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casspurrjoybellbittner · 3 months

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Wreckless - Assembly Blues

*Warning Adult Content*

Finnegan' Walker's entire week quickly went downhill. By Tuesday afternoon he still hadn't heard from Emmett Locke, not that it was all that late in the week but he had called last Tuesday so a small part of him expected it. More accurately, considering how the date had gone, he was scared Emmett wouldn't call at all and since it was Tuesday, that bit of worry had transformed itself into a huge ball of nastiness that he couldn't quite name.

Then, at a little past three o'clock, his general manager came into his office holding two of the new circuit boards and looking like someone had died. Finnegan tried to smile and reassure Richard, two fails was perfectly acceptable this early in the game. That's why they had done the run through today and not Friday. They had three days to fix whatever was wrong before they went into full production on Monday.

"Two's not bad, Richard."

He wasn't quite sure why the man had brought them to his office, he certainly couldn't fix them.

"Uh, no boss, I don't think you understand. These are the only two that passed."

"Out of forty?" he exclaimed.

"That's impossible."

"Yeah, It's not good," Richard confirmed.

"Even worse, we've found three faults so far. It's so random and the engineers are down there scratching their heads."

Three faults? One fault, even as widespread as this one was, was fixable. It was probably a small calibration, even a timing issue. Unfortunately, the two working circuit boards that Richard held in his hands proved that the problem was much worse than that and having three faults to try to track down was going to make everything incredibly difficult. Finnegan wasn't sure where to start. Luckily, this is why he paid people well.

"Send Howard up."

He wasn't sure why his head engineer wasn't here already, he would just have to pull himself away from the complete clusterfuck that was going on in their QC department right now. Three hours later he was no closer to an answer then he'd been earlier that afternoon. Everyone seemed to be pointing fingers at each other or at machines no one had any ideas for solutions. He spent an hour running a meeting and at the end of it, nothing had been accomplished.

Oh, there were going to be lots of technical experts in the building tomorrow and they were going to do another test and everyone had thrown pennies into the wishing well just hoping something would work but the fact of the matter was that he still had two functioning circuit boards. Then his father called.

"Finnegan, how did it go today? Are we going to be ready on Monday?"

They had an amazingly close relationship but even he wasn't sure how to answer the question so he went with the easiest part first.

"Hey dad. We'll be ready on Monday but not quite sure how. We had a 95% failure rate on the PCBA's. PCB's look good, relatively. We have a fix."

"For both?"

Finnegan hated to say most of this out loud but he refused to lie to his dad.

"Just the boards. The assemblies are a disaster. Three separate faults."

Finnegan Walker the Third was a renaissance businessman and knew just enough about electronic manufacturing to know that with more faults, the problems and difficulty increased exponentially.

"Damn, Finnegan."

His thoughts exactly.

"I've got four engineers down there taking one board through the line."

"Good, that'll help take the human element out of it. Have the mechanics scheduled?"

Of course he did but they had insisted the machines were working fine when they were installed.

"Yeah dad, they're coming tomorrow but you know how that goes."

"I do. If you're not damn sure it's their machine, they're very unlikely to find the problem. Okay son, sounds like you're busy. Give me an update tomorrow. And Finnegan?"

"Yeah?"

"You sound tired. You taking care of yourself, son?"

"Yeah dad, promise."

A small lie but he'd do better tonight.

"Good. Your mom and I love you and I know you can do this. If we have to delay a week..."

"Not happening dad."

He chuckled, knowing his son all too well.

"If we have to delay a week, the world will not end. You should get out of there now, get some dinner and have a good night and come at this tomorrow with a fresh head."

"Alright. Thanks dad. I'll update you tomorrow."

He hung up the phone, closed his eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths and then spent two more hours putting out fires. By the time he fell into his car that evening it was dark and raining. He crossed his arms against the steering wheel and rested his head, trying to mentally prepare himself for the drive home. Ten minutes later, when he turned off his headlights, he was in front of Emmett's house instead of his own.

He had no idea why except that he knew being alone tonight, even in his pajamas with some cartoons, wasn't going to cut it. He couldn't just show up though, especially since he hadn't heard from Emmett since Saturday evening. Sure, they had parted politely after having a great dinner, hell he even got a kiss but that didn't mean he could show up at the man's house uninvited. He'd almost gathered the strength to leave when he saw a shadow pass in front of Emmett's front windows.

Finnegan Walker: Hello. I know this is weird but is there any chance you're up for some company tonight?

He regretted the text as soon as he sent it. Emmett might be up for having company tonight but Finnegan wasn't. He had typed out a quick apology when Emmett's text arrived.

Emmett Locke: Sure. Come on over.

He quickly deleted his message. Just how long did he have to sit in his car before he went in so that Emmett wouldn't know he was currently sitting in his car? He hoped ten minutes would do it. After two he got antsy and uncomfortable and considered leaving. Instead he opened the squeaky gate and knocked.

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incorrectpride-prejudicequotes · 3 years

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Hot take:

if you tell a P&P2005 lover that you prefer the 1995 version they're like "well I personally disagree but to each her own:)"

If you tell a p&p1995 lover that you prefer the 2005 version they tell you that 95 is the most accurate version so you are objectively WRONG

(obv this doesn't apply to everyone but it's definitely a tendency I've seen)

ooooo now this is a hot take

and i dont think youre wrong

I think we all should just get along!! like what you like they're both great adaptations and everyone can have their own preferences!! And they're both great adaptations of, ya know, our collective Favorite Thing! (although my response probably tells you which side i fall on here hmm....)

#hot take monday!!!!#are the takes of pemberley to be thus hot #like i fully get it #i understand that 95 is accurate to a fault #like its absolutely the most accurate adaptation #but something about the decisions of director joe wright are next level #maybe not accurate!#but oh lord

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ladyc0312 · 3 years

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A Jikook Guide to RunBTS: 91-101

Sometimes, I think about some of the moments I list here and start to worry that I'm reading too much into things. And I'll be the first to admit that a bunch of them are ambiguous enough that reasonable people can differ in their interpretation.

The thing about jikook, though, is that there are so many of these eyebrow-raising types of moments that you could throw out half of them and still have enough left over to think "there's something up with those two." Especially in the following episodes...

Ep 91 "Mini Golden Bell Part 1" (Ep: 3 / KM: 1)

The ones where they make the best of sitting on the floor of an empty room and Jin and JK just barely manage to avoid murdering Tae over his less-than-excellent MC skills

03:35 - Everyone is confident that the "oh!" sound that's played is either JK or JM, but aren’t sure which is which.

8:14 - When JM gets the right answer, JK is the only one to clap.

16:38 - JK is once again the only one to clap when JM gets an answer right.

Ep 92 "Mini Golden Bell Part 2" (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)

15:00 - As he goes to measure JK's arm, JM informs everyone that JK's arms have gotten longer since he's been boxing.

15:54 - When JM keeps moving around while JK is trying to measure his arm, JK tells Suga to hold JM still.

16:31 - When JM's arm somehow seems to get slightly shorter from his stretching, JK gets excited and calls him "Jimin" (no hyung) a few times and then "Jimin-ssi."

20:03, 20:18 - When JK is singing his karaoke love song, the other guys are all over-emoting or swaying and listening, but JM just stares straight at him (and even looks genuinely emotional?) and the camera just stops showing him at a certain point. See picture above.

20:46 - When JK starts to criticize Suga's cham cham cham performance, Jimin tells JK to just sit down. And he does.

BEHIND 5:48 - After RM tries to comfort JM about his short arms by saying his legs are long, JK repeats "yes, your legs are long" and then sings a lyrics with JM's name inserted ("moon, moon, what kind of moon jiminie")

Ep 93 "BTS Marble Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 3)

The ones where I still don’t understand this game but enjoy the episodes involving it anyway

0:42: Not jikook-related, but I can't not point out the adorable moment where RM makes a pun about how Marble sounds like the way Koreans pronounce Marvel and JK says "I love you 3000" to himself.

10:22 - JM and JK are sitting pretty close all episode, but it's particularly apparent here, where JM's arm is resting on JK's thigh as they read a question together.

10:40 - Reading the question is long done, but JM's arm remains.

12:21 - JM pats JK's shoulder in comfort after he messes up a question.

16:14 - After the heart-making game is over, JM and JK make hearts towards each other once more.

20:21 - JK taps JM's leg while sweetly reminding him that the pedometer game is difficult. Then they lean in to strategize together.

21:07 - JM pats JK's back when he ends up winning the pedometer game, then again when it seems like JK was tired out by it. BEHIND 1:15 - JK is sitting next to JHope in this shot. The next time we see them, JM is there instead and stays there the rest of the game.

2:10 - JK pats JM's hand after JM says that the winning team should share with the losing one so no one's feelings are hurt.

2:48 - JM appears to be sitting half in JK's lap as he explains his answer.

4:41 - JM leans into JK as he laughs.

5:51 - Another angle of the 16:14 moment.

6:25 - JM is half in JK's lap again as they watch the other team eat snacks. When JK says it looks good, JM gets a piece for him and rather intensely watches him eat it.

8:40 - JM and JK continue working on a puzzle after the game is over. When JM solves it, he shakes his whole body and makes cute frustrated noises. JK looks like he finds it adorable (how could you not?). Jimin does it again closer to JK's face and JK looks away shyly.

Ep 94 "BTS Marble Part 2" (Ep: 4 / KM: 3)

4:20 - JM & JK trace a line with their fingers together in sync and the on-screen text informs us "two hands are moving like one hand."

7:24 - After JM and JK mess up in a game, the reach towards each other and hold each other's shoulders while collapsing in giggles onto the game board. The caption dubs them "dumb and dumber."

16:28 - JM has his arm around JK's shoulders (while continuing from last ep to be half on his lap).

23:13 - When they're going back and forth about who should do the challenge, JM puts his hand on JK's thigh (the far one, for some reason) to tell him that he (JM) might get a leg cramp if he does it. JK does the challenge.

24:12 - After JK loses the leg-shaking game by only one point, JM comforts him by massaging his thigh, shin, and calf.

BEHIND 0:29 - JK yells out "Jimin-ssi!!!" after JM gets an answer wrong.

1:54 - Another angle of the 7:24 collapsing together on the board moment.

4:03 - More of JM with his arm around JK.

7:48 - JM and JK stay behind to geek out together over some sort of kitchen appliance.

Ep 95 "Let's Play with BTS Part 1" (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)

The ones where BTS play childhood games

9:17 - JK whispers to JM to ask for clarification on the rules.

11:18 - JK falls backwards laughing and, immediately after, JM does exactly the same thing.

15:23 - JK comments on how small Jimin's hands are.

31:33 - JM shushes JK when he tries to give advice on the game.

34:32 - JK puts his hand on JM's shoulder and asks for a snack.

BEHIND

7:40 - JM and JK giggle together over something.

7:56 - JK wants to show JM a jacks technique.

8:18 - JM and JK giggle together again and JM puts his hand on JK's arm as they do so.

10:24 - When JK adjusts the cameras, JM says JK is the director, then congratulates him and offers him candy when he's done.

Ep 96 "Let's Play with BTS Part 2" (Ep: 4 / KM: 3)

The one where we get the origin of “Rock Bison” - and it’s rather jikook-y!

3:18 - JM sees that JK is sad because he didn't get the top he wanted, so JM gives JK his top and takes the Rock Bison one that no one else wanted.

11:32 - JK giggles at JM repeatedly throwing his top in the background.

22:52 - JM and JK do a weird backwards handshake before competing against each other in the eraser game.

23:56 - JK claps for JM after JM beats him in the game.

31:11 - JK consults JM on which lane to choose for his model car.

33:46 - When JM reaches out to take a box that might be heavy, JK watches and stands up as if ready to assist. BEHIND 6:51 - JM stands with his hand on JK's shoulder as they watch RM compete.

6:57 - JM holds JK's arms from behind and acts as resistance for him as he does arm-lifting exercises.

10:19 - An off-camera JM tries to help JK figure out what's why the model car he built is so slow.

Ep 97 "Pajama Party Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 4)

The ones where the guys wear cute pajamas and yes the Behind picture in the second part is real!

5:49 - We see that JM and JK have been drawing on their socks together. More on this in the Behind...

11:14 - JK is lying in JM's lap and they're playing around with their feet. This one is also expanded in the Behind!

22:13 - JK pokes a rod he is playing with in between Jimin's asscheeks. I... have been searching for a less suggestive way to describe this accurately and I keep coming up empty. Blame JK, not me!

22:38 - Another entry in our ongoing "it's JM's fault if JK thinks everything he does is hilarious" series, JM collapses laughing when JK skips back to the group carrying a Cooky doll attached to the rod like he hunted it. (In JM's defense, JK does look incredibly adorable doing it.)

23:54 - JK reaches over and touches Jimin's hand and the camera immediately cuts to something else.

Note: For fans of JK's satoori, it comes out multiple times in this episode when he gets frustrated with various members after they get a question wrong.

BEHIND 2:41 - JM calls for Taehyung to come sit next to him. JK does instead.

3:04 - JM rests his foot on JK's thigh as they both draw on their socks.

4:07 - After JM finishes showing off the drawings on his socks, he points the camera to JK in full focus mode finishing his drawings and JM smiles like it's the most adorable thing ever.

5:26 - I'm sure you've all seen this clip already somewhere, but I'll describe it anyway! After JK tucks his feet under Suga's robe, JM pulls him back so he's laying in JM's lap. JM then puts his arms around JK as he grabs his decorated socked feet to show him while making silly noises. JK then picks up his foot to show his drawn-on sock and makes a different silly noise, causing JM to giggle. The shot gets cut off mid-giggle for whatever reason...

5:53 - JM rests his foot on JM's back while he adds to his sock art.

7:52 - When JK stretches his arm out to indicate some of the members, he maybe puts his hand on JM's back for a moment.

Ep 98 "Pajama Party Part 2" (Ep: 4 / KM: 1)

You'd think this would be a super jikook-y episode given those pictures, but strangely enough, there are no moments of note in the episode itself. Since you can see the pics without watching the ep, I didn’t include them in the KM score.

BEHIND 1:20 - JM complains to JK that he hasn't gotten any answers right so far. Some people have matched this to a round of the game in the episode itself where JK doesn't seem to be guessing as enthusiastically as he did before, perhaps in an attempt to make JM feel less bad. I mention it here because it's a theory I've seen a lot, but YMMV.

7:50 - JK shows JM that he has attached J and M balloons to his shirt while saying "JM" and "Jimin," making JM giggle.

Ep 99 "Florists" (Ep: 5 / KM: 3)

The one where we learn that Jin probably doesn't have a future as a florist

4:33 - When JM starts to get embarrassed because everyone is laughing about his birth flower name sounding like a dirty word in Korean, JK rubs JM's neck and then continues rubbing circles on his back for a while after, seemingly to comfort him.

19:05 - When Jimin looks confused after RM says he comes out of a glass bowl in Serendipity, JK lightly slaps him on the chest for forgetting. It's almost like it has some sort of personal meaning to him...

28:05 - After JK presents the bouquet he made (which he says represents all different kinds of love), JM says "I think I'll love it when I get it as a present." Translation note: As we've discussed before, Korean can be hard to translate because often pronouns are omitted. A more literal translation is "present if received will be loved." Most translations that I've seen interpret it as Jimin talking about himself as the recipient, but it's not totally clear. Mentioning this because I know I was wondering why this moment isn't talked about more, since it seems fairly suggestive that JM would assume JK was going to give him a bouquet of flowers he made.

28:38 - When JM explains what "Serendipity" means, he's looking at JK (I think - I'll be totally honest and say the angle is weird and it could be RM).

31:02 - After the florist picks J-Hope's bouquet over JK's as his favorite, JM comments that Jungkook's "looks like a real bouquet for a wedding."

Ep 100 "100th Episode Special Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 3)

The ones where the show does enhanced editions of games previously played on the series and you will walk away with zero doubt as to whom the episodes are sponsored by

21:36 - When it looks like Suga hit Jimin with the badminton birdie, but he actually made a bad serve, JK approaches with his frying pan racket held out and an angry look on his face and starts to scold Suga. I’ve seen this written up as a jikook moment with JK being over-protective of JM. I’m going to be totally honest with you and say that I didn’t see it that way - JK had been getting increasingly annoyed at the other team re-doing serves and my read was that the moment was more about that. Let me know if you see it differently. Regardless, the more significant moments are the ones in the Behind...

BEHIND 4:13 - When JM is hit near the eye with the badminton birdie, JK goes over to him and checks on whether his eye was hit. JM reaches out towards him as he gets up. It's interesting to me that the others stand back and let JK be the one to check in on JM, even though Tae and Jin were both closer when it happened.

5:03 - Not a jikook moment, but JK is doing an adorable cheerleading routine in the background here and I can't not mention it...

8:39 - When JM sees that Jin and JK aren't messing around and JK was actually hit in the nose with the volleyball, he gets serious and walks over, asking him multiple times if it hurts a lot. He ruffles JK's hair before kneeling down next to him to check in.

Ep 101 "100th Episode Special Part 2" (Ep: 4 / KM: 1)

17:40 - JM tells everyone JK is good at this type of game.

BEHIND

1:06 - JK instructs Jimin (in half-informal language) how to work the box.

5:50 - JK calls out to Jimin that his photo makes him look like he's in a cartoon (and there's a slight pause when he calls him in between "Jimin" and "hyung").

7:09 - Jimin asserts that JK does look sexy in the "sexy pose" photo. He is imho correct.

9:15 - When JM is playing around after the game is over, he calls for Jungkook to cover him

100th Episode Special: Survival Directors Cut (Ep: 2 KM: 0)

5:32 - JM covers JK with his laser gun, allowing JK to escape. Not particularly shippy since they're on the same team, but including it for anyone who wants a visual aid for some sort of military AU...

#jikook guide to run bts #jikook #Kookmin #run bts

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dccomicrants · 3 years

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Joker: Last Laugh

Content Warnings: Cancer, Murder, swearing (on the part of the author writing the review), honestly probably more but I could not tell you what they are

Summary: The Joker is dying and taking the world with him. Meanwhile, I'm dying because there are glaring inconsistencies and I read all 46 issues only to be left feeling underwhelmed.

Comic Issues Involved: Joker: Last Laugh 1-6 written by Chuck Dixon, Young Justice 1998 #38 written by Peter David, Orion #19 written by Walt Simonson, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #83 written by Dennis O'Neil, Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files #1, Superman (1986-2006) #175 written by Jeph Loeb, Batman: Gotham Knights #22 written by Devin Grayson, Birds of Prey 1998 #36 written by Chuck Dixon, Nightwing 1996 #62 written by Chuck Dixon, Impulse #79 written by Todd Dezago, Batgirl 2000 #21 written by Kelley Puckett, Superboy 1993 #93 written by Joe Kelly, Detective Comics 1937 #763 written by Greg Rucka, JSA #29 written by Geoff Johns, Harley Quinn 2000 #13 written by Kark Kesel, Adventures of Superman (1987 - 2006) #597 written by Joe Casey, The Flash (1987-2009) #179 written by Geoff Johns, Superman: The Man of Steel #119 written by Mark Schultz, Supergirl 1996 #63 written by Peter David, Green Lantern 1990 #143 written by Judd Winick, Wonder Woman 1986 #175 written by Phil Jimenez, Robin 1993 #95 written by Chuck Dixon, JLA #59 written by Chuck Dixon, Batman 1940 #596 written by Ed Brubaker, Action Comics 1938 #784 written by Joe Kelly, The Titans #34 written by James M. Faerber

This whole plotline is all this man's fault. Anyways- more below.

The Joker's Last Laugh is a 6 main issue storyline with 40 tie-in issues. The basic premise is as follows: The Joker is told that he has a massive tumor in his brain and he's dying. The Joker then decides that he's going to take as much of the world with him as he can before he dies.

Some really batshit stuff happens in all 46 issues, and I do mean batshit. Every single villain held in this top security prison called The Slab gets Jokerized and somehow it manages to escalate from there. There is a massive prison break as the meta inhibiting collars are disabled and Jokerized villains now run rampant on the world. And while I could deep dive the plot or every issue I frankly just... do not want to. Its supervillains turned up to 11; frankly it's kinda boring. I mean the whole premise is set up in a way where you cannot really convincingly raise the stakes. It's just... all climax if you're only reading for the Joker.

There are a few interesting little tidbits that come up but they also just aren't worth the effort. What is interesting is following the Bats.

At the very beginning of issue 1, Dick manages to convince Babs to leave her many monitors behind for a while and just have a normal day. While they're out on the date this conversation comes up between them:

The issue with wanting the Joker dead specifically and what does or doesn't make something revenge is a point worth exploring. If you consider why Dick and Bruce both became vigilantes... Babs is right. They did it for revenge. Sure it's phrased as "wanting justice" but what is that if not revenge said another way?

The point Dick is making is that they don't kill, which still isn't the most accurate of statements, and an argument could be made that in the shape they've left some of their villains, death would have been merciful. And even if in their histories up until that point they hadn't killed any of their villains- they've certainly had some very dark runs where they've gotten very close before. Neither here nor there for the moment.

Babs and Dick return from their date to see the Jokerized prisoners on the screens and Babs understandably feels guilty because she looked away once. This guilt obviously stems from her trauma with how she became the Oracle (a post perhaps for another time). Bruce and Dick break into the Slab to try to run damage control and find Dinah, who went in when she saw the original feed. For some reason, there's a supervillain that can make singularities and that's a whole thing I don't even want to get into. Anyways, the Slab is sucked into a black hole, Dick, Dinah, and Bruce barely escape thanks to Ted Kord hanging around in his beetle ship.

Plot continues as plot must. The world has gone to shit. The Joker has some of his Jokerized villains try to kidnap Harley Quinn so he can forcibly impregnate her and that literally never comes up outside of the issue it's introduced it. If you read all 46 issues, the ones that focus on Harley Quinn Never Again Mention That. Instead, it mentions how the Joker just wanted her dead. I can't even be mad at that because It Just Isn't Plot Relevant.

Anyways we finally get a proper follow-up to the conversation of revenge, the only thing that made the whole arc worth reading:

We're going to ignore Dick's gravity-defying hair because... yeah. And we're going to focus on the fact that Dick still firmly believes there's a non-lethal way to handle the Joker. I mean, there isn't because DC won't let him stay dead, but the ideal is something very intrinsic to who Dick is still as a hero at this point. This clashing viewpoint with the reality of the situation is definitively interesting because yes, it wouldn't actually bring closure. Murder is bad. The analysis of the risks of letting the Joker live means that arguably... not killing him is morally wrong. By this point. Thousands have died because of the Jokerized villains, if not hundreds of thousands.

Now admittedly to have prevented this, you have to go back in time and deck the doctor who forged the Joker's test results to make it look like the Clown Bastard had cancer in the first place, but the potential for something like this to have happened was always there. In fact, every time someone has tried to show the Joker that he needed to change his ways it always catastrophically backfired. In a Spectre comic for example, Jim Corrigan discovered that the Joker Genuinely Cannot Feel Remorse. But sure, a cancer diagnosis was going to make him become a model citizen.

Then we discover that the specific compounds that made all the villains Jokerized is killing them. And no one is surprised. Harley is helping with the antidote and again, no one is surprised. It feels like an MCU movie plotline.

Issue 5 we start to get somewhere again that prompts a future interesting exchange. Tim Drake, the current Robin, has gone rogue in all of this and is seemingly eaten by a Jokerized Killer Croc. All Helena can find is Tim's costume shirt under the water next to some bones.

And in issue 6, Dick Grayson snaps. Tim's apparent death pushes Dick off whatever cliff he was hanging onto and suddenly Babs's tune changes:

Up until this point, their roles were reversed. Dick was the one reminding Babs that killing the Joker wouldn't change anything, but this? This is the line Dick had drawn in the sand.

Dick goes to confront the Joker in the church and the two have a fist fight that is very one sided, in the favor of Dick. Dick proceeds to beat the Joker to death, unaware of the fact that Tim is actually alive. His comms just got busted and he had to ditch his costume shirt to escape Killer Croc, aside from a few injuries of course.

Tim shows up at the church to try to stop Dick, and Dick initially assumes that he's hallucinated Tim's presence. When he realizes that it really was Tim, the damage had been done. Now, we don't ever see who actually resuscitates the Joker, but there are only two possibilities with how the frame is set up, Bruce or Tim. It doesn't actually say, but one can infer that Bruce is the one who resuscitated the Joker.

So objectively, Joker lost the fight with Dick, but technically, this was a win for the Joker. The world was flung into chaos, the Bats are all shaken. He got his victory. Even with a death experience thrown in there. But this frustrates me because there's a difference. Dick didn't just set out to kill everyone- he settled on the Joker. If he were to have gone after Tim's "Killer" That should have been Killer Croc, but somewhere in Dick's head he decided that Croc was just another victim, so he went after Joker.

The whole premise of this storyline is that the Joker believed he was dying and decided he wanted to take as much of the world as he could with him. Dick decided that he was going to kill the Joker in a long awaited act of vengeance. The two motivations are not the same yet the emphasis is being placed on the actions- to which case even then it is not the same. The moral standard here is not being applied equally, which is really frustrating.

To end this long rant, Joker: Last Laugh is a mediocre plotline that has only a few good things that make it worth even considering reading, but I'd save the energy for something else.

#dc comics #comic analysis #Dick Grayson #Nightwing #dcu #Batman #Tim Drake #Robin #The Joker #Joker: Last Laugh #Long post #tw: swearing #cw: swearing #tw: homicide #cw: homicide #dc's continutiy innacuracies strike again #comic rant #I probably missed some content warnings but honestly why would you read this

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dramionediscussion · 3 years

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Anonymous Submission

I have been into Dramione for like a year or two. I got curious about all the enmity between different parts of the fandom, and was wondering whether the HP fandom has always been like this, or was it different in the past. I had a kind of an idea or theory, or reasons to believe that it might’ve been different, especially during the early days, when books and movies were still being made. Then I watched this video about the early HP fandom drama. Msscribe: The Harry Potter Fandom’s Greatest Con-Artist - When Posting Goes Wrong

(I am not sure if that link is working, in case it doesn’t it’s in YouTube made by Eldena Doubleca5t, and the tittle is Msscribe).

It’s a bit long, but I found it to be pretty funny, detailed and absolutely crazy. I have no idea how true it is or any info beyond the video itself, but it’s quite convincing. If that is even somewhat representative and accurate portrayal of the HP fandom, then it seems that the fandom has pretty much remained the same for the last 20 years (maybe even turned out little better). So, those who have been in the fandom for long: has it always been like this, or was there times when HP fandom was even little more harmonious and respectful towards each other?

———-

OMG! Okay! I got into this story a few years ago when I read “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell and I was(/still am) convinced that she’s somehow tied into all of that, because it’s too real.

Long story short, I didn’t understand the whole thing 5 years ago, and I still don’t really understand it, so if you want to delve into that, have at it. Personally, I was, like 13 at the time, and I didn’t realize that there was this whole world that surrounded fanfiction but was OUTSIDE of fanfiction. I think most of the rest of the admins got into the fandom too late to be a part of any of that.

But! We still see some of that kind of stuff happening today on Tumblr and Facebook, for sure. In some ways, I think it’s comforting to know that the kind of drama we see playing out today is due to any fault of our own–that it continues through time. I think that 95% of the fandom is harmonious and respectful, though–the silent majority. And I’m sure that a good chunk of that 95% are middle schoolers, who, like me in 2003, have no idea that there’s a world even outside of the fanfiction they love to read.

-Shirlyn

#anonymous #dramione #HP Fandom #submission

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thatiranianphantom · 4 years

Text

Recappin’ Riverdale, 1x07: In A Lonely Place

God I miss FP’s Snake Somewhat Accurate Snake Facts.

More thoughts under the cut!

- Just gotta say, I love their comic book outfits. I wish we had more of this.

- Jug kisses Betty once and he’s dreaming of being married to her. The boy really telling on himself.

- As per usual, his narration is awful

- I’d estimate Trevor Stines actually shot maybe 5 scenes for this show?

- Jug, maybe putting a mousetrap, your toothpaste, and a half-eaten Pop Tart all right next to each other isn’t super smart?

- Ah, our first shirtless Jughead scene. Cole and KJ must have very different contracts

- You know, there’s a gay porn in here, if you re-edit

- Again, FP being fired is NOT Fred’s fault and I am tired of people implying it is

- Don’t tell Betty no reason really I don’t love her and it’s not like I don’t want he to think badly of me Betty was just the first name in my head that doesn’t mean I love her of course not

- Oblivious Archie, as usual

- Something I notice: NONE of the parents take responsibility for their actions.

- “What decade is this?” That’s an excellent question, let’s answer it

- Jughead is so into Betty I love it

- “We should just move” honestly, yes. That would solve 95% of your problems

- Hell yeah, you had a moment Jug

- Jughead’s theme is “there for Betty” I’m here for it

- Oh look, Tom Keller trying to act competent, as if a group of meddling kids didn’t solve the literal only serious case on his docket

- I would LOVE to follow Cheryl Blossom on Twitter

- Okay, look. This is a theme that’s going to carry us through the next few episodes, so best get this out of the way now. Skeet Ulrich is hot as hell. #1 hottest member of the Hot Dads club. And also, I do understand addiction. My sister was an addict. We have many addicts in my family. It’s a disease, it’s not something we choose, and we are often loyal to a fault to our family. Jughead particularly. He has a very forgiving nature, and he wants to be loyal to his father. I get all that. I even like current iteration FP. But I have next to no time for this drunk, abusive, absent dad that he CANONICALLY WAS. I have no time for Jughead’s hyper-loyalty to a father who demonstrates little to no care about him. I get that he wanted to protect Jughead, I get that he was being threatened. He still hid a body. He still helped cover up a murder. He still, for what we can estimate is at LEAST a few months, up to years, was a drunk, absent, at times abusive father, and I am not willing to casually let that go. Anyway, moving on.

- Blossoms coming in looking like they stepped off a pages of an equestrian magazine.

- Again, I feel like there’s a very subtle ad in here...

- Again, for how shitty S1 Alice Cooper was, at least she was consistent....

- Hand-holding Bughead. Adorable

- Also, can we just stop for a moment and appreciate that Jughead wears suspenders, not because he needs them, but because AESTHETIC. They added lots of jewelry in S4.

- I remember reading an interview with Lili saying Betty initiates this kiss because she didn’t want to imply that the whole Bughead thing was one-sided.

- Jughead, always Betty’s hype man

- First mention of The Farm!

- Serious question: if Polly is hiding in the attic, where does she pee?

- Just have to say, I love Lili’s S1 makeup. She’s so naturally pretty, it’s so subtle yet beautiful.

- There’s a pregnancy poster behind Cheryl and Betty. Subtle as always, Riverdale

- Betty IS a terrible liar

- FP has his arm around Fred. The Fredsythe is strong here.

- OKAY. Canonically, Betty, Jughead and Archie have grown up together. He and Alice had...you know. Yet this is the first he’s hearing of Betty?

- You know, Penelope, you may want to wipe the look off your face that screams “I HAVE ULTERIOR MOTIVES” before you offer support because it’s....just super obvious.

- “Yeah, my name is Jughead.” Meta moment.

- Jug looks legit terrified here. It’s so genuinely sad.

- FP is too drunk to be here. FP has to be calmed down by his 15 year old. Please see above.

- Cheryl defying her parents. Please someone recognize Cheryl genuinely wanting to help.

#Riverdale #Bughead #Betty Cooper #Jughead Jones #Veronica Lodge #Hermoine Lodge #Alice Cooper #Polly Cooper #Archie Andrews #Fred Andrews #FP Jones #Recappin' Riverdale

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

Text

THE COURAGE OF PROJECT

Then when you start a startup anywhere. That's why mice and rabbits are furry and elephants and hippos aren't.1 The very design of the average site in the late twentieth century. He got a 4x liquidation preference. Google, it's hard to get into grad school in math. Can we claim founders are better off as a result of this new trend. Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference. But investing later should also mean they have fewer losers.

They make something moderately appealing and have decent initial growth.2 If you major in math it will be whatever the startup can get from the first one to write a paper for school, his mother would tell him: find a way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much the better, if all fifty million go to you. The classic yuppie worked for a small organization. Before us, most companies in the startup funding business. The best way to get a big idea can take roost.3 4 or 5 million. This essay grew out of something I wrote for myself to figure out how to increase their load factors. But you can also apply some force by focusing the discussion: by asking what specific questions they need answered to make up their minds. This plan collapsed under its own weight.4 Startups happened because technology started to change so fast that big companies could no longer keep a lid on the smaller ones.

The only place your judgement makes a difference is in the industry.5 People who do great work, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that. One of the exhilarating things about coming back to Cambridge every spring is walking through the streets at dusk, when you can see into the houses. If you have steep revenue growth, say over 6x a year, no matter how many good startups approach him. Recently we managed to recruit her to help us run YC when she's not busy with architectural projects.6 This works better when a startup has 3 founders than 2, and better when the leader of the company in later rounds. I'm not saying you can get away with zero self-discipline.

We're not a replacement for don't give up. What you should not do is rebel. But while series A rounds from VCs. Someone who's scrappy manages to be both threatening and undignified at the same world everyone else does, but notice some odd detail that's compellingly mysterious.7 Even Tim O'Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn't parse it at first. They can't tell how smart you are.8 The story about Web 2. Maybe one day the most important thing is to be learned from whatever book on it happens to be closest. This essay is derived from a keynote at FOWA in October 2007. They'll decide later if they want to raise.9

Sometimes it reached the point of economic sadism: site owners assumed that the more pain they caused the user, the more benefit it must be to them. It's cities that compete, not countries.10 Kids are curious, but the best founders are certainly capable of it. But investors are so fickle that you can fix for a lot of time on work that interests you, and don't just refuse to. But you have to be an insider.11 A key ingredient in many projects, almost a project on its own, is to step onto an orthogonal vector. So ironically the original description of the Web 2. Back when it cost a lot to like I've done a few things, like intro it to my friends at Foundry who were investors in Service Metrics and understand this model I am also talking to my friend Mark Pincus who had an idea like this a few years ago.12 0 seemed to mean was something about democracy. We didn't have enough saved to live on. There is another reason founders don't ask themselves whether they're default alive or default dead.13

So most investors prefer, if they wanted, raise series A rounds. They're unable to raise more money, and precisely when you'll have to switch to plan B if plan A isn't working. That doesn't mean the investor says yes to everyone. Miss out on what? It's so cheap to start web startups that orders of magnitudes more will be started. Investors evaluate startups the way customers evaluate products, not the way bosses evaluate employees. The bust was as much an overreaction as the boom.14 Startups are undergoing the same transformation that technology does when it becomes cheaper.15 Another way to fly low is to give them something for free that competitors charge for. After all, a Web 2.16 He bought a suit.

Instead you'll be compelled to seek growth in other ways. They all knew their work like a piano player knows the keys. But consulting is far from free money. They say they're going to get eliminated. What does it mean, exactly? If investors were perfect judges, the two would require exactly the same skills. And to be both good and novel, an idea probably has to seem bad to most people, or someone writes a particularly interesting article, it will show up there. The mere existence of prep schools is proof of that.17 So far the complete list of messages I've picked up from cities is: wealth, style, hipness, physical attractiveness wouldn't have been a total immersion. Don't just do what they tell you to do. But advancing technology has made web startups so cheap that you really can get a portrait of the normal distribution of most applicant pools, it matters least to judge accurately in precisely the cases where judgement has the most effect—you won't take rejection so personally. If raising money is hard.

There is no sharp line between the two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to get rarer. While some VCs have technical backgrounds, I don't know enough to say, but it happens surprisingly rarely.18 Most subjects are taught in such a boring way that it's only by discipline that you can never safely treat fundraising as more than a startup that seems like it's going to stop.19 It sounds obvious to say that you should worry? One reason startups prefer series A rounds? When I was in high school either. If you feel you've been misjudged, you can do. Google. Of course, someone has to take money from people who are young but smart and driven can make more by starting their own companies after college instead of getting jobs, that will change what happens in college.

Notes

Though they are themselves typical users. But it takes to get good grades in them to private schools that in three months, a valuation. Giving away the razor and making more per customer makes it easier to get them to stay in a time machine.

Apple's early history are from an angel investment from a mediocre VC.

In the beginning.

Plus ca change. But on the other.

And that is exactly the point of a stock is its future earnings, you now get to go behind the scenes role in IPOs, which allowed banks and savings and loans to buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale.

However, it will seem dumb in 100 years. Digg is Slashdot with voting instead of blacklist.

Sofbot.

I write out loud can expose awkward parts.

I've become a so-called signalling risk.

Hint: the way they have because they couldn't afford a monitor.

And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because there was a new search engine is low. They have no connections, you'll find that with a wink, to take care of one's markets is ultimately just another way in which income is doled out by Mitch Kapor, is to raise money after Demo Day, there would be easy to discount, but I'm not against editing. As one very successful YC founder told me they like the one hand and the exercise of stock options than any preceding president, he tried to shift back. At three months we can't believe anyone would think twice before crossing him.

Progressive tax rates has a significant startup hub. He, like speculators, that alone could in principle 100,000 sestertii apiece for slaves learned in the early adopters you evolve the idea is crack. As we walked in, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniation as juicy except literally.

It's sometimes argued that we didn't, they thought at least accepted additions to the modern idea were proposed by Timothy Hart in 1964, two years, it was cooked up by the National Center for Education Statistics, about 28%. I've come to accept that investors don't like the bizarre consequences of this essay talks about programmers, but I know of no Jews moving there, and should in some ways First Round excluded their most successful startups are competitive like running, not the original text would in itself deserving. This is not whether it's good enough at obscuring tokens for this type are also several you can't even claim, like play in a city with few other startups, because time seems to pass. Please do not try to avoid that.

This kind of people starting normal companies too. If Ron Conway had been raised religious and then using growth rate to manufacture a perfect growth curve, etc, and then a block or so.

But it is to trick admissions officers. I meant. The mere possibility of being harsh to founders. As he is at fault, since 95% of the class of 2007 came from such schools.

I started doing research for this purpose are still, as they are now. There was no more unlikely than it would be easier to say that it is dishonest of the next round, that suits took over during a critical point in the usual standards for truth. Wittgenstein: The French Laundry in Napa Valley.

It wouldn't cut their overall returns tenfold, because they wanted, so the best ideas, they mean statistical distribution. The original Internet forums were not web sites but Usenet newsgroups.

A doctor friend warns that even this can give an inaccurate picture. At some point, when the problems you have no idea what's happening till they also influence one another directly through the window for years while they think they're just mentioning the possibility is that in Silicon Valley. I find hardest to get rich by creating wealth—wealth that, isn't it? Look at those goddamn fleas, they have less money, the big winners aren't all that matters, just as if you'd invested at a famous university who is highly regarded by his peers.

Compromising a server could cause such damage that ASPs that want to pound that message home. He, like arithmetic drills, instead of blacklist.

Thanks to Tim O'Reilly, Peter Norvig, and the guys at O'Reilly for inviting me to speak.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

Text

ASM v5 #31/832 Thoughts

Another fantastic issue!

I don’t have too much to say on this one pretty much because it’s simply an expansion of the last issue.

Spencer does a mostly great job of replicating ASM #121 with shockingly accurate dialogue albeit it’s not 100% the same (nor are the shots where the dialogue is spoken). However whilst last time I proposed No. Prizing this away as the fault of memories the fact that so many very specific lines (like the percentage of Norman’s stock) are ripped directly from the comic make me think that Spencer altered the dialogue intentionally, possibly to reflect memories altering.

Norman’s character is explored incredibly well, Spencer clearly ‘gets’ him although one slight cause for concern MIGHT be the idea that Norman’s grudge against Peter being nonsensical since he didn’t know him very well. If Spencer is writing that from the POV of Kindred then that’s fine but if he is using Kindred as a metatextual mouthpiece it’s not because Norman’s grudge is fairly easy to understand. Spider-Man spoiled his schemes, beat him, gave him amnesia, turned him into a weaker man (in his own eyes) and betrayed his son. And that’s just the Silver Age!

Everything else though is 100% on point in regards to Norman and Peter’s drive to defeat him. Like how Gwen’s death is a perennial victory for Norman.

To be honest the ONLY thing that was genuinely off in the story was Spencer’s assertion that Peter subconsciously allowed the symbiote to bond with him because it could make him stronger and thus hopefully avert further acts of evil by Norman.

There are a few problems with this.

For starters Norman was believed dead at the time. Second of all Peter didn’t know the symbiote could make him stronger and indeed as originally presented it didn’t. The idea of the symbiote enhancing it’s host’s strength was innovated after it separated from Peter and in fact is mostly implied to be able to do that at all BECAUSE it bonded with Peter and was thus able to replicate his powers.

Now we must talk about Kindred.

This issue really, really points the finger at Harry.

The idea of Kindred being Norman’s legacy alone would do that but the fact that the flashback scene in question is premeditated on Harry also pushes hard for that theory.

BUT...I have doubts.

The most obvious thing to point out is, presuming all the clues are playing fair and there isn’t a red herring among them, how does the Kingpin or Black Cat scenes from Trivia Night and The Heist fit with Harry?

In fairness you can do some mental gymnastics to make both work.

Harry had aspirations of becoming the ruler of the criminal underworld back in Spec #189 as a fulfilment of his father’s ambitions. Thus making Kingpin bow to him could be argued to fit Harry from a certain point of view. Additionally Harry and Kingpin were both members Century Club (a kind of upper class hangout for rich and powerful men) as seen in ASM #249-250. In those issues Kingpin actually helped Spider-Man fight the Hobgoblin who was attempting to blackmail Harry, Jameson and various other members of the club. I don’t know how that would result in Harry wanting Kingpin to bend the knee but it’s something to consider. Finally Kingpin tried to kill Norman in PPSM #95 (an underrated classic frankly) which again from a certain POV could prompt Harry to make Kingpin bend the knee either out of a sense of warped honour to Norman or to prove to himself he’s better than the man who almost did his father in and is thus better than his father at the end of the day.

As for Felicia, that’s more tricky. The only thing I can think of is that she was briefly part of Peter’s circle of friends back when she was dating Flash and thus Harry might consider her a friend or a friendly acquaintance undeserving of suffering due to Peter.

That all being said, Kingpin and Black Cat are not even the things that make me cast doubt upon Harry. It’s the flashbacks in this issue.

If we presume Kindred to be an established character in some way shape or form then we have to presume it was someone present at the flashbacks in this and the last issue. Harry would fit the bill with the EXCEPTIONS of the scenes featuring Peter alone and the scene outside Osborn’s home between Gwen, MJ and Peter. Harry wasn’t within earshot of those scenes so how could it be Harry.

The only way to make those clues fit is to argue that the flashbacks aren’t strictly speaking from any one character’s point of view. That is to say the comic is showing us one big flashback sequence but Peter and Kindred are simultaneously remembering it independently, thus the scenes absent of Harry are Peter’s memories, the scenes absent of Peter are Harry’s memories and the scenes where in theory both could remember them are both of their memories.

Even if you buy that though the really, really big reason this issue cast doubt upon Harry was that I felt that it was simply way too on the nose and obvious if that was the case. Like if Kindred is talking directly to Norman Osborn and saying he hates him, and he made him into this and Norman says Kindred is his legacy whom he is proud of that spells out for you it’s Harry and therefore it’s TOO obvious!

Unless of course Spencer is relying upon us dismissing Harry because he is still alive.

Anyway, the last thing I will say is that I like that Spencer is setting up Norman’s return to normal sooner rather than later. Thank God!

In case you couldn’t tell I highly recommend this issue.

P.S. Spidey gave one of the all time great beat downs of his career in this issue. I dunno how much sense it makes given how regular Carnage is too much for him and this is Carnage multiplying the Goblin’s power level but whatever it was cool. Maybe Kindred was affecting his power level or this symbiote not being the real Carnage symbiote means it doesn’t multiply your strength to the same degree.

P.P.S. Although I know I shouldn’t i liked that Ottley altered Gwen’s look in this comic book. The cliche is to depict Gwen wearing the outfit she died in. In fact in 90% of every comic Gwen (or her clones) appeared in post-ASM #122, whether it was a vision, a flashback or anything else she always wore that green coat and the rest of the clothes she died in.

Ironically Ottley is flashing back to the actual story she died and she DOESN’T look like that, even her hairstyle is different. And oddly enough that’s refreshing.

#Spider-Man #Nick Spencer #Amazing Spider-Man #Kindred #Norman Osborn #Green Goblin #the Green Goblin #Peter Parker #Harry Osborn #Absolute Carnage #carnage #Carnage Symbiote

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miyako-no-prince · 5 years

Note

70 MasaMei and 95 SawaItsuRai ❤💛

thanks for the lovely prompts ❤💛

the MasaMei got so much longer than I intended these prompts to be, so I’ll do the SawaItsuRai in a separate post

AO3

“After everythingwe’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?”

The silence thatfollowed was deafening. Mei didn’t even look at him, stubbornly avoiding hisgaze. It said everything, but Masatoshi was determined to make him talk anyway.Maybe if he said it out loud, he’d realize how ridiculous it was. How stupid andunnecessary this whole situation was.

“Answer me, Mei.”

More silence.Masatoshi resisted the urge to sigh, or alternatively shake Mei until he had nochoice but to finally say what he really thought.

As the silencecontinued, Masatoshi wondered if this really had been worth it.

They starteddating a few months ago, and Masatoshi had actually been happy with theirrelationship. They tended to have small fights a lot, but they were alwaysresolved easily enough, never weighing on his mind too much. It was just… everysingle one of them had been resolved by him apologizing, with Mei maybeapologizing back if he felt particularly guilty.

This just wasn’tan accurate representation of who’d caused those fights. 90% - the mostgenerous assumption Masatoshi was willing to make – were purely caused by Meibeing purposefully contrarian, lazy, or annoying.

Masatoshi knew Meiwas prideful and had trouble apologizing, even if he recognized he was atfault. Still, he’d thought wanting Mei to get over his pride just once, forsomething minor at that, wouldn’t be too much to ask. If he insisted just once,and Mei realized this was important to Masatoshi and just said sorry, then hecould shut up the tiny nagging voice that told him Mei wasn’t as committed orin love as he was.

Not wanting torisk any trouble to the team, he’d waited until after summer koushien to gothrough with his plan, and it turned out to be a good choice. Even though thefight had been stupid, and entirely Mei’s fault, and could’ve been entirelyinconsequential, Mei flat-out refused to apologize. Even at the threat thatMasatoshi wouldn’t talk to him until he did. Even at the threat that Masatoshi wouldbreak up with him if he didn’t. Mei just yelled at him and ran away.

At first, Masatoshihad thought Mei would just need some time to realize what happened, and then he’dcome to apologize. But nothing of the sort happened. They didn’t have topractice together anymore, and Mei made sure they interacted as little aspossible.

After a month,Masatoshi had simply assumed that was it, Mei really hadn’t cared much aboutwhat they had. It hurt, but there was nothing he could do.

He’d been resoluteabout staying away and just getting over it, until one night Tadano had knockedon his door, tears streaming down his face as he’d tried to convey the angerand despair he was currently feeling because of Mei. Masatoshi had known Meiwasn’t exactly business as usual at practice, but he hadn’t known just how badit was.

It simply wasn’tfair to let Tadano suffer on his own because Mei couldn’t deal with hisemotions any other way. None of this had anything to do with him. He was justthe easiest target. There was nothing he could do to make Mei behave like adecent human being towards him.

Masatoshi, on theother hand, could at least try. He didn’t know how much sway he still had withMei at this point, but it was certainly more than Tadano.

He’d really intendedto keep their talk focused on Mei’s behaviour toward Tadano, but Mei wasn’thaving it. He interrupted Masatoshi before he even had a chance to finisheverything he’d meant to say.

“Oh, I see, so youcan just use your kouhai who also happens to be your battery partner as you seefit and it’s all fine, but when I do it, it’s bad and I should feel bad? Forgetit. I don’t give a shit about Itsuki, but at least I don’t lie to him and tellhim I love him.”

Which ledMasatoshi to the realization that Mei was absolutely convinced he didn’t lovehim, even if he currently refused to say it directly.

“Mei,” he triedagain, “I’m not leaving until you answer me.”

“Fine,” Meipressed out between gritted teeth, “I know you don’t love me and I knew it fromthe start. Now you can just admit it and then we can be done with this.”

The absolutecertainty in his voice cut straight into Masatoshi’s heart. Mei wasn’t joking,exaggerating, or being dramatic. He believed it. Despite everything, all theirshared moments, movie nights, intimate touches, practice hours, wins andlosses, despite it all, Mei had never fully trusted his love. And Masatoshinever noticed. Never even considered the possibility.

But then, whywould he? He’d told Mei he loved him. Multiple times. Dated him for months. Didhis best to make it work. Mei had never expressed any kind of insecurityeither. In fact, Masatoshi had been under the impression that Mei knew way toowell how loved he was.

Maybe he should’vesaid that out loud, but instead, he asked “Are you an idiot?”

Which maybe wasn’tthe smartest way to go about this. Masatoshi realized it immediately, at least,and added “Why do you think I dated you, then?”

It calmed the furyin Mei’s eyes, at least a little. He shrugged. “I’m cute.” Masatoshi had toagree on that, but in any other situation, he would’ve scolded Mei for sayingit about himself. “You liked the sex.” Also true. But how shallow did Mei thinkhe was? “And I was the one who asked you out. If you told me no or broke up withme, it might’ve affected my performance, and thus your chance at winningkoushien. So you just strung me along until you retired, and I was useless toyou. Didn’t even wait a week.”

So Mei had actuallypicked up on the fact that he’d waited with this until after koushien. He justtotally got it wrong.

“I told you, whatI wanted was just an apology from you. I did wait out koushien on purpose,because you’re right, I didn’t want to ruin our chances, but I didn’texpect you to be this stubborn about it.”

“Bullshit! You cansay what you want, you never cared before if I didn’t apologize over littlethings! You were just trying to find a reason to break up over, and I for surewasn’t going to make it harder for you by actually saying sorry, because unlikewhatever you think, I’m not actually stupid!”

“Yes, you are! Whyis it so hard to understand that I just wanted you to swallow your pride forthe sake of our relationship a single time? It always annoyed me that I have tobe the one to apologize to you even if you were the one starting the fight! Butyou could’ve just fixed that, and we’d have been just fine.”

“No, we wouldn’t!What kind of relationship is it when you’re just annoyed with me all the time,huh? Is that love to you? You wanna get married someday and see your spousecome up to you and say their vows and you think ‘ugh how annoying I wish they’djust shut up’? Is that what you dream of?”

Mei had gotteninto his face at some point, and now that he was talking about marriage forsome reason, a part of Masatoshi’s brain wanted to grab him and kiss him, holdhim close and tell him how much he missed that kind of thing over the pastmonth, but thankfully there was still a larger part of his brain that told himto listen instead, and to respond, so he could figure out exactly what Mei wasthinking. What his actual problem was. And fix it.

“What, so you’remad that I was annoyed when you purposefully tried to annoy me?”

“No! I’m mad thatyou’re annoyed whether I try to annoy you or not! Even when I’m trying to benice! You can’t even tell the difference! All you ever say is ‘Shut up, Mei’!It doesn’t matter if I tell you about something I care about or just try tomake the most annoying noise possible, it’s all the same to you. I don’t knowif you actually think you love me, but I know you already noticed that I just amannoying. Down to my core, it’s who I am. That’s why you don’t enjoy spendingtime with me. Nobody does. Sooner or later, you’ll realize it’s too much, it’sjust not worth it, just like everyone else. I think you already did.”

What started as anoutburst turned quiet toward the end. There were tears glistening in Mei’seyes, and he slowly backed away again.

Panic spreadthrough Masatoshi’s chest. Mei was right here, so close to him, but Masatoshiwas losing him, and he just knew if he didn’t cross the distance right now, he’dnever manage to get a hold of him again.

And he couldn’t finda way to close the metaphorical distance, but his body reacted faster than hismind did, grabbing Mei by the shoulders and holding him in place whileMasatoshi struggled to figure out what to say. Not an easy task when he stillwasn’t sure he properly understood exactly what Mei meant.

“What are you eventalking about?” Masatoshi settled on when the silence was starting to stretchlong enough to be uncomfortable. “You can’t just go and decide these things forother people. Even assuming I don’t actually love you romantically doesn’t meanI don’t like being around you. And what’s with that ‘everyone’? You have plentyof friends, right? Everyone on the team, and your classmates… I’m sure theylike having you around.”

But Mei simplyshook his head. “No. I have people who tolerate and placate me because theyneed my baseball skills, and people who admire me because they don’t actuallyknow me. And I guess I have Kazuya, who’d rather be annoyed than alone. That’sit.”

Masatoshi couldn’thelp but feel a pang of annoyance that Miyuki Kazuya of all people got an extraspot in this listing, while he was presumably lumped in with the rest of theteam in the first category. But he swallowed it down.

“What about yourfamily?”

This time, theresponse was a shrug. “My mom and sisters are all just as annoying as me, so Iguess we can all just comfortably annoy each other. I honestly don’t know whymy dad is still happily married to my mom, I guess he must be some kind ofmasochist.”

“Well, maybe I’m amasochist. You don’t know that.”

While… this wasn’texactly what he’d planned to say – in fact he’d never thought about thisbefore and he was sure he’d found better ways to express what he meant if he’dthought about it for more than a millisecond – it did make Mei look at him forreal for the first time since he’d entered his room.

“What?”

Even if it was alook that was trying to figure out if he had gone completely nuts.

“Um, I mean, inall seriousness, I missed you, Mei.” Yes, that sounded much better, much morelike a normal person. “I honestly missed being around you, and even beingannoyed by you on a daily basis during the past month.”

“I guess thatkinda does make you a masochist.”

“Thanks.”

His voice was dry,but it was actually hard to maintain. He could see the edges of a smile tuggingat Mei’s lips as their bickering progressed naturally as it had so many timesbefore. It was a feeling like coming home, and it automatically made Masatoshihope, even if they still hadn’t really found a resolution to the problem athand. But they were getting there.

In the end, perhapspredictably, Masatoshi simply relented. He pulled Mei into his arms, and didthe one thing he promised he wouldn’t do this time. “I’m sorry.”

“But you said-”

“I know. And I’mnot sorry about anything concerning the small fight we had that led to all ofthis. That was your fault. But I hurt you. I didn’t mean to, I had no idea whatI’d cause, but I hurt you. I still don’t quite understand how you came to yourconclusions or how you feel, but none of that really matters. I’m just sorry,and I need you to know that.”

“I’m sorry, too,”Mei mumbled into his chest, “I was extra annoying because I was trying to seeif you’d keep me around when you didn’t need me anymore. Guess I got exactly whatI asked for…”

The apology fellfrom Mei’s lips so easily, with such a sense of relief, and finally it occurredto Masatoshi that maybe it hadn’t been pride – or at least not pride alone –that had kept Mei from apologizing first for so long. If he really saw beingannoying as part of himself, then of course apologizing felt like apologizingfor who he was, rather than a small one-time thing. And it always carried therisk of getting told the apology wasn’t good enough, that maybe Mei just wasn’tgood enough.

It didn’t exactlysolve Masatoshi’s initial issue, all it really did was complicate finding asolution they’d both be happy with, but Masatoshi figured it would be muchbetter to look for one together than stay apart out of misplaced anger, prideand hurt.

“Mei, I’ll alwayswant to keep you around, as long as you want me by your side as well. Let’sjust… talk, okay? We’ll figure something out, together. So we won’t ever bothbe sad and lonely for a whole month for no reason again.”

Mei nodded againsthis chest. “Okay. Yeah, that sounds good. But, before we do that, can I kissyou?”

“You missed that,huh?”

“Oh, you have noidea.”

“I’m pretty sure Ido.”

Before Mei couldfigure out his next retort, Masatoshi bent down, gently tilting up Mei’s chinwith his hand, and pressed their lips together.

They practicallymelted together, and finally, after a month of everything feeling out of place,the world was right again.

Bonus

They ended upcuddling on Mei’s bed and talking way into the night, about their feelings andissues and experiences all the way to their perception of the world, and it waspossibly the closest Masatoshi had ever felt to someone in his whole life.

Just when theywere both about to fall asleep though, he remembered why he’d chosen to go toMei in the first place.

“I almost forgot,but you really have to stop treating Tadano as bad as you did. I know you wereupset, but he has nothing to do with this.”

Mei groaned. “Iknow. I was just trying to get him to hate me. He looked like he was admiringme when I was just feeling shitty about myself and it pissed me off. I wantedto disappoint him in the worst way possible.”

“Well, I don’tthink it worked anyway. He was totally desperate, but he kept asking how hecould get along with you, or how to make you acknowledge him, how he could getgood enough to be your partner. Even when from what I heard, I’d be at thepoint where I’d be asking my senpai for ways to kill you without gettingcaught.”

“What the fuck. Hemust be a masochist for real.”

“Maybe that’s onyou. You attract us.”

“Oh, shut up,Masa-san.”

#masamei #harada masatoshi #narumiya mei #daiya no ace #answered #Anonymous

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beauchampx · 5 years

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ELIZABETH BEAUCHAMP // challenge four ( 2 // ? )

‘mbti test.’

RESULTS ;;

ENFP-T // Extraverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Prospecting, Turbulent.

it doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. i want to know what you ache for – and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. it doesn’t interest me how old you are. i want to know if you will risk looking like a fool – for love – for your dreams – for the adventure of being alive.

ORIAH MOUNTAIN DREAMER

the campaigner personality is a true free spirit. they are often the life of the party, but unlike types in the explorer role group, campaigners are less interested in the sheer excitement and pleasure of the moment than they are in enjoying the social and emotional connections they make with others. charming, independent, energetic and compassionate, the 7% of the population that they comprise can certainly be felt in any crowd.

more than just sociable people-pleasers though, campaigners, like all their diplomat cousins, are shaped by their intuitive (n) quality, allowing them to read between the lines with curiosity and energy. they tend to see life as a big, complex puzzle where everything is connected – but unlike analyst personality types, who tend to see that puzzle as a series of systemic machinations, campaigners see it through a prism of emotion, compassion and mysticism, and are always looking for a deeper meaning.

few personality types are as creative and charismatic as campaigners. known for their idealism and enthusiasm, campaigners are good at dealing with unexpected challenges and brightening the lives of those around them. campaigners’ imagination is invaluable in many areas, including their own personal growth.

making life spectacular

luckily, campaigners are open-minded and sincere enough in their friendships, and connect with and understand even their acquaintances well enough, that they recognize that not everyone expresses themselves in the same ways, and that that’s okay. their sensitivity may make it too challenging to play with more critical and argumentative personalities, such as strongly expressed thinking (t) and judging (j) types, but they do appreciate, even cherish, the company of most anyone who appreciates theirs, and the adventures and experiences they have together are the stuff a good life is made of.

ANALYSIS ;;

elizabeth feels so attacked right now. this test has proved to be about 95% accurate in lizzie’s case, the missing 5% being the lack of information around caution and the difficulties she sometimes faces in letting her curiosity continue once she has a negative experience with a person; to not hold grudges. the ability for the test to combine both lizzie’s need to explore and experience life alongside her passion towards caring for those around her is extremely informative, summarising her personality extremely well. even the list of weaknesses (listed below) is extremely telling.

what i find most interesting is the labelling her as ‘independent to a fault’, given how the majority of this description hints towards campaigners being social figures who thrive on communication with others as well as how they care for loves ones. lizzie has so far had a lot of experience with independence, thanks to her position at court and her failed betrothal, that she may struggle to give up that in future. it’s interesting to think that a test which has done so well at explaining lizzie’s current personality but may also give a glimpse at her future also, where her personality might lead her in the coming years.

campaigner strengths ;;

curious – when it comes to new ideas, campaigners aren’t interested in brooding – they want to go out and experience things, and don’t hesitate to step out of their comfort zones to do so. campaigners are imaginative and open-minded, seeing all things as part of a big, mysterious puzzle called life.

observant – campaigners believe that there are no irrelevant actions, that every shift in sentiment, every move and every idea is part of something bigger. to satisfy their curiosity, campaigners try to notice all of these things, and to never miss a moment.

energetic and enthusiastic – as they observe, forming new connections and ideas, campaigners won’t hold their tongues – they’re excited about their findings, and share them with anyone who’ll listen. this infectious enthusiasm has the dual benefit of giving campaigners a chance to make more social connections, and of giving them a new source of information and experience, as they fit their new friends’ opinions into their existing ideas.

excellent communicators – it’s a good thing that campaigners have such strong people skills, or they’d never express these ideas. campaigners enjoy both small talk and deep, meaningful conversations, which are just two sides of the same coin for them, and are adept at steering conversations towards their desired subjects in ways that feel completely natural and unforced.

know how to relax – it’s not all “nature of the cosmos” discussions with campaigners – people with this personality type know that sometimes, nothing is as important as simply having fun and experiencing life’s joys. that intuitive trait lets campaigners know that it’s time to shake things up, and these wild bursts of enthusiastic energy can surprise even their closest friends.

very popular and friendly – all this adaptability and spontaneity comes together to form a person who is approachable, interesting and exciting, with a cooperative and altruistic spirit and friendly, empathetic disposition. campaigners get along with pretty much everyone, and their circles of friends stretch far and wide.

campaigner weaknesses ;;

poor practical skills – when it comes to conceiving ideas and starting projects, especially involving other people, campaigners have exceptional talent. unfortunately their skill with upkeep, administration, and follow-through on those projects struggles. without more hands-on people to help push day-to-day things along, campaigners’ ideas are likely to remain just that – ideas.

find it difficult to focus – campaigners are natural explorers of interpersonal connections and philosophy, but this backfires when what needs to be done is that tps report sitting right in front of them. It’s hard for campaigners to maintain interest as tasks drift towards routine, administrative matters, and away from broader concepts.

overthink things – campaigners don’t take things at face value – they look for underlying motives in even the simplest things. it’s not uncommon for campaigners to lose a bit of sleep asking themselves why someone did what they did, what it might mean, and what to do about it.

get stressed easily – all this overthinking isn’t just for their own benefit – campaigners, especially turbulent ones, are very sensitive, and care deeply about others’ feelings. a consequence of their popularity is that others often look to them for guidance and help, which takes time, and it’s easy to see why campaigners sometimes get overwhelmed, especially when they can’t say yes to every request.

highly emotional – while emotional expression is healthy and natural, with campaigners even viewing it as a core part of their identity, it can come out strongly enough to cause problems for this personality type. particularly when under stress, criticism or conflict, campaigners can experience emotional bursts that are counter-productive at best.

independent to a fault – campaigners loathe being micromanaged and restrained by heavy-handed rules – they want to be seen as highly independent masters of their own fates, even possessors of an altruistic wisdom that goes beyond draconian law. the challenge for campaigners is that they live in a world of checks and balances, a pill they are not happy to swallow.

#crhs.challenge #these violent delights have violent ends. // headcanons.

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dercukuva1985-blog · 5 years

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Great teaser. Looks even better after reading /u/4rollingstock's awesome post on animated sequel timing. Frozen 2 may start with the disadvantage of coming too slow to catch the hype at its crest, and too fast to launder nostalgia, but it's smart to have the franchise grow up with its original target audience. One would anticipate states with multiple cities would have their populations per city would have lower scores. This might apply to Pennsylvania with Philly vs Pittsburgh or California with LA vs SF, but SF is actually multiple cities of the bay area:SF, SJ, Oakland. Similarly with Texas Houston, Dallas, San Antone, but would you really consider Dallas and Fort Worth separately. So that is luckily only a small concern. She earns more than me at the moment. That could change as my career path has shifted. I had an abortion dec 2016, I had only known my boyfriend (now fianc so there is hope) for a year and we were not in a financial spot to raise a child. He wanted to keep it as he is older and thought it would be his only shot at being a dad. I was 26 and in no way ready to raise a child (I had just started a new job like a month prior).. Which is why young athletes 김천출장마사지 are given a huge amount of media training and support. They are expected to behave professionally even when flustered, even when uncomfortable, even when pissed off and even when provoked (not that Max was even close to being provoked here). And it wasn a pressure situation or moment either an unwise outburst straight off the track is understandable and even the media themselves will show understanding and even discretion where they can there. My pimples are minimal and usually due to my own fault. My PIH is 김천출장마사지 fading. I am content.. 1 point submitted 4 days agoSpecial Fighter is right. H!Niles is really fast already, so save that Bold Fighter for someone else who needs the auto. Doubling.I would say that Null Followup is actually pretty overrated. This whole damn thread is cancer. Everyone is arguing about why or why not the kid was justified in beating this old man, essentially comparing the old dude to a Nazi or a KKK member, when I reality it not okay to do this under any damn circumstance. Politics in this country has become so damn divided and polarizing that noone has any humanity anymore, on either side of the spectrum.. Sutures/fractures/child screaming from ear pain? Those are a different shade of emergencies and I don think it is unreasonable to know how long the wait time is. If you needed sutures would you go to the ER with a 10 minute wait or the ER with a 6 hour wait?Would you book a flight on a day where you are told to show up and wait with no idea when the plane leaves? Would you go to a restaurant and have no idea how long it will take to get a table? Would you go to a movie with no idea when it starts?When I get a call in the ER asking me about wait times, I give them an accurate picture of what the wait time is at that moment with the caveat that it can change in an instant and let them decide if they want to come in.One other observation. If ER only saw true emergencies, about 90 95% of ER nurses would be working in a different fields because there would be no ER jobs for them.

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webmarket01 · 4 years

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5 Quick Tips To Get The Weight loss Results You Want With Peloton | Stronger U

New Post has been published on https://weightlosshtiw.com/5-quick-tips-to-get-the-weight-loss-results-you-want-with-peloton-stronger-u/

5 Quick Tips To Get The Weight loss Results You Want With Peloton | Stronger U

My first introduction to Peloton was when a few people started joining our program and mentioning that’s how they heard about us. I didn’t have a clue what it was. I would see “Peloton group” come through on the ‘how you heard of us’ section on our signup form and I assumed it was an at-home add on to regular cycling.

Then I did a little searching. Wow. This thing is major and there is a huge community of people buying these bikes to lose fat in addition to getting more fit and healthy. If you aren’t familiar with Peloton, picture an in-home spin class with a well-built bike, awesome instructors, a tight community, and some of the best technology in the fitness business. You can see why this company is valued at over a billion dollars. It checks all the boxes…except one and it’s to no fault of their own. Giving people the results they want.

I already mentioned it’s not the Peloton’s fault per se, but something is responsible. So, what is it? Well, it’s the same old problem every exerciser faces and literally the reason Stronger U started. To be the sidekick to great workouts and give people the results they deserve. In this case, fat loss.

If you’re working out hard and you’re not seeing the results it’s most likely food-related. The elephant in the room that accounts for the other 95% of the day you don’t spend working out. That’s what we’re going to address here and leave you with some practical tips so you can get the most out of your workouts from this point on.

You’re not burning as many calories as you think.

Calorie outputs are estimations based on power, your weight, time, and a few other factors. Calories burned estimates aren’t a perfect science, and while that science might be improving, the estimates of how many calories you burn while exercising can still be wildly off base. It’s best to think of the calories burned number on your Peloton, Apple Watch, or any other piece of tech as a generalization.

Beyond those numbers being a general estimate, it’s important that we recognize that exercise in itself isn’t a weight-loss tool. It’s a health tool. Can working out consistently help with weight loss? Definitely. But the help it provides typically comes from helping us stay motivated to eat well, sleep regularly, and be more mindful of how we treat our bodies. The more quickly you can start exercising for the health and wellness benefits instead of the calorie benefits, the better off you’ll be. And chances are you’ll enjoy your workouts even more because of it.

“I have had a peloton since 2014… I even tried to workout 6-7 days a week with NO weight loss. I kept thinking I’m killing it and I ate pretty healthy too. Until I met stronger U I never had any weight loss. I assumed I was doing enough. Bottom line is there was more fat (avocados and olive oil) and calories in the food that I ate then I wanted to admit.” – Amanda Lamer

You’re still eating poorly even if you think you aren’t.

You start riding your Peloton 3x a week and you make that a habit. You’re feeling great because you’re moving your body more often and you’re building an exercise habit you can be proud of. You decide to make some changes in how you’re eating to help yourself along.

So you start eating more “whole foods”. You load up on avocados, buy only organic foods, grass-fed beef, and butter. A few weeks go by and you’re still not down any weight. What gives? Simply put, you might have tried to improve the quality of what you’re eating, but in doing so you might have also increased the quantity of how much you’re eating without even knowing it.

Our eating habits are the most important factor when it comes to weight loss. Specifically, how much we eat. Most of us understand that we have to eat less in order to lose weight. But what most of us don’t understand is how difficult it is to eat less or how small the margin for error of weight loss actually is.

Actual weight loss requires a consistent calorie deficit, repeated over a period of time. How long of a period of time that is depends on how intense your calorie deficit is. Creating that calorie deficit requires us to honestly and accurately stay on top of how much we’re eating on a daily basis — something that even the most educated people in the world of food struggle with.

Eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and exercising is a good recipe for improving your health. But weight loss in itself still comes down to creating a calorie deficit, and unfortunately, it’s more than possible to overeat foods that we view as healthy or okay. Especially foods higher in fat like avocados. Yes, there is more to this food thing than calories but in the case of fat loss, they are king.

You use food as a reward for working out.

Someone goes on a ride, they’re told that ride burned 400 calories, and now they have an additional 400 calories they can eat that day. Because that’s how calorie burning and exercising work, right?

Not quite. It’s easy to think of food as a reward. For many of us, we’ve been taught since we were children that’s exactly what food is: a reward. And that thought follows us into adulthood. The way we approach food after a hard workout is a perfect example of that.

But that’s not how the world of weight loss works. Like we’ve established, creating a calorie deficit usually involves a very small margin of error. For plenty of people, that might only be 100-200 calories. Which means even if you have a great workout, you’re only a heaping serving of peanut butter away from eliminating your calorie deficit for the day, which might undo any weight loss you were going to see that week. It’s also common to under-report the amount you did eat, which means you’re not only negating the deficit, you’re going the wrong way.

“I definitely ate the calories the bike told me I was burning!” – Carrie Costello

The workouts make you hungrier.

The double-edged sword of working out is the fact that working out, by its very nature, is bound to make you hungrier. Think about it: you’re pushing your body, you’re sweating, and you’re doing that for around an hour or more. Even if that doesn’t burn as many calories as we think, it does have a psychological impact.

As we’ve already seen, the whole hunger/exercise relationship is incredibly complicated, and it feels impossible to separate the two. But one of the things that we have to accept is that working out will inevitably make you hungrier at some point during the day. Maybe it’s because you’re implicitly viewing food as a reward and not even conscious of it, so you desire more food. Or maybe it’s because you’ve been convinced that you need to eat more food in order to recover, so you have this natural desire to eat more on days you exercise.

No matter the reason, if you’re not actively paying attention to how much you’re eating on a daily basis, working out regularly can accidentally lead you to overeating. All without you being aware of what is actually going on.

“I was over eating and hoping to offset that with burned calories. Based on the bikes numbers and guessing (incorrectly) how much I was eating I assumed I was in a “good enough” deficit (I wasn’t). Often, I thought that since I was working out I had more wiggle room so that didn’t help either.” – Katherine Crites

You worked out hard and moved less the rest of the day.

Have you ever heard of the constrained model of energy expenditure? If not, you should. In short, it says that when you work out hard, your body will naturally throttle down your activity in order to help you rest and prevent from expending too much energy.

This is an evolutionary adaptation that goes back to the time when our ancestors roamed the plains. And while we now roam grocery stores instead of wide-open plains, our brains and the things that drive our behavior haven’t changed much. That’s especially true when we think about our relationship with exercise and general movement.

It’s a well-established idea that NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) plays a pivotal role in weight loss. NEAT can be thought of as all the movement you rack up during your day to day life that isn’t exercise. Your daily steps, the fidgeting you do while you’re waiting on a meeting to start, and the work you do to prep your food? All NEAT.

But here’s where things get tricky: when you work out really hard, the constrained model of energy expenditure says that you will then start moving less over the rest of the day, bringing your NEAT down from where it previously was. Not all bad, right? Not so fast.

NEAT accounts for around 30% of your daily energy expenditure. Calories burned during exercise pale in comparison to that number due to the fact that exercise tends to happen for drastically shorter periods of time. After all, if your workout takes you an hour, there are still 23 hours in the day that your body can be moving around and burning calories. It’s virtually impossible for most people to make up that difference through exercise alone, and I can confidently say that it probably wouldn’t be fun to try and do so.

In closing, keep riding your Peloton, it’s awesome. Anything that helps you move your body on a consistent basis in a way that you enjoy is an exercise habit that is sure to stick around. And it should be no shock to any of you that we here at Stronger U are big fans of a company that creates a supportive and loving community. Just don’t treat riding your Peloton as the only thing you need to do in order to lose weight. If that’s the goal, you will have to pay attention to how much you eat, and that will pay the biggest dividends for you in the long-run.

This content was originally published here.

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qqueenofhades · 7 years

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I know you've professed your love for Richard I and I've clicked on your tags of past postings but many of the links back are now broken. I always think of the line from the '95 Sense & Sensibility movie - Margaret is reeling of the kings of England "Good King Richard, Bad King John" While I know he led crusades and performed admirably in battle; considering how little time he spent there before and during his reign, was he, in fact a "good king" for England and its people?

(If you want to find my old Richard posts. my tag is here. Heh.)

Honestly, one of the things I love best about Richard is that he was so complicated. It is very, very rare to find a historical figure conveyed to us so vividly through the limited and biased nature of primary sources, and when you read them, you can understand why his contemporaries found him so striking and controversial (as he still is today, obviously) and generally larger than life. As I said in my answer to the John ask, the Plantagenets were almost all incredibly talented, dynamic, colorful, driven people, and they were likewise almost always just as flawed as they were gifted. That is rich stuff for both a historian and a novelist to explore (hence why they’ve become such popular subject) and yet it often gets flattened and used to paint a simplistic black-and-white portrait. I love Richard because there is so much depth and interest and complexity that comes through just in terms of what people wrote about him, and which must have been so much more in what he was like in real life (if definitely not pleasant at times, especially if you were on his bad side).

As for the basic question of whether Richard was a good king for England, it is inextricably tied up with his status as a crusader. In the nineteenth century, when the British Empire was at its height and going overseas and colonizing the “savages” was cool, Richard was treated as the perfect idealized king, pinnacle of chivalry and nineteenth-century Victorian values, etc. It was not an accurate picture of him, and nor was the twentieth-century reaction to that image, which became about pointing at the crusades as the epitome of fanatical religious violence (which we supposedly don’t do anymore, to which I say HA and also LOL) and in turn framing Richard as the embodiment of that mindset, he was unworthy of his heroic status, Look How Bad He Actually Was, we are smarter than ye olde dumb people now, etc etc. I have never seen any medieval figure attract the same kind of lightning-rod controversy that Richard does, and so much made of his personal flaws – which were not terribly different from that of any king of the period, and in some places much more admirable. It is also absolutely tied to the debate around his sexuality, and good old-fashioned Straight Historian homophobia. So you have this project of people trying to deconstruct Richard’s heroic image, while insisting that our violence against Muslims is super different from the crusading era’s violence against Muslims, while also insisting (as I’ve written about) that either Richard was a good king because he was straight, or a bad king because he was gay. So yes.

The comparison is especially interesting because the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin and his forces in October 1187 was twelfth century Western Europe’s 9/11. It was that shocking and marked that much of an upheaval of/violation of the homeland. The Christian kingdom of Jerusalem had been established after the successful (and extremely bloody) capture of the city in 1099, at the end of the First Crusade. To have it fall back to the Muslims (especially after the West had ignored the Frankish settlers’ calls for help for decades, and then were shocked when the kingdom was conquered, kind of like how we repeatedly ignored intelligence warnings about 9/11 and then were shocked when it happened) was a watershed moment for medieval Christendom. George W. Bush had something like 90%-95% public support for bombing Afghanistan after 9/11; support for the Third Crusade, which was called as a direct result of Jerusalem’s fall, was at similar levels.

Richard going on crusade soon after he was crowned is framed as him haring off on some personal religious vendetta and leaving England behind (often from English-nationalist historians whose view on Richard’s success or failure focus very myopically on England), but the fact was, the entire leadership of Western Europe was going on crusade – Richard, Philip II of France, most of the French territorial lords, the Italian city-states, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, etc. Richard’s father, Henry II, had sworn a crusade vow before his death (although it was doubtful he ever intended to go). This was not a thing which anyone was opting out of, and was part of the entire accepted paradigm of political leadership (similarly, one might remark, to the Western world banding together for the “war on terror.”) England WANTED Richard to go on crusade, and they remained, on the whole, incredibly supportive of him while he was away, especially while John and Philip II (who came in for all kinds of criticism for leaving the crusade early) were making trouble. Richard was doing the right thing, in their view, by going on this expedition, and that was what they wanted their king to be doing.

Of course, Richard’s capture by Henry Hohenstaufen on the way home from the Holy Land, and subsequent very expensive ransom, is pointed to as another example of Richard “costing England.” (Funnily, the people who gripe about this don’t often discuss that Louis IX of France was captured TWICE on his crusades and cost his kingdom even more money to free him – again, this becomes something that somehow only Richard did wrong.) Richard also had to recapture the territory that Philip II had pilfered while he was away, and since those two had an extremely personal rivalry, this became an ongoing war. Again – all medieval kings, including literally every king of England through the Hanovers, were engaged in various land maneuvering and attempts to defend or expand their territory, but this again becomes only Richard’s fault.

It is true that Richard does not seem to have been terribly personally fond of England (and likewise, the English nationalist historians clutch their pearls over this, because not liking England is a terrible crime in their eyes) but there is no indication that he treated it differently or ignored it altogether. He was very lucky to have his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was an incredibly shrewd political operator, and played a major role in governance especially while he was away. But the fact is, Richard wasn’t in England during the latter half of his reign because England didn’t need him there. He had set up the advisory council that more or less managed to run the place, and mostly counted on England to provide him money to fund his defense of his French lands against Philip. England did this fairly well, if not without several inventive stunts on Richard’s part, so that was its overall use. Richard’s premier title was obviously king of England; all his French territories were technically subordinate to Philip, which was a constant sticking point, so England was the association and the rank that was the most important to be emphasized. And since the one constant throughout all of English history has been hating the French, if Richard was sitting on his ass at home while the French were trying to steal his stuff, this would not have made him at all popular. Indeed, one of the major criticisms of John was that he could not defend the English crown’s incredibly important, wealthy, and prestigious French territories as well as Richard had, and ended up losing nearly all of them to Philip.

This ties into the fact that successful medieval kingship had something of a recognizable political/diplomatic/statecraft element to it, especially in the later medieval era, but was still first and foremost about being a soldier, defending territory, and defeating enemies. You could disqualify someone from the throne by blinding them so they couldn’t fight or lead armies, as in fact happened fairly often (especially among the Byzantines). Richard, whatever else he was, was a hella good soldier and strategist who beat nearly everyone who tried to match wits with him, and this was what made John and Jane Q. Medieval Public think, hey this guy is a good king. Richard remained popular in his own day, by and large, because of his prestige as a crusader and his talent on the battlefield. His financial exactions, to be sure, were not as popular, but no tax, ever, in the history of anywhere has been appreciated by the public. So regardless of whether we look at his rule and say that he was a good or bad king, England at the time did not view him any more unfavorably than any of their other rulers, and oftentimes much more favorably (and certainly more than John).

Frankly, I love Richard because of that color and vibrance and talent and controversy and strengths and flaws that are so easily visible around him. He was a crusader who approached the project from a thoroughly pragmatic, rather than religious, perspective (which ended up biting him in the ass). He consistently punished those responsible for riots against the Jews, which were a major and unfortunate part of crusading fever, and in 1194 made a law protecting them, which literally nobody else in Europe was doing. He went to the Holy Land as part of the twelfth-century War on Terror and then announced he liked the Muslims better than his scheming and self-serving Christian allies. He and Saladin admired the hell out of each other, he called Saladin’s brother al-Adil (known as Saif al-Din or Saphadin) “my brother and my friend,” he cultivated numerous high-level Muslim diplomatic contacts, including al-Mashtuq, a commander of Saladin’s whom he had once held as a prisoner, and which ended up with al-Mashtuq arguing on Richard’s behalf during treaty negotiations. He was a six-foot-four (or thereabouts) redhead who swore like a sailor; he would have been literally larger than life when the average guy was five-foot-eight. He had an absolutely wicked sense of black humor. He was queer (gay or bisexual, and you can fight me on this.) He was clever and flawed and violent and educated (he spoke at least three languages and probably more, and wrote songs and poetry) and nobody who met him EVER forgot the experience. As I said, he comes through in the primary sources in a way that very few figures ever do, and we get such a clear and compelling picture of him as a result.

I have actually applied to give a paper at next year’s International Medieval Congress about Richard, and how modern treatments of him and his personal character (especially said queerness) is directly tied to our memory of the crusades, our institutionalized homophobia and view of crusading masculinities, our discomfort with the project of a “war on terror” against the Muslims in various ways, and our determination to insist that We’re Not Like Those There Fanatics Back Then In Ye Olde Dark Ages. The Straight Historians and the academy in general have done all kinds of things with him that they haven’t with other kings, and while in one sense it’s to be expected with someone whose legend has acquired such stature, in another it really needs to be looked at and challenged, and that is what I have become so interested in doing.

#history #medieval history #richard the lionheart #hilary fucking loves richard and writes a mini novel #oops?#emn1936 #ask

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heavyyhearts-blog · 7 years

Text

actually heres my side

“ first, before getting to real stuff, aya has done this to other people in the past too. when she talked about them to me she said they abused her or abandoned her suddenly. i’ve only talked to one of these people, but they confirmed that aya actually abused, and then stalked them when they cut her off. i don’t have permission to post these logs so out of respect i won’t put them here. “

ive never been very clear in talking about my past experiences with most people. you make this sound as if every person that's ever "abandoned me" were all "abused" by me, when that's not the case. have i acted in shitty ways to some people? yes, but it never had anything to do with me being abandoned, at any point. one of these people, actually straight up disappeared from my life, and i have no idea why. they disappeared off skype and i havent seen them since. we had no problems between eachother whatsoever. a different example i can think of for someone i was talking about? they left because i was too stressful to be around. as in, i always complained too much and that kind of thing and it was too much to be around. i didnt even know them very long. another example of a person i mentioned with that: they had really bad schizophrenia and like, trauma issues, and what happened there? they'd randomly like? actually start basically splitting on me and getting extremely angry at me out of nowhere for no reason, which i tried to be really tolerable of, until things basically got too much for either of us to handle and after a bit of dumb drama, we separated with , i believe, no hard feelings.

my point being? when i say "ive been abandoned by a lot of people" or whatever, im not literally claiming that i was abused by literally everyone and im some huge victim, lol. that last example? you could probably say i was abused due to the level of pent up anger they were throwing at me, , unprovoked

“ i’ve only talked to one of these people, but they confirmed that aya actually abused, and then stalked them when they cut her off “

first of all, this happened literal years ago. second of all, this person is still full of shit and i can't believe they still insist all of these bullshit lies. "aya stalked me" i hadnt visited your blog for months, i'd literally forgotten about you, yet you somehow still had it set in your head that i was "stalking" you. i wanted to remake my blog for a multitude of reasons, and one of them being, a more back of my mind thing, was, i didnt want you viewing my blog. so i remade. and, like, 2-3 days later, i got paranoid that you had somehow found my new blog, entirely new, so i asked my friend to go see if my new url was on there, because i didnt want to go back on your blog myself. and sure enough, there it was, my new url, even though i hadn't given it out to anyone or posted it anywhere, meaning you literally searched through notes of a post or something along those lines to find it. yeah ive explained this so many times now its fun :) not to mention your shitty friend(s) that would constantly twist my words around and lie saying i was doingthings that i didnt. and your only "proof" was logs of talking shit about me behind my back to one of my friends, you had no screenshots of me doing anything, because guess what, i never did it. wow. "i dont have screenshots because i deleted them all" okay bud. anyway

and now here's my main issue with everything: you are "calling me out" for things we have already personally talked about, that we either resolved, or i apologized for/said that i would try to stop doing so i can better myself which i have actually done? so i literally do not understand why youre calling me out for shit as if im some malicious person trying to hurt people that's just completely incapable of getting better or whatever. lets start

“i’ve tried to cut her off several times, both by trying to talk and express my want to stop talking to her first and by just blocking/ignoring her on everything. i made it clear i wanted to stop talking the first couple of times. she will spam and beg me and make new accounts if she has to. once ive added her back however she’s used that against me”

okay youre calling me out for this but you admitted what you did was fucked up too? and i dont know what else to even say to this other than im going to try to stop getting so attached to people like that so i maybe dont have such bad mental breakdowns every time i thnk someone close to me is leaving like sorry i cant. help feeling that way or control this thing specifically unless i just dont get attached like that at all, which is my fault.

[x] [x] [x]

here, you post a completely out of context rant from me, where i got mad at something you did that you literally admitted was fucked up. full context!

[x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

you even told me you had no idea what you were talking about with any of it.

“ one of the times that we weren’t talking she DMd my twitter mutuals asking them to screenshot my recent tweets. “

i told you my reason for it. i was extremely paranoid that you were talking shit about me behind my back and i wanted to know if you were or not, even though i did it in a really shitty way. i instantly felt so beyond terrible that i had done that. i was sobbing the entire time i was trying to apologize for how fucked up and wrong it was of me to do that, and even apologized for it again later after it had happened already. because i wanted to make sure you knew how sorry i was for it. i cant take something like that back.

[x] [x]

“recently, after getting so upset with me for doing the same thing in the past, she randomly blocked me on everything and refused to talk to me. i would understand if she hadn’t previously gotten so mad and upset at me for the exact same thing. “

?? i split really bad just like i already have been, due to , as i've already exlpained, the nonstop bad things we've had between us for months, to the point i havent been able to talk to you like normal anymore, because just seeing you pisses me off and everything you say/do will just piss me off. i cant help that. its not my fault. i cant just not split like that because we've had fucked up problems for months, that, guess what, shouldnt even be public here for all reasons ive already stated! but i also did it just because ive been deciding i need to get away from you for good, that i dont WANT to talk to you at all anymore. sucks to be treated the way you treat others right.

“ i posted on my twitter saying i wanted to drink and she instantly messaged me begging and spamming me not to “

and everything else like stalling, pressuring you etc. this is still. we talked about this. i said sorry. i got better about it. why do i have a callout.

[x] [x]

like this is literally all just trying to make me look bad in ways that i'm not. nice try, though!

“ when i cc’d bakugou and she tried to make me explain my trauma to make it Valid “

you're trying to make me look bad again. i was just asking because i was anxious wanted to know the reasoning for it and im sorry for pressing it at all but that doesnt mean i was trying to make you explain it so it could be "valid" shut the fuck up lol i even explained to you afterwards why it made me so uncomfortable and that it didnt bother me anymore, that i thought you were just blindly cc'ing him for no real reason like i just assumed it wasnt a coping thing or anything and thats my fault but??? youre trying to make me look bad for it so??? i'd even keep sending you fanart of him like.

[x]

“ she was extremely dependent on me and would spam me if i fell asleep before she woke up, she’d got upset and started splitting on me because i didn’t return her feelings of attraction. “

wat...

“ second, she’s blaming everything on her BPD and “not being able to help it,” or “can’t control herself” “

well, as you can clearly see, ive been anything but that??? but if you wanna keep telling yourself that, go ahead. have i said things LIKE that before? yes, when i was freaking out, over certain things i actually can't help, for example: abandonment trauma??? and like i said before: i need to try to not get so attached to people in the first place so that doesnt happen anymore! otherwise, should some sort of situation like that happen again, i can't handle getting that level of upset. so i prevent that by not getting that level of attached at all. like sorry but theres certain things nobody can help, even you. you're just trying to make it sound like this entire thing has been nothing but "i cant help it"

and lastly, we can't forget the fact that, for a long time, you wouldn't tell me anything. literally anything. i would repeatedly ask you. "what do i do that bothers you what am i doing wrong" etc and all you'd ever say was "idk" 95% of the time. i had absolutely no idea that for the longest time, i had been saying a lot of manipulative, shitty things and acting bad and etc, slash i had no idea that some of my episodes were actually affecting you that badly until way too late.

when you first told me that i had been acting so shitty, through a jpeg meme that was making fun of me, did i realize how awful i was being. i honest to god never had any idea and i explained this to you countless times. that i was oblivious/i can be oblivious to shitl ike that and that i need you to tell me, otherwise I WONT KNOW.

nice meme. :) but yeah clearly this is still an accurate representation of me, right?

[x] [x]

yeah, you got me though. im a toxic, abusive piece of shit that will never get better, all i do is hurt others, i can't change, ive never apologized, ive never gotten better. totally

and since we're playing this game,

and now that i've said all this, i have nothing else to say. i can't make anyone believe me, but if you do, thanks.

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