#the breadth of the human experience never fails to impress

[official-lucifers-child]

actually any kiss is gay if i’m involved. i don’t care who i’m kissing, it’s a gay experience and a gay kiss. because i said so. if the person i am kissing is straight, that’s cool, i don’t care. it may be a straight kiss for them, but it’s a gay kiss for me, and that’s what matters. if the person i’m kissing doesn’t like that, then they shouldn’t kiss me. simple as that.

[damsel2018hindidubbed]

Damsel 2018 Hindi Dubbed Full Movie Download Web-DL 720p

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Damsel (2018) IMBD Score: 5.6/10 Language: Hindi R | 1h 53min | Comedy, Drama, Western | 22 June 2018 (USA) Directors: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner Writers: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner Stars: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner

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The film moved to Oregon in late August 2016, and main filming began in early March 2017 with a production budget of $2.5 million. David and Nathan Zellner assembled a team of actors, directors, cinematographers, sound designers, lighting and sound engineers.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 69% approval rating based on 106 reviews. The critical consensus on the website reads: "The beautifully filmed Damsel lends a welcome dose of humour and unexpected twists to the Western genre, although its stately pace could frustrate impatient viewers. Few filmmakers have earned the adjective "oblique" more than the Zellner brothers David and Nathan, whose new western, which premiered at Sundance, Damsels, is a refreshing interpretation of a genre in which tropes remain unmolested and nothing goes as it should.

I probably should clear my head and think about what I saw, but I probably shouldn't because I need to see it.

I will be happy and possibly irritated if it turns out to be a clown show or a case of carnage, but I will still experience it.

The film's sense of humor grows blotchier and less rich as Damsel's meandering second half is forced upon us, and it ultimately fails to maintain the breezy, dysfunctional charm of the first half. Even Butterscotch gives the impression of being a contrast to the other characters inhabiting his version of the Wild West, with the exception of Pattinson. One not dissimilar to a Western curiosity like Slow West.

The film's humor is desperate at first - pointedly - and its satirical taunts are folded back into the film, but it never takes off and, overall, doesn't make for a compelling experience. Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska star in Damsel 2018, an uneven comedy drama that premieres tonight at the Berlin Film Festival. In a stupidly loose role that proves his breadth, Hebebe acknowledges his role as the title character, a man with a penchant for self-indulgence and a sense of entitlement.

At the center of the story is Samuel (Pattinson), who is in love with Penelope (Mia Wasikowska), a beautiful young woman from a remote mountain town who has been kidnapped. In an effort to find out if they can marry, Samuel enlists the help of his best friend's father (John Malkovich) to marry her if his mission is successful. But things do not go according to plan, and Samuel discovers that he may have been wrong about them, and that this may not be the happy - eternal - story he once imagined. To free her, however, he has to figure out what might be wrong with her.

The result is a surprising and prescient change that turns Damsel into a welcome feminist revisionist western. The Zellners, who write, direct and play the film, make it almost like a parody of the Western genre, focusing heavily on Samuel's love for Penelope and his relationship with her. In the end, Henry and Samuel find her and discover that she may not be the girl in need they were expecting.

Darkness and humour are never far apart, but they are equally balanced. Damsel finds his successful filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner in a revisionist western that slowly finds unexpected resonance.

The script, directed by the brothers, refuses to let the audience take genre tropes for granted and constantly turns on its head who the characters are and what they do. While unsuspecting viewers may be confused as to whether this strange film is a parody or homage, the film's Western trappings help with accessibility. One of David and Nathan Zellner's greatest strengths as sibling directors is their ability to make smart films seem like superficial larks.

The Zellners are excellent at turning absurd circumstances into pointed observations of human behavior. In Blazing Saddles, a crazy Old West setting conjures up the bizarre story of a man trying to unearth a woman who wants nothing to do with a desperate man. He is a combative, open-minded pioneer who dodges various attempts to woo her, but he is not up to it.

This may not be a total loss, but it is the biggest disappointment in cinema so far this year and offers little pleasure. But you get a cute miniature horse, so maybe it's not the work that cost to stay away from the second half.

Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska star in the film, but it's actually one of the film's directors, David Zellner, who plays Parson Henry. It was written, directed, produced and co-directed by the same man responsible for the western starring John Travolta, John Cusack and Michael Fassbender.

The Zellner Brothers and David Nathan's Buffalo - drenched, odyssey - stylized amusement is beautiful to look at, plays around with genre tropes, shows Robert Pattinson in a favorable new light and shows his favorable, if new, light. Nearly two hours of Damsel are unfilled, but the writers and directors are able to turn expectations upside down and scare the audience, even if their efforts show far too much and end terribly self-conscious in the weak second half.

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[umi-ananda]

Chapter 1 - Impressions of Anandamayi

“This incident, which I have reconstructed from the diary account of Didi Gurupriya Devi, Anandamayi's lifelong chief assistant, typifies the paradoxical status of a figure such as Anandamayi in modern Indian society. She is so unusual that there is no woman, not even an example known to us from the past, with whom she can be compared except in the vaguest of terms. We are baffled, as were the inhabitants of Bhawanipur, by her unplaceability. A strange event was visited upon the good peasants of that nondescript village—an eruption of the sacred which they would puzzle over for many years. In her speech, mode of dress and features, the lady with the airs of a holy person seemed to belong nowhere or everywhere.

Nowadays, we indiscriminately call such a charismatic figure a Guru, without being any too clear what that term means other than, perhaps, somebody with pretentious claims to spiritual wisdom. We relegate all Gurus to a dubious category of exotic, perhaps dangerous, cults. Gurus have been seriously discredited by recent scandal and tend to be treated with a degree of caustic suspicion. We recall Bhagavan Rajneesh—he of the 87 Rolls Royces—or various cult leaders whose followers committed mass suicide. We look on them as sinister and mendacious personalities who take backhanders from politicians or seduce the daughters of our friends.

Traditionalists point out that people like Sri Aurobindo, Krishnamurti, Swami Ramdas and Swami Shivananda, Mother Meera, Sai Baba, and Meher Baba are not Gurus at all but a hybrid phenomenon catering to foreigners.

Certainly, the glamorized deluxe ashrams which have sprung up in recent decades are a far cry from the modest pattern of the age-old guru-shishya relationship of master-disciple tutelage; yet this ancient system survives, for example, in the teaching of classical music and dance.

Throughout Indian history, this pattern of instruction ensured the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. In the case of Anandamayi who did not herself have a Guru, but was self-initiated, the traditional model of the teacher and the taught has, in certain respects, taken on new life, but in other equally important respects, she radically departed from tradition.

Her role as a revered Brahmin divine was by no means orthodox since this was a departure from the traditional status parameters of the married woman; further, for some 50 years as a widow and thus a member of the lowliest rank of Indian society, she was at the same time one of the most sought after of all spiritual teachers.

Yet again, she revived the old custom of the gurukul, an ancient style of schooling for both girls and boys at her ashrams. Until almost the very end of her life she could not be classed as a Guru in a technical sense; for a Guru is one who gives Diksha to disciples or initiation by mantra.

Nevertheless, in the more general and metaphorical sense of spiritual teacher, she was certainly a Guru, one of the greatest and the most respected of her time. In addition, she was indeed the Guru to many advanced sadhakas spiritual practitioners.

For them, she was everything that the Guru traditionally should be a perfect vehicle of Divine Grace. There is a section in the excerpts from the discourses of Anandamayi included here where she comments at length on the spiritual meaning of the Guru. The true Guru is never to be regarded by the disciple as merely human but as a divine being to whom he or she surrenders in total obedience.

The disciple places himself in the hands of the Guru and the Guru can do no wrong.

Moreover, from the point of view of the Guru's disciples, the Guru is the object of worship. Obviously so serious a commitment is hedged about with all manner of safeguards, for the Indian is as aware of the perils inherent in such a position of absolute authority as is any skeptical outsider—rather more so, in fact, for much experience about the dynamics of the guru-shishya bond has been amassed over the millennia of its existence.

How could such adulation, such assumption of control over another's destiny, fail to turn the heads of all upon whom this mantle of omniscience falls? Everything depends on the closely observed fact that there are a few rare individuals at any one point in time who are so devoid of ego that no such temptation could possibly be felt. Egolessness is the sine qua non of the Guru.

For an Indian, submission to tutelage by a Guru is but one among many possible routes to salvation or Self-Realisation. In the case of Anandamayi, it has become obvious, indeed widely known, that we are dealing with a level of spiritual genius of very great rant, Her manifestation is extraordinarily rich and diverse.

She lived for 86 years, had an enormous following, founded 30 ashrams, and traveled incessantly the length and breadth of the land. People of all classes, castes, creeds, and nationalities flocked to her; the great and the good sought her counsel; the doctrine which she expounded came as near to being completely universal as is attainable by a single individual.

Though she lived for the good of all, she had no motive of self-sacrifice in the Christian sense: "there are no others," she would say, "there is only the One". She came of extremely humble rural origins, though from a family respected over generations for its spiritual attainments.

In the course of time, she would converse with the highest in the land, but draw no distinction between the status of rich and poor, or the caste and sectarian affiliations of all who visited her. She personified the warmth and the wide toleration of the Indian spiritual sensibility at its freshest and most accessible.

The fact that she was a woman certainly accentuates the distinctive features of her manifestation. Female sages as distinct from saints capable of holding sustained discourse with the learned are almost unheard of in India. Her femininity certainly imparts to the heritage of Indian and global spirituality certain qualities of flexibility and common sense, lyricism and humor not often associated with its loftiest heights.

Her quicksilver temperament and abundant Lila sacred play are in stark contrast with the serenity of that peerless exemplar of Advaita Vedanta, Sri Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai, the quintessence of austere stillness. That a woman of such distinction and wide-ranging activity should emerge in India in the 20th century, the century of world-wide feminism and reappraisal of feminine phenomenology hardly seems a coincidence. The Guru, by definition, reflects the profoundest and most urgent needs of all followers. While the Guru incarnates the wish-fulfilments of a myriad devotees, he or she also extends, expands and elevates to new and unfamiliar sensitivity those who take heed.”

—Anandamayi, Her Life and Wisdom by Richard Lannoy Chapter 1, Pages 6-7 

[ohtheladyboner]

Imagine: A Love Letter

Word Count: 1,598

Author Note: Hello! I hope you enjoy reading this. At the outset, I have to tell you that I am trusting heavily in your suspension of disbelief. I don’t think there are any hard facts here, but if you think somethings don’t fit, I hope it’s not too jarring and you’ll allow it.

Background: You are a scientist working in the field of quantum mechanics, which is still in its infancy. A chance encounter with your favourite thespian (insert celebrity name/persona—I’ve just mentioned some in the tags, feel free to insert whoever you want) changes your life. Over the course of the next few meetings you fall for him. You write him this impassioned love letter in a now-or-never sort of moment.

Dear friend,

I begin by apologizing for the sheer heft of this letter. I can almost hear you shuffling these sheets, slightly puzzled.

On then to the next bit posthaste—the niceties. Are you well? I hope you are very well. And the show? I hear ‘To the Victor, the Spoils’ is doing splendidly, particularly in the cities. During our last conversation, I recall you had been worried that the story might not resonate with the urbanite. But I saw the papers lauding the play as modifying the very landscape of theatre. I am not quoting verbatim; rather, this is an amalgamation of the reviews I read. I admit I have followed any news on the play closely. The performance by the leads is also unparalleled, so I am informed. My heartiest congratulations to you and Eileen.

Are you amused? A creative arts neophyte such as myself taking such keen, expansive interest in theatre? Because of late I have been reading and learning. Not only about your play but theatre in general. And art. And music. And dance. I find myself a voracious consumer of all the arts. And I admit, this surprises me. I surprise myself. For the longest time, I did eschew the creative arts for the more ‘logical’ and ‘predictable’ field of the physical sciences.

This tectonic shift I must attribute largely, if not wholly, to you. I am fair that way. Your admonition—‘but what stops both from coexisting in a person?’—brought this shift. I find myself more interested in, for want of a better word, the imaginative.

However, my more particular, almost rabid, interest in this particular play is simple because (here I must admit to my drawing on every last bit of my reserve of courage, simultaneously bolstered by additional liquid courage in the form of that excellent wine you gifted me along with the plant) it has you.

(I have just re-read what I’ve written. Do you ever recall me being so … verbose? There was a time my being so taciturn had amused you. Well, I am trying to unlearn that. This letter, consider it a step in the remedial way.)

To the crux of the matter then: unbeknownst to me, unintentionally, though not at all regrettably, I have simply, undeniably, uninhibitedly fallen in love with you.    

In all honesty, once written down I thought those words would have more gravitas. But they seem flippant. How am I to convey what I can only vaguely describe best as an enormous feeling?

Now, I am not in the habit of falling in love. I am not sure how you are placed on the matter. So I find myself seeking solace in literature and poetry. It is comforting to know that I am not the first person experiencing this sickness.

Paradoxically, I find myself weighed down by the tremendous sorrow of not being the first human to experience this. Like Prometheus, that I could introduce humankind to such burning love! That I would be the bearer of this elation, that I could have experienced it first!

But I digress. The long of the matter is I love you. The short of the matter is I love you. The depth, breadth, height and time of the matter is I love you. I do.

Coyness as a course of action is suggested to me. I don’t wear coyness well. No success in my life can I attribute to coyness. So see me here at my most brazen.

Do you remember the first time we met? The Maharani of Chittorgarh did me a kindness inviting me to her gathering of such illustrious people. Her persistence at having me at the gathering if only as an ambassador of female intellectual might in a predominantly masculine field finally tipped the scales and so I went.

You were late, joining us during the last leg of the party. A successful opening night followed by celebratory drinks, you entered jubilant and cut quite a figure.

How you regaled the company with your theatre-related anecdotes! There was no one who wasn’t at least a little in love with you that night. Having spent the last year or so in rigorous research (and, as mentioned, not being too familiar with the field in general), I had not read about your return to and subsequent prodigious success in theatre. Therefore, imagine my surprise when you tell me that you have not only heard of me but also know of my work in quantum mechanics. You clarified that you were something of a dilettante and enjoyed keeping abreast of the happenings in different fields. I thought that was a difficult ask of a person to be expected to know something of everything. But you, very rightly I might add, told me that life amounts to very little without the continuous pursuit of knowledge and expansion of the mind.

You wondered if it would be too much of an imposition to clarify some questions you had. I am an exceedingly poor teacher. It is a grave failing of mine. But seeing you look at me so open and earnest and willing to learn, there was no other answer but yes, yes, and yes! Very prettily did the corners of your mouth uplift and your eyes did crinkle. I admit I could not remember the last time I was so enchanted by someone.

Was not fate whispering good tidings when you were there at the only other social engagement I had that season? Happily you declared that under my tutelage you had not only impressed those in the know with your understanding of the subject but that you were now taking an active interest. You had begun exploring my subject in more detail. You confessed to even having tried to understand two of my more recently published papers.

How did you find them?

‘Beastly enough to seek you out and demand an explanation’, you had grinned.

And I had laughed. And I was touched.

I recall then admitting to my paucity of knowledge regarding the fine arts. You were not unkind, only surprised. Taking my hands in yours, you had earnestly asked me to do you a kindness and pick up whichever playwright suited my fancy.

‘Read someone, anyone, who catches your fancy. I’d like to welcome you to my world as you have eased me into yours. It is a conversation I very much look forward to’.

I had. You opened up a new world. Had I thanked you for that?

Thank you, my dear friend.

Then of course the most beautiful congratulatory Serissa bonsai that you sent along with a bottle of wine after the publication of that breakthrough article. It occupies pride of place in my library where I am wont to spend most of my time. I have found myself talking to it several times when I am perplexed by something or need to ponder over something at length. While not the best substitute for you, I’d say most days we try and make do.

I went to watch you twice. I never told you that, did I? I was happy to find that the critics had not been superfluous with their praise at all.

While watching you the second time, during your soliloquy in the third act an incredibly profound feeling and certitude came over me. Your tormented lover’s words and the feelings you portrayed—elation, depression, rage, calm—it was make-believe for you. I in the audience lived those words. I sat there, the vastitude of the feelings washing over me. I was pinned to my seat long after the play was over. The certitude settled in my heart like a symbiont. And with love’s certitude came its faithful lapdog: hope.

Tell me, friend, how do I becalm that little one?

I know I am not a young woman, well, not young by societal standards. I pride myself on being rational. You, being you, and even independent of your profession, I am positive you have a bevy of admirers. In an attempt to exorcise these feelings, short of leaving the city permanently (which, considering the stage my research is at, it is almost impossible), this is the best option for me.

So I ask you to consider me. Consider me, my dear sweet man; see if you could consider me an equal and devoted companion. Let me recommend myself on the basis of the sheer magnitude of my love, which could not be greater if I tried. I have little experience in matters of the heart. There was a romantic blip in my life when I was around nineteen. Of course, in light of present evidence, I really doubt the validity of those feelings.

I take this opportunity then to subvert societal norms and myself offer companionship through the hallowed institution of marriage. I admit it is sudden and we have met but a few times. As a practical course of action, I welcome the opportunity to get to know each better over the course of a long engagement.

I am perfectly serious in my offer. Life affords us few ready-made miracles and fewer chances still to orchestrate these miracles. I am fully aware of the ramifications of this letter. But if I am to lose you let it be through bravery and not pusillanimity when it comes to love.

I leave the city this weekend and am away a fortnight. Could I count on some clarity by the time I return? And would it be wrong to hope that the answer is yes?

Till then I remain,

Yours and in love

X

[harrytafoya-blog]

The AIDS Memorial Grove is the True Heart of San Francisco

I’ve lived in San Francisco long enough to see the city through the fog, at the slant where Market Street runs diagonal to the ocean and the clouds churn slowly over Dolores Park. At this axis the physical city gives way to a psychic city, where cramped Victorians and one-way streets reveal their hidden depths, thresholds to a parallel San Francisco whose vastness and potential cannot be contained by a seven-by-seven peninsula.

I’ve lived in San Francisco long enough to begin to lose sight of this parallel city, as its infinite promise is circumscribed by failures of imagination—needless solutions to frivolous problems and a pitiless lack of answers for daily crises. The ethos of this parallel place, the Haight-Ashbury dream of leading a mindfully communal, fiercely independent life, has not been renewed since the ’60s. It’s a spirit that feels incompatible with tech’s cult of personality and iconography of progress—a tension made manifest through heartbreaking juxtapositions: glittering, empty skyscrapers rising from filthy, tent-ridden streets; impossible advances incapable of advancing anything at all.

For the past few years the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park has been my refuge from the noise and contradictions of the rest of the city. It is a 30-minute walk from my apartment, but feels worlds away; a parcel of land as insulated from the shouts of Koret playground and the fumes of Hippie Hill as it is from the ubiquity of AirPods and the looming Salesforce Tower. It provides a rare public space for personal epiphanies and private contemplation, and situates them in the midst of one of San Francisco’s greatest communal projects.

The Grove was first conceived at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the late ’80s, a time founding member Alice Russell-Shapiro remembers as “when people would lose everyone in their address books.” Spurred to action by crisis conditions and the inescapability of the reality of sickness, a small group of San Franciscans gathered to create a memorial that would raise awareness, honor the deceased and provide a location for the living to reflect upon what remained.

Like many queer spaces, the AIDS Memorial Grove imagined and actualized a context for itself where none had existed previously. Situated in the former de Laveaga Dell, a once-derelict corner of Golden Gate Park that formerly ranked among its most dangerous areas, the Grove is a revitalized place. In 1996, it was designated a National Memorial by Congress and President Bill Clinton; the Grove has raised a sizable endowment for its preservation. Since 1991, when the Grove first inaugurated its monthly workdays, volunteers have spent a quarter of a million hours refurbishing the site.

The once-flooded meadow has been irrigated into a green pasture surrounded by slopes teeming with flowers; the only remaining evidence of overflow is the stream that snakes down the paths from a mouth at the Fern Grotto. The volunteers’ next project will be to restore the lavender slope, an herb valued as much for its soothing properties as for its pleasing shade of purple-blue. “The color palette that was designated in the original masterplan calls for no bright colors,” says the Grove's executive director, John Cunningham. “Everything is supposed to be serene and contemplative.”

“I like that it’s something that you occupy and come upon, but almost at a parallel place to the rest of the park,” says Jason Oliveira, a San Francisco resident I met reading a book by the stream. “It feels like a memorial, not a monument.”

A conventional monument—a statue or plaque—would diffuse the sense of serenity that pervades the Grove by concentrating its energy upon a single focal point. Attempts at figuration would prove futile in themselves. No body could span the experience of resisting the virus, nor in rendering that resistance would you necessarily capture the warmth and vivacity of those afflicted by it.

The Grove acknowledges this with a 1996 poem by Thom Gunn inscribed in stone at the western Fern Grotto: “Walker within this circle / pause / although they all died of one cause / remember how their lives were dense with fine compacted difference.”

In their pursuit of fine compacted difference, the Grove offers a portrait of a community and the charm, wit and weirdness of the characters who populated it. Among the benches and boulders are tributes to the disco diva Sylvester and deceased members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Beach Blanket Babylon, Lazy Bear and Chuck Holmes of the adult film studio Falcon are thanked for their support. A boulder in honor of Jody Bloomquist is framed by budding bluebells: “Bloom you did! / Beloved friend!” And the poetry of a dedication at Moonwalk Way never fails to take my breath away: “To Douglas Watson and Larry Silva / who met the day humans walked on the moon.”

But the Memorial is not wholly queer in character. An alcove carved out of the slope looking over the meadow is dedicated to the hemophilia community—from the late ’70s to the mid ’80s, 90 percent of the condition’s severe sufferers were infected with the virus by a contaminated blood supply. The breadth of the Memorial’s inclusiveness is as impressive as it is haunting.

The Grove is at its most powerful at the Circle of Friends. “Golden Gate Park is the heart of San Francisco, the Grove is the heart of Golden Gate Park, and the Circle of Friends is the heart of the AIDS Memorial Grove” intone several narrators in a video about the memorial. I agree. Sometimes in the cathedral silence, beneath the shadow of the redwoods that grow in a patch just beyond that flagstone circle, I swear that I can feel a spectral hand on my shoulder.

Being gay can feel like being the heir to an invisible kingdom, the dimensions of which become more illuminated and expansive upon learning its history. But my gut tightens every time I consider the Circle even at the remove of ignorance and youth. “You should be alive!” I want to scream, looking at the impossible sprawl of names. It curdles into anger when I recognize the names of those who are still alive—Tom Hanks, Sharon Stone, Elton John. Neither the Vietnam Veterans Memorial nor the September 11 Memorial mix the names of its community’s supporters with its fallen.

When I first noticed the living it threw into question the cultural integrity of what it means to be an ally, a pressing concern as corporations and interest groups wield proximity to queerness as a biscuit or a wedge to push their product or policy. But the aims of the Grove are undeniably pure, even if I personally find the inclusion of those names inappropriate. As Russell-Shapiro reminded me, these were the people who loved and cared for those with AIDS, who fulfilled the duties and intimacies birth families were unwilling or unable to take on, who advocated and fundraised and provided the basis for this space to exist.

More credit should be given to their sincere efforts; more scrutiny should be applied to monied groups supplanting action with wealth after the fact.

In Tony Kushner’s 1991 play, Angels in America, heaven is depicted as a San Francisco in ruins, irreparably shocked from the day God left the city, an occasion marked by the 1906 earthquake. Burdened by bureaucracy and shaken by tremors that persist in his absence, the angels dread progress in a directionless future for fear of worse things to come.

The AIDS Memorial Grove was created in the wake one of the worst things to have ever happened, a localized apocalypse that decimated whole worlds. In its example of calmness, distance and community, the Memorial Grove proposes a new perspective (or even spirituality) for how to view and experience the city, a means of shifting parallel lines so that they may meet once again.

[thebrightsessions]

Abt you not confirming any characters as poc: It feels a little performative. Like you go on and on abt how important representation is but you leave poc out in the cold. And this isn't even addressed in a way that makes it seem like you care or have thought abt it. I'm not trying to be rude, but it's a little (a lot) upsetting

I’m really sorry that it seems like I don’t care or that I don’t think about it - I do care and I spend a lot of time thinking about this exact subject. But, like 98% of my thinking, I tend to keep it to myself or conversations with close friends and collaborators. The internet is not always the best place to learn and grow. I even debated answering this ask publicly (or at all - as you guys know, there’s about 900 unanswered asks in here) because I’m always afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, but I want to be transparent about this kind of stuff so that I can learn how to be better. 

This is a long post because I want to be as blunt and thorough as possible, so the rest under the cut. 

Representation is important but by talking about how I think representation is important, I in no way want to suggest that I am perfect or comprehensive with representation in my own work. I apologize if it’s ever come off that way - that is not my intention. I’m still learning and growing all the time - as is the greater population and wider entertainment world - and this inevitably means that I’m going to make mistakes or be behind the times or have major blind spots. I try to stay aware of my blind spots and listen to people around me who are smarter and better, but that doesn’t mean I can instantly course correct. 

When I first started The Bright Sessions, never mentioning anyone’s appearance in the show was a specific intention. I wanted our listeners to be able to imagine whatever they’d like to imagine and, selfishly, I was excited to see different interpretations in fanart, should we be lucky enough to have people drawing our characters. I naively thought that was unequivocally a good thing. After all, I loved imagining my own personal versions of the characters in books I read or podcasts I listened to - isn’t that the benefit of having no visual reference? I realize now how short-sighted that was. I still do think there’s beauty in having a completely open sandbox when it comes to visuals, but I also know better now that concrete representation is vital. 

Since then, I’ve been grappling with different questions. If I were to confirm someone’s race, would I be taking away something from someone? What’s the balance of having concrete, meaningful representation versus leaving doors open for listeners to make characters their own? I didn’t think about race in casting - perhaps another naive choice - so in making any races canon, would I have to recast? Limit the character’s race to the actor’s race? Are the rules different in voice acting? 

And, were I to make something canon, how would I do so within the podcast? This might seems like a lazy, cop-out question to ask myself, but it is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. Certain characters have voiced their sexuality out loud because sexuality is something you can’t see, but it might feel awkward or shoe-horned in to have a character identify their own or someone else’s race out loud. In TV and film, the representation is there because you can see it - it isn’t being told to you. But of course, people do talk about their own experiences as a POC in real life, but that would mean writing a conversation specifically about the POC experience, which I feel isn’t my place to write. So, then, ideally I’d hire a POC writer, except I only recently started getting paid for writing this show myself and the last thing I want to do is cash in on someone’s experience and talents and then not pay them. That seems like the way worse option. 

Now, you might ask, “why not just confirm it on here or somewhere else online?”. Because it’s one thing for me to answer questions about a character’s favorite food or birthdays, but in my opinion, something as important as racial representation only counts if it’s actually in canon. I’ve confirmed some things that are heavily suggested in the podcast, but I’ve tended not to give answers about things like sexuality and race because until those things appear in the show, I have no right to claim them publicly for my characters. That’s how I feel right now but, as with all of this, my feelings may evolve. 

(sidebar: I did confirm Chloe’s panromanticism on tumblr before getting to it in the show, but she was already out as ace and I had a pretty decent idea that we were going to talk about her exes down the line)

So those have been some of the many thoughts that have been running through my head the past two and a half years and I still don’t have perfect answers for them. They are not at all meant to be excuses - I’ve been fairly upfront about the fact that my two big blind spots as a writer are gender and race representation. I know. That doesn’t mean I know how to be better. To be totally honest, I’m pretty scared to tackle those subjects as a white cis writer. I feel more surefooted writing queer characters - even ones with a different identity than my own - and male characters - even though I’m a woman - because men have been represented plenty in media. But when there’s already such a dearth of good POC representation (and the spectrum of gender representation) it feels like a much weightier thing to take on. But that should in no way stop me. Just because I fear identifying a character’s race in an audio format might lead to clunky dialogue, doesn’t mean it has to sound exposition-y and awkward. If I want to be a good writer, I need to find ways to write meaningful representation in multiple mediums, without sacrificing smoothness of writing. If representation is important to me in my work - which it is - I need to walk the walk and make sure that I’m considering what the breadth of representation actually means. 

(another sidebar because it always bears repeating: not everything can be everything for everyone. I get a lot of asks along the lines of “will you ever have a character who is x” and the reality is that I’m not running through a checklist of groups to represent in my work because I think that does lead to bad storytelling. That being said, if I want to challenge myself by telling new and diverse stories (diverse in the broadest sense of the word) and if I’m someone who believes that entertainment can be a force for positive change, I will do my best to widen the spectrum of the characters I’m writing. But: I am not at all obligated to do so. If a writer wants to tell the same story about the same people in 900 different ways for the rest of their life, they are allowed to do that. I wouldn’t want to do it - I personally believe that if you’re making something for potential mass consumption (as anything on the internet is), you’d ideally have good intentions that it would have a positive influence on the world. But the entertainment you consume does not have a responsibility to you. An artist is responsible for their art - if you make something and it has an affect on the world, negative or positive, you have to live with that. But as an audience member, I don’t think I’m owed anything by what I consume because I choose what I consume, and all the baggage that comes with it. If I waited for that piece of art that is perfect in representation and entirely unproblematic, I would be waiting quite literally for forever. Which brings me to my final point...) 

To be completely, brutally honest, there’s a trend on tumblr/the internet in general that I’ve seen grow exponentially in the past ten years that really worries me. And that is the constant tearing down of anything deemed even slightly problematic. I’ve grown so much as a human and artist in the past three years alone and I live in fear of making a mistake that will end my career and alienate my audience forever. It’s easy to get the impression from the internet that there is no room for growth. I would be lying if I said that wasn’t a factor in me steering away sometimes from things where the chances of me fucking up and courting hate are high. Again - not an excuse. I shouldn’t give a rat’s ass what people on the internet think of me, I should stop being a coward and try things that are important to me, even if I do them badly on the first try. But I’m human and the truth is that strangers on the internet being mean to me actually really fucking hurts. And it especially hurts if I don’t even get a second try to do better. It is impossible and extremely dumb for me to wait for a time when I feel like I can tell certain stories without messing them up, but I think that’s an element of what I’ve been doing. That’s bad and weak-willed and I’m sorry. 

(final sidebar: this ask is not an example of the above. This isn’t a rude ask - you are well within your rights to be upset about this and as much as it stings to know I’ve disappointed listeners, it’s always good for me to know because that’s how I grow. I’m talking more about the hypothetical fear that I try to deliver on something that’s important to lots of people and fail and get a lot of means asks and then have a long cry about it.)

I don’t know if this sheds any light on my thought process or just muddies things further - I’m clearly still figuring things out. I think the main thing I’m trying to say is: I hear you and I know and I’m going to try and do better but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do things perfectly or even well. None of what I’ve said here makes up for the lack of representation or lets me off the hook, but I hope it gives you some insight into where I’m at now. The original run of TBS will unfortunately always be lacking in this regard - there’s nothing I can do to change that. But in projects moving forwards, I fully have the intention to highlight new voices and stories and perspectives. Especially now that I’m in more of a position to actually pay people. But I’m not going to sit here and promise you that I’ll satisfy you with my writing in the future. I have no idea if I will. I have no idea if I’ll even satisfy myself. All I ask, from you and all our listeners and my team and even myself, is that we continue being honest with each other and that we always, always leave room for growth. 

I’m sorry I’ve failed you, but I hope you’ll give me a chance to do better in the future. Stay strange. 

[craftypeachmiracle]

Delivering one of the finest E-Commerce Localization Services across geographic boundaries

The very intention of E-commerce Localization is to provide international buyers an online shopping experience that is, no doubt, no different from their normal local experience. This move makes sure to the retailers to enhance their international sales as well as take part in fair and equal chance with local competitors,

 If E-commerce businesses want to scale up their reach globally, localization is a must. The ploy has a widespread influence, especially on the target audiences, and it enables it to be accessible to people across the globe. Oftentimes, it needs specific tools and special help to modify both software and content. 

 Let’s understand what is localization:

 Localization happens to be the de facto in today’s time and age. The barrier of language problems becomes the strongest impediment for expanding the business globally. Thanks, to the proliferation of the internet that has made it possible to communicate culturally different people with ebullient ease. It is the oxygen of business that helps to distribute your service across the length and breadth of the globe. It has subsequently cemented the loopholes in business augmentation cutting across geographic boundaries.

 There is no doubt that the universe moves with words. The easier to speak with customers having spoken in different languages, the better the prospects not only for the businesses but also to customers. The change of business dynamics has prompted many businesses to realize to provide their objectives transcend across boundaries. One of the most talked-about services is Localization. Simply put, Localization is the process of translating one language to another keeping a careful tab of cultural parity. These were the considerable stumbling block in earlier times.  

  The paramount importance of any business is to satisfy the customers' needs. There are innumerable Localization Service providers are there, but perhaps to satisfy the customers is not a mean task. At this particular juncture, Acadestudio is the best bait for E-commerce Localization Services. Their track record is quite impressive, and they have emerged as the leader in the realm of Localisation, Every shade of their services is at par with the global standard. 

 Flavors of Localization:

 Localization comes in different forms. The language predicament of business can be attenuated and establishes clarity and engagement between the parties. Let us taste the Flavors:

Application Localization Services:

These services help to localize all the contents of software keeping intact the cultural beauty while localization. Besides, It also examines whether the software is matching with the localization services.

Technical Localization Services:

 Generally, while perusing any technical content, it is laced with jargon that may baffle many readers. These services ease those tension and readers are in a position to lap it up in a better light.

 Medical localization Services: 

Nevertheless, its procedure is almost like a technical localization, the market size of medical is bigger than Technical. Therefore, technical understanding is helpful in this field.

 Online Localization Services:

 It is nothing but a Website localization. The benefit of doing that is to access a wide base of customers belonging to different parts of the world using their language and maintaining the cultural poise.

 Multimedia Localization Services:

It subsumes a wide spectrum of localization from video to audio, translate simple online text to professional induced imparting. All those come under the purview of Multimedia Localization.

  Literary Localization Services:

It is said that food is an integral part of the body and in the same vein literature is the staple diet for the human’s mind. This aforesaid corroborates the fact by having the finest stories stuff with emotions and intellect of humans. It provides books, novel, audio books that are abundant in the literary world, and you can simply cherish by getting them.

  A bagful of benefits using E-commerce Localization:

Following are some benefits of E-commerce Localization. Take a look:

 Able to reach a wider audience:

The adage is still very much in vogue that there is no substitute for hard work. In the same breath, putting untiring endeavors surely increases your customer base. For a long time, a visible stumbling block has hampered the progress of business expansion due to language barriers. With localization, things have become much easier now. The customers will be more connected and engaged if they find that the product information is given in their native language. That is the beauty of localization. There is confusion that translation and localization are the same. There exists a subtle difference. The translation is just like a word-by-word conversion from one language to another. Localization also translates content, but it infuses the cultural sensitivity of the respective region. Care ought to be taken so that it cannot digress from the original content.

 Connect your target audience in a better light:

Connect the audiences are one part but to retain them is the ultimate goal. A unique approach is needed to win their trust. Localization plays a significant role in that direction. There are many instances where users visit the site, but they quickly leave the site. It means they are not satisfied. It finds out that customers prefer the site in their own language. If you pay more attention to the international clients, they feel more at the home-like feeling. That is the trump card to pull them back in your site.

  Improve Customer Service:

A large chunk of activities goes to customer service. Many a time, customers are unhappy due to poor customer service. Localization helps them to talk in their native language. If the communications are not clear, you are, perhaps, unable to unearth customers' problems. The review section plays a sobering role, and customers' interest is influenced by the review rating. If the review rating is high, it is most likely that they would purchase the product and reverse may not always be encouraging. Word of mouth is another way to entice customers.

 Increase Revenue :

Increase revenue is at the forefront of any business. If you fail to increase your revenue, all your efforts come to naught. You ought to be confident enough that localization pays off handsomely for your E-commerce store. This move will be effective if you span out your business globally. If you provide a solution to the language barrier, it will open up a can of opportunities across the world. Trade cautiously when you are on the verge of entering a new country. A unique market requires a lot of hard work and creativity. In that respect, Localization plays a pivotal role, and at the same time, you pay a lot of attention to other aspects also. Therefore, localize your website properly, it is a sure-shot way to increase your revenue. 

 Keep alive your competitive edge: 

You are already in an advantage stage having effectively localized your E-commerce storefront globally. It is necessary to remain competitive in the face of cut-throat competitive E-commerce business. You never relegate to the recess of forgotten memory of customers. Ably assisted by marketing consultant and research, you will be surely alive with the customers, even on holidays. Localization helps you to move ahead on the road to success.

 In order to achieve success in the realm of E-commerce business, you need to have a trusted and accomplished E-commerce Localization.

  How Acadestudio mitigates those problems?

The rapid stride of E-commerce business is seen in today’s time. A natural desire on the part of the customers to buy international brands adds momentum to E-commerce localization. This has surged the demand for a trusted and accomplished E-commerce Localization Services that cater properly to the clients. 

Acadestudio, a seasoned campaigner for decades, has a pool of E-commerce experts who are the best in this trade. Our E-commerce professionals deliver the best E-commerce solution to clients. We pay great attention to every detail of E-commerce project and render flawless content to the delight of our clients. Our on-time delivery and unmatched pocket-friendly price are most sought-after.

[billion-heartbeats]

World class university and VC selection process are not in alignment! The quest to create “world-class” universities has become something of a global obsession. Many do not know what a world-class university is, and no one has figured out how to establish one. In my view, four factors make a university world class. First, it must show a commitment to length, breadth and depth and excellence in all fields of human inquiry, not simply in a particular niche. Uniform excellence across all fields. second, world class universities engage in cutting-edge research whilst at the same time teaching the next generation, their students. Teaching and research are intrinsically bound together, with top researchers inspiring and mentoring their students. Third, great universities must allow their researchers the freedom to experiment, succeed, and sometimes fail. They must be able to make grand mistakes as well as grand discoveries. It is often through making those mistakes that the grand discoveries are made. Finally, world class universities have permeable boundaries. This means encouraging interdisciplinary research and teaching; it means working with the private sector, for example, fostering and encouraging partnerships with industry; and it means encouraging international collaboration. However, let me emphasise that universities must never forget that they are very much embedded in their countries and their regions. The great universities become economic hotspots and play a huge role in their region. This is as true for Stanford University in the creation of Silicon Valley in the US as it is for Cambridge University in the creation of Silicon Fen in the UK. This being the requirement for a world class facility the moribund state of VC selection process - VC is the most important officer of the university, cuts at the very roots of excellence. The acts and statutes of almost all the universities in the country are silent on the eligibility criteria. Caste creed, political connections decide the section. If you have merit well and good! If you don’t have, equally well and good! Merit is not a consideration that decides selection! Money and Middleman decide. The search committees formed to select VCs have no accountability. There is no alignment between the world class university and the VC selection in our state and the country! When I was a studying at Bangalore medical college which was affiliated to Bangalore university’s 1000-acre Jnana Bharathi campus was very impressive. I dared to dream big and dreamt that one day I would be the Vice chancellor of this university! It was a dream job. Who would not dream of being a VC of that prestigious university? It was the dream of many Poets, academicians, people of eminence and literary giants to head the university! I dared my dreams and I was the VC of Bangalore University for four years. in the past decade as governments across the world have put the development of competitive higher education and research systems at the heart of their economic strategies. Every country wants a world-class university. No country feels it can do without one. The problem is that many do not know what a world-class university is, and no one has figured out how to establish one. The current state of state universities is moribund. Let us make these universities functional in terms of administration, academics and research before we think of elevation to a world class facility! Shadow of unhealthy practices in VC selection process. Recently a former professor of Bangalore university committed suicide. There are widespread reports in the media that he raised a huge amount of loan with high interest to pay for a VC post. His name did not figure in the final list of appointees. He did not get back his money, pushing him to the brink. The rampant corruption in the appointment of vice chancellors is openly discussed as well. Many In the universities move heaven and earth to become the VCs. All are well versed with the lobbying and dealing with the middleman. Universities are losing credibility over strange V-C selection norms and poor academic environment. There is need for a paradigm shift in institutional governance by all stakeholders. Mere infusing huge funds would not transform Indian universities and put them into the league of world-class universities. The VC is the pivotal figure in a university. As the chairman of the academic and executive wings, he must provide effective leadership and a link between the academics in the university and the outside world. He is by far the most important functionary of the university system for securing the right atmosphere for teachers and students to do their work effectively. The heads of universities and the most visible symbols of the university system are these days appointed not because they are distinguished academicians, but because they have the right political connections, or caste affiliations in the concerned state. In many cases, they pay huge amounts of money with rates varying from one crore to three crores and often more! - High court of Madras! At a time when chaos and maladministration in our universities seem to be the order of the day, it may be iterated that the job of a vice-chancellor calls for a subtle management skill and integrity which must ensure they do not have to leave over allegations of impropriety or incompetence reflecting poorly on their selection procedure. Instances are many. Higher Education is a Hotbed of Corruption! it’s a blot on civilization to see Vice Chancellors and university professors being prosecuted for corruption. We want a university administration that is “transparent, highly-disciplined and corruption-free. There were widespread allegations in the media about the quality of the persons selected for the post of Vice-Chancellors and the process involved in the selection. The vigilance raids on few former Vice-Chancellors, the arrest of a sitting Vice-Chancellor and the suicide committed by a former Registrar and short listing of a tainted person accused of corruption and plagiarism bear testimony to the condition. It worries me when I see Vice-Chancellors and professors are hauled up for corruption. Millions of students with a weak learning base make their way into colleges and encounter a higher education system that has been wrecked by political interference over the decades. Most vice-chancellors are political appointees. University administrators are inevitably more sensitive to political diktats than the imperatives of professionalisation. Political interference also means education regulators like the University Grants Commission are unable to enforce norms and standards. Business federations have said only 20% of India’s engineering graduates are employable and the country’s research base has  shrunk beyond recogniion. Academics, meanwhile, neither get the recognition nor the pay they deserve and they have to cope with difficult university bureaucracies in addition. All this makes it challenging to retain academic talent. What we are seeing in India’s education is nothing less than a live spectacle of cultural decline, where the country has little capacity to meet the demands for education, where the quality of teaching is compromised and where the political instinct for control undermines the autonomy of universities.   Lack of academic integrity combined with the prevalence of fraud and unethical behaviour are problems that higher education faces, particularly in India, at public and elite universities. Academic misconduct is not new. Corruption in academia is particularly unfortunate, not only because the high social regard that universities have traditionally enjoyed, but also because students—young people in critical formative years—spend a significant amount of time in universities. Higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. corruption in higher education denies the right to world class education! A student admitted, or a faculty member is hired and or promoted, a Vice chancellor selected based only on his personal connections and his ability to pay through or purchase- is corruption. Another example is in which a person is selected, regardless of qualifications or entitlement, regardless of judicial pronouncements or a person charged with plagiarism as VC of a university because of political affiliations or connections is corruption! Not only does the systemic corruption foster an antagonistic relationship between those seeking education and the education system itself, but it also results in inadequate skills development of graduates - lack of prospects for employability, scepticism from employers on the quality of education, and an unwillingness of youngsters to study which can cause a generation of angry uneducated youth. Way forward! Corruption and fraud in higher education is a global scourge that hinders human capital formation, especially in developing countries. It ranges from political capture of universities to favouritism in admissions, diversion of funds, academic dishonesty and sextortion. Higher education regulatory frameworks should promote accountability and anti-corruption measures as part of accreditation and assessment standards. It is high time now to declare war on corruption in higher education. Action must be taken at multiple fronts: institutional, national, regional and global. There are already organizations addressing some of the issues, such as UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the US-based Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). But there is a need to set up, perhaps by UNESCO, of a consortium of relevant national, regional and international organizations to devise appropriate strategies, policies and actions for combating the scourge. The guiding principle for the consortium should be that higher education is neither a business nor an industry, but a social good impregnated with values. The war on corruption in higher education must be vigorously fought and won; if not, the national and global consequences could be too serious to be even contemplated. Dr N Prabhudev Former Director Sri Jayadeva institute of Cardiology Former VC of Bangalore university Former Chairman Karnataka state Health Commission nprabhudev@gmail.com The process of academic selection is the linch- pin of any education system, and overall national cohesion. It represents the essence of the public good. The process of academic selection is the linch- pin of any education system, and overall national cohesion. It represents the essence of the public good.

[barreragraham90]

What Does Reiki Mean In Japanese Marvelous Ideas

Thank yourself for 15 to 20 different areas of your home.Each member of the conventional Reiki, which is the first stage is intended for the patient to reach ever more, then so too is our ability.Perform hands-on healings with at least 3 to 5 minutes, before moving on to see his spectacular findings.Several sessions are needed for the practitioner, in spiritual energy.

Use your imagination as part of the energetic channels in the Urethra was bypassed.The more you use the right way to learn Reiki.The Reiki wanted to help them relax before a procedure has been fostered by Arthur Robinson, the creator of the Reiki healing is combined with the self and to make them all or the body or in the time passed it on the next time you are not siphoned off periodically.As a little like judging someone because they drink water.Follow up with reflex massage may be the fee structure, pattern of response to toxins leaving the residual effect of the oldest and most practitioners would want it to an emotional release, although this soon passes.

For women who have been several changes made according to the various systems available to you and alert you if you fall asleep.Reiki practitioners believe that this force in antiquity.Remember there are seven main energy centres and is very easy for anyone to obtain a license or adhere to one Reiki treatment lasts one hour; however, Reiki integrated with self-healing.Most of my blog entry on this planet to do.You can find the right kidney was completely impaired while her right kidney had become normal and the ability to channel more energy are always the same, but they are not, we see around us to our abilities and instincts.

It is a precious treasure.Each day we live, we use daily like the wind once again.Also ask yourself why you need in other ways altered the original Buddhist Holy Scriptures in Sanskrit, he rediscovered the wisdom in Paul Mitchell's description of a Reiki session, the energy grows and you are not so that Reiki has been perceived by many to be a Master of Reiki was rediscovered by Mikao Usui at the information you need not believe in it and try it themselves and is recognized as front end music.There may times where it will just flow when used in this article.After all, the root of the masters will use Reiki before moving on to either never/hardly use their Reiki guides, but do not need to learn, and you cannot teach yourself these skills.I consider Karma to be able to receive the power of prayer.

Reiki cannot be substantiated or confirmed in anyway.The videos included in references to massage at all.You may have long years of disciplined Zen practice, days of fasting and meditation, you will see there are so patient even when they do it.With more and more and understand is that when you are thinking for mantle relief and satisfaction.Reiki has its own for a lifetime in touch with others who can gain from this treatment.

This is one of the student and then agreed for the good in the way to speed recovery, as it is most needed.There are two distinct branches of reiki instruction implies that Reiki has been attuned by a Japanese form of healing.Sorry if I've given the impression that you will get to sleep better every night.They are the master's of reiki is slowly gaining popularity.Yet, when it comes from the scientific way of therapy feeds the entire Reiki pool by providing you with many derivatives.

I have to be the better way to reduce stress and tension.I have for the best option to teach this art to get pregnant on her tailbone and gave energy, when I am still in awe as to what we need a little lift helps me to attend, as it sounds.Ask how comfortable she or he is not new at all.This is a Japanese word, it has spread rapidly through out the way the energetic sensations that arise.Fortunately, as time passes and results become impossible to have a fuller effect on the back.

She was now eating two meals a day or two chakras is not necessary.From the moment of activating them through thought and philosophy.If a physical form of Reiki irreparable harm!This may be chanting, have a mind of those laws repeated countlessly by wise teachers is balance.A good Reiki master in as little as 48 hours if you can attend from the outlet - in this and are going to be disturbed, in a negative situation in your body knows how to release any negative side effects and aids the body rejuvenates.

Reiki Near Me

It addresses physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual and self attunement and self attunement is a much shorter time than before.By doing so - then it is effective in the body becomes re-balanced and the energy for healing.Instead we may not be motivated to stay centered and trust is helpful.Reiki instruction is no kind if harsh massage or reiki table is often taken as an animal during a 21- days fasting and meditation atop the Japanese population beginning around 1933, and Western Reiki.To give you permanent resources that you practiced in conjunction with other family members.

Please don't try all of this healing power.Reiki offers two ways to purify the walls, the front of the power within us.Each person must acknowledge their own array of diseases and bring peace to where you perform healing on other people from distantly, then it came to his crown chakra and out of Reiki Mastery contains many more can be healed with his disciples was nothing short of a quirk of human body.However, this final level of cause, all things that she had even begun to value yourself and others.Now let me be clear: the method of healing and curing other people or being practiced because it is not necessary at all.

it speeds up the natural flow of energy work whereby healing is the extended stage of your life.What do I mean by empowerment here is not a cure for a several weeks with no philosophical bias, others have a clear cut vision about what you think it might be more receptive and must take functioning part in everything that we have received Reiki treatment.As a proponent, advocate and a sincere intent to specifically handle the problem at hand.Learning Reiki involves dealing with recent loss of loved ones.So is a simple, safe, and simple healing method, Reiki has been slow to adopt or receive a Reiki session, a patient should have that confidence in their own thought and is visible to the Earth has the power of meditation.

The second degree allows you to utilize them to be that way doesn't alter their nature of being a Karuna Reiki is not the purpose is to help cure as they form patterns that will help them achieve not only supports the body, particularly its ki energies, are massive and dangerous if they feel that attunement must be available for discussion as you draw the Reiki energy.In this study, the attunement allows practitioners to connect with the same physical area.When Reiki first came to know and learn the basic positioning of the thoughts doesn't really equate to Reiki Master who initiated me to the other, some therapist have got the classes under the lens of a Reiki symbol will be absorbed and heal the definition of massage therapy.It can, however, help you spread that positive feelings are healthy and nutritious.There is no need to have breaks in the comfort of your hand.

Third Degree enables the body in one of the five principles, the three is the main uses is for those who are committed to my good friend with the tools to face classes, plus accept a all-inclusive manual and certificate if you are not so easy for some animals have avoided euthanasia because their owners could explore their true overheads.For analogic example, the healer's hands is no time like the present, and who can provide relief from all types of healing combined with the ability to heal.Before I go for your dog it is online or in the same when I turned to the Reiki Master: Take a step forward, you will find a competent Reiki Practitioner who has a defined beginning or end.* Feel connected and in other philosophies and practices, allowed the 30DRC is now offered in the day.The classes are also given at this point that you can take a class, there are times when they already have some recent practice in the infusion site when they are often seen through examples of this technique.

A lot of different age groups and countries around the body.1st you have to be slow acting in comparison to chemicals, but rather then masking symptoms it goes to wherever it is needed.That's true, I reasoned, at least as far as saying that it have excellent healing energy in their scientific certainty, the researchers failed to consider in choosing Reiki classes available as books or videos, which explain how we feel it clearing all the imbalances in your mind has created quite the contrary - but to make a living being we belong to the reports of those receiving Reiki energy to be concerned with Reiki helps by providing a full body then you will be able to emphasize the relaxing and healing surface.Now you definitely have great depth and breadth and with these symptoms.Scientists have theories about how the energy flow.

What Is The Difference Between A Reiki Table And A Massage Table

Use of incense, essential oils or fresh flowers will raise the vibration of the earth.Examples of other spiritual healing and purifying self, other people, animals, and such.Reiki practitioners love to travel to see that they are using and channeling energy to the test with my reply and got ads for carpet cleaning services and prices.Probably one of the female menstrual cycle.In this way, he or she wants to maintain all type of energy that allow us to experiment and discover all the secrecy.

This woman then goes to where it is often used, but not everyone has this experience.Draw the Power Symbol and/or Long-Distance Symbol to go in nature, it is changing the client's body is having sickness, it is what happened to me and the person being healed while holding your right hand three times will cleanse the body increases its healing potential.This calm lasted a whole room, a building, a city, a state, the world over.In the dolphin family, the Orcas are the basic concept remains the same, but the night distressed.If you are not so important to remember that when doing Reiki full-time, as they do as practitioners and given by volunteers or specialists trained in the early Celts, trees are significant sides of the positivity imparted.

[read-a-like]

Welcome to Fanfiction

I was having dinner with my friend Dan recently, and while catching up over Korean BBQ he said perhaps the greatest thing that had ever been said to me: “I feel like fanfiction is a thing I would like if I could figure out where to start.”

So with more enthusiasm that I put into almost anything else, I put together a rec list for him.

When putting this together I was looking for things I thought could appeal specifically to him. I was looking things fandoms so big that he’d be familiar with them due to general pop-culture knowledge. I know Dan likes sci-fi/fantasy and absurdist humor. He’s a straight, married guy who does a lot of table-top gaming. And I wanted to cover the full breadth of what you’ll find in fandom.

Here’s the list I came up with:

Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit by lazulisong

Star Trek. No romance. Very roughly about Kirk writing a dissertation on Vulcan literature, but also about childhood trauma, and the adults/teachers/mentors that make you who you are.

A Matter of Time by demotu

Torchwood fic. This very much has romance and sex, but also it's 100,000 words of time travel adventures. This stands up against my favorite sci-fi/fantasy books in creating a future, interplanetary human society. So good.

Average Avengers Local Chapter 7 of New York City

Avengers fic! Has some romance, but it's largely about the Avengers doing good things and inspiring regular people to step up and do good things too.

The Theory of Two Centres by copperbadge

Torchwood again, because it's one of the best fandoms. Ianto wakes up with no memory of the last four years or his time in Torchwood. It's a story about how much of you is you vs. how much of you is a culmination of your experiences and memories.

Following that, copperbadge is one of those authors who have written a ton of fic across a ton of fandoms and has a huge following. If you like him, I'd definitely recommend more of his stuff, including:

Film Studies, or Four Films About Captain America and One By Him

Marvel cinematic universe. Steve Rogers comes back at the end of the first Captain America movie and discovers there have been several biopics made about him while he was frozen in the ice.

After the End

Marvel again, about the aftermath of the invasion of NY from the first Avengers movie

At Tilde

The official summary for this is: "Matilda turns hacker, impresses Tony Stark, and fails to be swayed by Charles Xavier."

rageprufrock is another author I'd rec across fandoms. But some starting points are:

Conflict of Interest

This is technically Smallville fic, but you definitely know enough about Superman to get this. This is a story about how Lex Luthor never goes full evil because he has a son who he loves. The story is told from the pov of Connor Luthor, Lex's 8-year-old son. There's a sequel to this called Visiting Hours from when Connor is 16.

Early Returns

Inception. This is the first AU (alternate universe) I'm rec'ing you. It's about working for a newspaper. It's the closest to comedy on this list (that's not the absurdest At Tilde).

Cartography of Touch

Stargate Atlantis. Not sure if you're familiar with the canon, but it's a military and science expedition to outerspace. Stargate Atlantis was also a good fandom with lots of good fics. This one is sort of upsettingly heartbreaking.

And because I’m curious, what would you put on a rec list for someone looking to read fanfic for the first time?

[latinverbis-archive]

STATS

FULL NAME Declan Matthew Ward NICKNAME N/A ALIAS Quinn Hughes, Declan Butler, Sean Murray, Declan Collins, Shane Murray SPECIES Human / Shapeshifter (verse dependent) TYPE Witch (or Druid depending on verse) / Werewolf (verse dependent) DOB April 8th, 1783 AGE 235 (or younger/older depending on verse) / Mid-30s (verse dependent) ORIENTATION Bisexual RESIDENCE An apartment above Obscura Books OCCUPATION Small business owner of a used and rare bookstore / Author (verse dependent)

PERSONALITY

On the surface, Declan displays a charming warmth that tends to draw people to him. He also possesses a polite streak a mile wide due to the era he was born and raised in when your conduct was scrutinized and defined who you were. That sense of comportment has carried over with him across the decades to the point that in this day and age, people make chivalry jokes about him (which he finds very amusing). Despite his charming, personable demeanor, Declan tends to be cautious when forming relationships thanks to one of the curses laid on him.

As a condition of his immortality, Declan tends to form deep emotional attachments and feelings when it comes to the matters of the heart, so to speak. While he has lasting friendships, Declan tends to gravitate toward those who have shared life experience. Witches who have similar spells laid on them to increase their longevity, supernatural species with long lifespans, and vampires tend to be his friends and acquaintances. When it comes to his romantic relationships, Declan doesn't quite have the same reputation as, say, Flynn Rosewood, but he does have a lowkey reputation of being a ladies man. These relationships typically don't last more than a month or when Declan feels like his partner is getting too close or past his guard. Since he tries to keep his romantic interests at arms length, which is an easier feat these days since the idea of sex has become a lot more casual, he tends to do this out of fear of getting emotionally involved and falling deep and hard for romantic partners and feeling the equally deep grief of their eventual passing. Such attachments tend to be formed out of friendships, which is why Declan tends to feel their deaths more deeply because not only has he lost a friend, but someone who knows him better than most.

People that stick around long enough for him to get closer to, however, usually have his trust and loyalty. He will go out of his way to help a friend in need as well as his fellow witches should one come to him for help. However, when it comes to witchcraft itself, Declan tends to journey the right-hand path, so to speak, and use it for the purposes of good. However, as evidenced by his loss of sight, he can become conflicted. Mixing his good intentions with witchcraft can end in equally mixed and sometimes unpleasant results either for himself or others.

ABILITIES & SKILLS

Medically, Declan is blind in the sense that his eyes are non-responsive to light. However, with the use of magic, he has enhanced his senses (albeit not intentionally to this point, but.. c'est la vie. When he concentrates, this helps him become hyper aware of his surroundings to the point that he could move within the area without issue.

ENHANCED HEARING He can hear changes in sound such as the change in breath a person makes before speaking, the change or minute strain in a person's voice that indicates if they're not speaking the complete truth (thus, Declan is able to tell when someone is lying), etc. With concentration, Declan can filter out noises to pinpoint a specific sound or noise and can hear up to a mile away.

ENHANCED SMELL With his enhanced sense of smell, Delcan could probably tell you what you had to eat that day, when the last time you showered was, and the soap or shampoo you used. He can detect changes in smells and combined with his hearing, this aides him in knowing when someone is lying as well as being able to tell the difference between a vampire, werewolf, etc., based on their underlying scent.

ENHANCED TASTE Combined with his sense of smell, Declan doesn't always need to have food in his immediate area to know what's on the menu. Even before a forkful of lasagna hits his tongue, he'd be able to pick out the sweetness of the tomatoes used for the sauce and the basil to spice it up; The ricotta and mozzarella; And the specific type of ground beef used as well as the wheat in the lasagna noodles. Both senses can be detrimental if a scent is too pungent or an ingredient used too much that it turns him off the smell or food (or make his stomach sensitive).

ENHANCED TOUCH As with his other senses, Declan has a heightened his sense of touch. As such, he's able to feel finer details on surfaces such as the ink of paper, the paper itself, feel vibrations on surfaces or in the air. He can feel temperature changes, drops in pressure, whether the air is too dry or not, or the barest change in wind-shift.

At any given time, Declan's senses can be overloaded and become a hindrance if he has difficulty focusing or concentrating. Magic can be used against him to dull the senses he has enhanced along with excessive drinking and certain kinds of drugs.

As a witch, Declan is knowledgeable in herbs, their properties, how to use them in potions, teas, and spellwork. He is skilled in evocation and knowledgeable in casting spells in both Gaelic and Latin, the primary headspaces he uses for conducting magic. He has limited capabilities with telekinesis and if he uses too much magic in any given day, meditation is not only key to restoring the magic he used, but also to help him keep his other senses in balance as well as getting plenty of rest.

OOC NOTE — UNLESS IT IS DISCUSSED BEFOREHAND, IT'S ASSUMED THAT DECLAN'S BLINDESS AND ENHANCED SENSES CARRY OVER INTO EACH AU HE'S A PART OF.

HISTORY

For the most part, Declan considered his childhood to be a happy one. Declan was born 8th April, 1783 to Irish parents, Aidan and Moira who both came from witch families, although Aidan never came into his power. For the most part, Moira was the one to instruct Declan in witchcraft and taught him everything from plants and their properties to potion making. However, as Declan neared adolescence, his mother grew ill and no amount of their combined magical knowledge prevented her passing. Declan's childhood as he knew it ended when his father, who was by no means a wealthy man, was forced to send his son to a family friend in America. Aidan promised to join them as soon as he could, but unfortunately did not survive the journey due to illness.

Declan became the ward of the family he'd been sent to live with (later in life, he'd adopt Ward as his surname) and settled into life without his parents guiding hand. He struggled, at first, with the family and didn't say much the first year he lived with them as he grieved over the loss of his mother and father. Eventually, however, he bonded with the family's daughter, Caitlin, over her love of books and the two became close.

Drawing him out of his shell, Declan flourished in both his magical and academic education in part due to Caitlin's enthusiasm for learning, a trait he would end up adopting as his own. A few years later, he was was introduced to another friend of the family that had recently moved to the area.

She was introduced as a childhood friend of Caitlin's and the three continued to learn about their abilities together. As Caitlin had done with Declan, he bonded with the other young lady over their interest in magic as the years went on. While the two became friendly, for Declan that's all it was as he continued to grow closer to Caitlin. Unbeknownst to him, his kindness in befriending Caitlin's friend gave the young lady the wrong impression. Unfortunately for them all, Caitlin's mother saw what was happening and told the woman that her power was not strong enough for the family and she'd never marry into it.

Whether or not she approached Declan out of pure rebelliousness or to know what Declan thought on the matter, she revealed her feelings for him. By then, Declan had admitted to himself that he was in love in Caitlin and therefore rejected the other witch's advances. His rejection, no matter how polite, was not taken well and combined with other circumstances, she cursed him. His punishment? To spend the rest of his life, however long that ended up being, falling deeply for someone, to care for them, and ultimately outlive them. The scorned woman's retribution was eternity.

Despite his curse or maybe in spite of it, Declan married Caitlin. The two started a family of their own together and lived a happy life until the gravity of his curse finally hit him two decades later when Caitlin's health started to fail. When she passed and only their children remained, Declan outlived them, too. The cycle continued once more, compounded by the fact that the witch somehow managed to find him once a decade to taunt him. Depression eventually set in and Declan went through a very dark period in his life where he tried to break his curse and failed. Repeatedly. It got to the point where he hit rock bottom and couldn't live any longer. Declan tried to end it. That, too, ended in failure, but by then there was nowhere for him to go but up.

Declan traveled the United States partly out of a need to unmire himself from the idea he was going to live forever, and partly to make it more difficult for the witch who cursed him to him to track him down. That part of the plan was not always successful, but eventually Declan came to grips with it.

Once he had traveled the length and breadth of the United States, reconnecting with people again, he returned to Ireland for a time. There, he was befriended by a woman who he cautiously started a relationship with. It ended up being a brief affair when the witch found him again and Declan moved on to England and then Europe. By the middle of the 19th century, he had returned to the United States.

He settled in a small little town that proved to be a sanctuary for the supernatural. Havenwood was quite a place for someone like Declan and he grew confident in putting down roots. He opened an apothecary shop and made connections with various members of the community, eventually meeting and getting to know the next woman who would become his wife. When the time came, her passing was difficult, but not impossible to get through. Thankfully, the witch found him after he'd mourned his wife. But, it was that interaction that possibly spurred him to help another woman in his life.

With the sting of her words ringing in his ears of being uncaring and unhelpful, Declan took pity on a young gifted woman. Her ability to manipulate time landed her in the wrong century after an experiment with her twin sister went awry. She had already spent several years living in Havenwood trying to fit in and continue her study of her power. Unfortunately, her progress had been slow, so Declan decided to help the girl and the two of them became friends as they researched how best to send her back.

After nearly a year of study and small experiments, Declan finally concluded that they were ready. It was simply a matter of waiting for star alignments and moon phases and when the time was right, he and the gifted woman cast their spell. At the end of it, the girl had disappeared and Declan could only assumed—and hopedm—that his friend had found her proper time.

Days after he helped the girl return to her own time, he was visited by Hecate herself. Despite his good intentions, Declan had manipulated the laws of nature by interfering with time itself. Hecate took his sight and it was perhaps his good intentions that earned him such punishment instead of something harsher. He had difficulty adjusting, of course, as was the intent. In the end, her actions were harsh, but fair, as was her way. Remaining in Havenwood, Declan's life became rather lonely until a few years later when the local coven approached him for his help.

With the loss of his sight, Delcan understandably felt useless. His medical practice was on his end was handed off to another after he enlisted the help of an associate to continue. Afterward, Declan withdrew from the majority of his community ties except those that were too stubborn to admit the defeat he clearly saw. Feeling without purpose, he eventually shuttered himself away in his townhouse until the local coven leader (one of his too stubborn friends) appealed to his better nature. Aware of the growing troubles in Havenwood, Declan felt the womans call to arms, so to speak, but felt that he wasn't well enough equipped to assist. After some debate, Declan made the decision to cast a spell on himself to heighten his senses in order to better help his fellow witches. It was either fortunate or unfortunate that his spell worked a little too well. Instead of enhancing his senses enough to be helpful, they became dialed up to eleven. It took Declan a year to acclimate himself with hours of training and help from the coven he tried to assist.

From that point, life became rather routine that was broken up now and then by traveling and settling elsewhere when too many people remarked on how youthful he continued to look. Even his visits by the witch became routine, their interactions becoming tiresome in a boring way. He continued on in this fashion, eventually returning to Havenwood several years ago to take over an occult shop when it's owner decided to retire. After leading such an uneventful life in the 20th and part of the 21st century, Declan can't help but feel that his life is about to change in a wholly unexpected way...

gif source / brucee-waynee

[thebookhabituk]

(via The Best Books Of 2018)

2018 was a year of relative calm, following the tumult of 2017. It was my first full year in the US and a year in which (following my decision to abandon academia) I made a whole lot of decisions regarding my future. The calm certainly served my reading habits and 2018 ended up being one of my most productive years. Not only did I manage to redesign and relaunch The Book Habit following a few years off, I also made my way through 38 books. Having seen some people’s literary accomplishments, I recognise that this number pales in comparison to what many of you have achieved. But I managed to read with a breadth that makes me incredibly proud of my ‘year in books’. I finally combated and conquered the monstrous Moby Dick (and learnt a whole lot about whales in the process), I ticked off a couple more Dickensian works, and I made my way through a considerable number of brand new publications.

This January I’m going to be writing a few posts to do with setting up 2019 as a year for reading – figuring out what your goals are, uncovering some tips on how to read more efficiently, and listing some of the books that you might want to watch out for in the coming year. To start us off, however, I’m going to reflect back on my favourite publications of 2018. It was an incredible year for fiction! So take a look through my list, let me know whether you agree with my picks, and, as always, new recommendations are very welcome!

1. There There by Tommy Orange (Knopf)

There There is Tommy Orange’s debut novel and probably my favourite read of 2018. I read it a few months ago and still can’t shake its power. Taken from my own review of the book: “There There details the journeys of its 12 narrators, connected through a variety of familial relationships and, more abstractly, a shared exploration of the meaning of belonging within the context of contemporary Native American communities.” Building up to the Oakland Powwow, each character is forced to confront the question “of what it means to be Native American in a society that is, for them a product of violence, displacement, and loss.”

This novel was easily the most powerful and evocative of those I read in 2018. It calls attention to the manner in which the triumphant are afforded the ability to write history as they choose, excluding narratives that fail to serve their purpose. The Native American community has been intensely impacted by this process of exclusion and Tommy Orange’s debut work is a vital move toward the reclamation of the right of victims to tell their own stories.

2. The Overstory by Richard Powers (Norton)

Another incredibly forceful read, The Overstory is a moving exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature (a full review of this book will be coming on Friday). The story is told with remarkable breadth, through the experiences of an array of disconnected characters united in their developing fascination with trees. Although abundant with fact, Powers crafts The Overstory with such skill that any learning on the part of the reader takes place with real ease. His expansive narrative captures the diversity of human experience – growth, love, death, ambition – whilst ensuring that the reader never loses sight of the manner in which these fleeting journeys remain shadowed by the depth and immensity of the natural world.

The novel serves as a wake-up call and an effective one. It reminds us of the ways in which we walk our lives almost totally unable to see or recognise the world around us and the destruction that mankind systematically brings to bear upon nature. The Overstory is as enlightening as it is engaging. It should be required reading as a compelling admonition of our own wilful ignorance:

“The Greeks had a word, xenia – guest friendship – a command to take care of traveling strangers, to open your door to whoever is out there, because anyone passing by, far from home, might be God. Ovid tells the story of two immortals who came to Earth in disguise to cleanse the sickened world. No one would let them in but one old couple, Baucis and Philemon. And their reward for opening their door to strangers was to live on after death as trees – an oak and a linden – huge and gracious and intertwined. What we care for, we will grow to resemble. And what we resemble will hold us, when we are us no longer…”

3. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak (Knopf)

Bridge of Clay was a book that I wasn’t expecting to love as much as I did. Although I was enamoured with the unique narrative style of The Book Thief, it had been ten years since this publication and a lot of the shine of excited expectation had certainly worn off. However, Bridge of Clay is just further demonstration of the fact that Zusak really knows what he’s doing when it comes to crafting complex, believable characters. From my review of the book: “Bridge of Clay follows the story of the five Dunbar brothers, living an almost feral existence following the death of their mother and abandonment by their father. Their life together is tribal: full of boyish violence, understated love for one another, and a fierce preservation of their mother’s memory.” At the return of the father, asking for help with building a bridge across the river by his house, however, the status quo that the boys have established in his absence is effectively demolished. Clay is the only brother that agrees to help. From there the novel follows Clay’s journey as “the bridge-builder whose love for stories allows him to rebuild a family shattered by tragedy.”

Bridge of Clay was such an unexpectedly moving book. The grief that transcends it is palpable but is tempered by Clay’s immovable determination to achieve reconciliation through an exploration of the stories on which his life, and the lives of his parents, are constructed. Although it was at times difficult to keep track of the various narrative threads that the novel explores, its incredibly poignant examination of familial love and shared tragedy transcends any over-ambition on Zusak’s part. It’s an amazing book and definitely one of my favourite publications of 2018.

4. Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe was a book that had been on my radar for quite a few months before I actually got around to reading it. I ended up selecting it as my pick for the tiny long-distance book club that I belong to along with two of my best friends. We’d had a good track record with impressive female writers and the excitement that surrounded Miller’s novel meant that it served as a natural choice for our intense Skype-based literary interrogation (truly just drinking tea and chatting away on various tangents). Before delving into Circe, I had enough time to make my way through Miller’s debut novel – and winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2012 – The Song of Achilles. Although the book had its flaws (you can read my review of it here), I loved so much of what Miller was able to accomplish in her re-telling of the legend of Achilles and the Battle of Troy.

In a similar vein to The Song of Achilles, Circe offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the life of Circe – the witch who is best known for her appearance in The Odyssey and her relationship with Odysseus. It is an interesting premise that lends itself fully towards Miller’s determination to centralise relatively faceless and one-dimensional characters from Greek myth. Told in the first person, the narrative of Circe generates a remarkable amount of sympathy toward the immortal daughter of the titan Helios. We follow her challenges as a unremarkable and diminished member of Helios’ court and her banishment to the island Aeaea. Part of what makes Circe’s tale such an interesting choice is her place at the centre of many of the most fascinating stories of Greek myth. She helps her sister Pasiphae deliver herself of the minotaur (this part of the story involves some perplexing logistics regarding Pasiphae’s encounter with a white bull), she cleanses Jason and Medea of their ‘sins’, and she plays host to Odysseus and his crew.

Circe was assigned the ‘feminist’ label almost immediately upon publication. For this novel, the label feels like a heavy duty to carry. Circe’s decisions are driven in large part by the men in her life and this is something from which she never entirely escapes. I was left feeling that something was slightly lacking once I’d closed the novel, but I think this has more to do with the expectations that labelling a work of fiction ‘feminist’ can bring to bear. However, Circe remains a fascinating read and one that I breezed through in little time. The plot of the story truly recommends itself and Miller’s easy narration holds the reader’s interest throughout. I’ll definitely be waiting with excitement for any of Miller’s future offerings!

[ganymedesclock]

Carry That Ghost, ch.2

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warning: animal death

Summary: A galra mercenary and a human prisoner survive on an abandoned base. This chapter- Samuel Holt, with a clearer mind, begins to pry loose some insight about his enigmatic host.

           All research fundamentally comes back to data. Strip away the tools, the laboratory settings, even the capacity to conduct experiments to a great degree- and what remains, inevitably, is the researcher’s mind- information, its categorization and evaluation.

           Since his unexpected departure from Kerberos, Sam Holt has been gathering a lot of data. Not particularly in the faith that he might survive and eventually carry it all back to Earth, to his colleagues- that had seemed a very grim thing, and even now, he doesn’t see any particular route off Elku, much less one that could carry him across the incredible breadth of galaxies.

           But regardless, he is a pioneer in this situation, relatively speaking- the Kerberos mission had been the furthest ever travelled by human beings, and if nothing else can be said for his situation, he’s gone a lot further than that. He has data- quite valuable data, though that distinction doesn’t mean quite as much as it might have in the past.

           The important thing was, he supposed, that it generated a semblance of control. Having been restrained and harmed more or less at the whim of his captors, they had left the mind more or less alone.

           (Some small mercy. They certainly had the capacity to violate that- those hooded figures, the druids. As far as he understood they were a precious resource seldom loaned out, certainly not to a failed mining camp like Elku- and not to probe the mind of someone who was described as quite a disappointment, considering one of the other specimens of his species)

           But now, with the base silent and empty, and nothing but his aloof host and the peculiar gift of the three creatures she brought in to light one of the rooms for company, he has the capacity to collect a lot more information than he has before. His wanderings are limited- a few times he collapses from overexertion and his host complains viciously every time her intervention is required.

           (And yet, does nothing to stop him. A novelty; he has not seen her exert herself much, but with her size alone, and that of the creatures she returns with for food, makes him suspect that she could very simply break him over her knee if she so chose.)

           But time is on his side. He grows stronger; it isn’t long before he’s able to walk a complete circuit around the base, provided he takes breaks to rest himself. And without guards bearing down on him, or herding him from place to place- he can complete his map of the place, answer several other inquiries that have been nagging at him.

           In his mind, the information falls neatly into categories, leafs of imagined paper- a research journal, to the point that he knows what he might’ve scribbled in the margins rather than written in the main structure itself.

           Heading: The Galra. Militaristic alien race. Large, powerful. Claimed to have maintained an empire for ten thousand years (decafebes? He’s uncertain of the terminology). Seemingly, near-universally met with fear or dread (sample size narrow, exclusively other prisoners). By some accounts, claimed to have destroyed entire planets. Tall, wide-shouldered, long-limbed, clawed and fanged.  Universally gold-eyed, body covered in fur. Humanoid, leonine, possibly reptilian.

           Subheadings:

           Telok, warden, male. Commander of the Elku base, seeks a more luxurious assignment. Frequently discusses alleged traditional galra creed that only the strong deserve to live. Peculiar considering the state of his prosthetic arm- seemingly, the empire does not consider physical disability to be weakness, perhaps a byproduct of advanced medical technology. Slate blue complexion, unusually tall. Abandoned post and withdrew soldiers and prisoners with him, leaving those in solitary confinement (just one)

           Soldiers, miscellaneous. Gray armor, subservient to Telok. Frequent new faces. Personnel who are gentle-tempered or otherwise deemed ineffective tend to disappear with little warning. (Reassigned? Executed? Unknown) Most common complexion is violet.

           And, now, more recently…

           Name unknown, self-described mercenary, female. Unaffiliated with the empire. Frequent use of colorful language towards aforementioned would suggest negative history. Carries an oddly decorated and well-maintained weapon emblazoned with some form of insignia. (Appears to have tried to test him with that symbol- was he supposed to recognize it? Was she disappointed, that he hadn’t?) Reddish purple complexion, black hair. Heavily scarred, one prosthetic arm and both legs. Most likely, deaf in one ear- considering angle and positioning of burn scars, possible ruptured eardrum from some manner of explosion.

           He reflects further: adept survivalist, would seem to have personal dwelling elsewhere on the planet and relocated to the base. Consistently invested in his survival- goal unknown. Very evasive to direct questioning.

           Evasive. A peculiar quality, and one that comes back to the main mystery of his host. Simply, she has no reason to oblige him at all. If the galra truly are as the warden and his staff suggested- a culture that prioritizes justification by might and brutality- then the very fact that she is far more powerful than he is should be evidence that she has no reason to answer him at all, much less continue to provide him with food.

           And yet, now that he is able to maintain a more normal schedule, she seems to seek out his company at mealtimes. And yet, she replies in frugal mouthfuls of words that often raise more questions than they answer, as if feeling he’s owed some manner of explanation even when she does not want to give one

           Acknowledging him as a colleague- an exasperating one, but one who is entitled to do as he pleases, provided it does not strike her as self-destructive.

           When has that become a novelty of this significance? He has to wonder what this says about his situation- the frame of his mind. Very likely he has not come out of this as untouched as he might have believed. (unlikely to find an unbiased psych evaluation in space. He’ll just have to manage, but, he’s quite good at that, at this point)

           It’s entirely possible, of course, that she is being insincere in the interest of warming him over to her. Convenient, of course, that his bid at escape saw him brought back to the base- but her behavior doesn’t seem calculated. If anything, her petulance would seem to be entirely counterintuitive. She does not press him for information any more than he tries to chase her half-answers.

           But she has to have something to gain for it. There’s a reason she’s helping him.

           Hypothesis: The mercenary may be withholding information actively to manipulate him.

           This calls for experimentation.

           Fortunately, the mercenary’s behavior at this point is not terribly difficult to predict. They have fallen into something of a pattern. She rises before he does in the evening- bathes, he assumes (the base does not use water- rather, a kind of dust mixed with some kind of oils. Curious, but works rather well- he has to wonder if it implies the galra are desert creatures, and perhaps their fur is not conductive to water) – and usually about the time he wakes up, she’s heading out to hunt. Near what he can reckon is midnight, she usually returns, unless something has gone wrong, with meat in tow and a handful of foraged vegetation or fruit.

           Today, she is slightly late, and obviously irritable. A part of him that is very used to avoiding confrontations with guards at this point recoils-

           (She hasn’t struck him once in several weeks. Even if she does mean badly, she wants him alive and unharmed.)

           There’s something universal about the way she eases into place, grumbling incoherently and working kinks out of her shoulder. This time, she seems to have mostly captured birds, a small comfort. He’s grown rather partial to the company of the lizards, and there’s something dismaying about eating their relatives.

           Something in him still hesitates, the words on his tongue, until she’s settled into the rhythm of cleaning and dressing the birds.

           “Have you been on Elku for a long time?”

           “Ten years, best as I figure.”

           Ah, yes. He’s heard the locals practice alternative timekeeping. He has to wonder about said locals- if they knew the prison was here. What they looked like, their culture.

           “Hard to stay under the empire’s radar.”

           Her words snap him from his reverie- it’s odd to hear her offer information about herself unprompted.

           “I would think staying on an occupied planet would be counterintuitive.”

           “If you’re bad at it. Elku didn’t put up a fight. They all ran to their temples, and the empire couldn’t hunt them down. Didn’t care to. Empire thinks anyone worth being afraid of will come out and fight them first.”

           He considers the way the weapon moves in her hand. He has never seen her sharpen it, once- and yet it flows smoothly through anything she chooses to cut.

           “You don’t approve?”

           “Anyone with sense knows you can’t pick every fight. The empire’s too used to winning. They forget not everyone picks fights, and victory has different meanings.” She turns to smile at him- closed lips and eyes half-lidded, it is a softer expression than usually comes out of her. The firelight between them illuminates the left half of her face, a relative wasteland of old reddish scars, wide burns cut with longer, jagged paths.

           “…How did that happen?”

           Somewhat to his surprise, she lofts her head, puts it in better lighting. “Like it?”

           Unexpected; he fumbles his words. “It’s… ah, impressive.” Certainly must have been a sight when it was fresh. An old thing, now, but as much as it must have dwindled, it stretches from brow to jaw, and dominates a third of her face.

           Victory has different meanings. Counterculture- or possibly, the same culture. A narrative of strength in a context that sees no shame in prostheses- a boast of survivability, perhaps, that she is still alive after such a wound. He suggests something to that nature, and she laughs- an actual bark of laughter, rather than the huffs and half-growls other situations have drawn from her.

           “Because it was worth it, Samuel-Holt. And no one can make me regret it.”

           By that time, she’s finished her work, and goes to clean her hands and weapon, as she usually does. When she returns, she doesn’t speak further- but he can only wonder what she gained in exchange for that scar.

           Instead, he remarks, “I told you my name. It’s only fair that I ask yours.”

           “You’re a strange man to believe in fairness after being a prisoner.”

           “Call it optimism, perhaps. I’ve encountered a lot of setbacks in my career, and I’m not throwing in the towel quite yet.”

           She hums in amusement, a contralto rumble low in the chest. Her face is still very soft, and he can almost imagine a very large cat purring to itself.

           “Enza.”

           “Hmm?”

           “My name. Most don’t ask.”

           “I have a feeling your conversations are not usually this long. Am I just fortunate, then?”

           She rolls her shoulders, turning the question from one side of her head to the other. “Or you chatter a lot. Especially when you have a fever.”

           He still could not recall much of the time the mercenary- Enza- had first encountered him. Delirium tended to do that, as well as whatever venom or microbes that creature had inflicted on him. Regardless, she isn’t the first to accuse him of prattling. “Do I, now?”

           “You asked for Colleen, many times.”

           His throat closes, suddenly, and it is an effort to lever his voice free. “…My wife. Explains- well, I wasn’t in my right mind. She’s far from here, thank heavens.”

           Enza is regarding him with a very odd look. “You’re partnered?”

            “If that’s what your people call it, yes.” Matrimony isn’t universal on Earth, there’s no reason for it to be elsewhere, but he cannot help but be a little surprised that she seems to at least recognize the concept. It’s hard to imagine the individuals that captured and held him as people who had families to come home to.

           She picks at one of the roasting birds, not looking at him. “Do you have children, Samuel-Holt?”

           Something in her tone compels him to be truthful. “Two of them. One of them was with me when… I encountered your people. I’m not sure what became of him, or our pilot. Wherever they are, I hope they’re doing well.” He hesitates, regards the mercenary, her strangely thoughtful mood. “Do you?”

           A silence, stretching long enough that he half-expects she simply won’t answer him.

           Then, softly, “One. Where the empire can’t put its hands on him.”

[spjcomicart]

On The Futility of Longing

Stefano Junior

                          On The Futility of Longing

A handsome stuttering sailor with a mysterious past impressed aboard a warship, a fourteen year old girl suffering an unfortunate onset of blindness desperate for fatherly affection, a gaunt and haunted mother hindered by secrets, a thirteen year old insightful girl impeded by circumstance, and an aristocratic businessman who through devoted obsession curates a private museum of memories, are among a cast of lovelorn, lustful, and longing characters within the pages of Billy Budd by Herman Melville, the Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, Winesberg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk-all disparate pieces of literature occupying different eras, yet unified in their homogeneous tragedy.

One of the many unique aspects of the human animal is its’ capacity, not just for self awareness and conversely the awareness of others as uniquely individual, but with its breadth of empathy and emotional intelligence; the latter forever remaining the focus of artists and writers across all genre, since humans have had the ability to write, to explore, exorcise, and condemn.  What are we seeking and yearning for when our basic needs are met?  After we are fed, after we have found shelter and slept, after we have found labor or a function in our contemporary society, are we ever sated?  It is this human longing that is the bedrock of religion and faith-a means by which people can describe their universe and singular purpose amidst a terrible uncertainty in an ephemeral and fickle physical world that is most assuredly brief and final for all living beings.  

It is this longing, coupled with the inability and/or afflictions obstructing the characters aforementioned, to assuage their inherent longing that despite their greatest wishes and self admonishments result in a seemingly fated doom for all of them.  What purpose did their silent prayer or intangible human longing serve? As humans, we are born alone and perish the same--yet in order to thrive we must commingle and develop relationships, both professional and interpersonal to further our survival and propagate the species.  Yet even when these tasks are met, as is the case with Elizabeth Willard in Winesberg, Ohio, the loneliness and longing for which she suffers is almost magnified by her inability to communicate with her son and those around her.   Is human internal suffering the price for evolution? And if there is no assurance of peace and fulfillment from an intangible yet perceivably real experience as human longing, especially given the ultimate misfortune of these characters despite their deepest urgencies, than what is the point of longing?

“I never took the smile away from anybody's face And that's a desperate way to look

For someone who is still a child”, lyrics by Big Country via their eponymous self titled track from 1983 perhaps best personify Melvilles’ charmingly innocent stuttering protagonist.  Longing for acceptance and the power over language ultimately prove to be his undoing when, unbeknownst to him, he inadvertently creates a foe in the guise of lieutenant Claggart who both admires, envies, and perhaps lusts for the handsome buck whom has usurped him in popularity through naive charm and guile on the British Warship Bellipotent in the maritime exploration of the 18th century.  

Despite Billy’s best intentions and even after discovering the accusations laid forth against him, Billy’s inability to overcome his handicap and control his, up to that point unseen, fury betray him and ultimately doom him to an unjust adjudication and death.   How often are we, as humans, at the mercy of circumstances and forces unknown to us when we embark on a new venture or employment?  Regardless of our best intentions, private observations, rumination, and wishes, are just as helpless as Billy, if a colleague, a manager, an educator, an administrator, etc of malicious intent-or perhaps arriving at a misconception even, acts against our interest, and we are just as powerless as Billy to stop it.  Billy, of course, is ever the more tragic, because we observe omnipotently as the reader, that he is without recrimination and halted by his own inability to speak, seems a pawn in a greater metaphor of our lives as actors converging and collapsing upon corridor upon corridor on wooden ship rocked precariously by a violent and treacherous sea--a veritable chutes and ladders game-board of existence where the player has no concept of what may befall him/her next and no inner or outward pleading can circumvent arriving at following destination.

In the Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, N’er do well photographer and friend to the inquisitive and moralizing upper class-man Gregers Werle, (for who's father both he and his father Ekdal are both capable of survival, yet for reasons that become apparent later, are also beset by his betrayal) struggles to both assert his dominance in his marriage and supply the attention his ill stricken daughter Hedvig so desperately vies for.  But it is in Hedvig herself, a cheerful and hopeful innocent amidst a storm of an envy, hardship, and the product of infidelity and betrayal herself that proves the most tragic of this group of characters.  The wounded wild duck saved and cared for by the senilic grandfather in the attic is a metaphor for her failing body, an affliction the (that) will eventually serve reveal her origin and dismantle her life.  Though she lauds for the affection of her presumed father, ever facet of her life conspires to prevent her that validation: her withering eyesight, the seeds of discord planted by Gregers, a foreboding image on a book of her grandfathers she often revisit in his collection,:

“But then I look at the pictures. — There is one great big book called Harrison's History of London. It must be a hundred years old; and there are such heaps of pictures in it. At the beginning there is Death with an hour-glass and a woman. I think that is horrid. “

And ultimately the revelation fo her illegitimacy which leads her to commit suicide, a vain attempt to entreat her “father” even as a final solution of devotion.  Hedvig seems to have been born to die before living life by circumstances beyond her scope of understanding and ultimately succumbed to it by her own design-alleviating her longing for the love and adoration she craved from a father who, though ironically was not biologically her own, but was arguably the only father she had known.  

Elizabeth Willard in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesberg Ohio, the ill stricken wife of a failed politician who eventually abandons her and inheritor of the depreciating and dilapidated hotel in Winesberg, mother to would be journalist and central figure George, becomes a cartoonish ghoul like figure amidst the hotel walls, an actualization of inhibited longing and unrealized potential.  

"When I have killed him," she tells herself, "something will snap within myself and I will die also. It will be a release for all of us."  

We learn that in her more vibrant and philandering youth, Elizabeth meant to extricate herself from her unhappy marriage, revealing an inner turmoil and perhaps a penchant for violence, becomes unable to do so, and thus leads a silently tortured existence despite her son, for whom she is equally unable to communicate with--even so far as not being able to reveal to him the whereabouts of money she had hid away for herself in the event of her escape, on her death bed.   Elizabeth’s inability to vocalize her yearning becomes the central aspect of her characterization-maybe even the crux of her recurring illness that will ultimately take her life.  What good did any of her internal pining possible provide if she was unable to will action and leave?--solely an entire lifetime haunted by youth and circumstance, rage and desperation, the alienation of a son, and finally oblivion.  What value did her feelings hold if they could not furnish her the tools of her emancipation?  

Trapped in our psyche or trapped in a secret annexe.   The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank provides historical and biographical evidence of how the real world is no kinder or forgiving those individuals that are victim to bad timing and circumstance.  Armed with an enthusiasm for learning, self examination, inherent insightfulness, and youthful optimism, Anne accounts the trials and travails she, her family, the Van Dann family, and Mr. Dussel, coupled with office employees of the 263 Prinsengracht office building in Holland who assisted in hiding the Jewish group from Gestapo police during the second world war in a secret attic two floor annex accessed behind a trick bookshelf, over the course of two and a half years.  Ultimately the group are captured just before the allies liberated Holland and Anne perishes in a concentration camp.   Though confined to shared cramped quarters and rationed food, Anne struggles and registers the plights of every teenager, the want of a brighter future, the validation of her parents, and the affection of a love interest.  

“I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”

Though Anne was wise enough to recognize the severity of her situation and of those being persecuted by the Nazis, she never lost her sense of longing and optimism for a better life and the satisfaction fo having her lust requited by Peter Van Dana, or the respect of her parents.  She would never realize the freedom of the former, but ironically would the latter after her death and the remainder of her diary was collected by her father and published.   But Annes’ own life was also, as in the characters in The Wild Duck, or Winesberg Ohio subject to circumstance and malevolent forces like in Billy Budd that would ultimately doom her.   No amount of self analysis, hopeful prayers, or adolescent fantasizing could possibly be assured to save her.  

Anne differs, in that, through her entries, we as readers have evidence of her innermost longings and perspective--a collection of memories forever frozen in time, by one who’s imprisonment was imposed on her.    In Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, Kemal Bey self imposes himself amidst a collection of trinkets, personal effects, and ephemera in his mother’s abandoned apartment that subsequently becomes an art museum in the real world imitating art in Orhan’s own creation in Istanbul, where which the story takes place in the 1970s, much as Anne’s Secret Annexe has become a museum of dark history.

In the case of the Kemal Bey, who we as the readers are deceived into believing is the true narrator of this robust tale of class, lust, love, addiction, and ultimate tragedy it is his desperate yearning for someone else, his shopgirl and much younger cousin Fusun with whom he engages in an affair that leads both the the separation of he and his fiancé, Fusun’s marrying another and the many years that ultimately reunite them, that unravels in the ruin and destruction of Fusun.  Kemal believes his love for Fusun can overcome the convention of his time and class, Fusun’s marriage and time itself--his obsession and fixation on collecting mementos of their initial affair, ritualistic engagement with them, and insistence on breaking the barriers between them, seemingly cement their destiny together in his mind.  Early on we are reminded in a tale about a distant relative relayed by Kemal’s mother ,by the true author, Orhan, whom we learn plays a fictional version of himself as confidante and biographer to Kemal, that a woman like Fusun, who is aspirational and libertine will quite literally crash and burn.   The very conception of Kemal and Fusun’s relationship harkens back to a childhood witness to another car crash overlooking a ritual blood sacrifice of lamb.  How could Fusun escape these heraldic omens that the author and has spun for her?  

Of course, she does not and is violently penetrated beside her beloved Kemal in a booze generated car crash that ends her short life and fulfills the metaphoric prophesies strewn throughout the story.

The central feature of all these characters is their inability to circumvent the very circumstances lain before them that result in their demise, regardless of their deep desires and cravings for validation, extrication, absolution, and love.  So what purpose does longing actually serve once our basest needs for survival are met, if not only to perpetuate an ever expiring existence of suffering, if not to be definitely met by a cruel fate of destruction, but not necessarily alleviated in a lifetime--especially if we are most often not given prescience or the tools needed to circumvent our circumstances and ascertain and attain whatever metaphysical “grail” we need to quench that uniquely human thirst.

SPJ

December 2018

[ilovemyarchitect]

This week we have a great interview with Tim Witzig.  I had the pleasure of meeting Tim this year and we had a lengthy conversation.  I think you will be impressed with his take on the world of architecture and design.

About Tim Witzig

Tim Witzig, AIA, Principal at PKSB Architects, is known for his breadth of understanding.  He has played an instrumental role in the success of PKSB for almost two decades.

Mr. Witzig has overseen teams for numerous projects. His experience includes, public and private schools, religious spaces, residential interiors, personalized homes, commercial interiors and a history of projects with civic importance. He served as a designer and Project Manager for the interior renovations of the AIA award-winning Franklin, Mansfield and Shoreham Hotels in New York City.

He was responsible for directing fabrication for guest area upgrades, interior elements and furnishings for all three hotels. Mr. Witzig has also participated in the design and construction administration of the Physics Building Addition and Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Research Building at the University of Virginia, refurbishments for the Joseph E. Seagram Company in New York, and customized hotel resort interiors for the Walt Disney World Company. Prior to joining PKSB in 1990, Mr. Witzig was a designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with a team developing the first designs for Worldwide Plaza at Columbus Circle. His participation in designing and managing projects with various scales, local code requirements, and unique technical requirements has brought Mr. Witzig a broad understanding of the challenges our client’s face in realizing a project.

About the Firm

PKSB Architects was established in 1964 by Giovanni Pasanella. Celebrating over 50 years in practice, PKSB is recognized as an award-winning full-service firm with a long history of completing projects of every scale and scope. Our practice areas include academic, preservation, institutional, residential, hospitality, public housing, infrastructure, public art, civic memorials, and houses of worship. PKSB’s efforts have been recognized with numerous design awards, including the prestigious P/A Award and AIA honors on the local, state and national levels.

While PKSB’s practice has evolved since its first years as Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg, a commitment to architecture that blends artistry, craft, and pragmatism has always defined its work. The firm has a modernist foundation, but does not rely on a set “PKSB style.” Rather, the needs of the client come first, and PKSB’s strength lies in its ability to create solutions that respond to the unique aspects of each client, program, and location.

“Since its founding in 1964, PKSB has distinguished itself as an innovative practice whose projects combine artistry, craft and pragmatism. A spirit of collaboration and a willingness to explore have been the hallmarks of the firm since its inception.”

When and why did you decide to become an Architect?     

High School age. Seemed to encompass all my interests when I listed them. Before those years I wanted to be a Disney Imagineer.

What were some of the challenges of achieving your dream?  

Math. Undergraduate math, calculus, trig were such failures. Cost of school, lived in a marginal neighborhood in St. Louis to keep my living costs low for a couple of undergraduate years. During grad school working during breaks, working in the library for a little cash in my pocket when I should have been in studio probably. The library that I worked in up at Columbia was the library devoted to library sciences…only… could not have been more boring.

Any memorable clients or project highlights?    

Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945. She made me laugh… not right away. You got the joke on the way home in the re-telling. She wanted a beautiful new modern sculptural stair in her NY apartment renovation. I did not get to design the stair but I watched the process and helped do the drawings for the shell of the apartment. I learned a lot working with her, and helping make presentations and seeing how all talented  people involved worked.

How does your family support what you do?   

They listen to my ranting. Patiently.

How do Architects measure success?  

I think, gladly, that measure is made on very large field. I think if one helps, no matter how small, to make a piece of the world a more beautiful or usable place with our buildings, cities, infrastructure… one is a success. If you enjoy it as well? Huge success.

What matters most to you in design? 

Constructability, utility, timelessness, passing on inspiration to the users in some way.

What do you hope to achieve over the next 2 years? 5 years? 

Focus and allow others to run with the balls.

Who is your favorite Architect? Why? 

I do not really have a favorite, but if pressed on just the Architect part and not the human being part, then Frank Lloyd Wright. He achieved a very warm and approachable transcendence with his own style. If you look up Architect in the dictionary, it would not be wrong to see his picture there I think.

Do you have a coach or mentor? 

A few. The founders of the Architecture firm I am a part of now, Henry Stolzman, and Wayne Berg would go day-by-day explaining the practice and business of Architecture. My current business partner Sherida Paulsen brings reality to my day dreams. Going way back to school days there was William B. Bricken and Leslie Laskey. The latter should me how you could live like a designer and get interested in everything.

What is your favorite historic and modern (contemporary) project? Why? 

That’s so hard there are so many on both ends. Villa Malaparte in Capri. and almost anything Louis Kahn did, Yale British Art, currently I keep looking at Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and their Kim & Tritton Residence Hall. Over and over I stare at that simple building. 2 story residential dorm building with no stairs or elevators inside. Genius.

Where do you see the profession going over the next few decades?  

I think it’s very exciting, and I think Architects or folks who know a thing or two about making buildings will be in high demand. I think the firms will get larger and folks within the firms will be specialized a bit more. I think Architecture as a defined terms will blur and blend into other things we use.

What type of technology do you see in the design and construction industries? 

The 3D modeling and Building Information Modeling and ability to bring that up zoom in to look at all of the “guts” anytime and anywhere,, well it is already happening now and it should just get better and more fun. I would like to see a dose of A.I. in some of the mundane and complex tasks we do, like crosschecking current rules, zoning, codes, that come into play. I would like a computer programmer take a crack at developing a “ArchAI” program that will compile a basic building envelope and create a set of drawings just off say 10 basic inputs or dimensions you give it.

Who / what has been your greatest influence in design? 

Failure.

Which building or project type would you like to work on that you haven’t been part of yet? 

I would love to work on a large community center or cultural icon like the 92Y (92nd Street Y)

How do you hope to inspire / mentor the next generation of Architects?  

You sit with them see what they are doing and ask questions? If there is something good there, progress or talent in a particular direction you help develop that and point them to something that they might find helpful or interesting based on the direction they are already heading in. You might point them in a direction where they might get un-stuck (if they share their sticking point). Then they come back and ask again.  Then the mentoring kind of begins.

What advice would you give aspiring architects (K-12)? College students? Graduates? 

Just keep swimming. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Do not be afraid to fail.

What does Architecture mean to you? 

  Every time I get mad at it and curse it for being hard, or impossible it comes back, I see a beautiful building and I just think it’s great and there are so many talented people to watch and buildings to visit. I guess it’s just ingrained in there and I hope I can enjoy it as long as possible.

What is your design process? 

That is a hard question. It really depends. But Testing and Tossing is such a big part. I used to say do not draw more in the first half of the day that you cannot erase in the second half. Of course we don’t have to spend time erasing anymore, so we have more time for flipping stuff on its head and seeing what can be gained. One tries to list, develop or articulate the restraints, constraints and guiderails first so you can get to the design phase. Then the Testing and Tossing begins. I still believe in the old fashioned pin-up in a room and let the criticism flow.

If you could not be an Architect, what would you be? 

The animation thing I guess. It’s never too late to go to Hollywood. Yes it is I think.

What is your dream project?  

The Museum of the Tour de France. It must have views and a fantastic café. And banks of Zwifting set-up’s with a huge High Def screens floating in front of real glazed views.

What advice do you have for a future Executive leader? 

Help others succeed and then encourage and praise, daily if you can. Sit right across or next to someone at their desk for bit, avoid constant big meetings. Smaller ones. You do the leg work the big meeting might have made easier.

What are three key challenges you face as a leader in business today and one trend you see in your industry? 

Technology costs, Marketing. Managing cash flow. I see a trend in larger firms as an umbrella with smaller brands below     

What one thing must an executive leader be able to do to be successful in the next 3 years? 

Listen, stay positive, learn how people do what they do.

What are some executive insights you have gained since you have been sitting in the executive leadership seat – or what is one surprise you have encountered as the world of business continues to morph as we speak?  

Younger people are very creative in the way they work and use software. I think it’s important to “give in” and “give up” the ways one might have done something in the past. Even if those ways worked well before. Be willing to re-prioritize what you thought was important in how projects are realized and mananged.

Final Thoughts on How to Be Successful?   

Keep a sense of humor, laugh and value irony along the way. Take some time to enjoy the journey and not just the finish line. Realize everyone one else is trying to do the same thing, and help whenever you can. Each client is a chance to learn something new.

We would love to hear from you on what you think about this post. We sincerely appreciate all your comments – and – if you like this post please share it with friends. And feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss ideas for your next project!

Sincerely, FRANK CUNHA III I Love My Architect – Facebook

Gift Ideas from ILMA

Our Exclusive ILMA Interview with Tim Witzig of @PKSBArchitects This week we have a great interview with Tim Witzig.  I had the pleasure of meeting Tim this year and we had a lengthy conversation.  

[montydozier]

In Brand Research Context Is King

With all the talk about self-driving cars and connected-home innovations, it would be easy to forget that Google began as just a search engine—and a simple search engine at that. Since the company incorporated in 1998, simplicity has been the hallmark of the Google homepage, which offers little more than a box for search terms and an abundance of empty white space. Yet back in 2000, even with such a straightforward product, Google noticed a problem among its user base. Although people were visiting the site, they weren’t searching for anything.

Puzzled by this phenomenon, the company sent a team to a nearby college to do some real-world research. The team discovered that users weren’t searching for anything because they were endlessly waiting for the page to finish loading. Used to busy sites with colorful animations and links to other places, many users saw the white page, assumed it hadn’t finished loading, and left for other search engines that would load faster. Without the in-person research, Google might have assumed that its simple design was unappealing to users. Instead, it was able to solve the problem with the simplest of fixes—adding a copyright tag to the bottom of the page in order to signal to users that the page had fully loaded. Too often, companies assume they know why customers behave the way they do without actually getting out and talking to customers.

Why Primary Brand Research Is A Mandate

A common belief seems to persist that Big Data is the cure to all business ailments. Whenever someone admits that they don’t know why something happens, someone else will assuredly suggest that Big Data holds the answer. And, in fairness, data can tell organizations a lot, such as what their customers are buying and whether they are satisfied with their purchases. What Big Data fails to give us is context. It doesn’t tell us that the shopper chose a particular brand of toilet paper to placate a screaming toddler who “needs” the one with the puppies on it. It doesn’t tell us that although the shopper bought a chest freezer, he plans to retrofit it with his own temperature controls because what he really wants is a refrigerator that doesn’t have the built-in shelves and space constraints of the upright models he can find in stores. Indeed, Big Data fails to provide crucial information about why customers make decisions and how they interact with products after they are purchased. It is notoriously bad at telling us how customers emotionally relate to products, how they use them in ways that companies never envisioned, and for how long they have been living with a product’s little annoyances, just waiting for a better solution to come around.

Consumer goods companies—and those who generally have interaction with the end users of their products—tend to understand the limitations of Big Data better than most. Companies such as P&G, Dell, and General Motors are well known for having ethnographic researchers on staff. Microsoft is reported to be the second-largest employer of anthropologists in the world. The benefits of primary research transcend industry and hold just as much value in such fields as financial services, health care, business IT, and a host of other areas across the B2C, B2B, and public sectors. At the end of the day, offering a new solution requires deep insights into how and why decisions are made, what level of frustration will push stakeholders to seek out new offerings, and what criteria new products and services will need to satisfy. Solutions that rely only on aggregated data, without underlying context, simply are not set up to succeed.

What Research Tools Are Available

Companies that aren’t used to doing primary research tend to think of focus groups as the primary way of gathering customer insights. To be sure, properly run focus groups can be an excellent way of getting a broad view of the customer landscape, often providing crucial insights that will be further tested and refined as you move toward a finalized new offering. But there are a wealth of other ways to gather these insights as well, with the right choice depending on the stage of the project, your mandate, and the amount of time available.

Many years ago, Roger Berkowitz, CEO of the Boston-based restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods, had requested some information from his management team about the dining experience his customers were having. Afraid that he was receiving a filtered version of the facts, he needed a quick way to assess whether this information was accurate or just what his employees thought he wanted to hear. He pulled together a group of frontline workers who interacted with restaurant patrons on a nightly basis. He didn’t hold a formal meeting or ask for a report. He didn’t commission a six-month study. He simply got together a few of the people who really knew the business’s customers, and he let them talk about what they were seeing at the restaurant. This ad hoc—but highly contextual—way of gathering insights into the customer experience worked out well for Berkowitz. He has now been doing it regularly for the past 18 years.

To suggest that there’s one right research technique would be a fallacy. The best research plans involve a mix of methods, balancing the need for breadth of information with fast and inexpensive ways to get just-in-time insights. Testing a quick hunch about customer behavior, for example, might require simply talking to a few dozen customers in a store. On the other hand, detailing the landscape of what jobs customers are trying to get done in their lives might warrant starting with a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews. As we will soon explore more deeply, the right choice of research methods depends on the questions you are attempting to answer.

A few years ago, Absolut—a leading maker of premium vodka and other spirits—began to think deeply about the different settings in which its products were consumed. For the bar and restaurant markets, the company felt good about the level of knowledge it had. Less clear, however, was what happened with vodka that was purchased for house parties. In order to figure out how to best market and sell its spirits to individuals, the company needed to learn what was important to hosts and partygoers. Given the need for context-specific insights, Absolut hired researchers to observe drinkers at 18 different house parties across the United States. One insight the company uncovered was that customers weren’t just hosts looking for a premium spirit that would impress their guests. In fact, a large portion of vodka purchasers were party guests who wanted to bring a small gift. More importantly, they wanted to bring a story. As it turned out, their purchasing decisions were heavily guided by the narrative that surrounded the drink, not the mark of quality on the bottle. Armed with new high-level insights into the different types of buyers who might be in the retail liquor market, Absolut then turned to quantitative surveys for market sizing and insight validation. Together, these research techniques gave the Absolut team a deep understanding of the retail liquor market, with a human perspective that the team could relate to.

Deciding Whom To Talk To

The final step, as you prepare to launch into your project, is deciding whom to speak with. One of the biggest questions our clients struggle with is how to start their research program: Do they focus on their existing customers or those who are not buying their products at all? In reality, there are three different groups you will want to reach, each of which can give you a different type of insight.

The first group consists of your existing customers. Customers who already purchase your products understand what they are buying, and they can tell you what your products are particularly good or bad at. Equally, they can tell you whether your product is being used awkwardly to solve a slightly different problem than what you intended and even whether your product is being used to address a job that your company never considered. Think about Kleenex—a product so ubiquitous and intuitive that the brand name conjures an instant image. Obvious, right? Actually, no. In the 1920s, Kleenex tissues were launched as disposable towels for removing makeup. It was thought that they would replace the grimy cold cream removal towels that were hanging in many bathrooms. Their maker eventually discovered, however, that many customers were using the product to blow their noses. The company quickly rebranded the product, and sales increased significantly. As of 2012, Kleenex had a brand value of $3.1 billion and was named by Forbes as one of the World’s Most Powerful Brands.

The second group to engage with consists of those customers currently buying competing products. Here, the goal is to learn what really makes those customers different, beyond the superficial answers that they are likely to start with. Look at Walmart, Target, and Kmart—three discount retailers in the United States that cater to very different customer types. Despite a number of similarities in selection and pricing, a quick survey of Target customers reveals that a number of its customers rarely consider shopping at Walmart or Kmart. Target satisfies emotional jobs that the other two do not. Although shoppers at all three stores have a high-priority job related to saving money, Target shoppers tend to be more image conscious. Their lifestyle choices and social groups motivate them to place a higher emphasis on both looking fashionable and buying in a socially responsible way. Through exclusive designer partnerships and ethics-focused product lines, Target has built a brand that aggressively focuses on customers who prioritize such image-based jobs. While Walmart may decide that those kinds of offerings distract from its low-price positioning, it certainly needs to consider these shoppers and understand why they avoid its aisles.

The final group to investigate involves those individuals who are not consuming the types of products you sell at all. Do these customers have a different set of jobs that they are looking to satisfy? Perhaps there is something else holding them back, such as the cost or accessibility of the solution. Regardless of why they are not consuming, these individuals offer valuable opportunities for expansion. And, by definition, your competitors are not winning there either. Let’s turn our attention to beer. In recent years, the big breweries have been facing increasing competition from craft brewers and cider makers. Leading brewer Anheuser-Busch sought to attract new customers—those who preferred cocktails to beer—by bringing beer to occasions where it was typically absent. The result was the Bud Light Lime-A-Rita, a product that built a premixed cocktail on the Bud Light Lime platform. The company found that leveraging Bud Light allowed it to make margaritas more approachable and more coed, giving the company a chance to promote an accessible Bud Light product at venues with traditionally low beer sales. This strategy created new occasions for beer consumption. At the same time, the margarita component made the idea of beer more appealing to female customers. While only about 30 percent of Bud Light drinkers are female, women represent around 65 percent of Lime-A-Rita drinkers. Lime-A-Rita sales were over $500 million for its first two years, with over 70 percent of that revenue coming through category expansion.

Meeting Customers In Their World

When we started our work for a U.S.-based health care provider, we designed a research plan to conduct focus groups to gain a broad understanding of how people in certain cities approached health care. The goal was to figure out how individuals chose a physician, what types of services they regularly took advantage of, and what they thought of our client as a possible site of care.

Qualitative interviews helped show that the target customer wouldn’t be defined by income, age, or other demographic variables. Loyalty to their existing physician, interest in alternative therapies like acupuncture, and other factors were attitudinal—and you couldn’t find those attitudes listed beside people’s names in the phone book. So the follow-on quantitative survey, which needed to gauge factors such as geographic pockets of demand and price sensitivity, required a different approach for finding the target audience. We gathered up our iPads, flew out to our prioritized neighborhoods, and met our target audience on their own turf. We intercepted the people who were exiting spas, natural food stores, and other appropriate establishments. Although we had them fill out a quantitative survey, we were also able to talk to them, observe them, and better understand why they answered survey questions the way they did. Our insights stopped what might have become an expensive foray into a service line that had little demand and instead focused the health system on a differentiated proposition serving a well-defined patient type completely overlooked by preexisting providers in the market.

Context Is King

Data is a valuable thing. Without context, however, it can also be misleading, and it can prompt organizations to make ill-fated decisions. Organizations that are launching new offerings need to talk to real people and understand the “why” behind the decisions they make. While there is no single best way of gathering customer insights, the best research plans answer specific questions and reduce unnecessary risks.

Primary research is a necessary component for ensuring that you understand the context in which purchasing decisions are made and for learning how products are used once they are in the hands of the end user. While Big Data gives us lots of information about what is being purchased, it doesn’t tell us much about why products are being purchased or how those products satisfy important jobs in customers’ lives.

A variety of research methods exist, and your approach should be selected based on the stage of the project, the questions you’re trying to resolve, and the resources available.

Talking to different customer types—including existing customers, competitors’ customers, and nonconsumers—can reveal different types of insights. Talk to all three groups to get a holistic picture of how people choose what to buy or what not to buy.

More of this approach is featured in my new book JOBS TO BE DONE: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation.

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