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summerinbali · 1 year

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I am so lucky. Everything works out in my favor. Even when something is not good, something better will come for me with it. Also, the Universe always got my back. Yes, I am so grateful because I am lucky.

It's February 2023 and I haven't write anything in here.

Anyhow, I welcomed this new year happily. For the first time ever. But for the first time ever also, I had to go to ER on 2nd Jan, by my own self, which was painfully sad. Life is great, but my body could not handle such a big energy of greatness coming on the new year. Also, my body couldn't handle the coffee I took on the new year's eve. Funny, ha-ha. But not funny ha-ha.

With that tragedy, I came up with my new year's resolution short and simple: healthy body. What is this healthy body that I'm going for? Glad you ask!

With my frontal lobe has fully developed, I am now able to elaborate this healthy body. It is not only eating healthy food (well, whatever that is!) or running until I passed out. It is finding balance in life. I healed my inner self for the past 2 years, which took a lot of myself. Quarter life crisis did it all well. But for just an update, I think I feel a lot better now. Hopefully, it's for good. Life is a rollercoaster, I know. But I hope I can always find the peace, forgiveness, and love I need within myself.

In matter of health, it is my body turn! She has to heal herself from GERD, vertigo, and all kinds of painful painful things that happened.

My goal is (i) to find exercise that effective, enjoyable, and doable most of the time, and (ii) to find balance of eating.

So this year, I am exploring. I said to my body that I will take time to relearn about myself and my body. The last time I did those two was when I was 17-18. And those information are now invalid. I mean, who take only 1 apple and 1 gum per day then call themselves all fueled up for the day?? Also, I don't think I am fully capable of forcing this body to run 5k immediately, she needs to take small baby steps to do that. Hence, I am exploring everything. All food, all exercises (as long as it is not a high intensity).

I also take mindful walking now, which not requiring any earphones with songs blasting my ears. I listened to the universe. Most of the time it's honking sounds of the traffic. But sometimes, it is me screaming that I am tired, but at the same time believing that I am capable.

I will definitely do Pilates Reformer, I heard that it's good for the spine. And yes, I had some issues with my shoulders and spine as well. I am also down to try more fun exercise, like Poundfit. Girl, I cannot imagine the amount of adventures this year.

One of the resources for my growth, especially with food, is @barrewithmich on Instagram. She is a great barre teacher, I followed her class few times during the pandemic. And I followed her immediately because she said something about growth. In a nutshell, healthy living is not a journey, not a marathon - so there's no need to rush. Her posts intrigued me to take slow steps, finding my own balance, exploring my limits, especially when it comes to food.

I used to label food with good food, bad food, guilty pleasure, cheating food, et cetera. I did not do me good. I was stuck with diet issues. I was on unhealthy diet for years and thought that 700cal per day was a lot. I was either binge eating or not eating at all. Boy, was I wrong.

Due to all the mistakes that I did in the past, I am now willing to take the road of the unknown and explore the wild wild world of the meaning of living itself - finding my balance and understanding my limit.

This could also mean me living with a full-time job, taking master's degree with 7 courses this semester, being a mom to a pre-schooler (WHAT), and being a wife to an amazing husband (who also has a not only full-time, but life-time, job while taking master's degree, being a father to a pre-schoolder, and a caretaker to the parents).

((side note: To B, I am proud of who you are now. I cannot believe we are here. Would you take the road to find the meaning of healthy living itself?))

Well, 2023. What a year. I've been here since 2008, I think? CRAZY. And been doing this new year shit posting since 2016 or 2017? Cannot remember. But hey. Another year to live, blessed. Super grateful and thankful. Let's do it.

#summerinbali #personal journal #personal growth #personal things #CariTahuSehatAlaSaras

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chillichats · 2 years

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HIYA CHILLAY buckle up this is gonna be long ok basically. yesterday was election day. the 2 main presidential candidates are the son of a dictator and a woman who is Not the child of a dictator (lol ill explain more later)

the dictator implemented martial law back in the 70s and ruled for like 2 or 3 decades, stole BILLIONS worth of dollars and left our country in debt. in 1986 there was a peaceful revolution called EDSA People Power (u can google that) and then he was exiled to hawaii and then he died there i think. his son, whos running for pres now, had every opportunity to pay back all the debt but hasnt, paid people to attend his campaign rallies, and is rly just a bad person all around woohoo (also he didnt even go to college LL)

the other candidate is a human rights lawyer, and is also currently vice president. she's a critic of our incumbent president and early into her term she was removed from some cabinet positions solely cause she spoke up against him. even if she had limited funds and resources, the office of the vp was able to accomplish a LOT esp in the pandemic. soo yes

now the whole other thing is that our elections in general are a shitshow, son-of-a-dictator basically rigged the whole thing (like there are ballots prepared so that they enter as votes for him no matter what u put) AND. AND. 2000+ vote counting machines across the country have been sabotaged, or at any rate are not working, so there are ppl who lined up for literal hours to vote and then it turned out the machine was broken 💀 so mainly they were told to leave their ballots w staff to be entered as soon as the machines were fixed, obviously presenting a big chance to invalidate the ballots if a certain candidate isnt on it.

theres also video evidence of ppl being paid to vote for the son-of-the-dictator, and despite the evidence our comission of elections has done nOTHINGG to stop it also a lot of the people in comelec (comission of elections) are very close to son-of-a-dictator and/or are being bribed

ALSO son-of-a-dictator is alr acting like he won even tho the vote counting isnt done yet 💀

according to the official vote count son-of-a-dictator is leading by like. 10mil votes? which doesnt even make sense when u compare the number of votes from our previous elections to the ones now. also the 'official' vote count supposedly coming from comelec is actually from an unknown source, so most likely not real. people have volunteered to manually encode the ballots to make sure that the votes are fair.

and thats just the presidential elections; in our senatorial elections the candidate leading is a fOCKEN ACTOR with zERO political experience

its basically a shitshow circus and my only hope rn is the manual vote processing cause i highkey dont want son-of-a-dictator to win shahsfiew

also if u want to know more if ever u can search here on tumbl 'halalan2022' (thats filipino for elections2022) ppl have made a bunch of posts explaining it ahsufew

im. okay. holy fuck. thats. wh. okay. okay. wait a second. okay. holy fuck yes i think i will search up the halalan2022 tag this sounds infernal in the original sense of the word

#chillianswers #godDAMN i fucking hate rich entitled people #god #i hope a miracle happens this sounds. yeah

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mednerds · 2 years

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Why America Has So Few Doctors

As a matter of basic economics, fewer doctors means less care and more expensive services.

By the time Elizabeth Erickson was a freshman at Davidson College in 2002, she knew she wanted to become a doctor. Because she understood that the earliest health interventions are among the most important, she set herself on a pediatrics track. After four years of premed classes, she went straight to medical school at Wake Forest University, which took another four years. Then came three years of residency at Duke University, plus one final year as chief resident. In 2014, she joined the faculty of Duke’s School of Medicine. Her dream was realized at the steep price of 12 consecutive years of learning and training, plus about $400,000 of debt.

Erickson’s story would be exceptional in just about any other country. But it’s hardly unusual in the United States, which has the longest, most expensive medical-education system in the developed world, and among the lowest number of physicians per capita. “There is a huge scarcity of primary-care doctors, like pediatricians, and many of us are operating in a scarcity framework without enough resources,” Erickson told me.

America needs an abundance agenda—a plan to attack the problems of scarcity in our housing, infrastructure, labor force, and, yes, health-care system. As the pandemic has made clear, we need medical abundance in the 21st century. That means more high-quality therapies, more clinics, better insurance, and better access to medicine. But it also means more doctors.

Why does America make it so hard for people like Elizabeth Erickson to practice medicine?

Imagine you were planning a conspiracy to limit the number of doctors in America. Certainly, you’d make sure to have a costly, lengthy credentialing system. You would also tell politicians that America has too many doctors already. That way, you could purposefully constrain the number of medical-school students. You might freeze or slash funding for residencies and medical scholarships. You’d fight proposals to allow nurses to do the work of physicians. And because none of this would stop foreign-trained doctors from slipping into the country and committing the crime of helping sick people get better, you’d throw in some rules that made it onerous for immigrant doctors, especially from neighboring countries Mexico and Canada, to do their job.

America has already done all of this. Starting in the late 20th century, medical groups asserted that America had an oversupply of physicians. In response, medical schools restricted class sizes. From 1980 to 2005, the U.S. added 60 million people, but the number of medical-school matriculants basically flatlined. Seventeen years later, we are still digging out from under that moratorium.

The U.S. is one of the only developed countries to force aspiring doctors to earn a four-year bachelor’s degree and then go to medical school for another four years. Most European countries have one continuous six-year program. Then come the years of residency training. Many graduates have $200,000 to $400,000 in outstanding student loans when they enter the workforce. Medical education is a necessary good; nobody wants charlatans in the OR and snake-oil salesmen prescribing arthritis medication. What advantage do these additional years and loans get us? It’s conceivable that American doctors are 33 percent better than Swiss doctors, given our 33-percent-longer medical schooling. But good luck trying to find a national health statistic where the U.S. is one-third better than Switzerland. Americans die earlier than their European counterparts at every age and income level.

Overburdened with debt and eager to translate their long education into a high salary, American medical students are more likely to become specialists, where they tend to earn some of the highest doctor salaries in the world, in part because the U.S. does such an efficient job at limiting the supply of their labor.

As a matter of basic economics, fewer doctors means less care and more expensive services. A 2016 survey of patients in 11 countries—the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and eight European nations—found that the U.S. trailed in providing timely access to primary medical care. High educational debts and fewer physicians push more health-care spending toward intensive and specialized services, which are more costly.

Naturally, some doctors might object to more competition for the same reason that some homeowners object to more local construction: They’re afraid that abundance will eat their wealth. But they should consider the other side of the coin, which is that having more doctors might make life better for doctors, who work much longer hours than their European peers. Doctor burnout and brutal 16-hour shifts for residents and M.D.s aren’t necessary tests of willpower; they’re just the inevitable result of not having enough people to do the work that today’s hospitals demand.

The most obvious reason America needs an abundance of medical practitioners is … just look around. If COVID continues to be a problem for the U.S.—and that seems likely—we’re going to need more physicians, clinics, and therapies. Even if COVID disappears and the U.S. never faces another pandemic ever again (fingers and toes crossed, after throwing a whole thing of salt over his shoulder), we’ll be an older and aging country with more sick people. The census projects that in 12 years, there will be more senior citizens than children in America for the first time in history. No matter what the pandemic future holds, we need more doctors to be part of America’s health-care system.

“The first thing I would do is to expand the residency system so that more doctors can become residents after medical school,” Robert Orr, a policy analyst who studies health-care policy at the Niskanen Center said. “This might be the key bottleneck. The medical schools say they can’t easily expand, because there aren’t enough residency slots for their graduates to fill. But there aren’t enough residency slots because Washington has purposefully limited federal residency financing.” The arithmetic is simple: More funding means more residents; more residents allows medical schools to grow; more medical students today means more doctors in a decade.

Countries get doctors in one of two ways—by training them or importing them. We’re bad at both. When NAFTA was negotiated, Canadians and Mexicans didn’t want to lose their doctors to the American market, and the U.S. didn’t want immigrant doctors to threaten U.S. physicians. As a result, to this day Mexican and Canadian doctors have to jump through special hoops to practice medicine full-time in the U.S.

Beyond increasing the number of doctors, states could increase the total supply of care by allowing more nurse practitioners to substitute for doctors. They could also expand legal telemedicine, which would extend care to rural and other underserved areas. “The low-hanging fruit is to change Medicare rules so that the government would reimburse for all online appointments,” Orr said. This would drive the permanent adoption of telemedicine throughout the system.

Finally, Orr said that we can’t expand the number of doctors unless we also expand the number of clinics and hospitals, particularly in the most underserved parts of the country. That means we have to build. “We need a system of health-care-development banks that issue guaranteed loans for infrastructure projects,” he said. “That’s how the health-care system was originally built up until the 1980s, with government-backed finance.”

More doctors, more clinics, more care, better health outcomes. It all sounded so obvious—too obvious. So, what’s the problem with an abundance of doctors?

We thought of several downsides. More physicians could mean lower wages for doctors. If wages dropped before student debt declined, that would mean a generation of doctors graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that they are unable to pay off in a more competitive market. Orr said that expanding the role for the nurses we have might be politically easier than radically changing medical education to grow the number of doctors, and that tweaking immigrant-doctor rules could raise the ire of physician groups. “Another steelman to my case that you might hear is that America should focus on prioritizing high-value care rather than just aimlessly expanding medical providers who do a lot of low-value stuff,” he said.

But overall, the case for doctor abundance is strong. Sick, aging, and buckling under two years of pandemic mayhem, America desperately needs more physicians. But we choose to make becoming a physician a painful experience. Today we are reaping the harvest of our deliberate policies: fewer doctors, higher prices, and worse access to primary care.

By Derek Thompson (The Atlantic). Image: Getty; The Atlantic.

#science #medicine #medblr #academia #health #news #physician shortage

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flyonthewallmedstudent · 3 years

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Watching House as a Physician. Season 2 Episode 3. Infectious diseases & Respiratory.

Welcome to another episode of medicine done badly. I’ve been watching House on Amazon prime. Got the subscription during the pandemic, as like everyone else, I’ve garnered an online shopping habit now.

Alright. In the opening scene a young roof worker falls off the roof presumably due to acute shortness of breath. i.e. trouble breathing. (why do we use the term shortness of breath? it’s the english version of the greek term dyspnoea - the actual preferred language of Western doctors. Fuck do I know why we like Greek and Latin so much. Moving on.) Then cut to Dr. Cuddy examining him in the back of the ambulance.

This would never happen in real life. Yes you can be on the scene and handover to the paramedics or EMT when they arrive as a doctor. But they would take over. I personally wouldn’t have the balls to look after a patient in a different environment, different resources and field I’m not familiar with. You can have field Emergency docs - but requires different training.

Also, ethically, you’re not meant to treat family or friends. Dr. Cuddy later in the episode gets a bit emotionally involved - this is why we don’t treat people close to us. We lose objectivity. We make mistakes. And you see later see Cuddy do some pretty bad ones.

I feel like much of this episode is not really IM. THere’s less differential diagnoses being made. More side tracks into trauma, emergency, intensive care or vascular surgery.

Anyhoo. Trauma and emergency would manage the fall and post fall traumatic injuries. And the trauma protocol was either not shown or completely off in this episode. Surgeons don’t seem to exist in House, at least not very much. Similarly, no other doctors exist except surgeons in Grey’s anatomy. Also you can’t clear a C Spine clinically, which is what Dr. Cuddy does in the back of the ambulance. You’d need a CT first and clearance both radiological (by a radiologist) and a clinician.

Aaaanddd, you can’t just listen to the chest and go no pneumothorax (air in lung or collapsed lung) - yes it’s reassuring, but again you’d need imaging to confirm this, given how serious a condition this is. It is realistic to consider in the setting of a fall, particularly if there are rib fractures that can puncture the lung.

Once the more critical injuries are managed, we would look after the IM side to things.

So. Finally.. differential diagnoses.

Takes what seems and feels like days before they finally sit down and go through differentials. Really not much on that white board. Dark fingers, broken ribs, fever and lung infiltrates. Time line’s not clear on when he developed the fever.

Presenting complaint isn’t really addressed. It could be: - Dyspnoea, leading to the fall, he’s requiring O2 via nasal prongs, which suggests that he’s hypoxic (this is definitely odd in a young guy who’s normally very physical fit if he works as labourer). so much to unpack here, but they never get into this well. Post fall, Cuddy notices his ring and pinky finger becoming dusky, which becomes very central in this episode. Very few things would cause this. pains me that they do no differentials on a white board for this alone.

Then a lot of throwing around medical terms.

PTT prolonged and Fibrinogen off. These are markers of your coagulation pathway and signs that you’re not forming the clots the way you should if you have an injury. DIC is also thrown around. What is DIC? Disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Certainly severe sepsis and trauma can cause this and lead to severe bleeding. It will throw off your coagulation pathways (things that stop bleeding). It’s not common. I’ve treated it once, while I was rotating in ICU, it is not standard ward medicine practice. Standard therapy is fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and even large metropolitan hospitals only have a limited supply. It’s a huge concern for surgery and post-op (as you patient will just not stop bleeding after you cut them open, and if not treated, potentially bleed to death). Cuddy mentions ARDS. Acute respiratory distress syndrome, it could be a complication, but it’s not a cause. Again, falls more into the realm of critical care (a la ICU). However, patient had SOB prior to the fall. Finally HOuse makes the observation. of “what if he was sick before he had his run in with gravity...” Everyone jumps to Pneumonia. And this is where it gets confusing. If he was unwell, the minute he entered the emergency department with a fever and hypoxia, they would have worked him up for any garden variety pneumonia, bacterial or viral. Cultures would have been sent and imaging. Any young hypoxic patient would prompt a closer look at the chest. And no one waits that long to start antibiotics - “sepsis kills” is a slogan often used around hospitals. You have to initiate empirical therapy within 30 mins, to reduce mortality and morbiditiy.

Ordering an Echocardiogram (USS of the Heart) also makes no sense in the context of a lung infection. I would order one, but not to look at the lungs.

Then there’s the most unrealistic thing about this series. Doctors breaking into patient homes.

It is however, a good way to showcase social history. It’d be boring to watch a doctor ask the patient outright about their living situation etc, but it’s far more interesting to see exactly how they live. We try as much as possible to illustrate to each other and ourselves what the living environment and working environment of our patients are like.

In the context of infection, a good social history can point out exposure. As they exemplify by showing dead rodents and mould. This leads to 2 further differentials: Rat bite fever (caused by streptobacillus, something you’d see in the US, but probably not anywhere else), it’s an unrealistic differential in general. And the 2nd is aspergillosis. Okay.. So aspergillus is a mould commonly found in our environment. In fact it’s everywhere around us.

THere’s few times when it’s an issue. It is a concern in respiratory syndromes like asthma or bronchiectasis. And also as an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised individuals. in the context of asthma, it’s not so much the aspergillus itself that causes issue, it’s our body’s over reaction. It’s a hypersensitivity issue that causes inflammation in the lungs or a pneumonitis. We even gave it a name. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. It’s still badness, but it doesn’t happen that quickly. We also have specific tests for this, which were obviously not considered in this episode of medicine done badly. In the immunocompromised host (steroid therapy in transplant patients or those on chemo, etc.), you can get the invasive mould as an opportunistic infection. I don’t really understand why they think it would be the case here. Also, killing the bug with heavy duty anti fungals will only give more issues rather than do anything. They start him on amphotericin. this is not standard practice. And now it flips to why amphotericin is not standard practice or first line treatment for invasive aspergillosis. The patient has now become anuric (not making any urine). (First line drug by the way is voraconazole, superior efficacy in trials with a lower mortality rate and ADRs) Also, note that they have just jumped straight to dire renal failure from the amphotericin. No work up. That said, heavy drugs like amphotericin are often a cause, but It’s often temporary with the appropriate supportive measures (stop insulting agents, give hydration, monitor fluid balance), reversible, even if you require temporary dialysis or haemofiltration. Anyways, would get into AKI another day, that’s a whole other post in and of itself. Then his hand is apparently “dying.” There’s pain on light touch, but it’s not a cold, pulseless limb. Or discoloured. doesn’t add up. This now enters vascular surgeon territory. Again. It’s interesting that there’s never any referrals to any other teams. If he has good circulation, I would imagine they would try to save the hand and consider other differentials.

The only time I can think of an emergency amputation in this situation is necrotising fascitiis. That’s the only thing that would occur that rapidly AND necessitate losing tissue or limb. With a young person who’s this ill, there’s often multiple subspecialties involved by this point. I’m also surprised he’s not in ICU.

Then there’s a buncha filler scenes of the cast of house getting emotional. Ho my god, they’ve taken the hand of a young 20 something physical labourer. Indeed, this is badness. Unlike House, we actually are trained to always consider how a patient’s illness impacts their activities of daily living and livelihood.

I find the general population assumes that we practice medicine in a vacuum, we merely treat the clinical illness and ignore everything else. They imagine that we all must be like house.

Actually we try to put things in perspective as much as possible and knowing our limitations in this area, we often enlist the help of friends - physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers. They never exist on TV or on the movies. Ever. Unless it’s to portray how terrible it is to be a social worker. From time to time in this episode, Cuddy laments that being chief of medicine is too administrative and she hasn’t been a doctor in years. That also doesn’t happen in real life. If you’re chief you’re still a doctor. You have admin shit to do deal with yes, but you still practice. It’s like being chief resident, in all the TV shows with one of these, you still seem them working as residents, be it scrubs or grey’s anatomy.

Back to the differential. They finally get to endocarditis. Culture negative to be precise. That indeed would explain the bilateral dusky fingers that led to unnecessary amputation. Septic emboli.

Going to stop here, more out of exhaustion now. I’ve created quite a lengthy post. Happy to reblog thoughts on culture negative endocarditis on request later. This is a worthy topic to study up on for students or residents. At least review Duke’s criteria and think about your clinical features like Roth Spots and Janeway lesions or Ouch Osler’s nodes.

The ending is also a far fetched connection to make, but is one that we would consider. In fact, we would ask in detail every time from day one - have you had any exposure to animals. It’s very rare to see someone so young be that sick out of the blue when you’re immunocompetent and have no underlying predisposing conditions. If there’s no focal source, then we would even ask about injectable recreational drugs, exotic travels, sexual health.

Most of the time, patients that sick are honest to their doctors.

But what about..

Frankly, much as we lie as humans, when our lives our on the line, we’re generally pretty honest (sometimes too honest) with the people we want to save us.

Any patient who is young and comes to hospital requiring inpatient admission, they’d be investigated by subspecialties with expertise in certain areas such as infectious disease. The dept of infectious disease would either be home team, or all over this patient as they special in the realm of both common and rare infectious diseases, culture negative endocarditis would have been considered before a hand amputation.

The term, “department of diagnostic medicine is laughable,” particularly when they consider it the only department in the world in the show.

In actuality, it’s a department that is universal and exists everywhere. it’s Internal medicine. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the next surgeon general (and also the last one under Obama) is an internal medicine physician. Ken Jeong of Community and the Hangover fame is also a physician of internal medicine.

Beginning to get the sense that most episodes are going to end with a diagnosis that is either infectious disease, rheumatology or haematology. But generally those tend to be most interesting and give the most plot twists or meaty differentials V.s. a stroke or acute myocardial infarction is fairly straightforward to diagnose.

This is a very twisty episode in all the wrong directions.

Dyspnoea is a very common presenting complaint. There’s a properly done approach to this in the podcast by the Curbsiders by the way.

#medblrs #medblr

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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A lot of people’s justification for Ruby lying is, “It wasn’t about their personal connection to Ironwood! It was the state of Mantle and how they’d suffer if he took the truth badly, and two people he knows (Qrow and Weiss) were shocked about the state of Mantle! They cared more about Mantle than someone they knew.” I feel that’s kinda fair, but what’s your take on that?

I think it would indeed be fair it it were true. However, simplifying Ruby’s lies down to “She cares about Mantle” ignores a whole slew of important things, including but not limited to:

What something looks like and what something is are often two separate things. Mantle may indeed look bad, but Ironwood has reasons for decisions like armed men and curfews - AKA, when you’re living in a city continually threatened by monsters you sometimes need to lay down rules to keep people safe. At the risk of drawing some comparisons between RWBY and real life scenarios, insert “Yes you have to wear a mask” and “No you can’t hold parties right now” parallels here. The “Ironwood is infringing on Mantle’s freedom!” cry from fans when Ironwood says people have to go inside because there are literally grimm, serial killers, and Salem’s men running about sounds a lot like the “You’re infringing on my freedom!” cries when officials say you can’t hold a graduation party during a pandemic. These are very low-key sacrifices made to keep everyone safe and no, we may not like them and yes, they may indeed be causing other problems (embargo/close businesses both equal severe financial difficulties) but it’s better than being dead. Most importantly for this conversation, these justifications were explained and/or made clear to RWBYJNR after they landed, which should have changed their initial, knee-jerk reaction of “Oh my god Mantle looks terrible!” It’s a matter of acknowledging that yeah, Mantle isn’t in a good place right now but that’s because the world isn’t in a good place either. We’re trying to survive.

“But the reason Mantle is in so much danger is because of a hole in the wall and that hole is there because Ironwood is using resources! He’s the bad guy here.” That ignores that Ironwood isn’t just stealing resources for the hell of it (he’s trying to stop Salem), and that our good guy Robyn didn’t fix the hole with what she stole those resources back, and that someone like Weiss could have plugged it up in a second... but even if we put all that aside, this just makes Ruby look worse. If she really cared about Mantle she would tell Ironwood, “Hey, the resources you’re taking? You should give them back because your plan won’t work. I know this for a fact because of the information I kept from you.” Ruby speaking up would have done the most to help Mantle there and then. Instead she pushes Ironwood to continue with Amity for reasons the story fails to make clear. It just insists that telling the world about Salem is automatically a Good Thing, despite the story simultaneously only providing evidence to the contrary.

If Ruby cared about Mantle why doesn’t she decide to tell Ironwood everything in some effort to help them? Why wasn’t that the catalyst? Instead she decides to tell him after he’s agreed to follow their lead about telling the council everything (with, again, no good explanation as to why Ruby thinks telling everyone about Salem is the way to go - while she’s struggling to tell Ironwood this no less!) She decides to be more open with Ironwood only once Ironwood listens to her and takes more of a backseat position to her leadership. The story spends far too much time insisting that Ruby’s perspective is the objectively good perspective without explaining why that’s the case, which makes her decisions read less like “Ruby is actually doing good in the world” and far more like “Ruby just wants people to do what she says, regardless of whether what she’s asking for makes any sense or it truly the best route to take.” Connected to this, why doesn’t Ruby consider the lives of all the Mantle evacuees when she refuses to let Ironwood get them to safety? Her actions throughout the volume do nothing to tell me she actually cares about these people, nor that she’s willing to make sacrifices in order to truly help them.

“Ruby doesn’t know how Ironwood will react” - That’s a legit worry, but the story acts as if Ruby is some genius strategist for coming up with that concern, rather than acknowledging that this is the exact same reason Ozpin had for keeping those secrets: What if whoever hears it reacts horribly? The difference between them is that Ozpin has objective evidence to support that worry - Raven, Lionheart, those who have betrayed him in the past - whereas Ruby does not. Ironwood has held it together through years of knowing about Salem, the Fall of Beacon, losing Ozpin, etc. He’s done a great deal to demonstrate that he will no buckle under pressure. So it’s a matter of that hypocrisy. Last volume Ruby essentially said, “I deserve to know everything Ozpin is keeping from me despite having done incredibly little to prove my loyalty or my resilience to hearing horrifying news. How I might react to this information is not a legitimate enough concern to bar me from having it.” About four days later she now says, “Ironwood does not deserve to know everything we’re keeping him despite having done an incredible amount to prove his loyalty as well as his resilience to hearing horrifying news. How he might react to this information is a major concern and it will bar him from receive it. Uncle Qrow is right - I’m not anything like Ozpin.” Ruby forced someone to “trust” her in a truly horrendous fashion and then refused to extend that trust herself once she’d gotten what she wanted. That has nothing to do with Mantle and everything to do with Ruby’s (the story’s) belief that she’s just intrinsically better than others.

There are other issues as well - such as the fact that the writing bypassed Qrow, Weiss, and Yang’s emotional connection to Ironwood entirely. Their reactions don’t tell us that they care more about Mantle than Ironwood because those reactions don’t engage with Ironwood as an individual at all. The writing simply ignores those aspects of the situation, attempting to remove them from the equation entirely - but these are the biggest points: 1. We don’t see Ruby actually caring for Mantle, 2. We don’t see Ruby doing things that benefit Mantle, and 3. Ruby’s justification for (supposedly) prioritizing Mantle over Ironwood requires a severe amount of mental gymnastics given the events just a few days ago - and then the story doesn’t acknowledge that in any meaningful way.

“Ruby is helping Mantle” is just a nice-sounding way of absolving her of her mistakes this volume, but imo it doesn’t hold up when you examine what she does and why she does it.

#rwby #rwde #mymetas #nov4-rocket5

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psycholojosh · 3 years

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Back to the Clinic?

I mentioned in some few previous posts that I used to work in a clinic. And I say "used to" because I lost my job when they closed down during the pandemic. I'm not gonna lie, I cried really hard - in front of my bosses, and in front of my teammates. I was passionate about being one of the "in-house RPm's" and helping kids and their families get their psychosocial support. That job was the ikigai, I believe. Decent pay, flexible work hours, substantial growth and learning - you name it. It was a career heaven for a rookie like me. It was sad that life took it away in a snap. Not long after the closure, I landed a job in the university where I currently study for my master's degree. It's a contract job, but the pay is also decent. Only, I didn't have any benefits since I wasn't really treated as an "employee". While I knew this had setbacks, I acknowledged its advantages nonetheless managed what I could to make sure it was a "liveable" wage. It did have some small perks, like letting me use a good laptop for work, and having a more flexible commitment to the job. I just needed to submit my outputs and do what I committed myself to as per contract.

It's been nine months in. And to be very honest, I can't really say that the job is enjoyable. The parts that I do find enjoyable somewhat offset the dissatisfaction, but it could never fully satiate my hunger for my passions. Again, it's not a perfect life - so I don't expect that any or every job will move perfectly. I mean, that's what challenges are for. And without them, am I really growing? The job that I have helps me keep afloat at this point in the pandemic, so I'm grateful for that. But, I know I shouldn't deprive my right to a comfortable and happy life.

Not so long ago, I started missing the clinical work that I had. I missed the people, the training, the challenges, the experience, and that feeling of satisfaction that what I do matters to me and to others as well. Many a time in this current job that I have, I considered resigning. But I knew that I had to be practical. Besides, there were some opportunities for growth where I'm currently at. Then again, they don't entirely feel fulfilling.

It's funny how the universe responded to my whining...

From 2018 to 2020, I worked with an NGO that catered psychosocial services to low-income patients and families from a very well-known public hospital in Manila. They were made up of psychologists and clinicians who gave these free services and trained people like me to do similar work as theirs. It was essentially clinical in nature - and, I was there for it. Like what happened with my previous day job (this was a side job), my time with them got cut short in the pandemic due to personal needs. Leaving them wasn't my intention, but it became deliberate because life had demanded me to - or I will suffer hardships. So I did.

Fast forward to earlier this week. I got an email from my former supervisor-slash-boss there who told me that they're looking for volunteers, and that they were pooling them from all those they have trained (we are a lot, mind you).

"Dear Josh," she started. In another part it read, "It will be a joy to reconnect with you again."

It was an invitation to come back! And it turned my otherwise-gloomy week around. I was being asked to be part of their psychosocial services team and get my supervision from my former supervisor (her name is Paula), who knows me inside out. On a personal note, I do miss Paula and all those whom I've worked with there. And I know how much growth I can have in their care and supervision.

I had this warm feeling that kept growing until now. I knew that this was what I was looking for, for a while now. In my family, and in some other people outside of it, I'm known to be very fond of quick decisions - which more or less makes them risky. My mind immediately screamed, "Yes!," then hesitated. Why? Because I knew I had to be practical.

Something echoed in my head shortly after. If you ever heard of the saying, "Passion doesn't always bring food to the table," then you're absolutely right. It really doesn't. This is a free volunteer work that I will offer and commit to. It takes time, effort, and some resources to make sure I fulfill my end of the commitment. And I had a day job on top of my studies. I knew I had to set my commitments straight (and I'm sure Paula would agree with me on this one).

For the past days, I've been reflecting on the work load that I have and the studies I'll attend to this semester. Being a working student is no joke, especially if you're the one paying for your tuition. Plus, the pandemic makes things significantly harder for you to function optimally. I have to be smart about this for my own sake and for the sake of my commitments.

This is where I realized that the challenges of personal growth comes with a lot of accountability and personal sacrifices. What I am balancing in my thoughts right now is the dichotomy of need versus want, and personal versus professional. I'm trying to figure out where I can place this volunteer work on.

I'm giving myself a week to give them a final answer. So I got a lot to think about and to process emotionally before I speak up. Otherwise, I might as well yell "burnout" before it even happens. I think to myself constantly that I'm taking care of myself by honoring my limits and boundaries. And I also want to take care of my values towards growing as a psychologist and to develop myself personally and professionally.

So... is it back to the clinic?

#RPmNotes #RPmThoughts #clinical psychology #career opprotunities #personal growth #RPmEntries #personal update

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the-velveteen-victorian · 3 years

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Elle can you explain what goth is? Google is really inconsistent and I’m having such a difficult time understanding it. When did you find out you were goth?

Definitely! This is a long response just so you are prepared. =) Goth is a music-based subculture. You are correct… Google is not a good resource for discovering what goth is. Unfortunately, a lot of “goth” guide books aren’t either (I know one of them features a lot of emo bands?). First off, let’s just get out of the way what goth is not. Goth is not emo or metal. Avenged Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance, and Pantera are not goth. Goth is not white supremacy. Yes, those of us with naturally pale skin sometimes strive to keep our skin tones light, but goth is a home to people of all skin/hair/eye colors. Anyone who says you can only be a pale, white person is disgusting. Goth is not associated with any religion, philosophy, political inclination, or specific belief system. There are Christian, Hindu, Atheist, New Age, Shinto, Muslim, Republican, Democrat, Green Party, pineapple on pizza, no pineapple on pizza goths. You get my point. =)

Wearing goth fashion does not make someone goth, no matter how great the outfit may be. I (and most goths, elder and younger) define goth as someone who has an intense interest and passion for goth music. That’s it. Sure, most of us will gravitate toward darker aesthetics and like to wear the fashion when we can, but it is absolutely NOT a requirement. That is what google gets so wrong. One of the goth ladies I know spends 80% of her time in scrubs. She loves her job as a nurse practitioner and she has to have a more conservative look while she is working. She can’t wear the fashion more often than a couple times a month. She listens to goth music every day and is super knowledgeable about it. Is she goth? Yes. Conversely, I know a lot of teenagers who are trying to figure out who they are (which is TOTALLY FINE). They actually do a really great job of diy-ing goth looks, but they do not listen to goth music at all. Most of them listen to metal, emo, or country music. Do I consider them goth? No. But I do not judge them for it. Music is about what speaks to you and goth is in no way superior to any other musical taste.

With the rise of “pastel goth” and fashion trends on tumblr/social media, I think a lot of people get misled. This is why it is so important to have some level of contact with the actual goth community. Covid showed us that it is possible to do this online! We can attend online goth nights, get the set lists and analyze goth club music trends from our homes, and have zoom dance sessions! I really love the flexibility and versatility that the pandemic revealed to the goth community… because a lot of goths don’t live in cities with a big goth scene.

How did I discover I was goth? By beautiful accident. =) I was 15, and I struggled to have any level of autonomy or self-expression at all. I grew up in a conservative family (Christian/religious) cult. That rabbit hole runs deep and is a separate story for another time. The point is that I had very limited contact with the outside world apart from my private school, church, and Christian-group violin lessons. However! I received a nano ipod from an extended family member for Christmas one year. I copied a bunch of CD’s from Christian acquaintances at my church and filled the ipod up with the generic contemporary Christian and overstimulating broadway musicals endemic to the culture around me… it was all I had. Then, one day I discovered a goth band. I had no idea they were a goth band. I was obsessed with their sound. I can’t remember which platform I found them on, but I remember I did not have a video with it… so I’m thinking I was on the itunes store. I had chills and for the first time every something felt “right” in the music world for me.

Goth music begets more goth music… Itunes recommended other bands like the one I had found. I only had the money to buy a few albums over the course of a year, but I would retitle the songs and albums as Christian or Disney compilations so that my parents would never suspect what I was listening to (they regularly went through my ipod to make sure I wasn’t listening to anything worldly). One day, I was listening to some of my goth music with another confirmed atheist at my private Christian school and he was like, “OMG I had no idea you were a goth!” I was super confused and was all like, “No, I’m not. I don’t even know what that is…” This guy was a metalhead, but he had a ton of goth friends and he gave me my first thorough education on everything goth. I was 15 at the time, and it was not until nearly 4 years later that I would escape my family and truly come to integrate in the goth community.

Long story short, I started out with the music with no clue about the fashion. I think I was very fortunate in that because it gave me time to develop my musical preferences and tastes without feeling pressured to fit into a tiny little box. Later, when I was free, I did develop a goth wardrobe and (of course) decorated my house in a dark romantic/Victorian style…. But I never felt like those things were vital to who I was as a goth. I’m really thankful for that.

Please understand, that I do not want to erase the incredible goth fashion magicians out there or diminish the hard work someone may put into their personal look or aesthetic. The goth aesthetic is the heartbeat behind the unparalleled, transcendent feeling I have in a goth club or just in my own bedroom. It definitely adds to the experience. All I am saying is that those things alone do not a goth make. I also grew up obsessed with (gothic) Victorian literature... it took me awhile to put 2 and 2 together for that one too lol.

My controversial opinion here is that I do believe that some level of gatekeeping is necessary to keeping goth alive today. Unfortunately, it is an endangered species as subcultures go… this is not because there are not any goths. It is because the mainstream has appropriated it and defined it as fashion ONLY, which then confuses people who go to the surface level of the internet to get answers… which then creates a whole following that erases what goth truly is.

However, I need to explain that when most people refer to gatekeeping, they are talking about bullying. I am defining gatekeeping as providing a definition for the heart of the goth movement and sticking to it. Bullying is never acceptable. Ever. The example I employ a lot utilizes musical genre as an example. Let’s say you put on a Carnifex t-shirt and wear it a lot. But…. You don’t listen to metal because it just is not your sound. You don’t talk to other people about metal music, seek out the aesthetic, have more than 2 songs on your phone with metal music, or (want) to attend metal events. Are you a metalhead? No, of course not. But are you inferior to metalheads because you choose to listen to classical and hip-hop music? No, of course not. Another example: Let’s say you don’t like coffee. You don’t regularly drink it, read about it, or have an interest in it. Are you a coffee enthusiast? No, of course not. Are you inferior to those who do drink coffee? No, of course not. But it would be ridiculous to feel pressured to fit the mold of a coffee enthusiast, right?

It is never wrong to define what something is and to stick to your guns on it as long as you do not cross over into elitist territory, thinking you are better than everyone else. That is the point I want to get across here. Goth fashion does own my heart, but I also sometimes dress in dark academia, cottagecore, dark mori, and even in 80’s retrofuturistic styles when the mood strikes me. It does not change my involvement in the goth community or erase my love for goth music.

Lastly, a question I get a lot (and I have addressed this in previous posts) is, “I am obsessed with goth music… I have a wide knowledge base that I have spent great amounts of time developing and it is my life… but I also like Lil Peep, Lady Gaga, ‘gothic’ metal, and Lana Del Rey. Am I still goth?” The answer is YES. Of course you are! Loving goth music and being obsessed doesn’t mean you can’t like other things. Anyone in the goth community who tells you have to ONLY listen to goth music is full of crap. Eighty percent of my ipod is goth music… I am lucky to have thousands of songs. (And by the way, if you cannot afford a lot of goth music, you are not less goth than the rest of us. Listening for free is just as valid.) The other twenty percent is classical and synthwave/cybersynth/retrowave/darkly inclined/spacewave/video game sountrack/cyberpunk-inspired stuff. Am I any less of a goth for also being obsessed with the retrowave community or for listening to bands that are darkly inclined but not quite goth? No, of course not. Also, you can be darkly inclined without being goth, and that is just as beautiful. =) My husband is darkly inclined and likes some goth music, but he is more involved in the horror community. He is no less valid and freaking awesome than I am.

I hope this makes sense! This is a subject I feel passionate about. Just to recap, the pillars of fashion, gothic literature, and general aesthetics are valid in the goth scene and contribute greatly to the structural integrity of the whole. However, the soul of goth is in the music. I have hearing loss myself and have a couple of friends who are completely deaf who also agree that the music is the soul of goth. The way they engage is by reading the lyrics and even going to goth clubs when they can to dance and feel the beat. =) I think that is beautiful and so amazing. Hearing disabilities do not disqualify you from the goth scene- anyone who says they do is garbage.

Here are a couple of videos explaining a bit about what goth music actually is. Let me know if you would like more resources! Angela Benedict did a video where she answered the question, “Can you be goth and not like the music?” Her answer is also no. She is a great youtuber to watch because she was there for the 90’s goth scene! It is so fun to hear her stories and learn about the elder goth generations. <3

Goth music is not just goth rock… there are SOOOOO many subgenres under the massive umbrella that is goth. It is a big universe to explore. =) If you would like a list of some of my favorite goth bands AND goth adjacent bands, then I can do a separate post for that- just ask! Thank you for tolerating my info-dumping. =) <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKDo_j0O-hA&t=116s – Accumortis on goth music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGj3CuAeW1w – Angela Benedict on goth music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg3HwuFlGeU&t=587s – Angela Benedict on defining goth

#whatisgoth #gothmusic #angelabenedict #accumortis #gothfashion

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weirdponytail · 3 years

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I promised pics of the books at the Ket Cave and thus I deliver

There’s a few pics so you can read the titles so if you dont wanna see these I’ve added this handy ‘read more’ for you.

ONWARD!

I’m working on the setup. And yes that light is blinding.

This is just the lower shelf. I’ve decided to keep my Eragon coloring book pages, Peace and Sirenity binder and folder, and all my paints, pencils, art stuff, etc down here.

Main shelf!

Eragon and Eldest, OFC. I’ve not read Prisoner B-3087 yet, I just got it yesterday. Next is Escape from Camp 14, a biography from a defector from NK who grew up in the ‘three generation’ secret prison camps (this isn’t a long past thing, it’s relatively recent). After that is another new book from yesterday, How to Build a Dinosaur because who wouldn’t want that book? Also I’m lacking paleo and geo books. My Side of the Mountain is always worth some rereading imo, it’s a good book.

Now on to the stranger stuff. The Woman with a Worm in Her Head is a book about some of the more whacky infectious disease and parasites and stories about them. The Hot Zone, while completely exaggerating Ebola a disgusting amount, did boost my interest in infectious disease to a level that led me to enrolling as a microbio student when I first started uni before I switched to Geology.

I’d admit, I bought Pandemic ages ago. It was written in the years following the first SARS outbreak, when everyone was terrified of a combination of another SARS outbreak (oh look what we have now!) and post-9/11 bioterrorism fears. I’ve never really been able to finish it, due to being disgusted by the stereotyping at some points, but I figure i should choke through it due to the current situation.

Next is Spillover. 10/10, ALWAYS recommend Spillover, read it (or at least the first two sections or so) BEFORE you read The Hot Zone. It’s gotten more press due to the current pandemic which is good but means it’s kinda hard to find now.

Hey, Fullmetal Alchemist!

The Desserts Cookbook. Mama Cat gave this to me.

What if? is hillarous and super informative. If it helps, the front is a picture of a TRex being lowered into a Sarlacc pit. A guy answers all the crazy questions like ‘what if you collected ALL the elements of the periodic table one by one and placed them in a periodic table?’ (the answer is lots of terrible things) or ‘what if you threw a baseball at the speed of light?’ etc etc. I really recommend this one.

Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Because I’m a motherfluffin’ paleontology student, ofc I needed to read them! I’m actually in the middle of The Lost World right now but had to put it on hold.

The Ends of the World. Extinction events. They’re like crack to me.

Heheheh. Calvin and Hobbs: Yukon Ho! You gotta have some of that in a new place.

Alright, on to the next shelf!

This is the reference shelf. The two books on the far left are Dr Halsey’s ‘journal’ that came with the limited/extra special edition of Halo Reach. I actually bought it off ebay for a ridiculous amount of money that I wont specify, but it was worth it for all the cool notes on SPARTAN-II augmentations (which I frequently use as baseline reference for Modern Inheritance Cycle elves). The second book is The Book of Runes. Because I’ve always had it with me and it always ends up being useful somehow.

Starting from the bottom of the left stack we haaaaave:

A Guide to Nuclear Power Technology: A Resource for Decision Making. Ironically published two years before the Chernobyl disaster. I’ve read the first three chapters. Having a general understanding is a personal choice.

The A to Z of INfectious Diseases. I mentioned I was going into infectious disease before, right? I’ve read that from front to back and wrote some notes on the 2014 Ebola epidemic. I should probably write an entry on Covid at some point too.

Surviving the Wilds of Florida. Quick and handy reference!

That last one is a book about the crafts of Florida’s indigenous peoples. Nice little book.

Second stack, starting from the bottom again!

Gray’s Anatomy. And no, it’s not the compilation of all episode transcripts, that’s the real, dense deal right there. You gotta know what you could be breaking if you’re writing torture and injuries in fanfiction....

Genki 1 and 2. Still trying to keep up with my summer studies.

A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s The Legend of Drizzt. This was given to me by a woman who tutored/babysat me in middle school. She introduced me to LoD, and thus my first introduction to the world of DnD (though i didn’t realize it at the time), and is why I always chose Undercommon as an extra language in DnD. Fantastic series, beautiful art.

That turned book is actually a custom printed book someone made of me through middle and high school and gave as a gift at graduation.

Woop Woop, Eragon coloring book!!

A Practical Guide to Dragons. I think this might be tied in to one of the older DnD editions. It’s still a fun book with lots of different dragons in shapes, sizes and colors.

And that’s it! :D

#adventures of ket #the ket cave #ket's tastes #Ket reads #the future ket cave #lots of infectious disease books #old habits die hard i won't lie

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ladywhaiyvern · 3 years

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Musings of An Otaku #7- Of Machine Animals and Relics of Old Ones

Ever since life took its course a few years ago, I stepped away from the video game scene to spend time with family. Back and forth hospital trips and long days of surgery among the other stressors of just being in a busy hospital environment would have been a great excuse to lose myself in a game. But for some reason, I just could not for the life of me sit down long enough to get into any games. Mobile games hardly counted in my book. If that was the case then the only “game” I played during that time frame was “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.” Hell, that’s the only mobile game I still play now. Religiously. Every day. Do dailies on Pocket Camp and then switch over to New Horizons and do my dailies there. Shit, I wish some of the items they offer in PC were available in NH! I digress. At this point, I had not sat down with say one of the next generation consoles at the time and played a newly released game.

I guess I am trying to make up for lost playing time now as we are in the middle of pandemic. Limiting the time out in public to essential trips only. No eating out as much as I used to. What better way to pass the time, then catch up on games that I wanted to play but never got around to. Lord knows I have all of them purchased. Just haven’t played a single one yet. Then again, this goes for anything. I still have a very large pile of Anime blu-rays and dvds sitting around that I haven’t touched. Manga on shelves yet to be cracked into. I am working on getting through my Dragonlance books though! Just started book 2 of the Elven Exiles. Things are not looking good for the elves at all. ANYWHO!

Horizon: Zero Dawn. A game I remember seeing trailers and game footage for when it was in development back in the day. I was interested in it then, but then things had happened in life (as I have said). Started picking my way through it early last year. It was different, interesting. Your typical open-world action RPG. Beautiful graphics and landscapes. Didn’t think too much about it as I set it aside for a little while and then came back to it full force. Aloy did not draw me into the world, as much as the lore did. I wanted to find out what the hell happened to the world and why these animal shaped machines were so hell bent on killing everyone. I liked the look of these animal machines. Come on, I absolutely love Power Rangers and the seasons that used animal motifs (or mystical creatures). So, mechanical beasts were nothing new to me. They just were not sentient and hellbent on destruction. I mean, one can argue for a few seasons about it but I’m not here to discuss and argue Power Rangers. This is about Horizon: Zero Dawn.

I do not recall how many hours I spent going through the main scenario of the game (as I did spend A LOT of that time hiding and planning ambushes on machines). And, well I am the type to go through the entire friggen map and get every single item and complete every quest. Okay, maybe not EVERY quest. I still have the hunting ground trials to do but I’m not really concerned with those as I am getting all the metal flowers, and ancient vessels. What can I say?! I laughed at the recommended level you had to be for the final showdown. I was way over that….and I mean…..wwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaayyyyy over that. I had the nice ancient amour as well. The one where you had to go around and get the power cells to open up the bunker. The one that has the nice shield factor. Yeah, I liked that. I liked many of the outfits with the added bits and bobs of machines and wiring. It was different and yet still very tribal looking. I also enjoyed the tribal aesthetic. We, as humans went back to the typical hunter/gathering tribal lifestyle after Zero Dawn. Nice to see the different kinships emerge. All the old memories of my cultural anthropology and archeology classes came flooding back which was not bad at all!

I completed the main scenario the other day and WOW! Overall, that was a damn good game. While I did not connect with Aloy at the start of the game, I did become interested in her side of the story. I mean, seriously she was one of the only people that could unlock things with her genetic connection. The basis of how the world came to be destroyed and basically overthrown by these animal machines is a little on the scary side. We are becoming more and more reliant on technology. And that technology is slowly becoming more and more self aware and sentient. Everything is going that way. Look at our security systems, look at the smart houses, our cars, our smartphones, our smart watches. Machines that help us with cleaning and cooking are completely different then what I grew up with. Machines implanted into the body to help extend someone's life! I saw this first hand with my father and his LVAD (left ventricle assist device). Technology is both amazing and scary at the same time. It can be used for both the good and the bad. Dark and light. Shadow and sun.

Shit, I read an article the other day that both China and France are looking to create their own mobile military with biologically engineered supersoldiers. Taken from the New York Post’s article: “The French seek to improve “physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities,” and could allow for location tracking or connectivity with weapons systems and other soldiers.” https://nypost.com/2020/12/19/france-china-developing-biologically-engineered-super-soldiers/

And that, my friends, is how the basis of Horizon: Zero Dawn started. No joke, machines built for warfare that went rogue and self-replicated by the use of absorbing plantlife, animal life and human life. Drained the Earth of its resources and caused “Zero Dawn” to be implemented. The basis for these “super soldiers” and “machine warfare” is nothing new to the Sci-fi genre. I mean, it’s been used in many many movie plots, video games, television, anime, manga, comic books and novels. It’s just scary to think that something like this could actually happen. It is not as far fetched as we think. Yes, many of these forms of entertainment have one more aspect going for them that we currently do not. Space travel. Another living planet humans live on. But the overall thought of some rogue machines being capable of self-replication and eradicating human life is still scary. And with any technological form- you know there will be some people who will be dead set on hacking these machines. I mean, even Aloy is hacking the machines to get them onto her side. Which, if you have not overridden one of the bigger machines in the game- it is so worth it! Love just sitting back and watching the machines fight each other! We are not that far from a Cyberpunk dystopian future. Hack the planet!

I am moving into the DLC of the Frozen Wilds and am pretty close to being done with that as well. As I am enjoying it as I get to play more in this world and explore areas that are new, I am also a little on the disappointed side. I was hoping to learn more about the previous world and it’s demise. Granted, I am not done with the Frozen Wilds. I am in the process of traveling to the Thunderdrum- so I am hoping that will shed some light on these “demonic” machines and maybe expand the lore some more. I am done with the majority of the side quests and gathering the pigments, animal figures, and blue gleam.

I am really glad that I finally decided to sit down and give this game a try since it’s been on my “to play” list for a few years now. I enjoyed the overall story and despite me not being one to enjoy a whole lot of stealth play- I did enjoy this one. I can definitely see how they set the series up for a sequel. I’m excited to learn exactly where we shall be going in the second game.

#random musing #musings #video game #video games #otaku #ps4 #ps4 games #horizon #horizon zero dawn #zero dawn frozen wilds #zero dawn

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coconutknightshade · 4 years

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Hii, I hope this is okay.. I get bullied a lot at school and I was wondering if you could write a fic where Flash is bullying Peter and they get into a fight and Tony gets called to the school? If not that's okay!

I can’t believe I posted this on Ao3 and forgot to post it from my drafts. Forgive me, my salt. (@blondsak - Literally cannot say forgive me these days without finishing it off completely so cheers for that my dude)

A/N:

Okay, not to be a fandom mom here, but as someone who went through it growing up, I can empathize. Which means I can also empathize with how overwhelming it can be.

Because of this, I want to provide a bit of information about the 24/7 Crisis Text Line. Reaching out to this helpline is completely free (outside of your standard texting fees) and connects you to a trained volunteer/crisis counselor. It's very easy, and aims to be a stress free experience. If it helps, what's going to happen is - After your initial text, there will be a few automated messages before you're connected with a Crisis Counselor. This may take a few minutes, but you will be connected.

This Crisis Text Line isn't limited to any specific subject, and is prepared to assist with issues ranging from bullying to depression to the current pandemic. If you aren't comfortable texting, their site also provides additional resources and helpful information pertaining to several issues.

USA & Canada: Text HOME to 741741 UK: Text HOME to 85258 Ireland: Text HOME to 086 1800 280

/Mom-ing Over. On to the fic!

***

Shove Off Word Count: 2,960

It's when Peter's face - chin then nose - collides with the floor that, in a haze of sleep, he thinks to himself, "something is very wrong."

Peter Parker does not simply fall out of bed.

With a grunt, he pushes himself from the floor just enough to roll onto his back. The ceiling is… Blurry? That can't be right. Their apartment building is older. The kind of old that means it was built when popcorn ceilings, for God only knows what reason, was stylish. But the thing is, Peter can barely make them out. Even scarier, everything is silent. He can't make out the sound of May rustling around in the other room- Hell, by the distinct absence of her heartbeat, Peter doesn't even know if she's home.

Everything is so quiet, and after nearly a year with enhanced everything, the sudden silence is deafening.

Peter wholeheartedly panics.

He lurches forward into a sitting position, subconsciously pressing his hands all across his chest and abdomen as if to make sure there is no physical harm, all the while glancing around for his phone. The clock reads 7:26, and a high pitch distressed sound leaves him.

"Fuck. May!"

---

It's when he steps into the classroom and sees everyone's eyes on him that he realizes it's going to be a shit day. He's late. Really late. And it's not entirely because he overslept. No. He's truly late because he and May spent twenty minutes trying to track down his old glasses… And another ten minutes fretting over his sudden loss of abilities.

"Hey Peter, I don't know if you've realized, but you're wearing glasses."

Peter groans as he slides into the seat next to Ned, pushing the aforementioned glasses further up his nose and flipping to the appropriate page in the textbook. When he glances up, Ned is staring at him expectantly.

"Yeah, fam, I know." There's no way Ned is going to leave it at that - not that Peter can blame him - and so continues with a pained sigh. "I don't have answers, Ned. I don't even know where to begin. I woke up this way, and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with whatever was in that dude's syringe the other night. Like, a virus or something."

"Holy shit." Ned drops a sympathetic hand to Peter's shoulder. "Do you think it's permanent?"

"I sure as shit hope not. I'm hoping Doctor Strange can take care of it. I just, ya know, need to get in touch with him on the D-L. I feel like I'm moving through the day behind a foggy glass window. It's like my senses are dialed down to almost nothing. I hate it."

"Oh no," Ned's voice is monotone, dry. "You're a pleb like the rest of us now."

Peter playfully rolls his eyes and elbows his best friend. "You know that's not what I meant."

"What did Mr. Stark say?"

Peter side-eyes Ned, already looking contrite.

"What did…? Ned, I can't tell him. I'm an Avenger -"

"No, you aren't."

"Don't get technical, Ned. It wounds me." This time Ned rolls his eyes with a grin. "Anyway. I can't tell Mr. Stark. It's embarrassing, ya know? Spider-Man isn't supposed to have asthma."

"Listen, Peter. You can't not tell Mr. Stark. He's Iron Man. You spend, like, every other weekend with him and sometimes you get to work as like, the B-Team. He'll want to know. Besides, we don't even know if it's permanent."

"Ned, this sucks." He drops his head into his hands.

---

It's when he's walking down the hallway, books held tight against his chest that things get really interesting. Yes, he's had nearly two asthma attacks since History, and for the first time in nearly two years, he's had zero appetite at lunch. But-

He and Ned are talking about how long he can reasonably wait before he absolutely has to tell Mr. Stark when someone bumps into him. Well, not so much bumps into him as shoves their shoulder against his as they pass, harsh enough that he loses his balance. His textbooks spill onto the floor, and he has to close his eyes to keep it together. Fucking Flash Thompson.

"Watch where you're going, Penis." Peter wants to wipe that smirk off his arrogant face. "Or are those glasses just some pathetic attempt at aesthetics?"

"Shove off, Flash. Bullying me won't suddenly make mommy love you."

Something in Flash's eyes spark, and it's as he's closing in on the three, maybe four feet between them, that Peter thinks, shit. He stumbles backwards as Flash firmly places his hands on Peter's chest and shoves. He's furious, and Peter swallows thickly. "You want to try that again, Parker?"

The threat of things turning physical looms just out of reach, and Peter automatically takes a step back. Self-control. As much as the thought of knocking Flash on his ass fills him with unadulterated glee, he can't do it. He knows he can't - That he has to be the bigger person. With his abilities -

Peter sucks in a breath, eyes scanning the crowd for his best friend. Ned, always on the same wavelength, is already wide-eyed and nodding somewhat emphatically. It's the adrenaline of the moment, an opportunity afforded to him that likely won't come around again. While Flash is usually all talk, the two of them have tied up on numerous occasions. From those scuffles, it's only ever Peter who walks away hurt. Because, yeah.

But it's different this time - This time Peter doesn't have an unfair advantage. No, this time he has an opportunity to push back. And, maybe, he can put a stop to it once and for all. It's with that in mind that Peter raises his chin and says, "You heard me."

Flash is still invading his personal bubble when he says, "At least I have a mommy."

This time it's Peter who shoves Flash away from him. "This again? You've got a real hard-on about me being an orphan. Or maybe… you just have a real hard-on for me. Is that it?"

"Fuck off, Parker. You wish! I've got better taste in partners than someone as sad and pathetic as you. A liar- News flash: Jerking off to Tony Stark doesn't make you his personal in-"

Peter's fist connects with Flash's nose, resulting in what has to be the most satisfying crunch he's ever heard in his life. He steps back and shakes his hand, shakes out the pain. It's positively electrifying, but he barely has time to let the euphoria sink in before he's being slammed up against the locker, Flash's hands fisted in his shirt. The blow has his glasses slipping off his face, but he can still see the blood dripping from Flash's nose and the fury in his eyes. He pulls Peter away from the locker and then shoves him back against it, looking satisfied when Peter's head connects with the hard metal.

"You're dead."

Peter doesn't respond, just grips Flash's wrists tightly and headbutts him without thought. It's enough to force Flash into releasing his hold before stumbling back with a surprised yelp, hand flying up to where their heads connected. Peter's ears are ringing, a headache already blossoming from both the headbutt and where it had been slammed into the locker.

"Oh, yeah? I'm shaking," he says through his teeth, crossing the distance between the two.

It's not long before they're rolling around on the ground, wailing on each other in a long-overdue brawl. When finally Peter is being pulled off the ground by Coach, he's got a split lip, a bloody nose, and what promises to be a very spectacular shiner. But God, does he feel good.

---

It's when Peter's sitting in the office with toilet paper up his left nostril and an icepack pressed to his face that the pain really begins to set it. His everything hurts: face, head, ribs. And for once, unless his spidey powers somehow miraculously return overnight, he's going to wear the injuries as a badge of honor. After a few years of letting Flash push him around - sometimes literally - knowing if he fought back, he'd hurt the kid, he finally had the chance to do something about it.

May is going to be pissed.

Except, it's not May that steps into the front office radiating anger, and when Peter spots Tony Stark, he pales, blood running cold. Forget May being pissed…

Peter Parker is fucked.

"Mr. Stark," his voice cracks. Tony won't even look at him, jaw set as he approaches the front desk.

"I'm here for Peter Parker." Tony's voice is as icy as Peter's skin suddenly feels. The receptionist, Sherry, stands frozen in place, mouth opening and closing in surprise. She must sense the tension rolling off him in waves, for she recovers quickly, clearing her throat and looking down at what Peter knows are the suspension forms in front of her.

"Peter was in an altercation with another student, both of whom were left… Well, looking like that." She nods in Peter's direction and finally Tony turns towards him, eyes sharp as he appraises the damage. Peter wilts, pointedly avoiding his mentor's gaze. "Per school policy, they'll face suspension. The length of which is at Principal Morita's discretion. He's currently with Mr. Thompson and his father."

Tony takes the forms handed to him and hesitates for a brief second. "Do you have somewhere private that I can speak with Peter?"

Maybe, if he's lucky, Peter will have a heart attack before Sherry answers. Unfortunately, no such luck. She nods and gestures towards a small conference room attached to the main office. Tony turns towards Peter, narrows his eyes, and jerks his head ever so slightly towards the door. God, Peter wants the floor to open and swallow him whole. Gingerly he crosses the office and into the conference room, not turning towards Tony until the door is shut.

The man is downright angry and, while Peter gets it, he also doesn't? Like, sure. Peter is a superhero. He's supposed to be above all of this, but he's also a teenager. They aren't out there in the streets, there are no Avenger - or even Spider-Man - level threats. So really, Tony hadn't even needed to show up. It's not like the man can be embarrassed by him. Not when he so easily could have circumvented any connection between the two of them by simply sending Happy in his place, or really any other possibility that didn't include his physical presence. It's not like anyone believed the legitimacy of Peter's internship anyway. Though, this definitely isn't his preferred route for validation.

Yeah, Peter thinks, a little self righteously. He's a teenager. And currently, he's a teenager without superpowers, and once Tony realizes that he'll cool off. It's not like the ferry instance- No lives were put at stake. He just needed to explain…

"You've got ten seconds, Kid."

"Listen, I know what you're thinking, but-"

"Ohh," Tony drags out, unimpressed, "I highly doubt that."

"No, I'm serious. But the thing is-"

"There is no thing, Peter! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking-"

"No, Pete, wrong answer. You weren't thinking. If you had been thinking-"

"I thought I had ten seconds!" Peter interrupts angrily, tired of being interrupted himself. Tony's nostrils flare, but he stands straighter and crosses his arms over his chest expectantly.

"I am sick and tired of Flash Thompson walking around this school like he owns the place! He's a bully, Mr. Stark, and-"

"Spider-Man stands up against bullies. I get it Peter, but at school-"

"Ten seconds," Peter interrupts again, anger only deepening. He knows where Tony is going. He's Spider-Man, but at school, he's just Peter Parker- He has to be just Peter Parker. He can't walk around plain as day flexing his abilities and fighting ignorant bullies who don't know when to keep their mouth shut- Not when fighting back risks injuring them disproportionately.

"Your ten seconds are over, the adult is speaking now. I cannot believe-"

"I lost my abilities," Peter whisper-shouts through his teeth. He's not being heard. "I woke up without them, and it sucks, Mr. Stark. Real bad. But I'm not going to pass on the chance to stick up for myself and my friends. I'm done letting Flash Thompson bully me. I'm done letting him shove me around, and I'm done going home with bruises - no matter how temporary - just because I can't de-"

"Hold it," he cuts him off with a finger. The Finger, Peter has dubbed it. The zip it one. Peter holds his breath, waiting for Tony's reaction to this new information. He knows it's irrational, but can't entirely shake the feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach when his brain provides him with - When Tony realizes Spider-Man is gone, that you're just a kid without any abilities, it's all over. Without Spider-Man, you're just a bright kid from Queens.

That's the thing with insecurity - Knowing is one thing, but feeling is a whole other matter, usually acting without the brain as a pilot. Therefore, after a half-second preparing for his Doom and Gloom Worst Case Scenario, Peter is caught off guard when Tony merely continues with, "More bruises? Meaning, other fights?"

Peter frowns, confused that that's what Tony's chosen to focus on. He stumbles over his words when he says, "Well, no. I don't fight back- That would be wrong. But since ya know, like I said, I don't have my abilities, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to do something about it."

Tony pinches the bridge of his nose. "Peter, why didn't you tell me that you were being bullied? We could have done something about it." Again, Tony not immediately acknowledging what Peter feels is the bigger issue here catches him further off guard, and he once again stumbles over his words.

"Because... I didn't think it was relevant?" His brows are furrowed, taking in Tony's agitated expression that doesn't seem to relate at all to the fact that he's lost his abilities. How is this not the more pressing issue? What's Tony's beef here?

"Didn't think it was- How is it not relevant, Kid? I ask you how school is going every time I see you, and you don't tell me you're being bullied? What gives?"

"I don't know? I didn't think you'd-" He cuts off, staring at his feet, feeling utterly stupid now for what he was about to say.

"You didn't think I would care." The hurt in his voice is subtle, but it's there. Peter's head shoots up, eyes wide.

"No! No, it's not that at all, Mr. Stark! It's just, you have so much going on right now, and you're taking care of so many things, ya know? And it makes sense that Spider-Man would fall in line with that, but you just have so much on your plate-"

"You didn't think I would have time for both Spider-Man and Peter Parker." It's a statement, not a question. Peter's gut sinks at the way Tony's voice is now thick with hurt. "Christ, Kid. Do you think I only care about Spider-Man? That I only prioritize Spider-Man?"

Peter purses his lips, eyes narrowing pensively as he searches for an answer that will dig him out of a hole he's unintentionally buried himself in without even knowing how deep of a hole it actually is.

"No?"

Tony drops down heavily into one of the chairs near the conference table. "Listen, Peter. I don't care about Spider-Man. I mean, I do, obviously. But you are my priority. If you decide to give it all up tomorrow, I'll still be here. Nothing would change - I'll still want you over, I'll still want to know how you're doing. And I will definitely want to know if you're being bullied."

"So, you're not mad that I got into a fight because it wouldn't have been a fair fight, you're-"

"I'm pissed because you were in a fight at all, Pete. I realize the irony here, but violence doesn't solve everything. Especially cases like this. I wish you would have talked to me. Or anyone. Even Happy would have been an option."

They sit in silence for a moment, Tony rubbing his forehead and Peter wringing his hands together.

"Mr. Stark?"

Tony sighs, raising his head. He looks exhausted now, and Peter winces, knowing just how deeply wrong he was.

"Yeah, Kid?"

"I'm being bullied," he begins quietly, hesitant almost as he meets Tony's gaze. "By this kid at school. He's been an ass to me for years, but it's gotten worse lately. Sometimes it gets a little physical, but not always. Usually, I'm able to shrug it off- Just Flash being Flash. But it's become harder. Especially when he targets Ned."

Tony eyes him with consideration, corners of his mouth twitching into what could have become a borderline amused, soft grin. He nods, almost as if he's come to some sort of decision, and pulls himself to his feet. "I'll take care of it, Pete."

At that, Peter can't help the slow spread of his own smile, expression now lightened into one of relief. It quickly falls though when Tony stretches an arm out towards him.

"C'mon, kid. Time to face the music." Peter groans as he steps towards Tony, who wraps an arm around his shoulders and guides him to the door. It dawns on him that after all of this, he'll still have to face May.

"And, about the other thing?" he whispers as they cross the threshold back into the office.

Tony stops, turns so that he's facing Peter head-on, hands still gripping his shoulders, when he says, "That one, we'll take care of together."

#irondad #irondad & spiderson #ironfamily #coconut writes #shove off #tony stark #peter parker

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letterboxd · 4 years

Photo

Satisfied?

We examine what Letterboxd reviews of Hamilton reveal about the musical’s cultural currency in 2020.

In this absolutely insane year, when our love of movies feels helpless in the face of pandemic-induced economic collapse, some extremely good decisions are being made on behalf of audiences. Studio Ghibli on streaming platforms. Virtual screenings to support art house cinemas. Free streaming of many important films about Black experience. And: Disney+ releasing the filmed version of Hamilton: An American Musical—recorded at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2016 with most of its original Broadway cast—a year ahead of schedule, on Independence Day weekend.

“Superlative pop art,” writes Wesley of the filmed musical. “Hamilton wears its influences and themes on its sleeve, and it’s all the better for it. Lin-Manuel Miranda and his team employ an unlikely cocktail of not only hip-hop and showtunes, but also jazz (‘What’d I Miss?’), British-Invasion pop-rock (‘You’ll Be Back’), folk music (‘Dear Theodosia’) and Shakespeare (‘Take a Break’) in service of developing an impressively vast array of themes. This is a testament to the power of writing, an immigrant narrative, a cautionary tale about ambition, a tragic family drama, and a reevaluation of who decides the narrative of history.”

2016 may only be a half-decade ago, but it feels like an eon in American political years. With theaters dark and America’s long record of racism under urgent scrutiny, the complex smash-hit lands back in the spotlight at an interesting time. Is Hamilton “the most offensive cultural artefact of the last decade”, as Lee writes? Or “timeless and wholly of the moment”, as Tom suggests? The answer, according to a deep read of your Letterboxd reviews, is “all of the above”.

First things first: why now?

Sophie has a theory:

“Disney executive: Hey we’re losing a lot of money because our parks are closed. How do we start making money again?

Other Disney executive: It might be nice, it might be nice… to get Hamilton on our side.”

Sure, business. Still, it’s historically unprecedented that a Broadway show of this caliber (a record-setting sixteen Tony nominations, eleven wins, plus a Grammy and a Pulitzer) would be filmed and released to the public while it’s still, in a Covid-free universe, capable of filling theaters every night. Will people stay away when Broadway reopens because they’re all Disney+’d out?

No chance, reckons Erika. “I’d still kill to see Hamilton live with any cast… I get why producers are afraid that these videos might hurt ticket sales, but I’m fucking ready to buy a ticket and fly to NY one day just to see as many shows as I can after watching this.”

Not every musical fan has the resources to travel, often waiting years for a touring version to come near their hometown. And even if you do live in a town with Hamilton, the ticket price is beyond many; a daily lottery the only way some of us get to go. So Holly-Beth speaks for many when she writes: “I entered the Hamilton lottery every day for almost two years but I never got to be in the room where it happens… however, this 4K recording of the original cast will do very nicely for now! Finally getting to see the context and performances after obsessing over the music for years was so, so satisfying.”

“Finally” is a common theme. Sydnie writes, “I love this musical with every fiber of my body and it was an extraordinary experience finally getting to watch it in Australia”. Flogic: “To finally be able to put the intended visuals to a soundtrack that I’ve had on repeat for such a long time: goosebumps for 160 minutes.” Newt Potter: “Now I fully understand people’s love for this masterpiece of a musical!”

I’ve got a small query for you.

Where’s the motherfucking swearing? Unsurprisingly, Disney+ comes with some limitations. For Hamilton, it’s the loss of a perfectly placed F-word.

“I know Disney is ‘too pure’ to let a couple of ‘fucks’ slip by,” writes Fernando, “but come on, it’s kind of distracting having the sound go out completely when they sing the very satisfying ‘Southern Motherfucking Democratic Republicans!’ line.”

Will agrees: “Disney cutting ‘motherfucking’ from ‘Washington on Your Side’ felt like sacrilege akin to Mickey Mouse taking an eyebrow pencil to the Mona Lisa.”

Nevertheless, sings Allison:

“Even tho Disney stripped the story of its f***s, Don’t think for a moment that it sucks.”

(Yes, she has a vegan alert for Hamilton.)

Does it throw away its shot?

The crew filmed two regular shows in front of live audiences, with additional audience-less sessions for a dolly, crane and Steadicam to capture specific numbers. The vast majority of you are satisfied. “It’s the most engaging and expertly crafted life filming I’ve seen since Stop Making Sense,” writes ArtPig. “The film does an incredible job of placing you right in the action. It feels like the best seat you could get in the theater. You can see the sweat and spit.”

“Translates perfectly onto the small screen,” agrees Ollie. “There’s a level of intimacy that feels hard to replicate in any other filmed production. We see those close ups, the passion and gusto behind every actor’s performance.”

“Shockingly cinematic for something filmed on such a small stage,” is Technerd’s succinct summary, while Paul praises director Thomas Kail: “He knows when to back away along with moving nearer when appropriate, and the choices always serve to govern the power and stamina of the performances.”

Though cast members’ voices were recorded on individual audio tracks, Noah had a few quibbles with the sound quality. “Some of the audio capture is off in the recording, sometimes voices being too soft or too loud. It’s not immersion breaking, but it is noticeable enough to irk me a little in pivotal moments. Some of the shot composition doesn’t fully work either. Of course nothing is going to be as good as seeing it in person.”

Robert, recalling another recent cinematic escapade of musical theater, lets his poetry do the talking:

“This will do for now until the true movie’s made, Though if Hooper directs, there’ll be an angry tirade.”

I think your pants look hot.

Hamilton fans have their cast favorites, but something about being able to see Jonathan Groff’s spittle and Leslie Odom Jr’s scowls in 4K has you losing it all over again. Several specific shout-outs we enjoyed:

“Daveed Diggs the Legend! Go watch Blindspotting (2018), it’s one of the best movies ever!” —Kyle

“It’s hard to believe anyone will ever top Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. I already loved him from the original cast recording, but seeing his full performance in all its glory was just godly.” —Erika

“Thankful that it was made possible for me to view with such clarity the phenomenon that is Renée Elise Goldsberry and spectacular Phillipa Soo.” —Thea

“Daveed Diggs was electrifying and Jonathan Groff was absolutely hilarious. If they interacted together the stage would’ve combusted from the sheer will of their talent.” —Nick

This is not a game.

On one hand, the release of Hamilton is sweet relief for music theater nerds riding out the pandemic. A generation of kids knows every word by heart, rapping (this version of) American history like it’s no thing. On the other, the Obama-era musical already feels behind-the-times, even for many Hamilton lovers, and the filmed version has brought that into sharp focus.

“I listened to the OG cast album about 50 times when it came out, the production is about as good as I’d always hoped,” writes Josh. “Since then however there’s been a very important and broader reckoning with the failures of neoliberalism and the Obama years ([from] which this has to be the most emblematic piece of art) and for me personally a drifting further to the left that has resulted in a very different relationship with the material. So my feelings today are a bit more complicated.”

“Hamilton is extremely non-committal about its politics,” writes Sting. “It doesn’t examine much of what Hamilton dictated besides ‘he wants complete financial control of the country’ (which would sound like a fucking supervillain in any other context, including reality).”

That lack of political commitment, reckons Morgan, is what helped Hamilton as a musical become so popular: “It’s fun. It’s catchy. It interweaves trendy and socially relevant artistic tools to infer a subversive subtext, while simultaneously sanitizing and, at times, flat out fabricating the historical narrative and downplaying the brutality of the true origin story, for the sake of appeasing those in power. Classic Bill Shakespeare stuff.”

History has its eyes on you.

Much criticism lies with the fundamental storytelling decision to make a modern ruckus about America’s Founding Fathers, the men (including Alexander Hamilton) who in the late eighteenth century united the thirteen colonies and co-wrote the Constitution. Undisputed titans of history, they also have blood on their hands, and HoneyRose writes that the musical “glorifies these men, and paints them as self-sacrificing heroes, and honestly normalizes and validates slavery, as well as the behavior of slave owners.”

Stevie, who saw the Broadway production as well as the filmed version, confesses: “I’ve tried (I’ve really tried) to understand what makes people lose their minds over this but I’m still completely baffled by the hype… These were horrible men and a romanticism of them through song and dance just seems entirely misguided.”

Sean is not convinced that Hamilton is a hagiography. “I can’t imagine anyone watching all of this and thinking it paints a portrait of the Founding Fathers as anything other than childish, greedy, venal and self-aggrandizing.” Wesley agrees: “I don’t think Hamilton is trying to be a history lesson, so much as a lesson about how we think about history. It’s a compelling human story told in a revolutionary way.”

That “revolutionary way” is the musical’s central conceit: that of a cast-of-color playing the white founding fathers as they bumble towards independence. Journalist Jamelle Bouie, who regards the musical as “fun, exciting, innovative and, at points, genuinely moving,” wrestles with the “celebratory narrative in which the Framers are men to admire without reservation. Through its casting, it invites audiences of color to take ownership of that narrative, as if they should want to take ownership of a narrative that white-washes the history of the revolution under the guise of inclusion.”

It’s complicated for Matt, too: “It’s widely agreed upon that the show encapsulates the Obama era better than anything, how it coddles white liberals with a post-racial vision of history in a superficial sense, overlooking the insidious and oppressive systems that they benefit from (hearing the audience clap to ‘Immigrants, we get the job done’ unsettled me). Of course hopefully its legacy will be that it opened up more Broadway roles for POC. But I really think that the show doesn’t make Broadway more appealing and accessible to POC, it just makes hip hop more accessible to white people, a launching pad of course to listening to Watsky or something.

“No hate though to anyone that’s completely in love with this, it’s definitely worth seeing despite any hang ups.”

I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.

The story doesn’t end, just because the music does. Kai_Kenn has a suggestion: “I have been a part of discussions that dissect the culture that created Hamilton, as well as the culture that Hamilton created, and whether or not Hamilton appropriately addresses the modern issues [that] the cult following proposes it does.

“This is an ongoing discussion that I am trying to be an active listener in and, if you consider yourself to be a conscientious consumer of art, you should too.”

Noah is on board with that: “Reflecting on the past and focusing on the future are not two mutually exclusive actions. Both are a must, regardless of who you are or what you do. A five-star experience in a four-and-a-half-star film. I think that’s just fine.”

Related content

Want to see more of the key cast? Watch Daveed Diggs in ‘Blindspotting’; Renée Elise Goldsberry in ‘Waves’, Jonathan Groff repeat his role as Kristoff in ‘Frozen 2’, Lin-Manuel Miranda in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, Leslie Odom Jr. in ‘Harriet’, Phillipa Soo in the forthcoming ‘Broken Hearts Gallery’, Christopher Jackson in the forthcoming ‘In The Heights’, Jasmine Cephas Jones in ‘The Photograph’, Okiereriete Onaodowan in ‘A Quiet Place II’ and Anthony Ramos in ‘Monsters and Men’ and ‘A Star is Born’.

Ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement

Official Black Lives Matter’s Resources

Teenagers that have ‘Hamilton’ stuff on their bedroom walls

Films where they mention ‘Hamilton’

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adhdtoomanycommas · 4 years

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Emotional Disregulation, Privilege, and White Girl Tears

Hello all, it has been a few months since my last ADHD essay, and what a few months it has been. In case you’re reading this in the future (since tumblr has no date stamps), I am writing this in June 2020 when in the midst of a global pandemic, police are responding to massive protests against police violence with even more police violence, and a lot of white people are thinking more than ever about the privilege we have experienced. I have been thinking about writing about my (cis white female) experience with privilege where neurodivergence, race, and gender intersect for a while, and have hit the point where these ideas have been bouncing around in my head long enough I need to write them down.

Small disclaimer: Right now I'm not sure if I should be writing anything about anything since we all ought to be listening and amplifying black voices --I'm there are much better resources out there about race and neurodivergance especially, and I have no intention of talking over anyone, especially given my limited experience. But given that the audience for my last essay here was in the single digits, I doubt I need to worry too much about talking over people at the moment. Please know that I am writing this now primarily for myself, and if it ever gets an audience later, forgive me for writing it now when there are so many more important things going on and more important people to listen to.

I will do my best to stay in my lane here, so I'm just going to talk about how my privilege has affected the perception of one of my ADHD symptoms If you don't want to read some rambling white/cis anecdotes about how white privilege and gender norms affect the perception of ADHD, by all means skip it. If you're still here, maybe it can be the start of a conversation as I would love to hear some other perspectives and experiences here. And maybe, just maybe by the end of it I will learn to spell privilege right on the first try (I really want there to be an A in there, or maybe a D. Privaledge? Sounds about right.)

As I mentioned in my previous ramble, I’m a cryer. I cry a lot, not just when I’m sad but sometimes when I’m happy, when I feel guilty or ashamed, and especially when I’m angry, or frustrated, or overwhelmed. I learned recently, as I was seeking my diagnosis, that emotional disregulation is a hallmark of ADHD. We feel things strongly, and uncontrollably and have trouble restraining ourselves from expressing those feelings. This is experienced by almost everyone, if not everyone, with ADHD and it’s only not part of the diagnostic criteria because it’s hard to quantify—there are a lot of good general resources out there to learn more about this, I’m not an expert, I’m just here to share my own experience.

Story time. When I was in fourth grade, I punched another girl in the stomach. For what felt like the millionth time, when the teacher told everyone to find a partner for some activity, everyone partnered up and I looked around to find that I was the left-over. I was an outcast for a lot of reasons at that age. I told myself for a long time it was solely because I was the lone atheist (actually agnostic but I didn’t know the term at the time) in a deep south bible-belt school, but with the benefit of hindsight I have also realized that (partially probably due to the ADHD) I was also pretty weird, and probably very annoying. But whatever the reason for my ostracism, it was already weighing heavily on me when the teacher assigned this girl to work with me, and she gave me the biggest exasperated sigh and eyeroll like she would rather do anything else. So I punched her.

I now realize that this is probably a pretty normal response for a kid with untreated ADHD—the combination of emotional disregulation and poor impulse control means we often lash out. But with none of the adults in my life knowing that at the time, surely I was disciplined for my seemingly-random violent action, yes? No. I cried, and I got away with it.

That’s not the whole story, I did get several weeks of sessions with the school counselor, and I was made to write a very thorough apology letter (and made to rewrite it repeatedly as the teacher thought of more things I should add and repeatedly declared my handwriting not good enough, to such an extent the exercise definitely felt more punitive than reconsiliatory), but I ultimately I didn’t get expelled, I didn’t get suspended, I didn’t even get detention.

The girl I punched was black. This wouldn’t be relevant to the story at all, except that in retrospect I have to wonder if the consequences would have been the same if our roles were reversed. If a black girl (even a neurodivergent, ostracized, and frequently bullied one) had lashed out the way I did and punched a white girl, I expect there would have been a lot more consequences for that, even if she cried afterwards. And if a black boy had done the same, he wouldn’t have been perceived as troubled and in need of help, he would have been perceived as dangerous. And as we all (hopefully) know by now, that perception can have life or death consequences.

I’m sure that was neither the first nor the last time that crying, and people’s perception of me crying (as a cute little white girl with freckles and big brown eyes) has gotten me out of trouble, or gotten me what I wanted one way or another, but it is the most dramatic example I can think of. I want to emphasize that I have never cried to get what I wanted on purpose—I have spent way more time trying not to cry than trying to cry, the only time I’ve ever cried on purpose has been in theater exercises. But I’m sure a lot of white girls in the same position I was in (with or without the undiagnosed ADHD and emotional disregulation) have realized the way they could use peoples responses to their tears to their advantage. They probably grow up to be Karens who use their tears to get out of traffic tickets, get free stuff from store managers, and to sic violent police on black people who inconvenience them. (Aside, the only time I have been pulled over as an adult, I was trying so hard not to cry that the cop thought I was acting suspicious and asked a bunch of extra questions. I still got the ticket.

I tell myself that those people use their emotions on purpose to manipulate people, that I'm different, I would never do that. But I have to wonder if some of those same women tell themselves the same thing after the fact. I don't think it's enough to avoid intentional manipulation and intentional harm-- not anymore. We as white women need to do be conscious enough of how our emotions are perceived and prioritized to act proactively to avoid unintentional harm as well. For those of us with ADHD, this may be harder than for neurotypicals, but that makes it all the more important for us to think actively about this. I'm not sure yet what this means for me personally, besides removing myself from a shared space if my emotions threaten to become the focus where they shouldn't be, but I would welcome input on this.

I want to talk about gender more generally here as well. ADHD is dramatically underdiagnosed in women, and I have to wonder if some part of this is because emotional disregulation lines up so nicely with the stereotypes of women’s emotions in the first place. Oh, you cry a lot? Of course you do, you’re a woman. One can only wonder how many oldey-timey diagnoses of “hysteria” were actually ADHD. Even now women with ADHD are usually misdiagnosed several times with things like depression or bipolar disorder before we are tested and diagnosed properly. This wasn’t my experience, but after basically doing a bunch of research and self-diagnosing I was able (thanks to a great deal of economic privilege) to pay to go directly to an ADHD specialist. I also walked into that office with an extremely thorough bullet-point list I had compiled of reasons I suspected I had ADHD—it was probably the easiest diagnosis the doctor ever did. So obviously having ADHD while female isn’t the best combination, but when it comes specifically to crying easily that being treated as relatively normal definitely meant I had an easier time with it than my brother did.

My brother (who is nonbinary and uses a variety of pronouns—I’ll probably alternate between they/them and he/him here because it is important to the story that they were perceived as male at the time) cries just as easily as I do, and just as often. When we were little kids, this didn’t make too much of a difference. They’re a couple years younger than me, and little kids are expected to cry more. They haven’t been diagnosed with ADHD, but they and I both strongly suspect for a variety of reasons, this included, that they have it too—I believe they were flagged for it in school, probably for frequently talking out of turn, but I don’t think they were ever tested formally. He got in trouble in school a lot more than I did, for similar outbursts, and while he got quite a few of those same counseling sessions (white privilege at work again), he got more actual discipline as well. But the perception of our tears landed differently, especially as we got older.

For the most part, the scorn leveled at my brother’s tears didn’t come from our parents. My mom, (who, while also not officially diagnosed, I can almost guarantee is where we got the ADHD genes from) cries as easily as they and I do, so she understands it. My dad would certainly prefer to think of himself as an enlightened modern man who would say it’s ok to cry, but he has his share of ingrained toxic masculinity despite himself. I don’t think I ever saw him tell my brother directly to “suck it up” or “act like a man,” but I do think after puberty or so he started responding to my brother’s tears with a sort of exasperation that he never directed at me.

The real difference was in how we were treated by our peers. By the time we got to high school, if I would cry at school, my peers (even ones who weren’t necessarily my friends) would probably ask what was wrong and try to help or provide comfort, or at least would leave me alone and give me time to pull myself together. When my brother cried at school, he was mocked. Relentlessly. Once bullies figured out that he cried easily, he was targeted and goaded specifically for it. They would find any little thing they could to get under his skin (right down to the most childish with rhyming nicknames) and troll him for fun. I wish I could say that I stood up for him, but I never did. I can tell myself this was because I didn’t see it happen in person, being two grades ahead, but I could have made an effort. Although, since he was almost certainly targeted at least in part for perceived failure to live up to masculine gender norms, I’m not sure if having an older sister try to come to the rescue would have helped or made things worse. At this point it’s years past, so I suppose speculation on what I could have or should have done is pretty moot at this point. Suffice it to say, this particular symptom which rarely did me any harm made my brother’s life a lot harder.

I may talk more about different perceptions of my brother’s and my ADHD symptoms in a later essay/ramble/entry/whatever, in particular how it affected out academic performances, but that’s for another time.

Again, I’m not sure if there are any greater conclusions here. There are a lot of ways emotional disregulation can present, and I really only addressed this one small aspect of excessive crying, but it is a good example of how even lesser-known ADHD symptoms can affect our lives in cascading ways, and the way people perceive those symptoms (due to various more visible identity factors) affects us as well. If you read all of this, thanks, and if you have any experiences you’d like to share with how your emotional disregulation has been perceived by others, I’d love to hear them. Until next time!

#actuallyadhd #adhd #actually adhd #emotional disregulation #privilege #white privilege #neurodivergence

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politicaltheatre · 4 years

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Dissent

We’ll know soon enough what kind of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will be. Senate Democrats will stall the proceedings as much as they can and try to drag things out so a confirmation vote can’t be taken until after the election, but we must accept that the odds and senate protocols are against them.

Publicly, Democrats up and down the ticket are claiming that their fear is that a Barrett confirmation will kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the middle of a pandemic, and they very well may be right. That, however, isn’t their true fear.

The one they’ll voice when Barrett gets in front of them and the TV cameras is that she would support her benefactor Donald Trump in any lawsuit his people file in their attempts to decide the election through the courts, which they most certainly will do.

Trump’s already said as much. It’s part of his campaign pitch. He’s boasting about it at rallies. He’s counting on it.

As stupid as he often appears, and as stupid as he is about so many things, Trump understands corruption. He lives it and breathes it. He is a bona fide expert in it, so we should listen.

What he, Mitch McConnell, and others who embrace corruption understand is what far too many of us refuse to admit, which is that there is no such thing as an independent judiciary, that there is no such thing as an impartial judge.

This is not to suggest that Judge Barrett is corrupt. The awful truth of it is that she doesn’t have to be. She is reliably right wing, which is more than enough.

Barrett clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia. Like her mentor, she believes that the law does not exist to protect the weak from the strong. It does not exist, in their world, to reduce or correct imbalances of power. It is, instead, an instrument and only that, one by which the capable may exercise their will over others.

As brilliant as he was and as brilliant as she may be, theirs is the law of the school debate team. To them, winning isn’t about being right, it’s about domination. You can be wrong, morally and reprehensibly, but know the law and know how to wield it as a weapon and you will dominate your opponent time and again.

It is the triumph of short term thinking. To those embracing this view, there is nothing beyond that victory, no consequence beyond it, and no effect on the world beyond it.

If you think they’re wrong, prove it. Challenge them. Bend precedent to your will. Apply the logic of allowable facts. Prepare better. Go for the jugular. Destroy your enemy or meekly and silently accept your defeat.

Theirs is a faithless law, even more so because it divorces the law from the humans its verdicts, opinions, and decisions affect.

It is strange, then, but not surprising that Republicans and their surrogates have preemptively sought to place resistance to Barrett’s nomination on her religion. Their hope is to obscure the beliefs that truly make her dangerous, the irony being that Catholicism is not truly at the root of it.

Yes, there are strains and sects of Catholicism that preach the virtues of authority and hierarchy. These are the ones that sided with the fascists in their rise to power in Europe and protected sexually abusive clergy for so very, very long.

There are, however, also dissenting branches, including the one currently led by Pope Francis, that preach compassion and the virtues of equality. It was the former that led to those centuries of abuse and institutional corruption; it is the latter, we should all hope Catholics and non-Catholics alike, that will redeem the Church of both.

So, while Barrett’s affinity for a brand of Catholicism that embraces authority and power as chief virtues may inform her legal opinions, it is not what motivates them. That motivation, again, would be an honest, sincere belief that the right to demand accountability resides exclusively with those who have the power to demand it and the resources to dominate those in their way.

Trump may not have thought this through as thoroughly as that. McConnell may not have either, for that matter. All McConnell cares about is having judges in place who will protect him and corrupt people in power just like him. All Trump cares about is having judges who will protect him and him alone.

Oh, and that this pick is big “fuck you” to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and everyone who adores her still. Trump loves that, too.

What Ginsberg represented, more than simply being a woman with the gumption to tell men like Trump and McConnell that they were wrong, was the power of dissent.

Dissent is more than just an exercise in freedom of speech, it is an act of empowerment, both for those voicing their disagreement and for the institutions in which they voice them. The purpose of dissent is to improve the institution, to save it from the corruption that would bring it down.

Ginsberg believed that whatever was wrong in the United States, it could and should be saved. To suggest that something could and should be improved is not disloyal but courageous. To criticize an institution is not pessimistic but the opposite, because to criticize it you must believe than it has the ability to improve.

That wish for the institution to be saved and to succeed is essential to dissent. It cannot be dissent without it.

By that measure, a lot of kinds of protest are dissent, and a lot of others very much are not. Refusing to wear a mask in a store, for example, is not dissent. Driving your car through a protest is not dissent. Silencing a reporter is not dissent. Cheating on your taxes is not dissent (Actually, cheating on anything is not dissent. Breaking the rules just because you want to win is despicable).

All of these examples undermine the communities in which we live. They pit us against each other and as a result weaken the bonds we need as a society in order to survive.

So, dissent is essential, it is part of our immune system, and in a democracy it is everything.

The legal right to dissent is relatively new to the human experience. Just a few centuries ago, speaking out against an authority’s decision was almost (and literally) unheard of. The opinions and decisions of powerful men and women from monarchs and clerics down to local landowners were absolute. To challenge them was treason and heresy. The penalty for either was the same: a painful, public death.

Around the world today we see example after example of authoritarian regimes denying the right to dissent and punishing it. Whether they are nominally Capitalist, such as Russia or Turkey, or nominally Communist, such as China, suppression of dissent is what truly determines what kind of life those they rule must lead.

To be left wing - truly and properly left wing - is to hold oneself accountable to others because we want them to be accountable to us. The ability to voice and listen to dissent is what makes that work.

With every non-unanimous Supreme Court decision, there is a majority opinion and a minority, “dissenting” one. There may also be concurring opinions to either. They are published together. It is the majority opinion that rules, but the reason for the inclusion of the others is that they may persuade those reading them to change their minds. In this way, each voice on the Court matters, each mind, and each opportunity to influence the voices and minds of those the Court serves.

The Supreme Court is the last federal institution where majority rule still holds true. The Electoral College and Senate disproportionately favor rural, right wing voters and have increasingly done so for decades. That makes this appointment the natural result, and with it will come things the Left correctly fears.

Barrett may very well support overturning decisions on the ACA and Roe v Wade, but, perhaps more disturbingly, she may support overturning the decisions that equalized LGBT rights and banned forced prayer in schools.

Again, this will not be because she is Catholic but because she believes that those in power, be they school boards or business owners, have the right to decide who has rights within their schools and businesses and who does not. If you don’t like that, you’ll just have to gain power yourself, or find a new school, or a new job, or a new bakery.

It will likely be a long time before Justice Barrett has to write a dissenting opinion. It will take the retirement or death of at least one of the right wing justices, and that may not happen for a decade or more.

There has been talk of Democrats stacking the Court with left wing justices. This would be a tragic mistake. Even talking about it is a mistake. If the Democrats did it next year, the Republicans could do it when they took power, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Meanwhile, it would corrupt and erode any confidence in any legal opinion issued by the Supreme Court or any of the lower courts, and with that whatever last shred of trust Americans had in government would be gone.

The better solution, one long overdue, would be to fix the imbalance of power in the Electoral College and the Senate. This would be done by admitting the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states and by splitting California into two or three states.

Doing so would add eight or ten senators and at least two voting representatives. This would not only repair some of the imbalance between right wing and left wing voters in this country, it would make it easier to pass new amendments to the Constitution, such as preserving the right to abortion, mandating health care as a right, setting term limits for all federal judges, and eliminating the Electoral College once and for all.

There would be resistance to this, of course. There would be dissent. And those offering genuine dissent should always be listened to. We fail to do so at our own expense.

Dissent is one of the prices we pay for democracy. It is sloppy. It is chaotic. It takes work and it takes time. However, much like our own immune systems, it must be flexible and robust to withstand change and adapt to new conditions.

That is the world Ruth Bader Ginsberg fought for. That is the world we should fight for, too.

- Daniel Ward

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Monday, October 19, 2020

As the Coronavirus Surges, a New Culprit Emerges: Pandemic Fatigue (NYT) When the coronavirus began sweeping around the globe this spring, people from Seattle to Rome to London canceled weddings and vacations, cut off visits with grandparents and hunkered down in their homes for what they thought would be a brief but essential period of isolation. But summer did not extinguish the virus. And with fall has come another dangerous, uncontrolled surge of infections that in parts of the world is the worst of the pandemic so far. The virus has taken different paths as leaders have tried to tamp down the spread with a range of restrictions. Shared, though, is a public weariness and a growing tendency to risk the dangers of the coronavirus, out of desire or necessity: With no end in sight, many people are flocking to bars, family parties, bowling alleys and sporting events much as they did before the virus hit, and others must return to school or work as communities seek to resuscitate economies. And in sharp contrast to the spring, the rituals of hope and unity that helped people endure the first surge of the virus have given way to exhaustion and frustration. Researchers from the World Health Organization estimate that about half of the population is experiencing “pandemic fatigue.” One New Yorker summed it up: “I am so tired of everything. Is it going to be over? I want it to be over.”

Biden and Trump Say They’re Fighting for America’s ‘Soul.’ (NYT) It is a phrase that has been constantly invoked by Democratic and Republican leaders. It has become the clearest symbol of the mood of the country, and what people feel is at stake in November. Everyone, it seems, is fighting for it. “This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America,” Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in August at the Democratic National Convention, not long after the phrase “battle for the soul of America” appeared at the top of his campaign website, right next to his name. Picking up on this, a recent Trump campaign ad spliced videos of Democrats invoking “the soul” of America, followed by images of clashes between protesters and the police and the words “Save America’s Soul,” with a request to text “SOUL” to make a campaign contribution. That the election has become a referendum on the soul of the nation, suggests that in an increasingly secular country, voting has become a reflection of one’s individual morality—and that the outcome hinges in part on spiritual and philosophical questions that transcend politics: What, exactly, is the soul of the nation? What is the state of it? And what would it mean to save it?

Spanish demonstrators call for prosecution of former king (Reuters) Waving red, purple and yellow republican flags, demonstrators in 24 Spanish cities on Sunday called for the prosecution of the former king Juan Carlos who left Spain embroiled in controversy. The 82-year-old former monarch has been living in the United Arab Emirates since leaving Spain in August to avoid further embarrassing his son, King Felipe VI. While not formally under investigation, Juan Carlos could become a target in two inquiries in Spain and Switzerland into alleged corruption associated with a 6.7-billion-euro (£6.1 billion), high-speed Saudi train contract won by Spanish firms.

Covid-19’s first wave largely missed southern Italy. The second wave is hitting it hard. (Washington Post) When northern Italy became the epicenter of the pandemic in the spring, one urgent concern was that the country’s coronavirus outbreak would quickly spread to the less-prosperous south and overwhelm under-resourced regional health systems. That fear wasn’t realized. A strict nationwide lockdown largely contained the virus in the north and brought the outbreak under control. But now the virus is raging again, through Europe and through Italy, with a spike that is again hitting the north but this time also the south. In Campania, which includes Naples, the daily number of detected new cases is five times larger than March’s peak. Compared with six months ago, there is more space to accommodate critical patients in southern Italy. There are more ventilators. Still, many hospitals in the south remain understaffed and have fewer beds per capita than those in the north. They could reach a breaking point if the number of critical patients soars.

Tens of thousands march in Belarus despite firearms threat (Reuters) Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of the Belarusian capital Minsk on Sunday to demand the resignation of veteran president Alexander Lukashenko, despite a threat by officials to use firearms against protesters. Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, has been rocked by strikes and weekly street protests since authorities announced that Lukashenko, who has ruled in authoritarian fashion since 1994, had secured re-election on Aug. 9 with 80% of votes. The Interfax news agency put the number of protesters at over 30,000. It said about 50 had been detained by the police, and that the mobile broadband signal had been disrupted in parts of the city. It also said loud noises that sounded like stun grenades had been heard close to the march. A senior police official said last week that officers would reserve the right to use firearms against demonstrators.

Russia shuns tough restrictions even as infections soar (AP) It’s Friday night in Moscow, and popular bars and restaurants in the city center are packed. No one except the staff is wearing a mask or bothers to keep their distance. There is little indication at all that Russia is being swept by a resurgence of coronavirus infections. “I believe that everyone will have the disease eventually,” says Dr. Alexandra Yerofeyeva, an internal medicine specialist at an insurance company, while sipping a cocktail at The Bix bar in Moscow. She adds cheerfully: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” The outbreak in Russia this month is breaking the records set in the spring, when a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus was put in place. But, as governments across Europe move to reimpose restrictions to counter rising cases, authorities in Russia are resisting shutting down businesses again. The spring lockdown hurt the country’s already weakened economy and compounded Russians’ frustration with plummeting incomes and worsening living conditions, driving Putin’s approval rating to a historic low of 59% in April, according to the Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster. Analysts say his government doesn’t want to return to those darks days. “They know that people have just come to the end of their tolerance of the lockdown measures that would be hugely unpopular if they got imposed again,” said Judy Twigg, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in global health.

China Warns U.S. It May Detain Americans in Response to Prosecutions of Chinese Scholars (WSJ) Chinese government officials are warning their American counterparts they may detain U.S. nationals in China in response to the Justice Department’s prosecution of Chinese military-affiliated scholars, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese officials have issued the warnings to U.S. government representatives repeatedly and through multiple channels, the people said, including through the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The Chinese message, the people said, has been blunt: The U.S. should drop prosecutions of the Chinese scholars in American courts, or Americans in China might find themselves in violation of Chinese law. China started issuing the warning this summer after the U.S. began arresting a series of Chinese scientists, who were visiting American universities to conduct research, and charged them with concealing from U.S. immigration authorities their active duty statuses with the People’s Liberation Army, the people said. Chinese authorities have on occasion detained foreign nationals in moves seen by their governments as baseless, or in some instances as diplomatic retaliation, a tactic that many in Washington policy circles have referred to as “hostage diplomacy.”

Thailand’s king faces trouble on two continents (Los Angeles Times) The scion of one of the world’s most privileged families, he wrapped himself in the trappings of royalty, wealth and a comfortable hideaway thousands of miles from his subjects. For Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, the cocoon has come undone with remarkable speed. Last week in Berlin, the German government faced questions in Parliament over the king’s legal status in Bavaria, where he resides. Then, visiting Thailand this week to mark the fourth anniversary of his father’s death, the king’s family came face-to-face with pro-democracy protesters agitating for limits on his power. The reverence long demanded of Thailand’s monarchy is breaking down in ways big and small. Thais are refusing to stand for the royal anthem in movie theaters, lampooning the king in Facebook groups and openly questioning his immense wealth and spending. The scrutiny he is now facing in Germany is an added nuisance for a 68-year-old king who has long treated his adopted home as a playground. As the only son of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years, Vajiralongkorn was destined to inherit the throne. But since about 2007 he has spent most of his time in Germany, where the tabloid press has followed his exploits with relish. He was pictured wearing a tight-fitting crop top over an otherwise bare torso while getting on a ski lift, and covered in temporary tattoos during an excursion to a Munich mall.

New Zealand’s Ardern credits virus response for election win (AP) A day after winning a second term in a landside victory, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Sunday she sees the election result as an endorsement of her government’s efforts to stamp out the coronavirus and reboot the economy. In the election, Ardern’s liberal Labour Party got 49% of the vote, crushing the conservative National Party, which got 27%. Ardern said the margin of the victory exceeded their expectations. Asked what she would say to those Americans who may draw inspiration from her win ahead of the U.S. elections, Ardern said she hoped people globally could move past the partisan divisions that elections often accentuate. “That can be damaging for democracy, regardless of the side of the House that you sit on,” she said.

As lockdown eases, Israelis again gather against Netanyahu (AP) Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, resuming the weekly protest against the Israeli leader after emergency restrictions imposed as part of a coronavirus lockdown were lifted. The protesters gathered in central Jerusalem and marched to Netanyahu’s official residence, holding banners calling on him to go and shouting “Revolution!” Many blew horns and pounded on drums, while others hoisted Israeli flags. Scores of smaller demonstrations were held across the country, and organizers claimed some 260,000 people participated nationwide. The protesters say Netanyahu must resign, calling him unfit to lead the country while he is on trial for corruption charges. They also say he has mishandled the virus crisis, which has sent unemployment soaring. Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes for his role in a series of scandals. He has denied the charges and said he is the victim of a conspiracy by overzealous police and prosecutors and a liberal media.

Uganda’s ‘taxi divas’ rise from COVID-19’s economic gloom (AP) Uganda’s new all-female ride-hailing service is called Diva Taxi. The taxi service, dreamed up by a local woman who lost her logistics job at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, was launched in June and has recruited over 70 drivers. They range from college students to mothers hoping to make good use of their secondhand Toyotas. “It started off as a joke, supported by close friends and family, but eventually the idea picked up,” said company spokeswoman Rebecca Makyeli. “They said, ‘Why not? As ladies, you know we can no longer slay on Instagram on the outside, so why don’t we slay as divas with a cause.’ So we called it Diva Taxi.” It’s uncommon to find women taxi drivers in Uganda, a socially conservative East African country where most women labor on farms or pursue work in the informal sector. Diva Taxi believes countless women are looking for job opportunities at a time of severe economic distress. The Diva Taxi app has been downloaded at least 500 times, and each of the company’s 72 drivers makes an average of 30 rides each week. The company expects to have 2,000 active users by the end of this year, a modest target in a city of over 3 million people where taxis and passenger motorcycles are the main means of transport for the working class. “We love what we are doing and it’s really fun,” said founder Kobusingye, an occasional driver herself. “I can’t wait to partner with every woman out there that’s willing to be part of Diva Taxi.”

Nigerian army plans nationwide exercise as protests rock country (Reuters) The Nigerian army will begin a two-month national exercise, it said on Saturday, while denying the move was part of any security response to recent widespread demonstrations against alleged police brutality. Operation Crocodile Smile would run across the country from Oct. 20 to Dec. 31, the first time the annual exercise, typically concentrated in the Delta region, will be nationwide, army spokesman Sagir Musa said. The move comes just days after the army said it was ready to step in and restore order, but Musa said in a statement that the exercise “has no relationship with any lawful protest under any guise whatsoever”. Nigerians demanding an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit and pressing for reforms and accountability have been rallying across the country. The army had on Wednesday issued a statement warning what it termed “subversive elements and trouble makers” that it was “ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively”.

#headlines #news

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icannotreadcursive · 4 years

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Avengers PSAs: On the COVID-19 Pandemic 7: A Word From Dr. Strange

The camera came on showing the back seat of a moving car, then adjusted itself to focus on a very tired-looking Stephen Strange buckled in and leaning against the door as much as the seatback, red cloak on over his scrubs, hair flattened, hands clasped tightly in his lap, angry red lines dug into his face under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose.

“Hello,” he began with a sigh, “I'm Dr. Stephen Strange—at this point I'm genuinely not sure whether I'm better known as the former world's top neurosurgeon, or as the weird magic man who sometimes works with Avengers. In any case, I'm both, um….”

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath while the corner of his cloak brushed a bit of hair away from his forehead of its own accord. He batted the cloak away with a frown, reclasped his hands quickly, and continued. “It's been a while since I've actually practiced medicine because lasting damage from a car crash a few years ago means I am no longer able to perform surgery, among other things, and then, of course I got a little busy becoming a sorcerer,” He shook his head, smirking a little bemusedly, “but I still have a valid medical license, and this pandemic is an all-hands-on-deck situation, even if those hands are less than steady.”

With another sigh, he held up his hands, palms out, both shaking with uncontrolled tremor, fingers jerking intermittently, the right ring finger in particular inclined to curl in and twitch as though it were repeatedly tapping a keyboard key that wasn't there.

“It's worse when I'm tired or stressed,” Dr. Strange observed to his own hands, turning them over, “and I've just come off a sixteen-hour shift so this is about as bad as it gets.” He rubbed them together then resettled them in his lap. “Of course, by the end of a sixteen-hour shift, I'm far from the only one whose hands are shaking, even if I'm the only one with nerve damage. All medical staff—doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, the bureaucratic and janitorial staffs that support us—are going through hell right now. We're at war. We're all running on not enough sleep, not enough food, pretty much relying on adrenalin and stubbornness to get us through the day, hoping that we have the equipment and resources we need.

“I think everyone knows about the PPE shortages we're dealing with, but,” he looked to the ceiling, “I don't think most people understand what that really means, in practical terms. Yes, it does mean that some frontline workers are simply having to go without the equipment they need to protect themselves, but a lot of the problem is subtler than that. Here at Metro-General we have masks and gloves, we're all wearing them, but none of us are sure that we have enough or how long what we have will last—especially since we don't know how long this crisis will last—so we're trying to make each pair of gloves, each mask last as long as we can. That means we avoid having to take them off. You can see,” he shifted to lean toward the camera, “the lines on my face from having a mask on for hours. The only reason I'm not rubbed raw behind the ears is we've been getting donations from crafters of cloth headbands with buttons sewn to the sides to hold the mask loops.”

He leaned back in his seat. “The cloth masks that people are donating don't replace the disposable masks; we wear them as covers over the N95s to protect them, so if something splashes we can change out the cloth cover—which can be washed and reused indefinitely—and keep using the same N95. Not taking the masks off means we don't stop to eat or even drink water as often as we should. And we know that's a bad idea, we know that we have to take care of ourselves in order to take care of others,” he shrugged, “but it's a very difficult balance to strike right now. We're all doing as much as we can. As people, we're at our limits. As a system, we're at our limit. For our sakes, and the sakes of our patients, we need all of you to do what you can, too. Even if you feel like you can't do much, can't do enough, it's okay. We all have our limitations—I physically cannot safely intubate a patient to get them on a ventilator to keep them alive. I'm not a respiratory specialist and never was, I don't have the expertise some of my colleagues have. But I'm a set of eyes, I'm a brain full of knowledge and experience, I'm one more person to spread the workload to so we all have just a little less on us. And that is what we really need—a little less on us

“So please, stay home, even if your state is re-opening and you're technically allowed to go out—listen to Natasha Romanoff.” He grinned a little, but it barely touched his eyes, dead as they were with fatigue. “Natasha, if you're seeing this, you should know that I think the entire nursing staff here has sent your little admonition to everyone they know. In all seriousness, though, until a vaccine is developed, staying home is the best way to reduce the spread of this disease, which is the only way we in the medical field on the front lines can get this situation under control. And, in the meantime, while you're stuck at home and bored, don't do anything reckless and dangerous in the name of keeping yourselves entertained.

“We just had a kid through the ER today with his skull cracked open because he and his roommate thought it would be fun to bounce yoga balls off each other. Well, he bounced right into the wall. A couple days ago, a teenaged girl came in with a botched attempt at an at-home nose piercing. By all means, color your hair and shave stars into the side of your head, but don't do anything that involves sticking yourself with needles. Last week, there was a woman who'd gotten her finger with her pruning shears while she was gardening. Just, be careful. That includes being especially careful driving, when and if you have to go out or go to work. You do not want to have to go to the hospital right now. Hospitals are, by their nature, full of infected people. You don't want to be here, and, frankly, we don't want to have to expend the time, energy, and resources on you. Obviously, if you need medical attention, please get it, we do want to provide help if you need it, but do me a favor, and try to avoid needing it in the first place.”

He glanced out the window. “I am almost home, so I'm going to wrap this up and go get some sleep. Might slightly abuse some temporal magic to get more sleep than I actually have time for.” He shook his head. “Don't clap for us, don't give us empty thanks—stay safe, stay home, flatten the curve, lighten the load on those of us on the front line. Thank you to all of you who are social distancing, thank you to all of you who are donating money and masks and other supplies, thank you to everyone at HHS and DOD who are working on getting us the PPE and ventilators we need to keep doing our jobs, and thank you to all of my colleagues across the country and around the world. This is hard, and we're tired, but we'll get through this, one way or another.”

The video went black.

#PSA #Marvel #Dr. Strange #Stephen Strange #coronavirus #covid_19 #covid-19 #covid19 #stay home #staythefuckhome #flattenthecurve #thank you frontliners #masks #facemasks #cloth masks

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