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The Strenuous Life pushes members to take action on these desires to live more strenuously, and holds members accountable in their goal of becoming better men. It facilitates the training of mind, body, and soul, motivating members to leave the strata of mediocrity and attain to greater excellence and service in the world.

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The Art of Manliness on The Strenuous Life - 1

The Art of Manliness on The Strenuous Life - 2

Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Theodore Roosevelt Speech on The Strenuous Life

The Strenuous Life Challenge (program)

Attain Financial Independence Via the Strenuous Life (podcast)

The Strenuous President - Theodore Roosevelt (podcast)

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white gilgamesh it’s a disaster

since beer + milk will make milk faster

Can we just take a moment to think about the fact that what Voldemort did to the Malfoys was so bad that even though he didn't even kill them and even though Voldemort regularly tortures his followers when he's annoyed, all the Death Eaters know about it and are scared it will happen to them too and see it as a notable and exceptionally bad punishment?

He must've hurt them so much. I mean Lucius still has VISIBLE marks on him even though a lot of time has passed. And all this happened because Draco didn't identify any of the members of the Trio even though he recognized them, thus giving them a window to escape. And he also didn't put up much of a fight when Harry went to take his wand. He had lived with Voldemort in his house for a long time. He knew what he was risking. And he did it anyway.

sorry i keep coming back to totk rants, but something that utterly baffles me from a game design perspective especially is

who, in their right mind, would think to put similar objectives with the same characters in the EXACT same place as its previous game when already reusing the same exact map (no, single rocks springkled around isnt a meaningful change, fight me)

like from a purely logical point of view its just ... not logical?? and TWICE so when most players will have played the previous game, so now that the exploration, which was the main driving point of it, isnt as satisfying simply bc you know most locations and what is what, the thing you need to do is subvert it as in you go to that location and theres something else now or something that leads to a new reveal, but not NOTHING either, bc you likely cared about what youd find- the satori mountain was such a cool mysterious place, so now you head to it to see what is now and its nothing but maybe an obvious treasure chest? thats both lazy (i realy use that since its way overused by people missusing it) and just ... it might be meant as a lil nod so that there isnt nothing at all but to me it feels even more condescending as if there were literally nothing instead

satori isnt here anymore? thats weird if its always been there, so you go find a cause, maybe theres a fissure somewhere you can enter a large cave system, an hidden entrance to the underground that reveals there is something corrupting the place somwhere nearby but not exactly in the same spot- make it into a bossfight at which end satori gets cleansed- maybe it got captured and taken somewhere else, to a place that was kinda neat but didint serve a big fucntion in botw like maybe it was dragged somwhere into the big tabantha canyon, or to the forgotten temple

you try to visit rito village but the snow and cold there got so bad that you cant even reach it without special gear, and when you do reach it its utterly frozen in thick ice and not a single soul is there, the perch of vah medoh is knocked over building a bridge as a subtle hint as to in what direction perhaps, its intriguing bc clearly they have to be SOMEWHERE, maybe they tried to use vah medoh to evacuate but bc its losing power and doesnt have a skilled pilot they crash land it into the mountains, now trapped there and due to the storm not able to send anyone out to get help, maybe some did but they didnt make it and you can find them on your way and rescue them, and bc of the storm being so bad no one can get out and no one can get in (except for our special boi linky ofc) and even after the storm has weakened they dont immediately go back and act like everythings normal, maybe theres an extra mission afterwards helping them rebuild the village but not exactly the same as it was but fortified, different to account for things like this happening again, establishing the crashsite of vah medoh as a second outpost, or a temple, to thank it for bringing them out of immedaite danger but couldnt go all the way

theres so many places that are so clearly modeled around botw that are entirely unused now bc they had to remove all things shiekah for no reason, the holes they left jsut being holes where somethings clearly missing or some chest with a gem in it while the new shrine thing is within view distance a few meters away, might as well have put them in the exact same place bc it really doesnt make a difference

(like alot of those ideas im using for the rewrite which changes many things but you get the point right??)

and its even worse imo with the building stuff, bc now you dont even have to journey there you can fly glide and literally drive there instantly like a giant skip button so you cant even appreaciate the way to it, you skip to one important part to the next

and then points of interest are REPEATED AGAIN, like with shrines and lightroots and settlements and big mines- that is the opposite of satisfying gameplay, you dont have to explore shit bc its all in the same place which is probably why they only did tiny changes to those few spots and nothing else bc they knew most people would run right to those so it gives the illusion of changes (which are half reversable or barely a change at all) and even those are STILL meaningless

its right up there with having even MORE grind with less substance to it than in botw, the shrines and krogs got a lil old but at least the environment, its subtle storytelling etc were something- and totk just bloated everything with more little meaningless collectables while not changing anything meaningfully (and instead pretends that some things where never there and those new boring things were always there)

more shriens with shorter puzzles or none at all, more krogs with the same reward system, over a hundred tiny caves that all blend together bc they are all so similar and you really only do them for yet another colelctable for old gear and ONE cool new one with a bad effect after which the things collected become uselessreally, souls to collect to buy you a single armor set, rewards being largley reused old stuff from botw (imo you should have a chest in your house, yes YOUR house, that got most of the standard versions of botws armor in it so you dont have to buy it all again??? but you gotta think of going home first and dont have to use it- make new versions of them alternatively so you can choose if you want the old one or new one and also LEAVE ONE AT YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT HAVING TO SELL IT SO YOUT INVENTORY ISNT AS ENDLESSLY SCROLLING AS YOUR STUPID ARROW BAR)

theres new effects from food and armor thats largely useless (like the attack when hot?? why wouldnt you you jsut combine an armor and a potion- put on hot armor and drink an attack potion? its way more efficient no?? idk i found it to be yet another effect thing to bloat my inventory especially when NPCs keep giving you shitty effect food)

the whole sonanium (zonaite?) collecting with multiple ways to convert it into yet another currency??? huh???? AND have it be the thing for you to autobuild with?? when you need it upgrade your battery which takes an insane amount of those stones?? wells, while finally an actual well are NOW ALSO LIKE A COLLECTABLE and im gonna take a wild guess that the reward is utterly disappointing too

the fairies are all blocked by much more annoying means than in botw (like i wouldnt want to carry those NPCs three meters away in their little cart antoehr time please) and the amount of material AND MONEY NOW you need is so much higher for no reason (if its their attempt to make the game harder its the lamest way to do it)-

all while instead of expanding on the foundation of botw they ripped it out to build a new one while pretending they are both there (im so so slaty about this .... a sequel like this should expand upon the stuff of the first game, both in theme, narrative, mechanics and more and not ... replace it with slightly different versions of it while abandoning everything established before and really only using it as a way to skip having to make you care about some characters bc you might still care about them from the other game)

i could go on, as always lol, anyway, i really really dont get why this got into the final game ..

too many people say Tim is the weak Robin like okay he may not be as combatively strong as his siblings but that does not mean he’s weak. That feisty guy does not pull his punches and he’s been taught by multiple people and has mastered multiple fighting styles and perfected his style to be very acrobatic like dicks’ and yet more unpredictable than fucking batman’s. he may be small but he’s certainly not weak. he just focuses on his mind most of the time okay he’s just a nerdy little freak that packs a crazy punch

juan's naivety is actually hilarious to me because, despite knowing that cesare tried to kill him twice, both directly and indirectly, he still walked out alone with him in the middle of the night, yapping about a dream he had where they were in harmony and loved each other, without expecting his power hungry ambitious brother to gut him anytime soon...what yearning for validation does to a mf

PFFFTTTTTTT

My guy Hua Cheng is so strong that the trick he used to defeat White No face was a street busking skill PLSS

I am losing it over here LMFAOO

also while me and alicia were talking about one piece I was like ‘the thing about the core of zoro’s character that everyone forgets. that ODA forgets. is he has to be a feminist. like it’s in his whole backstory.’ and after howling with laughter we were talking about how zoro and sanji in a studies of woman and gender class would be constantly fighting each other and speaking over everyone, the worst guys possible to have in that class

DC needs to pick one person to write Jason for like 5-10 uninterrupted years. Let someone actually make a character with him. Y’know. A consistent personality, consistent traits, an actual moral framework to work with. It’s gonna be divisive and people are gonna piss their pants if he isn’t a tragic softboy victim who does no wrong but whatever, grow up. Commit to something. He’s just not anything and never has been post-resurrection, despite having nothing but interesting potential. Let someone do something with him, and make it stick.

the fact that ford ultimately breaks down and is about to actually make a deal with bill to spare stan and the kids during weirdmageddon is like...a really powerful moment i think. this man has been trying to hold the line for three decades. but nobody could keep that up forever! it may have taken him longer to crack than it would have taken most people, and ford may be insanely determined and resilient, but in the end, he’s only human. even he has his breaking point and weirdmageddon was it. stan ended up finishing the job and delivering the final blow not because ford “was never really the hero,” not because ford’s efforts against bill didn’t actually matter, but because ford was worn out. bill’s defeat took a team effort from stan and ford because humans are meant to help and support each other and that’s what makes us great; we’re not meant to carry the weight of the world alone. and when that’s exactly what you’ve been doing for three decades, all to prevent something that ends up happening anyway...anyone would break down at that point. even the greatest heroes are falliable. even the most perseverant people can be worn down. even the strongest people need other people.

I am seeing way too many fanfics of Miles constantly screwing up on missions and getting yelled at or verbally eviscerated by Miguel.

Where are the fics where Miles is canonically powerful and is sweeping the floor with anomalies? I want to read fics where Miles exceeds everyone's expectations and negative assumptions because he's damn good at what he does and honors the mantle of Spider-Man with pride.

god the way people keep being like “X character is gonna KILL vecna” i want to claw my eyes out. like. do i think vecna + his alternate versions are gonna die? probably yes. do i think any of our other characters should KILL him? with their HANDS? no!! i don’t care that will said “we have to kill him” el doesn’t WANT to kill him and will WON’T want to kill him once they learn the whole truth about him + all of his alternate versions and everything that was really going on at the lab. we’ve already been shown that violence won’t work against him!! and it’s antithetical to the story and all of their character arcs, including vecna/edward/henry/001!! they tried to kill him and they failed. we’ve been shown time and again that they must use love to break out of the cycle of abuse that is perpetuated by the violence shown throughout the series. just continuously saying that “they’re gonna kill vecna” is grossly ignorant imo!!! and indicates to me that you aren’t! watching! the show!

Did Thee remove Tanthai’s watch for him? And his rings? He placed them so carefully on the nightstand. And left Tanthai a glass of water. He just wants to take care of Tanthai and make sure he’s safe and happy. How many times has he had to do this? How many times has he driven a drunk Tanthai home? How many times has he carried Tanthai out of a bar? How many nights has he lost sleep, so he can keep watch outside Tanthai’s window all night? And Tanthai answers his call right away and looks almost concerned. And he doesn't want to worry him, so he doesn't mention his nightmare. There's so much love there 😭

knowing he is a red flag doesn't stop me from appreciating young snow because I am color blind

I want to talk about/draw angst to do with the All Ancients Disappear AU, specifically with the Dark Cacao family (other characters have angst, but they’re the ones I’m fixated on), but I can’t because I don’t have designs for them yet

I’ve at least solidified stuff for Dark Choco’s kid in this AU. He has a son named Dark Syrup Cookie, who’s made of both chocolate and strawberry syrup. He’s 8-10 years old and he listens to and trusts his father (even though he shouldn’t). He does not yet know that his reason for existence is to be a vessel for the sword (but he will eventually)