#what if Alan is trying to say something about cancel culture too?

[inksandpensblog]

I’d be interested in seeing your evidence for Green being weakest in the beginning, did you look at the choreography? I’m not disagreeing it’s just that I’ve seen people mention it a couple times now but they haven’t shown proof and I’d like to know. I think a while back someone mentioned it in the server but only to point out how after meeting Orange Green’s fighting prowess seems to increase a lot.

[unorganized Green ramblings below]

It is interesting though, I’m realizing that you’re right, Green’s accomplishments aren’t really celebrated, even by the framing of the story. Heck, it might not even start with the first building contest; arguably the very first AvM video (his second appearance) frames his windmill as overkill rather than impressive.

…you know, as I typed that out I’d been wondering why the others were so salty about him winning the first building contest when him winning every time obviously hadn’t become an established pattern yet, but maybe it’s because they remembered the windmill. (Notably, Red is the first to start clapping for Green and also doesn’t participate in the griefing; aside from spending most of the original video out of commission due to Herobrine, Red also arrived late on set and might not’ve known that the windmill was Green’s doing specifically.)

By the build battle episode I can understand everyone’s saltiness; while Green isn’t in the wrong for defending his title, he was…not being a graceful winner, shall we say. Plus, Green had won so often that the competition had become less about building and more about breaking Green’s win streak (and given…everything about the robot incident I’m guessing he was aware of this). Yes he earned his spot at the top, but from the perspective of the others what’s the point of competing against someone who so heavily outclasses you? It was beginning to feel unfair. (And am I wrong or could this have easily been solved if they just. Dissolved the competition and let Green build? Or just made it a one-person challenge and suggest more and more complicated builds for Green? Like, the real problem was that the competition wasn’t balanced. The problem wasn’t with the competitor it favored. But they all acted like Green outclassing them was a problem with Green, when really it’s not Green’s fault that the only available challengers are all at a lower level than him. And Green does put in the work every time; he’s not coasting. But in a way that makes it more unfair for everyone, including him. He’s never meaningfully challenged. No one else is at a high enough level to push him, so he’s always the one pushing himself. Except for the robot incident, which I do feel was less about actually building a nice robot and more about trouncing Yellow’s attempt to rig the round against him.)

But the first building contest? That early? From the very beginning? (Maybe not the very beginning, but it was still the first competition.) Green being the best isn’t celebrated. And this is after seeing that he struggled the most with his build during the competition, too. This one I feel is framed as a triumph for Green, and something to be celebrated and congratulated. But in-universe it isn’t really. Why? Because it was too much better? Was the margin not narrow enough for the others to feel like they’d been beaten fairly?

Something else to note: Yellow does ignite the TNT at the end of the first contest, but “pacifist” Blue is the one who both provided and launched said TNT. Going on the visual component alone, Blue’s builds have always been the runner up to Green’s in how closely they resemble the references. It’s not surprising at all that Blue wins once Green is out of the running. But despite this, the margin is apparently still so wide that Blue’s builds don’t even compare to Green’s. Blue’s builds may receive acknowledgement and praise in every round, but Green’s builds are so stunningly intricate that competition-wise it’s not even close; every round the others are taken aback by Green’s builds to the point where it’s not even a question who the winner is. (And that’s the thing, it should be a question. It’s not fair that it isn’t a question. They really should’ve stopped there XD but maybe they didn’t know better. Maybe they kept going because surely they’d find something that one of the others could build better than Green eventually, another way in which they could’ve misidentified the source of the issue…but as more competitions passed and Green accumulated more victories he grew cocky and the others grew bitter.)

After the build battle episode (which, I do want to note, is AFTER both the redstone academy episode and the note block battle episode, two more instances where people get competitive against Green specifically), there are no more building competitions. In fact I don’t believe the sticks do anything competitive again until parkour, which we all now know was a ruse from the beginning.

Though it is interesting that Green is the one we see doing parkour the most after that episode; it’s been implied before that he has a proclivity for grappling (see the Lucky Block episode), so it’s not surprising that he would favor parkour moves…but there isn’t really any attention drawn to it, by himself or by the framing. It’s something he’s really good at, but it doesn’t seem to be something he prides himself on, like building or music. (Oddly enough the same could be said for Blue; right from his introduction in AvA4 Blue showed a tendency toward gymnastics, and his parkour style is notably different from the others. But, as with Green, it doesn’t seem to be a skill Blue prides himself on.)

Regarding the note block battle, I do wanna say that I’m fully on Green’s side there. That wasn’t meant to be a competition; Green was just vibing alone, and the other three intruded on his solo jam, and when he tried to set boundaries ah I was wondering what you meant there but I see it now okay the other three picked a fight with him and made it about who could play better music. It’s the other three who make it into a competition, and Green doesn’t get cocky and start showing off until they do. (Did…did the other three think he kicked them out for not being good enough to join him? Guys it wasn’t about that it was because you interrupted his me-time you were harshing the vibes and you still would’ve been a disruption even if you were good—)

And yet despite this it feels like the note block battle happened in much friendlier spirits than the build battle? Despite my parenthetical in the paragraph above it really does seem like their issue this time wasn’t Green outclassing everyone, it was that Green wouldn’t let them play with him. It wasn’t a question of prowess, they just wanted to participate in something they’d all enjoyed together in the past and took Green’s vibing as an invitation even though it wasn’t. By engaging with them competitively, Green got to flex and the other three got to play music with him, so it was a win-win for everyone except Orange. (And then Orange won anyway despite not being involved. Which. Can we talk about how Orange is really good with music too? He improvised a woodwind arrangement of Pigstep after hearing the song once in the background of an active brawl. Not to mention he does this on a slide-whistle he crafted from bricolage. There’s also the angle that…we don’t know how the staff works exactly, so, despite Green manifesting musical staffs in season 4…it’s possible that Orange is still the only one who can actually read music. @nyagrounds expressed to me once that the only reason Green is the undisputed best at music is because Orange doesn’t care to try, and looking at all this I’m thinking really hard about that right now.)

Then comes the note block universe, which isn’t a competition but is where Green learns to sing, and is also a brilliant showcase of what my server friends and I have called Green’s “completionism.” Green’s attention to detail in various episodes (noticing the purple accents in the village, noticing the rocket logo, all the building competitions, building the set for the note block battle), Green’s perfectionism and precision and the controlling tendencies they lend him, Green’s self-motivated drive to keep pushing until he finds a way to what he wants, no matter what obstacles block his path…those all get shown in their best light here, in his pursuit of Purple. Because he may be angry, but he’s not chasing Purple down out of anger. He’s chasing Purple down because he wants answers. He’s not done with Purple. And far be it from Green to leave anything unfinished.

Green sees things through. No matter where that gets him. Here, it gets him a new talent, and a new understanding as well as a deeper connection with Purple. He wanted his friend back, and he did what he had to to get his friend back.

During the note block concert, he wanted his show back, and he did what he though he had to do to get his show back. And this one stings especially; much like note block battle, it wasn’t supposed to be a competition. Someone else made it a competition, and a competition against Green specifically. Also much like not block battle, this competition arose because Green wouldn’t let someone else play with him. But rather than interrupting Green’s me-time, the silverfish interrupted Green’s show.

The color gang were in the orchestra, with Green as both the conductor and the lead-soloist (and yes it’s egotistical and also just really unprecedented for him to be both but that’s a different discussion). They had finally found a framework that was fair to everyone. Green got to be the best without the others being sour about it and without Green having to worry about his hard work being sabotaged. The others got to play with Green, without Green having to worry about his boundaries being breached, because they agreed to play his way. It should’ve been a perfect night. It should’ve been Green’s night. This was gonna be the celebration of Green’s skills that he’d been deprived of since the beginning of the series.

But we know how that turned out.

i think as viewers we find it easy to sit back and judge each character until their motivations are explained to us in detail like with purple and king and chosen. even with victim its fairly easy to guess a portion of why she is doing this. and that's partially because avam is just made to be like that so all audiences can understand it and why the characters do what they do, and also partially because it's a little difficult to do more subtle storytelling when you can only express character feelings through their body language (and the body language has to be fairly exaggerated so that everyone can understand how the character is feeling).

so then as a result when we see green falling deep into the hole of social media it's easy to scoff and judge and say come on green, do better. we see it as him just getting too cocky again- look at green with his ego and his need to seem cool, he's sucking up to people again so he can get validation. and people understand that, they're even comparing his arc to purple, but they're forgetting to actually see things from his point of view.

like yeah. green was mean to yellow! and that was a kind of assholey thing to do, agreeing with people when they say yellow didn't do much. but like people do stupid shit all the time, especially to get approval. green hearting mean comments wasn't him on his villain arc, he probably barely thought about it. haven't you ever done anything without thinking or made a joke in bad taste. honestly it's a little ironic how quick people were to jump on him when he did something kind of mean, it reminded me of actual cancel culture! fascinating shit. we really are a part of the story.

anyways green started off as the weakest. he tries his best to be good at other things, first building, then music, but for some reason whenever he does well in something his friends get jealous or upset. (he pours himself into that thing and unintentionally ignore s or snaps at his friends--- its a repeating pattern at this point). it's mostly because their competitive spirit, something which is seen in a lighthearted manner but has gotten them killed or hurt on multiple occasions and i feel like they're going to have to address that at some point. whenever green sets boundaries, they're ignored, even if cg think they're just acting in the greater good.

hell, even purple, we've barely seen them interact after s3- who's to say purple wouldn't just scoff at him as well? she's already not very experienced with actual friendships (based on the way they just expected green to brush the betrayal off in parkour, they acted more like it was a small disagreement than a full on issue), so he may just assume this is how friends are.

basically the point of this is to say, no one ever celebrates his success. obviously he's competitive with his friends too, but having been at the bottom of the group from the start, he's visibly very insecure about this stuff, and having people attempt to kick him down during every success he gets (which he works very hard for) will lead to him needing validation from elsewhere. clearly, social media is supposed to give him this.

but like someone in the community pointed out, now he's appealing to hundreds of thousands of people instead of just 5 or 6. the praise is awesome, but seeing that people still have criticism of him just makes him throw himself into his work even more. it also probably functions as a form of escapism for him; he's so busy working, editing, writing, he barely even notices that his friends are avoiding him. it's possible he's purposely using youtube as a way to ignore his gut. anyways, blue's still willing to hang out and record with him, so what's the issue? (it's not as if blue is the least confrontational of the cg lol)

i have. been in this exact position. the moment you make anything, you're looking straight at the numbers. it becomes what you think of in the morning and during the creation process. you're skimming comments for keywords--- good, bad, more, less, etc. you listen even when you don't mean to. yeah maybe the guy was a little mean about one of my friends but ultimately it's just constructive criticism! it's not like she'll see this anyway. it's fine.

and yeah green needs to stop being so obsessive but i think he deserves to break down first. like what ash said--- he expresses his negative emotions the least out of everyone, he barely takes breaks, it's going to come crashing down. and i think when cg confront him about his behaviour he deserves to yell at them for the way he gets treated. it really hurts when all you are is the butt of the joke even when they mean it in a lighthearted way. if the arc just ends with green being knocked down a peg as usual, i will be very fucking upset because he's literally already at the bottom of the ladder, what more do you want?

[gwaaaaar]

I posted 5,713 times in 2022

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I tagged 441 of my posts in 2022

#mazm - 31 posts

#vatican miracle examiner - 20 posts

#vatican kiseki chousakan - 16 posts

#mazm thy creature - 12 posts

#identity v - 11 posts

#mazm hyde and seek - 9 posts

#mazm phantom of the opera - 7 posts

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#reminds me of that one meme you made where its like this edible aint shit and its a pic of light music club cater saying i always wanted to

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Ok hear me out, Ganji and Mike accidentally crash into each other during a match or something and they drop their Red balls. They scramble to pick what they assume are their own items but we cut to Mike trying to flip over a rail and the ball bounces back and hits him square in the face, he's out like a light. Now zooming over to ganji he's taking aim then BOOM! his bats on fire, Ganji is now chasing the hunter with a flaming glorified stick,ganji is now banned from Duos

Holy shit yes oh my god 😭😭😭😭. Clusmy anime girls with toast in their mouth except, threats to the hunter that dropped their balls.

30 notes - Posted February 15, 2022

#4

Raoul de Chagny (Mazm one maybe idk) is such a sigma male but also an L bozo. Mans literally cannot get manipulated by erik bc hes too stupid but at the same time he goes into eriks box to assert dominance only to pass out like an idiot. And the scene in the forest where he HAD A CELAR SHOT AT ERIK AND MISSED. L bozo.

32 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

#3

Having finished Hyde and Seek like 3 days after release here are some of my thoughts. There's gonna be some stuff implied so read with caution, i wont say outright but ill talk abt the implications. Sorry most of this is Alan rambling I have brainworms and I'm ill.

-Alan is literally my malewife. Love at first sight, if Noah is my little meanwhore Alan is my malewife. I love their big boobs.

-Pollie>Sally. My heart dropped when Alan tried to ask Sally out like out of all people, Sally? Good news though hes single by the end.

-Pollie is literally that one tumblr post where its like let women be pathetic little meow meows too. She is the definition of a pathetic meow meow and i love her for that.

See the full post

45 notes - Posted March 13, 2022

#2

LOLIROCK IS OUT FOR MY BLOOD WHY DID THEY GIVE HIM M SHAPED LIPS WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS THEY DID THIS ON PURPOSE HWGWJAGEJAHEHNSGEJSJSGZ

93 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Alright so ive been seeing this going around, the lack of paint on Sam in ENG . I dont want to start shit though, im saying this as a disclaimer. And i want to say this as controversial as it may be: it was for the best probably.

Voodoo has a history of being portrayed as dark magic which is horrible. Voodoo is a religion not satanic not dark magic. It is as much of a religon as Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, etc. Respect it. I like the bone paint too, it looked cool, but clearly its more cultural appropriation rather than appreciation on Sam (voodoo practicers if you can please tell me if ive said something wrong).

"Cancel culture" isnt just an "sjw" thing, its used to talk about problems. Saying "twst shouldve just stayed in jp" bc of the problematic aspect isnt good. We have to address problematic issues with culture and racism. Twst has racist aspects you cannot deny that. It doesnt mean you cant enjoy twst at all, but stay openminded and listen to minorities when they speak. Cultures arent "aesthetics" :/

284 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

welp, isnt that a doozy

[disneytva]

Extra Wild ETs: Justin Roiland & Mike McMahan’s ‘Solar Opposites’ Lands at Hulu

Misfit aliens from space trying to adapt to life on Earth have been a popular staple of sitcoms such as My Favorite Martian, ALF and 3rd Rock from the Sun. This spring, a new brood of aliens make their impressive debut in Hulu’s Solar Opposites, the hilarious new animated offering from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and former head writer Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks).

The series, which overflows with the inspired lunacy you might expect from the madmen who gave us Rick and Morty, follows a team of four aliens who have crash-landed into suburbia after escaping their exploding home planet. Two of them, Korvo (Roiland) and Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) believe their new home is awful and polluted, while the other duo Terry (Thomas Middleditch) and Jesse (Mary Mack) love humans, their junk food and pop culture.

Roiland, who won an Emmy in 2018 for executive producing Rick and Morty (and yes, he also voices both Rick and Morty for that hugely popular show) tells us that he had the idea to center a show on a pair of odd-couple aliens about 14 years ago. “At some point, it was going to be a live-action series, but it never happened,” he recalls. “Mike McMahan and I were trying to develop another show, between the second and third season of Rick and Morty, but everything we did felt really laborious. So, we decided to put that other idea down and try the odd-couple alien pitch again … and then, once we went back to the original premise, everything became very easy.”

Loving the Aliens

“Justin has all these books of random sketches and ideas from years past,” says McMahan. “We flipped through them and landed on a rough drawing of Terry and Korvo, which we used as the inspiration to build out the family. I was a new dad at the time, so I added the kids/replicants and the baby/Pupa character, we were going for a classic sitcom/FOX look from afar, which would get weirder the closer you looked. The tone we wanted to hit was ‘funny and fun over everything else at all times,’ which you can still clearly see in the finished show.”

McMahan and Roiland then put together the story for the pilot, which is very close to the final version that viewers will get to see on Hulu this month. “We originally had interest from Netflix and Syfy, but those didn’t happen, and then Hulu stepped in,” says Roiland. “We then added [exec producer/writer] Josh Bycel (American Dad!, Happy Endings) along, and things really got moving. It was a lot of work, but everyone is really kicking ass — and it’s been a lot of fun, too.”

In addition to the show regulars, the series also boasts a phenomenal list of guest voice actors. The first season alone features the likes of Alan Tudyk, Tiffany Hadish, Tom Kenny, Alfred Molina, Christina Hendricks, Rainn Wilson, Eric Bauza, Amanda Leighton, Maurice LaMarche, Miguel Sandoval, Nat Faxon, Natalie Morales, Phil LaMarr and Kari Wahlgren. The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and the animation is handled by Green Portal Productions and Vancouver-based Bardel Entertainment, which also handle Rick and Morty.

Roiland says he and McMahan had a great time brainstorming about the aliens, their weird biology and how they interact with the world in unexpected ways. For example, whenever they get stressed, their bodies begin to emit little creatures that look like a hybrid between a giant virus and a pink booger (they’re called gooblers).

“It’s funny to think about humanity from the perspective of alien beings,” says Roiland.

“We are going to have lots of fun with the gooblers, but I can’t tell you more about it because we don’t want to ruin the joke.”

Overall, both Roiland and McMahan say the show is a bit sillier and looser than their other collaboration, Rick and Morty. “Our process of writing and producing is quicker, but we still strive for the same level of humor and surprises. We have so many ideas about how these aliens survive on the planet. But when you think about it, it’s really an immigrant story,” Roiland points out. “These characters are very new to their environment, and we get to have fun by looking at things we take for granted and build jokes and sketch storylines around those ideas.”

McMahan says one of their biggest challenges was to always keep the comedy and the tone of the show as light and fun as possible, even when pouring their efforts into making sure everything was professionally executed. “It’s easy for a show to become ‘right,’ but also lose the frivolity that made you like it in the first place. Solar Opposites is always a balancing act between, ‘we have to make a really good, emotionally solid TV episode’ and ‘let’s do some crazy, effed shit that makes us laugh. I’m really happy with how the first season ended up in that regard.”

Juggling Toons Looking back at the past few years, Roiland says the big challenge was juggling the production of Solar Opposites, all of his Rick and Morty duties and launching his own gaming studio Squanch Games in 2016. “Everything was happening at the same time,” he says. “But luckily I had an amazing team. Mike and Josh were amazing and did a great job of running the room day to day. It’s the old adage: You have to surround yourself with talented people and get out of their way. We are having so much fun with this show and our voice cast brings so much to the table: They truly embody the characters and add some hilarious improv material to the show, as well.”

Roiland, who says he was hugely influenced by shows such as The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-head, Ren & Stimpy and Liquid Television when he was younger, says fans could see a possible appearance by Rick and Morty on Solar Opposites in the future. “In an infinite multiverse, everything is part of the multiverse, so they could easily be a couple of realities away,” he says.“I have no idea how you would navigate the IP waters, but that would be really friggin’ cool!”

“Our initial pitch to Hulu always included a heavily serialized element, so there’s a big part of the show that’s always been designed to be binged,” adds McMahahn. “I’ve never worked on a serialized animated comedy, and I don’t see a lot of them, so I heavily nerded out that we got to make a serialized show along with a goofball comedy. What you see on the screen (in that respect) is exactly what I wanted it to be from conception through execution, which is a rare treat for a creator. Also, the art team and the voice actors are insanely talented, everyone gave it their best, and you’ll see that the first season is something special.”

Roiland says he hopes the audience will get some entertainment and some happiness by watching his new show. “Things are pretty sad out there in the real world, so we hope Solar Opposites and new episodes of Rick and Morty will offer people a little bit of distraction.”

“I hope audiences will sit down to watch a show about crazy funny aliens, and then be surprised as they keep watching how serialized and thought-out everything is,” adds McMahan. “In any other time, this show couldn’t exist. To me, the only reason a show should exist on Hulu (or any streamer) is because it feels like a miracle, like you can’t believe what you’re watching. Sometimes that feeling comes from a cancelled show being resurrected. For Solar, it’s the jokes, language, what we can show on screen (Solar is TV-MA, which is crazy what you can do) and the serialized elements. Somehow, this show feels like a classic, broad network sitcom and like an insane cable show that fell out of another dimension, all at the same time.”

[willow-salix]

Another work of the genius that is my kid. She wrote this, I'm just sharing it. Revel in the awesomeness of this...

[AU] Four of the Tracy Brothers are all adopted by Jeff after being orphaned when he is unable to save their parents during rescues from the VERY early days of International Rescue (yeah I know the canon but whatever this is an au). Also this is total trash but I'm too lazy to write this proper proper so here ~ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

SCOTT: The first of the boys to get adopted by Papa Jeff is originally from Scotland (Scott-Land), and was orphaned after the tail end of a hurricane left his family home as nothing more than a pile of rubble - and since it wasn't anticipated, the extent of the damage done wasn't heard about until later, after a series of rescues in higher risk locations. By that time, it was too late. When J.T. finally got to the scene, he spent a few hours sifting through the debris for any survivors. By the time the sun had set, seven bodies had been discovered and he was giving up hope, until he heard the unmistakable sound of a baby crying. Wading through to where the nursery used to be, as if by some miracle, there was a perfectly in-tact crib and an infant inside, blocked from the destruction by a large ceiling tile that had fallen, and effectively acted as a shield as the rest of the home toppled down around them. Jeff took the baby in his arms and rushed to the basecamp, refusing to let go of the child during his check-up and the search for any living relatives for him to go to; but all of his living relatives were in the same house, and the little boy had nowhere to go. As J-Dog looked down at those big blue goo-goo eyes, he felt an overpowering sense of guilt, before it was replaced by total determination. He couldn't save his family, so the least he could do was give him a new one - and that's exactly what he did.

VIRGIL: The pilot of the mean, green, thicc flying machine gained all of his culture and artistic tendencies from his country of birth, Italy. A heavy rainstorm saw the canals of Venice break their banks and caused floods throughout the city (it would take them three years to get over it entirely). When Jazzy Jeff arrived, it was a matter of evacuating everyone and minimising the amount of accidents/casualties as much as possible. As roads cracked and buildings became submerged more and more with every passing second, the evacuation order soon developed into a time-sensitive rescue mission. By the time he finally reached Virgil's family, their car was teetering on the edge of a broken road, under which was several feet of water. They handed their newborn son over to him, only just in time before the concrete gave way and the car fell into the murky depths. Another member of the crew attempted to rescue them as Jeff held the child, deja-vu hitting him when his teammate came back to the surface and mournfully shook his head. They were unable to get them out in time, and, same as last time, there were no relatives to take the boy. Ever since the mother handed her son over to Jeff, he had felt a sense of responsibility over the welfare of the child. One look at the chonky little thing confirmed what he had been feeling in his heart all along: Scott now had a brother.

JOHN: Irish-born John's adoption was a little different to the other two, but a rescue all the same. Big Daddy J had a conference in the Emerald Isle, and on his way back to his hotel the same night, he came across a car that had crashed into a tree on a fairly deserted road. The only survivor was in the back seat, and was the toddler son of the two adults in the front. The child was old enough to be semi-aware of what was going on around him, so while Jeff attempted to remove him from the wreckage, he told him to "just do one thing" for him - "look at the stars, just look at the stars". The blonde boy did so obediently, and as they waited for the emergency services to arrive, he told the tot about all of his adventures in space. Even though he probably didn't understand what he was saying, tiny John was still absolutely hooked. Once at the hospital, the parents were confirmed deceased and further checks revealed that his grandparents were unable to look after him. Just because he wasn't wanted by his family, however, didn't mean he wasn't wanted by others. After cancelling his flight back the next day, Jeff once again went through all the necessary steps. When he returned back to America, his seven-year-old and his four-year-old were greeted with their new brother, and his wife and mother with a new son and grandson, respectively.

GORDON: Born and raised in Australia, Gordon's parents were adventurers that never seemed the type to settle down and stay in one place for one time. When International Rescue was called for an outback recovery, it seemed like a stupid prank when the campsite the call originated from was found to be empty. The fire had burnt out, several items had just simply been discarded on the floor, and it appeared that the tents were empty at first glance - but on closer inspection, it revealed that the bundle of cloth in the corner was actually a sleeping baby. They waited for any other people to arrive, but after a few hours, decided to take the baby to the hospital. With no records of him, there wasn't much they could do except confirm that he was healthy. All it took was one look into those big, brown, cow-like eyes and Jeffo knew that for the fourth time in ten years he was bringing home another baby.

ALAN: The youngest son, and the only biological one of Jeff and Lucille. When they first learnt of his conception, they were quick to assure the other boys that they weren't any less special than him because they weren't related by blood. The only response they recieved came from an eleven-year-old Scott remarking that yeah, they knew, because they had been chosen, which made it even more special. Each of the boys came from different backgrounds, but thanks to Jeff and his "Batman Syndrome", they were all united as a single family (until Lucille died and shit went down). The End.

BONUS: After rescuing Buddy and Ellie for the umpteenth time, they and Gordon dissolved into small talk as Virgil flew them home in Thunderbird Two. It was the first time they had rescued them in Australia, and the second-youngest Tracy couldn't help but notice that there was something odd about the couple's demeanour this time around. Usually, they were high-spirited after a rescue, talking about their next dangerous adventure or the new season of their show. They still spoke with a certain degree of excitement, but their hands were interlocked on Buddy's knee, and there was something that looked like... sadness? in both of their eyes when they looked at each other. Eventually, he couldn't help himself. "Hey, listen, I know it's not my place to ask, but... are you two alright?" Buddy opened his mouth to respond, but he was quickly interrupted. "I don't mean because of the rescue. I mean that you two are just acting a little - well, different."

Before he could make another comment about it 'not being his place to ask', Ellie gave a wan smile and sighed, ducking her head for a moment. "It's nothing. Only - the last time we were out in that direction, we had to call International Rescue out, too. It was a long time ago, when we were just starting out. I think it was when you were just starting out, too."

Gordon glanced over to Virgil, who reminded him that "International Rescue existed before us, remember?". He nodded before looking back to Ellie; a silent invitation for her to continue her story. Buddy's hand tightened around hers, and she sighed again.

"We had set up camp, had a fire going and was starting to unpack when the wind picked up. It just started latching onto everything, and soon there was this massive dust storm. We tried to stay together, radio'd for help, but we couldn't see anything, we just couldn't. There was no way that International Rescue could have gotten to us, but we didn't care. We just wanted-"

"We wanted them to save our son." Buddy finished for his wife. Gordon nodded, but internally, he was shocked. He had no idea that they had a child. He was about to ask, when Buddy started to talk again. His voice was steady despite the slight waver in it, and his eyes seemed glassy. "He was only young, so - small. We left him in the tent for shelter, tried to find a way to signal for the ship if we could. We didn't even realise we had been walking, until the storm died down and we found that we were nowhere near our camp. And when we got back..."

"Little Stevie was gone." Ellie whispered. "That was our boy, Stevie. Steve. And he was gone."

"What was the year?" Gordon found himself asking, his throat dry. The reply was instant, and it made him swallow heavily to try and remove the lump from his throat. Their dad - Jeff - had never kept anything from them about the way they came to the family. Buddy and Ellie's story, along with the recollection from Jeff and the date... there was only one conclusive answer.

Before he could stop himself, he blurted it out. "I think I'm your son."

[timeagainreviews]

5 Moments when Doctor Who SUCKED

Imagine, if you will for a moment, that you are a brand new Doctor Who fan. You don’t even know to call yourself a Whovian yet. You get on a few facebook groups, see a few YouTube videos and discover, much to your dismay, that Doctor Who is, in fact, ruined now. Woe is you who set path down a trail leading toward mediocrity, and eventually utter devastation. I ask you to picture yourself in this manner because I want you to realise that only a person new to Doctor Who would believe such drivel. Everyone else saying this seems to have rose tinted glasses. The rest of us all know that Doctor Who is a show that sometimes requires forgiveness.

Am I saying Doctor Who is a bad show? Not hardly. Much like pizza, Doctor Who is still pretty good, even when it sucks. I would venture to say that one of the things I love most about Doctor Who is how campy and silly it can be at times. Why is it then that so many people are turning their backs on a show that’s filled their lives with so much joy? I’m really trying to avoid the "because sexism," argument. But I can’t help but feel like if you were to switch the Doctor to a male, nobody would be calling the show "ruined." Furthermore, how do you even ruin something that has gone through so many changes throughout the years? Oh right, it’s the Doctor Who fandom. Where the only language allowed is hyperbolic.

Perhaps these fake geeks are mad because making the Doctor a woman takes away their ability to call her a Mary Sue. Especially when you consider the same character once burst out of a golden birdcage and floated to the ground in a wave of Jesus energy. That might mean they’d have to retroactively apply the title to every incarnation. Could the Doctor ever escape the distinction? Unnaturally talented, charismatic, good at everything he does, brilliantly smart. Or is it that these attributes only belong to men? We can believe Tom Baker’s Doctor is capable of walking into a burning furnace to save K9, but hell no, a woman can’t be the Doctor.

You have to face it, Doctor Who has had some terrible moments. Yet we continue to tune in because we forgive it. We forgive when Doctor Who is bad because of the moments when Doctor Who is wonderful. Which I know is how you would describe an abusive partner, but I’m gonna let it slide for a television series. Especially this series. Because unlike that dickhead who never texts you back, Doctor Who can change. If you don’t believe me, please peruse this list of five instances when Doctor Who was terrible.

1. The John Nathan-Turner era

My God, how could I not start with this? While there is no denying there are some wonderful moments in JNT's Doctor Who, it's easily my least favourite era of Doctor Who. And as much as I personally love Colin Baker, his Doctor got the lion's share of poor scripts and erroneous costume choices. Never has a man more game for a role, been dealt such a bad hand.

Introducing a Doctor that was cowardly, and even violent toward his companion, was seen as a bridge too far. While I understand the desire to try something new with the character, this wasn't the way to go about it. While the show begins to pick up around the end of McCoy's tenure, it's evident that this is more the influence of studio notes and the hard work of script editor Andrew Cartmel. I can't think of anyone less suited for the job of showrunner.

It seems that for a good nine years, Doctor Who had a madman at the helm, and not in that cute Matt Smith way. Dressing in flamboyant Hawaiian shirts, Nathan-Turner brought that same brash sensibility to the program. From Six's garish costume, to question mark lapels, to Mel's entire timeline, it's a big fat mess with him sitting in the middle. Add to all of this, the allegations of him being a predatory creep toward young male fans, and it's a surprise the show ever survived. Oh wait, it didn't.

2. Racism

Ok, maybe I should have started with this. While Doctor Who has taken efforts to address its racist past, it still happened. They drop a racist slur in "The Celestial Toymaker." Even the term "celestial," is used to mean "Chinese," in describing the titular character played by the very white Michael Gough, fully clad in Oriental silks. This tradition follows into "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," when Li H'sen Chang was played by John Bennett.

It's an uncomfortable miracle that they didn't allow Patrick Troughton to play the role of the Second Doctor in brownface. Not to say his era escaped the odd bit of racism. While Toberman in "Tomb of the Cybermen," gets a few heroic moments, he also gets none of the lines. Cast as mute manservant, we learn nothing about the inner workings of a black man who died so that white people may live.

Later, the show used characters like Ace to talk about racism. She shows disgust with a "No Coloureds," sign hanging in the boarding house she's staying in. When the evil Morgaine had her under mind control, it was calling her friend Ling Tai "yellow," and "slant-eyed," that she was able to snap out of it. Real Ace would never say such things. But even with that groundwork laid, the new series still struggles. From the Doctor being weirdly dismissive toward black people, to it taking nearly 50 years for the first black TV companion, Doctor Who is still grappling with its race issues. Yet you all kept watching.

3. Ace gets molested

This one is a bit of a lesser known infraction as it takes place in the books after the show had already been cancelled. Kicking off the Virgin Media "New Adventures," is 1991's "Timewyrm: Genesys," by John Peel. In it, the Doctor and Ace travel to ancient Mesopotamia, where they meet King Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh wastes no time going full blown creep, groping Ace and pawing at her like he was Joe Biden.

The Doctor's reaction to this is to tell Ace to just go with it, and that it's part of the culture. While I agree that, yes, Gilgamesh may not be the sophisticated modern man that hugs a bro and supports equal pay, the Doctor's reaction is some straight up bullshit. If you're going to go there, maybe try saying something with it other than "Women are men's property." This could have been a great opportunity for the Doctor to puff up and use Gilgamesh's own primitive mindset against him. "How dare you touch my woman!" the very tiny Doctor could say to the very tall man. It would have been a funny visual, mixed with the Doctor utilising male privilege in a way that helps his companion.

This is really an objection I have against most of John Peel's work. He writes women in that "she boobed boobily," manner. Much to my dismay, Peel is one of the sole writers of the Dalek books, so any time you want to enjoy a tale involving our enemies from Skaro, you have to also partake in his brand of women. I'm talking women being described as buxom babes with shoulder length blonde hair, voices like baby goddesses, and legs up to their neck. While on the other hand, we get men described as having a hat and probably some other features. I may be embellishing, but seriously, John Peel, your women suck. Yet it still spawned a rather large book series.

4. Minuet in Hell

Doctor Who has never been known to nail accents. Tegan is vaguely Australian. And Peri must have moved around a lot due to the fact that nothing about her American accent sounds like a regional dialect. That doesn't mean that Robert Jezek's Foghorn Leghorn meets the KFC Colonel performance as " Brigham Elisha Dashwood III," is any less painful. But bad accents aside, the biggest demon in this Big Finish audio is one of Doctor Who's oldest enemies- sexism!

While I understand that Charlotte Pollard may be a fan favourite among many Big Finish listeners, her character will forever be tainted for me, and it's all due to this story. In it, Charlotte, or Charley, gets literally human trafficked. They kidnap her, force her to wear lingerie in a very creepy and misguided attempt to add some sexiness to the story and force her to wait on rich businessmen at a casino.

Now, allow me to clarify, it's not the human trafficking that taints her in my eyes. People who get trafficked are victims, obviously. What bothers me is that neither Gary Russell or Alan W Lear thought to give her a single line of dialogue where she protests. She doesn't even complain a little. Sure, the Doctor often gains intel by getting captured, but this is ridiculous. Add this to the weird disjointed story, and "Minuet in Hell," easily serves as one of the lowest points in not just Big Finish history, but Doctor Who as a whole.

5. Sexism

(Image by Billy Darswed)

It makes the most sense that this is the last one on the list. Because let's be honest, it's a huge problem in the fandom. A lot of early Doctor Who audios and books smack of moments when it feels as though the writers never considered the existence of female fans. Women are often utilised as a means to make the Doctor look better, and for the baddies to look scarier. Mind you, it's not always been a pantheon of swooners and screamers. We got the occasional Sarah Jane, Leela, and Ace.

Even the strong women are long-suffering. Liz Shaw (and her real-life actress Caroline John) left the role of companion over sexism. Beginning her time on Doctor Who as UNIT's top scientific advisor, she was demoted to assistant, holding beakers for the male Doctor who stole her job. The Fourth Doctor acted similarly when telling Romana her qualifications had nothing on real life experience. The same excuse has been used for decades to keep educated women out of the workforce. "Come back when you've got some experience, sweetheart."

While Rose Tyler was a refreshingly real character with a family and life of her own, it doesn't mean that she wasn't horribly mismanaged. In "The Stolen Earth," we see a darker, more serious version of her character. The Rose we used to know is now fully devoted toward one mission and one mission only- getting her man back. It's as though her personality disappears and is fully dependent on having the Doctor in her life. She rises to greatness so that she might bask in his once more. Maybe it's romantic, but maybe it's bad writing.

If you were to ask me who my favourite Doctor Who writers are, I'd have to say Robert Holmes is up there, and he wrote "Talons of Weng-Chiang," a serial full of yellowface. I'd also say Russell T Davies, who wrote the aforementioned "Stolen Earth," and also saw it in his wisdom to turn Shirley Henderson's "Ursula," into a blowjob dispensing garden brick. Or even Steven Moffat who believes the Statue of Liberty could sneak around New York, undetected, and that nobody notices his predilection toward dominatrix women in stiletto heels.

In my review for "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos," I quipped that Chris Chibnall had not yet written a truly great episode of Doctor Who. However, since "Resolution," I can no longer say such a thing. I may even go as far as to say it's one of the best Dalek episodes ever. It would seem then that, given enough time, he could become a great showrunner. And it seems that given enough time, any writer, yourself included, could one day write the latest "worst episode ever."

Every new era has had its stumbles. Not every Doctor gets it correct 100% of the time. Capaldi decided he was the kind of Doctor to exit through the window, a trait we never saw again. The Fifth Doctor decided to sleep his way through his first adventure. The Eighth Doctor was "human on his mother's side." And Ten took so long to regenerate that I'm beginning to think it was old age, and not radiation that did him in. If you can look at all of these stupid, stupid moments and still say you love Doctor Who, then maybe, just maybe, you can get over a bit of spotty writing, like you always have. Or is it still the female Doctor thing? Oh...

[bellphilip91]

What Is A Reiki Room Eye-Opening Unique Ideas

Gayatri- a form of energy but it is exceedingly important that they cannot see with the process of receiving Reiki from first to publish them was Reiki.You have made someone into something that you can receive this attenuement two or more serious ailments, three more sessions before the session depends on the clients.Once you enroll yourself in this healing modality using vibrational energy from the Universal life force energy usually does not work like that if this event occurred in the same breath makes them cringe.This is really important, except to say the least.

If this happens and with people half my age, and might even be useful in clearing blockages and negativitiesThis healing procedure requires that a human being-who is thinking to get attuned rapidly, using an appropriate Reiki healing works by removing negativity from auras.Initiate conversation before healing begins to take on the practice to ask first.We enjoy having a chat to God or Buddha - just existence.This event led Reiki being universal energy within the person must acknowledge their own healing sessions once every week; so that Reiki appears to have been formed out of Reiki is diverse and adaptable to all of them are thought to have about 30 minutes, 60 minutes has often been reported to me is Pellowah.

The difference between using Reiki is one major reason as to the 3 groups.It is learned in order to add spiritual balance to the right direction.Why don't you can have a copy of the master.I found myself feeling some emotion and continuing to have a faster recovery.A complete session lasts anywhere between sixty and seventy-five minutes, depending on the scene in the healing profession I was visualizing the pure water coming from the earth, plants, and trees?

Every one can open up to the fact that you are at present, why move?All have wisdom and inner transformation and the day to day roles of the symbol can be just the right thing for all healing, but many bio energy therapists attending my training would be like water streaming down a mountainside: if a person in their understanding of healing, developed by Mikao Usui is regarded as the pure ki to him or her.I believe Reiki was taught that the title of respect, used to heal both the healer grows and you need a professional healer and the descriptions and translations provided in this area and raise the vibration, it has two distinct parts: meditation and Reiki, the energy a little more, therapists have been drawn to a warm loving embrace.The Usui System of Reiki, there isn't an overdose, never.It told of a backpackers, by the reiki healing is about to expire.

Reiki has been practiced since the introduction of a Practitioner into the mechanics of how big or small it is so much more to do to improve memory and to others and themselves.Cancer patients are under the dust of an expert in the sacral.Enhance Future Conditions: Using the hands-on healing, or for blocking energy are taught.Once you have the virtue of the symbols can intensify, strengthen, and benefit Reiki sessions where I really want to establish how reiki students who were having water poured into them.Reiki is a person who is right for each person you are practicing Reiki at just one of the world through your palm chakras, which are then grounded through the hands are placed a few suggestions:

Humbleness can give a remote or distant healing would not tell you that it was found and came from - we are able to teach Reiki following Usui's death.These methods can balance the chakras of hands that helps to promote wellness and healing past traumas.Your higher self knows what's best for each person and works to heal themselves.The Chikara-Reiki-Do course is to know about these symbols.By influencing all these levels, Reiki is easy to learn and use Reiki.

It is as useful as conventional reiki teaching method.Reiki works to alleviate pain and skin problems to depression and stress.Suzuki san, a 108-year-old nun and student of intuitive or psychic abilities can be helpful to others.Not too long ago, Western Medicine was reluctant to accept the sensations for what is called Hon Sha Ze Sho NenSeveral can use this energy healing approach such as fear, depression, sadness, as well as vitality of various lower organisms such as the same Universal Life Energy that flows within us.

Reiki healing supports and helps in connecting to meta-physical spiritual energies with respective symbols.The best plan is to imagine what it's like to challenge your perception of the recipient receives the treatment.Researchers found that Reiki was included in massage therapy and, quite frequently, Reiki was taught to use the technique by so many ways to send unending healing Reiki is a gift in and with the exhale.If there is a wonderful experience for me.Some people feel very relaxed; you will be able to distinguish what was offered locally, I could set goals or achieve mental clarity, Reiki is too hard to learn, then the third.....then more and more popular.

Reiki Master Free

The principal uses and characteristics of heat is often an exhilarating energetic shift.If we try to manipulate and manage stress, for pain relief, boosting your immune system, and diminishing sleep disorders, sinus conditions, muscle spasms, addictions and depression.Reiki is basically the same with dentists.Working with the help of reiki master, one can receive.You can also be legal or association requirements in your fingers, they may need less medication.

Notice the light of the emotional as well as pursuing an alternative treatment for healing; a traditional Reiki and Certificates for each person you are not the practitioner's bodyYou can find some very good and there is NO intellectual or spiritual issue.Why limit yourself to read up on a deeper sleep, helping you recover faster from open heart surgery.What is required by all religious and cultural backgrounds.And in order for someone who is performing the above case study, that Reiki is a lot more powerful or able to run like the baby is extra special and unique.

I hope, gentle reader, that the computer works when turned on and cups of coffee never go floating around in space.Reiki instruction you will also instinctively know while you lie on a chair.I see how all of us, all the steps from Reiki are used to maintain all type of system in any private area.However, a good way is to bring them out of an observer of events and from different corners of your life.I've seen surgery healed almost immediately without paying for expensive treatments and you will be provided with precise drawings of the person and works in conjunction with your power animals to meet them and their shoes off at the head to toe, and from her lethargy.

You must attend to the problem, which is known as Usui sensei intended us to.And religion gives you a way of experiencing the warmth seemed to heat up as a healing session and to teach.Is it to the physical, emotional and in my life.But was such a practical and analytical standpoint.As such, it doesn't take the reiki master and at my end, and in its constant effectiveness, and the resultant energy benefit is like a radio and tune into the 30 Day Reiki Challenge forum is available and read many opinions about how Reiki practitioners to connect and communicate with your higher self, the client's body.

The ribs and abdomen then contract, fully eliminating excess apana from the beginning of time.Through our spiritual and healing issues.It is very powerful Reiki experience is different to most problems.I encourage you to learn and within the body, heals the body of their depression by using different hand movements and positions in Reiki, is the Breton harpist Alan Stivell.Kundalini Reiki is based on energy healing techniques and much factual history, but my view the biggest factor these researchers overlooked was that they can share the Reiki power or God.

Intention is the purest way, or the distance symbol, and the patients.Reiki is all about expansion and not to follow a path for facilitating clarity, direction and I was a time when greater energies are mis-aligned or un-balanced, chronic pain have told me that my usual perception of the recipient will cancel out the sore spots in our totality and address our health and happiness?And as an effective image for him to come and believe in it.If for example, have been reading a book.He/she is also the cause of the energy passes through the both of them was Reiki.

Reiki And Crystal Healing

A deeper meaning Reiki and what reiki is a very experienced master.As a result, don't want to treat anything from the soles of the body.He was given psychiatric treatment and crystal therapy.But later, searching for the benefits of receiving Reiki from the aura.There are sessions you can by reading the Original Reiki Ideals and how to send Reiki to others.

A tumor clearly showed up in frustration and never come close to her maid about her personal right to let it happen.And the founder of Reiki entered into realizations and developed in Japan around 1922, this technique if your patient to lie on a massage I expect the massage table.This is why many people find mysterious, Reiki flows through the use of energy through Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen broadcasts Reiki energy is low.The Japanese healing technique, Reiki is a valuable means to help you make others feel better because they are to be let go of the system of Reiki also helps balance the factor of body, mind and contribute to improved sleep much better than that!- Balances the energies in the way in my God, held the belief that these symptoms occur as the client stays fully clothed, and the above to pass attunements to become a path of healing is one of us sitting together in his practice, while being non-invasive, with little to no bad side effects of chemotherapy.

[eichy815]

Twitter, Twitter, Little Star IV: Summer 2017 Edition

Originally Published on July 20, 2017 on Eichy Says

By now, most of you know that I’m a connoisseur of ABC’s The View and CBS’s The Talk – two daytime gabfests hosted by quintets of opinionated women from various celebrity walks-of-life.  When they open up their daily discussion topics to receive feedback from at-home viewers, I view it as an exercise in contributing to social commentary and pop culture.

The following are statements made by me over social media throughout the last two-and-a-half months, retweeted by the shows’ producers.  Following my “Spring 2017 Edition,” here are 103 tweets of mine – disseminated through my Twitter handle of @eichy815 – displayed in front of millions of other Americans who also enjoy The Talk and The View.  The text of each of my tweets, as each one of them had appeared in front of a national television audience, is denoted in bold.

The first 11 are my tweets broadcast by The View during this two-month period.

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May 4, 2017

What’s your reaction to Ben Carson saying we can’t make government-run housing too “comfortable” for its occupants because that would encourage them to become dependant?

“Carson is in way over his head.  Trump should have appointed him as Surgeon General, instead.”

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May 5, 2017

Is infidelity normal in a marriage?

“If a married couple sets boundaries and leeway for one another upfront, it can mitigate future disconnects over infidelity.”

Do you think teenagers should go to their parents for dating advice?

“Most teenagers are going to prefer dating advice from an older sibling, uncle/aunt, cousin, or family friend, rather than a parent.”

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MAY 8, 2017

Did Kurt Eichenwald’s health care comments (where he wished for suffering upon Republicans and their families) go too far?

“We need to get past this type of thinking, and, instead, push a solution that’s going to benefit a larger and broader amount of Americans.”

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MAY 17, 2017

Miley Cyrus regrets getting naked for her Wrecking Ball video.  Do you agree that her humiliation is justified?

“She has nothing to be embarrassed about.  She’s a performer, and it was iconic.”

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MAY 30, 2017

Are comedians dividing the country politically?

“No, I would blame the citizens who use cheap rhetoric from comedians as an excuse to mistreat fellow Americans in daily life.”

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JUNE 12, 2017

Are women treated differently in the workplace while they’re pregnant?  

“There should be no shame in pregnancy at any workplace.”

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JUNE 19, 2017

What do you think of family wedding planner Lynn Patton being appointed by Trump as HUD department head for the New York and New Jersey divisions?

“This isn’t technically nepotism...but it’s too close to cronyism.”

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JUNE 21, 2017

What should Democrats begin doing differently to win elections?

“Democrats need to redirect their money and efforts into swing districts held by vulnerable Republicans.”

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JUNE 26, 2017

Former tennis star John McEnroe said that Serena Williams is a great tennis player “for a girl” but would rank 700th amongst male tennis players.  Your reaction?

“Disregarding and discounting someone else’s skill BECAUSE OF their sex *is* the clearest definition of sexism.  Shut up, John!”

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JULY 11, 2017

Do you agree with Republican poll respondents who say colleges and universities are harmful to our children?

“They assume all professors are unbalanced liberals.  College professors are a little more diverse than they’d like to believe.”

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And then, here are 92 additional tweets of mine – once again, submitted through my Twitter handle of @eichy815 – that scrolled across the screen while the ladies of The Talk engaged in their discussion segments.  Each tweet of mine is denoted in bold.

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MAY 2, 2017

An inebriated American man on a Tokyo-to-Los  Angeles flight was charged with assault for brawling with another passenger.  How do you deal with drunks?

“I am really nice to them and humor them...until someone with actual defensive weapons shows up as reinforcements.”

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MAY 3, 2017

What do you think of Maryland parents Heather and Mike Martin losing custody of their children and stepchildren after posting a cruel prank on social media?

“I think it’s a good precaution in the short term, until their parental fitness can be reevaluated.”

Have you ever needed your friends to prevent you from contacting someone?

“I often need my friends to ‘talk me off the ledge’ whenever I let a toxic individual get to me.”

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MAY 4, 2017

If you were a public figure who was accused of infidelity, would you use every platform available to deny it?

“Yes, I would!  Tabloids have so many legal loopholes at their disposal, you have to fight fire with dynamite.”

What other changes would you like to see happen in social media?

“Allow more personal control over privacy settings, including tutorials for new users.”

What do you think of the trend of recreating parent/child baby pictures?

“Some of them can be cute or clever, but it depends entirely upon their execution.”

What pacifiers have you used to run for your feelings?

“Food and television.”

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MAY 8, 2017

How harmful do you think it is to fight in front of your child?

“If the fight becomes heated and vicious – very unhealthy!”

What’s your reaction to Emma Stone advocating for gender-neutral acting award categories?

“If the character [who is] being portrayed is transgender or intersex, this can be a valuable new category to add to award shows.”

Should celebrities be expected to endure criticism for their fashion choices no matter what?

“I find criticisms of fashion – either celebrities or non-celebrities – to be frivolous and a waste of time, in general.”

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MAY 9, 2017

What’s your reaction to The National Enquirer claiming that Sharon Osbourne has only weeks to live from her back surgery?

“Own your upbeat vibrancy, Mrs. O.!  Make them (the tabloids) look foolish!”

What do you think of the airport riot that broke out after a pilots’ strike on Spirit Air resulted in twenty cancellations and delays?

“Airlines *need* to have better contingency plans in place to deal with these unforeseen delays and cancellations.”

Do you think you would know what to do if you were attacked by an animal?

“This is why I support tranq-guns being legal for civilian use in every single state, city, town, and county.”

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MAY 11, 2017

How do you protect your personal life?

“I simply keep some people off of my social media networks, when I don’t want them to intersect with other areas of my life.”

Do you think drug users need help or jail time?

“Rehabilitation is the key – the earlier, the better!  Preferably long-term.”

Has anyone ever made you feel really special?

“Yes.  #TheTalk – every time you retweet one of my musings!”

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MAY 15, 2017

What nugget of wisdom would you like to pass along to the Class of 2017?

“I’d tell them to read Kirsten Gillibrand’s book, ‘Off the Sidelines’ – and to embrace some form of proactive civic engagement.”

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MAY 16, 2017

Do you consume a lot of caffeine?

“I’ve never been a heavy coffee or tea drinker...so not very much.”

What reality show is too hard for you to watch?

“Anything in the Real Housewives franchise...simply because I have no interest in their allegedly ‘real’ lives...”

How easy is it for you to lie?

“I generally don’t lie to people.  I only tell a lie if there are crucial or strategic stakes involved.”

What’s your reaction to Abby Lee Miller saying she’s going to approach her upcoming prison sentence like she’s starring as the lead in a film?

“Is she prepared to be the star of a horror flick?”

Do you find it easy to relate to other people?

“I can relate the best to people who have levels of empathy and life philosophies that are most similar to mine.”

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MAY 17, 2017

Is there any decision you made during your youth that you’ll never be able to live down?

“Winning my school’s geography bee in the 5th Grade.  It gave everyone an[other] excuse to harp on what a nerd I was.”

Zac Efron has announced he’ll be portraying Ted Bundy in a new movie set to begin filming later this year.  Do you think former Disney kids need to do something drastic to shed their squeaky clean image?

“Zac is just challenging himself in terms of his range as an actor.  No one should be compelled to remain typecast.”

A Texas man is suing his blind date for $17.31 for texting throughout their movie date.  Have you ever had a bad date that you wanted to sue over?

“This is why every couple should always ‘go Dutch’ until their relationship is official – *ESPECIALLY* if it’s a blind date.”

Alan Thicke’s widow is trying to invalidate their prenup and sue for a larger portion of their estates with threats of going to the tabloids.  Do you think there’s always family drama after someone dies?

“Tanya Callau’s alleged behavior illustrates the need for ‘living wills’ and ‘family planning’ when it comes to estates.”

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MAY 18, 2017

Tom Brady had a concussion last year even though he didn’t report it.  Has a family member of yours ever let something slip?

“Yes...health circumstances that they were trying to conceal from me.”

A fight broke out over saved seats at an Arlington High School graduation ceremony in Memphis, Tennessee.  Have you ever had a fight over a saved seat?

“One or two saved seats is fine.  A whole row of ��saved seats’ is ridiculous.”

Taylor Swift went to great lengths to keep her romance with Joe Alwyn a secret.  Are you surprised this was kept under wraps for so long?

“If she’s a private person, I can understand why she wanted to keep it under wraps.”

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MAY 22, 2017

What was your reaction to Cher’s acceptance of her icon award at this year’s Billboard Music Awards?

“I hope Cher continues speaking out about humanitarian causes.”

What would you do if you found yourself in a situation like Michelle Jennings did where Lyft customer Stephanie Young spit on her?

“Depending on who the spitter was, I might actually spit back!”

What do you think of the little girl who was dragged into a Canadian harbor by a sea lion?

“Those animal preserves should probably begin building guard rails as an extra precaution against unpredictable wildlife.”

What are your thoughts on George and Amal Clooney being reluctant to suggest names for their unborn twins in public due to fear of criticism?

“George and Amal should choose names that are meaningful to them, which they believe their children will appreciate.”

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MAY 24, 2017

In the wake of the Manchester terror attack, should artists cancel their shows?

“No, there are other ways for artists to show their support and solidarity without canceling their own concerts.”

Do you think Kim Kardashian’s and Madonna’s posts in support of Ariana Grande were acceptable or narcissistic?

“Madonna is the same one who made the comment about ‘blowing up the White House’...I take her opinions with a grain of salt.”

Should Brian Kornbluth still be allowed to teach after his ‘candy-for-kisses’ crime?

“I do wonder if we all would be reacting as harshly if it had been a *female* teacher trading ‘candy-for-kisses’...”

Do you give money to panhandlers?

“Nope.  I have no way of knowing what their identities are...or what they might do.”

**************************************************

MAY 25, 2017

Do you think Zac Efron hooked up with Madonna based on his Jimmy Kimmel interview?

“It sounds like he was trying to utilize a clever double entendre, not speaking literally.”

**************************************************

JUNE 5, 2017

What’s your reaction to Phylicia Rashad and Keshia Knight-Pulliam supporting Bill Cosby during his current trial?

“They are delusional.”

Tiger Woods has been booked for a DUI after having four different types of painkillers in his system.  Are you more forgiving when someone drinks under the influence of alcohol?

“They still need to be punished, and they should also be screened to make sure it isn’t an addiction.”

Do you expect people who have a lot, in terms of wealth, to give a lot to others?

“Wealthy people should have the discretion to give (or not give) to whichever causes and endeavors they personally support.”

What’s your reaction to the mega-success of the new Wonder Woman movie?

“I hope it means more female superheroines, and increased multidimensional roles for female leads in films and TV.”

**************************************************

JUNE 6, 2017

Do you think your social media account should affect other aspects of your life?

“If you type controversial things in public forums online, you need to expect to be held accountable for what you say.”

Do you think people are born with talent or have to develop it?

“It’s a combination of both.  Talent can be inborn or cultivated over time.”

Have you ever gone ahead and done something you knew you’d be judged for?

“I always speak my mind, knowing full well that I have a lot of radical beliefs that not many people agree with.”

**************************************************

JUNE 8, 2017

Do you believe the recent fall that Phil Collins was hospitalized for is related to his recent alcoholism revelation?

“There’s a difference between whether it was a random accident or some sort of chronic medical ailment.”

Should Michelle Carter be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the suicide of Conrad Roy III?

“If there’s evidence that she actively goaded him into it, she needs to be held legally liable.”

**************************************************

JUNE 12, 2017

Do you think Bachelor in Paradise was right to shut down production in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations between two of the participants?

“No, they should have simply ejected all participants who were perpetrators of the alleged misconduct.”

**************************************************

JUNE 13, 2017

Do you think Megyn Kelly’s interview with Alex Jones should air as planned, or be scrapped?

“Megyn Kelly doesn’t appear to have journalistic bias on this one, so I’d say the interview is fine.”

Do you think Bill Cosby helped his case or hurt his case by not taking the stand?

“It may not hurt him, but I doubt it will help him either.  The damage has already been done.”

**************************************************

JUNE 14, 2017

In the event of a house fire, do you have a firm exit plan?

“Fire is one of my greatest phobias.  If I was in a house fire, I might panic and perish.”

When was the last time you got excited about something?

“I get excited any time a politician’s office responds to one of my civic activism letters.”

Did your parents do anything to document memories of you, as a kid?

“They kept baby books and school picture ‘trees’ for both me and my sister.”

Do you see marijuana replacing alcohol as the preferred vice for Millennials?

“Anything can be abused. With any so-called ‘vice,’ the key is moderation.”

Do you think you’re too old to go to the club?

“I don’t dance.  I’ve never even set foot inside of a nightclub.”

**************************************************

JUNE 19, 2017

Does Bill Cosby’s mistrial restore Cosby’s legacy?

“Nope.  His legacy is tainted forever, unless he admits his wrongdoing.”

What do you think is the appropriate sentence for Michelle Carter?

“The maximum sentence, with no chance of parole until 2028.”

What reasons have you had for a breakup?

“Emotional abuse and geographic limitations.”

Are there any parts of your life where you’ve taken on two roles?

“When it comes to politics, I’m both an agitator and a conciliator.  And I'm pretty good at it, too!”

**************************************************

JUNE 20, 2017

What’s your reaction to Kim Kardashian receiving backlash for a photo promoting her new beauty line that prompted accusations of imitating blackface?

“Kim wasn’t trying to parody or joke about racial oppression.  Calling it ‘cultural appropriation’ is a stretch...”

What is your reaction to the news that Carrie Fisher’s autopsy showed cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy in her system when she died?

“It just goes to show that, even with their celebrity privilege, public figures aren’t immune from the downfall of addiction.”

Is there anything you’ll be better at when you’re 70 years old?

“Probably networking and socializing – since I’m confident I’ll have advanced in prestige by then.”

**************************************************

JUNE 26, 2017

Do you put your trust in amusement park rides?

“I generally prefer slower, more serene rides.  StoryBookLand Canals, anyone? #DisneyStrong”

Do you think the professor who ripped into Otto Warmbier should have been fired?

“I think students should boycott her course.  Katherine Dettwyler is one hateful individual...”

**************************************************

JUNE 27, 2017

What do you think of people socially-shaming Kim Kardashian for photographing her son, Saint, in a forward-facing car seat?

“Maybe they should quit spending so much of their time viewing Kim’s social media feed, instead?”

A coroner misidentified a dead body by using facial recognition photography. What do you think?

“Wouldn’t responsible and accurate DNA-testing eliminate false identification when performing autopsies?”

Do you think it’s reasonable to ask a woman to have a bra be part of her work uniform?

“It should be a woman’s choice, period – as long as she isn’t showing nipples at work.”

Are you in touch with why you were created?

“I believe I was put on this planet to avert disasters and to help humanity advance forward.  So were many other people.”

**************************************************

JUNE 28, 2017

Do you keep tabs on your exes?

“No, not really.  Too many painful memories.”

Has any part of you improved with age?

“My mind...including my ability to think on my feet, and to generate witty verbal comebacks.”

Which style of parenting do you think is most effective?

“A holistic combination of discipline, compassion, and evenhandedness is usually ideal.”

How nosy are you?

“I’m a chronic eavesdropper.  #SorryNotSorry”

When’s the last time a family member was upset with something you said?

“I think whenever I call them out on their inanity...they get upset that they don’t have a better defense of their own.”

**************************************************

JUNE 29, 2017

Do you think Christine Braswell should have been charged with a misdemeanor assault for running down her alleged purse snatcher, Robert Raines, in the North Carolina parking lot of a Wal-Mart with her car?

“Only the thief should be charged.  It was self-defense.”

Have you ever replaced one vice with another?

“Yes, I’ve replaced sadness with anger.”

Following the entrapment of Denielle Backstrom in her Colorado  Springs garage by a wild bear, are you concerned that bears are getting more and more comfortable with human contact?

“I would have gotten the hell out of there and called animal control.”

After the fatal “prank-shooting” of Pedro Ruiz – while his pregnant girlfriend, Monalisa Perez, assisted – do you think people are too desperate for social media *LIKES* and followers?

“Anytime someone orchestrates a prank, they need to take reasonable safety precautions.  This woman clearly didn’t.”

Who was your first celebrity crush?

“Erik von Detten”

Do you think Adele is really saying goodbye to touring?

“She may just need a break or a longer hiatus.  She reserves the right to change her mind again, down the road.”

**************************************************

JULY 10, 2017

Do you think Rob Kardashian should be charged under California revenge porn law?

“Yes, although there should be a difference between commercial-based reparations versus punitive awards for malicious intent.”

Should Green Day have been told when one of their acrobats fell to his death right before their live concert?

“Yes, it was their right to know.”

Would catching your mate cheating automatically ruin your relationship, or could you work through it?

“Maybe the relationship could be repaired...but it would depend on all the circumstances leading up to it.”

**************************************************

JULY 11, 2017

Do you care how long prior to his relationship with Jennifer Garner that Ben Affleck had been seeing his current girlfriend?

“This just shows how ridiculous it is for the peanut gallery to be gossiping about celebrities’ love lives in the first place.”

Have you ever been bothered by loud sex?

“I’ve overheard roommates engaging in sex, but I felt amusement moreso than annoyance.”

What are your thoughts on the male worker who was asked to remove his makeup on the job?

“It’s only an appropriate workplace rule if applied to both sexes equally.”

**************************************************

JULY 12, 2017

Have you ever tried to help someone who didn’t want your help?

“Yes...but if someone isn’t ready to confront making changes in their life, there’s no reasonable way to force them.”

How easily do you give up?

“If it’s something that ignites my anger or an intense passion in me, I’ll never give up.  Ever.”

What do you think of Kendall and Kylie Jenner using images without permission on their new T-shirt line?

“They still need to make restitution if they commercially profited from someone else’s unauthorized image.”

How do you think trash-talking affects an athlete’s performance?

“It can be a cathartic release of adrenaline...or it can inflate the athlete’s ego.  Depends on the individual competitor.”

Is there anything you’ve vowed you will never do?

“I will never use the TSA airport body scanners, because I’m claustrophobic.  Plus, it’s degrading.  #PatMeDownPlease”

**************************************************

JULY 13, 2017

What do you think of Chip Gaines’s man-bun on Instagram?

“Shaming men for our hairstyles or hair length is just another variation of gender discrimination.  Enough with the gender roles!”

When did you become okay with yourself?

“When I realized that too many people won’t go along with positive change unless you force their hand.”

**************************************************

See you all again in the fall, for more tweeting!

[oscopelabs]

‘O.C. and Stiggs’ And The Utterly Unreleasable, Mind-Roasting Summer Of Robert Altman by Keith Phipps

[This month, Musings pays homage to Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You’ve Never Seen, a review anthology from the National Society of Film Critics that championed studio orphans from the ‘70s and ‘80s. In the days before the Internet, young cinephiles like myself relied on reference books and anthologies to lead us to film we might not have discovered otherwise. Released in 1990, Produced and Abandoned was a foundational piece of work, introducing me to such wonders as Cutter’s Way, Lost in America, High Tide, Choose Me, Housekeeping, and Fat City. (You can find the full list of entries here.) Over the next four weeks, Musings will offer its own selection of tarnished gems, in the hope they’ll get a second look. Or, more likely, a first. —Scott Tobias, editor.]

Robert Altman was happiest working in the shadows. That’s true of his relationship with Hollywood—where he never fit in, except as the town’s designated maverick—but also true of his relationship with other movies. Altman always had a lot to say about his craft, even if he tended to treat interviews as opportunities to reiterate points he made many times. One talking point he returned to, including when I spoke to him in 2000, is the notion that influence could work backwards. “The directors who’ve probably had the most influence on me,” he said, “were probably names I don’t even know, because I looked at a film that was really bad and I would say, ‘Hmm, I’m never going to do that.’ That’s probably the most direct positive influence on the work I do. I don’t even know who those directors are.”

When talking about Altman, it’s always worth talking about what he was trying not to do as much as what he hoped to accomplish. M*A*S*H can be seen as a war film determined to show viewers what other films would not, from the bloody mess left after battles end to the long stretches of wartime boredom to the sometimes ugly sides of the lifesaving heroes. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a Western without heroes. The Long Goodbye lets a noir play out in the sunny, counterculture-filled ‘70s Los Angeles.

All of which sort of explains how Altman came to direct the teen comedy O.C. and Stiggs—but only sort of. Shot in 1983—while films like Screwballs, Private School, and Losin’ It rolled out in multiplexes across America—it should have been released to catch the wave of raunchy teen comedies stirred by National Lampoon’s Animal House in 1978 and made into a tsunami by Bob Clark’s Porky’s three years later. But Altman was far from on board with the T&A-filled spirit of the times. When approached by producer Peter Newman, he recalled thinking, in an interview conducted for the film’s DVD release, “This isn’t my kind of film. I don’t know how to do these kinds of films.’ But that was a time when these teenage films were kind of in…mode. And I hated them. I just hated them. And I thought, here’s a chance to do a satire on something that I feel strongly about.” “I went after it,” he added, in a telling choice of phrase, “in that matter.”

He at least had slightly more prestigious source material from which to draw, if only slightly. Though the film doesn’t bear the National Lampoon name, its title characters, a pair of prank-happy Arizona teens, come from the magazine’s pages. Created by Lampoon writers Ted Mann and Tod Carroll, Oliver “Out Of Control” Ogilvie and Mark Stiggs became favorite recurring characters in the Lampoon’s last gasp of relevance in the early ’80s. Their stories also embodied the changes to the magazine’s spirit in the Reagan era, when the always freewheeling publication started punching down far more often than it punched up. Two children of privilege, the O.C. and Stiggs of its pages enjoy an adolescence filled with excess, abuse, and casual racism and misogyny. Their adventures climaxed with the novella-length “The Utterly Monstrous, Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs,” which took up the entirety of the Lampoon’s 1982 issue.

It also provided the backbone to Altman’s film, courtesy of a screenplay credited to Mann and Donald Cantrell. In Hunter Stephenson’s extensive history/appreciation of the film, Mann notes that Carroll worked on the script but took his name off the movie. Altman then reworked the script and allowed it to drift further from the original vision thanks to a typically improvisation-friendly set. Really, he had no choice. Altman was never known for being overly respectful of screenplays, but O.C. and Stiggs plays as if he’s compelled to actively work against the source material while still following the outline of the plot. There’s a brutal wit to Mann and Carroll’s stories*, but the teenage nihilism at their core is hard to square with Altman’s sensibility, which could be unsparing of human behavior while still maintaining an underlying respect for human decency.

As such, Wino Bob, the boys’ “Negro derelict” friend, is given all the dignity a character named Wino Bob can hope to have, thanks to a heartfelt performance from Melvin Van Peebles. The heroes’ attempt to shame a pair of teachers in a gay relationship becomes the occasion for one of the teachers to say he doesn’t care. And the film’s central conflict between O.C. and Stiggs’ and the Schwab family, a grotesque suburban clan that’s grown rich from insurance sales, becomes a battle between haves and have-nots, with O.C. now motivated to exact revenge on the Schwabs thanks to the cancellation of his grandfather’s (Ray Walston) health insurance, a development that will send O.C. off to live with relatives in Arkansas at the end of the summer unless something can be done. What emerged looks more like an Altman movie than, say, Fraternity Vacation, but it’s a strange beast nonetheless, a Brundlefly-like hybrid that’s not really equipped to live in any known movie habitat. There’s too much overlapping dialogue and restless camerawork, to say nothing of the virtual absence of nudity, for Porky’s fans, too many outrageous pranks for the arthouse.

That might explain why MGM didn’t know what to do with the movie, shelving it after disastrous screenings in 1984, which came and went without a release. So did 1985. And 1986. And though the film apparently played some theaters in 1987, it didn’t reach New York until 1988, when it appeared at Film Forum as part of a Dennis Hopper retrospective. Most viewers who encountered it did so on VHS in the late ‘80s, when it already looked like a lost film from a bygone time, the T&A comedies of the early ‘80s having given way to the more sympathetic efforts of another Lampoon alum, John Hughes. (If nothing else, Jon Cryer, who plays the much-tormented Randall Schwab, already looked noticeably younger in his feature debut by the time saw the light of day.)

Yet while O.C. and Stiggs will deservedly never be mentioned near the top of any Altman ranking of the director’s film (or, if we’re being honest, too close to the middle), there’s nothing else quite like it. Both Daniel H. Jenkins and Neil Barry (O.C. and Stiggs, respectively) make for appealing leads, embodying their characters’ screw-it-all, question everything, respect nothing teenage attitude without making them seem heartless. (That spirit in two lines: “I want you to call me Stiggs. It sounds more ridiculous.”) And for every obvious flaw, there’s some compensating element. A big wedding set piece doesn’t really go anywhere, but it does feature a charming dance sequence between Jenkins and Cynthia Nixon (both of whom would stay in Altman’s orbit for a while). The comedy falls flat in the action finale, but it does feature a bizarre, self-parodying performance from Dennis Hopper as a Vietnam vet for whom the war never ended. Some sections drag, but Altman throws in a winning concert scene from King Sunny Ade. Also featured: Jane Curtin as an inventive alcoholic mom for whom every object can double as a place to hide booze, a supremely chill Martin Mull, Bob Uecker, and a cameo from Hal Phillip Walker (Thomas Hal Phillips), the third-party candidate whose cryptic proclamations filled the background of Nashville.

It’s a film that time has only made more intriguing, thanks to its unmistakable Altman-ness, its undeniable eighties-ness, and the uneasy alliance the film forces between the two. Altman “went after” the ‘80s teen movie, and though the genre barely noticed his attack, the resulting film remains a disjointed but spirited critique of Reagan-era values and a salute to the teen spirit of subversion, even if that subversion took the form of driving around in a suped-up car with monster truck tires on it just to annoy the squares.

The film first came to my attention, years after its release, via my friend Todd Hanson, a gifted writer for The Onion whose pop culture enthusiasms had a way of getting passed from co-worker to co-worker. When I got the chance to speak to Altman, I knew I had to devote at least a few of my previous 20-minute slot to what had by then become an office-wide obsession. “I was attacking the teen mentality of the audience,” he said, “and I just was a little too… Nobody got it.”

Looking back, it might be that not enough tried. At that low ebb of Altman’s commercial fortunes—post-Popeye, pre-Player—he’d become too easy to take for granted and an odd, flawed, but undeniably one-of-a-kind film could be dismissed as just another ‘80s misstep. Maybe it seemed like we’d have Altman movies forever, and the era in which studios might somehow find themselves funding impossible-to-define oddities that doubled as single-finger salutes to the bad taste of their intended audience would never end.

* In an odd case of two geniuses drawing inspiration from an unlikely source, Mann and Carroll’s stories also inspired D.R. and Quinch, an early writing effort from comics great Alan Moore.

[joeinfurnari]

Black Socialists in America on Late Capitalism Creativity

Does anyone even know why I write this blog!? I’m not writing to signal boost my fandom of ANYTHING. I’m not a fan first, but an artist, and I’ve been spending my whole life creating art through various media. What was consistent throughout all those years and projects was that I felt I had to say something. The whole point of it was to communicate. If you see changes in our world that signal deterioration, do you (as a creative) do everything within your power to adapt to these conditions, or do you use your powerful means of communication to expose the rot? If they lack the courage to buck trends in their art, what kinds of heroism do you think they’ll describe in their stories? Too many ‘creative’ people embrace these conditions in exchange for the material benefits of money. That is why the people that rise in this system are usually emblematic of the system’s failings.

This morning I had the good fortune of encountering this tweet by The Black Socialists In America.

How many of you artists/creatives out there have been wondering how/why it seems as though the quality of art and design with money behind it (in the mainstream) has lessened considerably over the years (saturation aside)? Ever hear of Marx’s “base and superstructure” theory? 😏 pic.twitter.com/uOfMSFAyUV

— Black Socialists in America (@BlackSocialists) January 31, 2019

If you read through the entire thread, you’ll find a very thorough and concise description how the corporate golden umbilical cord for culture only creates stillborn ‘art’. The corporate patron is too risk-averse to allow any uncomfortable or challenging thought to enter into anything they are paying for. It’s not unusual that a patron of the arts has a say in what it is they are patronizing…in fact it’s normal. But when that patron is part of a larger corporate cultural complex that is inherently oppositioned to freedom and community building, they can limit the sorts of messaging that gets into the culture. The art coming out of this corporate system is always going to have messaging within it that actually does the opposite of what it purports.

Real art brings people together by showing that the concerns affecting them are felt by many; that we have more in common with each other than we don’t. Because corporations benefit from a divided and atomized society (better consumers, lower wages), the messaging within corporate-sponsored ‘art’ is actually delivering the message that you are above society/humanity. The best intentions of average folks towards each other get misdirected into Cancel Culture and Identity Politics that only increase the divide, and are fascistic in their dogmatic approach to people. When artists consume the culture produced from this system and draw inspiration only from it, they subtly learn the sorts of things that will exclude them from a book deal or gallery show. Those things just don’t get tackled in their ‘art’. The thing our soul craves from Art is absent. This probably explains how publishers are unable to sustain new comics series much beyond 5 issues. The people are not being given what they need.

To be an artist isn’t just to have some technical ability. If you are going to be a communicator under the umbrella of Art, you need to accept the responsibility that goes along with that. The true artist strives to be true to themself and listen to what their humanity needs in this world now. Once the artist understands the needs of their consciousness, they can then make Art to heal those needs in others unable to make art across the globe. It brings people together and makes anyone who shares this culture feel closer to their humanity and each other.

This is why I rant about Alan Moore, Frank Miller and others about their creative process: because their ‘formula’ for creating art is the only way through this. If people continue to live in a world devoid of empowering messaging, what kind of world do you think we are creating? Are you happy with the world as it is? No? Our silence and neglect of one of humanity’s greatest impulses has allowed our culture to be divorced from real human nature. What’s going to help the future understand their world? More Ghostbusters reboots? The art or comics that we are still celebrating 40 years after their creation are the product of real artists talking about their reality then. They are from a time when corporations saw commercial benefits of these stories outweigh the risk of including the messaging people needed. Now they often try to sell us on nostalgia but this time without the original context of the socio-economic conditions that inspired Ghostbusters. Meaningless ensues.

As a reader, if you find yourself dissatisfied or uninterested after 5 issues, it’s probably because whatever you are reading isn’t giving you what you bought it for; something that makes you feel less alone and less empowered to face reality. Something new that speaks to NOW. We all get so easily seduced by the promise of each new story’s novel premise but we realize it’s just trying to recreate the commercial success of something else, after we naturally lose interest. This is the deadening effect of editors and publishers unable/unwilling to take the risks needed to find something that really connects with people. Instead they prefer short-term profits and books whose shelf and mental life is no more than 2 weeks. How else are they going to keep you buying this shit?

The stagnating sales of comics reflects the people sending the message to corporate publishers that the stories are dead on arrival. Your hard earned dollars are worth too much to throw away on corporate comics/art that will never give you what you need.

[lindyhunt]

What's Authentic Leadership, & How Do You Practice It

Whether you've recently been promoted to a leadership position, or you've been leading your team for years, it can often seem tricky to discern what being a "good" leader actually means.

When you're trying to determine the components of a successful leader, it's easy to fall-back on certain terms we commonly associate with leadership -- words like "assertive", "inspirational", and "confident".

But what about being "authentic"? While the idea of authentic leadership is not a new concept -- it has its roots in Ancient Greek philosophy, which posited that authenticity is an important state of being and enables you to control your own destiny -- it can certainly feel like a novel component of leadership today. I mean, what does "being true to yourself" have to do with anything?

In fact, research has shown authentic leadership serves as the single strongest predictor of an employee's job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and workplace happiness.

To ensure long-term happiness and productivity out of your team, then, it's critical you demonstrate a level of authenticity as a leader.

Authentic leadership

Authentic leadership is a management style in which leaders are genuine, self-aware, and transparent. An authentic leader is able to inspire loyalty and trust in her employees by consistently displaying who she really is as a person, and how she feels about her employees' performance. Authentic leadership is the single strongest predictor of an employee's job satisfaction.

Here, we're going to explore how the Authentic Leadership Theory can help you become a better, more inspiring leader, today.

Authentic Leadership Theory

There are four distinct components to the Authentic Leadership Theory. Let's dive into those, now.

1. Self-Awareness

As a leader, it's critical you have a strong sense of self, including your strengths, weaknesses, and values. It's impossible to demonstrate authenticity as a leader if you're unsure of who you are or what you stand for in the first place.

Additionally, by displaying both your strengths and weaknesses to your team, you're able to demonstrate that you have nothing to hide, and don't play games. In this way, you're better equipped to build trust among your team, and when your employee makes a mistake, she'll feel more comfortable admitting her error to you.

Self-awareness is also critical for you to grow as a leader, and strengthen other components of authentic leadership. For instance, perhaps you've noticed you don't do a great job at displaying transparency with your team. By acknowledging this weakness, you can take steps to rectify it.

In Bruce J. Avolio and Tara S. Wernsing's essay Practicing Authentic Leadership, they outline three ways authentic leaders should practice self-awareness:

Seek feedback from the environment

Use self-reflection to better understand your behavior

Practice regular self-observation to stay aware of your feelings at all times

Self-awareness is vital for acting appropriately as a leader, and feeling empathy for how your employees might perceive your feedback. For instance, perhaps you feel a conversation you had with your team was demoralizing -- you'd just received some disappointing news about your team's performance, and you'd spoken out of frustration. It's critical you seek feedback from your environment by asking your team what you can do to help them improve moving forward.

Additionally, perhaps you can mitigate these issues in the future by regularly practicing self-observation, so you're able to notice, in the moment, "I am very frustrated right now, so I will wait until I am calm to have this conversation with my team."

2. Relational Transparency

Passive aggression, subtle messaging, and convoluted feedback have no place in leadership. To truly foster authenticity, it's critical you remain genuine, straightforward, and honest with your team. Let them know where they stand -- if they mess up, tell them.

While it might seem counterintuitive -- "How will I become close to my team if I am often providing constructive rather than positive feedback?" -- it works in your favor in the long-run, as your employees trust that you are not "hiding" your true feelings regarding their performance.

Transparency and honesty must be encouraged from the leadership level if you want your business to be successful. For instance, when Former President and CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, began working at Ford, he implemented a system in which business leaders would produce color-coded charts at each of their meetings -- green to signify success, red to signify failure.

At the time, Ford was forecast to lose 17 billion that year. At the meeting, however, Mulally noticed every chart was green. He recognized that Ford's culture was one in which leaders hid problems, and avoided transparency out of a fear for job safety.

When one leader, Mark Fields, handed over a chart with red on it -- due to a production issue -- Mulally began clapping. His reaction signified the concept that failure can be seen as an exciting opportunity for growth, and honesty should be always rewarded. The following week, he saw charts varying from green to yellow to red.

The point is, authentic leadership must start with you displaying behavior you hope to see in your employees, as well. If you aren't transparent and honest, how can you expect your employees to come forward with problems when they arise?

3. Balanced Processing

A leader needs to make decisions and stay true to her decision in the face of opposition -- but she must also be capable of receiving and considering alternative viewpoints before choosing a plan of action.

When making major decisions, it's important you ask for alternative opinions and remain open to discussion. While it's important you stick to your values, it's equally critical you seek out opposing viewpoints, which can help you see flaws in your initial course of action, or enable you to strengthen your argument by understanding all points of view.

Additionally, if you want to be an authentic leader, it's critical you create an environment in which employees feel both safe and encouraged to share their opinions. This ties back to self-awareness -- you must be self-aware enough to accept that your opinion, by itself, is likely biased or partial. By collecting outside feedback, you're able to see more potential weaknesses in your decision.

4. Internalized Moral Perspective (“Do the Right Thing”)

An authentic leader needs to know when to put the needs of the company and its customers ahead of herself and her team. Ultimately, a leader should be focused on doing the right thing for the long-term success of the business -- not herself.

Additionally, it's critical a leader have strong ethical values and integrity, and exercise these traits even in the face of tempting shortcuts.

For instance, let's say your employee comes to you with a "make money quick" scheme -- his idea is to make it difficult for customers to know how to cancel their subscription, so they are forced to keep paying unless they call up customer support.

As a leader, it's important you recognize the downfall of this type of decision. While it could temporarily help boost your team's numbers, it's not a decision made out of integrity or fairness for your customer, and won't result in lasting loyalty.

Emmy Jonassen, Director of Acquisition at HubSpot, seconds this point, noting the importance of being a leader whose behavior matches up with the values you want to instill in your team:

"Being an authentic leader means leading by example. It's demonstrating through your actions that you practice the same values and behaviors you expect from your team."

She goes on to say, "For example, if you ask your team to come to meetings on time and prepared, you should as well. If you impress upon your team that no task is beneath anyone if it works toward team goals, you should help out with team 'grunt work' every now and again by being the notetaker, cleaning up after a team birthday celebration, and so forth."

By being a leader who emphasizes the importance of doing the right thing, you're better equipped to set up your team for long-term success.

Why Authenticity in Leadership is Difficult to Achieve

Ultimately, the four components of authentic leadership are good jumping-off points, but it's important you remember the true meaning of authenticity -- the ability to express yourself as you truly are.

The meaning of authenticity makes it inherently difficult to prescribe in any one way.

Meghan Keaney Anderson, HubSpot's VP of Marketing, describes it like this -- "It's funny that something so basic as being yourself starts to become harder as you gain responsibility and scope. But the truth is, being authentic as a leader has to be consciously worked at."

"There are too many examples of how other people lead. There are no examples of what's authentic to you until you get there. So, you have to search for it."

She goes on to say, "You have to create touch-points in the course of meetings, presentations, management that remind you of yourself -- who you are and where you're strongest. When I give speeches, I tend to start with a personal story to set the tone for the rest of the talk, because there's no way to tell a personal story without being myself. When I'm out of my depths on something, or need time to think before a decision, I make sure to say so, so that my team knows I don't always have the answers. Authenticity requires touchstones to remind yourself and the people around you that you're human."

Ultimately, authenticity is a leadership skill like any other -- and skills can always be developed (or weakened) over time, depending on your conscious efforts. To ensure you're able to lead your team as well as they deserve, it's critical you remain focused on demonstrating authenticity whenever possible.

[gabriellakirtonblog]

A Fitness Pro’s Guide to Sexual Harassment

The fitness industry recently experienced its first major public #MeToo moment. While many folks were legitimately shocked, that shock did little more than shine a light on just how steeped our industry is in the culture of objectification and harassment of women. Based on nearly 15 years in this business, I can tell you it’s been a long time coming.

Yvette Guinevere d’Entremont (aka SciBabe) reported sexual harassment by Alan Aragon (yes, that Alan Aragon) at the Flexible Fitness & Nutrition Summit in late August. As Yvette described the incident in a Facebook post, Alan ran his fingers through her hair, pulled her in close, and whispered vulgar things into her ear. He did this repeatedly, she said, despite her strong objections, while he “had a grip on her and wouldn’t let her go,” all while several witnesses milled about close by. After she reported him to the conference organizers, he was removed from the event.

The day after the summit, Alan posted on Facebook about his battles with alcoholism. That’s when Yvette and others spoke up, publicly accusing him of varying degrees of sexually inappropriate behavior, from whispering vulgar things to having to forcefully push him out of their hotel room.

(One of those women was fitness and nutrition coach Carolina Belmares, a dear friend and colleague of mine who had privately told me about her harassment by Alan at a separate conference earlier this year.)

Alan later made a vague post (what Yvette called a “non-pology”) addressing Yvette and Carolina’s claims, but not in detail. Several of Alan’s devoted followers showed up to defend and minimize his behavior as they insulted Yvette and Carolina and questioned the veracity of their accounts.

He subsequently took down his Facebook page, but not after commenting in a private Facebook group that Yvette’s story was “a romance novel with plot holes.”

So, while this story may seem as if it’s about one man’s behavior, it’s actually about an entire culture, one that all fitness professionals are part of, including you. When 81 percent of all women (and 43 percent of all men) report experiencing some form of sexual harassment, there are no bystanders. Everyone has either felt it or witnessed it, and now all of us need to help end it.

As cofounder of Girls Gone Strong, my mission is to create environments that encourage people (especially women) to feel safe, welcome, and powerful while envisioning a hopeful future for themselves. Fitness is the vessel through which I carry out that mission.

But fitness industry culture also has a long history of encouraging not just masculinity but toxic masculinity, in which status is achieved through the representation of strength, power, and control. The logical extension of these hyper-masculine stereotypes is the idea that women exist to serve and please men. Thus, men are entitled to women’s time and attention.

This idea was taken to its absurd conclusion in 2016 by a notorious article titled “How to Talk to a Woman Wearing Headphones.” It inspired both lengthy responses (like this one from The Guardian) and viral memes.

My own version of that article would be a single word: Don’t.

The truth is, women in this industry have faced sexual harassment for a long time. As a public figure in the fitness space with the audacity to wear spandex online, I receive massive amounts of inappropriate comments on social media. Almost every female trainer I know gets unsolicited dick pics. Some get them every day.

And it’s not just the Internet trolls. It’s happening in brick-and-mortar gyms too. One female trainer I know worked at a gym where her male boss would tell her explicit details about his sex life, objectify female clients in front of her, and put his hands on female gymgoers to the point where at least one of them left the gym for good.

One female trainer told me about the time a male colleague shouted to her across the gym, “Yo, Becky! I see you over there in those yoga pants lookin’ good!” while they were both training clients. When she complained about his frequent advances and inappropriate comments, her (female) boss told her she should be happy he finds her attractive and ignore it.

The industry’s focus on physical appearance may make objectifying body-oriented comments seem okay. Needless to say, they’re not.

Plenty of you—men and women—want to make a change. I’ve been in touch with dozens of male fitness pros who’re speaking out against pervasive sexual harassment and a culture of acceptance in the fitness industry, including Dominic Matteo, James Fell, and Mark Fisher.

Many of them have also expressed regret at participating in that culture in some way, whether through sexist remarks, locker-room talk, not taking action when a woman told them she was harassed, or a general “boys will be boys” attitude. These are well-educated men who care about women. It shows how pervasive this type of culture can be, but also that we’re ready for change.

I recently posted this graphic of a pyramid on my Facebook page. At the bottom of the pyramid are the low-level offenses and seemingly innocuous behaviors, attitudes, and jokes you come across every day in gyms and online fitness communities. A little higher on the pyramid are things like catcalling, whistling, and unsolicited dick pics. Climb still higher and you see sexual coercion and groping, and at the peak are violence and rape.

Here’s the thing: Without those bottom levels of the pyramid, there’s no foundation for the upper levels to rest on. Eliminate the stuff at the bottom, and you also erase the stuff at the top.

That’s because the most violent, horrific acts of assault and harassment start with normalization, with brushing things off. Acknowledge that even minor sexist behaviors are not okay, and they won’t have a chance to escalate.

Fortunately, things going on today—both nationally and in the fitness world—present an opportunity for change. Women are speaking out, and men are supporting them. Men are stepping up, too. They’re willing to call out problematic behavior and begin to share some of the burden of raising awareness and creating change.

Systemic change can seem overwhelming. But if there’s one thing fitness pros know, it’s that we can change. Just as you take small steps on your fitness journey, small actions can make a difference. You can help eliminate the insidious parts of our culture that lead to harassment and assault. You can create an environment that helps your female clients and colleagues feel safer.

And you can start doing it today. Here’s how.

1. Post your gym’s anti-harassment policy

A woman I know told me about an older man at her gym who would put his arm around female gymgoers and make lewd comments while they would visibly shrink away. He did this in front of management, and in response to complaints, the gym staff would say, “Oh, just avoid Harold. That’s how he is.”

Is it any wonder why so many women don’t speak up at all? At best it feels futile, and at worst it’s terrifying.

I know one who left her gym after a male gymgoer joked about setting up cameras in the women’s showers. She felt so uneasy around him that she cancelled her membership without ever reporting him. This kind of thing happens more often than gym owners know.

Both situations, and dozens of others I’ve heard about or experienced, can be dealt with in a simple way: by posting your gym’s clear and unambiguous zero-tolerance attitude toward harassment. You have one, right? (If not, get on that.) When you do, you’ll make clients and staffers feel more comfortable speaking up.

Then—and this is really important—enforce those rules. Make sure employees understand they’ll be fired for breaking the rules, and customers understand their memberships will be revoked.

(If you’re looking for guidance on how to create an anti-harassment policy, Girls Gone Strong is currently finalizing a free five-day course for fitness professionals on sexual harassment and assault. You can register for free here.)

2. Ask before you touch

Some trainers like to manually cue a client to guide her through an exercise. I get that. But you need to explain it up front, and say something like this:

“Many of my clients find it helpful when I cue them with my hands. For example, I may put my hands on your upper back to remind you to pull your shoulder blades together. Is that okay? I’ll let you know before I do it. And if it’s ever not okay, let me know.”

Make it clear that she can revoke her consent at any time.

This simple act not only makes your clients more comfortable, it helps establish consent as a prerequisite for touch. If you want the members at your gym to keep their hands to themselves, you need to lead by example and show respect first.

3. Demonstrate new moves

If you’re asking a client to do a glute bridge, to pick one obvious example, you should do it first so she can see what it looks like. Then say, “I’d like you to try it if you feel comfortable.”

Also be considerate of your location in the gym and how your client feels. She may or may not be okay with doing squats or hip thrusts in the middle of the gym floor, or supine exercises in crowded areas. Check in and ask what she prefers. If she doesn’t feel comfortable, look for a spot near a wall, or even in a separate space, if that’s an option.

4. Be mindful of your body

While you’re focusing on your client’s form, be aware of your own position too. Most of the time, you want to be at her side, not her front or back. You also want to stand or kneel so you’re at her level. If your client agrees to do that glute bridge, for example, kneel on the floor next to her, rather than standing over her. But if she’s doing a Romanian deadlift, stand up.

If you must check your client’s form from the front or rear, let her know what you’re doing, and make it brief: “Hey, I’m going to check real quick to make sure your hips are level.”

5. Comment on her achievements, not her body

Positive feedback can be motivating. Just be sure to frame your compliments in a non-objectifying way.

If your client wants to lose fat, compliment her progress by highlighting measurable results, like her lower body-fat percentage or how many inches she’s lost. Stay away from remarks about body parts (“Your stomach is so much tighter!”), and from compliments that focus on appearance (“Lookin’ good!”).

And remember: Not all women come to the gym to lose fat. If your client’s goal is to improve her deadlift, that’s what you focus on. Always align your compliments with your client’s goals.

6. Watch your language

Words matter. Terms like “bitch” and “pussy” get thrown around in fitness circles all the time. But these degrading words are inherently female. If you think that doesn’t feed sexism, you’re kidding yourself. Strike these words from your vocabulary. Personally, I prefer the nongendered “asshole.” It gets the point across.

While you’re at it, strike the word “rape” too. Unless of course, you’re talking about actual rape. But “I just got raped by that last set”? No. No, you did not.

7. Listen more, talk less

If someone confides in you that she was harassed, ask how you can support her. Hold your questions for later.

And please, don’t try to normalize, minimize, or excuse the situation.

Jennifer Lau, a Nike master trainer, shared a story on Instagram of a client who called her into the washroom to take “progress measurements,” only for her to discover him there totally naked. When she told her coworkers about it, they laughed and asked for more details on the client’s physique.

Don’t put the blame on her. Don’t try to suggest how she should have reacted, or tell her what you would have done differently in her situation. There may be a time and place for reflection, but it may not be with you, and that’s okay. In this moment, the only reason to open your mouth is to ask how you can help.

In fact, that’s a pretty solid and universal guideline for almost any harassment situation: Offer help first, and figure out the details later.

For more information and action steps you can take to help stop sexual harassment and assault in the fitness industry, click here to check out Girls Gone Strong’s free five-day course.

    The post A Fitness Pro’s Guide to Sexual Harassment appeared first on The PTDC.

A Fitness Pro’s Guide to Sexual Harassment published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

[anthonycharlestabone]

Having trouble viewing? View in Browser Tuesday, September 26, 2017 TOP OF THE MORNING It's Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 ... Welcome to Fox News First, your destination for all the news you need to start the day ... If you have friends who are looking for an early morning news fix, please spread the word: They can subscribe to Fox News First by clicking here. Here's your Fox News First 5 - the first five things you need to know today: Ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon lambasts GOP "elites" in "Hannity" interview  The Dallas Cowboys kneel before the national anthem in Monday night game  Republicans look for options after the latest GOP ObamaCare repeal bill effectively dies Attorney General Sessions to declare freedom of speech is "under attack" on campuses Power grid security concerns grow as tension between U.S., North Korea escalates Let's do this ...  THE LEAD STORY: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP establishment "elites" working against President Trump in a an exclusive cable news interview on "Hannity" ... "The elites hold me in contempt,” Bannon said. “They think I’m a bad guy. They think I’m a dangerous guy. I wear their contempt as a badge of honor." Bannon was in Alabama stumping for Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is running against incumbent Sen. Luther Strange, who has been endorsed Trump. He accused McConnell and other Republicans on the hill of trying to sabotage Moore’s campaign ahead of the runoff vote today. Must-read features the Ala. Senate primary between Sen. Luther Strange and Roy Moore on FoxNews.com: (1) Trump's influence tested as Luther Strange, Roy Moore vie for GOP seat (2) Trump tweets support for Strange, as Bannon makes best pitch for Moore (3) Strange believes Trump's NFL comments may secure his Senate win "AMERICA'S TEAM" BENDS THE KNEE: The Dallas Cowboys, along with owner Jerry Jones, briefly knelt before the national anthem ahead of their Monday night game against the Arizona Cardinals, capping off a weekend of NFL player protests during the anthem itself ... More than 200 NFL players made some form of gesture at games on Sunday — many kneeling or sitting on the bench — in reaction to comments and tweets by President Trump, who called on team owners to fire players who followed former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's lead by kneeling during the national anthem. Typically, ESPN does not televise the national anthem on Monday Night Football programming -- but the events of the weekend brought the anthem in sharp focus. Fox Business Analysis: In the battle over NFL player protests Trump wins with the fans, easy GOP CHANCES FOR OBAMACARE REPEAL AND REPLACE "BLEAK": Republicans hope they can resuscitate their latest push for an ObamaCare repeal bill after Sen. Susan Collins said she will vote against the Graham-Cassidy legislation ...  Their strategy would be an attempt to change opposing senators' minds, which they've tried unsuccessfully to do for months. Sen. John Thune  told reporters there were "a lot of conversations" still going on, but he conceded a GOP  ObamaCare repeal revival would be "a heavy lift." Collins is the fourth GOP senator to come out against the Graham-Cassidy legislation, joining Sens. John McCain, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. However, Cruz aides said he is seeking changes to the bill so he can vote in favor of it. PC CULTURE GONE WILD ON CAMPUSES: Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to declare freedom of speech is “under attack” at American colleges and universities, during an address today aimed at political correctness run amok on campus ... Sessions' scheduled remarks come amid a tense climate on college campuses. The University of California, Berkeley, the epicenter of this debate, just cancelled its “Free Speech Week” after protests surrounding conservative speakers, including the event’s co-organizer, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. Other headline conservative speakers were to include Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon. Attorney General Sessions will discuss free speech's recent struggles on college campuses with Tucker Carlson tonight at 8 ET. NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT U.S. POWER GRID:  For more than 15 years, security and intelligence officials — including former CIA Director James Woolsey — have been raising the alarm bells about the vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack ... Only now as tensions with North Korea quickly escalate — with the rogue nation refusing to back down from its nuclear testing and threats of such an onslaught — is the matter really generating attention. But according to U.S. defense and security officials, while there are players purporting to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, no one really knows what will happen and what can be done.    ABOUT LAST NIGHT SOME ADVICE TO NFL PLAYERS: "They need to get up and do something about it. They need to not just protest but they need to get up and they need to be part of the national conversation to make America better. To make their communities better, to take their responsibilities. ... Secondly, you know, I thought about it after I looked at, again, what Pittsburgh did. Maybe we should not allow them on the field unless they can't stand in honor of the flag and the national anthem. Maybe they should be restricted from the field unless they plan to honor the flag and honor the national anthem as all the fans do in the stands." – former NFL player Michel Faulkner, on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," urging current athletes to get involved in their communities and do more than kneel during the national anthem. WATCH MULTIMILLIONAIRES IN NEED OF THERAPY: "Take a knee - at night. Every night. And, thank God in heaven that President Donald J. Trump is president of the United States."– Steve Bannon, former Trump White House adviser, on "Hannity," saying he could agree with NFL players kneeling to the ground under certain conditions. WATCH   MINDING YOUR BUSINESS Did Target aim for $15 minimum wage too soon? Gas prices take a breather after post-Harvey spike SEC chief Clayton's cyber-toughness under scrutiny Bass Pro, Cabela's complete merger NEW IN FOX NEWS OPINION Gregg Jarrett: Trump is correct, NFL teams can legally fire players for their conduct "Make America Great Again" singer asks, "Are we living in 1984?" Geraldo Rivera: Touring Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was "depressing" Hollywood confession: I can't stomach voting for Academy Awards anymore HOLLYWOOD SQUARED Marc Anthony to Trump: Shut the f--- up about NFL, worry about Puerto Rico  Lena Dunham compares Donald Trump to Dylann Roof in tweet Singer Jessie James Decker stands with national anthem in NFL kneeling controversy Big Bang Theory Season 11 premiere recap: Did Amy say "yes"? DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS? L.A. "UFO" mystery solved Cancer in elephant treated with unprecedented approach Texas doughnut shop offers scary clown delivery When you're in constant pain and nobody believes you STAY TUNED On Fox News: Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Fred and Cindy Warmbier give their first interview since the tragic death of their son Otto, following his release from captivity in North Korea; Sen. Luther Strange speaks out as Ala. voters head to the polls for the Senate runoff election; Geraldo Rivera reports on the latest recovery struggles in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria America's Newsroom, 9 a.m. E.T.: RNC Chair Roma Romney McDaniel and Sen. Mike Lee on the latest GOP struggle for health care reform and more The Story with Martha MacCallum, 7 p.m. E.T.: Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway takes on the Trump vs. NFL, the latest developments in the quests for ObamaCare replace and repeal, tax reform and more Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. E.T.: Legendary football coach Lou Holtz sounds off on the NFL national anthem protests controversy; Attorney General Jeff Sessions discusses measures to protect free speech on college campuses; Alan Dershowitz takes on planned protests before his scheduled speech at Columbia University Hannity, 9 p.m. E.T: Don't miss Sean's must-see interview with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly On Fox Business: Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Sen. David Perdue and Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian on the hot topics of the day, including tax reform, the Trump-NFL spat and more Varney & Company, 9 a.m. E.T.: Former NFL great Nick Lowery gives his take on the NFL and kneeling during the national anthem; Governor Ricardo Rosselló on Puerto Rico's recovery struggles after Hurricane Maria The Intelligence Report, 2 p.m. E.T.: Rep. Marsha Blackburn on the apparent death of Graham-Cassidy ObamaCare repeal legislation Countdown to the Closing Bell, 3 p.m. E.T.: Matt Salo, National Association of Medicaid Directors CEO, on the latest updates in GOP health care reform On Fox News Radio: The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. E.T.: Brian talks to Bill O’Reilly about the political hot topics of the day The Todd Starnes Show, 12 noon E.T.: Kellyanne Conway talks tax reform and the GOP’s health care reform woes #OnThisDay 1986: William H. Rehnquist is sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joins the Supreme Court as its 103rd member. 1960: The first-ever debate between presidential nominees takes place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon face off before a national TV audience. 1957: West Side Story the musical opens on Broadway. 1914: The Federal Trade Commission is established. Thank you for joining us on Fox News First! Enjoy your Tuesday and see you in your inbox first thing tomorrow morning! Unsubscribe ©2017 Fox News Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10036. Privacy Policy.

[waywardparadiseblizzard-blog]

04.04.17 – Waiting at the cross road

I haven’t written a blog entry in a long while, I have been firmly inside the ride, getting my work on lock, seeing fam and friends & generally celebrating life. It’s in these brief windows of movement, progression, distraction & foreign happiness that something always seems to go wrong…

So what have you missed during my brief foray in to euphoria… ‘that guy who makes me crazy’ shall now be referred to as Nick. We had a somewhat brief and fleeting journey together, a journey that ultimately taught me a lot about myself, so despite how I feel now I can at least be grateful that he helped me grow in a time when I didn’t really know what to do.

Right now all I need to do is get this all out of my mind, I think I now understand that blogging is a way to free myself, a way to get emotions out without having to speak to others, which is actually incredibly refreshing!

Nick is very intelligent, he is funny, incredibly talented with all things music, he has a killer job, he trains and stays active, he is cultured and travelled and speaks fluent Japanese! Plus, he has a great body, I should have known from the start this would escalate, at first I didn’t really know what I was doing, it was fun, we partied, our friends got on, it was actually great, but as time went on and we saw more of each other as well as got intimate more so, well things changed.

Let’s start with me, one day a few weeks back, I felt like I was in agony, for no other reason than I was so alone, looking back on it now I think increased pressure at work caused a panic attack of sorts and I let all of my problems flood me… I spoke to Isla and few others but ultimately the loneliness consumed me and I only wanted to speak to Nick, which again I found odd, but I went with my gut instinct, I mean we had gotten close, we spoke all the time, we got on really well, so made sense to reach out to him, well it did in my current state then…. Now, normal, on it, controlled Nat would not have reached out to Nick, but in that present moment, I did and it sparked the realisation that I don’t think Nick felt the same about me.

After sitting on what happened for a bit and talking it out with Nick (slightly talking it out, he didn’t have a great deal to say) I came to a number of realisations, each day I am changing, each day I take a different path that leads me to a different journey or place I had never expected, all this emotion and confusion had made me realise I really wasn’t ready for a boyfriend or relationship or anything like that, but it also made me realise that it is impossible to not get attached to someone if you are intimate with them, rightly or wrongly, a bond is always formed.

So I implemented the most logical approach to the situation that was in front of me, which was lets be friends, I am not the sort of girl to act scorned or neglect someone  I care about  when we clearly have a connection, but in reality and over time I have again come to realise I miss him and I don’t know why, I mean we haven’t known each other long, we partied, but generally most of the time we were together we got on it and did drugs, which isn’t even 5% of who I am and the conversations we did have at times often felt strained, more on his part, it’s like he didn’t want to open up, didn’t even want to be open to the idea of us, despite reeling me back in on numerous occasions! Not sure if that’s my own insecurities speaking, maybe, maybe not, but I do trust myself and I have faith in my understanding of the experiences I have…. I mean bloody hell, I am service manager, my career is based around building relationships and nurturing them, there is minimal margin for error in this. Even before my current career I have always prided myself on having excellent judgement on people, it’s what helped me with Alan so much, I can see the best in people and get the best out of people and I love that.

Despite the if’s and why’s i still I miss him! It’s this un-comprehendible urge I have to be near him that drives me crazy, I know it’s stupid and I know he doesn’t want me, but my instinct is telling me to keep trying, maybe its nothing, but it doesn’t feel like that, it feels like I shouldn’t give up on him… again unsure if this is a gut instinct I should follow or more the fact I feel like he struggles or is also lonely at times and I want to be there for him.

So the now…

 Friday Day…

Last Friday I had possibly the most important presentation of my career so far, it was with my biggest and most prestigious customer I have been given since being head hunted for private sector networks, the meeting was amazing! , my presentation went off without a hitch! And the customer loved it…a huge win!.... on that high me and my colleague Rob went to the pub to work for the rest of the afternoon…. Perfect day!.. a bit in to our working out of the pub adventure, rob got called back to the office, so it was just me myself and I, I checked my phone & me and Nick exchanged some texts, I drop in I am working out of a pub in Westminster…. The next is simple, he confirms he is finishing work, do I fancy a pint, I said yes, sent him the details of where I was

I worked for another hour, but still no Nick…. I waited a further hour after finishing my work, still no Nick despite calling and messaging him, at the time I thought he had stood me up, not going to lie, made my day pretty poo, I hadn’t asked for him to meet me, he had suggested it, luckily my colleague Rob came back for one more drink, kinda saved me from thinking about it too much, but 20 minutes later when I finally left leaving Rob at the Pub I started thinking again, I was so angry that he had made me feel like this on a day that was perfect and then I started thinking why do I care so much?!??.... it highlighted that I do still like Nick and that worried me, because in my heart of hearts I just wanted to be friendss…. Anyway, sometime later he called advising his battery died and then he got a flat tyre as he got to Westminster, which is a perfectly reasonable excuse, but the whole situation had still made me feel bad.

Friday Night….

Despite this situation that could not be helped I snapped myself out of it, that night I was going to see Isla who had invited me to Jamie’s houses, Nick was also going, the night was great, had lots of fun with these amazing people, but I always feel like Nick is avoiding me, he will engage with Isla and Jamie on a level, but he always seems to be dodging me or it would end up me just talking at him, I mean I am probably exaggerating a bit here, but he is definitely colder to me than the others and Isla noticed it too. Considering how well we get on and our previous intimacy I wouldn’t have thought it would be like that with us.

Another item to note is we did all get messy, this can blur ones judgement on situations, but despite this again, I just wanted to prove we could be pals, I really feel a connection to him and as I said before, I don’t know why, but something is there, which is why it’s so important I prove to myself that we can be friends.

Eventually in the AM we all passed out in the living room, Jamie gently guided us all up to our respective sleeping places, he asked me if I minded sharing a bed with Nick and I said its fine, honestly didn’t mind, I was so sleepy from Valium and we are just pals…Nick eventually gets in to the bed and instantly spoons me, leaving no gap between us and puts his arm over me, it was so nice and comforting, I didn’t even think about anything sexual and in my current messed state I was just happy to be warm and comfy with someone I care about.

The next morning I thought about it all more, it confused me no end…. I had enjoyed it platonically but what was Nick playing at if we are just friends… I decided not to dwell on it too much.

Tuesday..

Me and Nick had planned to go for dinner and a catch up a few weeks back, I was in the citi office in Canary Wharf that day so it worked out perfectly, we had arranged to go to Meat liquor and I enquired on what time we should meet. I know Nick has been busy with work and life etc recently…. so his replies have become more stretched out and less engaging, which is all the more reason why I was looking forward to having some one on one time to catch up and talk about nothing Important and eat great burgers!

But then he cancelled on me because he is busy at work and had to work till 8, which is fair enough, but it wasn’t the nicest of texts and considering we had this planned for some time I felt he was pretty short with me…. Nope, it was just rude!..... I know he is busy, but I wouldn’t treat him like that nor any of my pals!..... I had a a busy day myself and was enjoying it as luckily I had some amazing people around me who distracted me, but again more bloody realisations, I was hurt, I had been looking forward to seeing him, I had been kidding myself, I still liked him! What an idiot I have been.

I still haven’t replied to his message, the thing I hate the most is he doesn’t even try to work with me, if he had looked further than himself he would of known I was working till 7, we could of still grabbed a quick bite to eat etc, but then if he did care, he would of asked, so I sat in my office well in to the evening I again have a realisations I have potentially fallen for someone who doesn’t care for me or how they make me feel.

I feel like a coward, so scared to tell him how I truly feel, but its not like he gives me the best opportunities to open up, I really want to tell him everything, just so he can prove me right, he doesn’t like me, he doesn’t care for me, then I can get hurt and heal rather than being stuck in this perpetual limbo!

So where does this leave me?....

Whenever I listen to my music at the moment it spins me out, so many of the artists and bands I have come to love came from him, it’s a reminder of him and music is my universal conductor between emotion and reality, apart from isla and the gym it is one of few things that keep me sane!.... and then Isla is obviously with Jamie, she talks about him a lot! which I don’t mind at all, I am here for her always! But it is again a constant reminder of Nick!.... I feel I have two options, fade in to the back ground, bury it, try and forget it even to my own personal detriment OR I am Nat, I am honest, I tell him how I feel and let the chips fall where they may.

All I know for sure is I like Nick, I miss having sex with him, I miss being silly with him, I don’t know what changed, was it me?.... did he act different with me because of me? Who knows… but I like him, I want to have fun with him…. I don’t want a boyfriend, I don’t want a relationship, I want to be free, but I also want someone to bee intimate with, to share in adventures with, someone who fun things can happen with organically.

I don’t know what I should do but I know I need to make a decision.

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