Talia found Yasmin's hide out only two days after the bomb.

It wasn't easy. Yasmin had hidden herself well - her monthly reports had never mentioned an acquaintanceship with Vladimir Masters, the absolute gall of that girl - in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. She bypassed the few security measures with ease, eventually finding her daughter sitting at a kitchen table, hyperventilating.

"What happened?" Talia's voice was cold and demanding.

"The-" Yasmin gasped before stealing herself. "The Fentons are dead."

"I know the Fentons are dead." Talia circled the girl. "One split navel to throat, the other strangled. What. Happened?"

"The Fentons discovered their son was a Meta. Specifically, they thought he had been replaced with the extradimentional species they study." She took a deep breath. "By the time I had discovered their actions, Daniel was... dissected on a table."

Talia closed her eyes. She knew from Yasmin's reports that she'd been acting as the Fenton child's primary caretaker since her adoption and a fondness had developed. "Yasmin-"

"Don't, Mother." She snapped. "Don't act like this is anything less than a tragedy."

"I know-"

"He was a child-"

"Everything's been taken care of," Talia said. "As far as the authorities are concerned, Jasmine Fenton died in that explosion you caused. You need to return now-"

"No!" Yasmin bolted to her feet, glaring at Talia. "He's dead, Mother! An innocent child, the child I raised as my own, is dead because I couldn't protect him! Don't you dare try to sweep this under the rug like... like Danny was something shameful! I'm not leaving! I have to-"

Time Out.

Yasmin shut her mouth mid-sentence, giving Talia time to convince her off her self-destructive path.

"What happened to Daniel is a tragedy, Yasmin. But wallowing in grief and what-ifs only leads to further pain." Talia sighed. "The Fentons and the research you were so fascinated with are gone now. You made sure of that. It's time for you to return home and put that knowledge to use."

Yasmin stared down at her hands. Odd that Talia hadn't noticed, but Yasmin's hands cradled a small, dark blue jewel, polished into a smooth, oblong oval. It glittered under the candlelight, like stars in the sky.

Yasmin swallowed the rock and spoke, refusing to acknowledge what she'd just done. "You are right, Mother. The time of Jasmine Fenton is gone now." She stared straight at Talia, no trace of fear in her gaze. For a moment, Talia wondered where her child had gone. Yasmin never met her eyes unless prompted to when she was growing up. Now she was met with a younger version of herself with cheap dyed-red hair, with the same level of determination that made Talia the Right Hand of the Demon Head. "I will mourn for Danny... on my own time. For now, what is my mission?"

Talia studied her daughter. There was a reason why she'd hidden the girl so far out of the way of her Father and her son. Yasmin was a strong fighter, but had her father's heart, despite her willingness to kill. She'd always reminded Talia of a bodyguard rather than an assassin, but Yasmin wanted to go her own way, wanted to study everything. For years, Talia had indulged her daughter, but now it was time for her to return to the fold.

"For the next month, you will be training to remove any weakness the Fentons may have left in you. After that, you will be guarding an ally for me."

"Which ally?"

"A boy a few years older than you, a son of the Bat." Yasmin didn't react to the mention of her father. Good. "His mind is infirm, but by the time you finish your training, he will be ready to strike a blow against Gotham. You will act as his guard during his training and act as my spy while he's in Gotham. Do you understand?"

For a moment, Yasmin's hand brushed her stomach before she forced her fists to her sides. "Yes, Mother. I will do as you ask."

*wakes up at 3 AM* Girl help, I forgot to pay attention at the fact that the portrait of the "green" person in Debate Parlour is not likely to be Sellen, from logical standpoint

It already was on the back of my mind, but I want to actually look into it! They are implied to be founders/teachers, and we know Sellen was a student of Azur and Lusat, but this is not quite an arguement, yeah. Sometimes new teachers will rise from younger people that once were scholars in institution! But it is the fact that keeping the portrait of that despicable, outlaw person that shook the whole Academy with her deeds would be strange. Why honor her?

+ And speaking of which, I thought the first two portraits could have been Azur and Lusat, but maybe also not? Their study of Primeval Current did not work well with the new Raya Lucaria agenda after Rennala took over, nor anyone who accomplished a lot ever got status and uniforms like they did! Portraits might be.... well, Karolos and Olivinus, lol. The guys crowns are named after. So, more convenient guys chosen to "repost with credit to the original artist" and become faces (literally lol) of Comets and Stars studies respectively!

^ The puppet body Sellen uses also has the Witch Crown, and not a broken one! So, not likely a replica, but another student from whatever the 'Witch' school was!

The significance of green glintstone is strange too, because this is not something that exists normally! They are cold colors, like cyan, blue and indigo! Well, also "superior" amber stars, but they're a whole material of Elden Ring, not sorceries. Crystals from the mines could be green though, and those poisonous stones the miners throw at you are green too. 🤔 My guess on what 'Witch' school represented would be, exploring how the cosmic essence interacts and adapts with "our" ground and lifeforms! In other words, how to bring the cosmos IN earthly realities and make it all closer to the stars. Not waiting for the comets and star shards to fall down on people, but (re)create them right here in some capacity! Color green symbolizes these more earthly, "lab grown" glintstones (that aren't even really glintstones but rather crystals)! + potential connection with Miranda flowers, who do rain sort of cosmic showers as an attack but are adaptive to their environment in terms of abilities and element!

And, nobody until Sellen did something as drastic as trying to turn PEOPLE into stars.

I think also the school was not entirely cancelled because of Sellen (again, why still acknowledging it with the founder portrait then?). But more likely it became unpopular and there just aren't any more people that we know of to wear the Witch crowns, besides Sellen and whatever scholar Seluvis was holding as a puppet. Maybe there are more somewhere outside that ran away kinda like how Thops did! Maybe the school was already going extinct because "why do we need stars to modify earthly life if we already have Golden Grace + Moon is already a better bridge between mortal and divine 🌛" after Rennala married Radagon. Lazuli conspectus sort of overshadowed Witch school, it was a more advanced offering for the similar demand! 'Witches' to Lazuli conspectus are like traditional art to digital art; both are valid but one of these quickly gained popularity and unfairly accused another one of being outdated and not marketable gghghfjghj

So like, I have a very different opinion about the new direction Ada may be taking. To clarify, I know it's RE and I should never expect masterfully skilled story telling and I also don't want to stir the Ada pot, lol. Just had something niggling at me and was wondering if anybody out there can see where I'm coming from or give their explanation as to WHY I'm wrong, because I absolutely could be, but disagree like a normal and rational adult (very uncommon RE fandom occurrence /j).

In a nutshell, her arc is just fucking stupid. Is it better than OG? Yes, because the original practically just doesn't have one *shrug*, but the new direction just makes her so incredibly unlikeable and a bit cringe worthy. The whole "well I didn't THINK about the massive consequences of my actions until now honestly" trope... dude she's like thirty years old. "Oh, this guy was kind over half a decade ago and planted a seed in my brain, despite the fact I'm already a grown woman". The comparison to Ashley and Leon and what could've been. Blah, blah.... it's still incredibly sexist. It just is. My problem isn't that "Ada's mean", it's the fact that they're writing her almost infantile with how she thinks. There are plenty of other women in RE who've been through shit, had their arcs and did their thing in a way that kept their own agency. That's the part that matters, but remake Ada still hasn't quite gotten there. I think, in the long term, they WANT to make her into something that resembles a human, but it just slightly misses the mark still. She's incredibly selfish, that's fine, but her reasoning for change and introspection is headache inducing and doesn't make much sense. "I'll actively partake in terrorism for profit because I'm just that gal, y'know? I was born a femme fatale baby... but... what do you mean I could've had a romance? People I KNOW might also be impacted? Nevermind, now I'll consider why this might be bad." Dude..... come on.....

My very, very unpopular take... if this is seriously the line of thought they want to keep for her, I would rather she be killed off, and I say that as someone who ironically actually likes her and WANTS a decent story. Better to have Leon experience some forgiveness arc bullshit or whatever than have to painfully sit through another entire story of a grown woman with the reasoning skills of a preteen.

Again, I know this'll probably garner vitriol, I'm just curious to hear why I may be just approaching this the wrong way. I will admit I have knee jerk reactions to sexism, so I could very much just have a clouded vision of the potential that IS there and misinterpreting what I'm seeing in the first place *shrug*. What are your thoughts? Can you at least make sense of why I feel the way I do about this particular aspect of the game?

Your analysis is flawed for one very specific reason:

You think Ada changed from RE2make.

She hasn't.

Ada's still only out for Ada. The only thing that Leon changed about her was that he taught her how to better take care of herself. He taught her that she can't isolate in her independence, because things that go wrong for other people can negatively impact her, too.

The person who actually softens Ada is Luis, not Leon. But even then, there's no reason to think that Ada changed. He softened her to the point where she felt compelled to honor his memory and fulfill his dying wish, but she's not a better person because of it. She's gained honor from her interactions with Luis, not kindness.

She's going to still do the Ada thing of working for bad guys and profiting from the black market, because it's not about "oh no people I like might get hurt ;_;" That's not what Remake did with her. She's still doing her Ada thing. She only decides against giving the Amber to Wesker because it's the final part of honoring Luis's memory. Luis died to save two people. To then kill billions after the fact using the research that he no longer wanted to have hurt anyone is dishonorable.

But once her time with Los Illuminados is done, her time honoring Luis's memory is done. Whatever happens in Africa or the ESR or Edonia or China following this has nothing to do with him, so she's going to go back to doing her thing.

The point of having Ada watch The Leon and Ashley Show is to solidify Leon's autonomy from her and to try to further showcase how selfish Ada is. Ada still looks at Leon as a thing -- he's something she wants, and she doesn't understand why she can't have him. Making her watch The Leon and Ashley Show is meant to try to get her to reflect on why.

But it doesn't work. Because Ada hasn't changed. And won't change. And possibly can't change.

Through Leon in RE2make, Ada has become better suited to be independent. And through Luis in RE4make, Ada has become someone who keeps her word. That's what the Remakes have changed about her. That's why her story is so much better. They're not trying to make her a good guy. They're not trying to have her rethink her life. They're not trying to have her show remorse.

They're giving honor to a dishonorable character, along with a consistently selfish mindset to continue the work that she does. That's all they're doing.

And not for nothing anon but the way you keep calling her stupid and infantile is way more sexist than anything the narrative did with her. This ask came off like you hated Ada first and then reached for some sort of explanation as to why you could be justified in hating her second. There are legitimate reasons to criticize Ada, but you've cited none of them. Instead of looking at what the character was actually doing, you just slapped "she's stupid" on her.

ETA: added this post to my meta directory, because it seems important here and I should probably have it on hand.

— ALL IS VIOLENT, ALL IS BRIGHT.

TIMESKIP ASH KETCHUM ( evolution tantamount to an original character ) mutuals only. 18+. originally est. july 2013 — re-est. sept 2023 — fka ferociter. low activity / minimal formatting. crossover friendly / verses available. reflecting all the stark contrasts between the coexisting horror and splendour of the pokémon world — broken realities, cosmic horror unyielding, a jagged deconstruction of protagonist syndrome, the power of connection, an absurdist's rebellion against the madness of immortality, and the indomitable living spirit.

written and drawn ad infinitum by shan. ( 30+ / any pronouns / GMT )

  CARRD. COMMON KNOWLEDGE. MUN / PERSONAL.

BASICS — hi there! my name is shan. i'm a 30 year old brit and i go by any pronouns. a small few of you might remember me as ferociter. and this here is ash! a passion project of mine for thirteen years and counting. thank you so much for dropping by to spend some time with us! please bear in mind that this blog is for adults only, any minors will be softblocked.

CREDITS — as mentioned, all art and graphics here are made by me. please do not take my art or other works/lore and reappropriate them any way. it won't be fun for either of us (trust me, it's happened before).

CONTENT — i won't beat around the bush, ash is a rich and multifaceted character, and while he has plenty of good in him, his development also includes touching on some darker topics. these include death, grief, trauma, cosmic horror, substance misuse (alcohol and weed), mental health issues, mentions of suicide. any potentially triggering stuff will be tagged in simple terms, e.g., 'alcohol cw /' and so on. while i appreciate these topics aren't for everyone, i would be grateful for good faith interactions. ash is not for everyone, and that's okay, but he might be for you!

ACTIVITY — i will always try to be somewhat active here, even if it's just in the form of OOC posts (which i do a lot of, i can be chatty). i work 40+ hours a week, have my own place, a partner and a family i spend a lot of time with. i am also neurodivergent. the autistic/unmedicated adhd sort. this will also affect my activity and responsiveness in places, so please bear with me! i don't mind the occasional message nudging about replies, but please don't nag me. if it happens, it happens.

COMMUNICATION — as said above, i am neurodivergent, and this can affect the way i communicate and come across to people. i welcome being nudged when i've come across badly or rubbed someone the wrong way. i am always trying to be better than i was yesterday and be as kind as i can, but i am also very candid! which means that if i have any issue with you, i will respectfully just try to talk to you about things directly the way i would expect someone to talk to me. this isn't intended to be confrontational! i am just a direct person and i value candour/frank communication in my friendships. my DMs and discord are always available to mutuals and i am almost always happy to chat about anything!

SHIPPING / NSFW — now for the controversial bit. shipping isn't the focus of this blog, but i do enjoy shipping and am indeed open for it. please bear in mind, though, that ash is a gay man and will not enter any relationships with women/women-aligned folks (exes on the other hand ... ) there must be some sort of chemistry as well. in terms of nsfw, sexual content will be scant on this blog, but it may very well crop up occasionally (clearly tagged and under a read more). if this is something you are uncomfortable with, i understand! but please don't come bugging me about it. i've developed ash for a long time and i consider him his own independent iteration (the way you would consider RBY!red and USUM!red different). he is a grown man with his own unique design and personality development, not to mention he's nearly 40 now. i feel i'd be remiss to talk about every single other dark corner of his life but his sexuality, y'know?

all guidelines subject to change and addition!

New hypmic anime season and I'm BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING AGAIN (I feel like the Martha I'm coming home sweetie audio)

Thoughts on the 1st ep of Hypmic Rhyme Anima+. Spoilers beware

New plotline lets gooooooo I like that they're straying away from the drama tracks actually, Rhyme Anima is fundamentally a different experience from the core drama tracks which gives new material for both new and old fans OP is an actual banger, Ramuda's verse is the best fight me all you want but you know i'm right Nemu!! uh spoiler chara for anyone new to the anime I guess? Like they spoil her right at the introduction and iirc they didn't really build off her mystery in the first season. Makes her impact here a bit weaker but I'm willing to let it slide since some might not catch it (Post Editing Astro here: I haven't rewatched Rhyme Anima since it finished airing and uh. Nemu definitely was a plot point there lol they dropped it after ep 11 but she was there!) Jyushi my son I love you so much you idiot I love the little stingers for each team that they did for each team, its so cute and gives so much personality The visuals have definitely improved, a big step above the last season in terms of animation i don't see an improvement with story writing though… Pacing is still all over the place and very squished/fast paced makes sense since the cast has grown by a quarter since last season but still makes me sad that there isn't much time given to each character individually I forgot how much I love the localization of Doppomine Okay so Pink hair and Green hair in the flashback are most definitely the two in the white cloaks. Theres just no subtly with this series lmaoooo Nice that they were able to incorporate everyone somehow but too many people means that too many parts to handle I'm getting deja vu, this exact same thing happened last season…. Oh. Its the same guy. Makes sense lmfao Listen bud I have minimal rap experience but that rap was just embarrassing wow. No rhyme or flow, there was only straight passion which i mean props I guess but you suck ass Look at me being so smart and predicting all of these ahead of time without looking at any materials Did Rio just contact Jyuto with his hypmic???? Samatoki have I ever said that I love your for being a bullheaded idiot? bc I do. you're so silly Damn the typography has gotten even better, its just a lot more smooth and the animation too especially during Jiro's part is just so stylish The animation has improved a lot I'm glad it got a little more love compared to last season My guess is that maybe someone from the six divisions will fall under the anger thingy that's going around, something like the stage show. My biggest guess is that they might re-incite the Samatoki and Ichiro conflict again but I hope not. Another guess is that there will be old MCD or Naughty Busters beef which seems more plausible given that this is Sasara and Kuko's anime debut but I guess we'll wait and see THE OUTFITS!!! THE STUPID OUTFITS I LOVE THEM the art style of the ED is super pop punk and has a strong sense of style which i love. its simple but stands out really well which i love Very jjk but more toned down. Feels a bit like a cleaned up croquis drawings the smear frames is just so stylish and good, very simple and a bit messy and sells the gesture drawing kind of feel of the ED Ramuda's parrot costume i love you Those hand signs just make the first letter of each word which is really fun. Not proper JSL though I guess beggars can't be choosers esp for a series like this

Overall, a really strong start. It shows how it built off the first season and where it improved and while some things (like the horrid pacing) never change, at the end of the day its still a fun and delightful watch

If anyone wanted to read my thoughts on the first season, they're all archived here

Making sports into drama (and games?)

An anime analysis from a game design perspective

I admit: I am a great sports anime nerd (and I’ve previously written about the volleyball anime Haikyuu and its fandom) – something that also affects my thinking around game design. What makes sports anime so good – better than watching the sports themselves – is that they usually combine the thrill and achievements of those sports with portrayal of the characters performing them. For me, that adds an invaluable component, since I’m also a character and fictional relationships nerd.

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

I’ve categorized the series based on how much of the dramatic content focuses on the game or sport itself and how much it relies on other factors, such as relationships between characters outside of sports. I’ll put my main focus on the series that primarily revolve around the sport. Many are based on manga, but not all. (Whether the series originates as manga or not might actually also affect the content, but it’s not something that I’ll go into in this post.)

Categorizing the shows

Series where the drama is primarily built around the content of the sport:

Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup (baseball)

Diamond no Ace/Ace of the Diamond (baseball)

Haikyuu!! (volleyball)

Kuroko no Basket/Kuroko’s Basketball (basketball)

Series where the drama is built around a combination of the sport’s content and other factors:

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteru/Run with the Wind (running)

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu (archery)

Yuri!!! on Ice (figure skating)

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu/2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team (volleyball)

Days (soccer)

Re-main (water polo)

Ping Pong the Animation (ping pong)

Series where the drama is primarily built around content outside of the sport:

Free! (swimming)

Hoshiai no Sora/When Stars Align (soft tennis)

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun/Clean Freak Aoyama-kun (soccer)

Cheer Danshi!!/Cheer Boys!! (cheerleading)

Bakuten!!/Backflip!! (rhythmic gymnastics)

Taisou Zamurai / The Gymnastics Samurai (gymnastics)

It’s interesting to see that the focus on sports content could in part be related to which target group the series is aimed towards. It seems like shounen anime (“for boys”) has a larger focus on sports content, whereas shoujo (“for girls”) and seinen (“for grown-ups”) revolve more around relationships.

Could set-based sports with clear positions be easier to dramatize?

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Both volleyball and baseball translate well into anime format. Volleyball’s set-based play makes it easy to create exciting match portrayals. The game involves turn-taking and players’ positions on the court, including who serves and rotates, creating clear recurring moments of suspense. Since the objective is to win the most sets out of a predetermined number, the outcome of a match isn’t known until the decisive set is played.

The psychological play and complexity

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

The complexity of baseball could be seen as a disadvantage due to its difficulty to comprehend, but it’s a double-edged sword, since the complexity also adds excitement. Baseball matches as a whole can become slow, especially if the teams are adept at defense and don’t allow scoring hits. However, in anime, unlike in reality, there’s the possibility to cut or quickly summarize dull parts of the match.

Baseball and volleyball gameplay loops

A Gameplay Loop is a game design term that is used to describe the repetitive activities that a player will take while playing a game. It, essentially, defines what the player DOES while playing. – Engaged Family Gaming

Diamond no Ace - manga by Terajima Yuuji

In volleyball, a loop begins with one team serving, the ball is then moved between teams by players with various roles (such as setter, wing spiker, blocker, libero) until it hits the floor on one side of the net, determining which team scores a point. This loop is integrated into the larger system by having the first team to reach a certain number of points win the set, while the overall match aims to win the most sets out of (usually) five.

Do shorter loops and turned-based sports make for better drama?

The smallest loops in baseball and volleyball are clear and quite short, allowing for detailed focus on the characters executing decisive actions. The moments before a serve/pitch provide space for inner monologues and character communication. Side changes and innings/sets frame the matches, making it easier for viewers to follow, compared to more fluid sports like basketball or soccer. In turn-based sports, breaks are incorporated into the game’s design. Therefore, I believe that turn-based sports, where players also have very specific roles, are more favorable to portray, than sports where players have more similar roles and the game is more fluid. (Perhaps this is why Kuroko no Basket assigned supernatural abilities to the players, adding an extra dimension to the game that makes it a little more video game-like? Well, it could also be because the creator wanted to make a series about basketball players with supernatural abilities. Personally, I find that supernatural abilities detract from the intrigue of sports, but that’s a matter of taste.) 

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Teams are great for drama

I believe team sports are better suited for storytelling than individual sports. This might be because team sports allow for more complexity in the narrative, as players within a team can be rivals, while also depending on each other to develop and win. Opposing teams are obvious antagonists, but the most interesting events often happen within the teams, between the characters that viewers have come to know, and whose development they are following. Team sports also have recurring tournaments where teams can face the same opponents multiple times, enabling long series that maintain suspense. This exists in individual sports too, but individual competition feels more one-dimensional than team-based competition. So, aside from game (sports) design itself, the setup around teams, tournaments, and matches also influences the narrative. Series centered on individual sports tend to focus more on character relationships outside of competitions, possibly because the sport itself doesn’t provide enough material to build drama solely around it.

Translating sports into drama - and games!

When translating sports into drama, there are factors that can both facilitate and complicate the dramatic buildup. If the focus is on the game itself, it’s advantageous if the game has a high level of complexity, clear/short loops, and specific roles, preferably with inherent conflicts. Among the sports I’ve seen depicted, I would say that baseball has the greatest potential to create compelling drama. However, with that said, the storyteller’s skill will likely have a bigger impact on the story than the design of the sport itself.

I’ve based this analysis on anime series, and they have their aesthetics, structures and way of portraying things. I’m very curious as to whether the components of a great sports anime – sports/game content together with character development and relationships – could also be made into great games. The content of digital games and anime series are very different, but I think there are still learnings to be made from analysing and also comparing those media forms.

Please let me know through our social channels which games you have played that include sports mechanics and relationships. I have played Pyre, which I think combine those things well. I also have Roller Drama on my to play-list, but I would like to know of more games that focus on sports and relationships (sports relation games!).

A last side note: When there was finally an anime about Water Polo – Re-main – the creators missed the opportunity of telling the amazing story on how this sport might have come into fruition – as a water based version of horse polo, called Polo Aquatic, where players rode on barrels hitting a ball with sticks… I mean, that’s something you can’t exclude!

Idek who in my audience would still be on the h*p bandwagon but tbh I say this as a pitch both for ppl who still have nostalgia for the property and ppl who enjoy being haters (I mean, if you can withstand the salt without also getting just so so so burned out hearing about JKR’s bigotry, I know it hits me sometimes too), the Shrieking Shack Podcast is excellent in terms of critical analysis of the wizard books while also just being extremely funny. I swear the hosts xeecee and Liz have a wire tap into my brain, in terms of sense of humor and just voicing the problems I have with this stupid franchise.

I understand the stance of people who are avoidant of the franchise completely, but I do think having a better understanding of how and why the books ultimately failed and veered off in quality definitely helped me demystify the franchise as this like, untouchable thing of quality I was too attached to to ever give up but instead as a flawed work that I had grown out of and was far more at peace with letting go. I also think it helps me articulate to other people why the artist is not separate from the art. Her worldview is imbedded into her books, and especially later on, that’s why they were so mean-spirited and awful. No matter how much I liked the series as a kid, I think the distaste for the pernicious aspects of the franchise has been an… effective deterrent for me going back. And while I don’t have the energy to get into terminally online arguments, I think critical analysis is useful as a skill to give people who also have a skewed and nostalgia colored view of the franchise.

I will addendum that their perspective on the first few books is a lot more charitable and while I do agree w their thoughts, hearing nice things abt the franchise might feel distasteful in this climate, (I know it is for me) so if that’s the case and you have no problem starting in the middle I recommend starting around book 4! That’s when you start to get much more of a mixed bag.

And if you wanna hear basically nothing but wall to wall dunking, start with Deathly Hallows. Jumping in cold to a seventh season is rough but I promise it’s so worth it. I re-listen to the podcast All The Time when I’m between interests, and I tend to skip the early seasons and just go straight for the bad stuff. I’ve probably gone back to the DH season so many times. It’s brutal yet somehow completely earned. I’ve never seen anyone so thoroughly articulate my long held feelings that DH is a failure of a capstone on that franchise on all levels structural, thematic, and moral. This is not me pretending I had clairvoyance into the future bc there was plenty of shit that snuck past me as a kid (hello, book 4 was my favorite for forever) but when I read that book in like 5th grade I could just feel something was deeply wrong.

Also they just wrapped up the season where they were reading midnight sun and twilight at the same time and it’s been great. It’s way more lighthearted which has been a nice palate cleanser & I do think they’re a bit charitable toward twilight but the thing I appreciate is that their critique is more substantive than just the common reactionary low hanging fruit talking points & they have actually brought up the neglected topic of racism within the books

Also if you’re just starting and the news topics + freebies / goofs segment they do at the beginning and ends of the episodes throws you off , I get it. I love shriekcast & I do find the segments funny but they’re not everyone’s thing, and I do scrub through that stuff sometimes bc it can be long winded. For reference It usually lasts abt 30-40 min sometimes shorter and occasionally way longer.

Imo, I think charles time at ferrari is up. As much as he loves the team, I'm sure even he can see that there's no future there. When he came in they told him that it'll take some time to get settled as they'd just had a restructuring and he was patient and paid his due. In that time the small changes made happened way too slowly and if we're following that same pattern, it will be years before the team gets settled again and by that time Ferrari board will have grown inpatient and fired whoever is in charge. If you read all these articles about how all the changes mattia asked for was dismissed by elkann and how vigna was interfering with strategy then the problem obviously lies very high up and will take years to change and charles just doesn't have the time anymore to wait it out.

Yeah, it's sad to think about, but if you consider where Seb was four years into his time at Ferrari vs. where Charles is... I mean 2020 was a complete write-off, then 2021 was better but still a recovery period. So that's two years where any hopes of the title are completely out the window.

Here are Charles's 2022 stats (so his first year of really being able to challenge or seriously think about the championship):

Here's Seb's 2017 and 2018 seasons:

It's especially depressing in the context of Max, as they're from the same generation and are most frequently compared. When Ferrari were being best of the rest, Max was clinching his first title. Now he's ran away with his second, and is probably the most likely candidate to make it three in a row next year. Gone are the days of 2019 when they were both rising stars looking for their first title challenge, on the cusp of greatness. Yet Ferrari's performance has remained on more or less at the same level (she really said everyone else moved on but I stayed here 😭)

I get where Charles is coming from. There's nothing I would love more than to see Ferrari back on top with Charles leading them and ending their title drought. Their Charles, their first big junior academy success, the driver who's been intrinsically linked with the team since his teenage years. There's something magical about Ferrari when they get it right. I want to see them win.

But at the same time, Charles was given the longest contract in Ferrari's history and there's little to show for it. He's still young, but his peer has two titles to his name, and there are 2000s kids already racing on the grid. By the time he's out of his Ferrari contract he's going to be 27. Lewis was 27, almost 28, when he signed with Mercedes. So it's kind of a make it or break it time for a driver, and these two years are going to be crucial for Ferrari to rally around him and prove they can be a title winning, or at the very least, a title contending team. Right now there aren't many opportunities (in terms of open seats) and, well, Charles loves this team and the people in it. He's determined to make it work. In two years, though, the market might look completely different. He's been praised by many key figures, and I think potential employers know how valuable he is. So the ball's in Ferrari's court to deliver.

Re: Vigna, though, I'm not sure how credible that rumour is (I think it popped up in Rencken's recent piece?) He seems like a much more distant figurehead than Marchionne was (often hands on, visited the paddock, very involved with the drivers). I don't think I've seen him in the paddock at all, at least, not that I can recall. So the idea that he was meddling with the strategy calls just doesn't seem that plausible. Ferrari's top brass is a whole mess, it arguably always has been to a degree, but this doesn't make much sense. Occam's Razor: the pitwall just messed up too many times.

TL;DR: Charles and Ferrari is the dream team. But F1 careers can be short and fickle. Realistically you only have a ~10 year or so window to really be at the top of your career and fight for titles. As much as I want him to win with Ferrari specifically, I'm also dreading the possibility of him never becoming champion at all. So I hope he does what's best for him and his career. It would be a waste to see a talent like Charles never be crowned champion simply because of his circumstances.

A few thoughts on being a hydra:

20. Tell us a few thoughts about what it’s like being your species

For those who don’t know, three of the members in our system identify collectively as a hydra. Each of us have individual forms outside of the hydra one (all dragons in some fashion). Also, our hydra form is not permanent and does flux between separated and not depending on our emotions. We label it a linktype because we want to emphasize the "we choose to be this together." aspect. It is a representation of how we feel about one another + how we want to present in the headspace.

On how it feels: The closest comparison we can think of is of a bunch of dogs all curled up in a dog bed together. It might look squished, but it’s comfortable. It’s hard to tell where one dragon ends, and another begins. But none of us really care as long as we’re collectively enjoying ourselves which isn’t hard since we all tend to be easygoing.

There’s a lot of thoughtleak (the sharing of thoughts/emotions, whether intentional or not) and we’ll hear each other much easier than other headmates. It's near impossible to hide anything from one another. Communication tends to be: rush of associated emotion and then the actual words. The words from the others will be as clear and crisp as our own thoughts, but with different vibes/energy signatures to them.

Some individual thoughts on the question:

(Following from Larka was re-purposed from a journal entry)

"My plural 'awakening' happened parallel to picking up the hydra linktype. We don't spend any time in the plural communities nor want to so we don't know all the terms. Not sure if awakening is the word to use, but it gets the point across. We all collectively choose to identity as a hydra despite having individual forms because we feel drawn to one another and don't want to be separated. Presenting this way in the headspace lets our speech and thoughts flow more easily and just feels good to be honest.

It was easier initially to see the hydra (I was really into Godzilla at the time and watching the new king of monsters dvd) and realize there was something there I wanted even if I couldn't articulate it at the time. So I started with the linktype. I can be kind of...bossy? for lack of a better word, so before this I was trying to control the others instead of listening at all. The turning point to even considering attempting to talk to the others was when I played the "I am (Dog)s" visual story online (if you want to see it, here's the link) that follows a therian finding out they're plural." – Larka

"We have a strong bond that has grown stronger over time. There's a quote saved on our phone that I want to paraphrase: 'Right now, they feel like they're in a box--like the menial distance between them is some forced, unnatural barrier that shouldn't be there. Right now, they want to tear that barrier down.' Being a dragon inherently comes with a feeling of power and pride, but being a hydra is about love and connection. We often joke that the only thing we love more than ourselves is each other. We're close with our other headmates, but there's something about becoming the same being as one another. A unique level of synchronicity and trust is needed for it. I love them." – Thorn

“We’re like brothers, only closer.” – Stryker

12 gennaio – Ceci neri di Matera

 

Allan is currently working on an update about our time in Matera, in Puglia. We saw so much in the 1&1/2 days we were there that it is taking some time. In the meantime, I’m posting a photo of our dinner last night. Now I don’t often post photos of main meals because the resulting photo often doesn’t look as appetising as the actual dish. This might still be the case but the dish is unusual and worth writing about. 

On our first night in Matera we ended up in a little shop featuring some local products. I was very interested in the packets of what looked like little black stones. When I asked about them, the woman managing the shop said that they were ceci neri (cece nero - singular); i.e., the Murgia Carsica or Black Chickpea. She went through the whole process of how to cook them and she then very generously told me about some of the other products in the shop. 

We left and started walking off but after a few minutes, I decided to go back and buy a pack of the ceci neri. I think the woman was pleased as she took me back through the process of cooking them a second time. 

History of the Ceci Neri

The Murgia Carsica Black Chickpea is a rare and historic chickpea which has been grown in the Murgia Carsica region around Bari and Matera in Puglia for hundreds of years. This region is characterised by sandy soil which is particularly suited to growing legumes (and onions). The ceci were certainly being cultivated in the 19th century when they were consumed by rural families and providing poorer families with a supplementary source of protein. They were commonly eaten until the 1950’s after which their cultivation fell due to the planting of more profitable crops with shorter cooking times. Little by little, the cultivation of lentils, onions and chickpeas has begun to show signs of recovery in recent years with six farmers re-cultivating the native black chickpea and forming the Slow Food Presidium.

The ceci neri

These chickpeas are small with a rough and irregular, black outer skin and while they are more challenging to cook than the common chickpea, they contain three times more fibre and are tastier. They also contain more iron. 

The thick skin of the ceci neri is what makes them more challenging to cook.  In general, they require a long soaking period; e.g., I soaked them for about 36-38 hours in cold water with a little bicarb added. Following the instructions I’d been given, I then simmered them in water with salt, some olive oil, a celery stalk, a tomato (the addition of the tomato was emphasised in the instructions I’d been given) a couple of garlic cloves and some rosemary. The rosemary was a substitute for the bay leaves which is a traditional addition to the cooking liquid. 

The ceci were cooked after about 3 hours (I’d been warned that they could take up to 4 hours). To make the pasta sauce, I fried a sofrito of chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic and rosemary. After about 5 mins, I added the chickpeas and some of the cooking liquid, and I let the sauce simmer for about 30 mins. Ideally you would then blend or puree some of the ceci but squashing some of them with a fork was good enough (we’re kind of cooking in a ‘cucina povera’ in terms of the sparce cooking equipment we have here). 

While I would have preferred to serve the cooked ceci with a regional pasta from Puglia (e.g., orecchiette) we made do with fresh trofie (a regional pasta from Liguria). The end result was delicious!

So here is my photo. Rest assured that the dish tasted a lot better than it might look:  

Amazon and Grubhub Partnership

Amazon has a new partnership with Grubhub (owned by Just Eat Takeaway) so now Amazon is back in the restaurant delivery business. 

Amazon tried restaurant delivery but exited the business in 2019 after trying it for four years. The original plan in 2015, was to compete with Grubhub and other food delivery services. Amazon Prime members could place orders for food from restaurants and have it delivered with no delivery fees. Amazon seemed dedicated to this because they even had a division at Amazon called Amazon Restaurants.

Amazon apparently identified the restaurant delivery business as a strategic uncertainty and decided to exit the business. Amazon must have assessed the risk of negative impact to be very high. In my opinion, the timing of the exit was unfortunate because the Covid lockdowns began shortly after their exit from the food delivery business. But Amazon also apparently decided to monitor the food delivery industry after exiting because only 3 years later they are back in the business.

Another point of view is that Amazon could have been simply testing the industry, learning what they wanted to learn in the food delivery business then after the trial, decided there was a better way to make a profit in this category. Buying into a partnership instead of owning a restaurant delivery business might have been assessed to be a better use of Amazon resources. Grubhub is an established brand with experience and knowledge in the restaurant delivery business so maybe this partnership is a smart strategic move for both brands.

The timing for the re-entry into food delivery makes sense due to a change in the way we live, work, and eat as a result of the Covid pandemic. Food delivery services such as Instacart, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Door Dash all experienced an acceleration in orders during the Covid lockdown.  Although the surge in demand ceased, data on the food delivery services indicates that consumers who tried food delivery services during the lockdown liked what they tried.

Since Amazon started in the restaurant delivery business in 2015, the market has changed. There is more consumer demand but there is also more competition from other food and restaurant delivery services.

This graph shows that with the increase in demand comes new competitors and changes in market share. This is very characteristic of the growth stage of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and this means all competitors will be shifting marketing strategies to defend their market share.

I find it interesting that Amazon is entering the fray (again) when there are so many competitors with more significant expertise than them in the food delivery category. They now have to compete against  Door Dash’s 59 % market share and Uber Eats 24% market share. 

Since Grubhub has only 13% market share, a big question I have is this: why Grubhub?

According to data published in Tech Crunch, Grub Hub has experienced consistent growth in Revenue each year since 2010. In 2010, Grubhub generated $8.5 million in revenue. At the end of 2021, Grubhub generated $2.1 Billion in annual revenue.  That is impressive revenue for Grubhub and since Grubhub has the business model set up, it should be easy for Amazon to generate significant revenue without spending too heavily on existing Amazon resources. Additional impressive data about Grubhub is growth in the number of users. According to the chart below, Grubhub had 3.4 million users in 2013, at the end of 2021, Grubhub had 33.8 million users who purchase through the app once a month.Sources: Company data,  Food Delivery App Report, TechCrunch.

Although Grubhub is a growing delivery business, I wonder what criteria Amazon used in their choice of Grub Hub. It is clear that Grub Hub has been consistently growing revenue and has grown in terms number of users but there must be something else that Amazon sees in this partnership. From a growth perspective, this is a good business for Grubhub but I still wonder what else Amazon knows about Grub Hub to make this their choice.

Although overall growth has been good for Grub Hub, their quarterly sales per customer has not seen the increase that competitors have seen (more than doubled for Uber Eats and Door Dash).

I have a lot of questions about Amazon’s decision. Why not go it alone? Do they still assess this as a strategic uncertainty and they are trying to minimize risk of failure?

Is it possible that their timing was wrong when they first tried this? Consumer patterns have changed since the pandemic and maybe many people that tried food delivery then found that they really benefit from a service like this and do it more often.  Is it possible that more people like to eat at home than before and delivery gives people a restaurant food experience at home? Or, is it possible that Amazon did not give restaurant delivery a chance?  What are their criteria for exiting a business?

The part that doesn’t make sense to me is the re- entering the restaurant delivery business after exiting only 3 years ago. This is Amazon, and we assume they have the talent, resources, assets etc. to have monitored the situation, gathered data, make changes, continue on without an exit from the business.  

There are many more questions about Amazon’s decision.  Was it a strategic decision (and brilliant) to partner with Grub Hub and essentially purchase their expertise, data, market share and revenue? Does this allow them to monitor this strategic uncertainty using fewer of their own resources? Was the original restaurant delivery business part of an experiment with something they will never reveal? Is the new Grubhub partnership and efficient way to offer Amazon Prime subscribers a new benefit at little cost to Amazon? 

In my opinion, the re-entry is another test to gather data for something bigger in Amazon’s strategic plan for growth. In the meantime, they will have another benefit to add to the list of Amazon Prime membership benefits.

I look forward to following this story .

Sources: 

https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/08/amazon-launches-a-food-delivery-service-via-prime-now-starting-in-seattle/

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/11/amazon-restaurants-in-u-s-is-shutting-down/

https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/06/amazon-takes-a-prime-step-back-into-restaurant-delivery-in-the-us-with-new-grubhub-investment-and-partnership/

https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/amazon-restaurants-is-dead-but-the-e-tailer-is-still-hungry-for-food-deliv/556902/

Herbs For Health - Only Herbal Remedies

Presentation: In a world progressively overwhelmed by current medication, the deep rooted shrewdness of natural cures keeps on holding its ground, offering a comprehensive way to deal with wellbeing and prosperity. Spices have been used for a really long time in different societies for their restorative properties, and their viability is currently earning respect in contemporary medical services. This article investigates the different domain of spices for wellbeing, revealing insight into the noteworthy advantages they offer for our general prosperity.

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Turmeric: The Brilliant Healer

Turmeric, with its dynamic compound curcumin, is commended for its strong mitigating and cancer prevention agent properties. Known for supporting joint wellbeing, further developing processing, and advancing a solid insusceptible framework. Integrating turmeric into everyday dinners or as an enhancement can add to a reasonable and versatile body. Ginseng: The Adaptogenic Solution

Ginseng is famous for its adaptogenic characteristics, assisting the body with adapting to pressure and advancing energy balance. Utilized in customary medication to improve mental capability, support safe reaction, and battle exhaustion. Customary utilization of ginseng tea or enhancements might add to expanded essentialness and mental lucidity. Echinacea: Nature's Invulnerable Sponsor

Echinacea is a notable spice for reinforcing the invulnerable framework and decreasing the seriousness and term of colds. Loaded with intensifies that invigorate the development of white platelets, Echinacea is a go-to cure during influenza season. Colors, teas, or cases make it simple to integrate Echinacea into your wellbeing schedule. Lavender: Fragrant healing for Unwinding

Past its wonderful scent, lavender has quieting properties that can assist with lightening pressure and tension. Utilized in fragrance based treatment, lavender natural ointment can be diffused or applied topically to prompt a feeling of quietness. Integrating lavender into your everyday schedule might advance better rest and by and large mental prosperity. Peppermint: A Stomach related Dynamo

Peppermint is praised for its capacity to relieve stomach related issues, like acid reflux and swelling. The menthol in peppermint loosens up muscles in the gastrointestinal parcel, giving help from uneasiness. Getting a charge out of peppermint tea or adding new peppermint passes on to dinners can add to a blissful, solid stomach related framework. End: As we explore the intricacies of current life, the straightforwardness and viability of home grown cures offer a significant other option or supplement to traditional medication. Nature has given us an overflow of mending spices that can improve our prosperity, from advancing a vigorous invulnerable framework to supporting emotional wellness and processing. Embracing the force of spices for wellbeing isn't simply a re-visitation of custom yet a step in the right direction into a comprehensive and adjusted way to deal with health. All in all, why not investigate the rich universe of spices and allow nature to be your manual for ideal wellbeing?

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How to Overcome That Frustrating Weight-Loss Plateau

You’ve done everything right, yet your scale refuses to budge. That frustrating weight-loss plateau can feel insurmountable! But don’t lose heart; you’re not alone in this struggle.

You’ll find solutions at Winchester weight loss clinic with specialist advice tailored for such setbacks. Stick around as we share valuable insights on overcoming these stubborn plateaus and keep progressing towards a healthier version of yourself.

What is a Weight-Loss Plateau?

Continuing your journey to lose weight, you might hit a roadblock known as a “weight-loss plateau.” This is when, even with the same healthy eating and exercise habits that were helping you shed pounds before, suddenly stop working. Despite all the hard work you’ve been putting in, your scale doesn’t seem to be budging.

Weight loss plateaus occur due to some natural body responses, none of which are your fault! It is less about what we are doing “wrong” and more about how our bodies process shifts in diet and lifestyle. These two are intricately connected with biological processes that reside within us. These processes wish us to survive against perceived starvation threats, whether from a lack of food intake or an increase in energy expenditure through exercise.

Re-Evaluate Your Diet

When addressing that stubborn weight-loss plateau, assess your dietary habits again. You might believe you’re consuming healthy meals and keeping portions small, but sometimes perceptions can be deceptive. Maybe those evening snacks have grown larger, or perhaps the salad dressings are more generous than before?

Small changes count significantly in a long-term diet plan. Get into journaling every meal and snack you consume during the day. Keeping a food diary for a few weeks will provide valuable insight into what may not be working in your current eating pattern. You can pinpoint where changes need to be made by logging your food intake. This can help you adjust your diet and make healthier lifestyle choices in the long run.

Try Intermittent Fasting

Try intermittent fasting to overcome that stubborn weight-loss standstill. This method involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting, which can significantly impact your body’s metabolism. Consider incorporating a routine that includes two or three days of low-carb meals a week.

Remember, though, tracking progress requires careful attention. Weigh yourself no more than once a week. It’s crucial not to be thrown off by short-term variations often triggered by water balance shifts in the body.Get creative with your fasting plans, too: variety gives fresh challenges, preventing stagnation from habituation effects. You’re essentially pushing your body out of its comfort zone towards better health! With persistence and patience on this novel path, even plateaus become learning experiences rather than setbacks.

Stay Motivated and Consistent

Overcoming a weight-loss plateau requires unwavering determination and a positive mindset. Instead of viewing it as a setback, consider it a temporary pause in your journey towards a healthier you. Celebrate small victories, stay consistent with your healthy habits, and add variety to your routine through different exercises and dietary choices.

Lean on your support system, set realistic and sustainable goals, and keep tracking your progress. Most importantly, stay patient; plateaus are a normal part of the journey, and your body may need time to respond to your efforts.

In the face of a plateau, remember that with the right strategies and consistent dedication, you can overcome this challenge and continue progressing toward your health and fitness goals.

Speak with a Professional Weight Loss Specialist

When nothing seems to work, it’s time to consult a weight loss specialist. They have the knowledge and expertise in overcoming plateaus that you might be struggling with. You can find these professionals at trusted health centers or clinics specializing in weight management.

Their approach is often holistic, focusing on your physical and mental wellness. After analyzing your lifestyle, diet habits, and other crucial factors, they develop personalized strategies targeting those stubborn pounds refusing to budge.

They provide advice on how to modify existing practices for better outcomes. Furthermore, they introduce new methods that are tailored to your individual circumstances. They may also help you comprehend the impact of hormones on appetite levels. Additionally, they can provide guidance in managing emotional triggers which may lead to overeating habits.

Visit a Weight Loss Clinic in Winchester

Consider visiting a weight-loss clinic in Winchester. Such clinics provide expert advice personalized to your unique health journey. They can offer fresh perspectives on diet plans and fitness regimes that you may not have considered before.

Winchester’s professional health practitioners delve deep into the hidden factors impacting your wellness, closely assessing hormone levels or environmental influences.

A comprehensive treatment plan then gets sketched out for you, encompassing dietary guidance and physical activity guidelines optimized just for you. They possess the expertise to help their clients decipher patterns from intensively kept food journals. With this information, they can identify areas requiring adjustments without restricting diets.

Additionally, they provide support during discouraging plateaus, turning them around and motivating their clients to continue towards a goal of consistent progress with hope and tangible strategies.

Seeing success stories of others who have overcome similar challenges at these clinics will also keep motivation high, inspiring commitment until targets are achieved, finally breaking through those frustrating plateaus!

In conclusion, don’t hesitate; give it a shot today! Breaking through a weight-loss plateau is achievable with the right strategies. You can give that stubborn scale a nudge by switching up your diet, intensifying workouts, and managing stress levels effectively.

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At DMV Weight Loss, we are dedicated to helping you stay on track with your health journey. Our support means that any complications can be faced with hope and optimism as you strive towards your wellness goals.

Thoughts

I’ve been thinking for some time that I’ve wanted to work through my views on the polarisation of society, This is going to be long and rambly

First of all where I’m starting from. I’m a middle-aged, left-leaning centrist, bi, cis white (though part Italian) male, atheist, I love the fact that my kids have grown up totally happy to have conversations with me to say they think they might be, ace, gay, or gender fluid, and I love the fact that my kids can not understand racism. (and by understand I mean they can’t see why a person's colour or heritage makes a damned bit of difference to the way you treat them)

So you could say I’m a bit of a liberal person.

Now the problem, as a society we have lost the ability to be tolerant, we have lost the ability to disagree, and we have lost the ability to debate.

I think we have a few reasons for this.

We (the Liberals) just decided we weren't taking their shit any more and managed to get the majority to agree with us. Anyone who disagreed was essentially silenced by the consensus but the argument wasn’t won just driven underground, the racism/homophobia/etc adopted a cult mentality and gradually formed into a right-wing group

What I mean by that is that they have grouped together in us vs them mentality the media have re-enforced this with the idea that the liberal elite wants to rob them of their id and their religion leading to the idea that we wanted to cancel Christmas, or stop non-Islamic forms of religious expression.

Along comes Brexit. For the last 20+ years governments have been using “Europe” as the whipping boy for multiple issues they didn’t want to talk about, and for the last 10 of those years, we’ve had a UKIP protest vote of the right-wing actively sabotaging the political process in the EU Parliament.

So the leave campaign presents a simple solution. Europe has been stopping us from making the UK great, we send all our money to Europe and get nothing back, by voting leave you are voting for change, your vote will “mean” something.

This triggers something, the latent racism, and homophobia that has been being held down for so long leaks out into the consciousness. 

Popularism is spreading around the world. People who are poor, or feel themselves marginalised and under attack want simple answers to impossibly difficult questions, and the Trumps, Bolsenaro’s and Johnsons of the world stoked that fire.

Somehow it was OK to be Racist, Homophobic, and Nationalist again. I always remember going to vote, and an old man stopped me on the way into the polling station asking me how I’d vote, I smiled and said “Well half my family is Italian so I’d better vote to stay”, he backed away and replied “If I could I’d kill every fucking one of you”, stunned I just laughed at him and moved in. I’d experienced racism before as I went to the “WOP” school and my grandmother was very dark southern Italian with practically an afro, but mum and I are much lighter.

So we leave Europe, whether you supported leaving or not, we’re out now, and so the question is really want kind of future can have. but the Right-wing politicians have then spent the last 7 years trying to keep the “Brexit idea” alive, they can’t blame Europe anymore so they blame the re-moaners.

However, in response to this, we the liberals have fallen into the same trap. Now anyone that doesn’t agree with all of us is against us, and that is just as toxic. I know I’ve fallen into that trap of bunching everyone together in this post,

and the only way we can get out of it is to talk.

I’ll give one example. Refugees / Immigrants and I’ll try and use the right terms. Those who are against immigration are scared.

- Crime Increase

- People getting houses when UK residents can’t.

- Strain it puts on Services.

Now all these are valid concerns but we should be able to have honest conversations about it. For me, I’d say

Crime:

Yes crime will increase but only in line with the number of people, there’s no hard link between the two.

Homing refugees.

People getting houses when UK residents can’t. Now I remember seeing refugees queuing outside the house dep in North London every day, and one of my English family said “how come these people coming in can get a house but cousin X who has 2 kids and is stuck living at her folks still can’t get one” I don’t actually have an answer to this but saying...but she does have family here who can, it’s far from ideal but these people have nothing and that has to put them at the front of the queue, however, I would say, perhaps we need to spread them around the country a little more perhaps if you’re a refugee you go where you are put initially, and then after a few years you can move around, that also might help on the next piece

The Strain it puts on services

This is not a problem for the refugees, for decades our local and central govt has failed at producing communities; utilities, schools, and doctors are not fit for the current population There should be nationally agreed standards for communities and if any fall below the numbers goes into special measures to build more infrastructure and get more staff. Refugees can be part of the solution but they’re NOT part of the problem.

Ghettoization

Now I do agree if someone comes to a country they should try and learn how to fit in a little At least learn the language and social norms. for instance, I want to visit Japan one day and so I’ve learnt all about how Onsen work and how to make the locals feel more comfortable around me. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop being me, it just means I’m going to be considerate.

Perhaps rather than teaching them about the date of the great London fire or something we could just do language lessons for all?

however we’ve also had this happen multiple times, you get groups of people from the same ethnic background living together, and it doesn't destroy a community but it will change it.

Not sure if any of this made sense, or is even coherant, but I had to do something rather than sceam at the TV again. I’ve reached the point I either have to ignore the news (which is another danger sign), or as soon as I see a Tory I just want turn off , that may be because of our quality of journalism but perhaps save that for another night!

Hi, I just read your post and want to encourage you and say that you're not the only one. I haven't used the Choices app about a year now (I think. Well my friends recommend me Romance Club instead. Idk. I'm still new there. Whatever. Ignore.) because I miss the old Choices where each and every book was written wholeheartly and had a true story to tell.

Also, my favorite stories are also in the Fantasy, Supernatural and Magic genre (including Adventure) and they can be perfectly combined with Romance too. The books you just mentioned that you want to re-read them... I LOVE YOUR TASTE!!!! I LIKE THESE BOOKS TOO, THEY'RE AWESOME. Glad to find someone with the same taste and interest 😍

May I ask who you romanced in each books you've just mentioned? Just curious to know. Maybe we have a few things in common and I might like a few fics of your's too if you ever decide to write for a pairing. So romantic.

Like I said before, I might not read/play Choices anymore but I will never forget the books and characters I love the most. That's why... I... uhhh... write fanfics too (sorry currently only for one of these books because i love it sooo much and i want to write it better because it deserves better). I want an unknown and undiscovered story to tell. I want to give our beloved characters a new life, a new story and adventure. Which hopefully people will enjoy. But most importantly... I write for my soul, for my beloved characters and especially for myself.

Hopefully that will inspire you because in this Choices fandom fanfics are wholeheartly welcome or any other fanmade creations. Don't give up on the characters you love. Also, do whatever you want, it's your choice what you want to do 😊 Also, soooooo sorry for disturbing you with this long speech right now. Veeeeeryyyy soooorryyyy 👀

Awww this message kinda low key warmed my heart. I agree that the main reason I have stayed in their fandom is my love of characters from past books. I think choices has released some books that i fell for, recently Arthur and before that Kieran. I do try to read at least the first chapter of most books but i don't read everything because I have a lot of responsibility (I'm a grown woman lol).

in terms of my LI

TRR- Liam

Endless Summer - Sean

The Royal Masquerade - Kayden

Bloodbound - Adrian

Blades - Tyril (Obvs)

Nightbound - Cal

The Elementalists - Griffin

The Cursed heart - Kieran (I mean)

I kinda decided to reread the books to fall back in love the books and characters and the NSFW fics is just for my personal practice because I like writing but I'm not good at smut (😩).

I also for see this whole undertaking will take ages because I rarely read choices so it will keep me coming back but I will be able to rediscover what i love about this app and keep me going until Blades comes back.

Technology transformation in insurance: Getting future ready

A new urgency for change is visible in the insurance claims services, which is accepting the fact that technology could become the crucial differentiator between success and failure. Companies with a comparative IT advantage are agile, have grown faster and with better cost ratios, besides being future ready in terms of launching new digital offerings. The few that boast of analytical expertise are reporting revenues that are substantially higher than competing brands.

Some might argue that the insurance industry was slow to respond to change. Pure Play digital brands have transformed banking and financial services, telecom, entertainment and mobility. Customer choices in all these verticals are decided by elements beyond the obvious. Amidst all of these digital transformations, insurance carried a history of incremental change, which probably explains this urgency for change. However, for insurance companies of the future, success may not just be defined by technology innovations, but their ability to define individual areas of excellence while leaving the rest to others. The one-size-fits-all approach would require a serious rethink as both customer demands and technology availability collaborate to create specialized solutions and brands having expertise in them.

Before delving into the technology trends, let's quickly assess the customer behavior changes. For starters, there's a distinct push towards an integrated customer experience where insurance is often bought as an add-on to other services and goods. This highlights the value of insurance companies engaging in digital ecosystems that are often owned by other verticals, viz., media, technology, telecom, real estate, automobiles and banking. In addition, digital natives are causing customer expectations to rise significantly in terms of quality of service and agility of bespoke offerings. All of this results in added pressure on cost ratios. A recent McKinsey study found that cost ratios for the bottom quartile was 200% higher in life and 45% hiker in property and casualty insurance compared with the top quartile of brands.

That insurance technology is making waves becomes even more clear when we take a moment to study these three news articles that hit the headlines during the April-June quarter of 2022:

● In April, we saw Reinsurer Swiss Re close a unique stop-loss transaction that combined bank financing (from JP Morgan) with insurance linked securities, an easy protection from severe underwriting losses over the next five years.

● In May, Mercedes Benz provided telematics insurance to its customers via Swiss Re's Movingdots, suggesting that auto OEMs could soon offer embedded car insurance via their apps.

● In June, Ally Bank launched an insurance marketplace that allowed customers to compare and shop for policies - an innovation that exists in several geographies and has now put the United States on par with them.

To assume that technology would be a magic wand that fixes everything would be a mistake as we are talking about only a handful of accelerated tech trends that could transform insurance. For example, we may see auto insurance risk shifting from the driver to artificial intelligence (AI) while satellite imagery could provide insurers with visibility of risks around houses and factories. Similarly, claim processing could be speeded up for natural calamities and life insurance could see products that adjust coverage based on a customer's evolving needs. The requisite technology is already available though applied AI, distributed infrastructure, trust architecture and next-levels of automation based on better connectivity could prove to be the differentiator over the next decade.

The three instances shared above indicate that insurers need to adapt their operating models, products and core processes in the new world. Before defining the future path, executives need to get clarity on how these technologies could impact the future and whether it is actually the future that they see themselves in. Here is how some of the technologies will impact the future:

● Applied AI has become a favorite for insurers though only a few have scaled up to optimize its use. With algorithms getting commoditized, carriers can re-engineer their core processes to build in predictability to disrupt distribution, digital underwriting, claims and service in a way that human intervention would limit to customer touch points. ● Distributed infrastructure would see insurers make a rapid shift to cloud for core systems, spiking their agility in launching new products and improving customer service. It will also bolster computing power, enabling better utilization of large data sets, turning insurers in this system into orchestrators of innovation. ● The Mercedes Benz example indicates a broader play for telematics, made possible by a wider adoption of high speed connectivity. This could also pave the way for IoT that could potentially reshape products in life, health and property insurance as devices begin to continuously share data. ● Though robotic process automation isn't new, emerging technologies would enable carriers to rethink product and service on the fly. Industrial IoT could enable real-time monitoring of equipment while 3D printing could transform the claims experience for physical damages. ● And last but not the least, technology would be required to build trust between insurers and their customers while sharing sensitive data. Blockchain technology could play an effective role in managing customer data in a safe and consistent manner while solving current challenges such as identity management and verification.

These technology trends can materially impact the underlying inputs of insurance products and core functions. However, their broader impact will be visible when technology interacts and builds upon one another, such as distributed instructure and trust architecture. Till such time, we can only be aware of Amara's Law which states that we overestimate short-term impact of new technology and underestimate the long-term impact.