like i personally am mch trash right idk that i will ever 90 another dps, but ive been thinking that after dragonsong ilya transitions out of black mage into red mage instead. makes more sense from a black mage pipeline perspective AND a looking into future confrontations perspective, 'cause like. as much as i love mch BECAUSE it's stupid. that rabbit would be dead.

whether i actually manage to learn red mage or not, lmao.

Why do you think Tolkien considered making Maedhros being reluctant to regain the silmarils after the War of Wrath and Maglor being the one convincing him to do it, but then reversed their roles in the final version? What difference would it make if the first version was kept? What influence would it have on their characters?

In my opinion it would completely change them and make Maedhros into a character I would like a bit less. There is an amazing post by Skyeventide on the matter. Still, I think Tolkien oscillated between a less "moralistic" version of the Legendarium (less, but never not at all) and one where he was more tied to ancient pagan myths and less concerned with the catholicism. So, in the end, I think he wanted to make the bard, who would go on to survive and tell the tale of the Noldolante, survive also because he was the brother arguing against the last kinslaying and, because of that, recognising the authority of the Valar. While the more defiant Maedhros was mch less suited to the role. Still I really love my defiant Maedhros true to the least to himself and his word since he didn't allow one corrupted Vala to turn him and he surely won't allow the other ones to do the same. While I can see Maglor seeing his own story as a play, in his last years, and thus thinking about himself more in terms of a role much like every "true" hero of Tolkien does. In the Silmarillion Tolkien's "true heroes" all obey their roles, as if they were resigned to be pieces in a play, they do not fight the plan, but accept and obey, which is also what makes me dislike them. At least Maglor I can understand reaching that point after an age of repeated trauma and fighting the curse.

30 WoL Think Thonkers

13. Is there a canon moment you've drastically (or not-so-drastically) rewritten? A character death, or something that just really did not fit your WoL's character. Or just some alterations and personal touches you've added? Has that had any long-term changes on the wider story?

So I've touched on this. But, like… ya gotta make some changes here and there when you have five warriors of light. Especially as I otherwise try to stick to the canon events as close as I'm able. Somethings just work out fine "but there were five of them instead," but a lot of other moments need to be fiddled. Change a bit of dialogue, assign roles, etc. The big one is like… still making sure there's urgency and danger that may otherwise seem more mitigated by having 5 people instead of 1. Kind of a big one was working out that whole Ultima Thule section… and especially the last part approaching Meteon where, in the game, the lonely WoL end-walks through the last section. It feels like some of that meaning is lost when you can just say "well there's five of us, so its not as bad." So I had 4 of them just also sacrifice themselves alongside the other scions. It works out that my characters have similar motivations as some of the scions, so it follows that Capsisi and Thancred would go out for similar reasons… same with Estinien/Ejvi and Y'shtola/Urianger/Jalliim… G'raha and Beutiq was a bit harder, but I was able to work out some development for Beutiq and it helped them become better friends lmao. Then that leaves Kola for the big walk at the end.

Here's one I'd like to talk about too. Another moment that needed some arranging was that final fight with Zenos. Even coming out of the Endsinger fight, and despite it being Zenos… it's still a 5v1 fight and feels disjointed… I needed a way to get them from the start of the fight to all 5 of them being exhausted/near death at the end. An easy answer would just be to say that, like… its still Zenos, and he's just coming out of being super-powered by Shinryu-power, so it could still be a close fight at 5v1. But that wasn't convoluted enough.

So what I came up with instead; using what he still had of his power as a mothercrystal-powered primal, Zenos was able to create a localized, like… division. Locking each of my WoLs away from each other, and dividing himself among them--taking Zenos just down to his "normal," but still very powerful, self by five and creating five 1v1 fights against each. But how can I push it more? How can I make it more "epic" for this finale. Super power my characters, of course. Every punch they usually pull or innate limitation on their usual powers/jobs is removed. A great gift the game gave me for making this happen was telling us that over-expending one's aether is another way to exhaust and deteriorate your body. And number of jobs' lore talk about natural limitations to prevent that. You can only summon this for so long, or you need to build up natural energy to let that happen. But if you take the limit stoppers off… sky's the limit. And a natural conclusion was to combine each of their two jobs as well.

The big one for Jalliim was keeping MCH's automaton queen constantly summoned, powered by his own aether, in addition to empowering his fairy to stay in "Seraph" mode. Beyond that, it was a lot of gun work and rapid-firing offensive and defensive SCH spells. The kinds of OP shields he improvised in that fight were incredible. Just had pages and pages floating around him, pulled from his tome to keep empowered.

Capsisi's NIN Bunshin lasted way longer than five attacks. Going full, like, Naruto-mode and having shadow clones constantly popping up around the fight, trying to overwhelm Zenos. And the concentration going through to keep that up and keep her sage nouliths constantly on the move. I'm still trying to think of how cool I could make it to perform ninjutsu spells with those things.

Number one for Kola is Living Shadow is also there the whole time. Normal side or Dark side, they're both in on this. And then Kola's latent potential as a "Mime job" really starts to shine. She'll start with her best DRK and RDM skills but it'll grow and expand. Every discipline she's practiced… every skill she's seen. All of it coming into play. Every spell she possibly can--dualcasted, of course. Even a blue mage might blush at the list of combinations. It might stop short of some of the highest skills (no Ultima, for example), but she'd be pulling out as much as she can remember. Mime skills, I'd say, would still have to be cast from aether--including the precise mimicry of physical skills. So she'd be burning through it like a candle in a house fire. Given time, though, it'd be a fun fight to coordinate and choreograph.

Fun thing for Beutiq is that he does most of the relic weapon quests. The HW anima weapon quest provides some interesting possibilities. A "living" weapon whose "soul" inhabits a little minion figurine. Move that weapon into the Terpander Lux itself (empowered by Beutiq's aether of course), and he's got a living harp bow that can float around the battlefield on its own, providing BRD support fabricated entirely based on Beutiq's own strategies. From there--most of Beutiq's time in Eureka was honing his skill with the katana while crafting the Torigashira Eureka. It was meant to learn more of the far eastern "art" of forging a katana. But Eureka itself helped mold his abilities--even if its not his strongest point. But combined with the empowering strength of his own BRD skills (and the extra fire power of the bow itself), it comes down to an intense blade battle between them.

I've already touched on Ejvi's fight--mostly how it ends. She wouldn't go full avatar mode until Zenos does, but goin all in with the reaper skills for a real 1-on-1, but using her scythe as a focus for casting BLU spells. Just about every BLU spell she can pull out to keep the pressure on Zenos, or just distract him--and that ABSOLUTELY includes opening the fight with Flying Sardine. Then the fight escalates, they both move into "Avatar mode." And then, as I said, Ejvi eventually wraps it up by Blowing Him the Fuck Up.

There’s that job tier list going around but honestly my characters have such narrow skill sets I can just talk about my OCs for once and tell you what they’re good at.

Altias started out as an archer, but picked up mch in HW and with it engineering as a whole. She’s a SUPER talented magitek engineer and weapon creator. She could easily rival Cid if they didn’t have such different focuses. That just comes with being a super good gnb and mch as well as things like blacksmith, armorer, and carpenter. Whatever you need to make weaponry, she’s talented at. Her gnb is more Garlean based than bozjan, but she definitely has pulled inspiration from both and then also summoning magic. She studied summoner extensively, and while she’s never actually been a summoner, she incorporated their way of summoning egi into her weapons to empower them. This led to her being corrupted by an actual primal, a strange fusion of Bahamut and her own insecurities that just lives in her head rent free now, but it kind of worked out bc she can draw on his power now, it only took an entire expansion of her being high risk bc the primal was trying to take over her. Her studies focus now on fusing magic and magitek in a way the Garleans never could being incapable of using the former.

Akku’s talents have always been more diplomatic than anything else. Even his echo lets him see people’s emotions (he later learned that the more accurate description was he could see their dynamis) like an aura around them. He was initially a ninja by chance, the rogues helped him out and gave him some training when he ran away from home and ended up in Limsa. Zelda (a friend’s OC) later took him on as a student to specialize that into ninja. He was decent enough in practice, but in battle he’d freeze up. He spent a long time seeing himself as kind of a useless warrior of light since he couldn’t fight like the others. So after ShB he resolved to do things his way instead of trying to be like the others, and learned conjury leading into white magic. This is his real skill set, he’s a healer not a fighter. His offense magic is generally water aspected (Enbarr is very helpful) and non lethal, just keeping enemies away from him so he can focus on healing his allies. In ingame job terms, his only REALLY GOOD skill is whm, but ninja is something he’s trained in.

Kito has a lot going on, but his skill set centers around his unusually dark aspected aether which is really strange, particularly for the warrior of light. DRK has always been his number one talent, to the point he was genuinely afraid of his own power for awhile. But he hung up that sword after EW, and picked up rpr when traveling to the void which also matches well with his dark aether. But he uniquely also combines the class with drg, he was accidentally soul bonded to Twintania freeing her from the binding coils (think an inheritance cycle dragon and rider type relationship between them). So instead of a rpr avatar, he draws on her power and his own dark aether creating an odd mix of rpr and drg that’s ultimately mostly rpr in training and appearance. He’s also a really good botanist, he studied plants in bozja before it exploded, but those are really his only canon job skills.

HLO slinks in thru a bead curtain.......... truly sry this took me so long to concoct bt i’m here now, hand on hip, smiling coyly at u all...... i’m nai n i’m rly excited to b here so i’ll just dive right in!! u can find bradley’s pinterest board here n her muse tag here. like this or hmu for plots!

[ cis female, she/her, margaret qualley , twenty-four ] i can’t be sure, but i think i just saw BRADLEY MILLIGAN drive onto the parkway. don’t they know we’re not supposed to be driving on that haunted road right now? maybe it has to do with the fact that they’re so +RESILIENT and -VOLATILE that makes them feel UNPHASED about everything going on. i guess we could also chalk it up to the fact that they’re always reminding me of LEMON IN A FRESH CUT, THE AMBER BLINK OF AN ANGRY ALLEY CAT, GRINNING WITH BLOOD ON YOUR TEETH. either way, i hope they get back safely. [ nai, she/her, 24, gmt ]

aesthetics: singeing a hole in your fishnets with the cherry of a menthol, spitting a pistachio behind the bar just to hear it ping off the nozzle top bottles, lemon in a fresh cut, a war torn poppy standing alone in an empty field, pressing thumbs to yellow bruises, stomping over flowerbeds when there’s a path right besides it, dangling over ledges just to feel your chest jolt, a snarling rottweiler that needs muzzling, limp feet poking out behind a door, ‘I PROMISE I DON’T BITE’ scrawled on a name tag, slapping a bald head in front of you at the cinema like it’s a bongo, not owning a single jacket that isn’t stolen, driving a stranger’s car down the wrong lane against the screaming traffic, hair more feral than a wolf cub and eyes smudgier than a coal mine.  

BACKGROUND:

ok SO. her father owns a strip club in crescent hill named no angels. it’s kind of.... a seedy establishment i won’t lie. hs a red glowing sign like it’s lighting up a window in amsterdam. cigarette butts floating in oil slick puddles outside. unsavoury characters crawling all over like rats in a sewer. despite this it’s a legitimate business on the surface of things n it does pretty well in trade. it’s like.... that place people warn u NOT to have ur bachelor party at unless u fancy urself the type tht willingly enters a lion’s den bt tht almost??? adds to the allure in a way??? ppl r like wow so sketchy it’s the thrill of a lifetime........ i mean run while u still can bt go off i guess

it isn’t Confirmed Public Knowledge bt it’s pretty heavily implied thru the rumour mill that bradley’s father is the head of a gang of rly............ Not Nice people. all the ppl that work for him u would hands down NOT want to run into in a dark alley. while things seem legitimate on the suface it’s pretty clear they’re into shady dealings n the townsfolk that suspect that would indeed b correct! the club’s a front for a drug business n they’re also washing n running counterfeit cash thru it. they probably also have their hands dipped into a few other local businesses to run their cash thru these too n keep it all seemingly by the books so nobody comes sniffing around. they even r friends with a member of local law enforcement that’s working w them for a cut so they honestly have all bases covered to keep things airtight n foolproof. perhaps a business in reed too which bradley oversees bt i haven’t given this Too Much thought as of yet??

so ya she’s grown up fairly local most of her life n would maybe be known around town as such.................. the milligans r certainly Interesting as far as families go so like. it honestly wldn’t surprise me if ppl nudge elbows when they see one of them coming n immediately walk in the opposite direction. just quite an intimidating presence...... they’re like caged animals where ur specifically instructed NOT to stick ur fingers between the bars bc they WILL bite

on a more personal note her dad is pretty much the worst human being alive n bradley hs like….. a lot of issues with herself as a result of years of toxicity n abuse

in terms of more family bkground info her mum’s name was alyssa n she vanished when bradley was 12. jst like…. into thin air. nothing. no note. zilch. gan! n when bradley asked her dad abt it his response was essentially “guess she didn’t love us enough to stay”. as bradley’s got older tho n become (without intention) more involved in the business side of things, it’s become pretty clear there was far more to the story.

(abuse tw) they had a horrible marriage n tony ws emotionally manipulative at the best of times, violent at worst, which didn’t help the fact tht alyssa ws struggling a lot w severe depression n rly just… not in the mindset to b dealing w anything else, even where motherhood ws concerned. bradley p much… would look after her a lot n they’d both b scared of her dad n it was just a whole unhealthy mess.

(death implied tw) anyway im rambling bt basically tony (bradley’s dad) gt wind of alyssa sleeping w men tht worked fr him n he just… got rid. bradley’s kind of worked out over the yrs tht her mum didn’t jst leave on her own accord n tht something must hav happened to her bt she’s too scared of her dad to ever directly accuse him

when her mum went all of her dad’s cruelty pretty mch got channelled straight onto her. it ws diluted between two before bt as u can probably imagine her upbringing was jst…. a steep downhill decline

(drugs implied tw) she learnt ways 2 deal w the incurring trauma bt they weren’t healthy ones at all! bsically jst. will do or take anything fr the distraction. chases a thrill like it’s the only way to remind her she’s alive. has absolutely no regard fr her own wellbeing n often gets other ppl in trouble too bc she’s so insatiably reckless

(hospitalisation tw) she hd….2 separate stints of psychiatric hospitalisation n she never tlks abt it. like ever. acknowledging she’s been vulnerable is her worst nightmare n bc of the way her dad raised her she always thinks any sign of struggling within herself is weakness. truly does…. not kno how to properly emotion

CUT TO!!!! the present. she’s currently living at the motel which is like. the least homely place she cld ever live rly but bradley loves making her life uncomfortable n doesn’t rly believe in growing sentimentally attached to anything if she cn help it <3 probably gets into arguments all the time w her neighbours it’s a whole thing.... atrocious at feeding herself has breakfasts frm the vending machine like her organs aren’t screaming fr vegetables.... plays music too loud n sometimes vanishes for days at a time without a word. she’s a lot.

i honestly feel like the murders haven’t rly phased bradley too hugely....... i won’t lie she probably genuinely is like. oh maybe it’s smthn to do w my dad. n just blinks the other way not rly that phased. on some subconscious level i think she rly just thinks........ death follows her wherever she goes n is like. this is just life for me! kind of depressing. holds her hand bt then screams n pulls away when she inevitably bites me.

PERSONALITY:

the kind of sour cherry only certain people have a taste for

once drank a bottle of whiskey, insisted she could still do a cartwheel and accidentally kicked an old man’s front tooth out in the process. proceeded 2 collapse into a flower bed and laugh so much abt it that she cried

barely takes anything seriously 50% of the time and is angry the other 50%

if she was a coffee she’d be black with five grains of sugar that you couldn’t taste until the last sip

(alcoholism tw) high functioning alcoholic. if u ever see her w a coffee cup u jst kno tht one sniff will confirm high alcohol percentage. honestly idk hw she does it her liver must b yellin

loyal to a point of fault. if she cares abt u (rare) and u murder a man in cold blood (not so rare in the broad scheme of bradley’s life) she’ll brawl anyone that says ur guilty

honestly wld probably fight a person over anything. sometimes she’ll jst be having a bad day n she’ll burst n take it out on whoever says the wrong thing. minefield!

has the worst luck in romance…. ever. ALL her past bfs hav been absolute beasts n as a result she has the ‘romance is dead n love is a lie’ mentality. definitely NOT a romantic. very cut n dry abt these things. sex is mostly just sex n she’d kind of scoff at anyone that wanted more from her

mostly wears stolen clothes from strangers and jackets that swamp her. huge chunky stomping boots with steel toe caps that would RLY bruise if they gave u a kick. hair is p much always a wild mess n she usually hs kind of smudgy/smoky makeup bcos apparently she’s allergic to combs and generally looking presentable… relatable content. the only time she rly looks put together is when she has to do something/go somewhere/see someone on behalf of her father....... he kind of uses her as a sort of. honey pot sometimes fr shit his gang get up to it’s like. not! a way u should ever utilise ur daughter but :/ i cannot stress enough how much i wna drop kick him in the neck

she’s v sarcastic. blunt. kind of has a habit of…. assessing a person n she’s quite perceptive bc she’s been trained to b by the way she always has to monitor her dad’s expression fr the slightest emotion change. she’s very confident n can p much mke a conversation out of whatever if she feels like it. independent too like she hs a bunch of (predominantly surface connection) friends bt she doesn’t care abt going out places alone n does this often. she’s probably kind of known around town bt itd b a 50/50 balance between bein known as intimidating n bein known as that one girl tht always gets into anarchy

likes: drunken snow angels that drag on so long they flirt with pneumonia, stealing cars, throwing watermelons off rooftops to watch them explode, shooting pedestrian’s with bb guns from hidden spots on rooftops. 

dislikes: telling the truth, tulips so yellow it’s like they’re gloating, playing music loud enough to fry your brain and serve it on a piece of toast, going home.

PLOTS:

someone tht works at the ‘no angels’ strip club?? either as a dancer or bartender or whtever. just a forewarning it’s probably gna b a pretty….. seedy and Not That Pleasant environment bc it’s like. a crime hotspot inevitably bc it’s a gang hangout so. ur chara wld truly be in fr a rollercoaster ride to say the least

(drugs tw) she deals coke fr her dad’s gang so perhaps ur muse buys off her

anyone….. she’s brawled in the past like. she’s literally a menace i cnt express this enough. wil jst randomly throw a drink in someone’s face fr no reason bc she’s bored. she’s probably pissed off 1000 diff ppl in 1000 diff ways. the possibilities r endless n i jst think tht’s a sexy prospect!

fwbs perhaps??? exes??? (probably ws a tumultuous relationship honestly bradley is. a handful...... it’s also rly not often she ties herself down tbh so this would maybe have to b discussed/be circumstantial/kind of rare)

mayb someone tht she met at an aa meeting when she hd to go fr a court mandated thing one time after bein arrested fr public indecency. i feel like there’s probably a rly expensive statue somewhere thts fancily sculpted n she like. did a flying kick n broke the dick of it off n gt arrested fr it

ppl she……. Goes Wild Goes Crazy w. truly jst the most self destructive person alive so anyone w a similar mindset wld b a hellish bt fun combination

on the contrary a gd influence cld b nice perhaps? like someone tht genuinely cares abt her n she jst doesn’t kno hw to compute it

maybe people who r her neighbours that live at the motel too??

OH it could b fun if ur muse runs or works at a local business maybe like. a bar? idk? n bradley n ur muse have developed a rapport bc she frequents the place n is................ a Character

um. honestly the world’s our oyster. hmu n we cn brainstorm if none of tht catches ur eye!

Something personal: my child is 100% formula fed

For whatever reason, I’ve seen a lot of lactivist (people who are hardcore breast is besters) pop up over the last few days so I feel like saying something. This is directed to anyone who ever dares shame someone else for how they feed their baby and to anyone who has ever been shamed. 

Let me start by saying: fed is best. Fed is always, ALWAYS best. Not only do I support one’s decision to breastfeed, combo feed, or formula feed but I will continuing fighting like hell to make sure that governments, employers, and society support your decision. No one should be forced to choose based on anything other than one’s desire to breastfeed, formula feed, or combo. This is also ONLY applicable to places with clean water and a generally well-developed supply chain. In places that do not have access to these things, breast usually is best. For the vast majority of us in the US and Europe (the two places I study, I cannot speak for other parts of the world simply because I don’t research there), fed is best and fed is formula, breast, and/or combo. 

That said, I have exclusively formula fed since my baby was born in March and I am not in any way ashamed of that fact. Some quick background on myself: I have a MPH (masters of public health) in Maternal and Child Health from one of the top PH universities in the world. I worked in MCH and sexual and reproductive health for a while. Now, I am finishing up a PhD and one of my fields is reproductive health and justice - past and present. I literally do academic research for a living. I’m not someone getting my information from youtube. 

Before giving birth, I extensively studied the most recent literature on breastfed vs non-breastfed babies. You know what they show? What we’ve known for years: when controlling for socioeconomic status, there is no long term differences between BF & non-BF babies. 

“But breast is best! All the MCH orgs say so!” There is a huge political history behind this that I’m not really in the mood to get into. Instead, I will just tell you why the breast is best “evidence” is bullshit - very rarely do researchers control for demographic factors and socioeconomic status (ie - income, race, educational level of parents, etc).  Study after study after study shows that breastfeeding is correlated with high SES. People who breastfeed tend to be white, mid to high income, well-educated, and healthy. People who tend to not are the opposite of all of those. Unsurprisingly, children who are raised in high SES households have better health and economic outcomes than those raised in low SES households.   

And yet, studies repeatedly do NOT control for these factors when trying to determine the benefits of breastfeeding. So what are almost certainly SES factors are conflated with breastfeeding but incorrectly attributed to breastfeeding. 

One of the only studies that attempt to control for this found the following (this is an abstract and the study is here -> x

Breastfeeding rates in the U.S. are socially patterned. Previous research has documented startling racial and socioeconomic disparities in infant feeding practices. However, much of the empirical evidence regarding the effects of breastfeeding on long-term child health and wellbeing does not adequately address the high degree of selection into breastfeeding. To address this important shortcoming, we employ sibling comparisons in conjunction with 25 years of panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to approximate a natural experiment and more accurately estimate what a particular child's outcome would be if he/she had been differently fed during infancy. Results from standard multiple regression models suggest that children aged 4 to 14 who were breast- as opposed to bottle-fed did significantly better on 10 of the 11 outcomes studied. Once we restrict analyses to siblings and incorporate within-family fixed effects, estimates of the association between breastfeeding and all but one indicator of child health and wellbeing dramatically decrease and fail to maintain statistical significance. Our results suggest that much of the beneficial long-term effects typically attributed to breastfeeding, per se, may primarily be due to selection pressures into infant feeding practices along key demographic characteristics such as race and socioeconomic status.

It’s not just one study. Another shows that INTENTION to breastfeed is what made the difference in child health for this study, not whether or not the parent actually did breastfeed. Again, since those of higher SES are more likely to and intend to breastfeed, this is absolutely not surprising. 

Now, as for why I personally didn’t breastfeed: frankly, I just didn’t want to. I can tell you all about the health and medical reasons (of which there are many but were not high on my list of reasons) and about how I am the primary breadwinner with a stay at home partner and it just didn’t make sense. I can give you a whole slew of reasons, but the only one that is important is that I didn’t want to and it didn’t make sense for my family. 

Whatever is right for you and your family is valid and exactly what you should do whenever possible. And I will fight to make sure you’re not restricted by external factors. 

Now why the hell did I write this essay?  Well first of all, if you’ve made it this far - kudos. I appreciate you. I wrote it because I don’t give a shit what people think of me and my parenting BUT I’ve been called a child abuser, accused of neglect, and essentially accused of ruining my child’s life by choosing to use formula. These things don’t affect me but they do affect the mental health of MANY parents. It’s bullshit that anyone dare shames anyone else. 

Second reason - I was exclusively formula fed nearly 30 years ago and sometimes it feels like I’m being personally attacked and written off because I was formula fed. I believe in data, not anecdotes, but ffs I’m almost 30, have two masters, finishing up a PhD, have a wonderful family, own my house, and all of this while I grew up poor. Lactivists make it seem like someone like me is impossible. 

My child is thriving. He’s 2.5 months old (after being born nearly a month early), has already rolled over, is almost double his birth weight, and is just generally proving to be a bright, healthy child. I sleep 8+ hours a night because my partner does night feeds and we’re generally just a happy, healthy family. This was far and away the best choice for me and I am thankful that I live in a time and place where I can safely make the choice to not breastfeed. 

guess who’s bk.... bk again..... shady’s bk...... tell a friend... bradley struts onto the scene w a bleached blonde n shaven head wearin a white eminem vest. it’s she! more abt her under the cut u kno the drill

pinterest can b found here!!

MARGARET QUALLEY / CIS-FEMALE. — bradley milligan is really making a name for themselves as a tier 4 shepherd. i think that she is studying psychology in their junior year at lockwood, living in off campus. originally from queens, bradford pear is known to be brave & resilient, but can also be ruthless & destructive. — nai / 23 / gmt / she/her.

the kind of sour cherry only certain people have a taste for

once drank a bottle of whiskey, insisted she could still do a cartwheel and accidentally kicked an old man’s front tooth out in the process. proceeded 2 collapse into a flower bed and laugh so much abt it that she cried

barely takes anything seriously 50% of the time and is angry the other 50%

if she was a coffee she’d be black with five grains of sugar that you couldn’t taste until the last sip

father runs a gang n strip club in queens called ‘no angels’ tht fronts an affluent drug trade, primarily coke. his name is tony milligan n his gang is p infamous around there fr being jst like…. completely cutthroat n awful. they were nicknamed ‘tony’s rottweilers’ by locals bc he bsically has all of these trained dogs on leash at his command n they’re still a growing organisation tday

he’s pretty much the worst human being alive n bradley hs like….. a lot of issues with herself as a result of years of toxicity n abuse

in terms of more family bkground info her mum’s name was alyssa n she vanished when bradley was 12. jst like…. into thin air. nothing. no note. zilch. gan! n when bradley asked her dad abt it his response was essentially “guess she didn’t love us enough to stay”. as bradley’s got older tho n become (without intention) more involved in the business side of things, it’s become pretty clear there was far more to the story. they had a horrible marriage n tony ws quite violent at the best of times, which didn’t help the fact tht alyssa ws struggling a lot w severe depression n rly just… not in the mindset to b dealing w anything else on top of tht, even where motherhood ws concerned. bradley p much… would look after her a lot n they’d both b scared of her dad n it was just a whole mess. anyway im rambling bt basically tony (bradley’s dad) gt wind of alyssa sleeping w men tht worked fr him n he just… got rid. bradley’s kind of worked out over the yrs tht her mum didn’t jst leave on her own accord n tht something must hav happened to her bt she’s too scared of her dad to ever directly accuse him

when her mum went all of her dad’s cruelty pretty mch got channelled straight onto her. it ws diluted between two before bt as u can probably imagine her upbringing was jst…. a steep downhill decline frm tht point onwards

she learnt ways 2 deal w the incurring trauma bt they weren’t healthy ones at all! bsically jst. will do or take anything fr the distraction. chases a thrill like it’s the only way to remind her she’s alive. has absolutely no regard fr her own wellbeing n sometimes gets other ppl in trouble too bc she’s so insatiably reckless

high functioning alcoholic. if u ever see her w a coffee cup u jst kno tht one sniff will confirm high alcohol percentage. honestly idk hw she does it her liver must b yellin

she hd….2 separate stints of psychiatric hospitalisation n she never tlks abt it. like ever. acknowledging she’s been vulnerable is her worst nightmare n bc of the way her dad raised her she always thinks any sign of struggling within herself is weakness. truly does…. not kno how to properly emotion

honestly. im probably missing a million things bc i kind of feel like a microwaved shrimp as i write this bt. basically her life is jst the worst a true… abomination! bc im evil like tht sometimes

loyal to a point of fault. if she cares abt u and u murder a man in cold blood she’ll brawl anyone that says ur guilty

honestly wld probably fight a person over anything. sometimes she’ll jst be having a bad day n she’ll burst n take it out on whoever says the wrong thing. a minefield!

has the worst luck in romance…. ever. the majority of her past bfs hav been absolute beasts n as a result she kind of has the ‘romance is dead n love is a lie’ mentality

speakin of which i feel like she’s bi bt wldnt have dated a girl or anythin. like guys r probably…. her preference just bc historically theyv treated her worse n she hs a very self destructive personality like that. sexy!

dresses like courtney love, 2014 sky ferreira and a character from this is england had a baby. mostly wears stolen clothes from strangers and jackets that swamp her. hair is p much always a wild mess n she usually hd kind of smudgy/smoky makeup bcos apparently she’s allergic to combs and generally looking presentable… relatable content

personality wise she’s v sarcastic. sometimes blunt. kind of has a habit of…. assessing a person n she’s quite perceptive bc she’s been trained to b by the way she always has to monitor her dad’s expression fr the slightest emotion change. she’s quite confident n can p much mke a conversation out of whatever. sort of independent too like she hs a bunch of friends bt she doesn’t care abt going out places alone if she’s in a certain mood n jst wants…… to get into chaos. she’s probably kind of known around campus/town bt itd b a 50/50 balance between bein known as intimidating n bein known as that one girl tht always gets into anarchy

where the app is concerned!! iv made her a tier 4 shepherd bc i feel like she deals fr her dads gang thru the app n like. they probably have something incriminating held over her head about pearl winters (shoutout 2 pand love u icon) who’s her best friend n she wldnt want her to go to jail or anything so. i haven’t rly decided fully what it might be?? mayb...... this hit and run they were involved in bt. bradley ws in the passenger side n pearl ws in the bk n this guy sawyer ws driving n they told him to stop bt he jst like. purposefully ran this man jason dwn. it ws super traumatic obviously n bradley feels responsible even tho she cldnt rly do anything abt it so. ya she’s prob bein blackmailed w something to do w tht perhaps

likes: fishnets, stealing cars, throwing watermelons off rooftops and whiskey

dislikes: amy schumer, honesty, yellow tulips and going home

in terms of Plots

hm. mayb someone tht knows her frm home/queens??? like tht frequents no angels (her dad’s strip club) or picks up frm there or smthn

she deals coke thru the app n probably other drugs too like pills n whtever..... bt feel like coke is her main sell. she doesn’t even need the money she jst does it bc it’s like.......... the culture she’s been raised into n also she finds the risk of it all entertaining so. mayb she deals to someone

anyone….. shes brawled in the past like. she’s literally a menace i cnt express this enough. wil jst randomly throw a drink in someone’s face fr no reason bc she’s bored. she’s probably pissed off 1000 diff ppl in 1000 diff ways. the possibilities r endless n i jst think tht’s a sexy prospect!

fwbs perhaps??? exes??? (probably ws a tumultuous relationship wtever…. ur muse is like like bradley is. a handful)

mayb someone tht she met at an aa meeting when she hd to go fr a court mandated thing one time after bein arrested fr public indecency. i feel like there’s probably a rly expensive statue somewhere thts fancily Sculpted n she like. did a flying kick n kicked the dick of it off n gt arrested fr it

ppl she……. Goes Wild Goes Crazy w. truly jst the most self destructive person alive so anyone w a similar mindset wld b a hellish bt fun combination

on the contrary a gd influence cld b nice perhaps? like someone tht genuinely cares abt her n she jst doesn’t kno hw to compute it

um. honestly the world’s our oyster. hmu n we cn brainstorm if none of tht catches ur eye!

ok first off b4 i say anythin else dnt...... judge bradley’s blog rn i dnt get my laptop bk until wednesday so i am? stranded in a photoshopless land. it’s very tragic. anyway. and scene! je suis... nai oh me..... bk again w probably my fav muse of all time so let us! leap right in! p.s. her pinterest is here

CIS FEMALE — ever hear people say BRADLEY MILLIGAN looks a lot like MARGARET QUALLEY? I think SHE is about 24, so it doesn’t really work. The PSYCHOLOGY major is a SENIOR that is from QUEENS, NY. They can be +ADVENTUROUS, but they can also be -ABRASIVE. I think BRADLEY might be SHEEP. They are living in OFF CAMPUS BUT AFFILIATED WITH BALTA. ( nai. 22. gmt. she/her. )

the kind of sour cherry only certain people have a taste for

once drank a bottle of spiced rum, insisted she could still do a cartwheel and accidentally kicked an old man’s front tooth out in the process. proceeded 2 collapse into a flower bed and laugh so much abt it that she cried

barely takes anything seriously 50% of the time and is angry the other 50%

if she was a coffee she’d be black with five grains of sugar that you couldn’t taste until the last sip

father runs a gang n strip club in queens called ‘no angels’ tht fronts an affluent drug trade, primarily coke. his name is tony milligan n his gang is p infamous around there fr being jst like…. completely cutthroat n awful. they were nicknamed ‘tony’s rottweilers’ by locals bc he bsically has all of these trained dogs on leash at his command n they’re still a growing organisation tday

he’s pretty much the worst human being alive n bradley hs like….. a lot of issues with herself as a result of years of toxicity n abuse

in terms of more family bkground info her mum’s name was alyssa n she vanished when bradley was 12. jst like…. into thin air. nothing. no note. zilch. gan! n when bradley asked her dad abt it his response was essentially “guess she didn’t love us enough to stay”. as bradley’s got older tho n become (without intention) more involved in the business side of things, it’s become pretty clear there was far more to the story. they had a horrible marriage n tony ws quite violent at the best of times, which didn’t help the fact tht alyssa ws struggling a lot w severe depression n rly just… not in the mindset to b dealing w anything else on top of tht, even where motherhood ws concerned. bradley p much… would look after her a lot n they’d both b scared of her dad n it was just a whole mess. anyway im rambling bt basically tony (bradley’s dad) gt wind of alyssa sleeping w men tht worked fr him n he just… got rid. bradley’s kind of worked out over the yrs tht her mum didn’t jst leave on her own accord n tht something must hav happened to her bt she’s too scared of her dad to ever directly accuse him

when her mum went all of her dad’s cruelty pretty mch got channelled straight onto her. it ws diluted between two before bt as u can probably imagine her upbringing was jst…. a steep downhill decline frm tht point onwards

she learnt ways 2 deal w the incurring trauma bt they weren’t healthy ones at all! bsically jst. will do or take anything fr the distraction. chases a thrill like it’s the only way to remind her she’s alive. has absolutely no regard fr her own wellbeing n sometimes gets other ppl in trouble too bc she’s so insatiably reckless

high functioning alcoholic. if u ever see her w a coffee cup u jst kno tht one sniff will confirm high alcohol percentage. honestly idk hw she does it her liver must b yellin

she hd….2 separate stints of psychiatric hospitalisation n she never tlks abt it. like ever. acknowledging she’s been vulnerable is her worst nightmare n bc of the way her dad raised her she always thinks any sign of struggling within herself is weakness. truly does…. not kno how to properly emotion

honestly. im probably missing a million things bc i kind of feel like a microwaved shrimp as i write this bt. basically her life is jst the worst a true… abomination! bc im evil like tht sometimes

loyal to a point of fault. if she cares abt u and u murder a man in cold blood she’ll brawl anyone that says ur guilty

honestly wld probably fight a person over anything. sometimes she’ll jst be having a bad day n she’ll burst n take it out on whoever says the wrong thing. a minefield!

has the worst luck in romance…. ever. the majority of her past bfs hav been absolute beasts n as a result she kind of has the ‘romance is dead n love is a lie’ mentality

speakin of which i feel like she’s bi bt wldnt have dated a girl or anythin. like guys r probably…. her preference just bc historically theyv treated her worse n she hs a very self destructive personality like that. sexy!

dresses like courtney love, 2014 sky ferreira and a character from this is england had a baby. mostly wears stolen clothes from strangers and jackets that swamp her. hair is p much always a wild mess n she usually hd kind of smudgy/smoky makeup bcos apparently she’s allergic to combs and generally looking presentable… relatable content

personality wise she’s v sarcastic. sometimes blunt. kind of has a habit of…. assessing a person n she’s quite perceptive bc she’s been trained to b by the way she always has to monitor her dad’s expression fr the slightest emotion change. she’s quite confident n can p much mke a conversation out of whatever. sort of independent too like she hs a bunch of friends bt she doesn’t care abt going out places alone if she’s in a certain mood n jst wants…… to get into chaos. she’s probably kind of known around campus/town bt itd b a 50/50 balance between bein known as intimidating n bein known as that one girl tht always gets into anarchy

likes: fishnets, stealing cars, water guns and whiskey

dislikes: amy schumer, honesty, yellow tulips and going home

in terms of Plots

hm. mayb someone tht knows her frm home/queens??? like tht frequents no angels (her dad’s strip club) or picks up frm there or smthn

i feel like she probably deals coke bt its like. Select Dealing. like she doesn’t need....2 do it fr income or anythin she jst. gets bored n is like cool may as well mke some money n possibly get robbed ig! anythin fr the thrill! 

anyone..... shes brawled in the past like. she’s literally a menace i cnt express this enough. wil jst randomly throw a drink in someone’s face fr no reason bc she’s bored. she’s probably pissed off 1000 diff ppl in 1000 diff ways. the possibilities r endless n i jst think tht’s a sexy prospect!

fwbs perhaps??? exes??? (probably ws a tumultuous relationship wtever.... ur muse is like like bradley is. a handful)

mayb someone tht she met at an aa meeting when she hd to go fr a court mandated thing one time after bein arrested fr public indecency. i feel like there’s probably a rly expensive statue somewhere thts fancily Sculpted n she like. did a flying kick n kicked the dick of it off n gt arrested fr it

ppl she....... Goes Wild Goes Crazy w. truly jst the most self destructive person alive so anyone w a similar mindset wld b a hellish bt fun combination

on the contrary a gd influence cld b nice perhaps? like someone tht genuinely cares abt her n she jst doesn’t kno hw to compute it

um. honestly the world’s our oyster. hmu n we cn brainstorm if none of tht catches ur eye!

Thoughts so far: MCH

Battle

I am, for the record, really liking the flow of the adjusted MCH rotation so far; I’m starting to get a handle on the heat gauge. It’s hard to get used to not having Lead Shot (and I put Hot Shot in its old place on my hotbar, and I keep accidentally using it like it’s a DoT, which in turn overheats my Gauss Barrel waaaay too quickly, but that’s muscle memory and I’ll hammer it out soon), but everything else, I’m really liking. I’m particularly pleased with the shorter timer on Wildfire, making it more practical for non-boss fights, which was always my primary complaint about Wildfire in the first place.  I am super looking forward to getting cooling abilities, though, because even my Hot Shot abuse aside, it is very easy to overheat the gauge quickly if you’re really powering through the rotation/Reload/Quick Reload cycles, and Quick Reload is sadly not really enough on its own to compensate - at least not how I’ve been playing, which admittedly likely does need some adjustment. That said, the c/d on the Gauss Barrel once it’s overheated is much shorter than I expected it to be! I expected it to be a super long punitive c/d, but instead it is absolutely short enough to be fully recharged between pulls or before the end of larger pulls, making that extra overheated punch something worth pushing for if, for example, you’ve got Wildfire off c/d and you’re pushing 100% heated. The new role abilities are great and I have no real complaints. I’m happier than I have words to express that MCH finally, finally has a self-heal ability in Second Wind. It’s long overdue. I love that I never have to grind for Invigorate ever, ever again, because (no disrespect to LNC/DRGs intended) I hate playing LNC. I like that I can restore TP/MP without sacrificing any DPS on my end - and speaking of support abilities, I really appreciate that Hypercharge’s debuff effect is now the same on both Rook and Bishop. For the moment the fifth role ability I took is the stun, but that could change; it was a toss-up, for me, between that and Palisade. Time will tell whether I decide the protection buff is worth more in a party than an extra stun.

Plot

Oh boy okay here goes my heart; spoilers for the new level 60 quest under the cut. Also please bear in mind that as I’ve only done this first quest, this is a lot of speculation and guesswork and rambly thought nonsense, but I gotta get it down somewhere, ye know?

So at first glance, it seems like my fears were true: Stephanivien is definitely taking a back seat in the MCH quests going forward, with the focus shifting to Hilda - which I didn’t expect at all. As everyone who’s followed this blog for a while knows, I’ve been craving some interaction between Hilda and Steph, and with any luck, I’ll get it from this questline! I also wonder what it means for Hilda in terms of the MSQ; while obviously being a job quest NPC doesn’t mean she can’t be involved in the MSQ from now on (lookin’ at you, Estinien), it does make me a little worried SE doesn’t plan to do much more with her. I do hope she at least remains a MCH NPC for many, many expansions to come... although not at the cost of my Skysteel babies, of course. Speaking of, none of them are around for this quest, and my heart hurts. They’ve all been sent to help with Ishgard’s contributions to the war effort in Ala Mhigo, including Joye (no, I’m still not over Stephanivien referring to her as “my indispensable right-hand woman,” and no, I never ever will be, thanks for asking). Joye is the one who seizes my interest in particular, because she’s our most likely tie to moving the 60-70 MCH quests from Ishgard to Gyr Abania, when otherwise it’s hard to guess at the present stage in the MCH quests just how we’d end up there - given that we’re supposedly training the Ishgardian City Watch. Listen, what I want more than anything is for Joye to turn up wearing the new MCH AF gear, being badass and kicking ass in the name of House Haillenarte and Ishgard in Ala Mhigo and/or Doma. I want that so badly, you guys have no idea; I will literally actually scream. I also just really want my platonic soulmate babies to reunite because you can’t tell me Steph doesn’t miss his girl, even as he’s absurdly proud of all of his machinists proving their worth alongside Ishgardian knights.  Also I feel the need to scream a little bit about Stephanivien being an absolutely beautiful nerd over the gobbie tech in Idyllshire, because oh my god you wonderful ray of sunshine please god never change - if I’m at all okay with Steph taking a back seat in the MCH quests, it’s because it means he’s safe and free to just keep being his happy, hard-working self, without any wild crises coming along to put him through hell again. I’m not sure I could endure another arc where he doubts his own motives and wonders if he’s a terrible person; it might very well break me. Biggest surprise, to me: Rostnsthal! I swear I was just telling my roommate the other day how I didn’t expect we’d ever see any more of him, barring a cameo in a future expac or something - and here he is, back again to teach a new batch of machinists! Bonus points for letting my usually well-behaved WoL be playfully crude; character development. I also just love how Stephanivien goddamn sprints away at the end of the cutscene with Rostnsthal, because as much as he loves the tech in Idyllshire, he’s got so much work to do and he’s so here for it he is one happy little sunbeam. So basically, it’s not what I’d hoped the MCH quest would be, but it’s also not what I was afraid of: Steph is still around and will very likely still turn up periodically; I have high hopes of seeing Joye, Celestaux, and the others at some point in the future; they didn’t shove me with some new NPC who could never hold up to the old cast, and Hilda has more than enough personality and style to keep me invested. Also not gonna lie, I hope this stirs up some more Hilda RPers, because feed me. Iiiiiii think that’s everything. Yes. Looking forward to level 63!

The Statement Of Horological Position Mid-2020: Lockdown Lows And China Saves The Show

BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN

I think it’s fair to start this article by saying that 2020 turned out to be the year none of us was prepared for. The year began with a few passing news reports of a new virus being detected in China, but generally, all was rosy, and we were set for another year of fun. It feels like that was years ago now. Most of the world has been under some form of lockdown since March. Businesses have been closed, people staying at home safely and an army of healthcare, retail and distribution workers have been fighting to keep some form of normality going in the background. 2020 was not our year, and it certainly wasn’t the year for the Swiss watch industry, either. So, let’s take a closer look at how the Swiss watch industry performed. In the same way that a company has to provide a statement of financial position (or a balance sheet), WristReview provides for you its Statement of Horological Position.

Before we begin, we should mention that this only covers the Swiss watch industry and its exports to other countries, and does not include Japan, Germany or other exporters of wristwatches. Also, some figures represent exports to countries, and not necessarily business sales to the end consumer, and therefore cannot give an accurate representation of how individual companies are performing sales-wise, this article is not intended to compare different businesses. Finally, it should be noted that some export data from the FHS used in this article was provided to the FHS by the Swiss Federal Customs Administration and it is, therefore, possible for the figures to change.

A quick snapshot

The first thing to remember about this year is that we’ll be seeing some significant drops in statistics. Several of the top players including Rolex and Patek Philippe closed their factories and halted production altogether following advice from the Swiss government. 

Overall, in the first half of the year, Swiss watch exports fell by 35.7% compared to the same period last year, with exports reaching 6.9 billion Swiss Francs in value. The same period in 2019 saw exports valued at 10.7 billion Swiss Francs, which was a 1.4% increase on the previous year.

A total of 2.1 million mechanical wristwatches were exported in this period along with 3.4 million electronic watches. Compared to last year’s figures, this is a drop of 44.9%. The FHS figures do not differentiate the ‘electronic watches’ category into quartz timepieces and Swiss-made smartwatches such as TAG Heuer’s Connected model. 

As expected, every watch category based on value saw a decrease in exports. The FHS divides watches into separate groups based on their retail price (sub-CHF200, CHF200 – 500, CHF500 – 3000, over CHF3000). Watches priced under CHF200 were affected the most, with a drop of 55.4% in unit exports leading to a total value drop of 48.1%. The category affected the least was the CHF200 – 500 range, which saw a decline of 36.8% in unit exports creating a value drop of 36.5%.

In terms of exports by geographic regions, very little changed between January-June of 2020 and the same period in 2019. Asia still has the largest market share by continent, followed by Europe and the Americas. The ‘Rest of World’ category comprises Africa and Oceana, which have market shares totalling 0.7% and 1.3% respectively.

In the first half of the year, all of the five largest export nations saw a decrease in exports overall, with China having the smallest percentage decrease and Hong Kong the largest. According to the FHS figures, Hong Kong is now the third-largest export market, having dropped from being the largest in the same period last year. The USA is still ahead of China, Japan held on to its position as the fourth largest export market, and Singapore overtook the United Kingdom by 22.6 million Swiss Francs.

June 2020 saw a different order for the top 5 most significant export markets, with China being the only nation to see an increase in comparison to June 2019’s figures. Germany also replaced Japan in the fourth position and overall had the lowest decline in exports of the nations.

Cause & effect

I think the main factor involved in the decline of exports over the past six months should be clear to anyone who’s not been living under a rock for the past year. In June, China was the only country of the top 5 nations to post an increase in exports, an increase of nearly 50%. The FHS explains that this could well be because of China’s recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak, meaning they were just able to squeeze in a growth while every other nation posted a loss.

Dial R for ‘Rona – Alfred Hitchcock – 1954

Covid-19 is the most severe threat to human life at the moment. As such, all around the world governments have been advising (and forcing) people to stay in their homes. The last time people were told to stay at home on such a colossal scale in the UK, the sky was filled with German bombers. 

Switzerland was one of the first nations to respond with force if I recall correctly. Early on into the European outbreak, Switzerland banned all large scale gatherings, which put SIHH and Baselworld out of action. To further demonstrate to the world just how serious the threat was (and how serious the Swiss are about tackling it), multiple watch manufacturers closed their doors for a month or more.

Nearly all the major Swiss brands closed their doors for at least a month. Rolex, Tudor, Breitling, Zenith and Patek Philippe all announced they would be closing their doors. Surprisingly, the Swatch Group never officially closed its factories, but it did limit the amount of staff on the premises at any time, which limited production. This will have resulted in a monumental backlog of work that needs to be done, and anyone currently on a waiting list will have had their delivery time pushed back by at least a couple months while the manufacturers get themselves organised in a way that allows them to work and be socially distanced as well. Generally, watchmakers themselves aren’t too cramped together, at least for the bigger brands who can afford more space, so we’ll see what this means for those when things get fully back to normal.

When it came to model releases, we saw nearly the entirety of the industry take to online advertising to show off the new 2020 pieces. Almost every brand used the internet as a replacement for trade shows, except for Rolex and Tudor which decided to delay their releases until 2021. That was until they changed their minds and decided they would, after all, release their new pieces on the first of September. 

I, for one hope that this scenario has pushed onto manufacturers just how much they need to co-operate with large-scale watch press such as WristReview. We’re a unique part of the watch industry that is trusted by the audience and potential buyers to formulate opinions, but we also give constructive feedback that is very useful to watch manufacturers. We also spread the word about new timepieces, so it’s in their interest to work with us.

Baselworldy Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’

I didn’t want to spend too long on this topic, but as this is one of the somewhat rare times where I as an author can speak solely for myself, I wanted to say that I was incredibly disappointed in the way the MCH Group dealt with the issues surrounding Baselworld earlier this year.

If you’re not familiar with what happened, when it became evident that Covid-19 was going to have a significant impact on the Swiss watch industry, the showrunners at Baselworld decided to move this year’s show to January of 2021. This wouldn’t have had much of an effect had Baselworld not already agreed to co-ordinate its dates with Watches & Wonders Geneva show (formerly SIHH). Watches & Wonders would run in Geneva under the new banner, and then Baselworld would open the day after Watches & Wonders finished so that it was a lot less hassle to get everyone to Switzerland for the big reveals.

However, where Watches & Wonders decided to cancel their show for 2020 altogether, Baselworld chose to postpone until January of 2021. This meant that all the exhibitors both big and small (Baselworld plays host to a wide array of boutique watchmakers and jewellery brands) had their deadlines for press-releases, staffing, costing and all manner of things brought forward by three months. When we visited Chopard back in 2017, we toured their factories the week before Baselworld, and it was chaos, very professional chaos, but chaotic nonetheless. To get everything ready for the show, get the staff together, get the funding sorted and then head over to Basel and get the booths designed and built (the brands assemble and deconstruct their display stands every year, rather than leaving them up) is a massive job that simply wasn’t going to be done in time for January.

Then there are the costs of Baselworld. There, the MCH group gave the exhibitors two options: either put nearly all their funds for this year into the 2021 show with the rest going to MCH, or receive a small refund with fewer funds going to next year’s show. When confronted by several brands who were, at this point, rather upset, the MCH Group said that it legally didn’t have to refund them at all. A terrible move indeed.

As a response, all the significant exhibitors that remained (Rolex, Tudor, Patek Philippe, Chopard & Chanel) turned their back on the MCH Group and decided to form their own show. This departure was soon followed by the remaining brands from the LVMH Group (Bulgari had already stated it wasn’t returning). A slew of panicked emails from the organisers at Baselworld seemed to be attempting to reinforce with us that all is well, despite everyone leaving. The last we heard from them, the organisers of Baselworld indicated they had somewhat arranged a plan with the brands that were going, but their email came across as if they felt they were in the right all along. I can guarantee you that, while legally they were correct, they handled the situation so poorly I’m amazed it happened at all, especially considering the amount of financial losses Baselworld has suffered recently.

In the same way that I feel the Swiss watch brands should respect us as valuable gears in the engine that is the Swiss watch industry, I also think that big corporate shows should not abuse their position and make wild claims about how useful they are. They are only there because the brands fund them, and that is the end of it.

The post The Statement Of Horological Position Mid-2020: Lockdown Lows And China Saves The Show appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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How Planned Parenthood has helped millions of women, including me

By Maureen Miller, Columbia University Medical Center

Planned Parenthood has allowed generations of low-income women to survive childbirth, to combat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and to plan their pregnancies. However, the fact that women live healthier and longer lives is not Planned Parenthood's ultimate superpower. No, that is reserved for the legions of low-income women, including me, who now have been given the opportunity to dramatically move up the economic ladder and prosper.

For millions of women, Planned Parenthood is at once a symbol of and a means to women's empowerment. Since the organization helped topple cultural norms that held back women, it's no surprise that men, many of whom feel excluded from this process, grasp familiar though outdated standards to justify defunding it.

Recently, Republican congressional leadership has tied the defunding of Planned Parenthood (along with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act) to the upcoming budget reconciliation bill, which needs only a simple majority of senators to pass. It is hard to say what will happen next. Although all sides acknowledge the odds favor Republican efforts, they also acknowledge that Planned Parenthood will not go down without a fight.

As a public health researcher with expertise in the social factors that influence disease transmission, especially sexually transmitted infections, I think it's important to look at the history and the facts about Planned Parenthood. Many lies have been told about it, and it's important to know the truth.

More than 100 years of promoting reproductive health

In 2016, Planned Parenthood celebrated its 100th year of existence. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first Planned Parenthood, a birth control clinic, in Brownsville, Brooklyn to address the hardships that childbirth and self-induced abortions brought to low-income women. She and her colleagues were promptly arrested.

So began the many legal and political battles Planned Parenthood has waged over the control of women's fertility. Yet it was men who had the strongest impact on the social acceptance of birth control at that time. World War I saw the largest global mobilization and deployment of populations in history. Since the populations were almost exclusively young men, this led, not surprisingly, to a massive increase in STIs, then called venereal disease. Suddenly, "birth control" seemed like a really good idea.

In fact, even today the largest percentage (41 percent) of Planned Parenthood's budget is spent on testing and treating STIs, followed by contraceptive services (31 percent) for both women and men. The number of men who receive services such as testing for STIs and checkups for reproductive or sexual health issues from Planned Parenthood has grown steadily and has increased by almost 100 percent over the past decade.

All of these statistics are buried in data-filled documents that are hard to find and daunting to review. But here are some numbers readily available: In 2014 (the most recent year for which complete data are available) Planned Parenthood operated with a budget of US$1.3 billion, more than 40 percent of which came from the federal government (mostly in the form of Medicaid reimbursements). It provided almost 10 million clinical services to about two and a half million patients, the majority of whom were low-income.

Men have lobbied for the inclusion of men in maternal and child health (MCH) programs. Beginning in 1975, Alan Rosenfield, the former dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, established a series of sexual health clinics in Upper Manhattan, including one of the first "Young Men's Health" clinics.

However, it was his groundbreaking and oft-cited piece in The Lancet, "Maternal mortality: a neglected tragedy," that provided influential public support for Planned Parenthood missions to prevent women dying from pregnancy-related complications and the need for family planning.

It is perhaps no surprise that all of this attention on women's sexual rights, combined with the widespread uptake of oral contraceptives - the "pill," the first entirely female-controlled method of pregnancy prevention - found Planned Parenthood once again at the center of a firestorm, of which I was blissfully unaware on my first visit to Planned Parenthood.

A personal story

When I was 14 years old, my mother dropped me off at the local Planned Parenthood and told me she'd be back in an hour. Up until that day, she had been the only person willing to answer the myriad questions about sex posed by her breathless and curious all-girl 4-H troop, of which I was a member. (I doubt they would have approved her choice of troop leader topics.)

At the time, filmstrips of Roman gods and goddesses with strategically draped fig leaves passed for sex education at our school. Now, my mother had reached her limit. Despite my delusions of sophistication (I was the recent owner of two-inch heeled, cork-bottomed white clogs), the idea that I would actually have sex with someone - with a man! - was the farthest thing from my mind.

As I headed toward the entrance, head down and slump-shouldered, to attend a real sex education class, I searched for the words and the nerve to announce myself to the receptionist. I didn't even have to open my mouth. I was whisked away to a room filled with eight other girls. None of us made eye contact, but my eyes were certainly opened that day.

Did I mention that my mother had me when she was 19 years old?

My mother, who was the first in her family to go to college, did not graduate. I have a Ph.D. I was given the privilege to determine the course and timing of my reproductive life. Though not without bumps, reproductive freedom allowed me to pursue academic and professional dreams. This was an opportunity not afforded to my mother, though one she made darn sure that both my sister and I would have.

Educational gains: A connection?

Over the last decade in the U.S., the number of women attending college has greatly eclipsed the number of men attending. This is true across communities: Among Latinos there is a 13 percent point gap in college enrollment between women and men, among African-Americans a 12 percent gap and among whites a 10 percent gap.

The result is economic independence for women, but at social cost. Highly educated women are being urged to date and marry "down," given the dearth of equally educated men. This bucks the traditional norm in which the man is the primary breadwinner and the woman is the stay-at-home mom, a philosophy to which research shows both men and women continue to subscribe.

This cataclysmic shift of women's economic independence, along with rapidly changing demographics in the U.S., has given rise to nostalgia for the "old days" as well as calls to challenge the morality of sexual harassment and discrimination implicitly associated with the old days. Fueling these divergent attitudes is a sense of real frustration on both sides and, perhaps more importantly, an inability to communicate and find common ground.

But there may be ways to take emotion out of the equation, especially for Planned Parenthood. Throughout the history of the organization, men have played an outsized role in support of the Planned Parenthood mission and now make up a larger percentage of patients than ever before.

As the name implies, Planned Parenthood is not only a woman's organization, it is also a man's organization that increasing numbers of men are beginning to recognize. Like parenthood itself, the success of the organization will require the actions and support of both women and men. It's time that men know that they, too, benefit directly from Planned Parenthood.

Maureen Miller, Professor, Columbia University Medical Center

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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How Planned Parenthood has helped millions of women, including me

By Maureen Miller, Columbia University Medical Center

Planned Parenthood has allowed generations of low-income women to survive childbirth, to combat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and to plan their pregnancies. However, the fact that women live healthier and longer lives is not Planned Parenthood's ultimate superpower. No, that is reserved for the legions of low-income women, including me, who now have been given the opportunity to dramatically move up the economic ladder and prosper.

For millions of women, Planned Parenthood is at once a symbol of and a means to women's empowerment. Since the organization helped topple cultural norms that held back women, it's no surprise that men, many of whom feel excluded from this process, grasp familiar though outdated standards to justify defunding it.

Recently, Republican congressional leadership has tied the defunding of Planned Parenthood (along with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act) to the upcoming budget reconciliation bill, which needs only a simple majority of senators to pass. It is hard to say what will happen next. Although all sides acknowledge the odds favor Republican efforts, they also acknowledge that Planned Parenthood will not go down without a fight.

As a public health researcher with expertise in the social factors that influence disease transmission, especially sexually transmitted infections, I think it's important to look at the history and the facts about Planned Parenthood. Many lies have been told about it, and it's important to know the truth.

More than 100 years of promoting reproductive health

In 2016, Planned Parenthood celebrated its 100th year of existence. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first Planned Parenthood, a birth control clinic, in Brownsville, Brooklyn to address the hardships that childbirth and self-induced abortions brought to low-income women. She and her colleagues were promptly arrested.

So began the many legal and political battles Planned Parenthood has waged over the control of women's fertility. Yet it was men who had the strongest impact on the social acceptance of birth control at that time. World War I saw the largest global mobilization and deployment of populations in history. Since the populations were almost exclusively young men, this led, not surprisingly, to a massive increase in STIs, then called venereal disease. Suddenly, "birth control" seemed like a really good idea.

In fact, even today the largest percentage (41 percent) of Planned Parenthood's budget is spent on testing and treating STIs, followed by contraceptive services (31 percent) for both women and men. The number of men who receive services such as testing for STIs and checkups for reproductive or sexual health issues from Planned Parenthood has grown steadily and has increased by almost 100 percent over the past decade.

All of these statistics are buried in data-filled documents that are hard to find and daunting to review. But here are some numbers readily available: In 2014 (the most recent year for which complete data are available) Planned Parenthood operated with a budget of US$1.3 billion, more than 40 percent of which came from the federal government (mostly in the form of Medicaid reimbursements). It provided almost 10 million clinical services to about two and a half million patients, the majority of whom were low-income.

Men have lobbied for the inclusion of men in maternal and child health (MCH) programs. Beginning in 1975, Alan Rosenfield, the former dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, established a series of sexual health clinics in Upper Manhattan, including one of the first "Young Men's Health" clinics.

However, it was his groundbreaking and oft-cited piece in The Lancet, "Maternal mortality: a neglected tragedy," that provided influential public support for Planned Parenthood missions to prevent women dying from pregnancy-related complications and the need for family planning.

It is perhaps no surprise that all of this attention on women's sexual rights, combined with the widespread uptake of oral contraceptives - the "pill," the first entirely female-controlled method of pregnancy prevention - found Planned Parenthood once again at the center of a firestorm, of which I was blissfully unaware on my first visit to Planned Parenthood.

A personal story

When I was 14 years old, my mother dropped me off at the local Planned Parenthood and told me she'd be back in an hour. Up until that day, she had been the only person willing to answer the myriad questions about sex posed by her breathless and curious all-girl 4-H troop, of which I was a member. (I doubt they would have approved her choice of troop leader topics.)

At the time, filmstrips of Roman gods and goddesses with strategically draped fig leaves passed for sex education at our school. Now, my mother had reached her limit. Despite my delusions of sophistication (I was the recent owner of two-inch heeled, cork-bottomed white clogs), the idea that I would actually have sex with someone - with a man! - was the farthest thing from my mind.

As I headed toward the entrance, head down and slump-shouldered, to attend a real sex education class, I searched for the words and the nerve to announce myself to the receptionist. I didn't even have to open my mouth. I was whisked away to a room filled with eight other girls. None of us made eye contact, but my eyes were certainly opened that day.

Did I mention that my mother had me when she was 19 years old?

My mother, who was the first in her family to go to college, did not graduate. I have a Ph.D. I was given the privilege to determine the course and timing of my reproductive life. Though not without bumps, reproductive freedom allowed me to pursue academic and professional dreams. This was an opportunity not afforded to my mother, though one she made darn sure that both my sister and I would have.

Educational gains: A connection?

Over the last decade in the U.S., the number of women attending college has greatly eclipsed the number of men attending. This is true across communities: Among Latinos there is a 13 percent point gap in college enrollment between women and men, among African-Americans a 12 percent gap and among whites a 10 percent gap.

The result is economic independence for women, but at social cost. Highly educated women are being urged to date and marry "down," given the dearth of equally educated men. This bucks the traditional norm in which the man is the primary breadwinner and the woman is the stay-at-home mom, a philosophy to which research shows both men and women continue to subscribe.

This cataclysmic shift of women's economic independence, along with rapidly changing demographics in the U.S., has given rise to nostalgia for the "old days" as well as calls to challenge the morality of sexual harassment and discrimination implicitly associated with the old days. Fueling these divergent attitudes is a sense of real frustration on both sides and, perhaps more importantly, an inability to communicate and find common ground.

But there may be ways to take emotion out of the equation, especially for Planned Parenthood. Throughout the history of the organization, men have played an outsized role in support of the Planned Parenthood mission and now make up a larger percentage of patients than ever before.

As the name implies, Planned Parenthood is not only a woman's organization, it is also a man's organization that increasing numbers of men are beginning to recognize. Like parenthood itself, the success of the organization will require the actions and support of both women and men. It's time that men know that they, too, benefit directly from Planned Parenthood.

Maureen Miller, Professor, Columbia University Medical Center

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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