#the people who wrote books and make videos and articles are the ones teaching it

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

I’m always tempted to pull some malicious compliance shit whenever some boomer or asshole says “I don’t have pronouns” to me.

Like, sure you don’t person who just used I on themselves, but I’ll bite.

And then they get mad at you because you’re only addressing them as “human”

They were the ones to say that they don’t know pronouns, and the only two things I can think of to use would be a proper noun (their name) or a regular noun (i.e. human) I guess I could also use an adjective and refer to them by nationality. Is “earthling” an adjective or a noun? When you address someone by an adjective does it become a noun? I don’t remember the details there. Wait, isn’t that the whole “nominalized” thing? It’s a new concept to me. It wouldn’t be a pronoun though, would it? I’ll just stick to “human”

[valdevia]

What are the biggest inspirations for your work? Your ideas and pieces are so unique and amazing. ^-^

Junji Ito for his approach to horror and how he can seamlessly balance body horror, cosmic horror and the absurd.

Guillermo del Toro for his takes on folklore and history, and that little bit of whimsy.

Old-school creepypasta for the method of presentation (not for the writing. God, not the writing).

Obscure internet sites made by conspiracy theorists who use badly photoshopped images as proof that giants are real. Also, all those people making videos of "duende captured on camera in real life"

My medical degree for all the medical horror it has inspired. Especially that one strange professor who spent weeks teaching us about parasites even though it wasn't strictly needed for the curriculum. Cool guy.

All the editors who wrote the weird Wikipedia articles that give me ideas.

Arthur Conan Doyle for writing a book-length essay defending a spirit photographer who he really thought was real. Inspired this!

All the archivists and museum workers doing an amazing job of digitizing history and letting everyone freely access the results of their labour. So many of my images come from seeing a cool old photo in an online archive and going "ooh I should add something here!".

And I could go on!

[kitscodingblog]

Update 2

These updates will probably not be consistent, but only people who are like, actively following will even know so why would I even say that?

Anyway, more under the cut!

I've been coding off and on some more, and today was another feel good day. I'm using two books simultaneously, "Automate The Boring Stuff" and "Python Crash Course". Automate is a little more in-depth and intense, teaching me a lot of stuff slowly. Crash Course is, well, a crash course. So its much faster paced, but what I DO like is it has me do some quick small projects after each new skill, so I actually learn how to use the code!

That has honestly helped a lot. Every video and article I've read has pretty much drilled in the same bit of advice:

"You have to actually code. Don't get stuck in tutorial hell."

Watching and copying peoples code only helps you learn so much. You have to figure out how to use the code yourself or you'll just end up getting nowhere.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but for one of the lessons in "Automate The Boring Stuff" it had me make a rock, paper, scissors game. It showed me the code and broke it down what each line did etc.

But while looking at it, I was like, "Wait a minute. This can be more efficient." So I ended up cutting down on like 10 lines of code and it still worked just fine! It made me feel like I'd actually learned something!!

Then today, I was learning about lists (a really basic skill). It wanted me to make a list of people and then print a message for each person. I remembered something I'd learned from anther video, and wrote a really simple one line code to do it. Which was great! I'd remembered stuff! I was using it! I understood how it all functioned!

Even though it's nothing like, ground breaking, it's nice to see improvement from myself and understanding how the code actually works for once. In some of the other projects I've tried it felt like I just had no idea what I was doing, but now it's starting to stick! Progress!

My side project right now is to make a really simple text based adventure game. I think I have enough understanding to do it, but we'll see how it goes. I specifically want to recreate something similar to a game I used to play like 20 years ago haha. I'll keep you posted!

If anyone else is coding out there, I wish you the best of luck! To everyone else I also wish you the best of luck in whatever you pursue!

-Kit

[tallmantall]

James Donaldson on Mental Health - Take Time to Learn About Rural Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

James Donaldson on Mental Health - Take Time to Learn About Rural Mental Health and Suicide Prevention By  Russ Quinn , DTN Staff Reporter Changes in a person's behavior such as increased use of alcohol or drugs, a lack of sleep and taking less pride in personal appearance or even upkeep of the farm may be warning signs the person is facing a mental health challenge. As an agricultural journalist for over 25 years, I have written on many different ag topics during my career -- crops, livestock, machinery, markets. You name it and I have probably covered it. One topic I have always felt I needed to write about was rural mental health. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I was a kid growing up in the Midwest during the 1980s farm crisis and remember a couple of farmers in our community dying from suicide and leaving behind loved ones to grieve. Or maybe it was because I was raised in a farm family and mental health was a topic that wasn't discussed. Recently, I wrote about a free online course titled "Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Rural America." You can read it that article here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…. It is being offered by Cornell University in partnership with NY FarmNet and Rural Minds, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes mental health in rural America. The founder and chairman of Rural Minds is Jeff Winton, who is a New York dairy farmer who started the organization after his nephew died from suicide in their rural community. There is a video profile of him explaining why he started the organization on the group's website. You can view it here: https://www.ruralminds.org/…. Normally, I write articles and then move on to the next subject on my list to cover. This time, however, I decided I needed to take the course. The online course is free and probably about an hour in length. It took me longer, as I took notes along the way. #James Donaldson notes:Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticleFind out more about the work I do on my 501c3 non-profit foundationwebsite www.yourgiftoflife.org Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,#CelebratingYourGiftofLife: From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy www.celebratingyourgiftoflife.com Link for 40 Habits Signupbit.ly/40HabitsofMentalHealth If you'd like to follow and receive my daily blog in to your inbox, just click on it with Follow It. Here's the link https://follow.it/james-donaldson-s-standing-above-the-crowd-s-blog-a-view-from-above-on-things-that-make-the-world-go-round?action=followPub According to the course, farmers face a higher rate of suicide than people in other careers. Some of the reasons for this are the nature of farm work, the deep intertwining of farmers' work and their personal identity, significant obstacles to obtaining healthcare, and financial volatility due to things like weather and commodity markets. Perhaps the most important part of the entire course was learning the warning signs that someone may be facing a mental health challenge. The course teaches to watch for changes in a person's talk, behavior and mood. Examples of changes in people's talk could be negative talk such as they feel like they are a burden to others or they are being trapped in a certain situation. Changes in behavior could be increased use of alcohol or drugs, a lack of sleep and taking less pride in personal appearance or even upkeep of the farm. Changes in mood could include sadness, anger or even sudden happiness again as a person considers suicide. The training said it is important to talk to the person about these changes you noticed. You don't need to be a trained expert -- just try and listen to the person. Talk to the person in private and share your general observations of these changes. Use a phrase such as "I have noticed" when you talk to the person. Be attentive to the person, and it is recommended you ask the person directly if they are considering suicide. Research shows that contrary to what some people might think, asking someone this question directly often helps the situation. How do you help someone who is thinking about suicide? You should believe the person and listen to the person and their concerns. Avoid talking down to him or her with your own advice. Stay with the person if it safe to do so. Know what resources are available. Call 911 if it is an emergency issue. If not an emergency, call or text 988 and utilize local mental health resources in your area. I urge anyone in a rural community, whether you are involved with agriculture or not, to take an hour and do the training. It is time well spent, and it could help you save a life someday. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Read the full article

[biblenewsprophecy]

Papias, Millenarianism, and Allegory

Who was Papias of Hierapolis? Where is Hierapolis? Is Bishop Papias considered an 'Apostolic Father' by the Roman Catholic Church? What does the 'Orthodox Wiki' say about him? Irenaeus wrote that Papias "was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp." While Eusebius wrote that Papius had a great knowledge of scripture, why did he belittle him? Might Papias have tied the millennium in with a teaching of Jesus? Did Papias and other early church leaders teach that there would be a thousand year period of abundance during the millennial reign of Jesus on the earth? Is Revelation 20:4-6 to be understood literally? Is it mythological to teach what scriptures assert? Were people like Papias, Polycarp, Nepos, and Lucian proponents of literally accepting the word of God? What about Origen and others in Alexandria? Does the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' condemn any millenarian beliefs as doctrines of Antichrist? Did Emmett Culligan write in support of millenarianism in a book blessed by Pope Paul VI? Would Papias have observed Passover on the biblical date instead of on a Sunday like Emperors Constantine and Theodosius tried to insist? Could Aristion have written Mark 16:9-20? If so, is it still scripture? Did Papias teach that the angels were on the earth before humans, then after they sinned the earth was destroyed, hence supporting the 'gap doctrine' of Genesis 1:2? Does the Continuing Church of God or the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox best hold to the teachings of early church leaders such as Papias and Polycarp? What about the Protestant churches? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues.

A written article of related interest is available titled 'Papias'

Youtube video link: Papias, Millenarianism, and Allegory

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Papias Papias died in the second century and oversaw churches from Hierapolis. He taught the millennium and information supportive to the gap doctrine. Here is a link to a related sermon: Papias, Millenarianism, and Allegory.

What is the Appropriate Form of Biblical Interpretation? Should the Bible be literally understood? What do the writings of the Bible, Origen, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Augustine show?

Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it? Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near? Three related sermons are available Let’s Talk About the Earthly Millennium, Millennial Utopia, and The Millennium.

How Old is the Earth and How Long Were the Days of Creation? Gap Theory? Does the Bible allow for the creation of the universe and earth billions of years ago? Why do some believe they are no older than 6,000 years old? What is the gap theory? Were the days of creation in Genesis 1:3 through 2:3 24 hours long? Here are links to two sermons: Gap Theory: Doctrine or Modern Heresy? and Genesis, ‘Prehistoric man,’ and the Gap theory. Here is a link to a related article in Spanish: ¿Cuán vieja es la Tierra? ¿Cuán largos fueron los Días de la Creación? ¿Teoría de la brecha? Here is a link to a video in Spanish: La edad de la Tierra, la Biblia y Teoría de la Brecha.

The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN: Why Did God Create Anything? Why Did God Make You? This free online book helps answers some of the biggest questions that human have, including the biblical meaning of life. Here is a link to three related sermons: Mysteries of God’s Plan, Mysteries of Truth, Sin, Rest, Suffering, and God’s Plan, Mystery of Race, and The Mystery of YOU. Here is a link to a video in Spanish: El Misterio del Plan de Dios.

The Ten Commandments: The Decalogue, Christianity, and the Beast This is a free book explaining the what the Ten Commandments are, where they came from, how early professors of Christ viewed them, and how various ones, including the Beast of Revelation, will oppose them. A related sermon is titled: The Ten Commandments and the Beast of Revelation.

Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation Will all get a fair chance at salvation? This free book is packed with scriptures showing that God does intend to offer salvation to all who ever lived–the elect in this age, and the rest in the age to come. Here is a link to a related sermon series: Universal Offer of Salvation 1: Apocatastasis, Universal Offer of Salvation 2: Jesus Desires All to be Saved, Mysteries of the Great White Throne Judgment (Universal Offer of Salvation part 3), Is God Fair, Will God Pardon the Ignorant?, Can God Save Your Relatives?, Babies, Limbo, Purgatory and God’s Plan, and ‘By the Mouth of All His Holy Prophets’.

Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection. A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?

Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church. Did the original “catholic church” have doctrines held by the Continuing Church of God? Did Church of God leaders uses the term “catholic church” to ever describe the church they were part of? Here are links to related sermons: Original Catholic Church of God?, Original Catholic Doctrine: Creed, Liturgy, Baptism, Passover, What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?, Tradition, Holy Days, Salvation, Dress, & Celibacy, Early Heresies and Heretics, Doctrines: 3 Days, Abortion, Ecumenism, Meats, Tithes, Crosses, Destiny, and more, Saturday or Sunday?, The Godhead, Apostolic Laying on of Hands Succession, Church in the Wilderness Apostolic Succession List, Holy Mother Church and Heresies, and Lying Wonders and Original Beliefs.

Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Will Philadelphian Christians instruct many in the end times? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work. Here is a link to another: Preparing to Instruct Many.

Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete? Are there lost gospels? What about the Apocrypha? Is the Septuagint better than the Masoretic text? What about the Textus Receptus vs. Nestle Alland? Was the New Testament written in Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew? Which translations are based upon the best ancient text? Did the true Church of God have the canon from the beginning? Here are links to related sermons: Let’s Talk About the Bible, The Books of the Old Testament, The Septuagint and its Apocrypha, Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, and Lost Books of the Bible, and Let’s Talk About the New Testament, The New Testament Canon From the Beginning, English Versions of the Bible and How Did We Get Them?, What was the Original Language of the New Testament?, Original Order of the Books of the Bible, and Who Gave the World the Bible? Who Had the Chain of Custody?

Proof Jesus is the Messiah This free book has over 200 Hebrew prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. Plus, His arrival was consistent with specific prophecies and even Jewish interpretations of prophecy. Here are links to seven related sermons: Proof Jesus is the Messiah, Prophecies of Jesus’ birth, timing, and death, Jesus’ prophesied divinity, 200+ OT prophecies Jesus filled; Plus prophecies He made, Why Don’t Jews Accept Jesus?, Daniel 9, Jews, and Jesus, and Facts and Atheists’ Delusions About Jesus. Plus the links to two sermonettes: Luke’s census: Any historical evidence? and Muslims believe Jesus is the Messiah, but …

Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God Differs from Protestantism The CCOG is NOT Protestant. This free online book explains how the real Church of God differs from mainstream/traditional Protestants. Several sermons related to the free book are also available: Protestant, Baptist, and CCOG History; The First Protestant, God’s Command, Grace, & Character; The New Testament, Martin Luther, and the Canon; Eucharist, Passover, and Easter; Views of Jews, Lost Tribes, Warfare, & Baptism; Scripture vs. Tradition, Sabbath vs. Sunday; Church Services, Sunday, Heaven, and God’s Plan; Seventh Day Baptists/Adventists/Messianics: Protestant or COG?; Millennial Kingdom of God and God’s Plan of Salvation; Crosses, Trees, Tithes, and Unclean Meats; The Godhead and the Trinity; Fleeing or Rapture?; and Ecumenism, Rome, and CCOG Differences.

The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN Why Did God Create Anything? Why did God make you? This free online book helps answers some of the biggest questions that human have, including the biblical meaning of life. Here is a link to three related sermons: Mysteries of God’s Plan, Mysteries of Truth, Sin, Rest, Suffering, and God’s Plan, and The Mystery of YOU.

Christians: Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, Biblical instructions on living as a Christian This is a scripture-filled booklet for those wishing to live as a real Christian. A related sermon is also available: Christians are Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available in around 2,000 languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons:  The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.

Where is the True Christian Church Today? This free online pdf booklet answers that question and includes 18 proofs, clues, and signs to identify the true vs. false Christian church. Plus 7 proofs, clues, and signs to help identify Laodicean churches. A related sermon is also available: Where is the True Christian Church? Here is a link to the booklet in the Spanish language: ¿Dónde está la verdadera Iglesia cristiana de hoy? Here is a link in the German language: WO IST DIE WAHRE CHRISTLICHE KIRCHE HEUTE? Here is a link in the French language: Où est la vraie Église Chrétienne aujourd’hui?

Continuing History of the Church of God This pdf booklet is a historical overview of the true Church of God and some of its main opponents from Acts 2 to the 21st century. Related sermon links include Continuing History of the Church of God: c. 31 to c. 300 A.D. and Continuing History of the Church of God: 4th-16th Centuries and Continuing History of the Church of God: 17th-20th Centuries. The booklet is available in Spanish: Continuación de la Historia de la Iglesia de Dios, German: Kontinuierliche Geschichte der Kirche Gottes, and Ekegusii Omogano Bw’ekanisa Ya Nyasae Egendererete.

CCOG.ORG Continuing Church of God The group striving to be most faithful amongst all real Christian groups to the word of God. There are links to literature is about 1600 different languages there.

LATEST SERMONS

[nsfwhiphop]

Incoming Text for @YesJulz:

Hey, YesJulz!

I want to let you know that Idil Ahmed will become your new screenwriting partner, you can learn the screenwriting craft together as a team, you will have a lot of fun with Idil because she is a loyal friend.

Also, don't forget, Idil is the new assitant of Tracey Edmonds, she will do all the heavy-lifting with the brain and you will help Idil do the work too, writing screenplays is fun.

YesJulz, you are a fast learner, I saw you read books on your IG pages, so I know you love words a lot, so don't hesitate to practice a lot, just write down the words, let them flow on paper, write down your ideas on paper and don't worry about the screenplay, this is for later. First, you have to start with writing down ideas, just write them down, keep a notebook nearby, in your room, in your living room, in your toilets, everywhere you should have a notebook in your home, even at night, you never know when inspiration strikes.

Also, IMPORTANT REMINDER:

"Writing down ideas in a notebook can sometimes be time consuming, because you have to write down these ideas and they can take a big chunk on your time, so this why I recommend an easier option, you can use dictation, which means use a voice recorder to collect your new ideas for a movie and then simply listen to these ideas when you have free time to organize your recorded film ideas."

Here is an article that will help you choose the best voice recorders for you, click the link:

Also, Did you know that you can write an entire book using your voice recorder? Oh, yes, it's possible, so do it, write a book too, I know you want to write a book, dictation will help you finish your book easily. Watch & learn from this youtube video below:

Never underestimate yourself, never think negatively, you can do this, the grammar mistakes and all that stuff that stresses you out, doesn't matter, what really matters is your vision, your ideas on the paper, that is what really matters. Quentin Taratino used to write like an illiterate person back in 1992, a lot of people forget that Tarantino made a lot of grammar errors in the beginning of his career when he wrote screenplays but that didn't stop him to continue chasing his dream of becoming a screenwriter and director, it's all about your drive, your energy, your willpower, your work ethic.

You can do this YesJULZ, I believe in your work ethic, never not working. Just keep writing down your ideas and never worry about the screenplay, the ideas are the most important ingredients of a screenplay, you need the ideas to build the screenplay, so don't think too much and just write down your ideas and see how easy it will become for you to build your screenplay, brick by brick, step by step.

I want to teach you a lil' secret about Quentin Tarantino that not a lot of people know, read this quote by his typist Linda Chen:

Quote of the Day (Linda Chen, on Quentin Tarantino, ‘Functional Illiterate’)

“His handwriting is atrocious. He’s a functional illiterate. I was averaging about 9,000 grammatical errors per page. After I would correct them, he would try to put back the errors, because he liked them.”—Linda Chen, who corrected and typed the screenplay for Pulp Fiction and later served as unit photographer on the film, on her motormouth, manic, mad employer, Quentin Tarantino, quoted in Mark Seal, “Cinema Tarantino: The Making of Pulp Fiction,” Vanity Fair, March 2013

In late 1992, Quentin Tarantino left Amsterdam, where he had spent three months, off and on, in a one-room apartment with no phone or fax, writing the script that would become Pulp Fiction, about a community of criminals on the fringe of Los Angeles. Written in a dozen school notebooks, which the 30-year-old Tarantino took on the plane to Los Angeles, the screenplay was a mess—hundreds of pages of indecipherable handwriting. “It was about going over it one last time and then giving it to the typist, Linda Chen, who was a really good friend of mine,” Tarantino tells me. “She really helped me.”

You can find the full article this Vanity Fair link, see below:

[tentacledtherapist]

I know the feeling, I love watching the movie over and over. It doesn't get old and there is always something new I notice when it replays. It is also fun to take new people into it because I love watching their expression during the scene with the hatchet in the bedroom. 10/10 nothing more entertaining.

I definitely see the gum melting as a sort of "glue" holding them together, you're right! There is a lot going on in that scene but I love all of it. I'd make my bedroom look like that if I could!

I also enjoy literature you can pick apart. There is something nice about digging your fingers inside it and unweaving it to try and find further meaning. I'm the opposite of "the curtains are blue" type people, I WANT that depth and symbolism. I want to pick it apart because it is FUN!

Maybe I like books like Les Mis because I enjoy people infodumping at me about things they like? 10 pages on the Parisian sewer system is nothing compared to the wikipedia articles some people have read to me. Sort of Tolkienesque type of worldbuilding and story where you have to understand what comes before so you can understand the now. Perhaps that is also why I like the genre of informational historical books. To understand the now we must understand the past. It holds its own sort of mystery too, like social archaeology.

The Ladies' Etiquette book was one of the most fascinating in-so-far as that it was actually far kinder than expected. You would think it would be stiff and cruel and demeaning but one of the first things it teaches is that as long as you are kind and care for others and love people, you will never be rude even if you shirk every other piece of etiquette in the book. I found that to be oddly sweet.

- Creature

P.s.: There is a corner give a book-take a book shelf nearby. Maybe I will find one there I can practice bookbinding on.

i saw the movie for the first time in an entirely empty theater, and the scream i scrumpt when the ax came down in michael's bedroom was hither-to unknown by mankind. it was peak cinema. i'm very glad i saw it on the big screen and it's my favorite scene to rewatch with people who've never seen the movie before. not my favorite scene in the whole movie, but the most entertaining to watch with people

i like the sentiment in that book. it reminds me of that snippet of roald dahl's writing about what real beauty is? granted, he was a pretty shitty person in the end, but he wrote a few paragraphs about how a person who is good on the inside can't ever be ugly, that the goodness inside them shines out of them like,,, sunlight? i think the quote was? i like the sentiment, even if the man who wrote it was pretty damn unpleasant on the inside

(and shel silverstein was the superior children’s book writer/illustrator double threat)

anyway,

i get it. the,,, almost infodumping nature of books that are really verbose. the person who wrote these books cared enough to write it all down, to proofread and fact check, to publish? i like it when there’s things to dig in to, to engage with. i like authors and poets and directors and, hell, even youtube video essayists who have something to say and they don’t care how long it takes to say it because they want to say it. and they’ll give us things to chew on all the while

i think i always need to be learning something, thinking about something, or else i’ll lose it. i genuinely enjoy the work i do, but it’s also not the most mentally engaging a lot of the time, so i like media that forces me to think about it. if that makes sense?

(it also doesn’t help that my coworkers are some of the most monotonous people ever? i enjoy my work, but breakroom conversations are hard when everyone you work with is a carbon copy of emmett from the lego movie. please can we talk about something other than your golf clubs, pleaseeee)

also there’s that… connection to people who came before you. it’s why i started doing all of my crafty hobbies. my mom taught me to crochet, my aunt started sewing clothes with me, my grandmother is why i play piano, etc. i get to keep that knowledge, i have that connection. and then i get to share it with other people and keep that connection going

- Lisa

[talenlee]

July 2023 Wrapup!

Do you know that the majority of people who read my blog are in fact, super great and cool? It’s true, I have the analytics. No, you can’t see them. Why would you want to? Don’t you trust me? I’m very trustworthy and can be relied upon to have normal thoughts in my normal brain. I had it certified.

Anyway, it’s the end of a month, and I think it’d be good if you checked through this list of links and suggestions and see if there’s cool content on this blog you’d care about that you missed!

This month’s game piles were a video explaining the Ur-Quan Heresies, which was – effectively – a rebundling of an older article I wrote, and I wanted it to be more available for non-readers. Then, Fox and I talked about Bloc By Bloc, an excellent cooperative game about opposing fascist occupation by a mysterious fantasy faction called ‘the police.’ I talked about Small World too, which I liked a lot, as both a game that’s a lot of fun and a game that connects me to a beloved friend, with its fun experience of being an ideology. Then I talked about Unblock Gridlock, ASMR, and history of puzzle development.

For the Story Pile this month, I dedicated each week to one season of the series Person Of Interest (season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). I liked it! It’s a cool show! I thought it was interesting and it made me ask interesting questions! Also the way that I watched it during the choking, convulsing torment of the Large Language Model discourse happening, that was kinda weird. And one of the guys central to it, Jim CaVEIIEZEL, is a big ole poop head and he just recently put out a movie that sucks about an idea that sucks because he’s a big ole Qanon weirdo! That sucks!

This month’s other articles have included an ongoing diary working on Bloodwork (and I kinda got more to go on that). I talked about some real life changes, like watching more anime and getting a library card and having the language I use being clearly weird and awful. I also put a lot of work into talking about making things, and put some of that into practice even if uh, it was a bit rough to write!

I also talked about Worldbuilding in D&D a lot! I talked about the way that currency is a byproduct of organisation and technology. I talked about the city of Torrent, and its lightning muscle wizard monks! I talked about how people get started playing games, and I talked about how inadequate critical hits are as a mechanic for my preferences!

Also, I really hate Lord of the Rings in Magic: The Gathering. So avowed a hashtag hater am I that I’ve stopped watching Magic content entirely while I wait for the deforming cards from it to go away, which I really, really hope they do! Stupid bowmasters!

It doesn’t really fit anywhere in this, but I also busted open Camp Osum and got to work on fixing a mistake in its prototype. This means between Camp Osum, the Sonic Runner game, and Goncharov I have managed to conceive of about five games this month.

This month I did two shirt designs – this one because I knew I needed it for class teaching (and hopefully it’ll arrive in time for the semester’s end), but also because I saw a post on tumblr joking about it:

You can get this design here.

It has been a complicated month.

Remember that library card? I got it to try and borrow an ebook of Baru Cormorant because a friend likes that book series more than she likes The Locked Tomb. I figured that’d be a great place to go for that kinda thing. Turns out, while yes, okay, yes, the library has probably got those books, they have the physical books, which is… funny, and embarrassing to realise I didn’t consider that I might have to like, go look at them.

We have a bike. We have a bike that sits in our garage and if I can muster the courage I can get onto that bike and ride it a little down the road to the library. Hell, I could walk to the library! And then I’d be able to have those books to read. I wouldn’t be able to attest to finishing those books in time, of course. In time for what? I don’t know. Brain not work good.

New semester starts in a few days! That’s going to be exciting because it’s going to be able to do a lot of things I don’t normally get to do. I’ll have someone I can defer some work to! We even have lesson plans of structured material to engage with, it’s going to be so fun (That’s also what I’ve been doing these past few days, which is trying to digest lesson plans and make my slides)!

I’ve also been struggling really hard with work. I’m trying, trying, trying to do things, but I feel like I have this deep failure happening, like somehow I’m, not good enough and I’m not doing a good enough job. I promise this isn’t a crisis brought on by my age or by reading a book I liked. Nothing I feel should be seen as an attack on anything that prompted the feeling! It’s just a lot of reflection and personal distress about feeling like I’m always working and that work isn’t good enough.

There are all these things in my day to day life that I feel like I’m somehow just messing up with it on the most fundamental level. Like if I make dinner and clean up there’s going to be something afterwards I forgot to do right so that’s what’s going to stand out, that’s the thing I failed at rather than one small detail out of a large list of successful tasks. I’m very… failure sensitive? I guess? And it’s making me a bit lairy, I think. I want to vent about things that are doing a bad job of what they do, but there’s that ongoing feeling that if I’m too mean to a videogame I’m going to make someone cry.

Anyway, I think I can get a handle on it!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[everythingthemoontouches]

Hii🧡 i love your blog so much, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us😌 i was wondering if you could make some observations about my chart (only if you’re willing to tho!) (i’m also struggling to find my career path so if you can give me some inspo for that, that would be great)

Have a great day<3

Hi amelavoie

I'm guessing these are your tropical placements?

I'd suggest the divine venus and astro finesse cancer midheaven videos as they also talk about the Ic in more detail. This analysis looks at your 6th house and 10th house.

Cancer 10th house :Human resources. Nurturing. Nurse. Teaching. Mentoring. Feminine professions. Work needs to feel like family. Food. Catering. Gynecology, obstetrics. With your Pisces 6th house you enjoy some degree of flexibility and ability to be creative. Cute bakery. The HR professional who comes up with good ideas to make the employees feel at home. Increase retention rates. Make your team members feel cared for. Intuitive. You're so emotionally tuned in to the people you work with, I think you'd make for a good manager and have a unique style of work. Also, as someone with a Capricorn ic, you're lowkey looking to create that beautiful family dynamic out in the work sphere. Now honestly some people could try to fuck you over cuz you're really caring so I'd say to keep that sweet energy reserved for people who actually poor that love and effort back into you.

Celebs : Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer

Jupiter on the midheaven : respected as a mentor at your place of work. Lucky when it comes to promotions. Expansive. Ability to go very far in your chosen field. - I didn't realize I was working I was just doing stuff I liked to and the opportunity found me because of my skill.Jupiter rules your 3rd and 6th house - perhaps you write about your daily experiences and reading your articles makes people find some comfort. Wisdom. Sharing. Preaching. Conducting seminars. Self love workshops. Confidence coach or image consultant kind of webinars.

Again, with the moon in your 6th house you have to feel some level of emotional attachment to their work you do on a daily basis and the people you work with. Working with milk products. Exporting them. Could work as a vet. Maybe help them deliver babies. Online coaching programs. Super nice and care giving - be careful of how lenient you are. Pisces placements can be very accepting and have high tolerance level : must know when to put your foot down.

Law - custody battles. Nonprofits. Pro Bono work. Helping out the community. Volunteer work occassionally

Do you write short stories for children?

🌅🌙🦀6th house sun in Pisces : healing arts. Reiki. Intuitive witch doctor. Pisces is highly malleable. You have an ability to pick things up quickly.gym instructor. Nutritionist. Meditation / yoga coach. It really helps your mental state to incorporate spirituality into your work.

your 10th house ( professional authority) in the 6th house in Pisces. Gut health. Working with animals. Forming optional connections with people. You coudk even be a good counselor.

Neptune, Uranus and Mercury in the 5th house : mad creative energy. If you wrote stories I'm sure they'd be quite fresh and could actually have a disruptive influence. I see you writing children's books, stories about space, adventures and heroes who save humanity. Very imaginative creative works.

In traditional astrology venus shows how you earn wealth and since yours is right on the descendant I think you're meant to work on one with clients and build good relations with them.

Could work with addicts in rehab or correctional facilities.

Careers : caregiving, writing, recruiting, human resources, working with children / elderly, interior decorating, baked goods, food, catering, feminine care,working with animals, vet, Reiki, spa/ masseuse, some kind of feminine energy healer, psychology,working in prenatal post natal care, or selling products for babies / moms to be / new moms, acting, Booksellers, posts & telegraphs and communications department, transport, advertising, publicity, writer, author, research, hand writing experts, finger print experts and finance broker,

11th house income streams : Salesman, agent, representative, international trader, manufacturer of ink and paints, accountant, auditor, teacher, interpreter, ambassador, water supplier, textile engineer, dealer in yarn, paper, traveling agent, guide, mathematician, clerk, author, writer and related to health, medicine or nursing.

6th house themes: Teachers, statistics, astronomy, astrology, medicine, municipality, public limited concerns, stock exchange, share broker, planning commission, foreign exchange, revenue & finance department, international trade, finance, revenue department, mint, currency, mining, intelligence department.

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Have you noticed over the years that the SJW stuff is seeping into STEM?

Wow, that sounds like a right-wing conspiracy theory to me that must be dismissed and never spoken of again. As long as you ignore all the following examples of social justice seeping into STEM, there is no evidence of social justice seeping into STEM. 

In a 82-page training manual titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction”, the Oregon Department of Education plans to root out “white supremacy” in mathematics, by not asking students to show their work or placing any emphasis on getting the right answer, which will stop white supremacy from “popping up in the classroom.” The racist implication is that non-white students are incapable of “showing their work” or “getting the right answers,” and so teachers must scrap the academic bar altogether. To fight such white supremacy, math teachers are urged to accept TikTok videos from students instead of math work. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fund the training.

Seattle public schools created a framework to protect children from racist and “oppressive mathematical practices.” Included in this report, educators and students will learn, “How important is it to be Right? What is Right? Says Who?“, “Who holds power in a mathematical classroom?“, “Can you recognize and name oppressive mathematical practices in your experience?” “Who is doing the oppression?” “Who does the oppression protect?”, “Explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.” The Seattle school district also put into place a K-12 curriculum that encourages students “to explore how math has been ‘appropriated’ by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression.”

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Wake Forest University now offers a “racist and anti-racist uses of math and statistics” class because “The time has come for us to focus on fighting racism and making plans to create a more equitable educational space.” In addition to the new anti-racism math class, the math department at Wake Forest has placed a declaration at the top of its webpage that affirms Black Lives Matter, pledges to try and hire more faculty of color and launch microaggression trainings, and organize a math/stats colloquium on social justice.

The University of California now require ‘diversity contributions’ and statements from future math professors. Applicants are asked to write a statement in which they explain how they will advance the university’s diversity plans. “The Division of Physical Sciences has a strong interest in ensuring that all candidates hired have the professional skills, experience, and/or willingness to engage in activities that will advance our campus equity, diversity and inclusion goals.” The purpose of the diversity statement as a method of evaluating a candidate’s “awareness of the barriers that exist for groups historically under-represented”, “past efforts in diversity and outreach activities” and “future plans to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.” One math professor at the University of California, Davis, wrote in opposition to the required “diversity statements,” referring to them as “using a political test as a screen for job applicants.”

The Mathematical Association of America released a statement in which it argued that mathematics contains “human biases” that can only be corrected by promoting critical race theory to math educators and students.

A math education professor at the University of Illinois argues that the teaching of math subjects such as Pythagorean Theorem perpetuates white privilege because they were developed by Europeans. “Mathematics itself operates as whiteness and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white.” He also argued there’s no such thing as objective truths.

A Math Education professor from Brooklyn College argued that the "trope” of “2+2=4 reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.” It was also promoted by several academics at colleges around the nation, with another suggesting math should be reevaluated because it was primarily developed by white men. He also complains that “meritocracy” in math classes is a “tool of whiteness.” Teachers who claim color-blindness - that is, they claim to not notice the race of their students—are, in effect, oppressing them. “By claiming not to notice, the teacher is saying that she is dismissing one of the most salient features of the child’s identity and that she does not account for it in her curricular planning and instruction.” He recommends that math teachers incorporate more social justice issues into math lessons, but warns that even “teaching for social justice” can be a “tool of whiteness” if teachers are not sufficiently sympathetic to minority students.  

A University of Rhode Island professor claimed that science, statistics and technology are inherently racist “because they are developed by racists living in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not.” The professor also recently came under scrutiny after condoning an Antifa member killing a Trump supporter last year. After a commenter called him out for his position on his post, he replied “He killed a fascist. I see nothing wrong with it, at least from a moral perspective.”

Duke University has a new computer science course that will focus on race, gender, and class within the world of computing, in order to change the “working environment” of the field. “This course explores the diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges in computing through an introduction to and analysis of various social constructs and their impact on not only computing departments and organizations but also the technologies developed. This course also introduces students to cultural competence in the context of computing.” “We have to change the mindset of a workforce that is overwhelmingly white, Asian and male.”

A group of mathematics professors argued in their published book that math teachers must “live out social justice commitments” to fight privilege in the classroom. Math teachers, “must learn how to advocate for students, self-examine for biases, and strategically subvert the system in which they teach to counteract student oppression,” adding that the development of “political knowledge” is key. “Any amount of connection to issues of equity, diversity, social justice, and power is better than none at all.”

Activists persuaded top science journals to stop work for a day and to validate their claims of “white supremacy” throughout the American science sector. The small group of black academics and scientists demanded that science be “reorganized” for black Americans as they pushed the hashtag #ShutDownSTEM. One of their manifestos demanded that the goal of “justice for black Americans” be prioritized above scientific discovery and objective reality. Another manifesto portrayed all scientists who put science first are racists: “Unless you engage directly with eliminating racism, you are perpetuating it.” In response, two of the leading science publications, Science Magazine and Nature, agreed to not talk about science for a day and instead use their Twitter accounts to post the demands and claims by the radicals.

A physicist at the University of Zaragoza is using cross-dressing drag to “empower” minorities in science and technology fields. In an article on the website, Lady Science, he says drag is still uncommon in scientific fields, because “sexism, racism, ableism and LGBTphobia remain very much alive in academia.”

A recent paper published by a team of various college professors makes the case that STEM courses should be made easier for female students. The researchers argue that “gender” inequities in the STEM majored could be lessened by artificially inflating grades. The study claims that the STEM fields would see an 11.3 percent increase in female students if STEM classes practically erased grading.

A Vanderbilt University professor complained in an academic journal article that the field of mathematics is a “white and heteronormatively masculinized space.” In the article titled Unpacking the Male Superiority Myth and Masculinization of Mathematics at the Intersection, he argues that the apparent “gender gap” in mathematical success is socially constructed. He concludes by expressing a hope that future analyses of gender in mathematics take a more “intersectional” approach, after noticing “intersectional considerations of mathematics achievement and participation shaped by whiteness and sexuality” were left out of many of the studies he reviewed. Intersectionality theory from black feminist thought, he adds, can allow for “more nuanced analyses of gender” and its relation to mathematical performance.

Auburn Drive High School in Canada offers a class in “Africentric” mathematics. It incorporates “discussions about the students’ cultural backgrounds, history and their lived experiences,” all the while teaching them math and associated concepts “through an Africentric lens.”

A scientific journal retracted a professor’s article which criticized hiring based on skin color and sex, leading to apologies from both the journal and the professor’s university. The professor had wrote, “The rise and emphasis on hiring practices that suggest or even mandate equality in terms of absolute numbers of people in specific subgroups is counter-productive if it results in discrimination against the most meritorious candidates.” The journal withdrew the article “amid a backlash” and reassured the professor’s “views do not reflect our values of fairness, trustworthiness and social awareness,” and added they “stand against discrimination, injustices and inequity.”

Two national mathematics organizations are on a mission to prove that math education is “unjust and grounded in a legacy of institutional discrimination.” The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and TODOS: Mathematics for All, aim to “ratify social justice as a key priority in the access to, engagement with, and advancement in mathematics education for our country’s youth,” the groups declared in a joint statement, elaborating that “a social justice stance interrogates and challenges the roles power, privilege, and oppression play in the current unjust system of mathematics education and in society as a whole.”

Students at the Claremont McKenna Colleges staged a protest to make it known that objective truth is a ‘white supremacist’ myth devised by “white supremacists” to “attempt to silence oppressed peoples.”

Boston Public Schools have suspended their advanced academic program due to racial ‘equity’ concerns. Acceptance to the program was decided on standardized grade test scores and the successful students would be required “to study in greater depth, with more schoolwork and more home study than the traditional curriculum.” Because 70 percent of students in the program were white and Asian, the program was scrapped. A committee member said she was “very disturbed” by the racial statistics and noted they are “just not acceptable.” The superintendent said “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist.” Advanced programs for gifted students often are targets either for complete abolition or restructuring due to “incorrect” racial and ethnic demographics.

A recent Washington Post article lamented the fact that biology textbooks contain a disproportionate number of “white men.” “They’re all men. They’re all white, and are written from a very white perspective.”

Cell, a prominent science journal, published a statement accusing their entire discipline of racism. “Science has a racism problem,” they assert, apparently concluding that underrepresentation of a given ethnic group must equate to a deliberate wrongdoing against that group. “Cell stands with our Black readers, reviewers, authors, and colleagues. We are committed to listening to and amplifying their voices, to educating ourselves, and to finding ways that we can help and do better. We alone cannot fix racism.” They go on to list all of the affirmative action changes they can make.

Fordham University’s Political Science department announced it had voted to adopt a new policy that mandates professors must use a student’s “preferred” name and pronouns. The decision was announced just two weeks after student activist groups demanded that the university publicly “resist transphobic rhetoric.” The activist students were inspired to make these demands after reading an article by the New York Times, which reported that the Trump administration had been considering defining sex as “male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics states on its website that “mathematics teachers should “reflect on their own identity, positions, and beliefs in regards to racist and sorting-based mechanisms” and “notice students, learn about the worlds they live in, and build mathematics that comes from these worlds.” They also hold webinars titled “Developing Social Justice Mathematics Activists in Pre-K-Grade 5,” its description states that “mathematics should become a social justice tool that empowers students to mathematically recognize and address oppression they see in their own world.”

Wayne State University, Detroit, dropped math as a graduation requirement and is replacing it with mandatory “Diversity courses.” UCLA also approved a “diversity graduation requirement,” which stipulates that every student in the College of Letters and Sciences take a course about “inequalities based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religion, among other factors.”

Radical Math is “a resource for educators interested in integrating issues of social and economic justice into their math classes and curriculum.” Radical Math boasts over 700 lesson plans, articles, charts, books, and websites that cover a wide range of socio-political issues from redistribution of wealth to racial profiling.

A professor at the University of California-Davis has vowed to “challenge the authority of Science” by “rewriting knowledge” through a feminist lens. Science, she worries, has “earned its epistemic authority through its co-constitution with colonization and slavery,” and therefore “relies on a colonial and racialized form of power.” Not only is science rooted in racism, she alleges, it has been used to perpetuate racism and colonial practices. “At the root of the justification for social inequality then is Western science,” she says, claiming that science’s distinction between “humans and non-humans” has allowed “capitalism to be justified as a natural economic system.

The New York Times published an article highlighting several academics who say “Earth Science has a whiteness problem.” One of them, from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said white geoscientists should help increase a “sense of belonging” among non-white groups by “separating their privilege as a white person from their identity as a good person.” Another, who helped create a book club which fellow geoscientists talk about “race and white privilege,” added that earth science classes could be “enriched” by more Native American voices since “Indigenous people have a unique connection to the land.”

University of Wyoming added a diversity course in geosciences meant to address a lack of diversity within the field. The course was the result of a diversity survey conducted by the university in which 67 percent of faculty responded that diversity, equity, and inclusion classes should be required for all students. “The primary goal of the class is to raise awareness that lack of diversity, equity and inclusivity is a problem in our scientific community and in academia in general. The lectures aim to make students think about implicit bias that we often have and don’t recognize and students have the chance to learn from life experiences of scientists from underrepresented groups. The systemic racism that is present in our society also is present in academia. Black, Hispanic, women and LGBTQ scientists are disproportionally underrepresented in the student and faculty population, and students from underrepresented minorities are often the target of microaggressions on campus.”

The National Science Foundation is paying for a multi-million program at Drexel University to help teachers learn how to work social justice into their classrooms. “This project intends to promote social justice teaching, which emphasizes connecting science, mathematics, and engineering instruction to students’ personal experiences and culture. The long-term and far-reaching benefits to society of this project are the potential to document and share sustainable approaches, steeped in the context of social justice.”

The University of Louisville had an opening in its physics and astronomy department, but it ruled out white and Asian applicants. “University of Louisville is an affirmative action, equal opportunity, Americans with disabilities employer, committed to community engagement and diversity, and in that spirit, seeks applications from a broad variety of candidates. The Department of Physics and Astronomy announces a tenure-track assistant professor position that will be filled by an African-American, Hispanic American or a Native American Indian.”

UC Santa Cruz hosted an event called “Research Justice 101: Tools for Feminist Science” where “Participants will be challenged to apply principles and practices of justice to their own work, interrogating questions such as: Who benefits? Who is harmed? Who is most vulnerable? And ultimately, who do we do science for?” The workshop concludes with practical skills and resources for participants to push their research “to be more inclusive, equitable and attentive to social justice.”

A professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago wants others to teach “math for social justice” to help fight the “oppressive status quo” in the United States. He argues that teaching “critical mathematics” isn’t an option for math teachers, but rather a “responsibility to our future.” “We have a responsibility to our future and our planet, to life and all species. What we do in the classroom matters, for today and tomorrow, and the myriad possibilities for resistance and transformation.” “In my work, I argue that K-12 students need to be prepared through their mathematics education to investigate and critique injustice (such as racism and language discrimination) and to challenge, in words and actions, oppressive structures and acts.”

Central Connecticut State University is running a contest, asking students to "express their personal connection to the Black Lives Matter Movement” and reassures students that it’s lowering the racist grammatical standards for the contest. On the website, the school notes “submissions will not be judged on traditional literary or grammatical standards.”

A science education professor at the University of Arizona believes elementary schoolchildren are being taught “heteronormative” and “limited” ideas in science classrooms, and queer theory curricula is the answer. She explores in her lectures how “inviting sexuality into the elementary science classroom” and “queer theory can be useful tools for re-imagining elementary science education and elementary science teacher preparation.”

An academic journal article suggested appointing a “Safety Officer” and rewarding participation in “diversity programming” to combat “gender inequity” at scientific conferences. “Addressing gender inequity should be a primary consideration for all societies hosting conferences, yet many STEM conferences are struggling with gender biases and the understanding that gender inequity also applies to non-binary gender identities and intersectional diversity/overlapping social identities.” They call for the introduction of a gender-based Code of Conduct for all attendees to abide by, appointing a “safety officer” at each scientific conference to make it easier for people to report if they feel they have been subjected to harassment or discrimination, and paying the cost of travel for women who wish to attend the conference.

The director of libraries at MIT argued that tech workplaces need to ditch “Star Trek” posters and other geeky stuff to be more inclusive and welcoming to women. “Replace the Star Trek posters with travel posters, don’t name your projects or your printers or your domains after only male figures from Greek mythology, and just generally avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes. Those kinds of things reinforce the stereotypes about who does tech.” She is a self-described “butch and queer” cis woman and “the work of libraries and librarians is to support feminist research and agendas. She also complained that “A profession that is 88% white means 5000% agony for people of color, no matter how liberal and enlightened you think you are.” She also said we need to have “a f**king reckoning about the pain we cause, and that we need to do some hard work on decolonizing our organizations and our professions.”

PLUS ignore these hundred other examples.

[jockrightsnow]

omg I would love to hear you talk more about your tags on that last post—how you research syntax/speech patterns for non-native English speakers’ dialogue. this is something I struggle with a lot in writing fic (esp writing Russian players!) and I’d love some advice on how to get better at it.

god this got long! i just care about this! i will put under a cut for the 99% who will be like u little pedantic bitch.

so my answer is probably not AS helpful for Russian players because i have not written at any length with Russian characters and their language is SO different, so i find it is trickier! but the process is likely the same. i am not an expert at this by any means (only know/have taught spanish <--> english), but i do think it gives you more believable voices and also tends to help you understand the perspective. some people are better at english than others! some are less good! some have been in english classes for a while, some haven’t! there’s variation! you don’t have to do this to write well, but i think about it.

some things i think about:

1. sentence structure/syntax--more than vocabulary, sentence structure is the thing that gives most english language learners trouble and tends to give them away. in order to figure out common mistakes along these lines, it is helpful to look up how sentences are typically structured in someone’s native language. very often, people learning english will rely on those structures. this is actually why swedish is very easy to learn for english speakers--the sentence structure is most often subj, verb, object. but there are tricks: in complex declarative sentences, the verb will always be second, even if there is an adverb or object in the first position instead of the subject, in sentences with subordinate clauses, the independent clause inverts verb and subject. stuff like that does tend to give a sentence a different feel, and it absolutely very commonly almost-always sticks with someone. it’s foundational to how people construct their thoughts, it can be hard to change.

2. pronunciation--i don’t love to see heavy dialect written phonetically and i think many people don’t, but there are ways to consider it and certain ways to write it well. certain languages have different stresses or tone ranges or pitches, which can give off a certain Vibe if you’re used to english, which is on the more expressive end of the scale in tone and pitch (obviously i don’t think that’s better, but it is different and it does affect how people hear a speaker’s voice). certain sounds straight-up do not exist in other languages, certain letters are always pronounced a different way. it leads to predictable mispronunciation. for this, resources like this are very interesting.

3. actual cultural language differences! this is in part about what turns of phrase are common, what’s the cultural (or often, can be regional) “cat who got the cream”-type idioms, what is colloquial that you don’t realize is colloquial, etc, but it can also be about how you talk about concepts on a larger scale. 

the recent sidney crosby engaged fiasco is a good example of this--in russian, “girlfriend/boyfriend” has a very casual connotation, so for longer-term relationships, a russian person might say “fiancee” instead. there are certain languages where you talk about love using different words if a relationship is more casual. these are fun, i think, because i do think that kind of thing can be meaningful. 

there was some book or study i read about how maybe the way we learn language impacts how we think. i think parts of it were debunked (eg not having a word for something like ‘crush’ doesn’t mean you don’t feel it, that’s silly), but parts of it are certainly true, right? like, if you have a different way of talking about spatial awareness or time, your ability to translate those concepts will be affected because your thoughts are often structured along those lines. 

4. vocabulary--less important than you’d think, but still interesting to think about what words someone would have learned. i expect hockey players to know virtually every hockey-related word in english, and even in the KHL, there is some coaching done in english because plenty of non-russian players play there and never learn the language (it is very hard). pretty much everywhere, you’re going to know the english words for many hockey-related terms. but you might not know other complex words, because you might not ever have a reason to or a context where you would’ve learned it or been corrected on it.

i often have to examine or cross-examine spanish speakers, and you actually don’t want to correct every single thing they say--you only want to correct things which might lead to a misunderstanding, because you don’t want to seem pedantic to a judge or condescending to a witness. 

this is also true in a lot of social settings. so i do see some things which tend to go uncorrected because they don’t lead to any wrongness. for example, videoS plural in Swedish is video klipp. it’s the same, it’s really the same. but i notice sometimes that plural S is dropped by Swedish speakers or a word like “klipp” that’s so similar in meaning and context to the english word will come it. there’s one video where petey says ‘eller’ instead of ‘or’--it’s close, it’s a word that doesn’t matter, you wouldn’t correct it, it’s normal, you get the point. there are plenty of words that are so similar they might just have a different inflection, or which are entirely the same in different languages. these will not get corrected in daily conversation for the most part.

but there are also false cognates which you DO need to correct (eg in spanish embarazada = pregnant, i do need to correct it every single time because it has a huge impact on proceedings if someone’s pregnant) and being aware of those is also helpful! 

there are also some crutch words which differ from person to person (this is also true for native english speakers). when people use those and in what way can be important. there are certain things a specific person gets wrong only when nervous or not thinking or whatever (i personally find the “person realizes they’ve been speaking in a different language while having sex because it was so good” trope. exhausting, to say the least. but it is true that in higher-stress moments, someone might not have the capacity or desire to do internal translation, or might feel frustrated by it.)

i really do think all of this is Very interesting, and mostly my advice on doing it for languages you don’t know is:

1) be thoughtful about stuff, be believable. contrary to what it seems like from this whole dissertation, not every sentence needs to have errors in it, especially for people who are Growing/Learning/Actually Very Good at english. don’t be condescending about it. being at an intermediate stage in english learning might make someone choose a simpler sentence that’s still correct. it might lead to an actual relevant misunderstanding or tonal shift. it might not. it might enhance someone’s understanding of a situation! it’s not all about just fucking shit up--it’s a hard thing to learn another language. you gotta respect people who are doing it!

2) hear people talk, preferably the people in question if available but doesn’t have to be (for characters i care about less, i will often wholesale map a sentence and then copy the structure exactly. i did this for pasta because i didn’t care about actually figuring out so much about him emotionally--i just listened to his ep of sp*ttin ch*clets as i wrote and copied several sentence structures exactly with my own Content and then, as you may be able to tell, gave up on that venture to movie-montage the rest because i am Lazy.) 

it’s interesting to hear someone talk both in their native language and in english--you get a feel for the tone and pitch differences, and also i love to see native language interviews because i tend to think they’re more reflective of someone’s actual thought processes when they’re not trying to come up with words or modifying their sentences to be simpler. petey’s swedish interviews, for ex, are far more reflective and eloquent and funny. but again, he is getting better very quickly, in part because swedish and english are more similar than they appear. progress is often slower for russians, because there’s a lot more ground between the two languages and a whole diff alphabet and also strong cultural affinity to where a good number of russians living in america almost exclusively hang out with other russians living in america. (see ex alex ovechkin, nikita zadorov--both have very russian-heavy social circles if Instant Gram is to be believed)

3) actually look up stuff like “common english mistakes for [x group]”--there are plenty of good language learning resources which will show you the mistakes people tend to make, the pronunciation errors, things like that. these are invaluable.

4) google translate stuff if you’re going to have a touching language-teaching moment. once read something where someone was contemplating how to say something, which they wouldn’t have done in reality, because how you say it was Exactly the same in the person’s native language. i also think it’s fun to read google-translated articles and see which things jump out at me as Weirdly translated, because those are often things which are going to be different! but that’s not gospel, it’s something you can look into. sometimes google translate is just bad.

[shes-an-oddbird]

Time or Quake

Daniel tries to determine what are normal behaviors of this time versus what are Daisy's own unique odd habits. 

Dousy Week - Day 6 Prompts - Time & Quake

Daniel Sousa was in fact fazed by everything but to be fair he thought he was handling the transition to the 21st century as well as could be expected. Better even to some extent. It helps greatly that Daisy is more than happy to teach him all about it, especially if it involved laughing at him along the way. At some point, after he begins to recognize habits and behaviors that are considered normal for the time, he starts to notice odd things about Daisy herself. He doesn’t worry over most of them but sometimes he finds himself unable to not ask if it’s a time-thing or a Daisy-thing.

He has to have a cell phone and he has to know how to use it. This Daisy insists upon. In case of an emergency she wants to be able to reach him and wants him to be able to reach her or another member of the team. It will also help him blend in. Teaching him to use it actually hadn’t been that difficult. He likes to think that he picked up on the tech quickly enough. It was the smaller irrelevant things that confused him.

“Apps?”

“They’re mostly time wasters.”

Not his favorite. He didn’t care much for wasting his own time.

Books though? A library’s worth in his phone? Fantastic. He’ll admit he still likes the feel of old paperback books best, but the convenience was unbeatable.

On that same note, he also still preferred talking to people on the phone versus the short exchanges of text messages. The endless abbreviations, the lack of replies, the incessant beeping from group messages. He didn’t mind so much the ones from Daisy. They usually consisted of checking up on him when they were apart, links to articles she thought he might like and reminders. Specifically, those reminders were for him to remind her to show him some movie or book or tv show. Those were his favorite.

But it was at the end of many of her messages that he first noticed something odd and unique to her texts and one day he finally asks her about it.

“Daisy?”

“Hmm?”

“Why is this at the end of so many of your messages?”

“Why is what?” She leans over his shoulder and he points to the odd little colon and parentheses at the end of her most recent message. He hears her try to stifle a laugh and looks up at her. She’s grinning down at him, her shoulders shaking gently.

“What?”

“Okay, here,” she takes the phone and turns it in his hand so that it sideways. He thinks maybe the screen will rotate like it does when she shows him pictures, but it doesn’t. “Do you see it now?”

He does not.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?”

She doesn’t answer just continues to smile at him. He looks back at the screen and then back at her until it hits him. “It looks like a smile.”

“There you go.”

“But why?”

“Because I was smiling when I wrote the message and honestly you’re not ready for emojis.”

“Emojis?”

She taps a button on the screen and up pops hundreds of yellow circles with faces on them. Most of them are smiling but some he supposes looks angry or sad or even confused. “You’re right, I’m not ready.”

He mentally marks the symbol down as a time related oddity, even if its already a dated one.

He notices one day while holding her hand that she has her shirt sleeve tugged down over her palm. He writes it off as her hands being cold and doesn’t think much of it until it until it happens again on a warmer day. Out of curiosity he tugs her hand up to look at it and notices her shirt is actually made with a little hole to slide her thumb through.

“What’s up?” Daisy asks. He does this often, stopping dead in his tracks to inspect something that is new or unusual.

“Why, is this like a fashionable thing?” It must be if they make the shirts that way.

“I wouldn’t say that necessarily, I think it’s just comfortable for some people.”

“People with perpetually cold hands?”

“Maybe, among other reasons,” she looks down at the hand he doesn’t have grasped in his own, “I like how familiar it feels, it reminds me of my gauntlets.”

Well that made a lot of sense. Her gauntlets protected her arms so there was a level of safety and comfort in having her palms covered.

So not just a Daisy thing but with a very Daisy specific reason.

Daniel hears a frustrated shout from the other room and its not the first one. For at least the last half hour it sounded like Daisy was arguing with someone but as best he can tell its only a one-sided conversation. When he hears a loud thump he decides he better check on her. He pokes his head into their room just as she mutters another irritated sentence. “Why are you so useless?”

He knocks on the door frame.

“Hmm?” She answers without moving her eyes off the screen.

“Were you just talking to the computer?”

“Yes.”

“Are you on one of those video calls?”

“What?” Daisy finally looks up at him. “Oh no, I was, it was just being uncooperative.”

It? The computer? “So you yelled at it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s an inanimate object.”

“So?” She asks.

He almost doesn’t ask. “Does it understand you?”

The next thing he knows is a pillow is being hurled in his direction. “Don’t tease me, the damn thing is pissing me off, I’m supposed to have this done for Mack by the end of the day.”

He holds his hands up in defense. “I promise that was a genuine question.”

She sighs heavily and falls back against the remaining pillows on the bed. “No, it does not understand me, god help me if it does, I’ve called it some pretty awful things.”

“I heard.”

She sits up and looks at him as though something has just occurred to her. “Wait, have you never yelled at an inanimate object before?”

“Yelled at? Yes, but I’ve never had a whole conversation with one.”

He marks this one down as a normal behavior of the time and dodges another pillow that comes his way.

He thinks her most unusual habit may be the odd places she sits.

She sits on the floor a lot. Which he doesn’t think is all that odd, it’s just not something he’d voluntarily do himself. But sometimes he returns to their tiny, shared apartment and finds her comfortably situated anywhere but in a chair. She sits on the back of the couch, on the counter in the kitchen, on the stepstool she used to reach things.

When they’re on base she sits on desks or on crates and on the rare occasion he finds her in a chair its almost always sideways or backwards or with her legs and feet pulled up underneath her.

“Do you have something against chairs?” He asks when he finds her sitting on a crate instead of doing inventory on the zephyr.

She looks at him funny. “No, why?”

“You just never seem to use them?” He gestures to the boxes beneath her.

“I didn’t even realize.” She replied honestly. “Maybe its a subconscious rebellion, the nuns tried to instill us with good posture or maybe just habit, I didn’t exactly have proper seating in my van.” She pauses. “Is it weird? Now that you bring it up, I feel kind of like a child.”

“I don’t know if it’s weird,” he laughs and steps up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist as she drapes hers over his shoulders, “you’re the one who’s supposed to be teaching me what’s normal.”

She considers this. “Unclear.” She tells him.

Unclear.

There is one thing that he knows is distinctly Daisy even from the very first time it happens.

She’s been gone for nearly two weeks. Sent with Elena’s team on a mission involving a whole family of inhumans who were being threatened. Definitely their area of expertise. He spent a much quieter week at the academy, assisting Coulson as he prepared to take on a semester of SHIELD history classes. The pair had joined May for lunch when the text messages started coming in.

We’ve landed!!!!

Are you still at the academy?? I’ll meet you there

Where are you both the classrooms are empty

He considers calling her but she’s taken to answering the phone in mocking tones when he does that instead of just writing back to her. Stopped for lunch, we’re on our way back to May’s classroom

:) :) :)

He rolls his eyes and stuffs the phone back in his pocket. They’re only just around the corner from the classroom. May has a lecture in a few minutes and the halls are filled with cadets moving around in a rush to get to where they need to be.

“Finally!” Daisy jumps up from her spot of the floor and starts to sprint towards them, dodging the students who didn’t get out of the way fast enough. She slams into him and they stumble backwards a couple of steps.

“Hey I missed y – “

She cuts him off, dragging his lips down to meet hers. He knows she’s had a long couple of weeks so he tries to pour as much love and comfort into the kiss as possible, pulling her as close to him as he can.

A shudder runs through them and they break apart. Daisy looks up at him wide eyed and cheeks reddening. People have stopped and are staring at them startled and he realizes that it wasn’t a shudder than separated them but a quake.

“I’m sorry, I just really missed you too.”

A Daisy thing. Definitely a Daisy thing.

[bunka-japan]

Top Famous Japanese Samurai Names And History

The famous samurai is a famous character in Japanese culture. Samurai have been around for centuries and they are often the center of attention in many films, novels, and video games that are set during this time period. However, not everyone knows who some of these famous samurai were or what their stories entail. This article will list some famous samurai names and give you an overview of their history with the hope that it will help you get to know Japan's most famous warriors better!

There are many great samurai warriors in the Japanese history, such as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. But there are other greatest to learn about Miyamoto Musashi or Tomoe Gozen - a fearsome female Samurai of Japan.

The samurai were a very well respected and powerful group of people. They followed the bushido code which is an honor-bound set of rules that prescribes how to live as a warrior, emphasizing practices such as martial arts mastery, integrity in life and death; courage; respect for one's opponents or superiors regardless of rank or social status (read more here). The Meiji Revolution abolished their power but they still had some influence on Japan way into present day because many became businessmen, professionals etc., while others helped shape Japanese culture!

If you are looking to learn more about samurai fighting styles, read this "What Type Of Martial Arts Did The Japanese Samurai Use?"

Here are a list of famous Japanese samurai names and history:

  1) Miyamoto Musashi (1584 – 1645)

(Source, 1)

Born in 1584, Myamoto Mushashi was a famous and accomplished soldier, swordsman, and artist. When he was on the losing side of Battle Sekigahara in 1600 then he became ronin samurai which meant that his lord no longer recognized him as an official member of their army because they had lost this battle.

Miyamoto Musashi was a Japanese swordsman and philosopher who developed the two-sword technique known as nito ichi ryu. His reputation is so great that he has been referred to by other names, including kensai meaning sword saint or satsujin shoji which means killing machine in English.

He had many duels against rivals but his most famous fight occurred on an island with Saski Kojiro - ending quickly when Miyamato struck him over the head with a wooden sword after this duel, he retired from society despite teaching select students and helping suppress rebellions such as Shimabara of 1637.

Myamoto Mushashi was a great painter and author of the famous Book of Five Rings. He also wrote many other books on his martial art, philosophies, or sumi-e style paintings as well as bird paintings which are renowned in particular for Shrike Perched on Withered Branch (Kobokumeikakuzu) and Wild Geese Among Reeds (Rozanzu).

Myamoto Mushashi is most famously known for being an influential Japanese warrior who mastered multiple forms of combat from different cultures such as kenjutsu to jujitsu.

  2) Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537 – 1598)

(Source, 2)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi lived from 1536/37 to 1598 and served as chief Imperial minister. He helped finish to 16th-century unification of Japan, helping create the country we know today.

Born a peasant in Azumato Province (modern day Nagoya), Toyotomi Hideyoshi left home when he was still a boy and became page at one feudal lord's mansion where he met Oda Nobunaga who would become his mentor for life - or so it seemed until this great man rose through ranks becoming samurai under him before joining armies fighting other clans trying unify all of Japan with their own rule into what you see now on your map.

Hideyoshi, the man who would later build a castle in Osaka and become one of key figures in Japan’s unified government. He clashed with Tokugawa Ieyasu during Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country but their alliance remained strong. Hideyoshi was then appointed as an important minister by his lord Toyotomi Otomo so that he could continue pacifying regions without conflict from other lords like Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was responsible for solidifying the caste restrictions that marked Tokugawa Japan. Farmers, merchants and monks were forbidden from taking up arms while warriors as well as artisans, farmers and tradesmen could only be found in their own areas of towns or villages due to strict segregation enforced by law.

  3) Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543 – 1616)

(Source, 3)

The son of a local lord, Matsudaira Takechiyo was born in 1542. He came into his own during the era when Japan's civil war and feuding lords left it mired with violence and death.

After being sent to the Imagawa clan at four-years old, Ieyasu was raised with education in their court for 15 years. In 1567 he finally took over his family’s position and changed his name to Tokugawa after returning home from a life of exile.

He had a successful military career and ran his own town in the east of Japan. He was given governance over Edo where he established Tokyo, transforming it into what we know today as an international city with millions living there.

After the unfortunate death of his ally Toyotomi Hideyoshi, civil war broke out again. Ieyasu won the war and gained the title of shogun, becoming a military governor in Japan as well as its ruler with few limits on power. So began Tokugawa's rule over all but name for what would be three centuries to come until he passed away at age 80 in 1616 after having been ill for months beforehand due to illness or old age is not precisely known.

His mausoleum at Nikko has become one of most important shrines and was commissioned by Shogun himself from an artist who had taken up residence near Nagasaki during his time there trading with foreign merchants while simultaneously keeping firm control over Christianity-dominating Europe.

  4) Oda Nobunaga (1534 – 1582)

(Source, 4)

Oda Nobunaga's story is the source of many others, but it’s well worth knowing on its own. Born in 1534 and living through a deeply fractured Japan where warlords frequently clashed against one another often causing much death and destruction before he came to power, Oda nobunaga was viewed by some as both an oppressive tyrant and a national savior.

Nobunaga was an eccentric figure. When his father died and left him to take care of the family’s land, he took it with a strange sense of entitlement, associating freely with peasants below their station as well as shunning many traditions that were important under feudalism such how wearing funeral garb at one's own elaborate burial rites. Nobunaga would also break protocol in other areas like when Hirate Masahide committed suicide after being offended by Nobuna ga during said ceremony--the first time anyone had ever done so--- but this event seemed to shock into reality for the young boy who then went on to unite Japan through force instead of diplomacy or succession rights established within Yamato clan itself .

With the help of a few uncles, Nobunaga gained control over his land. He was not in power for long before he faced challenges from one brother and later another that only ended when both were killed by him. All of this happened while other feudal lords sought their own place among them.

The legacy of Nobunaga led to Tokugawa Ieyasu and his allies' unified, more stable Japan. This was because Nobunaga died before he could unite all of the country with a single government.

  5) Kusunoki Masashige (1294 – 1336)

(Source, 5)

When Kusunoki Masashige was born in 1294, he had already been indoctrinated into the Akuto. This group of samurai banded together to form a new government that did not belong to the present regime and despised how under-rewarded they were for their actions fighting against Mongolia. A man with such passion would be destined for greatness - and so it is no surprise when one learns about his early life as an active member of this organization after being raised by parents who belonged themselves.

The Emperor, Go-daigo (96th emperor of Japan) was forced to flee when his plot for take down the government was revealed. He found refuge at Mt. Kasagi in south Kyoto and declared war on the Government who were against him because he wanted revenge after what they did to him years ago which is why he's been plotting this since then. Masashige pledged loyalty towards GOdaijo as one of first people who would help overthrow those cruel men from power so that no more innocent lives are lost just like how many others had died before them too due to their selfish behavior!

The soldiers of Kusunoki Masashige were not like other warriors. They didn't wear fine armor or swords, but they threw rocks and poured boiling water on those who tried to assault their castle in Kawachi! With the tide turning against them after news of the Emperor's arrest, he opted to burn down his castle and flee without ever being captured by government troops.

Masashige rallied his men and 1,000 locals in Osaka. The government responded in force by laying siege to the small army cutting off their supply lines but Masashige anticipated this and created a secret path for supplies that led to victory as starving forces instead starved with no new provisions from outside sources coming into play which also prompted Emperor Go-Daigo's return who then lead renewed efforts against the Shogun regime.

The samurai had been shortchanged and did not receive the land that they so desperately needed to get them out of poverty. Another rebellion rose in Kysusu, led by Ashikaga Takauji, whom Masashige was able to escape with after he saved his life during this time period.

Masashige encouraged the emperor to make peace, but he refused. He then tried to walk the Emperor into fleeing into exile, but that was refused as well. In the end Masashige led an army with a slim hope for victory against Ashikaga’s forces of 200,000; his own were 899 men strong and lost many on their journey in battle when they finally met near Osaka by 1336 AD where he succeeded suicide after being outnumbered so greatly..

Masahide's devotion and cunning have made him a very popular samurai hero especially within his native city-state (Osaka).

  6) Hattori Hanzo (1542 – 1597)

Hattori Hanzo was a fearless warrior who performed many feats in service of the Tokugawa clan, including rescuing Tokugawa Ieyasu's daughter from a castle and laying siege to another. Born around 152 AD, he served until his death at 55- some sources state that this happened suddenly while hunting or died during battle with pirates on an island off the coast of Kyushu.

  7) Sanada Yukimura (1567 – 1615)

Yukimura was born in 1567 and was known as A Hero who may appear once in a hundred years” and “Crimson Demon of War. His clan, the Sanada, caught up with wars between Oda Nobunaga forcing themselves to fight on different sides when Tokugawa took power after his death. Yukimura fought valiantly against them during Winter Siege at Osaka Castle causing many losses for enemy forces while he himself had smaller force size than that of enemies there.

I think you're tired of hearing about how Yukimura died, but in case it's not clear: he was fighting against Tokugawa forces and they managed to get him. The siege on Osaka castle went well for a while with him leading his troops during the battle until he finally conceded defeat after being completely outmatched by an enemy force that vastly outnumbered them at nearly 10-1 odds.

The defender of Osaka, exhausted and low on supplies but still as formidable as ever. Yukimura Sanada was a powerful general in the late Sengoku period who defended Osaka Castle against overwhelming odds before finally capitulating to Tokugawa Ieyasu's forces after months' worth of bitter fighting.

This heroic warrior is said to have made one last plea with his enemies: "I am Sanada Nobushige."

  8) Uesugi Kenshin (1530 – 1578)

A long time ago, a young man named Nagao Torachiyo led an army in the fight against Takeda Shingen. He was born to be one of Japan's most powerful warriors and leaders when he changed his last name as refuge for Uesugi Norimasa who then adopted him as his son.

After his power had reached its peak, the mighty Uesugi sought to overthrow one of Japan's most powerful lords. He bravely faced all odds but unfortunately died before he could start a battle with Oda Nodabunaga.

  9) Takeda Shingen (1521 – 1573)

(Source, 9)

Takeda Shingen, a 1521-born feudal lord of Shinano Province and one of the warlords who struggled for power over the valuable Kanto Plain in eastern central Honshu. He is best known for his series of battles with another famous warrior by Uesugi Kenshin that became legendary. The two fierce commanders clashed fairly indecisively but cemented Takeda's influence as he became one of the most powerful military leaders in region.

He was most feared by Oda Nodabunaga, and after defeating an army led by Ieyasu he began to make inroads into Tokugawa territory. A year following his victory over the armies of both men, Takeda died at age 39. To this day many people celebrate him as a genius who had skills that should be celebrated throughout all Japan due to the film Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) directed by Kurosawa Akira being created about him.

  10) Date Masamune (1567 – 1636)

Date Masamune was an incredible tactician who led the Date clan to power. He had a remarkable ability for warfare, earning him such nicknames as "One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshu". At one point he broke alliances and conquered land in his quest to hunt down a defected vassal from Ashina clan. After this campaign, many battles ensued against neighboring clans.

Tokugawa Ieyasu showed no fear when he was forced to choose a side during the Tokugawa-Toyotomi civil war, but once his overlord Hideyoshi died and left him with nothing. A man of great character, he eventually took up arms on behalf of Tokugawa's faction after finding that there was not enough food for both himself and the people in his domain. He then lead them all to an unexplored location which would grow into Sendai City thanks largely due to its proximity from fishing waters--an ideal place for those who are hungry or need work!

Masamune was known for his great sympathy for the Christian population growing in Japan, only reluctantly allowing their persecution in his domain when Ieyasu outlawed Christianity. It is because of Masamune's patronage that there are now a small community of Japanese descendants living in Spain as they fled to escape from religious prosecution on home soil.

Masamune was a powerful samurai who changed the political and cultural landscape of Japan forever. He has been represented in many media that chronicle both real and imagined versions of his life, but this is only scratching the surface to how influential he really was!

  11) Honda Tadakatsu (1548- 1610)

(Source, 11)

Honda Tadakatsu was a loyal servant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and his contributions aided the success of countless battles. Perhaps being most noted for successfully leading evacuating troops from advancing Takeda forces before their decisive clash in 1584 during the Komaki Campaign, he would also go on to have great successes like breaking through an enemy's defensive line at Nagashino Castle with only 2 outposts left standing by nightfall after engaging them all day long.

His courage is said to have so impressed Toyotomi Hideyoshi, his foe in that battle, that he ordered a general ceasefire. Ieyasu was left with only a few troops but rode out and challenged the vast enemy host himself-and won! He continued to fight for Ieyasu through many battles and campaigns including Sekigahara where future shogun Tokugawa finally defeated him. It's hard not be inspired by this brave samurai who died protecting his lord at age 106 after serving him faithfully all those years ago.

12) Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159 – 1189)

Yoshitsune was born in 1159, and is one of the most famous samurai's to have ever lived. He fought alongside his half-brother during Genpei War that led him on a path towards fame as he helped consolidate power with both humans and gods alike. Yoshitsune faced many challenges before embarking on this journey such as death at age 10 when overthrowing an attempted coup by court nobles leaded by Minamoto no Yoritomo who were seeking revenge for their father being killed from illness. It wasn't all bad though because after escaping execution himself thanks to monks taking care of him while residing within Kurama Temple.

Yoshitsune is a skilled samurai, the most respected and talented of his time. He took up arms against those who would take what belonged to him - that which was rightfully his by law. Against all odds he won every battle, liberating Japan from tyranny in the process as well as freeing it for himself following so many years spent without power or authority over anything at all."

Yoshitsune fell out of political favor when his brother Yoritomo schemed to end his growing power and forced him to flee Kyoto. He found refuge with Fujiwara no Yasuhira, son of the childhood protector he cherished so much. However, under pressure from Yoshitsune’s own brother-Yoritomo-he had a residence surrounded where Yoshitsune was staying at the time; defeated all retainers that were fighting for their lord in order to escape alive; and finally committed suicide."

A tragic hero as depicted by Japanese culture who has been deeply revered over many centuries: it is an open question whether or not Genghis Khan could have succeeded if without them knowing about this man's life story beforehand!"

  13) Shimazu Yoshihisa (1533 – 1611)

One of the greatest leaders to ever live, Shimazu Yoshihisa was lord over Satsuma Province. Born in 1533 and died on March 5th 1611. He led his brothers uniting Kyushu which they claimed until Toyotomi Hideyoshi took it from them in 1600 but were defeated by him a few years later leading to their final years as Buddhist priests composing poetry that is cherished across Japan for its humility and skillful tactics!

from Bunka Japan - Japanese Samurai Bushido Culture https://ift.tt/3mdJQoB from https://ift.tt/3sEeGb1

[biblenewsprophecy]

Proclaiming the Gospel in 1000+ Languages

The Continuing Church of God (CCOG) has now received over 1000 translations of its English language booklet, 'The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.' Should people rejoice (cf. Acts 15:3) or criticize this milestone? Has the CCOG done this in a cost-effective and efficient manner? Does the Bible prophesy the use of multiple languages? Are multiple languages implied by Jesus' commissions to the church in Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20? What is the "open door' for the Philadelphian Christians? Does the full number of Gentiles (cf. Romans 11:25) need to come in during this age? Are minor languages significant according to the Apostle Paul? Is the CCOG preparing for the 'short work' of Romans 9:28? Does the Book of Revelation tell of people of all languages and tongues being saved? Has any Church of God since the formation of the true church in Acts 2 ever get information on the good news of the gospel of the kingdom translated into this many languages? What about the old Worldwide Church of God and the open door? Are there additional ways, like radio, that the CCOG is using to reach people around the world in different languages? Relating to translations, does the CCOG expect to have at least "hundreds more in 2024"? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel address these matters.

A written article of related interest is available titled 'CCOG now has had ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom of God’ translated into over 1000 languages/dialects! Should you rejoice or be a critic?’

BNP Youtube video link: Proclaiming the Gospel in 1000+ Languages

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What About Romans 11:25 and the Full Number of the Gentiles? Some in the West discount God’s calling of Gentiles, but the Apostle Paul wrote about the need for them to come to the truth before Jesus returns. Two somewhat related videos are available Gentiles and When Will Jesus Return? and Puerto Rico, Trials, and Triumphs.

Preaching the Gospel in Over 1000 Languages Which languages are being used to fulfill Matthew 24:14? Are all languages significant?

What is the Ezekiel Warning? Should the end-time descendants of Israel and Joseph be warned? What should the watchman warn about? Regarding a watchman, you can watch the following video: Go, Set a Watchman.

Should the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work? Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong expect from lower level leaders? Two related sermons are available The Work per HWA and the Bible and Priority of the Philadelphia Work.

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Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18? Does any church have the confirmed dream and prophetic signs of Acts 2:17-18? Should one? Here is a link in the Spanish language: ¿Tiene la CCOG confirmadas las señales de Hechos 2: 17-18? Here is a link in the French language: Est-ce que l’Église Continue de Dieu confirme les signes d’Actes 2:17-18? A related sermon in the English language is also available: 17 Last Days’ Signs of the Holy Spirit.

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[collaborationandresearchproposal]

Thursday 29th April, Research Report: Lycanthropy and the hays code

Notable points * lycanthropy seems  to be synonymous with homosexuality- parallels between Teen Wolf and Buffy The Vampire Slayer's respective coming out scenes. * The Queer-ness of the character Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books and film series. Many fans head cannon and write slash fics about Remus and Sirius' romance and relationship, reading the characters as queer. The ship, named 'Wolf Star' is quite popular and well known within the fandom. Many fans feel there is enough evidence to build this relationship on; Remus and Sirius' ghosts stood next to each other in the resurrection stone, mirroring Harry's parents,  a canonically married couple. They also bought Harry a joint present for his birthday and know the intricacies of each others personalities. Dumbledore also infamously told Sirius to 'lie low at Lupins.' But the problem here, as the article points out, is that Rowling doesn't acknowledge Lupin as queer, despite the homoerotic cues in the writings,  and instead gives him a female love interest and admits that Lupins Lycantrhopy is a metaphor for AIDS/HIV. She has further dismissed any alternative readings of the character, disappointing fans' hopes of there being a shred of representation in a queer monster who is actually queer. This sort of behaviour from authors and creators is what turns Queer-coding into the more harmful and frustrating Queer-baiting. A large majority of queer representation comes from connotations and interpretations. the clues are there and queer audiences do pick them up. However this grey area allows allows straight culture to use queerness for pleasure and profit in mass culture without admitting to it. Modern examples of this are CW's Supernatural and BBC's Sherlock. I can't personally speak for Supernatural but having watched Sherlock with the advantage of a queer eye, I can say with confidence that it is a prime example of queer-baiting. there is clear homoerotic subtext between Sherlock and John and even Sherlock and Moriarty. I Personally think it's entirely romantic as I head cannon Sherlock to be Asexual or at least on that spectrum but the point is, it is not just wishful thinking or pushing of a narrative. It's manipulation. Queer-baiting takes advantage of an already vulnerable group of people by preying on their desire for representation in the media.

In modern media werewolf's are often portrayed as having chiselled bodies and looming over each other. The 1985 Teen Wolf received a television reboot and it's fair to say it got reasonably more progressive.  It seemed interested in queering the werewolf narrative and in a sly moment of gender-bending the traditional Little Red Riding Hood narrative, protagonist Scott receives the Bite from a male werewolf while wearing a Little Red Hoodie (‘Wolf Moon’). Additionally, the show features LGBTQ characters while Scott’s human best friend Stiles visits a gay bar and makes friends with a group of drag queens in startling contrast to the gay panic of the 1985 film’s version of Stiles. By midway through the show’s second season, the slash pairing that had proved dominant in the fandom was Stiles and wannabe-Alpha Derek Hale. The two characters, who operate in the narrative as belligerent and begrudging allies, rapidly became a slash phenomenon, due, in part, to the chemistry and comic timing between actors Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O’Brien. The narrative is further subverted when Derek is raped by an adult  human woman.

The pair 'Sterek' gained so much traction that it caught the attention of MTV and the cast and crew behind the show. So much so that they released a video of Hoechlin and O'Brien cuddling on a boat, asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf for this  years Choice Summer TV Show at the Teen Choice Awards. This  was big as it acknowledged fans and slash flics and the pairing itself as a possibility and many queer voices who watched the show felt heard and validated. However this didn't last long. MTV released a video on the official Teen Wolf Facebook, this time featuring O’Brien asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf in a TV Guide Poll. O’Brien joked that if fans did not vote, then the show would kill off its sole remaining gay character and one of the few remaining non-white characters on the show, Danny. The Teen Wolf Facebook released the video with the following caption: ‘Keep #TeenWolf in first place! Heed Dylan and Linden’s advice or we might have to. #KillDanny’ (Teen Wolf). The show’s social media team then attempted to make the #KillDanny tag go viral on Facebook and twitter, but fans, understandably, were not amused, primarily using the tag for outraged tweets to MTV (Baker-Whitelaw).Such blatant disregard for fans’ concerns about queer representation on the show alienated a large number of fans, especially when coupled with Jeff Davis’ more frequently dismissive and condescending comments about the Sterek pairing where he had been enthusiastic and even encouraging of the ship. As seasons wore on without any indication that Sterek would indeed become canon, it became clear that MTV and Jeff Davis had been queer-baiting Sterek fans as a marketing technique and that the unique interplay that fans had enjoyed with Davis, which offered a new kind of truly interactive fandom had, in fact, been something of an illusion. ' serial killer Hannibal Lecter and his love interest Will Graham in Hannibal, and reanimated gay corpses Kieren, Simon, and Rick in In the Flesh. Notably, both series have received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics who have applauded the series for taking their queer monsters beyond mere coding and into explicit text. The warm reception of Hannibal and In the Flesh’s handling of queer representation by fans, and the continuing frustration with Teen Wolf’s queer-baiting and the appropriative nature of Remus Lupin’s narrative in Harry Potter, belie a desire not only for better queer representation, but also for more complex re-articulations of queer monstrosity' the symbolic and narrative trappings of monsters are often used as metaphors for queerness without actually acknowledging the positive behind that queer identity or even confirming the queer identity at all. Another positive example is the miniseries Good Omens. Based on the book of the same name, written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Pretty much the whole fandom believe That the two leads, Crowley and Aziraphale are in a romantic relationship. They've known each other for centuries and perhaps what was the main fuel to this ships fire was the episode 3 cold open. Even fans who have only read the book seem to support these two as a couple and what's perhaps even more amazing is Gaiman’s response on twitter. "I wrote it as a love story. They acted it as a love story. You saw it as a love story. How much more proof do you need?" and "I wouldn't exclude the ideas that they are ace, or aromantic, or trans. They are an angel and a demon, not as make humans, per the book. Occult/Ethereal beings don't have sexes, something we tried to reflect in the casting. Whatever Crowley and Aziraphale are, it's a love story." It's beautiful because not only does it confirm that they are in love but it also leaves room for interpretations of what kind of relationship they have together.

https://dialogues.rutgers.edu/images/Journals_PDF/2017-18-dialogues-web_e6db3.pdf#page=164

In the year 1922, when cinema was gaining traction and popularity, The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) hired a devout Presbyterian, Will H. Hays as its head. Eight years later, in 1930, the MPPDA ratified the Motion Picture Production Code. Also known as the Hays Code, these guidelines were set up as “a list of rules that studios could follow to avoid the censors’ wrath” one specific line read “sexual perversion or any inference to it is forbidden” This era in censorship set the stage for a culture in which the stereotypical behaviour of homosexuals, or any behaviour deviating from the traditional gender roles, is seen as dangerous, evil, and even fatal. By representing coded homosexual characters as depressed, perverse, and succumbing to punishing ends, it shifted social subconscious beliefs of LGBT individuals in real life to those represented on screen. Media often teaches us how to feel about others and ourselves – e.g., it promotes specific body types and clothing styles. In the same way, by promoting gendered behaviour and banning homosexuality, it spread a message that homosexuality was not fit to be viewed openly. Although themes of homosexuality were banned they were definitely alluded to and that continues today.

[truthsower]

WHAT IS FAITH?

CHECK OUT THIS INSPIRING VIDEO ABOUT FAITH: https://bit.ly/3rHPu1p

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)

On the island state of Tasmania there used to be a native dog, called a thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, because of the black and white stripes on the back half of the animal. The last known specimen died in captivity more than fifty years ago. However, there is now talk of cloning more Tasmanian tigers through DNA taken from a preserved specimen. Embryos could be implanted in other dogs, until a pack of Tasmanian tigers could be produced. The film Jurassic Park was based on a similar concept for bringing dinosaurs back. Whether or not such a feat is a realistic scientific possibility, there is no doubt that the only way to bring back an extinct species would be to have some reliable specimen or other link with the original, from which you could make copies. Unfortunately, the world today is going through a time when genuine faith is going the way of the dinosaur. People have something which they call faith today, but it is almost universally a counterfeit of the real thing. Because of that, we are going to try to give a description in this article of what genuine faith is like, so that the world will not be without a link to the real thing, even if all genuine possessors of faith die out.

(The most amazing thing about faith is just how simple it is. Unlike currency or great works of art, which are very hard to duplicate, it is the various forms of counterfeit faith which are complicated, while the genuine article is really quite simple. To understand the difference between the genuine and the counterfeits, think of the difference between the words "believe" and "belief". When you use the word "belief" it conjures up a picture of a formal statement, usually one that has been well thought out, which states, often in legal jargon, exactly what someone believes on a particular subject. That pretty well describes the counterfeits. The world is cluttered with various "belief systems", but they tell us very little about genuine faith. In fact, our experience has been that the bottom line to all the so-called Christian belief systems is that they invariably oppose genuine faith in Jesus Christ. We will explain more about that in a moment. But first, consider the word "believe". We use it all the time, with very little confusion about what it means. It is amazingly simple. Whenever someone says something, you either believe it or you do not. Jesus described faith as a tiny seed which grows into a huge tree. He was saying that simply believing the things that he said seems so insignificant that most people are inclined to overlook it in favour of something more complicated to describe faith in Jesus. But if we would simply "believe" him when he says something, out of that would grow everything that God really wants to see in his followers. It is unfortunate that most translations of John 3:16 say, "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." I have strong suspicions about that word "in" having been placed there by a zealous scribe who took exception to the word "believe" on its own. The word "in" gives the impression that we need only believe in the existence of Jesus and we will have everlasting life. (See this 1-minute video about John 3:16 meaning).

James wrote that even the devils have that kind of faith. (James 2:19) He argued, instead, in favour of faith that "works". (James 2:18) Sadly, the people who preach John 3:16 most strongly also argue most strongly against just about everything that James wrote, and against the whole concept of "good works" having anything to do with salvation. Their counterfeit belief system systematically attacks the idea of simply "believing" Jesus, and then acting in accordance with what he has said. As we said above, the counterfeit belief systems which are supposedly built on believing "in" Jesus all seem to oppose "believing" Jesus. They have elaborate ways of justifying their traditions, but none of them come from the teachings of Jesus himself. Did Jesus tell us to build huge cathedrals, to recite prayers, asking him into our hearts, to bless bombs and become involved in world politics? What exists today in the name of Christianity bears very little resemblance to the early Christians. Of course, if the Bible really does teach that faith is a belief system more than childlike faith in the things that Jesus said, then who are we to argue against it? But take another look at the third chapter of John's gospel, to see if that is what it really teaches. The last verse of the chapter (John 3:36) more or less repeats what the 16th verse says. But in the second half of that verse, the infamous little word "in" (or "on" as used in the first half of this verse) does not appear. It merely says, "He that does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Believe in Jesus if you like. Believe on him too if you like. But unless you simply believe him, you are lost. And how can we say that we believe the things he says, when our belief system says that we must not try to obey the things he says, or we will lose our salvation? You are going to have to throw out the counterfeit in order to find the real thing. (NOTE: Some translations actually have the word "obey" in the second half of John 3:36, in the place of "believe", which further supports what we have been saying. Whosoever does not "obey" the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on them.) True faith in Jesus means believing everything that Jesus said. And true faith in God is believing everything that God says. As the words to the song go, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." True faith just naturally leads to obedience. If I say that there is a bomb in the room and it will explode in ten seconds, you do not sit down and have a discussion about it. Your faith in what I have said will instantly be transformed into action. You will race out of the room. One could say that your faith in what I said is what saved you. But there would be very little difference between saying that and saying that your action (i.e. the act of leaving the room) saved you too. It was an action based on faith. Martin Luther once said, "Faith and works are two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate one from the other any more than you can separate the ability to give light from the flame on a candle." As James put it, if there are no works (or obedience), it is evidence that there is no faith. And as Paul put it, in Ephesians 2:8-9, if there is no faith, there is no grace, for God's grace is only available "through faith". When you remember these two points, it becomes easy to see that any teaching about grace without works (or worse still, any teaching about grace which opposes works) is based on a counterfeit belief system, and has not come from genuine faith in Jesus. That really is about all you need to know about faith. Faith in Jesus Christ means believing everything that Jesus Christ said. At the moment there are still Bibles around, if people would only open them and turn to the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) to read the things that Jesus said. Over and over he said things that require genuine faith in God for people to literally do them, which is why counterfeit faith is so much

more popular. What Jesus said is so simple and so clear that we do not even need to elaborate on most of his teachings. We have the confidence to tell you to just open the book, read it, and then do it. It is the counterfeits who must give you complicated explanations about how the teachings of Jesus don't really mean what they clearly say. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies," it is the counterfeits who must explain how that means we should have strong armies who are prepared to kill our enemies. We have often quoted Luke 14:33 ("Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.") just as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible, only to have people respond with, "Well, that's your opinion." No, it's not our opinion. It's the opinion of Almighty God, as expressed through his Son. It is his unconditional requirement for anyone who wishes to follow him. It contains the same "whosoever" that appears in John 3:16. Whosoever believes it (and acts accordingly, of course) will not perish. But if you do not believe the Son, you shall not see life, and the wrath of God abides on you. This article is being sent out like a message in a bottle to a world that has been almost totally stripped of genuine faith. If you find it, and if you believe what it is saying, it can bring you new life. We are praying that you will find it, and that you will believe what it is saying. The rest is already programmed into the tiny seed of faith.