#April to July 2019 Month Calendar

[dragonagefanevents]

Dragon Age Fan Event Listings

The beauty of fan events is that they are run by fans.

Including you.

▸What are the types of fan events? - #education

▸Start a new event! - #how tos (coming soon)

▸Ask Box - send us advice, or ask for it!

▸Blog Tag List

Below is a list of all Dragon Age fan-run events we can find. The links should bring you to the most recent iteration of the event. Where possible, the time period the event covers is listed next to the event.

Want to get an event listed? Check out the link and submit. Look here for multi-fandom events, or more events in general.

Event Masterlist - #compendium

Bangs

25k Big Bang (July - November)

10k Big Bang (March - April)

Dragon Age Reverse Bang

Exchanges

Arlathan Exchange (April - June)

DA Polyshipping (August - November)

Handers Exchange (March - May)

Templartations Exchange (March - May)

Black Emporium Rare Pair Exchange (June - September)

Platonic Ideal Gen Fic Exchange (December - February)

Smutquisition (January - March)

Theme Weeks/Months

Krem Week 2024 (July 22 - 28)

City Elf Week (August 5 - August 11)

Zevwarden Week (2024 dates TBD)

Tranquil Week (August 25 - 31)

Sera Appreciation Week (Oct 13 - 19)

Kink Memes

Dragon Age Kink Meme (Dreamwidth) | DAO | DA2 | DAI

Zines

Dragon Age Flower Zine (Creation Period)

Wanderers Zine (Creation Period)

Dragon Age OC Zine (Mod Apps Open)

Alistair Zine (Creation Period)

Special Events

Dragon Age Drunk Writing Circle

Dragon Age Annual (2025 Production Period)

Dragon Age Create-A-Thon (Begins Sept 15 2024)

Reddit Weekly Dragon Age Writing Prompts

Unofficial Dragon Age Day (Dec 4)

Solavellan Day (April 11)

Past Events

Retired Bangs

DragonAgeBB (last: 2015; formerly on LJ and elsewhere)

Retired Exchanges

Demands of the Qun (Qunari)

A Paragon of Their Kind (DA Dwarves)

Solas Lovers

Hightown Funk (Varric/Hawke)

Retired Theme Weeks/Months

Autumn of Anders (Anders Appreciation Event)

Dalish Week

30 Days of Dorian (Dorian Appreciation Event)

Dragon Age Fan Week (2013)

Cullen Appreciation Week (2019)

Cullen Week (2021)

14 Days of DA Lovers

Fenris Appreciation Month (2017)

Rylen Appreciation Week (2018)

Sera Appreciation Week (2019)

Sub!Solas Week (2016)

Past Zines

Adoribull Fairytales

Age of Romance Zine (Incomplete)

ApprovesGreatly (Incomplete)

Andoralis Zine

Arcana: A Dragon Age Zine

Arlathvhen Zine (Incomplete)

Beyond the Veil Zine (Zine)

Bring Down the Sky Bioware Fanzine

Dragon Age 2 10th Anniversary Zine (Zine)

Dragon Age Codex Zine & Myths and Legends Zine

Fortitudo Dorian Artbook

Good for Each Other (Adoribull Zine)

In Peace, Vigilance Zine

Insufficient Skill Fanzine

Legend Mark Zine

Lotus and Root OC Zine

Love Across Thedas Zine (Zine)

Na Via Lerno Victoria (Fenris Zine)

Patron of the Arts Zine

Rebel Hearts Handers Zine (Zine)

Road to the Imperium Zine

Solasmancy Zine

Sunlight (Anders Zine)

The Coming Storm Zine (Ukrainian Zine)

The Dragon Age Zine (Russian Zine)

The Keeper's Codex Fairy Tale Zine

The Unsung Dragon Age Zine

The Zevran Zine (incomplete)

Thedosian Archives (incomplete)

to be happy (FenHawke Zine)

Wicked Eyes: A Dragon Age Finery Zine

Year of the Mabari (Incomplete)

Other Past Events

Dragon Age Calendar 2018

Dragon Age Calendar 2021

For Fans by Fans - Fan Forge

[arofili]

Tolkien Fandom Event Calendar

Recently I’ve received some asks about events/weeks in the Tolkien fandom, so I thought I’d compile a list of those that I know about. This is not exhaustive, and dates are subject to change by the organizers of these events!

Other blogs you can check out are @tolkieneventsblog and @tolkienfandomevents, though I’m not sure how active those are. The @silmarillionwritersguild Discord also has a channel dedicated to signal boosts for all sorts of Tolkien-related & general fandom happenings, which is another excellent way to keep up with fandom goings-on.

Want to run your own event? Here’s some of my tips!

If your event is not on here and you’d like it to be, let me know and I can add it :) Note: I will only add events that have announced dates!

~

JANUARY Screw Yule My Slashy Valentine @myslashyvalentine — work time Lord of the Rings Secret Santa @lotr-sesa — reveals Thorin’s Spring Forge @thorinsspringforge — signups Second Age Week @secondageweek

FEBRUARY Hidden Paths My Slashy Valentine — reveals Thorin’s Spring Forge — claims Maedhros and Maglor Week @maedhrosmaglorweek

MARCH Back to Middle-earth Month @spring-into-arda Thorin’s Spring Forge — work time Fëanorian Week Fun with Fanon Fest Round 1 @funwithfanon

APRIL Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang @tolkienrsb — signups Silm Remix @tolkienremix — signups & assignments Thorin’s Spring Forge — reveals  Aralas Week @aralas-week Barduil Month @bi-widower-dads All of Arda is Autistic @all-of-arda-is-autistic F3: Focus on Friendship & Family, Phase I @spring-into-arda

MAY Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang — claims Silm Remix — reveals Aspec Arda Week @aspecardaweek Angbang Week @angbangweek Gondolin Week @gondolinweek F3: Focus on Friendship & Family, Phase II

JUNE Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang — work time Scribbles and Drabbles @fall-for-tolkien — signups Tolkien Ekphrasis Week @tolkienekphrasisweek F3: Focus on Friendship & Family, Phase III

JULY Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang — work time Scribbles and Drabbles — claims Tolkien Gen Week @tolkiengenweek LotR Ladies Week @lotrladiessource Tolkien Appreciation Week @tolkienweek Tolkien Latin American & Caribbean Week @tolkienlatamandcaribbeanweek

AUGUST Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang — deadlines Scribbles and Drabbles — art reveals Innumerable Stars Exchange @innumerable-stars — nominations & signups Tolkien of Colour Week @tolkienofcolourweek Silvergifting Week @silvergiftingweek Tolkien OC Week @tolkienocweek

SEPTEMBER Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang — reveals Scribbles and Drabbles — work time Innumerable Stars Exchange — signups & assignments Sindar Week @sindarweek Dor Cúarthol Week @dorcuartholweek Finwëan Ladies Week @finweanladiesweek

OCTOBER Innumerable Stars Exchange — reveals Scribbles and Drabbles — work time Half-elven Week @halfelvenweek

NOVEMBER Tolkien Secret Santa @officialtolkiensecretsanta — signups & assignments Scribbles and Drabbles — fic reveals Nolofinwean Week @nolofinweanweek

DECEMBER Tolkien Secret Santa — advent calendar & reveals My Slashy Valentine @myslashyvalentine — signups & assignments Lord of the Rings Secret Santa — claims Khazad Week @khazadweek

MONTHLY EVENTS: These events have prompts/challenges occurring every month. Teitho Contest Tolkien Short Fanworks Silmarillion Writers’ Guild @silmarillionwritersguild

(this list was last updated 5/4/23)

LEGACY EVENTS: These events used to occur, but have not happened within the last year. Arda Needs More Pride @ardaneedsmorepride (bimonthly; last run 2020) Kiliel Week @kilielweek (timing variable; last run 2021) @oneringnet monthly events (last run 2021) Atani Week @ataniweek (January; last run 2021) Legendarium Ladies April @legendariumladiesapril (April; last run 2020) Gates of Summer Exchange @gatesofsummerexchange (May-June, last run 2022) Tolkien South Asian Week, run by @arwenindomiel (June; last run 2022) Arafinwëan Week @arafinweanweek (July; last run 2019) Fëanturi Week (August; last run 2019; no official blog and the creator has deactivated) Imladrim Week @imladrimweek (November; last run 2019) Doriath Week @doriathweek (November; last run 2020) Tolkien Family Week @tolkienfamilyweek (November; last run 2021)

[blubushie]

how long did it take you to grow a beard on t? ive been on it 8 months and zero sign of facial hair yet :(

(Checks calendar) Uh... Four years.

I'm gonna assume you're FtM here for general ease, correct me if I'm wrong.

Please bear in mind that my being intersex HEAVILY skews things. I was kept at a VERY low dose of testosterone for those four years (14-18)—basically only enough to ensure I wouldn't get osteoporosis because of my missing ovary (which was removed at 14). I never got a bolus dose so my voice never deepened. My body remained more or less androgynous. At 17 I went to my own doctor in Georgia, took advantage of their intersexism and desire to "fix" me, and was placed on a low adult dose of androgel. I was on that for about 3 months to stabilise before being put on injected pellets for another 10 months, during which my beard grew in. I started getting peach fuzz by 3 months in which still on Androgel, by 6 months in I was growing a really shitty moustache. But it still wasn't a bolus dose, and while my voice deepened somewhat depending on how I position my tongue and whether or not I'm speaking with my chest, it did not drop.

I had my last testopel appt in February of 2019. Five months later my testosterone ran out and I haven't been on testosterone for 5 years since up until April of this year, when I went back on Androgel. I have a testopel appt in July.

I'm telling you this so you understand that my experiences heavily skew my history and success with testosterone. My body had been slowly masculinising for three years until I got put on a higher dose, which basically jump-started the facial hair cycle, and since then my beard has had five years to figure out its schtick (though it's starting to fill out more now that I'm at a high adult dose again).

Really, you need to look elsewhere. Are you noticing a difference on T? Any bottom growth? More body hair? Is it affecting your voice? Is your body fat redistributing to a masculine pattern? How's your libido? Are you getting new acne anywhere?

If these things haven't changed in 8 months, then your T levels are too low. If they have, then don't worry. Think of how long it took your body to feminise during puberty. Couple years, right? It's probably gonna take about that long for T. Cuz all things considered, you are going through puberty again.

Also, genes have got a LOT to do with it. If a lot of your ancestral history is Native American, East Asian (especially Chinese), or Mexican, you probably won't grow much of a beard or chest hair. Bonus points to that though—if you're any of these, you probably won't experience much male pattern baldness either.

With time—and the right dose—it all comes down to genes. My dad can grow a full beard, I can grow a full beard, my dad has a full head of hair at 75, I have a full head of hair. No clue about my mum's side because she's adopted and we don't know who her birth parents are, so the jury's still out on whether or not my hair stays as I get older.

Just be patient, mate. It'll come to you in time. And if it doesn't, bring it up to your doctor if testosterone isn't doing anything to your body, cuz it means you either need a higher dose, or your body is converting your testosterone to oestrogen. Best way to check that? Get a blood test for testosterone.

Chookas! Here if you need me.

Also, protip: if/when you grow a beard, if you choose to grow it out long like Kratos or some shit, it WILL be patchy. There's no helping it. Massage your jaw because applying pressure to your follicles stimulates growth (males grow facial hair to protect against impact during fights since jawbones break easily—massaging the places where you want growth stimulates your follicles to grow more hair to protect against impact). And also just... Don't cut it. Beards are naturally kinda patchy, but at a certain length they fill out. So don't shave! That thing you hear about shaving promoting hair growth? That's bullshit! Just massage! (This works for anywhere you grow hair btw! Yeah even your scalp! But it will not reverse male pattern baldness.)

[gumnut-logic]

Hi! I’m getting into Thunderbirds fics and was thinking about writing some myself. I saw that you ran a challenge at one point and was wondering if there was any event calendar the fandom is using. Or are there any events at all? I wasn’t sure where to find any.

Hi and welcome to the Thunderfam! :D

There is no strict calendar, but a few events do recur at will.

At the moment we are in the middle of Fanart Appreciation Month, which has occurred in January the previous two years as well. The idea being to reblog lots of artworks to give our artists some recognition.

February has been Fab Five Feb in 2019 and 2020, but was missed last year. I haven't done the call out as to whether the Thunderfam want that one this year yet. It is usually a six week challenge with a focus on the five brothers plus another character which changes each year.

Some time in March/April there might be a Easter gift fic event.

Somewhere between April and August there is sometimes a random challenge event. There was nothing last year, but in previous years there has been Sensory Sunday , Earth & Sky Week and an Olympics challenge.

We also celebrate each of the Tracy boys' birthdays - Gordon 14 Feb, Alan 12 March, Scott 4 July (?), Virgil 15 August (always a big one for me :D ) and John in October. Other cast members also get birthday celebrations at various times of the year.

September and October are usually taken up by external challenges like Sicktember and Whumptober.

We did have a Thunderfam November event - Fluffember - but last year an external event was picked up so Fluffember didn't run, but it did run 2019, 2020 and 2021.

December is left to Tag Team Secret Santa.

There have also been random other events over the past few years and I have no doubt there were others before I joined the fandom in 2018. Due to the sudden rise of Covid in 2020 we started International Rescue & Relief, a fluff prompt challenge which is technically still going, but I haven't mentioned it for ages.

Plus there are always writing prompts or question lists flying around that get picked up by whoever wants to play.

Thunderfam, if I have forgotten anything, please chime in. It is late here and my brain is usually pretty unreliable.

Anyways, welcome, thank you for asking. I hope you have fun in thunderfam :D

Nutty

(so do you have a favourite Tracy brother? :D )

[ailtrahq]

The bears are gaining strength for both crypto and stock markets, as the major US indexes now confirming downtrends. Furthermore, October is usually a red month for markets, so there may be more pains before gains.  US stock markets have been in decline for the past two months, and the move is likely to continue into October.  Will Crypto Markets Follow? The Nasdaq has fallen below its previous low in August, forming a new lower low this week. The downtrend, which has been confirmed according to crypto analyst “Cold Blooded Shiller,” began in mid-July.  Since then, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has dropped 9% to 13,063, where it settled at the close of trading on September 26.  Nasdaq 2023 performance. Source: X/@ColdBloodShill Additionally, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen by 5.6% since the beginning of August.  Furthermore, the broader S&P 500 Index has mirrored the moves. It has fallen almost 7% since the downtrend began at the beginning of July to 4,273 after the bell on Tuesday. Moreover, the S&P 500 is now down 340 points since the Fed removed “recession” from their forecast, according to the Kobeissi Letter. It added that the Fed marked the exact high in the S&P 500, which just hit its lowest level since June: “Since then, rate cut expectations were pushed out by a year and corporate bankruptcies hit their highest levels since the pandemic.” S&P 500 3 months. Source: X/@KobeissiLetter  A number of high-profile banks aped the Fed in dropping their recession predictions, yet the markets appear to be defiant.  Crypto markets have been slightly correlated with tech stocks this year but have remained in consolidation for most of it.  Following an initial spurt of growth in the first quarter, crypto markets have been flat since mid-March. Moreover, they have dropped 19% since their 2023 high in mid-April, also exhibiting a downtrend. A Red October?  October is historically the most volatile month of the year for US and global markets. With a downtrend already confirmed, things will likely slide deeper into the red next month, including crypto.  October’s record of market crashes makes it the most feared month on the financial calendar. The Bank Panic of 1907, the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and Black Monday 1987 all happened during the month of October. In the 2022 bear market, crypto markets were flat for most of October, gaining marginally towards the end of the month. The bull market of 2021 saw large gains for crypto in October, but 2020 was similar to 2022.  2019 saw a brief pump at the end of October, but all gains were lost the following month. The bear market of 2018 was another flat October.  If history rhymes, crypto markets will remain flat next month, but be aware that November is usually much more volatile for this asset class.  Source

[f1]

F1 returning to China in 2024 as part of major schedule change

Shanghai in China last hosted a Formula 1 race during the 2019 season China is set to return to the Formula 1 calendar for the first time since the pandemic in a major revision of the schedule for 2024. The season starts with races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to be held on Saturdays, because of the impact of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In the quest for greater sustainability, the Japanese race moves to 7 April from its usual autumn date. And Azerbaijan will be twinned with Singapore in September. The calendar features what would be a record 24 races - exactly the same number as were due to be held this year before the cancellation of the Chinese and Emilia-Romagna Grands Prix. Earlier this year, Australian Grand Prix organisers announced that Saudi Arabia would hold the opening race of the 2024 season. But F1 has found a way to fit both Bahrain and Jeddah in before Melbourne by making the Middle Eastern events Saturday night races. Ramadan starts on the evening of 10 March, the day after the Saudi event. China was due to return this year but had to be cancelled because of the uncertainty over the Covid situation in the country at the start of the year, when there were riots as a result of continued social restrictions. These have now been lifted. The move towards greater regionalisation - which is an attempt to reduce carbon emissions from flights as F1 strives to become net-zero carbon by 2030 - has been partly stymied by Canadian organisers resisting F1's attempts to twin the Montreal race with Miami in May. Instead, the Canadian Grand Prix retains its traditional June date, forcing teams to fly across the Atlantic twice in just over a month. F1 chairman Stefano Domenicali said: "Our journey to a more sustainable calendar will continue in the coming years as we further streamline operations as part of our Net Zero 2030 commitment." FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem added: "We want to make the global spectacle of Formula 1 more efficient in terms of environmental sustainability and more manageable for the travelling staff who dedicate so much of their time to our sport." Pre-season testing is due to be held in Bahrain on 21-23 February but those dates are still subject to approval from the FIA world motorsport council. Full 2024 F1 calendar 29 February - 2 March - Bahrain 7-9 March - Saudi Arabia 22-24 March - Australia 5-7 April - Japan 19-21 April - China 3-5 May - Miami 17-19 May - Emilia-Romagna 24-26 May - Monaco 7-9 June - Canada 21-23 June - Spain 28-30 June - Austria 5-7 July - United Kingdom 19-21 July - Hungary 26-28 July - Belgium 23-25 August - Netherlands 30 August - 1 September - Italy 13-15 September - Azerbaijan 20-22 September - Singapore 18-20 October - USA (Austin) 25-27 October - Mexico City 1-3 November - Brazil 21-23 November - Las Vegas 29 November - 1 December - Qatar 6-8 December - Abu Dhabi via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/

[drcarloschacon]

Keeping COVID-19's Effects to a Minimum During Surgery

A piece of advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help surgeons lessen the COVID-19 virus's negative effects during surgery. This advice offers details on preoperative testing, infection management, and other methods for stopping the spread of the illness. Additionally, it emphasizes the value of patient waiting times and the necessity of immunizations in advance.

To prevent infection in both patients and medical personnel, preoperative COVID-19 testing of patients is crucial. In the context of surgery, this is especially true.

Hospitals encountered a disproportionately large number of patients with COVID-19 infections in the early stages of the epidemic. Consequently, a uniform method for preoperative COVID-19 testing became urgently necessary.

A standard preoperative testing policy was implemented by hospitals. They created their program with effective screening for all patients while limiting the spread of COVID-19. The application of this method, however, has seriously disrupted surgical processes.

Because hospitals must pay for positive instances, universal testing has generated some controversy. There is no proof that a positive test lowers the risk of infection during surgery.

Patients undergoing surgery have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic has significantly disrupted hospital surgeries. Implementing infection control procedures will help protect these patients by lowering the possibility of further transmission.

Individuals who have had surgery have a higher risk of problems than patients who have not had surgery. The patient's risk of infection and the advantages of surgery must both be taken into account.

Early isolation lowers the risk of an outbreak and lowers the likelihood of transmission to others. Infections acquired in hospitals are not prevented by this, though.

To ensure the security of both patients and employees, infection prevention and control (IPC) must be prioritized. Preoperative patient screening is the initial stage in the prioritization process. A collaborative strategy is also required.

Preoperative screening, terminal cleaning of operating rooms, and sensible PPE usage are examples of infection control strategies for reducing the impact of COVID-19 during surgery. These steps are intended to lessen the risk of further transmission, lower the bioburden, and stop infection in both personnel and other patients.

A recent study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on surgical volumes. Surgery wait times are a crucial indicator of healthcare fairness. It has to do with both a patient's socioeconomic situation and the risk of postoperative complications.

One of the objectives of a health system with public funding is to shorten wait times. Two time periods were chosen for comparison to the same calendar months of the prior year in order to gauge how the pandemic affected the number of surgeries. April through September and July through September 2019 were among them.

The total number of procedures was used to calculate the surgical volume. Hospitals must expand their ability to offer diagnostic procedures as more patients come in for screening exams. Uncertainty exists regarding the precise effect on surgical volume.

A patient's risk of postoperative problems and death can be decreased by vaccination to lessen the impact of COVID-19 during surgery. Numerous research has been carried out to assess this advantage.

The effectiveness of vaccination in treating cancer patients is a subject of some controversy. The extensive media coverage of the vaccination and its negative effects is another issue.

It has been discovered that preoperative immunization lowers the likelihood of COVID-19 problems during surgery. Preoperative immunization also lowers the chance of serious surgical complications, according to research.

Preoperative vaccination has also reportedly been shown to lower postoperative mortality. These conclusions, however, are only supported by evidence from a few studies. There is still a need for greater study on COVID-19 management and vaccination effectiveness.

A new Coronavirus Disease has recently caused a global health crisis. The COVID-19 disease is brought on by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Surgeons faced a higher risk of infection during the pandemic.

In response, surgical teams have created consensus standards and research priorities. The main goal of these suggestions has been to reduce the risk of infection, especially during the perioperative phase.

The use of the right PPE is one of the most crucial methods for preventing nosocomial transmission. For every surgery that produces aerosols in the operating room, N-95 respirators are required. All healthcare professionals should use eye protection goggles while doing surgery.

In order to reduce the chance of coming into touch with a patient who has the COVID-19 virus, surgeons should wear the appropriate PPE, such as eye protection goggles. If they have underlying medical issues, surgical staff may want to wear additional levels of protection.

[shumailach-blog]

Australian Visitor Visa Wait Times Have Blown Out With Some Nationalities in Limbo for Months

Tourists have been waiting three times longer to get their visas approved for travel to Australia this year compared to pre-COVID-19 times, with a new report showing specific impacts on visitors from one country.

Visa processing times for tourists and business travellers blew out this year. Source: SBS News

Travellers eager to visit Australia this year waited months to get their visas approved, with most Chinese citizens left in limbo for four months, a new report shows.The Department of Home Affairs' report on visitor visas paints a stark picture of the delays in the system after Australia's international borders were re-opened on 1 November 2021. It also shows significant changes in the numbers of tourists and business visitors applying to come to Australia - and where they are coming from - compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest report details processing times between 1 April and 30 June 2022 and has only recently been released. It shows that 75 per cent of requests for tourist visas (subclass 600 and 676) were processed within 59 calendar days, 269 per cent longer than the 16 calendar days it took in 2019.

The processing of business visas (short stay, subclass 456) and (business visitor, subclass 600) also grew to 15 days, compared to a processing time of seven days before the emergence of COVID-19 and the shutdown of Australia's international borders on 20 March 2020.

The blowout in processing times has happened despite the number of visa applications being much lower.

Around 75 per cent of tourist visas were processed in 59 calendar days. Source: SBS News

In 2019, around 1.3 million visitor visa applications (including both tourist and business visas) were lodged between April-June, compared to just 695,343 in the same period this year.

Why Have the Wait Times Increased?

The report reveals data from April-June, mostly covering the period prior to the Albanese Government winning the federal election on 21 May.

A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson told SBS News in a statement that "processing times will take some time to improve as we work through older applications in the backlog".

The spokesperson said the department was implementing policy changes to allow more streamlined processing of visas.

"The department is managing risks carefully, targeting applicants who warrant it, while efficiently deciding applications for everyone else."

They said almost 2.8 million temporary and migration visas had been processed since 1 June, including more than 1.5 million visitor, 199,000 student and 43,000 temporary skilled applications.

The Albanese Government has announced it would provide an 

extra $36.1 million to hire up to 500 people for nine months to help address wait times. About 20 per cent of those positions had been filled by the end of September.

The department also recruited an additional 260 staff into roles supporting temporary and migration visa processing from the start of May, and officers previously focused on travel exemptions have been redirected to visa processing. But it's unclear whether staffing levels have returned to pre-COVID levels.

Some travellers wanting to visit Australia have waited months to get their visas approved.

Former Department of Immigration secretary Abul Rizvi said he didn't think there would be a recovery in processing times until the next report covering July-September, at the earliest.

"They should be being processed faster now, but I suspect the improvement will be gradual, it won't be sudden," he said.

Information on the Home Affairs website, which was last updated in August, advises travellers that processing of the tourist subclass 600 visa is taking around 63 days for 75 per cent of applicants - even longer than the average wait times seen earlier this year.

Certain countries experiencing longer delays

Processing times have been even longer for citizens of certain countries, with around 75 per cent of tourist visas from China taking 120 days to finalise in April-June this year. During the same period in 2019 most were processed in nine days.

The department did not address questions about why these visas were taking so much longer to get through the system.

Mr Rizvi said China's strict COVID-19 restrictions, including widespread lockdowns, could be making the processing of visas more difficult. Officials could also be taking a more cautious attitude towards processing visas from China, he said, pointing to a recent Nine investigation that exposed alleged visa rorting linked to criminal syndicates.

Mr Rizvi said it was likely the Australian government was aware of scams operating out of China, as well as other countries, and was scrutinising visitor visas more carefully.

The Australian Government may be scrutinising Chinese travellers more carefully. Source: AAP

When it comes to business visas, about 75 per cent of US citizens have been waiting 52 days for them to be processed, much longer than the average of 15 days.

But processing times have improved compared to April-June last year when most tourism visas took 160 days to process, and business visas were taking 342 days.

Arrivals Are Still a Long Way From Pre-pandemic Levels

The number of visitors arriving in Australia, including both tourists and business travellers, are still well down on pre-COVID-19 levels. Around 699,725 people visited Australia in 2021/22, more than nine times lower than the 6.5 million people in 2018/19.

Around 17 per cent of those travellers were from India, 15 per cent from the UK and 12 per cent from Singapore.

Back in 2018/19, 17 per cent were from China, 11 per cent from the US and 10 per cent from the UK. China now only makes up 2.3 per cent of arrivals in Australia, with just 15,855 travelling to the country in 2021/22 compared to one million travellers three years ago.

The number of visitors to Australia has dropped dramatically. Source: SBS News

However, more recent numbers show tourism could be starting to improve. In June this year, there were 219,607 visitor visa holders in Australia, only around 100,000 less than the 316,469 travellers in the country on the same date in 2019.

The number of visitor holders in Australia has increased by 396 per cent in the period from 17 December 2021, the week the borders opened to some fully vaccinated travellers, until 14 October this year.

Change in the Origin of Tourists

When it comes to visa approvals for tourists, there has also been a significant change in the source countries.

In 2018/19, before the emergence of COVID-19, the top source country was China, with 856,110 tourist visa applications granted, making up 17 per cent of the 5.2 million approvals. It was followed by the US, UK, Japan and Malaysia. India came in sixth with 250,874 visas approved.

China's numbers have since seen a dramatic drop of 95 per cent, to just 36,150 visas granted in 2021/22. India's numbers have remained fairly steady on 190,605 visas, making it the top country of origin. It made up 19 per cent of the one million tourist visas granted, followed by the UK, Singapore, US, Malaysia and China.

China was once the top country for the lodgement of visitor visas to Australia, but demand has dropped dramatically from tourists and business travellers. Source: SBS News

Singapore has risen from eighth position to third, despite approved visas dropping by 59 per cent, from 208,480 in 2018/19, to 84,792 in 2021/22.

Mr Rivzi said Australia may have remained a popular destination for Singaporeans compared to China, Hong Kong and Japan due to their strict COVID-19 restrictions.

"Singaporeans have got to spend their money holidaying somewhere and I think we're benefiting because we're seen as a relatively safe destination from a COVID perspective," he said.

The number of subclass 600 tourist visa applications granted under the Approved Destination Status from China also dropped to zero in 2020/21 and 2021/22, after being at 200,038 in 2018/19. Mr Rivzi said those visas were generally used by trusted tour groups and so may have been impacted by the lack of travel from China during the pandemic.

Business Visa Approvals Drop By 320 per Cent

The report also shows a significant shift in approvals for business visas. Back in 2018/19, around 504,782 business visas were granted. The top country was China, which had 82,026 visas approved (making up 16 per cent of the total) followed by US, UK, Japan and India.

Three years later, China has dropped to sixth on the list, with just 8,198 business visas granted. Overall 120,103 visas were approved in 2021/22.

The top country is now the US, making up 11 per cent of business visas approved in 2021/22, despite the number being four times lower than in 2018/19. The number of visas granted to the US dropped from 65,325 in 2018/19, to 13,444. The US is followed by Singapore, UK, India and South Korea.

Countries Finding It Harder to Get Visas Approved

Between April-June this year, Australia approved 91.9 per cent of visitor visa applications (including tourism and business visas) compared to 94.6 per cent during the same period in 2019.

It's understood the finalisation of visa applications lodged before or during the pandemic may have impacted the grant rate, as some applicants may have experienced a change in circumstances, and may no longer have wanted to travel to Australia.

COVID-19-related travel restrictions have also continued to impact the ability of Chinese nationals to travel internationally for tourism purposes.

Approval rates can vary widely between countries. Just 66 per cent of tourist visa 600 and 676 applications from Thailand were approved in April-June, compared to 95 per cent of those from the US.

Back in 2019, Thailand's grant rate for tourist visas was 82 per cent in the same period. Fiji had the lowest approval rate of 76 per cent while the highest rate was for Chile at 96 per cent.

This does not include figures for the 651 eVisitor visa, an electronic visa that only certain countries including the UK and other European countries, can apply for.

Australia approved around 83 per cent of tourist visas between April-June this year but grant rates for Thailand were much lower, at just 66 per cent. Source: SBS News

Meanwhile, approval rates for business visa 600 also dropped. Previously, most countries had high approval rates (of more than 90 per cent) for these visas in April-June 2019, and there was an overall approval rate of 94 per cent. This has now dropped to 91 per cent. In particular, China's approval rate for business visas dropped from 93 per cent in April-June 2019, to only 83 per cent this year.

By contrast, approval rates for sponsored tourist visa 600 improved from 81 per cent in April-June 2019, to 88 per cent this year. Indonesia boasted the highest grant rate of 94 per cent, a vast improvement from its 2019 approval rate of just 78 per cent.

Lebanon had the lowest approval rate of 71 per cent, although this was an improvement on its 2019 number of 55 per cent. Previously, the highest grant rate in 2019 was for Bangladesh citizens on 92 per cent.

Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australian-visitor-visa-wait-times-have-blown-out/g1m5rode7

[praise-joko]

So, I may have figured something out for Living World seasons, at least concerning the start of each episode. It will take some guesswork to determine when each part ends, but it's something.

I worked this out using the list of releases, side stories, and this chart for the Mouvelian/Gregorian calendar.

Caveat: Dev Note - March 31st, 2015

This obviously applies to festivals unless Tyrians really love 3 week long celebrations. I'm also only considering the release month and date when translating to the Mouvelian calendar and using the years listed in the story itself (though for LWS4 the years line up well - I think this would mostly apply to gaps between expansions).

I haven't gone any further in-depth than this yet, so enjoy this long list of when events might have occurred in LWS4!

Path of Fire

Scion 85, 1330 September 22, 2017 (very short - only 68 days between the start of PoF and Daybreak, but HoT was only 43 days so maybe?)

LWS4 Shadow of the Mad King *

Colossus 20, 1330 October 17, 2017

Daybreak -

Colossus 62, 1330 November 28, 2017

Wintersday *

Colossus 76, 1330 December 12, 2017

------------------------

Awakening Threat -

Zephyr 9, 1331 January 9, 2018

A Bug in the System -

Zephyr 65, 1331 March 6, 2018

Super Adventure Festival *

Zephyr 88, 1331 March 29, 2018

Reawakening Threat -

Phoenix 24, 1331 April 24, 2018

Long Live the Lich -

Phoenix 87, 1331 June 26, 2018

Festival of the Four Winds *

Scion 25, 1331 June 26, 2018

A Star to Guide Us -

Scion 81, 1331 September 18, 2018

Shadow of the Mad King *

Colossus 19, 1331 October 16, 2018

Wintersday *

Colossus 75, 1331 December 11, 2018

------------------------

All or Nothing -

Zephyr 8, 1332 January 8, 2019

Super Adventure Festival *

Zephyr 87, 1332 March 28, 2019

Rift Stalkers -

Phoenix 9, 1332 April 9, 2019

War Eternal -

Phoenix 44, 1332 May 14, 2019

Dragon Bash *

Phoenix 86, 1332 June 25, 2019

Festival of the Four Winds *

Scion 31, 1332 July 30, 2019

Icebrood Saga Bound by Blood

Scion 80, 1332 September 17, 2019

Alright, I’m just going to outsource this research to the gw2 community. It’s making my head hurt and distracting me from figuring out my characters’ timelines.

Does anyone have a fleshed out mouvelian calendar or further specifics on when festivals and important events occur?

For example, I would never have guessed that the HoT expansion only spanned 43 days if it weren’t for these journals.

Are there any other journals like these that give specific dates for events?

It’s all well and good knowing the year in which the story’s events take place but when you’re planning to write an epistolary for nano it leaves too much up in the air.

[imgpics]

(via April to July Calendar 2019)

[rainbowsky]

BXG Calendar

There are a lot of dates that are significant to BXG, either for CPN reasons, because of their significance for GG and DD, or because of the GG and DD content we can expect to see at those times. There are also some Chinese festivals BXG might be interested in knowing about. I'll keep this updated as a handy reference.

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

BXG Calendar

January

Weibo Night - An annual awards show that generally takes place in early January, but COVID has interfered with that lately. This is one of the few events we can expect both GG and DD to attend.

Chūnjié (pronounced tchwun-jaih) - Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) - First day of the Lunisolar Calendar (usually sometime between Jan 20 and Feb 20). Often there is a gala or event where GG and/or DD perform. There will also usually be posts from them, photos etc. GG and DD likely get to spend time together and with family, eating a lot of good food.

23 January - Lan Wangji's birthday.

February

14 February - Valentine's Day - Chinese people seem to love Valentine's Day, and they celebrate a few different ones throughout the year. The Western Valentine's Day is one of them. We will see some Valentine's themed ads from GG and DD around this time.

Spring Festival (see January for more info).

Yuanxiaojie (pronounced yuwen-shao-jiah) - Lantern Festival - On the first full moon after the new year, two weeks after Chinese New Year (usually in Feb). Lantern Festival marks the end of Spring Festival. GG and DD will sometimes post greetings or other content on this day.

March

14 March - 3/14 - The anniversary of the XNINE DDU episode where we first saw GG and DD together. A very special day for BXG, many of whom believe it's the day GG and DD first met.

28 March - Anniversary of Wuji Recording - Wuji was recorded on this date in 2019, and is special to BXG in part because GG and DD were able to record together. Fans celebrate this day by sharing videos and fan art, and Lin Hai (the composer) will post something commemorating the date.

April

4-6 April - Qingming (pronounced tching-mieng) - Chinese holiday where family tombs/graves are swept and fresh offerings laid out, paper money burned and firecrackers set off to scare away evil spirits. This festival marks beginning of spring and is associated with kite flying.

28 April - Anniversary of the BJYX supertopic, which opened on 28 April 2018.

May

17th May - International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia - celebrating and advocating for queer rights worldwide.

20 May - 520 - One of the many Chinese Valentine's Days. Based on the kadian 520 for wo ai ni or, 'I love you'. We will usually see a lot of Valentine's themed ads from GGDD, they may even drop candies, and we get a lot of CPN from BXG.

June

Pride Month

1 June - Children's Day - A government holiday that celebrates children. GG and DD always post for Children's Day, and we get to see cute pictures of them as children and sometimes hear cute stories about them as children.

Duanwujie (pronounced twan-woo-jiah) - Dragon Boat Festival - 5th day of the 5th Lunisolar month (otherwise known as Double 5th), which happens right around Summer Solstice (Solstice falls around 20-22 June). Zongzi are eaten, and GG and DD almost always post something around this time.

22 June - 622 - Widely believed to be GGDD's anniversary, or a date of similar special significance to them. There's always a lot of CPN, art and other content shared by BXG around this time.

27 June - 627 - CQL Anniversary - We see a lot of art and posts from BXG and sometimes posts from cast/crew at this time.

July

Yuehua Family Concert - Yuehua is DD's management company. They hold an annual concert featuring stars signed to the company, usually in July. Unfortunately in 2022 COVID interfered with those plans.

August

5 August - DD's Birthday - An incredibly special day. We'll usually get a lot of new content featuring DD, brands will post messages of celebration, BXG and other fans will go all out with posts and art, and often there will be candy dropped.

Qixi Festival (pronounced tchee-shee) - Chinese Valentine's Day - Another Valentine's day, taking place on the 7th day of 7th month of the Lunisolar calendar (usually sometime in August). GG and DD will usually be featured in a lot of Valentine's Day themed advertising around this time, and BXG post a lot of CPN, art and photos in celebration of the day.

September

5 September - BXG Day - DD's birthday falls on the 5th of August, GG's on the 5th of October, so BXG day is in between on this date. 9/5 is also special to BXG because GG and DD are believed to be 95% compatible. Turtles will celebrate and GG and DD will often drop candies.

Zhongqiujie (pronounced jhong-choe-jiah) - Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival - Annual harvest festival similar to Western thanksgiving, celebrated on the full moon. People get together with family to eat and celebrate, and mooncakes are traditionally eaten. A gala event is aired on TV featuring performances and variety show elements. DD performed for the gala in 2022. Brands release a lot of interesting ads during this time of year. GG and DD post greetings as well.

15 September - DD's Debut Anniversary - DD debuted 15 September, 2014. Always a fun day. Yibo Official will post something honoring DD's years as a star, and fans and brands will post in celebration of the day.

28 September - GG's Debut Anniversary - GG debuted 28 September, 2016. GG's studio will post something in honor of GG's years as a star, and fans and brands will post celebrating the day.

29 September - Xiao Zhan Studio Anniversary - Xiao Zhan Studio was launched on 29 September 2019. GG's studio usually releases a video showing all the progress made in the previous years.

October

5 October - GG's Birthday - An incredibly special day. We get a lot of new content from GG, usually multiple photo shoots with gorgeous photos and new looks, videos, art and other great content from him and from fans and brands. We'll usually get some good candy too.

31 October - Wei Wuxian's birthday.

November

11 November - Singles Day aka Double 11 - The 11th day of the 11th month. A day for single people to treat themselves to gifts, and for people to get together or get engaged. This is a big shopping day in China (actually one of the biggest shopping days in the world). There is usually a gala or event where DD and/or GG may perform. We get a lot of new brand content from them as there is always a lot of advertising leading up to this date.

December

Tencent Starlight Awards - Usually held sometime in late December, but COVID has interfered with that lately. One of the few events we can generally expect both GG and DD to attend.

25 December - Christmas - They'll be involved in a lot of advertising around Christmastime so they'll usually be pretty active and we get a lot of new brand content from them.

30 December - DD's Latest Song Release - DD releases a new song every year on 30 December and usually performs it on New Year's Eve. Promotional materials usually start appearing around Christmas.

31 December - New Year's Eve - GG and DD usually have NYE performances, so we'll get to see them sing, dance, etc. and they'll post a lot of photos of their outfits and New Year's wishes for their fans. They will do their customary chong ya pose as well.

I'm sure I've probably forgotten something, so if you think of anything that you believe should be on this list (or if you find an error), please let me know! 😊

[brooklynmuseum]

Radical visionaries. Healing. Counterculture. And more.

Here's just a sampling of what you can expect to see at the Brooklyn Museum this year:

April 8 – Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven June 17 – DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash July 1 – Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” September 2 – Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe November 11 – Jimmy DeSana: Submission

Mark your calendars and look for added information in the coming months. Don't forget: Members earn early-access to reservations for each of our special exhibitions. Find out more.

📷: Guadalupe Maravilla (born El Salvador, 1976). Disease Thrower #0, 2022. Gong, hammock, LCD TV, ceremonial ash, pyrite crystals, volcanic rock, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route. Courtesy of the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. © Guadalupe Maravilla. (Photo: Stan Narten) ⇨ Duke Riley (American, born 1972). Untitled, 2020. Salvaged, painted plastic. Courtesy of the Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum. © Duke Riley. (Photo: Robert Bredvad) ⇨ Virgil Abloh preparing for his Autumn–Winter 2019 Off-White Womenswear Runway Show. (Photo: Bogdan Plakov) ⇨ Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900–1982). Untitled (Peace), 1978–82. Crayon and pen on paper. Courtesy of the Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta. © 2021 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta. (Photo: Courtesy of the High Museum of Art) ⇨ Jimmy DeSana (American, 1949–1990). Marker Cones, 1982. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of the Estate of Jimmy DeSana.

[rivalsforlife]

AA7 Speculation Post: One Year Later

here we go again.

A year and a day ago, I made a speculation post about if/when we’d ever be seeing AA7. Obviously, my claim that AA7 would be announced in September 2020 did not turn out to be true, but later that year we did get a leaked calendar containing information on the new ports for Chronicles, and also plans for a new aa7, which I summarized in this post.

Now that we have Chronicles we can verify that the leaks contained legitimate information (as if a statement from Capcom saying they were hacked wasn’t legitimate enough). So that leaves us with one key question: is AA7 still happening? If so, when can we expect it? As well, what other information from the leaked calendar can we consider, especially with early sales data on Chronicles? In addition, what are the implications of this new survey on Chronicles from Capcom?

All of that will be discussed under the cut so that this doesn’t take up too much space.

Revisiting The Calendar

Once again, here is a rough translation of the calendar that was present in the leaks:

As a note, in this post, I’ll be referring to our new games as “Chronicles” to prevent this from being blocked by people avoiding spoilers.

So: this original calendar, generated before the pandemic, had Chronicles releasing in Q1 of FY2021 - and it’s also important to note that in Japan, each fiscal year starts in April 1st, so FY2021 is actually April-June 2021. This shows that Chronicles was pushed back about a quarter from their expected release date. However, Chronicles was a port of already existing games, therefore somewhat less work was needed on them - upscaling models and textures, adding in some new features like autoplay and story mode, and of course, the English translation and voicework were needed, which is still a lot of course, but less compared to development on an entirely new game. In addition to that, the pandemic hit AA7 in its early development stage, assuming this schedule was still being followed by the time the pandemic hit. That could cause more delays than expected.

So the original plan was for AA7 to be released in Q3 of 2021, which corresponds to October-December, aligning with the 20th anniversary of the series in October. While it’s a desirable goal, it’s quite likely the pandemic pushed it back at least a quarter, if not more, if not cancelled it entirely. ... haha.

We’ll only know the fate of AA7 for certain when it’s announced. Which it is possible it may never be. However, I have two theories for, if AA7 is getting an announcement, when it will be:

1) Sometime during September 2021, either in the leadup to or during Tokyo Game Show this year. These are for the same reasons as I outlined in my initial speculation post. It’s a popular time for Ace Attorney game announcements, after all. TGS, according to what I can find, will be held online this year from September 30th to October 3rd. If Capcom announces AA7 earlier in September through Famitsu, like they did with AA6 for example, then we can expect to get some information during TGS... 

2) Sometime during a 20th Anniversary Event, possibly in October 2021. I’m assuming AA is planning something for the 20th anniversary - Chronicles wasn’t really marketed as a 20th anniversary release, for instance. If they can’t release a new game for the 20th anniversary (which at this rate, seems unlikely, as we’re about two months out from that with no word about it) then an announcement would be just as good at generating hype for it.

Naturally, if we reach this time next year with absolutely no news on AA7, it’s probably safe to say it’s been cancelled or at least delayed so severely that anything we currently know about it isn’t worth much.

There’s one more point of interest on the calendar: reconsidering the porting of 456. I feel that this depends heavily on how well the Chronicles ports are doing; if it’s not financially viable to keep porting games, then why bother? So, let’s take a look at that.

The Success of Chronicles

As I write this, it’s about two and a half weeks since the release of Chronicles worldwide. So... how did the games do? It’s a bit hard to tell, especially as I am not a game marketer and don’t know the expectations for Chronicles. What is obvious is that, if Chronicles does much better than expected, porting 456 and possibly even the investigations games seems likely. (If Chronicles, indeed, does especially well in the West, than a porting of the investigations games and localization of investigations 2 after ten years could very well be possible.) If Chronicles does absolutely terribly, it damages the chances of porting, and possibly of continuing the series. If it does terribly especially in the West, where the games are essentially new, it could damage the chances of any new games being localized at all.

So, a lot is riding on this, and I don’t know enough to tell how well it did. Here’s what I have found, however:

Nintendo Enthusiast reports on Famitsu sales of Switch games, and overall thinks it’s not doing so great. Chronicles ranks third on the list of Switch sales in its first week, with 14,460 units sold, over 4000 less than NEO: The World Ends With You, which was released on July 27th. Keep in mind that Chronicles was released in Japan on July 29th, which is two days later, and that these are only Japanese sales (where they’ve had Chronicles for years on both mobile and 3DS) and only Switch sales, where NEO:TWEWY is currently only available on Switch and PS4 (Chronicles has the additional platform of Steam, where there could be many more sales). In the next week, Chronicles ranked 22 overall, with NEO:TWEWY at 23, though of course they’re still a little less than 4000 units behind NEO:TWEWY overall. Slightly closing the gap, I guess.  

How about overseas data, then? ... It’s hard to tell. I can find this report from gamespot which discusses the top 20 games sold in the US in July, and Chronicles is not on the list, while NEO:TWEWY is at 16. However, they don’t give any number for the units sold, and it seems that they aren’t considering digital sales for a lot of them, so it’s hard to tell how much of a hit that is.

However, let’s go back to Japanese sales for a bit, and look at the 2019 Trilogy re-release for a comparison against Chronicles. Allegedly, combined Switch and PS4 sales in the first week of the trilogy’s release only amounted to about 8000 units, a little more than half that of Chronicles’ Switch sales. It’s also important to note that the 2019 trilogy ended up being the only ace attorney game to sell over a million copies. Ace Attorney is not a big series; I’m sure Capcom takes this into account when considering sales data, especially for ports. If Chronicles does end up doing better than the trilogy overall, it’s definitely looking good for ports and especially so for Chronicles.

However, there’s more to this than just sales data.

The Survey

Capcom now has a user survey for Chronicles, which you can answer even if you’re partway through the first game. I believe it’s only open until September 30 2021, so if you think you can finish the game before then, I’d recommend filling it out once you’re done so that you can give the best feedback.

It asks you a bunch of questions like what platform you bought it on, why you bought it, your expectations, and all sorts of detailed questions on the various mechanics, difficulty and enjoyment of the trials and investigations, satisfaction of visuals, plot, characters, music, and even free response sections for what you liked and disliked about the game. It’s a very detailed survey that’s pretty long but I think is worth filling out. At the end they ask you to fill out some demographic questions (such as age, gender (male, female, other), country, what kind of things you like to spend money on, and what kind of games you like, what platforms you have to play games on). But what’s possibly the most interesting question is this:

“If a new [Chronicles] game is released in the future, do you think you would buy it?”

This means that, depending on the answers to the survey, they could very well decide to work on a third game to Chronicles.

This has huge implications for the future of the series. I’ll probably make a separate post on plot-related stuff later, but for now... let’s talk about logistics.

In my initial AA7 speculation post I said I highly doubted that they would ever make another Chronicles game. I also said that they probably never would be localized, so, guess who’s a clown now. 

Right now the AA series is in a bit of a dry period, with no new games having been released in the last four years. As well, with Yamazaki (the director of the investigations games and AA5/6) having left Capcom, the next director of the mainline games is completely unknown. As described in this video, the main reason Chronicles ever came about was because Capcom went ahead with mainline AA5 before Takumi could come back from the Layton crossover. Now, since 2017, we don’t really know what Takumi is working on. It’s possible he’s gone back to mainline to work on AA7 (though of course, there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that he has, so definitely don’t take that as any sort of confirmation).

However, if we do get a Chronicles 3, it’s quite likely Takumi would return to work on that, as he directed the previous two games. In addition, if Chronicles ends up being such a success to completely eclipse mainline (from what I’ve heard, though I have no serious proof, Resolve is considered as highly rated as T&T by many Japanese fans) then the series could permanently go down the road of writing more Chronicles games, leaving mainline stagnant (which, let’s be real, it’s already stagnating). The success of that is uncertain considering how neatly our current Chronicles duology wraps up, but... we’ll have to see how things unfold in the future.

For now, I highly recommend filling out the survey to give your input to the series’ future directions. Maybe mention that you want localized investigations 2 somewhere in the free response section because uhh I forgot to do it in mine. do that for me.

TL;DR

Main takeaways from this post are:

- I personally expect an AA7 announcement either during TGS or a 20th anniversary event

- If Chronicles does extremely well, then 456 ports are likely to happen, and I personally speculate investigations ports (along with localized investigations 2) will as well.

- Fill out this Chronicles survey before September 30th to give your input on the games and possibly the future direction of the series. I recommend completing the games before you do, but if you think you won’t before September 30th, you can fill it out at any time.

- We Very Well May Get Another Chronicles Game. Who saw that coming. Not me.

Thanks if you read through all of this, let’s hope September/October doesn’t leave me looking like a fool again.

[f1]

F1 announces 24-race calendar for 2023 French GP out Monaco and Belgium set to stay

F1 announces 24-race calendar for 2023, French GP out, Monaco and Belgium set to stay By Balazs Szabo on 20 Sep 2022, 23:19 Formula 1 has announced the record-breaking 24-race calendar for the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, which has been approved by the World Motor Sport Council. The 2023 season will kick off on March 5 - an earlier start than usual - in Bahrain before heading to Saudi Arabia. Following the Australian Grand Prix, the Chinese Grand Prix will make its return for the first time since 2019 on April 16. The championship will then move to the United States of America for the second ever Miami Grand Prix before it heads back to Italy for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix that will take place a week prior to Monaco. In the meanwhile, Formula 1 has also confirmed that it will continue to race in the Principality until 2025 after a new three-year agreement was finalised with the Automobile Club of Monaco (ACM). Michel Boeri, President of the Automobile Club of Monaco, added: “In the interest of the Formula One World Championship, and after several months of negotiations, we are proud to announce that we have signed a three-year agreement with Formula One, and likely to be renewed.” Following the Monaco Grand Prix, the field will move to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix before making the long trip to Canada. Austria will move forward by a week, kicking off the intense month of July that will incororate four races within just five weeks. Great Britain will be next on the schedule before the championship will pop up in Hungary with the Hungarian Grand Prix losing the spot of the last race before the summer break which will now be occupied by Belgium. Atter the restart, the Dutch Grand Prix will kick off the third leg of the season with the Italian Grand Prix twinned with Zandvoort. Singapore and Japan are set to host races at the end of September before Qatar returns on the 8th of October. The USA will host its second race in Texas at the end of October before the field makes the relatively short trip to Mexico. Following the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo, Las Vegas will make its debut on November 18 - round 23 of the calendar, just before the finale in Abu Dhabi. Scheduled to take place in Las Vegas the week before Thanksgiving on November 18, the Las Vegas Grand Prix will see unprecedented levels of F1 activity and events, with Practice on Thursday, November 16 and Qualifying on Friday, November 17, ahead of the Saturday night race. Taking place at night against the iconic Las Vegas backdrop, the track will see drivers reach jaw-droppingpeeds of over 340kph as they race around some of the world’s most iconic landmarks, hotels and casinos on the legendary Las Vegas Strip. Speaking of the announcement of the calendar, Formula 1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali said: “We are excited to announce the 2023 calendar with 24 races around the world. Formula 1 has unprecedented demand to host races and it is important we get the balance right for the entire sport. “We are very pleased with the strong momentum Formula 1 continues to experience and it is great news that we will be able to bring our passionate fans a mix of exciting new locations such as Las Vegas to the Championship with much loved venues across Europe, Asia and the Americas.” Speaking about the new calendar, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, said: “The presence of 24 races on the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar is further evidence of the growth and appeal of the sport on a global scale. "The addition of new venues and the retention of traditional events underlines the FIA’s sound stewardship of the sport. I am delighted that we will be able to take Formula 1’s new era of exciting racing, created by the FIA’s 2022 Regulations, to a broader fan base in 2023. In framing the 2023 F1 calendar, WMSC Members have also been mindful of the timing of the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.” via F1Technical.net . Motorsport news https://www.f1technical.net/news/

[fatehbaz]

Imagining futures; escaping hell; controlling time; living in better worlds.

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What we see happening in Ferguson and other cities is not the creation of liveable spaces, but the creation of living hells. When a person is trapped in a cycle of debt, it also can affect their subjectivity and temporal orientation to the world by making it difficult for them to imagine and plan for the future. What psychic toll does this have on residents? How does it feel to be routinely degraded and exploited [...]? [M]unicipalities [...] make it impossible for residents to actually feel at home in the place where they live, walk, work, love, and chill. In this sense, policing is not about crime control or public safety, but about the regulation of people’s lives -- their movements and modes of being in the world.

[Source: Jackie Wang. Carceral Capitalism. 2018.]

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Pacific texts do not only destabilize inadequate presents. They also transfigure the past by participating in widespread strategies of contesting linear and teleological Western time, whether through Indigenous ontologies of cyclical temporality or postcolonial inhabitations of heterogenous time. [...] Pacific temporality [can be] a layering of oral and somatic memory in which both present injustices and a longue duree of pasts-cum-impossible futures still adhere. In doing so, [jetnil-Kijiner’s book] Iep Jaltok does not defer an apocalyptic future. Instead it asserts the possibility, indeed the past guarantee, of Pacific worlds in spite of Western temporal closures. [...] In the context of US settler colonialism, Jessica Hurley has noted “the ongoing power of a white-defined realism to distinguish possible from impossible actions” [...]. In other words, certain aspects of Indigenous life under settler colonialism fall under the purview of what colonizing powers define as the (im)possible. [...] Greg Fry, writing of Australian representations of the Pacific in the 1990s, notes that the Pacific was regarded as facing “an approaching ‘doomsday’ or ‘nightmare’ unless Pacific Islanders remake themselves”. From the center-periphery model [...], only a Malthusian “future nightmare [...]” for Pacific islands seemed possible. [...] Bikini Island, where the first of 67 US nuclear tests took place from 1946 to 1958, was chosen largely because of its remoteness [...]; nuclear, economic, and demographic priorities thus rendered islanders’ lives “ungrievable” [...]. The [...] sentiment was perhaps most famously demonstrated in H*nry Kissing*r’s dismissal of the Pacific: “There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?” [...] Such narratives were supposed to proclaim and herald the end of Pacific futures. Instead [...] Pacific extinction narratives [written by Indigenous/Islander authors] conversely testify to something like the real resilience of islanders in the face of a largely deleterious history of Euro-American encounters. More radically, they suggest the impossibility of an impossible future. Apocalypse as precedent overturns the very world-ending convention of the genre. By turning extinction into antecedent, [...] [they aspire] toward an unknown future not tied to an apocalyptic ending.

[Source: Rebecca Oh. “Making Time: Pacific Futures in Kiribati’s Migration with Dignity, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s Iep Jaltok, and Keri Hume’s Stonefish.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies. Winter 2020.]

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With the machinery finally installed on the property of the Manuelita estate, Don Santiago Eder launched the first industrial production of refined white sugar in Colombia on the “first day of the first month of the first year of the twentieth century.” Such deeds, mythologized and heroic in their retelling, earned Santiago Eder respect as “the founder” and his sons as “pioneers” in the industrialization of provincial Colombia. Their enterprise [...] remained the country’s largest sugar operation for much of the twentieth century. In 1967, [...] E.P. Thompson described the evolution and internalization of disciplined concepts of time as intimately tied to the rise of wage labor in industrializing England. His famous treatise on time serves as a reminder that the rise of industrial agriculture affected a reorganization of cultural and social conceptions of time. [...]. The global ascendancy of the Manuelita model of work contracts and monoculture in the second half of the twentieth century underscores the acceleration of the Plantationocene, but the historical presence and persistence of alternative [...] time should serve as a reminder that [...] futures and the demarcation of epochs are never as simple as a neatly organized calendar.

[Source: Timothy Lorek. “Keeping Time with Colombian Plantation Calendars.” Edge Effects. April 2020.]

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For several weeks after midsummer arrives along the lower Kuskokwim River, even as the days begin to shorten, the long, boreal light of dusk makes for a brief night. People travel by boat [...]. When I asked an elder about the proper way to act toward Chinook salmon, he instructed me: “Murikelluku.” The Yup’ik word murilke- means not only “to watch” but also “to be attentive” [...]. Nearly fifty years ago, Congress extinguished Alaska Native tribal autonomy over [...] fishing [...]. The indifference of dominant [US government land management agency] fisheries management models to social relations among salmon and Yupiaq peoples is evocative of a mode of care that Lisa Stevenson (2014) characterizes as “anonymous.” When life is managed at the level of the population, Stevenson writes, care is depersonalized. Care becomes “invested in a certain way of being in time,” standardized to the clock, and according to the temporal terms of the caregiver, rather than in time with the subject of care herself (ibid.: 134). Stevenson identifies care at the population level as  anonymous because it focuses exclusively on survival – on metrics of life and death – rather than on the social relations that make the world inhabitable. Thus, it is not namelessness that marks “anonymous care” as  such, but rather “a way of attending to the life and death of [others]” that strips life of the social bonds that imbue it with meaning […]. At the same time, conservation, carried out anonymously, ignores not only the temporality of Yupiaq peoples’ relations with fish, but also the human relations that human-fish relations make possible. Yupiat in Naknaq critique conservation measures for disregarding  relations that ensure not only the continuity of salmon lives but also the duration of Yupiat lifeworlds (see Jackson 2013). Life is doubly negated. For Yupiaq peoples in southwest Alaska, fishing and its attendant practices are […] modes of sociality that foster temporally deep material and affective attachments to kin and to the Kuskokwim River that are constitutive of well-being [...]. As Yup’ik scholar Theresa Arevgaq John (2009) writes, cultivating relations both with ancestors and fish, among other more-than-human beings, is a critical part of young peoples’ […] development  [...]. In other words, the futures that Yupiaq peoples imagine depend on not only a particular orientation to salmon in the present, but also an orientation to the past that salmon mediate.

[Source: William Voinot-Baron. “Inescapable Temporalities: Chinook Salmon and the Non-Sovereignty of Co-Management in Southwest Alaska.” July 2019.]

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[C]oncentration of global wealth and the "extension of hopeless poverties"; [...] the intensification of state repression and the growth of police states; the stratification of peoples [...]; and the production of surplus populations, such as the landless, the homeless, and the imprisoned, who are treated as social "waste." [...] To be unable to transcend [...] the horror [...] of such a world order is what hell means [...]. Without a glimpse of an elsewhere or otherwise, we’re living in hell. [...] [P]eople are rejecting prison as the ideal model of social order. [...] Embedded in this resistance, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, is both a deep longing for and the articulation of, the existence of a life lived otherwise and elsewhere than in hell. [...] [W]hat’s in the shadow of the bottom line [...] -- what stands, living and breathing, in the place blinded from view. [...] Instincts and impulses are always contained by a system which dominates us so thoroughly that it decides when we can “have an impact” on “restructuring the world,” which is always relegated to the future. [...] “Self-determination begins at home [...].” Cultivating an instinctual basis for freedom is about identifying the longings that already exist -- however muted or marginal [...]. The utopian is not only or merely a “fantasy of” and for “the future collectivity”. It is not simply fantasmatic or otherworldly in the conventional temporal sense. The utopian is a way of conceiving and living in the here and now, which is inevitably entangled with all kinds of deformations [...]. But there are no guarantees. No guarantees that the time is right [...]; no guarantees that just a little more misery and suffering will bring the whole mess down; no guarantees that the people we expect to lead us will (no special privileged historical agents); [...] no guarantees that we can protect future generations [...] if we just wait long enough or plan it all out ahead of time; no guarantees that on the other side of the big change, some new utterly-unfathomable-but-worth-waiting-for happiness will be ours [...]. There are no guarantees of coming millenniums or historically inevitable socialisms or abstract principles, only our complicated selves together and a [...] principle in which the history and presence of the instinct for freedom, however fugitive or extreme, is the evidence of the [...] possibility because we’ve already begun to realize it. Begun to realize it in those scandalous moments when the present wavers [...]. The point is to expose the illusion of supremacy and unassailability dominating institutions and groups routinely generate to mask their fragility and their contingency. The point is [...] to encourage [...] us [...] to be a little less frightened of and more enthusiastic about our most scandalous utopian desires and actions [...], a particular kind of courage and a few magic tricks.

[Source: Avery Gordon. “Some thoughts on the Utopian.” 2016.]