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obikenobi91 · 4 years

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Do you Consent to Stormwind city Watch rp?

For awhile I’ve been debating on whether I would make this post or not. However after recent interactions, I needed to have some clarity for myself. If you are roleplaying in Moonguard or Wrymrest Accord, chances are you have ran into the guild known as The Stormwind City Watch. They are a millitary based guild, who rp as the Stormwind guard. At first they don’t seem to bad, thats until you get to know them more.

Do you consent to Stormwind City guard interaction

For starters when they ask you for consent to interact with them, what they really are saying. “You have to abide to our rules, and how we roleplay from here on out.” A good while back when I was role playing with some friends, one of them was being held by blade point. So my character decided to defend them. With consent from the bad guy, me and another friend broke them. When City guard got involved. They kept asking me if consent to arrest. OOC I asked them why they wanted to arrest me.

They kept trying to get me to consent “Either accept arrest, or this situation didn’t happen.” So right when I decided to say “fine arrest me. Their response. “We don’t want to anymore.” When it comes to roleplay, everyone has their own taste in how they go about it. Yet when it comes to the Stormwind City guard, if you don’t do what they want, they just ignore your IC actions. This is what I call forced role play. Don’t worry I’ll touch up on that soon.

Always know where interactions are happening

There has been one instance, when my friends and I where tracking a friend in westfall in a cave, and suddenly right behind me “Do you consent to Stormwind City Watch interaction?” We all told them no sense that was straight up metagaming. The person ironically that called them here got mad and left the event, because we wouldn’t allow them to just magically know where we are. This is as metagaming as it gets. Oh someone told you OOC that we are in this location. Yeah that's not how these things work. Now keep the word Metagaming close to ya, because in a bit I’m going to show you how hypocritical they can be.

They bring realism into a MMORPG.

Lets say you are riding on your horse, or you have your pet out as you are a hunter, now picture them just walking up to you saying “Do you have permits for that animal?” That’s right, even when you try to escape from real life burdens, the Stormwind City Watch will be sure to bring it into the game. Lets say you play a half orc human race. “You will need to go to the city hall for getting citizenship.” Roleplay isn’t so we can face what we are going thru in a day to day basis in the real world. We play world of warcraft to escape for awhile. The Stormwind City Watch is notorious for making sure realism is part of the experience.

They give you Ultimatums

Remember when I said the word “Consent.” Is what they take pride in, its honestly their Slogan. Now lets say you have broken the rules to many times IC. They will now want to execute your character. Now now, isn’t that something that should be left up the person playing the character???? Well with the Stormwind City Guard will give you two options, either accept death, or be exiled from the Stormwind completly. Doesn’t this all seem a bit forced, well they don’t care, when you say you consent to their roleplay, you do as your told. If you try to resist arrest, or try fighting back, they will just stop the rp all together, and do something they seem to love doing alot. Retcon!!!

They love making up accusations

I’m going to share with you some screenshots of a friend, who I personally don’t have a problem with, they like to go with dark roleplay, and honestly thats what make certain interactions interesting. When I was part of the Stormwind City watch group, they started sharing this screenshot.

When I saw it, I was a bit confused. I didn’t take the person who played this character to say such things. Sure they liked dark roleplay, but to say something like this just seemed wrong. When I asked one of the higher ups if they said that. They just nodded and said “Oh yeah, they said it.” It was one of the reasons they Dned him to begin with. Well turns out this was a fake post, someone copied one of his characters names, and whispered that to a friend of theres. I’ll leave a link right here if you want to see their post on exposing them for trying to frame him. https://niserysrethowyn.tumblr.com/post/619961383685144576/niserys-rethowyn-fake-screenshot

They will target you, and make others turn on you.

I had some major repercussion for defending my friend. It wasn’t very long for them to find out which characters I played a couple months back. Ever sense I tried to be careful on how I named my characters. So I wouldn’t be attacked by them, however low and behold they find out I’m playing a Kul Tiran. So what happens when I tried role playing with others, trying to join in, the one known as Morrowgrove said “I have one of your alts DNE, and don’t consider you to be here.” I ignored them, and tried to role play with the others, however, one of them said this to me.

A few things, I never metagame, and if I realized that I was I own up to it, or if someone calls me out vice versa. I hate Metagaming, but this was the only thing That the Stormwind City Watch apparently has on me. I have friends who I have corrected that where metagaming in roleplay.

But now The Stormwind City watch is trying to rally everyone against me. So when I vented and posted one of these screenshots in guild chat, this is how the guild leader treated me.

At first I didn’t want to share the screenshots with them, because I feared they would just use the screenshots against me. However she was acting like she was vouching for me. So I gave the screenshots to them, and this was their final response to me. Mind you I have never had a problem with this guild I was recently in.

They blocked me, then sure enough my pally that I have in their guild was kicked from the guild. Not because I continusly broke their rules, are was being a total jerk, and treated others unfairly, I was kicked based off what the Stormwind city watch and anyone else who had influence has shared with them. It hurt when this happened, because its as if they where just seeking to ruin the experience for me, by making others that I had no problem with choose to be on their side. Once again, the experience is ruined for me because The stormwind City Watch doesn’t care about ruining the experience for one person, they will go out of their way to let others to not interact with you, all because they lie and say that I metagame.

https://thalsianiii.tumblr.com/post/624918513087397888#notes

In closing

When people come to roleplay in Wow they do it to escape. Its meant to be enjoyed with others, but when you are forcing the way others play when you are around them, this can make it very unpleasant, especially when you try having full control of the whole situation, at that point I’d say you are a godmodder. The Stormwind City Watch doesn’t mind throwing people under the bus when they see fit, nor do they care about peoples reputations around others, and will go as far to make up lies about you. It’ll be awhile till I feel comfortable with rping again, sense people like them enjoy ruining the interactions for others. But I hope if you are feeling as an outcast like me, and feel as if some are just trying to ruin the experience for you, remember thats just shows you the actual character they are in real life. Understand you matter, and so do the characters you create. Till next time, I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!!!!

#world of warcraft #wrymrest accord #small rant #wowrp

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bloodykneestm · 4 years

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“hey,” breath is short as pallis speaks, the back of their palm wipes sweat from their forehead, their smile ( designed to be reassuring ) is just about anything but convincing. they hustle through the front door of delphine’s bookshop and flip the sign to closed. “uh -- you got anything on incubi around here?” they move up to one of the shelves and start searching the books, fingertips brushing along the spines. “no reason -- obviously.” they mumble distractedly. “definitely -- no... no reason.” they pluck up a book, but keep searching.

@pyrecrafted / starter call!

#pyrecrafted #pallis.

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tastydregs · 3 years

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The Ethics of Rebooting the Dead

On Halloween, Stacey Dowden spoke to her 91-year-old father over FaceTime as he lay in bed in Nebraska, his eyes closed. He was already in a hospice when he began exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 that Thursday, and Dowden thought if she didn’t talk to her dad soon, there might not be another opportunity. Facilitated by a nurse’s iPhone, she and her sister spoke to him at 3 pm from their homes in Pittsburgh and Brewster, Massachusetts, respectively. “We were able to see him and say ‘I love you, and bye,’” recalls Dowden. By 5 o’clock, he had passed.

As the Covid-19 quarantine has worn on, digital interfaces have become enmeshed in our emotional connections to loved ones. Friends and colleagues stay in touch over Zoom. Almost everyone has a go-to group chat. Family members, like Dowden and her sister, say goodbye using technology, which often provides the only tool a dying person has to help them through the last transition. “We often see people hanging on until that relative arrives or that child is born,” says Christopher Kerr, chief medical officer at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo and the author of Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End. Video calls, he adds, can help facilitate passing on.

But what about the whole expanse of time after they die, and the people they leave behind? Kerr has long studied end-of-life events, and he notes that often the bereaved experience sensory visitations from deceased loved ones. These phenomena “tend to be very vivid, and they tend to leave them with a sense that the loved one is OK.” He hesitates to speculate on the underpinnings of a natural physiological response to loss, but he says these extraordinary experiences point to “a spiritual capacity that clearly exists in people.”

Explicable or not, when someone has the sense that the people they’ve lost are still there, they want to retain that feeling. And recently, some have turned to technology to simulate it. Earlier this year, the devastating South Korean documentary Meeting You showed a mother, Jang Ji-sung, in a virtual reality headset trying to touch an avatar of her late 7-year-old daughter, Na-yeon. In 2017, Eugenia Kuyda built Replika, an AI chatbot designed as a digital remembrance of a friend who had died, then released the code so that anyone could try to build one of their own. That same year, in a piece for WIRED, journalist James Vlahos chronicled his similar quest to create a “Dadbot” of his father after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The same week that Dowden’s father passed away, Kanye West gave his wife Kim Kardashian West a birthday present: a hologram of her late father Rob Kardashian dancing and offering her a birthday wish from the beyond. And innovators like Finnish engineer Jussi Tuovinen are pushing technology even further—Tuovinen is at work on a haptic teddy bear that can transmit touch from one user to another.

As the functionality to recreate a person’s touch, appearance, voice, and unscripted dialog progresses, the notion of resurrecting people as digital entities is becoming less hypothetical. So much so that it almost feels inevitable. It’s already been a Black Mirror episode. But just because something can be done, doesn’t always mean it should be.

Supersmart algorithms won't take all the jobs, But they are learning faster than ever, doing everything from medical diagnostics to serving up ads.

For starters, such a thing isn’t always a healthy form of coping. If someone conjures a visceral memory of a lost friend, that’s one thing. (Kerr’s work on this topic will be featured in Surviving Death, a Netflix docu-series premiering in February.) But, Kerr says, allowing them to synthesize one virtually is quite different. “Let's say somebody is having trouble transitioning and becoming functional in some way,” he says. “And then, all of a sudden, they click a button and that person's recreated—that could be extraordinarily traumatizing.”

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temeryte · 1 year

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Adakias tag dump

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downs1de · 4 months

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PALLIS: TAG DROP.

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ibilenews · 4 years

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COVID-19: For some Nigerians, life would never be same again

No doubt, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about some changes in the socio-economic activities of Nigerians that would make lives never remain the same again in the country.

While many people who work in the formal sector of the economy stayed at home, those in the informal sector carry on, sometimes continuing their jobs, albeit, on a lower scale.

However, operators in the informal sector, most of who survive on a day-to-day basis, complain of low patronage and sales turnover or idleness. With the restriction of movement and lockdown in some parts of the country, life and socio-economic activities may have changed forever for many Nigerians.

Food sellers, motorcyclists and commercial drivers, who spoke to IBILE NEWS, lamented the state of the economy, even as the curbs begin to take toll on their revenue and living.

A commercial motorcyclist said: “Everywhere is dull. Those who are working with the government will not know the impact, but those of us who ride bikes and drive commercial vehicles are really feeling it. Even though Oyo State government said there is no lockdown, we are already experiencing a lockdown.”

From newspaper vendors to journalists and private school teachers, many lamented how difficult life has become for them this period. And, following reports of alleged harassment of some people on essential duties by security agents across the country, the federal government has charged law enforcement agencies to deploy tact and caution in the course of enforcing the rules, even in the face of provocation.

It also urged Nigerians to be law-abiding, exercise patience and self-restraint in their activities and actions.

Meanwhile, in recognition of the danger to which frontline health workers are exposed to, government is working with other stakeholders to structure medical and life insurance cover for their protection.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, who made the appeal at a press conference by the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19, yesterday in Abuja, reminded law enforcement agencies that the message from President Muhammadu Buhari was that no Nigerian should on account of these rules suffer any harm or pains during this period or at any time in our national life.

He implored Nigerian traders and businessmen and women to resist the urge to hike prices of goods and commodities during this period, but allow their compassionate nature to prevail, adding: “This is the best time to be considerate and to show empathy for our fellow Nigerians.

“I am pleased to inform Nigerians that we made progress in the mobilisation of resources to reinforce our preparedness and other implementation arrangements.”

Mustapha observed that Coronavirus remains a potential danger to all of humanity and threatens the country’s economy and national security, adding that it behooves on all Nigerians to play their part in the national response very seriously.

The SGF assured health workers of government’s commitment and urged them to put in their utmost best as they battle to save lives from the disease, assuring that the federal government has ramped up its synergy with state governments through video-conferencing communication and the platform of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and that by these measures, a lot of gaps are being closed for uniformity of purpose.

He urged Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to deploy their resources, especially community-based manpower, to shore up the arrangements by the sub-national entities.

On his part, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria is already experiencing sustained community transmission of the disease in the sense that 30 per cent of the cases have incomplete epidemiological information, while 51 per cent are imported cases and 19 per cent are contacts of known cases.

As the country races to curtail the spread, the Federal Ministry of Health is working with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to explore potentials for local production of medical consumables, such as facemasks, gloves, sanitisers and even equipment like ventilators in view of looming global shortages of medical supplies for response, due to high demand by all countries.

In the meantime, an 18-man team of Chinese medical experts, including doctors, nurses and public health advisers, is due in Nigeria to assist the country in the flight against the disease.

Also, clinical trials and other processes are ongoing to validate therapeutics for COVID-19 treatment. Speaking during the press conference, Ehanire disclosed that government was using the small window of opportunity remaining to intensify investigations to identify cases and their sources, saying:

“This is one of the purposes for which the lockdown of two states and the FCT was proclaimed by the President. “These areas, especially Lagos as primary epicentre, but also other parts of the federation, need to speed up their activities to detect and isolate COVID-19 patients. During and following the lockdown, we expect to see an increase in cases as a measure of improvement in case finding.

“If social distancing and other measures are adhered to, the incidence of positive cases can be controlled.”

The minister revealed that the country has tested nearly 3,000 samples so far and is working hard to scale up capacity in a targeted approach, noting that a Coronavirus Treatment Centre Accreditation Committee was inaugurated and has begun developing an accreditation checklist, as well as a protocol for management of isolation centres.

Ehanire said he had been notified of gifts of medical supplies from China, courtesy of the group of Chinese companies working in Nigeria, noting that a special cargo aircraft would leave Nigeria in a few days to collect the items, which include commodities, PPE and ventilators.

The minister commended all frontline health workers for doing a great job in case identification and management, stating: “As we prepare to contain COVID-19 outbreak, we must not lose sight of other health challenges in the country. Routine healthcare service must continue in all hospitals. Only a wing of tertiary centres need to be put to use for infected patients control.

“It is important that we do not drop, but continue to provide routine health services, including maternal and child health and immunisation. I shall communicate this to all Commissioners for Health in the states.

“I shall also instruct all federal health institutions to this effect and for them to work with state officials. Those who have to deal with Coronavirus patients are to use a wing of their hospitals. For this purpose, they have each been supplied with Starter Packs of PPE and consumables,” he added.

Ehanire noted that these efforts would only be effective if Nigerians cooperate fully with the federal government, stressing that the lockdown might be difficult and inconvenient, but it is necessary for the good of us all.

IN RIVERS State, with the closure of all the boundaries and markets, hard times loom for many residents. The uncertainty of when the partial lockdown would end has left many families, particularly those whose breadwinners are in the informal sector, more disillusioned than ever.

Barely 24 hours to closure of the markets, traders in Port Harcourt and adjourning suburbs hiked the prices of food items by over 200 per cent, and prices are still climbing.

A resident of Diobu in capital city, Chika Ibe, told IBILE NEWS that some households were barely managing to feed their children with sparse meals of rice and beans, explaining that compassionate people have been offering assistance to their neighbours in dire need.

But he stressed that as people’s food stocks are begin to run out, the desire to help might begin to diminish. A civil servant, who identified himself as simply Opusunju, said though he had received his salary on Monday, food vendors in his neighbourhood who are hoarding food would soon make life unbearable for people if the government does not lift the ban on the closure of markets, as a lot of the foodstuffs consumed in the state are brought from outside the state and once the state runs out of food, hard times would set in.

Compliance with closure of markets, nightclubs, cinemas and places of religious worship had been initially flouted, but with the imposition of 24-hour curfew on a section of Port Harcourt and Obio-Akpor Councils by Governor Nyesom Wike and arrest of over 200 people, who were arraigned in court on Thursday, residents of the affected areas have began to comply with the directives.

A drive from Choba in Obio/Akpor Council through Ikwere road to Port Harcourt town-ship showed a total lockdown on all markets and shops, with people roaming the streets searching for where to buy foodstuffs.

A nursing mother, Mrs. Edit Wobo, lamented that she had nothing to eat because her husband feeds them from a daily paid job and appealed to government to send palliative measures and possibly relax the restrictions on food sellers to help tackle the challenge.

As the lockdown continues and its end uncertain, many residents are gearing up for a rather desperate situation in the days and possibly weeks ahead. In Oyo State, as the government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew (7pm to 6am) and banned the gathering of over 10 persons, many people face hard times. There has been strict compliance with the curfew, but the issue of social distancing is far from being complied with. Across various markets, such as Bodija, Oje and others, sellers and buyers were seen clustering, not minding the prevalence of the pandemic, with drivers seen carrying two passengers in the front seat made for one commuter. Some motorcyclists still saw the pandemic as a ruse; hence they still continued with the culture of carrying two passengers.

The state government said it was working out measures and palliatives to cushion the effects of the pandemic and have received some donations and food items, promising to ensure that they get to the intended beneficiaries.

IN Bauchi State, the government has relaxed the lockdown in the state due to the lack of palliatives to cushion its hardship on the citizens, most of who heavily depend on daily income.

Deputy Governor, Baba Tela, while addressing journalists inside Government House, yesterday, said: “Normally, palliative measures should follow shutdown, but since nothing of such has been introduced to cushion the effects of the lockdown, we must address the situation in a manner that will not create harm or social dislocation.”

He added that the state was placing emphasis on locking its borders to curb infiltration of unsuspecting carriers of the virus after consultation with clergymen, security forces and healthcare professionals.

KWARA State is experiencing its 8th day of lockdown by the state government. As at press time, there had not been any confirmed case of the disease, but food vendors, banks, hospitals, pharmacies, private car owners with two other passengers, commercial bike operators and persons on strictly “essential services” were allowed to operate.

On Thursday, April 2, the state taskforce embarked on the fumigation of major markets in Ilorin metropolis to further combat traces of the virus in the state between 7:00pm and 11:00pm.

Expectedly, the measure has deprived over 80 per cent of residents access to their means of livelihood, but the government has inaugurated a palliative measure committee headed by the Emir of Shonga, Dr. Haliru Yahaya, to ensure food supplies to the vulnerable ones.

Despite these measures and many enlightenment campaigns, some residents still routinely move around to transact their daily businesses, but in strict compliance with social distancing, with vehicular and human movements higher at dusk.

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oletherian-archive-blog · 7 years

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anakin had just closed up shop ; visited jira at her stall and bought his almost daily purchase of pallies for his mom. thanking jira with a soft kiss to the cheek, the nineteen year old anakin skywalker headed home as fast as his legs would go, running down the sand hills until he reached their home. pressing his hand against the panel, the door pulled up and opened for him, anakin stepping through and shaking the sand out of his hair. ❛ mom ?! i’m home ! ❜ he called through the house to make himself known. stepping through to the kitchen and placing the pallies on the counter for her. turning with a frown when he didn’t hear her call back, or seen that she had appeared from another part of the house. ❛ MOM ?! ❜ he yelled out again, starting to move away from the counter and through the house.

❛ mom ?! are you home ?! ❜ now the worry was starting to kick in, and anakin felt his feet moving faster than they every had before as he stormed through the house, checking almost every little crack and hole for his mom. it was unlike her NOT to be here. she was always here to greet him when he got back from watto’s. SO WHERE WAS SHE ?

@heavcnsgrief liked for a starter // shmi skywalker.

#heavcnsgrief #* — verse. ❝ unknown. ( to be established ).#* — thread. ❝ heavcnsgrief : shmi. ( 02 ).#this is my au verse where qui-gon and the squad never came to tatooine #so anakin didnt become a jedi #therefore he IS STILL WITH HIS MOM ! ! ! ! !#* — out of character. ❝ queue.

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djjohnnyt · 7 years

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This has been one shit-ass week. Is there any way to get a refund?

So last Wednesday was my birthday. The nice thing is, my employer treats everyone’s birthday as a paid holiday so I had the day off. The less nice thing is that I chose to leave getting my car’s emissions tested until then. The car’s check engine light had come on, but the car was having no issues so I wasn’t too worried it would be a difficult fix.

I get the car to the repair place early to mid-morning and I sit. Couple hours pass and it’s lunch time and they’re still working on it. Turns out I needed new spark plugs and they said I needed a new sensor on one of the systems. The car is getting up there in years so it makes sense that a couple things would be going out so I have them make the fixes and even buy an extra service the manager is pushing after he offers a good discount.

I get in the car, the check engine light is off and I drive home no problem. The next morning, I get on the highway to go to work and the check engine light comes back on. Something didn’t get fixed right or something else happened. I don’t get it back to the shop until Friday evening. It’s the same code, but they’re closing so they can’t see me until Saturday morning.

I go in first thing Saturday, and again I sit there all day while they test and twiddle with this and that. This time they say they found a small leak in a gasket and charge me a bunch, mostly in labor costs. While I’m there, my aunt calls my wife to tell her my grandmother is being move to palliative care; they’re not sure how long she’s going to live. I figure we can go see her Sunday or early in the week after the car is fixed. Get the car back and figure I should test it before they close up for Saturday. Again as soon as I hit the highway the check engine light is back on. They say they have no clue why and they’ll have to look at it Monday. But they’re sure the car is fine to drive...

I don’t go to visit Grandma and take the car in on Monday, working it out with work to log in remotely while the car is getting fixed. I walk in to find the technician who was going to check out the car had quit with no notice. The manager is ragged trying to get a tech from another store for the day, a couple customers walk out pissed that their appointments have to be canceled, eventually the manager sends me up to another store a few miles away (the original store was within medium walking distance from home, this one isn’t). They spend a couple hours testing it, can’t find any system leaks like the warning says, so they change the same sensor the first one changed. I try to leave and the starter is out. They tap on it and get it to start, but explain the solenoid is out and the car could randomly not start at any time. I have them start fixing that and go grab lunch, as I’m walking I get a text that my Grandma passed away. I eat, walk back, and they’re still fixing the car, they don’t finish until an hour before close. I drive away, the engine light is off, for a whole three miles; I’m not even getting on the highway this time. Turn back around and it’s still the same god damned code.

That gets us to today. I’m still working remote, spend more than half the day at the second shop again. This time they say it’s the O2 sensors. They put on new ones, take the car for a test drive, and turn it over to me. I don’t even get one mile this time before the light’s back on. The second shop throws up their hands saying “I don’t know,” and send me back to the first shop, apparently I’m their problem again. I’m there until 10 minutes until close and the manager comes out saying they “know for sure” what the problem is (again). This time it’s the fuel pump (which they should have tested the first day it gave the error). He tells me it’s going to be another $500 just for the part, on top of everything else I’ve already spent.

Tomorrow morning I get to fight with him and the district manager over the price. Then go in late to work and ask my boss for bereavement time Friday to go to my grandmother’s visitation and burial, which I haven’t yet mentioned to either my boss or the repair shop yet, because one, who would believe this insane story, and two it’s not really the shop’s business; they should do what’s right because they didn’t do their job in the first place.

Sorry, no conclusion yet, just needed to vent. Thank you for reading this if you did.

EDIT: I almost forgot to add. Today was my son’s birthday and normally I get out of work half an hour early, instead I was stuck at the shop and got home an hour late. But we did have a nice dinner and cake and played a new game he got. He won.

#rant #personal #venting #car issues #death mention #family #you really don't need to read this #I just needed to vent

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grapsandclaps · 7 years

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GRAPS AND CLAPS DOES ALLY PALLY PROGRESS

Hello again everyone and welcome to the story of Show 70 of the #100showyear which took me to the Christmas darting mecca of Alexandra Palace for Progress Wrestlings biggest show of the year - Chase The Sun.

But first of all it was the longer than usual travel down to the capital via trams, trains and tubes with the added entertainment of our group doing our best Pete Dunne impressions supposedly "Everything is mine" in a dour brummie accent.

Arriving in Wood Green before the 20 minute walk up Muswell Hill we took in a decent little pub called The Jolly Sailor or something to that effect and was greeted with very good beer prices for a London boozer - £3.60 for Coors, £4.10 for Wolf Rock and £4.60 for Blue Moon, the bar lady overheard of my liking for slices of orange in a pint of Blue Moon so out of kindness and service she sent her faithful bar assistant out to the local grocers for some oranges, low and behold a slice of orange ended up in my drink 😍.

Drinks done it was time to take the hike up to Ally Pally which on a nice day is a lovely walk to do with views of the London skyline to the left hand side of you which in the evening can be a fantastic sight to see. Arriving at Ally Pally it was time to find our seats which due to arriving an hour before the show started meant we were more to the back of row 11/12 with a central view, the set up was very much like the set up WCPW does with their seating in the aircraft hangar called Bowlers. Atmosphere wise it was much noisier than the previous years Brixton Academy show with it making it more accessible for people to mingle with their wrestling friends. The option to stand up at the back was there if you couldnt see anything from your seats which i took advantage of, but our Geoff stopped in his seat all night and seemed to like it there.

Pre show match was Chuck Mambo beating Spike Trivet in what i was told was a short affair but missable , because i had gone to get beer refreshments at the nearby bar before the main show had started.

Hop House Lager - £5, Fosters £4.80, Deuchars £4.50

Show started with a great video package to the familiar tune starter Started From The Bottom by Drake, and after the usual opening dialogue from Jim Smallman it was time to get on with the show with the visible ladders around the ring it was time to start with the Progress Tag Title Ladder Match with British Strong Style (Champions) vs CCK.

This was a fine opener with the early stages of the match based more around wrestling than using the ladders. Once the ladders came into play some cool offence was used including back suplexes on to the ladder, Kid Lykos being carried whilst on the ladder by Bate and Seven and then flung over the top rope to the Progress security below. The ending came when Brookes and Tyler Bate were fighting atop of the ladder with Bate being backbody dropped on to a raised ladder which was held on the ropes. With the prone Bate on the deck, Brooks climbed the ladder to grab the belts and your new champions - CCK to the satisfaction of the 2,500 strong crowd.

Next up it was a battle of Australia vs New Zealand with Womens Champion Toni Storm vs Dahlia Black. Again another good match here with both women having opportunities early on to take the upper hand, Toni Storm hit a piledriver on Black for a close 2 nearfall to the amazement of the crowd. The finish came when Black got crotched on the top rope and was prone to a nasty german suplex from the top by Toni who then proceeded to finish Black off with the match winning piledriver. After the match Jinny came in to attack Dahlia clamping Blacks previously injured leg in a chair and stamping on it, so it looks like it will be Dahlia vs Jinny for the near future leaving Toni Storm opponentless for the time being which is a bit strange.

Zack Sabre Jr was next for his mystery opponent challenge which was answered to a huge pop - i had goosebumps for this moment just wow by Marty Scurll returning for the first time since January where he was eliminated from the ThunderBastard Match but since being away from Progress has become a huge star thanks to his association with The Bullet Club - they are a huge cash cow. Anyways this match was another great match in the Sabre vs Scurll story lasting 20 minutes both guys going hold for hold knowing each and every step their opponent would make. Eventually Sabre Jr got the win with the bridging roll up for the 1-2-3, Scurll after the match then gave what looks like to be his farewell to Progress for good - make your own mind up on why, but Scurll is certainly someone who Progress could do with at the top end of the card once British Strong Style decamp to WWE.

Deathmatch time with perennial moaners about who is the rightful no.1 contender Jimmy Havoc vs Mark Haskins. I might be in the minority on my opinion here but even though it was a good match at times, i did feel the atmosphere went a bit flat here after following Sabre vs Scurll. It did have its moments with Haskins using The Death Valley Driver on Havoc off the stage through a table, many thumbtack spots and even Vicky Haskins getting involved passing a barb wire bat to Mark Haskins and then proceeding to walk off which was a bit head scratching, surely you stay there to help your husband lay the beatdown to Havoc. Havoc because of this took advantage winning with a barb wore assisted rainmaker for the win. Ok match but as explained bloody head scratching stuff with Vicky Haskins more the baddie in this piece than Mark Haskins. Seeing Ben and Chris at half time they uttered many a "Shit" "Crap" and "Fuck" about this match.

Back from half time it was time for a big announcement with Progress's big show in 2018 taking place at Wembley Arena, very ambitious as per ICW doing the Hydro. I think sleeping on my opinion from last night Progress will easily get 5/6k to the show but i am all of the worry that the boom of the UK scene can all come to a halt like that, hopefully it doesnt but with Progress they seem to have a great relationship with WWE at the moment so all looks rosy.

Three way Atlas action next with Champion Matt Riddle vs Walter vs Timothy Thatcher. Cracking hard hitting 3 way match with the basis of the action being Walter and Riddle hitting each other really hard with Thatcher playing the third wheel. There was one spot in this match which Progress have on their twitter timeline with a massive triple german suplex being performed - Riddle went flying nearly out of the ring, the finish came with Walter choking out Matt Riddle to get back his Atlas title which he lost in the States to Riddle. A new contender them came down to the ring to face off with Walter - it was ICW and WWE UK star Wolfgang to a decent ovation, dont get me wrong i think Wolfie is very good and provides a different challenge to the Atlas division but the WWE UK fingerprints were in the back of my head seeing this.

The 8 man no.1 contenders scramble match was next with Mark Andrews vs Damien Dunne vs Eddie Dennis vs Jack Sexsmith vs Strangler Davis vs James Drake vs Flash Morgan Webster vs Zack Gibson. Good action as you would expect with the 8 men involved, looking at the match beforehand i would have gone for a Morgan Webster or Zack Gibson win here with the probable Travis Banks win in the Main Event in hindsight but sadly i was wrong with regular no.1 contender Mark Andrews picking up the win here, don't get me wrong i think Andrews is fantastic to watch and is a great babyface but he is rivalling Mark Haskins for No.1 contender opportunities. After the match a shock heel turn here with Eddie Dennis turning in his FSU partner to the boos of the audience, i suppose FSU have done everything as a team in Progress and it brings a new side to Eddie that hasn't been seen in ages but so soon after The Riots split up this is now 2 long standing teams gone from the tag division.

Flash Morgan Webster i dont know where they go from here with him, another failed opportunity missed here for him.

Now The Main Event with Pete Dunne (Champion) facing Travis Banks for the Progress World Title. A very good main event here but one spot that did cheese me off a bit was a point where British Strong Style hit a Piledriver/Tyler Driver 97/Bitter End Trifecta and Travis kicked out at 2 which sounds as silly as it reads. That aside it was fantastic to see Travis Banks submit Pete Dunne to end the near year long reign of The Bruiserweight to a huge pop, this was the natural result that should have went down and it did. It now sets up fresh matches at the top of the card with Jimmy Havoc and Mark Andrews vs Banks but with Pete Dunne maybe gone for the moment it leaves a gap for a tosser at the top - maybe Webster/Brookes or TK Cooper when he returns but we will just have to wait and see.

Show done it was time to make the walk back down Muswell Hill to Wood Green and a stop off in the Wood Green Wetherspoons for some tea - Beef and ale pie for £6.99 and a pint for £2.18 all good quality fare. Sink it in £2.18 FOR A PINT IN LONDON!!!!

Overall a great show but with a couple of gripes as described above (The Progress Fan Forum Police Siren will be sounding haha!) but certainly betfer than Brixton last year. Was great to see a lot of the graps gang make the trip to Ally Pally and they were rewarded with a fantastic venue.

Next trip is to 53two in Manchester on Sunday for Futureshock Reloaded with the main evemt of Pete Dunne vs Soner Durson. #grapsandclaps

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the-film-bitch · 7 years

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Hell or High Water (2016) ★★★★

Having delivered a genre-busting film with a strong sense of place in 2011’s Glaswegian near-dystopia Perfect Sense, Scottish director David Mackenzie explores less familiar territory in his latest offering, Hell or High Water, with the help of native Texan screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario). The second in Sheridan’s self-proclaimed ‘Western trilogy’ of screenplays, Hell is less easily pigeon-holed than Sicario, functioning as both an appraisal of modern masculinity and a buddy movie about brothers, both biological and professional. Ultimately, though, this is a nostalgia-tinged, state-of-the-nation film chronicling the post-recession forsaken lands of West Texas. As TV’s Westworld has recently explored, old worlds – especially the old West – contain adventure narratives no longer accessible in our hyper-technical present, and so it is with Hell’s dying Texas.

Hell’s youth have been abandoned by modernity, left to rot in the dust of their deserts following the economic onslaught of 2008, while its aging population are too resistant to change to care anyway. There is a very palpable sense of this rural abandonment in the cinematography: Giles Nuttgens’ lens crosses empty swathes of land to find the little towns that make up the film’s setting, and when it does, the scene is almost post-mortemal. The camerawork lays it on thick, magnifying the post-recession death throes of rural America, where signs of life are few: countless debt relief adverts and closing down signs strew the roadside, while the gargantuan skeletons of oil wells intrude in the background, heaving and seething in the summer heat. The juxtaposition is about as subtle as a Banksy, but these frames signal this Western’s unusual central themes: capitalism and its (im)morality.

Sheridan’s screenplay, as with Nuttgens’ work, is chiefly rooted in this sign-of-the-times style discourse. His characters lament the decay of their surroundings: big banks are rapidly assuming the role of American colonialism, one Texas Ranger (Gil Birmingham) argues, with military strategy being replaced by wily bureaucracy. Even lawyers, that most-hated of film professions, can’t stomach the unique evil of the bank’s ‘reverse mortgage’ scheme that threatens Hell’s protagonists: ‘It’s just so arrogant it makes my teeth hurt.’

If the law offers no protection from corporate greed, the law must be broken, or so brothers Tanner (Ben Foster) and Toby Howard (Chris Pine) reason. Days away from a foreclosure on the family ranch (which sits on prime oil ground), the poverty-stricken two formulate a plan to hit the very bank that is swindling them for the money required to pay off the ‘reverse mortgage’.

Hell sets itself apart from the recent crop of heist films here, in which the emphasis has usually been placed on the technical cunning of the robbers and their ruthless appetite for money, often rivalled only by their target itself (Inside Man is a classic here). The heists are much simpler affairs in Hell, requiring only the modest bank robber starter pack of a ski mask and a gun. Surveillance is a non-issue, and Texas’ plains are free and plentiful, accommodating anyone who needs to make a getaway fast. If anything, Hell makes you wonder why no one else has had the Howard brothers’ initiative yet.

Westerns are often valued for the escapist entertainment they provide – see Westworld for a meta-example of this point – but Hell is gritty realism to the core. Its socio-economic scene-setting aside, this is chiefly down to its fleshed-out characterisation, with excellent performances from all – a frenetically-charged Foster, and Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham as the Rangers on their tail – and a career best from Pine (as the brooding Howard brother) giving rich display to the bonds of brotherhood and the stifling way in which hegemonic Western masculinity censors affection between men.

With respect to its women, though, Hell hasn’t much altered the formula of the old Westerns. Its female characters are still reduced to those who smile enough, signifying their ability to provide palliative sexual care – the young waitress who’ll give you her number – and thorny, ornery harridans – the razor-tongued old waitress who’ll have your head for ordering the wrong thing. It would be a crying shame if this flat characterisation was intended to cement Hell’s position as a “man’s movie” by making misogynistic gripes about women its point of common reference.

On the surface, the core of the classic Western’s conflict between ‘Indians’ and ‘Cowboys’ looks to be subverted in Hell: white-hat Ranger Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) is brother-in-badge with part-Hispanic, part-Native American Ranger Parker (Gil Birmingham), whom Sheridan doesn’t ascribe with the racist tropes usually assigned to Native American characters. Blessedly, too, Hell doesn’t shy away from the brutality of pioneer-era America: Parker speaks with knowing disdain of the white settlers’ bloody appropriation of his ancestors’ land, while another Comanche man echoes this sentiment, lampooning the popular epithet ‘Lords of the plains!’ with the retort ‘Lords of nothing now’.

But like a reflective surface, there’s deceiving depth here. Hell’s status as a revisionist Western is limited. While Parker might not be racistly essentialised, Hell’s white characters (particularly Jeff Bridges’ and Ben Foster’s) feast on a mythologised version of Native American identity to feed their ego and tell their jokes, dehumanising all the Native Americans they meet.

Tanner is obsessed with bedtime ‘Indian’ legends, and doggedly employs Native American tropes to build his own self-aggrandising fantasy: ‘We’re like the Comanches, little brother. Lords of the plains... Raidin’ where we please, with the whole of Texas huntin’ our shadow.’ His fixation won’t extend to courtesy, though, and he taunts a Native American blackjack opponent with the racist refrain, ‘Don’t chase me, Chief.’; the delivery here suggesting the line is designed as snappy dialogue, rather than as an indicator of Tanner’s racism.

Far be it for decency and the bonds of police fraternity to get in the way of Ranger Hamilton’s penchant for racist humour, either. Sheridan’s screenplay attempts to expiate the sins of Bridges’ character – his constant, unfunny allusions to Parker’s Mexican-Comanche heritage – with heavy hints that the bigotry masks a deep, unspoken affection between the two. But, paradoxically, it is plain to see that Parker is hurt by Hamilton’s ‘jokes’ – so why does he keep making them, if the two are really friends? Sheridan’s writing lingers too fleetingly on Parker’s unease – and, crucially, his inability to seek redress for it, since Hamilton is his boss – making for a somewhat weak, half-hearted gesture from Hell at rebuking prejudice. The senior ranger’s outpouring of emotion at Parker’s later death is meant as a gesture to his fallen comrade’s humanity – the humanity Hamilton never lost the pleasure in disrespecting whilst he was alive – but it is an empty one. There is no remorse in his grief. There are hints at the difficulties men can face articulating friendship here – an attempt which would be noble, did it not compromise the indictment of Hamilton’s prejudice.

Hell or High Water struggles with saying something meaningful about its characters’ racism, and outright fails at saying anything true or interesting about women. It finds greater success as a living autopsy of the forgotten West, and as a love letter to the true grit of its people, making it a distinctly American film. Its intercourse with the gender turn and populist treatise on capitalism will find favour with viewers worldwide, though – and likely even with some women in its audience, many of whom are long-used to tuning out misogynistic subtexts to feel the brief bliss cinema provides.

Blending outstanding (male) characterisation with incisive, bottom-up political commentary, Hell or High Water is a personal best for director Mackenzie, screenwriter Sheridan and lead Pine.

#hell or high water #film review #david mackenzie #taylor sheridan

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