#who wants to compete with this negative list w

[dodger-chan]

My brain is really fixated on this right now (I'm procrastinating) so I present the definitive list of who likes and hates Reagan in Stranger Things:

The Byers Family:

Joyce is far too overwhelmed most of the time to really think about politics. She didn't vote for Reagan in '80 and wouldn't have in '84, if she'd remembered to vote (normally I'd give her shit for forgetting, but her boyfriend died and her son was possessed by an extra-dimensional horror the day before the election)(Lonnie Byers is a dick whoever he voted for. Probably a Reagan Democrat, but I don't care enough about his character to be sure.)

Jonathan Byers is not very engaged in politics, like his mom, and for most of the same reasons. He will come to hate Reagan as he gets older and starts paying more attention to politics

Will Byers like many kids doesn't know a lot about politics. At twelve he feels vaguely positive towards Reagan because he's the president and the president is supposed to be good. By fifteen he is aware of the AIDS epidemic and what the Reagan administration is doing about it (essentially nothing). Season 4 Will loathes Reagan.

The Hendersons: Claudia Henderson is canonically a Democrat, which doesn't mean she hates Reagan, but does make it more likely. My guess is she hates Reagan. Dustin doesn't care much about politics and doesn't develop an interest over the first four seasons, so his opinion is shaped by his mother's; generally negative but he doesn't have enough knowledge to debate it.

The Sinclairs:

We don't know much about Charles and Sue, other than that they seem to love each other and their kids. I'm going to say they hate Reagan if for no other reason than not being blind to the racism in his campaigns (states rights to do what, exactly?)

Lucas at twelve hasn't developed any interest in politics, so like Dustin, goes along with his parents beliefs. By fifteen, though, he's getting more interested in the world at large and hating Reagan in his own right.

Erica actually kind of likes some aspects of trickle down economics (she envisions herself as a rich business woman and doesn't want to pay taxes). And he is right about the Russians being evil. But under his watch those Russians built a secret base in her town and hurt her friends. She thinks Reagan is not competent and someone else would do better. Doesn't like Reagan and I suspect will grow to hate him as she matures.

The Wheelers:

Have a Reagan/Bush sign in their yard in season 2. Sadly, Karen and Ted like Reagan.

Nancy in season 1 is young, idealistic, empathetic, and intelligent. She's just starting to get interested in politics and she does not like Reagan at all (she keeps quiet about it though; her parents would not approve). And the more she learns about the world, the less she likes him.

Mike Wheeler likes Reagan in the first few seasons. Hates him in season 4, due mainly to teenage rebellion and wanting to be like Eddie Munson.

Holly is too young to have a political opinion she didn't get from her family. Her ability to view the world is still too constricted by her parents. I see her as one of those people who became nostalgic for Reagan during the W presidency.

Barb is developing her political awareness along with Nancy. She also hates Reagan.

Jim Hopper: I hate to do this to you all, because I know he's a well liked character, but there is almost no chance that Hopper isn't a Reagan voter. He is a small town police chief who lives largely off the grid. He does not care for the federal government, and Reagan promised to keep that government out of his way. And since the lab has been around since the 60s, he probably doesn't blame the Reagan administration for any of the Upside Down or what El went through.

El/Jane Hopper: probably doesn't know who Reagan is until after season 2. Holds onto a vague approval of Reagan in Hopper's honor through season 4, but is beginning to have doubts.

Steve Harrington: I really want him to hate Reagan. But his parents are definitely Reagan supporters and while I see Steve as a genuinely good person he's also a guy who goes along with things rather than questioning them. So he probably likes Reagan until Robin and her hippie parents teach him better post season 3. (Unless there really was a hot girl who hated Reagan at Hawkins High. Steve may be a guy who has to be told things, but he does listen.)

Tommy H and Carol: They've never given national politics a thought, and won't for many years (post college). Whether or not they end up liking Reagan will depend on what crowds they fall in with at college. I could definitely see Tommy as one of those gay Republicans, though.

Mr. Clarke: Hates Reagan for his devaluing of the American public education system. Would never talk about politics with his students, though.

Murray Baumann: Hates Reagan, but not because he thinks Reagan is an especially bad president or person. Murray just reflexively hates all politicians.

Kali Prasad: hates any and all representatives of the government that kidnapped and tortured her in the name of science, including Reagan.

Bob Newby: probably likes Reagan, but is one of those people who think politics isn't very important.

The Hargrove family:

We know hardly anything about Max's mom, and all we know about her step-dad is that he's abusive and violent. They're middle-class white people so by demographics they probably like Reagan.

Billy doesn't have the mental bandwidth for politics. He experiences mainly anger and fear that has neen sublimated into anger. Hates Reagan the way he hates pretty much everyone else.

Max doesn't have a strong opinion until Mondale picks Ferraro as his running mate. Baby feminist Max wanted a woman vice president, so she started looking for reasons to like Mondale/dislike Reagan. Once she was looking, they were easy to find. Loathes Reagan, and tries to convince El to join her in her loathing.

The Buckleys: They're hippies who didn't stop being hippies when the draft ended. Richard and Melissa despise Reagan and all he stands for. Robin is independent enough that she doesn't need to rebel against her parents' political beliefs when they're clearly the correct ones.

Alexei: Desires nothing more than to be fully corrupted by the capitalist west. Knows Reagan only as a symbol of evil and loves him for it.

Ms. Kelly: Not a Reagan fan, but like Mr. Clarke keeps it to herself.

Mayor Kline: Respects Reagan as a fellow corrupt politician. What's the point of power if you aren't using it for personal gain?

Argyle: Only doesn't hate Reagan because Argyle doesn't do hate. He lived with that man as governor before the rest of the country had to experience him as president. He knows exactly what Reagan is (terrible).

Jason Carver: a Reagan supporter from a family of Reagan supporters.

Chrissy Cunningham: likes him well enough, she supposed. Her parents like Reagan, and they know better than she does. (Had she lived, either she would have married Jason right out of high school and continued making herself small and voting for Republicans or she would have come into herself at college and met new people and formed new opinions . I'm not sure which. )

Munson family: Wayne's a union guy and doesn't like Reagan's anti-labor policies. Eddie is a contrarian who hates authority. Reagan is despised in their home.

Fred Benson: actually dislikes Reagan as an act of teenaged rebellion against his parents. Would probably have reconsidered as an adult if he hadn't died.

Patrick McKinney: old enough to recognize a racist dog whistle when he hears one, even if it comes from the president. Hates Reagan, but isn't going to bring it up around his teammates.

Andy (Jason's sidekick): that kid clearly likes Reagan.

[justfor2am]

ONE LAST ASK .i cant sleep so i finally read the first ssk i sent tsht u answered and i want u to go in2 more depth w the songs n playlists n shit u mentioned in there .this is separate from the other music ask yea 👍 gn for real probs. btw its so sad that my parrot emoji used to be mostly red like whatever the coloring people draw grian w idk names of any birds but owls but they changed it

🦜

^ idk what kind of phone u have but i have android .before my ohone updated he was a lil red guy n now hes GREEN .i had this fucker in my old discord theme thank god i changed it before it changed for me bc this HURTS goddamn i want my red fuckign bird bsck

ok gn 4 rral the whiplash of my music going from stray kids to stevie nicks is enough to make me pass out (do not let my listing of artist names fool u i only know one stevie nicks song n its edge of seventeen .the skz song was sunshine tho Btw)

AOUGH what did they do to my parrot boy.....

i don't know any songs by stevie nicks so tbh you've got me beat either way LMAO OKIE so analysis time uhhhh lemme see the post

It's Never Enough by we are the dirt: this song is thematically about an individual with rapidly declining mental health, seeking out a gruesome end to escape the bottomless emotions associated with a terrible breakup. it's melodramatic, it's way over blown, it's delightfully obscene in its depictions of bodily gore, it's soooooooo scarian.

as far as a fic goes, i would want to lean heavily into the vex cannibalism aspect that's canon to scar, with the setting being third life. a rotted corpse walking around the living with red in his eyes and barely contained inhuman hunger roaring in his ears? held only at bay because of "he" whom is now indebted to that corpse? who pledges him his first life and watches scar fall into insanity and in the end, strikes him down himself, that love which was the only thing keeping scar alive, not enough to save him in the end? sounds like a good hurt/no comfort fic to me.

some lyrics that i think especially apply: "‘Cause if I can't taste your lips just let me taste blood and nothing else." "They'll be with me in life and death and after I take my final breath, they'll crawl in through my rotting flesh and eat away my skin." "He said “don’t trust your eyes they always lie they always lie, only trust what you feel” but I feel you in my dreams and you're next to me and you're never real."

now, actor au!

grian: Don't Assume What You Don't Know by Grace VanderWaal -a song about being blindsided by an industry that promised you riches and fame, only to be cast aside at best, taken advantage of at worst jealousy, jealousy by Olivia Rodrigo -a song about being jealous of people who aren't competing with you, nor are they trying to make you feel inferior, but letting yourself get carried away with self-inflicted negative emotions You Stupid Bitch by girl in red -lightly tsundere grian my beloved. this is what he wants to scream at scar, if only he could admit to himself that he actually cares about him beyond a superficial, physical level.

scar: SCOOP by Lil Nas X feat. Doja Cat -a song about constantly being one step ahead of a ruthless industry that is just waiting for you to fail. Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High by Arctic Monkeys -a part of grian and scar's relationship that i haven't been able to explore yet, but i definitely will be making space for. -in short, grian's deadset on the rules in their "arrangement", but scar's already in love with him. being told that their private meetings are primarily contingent on them hooking up, and nothing more, isn't exactly easy for scar to process. Boyfriend by Dove Cameron -the person he pretends to be: suave, charming, a smooth-talker. while scar is capable of being all those features, in truth he wants to be this person to grian only. he wants to sweep grian off his feet and be able to say that openly.

[theastrophilearchitect]

February 2021 wrap-up.

Every book, audiobook, tv show and movie I consumed in February.

The phrase ‘wrap-up’ is so boring. I want to talk about books, TV shows and movies, so I can’t even call it a ‘reading wrap-up’, however pleasingly alliterative that sounds despite the fact that ‘wrap’ actually begins with a W. One of my favourite YouTubers, polandbananasBOOKS (that capitalisation is loud) calls her wrap-ups ‘Stories I Ate This Month’ which I love, but using exactly that seems wrong. I genuinely debated calling this ‘My Media Diet’, but the word ‘diet’ has so many negative connotations to me, so I dropped that. Besides ‘wrap-up’ all in lowercase followed by a full stop is aesthetically pleasing.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (audiobook) I’ve read this series countless times. I read the series first time through six years ago, and, after finishing it, I just kept rereading it during silent reading time at school, so God only knows how many times I’ve read it at this point. This is actually the second time I’ve listened to this audiobook, and I still, of course, love it. When I first read it, this book stuck with me. It was the first teen book I ever read and, most unfortunately, put me into a dystopian phase. However, we got over that. I’m good now. I promise.

You know what this is about, but here it is anyway: in a dystopian future (of literally just North America, it never mentions what’s happening anywhere else), a country called Panem (literally the whole of North America) is divided into the luxurious, utopian Capitol, and thirteen districts, all of which gather or produce something for the Capitol. Some of the districts live in poverty, while others are afforded some luxuries but nowhere near those of the Capitol. It never really explains how this system came to be, but then there was a rebellion against the Capitol in which District Thirteen was destroyed, and every year two teenagers from each district are chosen to compete in the Hunger Games, where twenty-four tributes are put in an arena together to fight to the death, and the last person standing emerges victorious. It feels so strange to talk about the basic premise of this book without going into the rest of the trilogy, but I’ll leave it here.

I hate how the media washes this book out and plays it off as just another love triangle, which it barely even is. It has such an important message about society, and the fact that the media does that just proves how accurate it is. I can’t believe when I first read it I was actually Team Gale, but in truth I think that was just because I liked Liam Hemsworth better than Josh Hutcherson, which I still do, but not the point. Anyway, the narrator is excellent.

I’m not giving these booksa rating, both because it’s a reread and I like to base ratings off my initial opinion, and because the first time I read this book I was literally a small child, and part of my love is the nostalgia.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

This was the first book I read with my eyes this month, and I ended up getting the ebook because it was just so much cheaper than getting a physical copy - I may have invested if I loved the UK cover as much as the US, I’m ashamed to say (above is UK). It was not what I was expecting.

This book was much more contemplation-heavy than I was expecting and actually very light on plot. In 1714, Adeline LaRue runs away from her wedding and prays to Gods, wishing to be free, and is answered by the darkness, who makes her a deal: he grants her immortality, and she promises him her soul when she doesn’t want it anymore. He, wanting her soul, twistedly grants her freedom by cursing her to be forgotten by everyone she ever meets. Three hundred years later, she meets someone who remembers her.

It’s really about life, freedom and time - there’s no direct message or moral, at least not that I picked up on, but it really makes you think. I do enjoy that in a book, but not as much as one where i just love the story. I generally prefer books where I’m rooting for the characters, and it’s full of ships - the kind of stories you would write fanfiction about, but this is the kind of book that I think will stick with me. I take issue with how cliché the ending was, though.

Anyway, I’m not actually sure how I want to rate this. As a British teenager, I’m not actually that familiar with lettered ratings, and I don’t really want to use stars, but I think I’m going to suck it up. Maybe I’ll think of something else eventually.

Rating: 4.5 stars - books that get five stars from me are generally based on the enjoyment factor, but this book deserved more than four.

Arrow Season 1

I’ve been semi-interested in the Arrowverse/DC TV universe for a while, and finally took the opportunity to delve in. This show is so insanely CW - everyone has that look, it has that tone and it takes itself way too seriously. By the 23rd time you’re hearing it, the recap becomes painful to listen to.

This was the first show in DC’s saga - the show picks up as Oliver Queen returns home from being stranded on an island for five years after a cruise ship sank. When the ship went down, his billionaire father sacrificed himself to save Oliver, and left him with a list of ‘the people poisoning [his] city’. Upon returning home, Oliver becomes the vigilante who will eventually become known as ‘Arrow’ or ‘Green Arrow’ (currently unclear; I’m not a comic book person) but is currently dubbed just ‘the Hood’ or ‘the vigilante’, with the goal of taking down the people on the list. It’s very intense.

It took me about ten episodes to actually get invested - which is nearly seven hours watch time - but, ultimately, I’m glad that I did. Aside from the excessive CW-ness of this show, I love the characters and I want to see what happens.

Still, why is everyone so obsesses with Laurel? What’s so great about Laurel? I don’t get it. Felicity is 10000% the best character - she’s relatable, cute, and I high-key ship her with Oliver.

This little rant of mine was unintelligible.

Rating: 4 stars

Guardians of the Galaxy

I’m not explaining what this movie is about. Honestly. This was just a rewatch: I’m currently rewatching every MCU movie in chronological order (as in, starting with Captain America: The First Avenger instead of Iron Man). For every TV season I finish, I watch a a movie, and I alternate between movie series, one of which is, at the moment, MCU films. It’s hard for me to briefly explain my weird watching patterns.

I love this movie so much. It was the first really upbeat MCU movie, and I love the characters.

I don’t really have much to say about this, but if you haven’t watched MCU movies, please watch them. Even if you don’t want to, this movie is absolutely worth watching and you don’t need to watch any other MCU movies for context.

I Am Not Okay With This Season 1

I’m reeling from this show. I literally can’t tell whether or not this is getting a second season; it seems like it was meant to, but then got cancelled, and now I can’t tell.

This show follows a high school student named Sydney. She’s your typical outcast, and isn’t interested in getting ‘in’ - she’s best friends with a girl named Dina; they both came to their school around the same time and ended up friends, though Dina is your typical pretty girl. Then Syd discovers she has powers that operate based on her emotions, and I really don’t want to say anything else. But it does star Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff, who you likely know as two of the kids in IT (the clown movie, not like computing).

Honestly, episodes 1-6 were very chill, more focused on teenage life than her powers, then episode 7 brought it. Up until the end of episode 7, I enjoyed the show and would be happy to watch a second season, but I wasn’t particularly invested or excited by it. Then episode 7. I would love a second season of this show. I have to at least know where the writers were going with it.

This show came out last year, and I only just got to it, but I can’t believe I haven’t heard anybody talking about it. It’s intense, it’s entertaining, and the first season will only take up about two and a half hours of your time (it’s seven 19-28 minute episodes).

Rating: 4 stars

Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

I listened to The Raven Cycle audiobooks in 2019, and I’m not sure why because I didn’t even enjoy them that much. I did, however, decide I wanted to read Call Down the Hawk, the first book in the spin-off series, and that meant I had to reread The Raven Cycle since I had paid so little attention to the audiobooks, which I started in January and I love this series. Not what I expected from a reread of a series I paid virtually no attention to, but here we are.

This is book 3 in The Raven Cycle series, book 1 being The Raven Boys, which is a paranormal book in which the protagonist Blue, is the only non-psychic in a family of psychics, and has been told her whole life that if she kisses her true love, she will kill him. Then, on St Somebody’s Eve (Mark’s? I want to say Mark’s but I’m not sure), when she goes with her aunt to see the spirits of the people who will die in the next year, she sees one of the spirits, a boy from Aglionby Academy, the local private school, meaning he is either her true love, or she is the one who kills him, which in her case, could very much be both. Then that boy schedules a reading with her psychic family to help him find an old Welsh king, and there is so much more than that to this glorious series, but I’ll stop here.

I think my main thing in books and general media is the characters. They have to follow some kind of sensible plot, but if I’m not invested in the characters, I can’t get invested in the story. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been so in love with a cast of characters, not even in Six of Crows - this story is so character-driven, and I can’t get enough. This was an excellent continuation, and so much happened, but it did feel like its purpose was just to set up the final book, so I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the previous two.

Rating: 4 stars

As for The Raven King - this was the last book I read this month, finishing it on the morning of the 27th because I knew I would have very little reading time from mid-afternoon until twenty-four hours later.

In complete honesty, I found the climax of this book to be a little rushed - we spend the whole series aware that Gansey’s looking for Glendower, but it never seems to be more prevalent than just their general investigations as to what the hell is happening. As a result, when it came to that in this book, it felt a little out of the blue (no pun intended).

Regardless, this series so well balances strong characters and strong plot where so many others fail, and I love it.

Rating: 5 stars

Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1

This show is a live-action rated-15 Netflix adaptation of one of my favourite childhood shows, Winx Club. And, honestly, you can tell.

I tried to watch this objectively, instead of complaining about how they cut some of my favourite characters and changed so many (Tecna, Riven, Beatrix, Stella, Brandon etc.). While I was upset about some of the cuts, I can agree that they were best for the story. Where in the original, every fairy had their own unique powers, this adaptation splits it into five elements: fire (Bloom), water (Aisha - on another note, screw Aisha, honestly), air (Beatrix), earth (Terra) and mind (Musa), though Stella still has light powers? Which is never explained?

Anyway, this follows teenage Bloom as she discovers she’s a fairy and goes through her first year at a fairy school called Alfea.

I’m not going to go too deep into this because I have so much to say about this show that i think I’m going to make a whole separate review rather than bore you with it now. 

Quality-wise, this show was mediocre, but enjoyment and nostalgia raise its rating for me because I’m biased.

Rating: 4 stars

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

This is both Bardugo’s first adult novel and her first novel not set in the Grishaverse. I read the Grisha trilogy for the first time years ago and didn’t like it that much, but followed that right up with the Six of Crows duology which I loved. I read King of Scars in 2019 when it came out, and started listening to the King of Scars audiobook just before I started reading this in preparation for Rule of Wolves at the end of March.

I loved this. I don’t think I have anything to criticise quality-wise - the characters had depth, there were plot twists and strong subplots, the world was incredibly well built, and the only thing that got me to put this book down was taking a week to start working on my own writing project (post coming soon). Because I took that week completely off reading, this book took me about two weeks total from start to finish, but it was so worth it.

This novel follows Alex Stern, a twenty-year-old whose friends have all been murdered. She was found beside one of them who died of a overdose, with the same drug in her system. But Alex can see ghosts, and, soon after her friends’ deaths, is consequently offered a scholarship to Yale University, on the condition that she works for the ninth House of the Veil to monitor the activities of Yale’s secret societies.

In complete candour, I found this book somewhat convoluted, though most of that was probably mainly my own poor reading comprehension. Regardless, I loved the plot, and am very highly anticipating the eventual release of its as-of-yet unnamed sequel.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

So I actually finished this audiobook briefly after finishing Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but I’m tacking it on here because I forgot to add it to the list and already explained my Grishaverse experience in my Ninth House comments.

So, yes, I love this duology, and it really opened a new compartment in my writing brain, even though I haven’t really taken advantage of that writing brain until now (again, post coming soon).

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

I am realising I’ve read eight books this month, and nearly half of them were by Leigh Bardugo. Which makes sense, considering how much I enjoy her books.

This book is slower-paced than most of hers, but it does follow two (one of which splits again) completely separate storylines, and is still excellent and entertaining.

I listened to this for a recap before Rule of Wolves is released on March 30th.

[opiatemasses]

Skiing – A Climate Change Casualty?

Skiing. We can all agree that if you’re reading this blog you have some interest in or have previously been on a skiing holiday. As someone who hasn’t been skiing for a while but used to go every year in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, I’m itching for a chance to return. But sadly, skiing is becoming more expensive, more crowded and the shortened ski seasons don’t help. That opportunity to go skiing could become impossible in a matter of years.

Climate change is an ever-present threat to the ski season. With the warm weather lasting longer (from late March/early April until late October), the ski season is inevitably shorter, which means less time on the slopes. One consequence is that ski resorts will have little choice but to inflate their prices because of having a reduced period in which to make sufficient profit. Ski shops and hire shops will come under pressure to do the same, the restaurants and cafes in the ski resorts will follow suit, resulting in an even more expensive holiday. Moreover, given there will be less time in the season to enjoy the slopes, visitors will be forced to arrive at the same time, leading to crowded slopes.

Along with climate change, more ski resorts will use fake snow in an attempt to prolong the season. This may seem okay, but if you’ve ever tried skiing on fake snow, you’ll appreciate it just isn’t the same. It’s also damaging to the environment and wouldn’t help one bit with climate change because it would affect the soil the grass needs to grow on in the summer seasons. Without the grass to eat, the animals would disperse, and the natural biodiversity of the area would be negatively impacted.

This paragraph will be dedicated to the science side of things, but I’ll keep it brief! A qualitative study by Stoddart in 2011 examined skiing magazines, resort websites, as well as interviewing skiers on their experiences and perceptions. Additionally, Stoddart would sit on ski lifts and at the bottom of the slopes and have conversations with skiers to gain information but not be intrusive. The study concluded “it would be useful for environmentalists to call attention to the more systematic ecological tensions embodied by the ski industry. Given that many skiers espouse environmental values and demonstrate environmental reflexivity, such a move would likely be welcomed by many participants in the sport.” Obviously, this would be a process but would almost certainly help prolong the ski season.

This research is supported by Steiger who in 2010 studied the ski resorts in Tyrol, Austria. In the Tyrol, three out of three resorts looked at will become unusable from 2040. That’s only 30 years away – a stark and sobering forecast. With the research concluding the Tyrol may not last as a suitable skiing destination in the years to come, the geography of skiing holidays are likely to change.

A Life on Our Planet is a new documentary on Netflix by Sir David Attenborough. This documentary is his witness statement to how humans have not just ruined the natural world but destroyed it. Speaking about his life and the adventures that have taken him all over the world to bring the wildlife within the natural world to the public’s television screens, Sir David explains what has happened to the world’s biodiversity and how without this, we won’t survive. Nevertheless, this statement goes on to say what key things can be done to reverse the damage done over the years. This one-off documentary also speaks about the temperature of the planet we live on and how year-by-year the world is getting warmer and the ice in the polar regions is melting. With the ice in the polar regions melting and the fact the world will run out of ice in years to come, the same will happen for the snow in the alps and at the top of mountains. No snow will mean one of two things, no skiing, or fake snow which would further damage the environment. Sir David also explains how the seasons will change with the deforestation of rainforests taking place on a regular basis. Explaining how the weather will become unpredictable if humans don’t change their ways of doing things, which could mean in the future we don’t get a ski season at all. However, this tells us that the ski season can be prolonged and the fact they’re already shorter now, can be changed and restored along with the biodiversity of the natural world.

The Climate Champions podcast (link below) is a good listen. The episode (season 1, episode 2) talks a little about the ski season and the impact of climate change, but how it will affect seasonal sports mainly. In the episode Daniel Scott, Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change at the University of Waterloo, talks about how the geography of the ski season will change and that ski resorts will have to compete even harder to gain enough profit to reopen.

https://www.sportecology.org/podcast

What can we collectively do to make a difference? There are several simple things that can be done to aid climate change, which will ultimately prolong the ski season. The website www.earthday.org is educational into what can be done to make simple but effective changes to our lives.

Get informed, learn about the environment and climate change, this can be done easily by reading science papers or watching documentaries. This will boost your knowledge of the subject so you will understand what you’re trying to gain from making the changes

Use energy more efficiently at home, don’t charge things all day every day, switch the lights off, simple things.

I’ll only mention one more otherwise you could be reading forever. Travel Smarter, instead of driving, jump on your bike or use public transport, maybe even walk to wherever it is you may be going.

These actions are very simple and easy to partake in, and they all aid climate change and will help the ski season each winter.

So, with all that said, it’s time for us all to step up and save the ski season from becoming extinct. Thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed your time reading and possibly listening to the podcast. I would also highly recommend that if you can, you watch A Life on Our Planet on Netflix.  This will increase your knowledge on the climate and how the biodiversity can be restored. I also hope that after reading and interacting with this, you will consider doing your bit to prolong the ski season, to aid the wildlife and your own personal health and to make those simple changes we all know you can easily do. Thank you.

N0930109

Recommended Reading / Reference List

EARTHDAY.ORG. (2020, November 19). Act on Climate Change. Earth Day.

https://www.earthday.org/campaign/act-on-climate-change/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwVHHo2kTDp84jz3brpWSHVT7_EdvPaaIt-9zoko3L6ctnZTuGvNiCxoCsC0QAvD_BwE 

Fry, J. (2017). The story of modern skiing. University Press of New England.

Rixen, C., Stoeckli, V., & Ammann, W. (2003). Does artificial snow production affect soil and vegetation of ski pistes? A review. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 5(4), 219-230.

Steiger, R. (2010). The impact of climate change on ski season length and snowmaking requirements in Tyrol, Austria. Climate research, 43(3), 251-262.

Stoddart, M. C. (2011). " If we wanted to be environmentally sustainable, we'd take the bus": Skiing, mobility and the irony of climate change. Human Ecology Review, 19-29.

[nonadhesiveness]

Madam Secretary: An Alphabet of Prompts (3)

Hello! Here’s another list of prompts. They are as tenuous as ever. Hope everyone is doing well with lockdowns/quarantines. Writing fics makes for a good distraction. (Hint, hint.)

A is for 'Allegation': An allegation is made against Henry (or Elizabeth) by a former student, either whilst they are at UVA, during Elizabeth's time at State or during the presidential campaign. 

B is for ‘Bullet’: After a series of assassination attempts/threats, Elizabeth still refuses to quit her job, despite Henry’s concerns and protests, causing tension in their marriage. But what happens when Henry ends up taking a bullet for her?

C is for ‘Charity case’: In college, Elizabeth suggests she could pay Henry’s tuition using her inheritance, and that way he wouldn’t have to serve with the Marines. Henry resents her for treating him like a charity case. 

D is for ‘Dating history’: Stevie has acquired herself another inappropriate choice of boyfriend. Elizabeth fears maybe Stevie’s pattern of poor choices is her fault for not being more present when Stevie was growing up.

E is for ‘Enlist’: Jason decides to enlist in the military. He thought his parents would be proud, and whilst Henry is, Elizabeth is far from happy, especially as one of her decisions might see her son go to war.

F is for ‘Father Figure’: At some point in Henry and Elizabeth’s relationship, Will comments that Elizabeth is practically dating (or practically married) their father. Henry comes to learn how similar he really is to Elizabeth’s father, and he becomes concerned. 

G is for ‘Gifts’: Just like Jason felt the need to make extravagant gestures in order to impress Piper, when they were in college, Henry felt the need to buy Elizabeth expensive gifts in order to keep up with her rich friends, including Joey. Turns out you can’t compete with Bahraini royalty no more than you can compete with Kuwaiti royalty.

H is for ‘Healing’: Elizabeth hasn’t always had such a positive relationship with food, and it’s only after she meets Henry that her relationship with food starts to heal.

I is for ‘Iran’: With Elizabeth’s ongoing struggles after Iran, she doesn’t confide in Henry, but she does confide in Will. When Henry finds out, he doesn’t know what to make of it. 

J is for ‘Joan’: Elizabeth’s Aunt Joan doesn’t approve of Henry—at all—and Henry doesn’t want to be the reason why Elizabeth loses another member of her family.

K is for 'Krav Maga': Elizabeth attends a Krav Maga session with Daisy, despite the protests of Mike B and her security detail. One of the guys there has vocal opinions about her and her abilities, but when she faces him in a sparring match, her CIA basic training comes into play.

L is for ‘Long-distance’: Elizabeth isn’t willing to do the whole long-distance relationship thing, so she breaks up with Henry when he first goes away for training, only to realise she’s made a huge mistake. 

M is for ‘Motherhood’: Henry feels that Elizabeth’s expectations of motherhood are a little unrealistic (including her notion about not using pacifiers or disposable diapers, never giving the baby a bottle, and treating all kids equal), and he fears she’s setting herself up for failure. 

N is for ‘Next of kin’: Elizabeth freaks out when Henry lists her as his next of kin. Or, Henry only finds out what happened to Elizabeth’s parents when she lists him as her next of kin.

O is for ‘Obsession’: There’s a new stalker on the scene. This guy targets Elizabeth personally and he makes the S3 stalker case look like a bedtime story in comparison.

P is for ‘Proposal’: 2x23 Blake, “The secretary’s a big fan of ‘asked first’.” / Jay, “Was that Dr McCord’s strategy, ma’am?” / Elizabeth, “Something like that.” Only…Henry wasn’t the first person who proposed to Elizabeth. 

Q is for ‘Quiz night’: It’s Adams vs McCord. (Everyone seems to hate Will, but I like him, so bonus points if you include him too.)

R is for ‘Rochana’: Rochana is smart, passionate and opinionated. In many ways she’s similar to Elizabeth, only better. Elizabeth doesn’t understand why Henry split up with Rochana, and if things didn’t work out between him and Rochana, then what chance does their relationship have of lasting?

S is for ‘Strawberry’: Elizabeth avoids all things strawberry after the car crash. Henry helps her to tackle that negative association and learn to love strawberry again.

T is for ‘The ’09 incident’: If you’ve read Ripple Effect, you know what I mean.

U is for ‘Ultimate frisbee’: Elizabeth and Henry first meet when Elizabeth gets hit in the head and knocked unconscious by a frisbee that Henry threw.

V is for ‘Virginity’: Elizabeth talks to either Stevie or Alison about her experience of losing her virginity, and Henry overhears.

W is for ‘Whale song’: Henry finds a lot of whale song/sounds on Elizabeth’s recently played list and he becomes concerned, especially seeing as she seems so fine on the outside, making him fear that she’s hiding things from him.

X is for ‘X-ray’: The first time Stevie breaks a bone she’s under Elizabeth’s supervision. Elizabeth has to explain to Henry that she broke their child. 

Y is for...: “You look really beautiful,” Henry says. To which Elizabeth replies, “You don’t get to say that to me anymore.”

Z is for ‘Zip it’: Elizabeth does something she’d really rather Henry didn’t hear about, but will the kids manage to keep a zip on it or will they rat her out?

[incorrectmlpquotes]

My Thoughts on Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

Or: Are we sure this didn’t come out in 2004 rather than 2014? Because the “battle of the bands”  story line feels super dated for some reason. I feel like almost every early 2000s cartoon had some sort of music contest episode, and I never liked them. I blame American Idol for making those popular.

Some History:

I’m under the impression that everything in this movie I dislike is a completely subjective thing that wouldn’t bother someone else. I know that, from a movie standpoint, this is much better than the first, but I just don’t like it as much. Everything that warrants complaint comes from a personal hangup that I have (such as: my lack of any musical ability causes me to not care at all whether their band is successful), so if you disagree, I completely understand. These are all my opinions, and I’m aware that this is probably the best of the four movies. (As stated on a previous post, I haven’t watched any of the shorts from 2017 or 2018 as of this entry)  

There were a series of promotional shorts released before the movie debuted that explains how the members of the Main 5 came to play their instruments in Rainbow Dash’s band, and some other random stuff. Here’s the link to the playlist on youtube. Here’s a quick rundown of what I think:

Music to My Ears : meh

Guitar Centered : funny, but kind of mean spirited

Hamstocalypse Now : Hilarious.

Pinkie on the One : exactly what you’d expect it to be

Player Piano: a masterpiece

A Case for the Bass: Applejack is one word, why would she have AJ embroidered on the strap? I know people call her that but those aren’t her initials

Life is a Runway: There’s a reason they didn’t let Rarity write the songs

Shake Your Tale: Bad.

This was a pretty clever way to establish some musical background within the group without taking up time in the movie. It also is some sneaky foreshadowing with Trixie, which I appreciate.

In the actual movie: My nitpicks are going to be less Why is no one in class? Why is doesn’t anyone have homework? Because I realize this is a movie and depicting high school as it actually is would be boring to watch. Besides, there are plenty of other things to complain about.

We open on a scene of this film’s villains. And yes I am going to refer to them as villains instead of antagonists because 1) they are actually a threat and we see them doing bad things, and 2) other people will serve as antagonists. A villain is different from an antagonist, even though the terms are often used interchangeably. 

The Dazzlings are so cool, they make a cameo four years later. Either this is some really deep foreshadowing, or by season seven the writers were so desperate for an ongoing arc, they looked to other properties. But we now know that the guardians banished them over 1,000 years ago. So they really are ancient magic. And now they have to go to high school. Talk about eternal torment… 

Way to take all the credit, Starswirl

We are shown how they are a sort of siren, who feed off of people’s negativity and discord and use their beautiful enchanted voices to cause mayhem. Kind of like a mix between Ursula the sea witch and Spectra from Danny Phantom. Oh my gosh, this is the second one of these reviews that I’ve brought up Danny Phantom. Maybe this is why Butch thinks he’s so popular.

The Dazzlings, we can infer, have been exiled to the EQG-verse from Equestria. So apparently this universe is like the pony version of colonial Australia, where they send all their criminals and miscreants. A solid plan that couldn’t have any negative repercussions. The sirens see a beam of light that must be the one from the last movie. This is good news for them, but bad news for me because now I have no idea how much time has passed the two films. Has it been a couple days? Weeks? Moons? This will make a difference in regards to why people still don’t trust Sunset. But why waste time setting up the story when we can get right into the remix title card?

At this point, I can only assume that principal Celestia threatened to expel students if they told the news or the FBI about the magical winged demon that attacked the school, because no one seems too concerned about that incident.

But they have plenty of time to hurt my baby’s feelings

I’m going to be honest, when I first watched EQG I thought that Sunset was faking her remorseful act after being defeated. As cool as that would have been, she makes a much better reformed bad guy than an antagonist, because she really wasn’t in the last movie that much.

List of “evil” things Sunset Shimmer has done: send fraudulent text messages and emails that honestly could have been pretty easily disproved, made fun of Fluttershy, made fun of the steamers in the gym, somehow divided the school into cliques, ran a mostly unsuccessful smear campaign against Twilight’s bid for dance princess, threatened to destroy the portal to Equestria, transformed into a demon to hypnotize the students, and she dissed the Apple cider. 

Ok, that last one is pretty evil. But what really makes this and all subsequent movies great is that we get to see her learn and grow and change from the experience into a real friend.

I am glad to see that the Main 5 have forgiven her, but no one is quite ready to absolve her of guilt. Like, I might not think she did all that much bad junk, but the students of Canterlot High seem to think she was one tier below Mussolini  in terms of maniacal dictators, so I don’t blame them for being cautious. It takes a lot to earn back trust.

Back in Equestria proper, the Mane six plus Spike are sitting around waiting for the plot to affect them. They kindly provide some exposition and once again setup the fact that only Twilight can go through the portal, because the others can’t interact with themselves. So we think. I will be bringing this up when we get to The Friendship Games.

Back through the portal, Twilight  gets looped into the fact that Sunset has changed her ways. It’s fair to be a little apprehensive to trust someone who, the last time you saw them, was an actual literal demon. (Don’t worry though, Twi, you’ve still got two more unicorns to reform. It’s kind of your thing.)

Don’t reject her love Twilight, it’s all I have to live for

And now it’s time to discuss the small blue elephant in the room. I feel like I really need to explain why I dislike the addition of Flash to any of the plots. He’s kind of a waste of a potential. You want to add a male character: fine. But make them an actual real fleshed-out character. The show has proven that they can do it and do it well. Sunburst and Thorax are great characters who feel like a good addition to the story. And we got a real sense of who they were in one or two twenty minute episodes. I have no clue what this guy’s purpose is except to be a love interest, and this is not the show to do that with. With very few exceptions, the main characters of MLP have not sought out romantic partners, Twilight included. Why would she choose to do so now? I mean, I get why he’s into Twilight: she’s taken the form of a cute teenage girl. But he’s a species that doesn’t even exist in Equestria. She just fell through a portal and instantly got the hots for some weird otherworldly creature…

Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. Perhaps this isn’t compulsory heterosexuality. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle is just a Monster Lover™. I can respect that.

Moving on.

It was so very smart of the writers to have the Dazzlings brainwash the principals in order to get away with this scheme. That makes so much more sense and covers any plot holes that could arise (such as, someone claiming to be a new student despite having no transcript, no grades, and no knowledge of how to hold a pen).

Does time work differently between these two universes? Has it been months in Equestria but only a week in this world? (It really threw me off that the first four season of MLP took place over one year, and these movies don’t help that). And the sad thing is, this could be easily hand-waved away by a single throw away line, but it isn’t.

The Dazzlings are already better villains than Sunset, even from a character standpoint. We know their powers, we know their motivation, and we know they are capable of bringing about an actually believable rift between friends.

Then the best song, best montage, and possibly best scene in any of these films happen: the Dazzling come into the lunchroom and hypnotize everyone. This song is beautiful and eerie and exactly what you would expect a magic spell to sound like. I also enjoy the visual representation of the bands competing (and not just because I didn’t want to hear any of them perform) that we’ll see later. To give credit where credit is due, this movies has some great visual sequences.

Give ‘em the o’l razzle dazzle

At first I thought it was unrealistic that this many kids had bands, but I realized it was probably an effect of the spell. But I might not be the best judge: I think I know maybe three people, plus myself, who don’t play an instrument. I’ll just assume that the Disney channel exists in this universe, and all these children just really want to be famous.

It’s worth sitting through this movie just to see everyone’s pajamas. That’s not weird, right? No really, the scene of them all having a big slumber party is everything I ever wanted from this series. They managed to capture everyone’s personality from an article of clothing. Now THAT’s good character design.

I get the distinct impression that the writers of this don’t like Rainbow Dash.

Oh good, references to technology that couldn’t possibly date this movie in the slightest. Wait… this is Pinkie’s house. Aren’t the Pies supposed to be like Amish or resembling Amish-type folk? What is the human equivalent of rock farmers? Not actual farmers because those exist in the pony-verse. This really confuses me, but Maude’s cameo is fantastic.

The scene with Twilight and Sunset is one of those really well-done moments that reminds me why I love the show so much. It feels really genuine, and supports my argument that it was worth having Sunset as a crappy villain just to reform her.

Ah yes, the sweet, lingering glances that totally platonic female friends share with each other late at night. I know them well.

Our girl Twily seems to be having trouble writing a spell that can double as a catchy pop song (She’s no Lana Del Rey), so they go with an old set list. How long has this band been operational? Weren’t they in a huge feud for several years?

Mac is a close second for best cameo

So we get to watch the band audition, and it goes about as well an actual high school talent show. The CMC are in the outfits from Showstoppers (which is hilarious) and Snips and Snails rap (which is disturbing). In order to keep my goblin brain from exploding while trying to figure out the ages of everyone, I’m just going to assume that this is a combination Middle School and High School. So, if Sunset won fall dance princess four years in a row, she would be in the tenth grade now, so they would be about 15-16. The Equestria Girls Holiday Comic shows Rarity driving a car, so that could be a possibility.

A. Daft. Punk. Reference. Wow. Just wow. (Note: this was more shocking before season five, when there was a character that was basically Lady Gaga. And by basically, I mean very obviously Lady Gaga. Remember when the pop culture references in this show were subtle?)

Dash’s song is quite possibly the most cringeworthy thing I have ever heard. The only defense is it does sound like something a high schooler would write.

On that note, why is Rainbow Dash the lead singer of the group? I mean, I know why, but WHY? (and yes, I am aware that her voice actress is a singer. But Ashleigh Ball uses her normal voice when she performs. Think back to all the songs RD has sung in the previous four seasons before this aired. There are not a lot of solos or high notes. When she sings as Applejack, it is beautiful, but Dash’s voice is grating sometimes)

Really? A battle of the bands is the greatest thing you’ve done at the school? That whole “stopping an actual demon with magic” was just a regular Friday for you? I’ll chalk that up to the brainwashing, otherwise I might go full on rage and throw my laptop out a window.

I guess our merry band of protagonists weren’t paying attention to big cafeteria scene, because they just now figured something suspicious is going on.

Still haven’t fixed the lights in that dim corner of lockers. Fortunately, there are many dramatic confrontations to be had.

I think we’re supposed to see Rarity’s obsession with the outfits as a ridiculous thing, but I think it’s important to distinguish this universe from the one with the professional seamstress who has unicorn magic at her disposal. This is a teenager who has school, extracurriculars, and parents to contend with. If I went through the trouble to hand-make seven costumes for my friends, then found out no one would wear them, I’d be pretty ticked off as well.

Now this is how you montage. We get to play a fun game of “guess which characters are in which band,” and seeing their “humanized” designs. Lotta bootcut pants in this show.

I’m just going to leave this here...

This is some actually effective villainy. The whole school has turned against each other. Maybe they need to learn about the magic of friendship. Unfortunately, the gang is too busy squabbling over band stuff, and Twilight is too distracted to give an overly emotional speech.

No one in the rule book does it say magically turning into a pony is grounds for disqualification...I would assume.

If we’re being honest here, the Dazzlings are better performers than the Rainbooms.

And we’ve come to the crux of things. The scene where they’re locked under the stage is the perfect example of my biggest issue with this movie. I do not like to see Mane 6 fight. I don’t like Trade Ya, I don’t like Putting Your Hoof Down, and I despise Look Before You Sleep. Seeing this otherwise close group of friends constantly have petty arguments, even if it’s for completely valid plot reasons, make me want to turn the movie off. This isn’t a criticism of the screenwriting, it is just a reason why I personally dislike Rainbow Rocks more than the other films.

Of course, they make up because this is about the magic of friendship and what not, but notice how no one actually apologizes for their behavior. No, “I’m sorry that I minimized your contribution to the group or made fun of something you were passionate about.” I realize they were under the influence of magic, but they also knew that! They knew the Dazzlings had the power to turn people against each other! An apology is just a preamble to fundamental behavior change, and if they don’t realize why they were being bad friends, how can they learn from anything?

And the real kicker is, they knew what the Dazzlings were capable of. Twilight read a book about them immediately before going through the portal. It’s not they they just learned that they spread chaos. Why are we fighting? Gee, I don’t know.

DJ-ex-machina. I’m ok with this.

To the movie’s credit, the finale really has one of the best song of the movie. And by that, I of course mean Trixie’s song. Trixie is the most fun addition to the cast. She makes for a fun antagonist, on her own and as a Pawn to the Dazzlings.

Fight scene! Fight scene! We’re gonna have a fight scene!

Now that they’ve put their petty squabbles behind them, it’s time for a big music battle. The Dazzlings pony up harness the energy of the audience to project their Equestrian selves to...I don’t know. Take over the world or something.

This isn’t even their final form

Oh. This design looked better in book form

Sunset is Magic. That’s the show.

So the stones auto-tuned them, and that made everyone mindlessly antagonistic. I’m sure there’s some clever commentary there.

T’was the magic of friendship that killed the beast.

No, you don’t get to just rejoin the plot

Thank you, Trixie.

The real story here is how Principal Celestia will pay off the press.

Thus Twilight goes back to the land of horses, Starlight has been truly forgiven, and my Netflix suggestions will never been the same again.

I want to give a big shout out to the person who put all the captions on the image gallery for this movie’s wikia page. They are funnier than I could ever hope to be.

Some general thoughts:

The scene of Twilight awkwardly yelling “Friendship is magic!” to a room of confused teenagers is the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen, but it got a good laugh out of me. Look at the Dazzlings faces in this scene. “Ok, we legitimately didn’t see that coming.”

One of the reasons that I am so drawn to the show is that they are able to create conflict and drama without being mean-spirited. I have to deal with that kind of nonsense so much in my daily life, I just don’t want to subject myself to eighty minutes of it. But i get it: from a narrative standpoint, this is the most cohesive. There’s some good set up and pay off, and an actually intimidating villain who is actually present in the plot.

I love Trixie so much, I should be dead. She really is the star of the show. I forgot how little we saw of her before season six.

The stinger, oh the stinger. Forget what I said about the pajama party; it was worth sitting through this for the promise of an interesting sequel.

We’ll get to you soon, you marvelous lesbian disaster.

Starlight’s redemption is the best part of this franchise, and it’s worth all the nonsense to hear Rebecca Shoichet’s angelic voice.

From a purely film standpoint, this is probably the best one of the bunch. It has a clear structure, everyone’s motivations check out, there’s an actual climax that feels earned. I just don’t enjoy it. There are worse ways to spend eighty minutes 3.7/5

The worst thing to come from this, however, is the terrifying merchandise:

What Fresh Hell is This?

[thesportssoundoff]

“A tremendous title fight, a buncha old dudes and moral dilemmas” UFC 237 preview

Joey

May 8th, 2019

In many ways, UFC 237 is a unique card and yet it is, in many ways, a throwback card. This is the sort of show the UFC tries to pull off when it knows what the main event is and it knows that it needs some serious protection. In the old PPV era, this would be the kind of card where your mileage would vary depending upon how hooked up to a nostalgia drip you are. Nowadays with them getting a guaranteed payout before a PPV even sees the air, this kind of card feels retro. It's got a competent title fight with a bevy of names you'd recognize who fall on the spoiled side of their MMA expiration dates. It's like a Mighty Mouse card (albeit with a far more compelling main event) in a market that still has pings and feels for a show like this. Brazilians want to see their heroes and so the company is trotting out the likes of Anderson Silva, Jose Aldo, Lil Nog, Thiago Alves and a whole host of familiar names and faces potentially for the last time. It's Brazil vs the world (for the most part) with just enough good vibes and fair matchmaking to give the fans potentially one big feel good moment. I just also know that this card is for a very niche audience which you might not be in there.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Viviane Araujo, Carlos QuirLoz, Luana Carolina

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 4 (Wu Yanan OUT, Priscila Cachoeira IN vs Luana Carolina/Jessica Rose Clark OUT, Melissa Gatto IN vs Talita Bernado/Said Nurmagomedov OUT, Carlos Quiroz IN vs Raoni Barcelos/Melissa Gattoo OUT, Viviane Araujo IN vs Talita Bernardo)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 11 (Anderson Silva, Jose Aldo, Rose Namajunas, Jessica Andrade, Thiago Alves, Francisco Trinaldo, BJ Penn, Clay Guida, Big Nog, Bethe Correia,Priscila Cachoeira )

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (BJ Penn, Priscila Cachoeira)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 7 (Jessica Andrade, Rose Namajunas, Alexander Volkanovski, Jose Aldo, Carlos Diego Ferreira, Irene Aldana, Raoni Barcelos)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 25-11

Rose Namajunas- 3-0 Jessica Andrade- 4-1 Anderson Silva- 1-1 Jared Cannonier- 2-3 Jose Aldo- 2-2 Alexander Volkanovski- 5-0 Thiago Alves- 2-2 Laureano Staropoli- 1-0 Francisco Trinaldo- 2-2 Diego Ferreira- 3-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Lightweight-  3 (30) Women’s Bantamweight- 2 (5) Welterweight- 2 (29) Women’s Strawweight- 1 (12) Women’s Flyweight-  1 (14) Light Heavyweight- 1 (17) Featherweight-  1( 21) Middleweight- 1 (15) Bantamweight- 1 (24)

Heavyweight- (15) Flyweight- (7)

2019’s Records We Keepin’ Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (11-30):  Carlos Quiroz, Melissa Gatto, Luana Carolina

Short Notice Fighters (13-15): Melissa Gatto, Carlos Quiroz, Priscila Cachoeira

Second Fight (30-7): Ryan Spann, Laureano Staropoli, Thiago Moises

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (10-18): Bethe Correia, Rose Namajunas

Undefeated Fighters (16-22): Melissa Gatto

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (6-6): BJ Penn

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (14-9): Kurt Holobaugh

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- If this show was on traditional PPV, how many buys would it get? Is 125K satisfactory given the conditions?

2- Rose Namajunas vs Jessica Andrade IS in all honesty a compelling title fight. It pits pretty much the division's top finisher (Rose Namajunas) against the division's top pressure fighter (Andrade) with the champion opting to face the champion on HER home turf, creating for a pretty compelling narrative to be told. They have more similarities offensively than people give them credit for; both Rose Namajunas and Andrade do their best work coming forward, pressuring albeit in different ways. They're cardio machines, cutting a pace early and dictating both the range and the tempo of the fight. For Rose, she's long enough and creative enough that its a pick your poison type affair. You can fight her at range, get picked apart from a distance with kicks and her really good straight shots OR you can blitz her, clinch with her and hope you're strong enough to win inside consistently. Andrade offers you no choice but to fight her fight for however long it goes. She cuts a relentless pace, has Mr. X level pursuit and while I think her power shouting vs Karolina was more of a perfect shot, she hits hard enough to break just about anybody. Even against Joanna, she still did her thing (pressure, come forward, blitz like a mad woman) which Joanna having the ability to win behind a tremendous jab and superior footwork. Rose CAN follow Joanna's gameplan of kicks + jab + circling for twenty five minutes, flustering Andrade from a distance but I'm not sure if she can do that while dealing with the pressure of Jessica Andrade for 25 minutes. Even against the likes of Tecia Torres and Joanna, Rose had those lapses in concentration where it felt like she stopped fighting her fight and needed to be reminded by her corner to mentally check back in. You have to be there every single second of an Andrade fight because she is a momentum creature.

3- Given how hard Andrade pressures and how long Rose is, I wonder if takedowns are going to be apart of the gameplan for Namajunas. Andrade's build and her wrestling normally prevent attempts but Rose is the better grappler by far who can probably score a finish in a variety of spots on the ground. Being underneath Andrade's ground and pound is a miserable endeavor BUT she's also reckless enough that limbs and necks get left out there for experienced enough submission artists. Could/Would Rose pull guard?

4- If Max Holloway is going to fight in Anaheim as he's suggested (Late August for those curious),  you have to assume that Volkanovski vs Aldo is a pseudo #1 contender fight. So what happens if Aldo wins? Is that where the UFC blows the dust off of Frankie Edgar?

5- Does anyone truly believe Anderson retires after this fight with Jared Cannonier?

6- Looking at this card on paper with its host of "legends" bound to generate some buzz in Brazil, it's a bummer they couldn't of found a way to get Johnny Walker on the card. Would've been a great rub for him with guys like Aldo and Silva on the show.

7- At some point Francisco Trinaldo is going to buck the conventional wisdom and fight like his age, right?

8- I don't know if it's the fact that they're both elder statesmen who fight younger than they are but look older than their birth certificates claim or the fact that both basically cut their teeth carving up mid tier dudes in their respective divisions but Francisco Trinaldo and Cowboy Oliveira sure seem to have a lot in common. Both are really aggressive somewhat limited guys whose limitations show up when they attempt to make the long march to the top of their division. Both Oliveira and Trinaldo rely on brute force strength with so-so fight IQ but a surprising wealth of ways to be violent if they so choose them. Trinaldo faces Carlos Diego Ferreira who burst onto the scene with the UFC and then just kinda stalled out in no small part due to injuries and one of those supplement suspensions. Carlos is coming into his own based off back to back wins vs top competition and while I don't know if he'll ever be a consistent top 10-15 lightweight, there's light at the end of the tunnel for him. This fight should be insanely violent in spurts.

9- Worth noting that if she beats Bethe Correia, Irene Aldana will be on a three fight winning streak which should put her on the short list for women to potentially challenge Amanda Nunes. Especially since beating Bethe seems to be one of those secret passageways to a title shot.

10- I've never seen a more desperate attempt to milk out a win for a guy than Lil Nog vs Ryan Spann. Even in his faded borderline decrepit form, Lil Nog should have very little issue taking a W here.

11- Thiago Alves vs Laureano Staropoli has some sneaky FOTN potential. Laureano is an all action pressure forward fighter who like most guys out of non-Brazil South America has no idea what he's not supposed to do. As such, anything is on the table and AS such he fights like a guy who has a penchant disregard for his well being. Thiago Alves is no longer the kind of guy who can casually eat up the Staropoli types of the world and his last few fights have basically been him trying to be a sharpshooting counter striker who throws power shots at will. It should be a fun fight at the very least.

12- And I guess we gotta end negatively with BJ Penn. There's no reason for this fight to be happening from a pure actual fighting standpoint. I read someone elsewhere mention how "frail" BJ Penn looks as a fighter and I truly lack an actual better description for it besides that. He looks weathered. He looks old. He looks like a guy who knows how to only do one thing and he can physically no longer do it at any rate of success. Whatever you think of the legacy of BJ Penn or however you feel about his right to compete, it shouldn't be happening anymore and at the very least not at this level. This doesn't even account for the fact that he has so much turmoil in his life and while allegations can sometimes be just that, we've got a whole forrest fire worth of smoke telling us something is wrong. We all just recently read Babalu discuss the problems he's facing currently in his life after a long career of fighting. It should make us all stop and reconsider whether there needs to be such arbitrary lines of when enough is enough and how we can find the bridge for these guys when the time has come. BJ Penn isn't fighting because the UFC thinks he can do it; he's fighting because if not here then somewhere else and because there's always going to be a market for seeing your "heroes" compete. There are BJ Penn fans who watched the third Edgar fight thinking he could pull it off, there are BJ Penn fans who watched thinking he'd turn back the clock vs Dennis Siver. The UFC gave him the SAFEST possible match up in a guy they didn't think would hurt him and it still ended in disaster.

And yet on the same card, we have Anderson Silva who is 44 years old coming ooff of multiple surgeries, a career that includes some truly violent spectacle fights in his earlier days who has been rocked or KO'd in four of his last six fights. He was apart of one of the more violent gym cultures in the history of MMA. His family apparently asks him to retire after every fight, now running on what feels like four years worth of it. So if Penn's gotta go then shouldn't Anderson go? Even if my eyes tell me that he's got more in the tank, we're still comparing two guys who are clearly either firmly out of gas or running on E. Is it the fact that Anderson Silva by all accounts is a well adjusted guy who isn't in trouble? I mean wouldn't that make you more likely to want him to hang it up so he can preserve the way he is? I don't have all of the answers and so much of this is just emotion. All I know is I hope that this card is very much the last of its kind; a farewell to a lot of guys who made a special time in MMA with also a promise to do better by them in the future.

[ijcmcrjournal]

Climate Change Responsible by Jan-Erik L*

Abstract

The Covid disaster keeps ravaging Planet Earth. It is hardly a turning point for global policy coordination. The economic costs of the corona virus are now arriving in the form of unemployment, lower production and steeply increasing deficits and public debt. How to manage the much needed climate change policyes? The big polluters are governed by leaders who fail to take global warming seriously.

Keywords: Paris Agreement; Public International Law; Realpolitik; Moralism

Introduction

The IEA predicts that the demand for energy and fossil fuels is not going to secret in the coming decade, despite the rapid rate of innovation around the world. The need for energy is growing in developing countries providing more electric power to poor people. It is true that the Covid lockdown has reduced energy supply by some 10.percent  but this is temporary.  Moreover,  some of the  big polluters use the slow process of international negotiations to avoid a radical climate change policy. Transaction costs skyrocket and promises made are reneged upon. Now, global coordination is voluntary except for matters of war and peace and the IPCC has no control authority. International policy making suffers from much rivalry among Big Powers.

The Logic of State Action

The governments of the nations of the world have delayed action on climate change for more than 30 years. The next IPCC conference has n w been postponed until late 2021. What interests do governments pursue in climate change polic making? First, one needs to focus on which states are responsible for the most emissions. Table 1 and Table 2 presents the 10 biggest polluters of CO2 and CH4, respectively, the “Mega Polluters”.

Given that only 10 countries produce more than half of the world’s greenhouse gases, it is a remarkable fact that small countries aiming at zero emissions don’t matter at all.

The Costs of CO2 Reduction

CO2 molecules stay in the atmosphere for very long time periods, so they must be removed very soon. Dreaming about negative carbon emissions would require the construction of enormous numbers of carbon-capture plants, or the replacement of coal-fired electricity by solar energy. Table 3 provides an estimate of how many World-class solar plants each of the leading polluters would have to introduce to replace all of their coal-fired capacity.

Intergovernmental Coordination

For 30 years the UN has attempted global warming policy. The system of state interaction is much tilted toward national interests and power politics. There is a constant augmentation of military expenses year in and year out among the Big Powers, as if war was imminent. Some of the Big Polluters are engaged in proxy wars. Conflict is typical of the anarchical international interaction [1]. Yet there is also norms and normativity. An international society exists for cooperation on economics and trade, on the use of oceans and atmosphere etc, but there is no consensus on climate change so far. On the contrary, the poor countries want the rich countries to pay for energy transformation.

Public international law consists of three parts;

1) the acknowledgement and protection of states' rights in a reciprocal fashion;

2) the protection of the Planet Earth;

3) the protection of individual persons.

1) is strong whereas 2) and 3) is weak.

Governments may appeal to the principle of non-interventions in internal affairs to avoid environmental attack. Yet, among the mega-polluters climate change has low priority. Somehow global warming is not very dangerous, at least not in the short term. Moreover,  some of the  big polluters use the slow process of international negotiations to avoid a radical climate change policy. Transaction costs skyrocket and promises made are reneged upon. The IPCC has suffered from the lack of implementing agreements typical of international governance as well as the lukewarm participation of big polluters. Energy is vital for all countries, especially Big Powers even if derived from fossil fuels. Now, global coordination is voluntary except for matters of war and peace and the IPCC has no control competence. International policy making suffers from much rivalry among Big Powers.

International System or Society

The system of states is much tiled toward national interestS and power politics. There is a constand augmentation of military expenses year in and year out among the Big Powers, as if war was immenent. Some of the Big Polluters are engaged in proxy wars. Conflict is typical of the anarchical international interaction [1]. Yet there is also norms and normativity. An international society exts for cooperation on economicS and trade, on the use of oceanS and atmosphere etc. But not climate change so far. On the contrary, the poor countries want the rich countries to pay for energy transformation.

Furthermore, the basic interests of states have been theorized in two contrary approaches: on the one hand, realpolitik versus moralism. The first of these focuses on state power and its maximization in an environment of anarchy, while the second rejects state egoism, especially denouncing war, arguing that states are bound by basic model principles of humanity: pacta sunt servanda, speak the truth, never attack unless attacked, and pay compensation for damages.

The environmental movement would like to add sustainability to these basic norms. Recently, moralism has made advances in public international law, e.g., the International Court of Justice, but realpolitik remains dominant in international relations. Thus, governments can sign declarations for environmental policy purely for tactical reasons without ever implementing them.

When looking at the lists of mega-polluters in the global climate change game with prisoner’s dilemma (PD) theory, one understands why climate policy making has failed. There is no organization or body with the authority to force China, India and the United States to leave the path of fossil fuels. The weakness of moralism in public international law is the lack of enforceability [2]. The EU promising carbon neutrality by 2050 cannot force Germany to stop its huge consumption of coal.

Conclusion

The fear of abrupt climate change is exaggerated, as global warming involves a low but steady temperature increase. It will hit mankind through multiple positive feedback loops, but they all require time before their impact reaches their maximum. So many of the human-experienced consequences of climate change, including possible changes through global ocean currents, the melting of the North Pole, Greenland and Antarctica, will be slow. On the other hand, nobody knows what temperature rises mankind can support. How soon global warming will be lethal for humans depends also on what responses Governments take in the form of reducing coal power in particular, subsidizing electrical vehicles, protecting all kinds of forests and setting up large carbon capture facilities.

Apparently, increases in temperature in the Anthropogenic period have reached a value of 1 degree Celsius, caused by emissions of both CO2 and CH4. Carbon dioxide seem to be more important than CH4 as of now, but that my change in the coming decade. When global warming passes 2 degrees, a number of tipping points will be triggered [3]. Nobody knows how large temperature increase mankind can support in different parts of the world. People will migrate. When administrations really start to reduce their Mount Everest of carbon dioxide emissions, they have a long way to go before carbon neutrality or even carbon negativity can be accomplished, but what to do if methane emissions start increasing rapidly? In reality, international politics makes effective climate change policy making and implementation impossible, which makes the civilisations of the Earth extremely vulnerable.

For more information about Journal : https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/

https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/pdf/IJCMCR.SC.ID.00042.pdf https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/ijcmcr-sc-id-00042/

[detoxdolan]

Another Late Tag

🎀Rules: Answer these 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people some of your faves.

I am aware that this is hella long and hella late, but I appreciate being tagged in these things and I love learning about all you lovely people in the fandom.

ALRIGHT LETS GET ITTTTT.

Last: 1. Drink - H2O bro 2. Phone call - I got a phone call from an unknown number while I was at work, so I called back and a random lady with a British accent answered and said she never called me??? 🤔 3. Text message - I’m currently absent from a game, so one of my teammates is filling me in on all the tea I’m missing. Apparently there’s beef between teams. 👀 4. Song you listened to - Praise You by Fatboy Slim (it was in a playlist, let me live.) 😂 5. Time you cried - uhhh Monday (today is Wednesday). So basically two days ago. 😅

Ever: 6. Dated someone twice? - Yes haha 7. Kissed someone and regretted it - Definitely.  8. Been cheated on - stealing this quote from @spiffydolan​ 👉 “technically yes, but really no” 9. Lost someone special - Yes 😳 10. Been depressed - ..Yes. 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up - haha never 😁😁

3 Favorite colours: 12. Neutrals - Black, white, and beige  13. Blue!!! 14. Trendy Colours - so your basic olive green, millennial pink, maroon etc etc 

In the last year (2017) have you: 15. Made new friends - I made this account in December and made so many friends on here that I’m so grateful for every day 😭AND THAT’S JUST ON TUMBLR. I feel like I branched out a lot this year and met so many cool ppl. 2017 was a good year.  16. Fallen out of love - Yes..and tbh it’s one of the worst feelings ever.  17. Laughed until you cried - not something I do often, but I think so. 18. Found out someone was talking about you - haha all the time #TalkShitGetHit 19. Met someone who changed you - Yes.  20. Found out who your friends are - “When people show you their true colours, believe them.” 👉 I feel like we all know the truth about who people are and its just a matter of whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not. There are a lot of people in my life that I know shouldn’t be here but I don’t have the heart to let go of just yet..it’s a work in progress.  21. Kissed someone on your Facebook friends list - uhhhhh probably LOL

General: 22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know irl - tbh, I tried to do a facebook cleanse and remove anyone I didn’t associate with in real life but that lasted for like 2 seconds LMAO 23. Do you have any pets - I have a weenie dog 😊 24. Do you want to change your name - I don’t quite like my name, but I don’t think anything else would match me???  25. What did you do for your last birthday - I went to a club with my 2 best friends and we ran into some friends and celebrated all together. Then I had a intimate little dinner with all my closest friends and family. OH I also cut all my hair off - so I guess there’s that 😂😂 Best birthday I’ve had so far. 26. What time did you wake up today - 7:45 am, even though my alarm was set for 8:45 🙄 27. What were you doing at midnight last night - Sleeping, most likely. Or finishing up a FaceTime sesh with @silly-silly-fangirl​  28. What is something you can’t wait for - Everything and anything involving @silly-silly-fangirl​ #Toronto2k18 30. What are you listening to right now - Teen Rocket by Tigers Jaw (against my better judgement, this is for a music challenge)  31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom - I..don’t think so? 32. Something that’s getting on your nerves - Haha a lot of things. Uhh lets see: My boss, my friends, negative ppl EVERYWHERE 33. Most visited website - Probably Tumblr or YouTube 34. Hair color - Chestnut Brown. I know this because when I used to colour pictures as a kid with pencil crayon, I would use the Chestnut Brown pencil crayon for my hair. 😂😂 35. Long or short hair -  In the aforementioned birthday question, I cut all my hair off, but its growing back.                                                                                          36. Do you have a crush on someone - Lol I have like..a crush for every occasion. I have a work crush, a school crush, a basketball crush..literally a crush for every place I go.                                                                                   37. What do you like about yourself - Turning Pain into Power, Positivity, and Patience. 4 P’s 🙏

38. Want any piercings? - I was thinking about getting my seconds because literally everyone has so many badass piercings and I dont (my parents would kill me). 39. Blood type - B positive! I got tested at a lil set up at my school for blood donation. DONATE BLOOD YALL!!!! Seriously, you could save like 3 lives from that ish.  40. Nicknames - Ni, Nina, Nitts/Mama Nitts (why), Nids, NiNi, T, Nitty, Littya etc etc 41. Relationship status - Single and satisfied ✌️ 42. Zodiac - Leo ♌ 43. Pronouns - she/her 44. Favorite TV shows - Jane the Virgin, How To Get Away With Murder, Riverdale (these are just recents)  45. Tattoos - Honey....would u put a bumper sticker on a bentley  46. Right or left handed - righty is tighty  ✌️ ✌️ 47. Ever had surgery - I’ve had my wisdom teeth removed, but I wasn’t put to sleep. I had local anesthetic and I was awake for the whole thing, IT WAS FUCKING BRUTAL I cried the whole time the dental assistant had to wipe my tears throughout the procedure lmao  48. Piercings - I have a tongue ring 😜🤘 49. Sport - Cheerleading 🎀 50. Vacation - Tryna reach NOLA for Mardi Gras next year you already knowwww @spiffydolan​ 🎉🎉 51. Trainers - wut

More general: 52. Eating - either way too much or not enough and no in between 53. Drinking - Water. Always water. I got some free coconut water at work though, so I mean that was pretty cool. 54. I’m about to watch - Riverdale? idk I got a lot of shows to catch up on. 55. Waiting for - My new apartment to be ready! 🤗 56. Want - mostly just a bunch of household things for my new place. But also, want @silly-silly-fangirl​ to come visit me in Toronto :( 57. Get married - Yeah, maybe. I gotta find someone to like me first 😅 58. Career - I’ve lowkey always wanted to be a teacher and my entire life has basically been me avoiding becoming a teacher soooo yeah lmao. Right now I’m on the track to Midwifery but I’m? chaning my mind?? idk. 

Which is better: 59. Hugs or kisses - I wanna say hugs cause I feel like you can’t kiss everyone. But the people you can kiss...damn.  60. Lips or eyes - eyes 61. Shorter or taller - I’m not one of those cute, dainty, short girls. I’m 5′6, so taller would be appreciated  😅 62. Older or younger - older 63. Nice arms or stomach - I have neither so 💁 64. Hookup or relationship - Relationship? idk I’m kinda living the single life rn and I’m just chilling so I wouldn’t mind a casual thing here or there BUT WHO HAS THE TIME 65. Troublemaker or hesitant - I’m the best mix of both 😏

Have you ever: 66. Kissed a stranger - Yes 🙈 67. Drank hard liquor - Yes 68. Lost glasses - Probably 69. Turned someone down - Yes 😪 70. Sex on first date - Not...yet? 71. Broken someones heart - Yes  72. Had your heart broken - Yes 😞 73. Been arrested - Nope 😇 74. Cried when someone died - Yes 💔 75. Fallen for a friend - Not a close friend, but yeah.

Do you believe in: 76. Yourself - I do 😌 77. Miracles - Absolutely 78. Love at first sight - Maybe not? Probably more like a significant encounter typa vibe

79. Santa Claus - haha no 80. Kiss on a first date - To be proper, no. Butttt there are def exceptions. 81. Angels - YES 

Other: 82. Best friend’s name - In the great words of Mindy Kaling “Best friend is a tier, not a person.” Butttt @silly-silly-fangirl​ (If u couldn’t already tell) is one of my favorite people on this planet atm. 83. ‎Eye color - Brown? I wanna say hazel, but the twins literally INVENTED hazel w their eye colour and I cannot compete. 84. Favorite movie - Hardest question ever...I always say Zorro 85. ‎Favorite actor - Leonardo DiCaprio? Viola Davis? Robert DeNiro??

Thank you so so much to @spiffydolan for the tag. U da best. 💜💜

Gonna tag some of my favorite blogs at the moment. If you’ve already been tagged/want to sit out of this tag, consider this a shoutout! Thanks for being awesome 😊 @ethandolanakae-tee-wee-tee @laneswervingdolan @pandasaremyspritanimal @broncodolan @silly-silly-fangirl @coconutethan @dolanwaffles

[lcveball]

YOI Guidebook Translations - Character Info

Translated by the lovely yumebeats on Twitter!

Please visit her account for more.

Leo De La Iglesia

Skate America was his first gold 

He looks up to Victor bc they both choreograph their own programs

But Victor was already trashed when Leo met him so he was a lil frazzled lmao

He's practiced w/ Phichit and Guang-Hong in the States

Leo, Phichit & Guang-Hong stay in regular contact thru social media 

HE REALLY WANTED 2 TAKE PICS W/ VICTOR & CHRIS AT THE CHINA BANQUET

Leo, Phi. & GH still get shy in front of older skaters

He apparently missed a lot of jumps in his FS, sending him down to 6th place

Leo has no quads

Miyamoto-sensei choreographed Leo's SP to resemble a "street dance battle" 

Guang Hong Ji

GH looks up 2 Phichit and thinks Leo is cool; this admiration is described as like "a young maiden's" 

Phichit, GH & Minami are called the "3 Great Adorable Asian Skaters" by fans!!!

He doesn't like hotpot but went bc Victor was there

Georgi Popovich

He's always been in Victor's shadow, sharing a coach & being only 1 day younger. This season is his chance

He seemed cool when he was like "ah, youth" upon seeing Leo & GH, but he's actually a hot (rather, "sweltering") person

Anya's new boyfriend is a hockey player

Yakov wants Georgi to discover his own style

He thinks "NOW'S MY TIME TO SHINE" but Victor's preoccupied with Yuuri and Yurio Does Not Car

In love in sport, he's fruitless :((( 

Though it seems like he has a new girlfriend now, at least! 

Seunggil Lee

This is his first time in the Grand Prix Series

He's popular with female fans but is cold to them

HIS MOM DRESSES HIM. HOLD THE FCUKIN PHONE, SEUNG GIL'S MOM BUYS HIS CLOTHES AND HE WEARS THEM WITHOUT COMPLAINT

He likes dogs and meat and hates vegetables and women

He doesn't have any ill-will toward other skaters per se, he just doesn't care

The struggles he faces are all for the eventual honor of participating in the Pyongchang Olympics

Emil Nekola

An "agreeable youth" that's an apt description if I've ever seen one

Has known the Crispies 4 a long time

Emil and Michele are "like brothers" and their banter is the norm

ldsfjlsfj MICHELE CAUGHT HIM CHECKING OUT SARA'S BUTT

He's not discouraged by the Crispies ignoring him lol

He wants to add more dynamic jumps next season

Christophe Giacometti

He's basically always expected to podium at the GPF and Worlds

He and Victor are popular w/ da ladies

He sees Victor as his ultimate rival so he has less motivation this season

Minako isn't the only fan wrecked by his sexiness

Thinks he's the only one in the world who can defeat Yuuri's eroticism (!!)

He's been at the Trophée de France 5 times

He thinks it's like a dream that Yuuri, who's rumored to retire, got a world record score

He's never gotten gold at the GPF

Oh ouch he figured he never got gold because Victor was there, but now he's seeing that his chances are being crushed by Yuuri :(

And when he realizes that he feels bitter at being surpassed and irritated by Victor's support :(((

"Though this year's GPF is over, the fire of regret is still smoldering in Chris's heart"

He wants to take gold once Victor returns

Phichit Chulanont

He got bronze at 4cc last season, the first Thai skater to do so!

He's Yuuri's closest skater friend 

Skate fans all over the world check Phichit's social media for updates on skaters' practice and daily lives

He believes that he'll rewrite the history of Thai skating 

He hasn't told Yuuri about "Phichit on Ice" yet

Jean-Jacques Leroy (there’s a lot about him)

He's gone to Skate Canada 2x

Nathalie's his coach, Alain's his trainer 

He genuinely doesn't realize he's bothering ppl and is bad at picking up on social cues

His loved ones have always been important to him

His FS is basically an offering of love to everyone who has supported him 

He proposed to Isabella immediately before Barcelona

He & Isabella have been together since highschool! They were classmates

@ the GPF he felt all the other skaters were looking down on him

JJ's refusal to give up even in the face of his own negative thoughts is his true strength

His "It's... JJ Style!" at the kiss and cry was a bluff or show of courage and took all of his strength to accomplish

"JJ, who is always trying to be a king, responds to the voices of his fans who love him by always being JJ.  The JJ we'll see from now on will surely be even stronger"

Even though he's a very powerful skater, his parents' ice dancing background imparts grace to his performance

This season was his last season as a teen and though he buckled under the pressure, he showed his strength through his recovery

He trained in Colorado Springs with Leo as a junior and in Detroit under Celestino 

He and Otabek taught each other moves as rinkmates

It looks like he taught Otabek the quad salchow

However, once he left a rink his friendships w/ his rinkmates would fizzle out :(

He doesn't really have any skater friends 

However, he does have friends at home and it says they're his support

The support & love he receives from others is the source of his strength

He met the band that did Theme of King JJ @ a Grammy afterparty

[about Isabella] “It seems like she can't quite take a hint when she's  antagonizing Yuri's Angels, but she disregards the atmosphere entirely to cheer for JJ when the stadium has fallen silent”

J has "a few" (何人か) younger siblings who are competing in the junior div 

Nathalie likes "flashy things" while Alain is more stoic

Omg the fanbook outright says JJ and Isabella haven't had premarital sex w o w

From the fanbook! He's at the top of his class in a university in Toronto 

Otabek Altin

Had his senior debut last year and got bronze at Worlds

He doesn’t care about making friends w/ others

He doesn’t hate people but he gives off that impression

Yurio is the one exception

Yurio didn’t realize who he was at first when Otabek rescued him from his fangirls

Otabek was in the novice class at the summer camp

Also, the guidebook lists him as 18, what is the truth

He knew if he couldn’t discover something no one else could do, he’d never win

Even though he didn’t make podium, he left a strong impression on the entire world

He didn’t stand out at all in his junior years but now he finds himself among the top senior skaters

He trained in many countries

Yakov was running the summer camp where he met Yurio

His body is stiff and he can’t remember choreography quickly

His junior years were a period of trial and error

Otabek’s strength is forging new paths for himself whenever he hits a wall

He chose the Samarkand Overture to make a strong impact as a new entry to the ranks of top skaters

His SP costume is meant to emphasise his status as the representative from Kazakhstan

His skating is supposed to be very crisp and solid

The image for his FS is "I will confidently lead my country! Follow me, my countrymen!"

[deadinsidedressage]

Anonymous Barn Drama #28

The Worst USPC Show Jump Rally, Literally Ever: Part 2

You’ve Never Seen a Little Kid Truly Devastated Until a Whole Team of Them Are DQ’d

Well, the Rally rolls around.  Let me start with a really brief breakdown of how Rallies function: 

Everyone has to arrive before a certain time, you can overnight or morning of.

Everyone has to set up all their stalls and tackroom/feed room between specific time parameters (generally it’s roughly an hour to do so)

Parents are not allowed. At all. Ever. Trainers are not allowed outside of the warm-up ring.

You have 3 rides in a Show Jump Rally: Equitation, Take Your Own Line, and Normal Knockdown w/ Jump Off

The morning competition starts (or at times the night before, wholly dependent on whose hosting the Rally & official times, OR both) everyone has to do official jogs and get their horses passed for competition. This literally involves SOME version of everyone being in a line for way too long.

Horse Management judging breaks down like this:

Your tack trunk/feed room/WHOLE setup is judged all at one time. You can regain points if you can prove they just missed something, usually your Stable Manager helps walk them though.

Your cleanliness of stalls & overall well-being of the horses is generally judged at least once more in an unannounced walk-through, sometimes they do 2 or 3 walkthroughs

You have an official judging of you cleanliness and turnout ONCE the whole weekend, other times you are just given a safety check before riding. 

You are judged on the condition of your horse, tack, & boots an HOUR after your last ride of the day is completed (Rallies are generally 2 days of riding)

NOW, keep all the above in mind.  So, let’s start with the night we all roll in. We’re allowed to bring in the tack trunk but not set it up, are allowed to set up the feed room since we have to feed and at this Rally everyone had to be there by 8pm or something stupid like that because it was SUCH a big Rally that we needed to start riding ASAP in the morning. The horse I brought is on the smaller end, BUT has horrible, horrible ground manners. Charges the stall door when opened, kicks at anything and everything, and desperately wants to bite everyone to death. Obviously none of the kids can or should be handling this horse. Which also means... I can’t help them because I’m too busy keeping this horse from going on a murder spree. Now the OTHER upper level riding brought a 17.2hh RIGHT off the track OTTB. Literally, it’s been maybe 2 full months AND he was raced up until the end. He’s TOO big for his own good and just the flightiest, stupidest motherfucker. Clearly none of the children can or should handle him either. Which means SHE also cannot help any of the children.  Our Stable Managers (SMs) consist of one 17 year old and one 7 year old. The 7 year old is useless. Cue one 17 year old trying to user 8 horse & rider combos down to jogs with the appropriate footwear, helmets, gloves, and competitor numbers. Cue all but one of the 6 children combos not being used to leading their ponies EVER and therefore this being an impossible task. Imagine my 17 y.o. SM singing “The Impossible Dream” and sobbing as she tries to herd one thousand cats that are just spraying piss and that’s probably a pretty close mental image to how this went down. We all end up being cleared, BUT we’re not cleared until almost midnight. We’ve been in that line since 8:30. All those kids were tired. I was tired. My friend was tired. The two green jackasses were somehow NOT tired and had never ceased their shit.  So it’s day one of riding. We have the EQ & make your own course rides. Already in the morning everything is a clusterfuck. One of the ponies does not have a breakaway halter and NONE of the ponies have emergency contact on their halters. If you do not have these things, you lose points. We make tape tags and realize we’re already off to a bad start with our Horse Management (HM) score. At some point between either taking the 6 children to get either their coursewalks in or hot chocolate OR a group pee break... the pony without the breakaway has a... different fucking halter on...  The only way that pony had a different halter on would be if a parent came into the barn and changed it. Parents are not allowed in. The entire team will be disqualified, not allowed to ride, and sent home if someone finds out a parent came in. We’re paranoid as fuck and make the pony another tape tag. We pray this doesn’t happen again. But it does. Approximately three more times. Two of which happened inbetween judges coming through so we lose a total of 4 points for this pony’s halter because the two times they come through the pony has a different non-breakaway (-1) and non-tagged (-1) halter. Jesus fuck.  They started with the super high classes, came down to about 3′3 (1m) at this Rally before then building back up from the trot poles. Idk what the method to their madness was, but I just remember we had a pretty long time before we needed to actually get ready for inspections and our first rides.  During ANOTHER break for either food or peeing or the kids wanted to look at the people selling sweatshirts... we come to find a pony has disappeared. The three young adults are FREAKING THE FUCK OUT until the little girl who belongs to that pony goes “Oh, he needs to be lunged before I ride him so my trainer probably came in and took him.” What. The. Fuck. 

Again, if this was discovered we would ALL be disqualified and sent home. The official ruling at the time was that if a horse needed to be lunged it could be lunged by anyone on the team who was a C2 or above BUT couldn’t be lunged by someone not on the team. I was a C3, my friend was a C2, my SM was an HB. One of us could have legally lunged that pony...  Oh and it should be noted that the trainer who lunged the pony ended up not even being the same trainer we had paid to coach our team. One of these girl’s mom’s literally paid her regular trainer to drive a 1 1/2 hour distance to lung this pony ILLEGALLY for 30 minutes.

This is where the real fun begins. Formal inspections. So, as stated in the last part of this story; my friend and I are competing at a lower level than the children on our team which means we have to leave to do formals and ride before them. WHICH MEANS we cannot help get any of them ready. We are not able to get any help while tacking up our horses because of aforementioned issues with the horses themselves BUT ALSO a) My SM is literally have to babysit 7 kids b) These kids don’t know how to tack up c) Even if my SM could help, she wouldn’t have time to help 2 riders AND have enough time to get 6 kids ready. She starts trying to orchestrate 6 kids getting ready when both of us upper level girls are about halfway through getting ready. We with her godspeed and leave.  We both end up having GREAT formal inspections, both get a lot of exceeds standards and no loss of points. We ALSO both have amazing EQ rounds. We’re feeling like we’re on cloud nine! We go back into the warm-up arena to cooldown and all 6 children are THERE, so that’s GOOD. When our horses are chill, we leave and prep for the upcoming follow-up inspections.  What we learn upon returning: There wasn’t a single child who didn’t manage to get at minimum 5 points off. This is thanks to none of them knowing how to put ANY tack on their horse, insisting they HAD to have their standing martingales on (NOT LEGAL TACK, -1 AND REMOVED), and apparently readjusting a bunch of shit on their horses after the SM had put them in line for their formals and since they didn’t know what the fuck they were doing they just fucked it all up.  My favorite is the girl whose trainer insisted her horse needed SMBs put the SMBs on backwards. As in the part the fetlock clearly goes in was on the front of the ankle. She was the oldest kid too.  What we learn upon ride scores being posted: All of the kids were at minimum 90 seconds over optimum time (factored into the EQ score) because they apparently refused to canter and the trainer being  used as the coach for our team thought there was somehow a different optimum time for ponies despite IT BEING LISTED THAT OPTIMUM TIME SHOULD BE DOABLE FOR PONIES and the THERE’S ONLY ONE OPTIMUM TIME. So, we’re already completely fucked over for placing in this competition. Both teams are so dead last it’s laughable because there is no way in hell we will ever catch up to any of the other teams. We’re just in competition for who between our two teams will be second to last.  We manage to be successful in not racking up anymore bad points for the “turnback” inspections (which are basically, hey is your stall clean did you clean your horse and did you clean your tack again). Miraculous. HOWEVER... during the inspections of our tack trunk/everything else we manage to earn over 20 negative points PER TEAM.  PER GODDAMN TEAM. So all the stuff that we didn’t have that that one mother offered to buy? She didn’t. She bought like one tube of neosporin and called it good. The grooming boxes we wanted to go through with the kids? Yeah, none of the kids had the right brushes... or wash buckets and sponges... OH AND, when they checked the overall cleanliness of the stalls, well that was after the one competent SM had trucked 6 kids down to get their formals done and she hadn’t had time to pick out 6 stalls yet. Cause... none of those kids were going to do it. In fact they straight up refused.  So we are SUPER fucking deadlast.  Second round of rides are Take Your Own Line, I grew up knowing that if you didn’t want to put any effort into designing a course you could just redo the EQ course and it was FINE. No one CARED. You don’t get extra points for creativity. Right so, all 6 kids want to come up with some special course. None of these kids understand crossing their line. Apparently when they have the coach review their courses he doesn’t notice it either. He ALSO doesn’t notice that the start/end line is just the middle of the direction and you have to pass it FACING the gate to start and pass it AWAY from the gate to end. He ends up okaying 7 courses that are going to get disqualified for crossing the line or not entering the start flags.  Now, side note: I hate this coach and did not pay for his coaching and refused his coaching. I try and point out the start/finish line but he fucking hates me back so he insists he’s correct. I’m like okay whatever I’m repeating the EQ course but making sure I cross this way instead. SIMPLE.  My friend gets DQ’d for not crossing start before going over her first fence. All 6 kids get DQ’d for that OR if they make it past that they get DQ’d on their 2nd or 3rd fence for crossing their line.  I had a really super round if anyone cares.  We end up doing a team/club dinner when we’re dismissed for the night and it consists of 6 children sobbing about the unfairness of the world because they were all DQ’d and had the worst EQ scores I’ve ever seen at a USPC Rally thanks to the optimum time shit. The coach is too ashamed to show his face.  BUT WAIT, IT ONLY GETS BETTER ON DAY 2 OF RIDES!

[aaaconcretingpro]

See This Report about Concreting Foundation Tips

Yet, more than anything else, I am captivated with the primitive sense of accomplishment a concrete mason feels at the end of every day. When you are exhausted from a difficult day's job, the concrete is ended up, and the devices are put away, you can take a look at what you developed as well as know that the thing you developed is the indication of your effort, a testament to your skill as well as craftsmanship.

Take for instance my experience as an economic analyst, where every procedure repeated itself on a quarterly basis with little link to me as analyst. If we had a good quarter, the numbers on the spreadsheet enlarged. If it was a negative quarter, the numbers on that same spread sheet were smaller sized.

Worst of all, the next quarter I would do the same records over once more! I had not been developing a legacy; I was spinning in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I think that is one of one of the most enticing features of concrete is that it has the prospective to last forever. As a result, constructing with concrete is like leaving a little testimony of who you are through the high quality of your craftsmanship.

I have recently added another task title to my resume: state us senate candidate. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in numerous methods to take part in the political realm, however the best lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will take advantage of my work. So I want to create regulations like I construct foundations, with skill and quality that will benefit generations to come.

Concreting Foundation Tips for Dummies

There are 3 major jobs for each concrete job: (1) building the formwork as well as taking it down, (2) pouring the concrete, as well as (3) completing the concrete. If the concrete mason helps a little firm all 3 jobs are mosting likely to be component of the work summary. However in bigger business or union shops a mason may be accountable for just one job or perhaps a part of a job such as connecting rebar, strengthening steel, or running a mechanized troweler.

A concrete mason begins as a worker. Just like a pupil, a worker has little understanding of the profession and also is discovering the skills as well as methods called for to become competent. When a degree of effectiveness is reached, that individual may pick a specialty, such as kind setting or concrete completing.

A foreman directs or "runs" a team to achieve jobs on a task. A foreman manages the team, products, and timetable to ensure their tasks are done on schedule. The final promo is to superintendent. On big industrial, governmental, or industrial jobs there may be many staffs running at once.

In a typical day of job, I stand up around 5:30 am, have morning meal, pack a lunch, fill up a water container, and also leave on time to reach the task site around 7:30 am. The majority of our tasks are regarding an hour drive where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to catch up on the most up to date AoM podcast or obtain my everyday psychological order of business developed.

The Best Guide To Concreting Foundation Tips

Daily tasks can be separated right into two buckets: slab or poured foundation wall. These tasks vary considerably and need different prep work. A piece is concrete such as a garage floor, driveway, ornamental outdoor patio, or a house's structure. It is typically soaked the ground with the leading surface leveled by a screed and also completed with a mop or steel trowel.

A poured structure wall surface is just what it seems like; a concrete wall surface. Foundation wall surfaces are normally utilized in residences and also under big, heavy structures that require to move weight to the solid ground listed below the leading soil. concreting foundation tips. Additionally, where I live, foundation walls are vital because frost can slip under a structure if its foundation isn't deep sufficient, and also it can move the entire framework! Wall surfaces call for a significant quantity of creating, however little ending up of the concrete's surface.

However, if other professions (plumbings, electrical experts, or A/C) need to place their pipelines, cords, or channel in the concrete, it might take numerous days before the task prepares to put. Walls, on the various other hand, normally can be set eventually and also poured the next. When we have actually completed our benefit the day and also the tools are cleansed and also placed away.

AAA Concreting

3003 W Olympic Blvd STE 106-1059

Los Angeles CA 90006

(213) 267-3107

admin@aaaconcreting.com

[itnews452]

Why News Releases Fail

Many of you may know me, since I run Imediafax, the Internet to Media Fax Service. I send out over a million news releases a year for people via fax and email. You probably think that I've got news releases failing on me day in and day out.

Actually, I don't. The news releases I write and send out for people do quite well. My clients are quite happy with me because they are successful with their outreach efforts.

It's the draft news releases that people send to me that are my problem.

Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes forever. It is also very painful.

I've seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what the key problems look like and how to fix them.

My plight as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients trying to get them to understand the psychology of dealing with the media.

The rubber meets the road in the news release because this single sheet of paper is the key nexus for all communications with the media. The importance of the copy on a news release cannot be overstated. It has to be free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media interest and response. One fatal error and it's all over.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

The issue is that when people send me news releases, it often takes a long, long time to identify and communicate the problems, and then more time again to explain and negotiate all the word changes with the clients, and more time still to finalize the news release and have it ready and approved for transmittal. Click more here ข่าวไอที

Honestly - it can be very painful for all involved. I'm quite brutal on my clients, since their success is all that matters. I don't pull any punches. My comment process can bruise a lot of highly inflated egos of some otherwise very accomplished people, on the way to a problem free news release that maximizes the chances of success when finally sent. Lots of people think they can write a news release. Very few of them can do it very well.

They simply haven't followed the media response to enough news releases to learn the errors that are made when they write news releases. They haven't yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous improvement.

This is where the blood, sweat and tears of the copywriting business is truly found. It gets even tougher when another professional publicist wrote the news release for the client. Now the client is getting opposing advice from two professionals. One says "Make it Hot" and the other says "Cool it". What's a publicist to do?

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients send me news releases that take less time and energy to fix. Very simply, for each and every news release that comes in and doesn't have these problems, I'll free myself to spend more time doing things that are more profitable for my clients and me.

The issues listed here have all been identified as reasons for the failure of a news release. This is based on over 20 years of experience in dealing with the aftermath - the actual number and quality of responses generated from the transmittal of a news release.

So here are the most common reasons why news releases fail:

1. You wrote an advertisement. It's not a news release at all. It sells product. It fails to offer solid news of real tangible interest, value-added information, education or entertainment.

2. You wrote for a minority, not for a majority of people in the audience. You simply won't compete with other news releases that clearly are written for a larger demographic of the media audience.

3. You are the center of attention, not the media audience. You focus on your business and your marketing, instead of things the editor and his or her audience will be interested in.

4. You forgot to put the five W's up front. (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED). You didn't clearly and succinctly tell the media why the audience would be interested in this.

5. You are too wordy and text dense. You focused on details and minutia, instead of the most important ideas, issues, factors, facts, and news angles. You fail to address the real significant impacts your story has on people.

6. You place too much information on one page - the one page news release has a font size so small an editor needs a magnifying glass to read it.

7. You included corporate logos and other non-persuasive low value added graphics that distract the editor from your key message. You may have also used an unusual fancy font or a file format that turns to gobbledygook when it goes through a fax machine.

8. You wrote a personally biased article for the media to publish, instead of pitching the idea to the media and the objective reasons why the media audience will be interested.

9. You wrote about features and facts, and forgot to explain what it means to real people. Tell a story about real people. Add in real life human interest.

10. You wrote about how your news ties in to someone else's fame and glory. Forget it. Never stand in the shadow of someone else. Make your own light. Tell your own story.

11. Your news release responds to something that just happened. You're too late. You're behind the eight ball. Forget it. Get out in front of the news.

12. You included too much hype, self-laudatory praise, pithy quotes, useless testimonials, jargon or gobbledygook. Get rid of it.

13. You may have also identified prior media coverage, which indicates it's no longer a new issue. Get rid of it. Let each news release stand on it's own two feet.

14. You tried to impress and be clever or innovative but you come off naïve, less than expert, biased, flippant, arrogant, or crazy. Tone it down. Get straight.

15. You made vague and unsubstantiated claims, or wild and outrageous claims, or you included a statement that simply rubs the media the wrong way. Get rid of them.

16. You are trying to be different, just for the sake of it, but you come off eccentric. Forget it. Don't create a false or inflated image. Be yourself.

17. You wrote a rant and rave, worthy of a letter to the editor, instead of a problem solving tips article, worthy of a feature story. Decide what you want, put your best effort into it.

18. You are simply not credible. It could be your ideas are simply not well thought out, or that you've offered old well-worn material, or that you are too extreme or controversial, or not qualified. You may not be expert enough, or sufficiently qualified, to make the statements, compared to others in your field. You need to present information that qualifies you properly and adequately.

19. You provided poor contact information. You need to identify the best single point of contact and the correct phone number so interested media can reach you and get the best possible attention and response from you to meet their needs. One key person, one phone, no fax, one email address, and one URL (with no long string addresses).

20. You did not include a clear media call for action. You didn't tell the media what you want them to do with your news release. You need to tell them what you are asking for or suggesting or offering. Then you need to offer the media incentives value-added reasons to do so, like free review copies, free test samples, interview questions and answers, media kits with story angles and stats and data, relevant photographs, etc.

21. You did not incorporate and integrate a primary response mechanism. You need to include a value-added reason, which motivates the editor to publish or mention your contact information, which will generate calls, traffic, interviews, or requests for more information. This usually means something unique and of special value to the audience, that the editor feels good about mentioning. Use an offer for a free problem solving report.

22. You sent the release to the wrong media. Target the media that your clients read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood, that is, receptive to hearing about your news, and willing to take action when they get your message. Work with your publicist to target the right media.

23. You rely on a single fax or an email to produce an avalanche of media calls. You conduct no follow up. Get real. Follow up properly and you can triple or quadruple your media response rate. Better still, you can ask the editors "what can I give you to support a feature story and meet your needs".

Finally, the biggest reason for news release failure is one of attitude. How do you define success or failure? It's called unrealistic expectations.

Get real. You won't get rich off one news release. You're chances of getting famous are just about as slim.

You might be able to break even.

Look at your investment and compare it to what you need to break even on your investment. If you need to sell 100 books to cover the costs of a $500 outreach effort, you need ten articles because each article only produces ten sales. So that's your breakeven goal. More books per article, means less articles will satisfy your needs.

You may simply have to be realistic and understand that while you are wildly interested in the topic, it may not have the broad general public interest that you have for the subject. If you wrote an article that has local interest and you expect national media to pay attention, think again.

If you want to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, then you'd better pray because chances of doing it off one news release are very slim, near zero in fact. Get real. If she calls, then congratulations are in order. But don't count on it.

If you wrote an advertisement and wanted a feature story and interviews, don't be surprised if the only media to call is the advertising manager offering you a package deal. You get what you ask for. What you offer is often times what you will get.

Even if you do get publicity, it may not come out exactly the way you want it. More often than not, the bigger the media, the less likely they are to run contact information.

Often times, the quality may be there while the numbers are not.

One or two quality media responses may be what you want or need. If you get that, it's a success.

One article in USA Today may out perform ten articles in small dailies and weeklies in the mid-west.

On the other hand, it may not. The small high quality articles may outperform the small mention in the big media.

Similarly, one quality 30-minute interview on a well-liked talk show on a radio station in the middle of nowhere out in the mid-west, will likely outsell a five-minute interview on an Arbitron rated radio station in the middle of the morning talk show in a major metropolitan area. You can't tell the listening quality of the audience.

So when you write a news release please review it against these criteria to see if you've made any of these errors. Then fix each and every one of them yourself, and when you are done, feel free to send me your final draft. I'll be happy to take a look at it.

[taocastleprincess]

tagged by @bakubros -- this was really fun, but i feel like i don’t s/o my girl-faves a lot, so i’m disgusted and ashamed w myself. i’ve got to make change.

RULES: List 10 of your favorite female characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people.

Jun Tao - Shaman King // she’s my fave CANON female character, because the Taos own my ass, but if i were including non-canon chars, ‘Sharona and her band of Lys’ would’ve tied w her for my faves lol.

Mira Olivier Armstrong - Fullmetal Alchemist // uhhh she’s badass and could kill a man with her bare hands, end of explanation.

TOORU HAGAKURE - BNHA // loud, bubbly, adorable, leader of the Best Girls Gang, stole my heart in a single episode, I’m love her.

Gel - Hunter x Hunter // we literally know nothing about her in canon besides the fact that she’s rlly pretty and loves cute things/ppl and you know what? same. (also she was 10000% ready to throw down w Parriston??? we love badass women, we stan.)

Yachi Hitoka - Haikyuu!! // i had to warm up to her a bit, but I now love my daughter unconditionally and her backstory is way too relatable.

Iris West - CW’s The Flash // the glue that holds the Flash team together, a passionate and competent journalist, an independent woman who didn’t let herself fall apart when her husband was assumed dead (or worse) for half a year, beautiful, caring, a pillar of justice and morality, goddess-tier, ouafhuqdiukwdh i could go on for ages actually. Iris West could beat me up in an IHOP parking lot and I would thank her.

Michaela Pratt - HTGAWM // i love a woman who’s smart and beautiful and better than 99.9% of her peers and completely knows it. I would also let her beat me up in an IHOP parking lot at 3AM.

Veronica Lodge - Riverdale // everyone hates Riverdale, which is not only unfair, but also a true shame because they’re missing out on the powerhouses of the entire show which is Veronica Lodge and her amazing wardrobe.

Arya Stark - Game of Thrones // she could kick my ass, your ass, her ass, his ass, their ass, the asses of the new gods and the old... the Starks have my loyalty forever, so ofc it would be her or Sansa... but I’m feeling like loving Arya today so.

Rouge the Bat - Sonic the Hedgehog universe // there was a really good meta post floating around on here about how important she was to the franchise and how the creators go out of their way to respect her character and not demean her with weird fanservice or negative stereotypes about women/femmes and that’s how she usurped Amy Rose’s place in my heart.

now i’m tagging @angelheartlovely @amegafurimasu @josejaygiron @loopyloo2610 and whoever else wants to do it.

[personalcoachingcenter]

The Ultimate Secret to PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/the-ultimate-secret-to-personal-development-goals/

The Ultimate Secret to PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Self help involves mental, emotional, or economic personal improvement through psychological means.

Self help allows individuals to personally make themselves better by focusing whatever flaws they may have and eliminating them from their life. Sometimes self help can be difficult. The tips provided in this article should help alleviate that difficulty.

Combine email and your phone to facilitate your day. Use emails to remind yourself of things you have to do. Every night shoot off an email to yourself with the next day’s shopping list, appointment times and whatever other items you must remember. You can retrieve the emails right from your phone, the next day.

Learn to tolerate other peoples’ discomfort with the word no. Everyone needs to say no to somethings. Otherwise, the other people in our lives will take as much of our time and resources as we have to give them. When someone hears no and reacts negatively, it’s more about them than you. If they persist, ask why they expect you to say no to your own family, health, goals, etc. just so you can say yes to them. Only say yes when it’s something you truly want.

You need to accomplish at least one planned task a day if you want to feel productive. The task should not be a daunting one. It is important to choose a task that fits into the time that you have available rather than trying to squeeze something into a smaller time slot than is truly needed.

There Are No Bad Teams, Just Bad Leaders

betterlifecoachingblog.com

“Teams aren’t responsible for maintaining a positive mindset during challenging times, leaders are. Teams aren’t responsible for creating a culture of continuous improvement, leaders are. Teams can’t set a vision and then consistently maintain focus on that vision, only leaders can do that. There’s no such thing as a bad military unit. Or church. Or […]” https://betterlifecoachingblog.com/2019/11/14/there-are-no-bad-teams-just-bad-leaders/

Self esteem has everything to do with your well-being and how competent you feel. Surround yourself with family and friends that lift you up and make you feel good about yourself. Stay away from anyone who is verbally abusive or just not a part of making you feel good about yourself.

Remember that the only way to change something in your life is to take action and make it work. In an effort to improve yourself, you must be willing to make the right sacrifices in your normal way of life and thinking. These can be small or large changes, however, you must commit to each one fully, for a truly effective impact.

Consider another perspective when you are tempted to let loose on the offending party. Before you act harshly, ask yourself whether your reaction would be appropriate if you were in the other person’s position. There is a good chance that you can come up with a past incident in which you made the exact same mistake. Would your response be appropriate?

If you have problems with feelings of anxiety, take some time to examine them. Use the five W’s to sort out who, what, where, when, why you are anxious. Once you have identified your triggers, you will be able to start getting a handle on how you can manage your fears.

Be selfless. If you start to care for and help others more, you will notice you begin to sacrifice your self. This is when you can get to know the true you better, and see what needs to be changed a little, and what is good just the way it is.

Do You Struggle to Accept Yourself & Be Yourself? Watch This

www.thedailypositive.com

” Do you sometimes struggle to accept yourself, and BE yourself? You’re not alone. It’s a common challenge. Tune in for this powerful TEDx talk on the art of being yourself… Related Resources Affirmations for Confidence Self Love & Empowerment Meditation How to Love & Accept ALL Parts of Yourself Do you sometimes struggle to accept […] Continue reading Do You Struggle to Accept Yourself & Be Yourself? Watch This on The Daily Positive ” https://www.thedailypositive.com/accept-yourself-be-yourself/

When you are trying to improve a new skill, start a new diet, or even a new course, it is important to try and make it something you enjoy. If you are constantly dreading the new part of your life, you will quickly lose motivation and find ways to give yourself excuses.

Take an audit of yourself, and own every part of it; even the bad aspects that you may currently have. To really grow in your personal development, you need to both understand yourself and love yourself for who you are. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t want to change the bad aspects; you should. But loathing yourself will only hamper your ability to change.

When things get hard, don’t give up. On the path of personal development, quitting should never be an option. You need to stick with it all the way until the end. Quitting is the number one reason that people fail. You can not afford to fail yourself, so you need to be 100% committed.

A great personal development tip is to recognize and admit to yourself that there is a large gap between where your life is currently and where you want it to be. If you do not accept and acknowledge your current situation, you will have no chance of changing and improving your life.

No matter how hard it may seem to achieve your goals, do not give up. Life is all about having patience, so by sticking out through the tough times, you will be rewarded in the end. Just picture the end goal in your head and keep it there when times seem hard.

5 tools to help build self-esteem

www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk

“We share five tools that you can come back to time and time again to help build self-esteem.” https://www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk/blog/2019/10/08/5-tools-to-help-build-self-esteem/

Judgment should start within. You will have opportunities daily to pass judgment on others whether by their actions, character or just their appearance. It is important to remember that while no one is perfect, the same applies to you tenfold. Before you take the time to be judgmental about someone else, look inside and pass judgment on yourself first. You will realize that it is less important to judge than to lead by example.

Try to join a sport or other activity. By learning something new and becoming good at it, you will feel good about yourself. Just make sure not to join too many activities. As good as it may feel to be keeping busy, you could also wear your body down from doing too much.

When it comes to personal development make sure that you are not just a sheep among an entire flock of sheep. This is important because you need to be recognized for who you are and remembered as being somebody who made a difference. You will not be noticed if you allow yourself to blend in with everyone else.

As stated before above, self involves improvement through psychological means. Individuals focus on personal flaws and eliminate them. Although practicing self help can sometimes be difficult, the tips from this post can help you practice self help techniques, which will allow you to become a better person.

[icudoucmetoo]

If you are in the public eye, you have to develop a thick skin or else don't go into the internet. Meryl used to get a lot of flack when she was competing for her looks. Rosie DiManno, a Canadian "journalist" went so far to call her The Human Fly because of her wide apart eyes and she really hated D/W because of V/M(ironically she hated Meryl more since she also listed Charlie as one of the hottest guys in Sochi, go figure). What I hate are those who actually go post negative stuff in their IGs.

I agree that if you choose to be in the public eye that you better be ready to be criticized.  It’s just part of the territory.  I also agree that you better develop a thick skin because not everybody is going to think that you are the cat’s meow.

With SM, it’s easier for B,C,D,E, & F celebrities to promote themselves.  This takes the PR buffer and intervention out of it, for the most part.  Therefore, it is easier for trolls and haters to post negative comments.  But, at the same time, once you post onto SM, you should be prepared for negative comments.  It is up to the celebrity to address the negativity and relay the message that improper and hateful comments will not be tolerated.  

I do want to be clear that a celebrity should be ready for negative (not hateful, body shaming, or bullying) commentary and that they should expect it as everyone brings their own opinion to the table.  There is a difference between negative versus hateful commentary.

I found the Rosie DiManno article that you mentioned.  This is totally unacceptable as this “journalist” resorted to “name calling”.  The fact that it was published blows me away.  I also found a more recent interview (2016) that Tessa Virtue did with HuffPost.  It speaks to how she has also been body shamed. Bottom line is that no matter how SM seasoned a celebrity might be, these comments are still hurtful.  To quote Tessa, “Ice dancing is a sport where athletes work so tirelessly to perform intricate moves (and) to have it trivialized by comments about your appearance can chip away at anyone’s confidence.”

Thanks for stopping by and sharing.