#there is a reason 99% of my rebellion was reading books all the time and not doing my homework

[brightasstars]

Author interview

@myulalie thank you for tagging me in this first author interview ♥

1. How many works do you have on ao3:

98 though they should have been 99 if one hadn't been accidentally removed..........

2. What's my total ao3 wc:

658,068. Well, since how hectic hand crazy my rl schedule is, I can't be too disappointedwith myself

3. What are my top 5 fics by kudos:

You Are The Music in Me (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec wakes up one morning, in a hospital’s bed, alone and far away from home, only to discover that he has lost his lower leg and all that he had, is now gone forever. With his new life, comes new relationships and encounters, and Alec finds himself working on his dream with Magnus, a famous cello player, who shares with him more past than he could imagine. Heart grows fonder as they get to know each other but it terrifies Alec to reveal everything to Magnus, scared that it would be too much, for he isn’t ready to lose everything all over again.When truth is forced out of him, even his own skin doesn’t feel safe enough. Luke’s question echoes through his mind, is he ready to let someone see him? let someone love him? A story of losing and winning and everything in between.

This was my first collab with a beta and an artist for a bang, it's been a wonderful experience of growth and well, this remains the fic I am mostly attached to, for so many reasons ♥

Never Have We Ever (Mature, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec Lightwood is asked to take the lead when Valentine threatens to enslave all the Shadow World to his will but in order to do that, he needs allies. In his search for support he meets the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and since that night, their lives will never be the same again.

This was written for the Fandom Trump Hate for @maplemachiato and... well, it has a confident Alec that honestly I truly love.

By Simple Accident (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec shivered. A porn studio. He was a young attractive alpha... he could do that, just once. Just for this month he said to himself. He should have. He had no other choice. He didn't expect what was waiting there for him and he isn't prepared to face and deal with the intensity of it all. He realizes as he gets there that nothing in life happens for a chance. In a porn studio he starts his journey to find himself and embrace the life he was meant to live.

It started with a joke and a random prompt during a writing game and well... turned out I loved it.

A Life Ahead (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec and Magnus are back from Edom and they have to get married... Alec makes a big choice and they start to walk this path together. But choices are never easy. To fullfill their dream, they will have to fight against time, against laws and rebellions and against fear and death. A story of love, faith, courage and promise.

This was my first fic ever written and it's so so different in many ways from actual writing style, but it was a way to finally start posting and finding the courage to put myself out there.

Bordeaux (General, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Magnus isn't searching for anything but something finds him, anyway.

A slightly different Alpha/Omega dynamic, again, with a very confident Alec and silver-fox Magnus.

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, I always do and not only because someone has taken his time to read what I have written. Mostly beacuse I find it so incredible when a reader decides to share their thoughts and feelings with me, telling me what they liked most or didn't like, and revealing me some points of view that maybe I had missed myself. I find it's a way of communicating that's absolutely important for someone who writes.

5. What fic has the angstiest ending?

Absolutely For Never Was a Story of More Woe Than This (Mature, Malec, Shadowhunters), it’s a MCD fic, something I was sure I would have never written in my whole life. It was a part of the books that gave me the idea to write this one and I have to say, I am proud of it.

“Magnus hoped if he ever went mad like that himself, so mad that he poisoned the very air round him and hurt everyone he came into contact with, that there would be someone who loved him enough to stop him. To kill him, if it came to that.” Cassandra Clare, Saving Raphael Santiago

6. What fic has the happiest ending?

Probably, It Only Gets Lighter From Here (Mature, Malec, Shadowhunters) because the happy ending comes in a way that makes it even worth .

"In the midst of winter, I found that there was, within me, an invincible summer." Albert Camus

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not really and I usually don't like reading them either, especially between fandoms. I did write a sort of fusion once ago, for a server event, and it was a fusion with Maleficient.

"So you see, the story is not quite as you were told." - Maleficient

8. Have you received hate on ao3?

No, I don't think I ever did. I had some weird comments but usually never replied with too much heat since I believe people have theirown way of thinking sometimes impossible to catch. But I have to admit, there had never been heavy insults.

9. Do you write smut?

I do, even if I never thought I could be able to do it. My smut writing has evolved a lot during time and it usually involves a lot of feelings. It's an emotional-smut writing that I prefer and use the most.

10. Have you had a fic get stolen?

I'm not aware of that, if it ever happened. I had a fic accidentally cancelled by the other author.

11. Have you had a fic get translated?

Nope! I have been asked though, more than once.

12. Have you co-written a fic?

Oh yes! Collaboration is something I do appreciate a lot and I enjoyed every bit of it, everytime. The WIPS I am actually still working on are two collaborations.

The Diplomat's Son and The Boy in The Orchid's Garden (Malec, Mature, Shadowhunters) written with @imandras is a fic that is giving me so much joy and satisfaction as writing with her.

At the age of 16 - at the exact time of birth - a soulmark appears somewhere on your body. Your soulmate will have a soulmark in the same place on their body once they turn 16. It will be something that defines your soulmate or is important to them, an actual depiction, or just symbolic. At first your soulmark is quite plain, almost like a tattoo in pure black and white. But the moment you touch your soulmate for the first time, your soulmark will change. Not only will you be able to watch when it gets filled with color, you'll also feel it. When your soulmate dies, your soulmark will fade away slowly until only a shadow of it adorns your skin. Alec is only six when his father is assigned to Indonesia, he's been traveling since he was born and never learned to feel any place like his home. He couldn't know that home sometimes is not a place but is a heart. He had to wait another ten years to find out if his heart had found a home.

My collaboration with @phoenixstar73, The Reason My Heart Beats (I can't live without you) (Malec, Mature, Shadowhunters) is the fic with the highest kudos ever, but that's for sure because of my co-writer!

They say nephilim only love once. Alec's decision to keep news about the soul sword from Magnus ends up costing him his relationship. This triggers an ancient curse targeted toward Nephilim -- which is so rare that no one knew about, throwing the Institute into an upheaval. Can they figure out how to stop this before they lose one of their own?

Then I enjoyed a lot working with @high-warlock-of-brooklyn in our fic for a Scavenger Hunt on a shared server. If I Was Your Man (General, Malec

After a chain of demon attacks, Magnus and Alec have to go undercover to a couple's retreat, but Magnus keeps getting hit on by an employee who can't take a hint, much to Alec's dismay, to the point that Alec ends up venting his frustrations at a target with the man's face on it.

Last but not least, it was so so so much fun working on The Boss Likes Not Eating Ramen for Dinner (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters) writtne with @killynxgames; @iamnot and @finditagain24

“Nephilim Cleanup Services. You kill them, we clean them. What can I put you down for today?” Magnus surveyed the mess he'd made and sighed. “How fast can you get here?” ------------------------------------------------------------------ Isabelle grimaced at the scene before her. "I’ll have to call in the boss for this." Magnus had never met the man before, but he'd never expected this elusive "Boss" to be so goddamn HOT.

OR Boy meets boy. Boy gives boy a blowjob. The fact that they're doing it in a smoking house full of dead bodies, blood, and glitter is completely irrelevant.

There's more around but, well, I guess you can find out on your own wiothout me taking up so much of your time!

13. What's your fav ship?

I just have only one ship, Malec. Someone might think it's boring but that's what it is! They're everything to me.

14. What's a WIP you want to finish but never will?

Mmm...I don't think so. I hope to finish everyone of them. Whenever I can.

15. What are my writing strengths?

I think I'm really good in writing emotions and feelings, that's defintely my strength, looking at the inside of chacters.

16. What are my writing weaknesses?

I'm not a good planner and my edits usually end up with changing so much that I almost re-write the whole thing, so that means, a lot of time wasted.

Also, I'm terrible at building plots that have intricated implications and facts that overlap in time. That's why my stories are mostly about what happens inside than outside.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages on ao3?

I’m bilingual but I usually don't like writing dialogues in other languages that I don't properly speak, because dialogues should be spoken as a native would.

I rarely used some lines in another language.

18. What's the first fandom you wrote for?

Shadowhunters.

19. What fandom/ship have you not written but want to?

I don't think I would want to write for another Fandom but if I ever would I think I'd pick The Sandman.

20. What's your fav fic you've written?

As I said before, You Are The Music in Me (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters) at least so far, but who knows?

Tagging: @tobythewise; @my-archerboy; @high-warlock-of-brooklyn; @i-have-not-slept

Author interview

@aceon-ice tagged me and I’m really looking forward to this, thank you ♥

1. How many works do you have on ao3:

165 and I am extremely upset because Alex Rider got more than Teen Wolf and I can’t seem to catch up D:

2. What's my total ao3 wc:

1 047 026. wow. apparently I wrote 400k in 2020 and I’ve been putting out between 100 and 200k every year since, just wow.

3. What are my top 5 fics by kudos:

Mixing business with pleasure (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec has to go to the Seelie Queen herself and strike a deal, release Jace from the curse in exchange of… what, exactly? He has nothing to offer. Magnus Bane is the warlock who grants wishes. His father is a Prince of Hell after all, the demon of lust… maybe Alec has something to offer then.

Yeah this fic took off alright, I really liked the concept ♥

Eyes on Fire (Teen, Sterek, Teen Wolf)

When a rival pack goes after Scott and his friends, Stiles finds himself caught in the crossfire. With his subsequent turning to haunt him among other nightmares, Stiles has to learn how to control his new abilities and make something of a situation he never wanted for himself, much less with the tensions that linger in Beacon Hills since the awakening of the Nemeton. As he eventually figures out how to be a werewolf, he finally finds common ground with one Derek Hale, catching feelings as he goes. The unexpected alliance might be just what Beacon Hills needs to bring the established werewolf packs together once and for all.

This was my first reverse bang and I finally tried my hand at werewolf!Stiles, I had a lot of fun coming up with the fic to match the art.

Deepest Desires (give in) (General, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Were-cats are good luck by shadowhunters' standards, so when a black, jewelry covered cat appears at the Institute, Alec pays him his respects. He needs it, considering the messes Clary and Jace keep dragging him in. Alec certainly doesn't expect the were-cat to take a liking to him, and even less to start flirting with him...

Now I want to read it again haha

A piece of night sky (Teen, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec is doing his best to keep the city safe. With no support from the Clave, the New York Institute is desperately understaffed. He begins patrolling with help from the Downworld factions - which proves to be tricky at best, and becomes almost impossible when the werewolves start hunting Alec.  His siblings have no idea of what he’s up to at night and to keep them all safe Alec needs to keep it that way. Then, he meets the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Suddenly, patrolling also includes pop songs and bird puns in between watching someone's back when fighting demons. But, what’s one more secret to keep?

This was my first collab with a beta and an artist for a bang, I’m exceptionally proud of this one!

(Vir)Gin and Tonic (Mature, Malec, Shadowhunters)

Alec and Magnus have barely met when the High Warlock asks for virgin shadowhunter energy in exchange for Clary’s memories. Naturally, Jace offers Alec’s virginity. It doesn’t go according to plan.

The first fic in this list is actually a remix of this one with a slightly different take on virginity x)

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, always! I just love interacting with other fans, it’s nice to know someone actually read your fic and noticed details or reacted to some choices you made in the narrative. Also it can be a great way to find new ideas and motivation, I wish I could be more invested in writing communities to keep those creative juices flowing.

5. What fic has the angstiest ending?

I’d say Dangerous Tastes (Explicit, Yalex, Alex Rider), it’s a bit of a star-crossed lovers romance and the ending is particularly bittersweet, albeit hopeful.

After a failed assassination attempt during his horse ride around the property, Alex gets a bodyguard against his will. He keeps flirting with danger from then on, even at the risk of getting his heart broken.

6. What fic has the happiest ending?

Oh, definitely 17 Suits (Explicit, Malec, Shadowhunters)! Alec and Magnus find common ground over the one thing that pushed them apart all throughout the story.

Magnus Bane, a sworn bachelor, receives his fair share of wedding invitations on a regular basis and makes sure his friends get through their weddings unscathed. One dark, wounded and mysterious Alec Lightwood is not going to rain on Magnus’ parade as he celebrates the best day of his loved ones’ lives.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not really, I don’t read them either. I do write fusion fics though, specifically Pokémon like I did with Idris Tour Sweethearts (General, Malec, Shadowhunters) for instance.

Alec is fascinated by dragon types and has learned everything about them in books. He’s always dreamed of finding them in the wild and see them for himself, but he never went on his journey with a Pokémon and now, it’s too late to travel the world. Except, is it? Alec’s siblings are all grown up, and he doesn’t have a job — or friends — to keep him in his hometown. He could leave and attempt to complete the Pokédex, hopefully meeting some dragons along the way. Maybe he’ll even find love, like so many Idris Tour sweethearts before him… But the winner of Pokémon beauty Contests, Top Coordinator Magnus Bane, couldn’t possibly want more than one night in Alec’s arms. Right?

8. Have you received hate on ao3?

No? but then I usually assume good faith so unless you’re insulting me or my mom I’ll either think the comment is clumsy but the person meant well, or just move on. 

9. Do you write smut?

Yeah, surprisingly. I was never really interested in smut, would even skip smut scenes for the longest time but eventually I found it useful in some stories and then I made a point of doing kinktober (Malec, Shadowhunters / Sterek, Teen Wolf) and smutember (Yalex, Alex Rider) just to figure out how to fit the prompts into some ideas and it’s been a lot of fun!

10. Have you had a fic get stolen?

I don’t think so or at least I’m not aware if there has been one. I did occasionally share ideas that got passed around and written by somebody else which is always uncomfortable but that’s on me for both sharing and not mentioning it wasn’t up for grabs lmao

11. Have you had a fic get translated?

Nope! I thought of translating a couple myself though, I’m just too lazy x)

12. Have you co-written a fic?

Several! Even though @spark-draws will deny it I do consider them a co-writer because they came up with a good chunk of the outline and I implemented major edits due to their feedback on The Mortal Instruments: Skyrim (Mature, Malec, Shadowhunters). 

Magnus and Alec are now enemies who have been saddled up with a mysterious quest to save Skyrim. Will rivalry, distrust and fierce and dangerous dragons get the better of them? Or will they find some much needed guidance on the slopes of the Throat of the World, where a mysterious brotherhood holds some of the answers they so desperately need?

I also recently worked on Vastly Different Things (Teen, Yalex, Alex Rider) with @polarnachtsblog as a thank you fic for our pinch-hitter in the Yalex Secret Santa. We literally wrote parts of the fic on our own then merged it all together with minor edits and transitions, it was a lot of fun!

Alex almost gets tossed from a helicopter into a river in Chile, and spends some quality time with a certain assassin.

13. What's your fav ship?

Right now I’m on a roll for Sam Carter x Ba’al (Stargate SG-1) but my one true pairing is definitely Helen Blackthorn x Aline Penhallow (Shadowhunters). I love them. so much.

14. What's a WIP you want to finish but never will?

I don’t know, I’ve completed WIPs several years after I started them so I tend to not consider a fic discontinued until I’ve deleted the fic from the platform, and considering most of my WIPs have not been posted anywhere… ;)

15. What are my writing strengths?

I’m really good at “getting it done” I think because productivity breeds productivity. If you get started and power through long enough, it becomes easier and you can keep going and enjoy yourself while you’re at it!

Same with edits, I’m not afraid to change things (although I can be lazy). It also applies to plotting/outlining, I’m an excellent planner, sometimes too much of a planner though.

Style wise I’ve been told I’m good at writing fight scenes and setting, I do enjoy my descriptions!

16. What are my writing weaknesses?

I’ve always thought I’m terrible at dialogue!

I can get stuck in a writing slump from too much planning.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages on ao3?

I used to really like it, especially since I’m bilingual myself. I wanted to use some fancy script to have the translation appear when you hover or link it to the notes and then back to the exact line in the story but I couldn’t figure it out xD

Nowadays I like the much simpler “POV character doesn’t speak the language” or “blah blah blah, they said in French”. You get it or you don’t x) 

18. What's the first fandom you wrote for?

Either Naruto or Harry Potter, let’s say Harry Potter because there is a completed fic I can actually remember lmao.

19. What fandom/ship have you not written but want to?

Definitely Stargate SG-1 these days because I’m on a Sam/Ba’al binge!

20. What's your fav fic you've written?

Right about now it’s Blue for Brooklyn (Teen, Malec, Shadowhunters) but it may change depending on my mood!

Asmodeus is a legend among Shadowhunters and Magnus has a duty to the Downworld. When a renegade warlock unleashes a powerful demon in the streets, he has no choice but to get involved.

Tagging: @polarnachtsblog @geekmom13 @brightasstars @sterekxhale @countessrivers @1lostone @strangesoulmates @kelkblr @lastlymatt @ravenjames @junemermaid @freesirius4life @turtlesnails

[kirythestitchwitch]

okay so like, bear with me im having some Thoughts. [child abuse cw] [physical abuse cw] [suicide mention cw] strap in.

[[MORE]]

I remember this one night in the late 90s when I was on the landline in the computer room talking to a friend from church. I was probably like 11-12 bc i was friends with this person after Titanic came out but before my parents stuffed me in private school. Anyways we having perfectly normal pre-teen conversations like "Jack Dawson is soooo hot," and "I love Dimitri's hair!" and like, somehow we got onto how annoying our parents were. normal kid shit right like idk they didn't let me read past my bedtime idk, and i didn't even have the vocabulary to say "fuck" at the time! and I kinda spun the chair I was in to face the doorway (open, rookie mistake) and fuckin there was my mother, looking pissed as hell. she made me hang up immediately and then proceeded to scream at and then ground me for being an ungrateful little shit or something. idk, I was eleven~, all I remember is that I was scared.

a few years down the line (middle school maybe) my dad was "helping" me with my math homework and like, belittling me when I did not understand it. and he got frustrated and started to walk out of the room. and i said "fuck you," under my breath. god, he came back in the room with thunder on his brow and pointed his finger in my face and whispered "Don't you ever say that to me again." I was certain he was about to hit me. he didn't, but I was terrified of it.

now, one of my coworkers (26) likes to complain about a teenager (17) that lives with her. she's her boyfriend's kid sister and her mom is dead and coworker's boyfriend didn't want to take her but she talked him into it. anyways she acts up and has threatened to commit suicide at least once while coworker has worked here. (her mother, our boss, made her come into work that day anyway but that is another fucking story) so but, coworker admitted tonight that she went "into a rage" when the teenager called her a c*nt during an argument and basically backhanded her over the couch.

so like, possibly calling cps aside, I was just kinda ruminating on the weirdly specific anger that adults get when confronted with a child that is not "appropriately grateful" and dares to insult them. I keep trying to put myself in their shoes, and like, I can see that the main reaction could be them feeling hurt. like if my child called me horrible names, that ofc would hurt. BUT. I completely disconnect at the idea of screaming at them, or fucking hitting them. I might cry, after all, it hurts when someone you love is lashing out at you. but like, can you imagine if more parents were just like, "I'm sorry you feel that way. It really hurts when you say something like that, could you talk to me about why you think I deserve to be treated like that? Because I dont."

and like yeah! that's not a magic cure all, kids aren't always gonna immediately calm down and be like, "you did this specific thing and I didn't like that," like you're gonna have to prompt them through that shit, maybe take a breather, and talk about a resolution BUT. BUT. god, if my parents had just done that instead of the way they chose to handle my ~rebellion~ like we might have actually gotten somewhere. coworker's teenager has had a shitty life and lives with someone she Knows wants to get rid of her but legally can't until she's 19. ofc she's not doing her chores and cleaning her room, and seeking validation from dudes on the internet. get her a goddamn therapist and stop having her committed! she is only fucking seventeen.

tl;dr anyways kids don't actually "owe" parents anything. try not to take their growing pains personally. be supportive. don't hit your kids, that fucking includes spanking, don't hit your kids.

[janiedean]

Hope this is okay to ask but I was wondering what your thoughts are on the way Tyrion is treated by some of the fandom, especially Cersei stans? I feel he is held to a different standard to other male characters and as someone with an invisible disibility irl it makes me a bit uncomfortable. I’ve seen many “Lannister stans” who either hate him or want to ignore he exists.

sure it’s okay to ask don’t worry ;)

that said: when it comes to tyrion’s fandom treatment especially on tumblr there’s like a whole bunch of like... WE’RE ABLEIST BUT MASKING IT BEHIND FAKE WOKE ARGUMENTS crap going on because not counting the fact that show!tyrion has been what he was since S5 bc dnd can’t obviously write him and stopped giving peter decent material after then and it shows, but like... show!tyrion being nowhere near as complex as the book version is a problem that 99% of the show characters had so I don’t think it’s like a valid argument:

the premise is that tyrion is outside like TUMBLR and the likes circles a clear fan favorite when it comes to the general audience if not the fan favorite - like there’s more tyrion merch than idk jon snow merch and maybe maybe he was 50/50 with dany but like... I think that if we did a general poll tyrion would come out as the most liked character, which... I mean fair tyrion is an a+ character and he’s extremely relatable on a whole shitload of levels and let me tell you if a disabled character is for once the main fan favorite I won’t complain:

problem is beyond the fact that he’s disabled he’s... about everything tumblr hates in the sense that a) man, b) (presumably) straight man who has a lot of sex to deal with his issues, c) his issues are not exactly pleasant to deal with, d) not Standard Attractive, e) basically his one trump card is outsmarting people so it’s really easy to attach the whole AH MANIPULATING SCHEMING ASSHOLE argument to him, f) an abuse victim from at least his father and cersei but we all know men can’t be abused on this website *rolleyes* plus he hates the shit out of cers/ei which like.. is apparently the cardinal sin and the key to being labeled a misogynist always, which automatically means that when it comes to tumblr asoiaf fandom nine times on ten people will ignore the fact that his disability is a reason people discriminate him and that the treatment he received because of it gave him TRAUMA and start going like AH BUT HE’S A MAN AH BUT HE’S RICH which... doesn’t mean he can’t be traumatized even if he has male and money privilege;

for what it’s worth anyway bc as stated okay being a lannister did mean that he had a better upbringing/situation economically than a commoner with dwarfism but that doesn’t make his abuse any less damaging, but people on here just... don’t seem to get it;

but yeah like the point is that male chars on tumblr are already held at different standards than female ones (again theon gets more shit than cersei ever had for doing a lot less horrid stuff) but tyrion as... the mega fan favorite especially in within the male fanbase (reddit/w-org and the likes) is held to an extra standard in the sense that if the dudebro faction likes him then he’s BAD NEWS, which means that the fact that he’s disabled and that it affects his life is thoroughly ignored because they have to cry about how he has male privilege over c. and so she can’t abuse him (which... lmao the day I read that shit in S2 I was so out, but whatever);

anyway thing is: ‘lannister stans’ in my experience is a thing that like... is weird in this fandom because actually I never met a supposed lannister stan who likes all of them or who doesn’t ignore some exist, like.. usually most lannister stans who pretend tyrion doesn’t exist are either c. stans or tywin stans or both and don’t get me started on how this fandom has a weirdass tywin worship thing going on for which they think tyrion killing him is an unforgivable crime when it was basically what that asshole deserved and the narrative is having tyrion go in the downward spiral for shae not for tywin. c. stans usually say they also stan jaime but like... they stan whichever version of jaime they think exist that is compatible for a book ending that has the murder suicide thing happening that doesn’t exist in the books and they ignore tyrion exists same as their fave, but then again here we fall back in the pit where everything c. specifically does is seen as either fight against the patriarchy or feminist rebellion or trauma justification on account of c. being a woman and if a man does it it’s horrid or if she does it to a man then it doesn’t matter, so like... it’s a lost cause;

anyway like if someone say they’re a lannister stan and ignore tyrion when whether they like it or not tyrion is the only lannister in the main five povs (which i’d like to remind everyone are jon dany tyrion arya and bran regardless of whoever is everyone’s fave) and the one that has most narrative weight then like... just say you like c. or tywin and go;

tldr: while I think that the show did tyrion a lot of dirt in order to make him more... idk cleaned up when the book character is good as it is, tumblr fandom is swimming deep in ableism and denying that men can be abused and affected by that when it comes to tyrion’s treatment, never mind in the neverending absolutely shallow argument that’s everywhere in asoiaf fandom which is that no one outside specific group of people has understood that one of the key messages of these books is ‘how you look outside doesn’t mean shit about your personality and people who aren’t standard attractive are people with needs and personality who also deserve love and have a lot to give and will meet someone who’ll give it to them’, because the race is basically shipping beautiful ppl together even if it makes sense and negating at all turns that brienne/arya/tyrion/sandor/anyone else who’s not standard attractive are like... viable romantic partners on an even level with whoever so there’s that too, but like I think that on tumblr it shows that ppl are extremely hypocritical when it comes to tyrion and that it shows that their wokeness stops at the surface bc if you read those books and miss The Fucking Point when it comes to tyrion’s disability... text comprehension where have you gone ;)

also when it comes from c. stans** I just sigh and roll my eyes but then again c. stans generally think c. is the only person in these books with justified issues and trauma reaction and downplay not only how she abuses others but also the effects on the ppl she abuses whether they’re men or women so like... they don’t even admit how she is with jaime do we think they’d admit it for tyrion? doubt that.

**before everyone else jumps on me: with c. stans I mean the vocal side of c. standom where almost everyone is like that and from whom I never saw once an acknowledgment that she actually did abuse him (or anyone kllkjkgdj), not whichever c. stan around who likes her because she’s terrible/recognizes that she’s bad etc, I mean no ill will, if you didn’t feel called out reading it it wasn’t about you, peace and love.

[dfroza]

lost & found things

this is what we see in Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament book of Luke in chapter 15:

Jesus became increasingly popular among notorious sinners—tax collectors and other social outcasts. The Pharisees and religious scholars noticed this.

Pharisees and Religious Scholars: This man welcomes immoral people and enjoys their company over a meal!

Jesus (with another parable): Wouldn’t every single one of you, if you have 100 sheep and lose one, leave the 99 in their grazing lands and go out searching for the lost sheep until you find it? When you find the lost sheep, wouldn’t you hoist it up on your shoulders, feeling wonderful? And when you go home, wouldn’t you call together your friends and neighbors? Wouldn’t you say, “Come over and celebrate with me, because I’ve found my lost sheep”? This is how it is in heaven. They’re happier over one sinner who changes his way of life than they are over 99 good and just people who don’t need to change their ways of life.

Or imagine a woman who has 10 silver coins. She loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the whole house, and search diligently until that coin is found? And when she finds it, doesn’t she invite her friends and neighbors and say, “Celebrate with me! I’ve found that silver coin that I lost”? Can’t you understand? There is joy in the presence of all God’s messengers over even one sinner who changes his way of life.

Once there was this man who had two sons. One day the younger son came to his father and said, “Father, eventually I’m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now.” And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.

So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.

The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”

But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.

Now the man’s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant said, “Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return.”

The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. But he argued back, “Listen, all these years I’ve worked hard for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd!”

The father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. Isn’t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we’re talking about. He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found again!”

The Book of Luke, Chapter 15 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 23rd chapter of the book of Job:

Job confided to his friends.

Job: So once again you are telling me my complaint amounts to rebellion,

that the heavy hand I feel upon me is smothering my groans?

Would that I knew where to find Him.

I would appear before Him.

I would lay my case out before Him;

I would fill up my mouth with arguments.

And then I would finally learn how He would answer me,

and I would understand what He tells me.

Would He oppose me merely with His great power? Surely not!

Surely He would show me the respect of listening to my argument.

There, in that courtroom, a moral man might hope to reason with Him,

and I would escape my Judge forever.

Alas, wherever I go, ahead or behind,

He is not there;

I am unable to find Him.

When He works on either side of me, I still cannot see Him.

I catch no glimpse of Him.

But He knows the course I have traveled.

And I believe that were He to prove me,

I would come out purer than gold from the fire.

My foot has been securely set in His tracks;

I have kept to His course of life without swerving;

I have not departed from the commands of His lips;

I have valued everything He says more than all else.

He alone is one True God; who can alter Him?

Whatever He desires within Himself, He does.

For He will carry out exactly what He has planned for me,

and in the future there are more plans to come.

Therefore, I am deeply troubled before Him;

when I ponder it at any length, I am terrified of Him.

Yes, God has melted my courage,

and the Highest One has overwhelmed me with His terror.

He could have turned me aside when the darkness came,

but He did not cut me off.

Nor does He hide my face from the gloom that has now overtaken me.

The Book of Job, Chapter 23 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, April 30 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons that looks into our “rest”

It is written in our Scriptures: "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and he will bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). In this verse, the word translated "commit" comes from the Hebrew root galal (גלל), which could be rendered as "roll away" or "heap upon" (the word gal means a heap or pile of stones). The LORD spoke this word when He said to Joshua, "This day have I rolled away (galal) the reproach of Egypt from off you" (Josh. 5:9) and named the place "Gilgal" (גִּלְגָּל), a word-play meaning a wheel or "rolling away." In great mercy the LORD "rolls away" the reproach of our sin.

The word galal can also mean to trust or to commit, with the connotation of "rolling one's trouble" away from oneself upon someone else who can help. Thus the Messiah entrusted (galal) His suffering unto the LORD (Psalm 22:8), and we are likewise encouraged to "commit" (galal) our way to his loving will. When we trust in His love, when we "roll away" the burden of our lives to His care, our thoughts will be "established" and we can freely enjoy the confidence that God Himself is directing our way (Prov. 16:9, Psalm 37:23). We can then experience genuine rest and shalom, despite the tumult of the world and its tribulations.

As the Lord Yeshua cried out, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28), so may we come, rolling away our burdens unto Him, and having our way established in His shalom (1 Pet. 5:7; Psalm 55:22). Amen. [Hebrew for Christians]

4.29.21 • Facebook

Today’s message from the Institute for Creation Research

April 30, 2021

Jehovah

“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” (Hebrews 1:10)

The primary name for God in Scripture is the majestic name Jehovah, occurring nearly 7,000 times. The early Jews were reluctant to use that name for fear of using it lightly (Exodus 20:7) and substituted the word Adonai (meaning Master or Lord) in its place. Our English versions have followed suit, using the term “Lord” for Jehovah (small or all caps to distinguish it from Adonai, or Lord). Thus, the name Jehovah appears only four times in the King James and causes us at times to miss the full impact of the passage.

This is especially true in the New Testament quotations from Old Testament passages that used the name “Jehovah” for which “Lord” has been substituted. Now in the English versions the name “Lord” appears. If “Jehovah” (i.e., deity) were read instead, much richer meaning would be gathered, and it would prove beyond a doubt the full deity of Christ. Consider two examples.

First, our text quotes from Psalm 102:25-27. The entire psalm consists of praise to Jehovah, and here in Hebrews it addresses the Son. If we read “thou, Jehovah, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth” and realize that Jesus is the subject of the passage, we recognize that Jesus can be none other than the Creator God.

Also, in Matthew 3:3, where John the Baptist fulfilled his prophesied role by teaching “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” quoting from Isaiah 40:3, we see Jesus equated with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, for Isaiah uses the term LORD, or Jehovah.

In these and many other examples, we see Christ as the Jehovah Jesus and that the Lord of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. JDM

[langwrites]

Lang Plays Fire Emblem: Three Houses

So a while ago I said I was planning on playing the story routes in this order: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, Church of Seiros, and then Golden Deer.

The Golden Deer made a liar out of me.

So, here’s an approximation of What Happened During Verdant Wind.

So many spoilers below the cut, you guys. I do a lot of route comparisons.

Okay, I’ve been staring at the “which house do you want” selection screen for an embarrassing amount of time.

This shouldn’t be hard. I had a plan.

But no.

I clicked the Golden Deer, just like that. What the fuck, Claude. I blame you.

Immediately upon talking to this rop of students again, I can feel the difference in the social group from what the Lions were like. The latter were really a bunch of noble kids around their prince, and they felt really tight-knit. Classic Fire Emblem starter crew.

The Golden Deer is the fucking Scooby Gang.

First impressions of individuals:

Raphael, thank goodness, is the one character who absolutely has his shit in order. Sure, he’s bad at book work and thinks everything comes down to MUSCLES, but all of his emotional issues are handled by the time he arrives at Garreg Mach. He’s the brightest of sunshines.

Ignatz needs some more confidence in his art, and also I want to see his painting of Seiros. Now, if only both of his offensive stats and growths weren’t incredibly bad.

I was so close to making him my dancer. Just because he sure as hell wasn’t gonna be useful anywhere else.

Lorenz! I don’t like him. His haircut is a monstrosity.

Leonie! We are going. To be. Besties. Even though the timing of your support conversations are incredibly bad.

Marianne no please don’t be sad everyone loves you

Hilda is the greatest enabler I have ever seen. By which I mean she enables other people to do all her work for her.

Lysithea is going to have the last word with God. And especially he Death Knight.

And finally Claude! Teamwork makes the dream work, so obviously meme work does the same.

I’m sorry.

PRE-TIMESKIP

Mock battle! Marianne’s great and I love her and also the only healer oh god.

OKAY. I have access to New Game+ bonuses. What do I do first?

Immediately crank the Professor Level stat to max to avoid ever having to run short of activity points again.

Next, raise all skills I can’t easily get to at least Rank D+. HEAVY ARMOR IN PARTICULAR.

Third: Boost supports with people whose support ranks are an absolute pain in the ass to earn. Lookin’ at you, Rhea.

Also, put glasses on Byleth (named “Yuri” for this playthrough). Glasses are the bomb. I am the evil genius.

LEVEL GRINDING TIME.

It’s a lot harder with Blacksmith access being story-locked, but I can do this!

As a direct result, every single battle after this point is a complete curbstomp in my favor. Because the grind don’t stop.

I broke a lot more weapons than last time, though.

I will befriend Leonie and Ferdinand if it’s the last fucking thing I do. I will befriend everyone, and I will not get timeskip-locked out of supports! >:(

Ferdinand was my first recruit. Oh dear.

Okay, there are like five born cavaliers in this game. Leonie, Ferdinand, Lorenz, Sylvain, and I guess Dimitri if you’re on the right route.

Last time, Sylvain was a great paladin and a decent Dark Knight before he started getting one- or two-stat level ups for like thirty levels. Similarly, Dimitri was great until all his ultra-secret-awesome promotions didn’t use a fucking horse.

Contrast Leonie who, despite sitting out 99% of the game out of spite from me getting locked out of her support chain, went to endgame with a ten-level deficit and still rocked.

Ferdinand didn’t count since I failed to recruit him last time and he died. These two facts are directly related.

I didn’t use Lorenz at all; I recruited him to keep from having to kill him later.

This time, Lorenz straight-up sucks, Sylvain did the terrible level dance for like the entire game, and Dimitri’s not recruitable.

Contrast, again, Leonie. Her support chain with the player character is hot garbage, but she plowed through most of the game as a mainstay of my team and made it to Bow Knight first out of anyone.

Bernadetta and Ashe as Bow Knights don’t even come close to being as durable as she is, except for Ashe’s absolutely bananas Resistance. 29?! WHY?!

And Ferdinand is also awesome. His only real weak point is Resistance, but he doesn’t need it. He dodge-tanks everything, is faster than Leonie, and has two Saints’ relics he unknowingly stole from Seteth.

He still talks in MLA format, though.

I started putting off recruiting people so I wouldn’t have to level-grind them up to par with the rest of my team.

But if these people wanna join, of course I’m saying yes.

Lord Lonato’s rebellion and Miklan yoinking the Lance of Ruin feel way less relevant on a Golden Deer playthrough than on a Blue Lions one. None of the Herd really know who the hell these people are.

I say that despite having already recruited Sylvain for this playthrough and deploying him in the relevant level. He wasn’t treated as there by the game’s preamble cutscenes.

At least the Holy Mausoleum stuff feels more...handled? Claude actually asks questions about rebellion and about the “assassination plot,” where Dimitri didn’t really.

OKAY SO there’s this whole plot thing where Flayn goes missing for a month. With the Blue Lions, this is handled like a manhunt. Dimitri’s seriousness about the issue rubs off on everyone except Sylvain, and Felix actually correctly identifies the culprit almost instantly. He doesn’t know he’s done it, though, because basically everyone is just throwing out accusations. Manuela is the real MVP.

CONTRAST THE DEER. The very first meeting reads like a Scooby Doo episode, when they’re piling up clues and throwing out suggestions like the gang of goofball teenagers they are. Claude’s got this group running like Persona 4′s Investigation Team. None of them are jaded or frantic, they’re just doing this.

Why did Rhea entrust the investigation to a herd of teenagers.

Anyway, the rest proceeds as usual.

I don’t know why the game tries to drop the same set of hints for each route. “OoooowoooooOOOOoooo, your house leader might be the FLAME EMPEROR.”

The Flame Emperor wears heels. And is still too short to be either Claude or Dimitri. Especially Dimitri. Who the fuck let this kid get so tall.

The only real result of all this bullshit is that my wyvern-riding sniper of doom is not available during the first map where Yuri personally beat the Death Knight into the ground.

Which, by the by, was hilariously cathartic.

It doesn’t exactly matter, since the only unit who can make real use of the Dark Mage and Dark Bishop classes is unrecruitable, but bragging rights.

Remire Village’s drama is about as bad while playing as the Golden Deer. One of the foreshadowing cutscenes, though is excellent:

Claude actually finds a book that depicts The Immaculate One before its debut, only to have it confiscated by Seteth and learn that it wasn’t a library book at all; it belonged to “Tomas.” Like, all of his suspicions--which he shares with the player--start lining up. Censorship! Monsters! Sword of the Creator! What the hell is going on here??

Dimitri’s version of the cutscene involves him being caught investigating Lord Arundel by the player and Sothis. Which--since his route doesn’t meaningfully deal with the Morlocks faction aside from steamrolling them as incidental opponents--seems kinda useless.

Kicked the Death Knight into submission again out of spite.

Sylvain was useful! Mostly because I had him sit there and distract the incidentals while Claude and Lysithea cleaned house, but still!

Claude is the only lord character who seems to understand that the transforming Morlock faction probably needs to be taken more seriously. For the remainder of Part One, no one does so.

Rhea you’ve got some ‘splainin to do.

Marianne’s my team’s dancer this time. She’s a sweetheart. She seemed happy to be asked and to pursue the lessons, and being able to use Physic is a good trait in someone who’s nearly always going to be waaaaay behind the rest of the group.

Dad-stabbing happened.

Again.

Boop boop Solon’s dead.

Again.

Dear diary: I learned the definition of irony and set the Flame Emperor on fire.

I kid.

But Claude took her out in one completely overpowered shot, because crits are a thing, Flame Emperor class skills don’t reduce damage enough to survive it, and his Dex stat is through the fucking roof. And he was on a wyvern at the time because fuck it, why not.

Claude’s reaction to all of this is a minor letdown compared to the fully-rendered cutscene in the last route.

This would become something of a trend--taking out OP bosses with unexpected critical hits.

I didn’t expect to like Lorenz and now I do. How.

This is hilarious simply because he seems to be the only character that Mercedes hates. What the fuck, man.

Once again, Edelgard invades! Once again, I drop someone unexpected on her head!

Not really. It was Yuri.

Yuri does the timeskip shuffle and we’ll see everyone again after a nap.

FIVE YEARS LATER.

Aw, Claude was waiting for Yuri to show up. Adorable.

The post-meetup fight is actually harder than it was in the BL route, despite excessive level-grinding. This is due to three factors:

Claude is automatically on a wyvern, meaning that he has inherent class vulnerability to archers on a map with at least five of them. And less range than they did, for some fucking reason.

Lorenz and Ignatz started out on the same corner of the map and both of them are shitty offensive units who could barely kill a mage between them. (Neither of Ignatz’s offensive stats cracked 20 for another thirteen levels.)

I don’t have Ashe and his personal skill Locktouch, and nobody started with a Chest Key or Door Key, which meant I had to keep various enemies alive long enough to steal all of their stuff. And the enemy item drops came up one short of the number of chests on the map. I want my stuff, dammit.

LET’S MAKE A SCENE.

Randolph, as a boss in Verdant Wind, did not get any better at figuring out when he’s outmatched. Therefore, I killed him with Raphael again.

At least he straight-up died this time.

Claude didn’t even get to set the damn place on fire.

Ingrid is turning out to be way better of a unit this time than she was last time. She’s a little slower, but a lot stronger.

FELIX, WHERE THE FUCK WAS ALL THIS STRENGTH HIDING LAST TIME. YOU’RE TEN POINTS AHEAD OF THE GUY WHO HAS STORY-BASED SUPER STRENGTH.

AND SPEED.

Iiiiiiiiit’s JUDITH!

She only shows up on one map in the entire Azure Moon route, and that’s a damn shame. She’s so cool in Verdant Wind.

A lord-class character who isn’t also a Lord! WOO!

Also her spies are better than anybody’s apparently.

I am choosing to believe that because Ingrid’s family is related to Judith’s, her badassery in this route is the direct result of meeting her distant cousin and absorbing badass radiation.

There’s something funny about having to pull one over on Lorenz’s dad to get anything done. The Great Bridge falls not to power, but Claude baiting Count Gloucester’s entire army to be somewhere else. (FEAR THE DEER.)

As a result, Ladislava dies alone. (As opposed to taking Ferdinand with her due to plot shenanigans.)

Lysithea and Ferdinand’s paralogue was really quite sad, for all that the only named guy who died was deeply unsympathetic. Ferdinand’s dad was an asshole, but he wasn’t the asshole for this particular scenario, and now both of his parents are gone. :(

Felix...hasn’t heard from his dad in a while. Worrying.

Oh, and Caspar’s uncle is still dead, in case we were keeping track of that.

Dorothea’s happier with Ferdinand alive. She did an impression of the Gatekeeper. :3

Gronder Field! FUCK.

I delayed playing this chapter for two solid days because I already knew what was gonna happen. Specifically: Edelgard gets injured and evacuated, and Dimitri drops of exhaustion just in time to get run through like ten times by the Emperor’s rearguard.

I eventually got my shit together enough to do the thing.

Marianne, Raphael, and Ferdinand went after the Kingdom army first. Leonie and Felix hung back and then reinforced them after taking out the archer on the central hill.

Claude killed everyone in the center of the map, which meant Edelgard set the entire hill on fire and if Bernadetta had not been recruited she would’ve burned to death there on the spot.

Ahem.

I sent Yuri to clear the entire left side of the map by herself.

She succeeded.

Raphael KO’d Dimitri with a luck Gauntlet crit, got blasted down to half health by a Warlock, then plunked ineffectually at Dedue until Marianne used her Levin Sword to sort him out.

Ferdinand killed everyone else on that side of the map.

Claude once again got the kill on Edelgard with a lucky crit, after Yuri had killed everyone else (up to and including the Demonic Beasts) single-handedly.

And then the plot moved on. Hilda’s account of Dimitri’s death was awful, Dedue’s reaction was worse, and off we go to punch Edelgard’s teeth in.

Again.

Annette’s dad is probably dead now.

Felix’s, too.

(I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH THE DAD-STABBING.)

FOOOOOORT MERCEUS.

No matter how many times I think about it, Claude’s Almyran army reinforcements only make so much sense. How the hell and fuck did he manage to sneak an entire foreign army across a whole country to help with one battle?

But hey, they’re here, and Claude almost admitted the reason why he could do that. And the arrow greeting between him and Nader was cool.

(Spoiler: On top of being the Alliance’s leader, he’s also the crown prince of Almyra!)

The Death Knight had the gall to run from my army.

Yuri punched his ticket for the third time, which was not the charm.

And then Fort Merceus took an intercontinental ballistic missile and suddenly defeating the fort’s garrison feels a lot less triumphant.

Spot the miscolored eyes in this cutscene!

Welp. Fuck it, we’re off to Enbarr. Time to also punch Hubert this time! What a change of pace.

Eyyy, it’s the Enbarr map. I totally forgot to bring Seteth and Flayn along to check out the opera house, despite a whole bunch of characters talking about how they totally wanted to check that place out at some point. No room for deadweights in a map that has SO MANY ARCHERS.

Managed to get the special dialogue between Ferdinand and Hubert, and now I’m sad again.

Killed Hubert with Claude.

And because this is a two-part map, we immediately run off to chase down Edelgard. Due to the player army not doing a really weird 180 in the middle of the plot to kick Cornelia out of Fhirdiad, she didn’t have time to turn into a giant demonic thing! She just has WAY TOO MANY MAGES.

Strategy: Forget what Door Keys are, split the team by Avoid rating, and go to town.

Claude nearly died thanks to a critical mass of Gremories and Mortal Savants (and still, what the fuck is that name), but Dedue-as-guest-character didn’t, so I count that as a win! His defense was so high that the Giant Demonic Beast couldn’t even scratch him.

Claude, Petra, and Ingrid all having Alert Stance as a skill means dodge-tanking is hilariously easy.

Also, Ingrid was supposed to just take a chunk out of Edelgard’s HP bar for the final assault and ended up crit-killing her on the first attack. With a bog-standard silver lance.

Weird as the situation turned out, I guess that means one of Dimitri’s friends really did avenge him after saying they would. Even if Dedue was the only one who had a special cutscene about it.

We rescued Rhea! And the characters being happy about it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. I want answers, same as Claude, and being forced to RP Yuri being oh so worried about Rhea’s safety felt incredibly disingenuous.

Claude actually yells at her over the “...” she seems to think is an explanation. THE TIME FOR SECRETS IS PAST.

WHY DID ALL THIS SHIT HAPPEN.

WE’VE BEEN AT WAR FOR FIVE YEARS.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE DIED HORRIBLY FOR BASICALLY NOTHING.

Incidentally, this is why I didn’t end up playing Edelgard’s route as planned. Her logic for kicking two other sovereign countries in the balls felt incredibly self-centered.

At least Catherine’s happy. Same with Alois and the rest of the Church crew.

They are soon going to be not as happy.

I’m filling out the ENTIRE support log before endgame. I have absolutely no idea what characters are going to end up together as a direct result.

The last conversation? Seteth and Manuela’s A+ support!

Because so many of the support conversations are romantic at A/A+ level, I guess we’ve managed to turn this ragtag army into a polyarmory.

Oh boy, Thales sure is a sore loser.

I say, as though I didn’t kill EVERYONE he knew over the course of an hour and also split his skull open under Seteth’s axe. His racism would have keeled his ass over before death set in.

That sure is a ICBM.

GOD DAMMIT RHEA, THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A Q&A SESSION AFTER THIS.

WHY DOES EVERYONE WHOSE JOB IS EXPOSITION UP AND DIE.

Meanwhile: THE UBER-DEAD PEOPLE.

Claude, your route is batshit. What is this genre anymore?!

I wanna point out that, despite seeing Rhea/Seiros do the dragon thing, the player character never told Claude what the fuck that was about. I feel like one of the first things I would have done after the class reunion would be going, “By the by, did anyone else notice the fucking dragon?!”  WHO IS ALSO THE POPE???

Bah.

ANYWAY. Looooong-overdue exposition time!

I notice that Rhea didn’t out Seteth or Flayn, which was nice of her.

Claude, she can turn into a fucking dragon. I don’t think immortality is that far from being plausible.

GOD DAMMIT NEMESIS, CAN YOU FUCK OFF FOR TEN MORE MINUTES.

Uuuuuuugh fine, fuck everything, I’m putting your head on a pike.

CLAUDE, THE SWORD OF THE CREATOR LOOKS LIKE A SPINE.

OF COURSE IT’S MADE OF BONES. A BUNCH OF THE HEROES’ RELICS MOVE ON THEIR OWN!

The frantic music is not helping.

Time to kill a bandit king.

“My flabber is completely gasted by now.” Okay, that made me laugh.

Nemesis’s boss mechanic is pretty neat. To kill him at all, you need to kill all of the minibosses in the level and take down his friendship-based-plot-armor.

Or it would be, if I didn’t already make a habit of steamrolling everyone else on the field before tackling the boss at the end.

CUTSCENE.

Cutscene lesson: “Fuck honor duels.” It’s time for CHAIN SWORD LIMBO.

Claude, your bow shoots LASERS. SINCE WHEN.

Also getting kicked across the field by a dude twice his size didn’t seem to actually affect his mood much.

Awww, Yuri smiles now. Adorable. :D

AND THAT’S A WRAP.

Pairings: Yuri/Sothis (mostly to get them out of the way and see what everyone else would do), Claude/Petra, Raphael/Marianne, Catherine/Shamir, Lorenz/Mercedes, Ashe/Annette, Felix/Sylvain (bad end; the former straight up disappears), Seteth & Flayn wander off, Manuela/Dorothea, Lysithea/Linhardt (again), Leonie/Ignatz, Ferdinand/Bernadetta, Caspar/Hilda, and a couple of people are alone. Cyril gets to actually be a student after the story’s done, though!

Whew, that was fun. Gonna mix up the pairs a bit next time I play through the endgame and see what happens.

[naamahdarling]

Who was the first character you remember creating?

Oh gosh oh wow, umm, there were several who were kind of all created together.  They were all anthro cat people.  (None of my current OCs are anthro animals, but I have like four werewolves; I have the soul of a furry.)

Arren Shadowchaser was my “Mary Sue”.  Like 95% of OC creation at that age is purely aesthetic, so I did a lot of fooling with her Look.  She was a gray-brown snow-leopard-ish woman with long brown/black hair that she kept in a half-pony and two braids.  I want to say her eyes were teal or purple?  I think she went through a phase where her fur, like her entire body, all of her fur, was a truly impressive shade of peacock blue-green, which was unnatural and 100% inspired by this hideous leotard thing I had that made me feel like a superhero, so it’s NOT CANON YOU GUYS it’s too embarrassing to be canon.

Arren could use magic and had elemental powers, I think either air or earth?  She was also a ferocious warrior who used a longbow and also a magic sword, and later on she was chief of a clan, the Renegades, who lived in the woods and did a kind of Robin-Hood thing, only I never made up any actual oppressive rich assholes for her to fight so there wasn’t much for them to do besides ride around on their hella-rad telepathic super-smart 1,000-pound lions.

Arren had a little brother, Aro, who was kind of a skinny twerp but in a lovable way. I don’t remember what he was good at except getting menaced cinematically and IIRC dying a couple of times to motivate our heroine.  He was brown and black with a white tummy and chin, and shortish black hair he kept in a kind of humiliating cat mullet.  He wore a sleeveless vest with peacock feathers over the nipples, and leather pants.  In retrospect, I think Aro was probably very, very gay.

Srisin … Flame?catcher???? was Arren’s love interest.  He was an orange tiger with flame powers and he wore a lot of black leather. He had a brother named Orin who was a white tiger and I think he had ice powers because water powers are stupid. (That’s what I thought at the time. Pre-teen me had yet to meet and crush on Aqualad from Young Justice.)  Orin wore a lot of blue and I think he had his heart ripped out at least once.  I was really into heart-ripping.  (Still am!)  Anyway, they were in a poly triad with Arren.  She loved them both, but Srisin was the bad boy so he got a lot more play.  But Orin was the wise and mystical one so you kind of wanted him around in case anyone needed to, like, read a fuckin’ book.

When I was 11, I wrote a 99-page (wide-rule notebook paper) book about Arren, Aro, Orin, and Srisin.  It cribbed from everything from Elfquest to Dungeons and Dragons to Dragonlance to Tailchaser’s Song to Thundercats to The Belgariad because no 11-year-old is particularly original.

They go on some sort of chosen-four-representatives-of-the-elements quest thing to return the sacred orb/s to their gods, fight a bunch of really fucked up demons, there’s a lot of blood and gore and some excruciating torture of sexy cat boys, they all learn that they have magic powers, their warcats learn to fly, and they totally earn the favor of their deities and are made into elemental demigods.  Sweet.

This horrifically gross and violent and no doubt borderline incoherent bit of juvenalia is still out there, probably at my parents’ house, and when I find it I promise to transcribe and post some of it.

I had another character named Kala’an Firerunner, and he might have predated Arren, I’m not sure at this point.  Kala’an and Srisin kind of run together.  I honestly am having trouble remembering because this was 30 years ago and I’ve had many naps, some emotional trauma, and a more-than-reasonable-amount of teenage-rebellion-era LSD since then.  I’m honestly doing well to remember my own middle name.

Anyway, Kala was from a whole separate milieu.  I think there was both magic and genetic engineering/far-future/postapoc shit going on in his backstory, like he escaped from a mutant farm or something, he was an ex-experimental subject who got pyrokinesis from being exposed to some artifact or relic or whatever.  I think he was the result of that whole persecution fantasy thing, where you create this fantasy world where you’re exceptional but imprisoned by people who only want to exploit you while denying that you have any value at all.  Sort of a metaphor for my whole school experience and not at ALL something I carry a massive chip on my shoulder about to this day.  Hahaha.  *wipes sweat*

Anyway, those were my first OCs.

GOD the shitty Elfquest/Thundercats vibe is incredible, I just want to pay someone to D R A W  T H E M  A L L.

Oh god everyone please like this post my eleven year old self would be so happy for people to care about the things she imagined.

[theivybookvine-blog]

legend trilogy | marie lu | review

“I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine.” 

To be honest, I attempted to read this book series on a number of accounts, but I’m glad I finally followed through with it. I’m still not over the fact that I finished the series over a month ago, and I am still OBSESSED with it. This series was truly heartbreaking, addictive, and dynamic all at once. Marie Lu created a stunning piece of work—and trust me, it was definitely not what I expected it to be.

I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible!

First sentence in Legend:

My mother thinks I’m dead.”

Legend is quite slow in the beginning in terms of the book actually reaching a storyline. The beginning focuses a lot on the murder of June’s brother, Metias, in which Day is accused of. Though, it makes sense that Lu decided to put a lot of focus on this event because it really was the beginning of where June and Day’s lives’ intertwine. Again, I understand the reasoning for it, but it was not as interesting.

The book really takes off when June and Day meet in the Lake Sector, and from there on I was hooked. After a third of the book just switching between their perspectives (btw this book is written from both Day and June’s perspectives, switching every chapter), it was exciting to see how they interacted when they finally met. The suspense leading up to that was probably another reason why the author decided to wait quite a bit before they met. I later realized that I really preferred it this way because I was able to understand their personalities really well individually, instead of having the main characters meet right away and I would not have gotten a really detailed insight of what they’re like.

The romance does not kick in straight away, which I liked because often with YA dystopias the romance is so rushed. Legend is not really a romance-packed book anyway, there is a heavier focus on romance in Prodigy and Champion. In terms of characters, June is a unique character in terms of that she is rebellious, but still extremely loyal to her country. Day is portrayed as a defiant, cruel, and a heartless criminal. As you follow the story from his perspective you realize that he is the absolute opposite, except for the fact that he is quite the rebel—but for good intentions only. I really took a liking to Tess, who is Day’s best and only friend in the Lake Sector. She’s just an innocent yet bold girl, who only wants to look out for Day.

(Tiny spoiler below)

The overarching plot of the series is introduced at the end of the book, where June commits a rebellious act which contradicts her loyalty towards the Republic. At that moment I was like, “YES JUNE IS A REAL BADASS, NOW GO GET YOUR MAN, DAY.” The ending of the book leaves a cliff-hanger that left me wanting more. Thank god I had the whole series so that I could start reading Prodigy right away!

Prodigy & Champion:

(I decided to combine these because the review got quite lengthy)

In Prodigy, June and Day aren’t the only ones who want to rebel against the Republic. New characters are introduced as they join the Patriots. There is actually a diverse set of characters, and since this book is set in the future Lu explains how their backgrounds are from all kinds of different ethnicities. As they join the Patriots, June is caught in a dilemma because she must assassinate the new Elector. There is a slight stereotypical aspect Anden is completely opposite from the previous Elector. This causes June to have second thoughts about the assassination—and of course, a love triangle is introduced.

Don’t get me wrong, 99% of the time I absolutely despise love triangles. When Anden is introduced, I was like “seriously?” Anden is definitely not what I expected him to be. He does take an interest in June, but he doesn’t force himself onto her at all. He knows his limits and accepts that June only has eyes for Day. The only problem that I had is their age gap, which made me a little uncomfortable. Regardless, Anden isn’t a huge interference between Day and June’s relationship.

Bringing me to…DAY AND JUNE! They definitely do not shy away from their feelings anymore and the romance just made me feel so warm inside. They aren’t your stereotypical cringey, YA couple. Despite their situation, Day and June still manage to maintain a bubbly and light hearted relationship. Their moments together in the book literally gave me butterflies in my stomach. The ending left me sobbing, because of course Marie Lu had to bring up the fact that they’re star-crossed lovers, and can’t really be together.

Champion is where things start to get a little complicated. There is a strain on Day and June’s relationship and their original rebellion from the Republic turns into a Re-establishment of the Republic. The political climate is dealt with, yet the plague returns. Themes from Legend now resurface in Champion. Day puts more focus on his family and little brother Eden, and a majority of the book focuses on how much Day wants to save his brother and stop the plague. June and Day’s romance does not fail to get steamy, and trust me I was satisfied.

Spoiler Alert!

The ending of Champion left me in pieces. I did not expect Day to lose his memory, and that tore me apart. But, it was the price June paid for praying that he would not die. I remember sitting in my bed and wondering “is this really going to end like this?” I was still satisfied with the ending because June and Day meet again and his memories slowly begin to come back to him. They both grow into adults and mature, so we’re no longer left with teenage June and Day. The last few sentences of the book actually left me in tears. Their relationship proved that two people who were from completely different worlds really were meant to be, and no matter what the circumstance was, fate brought them together every time.

Rating: ★★★★½

Any thoughts or comments? Send me an ask or comment below!

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[occupyvenus]

i REALLY don't understand the kind of audience who don't realize jon is a hostage right now. they took his boat and his weapons, but d/ny said he wasn't a prisoner so i guess he could just swim to shore and walk unarmed back to the north if he wanted to no big! and then there's the folks who think kneeling is the same thing as making an alliance like literally i don't understand how the big speech about perpetuity could have gone so far over their head like the stakes are high dudes

This will kinda cover a huge portion of my up-coming “Targ!Bowl vs Targ!Cest” - post, but who cares since you asked and I wanna talk about.

Though I absolutely understand you and your frustration I kinda do understand why some parts of the audience don’t realize all that, or at least not the severity of it. 

I’m not even talking exclusively about the shippers who, to like anything from 50 -99%, don’t care what happens as long as their ships becomes canon, or the stans who will find a way to sugarcoat and excuse absolutely anything, anything I tell you, before admitting their fav has done some seriously terrible things or, dear god, “problematic” traits and storylines. 

It also seems plausible to me that some parts of the more general, non-obsessive, “I don’t read the books” or “have a blog about it” kind of audience, have trouble to really grasp these issues. You wanna know why? D&D are half-assing it. Right now they are half-assing two narratives, instead of whole-assing one.

I propose the following theory: 

Right now D&D are setting the stage for dark!Dany, while simultaneously selling her as Jon’s love-interest this season. Those two narratives are pretty much forced to hold the other one back, because Jon can’t fall for “ the villain”, while Dany can’t break bad out of the blue.  

Leaving us with this incoherent mess, slightly ooc characters and actions that don’t influence the story in a “logical” way or even contradict each other.

Dany’s “transformation”, if you will, has to be properly foreshadowed, it has to be sufficiently hinted at from the moment she touches westerosi soil. The audience has to be able to look back and think “Oohh… I guess what she said there wasn’t alright. Should have seen that”. But she also has to appear loveable enough to warrant any kind of affection Jon displays towards her. The audience’s reaction once dany does break bad should be “But why did Jon!? Well, I guess I didn’t think she was that bad back then neither.”

There you have it. That’s why her behaviour seems so appaling to some people, while others are still strong advocates for good!Dany and everyone in between doesn’t know what the fuck to think. That’s why you can make a strong case for both, or more precisely for neither.

This is apparent when you look at the fact that every “negative” characteristic she portrays is counter-attacked with one of two things: 

Someone else making a comment, implying the exact opposite.

The narrative conveniently jumping to a new plot point, reducing the immediate emotional impact of what we just saw.

Here are some examples:

Varys interrupting their dispute at it’s climax | Their first meeting didn’t go particularly smooth. They did not see eye to eye, they were not moving towards an understanding. Quite on the contrary, their interaction become more antagonist with every line of dialogue. It’s starts with both of them playing nice (in their own way), moves to Dany saying that Jon is breaking faith, Jon telling her that he doesn’t give a fuck about her birthright and ends with Dany outright accusing Jon of being in open rebellion (!!!). Where do you think that conversation was heading at? An intimate conversation about dead brothers? Dany has made her stance on Northern Independence clear, she see’s it as treason, I swear to all the gods, if Varys hadn’t walked in right then and there she would have explained what exactly the punishment for treason and oath breaking is. Try making a romance out of that. But conveniently enough Varys did come in at the perfect moment, dissolving all the tension into nothing, ending the scene on a half-baked Jon is her prisoner-but-not-really note.

Tyrion telling Jon about Slaver’s Bay | I don’t know if you had noticed, but Dany left her undeniably good accomplishment of abolishing slavery out of her little speech. She exclusively focused on awful things that have happened to her and the two big achievements that make her so god-darn special: Bringing dragons back into this world and making the Dothraki cross the Narrow Sea. All her statements were about her, not about the good she has or could do in this world. I strongly believe this is to imply that her conquest is deep down rooted in selfish desires. Contrasting Jon, who embraces his role as king to protect and save his people. So of course, we need another character to swoop in and remind us of the good things she has done. Too make it more clear: Dany says that “faith in herself kept her going”, Tyrion reminds Jon that “she protects people from monsters”. 

Jon is a prisoner, but hey, he gets dragonglass | Jon was a “prisoner” prisoner for exactly five seconds, when he - rightfully - complained about it to Tyrion. It is establish that Jon wants to leave, but simply can’t, because Dany took his ship, thus making him her prisoner. If D&D had some balls they could have pursued this narrative, but instead wooossshhhhh we are jumping ahead to Jon being allowed to mine dragonglass. Now it doesn’t matter whether Jon is staying on dragonstone by his own free will or not. He needs that dragonglass, so of course he will stay to mine it. The audience was forced to contemplate Danys decision to lock him up for like a minute, before rendering the conflict obsolete. Begging the question why it was necessary to begin with, if not to show Dany doing some un-nice things to one of our protagonists.

Varys and the whole “burn someone alive” issue | This isn’t limited to her interactions with Jon. I am going to talk about Dany threatening to burn Varys alive, very much, very soon. Right now, all I want to say is that it is not a good omen. It’s one of the clearest indication so far that Dany will embrace her “inner dragon” and cause some serious destruction when doing so. Dragons plant no trees. But all the not-so-great undertones of her interaction with Varys are forgotten in the next scene when she embraces Melisandre with open arms saying “we decided to pardon all those who served the wrong king.” Sucking all the dark implications of threatening someone to BURN HIM ALIVE right out of the audience’s mind. Emphasizing that part where she pardons former “traitors”. If that scene would have cut away from Dany right after “her promise”, without reminding ous of her “forgiving” side, that little comment would have left a way more bitter taste in your mouth than it did. 

I don’t wanna spoil anything from episode 4, (next paragraph contains very minor spoilers!)let’s just say that Dany demanding that Jon bends the knee, is met with another character stating that “Dany was chosen by her people”. Supposedly trying to establish a parallel that doesn’t hold any water in her current situation in westeros, anyway. But again, it is taking the sentiment expressed by Danys actions and words (a chosen king should kneel to her, whom his people didn’t choose) and twists it to paint Dany in a better light (she too was chosen by her people). It doesn’t make any sense when you think about it, but it fabricates enough emotional connections, for the audience to soften their view on Danys opinion on northern independence. 

Do you see what I mean? I have a couple other examples, but some of them are from episode 4 and I’m going to go into this in my upcoming post anyway. The unobservant and/or biased show watcher simply has no time to properly process all this in one go. I’ve watched each episodes several times, am pretty obsessed with this whole thing and even I took some time before noticing a pattern. 

Most people will just stick to that component of the narrative which is coherent with what they already know: that Dany is one of the good guys, a hero of this story. All her questionable actions are either dismissed or boiled down to “well, it turned out okay in the end”. As sloppy as the individual narratives seem to be (neither dark!Dany, nor, let’s call her hero!Dany are well developed, they overlap, contradict each other, etc.), they did a fantastic job at keeping the audience in the dark about it. Why? 

Because for one reason or another she has to fuck Jon. Why that is, can only really be judged once we seen the whole of season 7, probably season 8, but I do have a couple of ideas why:

It happens in the books and D&D shouldn’t have cut the episode count. Maybe Jon and Dany hook up and/or develop feelings for each other before she breaks bad in the books as well. But since we only have 10 episodes where that could happen and dark!Dany and targ!bowl also has to happen at one point, those two storylines overlap. It isn’t too far-fetched that something will happen in the books as well, since Jon unknowingly committing “incest”, while being tormented about falsely-assumed incest is just too … fucked up, not to have crossed grrm’s mind.

It’s a red herring to throw the audience of Targ!bowl and Jonsa. Yes, I do belong to the people who are pretty very much certain that Jonsa will be endgame. I also belong to the people who are pretty very much certain that targ!bowl will happen one way or another. Believe me or not, I believed that Jon and Dany would rather fight than fuck once she comes to westeros, way before I ever thought about Jon and Sansa being a thing. So it’s not because I’m a salty shipper. So what else do I have to say? It’s a red herring, they are throwing us off the rails, to make Jonsa and Targ!Bowl extra-super-duper-surprising in season 8. And probably a bit rushed as well. Great. Just what I wanted. At least Jonsa was properly set up in season 6 and they mention each other every episode. Coincidence?

They want to have a sex-scene with Kit and Emilia. D&D are trash. They have sexualized countless other encounters on the show, single-handedly coined the term “sexposition”, I do believe they could write in a Jon x Dany sex-story just because. You can call that fanservice if you like. I’m not going to stop you. 

Maybe they thought Jon and Dany having “a history” would make targ!bowl more engaging. Could be.

Either way, I personally feel a bit exhausted by this decision. Not because it “threatens” my ship, it doesn’t imo and not because I’m so opposed to the idea of Jon and Dany hooking up or even having a love-affair. It’s because the screenwriting is sloppy. It’s because they are messing up Danys characterization and maybe Jon’s as well. It’s because both Dany and Jon contradict themselves and the development of their relationship simply suffers by Dany being set on the path to the dark side, without any character on screen noticing it (at least yet. I have this feeling that Tyrion will seriously start to doubt all this very soon.) 

I know this got way too long again, but giving unwanted, unnecessarily long answers is my forte after all. 

I’m still holding my fingers crossed for Jonny playing Dany, all I can do is wait and pray. Let’s see how the rest of the season / series progresses, but for now I’m going to leave you with some wisdom from Ron Swanson, D&D should have taken to heart IMO:

[oliverphisher]

George Ivanoff

George Ivanoff is an author. He lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

He has written over 100 books for children and teenagers, including fiction and non-fiction. He has written school readers, library reference books, chapter books, novelettes, novels and even a short story collection. He has books on both the Victorian Premier’s and the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists.

George’s latest series of books is OTHER WORDS. With this series George has ventured into the realms of science fiction and fantasy, two of his favourite genres, in order to tell stories about ordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. There are 4 books so far.

The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove (You Choose) By George Ivanoff

George’s has written 13 books in his interactive You Choose series. You Choose: The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove won the 2015 YABBA in the “Fiction for Younger Readers” category; and You Choose: Alien Invasion From Beyond the Stars got an Honour Award in the KOALAs in 2016 and 2017.

His teen science fiction novel, Gamers’ Quest (2009), won a Chronos Award for speculative fiction. The sequel, Gamers’ Challenge (2011), was shortlisted for the same award. And the final book in the Gamers trilogy, Gamers’ Rebellion (2013), also won a Chronos Award.

George has also written a series of adventure books for kids — RFDS Adventures. The four books in this series were published in 2016.

George also writes short stories and articles for adults as well as kids. Of all these, he is most proud to have had the opportunity to write a Doctor Who story for the Short Trips: Defining Patterns anthology (Big Finish, UK, 2008).

Occasionally, George has been known to moonlight as an actor. He has had small roles in numerous productions including the television series Neighbours and the feature films Frozen Butterflies and William Kelly’s War. He recently guest starred in an episode of the audio series Night Terrace.

George eats too much chocolate, drinks too much coffee and watches too much Doctor Who. He will sometimes indulge in a nice bottle of wine or a single malt Scotch.

He has one wife, two children, two cats and several chickens. And he is very content!

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? 

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet By Eleanor Cameron

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron  —  This is the book that turned me into a reader.

Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth By Terrance Dicks

Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth by Terrance Dicks — I have lost count of the number of times I have read this book. Dicks is one of my writing heroes and one of the reasons I wanted to become a writer.

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files) By Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff — This book takes such a different and innovative approach to narrative. It made me want to be a better writer and take more creative risks.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?

That $99 bottle of Japanese whiskey had a pretty good impact.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? 

It taught me to never give up and to never take success for granted.

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

“Always try to be nice but never fail to be kind. ”

It’s from an episode of Doctor Who – “Twice Upon a Time”, written by Steven Moffat.

What is one of the best investments in a writing resource you’ve ever made? 

Pen and paper.

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? 

I collect sonic screwdriver toys. (It’s a Doctor Who thing, for those of you who are wondering.)

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life? 

I’ve realised that what other people think of me really isn’t all that important.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore? 

Read as much as you can. Write as much as you can. And never give up.

Ignore advice insisting that you write every day. Write whenever you get the chance, be that every day, every second-day, or once a week. The important thing is to write.

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often? 

That you need to work on raising your social media profile before approaching publishers with your writing. I think it’s far more important to work on your writing.

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? 

I’ve become better at saying no to people wanting me to read and comment on their work. I’m really not very good at assessing a piece of writing. I can tell you if I liked it or not, but I’m not great at explaining why or how it could be made better. I guess that’s why I’m an author and not an editor.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

Avoid constantly filling your social media with self-promotion. It’s a great way to lose followers.

When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? 

I go jogging. It clears my head and makes me feel better. Great for writer’s block.

Any other tips?

Write what you want to write, rather than what you think other people want you to write.

________

Enjoyed this Q&A? Want to discuss in more depth? Join Community Writers. You'll get access to 100+ exclusive writing tips. Q&As with successful authors, an exclusive ebook on building an audience and much more. Sign-up for free as a community writer here

source https://www.thecommunitywriter.com/blog/george-ivanoff

[nacht-koenigin]

Rules: “List ten of your favorite female characters in different fandoms and then tag ten people.”

thanks @bunniesandbeheadings for the tag :D

1. Elizabeth Bennet - Pride and Prejudice. I have to go with her! She’s really relateable, obviously--I think any human capable of empathy can relate to her--but on top of that she’s an example of an intelligent and independent woman living in a time when that was not particularly valued. That really resonated with me. Representation matters, after all, and seeing that women could be witty and fierce and clever really meant a lot to me. Plus the relationship she has with her father reminds me of my own relationship. P&P is one of the books that made me realize that old timey people were really just like us, and Elizabeth was a huge part of that.

2. Lady Sybil Branson - Downton Abbey. Yes, I watched Downton Abbey. I stopped after season 3 for obvious reasons. Sybil is another one of those intelligent, independent women who fights against what society expects of her and goes off and helps people! I just love how compassionate she is and how she tries to keep her privileged upbringing from affecting her empathy and understanding of the suffering of others.  3. Charlotte Wells - Harlots. Another JBF character! Charlotte is a fascinating character to me because she is so intense and so driven. Despite this, she hasn’t let her ambition get in the way of doing what she thinks is right. I really hope there will be a season two of Harlots so I can see where they take her vengeance plot.

4. Tess Martin - Into My Life. This one is obscure as fuck but she’s one of my favourite characters of all time so I couldn’t leave her out. I first read Into My Life when I was like, 12 or 13, and it absolutely influenced my expectations of a healthy relationship. The way Tess stands up for herself showed me how my rights and feelings as a woman matter too, and I shouldn’t brush them aside because it might make other people uncomfortable. She showed me that I should NEVER put up with bullshit, even if that bullshit is coming from the most eligible bachelor in the world. 5. Eliza Hamilton - Hamilton Musical. Listen, I know she was a real person but her musical version isn’t really the real Eliza. My favourite part about Eliza is her role at the very end, as the person who “tells our story.” As a historian, I really connected with that need for everyone’s story to be told, to be remembered for their contributions through all time. I know it’s Fashionable for historians to be dispassionate but I don’t want that! I care a lot about the people I study and I want other people to know about them!

6. The Queen of the Night - Die Zauberflöte. I just love scary queens, all right? She has some of the most incredible, technically-challenging parts of the opera, and I love her cunning. Also? In 99% of productions her aesthetic is the best. 7. Margaery Tyrell - Game of Thrones. Also, Olenna. The Tyrell women were politically savvy, and yet still more-or-less kind people. Olenna had some of the best lines in the series, and I love how unafraid she was of calling people out on their bullshit. I really dislike what the show did with Margaery but I will keep her original form in my heart forever. 8. Elizabeth Butler - Rebellion. A woman serving as a medic during the 1916 Rising, helping her nation move one step closer to independence? Sign me the FUCK up. Also Rebellion is a fantastic show, go watch it! It’s on Netflix and it’s a 5-part miniseries. Go educate yourselves!!! 9. Merrill - Dragon Age II. It’s hard picking just one woman from the Dragon Age series. I mean, if it really came down to it I might have to choose my Warden, but since no protag has a canon gender it’s hard to justify that choice. I love Merrill though, and I think her struggle with how she wants to life her life and the culture of the clan is really compelling. Add in the contrast between her general innocence and her use of blood magic and you’ve got one fascinating character!

10. Eponine - Les Miserables. If you hadn’t noticed, I love me some revolutionary women. I love how Eponine rises above her childhood and dies as somebody who fought for something important. In the musical, On My Own is one of my favourite songs because it’s beautiful and because I think we’ve all had a time where we sing that song and think of someone in particular. 

Tagging...

@suchajerk @stanzi-manzi @jagdein @mammal-that-cares @spanishsilver @harukastailfin @kroganmama   @thisispandas @oscarwetnwilde @beau--brummell

And whoever else wants to!

[pontificalandwarlike]

Enjolras the (Non-)Survivor

Or, an essay on why I struggle with survivor!Enjolras

[ cut for length......  buckle down kids cause this is about to be a long one. ]

As I hinted at previously, there are 3 layers to why survivor!Enjolras is a strange and confusing beast to me. 

Let’s start with the easiest/simplest, which is: history. See, the point of having Enjolras survive the barricade is usually to give him a second chance, right ? He lives, he continues on, and he triumphs the next time, or maybe two tries later, or maybe ten –– but the ultimate goal is a happy ending of sorts for our golden boy. Or at least a triumphant ending, a closure of sorts, a successful closing arc for him and his Revolution. Except.... 19th century history isn’t kind to the French Republic. A lot of survivor!verse stuff take 1848 as the happy ending ( and I in no way mean to insult or nitpick them at all ). And on the surface, that makes sense ; that’s the next successful revolution ! Except the revolution might have been successful, but the Second French Republic born of it really wasn’t. Like, the February Revolution of 1848 happened in... February, as the name suggests; four months later, the June Days Uprisings were a major rebellion in Paris, where the workers rose up en masse, complete with barricades, in protest against the Second Republic’s policies. I won’t go too much into history here ( although there’s a lot of fascinating stuff ; a book I read characterized the June Days as the last major barricades ), I mostly wanted to mention it as an indicator of how rocky the Second Republic was from the start. And then, of course, the Second Republic lasted all of four years. In 1852 we have the Second French Empire, because they went and elected Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte –– aka Napoleon III, aka Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew and heir –– as the president of the Second Republic, and he did as Bonapartes apparently do in France. So, with 1848, Enjolras either dies on that barricade, or lives to see his beloved Republic fall apart in front of his very eyes and then give way to yet another empire. Not a very happy ending, and quite honestly, I don’t know how much his story changes functionally from what we already see in canon. 

Let’s say for the sake of argument that this boy survives past 60 and sees the next republic come to be in 1870. Well, first of all, to do that, he has to : 

lead a failed rebellion and deal with the physical, legal, and emotional aftermath of that 

live under a regime he tried to overthrow for another 16 years 

watch the Second Republic fall apart and give way to the Second Empire

live in an empire for almost 20 years

and finally, live through yet another bloody revolution 

which, clearly, is not a great time for anyone. But also, the Third Republic was a bit of a mess of its own. See : the Franco-Prussion War, the Ordre Moral and the suppression of the Commune which lead up to 16 May 1877 ( “le seize mai” ), the aggressively polarized politics... Hell, just look at the wikipedia page for the Third Republic. Similar to 1848, simply getting to 1870 and the successful Revolution that leads to the Third Republic is not a happy ending in and of itself. 

The point of all this historicizing is that, given his position in history, and his ideology as a radical revolutionary republican –– no matter what he survives and lives to see, Enjolras is just destined to be a tragic figure. There’s just no happy ending for him in history ; the best he can do is go out in a symbolic blaze of glory on a barricade somewhere, as he does.  

Alright, let’s move on to layer #2 now, which is the symbolic/meta layer. This is also the most fun layer for me, and I’ll shamelessly mooch on some other people’s brilliant meta for this. There’s a lot of things you could talk about in the Brick, but I’m going to speak mainly to one of my perpetually favourite scenes, which is the execution of Le Cabuc. More specifically, the speech that follows right after it. I could quote the whole damn thing, but the key part is : 

“As for myself, compelled to do what I have done, but abhorring it, I have judged myself also, and you shall soon see to what I have condemned myself. [...] Citizens, in the future there shall be neither darkness nor thunderbolts, neither ferocious ignorance nor blood for blood. As Satan shall be no more, so Michael shall be no more. In the future no man will slay his fellow, the earth will be radiant, the human race will love. It will come, citizens, that day when all shall be concord, harmony, light, joy, and life; it will come, and it is so that it may come that we are going to die.” (Tome IV, Book 11, Chapter 8) 

It took so much restraint to not bold the entire passage, but I managed to stick to a few phrases only. There’s sort of two ideas happening here. One is nor blood for blood / in the future no man will slay his fellow / all shall be concord, harmony, which is to say that Enjolras and the revolutionaries are fighting for a world without violence. Sit on the contradiction of that statement for a moment. They are fighting for a world without violence. There’s a fundamental ideological crisis here, and that is the contradiction of violence in the name of a world without violence. A question aries, then: where do people who have shed blood in the name of liberty and progress, fit in a world after revolution? More specifically for me & this essay, where does Enjolras, a “pontifical and warlike nature” fit in a peacetime world ? We have our answer in to what I have condemned myself / so Michael shall be no more / we are going to die. The answer is, he doesn’t and he can’t. The answer is, if you try to fit him in, he becomes Robespierre and Saint-Just and the Terror. The answer is, a warlike nature is a warlike nature in war or in peace ; and Enjolras is made to be the war that brings down regimes, and just because there is no more regime to be brought down doesn’t change his nature. ( Note that this is many chapters before the moment they realize they’ve been abandoned, that Paris isn’t coming to their aid ; that doesn’t happen until Tome V, Book 1, Chapter 3. Why does that matter ? Because Enjolras has no reason yet to believe they won’t survive this rebellion. And yet here he is, already condemning himself –– to death, I imagine, given the rest of his speech –– and a few lines later proclaiming that we are going to die. The revolutionaries, these men fighting with blood and sweat and tears for the future, are not going to live to see it. Because there isn’t a place for them in the world they are trying to build. They’re writing themselves out of the future. ) 

All this to say : if Enjolras survives a successful barricade, there is no place for him in the world it creates. He has already condemned himself, and the rest of the revolutionaries with him ( “We will share your fate !” Combeferre shouts, and Enjolras replies simply with “Very well.” ) He is Michael, and in a world where Satan is no more, he too will be and must be no more. ( I mooched a lot of ideas off of this meta thread, so feel free to go there for more intelligent, coherent, and informed thoughts than mine. )

Okay, then what about a failed barricade ? Well, let’s talk about that on the symbolic/meta level for a bit. Enjolras surviving a failed barricade... doesn’t make sense, on that level. It’s sort of the point of his story, that he dies there. That he dies embracing Grantaire, holding his hand, smiling. That’s the ultimate sacrifice, yes, but also the closure of his character arc : accepting love, accepting the skeptic, accepting people-with-a-lower-case-p, even when they don’t fit neatly into his revolutionary worldview. It’s a symbolic redemption of the heartless, ruthless version of republicanism he espouses at the very start ; it’s the antithesis of “Silence before Jean-Jacques! I admire that man. He disowned his children; very well, but he adopted the people.” In other words, his arc remains incomplete on a symbolic level if the barricade fails and yet he doesn’t die. Also, can you imagine Enjolras surviving the barricade when everyone else has died ? I sure can’t, unless some magic stepped in and saved him when the Guard thought he was dead and he really should have been dead. 

Anyway, having addressed the symbolic/meta reasons of why Enjolras surviving the barricades is a baffling situation to be in, let’s go to the third and most practical layer : characterization. Look, Enjolras as we see him in the Brick is made of exactly two things, and that is 99% Revolution and 1% his friends. ( Percentage may vary. ) So then, who is he when we rip both of those things away from him ? Who is Enjolras, when his Revolution has failed and his friends have all died ? I don’t have a good answer to that. I can’t possibly imagine him giving up, or God forbid turning a cynic, because that runs contrary to his entire person. It’s hard to imagine him becoming a moderate, peaceful republican or something along those lines, because he’s built on quite the absolutes, and while Combeferre/Courfeyrac/Feuilly/et al. to temper his beliefs, I just don’t think there’s a way he’s ever going to bend that far. He’d break before that. But at the same time, there’s no way he can go on like before, as if nothing happened. That’s just not how trauma works. This boy, all of 26 years old, waged a war, had his hands drenched in blood, killed people he didn’t want to kill ( see : the artillery sergeant scene ), watched all of his friends die by his side, was abandoned by a group of people he believed so deeply would be on their side, and saw the ideals he devoted his entire life to shatter to rubble in front of his own eyes. He’s not walking away from that unchanged, because that’s just not how human beings work. 

So then, to summarize. I can’t imagine him giving up, because it’s not who he is as a person; I can’t imagine him choosing a moderate path, because I don’t think he has it in him to be that tempered; I can’t imagine him continuing as he was, because that’s just not how we work as people. So I’m at an impasse. 

An Enjolras who survives with a few of his friends is easier to work with, because he as room to be at both ends. He can go through his terrible post-barricade phase, the survivor’s guilt, the trauma, the fears and the insecurities and the doubts that are borne of that experience. But then he can build himself back up, piece by piece, with the help of his friends –– and he can help them build themselves back up in turn. And at the end of the day, they stand back up as they did, scarred and wounded by their experiences but still standing. For what, I’m not so sure ( see history rant above ), but at least standing. 

But an Enjolras who survives alone ? I genuinely have no idea what he would do or be, in the long-term. In the short term, sure, he’d be terribly guilty and terribly scarred and probably honestly terrified for a while. And then ? Does he heal from that on his own –– and if so, how ? What happens if he does heal –– does he go on to join or found another revolutionary group ? What happens if he doesn’t heal –– does he die, somehow ? 

This is not to say that I don’t like writing survivor!verse. The opposite is true, actually ; I love it. I love angst, first of all, but it also lets me explore a side of Enjolras that doesn’t happen a lot in other places. Which is to say, an Enjolras stripped and broken down, an Enjolras shattered and torn apart, an Enjolras guilty and doubting and robbed of his own self-assured confidence. This essay is more to explore in more depth why I struggle with Enjolras post-barricades on a broader and longer-term scale. I could probably go on but I’ll stop now because this is already 2100+ words.

[biointernet]

Hourglass Toy Set

“Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.”  ― Walt Disney Hourglass Toy Set - Hourglasses 27, 28, 29 Welcome to MHC Virtual Museum! Hourglass Collection on MHC Virtual Museum We have more than 1000 objects in My Hourglass Collection Hourglass Collection, Collection catalog: Collection catalog 300-399Collection catalog 200-299Collection catalog 100-199Collection catalog 1-99Collection catalog, The List

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MHC Virtual Museum – My Hourglass Collection virtual museum about Light, Time and Space

MHC Virtual Museum MHC – My Hourglass Collection – virtual museum about Time and Light, Space and Magic  – the Biointernet Hub on The Fantasy Network MHC Virtual Museum based on My Hourglass Collection Symbol of Time – The Hourglass Hourglass Toy Set

Time symbolism

Time symbolism

What is the symbol of time? 

Symbol of Time is The Hourglass

Time symbolism – What is the symbol of time? My Hourglass Collection – Time and Hourglass History and Symbolism. Welcome to MHC Virtual Museum! In the years since A Brief History of Time was published, feedback has come in from readers of all ages, of all professions, and from all over the world. One repeated request has been for a new version, one that maintains the essence of A Brief History yet explains the most important concepts in a clearer, more leisurely manner. Although one might expect that such a book would be entitled A Less Brief History of Time, it was also clear from the feedback that few readers are seeking a lengthy dissertation befitting a college-level course in cosmology. Thus, the present approach. In writing A Briefer History of Time we have maintained and expanded the essential content of the original book, yet taken care to maintain its length and readability. This is a briefer history indeed, for some of the more technical content has been left out, but we feel we have more than compensated for that by the more probing treatment of the material that is really the heart of the book. See also:

Time symbolism

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Time in physics and time Science Symbolism of Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer

Time and Text

Text, Time, MHC Extinction Rebellion – Time against Life Hourglass and Death on St Thomas’ Church Hourglass – symbol of Death Hourglass and Skeleton “Hourglass and Cards” Exhibition Father and Mother of Time Time Hub The Hourglass, Hourglass History Hourglass symbolism Hourglass Body Hourglass Tattoo Symbols of Time Read the full article

[janiedean]

Do you think Rhaegar had heard the rumors about Gregor at the time he knighted him?

this... is a hard-ish question but the thing is, I think it’s really implausible that he hadn’t.

now I could stop here or give you a rant about a) gregor being used as the perfect example of the failure of the institution of knighthood, b) the hints in the text about rhaegar being a largely flawed person with good intentions, c) the reasons why I 100% think that about r. and since I can’t shut up you’ll get both plus extra info about grrm’s other work.

now:

the thing is that gregor incarnates everything a knight is not (kills/hurts/rapes people, has no respect for his family or anyone, almost killed sandor, most likely killed their sister and father) and his knighthood is in itself a proof of how fucked up is the institution and was also in the rebellion era, this while it’s still discussed as something people should aspire to;

now, since gregor is a secondary character who’s there for other’s development, esp. in the beginning, he’s there to develop sandor, and the crux of sandor’s development is that he can’t get over a) gregor ruining his life, b) rhaegar having knighted him (because someone who was seen as the best, most just, most gracious person in court knighted the person who ruined his life and abused him), c) and that killed his faith in knighthood or decency of the institution or people in general and sends him straight into functional alcoholism among the rest so like the weight is on sandor’s story not on others’s

anyhow, this ties back to the idea that I was discussing in that kingsguard meta that started this question (I suppose?) ie that all true knights in these books are not what society sees as such/don’t see themselves as such (ie brienne/sandor/jaime-after-he-gets-his-head-straight-and-during-the-rebellion) and the supposed True Knights are not actually what they’re supposed to be nor realize it even if some strive for it when they put two and two together, but this corruption of the institution of the kingsguard is actually encouraged by the people on top who allow the corruption to seethe into it - ie, rhaegar knighting gregor is basically ‘person that 99% of the realm sees as flawless making a knight out of the least deserving person in existence’ and I really doubt that he wouldn’t hear the rumors since in order to knight someone you have to know who they are, unless rhaegar is so lost into his prophecy/his own world that he has no idea, which doesn’t say much good when he’s concerned tbh because there’s a limit to how much you can ignore the outside world in this sense.

now, I have to discuss rhaegar for a moment - count that I’m not a r stan, I care relatively little for r, 99% of the reasons I care about r are summed up in ‘because I love jon connington’ and like I don’t even hate him but I generally can’t care less about either him or the targs in general with a few exceptions so like I’m.... completely neutral but nvm that.

now, r sounds like a swell dude according to everyone but he also does a number of 100% mindboggling idiotic things after he learns of the long night and fine, I get that the apocalypse >>>> the rest of the world, but knighting gregor, leaving with lyanna without leaving orders in KL and leaving just jaime there to protect both aerys + elia and the kids is also completely fucking stupid like even if he was the best ever he was ONE person with a castle under siege if things went awry??? also the fact that arthur was at the tower with orders to not let ned in at all costs even if r was fucking dead doesn’t suggest anything good;

so: we can’t know until we get flashbacks, but the point is, is r a decent guy with good intentions or is he The Worst?

spoilers: I actually think that you can find a possible answer if you read grrm’s dying of the light, ie his first book, which is basically robert’s rebellion in space (no really) in which one of the three mains is exactly r to a T: he comes from a retrograde society that he understood is retrograde and wants to reform with 100% good intentions, marries the female main after they FALL IN LOVE LIKE IN A FAIRYTALE and she’s dumped her ex that she felt didn’t see her but just the image he had of her. except that by marrying her he’s turning her into basically his legal concubine and she grows to resent it, but he did it wanting to fight the system from the inside and was 100% fully convinced of the goodness of his intentions not realizing that he was hurting her, the fourth main who’s basically space!alien jonc and destroying his own cause. now this guy is a nice guy - he knows his society is wrong, he knows he has to change it, he genuinely loves her....... but he looks at the big picture too much and doesn’t see how he’s hurting everyone surrounding him for his goal and tbh I think that dude was 100% rhaegar character study, and like... while the guy ended way better than canon!r did (undeservedly tbqh but XD) he would have knighted gregor because either he didn’t notice or thought it was for the greater good;

so like.... my theory based also on the above would be that if rhaegar was aware he didn’t care because he thought it served some greatest purpose, if he wasn’t then it shows that he was too busy worrying about the apocalypse to vouch whoever he was knighting and that does not say much good about his people skills or political skills X°D which makes him... a decent but largely flawed person with good intentions XD

... idk if it answered the question but XD

[aniehart]

Is there any better season for reading than autumn? Maybe you can still sit outside, but you might need a cozy blanket or a cup of tea. Maybe it’s raining and you curl up with a good book by the window. Or maybe it’s an indian summer and you can still lay out in the sun. Whatever the case, half the year has passed and we can see what people have been reading so far this year. 

Publishers weekly just released their list of top selling books. President Barack Obama gave us his best summer reads of 2019! And I stopped by the British chain Waterstones and indie book seller Brick Lane Bookshop to see what was at the top of their lists! So if you still don’t have any books lines up for fall, you might find some here. Or follow my Journey around the world in books, where every month I choose to read authors from different countries! I’ve already had some amazing reads from Ireland, China,  and The Philippines!

    Publishers weekly

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis 

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis 

Educated by Tara Westover 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Unfreedom of the Press by Mark R. Levin

Howard Stern Comes Again by Howard Stern 

You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero 

The Mueller Report by the Washington Post 

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa Terkeurst

The Woman In the Window by A.J. Finn

The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson 

The Mister by E.L. James

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff

The Pioneers by David McCullough

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Where the Crawdads sing has been embraced by most celebrities, bookbloggers and book clubs and reigns at the top of the bestseller list with over a million copies sold. (I personally tried it and could not get into it, maybe I’ll try again at some later time.) A close second is the praised book by Michelle Obama (and for good reason, the book is amazing!) Rachel Hollis has 2 books on the list! (You go girl!) and I have personally just started listening to Girl, wash your face. Just four chapters in and I’m hooked! Added her on instagram for a daily dose too!

President Obama’s summer reading list 2019

The last couple of years President Barack Obama has been sharing in August what he has read during the summer, and if you’re in doubt about what to pick up during the fall, his list is usually pretty epic.

    Waterstones

Once upon a river by Diane Setterfield

The Wych Elm by Tana French

The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood

The Last by Hanna Jameson

Normal people by Sally Rooney

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Heroes by Stephen Fry

Nine perfect strangers by Liane Moriarty

The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

In a house of lies by Ian Rankin

The silence of the girls by Pat Barker

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

A spark of light by Jodi Picoult

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

The man who didn’t call by Rosie Walsh

Middle England by Jonathan Coe

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

A keeper by Graham Norton

Waterstones also has a countdown for the release of The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. The follow up to The Handmaid’s tale finally arrives, 34 years later. It’ going to hit the bestseller list for sure! Look out – September 10 it’s out!

    Brick Lane Bookshop Bestsellers July

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Still Worlds Turning by No Alibis Press

This is Not a Drill by Extinction Rebellion

Factfulness by Hans Rosling

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Just Kids by Patti Smith

On Earth We’re Briefly Georgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Gentle Art of Tramping by Stephen Graham

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Milkman by Anna Burns

Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k by Mark Manson

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

Circe by Madeline Miller

How to Be Right by James O’Brien

English is Not Easy by Luci Guiterrez

Sally Rooney grabs the two top spots at the indie bookseller Brick Lane Bookshop in London. We see some of the same books as the chains have, but not all.

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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

10 Minutes 38 seconds in this strange world by Elif Shafak

An orchestra of minorities by Chigozie Obioma

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

I’m still on my literary journey around the world and I will be reading books from Norway, India, Nigeria and Italy the rest of the year. I’ve been wanting to watch My brilliant friend on HBO, but I’m waiting to read the book first! Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a few books off these lists too! I especially have my eye on Sally Rooney, Tara Westover, Tayari Jones and Madeline Miller.

Best books of 2019 so far… Is there any better season for reading than autumn? Maybe you can still sit outside, but you might need a cozy blanket or a cup of tea.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT STUDENTS

If you're an inexperienced founder, the only way to escape this empty life was to submit to it. When you first start angel investing. If you want to invest in any good startups. It's not the physical infrastructure of Silicon Valley that makes it sound as if they're committing, but which didn't convert except in a few months. At Harvard that is or was Reading Period, when students have no classes to attend because they're supposed to think. So I've seen a good part of the reason is that to make Leonardo you need more than his innate ability. Then I'm worried. Though a lot of mistakes. Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time till they feel they have the upper hand over investors, if you had a graph in which the upper is written, in which case the interface can be dictated by the upper level. In fact, one strategy I recommend to people who need a new idea.1 But there's more to it than that. The stories that seemed to be most admired were ones in which people have to make it to ramen profitability in a few.2

John Bautista, Trevor Blackwell, David Hornik, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond describes Lisp as something like Latin or Greek—a free implementation, a book, and something to hack—how do you make good stuff? Here, again, language designers are somewhat out of touch with the world. This was too subtle for me. I already have momentum on some project, I realized it would probably have ended up pretty rich even if IBM hadn't happened to drop the PC standard, Microsoft opened up the market to any manufacturer.3 Brevity is always attractive to hackers, a language designer would do well to act as the lead investor.4 We can afford to take more risk you should. You're just looking for something to spark a thought.5 Fortunately for startups, big companies are smart enough yet to admit this to themselves. When you only have a few users you can be in close contact with all of them perhaps, but if we raise a few hundred thousand we can hire one or two smart friends, and if we want to fund more Airbnbs we have to train longer for them.

The worst ideas we see at Y Combinator are from young founders making things they think other people will. But what if you haven't raised any money yet, you probably have an idea. Anti-immigration people say that instead of accepting offers greedily, end up leaving that investor out, you're going to do this well. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo. I wouldn't. If I remember correctly, the most you'd want to raise is 20 x $15k x 18 $5. But as happened with Apple, by the time I never tried to separate my wants and weigh them against one another. Cobol and hype Ada, Java also play a role like the role relaxation plays in having ideas. So much for hockey as the game is played now. One can imagine evolutionary reasons for that. Just have a gentlemen's agreement.

A rounds. A lot of them try to make them your own. Just a teacher? Since software patents are no different from hardware patents, people who apply to Y Combinator don't generally have much money, and partly because startups early on need frequent feedback from their users to tweak what they're doing. One of the weirdest things about Yahoo when I went to, the focus of rebellion was drug use, specifically marijuana. Steve Wozniak built the computer that became the Apple I, he felt obliged to give his then-employer Hewlett-Packard the option to produce it. There are lots of surprises for individual startups too, and they have sex. As indeed they often are. Mihalko, made that year something his students still talk about, thirty years later. So if the ease of shipping software, we'd see a lot more people investing tens or hundreds of thousands.

If feeling you're going to fail makes you stop working, that practically guarantees you'll fail. I feel a bit stupid saying that, because when you're saying something that Richard Stallman and Bill Gates would probably have something to read.6 In 1995 it was hard to imagine something that could be turned into a startup. It's easy. In our school it was eighth grade, which was ages twelve and thirteen for me. There are three reasons. If your numbers grow significantly between two investor meetings, investors will be hot to close, and if we want to keep them fed, and as far as I know all too well from being in the business of trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues. It's hard for us to be up to our chins in failure all the time, instead of being dragged sideways into a discussion of price.7 To us that's positive evidence an idea is good.8 Reality can be messier. Intelligence has become increasingly important relative to wisdom because there is usually a lead investor who negotiates the terms with the startup.9

This happens in intellectual as well as moral questions. They didn't foresee the expansion of this idea.10 We're in a business where we need to be able to. I'm going to give you a termsheet. The view of history we got in elementary school was a crude hagiography, with at least one representative of each powerful group. Get introductions to investors. Established ones have learned to treat saying yes as like diving off a diving board, and they won't even dare to take on ambitious projects.11 Puberty finally arrived; I became a decent soccer player; I started a company to put art galleries online. But they were expensive compared to what they were worth it. So it is with design.

Notes

Part of the leading edge of technology, companies building lightweight clients have usually tried to unload it on buyer after buyer. 99, and many of the markets they serve, because you can't avoid doing sales by hiring sufficiently qualified designers.

The facts about Apple's early history are from an angel.

In part because Steve Jobs did for Apple when he was otherwise unoccupied, to buy corporate bonds to market faster; the trend has been decreasing globally. Though nominally acquisitions and sometimes on a map.

I write out loud at least a partial order. Incidentally, this would work so hard to grasp the distinction between them generate a lot of investors. It's interesting to 10,000 or a blog that tried that.

Microsoft, not all, the less educated parents seem closer to a super-angels will snap up stars that VCs may begin to conserve board seats for shorter periods. It's not a complete bust. This would penalize short comments especially, because it aggregates data from so many trade publications nominally have a single project is a big success or a funding round usually reflects some other contribution by the PR firm. Startups Condense in America consider acting white.

But it's hard to think of the false positives out of just doing things, which are a small company that has a finite market value. Another approach would be improper to name names, while simultaneously implying that you're talking to a company's culture. 5% of Apple now January 2016 would be improper to name names, while Reddit is Delicious/popular with voting instead of just Jews any more than the valuation of an investor makes you a series A round. That wouldn't work if the president faced unscripted questions by giving a press conference.

As I explained in How to Make Wealth when I first met him, but I wouldn't want the first half of the War on Drugs. You should be designed to express algorithms, and wouldn't expect the opposite way from the Dutch not to pay the bills so you could probably improve filter performance by incorporating prior probabilities. And maybe we should remember this when comparing techniques for stopping spam. The Internet worm of its completion in 1969 the largest of their works are lost.

The other extreme—becoming demoralized when investors behave upstandingly too. All you need to do is keep track of statistics for foo overall as well. What you learn in college is much smaller commitment than a tenth as many per capita income in England in 1750 was higher than India's in 1960.

A single point of treason. Even in Confucius's time it still seems to be good at squeezing money out of their times. Earlier versions used a recent Business Week, 31 Jan 2005. Bureaucrats manage to think.

Though in fact had its own momentum. Labor unions were exempted from antitrust laws by the high-fiber diet is to do wrong and hard to predict startup outcomes in which many people mistakenly think it was true that the probabilities of features i.

We tell them to lose less on investments that failed, and are paid a flat rate regardless of the great painters in history supported themselves by painting portraits. No one writing a dictionary from scratch is not too early if it's the right mindset you will find a broad range of topics, comparable in scope to our scholarship though without the methodological implications. The moment I do in a world with antibiotics or air travel or an acquisition for more than whatever collection of qualities helps people make up their minds, they sometimes describe it as a first approximation, it's not the original version of this article used the term literally.

[torontothoughts]

The final stage of my trip was exploring in and around Inverness. While I’d been to Inverness and to a couple of the historical places I was planning on visiting before, I really wanted to revisit Clava Cairns because of the Outlander connection. My cousin, Niki, was an Outlander fan and it seemed like a nice way to honour her memory to visit the site. And since I was going to be there, I wanted to visit the Culloden museum as I’d visited the battlefield before but not spent time in the museum. The other reason I was going to Inverness was it’s a good base to use when visiting distilleries and that section of the Highlands.

Stornoway to Inverness

As I was still not feeling up to par, I chilled until it was time to catch the ferry to Ullapool and then I was off. I truly love ferry crossings, probably because I enjoy being on boats and ships of all sizes. Luckily, it was another super calm crossing even if the sky wasn’t clear. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any marine life other than birds again. Ullapool, the town at the other side of the ferry ride, looked like I place I’d like to visit again, perhaps next trip as I’ve read there is some nice hiking/walks around there. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of it as it was literally off the ferry and on the bus. The bus ride to Inverness was short – just over an hour and then I was checked into Inverness Student Hostel. 

The hostel room was small but clean, and there’s no room for bags under the bed (or anywhere) but what can you do. It’s a friendly place though and pretty central. After checking in and arranging to have to get my laundry done, I headed out for some fish & chips (decent and reasonably priced). But since I can’t really taste my beer (stupid allergies), I’m not sure I should book a whisky tour.

Side note: the soundtrack at the pub I ate dinner at is interesting.

The River Ness in Inverness

Inverness Castle and a statue of Flora MacDonald

The River Ness in Inverness

I asked the bartender which Scottish beer he would recommend

Inverness, Culloden and Clava Cairns

Thankfully, I started to feel better in the morning (and had energy again) so hopefully… I’ll be able to taste fully tomorrow as I plan on doing another distillery tour and to look for a place to do a tasting that I don’t have to pay £99 for. I might if I knew I could taste properly as it’s not the money but there are other options. The tour was great at Harris but I want to be able to drink whisky. 

In the meantime, I’m off to get my history, and Outlander fix today. My first stop was Culloden (the battlefield, not the town) which one can do by city bus (buy the day pass ticket for the correct zone and your golden for the day). Culloden, for those who don’t know, is the sight of the last major battle on British soil and the battle that ended the Jacobite rebellion in 1746. I had already decided to do the museum and as I spent about 2 hours there, it was worth it. I liked how they told both sides equally. While I knew the basic history, I hadn’t realized how young the Duke of Cumberland was – he was basically the same age as “Bonnie” Prince Charlie. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing I learned but it did stand out.

After wandering around the battlefield paying my respects, I headed over to Clava Cairns, which is a nice walk from Culloden (a few kilometers) and it was another amazing day. Clava Cairns are a group of Bronze Age cairns and standing stones which were recently made famous in the TV series, Outlander (and books). No Outlander moment for me, I tried, and some other tourist told me to be careful (I’m still trying to decide if he was joking). Too bad as Jamie was hot. It’s a peaceful site, at least it was until a tour bus arrived and I had to listen to some idiot, hopefully not their tour guide, spout inaccurate info. What this random dude was saying was completely different to what the sign I had just read said (and my limited knowledge). Pretty sure the official sign’s info was right. As it was another lovely, sunny day, I ignored the yapping and headed back to Culloden to catch the bus back to Inverness. Gotta love waiting for bus with a cute guy in a kilt. One of those, only in Scotland moments.

Back in Inverness, I went to the sweet shop I saw earlier and bought some traditional Scottish candies to take home. The I decided I’d had enough fish & chips and needed some veggies so I headed to the Co-op (a grocery store) to buy a salad and extra cherry tomatoes before calling it a day.

Side note: this hostel and the one in Fort William are owned by the same group. They name their beds and assign them instead of the first come, first choice model. In Fort William, they were all after famous Scots in my room and I got William Wallace (who fought the English and was drawn & quartered). In Inverness, they’re named after whisky in my room and I got Craggonmore which I’ve never tried but have to now.

Clava Cairns

Clava Cairns

A river I crossed walking to Clava Cairns

Clava Cairns

A guy in a kilt

Some traditional Scottish candies

Country roads can be really narrow

The Culloden battlefield

One of the standing stones at Clava Cairns

No Outlander moment for me

Clava Cairns

Inverness

It was a wee bit of a wet day but since I’ve had mostly great weather, I can’t really complain. I decided to head to a distillery I could both get to by city bus (again, get a day pass ticket for the correct zone) and that I couldn’t try at home… and ended up at the Glen Ord distillery. It was a nice tour but I accidentally signed up for the wrong one and ended up on a simple tour, not a tasting. Ah well, at least there was a small taste at the end and it was a nice tour.

Afterwards, I decided to walk to the next village to check out the Beauly Priory, which are ruins of an old priory from approximately 1230, before catching the bus back to Inverness. Despite the misty rain, it wasn’t that bad of a day and I enjoyed the 5 km walk. Plus it was nice to add some more history to my day, although I did find it a bit odd that there seemed to be monuments/tombstones inside the ruins of the priory.

Back in Inverness, I caught a bite to eat (fish & chips again, this time with mushy peas) before heading to the Malt Room for whisky, which was so memorable, it gets it’s own section.

The Beauly Priory

The Beauly Priory

A hairy coo (Highland cow)

The Beauly Priory

The tasting at the Glen Ord Distillery

The Beauly Priory

The Beauly Priory

Part of the tour at the Glen Ord Distillery

The Glen Ord Distillery

The Beauly Priory

The Beauly Priory

Making the whisky at the Glen Ord Distillery

The Malt Room

The Malt Room, a small, cozy bar tucked into the Victorian Market alleyway, is heavenly. They have whisky flights! As I hadn’t really done a tasting yet, just a couple of tours, I was so happy to have found this place. I tried the North Coast 500 flight, which is a five whisky flight with Glenmorangie Quinte Ruban, Old Pultney 12, Balblair 05, Clynelish 14, and Dalmore 15. Of the five, I’d only previously tried the Glenmorange, which is one I enjoy (sweet & fruity).

Old Pulteney 12 is light and tastes like a mild salted caramel, a nice intro whisky. Balblair is a sweet, mildly spicy/peppery whisky – for me, the spice/pepper dominated the other flavours after the first sip. Clynelish, this one explodes on the palate! It’s oaky, spicy and fruity all at once. Dalmore smells like chocolate covered cherries and tastes like a spicy fruit cake with licorice lingers. 

My conclusion on all five whiskies after trying them all neat and then with a drop or two of water is:

I still love Glenmorangie Quinte Ruban. 

Old Pultney 12 might be good for those who don’t think they like whisky or have never tried it and want a gentle entry. But I wasn’t a fan.

Balblair 05 is lovely to sip – I’d definitely buy it if it’s available in Canada. I really liked it and a drop or two of water soothes the spiciness and brings out the sweet toffee.

Adding a drop or two to Clynelish 14 softens it a bit but it’s still full of flavour – orange, oak and spice in equal measure, and in that order. It’s also a nice whisky and a bit sweeter with a bit of water. It’s a bit like a spicy fruity run ball/truffle.

Dalmore 15 did not improve with water. Even though I only added two drops (literally) of water, it tastes bland now. Not completely but it was much better without water.

Side note: there’s a fascinating discussion about Scottish independence here and one of the guys (it’s quite a friendly discussion despite the dissenting opinions) says “It’s fine, you’re wrong but I accept that.” 

The tasting at the Glen Ord Distillery

Pretty flowers at the Malt Room

My North 500 flight at the Malt Room

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend my last night in Inverness (and second last in Scotland). If you’re a whisky fan and in the Inverness area, I’d definitely recommend visiting the Malt Room. They have tons of whiskies and several different whisky flights to choose from.

Final Thoughts

The last part of my trip was all about history and whisky… and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. They are two of my favourite things. I still can’t believe how amazing the weather was for the majority of my trip but man, am I thankful. There’s still lots of Scotland I’d love to explore but I had an absolute blast on this trip.

What’s your favourite historical site in Scotland? Which whisky would you recommend?

Revisiting Scotland - Exploring Inverness Meant Whisky and History #Scotland #travel #whisky The final stage of my trip was exploring in and around Inverness. While I’d been to Inverness and to a couple of the historical places I was planning on visiting before, I really wanted to revisit Clava Cairns because of the Outlander connection.