What does it mean when a guy writes xoxo to a girl at the ...

when a man writes xo

when a man writes xo - win

100K PARTY

100K PARTY OPEN MIC, SATURDAY THE 13TH, 5PM EST ON THE POETRY DISCORD - CHECK BELOW FOR DETAILS
Welcome everyone to OCP’s 100K party! There’s an open bar tonight, so get yourself a drink and settle in.
Usually events like this would be hosted by u/gwrgwir, but unfortunately he’s been called away by the Queen, to assist Amanda Gorman with a highly important mission - something about the ghost of William Blake, terrorising Simon Armitage’s succulents.
I’d like to begin with saying that we’d like this not only to be a celebration of OCP, but a celebration of the Reddit poetry community as a whole - not all of you will know this, but there’s a lot of love between the poetry subs, many of the mods and other long-term members have forged lasting friendships and created amazing projects together. And we’re a really quite incestuous bunch.
Definitely take the time to check out our sister sub poetry, which is the place for the discussion and appreciation of published works. collectiveworks, which is a project to bring together top-notch poetry from all across Reddit. poetry_critics, which is an excellent workshop sub, checkout their sidebar for some detailed guides on the craft and their ‘hall of fame’ for some astounding poetry. PoetsWithoutBorders, who are a small, but vibrant group of friendly and supportive poets.I’m sure that we all know and love shittypoetry. On the other end, i’ve recently discovered a very tasty sub, foodhaikus. And last, but not least, I implore you to never go near, look at, or even think about ocpoetrycirclejerk - just pretend that it never existed.
I must have missed so many excellent poetry subs, so definitely shoutout any I've forgotten in the comments.

Sub history and a word from the Gwr

March 2014 - u/Garyp714 and u/Jessicay started the split between Poetry and OCPoetry. Much work was done. Some drinks were had.
May 2014 - The first mod call opens on Poetry for OCPoetry. u/Gwrgwir, u/GnozL, u/Seraph_Grymm and others answer the call. Many drinks were had.
Later in May 2014 - Poetry started shifting OC to OCPoetry. It was determined that the primary goal of this sub was to be workshopping, which meant that the mod team would provide feedback to those who didn't receive any. Many late nights and a copious amount of drinking assisted in this noble goal.
2015/16, somewhere around 20-30K subscribers, the 2x feedback rule is introduced. Lots of drinks were had. Mods still helped out with user feedback, and changed flairs manually. Even more drinks were had all around in celebration.
2017/18, we were at about 40k subscribers, and while the feedback rule remained in place, we removed the flair system (it was getting to be too much work for too small a team). Oh god, so many more drinks were had all around in celebration.
2019/2020 we hit 50k subscribers at the beginning of the pandemic. An absurd amount of drinking happened worldwide.
(Disclaimer: excessive drinking can cause both short, and long term memory loss, this timeline is only a loose representation of the actual history of OCP. In fact, it is widely agreed by modern scholars that the true history of OCP, which is now lost to the dark corners of Reddit, involved even more drinking)
And that brings us to now - a bit over 6 and a half years running, and we're hitting 100K subscribers. That's insane for a niche sub, to my mind. 100,000 different people want to see what other poets like them write on a nominally regular basis. It makes my heart and what's left of my liver swell with pride (well, maybe the liver swelling's due to all the drinking). I mean, holy schnikes. 100,000 unique individuals who care enough about writing and workshopping poetry that they're going to click a little button on their device of choice and potentially see something you wrote - and maybe even give you feedback on it. I'd say poets would kill for that sort of exposure, but I know we're all starving artists and more likely to kill that dollapound/what-have-you menu at our local foodery establishment. Sure, I'm not around as much as I used to be - but available time has no effect on the care I have for this place/you collective lot of absolute madlads and lassies. I'm reminded of the Liverpool FC theme song, but to save your ears and my sanity, I'll refrain from making a horrifying attempt at singing it and possibly summoning something from the Lovecraft mythos in the process. Instead, I'll raise a (figurative to you but very real to me, and soon to be very empty in order so that it can be refilled) glass with something unspecified in it (that smells suspiciously like good whiskey). Here's to 100K subs - and here's to 100K more. Slàinte Mhaith.

A little love from CG

The history of this niche poetry workshop sub isn’t only it’s divisions, and structural changes, or leaders, and etc., but more fundamentally it’s history is yours; after all it’s your indiscriminate daily devotion, maybe weekly, maybe monthly, maybe yearly eyes, which snag on titles and leave excited comments - maybe only comments to post your own writing, but still...those are engagements that could push another’s life in an alternative direction. They did for me.
And believe it or not, folks, I haven’t been around here forever. In fact, reading u/gwirgwr’s history blurb, I’ve hardly been here for more than a quarter of the journey! And now I’m *here*, and all of us are *here*, or aren’t, but most importantly your writing continues to be read and encouraged by others in this little rectangle of light, laying on a counter to my left; it’s 10:00 PM and I’m writing this when the sub is teetering over ~98,000. It’s the end of the first day of a new virtual semester (Go Tar Heels etc. etc.) and I’m chowing down on some lentils and homemade French fries. The Exxon gas stations around this bend in highway 54 gleam, somewhat like the immeasurable light from a dozen Bodhi trees — for real.
I’m scrolling desktop OCPoetry and reading all of your wonderful poems. I’m reminded of posting my first poem here just about three years ago, and then having it promptly removed by Automod for not having any feedback links; like what? I have to give feedback to receive it? Not that I particularly enjoy stories which overemphasize some great, mechanistic chain of events, but since then, this sub has massively altered the trajectory of my life. Now, I am actually enjoying my classes, uniting my daily writing with a practice of Buddhism and listening to my late grandfather’s vinyl records. This year, I hope to put-out a few limited releases for some handmade books from a personal press. Below, I’ll be sharing an early version of one of those projects!!! And this is all to say thank you to this vibrant, encouraging, and challenging sub. And when I talk about *this sub*, I mean *you*; yes, you — and all of your encouraging/careful/uncircumcised/silly/thoughtful/rubbish/deliciously (in)human comments, your feedback hustling, and your ducking stupid brilliant poems.
all of that mess, including our rag-tag oligarchy of top-of-the-goddamn-line moddies (myself ever so included) working to produce this conglomerate of a subreddit, which has just suddenly tipped into utter fame and fandom — 100,000; one hundred thousand; well, ok, it’s just a number — just a number, and, yeah, but just get a look at all those zeros...man, that’s Fortune 500 resume material right there, right? So, let’s pick up the pace, folks. Keep writing consistently; keep reading obsessively; keep workshopping each other, remembering to question and challenge your writing just as much as others; keep on keeping on, yo. Aaaaannnndd, now, here is some cool shit that’s happened in our utterly brief existence:

Cool shit from Reddit poetry

The Best of OCP
These are compilations of the top 100 karma earners for each year, pieced together lovingly by the mods - Year 5 was actually the first time I got any of my work in a thing. I went out and told all of my friends, and they were like ‘I don’t know what that is, but I am very happy for you’ - Year 6 even includes top picks from the mods.
Year 1-3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
The Gwr collection
A little collection of works, from users of this very sub.
Casual G’s bit and bobs
FlarfVanity
OCP’s most loveable mod feeds you a near-endless stream of a niche form, of a niche artform - free flarf for the flarf lovers / flarf to the max / flarf is no flarfing matter / flarfing all over your face / the good flarf.
Casual's ongoing book project [cattle]
Casual's Ekphrastic chapbook
Casual's Dope Spreadsheet of Mags/Presses/& Random Links
The Machine Poetry Collection
This was a fun little project that CG and I put together with u/wassname from the Perth Machine Learning Group, for the Perth Fringe Festival a few years back - I distinctly remember that they had created a ‘poetry battle robot’. I never got to see the thing in action, but it sounded terrifying.
Dovecote
This gorgeously conceived online publication, which has been created by long-term users of OCP and Poetry, is best summarised through its mission statement: “Dovecote Magazine is an inclusive, quarterly poetry journal that publishes the work of established and emerging writers.We seek to confront the 21st century headlong and with humanity. To publish poetry that feels crisp and new; poetry that explores rough edges of humanity instead of attempting to smooth them.”
I hear that, for the moment, they’re on a brief hiatus, so definitely keep on checking in for more outstanding poetry - or to keep an eye out for when to submit.
OracleBone
Although they’ve yet to publish their first issue, Oraclebone is absolutely worth a mention, as it’s currently being pieced together by a few long-term users of various Reddit poetry subs; u/Lastliondance, u/Garmo738 & u/W33nuz - these guys are all fantastic poets, each with a strong eye for good poetry (that’s three strong eyes). Check Oraclebone for updates, and the next submissions window.
We/Poetry
Volume 1 Volume 2
This amazing poetry project was created with the goal of showcasing some of the best work from OCP. Each issue contained ten of the most upvoted poems from that month, seven that were voted for by the users of the sub, and three chosen by the mods - sadly this only lasted for two issues, as u/Sam_Gribley was unable to find the time between life, the universe and everything.
Series on the craft from our Wiki
Poetry Primer
Bad Poetry
The Body PoeticPoetry HacksA Brief History of Rhyme
Feedback Forum
u/Beumuth’s Feedback Terminology
Anyone starting out in the fantastical world of poetry, need look no further than our Wiki for detailed guides on how this magical language is pieced together. This is where I learnt to write poetry, and look at me now, there’s two real life books on my shelf with some of my poetry in, that I didn’t even make myself. And i’ve got a button that I press that makes my username go green, for when I need to tell people off for being naughty. I mean, it’s not much, but give it a few years.
I’m sure i’ve only scraped the surface of the amazing projects that have been created through the years, in our wonderfully niche corner of the internet - despite my digging, I couldn't find links for loads of really cool shit. Definitely chuck a comment down below if there’s anything you remember, or anything you want to share.

OCP’s 100k party open mic

We will be hosting an open mic on the Poetry Discord to celebrate, absolutely everyone is welcome - but please make sure to familiarise yourself with how the system works, before getting involved.Here is a quick newbs guide:
  1. get yourself an account on Discord
  2. Follow this link to join the Poetry Discord server
  3. Get on to the #Openmic channel when the event is due to begin (always double check your timezones and arrive a little early)
  4. We have a bot setup to create a queue, you can join this queue when the host uses the ‘$startopenmic’ command in the text channel. You’ll find the commands that you can use in the text channel, below:
$join - Add yourself to the queue $whoNext - who is next? $queue - lists the whole queue $remove - remove yourself from the queue
  1. You’ll be prompted in the text channel when it’s your turn to read in the voice channel - make sure that when you’re not reading, you’re muted on the voice channel - and that’s pretty much it. Read a couple of poems, remember that you can always add yourself into the queue again to read more. And the most important thing is, that if you’re feeling nervous, that’s good, that’s part of the excitement of the experience - read slow and allow the listeners space to appreciate your words.

Tell us what you love about poetry on Reddit

We want to hear all your shoutouts to amazing subs, projects, publications, books and guides etc. that’ve come out of the Reddit poetry community through the years. We absolutely want to hear about your favourite users; the best poems you’ve read, the best feedback you’ve received. Tell us about how amazing it felt the first time you had a poem published. Or you may feel compelled to add to this wall-of-text with a good, long, gushing comment about what this community has done for you.
I’d like to end by saying that I have spiked the punch, but don’t worry, they’re very good drugs from a reputable source - also that, this community has an absolute glut of talent. As I've said in other gushy mod posts, we’re cresting the wave, what you’re creating day-in, day-out, is the freshest of fresh new poetry. What’s in the folds of your grey matter, in the beds of your fingernails or the tip of your tongue, could be the next big thing. And it all starts here. So let’s all raise a glass to cliched and poorly conceived attempts at inspirational speeches at the end of long, gushy posts, and to this beautiful fucking community. Cheers!
See you all again at the 1M party.
TLDR; our sub got 100,000 subscribers, so we all got drunk and created a wall-of-text confessing our love.
one million and five edits: I think we can all agree that the current Reddit text editor is a fucking bastard when it comes to formatting.
submitted by ParadiseEngineer to OCPoetry [link] [comments]

[FINDS] My 2020 Taobao purchases AKA coping in 2020 part 1

Disclosure: I didn't receive any kind of discount for this. I am out of random quarantine hobbies to distract me from the world and need to fill the void of having someone compliment my outfit and being able to respond with, “Thanks, it was $5 at the thrift store”
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My mood board~
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I found /RepLadies at the beginning of lockdown. I was furloughed and fortunate enough to spend this time at home. My phone screen time went from 2 hours a day to 6. Thanks, Taobao. I exhausted every random hobby my ADHD ass could find, from stick n poke tattoos to playing music for my plants (that were already tired of me annoying them pre-pandemic) to vegan cooking to making bongs etc etc etc. I lost HELLA weight and started lifting around this time and was tired of looking like a weight loss commercial with my pants 10 inches from my belly, so I purged my closet and FINALLY had an excuse to shop my ass off after lurkin repladies forever
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For reference: I'm 5'2", 115\~ lbs and am all legs no torso. My style has never stayed in one lane, leaning toward goth hypebeast kingdom hearts character to bell bottoms, afghan coats and Farrah Fawcet hair. Here's me trying to streamline that and find basic versatile pieces that are cozy/not black like the rest of my closet/I can build a lot of fits around/can transition from being outside to straight to bed. Also sorry about the scary door everything's hanging on, my house is 200 years old and if I put another layer of paint on these mfs i'm positive the whole place will come down
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Majority of these were bought through Sugargoo. Some from Superbuy, from whom I'm still waiting on a pretty big birthday haul ordered back in November :'( Maybe they'll arrive in time for part two.
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Anyways, here are some budget finds~~~
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The good:
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Not sure if dupes of anything but still good:
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Meh
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LOL
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Anyways! Thanks for sticking around. When I have some time off from work next week I will start on part 2.
submitted by seabothsides to RepLadies [link] [comments]

A review and analysis of the paneling in Chapter 1002 (Chapter 1002 spoilers)

One Piece has fantastic paneling. The layout of the page, the careful placement of black and white, the implicit lines and shapes that help direct the eye and make motion clear. Oda employs countless subtle techniques to enhance the reading experience. Not just to make the action more clear, but to tell part of story visually.
I wrote an analysis a while back of the paneling during Luffy vs. Katakuri. I'm here to do that again, for Chapter 1002.
One key principle you should know going in, is the fact that manga is read from right to left. So every page is designed to flow in that direction. Motion within a panel will be more vivid if it's moving left, and the flow of a page overall will often go left and down. Or the order of what the eye should look at will follow a diagonal zigzag, leftward at the start then diagonally rightward down as the eye goes to the next row of panels. These aren't hard rules; they can be broken for many interesting purposes that we'll go over soon.
Also, I will be linking to the pages so you can easily see what I'm describing, but obviously you should read the official release first if it's available in your region.

Pages 1-2

Pages 3-4

  • The tension is released. Luffy sends Kaido's head flying. Your eyes are drawn, to the speech bubble, then straight to Luffy, then upward diagonally along Kaido's neck and toward his head. The motion matches the way the eye moves, and there's a strong contrast between Luffy and the foreground and Kaido's head in the background that enhances the sense of how hard Luffy hit him.
    • That said, I find this page slightly unclear, as Kaido's head is already flying so far away that it feels unclear what Luffy actually hit. When Luffy hits someone smaller and they fly away, there's no visual ambiguity that he just hit them, but my first thought upon seeing this page was "Is Luffy hitting Kaido's chest?"
  • The rest of this double page is a mixed bag. The eye goes toward the second speech bubble, then diagonally down to Kaido's head and Kid's charge. I like Kid's strong leftward movement, and the gradual zoom in on Kaido and his mech's heads. But the flow of it is strange. I'm not sure if the third panel was actually necessary to convey anything, and the zoom in is odd when it goes from medium panel, to small panel, to large vertical pane. The camera is so zoomed in on them that following what Kid is doing is a little harder than it needed to be.

Pages 5-6

  • The first panel has a great diagonal flow, from Kid, down Kaido's body, to the breaking rocks that give a sense of how powerful the slam is. I like the one-two combo of Luffy hitting Kaido up, then Kidd slamming him down, that we see in the different diagonal flows each of their pages use.
  • Unfortunately, Law feels like he yet again suffered from Oda not having enough panel time to show his action. Kaido noticing Law is conveyed by a tight panel of Law where we don't actually see Kaido seeing anything. Law's dodge is alright, with the sense of time between Kaido first biting and then Law barely rolling away. But there's no sense of where Law was, why Kaido chose to attack him next, or where Law teleported away to. His teleport panels once again have almost no reference for where he is. At least the panel of the Gamma Knife is really cool.

Pages 7-8

  • The first panel of Kaido is just cool, with the shot of his body trailing behind him with that great sense of depth between the foreground and background. This shot is important to the choreography and rhythm of the fight; Kaido spent so much time being hit, not in control, that we needed this to re-establish his presence and that he's trying to regain control.
  • Killer starts with more of leftward movement, but then we see him moving right as he tries to attack Kaido and fails. By reversing the direction of Kid's motion to be against the eye's direction, it "breaks" the flow, giving the same interrupted, wrong feeling that Killer does when he fails to cut Kaido.
  • But Killer isn't done, as we get more leftward running, building up his momentum. Kaido's scales provide a great background and visual reference for him to run against, giving a sense that he's really moving better than if it was against a blank background. Then, the panel of him spinning up his blades does two things: Serves as another small panel cliffhanger for the attack to come, and sets up the rotational motion we're about to see more of, in the same way that Luffy's G4 fists drawn back into his arm creates tension.
  • My favorite thing about Killer's weird attack on Kaido is the uniqueness of the imagery. Sure, we could talk about how the panel is dominated by the sense of rotational motion that Kaido is pulled within. But I think what really matters here is that the raw visual of Killer doing such a thing feels new. I have no idea how his attack works, but it's so much more interesting to see than him just doing a generic slash that could have made him Zoro-lite. One Piece is a visual story, and I much prefer an attack that looks weird and different than a generic one with a text explanation of what makes it special.
  • Now, the eye moves diagonally right and down, first seeing Killer running downwards, then Kaido's head as it attempts to escape to the right. It feels like Killer is chasing Kaido, which makes me chuckle when Killer is on Kaido's on body. Of course, the real purpose of this panel is to be interrupted yet again.
  • The panel of a burst of light is actually quite clever — it's essentially going into Killer's own vision, and establishing that there's light so the next panel makes sense. Now we have the context to understand that the harsh shadows on Killer's body are implying something extremely bright has just showed up outside of the reader's view. Killer is looking off-panel, where the light source is coming from, and even in the panel of him chasing Kaido, we were cut off from seeing what was to the right of them. All this creates another great page-turn cliffhanger for what Killer is seeing.

Pages 9-10

  • The answer to that cliffhanger is Big Mom. I like the big shot of the massive lightning bolt (with the right diagonal down and left flow), with Killer barely even visible. It conveys the sheer scale of what's happening, that Killer is irrelevant in the face of. This shot also returns to the same background of the establishing shot of Big Mom and Kaido's powers, something I would argue is meant to convey that godly power is being showcased (more later).
  • Moving on to page 10, the first two panels are a fantastic example of how the paneling can be part of the story. Kaido is overconfidently gloating toward Killer, only to have forgotten to check behind him as Luffy surprises him with an attack. The paneling is key to this, as we get a tight shot that doesn't show what's behind Kaido, and with most of the right side of the panel obscured by Kaido and the speech bubble. This gives the sense that we don't know what's behind Kaido, and, like him, are focused on what's in front of him. But the camera turns, and in the next panel we see that Luffy was there, punishing Kaido for his inattention. But despite the strange flow, from Kaido, to what's in front of him, to what's behind him, the camera angles are just right that we maintain a leftward, diagonally down flow to what draws the eye.
  • But Kaido isn't as hurt this time. Something important, this chapter, is the distance between Luffy and Kaido. When they're about to clash, we see Luffy up and close, such as on page 2, which feels like they're about to be repelled apart like two magnets. When Luffy has done a lot of damage, we see Kaido's head far from Luffy, like on page 3, with Kaido's neck stretching directly away. However, this time, Kaido's head is only a small distance away from Luffy, and his neck is curving perpendicular to the direction Luffy attacked him in. It's a more sturdy position. All of this is exactly why, even though Kaido's face is small and not very clear, it's easy to tell from the panel that Luffy didn't do much damage and Kaido is unfazed.
  • The next panel does a lot to tell the story despite being so small and, on the surface, simple. When Luffy and Kaido are about to clash, we see them both. But here, Kaido is attacking after Luffy was ineffective, and there's nothing Luffy can do about it. The panel focuses only on Kaido to show Luffy's irrelevance to what is about to happen. It also sets up that Kaido's attack will be right-facing, which is important later.
  • But despite the obviously set up cliffhanger, which could have come right before a page turn, we're interrupted to see Law and Zoro. Why did the chapter interrupt the action?

Pages 11-12

  • Kaido's attack was interrupted in the paneling to match how, as the cliffhanger is resolved, the attack itself is interrupted by Zoro. The flow here is just awesome, from Luffy's body, through the negative space Zoro opens up in the attack, to Zoro and Kaido.
  • The rest of the panels on this page are all about setting up Zoro's incoming attack. We see Zoro above and to the right of Kaido, holding his sword back in the air, priming us to expect an attack that comes down toward Kaido. The shots alternate between reactions, and Zoro himself, giving the charge-up and dramatic rhythm. The shots of Zoro go from showing his position relative to Kaido, the haki aura around Enma, and his own intense expression. And we end on extremely tight, narrow shots, to give a sense of speed, that the attack is imminent.
  • The payoff to that setup is massive, with destruction on the scale of Onigashima itself. The flow is clear; from the speech bubble at the top, the eye is drawn along the line of the slash. The diagonal flow is extremely deliberate — notice that if the camera angle was level, the slash would have been horizontal. Instead, Oda used a tilted angle to make it match the direction. On top of that, the tilted angle helps the moment feel unstable, just like the power Zoro is bringing out with Enma.
  • The rest of the page is a great example of how the simple order of panels is part of the story. We see Kaido and Big Mom's reactions to what Zoro did before we see Zoro's realization that he missed. This makes it feel like Kaido and Big Mom are still steps ahead, faster, and sets up that Big Mom is going to be able to counter before Zoro is ready to do anything about it.
  • The flow of the last three panels is good, and is a solid example of how sound effects are also used to direct the eye. The eye is drawn from Zoro, to Luffy's body. Without the sound effects, it would probably be drawn by the diagonal lightning bolt, taking it to the bottom of the final panel first. Instead, the sound effects are thicker and darker, taking the eye from Luffy along them to the speech bubble at the top of the final panel.

Pages 13-14

  • We return to the imagery the chapter began with; Big Mom and Kaido flying side by side with the dark clouds. This time, the mountains aren't white, but are dark, shadowed by the lightning Big Mom is calling down. She is literally inflicting darkness on the land with her powers. Oda is clever.
  • Luffy is then hit by a lightning bolt. But Oda has done something extremely clever. Every other character, when hit by lightning, has been harshly shadowed by it, appearing extremely dark. Killer, Zoro, Law, and even the land itself. Because of this, it feels like the same thing is happening to Luffy, that he's affected by it in the same way.
    • But, Luffy isn't drawn in black because of the lightning. He's already black, because Gear 4. The x-ray effect is a visual red herring, a facade that Luffy is being damaged, as Big Mom doesn't realize the thing that all of us readers already know: Luffy is a rubber man. This little art trick has essentially been used to make it visually seem like Luffy is affected like the others, only to subvert that.
  • Skipping ahead a bit, we see Luffy flying up in front of Big Mom and Kaido. This is my favorite panel in the chapter. Let's talk about why:
    • The chapter has consistently established the imagery of Big Mom and Kaido floating with the dark clouds above the land. They're fundamentally associated with it; we're meant to think of it when we think of them. It's their visual motif.
    • Big Mom begins to call down lightning, and we later see this shot of them associated with Big Mom's lightning.
    • The allusion to Enel is obvious. Beings in the sky among the clouds, calling down lightning. Big Mom and Kaido are not literal gods, but we're meant to associate them with the idea of godhood. This is matched by how the godly power, lightning, is easily taking out almost all of their opponents.
    • However, right after associating them with gods, the story also reminds us that Luffy is immune to lightning and is god's natural enemy. And it shows this with the same shot and imagery of Big Mom and Kaido floating in the clouds, except Luffy has showed up in front of them. Not next to, not behind, but in front of them, more important than them, literally blocking Kaido from being seen. He has entered their domain and is usurping on their visual space.
    • This one small panel is working with everything else the chapter had established beforehand to give the feeling that Luffy is reaching the same level as the emperors, the gods of the pirate world.
  • After that, we get a small little trick I talked about in my Luffy vs. Katakuri analysis. Just two shots of Big Mom and Luffy's faces, followed by two panels below them that are zooming in on their faces. I just like stuff like that.
  • In the last panel Kaido blasts Luffy with another diagonal down leftward attack. Except...

Pages 15-16

  • Luffy shakes it off, pulling off a visual reversal on Kaido by now being shown to Kaido's upper right, closing in on him in the same direction Kaido had attacked him in.
  • The next few panels are another alternating back and forth between Luffy and Kaido, building a rhythm and some tension. The setup panel for the final attack is a bit different from the ones before in this chapter. Instead of showing us the attack being charged and readied, it's the first hit. And yet that still serves as setup, because of how much Luffy is about to hit Kaido.
  • The final panel has fantastic composition, and is my second favorite in the chapter. The diagonal downward and leftward motion of Luffy's attack is only scratching the surface.
    • The panel has two focal points, Luffy and Kaido. Our attention is drawn to them by having Luffy be dark and Kaido by white, while Luffy's fists all point us directly toward Kaido.
    • Luffy's body is round, and that sense of circular roundness is enhanced by the clouds circling around him. This makes Luffy feel sturdy, firm, like the one power is emanating out of rather than the one on the receiving end.
    • The composition curves around Luffy, but draws toward Kaido. Each one of Luffy's punches, again, points us toward the center, like they're all being gravitationally sucked into Kaido, where the background lines also radiate out from.
    • To sum up the composition in two shapes, Luffy is a circle, and Kaido is a star. And it makes it feel like Luffy is emitting power that's all being concentrated right toward Kaido.

Conclusion

Chapter 1002's paneling is pretty great. It has its weak points — like many chapters in Wano, it feels ever so slightly limited by its page count. There are moments that could have gotten more space, and moments with Law's powers and Kid's movement that feel like they could have been more clear, and like Oda could have found a more interesting way to visually convey what was happening. Even my favorite panel in the chapter is something that could have made for an epic double page spread, but was instead small and easy to miss.
But those moments are the minority. Most of the chapter has excellent paneling. When characters are moving, Oda finds ways to make that motion clear, both through solid, basic principles of paneling, and finding clever little ways to take advantage of those principles for whatever each moment needs. Every page is carefully drawing the eye to the next point. And when you read it carefully, letting the paneling pull you to where you should look next, instead of just glancing over the image and seeing if the linework is messy or rough, you start to appreciate how carefully Oda draws. The layouts of the pages, the camera angles, the framing, they aren't just there to make the action look cool and dramatic, but to be a part of the storytelling. Killer's surprise at an unexpected attack, Kaido's overconfident gloating toward Killer only to be caught by surprise himself, or Luffy's ascension to the level of his opponents.
The sheer density of panels that have something to say about them, something to analyze about their purpose and effects, is just incredible.
I did not wait for a chapter with some of the best paneling in the series before writing a review. I, completely arbitrarily, decided to write about the paneling this week, before I had even looked closely at whether it was good or bad. To me, that says that if you picked any action-based chapter in the recent story, you could likely find as much to say about its paneling as I did here.
submitted by potentialPizza to OnePiece [link] [comments]

Jane’s obsession with male approval is pretty sad

First time poster- be kind pls! Offering a controversial opinion and I want people’s thoughts! I’m watching series 4 now and have had to pause it because I realise I hate Jane, so much.
Does anyone find Jane’s obsession with male approval sort of gross and disappointing? Initially I liked Jane as a character but by season 2 I was starting to get frustrated. Her character arc is so repetitive now (I’m watching season 4 currently). It just seems like she flits from one man to another and then to another, using them for her validation and then moving onto the next once she’s invariably screwed it up. I was so disappointed when she sabotaged Petra and Raphael out of selfishness and jealousy. I feel the writing really lacks here, her feelings are never properly developed and everything seems impulsive but unbelievably so. It’s now just become banal viewing because it’s so ridiculous. Even the way Jane was obsessed with her virginity- (to the point where I had to skip over scenes of her whining to Xo for reassurance for the 100th time) - then didn’t respect Fabian’s abstinence because she was suddenly obsessed with sex. The hypocrisy is mind blowing. I also hated the way she really intellectually condescended him when he was trying to learn from her. I thought that was super ugly. And am I the only one who sees Jane as averagely intelligent in a very limited book sense, without any rounding or real life experience to build a more rounded form of intelligence? Maybe it’s just me but I never really got where her genius persona was based and her writing is so basic and lacks any nuance or refinement. I just find Jane’s character switches and changing love interests are so ridiculous and out of character for someone who’s let’s face it- pretty boring (sorry 😂).
The lack of female friendships in Jane’s life is also pretty telling. She depends on Lina for a year after Michael’s death and then ices out her friend because she finally finds direction and happiness. Yes they make up but this is - once again- due to someone Jane is dating who she listens to and then acts to salvage the friendship.
I have to be honest I’m pretty over Jane and her selfish superiority complex at this point. I also feel like the writers have really enabled these non admirable aspects of her character and prevented her having real growth. I’ve read Gina played a significant role in the writing and tbh watching her public implosion and problematic-ness, I see a lot of parallels between her and Jane’s self righteous narcissism. Consistently dropping gorgeous and lovely man after man in Jane’s path for her to obsess over, date then screw over and then decide she wants to go back to again - ruining other people’s lives in the process. It’s just not believable that these men willingly let themselves be used and then hang about for Jane to decide what she wants. And her seeking their approval at all times rather than building some self love and strong friendships or actually caring about her families issues more than her own for once, it’s so unhealthy. Something about her just doesn’t sit well with me. The judgement, the treating people like they’re disposable objects, obsession with the male gaze, fickleness. Although the season I’m on right now was written in 2017/18, it feels really outdated. At this point I sort of want to stop watching but am invested for the sake of more interesting characters: Petra, Xo/Ro, Michael (yes I read spoilers on his return).
submitted by jbelangire to JaneTheVirginCW [link] [comments]

What is Your Opinion on the Impending Impeachment?

I've been hearing a lot of heated opinions one way and the other surrounding the upcoming impeachment, and I would like to know what you all think. I've been thinking about it for a while now, trying to wrap my head around arguments in favor of and against. Looking at the basis of some the most common disagreements, then trying to see which ones match up with the law. I suppose I've really just been trying to figure out what a level-headed take is. As I've said in a previous post made in the days following the siege of the US Capitol by a few thousand rabid Pro-Trump rioters: while I believe that we can (and should) hold Trump morally responsible for his reckless speech (be warned; it's one Hell of a long-winded rant) on the sixth and the two months prior, I am skeptical there is any standing to hold him legally accountable for the violence which occurred. Allow me to explain.
On Monday, January 11th the House of Representatives filed an article of impeachment, charging then President Trump with "high crimes and misdemeanors" — the Constitutional requirement for impeachment. The House asserted
"Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States".
And therein lies the issue. Now, before I move on I think I should say that I think there have been more than enough examples where Trump has engaged in low-level corruption sufficient to meet the standard for "Misdemeanors" (ex. attempting to house US soldiers at one of his properties in Scotland). But in the United States, the bar for incitement is set incredibly high. High enough that I believe any private citizen in his place would not likely to be found guilty under circumstances similar to what occurred at the Capitol. In 1969, Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444 established the so-called Brandenburg Test which stands now today with regards to what does, and does not constitute incitement under the law. Said test, means not only that a person has made a specific and credible call to violence, but also that the following criteria be met:
  1. The speech is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, AND
  2. The speech is likely to incite or produce such action.
By my best estimations, while Trump's speech (and the two months leading thereto) was arguably sufficient to meet the second requirement, it still falls short of the first. That is, insofar as while the speech (again, linked above) was certainly inflammatory, Trump did not ever make any specific calls to action as required to establish incitement under current US law. Other examples of inflammatory speech which also fall short would be music which ennobles, glorifies, or encourages violence (I love me some Cannibal Corpse), calls for people to "Punch a Nazi", "Hang all Communists", or a politician claiming members of the opposing party are killing people because they don't support some policy said politician espouses. The point is a call to action needs to be made and it has to be specific; Trump's bloviating (however reckless) doesn't meet the standard.
You might hear some say:
"The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."
And they then might make the case that Trump's false claims to victory are analogous to such an event; however, that's not quite true. The oft repeated example of what does and does not constitute limitable speech comes from an argument made by former US Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes. And while the case to which Holmes was referring to, did in fact establish a limit to certain kinds of speech, the "Fire!" litmus was never binding, and the case was overturned nearly fifty years ago. It is also probably worth noting that the case in question, Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), in which Holmes utilized this argument was used as the basis to imprison someone (Schenck) for writing an anti-draft pamphlet.
There is then the matter of Trump no longer holding the office of President. Some Democrats have made the case that Trump wouldn't be the first person to have been impeached after having left office. As justification for this, they have pointed to a 1876 case where one William Belknap, former US Secretary of War (wish they were still so honest with cabinet names) was impeached and voted to convict. However, it does not seem insignificant that Belknap's conviction failed to meet the 2/3rds requirement (i.e. Belknap was acquitted), and specifically because a majority of the Senate didn't believe they the authority to convict someone after they had left the office the impeachment intended to remove them from.
Then there is the process. It was reported widely on Monday, January 25th that in lieu of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, who is required by the Constitution to preside over the impeachment of a US President, the Senate Majority appointed Senate president pro tempore Patrick Leahy (Sen., D-Vt.). On his appointment, Sen. Leahy said:
"The president pro tempore has historically presided over Senate impeachment trials of non-presidents."
This would seem to be to me a Catch-22; either you're impeaching Trump for crimes he's alleged to have committed while President, or you're impeaching a private, non-president, citizen to remove them from an office they do not hold; what Sen. Rand Paul described in a speech given on the Senate chambers on the 26th of January as: "[A] bill of attainder" — barred by the US Constitution under Article I, Section 9, Clause 3.
I find it rather alarming that Congressional Democrats, who could just as easily choose now to move forward as Trump recedes into political obscurity, seem willing not only to forego standard conventions of impeachment, but potentially violate the Constitution for political retribution. There is some suggestion it is only intended to prevent him from holding office again, but realistically what is the statistical likelihood that Trump, were he to run again in 2024 could unseat an incumbent, when said incumbent won the office from Trump himself? What is the likelihood the RNC would attempt to field a candidate who just lost them the Presidency and Senate? Trump's political career is over. He no longer represents any threat, and never will again.
So I'll say once more, while Trump and the political allies who supported his claims for a path to victory** after all such roads had ended are absolutely morally responsible for the inflammatory nature of their speech. Certainly Trump has given us all quite a bit to be angry about, but this does not mean we should be so quick to undermine the institution of Free Speech. Certainly not where our political institutions proved resilient in the face of armed insurrectionists. Nor does it mean we should meet inflammatory partisan falsehood, with even more hyperbolic and provocative falsehood. Anyway, please feel free to critique, or comment your own perspective.
**I think it bears a note that it is not my intention to group people who might have had some concerns with small-scale failures to follow established processes by some individual actors or other such cases which would not have altered the election's outcome but still might need to be addressed, in with those who lied willfully about the results of the election. That's not fair. I've seen quite a bit of it done in ill will. And I would argue that doing so is fundamentally undemocratic; if we can improve upon our elections even piecemeal, we have an obligation to do so — shaming people trying to do so into silence is unacceptable.
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submitted by BeingUnoffended to Classical_Liberals [link] [comments]

Salty Specialist Rant

Hello Guys,
Since I am on terminal leave I decided to share my initial thoughts about the Army. I know that I will get a lot of downvotes, hate, but please don't get me wrong I appreciate the opportunity to serve and can see the benefits of the time I decided to give away to the government. Firstly, I am a first-generation immigrant (I moved by myself when I was 20) who decided to study in the United States but could never afford it and the military was his only chance to improve his English, leave the shitty jobs, and progress.
I have never been deployed despite the fact that I have always wanted to deploy to the middle east, I haven't don't much of the so-called Hoooah stuff because unfortunately, HRC decided to put me in one of the wonderful units in Fort Hood that supported entire installation, (yes, I know we don't get to choose, should have picked a different MOS). Personally, sometimes I am ashamed to tell anybody that I am in the Army (or was) because of the natural character of my job and lack of opportunities to deploy (even rotation to Korea or Germany would satisfy me). The only advantage of the whole situation, that I was able to do college classes, where most of my peers were too tired from working at the sweatshop or too busy playing computer games.
As far as work-related and military-related issues, please let me tell you (I know that I will get a lot of hate but I simply have to get it off my chest), I have never seen such slavery (yes, I am a property of the government) where motivated people who were relatively close to 20 years couldn't take it anymore. I always wondered what these higher-ups were thinking while coming for an inspection and ordering us to work, even longer and harder, people who have never left their office with the A/C were killing the morale and people. The fact, that young officers with no balls, should have never been in charge of anybody was also surprising, to be honest, my officers were Incompetent, one of my XO was going home at 15 and didn't even try to hide the fact, Did I mention that I was at my 4th commander while going on leave because previous 3 got fired.
I have seen a lot, although I am sure there are people who have seen more than me. I would never understand why Lazy people were getting paid more than hard-working soldiers, why the young junior enlisted are getting screwed, please let me tell you, that because you are forced by the barracks management to live with a person who you don't know, I was forced to live with a psychopath who was jumping on me with a knife in the middle of the night, who nota bene, got kicked out for threatening NCO's and being involved with drugs. I could go on with people who didn't shower, a dude who thought that he was a girl (I have nothing against the LGBT community, although I didn't feel comfortable), a racist dude, etc. Every time, I brought up an issue something had to happen to me in order to get a normal roommate.
Favoritism, in the military. At the beginning of my career, I didn't really care whenever people who knew how to kiss ass were getting promoted, despite that I and other people were working harder and had better PT results, etc. Maybe, that fact didn't bother me because I was shy, wasn't fully fluent, and just wanted to pay for my education. After a few years and seeing my value and the amount of work, it started really affecting my brain. We all know the fact that usually, the "least efficient" people get the easiest jobs at the headquarters and not the people who actually deserve a break from hard work. At one point I asked my 1 SG to move me to another company, in order to keep me, he gave me a more advanced job that happened to be a desk job. Let me tell you, I was really motivated by the opportunity, especially that my unit had approximately 100 people with the same MOS and that job was slotted for that MOS. I have learned everything quickly (it wasn't hard) and tried to improve the processes, implement new strategies, got to know chiefs from my battalion, and slowly worked my way up as a specialist. After 4 months, whenever my 1SG got kicked out for being a good 1SG and actually defending us from the amount of work, I got moved to my previous workplace (the sweatshop). They were struggling so bad, that they decided to move me (the fact that I was enrolled in a few classes, didn't help as I had to work in the heat all day, stay up till late hours to finish my homework, I really felt shitty because in a normal workplace when a good employer is trying to do his best he would get more "benefits" not moved to do everyone's else job. Especially, since at my previous civilian job I was getting pay raises and an opportunity to learn new stuff. That's how I felt, 2 people were constantly doing a "6 man job" because everyone else was somewhere else or didn't know how to do their job. (which wasn't complicated, even that I know that not everyone is capable)
After, getting moved to one of the sections, I learned everything by myself (mostly from the civilian contractors), and started to become a "natural leader" of the section (later I was in charge and 3 NCOs came to replace me). Now if I think of the whole situation, I believe that decision wasn't that bad but I had to work hard and be in 5 places at one time in order to get there. The NCOs who were replacing me were some of the most useless people I have ever met, to the point that I preferred to train a Specialist and a PFC in how to be proficient and how to make decisions in order to be productive. I never understood how they could get paid more than the other while not even being at work, shaming their way out, sitting on their asses on their phones. I am telling you, these people were talking to people like there were dogs. I didn't like it and I didn't hesitate to tell them that they are not going to talk to me like that. At some point, we started to ignore them because they were only decent at PT and driving a vehicle. (Yes, I know that's all you need to get promoted). We even heard from our NCOIC that she is going, to be honest, because NCOs are not going to be at work often (really dude, writing counseling once a month from a template is that hard, I was always thinking why the Army couldn't come up with something like motivational pay for people who actually deserve it (I know that could be very controversial because there is a lot of favoritism in the military. Since I have already introduced my NCOIC please let me tell you that person was known for fucking around, the coolest spot at our workplace was "reserved" for 4 females who had no clue what they were doing (probably because they just came back from a deployment) and got the spot because there were "cool" with each other and attending the same parties, etc. I am not going into that because it bothers me to think that I could point a few soldiers that were more qualified for that job and simply were there for much longer, because why would they give a chance to someone who is actually capable of thinking on their own?
I forgot about one of the NCO's who got kicked out from the National Guard for going off on her chain of command. Yes, the same person managed to come back to the Army, despite her anger issues, and be in charge of soldiers. Fun fact, I got yelled at because I was doing my job and she couldn't hear me from another side of the bay. Yes, I almost got an Article 15 for telling her that she shouldn't talk to me with a slice of pizza in her mouth and what is more important yell at me for doing my job (She couldn't even see what I was doing because I was working on the computer). Guess, what I had like 10 witnesses of her behavior but had to accept the punishment because I was about to start classes and didn't want to put my TA on hold. The fact that one NCO can write you up without even blinking one's eye scares me. I mean that she wrote everything she thought would screw me over because she was a dictator. She made me look like an ass in front of my old commander and I had to accept the humiliation. The one NCO who was backing me up and people got scared because of like I said her connections to the platoon Sargeant. Screw that men.
I could go on for hours, but I have to admit it is very hard for me to understand why in 4 years I have seen very few people with common sense, emotional intelligence (mostly empathy), everyone was trying to handle their business but forget who actually does this shit on daily basis. The ratio of hardworking and simply good people to people who discouraged me from making a career out of the army would probably be 1 to 100. Do you know how many times someone actually asked me if I need anything or if they could help me? I don't even remember because the good people got out very quickly.
The fact, that I have to locate and make sure that I will get my ETS award by myself sums up my military career.
I hope that I didn't offend anybody, those are just my experiences. Please keep in mind that I did my part, I was a team player, did my job, covered for everybody and what is most important got plenty of pain in my body from working hard for the military.
submitted by therollingpole to Veterans [link] [comments]

[Quod Olim Erat] - Chapter 20

At the Beginning
Previously on Quod Olim Erat…
    “I’m going down the shaft,” I said from the edge. “Any final instructions? Over.”
  While waiting for the answer, I slid my fingers along the walls of the hole. The surface felt perfectly smooth and seemingly cold enough to handle. It would have been preferable to have my suit systems active to confirm that. Whatever had caused the explosion had also fried the system completely. I had attempted a manual reboot, but the suit remained unresponsive. At least Prometheus couldn’t blame me for this. When I went back on board, he’d probably do a full diagnostic.
  “Go ahead. Describe every action in comm,” the so-called mission specialist replied. It was annoying how they continued to not follow protocol.
  “It really would be helpful if you put ‘over’ at the end of your transmissions.” I held the freight cable tightly with one hand. “That way I know when you’re finished and can respond back. Okay to start lowering me. Over.”
  For several seconds there was no reply. When the cable started descending me down the shaft, I knew that I was purposely being ignored. It was tempting to write off the event as a one-off, but my recent experience at the academy had taught me otherwise. Losing a few hundred tons of steel and weapons tended to make a ship be taken less seriously. The only thing I could hope for was that the specialist hadn’t seen the height in my personnel file. That would be outright embarrassing.
  “All seems normal.” I glanced at the walls around me. They remained mostly smooth, as expected from a drill hole. “You can double the pace of descent. Over.”
  I put my feet on the wall to take some pressure off my makeshift harness. The experience was strange, though not too different from the time I worked in a mine. Back then, the only thing I had to worry about was Sev freaking out that my shift had taken few hours longer than expected. Here, apart from having no idea what to expect, I had to worry about the cable snapping. Based on the calculations, the freight cable could handle my weight, even with quartz formations scraping against it. However, practice had shown theories to be often wrong.
  “Still normal.” I aimed my fingerlights directly below. The bottom remained invisible. “Keep the same pace of descent. Over.” The last thing I needed was falling with a three second lag.
  The shaft entrance continued to move further up until I could no longer distinguish it from the background darkness. A human would probably describe it as being in a void of nothingness, but I knew better. Several ships I knew had shared the sensation of full sensor deprivation. Unlike me, they had been fighting the Scuu, where battle was completely different. I had never faced a Scuu, not even in simulations—that had never been my intended purpose. The stories that came from that front were strange, often incomprehensible: sensory deprivation, phantom readings, reality percentages... All seemed like words from a different language. Dangling on a pair of cables in the middle of darkness made me gain a new appreciation of Scuu-front battleships.
  “Are you experiencing any weird sensations? Over.” This time it was Prometheus.
  “My core is fine. No idea about the nanites. Over.”
  The descent went on for minutes. The further down I went, the more jagged the walls of tech shaft became. It started with a slight unevenness in places—like the uneven synthetic packaging back home—then scarring started to appear, covering the quartz like dried up rivers.
  “Approaching the area of the blast,” I said, moving my feet off the wall. From here on out, I was going to rely entirely on the exos surface-side. “I still can’t see the bottom. Instructions? Over.”
  One-point-three seconds after I said that, the light of my fingers hit something. It wasn’t so much the ground, rather than part of a large object emerging from the side.
  So, this is the deposit. I tried to focus on it. From this height, I couldn’t make out any details, but if it was an artifact, it was larger than the ones I’d seen so far. Similar to them, it had been encapsulated in quartz. The drill beam must have hit it on its way down, potentially causing the explosion. Another second and a half later, my descent stopped without warning, causing me to dangle.
  “Describe the situation.” The order came. “Over.”
  “Roger.” Nice of you to be so considerate. “I seem to be above a slab or something. I suspect it’s the cobalt deposit. I can’t confirm from this distance. I’ll need you to lower me. Over.”
  I grabbed hold of the wall with my left hand, achieving a degree of stability. Shortly after, I continued to be lowered down again, slower than before. The walls looked like a room after a frag grenade had gone off. There weren’t any shards of foreign matter, as far as I could tell, suggesting that the explosion had been entirely energy-based.
  “I can confirm that the slab is part of the deposit,” I said as I approached. “The laser beam must have reflected off of it and hit the drill head.” Quadrupling in power during the process. “From this distance, I can’t see any damage. Halve the rate of descent. Over.”
  Part of the cobalt artifact was clearly visible, emerging from the quartz like candy through jelly. At this distance it resembled a metal sheet that bit into the shaft at a slight angle, narrowing it the further it went down. I slid my hand along it—it was completely smooth, as if taken out of a sterile laboratory.
  “Stop.” I said and waited. Four seconds later, I was no longer descending. “I’m in front of the deposit. It’s completely undamaged. I don’t see any spots or scratches caused by the drill. It’s safe to say that uncovering it had the same effect extracting the artifact.” I leaned closer. “No scratches or uneven spots, just open monolithic surface. Judging by the size it could be a structure of some kind. Or an incredibly large artifact. The bottom of the shaft is ten meters further. Nothing but quartz, by the looks of it. What do you want me to do? Over.”
  “Are you close to the artifact? Over?”
  “I’m hanging right in front of it.” I looked around to find a suitable footing. “Over.”
  “Hit the artifact. Over.”
  What? For a moment, it almost felt like my first captain had assumed control of the mission. His solution to pretty much anything was “blast it and wait”. Nineteen times, he had had me ram through asteroids, ignoring all my protests and the safety procedures. However, even he wouldn’t do something rash without a reason.
  “Can you repeat that? Over.” I waited.
  “Strike the artifact with full force, preferably using a hard surface. Over and out.”
  That was clever. They had ended the conversation without bothering to give me an explanation. All to be expected, although it would have been nice if they had at least been somewhat scientific about it. In the past, I wouldn’t have cared. If anything, I had had a habit of ramming enemy ships on the battlefield. Of course, at the time I was nowhere near as squishy.
  I looked at the metal surface, counted to three, then gave it a strong kick with the reinforced part of my shoe. For a split second, the entire wall vibrated like a ripple in a pond.
 
  Priority one plus fleet communication protocols. Commencing transmission.
 
 
  Equinox System, Cassandrian Buffer Zone, 605 A.E. (Age of Expansion)
 
  “I’m not detecting life readings,” I said as my mini-sats completed their preliminary scan of the Solar Breeze. “Zero core activity. Life support is down.”
  “If there are any survivors, they’ll be using supplies.” The captain slid his hand along the screen. It was one of the weird habits he had. “Monitor this area.” He tapped one spot above the Solar Breeze’s cargo hold. “Wilco, get ready. We’re boarding.”
  When a captain said “we,” it was generally understood that he was referring to everything under his command. During my eternity of training, my captains would often announce that “we” were jumping to a certain location or performing an exercise. When Captain Augustus said “we,” he meant that he was coming along.
  “Elcy, get me three shuttles ready,” the captain ordered, making his way towards the bridge door. “Kira, you have the bridge.” He pointed in passing at the first officer. She nodded without as much as a salute. “Anything from the oxygen shuttle?”
  “It’s still docked.” I didn’t know how to answer. There was no activity coming from the Solar Breeze other than the distress beacon. “Chances of survivors are very low.” I ran the numbers. We had a greater chance of jumping at a random set of coordinates and remaining alive. “Do you want my bots to unload the oxygen tanks?”
  “Have each grab two canisters and roam the ship. I’m going to the main cargo bay.” He left the bridge. “Monitor their progress, get me my med bots, and block all external comm lines.”
  The last surprised me, but I obeyed without question. Augustus’ vitals had spiked. This was the first time I had seen him react in such fashion; it didn’t fit with the behavior pattern I had of him, and that made me concerned.
  When the captain arrived in the shuttle hangar, I had three hundred med bots prepared. The number was quickly reduced to a hundred and eighty, or sixty per ship. Apparently, Augustus preferred to have the shuttles with extra soldiers than rescue units. The whole operation was an absolute mess! It couldn’t have been less by the book if he had tried. I waited patiently for the captain to put on his battle gear, then opened an encrypted personal line.
  “Captain, I fail to see the logic in your orders,” I said, displaying more concern than criticism in my voice. “If this is a rescue operation, why is the boarding party in heavy assault gear?”
  “You’re being annoying again, rookie.” His voice sounded deeper.
  “Most likely I am.” Though not as nearly annoying as you! “That doesn’t change the fact. Dead ships are the responsibility of the salvage authorities, even if they emit a distress signal. At present, there are no indications that anyone survived, including the ship’s cores. Furthermore, the ship isn’t in enemy territory, so there’s no reason for us to get involved.”
  I expected the captain to bark an order surrounded by a sea of insults. Instead, the man just sighed.
  “This is the first time you’ve seen a dead ship, isn’t it, Elcy?”
  “You know it is.” The question didn’t seemed to make any sense. “You are my first captain.” Therefore, it’s a guaranteed impossibility for me to have seen real combat before.
  “Dead ships are different.” The captain took a deep breath. “They aren’t blasted in battle or destroyed to malfunction or insurrection, they just have ceased to function.”
  “Yes, that is the literal definition of what it is to die.” His explanation was even worse than his logic for boarding. “I fail to understand how that’s relevant.”
  “Hope you never do.”
  As the shuttles approached the Solar Breeze, I did another long range scan. No ships or large objects were spotted. Half a minute later, the shuttle pilots initiated a manual scan as well. I didn’t like that they didn’t trust me, but I said nothing. Strictly speaking, I wasn’t part of the boarding team; however, if there was one thing that Captain Augustus had taught me so far, it was that for every rule, there was an exception. My subroutines patched into the systems of all bots on the dead ship, assuming direct control. Along with that, I quietly set everyone’s battle gear to send me full audio and video feed. Now I could see what the team was seeing, and more. So far, the bots of the support shuttle had managed to explore the main access corridor and the mass area: no sign of human presence. I had one of them defect from its standard path to check the nearest crew quarters. The door circuitry was completely inoperable.
  “Hangar section’s blank, skipper.” I heard Lieutenant Wilco Gerard say in his comm. “Setting up perimeter.”
  “Keep an open escape path,” Augustus replied. “I want a fifth to remain in the shuttles, ready for take off.”
  “Roger, skipper. Like last time.”
  Last time? I searched through all my crew’s entire personnel files. Nowhere was it mentioned they had boarded a dead ship before. According to the records, they hadn’t even neared one. The last time any dead ship had been boarded by a military ship was half a century ago, back before the Fleet Salvage Bureau had been given authority over all wrecks in space.
  “Elcy, keep the bots near the shuttles,” the captain ordered, marching on towards the inner hangar doors. His weapons were in active mode.
  “All of them?” I paused a moment. “Does that mean I’m to stop with the rescue efforts?”
  “Just those I came with,” he corrected himself. “Actually, pick one and join me. I might need your help with some of the systems.”
  “There’s not much I could do with a med bot, Captain.” My subroutines issued the orders to the remaining bots. Regardless, I still remained in direct control of them. “With power gone, there’s nothing I can do.”
  “Idiot rookie!” The captain snapped at me. “Something’s powering the distress beacon. Stop being stupid and let’s go!”
  There had been four thousand and fifty-seven court martialed ships since the creation of sentient fleet. Right now, my greatest fear was that I could end up being four thousand and fifty-eight. In the absence of a higher-ranking human authority, there was no way I could disobey an order, regardless how stupid or unlawful it appeared to be. When I had started my training, there was no way I could foresee ending up choosing between my captain and fleet regulations.
  A small team of assault troopers accompanied escorted us along the corridor to the nearest emergency stairwell. The lieutenant took another team and started his way towards the bridge. No one said a word, but from what I could tell, both were searching for the same thing.
  “Any unaccounted readings?” Captain Augustus asked.
  “Only the boarding party so far.” I had a few thousand of my subroutines double check. “You are the only humans, living or dead, onboard. I haven’t spotted any human remains or DNA traces anywhere.”
  “Tell me if that changes.”
  We continued up the stairwell until we reached deck nineteen. Meanwhile, the second team had reached the bridge and were starting to burn through the door to the Solar Breeze’s captain quarters. It was interesting that the bridge had also been abandoned. Under fleet law, the only time that could happen was when faced with imminent danger or after initiating the self-destruct sequence.
  “Weapon systems appear to have been functional,” I told the captain as one of the bots managed to break into the missile section. “Missile room one-twenty-seven remains equipped with a full battery of missiles.”
  “Good. That answers one question.” The captain made a sign for two of his squad to move forward.
  “What question is that?” I asked. Barely had I finished when a loud clanking sound came from the storage doors again.
  Everyone froze. All weapons pointed towards the door as I performed a new scan of the area. The walls kept blocking all my attempts. Whatever was in there, it was hidden well.
  “And that answers the second.” The captain drew his rifle. “Rookie, get ten more med bots here. We’re burning through.”
 
 
 
  Memory restriction imposed!
 
  The message appeared in front of my eyes, glowing in bright orange letters. The moment I blinked it was gone.
  “Elcy, can you hear me?” Prometheus asked. He sounded crystal clear.
  “Loud and clear.” I smiled. “I take it you fixed the communication issue? Over.”
  “Ha, ha, very funny,” he said in typical disapproving fashion. “Stay where you are and don’t touch anything! I’ll be sending some drones your way.”
  “I thought we weren’t allowed to use tech.” It felt so much better talking to him without lag.
  “The mission parameters have changed. The main thing is do not touch the artifact!” No surprises there. “I’ll try to restart your suit system. Hang on.”
  “You really need to work on your puns,” I sighed. Even Sev could come up with better material. “Also, don’t bother. The suit sys is completely gone. I tried rebooting already. Where’s the Major and the rest of the team?”
  “In sickbay undergoing a full medical.” The casual fashion in which he announced it told me it wasn’t serious. Most likely, the XO wanted to be sure everyone was unaffected by communications being severed again. Either that, or there were additional malfunctions that Prometheus wasn’t telling me about. “They’ll be back in five minutes, ten at most.”
  “And what about my mysterious guardian angel?”
  “That’s not something you should be concerned with. Just stay there for now and wait until the drones reach you. I’ll let you know when there are any changes.”
  “Okay.” I moved back, finding a temporary footing on the quartz wall. “I just thought that they might be interested to know that symbols started appearing on the cobalt. And they are spreading fast.”
Next
submitted by LiseEclaire to HFY [link] [comments]

/r/Neoliberal elects the British Prime Ministers - Part 6: Sir Alec Douglas-Home vs Harold Wilson vs Jo Grimond in 1964

Previous Results

1945 – Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal)
1950 – Clement Davies with 50% of the vote
1951 – Clement Davies with 58% of the vote
1955 – Sir Anthony Eden with 67% of the vote
1959 – Harold Macmillan with 75% of the vote
Last week the results were: Harold Macmillan (Conservative) 75%, Hugh Gaitskell (Labour) 25%
The Actual results from 1959 were:
Conservatives: 365 seats, 49.4% of the vote
Labour: 258 seats, 43.8% of the vote

Profiles

Background

  • 1959 – The election of 1959 was a very successful one again for the Conservatives who gained a majority of 100 seats. This was particularly impressive because at the time most polling and public opinion indicated that they were going to lose the election. Nevertheless, the Tories did see a slip in their percentage of the vote due to the Liberal party’s small resurgence, where they gained 3.2% of the vote compared to the previous election.
  • A Game of 2 Halves – Macmillan’s Chief Whip Martin Redmayne claimed that Macmillan’s time in office was a game of 2 halves, and this week we look at the second half. Despite triumphing in 1959 Macmillan’s government has struggled on several fronts. Perhaps most importantly is the economy which has struggled since Macmillan’s election victory and they quick rises in wages. This has led to the issue of inflation, which has led to unions demanding the government increase wages in line with inflation, which has sparked more inflation. Macmillan tried to persuade the Unions to moderate their demands, first with a “pay pause” and then a “guiding light” policy on pay, but neither has been successful and limiting pay has proved highly unpopular
  • From the right – Macmillan is also bearing the brunt of attacks from the right of the party led by Lord Salisbury, who formed the right wing pressure group the “Monday Club” in 1962, claiming there was “never a greater need for true conservatism” Salisbury’s main point of conflict is over decolonisation, which the conservatives have more or less accepted. Since 1959 independence has been given to: Cyprus, Nigeria, Somaliland, Cameroon, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and Malta. Malta is particularly noteworthy as in 1956 a referendum was actually held to make Malta a full member of the United Kingdom and give it 3 seats in the House of Commons. This passed with 77% of voters in favour but was never implemented and now Malta is independent instead. Macmillan claimed that the rapid decolonization was occurring because of “winds of change” that were sweeping through Africa. To which Salisbury replied, “sailors who make it a rule to run before the wind generally end up on the rocks”. Salisbury argued that the increase in support for the Liberal Party is due to true conservatives being fed up with Macmillan. Macmillan found this argument rather “cockeyed” because the Liberals are also in favour of decolonization and present themselves as a radical progressive party to the left of the conservatives, but it is true that most people believe the 3 parties stand for generally the same things.
  • From Europe – Macmillan’s solution to being perceived as out of touch (more on that later) and the struggling economy was to apply for full membership of the European Economic Community. He gave his Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath responsibility for negotiating with “The Six” (France, Italy, West Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Belgium) “Macmillan felt that full entry into Europe would provide a great psychological boost to the British people and would have an energising impulse – impossible to quantify – on the economy” and that it would help define Britain’s role post-Suez. This had initially been a Liberal proposal, with the Liberals obviously supporting this policy, and Labour bitterly opposing it. Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell giving a sabre-rattling speech against the prospect which France eventually vetoed in 1961, seeing the UK as a Trojan Horse being wheeled by the US into Europe. This rejection proved humiliating for Macmillan.
  • From the left – Macmillan has also been hurt by the “satire boom” with the expansion of TV (now in colour), radio, and political cartoons. Macmillan has been thoroughly beaten down as an embarrassing old fogey, out of touch with the new in colour Britain and the young President Kennedy in the US, and unable to meet the demands of a new prosperous “baby boomer” generation. To add to this Hugh Gaitskell suddenly dies in 1963 and Labour elects Harold Wilson as its new leader. Wilson is young and very charismatic and witty, constantly making fun of and embarrassing the older Macmillan, and declaring that he’d utilise the white-hot fires of the new technological revolution to thrust Britain into the 1960s. Macmillan was one of the first British politicians to recognise the importance of these new mediums of communication, and he honed his old gentleman persona deliberately for television and radio appearances, but now Macmillan is being hoisted by his own petard.
  • Clause IV – After his defeat Hugh Gaitkell who was already on the right of the Labour party was convinced of its need to moderate its views and he proposed removing Clause IV of the Labour Party’s constitution. Clause IV outlines that Labour’s goal is the common ownership of the means of distribution and this clause is what officially makes the Labour Party a fully-fledged socialist party. As we’ve discussed Gaitskell was already unconvinced of the merits of nationalisation and removing Clause IV would remove any obligation for further nationalisation. But Gaitskell encountered heavy resistance from the left and dropped the issue, with Clause IV now written on every Labour membership card.
  • The Night of the Long Knives – With Macmillan feeling out of time and too old to rule he decided he’d fix things by bringing in a number of young and ambitious Conservative politicians to staff his cabinet positions, and present the image of a fresh, young government even if it was headed by an old man. However, Macmillan badly misjudged things. Macmillan sacked almost half of his cabinet, some without warning. The press seized upon this as a short-sighted reactive plan which showed Macmillan had completely lost it, Harold Wilson commented that Macmillan had sacked the wrong half, and Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe exclaimed, “greater love hath no man that that he should lay down his friends for his life”. Most of the new members of government actually proved very competent but Macmillan had overplayed his hand and was never the same Prime Minister.
  • The 14th Earl – One final disaster struck when it leaked that Macmillan’s secretary of defence was sleeping with a socialite who was also involved with a Soviet naval attaché which posed an obvious national security risk nobody had picked up on. Macmillan’s lacklustre handline of the affair which cast the British “ruling class” as a hedonistic group unable to govern the country further damaged him. Macmillan decided he would soldier on but almost immediately became hospitalised with prostate problems. Macmillan believed that he had cancer and decided he’d resign due to health issues but they actually turned out to be far less serious than he feared. But Macmillan had already made his decision. The most obvious choice of successor was Rab Butler but Macmillan didn’t want him, Rab was known for being on the left of the party and with the right now openly criticizing Macmillan he believed Rab was unable to properly pull the party together. Another candidate was Lord Halisham who delivered a barnstorming, thunderous speech at the Conservative Party conference about his willingness to resign his lordship, stand for Parliament and become leader. The speech didn’t help already existing questions about Halisham’s temperament and stability, with Macmillan’s press secretary comparing it to the Nuremberg rallies. Rab as the most senior member of cabinet gave Macmillan’s speech in his place (with Macmillan in hospital) but the speech was completely flat and uninspired as was the Chancellor Reginald Maulding’s speech. Macmillan therefore decided to tell the Queen to choose everyone’s second choice – Alec Douglas-Home. A suggestion which came to the great surprise of Alec Douglas-Home. Macmillan argued that Rab was a loyal party servant who wouldn’t break from that behaviour, and that the others were unsuited to being Prime Minister. On the same day The Times ran the headline “Queen may send for Mr. butler today” the Queen sent for Alec Douglas-Home and invited him to form a government.
  • Lord Dunglass – Alec Douglas-Home is the descendant of Scottish nobility, being the 14th Earl Home although his family castle was unfortunately demolished in 1938 Home was initially a professional cricket player, but his father had been a politician and Home was affected by the poverty and unemployment in Scotland. Whilst not particularly interested in politics he did become an MP, arguing that after seeing how many good men were cut down in World War 1 it was the duty of anybody remaining with leadership skills to stand to help the country. When his father died in 1951 Alec became an Earl and he joined the House of Lords in 1951. Macmillan appointed him foreign secretary in 1960 in an unusual appointment and Home helped the Kennedy administration through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Home’s appointment as Prime Minister was bizarre and out of left field, with Home only briefly mentioned as a possibility to succeed Macmillan by the Times who said of his appointment: “A nice chap and a polite peer. But Caligula’s appointment of his horse as a consul was an act of prudent statesmanship compared with this gesture […] by Mr. Macmillan”. Home wasn’t even a member of Parliament but the sudden death of a Unionist MP allowed him to stand for by-election and secure a seat before Parliament returned from summer recess. Home was considered a man who embodied some of the best traits of nobility – being honest, having great integrity, natural leadership skills, and a lack of ambition, because of this he was able to repair some of the damage that the aforementioned sex scandals had on the British ruling class. But sometimes he could be too honest – like when he joked about being bad at mathematics and having to use matchsticks, he was also not very charismatic or witty, and was lampooned by Wilson as an out of touch old Earl. His method of succession also caused issues, with Randolph Churchill complaining of a “magic circle” of old aristocrats making him leader, and Macmillan’s colonial secretary Ian MacLeod as well as Enoch Powell will refuse to serve in his government. But Home provides a calming effect on the panicking Macmillan government, and is seen as a genuinely nice person and good leader who the public can trust, which has led to the Conservative’s polling numbers ticking dangerously upward and threatening Labour.
  • The 14th Mr. Wilson – On the other side of the aisle Harold Wilson is the new leader of the Labour party. Hugh Gaitskell was leader when we last left off and a relatively young man who was seen as a leader for years to come. After a trip to the Soviet Union Gaitskell’s condition quickly deteriorated thanks to a virus and Gaitskell died on the 18th of January. In 1987 Paul Wright (a counterintelligence officer in MI5) will write a book which claims the KGB poisoned Gaitskell so that their man Harold Wilson could become leader, and in 1963 a Soviet defector claims Wilson is an agent of the KGB. Wilson is interrogated multiple times by MI5, but they are never able to prove anything. Wilson himself served in various positions under Attlee as a talented young minister but he fell firmly into the “Bevanite” camp and was the only minister to resign with him in 1951. Despite being on the left of the Labour party Wilson has worked closely with Gaitskell in opposition and seems to have moderated many of his views. Wilson defeated the less experienced George Brown and James Callaghan to win the 1963 leadership election, being embraced as the “left-wing” candidate. Wilson is someone who was influenced deeply by Macmillan and upon becoming leader embraced the style of the witty leader who could always come up with a joke or jibe about the opposition. Wilson’s young age, northern accent, and working-class background contrast him favourably to Macmillan and Home in the new age of colour TV and anti-elitist sentiment. Home has only really managed to actually get the better of Wilson one time, after Wilson’s thumping speech that Home was totally out of touch with working people, that the democratic process was dead, and that Britain shouldn’t be run by a 14th Earl of Home, Home replied somewhat sheepishly “I suppose Mr Wilson, when you come to think of it, is the fourteenth Mr Wilson”.
  • The Liberal Revival – After the 1951 election the Liberal Party won only 2.5% of the popular vote and won only 6 seats – usually us very isolated and rural areas of Scotland and Wales. The party which had torn itself apart in the 20s and 30s now seemed to be a relic of a bygone age and with the 6 MPS often voting against each other the party seemed destined to be gobbled up by the Conservatives or Labour. In 1959 however a small revival took place with the Liberals gaining 5.9% of the vote. While still small the Liberal Party is polling better this time and seems to have carved out a niche as a 3rd Party. Jo Grimond – the party’s leader is known as a good and honest man and has sought to reimagine the party further to the left as a progressive and radical party which supports nuclear disarmament, rapid decolonisation, entry into the European Economic Committee, and anti-racism. Grimond has appealed primarily to young University Students and has managed to create a base for the Liberal Party to survive off of.

Issues

Conservatives:

  • Further negotiations with the Soviet Union and America over disarmament and limiting the building of new nuclear weapons
  • Closest possible ties with America and Western Europe but after the French veto no possibility for re-negotiations on entry into the EEC
  • Further decolonisation, merging of colonial and Commonwealth offices, more trade with recently independent nations
  • Goal of 4% economic growth a year, tax policies to stimulate industrial innovation, support for exports and increased trade, creation of new research councils to aid in scientific developments
  • Reform to benefits where those leaving highly paid jobs will get for a few months increased benefits to protect against steep falls in income, the same for sick pay. A doubling of government ran workers training centres.
  • Controls on immigration
  • More money for roads, particularly in London, and railway systems, as well as the completion of the London Underground’s Victoria line
  • New incentives to save money
  • Raise of the minimum leaving age at school to 16, new higher education institutes leading to 100,000 new places, new apprenticeships and resources for those leaving school and wanting to immediately enter work
  • New target of 400,000 new homes a year, all slums to be cleared by 1973, new goal of 200,000 old homes to be modernised a year, £300m to housing societies to build new homes for renting
  • Plans to build or rebuild 300 hospitals, Provision for the physically and mentally handicapped to be brought up to date and greatly increased. New maternity and child welfare clinics to be built throughout the country.
  • Creation of new TV channels
  • Creation of new committee to review parliamentary spending, review of electoral law to expand the scope of postal voting

Labour:

  • A commitment to full employment
  • A new ministry of economic affairs, tax incentives for exporting, better terms of credit for some industries, improved facilities and help for small exporters, stimulus to incentivise British industry to manufacture traditionally imported goods, new commodity commission to analyse, and regulate imported food as well as to balance it against domestic produce
  • nationalisation of steel and water, expansion of currently nationalised industries and a removal of restrictions on them
  • A new ministry of technology to guide and stimulate advancements, more investment into research in civil production rather than just military production, the establishment of new high-tech industries
  • A new charter of rights for employees guaranteeing the right to compensation for the loss of a job or disturbance, the right to half-pay for sick or unemployment, the right of first-rate training, the right to retraining, the right to full transferability of pensions, the right to trade union representation, and the right of equal pay for equal work
  • New regional planning boards to plan the economy of different regions of the country, a new secretary of state for Wales
  • A planned growth of incomes in line with productivity to curb inflation rather than a “pay pause”
  • A capital gains tax and action against tax evaders, lower tax for the poorest in society and a move of public expenditure from being controlled by the government to local authorities
  • A goal of class sizes reduced to 30, the removal of the 11+ exam, raise of the school leaving age to 16, family allowances for those staying in higher education, massive expansion in higher and further education, new higher salary and pensions for teachers
  • The creation of a land commission to seize land not in use for below-market prices, introduction of rent control, modernise new houses, clear slums, no specific goal for house building.
  • An increase in national insurance benefits, a new national minimum benefit, more generous widow benefits,, a new national severance scheme to compensate workers who lose their jobs
  • Removal of prescription charges, a massive increase in the numbers of doctors, more money for medical research
  • New youth centres, much more generous grants for the arts
  • An end to colonialism, new laws prohibiting racial discrimination, more trade with the Commonwealth
  • More trade with developing countries, more money for international aid, and the creation of a world food board to send agricultural surpluses to the developing world
  • A stop of the spread of nuclear weaponry, new nuclear free zones, controlled disarmament, and a new international disarmament agency

Liberal:

  • A new ministry of expansion to create a national plan of economic growth
  • Cuts to tariffs, help for exports, the creation of an international reserve pool so the world can decide on a shared plan of economic expansion
  • A new incomes policy tied to productivity instead of profits
  • Employees to become equivalent to shareholders in industries, transferability of pensions, massive expansion in education and re-training for workers, a new national redundancy fund to pay unemployed workers 2/3rds of their normal wage
  • Cuts to income tax, more action against tax dodgers, capital gains to be taxed over longer periods
  • Free voting for backbenchers except on matters of confidence (so politicians should vote whichever way they like unless it’ll bring down the government) an extension in the franchise to those 18+
  • More capital and a land bank to farmers, higher pay for farmers
  • A parliament for Scotland, and a National Council for Wales, a nationwide plan for population movement, industry and transport to prevent widespread migration to the rich South-East
  • The establishment of new elected regional councils, with healthcare, housing, jobs, and education powers devolved from the government to these councils (Basically making the UK a federal system)
  • 500,000 new houses a year, trebling of the rate of slum clearances, higher building standards
  • A new social charter. The minimum state pension fixed to half the average national earnings, a new social security tax for employers and employees (paid 2/3rds by employers, 1/3 by employees) and benefits to automatically rise with earnings
  • Abolishment of prescription charges, more money for doctors, the creation of area health boards to streamline healthcare
  • A switch from focusing on combatting crime to reforming criminals
  • Removal of 11+ exam, higher salaries for teachers, more new teachers, a doubling of the students in higher education in 10 years,
  • Britain to jump at the chance of joining the EEC if it arises again within the next parliament
  • More help to develop Commonwealth countries, a ban on arms sales to Apartheid South Africa
  • The UK to push for a freeze on new nuclear weaponry, a new plan of integrating nuclear weapons into NATO to help with disarmament,

Read the full manifestos here:

Conservatives
Labour
Liberal
The BBC’s 1964 election coverage
Conservative Party election broadcast
Labour Party election broadcast
From now on what I think I’ll do is include 2 polls. One Labour vs Conservative, the other including other parties.

Vote here (all parties): https://rankit.vote/vote/M8tNDLCvERr8pDCYia4z

Vote here (Labour vs Conservative): https://rankit.vote/vote/EngA5zMh400UqKu8jLNn

Please try to vote as if you are a British citizen in 1959 without knowledge of what will happen after the election.
submitted by Woodstovia to neoliberal [link] [comments]

Apex Fundamentals (Becoming a more consistent well rounded player)

Foreword: If this helps you, I'm glad. I'm no pro so don't expect anything crazy here. My mechanical skill is basic at best, If you’re looking to improve something like your aim, I recommend “Kovaak’s Aim Trainer”.
~ I just want to clarify. This is not a "How to win guide". It's simply to help build good habits. ~
Introduction - Video
I started making videos for a close friend of mine. We were both trying to get better with minimal playtime. His interest in my play-style, thoughts and theories is what inspired this. It seems this information could help others too. Mainly those who struggle and lose confidence after each unsuccessful run or simply when “Shit hits the fan”.
I urge you read through this thread first. However to ensure you do not miss my other write ups, I'll be listing them all here.
Guides:
Avoiding Unnecessary Damage - Indepth
The 4 Major Phases (Fundamental Guide)
Apex Teamwork Fundamentals: Changing Your Mindset
Damage Over Healing - A Fundamental Look At "Healing in Combat"
Fundamental Guide on Positioning: Understanding Advantage & Control
Peek Awareness : Considering Your Options During Combat
Exams:
Understanding Cover Test
Understanding Punish Windows Test
Misc:
New Player Paralysis: Overcoming In-Game Anxieties
Team Awareness & Communication Exercise Pack: Bait and Switching
Glossary of Apex Fundamentalist’s Terminology

Fundamentals

The point of this document is to simplify your decision making to very simple, but effective train of thought in the heat of combat. Hopefully preventing or lessening bad decisions, due to being under pressure. This isn’t about becoming a master of anything specific. Such as the character you use, or mastering your favourite map. If anything it’s about becoming a master of “basic fundamental” play. Which in my opinion is what all struggling players lack... Fundamentals.
Below you will find a series of examples videos, showing in game what some of these tips look like within a match. Along side these clips I'll do my best to provide commentary to make things easier to digest. Forgive me as the footage is very basic. The point of these aren’t to make cool engaging content. It’s purely for me to communicate my thoughts, and show ingame examples of what I have written in this thread. This is about a delivery of knowledge and ideas.
My question was “So what do fundamentals in Apex look like?” To find and understand the answer to this, I decided to take a look into the most common attributes of Apex Legends. Specifically thinking... ”In an average game, what often happens and what can I do to beat it?”
Below I have tried to share what I believe are some serious factors to think about. I fear that the better I become, the harder it’ll be to provide first hand footage. I say this because, I‘ve noticed myself ironing out these habits pretty fast. Showing the solution is way less effective, than highlighting the mistakes in my opinion. In general I'll try to show my mistakes before hand, so the solution clips make more sense.

Common Mistakes / Bad Habits

Mistake 01: Receiving Unnecessary Damage in shootouts Example (New) / Example (Old)
The most common times this happens is when you:
  1. Decide to return fire when being shot upon. (Return Fire)
  2. Shoot at an enemy, and proceed to shoot once they react and shoot back. (Trade Fire)
  3. Challenge an opponent. Basically when you do not “choose” to back down from a fight.
Solution: Build the habit of “Backing Down” / “Taking Cover” once an enemy looks/aims/fires at you. This sounds very simple, but it takes great discipline at first. Click the links below for ingame examples of this.
Strafing is something you want to do when you’re out of options. Taking cover is the absolute best way to avoid bullets... right?
For more information on this, please read the Avoiding Unnecessary Damage - Indepth guide.
​
Mistake 02: Missed Opportunities Video Example
Not knowing when the most safe and effective time to attack or push is during combat. If you find that in most of your games, you’re the last man standing before you even get to fire a shot. It’s probably safe to say, you’re missing a lot of opportunities to fight back that your teammates create.
Solution: Pay close attention to your enemy and team. Fire back while the enemy is focused on another target. Immediately take cover when you’re the focus when possible.
This seems to be my favourite of the fundamentals to master. Expect lots of examples to be based on this idea. I often find myself wishing I were a bit quicker when trying to apply this concept. Do not try to be in two places at once, some opportunites are simply our of reach or too dangerous to take advantage of.
​
Mistake 03: Dangerous Looting
This common mistake often happens when you first drop with enemies nearby. Often picking up everything you see in hopes that you’re comfortable before any engagement happens.
Solution: Upon dropping prioritise these 3 objectives.
If you enter a room that doesn’t have any of these in sight, become Sonic and run to another place. Spending time picking up items that won’t help you once that inevitable fight starts will only have you cursing “There was no loot" and how unlucky you were. When maybe you should have turned around and tried another spot instead of picking up everything in that room. This is a hard habit to notice, but very easy to break.
​

General Combat Knowledge

Baiting And Switching (With Randoms)
This is simply you taking advantage of what we covered above, but being hyper sensitive and vigilant about it. If you’re lucky enough to have experienced teammates, you’ll end up creating what I’m going to call a “Bait and Switch Vortex”.
This method of combat seems to be ideal, especially when you’re not too confident in making advanced plays. The two key attributes you will need to excel with this fundamental are AWARENESS and PATIENCE.
Awareness regarding:
Patience regarding:
If your team decides to fireback, this increases your chances to also fire shots without being aimed at. The moment you sense being fired upon, return to your cover. If this is done successfully then you performed a very handsome “Bait and Switch”. If you manage to repeat the process multiple times on the same target, this is what I like to call the Bait and Switch Vortex.
The Vortex should happen naturally if you’re paying attention. Your teammates will also take cover and then return fire once you take the heat ffrom them... (For the most part). It’s very difficult to deal with for the opponent who’s bent on "out gunning" you. This is easier to perform than you may think. If you’re struggling, work on your positioning around your team and be "Aware & Patient".
If you get rushed down constantly, I’d say you’re probably in a positions where your team couldn’t return fire while the enemy focuses on killing you. This goes back to being aware of your teammates throughout this ordeal.
Extra Notes:
Your teammates often do not communicate what they plan to do, often they probably don’t even know since we play with intuition and feeling. It takes a mere second for them to shoot then run away from the fight, leaving you free to be rushed down. It is your job to be aware and notice their behaviour in a fight.
​

Understanding Crosshair Placement

When it comes to your aim/accuracy believe me when I say “Tracking isn’t everything”. It’s in our nature to want to land every single bullet. Often we end up moving our crosshair trying to match the target’s movements as close as possible ending up with a total mess. I suffer from this too. However! In some very familiar scenarios which used to haunt me, I’m able to execute a different approach.
Firstly imho... We are dealing with a lot of relatively slow projectile speeds. To account for this, we’re going to attempt in increasing our success rate with focused intuition and educated guesswork.
Common Scenario: At Mid toLong range distance, an opponent strafes in and out near cover, peek shooting but never fully going behind that cover. Trying to track his movements left and right, you’re most likely going to miss most of these shots due to projectile mechanics. (This is just scenario, not every situation)
Solution: Pinpoint a spot or a general area your target is strafing in and out of. Keep this area tight! Then fire your shots there. Effectiveness is increased the more you understand what your opponent’s strafe pattern or intention is. This concept may be easier to understand if you imagine trying to shoot a strafing target through a door or window. This is also applicable when the target is strafing at a distance without any cover.
Know when to track your shots and when not to. The further your target is, the more predicting you’ll be doing than actual tracking and clicking. It’s ok to let them bullets fly, a great weapon to practice this with is the G7 Scout.
Extra Info: Everyone can apply this, it’s more about knowing “when” to apply it. This does have its uses even at very close distances. However it’s main purpose is when you’re dealing with longer ranged targets... Composure is your friend.
​
General Aiming: Habits
Here I'm going to share basic ideas of what I believe is the cause of some bad aiming habits. Also what we can do to improve it.
Shakey Aim
Here's a clip of what I'm trying to eliminate. Example.
After doing a simple exercise routine for only 5 - 10mins before I play, I noticed some significant improvements. Example 01 - Example 02
There are many factors I believe that makes a player shake his aim when trying to track a target. Though I'm not 100% sure, here is what I believe happens to me:
The problem is! When tackled in this manner, these two objectives do not go well together.
Solution: Get used to the feeling of controlling the recoil, both mentally and physically. To do this follow this simple exercise. "Must Watch"
After a few successful "One Clip" attempts, you should start to understand how much force is ever going to be needed to control your recoil. Thus all or efforts can now be placed on tracking and calmly adjusting to the target. This knowledge will not improve your clicking or tracking if it is already sub par, however it could help clean up some messy moments if you find yourself still having them.
Here's footage of me doing this. Example
​

Positioning During Combat

Being able to understand positioning comes down to your ability of analysing any current situation and your “options”.
Think of it this way. A good position should typically consist of these factors:
Always be aware of your environmental cover and use it as much as possible.
Whether you have a good or bad position will change depending on where your team is and where your opponents are. Whoever has the most options, most likely will have the better position. Your aim is to constantly adjust your position to increase the odds in your favour. You’ll find that your positioning in conjunction with your teammates, is what creates good positions more than the actual environment.
A great way to “Check” an opponent is to place yourself in a position where they fight on your terms only. Though this is not always possible, in some cases you can seize control very convincingly if you’re quick enough to notice the opportunity.
What happens in Chess when your opponent "Checks" you? Same thing in Apex, you’re forced to move.
For More information on this please click here.
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Understanding The Flow Of Combat

In other words, respect for the game. Almost always whenever you engage with the enemy, the only way to successfully win that particular engagement, all depends on the mistakes "they" make. You’re constantly looking for opportunities to punish, and throughout the game you are also being punished for your own mistakes. The moment you “lose yourself”, you increase your chances of self destruction.
The example clips below are all from the same match. It’ll showcase my efforts to understand the current situation during the match. Also while using voice chat to relay my actions and concerns over the mic. (I was never sure if they could hear or understand me, however they played very well.) In the last clip, notice how I “Over Peek'' and "challenge". This essentially ended up losing us the game. I in a sense “lost myself” due to the pressure. To which the Apex gods looked down upon thee and punished thy nonsense! This is common to Apex and won’t be changing anytime soon. If you start to understand this and work towards gaining discipline and composure, my best guess is it will start paying off immensely.
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If evenly matched or very close in skill level, your ability to stay alive, be patient and play accordingly in a stalemate, is probably going to be your biggest asset. Especially the higher your level of games become. Actively trying to punish your opponents will become second nature. Focus on your fundamentals. You wont be able to improve if you play too safe/passive. Like anything in life you will have to take action. Your accumulated experience will eventually turn into performance.
In the clip below, watch it and try to notice where the basic fundamentals are used. Focus on all players, me, my team and also the opponents. By now the basics should be easier to digest.
If it makes you feel better, I’m working on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I’ve written in this thread... I’m struggling too. This game is amazing and depressing at the same time lol.
For more information on this please click here.
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Putting it All Together (Damage/Action Over Healing)

Now this one isn’t easy, it’ll rely heavily on your mechanical skill AND very heavily on how well you can avoid incoming damage. The entirety of your understanding regarding the fundamentals will be tested to your absolute fullest, and will probably have you more focused on the game than your RP or stats.
This section will imply “Action” being more important than healing. However the ambiguity of these moments might be the hardest thing to comprehend. Choosing to act over healing might be the most uncomfortable feeling when starting out.
Moments of Rest - How many times have we been downed while healing? How many times have you shot a player who’s healing? Plenty right? Join the club.
Well this topic has a bit of ambiguity sprinkled all over it. Whether you should heal to have the upper hand, vs being ready to shoot all depends on… You guessed it. Your opponents and enemy’s actions. Breaking the habit of healing is a tough one, as having more health, seems to generally be the smarter and safer play. Or is it? Ultimately the decision whether or not you should heal, will all depend on your judgment. But through trial and error, we should be able to get a decent understanding of the dos and don'ts.
Example 01 - w/Commentary
Example 02 - w/Commentary
Example 03
If your actions begin to feel more mathematical or calculated… Congratulations! You’re most likely building a great understanding of all of this and are already able to be a consistent contender in most of your matches.
Extra Notes: At times there will be moments of “inevitable death”, either of you or your opponent. I believe your main goal should be, to have as much health as possible before this moment is apparent. Your job is to play in a way that will gain the advantage before these moments are created. Lessening the risk and gamble factor of going into fights evenly matched. This will require a great understanding of how and when to fight, throughout the entirety of your match. Again… this one is tough.
For more information on this please click here.
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Concepts

When to Break Fundamentals / Making plays
As you get better, more confident and built some strong familiarisation with situations, you’ll be more equip to bend or break these fundamentals due to other factors. Luckily there is a safeway to practice this by understanding the risk/reward involved.
The most basic of plays would be to aggressively charge an opponent, disregarding everything written above because the odds are in your favor such as, they’re the last member alive and your team is only a second away.
Whatever it may be, your comfort will be determined by how high the “Risk Factor” is. If failing a play means your team gets eliminated, well you’re going to feel some serious stress. Breaking fundamentals will come naturally as you improve as a player. Understanding your fundamentals will naturally increase your gamesense and understanding regarding this topic.
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Self Analysis and Theory Crafting
In this section to show you how I go about analysing my experience in apex legends. With the NVIDIA GeForce App, I can effortlessly save the last 3 mins of my screen time with a simple click of a button.
After each death or encounter, I can simply tap this button and have it ready for viewing after the match. It’s always good to review a clip right after the game. Simply because you will have a much easier time recalling your thoughts and emotion on the matter, rather than if you did it after a series of games or a completely different day.
Hopefully this will shed some light on the reality of what learning and analysing looks like. This is important because you may be on the right track already, but if you base it all upon your K/D or win ratio, you’ll end up missing the point and probably feeling frustrated. The more mistakes you make, the more opportunities there are for improvement. You’ll have to be your own support, allow yourself to fail and also encourage creativity. Ideas and theories are good, keep them! What might not work now may become your only option in the future. Think of your process as creating ideas, not rules. If some of these ideas happen to work consistently, then you can consider making it a rule.
Feel free to create your own terminology. An easy way for you to self talk while you’re playing can be a powerful tool, to help free you from tunnel vision.
This might be the most important part of this thread. As it will assist you in helping yourself and ultimately build your confidence as a player in the long run.
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Spot the Fundamentals

Become a great observer! Go off and watch games of your favourite players. Try to point out where some of these fundamentals are used and why. Regardless of skill, you'll see they often apply these fundamentals. Especially in those competitive tournaments. Feel free to use my clips below.
Spot The Fundamentals Playlist
Don't just watch them, analyse and point out where I did and did not apply the fundamentals. This actually a great way to practice. Critique my gameplay and figure out what was fundamentally right or wrong.
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Note: I'll be updating (editing) this post as time goes on. Be sure to save/bookmark this page if you're interested. I always and only play ranked lol. Who knows how much this shall grow. Feel free to message me here or DM I'll do my best to respond. I'm just like you, I'm not an amazing player so if I can find "some" success, so can you.
submitted by ApexAndArt to apexuniversity [link] [comments]

How to beat your matchups as a chad Ronin (or Ronina).

I don't really know why I decided to write this, guess I'm bored in lockdown and I've spent far too much time on my favourite element of TF2, Ronin. Thought id dispense some tips to new players who find the 3* difficulty rating of ronin too intimidating (I sure did to start with) or too the chads already among us.
Ronin is a short range blade master with a powerful shotgun and unparalleled mobility. You have a very low health pool. You steal all your teammates kills through executions. In the unexpected case you actually have to kill something yourself, this is how:
Ok. In the spirit of showing my alpha dominance as a Ronin, I will list them from easiest to hardest. This is fact and not my opinion.
Northstar: This is like a lion hunting a gazelle which has a foot missing. Northstars main strength over other titans is the speed she possess. You are just as fast if not faster. When approaching a Northstar, lead with an arc wave. This will stop her running which is what they do when they see a ronin within 50m of them. If she's flying, don't waste it, just wait for them to land then profit. Abuse your double arc wave. Save your phase dash for tether traps as it is really very painful to have your speed demon like nature ripped from you. Watch her gun. When it glows, sword block as if the Northstar lands a shot on you, you will feel bad. If you eat it with a sword block it kinda tickles.
Ion: The name of the game is draining their energy. When approaching an ion from range, they will laser shot you. When you see the little box pop up, sword block. If you are a padawan in the ways of the blade master, act preemptively and block upon approach as some split-shots are definitely coming your way sometime soon. Blocking laser shot is a huge win in this fight as that's a lot of their energy wasted. Try to get an arc wave in to stop them escaping to mid-range where ion excels. Also do not shoot the vortex shield. I know its glowing and shinny but just don't or else you will feel the raw damage output of ronin. Instead, if they hold up vortex, just laugh as they drain their energy. Once an ions energy is depleted, the splitter rifle will deal barely any damage compared to the number of health bars that just disappeared for them. This is ideal for you. Watch them squirm as there's nothing they can do with all their abilities gone. Also if they pop laser core, phase and pop your sword core and t-bag as their core deals no damage to you. This will assert your dominance.
Scorch: Controversial spot on the list I know. Your positioning in this fight is essential. As my father said to me when I was growing up playing WoW: 'Don't stand in the red stuff'. You are ronin, the most agile thing next to a pilot. USE THIS. Don't let this slow, obese chef who's obviously had one too many staff dinners thermal shield you. If this does happen, phase pop smoke, arc wave. A Scorch with a thermal shield that has caught its prey can be very single minded in holding W to ensure your death. However, if you are in sword core, encourage the Scorch to use its thermal shield whilst you block. This will bring you joy. Extra points for t-bagging in their face. Otherwise, just be mindful of the napalm, use your mobility to circumvent it. If you stand in the fire, you gonna get burned. Unless you sword block that is. Scorch can be a hard matchup to start with but once you find your way, it can be much easier
Ronin: My personal favourite. Friendly PSA, when you see a ronin duel, do not get involved. It is a match of speed, reflexes and most of all: dominance of the lobby. 2 alpha males locking horns to see who gets to hear Blisk say 'Done and Done' first. Essentially, you want to block the shots from their Leadwall and capitalise on their vulnerable stage (reloading). If they have 0 shots and you have 4, move in for the kill. Arc wave is very useful to deter threats. Also very useful to stop a ronin who will want to reload in safety (out of your range) from escaping. Don't waste shots shooting a sword blocking ronin or you will have a bad day. Do not just run towards a ronin and spam melee. If they have either read this or have any idea how to play, they will back off, arc wave you, unload on you and collect your tears and chad points. This is a very skill dependant match up, if the ronin is clueless, +15 to your attrition score. If they are a pro, prepare to be tested.
Tone: One of my favourite things to do is if a tone has a particle wall and is camping behind it, ruining your teammates days, arc wave it. It goes poof. Tone fights are a counting game. 1,2,3,BLOCK. Save your phase for a barrage of rockets as even when you block, you still take a lot of damage and the opening window of when the tone is trying to lock onto you can be rather short. If you take a full salvo of rockets, it will make you salty and post to this reddit about how overpowered tone is. Not much more to it. Just be careful of the damage potential and get up in their face. Tones can't really handle this as they have small-man syndrome thus the particle wall. Sword core makes this fight absolutely trivial.
Monarch: The damage output of the XO-16 is insane for a ronin. If you approach whilst she unloads this on you, you will be obliterated. Similar to scorch, don't stand in the electric gas or at least block through it (Maelstrom hurts). Block the XO-16 and wait for the reload to unload. Its not this simple tho, you need to be using your tactics of moving around them, plying them with arc waves constantly, approaching from unexpected angles, all the key skills in an aggressive, alpha ronin. Not for the faint hearted. If hit by an energy siphon, enter sword block as you can't even turn under the effects of siphon making you a sitting duck. DO NOT engage if they have t3 accelerator without a sword core. Try it and see why. Superior Chassis is a hard fight but manageable. Sword Core makes life a lot easier.
Legion: Undisputedly, the hardest titan for ronin to deal with when a good player is piloting it. Disengage if you aren't absolutely confident in your skills or if you are no where close to sword core. The massive health pool along with huge damage output whilst you are both in and out of sword block make legion a beast. You will need to hit and run for this one. Attack from rear, phase through him to disorientate, drop smoke on him so he can't see. Remember, avoid all unnecessary damage as ronin or that which exceeds the damage you are outputting. If he catches you in the open whilst you are reloading, it's game over. Your best bet is to kill another titan then sword core legion. A full health legion strikes fear into the hearts of even the most professional ronins.
Please don't refrain from letting me know how wrong I am or why Northstar is actually the hardest. Thanks for reading, I hope to see you as a stoic dark ronin terrorising lobbies soon.
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After Action Report

“Following the scheduled arrival into the Impiron 442 System, XO Dallas ordered a preliminary exploration path, taking us past the four planets in the system, in order to do initial medium range scans and analysis.
The PEP took us uneventfully past the three solid planets, of which one was at a distance to the star permitting it to have liquid water. It wasn’t until we were en route to the gas giant that Captain Derrish ordered a course change, disrupting the planned flyby by setting a course that would result in the Tricard colliding with the core of the planet.
As the sensors indicated a the gas giants gravity well beginning to have an effect on the ship’s trajectory, the sensor suite operator detected a construct, initially deemed to be a ship, of non-human origin, positioned in a location that would have put the Tricard in a compromised position, had the captain not ordered the course adjustment.
The ship turned around and discharged a high-energy weapon, searing the Tricard’s in-atmosphere dorsal fin, the captain ordered a close proximity flyby near the gas planet’s surface.
This resulted in enough turmoil on the surface of the planet to create a ‘smokescreen’, covering the evasive course of the Tricard and allowed for a high-effect slingshot maneuver to accelerate the ship on an escape trajectory, conserving enough to extend the exploration range by a factor of naught point three two.
one week and forty two hours later, we docked at the Terran Exploratory Waystation Curious.”
The admiral leaned back in his chair as the clerk finished reading the report out loud. “Is this your report, Lieutenant Hansen?”
“It is, Admiral.”
He rolled a bit forward with his torso and rested his elbows on the half-circle shaped table in front of him. The remaining six high ranking officers, flanking him with three on each side, said nothing.
“You are aware of captain Derris’ —” he cleared his throat softly “unique situation?”
I nodded. “Yes, I am aware of the captain’s exotic behaviour.”
One of the officers on the end of the table choked a giggle, the rest held their faces in ‘parade’ fixation.
The admiral sighed. “We all are, Lieutenant, which is why we’ve called you in to this hearing.” I cocked my head, indicating a professional confusal, the admiral continued. “Knowing what we do about Captain Derrish and having seen plenty of AAR's from his crew, reading an AAR that actually sounds like a routine exploration, despite encountering an alien vessel.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “This is the odd one out.”
“Admiral, my report follows every protocol regarding AAR submission and—”
“We know this and recognize that as the highest ranking bridge crew, apart from the commanders, your AAR is the one submitted. You have done nothing wrong Lieutenant.” He leaned back in his seat, his brows crunched up in worried figures on his forehead.
A colonel on the admiral’s right leaned into her microphone. “We would like to hear what ‘actually’ happened, Lieutenant and more importantly, why you would cover it up like this.”
“I see.” I reached out and grabbed the glass of water, taking a sip I gathered my thoughts.
“Let me start with some background.” I began, the colonel snorted and started reading out from my records, I looked at the admiral, who silenced the colonel with a hand gesture.
“Go ahead.” He said as he nodded at me.
“Are you familiar with the Plaenaese IV system?” I didn’t wait for their reply. “Don’t worry, very few are. It is essentially an asteroid field the size of Sol system, orbiting a dying red dwarf star. The few ships that make it there without being freighters have one thing in common and one thing only: They’ve got nowhere else to go and no funds to go any further.
I was born in that system. For those of you who are Terran by birth, it is the space equivalent of a trailer park and by comparison, I am the son of trailer park trash. My parents were asteroid miners and made their daily lives bearable by inhaling FTL-fuel fumes through their EVA life support.
That left me, a ten year old boy, with two options: Rock skimming or FTL-snorting.
I chose Skimming.”
Half the officers looked like I had declared war on their sense of justice.
“Rock skimming is basically the asteroid field equivalent of a drag race. In Sol you have an annual tournament that runs from planetary orbit to adjacent planetary orbit, we raced from microplanet to microplanet. Surface to surface. Through the asteroid field.
And yes, it is very illegal.
It gave me purpose, I had an old, dying skimmer and I couldn’t get spare parts or find a repair shop anywhere. So I learned to read, write, repair and fly. I was good at it. So good that I could join the terran fleet academy on merit of having six years of experience on my piloting credentials by the age of nineteen.
Now don’t get me wrong, flying a starship from system A to system B and then plotting a course is all good and fun, but…”
I took another sip of my water, the seven people sitting in a half circle, all facing me all looked like I was about to drop a bomb in their laps.
“It doesn’t hold the challenge of interpreting captain Derris’ orders, or executing them.
I guess the reason for me to be very precise on protocol when it comes to the AAR is this:
Derrish is a skilled captain and a good man, for no other reason than that: he deserves my loyalty and if you want more… He challenges me.”
The Admiral gave me a soft smile. “That is two very good reasons, Lieutenant, now: What really happened?”
“We arrived in the system without the captain on the bridge, he had been busy with his afternoon snack during the FTL transit and had spilled the contents of his sippy cup on his santa suit. XO Dallas had suggested to him that he’d go change into something that wouldn’t stain from prune juice if there was a repeat spillage and the captain had agreed and moonwalked off the bridge ‘so not as to stain the floor behind him’ while sucking on the tassle of his hat.
XO Dallas ordered the routine flyby so we could gather data for the science pack and I plotted the course.
After we’d passed the second planet, captain Derrish returned to the bridge and declared ‘siesta’ from the doorway. I turned and watched as he tried to maneuver an oversized sombrero through the opening, while keeping it on his head. In failing to do so, the captain ordered the sombrero confined to the brig and had two security staff escort the hat to confinement, complete with a standing order to interrogate it and file a tribunal for ‘Failure to properly negotiate spatially proportionate accesways with regards to rank and procedure’”
The colonel lowered her head in defeated realisation of what the folder on her desk labeled ‘Sgt. Hatty McSom-Brero: Disciplinary case.’ contained.
“The captain then took his seat in a loving embrace and engaged in what I can only describe as ‘aggressive courting’ with the chair as we approached the third planet the chair had refused his repeated attempts at second base long enough for him to abandon the plan of action. He grabbed a banana and made eye contact with me.
I don’t care how many battles you’ve seen, or what warzones you’ve witnessed. You’ve never seen pure evil until you’ve held eye contact with a man, eating a banana without removing the peel first. He even ate the little sticker.
‘Hansen.’ He said as we’d passed the third planet, still keeping eye contact. ‘Adjust course by three degrees port, two point five down.’” I looked around at the faces on the other side of the table and shrugged. “After seven tours with Derris you stop asking questions, I adjusted the course and every collision alarm on the bridge went off.
Thirty seconds later the sensor operator spotted the alien vessel and—”
“You’ve described it as non-human.” A general from tactical command said, interrupting me.
“I did sir, ‘flying saucer’ seemed a bit unprofessional for an after action report.”
“...Agreed, continue.”
“Thank you. Derrish threw himself on the decking as the alien weapon discharged and the damage report on my screen noted that in-atmospheric flight was discouraged. That was when the captain jumped onto his console and yelled ‘Surf’s up, my dude! Cowabunga!’
So I turned the Tricard off collision course and switched to the gravimetric engines, skimming the surface of the gas planet, like a surfboard, weaving left and right, following the instructions of the captain.
The maneuver whirled enough gas up behind us to create a gas-smoke-screen for us to hide behind, hopefully making whatever targeting systems they had on that ship useless.
They did, however, follow us into the cloud and when they fired their energy weapon again, they ignited the cloud surrounding them. I caught the gravity well velocity of the planet and used it to slingshot us into the exit path from the system. The rest occured as the report says.”
The admiral looked at me, his eyes trying to convey something I couldn’t understand. “The Tricard needs to have half the armour plating replaced, are you sure you ‘just’ skimmed the surface of that gas giant?”
I shrugged. “Must have been corrosive gas, Sir.”
He nodded slowly and dismissed me.
When I got back to the Tricard I told captain Derrish what had happened at the hearing.
His reply was this:
“There’s a sticker on bananas?”
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A/N: [Semi-amusing quip]
Edit: previous installment in Lt. Hansen's carreer Further adventures of the TEV Tricard's crew
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Support my chocolate addiction here.
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when a man writes xo video

XO SMS Signage. XO has historical significance for it has been around since the days of letter writing or even earlier. Now in modern times, XO is simply SMS slang to mean hugs and kisses as a friendly gesture. If you are seeing someone special at least once a week and texting each other daily, you may receive an XO text. We use "XO" when we need to because sometimes we just need to remind people that although we just came out swinging a sledgehammer, we're good people and we care. What does it mean when a college girl uses one exclamation mark in her sentence and writes an xo next to her name in an email and does the same essay topic as you because she saw you doing it? Xoxo means hugs and kisses. If your question is what does the guy mean when he sent you xoxo, i think that it depends on how much you are close to him and the conversation at that moment. If the conversation was normal and he never sent you heart ... The short answer to "Why does XO stand for hugs and kisses?" is that we don't know. According to Marcel Denasi, professor of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto and author of The History of the Kiss: The Birth of Popular Culture, no one has kept a written record of why the symbols of XOXO were used; they simply began using them in letter writing. When I was dating a guy who XO’d me, one friend insisted that the two letters signified his undeniable love for me (“No straight man does that unless he’s committed,” I believe were her ... A Rich Nigerian man who goes by the name Willie has taken to SnapChat to write on how he was ditched by his girlfriend when he had nothing. According to him, the lady left him for a rich man just because he was broke and now that he is already established, she is making attempt to get back to him. Home Love & Relationship What Does It Mean When A Guy Writes XOXO? Love & Relationship; What Does It Mean When A Guy Writes XOXO? By. Lakeisha Ethans - July 19, 2017. 16219. 11. Here we are again trying to decipher the male mind. I know, I know, it’s impossible. That’s because our brains are wired completely differently. My crush just did this, and I probably am over reacting, but still.. Does it mean much to guys, or is it just something they simply add on? He's never done it before, and we've talked ALOT (about 3 hours everyday..) And he knows I like him.. I know with girls, they just add "x" or "xo" onto the end of most things, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same for guys.. I didn't know guys read too much into things as well. a friend of mine often asks what does he mean when he writes xxx. It means NOTHING if she wants to tell you something she better find a clearer way to do that.

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