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spidernuggets · 2 months

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As someone who wants to read books and novels, whether it be classics, romance, action, horror, etc, but has a difficult time doing so because it takes a long while to do so; to read the whole sentence without misreading anything and then processing what the sentence is implying, and gets so frustrating all the time, I absolutely adore people who make headcanons that Jason Todd reads to you!!!

So I present

Jason Todd Reading to You HCs/Reader who Struggles with Reading

(Starts with Reader who struggles w reading and regular Jason reading to you HCs begin after the border)

Before it became a habit of Jason reading to you, he always rambled about the new books he has been reading.

He's always either adoring the writing or complaining about love triangles or is intrigued by the plot or questions a character's decisions.

And his rants make you interested, and soon enough, you ask more questions based on whatever he is talking about.

He opens certain pages, pointing to a quote or paragraph, and then showing you hus annotations to the side.

I think Jason would either a) have 2 copies of a book. 1 softback for annotations and 1 hardback for a clean copy. Or b) a clean hardback book and a notebook marked with the book title, the date he read it, and the chapter and page that he's referencing his thoughts from.

Seeing as you're so interested in his thoughts, he recommended you some classics he thought you might curious about.

You're excited, happy that your boyfriend is opening up his nerdy, literature side to you, and you promised him you'd finish the book as soon as possible.

But when you cracked open the clean hardback- the copy of Little Women that he wouldn't let anyone touch, your heart started racing.

You barely finished chapter one in three days. And when Jason asked during the day how it was going, you lied, saying it was great so far. This caused Jason to be suspicious as your reaction was far more bland than how you'd react when he was telling the basis of the story.

So when you claimed that you had finished it, he asked for your opinion. And when you did tell him what you thought of it, he thought that your answers sounded very familiar. And he realised that what you're saying was paraphrased from his annotations.

He laughed, telling you that you don't have to agree with his opinion. But when you didn't laugh back or state your own thoughts, he grew concerned.

You admitted that you only read the first chapter, and he said it was fine and to take as long as you needed since everyone reads at a different pace. But you shook your head, telling him that it could take you your whole lifetime to finish reading one book.

You sat with him, explaining that you find it difficult to read, that it takes you time to understand what the story is telling and what it's describing.

Jason thinks for a moment, and during this, you think that he now sees you as unintelligent and slow.

But he speaks up, offering the idea of reading to you instead. He noticed that you obtain information better when it's being spoken to you. You remember all the little details of the book when Jason went on his long rants about it.

But you tried to quickly turn down the offer, saying that you don't want him to baby you.

But he kisses your forhead in reassurance, promising that he's not babying you. Telling you that he's happy to read to you. Ecstatic even.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and Jason are wrapped in a not too thick, not too thin blanket. You're sitting upright, Jason's leaning against the headboard as you lay on his chest.

He's got the clean copy open instead of his annotated one, so you have the freedom of developing your own outlooks on the novel as his finger glides across the sentences.

He lets you interrupt him every time you have a point to make or an outbirst reaction to a plot twist or unexpected scene.

He keeps those reactions in mind, remembering to pull out a new notebook, marking the pages with the book title, the date he read it to you, and the chapter and page that you referenced your thoughts from.

You hate to stop reading before the end of a chapter, so you try to stay awake as much as possible until Jason finishes the cirrent chapter, no matter how spft and soothing his voice is.

Your favourite part of your day is waiting for Jason to come home from patrol, sitting patiently on your shared bed, with the book on your lap while you watch the movie or show adaptation of the novel.

And when Jason does come home, he rolls his eyes, shutting the screen that's playing the film, scolding you that the book is way better.

He tells you to sit tight while he quickly changes out of his gear, putting on sweatpants and staying shirtless before scooching you over and sliding into bed beside you.

He takes the book from you, opening to where the bookmark laid- the last chapter you finished before continuing on with the story.

And when Jason finishes off another chapter, he notices you sound asleep.

He softly kisses your cheeks, forhead, then lips, bookmarking the book once more, before adjusting the two of you in a more comfortable position and holding you in his arms, whispering to you that you'll continue in the morning, before falling asleep with you.

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howtofightwrite · 9 months

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Speaking of martial competence, do you have any examples of characters that are actually written with this in mind?

Loads. Some actually even make good on that.

So, there's different kinds of martial competence. There are characters who are proficient in combat directly, there are well written strategists, there are characters who excel at military leadership, and when they're written well, you can actuallylearn some things from them.

I'm going to give some examples, and at least one cautionary example.

For, just, raw combat prowess, I still go back to Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories. It's easy to meme on the character, especially 90 years after the fact, with the cultural persona that's grown around him, but Howard's original writing is excellent. The character would not have survived Howard's early (and, frankly, tragic) death if it was just the one note gag you might expect, if your only exposure to the character was through cultural osmosis and the films.

Howard's fight scenes were shockingly well written. To the point that it is still absolutely worth reading if you want to write a fantasy fighter.

For strategists, three characters come to mind, but only two are literary, and all are Science Fiction.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is probably one of the best villains Star Wars has ever produced, it's part of why he's one of the few characters that's migrated from the original EU to the Disney era. My personal take is, as a character, he's lost a lot over the years, but the original incarnation from the early 90s novels is a very solid model for a strategist. Particularly in how he takes time to understand his opponents while looking for potential weak points to exploit.

His practice of studying a culture's art to understand their psychology might sound a bit goofy, but the concept does have a real basis. (At least, until it metastasized into a superpower, in later adaptations of the character.) Being able to psychologically assess your foe is an incredibly valuable element of strategy, and one that you probably want to consider when you're writing a character who is supposed to be a “strategic genius.”

When writing fiction, you want to consider all of your characters as if they were people, rather than as hollow, plastic toys. And, yes, the obnoxious villain who knows exactly what your heroes will do because of authorial fiat is going to be a more compelling character than the ambulatory goldfish villain who exists as a prelude for your heroes showing off how badass you think they are.

Granted, even in Heir to the EmpireThrawn was already drawing strategic insights that strained credibility, but understanding your foe is an element of strategic thinking that is often forgotten in literature. So, even as a villain in a tie-in novel (we're not done with tie-in fiction yet), he is worth looking at. At least when written by Timothy Zhan, Thrawn was a well written character, and even if he bordered on a Mary Sue at times, he escaped a lot of that stigma by justifying his competence.

It's also probably worth mentioning in passing that he's one of the few Imperial leaders in Star Wars who isn't also criminally incompetent.

The non-literary example of a strategist would be John Sheridan from Babylon 5. Unlike Thrawn, Sheridan's main strategic focus is on situational exploitation. A little of that comes from his knowledge of enemy procedures and psychology, but at lot of it comes from a rather ruthless approach to technical limitations. An alien race is using technology that blocks human targeting systems? Set up a nuclear mine and then send out a fake distress single to lure them in. Need to deal with a significantly larger, more dangerous ship? Lure them into a gas giant and and let the planet's gravity well drag them past crush depth. Bruce Boxleitner's performance helped sell the character, but Sheridan is a really solid science fiction strategist, who really exemplifies how technical limitations can have enormous strategic considerations.

I'm not citing Sheridan as an excellent example of a leader per se,it's certainly there, but it is harder to unpack from Boxleitner's performance. It does have some good payoffs much later in the series when he starts making some orders that cause his subordinates to sit up and stop what they're doing. And that is a consistent theme even back to his introduction, but, it's a tangible consequence to an intangible cause.

The last example is a negative example, both for strategy and leadership. And, as much as it pains me to say this, at least Orson Scott Card understood that Ender was a bad leader. At least in the original novel. To be blunt, Ender is a mediocre strategist at best. His highlights in the book involve, “inventing armor,” and creative movement in micrograv. That's setting the bar exceptionally low, and while it is reasonably within the range of what you could expect from a pre-teen, that's not much of a justification.

Again, I'm not a fan of Card, and I'm reallynot recommending Ender's Gameto anyone. However, if I didn't mention it, you know there'd be a reblog going for twelve hundred words about how Andrew Wiggin is the best strategist in literature, which, yeah, no.

Do you want a goofy, tie-in fiction, literary suggestion for the best leader in sci-fi? Too bad, because I'm pretty sure Ciaphas Cain is not that person. The Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell are unusual as leadership recommendations, because of how much Cain internally processes the social manipulation involved in military leadership. He's not a great leader, but he is exceptionallygood at explaining to the reader how he's creating that illusion to motivate the soldiers around him. In fairness, some of that is an intrinsic character flaw, he is incredibly insecure, and desperately trying to hide that fact. And the difference between being a great leader, and effectively creating a comprehensive illusion of a great leader is: There is no difference. As a serious complement, it is one of the few times I've seen an author treat leadership as an actual skill, and not simply an extension of a character's charisma. Which is why I'm singling this one out. It might sound like a joke inclusion initially, and the books are quite funny in a Warhammer 40k kind of way, but there is quite a bit of value to be had.

-Starke

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#writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers #Babylon 5 #Grand Admiral Thrawn #Ciaphas Cain

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prismatic-bell · 8 months

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So I’m helping to do research for a Fallout 4 mod, and I’ve found yet another fun new way Africa has been fucked over by colonialism.

Said mod is a book-finding mod, and I’m researching literary fiction (so: no biographies, no histories, no memoirs, no textbooks, religious texts must be in the form of a story or allegory rather than praise hymns). I started with Western literature as requested and then went “hm, you know what could be interesting from an immersion/lore perspective? Including some Chinese texts” and from there to “you know, the divergence didn’t occur until the mid-to-late sixties and the whole learning-Buddhism-and-Hinduism-to-‘find-yourself’ thing was already underway by then, I should really put the Bhagavad-Gita on this list” and from there to “why should I leave anyone out? Let the main author pick from a bunch of texts, I’m just giving him resources.”

So to abide by US copyright laws because they’re stupid, I have to find texts where the author died before 1953. And in America, Western Europe, China, and Japan, this has proved to be no problem. You can’t throw a rock at a shelf of literature from these countries without hitting a long-dead author. The literary traditions are long and robust.

I’m currently working my way through African literature before swinging back around to Latin America. I’m using Goodreads as my starting point.

I have gone through over two hundred titles.

I. Have. Found. THREE.

Three African authors of fiction who died before 1953. Two of them are white South Africans. One of those two was a missionary during the Boer War.

If I expanded my criteria to include memoirs, I could add two more. Also both white.

There are almost no Black African authors at all before the 1980s. Not “Black African fiction authors,” mind you. Just Black African authors. Nonfiction too. Almost none. I think I’ve counted five.

And I can’t find a single collection of African folktales that was put together before the 1970s. Like I understand much of the story tradition across the African continent was oral until the 20th century, but you’d think surely someone at some point wrote down SOMETHING just to have it documented. That does not appear to be the case. It’s all either stuff like “History of Ethiopia” (ask me if I’m willing to bet a plug nickel anything in a book written by a white dude in the 1890s and titled “History of Ethiopia” is correct) or “hey, we’re missionaries, listen to our harrowing tale of trying to bring Jesus to the savages!” (WHY. I mean we know why. But WHY.)

I was hoping to find 100 books, fifty from the northern part of Africa not including the MENA region (which is its own section in this research) and fifty from the southern. If this sounds extremely sparse, yes, I know it is, but I came into this already expecting to have trouble finding African works due to colonialism and the prioritization of white texts. I figured 100 would be doable and if I found more I could be pleasantly surprised and divide the continent into further subsections. (I also chose not to do it by country because the borders within Africa have changed so much. It seemed more relevant to sort them by mother language and rough geographic location because so many places and kingdoms no longer exist under the names and borders they once held.)

I didn’t expect to find NOTHING.

I expected something to at least EXIST.

The continent that brought us the entire human race has had its stories basically stripped away by white people.

I am grieving for a history that isn’t even mine, destroyed by people who assumed the second-largest land mass on earth had nothing to offer except what they could rip out of the ground.

The stories are gone. That’s fucking horrifying.

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brian-in-finance · 6 months

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J Vespa / Getty Images

The Stunning Transformation Of Caitríona Balfe

Few shows have had as big a cultural impact as "Outlander." Based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon, the show follows a World War II nurse who finds herself transported to 17th-century Scotland when she finds magical stones in the Highlands. The show was Caitríona Balfe's big break — previously, the Irish actor had worked as a model and appeared in only a few small productions. However, since playing "Outlander's" Claire, she has become one of TV's most recognizable faces. She has also landed roles in films like "Ford v Ferrari" alongside Matt Damon and Christian Bale and Kenneth Branagh's Oscar-winning "Belfast."

With "Outlander" nearing its series finale in 2023, Balfe is looking ahead to new projects such as the upcoming "The Amateur," as the era draws to a close. It's the perfect time to reflect on her career so far. So, without further ado, here is the stunning transformation of Caitríona Balfe.

Caitríona Balfe’s upbringing in Northern Ireland colored the rest of her life

J Vespa / Getty Images

Caitríona Balfe was born in 1979 in the rural village of Tydavnet (1) near the Northern Irish border. Her upbringing in Ireland has colored her entire life. "It's such a part of the fabric of your life when you live in those areas," she told Vanity Fair in 2022. "It's really not until you get older that you look back and you realize the craziness of it, or the strangeness of it."

And by the sounds of things, it was certainly an abnormal place to grow up. Growing up so close to the border, Balfe was used to being surrounded by British soldiers and once even found herself in the middle of a bomb scare.

Her father was a garda, the national name for the Irish police force, and she was sometimes bullied for it. "Let's say being the daughter of a garda in 1980s borderland counties was not the easiest thing," she later told The Irish Times.

Caitríona Balfe was a voracious reader as a child

As a young girl, Caitríona Balfe filled most of her time with reading. In fact, when she was young, her father took away the family's TV, so instead, she looked to literature for stories and entertainment. As she told The Irish Times, she raced through the classics, including Emily Brontë, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Robert Pirsig — she also was a fan of modern writers like Ian McEwan.

When Balfe reached adulthood, her love of literature continued to be a big part of her life. "You always find her on set with a book," her co-star Maria Doyle Kennedy said. "She's a ferocious reader." And, in 2019, Balfe told Stylist, "I could just lock myself away and just read for a month, which would be so lovely."

She even started her own book club on Instagram where she posts videos about what she's reading for her fans. "First rule of book club.... We read ! Then we talk..!" she wrote in one of the first posts in 2020.

Caitríona Balfe grew up wanting to act

J Vespa / Getty Images

From a very young age, Caitríona Balfe knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: acting. "It's in you, right?" she said to Backstage when asked about her first inspirations. "Like it's something you're either cursed with, you know, this need for attention and need to perform and all those things," she added, laughing.

Not only was she the fourth of seven children and therefore used to seeking out attention, she also had acting in her blood. After all, her father was something of an amateur actor himself, having appeared in a comedy troupe. "If my dad has some inclination towards it, there is probably something passed down," she mused to The Irish Times. Plus, she added, acting offered a much-needed form of escapism. "[T]here wasn't an awful lot of things to do," she said.

When she got older, Balfe pursued her passion for acting taking a course at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Caitríona Balfe moved to Paris and began working as a model

Jesse Grant / Getty Images

Before Caitríona Balfe finished her course at drama school, she was scouted by a modeling agent. "I took what I thought was going to be a year out," she told Backstage, "and I never went back. Very, very bold of me."

Balfe dove into her unexpected modeling career, setting off for Paris. "I always just wanted to travel," she explained to Vanity Fair. "Growing up, we never did that — there were too many of us. We didn't have the money."

Even though Balfe had always dreamed of acting, modeling also appealed to her innate desire to perform. As she put it, "There was something about the theatricality of the runway shows — and the event of it — that I really loved." And she was pretty good at it. She appeared in shows for all of the big designers, including Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and Valentino, and even walked the runway as a Victoria's Secret Angel. And so, for a while at least, she committed herself to a career in the modeling industry.

Caitríona Balfe moved to New York City as her relationship with modeling soured

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Throughout her 20s, Caitríona Balfe's modeling career careened from success to success. She modeled all over the world but eventually found herself settled down in New York City. "That's been the longest of anywhere since I left Ireland," she told Backstage in 2020. After a decade of modeling, Balfe began to crave something new. "For the last couple of years [of modeling] I was miserable, really," she confessed to Vanity Fair. "It's not exactly the nicest industry or the healthiest industry."

So, discontented with modeling, she revisited her passion for acting, first taking a few classes and later landing a tiny role as one of the "clackers" in the 2006 film "The Devil Wears Prada." "I think they just came to modeling agencies and were like, 'We need a bunch of women who can walk in heels,'" she recalled of the lucky break during an appearance on "The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter" podcast. "My agency knew I wanted to act and if people would come looking for stuff, they were sending me out to a few auditions."

Caitríona Balfe moved to LA to start an acting career

Frederick M Brown / Getty Images

When Caitríona Balfe had finally had enough of modeling, she decided to take a leap of faith into the world of acting — so, she left New York behind and set off for Los Angeles. "LA is where I came and said, 'OK, this is what I wanna do with my life,'" she said to Backstage of her first impressions. She continued taking classes — one was even a $5 class. As she told The Irish Times, "These are the weird things I did when I was wanting to be an actor in LA when I first got here."

In fact, it sounds like Balfe's early years in L.A. were filled with bold, "weird" decisions. For one thing, she only knew one person in the city when she moved. Balfe knew that moving to LA was a bit crazy — but she committed to living in a "bubble of delusion." As she put it, "I guess ultimately I was like: 'I can make this work.'"

At first, following her dream of acting wasn't easy

MJ Kim / Getty Images

Life in L.A. was anything but easy for Caitríona Balfe when she first arrived. Initially, she faced rejection after rejection. "I started from scratch. I didn't have any managers, I didn't know any agents, I hadn't acted in almost a decade," she told Backstage of her initial struggles to land work.

But even though Balfe dealt with lots of rejection, she persevered. Luckily, modeling had given her a thick skin that served her well. "In an audition, if it didn't work out, it wasn't always because you didn't do a good job, or you weren't good," she explained to The Guardian. "It was other arbitrary things like your name's not big enough. Which can also be soul-destroying, but I don't know, it's different."

Balfe did land a few roles, but they were few and far between. In 2011, she had a small role in the film "Super 8." In 2012, she landed a guest role on "The Beauty Inside" and the show "H+." In 2013, there were several films: "Crush," "Now You See Me," and "Escape Plan." Slowly, she was building a stronger CV.

Caitríona Balfe landed her big break with Outlander in 2014

Laura Cavanaugh / Getty Images

Everything changed for Caitríona Balfe in 2014 when she landed the lead role on the much-hyped Starz show "Outlander." "It was a total crapshoot," Balfe later recalled of the audition for the show while speaking to The Guardian. "I had done a few jobs, nothing of note really. I was living in LA and I was really struggling, actually, it was about four or five months since I'd had a job."

At the time, she didn't realize how big the book series was. "I wasn't even aware of the book series when I got the first audition," she said to Vogue. "Apparently, they had been searching for [Claire] for a very long time."

Balfe landed the role when she was about to head off on a holiday in India. Because her career was going slowly in LA, she decided to leap headfirst into a new life, filming in Scotland. "I didn't realize I'd still be there almost eight and a half years later," she later admitted to The Guardian.

Caitríona Balfe shot to fame almost instantly afterward

Almost as soon as "Outlander" came out, Caitríona Balfe became one of TV's biggest names. Ronald D. Moore, who developed "Outlander," had warned Balfe about just how life-changing the role would be. "I walked her to the elevator, and just before the doors closed on her, I said, 'Your life is about to change forever,'" he said to Backstage, recalling the day she was cast. "And she gave me a grin that was both thrilled and slightly nervous. I never saw her hesitate after that."

The first episode premiered at Comic Con. "It was insane," she told Vogue. Soon enough, she began to notice her fame growing. As she told Backstage, she had only a few hundred followers on Twitter before playing Claire. "Within about a month or two, it was thousands of people — and my phone, I didn't know how to turn off the alerts, so it was just going all the time," she said. That's when she realized just how big she was becoming.

Caitríona Balfe became lifelong friends with her co-star Sam Heughan

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Fame wasn't the only life-changing thing to come from her role in "Outlander" — Caitríona Balfe also gained a lifelong friend in Sam Heughan, her co-star. As Balfe explained to Parade, the pair made a conscious decision to become friends before filming even began. "We were just talking about it and we were like, 'Who knows what this is going to be?'" she recalled. The pair agreed to "have each other's backs." She added, "[W]e've done that from day one."

Since then, the pair have only become closer. In fact, during ATX TV's Women of "Outlander" panel, Balfe explained that she and Heughan have never even argued — although they have bickered. Heughan chimed in: "As our lives have gotten more complicated and busy, we may not see each other as much as we used to, but that core and that friendship and that base that we have has never changed." How adorable is that?

Caitríona Balfe landed a number of big roles in the 2010s

As Caitríona Balfe's fame grew in the wake of "Outlander," she landed more big roles in Hollywood — and worked with bigger and bigger stars.

In 2016, she landed a role in Jodie Foster's all-star film "Money Monster" — her co-stars included George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Dominic West, and Giancarlo Esposito. Sadly, Balfe didn't get to work with them too much as most of her scenes were filmed in front of a green screen. Nevertheless, she was starstruck to be working with Roberts. "I couldn't stop staring at her during our first read-through," she told W Magazine.

In 2019, she played Mollie Miles, the wife of Christian Bale's character, in "Ford v Ferrari." Matt Damon also starred in the film. "I walked into that film with the idea that I was gonna be very intimidated by both him and Matt [Damon]," she told Collider. But she was pleasantly surprised. "Immediately, when you meet both of them [and] the first thing that struck me about both of them is that they're just these great, humble family men. There was no ego or bravado. It was lovely."

Caitríona Balfe starred in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast in 2021

Caitríona Balfe landed a huge role in Kenneth Branagh's "Belfast" in 2021, playing Ma, the mother figure in Branagh's semi-autobiographical tale about the Troubles in Ireland. For Balfe, the role was particularly meaningful — after years of acting in Scotland, "Belfast" was much closer to home for the Irish actor. "As an Irish person, you read so many of these scripts about the Troubles, and they all have this romantic version of the violence," Balfe told Vanity Fair. "Belfast," she explained, was different.

In fact, Balfe even saw her own family in the script. "Even though this is very much Ken's story, there's a universality to it that allows you to see your own," she told The Scotsman. "I definitely thought of my own mother in playing Ma."

Clearly, Balfe was extremely proud of the film. It was a huge hit and quickly generated awards buzz. However, Balfe remained characteristically humble. "I'm just happy that it's turned out as beautifully as it has and that it's getting the recognition it deserves because it's shot so beautifully and the hard work and heart and soul that went into making it are second to none," she said.

Caitríona Balfe had her first child in 2021

Caitríona Balfe began dating music producer (2) Tony McGill in 2015 (3). The pair married in 2019, and in 2021, they had their first child. Naturally, having a child gave Balfe a new set of priorities. Even though rumors circulated that she'd be nominated for an Oscar for her role in "Belfast," she found her self preoccupied with her new son. "Luckily, I'm doing a lot of that [changing nappies], so I'm actually not thinking about the awards too much: It's more, 'Stop peeing on me!'" she joked to The Guardian.

However, having a child also brought out Balfe's protective side — especially when she found out that a small group of fans online were convinced that her child was actually the product of an imagined affair with her "Outlander" co-star Sam Heughan. "I don't want those crazies — because that's what they are — I just don't want them talking about [my son]," she told Vanity Fair. Apparently, that's why she and McGill have kept their son's name private.

Caitríona Balfe is preparing to say goodbye to Outlander

Mike Marsland / Getty Images

In 2023, Starz announced that "Outlander" would be coming to an end after its eighth season. After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA writer/actor strikes, filming for the final season was delayed. However, Balfe has already begun to mourn the end of the show that gave her her big break.

"Sam and I were doing a video for this season and I started to get emotional already," she told the Express. "It's going to be so weird. It's been such an amazing ride that it's nice to wrap it up while we all still love each other and we are all still feeling like we're making a good show."

Even though "Outlander" may be ending, we can't help but feel that Balfe's career is only just beginning. In fact, she's already set to appear in the film "Amateur" (4) in 2024 alongside Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, and Laurence Fishburne. We can't wait to see what else she does next.

The List

Errors that caught Brian’s attention: (1) Dublin (2) artist/band manager (3) 2014 (4) First paragraph says “The Amateur,” as Malek has and IMDb did. Who knows? 🤷🏻‍♂️ The first promo art will tell us. 🍿

Remember… I walked her to the elevator, and just before the doors closed on her, I said, “Your life is about to change forever.” — Ronald D Moore

Cut & Paste journalism 🤦🏻‍♂️

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #The List #15 October 2023

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merakiui · 1 year

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I was thinking about scaramouche, because he's technically a puppet, fem reader would come to the conclusion that he doesn't have any sexual hormones in him cus hes not human? But maybe that's not actually the case for him, but she uses alternatives like masturbating or other methods to relieve herself since she assumes that he's not gonna be horny if they did do the thinggg im rambling but feel free to ignore if you want

Ooh, I like to think that after learning so much about certain human behaviors and habits Scaramouche has come to understand the concept of sex. Humans do it for a variety of reasons: to reproduce like all animals often do, out of physical attraction, out of love and sincerity, etc. He knows that there are various types of sex: romantic sex between lovers, loveless sex between individuals who aren't in love emotionally but perhaps physically, and so on. Like love, sex is complicated (to Scaramouche, at least). For the longest time he's been so certain that he has no need for those types of relations, but after he meets you his entire opinion has begun to change.

Scaramouche has never truly been horny before (mainly because he's never known how to accomplish such a feeling). Sure, he's felt sadistic exhilaration when he was a powerful Harbinger who could command the strongest of people to kneel and bow with but a simple command, but that has never really brought him the carnal, lustful pleasure that humans might feel when they bed another. Scaramouche has picked up novels (sweet, flowery romances and steamy erotic literature) to finally understand the complications of love and sex. There's always a build-up, tension, kissing, maybe even a confession, but what's always present in every story he's read so far is contact—close bodily contact that forms the stickiest of connections. As appealing as sex sounds in the novels he's read, Scaramouche suspects it's far messier than the poetic prose he's reading. Lots of fluids staining the sheets. Sweat and semen and maybe even blood.

But the more he thinks of you in a sexual manner, imagining you in the sex scenes he's reading in these erotic novels, the more he begins to see you in such ways. It's the little things (an innocent brush of your hand against his, the rain that soaks through your clothes and makes the wet fabric stick to your body in a way that accentuates all of your assets, and even the way you groan when arching your back in a stretch) that perk his curiosity, though he'll never admit to it if you tease him for staring.

Every time he's admiring you and you do something that has his thoughts racing, he can feel himself becoming eager to witness more. He'll tease you to see how far he can push you until you push back. He really enjoys bantering and bickering with you, and each time you grouse over how he always has something to say and never shuts up he's so very tempted to tell you that he can put his mouth to use in other ways. Shut him up with your own mouth and you won't hear a sarcastic peep from him. :)

When some of your teasing remarks border lewd territory, he is so very excited. You can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes: the eager, almost breathy cadence and the electric thrill that widens in his eyes. These feelings are unlike others he's felt, but they invigorate him in a way he enjoys.

And when the effect you have on him and his body becomes so very clear, he finally starts to realize that perhaps all this time he's been lusting over you and has just never classified his daydreams (and actual dreams involving you) as horny thoughts.

#genshin chit chat #n/sfw #in conclusion: i need him carnally #but in the bathroom at a party while chase atlantic plays muffled in the next room over orz #and we're both tipsy <3 making bad decisions that lead to sleeping with scara who will most definitely catch feelings days later #when he's thinking about that night and the (drunken) chemistry he had with you <3 #omg i need to write scara smut i am down so astronomically bad OTL

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gsirvitor · 4 months

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Can you explain the Hyperboera theory please? Is it the white people version of the Yakub thing?

The Hyperborea theory is actually more based in reality than the fantasy of Yakub, and like all good things, we begin with Greek Myth.

In Greek myth, Hyperborea was a land located to the far north of the known world, it was so remote it was considered even beyond the North Wind.

There a legendary race known as the Hyperboreans lived, and worshipped the sun god Apollo.

Herodotus wrote that the 7th century BC, the poet Aristeas wrote of the Hyperboreans in a poem called Arimaspea, about a journey to the Issedones, who are estimated to have lived in the Kazakh Steppe.

Beyond these lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, further on the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond these the Hyperboreans.

Herodotus assumed that Hyperborea lay somewhere in Northeast Asia.

Homer placed Boreas in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea was in his opinion north of Thrace, in Dacia.

Heraclides Ponticus and Antimachus in contrast identified the Riphean Mountains with the Alps, and the Hyperboreans as a Celtic tribe (perhaps the Helvetii) who lived just beyond them.

Aristotle placed the Riphean mountains on the borders of Scythia, and Hyperborea further north.

Hecataeus of Abdera and others believed Hyperborea was Britain.

Later Roman, and Greek sources continued to change the location of the Riphean mountains, the home of Boreas, as well as Hyperborea, which was supposedly located beyond them.

However, all of the sources agreed the locations of the mountains and Hyperborea were far north of Greece and southern Europe.

Simmias of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC connected Hyperborea to the Massagetae and Posidonius in the 1st century BC to the Western Celts, but Pomponius Mela placed them even further north in the vicinity of the Arctic.

This final connection was what stuck in the minds of those who would later propose a location for Hyperborea.

However, later writers disagreed on the existence and location of Hyperborea, with some regarding it as purely mythological, and others connecting the Hyperboreans to real-world peoples and places in northern Eurasia (ie. Britain, Scandinavia, or Siberia).

In medieval and Renaissance literature, the Hyperboreans came to signify remoteness and exoticism.

Modern scholars consider the Hyperborean myth to be an amalgam of ideas from ancient utopianism, "edge of the earth" stories, the cult of Apollo, and exaggerated reports of phenomena in northern Europe known as the Arctic or "midnight sun."

Since Herodotus places Hyperborea beyond the Massagetae and Issedones, both Central Asian peoples, it appears that his Hyperborea may have been in Siberia.

Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. As the reindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region.

This has led some to believe that the Chinese are Hyperboreans, while others deny this as Reindeer also appear in Northern Europe, meaning Heracles could have sought the thr golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Scandinavia, meaning Hyperborea could have been Norse.

It would be this connection that stuck.

Hyperborea in Greek myth however was not an icy land, it was a warm, sunny land that existed beyond Boreas, who was credited for creating cold climates.

However, the idea of Hyperborea being in the Arctic is the idea that stuck.

Now, this ask was in context to the Indo-European hypothesis, which stipulates that the people who became Indo-Europeans came from Hyperborea, which is correct and incorrect, while yes, the Indo-European people's all come from the same tribal lineage, we did not emerge from the Arctic during an ice age.

Now, this idea stuck itself in the minds of both Russian and Indian nationalists, this was inspired by the works of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas, and the Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka in his Origins of the Aryans.

Soviet Indologist Natalia R. Guseva and Soviet ethnographer S. V. Zharnikova, influenced by the works, argued for a northern Urals Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic peoples.

This never caught on outside of Russia and India.

All of this, right now, is plausible, Indo-European people's did come from the same tribal bands of Proto-Indo-Europeans that swept across, and subsequently conquered Eurasia, and North Africa, they did originate from either the steppes of central Asia or the mountains of eastern Europe, their land would have been an alien landscape to the ancient Greeks who would hear of this land beyond Boreas through oral traditions, and so on.

Now, we get into the part that makes the Hyperborea theory, like the Yakub theory, and like all absurd things, we can thank the French.

Robert Charroux first related the Hyperboreans to an ancient astronaut race of "reputedly very large, very white people" who had chosen "the least warm area on the earth because it corresponded more closely to their own climate on the planet from which they originated".

This stuck, and then evolved over the decades to become the modern Hyperborea meme, which claims white people were created, or are aliens, destined to rule the world from beneath the Arctic, or the moon, and the Nazis are also there;

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factcheckandchill · 7 months

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Very Angry Commentary on the State of Race Relations in Australia

In 2017 the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), whose raison d'etre is to take action against injustice related to racial discrimination, recommended that Australia “accelerate its efforts to implement the self-determination demands of Indigenous peoples, as set out in the “Uluru statement from the heart”.

The state of the rights and quality of life of indigenous people in Australia should be taken as an international embarrassment and action taken immediately to correct it. Whether it is a voice or a treaty, the status quo cannot continue.

And it's not like you can tell people they're being racist here, there is a semi-allergic reaction to even slightly being told you are a racist or racially insensitive. White people, get over yourself. we cannot correct the injustices that benefit you and only you, the injustices that are actively quashing everyone without drawing attention to them.

Do you get it?

Australia's image in the world literally depends on this bare minimum action called 'the voice'. Do you care that this will impact how Australians are viewed and treated out in the world? And more importantly, whether or not the quality of life of people who come from indigenous backgrounds.

If people are so reliant on their racism to feel a sense of worth in this country, then they don't care. They are so self-important that they don't care that the lack of voice, treaty, or adequate representation is killing children from preventable heart disease, it's pushing teenagers and young adults into impossible situations, it is putting children who could have had a different outcome behind bars because the same empathy that is given to upper-class white kids isn't extended to them.

Yet those racists (white or not) who believe that all of that injustice is justified continue to have a voice, representation, and power in society. Why are they allowed this?

Australia's brand of racism is so unique and impenetrable. refusing to be educated and would rather bring harm to itself than concede the imaginary supremacy that racists and their cronies from other ethnicities believe whites should have.

If white people are so much better, why are they… like that. (This isn't reverse racism, because that's not a thing.)

The Uluru statement from the heart is a simple and effective piece of literature in which some indigenous people were able to put forth their concerns in as loving a matter of fact as they could have. A diplomatic attitude that they honestly did not owe the settler communities. Yet that statement was met with derision and disrespect bordering on sociopathy from those who are interested in maintaining white supremacy in this country.

#the voice #australia #racism #white australia #white australia policy #politics #auspol #australian politics #vote yes #voice to parliament #indigenous voice to parliament #referendum #anthony albanese #indigenous rights #closing the gap

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docpiplup · 2 months

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Fifth part of the bookscans of Al Andalus. Historical Figures, here's the previous part

expelled from their homes, since they had not surrendered peacefully, but had fought.

Charlemagne, chastened, realized that the pacts signed with the Muslim lords of northern Spain deserved no trust. He would never set foot on the Peninsula again, and subsequently dedicated itself to strengthening its borders with Hispanic Islam. For this he created the kingdom of Aquitaine, whose mission consisted of not taking our eyes off the activity of the Muslims of the places bordering Gaul.

From the disaster suffered by Charlemagne in Roncesvalles we have remains what some consider the most beautiful song of deeds of literature, La Chanson de Roland, an authentic gem of the epic poetry. Within the Spanish Ballads we find two romances that have this fact as their theme: Of the battle of Roncesvalles and the Romance of Doña Alda. The Basques also preserve a song dedicated to Roncesvalles, the Altabizaren cantua, which according to the Irishman Macnab, was written in the same century in which this event took place. But Ibn al-Arabí, who had been the originator of this whole story, was not reflected in any of these beautiful romances!

Amrus ben Yusuf: the muladí of Huesca

Muladí comes from an Arabic word that translates as "mixed race or foreigner", and was applied to those Christians who converted to Islam and continued living among the Muslims. There were many who decided to abandon Christianity, possibly for practical reasons, including stopping paying taxes, or reaching a position of social relevance among the new owners of the country and there were not a few who achieved it. There was also sincere converts, since in those centuries the roots of the Christianity was not as deep as it may seem.

This was the case of our character, Amrus ben Yusuf, whom the Christian chronicles will know him as Amorroz, born in Huesca and one of the staunchest defenders of the policies of al-Hakam I. After the death of Abd al-Rahman I, his son Hisham, a very pious emir, introducer of the Maliki doctrine in Spain, and who Driven by his religious fervor, he dedicated himself to waging war on the Northern Christians. Al-Andalus remained at peace and therefore the new emir was able to dedicate himself

to harass the Asturian monarchy. But his reign was to be very short, just seven years, and was succeeded by his second son, al-Hakam I.

But the arrival of the new emir was greeted with rebellions in all the border marches. In the most remote areas of Córdoba, the authority of the emir hardly represented anything and the governors lived in a regime of almost total independence. The insurrections against the power of the emirate were more than frequent and al-Hakam had the unfortunate luck to have to face them all. In this hard task, he will have a paladin who will always be at his side: Amrus, who will not hesitate to take radical measures when the matter is serious. This muladí would become famous on what was known as the “day of the pit.”

In the year 797, the always restless Toledo, inhabited mostly by muladíes, rose up against the Umayyad power to recognize a rebel Ubayd Allah ben Jamir, who together with a poet of Toledo, Girbib ben Abd Allah, dissatisfied with the emir, had in charge of calming down the spirits. It wasn't the first time this happen, nor would it be the last, and al-Hakam's predecessors had already had to work hard to put a stop to the rebels of Toledo.

Amrus, who at that time ruled the stronghold of Huesca, was commissioned by the emir to subdue that uprising by the means that it considers opportune. And there went Amrus willing not to disappoint his lord.

He began by eliminating the leader of the rebellion, Ubayd Allah ben Jamir, who fell into a trap prepared by him and then decided to give a lesson to the people of Toledo that they would find difficult to forget.

Amrus, according to him to avoid friction with the population, said that the best would be that, along with his troops, he would settle on a mound near the city. Towards the northwest, near the bridge over the Tagus River, rose a small fortress, possibly on the site now occupied by the Alcazar. When the enclosure was more or less finished, the emir, in agreement with Amrus, he sent an army under the command of his son, the prince Abd al-Rahman, pretending that he was going on an expedition against the Christians and that "coincidentally" had to pass near Toledo. It was a good occasion to invite the prince to visit Toledo, and Amrus, accompanied by the most important people of the city, they came out to receive him and begged him to honor them with his presence.

Abd al-Rahman seemed somewhat reluctant to accept the invitation, but In the end he agreed to it and to celebrate it the most influential mula-díes of Toledo were invited to the new fortress to celebrate a banquet in honor of the emir's son. Until then everything was more or less normal, but as the guests arrived, they became enter through a narrow passage, at the very edge of a large ditch, and the Amrus's executioners cut off their heads, while their bodies was thrown into the pit. That was the " castle of you will go and no you will come back"!

The number of those beheaded was very large. Maybe not as much as 5,000, according to some chroniclers; maybe about 700

being a very high number. What the leading class of Toledo was thus beheaded and the terrible impression produced by this event remained, for a long time, both among the Muslims and among the muladies of Toledo and from other cities.

Dozy narrates that terrible day like this: "At daybreak, a doctor that had not seen anyone leave through either of the two door, became suspicious and asked the people gathered near the entrance of the castle what had happened to the guests who had arrived early. "They must have gone out through the other door," they answered- It's strange!-the doctor then objected -; I have been for some time at the other door and I haven't seen anyone leave. After watching the steam rising above the walls, exclaimed:

Unfortunates! I swear to you that this vapor is not the smoke of a feast, but the vapor of the shed blood of your brothers, beheaded"

When things got really bad, al-Hakam knew that he could count on Amrus and so he also entrusted him with the submission of Zaragoza, the capital of the Upper March, as seditious as Toledo.

After the advent of al-Hakam, the two best generals of his father, Abd al-Karim ben Mugith and his brother, Abd al-Malik, in those moments at enmity with the new emir, they tried to evict the Aragonese chief Bahlul ben Marzuq from Zaragoza, to They settled in the city, but they did not succeed. He got a Cordoban army, and

Bahlul fled towards upper Aragon. Later this Bahlul, would take over Huesca, while other small rebellions by the Banu Qasi took place, who were descendants, it seems, of Musa ben Fortún, that Aragonese count who converted to Islam in the first moments of the conquest.

Given this panorama, it was evident that the action of Amrus who, also with full powers of the emir, came to Zaragoza in 802. Its activity was frenetic. Persecuted and killed Bahlul; took over the fiefdom of the Banu Qasi, and harshly punished to the muladíes of Huesca for their rebellious attitude. In that same year he ordered the construction of the stronghold of Tudela, between Zaragoza and Pamplona, an intermediate point that would serve as support in that always upheaval area. In this stronghold there was his son, Yusuf, commanding a strong garrison. He reinforced the walls of Huesca and put one of his cousins in charge of this city. Al-Hakam could sleep peacefully when it came to the Upper March... but even the most faithful soul is tempted in some occasions.

Installed on the banks of the Ebro, Amrus lived like a prince, enjoying your well-earned peace of mind. He had everything, or almost everything he could want, but he began to think that he too, which had garnered so much success for the emir of Cordoba, could become independent of his tutelage. It seems that he came to engage conversations with the Frankish monarch, Louis the Pious, so that supported their independence intentions and all these maneuvers reached al-Hakam's ears. The emir acted intelligent, and instead of openly declaring war on that subject that now

showed to be unfaithful, but that he had served him so many times with loyalty, he sent troops to the border, under the command of General Abd al-Karim ben Mugith, urging him not to act with the weapons until seeing Amrus's reaction to the message that the emir gave him.

This message from al-Hakam was written in the most praiseworthy and affectionate towards the muladí that you can imagine and Amrus, after reading it, was ashamed of his thoughts. He left Zaragoza and marched towards Córdoba to, once again, bear witness the emir his fidelity. Al-Hakam showered him with attention and gifts and confirmed him in the government of the Upper March. Amrus, after of this trip, he only lived two years and at his death the son of the emir, Abd al-Rahman, took charge of this March, for some time, to later pass to the son of Amrus, such was the good memory that his father had left in the emirate of Cordoba.

The "Rabadis": adventurous spirits

Most historians consider the emir al-Ha-kam I despotic and cruel. There is no doubt that his character was too impulsive and his justice extremely summary, but it is also true that his reign was affected by a series of rebellions and serious events that he had to repress as best he could. He never enjoyed the appreciation of his subjects who considered him inflexible, little inclined to piety, although it was not like that, abusive with taxes and little given to listening advice from no one. However, Dozy believes that he also had humanitarian feelings, like any other man, and that, despite of his cruel actions, his bad reputation was due, especially, to the wrath of the rebellious alfaquis, whom this emir never appreciated. And in this context, the terrible events of the suburb, rabad in Arabic, took place.

The emiral city of Córdoba had grown a lot. From Africa and from the East any Arabs and Berbers from the Maghreb continually arrived attracted by the prosperity of al-Andalus. The mosque had to be expanded larger to accommodate the number of believers who came to pray to it, and

The city was expanding beyond its walls. After the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir was restored, there was no longer a problem for the population to settle in a suburb on the left bank of the river, which reached the vicinity from a village, Shaqunda, ancient Roman Secunda.

The inhabitants of this suburb were of very diverse origins and they carried out a multitude of diverse jobs. Besides of what could be considered the Cordoba plebs, there were many small Mullawad and Christian artisans and merchants, but due to its proximity to the main mosque and the emiral palace, many Cordobans who were employed, either in the mosque or in the palace, they settled there. Among this diverse population, also found the alfaquíes, religious leaders of the doctrine Malikí, who had reached a very prominent position and a very notable influence at court, especially with the emir Hisham, father of al-Hakam I.

This suburb will soon become a focus of discontent towards the emir's policy, promoted by the same alfaquies who with al-Hakam had neither the appreciation nor the influence that they achieved with his predecessor. On the other hand, in the city al-Hakam did not enjoy of many sympathies so it was only a matter of time before the situation exploded.

And it happened that one day a rumor spread through the city that seventy-two leading citizens had been executed and that their corpses were going to be exposed, crucified, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. The mood be-

gan to exalt, without knowing or without asking themselves the reason for these executions. What happened was that a plot had been hatched to overthrow the emir and put in his place one of his cousins, the Umayyad Muhammad ben al-Qasim. Many notable people from the Córdoba of that time were involved in this conspiracy. Al-Hakam's cousin pretended to accept the proposal, but was immediately to tell the emir, also providing him with the list of the conspirators. Inthat same day, the emir ordered them to be arrested and executed, taking advantage of the occasion to order the murder of two of his uncles, sons of Abd al-Rahman I, who had been imprisoned since his ascension to the throne, possibly to prevent them from rebelling against him or challenging him for power. Between the crucified were figures of great social relevance, such as the son of a cadi, a palace eunuch, a market inspector and even a alfaqui. The impression that this action produced in Córdoba could not be more negative towards the emir, and the discontent, already notable, increased.

There was a plotting everywhere, at any time of the day. In the mosques, in the markets, in the streets discontent was chewed, while everyone distrusted everyone, believing they saw spies and confidants of the emir throughout the entire city.

Al-Hakam, aware of the mood, equipped himself withweapons, restored the walls, surrounded himself with a strong personal guard under the command of a Christian, Count Rabí, and prepared himself for the worst.

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the-woild-is-y-erster · 8 months

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haha since I got like six notes on the post abt my sprace thing here you suckers go

It's raining. and I mean pouring. And of course, it just so happens to be on my birthday, so its cold as balIs. and I'm not having a very good day.

I trudge back towards the lodging house, stomach grumbling and bag nearly full of papers I couldn't sell after it started raining. As I pass one of the parks that marks the border between Brooklyn and Queens, I wonder what Spot is doing. probably playing a game with his boys, not soaked and shivering, I think despondently. Deciding to try and wait out the rain for a bit, I duck under the awning of a shop, sitting on the curb. I take off my cap, wringing it out as I watch people with dark umbrellas pass on the street, hurrying towards their destinations.

I hear the shop door open behind me, and two people walk out. I don't bother to look who.

"It was so good to see you again, Sean." a girl's voice says. Sean...do I know a Sean? sounds familiar.

"Anytime, Sarah. Shall I walk youse home?" the boy's voice sounds like someone I should know, but I feel like I'm hearing him as though through a tunnel. "Oh, no, that's ok. I'm sure Ama and Papa are worried, and it's in the other direction. We should meet again soon though, I'd love to hear more about this friend of yours." I hear the teasing smile in the girls' voice as she speaks, and a responding embarrassed chuckle from the guy.

"Yeah, sure thing, Sar. How's about next Saturday? I-" he pauses, and I feel eyes on the back of my neck. "Tell ya what, I'll see you on Thursday, Jacobi's?" his eyes are still on me, but I get a lot of stares, so I don't think much of it.

The two say their goodbyes, and the girl walks away. I rub my nose. the rain doesn't seem to want to stop; if anything, it's raining harder now. I hear a splash next to me, and see a familiar pair of boots land on the street beside mine. I look up, surprised.

"Spot?"

he sits. "The one and only. What are you doin' all the way out here, Racer?" his shoulder brushes mine. I shrug. "Sold a grand total of twelve papes before this started." I gesture out towards the rain. "Decided to try and wait it out, but that seems like s'not gonna happen any time soon." I cross my arms on my knees, putting my chin on top.

I swallow, trying to ignore the pit I feel growing in my stomach. "Who-uh, who was she?" I ask quietly, half hoping Spot doesn't hear me. He looks over at me, but I keep my gaze firmly fixed on the street. "Who, Sarah? oh, she's Mouth's sister, we met at the rally. Why, you jealous?" he knocks his shoulder against mine, half grinning, but I can see the frown of his eyebrows out of the corner of my eye.

I huff a laugh. "Som'n like that. She nice?" the pit seems bottomless now.

"Plenty nice, we's got lots in common. She wants to go to college upstate, get her degree in English literature." Spot says, seemingly oblivious. I nod, feeling the pressure in my throat. "S' real good, Conlon. I'm glad." I abruptly stand, determined not to cry in front of him again. "Hey, listen, it's gettin' late, and Jack's probably worried, so i'se is just gonna..." I gesture vaguely over my shoulder, already half turned away. I hear Spot get to his feet behind me.

"Wait- Race!"

"Bye, Spot." I round the corner, and blink, hard. I start walking briskly, soaked to the bone and shivering like a leaf in the wind. Ignoring the sound of Spot calling after me back under the awning, I walk faster, a tear tracking its way down my face, disappearing with the rain.

"Anthony!" I hear splashing, and turn to see Spot running after me. he stops a few feet away, and I can already see his shirt getting wet. "Wait!"

"What is it, Conlon?" it comes out harsher than I mean it to, and he takes a step back. "Tony, what's your problem?" he asks, frowning. "One second we was havin' a perfectly civil conversation, the next you'se is storming off, 'boutta cry! Was it somethin' I said?" His slate blue eyes shine out from under the brim of his cap, concerned.

I look down at my boots, my jaw working as teardrops hit the tops of them. "I'm not gonna have this conversation yet, Conlon, because you-" I bite my tongue. "No. it's fine, I'm fine, I just need to get back to the lodge." I start turning around again.

"Anthony, please, what did I do? was it Sarah? I promise she's perfectly nice, her and her-"

"That's just it!" I explode, whipping back towards Spot. "That's the problem. You-" I blink, but it does nothing to help the steady flow of tears. "I what, Race? Please, why do you not like Sar so much, she-" he starts.

"Because I'm in love with you, okay?" I screw my eyes shut and hang my head. you've really done it now, you idiot. Oh well, might as well open your big mouth again and make it even worse. "And you have Sarah, and Jack has Davey, and Blink has Mush, and Katherine has- I dunno, but that's just it." I open my eyes again to see Spot's mouth hanging open, a look of shock frozen on his face. "I'm alone. I'm alone in a world of couples, and I'm so. desperately. lonely." I snatch my hat off my head, waving it around in frustration. "And I'm in love with you, and I know you'll never feel the same, because it's wrong, and you have Sarah now, but I'm so pathetically alone, and yeah, I have Jack, and I guess I have you now, but I just- I need to be held, I need to receive the same love I've given my entire life, I need someone to just be with, and I-" I'm cut off my a pair of lips on mine.

haha love me some good *checks notes* happy couples

might be a smidge outta character but I wrote this when I was sad and projecting lmao

#newsies #s'posed to be 92sies specifically but its whatevs #92sies #zee's scribbles!#sprace #spot conlon #racetrack higgins #also spreading my 'spot n sarah are besties for the resties' propaganda #you literally can't convince me otherwise

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see-arcane · 5 months

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What are your favorite things about reading/writing horror?

It's equal parts eerily lighthearted "It feels fun to me!" and "It satisfies a craving I have for a Force greater than human evil and human power."

You may have noticed that I have an almost exclusive preference for supernatural horror versus, say, strictly human psychological dramas and thrillers. I make exceptions for over-the-top displays like Saw and Hannibal because they take place in a reality so theatrical they border on the edge of impossible. But I'll stay away from stories in the vein of The Purge, Megan is Missing, and The Poughkeepsie Tapes because there really are kernels of plausibility in people committing these atrocities. That flavor just ends up depressing more than scaring me. Hence why all my scribbling has some element of the fantastic in it--humanity is never left alone with itself. It's always humans plus Something Else.

To get up on a soapbox about participating in the horror genre as a whole, I'd also say I enjoy it because of the freedom it comes with. The absolute lack of a mandate to be polite and polished and safe for consumption.

In a world that's becoming increasingly saturated with self-censorship, social media and literature and films that infantilize and reduce language into a sellable package, and everyone taking a microscope to their outward performance and the lives of strangers in some warped neo-Puritan Satanic Panic 2.0 race to point fingers at anyone who isn't Ethically Consuming Good (tm) Positive (c) Content (r) because anyone who enjoys/makes icky evil scary media must OBVIOUSLY be just as obscene as the monsters in them...

Well.

Horror is a blissful oasis of blood, fire, terror, and many a devilish or undead middle finger raised in salute to today's pearl-clutching stone-throwers.

The short version: My favorite thing about reading and writing (and watching and listening to!) horror is that it scratches a specific itch in my brain. I couldn't not participate in it if I tried 👁

#even shorter version: I would crack like an egg if I wasn't doing this shit Anon #on that note #I probably owe folks an update on The Vampyres and it's trudge toward publication #but not until I have some bones put together about it #anyway #horror #writing

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protoslacker · 6 months

Text

Songs are funny things

I'm not very dumb, but not very smart either. And I'm old and I work. So there's whole bunches of stuff that's important that I'm pretty ignorant about. I am glad to be curious. As ignorant as I am, I often fall into rabbit holes.

I was thinking about songs. I want people to sing songs. There's a quote by Pete Seeger about songs which I like very much:

“Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.”

I was mulling over the trouble with people singing other people's songs. And thought of a lecture that Lawrence Lessig gave a long time ago. Searching for it the very first google result was a link to Leonard Lin's blog random($foo). Lin had put the lecture on the Internet and it's kind of cool to see how it was done back then. I headed over to YouTube to watch Lessig's talk at the O.Reilly Open Source Conference in July of 2002.

The talk is still worthwhile. At the time some of my creative friends thought Lessig was a sort of villain, so his talks got talked about.

At Tumblr someone I am very pleased to have encountered is Dr. Damien P. Williams. Something about meeting him at first on here is knowing what a kind and good person he is prior to discovering his deep erudition about the social implications of technology. These days I follow him on Mastodon where he pointed to an episode of NPR'S Code Switch with Safiya Noble dealing with "the complex questions that arise when algorithms and AI intersect with race."

It's a wonderful interview which really does touch on complexities, but the part that really made an impression was her background in advertising before returning to graduate school and earning her Ph.D. It put the economics of enclosure front and center in discussing AI.

I'm describing my fall down a rabbit hole and I think the next thing I engaged with was a post by Andy Baio at WAXY, Weird A.I. Yankovic, a cursed deep dive into the world of voice cloning. Songs are funny things.

After that I landed on a review of a new book by Yanis Varoufakis by Christopher Pollard at The Conversation, Is capitalism dead? Yanis Varoufakis thinks it is – and he knows who killed it. The book is entitled Techno-feudalism: What Killed Capitalism and will be available in print in the US in February. I listened to several interviews with Varoufakis and searched for literature on Neo-feudalism. It's certainly an idea I want to learn more about.

Back in the early oughts there was a book, Netocracy : the new power elite and life after capitalism by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist. For a little while the ideas were discussed quite a lot online. Remembering those conversations I did not anticipate how incredibly concentrated the autocracy would become, i.e., how few feudal lords there would be. And I paid too little attention to Chinese technology. But Bard coined a term for a new underclass called the "consumtariat" which seems quite handy and has stuck with me over the years.

It's going to take me a long while to wrap my head around neo-feudalism. But I suspect it will be time well spent.

Wendy Grossman at net.wars has a recent post, The end of ownership. The provocation for the post is a garage door opener which among other evils forces an ad on you before you can open the garage door. Grossman points to Cory Doctorow, The enshittification of garage-door openers reveals a vast and deadly rot. I'd laugh, but it telling how fast technology and the tech-lords are enclosing us.

Who can sing songs and whose songs can we sing are urgent questions.

#neo-feudalism #netocracy #AI #ownership #rent #serfs #book #yanis varoufakis

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sakuramidnight15 · 9 months

Text

-RSA OC Information-

Character Bio

Name: Isamu Agni

(Japanese: イサム・アグニ)

Romaji: Isamu Aguni

Quote: "Many have will bounds on their own, it's their lives and not ours."

V/A: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese)

Gender: Male

Age: ???

Birthday: March 25

Star Sign: Aries

Eye Color: Dark Misty Blue (His normal eye color)

??? (Unknown Eye Color)

Hair Color: Black to Royal Blue Ombre

Height: 200 cm

Race: Crestia Demi-God

Species: Celestial Type (High-ranked)

Homeland: Themyscira Empire (4th Kingdom Level)

Family: Unnamed Father

Unnamed Mother (Cut off ties)

Unnamed Brothers

Unnamed Relatives

_______________________________________

School Status and Fun Facts

Dorm: Crystaleon (@fumikomiyasaki)

School Year: Third

Class: 3-B (Same Class with Ismene)

Student no. 17

Occupation: Student

Up-holder of the Agni Family

The Empire's Spirit Flame User

Club: N/A

Best Subject: Literature, Potions, and P.E.

Dominant Hand: Ambidextrous (Mostly his left hand)

Favorite Color: Dark Colors (Mostly Blue) and Black

Favorite Food: BBQs, Fried Kebabs, Anything Spicy in the ordinary, Lemonade, Meat (Mostly), Veggies (In general), Sour Candies (Mostly Lemon),

Least Favorite Food: Syrup Sweet Candies (Mostly), Too much Mayonnaise, Charred Food (Mostly), Bubble Gum, Ox Meat,

Likes: Exploring New Places (Mostly), Doing Simple Fire Tricks (Mostly), Meeting other specimen races (Mostly within the Rift), Watching Moonrise and Sunsets, Reading Ancient Books in Libraries, His Father and Brothers,

Dislikes: Dealing about much with Aine's Antics (Well he didn't hate it that much from her), Unwanted Tricks (Mostly), Anything that mentions his mother (Mostly), Direct Spells at him, People being unreasonable to him, Losing Concentration,

Hobbies: Selective Memory, Exploring new places (Mostly), Babysitting Aine (Sometimes, Though he isn't bothered much by this at all), Reading Ancient Books (Mostly), Communication amongst Fire Messages (Mostly, from his family and witches at the empire), Finishing his plate of food,

Talents: High-skilled Celestial Magic, Levitation Abilities, Demi-God Physical Strength, Fire Mage Abilities, Dark Flame Spiritual Skills, Spirit Communication, Claymore Swordsmanship, ???,

Nicknames: Isa (From his family and friends)

Isamu-senpai or Agni-senpai (From the freshmen students)

Young Master (From all the Servants)

Big Brother (From his younger brothers)

Issy (From Aine, although it sounded like a harsh nickname)

Amu (From Achlys and Venomia)

Other Nicknames:

The Empire's Spirit Flame User

_______________________________________

Appearance and Personality

Appearance: Isamu holds a very visible muscular body build and also has a stable structure of his uphold which was the result of physical and endurance training sessions. He has black and royal blue colored haired ombre which tends to be very long at the bottom of his heel of his feet. He has dark misty blue colored eyes which they can trigger into an unknown color when using his crestia demi-god abilities. Isamu is known within the empire for his composed behavior but he tends to be blunt for his common facts for his words.

Personality: Born as the eldest son within his family household within the empire of the rift borders, he himself was originally supposed to be the leading heir of the family main blood-tree but unfortunately it didn't pass onto him but passed onto one of his brothers, much to the misfortune of the family which of course his mother didn't much likely had much thought on any of her sons, which it includes Isamu which resulted a gap between them. Since he was the firstborn eldest son, he still then focused on his fire abilities with the training that he can take by the assistance of his father and his teachers, whom he holds close to alongside his younger brothers as well within his childhood but could never understand his mother one bit as he grows up.

Well that is until after his youngest brother became heir, the family realized that the youngest child was incapable of performing the dark fire after reaching to the top which put his mother into a rage of outburst that same day, while Isamu and few of his brothers attempted to help his youngest brother in need of comfort in the evening, a raid attack appeared which it had resulted in the eldest son to notice that he was capable of the performing dark flame. Despite being the only one capable enough for the performance, he then decided to use this in order to protect his family and his brothers within his training.

The current Isamu we're meeting is now a well-behaved and composed crestia demi-god within the dormitory, who seems to keep his schedule balanced as he manages much in his timeline of busyness and workload as the current flame user within the empire in his family household, but whenever he's not busy he tends to have a habit of exploring other places such as the other countries of the rift border, anything he sees opens the tiniest spark of curiosity. Even though he is a crestia demi-god himself, that doesn't stop him from learning new things that are outside of nobility within the walls.

He rarely shows more of his emotions yet that he wants to explore them, although he has the patience to wait for himself to understand. Although he's mostly blunt and speaks through the common facts from his lips, eventually most of his words were simple to know. But it often annoyed Aine quite often which he often watches her over like a baby-sitter, though his bluntly persona didn't falter much. But if he did show some piece of emotion, such as smiling. Anyone knows that beauty is such a killing feature on his face and you know it.

For the best to not even test him at all, if so then the flames all within and around will then be visible to your eyesight at a brink of seeing how he's being messed with by anyone who tries to. True that Isamu has patience that can last for a whole day and can deal with much as he can handle, but if things get out of hand quickly, but do expect for Isamu to raise his hand at the slightest yet you won't see him do his action on you. Though then again, his physical strength plus the flames on him is now enough to end your skin and flesh since they are dark and they burn faster than normal fire power.

Fueled by anything to him alone is one thing to handle the heat, but there are other things that need to settle with. But for now, he still has a lot to learn to handle his family legacy and protection.

_______________________________________

Trivia

-The name 'Isamu' is a Japanese name meaning 'Courage, Bravery, Achievement.' While his surname 'Agni' is the meaning of 'Fire, flame' and is a girl's name of Sanskrit origin.

-He is based on Clive Rosfield, one of the protagonists from the 'Final Fantasy' Game Series.

-Apparently, he seems to have 18 younger brothers, which the youngest is about to enter teenage age while the others around younger within his age. Though they liked to be with him at all times since he was the eldest.

-He seems to be neutral with his dorm alongside with its dorm residents but is seen with his fellow crestia-demi gods. He's on the light side of the dorm.

-He often reads ancient books a lot in his free time.

-He knows a lot about dark flame abilities during his childhood, which his family and him are familiar with witches and their abilities whenever a witch visits them. So Isamu is familiar with witches whenever he sees or meets one.

-Like Aine and Achlys, he too is a pure demi-god and is also different.

-He seems to be in good terms with Achlys, which both of them are sparing partners on a daily basis during break time.

-He often explores other locations such as the other countries within the rift border that speaks his curiosity in him, he seems to have studied every single specimen race he sees whenever he goes.

-Aine seems to be annoyed with Isamu, which he was aware of. Which resulted into him becoming her watch over ( as in babysitter ) on a daily basis, but Aine isn't pleased with it which Isamu didn't care and went with it. The two have a very interesting relationship which seems a bit troublesome.

-He and Venomia were previously dance partners, but the two were just normally friends after meeting each other.

-Based on the info that had been mentioned, he wasn't picked to be the heir for the family main-blood as he was supposed to despite being a firstborn but it was passed onto his youngest brother who became the heir but Isamu wasn't bothered by it and continued his training. However it was revealed that his youngest sibling was incapable of doing the dark flame performance after reaching to the top but Isamu was the one doing so one evening of an attack, in which resulted in their mother entering an abusing and violent outbreak towards Isamu and his younger brothers. Eventually Isamu hadn't forgotten about the trauma that he and his brothers went through.

-His voice sounds very calming and mature, but the tone changes whenever things get serious for him. Which is why I chose Kenjiro Tsuda for his voice actor.

-He has a strong resentment towards his mother after everything had happened in the past. He had no plans of reconciliation with him.

-Though it appears that his father often worries Isamu, which the young tried not to worry about him too much.

-Isamu and his flames are often the heater for his fellow buddies, which he doesn't mind it.

-Losing concentration means for him to snap immediately.

#mc #oc #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #gacha club #gacha games #bio #character information #royal sword academy #rsa #isamu agni #isa #gacha club mod

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sincerely-angel1 · 2 months

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💕 OC INFO DUMP 💕

Name: Anathema

Name Meaning: “a thing devoted”

Nickname: Annie

Race: Hispanic

Occupation/Job: Marine Life Veterinarian at Seattle State Aquarium

~ Physical Appearance ~

Age: 26

Eye Color: Hazel/Brown

Hair Color: Black

Type of body/Build: Slim but filled out, medium height

Skin Tone: Dark Tan skin with pink and red undertones

Freckles: Yes 😊

Healthy?: Yes very, she was on a lot of prescription diets for awhile

~ Favorites ~

Favorite Color: Red (she looks amazing in red Fr 💕)

Least Favorite Color: Gray

Food: Anything really, but she especially loves chicken

Literature: When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

Daredevil or Cautious?: Cautious

Habits: she has a bad habit of digging her nails into her arms when she gets nervous or stressed..

Hobbies: She enjoys cooking, cleaning, and baking

Does she drink?: No

~ Background ~

Hometown: Barcelona, Spain

Type of Childhood: Rough lmao

Story: When she was around 6 years old, her mother and father decided to move to the Americas. They were on visa, so they barely spoke any English, And they were having some trouble getting past border control. Since they spoke little English and didn’t understand much about American customs, they didn’t really think much of it when two men showed up, and offered to take care of their daughter while they figured their papers out.

So Annie ended up with these guys for a long time, who sort of just made her do their laundry, chores, and other stuff. They never got sexual with her or anything, and they did eventually get arrested for kidnapping. After that, she was raised in foster care until eventually ending up being adopted by a doctor.

He was good to her and raised her until she graduated and then went off to become a Marine Life Vet.

It was while she was in college that she began attending church and met her future husband.

Religion: Catholic

~ Family ~

Mother: Whereabouts Unknown; Annie was never really sure if she got into the country or was forced back to Spain, either way, her parents never tried to make contact with her after she was kidnapped.

Father: Her Birth father is also Unknown, but she’s very close with her adoptive father and loves him to death

Siblings: She has an adopted older brother named Carlos who’s overseas with the military.

~ Attitude ~

Most at ease when: Probably when she’s at work with her sea critters or with her husband

ill at ease when: When she’s triggered by something or yelled at

Priorities: She has a big priority of making sure everyone else is happy and took care of before herself.

Philosophy: treat others how you want to be treated

~ Traits/Personality ~

Optimist or Pessimist?: Optimist

Introvert or Extrovert?: Introvert

Talents: She’s a very good cook/baker and she’s very intelligent

Extremely skilled at: Cooking, baking, cleaning, and her job of course. She’s the lead Marine Vet at her aquarium

Extremely unskilled at: Sewing and Painting

Good Characteristics: She’s very kind, she’ll do anything for anyone, even if it’s a stranger

Character Flaws: She’s extremely timid, and she’s quite the people pleaser, so she often doesn’t tell her own thoughts or feelings

Biggest Accomplishment: Majoring in Marine Biology and becoming a Marine Life Vet

Darkest Secret: it’s not a huge deal but uh..she got her husband to break his priestly vows before he was her husband 😦

#oc info #my ocs are my children #oc artwork #ocs #i’m going to show you my ocs and you’re going to like it #oc #my ocs <3 #my oc stuff #my ocs #my characters #anathema #she’s a marine veterinarian #marine biology #marine life #oc info dump #info dump

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illumeew · 3 months

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north star | beiguang

Summary: More’s the pity that phoenixes are few. Captain Beu has witnessed enough battles to know what it feels like to win some, and to lose some. But as she watched her North Star fall, the fragileness in her was inescapable, and so did the light in her eyes, fighting to stay alive.

Tags: slight angst, open ending/no fixed ending, cliffhanger, very descriptive words used/in paragraphs

A/N: hey! this one's a short one; a drabble, and the names and terms used here are counterparts of the actual ones from the game itself, so i will be providing a vocab list at the end! (its bc i submitted this for my literature class and had to use other names!) although not knowing the new terms won't affect your reading ;3, enjoy!

The sounds of the boat paddled to the rhythm of the wind’s howls, and under the abyssal sky did the pale crescent moon glow amongst a blanket of stars that stretched to infinity. The night has yet to cease, though fragments upon fragments of the day began to twinkle in the far east. The sea bore not a single one of the orthopteran crickets, but in a way, that was all that filled Captain Beu’s ears.

The wind nipped at her bare arms and shoulders, skin paling at the icy bites, followed by another zephyr howl from the sky. Since the sun dawned through her window, the captain felt a sense of unfamiliarity with the world once her heel met the wooden boards of the Falcor ship, a loud ‘krrriiiinnggg!’ echoing in the confines of her body, as she took in a whiff of the enigmatic air.

One word from her men saying they were nearing Ilyue’s borders had Beu rushing to the wheel, yelling at those in charge of the pit to crank the speed. The anomaly within her was something she couldn’t ignore any longer; not with both that and Ning circling her mind.

The ship’s passed the vicinity of Guangyao Shoal, and Beu’s sudden spike of nervousness wouldn’t go away any the less. The unexpected change of behavior in the captain shook the Falcor Fleet with an unexplainable fear.

Beu’s hands, dextrous and skilled yet brutish and battered, held onto the wheel like sap. Her ruby eyes were trained forward, sharp and serrated—like the tip of her greatsword—and they glowed like blood red sapphire.

Roughly, she swerved right.

` The ship’s passed the vicinity of southwest Guizho. The fore of the Falcor raised slightly above the waves, its speed gradually increasing by the minute, all the while Beu’s trepidation has yet to go away. Above them was a blank sheet of dread with an air of despair, yet a scent of resolve was present, wavering and faltering, faint but beating.

She looked down at the wooden floorboards of the deck where she stood and maneuvered the boat, breathing senselessly; harshly; carelessly. She was unmoving, her feet nailed to the ground, head hung low unknowingly of defeat or regret.

Despite the ill-lit sky, she felt as if the night got darker.

She looked up from the ground, her head rising up just in time for her men to warn her about the rising waves pulling them from the front. She yelled for the sails to be pulled as she continuously spun the wheel to avoid conflicting with the raging tides.

Barely but successfully, amidst the wallowing sea, an array of joyful cries were heard. Though what anomaly was behind the relentless attacks couldn’t have been the rainbow after the storm. She thought, ‘Ning’s safe. I know she is.

‘This isn’t happening right now. I must be dreaming.

'…

'Yeah. I’m dreaming.’

But she felt her heart race and hands tremble—something she knew should’ve happened earlier. If not for the overwhelming feeling, she would have noticed her palms sweat and her breathing erratically shaking, and the topaz gem on her ring fading slowly. She would have noticed.

“Dàjiě.”

“Not now, Zua—”

“Ning… Ning’s up there, and she’s about to do something she’ll regret.”

A/N: hey! you may be a little confused with the terms used in this drabble, so here's a vocab list!

beu – beidou ning – ningguang zua – kazuha chamber amethyst – jade chamber guangyao shoal – yaoguang shoal guizho – guili plains falcor – the alcor flagship falcor fleet – the crux

also i just realized that the kazuha character was already in this scene even though this scene was inspired by (and takes place during) turning point in chapter i: act iii - a new star approaches, but oh well..

hehe, thank you sm for reading!

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hrk4 · 4 months

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The year that was...

“Slippery slope. I carry a spare shirt, pretty soon I’m carrying spare pants. Then I’d need a suitcase. Next thing I know, I’ve got a house and a car and a savings plan and I’m filling out all kinds of forms.” —Jack Reacher (in Lee Child’s 2007 novel Bad Luck and Trouble)

For close to a year, I have been fortunate to be part of the Saturday morning conversazione that takes place in the office of Dr. S R Ramaswamy (SRR), who is more than a mentor to me. In one of the early meetings of 2023, SRR gave me his personal copies of two Jack Reacher novels (by James Dover Grant, who writes under the pseudonym Lee Child) and added with a smile, "I must warn you, these are addictive!"

A few days after that, I was going to be on a long train to Pune and had taken the novel with me. Even before we crossed the Karnataka border, I had finished reading the novel and cursed myself for not having brought the other one too (which was a result of my underestimation of my own reading speed). As soon as I came back to Bangalore, I raced through the other novel. When I returned the two novels to SRR, he gave me more. It had been years since I had read fiction and given that my day job involves reading, writing, design, and publication, I had forgotten the art of reading for pleasure. This gesture on SRR's part rekindled that spark. The flipside was that I started finding films and web series tiresome!

I mostly read Jack Reacher novels this year and what fascinated me the most (besides the intricate plots, value conflicts, and the edge-of-the-seat twists and turns) was the universal appeal of a character like Reacher who lives like a monk and fights like a tiger; even in the materialistic West the allure of a man who is detached and driven by a strong sense of dharma is irresistible. And that gives me hope.

Soon I will hit forty. Probably my best years are behind me but I like to believe that they are yet to come. To augment this belief, I lay out my plans for 2024 before getting into my recollections of 2023.

I have three short-term goals, which I wish to complete in the next six months: i. Organise my library ii. Simplify my wardrobe iii. Consolidate my finances and four lifestyle goals that I wish to continue through the year: 1. Exercise daily 2. Read more, and more varied books 3. Play the violin more 4. Avoid sugar and fried foods at all costs

Some of the books in the pipeline for this year are: A R Krishnasastri’s Kathāmṛta, a new edition of Bhāsa’s Svapna-vāsavadatta, D V Gundappa’s Jīvana-dharma-yoga translated by Raghavendra Hebbalalu and Sreelalitha Rupanagudi, Volumes VII and VIII of DVG’s Art Gallery of Memories, S R Ramaswamy’s Silhouettes of Excellence, Sripriya Srinivasan’s book on Pallava history for high school students, minor poems of Nīlakaṇṭha-dīkṣita, and Jayadeva’s Gīta-govindam, among others.

I'm also working on a few exciting projects with cousin Dr. Chandra Shekhar (a short stories anthology), my college classmate Sudarshan K A (on financial wisdom), and with my friends Ganesh Bhat Koppalatota and Neelakanth Kulkarni (curating the best of Kannada literature), and I hope that at least a few of these see completion by end of the year.

I was lucky to have a front row seat as the following books unfolded through the course of the year: Three volumes of DVG's Kannada writings in translation (Contemporaries of Vidyaranya, his writings on the two epics of India, and an anthology of his essays on poetics), Vols. V and VI of the Art Gallery of Memories by DVG, Śatāvadhānī Dr. R Ganesh's Kṣāttra: The Tradition of Valour in India, and Dr. L Subramaniam's Festival Beyond Borders, among others.

I was able to facilitate the publication of three books by family members: my mother's booklet of life-lessons titled Song of my Soul, my father's monograph on The Amazing Human Mind, and my great-uncle (Late) Sri S Rangarajan's mammoth 648-page memoirs titled It Happens as Ordained.

The highlight, however, was a little book that I co-wrote with Dr. Ganesh titled The Essential Sanatana Dharma.

In addition to working on a few books in 2023, I was also invited to give lectures on a variety of topics, some of which were at the insistence of Dr. Arathi V B who has often magnanimously offered me opportunities that are far beyond my ken. If my calculations are right, I must have given no less than eighteen lectures this year. Friends like Madhulika Srivatsa, Sagar Mehta, and Vani Anur invited me to their homes to give lectures to their family and friends, which were highly rewarding.

I had the singular fortune of addressing a large number of school children, teachers, young parents, devout Hindus, et al. on topics as varied as life skills to the essentials of Sanātana-dharma; from the importance of history and heritage to world musical genres (at an elders' enrichment centre); from Indian Knowledge Systems to the Art Gallery of Memories (series of lectures at the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs); and on the Artha-śāstra, Mahābhārata, Bhagavad-gītā, and Śrīkṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta.

For more than two decades I have been attending the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival (LGMF) organised by my guru Dr. L Subramaniam (along with his wife, Smt. Kavita Krishnamurti, who is the director of the festival); for some years, I was also active in the organising committee of the festival. Each edition of the LGMF has been a historic event and 2023 was no different. The upcoming tour is no less exciting with a remarkable orchestra from Kazakhstan visiting India.

Some of the other memorable events that I attended in 2023 include the third edition of Madanotsava organised by my good friends Nirupama and Rajendra, the eightieth birthday celebrations of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam organised by Drishti Arts Centre, the fifth World Coffee Conference (thanks to my friend Ananth Bhatt), and a lovely eighty-fifth birthday celebration of my great-uncle Sri R Vasudevan that included a superb concert by the musician-surgeon of our family, Dr. Mukund Jagannathan.

Despite some challenges, the home situation was stable. My mother and my grandmother moved to an apartment next to my place and my father and brother regularly visit. I became one of the Trustees of our family trust and that means greater opportunity to help the community. I have also been involved in some consolidation of my finances so that I won't have to worry about money after 2024. I echo the sentiments of Jack Reacher in Gone Tomorrow (2009) — “I'm a rich man. To have everything you need is the definition of affluence.”

There are times when our family and friends perform an unexpected act of kindness that leaves us fumbling for words. My grandmother's younger sister, Smt. Shanti Rangarajan, aged 89, made a trip all the way from Chennai to Bangalore (with her daughter Deepta) to spend time with my mother on her 66th birthday, given that she was just recovering from her surgery and was home-bound.

When I was in Mumbai earlier this year, I happened to ping my BMS College classmate Anshuman Borah, who emigrated to UK some years ago. He immediately wrote back saying that he was in Pune to sell his flat. I had been in Pune that very morning; distraught at having missed catching up with him, I called him up to berate him for not telling me earlier. He immediately said, "I'll come to Mumbai tomorrow. Just send me your location and I'll be there to pick you up." Sure enough, the next morning he took a taxi from Pune all the way to Mumbai just to meet me. We had a nice lunch and spent five or six hours before he took a taxi back to Pune. (And there were times in college when we have shared a jhal mudi costing Rs. 10 because we had run out of cash!)

Anu and Chandra (technically my mother's generation but more like friends/cousins to me) generously offered me a carte blanche to pursue whatever projects I wish to, without fretting about the monetary implications. Their gesture has inspired me to work even more towards a larger cause, especially in the fields of culture, literature, music, and education, which are of common interest to us.

Prof. L V Shanthakumari has been a mentor-guru-adopted grandmother to me and many other friends. Earlier this year, she was visiting her younger son Sri Niranjana who lives across the town from her, in faraway Marathahalli. Our ancestral house in Halasuru is almost the mid-point between her house and her son's house, so I requested LVS madam to consider visiting us for lunch. She graciously agreed and visited us with Niranjana, who incidentally lived in the same neighbourhood many years earlier! My family and I were thrilled to host LVS madam and we spent a lovely afternoon together.

My cousin Arun was slated to visit India in August along with my aunt and uncle. I was planning to borrow my father's car so that I could take Arun around. Right at that time, my good friend Chandrashekhar told me, "I just bought a new car and there's the old one languishing in my place. Just take it and use it for as long as you want." Thanks to Chandru, I was able to drive around Arun and later had reliable transportation for myself, especially during some of the busy months of the year. After relying on public transport for more than a year, this came as a real boon.

My good friend Arjun Bharadwaj always teases me of excessively indulging in what he playfully dubs "Eating-Outing-Meeting." While I am an introvert by temperament, I often step out for these E-O-Ms for a dose of enrichment. Outside of my books and my music, I find nothing more enjoyable than a meaningful conversation with friends and savants.

It has been my great fortune to have come in contact with so many greats of our time—and in some cases, even dine with them and travel with them.

One of our Saturday morning meet-ups took place on Church Street with SRR taking us (Vighneshwar Bhat, Sandeep Balakrishna, Arjun Bharadwaj, and me) to Select Book Shop, which was started by a friend of his. Later he took us out to lunch and simply refused to let any of us pay.

Ambi (my uncle, Dr. Koti Sreekrishna) visited India earlier this year and even stayed with me for a few days. I had a great time with him, discussing everything from the ridiculous to the sublime—often through the course of a meal in a nearby restaurant. I also had the chance to drag two of my friends (Arjun and GS) to meet Ambi and his elder brother Kanna (my uncle, Sri K Srinivas) at their ancestral house. The conversations, mostly revolving around the the great epics of India, were memorable (with some of it secretly captured on video and clandestinely posted on Facebook by Ambi).

My cousin Arun visited India in August and stayed with me. It had been years since we had met and there was so much to talk about. It was really inspiring to see his focus and his ability to grasp new ideas. I introduced him to a bunch of my friends and we all had a memorable time. Cousin Anita could not visit and was sorely missed, but she had just had a baby (my second nephew, Jayanth).

Arjun and I visited Mysore to meet Dr. S L Bhyrappa, who graciously invited us to lunch with him. Following that, we proceeded to Pandavapura to meet Mr. Anke Gowda, who has the largest personal collection of books that I have seen (over 1 million books). We were thrilled to visit his library as he enthusiastically showed us around. He has been collecting books for some seven decades with his meagre salary, driven by intense passion and devotion to literature.

Through the course of the year, in addition to the regular meet-ups with my friends, gurus, and family, I had the opportunity to meet a host of interesting people: Sri Prafulla Ketkar (Chief Editor, Organiser), Sri Shivaswami (Bhagavad-gītā scholar), Dr. Manohar Shinde (Founder, Dharma Civilization Foundation), Dr. Shekhar Borgaonkar (my father's college classmate and old friend), Dr. Kanniks Kannikeswaran (musician-composer-educator), and the dedicated people who run Rashtrotthana Vidya Kendra at Hagaribommanahalli, among others.

It is a co-incidence that the year began with a trip to Ellora and just as 2023 came to an end, during the course of our Madhya Pradesh road-trip, the first destination was Ellora. It was wonderful to visit that puṇya-kṣetra twice in a calendar year.

In addition to visiting Solapur, Sambhajinagar, Pune, Mumbai, Karwar, and Chennai, I went to Valparai (Tamil Nadu) for our annual boys' trip, with more friends joining the fray:

I spent the last days of the year on the road: traversing 3,800+ kilometres (Bangalore-Ellora-Maheshwar-Indore-Ujjain-Vidisha/Sanchi-Udayapur-Khajuraho-Bedaghat-Bangalore) in nine days with five of my friends and a shoe-string budget.

Among the many highlights of the trip was visiting Ahalyabai Holkar Smarak at Maheshwar.

To see her humble dwelling and to contrast that with her unparalleled achievements was an inspiration. These are the real heroes of our land and it is a sin to forget them.

Sri C R Sathya, the grandson of Prof. A R Krishnasastri and a remarkable space scientist (and writer) in his own right died earlier this year. He had been a great support during the time I co-translated The Essential Mahabharata. Not many people know that the gentleman on the right side of this iconic photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson is C R Sathya:

A few other greats who breathed their last in 2023 include Sri Siddeshwar Swamiji; the great gamaki Sri Chandrashekar Kedilaya; Wayne Shorter, the legendary jazz saxophonist; Sri B K S Varma, the painter par excellence; and iconic filmmaker Sri K Viswanath. I had the great fortune of meeting and interacting with both B K S Varma and K Viswanath some years ago.

The changes around us end up affecting us in some way, directly or indirectly, unless of course we are really cut off and have isolated ourselves from society. In this vein, it might be instructive to broadly look at some of the events from 2023.

India has marched forward under the visionary leadership of Sri Narendra Modi, who has never failed to impress with his tireless striving for a better future.

India is now the most populous country with a host of internal problems, largely fuelled by predatory ideologies, be it the clashes between the Kuki and the Meitei or the Nuh violence or even the denigration of Sanātana-dharma, which is the most inclusive religio-philosophical system in the world. Despite this and some of the self-inflicted wounds to the economy, the country witnessed the manner in which challenges were masterfully met, be it the organisation of the spectacular G20 or the rescue of 41 miners trapped in the Uttarakashi tunnel, be it seamlessly shifting to the new parliament building or sending Chandrayaan III to the moon.

After the demonic attack that took place on October 7th, 2023, the world is slowly realising the danger of the bloodthirsty death cult masquerading as a religion. More and more countries are rejecting the pseudo-liberal ideologies of the left and are instead moving far right, which is also dangerous in its own way. Coupled with this, we are unsure of the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the future of humans. And somewhere amidst all this chaos, unknown men are quietly doing their work. And that brings me a great deal of peace.

Thanks for reading this far, and with this I wish you and your family a wonderful new year! I hope it will be filled with joy, good health, prosperity, and moments to cherish. May your dreams come true!

— Appendix

I wish to share some of the fantastic accomplishments of a few people in my circle. It is, as always, an ad hoc list that I have prepared on the spur of the moment. I might have missed out some but those that I have listed are certainly notable:

Brahmin Genocide is an important topic researched by Sri Balaji Mahalingam (who writes under the pseudonym Asi) that brings to the fore an injustice that has pervaded our society in the last couple of centuries and must be immediately rectified if Hinduism is to survive. The first edition of the book was sold out in just a few months and he is now working on the second edition.

The seventh century CE Sanskrit play Bhagavad-ajjukam was documented by Nirupama and Rajendra with support from Sudha Murty, Śatāvadhānī Dr. R Ganesh, Praveen D Rao, Arjun Bharadwaj, et al.—see the Introduction and the complete play (with subtitles).

Bhāratīya Kṣāttra Paramparā (Hindi translation by Prof. Dharmaraj Singh Vaghela) Earlier this year, when the book Kṣāttra was released, I gave a copy of the book to my uncle Prof. Vaghela. The very next day, he called me and said that it is an important book which must reach the Hindi heartland and offered to translate it into Hindi. Dr. Ganesh immediately gave his consent. In a matter of months, he finished the translation, which is now appearing on www.prekshaa.in as a series and will soon be published in book form.

My good friend and former colleague Arjun Bharadwaj has come out with two remarkable books this year: the first, titled Nayana-Savana (co-written with Śatāvadhānī Dr. R Ganesh), which is a creative appreciation of some of the major productions of the legendary Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and the second, titled Indian Perspective of Truth and Beauty in Homer’s Epics, which is worthy of a D.Litt. no less.

S R Ramaswamy's latest work titled Sāhitya Sānnihitya is an anthology of book reviews and writings on literature.

Saṃskṛti is a reprint of a charming little book on culture with essays by littérateurs including Devudu Narasimha Shastri, A N Murthy Rao, A N Krishna Rao, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, and C K Venkataramayya.

Prekshaa Pratishtana has brought out a lovely introductory video that summarises its vision and objectives. They continue to publish many books every year and maintain an ad-free online journal (www.prekshaa.in) with authentic content on Indian heritage for one and all.

My cousin Arun Prasad continues to do remarkable work with Ambuda, the online digital library for Sanskrit.

The best of Śatāvadhānī Dr. R Ganesh's writings in Kannada have been compiled in two volumes with the title Rāga-bhāratī.

Dr. G Sudesh Kumar, a close family friend, recently authored a coffee-table book titled History of Sri Parakala Mutt.

#memoirs #newyear #musings

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