Obsessive reader who writes random words

https://substack.com/@shifakazi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8ora7h

[wrathfulstarsabotage]

I was listening to the Catching Fire audio book the other day and thought I misheard a term that Effie said in District 11. But apparently I did not. Here's the passage:

“So, I was just having a peek around because district ruins are going to be all the rage this year, when two Peacemakers showed up and ordered me back to our quarters. One of them actually poked me with her gun!” says Effie.

Peacemaker, not Peacekeeper.

It's a slight change, but is different. So I did a search in my ebook and the term is only used one other time - in book 1 when Peeta's dad is seeing Katniss:

Then I can’t think of anything else, so we sit in silence until a Peacemaker summons him. He rises and coughs to clear his throat. “I’ll keep an eye on the little girl. Make sure she’s eating.”

It's more than likely just a mistake in editing but made me think.

What if in the Capitol, they are called peacemakers? As in they literally make the peace instead of just keep it. It shows how the Capitol views the district people as literal savages, just as Effie herself calls them. They need the law enforcement to make peace because people in the districts are so inhumane, they can't follow moral laws.

[shifa-kazi]

Wow never even thought of this or noticed it.

[shifa-kazi]

The problem with generative AI -in addition to the horrible environmental effects and plagiarism- is that it trivializes creativity. "Just enter a prompt and get the job done!" neglects the fact that people have to spend ages perfecting their art. We put thought and skills and TIME into mastering something. You can't get the same result with your simple prompt. Creativity demands skill and gen AI diminishes the value of effort that actual artists put in their art. At the heart of all creativity is emotion. I saw someone on insta make tiny flowers with some wire and nail polish, someone mixed cornflour slurry to acrylic paint to give their art a 3-d look, writers spend hours, sometimes days, in their head trying to pin down the exact word for what they're feeling.

In a world obsessed with materialism, art is the only human thing we have left that is about passion and love and wonderment. And I know some people might argue why spend time on art when you can have it in a matter of minutes. Two things:- art is not about the end product but rather the process. When you start a piece you don't actually know if it's going to end up exactly as you imagine or end up better. And developing new skills essentially forces your brain to work more. It keeps your mental faculties healthy. Helps you in pattern recognition and deductive reasoning. So yeah, ai art isn't art, it never will be.

[shifa-kazi]

“But everything new is so scary”

“That's where the adventure lies.”

-conversations in my head

[sailermoon]

“besides, I have a sister.” top contender for one liner that makes me so emotional

[sailermoon]

i can’t explain why that last sentence always feels like a punch to the gut but if you get it, you get it

[shifa-kazi]

Why did I think of agents of shield and Daisy saying, "I already have a sister" 😭

[shifa-kazi]

Imagine the chaos amongst people in 12 who remember what Haymitch really did. Now, his best friend's daughter got reaped- that was a beacon of drama in itself but then the older daughter volunteers and they know things were about to get interesting. And if all that wasn't enough, Haymitch gets reaped the next year and everybody is jittery. My hypothesis is that the majority of people who escaped into d13 with Gale knew at least some part of Haymitch's real story and the moment Katniss shoots that arrow in the 75th hunger games, their hackles were raised too. Gale just happened to know about people fleeing to the elusive district 13.

[shifa-kazi]

Don't pluck the petals of your flowers

For someone who won't even bring you a leaf.

-Shifa Kazi

[shifa-kazi]

Thinking about that one post that says Snow and Gaul tried to prove the true nature of human beings is exposed in the hunger games because it puts children in horrible conditions and so they end up turning evil but most of district kids didn't turn evil. It was only them- the people in Capitol or "capitolists"- who turned evil. That particular brand of capitolists are just scared people making everybody miserable because that's the only way they know to survive. Because once you've known privilege, you don't recognise kindness. The lust for power is what strips you of humanity, not desperation. Because in the poorest district a boy with blonde hair burnt the bread just enough to smuggle it to the girl who sings but in the downfall of Capitol, Snow straight up saw someone cannibalizing. Because kindness is born in adversity when you have the heart for it. Because human nature isn't inherently evil - that's just the lie the evil tell themselves to sleep better at night.

Edit:- the og post showed up on my Pinterest again!

[shifa-kazi]

That is to say I'm learning how to heal.

[shifa-kazi]

This is a contrapuntal poem by me, let me know if you like it!

[shifa-kazi]

Do you think katniss instinctively trusted Haymitch despite his bad behaviour because somewhere in her subconscious is a memory of being held by her father as he introduces her to a very grumpy Haymitch? She remembers that particular stench of alcohol mixed with the fragrance of the meadow. The same meadow where she's had some of the best times of her life with her dad and this disheveled person reminds her of those memories somehow. The man is weird, her tenacious little brain registers, but she glimpses the tiniest smile on the edge of his lips and smiles back. That's when Burdock sees what Katniss can't - the pain in Haymitch's eyes as she reminds him of another little girl who trotted about him. He eventually gives up on trying to get Haymitch back but what he doesn't really know is that he already did succeed. Haymitch had lost all hope and all reasons to survive but this mini incarnation of his sweetheart with eyes that hold the same joy as his best friend is the reason he gets involved with the resistance again. Even the mumbled songs of this tiny human remind him of Lenore, shake him to the core, so he remembers that he has a promise to keep. Finds a way to keep it.

And Katniss, years down the road, unaware she returned the spark back to the flint striker trusts this man shaped chaos for a reason she can't quite grasp. He was never named her godfather but proceeded to play the role anyways. Was always destined to be there.

[shifa-kazi]

Can someone tell the trends to change slowly, I adapted to 2010s just yesterday.

[shifa-kazi]

I'm listening to "you're losing me" by Taylor and there is a point where all the music just drops out or.. stops and then she sings, "stop you're losing me" and it reminded me of a reaction video I saw some time ago of Dress where the people thought the music fade out meant the song has ended but it happens after she sings "you say my name and everything just stops" And idk the duality of music fadic out before or after she says stops is just trivial but the difference it makes is so huge.. in You're losing me everything has stopped except the one she loves so she's begging him to stay but in Dress everything else stops because he stayed... Not being able to make sense of anything without the one you love vs not caring if anything makes sense when love is by your side. Oh Taylor the subtle ways you tear me apart in

[shifa-kazi]

Honestly, I'm kinda glad they think the hunger games is teenagery and simply about a "love triangle"

If they don't recognise the potential that the books have to make you question why you consider a certain sector of the populace the enemy instead of the state or that it teaches you that rebellions are years into making or that you should question the reality being spoon fed to you and to only believe something when you do deeper research into how things went down, if they don't know all this, they'll not ban the books like they did with so many others. And that's quite poetic. Their downfall will be to think that young love is harmless but love in fact is what gives us the courage to stand against injustice.

(Those who have read the books know I'm not talking about Peeta and Katniss only, I'm talking about Katniss and Prim and Haymitch and his family and Lucy Gray and Maude Ivory and that kind of love too :) )

[shifa-kazi]

I understand the craze behind Quake-rider and I have nothing against Robbie... It's just my Daisy deserves someone who isn't perpetually bonded with a fire headed demon.

And I really love how we go from the "she's into bad guys" trope to ending up with the most upright cutie patootie ever.

[louisegluckpdf]

today’s poem of the day

[shifa-kazi]

Can we talk about how every single actor on agents of shield is amazing!!? Brett dalton manages to look menacing and yet a victim, Chloe has that mischievous side but is insanely aware of how the world works, Ming na has such a bubbly personality in real life but is so stoic on the show and also has this nurturing motherly side that I just love, Ian going from an introverted physicist to faking being an intergalactic overlord and pulls it off so well, Elizabeth the scene where Fitz dies is proof enough but also when she was stranded on the alien planet or when she has to save someone who's on the brink of death- she portrays it all so piercingly perfect, Natalia with her spanish and her accent and her thrill of moving fast- providing just what is needed, Henry being the perfect elder brother to the group while also making risky decisions and Clark Gregg simply being Clark Gregg Agent Coulson.

But also all cameos/short duration actors are fire! Bobby and Hunter- absolute drama, love them! Aida/Ophelia - acting like a robot and then becoming THE most unhinged character ever, like how do you even pull that off, literally everyone Robbie reyes, Nathaniel, lady Sif, Jia Ying, Whitehall, Cal. I can't imagine those people being played by anyone else really.

How was the cast so perfect and the storyline even more so?

[havingapoemwithyou]

[when faces called flowers float out of the ground] by e.e. cummings