Mindmusings

and we’re having a contest and i think i’m going to win

Everything movies taught me about archery is wrong. This is a complete mind-blower. 8D

My favorite part?

He learned this doing research for LARPs (Live Action Role Playing):

Lars Andersen originally started using bow and arrow to fight in pretend battles during Larps (live action role play) events, where he played a soldier in a medieval-inspired army. While Larps can be about anything – the Danish/Polish Harry Potter inspired larp College of Wizardry (cowlarp.com) recently got world-wide media attention and there wasn’t a rubber sword in sight there – many Larps take place in fantasy worlds inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. And it was at one of these Larps, that Lars started to learn to shoot fast while moving.

In 2012, Lars Andersen released his video, “Reinventing the fastest forgotten archery”, where he showed how he had learned to shoot from old archery manuscripts. Using these old, forgotten techniques, Lars demonstrated how he was now the fastest archer on the planet, and after its release, the video got 3 million hits on YouTube in two days.

Since the 2012 video was released, Lars has studied and practiced, and he is now able to fire three arrows in 0.6 seconds – a truly stunning feat making him much faster than the legendary fictional archer Legolas (played by Orlando Bloom in the Lord of the Rings movies).

The time benchmark he was trying to achieve, according to the video, was the expectation of the speed at which “Saracen“ archers were expected to shoot. In fact, most of the source material as far as I can see isn’t European.

Okay, so there are plenty of these out there but I just wanted to make one of my own! (That, and I’m high-key desperate for asks about my OCs lol) Just tag your OCs so people can ask you these!

1. What do they smell like?

2. What is their voice like?

3. What is their biggest motivator?

4. What is their most embarrassing memory?

5. How do they deal with/react to pain?

6. What do they like to wear?

7. Which of their relationships have impacted them most positively?

8. What’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever eaten?

9. Describe the way that they sleep.

10. What is their favorite food/kind of food?

11. What do they feel most insecure about? 

12. How do they like to dress?

13. How do they react to feelings of guilt?

14. How do they react to/deal with betrayal?

15. What is their greatest achievement?

16. What are they like when they’ve gotten too little sleep?

17. What are they like when they’re drunk?

18. What kind of music do they enjoy?

19. Are they right or left handed?

20. Fears?

21. Favorite kind of weather?

22. Favorite color?

23. Do they collect anything?

24. Do they prefer either hot or cold weather more?

25. What is their eye color?

26. What is their race/ethnicity?

27. Hair color?

28. Are they happy where they are currently?

29. Are they a morning person?

30. Sunrise or sunset?

31. Are they more messy or more organized?

32. Pet peeves?

33. Do they own any objects of significant personal importance?

34. Least favorite food?

35. Least favorite color?

36. Least favorite smell?

37. When was the last time they cried?

38. Were they with anybody the last time they cried?

39. Tell us about one of the times they got injured?

40. Do they have any scars?

41. Do they struggle with any mental health issues?

42. Do they have any bad habits?

43. Why might someone dislike them?

44. Why might someone love them?

45. Do they believe in ghosts?

46. Is there anyone they would trust with their lives?

47. Are they romantically interested in anyone?

48. Are they dating/married to anyone?

49. Do they like surprises?

50. When is their birthday?

51. How do they usually celebrate their birthday?

52. Do they have any family?

53. Are they close to their family?

54. What is their MBTI type?

55. What is their zodiac sign?

56. What Hogwarts House would they be in?

57. What D&D alignment are they?

58. Do they ever have nightmares? If so, what about?

59. What are their views on death?

60. What is something that they’re sure to laugh at?

61. When bored, how do they pass time?

62. Do they enjoy being outside?

63. Do they have an accent?

64. Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, what is their first reaction?

65. If they knew they were going to die, what would they do/say?

66. How do they feel about sex?

67. What is their sexuality?

68. Do they become squeamish at the sight of blood?

69. Is there anything that they find really gross?

70. Which TV Trope(s) best describes them?

71. Do they enjoy helping people?

72. Are they allergic to anything?

73. Do they have a pet?

74. Are they quick to anger? What are they like when they loose their temper?

75. How patient are they?

76. Are they good at cooking?

77. Favorite insult? Do they insult people often?

78. How do they act when they’re particularly happy?

79. What do they do when they learn about other people’s fears?

80. Are they trustworthy?

81. Do they try to hide their emotions? Are they good at it?

82. Do they exercise regularly?

83. Are they comfortable with the way they look?

84. What are some physical features that they find attractive on people?

85. What kind of personalities do they find attractive?

86. Do they like sweet foods?

87. What is their age?

88. Are they tall or short or somewhere in between?

89. Do they wear glasses or contacts?

90. Do they consider themselves attractive?

91. What is their sense of humor like?

92. What mood are they most often in?

93. What kinds of things anger them?

94. Outlook on life?

95. What kind of things make them sad/depressed?

96. What is their greatest weakness?

97. What is the greatest strength?

98. Something that they regret?

99. Biggest accomplishment?

- That moment when your heart starts to beat faster -

I realise, I realise perfectly, that women get raped and murdered and tortured in the West too. And I am in NO WAY undermining any of that. But feminism is such a complex issue and I’ve come to realise that feminism for one woman is not feminism for the other. 

For one woman, feminism is the right to wear the tightest, shortest clothes and not be degraded or attacked for it. For another woman, it is literally the right to be born. No feminism is more or less “valid”. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that your rights are any less important. But feminism is so layered, and I find that–at least on tumblr–much of feminism’s other sides aren’t talked about as much. 

I can only speak reliably for women of my own country. 

It is honestly dangerous for me to be out of the house, alone, after a certain time of night. It’s risky for me to get wet in the rain because I’d look “sexy” and therefore I’m “asking for it”. In the burning heat of summer, I have to think twice about wearing anything short or sleeveless or in any way comfortable, because it would be “indecent” of me. It’s dangerous for me to wear a skirt, or a dress, unless I’m moving from a car to an indoor area, I’m cat-called on my way to college when I’m literally just wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, it’s dangerous for me to enter a taxi alone because I’m at the driver’s mercy, it’s dangerous for me to turn a man down because I could literally HAVE ACID THROWN ON MY FACE, and when I talk about issues like rape, powerful men in powerful offices in the country literally try to blame anything else but the rapist, including (and this is what an actual politician said), “spicy chinese food that gives men fire”. In my country it’s illegal for pregnant women to do a sex determination procedure because most people, when finding out that the unborn child is female, abort her. Doctors take bribes and do the test anyway. Aborted female foetuses are often fed to stray dogs or thrown into sewers. Female babies that are born are often murdered. There are places where local village councils don’t allow women to own mobile phones because it would give them too much freedom. Women are pulled out of school–children!–and young college students, to get married, because a woman’s only job is to give birth to a boy, and why not start right after her body is able to carry a baby, right? Martial rape isn’t against the crime, because some lawyers and judges literally can’t wrap their head around the fact that married women can be raped by their husbands.  Lesbians–they’re not even allowed the freedom to have sex. (Section 377). Trans women, are of course, not even considered human beings. 

And as bad as the women in my country have it, I realise that I am, in fact constitutionally, granted SO much more freedom than women of other countries. The law gives me the right to wear what I want, go where I please, drive a car, be alone. The law gives me freedom, even if my society does not. As a cis, straight woman, I am not considered an abomination against nature. And therefore when I read about the lives of women in countries worse of than mine, I am reminded that I am, in fact, endlessly privileged. My nationality grants me equal status with a man, my parents–progressive and feminist as they are–give me freedoms that even some of my friends don’t have (such as the freedom to choose the man I marry), my education and financial status give me the freedom to dream of what I can be in the future. I am lucky.

Feminism for women in my country is when a girl’s father tells me, “I’m going to educate my daughter like a boy, I want her to become a government servant.” I don’t think, how dare he choose a profession for his daughter, she has the right to choose! I think, wow, he’s giving her an education. 

Feminism for a woman in my country is when I tell my Australian cousin that, “it’s actually getting MUCH better. Child marriage has reduced.”

Feminism is when I have to explain to a New Zealander that, my father doesn’t force me to do anything. He doesn’t dictate the clothes I wear or where I go, or who I meet. I listen to him because I love and respect his judgement, and I know that when he looks at the crop top I’m wearing and asks, in badly-hidden surprise, “You’re wearing that?” it’s not because he has a problem with me showing skin, it’s because he’s terrified of me getting raped or killed. And when I talk about boys with my mother, it’s not because she’s forcing me to get married at the age of 18 to a man of her choosing, it’s because I have a crush and I want someone to talk to. That is more than what I can say for over 50% of my friends. 

No “version” of feminism is inherently more valid than the other. But Western feminism tends to discuss issues like equal pay and sexualisation in media, which are literally so far out of the issues women from less liberated societies face. And I believe that those women deserved to be acknowledged as well. 

snapchat, insta, and quidditch=games that gryffindor just can’t lose. 

I’m training a neural network to generate recipes based on a database of about 30,000 example recipes. One of the recipe titles it invents most often is cake - Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Chips, etc. But when I look at the ingredients list and directions… I have my suspicions that following this recipe may not actually result in cake. For example:

BAKED OTHER LIE 1993 CAKE

appetizers, fish

8 rounds; chicken ¼ lb butter (soaked) 1 can tomato sauce (½ lb) 1  salmon steaks sauteed ½ teaspoon red pepper, chunked 1 tablespoon margarine or oil

Meanwhile, transfer the chicken breast to a serving platter and simmer for about 5 minutes, then lemon juice that has been stirring well; if on the side, as becomes warmed, carefully frost them with a sauce. Spread them and garnish with water or parsley.

Recipe By     : From: Johnn Sbrodet(A.R.U_A Ix but enough guidre chunks as lo. 1. D, fided, reformatted by Sharin Brants From: Chocolate Cookio Liew more/Amplesd Middle Sylvia Steiger, C7B, 1953

Gather round kids while I explain this manipulation tactic that men perpetually try to use and why it’s bullshit.

If someone is openly showing interest in you by making disparaging or disappointed comments about your age, they’re trying to put you on the defensive. This guy wants me to try to quell his discomfort, to bring up that I’m only a month shy of 20, etc. - he wants me to try to prove myself to him, that I’m mature and adult enough for a man like him.

His goal is to establish a power imbalance right off the bat. If we were to date, I would constantly be on the defensive, constantly striving to be an equal, constantly trying to prove my “adult” credentials. Anything he says or does or wants from this point on that I object to would just be seen as a strike against my age, proof that he was right and that I’m not mature enough for him. This is how SO MANY men pressure younger individuals (primarily women and girls) into situations and relationships they aren’t comfortable with. If he truly thought I was too young for him, he wouldn’t have messaged me. This is a very calculated move, and it’s fucking gross.

- ‘An Analysis of the Economic Conditions Contributing to the Clone Wars’

- ‘Economics and Injustice - Why the Republic Turned a Blind Eye to the Slavery Problem in the Outer Rim Territories’

“Saberplay: A Deconstruction of the Phallic Imagery of Lightsabers”

“Ethics Versus Necessity: Fabric Sourcing For the Jedi Order”

“Coruscant Traffic Patterns: An Efficency Analysis”

“The Effect of Cantina Music on Alcohol Consumption on Tatooine: A Case Study of ‘Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes”’

“Official Culture and Cultural Repression: The Case of Chancellor Palpatine and the Galactic Symphony”

- how can you date things when every planet has its own date and time system? - holonets: how the fuck  - do all citations have to be written in aurebesh? fucking high galactic? can you use local languages in some instances but not when considering a larger audience?  - none of their technology seems to involve page numbers. this would be a problem - can they support footnotes? are there no footnotes in the star wars universe?  - who publishes official citation styles? is there like, some council on coruscant? can different disciplines use different styles?  - is anyone allowed to use jedi literature or is that shit just hoarded for eternity, halting the learning process for milenia?  - do you have to mention an author’s race? planet of origin? political affiliation? 

“The art of modern technologies: Beauty of Constructions in 25ABY”

“Ventilation systems. Problem of the recuperation on the Imperial-class Star Destroyers”

“Use of the duracrete and it’s physical advantages over the durasteel on planetside constructions.”

“The Fall of the Empire and its linguistic consequences”

“My lord?” Talos looks up from his own research bench and blinks.

Imperius stands, tall and regal. “We are going to war. I will not rest until I have the entire galaxy within my power.”

Talos drops his hydrotweezers. A small tentacle emerges from the dusty relic on his bench and begins to slowly drag the tweezers away. “Oh! This is, ah… quite a departure from your previous stance on the matter, my Lord. Might I inquire as to the reason?” He does not seem to have noticed the tentacle.

Imperius turns their molten eyes on Talos. “Citations,” they hiss.

“…ah.” Talos’s shoulders slump with the air of a scientist who has suffered far, far too long under deplorable conditions. “Yes. A Republic article, I assume?”

“Not just the Republic. All of them.” Imperius throws their hands up, eliciting crackling violet streams of light in their wake. “Some journals use page numbers, some journals use page numbers some of the time depending on what datapad software the export goes to! Some cite only the journal name, a title, and a volume number. Some list only one author, ever. And there is no universally agreed-upon temporal standard. I have spent the past day and a half attempting to understand why this lunatic of an excuse for an archaeologist placed the Fall of the Illorminap Arkthaski Empire as a full two hundred years before that Empire was even established, only to realize that they were using the local planetary calendar–a calendar that has not been in use by anyone in over five thousand years!”

“Deplorable,” Talos agrees, nodding. There is no sign of the tentacle or the hydrotweezers.

Imperius closes their eyes and takes a slow, deep breath as they seethe with quiet fury. “It ends, Talos. I will not rest until I have bent the galaxy to my will, and to the will of a set of universal industry-specific publication standards.”