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natromanxoff · 3 years

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Queen live at National Bowl in Milton Keynes, UK - June 5, 1982 (Part-1)

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It was originally intended for the band to play this concert at Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, but it was moved to Milton Keynes for the same reason the Leeds show wasn't played at the famed Old Trafford. It's also worth noting that the band wanted to play at London's famous Royal Albert Hall as well, but the plan was never orchestrated as there was much fear that the weight of Queen's lighting rig would make the ceiling cave in. An early tour itinerary listed two London shows (June 4 and 5) on the agenda. The Teardrop Explodes were among the bands (the same line-up as last week in Leeds) who opened for Queen at this show. Their guitarist, Julian Cope, stood before about 40 thousand Queen fans and introduced the next song as being probably the best song they had ever heard, prompting someone near the stage to throw a toilet seat at him, which missed (people are known to bring cameras and certain substances to concerts, but toilet seats?). Lemonade bottles were then thrown at the guitarist which he tossed back into the audience. The complete Queen concert was filmed. A shortened video was shown on UK TV on a show called "The Tube" in January 1983 (omitting Action This Day, the bit of Las Palabras de Amor, Back Chat, Get Down Make Love, part of the guitar solo, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites The Dust, and Sheer Heart Attack), and on MTV in the US in August 1983 (the latter was a simulcast, with the audio being broadcast on FM radio in stereo, on the west coast, at least). The video was edited by Gavin Taylor, who was later invited by the band to direct the now famous video at Wembley Stadium in 1986. An even shorter version (about 50 minutes long) of the Milton Keynes video was shown on UK TV in 2001 (and many times since). Both the Milton Keynes and Wembley shows would eventually be released on DVD uncut. The 2004 official release of this show (both on CD and DVD) is called "Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl". The DVD is a beautiful document of Queen's show at the time, packed full of classic Queen moments. There are also extras from 1982 shows in Vienna and Tokyo. After a great version of Play The Game, Freddie essentially apologizes to the audience for much of the latest album's content: "Now most of you know that we've got some new songs out in the last week. For what it's worth we're gonna do a few songs in the funk/black category, whatever you call it. That doesn't mean we've lost our rock and roll feel, okay? I mean it's only a bloody record. People get so excited about these things! We just wanna try out a few songs. This is Staying Power." For some reason part of the speech was removed for the CD release of "Live At The Bowl." Without a doubt this is his definitive live delivery of the song, pulling off all of the stops. Mercury is at his peak tonight. Somebody To Love has been a vocal adventure of Freddie's for the past couple years. His intro is different every night, as is his solo spot towards the end. The version captured here on film is surely one of his best. Before launching into the familiar piano theme, he asks the audience in a moment for the ages, "Are you ready?" And in excitement, "Huh? Are you ready brothers and sisters?" Part way through his vocal exchange with the audience in Now I'm Here, Freddie says, "C'mon, we're gonna make you sing like Aretha Franklin." At the end of the successful duel, he jokingly says, "Right, you can join the band!" The r&b influence is never more evident than it is here, and it makes for a classic version of the song. Brian breaks a string just before his guitar solo in Dragon Attack. While he switches to a Red Special copy, John Deacon gets to play the bass solo as it's heard on the record - the one and only time he has the chance to do it. It's on the fly, and he nails it note for note. "Las Palabras de Amor" was released as a single a few days ago, and Brian plays a small bit of it on his 12-string acoustic before Love Of My Life. He then mentions how the band won't be playing their "song of peace" tonight, as he calls it. This remains the only show where the Hot Space ballad would be referenced. Brian's guitar briefly cuts out during his solo spot, a moment that was edited out of the 1983 TV broadcasts (and slightly edited on the CD release) but seen uncut on the DVD. Brian's guitar tech is seen rushing on and off stage within seconds, having quickly resolved the issue (it was likely a sticky pickup switch). About half way through Sheer Heart Attack, Brian sneaks in the riff from I Go Crazy an octave up, and much faster, to match the tempo of the energetic News Of The World rocker. The song would be dropped from the set after this show, only to emerge again late in the pending North American tour. This would be Morgan Fisher's last show with the band as the touring keyboardist. A number of theories abound about his departure, including butting heads with Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter or his apparent fear of flying, but it was simply a case of him moving on to other gigs (Fisher confirmed in a 2009 interview that he has never been afraid of airplanes). The CD and DVD releases would be patched up a bit, most notably in the third verse of Fat Bottomed Girls where Freddie's voice cracked badly on "locality," as well as for "now I'm here, now I'm there." Roger's timing with the guitar delays at the end of May's solo spot was bit off at the show, but this is fixed up as well. The sound quality as a whole is much better than the broadcasts, but there are a couple differences in the mix - some of Brian's backing vocals (particularly at the end of Somebody To Love) can be clearly heard in the broadcast mix but were brought down for the official releases, and compression has been added to Roger's snare drum, giving it a much fatter sound compared to Queen Rock Montreal. Brian May and Roger Taylor are interviewed before the show, as shown on the Bowl DVD and the original TV broadcasts. Brian reveals that he really enjoys playing Play The Game. He explains, "You've done your leaping about, and you've made your statement on your entry. And then you can settle down and start really playing something." Roger says his current favourite is Under Pressure. On the day before this show Freddie's boyfriend at the time had bitten him between his thumb and forefinger during a fight, causing it to bleed profusely and require stitches. On the DVD, Freddie is seen tossing the bandage around just before coming on stage. The sixth picture was submitted by Fabio Minero, and the eighth is from Alessio Rizzitelli. The second set was taken by Brenski.

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Fan Stories

“At the time, I was living on the Mull Of Kintyre on the West coast of Scotland. I remember being elated at getting tickets for the last gig of the UK tour. I always tried to get 'last night' tickets, because the band were famous for always going a little more 'over the top' on each of their tour's final nights. So, we drove down from Scotland, which took an eternity with fuel and meal stops, and stayed at the in-law's on the south coast of England. The next day we set for the 'new-town' of Milton Keynes, about 100 miles or so, away. We got there quite early before the gates opened and the weather was unsettled, lightly raining for about five minutes nearly every other hour. The support bands for the day were 'Teardrop Explodes', who had a fairly big hit with a song called 'Reward'. I quite liked Julian Cope and his band, but this WAS a rock gig, and the audience weren't generally as receptive to this brass backed 'new romantic' style of music. The customary sea of lemonade bottles headed towards the stage ensued. Now it was over twenty years ago, and the memory starts to fade a bit after a while, so I'm not sure whether 'Heart' were next on, or 'Joan Jett and the Blackhearts'. Either way, both bands played well, and were most enjoyable. Joan Jett had recently had a very big hit with 'I Love Rock'n'Roll' (very recently covered by Britney Spears), and the crowd loved that one. This was prior to 'Heart' having a major hit in the UK, but they were at that time an established and well known band. Looking at the stage, there were these items that looked like little vehicles hanging from the gantry, we later found out that these were individual self contained lighting platforms with a guy sat in each directing three spotlights wherever they were required to do so. The Queen set itself started with an extended backing tape from the intro of Flash Gordon. Most of you will have seen the video of this gig, so I won't labour on about what they played too much. Only that the crowd, as a whole, weren't into the 'Hot Space' numbers that much. Personally, I was watching my favourite band, so I didn't really care what they played, as long as it was theirs. The bits cut out of the video, included an intro to 'Las Palabras De Amor' from Brian, (just before 'Love Of My Life'), though they never actually played the whole song, Brian announced that they were not doing their song of peace tonight. Brian's two-day guitar solo was edited out, as was 'Fat Bottomed Girls', the intro harmonies on this did come across as pretty iffy, and of all songs, they also edited out 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', much to my disappointment, as I'd heckled Freddie about his ability as a guitarist, and 'stone me', he only went and answered me. Knebworth '86 was a much better show, but I know I'm lucky enough to have had the honour to be able to compare them.” - Steve_C/Kes

Part-2

Part-3

#queen #queen band #roger taylor #freddie mercury #brian may #john deacon #queen concerts

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prosopopeya · 3 years

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New Year’s Meme

this survey has been a tradition among my friend group for YEARS, but i haven’t filled it out since 2015 apparently. i’m not entirely sure why except 2016 was the year a lot of stuff changed for me, namely in that i finally got out of school in some form and started a new job, but i also had a few health problems that kept plaguing me (thyroid medicine being off, vitamin d) and my anxiety was all over the place. so here we go i’m doing it again and feel free to do it too if you want!!

1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before? tried on wedding dresses. taught virtually. dealt (poorly) with drunk teenagers. performed in a pep rally. wore face masks all the time. i’m going to lump in living with someone. jon moved in october 2019, but i don’t think i did this quiz last year so. taught ap.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year? i don’t really like resolutions. they put too much pressure on me and i am a fragile person when it comes to setting expectations and living up to them. i did want to try to read more this year, and i maintained that until the pandemic, and then just kind of gave up requiring myself to do anything but live.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? i don’t think so. a coworker did.

4. Did anyone close to you die? jon’s cousin committed suicide in march or april. the circumstances were pretty upsetting. um. andy died in february, very suddenly. andy was my high school boyfriend for four years with whom i had a very... he scarred me in a lot of ways when it comes to sex and consent. it’s taken me a long time to unpack all of that. and i struggle with how much any of that was his fault or just bc he was a stupid kid too. our mutual friends had nothing but nice things to say about him on fb. anyway. he would guilt me into saying he’d kill himself if we broke up, and jon’s cousin killed himself over his girlfriend. so that was a complex part of the year.

5. What countries did you visit? none. literally the week before the quarantine, we went to asheville to visit jon’s cousin.

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020? maybe a different job? or at least some peace at doing mine.

7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? march 13 we cancelled classes and had a technology training day; the 15th we had another one, and then we were virtual the rest of the term. it was such a sudden shift and while i so loved working from home tbh, it was such a relief after a supremely shitty january/february work-wise, i still had a lot of keyed-up, stressful days centered around transitioning to being the senior upper school spanish teacher. i hate it!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? writing 50k in the month of november. i have literally never done that before and actively reject nano as being typically unhealthy for how my mind works, so it was nice to do it entirely by accident.

9. What was your biggest failure? mishandling the drunken teenagers on that field trip in january.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? i sit crosslegged in my virtual teaching chair and i did it so much that my ankle hurt for the entire summer.

11. What was the best thing you bought? we put a deposit on our elopement in ireland. jon’s wedding ring. (i didn’t buy my wedding dress.)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? my best friend at work who keeps me sane and is represented by benny in my au, which other than the fact that he is not my sidepiece, is perfect he is crucial to my survival at work and i love him so much. (also he is gay and the french teacher so the benny parallels just keep coming). everyone who tore down a statue in virginia (and other places, but especially monument avenue). everyone putting their lives on the line during this pandemic.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? guess! but aside from all the obvious, i found out a friend of mine at work voted for trump. my work bff and i had been trying for years to sway his politics, but that had us both deciding to give up on him.

14. Where did most of your money go? food, ALCOHOL. god., our savings account. i did a pretty excellent job saving this year, though a good deal of that is because jon moved in and makes more money than me, and also we split all the bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? my wedding dress but strangely only when i went to try it on after it came in bc after the purchase i was so sure i’d made every mistake possible. my wedding band. wellbutrin changing my whole life. and, last but certainly not least, the gay angel and the bi(lingual) hunter. i wouldn’t have survived nov-dec in school without that distraction. the election.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2020? the entirety of taylor swift’s oeuvre this year, maybe specifically “this is me trying”

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or sadder? happier, i suppose, perhaps contrary to what should be the case, but wellbutrin is a hell of a drug. ii. Older or wiser? wiser. ii. Richer or poorer? richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? reading. cleaning. exercising.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? stressing. chaperoning.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? so, an update; last year was the first year i didn’t go to my mom’s for christmas. i was supposed to see her for thanksgiving last year, but she basically told us not to come bc she wasn’t feeling up to it (cool!), and we went to jon’s for christmas and my mom’s for new year’s.

this year, obviously we couldn’t go to my mom’s. instead, we rented a little cabin by the lake. it was perfect; it was really really nice inside, the beds were SO SOFT, the pillows were the best things i have ever laid my head on, like i took off the pillowcases to try to find the brand. we had a little tiny christmas tree with tiny ornaments from walmart that we decorated. the 23rd, we went and picked up our wedding bands. we slept two nights in the (cold) back bedroom so i could wake up and look out at the lake. it snowed for christmas. :)

we opened presents on christmas eve, per jon’s family’s tradition. on christmas eve, we also went to his family farm and sat outside and hung out a little. every year his family does like a secret santa sort of thing and i got my first present in that exchange, which is notable bc jon and i are not yet officially married. i got a remote control car -- jon’s idea bc i couldn’t think of anything, and he was so delighted to hear that i loved playing with rc cars when we went to the beach as a kid.

christmas morning we facetimed my parents and opened some presents together. then jon and i marathoned mandalorian (after spending the previous few days watching several die hard movies), and then we watched wonder woman 1984 which was a bad movie.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? ok LAST year for new year’s, we were in a hotel room, so that was nice, bc it meant minimal stress with my parents. i had always wanted to go to this restaurant near us that has a special new year’s menu, so we did that. the night before or after i think we went to cheesecake factory, which was also amazing.

this year currently i’m tumbling and he’s playing pokemon, and in a bit we’ll try to time it so we finish schitt’s creek in time for the new year.

22. Did you fall in love in 2020? i re-fell in love with supernatural so that was nice.

23. How many one-night stands? 0. i submit we should randomly change question 23 each year to something more relevant to any of our life experiences.

24. What was your favorite TV program? what did i even watch this year. schitt’s creek. mandalorian. i mean obviously we know supernatural. the circle. are you the one (the queer season). pose. unsolved mysteries. we’re here! perry mason. watchmen. oh maybe that mcdonald’s monopoly fraud documentary. avenue 5. i’ll be gone in the dark. of those i think my favorite maybe is... pose or we’re here.

OKAY UM. on my 2014 version of this there were a bunch of questions about tv shows that i’m putting back in if only for the memories:

25. Which TV shows did you start watching in 2020? the haunting of bly manor, which we still need to finish. derry girls.

26. Which TV shows did you let go of in 2020? HERE’S WHY I WANTED TO RESURRECT THESE. here was my answer in 2015: “supernatural. goodbye, my sweet prince.” CAN YOU EVEN FUCKING BELIEVE

27. Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn’t in 2020? Why? so far, queen’s gambit and that one on hulu with catherine the great. EVENTUALLY. 28. Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2020? fleabag. queen’s gambit. 29. Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2020 unless things significantly improve? idk i drop things pretty regularly if they don’t entertain me 30. Which TV show impressed you least in 2020? GUYS HERE’S MY ORIGINAL 2015 ANSWER: “supernatural. :(”

anyway back to the rest of the quiz:

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? every person who refuses to listen to facts and information.

26. What was the best book you read? killers of the flower moon: the osage murders and the birth of the fbi, or the his dark materials series.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? well i knew about tswift so i’m not going to count her albums. i will count this song that jon played for me once in the car that got stuck in my head for two weeks straight and led me down into a great related-songs spotify playlist: through the roof ‘n underground.

28. What did you want and get? a wedding dress and a very specific kind of wedding band. a gay angel. a christmas getaway. animal crossing.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? idk i don’t know how many films i saw this year. maybe mucho mucho amor: the legend of walter mercado

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? i was 32. we went to an escape room with a BUNCH of people -- work bff, my old work bff and his wife (old bc he quit and we’ve fallen out of touch :(), the cool new physics teacher and his fiancee, and the aforementioned trump voter and his wife, before we knew... we went out for brunch/lunch after. it was pretty great!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? not having to chaperone that school trip in january. dean being bi in english as well as spanish. cas just ilke, appearing in 15x20. not having to physically go back to work this fall.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020? no! real! pants!

34. What kept you sane? jon. supernatural (in a way?). animal crossing for a while. wellbutrin! i haven’t really been able to detail this yet, but finally i did something about tumblr and my therapist making me think about adhd. my doctor gave me wellbutrin (bc i lack any official diagnosis and was on anxiety meds anyway, and he was like let’s try this!) and it’s fucking. it’s a fucking godsend. surprisingly enough, my students. trying to provide them a safe space has been a calming thing for me.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? jensen ackles’ silence. misha collins again, i guess.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? the summer was so fucking intense. i guess though it was me trying to exert my influence in a responsible way with my students without trying to try to make them feel uncomfortable but then one kid was a vocally upset trump supporter after the election and i had to try to defuse that situation.

37. Who did you miss? my old work bff. several old friends that i’ve fallen out of touch with bc i have no object permanence.

38. Who was the best new person you met? people i met through the spn resurgence!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020: if you manifest it in an au, it will come. no really though. maybe that expectations are only as important as i make them out to be.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: usually i have a hard time coming up with anything for this and i default to looking at my most played songs of the year. my most played song of the year received each and every one of its plays within the month of november and you can guess why. anyway see if this works

I had all and then most of you Some and now none of you Take me back to the night we met I don't know what I'm supposed to do Haunted by the ghost of you Take me back to the night we met - the night we met, lord huron

#happy new year #annual meme

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patheticphallacy · 5 years

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Another month, another wrap up.

My second year of University is finished, basically. I’ve submitted my dissertation proposal, am in the middle of all my essays due end of April/early May, and have a new flat for third year.

How time flies!

And I’m 20 in two months! Yay! Exciting stuff!

READING WRAP UP

After the Rain by Jun Mayuzuki [3.75 stars; I have a review for this one, it has it’s issues but I’m hoping it’ll improve as the series goes on]

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne [4 stars; A.A. Milne came in to my house and purposefully ripped my heart out of my chest from beyond the grave]

RWBY Volume 1: Red Like Roses by Various [3 stars; this has some ISSUES I’ve had with other RT productions, I still love it despite myself tho ]

The Isle of Pines by Henry Neville [1 star; A lot of uhhhh incest in this one]

I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino [3 stars; this one was quite disappointing, in all honesty, although it is still a cute read!]

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare [3 stars; this is my first Shakespeare of the year as I work my towards reading all his plays by 25! I was confused at moments, but the reveals were so satisfying, although the ending….]

Sweet Blue Flowers by Takako Shimura [4.5 stars; this is the lesbian manga I’ve been waiting for all my life, everyone! I wasn’t living until I read this]

My Immortal by Tara [1 star; thank you to my friend Zara for finally getting me to read all of this finally!]

The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin [1 star; this was boring as HECK]

Belinda Blinked 1 by Rocky Flintstone [1 star; FINALLY finished the first part of the My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast, so I’m marking this one as read]

Labyrinth Coronation #9, #10, #11 by Simon Spurrier [4 stars- nearly at the end now! I’ll miss this series, honestly, it’s been consistently great and it’s been so entertaining]

Sparrowhawk #3 and #4 by Delilah S Dawson [3 stars; not a spectacular series, but only one issue left, so I may as well finish it when #5 comes out!]

The Unsound by Cullen Bunn [4.5 stars; this is very disturbing and graphic in terms of self harm and gore, but I loved it? Apparently my brand is loving all the bizarre and gorey comic series people HATE]

Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers #15-17 by Ryan Parrott [3 stars; would consider giving these issues 4 stars purely for Skull and Kimberly, and also Bulk for how cute he was protecting Skull’s heart from being broken]

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata [3.5 stars; a difficult one to rate, as I loved the first half, but once these characters realise they like each other/the one Mariana Zapata Sex Scene happens that is part of her brand, I just get tired and feel like she should have ended it 50 pages before]

On the Death of Peter Stubbe by Scott Wolf [1.5 stars; read this bad boy for Uni and it was actually bizarre]

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro [3 stars; I was… very disappointed with this one. The ending was very rushed and confusing, I had to go back and re-read to understand what had happened, but I still love the characters and look forward to reading book 3 in April]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare [3.5 stars; this was a laugh and would have been rated higher, if not for that whole final scene that just felt like Shakespeare was STRETCHING]

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman [4 stars; this is SUCH a good first book in a middle grade series that follows a girl who goes on a scavenger hunt after the creator of the hunt is hospitalised! It sounds darker than it is, I swear]

Kulti by Mariana Zapata [3.5 stars; THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A WHOLE ASS 5 STARS FOR PLOT if Mariana didn’t insist on ending it the way she did, and also didn’t use lesbophobic slurs and weird possessive undertones between the MC and the LI as well as so much girl and slut shaming like… Winnipeg definitely wasn’t this bad]

The Woods Volume 4 by James Tynion IV (4 stars; this series is finally starting to improve for me and I’m so happy!)

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl (5 stars; I loved this book so so much I’m so glad I finally finished it after 2 months of having it on hold)

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (3 stars; I didn’t really enjoy this much as expected, it definitely has issues that I’m surprised aren’t discussed more like how violent their relationship is before sex ? The MC genuinely thinks she’s going to get murdered by the LI at first)

The Walking Dead Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman (3.5 stars; after putting this down before I’m so happy I ended up enjoying it!)

Wait For It by Mariana Zapata (3 stars; in terms of more problematic material, this is definitely Zapata’s best. I do still think she has pacing issues though, and her sex scenes are so badly written I cringe every time I read one)

Sunstone Volume 1 by Stjepan Šejić (4 stars; another really great read; the art is beautiful, characters are so fleshed out already, and I can’t wait to see where their relationship goes!)

AND MY APRIL TBR JAR PICK ISSSSSS……………………………………….

IT ONLY HAPPENS IN THE MOVIES by Holly Bourne! One of the picks Annie made for me in my ‘Best Friend picks my TBR’ post!

ESSAYS/ARTICLES I READ THIS MONTH

Chubby Rat Gets Stuck in a Manhole: this is the only piece of literature that has ever mattered to me

Authors voice alarm after sharp drop in sales of YA fiction: a very solemn and worrying piece, but I’m hoping the conversation this brought up will continue and this is something UKYA publishers and readers alike can work on to improve the sales and keep YA sales in the UK alive!

When words fail: A possible interpretation of Isabella’s silence in Measure for Measure: This is a response to Isabella’s silence at the end of Measure for Measure, which I read this month. I think it has a tragic ending for Isabella, honestly, and this is a really great interpretation of that scene

The Gay Love Stories of Moomin and the Queer Radicality of Tove Jansson: I can’t be the only person to have noticed the sudden influx of Moomin hype on Twitter, and I am digging it. Reading this is fascinating, and I think it’s incredible how much of Jansson’s life and experience as a queer woman can be seen in Moomin!

Openly gay pro strongman Rob Kearney marries his boyfriend: I will love and support gay athletes till the day I die. This article is so cute.

The Night Country: Melissa Albert previews her next Hazel Wood novel: The Hazel Wood was one of my favourite novels of 2018, so the sequel coming out so quickly is an absolute treat. This has the cover release- American, unfortunately, so I still have no clue what the UK cover will bring- but it does have the first chapter! I love and adore Sophia Snow and I cannot wait to have a new book girlfriend!

TV SHOWS/MOVIES/VIDEOS I WATCHED

Ryan Hollinger’s video on the horror of Coraline. Coraline is one of my favourite animated films, I’ve watched it so many times, and I love seeing people’s analysis of it!

I went on a bit of a Ryan Hollinger kick this month and also watched his Texas Chainsaw Massacre video where he analyses the presence of daylight in the film, unconventional in the horror genre

Karate Chopsticks plays a lot of Professor Layton games, so when I have some downtime where I just want to relax I’ve been watching him!

I watched a video on How Guillermo del Toro deals with trauma in his films that I found fascinating! It specifically talks about The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth

With my friend Zara, I started the K-Drama BOYS OVER FLOWERS, which I’m honestly loving. It has some issues, but it’s basically a staple k-drama and I’m loving watching it and talking about it with her

MUSIC I’VE BEEN ENJOYING

Sucker by Jonas Brothers [I never really cared about these guys coming back but I’m glad they did, this is a really neat song]

SOS by Jonas Brothers

Big Time Rush by Big Time Rush [a TUNE]

Just in general I’ve really been enjoying The Band CAMINO, my favourite song by them is definitely Daphne Blue!

REVIEWS I POSTED

In Other Lands

Heartstopper

Starry Eyes

Four Film Reviews: The Village, Holes, Stardust, 13 Going on 30

Netflix Thriller Reviews

Three Manga Reviews: After the Rain Vol 1, RWBY Vol 1, Sweet Blue Flowers

OTHER POSTS I MADE

Music Monday: Music I’ve Listened to Lately

Graphic Recommendations #1: Contemporary

Top Ten Tuesday: Standalones that Need a Sequel

Top Ten Tuesday: My Best Friend Picks My Spring TBR!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Should be Podcasts

Currently Reading #1

My Study Positive April Announcement!

March Wrap Up & April TBR Jar Pick Another month, another wrap up. My second year of University is finished, basically. I've submitted my dissertation proposal, am in the middle of all my essays due end of April/early May, and have a new flat for third year.

#articles #book reviews #books #essays #manga #march wrap up #movies #music #reading wrap up #tbr jar #top ten tuesday #tv

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gymnasticcrazy-blog · 5 years

Photo

M/Age 25--26/BW 58--68 kg/1.70 m. 1 Year of powerlifting and calisthenics. http://bit.ly/2SuuOZF

TLDR: Circa 1 year Progress Summary

M 25--26. All units, graphs and tables are SI (m, kg). For the graphs W_i = weight at the start of the programme, so \Delta W / W_i is relative weight increase from the start of the programme.

Progress pics. Before any lifting (50 kg), started CAP3 (58 kg) when those trousers used to fit, last day of gym before holiday closure (68 kg), not sure i have a pump since i hung out talking to a friend for a while before taking these wheels 1, wheels 2, back 1, back 2, front.

January 2018 December 2018 Height 1.70 1.70 Weight 58 68 DL 112.5 150 LBS 62.5 100 Bench 52.5 82.5 OHP 35 50 Cheat Pendlay Row 80 107.5

I've also unlocked a 30 degree V-sit for 15 seconds, one leg tuck back lever (good form) for 15 seconds, one leg tuck front lever (ok form) for 5 seconds. I'm working on muscle up progressions.

Backstory

I've been really pretty skinny all my life, did martial arts for 12 years but was always really lean. Things weren't the greatest financially and personally during my undergrad which led me to getting extremely skinny. Seeing pictures of me from that time is like seeing a completely different person. I never got diagnosed but I'm pretty sure I was depressed, life was shit.

Thankfully my luck started to change during the summer of 2014, which eventually led to a PhD offer from my dream university in early 2016. Once I got here, it just so happened had a free subscription to the university gym. I also got rejected by a girl, which pushed me to bite the bullet and start lifting. At that point I weighed 50 kg and had shit posture (nerd neck and rolled shoulders).

I started going in february 2017 but felt so out of place and my left shoulder really hurt from years of forward rolled shoulders. I was so self conscious I spent my time by the rowing machine hating life and messing around with shitty machines. I was so uncomfortable that I only lasted a week and stopped going for a month. During that month, I reevaluated and decided to do it properly.

metallicadpa's PPL

The first programme I tried was metallicadpa's PPL. Overall I think it's probably the best beginner programme in the sidebar for someone without a knowledgeable gym buddy. I really appreciate the fact it's a full programme with great accessories included (I still use them). I don't have any numbers because I was so embrarrased that I kept track only in my head. I was scared of barbells so all I used were dumbells for the first six months. Around October 2017 I was confident enough I started using them. I remember struggling squatting 40 kg and deadlifting 70 kg.

I recommend this programme to anyone who wants to start lifting. However, I would only do it for 3--6 months, I should've changed sooner but needed to build my confidnce. I gained 8 kg doing this.

nSuns CAP3

By mid December 2017 I was invested enough that I decided I needed an actual powerlifting programme. Before the gym closed for the holiday break I tested my 5 RMs from which the initial numbers were estimated. I decided on nSuns CAP3 for its conservative progression and the fact that I could keep accessories and be done relatively quickly (1 hr 15 -- 1 hr 45 min).

Started January 3rd 2018 when the gym reopened. Here's how my T1 and T2 lifts progressed (periods without progress are due to travelling). It's interesting to see the relative vs raw increases in my lifts. The TMs ran away from me so they're not realistic 1 RMs.

I loved the programme and will definitely go back at some point. Having changed to the 6-day LP squat version, I have to say progressing my squat was really hard with CAP3. I really struggled with the first day of the first week of T1 squats. Also, progression may have been too slow for a newbie like me, considering how fast my lifts have been progressing since swapping to the LP.

Here are the accessories I did during my time on nSuns' CAP3:

Day Excercise Sets Reps or Hold time Bench Dragon flag 3 8+ Back Lever 3+ 12+ s Front Lever 3+ 12+ s Hanging Leg Raise/Around the World/Toes to bar/Foot to opposite hand 3 6+/8+/10+ Face Pull 3 10+/12+/15+ Deadlift Incline DB bench 3 6+/8+/10+ Dips 3 4+/6+/8+/10+ Bicep curl 1 3 6+/8+/10+ Bicep curl 2 3 6+/8+/10+ L/V-sit 3+ 12+ s Squat Calf Raise 3 8+/12+/15+ Pullups 3+ 4+/6+/8+/10+ Lateral Raise 3 10+/12+ Ab wheel rollout/Parallette Crunch 3 6+/8+/10+ Lunges/Bulgarian split squat 3 8+/10+/12+

I periodised them with the same idea as the main lifts but made sure the overall volume for each muscle group remained around the same for each of the three weeks. I also didn't stress out if i missed reps as long as the main lifts kept progressing.

nSuns LP 6-day squat version

Here's my progress so far, started 5th November 2018. It's been disrupted by travel but i've been hitting PRs every week. It's interesting to see that the linear component is larger on the LP than CAP3 on most lifts, however it's still too early to tell which will yield greater long term progress (my money is on the LP for the time being).

Since the LP is much longer, the accessories have taken a hit. I try to do them all, but sometimes I'm too gassed or have spent way too long so I cut my accessories short. However, I always do my rows and pullups with all the pressing in nSuns, I do extra band pullaparts over the day if I skip facepulls.

The exercises correspond to the day but the rep schemes are for them all (except for isometrics, where i go for time rather than reps). I periodise them similarly to how I did on CAP3:

Day Excercise Sets Reps or Hold time Bench 1 / OHP / Bench 2 Dragon flag/Landmine Anti rotation/L or V-Sit 3 8+ Back Lever 3+ 12+ s Front Lever 3+ 12+ s Pullups (Weighted)/Pullups (Variations)/Muscle up 3+ 4+/6+/8+/10+ Cheat Pendlay Rows/Kroc Row Same as CAP3 - Face Pull 3 10+/12+/15+ Squat 1 / Deadlift / Squat 2 Incline DB bench/Dips 3 8+ Dips / Incline DB bench / Reverse grip barbell bicep curl 3 4+/6+/8+/10+ Hip Thrust / Hip thrust / Barbell bicep curl 3 6+/8+/10+ Lunges / Bulgarian Split Squat / Lateral raise 3 6+/8+/10+ L or V-sit / Hanging leg raise or Toes to bar / Ab-wheel rollouts 3+ 12+ s / 8+/10+/12+

Nutrition

I don't keep track of all my nutrition, but have made sure to eat 2.5+ g of protein per kilo of lean body mass daily. I've also been stuffing my face with as much food as possible but it's really hard for me. Presumably because I eat really healthily, I cook for myself and I'm a big fan of fruit. I'm not a big fan of carbs but I make an effort with potatoes. I'm comfortable with my strength and weight gain, probably sitting around 12--14% bodyfat.

Social gainz

Holy ass-gropin' batman! It's been great! Some of the travelling I did over the summer was visiting home, people commented on the gains a lot. I even inducted some of my friends to the gym life. The first thing two friends said to me after not seeing me in over a year was that i had gotten huge (lol). I've had my ass grabbed and my shirt taken off by drunk girls at clubs (#metoo), i've even gotten free drinks from drunk bar maids. Apparently i'm attractive now (having an ok short beard doesn't hurt), it's awesome.

I also joined the powerlifting club at the university. So many memes. It's awesome.

Future

I'll carry on with the 6-day nSuns LP because my OHP and Deadlift have exploded. Squat is much easier to progress now and bench seems faster but it's hard to tell at this point. I'll eventually switch back to CAP3 once linear gains fully run out or when this programme squeezes the life out of me. I imagine I'll switch back and forth between programmes as they bave both worked really well and I enjoy them both. I think CAP3 is more manageable in the long term however, especially when my squat improves past 120 kg. I think I might modify the OHP progression to be more like the LP though, I like these OHP gains. I also want to keep mixing in calisthenics, once I unlock levers I'll move them to maintenance and start on planches and human flags.

I'm not chasing any particular numbers but it would be pretty sweet to get 130/110/170/65 for S/B/D/OHP by the end of the year, also straddle levers, a 60 deg v-sit and a kipping muscle up would be sick. Ambitious but we'll see.

submitted by /u/KrunoS [link] [comments] December 30, 2018 at 09:11PM

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raysondetre · 6 years

Text

U2′s Songs of Experience

Here are the things in the album and release that U2 have done that tie into this book, summarized without substantiation. I reiterate the list with substantiation below if you actually want to find out if this is going on.

Why this is important: -the book was published January 9th, 2016. Bono received the same book at the halfway mark as a draft in 2011. It was submitted for copyright April 2014 and received its copyright license at the end of that year. So you're dealing with a situation where the book can in no way have been contrived to fit U2's actions with their subsequent album, Songs of Experience. Which implies that Bono contrived his creative output in response to the book, because there are enough of them that it appears it could not have been chance. To find out why that could be of pivotal import, it would pay to read the book, but I'll give you the shorthand, -for the book's entire premise to fly, -Bono was so creatively involved he'd have to agree to its existence on some level. And this is enough to assert that he does. But to understand why that statement can be made that strongly, you'd have to understand what was in the book. Same goes for understanding why that may be so important, but U2 themselves have framed the import themselves quite perfectly by this choice quote they released on the day of the US recent eclipse, "Blackout, it's clear, who you are will appear".

1) Bono appears to have read the halfway draft of this book he got in 2011 -in terms of creating a song that manages to juxtapose finishing the book, along with what might be a reaction to the fact that I have lately published a spate of negative investigative articles about the band with regards to their philanthropy sources, -with the fact that I was on Killiney Bay in the draft right before the first time I met him personally, -a song which actually manages to tie into this circumstance three different ways (relying on the journal entry from the night prior)

2) Bono's preview interview for the album's release (the exclusive Amazon Alexa podcast) had him pulling out and talking about an incident he's practically never discussed, -the theft of his lyrics for U2's album ATYCLB on his laptop - an incident that happened right after I first met him, and was thoroughly documented in the draft he received (as well as the current book), -a theft that happened 18 years ago.

3) U2 have deliberately timed their album's release with both an eclipse (to the day) and a supermoon (which happened two days after the album's release) -both events which happened before and after the first and second time I met and spoke to Bono in person in Dublin in 1999. An eclipse happened at almost at totality over Dublin (over 98%) just days before I met Bono, and the supermoon occurred two days after I met him the second time. U2 timed the release of the album with a supermoon occurring two days after the album's release. All this occurrence was documented in both the draft and the current (pre-published 2016) book.

4) Bono snippets "Walk to the Water" in the BBC promotion of the new album's release, -a song that has never been performed and has only been snippeted four times in all of its existence (including this time). He edited the lyrics so that they emphasize the song's (female) subject, opening by her saying it wasn't cold, and how she walked down the "North Strand" to the sea, -which is exactly where you'd walk to go to U2's secret studio then (in 1999, not when this song was written). This is exactly what transpired when I met Bono the first time. Bono was in a position to know that this was exactly what transpired the first time, because I described the process of finding the secret studio in the draft, including describing which streets, -not to mention the conversation itself.

5) The new album, Songs of Experience has a bonus track, "Book of Your Heart" which actually has Bono describing having reading something given to him exclusively for his reading alone (in which he was a character), that corresponds with several appertaining facts of the book.

6) The most significant of these is that it mentions the name change I made to my legal pen name in order to publish the book. Or at least, this is alluded to as something the writer described in the song has done, and this is something I did to self-publish. This happened after 2011.

7) Prior to this, with Songs of Innocence -Bono titled track 10 after the "sincerely" line of my opening letter that presented the draft, word for word: "This is Where You Can Reach me Now". This is something I cannot document because that letter was saved exclusively to the flash drive that Bono received.

This got started as a reply, which I've kept the link to document because the reply thread is literally when I noticed, in real time, that there could have been a deliberate interplay between the song and my book draft. (As well as the embed code just in case which is not a hyperlink.) Facebook censored me from replying, which is how this analysis took flight.

Anthony: "Pamela Williams this is the stupidest crap I’ve ever read. So Bono stoled lyrics from you? Ok lol"

"No. And not insulting you back Anthony takes some restraint. The lyrics are not a quote -which is apparent to anyone literate. What is he doing by the look of it is tagging the period I was in Ireland and met him personally (and delivered an art theory to him as per lyrics with some pretty serious implications). You might register the fact that every one of these points I'm listing is in the book draft I managed to get to him personally in Chicago, -2011. The draft he got, the chapter I was in Ireland and met him personally was just being begun. I had to summarize it as a series of journal entries." So in the book draft he got:

1) I was crying on Killiney Bay the night after a Full Moon just days before I met Bono for the first time. The night before I was singing my lungs out and dancing on the roof of a Dublin Pub three stories up. -With the song "Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way". -Bono lyrically suggests to start singing, instead of 'talking' -which would suitably reference the fact that I've done a series of five investigative articles in the last year and a half or so on the band's billionaire sponsorship etc. that were deeply negative. -That's probably the reason for the 'I know the rage in you is strong" reference.

-Now when I went back into writing the Chapter on Ireland in earnest after Bono received the book in 2011, I found I'd made an error and in fact these journal entries were several days apart, -not just one day apart. So the page I put in the book footnotes (that are in the existing published book as hyperlinks) that has these same journal entries (at a higher level of detail) -they're a week or so apart instead of a day apart. The quay I was sitting on (crying) at Dalkey is on Killiney Bay. I said, "I think my heart is completely broken." In the draft Bono got the entry is only two lines and the episode on the roof (June 28th) is listed as the Full Moon the night prior. In reality the second night I listed as June 29th in his draft really took place July 6th. (Yea, I have the original volumes (handwritten journals, -seven of them), the only way this would have even been the result.)

This is not asserting that he is taking lyrics from me. It looks like what happened in the book draft may be something he chose to write a song (actually maybe three plus one deliberate choice of snippet) about. There's a (big) difference between that allegation and alleging "Bono's copping my lyrics".

-Disclaimer, I have run across this interview in The Sun that says the song was written for his sons (heard the same thing about "13 (There is a Light)" -Bono says on record in the liner notes that this is the case, listing three songs by title as dedicated to his children). However, as explained in the book itself, (and further below) -both sons appeared to have been named after the document I handed to Bono the first time I met him, so it may have a dual intention. It may fit both situations and fits this one a little better, as the book puts a host of songs into one giant, narrative uber song. PS: From what I've seen, apart from this one song out of the three I'm referencing, despite the fact that Bono said all the tracks were letters of some sort to people in his life (including fans) the ones I'm mentioning have no such attribution by Bono or the band (fans assume attribution). I'm not sure why Bono would dedicate two songs to his two sons and only one song to his two daughters, and Bono has only attributed one so far to his daughters. So I'm wondering if the song was written with a dual intention, which is not a first in terms of song analysis where Bono is concerned. PPS: I’m not the type to make an assumption about one song because that song "just happens" to fit what he received in a draft. There’s a lot else going on.

2) Bono talks about his laptop getting stolen with all his lyrics on the Alexa interview special that was a retrospective preview to the album, and only broadcast before the album's release (since this individual didn't listen well enough I checked on this interview with second source). This theft happens in the book draft I gave to Bono in 2011, -right after I documented meeting him personally in the draft. "-But [Anthony is] too dim to consider how I might possess a scan of the newsprint article that documents when he recovered it, and exists as its own page because it is an actual book footnote in a book that was already published in iBooks January 9, 2016, -which means I've already written and published this so I cannot have possibly contrived any of these pages, -nor the book's existing context to fit what Bono has since written and U2 have done in releasing this album (same goes for all the links from my book page to follow) - They all exist as hyperlinks in a previously published book." The lyrics/laptop theft is dealt with in considerable detail. Bear in mind Bono's pulling out an event that happened in 1999, -18 years ago, for this interview. -And I know I got the true skivvy on this from a taxi driver because Bono talked in the Alexa interview about negotiating through bad people to get to even badder people. Ergo, The Mirror lied about the recovery.

3) I met Bono for the first time in person less than a week after an eclipse at over 98% totality took place right over Dublin, and this is in the notes Bono received in the book draft, -very shortly after the journal entry where I was crying on Killiney Bay. (Again that's original scanned newsprint that's already footnoted into the book for this very reason.) So, Bono and Co. notify everyone of "The Blackout" (the first single release to Song of Experience) -on the day of an eclipse passing very close to where I live now, it so happens, -in fact where I live it was it was 88% totality. -A blackout is what happens when there's an eclipse, btw. They quoted one song lyric from the song in this mail out to fans in the path of the eclipse: "Blackout, it's clear, who you are will appear". (They don't mention anything about "The Blackout" even being a single release that's in the pipe with this mail-out, what you saw is what people received.) "Eclipse" as both an event and analogy that have very serious occurrences; it is an existent analogy throughout the book. (You can search the term. -In fact the one line of lyric responsible for triggering this whole book, or even traveling to meet Bono in 1999 (let alone bothering to write about it), was "You know the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon, y'know I don't see you, when she walks in the room" - "The Fly".)

Interestingly enough, one of the very few (two) religious essays I did for the book centered on a female theologian whose entire religious practice centered on "learning to walk in the dark" - naturally, -because her system of thought was something the book explored doing existentially. (-This was released publicly at the time of writing.)

After signifying the first single with the eclipse, U2 released the album Songs of Experience, two days before a supermoon occurred. -In the book notes Bono received I recorded how I met him personally a second time at the Octagon Bar in The Clarence Hotel in Ireland and the supermoon, which was declared by the Irish Times to be the brightest in 136 years, happened two days after I met him the second time. That is why the book also has a footnote about that as well. -This is also in the notes Bono received that were the book draft at that time. Now what's absolutely mind-blowing about this, is that the supermoon occurs in the book draft two days after I met Bono the second time where we spoke and I gave him a Christmas gift, which is the exact date spacing of how U2 timed the album's release, with the supermoon occurring two days afterward.

4) Bono deliberately snippets "Walk to the Water" in the BBC broadcast promoting this album at the end of the performance of "All I Want Is You": "Walk to the Water" has never been performed. This is the 4th time it's been snippeted in all of its existence (30 years). These are the lyrics. He drops a very sensitive quatrain about the song's subject; she wore a "necklace given to [her] by [her] father".

Rabbit Hole #1

-Bono skips that part of the song in this snippet of "Walk to the Water" to go onto the Dublin streets: she "turned left on the Northstrand, and out towards the sea". -If you know where that is, in Dublin, -you'd know that it changes into Pearse Street when it turns left and later becomes Rings End Road, -and that was exactly how to get to U2's then (1999, certainly not in 1987 when "Walk to the Water" was written) secret studio (which was on Hanover Quay on the Grand Canal, and you can google that location now as they decided to let it go). -If you turned left on the North Strand you'd get to their secret studio, if you just took two more turns at the right place. Turning left on the North Strand is the same as turning towards the mouth of the River Liffey, and the sea. Which I walked before and after meeting Andy a couple of times by chance (Guggi's brother -Guggi is practically Bono's best friend in the world)) -I followed North Strand to Rings End (Rings End was overshooting it, actually the turn off was on Pearse Street) until I came to the secret studio and sat on the bench outside and first met Bono. The book draft Bono got in 2011 goes into these encounters and the walking to get there in a lot of detail because I was in a deadline rush of sorts to sort out to Bono how I actually met him, a deadline determined by a concert ticket. How finding Bono transpired was actually sort of odd and interesting, because it took a series of things happening by chance (Andy included), -and I had to blow Andy's mind by proving that with the song "The First Time" Bono was referencing a feminine Holy Spirit (not by trying to, it was that his mind was blown that prompted him to divulge the location). It took quite a convo to tease the location out of him. So the book mentions "Pearse Street" and "Rings Road". -You can search the book for terms after you've found them on Google Maps. The book has a search option. Incidentally Bono has written a song about Andy all of two times, "Bad" in 1984 (which reappeared and became a regular in their live set after the delivery in 2011 was made), and "Raised by Wolves", which appeared on the first subsequent album "Songs of Innocence" after Bono received this book draft. -Yes, made a note of that observation at the time. (Scroll down, to "let's meet under the cherry tree".)

Now practically the first thing that happens when I relate conversing with Bono the first time in this book (which was the same in the draft) is that Bono goes into a brogue about how cold it is today and waxes apologetic about the state of Ireland's typical weather. And I had to suppress my comment about how it wasn't cold at all, -being from Canada. (For what I avoided saying I interjected the thought "Oh puleez". "oh puleez" will pull up that first conversation with Bono.) -So Bono's literally teased out this verse snippet on the BBC broadcast and modified it (by dropping half of the first verse and going onto the second) -so that it happens to fit the actual context of when I first actually met him -that again (*sigh*) -was transcribed in the book draft I gave to him in 2011 and presently exists in the actual book. -The first line in "Walk to the Water is, "She said it wasn't cold". So the choice of snippet just happens to have fit the real situation.

All of these events happen in just a few pages in the draft that Bono got. They formed the substance of that chapter then, which is certainly not how it stands now.

Rabbit Hole #2

Rabbit Hole #3

5) The album has a bonus track called "Book of Your Heart" - the first verse sure looks like he might be reading a book he received personally that is his sole edition, doesn't it? (No one's ever going to see that draft other than himself.)

The song opens "Right from the start, you put this into words, how you think we should proceed" - I began writing in reference to the matter when I was 21, the "big" concept landed at 25, and then I began writing in earnest. "Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way" - has "So young to be the words of your own song". - If you follow the protagonist in this book the full course, you'll find out this linking situation - (-when the protagonist exists as object in an array of songs and you put that all together for the first time as a book, that book is the first elucidation of the whole song-) -this situation of the protagonist as object actually can be traced back to when she was just thirteen years old, with Bono coming into the picture at sixteen, not that any of this was known at those ages. The watershed moment that came on like a neutron bomb happened at age 21. The really freaky part is that in terms of becoming her own song, her own self-conceived myth that ends up playing out through the book, the character she came up with that becomes this myth personae in later years, she came up with at age 12; -first writing the story's beginning at age 14.

"Write a world where we can belong" -in "Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way" -looks like an endorsement to finish writing (but that the writer is on their own). Bono got a draft that was at the less than halfway mark. And subject to some serious revision in key earlier chapters after he got it (one got added).

"Book of Your Heart" also has the lines "This is the promise that we'll stay, Through the long descriptive passages, Where we don't know what to say" -Also looks like reading a book (and first encounter, the entire intercourse was of what was not said). It's a wordy one that clocks in at 836 pages last I checked (in Word). The song also has "We are not fictitious characters, We don't belong to this world" -which again, indicates characters that exist as writ. It is very fitting for a book that centers on Bono and a protagonist between the two of them, plus an associated ensemble cast, and deals in pre-conception existence (post-death as well).

6) "Book of Your Heart" mentions a name change. When I met Bono and made the deliveries, both in 1999 and 2011, I went by a different name. The book's legal pen name is Pamela Williams. (It's right on the cover.) You'd have to be fairly aware of me, I know, to understand that I changed my name between 2011 and now to release the book, -but I did so on all my social media, it so happens. If you find this dubious, well, I decided on the pen name in 2000. It's on record in the book itself that I'm going to change my name for it -and what the name will be. You can search the name inside the book also to find this out.

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kapowsandinterrobangs · 6 years

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So much has

happened since my last post. Some general updates: 1. S

What the actual fuck was I thinking when I said I had a thing for S. I even had the audacity to ask “Am I in love?” Holy crap haha! Since my last post, a few things have transpired. Firstly, I found out that S actually had broken up with his girlfriend of 5 years. No guessing how I felt about that. So then I tried to snake my way into his life - strike up conversations, purposely walked past areas where I knew he would be at (oh God recounting all these really gives me second hand embarrassment) and best of all edited his personal statement for him HAHHAHAHAHAH sigh.... The things I do for the men I thought I love.... Revolting. Soon enough I found out through Instagram that he got back with his ex, I got a little depressed but the bottom-line is that I got over and that is all that matters. BLESS.

P.S. He got into LSE for Masters. That’s right. Your girl helped send a kid to LSE for Masters. Now imagine if your girl actually put in 10000x more effort into her own shit. She would have been at Cambridge by now. 2. FOSTER THE PEOPLE CONCERT I finally went for the concert! It was fucking surreal. Stood for about 1.5 hours in a cosy space along with other FTP fans at Big Box. Imagine our surprise when we found out that we were among the older attendees.... FTP was a band of our generation. Somehow we also found secondary school kids at the concert too. So that was half depressing half amusing. Mark Foster played our old favourites like Hustling, Coming of Age and all time crowd favourite Pumped Up Kicks. I heard that they don’t perform that song anymore due to the current social climate back home in the US (and we all know what that song was about) so imagine my surprise when they performed it! Might upload the videos when I can because I did take quite a number. 3. EXO’s ELYXION 2018

Never in a million years did I think that I would be able to watch EXO perform live this year. I mean, I did anticipate their arrival in Singapore. They have been coming every year to hold a concert here so this year should be no different. Problem at first was that no one could or wanted to go with me. Kuns who promised to go with me bailed and the rest just wasn’t interested or had no money. So I went by myself. Yes, my first time attending a concert solo and it was EXO’s! I got one of the cheaper seats (which were already quite expensive...).Thankfully, on the same day, I had lunch with some of the Council Kids. Afterwards, Nat and Esther volunteered to send me to the Indoor Stadium so that was nice. Well, actually they were there to observe the xiaomeimeis who were also attending the concert. But still, I am grateful! It was a great experience because I got to see my favourite men sing live! The only problem I had was that everything started with a bang and things progressed really fast like a bullet train I had difficulty catching up. EXO started their set with a remix version of The Eve immediately after appearing on stage. Among the screams, the excitement and special effects, I had trouble registering what was going on until after the song ended. Oh, don;t get me started on the overzealous security guard. He marred the experience for me. Shan told me that it’s normal for them to be very strict at KPOP concerts so I have no choice but to suck it. Pretty sure I’ll come back next year. Gotta start saving up for the better seats. 4. IAS Your girl just became the new Director of Conferences and Seminars within 3 months of joining IAS. Ok mainly because no one ran for the position. It all started when they announced that applications for exco was opened.I honestly had no intention of running at first. I mean, I was only in for like 3 months and pretty much missed all but one fortnightly session because of Kristang so I was the least qualified and deserving person to run for ANY position. Until Jeap told me that no one was running for his position so of course the devil whispered in my ear to try for it. Funny thing was that I wanted to submit my application on the last day of the application window but I couldn’t find the link to the application form so I thought hey, this is a sign. I completely forgot about it until Jeap texted me after my Foster the People concert. Apparently no one bothered to run for his position so he asked me if I wanted to because I did joke about it a couple of weeks before. I said yes. Fast forward a few weeks later and here I am. New responsibilities, new friends to work with, new things to worry about. I’ll take it day by day as they come but until after finals I’m going to chill out for a bit.

That’s all for now I suppose. Lots of things have happened since my last post. New experiences, new feelings, new sights, sounds... new everything. Alhamdulillah for everything. I’m just going to take them as they come.

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underabr0kensky · 7 years

Text

this is fuck-mothering huge

1. If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? My best friend and I talk about this all the time. I’d spend a shitload more time on my hobbies, probably. Literally just write/play guitar/work out all the time. Also probably drink a lot more too, so maybe it’s good that sleep is necessary.

2. What is your favorite piece of clothing you own / owned? I’m actually not sure. I like my band T-shirts, but I don’t think I have a favorite. Maybe my camo pants since they’re actual army fatigues and they’re comfy as fuck and have like four thousand pockets.

3. What hobby would you pick up if time & money weren't an issue? Stunt driving, probably. I’ve been drifting a few times and it’s fun as fuck but I don’t have the car for it. A Solara is not meant to do that shit.

4. What does your perfect room look like? Something with a big ass window overlooking a forest that I can shut with panels so my room is completely dark, and one of those crazy fucking beds that has a TV built into it. Also shitloads of band and boxing posters and a metric fuck-ton of anime figures and dragon statues and other such nerdy shit in a display case. Also a cat somewhere, and my girlfriend curled up next to me.

5. How often do you play sports? I don’t. I’m not really into sports at all, except for boxing and some football.

6. What fictional place would you like to visit? There are many. Hogwarts/Hogsmeade, Cairhien, Misaki Town, Fuyuki City, Aincrad, Akihabara (the one from Log Horizon, I know that’s actually a real city as well you smartass), literally anywhere in the Dragon Universe, Destiny Islands, Hollow Bastion, there are so fucking many.

7. What job would you be terrible at? Anything that involves a lot of pressure. I like cooking, but I could never work as a chef. The stress would crack me instantly.

8. When was the last time you climbed a tree? When I was a kid. I used to do that a lot actually. There’s a big fuckhuge maple tree my dad planted at the house we used to live in back before I was born, and it’s massive now.

9. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance of winning a medal for? Playing Dark Souls. I’d win gold, silver, and bronze. GITGUD.

10. What is the most annoying habit that you or other people have? I do that leg bouncing thing all the time, it pisses people off.

11. What job do you think you'd be really good at? Honestly I think I’d be a good therapist. I’m a fucked up person so I understand where most people are coming from, I love making people feel better, and I’m not one to think someone else’s feelings aren’t valid just because someone somewhere has it worse.

12. What skill would you like to master? Guitar. I know I’m good, but I’m nowhere near a master.

13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? Anything involving hikes in places like those you see on the crazy nature pictures on here. Those things make me hate living in shitty Tennessee.

14. If you had unlimited funds to build a house to live on for the rest of your life, what would the finished house look like? Probably two floors and a basement, Victorian style, somewhere surrounded by wilderness. A garage, a storm cellar, I’m not gonna sit here and describe the interior but it would be fancy but not stuffy or pretentious, just obviously very well-to-do. I like nice things, sue me.

15. What's your favorite drink? Lemonade. Also Mountain Dew.

16. What state or country do you never want to go back to? Mississippi. Why the fuck is the spelling so retarded, for one. That place isn’t even a state, it’s a cess pit. Half the fucking roads don’t have streetlights. I drove for a goddamn hour and didn’t see a Walmart or anything other than an occasional shitty little gas station. Why is it real. I bet they don’t even have running water. Do not fucking go to Mississippi.

17. What songs do you have completely memorized? Shitloads of Metallica songs, also a lot of pop songs because I’m a cuck apparently.

18. What game or movie universe would you like to live in? The Kingdom Hearts universe. Everything is a world. You could go anywhere.

19. What do you consider to be your best find? That’s a weird question. Probably my girlfriend. :P

20. Are you usually early or late? Early because I’m paranoid about showing up late.

21. What pets did you have when you were growing up? Mouse and Alex. My kittehs. I miss them a lot. And random reptiles and amphibians.

22. When people come to you for help, what do they usually need help with? Usually emotional support.

23. What takes up too much of your time? FUCKING WORK.

24. What do you wish you knew more about? A lot of things. The ocean, space, how time works, mythology, physics, dark matter.

25. What would be your first question after waking up from being frozen for 100 years? “Is VR like Sword Art yet?”

26. What are some small things that make your day better? Özge, music, nice weather, and good food.

27. Who's your go-to band or artist when you don't know who or what to listen to? That actually changes a lot. Usually it’s Metallica.

28. What's the best way to start the day? Get up and not wish I hadn’t done that.

29. What TV shows do you like? House M.D., Criminal Minds, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Luther, The Colony, Firefly, Game of Thrones, Dr. Who, general anime.

30. What TV channel doesn't exist but really should? What a fucking weird question. I have no idea. Maybe a channel dedicated to the weekly teaching of guitar techniques or something.

31. Who has impressed you most with what they've accomplished? Özge, definitely, for not drinking. I’m really proud of her.

32. What age do you wish you could stay at permanently? I dunno, maybe 21.

33. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I watched a bit of it and holy fucking god, it sucked. I will never try again.

34. What's your ideal way to spend a weekend? Well I work weekends. But I like chilling with the guys and playing games, getting drunk, and watching movies.

35. What is something that is considered a luxury, but you don't think you could live without? The Internet, but it shouldn’t be considered a luxury. Not having the Internet basically means you’re fucked.

36. What is your claim to fame? Uh. I can play guitar really well? I was the frontman for Distortion Sleep? Some people still recognize us in public, it’s kind of saddening.

37. What is something you enjoy doing the old-fashioned way? Nothing, really. i like convenience.

38. What's your favorite book or movie genre? Horror, I believe. Or drama. Or fantasy.

39. How often do you people-watch? Not very often. I don’t like people.

40. What have you only recently formed an opinion about? I can’t think of anything. Islam, perhaps.

41. What's the best day of the year? Whatever day is the first day of a long vacation.

42. What subject interests you that not many people have heard of? Dark matter.

43. How do you relax after a long day of work? With a drink or by working out.

44. What's the best book series or TV series you've ever read or watched? Best book series is Wheel of Time.

45. Where is the farthest you've ever been from home? Probably when I was in Manhattan or San Diego.

46. What's the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen? Some of the stuff I’ve seen on here is pretty heartwarming. The little kid giving the toy garbage truck to the garbage guys was adorable.

47. What is the most annoying question people ask you? “What aisle is the bread on?” I dunno maybe the fucking aisle that says “BREAD” you piece of shit

48. What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with no preparation? Guitar. I could babble about that shit for hours.

49. If you were the dictator on a small island nation, what crazy dictator stuff would you do? Ban fedoras. Make everyone own a cat. Make one person at random per week submit their cat to me for a 24-hour checkup that is really just me cuddling and playing with the cat. Make Mountain Dew a fundamental human right. Homophobes shall be met with swift death. Somehow kidnap Trump and lock him in a cage. Flog him whenever people get bored, angry, hungry, or if they just want to.

50. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? Eat authentic Italian food. Like in a restaurant where the chefs are people who immigrated from Italy. That shit is dope.

51. Would you rather go hand gliding or whitewater rafting? That’s tough, but hang gliding. I like the sky.

52. What's your dream car? A Lamborghini Diablo SE-30.

53. What's worth spending more on to get the best? Food.

54. What is something a ton of people are obsessed with, but you just don't get? Supernatural. I think that show is a piece of shit with some of the worst acting and dialogue I’ve ever seen.

55. What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years? Moving away from here, hopefully getting a place with her, hopefully being financially stable.

56. Where is the most interesting place you've been? South Dakota. Going to the north during winter was an experience.

57. What's something you've been meaning to try but haven't gotten around to it? Acid. no seriously, I want to trip balls.

58. What is the best thing that happened to you last week? I went to MTAC.

59. What piece of entertainment do you wish you could erase from your mind, only to experience it for the first time again? My friend and I talk about this all the time. The first time we heard “Disconnected” by In Flames it was like a fucking epiphany. I’d like to do that again.

60. If all jobs had the same pay rate and hours, what job would you want to have? I’d be a mystery shopper. That’s so trollzy.

61. What amazing thing have you done that no one was around to see? This one time a wasp flew at me while I was holding a stick so I swung the stick at it in a futile attempt to save myself and I just fucking wrecked this thing, the sound of the stick hitting its body was audible. Punk bitch ass wasp didn’t know who he was fucking with.

62. How different was your life 1 year ago? Extremely different, my life 1 year ago was utter shit.

63. What quirks do you have? I fuck with my hair a lot.

64. What would you rate 10/10? My girlfriend. And Italian food.

65. What fad or trend do you think should come back? Nothing I can think of, fads are dumb.

66. What is the most interesting piece of art you've seen? I have no idea. It’s hard to impress me with art because so much of it is bullshit nowadays, somebody just flings paint onto a canvas and calls it art. My friend Lara does some pretty fucking intense stuff though, she’s really talented with dot art.

67. What kind of art do you enjoy most? Anything abstract and weird.

68. What do you hope never changes? The relationship I’m in, unless it changes for the better.

69. What city would you most like to live in? Berlin :D Or San Diego but only if she’s with me.

70. What movie title best describes your life? I dunno, is there a movie called “What the Fuck is Going On?”?

71. Why did you decide to do the work you are doing now? Because I needed money. I hate my job.

72. What's the best way a person can spend their time? Doing stuff they love.

73. If you suddenly became a master at woodworking, what would you make? That would be fucking cool. Probably just random models of stuff I find interesting. Honestly might carve anime figures and sell them.

74. Where is the most relaxing place you've ever been? The ocean. The waves are chill.

75. What's the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you? I met her on here :) And I got pulled up onstage at a Five Finger Death Punch concert.

76. Where would you rather be from? Germany.

77. What are some things you've had to unlearn? I used to have a lisp and I trained myself to get rid of it.

78. What do you look forward to in the next 6 months? Saving money, eventually going to see her. Also the fair.

79. What website do you visit most often? Probably this one.

80. What one thing do you really want but can't afford? A Lambo, a house, a fucking planet ticket to Berlin goddamn it why are they so expensive fuck god

81. Where do you usually go when you have free time? My room. My cave. My fortress of solitude.

82. Where would you spend all your time if you could? In Germany with her.

83. What's special about the place you grew up? Honestly fucking nothing. Lebanon sucks, there’s nothing there and all the people are shit.

84. What age do you want to live to? I’d like to live to like 400 just to see where the world goes. If it goes south I can just eat a bullet.

85. What are you most likely to become famous for? Music, I hope.

86. What are you absolutely determined to do? Visit Germany.

87. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Play guitar really well. Also beat Through the Fire and Flames on expert.

88. What do you wish you knew more about? You asked me this already you insensitive bastard

89. What question would you most like to know the answer to? What the fuck is all of this shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsAg8MzwM9A

90. What question can you ask to find out the most about a person? Ask how they view other people I suppose.

91. When was the last time you changed your opinion or belief about something major? Probably about Özge explained a lot of stuff about Islam to me.

92. What's the best compliment you've ever received? I love being called “handsome”. It’s such an underappreciated and underused compliment.

93. As the only human left on earth, what would you do? Get really drunk and then end myself. Seriously that would fucking suck.

94. Who inspires you to be better? My girlfriend. I’ve gotten a lot better because of how supportive she is.

95. What do you want your epitaph to be? “One more shot won’t kill me” but only if one more did indeed kill me.

96. What haven't you grown out of? Anime and stuffed animals.

97. In what situation or place would you feel most out of place in? Church. Anytime I go to a church I feel fucking awkward.

98. What's the dumbest thing you've done that actually turned out pretty well? Well my best friend and I bought a bus and defaulted on our lease to live on it. That was fucking stupid, but it taught me a lot of things.

99. If someone wrote a book on an event in your life, what would the book be about? The bus incident. We’ve actually talked about writing a book about it because of what a fucking fiasco it was to even get the thing.

100. What's something you will never do again? Buy a fucking bus. And ruin my relationship.

101. How do you hope you'll change as a person in the future? Hopefully I won’t drink so much and I won’t be so insecure.

102. What keeps you up at night? Stress, usually.

103. What's the most surprising self-realization you've had? “Holy fuck, I was emotionally abused and then I emotionally abused someone.” And then I started drinking too much.

104. What is the most illegal thing you've ever done? Many things. Probably shoplifting, I used to do that fairly frequently because I was a stupid kid.

105. How do you get in the way of your own success? By being too insecure to try.

106. What are you afraid people see when they look at you? My stupid fucking smile, ugh.

107. What is your biggest regret? Fucking things up with her, but I did it and I can’t change it, I just need to not do it to anyone else.

108. What do you look down on people for? Being homophobic or bigoted in any other way.

109. What bridges do you not regret burning? There aren’t many. I suck at letting people go.

110. What lie do you tell most often? “I’m sick”

111. What would be your spirit animal? A cat, I bet.

112. What is the best & worst thing about getting older? You stop being stupid, but you start needing to watch what you eat.

113. What are you most likely very wrong about? Nothing. I know everything. I am never wrong. If you disagree, you prove your incompetence. Bow to me, mortal.

114. If you had a personal flag, what would be on it? A weird cube shape that we used to use for Distortion Sleep.

115. What's happened that changed your view on the world? Well we elected Trump as president so I think we’re all fucked.

116. What is the biggest lesson you've learned? Don’t let insecurity make you an asshole.

117. What is the most immature thing you do? I dunno, skip work?

118. What are you famous for among your friends & family? My guitar and singing skillz yo.

119. If your childhood had a smell, what would it be? Peanut butter and jelly.

120. What one responsibility do you wish you didn't have? Having a fucking job.

121. What are 3 things you want to accomplish before you die? Visit a bunch of different places, make a career out of music, beat the dogshit out of a rapist.

122. What do you want to tell your 10-year-old self? “Start playing guitar you stupid fuck”

123. What's the best thing you got from your parents? My musical ability.

124. What's the best thing about you? I’m compassionate I suppose.

125. What blows your mind? Space and the ocean. Dude that shit is cray cray.

126. Have you ever saved someone's life? Yeah, I have.

127. What are you really good at but embarrassed to be good at? I’m not embarrassed to be good at anything.

128. What would a mirror opposite of you look like? Someone who isn’t sexy as fuck.

129. What are 3 interesting facts about you? I can curl my tongue, I talked to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the phone once, and I hit a golf ball so hard it exploded.

130. Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have a big scar on my right hand from when I jumped down off my bed and my hand came down on my guitar’s head stock. It almost punched through the back of my hand and it was so painful I almost blacked out. I had stitches for like two months. Holy fuck it was so shitty.

131. What's the title of the current chapter in your life? “Recovery”

132. What were some of the biggest turning points in your life? Dropping out of college, starting the first band, meeting Jessica, meeting Özge.

133. What's the hardest lesson you've learned? Sometimes if you fuck something up badly enough, it can’t ever be fixed, even if both people forgive each other.

134. What do people think is weird about you? I slouch really badly.

135. What mistake do you keep making? I drink too much.

136. What have you created that you're most proud of? I wrote a song called “Alone Sleep Ghosts” that is better than anything I’ve ever written and it will probably never be topped.

137. What do you doubt? Myself, all the time.

138. What are some of your morals? Don’t be a bigoted fuckhole.

139. What do you want to be remembered for? My music and my compassion.

140. What do you regret not doing in your childhood years? Picking up guitar earlier.

141. What is your favorite fragrance? Flowery perfumes. Also cooking food.

142. What do you think your last words will be? “Is Tsukihime 2 out yet?”

143. Who or what do you take for granted? I try not to take anything for granted, but most modern conveniences.

144. Why would you be annoying as a roommate? Not at all because I’d stay in my room constantly.

145. What is something you're insecure about? Being replaced.

146. What's the best & worst piece of advice you've received? Best: Don’t let your insecurities ruin your life. Worst: Just do what you love, don’t worry about how much money it makes you.

147. What irrational fears do you have? Spiders, broken glass, needles, and being hurt emotionally.

148. What makes a good life? Being with someone you love and being financially stable.

149. What's the last adventure you went on? We traveled to Georgia for a LARP last year.

150. What is the most memorable gift you've received? The cards that Jess sent me.

#personal #survey #about me #get to know me #this is long

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