So What's The Take On Epstein 5 Years Out. Did He Really Do It?

probably my most powerful interpersonal communication hack is to, whenever possible, ask either/or questions rather than yes/no questions

for example, when chatting with coworkers, i’ll often ask if they have any fun weekend plans. but let’s be real - we all feel like friendless losers when someone asks that question and we go “uhhhhh… no.” so instead, i phrase it as “so, do you have anything fun planned over the weekend, or are you just going to enjoy having some time to relax?”

phrased like this, there’s rarely any awkwardness. you’ve presented two options & given both equally positive connotations, so your conversational partner has an automatic “out,” so to speak

but it works for higher stakes conversations too!!!! my mom was saying this weekend how she and her neighbor both like walking around the neighborhood & that she wanted to suggest they take a walk together sometime, but was worried about how to approach the conversation

so i said “how about you just say ‘i’ve noticed we both like taking walks! would you be interested in going for one together, or do you use walks for some precious alone time?’”

now Walking Neighbor has an automatic “get out of jail free card” if she wants to say no!!!! which means my mom doesn’t have to worry about the conversation being uncomfortable, because she’s set it up to go smoothly

either/or questions rather than yes/no questions. it is really like magic

Shadow: Through the love for my sister, I am bound to spend my endless life protecting the world and everyone on it per her wish. If I am to go against this, I am betraying Maria and her legacy.

Knuckles: I have been burdened with responsibility my entire life, instructed to guard a power I know so little about. Or else the tragedies that befel my ancestors will repeat themselves in the present.

Sonic: Live fast die young bad girls do it well

Sometimes I feel like the only one who never bought for a second that Gertrude was this doddering old lady who was starting to go senile. She’s the previous archivist, our protagonists predecessor in the Magnus Institute, and only eleven episodes in, we were being told that Gertrude faced a horrible end. I never saw the archives being a mess as her being really disorganized and going all “Oh silly me”, I saw it as Jon walking in on her room-wide pin and thread conspiracy board without context.

TMA is so hilarious for introducing Gertrude from the perspective of someone who never knew her, letting us assume she was a confused, old lady losing her touch, only to then reveal she was a morally fucked up arsonist that tried to burn down her workplace, killed like two of her assistants, was an active menace to society and nuisance to all the Avatars, and arguably one of the most badass characters in the series.

Not a woman myself, but dang if I don’t empathize with this. Every time I hear people talking about how not having any close relationships is a red flag, it just deepens this feeling like my life has been irreparably fucked up and there’s no fixing it. And like, I know it’s not true and it’s never too late and all that, but damn if it’s not hard to stay convinced of that sometimes.

Being a girl without close girl friends I spend time with feels like some sort of spiritual jail I've been put in for this particular lifetime and it's such a walk of shame in this day and age like I can't count how many reels or tiktoks I see of girls saying stuff like "girls who don't have girl friends??? RED FLAG!!!" Or like jokes about when you befriend the girl who has no girl friends and then you realize why...yikes! Cause she sucks and is toxic and unlovable! And I'm like ouch, that's tough to hear. I know those narratives are popular because girl friendships can be painful and I'm sure there's lot of people out there who have been deeply unkind whether on purpose or not but I guess it pains me to watch people make laughable comments about lonely women. I feel like being a lonely woman is such a derogatory notion already deeply imbedded in society and sexism that I feel like it's just sort of being reframed in the new age as like "she did that to herself" and that's never true, we are all the result of the love we get or don't and it's definitely our own responsibility how we act and how we heal or don't - but it feels so judgmental sometimes to further "other" women who don't have friends

Some of you don't have firm principles that transcend ideology, and it shows.

Formal dress event 👔

10/3/24 URGENT, please RB

so i literally have 2 days to make 500 dollars and needless to say, that's not possible no matter how hard i work. being the only one able to work with my husband's heart problems and my chronic pain i'm just in constant pain.

i know these posts haven't really been working lately, but i'm so desperate...

paypal: the50foottaco@ymail.com

venmo: kashebu

any amount at all helps so much in taking care of my family while everything rests on my shoulders. tysm in advance

0 / 200

apparently a bunch of ppl on social media are trying to call for a boycott of rick riordan because of this statement in a blog post:

Becky and I are just back from a busy weekend with events at the Boston Book Festival and New York Comic-Con.

Before I get into that, however, some words to acknowledge the ongoing horrors in Israel and Gaza. As many of you may know, I am no longer on social media. My accounts post only updates on my books and related projects. I do not read posts, reply to posts, or share my thoughts about world events on those forums. That doesn’t mean I don’t have strong feelings and reactions. It means I am offline as completely as possible, except for the occasional blog post like this one.

I will say this: Over the last eighteen years, I have received many fan letters from young readers, both Israeli and Palestinian, who often told me that my books helped them escape the fear, grief and anxiety they were dealing with at the time. Some had lost family members to violence. Some were writing while in the distance they could hear explosions, gunfire, and the launching of rockets. They used my books as a way to escape into another world, where the monsters were fictional, and where demigods usually saved the day. While I am always glad that my books can help young readers find joy during difficult times, my heart breaks every time I hear about the things they have to deal with. I am grief-stricken by the horrific events now unfolding, especially because I know that they are part of a long historic pattern that has been robbing too many children of their childhood and perpetuating hatred for far too long.

I am also quite aware that when anyone, myself included, tries to speak about this issue, the reader is waiting to pounce, thinking, “Yes, but whose side are you on?” That is exactly the wrong question. If there are two sides to this issue, those sides are not Palestinian/Israeli or Muslim/Jewish. The two sides are humanitarian and dehumanizing. Dehumanizing has a long evil history. It is appealing and easy to buy into, because humans are tribal animals. We are hardwired to think in terms of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are the real humans, the good guys, the ones with God on our side. Those other people are evil monsters who don’t deserve empathy. Hate mongers have thrived on dehumanizing for as long as there have been humans. It provides them with a purpose, a way to rally support, power, and scapegoats. It is easy to point to atrocities committed by our enemies, while justifying or minimizing the atrocities committed by ourselves or our allies.

Humanitarianism is a much harder sell. It requires us to empathize, to see other groups of people as equally deserving of dignity and quality of life. It requires not always putting ourselves and our needs first. But in the long run, humanitarianism is our only hope. If violence could end violence, if we could put an end to “those other people” once and for all, human history would read very differently than it does.

So yes, I am appalled by the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. I am appalled by the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Both things can be true. Both things must be true. My thoughts are with all the people who have died, who have lost loved ones, who have had their worlds and their lives shattered, especially the children. More death and violence will not break this cycle, which has been going on for generations. There is no military solution. Even since I first wrote the post, only twenty-four hours ago, the Israeli government’s brutal retaliation against the entire population of Gaza has reached genocidal proportions. This is not only an atrocity. It is folly. Answering misery with misery only creates more fertile ground for extremism, dehumanizing the “other side,” letting hate mongers thrive, stay in power, and reduce us all to our most monstrous impulses. The only real solution is treating each other like equally worthy human beings, and negotiating a peace that allows all parties a chance to live in security and dignity, with hopes for a future that does not include bombs and rockets and gunfire. This means security and support for Israel, yes. It also means a secure Palestine which is allowed to get the international aid and recognition it needs to build a viable state.

Do I think that will happen? Unfortunately, no. Humans are simply too selfish, too ready to blame “the other” for all their problems, too ready to dehumanize, though I also believe, perhaps paradoxically, that most people just want to live their lives in peace and have a chance for their children to have a brighter future. The problem is when we don’t allow other people to have those same hopes and dreams — when it becomes a false choice of us versus them.

What can I do? I will continue to write books that I hope will give young readers some joy. I will resist the urge to demonize entire groups of people. I will call for less violence, not more violence. And when asked whose side I am on, I will tell you I am on the side of humanitarianism.

So with that said, I return to the world of books . . .

honestly, if you have a problem with this statement, it’s probably because he’s talking about you. this is exactly what legitimate activists (as in not just random westerners who share social media posts but on-the-ground activists who are doing real work) have been saying for decades. and i think all this really speaks to just how disconnected a lot of westerners who claim to be pro palestinian are from those activists.

if you can’t read a statement that says “i am on the side of humanitarianism and less violence” without immediately jumping to cancel them, you are the problem being discussed in the above statement.

Praise be the potato