nicolasays

[nicolasays]

The number one thing that would let more independent artists exists in America is a universal basic income. The number one thing that has a possibility of happening is single payer healthcare. This is because artists are humans who need to eat and live and get medical care, and our country punishes anyone who wants to go freelance and pursue their dream by telling them they might get cancer while uninsured, and then not be able to afford to treat it.

Companies are not loyal to you. Please never believe a company has your back. They are amoral by design and will discard you at a moment’s notice. Negotiate aggressively, ask other freelancers what they’re getting paid, and don’t buy into the financial negging of some suit.

I’ve cobbled together many different streams of income, so that if the bottom falls out of one industry, I’m not ruined. My mom worked in packaging design. When computers fundamentally changed the field, she lost all her work. I learned from this.

Very often people who blow up and become famous fast already have some other sort of income, either parental money, spousal money, money saved from another job, or corporate backing behind the scenes. Other times they’ve actually been working for 10 years and no one noticed until suddenly they passed some threshold. Either way, its good to take a hard look- you’ll learn from studying both types of people, and it will keep you from delusional myth-making.

I’ve never had a big break. I’ve just had tiny cracks in this wall of indifference until finally the wall wasn’t there any more

Don’t be a dick. Be nice to everyone who is also not a dick, help people who don’t have the advantages you do, and never succumb to crabs in the barrel infighting.

Remember that most people who try to be artists are kind of lazy. Just by busting your ass, you’re probably good enough to put yourself forward, so why not try?

Rejection is inevitable. Let it hit you hard for a moment, feel the hurt, and then move on.

Never trust some Silicon Valley douchebag who’s flush with investors’ money, but telling creators to post on their platform for free or for potential crumbs of cash. They’re just using you to build their own thing, and they’ll discard you when they sell the company a few years later.

Be a mercenary towards people with money. Be generous and giving to good people without it.

Working for free is only worth it if its with fellow artists or grassroots organizations you believe in, and only if they treat your respectfully and you get creative control.

Don’t ever submit to contests where you have to do new work. They’ll just waste your time, and again, only build the profile of the judges and the sponsoring company. Do not believe their lies about “exposure”. There is so much content online that just having your work posted in some massive image gallery is not exposure at all.

Don’t work for free for rich people. Seriously. Don’t don’t don’t. Even if you can afford to, you’re fucking over the labor market for other creators. Haggling hard for money is actually a beneficial act for other freelancers, because it is a fight against the race to the bottom that’s happening online.

If people love your work, treat them nice as long as they’re nice to you.

Be massively idealistic about your art, dream big, open your heart and let the blood pour forth. Be utterly cynical about the business around your art.

[nicolasays]

Let’s talk Pokemon Go and the arts. 

 Today I went to the Grounds for Sculpture. It is 42 acres of superb outdoor sculptures magnificently landscaped, and my favorite place to be. I visit around four to five times a year. Today, it was packed with people because it has over 40 pokestops. And that is wonderful! 

 The arts struggle. When budgets get cut, the arts go first. Many people are unaware of artistic landmarks right around the corner. Many more wouldn’t know how to support them if they could. Pokemon Go is helping people discover, appreciate, and explore artistic locations in ways they never have. 

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is advertising lures at their pokestops all weekend. The MOMA proudly tweets about their pokestops. Twitter is full of people photographing local murals and monuments they didn’t know existed. People are engaging in art through this game. It is beautiful. 

For many years museums and non profits have struggled to gain new patrons, engage a new audience. And here it is, in the most unexpected of places. To those stick in the muds who glared at me while I caught a Vulpix at The Monet Bridge, you do not know that I painted until two am last night. I eat, sleep, and breathe art. Today I was engaged with my family while getting exercise and enjoying the sunshine. All while experiencing my favorite place in a refreshing way. I was not a mindless zombie as your eye roll implied. I was celebrating the droves of teenagers romping through Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Space is Stone. It was brought to life in a new way by their quest to catch them all. 

Art is not meant to be behind glass to slowly rot. It is life, it changes with culture, grows with humanity, and it thrives on attention. May future generations find joy in art in similar ways I cannot imagine. Thank you Pokemon Go. May arts profits sky rocket because of your boost. Seeing that many people enjoy The Grounds for Sculpture for the first time because of a video game is an inspiration.

[nicolasays]

Super helpful! Thanks, Joe! 

New Pokemon GO Trainers!

Many of you are just starting your adventures in this world of Pokemon and for lots of people, it will hold familiar elements but you must remember that this is not your standard Pokemon game! 

The provided tutorial is weak at best, so I’m here as a previous beta tester to answer all of your questions! It’s a LOT to read, so I’ll try to make searching for what you’re looking for easier!

TL;DR Spend 10 dollars on lucky eggs and incubators, time your throws for the smallest circle when catching, when you place a Pokemon in a gym it’s stuck until it gets defeated, dont forget your daily bonus!, train using lower CP Pokemon, get stardust/Pokemon candies to strengthen your Pokemon, Pokemon candies evolve your Pokemon.  If none of that made sense, you should keep reading!

Let’s go over the original tutorial or “tips!” 

Poke-stops! Professor Willow explains them pretty well and they’re simple. When you’re close enough, it’ll change shape and expand. Tap it to bring up the monument or art piece nearby and swipe the disk to spin. You can tap the individual items to collect or just exit the Poke-stop and you’ll automatically collect everything that pops up

Next he shows you what a gym looks like. When you hit level 5, you’ll be able to join one of three teams. Team Instinct (Yellow), Team Mystic (Blue), or Team Valor (Red) and then you’ll be able to interact with these gyms

Assigning Pokemon leaves a Pokemon at that Gym until it is defeated. It cannot be interacted with (leveling up or evolved, etc) 

Training Pokemon! the tips doesn’t explain this at all. I will later. 

Challenge a rival gym to lower its Prestige and level! again not explained.

During Battle swipe to dodge attacks. They forgot to mention that tapping attacks and holding does a special attack.  (my words in bold)

A LOT of this game is “how does this thing work?” so I’ve written a FAQ to answer your questions!

Basic F.A.Q.

To answer all of your “How do I play this $&*#$ game” needs

1. How does catching Pokemon work?

As you wander around, Pokemon will pop up around you! Tap the Pokemon to enter a new screen. You can choose to have Augmented Reality mode on or off (uses your phone camera to place the Pokemon in your surroundings) There’s a convenient AR swipe button at the top right to turn off and on. A poke-ball should be floating in front of you. You can flick it at the Pokemon and if it connects, you’ll attempt to catch it! Think Safari mode in a standard Pokemon game

2. Are there any tricks to catching Pokemon?

Yes! If you hold the poke-ball, you’ll notice the Pokemon has a green(easiest) or yellow or orange or red (hardest) circle around them that cycles from large to small. The smaller the circle, the better your chances of catching the Pokemon. 

You can also continually swirl the ball to create a curve throw in the direction that you’re rotating. So if you’re rotating clockwise, the ball will curve right.

Accuracy is also a factor! You’ll notice if the poke-ball lands directly, you’ll get “nice” “great” or “excellent” experience bonuses

There are also Razberries from Poke-Stops that you can feed to a Pokemon to increase your catching chance on your next throw! It says next throw, but what it really means is the next time you hit the Pokemon with a poke-ball! 

Besides Pokeballs, there are Great Balls and Ultra Balls confirmed in the game to catch even stronger pokemon!

3. Now I’ve caught the Pokemon, how do I make it stronger?

Good job! For catching the Pokemon, you should receive 100 Stardust, some EXP, and 3 Pokemon Candies of that Pokemon. (IE a Pidgey will give you 3 Pidgey Candies, An evolved form of a Pokemon will give you their basic form candies. IE a Pidgeotto will still give you 3 Pidgey Candies)

Each Pokemon has a CP or Combat Points which is their strength. To increase CP, tap the Pokemon you’d like to strengthen and you’ll notice a large POWER UP button with a Stardust cost and Candy Cost. If you can fill those costs, you can up your CP meter. Once your CP Meter is maxed, the CP of that Pokemon wont go any higher until your trainer level also increases!

4. Wait, you just said I also need candies to evolve?

Yes I did! Each Pokemon with an evolved form has a candy cost to evolve. Pidgey requires 12 Pidgey Candies to evolve into a Pidgeotto, and then another 50 Pidgey Candies to evolve into a Pidgeot!

So each Pokemon you catch will give you 3 candies. If you like, you can also Transfer any Pokemon to Professor Willow for an additional candy! So each Pokemon will provide 4 candy total, but it’s irreversible, so be sure you don’t want that Pokemon you’re transferring!

If you look at the picture from Q3, you see that EVOLVE has a price of 12 and I have 28 Pidgey Candies on hand. 5. How do I get more Stardust?

There are three ways to get stardust! 1. Catch more pokemon! You’ll get 100 stardust per pokemon you catch, 2. Hatch some eggs!  3. Control gyms for a daily Stardust/Coin bonus!

6. How do I get and hatch an egg?

You’ll eventually come across eggs at Poke-Stops and there are three different kinds. 2km, 5km, and 10km eggs. Your character comes equipped with an eternal Incubator that has infinite uses as well! You can hold up to 9 eggs at one time

Go to your Pokemon tab and at the top, you should have an Eggs tab. Swipe or tap to the tab and all of your eggs will be shown. 

Tap an egg and hit “Start Incubation”

You’ll get an option to place it in any open incubator you have. You can purchase more from the store at 150 coins each for a 3-time use incubator. 

Here’s the crappy part. As of launch, your PokemonGO app only records distance traveled while the app is open. Which is a HUGE battery drain. Hopefully they change this in the future. 

Once you’ve walked the requisite distance, your egg will hatch and you’ll get a Pokemon from it! Also quite a bit of stardust (1000ish for 2km, more for longer distance eggs) and 10-15 candies of that Pokemon! 

7. If I have multiple incubators going, will they all accumulate distance?

Yep! So you should get those eggs in incubators ASAP!

8. So … how do gyms work?

First, get to level 5. Once you do, you’ll be prompted to pick a team. Team Instinct (Yellow), Team Mystic (Blue), or Team Valor (Red) Once you pick, you’re stuck! so choose wisely!  *coughINSTINCTcough* If you come across an empty gym, you can place a Pokemon that is at FULL HP there. If has taken any damage, it cannot be placed in a gym. Be careful though! Once it is placed, it cannot be leveled up, evolved, or transferred or anything else until it has been defeated. 

9. What about an enemy gym?

An enemy gym will be any gym that’s not your team’s color. So since I’m Team Instinct, all Red (Valor) and Blue (Mystic) gyms are enemy gyms. An enemy gym will have at least one Pokemon defending it with a certain number of Prestige points as well. You can take 6 of your Pokemon in an attempt to defeat all the Pokemon at a gym. You can also team battle if you’re training with your friends to work together to take down a gym.

10. How does combat work?

Combat in PokemonGO is pretty simple. You can only fight in gyms and it’s a pretty quick experience. ATTACK TYPE MATTERS. Using a water move on a fire Pokemon will be SUPER EFFECTIVE In an enemy gym, you’ll set your lineup of 6 Pokemon to come out in order, while the enemy gym will bring out Pokemon from lowest CP to highest CP. Combat is a tap/swipe game. If you bring up a Pokemon’s stat page, you’ll notice that everyone has two moves. A basic attack and a special attack. 

Every time you tap, you’ll perform a basic attack. every time you tap and hold, you’ll perform a special attack. However, you need to build up energy to use a special attack. Under your Pokemon’s HP bar, you’ll notice a small bar that fills up with each basic attack. Once a bar is filled (there might be multiple) then you can use a special attack. 

You can also dodge enemy attacks by swiping left or right. Your pokemon will attempt to dodge out of the way. You can’t avoid special attacks though! 

DONT SPAM THE APP BY TAPPING A MILLION TIMES. In beta, there was a huge bug where if you tapped a bunch of times without letting the app catch up, the opponent’s Pokemon would get stuck at 1 hp and keep attacking all of your Pokemon. Honestly, just wait until the animation is close to finished before tapping again and you should be fine and still do the same amount of damage. 

11. How do I take over a gym?

Once you’ve defeated all of the gym’s Pokemon (or been defeated) you’ll come to a end battle screen that will tell you how much EXP you earned and how much Gym Prestige you’ve lowered. If you managed to lower the Prestige all the way to zero, then you’ve defeated the gym and can place your own Pokemon there now! You might need to defeat the same team multiple times to lower their prestige all the way to zero. 

12. What about a friendly gym?

A friendly gym can be trained to increase prestige! If there is a slot for more Pokemon, you can also add one of your Pokemon like you would add to an empty gym! If you look at the top of the gym, under the name, there should be a Crown for the highest CP Pokemon and some dots next to the crown. If any of those dots are blank/empty, then you can add a Pokemon! If not, that means they’re full, but you can train a gym to a higher prestige level so that it can hold more Pokemon!

13. How do I train a Gym?

You can only train at friendly gyms to increase their prestige level! You get to choose ONE Pokemon to fight all the Pokemon at the friendly gym. You can definitely choose to stomp that gym with a Pokemon with a MUCH higher CP, but you wont gain much in Prestige. 

The real trick is to take a lower CP Pokemon and defeat as many Pokemon as you can! Even if the Pokemon is only one CP lower, it qualifies for full prestige benefits (i think it’s 500 per Pokemon you defeat of a higher CP) while a much higher CP Pokemon will only net like 100 prestige or less. 

14. So how does having a Gym get me Stardust?

If you go to the shop, the top right has a “Defense” bonus that can be activated once every 21 hours. For each pokemon you have that is currently defending a gym, you gain 500 Stardust and 10 coins for a maximum of 5000 Stardust and 100 coins! So if you have at least 10 gyms when you collect, you’re receiving the maximum gym benefit! 

15. My Pokemon fainted! How? Why? What can I do?

Don’t worry! It’s going to happen a lot in this game. If your Pokemon fainted, then it was either in a gym that was just defeated, or you were training and it couldn’t go the distance and beat all the Pokemon at the gym. If the Pokemon is at 0 hp, you can spend a Revive or Max Revive on it to give it HP then top the Pokemon off with Potions/Super Potions/Max Potions etc.  If you don’t have any more revives, you can spend stardust to level it up just a teeny bit and give it a few HP so that you can spend potions on it. 

This is the ONLY way to heal a Pokemon! There are no PokeCenters or anything else. You just have to keep collecting potions and what not. 

16. My Item/Pokemon bag is full! What do I do?

You can purchase a 50 slot upgrade for either Item or Pokemon bag at 200 coins each (pricey!) or you can go to your items page and start throwing away excess things. You probably realistically only need 100 pokeballs at any given point because you’ll get tons back as you hit Poke-Stops

17. What is the Nearby Tab and what does it mean?

Remember in the show they used to do “WHO’S THAT POKEMON?” This is kind of like that! The nearby tab will show you any (but not all) pokemon that are nearby! If you haven’t seen them yet, you’ll only see the silhouette, but once you’ve at least seen it, the silhouette will fill to show you the pokemon! 

18. What are the multiple paw prints?

Each paw print represents distance away from you (at least it did in the beta, but I’m pretty sure it’s equivalent) The less paw prints, the closer they are. 

In the nearby tab, you can select a specific Pokemon to keep track of so that you can tell if you’re going closer or farther away from them. Usually once you’re within 1 paw print, they’ll pop up on your screen. 

19. What does the compass button do?

Hitting the compass button will orient the map to north or south and will toggle between the two. 

20. Is spending money worth it?

Honestly, I’ve already spent 10 dollars on just Lucky Eggs and Incubators and I’m level 10 after about 2 hours of actual play time. Lucky Eggs double your EXP and whenever you unlock a pokedex entry, it’s normally 500 EXP plus 100 catching EXP plus any extra bonuses from a Nice Throw or a Curve throw. So each new Pokemon I get ends up being around 1300 EXP, which lets me level SUPER FAST. Each egg that hatches is also 1000 EXP at least so that gets doubled as well. Having lots of incubators is also always super useful. 

Whew! Okay! That should be pretty good for any basic questions people might have about this game! 

If I neglected to cover something, please let me know! Throw it in my ask or hit me up on twitter @MyLifeAsJoeKim and I’ll answer ASAP! 

Are there any more questions? 

[nicolasays]

A little something I made for those of you going through difficult times. It will get better. Feel free to share with anyone who might need it. <3 

[nicolasays]

The Swan & Mallard by John Randall

[nicolasays]

There’s a new page of Sufficiently Remarkable up! Featuring my favorite coffee and pizza join, Starchucks.

Coffee

[nicolasays]

The MIT Museum is calling for artists to submit artwork that showcases the museum’s “relationship with its community and the world and provoke questions about MIT’s future” while simultaneously showing a disregard for their creative community. 

Creative contests are a form of spec work, which is work done without guarantee of fair compensation. It’s part of a harmful notion that creative work is “fun” and therefore not worth paying a living wage for completed work. Read my comic about spec work, and write to the MIT Museum to tell them why their contest is not only bad for creatives, but for their own goals. MIT Museum Latest to Hold Bad Creative Contest

Nospec.com

[nicolasays]

I remember getting lost in these album covers. Awesome to see that Lady Miss Kier created a lot of this stuff old school graphic design paste up style. <3

some 90’s computer art  by Lady Miss Kier  w/ Taboo!’s lettering on Delovely ( a club nite i promoted at Trax  with Richard Alvarez  and He also made the Deee-lite logo lettering on our World Clique album cover & singles.

DJ Playlist:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=edit_ok&list=PL094B5CCC91F9266E

https://soundcloud.com/lady-miss-kier/dee-jay-lady-miss-kier-nu-acid

[nicolasays]

ABOUT: Open office plans, brainstorming sessions, presentations to stakeholders. The modern day work environment is made for extroverts. Studies show that louder people are perceived as smarter, more likable, and better leaders. So how does a creative introvert get her subdued voice heard amongst the outgoing loudmouths without having to become one herself? And how can extroverts show support and help their introvert counterparts succeed? Learn about how introverts can embrace their superpowers and flourish in their careers. Topics covered include “the best office hiding spaces,” “ways to avoid any phone call,” and “not vomiting before company-wide meetings.” WHO: Curalate's Design Overlord, Melissa Morris-Ivone! 

Purchase Tickets  

[nicolasays]

More black on black. Love this.

Art + Science Branding by Will Miller / Firebelly Design

[nicolasays]

Cody learns the value of sharing.

[nicolasays]

This is beautiful, Maki. <3

With great sadness Nikki put her longtime companion Leila to sleep last night. 

Leila was an old dog, even if she never acted it. At 16, she was just as fast as her younger brother Cody (the fluffball on the couch). I did the math and decided that she would live forever. In early August, Leila started acting different, and after some blood work, the vet diagnosed her with renal failure. We began to prepare for the worst. Then, after a risky teeth cleaning procedure and a change of diet, she bounced back. While slower and pickier about her walks and food, it really seemed like she had a new lease on life. Every full bowl of food eaten, every wag of her tail, and every little “I want something” dance was a gift.

Fast forward to last Thursday. We dropped Leila off at the sitter and left for Portland. It was the second-to-last trip of the year for me, and I was looking forward to just being home with her. When we picked her up on Monday, it was clear something was very wrong. She was weak and didn’t appear to be fully aware of her surroundings. She didn’t shake once in the car ride home. She hated car rides.

The vet confirmed our fears: her kidneys were shot, and there wasn’t much we could do but ease her suffering. We took Leila home, and found a service that would perform the euthanasia there. Last night around 7pm a man came over to the apartment. I don’t even remember his name. He guided us through every step of the process in a way that was compassionate and honest. It put me at ease in a way that surprised me.

Leila died on her favorite couch. It was all at once her choice nap spot and the perch from which she stood watch over the apartment. I only knew her for a little more than a year, but it felt like she had always been a part of my life—a testament to her strong personality. She was the stoic and commanding counterpart to Cody’s goofy antics, and her passing has left a noticeable vacuum in our home. 

I have a tendency to shut myself away and keep people at arms length, but Leila managed to wriggle her way into my heart. She was family, and I miss her so much.

[nicolasays]

Editorial Límits by Irene Clua

[nicolasays]

Skeleton Damask pattern by Noah Scalin. Now available as a FREE DIY PDF stencil.

[nicolasays]

Friendly reminder to all working artists or (especially) aspiring artists.

If a client says they can’t afford to pay you but you’ll get good exposure, one of two things is happening:

1. They are lying. They can afford to pay you, but they are choosing not to. They will pay the printer to print the books, they will pay the mail service to deliver them, and you’d better believe they’re going to pay themselves for sending you an email explaining that they can’t afford to pay you. They think you are a sucker, and if you take the job you’ll be telling them they are right.

2. They are not lying. They have zero budget, no audience and no real distribution system. They’ll still be paying the printer and mail service because people who work in those professions don’t work for free just because someone promises them a recommendation. But they aren’t paying themselves, they’re running on an incredibly small margin, and there’s a good chance they won’t exist as a corporate entity in a few years. Publishing your work with them will give you less exposure than putting it on tumblr or Instagram for free would. It will never lead to a paying job. 

If a client starts ranting about the “short-sightedness” of artists, or otherwise complains about artists in general in their opening offer to you, run. Run as fast as you would run if a blind date spent the whole of dinner ranting about how horrible your entire gender is. Yes, there are doubtlessly clients who’ve been screwed over by artists in the past, but the ones who complain about artists in general will not respect you, they will not treat you well. 

Working for free does not prove that you are passionate about something. It proves that you do not need to be paid for your work. How many doctors went into medicine because they are passionate about saving lives? Do you think any of them are asked to perform heart surgery for free?

No one will ever pay $50 for something if they can get something similar for $5. When you charge next to nothing for art that you’ve worked for hours on, art that required years of training to create, you are telling your client that it is worth next to nothing. They will remember that the next time they want to hire an artist.

People who are looking to exploit artists know that artists are hard on themselves. They know that most artists don’t think their work is good enough to charge top dollar. They know that artists have been told from the first day they started taking their art seriously as a career that they’ll never make any money off it, that it’s not a real job, that it has no value to society. They know how to push artists’ insecurities about their profession in order to convince them that that demanding fair compensation is unrealistic and uncooperative.

If you’re just desperate for a job in the arts, any job in the arts, give yourself a job. Start a webcomic, or give yourself illustration assignments that you post on social media regularly, create work for a gallery show even if you don’t have one yet, or make a book. Give yourself a job. If you’re going to work for free, you may as well be working for yourself, setting your own hours and following your own interests. Having original art with original characters and ideas in your portfolio, and making sure your art is visible online will get the attention of publishers who are actually looking to hire people for good jobs. Drawing a shitty comic for a defunct publisher based on someone else’s shitty ideas will not.

Protect yourself, because no one else will. Protect yourself, because no one else will. There are people lining up around the block to exploit you. Protect yourself because no one else will.

[nicolasays]

“And so,” the interviewer asked, “Do you ever have trouble coming up with ideas?” “Well, sometimes,” the cartoonist replied.

Boxplot on Popular Science

[nicolasays]

Precious Metals by MUTI