Hello everyone, today i decided to at last do and ask for a channel critique. Link is in my bio. I'm in a re-working and improving the videos moment so there is currently one video out of order and pre-editing etc. thanks to this community and vast amounts of software's i wasn't aware that are free to use.
The rules as follows for the critique: -Impressions. What are the first impressions you get upon clicking, does the page look interesting enough to engage beyond a "quick scroll and move on".
-Thumbnails. Looking beyond impressions, do my thumbnails retain your attention long enough to watch the video even if it's 10 seconds of it. Are short and "catchy" words in the thumbnail making you go "oh? What's this?" etc.
-Content itself. Is my content, music choice etc. solid enough to carry you through to the end of the video and does it feel interesting enough to make you want to subscribe. (If you were the person my channel and content are aimed at).
As for comparing the two videos in guidance with the rules of the critique please look for Day 6 and Day 5 as they are far enough apart in progress i have made, day 5 represents the most to-date and current direction i am heading in regarding editing.

But hear me out: so I recently finished watching “Hidden love”- (had dropped it after coming across spoilers etc) and “ Everyone loves me”…sigh ,my reviews.
Hidden love- I must say Duan, was the greenest flag carrying this relationship. His character was very healthy and a good first relationship start. The series was cute, the banter between the siblings was a good comic relief without being too much. After going back to the beginning to rewatch then complete, I finally noticed and understood something’s alot better . So Duan was not a creep for wanting to be with FL in college, because he did not fall for her until after reconnecting during her freshman yr. FL on the other hand was already crushing from 2yrs prior while still in high school. I respect that he did not entertain any ideas about her during her middle/high school years.. he was a friendly brother figure. Now fast forward to them being together.. FL was very spoilt in my opinion (maybe due to how her family sheltered and provided everything for her) for all the things Duan done for her , compromises he made for her, chick had never said “thank you”🙄. Duan’s faults: why had he never made a police complaint or input a restraining order against the psycho chick from the beginning? there was no rational reason for her behaviors . The other part that irks me was the parents reasoning, that due to his family’s concerns they didn’t want Duan with their daughter… but it was ok having him visiting your home all those prior years, tutoring your daughter and a friend to your son, but when he wants to join the family it’s a problem.. FL’s reaction and expression during intimate moments was very misleading.. yes admiration can turn into love… but was she really there yet?
Everyone loves me- the title.. who ? Who?- both leads are from few of my favorites, I’ve watched almost all of their prior works. There was not much romance between the leads, 90% of the drama focused on the AAA game genre ,work politics and the FL pig headed personality, she rarely listen to the ML explanation she was more concerned with how he rejected her and her pride could not handle the embarrassment so she tries to hurt him by getting even. The remaining 10%.. eps 19-24 (they finally got together) but the FL wanted them to hide the relationship 🙄.. then the forced second couple (their romance development was unnecessary). Both dramas will not be in my rewatch list, def a one time watch .

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I've (23) been dating this girl (18) for more than two months, maintaining a long-distance relationship. She was diagnosed with BPD and has mommy issues. I started off as a free-bee therapist for her, giving her cool-headed advice and whatnot. She checks all the boxes in typical BPD trances. Every two days, it's like a brand new saga with her. She has no IRL friends, only a handful of boys that she talks to online.
We're mainly connected through Instagram; we both have shared our numbers, WhatsApp, and whatnot, but we really prefer to keep things on Instagram because we feel it's more convenient; we can share each other reels and memes, talk and joke about it, and keep things functional.
As I've mentioned earlier, every two days is like a new saga with her; she has constant quarrels with her mom, disagreements about cats, and some things that might seem trivial to me and others but not to her (considering her disorder, I am not downplaying her feelings), and trust me when I say, I have had my fair share of beatings and still occasionally get some from my mother.
Conversations from the past few days were at a low ebb. She has exams ongoing; has 2 or 3 home tutors, so we barely got an hour to talk about stuff—no arguments, no nothing.
So the day before yesterday, I sent her two reels, things went like this:

sent a reel "I've started to like normie memes more"
sent a reel "something generic that I can't remember"
she replied "kys"
she replied "kys"
"please kys"
me "Kiss my self? on the mirror? ngl I did the french one a lot on the mirror as a kid" (I am surprised but still trying to keep things light-hearted)
she replied "please" "I beg" "k*ll" "your" "self"

And to that, I just replied, "On my way," and uninstalled Instagram. She hasn't contacted me since, and neither have I.
I low-key expect her to reach out to me, and I plan to do so in a couple of days. Does that make me a manipulator for going out of contact in expectation of her reaching out to me? I know two months seem like nothing, but I love this girl a lot. But unconditional love doesn't mean unconditional tolerance. It's my first relationship, so I was, no, I AM pouring my all into it. I am normally a very self-aware person, but this relationship is really clouding my judgment. That's why I seek help from people who are more knowledgeable about these things.
Sorry for the bad English & formatting, posted from handset.

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No prior experience? No problem!
Follow these simple steps to create your Fiverr profile and start earning money as a freelancer.
1. Create a Distinguished Identity for Yourself:

• Create an account: Head directly to the Fiverr website and register as a seller.
• Complete your profile: Add a clear and professional headshot, a catchy username, and a detailed bio that highlights your skills and experience.

The Key to Success - A Distinguished Service!
You may have practical skills that you can use and turn into unique services to offer on Fiverr. Are you good at writing? Can you organize information? Or maybe translate languages? These skills can be the foundation for your first Fiverr service.
Gain New Customers - We will dedicate a special section to this topic later
As you know, getting clients requires effort and perseverance, so we have dedicated a separate topic to it to discuss the details later.
An Easy and Profitable Service for Beginners!
Here is a service that does not require any special skills and that you can offer as a beginner freelancer: creating 3D animated digital covers for e-books, reports, manuals, training courses, programs, subscriptions, checklists, templates, lists, printable files, and training programs.
Don't worry, it's easier than you think!
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Here is a simple video showing you how to create stunning 3D animated digital covers in minutes!
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I hate working and my job sucks. Every single co worker hates me or won’t speak to me either from rumors, judging me based how I look before even talking to me, or have no care to know me or anyone (this one is fair)
I’ve gone to school 4 times and failed each time because I’m not smart enough with tutor help and resources.
I have absolutely no friends. Nothing happened they all just stopped wanting to talk to me. Even people I’ve spent time as a teenager with who I travelled the world with and thought we’d be friends forever. I’ve even reached out and responses I got were “we grew apart and I’ll only keep you at arms length that’s it”
My relationship is fuckingbhorrible. We’ve been together since high school over 10 years and she doesn’t ever speak to me, flirt or talk. We have sex once every 4 months maybe. She sneaks around the house quiet and locks the door in any room she’s in so I don’t come talk to her or spend time with her (even if she’s cheating I just don’t care I just want some attention from a person.
I’ve turned to games for attention but it’s all fake bullshit and not actual real interaction.
I’m struggling to find any meaning in my life. It seems I’m a constant failure who nobody wants to meet, get to know, or even want to talk. I just wanna disappear and start over somewhere but it’s impossible and it won’t even be Better probably. Just the same.
And yes I’ve talked to therapists and spoken to people and they say it’s all in my head. This was two years ago with no improvement.
Is there even a point like every day is just a walking frown waiting to go to sleep

I (21F) decided to drop out of university a couple of months ago after my third attempt at a degree. Bluntly, I just don’t think the way it works is for me. I’m ADHD/ASD Level 1 and, partially as a result of that, I’m an extremely literal person and I learn through examples of a concept or way of thinking in practice. I had to spend hours and hours of my time a week seeking out examples of every single topic I learnt in a class (say, I was in a class about political theory when I was trying out political science and they mentioned historical relativism, I then had to spend hours searching for examples of historical relativism to understand it). I also struggle a lot with hyper focus and there’d be days where I’d just read without food or even more than one or two bathroom breaks from 8am in the morning to 8pm at night. As you can imagine, I got super burnt out and I’d crash and burn and end up majorly depressed within a year, but then a few months later I’d convince myself that it was just because I didn’t like the material and try again. Thankfully, I finally picked up on the cycle and I walked away for good. Maybe I’ll try again in my mid or late 20s, but, right now, I’m done.
I still live with my parents and, when I told them I dropped out of uni full-stop, they just said: “It’s absolutely fine that you’re not in uni for now, but you need to get a full-time job ASAP if you want to continue living here” and I jumped right on it. My dad works in hospital administration and his manager told him to tell me to send my resume to HR there and they’ll maybe hook me up with something. Within a week, I got an interview with one department that I thought went solidly despite my utter lack of experience in hospitals or even in administration (my only work experience before has been nannying and working in OSHC/tutoring centres casually). The department head called me about a week later saying I wasn’t successful for that particular position but they really liked “my personality” and all my references were great and they were passing my resume onto other department heads.
A couple of weeks later, I got a call from an administration manager that oversaw the hospital’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit and she wanted me to come in and “meet everyone”. I thought this just was code for another interview so I got super prepped and came in ready to be grilled. As it turns out, the manager just met me in the building that all the heads and managers work out of and took me to the unit on the other side of the hospital. I met the head nurse and her and the manager just sat me down and told me all about the unit, warned me about some of the challenges (ward accepts children and seeing brain-damaged children come who have to stay there on their own for an extended period doing rehab with little understanding of what’s going on is, of course, distressing + majority of patients in the ward are young men who sometimes get argumentative and aggressive), assured me that I’d do several weeks worth of training so that I’d feel adequately prepared, allowed me to ask questions and gave me a tour of the entire unit afterwards. In the end, the head nurse said: “Looking forward to seeing on the 27th!” as she said goodbye. I was totally flabbergasted because it wasn’t even an interview - just a good, informative chat.
The admin manager told me as she was seeing me off that I didn’t have to accept the position if I didn’t want it, but I “have the job” and to please let her know within a couple of days what I decided. I have my reservations about how I’ll handle it (I’ve worked with disabled children in tutoring/OSHC but this is a lot different) but I really want to give it a try + I kind of need a job so I called her the next day saying I’d love to take up the position. I’m still kind of in shock. As I said in the title, I basically got offered this job on a silver platter and I’m in absolute disbelief about how this has all happened and how I just suddenly got a job on a random Tuesday. Like wtf?
I got sent some paperwork yesterday about the job and the minimum pay is $2820 a fortnight which is utterly INSANE. No, I’m not going to be rich, but, as someone who’s always worked casually around school and never earned over $700 a fortnight, I still can’t fathom that amount of money. Even after I take out tax, mandatory HECS (student loan system in Australia) repayments and the amount of rent my parents are charging, I’m still pocketing $1800 a fortnight. I can’t even believe it. I didn’t think it was possible for 21-year-olds without a degree to earn that much. I don’t even want to tell anyone around me because I’m afraid it’s some mistake.
I won’t lie. There are some cons. The job is from 7:30 to 3:30 M-F and, because of how far I live from the hospital and the fact that I can’t drive for medical reasons, I’ll have to get up before 5:30 each morning. The admin manager also mentioned to me that the unit doesn’t really ‘do’ overtime and if I clock out after my scheduled finish time, a record of that time is kept and I can eventually apply for an extra leave day with it. Furthermore, as I mentioned above, there’s elements of the job I have mixed feelings about. I have a lot of trouble comforting people, so if a distressed patient or family member approaches me (which, in a brain injury unit, is probably going to be common), I’m not really sure what else to say other than: “Oh… Oh.. I’m sorry… That really sucks… Oh… Oh…” Nevertheless, both of those pitfalls still don’t seem to justify the 72k a year to me… It’s not like I’m literally taking care of these patients, I’m just talking to people coming in and answering emails and phones.
I’m super scared that there’s something that’s being hidden from me and that’s why they were so eager to get me, an inexperienced 21 year old, into the position. I tried to ask my mum the other day: “What if they’re just saying that the patients are ‘argumentative’, but in reality they throw chairs and spit at the admin or you’ll have to pull 11 hour shifts on the regular with no proper overtime or they’ll just leave me in charge of an entire ward and that’s why they’re so desperate to find someone?” My mum told me that I was being ridiculous and I’m “underselling myself” and she’s sure it will be fine… but I’m not 100% certain. I’m sure there has to be at least some level of transparency and professionalism because it’s a public hospital and it’s fully accountable to the government (the Australian health system is reassuring sometimes!), but there’s nothing strictly stopping them from straight up lying about what I’m in for when I start this job.
I really want an objective perspective on this because everyone I’ve personally tried talking about this to has brushed me off and said they’re sure I’ll be great… But I don’t ask if they think I’ll be great, I’m asking if they think this job is straight up too good to be true and they’re just dancing around the question. Randoms, what do you think?

Cigarettes and rebellion have always gone hand-in-hand, and in an age of cigarette packet-sized health warnings, now more than ever, smoking a fag says: 'I do not give a fuck.' But if Brandon Flowers is hoping to strike a seditious pose by sparking up at the start of the interview, it's not going according to plan. The Killers' frontman is on all fours rooting through the junk that carpets the anteroom at the band's rehearsal space. "Has anyone seen my lighter?" he asks, rocking back on his heels. The question hangs in the air while Brandon cocks his head, waiting for an answer like a meerkat listening for a predator. Twenty-five years old and with a delicate bone structure, there's something almost dainty about him. Receiving no response, he returns to his search. "Oh, Jeez," he sighs. "I had it just a minute ago."
It's a scene that emphatically does not suggest a rebel without a cause. The mess isn't helping. The Killers' HQ - an industrial unit sandwiched between a construction supplier and the offices of a housing development just off Dean Martin Drive in West Las Vegas - is ankle-deep in designer clothing. A Dior Homme suit lies crumpled by the door; there's a pile of shoes topped like a sundae by a pair of Marc Jacobs trainers; and anyone wishing to enter the shoebox room the band use as an office must negotiate a mountain of discarded jeans. Many items are identifiable as coming from the wardrobe of Hot Fuss, The Killers' hugely successful 2004 debut album - triple platinum in the UK with two weeks at Number One and five million sold worldwide. Look! There are the shirts, ties and suit jackets they wore when they thrilled Glastonbury 2005 with indie rock anthems Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me. That was the crowning moment of a two-and-a-half year tour that finally concluded in October of last year. It seems that after playing that final date in Miami, they returned to Vegas and shrugged off their image onto the floor of this bland white box.
Now a fine layer of dust covers the dead clothes. The Killers have no further use for white tuxedos on their second album, Sam's Town. Today, Brandon wears a black polo shirt, black pin-stripe waistcoat, black jeans and black boots. Where there used to be a layer of foundation, there is now a beard - an untrimmed beard at that. Dave Keuning (30, guitar), Mark Stoermer (29, bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (29, drums) all echo Brandon's black ensemble. Ronnie has added Aviator shades and a handlebar moustache for a dash of motorcycle cop, Dave's frizzy bubble of hair gives him a Marc Bolan-ish air, and there's something very teenage about Mark's scuffed Vans.
Short of walking around wearing sandwich boards saying, "Our new record is a bit heavier than the last one," The Killers couldn't hope to communicate that message more effectively. And they have gained some musical girth on Sam's Town. The pop hooks that made Hot Fuss so irresistible survive intact - see the ringing guitar riffs on first single When You Were Young - but there's a newfound punchiness, coupled with an epic sweep. The minor-to-major uplifts on Bones are fabulously dramatic, the coda to Why Do I Keep Counting? thrillingly intense. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have been made. If they overstate the case a little, they are at leaset qualitatively accurate. The Killers are back and this time it's serious - they've got the bootlace ties to prove it.
"Hey, it says here that Springsteen's headlining Glastonbury next year," shouts Ronnie, who's flicking through the NME. He nods sagely at the page without looking up.
"Really?" asks Dave, nicknamed Crazy Dave on account of his alledgedly volatile nature.
"The Boss is headlining one night, we're playing second on the bill the next night and Kylie's headlining the Sunday," says Brandon, charging like a bull through Michael Eavis' as-yet-unannounced line-up with what subsequently proves to be a characteristic gaucheness.
But that lighter is proving elusive. This being America, none of the people hurrying to-and-fro prepping the world for the release of Sam's Town smokes. Manager Robert Reynolds - Bobby Rey to the band - barks into his mobile, booking his band onto eye-wateringly demanding tours. "We're going to make a lot of money," he cackles to himself before switching calls to make a series of stern pronouncements on legal matters. Dave, Mark and Ronnie disappear for a jam session. Artwork is approved, B-sides are decided on and schedules are hammered out.
"I can't find it," Brandon says, finally. But he's not going to be denied the opportunity to underline The Killers reinvention with a puff of smoke. "Let's go to the gas station. I'll have to buy one. It's too busy to talk here anyway."
+
Brandon's black (of course) Volkswagen Touraeg four-wheel drive is barrelling down West Flamingo Road into town. "I was a bell boy there," he says, pointing out of the driver's window at the stucco facade of the Gold Coast casino. "I was working there when we were signed."
Coming from Las Vegas, it is perhaps inevitable that casinos play a big part in The Killers' story; not only is Sam's Town named after one, it was recorded in one, too.
The band began writing songs while on the road with Hot Fuss, turning up early for soundchecks to run through new ideas. On a trip home to Vegas, George Maloof, a hotelier known for cultivating famous friends, invited them to record the album in the new studio he'd built at The Palms, his flagship hotel-cum-gambling den. When the tour finished in October 2005, they returned to Vegas and spent five month finessing the songs they'd sketched out on the road. Then, in February, they decampled to the third floor studio at The Palms and recorded Sam's Town over 11 weeks.
Producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) encouraged them to experiment. They overdubbed, fiddled with synthesizers and played with new equipment. It took them five weeks to get the backing vocals right. The band sang the harmonies, then double-tracked them four times. The end result recalls Queen wondering, "Is this is the real life? Is this just fantasy?" When Ronnie, a trained classical percussionist, brought some kettledrums down, eyebrows were raised; but the fabulously bombastic coda on Why Do I Keep Counting? vindicates his indulgence.
"That's kind of the Ben Hur of the album," he says. He's not wrong. Sam's Town is a record on an epic scale. "Yeah, it has drama," he continues. "But, at the same time, I think it's a little more exposed than Hot Fuss. It's a little more naked. Last time it was about a lot of fictional things." By "fictional", Ronnie means that Hot Fuss wore its predominantly British influences for all to see. Brandon's taste in music is rabidly Anglophile - he constantly references The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division - and it showed. By contrast, Sam's Town is an unequivocally American record. The lyrical imagery is pure American dream - cars, girls, wide-open spaces and escaping to a better life. "We're burning down the highway skyline/On the back of a hurricane that started turning/When you were young," sings Brandon on When You Were Young. That's the basis of the Springsteen comparisons then, though the lack of pathos more closely recalls another blue-collar rocker from New Jersey - Jon Bon Jovi.
The phrase "this town" recurs throughout the album, and it's always receding into the distance as The Killers escape to a new life. "This town was made for passing through/I never did get along with everybody else," sings Brandon on This River Is Wild. On Read My Mind he "never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town", while on the title track he offers something of an explanation: "Nobody ever had a dream round here."
"With the first record, there was this feeling that there was this world out there that we didn't know," says Mark later in the day. Before The Killers, he studied philosophy: now he's their quiet one. "We wanted to get out and away from this and be somewhere else. We hadn't had a lot of experience - hadn't travelled much - then we were gone for three years. We didn't sit down and say that we wanted to make a record about how we're glad to be home, but that's what happened naturally."
It's not an angsty record. The Killers have already escaped with Hot Fuss, and, having done so, they view the experience fondly now they're back. There's a mistiness to Brandon's eyes as he explains how the album got it's name.
"Sam's Town is a casino on the edge of Vegas," he says. "I grew up in Henderson, which is out on the way to the Hoover Dam. My mom and dad lived in a trailer park, and my dad used to hitchhike up and down Boulder Highway, which is the only way you could get to Vegas. Sam's Town was the first thing you saw on your way in to town. So, when you're driving down Boulder Highway from Henderson, I always thought you finally knew you were getting somewhere when you saw Sam's Town. It was kind of like a beacon."
"It's not a completely American album," contines Brandon. "We still have our English influence, but we're also from the Wild West. Somehow we've managed to unify all that on this album. it's just such a perfect resemblence of what we are."
At the petrol station, Brandon rummages through the glove box looking for change to buy a lighter. "This is a great album," he says, pointing at Highway Companion, the latest from iconic American rocker Tom Petty. "I've always been a big fan of his. He's such a great American artist."
Yes, Brandon: we get the point.
+
When Brandon finally lights his cigarette, he smokes it awkwardly, like a child mimicking something he's seen the grown-ups doing. However, when he cheerfully admits that, "I feel the same mentally as I did when I was 12," it's not a knowing nod to the fact that he sometimes behaves like a loveably precocious child, but a reference to an unusually comprehensive grounding in pop music at an early age.
When Brandon sings about "this town", he doesn't mean Las Vegas. He means Nephi, Utah or Henderson, Nevada, where he spent his childhood. His parents are Mormon and he is the youngest of six children. "I was a surprise," he says. "I've got a 42-year-old sister." If he was issues about his "surprise" status, he chooses to gloss over them. "It turned out perfect because my brother was a teenager when I was a kid," he says. "He would bring home things like Rattle And Hum by U2 and I would watch it. I remember he bought Live In Dallas by Morrissey. It was always him watching these things, or his door was shut and you'd hear The Head On The Door by The Cure blasting through the house and rattling the walls."
The Killers were formed when Brandon answered an advert Dave had placed in a local paper in late 2002. Dave cited Oasis as a big influence; Brandon had seen them play recently and responded; and, as Dave has said in previous interviews: "He was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak." However, the band was born in Brandon's brothers bedroom.
"His room was like a shrine," enthuses Brandon. "It was a holy place. I wish I could show you a picture of it. It was covered in posters. There'd be a big picture of Elvis wearing a bow tie that just said 'The Smiths' [the artwork for The Smiths 1987 single Shoplifters Of The World Unite]. You had The Cure wearing face paint [the artwork to The Cure's 1985 single In Between Days] - all that kind of stuff. I remember Morrissey being on the cover of the NME, with the halo [from 1985] - stuff like that. You just wanted to know about these people 'cause they were so cool. My brother seemed like such a cool person. But he was a teenager, so he wasn't going to be that nice to me, a kid."
Brandon was fascinated by his brother's collection of music, magazines and posters, but he was denied access to them - officially, at least. "I would sneak in," he says. "I knew he'd be angry if he found out, but I would go in as soon as he left the house." For a long time Brandon was too scared to actually play anything. "That didn't come 'til later. I just used to go in there because I liked it. Then I got to the point where I'd actually take a tape out and put it in. It took more guts to do that."
It was a life-changing moment. "I was ten and the first song I played was Sing Your Life by Morrissey. I remember dancing about to it."
The lyrics to Sing Your Life include the lines, "Sing your life/Just walk right up to the microphone/And name all the things that you love/All the things that you loathe." It's intriguing to wonder what Morrissey makes of the neophyte he inspired with these lines.
Eventually, Brandon inherited his brother's tape collection. "It was around the same time CDs started coming out in a big way. He started buying CDs and gave me his tapes. And that was it: it took off from there. I got a hundred of the best albums - all the New Order, all the Morrissey, all The Smiths, The Beatles. I started buying posters. I went to see The Cure in concert. It was just kind of a continuation of my brother. And it was nice because, though my parents were strict, they were already used to it from him. There was no, 'My dad doesn't understand me,' or any of that kind of stuff. My mum likes The Smiths."
Brandon was 13 and his favourite band was late-'70s/early-'80s American new wavers The Cars, and particularly their jaw-droppingly catchy 1979 single Just What I Needed.
"I wouldn't exist without that song," he says. "That was the one. I remember driving around with my mum when I was 13, and we're living in Nephi - a really small town - and I felt so cool when I put that song on. Like: 'I have something that none of these kids I'm going to middle school with tomorrow have.' That excitement is what music's about, isn't it? That's why I understand the mentality of people that don't like us because we've sold so many records. I used to like it when no one else knew about a band. So I get that - I do."
+
Brandon's first band was called Blush Response. It was never going to work out. Not because he refused to move to Los Angeles with them, but because he is utterly - comically - shameless. He's given to making outrageously boastful statements like: "It's not like the '60s, '70s and '80s now. There are only a few bands around that are really good, that just do it. I mean, there's what, five or six of us?"
For the record, in Brandon's estimation, those bands are Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, of course, The Killers.
"I don't want people to think I'm lumping myself with other people just to make us sound cool," he says. Really? It sort of sounds like you are. But he just steamrolls through it. "Yeah, but you know what I mean," he says, grinning at his own cheekiness. He's so disgracefully forward you can't help but laugh along with him - Oh you are awful, Brandon! But joking aside, The Killers are the most commercially successful of all the bands he mentions.
Later, back at the rehearsal space, the band run through Sam's Town at deafening volume in preparation for the forthcoming tour - first the US, then the world. The infectious, almost contagious, chorus of When You Were Young sounds fabulous, as do the U2-like guitars and Twin Peaks synths of Read My Mind. Meanwhile, Smile Like You Mean It and Somebody Told Me benefit from the newfound harder edge.
They somewhat heavy-handedly underline the new direction by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and Get It On by T Rex. That's the thing: The Killers are not a subtle band. Their songs are like a wet kiss from a girl who's a bit too drunk. They are big and brash, and not everyone loves them for it. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me might go down as well at hip nightclubs as they do on the festival circuit, but the DJs play them with the same guilty look they wear when playing a pop record.
"I hate that," says Brandon. "Like writing a song you can hum somehow cheapens it? It makes me think of this quote by Morrissey. Everybody knows how he read Oscar Wilde, Keats and Yates when he was growing up and that he wanted to be a writer. He was talking to this journalist who asked why he hadn't become a writer, and Morrissey said: 'What I do is more powerful than what you do because I can write down these words and you get it to a melody. How can you beat that?' I'm of the same opinion. I don't understand why a good melody that's memorable is a bad thing."
Being dismissed as pop particular aggrieves Ronnie. "When we first came out we got compared to Duran Duran all the time. Jesus Christ! We got a keyboard player now all of a sudden he's Nick Rhodes! Come on!"
"The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it," agrees Mark. "I think that's the problem with a lot of rock music. People are afraid to write a song any more. Either that or they can't. And that attitude hurts music in general. The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original. This isn't a studio creation with a producer writing these songs for us. We're not Avril Lavigne, or something like that. We're a real band writing real songs, just like a punk band would do, except that we write pop songs."
You get the impression that The Killers knack for showboating pop hooks that border on vulgar is inextricably tied up with the brazen side of Brandon's personality. But while his ebullient charisma, not to mention the songs themselves, mitigates his outrageousness, there is a less attractive side to his ego. He has a combative streak. He can't resist taking pot shots at emo bands, notably Fall Out Boy, whith whom The Killers share an A&R man.
Has he heard how many emo kids it takes to change a light bulb? "No." None. They just sit in the dark and cry. It's a full 30 seconds before he stops laughing. When he does he admits: "Yeah, we've had problems with other bands. You know, when you walk in the room it's like..." He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. "We're like gangs."
And while the other members of the band are diplomatic on the subject of Brandon, you don't have to read too deeply between the lines to conclude that there have been internal issues, too.
"Some people will think Brandon's the big genius," says Dave, visibly bridling. "There are songs, such as Why Do I Keep Counting?, where he's written every note. But there are others, like When You Were Young, that were more of a collaboration - like Mr Brightside, where I had some of the music and Brandon came up with the lyrics. We always have arguments about who wrote what. The truth is that we all help in that process."
When asked how success affected them, Ronnie says: "There were certain things that needed adjusting. When you're on tour for two years, people can get a little needy. It doesn't help that you're surrounded by yes men and everybody's working for you. At times we've had to say, 'Who do you think you are?' to people. No one wears the trousers, but some people would like to. I think if it wasn't for the people in the band kicking each other in the ass... Let's just say there was some ass-kickin'."
It doesn't take a genius to work out whose ass needed kicking most often.
+
It's the following day and The Killers are back at their rehearsal space. The topic of discussion is what to wear in the video for Bones, the second single. It's a big deal: the director is Tim Burton. "I feel like Frank Sinatra when I sing it," announces Brandon. "With maybe a little bit of Morrissey and a little bit of Elvis, too."
Of course he does. But if securing the services of Tim Burton tells you one thing, it's that The Killers are about to get even bigger, perhaps even make the leap to the same level as Coldplay et al. Already stars, they are about to become superstars. Brandon can hardly wait.
"Do you know that Rolling Stone didn't want to put us on the cover last time," he says indignantly. "They didn't think we were stars. We sold five million albums! What more do they want from a band?"
Whatever was required, Brandon would be happy to do most things. "I'll do stuff that some people don't want to do, 'cause I want people to hear the music," he says. However, even he has limits. "The Rolling Stone thing made the record label think: 'What can we do to make them stars?' If I go on vacation with my wife, do they have to send somebody to be there to take pictures of me? Is that how you become a star? I don't want that. I walked down the red carpet one time and I realised I don't like it. But you don't have to walk down the red carpet for people to hear your music. We do still have some of that indie blood running through our veins."
He heads off at a tangent: "When you walk around Liverpool, you think of The Beatles, or you go to Manchester and you think of The Smiths or Oasis. I want you to come to Las Vegas and think of Sam's Town. And I think we've started to capture that, which is a truer version of The Killers, 'cause that's where we're from."
He pauses.
"I used to live across the street from Sam's Town. Maybe it'll be like our Abbey Road where people go to take pictures."
Is that what he'd like?
"I wouldn't mind it," he says, desperately hoping it will come true.
He puts a cigarette between his lips, looks down at his trouser pockets and pats them in search of the lighter he bought yesterday.
"Hey, I don't suppose you've got one?"

Get comfy, this will a long ride. I (41f) am the middle of three daughters, ‘Shannon’ (43) and ‘Carrie’ (27) and well mom, we’ll call her ‘Brenda’.
I consider myself the quintessential “middle child”, constantly forgotten, not taken seriously and outright ignored. I got my sister’s hand-me-downs growing up, and don’t dare I ask for anything and actually get it, meanwhile, Carrie was given everything. In high school, Shannon got a tailored dress for prom, I got one off the rack. Shannon got a brand new Focus, I got a 1990 Cougar. Years later, Shannon wanted a newer car, so mom upgraded her to an Explorer. When my car fell apart at the seams, I went out and purchased an Accord. I will admit, mom did co-sign for me because I was only 19, but I was given hell for her doing so.
Shannon dropped out of college after an earthquake hit the area, then she moved in with her boyfriend at the time. I was living at home with mom, working and going to college. My paychecks every two weeks were going to mom to take care of my car note and insurance, all the while mom was paying Shannon’s car note, insurance, giving her money for bills AND Shannon had one of mom’s credit cards “for emergencies”.
While I was working and in college, I was expected to help with Carrie, who was in elementary. I would drop whatever I was doing to pick her up from school, take her to tutoring, cook dinner and help with homework. Mom was an administrative assistant for a private firm, she worked 7am-7pm. One night leaving college, I was involved in a serious accident on the way home, my car was totaled. I eventually was able to get another car from my settlement money, this time I didn’t need a co-signer. Around this same time, I was dropped from college because my grades suffered being spread so thin. I continued working full time, still giving mom money for our bills.
I eventually made the decision to enlist in the Air Force, this decision caught my entire family off guard. Most of the comments I received didn’t surprise me, most thought I wouldn’t succeed. The ones that were supportive, congratulated my decision. I prepared myself to leave home; I made an agreement with mom I would send money for my car note, with the understanding that when the time comes, I will come back for it. Well, that time came and I was met with hostility. Mom decided she wasn’t going to give my car back, it was hers, she “was making the payments”. By this time, mom had moved to Vegas with Carrie, unfortunately developed a gambling problem and I felt helpless since I was so far away.
We’ll fast forward a bit, Shannon is now living in Tennessee. I was medically discharged from the Air Force and after talks with Shannon, I went to live with her. We both worked and shared the bills, I got to reconnect with our older sister from our father’s side (we’ll call her Veronica), everything seemed great. Until… Mom called saying that my car is about to get repossessed, that helpless feeling came back. I ask mom for the information for the finance company, reach out to them, made a payment to stop the repossession, then called her back to let her know she’s caught up. Months go by, Shannon comes home early from work, only to say she was fired for a physical altercation with a coworker. Shannon goes on to say, this is the perfect time to work on her music career. I began working double shifts to cover the bills, all while Shannon is going to the studio. Mom calls one night frantic and furious, the car was repossessed and she was on the bus going to work. This causes a huge blow up between the three of us, because mom and Shannon believe I called and had the car voluntarily repossessed (I did not). Shannon bursts into my room cursing/screaming over how I wronged mom, she grabs me by a leg and drags me out of our apartment and outside into the cold. Veronica picks me up, and I go to stay with her until I got my own place. Things begin to level out, forgive and forget and I start communicating with mom again.
After some time, I found out I was pregnant with my first child and make the decision to move to Vegas with mom. During this time I get to see first hand how badly her gambling habit truly is. I would watch her cash her checks, then immediately push money in a machine and loses it in minutes, this goes on for some time. I eventually have my son and months later start working. I save up to buy myself a car, as well as save up for his first birthday party. I was so excited, planning to go all out! That is until one day I get a call at work from my aunt who lived in our building, she’s noticed my mom coming and going frantically. I didn’t have a bank account at the time, and was keeping my money in a safe hidden in my room… well she found it! When I got home, my room was disheveled and money was gone, all but a few hundred. I took what was left, found a one bed one bath for my son and I and left mom’s apartment.
Enough back story! I’ll bring you to the present! We’re now living in Vegas; I purchased a home in 2015, Carrie moved to Arizona for college, mom, Shannon, Shannon’s 3rd baby daddy (Paul) and 4 kids had a rental home across town. Last summer, they all get evicted. Yes, it was for nonpayment, yes they ALL were gamblers. I allow everyone but Paul to come stay with me, this was not well received. Shannon eventually leaves with her kids, to stay with our cousin Candace, who allowed Paul to be there too. Mom eventually is sent to live with Carrie, because we kept bumping heads. I’ll save you the guess work, Candace gets tired of them being there (rent free) and tells them to leave. Shannon blames ME for Candace putting them out, and gives me an ear full on Mother’s Day. Shannon tells me I’m a heartless b***h, she wishes we weren’t related and karma will eat me alive. I called mom to tell her what has transpired, her reaction was “why can’t we all just get along”. I lose it! She was so flippant and dismissive! No comment about Shannon living rent free in someone else’s home, or the uncalled for and hurtful words to me. So I told mom I needed some space and time, I won’t reach out to her and please don’t reach out to me, then I ended the call.
AITAH?

I was sitting for breakfast in a small Quechua village on the outskirts of the Amazon Rainforest and singing (under my breath) the top hit by Cilantro. Very catchy, no? When one of the rainforest guides came to grab a bottle of water he gave me the strangest look and shook his head as he got what he needed and left. Thank god I’m leaving tomorrow because I’ll never be able to show my face here again

Ok i'm having so many mixed feelings about this, theres this guy (19M) who is one of my brothers friends who i just met and i think he might like me but i have mixed feelings. I (18F) am going clubbing for the first time in Singapore as i am now legal and he keeps telling me to wait until he comes back to go with him, and if i do go before i should facetime him so he can be part of my first experience; i also mentioned I'm taking a biology AP class for my senior year of HS and he said he was going to take bio 101 in college and that i should tutor him; plus he was laughing at my not so funny sarcastic jokes and really hyping me up when we were singing karaoke BUT He also didn't really talk to me too much overall and when i stopped to tie my shoe he didn't wait for me and just kept walking with the group, he also doesn't really display the regular "i like you" traits like talking to you a lot, sitting close by, looking at me etc, he is also just an extremely nice guy and treats everyone really kindly.
I have never had a guy even remotely like me before so i really have no ides what they even feels like, so does he like me or is he just being friendly; He is heading back to yale as a sophomore and I am going to fordham as a freshman, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

So yeah... this is a post where I review all 5 Cage The Elephant albums. Pretty simple. These are all reviews that I originally wrote on an app/website called "Musicboard" over the past couple weeks, but I've copy-pasted them here for your reading convenience. Hope you enjoy & I hope to to talk about these albums with you!
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Self Titled

Probably their weakest album to date, but still a pretty solid debut overall.
I hate to be so predictable, but the best song here is still “Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked”, and it ain’t even close. It’s extremely fun & catchy, it’s the album’s most sonically distinct piece BY FAR, and it’s storytelling/pacing are both absolutely flawless. A track that absolutely deserves it’s iconic status.
Even though the record’s best isn’t up for debate, there are some other pretty good highlights as well. “In One Ear” is a very solid opener for the project, “Judas” gives us consistently excellent lyricism, and “Tiny Little Robots” has an uncharacteristically super atmospheric bridge which makes it stand out quite a bit. It also transitions super smoothly into the following “Lotus” who’s engaging pacing, beautiful chorus, & satisfying climax make it another easy favourite for me.
But then beyond the lovably visceral energy of it’s closer, “Free Love”, Cage The Elephant’s self-titled debut really doesn’t give me a whole lot more to talk about. It’s got consistently great musicianship, a decent number of highlights, and some bizarrely excellent song transitions, but the album has a really bad case of being FAR too samey. Everything outside of the tracks I’ve already mentioned blend together in my mind almost completely. None of them are bad, but none of them are particularly memorable either.
This album is still pretty good at the end of the day, some solid garage rock fun, but Cage’s later projects would all feel a whole lot more distinct & purposeful.
Best Songs: Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, Lotus, & Free Love.
Weakest Songs: Drones in the Valley, Soil to the Sun, & Back Stabbin' Betty.
This album gets a strong 7/10 from me.
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Thank You, Happy Birthday

It may be a little all over the place, but it’s still a pretty big improvement over their debut.
For one, the sound of this album is FAR more lush & vibrant than that of their debut. The guitars here are especially brimming with so much more life & colour than they were on their self-titled record. Another big improvement is that record is how much more variety this album has. It’s an incredibly stylistically varied project, and while that does lead to it feeling a little messy every so often, it’s all still held together very well by excellent & super aesthetically consistent production.
The album starts out quite strong with “Always Something”. The ominous guitars, raw vocals, & slight electronic elements all combine to make for a rather gripping opener. Other highlights include “Shake Me Down” which I love for it’s percussive acoustic guitars & personal childhood nostalgia, “Aberdeen” which I love for it’s super catchy melodies & powerfully mixed guitars, as well as “Right Before My Eyes” which has a similarly excellent sound & a surprisingly moving chorus.
This record also contains a lot of the most loudly abrasive material that Cage have ever released... to very mixed results. You have tracks like “Sell Yourself” & “Doctor Help Me” which are just sorta forgettable, a song like “Indy Kidz” which has a fantastic instrumental alongside an unfortunately & obnoxiously tryhard vocal performance, but then you have “Sabertooth Tiger” which is actually one of my TOP favourites here. The chaotic viscerality of this one feels so much more natural than those other tracks, as well as SO MUCH more invigorating. I really wasn't expecting to love it so much upon revisiting it today, but it very much surprised me.
On the other side of the coin, we also have a couple distinctly lowkey moments that I’d like to talk about. “Rubber Ball” is a very pleasant track with a slightly jaunty charm to it, but even more pleasant than that is “Flow”. My favourite song on the whole album. It’s not a particularly sad song, nor is it like STUNNINGLY beautiful, and yet… I often find myself close to tears when listening to it. If I had to put the feeling into words, I’d say that the atmosphere of this song is so perfectly tender & existentially content that it’s… genuinely overwhelming. I yearn to forever exist within the powerful sense of peace that this song provides, but I can only do so for 3 minutes at a time & that makes me wanna cry.
Overall, “Thank You Happy Birthday” is just a WAY more consistently enjoyable project than their debut. It has cleaner production, a far more memorable aesthetic, a greater sense of sonic exploration, better vocals for the most part, MUCH higher highs, and far fewer lows as well. Other than those “forgettably abrasive” songs which I talked about 2 paragraphs ago, the only significant lowlight for me would be the underwhelming closer that is “Carry Me In”. The record honestly should’ve just ended with “Flow” cuz these final 2 tracks which come right after just aren’t very interesting.
But yeah, other than having a significantly weaker closer, this album is an improvement over their first in every single way.
Best Songs: Flow, Sabertooth Tiger, & Aberdeen.
Weakest Songs: Doctor Help Me, Carry Me In, & Sell Yourself.
This album gets a light to decent 8/10 from me.
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Melophobia

Don’t you love it when an overall “pretty good” discography randomly contains one genuine masterpiece?
I absolutely ADORE this record, and I don’t even consider Cage The Elephant to be one of my all time favourite bands. They probably wouldn’t make my Top 25, but “Melophobia” specifically is easily one of the best albums I’ve ever heard, and (now that I no longer listen to Arcade Fire) my personal favourite release of 2013. At the very least, it’s a stiff competition between this & Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories”. I’ve gotta go track by track with this one in order to effectively convey my love for it so buckle in!
“Spiderhead” is a genuinely perfect opener for the record. It conveys to us ALL of the project’s best qualities while never feeling like it’s spoiled the album for you. The best is still very much yet to come. We’ve got scuzzy guitars that feel both authentically raw & immaculately produced, super catchy melodies delivered through a very precise yet slightly wild vocal performance, and also this really cool “glitched tempo change” at the end which gives this specific song a very unique flare.
“Come A Little Closer” is probably the most popular song here, and while it’s not my personal #1, it is still absolutely deserving of that status. The verses ease us in with a super slick bassline, some incredibly atmospheric guitars/synths, as well as a grippingly moody vocal performance. All of which come to a head on the track's spectacularly explosive choruses which still manage to fit the song’s moody tone flawlessly. The bridge here is also excellent with an extremely effective build to the song’s final & most explosive chorus. LOVE this track. Iconic shit.
“Telescope” is even more iconic though. It’s the best thing that Matt Schultz has ever written & it’s not even a contest honestly. We open with some tenderly playful synths which eventually give way to an equally playful yet distinctly melancholic vocal performance & lyrical story. This leads to the song’s incredible chorus which only becomes more emotionally powerful each & every time it’s repeated, but it’s the bridge here that really elevates the track into something truly spectacular. It’s so instrumentally frantic & vocally raw while still miraculously fitting into the song’s overall tenderly melancholic atmosphere. Such an evocative masterpiece. Unquestionably one of my favourite songs of all time.
“It’s Just Forever” is frequently maligned as the album’s one & only dud, but other than some admittedly awkward tonal whiplash between it & the last song, I still think it’s a fantastic addition to the record. We’ve got some wonderfully visceral guitars, a delightfully wild guest vocal performance courtesy of Alison Mosshart, and an outro that predicted the “Untitled Goose Game” OST six years in advance. What’s not to love?
“Take It Or Leave It” has a super chillaxed atmosphere all throughout, but never in a way that becomes boring. The chorus is super catchy, I enjoy the slight country-isms of the track, and the guitars sound amazing… but that’s definitely starting to become a moot point in this review. SUCH a vibe of a song.
“Halo” is probably the least uniquely remarkable song here. I don’t really have anything specific to say about it, but don’t think for a second that I mean to imply it’s even remotely weak. It’s still a banger.
“Black Widow” is an absolute BLAST of a song. The gritty rock’n’roll instrumentation along with those seductive vocals are obviously fantastic, but the star of the show here is undoubtedly the brass elements. The blaring horns on this track, whichever ones they are exactly, are sheer musical euphoria. That brief moment during the bridge where they completely overpower the rest of the mix is especially stunning. This is another one of those songs that I often hear people proclaiming as one of the album’s worst, but I think those people are weak. This song is nothing short of SPECTACULAR. Such a wonderful rush of visceral energy.
“Hypocrite” serves as a very nice change of pace for the record. The incredibly unique drum rhythms & overall slow pacing really make it stand out here. We’ve got a decently moving chorus, some nice brass elements yet again, and while said brass elements aren’t nearly as impressive as last time, these horns still fill out the mix very nicely & aid the song in having an even more unique energy than the aforementioned odd drumming was already giving it.
“Teeth” is the most perfectly unhinged thing that Cage The Elephant has ever released. In my review for their previous album, I talked about how certain tracks there often struggled to nail the balance of “controlled chaos”. Songs from that record which attempted this mostly just felt messy instead of compellingly scatterbrained. “Teeth”, on the other hand, achieves that balance effortlessly. Everything about this track is marvelous madness. The frantically abrasive guitars, evocatively strange lyrics, rivetingly unrefined vocals, and OH MY WORD that outro. After being a badass rock song for about 3 minutes, this shit randomly decides to basically become spoken word jazz at the end, and it works miraculously well. The lethargic bassline, the dour brass elements, the lyrics rich with meaning that’s hard to fully grasp. The whole thing is genuinely quite unnerving, but in a way that’s always still very enjoyable to listen to.
“Cigarette Daydreams” is a very interesting closer for this album. The acoustics & pianos are both incredibly pretty, the vocals & melodies are both really moving, and the whole experience is extremely immersive with it’s atmosphere. It’s a truly beautiful song on it’s own as well as an extremely anticlimactic ending for the record. But to explain why I actually mean that as a positive, I need to talk about “Teeth” again. Keep in mind that everything I’m about to say here has absolutely NOTHING to do with the lyrics of these songs. It’s simply my mind creating a story by interpreting the emotional atmospheres of both tracks.
“Teeth” is like witnessing or being involved in some sort of traumatic event. It’s a chaotic mess that leaves you deeply unsettled. Horrified even. Like being the bystander to a uniquely bad car crash. The kind where gorey death is very clearly visible. “Cigarette Daydreams” contrasts “Teeth” by being easily the most tender & simplistic song on the album. It’s very comforting with it’s musicality, but what I love here is that it’s not quite “cathartic”. It’s not a release of tension or an eradication of negative emotion. It’s like being frozen with shock after witnessing this crash before someone else eventually arrives to comfort you. This comfort feels nice & brings you back to your senses, but you’re still not ok. You still witnessed something horrible & a quick bit of comfort isn’t going to immediately fix that.
That’s the story I read from the tonal dichotomy between these 2 songs. A story of horror followed by incomplete comfort. It’s not a satisfying ending for me, but it’s such a specific & evocative kind of dissatisfaction that I can’t help but be fascinated by it. A super cathartic track full of positive emotion & grandiose beauty wouldn’t have worked here at all. Something quietly comforting that’s lacking in huge catharsis is the only way this could have gone. It’s the only ending that makes sense directly after a track as wild a “Teeth”. Again, NONE of this has anything to do with the lyrics. Just sheer emotion.
In conclusion though, I really fucking love “Melophobia”. It’s got perfect pacing, perfect production, tons of variety, so many excellent highlights, and one of the most memorable album endings I’ve ever experienced. The band’s whole discography is undoubtedly quite good, but this record is still LEAGUES above anything else that came before it, and so far, anything that has come after.
Best Songs: Telescope, Black Widow, & Come A Little Closer.
Weakest Songs: haha no.
10/10. Masterpiece.
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Tell Me I'm Pretty

It’s a HUGE downgrade from the last album, but still a decent enough listen.
It’s a stiff competition between this & their self-titled when we’re deciding which Cage The Elephant album is the weakest. They both exist on pretty much equal levels of “unremarkably decent”, but I think I’d probably give “Tell Me I’m Pretty” an ever so slight edge over their debut. Even though I’m ultimately gonna give them the same rating, I think this record has a few more significantly notable qualities.
“Cry Baby” is a very solid opener & “Mess Around” is a delightfully nostalgic single in spite of literally just being a Black Keys song, but it’s only on tracks 4-7 where this album really hits it’s stride. “Too Late To Say Goodbye” is very methodically emotive, “Cold Cold Cold” has some super fun percussion & an engagingly dazed sense of atmosphere, and “How Are You True” is one of the prettiest songs in the band’s whole catalog. The choppy vocal effects are extremely immersive, and the lowkey energy of it all is wonderfully hypnotic.
It also transitions very naturally out of the song right before it. That song being “Trouble”. The strongest piece of this album by a pretty wide margin. The backing vocals are beautiful, the chorus is really impactful, the acoustic elements are particularly well utilized, and the whole thing truly feels “Melophobia quality” while still being sonically distinct from that project. After this 4-7 stretch however, the album’s final 3 tracks don’t give me a whole lot to talk about.
I enjoy the spaghetti western vibes of “That’s Right” decently enough, but “Punchin’s Bag” is one of the most forgettable songs that CTE have ever made, and even though it’s a decently fun track on it’s own, “Portuguese Knife Fight” has almost no real impact as a CLOSER. Which is particularly disappointing coming right off the heels of a record with one of the most impactful endings I’ve ever heard.
So yeah… “Tell Me I’m Pretty” definitely isn’t bad, but it definitely ain’t special either. It’s unenergetic in a way that mostly feels ill fitting of the band, Dan Auerbach’s production is solid but also extremely homogeneous, and lots of Matt’s vocals here feel way more “performative” than they do natural and/or “from the heart”. I do still enjoy this record for it’s excellent musicianship, generally solid song writing, and handful of wonderful highlights, but something definitely feels a little off about it all.
They just weren’t in peak form here. Which, again, is not a very pretty look right up against one of the most PEAK albums of the 2010’s.
Best Songs: Trouble, Cold Cold Cold, & How Are You True.
Weakest Songs: Punchin’ Bag, Sweetie Little Jean, & Portuguese Knife Fight.
This album gets a strong 7/10 to me.
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Social Cues

Not without it’s problems, but undoubtedly some of their strongest material to date.
This is pretty easily their 2nd best album if you ask me. It’s nowhere NEAR as good as 2013’s “Melophobia”, but it’s not like I ever expected them to reach those heights again. Cage The Elephant are an overall “pretty good” band with one exceptional masterpiece that came out of nowhere. But in terms of the rest of their “pretty good” discography, this is a very enjoyable album… even if it is VERY front loaded. Tracks 1-7 are all fantastic with only one exception, but then tracks 8-13 are all super forgettable outside of a couple key exceptions.
Let’s talk about that excellent first half though. “Broken Boy” is an immediately gripping BANGER of an opener with viscerally crisp production, The Title Track has a wonderfully psychedelic soundscape to it & one of the band’s catchiest choruses ever, and “Night Running” is a song that’s always gotten way too much hate in my opinion. I can KINDA understand the aversion to how sheerly radio friendly it is, but the vibes are again delightfully psychedelic, the Beck feature suits the track flawlessly, and there’s this extremely appealing sense of… idk “fuzziness” to the production on the chorus. Super sonically satisfying stuff.
Other great moments from this first half include “Ready to Let Go’ which was a perfect lead single for the record, as well as “Skin And Bones” which has a really moving chorus & some beautifully implemented strings, but easily the HARDEST banger of the whole project comes to us in the direct middle. “House of Glass”. This is one of the spectacularly wild things they’ve ever put out & it’s an absolute BLAST to listen to. The sly vocals, viciously vigorous guitars, and perfectly chaotic production all come together to create one of their best songs to date. LOVE IT.
Now for that relatively lackluster 2nd half. “The War Is Over” actually grew on me quite a bit this time around which I wasn’t expecting, but we still have songs like “Dance Dance” which feel distinctly lacking in creativity, “Tokyo Smoke” which frankly just feels kinda aimless to me, as well as “What I’m Becoming” which, in an attempt to sound soft & lowkey, just comes across as rather drab. These songs are all still “decent” at the end of the day, but they absolutely do not live up to the consistently high quality of that first half. Where this 2nd half DOES shine however are in it’s softer moment’s that aren’t “What I’m Becoming”.
“Love’s the Only Way” is SUCH a lovely track. The light guitars, the ethereal string sections, the tender vocal performance, the vividly “late night” atmosphere of it all! It’s easily one of the most beautiful glimpses into their softer side that the band have ever given us, but even more beautiful than that is the album’s closer & best song BY FAR, “Goodbye”. The lyrics are absolutely heartbreaking, the pianos are extremely moving in spite of being so very simple, and the bridge here is beyond fascinating to me.
There’s this part of it’s instrumental that’s either a muted piano or the pitched down plucks of an orchestral stringed instrument. Whatever the hell it is, it gives me chills damn near every time I hear it. There aren’t even lyrics during this part, but it still manages to be one of the most evocative depictions of sadness that I’ve ever borne witness to. Undeniable proof that sound alone can often speak SO MUCH louder than words. This has been my go to “depression song” for YEARS now & I don’t see that changing any time soon.
So that’s “Social Cues”! It’s definitely got some issues, but I still like it quite a bit. It’s got a really fun new sound for the band, a decent amount of variety, consistently excellent lyrics that are largely about Matt’s, at the time, recent divorce, and some of the highest highs in their entire discography. It’s undoubtedly frontloaded, but still a very satisfying album experience overall. I mean it’s kind of impossible NOT to be satisfied with a closer this stellar.
Best Songs: Goodbye, House of Glass, & Social Cues.
Weakest Songs: What I’m Becoming, Black Madonna, & Tokyo Smoke.
This album gets a decent 8/10 from me.
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Well that's the post! Hope you enjoyed reading it & I'd love to discuss any & all of my takes in the comments!

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Character Information

• Actor: Tom Baker
• Tenure (as a regular character): S12E01-S18E28 (178 total episodes, 42 total stories)
• Companions: Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen, S12E01-S14E08), Harry (Ian Marter, S12E01-S13E04, S13E16), Leela (Louise Jameson, S14E13-S15E26), K-9 (V/As: John Leeson, Roy Skelton, David Brierley, S15E06-S18E20), Romana I (Mary Tamm, S16), Romana II (Lalla Ward, S17E01-S18E20), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse, S18E09-28), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton, S18E21-28), Tegan (Janet Fielding, S18E25-28)
• UNIT: The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney, S12E01-04, S13E01-04), Benton (John Levene, S12E01-04, S13E01-04, S13E16)
• Other Notable Characters: The Decayed Master (Peter Pratt – S14E09-12, Geoffrey Beevers – S18E21-24), Borusa (Angus MacKay – S14E09-12, John Arnatt – S15E21-26), The White Guardian (Cyril Luckham, S16E01), The Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall, S16E26), The Tremas Master (Anthony Ainley, S18E24-28)

Retrospective

Seven seasons.
Seven season Tom Baker stuck around to play the Doctor. Seven seasons of one man having the lions' share of dialogue, screen time, and press coverage on Doctor Who. Seven seasons of the same face (well, more or less) in the opening titles. That's a lot to try and cover coherently. And because of how I write these posts after watching through the show in order, it makes it a bit difficult to think all the way back to where we began.
But I may as well make the effort so…where to begin? Well, starting back when Barry Letts was originally conceiving of the 4th Doctor, the first word that was written to describe the personality of the new Doctor was "eccentric". That's a word with a pretty broad definition, but with some specific connotations. When you think of "an eccentric", you're imagining a specific type of man, which Tom Baker immediately inhabits from the moment he steps in as the Doctor in Robot.
And it serves him well. From a plot sense, the 4th Doctor tends to come at problems from a rather unusual angle. Again, you can go back to Robot and see how he fights the titular robot, compared to the head-on way his predecessor would have done. And really, the whole concept of the Doctor as, not just a brilliant strategic thinker, or even a subtle manipulator like the 2nd Doctor could be, but as an unconventional thinker really originates with number four.
Similarly you can see a lot of the 4th Doctor's humor popping up in future incarnations. Tom Baker had a way of delivering sardonic lines like they were an inside joke between himself and the audience. While I don't think anyone else quite captures that, I still see a lot more of the 4th Doctor's kind of humor than earlier incarnations' popping up later on. But, at least early on, the humor always had an edge to it. Like the Doctor wasn't so much making jokes as he was making cynical observations in a jokey tone.
But the big innovation of the 4th Doctor era, as relates to the character of the lead, was the willingness of the writers to let the Doctor make mistakes. The most obvious example comes towards the end of the Hinchcliffe era, when we find out the Doctor accidentally gave a computer schizophrenia earlier in that incarnation, causing the events of The Face of Evil. But the Doctor occasionally slipping up, making sensible, but ultimately incorrect deductions or just choosing a poor tactic was all over the Hinchcliffe era. The earliest obvious example is probably choosing not to blow up the Dalek incubation chamber in Genesis of the Daleks, letting his desire to not make that choice override his more logical brain and trick him into believing that Gharman has Davros beat.
While it's not like the first three Doctors were never wrong. They were all, in their own way, quite frequently insensitive, but the show generally liked it's protagonist to be in the right, especially when it came to his deductions or strategies. After roughly the midpoint of Season 1, the Doctor had almost always never made a serious blunder. But by making the Doctor more fallible, the 4th Doctor era creates more tension. One of the reasons that building a horror era under Hinchcliffe works (despite my own personal tastes clashing with it) is that there is a greater sense of tension because the Doctor is allowed to make mistakes.
But not everything about the 4th Doctor is new. In particular in the early years he seems to have inherited the 3rd Doctor's general distaste for dealing with humans in authority. It's not as universal as the 3rd Doctor's general grumpiness towards anyone with a title, but it does stick out. At a few points, such as in The Seeds of Doom, the Doctor becomes some frustrated with the people he's working with he has to have Sarah Jane speak for him.
That only serves to accentuate a performance that feels decidedly inhuman, and in a good way. During the Hinchcliffe era, Tom Baker typically kept his performance energetic, yet understated. It kept him feeling unpredictable and more than a little unreliable. In Pyramids of Mars, Sarah Jane loses patience with the Doctor for a moment due to his seemingly callous behavior. It's of course then revealed that the Doctor does care, he's just focused on other things and bad at showing it. These ideas have been somewhat present in the Doctor's characterization for a while, but with the fourth Doctor they're taken up another level.
And it's worth pointing out that a lot of the time the "eccentric" characterization felt more like a mask than the real Doctor. Sometimes his frustrations would come out (for instance Planet of Evil) or his empathy would shine through in spite of himself (eg Pyramids of Mars) and it reveals that he's not quite as completely unlike us as he might like us to believe. The bravado, and the offhand remarks and the strange grins, they seem to all be there to mask fear, or affection or anger.
And then, everything changes. Not immediately of course, but during the Graham Williams era Tom Baker's performance becomes more…indulgent. It's not bad, but a lot of the subtlety of his earlier performances is lost in favor of going bigger and more over the top in many ways. Tom Baker's deep voice, already a notable feature of his performance from the beginning, starts being really emphasized. Again, we're not dealing with a performance that gets bad, just one that loses some its subtlety and edge. And in fairness, with the Williams era at the very least trying to play things a bit lighter, it makes sense that Baker's performance would get a bit broader.
But the result is that the performance also gets a bit lazier. I think at some point around Season 16, Tom Baker realized he didn't have to work hard to do a compelling performance as the Doctor. He was kind of already naturally doing it. This left Tom Baker time to focus on other things…but we'll get to that. During Season 17, there's a bit less slacking off, because he had less distractions. But then in his final season, Tom Baker is once again putting in less effort. And there's good reasons for that. His relationship with Lalla Ward was getting very messy. He was dealing with an illness during the filming of the E-Space trilogy. And he didn't like new co-star Matthew Waterhouse. Still Season 18 is where you get the sense that Baker's been in the role too long, although I do wonder if, without all the behind the scenes drama and the illness, that might not have been the case.
Of course it's not like Tom Baker was blameless for behind the scenes drama. In fact it's probably fair to say he caused a lot of it. Tom Baker was, from very early on, an incredibly difficult presence behind the scenes at on set. The first time I saw reference to it was during Terror of the Zygons, where Nicholas Courtney felt that Baker was abrasive and not taking criticism well. From that point on, Baker's attitude issues seemed to increase. Directors in particular often got the wrong end of the stick, first seen in Pyramids of Mars when Paddy Russell (herself the kind of creative person who always liked to get her own way) and Tom Baker clashed over the filming of a few scenes. And then there's what happened to Louise Jameson, who played Leela, where Baker just treated her very badly during their first season together. Eventually, Jameson stood up for herself and the two developed a functional working relationship during Season 15, but when Jameson still felt the need to warn her successor, Mary Tamm, about Baker.
But on the same note I do think it's important to acknowledge a few things. First of all, Tom Baker went from being a virtual unknown to being the star of a very popular science fiction series. That would have a tremendous effect on anybody. To hear Baker himself tell it, Doctor Who essentially became the central feature of his life while he was working on the show. A lot (in fact, I think all) of the stories of Baker being difficult revolve around his desire for more control over the show, and seen through that lens, it kind of makes sense why. For another thing, it's not like every single director or co-star had a difficult relationship with Baker. Elizabeth Sladen and Ian Marter got along with Baker perfectly well. Mary Tamm did stand up for herself from the beginning and never had any major issues with Baker. And of course there are several directors who managed to work with Baker without issue. Tom Baker was difficult to work with, yes, but far from impossible and anyone at the time would have told you that what he gave to the show was worth the trouble.
In the past for these posts I've always spent at least a little time talking about the Doctor's relationships with his companions. For the 4th Doctor, so this doesn't turn into a six paragraph section on companions, I'll just make a general observation here: the 4th Doctor frequently ended up in the role of tutor or mentor. It starts, of course, with Leela, and while the idea of the Doctor teaching Leela to be a more intellectual version of herself never played out to the extent some might have hoped, it's still a pretty consistent part of their relationship. And then the dynamic is flipped with Romana, who the Doctor has to teach to be more instinctive and intuitive. Actually the Romana and Leela comparison tells us a lot about the Doctor: he doesn't actually value one form of knowledge above the other. Leela needs to learn science and civilization because those are the gaps in her knowledge. Romana needs to learn intuition and practical abilities because those are the gaps in her knowledge, and the Doctor largely treats the job of teaching his companions these things the same way.
Towards the end of his tenure, the Doctor picks up one more student: Adric. What Adric needs to be taught is a bit different than the others. He's already an intellectual powerhouse – he's got a badge for mathematical excellence and everything. And he's not short of practical experience. What he lacks is a kind of empathy. Now Adric isn't entirely unempathetic, but he's a sullen teenager a lot of the time. Sometimes he just doesn't care very much for others. You can see the Doctor trying to get Adric to consider more clearly the consequences of his actions, or realize that, as intelligent as he is, there are just things he won't know.
Of course none of this applies to Sarah Jane or Harry (or K-9, but there's not much to talk about there). The Doctor's relationship with Harry was mostly just Harry ending up as the butt of the Doctor's jokes and Harry being confused. As for Sarah Jane, well that's another story. Honestly, I don't think this was necessarily explored as much as it could have been. The two seemed to have a weird relationship where they'd antagonize each other, only to come back together. At the end of Hand of Fear Sarah Jane makes a big scene of wanting to leave the TARDIS, only to protest when the Doctor actually throws her off, and it reads like, up to that point, that had just been part of their friendship. That Sarah Jane would blow off the steam from her adventures (like being mind controlled for the 17 millionth time) by complaining at the Doctor and declaring she'd leave, only to stick around in the end.
Which is, I guess, what you do when your traveling companion is as unpredictable and eccentric as the 4th Doctor. Tom Baker's iteration of the Doctor isn't my favorite, but it's undeniable he redefined the part, to the point that the 4th Doctor is this clear dividing point in how the character is written. As one final example, before the 4th Doctor era, a defining part of the Doctor's character was that he was a capital "S" Scientist. But in the 4th Doctor era, that fades. He's still a scientific genius, but the characterization shifts from Scientist to enthusiastic amateur who happens to know more than the professionals. And that idea of the Doctor, as a traveling dilettante who somehow is smarter than everything around him, while it's been there from very early on, really takes shape in this era.
Tom Baker's performance is entirely unique, his very particular voice, his odd, often out of place facial expressions that seem to indicate the opposite of what they should, and occasional outbursts that reveal the real Doctor, I don't think you can point at anyone else that's ever done it remotely like him. And I don't think anyone could. There were a lot of factors that led to 4th Doctor becoming the most popular and beloved Doctor of the classic era, possibly even of the show itself. The timing was right as the show expanded into new markets. The fact that the beginning of his time on the show coincided with a run of very popular stories can't have hurt. But Tom Baker was always the main reason the 4th Doctor worked.

10 Key Stories

10 key stories for the character, listed in chronological order
Robot: Tom Baker's first story as the Doctor does a remarkably good job setting up how the 4th Doctor is going to operate going forwards. Though perhaps lacking in the subtleties that the 4th Doctor would develop through the rest of the Huinchcliffe era, Baker's oddly captivating performance is there right from the word go. He's a bit goofy from the regeneration, but nonetheless finds himself having a quiet moment at the end of the story with Sarah Jane.
Genesis of the Daleks: The Doctor is sent back in time to avert the creation of the Daleks and he…just…can't…do it. That scene of the Doctor holding two wires next to each other, unable to touch them together and just win is probably Tom Baker's first genuinely great performance as the Doctor. His relief at seemingly being relieved of that responsibility as palpable. And his final scene as he Harry and Sarah Jane travel back to the Nerva with the Time Ring, offering up one last bit of hope in spite of how badly things seem to have gone firmly establishes the optimistic nature of the character first introduced earlier in Ark in Space.
Pyramids of Mars: The Doctor's sometimes seemingly callous nature is revealed to be more of a mask than the reality of the character. He's got more serious things on his mind than the death of one man…but that doesn't mean he doesn't care for the death of that man.
The Deadly Assassin: The Doctor is on his own for the first time in this incarnation, and finds himself battling against his old enemy the Master. Caught up in Gallifreyan politics the Doctor suddenly feels small on the backdrop of greater schemes. Though he does still manage to sort of get himself elected as president which I'm sure will have no effect in the future…
The Face of Evil: The Doctor is forced to confront a serious error he made a long time ago. What he did to Xoannon, a computer developing sentience, and the way that that mistake ended up hurting the people of the planet he's landed has far reaching consequences which he's forced to help undo. He also makes a new friend…sort of accidentally.
Horror of Fang Rock: And things were going so well with Leela. While the primary confrontation with a Rutan is engaging, for my purposes here, what I'm interested in is the relationship between Leela and the Doctor. It starts out well, with the two working as a great team. And then Leela takes things too far, drawing the ire of the Doctor in a way that we hadn't necessarily seen before. It doesn't ultimately go anywhere, but it's very telling as moment all the same.
The Invasion of Time: The Doctor decides he'd like to be president. It's a ruse, or course, because the Doctor would never actually want to be president, but seeing him play the villain for a few episodes is quite intriguing. The story has some major issues, but seeing the Doctor play a bit more of the strategist and playing a bit more of a long game in this story is still fun.
The Ribos Operation: After Leela's departure, the Doctor finds himself with a new and completely different kind of companion to take under his wing. Having to show Romana that she can't always trust someone because they have an "honest face", beginning to show her to think more practically, this all shows a different kind of teachestudent relationship from the one we saw with Leela. Also the respectful yet frustrated way he deals with the White Guardian is fun.
Shada: Kind of odd to to include a story that was never actually completed as a "key" story here, but I think this has the best representation of the Doctor during this era. More relaxed, and largely just out having fun with his best friend Romana, the Doctor during this story still shows his sense of duty when Chronotis has messed up. His odd musing at the end of the story about what future people might think of him is a nice capstone to the era.
Logopolis: So much is going on in this one. This story has the perfect blend of all of the various ways in which the 4th Doctor has been characterized throughout his tenure. Teaching Adric about new kinds of science and responsibility, taking aboard Tegan and Nyssa in spite of difficulties, but still having a go at all three of them at one point. And then there's his alliance with the Master at the end, which proves his downfall. There's even a bit of that fallibility coming through when he mistakes the Master's initial goals.

Rankings

1. City of Death (10/10)
2. The Brain of Morbius (10/10)
3. Horror of Fang Rock (9/10)
4. Genesis of the Daleks (9/10)
5. The Face of Evil (8/10)
6. State of Decay (8/10)
7. The Robots of Death (8/10)
8. The Ribos Operation (8/10)
9. Warriors' Gate (8/10)
10. The Pirate Planet (8/10)
11. Terror of the Zygons (7/10)
12. The Leisure Hive
13. The Stones of Blood (7/10)
14. The Ark in Space (7/10)
15. Shada (7/10)
16. Image of the Fendahl (7/10)
17. Underworld (7/10)
18. The Keeper of Traken (7/10)
19. Logopolis (7/10)
20. The Seeds of Doom (7/10)
21. Full Circle (7/10)
22. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (6/10)
23. The Hand of Fear (6/10)
24. The Sontaran Experiment (6/10)
25. The Sun Makers (6/10)
26. Destiny of the Daleks (6/10)
27. The Androids of Tara (6/10)
28. The Deadly Assassin (5/10)
29. Pyramids of Mars (5/10)
30. Robot (5/10)
31. The Sun Makers (5/10)
32. Nightmare of Eden (5/10)
33. The Masque of Mandragora (4/10)
34. Planet of Evil (4/10)
35. The Creature from the Pit (4/10)
36. The Armageddon Factor (3/10)
37. The Power of Kroll (3/10)
38. Revenge of the Cybermen (3/10)
39. The Android Invasion (3/10)
40. The Invisible Enemy (2/10)
41. The Horns of Nimon (2/10)
42. Meglos (1/10)

Forty-two stories is a lot. I'm not even sure how I feel about this ranking. Of course, as is well documented by this point I'm not a horror guy so a lot of Hinchcliffe-era horror stuff ranks a lot lower than you might have expected if you aren't following along with this review series. Beyond that though, there's just a lot of variety of stories. The ranking naturally has a lot of uncertainty to it. Am I really confident that Shada the unfinished story belongs exactly one slot below The Ark in Space from all the way back in Season 12, which I haven't watched since I reviewed it? Obviously not. And there's a ton of other stuff like that. But this is probably as accurate to my preferences a ranking as will ever exist.
Doctor Era Rankings
These are based on weighted averages that take into account the length of each story. Take this ranking with a grain of salt however. No average can properly reflect a full era's quality and nuance, and the scores for each story are, ultimately, highly subjective and a bit arbitrary.

1. 3rd Doctor Era (6.8/10)
2. 2nd Doctor Era (6.5/10)
3. 4th Doctor Era (6.0/10)
4. 1st Doctor Era (6.0/10)

A lot of you may be surprised at the relatively low rating that the 4th Doctor era gets. First of all, it's worth noting that a 6/10 is by no means a bad rating. Any individual story I rate a 6/10 is a story that, while noticeably flawed, I still enjoyed. As an average for an entire era, especially one that lasts 7 seasons through three (technically four) different producers, that's not bad. But of course what's dragging the rating down is that the Hinchcliffe era just isn't to my taste and the Williams era, while more to my liking in theory, in practice never lives up to its potential.
Next Time: Well there's a new Doctor in town and he's feeling out of sorts. Let's bring him to a nice medieval castle where the rooms keep repeating. That should make him feel better.

Ok i'm having so many mixed feelings about this, theres this guy (19M) who is one of my brothers friends who i just met and i think he might like me but i have mixed feelings. I (18F) am going clubbing for the first time in Singapore as i am now legal and he keeps telling me to wait until he comes back to go with him, and if i do go before i shiuld facetime him so he can be part of my first experience; i also mentioned I'm taking a biology AP class for my senior year of HS and he said he was going to take bio 101 in college and that i should tutor him; plus he was laughing at my not so funny sarcastic jokes and really hyping me up when we were singing karaoke BUT He also didn't really talk to me too much overall and when i stopped to tie my shoe he didn't wait for me and just kept walking with the group, he also is just an extremely nice guy and treats everyone really kindly.
I have never had a guy even remotely like me before so i really have no ides what they even feels like, so does he like me or is he just being friendly; He is heading back to yale as a sophomore and I am going to fordham as a freshman, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Hi guys, so I'm an ENTJ who's just finished her entire high school studies - just finished my final exams a day ago. Obviously, as you guys might know, this is one of the most free holidays of my entire life, because I don't need to study, and I don't need to get ready for my uni course (I already did) and honestly there's not much to do. Which means (a) I don't have anything to do, and (b) I can just rest. But the lack of productivity is driving me crazy.
When I was in school I was always wondering what I'd do during this time, and I wanted to watch anime, watch movies, play games (playing Hades II with my friends probably) or some or other relaxing time.
BUT I CAN'T RELAX.
Constantly my head is on a motor wondering what I should do and if it's OK to waste my time like this, and I keep thinking about how this isn't a time to relax but to get ahead of other people my age. So I keep wanting to take an online course or study for a qualification, and I keep wondering what I can do during this time to get maximum productivity. I asked my parents if I should get a job and they told me people don't usually hire 18 year olds for anything significant, but I'm sure I could volunteer at an NGO or something and build my CV if I tried. I'm also a salutatorian so I could get a nice tutoring job if I tried.
BUT I NEED TO RELAX. THIS IS MY LAST CHANCE TO RELAX AND I NEED TO RELAX. BUT HOW????
PLEASE! Any advice or tips on how to relax is GREATLY APPRECIATED. I'm DESPERATE at this point.
(Or any tips on what qualifications to get? What to do? Anything useful?)

These are my extra circulars I have accumulated as a freshman, are they any good? ofc some of them are good but as a list, do they display a common theme? Are they believable? Do I have have to many positions doing the same activities? Any feedback is great.
Blog Contributor
retrieved neurophysiological and related information; published a meta-analysis paper evaluating popular study techniques, for a meta-cognitive/life O.S app, facilitating student retention and cognitive load tolerance by 75%.

2

Club Membecommunity leader
participated in a metacognitive/skills program for 1.3yrs, collaborated with more than 10 grad level/professional level students and helped facilitate their learning of course specific material. Created numerous 1 on 1 accountability groups within the larger club and facilitated more to connect like minded, passionate people with each other.

3

mentee Participated as a mentee for 2yr, in a program, accepting 2.9% of students that facilitated, metacognitive skills, networking, entrepreneurship, etc.

4

respite caregiver 24hr home care worked under the California Regional Center for 1.6yrs, obtained a first aid license in order to care for, elderly, adolescent, and mentally challenged patients.

5

mentor
participated in a metacognitive focused group focused, on sustainability, achievement, research, and finding passion and purpose in academia; became a mentor closely collaborating with department leaders for education plans, event planning, and tutoring, lead workshops, Office hours, and "focus sessions" a live class were we teach attention, consistency, and other things to increase mental clarity (volunteer).

6

FoundeLead learning coach
started a mentorship company; with 12+ Mentors teaching annual cohorts of 30+ kids from High Schools internationally about academic opportunities, techniques for sustainability and life long learning skills; spoke at high schools in low income neighborhoods, about academic success, career readiness, and tutoring opportunities; formed various collaborative agreements with other international non profits and startups to increase our global impact for addressing inefficiencies in education and healthcare institution's worldwide; lead small groups of 2-10 researchers in writing, psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and cognitive science related review and meta-analysis papers

7

Co-FoundeTeam Manager
published 25+ articles; tutored 10+ students and contributed to 12+ research publications(non-scholarly); founded my own official chapter responsible for psychoneuroimmunology research and meta analysis papers; volunteered 250+ clinical hours; spoke at a MUN an international conference running for 3+ months discussing strategies to abolish inefficiencies in the healthcare system in low income and traditional underrepresented areas.

8

EMT N/A trained and worked as a emergency medical technician, and completed 200+ clinical hours.

9

content creator youtube/instagram/twitter(X) And outreach initiative to help give educational value and incentives to a wider audience; these channels were created to compliment my business with our goals to provide free information; over 300k followers over all platforms

10

Committee lead/Product manager
Became Head of the neuroscience committee, where I was responsible for organization fundraisers, managing social medias, organizing research groups and peer reviewing others; this entailed me overseeing 2k+ students globally and facilitating all their research related ventures, directly and indirectly
DISCLAIMER: This is a prospective list e.c's 9 and 10 are still in progress, everything else is good though.
Idc about what school, but if you have any advice to tailor my e.c's to T10 or vandy/umich, that would also be greatly appreciated.

For anyone who might recommend me trying to talk to the scholarships office, I have already done so and I won't be able to retain it no matter what. I got this scholarship which takes care of my tuition fees + allowance which covers both my rent and food. It is a scholarship in which in the region I reside in only around 30 students were given the grant. Thus the standards that the office upholds to retain this scholarship is high. In order to even use the scholarship I'd have to go to our country's version of the ivy league schools.
My learning method before Uni has always been teaching/tutoring people. The way they ask questions makes me expound my knowledge even more and a lot of the time they would ask questions that would have gone right over my head on an exam.
Lately however, I am unable to employ this method in Uni. In our class alone, we have 9 people with the same scholarship as me, and they are all very smart.
For a while, I was still able to get top marks in the class, sometimes even getting grades over 100 as I would have perfect scores + get the bonus credits that the teacher gives to give chance to my other classmates who were struggling. I was immediately labeled as the classes' "smartest guy"( It didn't last long).
Thanks to that I was always put into a pedestal and when I start to genuinely struggle, my peers seem to just shrug it off. They keep saying things like "oh you can do it you are smart", which just feels off because for the most part university is never about how smart you are but how you are able to go about the courses smartly.
One by one as my peers failed and was set back, the remaining classmates I had were the 9 students who share the same scholarship as me +2 others who had a different scholarship.
Now this is a room full of the smartest people I've ever known. I am unable to tutor them, the way that I did my old peers as they wouldn't need the tutoring anyways, in fact lately they would be tutoring me instead.
In this semester however all that came crashing down on me. One by one I would fail tests which I would usually ace. It spiralled down into me not even listening to the lectures because of an amalgamation of "I am smart enough to ace this even with 1 hr of study" And " I don't understand these topics automatically and I don't even wanna try to listen".
It doesn't help that among those 9, only 1 of them was my friends. They all seemed too cliquey and only one of em ever bothered to ask me what was wrong. They would all talk about how sad they are that they couldn't get a 100, while I am here listening to them who couldn't even get to the passing grade.
Eventually they wouldn't even talk to me, it seemed like as soon as I couldn't keep being one of the smart guys in class, I was nothing to them.
The combinations of all these things led me to bomb both my midterm and final exams (each being 40% of our total grade) and got a 70( the passing grade is 72).
Right now I am lost, even to this day some of my friends would just say that I would figure this out, that I wasn't supposed to fail anyways, that if I would just do it again I'd pass. Unfortunately, I don't get second chances, that was it, that was my run. I am the first guy to have failed my scholarship, and if I ever decided to shift to another course, I'd have to pay the total amount of grants that was given to me +10% interest.
I can't possibly continue in that school without those grants, nor do I enjoy the overly competitive environment that the 'scholars class' has. I just don't know what to do. I can't shift, nor can I continue. It's just I don't know
I just don't know

I'm doing summaries for Forge of Darkness and my book club thought they might be appreciated here. Here is my summary for the Prelude and Chapter 1. Let me know if I'm wrong about anything.
Prelude:
Gallan's forward to Fisher Kel Tath
"No matter; what I do not recall I shall invent." Memory is not necessarily truth. A singular vision misses most of the world.
There's is more to the prelude, but it boils down to this.
Chapter 1
Loction: Dracon's Hold
POV: Arathan son of Draconus
Draconus returns. Has Tiste features. His portrait painted by Kadaspala hangs in Mother Dark's citadel. Draconus is the image of a man who was king in all but name. Arathan chews on his fingers and studies his father as he returns, missing no detail. He does not understand why everyone fears his father. 17 years old and very rarely in the same room as him. Draconus has never addressed him and leaves his education to tutors and houseblades. At 9 he nearly drowned. Draconus never visited him in his sick bed. His half-sisters, Spite, Envy, Malice always ran away from him making him think he was ugly. He would put his hands to his face and eventually began sucking on his fingers. Now he thinks he is not worthy of notice by anyone. His mother named him His tutor Sagander constantly teaches him that the weak only live through the largess of the strong. He believes he is his father's weakness and that he will hurt him one day.
POV: Captain of the houseblades Ivis. Has hust blood
Draconus has the second largest number of houseblades next to Mother Dark. Other houses don't like this. Srela, head of house Dracons, adopted Draconus and died ten years ago. Draconus asks Ivis about his son's skill. Ivis says he displays an effortless skill with the sword and fears he can teach him no more. Ivis fought in the Forulkan war.
POV: Arathan
Arathan has been summoned to Draconus, but still can't feel his power. He only starts to feel the power when he's right in front of him. They will leave Dracons hold together. Draconus cannot guarantee Arathan's safety if he remains in Kurald Galain. They will travel to Azathanai and Jaghut lands.
POV: Sagander, Arathan's tutor.
Sagander will accompany Arathan to continue his studies. He is excited to do research that will make him a great scholar in the Citadel. Arathan points out some obvious issues with Sagander's baggage. This annoys the shit out of Sagander. Sagander believes Arathan needs to be taken down a peg or two.
POV: Gate Sergeant Raskin.
Gate Sergeant Raskin and 4 borderswords will accompany Draconus and Arathan. The borderswords Rint, Ville, and Galak talk about shoes. The fourth bordersword, Feren, is Rint's sister. Raskan surmises that power boils down to the ability of holding as many people's lives in one's hands as possible. And who would want that. But like Arathan he assumes there is something he doesn't understand and will never understand about it. Lot's of horse talk. The borderswords praise Arathan's work with his charger and lament the loss of the natural world. The chapter ends with a discussion on Architecture in the citadel and while Tiste architecture is nice, Azathanai is the best.