail because of the anguish that's coming upon you. Your money has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their deterioration will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth within the last days. Look! The wages you did not spend the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of God Almighty. You have lived on the planet in luxury and selfindulgence. You have fattened yourselves within the time of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent men, have been not opposing you. So did this powerful admonition, from the same letter (James 2): What good is it, my siblings, if your man claims to get faith but doesn't have accomplishments? Can such faith save him? Assume a brother or brother is without clothes and daily food. If one among you says to him, "Get, I hope you properly; keep warm and well provided," but does nothing about his bodily desires, what good is it? In the same way, faith alone, when it is not combined with activity, is dead. Who taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and what does it mean? If we all undoubtedly followed this control, what method might we opt for ourselves and our kids? Whether or not you prefer Michael Moore, you owe it to yourself to make an effort to go see Capitalism: A Love Story. Get to know more about amarração amorosa

[buzcutt-blog]

A Personal Response to Capitalism - A Love Story

I viewed Capitalism: A Love Story in a cellar movie-house in Midtown Manhattan, down in the root of the Trump Towers. When I departed the cinema and returned to street-level, my surroundings as well as the message of the film clashed dramatically. After two hours of witnessing the evils of capitalism or, as Michael Moore puts it, "legitimate greed," I discovered myself looking up in the shining highrises named after the country's wealthiest developer, housing the 1PERCENT that live atop the pyramid... Many nights I don't believe much about it, but today the distinction is stark. I enter the subway and find out individuals who participate in the underside 1% settling down to get a miserable night on wooden benches-taking their cord shopping carts deeper, and wrapping their ragged covers somewhat tighter. As somebody who works together homeless New Yorkers on the daily basis, I will set labels to those who have been compressed by capitalism and swept under its beautiful rug. I also observe daily the mad rush of these who've been swept up within the ratrace for more within the administrative centre of the capitalist world. I'm no better-I also feel the universal draw of materialism sometimes, along with the sights of the cityis toxic pleasures. I'm susceptible to its propaganda too. But this picture has definitely made me believe, and left me having a large amount of new questions. I guess this is the whole point of it. One man cited within the video said that Wallstreet is a "holy place," and suggested that capitalism-every person making just as much money as he is able to-is God-given. Other voices in the film called capitalism "evil." Who's correct? If materialistic greed is Moore's key target (and it obviously is, in this picture), why will so many people shy from seeing it? What are they afraid of? Is it "socialism," a phrase several people inside the film felt nervous of? Am I a socialist if I help the poor and share my plenty together with the deprived? I think, every thinking American should see this movie and chew on it. Why? Very simply, because it may prick your mind. On one level, it's common Moore, with language-in-cheek humor, irreverence (particularly toward self important people), subtle exaggeration, along with the deft usage of people's own words to incriminate themselves. However in broad strokes, every place Moore makes is painfully accurate, and in this film greater than in his previous ones, you are feeling the center of a man that has sympathy for the downtrodden.

Moore's most reliable issues in this video are directed at those people that claim we are Christians. He needles individuals who claim to check out Jesus and yet recommend something that is completely despite Their case. Moore does not offer the following passage from James 5 in his film, but on leaving the movie, it came to mind: Now listen, you rich people, leak and wail because of the agony that's coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your silver and gold are corroded. Their corrosion may testify against you and eat your skin like fire. You've hoarded money within the last days. Look! The salaries you did not spend the workmen who mowed your areas are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters reach the ears of God Almighty. You've existed on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You've fattened yourselves within the time of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who have been not opposing you. So did this strong admonition, in the same page (James 2): What good is it, my siblings, if a person claims to possess faith but doesn't have deeds? Can such faith save him? Guess a brother or brother is without clothes and daily food. If one among you claims to him, "Go, I hope you properly; keep warm and well provided," but does nothing about his actual needs, what good is it? While in the same way, religion by itself, when it is not combined with motion, is dead. Who taught us to appreciate our neighbor as ourselves, and what does it mean? If we all really adopted this demand, what process would we choose for ourselves and our kids? If you prefer Michael Moore, you owe it to yourself to take some time to go see Capitalism: A Love Story. Get acquainted with more about tarologa online

[otaku-sfw-blog]

Your Own Response to Capitalism - A Love Story

I viewed Capitalism: A Love Story in a cellar movie house in Midtown Manhattan, down in the root of the Trump Towers. When I left the movie and delivered to street level, my surroundings as well as the meaning of the film clashed dramatically. After two hours of observing the evils of capitalism or, as Michael Moore puts it, "legitimate greed," I found myself searching for at the shining high rises named after the country's wealthiest developer, housing the 1% that live atop the chart... Many days I really don't believe much about this, but today the distinction is stark. I enter the train and see individuals who participate in the underside 1% settling down to get a miserable night on wooden benches-taking their wire shopping carts closer, and wrapping their ragged covers a little stronger. As someone who works with homeless New Yorkers on the daily basis, I will place names to people who have been compressed by capitalism and swept under its beautiful rug. I also watch daily the mad rush of those who have been trapped within the rat race for more here in the capital of the capitalist world. I am no better-I also feel the worldwide pull of materialism sometimes, along with the sights of the areais dangerous pleasures. I'm prone to its propaganda too. But this picture has definitely made me think, and left me having a lot of new questions. I assume that is the entire point of it. One-man quoted in the video stated that Wall Street is just a "holy place," and intended that capitalism-each individual making as much money as he is able to-is God-provided. Different voices within the film called capitalism "evil." Who is right? If materialistic greed is Moore's chief target (and it obviously is, in this film), why may a lot of people shy away from seeing it? What are they afraid of? Is it "socialism," a word many people in the film appeared frightened of? Am I a socialist easily help the poor and discuss my plenty together with the miserable? For me, every thinking American must see this movie and chew on it. Why? Very simply, because it may prick your conscience. On one level, it is basic Moore, with language-in-cheek humor, irreverence (particularly toward self important people), simple exaggeration, and the deft use of people's own words to incriminate themselves. In broad strokes, every level Moore makes is painfully true, as well as in this film a lot more than in his past versions, you are feeling the center of the person who has sympathy for the downtrodden.

Moore's most reliable difficulties in this video are inclined to those people that state we're Christians. He needles those who claim to follow Jesus yet suggest a method that's absolutely despite Their example. Moore doesn't estimate the next passage from James 5 in his video, but on leaving the movie, it found mind: Now listen, you rich people, leak and wail because of the distress that's coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have enjoyed your clothes. Your silver and gold are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your skin like fire. You have hoarded wealth within the last days. Look! The wages you didn't pay the workmen who mowed your areas are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have existed on earth in luxury and selfindulgence. You have fattened yourselves within the time of slaughter. You've ruined and murdered innocent men, have been not opposing you. Thus did this powerful admonition, in the same page (James 2): What good is it, my friends, if a guy claims to own faith but has no accomplishments? Can such trust save him? Imagine a brother or brother is without clothes and daily food. If one among you claims to him, "Go, I hope you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical desires, what good is it? Inside the same way, faith by itself, if it's not associated with motion, is dead. Who taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and exactly what does it mean? If all of US truly followed this demand, what method might we opt for ourselves and our youngsters? Whether you prefer Michael Moore, you owe it to yourself to make an effort to go see Capitalism: A Love Story. Get to know more about amarração amorosa