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Hellsinker: The Unexplored Tower of the Doujin Culture Island

Picture this: It’s the summer of 2007. You’re a Japanese otaku who sometimes likes to go to the local game centre to lightheartedly play some STGs. The fated August day has finally come, and you bake under the heat of the sun as you stand outside the Tokyo Big Sight, the fabled building where the largest convention of indie works in the entire world is about to start, a 3 day bonanza of manga, music, fanworks, and games. Here you are, at the 72th Comiket.

Once you’re in, you make stops at all the usual booths. First, you go over to the Team Shanghai Alice booth and grab the newly released Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith, excited to try your hand at clearing Hard mode (Lunatic is too hard for you, as of now). Then, you go over to 07th Expansion’s booth and grab the final arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, eagerly anticipating how the story will end, since you couldn’t make it to Comiket last year. Later on you have some extra time, so you move over to Twilight Frontier’s booth, the circle known for making the spinoff Touhou fighting games, and have a look around.  Suddenly, you look down at a very peculiar looking cover—

In sharp geometric letters on a blank background, it stares back—Hellsinker.

You ask the guy at the booth what it is, and he responds that it’s an STG created by one guy (he goes by “TONNOR” or “Hiranyon”), and that he requested that Twilight Frontier sell it since he doesn’t want to set up a booth himself. Curious, and with some money to spend, you pick it up.

Who knows what happens next? Perhaps you love the game, and fervently discuss it on anonymous forums and theorize about scoring routes and lore. Maybe you’re quickly put off by the first two stages and miss out on exploring the whole game. Maybe you just play through it once and then leave it like it was any other game.

But in my opinion, the opinion of someone else from over a decade later and half a world away from Japan, is that Hellsinker. has preserved itself as one of the most hidden yet emblematic gems of the Japanese doujin scene. In every aspect it is one of the most unique and cryptic video games ever created, yet its style embodies many of the most notable traits of doujin culture.  I’ll be going through some of these aspects and analyzing them in detail.

What is Hellsinker?

This section will be kept short since it’s not the main aspect I want to emphasize, though it is important as an aspect of the game’s uniqueness.

Hellsinker. is a vertical shoot ‘em up (aka shmup, STG, or bullet hell), in which you essentially dodge bullets and kill enemies/bosses with your own shot. Some examples of well known shmups include Ikaruga, the Touhou Project, or the Dodonpachi series.

The Touhou Project, the most famous doujin shmup (or doujin game, in general). The game pictured here, Touhou 11 Subterranean Animism, has inspirations taken from Hellsinker.

However, Hellsinker. is far from conventional in its controls; while Touhou and many other well known games only make use of 3 buttons with no special combinations, each of Hellsinker.’s characters has a wide array of attacks and moves activated by combining, holding, or tapping buttons; all of which will prove useful in clearing the game. As well, there are 7 different character setups available for the player, each providing vastly different playstyles and weapon usages.

All the different things you can do on the character DEADLIAR with just 3 buttons…

Hellsinker. also has an extremely unconventional resource system – instead of having finite numbers of bombs and unchanging power levels, Hellsinker. makes use of dynamic gauges known as Sol and Luna, each of which contribute to the power of your main shot. Sol will go down when you bomb (discharge), and Luna will go down as you fire the main shot for a longer time, requiring the player to utilize other tools in their character’s kit to progress effectively. This is just one of many examples of innovative mechanics that you can’t find anywhere else in the genre.

It is also a relatively long game compared to other shmups; it has 8 stages (plus the Shrine of Farewell, a “bonus stage”). While most single-loop shmups take about half an hour to complete, Hellsinker. takes about an hour. This ties in well with the next point:

The Cardinal Shaft: Layers of Discovery

Hellsinker. is designed such that you will likely not clear the game on your first try, despite the game not having overly difficult bullet patterns. The limiting factor is your knowledge and needing to learn how to play the characters correctly. This generates a sense of discovery each time you reach further and further into the game—in that sense, it could also be considered an adventure game.

This works in tandem with the fragmented plot that is given to the player both through the game’s manual and through short visual novel -esque cutscenes within the game (no images, sadly). Supposedly, the setting is a post-apocalyptic world that was caused by a disaster brought about by some previous civilization. The playable characters are part of a multi-national organization called “Graveyard,” and your job is supposedly to infiltrate an abandoned island known as “Paradise” which houses a cloud-piercing tower known as the Cardinal Shaft, as it is suspected to have been involved in the disaster. However, it is guarded by animated yet soulless robots known as “Prayers.” Hellsinker.’s plot supposedly takes place on the third attempt to infiltrate the shaft, and so you must gather your determination and get to the bottom of the mystery…

As such, the game’s design purposefully accentuates the importance of having determination to break through the unseeming surface to reveal greater secrets underneath. The game is deliberately off-putting at the very beginning, with its first 2 stages being filled with bleak and dystopian scenery, uninteresting enemy patterns, and an especially terrible Segment 2 boss.

Glorious Symbol, the infuriating new-player-killer Segment 2 boss. Note the uninteresting design and bleak background…

It could even be an intentional design choice to deliberately “gatekeep” so that only the most dedicated players will get to enjoy the game to its fullest potential. And it would make sense for how cryptic the game is designed to be. TONNOR sometimes describes the manual as the “true final boss” owing to its overly cryptic and confusing explanations of, well, everything in the game.

TONNOR’s writing style is often joked about, as he uses a lot of archaic language and unorthodox grammar (doubly confusing when translated into English), which leads to a lot of confusion about the true meaning of the story. But if interpretation is the ultimate challenge, then bring it on…

Spirituality and Machinery

This game pulls no punches when it comes to sinking the player into a cryptic, surreal, and at times psychedelic world. As mentioned earlier, the player is immediately given the image of a mechanical and abandoned world through the stage backgrounds and giant mecha-like bosses. Special attention is paid to the graphic design of the text and UI, most notably found in the use of a completely original font that emphasizes a sharp and blocky texture that is simultaneously unsettling. There is also an inexplicable obsession with the use of Morse code, present from the main menu to the boss warning sirens to the game over screen. A far-future world, broken and electronic, is evoked through the exposition; what secrets can you, the cyborg rejects, discover in the Cardinal Shaft, the imposing relic of the past?

Morse code is everywhere.

As it turns out, the design and meaning of the game is not only linked to the notion of a technological future, but also spiritual meaning that harkens to the past. References to spirituality, animism, and the afterlife are littered throughout the game, prompting the player to think further about the secrets they are uncovering.

Here’s a flurry of examples: The names of the gauges in gameplay are Sol, Luna, Stella, Terra (the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Earth), which invoke astrological ideas rather than technological ones. The bosses that the player encounters are called “Prayers.” Why? They are former humans that have gone insane and lost their spiritual meaning, hardening into hulking mechs, eternally Praying for release from the world, and attacking anything that comes near. (It is also a possible metafictional reference towards the word “Player”.) Stage designs and backgrounds within the Cardinal Shaft often invoke feelings of sacredness and importance, such as the cathedral-like Segment 6, or the Shrine of Farewell.

The Shrine of Farewell Rises. Note the symmetrical design and archaic script…

There are countless examples of such references to the belief systems of previous humans, one of which involves karma as one of the central plot points (I’m being vague to avoid spoilers). I could say that the game is based on Buddhist beliefs, but I think it goes further than that—it is not any one belief from the past or the future, but a spiritual-technological hybrid design that almost creates a whole new world, partially human and partially robotic. A cyborg world, it would seem. How fitting.

The iconic GARLAND logo on the main menu screen. Note the different word patterns – Morse code in combination with ancient kanji and English letters. The use of a concentric circular pattern and colour scheme invokes the image of an electronic eye or computer, but also the idea of duality and balance (think Yin-Yang).

A Mesmerizing Soundscape

Music is yet another tool that is used to truly set Hellsinker. apart from the rest. When I first heard the soundtrack of this game, it was simply on YouTube, not while I was playing the game. To be honest, I thought “Wow, this sounds kinda old and lame for electronic music. The writing also sounds really amateur and doesn’t use proper theory.” However, I developed an entirely new viewpoint when I played the game through with the music.

The obvious point I’m about to make is that the game synchronizes the music with the progress of each stage, correlating each section of different enemies and backgrounds with musical changes, but it goes even further than that. It’s as if the music changes emotions with the characters as they encounter new obstacles and enemies, such as the transition between a slow, steady paced flight through a massive cathedral to a determined dash in a 7/8 time signature, with signs of doubt and uncertainty hidden within the rapidly resolving and un-resolving melody.

As much as the sound design is extremely 2005, with simple synths and lack of hard-hitting compression, every track has a high degree of subtle details. There are many background sounds that are not easily heard without careful inspection (such as faraway vocal sounds or sound effects that tie in with the story), and the mixing is heavily manipulated to create a sound spectrum that emulates the space that the player is in. Most notable of these is the heavy use of stereo manipulation, such as in the very first segment that has a melody jumping from left, center, right, left, center, right…

An equally mesmerizing visualizer with stereo channels, band meters, oscilloscopes… hypnotic.

And while the music is very clearly dated and not as professional, that’s one of the points that makes it so… doujin. The early trance style and the irregular writing in tandem with the visuals of the game conjure up images of notable surreal Japanese culture surrounding other shmups like Treasure’s Radiant Silvergun, rhythm games such as BMS (Lunatic Rave 2), or other similarly surreal and abstract anime culture (think Akira?). It provides a real insight into the universes that can be created within a single mind.

Emblem, Symbol, but Not an Icon

I can’t really call Hellsinker. “iconic,” because it’s really not that well known. But with the massive surge in popularity of doujin works (including RPG Maker, something I have talked about previously for The Vault) that happened in the mid-late 2000s, I can say that Hellsinker. is an embodiment of many of the traits that people found in other works of the time. It’s a true look into the unbelievable and surreal world born from a single mind, something that takes and gives inspiration, and lives on for others to uncover. It’s a multi-artistic project that spanned at least four years of work. It’s a person that never asked for publishers, monetary incentives, or contracts; just someone that wants their story to be heard and their game to be played by those that can appreciate it. A niche within a niche, Hellsinker. stands, just like the Cardinal Shaft on the island of Paradise, as a mysterious territory that most humans know little about.

That’s why doujin culture—and by extension indie culture—is, in my opinion, the most vibrantly human type of artistic expression there is.

Check out a remix I did for one of the pieces of music for this game! It can be found here.

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The Web Centre opens their blog’s doors to experts on Digital Marketing to offer their insights on different topics and enrich our site. This week we have a special post for all of those really interested in SEO.

We hope you enjoy with this special article written by Chris Hickman – Founder & CEO @ Adficient, with 14 years in SEM and CRO experience. For already 10 years he helps businesses effected by Google penalties @

In February 2011 Google released the Panda Update which was aimed to stop sites with poor, or low quality content. Google created the algorithm to weed out sites with poor content from the top search results. Since 2011 Google has released a number of Panda updates and many sites saw ranking increases because of their SEO practices. However, not every site saw increases.

Content Penalties

Over the years SEO marketers have been told to avoid duplicate content at all costs. However, Matt Cutts of Google told us that duplicate content won’t affect your rankings, unless it’s spammy. Best practice is to produce your own, high-quality, helpful content that adds value. However, if you do decide to have duplicate content on your site, there are some ways to avoid being penalised.

If you do have duplicate content on your site there are a few ways to handle the issue. In many cases websites will have multiple items that are very similar, but different in a few ways. This can appear as duplicate content to search engines, and if there are many of these pages the search engines can see these as spammy. To fix this issue a site can either fix the page content to be unique and original. This is the best scenario, however, depending on the site can take quite a bit of time. The other option is to add a no-index tag to the page, this will block the search engine bots from crawling the page. The issue with this is the page won’t rank in search results since it’s being blocked.

Now if a site has duplicate content from another source such as a news site or guest post, this can be construed as duplicate content as well. However, there are ways to get the content on your site, and not be penalised by the search engines. The most common solution for this is to add a canonical tag to the page. This tag will tell search engines where the original article resides, if a site is using your content ask them to use a canonical tag to point to your original article. Likewise, if you use another site’s content, use this tag to show search engines who created the original. Sites will not be penalised for using these tags. How to use a canonical tag.

Other Panda Metrics

Avoid pensalisation from Google Panda

The Panda update was not just focused on duplicate content, there are other metrics the algorithm considers. The following list shows additional points of interests marketers should focus on to avoid a penalty. Google Panda isn’t just limited to content creation.

Bounce Rate

Scenario: A user searches a query and your page shows up in the search results. The user clicks on your page and is brought to your page. If the page loads too slow, the content is what they are looking for, or they don’t see what they want, they will click back. What this tells search engines is that the query they searched is not related to the page they clicked. Otherwise they would have stayed longer and browsed more pages. Since the query is not related the page will be moved down in the search results.

Now this is not necessarily a penalty, more of an inconvenience. Review your bounce rate within Google Analytics and run some testing to see why people are leaving your site. Lower the bounce rate, the better, and it’s important to show search engines you are working on this metric.

More information metrics in following posts…

Have your’s site ever been penalised by Google? We would like to know your story.

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#174, iseecars.com: Ford tops new, used 2020 sales

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Karl Brauer has an extensive history in the automotive industry, including his current position as the executive analyst for iseecars.com.

The website, an automotive research firm and data-driven car search engine, helps shoppers find the right car at the right price. It also develops and shares powerful studies and market analyses that have been featured in over 2,000 media outlets.

iseecars.com: The Ford F-150 pickup truck remained the country's top-selling vehicle in 2020.
iseecars.com: The Ford F-150 pickup truck remained the country’s top-selling vehicle in 2020.

Brauer is our guest on this week’s episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

iseecars.com is a top auto search engine

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Brauer several areas of the automotive industry, including the research firm’s recent study on top-selling new and used cars for 2020.

It’s no surprise the Ford F-150 leads both categories. The enduring pickup truck has been the top-selling truck in the United States for nearly 50 years. It’s also been the country’s top-selling new and used vehicle for many years.

Karl Brauer is the executive analyst for iseecars.com
Karl Brauer of iseecars.com.

Brauer details why he believes pickup trucks have remained at the top of the sales rankings for so many years.

We also discuss with Brauer the immediate future of electric trucks. It’s a super-competitive segment including Tesla, Rivian, Bollinger and pending EV trucks from traditional manufacturers like Ford.

Besides its recent new and use best-selling vehicle list, iseecars.com’s recent studies have included the popular survey of manufacturers’ percentage of vehicles lasting 200,000 miles.

And we talk about the popularity of vehicles by state. Surprise! Ford reigns again.

According to the website, iSeeCars.com has saved users more than $249 million by applying big data analytics powered by over 25 billion (and growing) data points. The site uses proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of new and used cars.

Join Bruce Aldrich and me as we absorb the knowledge of industry leader Karl Brauer.

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected]

All podcast episodes are archived on theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

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2021 Aston Martin Vantage: stunning, fast, flawed

Carvana offers good slot odds in Las Vegas on used cars

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At The Gates

Dan Ericsson

A crowd was gathered outside the city.

People milled about aimlessly, bumping into each other as often as they were bumped into. A feeling of quiet panic and frustration trickled through, subsiding once, swelling again. The only thing that kept an epidemic in check was the apathy that seemed to pervade beyond flesh and marrow, an attitude of atrophied zeal that was the core of the crowd.

Fillmore felt the apathy gnawing at him, trying to pull his listless body into the steadily growing mass of people. Into the crowd that was content to swell. He felt the frustration of the crowd, knew that it ran contrary to the oppressive pessimism. Fillmore, as he pushed his way through the directionless mob, gathered the thread, pulled it from where he could. Soon, he was next to the gates, the barrier that he presumed held the burgeoning crowd from spilling into the streets within.

He pounded his fist on the door, hoping to communicate the anger of the entire people gathered outside with one fist blow. The ponderous wooden gate swung slightly, creaking as it did. Fillmore pulled his hand back, and shaking it in pain, stared intently at the barrier that had given much more than the two inches of airspace Fillmore could see. It had given him hope. He promptly turned around, and tried to disperse his hope throughout the crowd by the simple means of a smile and quick gestures toward the door. Fillmore saw this new emotion hit the first row of despondent people like a gentle wave, he saw it spread and fray, saw hope being isolated in patches, before being engulfed again by the horrible despair. Fillmore began to sense that the bleakness that the crowd emanated was a powerful force.

“It won’t work,” whispered a man. He lay crumpled on the ground near Fillmore’s feet, he faced the door that had just been upset from its moorings.

“What won’t?” Fillmore quickly appraised the man, who he found to be of an overall haggard, inconspicuous appearance. Fillmore wanted to spit on him, on the man that at the same time he wanted to save.

“Hope. Saving them.” The man nodded his head back toward the mob that had surged, then relapsed. “They know the door is unlocked. They know there aren’t any guards to turn them away.”

“Then why not go in? Isn’t that what they want?”

“Yes, it’s what everybody wants.”

“The door’s open,” Fillmore was exasperated. “I opened it, they can go in.”

“I opened it once, too. They didn’t go in then either.”

Fillmore sent out tendrils into the crowd. He found that going onside the gate was a concern, but hardly a seriously considered one. “Isn’t this what they’ve been waiting for?”

“It’s exactly what they’ll say they want. If you ask them.” The man had shifted his weight, it appeared as though he had moved closer. Fillmore hoped he was reaching out, hoped that he wanted to go in the door.

“Come on, friend, let’s go in. Forget the other people.”

The expression on the man’s face told him that he had been wrong. The man was not a rogue visionary on the outskirts of society, but that he was a missionary, a pillar of the church. He was here to pull Fillmore into the sweet comfort of confirmation.

“Why? What’s inside that door? Is it better than what we’ve got right here?” The priest’s gospel rolled of his practiced tongue. “We’ve got enough right here. Security, stability, comfort.”

Fillmore wanted to scream in anger at the depression the man pressed on him. He remained calm, and his voice only betrayed his fierce bemusement at the cynicism of a people so unused to curiosity. “Why not just see what’s inside the door? If it’s so terrible, you can come back out.”

“If you want to go in, you can. We’re not going to stop you.” At this, the man looked back to the crowd. He seemed to be weakening the longer he stayed away from it.

“Maybe I will…” Fillmore looked up at the panorama of people spread out before him. He saw unity, a single mind. But, more importantly, he made a reassessment. What he had previously labeled depression was a lack of upheaval. Neither good nor bad. He felt the comfort, realized that it felt good to be accepted by a group, any group. He looked for the man, but didn’t see him. Lifting up his eyes, they fell on a rather pretty girl at the edges of the crowd. He assumed she was about his age. He knew nothing about her, yet he felt that he could learn to love her. For no other reason than that everyone in the crowd loved somebody. It would feel good to be a part of something, Fillmore thought. “Maybe I’ll go tomorrow,” he said to the wind. He left the door behind him, making a mental note to go tomorrow. Tonight he was going to go through the motions, to be liked by everybody simply because he was like everybody.

More Strange Stories…

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SPEKTR Song From New Album Now Available

A full track track off SPEKTR‘s new album entitled Cypher is streaming here.

The French duo – who’s identity remains shrouded in mystery – will release the new opus on February 19 in North Amercia on Agonia Records. The release is already available in Europe.

Cypher is an experimental black metal album, recorded entirely without vocals except sampling. The album introduces industrial and ambient elements and as a whole should be considered as a strongly psychedelic release; it produces a feeling, as if the mind of the listener, dragged into the music, were unable of concentrate itself or were experiencing a powerful hallucinogen effect.

Successor of Near Death Experience (from 2006) will is made available as CD, Vinyl (150 on white & 150 on black vinyl) and digital download. Cypher includes 9 new tracks:

1 – Hermetism
2 – Teratology
3 – The Singularity
4 – Solitude
5 – Antimatter
6 – Solve Et Coagula
7 – Cypher
8 – Decorporation
9 – Le Vitriol du Philosophe

Agonia Records myspace: www.myspace.com/agoniarecords

Agonia Records facebook: www.facebook.com/agoniarecords


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Cards & Payments

Online Sales, Promotional Offers Drive Black Friday Gift Card Sales

Press Release covering Customer Loyalty and related news.
Image by Michael Bußmann from Pixabay

Quick Service, Fast Casual Restaurants Fare Best During Non-Traditional Year

Newton, MA– December 2, 2020 – Paytronix Systems, Inc., the most advanced digital guest experience platform, examined Black Friday Restaurant Gift Card Sales and found that while they were down across the full-service sector, quick service and fast casual restaurants either held steady their 2019 sales or saw an increase in spend over last year. December purchases typically account for upwards of 50% of annual gift card sales and the first weekend traditionally acts as a barometer of upcoming trends throughout the holiday season.

Paytronix analyzed the anonymous aggregate gift card sales for more than 175 brands between Friday, November 27, and Sunday, November 29, 2020. Paytronix identified the following changes in 2020 Black Friday gift card sales when compared to those for 2019:

  • The number of cards sold declined by 30.1% across all restaurant sectors.
  • Quick Service card sales declined by 3.6% on Black Friday, but the amount loaded onto those cards increased by 4.6% Over the rest of the weekend, the number of cards sold increased by 0.7%, while the overall spend decreased by 1.8%.
  • Fast Casual sales were mixed, with some concepts showing big declines in card sales, while others tripled sales thanks to rich bonus offers.

The small gains over 2019 in Quick Service sales appeared to be related to e-gift and bonus promotions, though overall e-gift sales declined.

“The more upscale the restaurant, the greater the decline we saw in gift card sales during the Black Friday shopping weekend,” said Paytronix Head of Data Insights Lee Barnes. “This likely means that fewer people will be giving restaurant gift cards as a gift, almost certainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, shoppers seem to be focusing on those cards that have bonus cash promotions, possibly as a gift to themselves.”

This trend indicates that restaurants may see a much lighter gift card season than in years past.

“Restaurants should consider alternative ways of driving guests back to make up for the loss in gift card sales,” said Paytronix President and CEO Andrew Robbins. “Subscriptions represent a novel form of recurring revenue that gives guests a reason to come back for repeat visits, much like a gift card. The difference is that subscriptions present opportunity for renewal and to invite the guest to build a relationship with the brand on an ongoing basis.”

This Black Friday gift card sales analysis is the first stage of a larger holiday gift card data analysis that will publish later this month. This research will supplement the Paytronix Annual Gift Card Sales Report: 2020, which surveys over 200 brands about their annual gift card sales over the course of the year. Paytronix offers an in-depth look into holiday gift card sales, sales by channel and service type, anticipated redemption and new insights on eGift cards. With the online ordering industry expanding, the Report also examines the impact of gift cards redeemed online.

Following trends in closed-loop restaurant gift card sales, the Paytronix Black Friday Gift Card Sales Research includes data from gift card sales on November 27, 2020, and includes 182 brands. The majority of the brands are full-service restaurants.

Paytronix Systems, Inc.

Based in Newton, Massachusetts, Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management (CXM) solutions for restaurants and convenience stores. Through its innovative software design and integrations with more than 30 widely used point-of-sale systems, Paytronix empowers more than 500 brands across 30,000 locations, giving them the flexibility to deliver unique, revenue-enhancing guest experiences. Through one-to-one engagement with more than 285 million guests via Order & Delivery, Loyalty, CRM, and Stored Value, Paytronix generates Big Data consumer insights that motivate increased visits and spend. For more information, visit

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Café By Wren’s St James-In-The Fields, Lunchtime by Anna Blasiak, photography by Lisa Kalloo (Holland House Books)

Tears in the Fence

This extraordinary and substantial 136 page bilingual publication in English and Polish is a collaborative work between Polish poet, Anna Blasiak, her accomplished translators, Marta Dzivrosz, Maria Jastrzębska, Danusia Stok and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese, and photographer, Lisa Kalloo. Each translator took a set of 12 or 13 poems to translate into English. The results are uniformly exquisite, pared and pointed. The book is a joy to read and a feast for the eyes thanks to Lisa Kalloo’s photography which enhance the reading and visual experience of the work.

The poems move through the isolation of the migrant condition searching for roots whilst dealing with home and family memories to the near silence of a new condition.

Amnesia, Obstinately

Every evening I learn a day
by heart.

Mornings I forget everything again.

Blasiak’s poems, pithy fragments, are almost epigrammatic and allusive in their dealings with emigration, otherness and hidden moods. Typically, a…

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Diplomats, donors concerned about sex abuse reports at WHO

LONDON (AP) — British, European and American diplomats and donors have voiced serious concerns about how the World Health Organization handled sex abuse allegations involving its own staff during an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, as reported this week by The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the AP published an investigation documenting that senior WHO management was informed of multiple sex abuse allegations involving at least two of its doctors during the epidemic in 2018.

A notarized contract obtained by the AP showed that two WHO staffers signed off on an agreement between WHO’s Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu and a young woman he allegedly impregnated in Congo. In it, Ngandu promised to pay the young woman money, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. The contract was made “to protect the integrity and reputation of the organization,” Ngandu said.

“The U.K. has a zero tolerance approach when it comes to sexual exploitation and harassment — and that extends to all international organizations that we fund,” said Simon Manley, the U.K.’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. “We are speaking with WHO and other major donors as a matter of urgency to establish the facts." Britain is WHO's second biggest donor, after the U.S.

In a statement, the U.S. State Department said more must be done to address sex abuse issues at WHO. Asked about the AP investigation, officials said they were requesting more information about the allegations. “Those responsible for any abuse must be held accountable,” it said.

In Congo, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator David McLachlan-Karr said he was determined to punish any humanitarian workers found guilty of sexual misconduct like that detailed in the AP report.

“All these allegations must be investigated and the victims must be heard,” he said in a statement. “These allegations undermine the trust of the people we serve."

WHO has declined to comment on the specific allegations reported by the AP and said it's waiting for the results of a panel created last October to investigate sexual abuse during the Congo outbreak involving WHO staffers.

“What’s alarming is that WHO seems to be keeping this abuse quiet and not publicly condemning these allegations,” said Clare Wenham, an assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics. “There's a lot of talk about giving WHO more money but I don't think any government should be committing to that until we know it's an organization we can trust."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the agency's third-largest funder, said it expects U.N. agencies to conduct thorough investigations into sexual abuse as quickly as possible.

“Our role as a funder is to hold organizations that receive grants from the foundation to the highest standards of transparency and accountability,” the foundation said.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said the ultimate responsibility for WHO’s Ebola response lies with director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The AP found that one of the doctors accused of sexual harassment, Boubacar Diallo, bragged about his relationship to Tedros, who mentioned Diallo during a speech in January 2019. The AP spoke with three women who said Diallo offered them WHO jobs in exchange for sex; Diallo denied the claims.

“I find it hard to believe Tedros would have known about these allegations and done nothing,” Gostin said. “(He) must meet the highest ethical standards so we must understand what he knew and when he knew it. ... Dr. Diallo may have used his relationship with Tedros as leverage in sexual exploitation, but it would not be Tedros’ fault if he wasn’t aware of it.”

Balazs Ujvari, a spokesman for the European Commission, said it would “thoroughly monitor the investigations” by the AP. He said the commission is ready to review or suspend funding "for any partner who is not living up to the required high ethical and professional rules and standards.”

The World Bank said it is “deeply concerned” about the new sex abuse allegations at WHO. The bank paused its negotiations with Congolese authorities for new financing to agencies, including WHO, last year when reports of general sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak surfaced.

“We review our relationship with any organization whose standards are in question,” the World Bank said.

Jiress Ngalya, a resident of Beni, Congo, where some of the recently reported sex abuse allegations involving WHO occurred, said it would be a welcome decision if donors reduced their funding to WHO after seeing how the agency handled sex abuse allegations in the country.

“This should be a lesson to all humanitarian organizations to not abuse innocent women in our region,” he said. “This would show that they are not untouchable.”

Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Matthew Lee in Washington and Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Beni, Congo, contributed to this report.

Maria Cheng, The Associated Press


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Blog Archives

C2E2 2015 Weekend

After waiting, C2E2 had finally arrived, I had been looking forward to seeing this since last year.  I got myself another 3 day pass, because well I was not going to miss out on anything.

I spent most of the day checking out the show room floor since Friday had the least amount of people in attendance.  It was nice to check out many of the vendors and see what there was, which was a lot.  I really need to hit the lottery because I want everything.

I stood in line with a friend who needed to get Jewel Staite’s (Kaylee from Firefly) autograph. While doing that I noticed that if a person’s line is empty than you can go up to them and say hi.  I spent the entire time standing there checking out David Ramsey’s (Diggle from Arrow) line because I wanted to go over and say hi.  Jewel Staite was very nice to my friend, but I think she might have had too much makeup on.

I was ignoring most of my panel notices that were coming up on my phone, because I did not have a high need to see all of them.  I did make it to the Unmasking the Hero panel with David Ramsey, Jewel Staite, Eoin Macken (Merlin) and Raphael Sbarge (Jiminy Cricket – Once Upon a Time).  I will admit the only one I did not know from this panel was the guy from Merlin, but that is only because I have not watched it on Netflix yet.

Well David Ramsey was hilarious, seriously I want to have drinks with this man, I might have tweeted that to him.  He got most of the questions, which I was fine with because he was the most entertaining.   Things I learned for Arrow, as of right now Diggle will not be Green Lantern, but it can’t be fully ruled out in the future.  Yes, the team will of course go after Oliver, because come on they are not going to leave him there.  Deathshot might not be dead because if you don’t see a body or in the case of Sara Lance you did see a body they could still be alive.  The events of this season, especially what Ra’s Al Ghul has done has a direct impact on next season.  He really was doing his best not to give anything away.  Also if you were not up to date on Arrow, boy were their spoilers.

Jewel Staite was a bit upset that she was not getting many questions, but she did get the second most.  She does live in Vancouver, she would love the chance to have a role on Arrow.  We all need to hashtag #JewelStaiteforArrow or #JewelStaiteonArrow.  I would be cool with her on Arrow, Summer Glau was already on the show, so she has a connection.

Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket

This was an interesting panel, because it was almost talking about how important the sidekicks are to the story.  They do help out the heroes a lot, you know hero support but as we learned in Sky High they are heroes too, David Ramsey would agree.  Also there was a proposal during the panel, so that was cool.

Most of Friday, I really spent walking around the show floor and hanging out with friends for a bit.

I really should not have stayed out so late with my friends, but I did.  This caused me to get a late start, which was bad, the first thing I did when I got there was get in line for the Kick Ass Women of SHIELD because yea, I was seeing Agent Carter and Agent May.  Nothing was going to stop this from happening, how about the entire con trying to go to that panel, that stopped me.  I really should have left with my temp roommate for the weekend and seen Jason Momoa before hand because than I could have stayed  in the room.  I consoled myself with the fact that I can catch it on the live stream channel later.  As of current time, that panel is not on the twitch tv channel.  I guess I should have tried to watch the live stream on my phone while I was hiding by friends because I was unhappy I was not seeing that panel and because the floor was super crowded.  I think half of Chicago was at C2E2 on Saturday, this might explain why I couldn’t get into the panel.  Also I seem to have issues getting into panels on Saturdays, I didn’t do so well last year either, I must change this for next year.

I wondered the floor again with one of my friend and his friends, this had its amusements because he was dressed up as the Shufflebot from LMFAO and he played music.  It was really interesting to see how people reacted to him, a lot of dance parties happened.

The last day of the con, I was on refusal to miss anymore panels that I wanted to see after Saturday’s fiasco.  Well since it was not as crowded I was able to get a good spot in line for Game of Throne: A Panel of Fire and Ice.

This panel had Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) which is why I did not care if I missed him on Saturday because I was getting a second chance, it also had Finn Jones (Sir Loras Tyrell).  We really did not get any spoilers, Finn is the only one of them who is on the show, he was refusing to give anything away.

Jason Momoa was hilarious, that was without his crazy hat that he was wearing because apparently that was his thing for the con, he wore a different crazy hat.  Apparently Khal Drogo is not happy that Dany is cheating on him, he really would like for her to stop that.  All of his loyalties are with her, he wants her to win and sit on the throne.  Also he gave us a great reason for why Khal Drogo had to die, because if he didn’t than the series would have been over in 2 books, because Khal Drogo would have killed everyone.

I got to stay in the room, which was great because I got to move up a few rows so I could see Stan Lee.  I was upset that I did not make in time for his panel last year so I had to make up for this year.  As always he was amazing to see, it is Stan Lee, you can just tell how much he loves to be up there.  At the end of the day he really appreciates his career and the fans that he has.  Comic books were not the huge things that they are today back when he started. He honestly had no idea things would turn out like this.

Now he does wish that he had some bigger roles in the movies and shows, that is something he is hoping for the future. He has a TV show called Stan Lee’s Lucky Man coming to the UK and then it will be coming out here next year. He did say that he needs to make a cameo on the second season of Agent Carter.  The last time I had checked it had not been renewed, so either he is hopeful or he just gave us some great news.  He says there will be a Big Hero Six 2, come on its Marvel and Disney how could that not happen.  I am happy that I was able to see Stan Lee, it was a great end to the con.

After his panel, I wondered around the floor for the tail end of the show and picked a few last min things.

I enjoyed my time, I do realize that I need to get to panels really early on Saturday, no getting there late. I do wish I had sat in a few more of the other panels, that is something that I did last year that I did not do this year.  I will make sure to do that again next year, because some of the comic book and other panels can be quite interesting.  I will admit, I was super social this year, I had social activities to do afterwards so that did cut into some of my time.  I think next year I will plan for that a bit better so I can see a few more panels.  Otherwise I was a good experience, Saturday is a good day to sit around or hide from the show floor because there is so many people there.  I know that is great for the con and I am happy that they are drawing in so many people, but its crowded, so maybe a bigger space next year?

Until next con, which will be Wizard World Chicago in Aug.

OUaT S4E13- “Darkness on the Edge of Town”

ONCE is back, after a million years! And there are no more ice people! Just… Maleficent in the movie costume now, Ursula, who we never actually see in water, and… I still can’t figure this one out, but Cruella De Ville.

Okay. Fine. Whatever. Let’s get into it. The episode opens in a flashback in Maleficent’s castle, where URSULA is threatening her with… I dunno, tentacle porn, I guess… They are soon joined by Cruella DeVille, who immediately displays magical powers over dogs, and their meeting has been orchestrated (like just about everything in the series) by Rumplestiltskin… The fourth Queen of Darkness.

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Once Upon a Time Winter Finale – “Heroes and Villains” Review

A lot happens in this episode… Probably because a lot didn’t happen in so many of the early episodes of this season. This wraps up the “Frozen” storyline, thank goodness, and introduces the fourth season’s second half’s conflict and new characters.

Ugh, do I have to?

Ugh, do I have to?

Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff are looking for a way home when Emma discovers that there is still a magical barrier around Storybrooke. Rumplestiltskin is still planning to make off with his wife and leave the town. He still has Hook’s heart as well. And, with her heart now safely back in her chest, Marian tells Regina that she understands that years have passed since she “died,” that Robin has moved on, that he and Regina and Robin love each other, and that she’ll respect her (former? ish?) husband’s choice of lover.

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ONCE S4E10 – “Fall”

In this episode, we are treated to even more of a tease. DAMN IT, I want to see these mofos tear each other apart, already!

Shattered glass storm, incoming! Everybody hide the lemons and vinegar because this is gonna sting.

Shattered glass storm, incoming! Everybody hide the lemons and vinegar because this is gonna sting.

Maybe I need to stop following this show with TWD right away…

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Once Upon a Time S4E8 – “Smash the Mirror”

Doesn’t smashing mirrors bring seven years of bad luck..? Somebody really ought to let the good folks of Storybrooke know in this 2-hour episode.

photo 3

We get a good recap of everything that’s happened so far, making the season seem a lot more exciting and fast-paced than it really has been… But let’s cover the events of last night’s episode, since it was a doozy.

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Once Upon a Time S4E6 – “The Snow Queen” PLUS Another Reference to Marvel?

I'm way more concerned about Ingrid than the kidnapper, frankly. That bitch crazy.

I’m way more concerned about Ingrid than the kidnapper, frankly. That bitch crazy.

The episode opens with a young trio of sisters (Ingrid, et cetera) frolicking about a lush hillside, chasing a kite, which gets caught in a tree and torn. A man suddenly decides to kidnap and ransom them, but young Ingrid’s powers manifest in that moment and she accidentally kills the man. As she freaks out, her sisters still take her side and decide to keep her secret. They split the ribbon of the broken kite and claim it as a symbol of their sisterhood. Also, super crazy about young Ingrid being that little psycho Lizzy from “The Walking Dead.”

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OUaT S4E5 – “Breaking Glass”

A lot actually happened in this episode, so let’s just jump on in.

The SwanQueen shippers are going to have a field day with this one.

The SwanQueen shippers are going to have a field day with this one.

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TFP Podcast: Fall TV Shows and First Impressions

Howdy, folks!

You can now listen to another installment of the TFP Podcast! Beware of spoilers for your favourite TV shows, though, as this was recorded about a week and a half ago. So… Spoilers for season openers, but if you’re only an episode or two behind you might be fine.

Either way, CLICK HERE and enjoy!

OUaT – S4E4 “The Apprentice”

You guys… Mickey Mouse got GOT.

So, let’s talk about it.

This, I think, was one of the better episodes in terms of tying Disney mythology to the show in a subtle and believable (for a show about magic and fairytales and shit) way.

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OUaT S4E3 – “Rocky Road”

…Is that an ice cream pun in the title of this episode?

You butter(pecan) believe it!

Ahhhhhhahahahahaha, I’m delightful.

Okay, so I had this whole post written out when a power thing managed to erase it because, apparently, auto save didn’t want to work… I’m still bitter.

So let’s delve right on into a synopsis.

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Scripture–Luke 19: 1-10

Questions for Students:

  1. What does the Bible passage tell me about God?
  2. What does the passage tell me about people and myself?
  3. If this is God’s word for me, how will I obey it?
  4. Who am I going to share this passage with?

Missions Conference 2020–Speakers = Ben Porter and Ron Fairbanks

Note: The format of this sermon was a practical exercise of the Discovery Bible Study method for studying a Bible passage. Therefore, there may be periods of silence during the audio.


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Can Vegetation School Vegetables?

Preface: If you’re one who truly digs how humans have triggered (perhaps irreversible) climate change and how that can only negatively impact both flora and fauna; how it can only jeopardize the very habitability of our home world, you are not a vegetable. That said, be you afloat with the science or drowning in cluelessness, dig my own damning evidence of the looming troubles ahead…

Unplanned Field Experiment: Several weeks ago, this inveterate sixties era flower child enjoyed a few moments of preemptive gardening (more about that in a moment). My Goal: To set up a temporary, two foot tall wire fence capable of supporting two peony bushes, thereby extending their typical, 7 to 10 day peak blooming season; one that any garden-variety rain storm can end prematurely. Naturally, the major prob, here, is how these long stemmed fragile flowers simply cannot withstand even minor water retention.

Background: I’m reasonably certain that the plant that blooms white had been transplanted by my folks when our family of four transitioned from renters to homeowners back in June ’61. As for the one that blooms ruby red, it’d been my self-planted birthday present to my horticulturist mom (for her eightieth birthday). I can still vividly recall my greenhouse visit (purchase price a mere $8). And, by the by, that bygone MasterCard ad campaign which promises priceless memories remains spot-on. Anyway, it was one decade beyond that, upon inheriting my mom’s flowers (both indoors and out) that my motivation to honor her / keep her memory alive rendered this annual construction project akin to a labour of love. As such, I even welcome this upkeep.

Damning Evidence: Alas, during this 2021 lap around ol’ Sol, things did not pan out as planned. While my fence did successfully prop up the waterlogged blooms, the very next day, the flowers began turning sickly brown. I suspect the culprit is either acid rain or too much UV radiation (both?). And it doesn’t take much dot connecting to extrapolate that whatever shortens plants’ lifespan can similarly impact animal / human existence. Which brings us full circle back to my headlined Q:

Can Vegetation School Vegetables?

Long Sigh / Short Answer: That’d depend on the vegetables not remaining oblivious to the obvious evidence; e.g. such as that discovered right in my own backyard; and, doubtlessly, planet-wide, too. Or, in lieu of their heightened awareness / digging reality, their simply getting out of our way. After all…

To not dig the dangers of climate change is akin to digging humanity’s grave.

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

Mask-Up Now! Suit-Up Later?

Seeing how, there have now been over half a century’s worth of Earth Days and, still, not enough is getting done to combat global warming / climate change, let’s go the K.I.S.S.* route; i.e., cut thru all the hot air type of discussions / debates.

On one hand, we find a gaggle of boneheaded science deniers, who are at the crux of two humanity threatening problems; Environmental Ruin and the Pandemic.

On the other hand, learned climatologists are predicting that, as early as 2050, there’s the all too real possibility that our greenhouse gas / polluted atmosphere will render our home world uninhabitable.

Hmm, one wonders how today’s anti-maskers, who constantly make bogus claims that a simple, flexible piece of cloth, covering the nose and mouth, restricts their ability to breathe / causes them to gag, will react when, just to avoid deadly asphyxiation, perhaps winding up a fried to a crisp corpse, it’ll require everyone suiting up in a NASA / Project Apollo era, bulky moon suit?

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

* K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Straightforward

To whom it may concern…

To whom it may concern (be you many or few):
When you espy us, how do you construe?
Our X-OneNation, ISO its glue;
And devoid of its vertebrae, too.

How would you treat pseudo science reliers?
And defeat global warming deniers.
And anti-maskers; social distance defiers.
And all the rest of these wisdom decriers.

Would you deck out, all decadent folks?
Decked out in brown shirts or white hoods and cloaks.
Who’d reinstall OrangeMan; instill his hoax.
Who’d call on wild insurrection to coax.

How would you fight all who deepen each schism?
Out the “devout”, who flout their catechism.
Fire the pushers of each evil ism.
Devotee voters who’d fight FOR Fascism!

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

Fly on the Wall Fake News?

Were we able to hot mic a manure eating housefly and release it within the Oval Office, what might we learn?

Two things are certain to make such an endeavor successful. With all the shit going on in that pigpen, there’d be little chance of our “bug” ever going hungry or even wanting to leave!

The benefits?

We could, in real time, finally eavesdrop on all the evil crap that’s actually being discussed, perhaps, even inclusive of this “perfect” phone call to the Food and Drug Administration?

DJT: Listen up you white lab coated losers! Science is shit! There’s nothing, REPEAT, NOTHING more important than ME getting reelected. To make ME look good, you WILL ramrod whatever Chinavirus vaccine looks the best thru the approval process, skip every last damned testing phase and start shooting that shit directly into the arms and asses of Americans on MY TIMETABLE. That means your DO or DIE deadline for making ME The Savior, is two weeks before Election Day, November 3rd! The only reassurances I want from you are that the voters don’t start dropping dead until November 4th. GOT IT?

FDA: Yesssir!

The End

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

Fortune Cookie Blog (tick…tick…tick…)

Humanity’s survival instinct must really be mucked up when 4 out of 10
electors can still muster up the mindless desire to bestow another 4 year
term upon a mucked-up-in-the-head, head of state; a cocksure dickhead,
who thinks magical thinking can outwit his run amok mindless microbe;
which, as of minute 29, hour 19, day 4, month 8, year 2020, has sickened
to death 160,000+ stateside souls; and STILL counting… tick… tick…tick…

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

An Unhealthy Respect For Corona-V

I don’t envy the learned, respectable Dr. Anthony Fauci and his colleagues. They face down, daily, one helluva thankless, exhausting task. Yet, stunningly and regrettably, their Job #1 has not been pandemic management. Instead, they must prioritize the mollycoddling of Prima Donna Donny, who barely functions at the preschooler level.

Were they to upstage / upset that capricious, narcissistic man-child, he’d gleefully fire them all… and worse yet… hire quack successors, such as his newfound false god, one Stella Immanuel, who, not unlike Donny, is renown for foisting off deadly, bizarre fantasies as if they’re what??? Established epidemiological facts???

Let’s not get into any specifics, here, seeing how too frequent repetition of Donny’s and Stella’s flat-out falsehoods always risks morphing them into pandemic promoting, fake truths… well… at least within the so-called minds of the gullible.

Instead, let’s consider how Donny has pissed away over half a year. He’s been frantically, desperately ISO anyone who… anything that… would, even remotely, conform to his magical thinking. Had he spent even a minuscule fraction of that time embracing the time-honored science, he could’ve prevented tens of thousands of agonizing COVID-19 deaths.

By now, he could’ve even honestly declared himself the Conquering Corona-V Superhero… be even taking his victory lap… as in… all the way to the Election Day finish line. Not that I’d ever want him to snag a second term… but… you know… just saying. But… to return to reality…

It has been the medical community’s angst (re the provocation of Trumpian tantrums), which has been severely crippling a desperately needed, far more aggressive war effort against the pitiless Corona-V. And while I do respect Fauci and his associates, there’s no denying that Donny has successfully coerced them into watering down the metrics… just to make them conform to his politically motivated agenda to reopen COVID-19 ravaged regions too fast and too soon (and Donny’s standing orders to slow down testing can only further corrupt said data).

More specifically, doctors having little choice but to play along with toddler Trump, concurrently plays down the role of the presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, who, lull the masses into a false all-is-well mindset, which in turn, emboldens non-masked, non-socially distancing party hearty yahoos, who, in turn, hit the awash with humanity beaches, frequent the jam-packed taverns and attend a sundry of superspreading events… inclusive of pandemic parties, religious revivals, political rallies, etc.

In the end, revelers have become little more than the patsies of a pitiless pathogen… one that plays them like trump cards… thereby further tightening its figurative and quite literal chokehold on humanity.

With safe, efficacious vaccines and therapeutics still in the R and D stage, nothing short of a month long global shutdown… AS IN NOW… will suffice. Seeing how that ain’t gonna happen, we must ask two disturbing Qs. What if, as I type / you read…

• Pandemic survivors’ immunity is only short-lived?
• Corona-V is mutating into an unconquerable supervirus?

An unhealthy respect for Corona-V could render COVID-19 the death of us all.

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

Is the Felt-Tip Pen Mightier Than the Fascist’s Sword?

Ever since man-child Donald J. Trump utterly failed to prevent a preventable pandemic and totally left it up to the governors to decide on whether to shut down America… or not…

The fake prez has been akin to the on vacation, road tripping, antsy, backseat brat, who’s been driving his parents nuts by incessantly whining, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

That’s a fair analogy, seeing how Trump has been feverishly pestering and bullying these same governors to prematurely and recklessly reopen churches, schools and businesses… especially businesses… while COVID-19’s death toll is still skyrocketing.

After all, if they don’t cave into Pollyanna Trump’s unreasonable demands, he won’t be able to perpetuate his get reelected MYTH that America is in post-pandemic mode and returning to normalcy / prosperity?

Of course, deep down, Trump actually loves how COVID-19 has been burying liberal oldsters and people of color… typically, the very voters, who’d never support him. Ergo, his loud and clear message to us has become…

Do your damned duty and DROP DEAD for Wall Street!

Obviously, Fascist Trump’s ‘tude marches in lockstep with genocidal maniacs, who our World History books have been warning us about for ages. For those of us, who’ve been paying, attention, we’re fully aware that autocrats do their damnedest to always make evil shit happen.

Translation: As an asthma compromised old man, I expect corona, Trump’s ally, to eventually snuff me out.

Until then, I find myself besieged by a whole new psychology, which overrules and dims my outlook. I treat the arrival of each joyless day as if it’s my last. Discretionary spending has flown out my slammed shut window, as I wonder which will happen first… the collapse of civil society or my body? Either eventuality, I could easily be robbed of my life.

And so… long sigh… topping off my bucket list is my goal to make it to Election Day’s morning after. I must discover if the pissed off, righteous, American electorate’s felt-tip pens have proven mightier than the Fascist’s sword.

If all goes well, my cast absentee ballot to Constitutionally oust Donald J. Trump (if counted) could be my one last chance to leave my positive mark on my hometown, homeland and home world.

The Cheerleader-In-Chief

The coronavirus crisis, of science denier Donald J. Trump’s own making, has denied Americans their lives and livelihoods on a massive scale. One would expect the bad karma associated with his mucking up Pandemic Management 101 to be sufficient to deny him reelection. But will it?

Not if his ego and power tripping have any say in this matter. It’s fairly safe to say there’s nothing he would not do to snag a second, totally undeserved term. But, how far would he go?

Suppose he knew of an insufficiently tested, potentially dangerous vaccine, which he deemed “perfect” for huckstering just in the nick of time… i.e., one mere week prior to Election Day.

It’s easy to envision dense Donny donning his brilliant red, red state compatible, Santa Claus costume, hitching up Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (a.k.a. Rudy Giuliani) to his loaded with syringes sleigh and flying off all across America. Together, in all sorts of weather, they’d swoop down and land in municipalities great and small. That’s where “St. Nick” would play doctor and shoot up everybody. But, would he flat-out lie to his “patients”? Not disclose the iffiness of this serum?

Factoring in how fact checkers have caught him telling whoppers, tens of thousands of times, since his being sworn in, what would telling one more lie even mean to a pathological liar?

He doesn’t give a flying F about about public safety, either. After all, he’s the very snake oil salesman who’s been known to push the anti-malarial (contraindicated for COVID-19) drug Hydroxychloroquine… to instruct his “patients” to fry their guts with UV radiation and shoot up / mainline household (FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY) disinfectants.

Safe to say, he’d think nothing of morphing people into lab rats / risking more lives.

Of course, seeing how Christmas in July is only a crass, avarice driven, Madison Avenue concept, let’s strip this blog of its Santa Suit.

What we actually have, here, is Donny, the self-proclaimed Cheerleader-In-Chief. All he need do is cheer the people up long enough to vote for him come Election Day. And, were any of his always barren of science, horrific advice to cause his victims to drop dead the very next day… eh… so what? Easy come / easy go… well… at least from that sociopath’s perspective.

Oh, the unmitigated gall of his feeling entitled to a second term… in spite of his own negligence which, so far, has resulted in the needless deaths of 137,000 Americans. Hmm, doth grave digger Donny feel a compulsion to “up” his numbers to 1 Million? 2 Million? 200 Million? More?

Were he to politically bury his Democratic rival, too, it’d be easy to envision DJT reveling in his ill-gotten victory, giddily giggling his fat Fascist fanny off while uttering, “Anyone stupid enough to believe anything I say, deserves to die! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Be his shoddy wares pharmaceutical or rhetorical, street smart people will just say “NO!” to whatever BS dope dealer Donny is pushing. And savvy voters will never allow Donald J. Trump the last laugh.

Not Suffer Fools Gladly

As 1 of 7.8 Billion entrants in the Game of Life, I’ll readily fess up. Emotionally speaking, I’m far from perfect (more about that by blog’s end).

Yet, one hardly need be the epitome of emotional maturity / stability to, first, recognize what’s best for our human family and, next, act promptly, proactively and persistently.

Sacrifices of that nature should be second nature. Doing good, for the greater good, defines selflessness. It matters not if the required curatives, themselves, are elaborate or elementary… painstaking or pain-free… challenging or child’s play.

More to the point, let’s apply all the above to pandemic politics. Let’s start the game’s clock by fleshing and flushing out all, who have the unmitigated gall to call themselves leaders… i.e., the self-absorbed, self-proclaimed know-it-alls, who deny science and, as such, know nothing of consequence. As such, they squander golden opportunities to become the role models to the masses.

Even when this involves the mere child’s play of donning a facial mask, boneheaded heads-of-state throw temper tantrums to display their childishness.

Consequently, mindless people follow their mindless misleaders… i.e., wind up benching themselves in the Game of Life.

And who, pray tell, could ever expect sidelined whiny children to ever emerge as champions?

Such resignation / defeatist attitudes can only aid and abet coronavirus’ worldwide rampage. We, the misled beings are being beaten… some of us (literally) beaten to death by…

A mindless microbe.

Meanwhile, the levelheaded, who’ve been doing our level best to conquer corona, now stand by helplessly witnessing the stunningly unmotivated, maskless masses running amok… partying like there’s no tomorrow… some of these sickos even hosting pandemic parties. If you’ve yet to hear about them, Google the phrase.

They squander humanity’s nearly half-year long gains, which our masked mugs, social isolating, adjourned education and lost livelihoods had established.

They run out the Game of Life’s clock, where it has yet to even be determined if there could ever be a Sudden Death period of play… inclusive of the (hopefully completed) Hail Mary Pass? Long sigh…

To now make good on my post’s opening remark re my far from picture perfect, emotional fitness level…

While my commitment to helping save humanity could never be compromised, my patience towards the boneheaded and blasé now groweth thin. Could anyone blame me for saying…

I do not suffer fools gladly.

Selfless vs. Selfish… Who Will Win?

For this SELFLESS man, the most frustrating part of social isolating has been watching the SELFISH yahoos… be they the misleaders or the misled… undermining… doing their damnedest… to squander our hard-earned gains… every step of the way.

To stand by, helplessly, while witnessing the science denying, effing fool losers… our so-called leaders… not take the coronavirus crisis (of their own making) seriously enough… to watch their chronic, chaotic, compounding blunders thoughtlessly aiding and abetting the spread of this deadly pathogen… has been bad enough.

Even worse has been our standing by, helplessly, while witnessing the science denying, effing fool losers… our so-called leaders… recklessly reopening America… way too fast and way too soon (even “cooking the books” / manipulating the data to make it all appear safe to do so). And that amply demonstrates how they’ve not learned one damned thing from their recent egregious errors.

And so, We the selfless American People, now prepare for yet another round of social isolating… even though we know, fully well, that the selfish will promptly squander any and all of our in the offing, hard-earned gains, too.

We must concede that the science denying, effing fool losers… our so-called leaders… will always prioritize fiscal over physical health.

They feed off life, itself, to fatten up their bottom line.

As such, we are on our own.

While I cannot speak for everyone, this selfless man will be doing his damnedest to flat-out defy each and every science denying, effing fool loser leader… from the top down… who does his damnedest to mislead humanity into an early grave.


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elon musk: i got a covid test four times in one day. ‘two came back negative, two came back positive’

Elon Musk received mixed results when he went to test for Covid-19. The Tesla founder shared he was tested four times using a rapid antigen test: two tests came back positive, and two came back negative.

Musk got the test because he had symptoms of a common cold, which are also the first symptoms of Covid-19.

He’s also awaiting the results from two PCR tests, but the results won’t be known in the next 24 hours.

Musk is suspicious

Musk suspects something strange is going on with the tests for the novel coronavirus.

In his Tweet he states:

Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.

He added that false positives could be the reason we’re witnessing major spikes all over the world. Then he stated:

If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to others. I’m getting PCR tests from separate labs. Results will take about 24 hours.

Speaking about his symptoms, Musk stated that he’s experiencing something similar to a common cold. His tweets went viral, as usual, so even doctors tried to explain what’s going on.

Doctor’s explanation

Dr. Eugene Gu’s explanation may satisfy some of you. For the rest, well, let’s remember that tests aren’t 100 percent accurate.

Dr. Gu tweeted:

It matters what order you received those results. If you had the first two tests come back negative earlier in the day and then the last two tests come back positive later in the day, then it could mean you passed the threshold for detecting the coronavirus as they replicated.

Before talking about Covid tests, Musk asked governors to reopen the economy. He called lockdowns “fascist.”

Just a few months ago he left his followers confused. His tweet was:

Take the red pill.

It followed:

Cancel Cancel Culture!

Musk, a COVID-19 skeptic

Elon Musk and controversy are no strangers. The billionaire has been hinting that there’s some strange conspiracy going on since the beginning of the pandemic.

Unlike Bill Gates, the Tesla founder doesn’t think the Earth is overpopulated. He claimed in 2017:

The world’s population is accelerating towards collapse, but few seem to notice or care.

Just last year Musk said:

Real issue will [be] aging & declining world population by 2050, *not* overpopulation.

Demographics, stratified by age, will look like an upside-down pyramid with many old people & fewer young.

Before his Covid-19 tests and the confusion it caused, Musk, though not a conservative, opposed another round of economic stimulus. He does support Universal Basic Income (UBI).

The self-made billionaire claims:

As a reminder, I’m in *favor* of universal basic income.

He continued explaining his views:

The goal of government should be to maximize the happiness of the people. Giving each person money allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of legislation, which creates self-serving special interests.

Musk’s ideas sound a bit off, but he’s often perceived as a rebellious genius. He further tweeted:

Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo. These are jammed to gills with special interests earmarks. If we do a stimulus at all, it should just be direct payments to consumers.

Is he right, though?

As most of Europe is under the mandatory lockdown, and the States are dealing with the highest number of Covid-19 cases ever, many are having similar thoughts as Musk.

Saying that the virus doesn’t exist is lame, unhinged, and counterproductive. But, regarding the rapid tests, Musk may be onto something. And if there’s one person who can tell us if something is going on in the background, that’s Mister Tesla himself.

And according to his Twitter, he’s not giving up. Musk is a man on a mission!


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Are You in the Scary 70% of Unhappy People at Work?

Apply this method to avoid the pitfall and learn how to love what you do.

The Thrive Global Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.

Coming to work in a state of nirvana is rarely possible and unreal. But coming to work with a positive attitude, ready to face the challenges and come home unaffected, is the superpower we all need to be happy at work.

According to the recent Gallup study, State of the American Workplace 2017, 7 out of 10 workers in the US say they aren’t fully engaged at work. The key reasons were; lack of enthusiasm and inspiration, not having the confidence in the quality of the work they do, and not feeling empowered.

Another study shows that 80% of employees who aren’t happy with their supervisors are disengaged and ultimately, less productive.

Most of these reasons are outside of our influence, or at least we think so? What would happen if that 70 % could change their circumstances? What if that 80 % could become independent of their supervisor’s behavior? We all know that avoiding the situations we dislike is sure easier, but far less efficient than facing them directly and building resilience.

I can speak from my own example. In one of my previous roles, I had a supervisor that had issues dealing with anger and how she approached her team under pressure. The team was afraid of her and eventually started resenting her and avoiding as much as possible. I could have done the same, but instead, I saw all the good things in her and realized that she had an amazing sense of humor, kind heart and just lot’s of insecurities. One day I came to work with a book on anger, that I thought might be helpful and left it on my desk. When she asked about it, I described the book as life-changing and explained how it did wonders for me. I managed to convince her to read it, and she loved it. Later I gave her more recommendations, and I could see that it was benefiting her and the team as well.

What if my boss is great and I still hate my job?

Recently I’ve read an article; “37 Ways to Be Happier at Work” and although those ideas seem like a great plan, it is designed as a reminder for people that are already happy.

If you need a list to teach you to smile, be playful, help out a colleague and think about three positive things, it means that you are disconnected from your inner source of happiness.

It is not in our minds where we need to remember to do good things for others, but in our hearts. And if your heart doesn’t feel the need to be kind, grateful, respectful, calm, free of judgment, hate, and sarcasm, that’s what you should focus on fixing. Everything else just falls into place.

So how do we “fix our hearts”?

Not until we become mindful, we understand that it is not the situations that are making us feel unhappy, it is ourselves that chose how to react to those situations. The permanent high-state experience, so called happiness, can only be truly obtained through dedicated inner work and self-awareness.

The biggest mistake most people make on this so-called “happiness hunt” is not realizing that our happiness is already there. It is the unhappiness that we need to hunt down and remove all the perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes that are blocking our way to happiness.

It is not that we need to learn to see the good in people but unlearn the judgments for those different than us. It’s not love that we need to attract, but remove the hate and resentment from our hearts.

Only then we can learn to be truly happy, at work, in life, relationships, but most importantly within ourselves.

Next time when a thought like “What can I do to find happiness?” comes, ask yourself instead “What is preventing me from experiencing happiness?”

What if it’s not me but the line of work I do?

Fulfillment can come in any shape or form, and it is up to you to decide to find it instead of complaining about the circumstances. See what you find valuable in the service you are providing and draw your inspiration from there. It can be as small as fixing someone’s computer, laughing with a colleague, negotiating a good deal or providing an excellent service and making people happy.

Focus on the things you love about work and if you can’t improve the circumstances, change your mind and the way you look at them. Happiness is not about the things you do, but how you feel about the things you do.

What are the things I can do right now?

Get to know yourself on a deeper level and instead of looking for blame in others, search inside yourself the reason why you reacted. Now that you’ve got your “problem” find a root cause and develop a plan for solving it. The best way to do that is knowledge. Decide on which books to read, seminars to attend, groups to join, and of course, don’t forget to meditate.

If you would like a book recommendation on a specific topic, feel free to e-mail me, connect on LinkedIn, or follow on Medium.

Originally published at

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24 77 Avery Crescent St. Catharines, Ontario L2P 0E5

3 Bedroom 3 Bathroom 2165 sqft
2 Level Central Air Conditioning Forced Air

$210 Monthly

OFFERS ANY TIME !!! Beautiful home in a beautiful setting looking over golf course. Enjoy the condo lifestyle that provides driveway snow removal, front and back lawn service and roadway maintenance while living in a full sized detached family home. Finished styishly throughout, with open concept kitchen and Great room with walk out to deck with the best views over pond - lovely place to enjoy sipping a wine after work ! Upstairs you will find the large loft area - great place for your home office, laundry room and three bedrooms. The primary bedroom boasts a very large ensuite bathroom - 5 pieces - including large tub and large separate shower. A spacious second four piece bathroom completes the floor. Close to 2 golf courses, schools, shops, restaurants and easy highway access. (id:35660)

Property Details

MLS® Number H4107332
Property Type Single Family
Amenities Near By Golf Course
Equipment Type Water Heater
Features Golf Course/parkland, Paved Driveway
Parking Space Total 4
Rental Equipment Type Water Heater

Bathroom Total 3
Bedrooms Above Ground 3
Bedrooms Total 3
Architectural Style 2 Level
Basement Development Unfinished
Basement Type Full (unfinished)
Constructed Date 2015
Construction Style Attachment Detached
Cooling Type Central Air Conditioning
Exterior Finish Brick, Vinyl Siding
Fireplace Present No
Foundation Type Poured Concrete
Half Bath Total 1
Heating Type Forced Air
Stories Total 2
Size Exterior 2165 Sqft
Size Interior 2165 Sqft
Utility Water Municipal Water

Attached Garage

Acreage No
Land Amenities Golf Course
Sewer Municipal Sewage System
Size Depth 94 Ft
Size Frontage 35 Ft
Size Irregular 35.27 X 94.13
Size Total Text 35.27 X 94.13|under 1/2 Acre
Zoning Description R3

Level Type Dimensions
Second Level 4pc Bathroom Measurements not available
Second Level 5pc Bathroom Measurements not available
Second Level Laundry Room 7' 7'' x 6' 7''
Second Level Bedroom 12' 2'' x 11' 10''
Second Level Bedroom 13' 6'' x 9' 10''
Second Level Primary Bedroom 15' 2'' x 13' 7''
Second Level Loft 12' 2'' x 9' 11''
Ground Level 2pc Bathroom Measurements not available
Ground Level Breakfast 12' 8'' x 10' 3''
Ground Level Kitchen 12' 8'' x 11' 2''
Ground Level Great Room 19' 10'' x 13' 0''

Contact us for more information

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True Blood Anyone?

I’m a huge True Blood fan. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to put together a goth day look inspired by Pam of that series. She was bar none my absolute favorite character in that series. Although the final 2 Seasons of True Blood turned into a bit of a convoluted mess the first 4 Seasons still stand strong for me.

For that reason I decided to let Pam be my outfit inspiration today. What a total BABE. I also loved her as the porn star feature dancer in “Dancing at the Blue Iguana”. Your welcome as you will see some of the most fine specimens of the female figure in that film. Not much for story but it is cheesy like Showgirls and the babies are just beautiful. If you want a nice 90’s throwback check out that film as well.

Moving into my interpretation for a day look. I started with my make up. Keeping it simple and classic. Red lip, defined brow and pearl white highlight on my cheekbones. I just got into make up recently. I honestly have never worn foundation in my day to day, bronzer, or highlighters in my life until Monday of this week. I read an article that it adds a barrier between your skin and the sun therefore protecting it from harmful UV rays (See here Allure article). I’m all about self care and preservation so now I’m having a lot of fun playing with blending and highlighters.
Onto the outfit. This is a vintage Fredrick’s of Hollywood dress I found in Ensenada, Mexico for 100 pesos a few years ago. I had to get it altered to fit me as it was a bit big. For some reason I cannot part with this dress. I don’t wear it often but when I do wear it always looks different. You can style it so many ways. I always say Fredrick’s was the porn star version of  Victoria Secret. What is it with me and my porn star references? I’m just now realizing how much they have influenced my personal style.
My patent leather boots I scored online via for about $35 USD from a wholesaler in China. They are my shit kickers. I’ve had them going on 3 years as well and they never let me down. I’ve been thinking of upgrading them to Doc Martens but I’m not a brand obsessed person and these boots have held up so well. I’m all about fashion and function first. Names are totally secondary to personal style. Mostly names mean nothing at all if you don’t know how to wear things that suit you, your body and your personal style.
This translucent mesh back pack I got as a gift from a local boutique owner here last Xmas Season in Playas de Tijuana. The shop these where at is called Synthia’s Boutique if you live in Tijuana.
I went with a low ballet bun. My cap is from Bongo and I again found that here in Playas de Tijuana for 30 pesos (about 1.50 USD) at the Monday flea market. It was a steal for it still having the tags on. Retail was $15 USD. Still a steal.
Total look cost today
Hat : 1.50
Earrings: 1.00
White Button Down Top: 10.00
Faux Leather Dress: 5.00
Patent Leather Combat Boots: 35.00
Total: 52.50
Remember to put your best foot forward everyday because life is too short to blend in.
Tiffini Truth

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MIDI plc recently announced that it had signed a joint venture agreement for the development of a 14,000 square metre business centre to be situated on Pjazza Tigné at Tigné Point.

The joint venture called Mid Knight Holdings Limited was signed with Benny Holdings Ltd., a company owned by Mr Mark Weingard, an international business entrepreneur and Malta resident. Commenting on the agreement, Mr Weingard stated, ‘The new business centre at Tigné Point has all the makings of a world class development.  Set within an outstanding environment, this iconic building is set to tap into the growing demand for high quality, centrally located office accommodation that Malta now commands. The ability to add a top notch commercial investment to my Malta portfolio was too good an opportunity to miss’.

The transfer of the site took place for an aggregate consideration of eleven million and seven hundred thousand euro (€11,700,000) payable by the Joint Venture to the MIDI Group.

MIDI’s Board of Directors stated that the development of the business centre required long-term capital resources and was best undertaken jointly with a strategic partner, in line with the Company’s overall aims to ensure the best use of its existing capital resources.

Echoing Mr Weingard’s views, MIDI CEO Luke Coppini added, ‘Everything is now set to commence on this important component within the mixed-use development at Tigné Point. Mr Weingard brings a wealth of international experience to the project and we look forward to jointly bringing this much anticipated business centre to fruition’.


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October 11, 2017 8:08 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she plans to give away political contributions from Harvey Weinstein as part of her annual charity donations.

“What my former colleagues are saying is they’re going to donate it to charity, and of course I will do that,” she told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “I give 10% of my income to charity every year, and this will be part of that. There’s no doubt about it.”

Several Democratic lawmakers said that they will donate the money they received from Weinstein to charities that help women following an explosive report in the New York Times report that revealed the Hollywood mogul and major Democratic donor had amassed three decades worth of sexual harassment allegations. Weinstein contributed more $20,000 to Clinton’s campaigns since she ran for U.S. Senate in New York in 1999, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Clinton’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment and additional details about where that money would go. On Tuesday, Clinton released a statement claiming she was “shocked and appalled” by the revelations about Weinstein, and praised the women who had spoken out against him. That same day, more allegations emerged; The New Yorker reported that three women claimed Weinstein had raped them, and the Times reported more allegations from high-profile figures like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. A spokesperson for Weinstein denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex” in response to both reports.

In her interview with Zakaria, Clinton reiterated the sentiments she expressed in her statement, and said she had no idea any of this had transpired. “This was a different side of a person who I and many others had known in the past,” she said. “I was just sick, I was shocked, I was appalled.”

Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com.

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Just because I look like a duck and quack like a duck, it’s still a pretty stubborn ‘gray area.’

(God’s Sonnet by Timothy J. Verret; it’s how I cope to hope in “He Potter” to mold “Me Free” of stubbornness)

You got this stubborn streak about your race.

You did not ask for it; just born that way.

Or was it chicken or egg first? Birthplace?

Chances are you got hurt really bad. Clay

is my way. I need someone to mold me

“right,” because stubborn am I. Full of pride.

“You won’t mold me to fit you!” I foresee

trauma from you. God must potter my stride.

“You have made me clay but to dust again?”

Job Ten:9 – God spits on dust to make clay!

We can go back to dust, you know. To men

stubborn, eating rotten fruit and blame “they.”

When stubborn, we tolerate God’s Leeway.

Look like a duck, quack like a duck….that’s gray!

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