Death’s been hanging around close to home this last week or so. I told you how our family cat, Tanna, passed away. She was an old kitty and lived a good life. She died in her sleep. We’ll always miss her.
After that, my uncle died. He was 65. He hadn’t spoken with his sister--my mom--in over 15 years. He had just spoken to his wife and a few minutes later, she comes home and thinks he’s asleep in his recliner. Something similar happened to my dad’s sister’s husband. He just sat down outside his school, needing a breather before going inside to teach.
My friend’s brother died. I don’t know the details. Just that it’s painful.
When I entered the bedroom, she slept on the furthest edge, arm hanging down from the edge. It’s quite possible there was slobber on the pillow.
I shook my head, walked towards her and opened the first buttons on my shirt on the way. Then I put two fingers to her arm and whispered: “What a pleasant surprise~”
These two fingers then were the only thing keeping her from flipping down from the bed. A reflex I was not sure I wanted to learn the background of.
But the two fingers were set in place. And so she tried to roll down, realised the obstacle, twitched and shook her head slightly, only to blearily open them: “Mnnneeehh?”
I smiled down at her, unbuttoning my shirt further: “Hey, Rosa… what brings you here?”
She blinked, very slowly, and then reached up and tugged at the collar of my poor, innocent shirt and I followed, simply to avoid shirt-casualties.
She placed a kiss… maybe about two centimetres next to my mouth. And, subsequently, pouted. Very disappointed.
I chuckled and continued to unbutton.
“AH!” was the only thing that came out of my mouth when she grabbed and pulled me over.
It was a little uncomfortable. But she looked pleased. And kissed me. Softly. And rubbed her face against mine: “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii~”
I had to rearrange my bones a tiny bit, before I took on a slightly chastising expression: “Not that I like surprises... but I wasn’t done, you know?”
“Mmmmmmh,” she says, and cuddles up to me, “… was lonely…”
And I took a deep breath. And looked at her, eyes closed and peaceful, hands clutching to my bartender uniform. Socks and pants and vest and shirt still on me. But she was clutching.
“… alright, then…” I fished for the blanket and spread it over the two of us, putting an arm around her.
“We’ll talk tomorrow, then.” I kissed her forehead. “Good night”
This episode really confused me in the beginning. It’s starts out with a bunch of flashes of just someone’s memory for a total of 10 seconds, leading to this lady waking up in pain. She has bandages on her wrists, there’s a weird symbol on the tv and pills on the floor. At this point I’m thinking she was kidnapped, but the house was empty so it didn’t make any sense. Soon it shows her look at a calendar, giving you some sense of time period. She then picks up a picture of a little girl, maybe it’s her daughter?? No ones sure, but when she sees the picture she gets a flash image of something. At this point I’m super confused on what’s going on but continues to watch. Next it shows people video taping her and not helping which makes me thing that either she’s done something wrong or their minds aren’t okay. A little later in the episode someone starts to chase and shoot at her, leading her to meet these two people. 20 minutes of them running they meet this man offering to give them a ride. At a certain point he’s baggering her about how she knows him from somewhere, making me think that he’s a bad guy. This episode is super confusing to me because so much is doing on and I’m not getting a change to think. After over half the episode is over they’re finally giving you some insite on who this random lady is. And at the end of the episode they finally tell you that she kidnapped a little kid and murdered her, and everyone in the whole town is making her relive the same moment over and over instead of putting her in jail. This episode isn’t fully essential to watch but i enjoyed it so maybe you will?
2. Explain three positive ways “mana screw” affects Magic.
Mana screw is a result of other aspects of the game which couldn't exist in their current form if mana screw weren't always a possibility.
First among these is the color pie. By dividing the mechanics of the game among the colors so as to encourage players to play multiple colors in order to gain access to certain mechanics, you also make it more likely that decks running more than one color get mana screwed. This division of mechanics is essential to Magic as a game.
Second, mana screw is fundamentally tied to deck construction. Determining the proper mana base for a deck is a test of skill when building decks. A version of Magic in which the land base doesn't need to be built into the deck (perhaps like Hearthstone where your available mana replenishes and increases by one each turn) would eliminate mana screw and also remove a great deal of skill from deck building. The presence of mana screw also creates a situation where deciding when to mulligan and when not to is much less obvious and therefore a big test of skill. Even among pros, the ideas about when to mulligan and when to keep are varied and contested. It's not simply a matter of seeing if you have some spells you can cast early and some combo pieces, but also comparing your mana base in hand with what you need to actually play the spells in hand. Again, a system like Hearthstone's eliminates such considerations.
Third, mana screw provides an element of luck which players can blame for their losses. Though building a deck with a good mana base and then knowing when to mulligan are tests of skill, a player who does these things incorrectly and then gets mana screwed can and likely will blame it on luck. Mana screw actually makes these losses feel less bad and leaves players more likely to try again.
Ehrenhaus and Owen’s (2007) article, Race Lynching and Christian Evangelicalism: performances of faith, explores the connection between violent acts (such as lynching) mainly in the deep South of America, and Evangelicalism. The article opens with a highly detailed report of the burning of Sam Hose in Georgia in 1899. It immediately captured my attention as it revealed the seriousness of the lynching and the extreme level of violence that was involved in such an act. What surprised me even more was that two thousand people attended the event and watched it happen. The authors asked the question that I was thinking: how could “such obscene acts of human depravity” be performed by anyone, let alone those who are considered “devoutly Christian” (p.227)?
Although I found the analysis of the connection between the Evangelical faith and violence such as lynching very interesting, there were some elements, which I disagreed with. Ehrenhaus and Owen wrote, “the explanation for such sadism and bloodletting is not found in a retreat from Christian doctrine, but in its embrace” (p277). Later in the article, however, they write concerning the Evangelical faith is that, “Christ’s sacrificial death – neither his life nor his preaching – is key” (p.278). From this, I believe that it was not the embrace of Christian doctrine, because the doctrine is more than Jesus’ death, it was his life also. Only focussing on one aspect of a doctrine and not the rest, no matter how closely that one aspect is followed cannot be considered embracing the doctrine. Therefore, I believe it was a selective reading and misunderstanding of the Christian doctrine rather than its embrace.
In conclusion, although I found the connection of the Jesus’ death on the cross and sacrificial lynching an interesting idea, I disagreed with how Ehrenhaus and Owen framed the explanation for such acts around the embrace Christian doctrine, instead of a selective reading, misunderstanding or manipulation of the doctrine.
