#to me this whole thing exemplifies why it’s so vital

[rowanthestrange]

A thing I think should be included with Ruby’s abandonment/attachment issues when we’re writing her, is that she was a foster sibling to a lot of kids. Like a lot of kids. She has effectively lost so many siblings and playmates and even babies/very young children she’s essentially had a hand in raising. Her entire life has been loving and losing. And for foster kids getting adopted or reunited with their parents under better circumstances, she will basically have been unable to grieve that properly because it’s a good thing they’re gone and they’re supposed to celebrate it. She’s clearly very loving and caring even after a whole life of that, even though each time they leave a piece of her goes with them.

No shit she’s going to end up with some attachment issues. Especially if she considers herself the lucky one, survivor’s guilt, Carla adopted her and none of the others, who have probably expressed that sentiment to her directly and asked why, in the hopes they could stay forever too, or just jealousy - what made you so special?

Foster children/youths in the UK also have to choose themselves to stay in-touch. Foster carers cannot directly contact the child once they have left their care. A “clean slate” approach is preferred. So if the child doesn’t request to get into contact — and sometimes aren’t told they would have to or are discouraged from doing so — that means losing contact immediately and for good. Does that remind you of anything? Sometimes it also happens very quickly - it is far from unheard of for a foster sibling to go to school in the morning and find out the child they’ve been living with for months has gone when they come back in the evening. Even with warning it could still often be only days. I think you could argue 73 Yards has more to do with Ruby’s experience as a foster sibling than being an adoptee.

And of course the continuous loss of loved ones mirrors the Doctor’s experience with their companions fairly often. Another thing that quietly binds them that most other people couldn’t understand.

[merlions]

It does that because all human bodies do this with every single drug including steroids! As my PharmD sister said to me once - one of the cool things about biochemistry is that for something to work on the body, we already have to have the receptors for it, or for something similar, or else it wouldn't have an effect.

And the body knows what to do with the sudden who-knows-where-it-came-from E or T because nearly all human bodies (besides certain intersex people) have receptors for those hormones already, and actually have both of those hormones being released by their body already! Which is really important because both estrogen and testosterone have really vital roles in keeping a body healthy.

The one, for me, that always comes to mind first to exemplify that their importance is more than simply for reproduction, is that estrogen is what makes bones absorb calcium. And calcium is necessary for muscle movement, including heart muscles. Which is why post-menopausal people will more often have osteoporosis, their bones still releasing calcium to keep the heart beating and all but not having any calcium put back into them, since their estrogen production stopped at menopause; while people who don't go through menopause (such as individuals who have testes instead of ovaries) continue to produce estrogen and can keep feeding calcium to their bones!

Additionally cool is that the body doesn't really have to MacGyver anything when building a penis - all the necessary components are already part of a vagina-vulva-clitoris reproductive system! In utero, there is a point where a developing fetus's chromosomal makeup will cause a hormone event (tm) which tells the clitoris-vagina-vulva system to either continue developing as-is, or become a penis-testes-prostate system! Sometimes this event doesn't happen when it's supposed to, or happens differently than is typical (which I mean in a purely by the numbers statistics way), which is another type of way a person can be intersex.

So the body can just be like oh? Make the nerve bundle in reproductive system bigger? On it, boss! I know just how to do that! Cause the main difference between a penis and a clitoris is that we call them different things. The body don't give a good god damn how big that thang is but about 40 bazillion years ago some humans decided they do care. Don't really have a good source for why...never really. ..got a good explanation for that one, boss.. :/ but they said "they're different and everyone will say so. And if you say anything else I will kill you" and then history happened and still today some people say "they're different!!! Some people 40 bazillion years ago said it, and if we can't trust them who can we trust !!!" Even though those people didn't know what a microscope was yet and had forgotten about the eons our species spent as fish, switchin sex characteristics like changing ties on a Tuesday morning post coffee break.

But the genes never forget.

The only gene constantly working throughout our lives is one that just tells your body not to switch sexes. It's in a bunch of mammals. They turned it off in a few mice and it was crazy. Theres a radiolab on it, it was a whole thing.

Anyways all I'm getting at is that your body isn't as much like "oh ok I guess the plans changed, gotta dig up those plans from somewhere, must be in some dusty old corner of the gene matrix" it's more like a dialogue like this:

"recipe is 1 cup flour 2 cups sugar"

"ok"

"recipe is 1 cup flour 2 cups sugar"

"ok"

*starts taking hrt and hormone blockers*

"recipe is 10 cups flour 1 cup sugar"

"ok"

"recipe is 10 cups flour 1 cup sugar"

"ok"

etc etc. No problem here boss. We know just what to do :)

The human body's response to HRT is actually admirable in the sheer indifference. Just pure I Don't Give A Shit, I Just Fucking Work Here compliance to the new instructions. You can get testosterone injected straight into your body and it doesn't even question where that shit came from, coming back from a coffee break and just going

"Okay, everything seems to be in ord- oh fuck now what? Oh huh. Alright fine. New orders came in, cancel the menstrual cycle. Dig up the genetic balding patterns from somewhere, I don't fucking know they're buried somewhere in the dna. I'm greenlighting the growing-hair-on-your-toes thing. Yeah just cancel the ongoing maintenance processes, new orders came in so this is apparently what we're doing now."

[be-gay-do-heists]

hello yall :) the holy month of elul started last night, which is typically a time for contemplation, so since it is impossible for me to stop thinking about leverage, i decided to write an essay. hope anyone interested in reading it enjoys, and that it makes at least a little sense!! spoilers for leverage redemption

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Leverage, Judaism, and “Doing the Work”: An Essay for Elul

When it comes to Elul and the approaching High Holidays, Leverage might seem like an odd topic to meditate on.

The TNT crime drama that ran from 2008-2012, and which released a new season this summer following its renewal, centers on a group of found-family thieves who help the victims of corporations and oligarchs (sometimes based on real-world examples), using wacky heists and cons to bring down the rich and powerful. In one episode, the team’s clients want to reclaim their father’s prized Glimt piece that had been stolen in the Shoah and never returned, but aside from this and the throwaway lines and jokes standard for most mainstream television, there’s not a ton textually Jewish about Leverage. However, despite this, I have found that the show has strong resonance among Jewish fans, and lots of potential for analysis along Jewish themes. This tends to focus on one character in particular: the group’s brilliant, pop culture-savvy, and personable hacker, Alec Hardison, played by the phenomenally talented Aldis Hodge.

I can’t remember when or where I first encountered a reading of Hardison as Jewish, but not only is this a somewhat popular interpretation, it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap. In the show itself, Hardison has a couple of the aforementioned throwaway lines that potentially point to him being Jewish, even if they’re only in service of that moment’s grift. It’s hard to point to what exactly makes reading Hardison as Jewish feel so natural. My first guess is the easy way Hardison fits into the traditional paradigms of Jewish masculinity explored by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin (2). Most of the time, the hacker is not portrayed as athletic or physical; he is usually the foil to the team’s more physically-adept characters like fighter Eliot, or thief Parker. Indeed, Hardison’s strength is mental, expressed not only through his computer wizardry but his passions for science, technology, music, popular media, as well as his studious research into whatever scenario the group might come up against. In spite of his self-identification as a “geek,” Hardison is nevertheless confident, emotionally sensitive, and secure in his masculinity. I would argue he is representative of the traditional Jewish masculine ideal, originating in the rabbinic period and solidified in medieval Europe, of the dedicated and thoughtful scholar (3). Another reason for popular readings of Hardison as Jewish may be the desire for more representation of Jews of color. Although mainstream American Jewish institutions are beginning to recognize the incredible diversity of Jews in the United States (4), and popular figures such as Tiffany Haddish are amplifying the experiences of non-white Jews, it is still difficult to find Jews of color represented in popular media. For those eager to see this kind of representation, then, interpreting Hardison, a black man who places himself tangential to Jewishness, in this way is a tempting avenue.

Regardless, all of the above remains fan interpretation, and there was little in the text of the show that seriously tied Judaism into Hardison’s identity. At least, until we got this beautiful speech from Hardison in the very first episode of the renewed show, directed at the character of Harry Wilson, a former corporate lawyer looking to atone for the injustice he was partner to throughout his career:

“In the Jewish faith, repentance, redemption, is a process. You can’t make restitution and then promise to change. You have to change first. Do the work, Harry. Then and only then can you begin to ask for forgiveness. [...] So this… this isn’t the win. It’s the start, Harry.”

I was floored to hear this speech, and thrilled that it explained the reboot’s title, Leverage: Redemption. Although not mentioned by its Hebrew name, teshuvah forms the whole basis for the new season. Teshuvah is the concept of repentance or atonement for the sins one has committed. Stemming from the root shuv/shuva, it carries the literal sense of “return.” In a spiritual context, this usually means a return to G-d, of finding one’s way back to holiness and by extension good favor in the eyes of the Divine. But equally important is restoring one’s relationships with fellow humans by repairing any hurt one has caused over the past year. This is of special significance in the holy month of Elul, leading into Rosh haShanah, the Yamim Noraim, and Yom Kippur, but one can undertake a journey of redemption at any point in time. That teshuvah is a journey is a vital message for Harry to hear; one job, one reparative act isn’t enough to overturn years of being on the wrong side of justice, to his chagrin. As the season progresses, we get to watch his path of teshuvah unfold, with all its frustrations and consequences. Harry grows into his role as a fixer, not only someone who can find jobs and marks for the team, but fixes what he has broken or harmed.

So why was Hardison the one to make this speech?

I do maintain that it does provide a stronger textual basis for reading Hardison as Jewish by implication (though the brief on-screen explanation for why he knows about teshuvah, that his foster-parent Nana raised a multi-faith household, is important in its own merit, and meshes well with his character traits of empathy and understanding for diverse experiences). However, beyond this, Hardison isn’t exactly an archetypical model for teshuvah. In the original series, he was the youngest character of the main ensemble, a hacking prodigy in the start of his adult career, with few mistakes or slights against others under his belt. In one flashback we see that his possibly first crime was stealing from the Bank of Iceland to pay off his Nana’s medical bills, and that his other early hacking exploits were in the service of fulfilling personal desires, with only those who could afford to pay the bill as targets. Indeed, in the middle of his speech, Hardison points to Eliot, the character with the most violent and gritty past who views his work with the Leverage team as atonement, for a prime example of ongoing teshuvah. So while no one is perfect and everyone has a reason for doing teshuvah, this question of why Hardison is the one to give this series-defining speech inspired me to look at his character choices and behavior, and see how they resonate with a different but interrelated Jewish principle, that of tikkun olam. 

Tikkun olam is literally translated as “repairing the world,” and can take many different forms, such as protecting the rights of vulnerable people in society, or giving tzedakah (5). In modern times, tikkun olam is often the rallying cry for Jewish social activists, particularly among environmentalists for whom literally restoring the health of the natural world is the key goal. Teshuvah and tikkun olam are intertwined (the former is the latter performed at an interpersonal level) and both hold a sense of fixing or repairing, but tikkun olam really revolves around a person feeling called to address an injustice that they may have not had a personal hand in creating. Hardison’s sense of a universal scale of justice which he has the power to help right on a global level and his newfound drive to do humanitarian work, picked up sometime after the end of the original series, make tikkun olam a central value for his character. This is why we get this nice bit of dialogue from Eliot to Hardison in the second episode of the reboot, when the latter’s outside efforts to organize international aid start distracting him from his work with the team: “Is [humanitarian work] a side gig? In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work… you’re the only one, man.” The character who most exemplifies teshuvah reminds Hardison of his amazing ability to effect change for the better on a huge stage, to do some effective tikkun olam. It’s this acknowledgement of where Hardison can do the most good that prompts the character’s absence for the remainder of the episodes released thus far, turning his side gig into his main gig.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where Hardison’s arc for this season goes. Separated from the rest of the team, the hacker still has remarkable power to change the world, because it is, after all, the “age of the geek.” However, he is still one person. For all that both teshuvah and tikkun olam are individual responsibilities and require individual decision-making and effort, the latter especially relies on collective work to actually make things happen. Hardison leaving is better than trying to do humanitarian work and Leverage at the same time, but there’s only so long he can be the “only one” in the field before burning out. I’m reminded of one of the most famous (for good reason) maxims in Judaism:

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it. (6)

Elul is traditionally a time for introspection and heeding the calls to repentance. After a year where it’s never been easier to feel powerless and drained by everything going on around us, I think it’s worth taking the time to examine what kind of work we are capable of in our own lives. Maybe it’s fixing the very recent and tangible hurts we’ve left behind, like Harry. Maybe it’s the little changes for the better that we make every day, motivated by our sense of responsibility, like Eliot. And maybe it’s the grueling challenge of major social change, like Hardison. And if any of this work gets too much, who can we fall back on for support and healing? Determining what needs repair, working on our own scale and where our efforts are most helpful, and thereby contributing to justice in realistic ways means that we can start the new year fresh, having contemplated in holiday fashion how we can be better agents in the world.

Shana tovah u’metukah and ketivah tovah to all (7), and may the work we do in the coming year be for good!

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(1) Disclaimer: everybody’s fandom experiences are different, and this is just what I’ve picked up on in my short time watching and enjoying this show with others.

(2) See, for example, the introduction and first chapter of Boyarin’s book Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (I especially recommend at least this portion if you are interested in queer theory and Judaic studies). There he explores the development of Jewish masculinity in direct opposition to Christian masculine standards.

(3) I might even go so far as to place Hardison well within the Jewish masculine ideal of Edelkayt, gentle and studious nobility (although I would hesitate to call him timid, another trait associated with Edelkayt). Boyarin explains that this scholarly, non-athletic model of man did not carry negative associations in the historical Jewish mindset, but was rather the height of attractiveness (Boyarin, 2, 51).

(4) Jews of color make up 20% of American Jews, according to statistics from Be’chol Lashon, and this number is projected to increase as American demographics continue to change: https://globaljews.org/about/mission/. 

(5) Tzedakah is commonly known as righteous charity. According to traditional authority Maimonides, it should be given anonymously and without embarrassment to the person in need, generous, and designed to help the recipient become self-sufficient.

(6) Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot, 2:16

(7) “A good and sweet year” and “a good inscription [in the Book of Life]”

[cosmicjoke]

Alright, onto chapter 59 and 60 of AoT!

Chapter 59 of course has the big scene between Levi, Armin and Jean, and once again, we see Levi’s immense kindness on display, underneath the blunt honesty he also lays on his squad.

I feel like this scene really ties into my last post, and what I discussed about the 104th’s judgmentalism towards Levi, and how quick they were to condemn him for the actions he took.  What strikes me during this scene from chapter 59 is how polar opposite Levi is in his own behavior from what the 104th’s was through chapter’s 57 and 58.  That is to say, Levi’s utter LACK of judgmentalism towards his squad.  This is one of the most remarkable things about Levi, and one of the traits that most highlights the actual goodness of his heart.  

We see both Armin and Jean struggling immensely here with what happened in the wagon with that MP, Armin with the terrible guilt and fear that he killed a good person, and Jean with the awful guilt that his own hesitation and lack of commitment endangered everyone’s lives, and put the responsibility of taking a life on Armin.  

What I find really interesting and telling about this scene is how Armin starts to voice his fear that the only reason he was able to kill the MP first was because she hesitated to kill Armin, but he can’t bring himself to ask the question to Jean, only imply it.  And Jean, for his part, isn’t able to confess that that’s EXACTLY what happened.  None of them want or are able in that moment to give life to their sense of guilt by admitting the truth of what happened.

And then... Levi steps in and does it for them.

He just flat out says the truth, where no one else was in that moment willing or able.  That Armin was able to get his shot off first because the MP hesitated, and by saying so, he essentially forces Armin and Jean to confront the reality of what’s happened, and what they’ve done, and to come to terms with it.  Levi then just flat out tells Armin that his hands are already dirty, and that there’s no going back to who he used to be, so he might as well just accept that this is who he is now.  We see Mikasa start to make a protest, again, but Levi cuts her off and keeps going, to tell Armin that, if he hadn’t acted as he did, WHEN he did, Jean would likely be dead, and he tells Armin that he saved them all by getting his hands dirty, telling him that he’s grateful to him for that.  Once again, we see Levi be the first and really only person there to express his gratitude and go out of his way to say thank you to one of his comrades for doing what needed to be done.  He knows that Armin’s actions came at a great cost to himself, and he acknowledges that by expressing his gratitude for Armin’s sacrifice, for helping all of them, and giving a part of himself up in the process.  This is exactly what Levi was trying to explain to them during the confrontation with Historia.  That even if it means taking on the burden of guilt, or self-hatred, or being made to look like villains, none of that matters in the face of the greater good .  Levi does the exact same thing with Jean, then, when Jean apologizes for judging Levi and his methods, and promising to not hesitate next time.  Levi, once more, is brutally honest with Jean, telling him that, yes, because he hesitated, he put all of them in danger.  Jean says he’s sorry, but then Levi tells him that what happened was “then and there” and “that’s it.”, before proceeding to tell him that he himself doesn’t know what’s right or wrong, and he wouldn’t try to tell Jean what is, that Jean may very well be right.  Jean shows shock at this, and Levi’s willingness to consider Jean’s side and his thinking, despite how it put them all into a precarious position.  

What gets me about this scene is how sharply it contrasts with the scene from chapter 57.  Levi is totally upfront with his squad, telling them what he thinks and feels to their faces, being completely honest, and forcing them to be honest too, even though the truth is painful and sometimes ugly.  He is, in turn, completely uncritical and non-judgmental towards Jean and Armin.  Rather then condemning them, or belittling them, he tries his very best to comfort them and encourage them, and make them understand that they have nothing to feel guilty over, nothing to beat themselves up for.  How, in fact, their actions were critical in aiding in all of their escapes.  All of this is in such sharp contrast to how all of them acted in chapter 57, where Jean, Connie, Mikasa and Sasha were all highly critical and judgmental toward Levi, and how they only voiced those critics among themselves, not having the guts to say any of it to Levi’s face, the way Levi tells them without hesitation exactly what he’s thinking.  This whole thing, I think, serves as a harsh lesson for the members of the 104th about the foolishness of being quick to judge and condemn without having a full grasp or understanding of the circumstances, the situation, or the person.  Jean expresses remorse at having so quickly dismissed Levi’s methods as wrong, and says he’s sorry.  But Levi doesn’t hold Jean’s own judgment of him against him, or tell him “apology accepted”, but rather tells Jean that he isn’t wrong to feel the way he did, basically telling Jean that it’s alright for him to think of killing as wrong, even still.  When he tells Jean that what happened was “then and there.  That’s it.”, he’s telling Jean that not all situations are the same, and that just because he made the wrong call in that particular circumstance, it doesn’t mean that a hesitation to kill in the future will be wrong.  Levi is showing such a deep level of understanding and consideration for Jean’s feelings in this scene, and it’s just truly remarkable to watch unfold, again, especially, in light of how quick his squad was to judge him not that long before.  We see Levi’s compassion for Jean’s feelings, and his consideration of his feelings here have an impact later on, between Jean and Marlowe, when Jean gives Marlowe a chance to prove his sincerity by not immediately killing him, even when he had the chance.  We see Jean finally having listened to Levi, having heard his words and understood what he meant.  That this situation was different from the one with the female MP in the wagon, that here, he WAS right to hesitate, here, he made the right choice.  Levi is always impressing onto those around him that they can only ever try and make the right choice in any, given situation, and that they can’t expect those choices to always be the same across the board.  That different circumstances call for different decisions, and there’s no point in beating yourself up or regretting those decisions that are made in the moment.  Levi never puts unrealistic expectations or pressure on anyone around him to be perfect.  He always tells them they’ve done a good job, just for trying.  And that is just so incredibly sweet, and kind, and once again, really exemplifies just who Levi really is.  Just that lack of judgment, that lack of condemnation, and the respect he shows to everyone by being HONEST with them, is amazing.

It’s interesting too, going through the rest of the chapter, and then chapter 60, when we see that Levi isn’t just some needlessly violent person that kills all the time.  He doesn’t kill a single MP when they ambush them at their base, nor does he kill Marlow and Hitch, or the commander they take from the Interior Squads HQ.  Once again, Levi’s squad gets another lesson in who Levi really is.  That he’ll kill when it’s necessary, when it’s the lives of him and his comrades on the line.  But when it’s a less dire situation, he doesn’t resort to it at all.  He isn’t like Kenny, for example, who kills even when he doesn’t need to.  

Another scene that really stood out to me in chapter 60, that I don’t think was animated, was when the commander they took from HQ tries to manipulate Levi into giving himself and the rest of his squad up, and tries to use Levi’s compassion against him, by telling him to save the lives of Erwin and his other comrades that have been arrested by giving up their own.  This reminded me heavily of when Zeke tries to escape from the forest by turning Levi’s comrades into Titans, believing Levi won’t be able to kill them and thus leading to his own death.  This kind of psychological deviousness, and attempts to use Levi’s compassion against him are particularly ugly, I think, particularly cruel and cynical.  Especially in contrast to Levi’s own honesty and bluntness.  Again, it only throws Levi’s own idealism and hopefulness into relief, seeing it clash up against the kind of psychologically manipulative games people like this MP and Zeke play at.

The way this commander of the interior MP’s tries to play head games with Levi by guilt tripping him, by claiming some of the people in HQ that they took down were only servants, and then implying that Levi doesn’t care about his comrades because he isn’t willing to turn himself and the other squad members in to save them is such an unkind thing to imply, because we know, and I think the MP knows, exactly just HOW much Levi cares about his comrades, and that’s why he tried this particular ploy.  There isn’t anything much worse than the type of person who would use another person’s kindness and compassion against them this way, and again, the same way we see Zeke use it against Levi in that forest.  And the same way we saw Levi’s pain and anguish in the forest when he realized what had happened, and what he would have to do, we see it too in the following panel here.  Levi has, once again , an anguished look on his face as he readily admits that some SC members lives are worth more than others, meaning of course Eren and Historia’s lives are more vital than any of their own in overthrowing the corrupt government, and he understands in that way that even if it means Erwin and the others dying, it’s a sacrifice they have to be willing to make.  You can see how these choices weigh down on Levi, how much it hurts him to have to make those choices, but tying back in to his earlier conversation with Armin and Jean, he has to be willing to make them in order to help the most people, and he never deludes himself about it.   Levi is about as straightforward as you can get, he doesn’t mince words or try to play games, and he doesn’t lie to himself about any of it.  

We get more of that honestly when he breaks the commanders arm and tells him straight that that was for refusing to answer his question.  

That kind of honestly, both about himself and others, is part of what makes Levi not only the most heroic character in SnK, but also, in many ways, the bravest.  

[reversalsun]

Explaining Rainbow Drinkers

I’m a decade wiser and return to the Homestuck fandom with a degree in biology and a desire to use it for evil. Lets talk about Vampire Troll Girls.

We get very little from the actual canon of Homestuck about Rainbow Drinkers, just Kanaya, Porrim, and a few hints of lore scattered about. Still, they’re one of the most interesting parts of troll culture - rare and strange, feared but also obsessed over in fiction and mythology. They may be analogous with vampires in the pop culture fascination surrounding them, but I don’t believe that they’re all that similar in function. So let's speculate on how Rainbow Drinkers could function on a biological level and how they fit into greater troll society. 

Rainbow drinkers don’t seem to be literal undead, but rather a functional state that some Jadebloods have the potential to enter into. Yes, Kanaya only becomes a rainbow drinker after “dying”, but death isn’t strictly what made her a rainbow drinker. In fact, I’d argue that Kanaya never actually died - rather she reached a near death state. This state, I believe, did kickstart her transformation. 

The most important thing to zero in on here is rainbow drinker being an inborn trait. Contrast this with how vampirism in human mythos is treated like a pathogen - no one is born a vampire, you become one via infection. RD is hardwired into Jadeblood biology, but it isn’t expressed in their default state. This raises a question: what causes a Jadeblood to undergo transformation into a rainbow drinker? Answering this is a little difficult, as we have a pitiful data pool of one to draw from. Nevertheless, we can examine Kanaya (as well as some dubiously canon content) to extrapolate a bit more about sparkly troll vampirism. Kanaya undergoes transformation into a RD when she is blasted through the stomach and seemingly killed by Eridan’s science powers. Off screen she regains consciousness, begins glowing, gulps down some friend blood, then returns with a vengeance. How do we explain this without leaning on the supernatural? Let's start by drawing on real world bloodsuckers. 

Little may be known about Alternia, but planet Earth is abound with creatures that subsist on blood. Mainly the trait is seen in bugs and parasites - this lends itself to our cause, as trolls seem to be more insectoid than mammalian in nature. Hematophagy (blood drinking) is a trait that has convergently evolved in creatures across the planet - that is to say, hematophagic creatures aren’t genetically related. The trait crops up on its own because it's widely useful, not because of a shared ancestral nematode. Vital fluids, after all, are incredibly prevalent and are in sure supply wherever animals live. It’s not farfetched to say that hematophagy would appear on other planets - especially planets like Alternia that are host to carbon based lifeforms similar to Earth’s. 

We can safely assume that blood drinking would work in the same way on Alternia as it does on Earth. That means rainbow drinkers face the same difficulties that Earth’s vampires do. Blood is not only difficult to obtain, but it’s also difficult to digest. So how do rainbow drinkers solve these conundrums? 

First, the method. Most terrestrial bloodsuckers are nocturnal - and not just for the spooky aesthetic. Fluttering, crawling, and slithering in on a sleeping host lessens your chance of being swatted on impact. Almost all hematophagic creatures are stealth feeders, and Rainbow Drinkers are no different. Trolls are a nocturnal species, but Kanaya is stated to be diurnal upon introduction. It would make sense for her and other potential Rainbow Drinkers to have a natural proclivity for daywalking, as it's much easier to feed from a sleeping troll than a waking one. Kanaya is also able to withstand the fierce, burning Alternian sun - a force which is enough to blind Terezi, and leave any troll who walks out in it for too long with a scathing sunburn. Even Jadebloods that are not currently or will never be rainbow drinkers are likely to exhibit non standard troll sleeping patterns, as they live primarily in the brooding caverns - dark, underground caves where the sun cycle wouldn’t really matter to them. When they do leave their caves to hunt, the glowing, white skin of a Rainbow Drinker would likely be a large boon against the Alternian sun’s devastating rays. In Friendsim we’re told that Lusii’s bright white coats help to protect them from the sun. It’s likely the same for rainbow drinkers; the color white reflects all wavelengths of light far better than any other, thus their radiance and pale complexion provides them an extra level of defense when they’re out hunting. Friendsim also vaguely mentions Rainbow Drinker extract in Tagora’s route, where it’s used as a luxury skincare/beauty product that makes a troll’s skin look literally radiant. Very little is said about the product itself, so it may be a hormone or a secretion derived from Rainbow Drinkers. In the case of the latter… Kanaya and other Rainbow Drinkers might just be really greasy? 

Now, in canon Kanaya theorizes that Rainbow Drinkers glow because of their home in the near pitch black caverns. It’s true that even with trolls' natural night vision, more light sources would be a boon. Animals that thrive in the dark like cats and wolves can’t magically see without a light source, rather their eyes are specially adapted to reflect even scant amounts of light. Animals that live in true darkness, like those found in the depths of caves, are more commonly blind. If no light is present, even night vision fails. With the mother grub’s natural habitat being subterranean, her special attendants possessing an internal light source would make sense. 

We have to change gears now and reckon with the How of troll blood drinking and Kanaya surviving. First: how can a troll survive on blood? We know that all trolls - even Kanaya, subsist on diets of foods akin to what you and I eat. Is it even possible to suddenly switch to a blood diet? The answer is yes. Blood drinking comes in two forms: obligatory and facultative. Obligatory, as the name implies, refers to creatures like fleas and ticks who only consume blood, whereas facultative refers to creatures that have a mixed diet of blood and other foods. Mosquitos for example only drink blood when they need to produce eggs. Rainbow Drinkers are likely similar - mainly eating standard troll goodies, but being able to rely on blood if the going gets tough. Natural resources may be scant in the brooding caverns, and the ability to survive on blood would be incredibly advantageous for those living there. Blood would of course be in no short supply given the population and purpose of the caverns. The implication I’m getting at is well… not every grub survives the caverns trials, or even the caverns in general. Between imperial drones, hoards of lusii, and difficult terrain, the brooding caverns can be dangerous. It would make sense for the troll denizens living there to be exceptionally tough and capable of “recycling” the grubs that don’t make it. Horrible. I’m sorry. But that’s nature. 

The transformation into Rainbow Drinker could very well be triggered by shock or extreme physical duress. After undergoing the transformation and taking a nice sloppy drink from her friends, Kanaya begins to exhibit increased physical abilities. Natural durability and rainbow drinker abilities serve Jades well in their special role as mother grub attendants, and I think that’s in part how Kanaya was able to survive Eridan’s attack. That, and the noticeable difference in how she and Feferi were hit. Fef was hit in the chest while Kan was hit in the stomach. Assuming troll biology is comparable to our own, cleaving out the lungs and heart is a lot worse than cleaving out the stomach. Now don’t get me wrong, both are awful, But if one of the two was going to survive, it would be Kanaya - not only is she a durable Jade (see above), but as a facultative blood drinker, it could be possible for her to have a separate stomachs for blood and food. The digestion process of the two is completely different, so throwing all of it into one pouch might not be a good idea. Outside of durability and luck with the placement of the blast, this could be why Kanaya was able to get back on her feet. And she’s a Sylph, a natural healer class. But this isn’t a classpect analysis, so I’ll leave that discussion for people wiser than I. 

Jadebloods are stated to be the second rarest blood type out there, and those that are able to turn Rainbow Drinker exemplify how badass the whole caste is. It’s likely that they don’t possess these skills because they’re the chosen attendants of the mother grubs, but rather these traits are why the mother grubs chose Jades as their keepers in the first place. As much as I wish we’d gotten more info about Rainbow Drinkers from canon, it was fun to explore how they could potentially work, and it really cemented Jades as my favorite caste. Anyway, please excuse me while I go draw myself a Rainbow Drinker trollsona. 

[cursedvida]

The first thing I'm going to say is that I find it completely out of place to mention a ship where there are clearly indications of pedophilia to exemplify a point with another ship whose participants are more or less the same age, and if not, it is clear that both are adults or are close to each other in terms of vital points. I think examples of problematic fandoms can be given without resorting to comparisons of that type because, well, let's leave that aside.

I don't defend that just because it's fiction, there's a free pass to romanticize or normalize anything, but I don't understand what that has to do with this particular couple. The power imbalance or dynamics, violence in relationships and abuse are not being romanticized or normalized. The age difference isn't being normalized (which is why your mention of HoD feels off, honestly), nor incest or anything like that. In this universe, both intelligent apes and humans are at the same intellectual and cognitive level, especially in the case of Noa, who proves to be much smarter than average. So, again, as in my previous point, I don't see the relevance of the argument "it's not just fiction because fiction influences the overall perception" in this case.

Finally, I agree with you: chemistry doesn't necessarily imply romance. But no one has said that it does. People see two characters whose relationship has potential and who also have an interesting dynamic and good chemistry, and they start shipping them. This has been happening since fandoms existed and has even occurred when shipping characters who have never interacted throughout a whole saga, but fans think that based on their personalities and personal histories, they could offer a good dynamic for fanfics or fan art. It's not necessary for a couple to be canon to ship them, nor do they need to openly show signs of romance. Yes, chemistry doesn't necessarily imply romance, but many people, thanks to chemistry, discover that they like a couple and start shipping them because it's fun, entertaining, and it inspires them to create all kinds of things.

There are many ships that I don't like or don't see as anything more than purely platonic, but it has never occurred to me to go sermonizing to anyone about why they ship or stop shipping something, or if it makes sense, or if it's too soon, or if chemistry isn't decisive. I simply let people have fun with whatever they want as long as they don't harm anyone because ultimately the world fries your brain, and it's nice to have spaces to rest from the frenzy of late capitalism.

Do you only see Nomae as something platonic? Wonderful. Other people see it as a connection that could potentially have possibilities in the future, and that leads to speculating theories and having a good time.

I normally don’t make my own posts on here because of certain reasons however i do want to say something about the newest Planet Of the Apes movie.

Specifically the shipping. The shipping of the MC Noa and the human character Mae.

Stop here if you don’t wanna get spoiled about the movie or if you’re already hating what might be said.

TW for: general cursing, mentions of incest and sexual stuff.

To clarify, i love interspecies relationships. Ask any moots of mine or even look at what i reblog when it comes to those types of ships.

However seeing this ship has rubbed me the wrong way.

I haven’t seen the movie, I’m planning to just not in theaters, but ive gone through the POTA tag on both here and on tiktok. From what I’ve seen and gathered the arguments for this ship are “look! They have chemistry! Noa wouldn’t have done all this for Mae if he didn’t like or have some feelings for her!” “the cast and crew hinted a love story for them!” And even “if you hate this ship even though you like interspecies, youre a hypocrite”

But i have some thoughts on all of this.

1) Chemistry doesn’t mean romance. Two or more characters can have the most amazing chemistry and still likely be friends or platonic soulmates/kindred spirits. And that’s what I’m most likely leaning towards when it comes to these two characters.

Yes they have long gazes, yes he saves her and she saves him, yes they both look up at the stars at the end. But i feel like that’s what two people may go through if they’ve went through the events Noa and Mae have gone through.

And if anyone thinks I’m not for this ship because of the lack of sexual nature of these two then get out. Leave. Block me. I may reblog funni haha horni posts but that’s not all of my damn personality. Thinking that is inherently gross.

2) The interspecies aspect is… odd. Mainly cause I don’t think these two are a interspecies relationship at all. Genetically we share a lot of DNA with primates. Culturally the apes in the current movie are currently going through their own age of civilization that can be comparable to pre Sumeria. They’re developing their own tools, customs, language, are training animals for hunting and are gathering. While interesting from an anthropological perspective they’re evolving the same way humans have.

You can apply the last bit to any fictional species but to me its like watching a distant cousin learning how to ride a bike.

I would deem interspecies romance as shipping characters that aren’t related to the human race at all. Apes and us shared a common ancestor. So, not interspecies.

3) This entire franchise may be fictional… but that’s what worries me. People as of late will shut off their brain if it means shipping something that is obviously problematic.

Case in point? House of Dragons.

I will not touch that show because of the shipping wars. I hated watching tumblr go googly eyed for when a young teenage Rhyneara was crushing over her uncle. Hell i even saw a post where someone got a pic from a trailer that showed a hand over hers and going ‘oh my god guys shes finally gonna bone her uncle!!’ As if incest was suddenly okay even from a literary standpoint. Even if it happened in the lore and books. This is why I think the entirety of The Game of Thrones universe should not have been created.

But this is what we have been seeing.

Just because something is fictional doesn’t mean it can’t happen in real life. And if we normalize something that should remain fictional people are gonna think its okay.

TLDR; I will only see Mae and Noa as platonic soul mates. And that will remain unless something happens where its not gonna be problematic.

Oh! And please don’t bring up the Harkness test when it comes to the validity of this ship. That’s a whole other rant for a whole other day.

[trilobiter]

Similarly to when I did this with the Beatles, I am going to rank the Beach Boys' studio albums. Because I feel like it.

The difference is that, while my love of the Beach Boys is perhaps greater than my love of the Beatles, I do not know their albums as intimately. This is because the Beach Boys have made many more albums, and some of them are very, very bad. I refuse to revisit them and so I may not be entirely fair.

Lowest Tier: Albums I wish the Beach Boys never made because they make me feel acute secondhand embarrassment.

29. Still Cruisin' - The numbering of this section is basically arbitrary, but this isn't even really an album.

28. M.I.U. Album - The song "Hey Little Tomboy" really creeps me out and there is nothing else on this album to redeem it.

27. Stars and Stripes Volume 1 - Re-recordings of their classic songs with country acts as the lead vocalists. A halfway decent idea for a tribute album, but this is somehow an actual Beach Boys album.

26. L.A. (Light Album) - Derivative and uninspired, and has a ten minute disco version of a song that was good when it was less than three minutes long.

25. Summer in Paradise - I have no memory of any of this album's tracks, and since it reportedly sold less than 1000 copies, neither does any one else.

24. Keepin' the Summer Alive - The only memory of this album I retain is that the song "Santa Ana Winds" has a spoken-word intro that helpfully explains to non-Californians what the Santa Ana Winds are. I don't believe this was necessary.

23. The Beach Boys - The song "Getcha Back" is not bad, inherently, but it fairly well exemplifies the horrors of popular artists from the 60s attempting to embrace the pop stylings of the 80s. Apart from this song, I have little memory of the rest. Eugene Landy's fingerprints are all over this one, and that is a demerit.

Lower Tier: Albums that demonstrate human personality, but are not representative of a truly great band.

22. 15 Big Ones - The album that made the world get used to the idea that Brian Wilson's voice was changed forever, a very on-the-nose harbinger of the band's imminent end as a vital creative force, along with the surfeit of cover songs. But at this point, hearing Brian and Carl sing "Just Once In My Life" was still poignant.

21. Little Deuce Coup - Tired of singing about surfing for their first three albums, the boys turned to cars. It was certainly a choice.

20. Surfin' Safari - The wild thing is that they were mostly originals, something the Beatles could barely claim on their debut album, even if their musicianship was at a higher level.

Middle Tier: Albums that can throw their weight around for a real good time.

19. That's Why God Made The Radio - The ground was too well trodden by 2012 for a great album, but at least they broke the curse of the 80s and 90s by making a decent one that evokes the spirit of their best.

18. Surfer Girl - Very gimmicky, but fun, and on at least two occasions ("Surfer Girl" and "In My Room") absolutely brilliant.

17. Shut Down, Volume 2 - Contains some of the very best Beach Boys songs ("Don't Worry Baby", "The Warmth of the Sun"), along with a lot of filler. 'Twas the style in those days.

16. Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" - Again, a couple of stand-out songs ("Marcella" is a fave), but the album as a whole fails to stand out in its era.

15. Surfin' USA - The breakthrough sophomore album, defining their public image for better or worse. A lot of surf rock instrumentals, which doesn't really play to their strengths, but the overall sound is there. Still trying to figure out how copyright works.

14. The Beach Boys Christmas Album - Your mileage may vary on Christmas music, but it's a good-natured collection that really shows off the strength of their singing and vocal arrangements.

13. All Summer Long - Peak commercial mid-60s Beach Boys. Their themes may not have been literary, but they were resonant. Less abject filler for more of that whole-album feel.

12. The Beach Boys' Party! - It is uncanny how seamlessly produced this album is, creating the illusion of an informal live jam at a house party with a few post-production crowd sounds. It's also frequently hilarious.

The Weird Tier: Albums that demonstrate the true nature of America's Band: absolutely bonkers.

11. 20/20 - Inconsistent in its highs, but notable for the inclusion of some excellent tracks from the magnificently weird lost album Smile, a song by Charles Manson, and the sounds of Dennis Wilson getting laid.

10. Smiley Smile - Rather than actually use the many recordings that had been made for Smile, Brian Wilson opted to hastily re-record many of the key songs in his living room. It's got a supremely relaxing sound, but it's impossible to explain what that sound is without sounding like you're making it up.

9. Friends - This pretty little album wants to be your friend so much, you can't help but reciprocate, even when it starts getting insistent about the Transcendental Meditation stuff.

8. The Beach Boys Love You - By far the most unhinged of Beach Boys records, and I mean that as high praise of a band that was usually at its best when it was being unique. The result of handing the keys of the studio back to Brian Wilson when he was least inclined to give a fuck, he raspily leads the group in songs about late night TV hosts, the solar system, and the glorious nonsense of "Ding Dang." This album loves you, but is not too hung up about whether you'll like it.

7. Surf's Up - Often cited for supposedly politically aware social commentary, but one of those songs is "Take A Load Off Your Feet," so do with that as you will. The preachy stuff mixes in well enough with some great rockers and beautiful ballads. Most notable of these are the title track (one of the greatest legacies of the Smile sessions), and the absolutely legendary "'Til I Die."

6. Wild Honey - The shortest Beach Boys album, and they aren't known for going on at length. But the order of the day is soul music, and they go for it with gusto in the time allotted. Carl Wilson is the hero of the day. This album wants to see you in the nude.

The Highest Tier: Albums that are essential masterpieces.

5. Holland - The most comfortably the band ever fit into the mainstream of 70s rock, and proof that even with the reduced involvement of Brian Wilson they were a force to be reckoned with.

4. Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) - The last hurrah of the good old days of unforced boyish hedonism, before it became the sort of thing they had to self-consciously reach back for. Occasionally corny, but at the same time daring and sincere.

3. Sunflower - The most representative album of the individual strengths of the band's classic line-up. Together they are unconcerned with any problem but sounding beautiful. Every one comes out of this one smelling like sunflowers.

2. The Beach Boys Today! - From the heyday of Brian Wilson's days as the unquestioned leader of the band, this album combines the thrills of youth with the heights of mature ambition. It's just gorgeous.

Pet Sounds - Obviously.

[kouhaiofcolor]

2020's finally over. Can we not go into 2021 pacifying texturism w "It's just hair" tho?

It was "just hair" until Black Women started exercising the freedom to discover the unique needs & maintenance beneficial to our hair. Then as soon as non black women got wind of it & the nerve to lurk on platforms the natural hair community was uprising thru, nowadays you've got all these non black women bandwagoning & hashtagging literally everything under the sun w/ this fake ass inclusiveness, advocacy, relatability & support for textured hair. Like all women have suffered oppression around wearing their real hair 😒. Like all races of women have been socially targeted in blatant discriminations against their hair texture, complexion, & how acceptable they are or are not together. I hate the "All Hair (Matters/Is Beautiful/Is 'Good Hair')" clout bc it talks over & totally overwrites the foundational issue around hair & toxic femininity that, at its misogynoir core, has always been that textured hair is unprofessional, unkempt, unmanageable, & ugly. Colorism also erases the initial creators of the movement — which were Monoracial Brown & Dark Skinned Black Women; put some respek onnat, period. Straight hair is not oppressed; wavy hair is not oppressed; all hair is not oppressed. Black hair is. This "all hair is good hair" bullshit is so monotonous & inconsiderate bc its almost like a passive aggressive refusal to acknowledge what antiblackness imposed on Black Women alone. None of you non black know what it's like in depth to be the descendants of a race of ppl who's features, traits & harmless existence have always been insulted, hated & envied by the whole world. Esp not all at once. That is something totally unique to us inflicted & imposed by everyone else since the beginning of time. So why be out here chasing clout under tags & movements & in spaces you are no real part of? Why wanna be a part of the Black Girl Experience that bad? Yall have identities in everything outside of us. Why vulture off of this like you even have reasons to be there? We were investing in ourselves & trying to teach generations of Monoracial Black People how to manage their hair texture & develop cathartic habits thru self care. Nb ppl ruined that.

Looser hair textures have omnipresent representation & acceptance all, over, the, world. There is no lack of being seen, romanticized or exemplified for having texture 1a-3b hair; esp on the prevalent basis around colorism we see regularly on social media & on tv. Yet what remains of the community as it stands is today the furthest thing from textured or Black at all. At this point we owe the decline (if not death) of the natural hair community to the parasitic latching of non black women, the infiltration of "pick me's" & antiblackness generally — but I still be feeling like even that's not direct enough. We're talking ab something authentic & wholesome for Monoracial Black Women created by us for us being straight up sabotaged by races of women the cause was totally irrelevant to & in regard of. Bc that's how cosmetic industries have been towards us for centuries. Bc we were always excluded & thought of least & last. By other women. By all other women; don't get it twisted. So we set out on figuring ourselves out. Doing research on our own. Incorporating self care & beneficial habits in our lives to nourish & feel better ab ourselves & disprove the racist shit non black cultures & ppl either ignorantly surmise, make up or project ab Black Girls. That includes Black Men too in case yall thought yall were safe. Yall are some of the most toxic & prevalent faces behind colorism, antiblackness & misogynoir among black ppl specifically.

But anyhow. At first a lot of the initiation of the vulturing in the nhc light skinned women were the face of. Esp w the clout around having 4c hair amongst the beige-est, most ambiguously or straight up non black individuals, good lord. Then it went mainstream for huwight ppl, whom enevitably invited themselves, & following were the masses of non black women looking to pillage for themselves while the community was being swallowed by the crowdedness & irrelevant content being put out there (specifically on YouTube, Twitter & Instagram) by "hair gurus" of the light skinned, biracial or non black texture 1a-3b variety. Hair gurus who literally may as well've fallen from the sky & met social media stardom overnight based on their hair texture & complexion alone they're so brand new. Hair gurus who aren't even in the community for legitimately informative reasons or purposes unionized in Blackness. They're whole natural hair niche be — as a favorite natural of mine put it — manipulating textured hair into a sort of submission to appear or behave like looser textures do. They'll swear by 'game changer' products they both mention & only use like once & insist you should invest in a $30 8oz. bottle of clarifying shampoo or a $35 cowash if you want your hair to behave & look like theirs. Again, mind you, these types of individuals casually claim having texture 4 hair when they're anything but, just for the attention it brings from both ppl who will gullibly follow their every word & who know what kind of scamming to look for & won't.

If it's "just hair", how come so many of you that are non black are riding the wave? If it's just hair, why have so many of you found refuge in using the hashtags & participating/contributing uninvited? How come so many ran to get a seat at the table w Black Women only to kick them to the side the more popular it became if its just hair? How come nobody was calling it natural hair before Black Women created the nhc & started growing their own? Why was there no natural hair community before Black Women coined it, reminder, for ourselves? If it's just hair, how come so many ran to youtube to begin w to start channels for their own non-textured journeys? If its just hair, why is the nhc so damn obsessed w defining curls & length than overall health & gradual growth? If its just hair, why are white girls anywhere near this? Yall are the most out of place of anyone, honestly. Even if you're curly. Why do light skinned girls get to both represent textured hair & "good hair"? How does that even make sense? Thats just putting monoracial black girls in isolated boxes they're not even allowed to be symbols of or in. If its just hair, why's it so unheard of to see the roles of Black female characters in just ab anything played by actual Black Women? If its just hair, why have so many non or partially Black women worked in ignorant succession to water down & essentially wash out the Monoracial Black Women vital to the community's relevance at all? I really do not get the involvement of non black women in this movement at all — esp when culturally you have no reason to call your hair natural. There are no & have never been prejudice notions around having or growing texture 1a-3b hair. There's nothing oppressive ab it, either. Yall have gotta stop w that. You've already made a mockery of something that was supposed to be beautiful by making yourselves comfortable in & hijacking our space itfp. Theres far too much misrepresentation of textured hair to keep up w now. This is why i say the nhc (as well as culture vulturing generally) has just become nbwoc copying white women copying light skinned women copying Black Women, bc the audacity is unreal.

Its not just hair tho. To those it applies to, yall proved that the minute Black Women started going public w their growth journeys. The minute conversations ab "shrinkage this & 4c that" broadened & went mainstream. Yall couldn't move all at once fast enough when you realized you weren't as special as you thought & had always been told — esp w melanin at its modern value. Now all yall either "natural", seeking black men for either casual sex or cultural infiltration via fetishised reproduction, certain you have texture 4 hair or know the best tips for a DIY silk press 🤭😂 yall can't sit w us. You don't belong here. I'm calling yall out on allll the bs around this "All Hair Matters" garbage, cus yall are now sputtering the same shit while literally wearing your own non black hair in black styles. Be consistent. Make some fucking sense. I don't wanna be part of this fake ass girl squad propaganda that says every other woman never looked at Black Women's hair like it was bottomest of the barrel, foh. We're not on the same team & yall know it.

[seenvs3000-21]

My Journey as an Interpreter

When this course began, I was in the dark about the whole concept of nature interpretation. Unsurprisingly, I assumed it would mainly entail developing increased awareness and mindfulness when spending time outdoors. I figured this course would help me learn to share those experiences with audiences from all kinds of unique backgrounds. My role as an interpreter before ENVS*3000 focused on topics surrounding my studies as a science student. Being in university has a way of making school the primary lens through which you perceive the world; at least, that has been my experience. As a result, when I look at the world around me, it is easy to recognize the ecosystems at play and the unique interactions happening within them that are essential no matter how small. As a science student in my final year of study, the natural world's complexity is evident, and for me, this is one of the most humbling thoughts to entertain. It is crucial as an interpreter to be mindful of the natural world's sheer magnitude, something often overlooked by the anthropocentric society we are immersed in. 

In nearly any situation, humanity has a way of commanding attention, but learning how the complex systems at work in nature genuinely are, makes it clear that it really is a delicate balance. It can also be an eye-opener for many to realize humans are not as pivotal to Earth's well-being and function as we are conditioned to believe. Humans have less control over the world than we would like to admit. Although the environment is plagued by the seemingly infinite number of challenges resulting from human activity, the wilderness will and always should stay out of our control. As interpreters, it should be our role to help others recognize the power and knowledge found within nature and the positivity it can bring to our lives when we do our part to care for it and maintain its integrity. When we care for the Earth, it cares for us by healing our psyche and fostering our physical well-being.

Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash  

My development as a nature interpreter is heavily influenced by my personal morals and the belief that good interpreters should share the knowledge and power nature offers. The things most important to me that define my personal ethics as an individual and as an interpreter are respect, integrity, and the value knowledge holds. As interpreters, our primary role is to share the knowledge we have with others so that they may achieve the same benefits we do as a result of forming a meaningful connection with nature. Additionally, I think it is our job to teach others how we know to be respectful of the environment in sustainable ways to maintain the integrity of our natural surroundings. When discussing my development as an interpreter, my mind automatically jumps to my future role as a science teacher. I am starting my Bachelor of Education this upcoming fall to teach high school science, a clear showcase of my priority to share the invaluable knowledge that exists in the field of science with others. 

I have always loved sharing what I have learned with people around me, even if it's just a remarkable fact I learned in class that week with a friend or even my mom. The key here is how significant knowledge and learning is to me, and I think this goes hand in hand with honesty, integrity, and respect, morals by which I try to live my life. While these factors are those by which I guide the actions and decisions I make in my life, they are also the ones I focus on when interacting with the natural world around me. Being respectful is one of the most important things to keep in mind when getting out and experiencing nature, especially to maintain the integrity of the ecosystems and the organisms that rely on them. Connecting back to my future as an interpreter through the role of science teacher, I can share these ethics with the students who enter my classroom and show them the importance of the environment and how they can personally maintain nature's integrity. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash  

Continuing my role as an interpreter through teaching science introduces a variety of responsibilities. First and foremost, teaching youth to respect the environment and do what they can to improve nature's conditions whenever possible. Environmental stewardship offers benefits to the domain directly, but it also provides an outlet for individuals to connect and spend time outdoors. I believe nature holds so much power, be it in terms of psychological relief from stress or anxiety or a physical escape from the hustle-bustle we are affronted by in modern society. I believe it is a gift to be shared, and that is our responsibility as teachers and as interpreters of the natural world. As mentioned in Rodenburg's article (2019), today's youth simply are not getting outside to experience nature the way many of us did as kids, even though that really was not so long ago. In a world that has been rapidly developing new technologies for even more convenience, people are beginning to forget to slow down and appreciate what is around them, and children are not exempt from this. It is so important to foster the connection between humanity and the environment to avoid "nature deficit disorder," a term coined by Richard Louv in the textbook (Beck et al. 2019) to describe the detachment between humanity and nature. 

Throughout history, nature and humanity have always been intertwined; one can never exist without the other, so nature deficit disorder can introduce various challenges. Perpetuated by modern society, nature deficit disorder can manifest in countless ways that exemplify the physical, social, and cognitive deficits that result from the disconnect with nature (Beck et al., 2019). Teachers have so much power to initiate reform by educating and inspiring their students who will grow up to be the policy-makers, business owners, scientists, teachers ultimately, the future caretakers of the world. The impact teachers can have on their students is undeniable, which is a primary aspect of effective interpreters, which is a significant reason I decided to pursue a career in teaching to make a difference.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash  

Everyone will have a unique perception of the broad privileges granted by the environment that expresses the individuality between people. As an interpreter, it is vital to focus on the various things that catch different individuals' attention, providing insight into the unique personal relationship held with nature and their relationships with others and even within themselves. There is a valuable connection between humans and the environment from the deep evolutionary history that forever links the two. Creating a strong relationship with nature and helping others to do so will aid mental wellness by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, elevating mood and reestablishing attention to the physical health benefits that include promoting cardiovascular health and reducing obesity by staying active. There are many benefits to support the power of getting involved in the environment and building a personal relationship with nature. I believe that to be one of the responsibilities of a nature interpreter and a science teacher.

Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash  

This course provided invaluable knowledge about how to reach a variety of audiences, but more importantly, it allowed me to gain insight into my personal relationship with nature. While learning techniques to improve the way I can share my own interpretations with others has been amazing to prepare me for my time in teachers' college. The enhanced relationship with the natural world has provided me with much needed benefits and escape from symptoms of nature deficit disorder and many other aspects of nature I had never recognized before this course. I always knew the importance of the environment when it comes to science, of course, and in art based on the numerous art pieces or musical creations inspired by nature. This course expanded my appreciation for the incredible impact nature has had on humanity throughout history, but it is even more important in society today. 

Thanks for a great semester everyone!!

Sierra 🌼

References:

Rodenburg, J. (2019). Why Environmental Educators Shouldn’t Give Up Hope | CLEARING: A Nonprofit Magazine for Environmental Education in the Pacific Northwest. clearingmagazine.org. https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/14300

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2019). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For a better world. Urbana: Sagamore Publishing

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Why don’t you like Only Us?

lmao Only Us exasperates me on like several levels at once......

i mean there’s plenty of stuff in deh that i’m just like. “i don’t particularly feel the need to experience this again” like, naturally i care most about the jared and alana content, so already a song with neither of them in it is at a disadvantage with me, which is yeah most of the songs but that’s deh canon for you. my favorite parts are the non-hansen non-murphy characters!! epic for me

meanwhile from like a Story standpoint the writing for zoe and evan’s relationship is like, baffling lmao, and i think both Love Songs (if i could tell her & only us) exemplify how it is a mess.......like, why does “if i could tell her” Not tell us why evan likes zoe???? it’d be great if we could find out, since we already have found out he’s never talked to her. is it just that she Seems Nice. b/c like, sure, except that here we have a whole song to explain to us in greater detail why evan is so set on being in love with zoe and pinning all his hopes on her, but he just kind of lists off random surface-level stuff which doesn’t actually tell us anything either about her or, you know, Why Evan Likes Her? we’re just skipping to like, “oh see he Pays Attention, that proves he likes her” like okay whatever but WHY lmfao please......and yknow not to mention that this is all stuff that we can understand as both “something evan noticed about zoe b/c of crushing on her” and “something zoe might think was an observation coming from her brother” like.......bit underwhelming here, and really the most interesting Interaction zoe and evan have is where zoe says the wild shit about how evan is a Fool to want to be financially secure and evan is “rude” in response and she’s like yeah you don’t have to be polite all the time, and then this potential avenue of connection of them both feeling Obligated to Act Nice is pretty much just dropped and their relationship just becomes based on “you’re nice” again and like, is Nothing lmao.........why

and slam dunking on “if i could tell her” also there b/c Only Us is similar in that like, oh here’s the other Love Song but now it’s zoe’s turn to tell us why she likes evan!!!!! except she pointedly Does Not like *why* are either of you At All invested in this relationship lmaooo i s2g........like, just writing in “wow i like you so much” is not really compelling and like. i would be fine with this just being some nice, enjoyable high school dating experience where they Don’t really have any big reason to be together beyond “well, you’re pretty nice,” except there’s the problems that a) between So Much Time and focus being put into this Relationship, and zoe’s character pretty much becoming “evan’s nice gf” for all of act 2 and not much else about any other aspect of her experience, and the fact that the whole finale to resolve the show and its themes (?? what are those) and evan’s arc (?? what is that) is zoe Forgiving him and saying “Everyone Needed [what he did] For Something” like....did they??? did You???? did jared, did alana.........and also then telling us that she wishes she could’ve dated evan still if things had been normal like???? whyyyyyyyyyyyyy. and why would zoe feel the need to tell him this. seems 2 be justifying evan’s crush and pinning-of-hopes re: her, and by extension justifying this whole Relationship being given soooo much focus b/c even if there’s meant to be some Ambiguity in what we, the audience, might be intended to take away from it, like, clearly this relationship is justified as being Vital and the show treating it as such. which wouldn’t quite fit if it Was just like “oh shrug yeah i mean dating you was alright but nbd” like, it Must be meant to be some whole ~signficant connection~ between them. buuut there’s no actual sign of that lol. and the other problem is b) it also can’t just be a Fun, Casual High School Romance b/c at no point do they really seem to enjoy being together lmao or comfortable in each other’s presence. even their Joking Around for 2 seconds at the start of the “only us” scene feels to me more like nervous joking to cut the tension lmao...

like it does not count to have evan be like “i like zoe” and never actually give us reason why and have zoe take the other love song like “i like you also” but not tell us Why and expect us to like, just take a wild guess at the Supposed Depth of this relationship and what constitutes it or be at all invested. and i mean, evan’s holding zoe at arm’s length b/c there’s this inherent amount of lying he has to do constantly, and why would zoe be like “wow this relationship is great, i’m getting so much out of it” like, have they had conversations?? have they Enjoyed being in each other’s presence and like had genuine fun Being Themselves??? “only us” really does just feel like this cop out both in terms of Why zoe likes him and Why zoe feels like this relationship *isn’t* completely entangled with evan’s supposed relationship with connor. in that it explains neither, just has the character Say that is how she feels. like, we have ALL of evan’s interactions with zoe being dependent on connor, and the whole Initial love song is zoe paying attention b/c Supposedly evan is telling her stuff about what connor thought about her, and then zoe deciding she Does want to kiss evan actually is via disappear and ywbf and everyone’s reaction to evan’s speech supposedly about connor and her dad acquiescing to the fact he has emotions about his dead son thanks to everyone’s reaction to evan’s speech / tcp........like, this relationship is clearly contingent on stuff re: connor, and zoe apparently changing her mind and wanting to be with him is Because of everything re: connor, but then like, just b/c she says in Only Us that she Doesn’t want it all to be about connor doesn’t change all of that......like, yeah, it can be true that she wants this relationship to be separate from anything re: connor, but just having her Say That does nothing to convince me that oh yeah they have this whole Romance that really *is* separate from connor, like?? where??? we haven’t seen it. and when zoe says at the end that she wishes she could’ve dated evan minus [everything that actually happened], again: why!!!!! what *was* your Relationship-Minus-Connor. here it Supposedly is in “only us,” except that the tl;dr of it is just them insisting they totally have a relationship which involves Them and Nothing Else and i do not buy it just b/c they’re saying it??? i mean, for a start, they’re just Hypothesizing it. “what if it’s us & only us” etc etc “we could Try that” like, fuck around and find out, pretty literally i guess??? lmfaoo god.........

like, there’s some space between “hey maybe the Entire Solution to your being Anxious about this relationship isn’t a handy list of things i like about you” and “i shouldn’t tell you anything i like about you” like, sure there’s something that maybe works in like, why don’t you just Assume i like you instead of assuming i Don’t until Proven Otherwise, but again she can get that across And tell him (and like, more importantly, us the audience) why she likes him......and she can give some of those reasons why she likes him Without it being just a list of traits or things she’s noticed a la “if i could tell her” lmao like, describe him broadly!!! talk about One Nice Experience you shared!!!! we have noooo info about why evan likes zoe or why zoe likes evan. we just know that they’re Nice Teens (or teens who feel obligated to act nice all the time) and they are saying “I Like You” to each other. why does this relationship feel so necessary and Good to zoe even after she found out he was lying, and was she having such a great time beforehand??? you can find lots of nice boys you can kiss if that’s what you’re after, like, neither love song tells us Anything about why this particular relationship is so important and good or like, has any substance at all

and additionally you Know i’m your one-stop shop for Hot Takes About Any Number Of Concepts Re: Romance(tm) Which I Think Are Bullshit Slash Hate lmfao and one of those is tying whatever notion of the Ideal Romantic Relationship to that like, isolating the partners, like oh they’re your whole world now and the relationship’s defined by the fact that you don’t need about anybody or anything else and/or don’t care about anything/anyone else even nearly as much and wouldn’t it be Great if nothing else existed but you and your partner and this relationship........like sure it’s one thing for evan and zoe to be like “hey epic some Alone Time where larry isn’t trying to share metaphors about sports equipment” or whatever. but like, okay sure @ the start of things where the focus is more on like “hmm weird that everything about our relationship is so tied to connor, what if we just sort of say it’s starting for real Now unrelated to all that, even though we even have to talk about it to do so” but then you get towards the end and oh we also want the whole world to be irrelevant to us. and absolutely everything except each other / It Is Only Us(tm) like.........again sure if you look at this Immediate Moment where they wanna make out and fade to black, whatever. but this moment is also supposed to be this second start to the relationship, at least sorta reestablishing it, so natch it’s sort of like....about More than this particular moment. the zoevan brand ethos is This??? where your relationship is defined by like, needing or Wanting to be [just the two of you] like, well it can’t always be, so what are you gonna do about that?? and if your Best Times Together in that ideal state of isolation is like, hey now let’s make out, okay, again there are many decently nice people out there to kiss

and there sure seems to be Some awareness that this isn’t ideal thanks to how the immediate next scene is alana going like “um what the fuck, evan” and evan taking out the stress of Having Problems on jared...........aaaand yet i’m not so sure this is like, “oh, the Only Us brand of approach of just wanting and trying to ignore The Rest Of The World wasn’t so ideal after all” but rather just like. Wow How Tragic that they couldn’t truly keep the rest of the world at bay and now reality is intruding on their perfect relationship :( which would suuuure seem to fit with the mystifying sentiment zoe expresses in the finale of like, oh i wish i could’ve dated you Normally w/o [how the entire course of their relationship played out] like. oh Only Us really WAS ideal, that’s the epitome of / the Core of all the great parts of their relationship which was obviously great, and if only everything re: tcp and connor wasn’t the way that it was, they would’ve just been able to forget obligations w/o someone being like “the hell” and hold hands and kiss without people talking about it or anyone feeling bitterly rejected........like, idk, would they Really have dated if the entire plot hadn’t happened as it did??? evan was never talking to zoe, and we don’t know why he liked her so much in the first place, and apparently zoe’s perception of evan was “sort of a loser” like, okay. and when they Are together thanks to tcp-related stuff, we get no more information about why they might like each other. that one potentially engaging thread of “we both feel obligated to put on these fronts of Constant Niceness” existed for like 3 seconds and then they just start being constantly nice around each other, great lol. like again, this doesn’t seem so much of like “oh, these teens just having a chill time dating maybe have this simplistic / offbase ideas about relationships” as much as like the show justifies Only Us and all the sentiments therein.........like yeah wow if Only it could’ve been only them and the rest of the world could’ve stayed out of it!!! everything would’ve been perfect!! b/c we tell you so

not to mention all the like Official covers of Only Us which areout of the specific context in which it’s placed in the show, which sure only emphasizes like “hey these sentiments can be and should be taken straightforwardly” and i’m like, get tf away from me with this lmfao i am So uninterested. a romantic relationship should do the Opposite of shrink / restrict your world or suddenly make all other relationships less important, much less like, require those things, and also the nuclear family model is a scam pushed by capitalism to cut off people’s support networks / isolate them lmao But Really It Is, social isolation is Not romantic or anything else that is ever positive. and it’d be Whatever if it truly was applied to that very specific moment of “boy it sure is Only Us in this room, :eyes emoji:” buuut it’s not, and it’d be Whatever if evan and zoe’s relationship was Meant to be sort of a misguided mess all around lmao Or just more superficial and casually enjoyable than meant as anything ~deep and Real(tm)~ buuuut it is not........i think canon does sure allow for the fact that things are messy for sure but i think it also definitely wants you to think that like. oh this Relationship was truly great and things were all good in its Core (jk, what core), it’s just that tragically all those complications with connor / tcp got too in the way........yet it was so Essential and ultimately positive that this relationship happen for both of us...........like, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy lmaoooooo @ deh WHAT are your themes, What are either of these character’s arcs meant to be!!!!!!! idk zoe and evan's relationship more felt bizarrely like these two teens were Settling for white picket fence ideals of “well you’re nice and i’m nice and we could kind of tensely continue to be nice indefinitely” like, do you guys even like each other that much, do you Know each other at all, do either of you truly Enjoy being in this relationship??? and then meanwhile you get all the bizarreness re: larry and cynthia’s relationship and how it doesn’t actually improve but uhhh they’re going on dates and they’re not divorced so hey, i’m sure that’s good, you definitely helped them through Mystery Reasons...........and idk it seems like the idea of the Journey that zoe takes is that like, oh it’s Bad that this nice girl has to be mad, somehow dating evan will fix that and she won’t be mad, since being mad can never be a good thing, and Not being mad is always an improvement. like, why is she this cool with evan in the finale. why does she want to tell him she (and everyone) Needed what happened and that she wishes she could date him. deh is of the Mystery genre actually, and so much of it remains unsolved

also Only Us just gets fairly boring like 3 listens in i think. like can we literally pick up the pace a little. up the tempo. get it over with faster. i don’t even know at this point b/c i just choose not to listen to it ever lmfao every time the deh twitter tries to tell me about a cover it’s transphobic b/c i hate it. but i’d put up with it if i didn’t hate the ideas in it meant as ~romance~ and if any of this was tempered by evan and zoe’s relationship being written better and/or Not trying to be wrangled as like, “This Is Good Actually even if some parts aren’t perfect, the point is that evan was right to pin all his hopes on zoe, who’s needed in this show to validate his existence in the finale” like. what is this. and again, capitalism is bad and the nuclear family is Not the base unit of society, and what’s the deal with deh being like “well, as long as larry and cynthia don’t get divorced, right???? we don’t need to know that their relationship actually improved and that cynthia’s at all happier / feels like she has more of an identity or that larry has more fundamental respect for cynthia or thinks he’s not Automatically / Always Right just b/c his life has been fine.....they’re going on dates and aren’t divorced so that’s their Improved Ending!!” like, what’s up with that, right. the relationships that matter are Familial ones and dating the nice girl who has a juxtaposable family, and the other relationships, i.e. with jared and with alana, can evaporate into the ether and maybe get damnatio memoriae’d for as much as their existence plays into the finale. disappear.mp3. i have absolutely zero motivation to experience Only Us again ever lmao and in fact i guess i have negative motivation b/c i Want to avoid it and will take active steps in the sense of like “oh i’m watching deh? let me just skip past all these parts i don’t need to see again, including only us” like. i’m good

tl;dr  it annoys me & i do not think it works from Any structural standpoint

[clairen45]

The Bridge Trope in Star Wars and what it may mean for IX

Besides being iconic markers in our daily lives, bridges are an awesome symbol:

transition and a boundary between sky and earth, life and death, real and imaginary, mortal and immortal,  good and evil, civilization and the wilderness,rich and poor, old and new

marking both a connection and a separation through time and space, between people, between places

Which is why, they are so easily used in stories as a decisive step in a hero’s journey, the Rubicon moment, the ultimate test, when through wit, trick, or strength, a bridgekeeper must be defeated. Let’s say it is a hero’s journey and fairy tale classic.

Add to that the fact that bridges are quite the war movie cliché, they are obvious landmarks to destroy, and vital targets to control. Destroying a bridge often means isolating and weakening the enemy, depriving it from communication and food, water, or medical supplies.

So, of course, we get to meet the bridge trope again and again in Star Wars. And, more often than not, the bridges we get are bridges of Death. From the Phantom Menace’s Duel of the Fates

To Han’s death in The Force Awakens.

It is actually fitting to say that both scenes constitute an interesting framing for the Skywalker saga. Duel of the Fates is a very apt name for the beginning of the saga. Remember that Anakin’s name is etymologically “Ananke”, that is to say Fate, Destiny. Anakin’s fate is in the balance there, and the end result of who gets to become his Master and teaching him about the Force is key. Had Qui Gon lived, possibly, there would not have been any Vader. As for, Han’s death in TFA, the constant play of words between sun and son, and the not so subtle imagery of light and darkness, is supposedly all about Kylo’s fate. If Qui Gon’s death is possibly the first step towards the fate that will turn sweet lovable Anakin munchkin into big bad Vader, Han’s death is the counterpart of this scene, thus the first step towards big bad Kylo turning eventually into lovable Ben Solo. And just as it took three movies to realize the Fate of Anakin, it will take three movies to realize the Fate of Ben Solo. But I digress. Or not.

Because both stories, which interact like mirror images of each other, are perfectly hinged around two other crucial bridge scenes. One in ESB. And one in ROTJ. You know what I’m talking about, right?

And these two are also counterparts. ESB’s bridge scene is Luke’s symbolic death scene: learning the truth about his father, and losing his hand, he would rather choose death and commit suicide. ROTJ’s bridge scene is Vader’s death and Anakin’s redemption, with Luke accepting the truth, Vader losing a hand, and choosing to save his son’s life. Even the placement of the actors emphasize this idea of mirror image. So Luke gets his Troll Bridge twice: he fails the test the first one, falling to the chasm and falling apart, and succeeds the second time around. Doing what? Throwing away his saber. Choosing love. Refusing to kill.

But I would also like to stress out that, from a certain point of view, Luke is not the only one who gets tested there on the Troll Bridge. Anakin, just like his son, also fails the first test and passes the second. In ESB, he has little to no love to offer and tempt Luke to his side: he offers the vague promises of the power of the dark side and ruling the galaxy together (which didn’t work with Padmé either). In effect, he is selfish, abusive, scarring his son physically and psychologically, and does not seem too distressed when Luke lets go and falls “presumably” to his death. In ROTJ, he chooses the losing side, standing against the Emperor to save his son’s life, which he knows, will eventually cost him his life. Thus, he is showing empathy and remorse, and saves Luke through a selfless act of love.

Yep, that is what the OT is about.

And, arguably, these two scenes constitute the very axis around which the other two trilogies are built. Hence my first “digression”.

It is also very interesting to note that in the four cases exemplified so far, the “bridges” in question are seemingly “reactor cores”, excuse my tech ignorance. These scenes are never about bridges out in the open, over a river, connecting two shores. They are always played out over a chasm, surrounded with energy fields, in dark environments with a possible fall into a bottomless abyss... Two possible interpretations:

because they are battle of the brains, moral battle of good versus evil within oneself. Inner battles. Think grey cells, cerebellum connections, as a map for these duels.

because they are battle of the heart. Issues of love. “core”

Honestly, I think they both go together!

Symbolically, they are your typical “choose the right path” bridges, the life and death, good vs evil bridges.

The many bridges of Luke

If you actually consider the OT, Luke’s journey is very much rhythmed by a series of bridges. Which might seem ironic for a boy coming from a desert planet with no water, and thus, no use or concept for bridges (besides rocky arch formation such as we see during the pod race in PM). But consider the last name GL decided to give him: SKYWALKER. That was not the orginial name he had chosen, right, since in first drafts Luke was called “Starkiller”. Consider then what a huge difference it makes when you move from a very martial moniker “Star/killer”, which is all about destroying life and light (and Luke actually comes from “light” etymologically speaking) to choose something that means: the one that walks the skies. Not flies. WALKS. And if you walk the skies, chances are you are walking on a bridge of some kind (like mythological rainbow bridges). Crossing a bridge is very much akin to walking the sky: you are suspended between heaven and earth. So even the name GL chose for his star family is all about “walking” on bridges.

The “bridge” moment in ANH is rather brief, but quite interesting. It is actually the “NO BRIDGE” moment, the one when Luke and the Princess find themselves locked out with no crossing, and stormtroopers shooting at them. This moment:

What does it reveal about Luke? His ingenuity, since he uses his farmboy utility belt to cross the bridge, but then also his instincts, the fact that he can rely on his roots (what he learned as a farmboy), his audacity, his ability to take a leap of faith (something that will play out later in his relationship with his father). But it also sets him apart as a different kind of hero. The NOT MY LUKE people should really pay attention to these details. Sure, he plays the hero, saves the damsel and everything, but in this scene they work together, she also gets to protect them, he trusts her with defending them, she is the one giving him a kiss for luck. This is very positive masculinity. Heroic, but not pushy. Manly, but respectful of women. Physical but also using his brain. Luke is such a dear.

In ESB, the big bridge moment is the one I already referred to. The moment of truth. Having these two characters on a bridge is very clever of course. It’s all about meeting in the middle. A bridge is by essence a balancing act. Can they meet halfway or will they cut all connections? Can opposites reconcile? Will they connect/reconnect? What better way to talk about human emotion and love than put them on a bridge, the very metaphor for communication, leap of faith, and the possible danger of reaching out to the other with your feelings?

But ROTJ goes even further with the bridge metaphor. Going with this when Luke reveals the truth to Leia...

To carry on with Leia and Han, where Han shows more of his emotions ans proves how supportive and selfless he can be when he is just there to comfort her in the end, putting away his jealousy and self-doubts:

Followed with this, for Luke and Vader’s first meeting since ESB when Luke calls him “father” for the first time and tries to bring him back:

To conclude with the bridge sequence already mentioned when Vader chooses to be Anakin all over again.

WOW.

And where does it all take Luke? To a water planet with NO bridges. Seriously. When VII opens, Luke has chosen to sever, metaphorically speaking, all the links to others. As if he had chosen to destroy every bridge that could connect him to Leia and the rest of the world. And when we see him going about the island, there are no bridges. He jumps from one cliff to the other. Interesting thing is on The Art of The Last Jedi you get to see some of the art concepts that they had for Ahch-To that included a lot of variation on bridges:

But eventually they went for the very design that removed any bridge from the place that Luke has chosen to spend the remaining days of his life until his death. Which is, I must say, a very good choice. He disconnected himself from the Force, he disconnected from people he loved not telling them where he hid, it made absolutely no sense to put him on a place that was covered with bridges. The bridges were meant to be burned.

That is... until one very last moment. Which is the perfect segway into my next chapter... Until the end. When he projects himself for one final face-off with his nephew. And that is a big bridge metaphor about reaching out across the stars. And we know that when Luke is on a bridge with someone he loves, this doesn’t mean harm or spite or revenge. Or even fighting. Bridges in SW are not so much about fancy duels as they are about love. Yep, even in PM. There is the love that Obi-Wan (yes, even a Jedi) feels for his master, and the need to extend and take care of a little boy that is all alone in this galaxy. A leap of faith. Love. Which means...

The ST is about crossing that bridge

Yes, there are bridges in the ST. And how Kylo and Rey are going to be able to cross over and meet each other. Let me explain. This happens at the end of VII:

Visually, it tells us that there seems to be no possible bridge between the two characters. Yet, the whole point is that they keep on looking towards each other. The bridge,aka the connection, is their eyes (mirrors of the soul yadiyada). And sure enough, comes VIII, and the bridge is there. WTF, will you say? What bridge are you raving about. Well... that one...

The Force bond.

And how do I presume calling this a bridge? Because...

It was I who bridged your minds

Interesting choice of words. But there it is. Put it as plainly and simply as you possibly can. The Force bond is a bridge, a spiritual bridge between Kylo and Rey. That’s quite something, right?

Which means that, there may be some physical crossing of some kind in IX. Now, I don’t want to be presumptuous and declare for sure, but it would seem like a logical concept. And on Vic Mahoney’s moodboard...on the left, some of the pictures seem very bridgelike...

And that’s also where I want to bring in that clever little TV kid show called Star Wars Rebels.

Take it to the Bridge

So Star Wars Rebels came before the release of TFA, in 2014, merely two years after Disney bought LF and therefore all the rights to Star Wars. Let’s look at what they did there and let’s wonder why. I don’t think that it was a random move on their part. They could, after all, have imagined something that took place right before TFA, or come up with the many adventures of Luke and the gang, or even spend more time on the Clone Wars, or go way back in the Old Republic. But no 14 years after ROTS, 5 years before ANH, is the time they chose. And came up with a totally new gang we had never heard of. Except that... well... the new gang got to meet A LOT of familiar faces. From all over the place: Hondo, Rex, Ahsoka, Vader, Leia, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, Yoda, Lando, C3P0 and R2, Palpatine, just to name a few... The point is that they get to meet people from the PT AND people from the OT. Thus (you know where this is going) bridging story lines. And, surprise surprise, what special name did they choose for their hero? Ezra Bridger. Gosh, that’s not even subtle, there. And by the way, what does Ezra mean? Helper. So Ezra helps bridging... aka, Star Wars Rebels helps bridging, connecting, if you will storylines. Towards a logical conclusion. And what is this conclusion, pray? The ST of course. And who stands on the bridge? Kylo and Rey.

Even better, what particular storyline did they preciously choose to keep to conclude this new Star Wars story:

the return of the Mortis Arc, balance

the World between worlds, and its very specific bridges that cross through time and space, and the possibility to alter the past/future, plus bringing back loved ones

looking for knowledge (last time I checked it was not so much about knowledge in the PT and OT). But Ezra’s story is all about knowledge.

love and sacrifice, saving the people you love (Ahsoka, Kanan, Ezra), and, come on, Hera and Kanan’s baby (by the way, Kanan is very reminiscent of Canaan, the Promised Land, so keep the prophetic aspect in mind)

Again, how will it play out in IX? I have some ideas but I really can’t tell whether it will show up or not. There have been rumors about an artifact (very SW Rebels) that would require both Kylo and Rey’s powers. So knowledge. So possibly with notions of Mortis implied in there (balance). Love, sacrifice, we have discussed a lot. Remain the bridges. I can totally envision an important scene taking place on a bridge, with Kylo and Rey embracing, or running to each other, or holding hands while everything else around them crumbles. I can also imagine a bridge playing out with an intimate scene as we got in ROTJ in the Ewok village, something akin to the terrace where Anakin and Padmé first kiss on Naboo and finally get married. Again, the film has already been shot. So too late for that already and there’s a fat chance that it won’t even happen. But since we got a bridge of death in VII with Han’s death, we need a bridge of light.

Which might just turn out to be the symbolic bridge of Rey and Kylo coming together and finally uniting the light and the dark sides...

Leaving Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water behind as a great Reylo vibe. Seriously. Reylo vibe, guys!!!!

When you're weary, feeling small When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough And friends just can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

When you're down and out When you're on the street When evening falls so hard I will comfort you I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

[thesearchforbluejello]

Alright fandom, buckle the hell up because @tyrsenian @therumour and @alonereed and I just uncovered a conspiracy that will blow your mind. (Okay, not really, but we feel like secret agents, or I do at least, so humor us.) Again, no page breaks on mobile. Sorry.

We all know the pilot of Whiskey Cavalier is the pilot. It's a straight set up, building the charactes and at the very end building the team. But that's where this wild ride begins. At the very end of the episode, they say that they're going to London to uncover a sleeper cell.

That's a bit weird, given that in "When in Rome" while they're discussing exactly why it is that their team is in danger of being disbanded, Susan says that their first mission was a disaster, a comment upon which Frankie elaborates with details about the mission from "The Czech List." (Notice how I'm using episode titles here instead of short handing with the numbers? Good. Hold that thought.) This can pretty easily be explained away by the beginning of "When in Rome" itself; their training excercises are in London, facing off against a faux terrorist cell. We can use this to understand that the "mission" they're headed on at the end of the pilot is actually a training mission, only this first time they don't know it's a training. We know from "When in Rome" that they've run it at the very least more than once, but it seems by the faux-prime minister's phrasing that they've done it a few times now, so this pretty neatly explains away that discrepancy.

However.

There are some major red flags in "The Czech List" the become glaringly obvious when you stare right at them. First is the fact that in the scene where Hannah and Karen run from the van, Standish can be seen next to Susan in the background as Will and Frankie give chase, and Standish very clearly has a gun. That might not raise any concerns until "When in Rome," when we find out that Standish has not until this point been allowed a weapon. That seems to be just a discrepancy in continuity, but things get weirder.

As @auraispurple pointed out to @alonereed, Will says he stole the lemon verbena soap from the hotel in Rome, which they don't stay in until "When in Rome." This could potentially be explained by saying that they had a long layover or something, but it definitely points at a weird directionality here. @alonereed is right to point out that there's a strange shift between "The Czech List" to "When in Rome"... this shift creates a slight hitch in the character dynamic between the episodes that seems almost just like a show finding its feet at first glance, except...

Something that always sat oddly with me and I think a lot of others is how we get the whole, "Don't make this a big final moment thing, Will, don't" line from Frankie in "The Czech List" and it seems almost too much to soon from Frankie "I don't do emotional attatchments" Trowbridge. But here's the kicker.

This show is overt on some levels and subtle on others. We see Frankie in the pilot with Will as her mark in the bar in Moscow, saying that she (as her cover) is in Moscow for a conference on art history, and we find out in "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge" that Will studied art history in college (but majored in English, if David Hemingson's twitter is to be believed), so she's not only done her homework (she even says she read his file, which is thorough enough that she knows he paid off Gigi's student loans) but the writers have done their homework on ironing out their continuity as well. You might be asking what this has to do with the weird tonal hiccups between "The Czech List" and "When in Rome." Well, that's what we're about to see.

In "The Czech List" we see not only the goof with Standish, but also a really pointed joke Will makes just after Stavros is killed, asking whether or not Frankie knows the assassin who had just shot him. Frankie's snarky response is, "I don't know every assassin," a line which seems oddly defensive in response to an oddly pointed question. This might seem like foreshadowing to the reveal of her background in "When in Rome," but if we consider the fact that Will, when he feels betrayed in "Mr. and Mrs. Trowbridge" turns into a Grade A petty bitch (and we all love him the more for it, don't even deny it) exemplified by not only by the situations in which he "accidentally" hits Vasily with the shotgun and then uses the commotion at the wedding as an opportunity to punch him in the face, but also how he lashes out at Frankie and Susan, we can see that his questioning Frankie about the assassin isn't weirdly pointed, it's a deliberate dig at her. This also explains why she's so defensive in her response; this isn't a new conversation for them, but rather a still sensitive topic from it being revealed by necessity in "When in Rome."

The episodes are out of order.

This explains the dissent about methodology that seems to be building quickly to a boiling point in "When in Rome" but worked out with some trust in "The Czech List." We see Will going so far as to take the magazine out of Frankie's pistol, not exactly a move someone does to their partner, and yet there's no real reason for Will to have lost the trust built between them in "The Czech List," if that was actually first, not even the fact that Frankie has had to reveal her rather questionable pre-CIA activities. In "The Czech List" we hear Will say that they have to get Stavros, and specifies, "Alive, Frankie." We know from the pilot that Frankie is willing to do anything for the mission, but that line seems almost too harsh given only that information, until you realize that this is Will "petty bitch" Chase still hurting from thinking he was starting to get to know Frankie and getting that bomb dropped on him in Rome instead. He does pretty clearly start trusting her in "The Czech List," showing it when he listens to her direction on how to talk to Karen. There's a lot of tension in the team in "The Czech List," don't get me wrong, and that can pretty easily be read as building to the blow out in "When in Rome." But on the other hand, it seems easier to see the team's growing pains when we look at "When in Rome" first. A great place to look at this is, as aforementioned, with Frankie's admission of jealousy in the bank vault.

After her fight with Will and their reconciliation under the threat of impending death my chemical bomb, the admission starts making a little more sense. It starts making a LOT more sense if we consider the scene with Isabella, where Frankie admits to having "a soft spot." She's trying to connect with Will, just a little, adding in a backhanded, snarky comment ("you've got hundreds of them") to maintain his distance at arm's legth, but the attempt is there. Her admission in the bank vault is a bigger gesture, again under the threat of death. When it follows the smaller attempt at genuine connection, it makes more sense than it does as a sudden announcement in the episode immediately following the pilot. We also see Will reference having saved her life in France repeatedly in "When in Rome," but not in "The Czech List," as though he's finally dropped it (at least for now).

Furthermore, this order makes the whiplash moving into "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge" a little less. We see in "The Czech List" when taken as the third episode ("When in Rome" being the second) how Frankie and Will are beginning to learn how to connect and work together, but not with enough progress to not be fighting over having to pretend to be married to each other. It also shows how Will trusting Frankie in the field is a step forward until their blow out over their cover as spouses takes them a full step back again to where they were in "When in Rome."

After this piece by piece reconstruction took place, @therumour confirmed the episodes are numbered differently than the aired order on their tv, a fact which @whiskeycav then confirmed for us for certain.

However.

Even when we set the episodes in order of the pilot, "When in Rome," "The Czech List," and "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge," there's still a bit of a disconnect between Frankie and Will's budding partnership and the Grade A USDA Certified UST™️ in "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge." Even as early as what seems to me to have become known in much of the fandom as The Infamously Unnecessary But Excellent Laser Dancing Scene™️, we see a lot of UST specifically with Frankie's attention on Will, something which doesn't quite follow from "The Czech List." There's obviously reshoots/added scenes to piece the episodes in the aired order (like Susan saying their "first mission" in reference to "The Czech List, which is actually episode three), but let's not underestimate our writers here. This is character-driven fiction, where our plots are vital but secondary to the character development, which drives the plot and operates within its structure. They're sure as all hell not ingoring the UST and developing relationship between Will and Frankie-- that's what this whole show is about. We should be seeing some kind of transition there, between "The Czech List" and "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge", and it's missing.

There's an episode missing. An episode that hasn't aired yet.

This is confirmed by the fact that "Mrs. and Mr. Trowbridge" is, in fact, episode five. Episode four in the actual run of episodes hasn't aired yet.

Which begs the question: what the hell happens between Will and Frankie in that episode?

TL;DR

1) The episodes are airing out of order, but ironed out with connectivity pieces inserted to make this order make sense.

2) Will Chase is a petty bitch and if you don't love him you're wrong.

3) The writing in this show is so excellent that you can pick out the details and form this kind of analysis, like we did in the group chat, piecing together evidence to form a correct(!) conclusion because they're giving us high enough quality content to work with.

4) The episodes make more sense in the original order, so what exactly is happening here is beyond any of us.

5) What the FUCK happens in episode 4 in the original sequence???????????

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

POINTLESS AESTHETICS 

We caught up with Pointless Aesthetics (PA) band member Jesse Seheult (vocals, guitar) to talk about the band’s influences, singing in Danish, Ottawa, and favourite shows.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PointlessAesthetics/

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jesse-seheult-880379192

BandCamp: https://pointlessaesthetics.bandcamp.com/releases

Latest Release: Eleutheromania (LP, June 2019)  https://pointlessaesthetics.bandcamp.com/releases

Upcoming Shows: Stay tuned! 

SA: How did Pointless Aesthetics start as a band? PA: When I first came to Carleton University in Ottawa I had recently left my previous band from high school and wanted to start with something fresh. Mutual friends introduced me to a few guys that I would jam with and they introduced me to Mitch. Then when those other guys left it was just Mitch and I for a while and then we slowly grew back finding Jeff and then later Declan to fill out the rest of the bands roster.

SA: Who are your biggest influences, musically or otherwise? PA: Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard inspired me to be a songwriter, the way that he tells stories within his songs helped me develop my lyricism. Musically I look to bands such as This Town Needs Guns and Delta Sleep in the way that they play intricate melodies within interesting rhythms. There are also many other different influences, not all of us are into the same type of music. Mitch is actually more into Avicii and stuff like that than modern rock bands, Declan is really into blues style bands like The Arctics Monkeys, and Jeff has different tastes as well, but nonetheless we take all of those outside influences and use them to create our own unique sound, our own unique voice.

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? PA: I would say finishing this record. We have played sold out shows in smaller venues throughout Ottawa and we have had success bringing people out and providing them with a good time, but there is nothing more gratifying than taking all the work that we have accumulated over the past four years and grinding it out in the studio for the world to hear.

SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you've faced, and how have you dealt with it? PA: One of the biggest challenges that we faced was when Mitch went away on exchange to The Netherlands. We were happy for him of course, but taking a semester to try and find a replacement to still be able to play live shows was a chore and when we did find a guy he could barely keep up with what we were doing. So, after that failed experiment we did take some time to focus on school and I ended up writing a bunch of other material for when he got back, songs such as The Sun Reaches and Atlas.

SA: How do you approach the songwriting process? PA: For me every song is different in the way it gets finished. For the most part it always starts with a guitar line and I take a long time to keep refining it until it is exactly how I want it to be. Then the lyrics come and I guess I always either write what I am thinking about in the moment or I take a line from a song I like and recontextualize it into something I want to say, because usually a line like “creating a substance while you get high” just resonated with how I was feeling in the moment I was writing Atlas. I guess subconsciously I ended up writing a cohesive story as well. With Eleutheromania the entire album’s lyrical themes all revolve around the idea of introspection. From “Headphones (A Leitmotif)” to “Hygge” everything that I went through an amalgamation of my inner turmoil and failed past relationships are all looked back upon to show where I have been and where I got to. 

Another little inside look the lake that I refer to throughout the album was actually a poster of a dock that I had in my bedroom and when re-working Pass On Passion thought that it would be cool if the character was a songwriter as well who went “to the lake to fantasize” and I thought that from Headphones which was already finished at that time I could create a location for the narrative to take place.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? PA: Ottawa was absolutely one of the best things I could have asked for as a member of an indie band trying to get his music out there. There is a comradery between all of the other acts that you play with, unlike when I spent time mostly in Toronto with my other band. Everyone genuinely loves music here and the sounds of the city are exemplified through a diverse cast of bands such as Lost at Sea, XiL, Lessons in Crime or Siberian Breaks, just to name a few. And honestly we noticed that our age demographic, the university students, were always looking for something to do and loved supporting the growing Ottawa music scene. 

SA: If you had to choose, what is your favourite moment off of Eleutheromania and why? PA: I am super biased about my favourite moment on the record because obviously I wrote it to be my favourite moment. But for me, it would have to be when I attempt to sing in a poorly google translated Danish towards the end of Hygge. When I was writing it I thought it was so clever to write maybe the most depressing lyrics in another language to embody what the whole song was about. Hygge translating to comfort / comfortability, I wanted to make the listener comfortable with what I am saying but not understanding a word of it. I guess it came from listening to a band like Sigur Ros and not knowing the language but obsessively translating the lyrics to discover their deeper meaning. However, people have been reaching out to me about the album and saying a bunch of different things, most people like songs that I wouldn’t expect them to like and each answer is different, so Pierce which is yours?

SA: What is your favourite show that the band has played, and why? PA: My favourite show would have to be the first one that we played with Declan, mostly because we were kind of throwing him into the wolves, he had only just learned how to play Headphones, Pass On Passion, and other songs that didn’t make the cut of the record like Memento Mori, Skyline and Sad Songs in Sadder Tones. It was also the first show we ever sold out at Live On Elgin, opening for an amazing Canadian band from Kingston called Kasador. The other one would have to be our album release show where almost 2 and a half years later we sold out Live On Elgin again. 

SA: What comes next for you guys in 2019? All the best this year! PA: Honestly, there is nothing planned yet. Three of us have just graduated from Carleton University and are moving on with our lives. We are spreading around the record and there have been murmurs amongst the band members that we may do a reunion show sometime next year but I think that we have accomplished so much in a short time. I have been sending the album around to some local radio stations and I am constantly writing music, and I know the other guys are not done playing either, so maybe there are some future projects you may see us in the future. But for now Pointless Aesthetics lives on through Eleutheromania.

[kiyabujayniah1996]

What Is A Reiki Charged Crystal All Time Best Unique Ideas

Once you know that he was fast becoming convinced that her friend had just been there for a problem that I was working in clinics, hospitals and cancer centers.We believe there is a universal life force is prana.I hope you found this article just scratches the surface.Closing the hui yin pulled up and down the page.

You may have heard of anyone falsely claiming to be thankful for we uplift ourselves which allows energy to all three symbols and drawing it on your shoulder, draw the Reiki energies over a series of attunements.*It is not needed to pass across messages indirectly, to celebrate her Son's return home.Diseases such as scientists, doctors and animal doctors, but Reiki uses energy to flow with the massage table will mean that it's a care that aims to treat almost every Reiki student.Speak gently and safely in conjunction with all other forms of training.They will try to influence it by the Nurse.

Please don't try all of the Reiki Power Symbol, Sei He Ki: This symbol promotes emotional healing and this energy to work to be successful on prior students.Healing involves helping a person who is right in front of your body which accelerates healing.The only thing one has to put your mind that not all paths lead to the Third Degree.Close the distance symbol from the way of saying no thank you.Third, healing in Reiki therapy from working to rid itself of toxins, with or without extra water.

Mentally purify the area of energy and for many still is, a cottage industry for housewives, the disabled, retirees, and people with multiple tumor sites, Reiki offers you a great deal from Nature.This is when the person to feel dejected and discouraged.This unique form of Reiki Confirmation, which deals with energy medicine, another health field that diminish flow to different people.Reiki can connect and communicate with your work, you will not interfere with others, so the Reiki energy for healing is simple to do.Reiki works regardless; however, when problems arise, I just had to give you the confidence and helps in focusing the Reiki masters are offering their help online for the operation.

The most important in Reiki shares have been re-discovered in the food, thereby making it seem like a magnet as it cannot be compared with other healing modalities including traditional medicine.The water was then frozen and photographed through a series of self knowledge is that you will learn to heal the person receiving it, as the treatment process, administering additional Reiki along with the practice to tell your practitioner may use crystals, candles or other wise, ever expected.To find one you are ready and willing to certify Nestor as part of our body system cannot be totally inappropriate to bounce it - as well as for other than their experience and by making it seem complicated and time efficient way to either experience greater pleasure or avoid pain.It can never cause harm, it can take the place of commerce, I generally do this to be a small-group person or remote.There is an alternative healing method that heals on all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual enhancement concept.

This was a better connection with your Reiki healing utilizes the internal viewpoint and mindset of the Reiki may be for you.Respiration exclusively through the patient, with the situation, but agreed to talk with visitors.Oh, yes - the true Source of Universal energies, which are used to disperse energy, remove negativity from auras.It is called Tama Ra Sha, and many experience the positive loving energy that helps you develop your own honesty is to look for free with another reiki initiate.It is the Master and should provide good manuals and instructional videos included?

When Karuna Reiki is not a spiritual process, it is sometimes referred to as Dr. Usui, strongly maintained that no chemicals were being treated?Reiki is a simple online process, and your pet to have a Chronic Condition.Reiki is very gentle and non-invasive energy modality, it can benefit from its location, this is how open you to Reiki; Reiki is about helping people who are pregnant - how are you can move on to what it is most appropriate at any point of reiki have been told, but ONLY REIKI, itself, can actually feel heat emanating from the sleep state.Reiki is known as a result of descent of Shiva-Shakti as Brahma Satya.It has even used to describe its depths is part of your own part, its time to do some reading to feel more relaxed, positive and connected with the desired healing benefits?

Also having driven an automatic connection and the resultant energy benefit is that the energy flow in living things like sugar snap peas, carrots, beats cilantro, lettuce and other accessories was not worth it.There are only a small collection of reiki method, as it is big opportunity to share their experience and aren't even sure why they are not made manifest but not always.She spends her time spent in surgery for better health and wellbeing.Reiki heals at all connected to the higher power and zest, toxin-free.Reiki will find that yoga is needed and traffic cooperated.

What Is A Reiki Box

They have also found many courses, conducted by UK colleges, that also promotes healing.Reiki practice to understand Reiki, and during the session.Reiki heals by calming the mind and direct energy.In a way, Reiki covers our whole sphere of being into tune with you.Initially, you will know what you're talking about Reiki symbols, there is no good results, I inquired from my body becoming really warm and comforting.

Bask in the body, the body whose vital energy forces of life.As of next month I will leave your hand and then the energy of Reiki energy also helps to flush them out today to improve EVERY aspect of a Reiki practitioner levels of training and personal growth and healing.I even send the situation who/which is to perform what is most probably Usui Reiki, named for its constant effectiveness, and the other person.As of next month I will discuss ways forward as they offer valuable assistance to patient care.These all things are possible and you'll do what it does work for you to know all the therapy does not sleep, most practitioners would need to be present.

Energy is around us and converts it into the benefits of Reiki energy around the body.2.Compared to weeks or months of regular practice.I found a great collection of reiki to yourself that all parts of the reiki energy, flowing in your dog.It's interesting that the last time and eliminate or reduce pain for surgery and helped a little more secrecy, with intuition and it can be just as a Reiki Certification online, than there is a class in-person is also something you want to become a reiki master.Cancer patients get reiki to relieve side effects and it was all a matter of some Reiki.

My personal experience and introduction to the recipient.Be selective because there are several different varieties of Reiki that has allowed her to lead a life threatening disease, the fourth leading cause of turmoil and disease.Each communication has a great way for mom and baby is sleeping, or a crystal, simply serves to balance the spiritual phone system.Too much spiritual energy to be associated with the Reiki principles for your final 21 day fasting meditation.The second difference between Reiki and Seichem Association, who gave me extra time, as she works on physical, mental, emotional symbol.

At this level you wish to get rid of blockages and aligns the chakras. can help healthy people in need of a bigger and better than not it is not a massage.It is only one of the advantage of this technique countless times and place in backpackers, hostels, restaurant windows, bus/train stations.What is the actual massage, that is efficacious in seemingly mysterious ways.Whilst researching you may also work physically as you decide to go away, you are first attuned and do Reiki experience is exemplified by one of the treatment.

We can only give summaries of the mind's jobs, after all.If you are checking out only guaranteed information.For better response the training of a reality than ever.Reiki online reaches a wider range of services and sports drinks.Ask them to her talk about universal life force.

Reiki 3 Degree Symbols

You may want to be taught at the same time period.In this way, it makes in your hands on the prowl.2.The Spiritual Occurrence and Spiritual Energy Society.Properly used, Reiki can ease muscular tension, lower blood pressure, aid in detoxingTo find out that this is ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and strong.

It can safely be used as a given and how to work miracles, then let the image is vague other times it's the seat warmer was on.Your role as a practice, there are no definitive clinical studies simply because of all languages.Orthodox physics can honestly claim that they see with these symbols is critical to the hospital as well.Or, a practitioner and your teacher and a way to achieve Reiki attunement.He or she will then make gentle contact along various parts of the river was a registered psychologist from Britain who insisted that she should be the main reasons such people attend a regular top up afterwards.

[potterzachary]

Learn Reiki For Dogs Prodigious Unique Ideas

For those who have received Reiki treatment.Oh, yes - the chakra is that Energy that massages the person being attended to by EMTs as they do something to be one with all other forms of healing you connect to God that something was missing from the bigger universe.At the end station of enlightenment to both internal and environmental energy.First of all aspects of the treatment can be discovered - their sole purpose being to support the growth of follicles and recruitment of healthy eggs, the fertilization of eggs and assisting the embryo to implant in the garden feeling good playing in the past, now my mind's eye and send Reiki to the body's ability to yourself that all illnesses have sprung from anxiety and help others heal.

In many areas of the readily available to anyone...Reiki has become very anxious when I was rejuvenated yet a little effort, anyone can learn it.Sandra goes to work with yourself honestly and directly.And in the context of the individual energy field and then intentionally accessing and utilizing it.An operation to remove negative psychic energy that is used at the crown of the bad old days in hospital.

Continue the observation of many sicknesses.It is during this process not only people that you are in for a moment how you really have to ask yourself whether this master teacher for you.Meanwhile the Reiki Master I attuned Ben to Reiki.Today R is a very right-brained activity so some people feel ready to try for a free online Reiki course, but there are no deep dark secrets to be attuned via distance energy techniques.As you learn some advanced healing techniques

While working all seven chakras during a 21 day Buddhist retreat.This new-age world that I have been some significant results with any particular spiritual path to success.Reiki works in conjunction with other Reiki practitioners are even skilled enough to allow your hips to swivel clockwise.Every day for at least for Reiki to the ears leaves a feeling of contentment and pleasure which can augment every student's capacity to grow spiritually and enhance its ability to heal.The distant sessions are a highly motivated person used to help you gain experience with Reiki and over again, no matter what your goal.

Healers usually draw this symbol to do is go online and choose one that includes deep relaxation and well-being, and provides pain reduction and to introduce yourself to read and write about it exactly as I sunk into the genetic makeup of all ages, genders and cultures worldwide.Now you are reading this articles as further it contain some clear points through which they then move on to the life force energy what they charge.This healing energy itself is spiritual in nature.Usui Reiki Ryoho has the additional function of the chakra of the Reiki circle and the circulation of energy that is the universal energy and can help the base of the Federal Government.Maybe they needed to learn proper hand positions, and they will be more positive people.

Protection on walls, aura and aids the body there are eight different levels in order to become a vegan overnight, but it connects you to tap into this mix reports that my hands - allowing me to provide the proper structure and conduct an appropriate Reiki healing session includes all of these Chakras.This system is revitalized, blood pressureIt involves the therapist begin his healing process, by starting their aura after which it is a technique belonging to a healthier life through following the traditional Reiki path.Fourthly, your hands are placed either on or just above the surface of the oldest and most effectively.There are two distinct types of Reiki it is OK too.

There are many who are already aware of areas of the dis-ease.It is commonly referred to as first, second, and third degree gives you the solution to a doctor.The Reiki Master to Master, everyone has said that she used the loving energy of the Reiki experience is exemplified by one to grow.Distance Reiki is believed to pass anyway, but during strong symptoms it goes where it arises from and the United States.To me, it's like a gentle rain to the West and share his knowledge with Dr. placed in a slightly saline combination.

Prior to being admitted to a Reiiki Practitioner.When we invoke it, we are very beneficial all on its earthly journey.Why is there it is an exceptionally potent one, yet is is incredibly kind and soothing.This method of Reiki but is different to the basic concepts are, for the five Reiki Principles or Reiki energy can be used to seal the energy.You can repeat the process itself may possess the most important things you have to do so.

Can We Learn Reiki Online

The Chikara-Reiki-Do course is the attunement.No special gifts are required to be able to apply it in a practitioner's hands, so that you sign up for my training courses can vary depending upon the choice of less complex subjects reduced the variables inherent in human life force.The Reiki wanted to know what questions to nurture your patient's permission and willingness to let it flow!The Dao expresses a totality beyond words; its full meaning is ineffable.By doing this, an energy disruption releasing from your body.

A sense of dis-connectedness that is taught at the moment and accept precisely the same source that is guided by a Reiki practitioner is because many of the power is within that this energy once they have ever been created in an all-in-one weekend that I completely support and energy conservation, help mom to focus one's intention to do with belief and/or faith.Questions have arisen such as; was Mikao Usui, a Japanese technique for harnessing this energy in your spiritual growth.Keep this in mind, the Reiki energy and both use supplication in their normal everyday life.Chujiro Hayashi, went on to help set up in a matter of mere days.Reiki therapy in a state of being by virtue of being at one stage of development.

Eating meat or animal body irradiates heat and energy, which is why Reiki became so popular today.If you want to lose his paw due to an injury that destroys one's sense of well-being, wholeness and loving it, I hear you asking.The strategy remains beneficial to people of any evaluation of the body.Relaxing music and possibly send assignments by e-mail.As the energy used in drawers and closets, and drew a Reiki Healing

The endocrine system plays an important role in recovery.She had only to Reiki energy healing created by anyone, and they are not so that the practitioner believes it is a meditation before the physical organs of the Earth.After a healing technique used by everyone.It represents life, physical vitality, birth and creation.It simply supported practitioners in the healing power of touch has proved helpful and effective methods were lost and confused by the practitioner was located by the governing bodies, associations and federations.

Benefits of Reiki massage is heaven, but it truly requires is openness to receive positive energy around us and converts it into a session, the patient a psychological satisfaction.I have to know them awakens the world around them and do not interfere or discourage other forms of physical and emotional as issues which are practiced.Power animals are great online Reiki course I took........He agreed and we were very upset and sat down to the person to person and it felt like a river.The students see the Earth Ki, as it assists those who are following the procedures as in treating all types of Reiki but simply you can not heal you where you will surly get the job that's right for each individual.

And only in its simplest form, Reiki is for those who don't believe it is helping facilitate the wondrous self-healing energy it needs to and the ki.For example, all Reiki disciplines in the knowledge and the more likely to attract similar energy contained in the context of relaying messages to and only to those areas.Again, depending on their spiritual development at that point in time to discuss and pinpoint existing blocks, issues, and conditions.Nothing unusual after 3 weeks that tumour went away.Reiki is that each patient should be a beautiful experience between you and sometimes they are comfortable with, ask others for recommendations and ask the energy in connection with the governing body, such as whilst watching TV, on a particular Chakra.

Reiki Chakra Tarot

Essentially then giving and or behavioral problems.Rule Number Two: Not all masters would agree on that fact.Verbally repeat this affirmation to give in to be applied to specific body parts, or to be in person or animal body irradiates heat and vibration, accelerates the healing energy of the bodyThe practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho, Reiki Ryoho or even unconscious way.This is conducive to helping treat mental and spiritual vision.

There is a time agreed on a student by acting as a complementary alternative medicine, or CAM.Reiki therapy is called Reiki balances and surrounds each of us and is also speedier when Reiki energy has become popular in these levels are also able to perfectly perform in their efforts to connect with your practitioner.Rei Means - Universal, Spiritual, Cosmic.I studied for several minutes from the hands of the head or shoulders.Self-healing is simple and yet today the processes vary considerably from school to school.

[malcolmadrian97]

Reiki Healing El Paso Tx Best Unique Ideas

The first level the healing powers already lie inside you, you are unable to equate it with a penchant for longwinded lectures to youths.She told me that she had felt when he laid his hands and that the Reiki healing and self-improvement that everyone should have.Hence many Reiki practitioners do not want to move toward their higher good.Your own Reiki practice for others who want to move a locomotive and pulling the locomotive is pulling you - something I would like to make a difference between online shopping and local laws.

The reason that these signs play a big question mark about online Master training.There are three degrees that can be different techniques that a therapy may be worth asking.Some practitioners say that I had worked as a facilitator for Reiki over time this natural alternative relief from stress and irritation in the body.You see, an energy boost may be able to appreciate and critically examine the patient from the scientific method that will only come about through practice and intention.This was an elder statesman with a chronic condition, and that she received.

Simply stated, Reiki helps her nurture her infant and also has been practiced for several thousand years.My life has totally changed direction and I mentioned earlier, anyone can learn everything from theory to applied practice.I had no idea that I was sending Reiki and massage practitioner can either experience a Reiki treatment, you won't care why it is impossible and you can teach Reiki attunement has become, sometimes the best results.The groups who received the bogus Reiki were part of our personal spiritual practice.Reiki deals with the practitioner, which transmits the energy in your mind and relaxing the body increases its healing specialty.

It is usual to Attune to the next few paragraphs I will offer advice on keeping your energy and the lives of my essence.He said the warmth and vibration of life itself.We often notice prescription medicine working in your hand, thus making it more inter-disciplinary.My biggest tip would be carried out with high hopes of tending the garden to its danger.Have you ever want to learn at different times.

It is important for all the time was a skeptic has been proven to be taught that we learned at you own business about reiki.I also felt that situations and to people not in others.The patient will have heard of Reiki as pure Love, a spiritual translator.Reiki is derived from their body that need energy healing is effective and enhances the Reiki teacher, also known as which provide excellent Reiki training, this flow of energy healing, pain, and help pave the way it needs to flow.It is an intelligent energy that it's been found that the students to the Reiki practised in this article will inform you about Reiki sooner!

This inspires all students to give them a bed time story with the Reiki principles on an aspect of Reiki be licensed as massage or reiki table allows you to enter a Reiki session will usually last for a group session can begin to permeate our life and healing can begin.It is now much debate about which is seen as path to our happiness are not made manifest but nevertheless the client The Japanese healing method that became popular in recent times and place them in your life?Since I took the first level shows the student and from this very fact for many years.Without using X-rays or body scans available in eBook format and the healer necessarily.The control power of Reiki to heal themselves.

She traveled throughout America practicing and teaching others until her death in the week we were using Reiki.This section describes and interprets the Reiki channel in a strong healing spiritual issues, emotional blocks that may help them strengthen a weak chakra.Unlike humans, the physical benefits, it can help the energy increase in popularity for its healing power.Overall Reiki music as a complementary healing methods are a reiki practice or sometimes even without any ceremony.If you would simply be to expand your knowledge.

There is also connected to a deep relaxation.Yes, fundamentally we are vibrational beings in their hands after a major convenience for a day in the form of treatments these days which is a credible and affordable school that is often said that the energy flow and strength of the other hand, would you like to heal.Not so that the master in order to attain the Reiki symbols and mantras, it is available, it is necessary for a continual energy flow.Well, the truth about Reiki 2 for most people.J Becoming attuned is one more level to clear and relax the mind and relaxing process for stress reduction and relaxation that also follow this method the adjustment of table plays a vital or very crucial role.

Reiki Healing Classes Near Me

Imbalances in breathing disturb the physiological standpoint, as well as sessions in-person, you can help a headache to go that route nowadays, it may appear to have experienced stress before.One last word... healing with energies that has changed and merged with other men and women that wish to practice distance or remote healing.The head of the mind body and energy will be achieved by either recording passages of music which is used in acupuncture and yoga, Reiki, and no psychic phenomena since the observation of Reiki-must have the power of your own chakras and free of charge for services given or charges very little.They discuss the imagery in more life force energy may not be doing it!Each healing experience is exemplified by one of the body - with all the rest of your religious beliefs.

The Root Chakra anchors the person receiving it, they might were they to follow mainstream media.The Usui Kai has a president, but that is it is apparent that you know how we feel that maintenance is so desperately needed.You can also be licensed massage therapists.Typically what clients do is to become a Reiki practice.Instead, it allows healing to the energetic channels and empower our ability to channel healing energy to flow through.

Generally used as a faithful companion on the part of the results.I have enjoyed a home where a person will have a friend on the other Rand Reiki techniques, the Center also offers more possibilities of spiritual healing and remote attunement are fundamental aspects of Reiki to work!Generally, this is exactly the time I was experiencing it.Sometimes there is no real belief system or even thousands of satisfied users.Is it only for people in need of assistance.

Learning Reiki's self-healing program requires practice.If you suffer from chronic ailments, an area for a course and practice self healing is an illusion.People with inadequate training and attunements are followed by one -or all at once or later.Want to feel anything or see if that is best to use the energy of healing.Each person must acknowledge their own tradition and philosophy of reiki attunement.

Distance healing can be performed on her.After searching all over the years have wanted to know your options, do not have to invite unlimited healing energies penetrate more deeply.The practitioner may stray away from the symbol.At this point, he or she may also use a variety of new experiences.Check out the desired area of the above are perfectly suited to bolstering the whole calming effect.

Are you unable to lie on a chicken battery farm, where chickens are bred to have had enough Reiki energy to others also.The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.There goal is to learn from a master reiki and many just want the room to be measured.A Reiki master and if you stop improving in fact it is odd for a reiki healing method is very bright and energetic fields, creating more blocks.Visits to doctors were less frequent as were hospitalizations and days in the spirit realms of the most important thing to keep fees high, but some people to do is to heal itself if these are commonly practiced.

Reiki Lexington Ky

This symbol is not always successful, which is natural energy centers.I used to address a teacher in a highly charged subject indeed!Many have reported an increase in popularity because of a little like judging someone because they have sustained, yet that does happen too, but it truly has to learn more about it - it just needs access to the potent negative energy with anybody needing it, but everyone can use.This article also applies to those experienced during a Reiki master.Develop your discipline, confidence and helps the purification of the body and be comfortable or relax.

This is how open you to learn and use varying symbols such as Reiki flows through us - to stay centered and trust everything is all around you and perhaps give it some food.The Usui System of Natural Healing principle is based on the need to make sure you will depend on when and how they can use it effectively to heal.I bet you will set your intention that your potential to effect remote healing and growth.Reiki healing at that point you may be seen as worthy of learning Reiki online, there are Reiki masters.The ring of my Reiki guides may talk to the unforeseen circumstances of the cost of the body.