#this may exclude edits people put work in I guess I can understand that

[justfriendsbestthings]

Big side eye to fan accounts who put their watermark on pictures and videos they post even tho they didn’t take any of them. What do you get from all this gate keeping? Mhhhhhhhhhh

[hintsofhoney]

alright, *cracks fingers*. so. I’ve written up a transcript just to lay it all out for myself and get the most important parts. listen, everyone. for all intents and purposes and legal reasons, THIS WAS A DREAM. alright? I dreamt this. and he is literally the nicest human being ever so I don’t want to just like... put our whole convo out there like that, but I think he said some stuff that was important for people to hear so... here we go

my *dreamt* zoom call with thee crowley below the cut

The first five minutes (of my dream) was just a bunch of introduction stuff and talking about my favorite Supernatural seasons which eventually led to him telling me how they filmed the Season 8 finale (which they did over the span of three days, and in between takes the crew members were like dead silent, as to keep the moment going, which Mark thought was really cool. Said it was one of his favorite things they did on Supernatural.) Anyways, he eventually asked me if I had any questions, so, I’ll start there.

MARK: So, do you have any questions you want to ask me about aaaaaannyyyythingggg? 

ME: Um, I guess the number one thing I wanna know… um, so, I know you can’t speak for Dean and I don’t want to talk about Dean because you’re not Jensen, but, there’s like a lot of questions I guess or subtext or whatever concerning Dean’s sexuality and what not, but I want to know about demon Dean and Crowley’s relationship and if there was, I don’t know, anything like, any implied –

MARK: Well I think – I think you’re talking about… there’s a massive difference between sex and love. There’s a massive difference between, um, well, they can intertwine perfectly, that’s not the issue, but I mean you would believe with all the things that Crowley did for the Winchesters, that he was – that he very much loved Sam and Dean or loved who they are or what they are. To reduce it to, you know, a crush, or to something that – I mean, I don’t know, I think Crowley is very probably pansexual more than anything else; I don’t think anything phased him. I think, that’s why the whole stuff with Lucifer and licking the floor was kind of really stupidly boring for me because Crowley did weirder and crazier things on his own. I mean, it became this joke of trying to humiliate somebody who can’t be humiliated. There’s nothing you can humiliate Crowley with. So, that never sort of made sense, that was just a sort of writer’s glitch of thinking, “oooh, this would be funny to knock him down into subservience” and that’s what he does on a Wednesday, I mean it’s like the most un-inspiring thing. I think so much is projected onto the relationship between, certainly the four main characters, um, and, you know, look, getting comfortable with one’s sexuality and one’s identity is a massively complicated things, and if you want to live vicariously through what you believe people’s identity is and you can relate to that, great!  Who cares? I mean, can I be absolutely honest? Apart from – what I do care about, you know, don’t ever take this and piece me or misquote it, because it’s very, very specific – um, somebody stopping somebody being able to express their own identity or whatever is an issue for me. That will always be an issue for me. Um, we should all be treated equally, and we all have the rights to believe and follow those things that we wish to follow, but to project relationships onto characters is an odd thing to do. I mean, it’s wishful thinking in a lot of ways, I mean, actually it’s quite… it’s quite reasonable because in the past if you think about it, if you ask your parents or anyone else, the only way sexuality was used was to, uh, literally demonize somebody. It was only ever used to say somebody was bad because this who they’re in love with. You know, that’s, that’s the thing. And it’s a massive change in the world that we’re moving towards, I should say, uh – a lack of consequence for who one loves, apart from the obvious consequences of human nature. You know, political consequences for who one loves – I’ve just watched Pete Butteigieg being, you know, sitting in congress with his husband there with him; that’s the first time that’s ever happened in United States congress and I’m so proud of that. Not just because the man is gay and happily married – that’s not even the issue for me, it’s because he’s the best man for the job and one of the smartest people on the planet. You know, it’s like using sexual templates, as they were, or gender templates as they are, or orientation templates as they are, we always use to disclude people from things. They were always used to discriminate. You know, labeling somebody was a way of discrimination. And where as labels are very important, to ones self, and they’re very important politically and they’re very important socio-economically and they’re very important in all those aspects, I yearn for a time when nobody gives a damn. I really do. But I mean, we have to go through so much to get there. I mean, let’s be honest, you can’t, you know, right the wrongs of hundreds of years of oppression in 20 minutes by saying, “let’s all move forward”. It just doesn’t work that way, it never has. But there’s a responsibility there, that if you’re going to represent, that you represent all. That you don’t just represent you. So, one has to be careful with a television program or, or, you know, Misha or myself, or, not speaking for the boys, but just generally, um, you have to be careful that what you advocate is inclusive, not disinclusive. Not excluding people... and it’s so hard to frame these conversations, that they’re equitable, it’s so hard to do that. And so, you know, we spend years pointing out the inequity and the injustice and the unfairness of the whole situation, and… I don’t know if the trick is to rise above, or, uh, maybe it’s as simple as love and coming together as a human race and make it very difficult for people to discriminate and exclude based on gender, race, color, religion, any of the subsets of humanity that we’ve decided we have. So, I think personal responsibility is the most important thing, but if one is in a position of power on a TV show, you got to remember what you’re representing, that you have a, you know, you have to cover all or cover none. So, you know, but if you stick to a story and you have a story about a person or two people and their journey, that’s shining light on things. If you try to advocate for all, I think it becomes a little more complicated. Does that make sense?

so, i just feel like he said some important things there, but like I also don’t really understand what he’s getting at really, y’know? oh! also, he didn’t watch the finale lmao 

also! there’s this:

MARK: Because if you come down on one side or another, you’re admitting the sides, and that has its own political ramifications. If you push the ball up in the air and say, “you decide”, I don’t think that’s copping out. I think that’s, maybe not fulfilling everybody’s expectations, or not fulfilling everybody’s hopes, but at least you’re getting the question asked. You know, at least you’re getting the question asked. At least people are relating to it and going, “well, what if?”. Because it’s all “what if”, I mean, it’s a TV show, so it’s “what if”, you know? It’s not Misha being in love with Jensen, I mean as much as he loves Jensen, I don’t think that’s his thing – I mean you never know – but I’m saying yet again, I don’t exclude anything from anybody (I LITERALLY CAN’T BELIEVE HE SAID THIS LMAO). But to force my opinion or my identity belief upon a situation has a cost. It may be right, it may be absolutely right, and it may be necessary in many, many cases. But, in that circumstance, I think… there are a lot of people in the world that say that Jesus, for example, was anti-homosexual and that he was – and none of that is true, and none of that is provable in the New Testament, and I’m not talking about Leviticus and I’m not talking about early Bible and I’m not talking about the fact that more than 25,000 words have been changed in the King James edition and all of this stuff, but these things that people hold so sacred, the confusion that arises from that is being told that a man loving a man or a woman loving a woman or a man loving a man and a woman or whatever combination being there is either right or wrong because you’re being told by a pastor or the leaders of your church, is a very difficult thing to break down. I think what you have to do is at least put it out there so it’s visible, and so it becomes less and less deniable. And you know, people change over years, that’s the trouble with youth, is shit doesn’t move fast enough. “I need a decision now!”, and unfortunately, when you’re dealing with centuries of prejudice and centuries of un-enlightenment, I think that sometimes the best thing to do is reach as many people as possible and pose the question. And sometimes it’s essential to make a statement, absolutely, no question. It is essential to make a stand, in some circumstances. But to polarize a TV show, can be very disingenuous to those who need to go ask their own questions, who need to go say, “well, where does Jesus say this is wrong?” you know, if that’s your beliefs.

he also said, when we went off on a tangent about doom patrol:

MARK: There are issues that are being addressed here [on Doom Patrol] that are not being addressed on other shows, and yet again, we have the format, and I don’t know that Supernatural ever had the format because it was on the CW.

anywho, in conclusion, fuck the cw.

also, again, for all intents and purposes this was a dream I had :)))))))

[sukirichi]

heeeey do you have any advice for newbie writers?

writing advice for newbies!

disclaimer: the advice i’m going to give (funnily enough) is not something that i always personally do. i’ve been writing both fiction and non-fiction for years, i only came to tumblr because i wasn’t satisfied with how i kept pressuring myself to write “high literature” after gaining awards and recognition for my stories. my fanfiction here in this blog...it’s unrefined, definitely not what i used to write before because i’m a lot less serious about it and i’m just writing freely. but the advice i’ll list below is personally some stuff that has helped me a lot in my entire writing journey! Some are technical, some are personal! down below will also list some tumblr related writing advice! 

1. Keep writing! No one is born a great writer. Before I actually started publishing/posting my stories, I remember I spent at least five years writing the most random crap just so I can get a feel for what my style is. Plus, the more you do things repeatedly, it’ll come eventually like second nature to you and you’ll find the words are flowing. Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing! Even if you’re not satisfied with your first work, that’s okay, just keep going on!

2. Be mindful of what tense you’re using. NOW I KNOW I DON’T REALLY FOLLOW THIS BUT THAT’S BECAUSE I DON’T EDIT MY FICS LMAO, but you could totally do this! So in writing, we have “voices.” The narration will always use tenses of whether the entire story will be past tense or present tense and it’s important this remains consistent in your entire story. This one is TECHNICAL, this just help improves the flow and formality of your story. As for me though, I don’t really care about the tenses anymore because like I said, I just write freely with no regards for “creative writing techniques.” an example of past tense is: Suki jumped to Naoya’s arms. “My love!” she called, wrapping her arms around him. (RIP EXAMPLES) and present tense is: Suki jumps to Naoya’s arms. “My love!” she calls and wraps her arms around him. (this could be real flexible tho, this is just an example ehehehe)

3. Be mindful of dialogue tags! There’s a huge difference between putting periods and commas after dialogues. Like for example, “Suki loves Naoya,” she declared. If it’s followed by an action, the comma is best. Or example, Suki said, “I really love Naoya.” If the statement can stand alone, then it can be “Suki really loves Naoya./I really love Naoya.” There’s better explanations here! And one more thing, you should put the commas/periods inside the quotation marks. There’s more variations/explanations here but generally, this way of writing,,,example: “Suki really loves Naoya”, LIKE??? if it’s a dialogue, put the commas/periods inside the quotation marks.

4. PARAGRAPH BREAKS. I cannot stress this enough. There should be a variety in the sizes of your paragraphs. Long paragraphs should be followed by smaller ones, varied with medium paragraphs and then so and so forth. There’s no formal sequence that it should be LONG – MEDIUM – SHORT – MEDIUM – LONG, writing is flexible, just make sure you’re varying the lengths because reading long, chunky paragraphs with no end is equally annoying as reading paragraphs that are always 1-2 sentences and then a paragraph break.

5. Outline, outline, outline! Whether it’s long fics or short ones (excluding drabbles, I don’t think you need them that much) outlines will help you have a more solid feel of your story, and you can easily track your story flow when you have your ideas plotted out. or me, my outlines is in the form of Dialogue Outline, where I write out all the dialogues first so my pages will be just conversations then I’ll add the monologues/actions later. That’s personally what works for me, you can discover your own writing style <3

6. Research! Now this is pretty funny for me to say this because I don’t really do research, at least not the “how to effectively write this type of role” or whatever. Of course it’s better if you try to learn more about the concept you’re going to write about (like if you wanna do a vampire AU then read Twiligh – JK THAT’S A BAD REFERENCE, SORRY NOT SORRY, love the memes tho!) or you can do my own way of researching, which is reading other people’s fanfics! Not only do you get a vibe of how this character is like, but you also get to support other content creators!

7. You don’t need verbs all the time. Sometimes I see stories wherein ALL dialogues have “said” “screamed” “explained” on EACH line and here’s the key: as long as the readers can understand which character is speaking, you don’t need dialogue cues all the time. 

8. PUT THE KEEP READING TAB. I cannot stress this enough, but please put the keep reading tab. Drabbles are fine without them, but if it exceeds maybe 400 words then you’re going to need that. Sure, it’s easy to scroll past a long text, but some fics are super long and without the keep reading tab that it can be quite a hassle to whoever sees it.

9. Have your own writing safe space. Now this could be more personal than technical, but I absolutely cannot write or focus when I’m in a public space or when I’m being bothered. So if you want to write, SHUT THE WORLD OUT and dive deep into your imaginations, let the noise of your fantasies be louder than distractions.

10. Take your time! I guess that would be my best advice. You don’t have to rush anything at all, and one more thing, DO NOT OVERTHINK! Maybe this is just me but I honestly don’t really try to dive too deep in the technicalities anymore :// I’ve been in Creative Writing class for years and it stressed me out that my writing teachers always told me “not to use big words because no one will understand that” or “don’t try to paint the picture too clearly because not everyone has that big of an imagination” and I was like ISN’T THAT THE POINT THOUGH, TO MAKE PEOPLE IMAGINE THINGS? but yeah anyways, maybe this is just me again, but I find that I write better when I’m not overthinking too much on how to write a “perfect” story. I don’t always have the prettiest words to use. I don’t always have the most intricate plot. I don’t always have the most poetic content that is “inspiring” or “moving.” Sometimes I write stupid shit that has no plot at all, and that’s okay. Just write whatever you want tbh, I’d say my biggest advice is to not worry too much about having the “perfect” story. It’s still great to do research and want to improve your writing skills, but hmm...I guess I’d say the most important thing is that you enjoy what you do!

11. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway. This is one of my favourite quotes because it’s true, writing is both complicated and simple, but as for me, writing is something that I don’t want to stress too much about. There isn’t really an actual right or wrong, there isn’t a law, just some techniques that could help you improve, but at the end of the day, it should be about the steady state of progress or the “creation flow” that matters the most. Just write, that’s it. You’ll get there eventually and you’ll start creating magic before you know it. Just let the words flow and build, worry about quality later when you edit it. Or you know, if you’re lazy like me, just post it when you’re done LMAO. really though the BEST advice is to enjoy the process and not stress too much about it!

here is a previous ask i answered that may be of help too! 

[gryffindorkxdraws]

Want to start off by saying that I love your mind! I was hoping to get your opinion on: what is it in jackunzel that makes it feel so right?

EDIT: changed a few things ehe

ngl i found this challenging cus it made me think of how the answer would vary per person (yeah i went there idk why sdjkknds) so lemme get logical for a sec here haha

what exactly is the definition of “feel right”? 

to make someone feel relaxed and comfortable, as merriam-webster states

simple as that, right? but wait there’s more

what makes something/someone go under that category? 

now from there it expands because there are so many ways of answering that with everyone having different opinions and mindsets.

fair warning before we push on, this is going to get messy (like a word vomit) with how i’m just going to pour out everything i can think off, but just know i really like this question hence the, uh, mess? lmao

so back to your question, what is it in jackunzel that makes it feel so right?

in one POV, it could be because of how rapunzel and jack represent the sun and the moon respectively, making them two contrasting sides who shouldn’t collide and yet, against all odds and opposing forces that would come between them, they did. 

and we can bet on the fact that they fought hard/struggled for it, depending on how fanfic writers play with it (reminds of this sun/moon au that sold me to this trope lmao).

just because others said it’s impossible or it’s against whatever, why should they listen to the “norm?” what even is considered “normal,” when the two can explore so much more of what they could be missing from life after stepping out of others’ shadows?

i just love sun/moon dynamics. i’m obsessed lmao i read the ones below somewhere and idk where but it’s been living in my head rent free and i can’t escape it tho feel free to correct me about any of these symbol topic!

like the Sun, thoughtful and full of energy to share with everyone, is connected with one’s self and known to, yeah, radiate warmth or light. it also symbolizes firmness, strength and power. oh and life too i guess?

while the Moon, subtle but full of mysteries and wonders, can also get emotional and sway others to be more nurturing. cus like it also symbolizes calmness, beauty, and nurture. plus eternity and enlightenment?

the list goes on if we head into more of what it both symbolize, but when these two celestial bodies get together, masculine and feminine energies unite. the Sun gives out life, while the Moon cultivates it.

i have no idea where i’m going but moving on

maybe it’s that taste of rebellion with going against the authorities/society/rules/of what has always been set to find out who they’re meant to be or, y’know, finding their identity without the shackles of others (like jack learning he has the potential to be a guardian and embracing it in his own time, and rapunzel realizing she’s the lost princess and works hard to be a good one), 

or there’s something about the mystery that follows the other because they’ve never met anyone quite like them (like exploring a world they’ve never set foot on), 

or finding all the good and bad in each other and in their differences, but still loving the other for who they are, 

or what one lacks the other makes up for it and vice versa. with or without them realizing they can help each other grow to be a better version of themselves.

opposites attract who are bound to be full of surprises.

but on the contrary, they could also be two peas of a pod. aight this definitely goes against what i said above with all the opposites and stuff, but hear me out.

while they grew up and learned how to cope with life differently, they somehow still share the same sentiments when it comes to, for example, reaching their goals. 

they have their own way to go about it, sure, but my point is they can reach a common ground better together compared when they’re with others.

like rapunzel with the lanterns, and jack with his memories. at first, one hesitated and wavered, while the other disagreed and pulled away. it was only after they saw a chance/realized this was it that they agreed in a heartbeat

they ultimately made the choice of diving in head first regardless of their initial thoughts in the first place. kinda like the moment they realized they can be a step closer to what they’ve been yearning for their whole life 

bam, out of the way, they’re coming through lmao

not only that, but they can also be soft, gentle, understanding despite rapunzel’s spontaneuosness and jack’s mischievousness. we’ve seen them interacting with children and they’re so good at lifting their spirits up to have some fun and that there will always be a tomorrow.

and with their peers too. rapunzel lights up even the darkest of rooms, may it be like fireworks to bring joy or a campfire to warm one’s heart. jack meanwhile keeps things light when everyone else feels tense, easing others to relax and remember there’s always a way out

don’t forget the way they both sacrifice themselves for who they care for. like, they just do that, putting others first before them. that scene of saving eugene and baby tooth aaahhhhdjhdskdjkbkfjdkjf

and when everything comes crashing down and the world feels heavy on their shoulders, they both know they’re not alone with the other there for them.

maybe it’s the mutual understanding they have for each other after opening up, and finding a friend/partner/home through the connection they made together,

or they could be a push and pull that leads them to showing an unexpected side of the other, but in reality they always had it in them and all they needed was someone to show the way,

or how they complement each other, but they’re not two halves of a whole, no, rather they’re already whole themselves and they only reminded each other that they are,

or it’s simply because they don’t feel the need to put up walls or anything of the likes, because they know that no matter what they’ll be accepted for who they are.

opposites who have so much more in common than they originally thought

in another POV it could be because of how they give such partners in crime vibe. lowkey or highkey, take your pick. nothing would stop them from moving forward to a new tomorrow, or honestly whatever it is they put their minds to. 

and i am here for that

like i said in one of my posts, “They were a magnet for trouble, with the Sun being a free-spirited and vivacious fellow, and with the Moon’s knack for mischief and being a rebel without cause.” 

while both are adventurous, ready to explore whatever is out there, all the while just wanting to have some fun, they still balance each other out.

with jack usually ready to do what he needs/wants to do (which helps rapunzel to trust her gut and take the risk. that he’ll be there for her whenever she’s ready to step out of her comfort zone and jump away from her tower)

and with rapunzel knowing how to handle sticky situations properly (which reminds jack that not everything has to be done harshly and abruptly. that while freezing someone could be fun, it won’t solve things in the long run)

am i making sense? idek but you’re stuck with me lol but before i forget and i can’t believe i just remembered now. the way they can help fill in on what the other is missing 

rapunzel wants to see the world, what goes out there, with the people, society, and history i feel. and jack can take her to wherever she wants to go. hell, he’ll even surprise her and bring her to places he’d think she’ll like.

with his experiences, he’s bound to have an endless list of plans for them to go through and it’s no surprise that she’ll love it, and (him) his gesture, nonetheless

jack wants to be noticed by others, to be seen and heard for who he is. and rapunzel is such a welcoming person that she accepts him wholeheartedly. give him the love he was deprived of for years. 

reassure him that even he has a place to call home because why would he be excluded from that? he deserves it just as much as she and everyone else does

also i like to think they brainstorm ideas together

maybe it’s how they’re both game for an adventure, sudden or not, and this makes it easy for them to team up together and take on the world

or the feeling of familiarity as they click and everything flows naturally to them, where nothing is forced or uncomfortable between them

or how it’s like they can hold on to each other, knowing the other won’t let go no matter what because they’ll always have each other through the ups and downs

or it’s in their shared smiles, mischievous sparks in their eyes, moving together to the music of their synchronized heartbeats, as they step forward to the vast unknown

finding the ‘one’ who understands them inside out that they feel at home with them

i’ve said so many things and threw out so many brain rot, but what exactly is my final answer? 

it’s simple: who knows? now before you toss me aside, and i hope not lmao, lemme just say even with that kind of final verdict, you can still find beauty in it. 

you see, there’s so much more to explore and delve into with jackunzel because of their potential, that i don’t want to make a set answer for your question. i’d rather much help you, and anyone else wondering, to come to an answer yourself and maybe even share/discuss it with others.

i’m running out of brain juice, but i at least hope this helped satisfy your curiosity behind your question since this is all i can give… for now, maybe? who knows lmao 

tho i’ll be honest and admit i based these on how i feel about jackunzel. so if ever someone else out there wants to add more points they thought of, feel free to add on this

[awkwardbsd]

Dino’s Questionnaire: Day Five

Day Five: Deep Questions & Squad Shenanigans

Here are some more thought-provoking questions and some stuff near the end to make it fun with all of the squad!

Deep Questions

Who or what inspires you?

To be honest, no single person or thing truly inspires me. Even if I say they do, I know I barely know them and that there are parts that I will never get to know, so I can’t say that their complete being inspires me. There’s a difference between admiration and inspiration as well that I think sometimes gets a bit blurred in my mind. I admire and get inspired by many of the voice actors and celebrities that I see. My parents have inspired me. My dog inspires me. And there are certain people that I’ve met that inspire me. But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you need to become your own inspiration and driving force because even when other people encourage you, you have to become the person that you want to be. You shouldn’t be chasing after anyone else’s shadows or anything like that. I think to become your own inspiration is something else.

If you could be remembered for one thing and one thing only, what would it be? Basically, what would you want your legacy to be?

I want to be remembered for the impacts I made on people. I was going to say my personality but that probably isn’t a good idea since most will admit I have a sour and bitter personality, I feel like that’s the best way to go. And while there’s no use in being remembered for things of beauty if the person you were was far from that, I think a person’s personality can only live on beyond death when people remember them and are impacted by them.

Sure, I want to be remembered for any accomplishments I have or things that I’ve done that embody what society views as “success”, but what do my friends think of me? How have I changed people (for better or for worse)? Would they be completely the same without me? I think that’s the most important thing to be remembered for because the world is beyond just you, your personality, and your accomplishments. It’s how those are used and how those impact that really makes a difference.

Give us an idea of your hopes and dreams.

These are forever changing. I guess my dream is to be proud of the person that I’ve become. My legacy and impact on other people also rely on... well, other people which I can’t control. How they interpret me and my being is beyond me. However, being proud of the person that I am is in my control, but right now, I can’t say that I’m completely proud of who I am and what I have done or what I’m doing.

Sure, I have pipe dreams of getting into some sort of strong relationship someday, writing music, and having my version of success. And while success to me does mean happiness, it also means being able to help other people without compromising yourself. It’s not that I can become a philanthropist or anything, but to give my happiness and success and share it without compromising my way of life is definitely a version of success that I strive for.

If you could talk to your younger-self  (maybe five minutes maximum) what would the conversation be about?

Of course, this depends on what version of younger-me I’m talking to. Let’s say that they are ten years old, I would tell them that this animation and anime phase that’s coming and slowly manifesting won’t be going away anytime soon, I would tell them that mental health is a real thing and to start a talk about it, and I would tell them to take care of themselves and that being comfortable with themselves is one of the most important things in the world. I would tell them that maybe they were born differently, maybe they don’t work or interact like other kids do, but that’s okay because one day, you’ll learn to accept yourself even if no one else does.

What is your ideal partner/spouse like? What qualities/traits do they have? What do they look like? What do you look for in a person?

I guess I look for the same thing that I look for in a friend. I want a person with a sense of humour, kindness, caringness, they can’t be too serious, a certain amount of coolness under pressure, they need to balance me out sometimes, support me when I can’t support myself, understand me (especially when others won’t), want what’s best for me, like me for who I am and who I may become, be loyal, respectful, not violent or abusive, etc. And if anyone had all those traits, I don’t care what they look like.

Squad Activities

Two Truths One Lie: List two true things about yourself and one thing that’s false. Don’t tell us which is which, and we will guess!

*This is meant to be very easy*

I used to play the violin before being transferred to viola

I used to do taekwondo but quit a couple of years ago

My avatar is usually a purple dinosaur, but the truth is, it was originally intended to a be a dragon but was changed due to many reasons (one being that I can’t draw a dragon).

Make some superlatives (those things put in yearbooks for “most likely too” for every member of the squad (or the ones you know). Feel free to describe and compliment them!

*This is based on the actual people I met and not the BSD Characters but weirdly, a lot of people seem similar*

This is inconsistent as heck because I was too lazy to search nicknames (I usually refer to them by their characters especially since they’re deep in RP). I also left people out that stumped me.

Miki [@awkward-akutagawa] - Most Likely to Start a Cult / Best Leader

Em [@awkward-chuuya] - Most Likely to Get Drunk Too Fast 

Alex [@awkward-dazai] - Most Likely to Neglect and Shun All Responsibilities as a Mod (excluding Dino)

Bel [@awkward-kunikida] - Most Likely to Get Unwillingly Dragged Into Chaos

Char [@awkward-ranpo] - Most Likely to Call Me Out on my Bulls**t

Fizz [@awkward-atsushi] - Most Likely to Get Caught Up in a Pyramid Scheme

Kenji [@awkward-kenji] - Most Likely to Platonically Marry Dino

Kenna [@awkward-kyouka] - Most Likely to Be that “Small Town Girl” in DON’T STOP BELIEVING

[@awkward-lovecraft] - Most Likely to Lurk a Karaoke Party

Ed [@awkward-poe ] - Most Likely to Get Depressed Over a Joke

@awkward-gogol - Most Likely to Warn Everyone (AND I MEAN EVERYONE) About Nonexistent Clowns

[@awkward-gin] - Most Likely to Never Set Up Their Blog

@awkward-tanizaki - Most Likely to Make Self-deprecating jokes

Bex [@awkward-kouyou] - Most Likely to Become a Good Mom

@awkward-lucy - Most Likely to be Thicc

Kit [@awkward-odasaku] - Most Likely to Wake the Dead

@awkward-katai  - Most Likely to Get Stuck in a Fandom War and just wants out (send help)

@awkward-fukuzawa  - Most likely to cry over fallen toast

@awkward-karl - Most likely to come with the right raccoon stuff

[@awkward-steinbeck] - Most Likely to Convert you to Shipping Steincraft

@awkward-twain  - Most Likely to Actually Understand Japanese

[@awkward-alcott] - Most Likely to lurk forever

Higuchi [@awkward-higuchi] - Most likely to become a deity, saint, and pure being

[@awkward-hawthorne] - Most Likely to Slap People for Their Kinks

[@awkward-fitzgerald] - Most likely to get married to an old guy because he’s a “sugar daddy”

@awkward-rashomon - Most Likely to be Openly on the “Kinky” side of P**nhub. 

@awkward-oguri  - Most Likely to be down to trade pokemon

@awkward–sigma - Most Likely to Get Bullied About Their Ugly Pubic like Hair for the Rest of Their Lives

[@awkwardtachihara ] - Most Likely to be on par with Rasho but on the more “regular” side of things

[@awkwardtetchoo ] - Most Likely to Fight You

Martha [@awkward-mori] - Most Likely to Make the Best Edits

[driftwork]

Ten or Twelve years more or less and a woman in a hat flies from Tokyo to London... (1)

They know little or perhaps even nothing about what they are doing. The research they did not do would horrify them for days and months afterwards.  This  is Seo, leaving meetings, and heading towards the airport, to travel from one continent to another... This is the long month long moment when they completed the becoming major from gangsters to capitalists. She already understands herself, themselves as normal and define every difference from this as divergent from the norm. By the end of these hat stories she will be a normal woman of the state. She already is of course, but at this moment when she is leaving meetings and heading to the airport, to travel across continents,  she doesn’t know this. The transition did not mean that they were any less criminal at the end of the transition than at the beginning.  Everything that happened before this is excluded. At this starting moment  she and the world thought of her only as an upper class woman. An owner. There is no need for a preamble, after months of negotiation, analysis and the establishment of the prototypes. The draft documents are signed. The criminals watched the Chinese get into their car and stood in the doorway as they drove off, out of the drive and along the bay road. The cars headlights fading across the bay, the arc of the road, the shoreline and the cliffs of the nature reserves... She will be spend  a still unknown number of days in London. She is sitting in the plane, she has taken off her hat,  charcoal grey with colourful icons and chevrons.  my first mother said if I wore this hat, I should be certain to get off with the right sort of  man, Well, look where I am now, on a desert island, here I am now leaving Tokyo, my second mother may be causing me to die, wearing this hat... The first class cabin is mostly shades of grey and blue, the surrounds of the seats are beige, Neutral colours that hide the complex machinery from casual view. They fly out of Tokyo and are already cruising northwards. northwards.  Her two companions are already asleep. They are all exhausted after the last few days. She should be, but is living on her nerves.  The woman knows that neither her sister nor the man she lives with have left the locality in which they live for years.  Though she knows more about their everyday activities now than when she had first flown to London to see her, still they remain almost invisible.  The reason why they are visible at all does not  occur to her. This may seem unimportant in this story of a woman travelling from Tokyo to London, accompanied by the only two people she really trusts and loves in the world, but still, since, the purpose of the passage from Tokyo to London is to beg forgiveness and ask for favors it seems important to acknowledge how little she understood of what motivates her sister to stay constrained, imprisoned in one place rather than to vanish. So here we are its a nice day in September,  autumn will be approaching by the time she arrives in London and she is desperately hoping that the winter that follows doesn't end up with a long line of dead people stretching between London and Tokyo. Whilst at this moment the true scale of the disaster she is trying to avert is unknown to her, she will grow to understand this over the next few months.  She will wonder at the hubris of the person she was on the plane, imagining that she and her sister are still related in some way. She is laying in the half light, wishing she could sleep but instead is looking at the pale grey ceiling of the plane, the soft led daylights casting gentle shadows beneath the overhead lockers. The essential hum of machinery at 10,000 metres.  In/on/at the stopover in Frankfurt they will carry out a final check on the European finances, and to brief them  on the project they are about to be involved in.  On the plane they offered her a drink, over the sea flying northwards,  she took a glass of white wine, some water and some fruit juice.  They left the menus with her. She fell asleep somewhere over the coast of Russia and had stress dreams of chairs, flying, falling, horrible felt dresses which recognized as being her sisters, and worst of all being chased though a city, or is that a woods,  the office unfolding before her as she runs. She used to dream of having a child and a partner who stayed at home looking after the child. But these dreams had ended long ago.  Though she had begun to have occasional thoughts of having a child with the man asleep in the adjacent seat. She cannot imagine how anyone could think of them as capable of such things. She is dressed in jeans and a linen jacket over a soft grey tee shirt with multiple folds in the arms and across her chest. When she takes off the jacket to eat later the attendants will not be able to see the single headed dragon tattoo on her body.  The attendants rightly guessed that she and her two travelling companions are "senior business people"  but they mis-assume that the men are more important than the woman. Patriarchal fantasies are omnipresent in this world.  As she began to wake up she was aware that Sik was looking at her, holding her arm.  Are you OK he asked.  I dreamt of having a child again she said. Looking at her tired and stressed face. he said before he could stop himself. <We should, I would like that.> She realized he meant it. They ordered food from the menu,  more liquids to drink.  a peculiarly flavoured Ice cream for dessert. That's disgusting he told the attendant, can I have some more ?  She looked at the agendas for the next days meetings,  at the newspapers that were full of discussions of irrelevant political evasions, and some useful discussion of how to change Bourgeois property law in Japan...  She suddenly remembered that she hadn't brought any presents with her for the children and others. I left them at home she said to them.  I brought some for the children  - and I've brought a couple of birthday presents for Osaka, Sik added.  What did you get her ?  A mint 1923 Shklovsky A Sentimental Journey - first edition., and a 1929 edition...  She sighed,  Yukio said that they were her third memory, but she thought they were her first memory... Well at least something worked out she thought.  Sorry I didn't mean to forget she said to them.  Hours pass.  Yukio and Sik are playing go, she cannot tell who is winning. She reviews the business section and is surprised to see a note about Kwarbarti's property buying.   She wondered what it was that was making her feel more relaxed. She puts her hand on his shoulder,  Are you serious she asks. Yes I am. OK. It makes no difference, night or day, the shadows won't fade away.  Hours pass,  His hand has been resting on her on her body for an hour.  She left it there whilst watching an anodyne  HK action film, her unconscious thinks she would have killed them without speaking. People speak too much in movies whilst they hold guns.  She thought of the videos of Park  running across Tokyo. We should have financed a movie she thought.  The co-pilot announced they would be landing in two hours. and that something or other would be served.  She took her travel bag and went for a shower and a change of  underwear. The plane  eventually  began to descend,  they drank tea.  Talked about the hotel they staying in.  Tomorrow.  Frankfurt, the city and its suburbs  rose up to greet them as they  descended to the airport. They were very easy and quite charming  the attendants said of them. A message arrived during the descent,  There is a chauffeur waiting for you, Ms Seo at the exit.  (I put on my Hat, I button my coat, Life's little duties, precisely, at the very least, were finite to me) The familiar airport didn't look as grey and mechanical  as it usually did. Once she had looked  at pictures of the anonymous rich at global meetings in magazines,  curiously over the decade she no longer cared. The landscape greeted the wheels of the plane.

None of the names, places  and languages in this vignette are accurate. The events, sex and gender however are.

This is Seo leaving the plane, wearing her hat,  carrying hand luggage, going through the emigration desks speaking to them about why they had come. Afterwards collecting collecting the luggage from the conveyor belt and wheeling it through customs. Outside  they found the chauffeur  waiting with a sign that said  (Ms Seo and party.)  The driver took them from the airport to the hotel.  The three of them sat in the rear of the limousine  and discussed what to do in the evening.  They were staying in the Sofitel. It had the usual things that global hotels have,  restaurants, cafes, bars, a pool and gymnasium,  room services, suites, laundry services and shopping services. They had two suites next to one another.  Seo and Sik's  suite was neutral, soft browns and beige, engineered wooden floor over soundproofing and concrete, with  multi-coloured rugs. Yukio's was about the same size but slightly more colourful, a themed suite based around a mixture of Korean and Chinese colours and patterns. The hotel during the week was full of business travelers who always seemed to wanted to go somewhere.  In the evening  the three of them would sit down at the table in the restaurant and drinking, they would discuss  how they should brief the hedge fund people and venture capitalist investors about the project.  A day may not be enough in which case you should stay with them whilst they are doing the evaluation. She said looking at Yukio.  That's... Sik added, if we need to stay in London you should fly back to Tokyo to keep things running. Yukio looked between them.  Are you thinking of running ?  Sik nodded and Seo smiled at him. Only if we must,  the two of us might be able to follow a line of flight and escape the bullets. I know you can't do that Yukio, also at least one of us must survive this, and it should be you. Sik waved the waitress over and ordered three vodka martinis.  Could you not die please, I would miss you.  Yukio said finally, accepting the inevitable.  Eventually, a little drunk, she goes upstairs and puts on the TV, finding an IP channel with South East Asian dramas on with a choice of English or German subtitles. She finds a drama about prosecutors and their corruption and lets it run in the background, the actors are a mixture of pretty young things and serious older ones. She looks at the contraceptives in the bathroom and wonders what to do. Whilst the drama  plays in the background, she checks the weather  for tomorrow which seems to suggest it will be good weather for meetings. When she leaves the hotel she leaves the contraception in the wastebin in the bathroom... [Here the meetings that take place from eight in the morning until six in the evening  are deleted]

They know little or perhaps even nothing about what they are doing...

[spacednp]

I’m still getting shit for that damn post woo fun fun fun

That post is the “transphobic post” and holy damn shit I’m so fucking pissed

I am not transphobic and I’ve never said anything that makes me transphobic, while I may have said things I don’t agree with anymore and I’ve said things I will agree I shouldn’t have said

I am not transphobic! I’ve been an advocate for trans people the entire time I’ve had this damn blog and you say one fucking thing people disagree with and all the sudden I’m the transphobic phandom member and guess fucking what? I’m NOT transphobic!!! I can’t believe I have to fucking say this shit still!!!!! So this is a post I was soon link into my bio so you fucking ill informed children can understand exactly where this came from and why it’s utter bullshit

Let’s start with the origin and we’ll get into “The Post” (which I’ve never deleted by the fucking way you can still see it on my blog Incase you want to find it it’s like the first thing on my opinions tag I can’t even believe that was discourse for a hot minute)

One day I joined a gc with a popular phandom member who I will not name bc fuck that I don’t talk with them (as far as I know they haven’t blocked me or said anything on the matter but I did stop reblogging their posts and stuff bc respect) and we had a good time I made some jokes etc etc. and then somehow I asked a question about non binary something like a genuine question and it wasn’t disrespectful and I wish I knew what it was but I don’t (it was something like “what do you tell your doctor regarding your sex/gender” or something idk) and we talked about it and no one was having any problems but then we got into the topic of there being more fem and mas non binaries that had actual names like enbony and something else and I was like “what? why not just stick with female and male then I thought the whole non binary thing was supposed to get rid of gender binaries like that” and one of the admins swooped in and told me that the discussion had to end and I was like “I’m not being disrespectful it’s genuine question” and someone was like “yeah well it’s transphobic” and naturally I was like “it’s not transgender to be non binary transgender is going from one gender to another, male to female, you can’t transition to be non binary that’s not how it works isn’t that just self expression what do you mean I’m confused” and instead of answering my questions at all they just proceeded to call me transphobic etc etc. and naturally me being a petty bitch (this is where I’ll admit I was wrong) I continued defending myself and didn’t let it go, things got worse and instead of insulting anyone or anything I deleted the app and asked no one to find me on tumblr.. but they didn’t listen, and this part I won’t apologize for because right here is where I truly believe I did nothing wrong

A few people from the gc went onto my blog and sent me disgusting asks and insulted me and my blog and that night I made The Post and I was extremely agreeive to anyone asking me about the topic

When I made The Post I was not:

-in a state to truly express what I meant in a reasonable and correct way

-expecting it to be a big deal

-trying to offend anyone

-inviting more hate mail in death threats

-attacking anyone directly/being rude intentionally

What I meant to do was:

-have my opinion out there

-let people know I am not transphobic (ironic, isn’t it?)

-have the people who ignored my wishes and went to my blog from the gc shut up

-get the death threats out of my ask box

What I actually did with that post:

-make myself a villain in the eyes of most people who know my url

-not express my opinions in the best way

-get even more death threats and hate

-have anons ask anyone who comes into contact with my blog spread lies about me, there are many anons who’ve told anyone who’s even reblogged one of my posts that I’m transphobic and terrible

-lost many friends and a few followers but the friends did hurt me more

-cause myself even more stress and anxiety

I’ve apologized to anyone I’ve hurt and explained over and over what exactly I meant and yet no one cares about that and no one who receives anons telling them I’m transphobic even looks into it and it pisses me off to no end, what more do you want from me (excluding me to slit my own wrists, of course)

I’ve gotten detailed asks telling me what they want to do to me and it’s not in a sexy way it’s in a “first id start with your kneecaps and work my way through your body and watch your guts slide out” kinda way and it’s not okay and the ones sending me those asks are the same people dragging my name through the dirt and no one fucking thinks twice about what I actually said and what I meant

And to the few loyal and sweet people who’ve explained the situation to others and remained by me and stood up for me I adore you and I wish you nothing but the best and I truly cannot express my gradatude to you

But sadly most people believe accusations to the point where they want me dead. I do not deserve that! No one deserves that! That’s royally fucked up!

Even people I trusted the most turned on me and it made me rethink my opinion on friends in general, and I just want everyone to know you really can’t trust everyone you thought you could and you really do need to think a very lot about what you put online, I don’t even put my real name or face online and still I feel like I put too much out

Curlyhowlter is NOT transphobic, the whole thing is one misunderstanding after another and I want anyone who thinks I’m transphobic to actually do literally any research at all into what I’ve actually said and what I condone and what my morals are before you do that because as I’ve said a million times before..

I’m

A

Humanist

True humanists can’t be against any group of people you fuckwads! That’s literally against the ethics of humanism! Humanists LOVE humans!!! The idea of me being a terf or transphobe or racist or whatever else you’re spreading around makes NO sense!

Curlyhowlter

Is

Not

Transphobic

So if you have anymore questions I’ve not answered feel free to ask I’ll edit this post as much as I can to make it perfect and as of now it’s a mess and I know that but I’m impulsive and this is what’ll make me feel better right now so here you go

As for the non binary shit... it’s almost like people’s opinions change how weird

[pyxel-spree]

ultimate back to school masterpost

it has come…the witching hour…the time of doom is now upon us…okay so obviously ignore me, i’m a huge nerd. but if you’re like me, going back to school is a terrible, nerve-wracking experience. so here are some tips to help you survive this.

1. Do. Your. Summer. Work. If you haven’t started on it now, turn off whatever device you’re reading this on and start working. Many teachers will test you on whatever summer work you were assigned, and occasionally it can count for a significant portion of your first semester grade. Seriously, don’t put it off until the last minute, because then you really won’t want to do it. Plus, then you’ll have more time to focus on binge-watching Netflix uninterrupted. 

2. Whether you’re moving to an entirely new school or just a new grade, things will change this year in some way. You have to be ready for it. And you-yes, you-can be one of those things. It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. Want to dye your hair? Try a new extracurricular? Break a bad habit? Learn a new language? Go for it. 

3. Push yourself, but not at the expense of your mental health. No test or project is worth breaking down over. That being said, procrastination is the enemy of progress. You won’t do it later-and if you do, you won’t do it as well as you could have. 

4. Make time for your friends and yourself. Don’t let school take over your life. Self care and having fun are important too. 

5. Wherever you are, whenever you are, people are going to judge you. It’s how we’re wired-we’re a judgmental species. There’s really no point in worrying about how other people perceive you because you can’t please everyone. You could be an actual saint canonized by the pope AND cure cancer AND negotiate an armistice between the forces of good and the rabid radioactive alien wolves sworn to destroy all humanity and still some people are going to call you “bitchy,” “fake,” “weird,” “trying too hard,” et cetera, et cetera. Be unabashedly you. 

6. You are smart. Really really smart. So what if you don’t have perfect grades or the best ACT score? If you’re trying your best-really, really your best-no one can fault you for it. 

7. People who are confident in the knowledge of their own intelligence don’t: 

play the “grade game” i.e. “whadja get??? i’m sure you did great…seriously whadja get tho?? c’mon show me, i won’t tell anyone.” (u know these kids) 

loudly complain about getting an A minus/B plus when they know other people didn’t do as well as them

say they “didn’t study” every time there’s a test

cheat

lecture people when they didn’t ask for it

brag about their grades/scholarships/other opportunities 

compare themselves to/compete with other students constantly

condescend to others

talk about how much “busier” they are than other students all the time

put others down whenever they talk about successes (”i’ve won loads of those; it’s not that hard to do.” “you do know everyone who applied for science olympiad got in, right?”) *the last one someone actually said to me-and it was a blatant lie so double wtf?? 

lie about accomplishments when asked (just say you don’t want to talk about it its? not? that? hard?)

make fun of people who don’t do as well as you

Bottom line: Be honest with yourself-do you do any of these things? If so, why? The truth is, if you view your academic life as this crazy competition, you’re not going to have any fun, you’re going to lose friends over it, and people aren’t going to see you as a role model to emulate, they’re going to think you’re well…an arrogant, self-centered tool. Everyone loves that you care about school, and everyone can see that you’re really smart and driven. You have nothing to prove, and everything to lose. If you want to do well for yourself, that’s great. But if it’s all about one-upping other people, it’s not worth it. Like in writing, show, don’t tell, how competitive of a student you are. 

8. Good friends don’t: 

put you down

exclude you

stifle you 

use you as an emotional dumping ground 

stop supporting you 

tell people your secrets

gaslight you 

manipulate you 

make you feel unsafe

abuse you in any capacity

threaten to rescind their friendship for small offenses

make jokes that you find offensive 

ignore you/give you the silent treatment without telling you what’s wrong

pressure you into doing things you don’t want to

only hang out with you when their “best friends” aren’t around

talk about themselves all the time but never ask you about yourself

mooch off you 

stop talking to you for no reason

refuse to stick up for you when people are being jerks

Bottom line-if you feel like you come in second, if you feel like you’re the one that has to do all the work in the friendship, you have to ask yourself why you’re trying so hard. Having healthy friendships is as important as having healthy romantic relationships. Of course, there are degrees to how toxic friendships can be. I’ve been in some fairly awful ones that I had to cut off completely, but I’ve managed to reconnect with other people who I didn’t have good friendships with (i’m always careful never to get too close to those people though.) If you’re being abused or manipulated by a friend, you need to CUT THAT PERSON OFF. You deserve friends who treat you with respect. If your friends don’t, you’re better off alone (at least until you’ve found some real friends.) 

9. No significant other or crush is more important than your grades, your extracurriculars, or your mental health. If your relationship is taking over your life, take a step back and ask, “Where do I see this going?” Don’t waste time with people who don’t treat you right or people who aren’t interested. When the right person comes along (and they will!), you won’t have to feel nervous or awkward around them. 

10. Study smarter, not harder. Use abbreviations in your notes and find shortcuts to difficult math problems. Of course, do all your homework. It’ll cost you big time in the long run. 

11. Buy some clothes that you actually want to wear, and get rid of the ones that you hate. It’ll make getting up in the morning that much better if you feel confident about how you look. Dress for yourself-you are not “slutty” or “trying too hard” for wanting to look good. 

12. Find your textbooks online so you don’t have to lug them back and forth every day. Don’t wait to buy your supplies-buy them now so you can get good deals and won’t end up scouring every office supply store for that particular brand of pencil. 

13. Participate. Seriously. I didn’t realize what a difference this made until I got to high school. Even if you feel like you’re going to get the question wrong, even if you feel like you’re not smart enough to add anything interesting to the class discussion, say something. Not only does it make the teacher notice you-which in a big class is super important-it’ll show that you’re paying attention and that you want to learn. If you participate, teachers will be more likely to remember you and you’ll feel more confident about yourself, as well as less tempted to doze off or talk to your friends. Do this in all your classes-even the ones you’re not as good at-and you will see better grades-guaranteed (especially if they grade on participation). 

14. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’re not stupid if you don’t understand something. If you can, ask someone to tutor you if you’re struggling. Ask the teacher for extra practice on what you struggle with. If no one is asking your question for you in class, you have to ask it yourself, otherwise you’re never going to learn. 

15. Hard test? Start studying 3-4 days in advance. One day review notes and material; the others do practice exercises or quiz yourself. If possible, study with friends-as long as they don’t distract you. Take 5-10 minute breaks in between sessions so you don’t burn out. 

16. Make a studying playlist and a motivational playlist. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel about studying. Only do extracurriculars you actually enjoy-not ones you just do because you think it will look good on some application or the other. Don’t load up on these activities either or your grades will start to dip. 

17. Know the dates and times of any big standardized tests you’re taking (SAT, ACT, PSAT, AP tests, IB tests, IGSE, GCSE, SAT Subject Tests, etc.). Plan to start reviewing for these at least a month before the exam. (and a month before only if you know you’re really good at that kind of test-taking.)  

18. Edit your essays, once by yourself and once with a friend. Know the format your teacher wants so you don’t have to waste time googling “MLA in-text citation” every time you have an essay due. 

19. This may come as a surprise to you, but you are not the center of the universe. So before you go on long rants about how hard your life is, remember, you have no idea what the person you’re sitting next to might be going through. You are not the only person ever who’s had to juggle hard classes, extracurriculars, a job, and family problems at the same time. Other people are also struggling-what you’re going through is not more difficult or more meaningful than what anyone else is dealing with. This year, make a resolution to ask people questions about themselves, to listen to others, instead of making everything about you. You will be surprised at how much more people will trust you and how many more friends you will make. Also, guess what? Bad days happen to everyone-so stop taking out your frustrations on people that you care about. It’s petty, it’s stupid, it’s not fair, and it’s the quickest way to make your bad day a little worse. 

20. Regardless of whatever happens this year, you will graduate, you will get a job that makes you happy, and you will be a wonderful, intelligent, beautiful, successful human being. If you get nothing else out of this post, take this-don’t get yourself so taken in by that weird, hive-mind-toxic culture that school perpetuates that you lose the ability to deal with the people who are truly important to you. At the end of the day, you want to say that you came out of this school year a happier, wiser person than you entered it. 

[beatrice-otter]

Slavery, Racism, The Civil War, and America: Or, Why Does Anybody Care About Those Whiny Idiots?!?

Lo these many years ago, American History was one of my special interests.  My undergrad degree was in it (well, not technically, but like 90% of my classes--including Historical Methods and stuff like that--focused on US history).  I still love it, but I'm not focused enough on it to call it a special interest any more. But you guys, there is SO MUCH interesting stuff about early American history that, if it were taught properly, would REALLY change peoples' perspectives on the "brave, gallant, noble" men of the Confederacy.  And I'm not talking just the racism stuff, like 90% of them were whiny pissbabies and THAT is why the Civil War even existed in the first place.  I shit you not.  The modern Conservative Christian persecution complex has NOTHING on the antebellum Southern elite.  Sure, a lot of those guys were personally brave in battle.  But on a political or moral level, they were ... most five-year-olds are more mature.  (I'm simplifying things a lot here and painting with a really broad brush, but it's not inaccurate.)

There are five parts:

How Black And White People Came To Be

Economic Differences and Political Boondoggles, or, How the South Learns That Temper Tantrums Are A Viable Political Tool

The South’s Persecution Complex vs. The North’s Manifest Destiny

Taking Our Marbles And Going Home, Then They’ll Be Sorry: Civil War Edition

More Delusions Of Grandeur: The Whole Lost Cause Romantic Bullshit This meta is going to take as read that slavery=EVIL and that there is no such thing as a "good" slaveowner and that racism is horribly, horribly evil and nothing good can ever come of it and white supremacy twists and mutilates everything good it comes in contact with.  You all know that, or you should, and you can find lots of places talking about that with a quick google search.  Also, Blacks and poor Whites had vibrant cultures during this time period that I'm going to largely ignore because while all that is awesome, I want you to truly understand ALL the reasons why it's stupid and pathetic to glamorize the Southern elite, which means focusing on them.  The South was (and is!) REALLY AWFUL AND SCREWED UP and racism is part of that but not the only part.  But we will start a bit by talking about racism, because it's the root of so much other evil. I'm sure you've heard that "race is a social construct!"  Let's look at how that construct got constructed, shall we?

How Black And White People Came To Be To start with, it is very important that you understand that Africans arrived in North America before White people did.  No, I'm not talking about some African empire that sailed across the Atlantic before Columbus.  (African empires focused on sailing to India and China, which was closer and much more profitable.) I'm talking about the fact that "white" and "black" didn't exist as conceptual categories when the first American colonies were founded.   There were lots of ethnic rivalries and hatreds!  It wasn't a paradise! (See the Kingston Trio song "They're Rioting in Africa," particularly the bit starting at :30)  But there wasn't really a category for race, it wasn't part of how people thought.

How did that change, you may ask?  Well, it all comes down to the English Civil War.  (No, seriously, it does!)  The English Civil War was a series of conflicts in the mid 1600s (so about the time that the first colonies in what is now the US were getting settled) where the middle class and the nobles fought bitterly about what sort of government England was going to have and what sort of religion.  The middle class were in favor of Parliament controlling things, and in favor of sober, stripped-down, moralistic religion (i.e. Puritanism) and the nobles were in favor of the King controlling everything and lots of bells and smells and no strict moral guidance to trouble them.  And at various times, England wasn't really safe for one group or the other depending on who was winning right then, so people left in droves.  The middle-class Puritans settled in the north, and the aristocratic Cavaliers settled in the South. Now, other groups came later but those first settlers were really, really important because they were the ones who established governments and cultural systems that later groups then had to adapt to.  And each group took the bit of 17th Century English society they liked and tried to recreate JUST THAT SEGMENT of it, with all the rest gone.   Middle-class Puritans wanted everything to be middle class farmers and businessmen.  They purposefully excluded both rich and poor alike from entering their colonies, and set up laws and such that benefited the middle class above all.

The Cavaliers were just the opposite.   They came from the aristocracy and the wealthy, and they wholeheartedly believed in its values--many of them had been forced to flee from their homes because of their commitment to the "ideals" that certain people are just better than others, with an inherent right to rule and control society.  Or they were younger sons who wouldn't inherit the family estate and, for the first time, had some options besides "become a priest/lawyer/soldier."  They could come to America and have an estate here!  THEY wanted to be the lords of Great Estates like their older brothers back in England had, with lots of servants and other peons to work the house and the fields, while they sat in their drawing rooms and played cards and threw parties.  (Nice work if you can get it.)  And they really DID NOT WANT the sort of influential merchant/middle class that had been so troublesome back in England.  So they set things up to benefit the super-rich elite at the expense of, well, everyone else, and started shipping over slaves and indentured servants in job lots.

If your high school US History class mentioned indentured servants, it probably lied to you by trying to tell you something along the lines of indentured servitude being really different from slavery.  But the truth is, they were really, really similar.  Indentured servants were poor Englishman working for years to pay off the cost of their passage to America, and would be free after a period of some years.  Slaves were Africans or Native Americans (to start with, at least, although it quickly shifted to only Africans) who had been captured in Africa and sold to Americans.  And they had no such time limit.  But it wasn't unusual for African slaves to get freed eventually as a "reward" for service, and as for how they were treated, well, the elite who owned both groups didn't really make much distinction between them.  And life for them (for anyone in the Southern colonies who wasn't part of the elite) sucked so bad, you guys.  SO, SO BAD.  Even once the slaves and indentured servants got freed, life really sucked, because the whole point of the society was to separate the elite from the peons and make sure everyone stayed in their place.

And then, in 1676, exactly one century before the Revolutionary War, it happened.  Bacon's Revolt.

You've probably never heard of it, and truthfully you don't need to know much about it.  There was a lot of complicated stuff about hating Native Americans and internal English politics, but that's not important for our purposes.  What IS important about it is this: it scared the southern elite out of their ever-loving minds.  See, while Bacon was off doing HIS part of it, the slaves and indentured servants (and all the poor people who had been freed but used to be slaves or indentured servants) got together and decided, oh, hai, we have a common enemy, those aristocratic dudes who are oppressing us, let's get together and BURN THEIR HOMES AND CITIES.  And then, after the revolt in Virginia was put down IT SPREAD TO MARYLAND.  And abruptly those Cavaliers realized OH CRAP, THERE'S A LOT MORE OF THEM THEN US, and if we don't DO SOMETHING they will kill us all and destroy our aristocrat's utopia!

What they did about it was create the slave codes and the whole idea of "white" and "black" in an attempt to play poor whites and blacks off against each other so that the two groups would be so busy fighting each other they wouldn't have time to go after the elite.  Which, sadly, has worked.  They eliminated indentured servitude and hardened the rules for slavery, so that they could go to the poor "white" people and say "look, our skin color is the same, our cultural heritage is the same, you are JUST LIKE US, and not like those horrible "black" people, and your life is so much better than theirs is* and let's all be WHITE together and if you help us oppress and control those slaves we'll only oppress you a little."  And instead of saying "Screw you, we're going to join with the slaves and send you all packing back to England so there's NOBODY oppressing ANY of us," they said "sure, okay."

*not THAT much better.

This was a really bad deal for the newly christened poor "white" people, on a multitude of levels.  And a large part of it has to do with slavery, and where the burdens fell.  Nobody is going to stay in slavery voluntarily unless you force them, particularly when it's as brutal and hopeless and universal a form of slavery as the South was busily developing.  So you have to have social controls, and those things cost time, effort, and money.  And guess where the burden of that fell?  Not on the elite who were the ones PROFITING from slavery, no.  On the poor whites.  For example!  In order to prevent slaves from running away in the night you have to have white people out patrolling every night.   This was not, by and large, a paid position.  Every able-bodied white man in the area would take a turn at it, usually one night a month on a rotation.  And you'd have one really rich guy with LOTS of slaves, he's getting BY FAR the most value out of this, right?  But he only spends one night a month doing this, and the next day he can sleep in because he doesn't have to work, his slaves do it for him.  Then there would be a couple of what middle class whites the south had, and they'd have a couple of slaves, so they were at least benefiting some, and they could MAYBE sleep in but unlike the rich dude, they would have to work the next day.  But most of the guys on the slave patrol were poor guys who owned no slaves and would NEVER be able to afford any.  They are getting no benefit out of this whatsoever.  And they don't get to sleep in the next morning, they are going to have to work sun up to sun down just to feed themselves and their family.  They are, as a class, putting in like 95% of the work needed to maintain the slave system, and getting 0% of the wealth out of it.  It's a great scam.

So while all that's going on, the North has slaves but not huge numbers of them, and instead of worrying about "how to control the lower class" they're worrying about "how to expand the middle class."  And this has huge economic consequences.  Not only are their economies totally different, the North's economy is A LOT healthier.  Like, orders of magnitude healthier.  But in the Colonial period, at least, this is not apparent on the surface.  Nobody's really figured out much about GDPs and the like, and so the South looks awesome on the surface.  They produce expensive raw materials like indigo, rice, and cotton, which they then sell at a hefty profit.  They've got a lot of REALLY RICH FAMILIES.   They glitter.  The northerners ... just don't glitter.  Even if it weren't against their whole Puritan schtick, at this point they don't have anybody as fabulously wealthy as the southern elite.  But they also don't have the sort of desperate poverty that is normal in the south for much of the population, and what they DO have is a vibrant and growing middle class.  So even if they aren't as impressive on the surface, their society as a whole has a larger GDP than the south, and unlike the South's economy which is largely stagnant, the North is growing great guns.

Before we go any further, I don't want you to take away from this that the Northerners were saints or anything.  They were complicit in their Southern bretheren's work, as "Molasses to Rum to Slaves" from 1776 points out so powerfully.

Economic Differences and Political Boondoggles, or, How the South Learns That Temper Tantrums Are A Viable Political Tool

So the Revolutionary War happens, and during that generation a lot of the Southern elite were really uneasy about the contradiction between fighting for their own political freedom while keeping others in literal bondage.  But not uneasy enough to really change things, right?  They still believe that they are better than everyone else and deserve to rule everything, that's what they've believed all along, and they don't want to risk creating a situation where they might lose control and not be fabulously wealthy any more.   Where's the fun in that?  And they want to dominate national politics, it's REALLY IMPORTANT to them.  If they can't, they are going to take their marbles and go home.  Since the North is attached to this ideal of a United States more than the South is, the South can get a lot of concessions by threatening to take their marbles and go home.  (They haven't quite devolved into toddlers yet, but they're getting there.)   And this is where a whole bunch of the political boondoggles of the US Constitution come in.  Such as the 3/5 Compromise, which I always find hard to believe the North actually AGREED to.

For those of you who are not American, the national government is based on each state working together, not the general population.  Political districts are state-based, Electoral College votes are state-based, everything is state-based.  And some of these things (like the Senate) are based on geography (two senators for each state, regardless of how big or small it is) and some of these things (like the House of Representatives and number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College) are based on how much population each state has.  And therein lies the rub for slave societies.

You can't give slaves the vote, obviously, because they would vote to free themselves.  But if you don't count them at ALL for the purposes of votes, if you apportion House seats and Electoral College votes just on the basis of the white population ... some parts of the south are going to have very few of either.  And then the South won't be able to dominate national politics, and that wouldn't be any fun at all.  On the other hand, the North wasn't that thrilled about the idea of "oh, they're not citizens and they can't vote or do anything else citizens do, but WE get to vote FOR them."  So they compromised and said that for the purposes of apportioning votes in the House and Electoral College, slaves counted as 3/5 of a person.  Which gives the South a big boost both in Presidential elections and in the day-to-day negotiations in the House.  I mean, regardless of the ethics of it, this and other "compromises" pretty much screwed over northern political interests until the Civil War, because it gave the South the votes needed to keep control through a combination of actual votes and temper tantrums.

Anyway, now we're in the first half of the 19th Century, and the North is growing great guns.  The economy is taking off like a rocket, and the South's economy ... is inching along like a snail.  Because the North wants to grow, they want the middle class to prosper, and so they are doing things that will help it grow.  One of the things they're doing is building lots of infrastructure.  Roads are a necessary precondition for economic growth because without them you can't get goods to market.  Schools, too--as the Industrial Revolution gets into full swing, you need more and more people with at least some education.  Hospitals, etc.  The South isn't.  Because they don't want poor people (and especially not slaves!) to travel, or get too prosperous, or too educated, because then they'll be harder to control. The Southern elite has decided that they would rather have all of a small pie than a large chunk of a big pie, so as long as they, personally, stay wealthy the don't want the pie as a whole to grow.   (The pie being the economy.)

I don't remember all the details now, a decade and a half later, but I do remember sitting in class while the professor outlined all the ways in which slavery hamstrung the Southern economy, and how we all sat there flabbergasted that anyone would think it was a good idea.  Now, at the time they didn't have all the tools of economic analysis we have today to see all the fine details of why stuff was happening the way it did, but they could (and often did) see the bigger ones, and they could sure as hell see the difference in large-scale RESULTS between them and the North, and they still chose to double down on slavery whenever the opportunity presented itself.   To give you an example of how different things were, say you were a Southerner who got rich and wanted to invest.  You bought some land and slaves and you got rich and built yourself a plantation house.  You got rich, but society as a whole is not benefiting.  There is no more infrastructure than there was, and there is very little more money in the local economy than there was, because mostly you're saving it or sending it off to the North or England where they're building a lot more luxurious things than down in the South, and there's no secondary industry being spawned.  Good for you!  You're now richer.  The economy as a whole benefits very little.

Now, say you had the same amount of money to invest, but you were a Northerner.  Instead of slaves you invest in, say, a railroad.  And it is profitable.  Your personal return on investment is about the same as that Southerner with his slaves, but the railroad doesn't just benefit YOU, it economically benefits the whole REGION.  Ordinary farmers can send their vegetables to market in the city and make more money on them.  Small businessmen can sell their products outside their own town, or get raw materials shipped in much cheaper.  People who have no opportunity in their own hamlet can go easily to find work elsewhere.  Railway employees are learning valuable mechanical and business skills that a lot of them will take to other jobs and some of them will use to start businesses of their own.  Plus, the northern states have higher local taxes which they then use to build infrastructure.  You are still rich, but the local--and regional!--economy benefits from your success.

So why didn't the South invest in things like railroads, too?  Why keep doubling down on slavery?  Well, remember, their whole culture was shaped by people who wanted to be aristocratic noblemen.  That's still their ideal.  If you invest in a railroad you are just a dirty businessman.  If you invest in slaves and the closest thing America has to an English estate, you are a gentleman.  So who cares if the railroad would be better for society?  You don't, you have a good carriage and the wealth to go anywhere you want.  And besides, railroads are only really profitable if ordinary joes have enough money to use them for transport and business purposes, too, and remember the whole "aristocracy" shtick goes hand-in-hand with "making sure nobody but us has the money for anything fun, so they know their place."  For railroads in the south to be as profitable and prevalent as railroads in the north, you would have to change that whole mindset.  And they didn't want to.  This example focuses on the railroads because it's what I remember, but it is largely illustrative of the larger picture and the differences in how things worked in the two regions.

Back to national politics, and how all these economic differences affected things.  Remember that the southern elite honestly believed it was their God-given right to rule, that they should guide America because obviously they were the best men to do so.  But as time went on, two things happened: one, the generation of Revolutionaries who had moral qualms about slavery died off, and their sons not only decided that there was no problem with slavery, but that it was a moral good.  (Southerners, as part of their tendency towards heroic delusions in which they are noble knights as in the days of old, are also prone to taking any bad decision and doubling down on it rather than admitting any fault or error.)  And second, the differences between the two economies started growing by leaps and bounds and it was pretty obvious to anybody that the northern economy was LIGHT YEARS BETTER.

Like, there are all these diary entries and news articles from European tourists who come to America and visit the North and are Really Impressed because they've got rich people who are as wealthy as anybody else in the world but they also have all this BUSINESS going on at all levels, and things are HAPPENING, and lots of people are improving their lot in life, and while there are slums they're a lot smaller than in most other places of the time.  (It's not perfect.  There's tons of racism and sexism and classism causing inequities everywhere, but all the things that are being built are impressive enough to impress even people determined to be snobbish about provincial yokels.)  Then they go to the South and go, wow, these people are all slooooooooow and provincial with a few rich jackasses at the top.  So the southern elite develop one hell of an inferiority complex.  Because they are SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.  But whenever they push their nose outside their own region ... nobody else agrees with them.

The South’s Persecution Complex vs. The North’s Manifest Destiny

By all rights, the North should have dominated the country politically by, say, 1810.  They had far more money and far more people.  (Both because they had a higher rate of children surviving due to better medical care and less poverty, but also because no sane immigrant would ever go to the South unless he already had the money to buy a plantation and join the local aristocracy ... and most people with that kind of cash don't immigrate to another country.)  But the South had all those boondoggles favoring them in the Constitution, and they also had a willingness to throw great big whiny pissbaby tantrums to get their way.  And round about this time they also develop a MASSIVE persecution complex.  Like you know how modern Conservative Christians tend to think that if they don't get their way, if they can't dictate political policy, they are being persecuted?  The southern elite of the early 19th Century makes them look like pikers.   Because the southern elite DID control the country, AND THEY STILL BELIEVED THEY WERE BEING PERSECUTED.

You think I'm joking?  Of the first fifteen presidents of the United States, every pre-Civil War president from Washington on down, only 6 were Northerners.  Literally 2/3 of the time, the South controlled the Presidency.  As for major political decisions, again, you put up a list of major laws and political compromises on a national level from this period, and about 2/3 of them were decided in favor of the South, which was (let me say it again louder for the folks in the back) a lot poorer and less populous than the North.

This is a summary of pretty much every major national debate in the first half of the 19th Century: The South and the North want different things.  The North looks like it is going to get its way because it is more powerful economically and more populous.  The South screams about how the North always gets its way, it's not fair, the South is being persecuted, they should just take their marbles and go home.  (Seriously, they sound like spoiled five year olds.)  About 2/3 of the time the Northern elite roll their eyes but cave.  Meanwhile, the average joe on the street up North fumes because those fucking inbred Southern aristocratic cretins just screwed him over AGAIN.  (The average joe on the street down South mostly either is too busy just trying to keep from starving to pay attention, or if they are, well, the elite control the papers and society so he only sees a very slanted view of things and isn't allowed much political participation anyway.  But contrary to what the Confederate patriots would have you believe, quite a lot of white Southerners loathed their "leaders" for good reason.)

Things get more ridiculous as the decades pass.  Because at first the average Joe on the street up North could tell himself that obviously the Southern economy sucked, eventually it would collapse, and it certainly wouldn't spread, and so let those fucking inbred Southern aristocratic cretins keep Virginia, obviously as the country expands west they will be less and less relevant, and the Northern system will finally prevail.  Like, there was realistic hope for a long-term solution where okay the South can just be its own little region built on slaves and sabotaging its own growth to prop up the elite, and everywhere else can just have a sane (and free) economic system.  But the problem is, the South can see the writing on the wall, too, and part of what they spend their political capital on is enlarging the region of their control.  Like, they don't let free states get admitted to the Union unless there is a new slave state to be added at the same time, which means the slave states always control 50% of the Senate.  And it starts to dawn on people up north that unless something DRASTIC changes, the South will ALWAYS have just enough votes to force the North to dance to its tune, and the South is only getting louder and more vehement about how THEY ARE BEING PERSECUTED!  And northern resentment against the South and the whole institution of slavery starts building.

Now, I want to make it quite clear that the whole nation, North and South, had bought into White Supremacy as an ideology for decades by this point.  Even most White abolitionists are racists.  Some of them are the "nice" condescending type who sort of think black people are about the equivalent of dogs, but you wouldn't treat a dog the way the Southerners treat their slaves.  They envision an abolitionist movement in which nice White people like them free the slaves, and educate them (at least as much as you CAN educate them, which they debated) and give them jobs and the former slaves are eternally grateful and deferential.  Some of the White abolitionists are more open in their racism.  They hate slavery because it means that black slaves take jobs away from free white men, and so they want to get rid of the problem all together by shipping the slaves back to Africa.  Abolitionism started the 19th Century as the pipe dream of lunatic fringe whackos, and what gave it steam to grow great guns as the century wore on was not, by and large, a principled moral stand against racism, but rather an objection that it limited most of the benefits of White Manhood to a small group of white men (i.e. the Southern elite), instead of ALL white men.  Most of America--especially in the North--believed in Manifest Destiny, that it was their God-given right to expand westward and take this "empty" land and subdue it and make it their own.  In the North, the focus was on it being settled by middle-class and working-class farmers and businessmen.  In the South, the focus was on second sons of gentlemen getting their own plantation and thus extending the system of the "deserving few" and the peons.  And mostly even then, the whole point was to preserve their cultural and political hegemony, whereas in the North the focus was more on expansion for its own sake.

But these two economic systems can't coexist in the same territory, you understand?  A system built on slavery will inevitably devalue free labor.  A system built on free labor will inevitably undermine slavery, and make it less profitable (if it's even viable) because society as a whole is not going to provide the social controls necessary to keep slaves in their place, the slaveowner is going to have to do it him or herself.  So while the South is trying desperately to preserve its power, the North (whose population is growing by leaps and bounds) needs more space for free white men to build new communities.  And it can't do that if the slave system gets expanded.  By expanding enough to keep their political hegemony strong, the South is sequestering more and more of the country's national resources and potential space for the exclusive use of their elite.  They are forming a drag on the national economy.  They are selfishly monopolizing resources that millions of White northern men want for themselves.  Pressure starts to build, and in newly settled territories pro-slave and anti-slave people start murdering one another.

Taking Our Marbles And Going Home, Then They’ll Be Sorry: Civil War Edition

About this time the Whig party starts to fall apart.  For reasons that don't need explaining at this juncture, the structure of US elections kind of inevitably forces us into a two-party system, that's just the way the math works.  So a new party can't be born until a previous party self-destructs.  Well, at least a new party can't be a true national player until a previous party self-destructs.  At this point the two parties are the Whigs and the Democrats, and then the Whigs self-destruct, and the Democrats split in half (North vs. South) and the Republican party comes roaring into existence.

The Republican Party is made up, at this point, of a whole bunch of disparate groups: former Whigs, modernizers, abolitionists, but the most influential group is the Free Soilers.   Their slogan: "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men!"  Their whole goal, their only single issue, is to prevent the spread of slavery.  If slavery is contained, the South's power will fade as more and more free states are admitted to the Union, and EVERYTHING ELSE THE NORTH WANTS then becomes possible.  If the Southern system is allowed to spread, they will continue to dominate.  The economy will be slowed, free white men will not have the opportunities they deserve, and America will not live up to its full potential.  This cannot be allowed to happen.

Meanwhile, the South has been slipping ever further into la-la land.  We have already mentioned their persecution complex, which is only getting stronger as time goes on.  Anything other than complete victory is persecution.  No compromise is possible.  They have believed all along that they are the best, smartest, most noble men in America and thus it is their Right and Duty to guide the nation.  To this they have added a heavy helping of aristocratic delusions.  Sir Walter Scott is by far the most popular author in the South, and every gentleman thinks himself Ivanhoe, a knight, a Great Hero.  They are Noble Men in every sense of the word, they are Great and True and Morally Superior to all other men--they are heroes, courageous, dashing, etc., etc., etc.,  If anyone doesn't like them or stand in awe of them, it's because they simply don't understand the Greatness Of The South.  This is what the elite and what little middle class the South has thinks.  Poor whites, on the other hand, are about evenly split between buying into the whole thing and being disgusted by it.  And the rest of the country thinks they're a bunch of whiny immature pissbabies trying to control everything.

Which is why they elect Lincoln.  He didn't even appear on the ballot in most of the South, and he won any way.  Like I said.  The Southerners had been falling behind the North, demographically and economically, for DECADES at this point.  It was ludicrous of the South to believe they could maintain their national political hegemony indefinitely, but like I said, by this point they're pretty delusional.  Their control has, for decades, depended on the North sighing and giving in whenever they throw a temper tantrum.  As soon as the North gets fed up with that ... well.  The North wins.  Lincoln was, until this point, a non-entity who was only the Republican candidate because the Republican Party is, at this point, a loosely-aligned amalgamation of splinter groups whose main line of agreement is that We Aren't Going To Let The South Push Us Around Any More.  Anybody with any prominence in any of those splinter groups would have too many enemies from previous political parties to rally the party support.  So a guy nobody cares about, but who is firmly Free Soil, sounds really good.  As it happens, it sounds really good to the rest of the North, too.

Now, Lincoln's pledge isn't to get rid of slavery.  His personal beliefs are in favor of abolition, and he is genuinely one of the least-racist White politicians of the era, but he doesn't think abolition is realistic and he is a realist before all else.  His main goal is to prevent slavery from spreading.  That's it.   He's not trying to destroy the South, he just wants to curtail its power.

The South goes nuts.  Here is proof, PROOF that they are being persecuted!  They are the brave knights, they are the guardians of American culture, they are the Great Men, they are the noble heroes, the martyrs in the cause of Protecting White People!  They will show those jumped-up dirty peasants from up north!  They are going to take all their toys and go home AND THEN THOSE BULLIES WILL BE SORRY!  They will secede and form their own country that really APPRECIATES their greatness, and all the world will see that THEY are far better and richer and smarter and more necessary than their northern cousins!  All of Europe will support them, because they can't POSSIBLY live without Southern cotton!  Everything will be perfect and nobody will ever persecute them again!

Spoiler alert: it doesn't work out quite like that.

I mean, don't get me wrong.  They did have at least a little crumb of truth to it; they were much better fighters than the Northerners.  (All that knighthood delusion, expressed through all those military academies, paid off.)  Personal valor and gallantry on the battlefield?  No question.  The South was superior.  Military tactics and strategy?  Yup.  Superior there, too.  But that was it.  They sucked at everything else.

Politically they were a mess and showed nothing but how terrible they were at political leadership.  I mean, the whole Southern system is built on selfishness.  "I want to be wealthy and make everybody else wait on me hand and foot."  That's it, that's the bedrock.  I mean, it's a communal selfishness, that focuses a lot in preservation of the class, but as it turns out that doesn't really translate well to preservation of the nation. I mean, a lot of the fights between North and South had been over funding infrastructure and the like.  The North would say, "oh, hey, we really need this, it will benefit the economy as a whole and the country as a whole," and the Southern elite would respond "but it doesn't benefit ME PERSONALLY all that much, so why should I help pay for it?"   Or even things that didn't require funding, the Southern elite didn't care if it would benefit the country as a whole if it would discomfort them in any way.  And it turns out that if nobody is willing to pay for anything and nobody is willing to allow themselves to be inconvenienced or discomforted, and everyone believes that when you don't get your way you take your marbles and go home, you ... can't really run a government.  (This is why Jefferson Davis tried to turn down the Presidency of the Confederacy.  He knew exactly what was coming.)  It was one show of incompetence after another.  Nothing worked, nothing got accomplished, when you read stories and records of all the shenanigans and incompetencies you are left with the realization that your average middle school class council would have done a FAR better job.  Heck, our current Republican congresspeople are more competent than they were.

The military leadership of the Confederacy was superior to the military leadership of the Union, but the disparity in numbers and materiel was overwhelming.  The only reason it lasted as long as it did was the Union general with the longest tenure was McClellan, who hated advancing unless he was sure of victory and had a positive genius for winning a battle and then RETREATING.  Once they finally had someone who was both competent and willing to press forward (Grant), it was all over but the shouting.

As for the support of Europe ... dude, nobody liked the South.  To the actual aristocracies of Europe, the Southern elite were commoners with delusions of grandeur.  They sneered at both North and South equally.  And Southern cotton was very useful to them, but they had other sources of cotton and other industries.  The South ... their entire economy was based on exporting raw goods that they grew to other places to be processed, either to factories in the North or to factories in Europe.  Their economy simply couldn't survive without markets.  But all of their markets could survive without them.  It was a rude awakening.

More Delusions of Grandeur: The Whole Lost Cause Romantic Bullshit

They lost.  They lost HUGELY.  Their economy was trashed and, for a time, the elites' stranglehold on power was curbed by the occupying Union army and Reconstruction.  But the South has always been good at delusions of grandeur.  As soon as the boot was off their necks, they set busily about constructing an alternate history in which they weren't whiny immature pissbabies but noble, principled men defending Right and Good and Just Society.   Instead of sighing for the Golden Noble Age of Heroic Knights, now they will sigh for the Golden Noble Age of Heroic Confederate Soldiers.   Their leaders weren't feckless and selfish and incompetent, they were Noble Leaders Heroically Trying To Build A Great Society, Heartlessly Prevented By The Grinding Northern Industry.  They will convince the world of how ABSOLUTELY AWESOME THEY WERE.

And this time they succeed.  They didn't just convince themselves of their delusions, they convinced most everyone else, too!  Places that hated them or resented them or rolled their eyes at them now accept that they were these noble heroes!  See, the thing is, the South was not all united in support of the Confederacy.  The elite, sure, they were all for secession.  Blacks were obviously NOT, but nobody asked them.  Middle class whites and poor whites ... it really varied from region to region and from individual to individual.  West Virginia was the only region where poor and middle class whites who wanted to stay in the Union had enough sway to make it happen (and the geography to keep themselves from being conquered by the Confederate states surrounding them) but there were actually quite a lot of places in and around the South that wished they could have done the same.  But by now they believe that their ancestors were wholeheartedly Confederate and that it is a matter of heritage and pride that they be the same.

Do you know why most historians--especially most WHITE historians--who focus on the Civil War focus on military history?  Both professionals and amateurs both?   Because it's the one thing the South actually did WELL.  If you look at the politics, you have to deal with the fact that they were a bunch of whiny, immature brats with less maturity than most five-year-olds who threw temper tantrums whenever they didn't get their way and couldn't govern or lead themselves out of a wet paper bag, and who would have collapsed under their own weight even if they'd managed to win. If they had won, and managed to put together some sort of ramshackle government, I guarantee you that a) it would have been very unstable and b) it would have been passed around like a prize between a few of the elite families as their own personal playground and c) their economy would be pretty poor.  (Also, good chance that somewhere along the line there would have been a slave revolt that actually worked long-term.)  Because as much as the Southern Elite managed to get themselves back in control after Reconstruction, and as much as they managed to put a lot of the old structures that benefit them at everybody else's expense back in place on a state level, they STILL have much more of a functioning economy post-slavery than they did at any time during it.  The South's economy has always been slower than the North's because they keep hobbling it so the elite keep in control, but they weren't able to do that quite as badly and so in the 20th Century the gap between them and the North has closed a bit.  The South wins the Civil War?  The South would look like a third-world country today, and not one of the ones that is pulling itself up by its bootstraps, either.  And the thing is, where most third-world countries are the way they are because a colonial power came in and smashed everything nice, the South would be that way because they did it to themselves in an effort to keep the poor poor and the rich rich.

And I look at this and shake my head at the triumph of propaganda over reality, and also at the fact that ANYBODY, even a racist, could POSSIBLY think that those idiotic inbred delusional cretinous whiny pissbabies were cool or worthy of adoration.

Discussion and commments are at my Dreamwidth.

[georgetownuniversitypress]

For Japan and South Korea, what next?

In Peak Japan, Brad Glosserman shows why Japan has been unable to break out of the torpor that began in the early 1990s and continues to this day, providing critical insight into its political system and culture. Glosserman was recently interviewed for the Seoul Economic Daily in Korea about the impact of Covid-19 in Japan, the South-Korea-Japan relationship, and what steps the South Korean government should take in its foreign policy in light of what’s going on internationally. The interview has been translated and lightly edited for clarity.  

Can you say a bit about the impact of Covid-19 in Japan?

Japan’s response to the COVID outbreak has been schizophrenic. On one hand, the grayest country on earth should be rightly concerned about a pandemic that hits the elderly especially hard. On the other hand, the government’s power is limited–unlike the ROK, forced lockdowns are not possible. Thus, citizens assume special responsibility for their decisions. A generational split in that response (young people have been out and about while the elderly seem more restrained) has been compounded by tension seen around the world between those who prioritize health and those who worry about the economic toll. That has been exacerbated in Japan by economic difficulties that predated the COVID outbreak–the Japanese economy had already contracted before it began–and geopolitics, in particular relations with China. Xi Jinping was supposed to make a state visit in April and its postponement and possible cancellation has clouded efforts by the Abe government to improve relations with China. The attitude toward China has hardened since then due to a variety of factors–Hong Kong, continued incursions in territorial waters, and more aggressive foreign policy in general.

As I write, COVID cases in Japan are increasing; I can’t say spiking because they continue to grow. The Japanese knew that they had avoided the worst of the outbreak in the first wave, but they didn’t know why. They still don’t. Their economy is in trouble, China is being more aggressive and assertive, the US is acting more and more oddly, and Japanese political leadership appears to be weakening. In other words, all trends identified in Peak Japan are intensifying.

It seems the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics is having a particular impact on those living in Fukushima and the surrounding area. Do you foresee that this will have an effect on the popularity of Abe’s party (the Liberal Democratic Party)?

Soon? No. Abe is definitely weakened, however. That reflects the reassertion of bad habits and the sclerosis of a one-party system. Politicians and bureaucrats have settled back into old ways of doing things and that is not good for the country. Abe’s tenure has been marked by the consolidation of power in the Prime Minister’s Office. It will be very interesting to see how the political world reacts to weakness there and how the leadership vacuum is filled. The first signs of that cracking in authority are evident.

The problem is that there really isn’t a good alternative to Abe within his party or from across the aisle. Approval ratings for the Cabinet have been falling but the Japanese public does not trust the opposition. The DPJ split and is no longer the leading opposition party; that position is now filled by the Democratic Constitutional Party of Japan, and its distinct identity from the LDP is unclear. This is often the case in Japanese politics. In Peak Japan, I noted that perhaps what most outraged the LDP was DPJ success at pushing through parts of the LDP agenda. So, no, the opposition has not matured. Nor for that matter has the Japanese voting public.

The key question is when Abe will leave office. There isn’t interparty agreement on who should succeed him and my guess is that Abe wants to hang on until the 2021 Olympics. But there are so many uncertainties between now and then that it is hard to anticipate how things will unfold.

You have repeatedly emphasized the need for South Korea and Japan to cooperate, not only in the book but also in the several talks, papers, and debates. Unfortunately, the relationship between these two countries is continually worsening, considering the historical, economic (e.g., whitelist removal, export regulations), and military conflicts (e.g., GSOMIA). Furthermore, Japan openly opposes South Korea joining G7. Do you still believe these two countries can cooperate? If so, what would you consider to be the first step?

Yes, I still believe they can cooperate but that it would require political leadership that understands national priorities and interests and puts those above the political interests of particular leaders. The first step would be resolving the trade dispute. The opening of a WTO case is a way to make progress. And since the WTO dispute resolution mechanism is currently broken the dispute cannot be resolved immediately, which buys the two countries time.

The problem, as repeatedly noted in those “talks, papers, and debates” is the utter lack of trust between the two governments. That must be rebuilt–but neither side trusts the other or believes that its partner wants to resolve the larger suite of issues that keeps them apart. South Koreans believe that Japan wants to keep them down and ignore the past, while Japanese believe that the ROK wants to maintain the moral high ground and keep them on the defensive. Japan wants Moon to make a political decision to promote better relations, and the only way they will be convinced of his sincerity is if he pays a political price for such a move. As I have suggested, if Moon were to say that “he accepts the Supreme Court decisions on forced labor but believes that it is South Korea’s national interest not to enforce them,” then that could lay the foundation for progress. Japan could find a face-saving solution to the problem.  

The point of regional security cooperation between South Korea, the US, and Japan is the strategy of response to China and North Korea. The official reason for Japan’s opposition to accepting South Korea as a member of G7, which President Trump suggested, is that ‘there is a difference in ideologies between South Korea and the other member states of G7 on how to respond to China and North Korea.’ What’s your opinion on this position? And what is your opinion regarding South Korea’s diplomatic action as it relates to China and North Korea?

There are two issues here. The first is expansion of the G7, which really isn’t on the table. The G7 is outdated and needs a new raison d’etre. The proposal for a D10 makes some sense but a lot depends on details that are not forthcoming. Any organization of advanced economies with liberal democratic foundations that doesn’t include the ROK isn’t worthy of the name. South Korea must be a member of such a group, but that begs the question of what the group is for and what it will do. Seoul will likely not be the only ‘difficult’ government in such a grouping.

The second question has to do with a general understanding of South Korea’s security policy. I have written a good bit about this with Paul Choi–there is a recent article in The Diplomat. Our argument is that few really get Seoul’s thinking. Caricature tends to prevail, rather than an appreciation of the sophistication of ROK policy. We have all learned the wrong lessons from the THAAD episode. We need to reassess that incident and geopolitical dynamics generally to get policy and possibilities right.  

It has been a while since the absolute hegemony of the US was weakened due to the steep rise of China. Many experts refer to the relationship between these two countries as a ‘Tuchididdes Trap.’ It has made the security dynamics in East North Asia more complicated. And the US-China conflicts and the East North Asia conflicts in turn frame the foreign policy of the Middle East. In this situation, what do you think is the most effective diplomatic policy Korea can consider?

I believe that Seoul’s best interest lies in continued alliance with the US, despite the fact that President Trump makes that difficult to see and even harder to pursue. I also believe that closer ties with Japan are vital and a strong Seoul-Tokyo axis could give both countries more leverage with the US. The most important thing though is for the South Korean people to quit thinking of themselves as “shrimps among whales,” and to believe that they have more agency in foreign affairs and should be more creative in their foreign policy.

You said, “The flying geese view is an obstruction for the Japanese in considering how to prepare for Japan’s future development.” However, last year, Japan imposed economic retaliation against Korea, excluding major export items from the whitelist. Do you think Japan's strategy worked for Japan?

No. Japan is trying to figure out how to practice better national economic statecraft and has reorganized its government bureaucracy to do so. The decision viz-a-viz the ROK on those three products was wrong-headed. There may well have been national security concerns–Japan wasn’t totally off base in having worries–but its response was shortsighted, emotional, and ultimately a self-inflicted wound.  

Rumors of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea have been circulating, and I don't think it's just simple pressure to increase defense cost sharing. What do you think of the possibility of withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea?

That would be a mistake. The issue of burden sharing is now part of every US alliance around the world. Its salience predates the Trump administration but Trump has the most narrow and mistaken understanding of how alliances work and the advantages they provide to the US. There must be a recalibration of roles, missions, and responsibilities among the US and its security partners but that will demand a new understanding of how alliances work. The US has been very slow to do that. Allies are going to have to convince the US public that they believe in mutual responsibilities and shared missions. Often when I talk to allied governments, they urge the US to make the case for the alliance to their publics, as if that wasn’t their job. Not only is that not the case, but they are going to have to do more to sell the alliance to the US public as well. We all must become engaged in doing the PR work for these security partnerships.

As you say in the book, Japan is at its peak and already facing the problems that countries all around the world will soon be facing. Japan is trying to find a solution to problems like aging, low growth, and low consumption. What do you think Korean government should take away from the Japanese government's efforts on such issues?

Learn from Japan’s mistakes. Don’t be too insular, don’t put off dealing with trends that are already visible and problems that are likely inevitable but not here yet. Don’t get too comfortable. Don’t get cocky. Accept uncertainty, the need to constantly challenge yourselves and acknowledge that the world is changing faster than you think and all your assumptions will likely soon be upended. Openness–in virtually every sense–is key. Tinkering is unlikely to solve structural problems.

You say in the book that Japanese people are focused on becoming a mature country. However, the major conservative forces such as the Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) and Prime Minister Abe have different ideas. What do you think of the reality of Japan's addition of military capability through the revision of the pacifist constitution?

Japan is a small ‘c’ conservative country. Most Japanese don’t buy into the nationalism of Nippon Kaigi or the hard right. They want recognition for their contributions and the good things they have done, prefer not to dwell on–that is NOT the same as ‘erase’–the past, and mostly want to be left alone since they see a hostile world surrounding them. They know they are vulnerable and they fear that the changes that they must make to adjust to that world will not necessarily make their lives better. After all, who knows what the future will bring? The key message of Peak Japan is that in the absence of certainty about a better future after they make changes in their country, the Japanese will stick with the comfortable situation they are in.

The military piece of this is simple: The Japanese want to be left alone. They are pursuing military capabilities to better defend themselves and be a better ally. Not to threaten anyone else. For some Japanese, improved capabilities are intended to allow them to better contribute to international society, to give back what they have gained from the contributions of others. But that is not a universal sentiment. More popular is a belief that the country should not do anything that risks entanglement in foreign controversy or conflict.    

Last question: recently John Bolton’s memoir has become a hot issue in Korea. Bolton criticized President Donald Trump’s policy toward North Korea and he put forth a very negative assessment of the Korean government while evaluating the Japanese government and his fifteen-year friend, Prime Minister Abe, as relatively friendly. What do you think of his book?

I am bothered by the Bolton book. In truth, there is little that he reports about President Trump’s thinking that was not known or suspected. The president is vain, narcissistic, self-absorbed, ignorant, and petulant. He cannot distinguish between his personal interest and that of the country. Perhaps even more worrying is the complete breakdown of a rational policy making process in the White House. The disorder is most disturbing–and the fact that someone like Bolton could get as close to power as he did is unsettling. He appears to have promoted his own agenda throughout his time in the White House and I must wonder how many other people throughout the administration are doing the same. That suggests that the chaos is structural and there is perhaps even more damage being done elsewhere.

We all must worry about what happens after Trump. T­­­­hese problems will not just go away if he loses the 2020 election.

[jay-omnipotent]

Open For Readings - Jay’s Tarot

(King of Pentacles from the Everyday Witch Tarot by Deborah Blake, art by Elisabeth Alba)

I’ve had mixed feelings about reading for money in the past, which is why I’ve always done free readings. But some insight from members of the community and some life changes are encouraging me to finally put my skills to serious use. So, here marks the opening of Jay’s Tarot. :)

My History

I’ve been reading tarot for about ten years now. I started as a kid with the Starter Tarot deck, reading for family, friends, and myself, and got a lot more into it in my later teenage years, expanding to various other decks.  Tarot has always been deeply wrapped in my spirituality, hence my trouble with asking for money for readings and why I won’t be charging too much for my spreads. I’ve come at reading from a few different perspectives and now incorporate memorized meaning, symbolic interpretation, gut intuition, and sometimes clarification from the book to give properly holistic answers. I’ve read at parties and most recently for a non-profit fundraiser, so this is the next step in upping my game.

Prices

When I read you, you get to choose the deck, spread, and medium over which I give you your message. Note: I include a picture of your spread with every purchase, typed or over call!

3-card, Past-Present-Future spread, typed: $5

The most common tarot spread, used by just about everyone. It is quick but powerful, establishing the foundation of the issue at hand, the current situation and advice, and the likely outcome or the goal that should be sought.

10-card, Celtic Cross spread, typed: $15

Another more common, but much more intricate spread. This is a go-to for deep analysis of an issue or question, taking into account past and future, and internal and external factors, giving comprehensive understanding and advice.

3-card, over phone or Skype: $10

While I’m good at typing out what a spread means and that alone can be enough, sometimes what you need is a conversation. With this option, unlike the basic one, you’ll have the opportunity to ask follow up questions, get to clarify confusing aspects of the reading, expand upon your situation more, and get more of my personal insight. This conversation can go up to 10 minutes (but I’m usually flexible). As I don’t include a typed version, I recommend you have a notepad handy for any key points that come up.

10-card, over phone or Skype: $30

Same as the 3-card, only this conversation can go up to 30 minutes. This is really helpful when interpreting larger spreads as we can examine all of the intricacies and inter-card connections and have time to really get to the root of your answer.

You Choose / I Choose / Customize Your Spread: Priced as Appropriate

Let’s be honest, there are infinite tarot spreads out there. If you’re looking for something that can best tackle your specific question (relationship questions are a big example), you can either bring me a spread you’d like me to do, ask me to choose (or make!) one that I feel would work best, or we can work together to customize an old spread so that it fits your needs. These can be done in a single written piece or over a call just like the others.

And of course I won’t ask for extra if I feel the need to draw an extra card or go another few minutes into a call.

If these prices are too high for you (I understand the broke life well) but you’re still interested in my readings, give me a follow and stick around. As well as the general tarot posts and occasional witchy reblogs, I plan on doing sales and specials at least once a month (like the one at the end of this post!), and you might even score a free reading. Who knowwwws.

Contact Information

While you could send me a message through Tumblr, your most reliable method of contact is by emailing me at jaymore1545@gmail.com. We can discuss your question, spread, pricing, and anything else needed, and I’ll give you the link to my paypal.me for when you’re ready to pay. So you’re aware, you’re free to email me about setting up a reading without making a commitment, but I will only draw cards after a full payment has been made.

Opening Deal!

From now until December 15th, anyone who reblogs this post gets 50% off their first reading of any kind. Yes, that includes video chat readings. Furthermore, anyone who correctly guesses my Sun Sign in the tags has a chance to win a free 3-card reading. I’ll draw three names on December 1st, feature your blogs in a post, and we can go back and forth through Tumblr messenger or by email figuring out your spread’s meaning.

Thank you for reading!

I hope my tarot knowledge is able to serve this community, that I’m able to help you all, and that I make some great friends along the way!

To see what decks I read with and to read my general policies and disclaimer, check the read more.

My Decks

From the Light Grey Art Labs, the Cosmos Tarot & Oracle Deck.

This deck has 78 tarot cards and 22 oracle cards, each individual card drawn by a different artist.

Each card is connected to an astrological story, and as such it gives the standard tarot meanings a very unique twist.

This deck’s Oracle cards are used to show motion, such as the pushing and pulling forces behind a spread’s message. You can add oracle cards to any spread for $1 per card.

The Wildwood Tarot

My first deck following my beginner’s edition, the Wildwood also takes a unique interpretation of the traditional Rider-Waite card meanings. The major arcana is shifted around a bit, and the cards are given a variety of possible interpretations. Full of Celtic and nature themes.

The Everyday Witch Tarot

This deck has incredibly clear, beautiful symbolism. It is very easy to read so you are sure to get an easy to understand message, although it may lack the depth another deck could give when dealing with a complex situation. Or, maybe having everything spelled out in easy terms is just what you need! This deck also does not read with reversals, which contributes to the theme of simplicity in readings.

The Linestrider Tarot

This deck is gorgeous and every card is made like a watercolor painting. It is very intuitive, and the book places a special emphasis on the meanings that arise when certain cards come up together. An introspective, emotional deck, with a book that takes standard tarot interpretations and deepens them to previously unknown levels.

For those interested, I also own the Gay Tarot and the Color Oracle, but I have to admit that I am less experienced in using them.

General Policies and Disclaimer

Understand that tarot is going to be what you make of it. Some people view it as magic, divination, and a way to predict the future or contact the inner voice. Others view it strictly as a tool to force the mind to shed light on over-familiar situations in new and unfamiliar ways. I cannot guarantee that my readings will accurately predict the future or even make sense. The more you work with what messages I give you, or the more information you give me to work with, the more a reading will make sense. Something that appeared to mean one thing may mean something else. Personal flexibility in your own interpretations is key to a satisfying reading. Sometimes, a reading can predict an event that has not come to pass or that has not been consciously realized yet. Meditate on the message, and maybe, whether spurred by an internal or external event, it will click.

Financially, what this comes down to is that I cannot offer refunds for unsatisfactory readings.

This should go without saying, but, should I read a negative event in the future, I am not personally responsible for that event coming to pass. While I doubt that tarot will ever show me a literal death, there are other negative events such as loss of a relationship, job, home, etc. that may come up in spreads. Be prepared for bad news just as much as good news.

Most importantly, I am not a certified mental health counselor or life advisor. My readings are to help you consider your own circumstances from another perspective and may encourage you to follow through with or think deeper on your plans. And again, my readings come from a spiritual background, not one of college education. Should the cards be encouraging you to take an action in your life, please consider all perspectives before doing something potentially risky. My cards and I are not responsible for negative circumstances that come about from a decision influenced by one of my readings. Really, this goes for all tarot readers.

I reserve the right to turn away clients for any reason, though it will almost always be because I believe their question is truly not suited for tarot or if they are asking essentially the same question multiple times in a row hoping for a better draw of the cards. Again, it is not my place to help you with problems affecting or that could affect your mental or physical health. If you’re heavily depressed, please talk to a doctor. If you’re at risk of harm from someone, please contact law enforcement. Yes, I’ve read myself on matters of mental and physical health, so if I do agree to a reading near any of these topics, understand that they are supplementary at best and that your main source of help should be from professionals in the relevant field.

Another thing that should go without saying: I can turn away anyone should I think, for any reason, that they are harassing me or even just being rude. My services are a space for zero negativity (excluding polite but negative reviews and constructive criticism - I’m not that harsh) directed at me and I will cut connections for the slightest appropriate reason.

Phew. All that stuff out of the way, I just want you to know that I want the best for you and that I’m going to interpret every spread from a perspective of what you can do to make whatever situation you’re in better, or even better! I’ll put love and understanding into every reading as much as I am able to.

And if you read this far? Triple thank you.

[judasbeast]

ALL THE NUMBERS FOR CAT! if that's too many than just the odds. If that's still too many than just multiples of 3. Or 6. XD

   What’s the maximum amount of time yourcharacter can sit still with nothing to do?

Not often,Cat can never sit still except if she is upset.

   How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Almost tooeasy sometimes

   How do they put themselves to bed at night(reading, singing, thinking?)

She hums andsings old Celtic folk songs before bed, especially for the other little kids inthe lodging house.

   How easy is it to earn their trust?

You’d thinkit would be easy with how kind she is, but she is sometimes skeptical of other’sintentions, especially adults. Kids less so.

   How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

It’s hard,she likes to give the benefit of the doubt for some.

   Do they consider laws flexible, orimmovable?

She’s apickpocket, so very flexible XD

   What triggers nostalgia for them, mostoften? Do they enjoy that feeling?

Nostalgia isbittersweet for her, usually seeing a boat coming in from Ellis Island.

   What were they told to stop/start doingmost often as a child?

Either tostop staring or stop asking questions.

   Do they swear? Do they remember their firstswear word?

Cat willswear and Jack might cuff her with his hat for it. She doesn’t remember herfirst.

   What lie do they most frequently remembertelling? Does it haunt them?

That she’s asick orphan (one of those is wrong). Nope it makes her and Skip money XD

   How do they cope with confusion (seekclarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

She will askall kinds of questions to understand things. She’ll ask anything andeverything, no topic is taboo.

   How do they deal with an itch found in aplace they can’t quite reach?

Asks someoneto scratch for her…? Like if it’s on her back or something…?

   What color do they think they look best in?Do they actually look best in that color?

She alwayslooks good in red or light blue.

   What animal do they fear most?

Cat’s not afan of snakes.

   How do they speak? Is what they say usuallythought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

Cat has ahabit of not thinking before she speaks sometimes, and her accent is hard tounderstand.

   What makes their stomach turn?

Seeing anykind of illness up close.

   Are they easily embarrassed?

No, notreally.

   What embarrasses them?

Not much,getting caught in her pickpocketing would be about it.

   What is their favorite number?

14, it’s herage.

  If they were asked to explain thedifference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they doso?

It’d be abit hard since she’s yknow… fourteen years old… and her friends became her family.

   Why do they get up in the morning?

To see herfriends.

   How does jealousy manifest itself in them(they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?

Cat isn’teasily jealous, but you can see a pouty face and she can be a bit petty whenshe’s jealous. She’ll give the cold shoulder.

   How does envy manifest itself in them (theytake what they want, they become resentful, etc)?

She’s notreally… envious, honestly.

    Is sex something that they’re comfortablespeaking about? To whom?

She doesn’tmind to talk about it, less so with strangers though.

    What are their thoughts on marriage?

Eventuallyshe’d like to but it’s not really on her mind right now.

    What is their preferred mode oftransportation?

Walking XD

    What causes them to feel dread?

Not havingmoney to eat or one of her friends not having money to take care of themselves.

    Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasanttruth?

Nope, Cattells it straight unless her and Skip are trying to make money.

    Do they usually live up to their ownideals?

Usually, butagain, she’s a young teen. She’ll mess up sometimes.

    Who do they most regret meeting?

Her firstanswer would be Oscar and Morris, but Snyder would be a better answer. He’s theonly person that really truly terrifies her.

    Who are they the most glad to have met?

Jack, Skip,and her Newsie family.

    Do they have a go-to story inconversation? Or a joke?

She loves totell limericks, especially ones that are considered risqué. Jack has no ideawho taught her that…

    Could they be considered lazy?

No, notreally.

    How hard is it for them to shake a senseof guilt?

It woulddepend on what she’s feeling guilty about.

    How do they treat the things their friendscome to them excited about? Are they supportive?

She getsexcited with people, she loves hearing her friends talk about stuff they like.

   Do they actively seek romance, or do theywait for it to fall into their lap?

She’ll tryand be brave but most of the time gets flustered and turns red.

   Do they have a system for rememberingnames, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (likeanagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)?

She can puta melody to anything.

   What memory do they revisit the most often?

Meeting Skipin the Refuge. She hated it there, but if it weren’t for it, she and Skip maynot have met.

   How easy is it for them to ignore flaws inother people?

She canoverlook flaws a lot, but she’s not stupid.

   How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

She canusually be rather receptive and try to be better, but not always. Sometimes shehas to be told to put her foot in her mouth when her mouth gets away from her.

   How do they feel about children?

She is achildren, but she loves little kids, because they like to talk and she likes totalk.

   How badly do they want to reach their endgoal?

Consideringher end goal is getting dinner that night, pretty damn bad.

   If someone asked them to explain theirsexuality, how would they do so?

Um… Itwould be hard since she’s fourteen and it’s 1899, but she would be open to aguy or girl. She had a baby crush on Kath when she first met her.

QUESTIONSFOR CREATORS

A)  Whyare you excited about this character?    

Cat is absolutely adorable and somuch fun to work with.

B)    What inspired you to create them?

I get a lot of inspiration from Annie and Dolly Levi from their respectivemusicals, plus I like those fast-talking, fun characters and I don’t reallyknow how often we see them in young girls so I just made one of my own.

C)    Did you have trouble figuring outwhere they fit in their own story?

A little bit.

D)   Have they always had the samephysical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

Not terribly, just usually her dress and how her hair looks.

E)    Are they someone you would get alongwith? Would they get along with you?

Cat can gel with most anyone, and I feel like she’d be a joy to knowif she were real.

F)    What do you feel when you think ofyour OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

Pride they’re like m’babies.

G)   What trait of theirs bothers you themost?

Not… really any of them I guess.

H)   What trait do you admire most?

The fact that she’s up front and tries to look for good in people.

I)       Do you prefer to keep them in theircanon universe?

I can be flexible when it comes to canon or AUs

J)      Did you have to manipulate or excludecanon factors to allow them to create their character?

Just a bit XD

[lily-sinful]

Answer me every question for Cehrih because I crave that catte >:3c

gfdi tobi

   What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?  About 20 minutes.  Infinitely if she dozes off in that time.

   How easy is it for your character to laugh?  V easy!  Also it's not so much laughing as "gigglesnorting"

   How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?)  Nheu's boobs have soporific proporties apparently

   How easy is it to earn their trust?  Easier than it should be, probably

   How easy is it to earn their mistrust?  Actually also pretty easy!  She trusts easy but isn't very forgiving if you do a Shit Thing

   Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?  Flexible.  Circumstance is important when considering things.

   What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?  Hot, cloudless days.  Growing up in a desert'll do that to you.  Now, yes.  For a really long time, she wouldn't have.  Thinking about ul'dah was just too painful for her after she left.

   What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child  "please stop sprinting off otherwise you'll just keep breaking your nose"

   Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?  Yep!  Cohwah (Grannycat) tended to swear a lot if she mucked up alchemy stuff.  Cehrih's first swear was also an alchemy mishap, although in her case the "mishap" was blowing up her alembic.  Cehrih: ...fack!  Cohwah: ...fuck indeed, little one.  fuck indeed.

   What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?  Rude!  Cehrih is a lady of science and lies are not for science!  (She once lied about getting in a fight.  there was no fight, she tripped and fell down the eighty sins of sasamo)

   How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?  If cehrih's confused she spends hours studying the thing to find out how it works.

   How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach?  "NHEUUUUU HEEEELP"

   What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color?  Black and dark grey with the occasonal splash of red or pink.  Yep.

   What animal do they fear most?  CACTAURS.

   How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?  A bit of both.  She'll rehearse minor shit endlessly but she tends to blurt out important things at random.

   What makes their stomach turn?  Cooked fish.

   Are they easily embarrassed?  Not really.  You spend most of your childhood faceplanting constantly and you tend to get used to embarassment.

   What embarrasses them?  She's very sensitve about her clumsiness, even if it's nowhere near as bad as it was as a kid.

   What is their favorite number?  Fuck i dunno.  16?

   If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?  honestly she'd get a deer-in-the-headlights expression and bolt for the nearest window

   Why do they get up in the morning?  Honestly that question would be baffling for her.  How could she NOT get up?  Papers don't research themselves!

   How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?  she hiss!  she only ever gets jealous over nheu

   How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)?  never really been the envious sort!  if somebody gets a thing that she was going "ARBLARGL" over she's usually happy for them.

    Is sex something that they’re comfortable speaking about? To whom?  Yeah but she's not gonna, like, bring it up out of nowhere.

    What are their thoughts on marriage?  Her main thoughts are "my wife is too good how did this happen"

    What is their preferred mode of transportation?  Chocobo!

    What causes them to feel dread?  The idea of people she cares about being hurt.

    Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth?  Cehrih values the truth very highly, and she would expect people to be as honest with her as she'd be with them (namely as honest as she can be given what she knows).

    Do they usually live up to their own ideals?  She tries her best!

    Who do they most regret meeting?  I'm not sure there IS anyone she's regretted meeting at this point.

    Who are they the most glad to have met?  She was so glad to have met Nheu she married her.

    Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke?  That time she fell off a cactaur

    Could they be considered lazy?  Not really!  She spends most of her time working and even in her off time she's usually thinking about whatever project she's fiddling with.

    How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt?  She will absolutely feel guilty about things for eternity.

    How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive?  She tends to mirror other peoples excitedness!

   Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap?  Honestly, she never really looked for romance.  The thing with Nheu just kind of Happened.

   Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)?  Nope!  She just has a knack for remembering them!

   What memory do they revisit the most often?  The first time she used thaumaturgy.  The memory of the first time she cast magic is very important to her!  even if it was setting her mom's tail on fire :B

   How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?  Depends on the flaw, but usually pretty easy.

   How sensitive are they to their own flaws?  EXTREMELY.  ALL THE TIME. AAAAAAAAAAA!

   How do they feel about children?  She SAYS "put that thing back where it came from or so help me" but in actual she's very patient with them.  She may not like kids but she also feels that she shouldn't be mean to them.

   How badly do they want to reach their end goal?  Honestly she doesn't have an end goal.  She just wants to quietly work on her research and would GREATLY APPRECIATE it if everything stopped BLOWING THE HELL UP ALL THE TIME ahem

   If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so?  "that's the thing where you have sex, right?  i do the that yes"

QUESTIONS FOR CREATORS

A) Why are you excited about this character?  she cute and i love her

B) What inspired you to create them?  i needed a personality for my ultros main and went with "clumsy doof" based off of our cat.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?  no but i've been absolutely making it up as i go along.  everything's been falling together real nice completely on accident.

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?  she gets periodic haircuts but besides that not really.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?  probly i dunno!

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?  Excitepride.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?  she can be too science focused but that's fine

H) What trait do you admire most?  her adaptability, i guess.  i mean if i woke up in a different dimension i'd freak out waaaaaaaaay harder than she did.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?  nop

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?  nope!  again, falling together real nice, completely on accident

[cogham]

throws confetti up real high

i’m feeling v inexplicably sad all of a sudden and uh. idk what to do with myself but i wanna write something but i don’t wanna work on depressing fanfic mmmm

but i was helping a friend out with editing a fic of hers the other day (it’s rlly good omg if u guys like attack on titan read the first chapter here) mostly helping with grammar and stuff and?? she’s a rlly good writer so all the corrections/suggestions i was making were kinda obscure grammar rules nobody ever teaches formally and i thought that was interesting to see so mmm

going off about grammar makes me happy so here’s Some Obscure Grammar Rules U Should Kno that nobody ever seems to teach and also a couple tips n tricks i personally keep in mind when workin on shit okay here we go

(tagging the writer pals @j4m-ch4n & @t3f3r since i know u guys said u like writing tips and that’s kinda all i’m good for pfft so yeah)

1. Verb tense consistency:

This is one of those things that falls under the this-is-how-we-speak-but-isn’t-how-we’re-supposed-to-write category. When speaking, lots of times you’ll interchange the tenses of the verbs in a sentence, and though it doesn’t look or sound inherently wrong, it’s actually “incorrect.” (I always have to triple check my writing for this one cus it’s super easy to overlook, and even then I only catch it maybe a third of the time, pfft.)

Essentially, the rule here is that you want to maintain the same tense among all the verbs used in a single sentence. That may seem like a “well, yeah, duh,” sorta thing, but it’s actually not something you ever really notice unless you’re actively looking for it. Or, at least, it isn’t for me.

So here’s an example sentence:

She turned down the corridor and began running towards the exit.

Outwardly, nothing seems wrong with that. It makes sense, it looks right, it sounds right, but the verb tense agreement is still off. Turned is past tense, while running is present tense. You wanna maintain the same tense among verbs within a single sentence, so the sentence (assuming it’s meant to be in past tense) should be rewritten as:

She turned down the corridor and ran towards the exit.

In that case, both turned and ran are past tense, so the verb tenses remain consistent.

2. Quotes within sentences:

This one is only easy for me because I learned it when I was super young, but looking at the rule from a logical standpoint, it honestly doesn’t make a lot of sense. But, I mean, neither do a lot of English grammar rules, pfft.

Basically, you wanna treat quotes as a part of a sentence rather than as their own thing. I’m… actually struggling to think of a way to explain this correctly without giving an explanation audibly, hmph.

I guess it can be broken into three components, though. Which are:

a. If a sentence doesn’t stop at the end of a quote, don’t end the quote with a period.

b. If a sentence doesn’t stop at the end of a quote, even if the quote ends in punctuation such as an exclamation point or a question mark, don’t capitalise the first letter of the rest of the sentence following the quote.

c. If a sentence does end with a quote, only then do you end the quote with a period and capitalise the first letter of the word following the quote.

Here’s an example of part a of this rule done incorrectly:

“Leave him alone.” he said angrily.

Even though that is the speaker’s entire quote, since the written sentence doesn’t end there, you don’t put a period at the end of the speaker’s sentence. The correct way to write it would be:

“Leave him alone,” he said angrily.

The easiest way to check to make sure you’re doing this right is to remove the quotation marks, then read the sentence in your head with exaggerated stress on the punctuation marks and see if it still makes sense. You wouldn’t read the sentence like, “Leave him alone. [full stop] He said angrily.” You would read it as, “Leave him alone, [pause] he said angrily.

Even in cases where, say, a character is saying each word of their phrase with a ton of emphasis — like, if they’re trying to sound super threatening, or something like that  — you still need to end with a comma. For example, an incorrect way to write a hostile sentence would be:

“Leave. Him. Alone.” he said.

To do it correctly, you would still need to write it as:

“Leave. Him. Alone,” he said.

Totally detracts from the hostility, which is super lame, but that’s the correct way to do it. (Uh, read the note at the end of this section for a tip on avoiding having the mood swung by a lame grammar rule.)

Here’s an example of part b of this rule done incorrectly:

“Leave him alone!” He said angrily.

Even though, yes, it is grammatically correct to capitalise anything that comes after an exclamation point, since that is not the end of the sentence, the correct way to write it would be:

“Leave him alone!” he said angrily.

You can check this one using the same read-it-with-exaggerated-punctuation trick listed above.

Part c has to do completely with that read-it-with-exaggerated-punctuation trick. Lots of times, sentences within paragraphs are ended by quotes; and, in those cases, you do want to follow the quote with a capital letter. Here’s an example of using this part of the rule correctly:

“Leave him alone.” He said this with anger in his tone.

With stressed punctuation, you would read it as, “ ‘Leave him alone.’ [full stop] He said this with anger in his tone.”

Another way to think of it is, “leave him alone” and “he said this with anger in his tone” are both their own sentences, so the first letter of each gets capitalised.

Essentially, just treat quotes as part of the sentence as a whole rather than as their own entity existing within the sentence.

A creative tip from me for this rule:

Lots of times, a period can radically change the speaker’s tone, so they’re good to use if you want to indicate a character’s mood. If a character is being threatening, for example, having their phrase end with a comma — while grammatically correct, yes — can detract from the hostility. If you want to get around this, just rewrite the sentence the way that I did when describing part c of this rule: in two separate sentences. It’s a very easy edit to make, and will make a read much more dramatic.

3. Creating compound (hyphenated) adjectives.

This one is tricky, and I still fuck it up all the damn time. Basically, it has to do with adjectives that are made up of two or more words — adjectives such as “well-functioning,” “foul-smelling,” or “flesh-eating.”

The rule here is, if you’re treating two or more words as a single adjective, you want to hyphenate them. You can check to see if they should be hyphenated by excluding the rest of the sentence other than the noun which the adjective is describing, then removing one of the words and seeing if the sentence still makes sense.

Here’s an example sentence:

He was attacked by flesh-eating insects.

The adjective in this sentence is “flesh-eating,” so you would hyphenate it. You know that both words form a single adjective because, if you were to remove one of the two words, you would either be left with “flesh insects” or “eating insects,” both of which are… wrong.

The exception to this rule (which I fucking hate because it makes absolutely no goddamn sense) is that you don’t hyphenate compound adjectives that include an adverb, such as “lightly planted,” “beautifully decorated,” or “brightly coloured.” I… honestly don’t know why this is a rule. It makes zero sense to me. And it looks stupid. But it’s the rule. And I hate it. But, I mean, you know, whatever. Rules is rules is rules, or whatever.

A creative tip from me for this rule:

You can create super crazy compound adjectives to set a tone or mood in a story, even if they’re a bit unorthodox. (It works especially well in situations where a character is super duper frustrated.) For example, I’ve used compound adjectives like “too-small-for-four-people” and “why-the-hell-is-this-so-fucking-advanced” in stories before. It really sets the tone for how characters are thinking.

You can totally get crazy creative with compound adjectives. It adds a lot to a story. Just be sure to double check that you’re actually using your compound adjectives as adjectives. So, like, you wouldn’t say, “The room they’ve found themselves in is too-small-for-four-people,” since, in that case, you aren’t using the hyphenated phrase as an adjective, you’re just describing a scene. If you were to use the hyphenated phrase as an adjective, you would say, “They’ve found themselves in a too-small-for-four-people room.”

4. Subject-verb agreement:

This one is really tricky, because it looks… wrong… lots of times… as well as it isn’t really something that you actively think about when writing. But, I mean, hey, it’s worth mentioning.

This rule has to do with… well, the verb(s) used in a sentence agreeing with that sentence’s subject. For example, you wouldn’t say “the box rest on the staircase,” you would say “the box rests on the staircase.” In that sentence, the box is the subject, and the verb is to rest, so you want the verb to agree with the subject.

Here’s another example, just to reiterate the basic premise: You wouldn’t say “the crowd cheer for the runner,” you would say, “the crowd cheers for the runner.” The crowd is the subject, and to cheer is the verb, so you want the verb to agree with the subject.

That part makes total sense and comes very naturally, since that’s how most native English speakers learn the language and all, but this rule gets really, really, really complex. Honestly, I still don’t fully understand all of this rule’s little details, but the part of this rule that I see misused a lot is when there are words in between the subject and the verb. This is why I say a lot of times sentences look wrong when they have correct subject-verb agreement, since, for example, although you wouldn’t say, “The kittens sits on the corner,” you would say, “The basket full of kittens sits on the corner,” since, in that case, the subject of the sentence is the basket, not the kittens.

Essentially, when there are multiple nouns in a sentence, make sure that the verb agrees with the subject, not just whatever noun is closest to the verb.

This rule is hard to explain without examples, so here are just some more examples:

The swarm of bees buzzes loudly. 

The subject of the sentence is “the swarm,” not “bees,” so the verb “to buzz” needs to agree with “the swarm.”

The guy with all the pigeons works in my office.

The subject of the sentence is “the guy,” not “the pigeons,” so the verb “to work” needs to agree with “the guy.”

Each of the dogs gets a treat.

The subject of the sentence is “each,” not “the dogs,” so the verb “to get” needs to agree with “each.”

I… hope that makes sense? It’s a finicky rule, man…

5. Proper nouns in terms of things like pet names.

This gets messed up a lot, and… I’m super guilty of it, whoops.

This has to do with, like, if a character calls their spouse “darling,” or if someone calls their dog whose name is Ollie “silly billy,” or if a parent calls their child “babygirl” (…that’s the one I’m guilty of fucking up.) While these are all names in their own right, none of them get capitalised.

The easiest way to check to make sure you’re doing this right is to take your character who is using the pet name and imagine them speaking to someone else. If they still use the pet name in place of the actual name, you capitalise it. If they don’t, then don’t.

Here’s an example sentence:

“I have a question for you, dearest,” Simeon calls to Kanrik across the room.

“Dearest” does not get capitalised, since Simeon wouldn’t go up to someone and say, “Dearest told me something interesting the other day.” He might say, “My dearest Kanrik told me something interesting,” but otherwise, nah.

Another example is, I had a friend with a boston terrier named Georgie whom her mother always used to call “wiggle worm.” “Wiggle worm” wouldn’t get capitalised in writing, since my friend’s mom wouldn’t go up to someone and say, “I was walking Wiggle Worm the other day.” Uh, unless the dog’s name actually was Wiggle Worm. Which would be an awesome dog name. But… it’s not. She might say, “I was walking my little wiggle worm Georgie the other day,” but otherwise, nah.

6. “Who” versus “whom.”

People will always get on your ass if you do this wrong, yet nobody ever teaches you how to do it right..? This rule can totally be ignored, cus it’s kinda silly and pretentious to worry about, but it’s still good to know the trick for it, especially if you’re writing dialogue for a super pretentious character.

Here’s the trick: rephrase the sentence with the who/whom confusion as a question, then answer it. If the answer to the question is he/she/they, then use who, but if the answer is him/her/them, then use whom.

Here’s a sentence where the correct usage would be who:

This is the man who rescued the cat.

To check, rephrase it as a question: Who rescued the cat? He did.

And here’s a sentence where the correct usage would be whom:

The man whom this book belongs to is sitting in the lounge.

Again, to check, rephrase it as a question: Whom does this book belong to? Him.

(Funny story, actually… this one is on my mind because I saw a bumper sticker today that was pawprint-shaped and had the phrase “Who rescued who?” on it. It’s v cute, but grammatically speaking, it should be “Who rescued whom?” since — using that same trick — who did the rescuing? She did. And whom did she rescue? Him.)

7. “Its” versus “it’s.”

I’m not gonna lie, I only finally got this one in my muscle memory like two years ago… It seems very counter-intuitive at first, but once you think about it, it makes sense, and is easy to relearn.

Basically, the possessive form of this word is “its,” not “it’s.” At first, this doesn’t look right, since apostrophes are, obviously, used to show possession, but this is a special circumstance because, in this case, “it’s” is actually a contraction of “it” and “is.” The good news about this one is, even though it seems kinda counter-intuitive, it’s super easy to check to make sure you’re using it right. All you have to do is break any instances of “it’s” into “it is” and see if the sentence still makes sense.

Here’s an example of this done incorrectly:

The dragon carried the knight away in it’s jaws.

To check, break apart the contraction. You wouldn’t say “The dragon carried the knight away in it is jaws,” right? So the correct way to write it would be:

The dragon carried the knight away in its jaws.

8. Correct use of “per se.”

HEY MAN ARE U READY FOR A GRAMMAR RULE THAT I TOTALLY KNOW BUT HAVE NEVER EVER USED CORRECTLY ONCE BEFORE EVER IN MY LIFE EVER??? Because here it is…

“Per se” actually means “in of itself.” Most people — myself included — tend to naturally use this term as if it meant “necessarily,” since that’s honestly what it sounds like it should mean… but that is totally wrong. For example…

Here is an incorrect use of “per se:”

He isn’t a genius, per se, but he is very smart.

Another incorrect use:

I didn’t lie to the cops, per se, I just didn’t tell them everything.

These sentences use “per se” as if it meant “necessarily” or “exactly,” which it does not.

Here is a correct use of “per se:”

The boss fight really isn’t difficult per se, but the fact that you have to do it at level four makes it seem so.

And another correct use:

I don’t hate cheesecake per se, I just hate cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory.

In these sentences, “per se” is being used to mean “in of itself” or “intrinsically,” which is correct.

I… had such a hard time coming up with examples for this one, because I am so bad with this rule, but… there you go, pfft. If I’m wrong feel free to crucify me cus I still mess this one up every damn day.

hhhhh i am…… very very tired now and am feeling a bit better pfft so i’ll just leave it here for tonight shrug emoji

blease if anyone has questions about grammar rules or wants general writing tips or tricks for something specific hmu okay cus this shit is rlly relaxing for me to rant about lmao

so yeah

anyway night y’all

[easy-win-games-blog]

Player Unkown’s Battlegrounds: Xbox One Edition Review

For a long time Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds never really interested me. From a distance, it’s always felt to me like a game mode rather than a fully fledged game. To some extent that’s still the case, but now that I’ve actually given it a crack I understand the feverish excitement surrounding PUBG. The one on Xbox.

My first game of PUBG was short and great. Having no knowledge of the controls or the intricacies of the gameplay I jumped straight for the Quarry. After a few minutes of looking around I found absolutely nothing but a cool leather trench coat, and soon realised I was on the opposite side of the map to where the safe zone had sprung up. I headed off on my way to safety, only to come across the only other player in the area. And they had a mother fucking handgun.

Fists ready, I jumped into action. Managing to dive and duck around this dude’s shots and landing a few punches, we began a majestic dance. Almost like a mating ritual. Eventually he ran out of rounds and resorted to fists also, and we fought like our primitive ancestors before us.

They knocked me out cold in about 15 seconds but it was pretty great. Looking back at the capture I wasn’t actually that far from the safe zone and had all the time in the world to get there, plus there were a thousand places at the Quarry that I didn’t check. But none of that matters because in PUBG you get to do things how you want, and own the consequences no matter how good or bad they may be.

Anthony Gallegos, a past guest on the Kinda Funny podcast and host of the Rebel FM podcast, called PUBG the antithetical shooter, meaning it’s a shooter that does the exact opposite of all other shooters, which is so accurate. In Call Of Duty there is a strict gameplay loop of running, killing and dying over and over again as fast as possible in a twitchy, muscle memory-based experience. Meanwhile PUBG forces you to think for yourself, asking you how you would personally react in a Battle Royal scenario.

I’ve dabbled in playing with friends but have found I play best, or at least have the most fun, on my own. Excluding the performance issues that come into play around other players, I like being on my own because every win is my own and every loss is my own. I hate the feeling of being a dead weight with other players who are certainly better than me, something I experience in most multiplayer games, but on my own I’m my own dead weight. So if I’m weighing myself down, then there’s no dead weight. Right?

Thinking that way validates my actions in the majority of my games, which in any other shooter would be deemed disgraceful and cheap. I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to confrontation, so I have taken to staying in the air for as long as possible until the safe zone pops in, landing on the tallest building right in the centre of the safe zone and literally laying prone for 20 minutes with no pickups, praying I don’t get rained on by those big red boy mortar strikez. Inevitably I get red zoned every time and have to abandon my plan of playing dead all round, but boy is it fun up until that point.

It’s kind of liberating to play a game where being a little bitch is a viable tactic. I also regularly pull the “loot a house and close all the doors behind you but hide in a bathtub with your gun trained on the door waiting for someone to come in” manoeuvre, which has landed me nearly all of my kills and a DM from one of my victims applauding my tactics.

I honestly couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm or not. Doesn’t really matter either way, I guess.

But yeah, freedom of choice and shit.

It’s a great feeling, being rewarded by watching that player count slowly dropping for doing what you want. I applaud the brave souls in Pochinki who live for the fight, but my hands are sweaty enough as it is, partner. I’m good in this bath.

This brings me to mine and the generally accepted downside of PUBG for Xbox. The controls are some obscure butt shit, like if you want to aim in 3rd person you hold the left bumper, because holding the left trigger puts you into first person. If I wanted to shoot in first person I would, but hitting right bumper and changing perspectives. That part I like. That’s good for cramming my body in those tight roof spaces so ground people don’t see my sneakers.

The whole inventory is a mess, also. It takes a really long time to cycle through your things, select what you want or drop something or equip or whatever, and working out the four different possible interactions for each item as a new player was downright befuddling. The inventory comes down to wearables, health items, weapons, weapon attachments and ammo. That’s six areas that could be really nicely streamlined into something pretty and functional, like maybe a GTA-style weapon wheel. Who knows? Again, I’m no game designer.

I really don’t want to shit on PUBG. I really like playing it, I can see what it’s doing and I know that with Microsoft’s backing it’s bound to get a whooooole lot better. It’s also still in game preview, so it isn’t really out yet. We’re still in the days of Minecraft beta at high school lunch time making big dicks and blowing them up because it’s hacked and modded to shit. I can excuse its performance issues, the pop-in and various graphical shortcomings, the inventory and gameplay issues in firefights, because it’s constantly being reworked and improved upon. I was lucky to buy the game right after a bunch of huge improvements since its Xbox debut.

So yeah, PUBG’s good and it’s super clear that it’s going to get wildly better. If you have an Xbox One or a computer that can play it I highly advise you jump in, especially since buying it for the lower Game Preview price guarantees you access to the eventual full release.

Go get it.

SCORE

Rank 20/100. Meaning good, because a lower number is better in this situation. Think of it as 80%.

What are your thoughts on Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds? How many chickens have you received? Can I have a chicken? Can you send me a chicken in my DMs? If so, do that. I can’t cook.

You’ll like this if you like:

Rust

Day Z

Second-Life with guns

Murdering strangers

Fearing for your life

- Review & illustration brewed in-house -

[allexandraqueen]

      Back in the days, me and one of my best friends, Tsvetan, would often dream. We dreamed about everything. We dreamed about him becoming a lawyer, always getting me out of jail and stuff. We dreamed about me becoming a singer, always giving him first row VIP passes for my tours. We dreamed about living in the USA. We dreamed about meeting at 20:17 on the 07/20/2017 at Times Square, New York. Until today I never thought this could happen. It was so far away, I thought, I would be 23 and I would have full control over my life and finances (what a child’s dream…)Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a fairy tale that happened… to be true.

                       One of my happiest and most grateful moments alive. Copyright. Visit my Instagram page: hotsince93

When I landed I have never felt such relief, both because the flight was over, and because I finally felt like I am home. Well I was not. Actually a whole ocean separated me from my country! I just have always had this thing for the USA. Since I was little I grew up watching American cartoons and all my life I have been speaking with Californian accent even though I have never been. Living on the island Malta when little may also have its effect, as I grew eating “Kinder Surprise” chocolate eggs and “The Laughing Cow” cheese. Now I mastered the British accent as well, as currently I am living in London, but that’s enough about me!

San Francisco DOES look a lot like Sofia city in Bulgaria. Excluding the ocean, of course. And maybe the palms… Picture taken and edited by me. Copyright. More pictures from the journey to be uploaded soon on my VSCO: www.vsco.co/allexandraqueen

As all of the time in the world would not be enough to describe the whole journey in one blog post, I will try to be as short and as clear as possible. The purpose of my trip to the United States was both to explore, but also to do some work. In other words I thank my university- Kingston University London, for giving me the opportunity to learn something in addition! I had couple of meetings in big corporations, so that I can explore their way of working, managing and creative processes. As most of my blog posts you will not leave this page with empty hands, so grab a pen!

Sofia does look a bit like San Francisco. And it’s not only the streets, cable cars and trees (excluding the palms). Or was it just nostalgia?Photo: www.vsco.co/allexandraqueen 

Silicon Valley in California is a worldwide famous place for its huge successful companies like Apple, HP and Google. It is the place where innovation has been born. It is the place where creativity and innovation are still happening. One of the first companies we ever visited was the “Institute For The Future”, located in one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to in my life- Palo Alto. Sean Ness talked us through the importance of technology and what does his company do to generate insights. Again, it will be really hard to sum up what he said for two hours we were together, but here are some main points of our conversation:

This and all of the photos in this blog post are taken by me. Copyright. For more of my photography visit www.vsco.co/allexandraqueen

IFTF (the company’s name) believe in VUCA- vision, understanding, clarity and agility.  They believe that being agile and open to changes is essential when trying to make things for the future. We talked about the important skill sets of workers and branding as well. Sean strongly believes that certainty is bad as we should always be aware of further possibilities. One of the most fascinating things he mentioned, however, was the fact that in the US and especially in his company, he will not care about diplomas and degrees as much as when hiring a person, he would just like to check his e-mail inbox. Thus, he can tell weather a person is organised and if you had 5,687 unread messages, my friend, you should look for a job, elsewhere!

Street views. The city where innovation meets vintage!    Palo Alto, CA, United States. 

The shift from an old to a new way is beneficial, especially when talking about technology. In order to gain insights, IFTF uses the three-steps process of Foresight-Insight-Action. The aim is to come with insights by using provocation and then to talk and consider how to take action.

Sean mentioned one other thing regarding personal skill sets- the ability to make people like you, especially if you are going to be a salesman! The human factor is essential, nevertheless the company’s aim field is technology. Being human is a lot more than just feeling. It is the ability to see what others are feeling as well. After all, technology is way easier to forecast than humans. The hard part is always the human part!

To conclude the topic he mentioned some other processes regarding technology and innovation. One of these processes were physical books, becoming e-books. Here we came across an interesting statement- “If you think e-books completely removed physical ones, why do you think the book shop across the street, that has been there for 82 years, is still so successful and visited? Plus the truth about e-books is that you can never own them, you just license them.”

Since I was little I always LOVED visiting bookshops. After the meeting I did visited the one across the street.

Next stop- “reddit” ! The next day we visited one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world and guess what- we met the founder- Alexis Ohanian, himself!

Apart from being an awesome person and taking selfies with us, he guide us through the emotions he felt when back in the days he was starting up his own business, that today is worth more than millions of dollars. We also spoke to one of the managers and the designers from the company.

                                              Functionality + Aesthetics = Design

      As well as telling us the obvious things like “understanding the user is important” and “the right talent brings perspective to the team” we talked about how valued in the USA is the word EASY. After all, “reddit” is successful as it is completely democratic, making the process of sharing content a lot EASIER. “Reddit” values simplicity, but not being shallow. After all, with less it is easier to learn and a lot easier to master afterwards. Small teams are also easier to be self-organised and build the identity. The awesome experience in “reddit” taught us a lot more about the communication as well and how important it is to talk and get back to your customers as well as the importance of not being too serious.

reddit‘s office, San Francisco

I just realised how hard it will be to talk you through the whole week of meetings, so I will just focus on the biggest and most known companies, guiding you briefly through some of the main points we mentioned. The next office I will lead you to is “Salesforce”!

Mindfulness turned out to be not only a word we talked about in MACE course at Kingston, but an actual thing in huge corporations around the world!

“Salesforce”. The building was as twice as huge as the “reddit” and “twitter” ones combined! And they still consider themselves to be “enormous start up company”! As many other companies they do focus on being innovative and engaging their employees in order to achieve the common goals, but what we learned here was something else. Creativity comes when you give people space. Also, wanting to improve constantly is what they believe in and also- never be afraid to make mistakes! Always want more and think as if your work can become better and better!

Ohana means FAMILY !

Another thing “Salesforce” focuses on the team and again how to be EASY to be both a customer and an employee in the company. “Seeking to understand, before seeking to be understood.” The element of trust plays an important role again in the whole process.

When in doubt- rent a bus! We hired a bus, so that we can go from place to place easier.

The trip made it possible both to explore California and to learn new and exciting things about how to make the process of managing a creative business easier for us.  We visited a lot of companies and also we did a trip to Silicon Valley Bank were we celebrated the birthday of our host and then we went to see the Computer History Museum to learn more about the history of innovation. A common fact is that John Atanasoff, the inventor of the first computer, has Bulgarian roots, so I felt really proud to see some of his inventions in person.

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One of the most exciting part of the journey was the day we went to Google’s office in the wonderful town of Mountain View in California. Have you seen the movie “The Internship”? We were in the same building.

Android is standing on a nougat dessert, because Google name its software releases after desserts names! They told us the next one will be with “O”. Maybe “Oreo”? 

Oh, God, where can I start… No matter what I say, every wonderful thing you have heard about Google is true. They do have a nap area, they do have dance spot area and gym area and if you are a “noogler” (new in the company) you receive extra massage points. Huge place so I had to take one of the ” Google ” bikes to run around and explore the campus.

The famous singer Ciara visited Google’s office as well! 

Today over 70.000 people work worldwide for Google. Most of the company’s revenue comes from research and advertising. They do put a lot of effort on their consumer products and they do take customers’ feedback pretty seriously. The Pixel phone and their new smart watch in partnership with “LG” are both made after translating what customers want into features and road map, afterwards working with engineers to implement the ideas and touch points. Google became interested in the idea of making hardware products rather than only software, as they will have full control over the products and will be able to redesign or apply small improvements when and if needed with an ease. 

      Google teams are cross-functional teams, where everyone works together. The company does put a lot of effort in employees well being and often the induction period would be more than a month, to ensure that you will have soft landing and will be able to make enough networking so that you will do your company role at ease after that.

Me and Stan. Google’s “pet”!

I assume you have met Stan- Googleplex’s dinosaur- from one of my previous blog posts. He is one of the “living” proof how much Google values creativity. But it is a lot more than that! Did you know that they are one of the fewest companies in the world that will pay for almost the whole maternity period if an employee within the company falls pregnant? (“EQUALYTIE” – our business regarding gender equality- was proud to learn these news!) After all it turned out it is even better than the movie as it was more of a friendly, family-oriented kind of atmosphere, rather than the presented in the movie competitive field. If you work for Google it is more likely your manager will guide you, rather than just give you headlines. You will be pushed to do meaningful stuff! It will teach you how to adopt the skill of “googliness” :)

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        There were a lot of places we visited and a lot more things we learned but my blog post will be huge and you will be annoyed with all of the reading, so I think I should stop here. After all the companies we went to, I can say that the US is a lot different than the UK. Everyone is doing more work, but at the same time they are more relaxed in a way! I don’t know, maybe it’s because of the ocean and all these summer vibes you get while going to work, passing the beautiful coastline…

       Learn how to fail fast and ask for forgiveness instead of permission. This is what we have learned at MACE as well, that’s why I was so surprised how many people in the USA actually believe in this! Never be satisfied with your work and always tend to do more! Nothing’s ever perfect- challenge yourself!And always think about what is next! Sean from IFTF (the first company I visited in Silicon Valley) said that in order to look at the future you have to look twice back to the past.

“Plug and Play” actually did have this in their office!

Innovate. Create new ways of doing old things (remember when I talked about divergent thinking in my blog post about the creative brain?). And always remember to be human! Bond with people, because one of the huge skills you can have nowadays is to know how to make people like you/your company! Look for the easy way of doing things and always work in a team. Be trendy! Think like you are customer service organisation rather than salesman! Only that way you can predict the next great offer!

The small garage in Palo Alto in Silicon Valley where the computer company HP started! 

      Transparency. Trust. Customer services. Innovation. Giving back. EQUALITY. Wellness. FUN! Stay focused on your goal because aligned goals and defined roles are important! Everything will happen eventually if you do one step at a time. In the meantime don’t forget to be human! 

Market Street, San Francisco, California

P.S: Before I go, I promised to show you pictures from the famous Alcatraz prison we visited, so there you go- a little slideshow! For more check http://www.vsco.co/allexandraqueen soon for a whole album from CA!:

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Thank you for taking this journey with me. Hope you learned something new, as I did! See you soon!

Chinatown, San Francisco

Downtown

Lombard St. San Francisco 

All pictures taken by me. Visit www.vsco.co/allexandraqueen for more.

America. The land of complete freedom, butter toffee almonds and creative people!       Back in the days, me and one of my best friends, Tsvetan, would often dream. We dreamed about everything.