Download The Spades Card Games ((FULL))
Esperanza Santrizos
Fellows,
On the topic of face card asexuality-related symbolism:
So as far as I understand we've got "Ace of Spades" and "Ace of Hearts," with spades representing both Asexuality as a whole, and sometimes Aromanticism as well, and hearts as a sort of counter to spades can represent romantic asexuals. So we're sort of using these symbols to indicate what part of the romantic spectrum you relate to. (And then people color it gray or demi colors or whatever to give more info on how ace you are.)
Is there a defined (or even semi-defined) use for "Ace of Clubs" or "Ace of Diamonds"?
Should there be?
I personally find myself difficult to define romantically, sort of a WTF-romantic, if you will.
(Something between heteroromantic, as I am more attracted to masculinity, and but ew, all things anything near heteronormativity are repulsive; my gender issues are showing. And also, relationships, I can't even. uh. I can't pin myself down like that. At the same time, I want a relationship? It's confusing and I generally ignore it.)
Anyway, I find myself reluctant to align myself with both "Ace of Spades" and "Ace of Hearts" camps, which is totally fine, who cares, except sometimes, I want to buy an Ace shirt, or an Ace mug. But they usually have a spade or heart. And I wouldn't want the one asexual person I come across in my life to improperly assume my romantic orientation based on my mug, the horror!
I kind of want to claim "Ace of Clubs" because clubs are the wonkiest shape. Maybe the gray-ro and similar should take it? But then who is diamonds?
Has this already been decided and I am just out of the loop? HELP ME OUT HERE MY FELLOWS I AM DESPERATE.
Cheers,
Sundance_
i've always understood ace of spades to represent aromantic aces (and not just aces in general). don't know about clubs and diamonds, though i'm positive i've seen a thread or two around here discussing it!
(I know; "why do those two get a specific card when the rest of romantics are stuck with one card?" But that's how hard it is coming up with a proper role for the remaining two. We could put Gray-romantic but then there's one left. If we put it with Gray-A then there's 3 romantics with 1 sexual. So sexual orientations need a whole category.) Maybe we can have a card for polyamory and QPRs.
I wouldn't say aromatics only considering almost every asexual pride thing I have seen uses the ace of spades and many other non aromatic asexuals use it as well. the ace of spades seems to be used for asexuals as a whole 90% of the time. And for it to suddenly be switched to aromatic asexuals only seems weird.
Yeah there was a dicussion about this in chat a couple of weeks ago, I've also seen it on tumblr. Obviously we all know ace of spades is aro and hearts is alloromantic, and then ace of diamonds means anywhere on the grey-spectrum, e.g. lith, demi, and so on. Ace of clubs just means questioning or unsure of orientation.
Earlier this year, The Asexuality Blog organized an event called "Ace Visibility Day", and as part of that, they assigned meanings to the four suits. These meanings include the usual spades aromantic and hearts romantic, but they also added diamonds demi/grayromantic and clubs questioning. I'm not sure if it's based on any prior asexual folklore or if the organizer just invented the meanings. Regardless, the precedent is set.
Gray isn't for things that are hard to define, it's just an umbrella term for anything between having an attraction and not; having characteristics of both simultaneously or at different times. And several of which have names; Lithsexual, Fraysexual, etc. And even having sexual attraction rarely and a low sex-drive are under it. Demi is under this umbrella too. But i find separating the two with the cards functional because demi is probably the most common one.
(And i take back my proposal of face cards being sexualities. They should still be orientations/gay, straight and bi, but not specifically sexual. I think Jack should be Bi/Pan because it's the offspring/combination of the other two. The king should be hetero simply because it's more common, and the queen is gay. I was going to suggest pairing a sexual/romantic card with an orientation card and that 10 should be the sexual one because it's next to the orientations, but i think i solved it. Though in both cases the spades/aromantic cards can still be used for Cupioromantics. The problem in this actually comes from the suits being labeled 'wrongly.' The only clear 4 things that should be together are Allosexual, Asexual, Romantic, and Aromantic. It would be way easier just filling in the remaining blanks with prefixes after that, but Asexuality uses an entire class so it complicates how we organize things. But we actually can put the remaining two as sexual and asexual and it function. brb to post picture. Both proposals have redundancies/doubles though. I still have 3 number slots left, any ideas?)
Actually the term Ace is very ironically befitting. It was originally the lowest class in Europe's card game, but in the late 15th century it began to get favor and became the strongest card. (i.e. asexual is becoming more known) The word Ace even comes from the Latin word as; which referred to its lowest unit of coin. (i.e. our 1% ratio) It's even befitting to put the Jack as Bi/Pan because it was originally the lowest court card and renamed Jack after another card game. But that game was also considered a low class game so saying it was considered vulgar. (i.e. Bi/Pan people are hated) The Joker was created by the U.S. in 1860.
I wonder if there are more cards used with specific numbers or Jacks, Queens, and Kings now to match with certain asexual, romantic, or aromantic orientation (Sorry if it doesn't sound quite right, not sure how to phrase this more shortly)?
Sorry i didn't edit my picture like i said, but looking at my new setup; romantic orientations going down the vertical ace side and sexual ones going down the horizontal side (excluding face cards), i started to see problems with the face card section i.e. what's the use past one row (or two rows if you include sexual orientations for cross-orientations or allosexual partners, which i think is needed). So far i just have one left; one is used for sexual orientation, another for romantic, and the last for allochronic (i.e. sexual and romantic orientation not coinciding) orientation. Grr, can't think of one more. But this way we do allow sexuals and cross-orientations to use them. Maybe for sensual orientations?
Some other Ace friends and I together each have one suit (which describes our orientations)- I'm diamonds, but could have been clubs except another friend had that already, and our ace-arrow friend is spades, and my best friend is hearts.
If you have high spade cards--such as the king or queen--but not the top spades, you might lead a mid or low spade to attempt to pull out the higher spades in an attempt to make your high cards sure winners.
Start from the top and lead down. This is effective if you have a few boss trump, or are very long in spades (six or more).You lead low trump, your partner plays as high as possible (if partner's highest spade is higher than your LHO's spade). If your partner gets the lead back, she leads low, and you play high. This will work even if your opponents have higher trump than you, as long as you end up with the last trump and can lead suits in which your opponents are weak or void.
I grew up in a family that loves their card and board games. My childhood is filled with hilarious Scattergories blunders, riveting deliberation over Mind Trap prompts, and crudely-drawn Pictionary answers that would make for great Monty Python sketches, but I learned early on in life that a good game of Spades can't be matched. Chock full of lessons about strategy, teamwork, and self-mastery, teaching the whippersnappers in your families to be Spades players is worth it.
Set the rules. No two Spades games are alike. Lay the groundwork for a good game by making sure that all players are aware of the rules. Don't play with the red deuces (two of hearts / diamonds)? Take 'em out. How many books are taken from a team if they renege? Hash out a mutually agreed upon number and collect accordingly. Does the first hand bid itself (the books that are taken are won without the teams declaring them beforehand)? Make sure those tidbits are communicated before the first card hits the table...and make sure everyone agrees.
Get in working order. The cards have been shuffled, cut, and are about to be dealt. You'll soon have thirteen opportunities in your hand - and you'll need to work with your partner's thirteen to defeat twenty-six unseen rivals acting under your opponents' direction. I'm a planner, so I rearrange my cards as they're dealt by alternating suit (red, black, red, black) in ascending order. When it comes time to take a book or take a fall (so my partner can win the hand), I can easily get to the one I need to play without telegraphing the rest of what I'm working with. Because I've integrated cards as they were dealt, I developed an ability to discern the advantages of a card within the context of my entire hand and can temper my playing style so it's in line with what I'm working with.
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