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axiomsofice · 3 years

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Group A:

Owen Power, D, NCAA

This is likely the only pick that we’ll be able to predict with much conviction. It’s a package that is impossible to ignore, a huge frame, good passing skills, and already contributing at a high level. Seeing as the second-to-last defenceman to go 1st (Ekblad, get well) just started to transform into his best self, and with Dahlin posting uneven results early in his journey, there shouldn’t be an expectation for Power to make the jump to Buffalo next season. Especially given he’d be headed back to Michigan, a higher level than junior, this should be an ideal place for him to hone his craft for a year or two before the Sabre slide him into their top 4.

Group B: 2nd to 10th

Some consensus should be coming as we approach the draft, but in general it wouldn’t be surprising for these players to be selected anywhere in this range. Central accounting’s lists were quite surprising and I definitely take their opinions to heart, along with many other opinions as well. I’ve divided them by position.

Defence:

Brandt Clarke, D, Slovakia (via OHL)

Clarke went overseas to find playing time this season, playing pro in Slovakia. He’s got a lot of agility, or shiftiness, with and without the puck. He’s aggressive in pursuing offence with his passing and skating, and has the quality to make plays and even score goals when he jumps up into the play.

Luke Hughes, D, USNDTP

The third instalment of the Hughes Brothers (Quinn and Jack), Luke is bigger than his brothers and amongst the youngest of the draft class. He has all the tools we’ve come to expect from the family interns of puck skills and skating prowess, although time will tell maybe not quite to the level of his brothers, but nonetheless standouts amongst this draft class. Given his age, and playing at a lower level than the rest of these top ranked defenders, the baseline of at least one more year before thinking about jumping to the NHL might be 2 for Hughes. With patience and development, Hughes could prove to have the most upside among blueliners in this class.

Simon Edvinsson, D, SHL

Not quite as tall as Power, but Edvinsson a big person in his own right. He uses this size and his skating to be a really effective defender. His offensive game, especially his passing and decision making, or perhaps better framed as transitions, is still a bit raw. Surviving in the SHL at this age is definitely an accomplishment, and the hope is that next season he can make a bigger difference in that league. It seems all but guaranteed he’ll be able to contribute in the NHL at some point, the question is more about how much.

CENTRE

Matt Beniers, C, NCAA

Beniers is definitely the prospect I’ve seen the most of in the class, and especially early in the season I had almost cone to terms with ranking him number 1. Although it is significant to me that Central Scouting had him as their 6th NA skater. He’ll be described as a 2-way centre, maybe a 2nd line type of centre, and I wonder if it’s mostly due to a perceived lack of upside that others might have jumped past him. Regardless, he’s already succeeding in at Michigan and played a big role on the Gold Medal U20 US team. He supports his teammates all over the ice and is a great passing outlet from breakouts to zone entries. He does have some skill and is probably my favourite to go 2nd overall at this point (June).

Mason McTavish, C, SUI (via OHL)

Another OHL top prospect who had to venture overseas for ice time, McTavish performed really well in a men’s pro league. Perhaps a bit more powerful in skating and style than Beniers, the situation with the OHL, a strong U18 performance, and a high season end Central Scouting Ranking (2nd NA), it’s likely McTavish will be considered a late riser, even though it’s not as if a strong development curve wasn’t expected. Especially as we get closer to the draft we should expects to see his name solidify itself in this 2-10 group, especially given his position.

WINGS

William Eklund, W, SHL

Eklund posted really good results in the SHL this year. He is able to contribute offensively in many ways, and at this point his game seems to be more effective than astounding. Having succeeded at such a high level already it’s hard to imagine he won’t be able to make a difference on an NHL roster in a year or two.

Kent Johnson, W, NCAA

Johnson might be a good foil to Eklund in that his play oozes skill, often able to makes and see plays at an extremely high level. He was able to translate it into both a strong performance at Michigan, and a high spot on Central Scoutings’ List. The fact that they ranked him above Beniers is very interesting to me, and says that scouts think his game will take well as he moves into higher levels. He is very fun to watch and attacks laterally in a way that only the high quality players can.

Dylan Guenther, W, WHL

19/20 was strong for Guenther, and a short and strange season for the WHL was enough for him to grow his reputation. He averaged both a goal and an assist per game in 24 games this season, basically playing as well as he could have. The CHL leagues were probably most affected among top development leagues, so it’s hard to know how much that affected things. That being said, should he return to the WHL it’ll be a tall task to improve his offensive output. Despite playing at a lower level he is very much in the mix with Eklund and Johnson, and it is quite likely there will be nothing close to a consensus on which order these wingers are selected.

Goalie

Jesper Wallstedt, G, SHL

More and more often were seeing really high ranked goaltenders, and as more of them start to pan out, it’s hard to make a case picking against Wallstedt. Posting great numbers in the SHL as a skater is impressive, but in net the accomplishment becomes truly rare among draft eligibles. The position is volatile, and it often takes time to find the metal stability to be an NHL starter. That’s why despite the dominant results in the SHL, it’s probably best to err on the side of patience. That being said, it’s exciting to conceptualize that he might be able to make a difference at the NHL level in 2-3 years vs in his mid to late 20s as is common for netminders.

Group C

This group I would call likely 1st rounders, obviously some of this caliber of player can fall into round 2, even in more normal years. Some might even be able to push over some of the group B prospects ranked ahead.

WINGS

Matthew Coronato, W, USHL

The Chicago Steel have a great program, and seem to have a more consistent line of talent than most of the others in their league, perhaps similar to the London Knights of the OHL. That being said Coronato scored at a ridiculous pace, even compared to his teammates. In part thanks to the Steel this league is being seen as more and more credible when it comes to drafting prospects. It is still not quite as strong of a league as the SHL or NCAA, but it might be the only thing that keeps him from going in the top 10.

Nikita Chibrikov, W, KHL

There is debate about who the best Russian forward prospect is between Chibrikov and Svechkov. In Chibrikov’s favour is the ranking from Central Scouting as well as a really strong U18 performance. It seems every year that the best Russian prospects don’t garner much respect from those who aren’t scouting the region specifically, so it shouldn’t be a surprise for all 3 Russians in this range (Chibrikov, Svechkov, and Chayka) to be selected earlier than one might expect.

Fabian Lysell, W, SHL

He is not quite as good a prospect as Lucas Raymond from the 2020 draft, yet the two are similar in that they are small, offensively capable wingers who didn’t get much ice time in their draft years, and who are much better at pressuring the puck all over the ice than given credit for. It wouldn’t be a surprise for him to fall a bit due to his stature, but Lysell still figures to go I. The first round.

Isak Rosen, W, SHL

Simon Robertsson, W, SHL

Brendan Othmann, W, SUI

Othmann has the size, power, and skating skills that figure to translate well to the pros. He has the shot and puck skills to be dangerous on the rush and gets a lot of chances to do so thanks to his abilities in transition and counter attacks.

CENTRES

Aatu Raty, C, SML

At one point a favourite to be the top ranked prospect in this class, Raty stock has cooled recently thanks to some less than promising results in the Finnish pro league. He’s big and strong enough to be effective along the walls in zone offence, and is able to find open ice in shooting positions. Typically, the Finns employ a utilitarian skillset, disposed to strong 2-way play or substance over style. I believe that this often causes the offensive capability of Finnish prospects to be undersold (thinking of Anton Lundell from the 2020 draft). If supported in the right way Raty could be a steal, especially given the scarcity of strong centres in this class.

Fedor Svechkov, C, KHL

Cole Sillinger, C, WHL

Chaz Lucius, C, USNTDP

DEFENCE

Corson Cuelmans

Carson Lambos

Daniil Chayka

Group D

This group is players I have a first round grade on, but are by no means a lock to be selected afterwards. No doubt that some of this group will be selected from the mid second round and later. At this point there is a greater number of prospects, so I’ll merely name a few that I feel strongly about.

Forwards

Logan Stankoven

Zachary L’Heureux

Chase Stillman

Defence

Scott Morrow

Stanislav Svozil

#nhl #nhl draft

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jujuoh · 5 years

Photo

Slimebodies!

This post is for a bunch of fun history and anatomy stuff! In the Goo AU, I haven’t decided yet if there were natural slime people originally, but the googioh characters are actually using slime bodes as avatars of a sort. They’re created via various slimes, oozes, and gelatinous cubes, and various secret magic-science known only to the Kaiba Company.

Gozuburo Kaiba, a human merchant who had no problems dabbling in necromancy for his own gain, started out initially trying to make a new (or at least temporary) body for his dying son, Noa, but quickly veered off into using the research for soldiers/weapons that could live indefinitely and heal from almost any common battle wound - to be created en masse for the highest bidders. Noa’s mind and soul were uploaded with technomancy to an isolated machine in the back of a warehouse and forgotten until Gozuburo’s death, and his adopted son Seto Kaiba inherited all of his possessions and assets. Even though Seto is ridiculously competitive and appreciates a good fight, he detests anything resembling actual warfare and wants to use the technology and magicks to create rather than destroy.

Seto is a human technomancer Warlock, who’s magical sugardaddy is the lightning dragon goddess, Kisara. Mokuba is still in training. Their parents were killed in an avalanche, later discovered to be caused by one of Gozuburo’s weapons. The man adopted them after Seto showed off his intricate knowledge of electrical runes.

Seto goes back into the original slimebody research and tries to give Noa the body he was always meant to have. To do this he had to start the spells and potions over almost from scratch, trying to steer it away from necromancy and into artificery, and while doing so discovered that adding fruit extract made the bodies more stable and less.... unsettling, more sentient rather than living weapons or mindless beasts like they were under Gozuburo’s direction. The type of fruit didn’t seem to matter beyond what colour (and bizarrely, flavour) the resulting body had.

After this success (and with a new whiny, but clever, slimy, green-apple-and-mint brother in tow), Seto decided to do more test trials for others in need of a new (or spare) body. Along with everything else he was making in terms of technomagical supplies and creations, the Kaiba Company was rebranded into a force for good. The slimebodies could be used when traveling or doing work underwater or hazardous conditions, or for people who are in magically induced comas to promote healing or are unable to move, in order to keep their daily lives going and their minds healthy and active while their bodies rest. They’re especially handy for disembodied souls like Noa, though ghosts specifically seem to have a harder time possessing them than flesh-and-blood bodies.

Now we finally get to use the infographic up above! Here it is again:

Humans, elves, dwarves - Any of the races can use slimebodies, even non-humanoid ones, though the transition will be more difficult the farther away in similarity the body plans are. All you need is sentience and the ability to give consent (that last one isn’t technically necessary but Seto won’t do it without it unless it’s an absolute (medical) emergency and the affected party physically isn’t capable.) The comparisons here will all be to humans for simplicity’s sake.

1. Auricles - In place of both ears and noses, the auricles are little triangular protrusions on the side of the head, that sense vibrations (and thus sound), chemicals (smell), and also electricity. This makes them highly empathetic. All three of these senses are stronger than those humans have, but sensitivity to bad smells is much lower, and sensitivity to bad sounds is much higher.

Piercings aren’t permanent and will close up immediately upon removal of piercing jewellery, but they are easy and nearly harmless to redo. Jewellery and jewels can be simply stuck into or onto the bodies as well, and is a unique form of accessorizing available to the slimes (though I suppose one could glue jewels to the body, this is much more secure, and there’s no threat of sweat loosening the gems).

2. “Hair” - Nobody knows why, but the slime on top of the head seems to mimic hair growth, down to the specific hairstyle the embodied prefers. Mobuka’s answer is “It’s magic, dummy.” It can be changed as well, and sometimes even grows out the way actual hair would, but other times it doesn’t. Mokuba’s answer still holds. Long natural (A), cut/blunt end (B), short and spiky (C), and pulled back (D) styles can be seen here. For some reason - *coughmagiccough* - any “extra” flavours like mint or honey end up in the hair, as can be seen in Noa’s pale, minty bangs, and Yugi’s golden bangs.

3. Eyes - Slimes have vision nearly identical to humans, though they have no trouble seeing underwater without goggles, and with no limit to their pupil size, have a wider range of light they can see in. The main differences are in purple (or approaching purple) eyes, which can see in ultraviolet as well, and in red (or approaching red, like orange) eyes which can see in infrared. They don’t need to blink, and can see through their eyelids even though their irises are obscured from outside view. Blinking is just a residual habit or an emotional response.

4. Mouth - Slimes don’t have teeth. Not permanent, solid teeth, anyways. Hard ridges form in the mouth while eating or in response to emotion. While slimes technically can be able to taste (and eat) with their entire bodies, reminiscent of their oozy progenitors, it is something that they must actively concentrate to do. The mouth area and the tongue do these passively, and it’s more habitual for one to eat with their mouths and no, say, shove food directly into their digestive center. It’s also pretty rude to taste your friend when giving them a hug - you wouldn’t go up to your bestie and lick them, would you? Or would you...?

5. Organs - Or rather, lacktherof. Slimes breathe through their skin, much like frogs do, and can breathe in the air and underwater. Fresh water is preferred, but they are able to stay in salt water for quite a time as long as fresh drinking water is available. They also need to absorb a lot of light - slimes are capable of photosynthesis through the presence of chlorophyll (green-blue) and rhodopsin (red-purple). Due to this, slimes try to wear as little clothing as possible without feeling or appearing naked or inappropriately dressed. They do, and must, however, eat actual food. Anything from hamburgers to non-toxic minerals can be digested in the cores of slimebodies. Need to hide a corpse?

6. GenitaIs - Slimes only form temporary organs between their legs during certain times, which can be uncomfortable at first for those inhabiting the slimebodies. Others use this as the perfect excuse to forgo underwear.

7. Nails - While the ends of fingers and toes are firmer in order to function properly, there are no nails. Slimes that find this uncomfortable or just want to decorate themselves use stick-on nails (no glue required. While the sticking-to isn’t permanent, it’s more like semi-permanent, like a perfect vacuum seal.)

8. “Skin” - As you can see, slimebodies are overall semi-transparent and heavily tinted. Depending on the lighting, the position, and the slime, objects might show through the bodies clearly or be barely visible. While the outside has a shiny, slick appearance, to the touch the “skin” of a slimebody feels no different to an amphibian (or perhaps a damp, sweaty person). While slime droplets occasionally drip down or even off the body, not much is lost throughout the day, no more than a flesh-and-blood body loses from sweat, dead skin cells, and other passive loss. Slimes wear clothes and shoes not for concealment (though hiding the digestion process is considered polite), but to keep themselves clean, like any other being, though slimes tend to pick up much more lint than anyone else due to the constant slight moisture at the surface.

Mostly made of water, even more so than FnB bodies, slimebodies are immune to water attacks, strong to fire attacks, weak to ice attacks, and are immune to electric attacks as long as they have contact with the ground. Slashing attacks can cause damage, but unless it’s magical or elemental, the cuts will heal quickly and completely. Crushing attacks cause more damage and are hard to reform from, but it is possible.

In times of high, unstable emotion or high damage, the shape of the bodies way denature temporarily and turn partially or entirely into a slimy puddle. This is reversible, and not harmful in and of itself, but it will certainly feel very, very strange. Should a body be cut in half, the two halves can either be cleaved back together, or the bigger half will reform into a new body with rest and food. The bodies can stretch and melt through conscious effort as well, and many slimes can even be seen “melting into each other” during particularly snuggly hugs. Any foreign residue will eventually be converted or replaced by the original slime, so any colour or flavour changes are not permanent.

The way young Yugi came to inhabit a slimebody is quite an adventure. The short-ish version is this:

Sugoroku Mutou in his youth was a human adventurer, a budding merchant-slash-warrior that would go on quests for rare, expensive items, either for a wealthy client or to expand his own collection. Whilst in Fantasy Egypt looking for an ancient cursed game board (the very one he would later use against Mr. Otogi, an eladrin bard), he stumbled into a lost tomb. From what he could tell, it was the tomb of an Aasimar prince, 3000 years gone, and yet the only thing in the burial chamber was a box on a pedestal, and you know the story from there...

A powerful, but gentle presence urged Sugoroku to take the box, filled with what appeared to be a magical, solid-gold three-dimensional puzzle out of the tomb and back home. Having had many, many, MANY experiences with cursed objects, Sugoroku could tell this thing was deeply and powerfully cursed, but not in potentia, the trap had already been sprung long ago. There was no danger, here, just a lot of loneliness.

He returned home and kept the box shut, having given up on solving the puzzle himself after a few decades, got married, had a kid, his son got married to a spritely elf, and they, too, had a son, all before the puzzle was even thought of again.

Yugi, a half-elf with the makings of a great hero, solves the puzzle one year after finding it at age 7, and he suddenly has a second shadow. The shadow is always there, though sometimes it hides in his real shadow, and it does its best to protect Yugi throughout the years. Slowly, ever so slowly, the shadow gains sentience, and sometimes Yugi sees the shape of smiling eyes, and Yugi always smiles back.

On Yugi’s sixteenth birthday, several years into his magical training, he can suddenly hear his shadow friend’s voice, and his friend can possess his body, and everyone realises that this poor ghost has been trapped sealed in this piece of metal for millennia. He doesn’t even remember his own name.

Yugi decides to set off on a quest to discover his friend’s past and try to find something to help him, but Mr. Otogi shows up to exact his revenge before he even gets the chance to ask his friends along on the quest. Yugi’s body is burnt to ashes, but his shadow clings to his soul and hides it in the puzzle alongside his own.

Seto hears about what happened, and Jounouchi is the one to suggest that Yugi might be in the puzzle with his shadow friend, and Seto makes them both slimebodies and hopes for the best. It’s a huge adjustment for everyone, especially poor Atem, suddenly in a body, remembering scraps of his past thanks to Yugi’s brief presence in the puzzle. Unlike the other slimes, Atem can’t stay in his body unless the puzzle is encased in the goop - why is he so different?

The slimebodies were always intended to be temporary, and now with three different people in need of new, actual flesh-and-blood bodies, their adventures are only beginning. What - there are other ways to create slimebodies? Somebody is trying to compete with Kaiba Co? There are groups calling this blasphemy? Must they foray into necromancy in order to return Yugi, Atem, and Noa to their actual bodies? Who cursed Atem in the first place? What caused the lost prince to become lost? There are other cursed golden items with souls hidden inside? Why does Seto choose everyone’s fruit so carefully? It’s because he’s gay

#googioh #long post under the cut

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

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Also, if heaven did just consist of living ur happiest memories on a loop, what does that mean for shared heavens? Are they only able to relive memories they had together? Idk... I get what you're saying. But I prefer my interpretation. I remember when I joined internet fandom, I was confused by all the soulmate angst surrounding that episode, cuz the answer seemed so obvious to me: they never even get to their heavens, so it's a non-issue! I didn't even realize there were other interpretations

Hi there! Sorry I didn’t get to this yesterday, but I guess I was suffering some soulmate fatigue :P

Luckily, we have 10.20 to show us what an actual soulmate-shared heaven looks like. When Amelia Novak shows up, she finds Jimmy already there. Waiting for her. And the episode actually shows us “Amelia’s Heaven” that she experiences via her soul before she dies and sees it for real.

When Tamiel feeds on her soul starting in the cold open, she’s forced to experience her own heaven over and over again, disconnected from Jimmy, because she’s still alive, on Earth. In those visions of Heaven, she’s already there. She experiences herself walking down the stairs as Jimmy arrives:

AMELIA: Jimmy? Jimmy? (Amelia runs ¾ of the way down stairs) Is it...you? JIMMY: (Jimmy nods slowly) Castiel is gone. It's me. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I never ... (Amelia runs down the rest of the stairs and hugs Jimmy) AMELIA: I looked everywhere for you. I thought I lost you again. JIMMY: It's okay. It's okay. (They end the embrace and Amelia take Jimmy’s face in her hands) It's... (Camera pans to Amelia’s forearms resting on Jimmy’s chest. Blood starts to ooze through her shirt on her left arm) It's okay. I'm home now. (Amelia looks down to her forearms, as the bloodstain grows larger) AMELIA: What's happening? JIMMY: How's our girl? How's Claire? (Jimmy seems oblivious to what is happening to Amelia, as she gets increasingly upset) AMELIA: No! Not again! No! (Scene changes to Amelia strapped to a cot in a dark room. She is wearing a grey tank top and looks worn and haggard. A man in a suit is sitting on the side of the cot with her. She is making whimpering noises and trying to sit up and pull away as the man hold her arm and places something against the crook of her elbow)

In this version of her Heaven Experience, she’s effectively alone, being interfered with by an angel and forced to live out a version of the soul-generated experience that will become her Heaven when she dies. Notice that in this version, because it’s not her full, complete heaven (notice this is the word Dumah also uses to describe Mary’s soul in 14.18, “Complete” and at rest in her heaven, as if before she hadn’t actually felt complete in her heaven for whatever reason... I have theories, but I’m not ready to start going all headcanon on that... I’m sticking to concrete facts here...).

So in her endless loop, nothing ever changed. She began at the top of the stairs as Jimmy entered, but because it wasn’t actually heaven, Jimmy wasn’t “actually Jimmy.” When she broke the “script,” because of Tamiel cutting her arm and that injury literally “bleeding over” into her Heaven vision as Tamiel fed on her soul, Jimmy didn’t react, just like every other “memory simulacra” we’ve ever seen in Heaven-- like the people Sam had Thanksgiving dinner with when Dean crashed into his heaven who kept right on acting out that scene. We actually do have a scene that shows us this exact transition for Amelia, and what happens when she herself becomes aware of the real world around her-- when Cas wakes her up from Tamiel’s enforced heaven-dream.:

CASTIEL: Amelia. (Scene changes to Amelia running down the stairs as in the opening scene) AMELIA: Jimmy?! (Scene changes to the barn where Castiel is untying the restraints on Amelia’s wrists and then helps her sit up) CASTIEL: Oh. (Scene changes back to Amelia in the house. She is at the bottom of the steps looking around the entryway) AMELIA: Jimmy! (Scene changes back to Amelia laying on the cot) CASTIEL: Amelia. (Scene changes back to the house where a frightened Amelia is looking around the entryway) AMELIA: Jimmy! (Scene changes back to the barn as Amelia’s eyes snap open) CASTIEL: Amelia. (Amelia looks up and realizes that Castiel is with her. She gets angry and starts hitting at him. As she’s punching, Castiel tries to grab her wrists)

The descriptions in brackets are not mine. They’re copy/pasted from the superwiki transcript here, so you can read them for yourself. Or better yet, go watch that scene (or the whole episode) and notice this shift for yourself.

At first, she’s re-experiencing the loop we saw play out before, the one that ended in her agony as Tamiel consumed a bit of her soul and “woke” her from her vision of Heaven.

(and honestly, can you imagine the pain of having to experience that over and over, your soul finally reunited with your soul-mate you’ve been searching for years for, only to be literally ripped away and forced to see through the illusion every single time? wow that’s gotta be awful...)

But this time, it’s not Tamiel feeding on her, but Cas attempting to HEAL her that interferes with her Heaven Dream. She’s no longer running down the stairs to meet Jimmy, because something in her subconscious already recognizes what’s happening in reality, even if she hasn’t “woken up” to it yet. Her heaven vision shifts. She’s no longer at the top of the stairs, but in the entryway, but this time Jimmy isn’t there, and she’s scared because he isn’t there. When she wakes up to reality, she immediately recognizes Castiel, knows he’s not Jimmy, and instead of being relieved to see him is furious with him. She blames him for taking Jimmy from her.

So her perspective of Heaven has already begun to shift because of what she now knows. She won’t be “waiting for Jimmy” in Heaven. It’s as if just seeing Cas, she knows now that Jimmy is already there, waiting for her. Which is exactly what we see at the end of the episode:

(Scene changes to the front door of Amelia’s ‘dream’ house. It’s bright outside the door. Amelia walks through the door, unhurt and closes the door. Jimmy appears at the top of the stairs) JIMMY (walking down the stairs): Amelia. Amelia. (They meet each other in the entryway) AMELIA: Jimmy? Is it really you? (Jimmy and Amelia embrace) Is this... JIMMY: It's heaven. (They pull away and look around at the house) I...waited for you for so long. I... How was she? How's Claire? AMELIA (Smiling): Oh, Jimmy, she grew up so beautiful. She's so strong. JIMMY: Like her mom. I love you. AMELIA: I love you, too. (They embrace again and Jimmy is crying over Amelia’s shoulder)

This is obviously a memory neither of them have ever shared, and yet they’re able to share it now anyway. We’re given to believe this is how soulmate heavens work. Jimmy is AWARE that they’re both in Heaven, and Amelia only seems to need his word on that to believe and feel relieved about it. After years of being tortured with the taunt of reunification with Jimmy that was never truly real, only to have it ripped away, we see them both finally at peace.

Not that they will just go on to make entirely new memories, but that the happiest of one of their memories will be something the other is now invited and able to share in, also experiencing them as happy memories. And NOT, as we saw with Sam and Dean, where one’s happiest memories makes the other abjectly miserable...

Dean finding Sam’s heaven was experienced as an intrusion by Sam. If they’d actually been soulmates, they would’ve been HAPPY to see each other’s happiest memories and would’ve instantly recognized what was going on-- and Dean would’ve either been delivered to the porch where he could find Sam, or Sam would’ve been delivered to the field or the Impala where he could’ve found Dean... there would’ve been no need for third party intervention to hand over the cheat codes and explain the axis mundi...

The fact Cas describes it as “some people see it as a river,” etc etc is because that’s the nature of heaven... Same as “some people see the garden as Heaven’s throne room” etc etc. Do we really think that everyone can just wander around Heaven, or that loads of folks just wander into the Garden? Ash confirms in this episode that hardly ANYONE actually can wander out of their own heaven AT ALL. And we never see any other random souls walking down the road looking for their own heavens. Because that’s assuming that their heavens are a rational physical place, like a neighborhood full of prefab houses that you’re ushered to in a physical body, and that has never been how heaven has been portrayed. Like Amelia’s repeated heaven vision, it’s literally a construct generated by her own soul.

But Ash... didn’t actually see the both of them land. He didn’t know about Cas’s covert communications with Dean via the radio, and then again via the TV. He didn’t KNOW that Dean had to be given the cheat codes in order to get them both to that field where Ash found them.

I mean, considering everything else that happened in this episode, it’s far more plausible to believe that it’s Dean and Cas who are sharing some stronger bond, since Cas is actually the ONLY one who’s able to covertly communicate in Heaven without being overheard on Angel Radio. He’s maintaining a direct connection to Dean’s soul in Heaven, and NOBODY else is able to do that within this episode.

Ash hears Zachariah’s hunt for Sam and Dean’s souls over Angel Radio.

Zachariah hears Sam and Dean’s plans to go to the Garden and intercepts them via Ash’s sigil spell on the door, rerouting them to his own little trap.

But NOBODY mentions how it was Castiel who enabled them to even leave their own heavens in the first place, or that he’d been in contact with them AT ALL. And it was CHUCK’S interference, delivering the message to Joshua that Sam and Dean were specifically looking for him that convinced Zachariah to back off and let them go in the first place. CHUCK knew what had happened.

So honestly, this goes harder on proving the “profound bond” between Dean and Cas than it does proving that Sam and Dean are actually soulmates. Because Cas... once Dean was aware of the truth of his situation... was actually WELCOME in Dean’s heaven, and not the intrusion that Dean and Sam functioned as in their own heavens...

But Amelia and Jimmy’s heaven (and the descriptions we have of Mary’s heaven from before and after her resurrected years making peace with reality, and even via Lily Sunder’s journey to save her own soul in 14.08, and Kelly Kline’s experience of meeting Jack as an “adult” inside her own heaven) does give us one more critical piece of information: Heavens can Change. All the experience we have in life allows us to grow, gives us new memories, and influences how we see the sum total of our own lives.

I mean, it’s a weird take on “comedy = tragedy + time” equation. It makes me interested to know how different Dean and Sam’s respective heavens would look today...

Dean clearly wouldn’t be lost in memories of Mary from his childhood, now that he’s had years to get to know her as an adult. The quality of those old memories look very different from his current perspective, you know? And Sam... he actually HAS happy memories of Mary now. Maybe his happiness wouldn’t be someone else’s Thanksgiving now. Maybe it wouldn’t be about running away so much anymore. But would Dean and Sam’s happiest memories actually overlap? I kind of hope that Dabb gives us a peek at this before the series ends, while simultaneously hoping that it ends with all of them alive, so they can lay down decades more happy memories to carry forward, free of Chuck’s manipulations and endless cycle of sacrifice, loss, and trauma.

I’m wondering if Heaven isn’t due for a little restructuring, as well... but that’s a subject for another post...

#spn 5.16 #spn 14.08 #spn 10.20 #spn 14.18 #spn 14.20 #spn cosmology #heaven hell purgatory and the empty #soulmates in spn #Anonymous #the scheherazade of supernatural

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mashitandsmashit · 5 years

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America’s Got Talent: Season 14 - Quarter-Finals 1

Tonight, Terry Crews finally got a chance to host a live show, and he is already making an impression as strong as his muscles!

As for the acts, well, while I suppose I would have liked just a LITTLE more variety between all the singers, I think everyone had something enjoyable to offer...So to me, this was a pretty good show all things considered!

And now for the tricky part: Weighing each act’s pros, cons and overall experience...

12: Ansley Burns. I left a critical yet constructive comment on her video. Honestly, all of the problems she’s faced before still appear to be on full display: Her voice got drowned out by the band, and she still isn’t up to par with pretty much any of the other singers that made the lives (except maybe GFORCE, but I’ll get to them in a bit...) But hey, if there’s one thing that’s kept me from COMPLETELY hating her, it’s her energy and stage presence, and she has shown plenty of both of those things tonight! While the judges seemed to consider her one of the best of the night, she’s getting a much less warm reception on Youtube, so it’s hard to know where she’ll place tomorrow...

11: Carmen Carter. Indeed, this wasn’t the best song choice for her, but I guess it was a slightly different take on the song...She still sounded quite good, and there was plenty of energy like before...But I would still say she put on a better show in the previous round!

10: Luke Islam. I do like this kid, and have no issue with him advancing...Buuuuuut, this was a little forgettable...His voice is still very much there (though he might have had a shaky start), but this performance won’t really stick with me...And did anyone else feel a little seasick seeing him stand behind that slanted light? It looked like he was on the sinking Titanic and had some magic shoes that prevented him from tumbling off into the icy sea!

9: GFORCE. And here’s the theme song to their TV show...COMING TO THE DISNEY CHANNEL! ...Or Nickelodeon? I still had fun with them, but each song they perform gets a little weaker than the last, so I understand if not everyone’s feeling the girl power...

8: Voices of Service. Pretty solid performance, and the choir added to it...But you could just FEEL the obnoxious patriotism oozing from them! Also, it feels like a crime not to let the lady lead more in the vocals...

7: Bir Khalsa. I usually prefer my sideshow acts with a little more tossing, flipping, etc. But the tricks were pretty intense, and the Bollywood music playing in the background (I can hear the singer singing their name, so is it their theme song?) had me adding a little dance to my cringing! That said, the new guy’s constant screaming got a little annoying...

6: Messoudi Brothers. Throughout the previous round, I’ve been thinking to myself, “Man, Simon is actually coming off more like the tough judge he was always known as...I almost can’t remember why I hated him so much over the last few seasons...” And then when he made his comment after this performance (as well as Alex Dowis’, and ooohhh, we’ll get to that REAL soon!), I was like, “Oh, yeah! That’s why!” Like, does he even have a single clue what he’s talking about!? Is he trying to sabotage these acts with his little nitpicks!? Probably...Either way, while this didn’t quite live up to the CRAZINESS that was their Judge Cuts performance, there were still a few formations in there that impressed me! But honestly, they don’t need to keep taking their shirts off; Kinda slows the act down...If they REALLY have to woo the ladies, they can just have the shirts off from the start...Though maybe they’ll take their pants off partway through, I dunno...

5: Emerald Belles. Looks like they averted Howie’s nitpicks! And what’s more, they stepped up the moves quite a bit! I think they just gave their odds a 180 with this performance!

4: Sophie Pecora. I can see that not everyone’s a fan of this girl, but she has been slowly growing on me. This was probably her best song so far, and we even got a little bonus song with the opening package!

3: Greg Morton. Looks like he still has more movies to reenact, instead of the cartoon-themed set I was hoping for...But no matter, it’s all very entertaining, and I’d say this set flowed the best between all of the voices he did! Best performance from him so far! Of course, the REAL winner of the night was his “Pac-Man” suit!

2: Alex Dowis. Seriously, what is Simon talking about!? “It felt like something at a museum”!? And...the last one DIDN’T!? No, I disagree with him completely! Everything flowed together seamlessly, the artwork, the transitions, the effects, the narrative, it was all breathtaking! I really hope the voters are willing to look past his nitpicks and vote for this guy, because this was everything I could ask for from an act like this!

1: Kodi Lee. Okay, Kodi...You got me! This is why you’re gonna win this season!

So yeah, for a night with more than half of the acts being singers, I’d say it went relatively well! I guess I can’t expect tomorrow to be TOO rage-inducing if there’s at least a case to be made for everyone...Still, maybe just a COUPLE non-singing acts advancing tomorrow? ...Pretty please?

My Votes: So it looks like they did away with voting via phone number...Either that, or something’s wrong with the line...But if the former is true, than it probably is for the best since I do get pretty sick of hearing “Thanks for voting for Talent [#], only your first ten votes blah, blah, blah...” ten to twenty times every Tuesday night...(Though maybe they’re still recording Terry saying those lines...) Also, with the other methods, it does feel redundant, other than to give voters more room to abuse the system...So whatever, I voted with the other three things (TV, online and phone app), and gave a total of thirty votes each to Greg Morton, Alex Dowis, Bir Khalsa and Messoudi Brothers...Gotta try to get SOME non-singing acts in there, right?

Result Predictions: If Kodi was any more of a lock, he would be Fort Knox! Luke and VoS look safe as well...And I might even say that Emerald Belles has a shot, what with all of those factors I brought up in my predictions last week, plus the fact that Howie DIDN’T hate them this time! Then we have acts that are tough to call, like Greg, Ansley, Sophie, Alex and Messoudi...Either way, I’m thinking Carmen, GFORCE and Bir Khalsa will probably be the bottom three...

Tomorrow, a WHOLE bunch of old friends return, including last year’s winner and my personal favorite act of that season!

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yvynyl · 5 years

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// Letters to YVYNYL //

Guma - Floor Models

/ I’ll be honest. My YVYNYL email account is a mess. Swamped to the brim. I was stoked to find this letter, though! TJ’s story made me happy and his tunes even more so. Mellow, driven, beautiful. Listen to the two tracks he’s released so far before the whole record comes out in a week or so and you’ll share in the majesty of rebuilding his motorbike and crafting songs as strong as these. Let’s support his vision!

Hi Mark,

My wife and I got to Austin, TX a couple years ago with one car between the two of us, and as she was the first to get a job and start using the car every day to commute, I needed a way to get around. For six years in New York City I had been a cyclist, and I was proud of both my physical fitness and my willingness to bike year-round. Austin made short work of that, as it is basically a city of two giant hills that converge at the river that runs through downtown. Coming or going, the hills will get you. As the temperatures crept toward 110F and I showed up to freelance gigs exhausted and smelling bad, I knew that I needed a better way to travel.

We couldn’t afford a second car, so I bought a used motorcycle on Craigslist. It didn’t run. It was nearly fifty years old, had probably sat outside for a good amount of that time, and it was covered with rust and grime. But that was part of my plan: I had no mechanical experience, and the way that I justified the transition from a bicycle to a significantly faster and more dangerous mode of transportation was that I was going to learn how it worked by taking it apart and putting it back together. This would demystify the machine, I thought, and give me the knowledge needed to maintain what is essentially an outdated snapshot of internal combustion technology. In other words, a fifty-year-old gasoline motor is a finicky thing, and if I was going to use it every day to get around while my wife had the car, I needed to be able to understand it. It took me a week to take the entire thing apart and lay it out in the garage, and I spent the next three months cleaning, painting, greasing, and reassembling.

A strange thing happened during that time: I stopped playing my instrument and writing songs. Instead, I started to dream about the bike. When my wife got up early to go to work, I would get up with her and bound outside with a cup of coffee and a wrench. I’d get lost polishing a piece of aluminum and look up only to find her pulling back into the driveway at the end of the day. I hovered over eBay auctions for used parts and posted questions to small forums of older, mostly male Honda enthusiasts, the kind of online communities where emojis are used haphazardly and— all other options for troubleshooting exhausted— where people would simply post their actual phone number and say “just call me and we can figure this thing out.”

New terminology started to populate my vocabulary. I began to think of objects around me in terms of three-dimensional, exploded-view diagrams. I would space out at work and instead of jotting down lyric ideas, I would scribble color combinations. As the bike came together, I marveled at the increasing amount of three-dimensional space it took up in the garage and the diminishing number of parts in labeled bags on the floor. And this process I would recommend to anyone who has a love of projects and puzzles. With a shop manual printed from the internet and YouTube videos aplenty, building a bike is like following instructions for the biggest and most well-designed LEGO set you will ever see. In the process of reassembly you begin to discern logic and intention; human qualities. Every piece has a function in one of a handful of systems that comprise the whole; many components serve two or more purposes by using forces of rotation and chain linkages to disperse physical energy to different parts of the bike over the course of an eternally recursive 360-degree path. I could go on, but Robert Pirsig has already written quite effectively to these points and others.

I was also aware that I was inhabiting a new way of being. Last time I wrote to you about my experiences with depression and the transformative power of traveling alone. I knew that I could never have done this project in New York City. I now lived in a house instead of an apartment, I had a yard instead of a sidewalk, a garage, a long driveway. As the seasons turned and we spruced up our house and adopted some cats, I was aware of a new kind of domesticity that I had not otherwise known.

Domesticity is a big theme in my most recent work. I have always felt most comfortable writing songs from my actual, first-person perspective as opposed to creating characters or inhabiting situations with which I’m unfamiliar. This process takes time and like any other process of self-reflection is a habit that needs to be continually nurtured. I finished the bike in the spring; it looks brand new and runs better, I suspect, than it ever has. When I meandered back toward songwriting, I realized that I had not had any particularly grand adventures to plumb for inspiration and that the most pressing question on any given day was usually, “what do you want for dinner?” But this is a sacred place in which to exist! The truth of your inner experience can be more readily found in this stillness. There are messages in the calmness, a lazy cat on your lap while the sun breaks through the window.

When I felt that I had enough material, it was time to put some money up. There is no greater motivator for me than a deadline and cash at stake. I reached out to Chris Schlarb in Long Beach, CA. His music had found me earlier in the year, and I was struck by what I thought I recognized as another person digging at the same rock that I’ve always dug at. It was a completely unsolicited e-mail and the first line that I cast once I had decided to commit to the project. He wrote back the same weekend, and that was all I needed to kick off.

The album we made at his BIG EGO Studios over the course of three days in May 2018 eventually came to involve more than fifteen collaborators, a far leap from the last record that I made more or less alone in 2016. It was tracked live in a room with two drumkits, two basses, keys, and myself on guitar. The double rhythm section is equal parts men and women. I am proud that it features contributions from people of different genders, sexualities, colors, religions, and nationalities. Not just because inclusivity is attainable even on a shoestring budget and to a largely unknown songwriter (it is), or because attention to social justice should be the foremost mandate for collaboration (it isn’t), but because diversity of people leads to diversity of ideas, and our world is stronger when we create together. This record most certainly is.

I have always loved the so-called “pastoral” albums by the Kinks. Peppered as they are with Ray Davies’ angst about the music publishing industry, they nevertheless ooze this kind of unglamorous daily life. For this and other reasons, Ray gets a name check in one of the tunes. The song posted here references my time building the motorcycle. Other songs are about eating, traveling, sex, the cats; regular things for regular people. It might be a little while before I write another record— when I got back from Long Beach I bought another motorcycle and it’s currently laid out in labeled bags on the floor of the garage.

-T.J. Masters

Guma (2019) is released on March 15, 2019 and is available now on 12” vinyl through a BIG EGO Records 2019 subscription or directly through Bandcamp.

(Photo credit above: Bridgette Miller)

Got a story to tell? Submit them via Letters to YVYNYL.

(Band photo credit: Devin O’Brien)

#Guma #Letters to YVYNYL #Austin #Texas #indie rock #T.J. Masters #music #new music #essay #motorcycles #projects #BIG EGO Records #read me

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flickwatches · 5 years

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Top 5 NA Contenders Teams

I’m a little biased on some of this. Also this is probably the worst season of NA contenders we’ve ever had. NA is currently the weakest if not at least one of the weakest regions currently in contenders.

5. First Generation (Ex-Goats)

The old goats roster via Tensa. Powered by the legend that is Robdab and ex-OWL Nomy. This is probably a one meta contenders team like Stormquake in Korea. Stormquake is obviously better but bringing in a pro Rein into a triple triple Rein meta is big.

4. Fusion University

I feel like if you remove Elk from this team they don’t win anything. Talent is here but a lot of teams have talent. Love Na1st and Snillo but this team is being pulled forward by the IGL that is Elk. Its crazy watching a Lucio player having high impact in semi pro environment. He’s the best main support in all regions in my opinion.

3. XL2

This team is doing really well this meta considering. Logix stepped right into a new roster and instantly started playing well. For as much as he’s struggled mentally its crazy seeing how hard he is trying to prove that he is OWL worthy still. He’s even dominating ladder play. They could steal this season of Contenders but the first place team is seemingly unbeatable.

2. Second Wind

I don’t know why I have them ranked this high. There playing well within the meta and winning wherever they play this season. If its contenders there winning. If its T2 tournaments there winning. My biggest bit of bias is from the Jayne tournament show match at the end. They played all day, won, and played 1 more match with hero bans for fun. Frill (formerly Sit) suddenly turned into a Doomfist god when the hero bans went in his favor. To be able to play all day, play in a goats meta, and suddenly be able to play DPS and show up like he did. It was fucking amazing.

1. ATL Academy (Last Night’s Leftovers)

Best Goats team NA without a single doubt. Not sure how they would compare to other regions but they could be the best Goats team in all of contenders. They are easily the favorite to win this season of contenders. Dogman and Ajax are still one of the most consistent support duos you can find. Gator and Hawk are an OWL level tank duo. In every single highlight Hawk gets Gator is somewhere in the background doing his best to enable the play. Hawk and Gator have such great synergy and rarely miss timing together. Sugarfree is waiting for a DPS meta to unleash the pain of a 1,000 years on Brig.

Bonus list

Top 5 NA Contenders DPS players trapped in Goats meta

5. Dalton LA Legion- Hitscan

The tracer one trick. The Horizon Lunar Colony Widow. The guy who got dropped from his starting lineup only to play for another team in a tournament and beat his current team. Been following his career for a long time. He’s worth the wait and will one day be an OWL player. Too much dedication for it to go unrewarded.

4. Wub Kungarna- Projectile/flex

He’s just one of those Genji players. The ones that get insane amounts of value when they shouldn’t (think agilities but without any org support). He can play some hitscan while his Pharah isn’t the strongest. Wub is oozing mechanical skill and is a solid org away from becoming capable of being in the OWL.

3. Sugarfree ATL Academy-projectile

He is like actually 14? Maybe 15. Has so much more room to grow. A lot of the younger contenders players seem to show up as projectile (Wub, even Zacharee) but have high levels of mechanical skill and transition over to hitscan really well. Sugarfree is currently more projectile based but he could swap over one day before he’s 18. Zacharee on the old Renegades roster was basically a genji one trick. I don’t if he great as a player or had to play alongside of Whoru. But even Wub is showing signs of transitioning over to more hitscan heroes.

2. Frill Second Wind- Flex

Formerly of original goats. Frill (Sit) has grown his mechanical talent into a mental player of the game now. He’s still young and could use this season to showcase himself as a talent to sign for later this year. Second Wind could turn this season of contenders on its head by beat one of the best Goats teams (ATL Academy) by countering Goats. If any NA team could take ATL Academy down I think it would be Second Wind. And if they do it by countering Goats its going to be huge.

1. Asking Uprising Academy-Hitscan

WHY AREN’T YOU IN THE OVERWATCH LEAGUE?!?! Obviously an OWL level hitscan player. Holy fuck he’s like a mini IDDQD. As soon as Ashe enters the contenders meta or he’s able to play Widow he’s going to dominate the contenders scene. The only reason this player isn’t in the OWL already is probably because he’s stuck underneath the management of Boston Uprising. Easily one of the most talented players not in OWL right now. Asking doesn’t deserve OWL because of hardwork or potential. He deserves OWL because he’s that fucking good.

#Overwatch League #Overwatch Contenders #Contenders #North America Contenders #Overwatch #FlickWatches #I need to stop writing ranking lists and start writing real articles again

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: The Lovebirds

(Image courtesy of Netflix)

THE LOVEBIRDS— 3 STARS

There is nearly always a smirk of veiled anticipation when a plot setup meets a full-stop right after a descriptive peak with the zinger transition of “hi-jinks ensue.” Digging into the meaning and origin of that phrase apparently goes back centuries. In describing movies, using that classic adage is an attempt at “less being more” while completely winking at you that so much more could be said about what happens. The Lovebirds, premiering on Netflix on May 22, is the kind of place where you drop “hi-jinks ensue” and run with it.

Here’s the rub though. For “hi-jinks ensue” to work and live up to its promise, you need strong and effective events to come before and after when that phrase is planted. Have a weak setup and the absurdity of hi-jinks after can feel like a jolting improvement or tail-spinning crash. Have a great setup and the hi-jinks that follow can either evolve or devolve the auspicious start. This “one wild night” romp has about half of each measure in that balance.

LESSON #1: BODY LANGUAGE IS SEXY— When we meet Issa Rae’s Leilani and Kumail Nanjiani’s Jibran, they are in the throes of initial attraction. They’re on a date they don’t want to end. The seductive pick-up conversations are hot and the embraces are hotter. Every back-and-forth line comes from a smooth voice and oozes with come-hither postures, proximity, and the edges of contact. After the first ten minutes of The Lovebirds you’re going to be auditioning your own “I Want to Kiss You Face” and having it judged. Just you wait.

LESSON #2: PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE WORDS STIFLE PASSION— Cut to four years later and the co-habitating New Oreleanians are at each other’s throats, nagging and shouting from rooms apart. Their words are filled with frustration and indignation, where any closeness looks distant or uncomfortable compared to earlier in their relationship. Somewhere, selfish pursuits from both of them have replaced adoration. They don’t speak up about what’s really bothering them and nitpick inconsequential BS instead.

LESSON #3: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO RATTLE A FAILING RELATIONSHIP?— If the choices to answer this lesson’s question where on a Wheel of Fortune spinner, “murder” would be like the dreaded “Bankrupt” landing slot. In a flurry of events on the way to a social party moments after agreeing to break up, Jibran and Leilani land on that very dark wedge as unwilling witnesses and borderline participants to a crime. From a very different and far more jovial place than Queen & Slim, they come up with the “best bad idea.” They run.

And, with that, hi-jinks ensue, and this review’s faucet of furtive flow ceases. The less you see coming the better. The Lovebirds puts this frazzled breakup on blast with a dippy concert of calamity. Much like Game Night a few years back, the pratfalls before our central couple can be ingeniously hilarious while others over-stretch the freedom of preposterousness we grant movies like these. Comedy in this realm is a fickle SOB and often depends on what level of insanity and perceived mistakes each viewer is willing to accept.

What smooths the questionable parody of this caper comedy is the people delivering the jokes. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are a vivid pair of talents to combine. These motormouths turn on a dime. Issa has that enormous smile that mirrors vitriol and vigor. Kumail has those eyes and Eugene Levy-level eyebrows that can dance with dread or delight. Each take turns throughout this punchlined plot being the target of blame or the pure-dumb-luck savior for the duo. Their fascinating dynamics radiate high appeal.

LESSON #4: NO, WHAT WOULD IT REALLY TAKE TO RATTLE A FAILING RELATIONSHIP?— Somewhere, Leilani and Jibran went from comfortable to miserable. It’s not that they can’t speak their minds. They do that incessantly to each other’s limits. It’s that they don’t speak from their hearts. No matter the madcap swerves and predicaments that tumble before these two, it’s all pushing against the wavering realization towards their connection and a romantic bond that hasn’t completely broken. The reactions of each significant other watching their partners being thrust into a situation of distress is an extreme test of that care level.

Much of their banter, useless information monologues, and competitive cutdowns feel incredibly improvised. Credit editors Vince Filippone (xXx: Return of Xander Cage) and Robert Nassau (The Big Sick) for chopping together their chops with crisp pacing. If their jumpy jabbering isn’t ad-libbed, then kudos to the writing/story team of Hannibal actor Aaron Abrams, The Go-Getters’ Bredan Gall, and Blindspot creator Martin Gero. For example, any three cocktail napkin idea men that can take the clunker self-aware line of “help me come up with something believable” and then spin it for a laugh deserves a dollar in the tip jar.

Beyond the dialogue, those writers and The Big Sick director Michael Showalter assembled a semi-crafty plot course that is far from predictable and does not entirely wear out its freshness or welcome in a tidy 86 minutes. Far less and far worse has been slapped together for date night couch watch. Granted, once someone sees The Lovebirds and the hijinks that ensue, someone will say it shouldn’t take this much, per se, but where’s the fun in less?

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#879)

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danahmbisyosangdoktora · 7 years

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HI GUYS!!!! Oh my, it’s been a looooooong while. I actually went through my blog and re-read everything and I’ve noticed that I was always saying how “I don’t know what to and how to do blogging anymore” in most of my previous posts but I PROMISE THIS TIME, I LEGIT DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE OR HOW DO I DO THIS ANYMORE because I haven’t done this for like forever. It felt like I’m starting again!!! Okay sige, I’m not gonna babble more. Let’s just hop right into my post.

Okay, so as what I’ve mentioned on my previous posts, I’ve entered Third Year or the Medtech proper last school year 2016-2017 and that’s (also) the reason why I was gone for a very long time. Idk, I just found myself being swallowed by acads and all that jazz that I never really had the time to write a single blogpost. There’s so much that has happened in my entire Third Year life and I wish I could’ve had written any of’em and immortalize the memories on this blog and hark back to those times... but sadly, I didn’t. Anyway, as you can probably tell on the title, this post would be a “rundown” of my experience as a Third Year Medical Technology student.

(Wait, how do I start?)

We started the school year earlier than the normal students in our university due to the reason that we were trying to chase the schedule for the 1-year internship so everything would fit and we would end just right on time for the graduation (yikes chills) because as you all know, we are one of those pabibo schools who embraced the academic calendar shift. So the clinical subjects I took this year are as follows:

1st Semester

MIC111 – Bacteriology

PAR100 – Clinical Parasitology

GPHC100 – General Pathology, Histopathology and Cytopathology

CC111 – Routine Clinical Chemistry

HEMA111 – Hematology 1

MTLBE100 – Medical Technology Laws and Bioethics

LMS100 – Laboratory Management and Supervision

2nd Semester

MIC112 – Mycology and Virology

UBF100 – Urinalysis and Body Fluids (Clinical Microscopy)

HEMA112 – Hematology 2

SIM100 – Serology and Immunology

CC112 – Continuation of CC1/ Special Chemistry

CC113 – Endocrinology, Toxicology and Drug Testing

IMH100 – Immunohematology (Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine)

I can’t believe I already passed all these subjects let alone the first sem subjects!!!! Personally, I think First semester is harder than the Second Semester idk maybe because it’s the time when we were just and still adapting to the new and toxic environment of Third Year life and the transition is quite overwhelming. Also, the passing rate was raised from 60% in Second Year to 70% in Third Year. I CAN’T EVEN!!! Plus the laboratory practical exams had an upgrade to like 5x that of the Second Year pracs. There’s legit a time when I went back to my dorm during lunch break just to cry because of a practical exam and a fair share of tears were shed at nights when I have no idea how to fit and finish everything before the sunrise. Also there’s a day when, for the first time in my life, I called my mom after I got back in my dorm from school and cried for my dear life because EVERYTHING WAS SO HARD.

It’s also during First Semester when I learned how essential it is to know the time difference from night (let’s say 7pm) to 5am the next day and how to utilize it very well because your life literally depends on how you manage and distribute it to sleeping and studying because you know, you’ll only have to read 1-3 chapters per subject and you only have like 3 quizzes the next day for the lecture and probably a practical exam or a long quiz for the laboratory in the afternoon. JUST HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PREPARE FOR THAT IN LESS THAN 10HRS???--- is all I was thinking then. That’s how resentful and pitiful I was back then.

We were taught the laboratory skills we need— Venipuncture (of course! the freaking highlight and a must), Blood Smearing, Staining, Pipetting!! Oh God forbid, I loathe glass pipetting so much! Direct Fecal Smear... and all medtech-y skills. I love Bacteriology so much. It was the subject I got the highest grade during First Semester. The lecture and laboratory were both the bomb.com. But ofc, I wouldn’t forget the anxiety the Unknown has given us. For our finals in the lab, we were given unknown organisms and we were to identify it via Biochemical Testing and everything we were taught of on how to identify such. It took me so long to decide what my organism was because some of the biochemical test results weren’t at par with theoretical information so imagine my anguish. Our grades basically depended on it so... yeah.

but in the end, I decided it was Enterobacter cloacae.

Another memory from First Semester is the time when we were to submit Enterobius swabs as additional points for our Parasitology laboratory. I took my bestfriend with me to hunt down possible patients. It was such a memorable experience, I have no more words. I poured all the feels on this Facebook post.

Also, I’ll never forget about First Semester is the day when we had our Grand Practical Exam in our laboratory subjects and it was the time when 3rd Floor HSC was in a total dishevelment. We were taking turns and rotating in different labs to have our moving practical exams simultaneously--- one section is having their Histopath moving pracs, the other is having their Bacte moving pracs, then another section is on the roil in Hematology moving pracs while the other one is having their Parasitology Moving Pracs and the like. That was the most intense day ever imaginable.

Also on that day, was the first time I was able to extract blood on a practical exam!!! I can never forget how stupid I may have looked for shouting “Hala may dugo” when blood oozed out from my partner’s vein. I was never able to bleed my partner in almost all the practicals we had due to my infamous phobia with needles and I was legit surprised and awed when a blood came out that day!!!

For the events of Second Semester... I’m not really sure?? lol even though it’s the more recent semester, I can’t remember much from it coz it went like a blur to me. It was so fast it was so unreal that it actually happened!!! (and that I passed!)

Okay. One thing I could say about Second Semester is that I fancy UBF hahahaha I’m not sure if it’s the subject itself or teacher factor hahahaha but to be honest, it was so fun to study and probably the easiest of the panel of subjects for second semester (or so I thought).

The laboratory learning and insights this semester gave me more of the medtech feels because most of the experiments/tests we did in the lab were the ones that are being performed in the actual laboratory setting. I will never forget the struggle of dilution in Serology lab. We aren’t allowed to use calculators during the entire semester and of course as someone who absolutely hates math and computation, that’s. the. worst. nightmare. ever. So given that situation, imagine our surprise during the Final Laboratory Written examination when our instructor finally allowed us to use calculator. Everybody in the class was in awe because that’s super unexpected. We didn’t have much of moving practical exams this sem compared to the numerous ones we had on first semester. The practical exams this time were more like skills-based and principle application. Slide identification-kind-of-moving practicals was surprisingly nakakamiss.

Self-pity time: Two semester have passed and no one was able to extract blood from me huhuhu do I even have veins??? :------(

Just to give you some insight, there are:

4 major examinations in each lecture subjects

2 major written examination in each laboratory subjects

(100-item identification)

Moving Practical Exam in each laboratory subjects

Skills/Application Practical Exam in each laboratory subjects

Pre and post quizzes in every meeting in each lecture subjects

Pre and post quizzes in every laboratory experiments

Long Quizzes every after chapter

Long Quizzes before major examination in each lecture subject

Long Quizzes before major examination in each laboratory subjects

Surprise quizzes whenever the professor would like

Not to mention the drawings of each specimen in laboratory manuals in each laboratory subject

2 Journal readings in each lecture subject

So ayun, hindi po kami OA and nag-iinarte. Our lives literally revolve in exams and quizzes.

Moving on, last May 09, we had our Pre-Internship Program which is a prerequisite before you can proceed to the actual internship. On that exact day,we took a 700-item Diagnostic Examination without any notice and I literally just came back from an 8-hour trip because I went home in Bicol so I was sitting for like 14 hours straight!!! We had series of practical examinations for two weeks, a Phlebotomy seminar with BD Philippines, a tour in a National Reference Laboratory which is the National Kidney Institute and an Oral Revalida.

CAUTION: Photospam ahead.

I’m not sure if this is enough to summarize everything because I can feel that it’s not even in the slightest bit justified on this post. Maybe it’s one of the wonders of life that cannot be really put into words. (But you tried, self what are you doing hahaha)

Suffice to say that all these experiences; the nerve-racking and heartbreaking quizzes, no-sleep days, tears, sweats, blood (hahahaha legit), cramming moments and all other hardships are the variables which played significant roles in this endeavour which lead me to where I am heading right now. I’m so happy and proud to share to you guys the next step I’m taking in this career path. I am now officially a Medical Technology Intern at St. Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon City under the Institute of Pathology. I know, I can’t believe it myself that I was able to pass through the needle-hole like hurdle you call “Third Year life”. SLMC is actually my first-in since we are to undergo 1-year internship and we will be having our second-in next semester in another hospital.

I will be forever thankful to Trinity University of Asia especially to Dean Rodriguez for always making sure that the quality of education/ training is there. Thank you for a super hands-on laboratory experience and our very own DIagnostic Laboratory in the 4th Floor. It’s like a simulation of the environment that we will be facing in the near future. Would also like to thank our Clinical Instructors:

Mam Majo Liao

Sir Jude Anthony Trinidad

Dra. Mary Anne Isip

Sir Mark Francisco

Sir Mel Destacamento

Mam Gigi Dayrit

Mam Violie Bascao

Mam Suzzette Lumanga

Mam Rona Gonzaga

Sir Joshua Descamparado

Sir Nikko Onate

Mam Krystal Tio

for gearing us up with all the lectures, wisdom and skills that we would need to be the Medical Technologists that we are aiming to be.

---------------------------

Other significant life events during the course of Third Year life:

I became an Altar Server at the Shrine of Jesus the Divine Word. Hashtag dream come true.

I was elected Medical Technology Councilor in the University Student Council. Hashtag unreal.

All glory and praise to the Lord God above. Thank you for guiding me in almost everything I do. Thank you also St. Jude Thaddeus for interceding for me. Forever grateful and blessed.

That’s pretty much how I can sum up my Third Year life. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you so much for reading yet another long blog post of mine. See you on my next post (hopefully there’s a next)!!!

#medtech #medicaltechnology #collegediaries #collegelife #trinitian #Trinity University of Asia #bujoph #bujocommunity #lifelately #personal blog #premedlife #premed #philippines #personal blogger #journalph #student council #studyblr #studyblrph #studyinspo

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creativesage · 5 years

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(via Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School)

If you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own management shortcomings, Alison Wood Brooks counsels.

By Dina Gerdeman

If you’re a business leader who oozes achievement, sprints up the corporate ladder, and earns big bucks, your co-workers probably resent you to some extent. New research says high-achievers can win over their colleagues with a simple approach: by sharing the failures they encountered on the path to success.

“If you’re highly successful, your achievements are obvious. It’s more novel and inspiring for others to learn about your mistakes,” says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Alison Wood Brooks.

“What’s exciting about this research is that we’re trying to chip away at the resentment that comes with envy and move people toward admiration instead,” she says. “One way to do that is to acknowledge your struggles or shortcomings.”

Brooks co-wrote the February 2018 working paper, Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful People Should Reveal Their Failures, with HBS doctoral students Karen Huang and Nicole Abi-Esber and professors Ryan W. Buell, Brian Hall, and Laura Huang.

Confessing our setbacks is counterintuitive; we tend to talk up achievements and hide failures. But successful leaders who only crow about achievements can come across as egotistical showoffs, stirring up “malicious envy” in their peers.

”… we’re trying to chip away at the resentment that comes with envy and move people toward admiration instead.”

Malicious envy is a destructive emotion that makes people feel inferior by comparison, even to the point of wishing they could tear down the successful person. As prior research has shown, this type of envy can be toxic in the workplace, stifling worker productivity, leading employees to behave less cooperatively, interfering with group cohesion, and making people feel more justified in behaving unethically.

“When people feel malicious envy, they engage in counterproductive work to harm other people,” Brooks says. “They tend to undermine others and try to slow them down.”

Revealing failures won’t tarnish your image

The HBS team set out to test for levels of malicious envy in different settings and to figure out strategies for tamping it down. In one online study, participants were asked to read a biography by a fictitious peer who had achieved professional success, for example by landing a prestigious, lucrative job. People who read only about the person’s achievements felt significantly more malicious envy than others who read a few extra lines describing the person’s professional failures.

The results of two similar online studies also yielded an important insight for successful people who share their failures: Colleagues have no less admiration for a leader’s accomplishments if they know about these failures, nor does it affect their perception of the person’s status.

“Even after revealing their struggles or failures, high achievers still look good,” Brooks says.

She cautioned that this effect works only for people who have reached at least moderate success. “If you’re a low-status intern, for example, you don’t need to talk as freely about your failures—not because it’s harmful—but because people don’t tend to feel envious of you in the first place.”

In another experiment, the researchers studied a different environment: a competition in which entrepreneurs vying for startup funding pitch their projects to potential investors. (The idea was to determine the effects of envy in a field setting, not whether those feelings affected the chances of winning funding.)

Some entrepreneurs listened to what they thought was an audio recording of a fellow competitor’s pitch where the person gushed only about her successes: “I have already landed some huge clients—companies like Google and GE. I’ve had amazing success, and in the past year I have single-handedly increased our market share by 200 percent.”

Meanwhile, others listened to a pitch where the entrepreneur also fessed up to facing roadblocks by adding, “I wasn’t always so successful. I had a lot of trouble getting to where I am now … When I started my company … I also failed to demonstrate why potential clients should believe in me and our mission. Many potential clients turned me down.”

The study results suggest that listeners jump to different conclusions about a leader depending on whether the person shares slipups or not. Listeners who heard the entrepreneur talk only about her achievements automatically attributed the person’s success to talent alone, and that seemed to make them feel badly about themselves by comparison. They also saw this speaker as arrogant, filled with “hubristic pride,” which turned them off.

“Even after revealing their struggles or failures, high achievers still look good.”

On the other hand, participants who heard the entrepreneur disclose previous failures believed the person had more “authentic pride” and came across as confident rather than arrogant. They also got the impression that this entrepreneur put a lot of effort into overcoming obstacles, and that made them feel less malicious envy and more “benign envy.” Benign envy brought out warmer, fuzzier feelings, with listeners not only believing the entrepreneur was deserving of success, but also feeling motivated to improve their own performance.

How to share your faults

The research puts more credence behind interpersonal emotion regulation—when one person deliberately shapes another person’s emotional reactions during a social interaction.

We can have a lot of control over how other people feel and react to us, says Brooks. “Some people might be uncomfortable about exerting that control strategically because it might seem manipulative. But the counterargument to that is that we do it all the time.”

For example, when we choose to be polite or rude, or to give someone else compliments or not, it’s all interpersonal regulation. “If we’re doing these things anyway, why not do it in ways that are wise, productive, and kind?”

Managers can be particularly easy targets of envy, especially when they move quickly through fast-track promotion programs and their colleagues don’t. So, in discussing a promotion or a work-related reward, a manager might consider tossing in a setback encountered earlier in the person’s career to appear more confident and credible, rather than self-centered.

Other workers can relate to facing obstacles, so hearing about the successful manager’s missteps can not only decrease internal competition among colleagues, but motivate other employees to strive for success themselves. Also, in group meetings, managers could consider “humanizing” members of the team by encouraging people to share their mistakes as a team-building exercise to improve communication and collaboration.

“You can motivate your team to work harder by doing this,” Brooks says. “I know I have felt that way seeing other women who have succeeded. I want to know their tricks, how they navigated the minefields, and what mistakes they made along the way—that will help me avoid those same mistakes.”

The humble job applicant

This strategy works for job-seekers, too. If you’re asked to describe your greatest weakness in an interview, don’t use the obvious “I work too hard” response. Instead, sincerely relate a mess up and what you learned. “It’s a great opportunity to show your honesty and vulnerability,” Brooks says.

The master of the public failure strategy might be Princeton University psychology professor Johannes Haushofer, who posted a “CV of failures (pdf)” on his professional website in 2016. His laundry list of defeats included degree programs he didn’t get into, research funding he didn’t earn, and papers that were rejected by academic journals.

“Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible,” Haushofer wrote on his CV. “I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves, rather than the fact that the world is stochastic, applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days.”

The CV earned plenty of press attention and applause from fellow professionals, which doesn’t surprise Brooks.

“People find you more humble and likable when you not only reveal your successes and accomplishments, but your struggles and shortcomings, too,” she says. “If we want to see positive workplace outcomes, we shouldn’t underestimate how important it is to be seen as humble, grounded, and well-liked.”

[Entire article — click on the title link to read it at HBS Working Knowledge.]

***

You’re working on your goals, and your team’s goals. We can help you spring into action and develop a real plan that you can implement in a smart way, so you’ll start seeing results immediately, before you feel discouraged. If you feel that you’ve already gone off-track, we can help you get your focus, courage, and motivation back.

At Creative Sage™, we often coach and mentor individual clients, as well as work teams, in the areas of change management, building resilience, making personal, career or organizational transitions — including to retirement, or an “encore career” — and facilitating development of leadership, creativity and collaboration capabilities. We also work with clients on work/life balance, finding purpose and meaning, focus and productivity issues, and how to present themselves and their ideas more effectively in professional situations.

We guide and mentor executives, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, artists, and creative professionals of all generations, to help them more effectively implement transition processes, and to become more resilient in adjusting to rapid changes in the workplace — including learning effective coping techniques for handling failure, as well as success. We work with on-site and virtual teams.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your situation. You can also call us at 1-510-845-5510 in San Francisco / Silicon Valley. Let’s talk! An initial exploratory phone conversation is free. When you talk with me, I promise that I’ll always LISTEN to you with open ears, mind and heart, to help you clarify your own unique path to a higher vista of success.

~Cathryn Hrudicka, Founder, CEO and Chief Imagination Officer of Creative Sage™, Executive Coach, Consultant, and Mentor.

***

#harvardbusinessschool #workingknowledge #humility #mistakes #sharingshortcomings #resentment #leadership #management #mgmt

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glenngaylord · 5 years

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MY MOMENTS OUT OF TIME IN FILM 2018

Instead of a Top 10 List, every year I like to honor a long-discontinued but influential annual column from Film Comment magazine. I couldn’t wait for my father to come home from work with the “Moments Out Of Time” issue. The writers would cite their favorite scenes, images, or lines of dialogue, even from films they may not have liked, because let’s face it, even bad films may have a great moment or two. This was a great year in film, although I admit some of my favorite moments were films or series made for television. Whether it’s Alex Borstein wielding her trusty plunger around the Catskills in THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL or Amy Adams waking up from a drunken stupor in the unforgettable SHARP OBJECTS, these shows had more indelible scenes than all of the Marvel and DC superhero movies combined.

Still, I found myself lucky enough to see the staggeringly beautiful ROMA twice in a theater, because seeing it on Netflix doesn’t do it justice. If that’s your only option, however, see it and see it with its glorious empathy oozing out of every frame. EIGHTH GRADE took me by surprise with its unassuming, off-the-cuff filmmaking style. Beneath that I found an aching, contemporary story of a young girl dying to connect with somebody, anybody…her cracked phone an apt metaphor for a world in which our societal sickness lies buried in an addiction to our screens. PADDINGTON 2, even more so than its wonderful predecessor, gave us the immigrant experience from an accident-prone, marmalade-loving cuddly bear who just wants to unite everyone. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, despite its Powerpoint presentation of a story, oozed with so much emotion, the joy of creating, the beauty of people seeing you, and the sheer nostalgia of it all, I found myself crying throughout. A STAR IS BORN, while imperfect, had moments of such gorgeousness, especially the undeniable chemistry of its leads, it’s my prediction to win the Best Picture Oscar. VICE, another Oscar front runner, had fantastic performances and was nonstop fun, but, for me, didn’t quite lick the enigma of Dick Cheney and demonstrated some juvenile instincts of its writer/director.

I saw a ton of films, but even I can’t see them all. I missed SHOPLIFTERS, BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE, BEAUTIFUL BOY, and BURNING, among many others…but will catch up with them soon. So having said that, here, in no particular order, are my Moments Out Of Time In Film for 2018:

Gabe invites Kayla over for a “first friend hangout” dinner of chicken nuggets and beautifully lived-in, awkward, nerdy charm, telling this lovely, insecure young girl, “You are awesome” - melting all of our hearts with that sweet, simple declaration. It’s one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen and a moment our Kayla richly deserved.- EIGHTH GRADE

A young, pregnant Mexican housekeeper tracks down the father of her child, finding him at some type of military training camp. When she delivers the news to him, he screams at her to stay away from him and runs off to join his buddies. We never see her reaction, instead experiencing the moment from a somewhat removed distance. A lesser filmmaker would have cut to her startled, hurt face, but Alfonso Cuarón knew that we’d feel her isolation and devastation more strongly if we didn’t focus on her. Only a master filmmaker would make such an indelible decision, along with a thousand other great ones. - ROMA

A Peruvian bear takes his Aunt on a fantastical, eye-exploding, stunning tour of London via a pop-up book come to life. One of the most astounding animated sequences of all time. - PADDINGTON 2

A band looks out at the masses of people clapping along in sync to one of their songs, and in that moment, the connection feels palpable. Everyone there, everyone who watched knew this was the moment when legends became immortal. - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Nicole Kidman completely transforms herself yet again as a hardened cop with a life full of traumas etched onto her tortured face. Just watching her lurch towards a crime scene, ambling like Jack Skellington convinced me that to watch Kidman at her peak is to witness greatness. - DESTROYER

A woman in labor and with a horrifying nail injury to her foot, crawls into a bathtub to give birth to a child. Unable to make a sound lest she capture the attention of a murderous alien slithering through her house, she agonizingly holds it all in until a competing noise allows her to let out a pained, visceral scream. - A QUIET PLACE

A young cater-waiter gets invited onstage to sing her song with a headlining rock star. Surprised by her power, surprised by the surge and size of the crowd, her guileless reaction and blazing talent cut through, quickly proving the movie’s title. - A STAR IS BORN

Regina Hall sits on a rooftop with two of her female employees from a HOOTERS-like establishment. They’re all in a transition period in their lives, unsure what the future brings. They’ve all gone through an intense day and let it all out with extended screams, an unforgettable, undeniable female rage. This small, simple, subtle film is also one of the year’s best. - SUPPORT THE GIRLS

More groundbreaking than I had ever thought, Fred Rogers soaks his feet in a little tub and invites his black, gay co-star to do the same, breaking taboos on a children’s show way ahead of its time. - WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

Charlize Theron shows us the real pain of motherhood, never once feeling like a glammed-up version of the harsh realities, and yet saves its most shocking sucker punch for its final moments, delivering a reveal as unexpected as the one I didn’t see coming in SHARP OBJECTS. - TULLY

Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), referring to Emma Stone’s Abigail, tells Lady Sarah( Rachel Weisz), “I like it when she puts her tongue inside me”…which is followed by Stone giving Weisz the year’s best side-eye. - THE FAVOURITE

In a film filled with shocking moments - the odd clucking sounds, the decapitated bird head, the unexpected death of a major character, the eerie, incongruous reflection of a teen’s face in a school window, the most jolting moment comes when Toni Collette stands over her offspring’s bed and says, “I never wanted to be your mother”. Stunned, she seemingly scoops those words back down her throat in an attempt to make them go away. For this moment alone, and she gives a tour de force performance here, Collette enters the pantheon of actors who made themselves immortal. - HEREDITARY

Modern day cowboys sit around a perfectly shot nighttime campfire as our hero questions his place as a man in this world. Masculinity has rarely been shot through with such tenderness as in every moment of this quiet stunner. - THE RIDER

“Gucci!” - EIGHTH GRADE

A young daughter ever so patiently and lovingly tells her PTSD-afflicted father that their views on how to live their lives may not converge, reminding us that histrionics don’t necessarily make for great conflict. You can find it even when people act like adults and show decency towards each other. - LEAVE NO TRACE

My heart broke when a young Lebanese boy tried every way possible to keep his sister from being sold off as a child bride. The kinetic filmmaking of this sequence mined every second for peak emotions. - CAPERNAUM

A blisteringly romantic tale of star-crossed lovers in Post War Poland wins the swoon award every time Joanna Kulig (a dead ringer for Jennifer Lawrence) sings the refrain, “Oy yoy yoy” - COLD WAR

Jack Black, playing a hard-partying character whose accident leads to the lifelong paralysis of his new friend (Joaquin Phoenix), meets up with him many years later. In a short but painful scene, we see the wreckage of a life and the profound sorrow written across Black’s face. I never thought I’d type the words, “Jack Black’s acting made me sob”, but there you have it. If Beatrice Straight can win an Oscar for a single scene, then Jack Black can too. Of course, I’m not even getting into how great Jonah Hill was in this film, but I’d be here all day. - DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT

The matriarch of a family takes their housekeeper to a baby store to buy a crib when the chaos of the Corpus Christi Massacre erupts in the streets below, turning a simple shot into something epic, grand and inconceivable. - ROMA

Let’s face it. It had some of the best and bitchiest one liners of the year: “I pity your wife if you think six minutes is forever” , “Roger, there's only room in this band for one hysterical queen”, "Tell him thanks for the birthday cake. And tell him you're an epic shag”, and the beautiful, un-ironic exchange, “FREDDIE: Let’s go and punch a hole in the roof of Wembley Stadium. BRIAN: Actually, Wembley Stadium doesn’t have a roof. FREDDIE: Then we’ll punch a hole in the sky,” - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Kristen Stewart recounts how Joan Jett gave her some advice on how to capture her essence when she played her in THE RUNAWAYS. Jett told her to “pussy that wood” in reference to how to attack her guitar. Advice only a take-no-prisoners, blazingly alive woman could give to another in this energizing look at a true legend. - BAD REPUTATION

All of the tired superhero tropes we’ve become used to in live action appear fresh and thrilling when animated. Who knew I’d thrill to a whole slew of Peter Parkers swinging through New York on their webs? Who knew Lily Tomlin would appear in this and absolutely kill as Aunt May? Who knew Kathryn Hahn would even appear in a Marvel movie and skillfully weaponize a nerdy persona? - SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Sure, we all loved that moment when Lady Gaga sang “Shallow”, but let’s not forget another star was born when Henry Cavill got up off that tiled bathroom floor, doffed his suit jacket and reloaded his fists to jump back into one of the best fight sequences in film history. - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT

Connecting the dots of the past with our present day mess of a country, Spike Lee ends his film on an unsubtle yet vital montage of pure rage. - BLACKKKLANSMAN

In a wonderful reversal to the original, the murderous Michael Myers looks out a backyard window to see Laurie Strode (a fierce Jamie Lee Curtis) standing amongst the hanging sheets. Who’s the monster now?!! - HALLOWEEN

A montage detailing the many prison escapes of our protagonist, an aging, lifelong bank robber (Robert Redford still displaying his undeniable charisma at 82), provides a wonderfully conflicted view of a man who must commit crimes in order to feel alive. - THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN

A bitter, outrageously dead-inside mother jogs on a treadmill, moving cynically forward in life despite having a missing child she barely noticed anyhow and a crumbling Russian society around her. - LOVELESS

“Did you just look at me? Did you? Look at me. LOOK AT ME! HOW DARE YOU! CLOSE YOUR EYES!” - THE FAVOURITE

Despite endlessly terrible scenes of tourists dancing and eating gelato, Clint Eastwood finds a magic power in having the real life heroes on that train play themselves as they thwart a terrorist attack. Although a failed experiment of a film, those 10 minutes felt real and raw and undeniable because of its stunt casting and astute directorial choices. - THE 15:17 TO PARIS

Smack dab in the middle of the movie, it ends. Roll credits. Oh wait. Things didn’t go so swimmingly? Let’s continue. A hugely entertaining fake-out gives self-reflexive cinema a good name. - VICE

After a traumatic incident at a beach (a stunningly shot, hugely suspenseful scene with incredible sound design), a housekeeper looks out the window of a car with a sense of peace as the reflections from the window gorgeously whisk past her lovely face. - ROMA

In the male dominated world of gun-toting action films, it was refreshing to see a group of women, led by a soulful performance by Natalie Portman, lock and load and enter the Shimmer. - ANNIHILATION

A Russian Engineer named Andreyev (Paddy Considine) panics when ordered by Stalin to record a symphony which already occurred. He quickly assembles a ragtag group of people to recreate the concert, telling this terrified assembly living under a murderous regime, “Don’t worry, nobody is going to get killed. I promise you. This is just a musical emergency.” Not a great film, but Armando Iannucci and company know their way around a scabrous line or two. - THE DEATH OF STALIN

Most people will cite the great single take outside a limo as its driven from a poor side of town to a wealthy side. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic piece of cinema, but my mind gravitated towards another moment. A grieving widow lets her dog run loose in another widow’s apartment. The puppy stops at a closet door and reacts to what’s behind it. We know what it is, and she knows what it is even before we’re given visual confirmation. A fantastic storytelling moment. - WIDOWS

Evan Peters, sitting in a car at a gas station, is joined by the actual person he’s portraying, melding narrative with documentary in such an original way. - AMERICAN ANIMALS

Although chock full of special effects in a genre I tend to find forgettable, Michael B. Jordan commanded attention in a simple, quiet scene inside a museum, finding danger and intelligence in every line. He was the REAL special effect of this film. - BLACK PANTHER

Scotty Bowers may be a creepy hoarder, but when you’re 95 and have no f*cks left to give, you’re gonna spill some tea about Hollywood Stars and we will soak it all up in this one-of-a-kind documentary - SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

The slowest moving conveyor belt of all time provides one of the most well-timed, hilarious payoffs of the year. We need an award for Best Supporting Prop! - GAME NIGHT

Leslie Mann tries to quietly sneak out of her daughter’s Prom night hotel room but electrocutes herself behind the TV console in a delicious bit of physical comedy. - BLOCKERS

A mother desperate to track down her troubled young son gives drugs to an addict in return for more information, showing just how far she’s willing to go. - BEN IS BACK

A closeted up-and-coming movie star confesses to his “golly gee” midwestern wife that he’s not happy and can’t pretend anymore. We get a naked glimpse behind both of their veneers. It’s a stunning, hugely empathetic moment for characters we’ve respectively and heretofore dismissed as a sociopath and a rube. - THE HAPPYS

Alex Borstein’s lesbian character Susie Myerson from THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL has met her feature film match with Melissa McCarthy’s equally nihilistic performance as Lee Israel. To see her jousting with Richard E. Grant in any random moment in this wonderful film is to experience acting heaven. I loved how their final moments together could have easily turned to mush, but by staying true to their salty characters, they ended things in a deliciously dark manner. - CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

A comedy duo enacts a favorite routine onstage at the risk of one of their’s health. It’s scary, but the love and respect they have for each other shines through. - STAN & OLLIE

I’m sorry to say it gave me the “Made For TV” vibes, but it still found power when Nicole Kidman’s character busts her son out of an Ex-Gay Center, calling out its owner for his utter lack of qualifications. There’s nothing quite like a stifled, repressed woman finding her voice. - BOY ERASED

“I’m just like you” - says a privileged suburban teen as he bounds out of his McMansion and into a fancy SUV. While I generally enjoyed the film, this tone deaf opening line had me futilely looking around for my big house and fancy car. Sometimes a moment out of time is a wrongheaded one. - LOVE, SIMON

In a documentary full of insane twists and turns, the big moment for me came when we were treated to a clip from DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN. Madonna breezes past our smiling, tight jean-sporting identical triplets, the new “It Boys of New York”, the flush of newly-found fame written all over their faces long before their tragic fall. - THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS

Say what you will about the endless 80s references, I want to live inside the swirling sequence which serves as an homage to THE SHINING. - READY PLAYER ONE

A Japanese woman dons a strange blonde wig and practices English and high fives with another ESL student, over-exaggerating her rounded open mouth as she speaks. - OH LUCY!

Constance Yu playing mah jongg slyly shows her deep wells of strength and strategic genius, nicely setting up a character who will surprise and charm us in equal measures. - CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Yes, it’s a pretty terrible movie, but there’s no denying the thrill of a certain pop legend’s long-awaited entrance by helicopter. It caused my friend Dennis to say out loud, “F*ck yeah, it’s Cher!” - MAMMA MIA!: HERE WE GO AGAIN

In an otherwise forgettable film, Jodie Foster’s memorable gait as the “Hotel” Nurse made me happily forget Kevin Spacey’s from THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and for that, I thank her! - HOTEL ARTEMIS

A young boy named Stevie tries to impress a bunch of older skateboarders with a stunt which sends him through a hole in a roof and crashing to the ground with a sickening thud. - MID90S

Renee: I thought you might want a sneak peek of what’s to come.  Ethan: I don’t know if you know what sneak peek means. You’re completely naked. - I FEEL PRETTY

Despite the gimmick of the movie seen entirely through laptop and smartphone footage, there’s electricity in the moment John Cho’s father character discovers his missing daughter has had a secret life. - SEARCHING

A dancer tries out a solo for a very strange company, unaware that each leap, spin or kick sends a trapped woman a floor below her into bone-crunching contortions. It’s a scene you can almost feel. There’s something rotten in East Berlin! - SUSPIRIA

Sure, Emma Stone worked out a great side-eye in THE FAVOURITE, but has there ever been an actor who seems born to them more than Emily Blunt? Still, my biggest emotional connection to this film came when Ben Wishaw sang “A Conversation”. A beautiful, sweet lament. - MARY POPPINS RETURNS

The site of Michelle Pfeiffer dressed as an elderly woman, cane in hand, hobbling through the streets of New York in a desperate attempt to cash her late mother’s government checks, the score a cacophony of horns and percussion, gave me DRESSED TO KILL shivers. - WHERE IS KYRA?

Think of it as SHARP OBJECT’s UK Cousin, as we watch Moll (a searing Jessie Buckley) tap into female rage in all its messy, bloody glory in this feature length primal scream. - BEAST

Packed with punch and urgency, the opening sequence made you believe you were actually experiencing a WWII aerial combat. Oh, and then it became a fun zombie gore-fest. - OVERLORD

A group of kids escape a gay conversion camp and pile into the back of a pickup truck. Did they make the right decision? Where do they go from here? A wordless homage to the final scene in THE GRADUATE packed a punch. - THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST

Blake Lively wearing clothes. That is all. - A SIMPLE FAVOR

A meeting with the family of a man who got their daughter pregnant goes terribly wrong, resulting in a slew of insults and threats. It’s a fully alive, oddly comical yet tragic sequence in a film which otherwise left me cold. - IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Typically known for her impeccable image (before the reality show circus, of course), this pop icon lets down her guard and hilariously tears into Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. Had she been allowed to be more herself, her life might not have been as tragic. - WHITNEY

Glenn Close delivers the year’s best slow boil as the wife of a Nobel Prize winner who has secretly been his unheralded ghost writer all these years. Until things grow shouty and overwritten in the third act, Close holds a master class in barely suppressed rage. - THE WIFE

Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, intense tennis rivals, meet up at the airport after their fateful match, the looks between them offering up a touching blend of competitiveness and respect and which will lead to their unexpected, lifelong friendship. - BORG VS. McENROE

In a moment of much-needed image rehabilitation, Anne Hathaway, as the GOOP-like actress perfectly named Daphne Kluger, wins her way back into our hearts just by the way she reacts to a priceless necklace being wrapped around her neck. Every shiver and glance in the mirror makes you love her in all her campy glory. - OCEAN’S 8

A woman gets pushed off a cliff and finds herself impaled on a tree branch, yet not only does it not stop her, she’s just getting started in this literal bloodbath of a feminist fantasy. - REVENGE

A man meets tragedy and finds himself in a wheelchair only to gain powers he never had before after undergoing an experimental procedure. In a fight scene involving an antagonist and a kitchen knife, Logan Marshall-Green surprises himself with each display of brute force coming out of him, making for one of the most brutal yet winningly entertaining melees I’ve seen on screen all year…and don’t forget that kitchen knife. It’s just the right button on this bit of ultraviolet slapstick. - UPGRADE

A young husband meets with a conflicted priest, and in a searing monologue, tells the man of the cloth that the world is such a hellscape, he’d rather his pregnant wife abort their baby than bring it up in such a terrible environment. It’s the first jolt of many in this nihilistic yet strangely hopeful film. - FIRST REFORMED

Presidential candidate Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) confronts some press members who have staked out his home with the hope of catching him with a woman other than his wife. He indignantly rails against them, claiming he had a right to privacy. Oh, how times have changed. - THE FRONT RUNNER

Katja (Diane Kruger), a woman at the end of her rope, who has lost her family and confidence in the justice system, takes matters into her own hands in the literally explosive, inevitable, and crushing final scene. - IN THE FADE

Who knew that Hal Ashby had such a sincerely lovely relationship with his mentor, Norman Jewison? It’s nice to know that sometimes successful people in the film business actually help out their younger charges. - HAL

I’m not sure I ever really wanted to know what it really felt like to sit in a fiery tin can on the way to the moon and back, but now I do. It’s very well done, but I think I may need to puke. - FIRST MAN

A young man with AIDS (Cory Michael Smith) sits with his mother (Virginia Madsen) in a car, unable to truly be honest with her. The pain of it all comes across so clearly on their faces. - 1985

An oversized candy cane weaponized to fight zombies at Christmas time in Scotland. Oh, and it’s also a musical. Just go! - ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE

I saw it twice to make sure I truly hated it, and yep, I still did…but the opening sequence in the school, the terrorist attack on the beach, and Natalie Portman banging on the table to protest a diner manager’s request for a picture will stick with me. Hopefully I will forget the other 100 minutes of this painfully unfocused, unfocused, pretentious mess. - VOX LUX

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enddaysengine · 7 years

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Ogre Mage (Planescape)

Ogre Mages changed quite a bit in the transition between 3.5 and Pathfinder. At the mechanical level, they went from being giants to native outsiders. At the worldbuilding level, they went from being random monsters to the first of the oni. What does that mean for Planescape?

Mechanically, not that much changes. Oni are technically fiends (and will be getting some coverage in the upcoming hardcover Book of the Damned!), but they are native to the Prime, so I suspect a lot of planar natives will underestimate them.

Two mechanical aspects to keep in mind is that Ogre Mages are constantly able to fly via magic and that their regeneration is overcome by fire and acid, not unlike trolls. For the Elemental Planes, that means that are naturally predisposed to the Elemental Plane of Air and will avoid the Plane of Fire, Quasielemental Plane of Salt, and Paraelemental Plane of Ooze. They are likely also to avoid Gehenna and the "classical" layers of Hell.

Just because you are lawful, doesn't mean you fight fair. In their ongoing war with the kami, a group of ogre mages has turned to worshiping Magdh, in hopes that allies from the First World can use their mastery of nature to undermine the kami.

Cirily's Planarists may not be a proper Faction, but they can cause a world of trouble for adventurers not native to Sigil. Desperate primes may find an unlikely ally in Sigil's Ogre Mage population, but they must be cautious. While many of these fiends are willing to do anything to humble Cirily, they also tend to antagonize the Mercykillers, and could inadvertently get their allies caught in the crossfire.

There are some places that even the fame merchant-king Estavan will not go. Unfortunately for the Planar Trade Consortium, right now the City of Brass is one of those locations. As the cold war between Estavan and Shemeshka the Maurader heats up, the ogre mage is increasingly wary about his safety and looks to recruit the party to serve as his envoys to the court of Grand Sultana Ayasellah Mihelar Khalidlah II. The plum assignment could make them rich, but it is fraught with danger from the Maurader's minions, as well as blackmail and sabotage from Bytopian gnomes looking to drive Estavan out of the Twin Paradises.

#planescape #Outsider #native outsider #tsr #3.5 #pathfinder #paizo #plothooks #rpg

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cripbitch-blog1 · 7 years

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Disabled Trump Supporter Drowns In Toxic Sludge Made of Internalized Ableism

A flashback punched me in the gut this morning when I read the op/ed in Time.com, “I’m a Woman with a Disability who Voted for Donald Trump. Here’s Why…” by the culturally “assimilated” Melissa Ortiz. I recalled my first months assimilating to living in Austin, Texas in the summer of 1999. I moved to this red state as a newly minted Edinboro University graduate with a hot commodity B.A. in English literature (paid for by Federal student loans), and started applying for that first “real job” which would make my parents proud and ultimately pay the government back with interest.

Poor as poor could be, I existed thanks to a monthly Social Security Income check for $700 combined with credit card debt and meager savings (the Social Security Administration only allows recipients to have up to 2k in savings). I lived in a rent-reduced Section 8 apartment complex for the elderly and disabled. I got to my job interviews via the city’s accessible public transit system made possible by a recent mandate (ADA) to make public buses accessible. My power wheelchair was bought and my body, which sat in that power wheelchair, was dressed by a Personal Care Attendant (PCA) paid for by the State of Texas Department of Health and Human Services. While I didn’t have the words WELFARE RECIPIENT or SYMBOLIC EMBODIMENT OF ENTITLED or PRODUCT OF PROGRESSIVE AGENDA SOCIALISM tattooed on my forehead, I might as well of had these tats at the time because for some folks, the markings were obvious.

And there I was, on a 100 degree day in the summer of 1999, sitting and steaming myself in the odor of sweat and poverty at a bus stop in downtown Austin, waiting on the #37 to take me within walking distance of my one-bedroom accessible abode, when I saw out of the corner of my eye a small, shiny new, minivan parking nearby. Minutes after parking, a slick ramp slowly unfolded out of the side door and dropped gently to the sidewalk with a tap.

Almost two decades ago, assistive technology like a ramp van with hand controls did not come cheap or easily. To me, the idea of driving a van of my own existed in science fiction novels and shows like Star Trek. When a woman, instead of a wide-eyed alien, pushed herself out of the shadows of the air-conditioned van, my mouth dropped open. This woman represented everything to me - freedom, independence, power. She instantly transformed into my hero, my mentor, my far into the future Facebook BFF…

I pushed my power joystick forward, ditched the chance at catching the next bus, and drove toward this professional looking and wheelchair using goddess with the magic carpet ride glimmering in the heat behind her.

“Hi! Your van is wonderful! Wow!”

The Goddess rolled her eyes, sighed with a push of her wheels in the direction of her destination, and ignored me. But I couldn’t let her go, so I tried to make eye contact and asked, “How did you get it?”

Her head spun around like that kid from the Exorcist and she spat words of green pea soup at me.

“I got a JOB and PAID for it.”

And then she sped up and rode into the sultry stinky night.

All hopes of peer-to-peer support and mentorship squashed, this future Trump supporter wheeled away leaving me covered in a sludge of shame. I didn’t have words to label her reaction and my embarrassment at the time, but this, I’ve since realized, was one of my first adult encounters with ableism and internalized ableism dished out by a peer with a disability.

When a fellow cripple, who should get the struggle, puts you in a place of feeling shame for assumed entitlement, it hurts more than when able-bodied politicians, family, friends, employers, etc. do it. The sludge from the Temporarily Able-Bodied (TAB) washes off more easily. Most people with disabilities realize what people without disabilities don’t. TABs don’t comprehend how difficult and expensive it is to live life with a disability when most housing and transportation isn’t available or accessible (Hey, Uber, I’m talking to you). TABs don’t understand that due to this Americanized expectation for perfection, how limited job, social, and professional advancement opportunities are for the disabled (our unemployment rate is twice that of the TAB). And TABs definitely don’t get that every disabled person I know would happily trade a life of poverty for a life of potential and privilege if it were easy to do just that. Not once in my 39 years have I ever encountered a crip who proclaims, “I love, love, love living in extreme poverty and taking from the tax payer!”

It was naive of me to think that this woman would not want to mentor me or help a crip sis out. It was naive to think that she didn’t laugh, but rather did a fist pump when she heard the condescending saying, “The Only Disability is a Bad Attitude”. In 1999, the Trump supporting cripple didn’t know she’d exist yet. Hell, Texas’s very own Governor, Greg Abbott (deemed by disability activists as the “Anti-Gimp”) had only been collecting his $14,000 per month in damages for the accident that caused his disability for a little over a decade. It would be years before he would take high office and vote to cut spending for Texas children with disabilities and mental health supports because if he could do it (with 10 million+ in damages) we could do it! It would be years before I realized that internalized ableism slices so deep that wounds caused from it never heal. These crusty wounds are filled with foul ooze that contaminate all it touches. Internalized ableism is toxic sludge inching over the treads our wheelchairs leave; it made its way to my bus stop on that very hot summer day in 1999; and it oozed into Time.com today.

Speaking of today. Today, thanks to this big and complex government that at one point in my life qualified me as disabled enough to receive income, housing, healthcare, and vocational rehabilitation assistance, I now am a full-time employee of the state of Texas and pay income taxes that fund all the programs I once used and a few I still use. I now pay property taxes because I’m a home owner. I get to work every day because I drive my own modified magic carpet ride with hand controls. And I’m proud to pay the government back while I still am physically and mentally capable enough to work a job. I’m happy to pay interest on my student loans just like millions of Americans. I quite enjoy knowing that my tax dollars fund healthcare for people who can’t afford health insurance and need medical equipment like I use. What comes around should and does go around.

And I won’t be ashamed as my disability progresses and I need to go back to that system no matter how much the people who run it try to shame me for needing it. The people who dish out the sludge, who ignore our worth despite imperfection and our struggle, who proudly cast their vote for politicians who would rather we didn’t exist or assimilate to a culture of ableism and subtle genocide, will continue to exist and thrive in the Time of Trump. And all I can do is this:

I can be there for the young woman at the bus stop on the hot day who compliments my van and asks me how I got to this place of temporary privilege. I can smile and write down a name or two of someone who once helped me. I can offer her a ride home if I’m able. I can tell her to never be ashamed because most of us have been there and those who haven’t will probably get there someday.

#ableism #Trump #disability #internalized ableism #entitlements

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