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Spade 5/6/7 cards

And the Vanishing Bankers (S02E03) THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER (2025—)

Can you whistle?

How long have you known your best friend?

Favourite flower?

Have you seen the last person you texted naked?

Can you speak piglatin?

Banana bread, with or without walnuts?

Are you currently wearing anything blue?

Have you ever been in an ambulance?

Is your belly button an innie; outie or inbetweenie?

Green grapes or red grapes?

How's the weather where you are?

Can you play an instrument?

Guilty pleasure song?

What was the last thing you ate?

What is your zodiac sign?

Top 3 pizza toppings. Cheese doesn't count.

How long have you been on Tumblr.com?

What's something you've only ever done once and hated every minute of it?

Are you right handed or left handed or ambidextrous?

Have you been outside yet today?

Do you talk to yourself?

Are your nails painted right now?

Favourite condiment?

Do you have vivid dreams?

Are you vegetarian or vegan?

Favourite colour of the rainbow?

Have you been to your nation's capital?

What was the last thing you looked for online?

How many languages do you speak fluently?

Have you ever been hypnotized?

Do you have a job?

Are you blocked by anyone to your knowledge?

Have you had a post break containment?

How many continents have you been to?

What was the last thing you bought online?

Favourite potato chip flavour?

Do you have a lucky number?

Have you drank water today?

Top 5 desserts.

Have you been a part of a bridal party?

Do you have tattoos?

How many pillows do you sleep with?

Are you superstitious?

Do you like yogurt?

How many meals have you had today?

Have you ever seen snow?

Top 5 comfort movies?

Have you ever met any celebrities?

Are you wearing socks right now?

For a while now I have observed that a lot of people, even people who read a lot, struggle to talk about what they read on anything except the content level. This includes students in my undergraduate lit studies classes! They can tell me what happens in a story and maybe how it made them feel, but if I ask them why they feel a certain way, they can't point to it. It blows their minds when I go through a couple of examples of how words make you feel things (like the difference between "red drops" and "crimson spatters"). They are not paying attention to conventions or formats or narrative techniques and they struggle to comprehend the function of those things.

The extension of this is that most people don't know what "good writing" is. They just don't. This has always been the case to some degree because most people only care about whether or not they like a book they're reading, although of course "good writing" usually makes a book more enjoyable to read. But it also appears that a lot of people "read" without really taking in or paying attention to the actual words on the page beyond what they need to imagine the scenes. This is why some of the most popular/successful published writers out there have incredibly dull prose: people prefer straightforward writing that doesn't distract or confuse you with complexity of language.

The unfortunate consequence of the increasing literacy crisis is that the standards for what is considered "enjoyable" keeps dropping. Readers have lower standards for what they will rate 5 stars on Goodreads and that's all publishers care about, so they can get away with putting less effort into their output, so the overall quality keeps dropping too.

There's this idea in literary studies called "the affect" which bluntly put just refers to the physical and emotional reaction like when you watch a scary movie and your body reacts as if you really are being hunted by an axe murderer. The affect is a huge factor for why most people engage with media: they want to feel something and the more intense the feeling, the better. The thing is that the human mind and body are not that complicated and the buttons to make you feel Sad or Happy or Horny are very big and easily pushed, which is why there are cute puppies in commercials and why some writers try to make every single sentence some kind of climax. Increasingly, people appear to mean "it made me feel things" when they say "it's so well-written."

So the best way to make people respond positively to your writing is to make them Feel Things and you don't need to be subtle or clever about it. In fact, it's better if you aren't. If you can make them Feel Things strongly and also repeatedly, even better. In a fanfiction context, that means readers as a demographic prefer frequent updates with a high density of humour, sex, or intense emotional scenes and they don't really know whether it's well-written or not.

Her cheerleader friends are supportive, like "Are you kidding, girl? You played Sonic on your iPhone once! She's not out of your league!" but she still doubts if she'd be enough to keep up with Erin's zest for life.

A smile finally breaks onto Dani's face. She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful.

netflix is making a hockey show called "the sticks" that is based on a very real tragedy that occured in canada in 2018.

the show follows a minnesota high school team after their bus crashes and coming back to hockey afterwards.

in 2018, the humboldt broncos' (a junior A team made up of 18-22 year olds) bus was hit by a tractor trailer on a highway intersection. 16 people (10 players, 2 coaches, and 4 team staff members) were killed, along with 13 other players severely injured.

the memory of the humboldt broncos crash is an incredibly sensitive subject carrying a lot of trauma to both the survivors, their families, and deceased's families. the trajectory of hockey in canada was changed significantly after this tragedy.

despite this, netflix has decided to make a show using the death of young hockey players for profit. they did not consult the survivors, nor the deceased's families. they stole a canadian story for a feel-good cash grab.

None of the families even knew about this show until the media started asking how they felt.

It is taking a tragedy and turning it into a cash cow.

This was such a deeply-felt issue that even the truck driver pleaded guilty and has tried to make amends. (And as he is facing deportation after his sentence, some of the families have even started supporting him being allowed to stay in the country.) There is a real story you could be telling about community and resilience that is not just turning one of the worst days for THE NATION into cheap thrills and sensationalism.