Vibe check! How’s your week been? What are you reading, watching, or listening to?
During Sunday Vibes, members share what they've been up to and other media they're enjoying. It's a space to get to know one another outside of romance books.

📰 Sunday Gloss

Here in the Sunday Gloss, we highlight the sub’s vibes each week, including announcements and great discussions.

✍🏼 Regular Features

📕 Buddy Read/Watch Party Sourcing. New feature for members to find someone to buddy read a backlist or new book or upcoming film/series.
📚 TBR Tues: Yeet or Keep Edition A bimonthly feature where we clear out our TBR lists with help from other members.
😱 WTF Wednesdays - A weekly feature posted Wednesdays to share the stuff in Romancelandia that makes you go WTF: bad takes, questionable metaphors, anything that left you speechless.
🪩 Throwback Thursday - Our monthly series focusing on a romance during a specific yeadecade/era. This month's was 2007.
🎨 The Art Of..., monthly themed discussion on a trope, theme or microtrope common in Romance Literature. This month's theme was Miscommunication.
📕 Cover corner is the place to discuss book covers, this month we discussed taglines on covers
🍿 Fresh Faves Fridays - A weekly feature posted Fridays to share your 4- and 5-star reads and favorite quotes. Think of it as a What Did You Read This Week? thread, but with only the best books.
💩 Shitpost Saturdays - On Saturdays, we loosen the discussion-based requirement to allow for memes, shower thoughts, silly posts, etc. All other rules still remain.
⭐️ Our April Monthly Reading Recap is here! Members share their top/bottom 5 reads of the month on first Tuesdays.
📚 Rec Rooms has returned! This month is the launch for the free for all! Please feel free to add your own requests and recommendations.
So, how was your week?

I'll quote a post I made recently.

To start off White Dwarf, the official magazine of Games Workshop who created the Warhammer franchise, had Battle Reports have done a few issues featuring battle reports where a lone player would make the different factions of the various Warhammer games fight each other to showcase how the different factions operated. Usually in an open battlefield where both armies would just clash straight on in formations in a pitched battles without terrain. There were a few cases where they'd do Battle Reports on specific scenarios like besieged in a fortress of fighting on a diorama full of hills or aerial armies vs the range units of specific factions or pure long range artillery with the various factions siege machines or heavy gunpowder weapons battles to test out each factions capabilities in specific areas like how sturdy one factions building models are from damage or the effectiveness of war chariots an train engines or whatever equivalent of tanks are in the setting.
I'm wondering how effective would this be in other wargames esp traditional historical ones? As some of my friends didn't have money or lived in isolated towns when they were young used to play this way and told me its absolutely effective for learning the nuts and bolts for each faction, would this approach work for more grounded and realistic historical tabletop and modern realistic military sims?

Seeing that Bolt Action is not just far more realistic than any of Games Workshop's stuff esp 40K and most other companies wargames that are non-historical in setting, but is considered the most at the center popular historical themed wargame as far as balancing fun and hardcore military and historical accuracy goes, would this approach still work for Bot Action of learning different armies by solitaire? Or is Bolt Action too far in the grognard territory to for this school of thought?

Full disclosure: I am a pretty run of the mill American center-left liberal. I absolutely love the books (I’ve read them all) and I truly don’t mind, and even enjoy reading conservative works, but I just was wondering if anyone else felt the same way about the series.
Does anyone else notice the very strong conservative themes in Sun Eater? I am mostly talking about ‘small c’ conservatism and not our current political issues of the day. It is very striking/different IMO, and it isn’t something I have really seen discussed a lot.
‘Human’ progress (or attempts at it) are almost exclusively portrayed in a highly negative light. Anyone attempting to improve the human condition through technology also happens to be a genocidal maniac with no regard for human life. Any genetic manipulation that doesn’t conform to strict traditional human sensibilities is portrayed as deviant/abhorrent (including gender fluidity).
An extremely conservative and feudalistic empire is explicitly conveyed as the ‘best of all alternatives’ form of human government. All other attempts at democracy or a classless society are pure evil. Even the Demarchists which are the closest thing to a non-evil democracy, greatly restrict individual freedom and try to jail/murder Valka for seemingly no reason. The Lothrians are an extremely horrific instance of communism (which we do at least have examples of in our world). Calen Herodentes is promising true progress and equality for all and it turns out to be all a big lie that he uses for selfish gain.
The future histories of our current democracies also end up tragically. America (which on the scale I am discussing is liberal not conservative) leads to extreme technological progress, populism, and the eventual enslavement of all mankind by the technology it creates. Humanity is only saved by literally reverting back to our old European feudal lords!
And then finally getting to the Pale, there comes pretty much the central theme of the entire book. Some groups of “other” are so fundamentally different that any attempts to make a peaceful connection with them are doomed. Some groups are fundamentally different and irreconcilable with our way of life. In the context of the book this is obviously true, but this is an extremely conservative (and in my opinion bad) philosophy, that is decidedly not applicable to anything that has ever happened in human history!
Here are some instructive quotes by Hadrien:
​

“It is a truism among those who study history that much of what common people believe is false. The belief in popular power is one such falsehood, when the truth is that the populace is ever directed by an elite will, ever wielded by a Caesar or a Lenin as a murmillo might wield a blazing sword. The belief in progress is another.”

​

“It is not power that builds empires, that asserts order on the stars. It is vision. Vision and the heroic will to act. Where there is that vision, all else follows. Where it is not, there is a decadence, desperation, and decay”.

​
A counterpoint to all of this is the semi-gender equality that exists in the Empire. There is also the fact that the organized religion (the Chantry) is portrayed pretty negatively. That being said, even Hadrian comes to agree that the Chantry is justified b/c of how horrible the alternative is. Also the few Christians that appear are regarded in a very positive light. And oh yeah, Hadrian is pretty straightforwardly Jesus (double Jesus in fact).
I am loving the books and part of it is just how very different it is to most modern books (most don’t dare to be this conservative) but I just wanted to discuss!

Spoilers ahead, read at own risk
So, I just watched Bad Blood yesterday, and I'm kinda confused. Kate was visibly not very happy about Batman saving her, and she didn't have any admiration towards him before that apparently, so why exactly does she take up the mantle of Batwoman? I understand her motivation for becoming a vigilante, but why specifically Batwoman? Luke becomes Batwing pretty much because his armor is bat themed, Nightwing becomes Batman, because well, someone had to and he's the most qualified for it, and although Batgirl only shows up for a brief moment at the end, we can understand why she would be inclined to do so, being the daughter of Gordon, who most likely tells her stories about Batman saving the day
But Kate? She was not at all too satisfied to see Batman, had no previous connection whatsoever to him, didn't even use the same methods
So, to quote Alfred in Begins: "Why bats, master Wayne?"

"The greatest trick The Devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist."
Or in Mr Puzzles' case, convincing everyone that's he's not a proper serious threat.

1. This saga began in IGBP which involved demonic themes as well as outright possession.
2. If the events of 2023 are to go by Mr Puzzles is a master manipulator. To an outright insane demonic levels akin to how The Devil is normally portrayed.
3. Being a manipulator of outright demonic proportions, as shown in 2023, it stands to reason that the events of 2024 are also a manipulation. Which is where the quote comes in, as that's manipulation on a much larger scale.

Basically, don't be too convinced in what he says/does on the surface. If all of the ARGs and cryptic nature of this story is anything to go by, this ain't as surface level as some of youse think.

LOOOONG first time trip report! 5/13-5/18, stayed at Beach Club, visited all four parks, bought Genie+ every day, had the standard DDP. Family of 4, two girls 5 and 9. I learned so much from this group over the past year and especially loved trip reports, so hopefully this post will be helpful to someone!
💲BUDGET💲
-- I booked the trip a year out so I could break it up into 12 manageable payments. I opened the no fee Disney VISA, which gives you several months of no interest on charges made towards Disney travel packages, rewards dollars to use at Disney, and a couple other perks like character meet and greets and discounts.
-- I signed up for Disney Movie Insiders. This is what you're supposed to do with all those little codes that come in Disney DVDs/Blurays. You enter the codes in exchange for points, and at 1000 points, you can redeem for a $10 Disney gift card. You also get points for being subscribed to Disney+, seeing Disney movies in the theater, their social media accounts, and a whole bunch of other things. I got $50 in gift cards from this alone.
-- If you want Disney-themed luggage, try thinking outside the box to save money! I got plain luggage in Mickey colors--red and black--and Mickey luggage tags to make them Disney themed.
-- I tried to budget for souvenirs via gift cards... but I failed, lol. Everything is so expensive, $100 is gone in a second. Plushes are like $40, coffee cups are $20, etc. Whatever you're planning to spend, double it! I get what people say about most shops having the same stuff, but it's definitely not all of them, most of the ones post-ride have unique stuff. And honestly it's kind of nice most of them have the same stuff, if you want to get whatever your kid was asking for earlier, you don't have to walk all the way back to the one shop you saw it at.
-- We paid for Memory Maker and I'm on the fence about it. On the one hand, it's really nice to get all the ride photos and meet and greet photos and magic shots. It's also really nice for the whole family to be in a lot of pictures and not have to swap with the other adult or find someone willing to take your picture. On the other, we definitely didn't utilize it as much as I wanted to because a lot of the photographers had pretty long lines and I just didn't want to spend time waiting for a picture I could take myself. If we came across someone with a shortish or no line, we made sure to get it, but for anyone with a long line, we just stood around the same spot and took our own.
🗓️PLANNING🗓️
-- If you have kids and live within easy driving distance of another amusement park, highly recommend making a visit BEFORE going to Disney to get an idea of how they handle that kind of day/environment, especially if they have never been. I quickly discovered we would absolutely need a stroller and I would need to be militant with the kids about staying hydrated. Also to avoid face paint, as heat + tears + paint + eyes = bad day! I felt so much better making these discoveries beforehand and being able to prepare accordingly, rather than making them at Disney.
-- USE AN AGENT! An agent is free to you, so why not have the help? Ours was amazing, she gave us quotes, booked the package, rebooked as needed later when a better deal came out, made all the payments, dining and extra reservations, and was just all-around awesome to work with. It was such a load off to know I wasn't on my own with all this stuff.
-- Watch everything Ear Scouts. No one explains Genie+ better, and Rob and Erick's videos are just so positive and beautiful and well done.
-- I also enjoyed reading Disney Tourist Blog--lovingly snarky but super informative!--and Disney Food Blog for fun tips and news.
-- I didn't find any park to be a half day park, we filled our whole day in every one and still didn't see everything!
-- My kids did really well, whenever they were on the verge of cranky, we had one ride in the stroller for a while, bought a snack (usually ice cream or popcorn), and used the bubble wand, and/or gave them some ibuprofen, and everyone felt better pretty quick. We never tried to do fireworks, we were all done by 8 so always left after dinner. The only park we closed down was EPCOT because we didn't get out of dinner until after close, and that was a really cool experience, the park was so quiet and empty and beautiful!
-- You don't NEED a Magic Band... but man, was it convenient. We just had 1.0 Magic Bands though, we didn't bother with the 2.0s.
-- I guess moving through security fast is important to people rope dropping... but as someone who didn't, it added like maybe 30 seconds to a minute to the experience the couple times my bag got flagged, it's really not a big deal.
-- I'm not saying anyone's lying about bad experiences or exaggerating or anything, but try to remember that far more people go on the Internet to complain than they do to praise. I got so stressed about all the things that could go wrong, and we had a pretty much perfect trip. The only attraction that broke down on us was Muppetvision, of all things. The only "bad behavior" we witnessed was the morning we were leaving, we could hear a dad across the hall yelling at his family, I think they overslept and were going to miss their flight or something? We just turned the TV on so we didn't have to hear him. A couple times we forgot to take our stuff with us when we parked our stroller or forgot some food in it, and neither people nor animals bothered it. The only dicey thing that happened to us was me dropping my phone into the Dumbo moat, the cast members fished it out and it still worked, I sent them a cast compliment for all their help! All the cast members were great, I'm not really sure what people expect but IMO they all do amazing for having to be peppy and helpful all day in absolutely blazing heat, walking a ride conveyer belt nonstop, repeating the same spiels over and over, meeting person after person, etc. I wouldn't last a 2 hour shift let alone 8. Cast members, you rock!!!
✈️TRAVEL✈️
-- We flew Delta, flight there was flawless, flight home was delayed by an hour waiting for crew and was a little bumpy (which is not great for a nervous flyer like me) but otherwise fine.
-- Get TSA PreCheck! Good for a few years, if the adults have it the kids have it too. It made the whole experience so much easier. That said, even PreCheck still moves kind of slow at MCO, so definitely get there at least 2 hours early for your flight. Use curbside check-in for bags, way faster than the long line inside!
-- On our agent's recommendation, we used Away We Go for ground transport in Orlando. They communicate really well, both ways were flawless, no complaints!
-- We used Minnie Vans to get to Animal Kingdom + Sanaa and Magic Kingdom, what a wonderful service! Definitely pricey, but they had cartoons on in the car, booster seats they set up for you, and the drivers were so nice and friendly and had fun trivia to share. I never had any problem requesting one when I needed it.
⛱️BEACH CLUB⛱️
-- We knew we wanted an onsite hotel where you could walk to at least one park. This pretty much limits you to a handful of Deluxe hotels or the Swan and Dolphin. Beach Club won for us because it's "in the Disney bubble" and you can walk to 2/4 parks. Note that while you can technically walk to Hollywood Studios, it is a LOOOONG walk. The boat is a nice not crowded alternative! We did not make use of Early Entry or Extended Hours, we're just not built for either. Beach Club was lovely, we booked a resort view but I think we ended up with a water view, we were right by the quiet pool and could see the water beyond from our room. Stormalong Bay was a little crazy for us but we loved the quiet pool. Best thing about Beach Club though is the location, EPCOT is literally steps away!
🌳ANIMAL KINGDOM🌳
-- We had read that there's really no bad day to do AK, so we started there. We rode: Navi River Journey, Flight of Passage, Kali River Rapids, Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Triceratops Spin, and Dinosaur--so pretty much everything! With Genie+ we walked onto all of them. We also met Moana, Pocahontas, and Russell! The only thing we didn't do here that we wanted to was the Gorilla Falls trail, but we just ran out of time before the park closed.
🌐EPCOT🌐
-- We had read to avoid EPCOT on Fridays and Saturdays, so we went on Wednesday. We rode: Grand Fiesta Tour, Living with the Land, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Imagination with Figment, Frozen, Remy, Journey of Water, and Guardians--everything we wanted! Again, with Genie+, we walked right onto everything! Outside of our character meal (more on that in the dining section!), we also met Anna, Elsa, and Asha! Tried a couple of Flower and Garden snacks: chicken and waffles, fruit and cheese strudel, and potato pancakes, all were delicious! Everyone had a different favorite day, but EPCOT was personally my favorite day, it felt like we were firing on all cylinders and the day just went really smoothly!
🏰MAGIC KINGDOM🏰
-- We had read that Wednesdays were the quietest days at MK, so we were originally going to try to do it that day, but we could only get a reservation for Cinderella's Royal Table on Thursday, so we switched it up. Definitely the most crowded of all the parks we visited, but I think that's just the norm for MK, everyone wants to go to the castle park with the most rides. We rode: Regal Carousel, Tomorrowland Speedway, Barnstormer, Magic Carpets, Mad Tea Party, People Mover, Dumbo, Small World, Little Mermaid, Pirates, Space Ranger Spin, Jungle Cruise, TRON, and Peter Pan. Again, with Genie+, we walked right onto everything! The only ride we missed at this park that we wanted to do was Pooh, I couldn't manage to get a return time that was earlier than we planned on leaving. Outside of our character meals (more on those in the dining section!) we also met Mirabel, Tiana, and Rapunzel! We had both the Rapunzel and Aurora ice creams, both so good and cute!
🎬HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS🎬
-- We had read that, like MK, it's better to do HS later in the week, so we went Friday. We rode: Slinky, Alien Saucers, Toy Story Mania, Rise, Smuggler's Run, Runaway Railway. Again, with Genie+, we walked right onto everything! The only ride we missed was Tower of Terror, again I couldn't manage to get a return time that was earlier than we planned on leaving. We also met Olaf, be aware Olaf doesn't sign stuff, they just give you a signature card. This park needs more shade IMO, especially Toy Story Land, I know it's supposed to be Andy's backyard, but I don't see why that means we can't have some shade from trees or something. 🤪 Blue milk from Galaxy's Edge was really good, the family was all fighting over it!
🍽️DINING🍽️
-- We almost certainly lost some money on the DDP, but I'm still glad we got it because it allowed us to do more table service meals and have less stress overall about expenses. We easily used up everything but child quick service credits, we had a few of those left over near the end.
Here's where we ate!
BOARDWALK DELI/PIZZA WINDOW: Pizza for the kids, sandwiches for the adults. Tasty and satisfying after our day of travel!
BEACHES AND CREAM: Got the kitchen sink for the experience, but honestly it's not great, all the ice cream and toppings melt together quick and you just end up with weird ice cream soup.
SAT'ULI CANTEEN: LOVED this place, everything was so yummy! Best quick service we had!
SANAA: Since Animal Kingdom closes so early, we thought we'd try to extend the experience by eating at Sanaa. What a great idea, we got seated right by a window and saw so many animals! The food was great too.
AKERSHUS: Our favorite princess meal! We met Aurora, Tiana, Snow White, Ariel, and Belle. They were all lovely, and the breakfast was really good too. Only 1 credit on the DDP!
GARDEN GRILL: Our kids really enjoyed getting to look down over Living with the Land and the fact that the restaurant spins. We met Farmer Mickey, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. They were fun and even came to our table more than once. Food was good!
SPACE 220: Not on the DDP, but wow, what a cool restaurant! Almost like a ride with the theming and the elevator up. Food was really good.
CINDERELLA'S ROYAL TABLE: You gotta eat in the castle! We paid for it OOP because we didn't want to use up 2 DDP credits here. You're really going for the location and the princesses, the food is kinda meh, not bad but not as good as other places. The restaurant is small and they have to turn tables quick, so it's very understandable to me that the princesses have to move fast. It's not that they rush you, they'll take all the pictures you ask for and sign whatever and answer your questions, but if you don't have much you need, they try to keep moving. Akershus is much bigger so they are able to be more relaxed there. The only small bummer is that we didn't see Merida (maybe she was on vacation too!) We did meet Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, and Aurora though!
CRYSTAL PALACE: We are not big on buffets but we enjoyed meeting Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger!
TOPOLINO'S: Maybe the best food of the trip, steak and eggs were so good! The character artist costumes are so cute too. It was fun to have an excuse to ride the Skyliner to get here from Beach Club too.
DOCKING BAY 7: The theming is great, but the food wasn't as good as Satuli Canteen IMO.
THE MARKET AT ALE & COMPASS: We had quick service credits we wanted to use up on the last day and we didn't want to leave the resort again, otherwise I would have gone somewhere else, food was meh.
✨EXTRAS✨
-- I originally wanted to book Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for my kids, but it's so expensive/competitive that I decided to didn't want the stress. Instead I booked Have Wand, Will Travel to come to our room and bought dresses from Presley Couture and Only Little Once. I chose Have Wand, Will Travel because they keep character throughout. Fairy Godmother Elyse was amazing and so much fun, my kids loved it and kept talking about it all day!
-- That same morning I ordered a Sammicakes breakfast box with beignets for us to eat. I also ordered a pretend letter from The DCP and Me on Etsy to make it seem like the breakfast came from Tiana. My kids also loved this and had fun telling Tiana about it both times we met her. Sammicakes was good but a LOT of food, sadly we didn't end up eating half of it. It can last you at least 3 days!
-- We had Birthdays and More decorate our door, it was a really fun surprise for the kids on our first day and made our room easy to find. The kids also loved reusing the decorations at home on their own doors!
-- Matching shirts and ear hats, all from Etsy! So many cool designs there, hardest part is choosing!
-- Got my kids a pin trading lanyard with some pins, they loooooved pin trading! It was like free souvenirs.
🧳PACKING🧳
-- Things the Internet Told Me to Pack That I Needed: Scissors, ziploc bags, ibuprofen (kids and adults), garbage bags, big carabiners to hook on the strolleuse to carry multiple bags at once.
-- Things the Internet Told Me to Pack that I Didn't Need: stainless steel straws (the paper straws are more like hard cardboard, they really don't break down unless your kid is gnawing on them or something), ponchos (it did rain some most days, but wearing a poncho was almost more miserable than not wearing one, it's so hot and humid to be walking around in a plastic bag! We did better taking shelter and using umbrellas.), wipes (obv you need them if your kid is younger, but mine were older and just never got messy enough to need them), glow sticks (we never stayed anywhere long enough to use them), bottled wateLiquid IV (the tap water tasted the same as home to us, but we live in a rural area so maybe we are just used to imperfect water?) Basically, the less you can get away carrying in the parks, the better. It's annoying to lug stuff around you don't end up needing or using!
🛞STROLLER🛞
-- I know it seems insane that your 5 year old and 9 year old will need a stroller, but mine definitely did. Once I accepted that I was going to have to get one, I tried to make the best of it, and actually got really into decorating it so we could always easily spot it in the sea (the decorations also later made nice wall decor for a gallery of our trip!) The Magic Spotter flag was the best investment, hardly anyone had them so it was easy to instantly spot our stroller anywhere we left it, even if it got moved. That said, I definitely didn't want to spend a lot on a stroller we were really only buying for this one trip, so I got a used Joovy Caboose on Facebook Marketplace for $50. It was very hard to handle with two older kids in it, and even with one it was hard to handle unless the kid was in the back seat. So we basically used it like a single stroller, glad I didn't spend a lot on it since it was so hard to drive!
☔WEATHER☔
-- We had mostly great weather, it rained some every day except Magic Kingdom day but it passed within an hour each time. We wore socks with Crocs so that if/when it rained, we could just take our wet socks off and walk in our Crocs, this worked great! Don't trust the weather reports though, two days it wasn't supposed to rain. One day it actually didn't, the other day it did and we had to walk in wet shoes because we didn't wear the Crocs that day. Just figure it might rain any day and be prepared! See above note RE: ponchos being not great and shelter + umbrellas being better. When it didn't rain, It. Was. Hot. 🥵 In the 90s but definitely felt hotter with the humidity making it so sticky. We felt there was plenty of shade at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, but hardly any at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, which I would say slightly affected how much fun we had on those days comparatively.
Phew! That's about it, let me know if you have any questions!

Hi guys!
I’m doing OCR Conflict for Poetry on Monday and I’m freaking out. How many poems are you guys memorising? What poem relates to what theme? What could they ask? How many quotes per poem???
Any help is super appreciated.
Good luck! ❤️

Never gotten a tattoo before. Im finally proud to be who I am and not afraid to express myself. I love the song radio and national anthem by Lana del Rey. They both have like 10 different meanings for me and my perspective and how it’s changed as I’ve grown into who I am. So initially I was thinking the song title Radio, but I would much rather have a line on my left hand of something that maybe is a line in the song or just a word or couple words that embodies those themes. Of pure capitalist / greed / American Dream. Hopefully that makes sense. The beauty and also darkness of being a pure capitalist. Im from a third world country that was destroyed by America and I moved here and grew up chasing an American dream. There’s an oxymoronic kind of dark beauty about it. So I’d really love to embody this in a word or quote on my hand or wrist.

Looking for ways to make my English scores go up, cause I ate up Y7 and Y8 English cause all we had to do was analyse a character, never a theme, and I walked out of those End of Years repping a 35/40. Now this year, we started Of Mice and Men, Creative Writing and this term we're doing R + J. We've been doing theme-related end of term tests, and I can never get above 22/30. Asking for advice since EO Year exams are coming closer, and wanted advice on what I should practice, so here's a rough outline :
How does Shakespeare present conflict in Prince Escalus’ speech and in the wider play of Romeo and Juliet?
Shakespeare introduces the theme of conflict in Prince Escalus’ speech through his disgust with the warring of the Montagues and the Capulets. He describes the two warring households as ‘enemies to peace’ and creates juxtaposition between the citizens of Verona and the Montagues and Capulets. He further creates this idea by saying that the ‘(swords)..canker’d with peace to part your canker'd hate’. He describes the swords as corrupted with hate because their wielders (Montagues and Capulets) are fueled with their hatred that even the inanimate objects have a temper. He further creates this idea that inanimate objects have the ability to feel emotion through his exclamative of ‘Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground!’ His use of the iambic pentameter combined with an imperative further demonstrates his authority and power over two houses, and he finishes his speech by declaring a death sentence on anyone who disturbs the civil peace again.
(wider play) In this Shakespearean sonnet, he introduces the theme of conflict through the imagery of bloody hands ; the quote ‘civil blood makes civil hands unclean,’ Blood will be staining otherwise ‘civil’ hands, and forebodes a sense of murder and the unprecedented violence that will take place during the play. The two households are described as ‘foes’ with an ‘ancient grudge.. Breaks to new mutiny’ . The juxtaposition between ‘ancient’ and ‘new’ further emphasises how long this conflict has been going on for, and has not stopped, and is impossible to end, (‘nought could remove.’) Furthermore, the Prologue introduces the theme of conflict through the play’s two main lovers, Romeo and Juliet. They are described as ‘two star-crossed lovers’ who will ‘take their life’. This astronomical imagery implies that their fate is written in the stars, and that the play will revolve around the ‘fateful passage of their death-marked love.’ The sonnet’s rhythm of iambic pentameter also heightens the tension and helps to emphasise the inevitability of their deaths.

I've been listening to Schubert's 9th. Schumann famously praised it for its "heavenly length". This praise was not accidental. For a long time after its premiere (1839), 19th-century audiences and orchestras had mixed feelings about this symphony and its length was one of the main reasons. I believe it was the longest symphony written between Beethoven's 9th and Bruckner's 2nd. Personally, I was always fascinated by the first three movements. But, for a long time, I always found the last movement a bit exhausting, insistent in some sequences, with the main material being somewhat generic. In other words, length was an issue for me as well.
I'm still trying to find my way into it. There's a moment in the movement when Schubert starts quoting the "Ode to Joy" theme in a modified version (beginning of the development) and that theme becomes a significant part of the structure. This symphony was written when Schubert was under the spell of Beethoven's 9th. So in a sense, this movement should probably be examined under that light. With his 5th and his 9th, Beethoven effectively changed the character of the fourth symphonic movement. It becomes the center of the structure, to which all previous pieces point. This last movement could also be seen as the centerpiece of this symphony. In fact, some of its rhythmic and intervalic structures, can be related to the first movement (and partially to the second). But those correlations are a bit too subtle. Maybe I can find more inevitability in the movement after some more analysis.
Does anyone have any strong opinion about this symphony or this movement? Would love to hear others perspective

These are just predictions, done by me, an idiot, don't take my word for it. Share your own predictions for what questions might come up too. Here are mine:
An Inspector Calls : How far is the Inspector presented throughout the play? (as a socialist who influences the characters in the play)
Power and Conflict - Theme could be memory, identity or the power of nature. I'm not sure which poem could exactly come up, but I know it probably won't be Bayonet Charge, London or Remains since they came up fairly recently.
Unseen poetry is always super random so I don't have any predictions for this. The best way to revise for unseen poetry is to read short (or long) poems and see if you can analyse them by breaking them down into themes. The poem you analyse won't be the same as the one that comes up in the paper, but at least you're practising your analysing skills.
Again, these are predictions done by me, an idiot, so don't take my word for it.
My advice would just be to analyse the themes for Inspector Calls and try to memorise a few good quotes, not too many or you might get overwhelmed. For Power and Conflict, you could analyse a few poems that you find easy, and make sure that they differ in themes.
Good luck to everyone taking their Lit papers, hope everyone does well :)

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/health/watch-michelle-oneill-faces-ferocious-grilling-at-uk-covid-inquiry-first-minister-asked-why-she-wiped-phone-messages-despite-clear-legal-advice-4627731
Health WATCH: Michelle O'Neill faces ferocious grilling at UK Covid inquiry: First Minister asked why she wiped phone messages despite 'clear' legal advice By Adam Kula Published 14th May 2024, 12:31 BST Updated 14th May 2024, 17:03 BST
Michelle O’Neill is facing a ferocious grilling at the UK’s Covid inquiry, where she has been accused of simply blaming others – particularly the UK government – instead of reflecting on her own role. She was sworn in using a secular oath as opposed to The Bible.
The First Minister of Northern Ireland began her testimony by confirming that yes, she led the country’s government, that she was a leader of her party both north and south, and that she was responsible for not just leading the response to the pandemic but leading by example too.
Having established her senior position in these slow, solemn opening exchanges with Clair Dobbin KC (barrister for the inquiry), Ms O’Neill began with the frequently-cited Sinn Fein line about “public services being decimated with 10 years of austerity cuts”.
A selection Ms O’Neill’s own words were then put to her, taken from her witness statement to the inquiry.
“Blaming others – that’s something you’ve done throughout your witness statement, isn’t it?” said Ms Dobbin.
"The constant theme throughout it, do you agree, is that you blame the UK government for the slowness of this approach in the initial stages of the pandemic: do you agree?”
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"I don’t accept I blame others throughout the statement,” replied Ms O’Neill.
Michelle O'Neill at the hearing on May 14, 2024 Michelle O'Neill at the hearing on May 14, 2024 "I accept I point out where things are wrong. In particular, I do believe my position is vindicated in terms of the fact Boris Johnson and his government were too slow to act at the start of the pandemic.”
The following was also put to her by Ms Dobbin: “Ms O’Neill, there’s no reflection I think, nor any insight in your witness statement, about any of the hurt or any of the problems you caused by attending the funeral of Mr Storey [the IRA enforcer who died while receiving NHS care in England].”
"I think I have addressed that in my statement,” Ms O’Neill replied, then asked to “address the families” directly.
"You are here to give evidence, not to address people,” came the reply.
Clair Dobbin and Michelle O'Neill at the Covid inquiry, May 14, 2024 Ms O’Neill went on to say of the Storey funeral: “I am sorry for going – and I’m sorry for the hurt that has been caused.”
In 2020, she had said: “I will never apologise for attending the funeral of my friend.”
MINUTIAE OF THE MINUTES: The handwritten minutes of an Executive meeting just after the funeral were then shown to the inquiry.
These minutes recount that Ms O’Neill had told her colleagues she was “honoured” to be invited to funeral, that he was “a huge figure”, that she knew “thousands would want to attend”, that “people vote with feet,” that there was “no dilution in my mind of public message”, and there was “no offence intended”.
A section of the minutes was read out covering comments made by Conor Murphy (the former Sinn Fein finance minister, who is not attending the inquiry on grounds of ill-health).
That section of the minutes has him saying: “Rules relaxed – not same circumstances; breach of regs – technicalities; I attended, but not in cortege; chapel – soc dist – stewardship…
"People can say what they want to say – entitled to opinion, I’m entitled to be sceptical.”
Ms Dobbin turned to Mrs O’Neill and said the minutes showed her to be “entirely unapologetic on July 2, weren’t you?”
“It was immediately after the funeral itself. I think what I said there in terms of not diluting the public message, that was wrong, because clearly I did – and I have acknowledged that, and have worked every day ever since to regain public confidence and trust.”
She added, her voice appearing almost to break: "I would never, ever set out to hurt people.”
PARTYGATE ‘HYPOCRISY’: The chairwoman of the inquiry herself then quizzed her, putting it to her that “wasn’t it a bit hypocritical” to criticise Boris Johnson over ‘Partygate’ given her involvement in the funeral?
"I don’t think so because they’re two very different things in terms of the Boris Johnson approach of partying the whole way through the pandemic and blinking their way through it to be quite blunt…”
The chairwoman interjected: “We didn’t find out about the partying ‘til after the panedmic. What you did was to do something that the bereaved couldn’t do – the normal bereaved couldn’t do – because you wanted to go to a friends funeral.
"Isn’t that then saying what Boris Johnson’s government did was wrong was hypocritical?”
Ms O’Neill responded: "No, I don’t think so because what I did was under the understanding of the regulations at that time.
"I know we don’t want to open that up my lady but I have answered that.
"But I do accept wholeheartedly that I, in some way, damaged our executive relations with colleagues who had been working very hard with me the whole way through.
“I also accept wholeheartedly I damaged the public health messaging…
"I should have anticipated the outworking of what I did.”
Ms Dobbin then asked: “Was it really that difficult to anticipate the outworking of what you did Ms O’Neill?”
Ms O’Neill replied: “It was insofar as I was concerned on a personal invite attending a cortege of 30 people and I tried not to open this up but that’s the basis on which I attended.”
Ms Dobbin said: “One of the first questions I asked you was whether or not people from Northern Ireland got the leadership they deserved from you: how can you maintain that they did, in light of what you’ve just accepted?”
Ms O’Neill: “I didn’t say everything was perfect all of the time.
"I do believe that I did lead from the front the whole way through the pandemic, as did all of my executive colleagues.
"We’ve had difficulties, we’ve had challenging times, we’ve worked through very difficult times – which I’m sure you’ll want to speak about – but I do believe I led the whole way through; albeit I put my hands up in terms of the funeral itself and how I shouldn’t have done that, because that took away from all the work I’d put in to trying to lead us through the pandemic which was hard on everybody right across society…
"I worked day and night to get us through this pandemic, so apart from this one time I do believe my leadership was strong through the pandemic.”
Ms Dobbin said: “Well, let’s examine that...”
DELETED MESSAGES: Later in the session, Ms O’Neill was asked if she accepts that she “cleansed or wiped your devices when the powersharing arrangements came to an end”.
"That’s right,” she replied.
"Did you delete them in and around February 2022 or was it later than that?”
She responded: “I’m assuming whenever I left office, yes”.
Ms O’Neill went on to tell the inquiry she would periodically wipe and reset devices to delete personal information.
It was put to Ms O’Neill that, based on the phone records which the inquiry does possess, it was clear that she and Arlene Foster had used their phones to “discuss substantive matters about the response to the pandemic”.
Ms O’Neill said: "There may well have been the to-ing and fro-ing outside a meeting. All decisions were recorded on the official record in terms of what the civil service hold."
Ms Dobbin said: “It’s not just decisions that have to be recorded though is it? It’s discussions around them. there are rules aren’t there there’s guidance about what should be retained and committed to the official record.”
Ms O’Neill replied: “...I’m confident all those decisions were recorded. I’ve been a minister for health, I’ve been a minister for agriculture and rural affairs, and I noted other ministers – minister Long – had the same approach as I in terms of clearing your device because of sensitive information before you hand it back to the department because it’s going to be redistributed to another member of staff.”
Ms Dobbin then quoted from Ms O’Neill’s witness statement in which the Sinn Fein MLA had said: “I did not use WhatsApp, text messages, or iMessages to communicate about matters related to the response to the pandemic during the specified period other than logistical and administrative matters.’”
Ms Dobbin added that Ms O’Neill had been given “clear advice that you should be retaining WhatsApps” to which the Sinn Fein vice-president said: “Yes, but I believe I’ve misunderstood exactly what I should retain and thought I had retained everything that was relevant to the Covid decision-making process…
"Firstly I wiped the device, as minister Long explained, because we thought that was our custom and practice in terms of departmental phones being returned.
"Secondly that I believed the official record was recorded and populated.”
Thirdly, there was “a misunderstanding on my part” in terms of what constituted formal and informal communication.

"While the Badlands has always been a scary place in the Trek universe, there's also something ethereal and magical about this specific spacescape. In DS9, it was a place of refuge for an idealistic band of rebels. In Voyager, the Badlands became a doorway to a larger adventure, changing the lives of Janeway and the rest of the crew in ways that had countless repercussions throughout all of Star Trek history. And now, in Discovery, the Badlands becomes a diaphanous, whimsical setting for a library in space."
Ryan Britt (StarTrek .com)
Link:
https://www.startrek.com/en-un/news/brief-history-of-the-badlands
Quotes/Excerpts:
"Discovery's return to the Badlands might be the next-to-last stop on the treasure map to get the elusive secrets of the Progenitor tech, but it's a thrilling moment for longtime Star Trek fans. The Badlands isn't just a random Easter egg. This is a part of space pivotal to the history of the 24th Century, a place which spans not just a chunk of the Alpha Quadrant, but the paths of two beloved Trek shows — Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
In many ways, the Badlands represents a moment in Star Trek history where the franchise was getting really good at planting seeds for later plot developments, and, in the case of the Badlands, for TV series that had yet to even premiere. As many longtime fans know, back in the 1990s, having serialized arcs on any TV show was rare, meaning that ongoing shared continuity between Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine was downright revolutionary.
How does this connect to the Badlands? Well, before the U.S.S. Voyager actually went into the Badlands in the 1995 series premiere of Star Trek: Voyager, "Caretaker," the concept of the Badlands was introduced in Deep Space Nine.
On April 24, 1994, in the 20th episode of Deep Space Nine's second season, the concept of the Badlands was quietly introduced. Titled "The Maquis, Part I," the episode introduced the growing resistance movement among former Federation colonists living in a demilitarized zone that now was part of Cardassian space. This storyline was directly connected to The Next Generation episode "Journey's End," which had aired just a month prior on March 28, 1994. That episode established the conundrum of what was happening to the Federation colonists in the Cardassian DMZ, and then, DS9's "The Maquis, Part I" and "The Maquis, Part II," revealed what happened when those colonists organized into a fighting force.
By May 16, 1994, this storyline pivoted back to TNG with the episode "Preemptive Strike," in which Ro Laren defects to the Maquis, breaking Captain Picard's heart for nearly 30 years, until their reconciliation in the 2023 episode of Star Trek: Picard, "Imposters."
So, in 1994, the Star Trek franchise escalated a huge storyline in March, April, and May. And one common element of this entire Maquis storyline was the Badlands.
Although Deep Space Nine introduced the concept of the Badlands in Season 2, and later mentioned it again in the Season 3 episode "Defiant," the full destructive and absurdly dangerous aspect of the Badlands wasn't fully on display until the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
In "The Maquis, Part 1," Sisko says, "A few ships have been lost there over the past year or two," which again, foreshadows the moment when Voyager, and then Chakotay's ship the Val Jean, are transported to the Delta Quadrant, from the Badlands.
So while the Badlands had been visited and name-checked before Voyager, most fans associate this unstable region of space with that series. And with good reason, if Voyager had never pursued the Val Jean into the Badlands, the entire show would never have happened. Janeway even selected the temperamental, former-criminal Tom Paris as her pilot, because the Badland were known to be treacherous. And although DS9 would revisit the Badlands a bit more in subsequent seasons, the pink-orange landscape of the plasma storms from the opening moments of "Caretaker" have been burned into the brains of fans for almost 30 years.
[...]
While the Badlands has always been a scary place in the Trek universe, there's also something ethereal and magical about this specific spacescape. In DS9, it was a place of refuge for an idealistic band of rebels. In Voyager, the Badlands became a doorway to a larger adventure, changing the lives of Janeway and the rest of the crew in ways that had countless repercussions throughout all of Star Trek history. And now, in Discovery, the Badlands becomes a diaphanous, whimsical setting for a library in space.
One of Star Trek's recurring themes is the ways in which the pursuit of knowledge can help us all overcome hardship. And in Discovery, that theme is perfectly exemplified by a celestial library, at the center of an interstellar storm."