#the inquisitive j reviews

[science-lover33]

Decoding the Pharmacological Symphony of Turkey Tail Mushroom: An In-Depth Analysis of its Chemical Composition, Immunomodulatory Mechanisms, and Implications in Cancer Therapeutics 🍄🔬

Salutations, esteemed Tumblr intellectuals! Brace yourselves for a cerebral sojourn into the pharmacological labyrinth of Turkey Tail Mushroom, an exploration that transcends the ordinary and delves into the intricate interplay of its chemical constituents, the sophisticated mechanisms of immunomodulation, and the far-reaching implications of its therapeutic potential in the intricate landscape of cancer biology. Prepare your minds for an expedition into the realms of molecular complexity, immune orchestration, and therapeutic promise. Grab your favorite scientific journal, a pen, and perhaps a lab coat, for this journey is not for the faint of intellectual heart. ☕📚

Chemical Symphony: An Elaborate Choreography of Bioactive Compounds:

In the molecular ballet of Turkey Tail, bioactive compounds are the principal dancers, each executing a meticulously choreographed routine. Polysaccharopeptides (PSPs), intricate glycoproteins with immunomodulatory acumen, command attention. Through the fine-tuned modulation of immune responses, these compounds stimulate various facets of the immune system, orchestrating an elaborate dance that amplifies the body's ability to recognize and eliminate neoplastic cells. Concurrently, beta-glucans, linear glucose polymers, contribute to this biochemical ballet by fine-tuning immune cell responses, enhancing the overall antitumor immune surveillance.

Navigating the Anti-Tumor Terrain: A Molecular Expedition:

Our scientific cartography navigates the expansive anti-tumor terrain mapped out by Turkey Tail's polysaccharides. The inhibitory effects on tumor growth and metastasis are akin to molecular fortifications against cancer progression. Through intricate mechanisms involving the activation of natural killer cells, cytotoxic T cells, and macrophages, Turkey Tail emerges as a sentinel, curbing the unchecked proliferation of malignant cells. Additionally, its antioxidative prowess, rooted in compounds like ergosterol peroxide, further shields cellular structures from oxidative stress, a nexus in carcinogenesis.

Immersive References: Nourishment for the Inquisitive Intellect:

1. Stamets, P. (2012). "Turkey Tail: Old Medicine, New Hope." Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal, 11(1), 54–59.

- Stamets' exposé weaves a tapestry connecting ancient medicinal wisdom with contemporary insights, shedding light on Turkey Tail's multifaceted potential.

2. Wasser, S. P. (2011). "Current findings, future trends, and unsolved problems in studies of medicinal mushrooms." Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 89(5), 1323–1332.

- Wasser's comprehensive review acts as a meta-analysis, synthesizing the current knowledge landscape of medicinal mushrooms, positioning Turkey Tail within the broader discourse.

3. Sun, J. E., Ao, Z. H., Lu, Z. M., Xu, H. Y., Zhang, X. M., & Dou, W. F. (2002). "Antihyperglycemic and antilipidperoxidative effects of dry matter of culture broth of Inonotus obliquus in submerged culture on normal and alloxan-diabetes mice." Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 95(2-3), 285–292.

- In the realm of metabolic interactions, this study offers a glimpse into the potential implications of Turkey Tail compounds in managing hyperglycemia and lipid peroxidation.

4. Kidd, P. M. (2000). "The use of mushroom glucans and proteoglycans in cancer treatment." Alternative Medicine Review, 5(1), 4–27.

- Kidd's magnum opus serves as a compendium, dissecting the applications of mushroom-derived compounds in cancer therapeutics, providing a nuanced understanding.

Empowering the Community: A Call for Translational Excellence:

Knowledge is a potent elixir, yet its administration demands finesse. As we unlock the mysteries of Turkey Tail Mushroom, let us champion translational excellence, bridging the realms of bench and bedside. Always, without exception, seek the counsel of healthcare professionals, for personalized insights into the delicate interplay of molecular intricacies. Our collective journey extends beyond unraveling the pharmacological nuances; it's a clarion call to empower our community with the technical acumen to navigate the dynamic expanse of cancer research. 🌐💚

Your musings on this intricately detailed exploration are most welcome!

[nightshift-clocking-in]

💫 Interview Music Tag Game 💫

RULES: Put your playlist on shuffle. For each of the 10 interview questions, select a lyric from the random song that comes up. (Skip if there aren't any lyrics and make sure to drop the name of the song in your interview answer!)

Ty for the tag @crying-lightningx, and @jegulusofwesper

1. First off, how would you describe yourself in one sentence?

Awkward this is awkward

Letter to blueberry - Brye

2. What kind of [insert zodiac sign] are you?

[Aquarius]

It's a bitch convincing people to like you

I can't decide - Scissor Sister

3. You're visiting your favorite spot, what are you thinking about?

Nothin' in this world can stop the spread of her wings

Queen of Kings - Alessandra

4. If your life was a movie, what do you think the first review would say about it?

A background character for all my life

that friend - Mad Tsai

5. Say you get a book deal, what are you titling your memoir?

Keep looking for the Moon

Moon - Jonah Kegan

6. What would you say about your best friends?

Why do I run back to you

monsters - All time low (ft. Black bear)

7. Think back to when you had everything all figured out in high school, what was your life motto as a teenager?

Can I speak to the author?

slow burn - J. Maya

8. Describe your aesthetic now:

The cause of a scene

Cause of a scene - Jake Wesley Rodgers

9. What's a lyric that they'll quote in your eulogy?

Growing up is a waste of time

Peter Pan was right - Anson Seabra

10. And for our final question, say we believe in soulmates, what do you think their first impression of meeting you will be?

Her tongue tells tales of Rebellion

Sera - Dragon Age Inquisition

NP taggs @underburningstars @grimjobs,@ifonlyicouldbeastar

[chillingcinemachronicles]

The 5 best animated movies on Netflix

Bee Movie (2007)

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Directors: Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner

Cast: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock

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From the twisted mind of Jerry Seinfeld came this oddball DreamWorks comedy about a talking bee (also voiced by Seinfeld) who is outraged by the exploitation of his species for honey and decides to sue the human race. Along the way, he also sort of falls in love with a human florist (Renée Zellweger). Despite (because of?) its wild premise, Bee Movie gets at some potent messaging about workers' rights and the differences between individualism and collectivism. In other words, as EW's critic noted, it's "nutty, ecological, antically funny, and moving, all at the same time." The film has subsequently inspired a surprising number of memes, adding to its bizarro lore.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Directors: Nick Park and Steve Box

Cast: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter

Following the success of their universally acclaimed shorts, Aardman Animations brought Wallace and Gromit to the big screen for this humorous tale in which the eccentric inventor and his loyal dog are tasked with hunting down a rabbit who's been eating the town's crop of vegetables. But this proves easier said than done, as the pair realizes that the dreaded Were-Rabbit may be closer to home than they suspected. Packed with the studio's trademark British wit, and lovingly crafted with stop-motion claymation, the Oscar-winning film is a total delight. As EW's critic wrote, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit bestows generous blessings on all that's good in Englishness, in moviedom, and, of course, in cheese.

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Directors: John Stevenson and Mark Osborne

Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, Jackie Chan

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Kung Fu Panda may have a gimmicky title, but the sincerity of its storytelling is as effective as any DreamWorks animation released to date. Giant panda Po (Jack Black) is a humble restauranteur living in Ancient China who idolizes a quintet of kung fu masters known as the Furious Five. His dreams become a rude awakening when he stumbles his way into becoming the prophesized Dragon Warrior, and tasked with fighting off a vengeful snow leopard who wishes to obtain the all-powerful Dragon Scroll. Featuring vibrant animation and colorful voice performances from Black, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, and more, Kung Fu Panda delights in slapstick comedy while also delivering its timeless message in unique fashion. As EW's critic put it, "Just about all animated movies teach you to Believe in Yourself…but the image of a face-stuffing panda-turned-yowling Bruce Lee dervish is as unlikely, and touching, an advertisement for that message as we've seen in quite some time.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

EW grade: C (read the review)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

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Bringing The Adventures of Tintin to life was decades in the making for director Steven Spielberg, who once referred to the comic book series as "Indiana Jones for kids." The action is set in 1950s Belgium as the inquisitive journalist Tintin (Jamie Bell) purchases a miniature model of a ship called the Unicorn, setting in motion a chaotic series of events that leads to him being kidnapped by a villainous ship collector. On board, he meets Capt. Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis), whose ancestor was the captain of the real-life Unicorn. Bursting with a high-energy sense of adventure, Tintin is indeed a fun starter pack to the thrilling escapades of Indiana Jones, with dazzling CG animation that uses elements of motion capture. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, and earned yet another Oscar nomination for John Williams for his original score.

Nimona (2023)

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Directors: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane

Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang, Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, Beck Bennett, RuPaul, Indya Moore, Julio Torres, Sarah Sherman

Lights, camera, VPNaction! Elevate your movie nights with NordVPN. 🎥🔒secure your connection and Download NordVPN . Click now to unlock global cinematic thrills!

Blending medieval folklore and futuristic fantasy, this high-spirited adaptation of the 2015 graphic novel is more timely now than ever. Chloë Grace Moretz gives voice to Nimona, a mischievous shapeshifter who comes to the aid of Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight who has since been ostracized by the kingdom due to his background as a commoner. Naturally, Nimona has her own history with being outcast, and the pair unravel a conspiracy that resulted in the queen's death. Featuring a powerful queer allegory, both Nimona and Ballister try to overcome prejudice from their community while forging a bond due to their circumstances. As EW's critic wrote, "The story admiringly delves into how such monsters are in fact created by a society that refuses to accept their differences." —Kevin Jacobsen

[denimbex1986]

'Oppenheimer film review — Christopher Nolan delivers the bomb but can’t crack the man

Cillian Murphy’s charisma holds together a film of astonishing images but fumbled storytelling

No action figures are yet being sold of J Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. He is the stuff of a lavish summer blockbuster all the same: Oppenheimer, a $100mn, Imax-ready portrait from writer-director Christopher Nolan. It makes an unlikely Hollywood prospect. The film doesn’t just forgo superheroes, it is steeped in the very definition of the all-too-human. Feel the tortured ambivalence; witness the dark shadow of doubt. A popcorn trail that leads to Hiroshima: a high-risk strategy.

The star is Cillian Murphy, whose weight loss for the part leaves it looking like the bomb was created by former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne in the era of concert movie Stop Making Sense. Supporting him, a giant cast includes Emily Blunt as wife Kitty Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr playing Washington insider Lewis Strauss; among the throng are Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh and Tom Conti, as an avuncular Einstein.

The film runs three hours precisely. This is also the typical length of an exam in many British university finals, a rhyme with early scenes of the fragile young Oppenheimer at Cambridge. And with the film as a whole, in truth, which can feel like an undergraduate essay, packing in factoids to mop up marks. It also has a touch of psychoanalysis: Nolan sure that if he aims the camera at Murphy just-so, his character will crack right open.

Florence Pugh is among the supporting cast, playing one of Oppenheimer’s lovers Put like that, it sounds hubristic. The film still has much to recommend it. Nolan taps the full sensory potential of moviemaking, pushing picture and sound to meet the scale of the story: clever lines dot the script; the whole project is admirably willing to wrestle with matters of great weight through cinema. But the source is a book: a credit given to Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin for their 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer.

All to the good. A gifted choreographer, Nolan has also long struggled with rendering characters in three dimensions. Bird and Sherwin have done the legwork for him: the principals come with rich biographies and ready-to-go dialogue. The book also provides the story’s basic shape: a Greek tragedy, structured around the trial-by-any-other-name Oppenheimer faced during the postwar inquisitions of Joseph McCarthy.

Physicist, womaniser, linguist, leftist, enigma, coward, genius. The film must find room for many Oppenheimers. It duly shows how illusory the divides between them were, one Oppenheimer habitually setting off chain reactions that imperil another.

And yet here, not all are created equal. Blue eyes gleaming, Murphy’s sheer charisma is often the glue that holds the film together. But the through-line from one part of his character to another can be hard to track. We see cocksure intellect, for instance, but have to take on trust that the same man could also be a shrewd handler of personnel, taking charge of the rogue elements building a nuclear weapon in desert Los Alamos, New Mexico.

That period claims much of Nolan’s focus. Of course. This is the crux; the crossroads. But you sense a second reason for Nolan glomming hard on to the moment. As a creative hub thrown up out of plywood, Los Alamos resembles a movie set as the second Oppenheimer becomes director of his band of mercurial talents, facing down bad weather while a producer hovers in the form of US Army Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon). At one point, the script calls its subject the most important man in history. Oh, you think: and yet here we are watching another film about filmmaking.

Still, to quote Robert Shaw in Jaws, Nolan delivers the bomb. He can be an astonishing image-maker. The test in the New Mexico desert is all that and more, the mushroom cloud a strange white apparition, dread and wonder on the watching sun-goggled faces. (“It hardens the heart,” Oppenheimer says, hauntingly.) For all Nolan’s unease with inner lives, Oppenheimer is at its most effective shrunk down to faces and human drama: Los Alamos lost in queasy jubilation after Hiroshima, the scientist’s later hounding driven by one small man’s grudge. What an indictment. The species still so petty, even now.

The film also overplays that hand. The decision to treat the background to the trial like a gaudy whodunnit is misjudged. The storytelling is fumbled too, key scenes saddled with flashbacks and distracting flips between black-and-white and colour. When Oppenheimer needs a spotlight, Nolan puts on a firework display. And the detail comes to feel scattershot; unthinking. (We still never see the moment in Bird and Sherwin’s book where, sharing a lift with McCarthy himself, Oppenheimer gave the senator a wink.)

For all the hint of Hollywood in Los Alamos, Christopher Nolan isn’t Robert Oppenheimer. Nor is he Stanley Kubrick, who gave us that deathless nuclear comedy, Dr Strangelove. Kubrick was brilliant; Nolan is proficient. You may still find that his new film stays with you for days, turning itself over in your mind. And if that owes as much to Oppenheimer as Oppenheimer, the pair do have much in common: each as bold as they are flawed, two contradictory equations.

★★★★☆

In cinemas from July 21.'

[coffeeandfaeries]

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening - A book review

L. J. Smith

I have finally decided to read the Vampire Diaries book series. I started reading this about ten years ago, but gave up after a couple of chapters after realizing it’s nothing like the tv show. Now that I’m no longer obsessed with TVD I can admit I kinda like the books better. So far at least.

Our protagonist is Elena Gilbert, the most popular and the most beautiful girl in school. I think she was meant to be the same in the tv show, but book Elena kinda gives me Regine George vibes. She’s more like Caroline in the show. She’s pretty, tall and blonde. And to quote her All the boys want her and all the girls want to be her. Her parents died 3 years prior, when she was a freshman and her younger sister, Margaret, was just one year old.

Her friend group is also a bit different, Bonnie is still there, but she’s a pale, ginger Scottish girl. Her other best friend, the one she’s closer with, is Meredith. Elena is for some reason always really mean to Bonnie who just takes it. If you’ve seen the show you know Bonnie is sweet, but doesn’t take shit from anyone. Well this Bonnie is super bubbly and a bit air-headed. I have no idea why the author made her so stupid. She thought the Spanish Inquisition was a rock band… Another thing that’s a bit weird about Bonnie is that she’s so morbid? She’s constantly swooning over the concept of death and fatal illnesses. For example, her grandmother told her she will die young. And what does she say about that? This. I’m going to be young and beautiful in my coffin. Don’t you think that’s romantic? No, Bonnie, no, it isn’t.

Caroline Forbes is also in the books, but she’s not exactly friends with Elena. They’re rivals. (There was a bit of rivalry between them in the show as well, but Caroline in the show was fiercely loyal to Elena). I feel like this quote from the book describes their relationship dynamic very well:

Elena was taken aback. She and Caroline had been friends since kindergarten, and they had always competed with each other good-naturedly. But lately something had happened to Caroline. She’d begun to take the rivalry more and more seriously. And now Elena was surprised at the bitterness in the other girl’s voice.

Oh and another little detail. Caroline in the books has auburn hair, not blonde.

Now onto the plot. Elena just came back home from France and has realized she wants to break up with her boyfriend Matt. Apparently she loves him the way a cousin would love him. That’s always a lovely thing to hear from your girlfriend

It’s the first week of senior year and there’s a hot, mysterious, new kid in school. Stefan Salvatore. Who just moved to the US from Italy. Obviously, Elena is interested. It doesn’t matter that she broke up with Matt about 20 minutes ago. She’s ready to move on. Unfortunately for her he’s not exactly interested.

Alright, I’m gonna take a little detour, because this is really bugging me. This is the quote from the book I’d like to talk about:

Stefan was glad the school day was almost over. He wanted to get out of these crowded rooms and corridors, just for a few minutes.

WHY IS HE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

I never understood why vampires in all of these stories spend their lives going through high school over and over again. In the books he is 520 years old. He most likely graduated high school over 100 times. Why would you do that? He was 18 when he was turned. Why not just go to college?? He could’ve gotten a Phd in every subject under the sun, but no, he’d rather take trigonometry 100 times. Makes sense. If I were a vampire I’d rather spend my time developing skills and learning new languages and not retaking the same history class over and over again, but you do you I guess.

Oh, and another thing. I don’t know how to feel about this Elena. It’s nice to have a protagonist who isn't frail and a people-pleaser, but she is always so mean to everyone around her. I was about 11% in when I said I find her annoying, but by the time I was done reading I just thought she was a bit cringe. You’ll see why…

After the classes are over we switch to Stefan’s POV. He’s having flashbacks of Katherine, Elena’s doppelganger, a girl he was in love with. Katherine was meek and gentle, a daughter of the King of Germany. She was often sick and looked like the slightest breeze would break her bones. The polar opposite of the Katherine in the tv show. A manipulative seductress who would do anything and kill anyone to save her own ass. TV show Katherine was a much more interesting character honestly, despite being evil.

Sorry, back to the plot. As I was saying, Elena wants Stefan more than anything, and she doesn’t like it when she doesn’t get what she wants. So, she walks up to him and tries to talk to him. Not only does he not respond he starts intensely staring at his desk, avoiding even looking at her. You’d think she’d take the hint and move on, it’s not like she’d struggle finding someone who does want to date her. But Elena isn’t used to being told no, or even worse, ignored.

Later she tried talking to him again, just for him to cut her off and say he doesn’t have the time. In front of the whole school. Girl, respect yourself. She then runs back home to cry, but goes to visit her parents instead when she realizes her aunt and sister are home. Meredith and Bonnie find her and try to cheer her up. Elena decides that she’s over him and she doesn’t care anymore. Fast forward about 2 minutes and the girls are making a blood pact swearing they’ll help Elena get Stefan no matter what.

On their way back home Bonnie freezes and stares at a gravestone. A voice that isn’t her own, but is coming from her mouth says: Elena, there’s someone out there waiting for you. Something seemed to move out in the darkness, the girls screamed and started running away. A few paragraphs later we find out Stefan was there with them that night. He too had felt that energy that scared the girls and made them run away. He wanted to know who or what the source was, but decided against it. It wasn’t explicitly stated who emitted that energy, but I’m pretty sure it was Damon.

The day after, Meredith and Elena go to Bonnie's house and her older sister, Mary, asks them where they were the night before. After they say they were down by the Wickery Bridge Mary tells them a body was found right next to the bridge. An old man was attacked, his throat ripped out. Somehow, the man survived, but he was in a coma.

Tyler Smallwood’s father believes the old man attacked himself. Good to know Tyler’s father isn’t smarter than his son. For those of you who don’t know Tyler is one of Elena’s classmates and comes from one of the founding families. Super rich and an even bigger asshole. In the TV show he’s a werewolf, I think he will be a werewolf here too, considering how often they talk about him being like an animal, or having animalistic, big, white teeth. Maybe it’s foreshadowing, maybe I’m reading a bit too much into it. I don’t know.

So we had a bit of a time skip, about 3 weeks and Caroline is acting weird, to quote Elena: In fact, I don’t know what Caroline is doing these days, and I don’t care. I never see her at lunch or after school anymore; she seems to have drawn away from her old crowd completely. I remember that Caroline started dating Damon in the show, I’m wondering if Caroline is withdrawing because she’s with Damon, because something happened to her, because she’s plotting or if this is just a red herring. (We do find out later why she’s been missing - she was following Stefan around).

Through Elena’s diary entries we find out she’s been spreading a rumor she’s dating some French guy or whatever. Doesn’t really matter, she just felt embarrassed that she was ignored by a guy. However, a more interesting thing we find out is that she’s been going crazy and overanalyzing every single instance her and Stefan make eye contact. And you might think, what’s so interesting about that? Nothing really, I just relate to it, that was absolutely me at 16 and I find it funny. This guy rejected her so many times, but when her friends tell her to move on she acts like they betrayed her.

Also, I quit watching TVD after about 6 or 7 seasons and I don’t really remember the lore on doppelgangers, but as far as I remember the girls were identical. In the books however, Elena and Katherine have slight differences in their physical looks. Elena’s hair was a shade or two paler than Katherine’s, and her eyebrows and lashes were darker. Katherine’s had been almost silvery. And she was taller than Katherine by a good handspan. So are they doppelgangers or does Elena just resemble her? Were the TV show versions of them supposed to be different, but we never noticed a difference because they were both played by Nina Dobreva? Or am I, once again, overanalyzing a book that wasn’t meant to be overanalyzed.

Alright, back to the plot. So, Caroline took Stefan to the Homecoming dance and, obviously, had to rub it in Elena’s face. Elena tried distracting herself by partying, dancing and flirting with anyone and everyone.

She ended up joining Tyler and his friends (Vickie and Dick), ditching Bonnie and Meredith, and the four of them went to the abandoned church in the cemetery, They tried opening a tomb but couldn’t. Elena leaned against it, it opened and she almost fell in. But when she turned around the slab was back in its place and no one believed her. She asked Tyler to take her back to the school dance. He said sure, but he wants to show her something first. He tries to rape her, I’m gonna skip that bit, and Stefan comes to her rescue. He offers to drive her home. She asks him why he hates her and he says he doesn't, she just reminds her of someone he knew, someone who passed away. They kiss and start dating.

The next morning she tells him she loves him. Average high school relationship.

One of my personal favorite quotes from this book: After a week of being with Stefan, she still felt a thrill of excitement just saying his name. Love how she’s saying “still” as if they’ve been married for over three decades. Yeah of course you’re gonna be excited, you literally just met him. On the bright side, Elena does feel like a teenager. I’ve definitely had high school boyfriends who dropped the L bomb after less than a week of being together.

About 62% into the book we see Damon for the first time. We’re not told it’s Damon, but it’s pretty obvious. Elena, Bonnie and Meredith were in the school gym after classes, making decorations for the Halloween party when the lights suddenly went out. Bonnie and Meredith left the gym to go look for the janitor and Elena was left alone. Then a man appears and starts saying some mysterious, kinda cringy shit. He leans in to kiss her, but she just turns around and says she has to leave and that he should go and look for whoever he’s looking for. He says some cringy shit like Ooh I already have, Elena and disappears.

During the Halloween party the history teacher gets murdered, his throat ripped out. I think this happened in the show as well, but I can’t remember. Although, I vaguely remember Elena dressing up as a nurse, covered in fake blood? In the books she wore a custom made dress inspired by a dress from the Renaissance period. Venetian silk. Just like Katherine used to. Anyway the teacher is dead and everyone thinks Stefan must be the killer because he was the last person to see him alive. They also bickered in class which is apparently a motive for murder according to the students. Tyler in particular. I can’t help but notice both him and his father would make fantastic detectives. Tyler was also in a werewolf costume, a bit on the nose isn’t it, L. J. Smith?

Elena runs after Stefan, finding him on a roof with blood smeared on his face and a dead dove in his hands. Understandably, she freaks out and falls off the building. Stefan saves her and she asks him to talk to her.

Through a flashback we learn that Damon and Stefan were both in love with Katherine and told her she has to choose. She says she will. Later that night she sneaks into each of their rooms making them think she chose them. They both drink her blood. Finally she admits she wants to be with the both of them. To no one’s surprise neither Stefan nor Damon want to be in a throuple with their brother. And Katherine runs away, sobbing. The audacity. I suppose she’s just as manipulative as the Katherine from the show.

The chapter ends with Stefan saying he and Damon killed her. Again, to no one’s surprise they didn’t actually kill her, Stefan just loves blaming himself for everything.

Katherine decided to take her daylight ring off and let the Sun burn her to ash. The boys fight over her ring and end up stabbing each other to death. So while Stefan does say he killed Katherine with his pride and jealousy, he technically only killed Damon, with a sword. But that was deserved, Damon stabbed him first.

Elena kisses him and holds him as she tells him she loves him. They say they will be together forever. They just need to deal with this whole “angry mob is after Stefan” thing.

Stefan runs into Damon who reveals why he’s here. He came for Elena. We also learn a bit more about vampires from Damon. Human blood and life force make vampires stronger and give them powers. There are certain powers “old powers” that you can only get from drinking from a human until they die. Vampires can also shapeshift into other creatures, mostly animals.

Damon then demonstrates his power, what Stefan could be if he switched to drinking from humans. He threatens him and the chapter ends with Damon drinking Stefan’s blood.

Also I love the fact that Damon thinks that being able to physically overpower another vampire is gonna help him win Elena over. My brother in Christ, have you tried just speaking to women without being creepy.

Elena dreamt that Stefan read her diary and got mad at her over something written in it. She lost her diary. I’m assuming Damon was the one to steal it. I’m guessing he won’t try to just win Elena over, he’s probably gonna try and make Stefan believe she somehow betrayed him?

The next morning Elena goes to school and looks for Stefan, but can’t find him anywhere. She goes to class and asks Meredith if anyone has seen Stefan. Meredith then tells her that Stefan skipped town without telling anyone. Elena of course knows he isn’t guilty and wouldn’t just disappear like that.

So she runs out of the school shouting Damon’s name, and the book ends.

I’m gonna be honest with y’all,,, I really did enjoy reading this. I read it in one sitting. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been craving something silly and fun or what. Sure I had my issues with it, but at this point my standards for books are “No annoying alpha-male, overprotective love interests” and the book didn’t have enough romantic scenes for that to happen.

The one thing I really hated was that barely anything happened in this book. It was about 250 pages long, but there were like 3 important scenes and that’s it. At least it got me out of a reading slump so bonus points for that.

There are 13 books in total, if I recall correctly. The first four are all about 200 pages long so I’ll definitely read those, I hope the story will be interesting enough to finish all 13 tho, I hate DNFing books/series.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

[dezcitrustea]

A Few Critical Books I’ve Read

Gender and Sexuality Studies

Woman and the New Race by Margaret Sanger

This book was written in the 1920s in support of birth control. An intriguing look at the history of women’s rights and the reality of Black exclusion.

The Stonewall Reader by the New York Public Library

Essays, articles, and interviews detailing the importance of the Stonewall Uprising to queer States’ history.

Trans Liberation : Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg

Collection of Feinberg’s speeches on the importance of Trans Liberation.

Sexuality and the Unnatural in Colonial Latin America by Zeb Tortorici

Exploration of sex and laws in Colonial Latin America under the Inquisition.

Exploring Masculinities : Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change by C J Pascoe and Tristan Bridges

A history of masculinities in the States and how they affect our present.

Race Studies

Four Hundred Souls : A Community History of African America 1619-2019 by Ibram X Kendi and Keisha N Blain

Collection of poems and essays detailing the history of African America.

White Trash : the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Best read in conjunction with White Fragility. History of class in the States with notes on how it’s affect changed depending on gender and race.

Historicizing Race by Marius Turda

A history of how race has affected and been affected by every function of society, history, and “science”.

White Fragility : Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin D’Angelo

Discusses why race is a taboo subject in White America.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

A personal experience with racism and the common questions and arguments that appear in this discussion.

Relationship Studies

Attached : The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

Reviews the four attachment styles and how they affect our interpersonal relationships.

[theinquisitivej]

Spiderman: Far From Home – A Movie Review

After an animated masterpiece gave us what many consider to be the new best Spider-Man film, and after a monumental finale to a developing narrative that was twenty-two movies in the making, what hope does a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, a movie praised by many but seen by others as not much more than just middle-of-the-road, have of satisfying an audience who have been especially well catered for when it comes to superhero movies connected to the man who does whatever a spider can?

Well, it turns out it’s got a pretty good shot, because I got a lot more out of Spider-Man: Far from Home than I ever expected I would.

         Jon Watts returns from Spider-Man: Homecoming as the director for its sequel, and with that comes a cemented sense of identity, as Far from Home takes the praiseworthy parts of Homecoming’s personality and places even more emphasis on those elements. The aesthetic for the Home series isn’t as palpably noticeable as something like Guardians of the Galaxy or Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, but it nevertheless maintains a consistent tone with the previous film which makes this particular perspective of the MCU feel lived in. There’s a charmingly grounded feel to how characters will engage in idle conversation about certain major events from other MCU films in a way that jokingly downplays moments or story beats that were presented with heart-wrenching gravitas in other films. It’s amusing for invested audience members, but it’s also an effective method of reminding you that this world is inhabited by a population who are routinely affected by world-spanning comic book shenanigans, but don’t have the advantage of hearing first hand what the hell is going on. As such, developments like Captain America going on the run become background news that gym teachers are only semi-aware of in the previous film, and, in Far From Home, the “blip” that erased half the population then brought them back 5 years later is just another thing that people have grown to live with. The film even feels comfortable enough to use it for comedic effect when one of the characters uses the blip to put Flash in his place when he’s being insufferable, and that is so endearing. As a result, while the visual aesthetics of these MCU Spider-Man films may not be as immediately striking or distinctive as other branches of this franchise, they provide a consistent tone of down-to-earth sincerity and people just getting on with their lives that makes them really pleasant experiences.  

         And while last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp was an enjoyably sprightly heist movie which nevertheless felt out of place and too rushed out after we were still reeling from the weighty punch of Infinity War, Far from Home not only improves on its namesake predecessor, but also acts as a remarkably suitable follow-up to Endgame. The sombreness of Endgame’s first half and the epic scale of its second half are contrasted by the everyday levity and more personal stakes shown in this film. The action is inventive and varied enough that you’re interested to see how Spider-Man deals with foes we’re not used to seeing cinematic depictions of him fight against (elemental and… other, more spoiler-y threats), in environments that are labelled as ‘far from home’, outside of his typical comfort zone of New York. The comedy works because of a comforting sense of cohesion to the characters which make them work well together, and yet the dialogue is natural and flexible enough that you always see the individual traits of each character shine through. With a diverse cast of commendable talents like this, that’s a treat.

         But while the film is a remarkably appreciated light-hearted palate cleanser, that doesn’t mean it’s pulling its punches with its heavier dramatic moments. This film deals with a teenager who watched someone he looked up to die in front of his eyes, and is now confronted with a world filled with iconography and heated discussion about that idol, and some of that fervent conversation is even directed at him as everyone asks if he will be the person to step up and take the place of his hero. It’s an emotional state that makes you feel so much for Peter, especially as Tom Holland has gone from strength to strength and solidifies himself as the definitive version of a young Peter Parker in my eyes. He’s killing it in this, selling the subtle balance between Peter having some newfound confidence to be able to stand up for himself and make his own decisions about what he wants and who he is, while also being racked with guilt, expressing uncertainty of the world of large-scale superheroics that he’s had a taste of but isn’t sure he wants to go back to, and retrospectively questions his own actions. A subtle detail in the film that does a lot to convey Peter’s current state of mind is his spidey-sense (Peter-tingle) not being quite as sharp as we might expect it to be – Peter is having trouble trusting his instincts. This, and his general anxiety over where he’s heading and his fears of the past are masterfully represented in one reality-bending sequence which shows some of the darkest imagery Marvel has ever put in their films as it puts all of Peter’s inner turmoil and doubts up onto the screen.

SPOILERS IN NEXT PARAGRAPH

         But what works especially well in this film for me is how it creates these brilliant parallels to the first Iron Man to commendable effect. Both films feature ceremonies near their opening in which the hero is expected to attend and someone close to them criticises them for not quite presenting themselves correctly (if at all), as well as protagonists who question how the legacy that’s been left to them should be best used, villains who seek to use that legacy and the technology of Tony Stark for their own selfish ends (and both villains use the distraction of a more immediate seeming threat to disguise their manipulations behind the scenes), before concluding with the heroes having their secret identity revealed to the world. And of course, both feature tech-savvy geniuses working on their superhero suit in a holographic workshop while ACDC music plays, and the only thing I love more than that unspoken “this kid has everything in him that made Tony Stark great without him realising it” moment is Peter saying “Oh I love Led Zeppelin”. These parallels allow for a neat bookend of this whole arc of the MCU with Iron Man starting us off while Far from Home brings it, well, home. But they also reinforce the main theme of Peter’s emotional journey as he asks himself if he can, or should be the next Iron Man. The answer, as Happy tells us, is that no one could live up to Tony Stark, not even Tony. Peter doesn’t need to worry about being the next version of someone else, but the first version of himself. The film uses these connections between his character and Tony’s, between Far from Home and Iron Man to show us that we can move forward with confidence as we establish our own identity and take the parts of the people who inspire us along with us. Far from Home echoes a lot of the characteristics of Iron Man but ends up being something new, and it is exactly in that way that Peter ends up honouring Tony’s memory while still moving forward by the end of the film.  

         There’s a lot at play which could have stacked the deck against this film being a critical success; between the explosion of artistic creativity on display in last year’s singular Into the Spider-Verse, and Endgame’s entanglement with gargantuan levels of audience investment allowing for once-in-a-lifetime emotional payoff, I expected for a long time that Far From Home would be unfavourably compared to these two relatively recent blockbuster triumphs. But it was exactly the film I needed for this series after Endgame, and full kudos to the showrunners, I wasn’t anticipating that. It’s packed with youthful sincerity, delivers an adventure with scaled back yet more personal stakes which makes the whole thing feel that much more meaningful, and while I enjoyed seeing the kids in their own environment in the school in the last one, the trip through Europe makes it an enjoyable journey. The more time passes, the more I appreciate about what it achieves under the surface with its character development, inspired connection with other films in the series, and its ability to capture the experience of trying to find your way.

Final Ranking: Silver.

When all the threads of the MCU have been tied up by Endgame, who better than a spider to start weaving the first strands of the next web.

[phroyd]

One of our Great Comedians leaves us this day! Rest In Peace, Jackie! - Phroyd

Jackie Mason, whose staccato, arm-waving delivery and thick Yiddish accent kept the borscht belt style of comedy alive long after the Catskills resorts had shut their doors, and whose career reached new heights in the 1980s with a series of one-man shows on Broadway, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 93.His death, at Mount Sinai Hospital, was confirmed by the lawyer Raoul Felder, a longtime friend.Mr. Mason regarded the world around him as a nonstop assault on common sense and an affront to his sense of dignity. Gesturing frantically, his forefinger jabbing the air, he would invite the audience to share his sense of disbelief and inhabit his very thin skin, if only for an hour.“I used to be so self-conscious,” he once said, “that when I attended a football game, every time the players went into a huddle, I thought they were talking about me.” Recalling his early struggles as a comic, he said, “I had to sell furniture to make a living — my own.”The idea of music in elevators sent him into a tirade: “I live on the first floor; how much music can I hear by the time I get there? The guy on the 28th floor, let him pay for it.”

The humor was punchy, down-to-earth and emphatically Jewish: His last one-man show in New York, in 2008, was titled “The Ultimate Jew.” A former rabbi from a long line of rabbis, Mr. Mason made comic capital as a Jew feeling his way — sometimes nervously, sometimes pugnaciously — through a perplexing gentile world.“Every time I see a contradiction or hypocrisy in somebody’s behavior,” he once told The Wall Street Journal, “I think of the Talmud and build the joke from there.” Describing his comic style to The New York Times in 1988, he said, “My humor — it’s a man in a conversation, pointing things out to you.”“He’s not better than you, he’s just another guy,” he added. “I see life with love — I’m your brother up there — but if I see you make a fool out of yourself, I owe it to you to point that out to you.”He was born Yacov Moshe Maza in Sheboygan, Wis., on June 9, 1928, to immigrants from Belarus. (Some sources give the year as 1931.) When he was 5, his father, Eli, an Orthodox rabbi, and his mother, Bella (Gitlin) Maza, moved the family to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Yacov discovered that his path in life had already been determined. Not only his father, but his grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfathers had all been rabbis. His three older brothers became rabbis, and his two younger sisters married rabbis. “It was unheard-of to think of anything else,” Mr. Mason said. “But I knew, from the time I’m 12, I had to plot to get out of this, because this is not my calling.”

After earning a degree from City College, he completed his rabbinical studies at Yeshiva University and was ordained. In a state of mounting misery, he tended to congregations in Weldon, N.C., and Latrobe, Pa., unhappy in his profession but unwilling to disappoint his father.Hedging his bets, he had begun working summers in the Catskills, where he wrote comic monologues and appeared onstage at every opportunity. This, he decided, was his true calling, and after his father’s death in 1959 he felt free to pursue it in earnest, with a new name.He struggled at first, playing the Catskills and, with little success, obscure clubs in New York and Miami. Plagued by guilt, he underwent psychoanalysis, which did not solve his problems but did provide him with good comic material.Nevertheless, he found it hard to break into the nightclub circuit in New York — in part, he claimed, because his act made Jewish audiences uncomfortable. “My accent reminds them of a background they’re trying to forget,” he said.

While performing at a Los Angeles nightclub in 1960, he caught the attention of his fellow comedian Jan Murray, who recommended him to the television personality Steve Allen. Two appearances in two weeks on “The Steve Allen Show” led to bookings at the Copacabana and the Blue Angel in New York.Mr. Mason’s career was off and running. He became a regular on the top television variety shows, recorded two albums for the Verve label — “I Am the Greatest Comedian in the World Only Nobody Knows It Yet” and “I Want to Leave You With the Words of a Great Comedian” — and wrote a book, “My Son the Candidate.”

After dozens of appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Mr. Mason encountered disaster on Oct. 18, 1964. A speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson pre-empted the program, which resumed as Mr. Mason was halfway through his act. Onstage but out of camera range, Sullivan indicated with two fingers, then one, how many minutes Mr. Mason had left, distracting the audience. Mr. Mason, annoyed, responded by holding up his own fingers to the audience, saying, “Here’s a finger for you, and a finger for you, and a finger for you.”Sullivan, convinced that one of those fingers was an obscene gesture, canceled Mr. Mason’s six-show contract and refused to pay him for the performance. Mr. Mason sued, and won.The two later reconciled, but the damage was done. Club owners and booking agents now regarded him, he said, as “crude and unpredictable.”

“People started to think I was some kind of sick maniac,” Mr. Mason told Look. “It took 20 years to overcome what happened in that one minute.”His career went into a slump, punctuated by bizarre instances of bad luck. In Las Vegas in 1966, after he made a few ill-considered remarks about Frank Sinatra’s recent marriage to the much younger Mia Farrow (“Frank soaks his dentures and Mia brushes her braces,” one joke went), an unidentified gunman fired a .22 pistol into his hotel room.A play he starred in and wrote (with Mike Mortman), “A Teaspoon Every Four Hours,” went through a record-breaking 97 preview performances on Broadway before opening on June 14, 1969, to terrible reviews. It closed after one night, taking with it his $100,000 investment.He also invested in “The Stoolie” (1972), a film in which he played a con man and improbable Romeo. It also failed, taking even more of his money. Roles in sitcoms and films eluded him, although he did make the most of small parts in Mel Brooks’s “History of the World: Part I” (1981) — he was “Jew No. 1” in the Spanish Inquisition sequence — and “The Jerk” (1979), in which he played the gas-station owner who employs Steve Martin.Rebuffed, Mr. Mason set about rebuilding his career with guest appearances on television. His new manager, Jyll Rosenfeld, convinced that the old borscht belt comics were ripe for a comeback, encouraged him to bring his act to the theater as a one-man show.

After attracting celebrity audiences in Los Angeles, that show, “The World According to Me!,” opened on Broadway in December 1986 and ran for two years. It earned Mr. Mason a special Tony Award in 1987, as well as an Emmy for writing after HBO aired an abridged version in 1988.

“I didn’t think it would work,” Mr. Mason said. “But people, when they come into a theater, see you in a whole new light. It’s like taking a picture from a kitchen and hanging it in a museum.”In 1991 Mr. Mason married Ms. Rosenfeld, who survives him. He is also survived by a daughter, the comedian Sheba Mason, from a relationship with Ginger Reiter in the 1970s and ’80s.“The World According to Me!” generated a series of sequels — “Politically Incorrect,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Prune Danish” and others — which carried Mr. Mason through the 1990s and into the new millennium.He published an autobiography, “Jackie, Oy!” (written with Ken Gross), in 1988. He also found a new sideline as an opinionated political commentator on talk radio. In the 2016 presidential campaign, he was one of the few well-known entertainers to support Donald J. Trump.Mr. Mason’s forays into political commentary caused him trouble. He was reported to have used a Yiddish word considered to be a racial slur in talking about David N. Dinkins, the Black mayoral candidate, at a Plaza Hotel luncheon in 1989. Mr. Mason was a campaigner for Mr. Dinkins’s opponent, Rudolph W. Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani said the incident had been blown out of proportion but nevertheless dismissed Mr. Mason from the campaign. Mr. Mason at first refused to apologize but did so later.

He drew attention for using the same word regarding President Barack Obama during a performance in 2009.Appearances on the cartoon series “The Simpsons,” as the voice of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, the father of Krusty the Clown, confirmed his newfound status, and earned him a second Emmy. Not even the 1988 bomb “Caddyshack II,” in which he was a last-minute replacement for Rodney Dangerfield, or the ill-fated “Chicken Soup,” a 1989 sitcom co-starring Lynn Redgrave that died quickly, could slow his improbable transformation from borscht belt relic into hot property.“I’ve been doing this for a hundred thousand years, but it’s like I was born last Thursday,” Mr. Mason once said of his career turnaround. “They see me as today’s comedian. Thank God I stunk for such a long time and was invisible, so I could be discovered.”

Michael Levenson contributed reporting.

Phroyd

[strawberrysoup]

Let’s Review || Chapter 1

Peter Parker knew that his big sister would do anything for him to be safe and happy. She’d given up everything for him twice over already and would do it again in a heartbeat. And that’s why, when the criminal mastermind Tony Stark started inextricably following him around, he didn’t say a word. Because he knew without a doubt Penny would do whatever she had to if it meant keeping Peter safe. He had to protect her, just like she always protected him. He never considered what would happen if Stark decided both Parker siblings were worth taking. Never considered who else in Stark’s inner circle would agree. He just wanted to protect her and yet somehow, they both ended up with needles in their necks

relationship: Steve Rogers/Original Female Character/Bucky Barnes, background Peter Parker/Tony Stark rating: Explicit warnings: Dark Steve Rogers, Dark Bucky Barnes, Dark Tony Stark, Dark Avengers, kidnapping, non-con/dub-con elements, underage Peter Parker, emotional and psychological abuse, very dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat

This story is, as advertised, fucked up. It’s inspired by the recent influx of Dark!Steve and Dark!Tony fics and there is a lot of potentially triggering material so please read with caution. Our heroes are not heroes in this story; they’re criminals with limited to no consciences. 

There weren’t many things that Penny Parker could really rely on. Her paychecks fluctuated unfathomably every two weeks, the electricity bill was never consistent, and for some reason even when she drove her car dry it never took the same amount of gas to fill the tank. Peter’s class schedule seemed to change every time she asked about it, his after-school club activities were never on the same day, and why did she have to sign this report card but not last quarter’s, Pete? Consistency was something she’d learned not to hope for. Mostly she kept her fingers crossed that things would somehow work out to her advantage, day by day.

For the most part, it did. She’d dropped out of high school when uncle Ben died to start working, to help support aunt May and Peter. It had taken three years to get her GED between the three jobs she worked, but she managed. GED accomplished, she checked off that box on her mental list and signed up for night classes at the local community college. It was hard, but she could make it work. Then aunt May had died.

Custody of 14 year old Peter Parker had been hotly contested, as Penny had only been 21 at the time of aunt May’s death. Technically, she was an adult. She had two jobs, a steady income, an apartment, a decent credit score. Somehow, like most things in her life, it had just kind of worked out and she was granted sole custody of her younger brother. She’d dropped her night classes, picked up a third job overnight, and kept her fingers crossed that social services never asked why her “two bedroom apartment” only had one bedroom.

Semi-decent luck was the only thing that really kept her life running, and by extension Peter’s. She knew it would wear off someday, she’d been granted the lion’s share of good fortune in Queens when it came to looking after her brother and it wasn’t super fair. She just didn’t think it would end so spectacularly. The end of the luck was supposed to be a low, painful fizzle.

Instead, it was a flashbang that started with Peter acting like a cokehead. Peter had never been a particularly twitchy kid; Penny had leeched all the chaotic energy from their mother’s womb and left the intelligence behind for her kid brother. Over the course of several months though, he’d begun jumping at the drop of a hat. Penny would turn the corner into the kitchen and startle him so badly he’d have an asthma attack. If she even glanced at his phone when a notification lit up the screen he’d lose his mind, accusing her of not respecting his privacy and dart away into his room. Asking if he needed anything from the store was suddenly the Spanish Inquisition and god forbid she offer him a ride to school.

Because she’d graciously left all the IQ points for Peter, Penny had a tendency to do stupid things. Like assume Peter’s behavior was because he had gotten a girlfriend or was just going through usual teenage boy hormones that made him act like a jackass. Luckily the dumbass wasn’t actually a cokehead, considering he still blanched whenever she had weed in the house, but fuck if he wasn’t acting like a freak. It came to a head when she happened to be coming home from her second job at the same time he was getting home from one of his after-school club meetings.

She hadn’t been sure what she was seeing at first. It was definitely Peter, he’d hit a growth spurt finally and started to put on some height and muscle mass but was still a lanky little shit, and he was arguing with a man in a suit who was walking next to him. Both were being followed by a slow-moving car with blacked out windows and no front license plate. Peter’s body language was uncomfortable, arms crossed over his chest, shoulders angled away from the man and tucked in, eyes down.

When Penny called out to Peter, the man had gotten into the backseat of the black car which promptly drove away. Her brother had gone red in the face and ran up the steps to their apartment complex without waiting for her to catch up, locking himself in the bedroom and refusing to come out when she followed him in. She’d given up on being the casual guardian, the cool big sister who let him live his life. Penny had begged him to come out, to tell her what was going on. She just wanted to help, how could she help him if he wouldn’t talk to her?

It had started with simple answers, after Penny had started to cry, through the door.

Who was that man? Tony Stark.

What did he want with Peter? To offer him a job.

Why were they arguing? Because Peter rejected the offer.

He was lying. Penny knew what it sounded like, the way his voice changed. She’d been glued to his side since their parents died when she was 13 and it had only gotten worse with uncle Ben’s passing. Peter was lying through his teeth and Penny had no idea why, no idea what to do. Helplessness had settled over her shoulders like a lead blanket, her chest tightening. If Peter was willing to lie to her, then whatever was happening with Tony Stark was really, really bad. And she had no fucking idea what to do.

***

“JARVIS, bring up Peter’s file.”

The voice cut through the silence of the car like a shot, Happy glancing at the man in the backseat through the rearview mirror questioningly. Usually his boss was in a pretty good mood after having harassed the high school kid he’d become obsessed with over the last several months, but the tone of his voice said otherwise.

“Of course, sir,” the AI responded dutifully from the Stark phone, a document appearing on the screen, “anything in particular, sir?”

“Peter told me he was emancipated after his aunt’s death and that he lived alone. I think my boy’s lying to me, J,” Tony’s voice was lower than usual, irritation apparent in his stony expression.

“Straight home, boss?” Happy asked quietly, humming in response when the man in the backseat nodded.

“Records show that Peter Parker is under the guardianship of one Penelope Parker, 24 years of age, relation: sister.”

“So he did lie to me,” Tony ran a hand over his goatee, sighing through the motion in disappointment before anger overcame him again, “You mean he lives in that shithole with someone? She’s supposed to be taking care of him, that place is a fucking drug den!”

“The police have indeed responded to 23 calls involving illicit drug use in that apartment complex in the last 10 days, sir. Another 10 calls were answered in response to domestic violence, 5 calls in regards to loitering, 7 calls in—”

“Thank you, JARVIS,” he waved his hand impatiently before the AI could recite every reason his boy shouldn’t be living in such a fucking pigsty, “tell me more about Penelope.”

The name was said with enough venom that Happy’s eyebrows went up, glancing once again at his boss in the rearview mirror as he navigated through the congested New York City streets.

“Penelope Parker, 24 years of age, born in New York City, New York. Dropped out of high school at 16, accomplished a GED at 19. Currently employed at Little Hands Daycare, Starbucks Coffee, and Kroger’s. Owner of a 2001 Toyota Camry, license plate 605-CEG, rents a one-bedroom apartment in Queens for $1,200 a month, credit score of 713, 1 speeding ticket, no medical insurance—”

“Stop,” Tony grit his teeth, tilting his head from side to side to crack his neck, “a one-bedroom apartment. No medical insurance. Didn’t even graduate from fucking high school. How the hell did she get custody of my boy?”

“Custody of Peter Parker went to his closest living relative, with the stipulation that social services kept up regular visits on account of the young age of the guardian. Records show that visits kept up for roughly 3 months before ending.”

“3 fucking months, those useless fucks,” it came out as a snarl, “look up the case workers, I want their names. And their heads. On a platter. Get a lock on their wifi signal, I want to know what they’re doing at all times. I already have a tracker on Peter, hack into the GPS on Penelope’s phone and keep track of her too.”

“The phone number listed on Ms. Parker’s work forms is a prepaid burner with no GPS capabilities. I can use triangulation to pick up on her general location when she connects to cell phone towers.”

“Seriously, a burner phone? Is she a drug dealer?” Tony’s eyes shot up to meet Happy’s in the mirror, “Oh my god is my baby’s guardian a drug dealer?”

“There is no evidence of any misconduct on the part of Ms. Parker, sir,” JARVIS stated calmly, despite the edge of infuriated panic from Tony, “she has no arrest record or suspicious activity.”

“That doesn’t mean anything and you know it JARVIS,” Tony pressed his head back into the cushion behind him, squeezing his eyes shut, “I’ve got to get him out of there, sooner rather than later. Happy, once we get home, start coordinating with Rhodey for extraction plans. JARVIS, keep an eye on any activity on their WiFi network.”

“Shall I connect to the webcam on the laptop computer, sir?”

“And the camera on my baby boy’s phone,” on his own phone, Tony opened his picture gallery to swipe through the images he already had of Peter, a small smile taking over his mouth in the process, “Keep any recorded video for at least 24 hours, let me know if anything interesting happens.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Happy, let’s get everyone ready for my boy’s homecoming,” Tony stated, shifting in his seat as they pulled into the private garage beneath Stark Tower, “its coming up sooner than we anticipated.”

***

Penny had started googling Tony Stark the moment she realized Peter wasn’t going to part with anymore information. The longer she sat in front of the laptop, the more panic began to grow in her chest.

Tony Stark was a bad man. A very, very bad man who made very, very dangerous weapons and had lots of very, very important and powerful people in his back pocket. There was no real evidence, of course. None of his misdeeds could be proven in court, none of the weapons he invented could be traced to his company, none of the people he practically owned would even admit to knowing the man. He was incredibly powerful and so fucking dangerous that Penny’s teeth ached at the thought of him even being near her baby brother.

“Fuck,” she muttered dragging both hands through her dark brown hair, “fuck, fuck, fuck.”

There was no reason for a man like Tony Stark to be offering Peter a job. Sure, Peter was smarter than anyone she’d ever met. The kid’s IQ had to be off the charts, he’d gotten into that insanely expensive private science school in Midtown. But there was no reason for Tony Stark to recruit a high school senior, even if he was a budding genius.

“What are you doing Pen?” Peter’s voice was raspy from crying and the sound made Penny jump, turning in her seat to look at the teenager behind her.

“I’m…,” she glanced guiltily at the laptop before sighing, “I didn’t know who Tony Stark was off the top of my head. I had to look him up.”

Peter quickly reached out and closed the internet browser before shutting the lid of the laptop, running his hand through his hair in a way rather reminiscent of his sister, “You shouldn’t google him, he’s got enough of an ego that he probably gets an alert every time his name comes up.”

Penny bit her lip, rubbing her hands together in her lap before gathering as much courage as she could and pushing out the chair at the table next to her, “we need to talk, Pete. I need you to tell me the truth about why he was talking to you, no bullshit. I can’t help you if I don’t know the situation.”

The teenager hesitated for all of 30 seconds before dropping into the chair, his expression one of dismay, “I can’t tell you anything, Penny. Its too dangerous, he could hurt you—”

“I’m not worried about me, Peter,” she cut him off, hand rising when he started to open his mouth again, “Stop. Listen. Its my job to take care of you, to keep you safe. Start from the top, how did you meet Tony Stark?”

Another hesitation, eyes darting away from her face before he answered, “on accident. He saw me on the street, I was looking for a job at one of the coffee shops near school.”

Penny held her tongue, refusing to lecture him on getting a job and derailing the current conversation, “and he approached you?”

“Yeah,” Peter rubbed a hand over the back of his head, “Asked me my name, about my uniform. Asked me if I liked science since I went to a special school. I thought it was cool, he runs a research and development laboratory. Then he started… showing up in different places.”

“You think he was in those places deliberately?” The question was a quiet prompt when Peter seemed to clam up and he nodded in response.

“It was weird, but I… I liked the attention,” it was whispered, tears gathering in his eyes as shame built in his chest, “He told me how, how smart I was and how impressed he was by me. Talked to me about science and then just… about me. He wanted to know what kinds of things I liked to do for fun, what kind of movies I liked. I kind of thought we were friends but then…”

“Its okay, Peter,” Penny reached out and grabbed both of his hands in hers carefully, tears in her eyes as well, “what happened then?”

“He started getting handsy,” he murmured, a shiver going down his spine, “at first it was just, just like him putting his hand on my back when we walked through a door. Or he’d put his arm over the back of my chair and touch my shoulder. It was weird because he was an adult but… he’s handsome, Pen. He’s really, really handsome and I was excited because he was interested in me for some reason but now I realize that it wasn’t good and it’s not good and I shouldn’t have let him and I’m so sorr—”

“Don’t say sorry, Pete,” a quiet sob escaped Penny’s mouth and she covered it with her hand, the other still clutching at his, “Don’t apologize, you have done nothing wrong. Oh God, Peter, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I noticed that you’d started acting differently but I passed it off. Oh my God, I should’ve talked to you so much sooner. I should’ve asked what was going on. How long has this been going on, Peter?”

He was quiet for so long that another sob was ripped from Penny’s lips and she shot forward, dragging her little brother into a nearly suffocating hug. Fuck, fuck how long had that piece of shit been conditioning her little brother. That fucking pedophile how long had he been stalking her little brother. Fuck the age of consent in New York, fuck the law, Peter was a baby—he was a fucking child.

“You don’t have to answer, Peter, its okay,” it was a soft whisper, her hand carding through his hair while he cried against her, “I’m going to figure something out, okay? I don’t know what yet, but I’m going to make sure that he leaves you alone. I’m going to take care of this, I’m going to take care of you.”

“You can’t, Penny,” his cries were breathy and quiet, “you can’t take care of me this time, he’ll hurt you—”

Penny couldn’t say it out loud, because Peter would lose his mind, but Penny would let Tony Stark murder her in front of an audience if it meant he’d leave Peter alone. Every promise she’d ever made, to her mother on her deathbed, to aunt May on hers, was to keep Peter safe. To make sure he had every opportunity. Peter was so smart, he had so much potential, if she could just give him the chance, if she could just get him to the point where he could make something of himself—then she would consider her life perfect. She’d die knowing she had done her job, she’d opened the gates for her brother’s success.

“I’ll figure it out Peter, one way or another.”

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

The Anti-TBR Tag

Tagged by @captainofthegreenpeas Thank you!

1. A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and his other books. I'm not sure how popular his works are worldwide but in my country they used to be very popular, there was a time when everybody seemed obsessed with Alchemist but I never had an interest in it. I tried to read one other book by this author but it didn't work for me either. Also, from more recent The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak which I actually read but didn't get the appeal. The same goes for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Also, Haruki Murakami’s books.

2. A classic book (or author) you don’t have an interest in reading?

Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, Ulysses by James Joyce, every other Jane Austen's book I haven't read already, to name some. Also, Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky which is kind of funny because I greatly enjoyed his other books.

3. An author you have read a couple of books from & have decided their books are not for you?

Jane Austen. The only book of hers I really like is Emma, the rest I have read or tried to read didn’t work for me and not because of their concepts or subject matters but because of the execution. Austen’s writing style is not my thing.

4. A genre you have no interest in OR a genre you tried to get into & couldn’t?

I have no interest in Western, also Horror and Crime. But my reading preferences largely depend on how the book is written, its genre is not that important.

5. A book you have bought but will never read? 

I try to read every book I have bought if not always get to the end. Currently it looks like it will be hard to get through The Early Stuarts: A Political History of England 1603-1642 by Roger Lockyer and England’s Elizabeth: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy by Michael Dobson and Nicola J. Watson (because they are very dry), The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen (because of his umm a weird manner of argumentation that includes a lot of special pleading and contradictions which is a pity because I am genuinely looking forward to learn about the subject but where to find a reliable unbiased book on it?). I don’t know if I will ever read Richard Rex’s The Tudors from start to finish because I only bought it because one review intriguingly claimed that Rex portrays Philip as “a sort of Jacob who married his Leah in Mary I but from the start was more interested in the younger sister, the Rachelesque Elizabeth”, so I read the relevant thing that disappointingly turned out to be like only one paragraph and my mission with this book was done. Also, I don’t think I will ever read Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of love, rivalry and spectacular design by Trea Martin because from what I peeped it looks bad.

Tagging everyone who sees this and wants to participate.

[allyvampirelass29]

From Badass to Bad Mother

From Badass to Bad Mother A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

A phantom ring, a chilling trill only she hears. Say HELLO Vic McQueen, to your worst fear. Christmas is calling, and you're falling back down the rabbit hole, slashing cords, burning phones, but a Manx rising from an eight year sleep is the least of your woes. Drinking, screaming, setting your house ablaze, you're becoming the thing you hate...... Shaking in the dead gaze of your vanquished enemy, but you should be afraid of another....... Look at the villain you can't see, the reaching shadow seeking to smother. You should be afraid of her, The Bad Mother.

Welcome back to Christmasland!!! My GOD, does it feel good to lose myself in the LONG awaited and excruciatingly ached for NOS4A2 Season 2 Premiere!!! One year is insufferably too long to be parted from the dark, smouldering, elegant malevolence that is one, Charlie Manx!!! Alas alack, Bad Mother only teases our dangerously alluring Vampire Chauffer's return, and while I appreciate the delayed gratification for the sake of suspense, the episode suffers from keeping the man of the hour behind the curtain. The name on everyone's lips, and yet he does not get to speak a word!

Bad Mother opens unto the seemingly happy ending for all of our favourite Strong Creatives. In a world where eight years has passed during our one, Christmasland is falling apart, Vic is still the same wicked cool badass that we love, and now has a miniature McQueen of her own, while being madly in love with her rescuer Lou Carmody, and Miss Mags has found domestic, dancing bliss with the FBI Agent that closed the Manx Case. I was really surprised Vic and Lou ended up together after the ordeal, that she was able to open her heart again, despite the devastating loss of Craig. I'd always thought Vic and Lou's chemistry was more platonic, more of the hero/sidekick variety, so that was such a shocking surprise, her staying in Gunbarrel, and moving in with him!!! Oh my GOD, haha and I'm STILL laughing about CarQueen and Lou comparing them to Rey and Finn!!!

I also found it interesting, that despite their shared animosity towards Charlie, he inadvertently lead both Vic and Maggie to their respective happiness. Vic would never have met Lou, if he hadn't stopped to save her after the Sleigh House Fire. It was Charlie, oddly enough, who brought their paths to a dramatic collision, and also summoned Maggie's FBI love, Tabitha, to Haverhill through his latest kidnappings. I could just see him deliciously pointing this out, with an especially icy, "You're Welcome." And what of our, Benevolent Mister Christmas?

"Who's Charlie Manx?" Vic feels her punk rock version of the Brady scene shatter around her, like a glass ornament hurled at the ground, as the son she loves, says the one thing she prayed she'd never hear him say....... The news of Charlie's death, after an eight year coma, sends shock waves from Gunbarrel, where it all went up in flames, all the way back to Haverhill, where it all began with a girl and a magic bridge. This is where the sheen of happily ever after starts to peel away, leaving a ghastly truth, as Vic realizes the game isn't over. She hasn't won........ She didn't kill Charlie Manx.

Our cool Mom, with her spray painted motorcycles, mad video game skills, wildly curly hair, and fresh new ink, begins her descent into madness, and the more evidence there is that Manx, The Wraith, and his Peppermint Playground are all dead, the more intense the fear, the greater the obsession that Charlie's come back to take again what she loves the most. Her only child. It's funny, when I first saw the title, "Bad Mother," I was convinced it was from Charlie's perspective, twisted to tailor his opinions of what makes a good mother. Vic lets her son Wayne have ice cream for breakfast, skip school, (honestly I'm surprised the dear little lad isn't homeschooled after what his mom has gone through) and while she lives with a man, she remains unmarried. Of course, Charlie would disapprove, and come up with these, or any excuse to "rescue," young Master Wayne, adorably known as "Bats." He would feel at once that she didn't deserve him.

However, by trying to protect her darling son, who is, may I say, a most welcome addition to the cast, as endearing and lovable, as he is clever, and inquisitive, Vic proves herself the worst thing for him. The BEST scene in this episode is of a drunk, paranoid Vic, slashing the cords to ringing phones, throwing them all in the oven, in a mad frenzy, and I wish SO badly this is where the episode had started. It's so powerful an image, a woman on the verge, trying to shield her son from her worst enemy's undying reach, and placing him in more danger for it, becoming the one thing she swore she'd never be...... A Bad Mother.

I think this would have been the stronger opener, throwing us right into the action instead of relying so heavily on drawn out exposition, taking up the entire runtime, catching the audience up to the present day. Yes, I loved seeing Maggie dance around in an FBI jacket, and be reunited with her scrabble bag. Her pre-emptive 911 call was sweetly heartbreaking. Even Bing in his usual vacant-eyed eeriness, ever the Wraith enthusiast, was mildly entertaining. But the ending felt....... hollow for me, after waiting a year, and now an hour to see Charlie returned to his devastatingly handsome youth, only to be met with his hollowed out cadaver on the autopsy table, and Vic, stabbing a scalpel through his already dead heart. Yes, we got to feel it, that quiver of hope, as it beat once, then twice, despite being skewered, before the episode ended, but I wanted more.

I found it so intriguing when Luke mentioned Vic drinking herself to death every Christmas, and I was SHOCKED that this was not the foreshadowing to an especially poignant flashback!!! What a FANTASTIC scene that would have made, Vic flinching as Lou turns on the Christmas music, downing bottle after bottle, watching as her boyfriend and son decorate the house, fighting a Christmas tree, after everyone's gone to sleep on Christmas Eve, not able to take it anymore, tearing off the lights, kicking presents, just tormented by the trimmings and trappings of her worst enemy, while Wayne struggles to understand it....... "Mom, why do you HATE Christmas?"

All in all, a very good episode, a bit of a slow burn for a Season Premiere, but what a perfect title, and some staggeringly good acting from Ashleigh Cummings right out of the gate!!! That being said, I am so ready for Charlie's return to his gloriously villainous form, because as much as I adore this cast, as incredibly talented as they are, it's just not NOS4A2 without My Charlie Manx!!! Goodbye Bad Mother. HELLO Good Father!!!

[loudmouthbrowngirl]

Sometimes I’m Still Afraid All The Time

I have friends, allies, family, and guardians and still sometimes all the time I am afraid of what might happen and how bad it could get. 

The other night I curled up on the floor by my bed and I listened to all the voices in my head tell me what a piece of shit I am. I heard them say that I am never going to make it and I cried myself out until I could crawl back into bed. 

This time last year I was incredibly active, going out almost daily to downtown Vancouver to just soak up the culture and the people while I still could. 

I used that time to write my stories and talk to myself and get to know who I am as a person. I used that time to celebrate the fact that I am alive, and this year I am in such a different place. 

I am stuck at home because of the quarantine and I’ve gained quite a bit of weight that I can’t seem to be arsed to deal with, and I am feeling a lot more inquisitively depressed than I did last year. 

I am questioning myself a lot more this year than I did last year, and I am learning that I do not all the time have the answers to my problems. 

I am also accepting of the fact that those answers will reveal themselves when it’s time, which has taken a lot of the stress away. 

Sometimes though certain sounds or certain smells just trigger something and I can’t help but sink into that deep dark hole. This time around none of my anti triggers did the trick, so I realized I just had to ride it out until I felt better. 

These episodes take a lot out of me and make me more tired, so I spent most of the day sleeping in bed after I set my new book up for pre-sale on Amazon. 

I had that to look forward to and it’s the best anti-trigger I’ve found so far, I already have a few people who bought my book for the kindle version and will probably buy a hard copy one too when it’s up. I am excited about that. 

I am excited about receiving my first box of hard copies so that I can sign them and send them out to potential reviewers and special readers. 

I am excited about so much and afraid that it will be taken away from me, waiting for the other shoe to drop is depressing and I am trying not to do that anymore, but it’s not easy. 

I hope you’re having a better time of it, 

Sending all my love

Devon J Hall

[restwablida-blog]

https://hahahahack.com/p925.htm

  Audience Score - 22012 reviews Genres - Role Playing Chucklefish Limited.

Stardew Valley: Collector's Edition - PlayStation 4 Product Description Stardew Valley is an open-ended country-life RPG, which was released on PC on February 26th, 2016. Youve inherited your grandfathers old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. It wont be easy. Ever since Joja Corporation came to town, the old ways of life have all but disappeared. The community center, once the towns most vibrant hub of activity, now lies in shambles. But the valley seems full of opportunity. With a little dedication, you might just be the one to restore Stardew Valley to greatness. Breathe new life into the valley. Help restore Stardew Valley to it's former glory by repairing the old community center, or take the alternate route and join forces with Joja Corporation. Court and marry a partner to share your life on the farm with, Stardew Valley, PlayStation 4, GameStop, Stardew Valley. Get Stardew Valley, Role Playing Game (RPG) game for PS4 console from the official PlayStation website. Explore Stardew Valley game detail, demo, images, videos, reviews. With a little dedication, you might just be the one to restore Stardew Valley to greatness. Stardew Valley, PC, GameStop, Stardew Valley is a farming simulation role-playing video game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and originally published by Chucklefish. The game was initially released for Microsoft Windows in February 2016, with later ports being released for macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android. Stardew Valley: Collector's Edition - PlayStation 4, Stardew Valley Game, PS4 - PlayStation, Stardew Valley on PS4, Official PlayStationStore US.

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Série Stardew Valley com MODS: 1ª SÉRIE de Stardew Valley: Tutorial - Como Voltar Pa. Not likely to finish anything else at this point, so let's call it a year. Had fun, even if things didn't go according to plan. Thank you. Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS3. The main line and sidequests have enjoyable stories, and they did an excellent job of letting characters grow as you progress - there were a few I started out disliking quite a bit, but they grew on me by the end. Mostly. I didn't kick Sera out? Subtitles were good, with a couple options for how much you pick up. Th.

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Posted: 12/30/2019. R/StardewValley: Stardew Valley is an open-ended country-life RPG with support for 1-4 players. (Multiplayer isn't supported on mobile) Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. User account menu • what is the original zoom % on switch.

SENRAN KAGURA Bon Appetit!

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[theinquisitivej]

SteamHeart Episode 20 Reactions

Chapter Twenty: Off-Road Warriors

You can listen to the full episode here.

Well damn, that was an intense dose of adrenaline via audio, wasn’t it?

Raven immediately sets the foreboding tone, a notable change from the sweet tranquillity of the previous chapter’s closing moments. His grave description of the convoy of Mad Max-looking scary-crazy-bastards (and yes, this is about to be a Steampunk Fury Road episode, and you should have no objections to that) coming over the horizon sells the real danger that these men represent. The language paints a captivating yet frightening picture of demented vehicles, using harsh consonants to convey the sturdiness of these reinforced crafts, and hissing adjectives to emphasise the sharp, hostile shapes of these clawed, pointed carriages. Best line of the section is certainly “nothing was uniform save for the manifestly apparent expulsion of normality”. It instantly cements the chaotic, violent mindset of the men approaching the mine.

         These men call themselves the Southern Cross. Among their number is a man who’s fashioned himself into a bear (the talons fixed to his limbs make me think of a twisted, older and more cruel version of Miguel and his mongoose claw), and, as the band blows their own war trumpets in an act that is as aggressive as it is indicative of their own inflated self-importance over others, the ensuing danger becomes intensified, and chillingly unavoidable. We get the first glimpse of their leader, who wears a horse’s skull and appears to fancy himself a pale rider of death with the white, bone-like motif of his carriage and horses (I’m picturing Overwatch’s Reaper in both appearance and edgy lack of self-awareness). A lieutenant riding ahead of the pack addresses Raven. While Raven is the one who embodies the more dignified aspects of the bird with whom he shares his name, this lieutenant is the one who resembles a squawking, shrill parrot, wearing a beaked plague doctor’s mask and shrieking demands at Raven. He claims that “the Lord of Brimstone” has arrived. Oh this is going to go well.

             Raven dashes inside, hurriedly relaying the situation to the others. Within minutes, the few remaining mine workers and the team have brought Tabitha, who, lest we forget, is still going through labour (but still exhibiting her leadership skills even now by issuing orders, reinforcing that whole theme I talked about last time about motherhood / pregnancy not getting in the way of authoritative women being damn good at their jobs), inside SteamHeart. They don’t have enough soldiers to defend this post, and help isn’t coming, so things are looking grim. Even so, Annie assures us that “we’re not dying here like rats in a trap. Hell, that’s like, my one rule.”, and Laureta Sela’s delivery of that second part alleviates some of the tension by getting a chuckle out of me with that great line. As the group approach the gates, however, the pressure of the situation is once again felt as Harry informs the team that, even with SteamHeart’s technological superiority, it will take some serious damage if it charges headfirst into the enemy through the gate, and likely won’t be able to break free of them if it does so.

         Annie starts a dialogue with them through the loudspeaker. Abigail wanted to try, demonstrating her continuing desire to work on being a better figure of authority after giving the speech to the theatre a few chapters back, but Annie bluntly shoots that down as she knows they’ll have a better chance if she takes charge of this. Even so, it goes about as well as you’d expect – they don’t heed Annie’s firm warnings, and spout off rhetoric that, in addition to being violently psychotic, is grossly suggestive. Both the birdman and horse leader demand they “open wiiiide, each and every one of you; we are coming in!” Eeurggh… fuck these guys.

         The team devise a plan of escape after Jae-Hyun proposes he opens the gate to give the rest of them a chance, acknowledging the certainty that this will result in his own death. His brushing of Tabitha’s cheek indicates the loyalty and love he has for his leader who he will lay down his own life for. He steps out of SteamHeart to meet his fate, adjusting his hat as he does so; if clothes maketh the man, then this act highlights the dignity of this man in the face of these monstrously dressed, hollow creatures who call themselves men. The Southern Cross enter the mine after Hyun opens the gates, and the plague doctor spouts more inane speeches about surrender being the sensible choice in the face of such a rapturous occasion (resembling a combination of Loki in the first Avengers saying “isn’t this so much easier?!”, and a Jim Sterling character). In an instant, Harry springs SteamHeart into action, shooting forward and knocking horses and riders aside as it does so. The episode has been building anticipation to this moment – things are going to kick off hard.

         Jae-Hyun pulls the squawking doctor off his horse, and the response of arrows shot in his direction kills both men, though only the doctor meets his death with a scream. I’m torn on Jae-Hyun’s death, as it feels as if we were barely just starting to get to know this coolly tempered character, and the stern composure with which he met his death makes him someone I wish we got to spend more time with. However, I also think a character like this really helps heighten the stakes of the ensuing sequence, as well as hammers home the point that the victory of our heroes doesn’t come without sacrifice. The resilience Jae-Hyun showed as he met his death in order to save the lives of others, while still demonstrating a fighting spirit that showed he was a man who wouldn’t let monsters like these do what they wanted without retribution, makes the most of the small amount of time we spend with him. If we were to have a character with such a journey within SteamHeart, and I think that both the sequence and the story as a whole are stronger for it, I’m also glad that a specific effort is made to make this character not just a generic white guy. Instead, it’s a character of Asian descent who clearly has a defined look, style, and personality outside of what we see of him here in this book. It gives the world and the people in it a little more dimension, and reminds us that the way forward toward a more heroic and noble world is through unity and collaboration between all of us. That’s how we get to see the best of humanity. But for the worst of humanity, like the racist, murderous Southern Cross, it’s pretty satisfying to see someone of a different ethnicity literally pull them off their horse and, when it comes down to it, show that they are the better man when they each meet their deaths.

         Anyway, back to the action – I’ll do my best to make my writing engaging and analytical, but to be frank, it’s so easy to lose myself in the flow of this sequence. It’s tense as hell, compelling, features detailed description of well-choreographed action, the voice actors are all delivering their lines with pitch-perfect urgency and intensity, and all of this is packaged together (in this audio version of the book) with some truly immersive editing and sound effect choices. It’s the best action sequence of New Century to date.

         As SteamHeart breaks away, the Southern Cross give chase, abandoning their initial goal of the mine as they now want the technology of their craft, as well as to take out their frothing anger on the crew. The grassland beneath them is uneven, which isn’t good for Tabitha during all of this, so James urges Harry to seek the smoothest route. Individual horse riders catch up and start flinging projectiles at SteamHeart’s glowing cables, which you have to imagine is a weak point of the craft (kind of like those glowing spots on a videogame boss). Annie and Butler take position in SteamHeart’s sniping openings. Abigail and Jeremy are handing out ammo and hammering out any projectiles which pierce the hull of the craft, showing that this thing isn’t impervious to damage, and will fall if it takes too much. Harry is doing a mixture of evasive and ramming manoeuvres, resulting in some awesome displays of destruction as enemy carriages splinter, flip, and crash. God, this is good stuff to listen to.

         James takes over narration from Raven (incidentally, Raven was a good choice for this first part, as his journalistic ability to report the specifics of events puts you right in the action of this sequence). He recruits Jeremy, instructing him to sterilise some linens using steam from the craft’s internal pipes. Tabitha grips James’ hands as she fights the pain, and the two “breathe together”, something Harry and Tabitha did at the end of the last episode – there’s a lot of power in matching and sharing the breathing of someone else as they go through something hard that pushes them to the edge. James hides nothing from Tabitha when she asks him if he’s delivered many babies before; he’s assisted on several occasions, but this is the first time he’s delivered one himself. But even as weapons hammer the hull next to them, James assures with compassionate determination that they’re going to do this right, and that there will be another “little person in the world” in a short while, which is how they’re going to survive. It’s an exchange of nervous fear as everything happens around them, mixed with hopeful resilience.

         We switch to Annie. An approaching enemy vehicle has attached lassos to SteamHeart. Abigail, Harry, and Annie take this in, realise how they need to counter this, and brace themselves; SteamHeart builds energy in a roaring moment of anticipation before Harry jams the wheel and hammers the breaks, making the back of SteamHeart swing like an almighty pendulum, smashing the enemy vehicle in a spectacular moment of destruction.

         Now the Bear (whose cries make him sound like Tom Hardy’s Bane) and his vehicle are coming down on them. One of the Southern Cross leaps onto the windshield and embeds his tomahawk in the window and narrowly misses Harry. The proud mechanic indignantly cries out that these fuckers are “tearing my baby apart!”, and Abigail steps out the hatch to punish the window assailant by shooting him point blank in the elbow. If I recall correctly, her weapon of choice right now is a sawn-off shotgun, making the impact of this even meatier and wince-inducing [Editor’s Correction: I’ve been informed that Abigail’s weapon is a shotgun, but not a sawn-off. It’s a lever-action, short-barrel, short-stock shotgun, made for her by Harry, John Browning and William Winchester. Think Arnie during the truck chase scene in Terminator 2]. Annie asks her what the hell she thinks she’s doing, before Abby swings across to the Bear’s carriage using one of the lassos. Annie’s concern is understandable; Abigail is her charge, a possessor of the Endowment (and one who very recently demonstrated can actually put it to good use by closing these portals), and this chaotic and dangerous situation might force Annie to do what Arlington asked of her and shoot Abigail before the Endowment can be lost, which is the last thing she wants to do. We see these frantic thoughts race through her mind as she trains her rifle over the Bear and Abigail’s fight. The Bear seems to be enjoying the duel, demanding his comrades leave her alone and that he be the one to take her down. Abigail catches herself on his armour, but she spits blood in his eye, dodges his club, and, with one guided megaton hit of a punch that slows the world down to a crawl, destroys his balls.

Brutal. Awesome.

         As he reels, Abigail ropes the Bear and kicks the driver, snaring him and launching the Bear into the air as Annie tags in with a shot that severs the rope and sends him flying and crashing. A feathered carriage comes in from the side, putting Abigail in danger. Annie calls out for a bottle of bourbon, and Raven assists by giving her his whisky, though he lets her know that she owes him a drink. This, and a lot of other little asides and exchanges during this sequence is what communicates the character of the people engaged in this fight, which makes it all the more exciting and thrilling. It’s people we know and care about who are participating in this and fighting for their lives, not just nameless faces. For that same reason, it’s also what makes it tense and frightening; I really don’t want to lose anyone in this group. But, for the time being, Raven tears a piece of fabric from his shirt and jams it into the bottle, showing he understands exactly what Annie had in mind. He lights it with his cigarette (another indication of his personality – it’s amusing to see that even in this life-or-death situation, Raven prioritises having a lit cigarette in his mouth), and Annie passes the Molotov to Abigail after she realised what the two were planning and came up to them. The synthesis of this teamwork and co-operation between multiple members of the party is really satisfying to watch. Annie lays down covering fire at the feathered carriage to distract them as Abigail slings the bottle, and Annie, like John Marston activating Dead Eye, focuses her attention as time slows down and hits the bottle with one last bullet. Wild fire ignites the carriage. Annie lets out a guttural and sorely earned “YYYYESSS!”

         The last carriage is the Lord of Brimstone with his skeleton crew and his bone-white ride. They have dynamite – oh dear. Abigail extends a hand out to Annie, emphasising her support and belief in her that she can make this shot. She pulls Annie onto the roof, and as Annie is pulled into the open air before she lands next to Abby, she sees everything clearly, and identifies her target. She takes her shot immediately, and it lands, hitting the guy behind Brimstone, who was holding a stick of dynamite, which he drops inside the carriage – right next to all the other dynamite. The explosion destroys the carriage, and the leader is shot out like a comical firework, engulfed in fire, ash, and bone. Hey, he was the one who called himself “Brimstone” and obsessed over his boney white aesthetic – I’d say he got exactly what he always wanted.

         With a crash, the world goes quiet. We hear a heartbeat slow down, providing a fantastic transition that takes us from the adrenaline of this sequence back down to a place where we can catch our breath. But we’re soon reminded that, while all of this is going on, Tabitha is still facing her own fight as she’s in the middle of giving birth to her baby. As James guides the baby out, provides support to Tabitha, and things escalate to their peak, the explosion echoes out behind them as Tabitha experiences her own release as the baby boy comes out, safe. The music instantly adapts to the sweet innocence of the moment. The crew re-centre themselves, Harry slows down SteamHeart, and now that everything is okay and everyone is safe… Annie punches Abigail in the side, in an act of frustration that ends up hurting her more than Abigail (Annie is after all not quite as used to throwing punches as Abigail is, as we remember from that brawl in Secret Rooms which Abby and James adapted to but which took Annie by surprise and disorientated her). Abigail responds that, while she may have taken a risky move, they all survived and made it through this. The tone is quietly triumphant, intimate, and optimistic. Our heroes have made it through this.

         James shares Abby’s gratitude for the moment, and as Butler tells him he’s done a good thing here as Tabitha holds her child close to her, he experiences a sense of tranquil acceptance. James has been experiencing doubts about himself and his usefulness ever since he acquired the Endowment. At the end of Secret Rooms, he even wondered if he would be any good as a doctor after effectively losing one half of his eyes. But by helping another, by bringing this new life into the world, James has realised he can make enough of a difference to be at peace with himself, if only for now. It’s a revelation that endears me to James, as I’ve often found that, at times where I doubt my own self-worth, the best thing I can do is to seek out ways I can help other people, whether it’s in big ways or little ways. If I can make someone else’s day a little easier, then that alone makes me feel like I’m doing alright. And that’s a sentiment I love to see in fiction like this.

So yeah, this episode was a fantastic ride, and a complete triumph.

[drgreg]

Dr Greg Hough South Africa

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Van der Merwe, educated at Hawkesbury Agricultural College in Australia, who had joined the division in March this yr and remained until 1952, when he turned seventy two. The South African Medical Congress met in East London from 31 August to 5 September, presided over by Dr Robert J. Roulston of that metropolis. Some 30 papers were read, within the classes Surgery, Medicine, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Public Health, Ophthalmology, and Special Subjects. Congress thought-about two of the papers on public health dr greg hough south africa so important that it was decided 'to invite the lay Press to publish them'. The two papers had been 'Tuberculosis', by Dr J. Barcroft Anderson, and a comprehensive review of 'Hygiene in South Africa', the presidential tackle of Dr W. Watkins-Pitchford. Though the laboratories were large for their time, additional buildings have been soon required, owing to an increased work load following the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

We would like to share this burden with you, and not transfer extra of a burden onto what is already an enormous ask. “…To the world you're a mother. To your family you are the world…” Video’s from the Prefects and Chapel Stewards for all moms dr greg hough south africa on the market. This week’s #WellnessWednesday message comes from our Rev Tim Marshall. Read as he cracks a joke or two and talks concerning the importance of humour in our lives.

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[miralbusiness]

Mos speedrun cover art5

Mos speedrun cover art5 how to#

Mos speedrun cover art5 manuals#

Mos speedrun cover art5 archive#

They don’t write about video games to assign a number of stars-or whatever it is video game reviewers assign to video games so that you can decide whether to go out and buy them. It is also not a collection of reviews because these writers are not primarily reviewers.

Mos speedrun cover art5 manuals#

This book is not a collection of instructions video games stopped coming with detailed user manuals years ago, embedding their directions within tutorial levels and progressive design. Although that may be all well and good for academics to share their insights with one another, who else wants to read that? We believe that the vast majority of people who watch television or play video games, whether they are students in a course or inquisitive everyday readers, have something to learn about popular culture from us media scholars if only we presented our ideas in a style designed to be more broadly read and understood. Most of these authors are academics, who typically publish their work as 25-plus-page essays in journals or 200-plus-page monographs, often with hundreds of citations, detailed sections on methodology, and commentary on insider debates within the field. The premise behind both of these books is to assemble essays written by very smart people with very smart things to say about popular culture, such as television and video games.

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Instead, How to Play Video Games features 40 essays, each focusing on a particular video game and modeling a critical approach to understanding video games as popular culture. Look elsewhere for walkthroughs, cheats, and speedruns. That is, our book didn’t teach people how to watch television (who needs a book for that?), and these essays do not teach you how to play video games. The title of that book was the same kind of joke. We know because the format of this book is modeled on our own book, How to Watch Television. Walden, a game: Reflection Tracy FullertonĪppendix: Video Games Discussed in this Volumeįoreword Ethan Thomp s on a n d Jason M it tel l To avoid confusion, we, the writers of the foreword, wish to clarify one thing up front: the title of this book, How to Play Video Games, is a joke.

Mos speedrun cover art5 archive#

Tempest: Archive Judd Ethan Ruggill and Ken S. Shovel Knight: Nostalgia John Vanderhoefģ9. Counter-Strike: Spectatorship Emma Witkowskiģ7. Minecraft: User-Generated Content James Newmanģ5. Game Practices: medium, technology, and everyday life 31. Medal of Honor: Militarism Tanner Mirrleesģ0. Tomb Raider: Transmedia Jessica AldredĢ9. LEGO Dimensions: Licensing Derek JohnsonĢ8. Angry Birds: Mobile Gaming Gregory Steirer and Jeremy BarnesĢ7. Ball-and-Paddle Games: Domesticity Michael Z. Cookie Clicker: Gamification Sebastian DeterdingĢ5. Game Dev Tycoon: Labor Casey O’DonnellĢ4. Clash Royale: Gaming Capital Mia ConsalvoĢ3. Miyamoto/Kojima: Authorship Jennifer deWinterĢ2. industry: industrial Practices and structures 21. Borderlands: Capitalism Matthew Thomas Payne and Michael Fleisch Age of Empires: Postcolonialism Souvik MukherjeeĢ0. Sniper Elite III: Death Amanda Phillipsġ9. PaRappa the Rapper: Emotion Katherine Isbisterġ7. The Queerness and Games Conference: Community Bonnie Rubergġ5. Leisure Suit Larry: LGBTQ Representation Adrienne Shawġ4. The Last of Us: Masculinity Soraya Murrayġ3. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood: Feminism Shira Chessġ2. Representation: social identity and Cultural Politics 11. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Music Dan Golding BioShock Infinite: World-building Mark J. Don’t Starve: Temporality Christopher Hansonĩ. Planescape: Torment: Immersion Evan Tornerħ. Sid Meier’s Civilization: Realism Peter KrappĦ. Grand Theft Auto V: Avatars Harrison Gishĥ. King’s Quest: Narrative Anastasia SalterĤ. Introduction: A Game Genie for Game Studies Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Classification: LCC GV1469.34.S | DDC 794.8-dc23 LC record available at New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. | Video games- Moral and ethical aspects. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Video games-Social aspects. Description: New York : New York University Press, | Includes bibliographical references and index. Title: How to play video games / Edited by Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Payne, Matthew Thomas, editor. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. N EW YORK U N I VE RSI T Y PRE S S New York © 2019 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. How to Play Video Games EditEd by mattHew tHomas Payne and nina B.