#And I’m sitting in a corner with 20 000

[imhere-imqueer-ilikedeer]

oh dear it’s writing insecurities hours

[37sommz]

000.⠀⠀NOW PLAYING: season 3, ep. 4 [drive to survive]. ✼. view:⠀masterlist⠀⸻⠀join the taglist⠀⸻⠀request. ✼. synopsis:⠀michaela gets on the podium. ✼. warnings:⠀none :)

✼.⠀SEPTEMBER 12, 2020 — tuscany, italy

The camera pans over the rolling hills of Tuscany, capturing the vibrant greens and golds of the Italian countryside. The famous Mugello Circuit stands proudly in the background, hosting the Tuscany Grand Prix of 2020. Being the first time the track will host a Formula 1 race, anticipation hangs in the air like the sweet scent of the local vineyards pictured in the distance.

Will Buxton sits in a graying corner of the confessional room, the stage lights illuminating his excited face. “Tuscany is more than just beautiful." the roar of Formula 1 engines mirrors the excitement the viewer can feel through the screen. "It’s a place of legends. And this year, one driver is determined to carve her name into that history: Michaela Sommers.”

Inside the Alfa Romeo garage, Michaela stands poised, her racing suit clinging to her athletic frame. A fierceness rarely witnessed by the Netflix cameras fills the air with an electric wait. Her brown eyes glisten with a mixture of nerves and stern determination. The hum of activity in the Alfa Romeo garage surrounds her as the crew prepares car number thirty-seven. The scent of oil and rubber is thick in the air as they flit around her in rapid succession; a vivid contrast to the focus she fixes over the sheet of data she holds in her hands.

“It’s surreal being here." Her accent floats in the air as the words leave her perfectly plump lips. The signature blonde of her hair is twirled into a rare curl, the pattern a bit frazzled as it struggles to break through the subtle hint of heat damage.

"I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a child, imagining the roar of the engines, the thrill of the chase." She smiles at this, lips curling at the ends. "But now, the reality is sinking in—I’m racing in Formula 1. I can’t just be another name.”

The air crackles with tension as Fred Vasseur, the Alfa Romeo team principal, strides into the garage as if in slow motion, his face a mix of focus and fierce encouragement. He observes the frenzied preparations, his mind racing with strategies. Finding Michaela tucked into herself, separate from the bustling life of the garage, he claps a soft hand onto the taller 20-year-old's shoulder.

As practice begins, Michaela slips into the cockpit, the roar of the engine vibrating through her. The car moves as if an extension of her own body. She speeds out onto the track, and the world around her blurs—a vivid tapestry of colors and sounds merging into a single, exhilarating sensation.

“Michaela has the talent. We’re here to support her, but the pressure is immense." His French-lilted words swirl through the consonants of his words.

The sun beats down mercilessly, sweat pooling at her brow as she pushes herself to the limit. The adrenaline rush is intoxicating, yet the constant threat of failure lingers at the back of her mind.

The scene shifts to the rising dawn of qualifying day—all bright and tense, the sky a brilliant canvas of blue. Michaela stands on the grid, her heart pounding in her chest, every thrum of her pulse synchronized with the roar of engines surrounding her. Fans are packed into the grandstands, their cheers rising like a tide. A young girl holds up a poster of her favorite driver, one just as female as her.

Vasseur appears once more on the screen. A gentle smile adorns his features as he vocalizes his support for the young Australian. "This weekend could define her career. We all want that first podium finish. We know she is capable of that first podium finish.”

It is Michaela's turn to provide context as she appears once more on the screen. “Qualifying is… everything." As if struggling for words, her lips purse themselves tightly against one another. Her curls bounce lightly as her head shakes for emphasis. "I have to show that I belong here. One mistake and all of this could slip away.”

As the session commences, she grips the steering wheel with a white-knuckled intensity, the tires screaming for grip as she navigates the twisting circuit. Every corner demands a precision that she delivers with practiced levelheadedness. Every straightaway calls for speed, she responds in kind with the expert application of her foot to the gas. The tension builds with each passing second, and her heart races as she finds her rhythm.

When the session wraps, her name flashes on the timing board in seventh place—a stunning personal best, but she knows she has another day to accomplish the impossible.

“This is huge for Alfa Romeo and me, of course. But I know it’s just the first step. The real battle is on Sunday.” Without as much as a hint of a smile, Michaela's expression is focused even in her confessionals. Her demeanor perfectly reflects the seriousness with which she approaches every reference to her racing.

✼.⠀SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 — tuscany, italy

Race day breaks with a breathtaking sunrise that casts a warm golden hue over the circuit. The air is thick with anticipation, the scent of burning rubber and hot asphalt mixing with the earthy aroma of the nearby vineyards. Michaela stands on the grid, every nerve in her body alive with energy as the Italian national anthem plays out over the roar of the home crowd.

“Seeing Michaela on that grid is inspiring." Susie's eyes crinkle with warmth. "I’ve walked that path, and I know the stakes. This is where she’ll prove her worth.” She nods to her own words, believing sincerely that the young driver would achieve her bring moment.

As Michaela glances across the paddock, she meets the eyes of fierce faces—Lewis, Kimi, Sebastian—drivers whose accolades cast long shadows. As she continues to glance across the track, she meets the eyes of familiar rivals—Alex, Pierre, Charles—drivers she had battled every moment leading up to the one offering itself up to her now. The weight of expectation presses down on her like a heavy blanket, each camera flash a consuming reminder of the history she is trying to create.

The roar of engines reverberated through the packed grandstands at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello as the sleek chariots of Formula 1 lined up on the grid. The air crackles with anticipation; the stakes impossibly high, and the pressure insurmountably palpable.

The five lights go out, and the race launches into an immediate chaos. Engines roar, and the world becomes a blur of color and sound as Michaela blasts off the line. Her heart pounds as she jostles for position, deftly navigating the swirling chaos around her. The noise of roaring engines drowned out everything else as the field surged into the first corner—a high-speed ballet of carbon fiber and raw adrenaline. Heart pounding, Michaela navigated through the chaos, her instincts honed to perfection, emerging unscathed but hyper-aware of the battle raging around her.

"Michaela, you're showing strong pace. Keep pushing," her race engineer's voice crackled urgently through the team radio. With every heartbeat, she demanded more from her car, muscling it through sweeping curves and daring overtakes, her determination igniting a fire within. Kimi Raikkonen, her seasoned teammate, became both a mentor and a rival as they engaged in a relentless chess match on wheels into the sixteenth lap.

In the paddock, team principal Fred Vasseur watched with bated breath, his brow furrowed in equal parts concentration and concern at the battle between his two drivers. "She's driving like a woman possessed out there," he muttered out to no one in particular, eyes glued to the unfolding drama. Crofty’s voice cuts through the noise, narrating and dissecting every twist and turn for viewers around the globe.

As the race unfolds, dark clouds gather overhead, ominous and foreboding. The tension thickens like a brewing storm, and soon, rain begins to pour, drenching the track. Michaela can feel the fear rising around her as drivers scramble for pit stops, the slick surface transforming the circuit into a dangerous challenge she just cannot refuse.

An urgent 'box, box' comes over the radio moments later, a gentle panic rising in the depths of her conscience as she questions the decision out loud to her engineer. A simple response, "We feel it is time for inters," is all that comes across the radio, a done deal.

“This is where strategy matters." Will Buxton's voice cuts through the noise of the ongoing race. "The rain changes everything. One wrong move and it could all come crashing down, like that.” With the sound of his snapping fingers, the scene shifts back to Michaela's untimely pit stop.

As she speeds into the pits, the rain hammers down as if a thousand tiny drums. Her crew moves with the precision of a well-trained unit on a mission of success, changing her tires to intermediates. She can feel the pressure rising, the hopes of her team resting on her shoulders.

Back on the track, the rain-soaked asphalt is proving to be a challenge. Drivers struggle to keep their cars on pace in the pooling water. Michaela proves to be in her element, expertly maneuvering through the chaos. The echoes of praise ring through the action as the commentators reference the "Sommer Rain", the nickname she has so fondly picked up in Formula 3 for her thrilling overtakes in the wet.

As laps tick by in a blur of tire changes, red flag restarts, and high-stakes overtakes, tension mounts. Michaela remains steely-eyed, channeling the laser focus that had propelled her this far.

Midway through the race, the red flag is waved after a multi-car pile-up, halting the frenzy. Michaela pulls into the pit lane, her hands trembling slightly on the wheel as adrenaline mixes with anxiety. The tension in the garage is palpable as her team gathers around her.

“It's now or never. I have a chance to finish on the podium, but everything can change in an instant. I can’t let the moment slip away.” Her tone is only aided by the urgency of the soundtrack as it mirrors the intensity of the race.

With fresh soft tires bolted on, she rejoins the fray as if being unleashed from her reins, carving her way through the pack with a renewed vigor. The cars of Daniel and Checo fight tooth and nail to keep her at bay, but their mistakes prove opportunities for the young Australian to lunge for their positions as if entranced in a dance of glory.

As the final laps approach, Alex's Red Bull is in an uneasy reach. One wrong move, and she'd be in the barriers.

"This is it, Michaela. One chance to make history," her engineer's words echo into the pink of her helmet. On his heels, she waits for her moment in hungry waiting.

The sun breaks through the clouds, creating a surreal glow. The reality of her position sent electric shocks of adrenaline through her body, eager for just one more position. The crowd's roar is deafening, a living, breathing entity urging her on. Just one more position.

“Michaela is making history today. She’s not just participating; she’s competing at the highest level.” This time it is Lewis who provides his resounding input. The certainty in both tone and expression serves as reminders of his support for the younger driver.

The final few laps loom, the tension thick enough to keep the rain clouds from returning to cause havoc on the Tuscan track. Michaela’s heart pounds as she battles wheel-to-wheel with Alex. Each turn is a high-stakes gamble, and with every flick of the steering wheel, she inches closer to her dream.

With sheer determination, she launches a daring move, slipping past her friend like a bolt of lightning. Caught off guard, Alex slams a frustrated hand onto his wheel, quick to swear as he watches the Australian bolt off onto the straight.

In another instant, the checkered flag waves Michaela crossing the coveted finish line, her heart pounding in her chest, disbelief mingling with euphoria. The home fans erupt into an unsettling hum of pure excitement. The history made before their eyes is not lost on their eager hearts, a frenzy of feet rushing to break through the barriers keeping them from the track.

As she pulls into the previously distant third-place slot, her team erupts in an explosion of joy, the air filled with cheers and hugs. Freeing herself from the confines of her signature red car, Michaela can hardly contain herself as she runs into the arms of her awaiting team. Tears rush down the curves of her brown face. Leaping over the barriers, Fred Vasseur envelops her in a tight embrace, tears glistening in his eyes, pride radiating from every pore.

“This is a historic moment for our team and women in motorsport. Michaela has shown that all of the sacrifice, it pays off.” Fred laughs gleefully, recalling the rush of emotions as they pumped joy into his lungs.

Michaela steps onto the podium, her heart racing as her name is called and her flag is flown over her head. The yellow, sewn laurels of her dad cap almost feel inexplicably heavy upon her head as the weight of her accomplishment lands upon her consciousness, soaring around her like a celebration of freedom. The trophy glistens in her hands, a tangible representation of her hard-won journey. The roar of the crowd envelops her, their cheers echoing like a powerful wave crashing against the shores of her dreams.

“Regardless of team loyalties," Susie laughs this time. Her white Mercedes polo stood out against the familiar gray of the confessional background.

"This podium isn’t just a personal victory; it’s a win for all women in motorsport—past, present, and future."

As the sun sets over Tuscany, casting long shadows across the circuit, the celebrations continue. Michaela stands amidst her team, her heart swelling with gratitude and disbelief. The sticky champagne doused over her head by Lewis and Valtteri embeds itself into her skin, a feeling she resolves to never forget.

The camera lingers on the beauty of Tuscany, capturing the triumph of one extraordinary driver, the spirit of the race lingering like the scent of wine grapes over the green landscape.

As the Tuscany Grand Prix of 2020 comes to a close in an electrifying spectacle, whispers of a potential contract with Ferrari for the 2021 season begin to permeate the paddock. The pressroom buzzes with excitement and speculation as Michaela Sommers' remarkable performance ignites discussions about her future in Formula 1.

Rumors swirl like uncertainty in the wind, carrying tales of secret meetings and clandestine negotiations between Michaela's management team and the more prestigious Italian racing team. Unable to remove herself from the swirl of rumors, Michaela enters the press room with a gentle air of cautiousness despite the rush of accomplishment still coursing through her.

Amidst the fervor, Michaela's every move and utterance becomes the subject of intense scrutiny, with journalists and fans alike hanging onto her every word, hoping to grasp insights into her plans.

Maintaining a poised and collected demeanor, Michaela deflects questions about her future plans with a diplomatic, easy grace. Her silence on the matter serves only to fuel the flames of anticipation, leaving fans and pundits alike on tenterhooks as they await an official announcement.

Will offers his expertise, leaning into the speculative tone of the episode.

"It's not completely out of the question that Michaela could be promoted to Ferrari." His brows raise as if eager to learn of the outcome of his narrative. "Especially with Sebastian Vettel's continued cold war with Binotto. A pairing between Leclerc and Sommers could be one of the most competitive pairings next season."

With a casual smile, the smell of champagne still lingering in the air, Michaela deflects the questions with a subtle shrug.

"I appreciate the interest, but my focus right now is on racing for Alfa Romeo. I'm fully committed to giving my best for this team, and any discussions about the future will have to wait until the right time."

Camera flashes glimmer across her smiling face, a direct opposition to her defiant tone.

"Right now, I'm excited to be here and I hope to continue working hard with the incredible team at Alfa Romeo."

She ends her statement with a soft, "Cheers," before lifting herself from her seat. The episode draws to a close as it fades to black, focusing on her retreating figure.

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[shyvioletcat]

Rudely Interrupted

It Takes Two managed to get 20 000 hits on Ao3 and I wrote this little thing to celebrate because I was just so excited! (I also bought myself some delicious cookies) Thanks for reading everyone!

Ps. This is set just after the beach trip with the other couples.

PPS running into some tagging issues bar with me

~ It Takes Two Masterlist ~

~~~~~

It was not surprising at all how they found themselves in the current situation, all things considered. Aelin had taken the first shower, Rowan heading straight in after once she had appeared in their bedroom in her towel. He’d given her a look, but all she had done was given him a playful shove out the door. They were at home together today so Aelin didn’t bother to put on much more than one of Rowan’s t-shirts. By the time Rowan had finished his shower Aelin was in the kitchen eating the last of her toast. Then her boyfriend had waltzed right in, looking devastatingly handsome with his damp hair and bare chest, his athletic shorts sitting low on his hips. He’d come up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck, letting Aelin lean back into his chest. She’d closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh scent of his body wash. It was a scent she had become obsessed with the past few months, a weird pregnancy thing according to Rowan’s book.

And his scent and warmth and steady hands was all it took for her to turn around and kiss him.

It didn’t take long for Rowan to lift her up onto the counter to more easily kiss her senseless, it took Aelin even less time to slide his shorts off his hips–Rowan kicking them away with a soft chuckle before kissing her again. His hands were firm on her thighs, pulling her just that little bit closer as best he could with her stomach in the way.

What was surprising was the lock on the front door unlocking and then the door opening, something completely unexpected for the two of them. For one stuttering heartbeat they looked at each other with wide eyes–then they were moving. Rowan helped Aelin ease off the counter, making sure she was steady before frantically looking around for his pants. Ever the gentleman, he now didn’t have time for that as the footsteps came closer. All he had time to do was drop to the floor as their guest finally came into view, Rowan’s head smacking soundly on the cupboard.

“Hey, cuz,” Aedion said, hands in his pockets. “How are you this lovely morning?”

Truthfully, Aelin was still trying to catch her breath from their previous activities, she knew her face would still be flushed from the heavy makeout session. But she tried.

“It’s great. Good.” Aelin kept in her cringe at her own words. “What brings you here?”

Because she may or may not be quite annoyed at the intrusion, but was trying her hardest not to show it.

“Just came by to grab something,” Aedion explained. “Is Rowan around?”

Aelin nearly choked and couldn’t help the quick glance at the floor where Rowan sat, knees up and looking downright horrified.

“He’s ah– around here somewhere,” Aelin managed to get out. “Why?”

“He said I could borrow the book.”

Oh. The book.

“Um, yeah. I… Rowan knows where it is.” This time Aelin couldn’t stop the face she made at her own incompetence. She should offer to get it, but she was not keen on showing exactly how little she was wearing. Granted, it was a lot more than Rowan was wearing at this current moment.

“You okay?” Aedion asked, no doubt picking up on her weird vibe.

“Mhmm,” she hummed, leaning a little bit closer to the counter.

Aedion looked sceptical. “So, Rowan is around, yeah?”

“Yes,” Aelin tried to say confidently. Then the idea struck her. “Bathroom, he’ll be out in a minute.”

There was the softest snort from next to her and she resisted the urge to glare at her boyfriend. Yeah, it was a flawed plan. She just needed Aedion to go towards the door again.

“Hey, um.” Aelin cursed herself, she needed to pull this together. “Did you lock your car? There’s been some issues with thefts from the cars in the carpark.”

“I parked on the street and most definitely did,” Aedion said with all the confidence Aelin wished she had. “While I wait, can I grab a drink of water?”

“No!” The reply was far too quick and the look that Aedion gave her just proved it all the more.

Aedion’s eyebrows furrowed as he asked, “Why?”

Aelin didn’t have a good answer, she was too busy thinking of something to do that she didn’t exactly notice Aedion stepping around the counter. But her mind managed to catch up but not quick enough.

“I would stay there if I were you.”

Aedion scoffed. “Why would I–”

There was a ghastly moment of silence as Aedion saw everything: Aelin wearing Rowan’s shirt, Rowan sitting there in the corner of the cabinetry with his shorts bundled in his lap. She had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing as Rowan gave her cousin a small wave.

Then Aedion slapped a hand over his eyes, his hip catching the corner of the counter in his rush to get out of the kitchen making him grunt in pain.

“Gods! Aelin!” Aedion exclaimed as he reached the empty space between the living area and kitchen.

“Don’t Aelin me. I tried to warn you,” Aelin said with a shrug. “And hey, at least I’m not the nearly naked one. Lucky you.”

“Really?” Her cousin was not happy.

Aelin shrugged again, feeling braver now that had the safety of the counter again and the cat was well and truly out of the bag. “I don’t know what you want me to do here. Rowan can go and–”

“Nope, nope, he can stay right there thanks.” Aedion was looking at the floor like he wanted it to open and swallow him up. “I’ll go.”

Aedion didn’t spare her a glance as he walked past the kitchen towards the door.

Aelin lent over the counter the best she could to call out to Aedion. “Did you want that book?”

“No. Just tell Rowan to bring it to work,” Aedin said without looking back.

Aelin laughed. “He’s right–”

“I know!” Aedion all but bellowed as he slammed the door behind himself.

The slamming door echoed around the apartment, then it was followed by Aelin laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Rowan said from his hiding spot.

“Oh, yes it was.” Aelin’s voice was shaking.

He stood finally, shorts in his hand. “If I could have crawled into one of the drawers and died I would have.”

Aelin laughed again, resting her hand on his chest, fingers rapping on his skin. “And you two had made such progress since the beach trip.”

Rowan’s hand rubbed at her shoulders as he finally laughed, kissing Aelin on her forehead. “Thanks for trying though. Commendable effort, although entirely not smooth at all.”

“Anything for you, my love.” Aelin shifted to the side slightly, so she could lean her chin on his chest as she looked up at him and grinned. “So, what do you say we carry on from where we left off before we were so rudely interrupted?”

Without anymore prompting Rowan’s hands began wandering as he grinned right back. “Anything for you, my love.”

~~~~~

I thought this up a little too late and it didn't really fit in any of the remaining chapters, so it'd a fun deleted scene. Also it is qyute kate so I hope it makes sense. Thanks again for all your support guys. mwah!

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[fanmoose12]

can you pretty pls write a lil drabble based on this where hange is the beekeeper, and levi is the person who moves into the apartment underneath? :D

It is, by all means, a good house. A very good one, actually, much better than Levi can probably afford.

It has more than one room and tiny kitchen, which is already a step up from his old crappy apartment.

And, this time, he has only one neighbor. Weird as she might seem - with hair sticking in every possible direction and dressed in a white lab coat - at least, she doesn't have children that wail uncontrollably at all hours of day and night, and she doesn't seem the type to blast horrible music after midnight.

"There is just one little thing," she says just after Levi moves in. "You are not against insects?"

"I'm just keeping a couple of bees in a backyard!" his neighbor hastily adds, instantly changing his mind on a whole subject. Here he thought that she was keeping something disgusting like cockroaches, but if it's only bees and she tends to them in a backyard, he doesn't really mind.

He tells her as much, and his neighbor beams.

"Excellent!" she clasps her hands together, jumping up. Her ponytail flies in the air, following her frantic movements. "I was so worried you'd be against my little friends. Come say hi to them when you have a chance! They like meeting new people!"

"Alright..." Levi nods, a bit warily. His neighbor is energetic one, for sure. And more than a little weird.

"I'm Hange, by the way!" she extends her hand to him, and with a cheerful wink adds, "I like meeting new people too."

"Levi," he says, deciding to keep "and I hate most of people" to himself.

Even with Hange and her bees, the house is perfect, suiting Levi's every need to a tee.

He especially likes the view from his bedroom window, the one showing the backyard.

Neatly cut lawn and a small rose garden is a pleasurable sight, and an excellent change from the view from his old apartment that overlooked a different building and a junkyard. Even dozens of beehives don't ruin the pretty picture. They're painted in different colors and stand close to each other in a semicircle. There are more of them than Levi had imagined when Hange mentioned just a couple of bees, but they don't bother him, considering he rarely has time to take advantage of the backyard anyway.

A week later, however, he is having his first weekend in a while. He finished unpacking his stuff and the house is clean, so Levi stands by the window in his bedroom, thinking what to do next.

Down below, on a backyard, Hange is tending to her bees. She is dressed in overalls and a straw hat, and the choice of clothes gives Levi a pause.

Aren't beekeepers supposed to wear a protective suit?

His surprise grows when Hange opens one of the hives and lets out dozens, no, hundreds of bees.

Levi's jaw drops to the floor as he watches bees flying around, forming a black cloud over Hange.

He even starts to worry, because surely this isn't safe, but he catches a glimpse of Hange's face, and there is a smile on her lips that eases his panic.

In the next second, Hange turns around, taking note of her little audience.

She waves her hand, gesturing him to come join her. Levi hesitates for a moment, the amount of bees makes him more than a little nervous, but Hange's smile is friendly and welcoming, and a part of him is actually curious about those bees (and Hange), so he grabs his sunglasses and makes his way to the backyard.

By the time, he's there, most of the bees are back in the hive.

"Didn't want to scare you," Hange explains, patting a chair next to her. Levi takes a seat and carefully glances at the hive.

"So how many do you have?" he asks.

"I'm not really sure anymore..." Hange looks up at the sky, scratching her chin. "But approximately 20, 000."

Levi almost chokes. His eyes widen as the number sinks in.

"20, 000?" he repeats, just in case he misheard.

"Give or take."

"You're insane," he breathes out.

"Oi!" Hange swats his arm. "Be nice. They're my friends."

"Friends?"

"Naturally," she nods. "I talk to them all the time, and sometimes they talk back..."

"They... talk?" Levi carefully says, looking at Hange from the corner of his eyes.

"Yes!" she beams. "Wait a minute! They want to tell me something right now!"

Hange leans closer to the hive, putting on an expression of attentiveness and thoughtfulness.

Levi stares at her, equally charmed and disturbed.

"Mm, just like I thought..." she finally turns to Levi. "They say they like you, Levi."

God, he thinks, fruitlessly fighting back a smile, what an idiot.

"You're right," he says. "I can hear something too."

Hange snickers, as she watches him get closer to the hive.

"Yep, they just told me, four-eyes, that you need to take a shower," he declares after a moment.

Hange's mouth opens, and Levi winces, wondering if he has gone too far, but then her nose scrunches and her eyes close, as she starts laughing.

"You may have a point," she admits. "It's too hot today, and I guess I've been sitting her for too long."

"Watch over them for me?" she asks, getting up to her feet. She stretches her arm above her head, and when Levi nods, she looks down at him with a grateful smile.

"Oh, and another thing," she says. "They wondered if you want to come by to drink a cup of tea sometime. I have excellent honey."

Levi turns to bees again, pretends to listen to them for a moment, and then answers, "They told me I'd be an idiot not to agree."

It might just be his imagination (or Hange's influence), but when she starts laughing, the bees buzzing seems almost happy.

[designsfromtime]

“Yes, you can afford one of my gowns! READ HOW!

“I cannot afford your gowns.”  I hear this ALL the time. But what really frustrates me is that most of you don’t understand that a bargain is only a bargain if it is quality made. YES! You can have an amazing gown from me for around $800! 

I sell mostly on Etsy, with the exception of cast mates who know my work, or some of my followers on Facebook, Tumblr, or Instagram, the majority of my sales go through Etsy. 

There are hidden costs the average consumer doesn’t understand. First of all, Etsy takes about 20% or more out of each sale I make. That on top of the listing fees I have to pay, as well as the cost of having an upgraded store, and a website that is separate from my store. All those things add up. I also offer FREE shipping inside the US - - But I did NOT raise my prices to cover that expense. I do deduct it from my taxes as an expense, but the average cost to ship a gown First Class via USPS is about $45 to 50. 

Most vendors on Etsy, Ebay, or even vendors at Renfaire buy bulk fabrics and crank out the same gown over, and over, and over ad naseum. However, all of my work is custom couture with MANY hand-sewn elements. 

I charge by the piece. That means I charge for EVERY cut piece I physically sew together, and that includes the lining, and piping! If I charged by the hour, just a basic gown would retail for no less than $4,000 to $5,000. 

Embroidery affects the cost of my work because it takes MORE time than the actual construction of our gowns, and beading and pearling or hand-tacking down trims takes even longer than embroidery.  Again, In’t charge an hourly wage, but I charge by the stitch count of the embroidery pattern and a flat rate for beading and hand work - which usually is merely a pittance of what it should be because I WANT to make my work affordable while still being fairly compensated for my time and labor. 

The average basic 16th Century court gown I make only runs about $800 to $900 for labor - - it’s all the embellishment that costs!

So, if you choose a gown with tabs around the bottom of the bodice and/or around the shoulders, or a sleeve that is paned, this is going to drive up my labor fees because we STILL charge by the piece. Those tabs are DETAILED ya’ll! They are piped, and lined and take a lot of labor on my part. But listen . . . we can customize a gown that is more basic and forego all the bling and STILL offer you something amazing. So don’t let the price of the gowns you see listed scare you!  Before you go to another vendor and buy on the cheap, give me a chance! 

Let me put it this way: You look at my work and you drool. You then look at the listed price and say, I can’t afford it, so you go to a vendor who is going to offer you a basic cut gown - that may not be an historically accurate style, or they use fabric they purchased in bulk, say a synthetic brocade. The brocade is more than HALF the design aesthetic for these bargain priced gowns!  There is much MORE involved in creating a quality-made garment. So, why not choose a more affordable fabric and ask me to make you a basic gown!? Yes, you might pay $400+ more for one my basic gowns, but at least it will be made with my quality standards! - AND you only need a 20% deposit and can split the balance up into 6 payments. 

Let’s do the math: 

The following link takes you to one of my “basic” gowns. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/781566625/plus-sized-elizabethan-costume-bridal?ref=shop_home_active_6&frs=1

Here is the cost breakdown of this gown: 

Specialized Supplies provided by DFT: $124.03 Embroidery Labor: $200 Gown Construction & Pattern Drafting Fees - $790 Beading Fees: $150

The basic gown, to include the specialized supplies I use for construction, is ONLY $914.03. It’s the embroidery and beading fees that up-ticks the labor costs. 

20% Non-refundable deposit would be: $182.80

Balance due: $731.23

If you placed this gown on my six month payment plan your monthly installments would be $121.23. 

NOW. . . that cost doesn’t include fabrics. So keep that in mind, but I can help you bargain shop for good quality textiles. You can peruse some gorgeous brocades and Jacquard fabrics on my Pinterest board. You will need about 8 yards of fabric for the skirt and bodice, 2.5 yards for the forepart, and another 1.5 yards for fitted sleeves. 

https://www.pinterest.com/designsfromtime/costume-fabrics-common-supplies/brocades-jacquards/

Here’s another example using a gown made of brocade: 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/620386905/womens-plus-sized-renaissance-dress?ref=shop_home_active_68&frs=1

Specialized Supplies provided by DFT: $109.99 Embroidery Labor: $350 Labor & Drafting fees - $740 Beading/Spangle Labor - $150

The basic gown is $849.99! I added piping in a complimentary olive green silk, gold trim which I beaded, and custom embroidered the sleeves and forepart, but you can use a different brocade pattern (such as a diamond shape) for the sleeves and forepart and still stay in budget. 

The gowns in my store are priced for “style” and the level of “embellishment.” But if you take the time to read my cost breakdown I provide in each listing you can see the basic labor fees just for the gown construction.

Here is the bottom line: 

You CAN use “fabrics” to provide a wow factor rather than the trims and embroidery I use to create a more budget friendly gown. No, they aren’t going to bring the BLING I am famous for, but a basic gown without tabs on the bottom of the bodice made up in a beautiful brocade, with minimal embellishment will allow you to purchase one of our quality made gowns. 

If you have a properly constructed over skirt with meticulously placed cartridge pleats, bodices with built in under structure, lining added to overskirt fabrics so that these less expensive brocades “drape” properly, and finish the edges with hand-made piping, not only can we put you in a gown within your budget, BUT offer you a durable quality made gown that is gorgeously styled. The devil is in the details folks! And the details in our work is more than just the sparkly bits. It’s about quality of construction. 

You can spend $300 to $400 for one of these “more affordable” gowns and then have to turn around and spend another $300 to $400 when the gown doesn’t hold up to the rigors of reenacting, or you can spend $800 to $900 in labor for one our gowns that will last you a minimum of 5 or 6 years - or more! . Most of the gowns selling for $300 to $400 that I’ve seen won’t last more than 2 seasons - if that - before they start falling apart. How do I know this? Because many of my cast mates bought these bargain priced gowns and they literally fell apart the first time they wore them. The longevity of the gown will be profoundly effected by the fabric you chose, as well as the quality of construction. If properly cared for, our gowns will last many, MANY seasons. If you don’t wad it up and throw it in a suitcase, as I’ve seen some people do with our work, they will retain their beauty and shape for years to come - and THAT my friends is a bargain. 

HERE’S THE 411 OF WHAT SETS OUR WORK APART: 

- Our Bodices are highly structured. 

First of all, my bodices are custom drafted to fit your body. They are cut in a historically accurate pattern - rather than using a commercial pattern in a style that has no historical basis. I use imported products from the UK that aren’t available here in the States. 

My bodices are MORE than just two pieces of fabric sewn together. Mine have multiple layers with built-in under structure hand-tailored into them. One layer, is a fusible cotton interlining to stabilize your fashion fabrics to add body. We also add a second layer of a product used to stiffen it (no, I’m not gonna tell ya what we use), PLUS we add an additional layer in front of a product that acts like buckram, which was used in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries to stiffen and add structure. I also add a few stays to keep the point at the bottom from flipping up when you sit. YES - You still have to wear stays with our gown bodices! Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about and needs to hit the books and do more research.

Some vendors DO add a layer of interfacing, but they tend to use a Pellon fusible interfacing like you can find at JoAnns. I have found this product to be inferior. First of all, it’s made out of petroleum and will hold in heat. Second, it doesn’t stay affixed in place to the fabric but will loosen and bunch up over a short period of time. 

- Skirts that have ENOUGH fabric to properly cartridge pleat and drape.

My skirts are made with panels 55″ to 58″ wide. On average we use 4 panels, but this will depend on your fabric. Using four panels creates that beautiful volume you see in my gowns. You can tell when a seamstress has scrimped on fabric because the fabric doesn’t DRAPE but clings to the farthingale at the bottom. The fabric should NOT pull or look stretched.  

I flat line ALL silks or faux silks so that they drape properly and have enough body to cartridge pleat. My cartridge pleats are no LESS than 3/8 inch in width. They are deep, copious, and neat in appearance. I reinforce them by hand tacking them together so that they won’t lose their shape over time.  

- Grommets:  I use a .000 size grommet and because our bodices are MORE than just two layers of fabric and a layer of Pellon fusible interfacing, our grommets DON’T pull away from the garment or fall out. I ALSO couch all the grommets to secure them in place. 

I work with color: I use color theory based on your skin, hair, and eye color to choose colors that will be more flattering on you. I also use a color wheel for unique color combinations. 

So, perhaps you cannot afford one of my highly embellished gowns with embroidered textiles and beading, but you CAN afford a basic gown that still offers quality construction. 

Look, I’m not trying to corner the market. I have more work I can shake a stick at, but what drives me a little nuts is watching people spend their hard earned money on a sub-quality gown because they are convinced my work is out of their price range.  

I die a little every time I get messages in my Etsy store wanting me to make them a hat or a headdress to wear with one of these bargain priced gowns. Inevitably, they send me pictures and I have to stuff a sock in my mouth to keep from saying, “WHYYYY???”  I can’t tell them, “Hey, that gown you just bought from that particular vendor is gonna fall apart and you’ll be ordering another gown next season.” I have to keep my mouth shut, suck it up, and construct a headdresss or a hat wherein there will be a disparity in quality. In other words, there will be a difference in the quality of my work against the gown they’ll be wearing it with because most of these “bargain” gowns are painfully simplistic both in the style and in the construction. All I DARE to do is offer a politely worded, “When you’re gown shopping again, keep us in mind.” I did break my cardinal rule the other day when I was approached, once again, by a girl who was working with a vendor who I know falls in the category I just harped about and wanted to know my “thoughts.”  Be warned. Never, ever ask me my thoughts or opinion unless you are ready for truth. I can’t help it! I have too much integrity to lie. The bad thing about being direct is that the written word doesn’t allow for my true intent and tone and I come off sounding like a b****. Sorry. :(

One thing that sets me a part as a professional designer is not just my experience, or my penchant for directness (which not everyone appreciates obviously), but having a very keen eye for detail, which is reflected in my craftsmanship. This ability has been honed over the course of 40 years and allows me to be able to edit work for quality with just a glance. That can be a double edge sword. On one hand, it drives my own efforts for quality, but can make me VERY unpopular if I point things out in others’ work. :(  

I WISH there was enough of me to spread around and be able make ALL OF YOU a quality constructed gown, but time and age restricts how much we can crank out and maintain our quality standards. I also WISH I could teach other costumers the simple steps they can take to elevate their craftsmanship. But look, I’m pragmatic. What’s their motivation to do so if they stay busy cranking out hundreds of gowns for $400 a pop? Most aren’t interested in growing their skills, and believe me, they are NOT happy with me for pointing out the disparity between their work and mine. So, all I can do is educate consumers who want to develop an eye for quality and know the difference between a $400 gown and one that costs $900 or more. 

Don't let the price of gowns in my store scare you. I can work with many budget levels to create high quality, historically accurate gowns that will be durable, fit you like a glove, and last you many, MANY seasons as a reenactor. As the director of a reenactment group, and a cast member at faire since 2001, I have a practical understanding of the unique needs of reenactors and offer costumes that will stand up to the rigors of reenacting - - and believe me they do take a beating. So keep me in mind when you are gown shopping again!

www.DesignsFromTime.com

[fieldfullofbangtan]

bts imagine: valentines day suprise

heres a valentinesday imagine since its v-day and im single and alone :C i was really happy with a few members imagines but some I think are mediocre... hope you enjoy anyways :3

requests are open!

✎ masterlist

A/N: (also WHY DO THESE ALWAYS TURN OUT SO LONG I HAVE A PROBLEM.)

Seokjin 

Jin was waiting for you outside your uni. Even though you looked dead because yay school he still awed at how beautiful he thought you were.

Jin: “Happy valentines day love!” he handed you the flowers.

“Thanks Jin... I’m sorry if i look like shit i just had the longest day...”

Jin: “Oh... You feel like staying home tonight huh?” 

He had a long night planned with dinner at a super fancy restaurant, then going to a art gallery and than ending the night with a bunch of presents.

“Only because I kinda have to study, but if you had planned something we can do that! I might be a little dazed but I’ll try my best not to fall asleep hehe”

Jin shook his head and said it wasn’t anything special, he felt really bad, not because the night was cancelled but because of how tired and guilty he knew you felt. When you got home he got a new idea. While you had sat down on the couch and accidentally fallen asleep he started to cook your favorite dishes. You woke up to a table full of perfectly home cooked food and a pile of presents by the couch. 

Jin: “After dinner I’ll help you study, and every 20 minutes you’ll get a gift as a reward!”

“Jin you really didn’t have to...” you say on the verge of crying because you are the luckiest girl on the planet.

Jin: “All I want is to take care of you, I love you”

Namjoon

You have been dating Namjoon for 3 years now and you just moved in together. He is beyond passionate and generous and hot... and clumsy... When you moved in together you both shared your car because Namjoon didn’t have time to buy his own. Even though it was a small, old Nissan that your parents gave to you when you got your license, it held a lot of precious memories. Like your first roadtrip, the first time you picked up Namjoon drunk, the first time you and Namjoon fully made out... 

Let’s just say you were a little sad when Namjoon accidentaly left it on neutral when stopping on a mountain road to take pics. That car rolled right down the hill and crashed into like 200 trees on its way down.

This is the third Valentines day you spend together with him and you expect the usual, breakfast in bed, opening presents, a walk through the park to a new café and then watching a movie in the evening. But right after breakfast Joon lead you to the front door and covered you eyes right before opening the door.

Namjoon: “Suprise!! Happy Valentines Day baby” he says as he takes his hands away. 

Outside you see a brand new black Porsche Cayman. Your favorite car ever since you were little. You stand there stunned and slightly confused because he couldn’t have possibly bought it for you.

Namjoon: “It’s all yours”. He hands you the keys.

“Joon I can’t possibly accept this gift it’s way too expensive...”

Namjoon: “Hey I’ll be driving it too, but I want it to be yours since i wrecked your previous car... again I’m really sorry about that...”

“You are the best damn man a girl could wish for, clumsiness and all”

Yoongi

Being the cliche he his, when you got to his studio he gave you a huge bouquet of red roses, a teddybear holding a small red heart and a little present box. Opening the present you find some black lingerie. 

Yoongi: “How about you go swap the underwear you are wearing now to this” he smirks. 

“What if I tell you im not wearing any underwear?” you smirk back.

You had actual presents for him at his dorm but you knew he loved it when you went commando so you picked a black dress that went down your thighs and chose to skip the underwear and just wear a large coat instead.

As soon as you said that his eyes turned a little darker, his breathing a little heavier and it looked like he was doing everything he could not to jump you right there and then.

“I can’t believe I’m going to make you put on more clothes right now but it would give me some time to finish this up really quickly...”

You nodded and went to put on the lingerie, Yoongi knows you so well, the fit was perfect and it looked amazing on your curves. You opened the door to his studio and walked in. As soon as you closed the door he was pinning you against it. Because of the lingerie he couldn’t help being a little more rough than usual, which meant you were being a little louder than usual. While you were having sex in his studio Namjoon was being scarred in the studio next door.

Namjoon: *puts on headphones and turns the volume up all the way* “Fucking rabbits...”

Hoseok

You two had been dating for about 7 months when a picture of you guys leaked on twitter. Your relationship blew up and there was a mix of hate and support but BigHit didn’t feel like it was necessary to hide it any longer so you went public. 

Obviously you wanted to spend V-day with Hoseok just the two of you but they of course had to have a concert that day. Atleast he gave you VIP tickets so you could see his performance.

During the show everybody had a solo but when it was hoseoks turn everything went dark and the big screen lit up. You were shocked when you saw a picture of your face on the screen. It was playing a slideshow of the cutest pictures you and hoseok took. It showed a picture of him cuddling you while you slept, a picture of you two on your first real date, several pictures of you two kissing. You expected people to be booing but you could only hear “aaw”’s. 

The song started playing and Hoseok came out. Just then a spotlight found you. He pulled you up on stage and sat you down on a chair. At this point you were crying because you were so shocked and happy. The rest of the show was him singing his beautiful heart out being as cheesy as he possibly could.

Hoseok: “Everybody, I want to introduce you to the love of my life”

Jimin

You suspect it’s because he is secretly a little creep that likes watching you put on and take of clothes but for Valentines Day Jimin took you shopping. He said he would pay for anything you wanted because -bts money- y’know but you still didn’t want to spend too much so you acted like you didn’t like a lot of the things you tried. 

Jimin: “You look gorgeous in that! You should totally get it!” 

You looked down at the dress and saw the pricetag. 900 000 won...”Hmm... I’m not sure Jimin it’s a little uncomfortable... I’ll try something else”

Jimin smiled to himself as the female worker pocked her head out from the corner. He gave her a barely noticable nod and she quickly hurried away. You went into a bunch of high-end clothing-stores and you only had 2 small shopping bags when you were done. Even though you tried on a ton of clothes you loved they were all waaaay too expensive.

After a romantic rooftop dinner where you both swapped gifts you two headed to your apartment. When you opened your front door the entire living room was filled with shopping bags.

“What the...” you started to look inside a few of them. It was the clothes you pretended to dislike. “Jimin... this is too nice...”

“You just look so damn good in everything I couldn’t help myself.”

Taehyung

Taehyung is truly a child at heart, so when he said he has a suprise for you on Valentines Day you knew it was going to be something fun. You had spent all day in bed together talking, playing videogames and watching movies but now it was time to leave the dorm. He blindfolded you a little too well with a double layer of ribbon and a beanie, lead you into the car and started to drive. The drive felt extra long because you couldn’t see anything but after 10 songs in the car you were there.

When you stepped out of the car you kind of laughed over the fact that he tried to make sure you didn’t see anything but you could still hear perfectly. 

“OMG AN AMUSMENT PARK TAEHYUNG I LOVE YOU THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME” 

Tae: “Wait what how did you know i haven’t taken the blindfold off yet...”

“Taehyung amusment parks are pretty loud... you know screaming people, roller coasters, the arcade games...”

Tae: “wow how tf did I not think of that” he facepalmed.

You both laughed and went in. You went on all the roller coasters, Tae even won a plushie for you. The night ended with a perfect kiss at the highest spot on the ferriswheel.

Jungkook

You and Jungkook would spend Valentines Day at a beautiful cabin outside of Seoul. You two bike through the small town and stop at a cute coffee shop.

Jungkook: “So I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately...”, he sits down at the table you picked with two cups of hot chocolate.

You became slightly on edge because he looked worried. No way will he break up with you on Valentine’s Day right?

Jungkook: “This might be a little sudden since we’ve only been dating for a few months but...” he pauses and you hold your breath, scared of what he might say next.

Jungkook: “Will you come with me to my parents house this weekend? I want to take our relationship to the next level and I think they would love you... but if you think it’s too soon we can wait!” Now he is the one who’s holding his breath.

You take a moment to process, you haven’t been going out for long but you’ve been wanting to meet his parents for a while now.

“Of course Kookie I’d love to meet your family!”

Jungkook: “Great!! And I’ll probably introduce you as my girlfriend, so I hope your cool with that label.”

[joonslushii]

BTS Reacting To: Meeting their S/O for the first time

// hey so,, I usually try to make the reader as interactive and relatable as I can but this is kinda dedicated to someone,, I probably won’t do it again though ajsjs (unless it’s requested) oH, and sorry about Jungkook’s reaction, I ran out of text blocks. //

Also, this is so long what the fuCk

________________________________________________

Jin:

Curly hair isn’t very common in Korea so when you had first walked into his cafe, curls framing your face as you took in the scent of cinnamon, he was more than intrigued by you. I mean, how could he not be? You were absolutely adorable. He would watch you sitting at your table and find himself fantasizing about what it would feel like to play with your curls. You flashed him a smile as he greeted you and you had ordered a muffin. Whenever you would come into his cafe and it was time for him to serve you you’re food, he always made sure to write a message on the muffin’s decorative wrapper. In the process of opening up your muffin you had clearly saw his note and in return you had playfully rolled your eyes.

It read: “We should get coffee sometime, because I like you a latte ;) 000-000-000”

You looked back up to him with a goofy grin as he sent you a wink in return. Finally you had given into his cute charms, proceeding to save his number into your phone as ‘cute cafe boy’ and making a mental note to text him later.

Namjoon:

You’d been trying to reach a book that just had to be all the way up on the top shelf. Rolling your eyes, you were about to go and ask one of the library workers for help. Not expecting to bump into a tall stranger’s chest, you ended up letting out a weird screeching sound. You heard a deep chuckle coming from above you as the stranger reached above you to grab the book you had been struggling to get.

“You looked like you were in need of some help, here.” he said handing you the book.

“Ah! Thank you, I’ve been trying to get that book for at least 10 minutes now.” You giggled, looking up at him. This man was quite tall, skin on the tanner side, and had a smile that showed off his deep dimples. While you were busy examining his face, he was doing the exact same thing. He smiled even wider as he took in your appearance. You were wearing leggings with an oversized sweatshirt that made you look endearingly small in comparison. But what had really reeled him in was your hair. Your kinky curls bouncing atop your head as you giggled at him cutely. All he could imagine was you laying your head on his lap while he played with your cute coils.

“you’re really cute.” he thought, but he must’ve said it aloud because you were now cocking your head to the side.

“I’m cute?” You teased

“Wait No- yes, I mean—” he struggled, trying to find the right words. He took a deep breath as he continued, “Can I get your number?”

You smiled, finally hearing what you hoped he would ask. “Of course you can.” You replied sweetly. After you had both switched phones and traded numbers you said your goodbyes. But not even an hour later you got a text from ‘library boy💕’

and it read: “Would you like to meet tomorrow for lunch? :)”

Hoseok:

When Hobi first met you he had been on his way to the dance studio to (obviously) practice a dance. He had been close to his studio and heard the loud sound of loud muffled music coming out of it. He curiously entered the room only to find a girl in gray sweats with flames going up the sides, wearing a crop top, paired with white high tops. He hadn’t noticed at first but your hair was curly and was styled in a half up-half down style. Something about you screamed badass. You hadn’t noticed him yet, being so caught up in getting the moves right. As you moved to the song that was playing, he watched as your limbs hit every beat, not missing a single one.

By now, he was sitting on the floor watching you contently. The song had finally came to an end and you were now trying to catch your breath but then heard slow clapping coming from the side of the room. You whipped your body around at the sound only to see a brown haired boy, who was quite cute, smiling a smile brighter than the sun. You smiled apologetically at the boy, realizing that you must’ve had the wrong room, as the next person shouldn’t be here for another hour or so.

“How long have you been there?” You asked, gulping down water.

He thought about it for a moment before speaking, “20 minutes or so but—“

You started rambling as you realized that you had taken up quite a bit of his practice time. “I’m so bad at keeping track of time, I’m so-“

He interrupts you with a smile, continuing with what he was trying to say earlier, “I’ve been here for 20 minutes or so but I didn’t have the heart to stop you, you were pretty entertaining if you ask me.” He charmed

“Ah thank you, once again, sorry about that.” You laughed

“It’s no problem, really! I enjoyed it.” He complimented

“I’m glad you enjoyed it and thank you again, but I really have to get going now.” You rushed, having checked the time.

“ah okay. we should dance together sometime, yeah?” He smiled again, this time his little dimples popping out.

You contemplated, “That sounds good, can I see your phone?” You asked politely.

he hummed in approval and tossed you his phone. You typed your number in, saving yourself as ‘Y/N’

“Oh! My names Y/N, Text me!” You giggled, exiting the studio.

He laughed to himself at your antics as he repeated your name over and over again, as if he was testing how it sounded on his tongue.

Yoongi:

This could be a whole Drabble ajkdkskshs

You leaned against the counter of the towns local gas station, the stick of a bubblegum flavored lollipop poking out of the corner of your mouth. There was something about the bubblegum flavored lollipop that had you hooked. You had tried many other flavors before but their tastes never satisfied you like this flavor did. Maybe it was the pop of sweetness that would fill your mouth or the feeling of nostalgia it gave you; you didn’t know.

The jingling of bells had interrupted your thought process, alerting you that a customer had entered. A man wearing ripped jeans, a black mask, and a black long sleeve walked in. He was quite pale with mint green hair, a black beanie atop his head.

You watched as he looked around for a second and then approached the counter, pulling down his mask. He was cutely intimidating.

“What can I get you?” You asked, pulling the lollipop out of your mouth for the time being.

His eyes scanned the selection of cigarettes behind you before speaking. “I’ll take a pack of Marlboros.” He requested. His voice was raspy but soothing.

“Those things kill, you know.” You remarked as you unlocked the glass wall that held the cigarettes.

He looked at you for a moment before a smirk appeared on his face. “Those things give you cavities, you know.” He retorted, analyzing the lollipop that you were holding.

A smile appeared on your face at his clever comeback. “What’s your name?” You asked, scanning his item.

“Yoongi.”

“Cute. I’m y/n.” You replied, popping the lollipop back into your mouth.

He chuckled at your straightforwardness and sent you a curious look. You were definitely different from most of the girls he met. Most of them were blushing and giggling shyly by now, realizing how handsome he was. But you, you were chill. You were mysteriously intriguing. He liked that, he wanted to get to know you better.

“When does your shift end?”

You checked your phone and locked eyes with him, handing him his cigarettes. “In about an hour, why?”

“No reason, just wondering.” He hummed, leaving the gas station.

That was weird, you thought. About an hour, just as your shift was ending, the door had chimed again. You looked up to see the mint haired boy, his gummy smile threatening to show. He walked in and leaned against the counter. “Your shift end yet?”

“Yeah actually, I’m just getting off.” You said, confused as to why he was here again, Not that you minded in the least.

“Would you be interested in getting lunch with me?”

You hummed in consideration before a smirk appeared on your face. “What’s in it for me?” You asked playfully. You were never going to reject his offer in the first place but you wanted to tease him a bit.

He hummed with a small smile on his face before answering, “Free food and some of these?” He said while reaching into a bag that you hadn’t noticed he was holding. He pulled out a bag of your favorite bubblegum flavored lollipops. He held them teasingly in the air as he continued speaking, “but only if you come to lunch with me~” He said teasingly holding them in the air.

Your eyes widened comically as you thought about it. He didn’t seem like a murderer, he was observant and sweet, and he was handsome. What were you gonna do, say no? You’d be stupid to say no, so you accepted.

“In that case,” you tapped on your chin as if you were debating something, “sure.” You said coolly but had a smile bigger than ever.

You looked at him again and the sight you saw made your heart clench in fondness. His eyes were filled with happiness, a gummy smile big enough to reach his eyes.

Jimin:

You had been strolling through the park one night. You watched as the snowflakes fell; the frosty flakes sprinkling onto the top of your head as well. Yes, it was cold, but you had been studying for your finals all day and had been starting to feel suffocated.

You followed the path in the park until you heard sniffles up ahead. Thinking back, it sounds been sketchy as fuck but your curiosity only urged you further. You hesitated. “Curiosity killed the cat, right? guess I’m dying. You thought, walking further.

You continued to follow the sound of sniffles and it had soon led you to a man sitting on a bench. The street light sitting above him illuminated his figure. You couldn’t see his face but he wore only a light sweater and skinny jeans, and a pair of black converse. Having heard your steps, his head snapped up. You examined his face; His tear stained cheeks were shiny, but he was cute.

You approached him wearily. His eyes never left your face as you fished a few tissues out of your coat pocket. Should I ask him if he’s okay? No—he’s obviously not okay, he’s crying. As you got closer, he scooted over, almost as if he was trying to make room for you. Taking it as a sign to sit down, you sat.

Embarrassed, he turned his face away from you. No words were exchanged for a few moments until you spoke. “Are you cold?” you asked. Shaking from the cold, he pulled his sweater down over his hands. You noticed this and stood up to take your heavier jacket off. As soon as you got it off you scooted closer to him and pulled your oversized jacket around him. His face had whipped around to look at you so fast that you thought he’d get whiplash. You held out the tissue you had been holding. “here.”

His arm slid out from under your jacket and took the tissue. “Thank you.” He mumbled, voice unstable from crying. He blew his nose into the tissue and you both sat there in silence for awhile. Once again, you decided to speak up. “Do you wanna talk about it?” You offered.

Jimin contemplated for a second. Did he want to talk about it? You were a stranger, he didn’t know you but you seemed kind. You had been considerate enough to give him your coat, tissues, and had offered him your company. After all, He would probably never meet you again...right? Right.

To your surprise he had accepted your offer with a “sure.” and had even given you a small smile.

“Alright then, shoot.”

After hearing your words of confirmation, he started to speak. He spoke and spoke for about 25 minutes, only tearing up once or twice. You had offered him the best advice you could muster up and to his surprise, had actually ended up helping him. When he was finished, he continued to speak:

“Thank you. Really. You’ve helped me a fuck ton. He gave you another smile, but this time it was different. It was sincere.

“Anytime, ” You smiled. “Oh, and if you ever need anyone to talk to. I’m here.” You reached into the jacket that was still around Jimin and pulled out another tissue and a sharpie. You had written your number on it and handed it to him with a smile.

Taehyung:

This one turned out a bit different, oops ?

When it comes to Taehyung, you two had already knew each other. Tae and you had been dating for a while but have never actually met.

When you first met him, he had texted the wrong number on accident but you then ended up talking more and becoming friends, best friends actually. You told him things that you would never even think about telling anyone else, and all without knowing who he really was. He was someone you could tell anything to. You wanted to have a deep conversation at 3am? He was there. You wanted to FaceTime? He’d always answer. It was a mutual feeling, so after awhile, he FaceTimed you and asked you to be his girlfriend.

“Hey y/n,” he says, setting up phone so you could see him better. “Hey TaeTae, What’d you need?” You smiled back into the camera. He looked nervous, really nervous. “Well, we’ve been best friends for quite awhile...” he paused, suddenly serious.

“Yeah...” you urged him to continue talking.

“I don’t think we should be best friends anymore-”

“w-what, why?” Your eyes grew wide and your hands trembled as you struggled to speak.

“Because,” He continued, “I want to be more than that.” He was now looking down and playing with his fingers, rambling. “I understand if you don’t feel the same or if you-“

“Wait Tae. Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” You interrupted, blank faced. You couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not.

He smiled hopefully, “I am. Will you accept me y/n?”

You smiled the brightest smile you’ve smiled in a while. Damn, he makes you so happy.

“what the fuck? Yes, of course I will!” You screeched, almost falling off your bed in the process.

You had been wanting to meet him in person for awhile but Tae wanted to wait till you were more serious till you met. Both of you were currently in college but you knew that Tae couldn’t afford to spend money on a plane ticket for you. You had a stable job and could surely take some time off from college, so why not? Tae was someone you knew would be worth spending the money for, so you didn’t mind.

After packing your suitcase the night before, you woke up at 6am to finally meet your boyfriend. You were excited but along with that excitement came an overwhelming anxiety. What if you weren’t what he thought you’d be? What if you weren’t good enough? What if when he finally sees you, he sees all the flaws he didn’t see before? All of these ‘what if’ questions swirled in your head as you boarded the plane.

The whole plane ride, your stomach continued to feel like it was twisting itself into a giant knot. To try and and create a distraction for yourself, you had plugged your earbuds into your phone and listened to music. To your relief, you were asleep in less than 5 minutes.

Precisely 2 hours and 4 minutes later you were being tapped awake by your seatmate, who then announced that you had arrived. You came out of your sleepy state as your initial excitement kicked in once again. A small smile framed your face as you grabbed your small duffle from above you. In less than 20 minutes, you ,y/n l/n, would be meeting Tae, you couldn’t believe it.

You got your phone out of your back pocket and on the lock screen was a text from Tae telling you where he would be. You replied that you had gotten off safely and made your way to get your suitcase. Following the crowd to where the suitcases would be disposed, you speed walked. You made your way over and were now waiting for your suitcase to pass by. Finally spotting it you grabbed it off of the machine with ease.

Once again, you texted Tae. You asked what he would be wearing so that you would know what to look for. He responded quickly saying that he had recently changed his hair color before he came. He says to look for someone with a head of silverish hair and a striped baseball Tee with a red jacket. You looked for awhile and finally saw him. What he didn’t tell you was that he would be holding a big, neon colored sign with your name on it.

His stomach filled with butterflies as he saw you standing there staring at him as if you had just saw the most beautiful thing ever. He looked at you standing there and only one word could describe you right now; perfection. Absolute perfection. He couldn’t believe you were all his.

When you had saw him it felt like time stopped. Your heart raced as you dropped your luggage and sprinted towards him. As you got closer he had already abandoned the sign he had once been holding. Once you finally reached him you jumped into his open arms, but he had caught you as if he had practiced this a thousand times before. Your face was buried in his neck, his arms holding you tight around your waist. You could hear him sniffling as he mumbled a chorus of “Fuck, you’re actually here.” and “Mine, all mine.” into your ears. You pulled away and mumbled a small “Hi TaeTae.”

Cupping his face with both hands, you wiped his tears with your thumbs as you gave him small pecks all over his face. He giggled at your cuteness and did the same in return.

Jungkook:

You and Jungkook were in High school. Jungkook had a crush on you and had started to leave little love notes in your locker. Looking back at it now, his tactic was quite cliche. But hey, it worked, right? Others might’ve found it creepy or even “obsessive” but you found it endearing and sweet. 

 This had been going on for a while and each of the little poems or messages would leave you smiling after reading them. Jungkook was in some of your classes, but had only actually talked to you once, and it hadn’t even been a whole conversation. He had accidentally bumped into you in the hallway and mumbled an array of ‘sorry, I didn’t mean too !!’ and ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—‘ As he scrambled to help you pick up your stuff. Unlike you’re “friends” who had laughed at him, you had simply given him a kind smile and told him not to worry about it. Your kindness is what had attracted him to you in the first place, your beauty had been a bonus. 

 He had been giving you these notes for about a year now and you hadn’t actually been curious to find out who they were from, you just enjoyed getting them. Maybe it was the feeling of wanting it to last longer, you didn’t know. But unfortunately for Jungkook, he had chosen the worst possible time to give you the note.

 It was 5th period and you had needed to use the restroom, but to get to the restroom, you had to pass your locker. As you navigated your way through the halls, you were just about to turn another corner as you saw a boy in front of your locker. He was folding a small piece of paper. Is that Jungkook? You watched him for a few more moments and decided to approach him. All of a sudden you were about an arms distance away from him. He still hadn’t noticed you. It’s like that note has him in a trance, you giggled. At that sound, his body jolted up into perfect posture. He stuffed the note into his back pocket. “y-y/n?” He squeaked. 

 “Hey Kook,” You paused “It’s okay if I call you that, right?” 

 “O-of course!” He spoke a little more loudly then he would have preferred. 

“Cool,” you paused again, “anyway, what are you doing in front of my locker?” You questioned. 

 “A-ah, I was just—“ he startled to ramble and in the midst of his rambling the little paper had fallen out of his pocket. He had reached down to pick it up but you had beat him to it. On the front of the folded paper was your name in pretty cursive writing. Jungkook stood frozen in front of your locker as you continued to open the note. His hands were sweating profusely. When opening up the paper, it had a small poem on the inside. You recognized it, it was actually written by one of your favorite poets! 

“ I appreciate that you want to write me love notes, but you copied someone else’s poem.” You teased him.

 “W-Well, I still wrote it on my paper!” He defended himself with a light smile, the blush appearing on his cheeks. You giggled. “Well, next time you want to write me a love poem, just text me.” 

 “Really?” His eyes widened. 

You grinned at him, holding your phone out for him to type his number into.

[majdalenaska]

Up in the air aka glorified waitress

Today it’s been exactly two years since I officially started my cabin crew journey and working for Norwegian Air, hence I‘ve decided to start a blog. Let’s see how it goes..

Below I describe my 6 days‘ trip down route. I hope you will enjoy it a bit and get a little glimpse into my flying world.

I’m talking to a young girl in the elevator; she looks at me in my uniform and says: „Wow, you are a cabin crew? Well, in fact she meant to say : „ Wow you are so lucky, you get to travel the whole world“!

That made me smile, but deep down I thought, hmm that’s a bit of  an overstatement.

No, really, many of my friends have a bit biased ideas about this world of flying and what it really feels like to work on a plane. Initially, I was very naive as well, not having a clue as to how I was going to feel on board, how I was going to interact with passengers from different countries and cultures who speak languages that I might not understand. What it is like  meeting a different crew every single flight - a bunch of folks who you have never met before, and  having to pretend you are proficient enough to provide excellent customer service.

No one can prepare you for the actual flight and being on board. The jetlagg, the anxiety, stress and fatique but with time it all goes away and you get used to it, somehow.

But, on the other hand, who can say they’ve had a steak for dinner in one of the most famous restaurant in Buenos Aires and danced Tango with one of the locals? Or who gets to experience flying in the skies at 39 000 ft every week using a Dreamliner 787 as their office? And  getting paid for all the traveling around the world? To sum it up all, I’d say my life is kinda up and down, literally.

This week I’ve had a 6 days‘ trip: London-New York-Madrid-New York-Madrid-London, sounds awful, doesn’t it? It is kind of an odd pattern but since we cover the workload of other bases, we have to be ready anytime for anything. This is aviation! Sometimes you never know where you could be flying next.

28.8./ 8:20 CET- London Gatwick            

         I meet my crew at Costa coffee at Gatwick and first introductions can begin. There are over 800 crews in Norwegian, so in most cases you will see everyone for the first time, and there is a little chance that you will be flying with someone you’ve already met before. I really appreciate when I see someone I’ve worked with on my previous flights, so there is a slight possibility. I’m feeling a bit awkward, I don’t seem to know anyone. I am not keen on small talk but there is no other choice. The flight crew aren‘t looking very happy today but maybe a smile from  cabin crew will cheer them up.

Together we are headed on board and in the forward cabin (PREMIUM) we have a quick briefing before the flight. Our senior assigns positions of the door which we are responsible for. Together we talk through all emergency questions and also discuss first aid topics. The Captain provides us with information regarding turbulences and the flight time, which is the only information everyone’s been waiting for. I’m feeling tired, didn’t have a good night’s sleep , but once the meal service starts, I am ready to go. The flight runs relatively smoothly, we do have an enormous bunch of orders though, which is not ideal, if there are only 8 cabin crew in total. Flights, especially to NYC, are ridicilously busy sometimes.

   We finish the service and half the crew can hit the crew rest, which is located at the rear of the cabin. It’s my turn so I can get myself into the little bunk, close my eyes trying to get some rest;this is so far the best part of the flight. If anyone of my readers has ever flown on a Boeing 787 before - please keep reading. You can find the lavatories on the other side of the crew rest and if you see the sign CABIN CREW ONLY , please stay away, this is definitely not a lavatory. You might wonder why I mention this, but 99% of our passengers do try to open our doors and fail miserably.

Anyway, we get to New York city around 1 PM local time (18.00 CET), and since this airport is one of the busiest airports out there we sometimes spend around 45 minutes taxing to the gate and waiting and waiting… (the worst part of a flight)

15:30 local time/ 20 : 30 CET – New York City

Two hours later, we finally reach our hotel in Manhattan; the whole journey from the airport can take up to 1 hour. But we stay in a hotel in Manhattan, so no one complains really. Everyone gets to their rooms and we talk about what to do later. We plan a rooftop bar in Brooklyn, but it starts raining, bummer. I take a shower and a short nap, since later I plan on going to Whole Foods with one of my colleagues. Shouldn’t have done that; after waking up I feel so drained that I am only capable of going downstairs for a pizza at the corner.

The pizza tastes delicious though and I put a Netflix on, unwind and relax. At 8 o´clock I can’t keep my eyes open anymore and I fall asleep. At 2 am I wake up and lie around in bed till 5 am. Thank you jet lag! Being an experienced flight attendant, however, I do have my morning routine. I do a bit of yoga, meditate and head for the coast to have a jog, which works perfect for jetlagg issues. You usually need a buddy who will drag you out of the bed, though. This time I pulled it off on my own!

It really feels amazing to be jogging along the Hudson river at 7 am, passing thrilled New Yorkers with their dogs and strollers, thinking about how awesome it might be to actually live here. After a while, I sit on a bench, listen to music and admire the views over Manhattan and get carried away. I come for a run here every single morning.

   Back at the hotel, I go downstairs to have breakfast and meet the rest of my crew. A big breakfast makes me  tired once again, so no big plans for today, I’m afraid. But maybe  I could manage some shopping in Century 21 and a lunch in Whole foods? ( BTW This place is awesome, just don’t get too carried away, otherwise you’ll be crying at the till.) Later we fly back to Madrid and I desperately long for a good night’s sleep. Tough luck, though.

I play a meditation video to calm me down but it’s pointless.

   29.8/21:15 local time( 02:15 CET)- New York City

It’s not ideal to start your flight at 3 am European time, as you can imagine. Anyway, in the world of flight attendants you get used to anything…anything at all. One hour on a bus to the airport, one hour taxing to the gate…man, I am drained. I am sitting on my jumpseat about 50 minutes and there are 3 passengers sitting opposite  me.( Cabin crew  must smile no matter what, so wakey wakey Magdalena!) Luckily all  the passengers are asleep so I can relax. The flight is stress and turbulence free and it only takes  6 hours and 30 minutes,yay. Well, sometimes it is rather enjoyable. Although every flight is utterly different, to be honest. Fatique, arguments with passengers, arguments with  crew, fainting passengers, drunk passengers…take your pick. But, hooray, today no one has vomitted on me and I haven‘t spilled any drinks on anyone. Not yet, at least.

30.8/14:35 local time - Madrid

We are thrilled arriving in Madrid. My idea of the upcoming days looks like this: The sun, the pool and chill. I leave my uniform in the hotel room and in the evening I meet my colleagues from Hungary and Poland. Together we set off towards the center of Madrid. The plan is to stroll around the city and get some Tapas and Sangria. We are lucky enough to be guided by one of our colleagues who is local in Madrid.

He shows us a few places of interests. I am mainly excited by the beautiful park called Cuarttel de la Montana, which gives you a stunning view over the city. We can‘t possibly finish our evening in Madrid without visiting the local Chocolateria San Gines, where the best Churros is made. The next day we explore the shopping mall next door, and spend a great time relaxing at the pool and regaining energy for the upcoming night flight.

31.8./18:25 local time

All bags packed and prepared, I am headed down to the lobby to meet my crew. We are flying back to New York City, which I am not really keen on, due to my poor sleep on the  East Coast. Interestingly, lately I‘ve preferred flying to the West coast of USA where I don’t have a major issue with jetlagg and sleep.( Though it only took  a year and half to get used to all those time differences, haha.)  We have a nice flight, the only trouble being  that almost 80% of all passengers are Spanish speaking, so we send our only Spanish speaking colleague L. everywhere we can. L. is not that excited about the situation. We have a small issue with a passenger who  refuses to give up on her own meal with nuts. Unfortunately for her, we have a passenger on board, who is allergic to nuts and hence it’s strictly forbidden to be eating anything containing nuts. But Mrs. B. is not happy about that and complains that she only eats foods that are vegan, gluten free an organic and we can’t really provide that from our snack bar, according to her. I try my best explaining and offering something else but in the end I have to call my senior. We bribe her with a freshly made coffee which is the only thing  she is willing to consume. Anyway, at the end of the flight. Mrs. B opens up her own meal box risking an anaphylactic shock for the poor passenger. Fortunately, nothing happens and her meal doesn‘t trigger an allergic reaction. It really feels  utterly frustrating that although we do our best to explain the seriousness of the situation, Mrs. B. ignores everything we say and put the life of a co - passenger at a risk. I think it is outrageous  how some people are so ignorant and arrogant. Yet, there‘s so much more a cabin crew can come up against  and have to deal with.( I just can‘t really stress enough the  importance of  working on yourself, your resiliance and patience, to be able to face all those kinds of challenges without ever losing your head and nerve.)

Another situation comes up with a lady  complaining about not getting a seat in exit row , where she can hang up a bassinet for her baby during the flight. Since she only speaks spanish, my colleague L.  apologizes to her saying that they must have made a mistake at the check in desk and she will have to take another seat unfortunately.

Service is taking ages and is not pleasant at all, no one can understand me, but eventually I am good to go with Vino Bianco and Vino Rosso. Spanish is not that difficult after all.

We get to the Manhattan hotel at  around 1 am in the morning, which is 6 am European time. Having an alcoholic beverage goes aside and I am only focused on my beautiful bed on 23rd floor. I am so tired  I would happily stay in that cosy warm bed until tomorrow’s pick up. But I forget I am at East coast so I am up at 6.30 heading for  breakfast. I don’t feel like running today, apologies Hudson river. After breakfast I feel drowsy again, I roll in the bed and put on some Netflix. I get my lunch in Preta Manger nearby and go back to my hotel room. You‘re thinking right, jetlagg is not an easy beast sometimes.

1.9 /21.15 local tme- 02.15 CET- New York

Here comes the very last working flight of this pattern and we are going back to Madrid, yay, feels like Dejavu. On the way to the JFK airport everyone falls asleep since it takes about an hour to get there and it is quite late in the evening. What is the best thing about night flights? Almost every passenger is fast asleep before the take off, awesome! We have a quiet time in both galleys and  the flight only takes 6,5 hours, which is a big plus of NYC flights. Compared it with Buenos Aires, which is about 13 hours from London Gatwick, a bit of a  difference, eh?

2.9. /12:59 CET – Madrid

We’ve arrived in Madrid but our flight back to London Gatwick is due in 5 hours. We are lucky enough to  have our hotel booked for us so we can refresh and relax for a bit. We don’t operate this flight- it is called DEADHEADING, which means, that we fly as passengers in our civil clothes. We get to Gatwick around 7.30 in the evening and everything seems great. There wasn’t any delay, no baggage was lost, everything is as should be.  Around 10 o’clock in the evening I get home and order a pizza and a beer from Deliveroo. Unpacking my suitcase can wait till tomorrow - I fall into my cosy bed and I am not getting out of it for the next 12 hours.

[brashspeak-blog]

The intersectionality of the hoodwinking of women; or, scones and tea won’t fix this and I’m raging.

*trigger warning: I use the word rape a lot in this, and directly reference a few of its associated brutalities. Please be kind to yourself, and don’t read this if you’re not up to it. You are more important than my rant.

 Also, just as a caveat, you need to put the jam on before the cream, you animals. 

 Women. We are 3D sacks of awe. Our laughter is the thing men fear the most, so...apparently we are that powerful. I mean, we’re most afraid that men will hurt us, but then, (spoiler alert) that’s kind of what I’m leading up to. It is the working knowledge of this stark difference in fear of the other, that has put me in a stroppy mood today. 

I love the idea of International Women’s day. I’ve been a nice thing to sit here in my knickers, drink tea and scroll through all the things people are posting on the socials about how inspiring the women in their lives are. I love the articles detailing women’s role in history, our progress to date and what may be on the near horizon. There is so much cause for celebration, and I am immensely proud that I get to be amongst the fold of a group of humans who do not seek revenge, but rather equality. I mean, feminism actually makes things better for men. We seek to redress toxic masculinity, we care deeply about men and how the current state of things that make “being a man” near untenable. As feminists, we simply want everyone to be happy. I mean, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

It is troubling, however, that even after packaging feminism as being good for men, and despite all the whistles, self-defence classes, opting to get an Uber home even when “home” is only one suburb away, there are some things that just wont stop. Men keep hurting us. 

I’m going to dive straight into the deep end and get to the point. Women are not doing bad things to themselves, nor are rapes accidents. We don’t trip and fall into a rape. Sexual violence is intentional, and in every single case, someone/s is doing it to us. Here in Australia, a place largely considered to be one of the safer corners of the world, we have a shocking epidemic of rape. SBS reported that “Australia has one of the highest rates of reported sexual assault in the world, at almost 92 people per 100,000 of the population, according to the United Nations”. SBS states in no uncertain terms that we are at more than double the global average for reported sexual assault. The key word there, in case you missed it, was the word reported. These are the numbers we can, hand on heart, say we actually know about. 

Based on numbers collected by the ABS in 2016, “one in five women (18% or 1.7 million) have now experienced sexual violence” in Australia. If you have not been sexually assaulted, don’t worry, it might still happen. If you have, you don’t need to worry either… it might happen again, because let’s face it, it’s not exactly the chicken pox.

How many women do you know? Is it five or more? Have any of them been sexually assaulted? If you’re shaking your head or if you’re unsure, either you have never had an honest conversation with a woman, or, none of them trust you. 

 Sit with that for a moment. 

At this point in things, it is important to note that I did not write that last bit just for men. If you are a woman and you don’t know of another woman who has been sexually assaulted, then maybe…. you’re not a safe woman. Make sure you consider that as a possibility. 

Now young lady, you seem a bit fixated in the violence? what’s up with that? Cool, you there in the back raise a very strong point, and I thank you for your candour. Let’s move swiftly over to a more palatable topic, let’s have a chat about….art.

Let’s start with music. Below is an excerpt from my master’s thesis on women in the music industry, steel yourself for some dry academic writing, but it is relevant: 

 …female songwriters are far less visible than performing artists, and the numbers show it. Within APRAs member base of 85, 000 Australian musicians, “20% of songwriters in this category are women”. What this tells us, is that out of just one sub-category, that is contemporary popular music, while 20% are of songwriters are women, within the larger music industry women are still less likely to be booked or included in a festival line-up than their male peers. When drilling the numbers down further, out of the entire APRA membership, “the gender divide between registered APRA members was on the most drastic across (an) entire analysis- only about one in five APRAH members are women” (McCormack, 2018). While this may “seem low, it was a 3.8% increase” (McCormack, 2018) from 2017. 

The statistics of most interest are the numbers associated with sub-categories within the music industry. Continuing with songwriters as an example, “APRA outlines the genres where women are under-represented and over-represented” (McCormack, 2018), with their numbers showing “only 7% of jingle writers in the industry are women” and within that 7%, “53% of children’s music writers are women”. From this statistic alone, it shows women are under-represented song writing as whole, but for roles culturally associated with women’s roles within society, that being child orientated content, women are over-represented.

Commenting on the Australian music industry, and the Skipping a Beat report, The Workplace Gender Equality Agency concluded that “women are not only confronted with a glass ceiling, but also glass walls, where women congregate in occupations and sectors where the majority of employees are women”. Meaning, that women are more likely to find employment as song writers if they write for children rather than for their own peers. 

Conversely, within a study by Dr Smith of the Annenberg Institute of Inclusion found that “nine male songwriters… have been responsible for almost one-fifth of the top songs in the last six years” (Sisario, 2018), that being from 2012-2018 in the Billboard Hot 100 in North America. In addition, figures pulled from APRA are important, not only because “APRAH AMCOS help artists get paid for their work” (McCormack, 2018), but also because of their “member base is a huge sample (over 85,000 registered members)” (McCormack, 2018). From that alone “we can reasonably assume that it’s a fairly accurate reflection of the large gender gap between songwriters in Australia” (McCormack, 2018). However, it’s not just the numbers pulled from APRA membership base that provide evidence of the continuing severe gender gaps within the Australian, and international, music industry. Going further afield, when looking at the nominees selected for both Australian and international awards ceremonies, top 100 count downs and radio playlists, a clear gender gap emerges across the broad field of music industry related occupations. 

Skipping a Beat found that “female artists received significantly fewer industry awards than their male peers, with only 20 female artists out of 367 musicians featured in the Triple J’s Hottest 100” (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2018), further to that “only 11 out of 75 inductees into the ARIA Hall of Fame” (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2018) have been women to date. Internationally speaking, the figures are no better for women. When looking to the most prestigious accolades within the international music industry, “of the 899 individuals who have been nominated for the last six Grammy ceremonies, 90.7 % were men, and 9.3% were women” (Sisario, 2018). From these numbers and studies conducted on gender disparities within the Australian and international music industries, a trickle-down effect is becoming all the clearer.

For Australian top radio playlists, women’s representation does not appear to be any better off when compared to those played globally. In 2018’s Tripe J Hottest 100, which happens to be the world biggest democratic song count down, of the 100 songs voted in, “37 song…were from artists with at least one woman” (McCormack, 2018). Further to that, only “twenty-four of those were by acts where at least half of its members are women” (McCormack, 2018). Interestingly, “none of those songs scored enough to make it to the top 10” (McCormack, 2018). What this tells us is that women consistently represent 20-30% of the Australian and International radio play lists, despite seeing an increase in artist royalty registrations and some festival line-ups. Data available from Spotify Australia solidifies this, by revealing that of the top 100 songs played from Australian IP addresses, “21 female artists” (McCormack, 2018) make the cut, and “none of them are in the top 10” (McCormack, 2018). What is not clear is if these female artists are Australian or internationally based, however, what is clear is that it is entirely irrelevant where a female artist is from or based, her visibility within the music industry appears to be capped at 20-30%. 

 Do you know what I’m thinking? I’m reckoning that perhaps there is a wedge that exists in this world. Imagine this wedge is a door stopper (if you will), and at one end there sits a small inequality, starting with small transgressions that grows fatter and bigger until it carried such weight it can stop the full force of a swinging door. 

Call this wedge a tap on the bum at a pub. Call it an uncomfortable vibe from the guy who is walking just a tad too close to you in the dark. Call it the stranger who puts his hand on the inside of your leg while you’re drunk and asks if you want another. Call it the moment you realise that in this instance it’s safest to play dead and wait for it to stop. Call it Ryan Adams, call it Bowie, call it John Lennon, call it Picasso, call it the local sleaze everyone just rolls their eyes at. Call it a lack of representation in film, art, music, politics, writing. Call it the silencing of women. 

Call it a wedge where we excuse shitty behaviour, because “no harm no foul”, and watch as we all spin in confusion when an 11-year-old girl is forced to deliver a baby conceived by rape, or when another girl gets murdered 100 metres from her fucking tram stop, or another on her way home from her own god damn comedy show. 

We must be seen. We must be heard. Our rage must be contended with. Our time and what we do with it must be acknowledge and treated equally. We are 52% of the population, how is it we have to fight so damn hard to just.fucking.see.ourselves. 

There is a link between what some may excuse as a small annoyance and an overall systematic silencing of women. The silencing of our music, our voices, our contributions to history and culture, and the total erasure of our lives must end. Once you’re on that wedge, it doesn’t take long to move from end to the other. We all must acknowledge this link; our lives depend on it. 

But you know, it’s not all doom and gloom, and on a more personal note, I’m not always raging. So now that I’ve gotten this shit off my chest, I’m going to pour a fresh cold beer down my gob, because beer was invented by us females and by fuck, I’m going to celebrate women today. See you at the show.    

[airoasis]

Chris Urmson: How a driverless car sees the road

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/chris-urmson-how-a-driverless-car-sees-the-road-2/

Chris Urmson: How a driverless car sees the road

So in 1885, Karl Benz invented the vehicle. Later that 12 months, he took it out for the first public test power, and — authentic story — crashed right into a wall. For the final one hundred thirty years, we now have been working round that least nontoxic a part of the car, the driver. We’ve got made the vehicle better. We have introduced seat belts, we have delivered air baggage, and in the final decade, we now have truly began trying to make the auto smarter to fix that trojan horse, the driving force. Now, in these days i will talk to you a bit bit concerning the difference between patching around the quandary with driver help systems and virtually having utterly self-riding cars and what they may be able to do for the arena. I am additionally going to talk to you a bit bit about our automobile and permit you to see the way it sees the sector and how it reacts and what it does, but first i’ll speak just a little bit about the concern.And it’s a significant trouble: 1.2 million people are killed on the sector’s roads every 12 months. In the us alone, 33,000 persons are killed each 12 months. To place that in standpoint, that is the equal as a 737 falling out of the sky every working day. It is type of improbable. Automobiles are bought to us like this, however particularly, this is what using’s like. Right? It can be no longer sunny, it’s wet, and you wish to have to do some thing other than pressure. And the rationale why is this: traffic is getting worse. In america, between 1990 and 2010, the vehicle miles traveled accelerated by using 38 percent. We grew through six percentage of roads, so it is no longer for your brains. Traffic relatively is considerably worse than it used to be not very lengthy ago. And all of this has a very human fee. So when you take the average travel time in the us, which is ready 50 minutes, you multiply that by the one hundred twenty million staff we have, that turns out to be about six billion minutes wasted in commuting every day. Now, that’s a colossal number, so let’s put it in point of view. You are taking that six billion minutes and you divide it via the natural lifestyles expectancy of a character, that seems to be 162 lifetimes spent everyday, wasted, simply getting from A to B.It can be implausible. And then, there are these of us who would not have the privilege of sitting in site visitors. So that is Steve. He’s an incredibly equipped man, but he simply happens to be blind, and that implies as an alternative of a 30-minute power to work in the morning, it can be a two-hour ordeal of piecing collectively bits of public transit or asking buddies and family for a ride. He does not have that same freedom that you just and that i must get around. We will have to do some thing about that. Now, conventional knowledge would say that we will just take these driver help systems and we’ll form of push them and incrementally improve them, and over time, they may grow to be self-driving cars.Well, i’m right here to let you know that is like me announcing that if I work fairly rough at leaping, someday i’ll be able to fly. We surely ought to do anything a little bit one of a kind. And so i will talk to you about three distinctive ways that self-driving systems are different than driver assistance systems. And i’ll with a few of our own expertise. So again in 2013, we had the first scan of a self-using auto the place we let typical people use it. Good, nearly standard — they have been one hundred Googlers, however they weren’t engaged on the challenge. And we gave them the vehicle and we allowed them to make use of it of their every day lives.However in contrast to a real self-riding vehicle, this one had a large asterisk with it: They needed to pay concentration, when you consider that this was once an experimental car. We demonstrated it a lot, but it surely could still fail. And so we gave them two hours of coaching, we put them within the car, we let them use it, and what we heard back was once some thing first-rate, as any one trying to bring a product into the arena. Every one of them told us they cherished it. Actually, we had a Porsche driver who came in and told us on the primary day, "that is totally stupid. What are we thinking?" but at the end of it, he mentioned, "now not most effective should i have it, every body else should have it, seeing that people are terrible drivers." So this was song to our ears, however then we started to appear at what the people within the car were doing, and this used to be eye-opening.Now, my favorite story is that this gentleman who looks down at his mobile and realizes the battery is low, so he turns around like this in the car and digs around in his backpack, pulls out his desktop, puts it on the seat, goes within the back once more, digs round, pulls out the charging cable for his mobile, futzes round, places it into the laptop, puts it on the cell. Definite ample, the cell is charging. At all times he is been doing 65 miles per hour down the parkway. Right? Incredible. So we suggestion about this and we stated, it can be variety of apparent, proper? The easier the technology gets, the much less trustworthy the driving force is going to get.So via simply making the automobiles incrementally smarter, we’re commonly no longer going to see the wins we fairly need. Let me talk about anything slightly technical for a second right here. So we’re looking at this graph, and along the backside is how often does the auto follow the brakes when it shouldn’t. Which you could ignore most of that axis, on the grounds that if you’re driving around town, and the automobile begins stopping randomly, you’re never going to buy that vehicle. And the vertical axis is how usually the auto is going to use the brakes when it’s speculated to to support you restrict an accident. Now, if we seem at the bottom left corner right here, that is your traditional auto. It does not follow the brakes for you, it does not do anything goofy, but it surely additionally would not get you out of an accident. Now, if we want to bring a driver assistance procedure into a vehicle, say with collision mitigation braking, we’re going to put some package deal of technological know-how on there, and that’s this curve, and it’ll have some operating houses, but it surely’s under no circumstances going to preclude all of the accidents, due to the fact it doesn’t have that capacity.However we are going to choose some place along the curve right here, and maybe it avoids half of accidents that the human driver misses, and that’s mighty, right? We simply reduced accidents on our roads by a aspect of two. There are now 17,000 less people dying each year in the us. But if we would like a self-driving auto, we’d like a science curve that looks like this. We’ll have got to put extra sensors within the auto, and we’ll select some operating factor up right here where it truly never will get right into a crash. They are going to occur, however very low frequency. Now you and that i would look at this and we would argue about whether or not it is incremental, and that i could say some thing like "eighty-20 rule," and it can be fairly hard to maneuver as much as that new curve. However let’s look at it from one more direction for a second. So let’s appear at how on the whole the technological know-how has to do the right thing. And so this inexperienced dot up here’s a driver help system.It turns out that human drivers make errors that result in traffic accidents about once every a hundred,000 miles in the usa. In contrast, a self-driving method is frequently making decisions about 10 occasions per 2d, so order of magnitude, that’s about 1,000 instances per mile. So for those who examine the distance between these two, it can be about 10 to the eighth, correct? Eight orders of magnitude. That’s like evaluating how quick I run to the speed of sunshine. It’s not relevant how rough I educate, i’m certainly not virtually going to get there. So there may be a pretty huge gap there. After which eventually, there is how the procedure can manage uncertainty. So this pedestrian right here perhaps entering into the street, could no longer be. I cannot inform, nor can any of our algorithms, but within the case of a driver assistance system, that means it can not take motion, on the grounds that once more, if it presses the brakes hastily, that’s utterly unacceptable. Whereas a self-riding approach can appear at that pedestrian and say, I have no idea what they are about to do, slow down, take a greater seem, and then react competently after that.So it can be so much safer than a driver help procedure can ever be. So that’s enough about the variations between the two. Let’s spend some time talking about how the automobile sees the sector. So that is our vehicle. It begins via figuring out where it is on this planet, by means of taking a map and its sensor data and aligning the 2, and then we layer on prime of that what it sees within the moment. So right here, all the pink containers you will see that are different cars on the street, and the crimson thing on the facet over there is a bike owner, and up in the distance, for those who seem relatively closely, one can find some cones.Then we all know the place the auto is in the second, however we need to do higher than that: we must predict what’s going to happen. So here the pickup truck in high proper is ready to make a left lane change due to the fact that the road in entrance of it’s closed, so it wants to get out of the way in which. Knowing that one pickup truck is first-class, but we really must recognize what everyone’s thinking, so it becomes quite a complex difficulty. And then considering that, we will figure out how the vehicle must respond within the second, so what trajectory it will have to comply with, how swiftly it must slow down or pace up.And then that each one turns into just following a direction: turning the guidance wheel left or correct, pressing the brake or gas. It can be particularly just two numbers on the finish of the day. So how tough can it quite be? Again after we started in 2009, that is what our method appeared like. So you will discover our auto in the center and the other boxes on the avenue, using down the highway. The automobile wishes to realize the place it is and roughly where the other cars are. It is quite a geometrical understanding of the sector. Once we began riding on neighborhood and metropolis streets, the difficulty becomes a whole new degree of crisis. You see pedestrians crossing in front of us, cars crossing in entrance of us, going every which way, the traffic lights, crosswalks. It is an particularly problematic obstacle by evaluation. After which after getting that difficulty solved, the auto has to be able to deal with development. So here are the cones on the left forcing it to force to the correct, but not just construction in isolation, of path.It has to deal with different individuals relocating by means of that building zone as well. And of path, if anyone’s breaking the rules, the police are there and the automobile has to understand that that flashing gentle on the top of the auto signifies that it can be no longer just a car, it can be truely a police officer. Similarly, the orange box on the part here, it is a institution bus, and we must treat that in a different way as good. When we’re out on the road, other humans have expectations: So, when a bike owner puts up their arm, it manner they’re anticipating the vehicle to yield to them and make room for them to make a lane change. And when a police officer stood in the avenue, our vehicle will have to have an understanding of that this means discontinue, and after they signal to go, we will have to continue.Now, the best way we accomplish this is via sharing information between the autos. The primary, most crude model of this is when one automobile sees a building zone, having a different find out about it so it can be in the correct lane to restrict one of the crucial hindrance. But we actually have a much deeper working out of this. We might take all of the knowledge that the automobiles have obvious over time, the 1000s of 1000’s of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles which were available in the market and have an understanding of what they appear like and use that to deduce what other automobiles will have to look like and other pedestrians must appear like. After which, much more importantly, we would take from that a model of how we anticipate them to maneuver through the world.So right here the yellow field is a pedestrian crossing in entrance of us. Here the blue field is a cyclist and we expect that they will nudge out and across the vehicle to the right. Here there is a bicycle owner coming down the street and we know they’ll continue to force down the shape of the road. Right here somebody makes a right flip, and in a moment here, someone’s going to make a U-flip in front of us, and we will count on that habits and respond safely. Now, that is all good and just right for matters that we’ve obvious, but of course, you come across tons of things that you haven’t noticeable in the world earlier than. And so simply a few months ago, our autos had been riding via Mountain View, and that is what we encountered.This is a lady in an electrical wheelchair chasing a duck in circles on the street. (Laughter) Now it turns out, there may be nowhere within the DMV instruction manual that tells you find out how to maintain that, however our autos were in a position to come across that, sluggish down, and drive safely. Now, we do not have got to handle just ducks. Watch this hen fly throughout in entrance of us. The automobile reacts to that. Here we’re dealing with a bicycle owner that you’d in no way expect to peer wherever instead of Mountain View. And of direction, we have got to care for drivers, even the very small ones.Watch to the correct as someone jumps out of this truck at us. And now, watch the left because the car with the fairway field decides he needs to make a right flip at the final possible moment. Right here, as we make a lane change, the automobile to our left decides it needs to as well. And here, we watch a car blow by way of a red gentle and yield to it. And in a similar fashion, here, a cyclist blowing via that mild as well. And of direction, the auto responds safely. And of direction, now we have persons who do I do not know what frequently on the road, like this man pulling out between two self-riding cars. You have got to ask, "What are you pondering?" (Laughter) Now, I simply fireplace-hosed you with a lot of stuff there, so i’ll destroy such a down pretty quickly. So what we’re watching at is the scene with the cyclist again, and you might detect within the backside, we cannot actually see the bicycle owner but, but the automobile can: it’s that little blue box up there, and that comes from the laser information. And that’s no longer really rather easy to appreciate, so what i’m going to do is i’ll flip that laser knowledge and seem at it, and if you’re quite good at watching at laser knowledge, one can find a couple of dots on the curve there, proper there, and that blue box is that bicycle owner.Now as our mild is purple, the cyclist’s light has became yellow already, and when you squint, you will see that within the imagery. However the bike owner, we see, goes to proceed via the intersection. Our mild has now became green, his is solidly pink, and we now anticipate that this bike goes to return the entire way throughout. Lamentably the other drivers subsequent to us were not paying as so much awareness. They started to tug ahead, and fortunately for every body, this cyclists reacts, avoids, and makes it by means of the intersection. And off we go. Now, as you will see that, now we have made some lovely interesting progress, and at this factor we’re lovely convinced this technology goes to return to market. We do three million miles of testing in our simulators every single day, so which you could think the expertise that our automobiles have. We are looking forward to having this science on the avenue, and we suppose the proper route is to move via the self-driving rather than driver assistance strategy considering that the urgency is so gigantic. Within the time i have given this talk in these days, 34 persons have died on the usa’s roads.How soon do we bring it out? Good, it’s difficult to assert on the grounds that it’s a quite tricky quandary, however these are my two boys. My oldest son is eleven, and that means in 4 and a half years, he will be able to get his driver’s license. My group and that i are committed to creating definite that doesn’t occur. Thank you. (Laughter) (Applause) Chris Anderson: Chris, I’ve acquired a query for you. Chris Urmson: definite. CA: So absolutely, the intellect of your cars is pretty mind-boggling. On this debate between driver-assisted and fully driverless — I imply, there may be a real debate occurring available in the market proper now. So one of the crucial organizations, for instance, Tesla, are going the driver-assisted route. What you are pronouncing is that that is variety of going to be a lifeless end in view that you can’t just preserve making improvements to that route and get to absolutely driverless at some factor, after which a driver is going to claim, "This feels trustworthy," and climb into the back, and whatever unpleasant will occur. CU: right. No, that is precisely right, and it can be to not say that the motive force help methods don’t seem to be going to be incredibly useful.They are able to retailer a number of lives in the interim, however to see the transformative possibility to help any one like Steve get round, to really get to the tip case in safety, to have the opportunity to vary our cities and move parking out and get rid of these urban craters we call parking tons, it is the only strategy to go. CA: we will be able to be tracking your progress with colossal interest. Thanks a lot, Chris. CU: thanks. (Applause) .

[batterymonster2021]

Chris Urmson: How a driverless car sees the road

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/chris-urmson-how-a-driverless-car-sees-the-road-2/

Chris Urmson: How a driverless car sees the road

So in 1885, Karl Benz invented the vehicle. Later that 12 months, he took it out for the first public test power, and — authentic story — crashed right into a wall. For the final one hundred thirty years, we now have been working round that least nontoxic a part of the car, the driver. We’ve got made the vehicle better. We have introduced seat belts, we have delivered air baggage, and in the final decade, we now have truly began trying to make the auto smarter to fix that trojan horse, the driving force. Now, in these days i will talk to you a bit bit concerning the difference between patching around the quandary with driver help systems and virtually having utterly self-riding cars and what they may be able to do for the arena. I am additionally going to talk to you a bit bit about our automobile and permit you to see the way it sees the sector and how it reacts and what it does, but first i’ll speak just a little bit about the concern.And it’s a significant trouble: 1.2 million people are killed on the sector’s roads every 12 months. In the us alone, 33,000 persons are killed each 12 months. To place that in standpoint, that is the equal as a 737 falling out of the sky every working day. It is type of improbable. Automobiles are bought to us like this, however particularly, this is what using’s like. Right? It can be no longer sunny, it’s wet, and you wish to have to do some thing other than pressure. And the rationale why is this: traffic is getting worse. In america, between 1990 and 2010, the vehicle miles traveled accelerated by using 38 percent. We grew through six percentage of roads, so it is no longer for your brains. Traffic relatively is considerably worse than it used to be not very lengthy ago. And all of this has a very human fee. So when you take the average travel time in the us, which is ready 50 minutes, you multiply that by the one hundred twenty million staff we have, that turns out to be about six billion minutes wasted in commuting every day. Now, that’s a colossal number, so let’s put it in point of view. You are taking that six billion minutes and you divide it via the natural lifestyles expectancy of a character, that seems to be 162 lifetimes spent everyday, wasted, simply getting from A to B.It can be implausible. And then, there are these of us who would not have the privilege of sitting in site visitors. So that is Steve. He’s an incredibly equipped man, but he simply happens to be blind, and that implies as an alternative of a 30-minute power to work in the morning, it can be a two-hour ordeal of piecing collectively bits of public transit or asking buddies and family for a ride. He does not have that same freedom that you just and that i must get around. We will have to do some thing about that. Now, conventional knowledge would say that we will just take these driver help systems and we’ll form of push them and incrementally improve them, and over time, they may grow to be self-driving cars.Well, i’m right here to let you know that is like me announcing that if I work fairly rough at leaping, someday i’ll be able to fly. We surely ought to do anything a little bit one of a kind. And so i will talk to you about three distinctive ways that self-driving systems are different than driver assistance systems. And i’ll with a few of our own expertise. So again in 2013, we had the first scan of a self-using auto the place we let typical people use it. Good, nearly standard — they have been one hundred Googlers, however they weren’t engaged on the challenge. And we gave them the vehicle and we allowed them to make use of it of their every day lives.However in contrast to a real self-riding vehicle, this one had a large asterisk with it: They needed to pay concentration, when you consider that this was once an experimental car. We demonstrated it a lot, but it surely could still fail. And so we gave them two hours of coaching, we put them within the car, we let them use it, and what we heard back was once some thing first-rate, as any one trying to bring a product into the arena. Every one of them told us they cherished it. Actually, we had a Porsche driver who came in and told us on the primary day, "that is totally stupid. What are we thinking?" but at the end of it, he mentioned, "now not most effective should i have it, every body else should have it, seeing that people are terrible drivers." So this was song to our ears, however then we started to appear at what the people within the car were doing, and this used to be eye-opening.Now, my favorite story is that this gentleman who looks down at his mobile and realizes the battery is low, so he turns around like this in the car and digs around in his backpack, pulls out his desktop, puts it on the seat, goes within the back once more, digs round, pulls out the charging cable for his mobile, futzes round, places it into the laptop, puts it on the cell. Definite ample, the cell is charging. At all times he is been doing 65 miles per hour down the parkway. Right? Incredible. So we suggestion about this and we stated, it can be variety of apparent, proper? The easier the technology gets, the much less trustworthy the driving force is going to get.So via simply making the automobiles incrementally smarter, we’re commonly no longer going to see the wins we fairly need. Let me talk about anything slightly technical for a second right here. So we’re looking at this graph, and along the backside is how often does the auto follow the brakes when it shouldn’t. Which you could ignore most of that axis, on the grounds that if you’re driving around town, and the automobile begins stopping randomly, you’re never going to buy that vehicle. And the vertical axis is how usually the auto is going to use the brakes when it’s speculated to to support you restrict an accident. Now, if we seem at the bottom left corner right here, that is your traditional auto. It does not follow the brakes for you, it does not do anything goofy, but it surely additionally would not get you out of an accident. Now, if we want to bring a driver assistance procedure into a vehicle, say with collision mitigation braking, we’re going to put some package deal of technological know-how on there, and that’s this curve, and it’ll have some operating houses, but it surely’s under no circumstances going to preclude all of the accidents, due to the fact it doesn’t have that capacity.However we are going to choose some place along the curve right here, and maybe it avoids half of accidents that the human driver misses, and that’s mighty, right? We simply reduced accidents on our roads by a aspect of two. There are now 17,000 less people dying each year in the us. But if we would like a self-driving auto, we’d like a science curve that looks like this. We’ll have got to put extra sensors within the auto, and we’ll select some operating factor up right here where it truly never will get right into a crash. They are going to occur, however very low frequency. Now you and that i would look at this and we would argue about whether or not it is incremental, and that i could say some thing like "eighty-20 rule," and it can be fairly hard to maneuver as much as that new curve. However let’s look at it from one more direction for a second. So let’s appear at how on the whole the technological know-how has to do the right thing. And so this inexperienced dot up here’s a driver help system.It turns out that human drivers make errors that result in traffic accidents about once every a hundred,000 miles in the usa. In contrast, a self-driving method is frequently making decisions about 10 occasions per 2d, so order of magnitude, that’s about 1,000 instances per mile. So for those who examine the distance between these two, it can be about 10 to the eighth, correct? Eight orders of magnitude. That’s like evaluating how quick I run to the speed of sunshine. It’s not relevant how rough I educate, i’m certainly not virtually going to get there. So there may be a pretty huge gap there. After which eventually, there is how the procedure can manage uncertainty. So this pedestrian right here perhaps entering into the street, could no longer be. I cannot inform, nor can any of our algorithms, but within the case of a driver assistance system, that means it can not take motion, on the grounds that once more, if it presses the brakes hastily, that’s utterly unacceptable. Whereas a self-riding approach can appear at that pedestrian and say, I have no idea what they are about to do, slow down, take a greater seem, and then react competently after that.So it can be so much safer than a driver help procedure can ever be. So that’s enough about the variations between the two. Let’s spend some time talking about how the automobile sees the sector. So that is our vehicle. It begins via figuring out where it is on this planet, by means of taking a map and its sensor data and aligning the 2, and then we layer on prime of that what it sees within the moment. So right here, all the pink containers you will see that are different cars on the street, and the crimson thing on the facet over there is a bike owner, and up in the distance, for those who seem relatively closely, one can find some cones.Then we all know the place the auto is in the second, however we need to do higher than that: we must predict what’s going to happen. So here the pickup truck in high proper is ready to make a left lane change due to the fact that the road in entrance of it’s closed, so it wants to get out of the way in which. Knowing that one pickup truck is first-class, but we really must recognize what everyone’s thinking, so it becomes quite a complex difficulty. And then considering that, we will figure out how the vehicle must respond within the second, so what trajectory it will have to comply with, how swiftly it must slow down or pace up.And then that each one turns into just following a direction: turning the guidance wheel left or correct, pressing the brake or gas. It can be particularly just two numbers on the finish of the day. So how tough can it quite be? Again after we started in 2009, that is what our method appeared like. So you will discover our auto in the center and the other boxes on the avenue, using down the highway. The automobile wishes to realize the place it is and roughly where the other cars are. It is quite a geometrical understanding of the sector. Once we began riding on neighborhood and metropolis streets, the difficulty becomes a whole new degree of crisis. You see pedestrians crossing in front of us, cars crossing in entrance of us, going every which way, the traffic lights, crosswalks. It is an particularly problematic obstacle by evaluation. After which after getting that difficulty solved, the auto has to be able to deal with development. So here are the cones on the left forcing it to force to the correct, but not just construction in isolation, of path.It has to deal with different individuals relocating by means of that building zone as well. And of path, if anyone’s breaking the rules, the police are there and the automobile has to understand that that flashing gentle on the top of the auto signifies that it can be no longer just a car, it can be truely a police officer. Similarly, the orange box on the part here, it is a institution bus, and we must treat that in a different way as good. When we’re out on the road, other humans have expectations: So, when a bike owner puts up their arm, it manner they’re anticipating the vehicle to yield to them and make room for them to make a lane change. And when a police officer stood in the avenue, our vehicle will have to have an understanding of that this means discontinue, and after they signal to go, we will have to continue.Now, the best way we accomplish this is via sharing information between the autos. The primary, most crude model of this is when one automobile sees a building zone, having a different find out about it so it can be in the correct lane to restrict one of the crucial hindrance. But we actually have a much deeper working out of this. We might take all of the knowledge that the automobiles have obvious over time, the 1000s of 1000’s of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles which were available in the market and have an understanding of what they appear like and use that to deduce what other automobiles will have to look like and other pedestrians must appear like. After which, much more importantly, we would take from that a model of how we anticipate them to maneuver through the world.So right here the yellow field is a pedestrian crossing in entrance of us. Here the blue field is a cyclist and we expect that they will nudge out and across the vehicle to the right. Here there is a bicycle owner coming down the street and we know they’ll continue to force down the shape of the road. Right here somebody makes a right flip, and in a moment here, someone’s going to make a U-flip in front of us, and we will count on that habits and respond safely. Now, that is all good and just right for matters that we’ve obvious, but of course, you come across tons of things that you haven’t noticeable in the world earlier than. And so simply a few months ago, our autos had been riding via Mountain View, and that is what we encountered.This is a lady in an electrical wheelchair chasing a duck in circles on the street. (Laughter) Now it turns out, there may be nowhere within the DMV instruction manual that tells you find out how to maintain that, however our autos were in a position to come across that, sluggish down, and drive safely. Now, we do not have got to handle just ducks. Watch this hen fly throughout in entrance of us. The automobile reacts to that. Here we’re dealing with a bicycle owner that you’d in no way expect to peer wherever instead of Mountain View. And of direction, we have got to care for drivers, even the very small ones.Watch to the correct as someone jumps out of this truck at us. And now, watch the left because the car with the fairway field decides he needs to make a right flip at the final possible moment. Right here, as we make a lane change, the automobile to our left decides it needs to as well. And here, we watch a car blow by way of a red gentle and yield to it. And in a similar fashion, here, a cyclist blowing via that mild as well. And of direction, the auto responds safely. And of direction, now we have persons who do I do not know what frequently on the road, like this man pulling out between two self-riding cars. You have got to ask, "What are you pondering?" (Laughter) Now, I simply fireplace-hosed you with a lot of stuff there, so i’ll destroy such a down pretty quickly. So what we’re watching at is the scene with the cyclist again, and you might detect within the backside, we cannot actually see the bicycle owner but, but the automobile can: it’s that little blue box up there, and that comes from the laser information. And that’s no longer really rather easy to appreciate, so what i’m going to do is i’ll flip that laser knowledge and seem at it, and if you’re quite good at watching at laser knowledge, one can find a couple of dots on the curve there, proper there, and that blue box is that bicycle owner.Now as our mild is purple, the cyclist’s light has became yellow already, and when you squint, you will see that within the imagery. However the bike owner, we see, goes to proceed via the intersection. Our mild has now became green, his is solidly pink, and we now anticipate that this bike goes to return the entire way throughout. Lamentably the other drivers subsequent to us were not paying as so much awareness. They started to tug ahead, and fortunately for every body, this cyclists reacts, avoids, and makes it by means of the intersection. And off we go. Now, as you will see that, now we have made some lovely interesting progress, and at this factor we’re lovely convinced this technology goes to return to market. We do three million miles of testing in our simulators every single day, so which you could think the expertise that our automobiles have. We are looking forward to having this science on the avenue, and we suppose the proper route is to move via the self-driving rather than driver assistance strategy considering that the urgency is so gigantic. Within the time i have given this talk in these days, 34 persons have died on the usa’s roads.How soon do we bring it out? Good, it’s difficult to assert on the grounds that it’s a quite tricky quandary, however these are my two boys. My oldest son is eleven, and that means in 4 and a half years, he will be able to get his driver’s license. My group and that i are committed to creating definite that doesn’t occur. Thank you. (Laughter) (Applause) Chris Anderson: Chris, I’ve acquired a query for you. Chris Urmson: definite. CA: So absolutely, the intellect of your cars is pretty mind-boggling. On this debate between driver-assisted and fully driverless — I imply, there may be a real debate occurring available in the market proper now. So one of the crucial organizations, for instance, Tesla, are going the driver-assisted route. What you are pronouncing is that that is variety of going to be a lifeless end in view that you can’t just preserve making improvements to that route and get to absolutely driverless at some factor, after which a driver is going to claim, "This feels trustworthy," and climb into the back, and whatever unpleasant will occur. CU: right. No, that is precisely right, and it can be to not say that the motive force help methods don’t seem to be going to be incredibly useful.They are able to retailer a number of lives in the interim, however to see the transformative possibility to help any one like Steve get round, to really get to the tip case in safety, to have the opportunity to vary our cities and move parking out and get rid of these urban craters we call parking tons, it is the only strategy to go. CA: we will be able to be tracking your progress with colossal interest. Thanks a lot, Chris. CU: thanks. (Applause) .