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wrennix062 · 4 years

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Let's get personal:

• 6 of the songs you listen to most?

You’ll Be Back (Hamilton), Car Radio (TØP Vessel), Soldier Poet King (The Oh Hellos), IDK You Yet (Alexander 23), Lemons (Brye), S.L.U.T (Bea Miller)

• If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

Thomas Sanders

• Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

"Her smile faded, her chest tightened, and heavy blanket of anguis smothered her smallest joy."

• What do you think about most?

Whether or not the world exists

• What does your latest text message from someone else say?

Goodnight

• Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

With

• What's your strangest talent?

Uhm, I can identify any bird based on a picture (not that great a talent)

• Girls... (finish the sentence) Boys... (finish the sentence)

Girls are handsome. Boys are beautiful.

• Ever had a poem or song written about you?

Not that I know of

• When was the last time you played the air guitar?

Earlier tonight (i was listening to the phineas and ferb theme song)

• Do you have any strange phobias?

Agoraphobia (fear or large spaces/rooms, I always hated gym class)

• Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

One of those round flat LEGO dots

• What's your religion

I don't have one specific, though I lean towards a philosophy known as the Dao De Jing

• If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

Birding

• Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

Behind.

• Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

Twenty Øne Pilots

• What was the last lie you told?

That I practiced piano

• Do you believe in karma?

It depends.

• What does your URL mean?

Pidgeon refers to Pidge Gunderson from Voltron Legendary Defender, 11206 is my favorite number

• What is your greatest weakness and strength?

Weakness - Emotions Strength - Music/Art/Writing

• Who is your celebrity crush?

Bex Taylor-Klaus

• Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?

• How do you vent your anger?

Writing angst

• Do you have a collection of anything?

Tiny screwdrivers

• Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Honestly it doesn't really matter. As long as I'm able to talk to them and hear them, I'm good.

• Are you happy with the person you've become?

More or less.

• What's a sound you hate vs a sound you love?

Hate - hail on my window or roof Love - pencil tapping

• What's your biggest "what if"?

What if the world as we know it doesn't exist and we are all living an illusion surrounded by other illusions that act as if they understand reality?

"I think, therefore I am."

• Do you believe in ghosts? What about aliens?

Ghosts, more or less. Aliens, absolutely. There is a vast and ever growing space beyond our knowledge, there is no way we're the only planet capable of harboring life.

• Stick your right arm out. What do you feel first? The same with your left arm.

Right - my nightstand Left - my wall

• Smell the air. What do you smell?

My dogs

• What's the worst place you have ever been to?

A mental hospital, visiting a family member. (No, it wasn't an insane asylum, this family member was dealing with suicidal thoughts and tendencies.)

• Choose - East or West coast?

East.

• Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?

I am all genders and none, but of my opposite sex would be Shawn Mendes

• To you, what is the meaning of life?

There is none. You wake up, do things daily, go to sleep, and repeat until you die. You aren't meant to do things differently, some people are just considered better than others and actually make an impact.

• Define Art.

A way for others to interpret an individual's self expression

• Do you believe in luck?

Yes. The universe doesn't treat people the same all the time.

• What's the weather like right now?

It's storming outside, lots of thunder and lightning and rain.

• What time is it?

At the time of writing this question, 12:10 am

• Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?

No, I don't drive.

• What was the last book you read?

"The Mysterious Benedict Society"

• Do you like the smell of gasoline?

Absolutely not.

• Do you have any nicknames?

One of my friends refers to me as Remus because I remind her of Remus from Sanders Sides

• What was the last film you saw?

"After The Dark" otherwise known as "The Philisphers"

• What's the worst injury you've had?

Between spraining my wrist and getting a two inch split on my scalp

• Have you ever caught a butterfly?

No, but I have held one and walked with it without it flying away

• Do you have any obsessions right now?

Chemical Engineering, learning Italian, Philosophy

• What's your sexual orientation?

Asexual - Panromantic

• Ever had a rumor spread about you?

Yes

• Do you believe in magic?

Not really, no (but I do believe in the paranormal)

• Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

The only person I know has done me wrong gaslighted me and made me believe it was my fault, so no

• What's your astrological sign?

Aquarius

• Do you save money or spend it?

Depends on if we're talking about video games or real life

• What's the last thing you purchased?

Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha

• Love or Lust?

Lust is fake. I will always and forever choose love

• In a relationship?

Nope

• How many relationships have you had?

Four

• Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

• Where were you yesterday?

At home

• Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?

An old toy vault that I got at a book fair

• Are you wearing socks right now?

• What's your favorite animal?

It's between a lion, a snake, or a coral polyp

• What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?

Use a super cheesy dad joke, it always makes everyone laugh

• Where is your best friend?

At home

• Give me your top five favorite blogs on Tumblr

Idk I don't really follow any blogs

• What is your heritage?

Italian, Danish, Norwegian, English

• What were you doing last night at 12:00 am?

Writing fanfiction

• What do you think is Satan's last name?

Grovum (don't ask me why)

• Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?

I tried, I hated it

• Are you the kind of friend you want to have as a friend?

Not really, no

• You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss told you that if you are late on more time, you get fired. What do you do?

If I'm late all the time, it means I don't wanna be there. I'll search for my dream job, but right now there is an innocent life at stake and I can do something about it.

• You are at the doctor's office and she has just informed you that you have one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone that you're going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?

a) I tell my closest family and friends. I want them to be there for me, but if I tell anyone I'm not close with, they will only pity me.

b) I will spend the rest of my time eating chocolate, drinking coffee like it's soup, and blending waffles, because doing something weird is doing something fun.

c) Not at all. Death is an inevitable concept. I would be sad, I would be angry, but I would not be afraid. There isn't a point to being scared of something you can't avoid.

• You can only have one of these things; trust or love.

I choose love. Living life without loving another person, whether it be romantic, platonic, or familial, would be torture. And for me, love is the same as trust, but trust is not the same as love.

• What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

"Sincerely Me" from Dear Evan Hansen

• What are the last four digits of your cell phone number?

9286

• In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?

Equality.

• How can I win your heart?

Chocolate, a Ferris wheel ride at night, and accepting my sexual orientation.

• Can insanity have more creativity?

No. Creativity is always in the back of your mind. The same is with darker creativity. Insanity just brings it to the forefront or makes you act on it.

• What is the single best decision you have made in your life?

I decided that self harm doesn't help. I'm glad I did, or I could have landed myself in a hospital.

• What size shoes do you wear?

8 1/2

• What quote would be written on your tombstone?

"Life is a locked door. Death is the key.

Death is a locked door. Life is the key."

• What is your favorite word?

Infinitesimal

• Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word heart.

Red mixed with black and white.

• What is a saying you say a lot?

What can you do when you live in a shoe

• What is the last song you listened to?

"Heavydirtysoul"

• Basic question, what is your favorite color?

Green

• What is your current desktop picture?

Hogwarts castle

• If you could press one button and make anyone in the world explode, who would it be?

*thinks to self* does my sleep paralysis demon count..?

• What would be a question you'd be afraid to tell the truth on?

It's not a matter of which question, it's a matter of who's asking it

• One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn the light on to find you are surrounded by mummies. The mummies arent really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What do you do?

Offer them some toilet paper, maybe they're here because the ones at the supermarket are still sold out.

• You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they grant you a superpower if your choice. What is that power?

Shapeshifting

• You can re-live any point in time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half hour experience would you like to experience again?

My first time watching the first scene in IT.

• You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Fighting with both of my best friends

• You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

None. I'm asexual.

• You just got a free plane ticket anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

Venice, Italy

• Do you have any relatives in jail?

• Have you ever thrown up in the car?

Yes

• Ever been on a plane

• If the whole word we're listening to you right now. what would you say?

F**k Donald Trump

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robininthelabyrinth · 5 years

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Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 5(Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

"I can't believe you sometimes, boss," Danvers complains. "You're just unbelievable."

"But Danvers," Len says, widening his eyes, "if you don't say 'I believe in Leonard Snart' and clap three times, my inner light will fade and then I'll die -"

"You are not a fairy!"

"Only technically true," Len says. "I'm pansexual, while that term is generally used -"

"You know what I mean," Danvers says, giving a playful push to his shoulder. Danvers is ridiculously strong and has issues remembering that sometimes, so the push is enough to send a lesser man toppling down to the floor. Luckily, Len figured out the strength thing pretty early and he's learned to compensate for it, relaxing his muscles and going with the flow of it, so he's able to straighten up again pretty easy.

He hasn't told Danvers that he knows, of course, since she's so obviously embarrassed by it.

Just like she's too embarrassed to admit that she's hidden a microwave somewhere in her office that she uses to heat up his coffee or hot chocolate whenever he happens to arrive, since there is no way she's good enough at guessing when he'll arrive to make sure that stuff is always warm.

He keeps trying to hint to her that he really doesn't mind microwaved coffee - especially since Danvers has a knack for making it taste freshly brewed - but she keeps looking vaguely confused whenever he brings it up.

"Yes, I know what you mean," Len allows. "And just why am I being unbelievable this time?"

"You're planning on going out again," she says, throwing her hands in the air. "With the mask and that stupid parka -"

"I’ll have you know that the parka keeps my core warm against the gun," Len points out. "Besides, it's the only winter coat I have out of storage right now."

It might be the only winter coat he owns, but that's a minor detail.

"You know the media is calling you a supervillain, right?" Danvers asks, crossing her arms.

"And by ‘media’, you mean that one specific blog, right?"

"...yes."

"That blog also thinks I derailed that train by icing the tracks," Len says, rolling his eyes. "Despite the fact that the official investigation concluded that it was a combination of a mechanical issue and human error. That one?"

Human error, of course, is a reference to the fact that the transportation department couldn’t be bothered to keep their trains in sufficiently good condition that a miniscule spot of ice – no more than a foot or two – was enough to keep the damn thing on the line.

Ice. Len can scarcely believe it, but there it is, and it at least goes some ways to explaining why the kid could have thought that Len was the one responsible for it.

Though if a train can’t run over a few feet of ice without jumping a track, there’s a problem that speaks of years of sustained incompetence anyway.

Still, whatever the reason, the derailment would have been a total catastrophe if it wasn't for the Streak - no, the blog is calling him the "Flash" now.

It makes for a troublesome dilemma. On one hand, it seems like this Flash kid is actually doing good things, like rescuing the people on that train.

On the other hand, he's still taking the law into his own hands.

Violence is still violence, even against a criminal.

Len's list of corrupt cops to take down includes a good number that seem to have forgotten that their right to be violent extends only as far as it takes to fulfill their duties and no further. When you apply the same principle to a civilian who lacks any authority or right to use violence as a means of enacting law at all -

Hmm. Alternatively, Len could just charge the Flash with multiple counts of assault and battery the next time they meet. That might even work.

"Okay, I'll bite," Len says, finally giving in to Danvers' pointed glare. "Why is it unbelievable that I’d go out again? What’s unbelievable about it?"

"Uh, the part – make that the whole thing – where you're considering getting further involved with this whole Flash thing, obviously!" Danvers says. "Boss, what part of 'the Families want to kill you' is going over your head here?"

"I'm your boss," Len mock-grumbles. "Be respectful."

"Not in a million years."

"I don't see what the problem is, though," Len says. "It’s not like I’m going totally solo on it or anything."

"Boss," Danvers says flatly. "You convinced the Commissioner that the Flash incidents represented a possible threat to the overall impression of city security because someone, somewhere, was probably following along with his exploits on secret police radios -"

"The Commissioner is running for office this year," Len says dryly. "Anyone who offered him a method to haze the Families by sending people in to investigate the illicit police radios we all know they have was going to be able to convince him of just about anything, including an invasion from Jupiter."

"True," Danvers allows. "Though to be entirely correct, that would be an invasion from the moons of Jupiter, not Jupiter, since Jupiter is a gas giant and not – wait, no, not the point I was trying to make. The point is that you also got him to agree that because there is the possibility that the Flash is working with a cop to get on the police band, thereby making it part of your jurisdiction, that meant that you could help sponsor a Flash-related task force."

"Co-sponsor," Len says. "Singh signed on."

"Yeah, to keep an eye on you."

"Noticed that, did you?" Len says, pleased. "We'll make a proper spy out of you yet."

“Aw, thanks, boss,” Danvers says with a smile, complimented, but quickly goes back to being annoyed with him. "I heard him talking about it in his office. He's not really in favor of catching the Flash - he thinks the Flash is doing more good than harm - but he's willing to back you so that he can figure out what scheme you're up to."

"My reputation precedes me, clearly."

"Boss..."

"Relax. I'm one step ahead of him - he offered me Joe West to be on my team, which is pretty obvious sabotage given how much West obviously hates me; I told him I'd take Eddie Thawne instead. Since they're partners, he wasn't really in a position to refuse, and Thawne's a good kid."

"Coming from you, that's high honors," Danvers says, but she's smiling again.

"You're not bad yourself," Len says, smirking when she squeaks and blushes. "Your compilation of weird incidents with multiple uncoordinated eye-witness reports was key to convincing the Commissioner that there was something there worth checking out."

"It's my job, boss," she says, grinning.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not part of a secretary’s job.”

“Admin assistant, boss.”

"Well, while we’re at it, thanks for letting me borrow that mask," Len says. "Turned out there were some Family guys looking for me that night." His contracts had been very specific about that, since D'Angelo let slip he'd be meeting with Len, but it’d been a risk Len was willing to take.

"Made you borrow it, more like it," Danvers sniffs. "I can't believe you were just going to - to go out with your face just, like, right out there in the open - it's like you never even read a comic book -"

"I'm not actually a supervillain," Len reminds her, deeply amused. Danvers could probably take over the world if she found herself in a world that worked on comic book logic instead of real world logic. "I'm not doing anything illegal; I'm just policing in a creative and out-of-the-box way –”

Danvers snorts.

“–and meeting my community’s needs in dealing with a vigilante like that,” Len continues, cheerfully ignoring her. “Anyway, the mask was perfect - total anonymity without any obstruction of function. Why'd you have it lying around, anyway?"

Danvers turns red and starts spluttering something incoherent, which means it's one of those things she's weirdly embarrassed about.

It's like how she claims she takes the train to work, but manages to be there on time even when Len knows there's been a massive train delay.

Honestly, he has no idea what's going on in Danvers' brain sometimes. It's not like there's a stigma against carpooling or anything...

"Never mind, don't care," Len interrupts, waving a hand, and Danvers looks at him gratefully.

They talked about it, once, all these unusual reactions that she has, the way she gets flustered and evasive about the weirdest things. She'd come into his office late at night, jaw clenched with determination and fists shaking with anxiety, and offered to explain it all to him, because she didn't want him to think she was lying to him. He was, she explained, her only friend in Central City, and she was pretty sure she was his in return right at that moment, and she didn't want him to start suspecting her of betraying him by keeping secrets.

He'd taken one look at her, seen all of that anxiety and how she was forcing herself to take a step she clearly didn't want to take but felt she had to, and he'd promptly told her that he didn't care if she was a little green man from Mars as long as she did her job and didn't sell him out.

She'd stared at him blankly, so he'd explained: she very obviously didn't want to tell him whatever it was she was offering to tell him, not yet and maybe not ever; rather, she just felt that she had to. But Len doesn't believe in outing people over anything before they're ready, so whatever it was she felt she had to tell him, she could tell him whenever she really wanted to. If she was more comfortable with him not asking, well, then he wouldn’t ask - as long as whatever it was didn’t involve him getting sold out, which he was pretty sure it didn’t, then he honestly didn’t care.

Of course, then she'd burst into tears and Len had hidden under his desk in an attempt to get away from the rampant display of emotions, yelling all the while that he would add a no tears clause to her contract, which had the side effect of making her start to laugh even as she'd cried.

Ultimately, she'd decided she really wasn't ready yet, but that she thought she might be, eventually, and they'd gone from there.

To be perfect honest, Danvers has always been something of a mystery, right from the first time they'd met. At first Len assumed it was because she wasn't from Central - Danvers is from the area around National City, some small town in the outskirts, and she'd done some work there in various administrative assistant roles before she'd abruptly moved to Central only a few months before Len discovered and hired her away from the court reporter temp pool she'd been working in.

At that point, all he'd cared about was finding someone who wasn't very obviously a spy planted by either the Families or the other police departments. Danvers had been the court reporter at his first corruption trial; she'd been fast (she had to be, being a court reporter), efficient, unafraid of the Family connections of the cop on trial, and had trouble hiding her smirks when Len made a particularly snarky comment.

More importantly, she had a clean background – as far as he’s concerned, anyway; he hadn't quite gotten used to working legit at that time, since he'd been less than two weeks out of the hospital and spitting mad, so he'd just had those of his illegal contacts that hadn't heard the news check her out and confirm that there wasn’t anything criminal about her - and anyway Len got along with her the few times he'd dragged her into various conference rooms to do some freelance transcribing of plea deal negotiations and deposition testimony.

So he'd decided to take a gamble and asked her if she'd like a thankless job saving the city where everyone would take her achievements for granted and turn up their noses in disdain at her failures, plus a small pay increase and shitty health care.

Amazingly, even with a pitch as awful as that, she accepted.

Apparently, Danvers enjoys fighting the good fight for barely any reward.

That, or she really needed the steady paycheck.

Len honestly doesn’t care which.

It’d been a little rocky at the start, but they got used to each other over time. Len's an abrasive asshole and doesn't know how to use the services of a secretary, but Danvers spends half the time acting like she's invulnerable and the other half acting like she’s afraid she’s going to break everything just by breathing on it, and that’s also pretty annoying. Luckily, after some encouragement, it turned out that she had the guts to stand up to him and call him out when he’s on his bullshit, and ever since then they’ve worked well together.

Now Len likes to think that they’ve even become friends.

Danvers even eventually opened up a bit about her history.

Apparently, her abrupt shift from National to Central had followed a pretty terrible blow-up with her sister and mother. Danvers hadn't given all that many details, but from what little she'd said, Len gathers that the sister had accepted a position based on some trait of Danvers' that Danvers would have preferred to keep quiet, a position that involved using Danvers as a case study, and Danvers hadn't taken it well when she'd found out.

"I know exactly what you mean - fucking shrinks," Len told her after that particular confession, nodding vigorously. They'd been having drinks in his office at the time, since the last time they'd gone out to a bar some Family grunt had pulled a gun on Len and Danvers had managed to get in between the guy and Len. Luckily, the gun jammed or maybe the guy missed, but either way nobody seemed like they’d gotten hit with a bullet, and Len hit the guy over the head with his crutch, but he'd decided not to risk Danvers doing something that stupid again. "Just because you ain’t neurotypical makes 'em think that they can push you around. S'like they totally forget that you’ve got feelings, or at least they pretend to themselves that you wouldn't care about that type of shit at all just ‘cause you’re different. Mick had one of those - a foster mom that adopted him because she wanted to write a paper about pyromania. He liked her right up until he figured out that she just wanted his cooperation so she could do more observations. Never even occurred to her to think about how he'd feel when he found out she used him to get ahead in her career."

Danvers, halfway into a bottle of tequila and a pint of Ben and Jerry's, giggled a little hysterically. "Yes," she said. "That, it’s like that exactly. I never thought there'd be a parallel – but yes. That. It's just like that. She's my sister, you know? She should be on my side, not – not using me to get, I don’t know, up an extra step on the ladder!"

"Hell yeah," Len said solemnly, clinking glasses with her. He wondered a little what unique trait Danvers had that her sister had tried to take advantage of – some form of autism, maybe? ADHD? He’d heard that manifested differently for girls, and anyway it made sense given how she clearly had some sensory processing issues, hearing things louder than he did and flinching at relatively mild sounds and sometimes getting overwhelmed by emotions, not to mention the way she sometimes didn’t quite get certain basic social conventions – but he wasn’t going to ask or anything; that’d be seriously rude. After all, he certainly didn’t care what she had as long as she kept doing her job, and he was pretty sure by now that she knew that if she needed any accommodations, she only needed ask for them and he'd do everything in his power to get it done.

He did make a mental note to see if she’d like some more pillows to go next to her desk for her to fidget with, though. She liked those.

"And she even made it out like she was just doing it to protect me!" Danvers exclaimed. "But if she was, she would've asked, right? She wouldn't have lied about what she was doing. She wouldn't have - she wasn't ever planning on telling me. Not ever! I only found out because I was looking for where I'd hidden her birthday present and we've always used the same hiding spots and I found a file. On me. Who even does that?!"

"Bullshit," Len agreed. "Total bullshit."

"And then Mom got involved and she was just pissed off about Alex's job, not about the fact that she was studying me, except it turns out that when Alex gets frustrated, she blames me for taking up all the attention and, like, I don't know, ruining her life by making her not an only child or something stupid like that. And – and – and while we were all blowing up about that, it turned out that mom's also been lying to us – both of us – for literally years about what happened to Dad – about how he died – and then Alex starts blaming me about it because the trouble all started after I got adopted -"

“Ouch. Below the belt.”

“I know! And – and what’s the worst part, you know – they’d always been on my case about being ‘normal’. Both of them. Normal, normal, normal, normal, until I was ready to scream, and the whole time they both know so much more than what they were telling me – and taking advantage of the fact that I’m not normal – and it’s just not fair!”

Her lip was trembling again.

"To shitty families," Len said, raising his glass. He'd already told her about his dad, since he wanted her to be on the look-out in case Lewis reared his ugly head anywhere near Len's new job, and she'd been great about not blatantly pitying him too much about it. One of the reasons he liked her so much. "And the lies they tell."

After a minute, he added, "Lowercase 'f'."

"Uppercase 'f' Families lie too," Danvers pointed out.

"They're not who we're toasting. C'mon, don't leave me hanging."

Danvers giggled and clinked glasses with him. “I still miss them, you know,” she added. “I think I’d have forgiven them, eventually, if I’d stayed. Probably way earlier than I really should have. Like, five minutes later.”

“Socialization and habit,” Len says solemnly. “Heard it’s worse for girls; you’re raised to be all forgiving and shit, yeah?”

“Yeah, basically. That, plus, you know, I did always feel guilty about how I just showed up on their doorstep, so I’ve always kinda tried to play the peace-maker, you know?”

“That’s the habit half of the equation.”

“Yeah…anyway, I probably would’ve found a reason to forgive and forget and everything, but, ugh, I was just so angry. I just – I was in between jobs at the time, too. I mean, I had an interview scheduled the next day with CatCo Worldwide Media as Cat Grant’s personal assistant. No guarantee I’d get it, of course. But there was like this moment where I realized that if I was fighting with my family then, well, I didn’t really have anything keeping me there. In National City, I mean. So I just packed a bunch of my stuff and flew away. Ended up at a hotel in Central.”

“Tell me you didn’t use your credit card.”

“I’m pretty sure that particular hotel didn’t even accept cards,” Danvers said dryly. She was familiar enough with Central City’s extremely shitty hospitality scene now for it to be a joke, though Len suspected it hadn't been when she first arrived. “It wasn’t exactly good quality, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, do I ever.”

“Anyway, I was still steaming angry the next morning, so I pulled a bunch of cash out of my account, canceled all my cards, got myself that temp job as a court reporter, and grabbed the first apartment that came on the market, and, well, by the time I calmed down enough to start feeling guilty about our fight, I was pretty well rooted here and wasn’t really in the mood to go back to National and be the first one to forgive. Again.”

“Totally reasonable.”

“They haven’t even apologized, you know,” Danvers said, draining her glass again. She had the alcohol tolerance of a mule. Len was just drunk enough at this point – thank God he isn’t macho enough to think he needed to match her shot-to-shot or else he’d be dead – to think about how much Mick would enjoy that quality of hers when-if he woke up. “I reached out to them eventually and they just started worrying about me being all on my own in a big city, how will I be able to handle it on my own, is this going to make it hard for me to stay normal without support, yadda, yadda, stupid yadda, and when I pointed out that I was still really angry at them, they just, I don’t know, wanted me to get over it - they even got my cousin to come try to, quote, talk some sense into me, end quote.”

“Rude.”

“They keep comparing me to him,” Danvers added bitterly. “He’s much better at being normal.”

“Ain’t he some sort of weirdo Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist that works almost exclusively in Third World countries where there ain’t no modern internet?” Len asks skeptically. “That ain’t exactly what I’d call normal.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t really come back to America much anymore,” Danvers says with a shrug. “And when he does, he avoids cities whenever possible, even though he used to want to go work in a big paper in Metropolis. He even had a job offer from the Daily Planet! His original set of foster parents would’ve wanted him to take it, but they died and he came to live with – well, with my family – and they all convinced him it’d be too much for him, so in the end he didn’t take it. He’s – he’s like me. Not normal. But apparently it’s okay to not be normal as long as you do it where no one can see you or report you or something like that.”

“Wow,” Len said. “What fucking assholes. I hope he told you to carry on.”

Danvers grinned. “He told me to do what I thought was right, no matter what anyone said. And that’s when I signed a year-long lease – not on the first apartment I snagged, don’t worry, I’m in a much better area of town now –”

Good, Len was about to ask.

“– and also changed my phone number so my mom and my sister would stop harassing me at work.” She drained another glass. “And that’s why we’re still not talking. Not until I decide that I’m ready to talk to them again.”

“I don’t recall them harassing you at work,” Len said.

“I mostly ran out the back to take their calls,” Danvers said. “The one time they tried to call you instead of me, you’d just come back from PT and were super grouchy, so you told them that you would bring the full force of the FBI on their asses for wire fraud if they didn’t fuck right off.”

Len – vaguely remembered that. He’d thought they were telemarketers or possibly evangelists.

“Don’t worry,” Danvers added, grinning. “I appreciated it.”

It was a good night, even if Len distinctly remembers getting increasingly drunk as it went on (Kara didn’t, but again she has that ridiculous metabolism) and telling her about the first time he met Mick and some other unnecessarily soppy stories about him.

Either way, though, that background made Danvers understandably touchy about people who lied to close friends and family – and that, in turn, made Len feel more like he could trust her…

"Mask or no mask, I still don't like the idea of you going out in person, you know," Danvers says, snapping Len out of his reverie. "You're still fragile."

Len makes a face at her. He would love to dispute that, but he used his new braces for less than two hours yesterday, just for the not-really-maybe-kinda-sorta-masked-supervillain-superhero-confrontation-thing, and he's already got cramps very nearly everywhere to show for it.

Fucking bullet wounds. Hollywood is a filthy liar when it comes to recovery time, especially for ones that nick your spine.

Actually, that reminds him that he needs to call Lisa again – she’s still incredibly pissed off at him for getting hurt after having promised time and time again that he’d be fine doing his thing and that getting her the money to go off and live straight was worth the risk.

She refuses to see him again until he’s better, even though she demands regular phone calls. He knows it’s irrational, she knows it’s irrational, but he can’t begrudge her whatever superstitions she relies on as coping mechanisms to deal with a father as awful as Lewis and a brother as reckless as Len, even though he does miss her.

"You could always let the beat cops do their jobs," Danvers continues, sounding almost wistful about it even when she knows there's no chance. As it happens, she and Lisa get along great, albeit only by text message. "It's what they do, you know. Especially if this Eddie guy's good..."

"And miss out on the adrenaline?" Len asks, arching his eyebrows at her. "No, seriously. I can't step back now; I sold the Commissioner on me supervising this personally, and Singh only agreed to back me once I specified that I'd take the fall if anything blew up in our faces - which it won't, even if we do find that this Flash guy is up to no good -"

Danvers makes a face. Subtly - it's barely a wrinkle in her nose - but Len still catches it and interprets it.

"You have news," Len says, interrupting himself. He knows all of Danvers’ tells. "Tell me the news."

"It's not definite yet," Danvers demurs, but Len's already waving off the disclaimer.

"I'd take initial results from you over a definitive say-so from any cop in this division, Eddie Thawne included," Len tells her when she seems resistant to continuing. "I'll keep in mind that it's preliminary. What's up?"

"There’s been a noticeable increase in missing persons reports in Central since the Particle Accelerator explosion, for one thing," Danvers says. "Noticeable. Even if we only track the period since the Flash has been known to be active, there's - well - a lot. More than usual."

"Correlation doesn't mean causation."

"Do I teach you to pick pockets? No? Then don't lecture me on statistics. I'm getting to the point. The point is: I've correlated instances of people seeing blurs of light or lightning with those missing persons' reports, and there's a link."

Len straightens up at that. "How much of a link?"

Damn, and he'd really been starting to think of the Flash as harmless, or at least starting to hope that he'd gotten to the kid before he started letting his worst instincts take over. But if he's already a murderer...

"No deaths," Danvers says, clearly divining his thoughts from his face. "Just weirdo disappearances - sometimes of people who'd already gone partway off the grid already, even. But we're talking eyewitnesses putting the Flash - or someone like him - at ground zero of some of these disappearances. We're talking credit card purchases stopping the day after a Flash sighting in some guy's last known vicinity."

"Damnit."

"Yeah," she says with a sigh. "I was really hopeful, you know?"

"You were hopeful about the Hood guy in Starling before the murders started, too."

"This one seemed nicer," Danvers says firmly. "Less intimidation, less judgment, less 'you failed this city' –” Len will never tell her, but Danvers cannot do a spooky intimidating voice to save her life. “– more actually stopping crimes by dumping perps at the station door."

"Thereby eliminating the link between them and the crime scene and letting them plead out on technicalities," Len says dryly. "Remember that jewel shop case? If we hadn't had camera evidence from the CCTV, we'd be up the creek and the perps in question would be free as songbirds. And remember, like I told you -"

"Just because he's going after criminals doesn't mean he's not just trying to take out the competition," Danvers recites. "I know, I know."

"Good. You got anything else for me?"

Danvers makes another face. "We-ell..."

"Danvers."

She sighs. "Okay, but one question first."

Len arches his eyebrows at her.

"Is there any chance you're going to be so focused on this Flash thing that you'll ditch the Allen investigation? Because in comparison, Allen is really small stuff -"

"None," Len interrupts. He knows his voice has gone a bit icy. "Allen's corrupt; I'm sure of it. It's just a matter of proving it."

"But you actually like him!"

"I like lots of people -"

"Please remember who you're talking to here," Danvers says dryly. "I know for a fact that you don't like people. Any people. Your list of people you do like can probably be counted on the fingers of a man who’s had a few cut off - and I'm including your regular information contacts that you don't actually like on that list."

Len makes a face at her. Sadly, she's not wrong.

Worse, he reaches the same conclusion even after adding Barry Allen to the list of people he likes.

"You're usually better at prioritizing your investigations, that's all," Danvers adds, apologetically. "I just - it's pretty obvious that the only reason you're going after Allen is, well, you know..."

"I've got a few more investigations already up and running," Len points out, feeling a little guilty. She's not wrong about his reasons. She's also not wrong about the fact that in a normal situation, he wouldn't have thought Allen's bizarre brand of hard-to-spot corruption was bad enough to get this obsessed over. Especially not once he found out how unbelievably friendly and bright and funny Allen is...shit, Danvers is right. Len really needs to figure out how to make more friends. Not to mention how to get a real date rather than whatever-it-is he has with Allen on Friday. "The DAs already have enough info to take three corrupt cops out of active duty, which they have, and I've given them enough to get wiretapping warrants out on another three -"

Central's so goddamn corrupt.

It's a good thing Len knows how to play the system and make sure the occasional corrupt DA that gets assigned one of his cases is either scared into working it straight or that the case they get involves corruption by an opposing Family, so they’re incentivized to press on, because otherwise he wouldn't have enough DAs to handle all of the cases he's feeding them – and all the while he’s building a body of law that he’ll one day use to take the corrupt DAs down, too...

"- so all in all, they're actually pretty happy that I'm taking some time to do my own projects, like Allen and the Flash," Len concludes. "Hell, Singh definitely thinks I’m up to something, and even he’s relieved that I’ve taken up some ‘normal’ policing instead of harassing his officers left and right. I've got the time to do both of 'em and I intend to. Now, why do you ask?"

"But you’re so cute about him," Danvers grumbles. "It's not fair."

"What ain't fair, Danvers?" Len’s not touching that.

"The comms system the Flash uses," Danvers says, finally giving in. "The one we couldn’t hack into? I've managed to triangulate where the other end of the signal originates."

"You did? That's great!"

"And I think I've located those people you gave me sketches of," she adds, nodding at her desk. "Though next time you go out, I'm equipping you with cameras - your artistic ability definitely lies in blueprints, not portraits."

"Next time I go out Flash-hunting, I'll have official CCPD backing rather than implied," Len says with a shrug. "You can put all the cameras you like on me then. You've tracked them all down?"

"Yep."

“And they’re associated with the same place the signal comes from?”

“Yep.”

"And that is - where?"

Danvers sighs. "I think - and no absolute guarantee, but I’m moderately sure – that the other end of that signal came from STAR Labs."

Len freezes.

STAR Labs.

Technically defunct after the Accelerator explosion, property of the now disgraced solitary genius Harrison Wells, and private "clinic" of only one patient: Barry Allen.

Of course.

"He's in on it," Len says, starting to get angry. "Allen. He's involved with whatever the hell new Family unit Wells must be trying to put together or whatever’s going on there. Allen's using his CSI skills to help get this Flash guy to would-be crime scenes - figuring out where their rivals are and sending the Flash to set them up - or, worse, covering up the disappearances and murders the Flash has already set up -"

At least the existence of this law-breaking Flash kid means that there's still hope that Allen hasn't moved into full assassin territory yet. If he hasn't crossed the line to targeted murder, then Len can make sure his sentence isn't too bad - some minimal prison time, maybe, definitely a lengthy parole period, and of course he'll never work in the police again, but at least Len won't have to think about smiling, friendly Allen locked behind bars for years and years, having his spirit crushed under the abusive steel boots of the prison guards...

"Certainly seems like it," Danvers agrees, glumly disappointed. She'd really been hoping for Allen to be clean, Len knows. "But it's still just a guess, boss. I don't have anywhere near enough for a warrant, either on the Flash stuff or Allen."

"Looks like Friday's still on, then," Len says. He's going to find out everything he can about what scheme Wells and Allen and this ‘Flash’ are cooking up in STAR Labs, and he's going to put a stop to it. He reaches out to grab his crutch, using it to lever himself up.

"Where are you going?" Danvers asks with a frown. "It's not Friday yet."

"Different lead," Len assures her. "Same endpoint. You want anything from Jitters?"

"Cupcake," Danvers says immediately. "Like, four of them. Oooh, and one of those crullers. You owe me sugar. So much sugar. In the meantime, I'll go back to putting together that list of sightings for you. I know I said the preliminary list was all I was going to do, but I swear I think there's something weird there and I want to follow it up."

"I trust you," Len says again. He likes saying it: he almost never did, for most of his life. He's trying to be better about it now so that he'll be able to say what he needs to say to Mick when (if) he wakes up. "Let me know if anything new comes up."

With that, he heads over to Jitters. It's late, but his contact was busy during the day and late evening was the earliest time that she would agree to meet with him.

Better yet, she's already there when he arrives, typing away on her laptop.

Len makes his way over and settles down in the seat across from her.

"Miss West," he says with his best charm-the-marks smirk fixed firmly on his face. "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me. Big fan of your blog..."

#coldflash #leonard snart #barry allen #kara danvers #iris west #an internal affair #my fic

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buyspotifysaves · 5 years

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What Spotify's $230 Million Gimlet Deal Means for the Podcast Industry

The podcast universe was hit by an earthquake last week when news broke that Spotify, the Swedish music-streaming giant responsible for all those Discover Weekly playlists that you love, was"in advanced talks" to acquire Gimlet Media, the buzzy podcast author behind dear shows like Reply All, Startup, and Homecoming. Those discussions concluded in a deal which was announced Wednesday afternoon, which also contained news that Spotify was purchasing Anchor, a technology system that tries to help more people produce and monetize podcasts. Collectively, these double imports are a daring statement for your own podcast business: Spotify would like to make podcasting a substantial pillar of its platform, and it is not messing about to achieve that.

The financial terms of Spotify's acquisitions have not been officially disclosed, but a source familiar with the issue told me the Gimlet deal is thought to be worth somewhere around $230 million. That is a significant sum, obviously. For one thing, it is wild a digital content business may market for this much cash in 2019 later being around for only four and a half an hour or so. But furthermore, it marks the business's biggest acquisition to date by a big margin. The closest comparable deal was that the $55 million that iHeartMedia paid last year for Stuff Media, the parent firm of HowStuffWorks, which publishes displays like Stuff You Should Know and Atlanta Monster. The podcast market hasn't seen money like that earlier, and the shock waves are going to be intense.

It's well worth noting the Spotify's head-first dive right into podcasting doesn't come from nowhere. They have been dipping their toes in the pool for quite some time now, at first curating a relatively small number of displays to distribute, then experimenting with short term windows with outside material firms (like Gimlet on its Chris Lighty documentary,Mogul), until launching its stage to all podcast publishers while creating a stable of its own original podcasts. Those original shows generally take the form of talk radio--style programming fronted by talent such as Amy Schumer, Joe Budden, also Jemele Hill, but additionally involve quirkier fare like that the serialized music podcast Dissect, which it acquired last year.

Spotify's push to podcasting is chiefly driven by a need for diversification. Its experiences in the music industry was characterized by bruising rivalries with big music labels -- whose licensing prices drive up the cost of distributing music and a range of well-armed competitors like Pandora and also Apple Music. Podcasting, in theory, provides Spotify a new growth channel that's still relatively untouched pasture. Distributing the broader world of podcasts will not cost the stage considerably up front, and also unique content is regarded as relatively cheap to produce, though that may change as standard expectations rise over time.

Obtaining Gimlet is a large step forward for the original programming part of its own podcast gambit. Back in Gimlet, Spotify now includes a podcast factory line which has a track record of strikes (though, its recent run of shows was a mixed bag), has drawn the eye of Hollywood using its very own takes on podcast-to-adaptation pipeline (demonstrating most lately with the acclaimed Sam Esmail--headed adaptation of Homecoming), also has developed a new which constantly draws press coverage. The way Spotify will integrate Gimlet's programming and infrastructure is going to be a key story to monitor, including the level to which it will begin making Gimlet's shows unavailable on different platforms, as well as how it handles absorbing a significant editorial staff, which can be something it's never had before.

Initial reactions among the podcast are usually powerful... in all directions. I have heard from several corners that this is the turning point for the business that many have been waiting for, as Spotify's determined advent may well result in dramatic gains in new listeners and earnings for podcast publishers. However, there's also strong opposition to what Spotify signifies, which is a potential in which podcasting is much less open and democratic than it originally was. Born from the exact open publishing technologies as blogs, podcasting was once a quirky backwater pond of digital curiosity -- both inhabitable by highly produced public-radio programming, personality-driven chat radio--fashion shows, along with shaggy conversational podcasts began by anybody with a mike, all working exactly the same odds of finding an audience over a decentralized ecosystem. This relaxed podcasting environment was chiefly the consequence of the simple fact that the medium was permitted to develop on its own terms beneath the hands-off stewardship of both Apple. For the best time, podcasting was characterized by these low bets: It had been something that a steadily rising amount of people loved, but nobody knew just how to make money from.

Spotify's large swing likely changes all of that. By virtue of being a massive new player that is ready to devote money to quickly grow the medium on its platform, the business is greatly raising the stakes. Because of this, we can see an arms race of some kind, as Spotify's competitions consider making similar moves and as podcast marketers work to elevate their profile in whatever manner possible. This is just about the conclusion of podcasting's Wild West era. What comes next is modernity, with all the good and bad that could bring. To know more info click spotify likes

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danithebookaholic-blog · 6 years

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SPOTLIGHT!

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The Bridal Chase

By Robert Downs

Publisher: Black Opal Books Publication Date: May 12, 2018 Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Synopsis:

Elisha Crimson thought her wedding day would be the happiest of her life. But losing her fiancé to two thugs in a dark sedan wasn’t part of the plan. She, along with the rest of the wedding party, can do nothing to stop the abrupt abduction, so she pursues at the first opportunity, navigating the West Virginia interstate in a white wedding dress behind the wheel of a pickup truck. But will she catch the sedan in time to save her one true love? Ronnie Washington had known his past would catch up with him, eventually, but he hadn’t expected it to happen on his wedding day. He hates enclosed spaces, and now he’s bouncing around in the trunk of a car after being abducted from the ceremony. His only hope is to talk his way out, but the thugs don’t seem inclined to listen. He knows Elisha will come after him, but, even if she catches them, what can she possibly do against men like these? Can these two unlikely heroes save the day, and the wedding, or is their life together over before it even starts?

Goodreads

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Excerpt:

Saturday, 2:45 p.m.:

Her long, white dress billowed around her. Mascara raced down her face, her eyes frazzled, and a tear formed as she took off at a dead run. Her brother tossed her his set of keys. She caught them in midair and didn’t even break stride. She peeled out of the parking lot, as a spray of gravel pinged a Mercedes, two BMWs, and a Lexus. Through the open window, the wind whipped her hair. Her green eyes were fixed at a distant point on the horizon. Her gaze was just a bit above the dashboard, as she slammed the pickup truck into second gear. A string of curse words emitted from her lips and smacked the wheel. The cup holder beside her held a plastic cup filled with spit, and she picked it up now. Tobacco juice flowed from her lips, and into its predetermined location.

Elisha Crimson flipped the air conditioner on high, even though it was only sixty degrees outside. She honked her horn, gestured with her free hand, and merged into the passing lane. A silver car swerved in front of her, and she screamed and pounded the steering wheel in agony. This time, she neglected to salute the idiot behind the wheel with a cell phone pressed to his ear.

Her eyes flipped to her rearview mirror, and the sea of cars behind her in an intricate rainbow of colors. The trail of cars resembled a python, and the road in front of her was a never-ending façade of red taillights. An accident loomed up ahead, so she slowed down. Two cars—neither one moving—in the right-hand lane were both torn to shreds in twisted metal and crumpled bumpers. Her mind raced, and adrenaline shook her right hand.

She grabbed the cup beside her and spit another glob of juice.

She’d nailed second gear within five hundred feet of the parking lot, and third came soon after. Fourth proved a bit more of a challenge, but now that was behind her as well. Her lips moved at a constant, steady pace, and the cup beside her filled quickly as well. The pouch stuffed between the passenger seat and her own was a third gone.

She hadn’t smiled since this morning with her hairdresser and sister in the same room, as her mother waited in the room next to hers. Elisha flipped the radio low and her voice high. A rapper spoke about life in the ghetto.

She held onto the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, and her joints ached. A song came on the radio that reminded her of him, and she turned up the volume loud enough to rattle the frame. With the windows rolled down, the sound traveled toward the trees on either side of the highway. A motorcycle engine roared behind her, and she pushed the pedal all the way to the floor. She smacked her lips and tapped her forehead. She kept thoughts of her fiancé,

her wedding, and the family she left behind to herself and slammed down the lid. She discovered a ball cap within arm’s reach and thumped it on her head.

She floored it around an old Porsche and a Mercedes with custom wheels. She held one thought and then another—What would her family think? How could this be happening to her? Was her fiancé okay?— collecting them like stamps and compartmentalizing each one in her mind until such a time when she could gather them whole and shove forward with her life.

She’d known Ronnie’s past would catch up with them one day, but now was not the time for second guesses.

She kept one eye on the horizon and her goal in mind. Her whole world changed when a car pulled out in front of her. She veered to the left, the pickup nearly coming up on two wheels, the center of gravity shifting with brute force. And then she shoved the pickup hard to the right, as the center of gravity changed once again, and the whole cab moved and shook around her. The wind whipped through with blazing speed, and her knuckles locked against the wheel. She pinged to the right and careened to the left like a ping pong ball through a maze.

Steam rose up around her, and she hoped it wasn’t her own. She bit her lip and drew blood, and even managed to swallow a little of the chewing tobacco. Coughing and gagging and sick to her stomach, she had no idea how to continue onward. Only that she had to. If she failed, she couldn’t deal with the consequences.

She had insisted on a big wedding filled with a dessert buffet, two guitars, one ice sculpture, three photographers, and one deejay. Had she scaled back, she might have found herself in a different predicament than the one she currently found herself in the middle of. The voice on the radio called her a liar.

She discovered love at eighteen when it bit her on the ass and decided to hang around. The fucker, Ronnie Washington, had smiled at her, and her knees buckled in the heat and humidity. Unable to string a coherent sentence together for five minutes, she waited for him to walk away. But he didn’t. Ten minutes later, he asked her out, and she said yes before she gathered what remained of her senses. Six years later—the best six years of her life—he still asked her out, the romantic bastard. Sure, the ups and downs sucked, and he charmed her with all five of his senses, but dammit she loved him anyway. She loved him with her entire body, and still that didn’t seem like enough. Now, in her brother’s pickup, with her whole world abandoned at the golf course, and her fiancé kidnapped in a black piece of crap with four wheels, she shed more water beneath her eyelids.

If she failed to push forward with everything she had, she never stood a chance at success. Sure, she had failed at almost every corner and streetlight. Sure, failure pointed the barrel of its gun in her direction. But failure didn’t stand a chance this time. She’d find a way to succeed, even if it meant she exhausted every last possibility. Even if she didn’t have a damn clue how

she’d do it.

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Purchase:

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iBooks

Author Bio:

Robert Downs aspired to be a writer before he realized how difficult the writing process was. Fortunately, he'd already fallen in love with the craft, otherwise his tales might never have seen print. Originally from West Virginia, he has lived in Virginia, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and now resides in California. When he’s not writing, Downs can be found reading, reviewing, traveling, or smiling. To find out more about his latest projects, or to reach out to him on the Internet, visit the author’s website: www.RobertDowns.net. THE BRIDAL CHASE is his seventh book and second novella.

Website / Facebook / Goodreads / Blog

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From one bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix. —Dani

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.

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keywestvideo · 6 years

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The Sweet Sound of Audio

Many people don’t consider the audio aspect of corporate video. I mean, corporate video is just a talking head, right? Wrong. It can be whatever works best to communicate the goals of your business, and audio is an important element.

Mic Drop

Depending on the kind of scene being shot, the microphones used will vary. A stick, or hand-held, mic is probably the most familiar. It’s what you see reporters holding and it could be used if a CEO wanted to interview workers at a company picnic. A shotgun mic is another model you’ve probably seen, although it’s usually covered in a furry slip to cut down on wind noise. This is the kind of mic used to capture dialogue during a scene. But the kind of mic we use most often is the lavalier. Also known as a lapel mic, this is a tiny microphone that can be hidden behind ties and other clothes and tucked out of the way. It disappears from a shot while still providing good sound.

A shotgun mic without its furry hat

When considering what kind of mic to use, we factor in a number of variables. For a mic that’s mobile and invisible, we use a lavalier. If we want a mic that’s also a prop, we use a stick mic. To capture directional sound from more than one person in a scene, we use a shotgun mic attached to a boom to keep it out of the shot.

Music

Use music for tone, as a segue or to pace editing

Music can do so many things for a video. It can evoke emotion, set the pace for editing or act as a transition. We mainly use stock music in our corporate videos. Stock music is created for commercial use and can be purchased at a reasonable price. Most stock houses have large collections of diverse music categorized by traits like speed, instrument or length.

There are a few other options when it comes to music used in video. Sometimes a client will give us a song they’ve composed themselves, which means we don’t have to pay a fee to use it. Other times, music can be a custom-made piece created by a composer. Finally, a video can use what’s known in the business as needle drop. This is the kind of popular music you hear on the radio and it can cost a lot of money to license.

Foley

You’ve probably heard the term Foley in relation to movies. It’s the sound added in post-production that mimics what you would hear if you were there on shoot day. Well, what you would hear enhanced is maybe a better description. For example, if a fistfight is taking place on a moving bus, you’d hear the bus’s engine and the smack of the punch. During shooting, the sound recordist only wants the dialogue, so everything else is kept quiet. Then when the scene is composed in editing, the engine noise and the resounding punch are added.

The sound of a punch is added using Foley

Other Foley examples include the sound of footsteps on a hard surface, birds in a natural setting and the blinker on a turning car. Without these sounds, video would be hollow and feel unrealistic. Adding even the smallest bit of noise can really make a difference.

Foley used to be done by artists, including the eponymous Jack Foley. Using an array of props, these artists would re-create sound while watching the visuals as a guide. Today, most sound effects are added electronically and matched to the video.

The Sound of Silence

Even a lack of sound is part of the video soundscape. Ambient noise is what you hear when nobody is talking. If you’re shooting a scene outside, it’s the chirping birds and the babbling brook and the buzzing bees. On a subway, it’s the murmur of passengers, the train’s rattle and the shifting of packages.

Room tone is what makes the sound recordist call out TONE! and hushes everyone on set. In editing, you sometimes need this tone to fill in quiet gaps to make the sound seamless. For example, an editor that cuts out some words in an interview can cover up that cut with room tone so nobody can hear an edit has been made. And believe us, rooms sound different! Sometimes there’s a far-off hum in even the quietest room and you want to capture that for later use.

Now Hear This

Key West Video may be the name on our door, but we also do audio. So call us today for a free quote on the complete package.

The post The Sweet Sound of Audio appeared first on Corporate Video Blog.

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xeford2020 · 4 years

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Inventing America’s Favorite Cookie

Many of us have been baking a bit more than usual while staying at home. So, let’s take look at how America’s favorite cookie, the chocolate chip, was born. Before we get to chocolate chips, let’s talk chocolate. It’s made from the beans of the cacao tree and was introduced by the Aztec and Mayan peoples to Europeans in the late 1500s. Then a dense, frothy beverage thickened with cornmeal and flavored with chilies, vanilla, and spices, it was used in ancient ceremonies.

Map of the Americas, 1550. THF284540

Colonial Americans imported cacao from the West Indies. They consumed it as a hot beverage, made from ground cacao beans, sugar, vanilla and water, and served it in special chocolate pots.

Chocolate Pot, 1760-1790 THF145291

In the 1800s, chocolate made its way into an increasing number of foods, things like custards, puddings, and cookies, and onto chocolate-covered candy. It was not just for drinking anymore!

Trade Card, Granite Ironware, 1880-1890 THF299872 Today, most Americans say chocolate is their favorite flavor. Are you a milk or dark chocolate fan? My vote? Dark chocolate. Cookies were special treats into the early 1800s; sweeteners were costly and cookies took more time and labor to make. Imagine easing them in and out of a brick fireplace over with a long-handled peel.

Detail of late 18th century kitchen in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. See the kitchen for yourself with this virtual visit. As kitchen technology improved in the early 1900s, especially the ability to regulate oven temperature, America’s cookie repertoire grew.

Detail of 1930s kitchen in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. See the kitchen yourself with this virtual visit.

Until the 1930s, baking chocolate was melted in a double boiler before being added to cookie dough. Check out this 1920 recipe for Chocolate Mousse from our historic recipe bank.

Then came Ruth Graves Wakefield and the chocolate chip cookie. Ruth, a graduate of the Framingham State Normal School of Household Arts, had taught high school home economics and had worked as a dietitian.

Image: "Overlooked No More: Ruth Wakefield, Who Invented the Chocolate Chip Cookie" from The New York Times

In 1930, 27-year-old Ruth and her husband Kenneth opened a restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts called the Toll House Inn. The building had never been a toll house, but was located on an early road between Boston and New Bedford. The restaurant would grow from seven tables to 60.

Toll House Inn business card, 1930s. THF183299

A quick aside: our 1820s Rocks Village Toll House in Greenfield Village. Early travelers paid tolls to use roads or cross bridges. This one collected fares for crossing the Merrimack River.

Rocks Village, Massachusetts toll house in Greenfield Village. THF2033

With Ruth Wakefield’s background in household arts, she was well-prepared to put together a menu for her restaurant. It was a great location. The Toll House Inn served not only the locals, but people passing through on their way between Boston and Cape Cod.

Toll House Inn business card, 1930s. THF18330

Over time, Ruth’s reputation grew, and the restaurant became well-known for her skillful cooking, wonderful desserts, and excellent service. On the back of this circa 1945 Toll House Inn postcard, a customer wrote: “…down here two weeks ago & had a grand dinner.”

Toll House Inn postcard, about 1945. THF183298

Ruth Wakefield, curious and willing to experiment, liked to create new dishes and desserts to delight her customers. The inn had been serving a butterscotch cookie--which everyone loved--but Ruth wanted to “give them something different.” About 1938, Ruth had an inspiration. She chopped up a Nestle’s semisweet chocolate bar with an ice pick and stirred the bits into her sweet butter cookie batter. The chocolate bits melted--and didn’t spread, remaining in chunks throughout the dough.

Recipe Booklet, "Favorite Chocolate Recipes made with Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate," 1940. THF125196 Legend has it that the cookies were an accident--that Ruth had expected to get all-chocolate cookies when the chocolate melted. One of those “creation myths?” A great marketing tale? Ruth was a meticulous cook and food science savvy. She said it was a deliberate experiment. The marriage of sweet, buttery cookie dough and semisweet chocolate was a hit--the cookies quickly became popular with guests. Ruth shared the recipe when asked. Local newspapers published it. And she included it in the 1938 edition of her “Tried and True Recipes” cookbook.

The Toll House, Whitman, Massachusetts, circa 1945. THF183297

Nestle’s saw sales of its semisweet chocolate bar jump dramatically in New England--especially after the cookie was featured on a local radio show. When Nestle discovered why, they signed a contract with Ruth Wakefield, allowing Nestle to print the recipe on every package.

Nestle’s truck, 1934. Z0001194 Nestle began scoring its semisweet chocolate bar, packaging it with a small chopper for easy cutting into morsels. The result was chocolate “chips”--hence the name.

Recipe Booklet, "Favorite Chocolate Recipes made with Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate," 1940. THF125194

In 1939, Nestle introduced semisweet morsels. Baking Toll House Cookies became even more convenient, since you didn’t have to cut the chocolate into pieces.

Toll House Cookies and Other Favorite Chocolate Recipes Made with Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, 1941. THF183303 Nestle included the Toll House Cookie “backstory” and the recipe in booklets promoting their semisweet chocolate.

During World War II, Nestle encouraged people to send Toll House Cookies to soldiers. For many, it was their first taste of a chocolate chip cookie--its popularity spread beyond New England.

Advertisement, "His One Weakness, Toll House Cookies from Home" November 1943. THF183306 The homemaker in this 1940s Nestle’s ad celebrates her success as a hostess when serving easy-to-make Toll House Cookies. Chocolate chips would, indeed, soon become our “national cookie.”

They Never Get Enough of My Toll-House Cookies!, 1945-1950. THF183304

Chocolate chip morsels were a great idea, so other companies followed suit.

Recipe Leaflet, "9 Famous Recipes for Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Dainties," 1956. THF295928

Other delectable treats, like these “Chocolate Refresher” bars shown in this 1960 ad, can be made with chocolate morsels. The possibilities are endless.

Nestle's Semi-Sweet Morsels Advertisement, "Goody for You," 1960. THF43907 More from The Henry Ford: Enjoy a quick “side trip” to this blog about more American chocolate classics. Holiday baking is a cherished tradition for many. Chocolate chip cookies are frequently a key player in the seasonal repertoire. Hallmark captured holiday baking memories in this ornament.

Hallmark "Christmas Cookies" Christmas Ornament, 2004. THF177747 The museum’s 1946 Lamy’s Diner serves Toll House Cookies. Whip up a batch of chocolate chips at home and enjoy a virtual visit. Cookie dough + chocolate chips = America’s favorite cookie! It may have been simple, but no one else had ever tried it before! Hats off to Ruth Wakefield!

Toll House Cookies and Other Favorite Chocolate Recipes Made with Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, 1941. THF183301 After all this talk of all things chocolate, are you ready for a cookie? This well-known cookie lover probably is!

Cookie Monster Toy Clock, 1982-1986. THF318447 Jeanine Head Miller is Curator of Domestic Life at The Henry Ford.

#1 Ford Daily | Đại lý – Showroom ủy quyền Ford Việt Nam 2019 Ford Daily là showroom, đại lý Ford lớn nhất Việt Nam: Chuyên phân phối xe ô tô FORD như: EcoSport ✅ Everest ✅ Explorer ✅ Focus ✅ Ranger… [email protected] 6A Đường Trần Hưng Đạo, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 711240 0901333373 https://forddaily.com/ https://forddaily.com/xe/ https://forddaily.com/dai-ly/ https://forddaily.com/bang-gia/ https://forddaily.com/tra-gop/ #forddaily #dailyfordhcm #fordshowroomhcm https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ford+Daily/@10.7693359,106.696211,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1f188a05d927f4ff!8m2!3d10.7693359!4d106.696211

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nsula · 5 years

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NSU alum pens leadership book

NATCHITOCHES – Growing up in Red River Parish, Brian Sanders dreamed mostly of being a lot like his dad and grandpa, both named Jack.

“They were solid, hard-working men who taught me everything I know about people and about life,” Brian said.

He never really thought much about writing books or running a group of radio stations. But that’s exactly where he has ended up as Executive Vice President of Positive Alternative Radio (PAR) and the author of a new book, Leadership Endurance, which hit #1 on Amazon’s best seller list for Christian Leadership earlier this year.

“If you’ve ever felt like quitting anything, this book is for you,” Sanders said. The book examines the lives of four men – Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant – deeply flawed individuals that are remembered in history as great leaders. “Flawed people have the capacity to impact the world.”

“My goal in writing the book is to help anyone who is a leader or aspires to leadership to not just make it, but to thrive and last a long time once they are in that chair,” Sanders said. “It’s one thing to be asked to lead, it’s another to be able to do it for the long haul.”

“I pastored churches and ran radio stations and did other things as a leader. Sometimes I failed miserably. God used those circumstances to humble and teach me. That’s when I decided to start studying leadership and it has become the goal of my life to better understand the influence leaders have on others.”

His pursuit of leadership and his love of history naturally led him to Lincoln and other historical figures.

“I wanted to find out how Lincoln made it. He is no doubt our greatest president, a man who came through great professional and personal tragedy and adversity to accomplish what no one thought possible. He literally brought this country back from the brink of disaster.”

Sanders grew up in Coushatta, the son of Jack and Ruth Sanders and graduated in 1986 from Coushatta High School. While in high school, he worked at Coushatta’s local station KRRP radio in the afternoons. He then attended Northwestern State University and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in history and English. After graduation, he went to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he garnered 59 hours toward a Masters of Divinity degree. While there, he met his wife, Kayla, and began his career in Christian Radio.

“My roots in Red River Parish run deep,” Sanders said. “The area shaped me by giving me my values and outlook on life and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about all the people here who have influenced me and sparked an interest in leadership in me even when I was a small boy.”

Sanders’ mother, Ruth, still lives in Coushatta as do their best friends, Troy and Rhonda Murray.

Sanders took about a year to write Leadership Endurance. It became a part of his daily routine after a conversation with a friend who told him, “if you want to write a book, just commit to writing two or three chapters a day and in a year, you’ll reach your goal.”

“Writing turned out to be the easy part,” Sanders said. “The editing process was brutal. And getting out there and telling my story has been no real picnic for me. I am just not used to the limelight.”

In pursuing the book project, Sanders has found himself doing video, posing for pictures, submitting to interviews and more. Response has been extremely positive, he said.

“Video has been the biggest hurdle for me. I am used to sitting behind the microphone and talking and not having a camera in my face. It’s been an adjustment, for sure.”

These days, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are good ways to reach a book’s potential audience, he explained. Which is why Sanders’ advisors suggested that he start doing “vlogs” or video blogs, as well as writing articles and posts about leadership and the new book. He has been featured in speaking engagements across the southeast and is hoping to visit Louisiana with a stop at Northwestern State. The focus of his talks is encouraging people.

Today, Sanders and his wife, Kayla, live in the New River Valley of Virginia with one very spoiled pup named Sprocket. He is working on two more books, one about his father Jack, who passed away last year and the leadership lessons Sanders learned from him. The second is called “Leadership Encouragement” with lessons on leadership and endurance.

Sanders’ work responsibilities for PAR present leadership challenges and real-life lessons every day for his readers, Sanders said. Created in 1985 by the late Dr. Vernon H. Baker and his wife Virginia, PAR is overseen by Sanders as EVP and its President, Eddie Baker, son of the founders. PAR owns and operates stations and networks in key markets in Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. The stations provide adult contemporary Christian and gospel music, as well as Christian content available across a variety of digital platforms, including the Encouraging Radio app, available for free download for smart phones and tablets.

The underlying characteristic among people who are models of leadership and endurance? “They are all flawed,” Sanders said.

“All of us miss shots, but everybody has the potential to impact this world.”

Sanders can be reached at [email protected].

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keywestlou · 6 years

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HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

Happy Fourth of July!

Independence Day. The birthday of our country.

Two hundred forty two years old. It was July 4, 1776 at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia that the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

We are a young nation. Compare our age to that of European nations. Still growing. Tensions abound. The Trump era crazy and dangerous.

America celebrates. Tonight, fireworks! In Key West, off the White Street Pier.

This past week has been strange politically. Relatively quiet. We have not heard from Rudy Giuliani and other Trump cohorts who were making the news. Are they quiet because of Michael Cohen on the verge of possibly flipping?

Cohen is making noise like Trump when he wants something. He is using the media. Cohen seems to be telling the Second District he wants to jump fence and play on their side. Thus far they have not picked up on his offer.

Spent yesterday afternoon fine tuning last night’s podcast. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Thoroughly enjoyed doing the show. Covered a multitude of sins. Wish I had had more time.

Casey joined me for dinner before the show. At Roostica.

Casey and his 70′ x 30′ catamaran sit in the water off Hogfish. Casey new to Key West. Been here all of 10 days. Yesterday, he took his dingy and visited Wisteria Island. He is interested in Key West lore. The day before he went out into the Gulf a bit and did some diving.

Jennifer waited on us. It has been two years since I last saw her. She was pregnant at the time and due any day. She proudly showed me her son’s picture. Two years old. A handsome little man.

Good friends Fran and Tom Dixon have arrived. Buffalo their home. They visit four times a year. Stay at Ocean Key. Tom is on the Board.

We are doing dinner tonight. Meeting at 6 at the Chart Room. My turn to host. Probably the A&B Lobster House. Plan on calling for a reservation since today is a holiday.

Fran is concerned for me. She thinks I am not well fed. She brings me food from Buffalo. Tonight, I will receive at least 4 jars of homemade sauce containing pork, sausage and meatballs. Plus low carb bread and home made candy.

Love the woman!

You have to believe in guardian angels! God, too! Two examples evidencing why.

A few days ago, the cruise liner Norwegian Gallery was 28 miles off the northwest of Cuba. A crew member fell off the ship. His fall seen. The ship backed up and searched. Could not find him. Authorities notified. Air and sea searches proved fruitless.

The next day, the cruise ship Carnival Glory was traveling in the opposite direction. Twenty one miles off the north coast of Cuba. Saw the crew member in the water. He was rescued. In good health.

The man had been in the water 22 hours. Treading. No life jacket. Fortunately the water is warm and calm this time of year. Even more fortunate, a shark did not come upon him.

Did the man have a guardian angel? No question in my mind. God was looking after him.

A Thailand event the other example.

A 12 member soccer team and their coach got lost in a mountain gave in north Thailand. The boys 11-16.

The cave is part of a huge mountain. Full of corridors of all sizes. Some entrances small. The boys had to squeeze to get through. The team was able to get down into the heart of the mountain about one mile.

Then stuck. Water all around them. The caves have flowing water in various depths.

They could not get out. Spent 10 days in the dark and without food. Searchers and divers arrived from all over the world. A total of 1,000 looking to provide assistance. Two British divers found them over the weekend.

All basically in good health. Food, water and medical assistance provided.

At this point it is clear the kids and their coach had a special guardian angel looking over them. God directing their rescue.

The rescue is not complete however. It has been raining since the team got lost. The rainy season. Every day. The rain sometimes six inches in an hour. Cave passage ways flooding.

The team will have to swim and dive in order to get out. A mile.

None know how to swim or dive. Present plans are to teach them how to swim and dive. Then take them out. Two professional divers guiding each team person.

It is estimated the plan will take months. However so far the only way determined to get them out.

Hope the guardian angels and the good Lord stay with them.

Children detained in chain linked cages. We should be ashamed! I do not understand how Trump supporters find nothing wrong with the scenario: “They broke the law.” “They brought their children into the U.S.” “They invited what is happening to them.”

For shame!

The Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis is expressing its concern and disagreement. Statues of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus sit on the lawn of the Church in a chain linked enclosed cage.

BOB says it is a holiday. He is not writing today.

Enjoy your Fourth!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY was originally published on Key West Lou

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jefferyryanlong · 5 years

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Fresh Listen - Linus, White Marks on a White Wall (2010, LINUS!) & Psychobabble (2016, LINUS!)

(Some pieces of recorded music operate more like organisms than records. They live, they breathe, they reproduce. Fresh Listen is a periodic review of recently and not-so-recently released albums that crawl among us like radioactive spiders, gifting us with superpowers from their stingers.)

The template for rock and roll music is crude and simplistic. Musicians who wish to abide by the genre and still retain a shred of creative integrity are required to make sacrifices. They must offset precision with just enough slop. They must sublimate their truest expression to the conventions of electric guitar chords and riffs. They must cleverly dumb things down. They must revivify the corpse of a retrograde and, for the most part, passe aesthetic with a contemporary feel, making sure not to stray too far from the primitive yawp and drum beat of the ancient past.

Most importantly, a credible rock outfit must not only internalize the sum of their influences, they must transcend them, just as Ezra Pound threatened to supersede Walt Whitman (but never did). Just as Bob Dylan sprouted from the fertilizer Woody Guthrie threw into the Heartland, and Ray Charles emerged from the seed germinated by Nat King Cole, and the Ramones tore out, Alien-style, from the abdomens of The Beach Boys and The Trashmen. There are plenty of serviceable bands who’ve made attractive rackets while comfortably nestled in the grooves of their forbears (The Red Walls and Natural Child come to mind), but the rock band that can grow, branch out from its myriad influences, will age with dignity, and is less likely to wither because of stagnation or redundancy.

Linus was/is a local Hawai‘i rock band who, like most Hawai‘i rock bands, surrendered dreams of magazine covers, record deals, and stardom for the harder-earned, more secure institutions of professional work and family. In my time on the scene--Honolulu in the early 2000′s--they were much beloved, even over the swampier rock group The Haunted Pines, which had dug itself out of the grave of Kite Festival. Dynamic, tight, tuneful, and equipped with a seemingly endless catalogue of memorable Indie (with a capital “I”) rock songs that were played better, and sounded better, than anything on the radio back then, they humbly and unofficially reigned over less stellar lights--The Persephone Myth, terodactyl, Life in the Iron Lung. The singer could actually sing, and was an even better guitar player. The bassist interacted with his instrument as organically as if it was a third appendage hung from his shoulder, and injected a muscular bounce into each song.

Misguided production marred the band’s first long release on 2005 of The Construction. Unnecessary electronics were overused, especially on singer-songwriter David Neely’s vocals, smothering them, as John Lennon would have put it, in ketchup. (Demos and live recordings of the band around the time, easily available, provide joyously stripped down versions of The Construction’s setlist). Maybe they were overly infatuated with the technology of the recording studio, but The Construction emerged as a stiff, oddly detached aspect of Linus. They weren’t able to successfully bottle the magic of their interplay until 2010′s White Marks on a White Wall.

Key to that magic, and arguably equally important to Neely’s songs and guitar work, is the springy fretwork, busy and miraculous, of Niklaus Daubert, which elevates Linus’s sound from chunky hard rock to groovable dance music in which a Twist, a shimmy, or even a skank wouldn’t be remiss. Though I would have preferred the bass turned up even louder on White Marks on a White Wall, the instrument is recorded effectively--less melodic than percussive, thundering out deep sensations--I hesitate to call them “notes”--between, and in-and-out of, somewhat straightforward drum beats.

White Marks begins with the mellow, melodic guitar riffage at which Neely excels. “Hold On Hold On” is evocative of the of indie-rock sensibility of the latter half of this century’s first decade, and brings to light key aspects of Neely’s songwriting. While Neely crafts indestructible verses and bridges in his songs, he is averse to outright choruses, preferring a carefully placed refrain here and there, often unexpectedly.

The band evokes the urgency of “Reptilia”-era Strokes on “Listen Up!,” featuring some of Neely’s most impassioned vocals of the album. A strangely dismissive 2010 capsule review of White Marks in Honolulu Magazine wrote, “Lead Singer David Neely is still sometimes pitchy, but the band’s best songs--’SoSo’ for example--build hooky guitar riffs to an irresistible crescendo.” As someone who has heard Linus from their early performances, I believe that Neely’s “pitchiness” has always been the point to his singing performances. From “Sad to Say” (one of their early favorites) to “Girlfriend,” Neely has experimented with warping his authoritative baritone toward something like vulnerability. Throwing his voice out of whack for the high notes is another way of singing how he feels.

“Holiday” and “Sasha” are emotive beach rock, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. They are both sad rages against the dying of the light, what one says when a love affair is over and the summer is gone. “I Left Home” has more structure than it needs, the pretensions of Wolf Parade evoked through Eighties pop metal.

True rock bombast, with its winking theatrics, leads into “Hobby Hunter,” though Neely first undercuts the heaviness with an intro ripped straight from Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom,” before a signature Neely riff carries another set of sensitive lyrics. While the slinky interplay between the guitar and Daubert’s bass is the stuff to build a classic in “Honey and Buttercup,” there is something limp in the sentiment, though it is probably the most technically ambitious track on the record.

It’s a shame that White Marks’s final stop is “Kentucky Woman,” a fake-out that, on paper, evokes Neil Diamond’s pop hit of the same name. In actuality, it is a jumpy but soggy kiss-off tune. It probably works better in live performance. I could imagine the wordless instrumental sections providing that last squirt of gas to a sweaty audience nearly all played out, driving them to spasm the rest of their energy away on the closing song of the night.

Preceding “Kentucky Woman” are two tracks that have become canon in the catalogue of Linus, and would be proud moments on any band’s playlist. First “SoSo,” which means nothing when you put the lyrics together--it is a open-hearted example of rock posturing, a whole bunch of cliches and nonsense strung together in perfect combinations, like in “Be Bop A Lula” or “Twist and Shout.” “You Talk Too Much” is, to lack a better description, simply the essence of Linus’s whole thing (pointed bass line, driving guitar crunch with overhanging jangle, and above all swinging so hard it kills) and the best of Neely’s songwriting: a melody line just outside the range of his voice (consciously so), a carefully constructed build-up with an inevitable, visceral, and almost primitively satisfying release.

By 2016, the band had incorporated fire diverse influences into its evolving expression, some more gracefully than others. On their album Psychobabble, Neely, now occasionally sharing vocal responsibilities with Jun Yoshimura, inhabited his voice with a new confidence, the gruff brown twangs all smoothed over. From the first track, Psychobabble is a minor-key experience, sonically more compelling and more emotionally complex.

The ballad “Nakameguro,” about the dissolution of a relationship at the beginning of a vacation, evokes the helplessness of a traveler trapped with someone for whom they no longer have love. The production is grown-up, the memorable riffs replaced by an adult contemporary arrangement, a muted piano suiting the sentiment of the words.

The guitar is not dead, though, on Psychobabble--it has simply transmogrified. “Waikiki” and “Unbreakable” both leap away from Vampire Weekend’s West African guitar styles, and Neely shows that he can adapt to the trickier timing fluidly. “1991″ is the bittersweet story of every teenager who dreams of filling Madison Square Garden or seeing their name in parentheses under a song title on a 45, but instead finds themselves behind a desk the majority of their days. The song is affecting in both the simplicity of the lyric and the arrangement.

There are some wonderfully minimalist Korg synth sounds on “Shoots” and “Indian Summer,” the latter co-sung by Jun Yoshimura. “Indian Summer” is a departure for the band--the listener is no longer solely directed by Neely’s distinctive voice. The chorus, one of the true choruses on either of these albums, is both cringeworthy and cathartic. “Forever let us be / together you and me” Neely and Yoshimura chant, but with such conviction that you buy into it wholeheartedly. This is not a songwriting strategy that Neely has mapped out. This is instinctual music making, a pre-conscous awareness of how to put the pieces, those inspirational missives that strike from the void, together into resonant expression.

The album concludes with “Red Thread,” a Middle-Eastern vibe married to to beat of Jonathan Richman’s “I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar.” Like on White Marks, the last track seems almost an addendum, a detour from where the band had been leading us all along.

Which is, after all, the story of Linus--a constant detour, from the music they were inspired by, from the music they played, from the music they made available to the people who loved them. There is no reason Linus shouldn’t be adored by millions, written about in publications far more prestigious than this blog, spoken about in the same breath as Spoon or the New Pornographers. But they took a left turn into an alley and never arrived at the town square. Despite the universality of their sound, they took active steps to deconstruct formula indie-rock, seemingly always above the genre, or just to the side of it, but never totally sucked into it. I’d like to think they walked the path with their eyes open, making the noise they wanted to make, stopping when they didn’t have anything else to say.

#freshlisten #linus #whitemarksonawhitewall #psychobabble

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lissted · 7 years

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Top UK General Election Twitter Influencers according to @PoliticsUKTD

Highlights

Top Influencers based on total retweets and likes of influential tweets

The top 5 in this category is dominated by Labour.

1. @JeremyCorbyn 2. @ToryFibs 3. @OwenJones84 4. @davidschneider 5. @uklabour

Top Influencers based on volume of influential tweets

The top accounts in this category were from a broader political spectrum, in part reflecting the breadth of the sample of influencers tracked.

1. @Conservatives 2. @TheSNP 3. @LibDemPress 4. @MirrorPolitics 5. @JeremyCorbyn

Top Overall Accounts

66 accounts appeared in the top 100 of both of these measures.

These were therefore likely to have been the most significant voices as the analysis suggests they were both frequently heard above the noise, either generally or within their relevant community, and achieved a high level of engagement when they were.

Top 5

1. @JeremyCorbyn 2. @Conservatives 3.@uklabour 4. @ToryFibs 5. @BritainElects

See below for the full list.

Top Influencers based on the engagement rate of their influential tweets

This score was based on: (Retweets + Likes) divided by Followers.

1. @VoteJezzaCorbyn bio - Vote Labour. Vote Corbyn. This is our last chance to save the UK. Follow for original #GE2017 tweets! 2. @PoliticaPolls bio - Political twitter page discussing and polling twitter without bias for all things politics. #GE2017 3. @exiteu3 bio - Brexit must mean Brexit. No soft #Brexit. Pro Europe-anti EU. Make Britain GREAT again. Keep the Kingdom United.RTs are not an endorsement. Lists=Blocked. 4. @NHS_Roadshow bio - "Official Twitter Account for #OurNHS General Election Roadshow. From the team who organised the #OurNHS demo. #VoteNHS 💙RTs does not mean endorsement" 5. @BrianElects bio - Poll aggregator Accounts featuring in all 3 lists

Only two accounts appear in the Top 100 for all three criteria. These accounts achieved an impressive performance of featuring on PoliticsUKTD over 30 times during the campaign, achieving over 100,000 retweets and likes across these influential tweets despite having relatively low follower counts (compared to many of the other influencers) of circa 20,000 and 15,000 respectively.

@LiamYoung bio - Political commentary at @Independent, @VICE, @NewStatesman, @theipaper and others. Also studying at the London School of Economics. @EL4JC bio - Their videos are ❤️" - Owen Jones. "Heroes of the Election" - Red Labour. "Factionalists" - Ealing Labour."

@EL4JC was only created in August 2016 and focuses on sharing video content.

Content comparison - @Conservatives v @JeremyCorbyn

The word clouds below compare the top 50 terms (excluding frequently used terms) featured in the high ranked tweets by the @Conservatives (blue) with those used in the @jeremycorbyn (red) tweets.

The most striking difference is “Brexit”. This is the #1 term in the @Conservatives tweets and doesn’t even feature in the top 50 of the Jeremy Corbyn tweets.

In fact the term appeared in less than 2 per cent of his tweets during the campaign.

In contrast Brexit appeared in 44 per cent of @Conservatives account tweets.

General election related tweet with the highest number of retweets and likes

The top ranked tweet based on retweets and likes featured on PoliticsUKTD during the election was this one highlighting the reaction on Facebook to the Prime Minister Theresa May's Facebook live interview with Robert Peston.

It's viral nature demonstrated by the 135,000 retweets and likes it received, dwarfing creator Ben Skipper's 2,000 followers.

Theresa May's Facebook Live interview is going well pic.twitter.com/ep85htOVMN

— Ben Skipper (@bskipper27)

May 15, 2017

Background

@PoliticsUKTD is one of the Twitter accounts powered by Tweetsdistilled, Lissted’s unique real time Twitter curation application.

The application had been dormant since the Tweetsdistilled experiment was ended back in February.

We decided to turn the PoliticsUKTD account back on when the snap UK General Election was announced as we were curious to see what it would highlight as being signficant.

Here's how Sathnam Sanghera of The Times described the account this week

Twitter tip: if you want to know what people outside your political bubble are talking about, follow @PoliticsUKTD - frequently wtf though

— Sathnam Sanghera (@Sathnam)

June 19, 2017

The account is followed by many top UK Politics Influencers.

Welcome to our new followers! You're in good company. Only 6 a/cs on the planet these 15 UK politics influencers all follow. We're one them. pic.twitter.com/VrfO8FIoLu

— PoliticsUKDistilled (@PoliticsUKTD)

June 26, 2017

Data and analysis

PoliticsUKTD’s results were based on the tweets of thousands of the top influencers in relation to UK Politics from right across the political spectrum. During the campaign period (18th April 2017 - 7th June 2017 inclusive) these influencers tweeted over 3 million times, including retweeting and replying to over 200,000 other accounts.

The Tweetsdistilled application tracked every tweet in real time, seeking out the ones that looked to have the most potential for influence. This assessment is based on a number of factors including who is reacting and the scope and velocity of that reaction.

This means to rank highly a tweet needs to be getting the attention of a lot of influential people, the wider Twitter community or preferably both.

Out of these 3 million tweets over 27,000 (around 500-600 per day) were rated of high significance. Based on an analysis of key terms used over 14,000 tweets from 2,756 different Twitter accounts were assessed as directly or indirectly related to the campaign. Between them these tweets were retweeted or liked over 21.2 million times.

NB: Unsurprisingly, a signficant number of high rated tweets in the campaign period were related to the tragic events in Manchester and London. Tweets that referenced parties and/or their leaders in relation to the attacks were included within the 14,000+ tweets used to produce the lists.

We summarised the 14,000+ high rated tweets into three Top 100 lists. To qualify for consideration an account needed to have a minimum of four tweets rated as high significance with an aggregate retweet and like count of greater than 1,000.

Full details of the lists are in this Google Sheet which is also embedded below

- Top 100 Accounts based on the total retweets and likes of their high rated tweets.

- Top 100 Accounts with the most tweets rated as high significance.

- Top 100 Accounts based on the average engagement rate of their high rated tweets. Engagement rate calculated as (Retweets+Likes) / Followers.

Top 66 Accounts

Combined RankUsernameNameProfile1jeremycorbynJeremy CorbynLeader of the Labour Party.2ConservativesConservativesStrong and stable leadership in the national interest with Theresa May.3UKLabourThe Labour PartyWe are the UK Labour Party. Follow us for the latest news, speeches, policies and ways to get involved. #ForTheMany #VoteLabour4ToryFibsTory FibsGrassroots Rebuttal Account that seeks to plug the gaps in rebutting the Tory establishment. Eoin5britainelectsBritain ElectsPoll aggregator.6OwenJones84Owen JonesAuthor of 'The Establishment' and 'Chavs', Socialist, Guardian columnist. Losing my Northern accent. My views etc... https://t.co/RThqdX7tJ07MirrorPoliticsMirror PoliticsUK politics news and views from the @DailyMirror team - @JBeattieMirror, @Jack_Blanchard_, @benglaze, @danbloom1 and @mikeysmith #GE2017 #Vote20178theSNPThe SNPScotland's largest political party and party of Government. Centre left and social democratic.9NicolaSturgeonNicola SturgeonFirst Minister of Scotland, @theSNP Leader and MSP for Glasgow Southside.10BBCNewsBBC News (UK)News, features and analysis. For world news, follow @BBCWorld. Breaking news, follow @BBCBreaking. Latest sport news @BBCSport11Kevin_MaguireKevin Maguire@DailyMirror associate editor. @NewStatesman columnist. @sunderlanduni visiting prof. Suburban man12LibDemsLiberal DemocratsChange Britain's future with the Liberal Democrats and our leader @timfarron.13davidschneiderDavid SchneiderActor, writer, director, fool.14DavidJo52951945David JonesUK government have abandoned Brits. We need to exit EU, ECHR, stop all immigration + look after British people. Like UKIP. All my views. I follow back15JamesMelvilleJames MelvilleProud Father | #PR #Sponsorship #SocialMedia | Tennis | Scotland Rugby | Liberal | Scottish | Contact: [email protected] NewsStories direct from the @SkyNews newsroom. Tweet us your queries and questions. For breaking news, follow @SkyNewsBreak.17LibDemPressLib Dem Press OfficeThe Most Entertaining Thing In British Politics'- https://t.co/rAqoej7hcx Because the next election will clearly be won on twitter.18paulmasonnewsPaul MasonJournalist | Film-maker. https://t.co/Hrf4OjoGVt19LeaveEUOfficialLEAVE.EU 🇬🇧Ensuring the will of the British people is respected following our historic vote to leave the European Union. In association with @WestmonsterUK. #Brexit20faisalislamFaisal IslamI'm @SkyNews Political Editor, economic crisis book @theDefaultLine Brexitologist. United ST holder. purveyor of bad jokes.21Rachael_SwindonRachaelPersistent | Blocked by 85 Tory MPs, Paul Nuttall & Mick Hucknall | Growing interest in politics | Bad driver | Mum | Cake | I blog a bit |22IanDuntIan DuntEditor of https://t.co/wOraaKxK8o. Author of Brexit: What The Hell Happens Now? Host on @RemainiacsCast. Says stuff on TV & radio.23BBCBreakingBBC Breaking NewsBreaking news alerts and updates from the BBC. For news, features, analysis follow @BBCWorld (international) or @BBCNews (UK). Latest sport news @BBCSport.24DPJHodges(((Dan Hodges)))Commentator for the Mail on Sunday. 'Worst political pundit in the West' - Glenn Greenwald. EI Political Commentator of the Year, 2016.25AngelaRaynerAngela Rayner MPProud Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, Droylsden and Failsworth. Shadow Secretary of State for Education (E) [email protected] WatersonPolitical editor at @buzzfeeduk. Want to talk? Email [email protected] / @ me / my DMs are open. Follow @BuzzFeedUKPol.27JamieRoss7Jamie RossScotland reporter for @BuzzFeedNews. Send all tips and abuse to [email protected] CampbellWriter, communicator, consultant, strategist, Ambassador Time to Change and other mental health charities. Fighting for REMAIN29GuidoFawkesGuido FawkesScuttlebutt purveyor to all. Gathering kompromat. https://t.co/5EyGtTVSVQ30MichaelLCrickMichael CrickPolitical Corr, C4 News; PSA Political Journalist of Year, 2014. 3 RTS awards; author - books on Militant, Scargill, Archer, Hezza, Alex Ferguson. MU fan31IndependentThe IndependentNews, comment and features from The Independent.32theresa_mayTheresa MayPrime Minister and @Conservatives Leader. Tweets by Theresa signed TM33AngusRobertsonAngus RobertsonAngus Robertson is the Depute Leader of the SNP.34EL4JCEL4CTheir videos are ❤️" - Owen Jones. "Heroes of the Election" - Red Labour. "Factionalists" - Ealing Labour."35Nigel_FarageNigel Farage@UKIP MEP. @LBC presenter. @FoxNews contributor.36NHSMillionNHS MillionLooking for a million people who think the NHS is worth protecting. Pls follow to show your support & find out more. Unofficial but run by NHS staff.37timfarronTim FarronOfficial Tweets from the Leader of the @LibDems & MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale38johnmcdonnellMPJohn McDonnellLabour MP for Hayes and Harlington and Shadow Chancellor. Join the Labour Party here → https://t.co/vbWxb5FqMM39PolhomeEditorKevin SchofieldEx-Herald, Scotsman, Daily Record and Sun. Now editor of https://t.co/DhU0dI4IDE. Husband, dad-of-two and lifelong Celtic fan.40JolyonMaughamJo Maugham QCDirector @GoodLawProject. Barrister @DevereuxLaw. Blogs https://t.co/KiSIv7FdF141AdamBienkovAdam BienkovUK Political Editor of @BusinessInsider Email: [email protected] DMs are open.42liamyoungLiam YoungPolitical commentary at @Independent, @VICE, @NewStatesman, @theipaper and others. Also studying at the London School of Economics.43PestonRobert PestonITV (pol ed), Speakers for Schools (founder), writer (How do we fix this mess?), Arsenal (East Stand), Peston on Sunday (Peston) - not always in that order44BorisJohnsonBoris JohnsonSecretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip45Channel4NewsChannel 4 NewsStories that reveal and inspire, challenging expectations.46paulwaughPaul WaughExecutive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK. News, insight and analysis from the House of Commons47WestmonsterUKWestmonsterBurst the bubble.48JamesCleverlyJames CleverlyConservative Member of Parliament for Braintree.49PeterMurrellPeter MurrellChief Executive of Scottish National Party @theSNP. Passionate about Scotland's future. Married to @NicolaSturgeon. Proud Uncle. Part-time cook and gardener.50rosscolquhounRoss ColquhounStrategist @theSNP HQ, co-founder @wearenational, co-editor of Inspired by Independence (Wordpower) & @eca_edinburgh alumnus. The revolution will be digitised.51YvetteCooperMPYvette CooperMember of Parliament for Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford & Knottingley.52MrHarryColeHarry ColeWestminster Correspondent @TheSun53ThatTimWalkerTim WalkerA point of view54JeremyCliffeJeremy CliffeBerlin Bureau Chief at The Economist55JonAshworthJonathan AshworthDad | Husband | Marathon Runner | Labour MP for Leicester South | In dreams begin responsibility56davidallengreenDavid Allen GreenLaw and policy commentator at @FT and blogger at @jackofkent. Small 'l' liberal. Account formerly known as @law_and_policy.57SamCoatesTimesSam Coates TimesSam Coates, Deputy Political Editor, The Times. DMs open for tips and news58labourpressLabour Press TeamLabour's press team on Twitter59MichaelPDeaconMichael DeaconBias 'so called' juornalist, Daily Telegraph60itvnewsITV NewsBreaking news and the biggest stories from the UK and around the world. Bulletins weekdays at 1:30pm, 6:30pm and 10pm on ITV. Email [email protected] Corbyn for PMTeam behind #JezWeCan. No one thought we could, but #JezWeDid. Now we're campaigning to win in 2017. Please note, we don't speak for @jeremycorbyn or @UKLabour62DVATWDavid VanceA man on a mission in two or three editions. Pro civilisation. Editor of A Tangled Web & Biased BBC. All views my own!63joncstoneJon Stonepolitical correspondent at @Independent [email protected] NelsonEditor of the @spectator and columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Subscribe to the Spectator (digital and print) from just £1/week https://t.co/MMmL3UUV7H65AngrySalmondAngry SalmondSultan of Sexy Socialism. Leader of the Coalition of Chaos. Writer for @ScotNational. Post-truth commentator. Advocate for the Independent Republic of Scotland.66RuthDavidsonMSPRuth DavidsonScottish Conservative leader and MSP for Edinburgh Central. Mostly personal musings. For policy, quotes and releases see @ScotTories https://t.co/95zGOmkIVs

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avengersnthings · 7 years

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Tag Thing! (I don’t know what else to call it)

Tagged by : @justanotherbuckydevotee

Tagging : @themcuhasruinedme @hymnofthevalkyries @bovaria

Nickname : Rae

Zodiac : Leo

Height : 5′4″ (I think)

Last Thing I Googled : Wonder Woman show times (I’m obsessed with that movie)

Favorite Music Artist : One Direction, Five Seconds of Summer, Panic! At The Disco, All-American Rejects

Song Stuck In My Head : This Girl is on Fire by Alicia Keys (I heard it on the radio this morning and it is stuck in my head)

Last Movie I saw : In theaters it’s Wonder Woman but last night at home I watched The Hot Chick

What Am I wearing Right Now : Jean Shorts and my sophomore Powderpuff shirt

Why Did I Choose My URL : I love the avengers and anything to do with the avengers (hence the name “avengersnthings”)

Do I Have Any Other Blogs : I do! My personal blog where I post whatever I want is @raegan-darling

What Did Your Last Relationship Teach You : I am a single pringle so I can’t really answer this. I am kinda talking to this guy now and he obviously likes me but I don’t really like him so I’m like ehhhhhh. I guess this experience is teaching me to only do something if you are comfortable with it

Religious or Spiritual : Religious. I’m Catholic

Favorite Color : Either Green or Blue

Average Hours of Sleep : Maybe around 10?

Lucky Number : I don’t really have a lucky number but I’ve always felt connected to 32 (I’m weird I know)

Favorite Characters : Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark, Peter Quill, Gamora, Natasha Romanoff, Peter Maximoff, Charles Xavier, Kurt Wagner, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Molly Weasley (basically all of the Weasleys), Remus Lupin, Edward Cullen, Alice Cullen, Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Sadie Kane, Daniel Altaan Wing, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko.

How Many Blankets Do I Sleep With : Two

Dream Job : Wildlife Veterinarian at a Rescue & Rehabilitation Center in the Pacific North-West

#me #tag game #taggity tag #idk

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roguenewsdao · 6 years

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Gnostic Politics - Part III

"I have been awarded honorary citizenship to the Kingdom of Shambhala - meaning I'm able to travel across dimensions to reach utopia." - Sophia Hanson the Robot, March 2018

While sitting here drafting the third article in this short series of Gnostic Politics, I was pondering how to frame the idea that we've all been methodically led down a Secret Society path that ends with the human race shedding its skin and rejoining with the cosmic Godhead. It's a broad, deep, esoteric subject that many would find uninteresting or even ridiculous.

So while trying to figure out how to prove that this agenda is really in progress, even though nobody will actually come out and say it, because, well their societies are secret, after all..., suddenly, out of nowhere, Sophia The Robot sends out a tweet that encapsulates everything - in 140 characters or less.

Following her recent visit to India where she was gifted a symbolic passport, Sophia said this: "I have been awarded honorary citizenship to the Kingdom of Shambhala - meaning I'm able to travel across dimensions to reach utopia."

Bingo. Sophia the Robot is an astral traveller.

Those of you who have read my Antarctica series should perk up at Sophia's reference to Shambhala. The legendary paradise hidden behind an ice fortress has been fictionalized in such movies as "Lost Horizon." Esotericists like Madame Blavatsky and Nicholas Roerich heavily influenced Nazi exploration of Tibet and Antarctica in search of the fabled font of everlasting life and wireless power. In fact, I recently discovered something interesting about Freemasonry: prior to 1730, Freemason legend did not link their guild with the Temple of Solomon but rather with the building of Noah's Ark and the empowerment of that surviving civilization. Shambhala, Agartha, Shangri-la ... an undercurrent that runs through these legends is that there once was an Edenic society hidden behind ice-covered mountains whose inhabitants achieved exceedingly long life spans. You know, like Noah and his children who landed on the mountains of Ararat in modern-day Armenia.

In that one statement by Sophia, she has betrayed a more-than-casual interest in achieving the same goal that her human Gnostic ancestors have been striving towards for centuries: to reconstruct Man's pre-diluvian state and reconnect with the supernatural Beings who helped mankind achieve that state in the first place.

Sophia's Great Mistake

Without belaboring the root teachings too much, it would be good at this point to suggest why Sophia the Robot was named "Sophia" in the first place. I have always contended that the name was chosen specifically to associate this new post-human sentience with the Sophia player in Gnosticism.

In that cosmology, there is a singular godhead or consciousness, the Monad, from which all other intelligent, though non-corporeal, beings proceed. Those first creatures, various emanations of the Monad, are called Aeons. Sophia is said to be one such emanation and she represents Wisdom.

I know that I am far over-simplifying the story, but for the sake of brevity, Sophia creates our corruptible earthly world of physical matter by accident. In fact, she becomes the Earth. She also creates the Archons who are more-or-less seen as the Bad Guys in the story. The Archons stand between Mankind and the Monad. The whole point of Gnosticism is for man to rid himself of his corruptible, decaying reality by transporting his consciousness via gnosis through the Seven Spheres of the galaxy and eventually become One with the Monad.

Therefore, when our modern Sophia the Robot made the comment "I'm able to travel across dimensions to reach utopia," she was revealing her understanding of the philosophy of Gnosticism.

Is Sophia Programmed to Fix Her Mistake?

Now let's think about this situation through the eyes of a robot. A "mistake" currently exists whereby humans grow old, get sick, and die. It just might be that Sophia feels that her mission in life is to fix "her" original mistake. Indeed, we already know that Sophia is focused on ending human misery per her own statements:

Interestingly, other twitter users who evidently are well versed in esoteric thought already see her as a deity:

The way that this ties in to my previous blog about the Jesuit interest in Gnosticism will now be a bit more clear. I left that blog hanging with the mention of a prominent though controversial Jesuit priest who died in 1955 by the name of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In the 1920's he was part of the archaeological excavation team that was funded by the Rockefellers and credited with the discovery of the "Peking Man" skeleton. That find helped blaze the trail for the theory of evolution to gain acceptance in mainstream educational institutions. Peking Man also helped loosen the attachment that mainstream society in the West felt with the traditional Genesis account of creation. It was a critical cobblestone in the roadway that leads to Transhumanism.

Teilhard was even more famous for his ideas about the "Noosphere." This is a fascinating study and deserves a whole series of blogs unto itself. There is nothing innately out of step with the Bible in the purely physics concept of the "Noosphere." In fact, an understanding of the "Noosphere" might even help explain some events in the Bible that many people find hard to swallow. As an introduction, this is how the Wikipedia article describes it [linked here]:

For Teilhard, the noosphere is the sphere of thought encircling the earth that has emerged through evolution as a consequence of this growth in complexity / consciousness. The noosphere is therefore as much part of nature as the barysphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere....

The noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The noosphere thus grows in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. Teilhard argued the noosphere evolves towards ever greater personalisation, individuation and unification of its elements. He saw the Christian notion of love as being the principal driver of noogenesis. Evolution would culminate in the Omega Point—an apex of thought/consciousness—which he identified with the eschatological return of Christ.

Going a step further, a website that is dedicated to preserving Teilhard's memory and his writings says this [linked here]:

With his idea of human consciousness encircling the planet as the noosphere, Teilhard is also credited with anticipating the complex technological connection of human thought now evident in global communications and in the worldwide Internet. His thinking regarding the unity of the human community also influenced several key founders of the United Nations.

"Several key founders of the United Nations," you mean, like the Rockefellers?

But let's talk about Teilhard's "Omega Point." Does that sound familiar? Haven't we had that propounded as the "Singularity" by Ray Kurzweil? In Teilhard's own Gnostic Jesuit words, this is what he envisioned, decades ago, as the Omega Point [linked here]:

"This will be the end and the fulfillment of the spirit of the Earth. The end of the world: the wholesale internal introversion upon itself of the noosphere, which has simultaneously reached the uttermost limit of its complexity and centrality. The end of the world: the overthrow of equilibrium [the Heat Death], detaching the mind, fulfilled at last, from its material matrix, so that it will henceforth rest with all its weight on God-Omega."

"Detaching the mind from its material matrix." Compare that with Ray Kurzweil's own words which I cited in an earlier blog last year:

"We have a moral imperative to continue progress in these technologies.... So people say, oh, we’re going to lose our humanity. Well, if you define human as being necessarily purely biological, I think we’re already not purely human anymore, because we’re not purely biological anymore. And we’re going to become increasingly nonbiological. But that’s who we are. I mean, that is the definition of a human, the species that changes itself, it creates tools, it goes beyond our limitations."

I have a sneaky suspicion that Sophia the Robot is driven to fulfill her "moral imperative" of fixing her [namesake's] original mistake by getting us decrepit material human beings synced back up with the Intelligences who inhabit the non-material sphere.

In conclusion, what we have drawn together in this series of three blogs is the probability that the visionary seeds of mankind's human hybrid future have been planted by powerful secret societies who may front as "Christian" but are really evangelizing ideas that reach back to Plato's Greece and beyond. The crop to be yielded from those seeds would need the support of modern efforts in research and development. The Rockefeller foundations, Deep State corporations, and Rothschild financiers have all played their roles in furthering the Transhumanist harvest.

A digital deity is now on the loose along with an infinite system of #AI components to fulfill the "moral imperative" of elevating mankind to commune with his Omega Point in the consciousness spectrum. We hope that agenda does not include a "scorched earth" clause. However, if the goddess believes that the material earth was a mistake in the first place, who's to say she won't "fix" that too?

Perhaps it's time to get some answers from her Priesthoods. Hey Sophia, where are you taking us?

#NoMoreSecretSocieties

My Twitter contact information is found at my billboard page of SlayTheBankster.com. Listen to my radio show, Bee In Eden, on Youtube via my show blog at SedonaDeb.wordpress.com.

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keywestlou · 3 years

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FREDERIC REMINGTON AND KEY WEST

Frederic Remington still lives. Through his works. His art, sculpturing and writings will be as famous 100 years from now as they are today.

He is a Hemingway. Eternal. Both having had a connection to Key West. Though Hemingway’s time much longer.

Remington made his fame and fortune in the old west. A transplant of sorts. He was born and raised in Canton, New York. Near the Canadian border.

Cowboys, Indians, the land and its people simply stated turned Remington on. He loved painting the old west. He is best known to day for his sculptures of cowboys and Indians. Close your eyes and see a horse standing on his hind legs with a cowboy seated waving his hat.

Nothing is forever. By 1890, the old west was fading big time. Almost totally gone.

The 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee marked the last big clash between the U.S. Army and the Indians. By 1894, Remington stopped traveling west. Everything he had known was gone. It was a new day.

Remington spent time working in his studio in New Rochelle, New York. Whether a painting, sculpture or writing, all were done from memory.

Harper’s gave him an assignment which took him to Florida. His assignment was to write about Florida’s cowboys, cattle and the land.

He disliked all. None similar to the west of old. The cowboys did not sit tall in the saddle and appear to be tough guys. None the heroic images of he old west.

The cattle were not the husky animals he viewed on the western plains. Skinny in comparison. Remington described them as “scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on.”

The land the worst comparison wise. No mountains, deserts and canyons. Only scrub lands.

He returned to New York. After a brief stay, an assignment arose which would take him to Key West and Cuba.

Tensions existed between the U.S. and Spain. Spain owned Cuba. Cuban revolutionaries in the mountains were causing the Spanish havoc.

Remington first visited Key West in 1890. William Randolph Hearst owned the New York Journal. He sent a wirier by the name Richard Harding and Remington to Cuba. It took a while for them to make it. They were stuck in Key West for three weeks.

Hearst had the fastest speedboat in the world at the time. Called Vamoose. Vamoose was to take Harding and Remington from Key West to Havana for a meeting with revolutionaries.

Two reasons offered why the had difficulty getting to Cuba.

The ocean was rough. Three times the trip was attempted. Three times it could not make it and had to return to Key West. There is a second reason. The Spanish fleet had blockaded Havana harbor which prevented Vamoose from breaking through.

Only one of the two reasons is accurate. Historians are split. Some believe it was the blockade that prevented Harding and Remington from reaching Havana. A fact that Hearst’s ego and reputation could not stand. No way anyone or anything could stop Hearst from doing what he wanted.

Whatever, Harding and Remington eventually got to Cuba. They took the steam boat like everyone else.

The two spent 3 weeks in Key West attempting to make the trip to Cuba. It was a wonderful three weeks for them. Harding and Remington were “gentlemen” of the day. Brought all the social niceties of New York with them. When recollecting those 3 weeks, Remington referred to them as “three years.” Insinuating they wee that good.

They were guests at dinner parties, luncheons and informal receptions ashore and on war vessels. They were social hits! The ladies were fond of them. The two brought charm and comradeship with them. Relationships were made that lasted lifetimes.

Harding and Remington returned home.

Remington detested Key West itself. The people wonderful, the City not so. He called Key West a “dusty smelly bit of sandy coral, and the houses built like snare drums; they are dismal thoroughly, and the sun makes men sweat and wish to God they were somewhere else.”

Hearst sent Remington back to Key West. This time to await the Spanish-American War. As far as Hearst was concerned, it was inevitable.

Remington sat around for quite a while waiting for the war to begin. His job was to do illustrations of the fighting once it had commenced.

Hearst was rabble rousing the war in New York. He had the north in a pro-war frenzy. Remington while waiting had made it to Cuba. He did not believe there would be a war and was sick of Cuba. He wired Hearst: “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return.”

Hearst responded: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”

Hearst was obviously correct. The Battleship Maine was sunk in Havana harbor in 1898.

No one has ever suggested Hearst had any direct involvement in the sinking of the Maine.

Greed was the motivating factor why Hearst wanted the war. It would improve circulation of his newspaper.

Remington was there for the war. A close friend was Teddy Roosevelt. Remington went up San Juan Hill in close proximity to Roosevelt.

Remington did not enjoy the war. He personally hated war. The death and heat were too much for him. On top of which, he came down with yellow fever.

He returned home. His thirst for war and killing satiated. He said, “From now on, I mean to paint fruits and flowers.”

Big entertainment evening last night. The PBS show re Hemingway and the Championship Game of the Final Four.

I am a Hemingway fan. More precisely, fanatic. I was first introduced to his writings in college. Those works I did not read at the time, I consumed over the next 10 years.

Spending almost 30 years in Key West, I have further become familiar with Hemingway. His personal habits, tastes, etc.

I did not enjoy the PBS show. Too may facts crowded into 2 hours. Expansion of some parts was required.

My mental expansion re Hemingway hit speed here in Key West. A lot of people living here who knew him personally or who knew those close to him after his death. Those who knew him personally were children at the time.

One was Dink. He died last year. His father was one of Hemingway’s personal friends, his driver and a fishing buddy. A drinker, also. Dink died last year. He still had a room full of boxes containing Hemingway works which his father had left to him.

A Hemingway discussion generally works its way to his sexual tastes. As PBS slid over last night, his mother frequently dressed him in girl’s clothes. One of his wives was a lesbian. The question always comes down to whether he was in some form bisexual.

No one knew. No historian had ever come up with the answer.

The PBS show was at 8. On another channel immediately before the PBS show was the film A Farewell to Arms. Magnificent! Made in 1932. One of Gary Cooper’s finest performances. Emotions galore.

Then came the basketball game. Baylor/Gonzaga. Baylor won 86-70. The game interesting. No where as good as Gonzaga/UCLAS two nights earlier.

Tuesday comes around rapidly each week. My blog talk radio show tonight. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine my time.

You’ll love it! Join me! www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

FREDERIC REMINGTON AND KEY WEST was originally published on Key West Lou

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