#those who dont learn from the past are doomed to repeat it

[caddy-crystal-queen]

So...looks like I have a new Fandom full of folks that need slapping. Which is a shame because I really like this. Now keep in mind, I don't know all the details about this as I learned about this literally a few hours ago, and I never really interacted with this individual. So forgive me if my knowledge of the situation is skewed or limited.

That being said...

On today's episode of who in what Fandom needs to be slapped, i present to you all the Call of Duty fandom...for literally everything...but most prominently how it treats each other...

My history and feelings with CoD are very...complex to say the least. As a propaganda piece, I absolutely fucking hate it. Yes, the CoD games, all of them, are military propaganda. Whether you believe it or not, this is the truth. However, having seen firsthand what the military does to someone (my father) I have no intention of ever joining the military, much less for fictional dudes.

However I do find the characters intriguing. The last game was a total shitshow though (RIP Soap, you never did get to juju on that beat...). But like with most things on this blog, it's not the thing itself I'm taking issue with.

It's the fans.

Yep. That shouldn't surprise anyone.

You people make this Fandom so God. Damn. Fucking. Unbearable to be in. From fucking up characterizations, to flat out racism in regards to certain characters, and especially what I'm about to bitch about today: and that's how you treat each other. I'm about to go over two situations in which this is very prominent. But before I do

(SLAP! CLEAN...IN THE FACE!) STOP. FUCKING. HARASSING. INNOCENT. PEOPLE! ENOUGH! Be an actual adult and take responsibility for your shit!

So earlier this year, a couple months ago as of writing this, a young man killed himself on tiktok live because of allegations that he was grooming a sixteen year old. He was bullied, harassed, and treated like absolute garbage by you people over shit that turned out to not even fucking be true. But whether or not it was true, poor Inquisitore most likelt knew that his reputation would be forever soured. Pair that with possibly a lot of mental health issues (I didn't know him personally but I'm sure he had problems) and well, I'm sure you all already know what happened. I believe this was back in September, I know it was before Halloween, but yeah we all felt the impact of his death. You did that. Whether you want to believe it or not, you all did that to that poor young man who it turned out didn't do anything to anyone.

Now for the situation I heard about this morning and that's the situation I've heard about in regards to a writer who went by Puff. I'm afraid that history is repeating itself already only this time it's a minor who's being attacked. First of all, I don't know this individual personally, I followed them for their self aware AU and just the general positive vibe they gave out. I never interacted with them though, I did like to see their posts because they seemed like a general decent person. I did not know they were a minor until all this stuff came out. Now apparently they were facing harassment for interacting with MDNI/NSFW stuff. This is a tricky situation in my opinion. I don't control what people write. I don't control what people interact with except for regards to my own content, regardless of whether or not I write smut (I generally don't because I'm on the ace spectrum and I'm bad at it but that's neither here nor there).

However, and it's a big HOWEVER, you have no. No. No. NO right WHATSOEVER to promote the bullying and harassing of an innocent person! It's the same thing that happened to Inquisitore, just the other way around. I get blocking minors, especially if you don't want them interacting or reading your stuff. I'm all for blocking them, or whatever it is you need to do. What I'm NOT for is the blatant bullying and harassing messages being sent to a child to either delete their entire account (which puff did, by the way) or even some saying they should kill themselves. Seriously...what in the hell is wrong with you people? How would you, as a minor child, who wanted to make content for other people, feel if someone sent you or someone you love a message like that? Enough is enough! You are not in fucking high school anymore, this is Tumblr. If you're an asshole, you deserve to get called out for being an asshole!

Call of Duty fandom, all of you, stop telling people to kill themselves. Just ..seriously. it's not cool. It's not funny. It's not edgy or whatever cool fucking term you think it is. In the words of Ghost of all people: "Actions have consequences".

And sometimes that consequence can be someone's life, with their blood on your conscience. Stop. Be better.

[oscconfessions]

i dont get people's obsession with book making up with/forgiving people from her past because is her whole arc in tpot not about moving on from the past and finding new friends. idk people really want her and ice cube or match or pencil or taco or you get the point to make up and i don't see the point. let her have new friends. let her move on. not everything has to end with everybody being happy and silly together. they can be on bad terms/not talking/literally not friends. it's ok guys. I Really Just Want Them To Move On From Each Other and for people to stop forcing her back into toxic environments from her past

i think book confronting her past is important and i personally feel that she's been avoiding it (her lack of objection towards ice cube leaving her in tpot 1 and her dreading having to deal with it in tpot 10) so obviously it shouldn't just be swept under the rug but i Do Not feel like book owes match or pencil (especially pencil because match has been shown to at least be trying to improve. iirc i don tremember like anytihn gfrom bfb LOL) forgiveness. She shouldn't have to be forced to suck up and go back with people who hurt her. i genuinely think it's best that they go their seperate ways.

^ i also feel like the whole "they should just go their seperate ways" thing applies to icebook. their relationship in bfb was mutually toxic and both of them hurt the other with a lack of proper communication and whatnot. soooooo many people want ice cube and book to make up and be friends again it tpot but they're Not Good For Each Other!!! also book hasn't proven that she's grown enough from her time in bfb to even handle being around ice cube again without repeating her same mistakes towards her. ice cube has no reason to not dislike her right now because she's just acting the same as she did in bfb towards her in tpot 12. if book wants to have a chance at being with ice cube again she needs to realize /what/ she did wrong; book and ice cube's boundaries were always a mess and a big problem in their relationship was that constant pushing of boundaries by book, something that she saw no issue with because ice cube never spoke up about it until it got to an extreme point.

i fear if book and ice cube become friends again in tpot they'll A. just repeat their same mistakes or B. have all of those mistakes conveniently disappear so book faces no consequences for her mistakes in bfb which is like Not Good

i get wanting your fav friendships to interact again but *insert nerd emoji here* it makes no sense for her character and the arc they're trying to give her this season acshually

book needs to accept that her past doesn't define her so she can move on from that and move on from her past friendships. she needs to accept that those people are gone for a reason instead of chasing after them. She Needs To Actually Learn A Lesson And Change, Tpot Writers

vaguely related but dont get me wrong i love icebook (peep the blog lol) but maaaaaaaaaan i don't like seeing it portrayed all fluffy and happy and wholesome. you do you but GAFHGFDGFDKG there's so much interesting stuff about the flsaws in their relationship and just how disgustingly attached book is to ice cube and how ice cube allows this to happen until it's too much for her to handle and how book focuses so much more on ice cube than herself and they're so awfully codepdendent and they suck at communication and boundaries and they were honestly always doomed to fail They Won't Work Out Together they're tied by fate and can't live without each other even if it's hurting them and AND AND AND make their relationship uglier it won't hurt to have ship content that's not 100% happy fluffy all the time no flaws ever fix-it fic material (obligatory you do you i don't care that much this is my opinion you are allowed to do whatever you want)

.

[caseyjones2012]

long rant ahead.

ok so you know how people always say we are doomed to repeat our past if we dont learn from it or something along those lines

well, i started thinking of Cassandra, from the greek myth who was always fated to speak prophecies, the truth, yet forced to never be believed she always knew. she learned, not only from the past, but the future as well yet she was fated to be doomed

over and over and over and over and over amd over again always suffering the same fate, despite her best efforts to make people believe her to make them see the truth

and that got me thinking we arent doomed to repeat the past if we dont learn from it in the basics of it, we are doomed to live life as modern day cassandras forced to live in a world where people dont believe dont trust enough and that is what dooms them

its not being doomed for not learning from the oast its being doomed for not believeing, trusting its doomed for wishing only the best, for people to fully believe in your truth no lies nor blasphemy nothing made up

and oh my god holy shit

[i-did]

what would make renee angry in your opinion?

I had a really hard time answering this one actually. I thought about it for a while and asked a lot of my friends to see if they had any ideas, and here's what I came up with:

1) A professor or TA who is super shitty to her

Just a really shitty teacher.

as she goes through college, she’s bound to run into some assholes, and I don’t think Renee has perfect grades in the past or present. her not knowing academic terminology and feeling out of place in the college setting would make a lot of sense for a lot of the foxes, and Renee is good on putting on a smile, but she still eventually gets that one professor or TA that scoffs at her questions and “doesn’t have time for the likes of her” and the constant complete dismissal digs painfully under her skin and brings out her anger.

2) People who are intensely rude to her despite her best efforts to be as kind as she can be

Renee is patient, but we all have our limit. similar to the one above, but Renee dealing with someone who is just rude all the time and she struggles to keep reminding herself “we all have bad days, I don’t know what they’re going though.” Renee working in a coffee shop and a woman bumping into Renee and spilling her coffee on herself, only to yell at Renee for an hour, ignoring all of Renee’s pleasant customer service smiles. said customer later on becoming a regular and repeating this behavior, cutting off people in parking lots and flipping them off, Renee being kind and trying to give her a free scone only for the woman to tell her she hates scones, Renee offering something else only for the woman to tell her to shut up. that shit wears you down, and Renee still dumping her kindness onto someone every time only for it to backfire or be dismissed would make her have to take a few deep breaths in the back room before deciding, fuck it, she's cut off from active kindness, now only passible neutrality and not being aggressive is enough. 

3) someone who refuses her help

her knowing she could really make a difference, but some people just don’t want help, and she feels helpless and angry. she's not angry at the person, but the situation of them not being ready to accept help or even able to accept help makes her so frustrated she would start to grind her teeth in her sleep. She understands how it is, how hard it can be to take the first step to change or giving up pride or whatever the hurtle may be, but that doesn’t make it any easier than her thinking in her head “just let me fucking help you!!! or anyone!!! just let anyone in to help you!!!! fuck!!!” inside her head. she knows not everyone needs help or saving, but some people do, and when they shove her back, unwilling and not ready for it over and over while she’s trying to save them, she gets frustrated that she can’t.... do anything. and just has to wait. but Renee can be patient, and she’s willing to wait. 

4) Someone actively trying to wear her down and get under her skin

okay so this isn’t something that happens often, the closest Renee has really come to it is with Andrew when he first was scoping her out. but– if someone was actively trying to aggravate her, laughing at everything she said and making fun of her, pulling at her looser strings and picking at her ticks, watching to see what brought out her reaction, they could eventually do it and get under her skin. i think she wouldn’t let herself blow up at them since thats what they want, but she would silently excuse herself from the situation to take a breather. no one really does this with her, and Andrew only does this to size her up and even still his interrogation isn’t the type of harassment i’m imagining. i mean like old school bullying, not locker shoving, but the middle school girl shit that leaves emotional scars. and them being older, they’re less afraid to show it and be more straight forward mean. people don’t really do this to her tho, its too much effort to get a reaction, and when they do, its never what they would have wanted, like crying, but instead is her smile falling and then finding a way to make them feel like shit. Renee is kind, but she also knows how to play on a similar level as them, not just with fists. i HC Renee as plus size, and fuck it is hard to be different in anyway as a kid. but childhood bullying was the least of her worries and these people dont see how deep her personal self assurance has grown and how she has learned to stand with her head held high and her face serine. her and dan are quite similar in this, but dan is much more active and direct while Renee is passive in her letting it glide over her, dan has even gotten annoyed on Renee’s behalf and then annoyed that Renee was not affected and why she didn’t fight more directly back. 

5) People who are overtly cruel and she struggles to sympathize with

okay so, you ever see someone so mean and rude for zero reason to someone else and you’re just like... what the fuck??? Renee doesn’t let others get to her really, but damn.... someone going after someone else in ways that are just so uncalled for and so harshly.... it gets to her. She once watched an episode of catfish where the catfisher laughed at the girl, uncaring that he crossed so many emotional lines and manipulated people without really any care. and she wanted to throw the remote and punch the tv right where the guys face was on the paused screen. nothing like someone just, kicking someone else while their down with no mercy, or making fun of someone behind their back and them not knowing, making fun of the deaf kids voice behind his back and he doesn’t see them doing it, and she’s like, man, Fuck. You. in her head. I don’t think she was like, always a nice person, in fact, i think Renee used to very much so not be the type to sit with the alone kid at lunch but instead ignore him and think “yea he’s weird, kinda ugly” without thinking much of it. But then she decided to change, and she took everything she thought it meant to be a good person, and became that. she started sitting with the alone kid, she started doing charities, she started to smile instead of punch, and she started going to church. and so when she sees cruelness she was once passive in the face of, maybe even active in, she uses kindness. Renee is she good at using taking the high road in such a graceful way it makes others feel bad. like when she tells Nicky calmly “thats not very nice” after he jokes about Seth dying in a car crash on his way from the airport book 1, and Nicky feels like shit. it feels like shit to get called out sometimes, and while its not her goal, she does know it is an effect of it. (i don’t think she’s mad at Nicky in that scene, but she did say something since she is there to protect hers and she redraws that line in that moment, especially without Allison or Seth there yet to say fuck you themselves.)

6) Injustice and systems of oppression

for these i feel she gets more frustrated, overwhelmed, and sometimes resigned. she knows how dark and shitty the world is, but she stays up at night with her hand on her heart as she breathes deep, thinking about how... utterly fucked everything is. its pretty easy for me to HC that Renee is politically far left and has seen the dark side to lack of resources and systemic issues that are just... so overwhelming she doesn’t even know what she does as just one person. world pollution, corruption, class divide, flint water crisis, the homeless crisis, the prison system, functioning segregation in school systems, just... it all. she’s had nights after volunteering where she thinks “i did something, i did.” and she has days where she realizes “...i’m doing nothing, in the end... its all for nothing, there’s just too much.” just a bad day where she sits there, thinking about how much is wrong and wont be fixed and how ‘doomed’ things are, how broken, and she doesn’t feel at a loss, but rather this deep anger that comes from who she was before. 

7) herself. 

Her being unable to live up to her own standards. she still thinks mean things, she has mean and cruel urges, and when she has them, she remembers that she’s still a bad person trying very hard to be a good one, and she thinks she’s still a bad person at her core. she’s not self loathing with it, but she does think to herself “i’m a hypocrite.” and sits with that thought for a minute. sparring with Andrew has helped her, to balance the two sides of her in a way that feels both self indulgent and honest to her path forward. but sometimes while sitting in that church pew, she thinks of her dead mother, her dead step father, those she turned in without batting an eye, stabbing in the back to save herself, and she thinks “i should feel something.” but she doesn’t, she wasn’t sorry then and she’s not sorry now. and she thinks, “the others call Andrew a monster, and they don’t realize that i’m one too.” and she tries to muster up something deep inside her, but she cant. and it can frustrate her, how after all these actions, all those hours of beach clean up and homeless shelters and building houses in some other country and going around clapping her hands to the songs, but she’s still the person she is deep down. and it gets to her. i think her having a conversation with Neil one day, on what it means to be a real person, is she pretending who she is? is she her thoughts or her actions? which is the real her? and Neil saying, it’s all of it. every facet of the self is still the self, he is Nathaniel and Neil and Abram and every other person he has been and will be. we change but we are also always ourselves, and her actions are just as true as her thoughts. 

[katzirra]

Waiting for the place to give me my file list from my hand drive recovery. Made an omelet with asparagus and bacon, and gave the boys a tiny bit for being good this morning and letting me sleep in past 8:06...

Hannibal woke me up with very loudly aggressively loving face rubs which is new, and has been demanding attention all morning by soft paw grabbing and holding my hand while cooking, also new. Usually he's very independent and wants nothing to do with us.

Still concerned with his audible breathing when he's SLIGHTLY distressed, for a cat with obvious anxiety, and when he's picked up or sitting/laying weird. It's very noticeable, and I'm wondering if it has to do with his nasal bridge being a tad flat.

Trying to manifest a good mood. I'm having a big existential crisis about being alive.

Which, I'll just throw that under a cut and pair it with an apology. 🤙✨

I feel like I have no purpose or meaning. Having a lot of those "why bother/what's the point" moments about a lot of things which...the depth of those feelings isn't just apathetic like most people experience? For me it's very much a red flag, so that's been fun. Usually it's doing something as simple as doing something nice for myself, thinking why bother, and having to ARGUE with myself why it matters. Like...having to validate EVERYTHING I do these days is exhausting. Honestly, it's been a low simmer scary JUST KEEP SWIMMING the last few months. But everything I feel is too much to talk to anyone about, and it doesn't HELP me to. It's me. It's my brain. It's scary and I don't like looking the beast directly in the face when people want me to open up. My demon, my problem, trust me when I say I'm trying and that I'm sincere when I say sorry I'm not all here or present.

I'm, like torn between wanting to message my friend first to talk about shit, but I'm also refusing because I was hurt and the comment about shit being too much to read just resonates in my brain yelling "you're not worth their time and effort, you dumb bitch!" because my brain has a FIELD day with that shit. Its.... Kicking a dead horse, repeating myself anyway probably. It hasn't seemed to stick after the last year of me apologizing monthly because I'm just a shit friend who is too busy working and trying to not kill myself. Suicide ideation is a thing, and it SUCKS when it's as invasive as it is for intruding thoughts. But I'll keep apologizing because I feel guilty for not being good enough. Present enough. Engaging enough. Because maybe that time it'll stick??

They'll probably be better off without me making them feel bad because I don't put in enough effort I guess? Which also just hurts because I know online I'm standoffish these days, so I put the extra effort into being a good host I thought and I hoped that mattered. I just feel like no matter what I'm doomed to disappoint them? So I don't mean they'd be better off in a dismissive way, it's a legit...way I think. Like I'm obviously causing distress, and yelling at me won't fix it because it makes me recoil emotionally. So maybe I'm just a bad friend in reality and it is what it is. I'm sorry so many people have fucked me up about inter personal relationships?? I don't know what to do this time because that stupid fight cut me very deep in core values in myself.

It...Fucked me up. And whether that's important to them or not, or whether it has an repercussive weight, whatever. We've both been hurt by people, and been there as much as we'd let eachother. I've tried to be crazy supportive in the last bout of shit they went through. Because I love a bitch, and they matter immensely to me, and I know I suffered alone through a LOT of things like that and know it sucks. I offered my home, attention and time any time I could give it.. Being told i don't give as much as them set weird on my heart in light of that. It hurt.

Idk...And maybe I'm just some dramatic bitch or whatever I guess. Doesn't matter. I matter, my feelings matter. I'm mentally ill and I fucking bust my ass to deal with it, AND be a loving and supportive fixture in people's lives. I suck, sure. But I'm ALWAYS there for people.

I mention I'm depressed or angry at life, sure, but the layers of distress aren't...on display? It's my shit to deal with, if I bring it up, it's for benefit of people knowing why I'm withdrawn usually. I don't talk about myself much anymore because everything is too much and I just start venting. And people don't care that deeply about how fucked up my head is. Or I over share too much. Or yeah, it's a lot to read and I start babbling because the cork is off and I HURT inside just being alive anymore. I don't feel like I'm living my life for me these days. I don't feel alive. I feel stagnant. I'm biding time for SOMETHING to happen??

Yet I'm constantly apologizing to people for not being able to do basic shit, that I'm upfront about being difficult for some dumb reason. I'm always having to explain myself to people. I am in this bubble so often of feeling like I was made wrong, a mistake, missing something important.

Or that I'm a bad person. I'm too open, too closed, withdrawn, outgoing - I can never seem to get the ratio right. And its the kind of discussion I feel leans into self pity and attention grabbing but it's...something I internally struggle with every week and keep to myself.

Oh Kat, get a psychiatrist - I dont know that it would help, honestly. I know 90% of my thoughts and fears are irrational, and pointless. But I know they have valid backing in trauma that I have mostly dealt with, and am unlearning. But I also know I see through people, can identify those markers, and understand outcomes way too easy and that ALSO makes people mad. So. What the fuck is a shrink gonna do for me? My depression is a background white noise to this stuff, and it's honestly just bullshit I deal with. I'm not keen on medication, I'm sure it would help quiet my brain, but I've been dealing with this shit almost 20 years now, ita just the added drama and bullshit from people that exacerbates the emotional brain rash, for lack of a better phrasing. My issues are all behavioral and some depression and anxiety in the mix that I manage.

For all I'm told people understand ahit wrong with me, it sure is something I repeatedly get bitched at over, honestly. And I partially get it, I also find it frustrating. But I've been battling depression since I was 12/13 and learning to stop thinking certain things only since 21, and that's the harder part. I'm not the person people think I am, I wish I was anymore. That bitch died in 2011/2012. That fissure in my foundation fucked me UP. The shaking I had one or two years ago, didn't help.

To be transparently honest the whole shitstorm two weeks ago really hit some raw nerves I'm trying to deal with, and not doing well. Because the more times that nerve is hit the more I don't feel like a valuable person and that I'm wasting people's time. But the reason I'm yelled at is that I am a valuable person, and they want more of my time in a way?? I don't know what people want from me.

Waves hand dismissively - they're being sweethearts by the back door for now.

I'm in a weird place emotionally and mentally. I don't feel alive. I don't feel real. I don't feel valid or... I don't know. Nothing I say or so actually matters in my own life or experiences. I can be an amazing person with communication and intention but it doesn't matter if the other person doesn't care, it's like arguing online.

You can have a valid discussion and someone can just say "you're a fucking moron, I'm not listening to this" and you can't do anything.

I just wasted two hours organizing my thoughts qnd emotions into a post that I'll delete in a week. What a great use of my time. I'm juat exhausted.

I turn 31 tomorrow and is rather be dead lmao. I'm so tired of the weight of being alive and aware of the world and people around me. About being considerate and kind to everyone and it's never god damn enough. I bleed myself dry emotionally for everyone and run my mental battery into the ground qnd it's never enough. It's never going to BE enough. I don't want mental.break downs and emotional roller-coasters. I want friends that understand I'm scatterbrained and severely damaged and abused and I'm TRYING. I'm sorry it's never good enough.

I'm so fucking tired these days. I just want to disappear. I want to have an actual breakdown and cry

I haven't actually cried in years. I.... Mm. I feel like.im a shell. I'm so tired. I'm trying AO hard to be a good person and functional and I'm just constantly having more dished and I'm just...what is my purpose qnd point these days. I can't even make people happy.

Tomorrow I'll turn 31. It'll be like any other day. 👍✨

[atiny-piratequeen]

you're right. I'm sorry for bothering you. This is why I like talking to you about those subjects, you bring a different perspective while explaining. But the thing is, what annoyed me when comparing about HJ to Kai/Chenle is nobody really talked about it like People are talking about Ateez. I'm a kpop fan since 2012 and I saw a lot of Idols doing cornrows /appropriating Black culture but some of them got a Pass or never were really talked about. Like is it the size of the fandom or something ?

Just because it happened in the past doesnt mean it shouldn't be talked about. Its BECAUSE it happened in the past that people are talking about it. It happened in the past, people were mad, and for some reason companies haven't learned. That's literally the argument.

I can assure you if idols got a 'pass' for doing them, it was mostly from non black fans that have the mentality that their sweet precious idols can do no wrong. Which, there was a lot then and a lot now. Those are the people who gave them a pass. Kpop as a genre has grown substantially and has a larger audience, so theres more of a reaction now, but i can assure you people were upset about them just like they are now.

It has nothing to do with 'fandom' and all to do with how many more people are into kpop, meaning more people to be vocal about when this shit happens and we turn to the idols and companies of the past to show yall that these companies will feed you this bullshit of ~not knowing~ it was bad, and yet they or another well known company has pulled it before.

Its literally "you're doomed to repeat history if you never learn and grow from it". Past idols are brought up because these companies dont l e a r n.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

THAT MAP

i didn’t die

also spoilers. like. major spoilers. im serious.

dont click that read more unless you’re totally okay with spoilers cause i talk about some endgame stuff too <3

CELESTICA ERIDIA

THAT ERIDIAN RIFT HUHHHHHHH ITS RIGHT NEXT TO PANDORA

WE’RE ENTERING THE FLORPUS

IT LOOKS LIKE THERE’S A WAY TO TRIANGULATE/OPEN THE WORMHOLE OR SOMETHING???

alright LOOK

each planet (Eden-6, Promethea, Pandora) they’re all circled and when their lines cross it leads to SOMETHING

and looking at the grid that’s obviously what looks to be a wormhole

so we’ve also got the lines

“elpis - not what it seems. is elpis a lens? or a conduit. or both?”

A CONDUIT/LENS?? FOR W H A T??

ARE WE BEAMING SOMETHING OUT OF PANDORA? BECAUSE IF THESE TEMPLES ARE ALL SIMILAR PYRAMID-LIKE STRUCTURES TO THE ONE ON ATHENAS THEN THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE

this is DEFINITELY on pandora (you see elpis up there) so it’s possible something is going to hit elpis and it’s going to beam to this vault-thing and open up a gateway to the Eridian Rift??? OR

we open this Vault and it beams something up to elpis and elpis helps open up part of the Eridian rift

i’d guess we’d need all 3 (?) active to open it?? Eden-6, Pandora, and Promethea

so something SEEMS to be getting beamed either from elpis to pandora or from pandora to elpis

but im going to get elpis to pandora given the way it’s being thrown out? like it hits elpis straight on and then defracts over pandora like a prism

im guessing it’s such a broad spread bc it’s trying to hit the vault-temple-thing we see above (still... not quite convinced those are vaults like we’ve been seeing them in the past games (with lots of big loot inside). again something like teleporters makes way more sense to me)

they also bring this up, that athenas and promethea have a draw to one another, which makes sense since part of the promethean vault key is on Athenas

“Although Athenas is not in the Promethean System, there is a strong pull detectable through use of [eridian resonator (customized) which I have discovered here (seen in purple)]” i have no idea if any of the bracketed stuff is right“

more importantly it looks like one piece of Promethea’s asteroid belt is ‘highlighted’ which i imagine is that giant space laser

which ngl surprises me because

this doesn’t really look eridian to me at all. like, okay, the laser part IS purple but... the actual tech doesn’t look Eridian at all. it looks VERY human. maybe maliwan/atlas discovered it and changed it somehow? that’s pretty much the only reason i can give. like they made it so it would only hit a certain area (concentrated) instead of the entire planet (like we see Elpis doing)

also if we look at Eden-6

eden-6 seems to be 1 of 6 (or more) planets surrounding the gas giant (?) named Eden (which is such a cool fucking detail). or maybe that’s just a solar system named eden. either way. AWESOME.

my question is:

is Eden going to act similarly to Elpis? to the Asteroid Belt of Promethea?? because if that’s the case OH MAN MORE GIANT SPACE LASERS. maybe this is why ships keep on crashing to Eden-6. We know the planet is basically a ship graveyard, maybe there’s some Eridian interference that’s causing this to happen???

Also, when they say “Vaults lead to other Vaults” do y’all think this is tied into in any way the “Vault of Vaults” or whatever “It” is???

because THE VAULT OF VAULTS??? APPARENTLY WE WERE NAUGHTY AS FUCK FOR OPENING IT (the overseer says so when you accept the quest for the proving grounds)

AND THE MASTERS (whoever the FUCK they are!) ARE NOT HAPPY BOYS

ALSO “UNIVERSE DESTROYING POWER” AS CLAIMED ON THE WEBSITE

UHHH IM GONNA GUESS THAT RIFT IS ABOUT TO KILL EVERYONE AND/OR LET OUT A BIG OL SPACE DEMON COUGH THE DESTROYER COUGH

ALSO WE PROBABLY ARE CONFIRMED THERE ARE TEMPLES ON EACH OF THE PLANETS WITH THAT DIAMOND SHAPE

THEY MATCH UP WITH THE SYMBOL WE’VE SEEN EVERYWHERE

(also we now can guess this takes place after Athenas..?)

‘Vault... Key?’ i mean... think about it. we know the symbol for Vault is the circle with the arch. but this is different. this is diamond with, yes, with a vault shape in it. but... there’s obviously more to it than just the vault symbol

plus tannis is using it on pedestals dedicated to Vault Keys so i mean. you know.

and if this IS the symbol for Vault Key than oh man oh me oh my

that would mean opening up the ‘mini vaults’ on Pandora/Promethea/Eden-6 would lead to that big Eridian rift opening, whatever it is

which could explain this line: “the Vaults lead to other Vaults” “Smart, Leda!”

looks like Typhon met someone who writes in blue. who’s name is Leda.

calling it now typhon totally banged a Siren named Leda and had 2 twin kids (it runs in the family) the twins take after their parents: one red, one blue. possibly inherit the Cloth Map and learn about the purpose of the Vaults through it. i got nothing on the cage thing but tbh i wouldn’t be surprised if Typhon or Leda ended up going crazy at some point and/or having kids inside of a Vault for some ungodly reason. spewing random shit about ‘bandits this, bandits that’ to keep them from leaving. maybe they knew their adventures were going to (eventually) lead to the destruction of the universe so they wanted to keep their kids safe without having to admit they’ve doomed everyone outside this has no proof at all, im just spitballing lol i mean look at these love-sick FOOLS lmao

look they both left messages (that i can’t read) with hearts at the end of them

“Genius! [gibberish i can’t make out] <3″ “you know it! <3″

we don’t know what the Vaults really are for, huh Tyreen?? NOW WE DO. NOW. WE DO.

“ERIDIAN GLYPHS ARE CYHPERS!” (sic???)

“by overlaying various found glyphs patterns emerge which are then...” ASDFGSHJ i CANT READ THIS “What is the machine?” “We’ll figure it out together!” MACHINE????????

i NEED it

“Mapping in progress: the key-glyph [something] is an Eridian cypher hiding coordinates to some kind of cyber (????) structure” this perhaps???

also the proving grounds. let’s talk about those. we know they’re eridian, we know there’s 6 of them, we know there’s 1 at least on both Athenas and Eden-6.

we know those Eridian Ruins/Cyphers lead to the proving grounds. we know this much. so is it definitely confirmed the proving grounds hold a higher place in the story than they’re saying? i mean let me pull up my other draft talking about these in-depth and copy paste because there’s only 36 minutes until the NEXT endgame content stream

“Later in the campaign, you may be worthy of taking part in the Proving Grounds: themed gauntlets watched over by a Guardian known as the Overseer who wishes to test your mettle on behalf of the mysterious ‘Masters’.”

so it sounds like at least one is going to take place during the main campaign of the game.

as for uhh who the Masters are... I don’t know. I imagine they’re Eridian in some way/shape/form. to be honest, considering the Overseer is a Guardian (confirmed), I imagine these ‘Masters’ are just literally Eridians. some sort of council, perhaps. i mean “the masters will determine who is at fault” for “naughty humans opened the vault of vaults”. so i imagine they’re like a council.

Let’s start listing stuff we know about the Proving Grounds:

1. you get them by translating (we apparently get a translator later on in the story) Eridian texts (ciphers) left behind, which tell us where (?) these proving grounds are. why we’re not just using tannis... i dunno. something better not have happened to Tannis, gearbox

We’ve seen these texts in the Eden-6 gameplay, so it looks like maybe we won’t need the eridian doritos stabby thing to break any crystals. damn youuu

“Ohhh good. Nonsense.”

i make jokes with my friend that soon i’ll be able to read Eridian given how much i stare at these tablets. it’s only a matter of time...

2. there’s apparently 6 of them, and at least 1 on each planet. We’ve seen the Athenas (Survival) and Eden-6 (Instinct) versions, which does make me wonder if there’s any tie between 6 of these trials and the 6 Sirens...

Also, given there’s supposedly 6 trials and only 5 planets (as the community has gotten devs to tell us), it makes me wonder a) if there’s actually 6 planets or b) why there’s only 1 planet with 2 per planet. i guess if that’s the eridian homeworld then it’d make sense if they have 2.

(Also Varnell did originally say 7 trials at first, but he gets a pass because he was live on stage and i would’ve made that mistake too knowing my dumb brain lol)

3. Apparently during the narrative of the game, at some point, we will unlock at least 1 trial.

“[proving grounds are] encased in the narrative of the game. a combat challenge the Eridians have left for the player to kinda prove themselves worthy for... things i won’t completely spoil right now, but uhhh prove themselves worthy to the ancient, lost, Eridians.”

so... YEAH. big news, gamers.

does this take place at the end of the game? its possible. its likely considering this is considered endgame content. it might not. it could be both, like sort of a repeatable thing. im not really certain. 

What I am certain about tho, is that this takes place after a huge story event.

So, maybe the BL3 story ends on a cliffhanger. Tbh i would upset if that happened, but THAT SAID, if the game does end on such a huge cliffhanger that this is AWFUL and the end of the universe is coming, I don’t think we’d be getting 4 story DLCs that completely ignore this problem.

The devs had said the entire story will be contained within bl3 (no splitting it up between dlcs), and it seems the games like to keep the timeline intact in the real world, so if imminent death is on its way, we can’t exactly wait 5 years irl and in-universe for borderlands 4.

So, if this is a cliffhanger ending, I don’t think whatever happens is... that big of a deal. Sort of the level of finding the Vault Map at the end of BL2. It’s big news! but it’s not going to end the universe. The story marches on. We figure out the new goalposts of this universe and keep doing stuff outside it.

Now that we know that, let’s take note of what the Overseer says at the start and end of this mission:

“Vault Hunter... I thought you might show up sooner or later. So naughty your species, so curious. The Vault of Vaults has been opened and it has been released. Prove your worth and I will reveal why the Masters made me wait for you”.

“Naughty humans opened the Vault of Vaults, but the Masters will determine who is at fault. Until next time, Warrior.”

so that’s some pretty fucking loaded dialogue, isn’t it?

im vvvvvvvvvv curious about who this ‘it’ character is... something the Eridians didn’t want out- well, that’s bad, because we (or the twins, or maliwan, or both I guess) just let it free. and the fact the Overseer won’t even reference the thing by name... that’s probably bad. If this is an actual entity, then that is mostly why I believe this particular Proving Ground takes place during the main story.

that said, ‘it’ could literally be anything. Knowledge, hope, whatever. the potion you brew to become a Siren. you know. anything. She called whatever was released ‘it’ and it doesn’t seem like we’re in a RUSH or anything. Just hanging out doing proving grounds. and apparently this is because we’ve been naughty humans. not evil, just naughty. like she’s giving us (or the cult) a slap on the wrist.

The Overseer doesn’t seem too affected by us opening the Vault of Vaults herself. The Masters apparently are trying to determine ‘who’s at fault here’, like it isn’t exactly clear. was it the humans for opening it? was it the eridians for making them openable?

it would be interesting if this isn’t even talking about something that happens in game, but instead like... she’s referencing Typhon and Leda. the Vault of Vaults had been opened (by Typhon and Leda) and IT has been released... whatever it is... maybe the reason Typhon and Leda locked their kids in a vault? ... i mean if we’re going by the eridium/slag causes psychos, then maybe that? we definitely find eridium on planets other than pandora...

also speaking of stuff taking place during the game, lets remember what was discussed in that interview: “[proving grounds are] encased in the narrative of the game... a combat challenge the Eridians have left for the player to kinda prove themselves worthy for... things i won’t completely spoil right now, but uhhh prove themselves worthy to the ancient, lost, Eridians.”

worthy of what, exactly?

I’m still of the belief that it’s for the title of Vault Guardian (and, yes, by proxy, i want to say Siren, but y’all won’t take me too seriously if i keep advocating for this crack theory lol... implying you took me seriously in the first place 🤡) because of the Guardian Rank

the fact we’re killing Fallen Guardians means, technically, a position HAS opened up... plus I don’t think the Watcher would have come in contact with Lilith if she didn’t think the Eridians needed us

that said, if this isn’t for just becoming Vault Guardians, then... idk. If this is strictly endgame stuff, i don’t even know what we’re trying to prove our worth for.

I guess worthy of not being thrown into alien prison is probably a good one. magic space prison is probably hard to get out of. like, ‘200 years an opening’ hard to get out of. and ur roommate is the destroyer 😨

i mean... maybe worthy of entering the Eridian Rift? i mean... it’s possible this rift leads to the eridian homeworld... there would have to be one HELL of huge Vault Monster to keep people from getting through :o

anyway, we’ve got 20 minutes until the new endgame content, i’ll be sure to add onto here if we learn anything new and/or i think of anything else. im vibrating over this shit, it’s awesome. i LOVE this map. might have to pick one up on ebay or smth.

[thatjwguy]

Everlong... (Schizophrenia Episode)

Feeling a wide range of emotions and even lack of emotions at this moment. How does that work, one can only wonder. I can only imagine how the geniuses of yesteryear and currently must feel in a moment like this. Read something in a magazine purchased probably over a year ago that said something like this. Intelligent people who go through mental breakdowns or have schizophrenia. Many people go through phases like this in their life, not having the ability to fully understand it at times. Why the episodes occur in the first place is a mystery to me. Could be a multitude of things that throw you off balance mentally speaking. Overthinking, environment, people etc, could be defining factors that’s spark it. Right now its hard to tell but i may be having a feedback loop or something like that. Repeating thoughts or voices that don’t seem to have any rime or reason. 

Figure right now is a great time to make a post cause i feel spontaneous, plus for some odd reason im getting feelings of inspiration. When the mood strikes i suppose i run with it. So today im going to go through what i feel right in the middle of one of these mental episodes. Attempt to keep it together long enough to get this finished to see what the final outcome will be. I enjoy experimenting with things, mostly psychological things. What makes a human mind tick, conducting my own personal tests of sorts. Trial and error for the most part until i find better solutions to the problems i may be facing. Right now at this stage in my life its still pretty complicated like many things. Use myself as a baseline then work my way out. Asking questions such as “why do i think this way” or “is this how other people think”. Many others of course but for now thats the gist of it. 

Breaking down the this disorder little at a time, with the help of psychologists or internet research. Also notable that i have gone to counselors who also assist in the process. Makes this easier in the long run, having second opinions and such. Bouncing ideas off of others to see what we can figure out. One of the most challenging yet interesting things to do in life. Attempting to understand the brain and just how it operates. Such a complex task to do with the added setback of being a laymen, which means i need all the help i can get in order to comprehend this labyrinth. Another notable thing is, the voices i hear will be helpful at times. Other times it can get a little congested so you need to take a break to regroup. I only mention the voices cause they are actually part of my mind so i think if i can break it down from the inside i may be able to get to root causes.

Thinking this post as a whole is a rather strange one, just cause its so out of the blue and its about my inner battle with this monster inside me. Taking you on a deep dive to uncover my box of madness. Who knows maybe people will find this interesting, or just weird. Anyway, back to the good stuff, what is the main concern with schizophrenia. One is that i will end up dead at some point, that it will consume me and i will just be another statistic cause to be honest its like living in a tin can filled with people bickering and arguing with one another. Another is that i will cause others pain cause im frustrated with all of it, trying to escape but its permanent so im at the mercy of my thoughts. Lastly, i wonder everyday if i will come anywhere close to some kind of normalcy.  Please don’t think that this is all doom and gloom, it has its ups and downs like everything in life. Sure many who have had this have gone through with things. Then again some have had the strength to persevere despite all the chaos that happens inside the mind.  I look up to those types for the courage to keep on trucken, like a mack truck in Mad Max. Push through all the garbage, find the light and hold on tight. Trying to make the best out of a very complicated situation. Afraid to really open up all the way about the nature of this beast. Figure now is a better time then ever given the times we live in. 

How about i explain a bit about the voices such as what they say. First i will need to explain who the voices are and why they manifested in this way. From an early age i was left alone to my own devices, this is how i think things might have got started. Raised mostly by TV sets and video games, no real supersize for the most part. Eventually i grew to love the entertainment industry for everything it had to offer. Music seemed to be my go to for most of my entertainment purposes, seemed to be what i connected with the most. Fast forward to this current time, music as a whole is one of my favorite escapes from reality. The only problem is since i was hooked on media it ended up being my safe haven for better and for worse. Then when i had my first breakdown in 2015 it seemed as though the voices took on the persona of all the people i admired. Due to overexposure it seemed like my brain fragmented in some way. It threw me through a loop and then some. 

What does this have to do with this episode im having right now. Well for starters the voices only come out when i truly focus on them or when under the influence of something like marijuana. Right now im going through a period or relapse, iv dropped my spiritual routine for the most part and have started going back to drugs/alcohol. Still take the meds just not as frequently as i should be. So you can pretty much tell what could be the cause of this episode right now. Long nights binging on entertainment to escape reality instead of actually going through with the change that is necessary. Something i think a lot of us tend to do because change is hard, everyone wants to change but are afraid of failure. 

That is the cycle i find myself in right now, the never ending loop of self doubt which is prohibiting me from moving forward in life. Always thinking about the negative outcome instead of just learning from the mistake and correcting it. I find myself looking at others lives on social media and wonder how much it took for them to make changes. I may not see their path as a righteous one to follow but i still admire the strength that they have to go forth despite all the setbacks. Pretty sure thats why i follow many of them in the first place, the tenacity displayed for what they really want. Always making moves, never stopping or harping on the negative outcome. In fact i bet thats what most people follow others for, not just for what they provide to them but a source of inspiration. 

All in all im just happy to be alive for another day, even though the struggle against the forces in my head keeps dragging on. I dont want it to get the better of me, instead i want this to be something others can learn from. Everyone has a struggle of some kind, battles that we must face whether it be in our own heads or out in the real world. Past couple days have been pretty rough in my head, voices are getting pretty negative now. Subconsciously i must be feeling a certain way otherwise this wouldn't be happening at all. Hard to say for sure, all i can do is remain calm and try to stay positive as i go along. Make the most out of this predicament, move forward with changing my life once again. Just keep praying i can make it out of this thing without it consuming me completely. 

Thanks for stopping by, please check out my other posts. Lots of interesting things iv gone over in my spiritual journey. :) 

[tumblunni]

Let’s ramble a bit more about Changeling Sim ideas! This time a bit about the awkward lil royal family and their interlocking relationships~!

Kiddo

It our deuteroganist! Hello! The protagonist’s cute little daughter is actually the next heir to the faerie throne, sent to be raised by her as a challenge to prove that the human world has good in it and is worth saving. And also secretly because Xana Mega is pretty awkward and cute under her scary facade, and was worried she was too distant to make a good mother to her child. In the golden ending you can help patch up their relationship, even though Jackie is still the one Kiddo knows as her true mother, and her biological parent becomes more like the family’s aunt. Kiddo is technically half human, but it’s not because Xana Mega married a human or anything. Fairies don’t follow biological genetics, theyre grown from giant flowers after all! Xana created Kiddo entirely by herself, and she acquired her human side solely from being given to Jackie to raise. Baby fae are more metaphysically squishy than their older counterparts, the classic changeling ploy is simply to replace a human child with a fae baby and it’ll naturally shift into the shape of the human. For a time they’ll be just that- a fairy wearing a disguise. But if they don’t know theyre not human, they’ll grow into what they’re taught and completely transform into a real mortal around puberty. Changelings do tend to retain a heightened sense to the supernatural and occasionally a few odd abilities, but generally they’ll never return to what they once were. Traditionally nobody had a choice in this whole matter, it was a very sketchy and horrid practise of ancient fae who didnt even respect humans as real sentient people. But in this case Kiddo wasn’t replacing an existing human, and she’s being raised knowing of her origins. Eventually she’ll face the question of whether she wants to stay or return to being a fairy, but it’ll be 100% her own choice. Similarly, it’s her own choice whether she wants to take the throne or if she finds a different career choice during her adventures in this other world. Many endings for you, the player!

Xana Mega

The current queen of Mag Mell, an ominous towering figure who rules with strict efficiency and commands the current anti-human war. Everyone’s pretty damn scared of her, and she lives a very lonely life disconnected from her own people. Despite her frightening persona and dedication to all things rational, she’s called for this mysterious truce for the next 18 years, and is permitting certain humans to enter our realm?? Truly the queen works in mysterious ways... but is she going soft...? Deep down she’s really a kind person who feels she has to put up this front deliberately in order to retain order. Its half that and half not really knowing how to function well socially, since she’s been groomed to be a ruler from a young age and had to live with a distant father. Because she was scared she’d repeat his mistakes, she gave her child to somebody else... but ultimately has she just become the same absent parent? It doesnt matter, because at least the kid will have a good mother, even if it isn’t her. But the decision does haunt her, and she’s both excited and terrified of the day she’ll see the child again on her 18th birthday and she won’t recognise her. But hopefully (if the player does well) she’ll be able to see that Kiddo has grown up into a wonderful young woman and had a fullfilling life that makes it all worthwhile ^_^ Ultimately if you’d ever get to know the real Xana beneath the royal role, she’s a slightly adorable awkward dork with a weary sadness yet a childish joy for experiencing new things. When you’d given up hope on this stuff, its hard to restrain yourself! Its possible to get a super secret route where Jackie romances Xana and Kiddo acquires DOUBLEMUMS~! And they’re super cute going out together on Real Authentic Human World Dates while Xana flails happily like this small hotdog stand is disneyland. Who’da thought that after the war ended, the old queen would become a human world weeaboo as soon as she set foot in our dimension? ^_^

Alberich

Xana’s father and previous ruler. Known as the Good King, he was responsible for starting the grand reforms of society that Xana continues nowadays. If peace is ever achieved between humans and fae, he was the one who sewed the first seed even if he didn’t live to see it sprout. Despite his success as a ruler, he was pretty flawed as a father, and passed that on to his daughter. He couldn’t completely escape the trappings of ancient fairy tradition, and his daughter was mostly raised by maids and tutors while he remained just this distant silent figure she could never reach no matter how hard she tried. She never even knew very much about him since he died when she was young. The young queen was just left with a million different opinions everybody else had on him, coalescing into an abstract cluster of an unknowable, empty pillar of ideal regal emotionlessness. .....Of course, the real Alberich was just as far from this as she is! To those who personally knew him, he was a complete softhearted goofball whose overidealistic ramblings would surely doom the whole country. And isn’t that just why he’s so loveable? Ultimately, his failure as a father was just that... a failure. Xana tried to justify it as if he’d made the right decision to be distant, and she should become the same sort of person, and take it further to become distant to even her own citizens. But Alberich never pretended his decision was the right one, he was a good man who despite his best efforts didn’t know how to raise a child. He had no-one to learn from, and his fear of messing up is what caused him to flee from the concept of parenthood entirely. He thought that hiring the best educators and minders would help compensate for the ways he was lacking as a dad, never knowing that all his daughter wanted was the one thing he could give- love. :( In the end he perished sadly to a simple disease that could have been cured if the country’s infrastructure wasn’t so ravaged by the war with the humans. His decision to prioritize the remaining money towards protecting the citizens was what caused him to waste away from a simple fever. While a certain someone raced against the clock to fetch the medicine on foot, arriving just late enough to miss the chance to hold his hand as he passed away...

Rafferty

A simple court jester who was promoted to the king’s butler and eventually promoted/demoted (?) to the finance minister after the new queen took the throne. Why is he even in the royal family section...? He’s always been sort of a stuffy grumpy neat freak, but he used to be a symbol of fun amoungst the court once. Now he’s just become bitter and hateful, leading the anti-human sentiment and questioning the country’s leadership at every turn. He’s globally hated by all of his coworkers and suspected of being corrupt- he was the major scapegoat for the culprit in the king’s death, and never managed to shake the stigma. He’s only really here and has any sort of power because the king’s will secured his position for the foreseeable future. He’s also hated because (GASP!) he’s a disgusting former human turned fairy! In his former life he was a homeless peasant in the 1800s that Alberich brought home one day and hired as a servant. Everyone humoured the king with his new pet, but it started to get ridiculous when he gave the thing legal rights and a career! It’s tradition to just consider a fairy a fairy when they become one, and forget about whoever they were in their past life, but gossipping housewives like to ignore this rule and hold it against him anyway. Its also kinda why Rafferty has such a personal hate of humans, he used to be one and he’s seen nothing but the worst side of them... His role in the current story is really just to be a small obstacle in plotlines, and a possible befriendable character. I’m an optimistic person so I like stories of cliche ‘evil vizier’ type guys having more complex motives and being able to be redeemed in the end. In the end you can discover that the real secret behind him and the king was that they were actually dating, and Rafferty really was loyal to the kingdom all along. And he endured all this hate for so long because he doesn’t want to tarnish Alberich’s memory by letting people know about their affair. Xana is actually his biological daughter from when he was human, making him Kiddo’s grandpa. Neither of them knew this fact though, and in fact Xana was one of the people who hated him the most. She just knew him as her funny friend who kept her company when she was lonely as a child, one of her father’s servants who seemed to care about her more than the rest. So she took it as a personal betrayal when he was suspected of killing the king, and kept believing it well into her adult years. Its gonna be a messy reunion for them when the misunderstanding is all sorted out, but a happy one too, hopefully...

+++

A slightly unrelated side note but I ideally wanna make a full cast of court employees and lesser nobility! At the moment all I have is Rafferty, unnamed scribe dad and kiiiinda a cupid type figure I dont know much about yet? I dunno, I just got that concept in my brain while I was thinking about Raffles and Ritchi’s past back when he was king. I imagined maybe Rafferty did have at least one friend amoung the royal court who knew about his relationship with the king and supported them. And it sorta came together in my brain as some sort of champion of love and justice, and maybe designed around a traditional valentine’s day fairy cliche. But like a world weary chain smoker one? BUT still one that really is a kind loving figure, not a dark subversion or anything. I just feel like they’re someone worn down by seeing injustice in the world, and questioning other people’s definitions of love that’re being forced upon them. Someone who was doubting this country... I get the feeling they’ve left the plot by the time we get to the present, but I don’t know if they died or maybe they just left the country after the king died and they’d lost their last hope the place could change. But I do generally think maybe everyone who was in the fairy court back when Rafferty was jester is now dead and/or gone, he was the youngest member then and he’s the oldest one now. And he was hated by all his former friends, they died, and now he’s left being hated by all new people... But yeah I just have this good image of some broken but kind person finding a tiny bit of happiness realizing grumpy old rafferty found love, and reassuring him that they dont hold the same stupid homophobic ‘no dating humans’ views that everyone else is pushing. A brief bit of calm before the storm, making it even sadder that cupid just wasnt strong enough to keep trying after that hope died, and ran out even on rafferty, their last friend... I guess... a Nanu cupid?

[rhysgore]

tpfang56 replied to your post “when yall played dmmd were you assuming ppl werent jerkin it to the...”

hmmm... it's almost as if... the bad endings were there ON PURPOSE for fujoshis with the Hardcore™ Kinks™

it was a game that covered all bases lmao but a lot of people seemed to think that the gore bits are just... there for no reason? instead of also being part of the eroge that the game was marketed as? hm

and now several years later there are STILL people surprised when The Kinksters enjoy questionable erotic elements of a piece of media.... those who dont learn from the past are doomed 2 repeat it

[isaacathom]

inspite of reading these readings, i am no closer to understanding what the fuck ‘post digital art’ is, considering that one is about like, the death of cinema (?) and the other is about like, looking at the past to understand the future, which, that has nothing inherently to do with digital. we- the phrase ‘those who dont learn from the past are doomed to repeat it’ has been around for fucking centuries. what. what the fuck is post digital about doing some fucking research about old art. what the fuck.

[eneloh]

so...once again i have to get on my soapbox and speak my piece/give my opinion/stance on the finger pointing and calling out thats been going on ever since a certain well known celebrity whos also a fuckin creepsville central pervboy whos sick in the head and shoulda been hauled off to jail a long time ago waaay before the 4th 1/4 of last yr. i wanna use this as a teachable moment for all. so...of course were all aware of 2 documentaries that have recently aired. (not gonna mention names cuz im sure you know who(m) were referring to) and ppl keep mentioning and bringing up what elvis did back in the ol days and woodly allen w/ him and his "marriage" and of course...surprise surprise...harvey weinstein. and some ppl are going even as far as to say its about race or selective ignorance and about "white privilege" and about bringing another race down and shaming them and lynching them. lemme clear something up for you ppl out there. that calling card is so overrated in todays society. so thats lesson number 1. ppl keep compounding mistake w/ mistake w/ mistake. now...since weve opened this box...yes...elvis did have something going on w/ a 14 yr old back in the day. what surprises me is that ppl are just learning about this now. and if ppl really wanna take it there...if youre gonna call out passed entertainers (who arent even alive to defend themselves to begin w/) why dont we mention when screaming jay hawkins married someone who was underage. but nobody is even mentioning anything about that. at all. i say this to say that...yes...those kinda things did can and have happened. but its important to know that those kinda things werent uncommon. and lets not forget that was in the ol days. times were different back then. now dont mistake it...im not saying that its right. but what i am saying is...thats just what it was. so we need to take that into account. and be thankful that today that would never ever ever be accepted. i believe in consent but i also believe that just cuz someones the legal age doesnt make them an "adult" cuz a real adult would know enough to make the right choices for them and not other ppl.but thats for another time. and of course lets not forget about the ppl who are in relationships and/or marriages where there is a significantly huge and noticable age gap. women in their prime going after younger men. men who are old enough to croak w/ women who are old enough to be their daughter and so so so and so and this that and the 3rd. but again...thats another discussion for another time im also noticing that this generation has a real bad habit of just simply refusing to admit that wrong is just wrong. regardless of race creed background ethnicity culture w/e. when someone does something wrong (especially when it deals w/ sexual assault) its wrong. plain and simple. point blank period. so for all those ppl to say things like "oohh theyre picking on ppl of color but if someone else does it (prolly white. just saying) they get a pass" or " its racism. those racist white ppl just wanna make black ppl look bad" and white privilege this and white privilege that" etc etc. so...just cuz ppl from ALL walks of life have had their fair share of racism and wrong doing another race is exempt from that? yeah no. im not buying that. and let me tell you ppl something about privilege: EVERYBODY and i mean everybody has privilege. the problem is ppl dont wanna acknowledge and recognize it. and when ppl get scared and triggered and threatened from someone sticking up for themselves theyre already part of the problem ive said this before and damnit im gonna say it again and i still stand firm: for the ppl that know me and that know me well they know 1 thing about me: when i speak about issues like this and when privilege is brought up? guess what? its NOT i repeat NOT something thats a race thing for me. im not the 1 thats so quick to pull the race card (cuz thats just not who i am as a person). if its about anything its solely related to 1 thing : memory. those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it. so those same ppl who like to make it a race thing and the like are the same ppl who like to attempt to discredit other ppl cuz they feel inferior and insecure. which is off. and those same ppl are also on some type of high-ground like theyre the ethics police. i mean no shit that ppl do things that the moral poice dont agree w/. so is that really what its come to? were gonna defame ppl who arent even alive anymore (let alone to defend themselves) guess what. sometimes wrong is just wrong. so i think we need to have a little more cooth and respect. thats all i got. enjoy your sunday evening everybody

[wallace8028gerry29-blog]

Examining The Facts For Wise Secrets In Liquid Grip

Establishing Swift Solutions Of Climbing Chalk Canada

Staying in good physical shape is not usually very easy or much fun. However, in order for one to maintain good health, you must persevere through the difficult times in the beginning. The good news is, there's something out there everyone can do to get fit. Taking some time and some effort is all that you need to worry about. You could have fun as well. By adding variety to one's routine, the body will receive maximum benefits. If someone normally exercises on a treadmill, they can go running around their neighborhood. There will always be different results achieved between running up hills on a sidewalk and the treadmill. By varying exercises, the body is not permitted to get used to a certain exercise, and this encourages weight loss to continue. Use your imagination when you are looking for something to do to keep fit. Many different activities exist that will keep you entertained and healthy at the same time. The best way to stay motivated to get fit is to find a plan that you enjoy, so make sure to do that. Whenever you work out, be sure to exhale following each repetition of each weight. You will give your body a lot of energy and you will get more air when you breathe out. Be certain you have the right footwear when you workout. If you fail to wear the proper shoes for the type of workout you favor, you are in danger of sustaining an injury. Plus, if you're not wearing the proper footwear, your workouts are going to be uncomfortable and you won't want to continue. A good workout is kickboxing. This workout is very vigorous, as it works many areas of your body. Kickboxing burns massive calories while helping you gain strength. Always make sure that you clean any exercise equipment before you commence using it. Remember that the last person that used the equipment probably left germs on the equipment. Since your goal is to get fit and healthy, you'll want to clean up to avoid getting sick. Test your bench before starting your workout. Apply pressure to the bench with your thumb to test for adequate padding. Look for another seat if you feel wood or metal under the padding. Donkey raises can help you build your calf muscles. These calf raises can be effective for building up those calf muscles. You need a partner to sit on your back and all you do is raise your calves. Split each of your running workouts into three distinct phases. Start slowly and then work up to doing the standard one. For the last third, run faster than you normally would. Staging your workout this way helps you build endurance faster and makes you capable of improving your overall range. For an easy fitness idea, try getting out and doing some yard work. Doing yard work is a wonderful way to get out and break a sweat. The two needs are a perfect match. Get out and improve your pace at least once a week to provide yourself with much needed physical activity. Because you are accomplishing something, you won't be so aware of the time you spend, and your body will benefit as much as it would at the gym. The bottom line is that while gaining fitness can be tough, if you set your mind to the potential benefits, you will surely succeed. There's no reason you should have to lift yourself by your bootstraps and design a healthy fitness routine all on your own. There's plenty of advice and assistance waiting for you; all you have to do is get serious about getting fit.

Options For Clear-cut Canada Tactics

5. I hope the fate of the Good Samaritan in Hamilton, Ont., who lost his life trying to stop a fight, will not deter others from intervening when someone is being wronged.  My deepest condolences to the family of Yosif Al-Hasnawi. Instead of mourning his death, they should celebrate his life and the legacy he left behind in encouraging others not to look the other way when someone is in imminent danger.   What has troubled me the most in this story is the witnesses’ accounts of paramedics who failed to act swiftly to save a life. I hope this matter will be thoroughly investigated.  I hope the paramedics’ lack of helping the victim was not a result of the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s doctrine of trying to make American great again.  Poisonous ideas of right-wing extremists have indeed succeeded to keep us apart and to look down upon those who don’t look “pure Canadians.” If we don’t unite and confront such hatred, we are doomed to be complicit in taking away the greatness of this country.  I hope that all Canadians will stand with the family, support them through this agony and unite against violence, division and against those whose sole purpose is to divide us in order to conquer. Right-wing extremists pose danger to everyone. As a member of a minority group, I am worried about the future of Canada and what type of environment our children will live in. Once we destroy the Canada we have inherited, they will have tough time ahead of them. I am deeply worried if these poisonous ideas reach to different layers of the society, including judges, juries, the police and the medical  providers. I really hope we, as a country, will be mature enough to reject such policies.  As we rejected Stephen Harper’s vision for Canada in the last federal election, I hope we will do the same until such poison no longer poses a threat to our beautiful nation.  We don’t want to repeat history of what happened to the Jews during the Second World War or the Japanese, Italians, blacks and natives of this land.  I have deep respect to those who put their lives on the lines to save lives, including paramedics and police officers.  Back home in Africa, when I see a police officer, I feel scared and threatened. I know he will give me a hard time if I don’t dig deep into my pocket. Police terrorize the weak and the vulnerable in those countries.  This is true even when I recently visited Kenya with my sisters and my niece, who was sick. We were held hostage by police with guns. They accused us of holding fake passports. We had to pay thousands of dollars to buy freedom.  On the other hand, when I see police car in Canada, I feel safe. They represent safety and security.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/kasim-dont-let-divisions-splinter-canada

What You've Always Wanted To Know About Basketball

Nobody tries to fix a car without understanding what's wrong. How can you think you're going to be a wonderful basketball player when you don't bother to research? Read on and learn some nifty tricks from the experts of basketball. Your balance is an important aspect to consider when you are shooting. Sometimes you'll see professional players fall out of bounds while making a shot from afar, but this doesn't work at all times. This is simply an improvised move. By focusing on balance in your shot, you will develop the consistency needed to be a great scorer. Learn how to throw a proper bounce pass. A bounce pass that's good is going to end up hitting the other player near their waist. Remember you should bounce the ball approximately three-quarters of the distance between yourself and the receiving player. It does depend on a variety of other factors, however. Successful free throws require you to be mentally and physically strong. Without a strong mindset, your body simply goes through the motions to take the shot. Stay focused and vigilant to improve your ability to make free throws. Do not only practice zone defense plays. Usually, a big part of the Canada|Climbing Chalk game is probably going to be in zone; however, the opposing team can suddenly switch to man-to-man to catch you off guard. If you haven't prepared yourself for that, you might lose your game very quickly. How would you like to trick the opposing team? Try a back pass. To do a back pass, begin by grasping the basketball using your dominant hand. Then, move the ball so it is behind your back. Finally, flick your wrist towards the direction in which you wish that ball to travel. Doing this will trick your opponent. When it is not basketball season, keep in practice by shooting baskets and practicing your skills. It is possible to enjoy this team sport even in the absence of your team. Don't worry! There are many ways that you can improve your game alone. Practice pivoting or you can practice doing free throws. There are many things you can work on. Understanding your opponent is a good way to shut him down on defense. Watch tapes and be sure you're paying attention to scouting reports. Also know which is their dominant and weak hands. When you know some of the other player's moves, you'll have a leg up during a game as you'll be able to predict what he is going to do. The more knowledgeable a defender is, the stronger he is. A good basketball player is really quick on his feet. You need to be faster than the opposing team if you want the advantage. In order to play fast, you must practice drills. Avoid playing faster than your abilities allow. It's easy to lose control when you play fast. Have your games taped so you can play them back later and observe your court presence. Do you see how you could've handled a situation differently? Be honest when assessing, but avoid being overly critical. This gives you an unfettered view of how you actually performed on the court, rather than relying solely on your memory of the game. To dribble the ball better, it is important that you practice dribbling with the hand that's weaker. Using both hands to dribble makes you a more effective player, especially when you're trying to get past your opponent. Tie the main hand you use behind your back so that you have to use the weak hand. Very soon, you will develop dribbling skills with the hand you considered weak. When you learn the game of basketball and practice hard, you'll feel really good about yourself. That is, unrivaled by any other except for reading all you can and learning how to better your basketball game. Have fun impressing your teammates with your new skills and win all the games you can.

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[jkirk2010-blog]

Just a friendly reminder to those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it

[yahoo-the-dagger-blog]

College basketball Power Rankings, Jan. 26: New No. 1 after upsets galore

Kansas lost by 16 to West Virginia … But did they fall in this week’s rankings? (Getty)

The calls come from far and wide, every year around this time and over the next month-and-a-half, and they’re relentlessly annoying.

“The bubble is soft!”

Or there’s this variant:

“Nobody wants to make the tournament!”

They come from rational and irrational folks alike, and they’re one of the most tiresome aspects of the fierce yearly debates over who will and won’t, should and shouldn’t, can and can’t make the NCAA tournament.

They’re especially ridiculous around this time of year, when so many résumés are incomplete, and the striking lack of quality wins on the bubble is natural. A month-and-a-half remains, and it’s a month-and-a-half of repeated opportunity — opportunity that many squads didn’t have much of in non-conference play.

Let’s look at Marquette and Northwestern to illustrate. Around this time last week, the Golden Eagles would have been the exemplar of the “Weak bubble!” chatter. They were 12-6 with no quality wins. But you know what they did have? Opportunity!

Just like every single other team remotely close to the bubble has; whether that opportunity is for one or two highlights or for volume, it’s there. Just like for Northwestern, whose résumé lacks that single win of real quality, but who plays Indiana, Purdue and Wisconsin in three of its next five. I’m all for bracketology, and have obsessed over it in the past. What I’m not for is drawing broad conclusions about the selection process and its state of affairs halfway through that process.

I’m also not in favor of levying that same criticism every year when that criticism is fundamentally based on relativity. When you say the bubble is soft, what you’re really saying is that the bubble is softer than it has been in past years. And if you make the claim every year, it’s a ridiculous one that loses merit every time you make it. Maybe this is just what the bubble is, and what it has been since the move to 68 teams. Somehow, our expectations haven’t yet adjusted.

There is one thing, however, that could impair the strength of the bubble this year, even relative to past bubbles, and that’s the notable absence of non-power conference at-large candidates. The Atlantic-10 is looking like a one-bid league. The Mountain West almost surely is. The AAC could only get two. The Missouri Valley will fight for two, but might have to settle for one. That absence bumps every middling major conference team up a few spots.

And, as we transition into this week’s rankings, it’s why you’ll see a slight tweak at the bottom of the page. Those five mid-majors that we list every week used to exclude the A-10 for fear of the A-10 dominating the list. It would have in past years. It won’t this year, and doesn’t this week, so from this point forward, every team outside the nation’s top seven conferences is eligible.

And now for what you’ve really come here for:

1. Kansas | 18-2 | KenPom: 9 | Last week: 2

That glorious night of upsets has left us with a new No. 1 … but, it’s … one of the teams that was victimized by those upsets? Yep! And the rationale is surprisingly simple. Aside from all the basketball reasons Kansas belongs here, the Jayhawks were viewed as one of the best teams in the nation last week. Some had them No. 1. Others had them No. 2. Others slightly lower. So why should that opinion change after Kansas lost a game it was supposed to lose?

Vegas had the Jayhawks as 3.5-point underdogs, and the number opened at 6. Sure, Kansas has flaws, and some of them doomed it in Morgantown, but there is absolutely no shame in losing that game. We are programmed to automatically assume that winning games you’re supposed to win is significantly more impressive than losing games you’re supposed to lose. That’s why Gonzaga will be No. 1 in the AP Poll on Monday. But not here.

2. Villanova | 19-2 | KenPom: 5 | Last week: 1

As I more or less wrote yesterday, you could give Kris Jenkins, Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo a combined 17 shots from midcourt and they’d be unlikely to miss all of them. They’re even more unlikely to go 0 for 17 from three in a game. That’s what they did Tuesday against Marquette. If they go 1 for 17, Villanova wins the game. That poor shooting comes down to randomness, and isn’t a major cause for concern.

3. North Carolina | 18-3 | KenPom: 8 | Last week: 5

The Tar Heels are the best rebounding team in the country. They pull down 42.7 percent of their missed shots. Roy Williams, however, thinks they can get a lot better on the boards, which should be disconcerting, if not frightening, for the rest of the ACC.

4. Gonzaga | 20-0 | KenPom: 1 | Last week: 6

The Bulldogs are your new KenPom No. 1, which highlights an interesting divergence in our use of statistics to analyze teams that play weak schedules vs. those that play strong ones. Here’s the thing about the Zags: You have your opinion on them, and that opinion probably isn’t changing between now and mid-March. It’s not going to be swayed by a 31-point trouncing of Santa Clara or a 21-point victory over Portland. No matter how impressive or unimpressive those results are, it just won’t be. The numbers, even the ones that adjust for opponent, care whether Gonzaga beats San Diego Thursday night by 10 or by 30. We don’t. We’ll instead choose to count down the days to the second clash with St. Mary’s. We’re 16 days out as of Thursday.

5. Kentucky | 17-3 | KenPom: 2 | Last week: 3

It’s been fascinating over the past few weeks to watch the SEC try to slow down John Calipari’s crew and force the Wildcats to play halfcourt offense. Kentucky averaged 19.7 fast break points over its first three SEC games, but just 8.2 in five games since. Some coaches, like Bryce Drew, take drastic measures; others adopt less noticeable, but not less emphasized, tactics. The effect these tactics have on Kentucky’s efficiency is likewise interesting:

(Henry Bushnell)

That table isn’t meant to show anything definitive — obviously fewer fast break points will induce fewer points overall — and the correlation between transition points and efficiency is far from strong. The sample size is also small. But there’s a slight hint in the numbers that keeping De’Aaron Fox and Co. out of the open floor might limit Kentucky’s effectiveness.

6. Arizona | 18-2 | KenPom: 12 | Last week: 17

Arizona is the toughest team to gage because, in a way, our sample size is only one game. That one game was wildly impressive, but it’s the only one the full-strength Wildcats have under their belt. This ranking, however, factors in those 19 games Arizona played without Allonzo Trier, in that those games have been vital in the maturity of players like Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins. Both were thrust into unexpected roles and forced to learn on the fly. Every success and every failure in Trier’s absence contributed to that learning, and both freshmen are better players because of it.

7. Florida State | 18-3 | KenPom: 20 | Last week: 7

Yuck. Erase that game from your memory. Shoot it into the sun. Bury it. Do whatever you need to do. That wasn’t the real Florida State. But the mere stench of Wednesday night’s performance in a 78-56 loss at Georgia Tech prevents the Seminoles from rising in this week’s ranks. They might have been a top-five team without it.

8. Virginia | 16-3 | KenPom: 4 | Last week: 10

I’m all in. I made the ACC title prediction last week, and the Cavaliers showed why I pegged them as ACC favorites in a 71-54 triumph over Notre Dame on the road Tuesday night. They held the usually efficient Irish to 0.84 points per possession, and London Perrantes connected on five of his eight three-point attempts. Virginia isn’t anywhere near the top 10 when it comes to talent, but Tony Bennett has proven time and time again that he won’t just win with whatever he has; he’ll win a lot.

9. Baylor | 19-1 | KenPom: 7 | Last week: 9

Baylor has won its four Big 12 games since the West Virginia loss by 10 or fewer points each, and it has done so with defense and Johnathan Motley. Motley got 15 of his 25 points from the free throw line in a 65-61 win over Texas Tech. He’s the only Bears player whose offensive rating has actually risen in Big 12 play, and his exploits have vaulted him to No. 3 in Ken Pomeroy’s stats-based player of the year rankings.

10. West Virginia | 16-4 | KenPom: 3 | Last week: 8

The relationship between West Virginia’s ability to force turnovers and its field goal percentage defense, and specifically how that relationship played out in Tuesday’s win over Kansas, leads to an interesting discussion. West Virginia ranks 96th nationally in opponent effective field goal percentage (eFG%) and first in opponent turnover percentage. Against Kansas, the Mountaineers forced turnovers at a rate well below their season average, but held the Jayhawks well below that opponent eFG% average too.

So how much of that relatively mediocre field goal percentage defense is due to the extended aggressiveness of the press? And how much better would it be if only halfcourt possessions were taken into account? On possessions following a made basket, per hoop-math.com, West Virginia opponents shoot 54 percent (eFG%) on attempts within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock — much of them likely after breaking the press to score — but just 43.1 percent (eFG%) in the final 20 seconds of the shot clock. (Note: For other top defensive teams, the former number tends to be slightly higher than the latter, but not to the extent it is for West Virginia.)

This is not at all to say West Virginia should stray from its Press Virginia identity. It’s to point out that the players Bob Huggins recruits for his system are naturally very good halfcourt defenders too, and if a game needs to be won defensively within 30 feet of the basket, as was the case Tuesday night, those players are more than capable of doing just that.

11. UCLA | 19-3 | KenPom: 18 | Last week: 4

UCLA spent the first two months of the season hypnotizing America with its high-powered offense. It sprinted to a top-five ranking, to national title contender status, and to the top of the college hoops entertainment index. It also blinded us to the Bruins’ dirty little secret: They can’t play defense. For three of four halves against Arizona and USC, the weakness was painfully clear.

But, perplexingly, it was UCLA’s offense that ultimately let it down against its crosstown rival. The Bruins scored a point per possession Wednesday night in a loss to USC; their previous low had been 1.06 against Texas A&M. On paper, a team full of dead-eye shooters and competent passers should have been able to rip apart USC’s zone; instead, turnovers (13 in the first half) and a lack of patience ripped apart UCLA’s offense and doomed Steve Alford’s team to a second straight loss, and fourth in a row against the Trojans.

12. Louisville | 17-4 | KenPom: 6 | Last week: 15

Louisville fell in these rankings last week solely because of the Quentin Snider injury. In light of that expected drop-off with Snider sidelined, the Cardinals had one of the most impressive weeks of any team, hanging with Florida State on the road before delivering Pittsburgh the second-largest margin of defeat the Panthers had ever seen. The 106-51 beatdown was the biggest by a road team in the history of the ACC.

13. Oregon | 18-2 | KenPom: 16 | Last week: 11

UCLA swept the Rocky Mountain road trip earlier this month. Not many teams do, though. Oregon gets a crack at it starting tonight at Utah. The Ducks were 2.5-point underdogs as of late Wednesday night, which tells you most of what you need to know about the size of the task.

14. Notre Dame | 17-4 | KenPom: 23 | Last week: 13 15. Butler | 18-3 | KenPom: 14 | Last week: 14

Let’s talk midseason awards. If the NCAA tournament were to start today, who would be your National Coach of the Year? For me, there are five candidates, and Mike Brey and Chris Holtmann are two of them. Sean Miller, Scott Drew and Tony Bennett are the others. Perhaps Bob Huggins is a sixth. Both Brey and Holtmann are outstanding teachers of the game in every sense, and their educational abilities are apparent every time you watch Notre Dame and Butler play.

16. Wisconsin | 17-3 | KenPom: 10 | Last week: 16

Over the past five or 10 years, basketball has evolved away from the one-through-five positional distinctions that frame so much of how we think about lineup combinations. There aren’t many better examples of that evolution in the college game than Wisconsin. Bronson Koenig is the “point guard” in the traditional sense: He often brings the ball up the court, is (tied for) the shortest player in the starting lineup, and usually guards opposing ball-handlers. When Wisconsin has the ball, though, from the 25-second mark of the shot clock to the end of the possession, his role is far from that of a traditional point guard. Here’s a blind statistical comparison of Wisconsin���s big three, Koenig, Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ:

(Henry Bushnell)

Can you guess which player is which? Probably only if you’ve studied the Badgers beforehand. Player A is Hayes. Player B is Happ. Player C is Koenig. Hayes and Happ split the playmaking duties while Koenig is essentially Wisconsin’s shooter and perimeter scorer. It’s still fine to call Koenig Wisconsin’s point guard; in a way, he is. Just make sure you’re aware of the limits of what the words “point guard” denote for Greg Gard and the Badgers.

17. Cincinnati | 17-2 | KenPom: 17 | Last week: NR

The Bearcats make their 2016-17 Power Rankings debut because of … their offense? Yes. Mick Cronin has had a top 25 defensive team every year since 2010-11. This year, he has his highest-ranked offense since that 2010-11 team. Sophomore guard Jacob Evans is shooting 41.2 percent from three and is a big reason why. Cincinnati is rolling through the AAC, and is a 4-point favorite over Xavier Thursday night in the Crosstown Classic.

18. Purdue | 17-4 | KenPom: 11 | Last week: NR

ESPN’s Myron Medcalf wrote an outstanding feature on Caleb Swanigan, who was 360 pounds and facing all kinds of instability in his life as an eighth-grader. Tuesday night, Swanigan dropped 25 and 17 on Michigan State, the program he had committed to play for before flipping to Purdue in May of his senior year of high school.

19. South Carolina | 16-4 | KenPom: 28 | Last week: 18

I spent some time last week speaking with former Frank Martin players — both Gamecocks and Kansas State Wildcats — to get a sense of what it’s actually like to play for him, and why his seemingly incessant screaming works. I also learned why he’s mellowed a bit in recent years. Here’s the feature.

20. Duke | 15-5 | KenPom: 15 | Last week: 12

In all honesty, approximately 35.4 percent of the reason Duke is here is to make you angry. I don’t know if you’ll be angry because the Blue Devils are too high or too low, but Duke inevitably makes people angry. Anyway … another 42.1 percent of the reason is to plug Jeff Capel’s piece on The Players’ Tribune on coping with his father’s ALS diagnosis and on the bonds that tie his family together. Roughly 12.6 percent is to tell you that I may or may not have some in-depth Duke analysis coming tomorrow. A further 10.1 percent is because Duke still has top-10 talent. And the final one percent is to see how many readers get angry that those percentages are just totally random and don’t add up to 100.

Five more to keep an eye (or two) on: Florida, Marquette, SMU, Iowa State, Kansas State

Best of the mids: St. Mary’s, Illinois State, Wichita State, UNC-Wilmington, Middle Tennessee State

Previous rankings: Jan. 5 | Jan. 12 | Jan. 19