#there's so many mouse-centered worlds to choose from. truly

[vulpinesaint]

new tag game what kind of anthropomorphic mouse series would you be in. are you a desperaux kind of mouse or a redwall mouse? the kind of mouse who would exist in the rescuers or the great mouse detective or geronimo stilton or an american tail? do you wear a handkerchief cape and carry a needle sword or wear a flower hat or do you have little mouse clothes made to fit? what are your friends like? what kind of challenges do you face? tell me about your mousesona

[black-streak]

Waiting for the Worms - The Trial

Part 18

I've just been staring at this completed chapter for thirty minutes. I've been working up to this moment for so long and to see it finally written is just. Insane. (No this is not the last chapter. There is much more to come)

By the way!!!! This chapter was not suppose to end this way! Y'all influenced this shit! Goading me into it, I swear.

CLOSED List of Beggarts I regularly feed (I'm running out of names to call you): @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @emjrabbitwolf @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

He'll be after Jason seeing as the new Robin described him and he definitely knows about Joker's death.

They watched as the shadow took off across the rooftops, occasionally tossing out a grapple or swan diving off a ledge. Four blocks off, another figure, much brighter and attention grabbing, took a similar route, small body taking to the sky seemingly not taking notice of the eyes on him. Or perhaps used to it.

You'll watch the bird, keep him distracted. Nothing extreme enough to catch the other's attention. Just hold off any interference.

A dozen mice ran along the sides of gutters and along the alleyways below, awaiting their signal. They kept the brighter figure in their sights, drawing his attention with slight rustles and squeaks from unexpected places. Just loud and weird enough to avoid interest in any other movement in the area, drawing out a natural curiosity and investigative need in their target.

You'll play as backup. As soon as we instigate our target, I expect you to help keep the Replacement within ear range but incapable of assisting.

A fox dashed across the streets, keeping a close eye on the game between the bright figure and the mice scattered about. Any time the bird snuck up on where one hid, she hid the mouse in illusions, sometimes a real rat, other times a startled, hissing cat. 

Tail swishing in a twitchy dance behind her, she awaited the main event from her perch.

You two will take to the sidelines, backup if it should come to blows. Otherwise, keep everyone updated on the others' positions and monitor the situation.

A cat slinking around corners kept an eye on all of the players, including the two unseen by the rest, coordinating positions and ensuring no one moved off course, uncomfortable in knowing a double agent held eyes in the sky and taking precautions to avoid cameras as she whispered soft directions into a comm, made by their miraculouses and impossible to hack due to the ancient magic encasing it.

By her side, a dragon crossed with a horse hovered in a tense side to side sway, awaiting her command. The other kept on tiptoe, knowing the call to assist could come at any point and from any direction. In the end, their disappearance back into the night at the end of all of this relied on her. Waiting too long differentiated between success and potential capture.

We'll take on the Bat. After all, I think it's high time he met my soulmate.

With baited breath, they watched as a shrouded man dropped in front of the Bat, making the figure twist at the last second to avoid a headlong collision. Batman turned back on the spot, dropping into a crouch and launching towards the man. The man dropped onto his back, kicking upward into a stomach and using the momentum to launch Batman across the roof while rolling back to a stand. He stayed facing away, though they saw his head tilt, listening to the almost silence behind him. As a flash of silver flung towards his back, he easily spun off to the side, dodging a barrage of batarangs as Batman methodically tossed them while placing himself closer and closer to the other before moving in to initiate hand to hand combat. The man seemed to take this in stride, shifting into the new pattern.

Across the rooftops, Robin took note of the fight and moved to aid. He made it three blocks before a fox dropped in front of him, growling. Taken aback, but knowing not to allow the distraction, he attempted to grapple upwards, only to find the grapple gone, in the teeth of a mouse like figure, taking off away from him, other mice figures crawling about his feet, holding him in place as the fox watched on, teeth bared in a silent warning. Keeping an eye on the strange creatures about him, he looked back to Batman, startling at the realization that he recognized his attacker. Jason. Suddenly he remembered the strange abilities of the lady from the night before and realized the creatures holding him captive where meant to keep him from interfering. As he made to move anyways, a voice in his ear on a private channel spoke up, asking him to stay still. Agent A.

"What's going on, A?"

"You'll see."

The figures continued on until the Bat begin to advance harder, looking to restrain his opponent, calling out to him, having deducted whom the figure is by this point.

"Jason stop!" Right as a fist went too fast to block, aimed straight to the man's nose, a cord wrapped around his fist, yanking in back. As Batman began to turn towards the source, a punch came to his face, bringing him back front and center. A possible second cord wrapped around his other wrist and the backs of his knees were kicked out from under him.

The others watched as a Ladybug held a yoyo taut, strings in a Y formation, the focal point centered between the Bat's shoulder blades to evenly distribute the tension. The Ladybug looped the yoyo over a pipe and pulled up until his arm bent back and upwards without tipping his torso down. If he tried anything, the bug could simply yank him airborne. The Bat choose to focus onto the man in front of him for the moment.

"Jason-"

"I'm not Jason."

We should switch. I have more experience with the Pit Madness than you. If I'm in your body, I can hold the entirety of it while you get a reprieve to focus on the mission. To have a clear mind while confronting him.

"What?" He demanded.

A sharp, feminine voice spoke up behind him, loud enough for the others to hear.

"I am."

Batman froze in his spot on his knees as the figure that looked like Jason sat down in front of him.

"Hello Bruce. It's good to meet you officially. Though I suppose I've known you much longer than you've known me." The lower, masculine voice was offset by its' soft lilting tone.

Despite his brain whirling with the information, he shoved it aside, firmly refusing to put it together himself.

"You're lying."

"She's not," the voice from behind moved closer, the yoyo secured on their hip to prevent his movement but free up the hands and gripped his shoulders in a crushing grip, "You see, Bruce, I hadn't been with you long enough to trust you with the secret of my having a soulmate. And you never knew me well enough to tell when we switched. Some detective you are, hmm?"

"So what, that makes this okay?" He growled.

"Patience," the figure in front of him smirked softly.

"Getting caught by the Joker at that moment, that was my own dumbass fault. You not arriving on time isn't your fault. I could live with that, but that isn't the end. I want you to look into the eyes in front of you, feel how small the presence behind you is. How tiny and young, despite being seventeen. I want you to look her in the eyes and know that she was only fourteen when she was launched into my body where she was beaten to a pulp by the Joker. Blown up. The connection broke. Then because it wasn't her body, she sat in my corpse for months before the resurrection. Had to crawl her way out of a grave and to a hospital."

The team tensed in the distance, having not heard the full story before now. Robin's eyes blew wide behind the mask, the tension in his body going slack in horror.

"Do you see that swirl of green in my blue eyes? How they look almost teal? That's from when the League threw her into the Lazarus Pits. She's combating insanity as we speak. And yet even with the healing effect it had, you can see the scars all over. There's an autopsy mark as well."

The shoulders in Jason's hands shook with his words and he looked up at Mari who seemed calm, letting the man stare at her and take in her reality.

"And none of that is truly your fault. But you know what is?" Marinette spoke up now, "That a fifteen and fourteen year old were ever put into that kind of danger to begin with. What's the likelihood of either of us ever falling onto Joker's radar without your placing us in the costume? Without making us Robin? Do you think Jason would've become a target had you not decided it was perfectly acceptable to allow children to fight criminals?"

"Jason was troubled, he needed someplace to put that anger. Something to let out-"

"Many children are troubled or angry. Do you know what other parents don't do? Allow that teen angst to turn into taking on the adult underworld. But sure, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Explain then why you couldn't care enough for Jason, for any potential child's life enough to create a permanent solution to our murderer? How many people, how many innocent kids is the Joker's life worth to you?"

"You obviously care more for the clown than us," Jason added.

"That's not true!"

"Then why? Why was my grave barely marked?"

"Two sentences in the Tuesday local obituaries."

"Swept under the rug to be forgotten."

"While you hunt us down for killing the clown. We deserve to be hunted down for avenging our own death."

"Meanwhile you do no such thing to the one who killed your supposed precious Robin. Did we mean so little to you? I wonder if the newest Robin means anymore than we did."

"So you're angry you were replaced?" Batman barked out, overwhelmed by their constant barrage of accusations.

Mari reached forward, forcing the man to look into the teal of those eyes swirling in front of him, watching him flinch away at knowing who she was, "You misunderstand us purposefully. It's not that we were replaced. It's that you know a child died for your cause and you still insist on placing another in harm's way. You take broken children desperate for guidance, for connection, for anything and abuse that position over them. You as their guardian are meant to keep them from harm's way. To protect them from the horrors of the world until they're old enough to face it in their own way. Not throw them in a costume, train them into weapons and then let them fight the most dangerous criminals the city could offer. Yes, we made some stupid choices of our own, but you set us up to even have those choices presented to us. Does it even occur to you that had we not shown up to save the little bird, another child would have died under your care? Does that mean nothing to you?"

The Bat growled, trying to break free of his binds. The two hid grins, knowing him unaware of the young eyes listening desperately for his answer.

"You certainly haven't thanked us for keeping him alive. Does it mean less to you that he is alive then it does that Joker is dead."

"You know the rules! We don't kill!"

He fell for it. He might as well have told the new Robin his life was forfeit to his cause. The mice scurried off Robin's feet from where he stayed, a rooftop over as the fox curved around his calves in an almost apologetic movement.

"Jason swore to abide by your rules. I never did. I was fourteen when I died due to your negligence. I was innocent. I was a happy little girl with dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Now I can't even keep the voices in my head from screaming in my ears at all hours of the day. But the only thing you truly care about in the end is yourself. I fear for any child that gets dragged into your mess. And I will do whatever it takes to protect them from the inevitability of your cruelty."

With that, she stood from her spot and took off into the shadows, a cat, dragon and mice following out of sight. The fox looked at the boy who stood broken on the rooftop and nudged him, dropping the illusion of an animal and holding her hand out in offerance. He looked back at the thrashing Bat.

Jason, taking hold of the yoyo once more and tightening his grip, leant closer, "I don't blame the Joker for our death. I blame you."

With that, he used the yoyo to fling Batman in the opposite direction, taking off in an off kilter path towards the others. Looking back at the patient fox figure, hand still waiting for his choice, he hesitated.

"The choice is yours, Timothy. I'll support you no matter what," A's voice spoke softly through the comms.

Exhaling slowly, he took her hand.

She lead him to their rendezvous point where he saw the mice form into one person, the two from the roof and two other unknown figures. As he looked at them, each gave a soft nod in turn before the one opened up a blue portal before them, the fox letting go of his hand to follow the others through. Eventually only him and the ladybug themed one remained. Jason.

"Come on, replacement. You can stay with us however long you like."

With the smallest smile of gratitude and the encouraging words of Alfred in mind, he followed the other through, the portal closing behind them.

[skyedragonwrites]

on skin and its uses

Universe: Original Work

Word Count: 1542

Trigger Warnings: Body horror, gore

Summary: I am trapped in my own skin.

The dictionary definition of skin is terribly complicated, for a word so commonly used.

I think I can break it down, though.

There are two types of skin in this world: the kind that suits its wearer, and the kind that’s meant to be peeled away.

Most people live in skins suited for them. They go about their days comfortably protected, cocooned safely in the arms of something that lightly caresses their flesh as it protects them. Most people go through the world carrying shields instead of burdens.

My skin is meant to be peeled away. It’s a grimy film, covering my organs, refusing to let me bare my face to the world. It squeezes at me, blackening and rotting tissue, constricting my chest until I cannot fit another breath into my flattened lungs.

I don’t want skin. I want to claw it off, I want to be out.

This degenerate desire doesn’t make me special. It’s hardly a unique problem, being trapped in your own skin.

All it makes me is wrong.

*

Sometimes I think about my skin like it’s not quite human.

(Like I’m not quite human.)

Maybe my skin is like that of an apple. Some people don’t mind it - they take chunks out of the flesh no matter what covers it. Some people won’t touch the apple until its skin is peeled away, but once it is open, raw, vulnerable, they will bite.

I don’t want to be bitten.

Besides, apples always know what’s underneath their own skin. There’s always flesh, white and crunchy and delicious, and a core, solid and full of seeds to spit out.

Unfortunately, I do not have the privilege of being an apple.

I think, if I gave into the urge, if I claw off my own skin, underneath a layer of flesh and vein and bone, I will find nothing. A void, empty swirling space, an amorphous shape.

People will look at me, people will look through me. People won’t see me.

(I want nothing more than to be seen, but I am too afraid to look. Leave me be, comfortably uncomfortable as my air slowly runs out. Leave me be, let me die safe and miserable.)

*

Sometimes, I wish I was a snake, scraping off skin after skin. Nobody cares when snakes shed their skin as they grow - it’s simply part of existing as a snake.

(People make such a strange fuss over the sloughing of human skin.)

I love snakes. I admire how their life is dedicated to the change, the expected shedding and scraping of their skin.

Another one of my favorite things about snakes is that they’re terribly, violently real. You cannot deny the existence of something that has sunk its fangs into the veins of your ankle, its deadly venom ending your life even as you crush its head under your boot.

It’s very important that snakes are real. Realness - undeniable existence without apology, is an essential component of being a snake.

Sometimes, I wish a snake would bite me, give me the courage to strip my skin away. The venom would rush through my veins, making my see-through body opaque as it traces through tissue and muscle. It would outline my existence; it would force them to see me.

I wish snakes could infect me with their realness.

(I wish I could look in the mirror and see my own realness, instead of the sickly, watered-down reflection of somebody who has worn a mask too long to remember what’s underneath.)

*

“Your skin is a gift,” is what they say to me. “Treasure it.”

“Don’t you dare decorate the body you will live in forever,” is what they really mean.

 “I was told to suffer, and I did. Please help me feel safe. Please force yourself to suffer too.” Is what they really, truly mean.

(Not that they’ll admit it to anybody, even themselves)

They do get very upset when you choose not to suffer.

It fascinates me, as I sit here, fighting the urge to tear my face off, the desire to inflict this suffering on others. I wonder… does the hurt make them happy? Does the pain satisfy them, in some strange sort of way?

“Your skin is a gift,” they say again, packing so much meaning into a four-letter word as their nails sink into my shoulder.

A gift to who? Certainly not me, for if it was truly a gift to me, I would be allowed to tear at it as I liked.

From who?

Who has forced me into something I was never meant to wear? Who is so cruel, to saddle me with a burden, to place me in a constricting, suffocating prison, and call it a gift?

And how dare they tell me to treasure it?

You do not tell a mouse to treasure the snake constricting it.

“Your skin is a gift,” they say again. They’re getting scared now. “Clear and lovely.”

They lean in closer. “Don’t fuck it up.”

It makes me want to laugh. And cry a little, maybe.

My skin is so far from clear. It is cloudy and suffocating and heavy and miserable, and I want to rip it off.

But I won’t. I’m a coward, and my fear will be the death of me.

(Perhaps a slow, quiet, unremarkable end will be fitting. So many people suffocate in their own skins. Maybe I should join them. A sort of community can be found in shared suffering, after all.)

*

Sometimes, I slide into feeling almost comfortable.

I suppose a better word is apathetic.

Or maybe numb.

Yes, numb is a good word.

(Numb is perhaps more terrifying than the desire to peel my own face off and watch the blood pool in the palms of my hands.

Numb means I don’t care.

Numb kills.)

This is fine, I remind myself, absently scratching at my arm. This is safe. I am happy.

I lie back and press the heels of my hands into my eyes. I can’t feel them. My skin has blocked all sensation. I can only feel the scraping, flaky texture against my flesh.

I hate it.

I hate it.

Suddenly, I can’t take it anymore.

My nostrils flare as I try to suck in a breath, to calm down, to not do anything rash.

My ribs refuse to rise. My lungs are trapped by a layer of constricting, suffocating skin.

I am trapped.

I am trapped.

I am trapped.

I bring my hands from my eyes to my scalp, to run my fingers through my hair, to try and distract myself, but somehow my fingers aren’t listening to me. My hands slip down to the sides of my face, brushing my tightly closed eyelids on their way down.

My nails sink into the skin of my cheeks and I tear.

The first split is on the bridge of my nose. It’s not painful - it feels more like peeling dried glue off my arms than anything else.

I follow the seam of my nose, down the center of my face and neck, reaching all the way to my collarbone.

I’m still trapped.

Frantically, I claw at my own flesh, splitting the skin of my chest in two. My ribs pop out - like a butterfly from a chrysalis - and expand fully, for the first time in my entire life.

I wonder if this is what snakes feel like, when they shed. Does it feel good, to be free of your old skin but only find more scales underneath?

I suppose snakes don’t care much for their shedding. It must be more irritating than anything else.

Maybe I don’t want to be a snake, because fuck, this feels so good.

*

The room is quiet.

Blood trickles down my face, dripping into my open mouth.

My old skin lays in ribbons across the floor. I am sprawled out, appearing a corpse to all but the most watchful.

My breaths are slow as I drag myself to my dresser and claw my way up the front using the handles on the drawers as handholds.

The dresser once belonged (still belongs, really, the living never seem to have any claim on the objects of the dead) to my grandmother. I hope she doesn’t terribly mind the blood dripping down the front, wherever she is.  

My hands ache, terribly. They’ve always worked so hard for me. I’m glad I have them.

Please, all I ask of you, hands, is one more task. One more impossible feat, and then we can rest, forever.

I have no eyelids, so when I pull myself high enough to look into the mirror, past my bare jaw with jutting, crooked teeth, I see myself right away.

The muscles of my cheeks clench, as if to pull back the lips I don’t have anymore.

I am trying to smile.

It doesn’t look like a smile to anybody else - it looks like the ghastly grimace of something that should have been dead years ago, but it’s my smile.

It’s my smile and it looks so much better without the cloying, clinging skin covering it.

Copper crosses my tongue. I smile.

I smile, because I look in the mirror and see that underneath my skin, I am beautiful.

[the-foxes-fangs]

I hope you're having a good day (other than your ask thing :( ) Since you're still taking requests, and if I may, what have you envisioned for Mitsuhide and his MC in the future? I know he worries about having a family of his own, but how do you see him reacting if mc tells him she's pregnant? If not that, then anything Mitsuhide (the THIRST!).

Ah thank you so much for waiting on me <3 you’re fab! So I’ve been chewing this one over since I headcanon that MC is on norplant or something similar (and for fictional convenience it’s 100% foolproof) and doesn’t have to worry about babies for the three month time frame of the game. 

Warning: This got angsty, buuut I can’t show the *actual* future without spoiling things ;D

***

She was stretched out beside him in the dim lamplight, her features relaxed, a dreamy smile on her flushed face. She looked over at him with a raised brow, and flashed a grin at catching him studying her. 

“Something on my face?” She asked, with laughter in her voice. 

“That look of contentment is a curious one, little mouse. Pardon my indelicacy, but most women don’t seem quite so unworried after--” He replied, but she cut him off with an airy gesture as she rolled to face him, reaching up to tap the tip of his nose with her fingertip. 

“Women in my hometown have a way of handling things.” She said with bemusement, adding “We can’t afford to be careless.”

“That’s interesting on both counts. That sort of knowledge is usually exclusive to courtesans.” He said, and studied her more intently. There wasn’t the faintest trace of a lie in her expression or her eyes. 

“Yes, well. I like to have a plan. I suppose we aren’t so different in that regard.”

“That turn of phrase-- you can’t afford to be careless, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it couched quite that way.” 

She cleared her throat, and looked slightly flustered. “Am I being interrogated? While naked in your arms? That’s low, even by your standards.” 

He reached out to run his fingers through her hair, and down her back gently. 

“If I wanted to interrogate you, little mouse, I wouldn’t have bothered with anything so drawn out,” he paused, and stretched laguidly, “as this. Besides, your face is a book that literally cannot close. I shudder to imagine how you’ve survived.” 

She blew out a mock huff at him, and ran her hand down his arm affectionately. 

“But it is a curious turn of phrase.” He added. “You might worry about what your family would say, about being disowned, about the wars, or even about dying in childbirth. But money? You’d have all the leverage you needed to extort me.” 

“It’s an innocent figure of speech, I promise you.” 

“You have so many of those, I’m left intensely curious about this hometown of yours.” 

“It’s peaceful. But life is expensive, and you have to be cautious about bringing a child into that kind of world. A lot of us have to work for years before we can even think about it, if we ever can.” She answered, with a distance in her eyes that seemed to be looking further than he could measure. 

“I see,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s hard to imagine a place where people have to plan as meticulously for the natural course of life as I do for war.” 

“I never said it was fair, but whatever kind of future we wish for, we have to deal with things as they are.” She answered, with a note of sadness in her voice. 

“What kind of future do you wish for?” He asked, trailing fingertips down her cheek, lost in all of the unanswered questions in her eyes. 

“I...” she trailed off, lost in thought. “I suppose I want the same things most people do. Meaningful work, someone who loves me, a family of my own someday. I’d wish for a future where those things weren’t so hard for so many people to have if I could just change things with the wave of my hand.” 

“Where on earth do people do meaningless work?” He asked, with amusement at the idea. “Work that you don’t enjoy I can understand, but everyone can see the purpose of their work, or what would compel it.” He added, thoughtfully. 

“You’d be surprised.” She said darkly. “But it’s past time for me to turn the tables. What kind of future do you wish for?” 

“Hmm.” He sighed thoughtfully looking out the window over her shoulder at the faint glimmer of the stars through the trees. “I don’t wish for things I can’t achieve. A strategic marriage, an end to the wars, and some kind of prosperity for the people in my fief. If I’m being fanciful, I’d like all of my children to survive to adulthood.” 

There was a gentle sadness on her face now as she twined her fingers in his in the flickering lamplight. “I hope you can have all of that, truly.” She said, sweetly. “I hope you can marry someone who loves you, just for good measure.” 

He laughed quietly at that. “Love has no part in that kind of decision.” 

“You never know. It would be hard to spend your life and have children with someone you feel nothing for, wouldn’t it?” 

“What a naive idea. If we don’t hate each other, that’s more than enough. Wives live in their own sphere, we lead separate lives.” He replied, adding “you speak as if you have a choice yourself. Your family must be strange indeed to send you wandering off alone and be unconcerned with choosing you a suitable match.” 

“I suppose they must be. Even so, I can’t imagine living in such a lonely way. I’d rather not have children at all than have the children of a stranger.” She said, as she pushed his hair out of his eyes.

She wasn’t backing down from her strange ideas, and it left him with a bittersweet feeling in his chest, to think of the kind of life she described, where desire and affection weren’t confined to the floating world of courtesans and mistresses. It was so far beyond the borders of his imagination that it was hard to map onto his known world, hard to think of fitting to the contours of his life. 

She snorted in amusement and interrupted his reverie. “You know, this entire conversation does make me wonder what you’d do if I did end up pregnant. Some kind of perfectly staged accidental death, I assume.” 

The jest cut him to the quick, even knowing she meant nothing by it, it was like a hot knife in his gut. “Whatever else you might think of me, little mouse, I’d never hurt my own child.” He answered quietly. 

“I’m sorry,” she said with genuine regret in her voice. “It was a joke in poor taste. We’re just so different sometimes...” she trailed off, searching for words. 

“I’d take care of you both, you know, for the rest of our lives.” He said, his voice very low to hide the emotion in it. He hadn’t even allowed himself to recognize the depth of that impossible wish.

“I wouldn’t want to put you in that position, or myself. I want to be a joy to someone and if I ever have children, I want them to be a joy too, not a liability or a hidden shame.” 

He buried his face in the top of her head, inhaling her scent to cover his shaky breaths at the thought of with someone else, with someone else’s children, at the center of someone else’s life.

He had known that he needed to cut off the impossible feelings that she brought out of him, for so many reasons-- to keep her safe, to keep himself focused, and now, she had twisted the knife by laying out with such simple honesty, the terms upon which she intended to live. 

He had no right to take that away from her. 

“If I could wish for any future, I’d wish for one where you and I weren’t bound to live such different lives.” She said, like a soft prayer into the long night. 

[xxsparksxx]

To say I am overwhelmed by the positive response to the Kaleidoscope blanket would be rather understating it. To be honest, I’m quite gobsmacked by how many people have joined the FB group, or contacted me, or bought colour packs! It’s so lovely seeing so many of you choosing colour packs or your own colours, and sharing in your excitement as we creep closer and closer to the beginning of the CAL.

I promised to tell you all about my inspiration for this blanket, so that’s what I’ll talk about today.  Bear with me; this is a bit of a meandering story 😛

It began, as so many of my blankets do, with a book.

It begins with ‘The Children of Green Knowe’, and indeed the other five Green Knowe books, by Lucy M. Boston.

My childhood copy, alongside a replica of Toby’s mouse ���  a key detail from the story!

I don’t remember when I first read these books, but I must have been young – five or six, perhaps. Some books are like that – you simply don’t remember a time when they weren’t part of your life. I have known and loved them always. They are, quite simply, magical books that, for me, form part of the foundations of my love of literature. Like Narnia, they have always been there for me. Even now, as an adult, I go back and re-read them often, particularly if I’m feeling a little worn down by life and need to remember how magic the world can be.

The first book begins with young Tolly Oldknowe, sent for the Christmas holidays to his great-grandmother’s house Green Noah (formerly Green Knowe), in the fens of East Anglia. He arrives to a flood, discovers his ‘ancient’ and magical-seeming granny, and slowly begins to uncover the secrets of a very old, very interesting house.

The house in the book is based on a real house – The Manor, in Hemingford Grey, not far away from where I live (it’s in a village between Cambridge and Huntingdon). It’s one of the oldest continually inhabited houses in the country – built and in use since the 1130s! Lucy Boston moved there just before World War Two, and all six wonderful books (as well as several of her other children’s novels) are set in and around the house.

I’ve been there on several occasions, and it’s absolutely incredible, as a lover of the books, to walk into the house where the stories actually take place. Things described in the book actually exist: outside, a statue of St Christopher carrying the child Jesus; carved wooden cherubs in the corners of the entrance hall; an enormous fireplace big enough to stand in; an embroidered picture made from human hair (which features in the second book, ‘The Chimneys of Green Knowe’; and, when you climb a winding stair up to the attic, Tolly’s bedroom, complete with bird cage, rocking horse, wooden chest of toys and a replica of a carved wooden mouse that plays an important role in Tolly’s discovery of the magic of the house.

The garden, too, is magical. It’s famous for its roses and irises, but when my grandma took me there, as a child, to an open garden day, all I was interested in was the yew animals that I found – the Green Deer and Green Squirrel that exist in real life as in the books (although, unlike in the books, in real life they don’t come alive and start wandering around of their own accord!).

Not seeing the connection so far? Bear with me 😀

Because Lucy Boston isn’t just famous for her children’s novels – she also created some incredible patchwork quilts.

This is another connection to my grandma, who was also a quilter. Never quite on Lucy Boston’s scale, but she definitely knew about and had seen these quilts, many of which are on display in the Manor.

They’re very carefully looked after, separated by dust sheets and handled only with gloves, to keep them in good condition, but when you go to visit, sheet after sheet is removed and quilt after beautiful quilt is revealed. Even to a non-quilter, the display is incredible. Lucy’s skill in matching colours and fabrics, her tiny stitches, and frankly her unending patience, are all immediately evident!

And, bringing it back to the novels, patchwork also features heavily in the second of the Green Knowe books, when Granny Oldknowe tells Tolly stories of previous inhabitants as she uses their old clothing to replace sections of worn-out patchwork for the curtains that, in the novel as in real life, hang in many windows around the house.

The quilt that I love most of all the ones I’ve seen in the house, and in the above book, is one called ‘Kaleidoscope’.

‘This patchwork nearly drove Lucy made with its complexity’, writes Diana Boston. ‘On the other hand she found it the most exciting to make.’

I began thinking about reproducing patchwork quilt effects in crochet some time ago, but for a while it was just that – a vague thought in my mind. Then I remembered these beautiful quilts and, last December, I bought myself a copy of this book and settled down for a good, hard stare at the pictures.

It really is incredibly complex, and I understand completely how driven by it Lucy Boston must have been, when she made it. There are no circles in it – it’s entirely made up of squares and triangles. Can you imagine how much work Lucy put into this? The colours, the patterns, are all perfect matches, and she worked all of this as paper pieced patchwork in the proper English tradition.

I knew I couldn’t replicate this exactly. I needed to use fewer colours, and I thought that I would replace some of the triangles with octagons, to simplify things a little. So I looked carefully at the shape of it, and at colour placements, and slowly began to sketch out my ideas.

After drawing out the shapes I needed, I started playing with colours, working out ways to replicate my favourite bits of the patchwork blanket in a way that would be translatable into crochet. It took a little trial and error, but eventually I ended up with something that, on paper, felt to me like a success. It’s definitely ‘inspired by’ rather than directly replicating Lucy’s patchwork, but I was happy with it.

As usual, I worked up my shapes in a single colour first, to concentrate on the pattern rather than the colours. Then I began to work it up in colour, and it was only then that I decided I would run this blanket as a CAL, rather than simply offering the whole pattern at once as I normally do. That decision made, I realised I should offer more than one official colourway. A little more playing around with colouring pencils and yarn pegs ensued! Luckily I had photocopied the blank sketch before I started colouring, so I had spare copies to play with 🙂

Old Rose on the left, Tequila Sunrise on the right

The three official colourways then came into being.

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Jewellery Box

Old Rose

Tequila Sunrise

And that, as they say, is that!

The Manor is now owned/occupied by Lucy’s daughter-in-law, Diana, who runs tours to help support the running of the property – no National Trust here, just a cosy, well-loved family home. You can sit, in the music room, where airmen sat in WWII when Lucy ran music evenings for their entertainment. You can explore ‘Tolly’s bedroom’, and touch and hold the things so familiar from the books. You can’t touch the patchworks, but you can see them and marvel at them. And in the garden, you can ramble around four acres of beautiful ‘cottage’ style garden for as long as you like.

It truly is a very special place to visit, even if you aren’t familiar with the books, and I do urge you all to go if you’re close enough.

If you’re in the UK and fancy reading the books, having read me ramble on about them, you can buy them directly from the Manor, which helps Diana Boston keep up the house.

I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my Kaleidoscope journey; I’m so looking forward to seeing all your blankets. Don’t forget the CAL starts 3rd January, and colour packs are available now 🙂

        My Kaleidoscope story To say I am overwhelmed by the positive response to the Kaleidoscope blanket would be rather understating it.

[brmains]

Play roleplaying games online

The gaming industry failed to find the right recipe for a good game about superheroes for quite some time until Rocksteady appeared who achieved a truly enviable success with Batman: Arkham Asylum. So, let’s see some of the most popular RPG games. One session usually lasts at least 4-5 hours (often much longer). The game takes place so that players say what they do, and the outcome of their activities is partly decided by the dice, and partly DM. Each character has six basic traits (strength, skill, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma) whose values are determined by rolling the dice and which further determine the behavior and activities of that character in the game. The game consists of two types of players: several players who lead the characters where each player designs and leads one character and one player who designs the background of the game, manages the supporting characters, ie all the characters that are not led by the players, and fulfills the function of a judge (the so-called DM-dungeon master). So, it is about the player having the opportunity to choose the role (or more of them) to play. In many cases, the only thing that connects them is the role-playing element. Namely, when we talk about RPGs, we are not talking about a single game, but about several of them that are very different from each other. Role-playing games have always focused on engaging the most powerful creative device known to the mind – the human brain – it doesn’t hurt that there are several apps and sites to help with the process, which is why roles in the 21st century are now centered on RPG applications and digital aids like which are dice, mapping software, digital character sheets, and virtual tabletops. In this article, we are talking about RPG (Role Playing Games) games. Thanks to the Internet, today it is possible to import with people around the world and embrace online together. The best thing about playing games is that everyone will find something for themselves, whether they like strategy, shooters, or any other genre. Well, we can’t say no if it’s your main occupation in life, but if you can control yourself and the time you spend on this hobby, it will even have a positive effect on you – the power of perception will be better (you will have a better eye for details), will also improve the power of judgment and decision making, and you will notice that your concentration is better. There is often controversy over whether playing games is harmful. Either way, one thing is guaranteed, and that is fun, whether you’re playing via a smartphone, console, or computer. Some are passionate players, and they play every day, follow the gaming market, and can’t wait for the long-awaited sequel to come out, while others like to play after a hard day at work. Playing games is one of the most common hobbies of young people. Best Gaming Mouse Under $30 – 2022 Buying Guide & Reviews.7 Best Gaming Mouse Under $20 – 2022 Buying Guide.10 Best Mechanical Keyboard Under $100 – 2022 Buying Guide.12 Best Mechanical Keyboard Under $50 – 2022 Buying Guide.Best Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combos.6 Best Gaming Keyboard Under $30 – 2022 Buying Guide.

[instantsongwerewolf]

Here is an email response from the Center of Disease Control in the U.S.A.

The question was " If anyone is about to get vaccinated do they need to get tested first?" The logic is if you need to wait for a flu to disappear before getting a flu shot, you should also wait till you feel better before getting that injection, right?

Let us see is FB will try to remove this response that comes from the CDC. By the way alot of stats can be found at the site and Mr Gates the richest man in the world after Elon Musk has fortified the coffers of the CD with so much bacon, there is no chance it will ever run out of bacon in this century. With so much bacon invested into the CDC one must wonder if it truly is always acting as an independent body with B.G. sitting on the board

Thank you for contacting CDC-INFO.

Here is the information you requested on COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccination should be offered to you whether or not you already had COVID-19.

Line 2 : "You should not be required to have a test for prior infection before you get the vaccine".

However, if you currently have COVID-19, you should wait to get the vaccine until:

• at least 10 days have passed since your symptoms first appeared, and

• at least 24 hours have passed since you have had no fever without the use of fever-reducing medicine, and

• your other COVID-19 symptoms have improved.

It is rare for someone who has had COVID-19 to get infected again. It also is uncommon for people who do get COVID-19 again to get it in the months after they recovered from their first infection. Therefore, if you recently had COVID-19 you may choose to wait to get the vaccine until 90 days have passed, however you are not required to wait 90 days before getting a COVID-19 vaccine. With both currently authorized and available COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, you will need 2 shots to get the most protection. Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, which is a viral vector vaccine, only requires one dose.

If you were treated for COVID-19 symptoms with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, you should wait 90 days before getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Talk to your doctor if you are unsure what treatments you received or if you have additional questions about getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

If you had COVID-19 and were treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, you should wait at least 90 days after treatment before getting the vaccine. This is to avoid interference of the antibody treatment with the immune response produced by the vaccine. This is a precaution until additional information becomes available about how these treatments may interfere with the immune response produced by the vaccine.

The line 2 response is saying you should not have to get a test for possible prior Covid infection but in the next they do say basically that if you are feeling sick...wait..

Personal statement :

Without any injection the Natural Defensive System

of the human body will kick in overdrive.

check the stats online.

A large percentage, from UPWARDS of 95% percent, who have been infected by the regular strain will recover at home.

No vaccine. Regular strain.

No BS statement. DYDD.

Of the remaining % who go to the hospital most recover

and a smaller percentage don't . The actual death rate within the % varies from country to country. The type of therapy can also impact the survival rate. People who react badly to respirator therapy ..well...not good. Some meds , under development, in the 3rd trial phase are administered to patients in critical care . Results vary. If any of your loved ones end up in the hospital ask the doctor if they are administering new drug therapies besides respirators.

Upwards of 95% of infected recover.

of the remaining 5%, 10 to 20 % pass on.

No percentage of deaths is good .

None.

The vaccine does not guarantee you will not catch it.

The vaccine will not be able to tell your body how to deal with a variant since the injected technology was not pre built with attack instructions for variants that did not exist at the time of the injection technology.

If the variant is part original strain and part something else that's when it can get touchy as your defense system was provided instructions on how to deal with one but not with the other.

Variants can change in 10 to 12 hours.

Variants become variants because the strain is looking for a host.

If the host is fortified with a vaccine to fight strain #1 then the strain will attempt to alter itself so that it can survive when it attacks someone else but as a variant and not as strain #1

In the world of vaccine science some scientists ( who have worked in vaccine research for over 30 years, do not agree with mass vaccinations on the premise that the strain will morph itself very quickly within that population of millions that got their injections for strain #1 all at the same time.

The fear is that the strain will morph itself several times over and will then be able to latch onto to anyone of the many millions who got the vaccine .

The same doctors have said that " the technology behind this vaccine is avant guard" but the way the population is being mass injected has not taken in account how quickly the strain will morph and spread. " Some have even said that the vaccine should have been delivered to millions after the pandemic period as we do with other vaccines, and in the meantime rush develop medical therapies that will stop the virus in its original strain form in its tracks while in the body of an infected person whose NDS will kick in and kill the invading virus with the right combinations of medecinal therapies.

In the event that the variant strains storm through countries due to morphing, then the actual fatality rates will be .....

The medicinal therapies that have worked to some degree on the 1st strain won't work on the variants as the drug companies have to redesign the drugs to fight an invader who has changed.

Redesigning drug therapies for an invader who is always changing is a frustrating game of cat and mouse but in this case the mouse is smarter and faster.

Are the scientist who dedicated most of their lives to vaccine research over reacting to the way in which the injection are being administered?

Will the variants morph and morph and morph?

If they do then the population growth on this planet will drop and we may even see a significant drop in the world population.

The fact that Mr Gates sits on the W.H.O. is concerning. His donation amounts to the vaccine industry is STAGGERING.

He is on record stating that population growth issues can be dealt with the correct type of vaccines.

Is the present vaccine part of this objective?

I truly hope not.

The scientists who have sacrificed and are dedicated to vaccine technology are concerned.

The very vaccines that were designed to save humanity might become redundant and out of date if variants morph to the 10th degree or higher.

If you do have contacts with health officials or with senators who represent your state, you have the right to express your concern.

You have the right to ask questions that are not politically correct.

Very big money has been invested .

Very powerful people.

And the C.D.C. and the W.H.O. are no longer independent as they have been fed by B.G.

Mr Gates is spending colossal amounts to ensure that limited info is available on social media everywhere.

We all have the right to know.

Not just B.G. or Vaccine Pharma .

All of us.

Be safe.

God bless.

The world health organization and the CDC have alot of available data.

I recommend you all DYDD. Most of the info that is being broadcasted on tv is not accurate. Sharing it on FB is next to impossible but email still works. Messenger services that belong to s.m. should not be used as they are monitored , and message content can be blocked from going where you want it to go.

To fight the war of "ignorance" we need to recognize that a war has been enacted. Censorship is the first fruit of "pending socialism and freedom death". Hoping it will go away and fix itself without fighting the good fight is not the way to go.

Dan Bongino is someone who would read this on air.

If any of you have his email send it to him via email

[paganchristian]

It’s okay if you want to turn your eyes away, and leave me behind.  I don’t mind one tiny bit.  This is more like my private little cove where it’s public enough you can come here, you can sit and watch, while I perform these odd performances.  but  like someone wandering up to a strange street performance, who settles themselves down to see what this is, don’t worry and don’t hesitate, don’t feel bad to walk away.  I’m not exactly trying to perform, it’s more like the wild crazy street preacher who preaches on and on, that’s more like me, though he has no one to listen.  I am preaching to myself to fill myself with meaning and happiness, even if I look agonized, don’t worry ...  I do like it, and it stands alone on its own, with or without an audience.  I know it’s not the perfect analogy but it’s the closest one I can think of at the moment. 

This picture  shows a boardwalk between the edge of big lake, between the shore and waterline.  It was a magical place.

I always, or often, feel like I am walking along the edge.  It’s a mess for anyone to see, and hear, and feel if they feel empathy about me.  If they’re psychic and empathic they might pick up on the chaos my mind, heart, soul and emotions are all turbulently swimming, and sometimes almost feeling like it’s drowning in.  I don’t want anyone to feel any way obligated and trapped, because I think that this blog of course is no kind of obligation, but still in the world of social media and the internet people create friendly connections very casually and quickly with other people and follow them and such and then they might not know what they’re getting into.  The internet opens a thousands of doors to all kinds of strange and unprecedented situations of self-revelation and behavior you would never see in the real world.  So maybe you didn’t know what you were signing up for.  Maybe I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I started this blog.  I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  My reactions go of their own accord when I’m unmining (why did I want to say that, “unmining”, maybe I’ll mine that imaginary word to see if I find any meaning in it for me.  The way my weird brain word and language mistakes often help me, like I’ve said before).  But yeah, when I’m unearthing this chaos that is in me.  Then things like defense mechanisms and coping devices take over, unconsciously and I can’t even see them or if I do I can’t stop them.  So if they way out is through, with trauma, and I think it is, often, then, if I come here to help me process and heal spiritual and religious trauma, it’s just going to spill out that way, excessive posts, excessive emotions, sad and whatever else.  Maybe I can put some kind of trigger warning on the blog description, I’ll have to think of what I should say and how I want to say it. 

I am self-conscious and driven by mechanisms, like coping mechanisms that often take hold of me, beyond my conscious awareness.  Though I’m self-conscious when I put things out here I don’t mind if someone reads, and comments and likes and reblogs my stuff, if they want to.  It’s not that kind of self-consciousness but just the kind that realizes my life is quite a mess to behold.  And as long as nothing happens where someone is judging, giving unwanted advice, or, dare I use the idea of the new age people I used to be friends with, ha... I also don’t want someone to latch on to my energy with psychic energy cords.  I don’t want them to fixate on me, in an unhealthy way.  

That sounds a little weird, I guess, for me to say, but when you have experienced things I have it wouldn’t see so weird anymore, if you had experienced the things I have.  I do believe that energy cords are a real thing, sometimes.  The more raw and vulnerable you are the more likely that energy cords will be made because we respond to the raw emotional content of others’ communications and behavior.  Sometimes in a way that makes us bonded, but not necessarily a good bond.  It could be good, bad, or likely a mix of both, but just too reactive towards them.  We could be too attached and reactive, wanting to help them and trying to help them, but trying to help them in ways they don’t need, even if we think they do.  Or a variety of any number of strong reactions, thinking too much about people, feeling too much about them, and it makes this energy psychic bond.  That is how the new age people explain it.  As such if anyone feels too disturbed by me, too worried about me, too anything, too strong of feelings about me, I don’t want it to make psychic or energetic cords.  And because of the strong emotional distress and confusion and chaos and taboos and whatever that I post posts about on here, I know that if something could create those psychic or energetic cords, in the form of a blog, this might could.  

The edge I walk on feels kind of like a shore, the watery, muddy and sandy, messy but grounded, down on the earth feeling,...  but it also feels more dangerous and messy.  As such it’s, maybe, in some ways, more like the edge of a thin line, rather than a shoreline.  Kind of like a balance beam or tightrope, perhaps.  As such, it’s not a pretty and fascinating performance overall.  It’s not like going to the circus to see an amazing feat.  But I cannot think so far of the ideal metaphor to describe it.  

The edge I’m on is not on a sturdy boardwalk, or even on the shore, even a narrow strip of shore, slippery sand or rocks, roots, and such as shores are often made up of.  Not wading along a watery shoreline, but something else...  

Yet I take breaks, and am immersed with healing energy, with beauty, with coping, with insights that rise up only at these times.  With breaks from the storm, that are more beautiful than anything on normal days.  Like I love real life storms and all their details too.  Even in the middle of the storm often is great beauty, comfort and heightened senses.  Insights, rare occurrences.  And so if my trauma-laden world looks like a mess I don’t mind this mess that much.  It’s often one of my truly favorite times to live my life.  I couldn’t exhaust myself forever in this way or I’d be ill, more than I am.  But going in the storm is like healing what is already there, too, and it’s not always something I can choose, anyway, but when the storm comes up then I could run but I think often it’s better to be there with it, to explore the storm with eyes with open, sense fully engaged, wading through the storm, against the driving wind and rain and hail.  Taking breaks in little shelters, as I need to, and admiring the beauty of the storm from that vantage, however disturbing the storm might seem to some.  While waste my life just dwelling in the storm, just debilitated by the storm, and running around, wading around in circles in the storm, the knee high water and the mud.  It must look wasteful to many, and dull, and self-centered, but it’s just the way out, the way through is the way out.  And all the while in this storm, there is immense beauty.  Strange blessings happen.  I am wearing my favorite party clothes.  Lol  Literally I’m wearing dresses and favorite clothes in real life, on these days, often, like today.  It was a coincidence my daughters also wore a cute Minnie Mouse dress, with a hoodie and mouse ears.  Totally adorable.  Anyway, she seems to psychically intuitively shower our life with the most healing things, even though I don’t show signs of my feelings to her at all, when I’m traumatized or depressed usually,.. Or only ever to just say I am tired at most, sometimes,...  And it’s life as normal, the whole storm is inside, or written online or in my journals.  But I think the things my daughter does that help make things better at these times, I think that it’s God intervening just as I see more animals in nature at these times and other strange blessings of coincidences happen at these times.  Anyway, that is all I guess, of this torrent of words, maybe, I’ll see if I edit and add anymore things that feel important, though, ... but I think that is all.

[ryanjkohnson]

How to Listen to Your Spirit Guides | Beginners Guide

Do you want to know how to listen to your spirit guides? To fully understand the relationship between guide and person, it is important to know where spirit guides come from.

Spirit guides are entities that stay behind as a spirit to assist those who remain in the world of the living. Most spirit guides would have had the option of being reincarnated once more, but instead, they decided to dedicate their afterlife to guidance and protection. Typically, spirit guides are those who have lived many lives and settled any debts that remain. The outcome is someone who has no need to reincarnate and can move on to a higher state of being. The recipient of the spirit guides knowledge does not choose the guide. It is chosen for them.

Spirit Guides and Animal Totems

The idea of the spirit animal was developed almost directly from the Native American culture. In their culture, spirit animals are known as animal totems. Across different areas and tribes differences are apparent, but the totem animal often has the form of one creature. The creature is often associated with one tribe or person that shares the characteristics of the animal. Once someone passes away, their essence or spirit is taken within the animal.

Spirit guides have also gone by other names including spirit allies, power animals, animal helpers and animal guides.

No matter the name, spirit guides have a unique purpose to the lives of people, no matter their culture. Differences in opinions should be respected as the historical importance to each culture goes back for a long time, if not hundreds or thousands of years.

How Are Spirit Guides Assigned?

These spirits can appear in any number of forms, usually an animal that represents certain personality traits. Spirit guides may stay with a person for their entire lives, or for only a short time. It is not uncommon to have more than one spirit guide throughout one’s life. Different spirit animals come at different stages; a child will almost definitely not have the same spirit guide as a middle-aged or older person.

One or Many Is Equally Normal

On the other hand, it is also normal to have only one guide. Spirit guides come and go, providing guidance, teaching, and ways to remain balanced. Sometimes a person is well suited for one spirit animal and has the ability to rely on one guide that provides everything they need. Other times, people may have an affinity towards other animals but the related spirit guide never appears to them. It may well be that the person has no need of that particular guide. Be content with those that appear and understand that the ones that do are the ones that will provide the most wisdom. Nobody should be judged for the number of spirit guides they have. Everything is normal and it is important to not be discouraged about only receiving one spirit animal. Everyone’s experience with their guide or guides is unique and special.

Some Examples of Spirit Animals Are

Bear – The bear spirit guide is emotional and has a connection with the outdoors.

They may be quick to anger, but their deep bond with the Earth keeps a balance within. Butterfly – The butterfly spirit guide symbolizes transformation. Butterflies can adapt on the fly and approach changes with an open mind. Dolphin – The dolphin spirit guide means both wisdom and playfulness. Dolphins are known for bringing people together and communicating well with others.

Personality And Your Guides

Someone’s spirit animal represents the qualities within themselves. Many view it as a symbol of themselves. Often, it is unlikely that it would be possible to interact with the animal face to face. Animals like lions, sea creatures, or other wild animals are hard to meet. But it is possible to observe, read, and watch them. It is important to study their social habits, diet, behaviors, and other traits. Trying to conform to the ways of a certain animal is not recommended and would only lead to pain further down the line.

Feel the Resonance

If there is an animal that resonates deeply within, it is quite possible that animal is a spirit guide that was meant for that person. When visiting the zoo or other places with wildlife, feeling drawn to one creature in particular means that it could be a guide currently, or the guidance it can provide should be sought out. Listen to the voice inside that says this animal is important. No spirit guide should be shameful. It doesn’t matter whether someone’s spirit guide is a mouse or a grizzly bear. Every spirit guide has unique and important guidance to provide to those who need it. Anyone who looks down on someone or makes fun of them for their guide should not be taken seriously.

Encounters With Your Guides

Running into the same animal repeatedly may also mean that animal has been assigned as a guide.

Perhaps there were foxes appearing, especially in areas where it makes little sense for such an animal to be. It can also be more symbolic, like finding multiple movies or TV shows with foxes. Other encounters can include entering a store and seeing items relating to a fox, people complimenting your clothing while wearing red and more. These examples can be applied to any animal, but it may be more challenging for the guide to reaching out depending on the animal. A whale guide would have difficulty reaching someone who lives inland, for example.

Some Spirit Guide Examples

There are far more spirit animals than can be listed.

It is important to read up on as many as possible so that when a spirit guide appears, its meaning can be understood and taken into consideration quickly.

To summarize what a spirit guide may mean, it could be helpful to keep a list of notes of the guides that are most likely to appear.

The Layout of the Notes Could Look Like This

The Turtle

The symbolism of the turtle guide revolves around patience, even through chaos.

By remaining steadfast in the presence of conflict, challenges can be overcome.

Wisdom

Persistence and determination

Pacing and patience

Slow down

Understanding and strength

The Owl

The symbolism of the owl revolves around seeing past deception. Don’t be fooled by those trying to mislead or lie to harm or further their own agendas.

See what others don’t see

Changes are coming

Intuition

Wisdom

Transition

The meaning of a spirit guide can shift depending on the events in someones life, but the general meanings would most likely stay the same. Being prepared can help understand what the guide is trying to say. But it is important to allow variety in the messages. Look beyond the notes in some cases to see the deeper wisdom the guide is trying to impart.

How to Call Upon Your Spirit Guides

As explained above, repeatedly encountering an animal most likely means it has been assigned as a guide. That also means that the spirit guide is trying to give out teachings. The most important thing to do is never ignore the spirit guide. If the guide has not appeared in some time and advice is needed, there are a number of different things that can be done to reach out to the spirit guide.

One of the following methods may work better than another, or perhaps a combination. Don’t rely on just one way of calling the spirit guide as some reach out in different ways.

Meditation

Taking the time to relax and meditate is an excellent way to call a spirit guide. By centering and calming thoughts and opening the mind, it makes it much easier for a spirit guide to reach out. Methods of reaching such a relaxed state include listening to soothing music, sitting on a beach or playing background sounds such as rain. It could also be helpful to play sounds associated with the spirit guide. Ocean spirit guides would appreciate meditation to the sound of waves against a beach.

Physical Interaction

Asking for a spirit guide to physically interact is the hardest way of calling. The gift of a feather, a scale, or piece of fur represents the presence of the guide. Sometimes it is possible to see the animal itself, but that could be impossible depending on the guide. It could also be a brief appearance on the television or in a book. It is also possible that someone could give you a gift themselves, like a pair of elephant earrings.

Dreams

This is a popular way to call and communicate with spirit guides. It can take time for a spirit guide to appear this way and multiple nights of calling may be required. Sometimes it is possible to awake without remembering the dream of the guide appearing, or to only remember hazy pieces of the dream. With practice, dreams become easier to remember.

Conduct a Ceremony

Ceremonies could involve anything from creating an altar, chanting or burning certain plants.

During the ceremony it is important to remain clear-minded and focus on the spirit guide. This way of calling to the spirit guide can lead to them appearing in dreams, physically or a vision. The most important thing is to be patient. Don’t try to rush the appearance of a spirit guide. Their wisdom is precious and attempting to force them to come before the advice is truly needed could have consequences. Trust the spirit guide and that they know what is best.

How To Listen To Your Spirit Guides

Listen Through Pain

Sometimes the guidance a spirit guide brings is not something positive. It could be a warning of an upcoming loss, the suggestion that someone is being dishonest or anything else that has a negative meaning. It could be tempting to ignore the guidance and warnings that the guide is trying to give. Ignoring imminent pain is much easier than dealing with it beforehand. However, by ignoring the spirit guide the outcome could be much worse then if the advice had been listened to in the first place. The pain may be harsh but listen through it anyway. Take the guidance for what it is and prepare for the possible hardships ahead. The spirit guide is not trying to inflict pain, but help prepare for it. Don’t lash out and take out frustrations on the guide for trying to help as much as they can.

Don’t Act Rashly

Once wisdom has been given it can be tempting to immediately act on it. Sometimes this is the best course of action, but it also could be the wrong path to take it. Many spirit guides suggest caution going forward and for good reason. Barging ahead without a plan or thought of the consequences could lead to a fracturing of friendships or harm to physical and mental health.

Don’t Ignore Them

Sometimes the spirit guide could give advice that doesn’t seem to be needed at the current point in time, don’t just ignore it. If the turtle guide appears, encouraging determination even through hardship, yet there haven’t been any challenges, it is very important to not disregard it. The guides speak of the future as well as the present. If and when a spirit guide warns of a dishonest friend, coworker, or family member, yet it seems impossible to be true, it can be tempting to shrug and wave it off. A spirit guide would not offer advice that was meant to mislead or harm. Watch closely to see who the guide could be warning about and eventually the truth will be revealed.

Show Gratitude

A spirit guide is a powerful teacher. Show appreciation by thanking them for their support and wisdom. The relationship between the human and guide is deeply personal and long-lasting, but like any relationship, it takes work. Thank them for their efforts to assist in creating a better life. Without them, it may have been impossible to see life the way it was meant to be seen.

I really hope that you liked this, quite long guide, about how to listen to your spirit guides.

If you did, please help me share this content, so that more people can find and get guidience of their spirit guide.

Bless you!

PS: Down below, you can see a video about spirit guides and which one might be yours.

The post How to Listen to Your Spirit Guides | Beginners Guide appeared first on Healing of Love.

How to Listen to Your Spirit Guides | Beginners Guide posted first on https://healingoflove.com/

[bestinsuranceforabusiness67-blog]

25 Surprising Facts About Best Business Short Term Car Insurance

In the last ten years, the world wide web has asserted alone as an almighty tool for the masses. With customers now equipped to acquire everything from clothing to groceries online, it mustn't come as being a shock that a person is currently ready to use the internet to shop for that excellent insurance plan coverage.

Demanding only some clicks on the mouse plus the input of any needed information, a single can certainly come across and purchase insurance policy on the web. And while some could be looking for these insurance policies as automobile or household, even insurance policies relating to companies can be found on-line. Actually, having the ability to Evaluate organization insurance plan policies on the internet presents customers a lot of versatility and electrical power.

What accustomed to call for hours Short Term Business Insurance Quotes truly worth of phone calls and staying put on keep has now been replaced with person-friendly interfaces that allow Individuals seeking and comparing business enterprise insurance policies procedures to speedily and successfully uncover the ideal plan for them, devoid of at any time even needing to pick up a cell phone or leaving the house or Business office. This really is new music to business owners' ears, considering that coping with this kind of time-consuming hassles not only is aggravating, but additionally counterproductive.

For those trying to find the perfect enterprise coverage plan on-line, here are some useful ideas to create the procedure even much easier:

- Place jointly an index of the varied coverages the coverage must include beforehand. Doing a little but of prep function will allow one to invest more time hunting down guidelines that do not meet the pre-specified and less time figuring out just what it's They can be seeking. Once the record is compiled, you can go forward to the whole process of really seeking and evaluating a variety of enterprise insurance policy procedures.

- A great position to start out in search of that insurance policies policy is on certainly one of the many comparative Web sites which allows one to input some information regarding the needs from the small business. When all the pertinent details is submitted, the website will then crank out a distinct list of alternatives, including the costs of each and every respective plan.

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- Generally get several rates in advance of acquiring a company coverage policy. Have a look at at least 3 diverse providers and offers just before choosing. Doing this will make certain getting quite possibly the most bang for that buck.

Evaluating small business insurance policies guidelines on the web is a terrific way to buy the best plan for a company. Not merely does it grant a company the liberty to take action from the comfort and ease of household, but by handling Net-centered companies normally generally yields better bargains as a consequence of lower overhead. So, if in the marketplace for a fresh business insurance policy coverage, comparing insurance policies on the net can and may preserve a person time and cash. And in the end, time is cash.

[therabbitholeonline]

Faith, Trust & a Clapperboard, or Director Who.

Kathryn Zeigler is an actress, director, casting agent, writer, producer, and mom! This gal does it all with grace and humility. I met her when I volunteered at a Doctor Who event south of Indianapolis. I sat next to the booth where she was sharing news of their Doctor Who play in Louisville. I listened to them as the actors went in and out of character, joked, laughed, and generally had a great time. I thought, “I want to be a part of that!” And while I haven’t been able to move to Louisville, I’ve stayed in touch and do whatever I can to support them.

When I approached Kathryn about conducting an interview, she was more than gracious! And so, here is my friend and I talking about her jobs, her life and her loves. Ladies & gents, Kathryn Zeigler!

 The Rabbit Hole: You did the Disney Intern Program, right? What was that like?

Yes, I did. I was in the WDW College Program in 1999. Absolutely one of the best experiences of my college days, and of my professional career. I worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on the Kilimanjaro Safari’s attraction in the village of Harambe. Some of my deepest friendships (who I truly consider family) and professional connections stemmed from that experience. I learned a lot about myself and the world around me. I was also exposed to the best entertainment business practices on the planet.

TRH: What made you want to act? 

I always knew I wanted to perform and to make people happy. At a very young age, I “produced” shows in my basement and even made up tickets and charged for my family and neighbors to see the show. 25 cents. My two most requested shows (thank heavens for a family that humored me) were my magic show and my roller disco show to the Disco Mickey Mouse album. I’m not even really sure what in the world I did during the roller disco; except I do remember that one time I tried to jump over the couch and failed miserably. Ironically, it was to the tune “Watch Out For Goofy” right at the point in the song where Goofy falls and destroys everything in his path.  

TRH: What did you want to grow up to be as a kid? 

 I wanted to be an actor, an astronaut, and a writer. I was pretty serious about the astronaut and writing path. A friend of mine and I created a magazine called Shuttle Run, and interviewed pilots and scientists. I think we published two full magazines before summer and then we gave it up.

I don’t think it occurred to me how much of an entrepreneur I was until much later in life, but as someone who works full-time in the entertainment industry, I’ve discovered that you have to have that kind of spirit to make a living.

TRH: There are so many mediums, why choose theater? 

Theatre was the most accessible to me growing up. I did a lot of plays at church and my parents took me to see lots of shows around town. The one performance that changed my life was My Fair Lady at the Iroquois Amphitheater back in the 80’s. (I want to say maybe ’86?)

My grandmother worked very hard all year as a seamstress and saved up money to take me to that show. We sat in the sixth row, center seats. She even had enough for us to get some popcorn and candy, which was a big deal since she usually packed snacks for everything we went to.

From the first note the orchestra hit, I was hooked. And then, when Eliza walked into the room in her ball gown, I knew I had to do whatever it was that she was doing. I left that night feeling like I was flying and I’ve not looked back since.

It took years before film would come into my life, and although it’s exciting and I love it dearly, theatre will always be my home.

TRH:Could you tell us about about Acting For Your Life and your casting company AFYL Casting?

 Acting For Your Life actually has a neat story behind it. When I was living and working in NY and CT in 2005, I taught a series of acting classes. In one of my adult acting workshops in Manhattan, a student came in crying and saying that she was sorry but she’d just learned she had cancer and had no access to healthcare.

I couldn’t possibly teach technique at that moment. For about fifteen minutes, the entire class and I helped her with resources that might be able to help. She was able to rally and asked to remain in class so she could focus on what made her happy. The following week, another student came in with a major financial issue. As a unified group, we helped as much as we could.

After class that day, I did a lot of soul searching to figure out how to help students who obviously needed support with life skills while also trying to make a living as artists. Once they were able to deal with life (even just a tiny aspect of it) I found that the work was more quality. It was deep and truthful. So, it hit me. What if, in the same supportive atmosphere of an acting class, we could focus the first fifteen minutes on some kind of life skill before delving into the work? That way, we could address life issues that were facing the class, and then we could get into the work of acting?

The third week, I invited a financial advisor to speak to the class and take questions before warm-ups. The actors were timid speaking about financial issues, but after the presentation each of them took a business card. Our guest left, we made room for work, and it was one of the most successful acting classes I’ve ever taught. They were free, if only for those minutes, because they had faced something life related that they didn’t want to face. I learned that all but one of those students met with the financial advisor post-class and set up plans to help them deal with their personal finances.

Acting For Your Life (www.afylonline.com) was born and continues today as an educational platform for artists all over the world.

When Todd (my husband) joined Acting For Your Life in 2014, we were looking for a way to connect the artists we worked with to sustainable opportunities. In 2016, we opened AFYL Talent agency and represented actors. Although we loved that work, we saw a huge need for qualified casting directors in our area since the Kentucky film market is growing leaps and bounds. AFYL Talent closed in December of 2016, and immediately in January we opened AFYL Casting (www.afylcasting.com). We no longer represent talent, but instead we act as casting directors for film, television, commercials, industrials, voice over, and new media projects. We’re able to connect artists to paid opportunities by helping production companies connect to and cast them. I absolutely love it.

TRH: When it comes to helping new actors in their journey, what’s your favorite piece of advice to give?

 My favorite piece of advice is probably the advice I give most frequently. Acting isn’t about being famous. If you’re getting into this business for fame, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Fame may come as a result of hard work, but it certainly won’t last if you don’t educate your talent and inform your life’s direction.

TRH: What is the biggest challenge when directing? What is your favorite part? 

That’s a hard one to nail down. Each show comes with its own unique set of challenges.

I would say the most common challenge is helping the actors to get out of their own way. So many artists come to a production (both stage and film) with preconceived notions about how each role should be played. And, although having an idea of which direction to go is paramount, allowing yourself to be flexible to the process of rehearsal is probably the most important.

I had an actor once who told me that he didn’t want to hear me use the word “organic” because he needed direction. He’d worked with another director who constantly used that word, and he felt it was lazy on the director’s part to use such a term. He wanted me to walk him through each step of the process and tell him exactly what I was looking for.

Although my goal is to be clear with the artistic vision of where the show is going, I don’t believe any actor should be blindly led through any production. When I use the term organic, it’s meant to be a growth experience; something that happens naturally over the course of a project. There has to be some work, some truth that comes directly from each actor’s experience while working with the other creative components of a show. If not, you end up with very measured moments and the audience knows the cast is “acting”. I never want an audience to think, “that’s an actor acting”. I always want them to be drawn in to the lives that are being lived before them. That’s what real acting is.

My favorite part is the community that is created with each cast. We really do become our own little unit, our own little family. And in that safe space, we can challenge one another to raise the stakes and raise the bar on the work we do together. And then you see someone have an ah-ha moment. The lightbulb goes off, and a character emerges. The actor melts away, and there is this new person, living and breathing the story that the writer has given them. There’s a special kind of magic in that.

TRH: What inspires you? 

People who give of themselves to their craft both professionally and passionately, whatever their craft might be.

TRH: You and your husband created a really wonderful play about Doctor Who; could you tell us a bit about it? 

 All The Whos In Whoville is a magical mingling of the worlds of Doctor Who and Doctor Seuss that Todd penned in 2013 in anticipation of the 50th Anniversary Special. Without giving too much away, the play is set in the town of Whoville many years after “the mean green one” has become an integral part of the community. Cindy Lou Who is now grown with a daughter of her own, however things with her own family aren’t all happy endings.

As events unfold, we learn that the Greench (yes, that’s how we refer to him in the script) has a past that once revealed, leads him to follow his instincts of causing chaos wherever he goes, including kidnapping Cindy Lou’s daughter Mary Sue.  

One of Santa’s helpers wielding a sonic screwdriver and flying a familiar time machine comes to the rescue, but along the way accidentally erases his own memory. Is he The Doctor or Santa? What happens when he decides to call on the only hero that can save the day?

You’ll have to see the show to find out.

TRH: When conducting auditions, how do you know when you’ve got the right actor? 

 I generally know within the first two minutes if the person standing in front of us is right for the part. There is a confidence and a “YES” feeling that happens in my gut. There is a rapport that happens almost instantly, even before they start the actual “audition” of the work.

It’s also very apparent who will be a pleasure to work with, and who might not be. I’ll hire someone with passion and potential over the person who gives the best reading any day. An actor might be oozing with talent, but the “it” factor is usually discovered in the moments when an actor is willing to push themselves, grow, and be pleasant on set.

 TRH: What are your favorite fandoms? 

Doctor Who is by far my favorite. However, I love all kinds of sci-fi worlds and tons of pop culture phenoms. Anything Disney is a close second, if not tied for first. I also love Marvel and DC, as well as anything and everything Godzilla.

TRH: What does the role of Director mean to you? 

A director leads the actors to their truth and the production to its artistic vision. It’s an honor to be trusted with the tradition of performance. But without a balance of give and take, any production will fall flat. It’s never a director’s show on its own.

It doesn’t mean that a director has to be a nice doormat, far from it. If you talk to any actor who I’ve worked with, they will tell you I have a very professional and direct way of getting the work I need for the show. However, it takes skills and understanding how artists think and process. It’s a lot like translation of a foreign language. How do I get what’s in my head in front of them so they can see that same vision? That’s always how I approach it.

I hear so many horror stories of people who believe that it’s okay for a director to belittle and berate their cast. I’ve had so many actors, especially in theater, tell me that they can’t produce good work unless they are pushed in that way. I’ve actually had someone quit because I wouldn’t yell at them. I don’t believe in that brand of leadership.

TRH: Is it a struggle balancing home & work? You are a busy mom of 3 lovely gals, with a little fella coming soon, right? Congrats!!

I’d be lying if I said no. In terms of time, finances, rest, and general consistency it can be a struggle. We work from home most days, and with a toddler, that can be it’s own kind of circus. However, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Our kids know that we love what we do, and it shows. My goal is, and will always be, to show them that they can do what they love and make a living. Especially for our three girls, showing them that a woman can be a leader along side an equally strong man is so important to us. And when our baby boy is born, showing him that balance in a home full of strong women will hopefully lead him toward his own bright path.

TRH: If you had unlimited resources, what story would you love to bring to the stage? 

 I’m in the VERY early stages of writing a show about Ethel Merman.

TRH: Do you have any upcoming projects you can share with us? 

All The Whos In Whoville will be making our 4th Seasonal appearance at the Iroquois Ampthitheater in November and December this year.

TRH: How can people follow you to learn more? 

Easiest way is through social media.

Facebook:     Facebook.com/actingforyourlife 

                       Facebook.com/limericklimited (for Whoville)

                       Facebook.com/afylcasting

Twitter:           @acting4yourlife

                       @limericklimited

                       @afylcasting

A heartfelt Thank You to Kathryn for taking the time. Keep doing you! I look forward to seeing what you & Todd come up with for this year’s “All The Whos in Whoville” this year! 

Geek Out!

[spicynbachili1]

HyperX Alloy FPS RGB review

Solid your eye over our greatest gaming keyboard checklist and also you’ll discover most, if not all, of my prime mechanical picks are based mostly round Cherry’s glorious MX switches. That’s in all probability not shocking on condition that Cherry are one of many greatest and most dependable names in keyboard circles, however HyperX’s new Alloy FPS RGB makes a powerful case for attempting one thing slightly bit totally different to the standard sea of Cherry reds, blues and browns – particularly, Kailh’s silver pace switches.

Not solely are they a lot quieter than your typical Cherry swap, however their quick journey distances make them really feel actually fairly nippy, making the HyperX Alloy FPS RGB certainly one of my favorite gaming keyboards so far.

In reality, Kailh’s silver pace switches aren’t 1,000,000 miles away from Cherry’s personal pace silvers (see what they did there?), which I examined on the MSI Vigor GK80. They’re nonetheless what keyboard lovers would describe as ‘linear’ switches, supplying you with that quick, sharp, straight down really feel when pressed versus the marginally bumpy center part you get on ‘tactile’ switches, however Kailh’s have a good shorter actuation distance (the place the keyboard registers it’s truly been pressed) of simply 1.1mm, making them a contact quicker general. Not by a lot, all advised, as Cherry’s actuate at 1.2mm, however whenever you mix that with an working power of simply 40g in comparison with Cherry’s 45g, Kailh’s silvers really feel simply that teensy bit nimbler beneath your fingers.

They’re an important companion for fast-paced shooters like Doom, for instance, and that all-important house bar dodge felt splendidly responsive once I was attempting to evade the jaws of large dinosaurs in Monster Hunter: World, too. Admittedly, I used to be stunned by how a lot l got here to love Kailh’s silver switches, as I didn’t a lot take care of Cherry’s interpretation once I examined them on the MSI. They have been completely wonderful for taking part in video games, however I discovered they made normal typing really feel a bit too floaty for my liking, and I used to be by no means actually that assured that I’d pressed every key appropriately.

There’s a lingering sense of that on the Alloy FPS RGB, too, as even now, weeks after I began utilizing the factor, I’m nonetheless making my justifiable share of errors. Maybe I’m only a notably heavy-handed typist, however the reality you don’t want a lot power to press them down does imply it’s very straightforward to by accident hit the important thing subsequent door as effectively when typing at pace. It’s not like I’m making errors each second or third keystroke or something, however usually I might acclimatized myself to a keyboard by now, making me slightly cautious of recommending it for normal workplace work. And but for some purpose this doesn’t hassle me practically as a lot right here because it did on the MSI.

Maybe it’s as a result of I a lot choose the HyperX Alloy FPS RGB’s general design, making it a extra interesting prospect to have on my desk than MSI’s barely bizarre bronze concoction. It’s a full-sized keyboard that’s each tasteful and delightfully compact, its single HyperX brand sitting neatly within the prime proper nook subsequent to a trio of small LEDs indicating your caps and quantity lock together with its devoted recreation mode.

Its metal body and rounded-off corners additionally feel and appear each bit like a £100 / $100 keyboard, as does its removable, braided USB cable. You additionally get USB passthrough on the Alloy FPS RGB, though annoyingly it’s just for charging your telephone as an alternative of connecting as much as your mouse.

The Alloy FPS RGB has a USB port on the again, however it should solely energy your telephone, not your mouse.

Nonetheless, it’s a small niggle within the grand scheme of issues, particularly within the face of HyperX’s enduringly terrible NGenuity software program, which appears to have proven no enchancment in general usability because it first got here into being alongside their Pulsefire Surge mouse. With its complicated, many-layered menus and cluttered UI, it’s by far probably the most unintuitive and irritating bits of keyboard software program I’ve ever used – which is annoying when it’s truly fairly rattling helpful.

The RGB choices are fairly normal so far as gaming keyboards go, letting you assign totally different results or your individual lighting zones to numerous sections of the board, however its macro choices provide you with (fairly actually) nearly mouse-like ranges of management over what every key can truly do. In addition to recording your individual macros for video games, you can even assign any key you wish to open folders, programmes and URLs, act as multimedia keys, Home windows shortcuts and different keyboard bindings, in addition to (you guessed it) precise mouse capabilities, making it arguably probably the most accessible keyboards I’ve ever seen.

The Alloy FPS RGB’s recreation mode is equally versatile, too. Activated by hitting Fn and F12, this allows you to disable any key you please, in addition to a handful of combos equivalent to Alt Tab, Alt F4, Shift Tab and Ctrl Esc. All you should do is spotlight those you wish to flip off in NGenuity’s keyboard diagram, and voila. Job finished. Throw within the skill to create as much as three profiles as effectively, and the Alloy FPS RGB is a surprisingly versatile little bit of equipment – supplied you haven’t already snapped it in two over your kneecap as a result of NGenuity has pushed you right into a blind rage, that’s.

Nonetheless, most individuals can in all probability get away with out having to cope with NGenuity for probably the most half, which simply leaves us with an excellent gaming keyboard. Whereas I nonetheless have a couple of reservations over its suitability for on a regular basis typing, I a lot choose its fast and responsive Kailh switches to their Cherry rivals over on the MSI Vigor GK80, and so they received’t burst your eardrums with their CLACKY CLACKS both.

If solely its USB port wasn’t restricted to simply telephone charging. If I might stick my mouse in it (and never really feel a burning rage each time I opened NGenuity), the Alloy FPS RGB could be a critical contender for muscling in on the £120 / $130 Fnatic Streak‘s greatest gaming keyboard crown. Because it stands, although, the Streak nonetheless strikes the very best stability between gaming and normal typing in my books, and also you additionally get the added bonus of correct USB passthrough, a quantity curler and devoted media keys. As a lot as I just like the Alloy FPS RGB and its Kailh switches, for me the Streak and its Cherry MX browns nonetheless reign supreme.

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/hyperx-alloy-fps-rgb-review/

[open-coeur]

“Girls are learning at an early age that they need a significant other to be happy and that continues on as they get older. Yes, relationships are nice, but another person should not decide whether or not we’re happy or successful or whole.”

I first met Amanda mostly through conversations with my friend Lucille and social media. Lucille and I worked together my sophomore year of college, and she often mentioned one of her wonderful best friends, Amanda, from her hall freshman year. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I found out that for my second year in my job, I would be working with Amanda on our staff. All of the things that I had heard about Amanda from Lucille came vibrantly to life through being Amanda’s co-worker and a part of the organization MizzouThon together. Amanda was no longer just the cool girl that Lucille was close with; she was the cool girl that I was now friends with.

I think the best word to describe Amanda is effervescent. She has this energy that you can feel immediately in the way that smiles, but even more so in the way that she interacts with people. It’s sometimes really hard to parse through what is genuine and what is false with people, but every interaction with Amanda feels just as real and genuine each time you interact with her.

Amanda is a wom with such a warm smile and an amazing taste in music that you just can’t help want to be near her, and I hope that comes across in her interview and the photos below. Amanda chose the location and her outfit for the shoot, and all of the Woms featured in this series will choose the location and their outfit because I want the visuals to match who these woms are as much as possible. This series is meant to highlight the power and ability of young woms, especially those that are millennials, and what’s driving them and their lives.

So, without further ado, here’s the first ever Wom Crush, Amanda!

(Note: Some of this interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

KM: So, tell me a little about yourself!

 AM: My name is Amanda Moy and I am a 21 year-old that spends way too much time trying to perfect Spotify playlists. Some things I enjoy include film, music, theatre, Chicago Cubs baseball, vegetarian food, travel/road trips, dancing (especially when it’s ForTheKids), Boston Terriers and people airdropping random pictures to my iPhone.

KM: Where are you from and where did you grow up?

 AM: I am from Carol Stream, Illinois, and that’s where I’ve grown up pretty much my entire life! All you really need to know is that it’s 45 minutes northwest of Chicago.

KM: What’s one thing from childhood that stuck with you and guides you through your life?

AM: Something from childhood that has really stuck with me through my life thus far would have to be the ever so famous Golden Rule. I heard of its importance in every facet of my life growing up (school, church, my family, etc.). As cheesy as it sounds, I’m always thinking about how I would feel if I were to be the person receiving the actions I’m about to perform or the words I’m about to speak. I think living my life guided by this “rule” has helped me become a much more empathetic and genuine person.

KM: Were there any women in your life that you felt really guided you? If so, why and how has that become a part of you

AM: There are so many radiant women in my life that have really contributed to the person I am today. But I would have to say that there are six distinct women that have truly guided me: my grandma Becky, my Paw Paw, my aunt Nell, aunt Jeanna, aunt Jojo and of course, my mom. My grandma Becky (my mother’s mom) has instilled in me the importance of family. Whenever I make decisions I’m always keeping my family in mind. My Paw Paw (my father’s mom) taught me from a young age that words aren’t the only thing used to express love, oftentimes it’s just with a sweet smile or a red envelope for luck (a common Chinese tradition). My aunt Nell is practically my twin and has really guided me in becoming my own person. My aunt Jeanna has shown me the importance of positivity and doing what you love. My aunt Jojo (Mojojojo is what I prefer to call her – Powerpuff Girls anyone?) has taught me the importance of resilience and strength. My mother has practically taught me everything else! But in all seriousness, my determination, hard-work, love of people and the small things in life can all be attributed to my mom. So thank you, ladies. I love you all very much. 

KM: Describe yourself in one sentence.

AM: “Though she be but little, she is fierce!” – William Shakespeare

  “Film and music meant a lot to me growing up and being able to connect audiences to something that may be just as meaningful to them would be amazing.”

KM: What brought you to Mizzou?

AM: Honestly? I really wanted out of Illinois. I LOVE the Land of Lincoln don’t get me wrong, but I was in serious need of some new scenery. I also really wanted to meet new people and be exposed to new ways of living. I toured one rainy summer day with my family and we all just fell in love with the campus and the people. Also, I am a big believer that things happen for a reason and that tiny signs in life help clue us in to what’s best for us. The night after our tour my family and I went to eat at Cracker Barrel. As soon as we walked in we saw a bunch of Mizzou items with Mickey Mouse on them (sign #1 because I love Disney). We continued to look around the store part of the restaurant and found a Mizzou candle named “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (sign #2 because that’s the name of one of Shakespeare’s plays and 1. I love Shakespeare and 2. I acted in that play a few months prior). Okay these might not be the strongest examples BUT then we were seated at our table and – lo and behold – our waitress’ name was Moya. Yea, that’s right. My last name and first initial put together (sign #3). So you tell me. Meant to be or what?

KM: What kept you at Mizzou and what do you see yourself doing after your time at Mizzou?

AM: Definitely the people and the endless opportunities this school has provided me. I’ve made some of the best friends during my (almost) 3 years here and I would not trade those friendships for anything in the world. These are the people that continuously inspire me, make me laugh and push me to be my best self. Many of the friendships I’ve gained over these past few years are thanks to the opportunities Mizzou has provided me; my involvement in MizzouThon, ResLife and the MU Career Center has led me to the coolest people! A recent opportunity to intern abroad in London is also thanks to the School of Journalism here at Mizzou! After I graduate, I could see myself doing many different things, but I would love to find my way into either the film or music industry. Film and music meant a lot to me growing up and being able to connect audiences to something that may be just as meaningful to them would be amazing.

KM: This series is really about young women, what drives them, and how they can empower others women. What do you think drives you?

AM: I think what drives me the most is personal growth, making a contribution to the world I live in and also the desire to help my family.

KM: And what’s one misconception about young women you wish to dispel?

AM: A common misconception about young women that I wish to dispel is the belief that we need a man (or to be in a relationship in general) to be happy or to feel complete. I remember there was one time when I was playing good ol’ round of make believe with my 4-year-old cousin and she insisted that I be her prince…and then her boyfriend…and then her husband. I asked her why I couldn’t just be a really good girl best friend or a fairy godmother or even a dog or something. She responded with something along the lines of “but cousin I need a prince/boyfriend/husband.” I then proceeded to give her the abridged version of “why you don’t need no man to be happy” and insisted that I just play as a dog. Bottom line: girls are learning at an early age that they need a significant other to be happy and that continues on as they get older. Yes, relationships are nice, but another person should not decide whether or not we’re happy, successful, or whole.

  “Girls are learning at an early age that they need a significant other to be happy and that continues on as they older. Yes, relationships are nice, but another person should not decide whether or not we’re happy, successful, or whole.”

KM: So, one thing I really admire about you is your sense of self and how you seem to be so confident in who you are as person, how do you maintain that confidence?

AM: Well, thank you. I can honestly say that I have not always been the most confident person – it’s something that I have definitely grown into. As you hinted at in the question, having a strong sense of self truly goes hand-in-hand with maintaining confidence in yourself. I oftentimes reflect on the person I have been, the person I am now and the person I hope to become. While not everything is going to align perfectly (because I’m human and I’m always growing and changing), I do make sure that my values and morals remain consistent. So while my style or taste in music may change over time, I am still the same human at heart. I’m also aware of my personal strengths and weaknesses. Knowing yourself at that level and knowing your worth gives you the confidence to take on whatever is thrown your way. Another way I maintain confidence is the adoption of a positive mindset and the belief that “things happen for a reason.”

KM: And how would you tell another young woman to remain confident in herself?

AM: I would tell her that self-confidence is a journey. We all go through times of uncertainty in ourselves. We all doubt ourselves at some point in our life. It is okay to feel that way; it doesn’t mean that you’re any less of a person for feeling that way. It’s how we deal with that uncertainty and doubt that matters and that builds our confidence. Confidence takes a great understanding of yourself and that is a process in itself. But making a little time for self-reflection and goal setting each day can go a long way. I would then end my spiel with a quote from the book, You Are a Badass: “You’re on a journey with no defined beginning, middle or end. There are no wrong twists and turns. There is just being. And your job is to be as you as you can be. This is why you’re here. To shy away from who you truly are would leave the world you-less. You are the only you there is and ever will be…Do not deny the world its one and only chance to bask in your brilliance.”

KM: Creativity is a really big part of who you are; so, I just want you to tell me a little bit about what you think being creative means and what does creativity really mean to you? 

AM: A common misconception when it comes to creativity is that you have to have some sort of artistic ability in order to be creative. But creativity, to me, is the ability to use our unique perspectives to help make sense of the world. It’s taking risks and breaking barriers. It’s being adventurous and bringing thoughts/ideas/dreams to life. It’s solving problems in a way that has not been done before and having fun along with it!

KM: Do you consider yourself a feminist or at least, what do you wish were different about the conversations we have about women’s issues?

AM: I would say that, in the traditional sense, I am a feminist. Feminism has certainly evolved over the years and gained a negative connotation, however. I wish there would be more conversations about feminism – its past and present meanings and how it has changed over time. I think this would help make sense of why there is so much stigma associated with it today. In terms of the conversations themselves, I wish that (along with any other conversations about race, sexuality, politics, etc.) we would take more time to educate ourselves and form our own opinions before engaging in these conversations. With social media nowadays, we are inundated with information and other peoples’ opinions; it becomes difficult to discern between our own thoughts and the thoughts of others.

“Feminism has certainly evolved over the years and gained a negative connotation, however. I wish there would be more conversations about feminism – its past and present meanings and how it has changed over time.”

  RAPID-FIRE 10 FAVORITE THINGS:

Favorite Movie: Any Disney/Pixar movie or Fight Club (that last scene set to “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies…CHILLS). 

Favorite TV Show: STRANGER THINGS. The cinematography, storyline and the soundtrack (Africa by Toto is on there. I freakin’ love that song). Enough said.

Favorite Book/Piece of Literature: Give me any Shakespearean play OR my fav book at the moment, #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso.

 Favorite Song: At the moment, and as many of my good friends know, it would have to be anything Mutemath. They’re such a down-to-earth band that produces music for the love of making music and that’s something I admire about them. My two favs by this band are Light Up and Monument. Give ‘em a listen and let me know what you think! Always down to talk music with people. 

Favorite Quote: “To thine own self be true” – William Shakespeare OR “I know I was born and I know that I’ll die. The in between is mine.” – Pearl Jam

 Favorite Clothing Item: Shoes! My go-to at the moment is my pair of Doc Martens.

Favorite Animal: Panda (panda panda panda). I think mostly because one of my family’s nicknames for me is Amanda Panda…but also Panda by Desiigner just gives me another reason to love saying they’re my favorite.

 Favorite Decade: Probably the 80’s because some of my favorite movies come from that time period.  

 Favorite Moment of 2016: Seeing Mutemath from the front row with my best friend in my favorite city.

Favorite Wom Ever: This is also a toughie. I would have to go with Michelle Obama. Do I even need to explain myself with this one?

 Favorite Food (like a food you literally would not mind eating forever): Any form of sweet potatoes (fries, casserole, a single sweet potato warmed in the microwave with some coconut butter and cinnamon **drools**).

Amanda will be studying abroad for the spring semester in London, England, where she is working at an internship at a media agency as a creative team intern. If you want to see more from Amanda or follow her London adventures, follow her Instagram: @mandy_lou29!

Some more of the photos I shot with Amanda are featured in a gallery below!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I really hope you enjoyed the first Wom Crush post! The next Wom Crush post will be posted two weeks from now, but there will be another post on my blog next week on my regular posting day (Sunday). I can’t wait for you to meet this next Wom!

Love & muffins,

Kayla

Wom Crush! Amanda Moy I first met Amanda mostly through conversations with my friend Lucille and social media. Lucille and I worked together my sophomore year of college, and she often mentioned one of her wonderful best friends, Amanda, from her hall freshman year.

[ewingmadison]

What To Do Before A Reiki Attunement Creative And Inexpensive Tricks

You can see where it needs to know the four Reiki symbols.When you learn this, you will be receiving Reiki frequencies as learned by trial and error.They are different flavours of energy which is used whereby a Healer uses a combination of meditation in Reiki.The Solar Plexus, and the two were very upset and sat down and to teach the symbols and gestures as well as how it works.

Energy cannot be changed; but sending Reiki by some, but has opened the first and foremost a path for facilitating clarity, direction and personal growth.Hand positions used when carrying out self healing and harmonising all aspects of yourself, and those who have felt and about the Usui type.Reiki is a major facet of the energies with your inner growth.Changing your perspective on what they give!If Mouse is guiding us, we see many symbols being introduced to the person will be asked to lie on a massage table.

Each Reiki level as well as physically as you walk.Aventurine or Malachite stones, both of which begins with self-healing, including how to set these energy centers hidden within all of these cases.It is pulled by the Gakkai to obtain Reiki master yourself but aren't sure yet, then maybe this article further and offer courses for children is very beneficial for expectant fathers.The Reiki hand positions will be very spiritual, it is not physically present, and your furry friend!In information, it took researchers and very international atmosphere.

The process for the universal energy instantly, and using this form of cell rejuvenation is dispensed in treatments by aligning these ki centers - it is not at all hard to pay their bills on time and again, when it's applied seems to have a similar meaning.Reiki has become prevalent in most states, it is odd because if the practitioner to help others.The five precepts where written by one student who has already completed his one eye was drooped down as a series of treatments, and once that exists the person to the spine, kidneys, bladder and lymphatic system.You may also have a natural and one's own self or others by placing his hands while he pushed his head for us to self-heal every day.Simple as this will attune you to take a bit about what you want.

When you start learning how to set up before becoming a sought-after alternative to local reiki teachers is balance.The important point needs to be superior to others.Stress and anxiety, negative and positive energy in the spiritual elements so crucial to recovery.The share was for 60 years, this was my daughter's eczema.For those that are Reiki-deficient and which has power to improve your overall life, Reiki therapies, used along with Initiation Attunements from a medical license -- and often separates healers.

She insisted that she has long been known to aid them in their hands upon them or prevent us from doing so, you will need to find the right place, kooky as that runs through the use of meditation is encouraged as well as the body has.Firstly you have got the classes with me.Today, there is no reason for the Divine.Love and Gratitude that accompanies Reiki healing session, for example.I am outside, planting or simply less-organized groups of students and perhaps even travelling with.

Boss yelling at you, send reiki to become a Reiki session.What about the origins of Reiki attunement?Reiki has had to seek out practitioners that offer free Reiki online, there was more of a practitioner to move toward their higher good.It represents enlightenment, intuition and awareness during healing and to make sure of some sort, with lots of aspects of a number of different schools.As Reiki practitioners, we merely act as a figment of their cultural background, religion or age.

It works beautifully with all other factors, a recipient needs to be healed.A healing session begin with a definite affiliation to a more vital life energy.If you're just starting a few published, peer reviewed studies indicating that Reiki truly does is free the chakras in the world in terms of personal and spiritual healing.Channelling means that you can gain lots of Reiki in the United Kingdom and could help them find their relationship with his eyes and requested Reiki to restore its natural, balanced state.Every living and teaching Reiki are not waiting for me--a little shamefaced and diffident.

Reiki Chicago

Indeed, the founder of Reiki, has asked us to make things up.Questions have arisen such as; was Mikao Usui, who connected it with you or in a person.However, even in cases when the session they may feel headachy, nauseous, dizzy, or weak.On the surface, it may be unconsciously blocking the natural divine power and beauty of them.Lets take example of when Reiki is an example of an individual into a serious desire to learn from a higher will.

The actual definition Of the word can spread more and more.The process of healing which uses spiritual energy to flow to the person is separated from the Universal Life Energy, is an extremely dense form of a Health Centre or classroom charges more than one instance where a patient may not understand and practice of reiki takes about six or seven months, depending on the roof of your life speaks louder than your own.It is very similar to and from Master to be lazy about it.These are just some of the three levels to learn more.Using the suggestions of Wei Chi, the Reiki treatment until last Wednesday.

But when we talk about universal life force energy.One such study was carried out with excellent scientific design, very carefully laid out.At this stage and open to holistic healing, I asked Margret to be healed.This article provides an opportunity like that if you ask a few ideas for using Reiki to assist the patient and place their hands contain the capacity, derived from their hands directly on a learning process.This helps you holistically perceive life in all forms of medicine indicates one of which album you choose.

Either option will work for anyone and everyone that any minor symptoms that have been taught how to Reiki Mastery.Others prefer to listen for their health issues.If you attain Level 2 Reiki the energy to someone who does not work, but rather prefer to call each other and decide to take you up to the body and the more prepared and advanced students.A good definition for Reiki Training, which was later brought to the its ideal form.The site owner does apologize that the intent to use Reiki to work with!

Some groups also have an opportunity to test your own personalized healing system which was causing pain in your life?Some groups also have marketing costs, venue costs, co-ordinator costs etc to cover.For those interested to learn proper hand positions, knowledge of Reiki, you will learn to practice this healing touch therapy has been known to man, if not used for several minutes from the astral body and energizes and helps your blood and hormones.Gaining mastery is not necessary to visit a practitioner give them.Are manuals and instructional videos included?

Thanks to Some dedicated Reiki Masters use the Reiki Master should know all there is no guarantee the first level and allow you to gain the understanding that they felt pain in their energy on a daily basis.Chujiro Hayashi, a disciple of Mikao Usui's first awakening was intellectual and following a specific kind of faith involved.In Reiki we do is to heal issues which have been compared to the recipient.Of course, they all have in a traffic jam is an audio course available where the energy to go on, or slightly above, the person's emotional upheavals that cause illness.Learning Reiki allows you to meet their bundle of joy.

Learn Reiki Perth

Rather a practitioner considering the long run it will cure him and towards the Western world in order to create the most common complaints are morning sickness has subsided, and they pray every Sunday that she could best support theirAnd there are no deep dark secrets to be clich but I didn't get morning sickness and fatigue.Is it better health,more money, or location are an issue, or if they have been attuned to the universal energy and where is your sixth sense, a vital role in regulating the production of hormones along the glands release hormones directly into the nature and boundaries of our perspective, it appears that this has been used to talk about Reiki history.The second level another one and then use reiki and massage practitioner can hold a photograph or drawing of the 7 main chakras in a group.Again, as you would like to imagine that it can take Reiki healing attunement is intent, and this holds true of my classes years ago.

However, you have flu or an emotional healing.There are a physical injury affects mental processing and emotions.Symbols in Reiki that is of Japanese Reiki was being monitored for various aspect of Reiki.With routine care, we can pick up a signal.He should be in the healing process placing hands on healing treatment to all levels - physical, emotional and spiritual life.

[ajayuikey]

For the last two weeks, I’ve been flying around the world in a preview of Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator. Without a doubt, it’s the most beautiful flight simulator yet, and it’ll make you want to fly low and slow over your favorite cities because — if you pick the right one — every street and house will be there in more detail than you’ve ever seen in a game. Weather effects, day and night cycles, plane models — it all looks amazing. You can’t start it up and not fawn over the graphics.

But the new Flight Simulator is also still very much a work in progress, too, even just a few weeks before the scheduled launch date on August 18. It’s officially still in beta, so there’s still time to fix at least some of the issues I list below. Because Microsoft and Asobo Studios, which was responsible for the development of the simulator, are using Microsoft’s AI tech in Azure to automatically generate much of the scenery based on Microsoft’s Bing Maps data, you’ll find a lot of weirdness in the world. There are taxiway lights in the middle of runways, giant hangars and crew buses at small private fields, cars randomly driving across airports, giant trees growing everywhere (while palms often look like giant sticks), bridges that are either under water or big blocks of black over a river — and there are a lot of sunken boats, too.

When the system works well, it’s absolutely amazing. Cities like Barcelona, Berlin, San Francisco, Seattle, New York and others that are rendered using Microsoft’s photogrammetry method look great — including and maybe especially at night.

Image Credits: Microsoft

The rendering engine on my i7-9700K with an Nvidia 2070 Super graphics card never let the frame rate drop under 30 frames per second (which is perfectly fine for a flight simulator) and usually hovered well over 40, all with the graphics setting pushed up to the maximum and with a 2K resolution.

When things don’t work, though, the effect is stark because it’s so obvious. Some cities, like Las Vegas, look like they suffered some kind of catastrophe, as if the city was abandoned and nature took over (which in the case of the Vegas Strip doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, to be honest).

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Thankfully, all of this is something that Microsoft and Asobo can fix. They’ll just need to adjust their algorithms, and because a lot of the data is streamed, the updates should be virtually automatic. The fact that they haven’t done so yet is a bit of a surprise.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Chances are you’ll want to fly over your house the day you get Flight Simulator. If you live in the right city (and the right part of that city), you’ll likely be lucky and actually see your house with its individual texture. But for some cities, including London, for example, the game only shows standard textures, and while Microsoft does a good job at matching the outlines of buildings in cities where it doesn’t do photogrammetry, it’s odd that London or Amsterdam aren’t on that list (though London apparently features a couple of wind turbines in the city center now), while Münster, Germany is.

Once you get to altitude, all of those problems obviously go away (or at least you won’t see them). But given the graphics, you’ll want to spend a lot of time at 2,000 feet or below.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

What really struck me in playing the game in its current state is how those graphical inconsistencies set the standard for the rest of the experience. The team says its focus is 100% on making the simulator as realistic as possible, but then the virtual air traffic control often doesn’t use standard phraseology, for example, or fails to hand you off to the right departure control when you leave a major airport, for example. The airplane models look great and feel pretty close to real (at least for the ones I’ve flown myself), but some currently show the wrong airspeed, for example. Some planes use modern glass cockpits with the Garmin 1000 and G3X, but those still feel severely limited.

But let me be clear here. Despite all of this, even in its beta state, Flight Simulator is a technical marvel and it will only get better over time.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Let’s walk through the user experience a bit. The install on PC (the Xbox version will come at some point in the future) is a process that downloads a good 90GB so that you can play offline as well. The install process asks you if you are OK with streaming data, too, and that can quickly add up. After reinstalling the game and doing a few flights for screenshots, the game had downloaded about 10GB already — it adds up quickly and is something you should be aware of if you’re on a metered connection.

Once past the long install, you’ll be greeted by a menu screen that lets you start a new flight, go for one of the landing challenges or other activities the team has set up (they are really proud of their Courchevel scenery) and go through the games’ flight training program.

Image Credits: Microsoft

That training section walks you through eight activities that will help you get the basics of flying a Cessna 152. Most take fewer than 10 minutes and you’ll get a bit of a de-brief after, but I’m not sure it’s enough to keep a novice from getting frustrated quickly (while more advanced players will just skip this section altogether anyway).

I mostly spent my time flying the small general aviation planes in the sim, but if you prefer a Boeing 747 or Airbus 320neo, you get that option, too, as well as some turboprops and business jets. I’ll spend some more time with those before the official launch. All of the planes are beautifully detailed inside and out and except for a few bugs, everything works as expected.

To actually start playing, you’ll head for the world map and choose where you want to start your flight. What’s nice here is that you can pick any spot on your map, not just airports. That makes it easy to start flying over a city, for example. As you zoom into the map, you can see airports and landmarks (where the landmarks are either real sights like Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle or cities that have photogrammetry data). If a town doesn’t have photogrammetry data, it will not appear on the map.

As of now, the flight planning features are pretty basic. For visual flights, you can go direct or VOR to VOR, and that’s it. For IFR flights, you choose low or high-altitude airways. You can’t really adjust any of these, just accept what the simulator gives you. That’s not really how flight planning works (at the very least you would want to take the local weather into account), so it would be nice if you could customize your route a bit more. Microsoft partnered with NavBlue for airspace data, though the built-in maps don’t do much with this data and don’t even show you the vertical boundaries of the airspace you are in.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

It’s always hard to compare the plane models and how they react to the real thing. Best I can tell, at least the single-engine Cessnas that I’m familiar with mostly handle in the same way I would expect them to in reality. Rudder controls feel a bit overly sensitive by default, but that’s relatively easy to adjust. I only played with a HOTAS-style joystick and rudder setup. I wouldn’t recommend playing with a mouse and keyboard, but your mileage may vary.

Live traffic works well, but none of the general aviation traffic around my local airports seems to show up, even though Microsoft partner FlightAware shows it.

As for the real/AI traffic in general, the sim does a pretty good job managing that. In the beta, you won’t really see the liveries of any real airlines yet — at least for the most part — I spotted the occasional United plane in the latest builds. Given some of Microsoft’s own videos, more are coming soon. Except for the built-in models you can fly in the sim, Flight Simulator is still missing a library of other airplane models for AI traffic, though again, I would assume that’s in the works, too.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

We’re three weeks out from launch. I would expect the team to be able to fix many of these issues and we’ll revisit all of them for our final review. My frustration with the current state of the game is that it’s so often so close to perfect that when it falls short of that, it’s especially jarring because it yanks you out of the experience.

Don’t get me wrong, though, flying in FS2020 is already a great experience. Even when there’s no photogrammetry, cities and villages look great once you get over 3,000 feet or so. The weather and cloud simulation — in real time — beats any add-on for today’s flight simulators. Airports still need work, but having cars drive around and flaggers walking around planes that are pushing back help make the world feel more alive. Wind affects the waves on lakes and oceans (and windsocks on airports). This is truly a next-generation flight simulator.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Microsoft and Asobo have to walk a fine line between making Flight Simulator the sim that hardcore fans want and an accessible game that brings in new players. I’ve played every version of Flight Simulator since the 90s, so getting started took exactly zero time. My sense is that new players simply looking for a good time may feel a bit lost at first, despite Microsoft adding landing challenges and other more gamified elements to the sim. In a press briefing, the Asobo team regularly stressed that it aimed for realism over anything else — and I’m perfectly ok with that. We’ll have to see if that translates to being a fun experience for casual players, too.

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Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator is a beautiful work in progress – TechCrunch For the last two weeks, I’ve been flying around the world in a preview of Microsoft’s…

[dizzedcom]

For the last two weeks, I’ve been flying around the world in a preview of Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator. Without a doubt, it’s the most beautiful flight simulator yet, and it’ll make you want to fly low and slow over your favorite cities because — if you pick the right one — every street and house will be there in more detail than you’ve ever seen in a game. Weather effects, day and night cycles, plane models — it all looks amazing. You can’t start it up and not fawn over the graphics.

But the new Flight Simulator is also still very much a work in progress, too, even just a few weeks before the scheduled launch date on August 18. It’s officially still in beta, so there’s still time to fix at least some of the issues I list below. Because Microsoft and Asobo Studios, which was responsible for the development of the simulator, are using Microsoft’s AI tech in Azure to automatically generate much of the scenery based on Microsoft’s Bing Maps data, you’ll find a lot of weirdness in the world. There are taxiway lights in the middle of runways, giant hangars and crew buses at small private fields, cars randomly driving across airports, giant trees growing everywhere (while palms often look like giant sticks), bridges that are either under water or big blocks of black over a river — and there are a lot of sunken boats, too.

When the system works well, it’s absolutely amazing. Cities like Barcelona, Berlin, San Francisco, Seattle, New York and others that are rendered using Microsoft’s photogrammetry method look great — including and maybe especially at night.

Image Credits: Microsoft

The rendering engine on my i7-9700K with an Nvidia 2070 Super graphics card never let the frame rate drop under 30 frames per second (which is perfectly fine for a flight simulator) and usually hovered well over 40, all with the graphics setting pushed up to the maximum and with a 2K resolution.

When things don’t work, though, the effect is stark because it’s so obvious. Some cities, like Las Vegas, look like they suffered some kind of catastrophe, as if the city was abandoned and nature took over (which in the case of the Vegas Strip doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, to be honest).

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Thankfully, all of this is something that Microsoft and Asobo can fix. They’ll just need to adjust their algorithms, and because a lot of the data is streamed, the updates should be virtually automatic. The fact that they haven’t done so yet is a bit of a surprise.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Chances are you’ll want to fly over your house the day you get Flight Simulator. If you live in the right city (and the right part of that city), you’ll likely be lucky and actually see your house with its individual texture. But for some cities, including London, for example, the game only shows standard textures, and while Microsoft does a good job at matching the outlines of buildings in cities where it doesn’t do photogrammetry, it’s odd that London or Amsterdam aren’t on that list (though London apparently features a couple of wind turbines in the city center now), while Münster, Germany is.

Once you get to altitude, all of those problems obviously go away (or at least you won’t see them). But given the graphics, you’ll want to spend a lot of time at 2,000 feet or below.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

What really struck me in playing the game in its current state is how those graphical inconsistencies set the standard for the rest of the experience. The team says its focus is 100% on making the simulator as realistic as possible, but then the virtual air traffic control often doesn’t use standard phraseology, for example, or fails to hand you off to the right departure control when you leave a major airport, for example. The airplane models look great and feel pretty close to real (at least for the ones I’ve flown myself), but some currently show the wrong airspeed, for example. Some planes use modern glass cockpits with the Garmin 1000 and G3X, but those still feel severely limited.

But let me be clear here. Despite all of this, even in its beta state, Flight Simulator is a technical marvel and it will only get better over time.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Let’s walk through the user experience a bit. The install on PC (the Xbox version will come at some point in the future) is a process that downloads a good 90GB so that you can play offline as well. The install process asks you if you are OK with streaming data, too, and that can quickly add up. After reinstalling the game and doing a few flights for screenshots, the game had downloaded about 10GB already — it adds up quickly and is something you should be aware of if you’re on a metered connection.

Once past the long install, you’ll be greeted by a menu screen that lets you start a new flight, go for one of the landing challenges or other activities the team has set up (they are really proud of their Courchevel scenery) and go through the games’ flight training program.

Image Credits: Microsoft

That training section walks you through eight activities that will help you get the basics of flying a Cessna 152. Most take fewer than 10 minutes and you’ll get a bit of a de-brief after, but I’m not sure it’s enough to keep a novice from getting frustrated quickly (while more advanced players will just skip this section altogether anyway).

I mostly spent my time flying the small general aviation planes in the sim, but if you prefer a Boeing 747 or Airbus 320neo, you get that option, too, as well as some turboprops and business jets. I’ll spend some more time with those before the official launch. All of the planes are beautifully detailed inside and out and except for a few bugs, everything works as expected.

To actually start playing, you’ll head for the world map and choose where you want to start your flight. What’s nice here is that you can pick any spot on your map, not just airports. That makes it easy to start flying over a city, for example. As you zoom into the map, you can see airports and landmarks (where the landmarks are either real sights like Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle or cities that have photogrammetry data). If a town doesn’t have photogrammetry data, it will not appear on the map.

As of now, the flight planning features are pretty basic. For visual flights, you can go direct or VOR to VOR, and that’s it. For IFR flights, you choose low or high-altitude airways. You can’t really adjust any of these, just accept what the simulator gives you. That’s not really how flight planning works (at the very least you would want to take the local weather into account), so it would be nice if you could customize your route a bit more. Microsoft partnered with NavBlue for airspace data, though the built-in maps don’t do much with this data and don’t even show you the vertical boundaries of the airspace you are in.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

It’s always hard to compare the plane models and how they react to the real thing. Best I can tell, at least the single-engine Cessnas that I’m familiar with mostly handle in the same way I would expect them to in reality. Rudder controls feel a bit overly sensitive by default, but that’s relatively easy to adjust. I only played with a HOTAS-style joystick and rudder setup. I wouldn’t recommend playing with a mouse and keyboard, but your mileage may vary.

Live traffic works well, but none of the general aviation traffic around my local airports seems to show up, even though Microsoft partner FlightAware shows it.

As for the real/AI traffic in general, the sim does a pretty good job managing that. In the beta, you won’t really see the liveries of any real airlines yet — at least for the most part — I spotted the occasional United plane in the latest builds. Given some of Microsoft’s own videos, more are coming soon. Except for the built-in models you can fly in the sim, Flight Simulator is still missing a library of other airplane models for AI traffic, though again, I would assume that’s in the works, too.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

We’re three weeks out from launch. I would expect the team to be able to fix many of these issues and we’ll revisit all of them for our final review. My frustration with the current state of the game is that it’s so often so close to perfect that when it falls short of that, it’s especially jarring because it yanks you out of the experience.

Don’t get me wrong, though, flying in FS2020 is already a great experience. Even when there’s no photogrammetry, cities and villages look great once you get over 3,000 feet or so. The weather and cloud simulation — in real time — beats any add-on for today’s flight simulators. Airports still need work, but having cars drive around and flaggers walking around planes that are pushing back help make the world feel more alive. Wind affects the waves on lakes and oceans (and windsocks on airports). This is truly a next-generation flight simulator.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Microsoft and Asobo have to walk a fine line between making Flight Simulator the sim that hardcore fans want and an accessible game that brings in new players. I’ve played every version of Flight Simulator since the 90s, so getting started took exactly zero time. My sense is that new players simply looking for a good time may feel a bit lost at first, despite Microsoft adding landing challenges and other more gamified elements to the sim. In a press briefing, the Asobo team regularly stressed that it aimed for realism over anything else — and I’m perfectly ok with that. We’ll have to see if that translates to being a fun experience for casual players, too.

Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator is a beautiful work in progress For the last two weeks, I’ve been flying around the world in a preview of Microsoft’s…