Oak forest swim club
Chicago Marathon
2015.06.25 22:55 Chicago Marathon
A community of runners who are interested in the Chicago Marathon or just running in general. Get ideas, training, help, and even find a runners club near you!
2015.02.13 00:11 RestonRealEstate Reston VA Real Estate
Reston VA local news, updates and anything related to buying or selling a home in the area.
2012.12.05 08:40 notpornthistime backpackers from columbus, ohio
This is a place for backpackers to get together and share stories, area trail updates, and plan group backpacking trips.
2023.04.01 07:34 Might-Klutzy She’s durable
| Fell flat on my face clubbing. I shower, swim, wash hands the lot and she still runs. Congrats Casio for the durability…. submitted by Might-Klutzy to casio [link] [comments] |
2023.04.01 06:33 Knecroknight1 Is this the list of clubs that have spent the most recorded number of seasons in first division and Premier League?
2023.04.01 06:26 strawberry093 International somehow gets T25!! help me choose a school please
Demographics - Gender: female
- Race/Ethnicity: east asian
- Residence: southeast asia
- Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none :/
Intended Major(s): economics, econometrics
Academics - GPA/Rank (or percentile): 4.21 UW
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 5 APs (scored 5s on all except for one)
- Senior Year Course Load: AP US Gov, AP Comp Gov, AP Psych, Normal English, AP Chinese, Multivariable calculus, Advanced Economics (a course to take after I completed AP Econ)
Standardized Testing List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported. - SAT/ACT: 1530 (730 R&W, 800M)
- SAT II: SAT Chinese with Listening 800
- AP/IB: 5 on micro, macro, stats, calc bc & 4 on env sci
Extracurriculars/Activities: (list here)
1) research assistant with a professor from a local university here
2) foundepresident of a website that hosts competitions for students
3) president of a club that provides economics help to people interested in studying economics
4) fundraising manager of a women empowering organisation
5) math and english tutor for children from underprivileged families
6) track and field mentor for middle school students
7) director of marketing for a club that promotes energy conservation
8) summer program at one of the UC schools
Awards/Honors: 1) 2nd place in an international math olympiad
2) NCH essay competition economics category finalist
3) AMC 12B top 5%
4) HK international science olympiad - silver award
Essays/LORs/Interviews: (briefly reflect/rate)
Essays: 7/10 for common app, wrote about an experience that I encountered when I first moved during elementary school & how it changed my perspective of my surroundings. 8/10 for supps
LORs:
- Econ teacher 9/10: hosted a schoolwide competition together and he knows about my passion for economics. pretty close.
- Calc BC teacher 7/10: I usually went for help during study blocks. pretty close as well but not sure how good of a writer he is.
Decisions - Acceptances: UVA (EA), UC Irvine, BU, UIUC, UC Santa Barbara, Purdue, UC Davis, Northeastern, UW Madison (EA)
- Waitlists: CMU, Boston College, UCSD, Wake Forest
- Rejections: Emory (ED), USC (EA), Uni of Notre Dame, UCLA, NYU, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Tufts
Any suggestions of where I should go to??? My top choices rn are UVA, UC Irvine, BU and UIUC.
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2023.04.01 06:14 The_Late_Bloomer_21 Electric Forest Lineup Drop Before EDC??
2023.04.01 06:13 jgk87 Paddy's Pub Reverb - 544 Matteo Street - East West "Spaces II" Reverb
2023.04.01 06:01 LiveCommentator [Pre-Match thread] Chelsea vs Aston Villa
[Premier League - 2022/2023]
Chelsea - Aston Villa
Match Info
Date: April 01, 2023
Time: 09:30 (US/Pacific)
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Odds
Bookmaker | Home | Draw | Away |
Bwin | 1.65 | 3.9 | 5.25 |
NordicBet | 1.68 | 4.0 | 5.3 |
10Bet | 1.68 | 3.9 | 5.5 |
William Hill | 1.67 | 3.75 | 5.0 |
Bet365 | 1.65 | 3.8 | 5.5 |
Marathonbet | 1.67 | 3.92 | 5.1 |
Unibet | 1.67 | 4.0 | 5.6 |
Betsson | 1.68 | 4.0 | 5.3 |
188Bet | 1.68 | 3.9 | 5.2 |
Pinnacle | 1.68 | 3.94 | 5.53 |
SBO | 1.6 | 3.5 | 4.74 |
1xBet | 1.7 | 4.08 | 5.45 |
Sportingbet | 1.65 | 3.9 | 5.25 |
ComeOn | 1.64 | 3.9 | 5.5 |
Betway | 1.65 | 3.75 | 4.75 |
Tipico | 1.62 | 3.8 | 5.5 |
Betcris | 1.66 | 3.88 | 5.25 |
888Sport | 1.64 | 3.95 | 5.6 |
Dafabet | 1.63 | 3.7 | 5.1 |
Head to Head
Date | | Result | | Competition |
11.12.2022 14:10 | Aston Villa | 1-0 | Chelsea | Friendlies Clubs |
11.12.2022 14:10 | Chelsea | 0-1 | Aston Villa | Friendlies Clubs |
16.10.2022 13:00 | Aston Villa | 0-2 | Chelsea | Premier League |
26.12.2021 17:30 | Aston Villa | 1-3 | Chelsea | Premier League |
22.09.2021 18:45 | Chelsea | 1-1 | Aston Villa | League Cup |
Team Statistics
Chelsea
| HOME | AWAY | ALL |
Games Played | 13 | 14 | 27 |
Wins | 6 | 4 | 10 |
Draws | 4 | 4 | 8 |
Loss | 3 | 6 | 9 |
GOALS | | | |
Goals For | 16 | 13 | 29 |
Goals Against | 10 | 18 | 28 |
GOALS AVERAGE | | | |
Goals For | 1.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
Goals Against | 0.8 | 1.3 | 1.0 |
Aston Villa
| HOME | AWAY | ALL |
Games Played | 14 | 13 | 27 |
Wins | 7 | 4 | 11 |
Draws | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Loss | 5 | 6 | 11 |
GOALS | | | |
Goals For | 23 | 12 | 35 |
Goals Against | 19 | 20 | 39 |
GOALS AVERAGE | | | |
Goals For | 1.6 | 0.9 | 1.3 |
Goals Against | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
Recent form
Chelsea: DWWLLD
Aston Villa: WDWWLL
Standings
# | Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | P |
1 | Arsenal | 28 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 66 | 26 | +40 | 69 |
2 | Manchester City | 27 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 67 | 25 | +42 | 61 |
3 | Manchester United | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 41 | 35 | +6 | 50 |
4 | Tottenham | 28 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 52 | 40 | +12 | 49 |
5 | Newcastle | 26 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 39 | 19 | +20 | 47 |
6 | Liverpool | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 29 | +18 | 42 |
7 | Brighton | 25 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 46 | 31 | +15 | 42 |
8 | Brentford | 27 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 43 | 34 | +9 | 42 |
9 | Fulham | 27 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 38 | 37 | +1 | 39 |
10 | Chelsea | 27 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 29 | 28 | +1 | 38 |
11 | Aston Villa | 27 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 35 | 39 | -4 | 38 |
12 | Crystal Palace | 28 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 38 | -16 | 27 |
13 | Wolves | 28 | 7 | 6 | 15 | 22 | 41 | -19 | 27 |
14 | Leeds | 27 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 35 | 44 | -9 | 26 |
15 | Everton | 28 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 40 | -18 | 26 |
16 | Nottingham Forest | 27 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 22 | 49 | -27 | 26 |
17 | Leicester | 27 | 7 | 4 | 16 | 38 | 47 | -9 | 25 |
18 | West Ham | 26 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 24 | 34 | -10 | 24 |
19 | Bournemouth | 27 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 25 | 54 | -29 | 24 |
20 | Southampton | 28 | 6 | 5 | 17 | 23 | 46 | -23 | 23 |
All data provided by Matchcaster, a next level football threading bot - fully configurable and customized threads controlled by moderators of this subreddit.
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2023.04.01 05:59 Wonderful_Ant1136 Chance me🤧
Note: i'm a current junior and unless something major happens these should be the stats i apply with next yr
Schools: (i should qualify for fee waivers everywhere 🤧) Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Colombia, cornell, Upenn, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Wake forest, Uni of Chicago, Vanderbuilt (reach) App state, UNCG, UNC, Davidson, UNCW, UNC charlotte, NC state, Elon university (target and safety??? i think)
Demographics: white, female, rural school in the south, lower mid class. will apply as a psych major Stats: 3.8uw, 4.2w, top 10% of class, 1560 SAT, 35 ACT,
300+ volunteer hours(and a service learning diploma),
numerous state and reigonal awards for art/writing
13 honors (not including seinor year courses)
9 AP's (not including seinor year courses) (APpsych 5, APhg 4, AP world 4, and AP gov+ lit+ lang+ calc ab + african american studies + apush)
doing dual enrollment this summer
-My school's psychology club (10th-12th) and leadership 11th+12th
-Greensboro youth council (local thingy, very volunteer based) (10th-12th) and leadership 11th+12th
-on a committee that plans a safe prom for lgbtq youth (10th-12th)
-summer as a research assistant at a local uni
-published author (poetry) that donates portion of books profits to organizations that's advocate for mental health
-online art store with 500+ sales that donates portion of profits to mental advocacy orgs
-mental health advocacy tiktok + insta with a combined 100,000+ followers
-a personal blog that goes sin depth and really deals with mental health
-7 cups (kind of like a peer counseling thing)
-assistant stage manager for fall musical at my school for one show + worked as a tech for numerous shows
If there's ANYTHING !!! yall think i could do that would five me a better chance at being accepted into any of these schools please lmk 💕 and thank you !!!
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2023.04.01 05:52 The_ChwatBot Tennessee Triplets
2023.04.01 05:48 LimpHandle4587 Chance Me: Somewhat Unique Junior Transfer
Hi everybody! I posted a similar post about a month ago but that was more so in regard to my ECs. As I'm currently in limbo and trying to plan for the future, I wanted to post a "Chance Me" to see what this subreddit thought about my chances.
Backstory: Current Ivy student (Brown/Columbia/Penn) who is applying after a traumatic SA experience this past fall semester. No hooks, also requiring some financial aid. Am currently a junior, and am only applying due to my SA experience. In my Personal Statement/Why Transfer essay, I did honestly and transparently explain my reason but made sure to focus on why I believed _____ school was a good fit for me in other supplements. I recognize that I'd have to redo my junior year, but as I sit here typing in my dorm, I can't imagine returning here after what I've gone through.
College GPA: 4.0/4.0
HS GPA: 3.99/4.0
SAT: 1550
Demographics: Asian Female (from Malaysia), applying for financial aid (partial)
Major: Psychology, Sociology
Recs: Should be all 10/10 as I'm very close with all the profs I asked, had 3 professor recs and 1 peer rec
Honors: Numerous Honor Roll awards at current Ivy, Cello National Awards from HS, 3x State Champion in high school competitive club (think DECA/BPA/FBLA/FFA/HOSA/FCCLA), 2x International Finalist (Top 10) in high school competitive club (think DECA/BPA/FBLA/FFA/HOSA/FCCLA), Special Recognition from college professor for Special Achievement in Psychology
College ECs:
- Internship at a reputable strategy consulting firm
- Founder of early-stage education nonprofit
- Research scholar in a prestigious program at school (neuroscience-focused)
- Research assistant in the energy department at my school (focused on psychology of energy usage)
- Executive leader of political consulting firm (oversaw congressional/gubernatorial campaigns, including some currently elected officials)
- Membership chair in sorority
ECs started in High School, still active in College:
- Musician/Composer (won national-level awards in high school and releasing music on Apple Music/Spotify soon)
- Independent Creative Writer (written and published over 300k words online with over 40k reads and over 500 reviews)
- Academic/Cello Tutor (paying for college through self-employed tutoring business, 98 students in past 5 years)
High School ECs (at least the ones mentioned in my apps):
- Varsity Swimming Captain (also school record holder)
- President of 103-member Competitive Club (think DECA/BPA/FBLA/FFA/HOSA/FCCLA)
- President of 84-member Competitive Club (think DECA/BPA/FBLA/FFA/HOSA/FCCLA)
- Founder of a student-run nonprofit organization (raised thousands of dollars, think 5 figures, for underprivileged Diabetes patients who can't afford treatment on their own and research)
- Internship at a reputable biotech company (studied systems health and researched social/psychological impact of certain diseases on patients/loved ones)
- Volunteer at a hospital in Malaysia for a summer (my family is from there)
Colleges Applied To: All Ivies besides Princeton (and my current one ofc), Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, I also haven't applied yet but think I'll shoot my shot at UChicago since it's rolling (I recognize it's on the late end now).
I know some people thought I could get into these schools after seeing my ECs before, but am curious if after hearing my story (read: current junioSA victim) they believe it's a longer shot now. I recognize that all of these schools are so so hard to get into but I'm just so desperate to leave. Unfortunately, my parents told me they don't want me "transferring down" which to them is everything besides these schools, and I need their financial support.
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2023.04.01 05:37 AxisAbdi0 Premier league CM ideas based on last trophy won.
2023.04.01 05:24 Merle8888 A last minute bingo post! This year I tried, with moderate success, to only include books I liked on the card. Also with commentary on the squares
Hello
fantasy,
I debated whether it was worth posting my card this year, especially since I didn’t do any cool theme like some of you! My challenge was to try to find books I actually liked, and I’m a tough customer, so ideally nothing below 3 stars, and only books I didn't mind boosting.
I only mostly made it, and there are a few books on here I’d have liked to replace, but toward the end the replacement books were getting lower ratings than the originals, until I accepted it was time to take a break. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to do bingo and I did get some great books on the card. I read 10 eligible books this year that did not make it onto the card (not counting sequels of books that are included, as I continued 2 series), and all of the books left off earned 3 stars or fewer, mostly fewer. So my favorites of the year are all represented.
Sadly I can’t seem to get the enlarged cover images to make a visual card and I am tired, so no pretty image to share, just reviews!
The Fabulous (4.5 stars)
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann: Five fairy tale survivors come together in a dodgy support group in modern New York. This novel is weird and different, and very funny, with pitch-perfect dialogue and vibrant, memorable characters. It also does a great job of exploring feminism, trauma and economic inequality, and the ways all three of these are inextricably linked.
The Square:
Mental Health (HM): I liked this square a lot, and while several of this year’s books fit, the one with the frame story about a trauma support group seemed particularly apropos!
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Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Fantasy from one perspective, science fiction from another, privileging neither; worldviews are durable and neither is really more true than the other. This is a fabulously inventive and plain cool novella, with strong writing and enough depth to be memorable. The chapter with side-by-side columns featuring the two protagonists’ very different interpretations of an origin myth is an especially nice touch.
The Square:
Book Club (HM): Self-explanatory. This one was especially popular in the Hugo readalong and generated some great discussion.
---
The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan: Maybe fantasy, maybe not: a woman with schizophrenia writes about some weird and troubling experiences in an attempt to parse what’s really happened to her. A weird, wonderfully-written novel with a completely believable voice, and a deep sympathy for its protagonist’s mental illness; this one never feels exploitative or shallow. Particularly impressive is the chapter written when the character is off her meds. I liked the two embedded short stories, purportedly written by the lead, a bit less, but they certainly show the author’s range.
The Square:
LGBTQ List (HM): I lucked out with this one, not having realized it was on the list until after reading it with a book club. I would have preferred an own voices aspect to the prompt, and this book meets that requirement as author is trans. As far as LGBT elements in the book, the protagonist is a lesbian and her girlfriend is a trans woman.
---
Murderbot by Martha Wells: I read all six of these books this year and love the series even more as a whole, which is rare for me. Murderbot is a fabulous lead, with a strong voice, extremely relatable (it judges everyone for being incompetent, and just wants to chill and watch media), and a great arc (learning to trust and care about people, despite being socially incompetent). The plots are a lot of fun, although more mystery/thriller than I usually care for, and feel well thought-through, and I appreciate the critique of corporatocracy running throughout. Wells’s ability to create great secondary characters just by showing us what they say and do, without any emotional intelligence on her narrator’s part, is something other authors should study. I’m here for as many books in this series as she wants to write and am very glad I gave her another chance after a bad experience with one of her fantasies—and I don’t even
like sci-fi!
The Square:
Set in Space (HM): The first book is set on a planet, albeit an uninhabited one. But most of the rest of the series is set on ships and space stations.
The Very Good (4 stars)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: Lovely, atmospheric and propulsive—I had a lot of fun figuring out what was happening here. Piranesi has a strong individual voice and I love his genuine kindness and compassion. This isn’t the perspective you would expect this story to be told from and it’s better for it. Clarke is also just an excellent writer, a strong prose stylist and a confident storyteller willing to leave some questions unanswered.
The Square:
Standalone (HM): A bit of a cheat on the hard mode since I’m confident it’s only not on the list because it wasn’t published yet!
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The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller: A dark, political standalone fantasy in a quasi-Victorian setting, featuring a woman who has suffered so much trauma that she deals with it by offloading portions of her personality and memories into other bodies. This one is well-written and different, set in an interesting world where psychic powers come with terrible costs. The beginning takes some attention to piece together what’s going on and I might have liked a little more from the end, but overall a worthwhile read.
The Square:
Published in 2022 (HM): An impressive debut and I definitely want to see where this author’s imagination goes next.
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The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik: I’m a huge fan of this series: the first book got a very rare 5 stars from me, the second 4.5; this one is a little lower but I still love the trilogy as a whole. I wish this had been a little less frantically plot-driven and allowed the characters a little more room to breathe, but it’s a fabulous plot with some incredible twists and reveals, a lot of current relevance, and as always, a great protagonist in the snarky but heroic El.
The Square:
Urban Fantasy (HM): Not your typical urban fantasy but I think this one definitely qualifies, as it’s set in the real world and in fact mostly in cities!
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The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin: Le Guin is a fabulous writer, and this book develops quite a deep story in a short page count, of a girl raised to be a powerful priestess who comes to question the order of things. I love the anthropological knowledge that forms the basis of her worldbuilding, and her writing is vivid and the characters feel real. Le Guin has also written about her struggles writing women as heroes, and I definitely see that in the end, where the character ending she meant as triumphant came across to me as disappointing.
I wanted Tenar to take hold of her newfound authority with both hands and make the priestly compound, and perhaps her country, a better place. Instead she ends the book as a teenage refugee dependent on Ged, finding freedom only by giving up her power. The Square:
Cool Weapon: I didn’t vibe with this square so hoped something would turn up, and as Ged has a magical staff that he can also fight with, I think this technically qualifies. Sometimes technically correct is the best kind of correct.
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Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: Delightfully whimsical, sweet, and fun, this is a fairy-tale-esque story of a girl cursed into the form of an old woman, and the motley crew she falls in with, all of them living in a decidedly strange castle. I think this is really more an all-ages book than a middle-grade one; Jones’s philosophy was that kids were better at complicated plots than adults are, and that’s borne out here. I could have done without the sudden romance turn at the end.
The Square:
Name in the Title: Self-explanatory.
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Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones: A lighthearted, fun book, this is a quasi-period novel set in an invented European country, featuring a romance between a young woman of the gentry who comes into money and uses it to study magic at university, and the guardswoman/duelist she inherits from her godfather. Both leads are sympathetic, the plot enjoyable, and the magic based on prayers to saints is fun. Not especially memorable but I think I’ll read the sequel (featuring a new couple) for next year’s bingo.
The Square:
Small Press or Self-Published: This one is small press rather than self-published; Bella Books focuses on publishing lesbian lit.
The Good (3.5 stars)
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey: A delicious psychological thriller, in which the biggest source of tension is the question of just how far our morally compromised protagonist will go. Strong writing, an unreliable narrator, and a weird cloning scenario set this one up as an intense read. Some character decisions seem a bit unlikely, but overall this one was definitely worthwhile.
The Square:
Anti-Hero: I don’t love the way women labeled anti-heroes are so often just traumatized people being human, but Evelyn is pretty far gone. One might reasonably question whether there’s any “hero” in her at all, but she’s a compelling lead.
---
The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott: A fun portal fantasy featuring a badass older woman and her posse setting out to rescue her adult son, who was kidnapped by a dragon. I really enjoy and respect Elliott’s work—she thinks through her worlds and characters deeply, and her progressivism is genuine, longstanding and interacts intelligently with her very well-developed worlds. These days I’m not that into quests and adventure plots, which is likely why I didn’t enjoy this one more.
The Square:
Revolutions and Rebellions: In line with the progressive ethos, Esther works to oppose slavery and help workers claim their rights everywhere she goes—there’s definitely some rebelling against the status quo going on here.
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The Just City by Jo Walton: This one is hard to encapsulate in a mini-review. Time-traveling Greek gods Athena and Apollo bring together philosophers from throughout the ages to found Plato’s Republic in the Bronze Age, as an experiment. The book is a fun way to learn about Plato's Republic, and the characters’ philosophical discussions and sincere pursuit of excellence are great fun. I think Walton is better at writing about positive experiences than negative ones—her portrayals of grief and trauma have always fallen flat for me and do so again here, and some of her character voices are stronger than others, while the climactic debate seemed amateur. But despite the criticism, this one left me with a lot to think about, and I went on to finish the trilogy—the second is a slight step down but worth reading if you liked the first (unfortunately it’s hard to stop as they all end on cliffhangers), but the third is just a nosedive, WTF did she think
that absurd plotline belonged in
this trilogy when there were so many meatier things to explore? The trilogy as a whole I wouldn’t rate above 3 stars, but the first book gets 3.5. Somehow I never love Walton's books, but they're all so unique I keep coming back anyway.
The Square:
Award Nominee (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde: Urban fantasy or perhaps magical realism, set in Lagos and exploring issues in contemporary Nigerian society. This one is vibrant, distinctive and messy, making no apologies for its Nigerian English and not catering to the foreign reader. It’s more short story collection than novel, and I found the first half intense and heavy but very well-written, as it explores themes of life, death, and finding meaning. The second half seems more focused on telling stories of queer Nigerians for queer Nigerians who haven’t seen much of themselves in fiction, but may do less for the reader for whom it’s not personal.
The Square:
Set in Africa (HM): One of only a couple squares my natural reading didn’t fill. I checked out 5 interesting-sounding books from the library, previewed them all, and this was the winner, which I was glad of because I wanted to read an African author and not just someone of African descent. The runner-up, Redemption in Indigo, seemed strong enough that I might read it for a future bingo.
---
Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer: A thoughtful, literary collection of short stories set at various points in the history of an imagined empire; it reminds me a bit of Chinese history in its cyclical rising and falling. It’s no wonder Le Guin was a fan, as this is a thematically rich work, dealing with big ideas about history and power and the individual’s role in all this. Plot and character are not the focus, and I expected the stories to tie together more than they do, but they leave the reader something to think about as Gorodischer does not spell things out.
The Square:
No Ifs Ands or Buts: This year’s easiest square, and I gave up hard mode, but I wanted to fit this book on my card somehow, okay?
The Okay (3 stars)
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel: Enjoyable but not particularly memorable, this is a retelling of the Ramayana from the perspective of Rama’s antagonistic stepmother. It takes the well-worn route of making her near-perfect and Rama in the wrong, which has generated some interesting discussions about its portrayal of Hinduism. Unfortunately, it’s told in a generic first-person voice that makes Kaikeyi herself into a generic idealized protagonist. Despite that, I really enjoyed its focus on her relationships with family and friends, particularly the other women in her life, and the flow of the book appealed to me, with our lead mostly finding success and happiness in life. If you enjoyed Circe, but want to see better feminism and could do without the sex and romance, you should definitely try this.
The Square:
Family Matters (HM): I love this book for this square because the book is primarily about family relationships of various sorts. And its three-generational cast places our heroine in the middle generation rather than the youngest one, which is nice.
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In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire: The only novella in this series that I’ve read, and I loved it right up until the end. Our heroine has to choose between a portal world and our world, and passes back and forth repeatedly as she grows up and her decision gets harder and harder. I loved the deep but understated emotion, the relationships between the heroine and her families both biological and found, the fact that both her mentor and her best friend are also women/girls and these relationships have a lot of depth and emotion to them, and the sheer reasonableness of this initially bizarre world and its rules. The tragic ending basically destroys all that though, as to make it happen a major character acts against common sense, her own established wishes and motivations,
and the rules of the world, all in one ridiculously contrived swoop. It seems like the author knew what ending she had to come to based on this protagonist's appearance in an already-published book, and so had to force a story that had grown in a different direction into that mold. This is the second McGuire book I’ve read, and likely the last, as my enjoyment of both books was severely impaired by elements that seemed really poorly thought-through.
The Square:
Shapeshifters (HM): A cool feature of the world is that takers slowly begin to grow feathers, and ultimately turn into birds if they don’t change their ways (it’s okay though, they can become human again by giving back to the community).
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The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri: This was pretty mid for me, despite elements I like in theory: the South Asian inspired world, the three major women characters who play important roles in each other’s stories. I don’t really do epic fantasy anymore (what you don’t see on this card are all the others that I DNF’d early), but my enjoyment was probably also held back by having previously read Suri’s Books of Ambha, which I enjoyed much more. I’m starting to feel as if she creates all of her major women characters by starting with the same “strong woman” template and changing up the particular life experiences—also, you really have to emotionally connect to get much out of Suri's books and I wasn’t quite there with this one.
The Square:
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (HM): There’s a forest where time passes at a different rate. Not a huge element but it is there!
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At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson: Quite a varied short story collection, from fantasy to science fiction to magic realism. There were stories in here that I
loved—particularly the first, “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” about troubled people finding their way back into the world through a circus act. There were stories I
hated, like “Dia Chjerman’s Tale,” an incredibly dark and upsetting tale of the brutal destruction of a planet. So it’s hard to recommend as a collection, though I absolutely recommend all of Johnson’s novels, particularly The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, closely followed by Fudoki. Oddly enough, the story that grew into Fudoki is here and I liked it less as a short story; the collection also includes the story that grew into my least favorite of her novels, The Fox Woman—and I liked that one much more.
The Square:
Five Short Stories (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher: Cute but forgettable to me. A princess-turned-nun gathers a motley band to go on a quest to rescue her sister from an abusive husband who is also a king. I wanted a little more from both the world and the characters—Marra is nominally 30 but has a pretty standard coming-of-age story, which seems like a waste of an adult heroine, and the supporting cast is in theory cool but didn’t do much for me. Someone likened them to Pratchett characters and I think there’s some truth to that, so if you get more emotionally invested in his characters than I do (read: at all) you might also like this more.
The Square:
Author Uses Initials (HM): Self-explanatory.
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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: A very well-written novel; that opening is breathtaking in its sheer confidence and power. And there’s some definite character depth here. I can see why this is popular and award-winning. But I never connected with the characters, and it proved too dark a book for me to enjoy—expect horrific violence against children. Also, those themes? Yeah, I’m tired of fantasy novels that like to pretend power is irrelevant to human power relations. This setup—mages with horrifically dangerous and violent powers are hated and feared by the populace because of those powers, and use the fact that people "wrongly" hate and fear them to justify ever more violence against average citizens who can never hope to match their power—this makes a great analogy for America’s police and how they see themselves. Unfortunately the book transparently intends it as an analogy for actual oppressed people, particularly African-Americans, where it works much less well.
The Square:
Weird Ecology (HM): A world geologically different from our own (though I think it may be intended as our world in the far future), where plants, animals and people have evolved to survive even decades of disaster-induced winter.
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You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson: Set in a dystopia, this purports to be the memoir of an influential psychiatrist, with footnotes by disapproving editors. The conceit is believably executed, and as a meditation on memory and history and complicity this works fairly well. It’s less successful with plot and character, and I didn’t believe in the dystopia (the world government has outlawed families? Really?). This is a tie-in novel to a podcast, Within the Wires, and while it’s sold as one you don’t need to listen to the podcast to understand, I think maybe you actually do.
The Square:
2+ Authors: This square actually got me on a multi-authored-work reading kick this year. Unfortunately, those books are ranking lower than average for me; you’ll see one more further down and there were another two ranked too low to make it onto the card (including one that would have qualified for hard mode!).
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Monstress Vol. 7: Devourer by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: I enjoy this graphic novel series, a beautifully drawn epic fantasy in a female-dominated world. Warning that it’s dark, graphic and gory, though, and seems to be bogging down a bit in the middle volumes. Or maybe I just need to wait till it’s finished and read it all in one go rather than one book per year.
The Square:
Non-Human Protagonist: A bit of a cheat since Maika can pass, but she is Arcanic, meaning from a race of animal-people, not human. (She’s also sharing her body with a monster.) I later read an actual novel for this but I hated it so here we are.
The Not-So-Good (2.5 stars)
Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer: This is actually kind of fun, an epistolary novel featuring two spunky cousins encountering magic and romance in Regency England. The authors wrote the novel by writing each other letters in character as a game and without discussing the plot, which is a super fun origin story, but as a novel I don’t think it quite works—both leads have protagonist syndrome, they’re kind of the same person and their plots have all the same beats, including identical climaxes, which was awfully boring the second time around. Still, if you love Georgette Heyer and you love fantasy you might want to give this a try.
The Square:
Historical Fantasy: I love this as a square and wish I had something better for it—initially I used Daughter of Mystery but then moved that out late and had to scramble.
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Pemmican Wars by Katharina Vermette: A short graphic novel featuring a Metis teenager who is struggling in foster care and meanwhile is transported back to (or perhaps just dreams of?) scenes from Canada’s past. The present-day thread is intriguingly told, almost all pictures with very few words, and brings home the protagonist’s isolation while letting readers come up with their own interpretation of what’s happening. The past segments feel really juvenile though, much younger than the YA it’s sold as, and still don’t do much to clarify the history.
The Square:
BIPOC Author (HM): The square I struggled with most this year, because I really wanted to do hard mode, but had a
lot of trouble finding a fantasy by an indigenous author that I wanted to read. I read a lot of lists and reviews, previewed at least 7 books, and read 3 of them. The first, while perfectly decent, was straight literary fiction and I could not make an argument that it was speculative, despite its being sold that way. The third was definitely fantasy but I thought it was pretty bad. So I wound up with this one, which is only arguably fantasy, very short, and which I didn’t think was all that great—definitely a non-ideal choice! But bingo is up and I don’t mind boosting this for those who might in fact enjoy it.
Thanks for reading! If you want the longer version of any of these reviews, check out my bingo shelf
on Goodreads. Hit the “view” button on the far right side of each listing to see my review.
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2023.04.01 05:09 Trying2FindMe Just can’t seem to learn freestyle
I have been in the pool on and off for 10 years (now 45), and compete in triathlon up to Olympic distance several times per summer. But no matter what I try or how many YouTube videos I watch, I just can’t seem to get any better at freestyle. I can swim at most 50m without needing a break. A big part of it is I just can’t seem to breathe, and my HR goes over 150 - not sustainable. So do every race swimming breast stroke, which I can do up to 3 miles, but it’s SLOW and drains the legs.
Any tips on how to learn to swim this stroke better? My nearest masters club is over 2 hours away, so that won’t work. Thanks for any tips!
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2023.04.01 05:06 MasterDarcy_1979 43 [M4F] #Scotland. Dominant seeking submissive
If your initial chat request and/or message does not interest me, or if they break any of the following stipulation, I shan't reply.
So be warned.
Also, please, only initiate contact with me if you are looking for a Dominant. If you initiate contact for any other reason then I will not respond.
In the past I've replied to every single chat/message in the past. In the more recent cases the sender clearly hadn't read my post, which has now forced me to clamp down. Quite frankly, it's a waste of my time.
After you've sent your chat request and/or message, you will have to wait for a reply (if you meet my criteria). As I will either be busy, sleeping or processing your chat/message.
Also, please include a photograph of yourself. As I've included a photograph on my post.
- If you're going to write, please do so with something substantial. Please, please put some thought and some feeling into it. If I receive a message which consists solely of "Hi", "Hey", etc, or a low energy message then I reserve the right to ghost and put a curse on you.
- I only want to receive messages from single women.
- I love kids and at a pinch I would get involved with a woman who had a child. I wouldn't, however, get involved with a woman who had a "Brady Bunch" situation.
- I love being single. There's a freedom there and it allows you to learn and grow without the shackles of co-dependancy. For me to allow someone to disrupt that, that someone would have to be amazing and someone who is a mirror image of myself. Accept no substitute.
- If you're a business owner or captain of industry or a woman in a high powered job, get in touch. The thought of Dominating a woman who is a boss, in charge of dozens of people gets me very hot - this isn't a requisite, though, it's just a hot fantasy. A fantasy that I would love to turn into a reality. Having this high powered, successful woman wearing my collar and her trusting me enough to in charge of her life, health, well-being, finances, etc. Hot.)
- Since I'm reaching. It would be cool to be the Dom of an actress. I wonder how many, if any, couples involving actors and and actresses participate in BDSM and how many of them are in D/s relationships.
Hell, it doesn't have to be a professional actress, occasional community theatre would suffice. :p
As I said, though, the previous two variables are not a prerequisite. I don't care what career a woman has. The only thing that's important to me is that we are emotionally and spiritually compatible, everything else can fall by the wayside.
What I'm looking for:
I want a woman who has character, who is classy and sophisticated. A woman who has dignity, strong opinions, strong unwavering morals and a personality. I don't want a doormat. Just because a woman is a submissive in no way means that she's weak-willed, inherently inferior and docile.
I've known submissive women from all walks of life, from at the pinnacle of the arts, to the top of the mental health profession even to someone involved in the space industry.
It's a long heralded deep misconception, not just within the vanilla community, but also in the BDSverse, that the Dominants wield the most power. They don't. If anything, submissives and slaves hold considerably more power, as without their consent, the Dominant is just a person holding a collar without a person attached.
So yes, if you're a submissive or a slave and you're reading this. Just remember that YOU initially hold the power.
I like strong character. Collaring a strong woman is more of an achievement than collaring someone who has the backbone integrity of a jellyfish or someone who is already broken.
I like the process
My kind of woman is Elizabeth Bennet and Wednesday Addams all rolled into one. Essentially, a woman who is strong and opinionated, who knows her own mind, and doesn't give a rat's tail for the judgements of others. But also a woman who is a natural submissive behind their hard shell of an exterior.
She is a lover of books and words.
She has grace and class and sophistication. Being the Dominant of a woman who is the personification of class and elegance is a really hot fantasy. Posh, even. Well-to-do and maybe a little spoilt.
I'm an old fashioned gentleman at heart, with manners and politeness. Cue my username. (If you don't get the play-on-words of my username then you've failed the first test)
I'm majorly into watersports, so if that kind of thing turns you on, we're going to get along!
I'll start with the "Darcy" part of my psyche:
I'm not like the vast majority of Dominants out there who will collar the first submissive who comes along. I have high standards and I'll only collar a submissive if those standards are met.
I find, in society, with kink and vanilla, people are too willing to drop their standards and take whatever on off. People have a "first come, first served" mentality.
That isn't me.
This is why 50% of marriages end in divorce and 75% of those married 50% are miserable and the parties are waiting for the sweet taste of death to release them from the hell that they've created, for fear of dying alone.
That isn't me, either. I would rather live and die by my own sword than be with someone for whom I want to kill. Life is too short to be in an unhappy relationship.
I'm not a social media person. Yes, I'm on here, but I'm only really here to post this. Other than Reddit, I have zero social media presence.
I'm also not an instant messaging person. I am witty and I love banter. IM seems to bring out my sarcastic and quippy side, which is a curse as it's detrimental with regards to actually getting to know someone.
My communication method of choice is emails. With emails you're able to convey mass amounts of information and details, without interruption, therefore, making the "getting to know you" process relatively quick.
If you want a Man who has manners, who is intelligent, monogamous, funny, classy, sophisticated and nurturing, feel free to initiate contact.
I'm deep, introspective, pensive and morose. I feel more at ease and happiest when I'm alone. I can barely tolerate people.
I would rather be by myself than be at a party or a gathering. If you want a people person and an extraverted and a social butterfly. Yeah... that isn't me, either.
Characteristics I'm seeking: sardonic, pensive, Intelligent, well read, classy, kinky, sophisticated, open minded, monogamous and with a certain Goth vibe. I have always had a thing for Goth types. Back in the day it was Morticia and Elvira, I suppose you can add Wednesday to the mix now that she's all growed up.
ABOUT ME: (Vanilla)
I'm a writer, and soon-to-be author (hopefully). One of my passions is cooking. I briefly trained as a Chef, which means that I'm a whizz in the kitchen! Wouldn't say that I'm a fully-fledged Chef, but I know enough to get by and not starve to death or get food poisoning... and die.
I'm a logophile. (No. It doesn't mean that I like logos. It means that I have an intense and inherit love of words. They even have the ability to get me horny) If you contact me, you have to have an equal passion for the written (or spoken) word. If you initiate contact with me and you only write a dozen words, I reserve the right to release the Kraken and/or ignore you. Probably both. (I know that I've said this twice now, but I really cannot stand messages that have no thought behind them.)
Oh. I also have a really sharp sense of humour. So, if you're sensitive or thin skinned, approach with caution.
I'm a deep thinker. I'm spiritual (NOT religious) and believe in the power of Chi. I believe in Ghosts, other worlds, multiverses and dimensions. I'm into meditation and self improvement and self analysis. I'm a free-thinker and tend to think independently from the masses. I naturally deviate from convention.
I don't conform. I'm unapologetically weird and different.
I'm not a people person. I can't stress that enough. I tend to connect better with "weird" people and people who deviate from "normality". I'm misanthropic and I tend to be on an entirely different page than the general populace. For that, I am eternally thankful.
I don't really care about distance. I mean, let's be honest, the chance of meeting a compatible soul is improbable as it is, if you restrict it by means of geography and location, the "improbable" becomes the "impossible". Besides, it's 2023, not 1723. Distances can be bridged with the aid of heavy machinery with wings.
So yes, I'm open to a long distance relationship, to begin with.
It takes a while to properly forge a strong relationship: It requires respect, trust, honesty, compatibility and communication. None of those things come easily or without dedication, conviction and time.
I'm a sapiosexual as well as a demisexual. I find intelligence very, very hot!
I'm an introvert. I'm private and I don't like being the centre of attention. In fact, I like to keep as far back from people and the spotlight as possible. My preference is to live in the shadows. My main aim in life is to become a Vampire... true story. Still working on it.
Movies: Fright Night 1 & 2, The Lost Boys, Barefoot in the park, Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady, Casablanca, Jerry Maguire, Serendipity, Say Anything, Almost Famous, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's day off, Weird Science, Elvira: Mistress of the dark, Elvira: Haunted Hills, Dirty Dancing, The Big Sick, Star Wars (The original trilogy), Firefly, Shadow of the Vampire, Interview with the Vampire, Dracula (1931).
Television: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, It's Always sunny in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Scrubs.
AuthoWriter: Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker, The Bronte Sisters, Emily Dickinson.
Music: The Smiths, The Cure, AC/DC
Honestly, I'm not a big music fan. I prefer classical music and score as they have the capacity to stir my emotions.
...and now the "Master" half of what makes me, me:
ABOUT ME: (Kink)
My form of Dominance is one of psychology.
It's my belief that before you can even hope to control the body, first you have to be able to control the mind.
I want to know how you think, I want to know how your mind works, what you love, what you like, what you hate and what you dislike. I want to know about your formative years, your upbringing, your parents, your family, etc.
In essence, I want to know everything about you.
Vanilla comes before kink.
As far as kink goes, I want to know about your experience as well as your dream dynamic. I want to know what turns you on, what your limits are and how willing you are to expand your horizons,allow me to break down your walls in order to replace it with different walls, but done with subtlety and skill.
The BDSMverse is all about growth. It's all about learning and maturing and both discovering new kinks, but also cultivating the kinks you already have.
This dynamic will be a living, breathing organism. It'll grow and develop and mature. It will be 24/7. It'll be all consuming and it will be a life choice.
At work you will be my submissive. At the supermarket and at the mall and out in public, you will be owned by me. Your every breath will contain a whisper that I own you. Every thought will contain a note that I control you.
It will be all encompassing.
You will be swimming in a fog of knowledge that your every thought, every feeling and every moment of your life is under my lock and key.
I want a relationship based on TPE. I'm not into "keeping it in the bedroom/behind closeddoors", as that sounds too much like roleplay.
You will learn from me, you will be taught, I will sculpt and mould and nurture you and train you to be the greatest version of yourself that you can be.
I'll listen. I'll be your teacher, your mentor, your confident, your protector as well as your best friend.
I cannot stress that enough, for a D/s dynamic to work, it has to be built on friendship. There must be trust and respect and communication and compatibility. Every cylinder must be firing
We will be a team. We will listen, talk and learn from the other. Our bond will be stronger than any metal or element known to Man.
Again, this isn't an easy connection to develop. It takes honesty, trust, communication and absolute dedication and faith. Come into this half-hearted, it will not work.
It also takes time. How much time? It will take as long as it takes. The vanilla connection must be forged, otherwise it's akin to building a house on quicksand.
My kinks: Watersports, fiscal Domination, Goth, taboo, rough skull-fucking, anal, CNC, rape play, bimbofication, food control, body modification, behaviour modification, body transformation, body modification, body writing, deepthroat, TPE, puke, chains, leather, outfits, DP (with dildos, etc), toys, edging, Vampirism (Hematolagnia), tasks, raceplay, DD/lg
I'm very open to taboo kinks, as well as extreme kinks. The chance of me being against a kink will be extremely remote.
Watersports is my number one kink, so, if you're genuinely turned on by watersports (Or even if you're curious) we could very well be a match.
Hard limits: Poly and scat.
Everything else is negotiable.
https://i.imgur.com/BrseERV.jpeg submitted by
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2023.04.01 03:54 oomenya333 My local weather page moderator has great taste.
2023.04.01 03:47 Late_Biscotti_6944 This is something you don't see everyday
2023.04.01 03:36 Cosmicspider87 Epstein and his Royalty/Noble Connections
Royalty/Nobles UK
- Prince Andrew, will have his own segment (These listed below are close to him and Epstein)
- Simon Case: Private Secretary to Prince William as of 2018. Previously was in charge of figuring out the border issue in Northern Ireland and Ireland post-Brexit. British civil servant for over a decade, including as a policy adviser for the Ministry of Defence.
- Merivale-Austen, Bruce: Managing Partner of DM Partners Asia, a private wealth management firm. Plays polo every summer with Prince William and Prince Harry (https://www.thailandtatler.com/people/brouce-merivale-austin
- Gibbs, Emma: Former girlfriend of Prince Andrew. Gibbs was introduced to Prince Andrew by her good friend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Gibbs worked as a PR consultant.
- Harvey Victoria: Ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew, Hervey is an English model and socialite. Although her relationship with Andrew didn’t work out, she remained in his inner circle. In 2000, she attended a dinner with Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein (source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9844083/lady-victoria-hervey-jeffrey-epstein-too-old/). Hervey is also a friend of Ghislaine Maxwell, who introduced her to Epstein and “set her up in one of Epstein’s apartments in New York.” Hervey is the daughter of Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, businessman and member of the House of Lords.
- Jameel, Mohammed: Saudi Arabian businessman. CEO of Abdul Latif Jameel, a collective of family-owned businesses that specialize in transportation, investing, and real estate. Royal pervert Prince Andrew infamously partied on Jameel’s yacht during the 2011 London riots (source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-andrew-frolicks-on-yacht-with-mystery-147496
- Manconi, John: Businessman who hosts super exclusive charity polo events attended by Prince Charles, Harry, and Andrew (https://variety.com/2002/scene/vpage/royals-have-splendid-time-1117868882/).
- Caprice: Likely refers to Caprice Bourret, a former model and former love interest of Prince Andrew around 2000-2001.
- Sir Rufus Albermarle
- Earl Charles Spencer Aldrup
- Carella Alun-Jones
- Jeremy and Deborah Alun-Jones
- Simon Astaire Hollywood and British Royal Family agent. Specializes in representation, celebrity endorsement, and public relations.
- Sir Anthony Bamford and Lady C Anthony is a billionaire British businessman. Chairman of JCB, which provides equipment for construction, agriculture, etc. Has donated more than £4m personally and through JCB companies to the Conservative Party. Has close ties to David Cameron, Tony Blair, and Prince Charles. Bamford was mentioned in the Panama Papers as having offshore accounts. Lady Carole Bamford is his wife and a successful businesswoman.
- James & Lucinda Bruce: James is a businessman who comes from nobility. His father was a baron. His 2nd wife, Lucinda, is a producer.
- Lord and Lady Beaumon Likely refers to the late Tim Beaumont of Whitley and his wife, Baroness Mary Rose. Tim was a UK politician in the Liberal Party and, later on, the Green Party. Six generations of his paternal side sat in the House of Commons (source: Irish Times) He was also an Anglican priest. Mary Rose is the cousin of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon and (now deceased) husband of Princess Margaret.
- Baron Bentinck Dutch and British nobility.
- Robert Byng Descendant of admirals, viscounts, and earls. Current property owner of Wrotham Park, an English country house that hosts social events for the wealthy and has been used as a filming location for many movies.
- Sir Nickey Caledon The 7th Earl of Caledon. Received his knighthood in 2015 when he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO).
- Mario Cabo-Platero is an Italian journalist and served as editor of the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore for 30 years. Ariadne is the daughter of Lord and Lady Beaumont
- George & Pauline Case: Pauline Case (maiden name Pauline Astor) is a Viscountess and daughter of William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
- Marina Cowdray: Wife of Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount of Cowdray. Daughter of John Cordle. Sister of Rachel and Rupert Cordle.
- Sophie Crabbe British socialite
- d’Arenberg, Prince Pierre: Family lineage can be traced back 1000 years. European royalty. Extremely wealthy not because of his ties to nobility, but because his mother, Margaret Bedford, was an heiress to Standard Oil (Exxon).
- d’Uzes, Jacques De crussol: The 17th Duke of Uze
- Dartmouth, William: The 10th Earl of Dartmouth. Member of the European Parliament from 2009-2019. Became a stepbrother of Princess Diana when his mother embarked on a 2nd marriage with Diana’s father, John Spencer.
- Derby Earl / Cntess Cass & Ted: Edward Stanley (known informally as Teddy) is the 19th Earl of Derby. Caroline Stanley is Ted’s wife. She was a socialite during the ‘90s and is the daughter of Robin Neville, the 10th Baron Braybrooke
- Dolbey, Alex & Suzie: Suzie Dolbey (nee Murray-Philipson) is the daughter of the recently deceased Robin Murray-Philipson, who was the descendant of the Viscounts Elibank. Alex Dolbey has been the director of several management and investment companies.
- Duchess of York: Former wife of Prince Andrew. Mother of Princess Beatrice and Eugenie.
- Elliot, Ben: Current Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party in the UK and nephew of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (Prince Charles’s current wife). Elliot is also co-founder of Quintessentially Group, a hospitality group that specializes in leisure, travel, and tourism. Epstein has several ties to this group. Elliot’s spokesman has said that Elliot never met Epstein. However, Elliot has been a dinner guest of Ghislaine Maxwell in New York.
- Fairfax, The Hon Rupert: Hon. Rupert Alexander James Fairfax is the son of Thomas Brian McElvie Fairfax, 13th Lord of Fairfax of Cameron. Rupert is currently Managing Director of Fairfax Saddles, which was awarded the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2018. This is the highest business award in the UK.
- Fiennes, Martin: The heir apparent to the Baron Saye and Sele, a title of peerage in England. Lives in Broughton Castle. Cousin of actor Ralph Fiennes.
- Fiennes, Suzzana: A British artist who works exclusively with Prince Charles. Susannah is the twin sister of Martin Fiennes and cousin of actor Ralph.
- Freud, Mathew: Matthew Freud is the head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm. Matthew is also the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud’s first wife, Caroline Hutton, went on to marry the 9th Earl of Spencer (Princess Diana’s brother). Elisabeth Murdoch, his 2nd wife (now divorced), is the daughter of Rupert Murdoch.
- Robert Olney
- Mr and Mrs Ellingworth
- Lady Amanda
- Patrick and Marla Fairweather
- Gary Ramsey
- Ashley & Allegra Hicks: Ashley is the Godson of Prince Philip, second cousin of Prince Charles, and an interior designer.
- Viscount William Astor: Member of the House of Lords, which creates and shapes laws. There are approximately 800 current members. Chairman of television production company Silvergate Media. Member of the Astor family, which specialized in the fur trade, real estate, and drug smuggling in the early 19th century.
- Tamara Beckwith: English socialite
- Annabelle Bond OBE[1] (born 1969) is a British socialite,[2][3] international adventurer and activist,[4] who came to prominence after climbing the summit of Mount Everest on 15 May 2004, making her the fourth British woman to do so.
- Glentworth, Edmund & Emily: Edmund Pery is the 7th Earl of Limerick and was formerly known as Viscount Glentworth. He worked in British government until becoming director of Deutsche Bank. Emily is Edmund’s wife.
- Granby, David: David Charles Robert Manners is the 11th Duke of Rutland. He also goes by the Marquess of Granby. Granby is a high-profile supporter of the UK Independence Party and has hosted fundraising events at his ancestral home, Belvoir Castle. Employed Harvey Proctor, the former Conservative Parliament member who had to resign because he had sexual relations with underage male prostitutes, as his personal secretary.
- Grenfell, Natasha: Daughter of Lord St Just, heir to a banking fortune and Wilbury Park mansion. Her mother was actress and one-time Tennessee Williams love interest, Maria Britneva. Natasha is a socialite who has is friends with royalty, actors, and musicians
- Hambro, Clementine: Great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill who also served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana when she was just five-years-old. Her father, Richard, was a British heir and investment banker. K
- Hanover, Ernst & chantal: Prince Ernst Hanover is the head of the royal House of Hanover. The House of Hanover has produced six British monarchs, including King George III and Queen Victoria. The current British monarchy, the Windsors, are actually of German and British descent, which is why these family trees intersect. Most notably, the House of Hanover is perhaps the most important of the Black Nobility families. There have been some fantastic threads on Reddit about the Black Nobility.
- Hanson, Brook: Adopted son of British industrialist, Lord Hanson, Brook died in 2014 at the age of 50.
- Hanson, Lord & Lady: British industrialist who made a fortune in the ‘80s as a Trade and Industry
- Secretary in close friend Margaret Thatcher’s administration. His wife, Geraldine, was a former model. They are both dead.
- Hanson, The Hon Robert: British financier and eldest son of Lord Hanson. Chairman of Hanson Family Holdings, a private investment firm. In the 1980s, Robert worked as a banker at NM Rothschild & Sons before returning to his father’s company. Before getting married, Hanson dated socialite Anouska de Georgiou, who became the first British woman to accuse Jeffrey Epstein of raping her as a teenager (source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-british-teen-model-was-lured-jeffrey-epstein-s-web-n1056901. Odd that Robert Hanson, his brother Brook, and his parents would have wanted anything to do with Epstein.
- Heseltine, Rupert: Businessman and heir to Haymarket Media Group. Son of Baron Michael Heseltine.
- Hicks, India: A fashion model in the ‘80s and ‘90s, India Hicks is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell. Descendant of the Mountbatten family, a British dynasty (although much of their background is German). Granddaughter of the much-decorated war hero, Lord Mountbatten (Prince Charles’s mentor), who, according to FBI files, was “a homosexual with a perversion for young boys” (source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9745399/lord-mountbatten-fbi-dossier-prince-charles/). Prince Charles is her second cousin and Godfather.
- Hill, Anthony: Son of Robin Hall, 8th Marquess of Downshire and Juliet Weld-Forester, daughter of 7th Baron Forester.
- Hoffman, Hetty: Married to Robin Dundas, Earl of Ronaldshay. Lady Ronaldshay is a patron and ambassador for Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, a UK-based charity that provides care for terminally ill babies and children up to five years old. A good friend of Ben Holland-Martin
- Linley, David: Princess Margaret’s son, Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew, and first cousin of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. Linley is a furniture maker and the 2nd Earl of Snowdon. He used to be the Chairman of Christie’s auction house in the UK.
- Manners, Eddie: Lord Manners is the son of the 10th Earl of Rutland and an investment banker. He lives at Haddon Hall, a beautiful old mansion.
- Manners, Miss Lucy: An interior designer who is the cousin of Eddie (mentioned above) and the Duke of Rutland. Lucy is a very close friend of Sarah, Duchess of York (Prince Andrew’s first wife), a close friend of Epstein’s, and even served as her lady-in-waiting. Manners lives at Eastnor Castle, which houses 96 rooms.
- Manners, Terssa: Teresa is the daughter of the 10th Duke of Rutland and sister of Eddie and the 11th Duke of Rutland. She was the cover girl for Tatler and posed for Vogue, two magazines that feature many Epstein contacts.
- Menzies, Kate: Close friend of Princess Diana and the Royal Family. The Menzies are millionaires because of their newsagents and distribution group.
- Milford Haven George & Clare: George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven. Second cousin of Prince Charles. Founded uSwitch, a website that allows you to compare suppliers of various services. Sold the company for $400 million. George’s grandfather was the older brother of Lord Mountbatten, alleged pedophile and father figure/mentor to Prince Charles. George’s wife, Clare, was the Social Editor of Tatler magazine (there it is again!) from 1995-2005.
- Monckton, Rosa: Former President of Tiffany & Co. jewelry company. Daughter of a Viscount. Princess Diana was Monckton’s best friend and the Godmother of one of her children. Rosa also serves as a fundraiser for and on the board of several charities, most of which focus on children. Monckton is a patron for Downside Up, a charity for children with Down Syndrome, with actor Ralph Fiennes, who is also in Epstein’s contacts (http://downsideupcharity.org/node/64). She also raises money for KIDS charity out of London where Liz Hurley (also in Epstein’s contacts) is a patron, along with Elton John, David Cameron, David Furnish, Cherie Booth, and Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman (https://www.kids.org.uk/Pages/FAQs/Category/patrons). Epstein once offered Monckton to bring her daughter, who has Down Syndrome, to his house in Palm Beach (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/03/jeffrey-epstein-200303?currentPage=1
- Murray Threipland, Tercious/Claire: Owner of Dunbeath Castle. Claire left her first husband, Henry Herbert, The 17th Earl of Pembroke, to be with Tertius in 1981. Claire’s daughter, Emma, was a bridesmaid at the first marriage of Camila Parker Bowles (now Prince Charles’s wife).
- Negrete, Jelitza: A Countess and descendant of European nobility
- Newman, Hetty: Second wife of the 7th Earl of Caledon.
- Noel, Hon Thomas: Son of Anthony Noel, 5th Earl of Gainsborough
- O’Donnell, Mr Carletto: Financier. Friend of Princess Michael of Kent (King George V’s grandson)
- Oxenberg Christina marc Yaggi: Christina is a writer and fashion designer. Her mother is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. Her grandparents were Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. Due to all of the inbreeding between European royals, Christine is a cousin of the Royal Family. Oxenberg used to attend dinner parties at Epstein’s and was also friends with Ghislaine (https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a30222833/christina-oxenberg-instagram-patreon-memoi). Oxenberg intends to talk to the FBI about Epstein and Maxwell (https://www.tatler.com/article/christina-oxenberg-speaks-to-fbi-about-ghislaine-maxwell-and-jeffrey-epstein). Marc Yaggi is Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance, where Oxenberg was once a writer.
- Palumbo, Mr James: Baron Palumbo of Southwark is an entrepreneur and a member of the House of Lords. Co-founder of Ministry of Sound nightclub
- Palumbo, Peter: Father of James (above). Baron Palumbo is a property developer who sat on the House of Lords from 1991-2019. Former polo teammate and close friend of Prince Charles until they had a falling out. Confidant of Princess Diana. Godfather of Princess Beatrice of York, the elder daughter of Prince Andrew. Peter denies ever having met Epstein.
- Pearson Hon Charles: Son of the Third Viscount Cowdray and owner of the 53,000 acre Dunecht estate
- Pease, Simon & Clem: Simon was a successful custodian of the family’s Underley Estate. He was also a High Sheriff of Cumbria. Passed away in 2007. Clementine was his wife.
- Puttnam, David: British film producer, educator, and member of the House of Lords. Puttnam was friends with Princess Diana before her passing.
Spanish Royalty
- Jose Aznar (Prime Minister)
- Fernando de Cordova Hohenlohe: Spanish nobility. Current Marquis of Alboloduy.
- Joaquin Fernandez de Arion: Spanish royalty. The 10th Duke of Arion. His mother is Princess Beatriz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Married to Diana Langes-Swarovski, the great-great granddaughter of Daniel Swarovski, founder of the crystal manufacturer.
Swedish Royalty
- Henry & Tatjana D’abo d’abo, d’Abo is the grandson of the 9th Duke of Rutland Tatjana is his wife. Henry is the chairman of Wilton Payments Ltd, a private company that helps with financial intermediation. He and Christopher O’Neill are the primary shareholders of the company. O’Neill is Tatjana’s half-brother, a British-American financier, and husband to Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland , a daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
- d’abo, Mrs. Jennifer: British entrepreneur who passed away in 2003. d’Abo was once married to Peter Cadbury from the family of the famous chocolate company. Peter did not work for the company, but he and Jennifer d’Abo had a son together. Their son, Joel Cadbury, became owner of the Groucho Club, a watering hole often frequented by famous people. Three years after Cadbury sold the club, their website became the center of a child pornography scandal (link to story: https://www.sott.net/article/242698-Groucho-Clubs-website-forum-hit-by-child-pornography-scandal
French Royalty
- Pierre D’ArenBerg
- de Clermont-Tonnerre, Hermine: A French princess who used to have a penchant for partying. The only daughter of Charles Henri, 11th Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre, Hermine was one of 500 guests invited to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 100th birthday back in 2000.
- Louis Albert de Broglie French prince and entrepreneur The Prince Gardener
- Hauteville, Marc de: Manages Soc Civile du Frayssinet, a real estate company based out of France. There is very little information other than this. Both of his parents appear to be members of noble families - the Hautevilles and the Cazenoves - who have historical ties to the Du Ponts.
- Karella, Kalliope: Wife of Prince Pierre d’Arenberg. Kalliope is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Saudi Royalty
- Amr Al-Dabbagh
Jordan Royalty
- Firyal Princess: Jerusalem-born Jordanian princess who was once married to Prince Muhammad bin Talal. Firyal was named an UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1992. Princess Firyal launched the International Hope Foundation in 1994 for the benefit of homeless and street children. Firyal holds positions with several museums (The Louvre, The Tate, MOMA, and Guggenheim), as well as positions with Columbia University, New York Public Library, United Nation Association, and International Rescue Committee.
German Royals
- Debbie & Bola Von Bismarck: Leopold (“Bolle”) von Bismarck is the great-grandson of Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany. Debbie is a former model and Leopold’s wife. Model Kate Moss is currently engaged to their son, Nikolai.
- Vanessa von Bismarck Cofounder of BPCM, a public relations firm that specialized in fashion, beauty, and wine & spirits. Great-great-granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck.
- Furstenberg, Heinrich & Milana Heinrich is a prince and the Head of the House of Furstenberg as of 2011. He married Milana (Maximiliane of Windlisch-Gaetz), his second cousin, in 1976. He owns and manages the family’s landholdings and beer brewing businesses. His wife (and second cousin) also belongs to a family of high nobility.
- Furstenberg, Alex, Alexandra V.: Alexander is an American businessman and the son of the famous fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. He remains a partner in his mother’s company. Alexandra is a furniture designer and Alex’s ex-wife. They divorced in 2002 but have 2 children together.
Italian Royalty/Nobility
- Peretti Brachetti: Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti. Nobility. Son of Count Aldo Maria Brachetti-Peretti. Co-owner of Italian oil company, API.
- Hugo Brachetti: Also co-owner of Italian oil company, API. Ferdinando’s brother.
- Tiberto Brandolini d'Adda Mr. Brandolini d’Adda currently serves as an independent member of the Board of Directors of YAFA S.p.A. In addition, from 2015 to December 2019, he has been an independent Boardmember of LumX Asset Management (Suisse) S.A. (formerly Gottex Fund Management Holdings Limited).
- Muriel Brandolini is a famous interior designer who has worked with Matt Lauer, the Crown Prince and Princess of Greece, and others. Nuno is a banker and (shockingly) comes from money and nobility
- Gianluca Cicogna: CEO, CFO, and President of Beauty Brands Inc. Brother of Gianfranco Cicogna.
- Gioconda Cicogna: Mother of Gianluca and Gianfranco. Interior designer.
- Gianfranco Cicogna: Gianfranco Cicogna Mozzoni was a business leader, a Count by birth, the Ambassador for the Order of Malta at its embassy in Kenya. His grandfather, Giuseppe Volpi, was known as “Italy’s Rockefeller.” Gianfranco died flying a plane at an air show in 2012.
- Marina Cicogna: Countess. Granddaughter of Kingdom of Italy Finance Minister Giuseppe Volpi, one of the richest and most influential men in Italy in the early 1900s.
- Durso Luigi: Luigi d’Urso was a noble and Italian railroad executive who died in 2006. His grandfather was the 9th Duke di Cassano. His mother was the great-granddaughter of George Clymer, one of the founding fathers of the U.S. and signee of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. d’Urso was also married to French designer and model Ines de la Fressange.
- Gaetani, Gelasio: Count Gelasio Gaetani comes from one of the oldest families in Rome. The Gaetani (also known as Caetani) family has produced 3 popes, including Pope Boniface VIII. Gelasio is a wine specialist and vineyard owner who helps celebrities buy the most unique bottles of wine throughout the world.
- Gaetani, Rufreido: Roffredo Gaetani was an Italian count, prince, and duke who died in a car crash in 2005. Roffredo came to the public’s attention when he dated Ivana Trump in the 1990s. Brother of Gelasio.
- Pignatelli, Frederico: An Italian prince whose family has “aristocratic ties to Pope Innocenzo XII” (https://federicopignatelli.com/). President, owner, and founder of Pier 59 Studios, the world’s largest photo studio complex. Federico was once accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant, but he was acquitted (https://nymag.com/intelligence2010/08/photography_studio_head_federi.html). Pignatelli also has his own modeling agency which is headed by Brunella Casella, the woman responsible for launching the career of scumbag Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and others (https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/industry-model-management-new-york-office-10505934/
IRELAND
- Gillford, Lord & Lady: Lord Gillford is Patrick Meade, the 8th Earl of Clanwilliam. He is a businessman who is on the board of Soma Oil & Gas Holdings and Eurasia Drilling Company, where he served as Chairman. Eurasia Drilling Company is owned by Russian billionaire oligarch, Alexander Dzhaparidze and billionaire Alexander Putilov.
Greece
- Greece Princess Olga: Princess Olga, Duchess of Apulia (nee Princess Olga Isabelle of Greece) married her second cousin, Prince Aimone of Savoy, Duke of Apulia, in 2008. Olga’s father is first cousins with Prince Phillip (Queen Elizabeth’s wife).
- Greece, MC & Pavlos: Pavlos is the eldest son of Constantine II, the last King of Greece, before the monarchy was abolished in 1973. Worked in New York as an investment portfolio manager. MC is his wife, Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece. Her father is the billionaire founder of Duty Free Shops. Her sisters, Alexandra and Pia, married into the von Furstenberg and Getty families, respectively. A dinner party was thrown for them at the Standard Hotel in 2009. There were about 12 guests there. One of those exclusive guests was Ghislaine Maxwell (source: https://wwd.com/eye/people/royal-standard-a-fete-for-princess-marie-chantal-and-prince-pavlos-2399957/
Russian
- Guedroltz, Solina & Nicolas: Solina is a photographer. Her father is a viscount. Nicolas is an antique Russian furniture dealer. He is a Russian prince and is of Belgian nobility through his mother’s side.
Austria
- Hapsburg, Marie: Royalty. Her father was Archduke Joseph Arpad of Austria and her mother, Archduchess Maria of Austria, was a Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg and a member of the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg by birth. The Hapsburg (also called Habsburg) family is one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in Europe. The Hapsburgs are another Black Nobility family of very high prestige. I couldn’t find anything out about her husband, Raymond van der Meide. They have 7 children together.
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2023.04.01 03:31 CoachGlad8103 Unorthodox Philosophy Buff & Latino gets a little humbled
Demographics - Gender: Male
- Race/Ethnicity: Venezuelan American (Biracial: Latino/White)
- Residence: Southwest
- Income Bracket: full-pay
- Type of School: private preparatory
- Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM, Geography, Legacy (@ Notre Dame, Duke, CU Boulder)
Intended Major(s): Philosophy and/or Economics
*NOTE: I applied to many of my schools primarily because they had cool interdisciplinary programs where I could combine philosophy (my primary interest) with other subjects like economics and STEM, because I love math and am curious about various other fields too (Sym Sys @ Stanford for example)
Academics - GPA (UW/W): 3.92 UW (school doesn’t do weighted but I think it’s 4.5 or something)
- Rank (or percentile): school doesn't do rank
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 3 APs, 5 Honors (my school offers very few APs)
- Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, Stats, English 12, Modern American History (semester 1), Shakespeare Seminar Honors (semester 1), Anatomy and Physiology (semester 1), Freedom and Authority Honors (basically a political philosophy class, semester 2), Russian History (semester 2)
Standardized Testing - SAT I: 1510 (760 Math, 750 English & Reading)
- ACT: didn't take
- SAT II: N/A
- AP/IB: Spanish Lang and Culture: 4, AP Calc AB: 5, AP English Lit and Comp: 5 (did not take course just the test), AP Calc BC: TBD
- Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): N/A
Extracurriculars/Activities: - Internship at local research institution during junior summer. Made citation networks for philosophical ideas throughout time; tried to combine philosophical/historical research with computer programming in a cool and creative way. Wrote a paper (not officially published) and did a presentation. Was paid as well.
- Did various classic/philosophy seminars at a local classics college. Mostly revolved around the Greeks (Republic, Apology, Phaedo, Nichomachean Ethics, etc.)
- Started a DECA chapter at my school and served as president. Participate in the Stock Market Game and also joined a competitive event in the 2nd semester (late, I know) but won 1st in my state and am going to nationals.
- Student Council President. Self-explanatory
- Board member of a local non-profit advocating and fundraising for outdoor recreation in hometown (I'm a big outdoors guy). Managed socials, helped write grant applications, organized fundraisers, attended meetings, and set up volunteer opportunities for youth looking to get outdoors.
- Building off the last activity, I led a trail-building volunteer group of students from my school. Got permitted to build new trails in the national forest and worked closely with another non-profit and forest service to build 5+ miles of new trail.
- I started a Spanish Tutoring service at my school. Recruited other students advanced in Spanish (including myself; I am fluent) to be tutors for younger students at my school.
- Was part of a math club for a few months. Studied advanced real-world applications of computer science, physics, and calculus.
- My last two activity slots were for sports: Soccer team all four years and captain senior year, swimming all four years and captain junior and senior year.
Awards/Honors: - DECA Business Law & Ethics Team Decision Making state champion, qualified for ICDC (nationals)
- AP Scholar
- College Board National Hispanic Recognition
- School Honor Roll
(Weak awards, I know)
Essays/LORs/Interviews: Common App Essay 7.5/10: The essay I worked on the most I ended up scrapping after applying to a handful of school regular and wrote a completely new one in one night. So roughly half my schools received the og draft and the latter half (schools w/ deadlines past Jan 5) got this one that I am rating. It was definitely reflective of my interests and values, and read somewhat smart. However, I think it doesn't really purvey my authentic voice and isn't all that creative. I really regret not working harder on this essay.
Supps 8/10: These obviously varied from school to school, but generally, I would say mine were pretty standard. I thought some were really good, and others were just alright. I wrote most of these in two weeks over winter break (something I also very much regret doing--should've managed time better). Strangely, I was rejected or waitlisted from schools I thought I wrote well for and accepted to those I didn't. Like the common app essay, could've worked longer and been slightly more creative with these.
LORs American & Russian History Teacher 10/10: This guy is my all-time favorite teacher and I am certainly one of his favorite students. We have built a very personal relationship since junior year and we share a lot of common ground (he also loves philosophy); this guy is really more of a personal friend than he is my superior. We've read various books together (outside of the curriculum) and meet up outside of school to debate and/or just talk and catch up. We both fangirl over Dostoevsky or Nietzsche who are the centerpieces of many of our literature discussions. I get great grades in his classes as well. He actually offered to write my LOR and said that he "would not disappoint" so I think it's safe to say this was a strong one.
Stats Teacher 9/10: Had this teacher in 9th grade Alg II Honors and in 12th grade stats. I do very well in her classes and really try to go above and beyond in comprehension and quality of work (which she has explicitly recognized). She has a reputation for writing strong LORs and was more than happy to write one for me (based on her reaction when I asked).
Interviews Georgetown Interview 7/10: My interviewer was super relaxed and low-key which was nice, but really just wanted to get through his questions instead of striking up an interesting conversation. Overall it went fine and my answers were good, but nothing remarkable about this one.
Stanford Interview 8/10: My interviewer was also fairly relaxed but tried harder to instigate a conversation. The first bit was mostly just going through his questions, though he would add in tangential questions based on my answers which were engaging. We started conversing for the last bit about the Hoover Institute which was great. I covered all my major talking points so I felt alright about it. However, to be totally honest, my interviewer had a bit of an accent which at times was somewhat difficult to understand (especially via Zoom), though luckily no major misinterpretation or slip-up of any kind occurred.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD) Acceptances: UNM Rolling
CU Boulder RD (Honors College & some scholarships)
Northeastern RD
UNC Chapel Hill RD
UC Berkeley RD
Waitlists: Claremont McKenna RD
UCSB RD
Georgetown RD
UChicago RD (really hoping for this one to pull through)
Rejections: Notre Dame RD
Northwestern RD
UCLA RD
Duke RD
Stanford RD
Additional Information: I would’ve applied to Stanford REA but I got seriously concussed a week and a half before the deadline and couldn’t finish my essays.
My path in high school was unconventional. I only really started thinking seriously about college at the end of sophomore year and some sub-optimal grades in my freshman year did some damage to my GPA. Needless to say, I had a lot of self-doubt and criticism regarding my odds at many of the schools I applied to, given the aforementioned setback. I would also describe my ECs and academic interests as somewhat unconventional, which made it hard for me to gauge whether my expectations were realistic or not. In retrospect, I realize my ECs were relatively mediocre, and my essay writing could've been better and I think my results are reflective of that. Unfortunately, I have a lot of regrets about how I spent my time in high school and the effort I put in, and I can't help but feel I might be in a better position had I worked harder. To this point, what is most disappointing is not which specific schools I got rejected from or accepted to, but knowing that their rejections are symbolic of unrealized potential (in staying consistent with being a philosophy buff, I don't measure my self-worth based on school names, or try not to at least). In the end, however, I believe my relatively unique path kinda worked out for me and I am content that I tried to stay true to my interests and values instead of entirely bending to the will of A2C haha. My advice would be along those lines: pursue things that actually interest you at a high achieving level and you will find success not just with college admissions (which is never a guarantee), but more importantly, in life.
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2023.04.01 03:26 KirkHammettJigsaw Booking the NJPW World Television Championship Until Wrestle Kingdom 18 Straight Shooter
| https://preview.redd.it/o71zilxbd6ra1.png?width=536&format=png&auto=webp&s=d357a02bacc47fda1eefd69ff587d2f91d27f4d5 Most wrestling championships are, of course, very similar. Same rules, same type of prestige, held by similar types of wrestlers, etc. The NJPW World Television Championship, though, is different. Every match has a fifteen minute time limit. If you run out of time, the match goes to a coin flip. The phrase “to be the man, you gotta beat the man” doesn’t apply here, because if the man fails to defeat you, then they could still lose the belt off of complete chance. It’s a concept that greatly interests me, and since it’s still new, the first year of its existence will shape how the gold is viewed in the future. It was captured for the first time at Wrestle Kingdom 17, so let’s book it until Wrestle Kingdom 18, shall we? NJPW Sakura Genesis 2023 Shota Umino vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Zack Sabre Jr. has had a fun reign with the NJPW World Television Championship so far (despite his banger of a theme being changed), and tonight, he’s defending against a man that some have called the future of FBE, Shota Umino. Umino became one of the most well known Young Lions in the company back when he was following Jon Moxley everywhere, but “Shooter” is not a Young Boy anymore. He’s received co-signs from legends of the game, but praise only goes so far. Tonight, it’s sink or swim in the biggest match of his career, and he’s facing a man more than capable of twisting him into knots and ripping his limbs clean off his body (okay, maybe not CLEAN off). It’s a huge test, but with his potential, anything is possible. The match is a lot of fun, as they both work aggressively, not wanting to cut things close with this fifteen minute time limit. Sabre looks for a submission the whole time, but Umino is doing a good job of staying positioned near the ropes so that he can break the holds every time The Technical Wizard gets a hold of him. Shota tries to create space with his striking, and after a beautiful Dropkick, he takes control for a while. Time is starting to tick, and after wearing Blondie down with some strikes, Shota lifts the Champion up and plans him with a Fisherman’s Suplex! Hooks the leg with a Bridging Pin! One…Two…and Sabre kicks out! He picks Zack up, but Sabre catches him with a big Forearm and grabs a Headlock. He tries for a Headlock Takeover, but Umino manages to stay on his feet, and both men go toppling through the ropes and to the apron. Sabre starts trying to lift Shota back into the ring so that he can submit him, with time ticking down. Desperately, he starts to wear Umino down by locking in an Octopus Hold! We breach the fourteen minute mark, and the challenger makes the daring move to leap off the apron, The Front Man still on his back! This hurts both men, but Umino limps to his feet and throws ZSJ in the ring, the clock dangerously low! He goes for the Death Rider on his opponent, but Junior counters and transitions into a Cradle Pin! One…Two…and Umino gets the shoulder up! Both men dart to their feet and throw a Lariat, and both connect and fall to the mat! Three…Two…One…ZERO! Time has expired, and we’re going to a coin flip decision! Both men stand up, and Sabre, with the Champion’s Right to choose, picks tails. The coin toss happens, and results in…HEADS! SHOTA UMINO HAS WON THE NJPW WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP, AND SABRE IS FURIOUS! Shota Umino def. Zack Sabre Jr. in 15:00 to win the NJPW World Television Championship NJPW Collision in Philadelphia Danny Limelight vs. Shota Umino (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Shota is right back in action, and after a callout on Twitter, Danny Limelight of Team Filthy has gotten himself a championship opportunity. This match is quite fun, with Limelight showcasing exactly why he’s one of the most underrated men in wrestling today. However, Shota is ultimately able to take firm control of the contest, and around the ten minute mark, he plants Limelight with a Spike Death Rider and pins him for the victory. Danny leaves the ring with Team Filthy, but they look back at Shota with vitriol in their eyes. Shota Umino def. Danny Limelight in 9:21 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship NJPW Hirooki Goto 20th Anniversary Shota Umino and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. TenKoji On Hirooki Goto’s twentieth anniversary, we get a tag match with three NJPW legends and one potential future legend. The tag match is a lot of fun, and at the end, Shota gets a huge rub as he plants Tenzan with a Death Rider to pick up the victory. Everybody in the ring embraces each other, and then Tanahashi and Umino salute the crowd, but Team Filthy ruins the party, darting out and laying waste to Shota! Tom Lawlor stands tall, picking up the World Television Championship and posing with it while the rest of Team Filthy holds Tana off! Shota Umino and Hiroshi Tanahashi def. TenKoji in 11:45 NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2023: Day Seven Tom Lawlor vs. Ryohei Oiwa Oiwa tries his very best in this one, showing tremendous heart, but of course, Lawlor is able to dispatch the Young Lion pretty quickly, locking him in a choke and forcing him to submit. After the match, Team Filthy celebrates in the ring, but Shota Umino runs out with a chair and starts knocking most of the members to the side! He gets a hold of Tom Lawlor and starts wailing on him with the weapon until officials get in between the two! They’re having a title match next week at Wrestling Dontaku, and this one is going to have some heat behind it! Tom Lawlor def. Ryohei Oiwa in 3:08 NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2023 Tom Lawlor vs. Shota Umino (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Umino is pissed coming into this match, angry that Filthy Tom spoiled his moment at Goto’s Anniversary Show, and he starts swinging for the fences from the very beginning. Lawlor, a skilled grappler, is able to use Roughneck’s anger and aggression against him, taking advantage of his overzealousness. Because of this, the match lasts quite a while, even going late into the thirteenth minute, but Umino is able to retain with a Death Rider from the middle rope. His aggression worked this time, but Filthy gave him a hell of a fight. Could Shota’s style cost him in the future? Shota Umino def. Tom Lawlor in 13:51 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2023: Day Three Robbie Eagles has just lost a match in the BOSJ, and he is furious about it. Instead of placing the blame on himself, though, he blames the referee for his contest, Red Shoes Unno! Eagles grabs Red Shoes and threatens him, but he isn’t safe for long because Unno’s son, Shota Umino, rushes out to defend him! Eagles runs off, but Umino stares him down. In the post-show press conference, Umino is furious and wants Eagles to face him on a night where Robbie’s block isn’t competing. The contest is scheduled for the sixth day of BOSJ. NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2023: Day Six Robbie Eagles vs. Shota Umino (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Shota, just like last time, comes out of the gate very aggressively, which is a good strategy for a match with a short time limit, but also a risky one. Eagles is able to do some damage, and a lot of it is because he manages to piss Umino off and take advantage, even hitting a brutal Poison Rana! It’s a back-and-forth affair, but eventually, Umino manages to escape a Michinoku Driver attempt, lock Robbie in a standing Sleeper, weaken him sufficiently enough, and plant him with a Death Rider for the pinfall victory! Shota Umino def. Robbie Eagles in 12:24 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship After the match, Eagles gets up and offers a handshake to the man that just defeated him. Shota seems very, very hesitant, but accepts it, and the two shake hands. However, Zack Sabre Jr., Robbie's TMDK stablemate and the man that Shota took the belt from, attacks Roughneck from behind! He soaks in the jeers from the crowd, and, in the post-show press conference, states that he wants to challenge for the TV Title at Dominion. He says that he lost the belt via coin flip, so Shota is the champion legitimately based on pure chance. He’s too aggressive, not refined enough, and he WILL make a mistake so big that Sabre will be able to capitalize and take his belt back. Later on in the scrum, Shota accepts. AEW Dynamite (May 31) Bryan Danielson doesn’t yet have a match for Forbidden Door, but he has a proposal. In New Japan, there’s a pretty new title, the World Television Championship. He knows that by Forbidden Door, that belt will belong to either Shota Umino or Zack Sabre Jr. The prospect of either match is exciting to him, because he has heard stories about “Shooter” from Moxley, and he was meant to face The Bone Master at last year’s Forbidden Door. Plus, the American Dragon wants to make in-roads in Japan, so this is the perfect opportunity. No matter who has the strap, the Blackpool Combat Club is coming for it in Toronto. NJPW Dominion 6.10 in Osaka-Jo Hall Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino (c) - NJPW World Television Championship This match literally went to the wire last time it happened, and Shota Umino doesn’t want to leave his aspirations and his destiny in the hands of fate once again, so he wrestles even more aggressively than last time! ZSJ, though? He sort of hangs back, takes a beating for a while, hoping for Shota to make a mistake. Indeed he does, as the champion goes for a Rolling Elbow without setting it up properly, and the Submission Master is able to isolate the arm and begin manipulating Shota in position for a Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than The Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness! Shota has no choice but to tap out! After three defenses, the NJPW World Television Championship has returned to TMDK! Zack Sabre Jr. def. Shota Umino in 10:59 to win the NJPW World Television Championship AEW Dynamite (June 21) Zack Sabre Jr., in a pre-taped segment, talks about his upcoming match with Bryan Danielson at the second Forbidden Door event. He says that he has been looking forward to this match for a long while, for two reasons. Firstly, last year, he was meant to face the Dragon, and it fell through. Secondly, last year, he lost to a Blackpool Combat Club member in Claudio Castagnoli, and Bryan denied him the chance to prepare, so he’s been holding that grudge ever since. He doesn’t want to inflict punishment on Danielson for only fifteen minutes, no. He has spoken to AEW and NJPW officials, and he has negotiated a stipulation. Two out of Three Falls, and every fall is contested under NJPW World Television Championship rules! AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II Two out of Three Falls: Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c) - NJPW World Television Championship The first fall is a very fun one, as the two men in the ring exchange technical holds in one of the finest displays of chain wrestling in recent memory. It’s very evenly-matched, and even geared towards ZSJ for much of the contest, but once the BCC member is able to escape the Jim Breaks Armbar, he’s able to take control by peppering the TMDK leader with Roundhouse Kicks. One of the kicks catches Sabre directly in the skull, and Danielson takes him down and applies the LeBell Lock, but he hasn’t been paying attention to the clock, and time expires! The referee gets a coin, and ZSJ calls Tails for the coin toss. The coin lands on…TAILS! Zack Sabre Jr. escaped by the skin of his teeth, getting saved by the bell and then getting the luck of the draw! In the second fall, though, Danielson carries on his momentum from the first, and on top of that, he is VERY angry about the coin toss not going his way. He comes out of the gate wrestling as aggressively as Shota Umino, but unlike Umino, Sabre can’t seem to counter it. He gets some offense in here and there, but Bryan is pressuring him too much, and all of the kicks do a lot of cumulative damage. After thwarting an attempt at Hypernormalisation, Danielson runs the ropes and levels Sabre with a Busaiku Knee! Makes the cover! One…Two…Three! That fall went less than seven minutes, and Danielson has full control! He waits in the corner for Zack to find his footing for the third fall. The third and final fall begins, and Danielson goes for another Busaiku Knee, but it’s dodged! This one has plenty of reversals in it, neither man managing to lock the other in a submission! ZSJ is probably slightly more technically proficient, but Bryan is able to bridge the gap with his striking, and once we’re past the ten minute mark of this fall, both men are just absolutely destroyed! Danielson is throwing kick after kick after kick, and they’re landing to the body, but ZSJ catches one and slaps on a Heel Hook, or as he calls it, the Sunday Rail Engineering Works Replacement Bus Service! Danielson is locked in the middle of the ring, and he has no choice but to tap out! ZSJ has retained the NJPW World Television Championship! Zack Sabre Jr. def. Bryan Danielson two falls to one to retain the NJPW World Television Championship NJPW G1 Climax 33 The G1 Climax rolls around, and it’s NOT A FOUR BLOCK BULLSHIT G1. Zack Sabre Jr. is in the A Block, and, to the delight of NJPW fans and AEW fans everywhere, Bryan Danielson is in the B Block! Danielson is very angry that he lost at Forbidden Door, especially considering the fact that he was well on his way to winning the first fall before the coin flip went in Sabre Jr.’s favour. While both men have plenty of great matches in their respective blocks, neither one makes the finals. Their feud does result in a match at the Finals, though. TMDK is at ZSJ’s side, but BCC isn’t in Japan, so Danielson enlists the help of Strong Style. TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste and Robbie Eagles) vs. Bryan Danielson and Strong Style (Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita and El Desperado) Strong Style and Bryan Danielson are cut from the same cloth, and the quartet works well together, with the group allowing the American Dragon to get some shots in at ZSJ. However, the chemistry isn’t there as much as it is with TMDK, and Haste and Nicholls are able to isolate Despy on the outside of the ring and take him out. Suzuki and Sabre, as former stablemates, have a very fun sequence, and Narita shines in the contest as well, but the eventual finish comes when Eagles rolls a beaten-down Desperado into the ring, and ZSJ plants his former partner with the Zack Driver to pick up the win. TMDK def. Bryan Danielson and Strong Style in 13:13 After the match, ZSJ grabs the mic and shit-talks Danielson, telling him to pack his shit and go back to the “Blackpool Country Club”. Suddenly, the big screen lights up, and on it is Jon Moxley! He talks about how he was supposed to face Zack Sabre Jr., but didn’t. Recently, he was supposed to wrestle in the UK, but he didn’t. If The Front Man hates BCC so much, how about they make up for all the lost time and face off for the Television Championship at Royal Quest? ZSJ contemplates it, and agrees to the contest. Mox, on the big screen, says “I don’t know what you just said, because this video just so happens to be…pre-recorded.” The champion turns around, and Mox is right there! Death Rider, and he runs away before TMDK can get to him! NJPW Royal Quest III Jon Moxley vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c) - NJPW World Television Championship This match has been long-awaited, and Zack Sabre Jr., in his home country, is looking to extend his second reign with the NJPW World Television Championship. Jon Moxley, though, is an absolute force. This is a great dichotomy of styles, as Mox tries to get the match on the outside of the ring to do damage with his great brawling, while The Submission Master wants things right in the middle of the squared circle so that he can submit the Death Rider. After a frenetic match, ZSJ is busted open, and he’s trying desperately to take Mox down, but he stuffs the takedown! Elbows to the back of the head! Hooks the arms! PARADIGM SHIFT/DEATH RIDER! COVER! ONE…TWO…THREE! JON MOXLEY IS THE NEW NJPW WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION! Jon Moxley def. Zack Sabre Jr. in 14:31 to win the NJPW World Television Championship AEW Dynamite (September 6) We get a recap of Royal Quest, showing the fact that Jon Moxley has won the NJPW World Television Championship, and then we cut to a backstage promo from the man himself. He talks about how he has always loved performing in New Japan, but it seems like wrenches always get thrown into his plans. The pandemic forced him to give up his US Title, he lost in the G1 back in the day because of Toru Yano’s bullshit, and he just hasn’t been there as much as he would have liked to be. However, now that he has gold, he doesn’t plan on letting it go. “The Blackpool Combat Club has the World Television Championship, and we’re bringing it to REAL television.” AEW Dynamite (September 13) Darius Martin vs. Jon Moxley (c) - NJPW World Television Championship The younger member of Top Flight is in singles action tonight. He’s coming in as the huge underdog, but a win would propel him to superstardom, and over to Japan. His opponent, though, is Jon Moxley, a man that’s meaner now than he’s ever been. They have a fun match, with Martin’s insane pace seeming to benefit him with the short time limit. He’s very difficult to ground, but Moxley eventually does figure out a way to do so, locking Darius in the Bulldog Choke and forcing him to tap for the successful retention. Jon Moxley def. Darius Martin in 8:20 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship ROH TV (October 5) Yuji Nagata vs. Jon Moxley (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Yuji Nagata is in the United States for a tour, and after finding out, Jon Moxley challenged him to a match for the NJPW World Television Championship over in Ring of Honor. Blue Justice accepted, so now we’re here. We’ve seen this match before, and last time Mox won relatively easily, but Yuji is a legend because of his ability to adapt. He gives Jon a little bit more than he expected, and busts the champion’s chest open with a flurry of chops! Moxley comes alive after that, very angry, and after beating the legend down, hits three Regal Knees and a Paradigm Shift to take the victory. Jon Moxley def. Yuji Nagata in 10:00 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship After the match, Moxley walks up to Nagata aggressively, looking ready to attack. However, somebody runs out to make the save…SHOTA UMINO! Yuji Nagata is one of the men that trained The Roughneck, but Moxley is the one that taught him almost everything he knows! Umino doesn’t get physical, but he does try to defuse the situation, and Moxley backs off. Shota turns around to help Nagata up, and MOXLEY LAYS HIM OUT FROM BEHIND! PICKS HIM UP! DEATH RIDER! HE JUST DESTROYED HIS OWN PROTEGE! AEW Dynamite (October 18) Jon Moxley is interviewed by Lexy Nair, who asks why he attacked Shota Umino on ROH TV. He says that he looks at Shota and just feels disappointed. “Shooter, I trained you to be a vicious, violent son of a bitch, and to your credit, you try. You wrestle aggressively, but you leave yourself exposed, and you lose. I wrestle aggressively, and it wins me belts. You wear my jacket, and you use my finisher, but you are NOT me. You aren’t a wild man, you are a kid trying to be one. If you were really as violent as you’ve been trying to be, if you were really a Roughneck, you wouldn’t have let your heart get the better of you and make you come out to save Yuji Nagata. I know you want this belt back, and I know that I want to show you exactly why you aren’t the wrestler that I thought I had molded you into. At Power Struggle, Shooter, I will prove that no matter what you call yourself, you’ll never be anything more than my Young Lion.” AEW Dynamite (October 25) Shota Umino vs. Jack Cartwheel Jack Cartwheel, seen on Dark a few times, is making his Dynamite debut against Shota Umino. Of course, this is a showcase match for the former NJPW World Television Champion, but Jack shows out as well, impressing the crowd with his almost supernatural agility. Unfortunately for the underdog Cartwheel, he gets caught with a Dropkick off of a springboard move, and Roughneck assumes control. He hits a Death Rider and makes the cover for the one…two…three. Shota Umino def. Jack Cartwheel in 6:46 Shota picks up his jacket and goes to leave, but Jon Moxley comes out and gets in his face. He calls him a Young Boy, says that he doesn’t have what it takes to be champion, and Umino gets frustrated. He throws the jacket in Mox’s face and throws a punch! The two men brawl until officials pull them apart! Power Struggle is going to be one emotionally-charged match! NJPW Power Struggle 2023 Shota Umino vs. Jon Moxley (c) - NJPW World Television Championship Mentor vs. Protege, now bitter rivals. Jon Moxley looking to extend his title reign, Umino looking to reclaim the title that he lost earlier this year. Shota is no longer Shooter, he no longer has the Mox jacket, he is his own man. Not only is he his own man, but he goes to war with Jon Moxley. Moxley seems to be expecting Shota to be as aggressive as he usually is, but Umino has refined his style and instead of getting reversed and leaving himself exposed, is actually countering Moxley’s moves! He hits a Regal Knee on Moxley, busting the man open around the seven minute mark! The blood seems to wake Moxley up, though, and he snaps, managing to do some prolonged damage to the challenger. Time is starting to tick, and with only about two minutes remaining, The Death Rider goes for a, well, Death Rider. Shota spins out of it, kicks Mox in the gut, AND GOES FOR A DEATH RIDER OF HIS OWN! CONNECTS! COVER! ONE…TWO…THR-AND MOXLEY KICKS OUT! HE’S NOT ABOUT TO LOSE TO HIS OWN MOVE! Shota checks the clock and quickly lifts Moxley to his knees. Runs the ropes, charges at him, and HITS HIM WITH A SHOTGUN DROPKICK TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD! ON COMMENTARY, KEVIN KELLY CALLS IT “THE STRAIGHT SHOOTER”! HOOKS THE LEG! ONE…TWO…THREE! YOUNG BOY NO MORE, SHOTA UMINO IS A TWO-TIME NJPW WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION! Shota Umino def. Jon Moxley in 13: 46 to win the NJPW World Television Championship On the post-show press conference, Shota says that he wants his first defense to be against Ren Narita. NJPW World Tag League 2023: Night Seven Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino Ren Narita’s faction, Strong Style, is busy feuding with TMDK, but he takes a night off from waging war to challenge Shota for the NJPW World Television Championship. The two of them are the future of the company, and they have one hell of a match tonight, with Narita coming within an inch of winning the belt after Umino just BARELY manages to get a rope break. Time is winding down, and this one may very well go to a coin toss! With about twenty seconds left, Narita goes for a takedown, but Shota rolls through, gets behind Ren, and hits a short Straight Shooter! RUNS THE ROPES AND DELIVERS A SECOND, BIGGER ONE FOR GOOD MEASURE! MAKES THE COVER WITH JUST A FEW SECONDS LEFT! ONE…TWO…THREE! HE WON WITH JUST A SECOND LEFT ON THE CLOCK! Shota Umino def. Ren Narita in 14:59 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship After the match, the two men shake hands, after proving that they have impossibly bright futures. Shota leaves the ring, and Narita goes to do so as well, but TMDK comes pouring out to assault Narita, their feud still ongoing! El Desperado and Minoru Suzuki come to his aid, but TMDK still has a numbers advantage…until SHOTA UMINO TURNS BACK AND RUSHES INTO THE RING! He pulls Zack Sabre Jr. away, and the two stare daggers at each other…BEFORE COMING TO BLOWS! THIS IS AN ALL OUT BRAWL, AND TMDK RUNS FROM IT! Minoru Suzuki gets a Strong Style shirt and hands it to Shota. After some deliberation, he PUTS IT ON! STRONG STYLE IS A FOUR MAN UNIT! During the post show press conference, both Umino and Sabre call each other out for a rubber match, and the contest is made official for Wrestle Kingdom 18. NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome: Night One Strong Style (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, and Shota Umino) vs. TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr., Kohei Fujita, and Shane Haste) For a throwaway tag, this one has a lot of heat behind it. It’s Shota Umino’s first match as a member of Strong Style, and a chance for him to establish dominance over ZSJ. The match is a fun one, but the most important moment of the match comes when Shota and Sabre are in the ring together. Zack goads him and insults him repeatedly, and frustrates him so much that the champion LEVELS HIM WITH A CLOSED FIST PUNCH! ZSJ smiles a shit-eating grin, pointing at Shota as if to say “You’re just as aggressive as you were during your first reign.” Umino has been keeping his cool lately, but ZSJ just got to him. Strong Style wins the match after Suzuki fucking MURDERS Fujita, but Umino looks shaken in victory. Strong Style def. TMDK in 12:57 NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino (c) - NJPW World Television Championship This is it. Each man has won one match apiece, each man has taken the Television Title off of the other. Shota has only ever defeated ZSJ via Coin Toss, and he’s looking for a more decisive victory tonight, while the Technical Wizard wants to prove that his spot will not be overtaken by a relative upstart. The contest is an intense one, and, with Shota trying to maintain his composure, a measured chess match. Throughout, ZSJ tries to frustrate Shota, and as the match winds down, after nearly choking him out, he manages to. Shota winds back for a closed fist punch…BUT TRANSITIONS INTO A BRUTAL SLAP, SPINNING SABRE AROUND! WAISTLOCK! GERMAN SUPLEX! ROLLS THROUGH, ZSJ IS ON HIS KNEES AND UMINO RUNS THE ROPES! STRAIGHT SHOOTER! COVER! ONE..TWO…THREE!!! SHOTA UMINO IS NOT MOX’S YOUNG BOY, AND HE IS NOT ZSJ’S PUNCHING BAG! “ROUGHNECK” SHOTA UMINO IS HIS OWN MAN, AND HE IS YOUR NJPW WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION! Shota Umino def. Zack Sabre Jr. in 13:23 to retain the NJPW World Television Championship submitted by KirkHammettJigsaw to FantasyBookingElite [link] [comments] |
2023.04.01 03:18 josforaminalkq5 Self-mortification, is it really so uncommon? Opinions on it?
Hi redditors
Backstory:
My parents have always taught that self-mortification was a way to show devotion to God. When I was young, I watched my dad and the rest of our church beat themselves with whips to atone for their sins. I felt proud to be part of their tradition, and when I turned twelve, I began practicing self-mortification with them.
The first night that I practiced it, I had a dream where a man was chasing me through a forest and I ran into a thorn bush. I hid there, and when I left I had cuts all over me. I feel that Jesus sent me a sign that day.
This is all to say that it’s an important practice for me.
But I’ve recently been seeing someone outside our church who saw me with my shirt off (not premarital sex, just swimming. I would never damn myself) and she freaked out about it. She thought my parents whipped me (lol) and I got super confused. I tried to explain it to her but she kept telling me that “people don’t do that anymore” and that it’s bad (???) and left kind of upset. I can’t find any actual statistics on it, but everywhere it says people don’t do it anymore (except for some Catholics). FYI I’ve never really left my hometown where it’s normal so 🤷🏻♀️
Does anyone practice it? Thoughts?
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2023.04.01 03:16 Oseisthebest Won the prem with Southampton after our second season after being promoted
2023.04.01 02:53 SubstantialBite788 Under the Cemetery Light
I live in a townhome across the street from a cemetery. It’s a small-town cemetery, with a little over a thousand tombstones. There is one looping road that circles the perimeter. To get to the gravesite, most people have to park, and walk. It seems to me that there’s not much room left for any more burials. The lot is dense with corpses. Sitting at my desk, I can see the entire cemetery from my bedroom window. There are five streetlamps spread out along the road. Four of them are sodium orange lights, but one, in the very distant corner, next to the sharpest curve in the road, is an old green streetlamp, shorter than the others. At night, before bed, I open up my window, turn out the lights and just stare. Sometimes I listen to a little music, but normally I like to listen to the silence emanating from the cemetery. That sort of silence can both relaxing and unnerving.
There are times when I will watch a burial, but I don’t make a regular habit of it, simply because most of those are during the day, when I’m either in school or if its Saturday, hanging out with my friends. There was one particular burial I didn’t want to miss though. Shannon Taylor, a cheerleader, had died in a car accident. It took them three weeks, with volunteers and cadaver dogs to find her body. Her prick boyfriend had been drinking and lost control of the car, skidding off of Devil’s Elbow and into the Cumberland River. Devil’s Elbow is a treacherous narrow winding road, with a steep embankment. Kevin Williams had convinced her that he was alright to drive. He was a piece of shit, so I didn’t really care much if he died. With his passing, a good number of people at that school had their lives exponentially improved. I mean he was a sadistic bully, not just your ordinary run-of-the mill bully looking to release a little stress. No, this guy loved causing other people pain. He loved causing misery. Shannon, on the other hand, was the nicest person I had ever encountered, and she was gorgeous. I had a serious crush on her. I loved everything about her, her style, her looks, even something as simple as her mannerisms, or her walk. How could someone so perfect love such a douchebag? I couldn’t understand it.
I didn’t know Shannon that well. I was too shy to ever approach her. I hated myself for being such a coward, but I’d rather not know for sure if I had a chance or not. I’d rather live in an unsure fantasy than a certain sad reality. I heard she was buried in her cheerleading outfit, which offended me, because I thought to summarize her whole life as nothing but a cheerleader was to trivialize who was she was as a person, plus I just thought it was dumb as shit.
All the popular kids were there, feigning sincerity at her passing. I couldn’t see the coffin, but I could tell when she had been lowered into the ground, buried under the earth. There was a visible wave of grief as those who truly loved her realized that she was gone forever. There’s something about packing down that last batch of dirt that evokes weeping.
I stayed in my room watching the scene unfold, until the last person was gone. I remember looking at that fresh mound of dirt and feeling a deep sense of loneliness. I walked down to her plot and said a little prayer. There were wreaths and flowers littered about her grave. I saw one with a picture of her and Kevin at a waterfall. I took the picture and put it in my pants pocket. Her plot was right under one of the orange lights. I thought how gawdy to have her grave under a streetlamp. I wish she would have been under a tree, maybe a beautiful oak, anything but a streetlamp. She deserved a peaceful, serene setting.
After some time, I walked back home. I cut Kevin out of the picture and threw that half away. I gazed at the photo of Shannon for a good while and then placed the picture in my sock drawer. The guys and I were going to a throw-back arcade, with pinball machines and retro video games. I get lost in that place. It’s like meditation without effort and the uncomfortable stillness. I don’t have to chase thoughts away. The ringing and the lights put me in another mental state, a peaceful nothingness, separated from the anxiety of life, but that night I couldn’t enjoy it. Shannon had intruded upon my Nirvana.
When I got home that night I went straight upstairs to my room, got her picture out of the sock drawer, and sat at my desk. Her grave was illuminated under the orange light. There was a weird anticipation on my part, like I expected something ghastly to happen. I couldn’t move my eyes from the plot but to my surprise something did happen, not where I expected, but under the green lamp. I saw passing under the light a girl dressed in what seemed to me a cheerleading outfit. She was pacing back and forth. I could only she her when she was under the light, but when she ventured outside the light, she was invisible. This went on for about five minutes and then she was gone for good. I reasoned that I was sleepy and probably hallucinating, that there was nothing there. I waited for a few more minutes but nothing else happened. I went to sleep and thought nothing else of it until the next night.
The next night I was too curious not to look. I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and sat at my desk, moving the curtain aside to get a clear view of the green light in the cemetery. Nothing at first but after some time elapsed, she appeared. This time she wasn’t pacing but looking in my direction. She motioned for me to come to her. It had to be Shannon. I just knew it. I closed the curtain and crawled back into bed, but again, I couldn’t sleep. I got up and got dressed. I looked out the window, but she wasn’t there.
I quietly made my way downstairs, doing my best not to wake up my mom. I got through the creaking front door without any trouble. The hinges on that front door sing like hysterical banshees. There was no way anyone would ever be able to break in through the front door without alerting me to their presence. My mom on the other was a deep sleeper. The house could burn down, and she would never notice. I walked through the front lawn and across the road. It was a clear night and there was a full moon. It had been a sweltering hot day with no rain, but when I stepped into the cemetery the ground was saturated with water, pools of dark murky water scattered throughout, reflecting the moon’s light. I sloshed through the mud to the back end of the lot, near the green streetlamp. I looked up at the sky and it seemed like it was undulating. I felt as if I was looking up at the surface of a river, while trapped on the bottom. My chest was throbbing, and I started to choke for air. I moved toward the green light. It was all I could see now, my vision clouded, the light scattered by an ever-thickening fog.
From the light I could see a hand reaching out towards me. The skin hung loose, wrinkled, and pale, the last two fingers broken and bent upward. The hand grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me into the light. I immediately gasped for air. I could feel my lungs working, the blood moving throughout my body with much needed oxygen. I fell to the ground and gazed upward. It was Shannon but she wasn’t beautiful. What was left of her blond hair was thin and matted, exposing much of her bald head. One eye was missing, and the other eye was bulging, skin and eyelid eaten away by some unknown scavenger. Her skin was a pale blue, with deep bloody gashes in her face, arms, and legs. She was dressed in her cheerleading outfit. She began to speak. It was difficult for her to enunciate through her mangled mouth, upper lip missing, broken and missing teeth, an eternal damnable smile.
“Kill him.”
I was shoved out of the light and back into the darkness of the cemetery. The ground was dry, and I could breathe. There were no pools of water, no movement in the sky other than the few wispy clouds that skirted in front of the moon. I made my way back home, with the thought of being trapped in a car underwater lodged in my head. It made me anxious. I felt I couldn’t move. My muscles were atrophied. It took all my energy to get back home and into bed.
The next morning, I woke up late to the sound of activity in the cemetery. I got up and looked out the window. The scene looked familiar. I watched as family and friends gathered around the grave of a loved one, exactly where Shannon had been buried. I was confused. I got dressed and rushed down to the grave. I noticed Shannon’s parents wailing and some of the people from school listening to the preacher. There in front was the wreath, attached in the middle, a picture of Shannon and Kevin with a waterfall in the background.
“What are you doing here?” I heard an angry whisper. It was Melissa, another cheerleader, but one with a nasty disposition. I just ignored her and started walking back towards my home. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone in the woods behind the cemetery. Someone watching, waiting, looking for an opportunity to say goodbye.
I changed my course and started walking towards the woods. I got closer than I imagined I would have without being noticed. The spying person looked up. We looked each other in the eyes. It was Kevin, alive and well, perfectly fine. He was teary eyed, and his face expressed a tangible fear. He turned and ran deeper into the woods. I didn't want to follow him. I didn't want a confrontation. I was pondering whether or not I should report him to the police. I hated him but I also feared him.
That night, whatever damn night it was, as I lay sleeping in bed, I heard the front door open. The hinges screaming in ecstasy, piercing my ears, and shocking me out of sleep. I laid there for a while, working up the courage to check and see who was in our house. I finally made my way out of bed and went to the landing. Downstairs the door was wide open. A trail of wet footprints went from the living room hardwood floor to the kitchen, and back through the living room and up the carpeted stairs. They went past my room and to my mom’s room. I saw that her door was open. This was odd and out of character for my mom. She always locked her bedroom door for fear of intruders. I walked over to the door and peered inside. Standing over my mother was a water drenched witch, in a cheerleading outfit, with a knife in hand, ready to stab my mother in her sleep. Shannon turned her gaze in my direction and lowered the knife.
“Kill him.” Shannon backed into the dark corner and was gone. I turned on the bedroom light. No one was in the room, the only evidence being the wet footprints.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Nothing mom. Go back to sleep. I just thought I heard something.” I shut off the lights and closed the door.
The next morning, I woke up early. I went to the woods behind the cemetery and waited. The line of cars meandered through the road and in front of the gravesite. People slammed their car doors. There was muffled conversation. I hid in a patch of brush, knowing exactly where Kevin would be. I could hear the preacher start the ceremony. I had brought a hammer with me. In the distance, amidst the trees, I saw Kevin sneaking up the trail. He positioned himself so that he could watch without being noticed, bent down and out of sight. I waited and kept my focus on Kevin. After the burial he watched everyone leave and then waited what seemed to be an hour more. He stood up and jogged over to the gravesite. He just stood there, looking and weeping. I felt sorry for him. I didn’t know exactly what had happened. I imagined several different scenarios, but the most reasonable to me was that he felt guilty. I didn’t see him as a killer, just a dumb drunk teen who wasn’t able to save his girlfriend. Then again, I really didn't know. He grabbed the photo off of the wreath and started to leave. As he came to the trail, I let him get a little in front of me. I wrestled myself free from the brush and snuck up behind him. I stepped on a stick, it snapped, he turned, and I reflexively hit him in the forehead above his left eye. He fell to the ground unconscious. I knew he wasn’t dead; I could see his chest moving up and down.
I dropped the hammer to the ground. I couldn’t believe I had done it. I had changed my mind but at the last second, I had swung without thinking, only reacting to the situation. I had no time to panic or feel sorry for myself. My one chance was to dump him unconscious into the river near Devil’s Elbow. Let the authorities find him where they had expected him to be. I ran back home and got the car. I drove on the cemetery road all the way around to where the woods were. I had to pull off the road and into the grass to get the car as close to Kevin as possible. I popped the trunk. Kevin was heavy, but I could feel the adrenaline pumping. I dragged him by the ankles to the back of the car. I picked him up like a fairytale maiden and dumped him in the trunk. I went back and retrieved the hammer.
When I got to Devil’s Elbow, I had to drive down past it to the bottom of the hill and closer to the river. I parked the car on the shoulder of the road. A couple of cars passed. I waited until it was clear and made haste, opening the trunk and dragging Kevin out onto the road. I could hear another car coming, tires rubbing against the road, atop of Devil’s Elbow. I wouldn’t make it in time so I dragged him as fast as I could to the other side of the car, out of sight. I quickly popped the hood and acted like I was broken down.
The car passed without even slowing down. I left the hood up, thinking that another car would be approaching, and it would be best to keep the charade going. I went and started the arduous task of getting Kevin’s body into the river. I grabbed his ankles and heard him moan. I couldn’t do it. I thought about grabbing a rock and crushing in his skull, but he would suffer. I closed the hood and the trunk, started the car and drove off.
I was looking in the rear-view mirror as I drove away. I knew this was the end for me. I was going to jail. I saw Kevin get up and stagger out into the road, not realizing where he was. Coming down the hill was a motorcycle, doing about a hundred miles an hour. People loved taking motorcycles down Devil’s Elbow. It was a game, a thrill to brag about. This guy just happened to choose a day when a zombie pedestrian had been unwillingly installed into the course. The motorcyclist didn’t see Kevin until the last second. He swerved trying to miss Kevin, but instead the bike wobbled and blasted right into him, tossing Kevin and the cyclist into the air and over the side of the embankment. I stopped and pulled off to the side of the road. I could see both their bodies being swept down the river, neither appearing to be alive. There was no effort to swim back to shore. They were faced down in the water, looking into the void of the deep moving river.
I drove home, parked the car, and went to bed early. Later on in the night, I heard my mom watching television downstairs.
“Devil’s Elbow got another one. Some motorcycle lost control and went into the river. Oh, and they found that boy Kevin. He wasn’t too far from where the motorcycle went in. Weird, isn’t it?”
I walked upstairs and sat at my desk. I pulled the curtain back. There under the green cemetery light, stood a cheerleader, with what was probably her boyfriend. She had her back turned toward me, but the guy was looking in my direction, motioning to me, inviting me to come into the green light. I looked down into the waste basket and saw a picture of Shannon and Kevin, standing in front of a waterfall.
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2023.04.01 02:45 corvisai Bokoblins can't just leave me alone on my quest ffs