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astranva · 4 years ago

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TikTok Series | Anyway, so.

Word Count: 1.2k

Category: Fluff

Warning: Idk, language? Idk anymore but no heavy stuff it’s literally just TikTok content

Request: for your tik tok series i can imagine y/n and harry trending and harry would be like “what did you post now?” and it would actually be the fans this time. the “i’ve never seen two pretty best friends” with videos of them being like they are both pretty so that’s a lie. loving that series

** THIS IS SO CUTE I LOVE IT! i hope you like it, and let me know what you think 🤍

// masterlist //

The numbers only went up with your TikTok; the views, the likes, the comments, and the followers.

What started as just you having fun during quarantine, ended with a verified account and demanding fans of your boyfriend asking you to take part in many challenges and pranks.

“y/n’s tiktok is basically just her cooking or pranking harry or dueting stans’ videos with a hood on and i love every second of it”

“tiktokers: doing stupid shit to gain money

y/n: anyway dudes, here’s how to make grilled cheese with no cheese for if you’re too broke to get any”

“when y/n duets thirsty tiktoks I just can’t help but think of how much I want a partner this chill”

“can anyone start any new couple challenge already? I want new harry & y/n content k thanks”

Fans were vocal about how much fun they had with your TikTok, some adding sentiments that made you emotional like;

“never thought I’d feel connected to anyone who’s with harry but here’s y/n replying to tiktok comments like we’re all a bunch of friends”

“I kid you not, the reason why I’m excited to eat at school is because I’m always excited to try y/n’s easy recipes and I just love her so much”

“not me meeting y/n, harry styles’ gf, at the grocery store today and greeting her like we grew up together bc that’s how I feel about her”

Along with laughing together at videos, you and Harry also seemed to always have a new catchy song to sing around the house ever since you first installed the app, with how it has helped artists’ music go viral. Hell, even funny songs would get stuck in your brains.

On your phone was proof of that. Standing behind an oblivious Harry as he cooked one day, he was in shorts and a tight top, flipping toast on the stove as he sang, “Chicken wing, chicken wing, hot dog and bologna, chicken and macaroni, chillin’ with my homies,” wiggling his butt as he did.

You hadn’t posted since the “How well do our brains work together” TikTok you posted with Harry, so when you saw yours and Harry’s ship name trending with 84.7 million views to it, you were confused to say the least.

Sitting beside Harry as he was on his laptop, you moved closer to lean against his side, his arm reflexively wrapping around you.

“We’re trending on TikTok.”

“Aren’t we always?” He smugly asked, looking at you.

“No,” you laughed, “Usually after I post something, yeah, but I haven’t posted in two weeks.” You said as you clicked on the hashtag, seeing pictures of you and Harry in many videos along with different faces with titles.

Clicking on a video with 6.3 million views, you and Harry watched as a girl filmed herself with the background music sounding and someone speaking through it, “I ain’t never seen two pretty best friend. It’s always one of ‘em gotta be ugly.”

The music then stopped, Nicki Minaj’s voicing being heard, “Ummm...Chile. Anyway, so,” before Noahplause’s song, Runnin’, came, and with it came pictures of you and Harry.

A picture of the both of you from Dunkirk’s premiere; Harry in his suit with his arm around your waist as he looked down at you with a smile. You in a dress that matched the color of his suit, one hand on his chest and another on his shoulder, smiling to the cameras.

A picture of you lying on the sand at the beach in your swimsuit with your eyes closed, Harry’s head resting on your stomach as he looked up at the camera with a neutral face, it being a picture from when he was filming the Watermelon Sugar music video.

A candid picture taken by paps of Harry standing behind you with his arms wrapped around you, his chin resting on your head as you stood in a park with a couple of friends.

A selfie you had posted to your Instagram story of you lying your head on Harry’s shoulder, him looking to the side, making his sharp jawline perfectly appear.

A picture of you and Harry kissing from one New Year’s party you attended; your hands on his cheeks, his tangled in your hair. It was a low-quality picture, but it still showed clearly that it was the both of you.

You and Harry were watching with amused expressions, laughing in surprise at the trend his fans seemed to start.

“This is so cute, what!” You laughed at the video, “Let’s watch another one and duet it.”

“What does that mean? What do we do?” Harry asked, looking at you.

“It means, I’ll choose to duet so when I post it, the two videos will be aligned together and we’ll watch that video as we record.” You explained, scrolling before pausing the next video and tapping on ‘Duet.’

“So, it’s like a reaction?”

“Exactly,” you nodded, “Ready?”

“Yes.” Harry grinned, turning his body slightly.

Your phone showed yours and Harry’s faces, both of you with small smiles before you made sure that the mic was opened and began recording, the video you were reacting to beginning to play.

It started with a ceiling as the man spoke his line. When it came to the guy saying “two pretty best friends”, Harry had mouthed along, gesturing between the both of you making you laugh.

Nicki then spoke, and in came Runnin’ with pictures of you and Harry.

First one was of just you smiling to the camera.

At this, Harry’s smile widened.

Second one was Harry smirking at one of his shows from 2018.

You hummed, nodding slowly.

Third one was of you with makeup, an eyebrow raised and a hand to your temple, posing for the camera.

“Insanely good.” Harry said slowly with a shake of his head, eyes fixed on the phone. You cooed, pouting at his comment.

Fourth one was of Harry smirking in the tulle-detail, off-shoulder trench coat from his Vogue photoshoot.

“This one, yes!” You exclaimed, causing Harry to laugh.

Fifth one was the same picture of the both of you from when he was shooting his Watermelon Sugar music video.

“I love this one so much.” Harry said before giving a genuine closed-lipped smile as he remembered the exact moment the picture was taken.

“Right?” You smiled.

Sixth one was a video of the both of you dancing, your arms around his neck, his hands holding your waist, as it showed the both of you grooving with Harry singing to you with a smile on his face.

“Shut up, I didn’t know this existed.” You gasped, Harry chuckling.

Seventh one was a picture taken by a friend of yours; your eyes were closed in childlike happiness, Harry sitting beside you and looking down at you with a dopey smile as one of his hands squished your cheeks.

“Hey, that’s my lockscreen!” Harry beamed, instantly holding his phone to yours, showing that the last picture was, in fact, his lockscreen so excitedly before the video ended.

Posting the video, you added a caption to it:

“we have the biggest smiles on our faces. you’re all so adorable thank you😭 (also 10/10 for calling us best friends)”

“We are best friends,” Harry said, letting out a sigh before dramatically wrapping both arms around you, giving you a squeeze, “Best of!”

#harry styles imagine #tiktok series #harry styles fluff imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles fluff one shot #fluff #ik i reposted this like 3 times but tumblr just wouldnt show the tags #harry styles fake social media #harry styles tiktok

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gaylorswiftvibes · 5 years ago

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I am caffeinated and quarantined and ready to lay out all of my thoughts as to why Taylor has yet to come out, the obstacles that will have to be addressed before she comes out, and therefore create a timeline as to when she will come out and what that will look like. I don’t know about all of you, but I find myself constantly questioning why this is all happening. Why has Taylor not come out yet? Why does she purposefully leave so many clues if she doesn't want to come out yet? Does she enjoy making us feel insane like the sick masochist that she is? Why has it felt like she’s about to come out several times but then she backtracks? What’s complicating this process? How long will we have to wait? Over the years, Taylor has enjoyed watching other people attempt to piece together the story about her love life and understand who and what she writes about. However, when she comes out I do think she will want to set the record straight (ha) in as many ways as possible without damaging her reputation or the reputation of anyone with whom she has had any sort of relationship. However, before she can come out, she will need to be in an optimal situation with her masters, the best timing possible for maximum impact and best optics, and Karlie's reputation/life to not be destroyed in the process.

This MANIFESTO of a blog post does presume several things.

Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are both either bi or gay and both desire to come out publicly at some point.

They had a relationship.

They are likely still together. If not, they are still friends who care about the wellbeing of the other person and they are also in communication about koincidences.

If they are together, they purposefully made their relationship private to protect both of them (mainly Karlie) and have more control over their public narratives after kissgate and significant public speculation that their "friendship" was something more.

Karlie's relationship with JK is fake. Their marriage is not legal and there is likely a contract that provides prescriptive guidance for how she publicly portrays and discusses their relationship. This contract was likely made to provide Karlie with career opportunities and to provide JK with a beard- I do not believe that it is directly financial but it could be as well.

It’s clear that Taylor first started wanting to come out after she had already reached incredible success. It is unclear how this timeline occurred. Was she already out to herself and her family before her career even began? Did she originally intend to remain publicly closeted for her entire career? Did she go through a period of denial about her sexuality? I think the closest thing to answers we have to questions like these are clues within her music. I do believe her motifs of blue, darkness, shade, and secrecy mainly lead back to being closeted while her motifs of gold, sun, daylight, and public affection reference being out and proud. Interpret what you will from her writing and the timeline of her albums. To me, this does point to Taylor originally wanting to remain intensely closeted (hence beards and their massive publicity and the potential for some of those relationships to have been “real”, although this is a conversation for another day), later on wanting to remain quite secretive about her relationships with women, and most recently yearning to not be secretive any longer. It seems like her music points to wanting to come out- so why hasn’t it happened yet?

She knows that coming out is going to generate attention and sales. It would make the most sense that she wants to own her masters at the same time that she comes out. This is a major factor of why we're still waiting and will likely be waiting until the rerecordings come out or she makes a deal to get ownership of the masters. The clues along the way are a way to maintain some level of authenticity, to create buzz, and to create The Story that will undoubtedly one day be highly scrutinized and publicized. I do believe that The Story (as I will be referring to it) has been in the works for quite some time and that Taylor does plan to shed light on it at the time that she comes out. The Story will include as much truth as possible about her relationships. After Miss Americana came out and Lana Wilson insinuated that there is more of her story to tell, I do think it is possible that she will release another documentary alongside her coming out. However, this is pure speculation and an extremely biased view as I personally believe that would be very sexy and cool of her.

Part of this marketing scheme does come off as distasteful, but I do think it's less about her wanting more money and more about her wanting SB to not profit off of this or have any control or say in the message that she wants to communicate. Ultimately, a large piece of this unknown timeline will be revealed before or in November 2020. If they haven't made a deal for Taylor’s ownership by then, I assume she will publicly reveal if she is rerecording and potentially begin to promote her rerecordings. Worth noting, it is my belief that if there is follow through with the rerecordings that they will be copycat records intended to sound as identical as possible. I am hopeful for the "original" versions to come to light one day (I want her midnights and she never loved me deserve premium recordings), but I don't think it would make much financial sense to release these instead of the copycats (we can hope for alongside, but it doesn't seem too likely). At the end of the day, the masters situation will resolve one way or another by the rerecording date.

We should also generally be aware of timing. Taylor is going to want to create maximum distance between her and any direct negativity before she comes out along with any other major events (pandemics, elections, big news stories, etc.). This is definitely the point I will harp on the least, but something to keep in mind if something happens that harms her public image down the line (please god not again). I’ve considered that she may want to keep her coming out to “use” when she starts to get less popular or when society stops “tolerating her being successful”, but I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. I do believe that it will coincide with an album release just because that would be sickening.

This is not to say that once the optimal situation for her masters is obtained, Taylor has no other reason to not come out. It doesn't matter whether she and Karlie are currently still together, The Story includes Karlie in an undeniable way since it is clear that they were in a relationship for a few years at the minimum. I really don't think Taylor would want to come out without being able to address their relationship. However, the narrative would completely depend on if they are still together or not. If they are no longer together, that may be more incentive to consider a possibility of her coming out without addressing Karlie. Since I personally believe they are still together, I will be addressing the potential narratives for Karlie from that perspective.

One option to consider beforehand is the storyline that Karlie and Taylor were close friends but never together. They each have their own relationships that eventually end for unrelated reasons (meaning eventual JK divorce and oatmilk disappearance), then they rekindle their "friendship" and "start" a relationship around the time that Taylor comes out. I don't like this idea because it, in essence, defeats the purpose of The Story. If this is the time to come clean, be vulnerable, be honest, this is a significant lie to keep. And at the end of the day, the truth is in Taylor's discography. The albums point to a secret relationship, not just pining for a friend or whatever that storyline is.

The way I see it, once The Story is laid out, the two major narrative avenues are decided by claiming whether the Karlie JK relationship was real or not. If the choice is made to support its legitimacy, they could spin this relationship in a number of ways.

They could choose to portray it as on again off again. This would leave a partial timeline open for a relationship with Taylor. They could cite infinite believable reasons for the JK relationship being this way (K*shner/Tr*mp family issues, distance issues, typical relationship issues, etc.). This narrative allows Karlie to not be portrayed as a cheater, JK to not be portrayed as a horrible person that would put a vulnerable 19-year-old at the start of her career in a long-term bearding contract, allows JK’s sexuality to not be questioned, and allows their relationship’s authenticity to go unquestioned. I do think this is the most likely narrative if it is chosen to portray Karlie and JK’s relationship as legitimate even after it ends. After all, Karlie has already stated publicly that they have “been through a lot together” and that “it hasn’t been easy” and they met it 2012 when it was “a different world” (WWHL, January 2020). They could also take the tangential route that they were not exclusive at the beginning of their relationship, but I am not sure when it was definitively publicly confirmed that they were together; although it is confirmed that they met in 2012, they could emphasize that they were friends at first or not exclusive. They were interacting with each other online on a routine basis by 2013. This included them liking each other’s posts, posting pictures of one another, posting the same picture, or posting in the same location (many of these have been proven to be latergrams and don’t seem like natural relationship posting, but that’s beside the point). In June 2015, Karlie posted a photo of them together with a caption wishing him a happy birthday and thanking him for “three years of love and laughs”. However, there was still speculation in the comments at the time over whether they were a couple or close friends. Their engagement was announced in 2018, so there is potential to create a storyline in which JK and Karlie were just friends since 2012, Taylor and Karlie dated, then JK and Karlie dated and married, JK and Karlie divorced, and then Taylor and Karlie got back together. I don’t think this is likely but I think it is worth considering since in hindsight the announcement of their relationship seems to have been kept purposefully vague, specifically when it comes to timeline. Maybe that was intended to keep their maximum options open when considering their likely eventual separation narrative.

They could choose to portray Karlie as someone who cheated on her relationship with JK with Taylor. I do not think this is a likely option as it would damage Karlie’s reputation, although they could attempt to make a sympathetic appeal. Karlie has been "with" JK since she was 19, and I don't think they would purposefully promote the narrative that she cheated on the man that she later married. As I am racking my brain for all possible options, I suppose they could make an appeal that they had an open or polyamorous relationship, but that would be low-key insane considering their largely girl-next-door personas. But hey, you cannot say that I am not thorough and thinking outside the bun.

They could choose the narrative that their relationship was partially authentic and partially inauthentic. They could use the storyline that they “fell out of love” (ha) but chose to remain close friends and not go public with their break up. This is highly unlikely because their “marriage” occurred after her and Taylor were so publicly close. There is also no clear motive for doing this other than bearding so it does call into question JK’s sexuality.

They could also choose to reveal the JK Karlie relationship as fake. However, this would put JK in a difficult position and it’s almost unimaginable that he would be okay with it. I think there is an extremely unlikely possibility that he would want to publicly come out and create some sort of best-friends-mutually-bearding-without-any-contract-narrative.

So, what are the other options? Well, she could tell (what I believe to be) the truth. She signed a contract in order to boost her modeling career, her marriage wasn't legally legitimate, and they never had an actual relationship. It certainly makes her choices and The Story make sense, but it would have endless ramifications. We have no way of knowing what the contract terms look like. It makes JK look like a terrible person, it puts his sexuality into question, and it makes Karlie look inauthentic (even though she has done a great job of mostly separating him from her public persona). I would genuinely not want to make an enemy out of a Kushner for fear of the safety of myself and my loved ones. It's a scary thing to make an enemy of someone who has so much power that they are virtually above the law. However, if there's anything we learned from the sale of the masters or the call, it's that publicity and public perception changes the options that are on the table. If Karlie and Taylor come out with the full (what I believe to be) truth, the world might see them in the way that most of us see them. Karlie was young, and was taken advantage of, and trapped into something she did not want. They were both struggling with and deciding if/how/when to come out publicly. Taylor was dealing with intense public scrutiny and the sale of her masters. They had no options to be honest about their relationship publicly. This option makes everything known, including their fear of the revenge JK and others might take against them, financially or otherwise. This results in anything they do in revenge receiving public backlash. If we're being honest here, this is my favorite narrative option purely because it's not a narrative; it's the truth. At the end of the day, we all love Taylor and her music and therefore want to know her and understand her on a deeper level. We all want the BRILLIANCE of her closeted writing to be properly admired for what it is. I think we all also want Taylor to feel loved and understood for who she truly is and what she's truly been through. Part of this is going to happen through being as honest as possible.

There is also the issue of oatmilk. Since she has literally never confirmed that they are actually dating (other than the sarcastic “she asked my boyfriend”, and the NME kiss (?)), she could take the route that they were always just friends. From this, should could take credit for the purposeful bearding, say that she just let it happen and let the media interpret their friendship that way and it didn’t bother her, or blame the media for spreading misinformation (which would be annoying because she clearly encouraged it). She could also break them up and legitimize their relationship, but that obviously takes away from the authenticity of her music and story. Either way, I feel like getting rid of oatmilk will be the easiest part of this process.

IN CONCLUSION, there are still many important issues to consider when we wonder why Taylor hasn’t come out yet and we shouldn’t use our impatience as reasoning to say that she is not gay. I believe that all of these issues would have to align or resolve in some way before she comes out. With any luck, it will be with TS8. However, the major wild card to consider is Karlie’s relationship with JK. We truly have no idea what this contract looks like, especially after the predicted end date last year was acknowledged by Karlie (instagram freedom post, seven long years tweet) and then still continued. We can hope that the public separation has been outlined in her renewal or that she would be safe in an exposé process, but nothing is certain. Ultimately, we all want the both of them to be happy and feel loved and appreciated for who they truly are, and to have control over the narrative they want.

Fuckin hell this is way too long but feel free to DM me with any questions because I clearly have too much time on my hands!! Peace and blessings

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coveredinyou · 6 years ago

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🚨TS7 ALIVE THEORY🚨

GUYS this is INSANE i just connected A LOT of stuff and now i’m gonna put it all here... ENJOY:

PS: SORRY for the length but it’s worth a read!!!!

*read the OVERALL CONNECTION AT THE BOTTOM if you don’t have time*

1. **why she disappeared poem:

okay so the ending of this poem has always struck me as something very important and here’s why... so in the rep tour on netflix, the why she disappeared poem is played right before getaway car all except for the last section: “and in the death of her reputation, she felt truly alive” however it is played at the very end of the movie and it is written on the screen in gold glitter (umm just like the hearts on her countdown........)

i’ve always thought that ts7 could be called alive because the way she phrases the last part makes it sound like “and in the death of her *ts6 album name* she felt truly *ts7 album name*”

credit to @july-9th-one-fiftyeight for realizing this part: in the credits for the rep movie on netlfix it has a little description under why she disappeared and it says: “(video interlude, sequel to “...more”)” hello? ummm this is suspicious.... so this implies that there is something, an album perhaps, that preludes this poem and that very well could be ts7 but i’ll connect this more later tho

2. the “ts5.5” idea:

so if taylor followed her typical album release schedule, ts5.5, as i call it bc reputation is actually ts6, would’ve been released in 2016, but it wasn’t... the kimye drama all occurred in july of 2016, giving taylor enough time to put ts5.5 to the side and to make reputation and release it by 2017

this implies that ts5.5 might have something to do with ts7 and if that’s true, taylor was potentially working on what we now know as ts7 since the 1989 era (or maybe even sooner...)

3. the 1989 album foreword:

okay so i know this could be a stretch but there is a possibility that taylor knew what she wanted to do for ts5.5 (which could be connected to ts7) before she released 1989...

in the 1989 album foreword, taylor says “I've told you my stories for years now. Some have been about coming of age. Some have been about coming undone. This is a story about coming into your own, and as a result... coming alive.”

in the foreword she literally explains her stories for different albums and states that 1989 is a story of coming into your own, but the next part seems imporant... she follows it with an elipsis and then says that the result of coming into your own (the story of 1989) is coming alive (the story of ts5.5? or even ts7??)

4. nostalgic vibes:

so taylor liked @mustlikeme4me ’s post on insta today and the caption was about how ts7 might have nostalgic vibes...

this brings me back to the pictures from her childhood house that she posted on july 13th of 2018... the two pictures are taken on huji camera so they literally say the date in the pictures too so i am pretty sure the fact that the july 13th is literally on both of the photos is significant... not to mention it is also a wax seal on the 2019 calendar *gasp*

one of the pictures is her in her childhood room with others and she captions it “take pictures in your mind of your childhood room...” which is a lyric from never grow up, a very nostalgic feeling song

the other picture is very striking to me though... it’s a picture of taylor outside with a scrapbook and she’s holding it open to a photo that was taken where she was standing... in the photo she is standing on pavement... if you zoom into the picture closely, you see that the picture in the scrapbook shows taylor as a child standing on the pavement and in the picture the pavement is covered in.....sidewalk chalk.......

ok you probably know where i’m going next... back to why she disappeared... in why she disappeared she says “When she fell, she fell apart. Cracked her bones on the pavement she once decorated as a child with sidewalk chalk” once again, this poem comes into play... this nostalgic picture brings us right back into the why she disappeared poem which ends with the word alive

5. why she disappeared video:

when you watch the why she disappeared video, you notice that taylor is actually wearing a floral dress... i can’t tell for sure but they might be forget me nots which connects back to when she was wearing the forget me not shirt in her scrabble picture (and the five holed fence picture but we won’t go there) where she says “let the games BEGIN” which was the first obvious hint at ts7... forget me nots are known to symbolize remembrance which further hints at the nostalgic vibes

the whole video is backwards... why? here are some ideas... in the nostalgic picture with the scrapbook she captions it “take me home” perhaps the backwards video is hinting at the nostalgic feeling of going back in time and reliving her past

another possible idea could be that it symbolizes that she is literally going back to before reputation, before the darkness.... now that she has killed her reputation she is ready to go back to what she was working on before the kimye drama, aka ts5.5.... this would mean that she used reputation to address these issues and kill her reputation and now she can move on (or should i say step into the daylight and let it go) and get back to what she was working on before...

**as you can see, the why she disappeared video seems to play a HUGE part in ts7 and i think that it is a VERY important clue that we have overlooked

🚨 UPDATE thanks to @tullyandtaylor 🚨

6. intagram pics from february

the first picture had 7 palm trees because this is the 7th album

the second picture had 12 stairs because the first single (or album?) comes out 4.26 and 4+2+6=12

the third picture was, of course, the 5 holed fence and ALIVE has 5 letters in it ahdjjdk

7. elle us article:

in lesson 7, which is bound to be important because this is the 7th album, taylor says “We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears”

once again this is the 7TH lesson and she says in order to truly feel alive which, first of all, brings back the truly alive from the why she disappeared poem and it also shows how she is not just alive, but she is truly alive because of the death of her reputation *gasp*

🚨OVERALL CONNECTION🚨

if taylor knew what she wanted to do after 1989, she was definitely hinting at it in the foreword by saying “and as a result... coming alive” and this implies that she felt alive after 1989 was finished and that could have been the title of her next album... however, then there was drama and as a result... resputation... she used reputation to address all the drama and to “kill” her reputation... she published the poem why she disappeared along with reputation which could likely be a transition into her next album... she hints at nostalgic vibes in the poem and the video has a brighter color scheme too it, but not too bright... the video goes backwards, perhaps it is leading her to where she started before reputation, only this time she doesn’t just feel alive, she feels truly alive... she says at the very end of the poem “and in the death of her reputation, she felt truly alive” and this is the perfect transition back into ts5.5 / ts7 which would be called alive... this would also explain the netflix credits because why she disappeared (whent taylor feels truly alive would be the sequel to ts7 (or ts5.5) which will be called...

ALIVE

#taylor swift #ts7 #THIS TOOK ME 5EVER #PLEASE READ IT I SWEAR IT’S GOOD #**mine #ALIVE #alive theory #1k

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arecomicsevengood · 6 years ago

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A Year Of Reading Acknowledged Masterpieces #2: Saul Steinberg’s The Labyrinth

Maybe my most pointless worry is for how aliens, or whatever civilization comes after us, will struggle to learn anything from the jumble of signals that is this modern moment of our undoing. Our language and its referents cannot be understood without full immersion, and so much of what holds a privileged place in our culture, like religion or celebrity, correlates to daily existence in a confused and unclear manner. I dwell on this theoretical future because my far more pressing worries make art feel useless and decadent. As much as I love work that feels like it’s arrived as an artifact from a parallel universe, like Peter Greenaway’s The Falls or Ben Marcus’s Notable American Women, they only confuse the issue of an easily imagined not-too-distant future where everything recognizable is extinct, and even man’s many gestures at mimetic realism and journalistic explanations appear to the only prevailing consciousness as incomprehensible as the Codex Seraphinus.

It is in the context of this insane existential anxiety that Saul Steinberg’s work functions as a huge relief. Here the big ideas and our idle habits are captured in the same graceful line. It’s beautiful and funny, thoughtfully considered but never belabored. Everything feels like the platonic ideal of ideas being captured in a distilled form; if I were to liken it to music I would cite John Fahey. Fahey had a hit record with a Christmas LP, Steinberg’s work achieved a high circulation due to its placement in The New Yorker. The cartoons in that magazine seem vaguely notorious for being unfunny and inscrutable, at least to a generation that remembers vividly that one Seinfeld episode and was otherwise weaned on the gags in The Far Side. There are people who dismiss Christmas music as a concept as well. While Steinberg’s work definitely lives up to any rep for dry wit, I don’t really view any of it as being gags. Once you remove the expectation that this work is intended to elicit a laugh it becomes pretty easy to see it as just great art, and its placement in a widely-circulated magazine is just a better delivery system to the masses than art galleries are.

Here’s a Steinberg cartoon the New Yorker reprinted a few months back. It’s from a different time period than the stuff in The Labyrinth. It contains a caption, which none of the pieces in The Labyrinth do, though whether or not they did on their first publication is unknown to me.

The Labyrinth is an art book somewhere between a monograph and a sketchbook, edited and ordered for maximum readability as sets of ideas are explored. Many of those ideas are about drawing, and the drawing often feels close to doodling, as many pieces explore what you can do with a single line without removing pen from paper. It is arguably “not comics,” in that there isn’t a story you read from panel to panel, but the relationship to comics is pretty clear. If you are a maker of “avant-garde” or “art” comics, this book would be as informative to your process as reading E.C. Segar’s Popeye* would be for someone who writes Iron Man. Originally published in 1960, it was recently reprinted by NYRB, although not through their comics imprint, which has published artists whose work is prefigured here. Certain drawings seem to outline ideas that would be elaborated on in Pushwagner’s Soft City (drawn in the seventies, and published by NYRB a few years back), and drawings of people playing music, where the sound is rendered as various abstractions, bring to mind stuff in Blutch’s Total Jazz, published by Fantagraphics in 2018, though NYRB handled an English-language version of his book Peplum in 2016. There’s also stuff in the drawing that calls to mind Sasaki Maki’s Ding Dong Circus. All of these works are done by people outside of the U.S., and I can’t really assert with any historical certainty that those people saw the work in question before their own undertakings, though the amount of copies of The New Yorker that are printed make it seem not impossible. It also seems like Steinberg might’ve attained something of a celebrity status enough that potentially photographs of his drawings of women on bathtubs would’ve made it to Life magazine or something. As great as the drawing is, I’m not sure how much of it you would deliberately copy unless you were seeing individual images in isolation. Seeing so much collected in one place the takeaway is how unaffected it all is: It might inspire you to do more sketchbook drawing to see if you can capture the energy of life as effectively as Steinberg did, but you’re certainly not going to capture the verve of his line by studiously redrawing his work.

In terms of intent, Steinberg’s cartoons set a precedent for Jules Feiffer’s Explainers strips, which would run in The Village Voice a few years later. Feiffer, of course, was well-versed in various kinds of comics, having worked in Eisner’s studio, and his avid readership of the earliest comic books is documented in his book The Great Comic-Book Heroes, but there’s not really anything in that stuff suggestive of the sort of observational acuity of the middle-class that you get in his writing, that is present in Steinberg’s work. The depictions of playing music are rendered similarly his depicting to other forms of communication as outgrowth of power dynamics. The drawings of art galleries and artist’s studios exist alongside pieces that seem to primarily document his own drawing process, all of it capturing how much of mankind’s energy is spent choosing to willfully distract itself, how much we throw ourselves into art. In Feiffer you read these self-involved and circular monologues and dialogues of educated neurotics. Steinberg depicts what these people get up to when they’re not talking through their thoughts, but the reader can still intuit the neuroses through posture and gesture, and the depiction of the social settings that create them.

This is done largely without language. If on first publication they were accompanied by typeset lines of dialogue beneath them, those have been excised for posterity. When a selection of drawings of Russia appear, you recognize it by changes in architecture and fashion. Towards the end, however, there are a few pieces that use lettering as part of the landscape of a piece to convey the meaning of the word being used, i.e. a piece where the word “sick” is laid up in bed. The afterword, dating from the time of the first printing, calls these drawings “conceptual art,” a term which would soon after be applied to something else entirely, making this attempt at nomenclature the sort of historical footnote that’s funny to me. These pieces aren’t the best stuff in the work. They have this children’s book illustration quality that nonetheless brings home how beyond language the rest of the book is. It’s a lesson in expression being taught by someone impossibly fluent, a genius condescending to explain himself: I probably would not have come up with this piece’s introductory paragraph, explaining a way into the work, without their precedent. After readers have been shown what humans are, they’re bestowed tools to understand language. These pieces appear at the end because they’re a way out of the labyrinth, out of Steinberg’s system of association between drawings where lines go wild, and back into the world of humdrum communication.

I have read speculation that music’s initial evolutionary purpose involved soothing the young. A mother’s lullaby, like a cat’s purring, is its origin, and both language and instrumental ornamentation followed later. The musicality of Steinberg’s line, as presented here, follows a similar arc, where beginning from a baseline of recognition at shared humanity, and advancing through harmonic extemporizing with each new suite of drawings serving as a piece of counterpoint, becomes both more abstract and more articulate. The end result is something like an ethnography and something like a symphony.

(*: I’m probably going to talk about Popeye next month. At least one motivating factor behind this series is to get away from the promotional cycle of hype for the new, and look at work worth of being approached almost like items on a syllabus. I hope it doesn’t result in too much writing where I list influenced works to make a case for “historical importance.”)

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huntermiracle752 · 4 years ago

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Amazon First Office Photo

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This museum celebrates the heritage of technology we've all grown up with. Please help us maintain and grow the museum by making a small donation -- buy us a coffee? Thank you so much!

Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores in the United States and the United Kingdom, operated by the online retailer Amazon.The stores are partially automated, with customers able to purchase products without being checked out by a cashier or using a self-checkout station. Amazon's first gateway page. Download (jpg), 94 kb. Amazon's first office building. Download (jpg), 308 kb. Jeff Bezos and our 1 millionth customer. The company first hinted at a return to office-based work last year. Amazon announced last August that it would expand its physical offices in six major cities: Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York.

Amazon later terminated Kiva's client relationships with retailers like Office Depot and the Gap in order to keep the technology to itself. 2013 Jeff Bezos announces intention to buy The. 850,000 square foot building (Amazon’s first fulfillment center was 86,000 square foot) The facility is the size of 14 football fields; Amazon Fulfillment Center in Bessemer. Photo by Jacob Blankenship for Bham Now. 4 stories tall; Gray Construction moved 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt to prepare the site; Poured over 8,000 cubic yards of.

Check out our YouTube video showing the history of the Amazon.com website! It has all the images and captions from this page, and is easy on the eyes.

Early Stage Amazon (1994-1995)

In 1994, Jeff Bezos witnessed the exponential growth of the World Wide Web and saw an opportunity to realize online commerce. Initially named Cadabra, Bezos changed the name when his attorney convinced him that it sounded too much like Cadaver. Bezos also considered the name Relentless for a while before opting for Amazon, which reflected the ideas of grandiosity and abundance. The company was founded on July 5th, 1994.

Original Amazon Website (1995)

Amazon.com was launched in July 1995. The logo was an abstract letter 'A' with a winding river flowing through it and the words Amazon.com, Earth’s biggest bookstore at the bottom. The color scheme of the site was typical for 1995 -- lots of gray and not terribly vibrant.

The company offered more than 1 million book titles, vastly outpacing any competition at the time. It featured a simple search engine to help find relevant books. Amazon also offered a free subscription to its personal notification service called 'Eyes and Editors,' enabling clients to proclaim their favorite authors and books. Whenever a new book of interest was added to the catalog, Amazon would automatically send the customer an email announcing the addition. Additionally, Amazon allowed clients to comment on books and exchange ideas with people around the world using review pages.

The original Amazon website (August 1995) Source: Restored by Taran Van Hemert

TV Interview Footage (1997)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos conducted many interviews in the early years, but this one in 1997 with KIRO 7 Seattle is notable because it had footage of the website at the time. The quality is poor, but still valuable to see Amazon in it's infancy. The computer in the closeup shots of the website appears to be an Apple Powerbook 1400, but the PC brand on Bezos' desk is unclear. The first image below makes light of Amazon's massive collection of more than one million books. Amazon's Book of the Day link boasts 'a different title every day for the next 3,000 years.'

Amazon.com Homepage on TV broadcast (1997) Source: KIRO 7 News

Amazon.com Search by Title, Author, or Subject (1997) Source: KIRO 7 News

Jeff Bezos with Amazon.com (1997) Source: KIRO 7 News

Logo Experimentation (1997)

The initial Amazon logo underwent several iterations, with changes in color scheme and fonts. With each iteration, the logo slowly came into shape, with the color palette becoming increasingly similar to the modern logo.

Amazon experiments with logo iterations (1997) Source: fineprintart.com

Early Amazon Homepage (1997)

The company went public on May 15th, 1997 and raised $54 million in the process. Amazon's website underwent major changes, reflected in the design and more user-friendly interface. A left sidebar was introduced to enhance navigation, making the website more usable. Book covers and reviews were introduced to the experience to allow users to visualize the bookstore.

Amazon homepage image, restored by Version Museum (1997) Source: ebaumsworld.com

Additional Logo Changes (1998)

In 1998, the Amazon logo went through additional iterations. A lowercase serif font served as the main logo for a short time, with the tag line 'Earth's Biggest Bookstore' underneath. But later that year, the company employed a sans serif all-caps logo with a bright yellow letter 'O' in the middle. This was also taken down in a few months; the logo soon morphed into the more familiar lowercase sans-serif logo with a slightly curved yellow line underneath. The motto 'Books, Music and More' floated above. With Amazon's ambitious expansion plans, the slogan was taken out after a couple of months.

Homepage with 'Earth's Biggest Bookstore' slogan (1998) Source: blog.cake.hr

Introduction of Tabs & International Expansion (1998)

As Amazon's ambitions grew beyond selling books, tabs were introduced to the website. The site itself went through numerous alterations, with the search bar making its first prominent appearance to the top left of the homepage in the latter half of the year.

Furthermore, international expansion began, with acquisitions of online stores in the United Kingdom and Germany.

Product Expansion, Zshops, and Auctions (1999)

The use of tabbed navigation became more practical when toys, games, electronics, and auctions launched to shoppers as part of Amazon's hunger to expand service lines. A right sidebar was also added.

A market for third party sellers to showcase their products on Amazon was created, called zShops. Eventually, this evolved to become the Amazon Marketplace in 2000.

Amazon also experimented with Auctions in this timeframe, which later shut down in 2002.

The Modern Amazon Logo With a Smile (2000)

Design agency Turner Duckworth created the now-iconic logo for Amazon in the year 2000 with a custom typeface. Cleverly, designer Anthony Biles devised a smile that connects the letters A and Z. Jeff Bezos wanted something produced quickly, without the typical market research and focus group feedback process. Reportedly, Bezos jokingly claimed 'Anybody who doesn’t like that logo doesn’t like puppies!'

Amazon Letter A Logo (2000) Source: vmastoryboard.com

Tab Insanity (2000)

As Amazon's catalog diversified to include categories such as art, kitchen, lawn & patio, tools, and beauty, the tabs expanded in turn -- sometimes to a comical degree. Luke Wroblewski documented this in his excellent piece on the history of Amazon’s tab navigation.

Amazon homepage with 15 tabs (2000) Source: humanfactorsblog.org

Tabs Refined (2001-2003)

Amazon added additional categories such as eBooks, baby items, cell phones, and video games. With the growing number of product categories, the tabs couldn't grow infinitely to keep pace with the limited real estate in the top navigation area. The tabs were reined in and the categories were moved to the left sidebar area. The Amazon logo decreased in size to accommodate the changes.

In 2002 Amazon experimented with a limited number of prominent tabs at the top again, and added some graphic flair in the form of a shirt to announce the arrival of the apparel store. Additionally, Amazon began offering Gold Box deals, showcasing the best deals on the site.

Tabs moved to left sidebar (2001) Source: the-digital-reader.com

Streamlined (2005)

The on-again off-again relationship with tabs continued, but this time they were severely curtailed. There were only tabs for the homepage, a personalized page of products called Your Store, and a link to all the product categories.

Amazon Prime began in February 2005, and prominent ads for the service were plastered on the homepage.

Interestingly, the category page that lists 30+ types of products also has some logos, that in retrospect, are fascinating to see. Amazon used to power the websites for Toys-R-Us, Babies-R-Us, and Target. Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us ended up going bankrupt, closing all their US and British stores in 2018. Target and Amazon are now fierce competitors in the retail sector. But back in 2005, online retail was a small slice of the pie and wasn't strategic enough for these companies to own themselves.

Amazon product categories with Toys-R-Us and Target (2005) Source: archive.org

Tabs Begone! (2008)

The tab structure was completely discontinued in favor of the left sidebar. The site embraced a blue and orange color scheme, complementing the orange from the smile in the logo.

The Kindle ebook reader launched in 2007, and Amazon used the most valuable space in all of retail -- its own homepage -- to market the product to potential buyers. In the image displayed below, Jeff Bezos celebrates the fact that Kindle is back in stock and invites customers to view the Amazon shareholder letter to understand the product roadmap. This really illustrates the relationship Bezos' attempted to cultivate with Amazon users.

Amazon homepage with Kindle ad (2008) Source: archive.org

iPods and Blackberries (2009)

Design-wise, 2009 didn't see many changes. But in a museum like ours, who doesn't like to see old favorites like iPods and Blackberry phones? These classics were still huge sellers in 2009. The iPhone came out in June 2007 and was still in its infancy. The first Android device, the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream, was launched in September 2008.

Amazon homepage with iPods and Blackberries (2009) Source: archive.org

Amazon First Office Photos

Amazon Blackberry Bold 9000 product page (2009) Source: archive.org

Colorless Redesign (2012)

With a totally updated look, Amazon dropped almost all traces of bold colors in the borders and background. Orange fonts were used prominently to show prices and bolded text. A gray background gradient floated behind the top navigation area. Responsive web design elements started making their way into the site to allow phones, tablets, and desktops to all view the same webpage cleanly. Also, the left sidebar was eliminated.

Amazon product page for Lord Of The Rings (2012) Source: archive.org

Minimalist, Responsive Design (2015)

The homepage moved to a modular design while still promoting all of Amazon's own product line.

Amazon First Office Pictures

Amazon selling itself (2016-2019)

Amazon continued to transform into a more spartan look with fewer items for sale on the homepage, but with more and more of those items being its own products and services.

In 2017, the site debuted the new products promotional banner ad at the top of the homepage. Clicking through this ad shows the customer a page full of unique and novel products the user presumably hasn't seen before.

Amazon First Office Photography

Amazon homepage in August (2019) Source: Version Museum

Amazon First Office Photographs

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Amazon First Office Image

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theblpblog · 5 years ago

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Sometimes the most exciting adventure in life is just made better with someone special traveling by your side! There is just something magical about having a Couple’s Bucket List & crossing off the many items together. However, not everyone who travels as a couple wants to travel to an all-inclusive resort or visit another theme park. Sometimes they want something a bit more active like an adventure race or a travel competition for adventure couples!

Why?

Perhaps, it is because couples who travel together tend to stay together! Or maybe it is just because traveling as a couple is a great way to test your compatibility with someone. But a couples adventure competition takes it one step further. Nothing becomes more clear than seeing how your loved one handles adversity while adventure racing around the world! But also, it is a great way for active travelers to express themselves to their partner in a fun environment.

Now we don’t recommend going to extremes like climbing Everest or forcing your loved one to race a Tuk Tuk across India! That would be insane. But the adventure tourism company, Competitours, does offer a travel competition that will satisfy any adventure couple!

But does this adventure tourism company really offer a couples adventure that is bucket list worthy?

Well, since 2009, Competitours says they have been creating a unique travel competition vacation for couples who love adventure. But all adventure tourism companies say that. So we found three couples who previously competed in this adventure race across Europe and asked if Competitours is truly the best travel competition for adventure couples!

Meet the Competitours Adventure Couples

Laura and Steve Belkin discovering what Competitours adventure they have to do next on the Train to Switzerland

Jaimie and Jerry survived their Competitours adventure by Climbing the Via Ferrata near lake como

Elizabeth & Dan Stone in the Swiss Alps during their Competitours adventure honeymoon

To determine if Competitours is truly the best travel competition for adventure couples, did some research. We wanted to know about why these couples entered, how they handled the different challenges, how it affected their relationship, and much more. So we interviewed these 3 previous adventure couple teams:

Steve and Laura from Seattle, Washington are an adventure couple who competed in 2015 and won the travel competition. They loved Competitours so much that they returned and competed again in 2019!

Jerry and Jamie from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, both love to travel as a couple and competed in the Competitours adventure race in 2015

Dan and Elizabeth from Falls Church Virginia, love adventure. Elizabeth had once competed in Competitours with her mother. But Dan was quite jealous of her adventure. In 2011, Elizabeth battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. But then after Elizabeth was recovering from her chemo treatment, she and Dan both decided to enter Competitours in 2019 and take the adventure honeymoon they both desired.

[bctt tweet=”Did you know ordinary couples can participate in travel competitions like the #AmazingRace? See why a #Competitours travel competition needs to be added to any adventure couple’s Bucket List now! @competitours #travelcompetitions ” username=”TheBLPblog”]

Why did you enter the Competitours competition as a couple?

Steve and Laura – “We were fans of the tv show The Amazing Race and stumbled across an online mention of Competitours. We actually told friends about it and found out they competed in 2013. So we jumped in for 2015! After we had done it once and won, we needed to return, which we did in 2019!”

Dan and Elizabeth – “I (Elizabeth) had been on Competitours once before with my mom, but my husband Dan had always been jealous of how incredible it sounded! So when I realized I might have the energy and availability to go on a real honeymoon, it was top on our list! We’re not into vacations are just cocktails at the beach or passive observing. Instead, we like to over schedule ourselves with museums, restaurants, and anything meaningful to where we are! So a travel competition for adventure couples was right up our alley! Plus, after we could do romantic European stuff for our honeymoon after since we were already there!”

Did you have an advantage as a couple compared to other teams?

Jerry and Jamie – “No. The great thing about Competitours is that no one really has an advantage. When you think you might have something locked in, you get beat out by the team you’d least expect to win the challenge!”

Dan and Elizabeth – “Didn’t feel like we had an advantage just because we were a couple. I think most everyone on the trip came with someone they knew intimately. So they’d know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

Steve and Laura – “Even though we’ve been married for 11 years, we didn’t think that would give us any advantage over the other teams. I think the winning team a few years back was two women who had never even met before the competition.”

During the travel competition, what did you argue about most?

Dan and Elizabeth – “I don’t think we argued much on the trip but then again we don’t ‘fight’ often! But we did argue trying to paint Lake Como, when neither of us could keep track of which water cup was clean or how much paint versus liquid to use!”

Jerry and Jamie – “We argued only about what letter to pick in the hangman competition!”

What did you learn about each other during the competition?

Steve and Laura – “The competition tends to highlight your skills and faults. For example, on a scavenger hunt, we recognized that one of us was better at creating a plan of attach and one was better at navigating and map reading. In the escape room challenge, we learned how to give each other space and solve problems but also to ask for help when we’re stuck. On other days, we learned which one of us had less anxiety with talking to strangers and who of us was better at coming up with creating content and acting in video challenges.”

Dan and Elizabeth – “I knew Dan had built his own computers before, but I was amazed at his cardboard box car design and construction skills! A lot of these challenges means seeing our partner do things they’ve never done in front of us if at all. Dan says that he thinks he knew all my strengths already like navigation, puzzle solving, and public speaking. This just confirmed it to him!”

Jerry and Jamie – “We learned that we both can travel in a carry on for 11 days, I (Jamie) cant fly a drone and Jerry cant paint very well! With fun stuff, we learned that Jerry likes to go really fast down the alpine roller coaster while I’m pretty good at herding sheep! Jerry has much better taste buds while having dinner in the dark but I am a better skier , even indoors in Germany! We also learned that we make a great team using only one hand each in the cooking competition and build a beautiful flower out of chocolate! Lastly, we can really dance the Tyrolian dance and flamenco!”

What was your favorite adventure challenge as a couple?

Dan and Elizabeth – “Dan loved everything and was very sad that a sudden wrist injury meant he couldn’t go on the via ferrata. However since he is a racing fan, he really enjoyed the unique experience the blo-karting on the beaches near Den Haag.”

Jerry and Jamie – “We did something called Kite Sailing! The intrigue with this activity was how we used the whole wide beach, it was something no one had done before, and how quickly the teams mastered the skill. It was fun, fast, and hilarious! It was right up there as one of our favorite challenges, though climbing the via ferratas is a close second. We love being outdoors and although we aren’t avid climbers by any means, the thrill of climbing and hiking this way is like no other.”

Steve and Laura – “Choosing a favorite challenge is impossible, but sheepherding in Bex, Switzerland was amazing! It is an example of one of those adventure tourism ideas you just couldn’t do outside of Competitours. Perhaps you could go to a resort and rent a jet ski or hire a plane to go sky diving. But you can’t really show up at a local farm and say, ‘We’d like to herd your sheep today, will you show us how?’ It was so much fun!”

Hot Tip: Whether you are ever competing in a Travel Competition for Adventure Couples like Competitours or heading down to your favorite Caribbean beach for some relaxation and sun, having travel insurance is always a good idea. For most trips World Nomads is a simple and easy to use company that will provide you with the coverage you need to be safe on your next trip! Click here to see their simple yet flexible plans for your next adventure!

What was your least favorite adventure challenge as a couple?

Steve and Laura – “The first time we competed the via ferrata (basically scaling a Swiss Alp) was incredibly physically demanding and super scary for one of us who is not fond of heights! It was by far the most difficult and an exciting challenge. But we were so happy to be back on flat land afterwards. However, it did inspire us to try again on a via ferrata in Andorra and another time in Italy!”

Dan and Elizabeth – “Dan was so frustrated by painting in Italy though I (Elizabeth) loved it. Conversely, he loved cooking but it stressed me out intensely and I had to ask him to do most of it. I mean how much forearm strength does it take to whisk a custard??”

Did your Competitours competition strengthen your relationship?

Jerry and Jamie – “We are on pretty common ground most of the time but to avoid potential conflict we came up with a plan on how to make a decision should we not agree on a certain challenge. Jerry’s birthday is on September 3rd while mine (Jamie) is on June 4th, so when it was an odd day, he got the final decision and when it was an even day, I got the final decision. Along with that, we couldn’t ever say ‘I told you so’ if things didn’t work out. Fortunately we didn’t have to use it often but when we did, it was a nice plan to have!

Dan and Elizabeth – “It should strengthen every relationship so long as you’re on the same page about fun versus hard core competition. Competitours is a safe environment where you’re encouraged to try new things where you will likely fail at least partially! That’s a great gift because there are no stakes and no sense of social disgrace. These are all just people going off on an adventure that won’t think any less of you, thus the pressure is off. Then with no pressure, you get to see how your partner handles new skills, you get to practice your communication. Plus you build wonderful memories together of adventure activities that you probably would have never done as a couple before.”

Steve and Laura – “The travel competition tends to highlight your skills and your faults. Thus, you can take all of these adventure challenges and translate them into areas that can strengthen a relationship outside the game.”

Was one of you more competitive than the other?

Dan and Elizabeth – “Dan and I (Elizabeth) are both competitive but we also knew that enjoying the experience was more important that going balls to the wall. It helps that we would flare up in the skills we were best at for competitiveness but we were decently well balanced in skills. That meant that one of us was usually calmer and able to reel the other one back in order to remind them to just enjoy the experience. Dan did sulk a bit when I did better in skeet shooting that he did but we got points together as a team so that helped. While I sulked when he could sculpt amazingly well yet I was trash. But again, that’s not the formation of a lifelong grudge.”

Jerry and Jamie – “Neither of us are really competitive by nature but we both wanted to win something and so we both tried hard and put forth equal effort in each of the challenges. The adventure challenges are so fun that its hard not to be competitive.”

What tips would you give other couples entering Competitours?

Dan and Elizabeth – “Talk about what you both want to get out of the experience and then prioritize that. Personally, we’d say to have fun above all. Remind each other that you came on this couples adventure to experience what life had to offer. That includes the stink of working in a sheep pasture! We also recommend that you get lots of rest, boost each other up in your preferred love languages, and have your stress mechanisms in place.”

Jerry and Jamie – “Go and have fun! If you win, it’s a great bonus. But if you don’t, you will still say it was the best trip of your life!”

Steve and Laura – “Listening is extremely important in this travel competition. You have to listen to the instructions and to your partner. For example, on an Iron Chef challenge in Italy, one of us was trying to make ravioli and it cost us valuable time for the other to convince that person we were supposed to make tortellini! Another tip is to not focus on just scoring points. Yes, you need points to win but there are many opportunities for scoring. So even if you don’t excel at one challenge, the next one might be right in your wheelhouse. Plus the less we thought about points, the more fun we had. Then led to us taking first place and winning the entire travel competition in 2015!”

[bctt tweet=”Have you ever wanted to participate in travel competition like the people on tv? Then discover you need to add a #Competitours travel competition to your Bucket List now! @competitours #travelcompetitions #AdventureCouple ” username=”TheBLPblog”]

Would you compete again as a couple or choose a different partner?

Jerry and Jamie – “We’d never NOT do it together!!”

Steve and Laura – “We actually did do Competitours a second time and we did choose each other. We’re very lucky that we enjoy spending time together, even when that time is a whirlwind competition and potentially stressful. We’ve worked hard to communicate completely with each other, which is key to both the travel competition and marriage!”

Dan and Elizabeth – Dan and Elizabeth did not to answer this question. We here at the Bucket List Project didn’t want to press the question in order to protect them since Elizabeth originally took her mom the first time she ever competed in a Competitours travel competition. We would hate to be the cause of yelling at the next family thanksgiving on who gets to go with Elizabeth during next adventure race.

So grab your partner and JUST GO!

So you have convinced your unsuspecting husband or wife to take on the best travel competition for adventure couples ever. Now What?

Well it’s quite simple and easy! Decide on what dates you want to tour Europe this Summer, Click here to Register online,and JUST GO! With races this summer, you will arrive at a Secret starting location & go on an Epic 9 Day/10Night competition across Europe! This year, Competitours has two upcoming Summer travel competitions available:

Summer 2020 Race #1: July 1 – 12

Summer 2020 Race #2: July 21 – 31

So as you can see, Competitours might be one of the best travel competitions for adventure couples. Plus it might be one of the craziest and most unique bucket list experiences any couple can have in Europe!

Have you and your partner ever wanted to be on the Amazing Race? Is entering travel competitions like a Competitours event on your Couple’s Bucket List? If so, which race do you want to sign up for this summer? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t forget to Pin this to your Favorite Bucket List Board!

Disclaimer: The Bucket List Project partnered with the adventure tourism company Competitours. With that said, all opinions in “Competitours – A Travel Competition for Adventure Couples” are our own. Also, the 3 couples interviewed gave their honest feedback and were not compensated for their opinions from Competitours or The Bucket List Project. “Competitours – A Travel Competition for Adventure Couples” also may contain affiliate links. Using the links doesn’t cost you any extra. Plus, it helps keep The Bucket List Project Blog free, fun, and community supported! We will never recommend a product we don’t genuinely believe in and trust.

Did you know ordinary couples can participate in travel competitions like the #AmazingRace? See why a #Competitours travel competition needs to be added to any adventure couple's Bucket List now! @competitours #travelcompetitions Sometimes the most exciting adventure in life is just made better with someone special traveling by your side!

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abigailtan · 5 years ago

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Singapore Red Cross; Mission Trip, Batam (10th – 11th November 2018) Written by: Abigail Tan, Singapore Red Cross Volunteer

I AM SO EMBARRASSED! Because this trip happened almost a year ago and I thought I had posted it. On the bright side, I did send my write-up.

Day 1; (GMT +8) Singapore

5.30am (GMT +8) I was dragged out of the comfort of my bed, with my messy hair and a rancid breath, I made my way to the bathroom and got ready. Short of bring bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I was dressed decently enough; my motivational quote t-shirt and a pair of worn-out jeans, I left home before the break of dawn…

The official meeting time was 7am at Harborfront Centre and a handful of volunteers were already there by the time I arrived.

The man were requested to wait by the drop-off to help carry some boxes. (15 boxes)

15 boxes worth of first aid supplies for Red Cross Indonesia, which will come to be known to us over the weekend as Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI).

Cataloguing each box and appointing people to account for a couple of boxes.

Majestic Dream; rather suggestive but was not quite the case, I hardly slept on the hour-long ride to Batam as I was battling motion sickness. Urgh. But it was bearable.

Instead, I made my first new friend; Jessica! An operating theatre nurse and so we hit off rather well, top it off with our volunteering experiences and that was a good 45 minutes worth of talk!

Some took the opportunity to get a group picture and others slept.

But the hour-long ride was quick and almost painless… The sheer number of people going into Batam on a weekend was insane. It is rather on par with the number of people going into Johor Bahru. So, we grit our teeth and power through.

Prior to leaving Singapore, we were told that when we reached immigration on the other side, we had to keep our voices down. Unfortunately, none of us took a picture of the sign, so here’s one off an article from Straits Times.

(image credit: Signs showing prohibited behaviour at the immigration checkpoint of the Batam Centre International Ferry Terminal are plastered all over the pillars. -- ST PHOTO: DANSON CHEONG ) – caption off straits times article; Shhh! Be silent at Batam immigration queue or be sent back home (published: 17th August 2014)

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/shhh-be-silent-at-batam-immigration-queue-or-be-sent-back-home

I wouldn’t say that there was pin-dropping silence but no rowdy noise, so good enough.

We cleared immigration in under an hour and each of us took charge of collecting the boxes from baggage claim. With almost no hiccups the mission trip officially began.

(GMT +7) Indonesia, Batam

Remember how when we were kids and there was always headcount during field trips to make sure all the kids are accounted for. Or some of our teachers made us buddy up so that we could look out for each other. Well, that happened automatically for us and it wasn’t just counting heads we had to make sure all the boxes brought over was accounted for too!

A bus came to pick us up and off we went to PMI!

The ride went without accident; the thing that struck similarity was the amount of greenery. Huge trees that formed a canopy created shade in this equatorial region.

A small road leads us to where PMI Batam sat, lalang grass lined the sides of the road until we hit a dirt road that branched out and that lead us to the property where this 3-story building sat. It showed age together with improvements and refurbishments; an extension of the former building was obviously new and rather posh for what Batam has to offer.

The bus came to a halt and all 20 of us on the bus took a minute to soak in; PMI staff lined the entrance of the building in anticipation of welcoming us. Ladies first and then the guys were right behind us and Uncle Tony was the very last as discussed, no one is supposed to be behind him.

The storage unit by the side of the bus opened and revealed 15 cartons that were together with some personal belonging and without hesitation, all of us formed a line and moved the cartons from the bus to the inside of the building. Our Malay speaking friends instinctively became unofficial translators.

15 cartons moved in seamlessly and as we settled into our new environment an elderly lady walked out, she is the lady that will come to be known to us as ibu (Malay greeting for mother). She warmly welcomed all of us and lead us to the 2nd story where a room was prepared for us to rest and fill up on food and drinks. There was a spread of kuahs (starchy and sweet delicacy) and what seemed to be a pastry with potato in it.

We walked in and dropped our bags, and our hands went straight to our necks for a good stretch. PMI staff came into the room and started visual documentation of our movements; in other words, took our photographs.

We soon settled in comfortably and got refreshments.

Ibu came in shortly and there was an exchange of kind words between PMI and ourselves.

We then went on a tour of the place.

3 floors worth of square-space for utilisation. The first floor where the entrance opens to a foyer has a high ceiling and huge windows that allowed plenty of sunlight to brighten the place. A shelf by the entrance held several potted plants and across it a decent reception area.

Right by the foyer sits a plaque on the wall that states the opening date of the building by the President.

A set of glass doors sits on the far right and that leads to the blood donation area where 2 resident doctors are. And they briefly explained the process, a donor would walk in and fill in a form indicating personal particulars and their last date of donation, medications taken or any illness within the last few days. Next, they’ll be led to a doctor who would screen through the form and a couple of drops of blood from a prick of the finger to test for blood count. Then a basic health screening. Blood pressure and what not. If all is well, a set of recliners awaits past another door where the donor will lie there for about 30 minutes while a pint of blood is drawn out.

I tried to donate, but I was on allergy meds a couple of days prior so that disqualified me.

It’s interesting; the way they collect blood. The strikingly obvious difference from Singapore would be the governing body that deals with blood collection.

2nd floor was where the offices are and where the meeting room that held all of us were. At the end of the long corridor was a hall that could easily accommodate 300 people comfortably standing with sufficient personal space and maybe 500 to 600 people but packed like sardines.

By the other end of the corridor stood a room; the call centre.

Where equipment like these would be found on the Titanic. Although out-dated, but I admire that they’re still out there fighting the good fight with what they have. And that’s admirable.

It was incredible; I apologise if I sound like I’m dishing out on them. I’m not. I feel that they’re worth saluting because even if equipment like that and they’re still out there helping people.

PMI I salute you.

Truly an eye-opener for all of us; or at least I can speak for myself.

Prior to lunch we got down on our hands and knees and worked up an appetite. Not exercising per se but the output alone was enough to get our stomachs growling.

This is where the 15 boxes come into play. Almost like clock-work, we settled into a factory line up; passing down each kit and each pair or trio would place the items needed. Face masks, micropore tape, shear scissors, gauze, crepe bandage, triangular bandage and tweezers. Came up into a rather decent first aid kit. 15 boxes worth of supplies was made into 200 proper first aid kits.

LUNCH! I am not even going to deny, yes, we were all looking forward to food after the incredibly productive afternoon.

Okay, I am going to need someone to level with me… Because whilst eating I had a realisation that it’s probably not chicken that I was eating… …

So… I dived in thinking it was some form of ayam penyet and when I picked up the supposed chicken with my hands I realised that the wings are smaller than usual and the ribs are surprisingly small too. Which lead me to the conclusion that it wasn’t a chicken to begin with.

I eat quail eggs, but to think that I chomp on a bird… … I am going to need more time to rest this unsettling feeling.

That aside, lunch was good.

Lunch was followed by nearly an hours worth of some more chatter among ourselves. A couple of us represented Singapore Red Cross and discussed the following days’ events with PMI.

So by this point, we knew that there was going to be an event the next day with some of the PMI youths; think of is as Secondary School’s Red Cross Cadets. An event was to be held with some 2200 students and we are to assist with some of their programs. 20 of us were split into 2; basic first aid training and outdoor games! We discussed among ourselves and delegated jobs. Among us were first aiders of all ages and varied experiences to offer; some were already first aid trainers, some of us are in the medical field. Naturally, the trainers formed a group and they needed more people, I eagerly raised my hand; there’s something about teaching that I enjoy, something about passing on knowledge and seeing their eyes light up when learning becomes fun. 10 of us formed the teaching team and the rest helped at the games booth.

As our discussion came to an end, something was brewing down the corridor within the walls of the hall.

PMI staff and some; if I had to venture a guess; 60 PMI youths were seated on the floor facing us as we walked in. You know how when it’s your birthday and you have to stand with the cake facing the party as they sing happy birthday to you and you have completely no idea where to place your hands. That was me. It was a massive wave of mixed emotions; overwhelming and essentially trying to grasp their enthusiasm about our arrival. I was in complete awe. The kids, they greeted each and every one of us. I mean it in every sense of the word. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. It was the LONGEST greeting, but also the most heartfelt.

We spent the next 40 minutes with our youth volunteers thinking of ways to engage tomorrow’s students. They were eager to help us, more than I can speak for ourselves. Joint discussions came to an end and we had to say goodbye to everyone at PMI. It was time to check into the hotel.

Time to freshen up for a pow wow session and DINNER! Some shopping at the mega supermarket then back to the hotel for another SouthWest Discussion. Settled some stuff, delegated work and just like that the day ended; but not before a hot water bath… urghhhhhhhh…

Day 2; (GMT+7) Batam, Indonesia

Our day started at the break of dawn; 6am. Freshened up; changed, packed and down we went for breakfast and an early checkout. We literally stayed the night. Time was of the essence and by 7.15am we were already on the bus towards school grounds!

It was probably almost 8am by the time we arrived at the school. Personal and important belongings were brought along with us. 2 cartons of first aid kits were brought down together with teaching aid.

Not so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning; after yesterday’s culture shock and taking the time to let everything around us settle in, today is a lot better. (Or so I thought) We stood around rather aimlessly until we saw familiar PMI faces! And then we were led to the field and sat by the bleachers.

So some 500 students were already standing on the field when we got there; being PMI they had first aiders on stand-by and also an ambulance.

There weren’t any translators so what happened next is essentially what I saw coupled with what I felt. So all of us were seated there, the parade commander comes out and shouts out commands; attention and at ease. On our far right of the field were 7 students standing side by side, we were to their left. And they each shouted what seemed to be the 7 fundamental principles of Red Cross. The parade commander walked back, faced the students, shouted a command and soon all of them were saluting us. SALUTING. US. US! Singapore Red Cross. [I am still very much in awe as I am typing this.] It’s a level of gratitude and respect that I’ve never experienced, and I speak for myself.

Then it was the presentation of a first aid kit and a Singapore Red Cross Bear from SRC to PMI and PMI presented us with a plaque.

LET THE EVENTS BEGIN!

The teaching team gathered and grabbed our teaching aid which included 2 miniature little Anne, 2 chocking demo sets, and triangular bandages. We were then led to the upstairs classrooms where tables and chairs were pushed aside to make more floor space.

The team split into 2 so that we can accommodate 2 groups of 30 students. Despite having a discussion yesterday about ‘lesson plans’ we had to make do with what we have. What were we teaching first? Which team was going to take which teaching aids? You’d think that since there’s 2 of each; at least for miniature little Anne and the chocking demo sets we could split. But my team took both Annes and allowed the kids to have their hand on the CPR dummy and try it for themselves. While the other team started with chocking.

We had the kids sit by 3 sides of the classroom and we took ‘centre stage’. If I hadn’t said it already, I will; I enjoy teaching. We had to break the ice somehow, there’s no manual on “how to start a lesson” especially since there was no concrete plan on how we were going to go about doing this. I did the first thing at the top of my mind and that was to jump right into the centre and wave my hands whilst saying “hello!!!”. And an equally enthusiastic response was returned.

I am incredibly grateful for the PMI staff we had with us and the youth volunteer who helped us with translation. Despite English being taught in school, but because it isn’t practised very much at home there is still some form of language barrier. The kids were very patient with me and the translators, which made teaching went on without any major hiccups. Each step was taught with great patience ensuring that the kids understood everything and that no one got left behind. We taught what was essential; under what circumstances would CPR be required, how it was done, the positioning of the hands, knees placed apart for stability, locating the landmark and the placing of the heel of the palm, how the elbows had to remain straight and teaching them that we weight needed to allow compression to happen was coming from your own body instead of exerting strength from your arms.

At first, I thought it would be fun to have the kids raise their hands to try out the dummy, first to raise their hands would come up. Then I quickly realised that it was not feasible. So after a few quick hands, I decided to go good-old-one-by-one in sequence, that also allowed me to keep track of who has tried CPR on the dummy.

I had a few interesting questions that I can recall off the top of my head;

1. Miss, why must the elbow be straight?

a. Less force is exerted if the elbow is bent

2. Miss, if the unconscious person has a pulse do I still do CPR?

a. Pulse = heartbeat, which means the person is alive and so CPR is not necessary

We taught them how to secure various fractures; cervical fracture and a wrist/forearm fracture. Simple fracture. Nothing complicated.

Teaching them was an amazing experience; answering their queries and quenching their thirst for knowledge was amazing beyond words can tell.

The time soon came for us to say goodbye, but not before handing out little presents to them. One by one they came to us and greeted us in the most respected way possible; in Indonesia or rather the Muslim community, young ones greet their elders by holding their hands and placing it to their faces and then their own hands to their chest. This form of greeting is known as ‘salam’.

Just before we stepped out Ibu invited us to lunch. We left school and the bus took us to a seafood restaurant. It wasn’t posh, it wasn’t anywhere ‘upscale’, a dirt road led us in-between 2 rows of shops. You’d think that somewhere like this was an ordinary seafood place, but when we walked in, it was almost like a political rally, the Mayor of Batam was finishing his lunch, people were surrounding him and pictures were taken. There was an exchange of formalities between the Mayor and Ibu and we each went on our way. A private room with 4 tables was prepared for us.

Cereal prawn, fried fish, vegetables, chili crab, rice were served to us. Not forgetting fresh coconut and its refreshing water and flesh. It was an amazing lunch. We thanked Ibu for the invite and salam as we made our way out. It was only right after the way we were treated throughout our stay.

Last minute shopping before we made our way back to Singapore where I believe most of us knocked out during the hour-long boat ride.

I’ve been volunteering with Red Cross for over a year now and I have met several beneficiaries; I’m a born and raised Singaporean, we may not be rich, but we get by, I may have seen our low-income families but I’ll never understand their difficulties as I am lucky enough to have not walked in their shoes. I was fortunate enough to have lived abroad for almost a year and I’ve come to appreciate what Singapore has to offer; clean water, convenient public transport, good healthcare coverage, good public education system and a generally safe place to call home. I’m grateful for a job that pays me enough to travel from time to time and travelling solo has opened my eyes to other parts of the world. I’m not here to gloat or brag about my life; after the mission trip I’ve come to really understand the term “the ones with the least to give have the most to offer”. This trip opened my eyes to below poverty line and despite that, help is bountiful. This trip has given me more than I could ask for; kindness, respect and a lifetime of learning ahead of me.

#first aider abi

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dante2568 · 5 years ago

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We’ve been waiting a while… Reportedly held up by legal regulatory issues, but the Tacx Neo Bike Smart is now in the wild! These are my initial thoughts after a week

Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On

As we move into the 2019 trainer season Tacx has finally been able to ship their halo product. The Tacx NEO Bike Smart. Although you’d have thought in 2 years it has taken to ship they would have managed to get the name right! When the design study (non-functional) was first revealed at Eurobike in 2017 we had the Tacx Neo Smart Bike.

In 2018 Tacx had a soft launch at Eurobike, after which I popped over to the factory to have a play on the pre-production model – still called the NEO Smart Bike. Having a go on the prototype was a bit of a mindset change for me about the concept of smart bikes. In 2017-2018 there was a lot a talk about how we “needed” smart bikes. I really didn’t really see it. But the riding the Tacx Neo Bike for the first time convinced me that a smart bike could be a good idea

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A sentiment which was confirmed with the eye wateringly expensive ($14K) Elite Furoipista. I’m more than happy to accept when I make the wrong call!

Then for Tacx at least, the clock seemed to stop, with it taking until 2019 for the Tacx smart bike to be sat on shelves (well, stacked on the floor is more accurate) and currently winging it’s way to people who had placed orders over a year ago! Whilst the trainer has moved forwards, from a naming perspective things have come out slightly backwards – with the smart bike now called the Tacx Neo Bike Smart

Talking with Tacx, I think I can see why the name change as occurred, and why it may be related to the delay. A delay that seemed absolutely bonkers as the prototype was pretty much finished!!

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As I’m sure you recall, in 2019 Garmin purchased Tacx – with only a minimal brand change to “Tacx a Garmin Company”. As an apparent indication that Tacx would remain as Tacx, rather than being consumed in it’s entirety and then the trainers sold under the Garmin banner, as “Big G” has done in the past

The acquisition, from a red-tape perspective, is apparently where the delay came in. Tacx, by comparison to Garmin, had a much smaller number of distribution channels. Garmin naturally wanted to increase the availability, and thus sales, of their newly acquired smart trainers and insisted on the Tacx and by extension, the smart bike was pushed through all available Garmin distribution channels. The problem here being that Tacx had never before supplied these channels and in requesting regulatory approval for their new smart bike – ran into a snag. It’s classification.

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To cut a regulatory, and red tape story short, Tacx basically had to prove that the Tacx Neo Smart Bike was not actually a spin bike. Sounds strange, but due to the lack user-controlled brake on a spin bike, the Neo Smart Bike, (which the regulators considered a spin bike) couldn’t be sold on a trainer license. So Tacx spent the best part of a year fighting to get approval for the Tacx NEOBike smart to be sold, as is, and the recognition it is not in fact a spin bike. Thus meaning it didn’t have to comply with spin bike regulations.

My belief is that somewhere along that road, a name came about to ease some of those issues. Just so that we are all clear, for the rest of this post, I’m going to refer to the artist formally known as the Tacx Neo Smart Bike, as the Tacx NEO Bike. ‘kay?

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Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On – Specification

Normally I like to delve into the product design side of things first, as that is more my bag. But given the tail of changes we’ve just been talking about, let’s get the spec straight, so we all know what the Tacx NEO bike is packing.

Communication:

Bluetooth, ANT+™, ANT+™ FE-C,

Bluetooth Smart Trainer Protocol

Both ANT and BLE can be used simultaneously

Max Slope Simulation:

25%

Built-in sensors:

Power,

Speed/Cadence,

Advanced pedal analytics,

Left/Right balance

Max Wattage:

2200w @40kph

Max Torque:

88Nm

Max brake force

260Nm

Power Accuracy:

+/- 1%#

Flywheel:

125kg

Max User Weight:

125kg

Weight:

50kg

Other Bits:

Brake levers

Button shifts – sealed

“Shimano style” shifting currently

Custom gearing ratios

Road Feel, Descent Sim

Front and “cassette” LED power indicator lights

2x USB charging ports – WHICH YOU CAN SELF POWER!!!

Price: £2500

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Anyone recognise those vital statistics? You should do – ok maybe it’s more that I should recognise them as they are basically the stats from the Tacx NEO 2T. Previously it was the Tacx NEO Bike which was derived from the Tacx NEO, but the inverse happened here. For the final releases, it was the NEO BIKE which gave rise to the NEO 2T

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Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On – Setup

Let’s be clear, before my next comment. The Tacx box did its job and protected the Tacx NEO Bike whilst in transit. You can see there are several areas where the courier has given the packaging somewhat less than special attention.

Now I reiterate that the box and packaging DID protect the Tacx NEO Bike, but I ended up with a quite a bit of broken and fractured polystyrene. Note how the packaging is on it’s side. Due to the weight of things, this is how the box needs to be opened

Tacx have managed to get the box to match the dimensions of a bike box, which does help with moving the unit around when it arrives. That, however, doesn’t reduce the weight of the packaging. Be warned if you are going to be moving this box around. Get two people involved.

On which note, I’m not really one for unboxing videos. I often find the packaging some of the least interesting parts of doing a review. HOWEVER, given the size of the box, and well, events with this particular unboxing. I thought it would be worth while sharing

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I need to make this next point, I need to be crystal clear. My injury was an accident, and certainly not due to the Tacx boxing or anything such as that. I was picking the bike up, from flat, as you should. Slipped slightly when moving and lost grip on the bike. Sometimes an accident is just that!

Update: Of the initial x-rays of my big toe – two showed no fractures, however one did have a line, which we considered to be an artefact, so we’ve put the injury down to bad bruise. HOWEVER, I’ve been contacted by the hospital again about the artefact x-ray and will be having repeat films this week.

That might all seem a little OTT after all, lots of people break toes. HOWEVER, the great toe is actually an important fracture and needs more care than just neighbour strapping – which would be the treatment if it was another toe, and frankly, I’d have just done with my doctors kit. However, I’m not allowed a home x-ray kit, something to do with nuclear material, a lack of license and risk to public safety – seems a bit unfair to me, so back to the hospital I’ll be going!!

Just in case, I would ensure that you have a vacuum handy and some long thin allen keys. Whilst the polystyrene over the house really isn’t an issue, having polystyrene within the Tacx NEO Bike isn’t a good thing. You make sure you are able to give it a very thorough clean. THEN give it a short spin <1min, as that will move and blow out more of the white balls that may have dropped inside the shell.

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Ok the tribulations of dropping a 42kg of an unassembled trainer on your foot notwithstanding, here is what you get in the box:

We’ve got the core of the Tacx Neo Bike. Acutely angled front legs, shallow back legs with wheels. Front fans. Saddle. Handle bars and shifters. Plus two Tacx boxes.

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Box number 1 has all the of gubbins that you need to bolt the Tacx Neo Bike together. Literally, there are four large bolts in the box. We’ve got the two, manuals, both manuals contain different languages, which makes sense. What seems a little odd, is that both have an English language section at the front! The tablet holder if you don’t for some reason want the fans. All the needed tools. Power pack. Quick setup if the manual looks like too much og a read. Crank length adapters, and finally the Tacx TDA trial.

OK, Engineering geek out. The Tacx smart bike comes with two options for the set up when it comes to bar and stem height, reach, and saddle position. You can either use the installed Hex headed bolts if you confident of your position, and don’t expect anyone to use the smart bike other than you. The other option is the adjustable handles. To be honest, given the benefits associated with being able to make on the fly micro adjustments to get the perfect fit, I’d suggest swapping these hands in right away

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Box Number 2 is more of a goodies box. You’ve a Tacx towel, bottle cage, bike sweat band, and Tacx NEO bike branded bottle. Nice little add on for a £2500 bike. Although, I’m a little surprised not to see included pedals as you get with the Wahoo KICKR Bike. The cynic in me does wonder how long the goodie box will last, as Tacx, under Garmin, is divesting from making the broad range of products that they used to, and will concentrate on trainers and bottles. So no more bottle cages, jockey wheels and tools

Inclusion of the sweat protector is great. Until you realise that it robs you of one of the best parts of the Tacx smart bike. The design means that there isn’t a typic cross bar. Now on the face of it, who cares…

Now think back to the last insane 60-90 min race you did on Zwift. Last time I did an event like that, I lifted my leg over the crossbar and had some of the worlds worst cramp. Perhaps this is a personal problem which the physio needs to look at, but getting off a bike IRL post-race is much easier than dismounting your same bike when on a trainer.

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By having the crossbar too low on the Tacx NEO getting on and off is much easier. It’s very easy to dismiss this as a small design that doesn’t really matter much. But if you think beyond the normal fit cyclists, having the smart bike easier to get on and off means that the market opens up to other people in the household, who might have never even considered jumping on a bike. My mother is in her late 60’s. The chance of getting her to sit on any bike on the trainer is an emphatic zero. After showing how easy it is to get onto the NEO smart bike, I think she’s actually considering giving it a go. If nothing else, that’s a huge change from “Get lost!! I’ve not been on a bike in years!”

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Which is probably an effective time to shift over to looking putting the bike together. In some ways, I think the Tacx instructions miss a vital step – putting the front legs on.

These are the most difficult part of the construction. Not terribly so, but once they are on, everything else is plan sailing.

Personally, I found having the bike upside down the easiest way to do this. But I would strongly suggest it is done on a trainer mat. No so much because you’ll damage the NEO bike, but that the metal runners onto which you’ll be putting the seat and the handlebars are more likely to scratch the floor

You can then steady the bike and install the back legs. Which are much wider and have the small wheels on the back

Just before you flip the trainer over, it is worth while making sure that the front wheels are loosened slightly so you can easily adjust them if needed. You DONT want to have to flip this thing up again!

With the bike standing on its own, you can slide the saddle rail (saddle comes installed) on the the bike rail. At the rear of the rail is a metal puck which when tightened from underneath presses up on the saddle rail to keep it in place

Under the bike rail section, you can see the screw which you’ll turn in order release the saddle rail

If you are confident in your bike fit measurements, or don’t want to have anyone else using the bike, you can leave the bolts in. If however there will be someone else using the bike you can swap out to the screw handles for easier adjustments.

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Whilst the Tacx Neo Smart Bike looks smoother and I’ve suggest better without the handles in place. Even if you are confident with your bike fit I’d still run them for a month or so, as you may find that there are aspects you could improve on. When once happy, swap back to the simple bolts.

An identical setup is used for the front handlebar rails, and their height.

The finishing kit is Fizik bar tap, and Sella Royal saddle which is a nice touch

I think the Sella Royal Saddle is okay. Certainly for rides of an hour, it’s adequate, but personally, I’ve swapped back to my Specialized Body Form saddle. As I’ve mentioned in the past you really shouldn’t listen to other peoples opinions on saddles, as all our butts are wildly different

The handlebars come without the fans or the on board computer plugged in. You need to put the back plate on first, before the screen is plugged in.

Now that might seem a little odd. But Tacx also include a tablet mound which doesn’t include the fans. Now the fans are the loudest piece of the whole Tacx NEO bike, but even so, I’d be very surprised if many people didn’t install them

The fans are attached with four screws leaving the head unit and the fan cable ports exposed

The fans plug in with 35mm cables and as with the whole of the Tacx Neo bike setup is exceptionally simple

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The fans themselves can be adjusted closer and further away from you on their arms. The slider on the back also allows for pitch to be adjusted

Personally I’ve found that I’ve left the fans slightly unscrewed so that I can move then around when riding. Whilst I like the fans, both when connected the heart rate or the internal speed sensor. They are really nice to have directed to the face, BUT I feel I’d be straining the word to breaking point to describe them as barely adequate for cooling purposes.

I wouldn’t describe them as noisy. Not be a long stretch, but I may have been more accepting of their airflow if they were silent to match the bike. As it is some people will probably want an additional fan too

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The next piece of cockpit setup is attaching the rubber strap for the tablet holder. I was really surprised to see such a flimsy bit of rubber as the tablet hold on a £2500 smart bike

However perceptions can be misleading, and the strap seems to work very well. It is easy to get the tablet into and out of the strap, and as the bike has so little movement to is, there is no risk of loosing it

What I do find bizarre and rather an oversight is that the channel for the tablet isn’t wide enough to accommodate the tablet and a relatively thin case. The channel is only 10mm wide.

Although I don’t tend to ride with a tablet, whilst my iPhone X in the standard Apple case does fit. It is rather snug

The whole of the cockpit here has several little “huh?” parts to it. Yes I appreciate that there is slack needed in the cables to allow for the handlebars to move forwards and back. Would it not have been possible to have this wiring internal. Or a hooked channel into which is could be tidied up? Similarly a back plate to hide the wires from the fans when installed. This might sound like needless nit picking, but let’s not forget this is a £2500 device, and is marketed to be one of the most complete cycle training devices available.

Which brings me to another nit whilst we are doing the install. The handles. WHY ON EARTH ship with handles that are not able to clear the bike frame?? I’m sure there is going to be a sensible answer about lever strength and appropriate tightness of the seat height adjustor. But I’d have much preferred just to have to turn with a little more force.

I’m going to reiterate, that I prefer and like the handles. But this is again £2500 it should look slick. The handles have a spring within them, so you can turn them independly of the bolt in order to have them align. In order to have everything aligned, it means that the bottom handle has to point up. Maybe it’s my OCD playing here, but this shouldn’t be something I’d discussing!

The final part of the cockpit is adding the rubber insert into the tray. Now here is the thinking which is missing on other parts of the cockpit. Getting gels, sweat and stuff all over the bike is quite normal in a race. So having an insert you can pull out and easily clean. Very sensible move

The final bit of the setup is the pedals. Stages and Wahoo have opted for “hammerhead” designs on their cranks. Now those bikes have an edge in utility, allowing you to opt for five different crank lengths

With the Tacx NEO Bike we have two inserts which go into the normal crank arm giving three different crank lengths 170, 172.5 and 175

Tacx understands that people don’t read instructions, so the crucial parts about installing the pedal inserts are also written on tags, attached to BOTH sides of the crank

Whilst I prefer the Tacx approach visually, I would have liked to have seen a bigger range here.

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For the install the pedal insert goes in the inside of the crank – don’t forget to oil this part first – I don’t mean the thread, I mean the outer part. Just after doing the photos, I had a mild struggle removing the insert in order to flip it over

There a washing, which goes on the outside between the pedal and the crank

Then stick the crank on as normal. Now I normally use SpeedPlay anyway, but given that the GF is also interesting in having a go, they have the added advantage of selling a simple slide-on cover. I can see these potentially being quite useful for smart bike household

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Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On – Design

Having set up the Tacx Neo Bike, let’s take a look at some of the features. Starting off with the cockpit, we have an excellent little display. I think it deserves to be highlighted than the display can be powered, and illuminated by the rider, without plugging into the mains, using the same tech as the Tacx NEO

The display basically shows everything you need when riding: Heart rate, speed, 3s power, cadence, gradient and gearing when you are riding just on the bike in ERG mode

Until you connect the bike to any form of an external app – whether BLE or ANT – you get a reduced display, as the external app then takes the data. I understand why this is, in order to prevent the “My Garmin is displaying different speed to Zwift” issues. So then all the data from the Tacx NEO bike is displayed on the app.

There is still a benefit to running an additional cycling computer however so then you can get access to the Cycling Dynamics which Tacx enabled with the NEO 2T

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If you look UNDER the screen you’ll see one of my favourite parts of the Tacx NEO Bike. TWO USB ports. OK great, but why are you getting so wound up about two USB ports? You can charge your phone and tablet… so ??

Firstly both ports will give 2.4 Amps of charge, meaning that your tablet will actually charge. But more importantly that you can charge whilst riding you bike and NOT plugged into the mains!! Oh yes!! Now that’s what I call a great features. Sure I might not really be having a great ecological benefit as I spin the NEO Bike, certainly not enough to off set running Zwift on a flat screen TV. But still, it’s something, and great to see my watts actually going somewhere!

Moving down from the screen to the handlebars and shifters, the electronic shifters allow you to control both the gearing, and ALSO act as brakes.

Currently braking isn’t supported in Zwift, but it will be interesting to see if it, or other apps develop a protocol which is widely used. It’s certainly good that the Tacx Neo Bike feels like it has an element of future proofing built in. As these are “fly by wire” I’ll do wonder if the brakes will be open to remapping?

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On the inside of the shifters are two blue buttons which control the incline/resistance. Again remapping here for when in Zwift, would be very cool. I mention remapping, as whilst it is not available in the Tacx App yet, with a future firmware update you will be able to reconfigure the shifters to mimic SRAM and Campag. Current setup out of the box is Shimano style

Staying with the shifters for the moment, I’m not actually the worlds biggest fan of the Tacx shifters. I have found myself missing the down shift button several times. Whether this is a problem with me, or the sensitivity of the buttons, I haven’t had enough saddle time yet to find out. But by comparison the Wahoo KICKR Bike shifters will feel immediately familiar to most cyclists, which potentially going to be a major decision driver for many

As there is no cassette or front gear setup now. Just an enclosed casing mimicking a classic bike cover guarding

Along with the removal of the cassette, the classic bike chain has also been jettisoned, instead replaced by an enclosed belt drive. The Tacx NEO has always been the quietest direct drive unit on the market, to the degree that actually the bike drive chain was a greater source of noise, and hence with their smart bike Tacx have swapped to a drive belt. The belt will also reduce the need to service the unit, as a standard chain needs maintenance after 5000km or approx 200 hours. Tacx is estimating that the Tacx NEO Smart Bike will need the drive train servicing every 50,000km or 2000 hours… although giving the size of the unit, what that will mean I don’t know. This is going to be a universal issue in the future. What is needed when it comes to smart bike servicing and how and who will do it?

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As with all previous generations of Tacx Neo, the Tacx Smart Bike has a from LED which shines out on the floor giving a visual idea of your power. Previously I’d always considered it a nicety, but never really bothered about it

Whilst Tacx has increased the side of the light output due to the lens changes, it is nice. But still not going to get in a tizzy over it. HOWEVERTacx have now illuminated the rest of the drive train too and it looks sooooo cool. Yes, I admit, as the rider, I never see it, but if you see someone else riding a Tacx NEO bike, and they drop hammer, turning the LED, the rear of the unit red, it looks really cool. As esports are now being championed by the UCI with Zwift leading that charge, I think this external visual flare is going to play very well for Tacx when it comes to live streams etc

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Staying at the rear, where you would normally find the gear casette, there is nothing. Tacx has intentionally simulated the feeling of gear changes coming through the drive train with a slight… I don’t have the words.. a slight change in resistance as you press the shift buttons. You know it has changed, there is no doubt, and the change is as swift as I’ve seen on my Di2 setup. When riding the KICKR bike the changes there are… sharper, as in the mechanically simulated feedback. This is not to say either is better, just that they differ slightly.

When you do change the gear, the screen highlights the changes moving down the cogs, whilst also telling you the gear and having an arrow telling you which way you are going.

I’m set up running an 11 speed, 28 – 11 cassette set up to mimic my Di2 – those choices are made within the Tacx App But if you look closely on the screen, there is an unused cog at the bottom. That’s because the NEO bike is able to run a 12 cassette sim on the rear. After all the hardware doesn’t have the change on the bike for that!

When you do drop to either the bottom or top of your gear range, and try to change further up or down. The bike gives a brief rumble of vibration to say you’ve run out of gears. Feeling very much like the Tacx Road Feel Simulation – which is obviously active within the bike as well. Similarly, the existing power curve on the NEO 2T of 20% slope and max of 2200 watts will also carry over unchained.

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Tacx did originally have a smooth change, but swapped the system we have here, as they found that simply having imperceptible changes in gearing didn’t sit right with test riders. Although I’ll be honest I would have like to have seen what that felt like.

Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On – First Rides and Conclusions

What with the “Great Toe Incident”, I have been able to ride the Tacx NEO bike, but at the moment I’m keeping at relatively gentle wattage. As a result, I’m doing this hands-on and will update later with a sound test, and power meter testing. In both of those, I try (and occasionally succeed) in breaking 800watts. I’ve certainly not going to risk doing that, not at least until my repeat Xray. So here is a collection of my first thoughts riding the Tacx NEO Bike Smart

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Even with the wheels in place, moving the thing, well at least turning it 180 in order to photograph the other side is a challenge! But in moving the bike around you get a feeling of exactly how solid the construction is.

Previously we’ve talked about the stability of trainers in terms of whether they move, or how you feel standing out of the saddle. Due to the weight of the Tacx NEO bike it is stable unlike anything else I’ve ridden. Which caused me to pause. How can I SHOW the stability of something doesn’t move?? Then I had an idea… I’ll let the video do the rest for me:

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What about the ride on something that stiff? I think it will benefit all rides to ensure there fit is absolutely perfect, as we’ve lost the small amount of flex we had with the NEO trainers. But in terms of spinning around on Zwift etc, if you like how smoothly everything is simulated with the Tacx NEO 2T you are going to love the Tacx NEO bike. As that’s because they are essentially the same core units, but that the Tacx Smart Bike has a lot more bike shaped plastic around it.

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We’ve still got the road feel and descent control. Frankly, if you were in the market for a Tacx NEO 2 and felt that some of the reviews suggested it was more of a mild update than anything significant, if you have got the pockets to afford one, I’d certainly look a the NEO Bike. Especially if noise is an issue where you Zwift

If you ever thought the Tacx NEO was quiet… this thing is something else. Genuinely the Tacx Neo Bike is whisper-quiet, and that ISN’T hyperbole! I’m looking forward to winter when I’ll be able to cycle with the window open, and the fan off and be certain that I won’t disturb my housemate!

That’s all I can say on the Tacx NEO Smart bike from a week of riding, but suffice to say this appears to be a very good machine, but we’ll have to wait for a power meter test before I give my final verdict. But for now, I see no reason this shouldn’t be considered a great piece of kit!

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Tacx NEO Bike Smart Hands-On – Worth the Wait? We've been waiting a while... Reportedly held up by legal regulatory issues, but the Tacx Neo Bike Smart is now in the wild!

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iyelp · 7 years ago

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How’d you get so fat?

A little while ago I went to visit my aunt and uncle that I hadn’t seen in a few months. Before I even had a chance to sit down my uncle asks me, “How’d you get so fat?”

I immediately had flashbacks to 10+ years ago when my (Chinese) neighbor came over and asked me the same thing. “Yeah, my grandson isn’t fat like you,” she added.

The funny thing is: my weight has stayed within a 5-pound range for the past 12 months…I know because I have a wifi scale, and there’s an app for that. Additionally, I had been going to the gym, playing volleyball, or biking >=3x weekly for the past several months. (On the other hand, I’m not sure how much that offsets stuffing my face with bacon or Ferrero Rocher a few times a week…)

If I weren’t as confident or secure in my masculine identity I might have shown my uncle a graph of my weight over the past few months and asked him if there’s something wrong with his eyesight…but instead I just said, “No, my weight’s been the same, I haven’t changed.”

I was actually pretty impressed with my own (lack of) response: my face didn’t get warm, my heart rate didn’t go up…I was genuinely confused why he thought I gained weight.

The whole experience felt like a chapter out of the Joy Luck Club, essentially a book of stories of how Chinese immigrant parents shame their second-generation US-born children because that’s the only way they knew how to do things. Tears and hilarity ensue. (Disclaimer: I only saw the movie.)

It was also a good reminder of how much I’ve grown in being comfortable in my own skin, and in particular, while working out at the gym. Even though I haven’t grown very much in most measurable areas (benchpress, pull-ups, bicep circumference, number of visible abs), this last exchange with my uncle made me realize that I grew where it mattered: my own sense of self-worth. Who cares if he thought I was fat? And more importantly, who cares if I did get fat? Why should I let other people’s opinion get in the way of how I feel about myself?

Since I didn’t really work out or play any sports in school, I’ve always felt somewhat self-conscious about my body growing up. I took a resistance training class in college with a friend, but didn’t really learn anything. After college I signed up for a gym membership and even went through a few personal trainers, but never stuck with anything long enough to make an impact. Every time January would roll around, though, I’d resolve anew that this is the year that I work out hard and get a beach body. And like clockwork, I’d return to old patterns of behavior by February.

From all appearances, it didn’t look like anything was changing. But in retrospect, I can recognize when growth happened…most often when I met people along the way. One of those people was my coworker Rob, who I met several years ago. Originally from the East Coast, Rob was tall with an athletic build, quick-witted, confident, and outgoing. We hit it off, and he asked me if I wanted to work out with him at the gym.

I was excited to (I had always wanted a work out buddy but was too lazy to do anything about it) and immediately said yes, but I felt super insecure about how this was going to go down. Which, in retrospect, seems silly to even wonder about. Yes, Rob lifted more weight than I did (in most cases, a lot more weight), but he was patient, encouraging, and honestly, the best trainer I had ever had. If I had it my way I would work out with Rob a lot more often, but our schedules are too different to get together more than once every couple months.

Fast forward to this year, which theoretically would have been my best shot at getting six pack abs by summer, no thanks to my friend Jon who insists on working out at 5:30. A.M. IN THE MORNING. If that sounds insane, it’s because IT IS. In a moment of weakness I had promised Jon over New Year’s that I’d work out with him for a month at 5:30 am, and now it has extended to 6 months. Fortunately (or unfortunately for my abs), the most we’ve worked out is 3x/week…but it’s still quite an accomplishment given my track record.

Half a year in, it’s gotten slightly easier to get up before sunrise and start the day with a workout. It’s also reinforced the fact that people are creatures of habit (myself included). The same people are there most days I go: the older Asian lady with the lifting gloves, the super-buff Latino guy with the tattoos, the super-buff Latino guy with the Beats earphones, the personal trainers with their clients, and the stereotypes go on.

One morning I decided to accost the super-buff Latino guy with the Beats earphones since I saw him wearing a volleyball shirt (I always try to get to know more people who play volleyball). I’m not sure why I was surprised that Sergio was friendly and easy to talk to…maybe it’s related to the insecurity I felt when I initially worked out with Rob. After meeting Sergio, I’d always say hi and make small talk whenever I saw him at the gym. He even asked me to spot him on benchpress a few times, which also reminded me of working out with Rob, since both of them lifted a lot more weight than me.

If it’s one thing I have learned from Rob, Sergio, Jon, and the others I’ve met along the way, it’s this: how many pounds you can lift doesn’t matter. How much weight you gain (or, in my case, don’t gain) between seeing relatives doesn’t matter. You can’t control how people are going to treat you, but you can control your own actions and how you respond to others. It’s a pretty basic truth, but it’s been a useful reminder to me every now and then. It’s also why I haven’t given up on my goal of having a beach body by summer.

So…2018, watch out, I’m coming for you.

Caption: Here I am with my crazy friend Jon on our morning workout.

#gym #mondaymotivation #motivationmonday

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asagimeta · 8 years ago

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It occurred to me that we can look at the second half of AHS 6 as an example of what to expect in the show from here on. It revisited a location, characters, lore, and it was NOT a private, isolated incident. The situation spiraled uncontrollably into the public eye and concluded in a MASSIVE public incident.

This is a good point Anon, and it could be a canon explanation for why there were only ten episodes instead of thirteen*, since the first five represented seasons 1-5 and the second five represented 6-10**, he might have wanted it to be an even half-past-seasons, half-future-seasons

*We know the real life explanation is most likely because Ryan Murphy had alot less time to work, with him having done The People VS O.J. Simpson in 2016 and him starting to work on Feud: Bette & Joan in 2016 as well, the fact that Sarah Paulson was also doing O.J. probably influenced it too

**Technically, we could also look at episodes 6-10 being seasons 7-11, because it’s questionable weather or not season six should count as it’s own plot, in fact that was my original thought, but because of what episode six was, I decided season six probably IS representing it’s self in episode six

It’s important to note before we start that it was recently stated that, wile season seven’s theme has been completely decided, seasons eight and nine “Are still being hammered out”, and anything that MIGHT represent eight and nine is up for either changing, modifying, or elimminating completely, I’m sure Murphy has a few vague ideas set up but they’re probably not developed well enough for definitive information yet

Let’s look into some things that happened in episodes 6-10 that could possibly be references to future seasons:

Chapter Six: I’m starting here so I can explain why I think this is meant to represent season six, episode six was the big reveal, showing us what the rest of the season’s format would be, revealing to us that only one person gets out alive, revealing who the actors actually are and what really happened between the real people (IE: Shelby and Matt splitting) and finally reveiwing some of what had happened earlier in season six (The nurses killing Rory and completing “Murder” for example, going back to the house for the first time during the blood moon, starting a new TV series etc) If there is a way to reveiw a show half-way through and give hints to the theme/plot of the rest of the season wile keeping it part of the actual show (IE: Not making it a clip show)? Then Chapter Six is hands down the way to do it

Chapter Seven: This is where the majority of our themes are going to come from, and they include:

-Cannabilism-Inbred hillbillies (I cannot think of a polite way to say that)-Infidelity-Alchoholism-The Woods-Insanity/becoming someone else-Witches-Ghosts-Rage*

Of these, the following have NEVER been explored on AHS before:

-Cannabilism-Inbred hillbillies-The Woods

The following could easily be references to past seasons (Again) OR could be repeated in future seasons

-Infidelity (season one)-Alchoholism (season two)-Insanity/becoming someone else (season two)**-Witches (season three)-Ghosts (seasons one and five)

The thing is, that these are all themes that are shaded in other seasons as well as the ones they’re featured primarily in, take ghosts for example, they may be a major theme of seasons one and five but they also appear in season four (Edward Mordrake), witches may be primarily season three’s property but Queenie comes into season five for a stint, insanity may be primarily featured in season two but it plays into other seasons as well, such as Pepper’s backstory in season four, etc etc, so they might still come in to play later but because they ARE old themes they’re really on the fence

*I don’t know how to describe this, but there was alot of blind anger in this episode, Shelley, who is usually pretty quiet and stable, flies into a murderous rage and brutally murders Matt, that stands out as being massively unique to me for some reason, I just don’t know how better to describe it…

**I specifically stated “becoming someone else” because Agnes’ psychosis is specifically related to becoming the Butcher, season two shows alot of people “becoming” other people, from Judy becoming Sister Jude (a transformation, albeit not one caused by insanity or becoming an actual different identity) to Ann Frank being labotimized into becoming a docile housewife, it’s pretty prominant

Chapter Eight: There really aren’t any unique themes in this episode, I’m afraid, the only ones that are different from Chapter Seven are:

-Japanese horror-The Piggy Man-Suicide-Wrongfull blame

We know The Piggy Man is a reference to season one, and wrongfull blame is a pretty common theme throughout AHS (Kit in season two, Pepper in season four, The Geep in season four, etc etc etc) so I’m not sure that either of those are going to play into season eight, thus the only two new themes are have are Japanese horror and *intentional* suicide

Chapter Nine: Chapter Nine only has a few themes, but they’re very very unique, potentially very telling themes, and virtually none of them have been done before, they are:

-Found Footage-Possession-Police involvement

Possession has obviously been a big theme before, namely in seasons two and five, police involvement was prominant in season five, but that still leaves us with “Found footage”

Chapter Ten: The last episode has the least themes overall and especially the least unique ones, wich makes sense, if this is going in order then it’s obvious why each episode has less information than the last, the later the season, the least likely it is to be fully developed, but that doesn’t mean that what we have isn’t worth mentioning, our themes are:

-Reality TV-Court-Interveiws-Ghost hunters-Children-Sacrifice

Obviously reality TV has been a theme before, mostly in season six but also in season five (Billie Dean’s show) and interveiws have been a theme too (seasons two, three, five, and six, all featuring Sarah Paulson by the way) children (mostly seasons one and five, but arguably every season has a relation to childen in some way) sacrifice has also been featured in the past, most noteably in season four where it was a primary theme

So to boil it down, the themes we have that are most likely to play into future seasons are as follows:

Season Seven- Cannabilism, inbred hillbillies, the woodsSeason Eight- Japanese horror, intentional suicideSeason Nine- Found footageSeason Ten- Court, ghost hunters

So far, all we know about the future of AHS for sure are these facts:

-Seasons seven, eight, and nine are already greenlit and will air in 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively-Season seven will begin in September-Season seven’s theme is set to remain a secret like Roanoke-Season seven will be “connected to Freak Show but set in the modern day”-Season seven will feature Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters-Ryan Murphy announced that there will be a season that’s a “Coven and Murder House crossover” but that it is NOT season seven-A teaser was released for season seven in November that featured ocean waves and a flash to the stick dolls with “Sweet Dreams” written over it, a scream heard in the background, and the caption “The monsters are all gone” beneath it

Let’s start with season seven:

Everyone assumes “The monsters are all gone” is sarcastic or a lie, but… what if it isn’t? What if season seven, like seasons two and four, are more about HUMAN threats instead of monsters? After all, we know that this season is connected to Freak Show, the only non-human creature in the entire season of Freak Show was Edward Mordrake, who was a ghost of another freak, add to that what we have in terms of themes for episode seven of Roanoke, wich are: Cannbalism, inbred hillbillies, the woods

In addition, a very interesting matter, Freak Show took place in Florida, wich is near the ocean (thus the “Sweet Dreams” teaser)

Based on this, we have a potential theory for season seven:

Taking place in or around Jupiter Florida, our charectors include the next generation of freaks (Jimmy and the Tattler Twins’ child(ren) perhaps, or maybe Dandy isn’t the last Mott after all? Or, ofcourse, there might not be any blood relations at all to the people of season four, they might just be a new generation who don’t know about Elsa’s cabinet, or who were even inspired by them) as well as the child(ren) inbred through generations of hillbillies who may hunt the freaks… or join them, and a cannibal (or a community of cannibals maybe) who want to kill and eat the freaks due to having a taste for human oddities, wich is a creepier twist on the collection aspect of season four

The woods could just be where the cast is mostly going to be located, but the reason I keep mentioning The Woods as a theme is because it’s a classic horror movie trope, something being “in the woods”, the only problem with this that I have is usually the “something” in the woods is supernatural, and specifically, in Roanoke, the “something” is indeed some sort of ghosts/monsters (I don’t honestly remember if we were shown what attacked Audrey and Lee in episode seven) If season seven is about human monsters then this doesn’t fit

Obviously we don’t have enough to go on for the other seasons yet, but…

Season eight could include intentional suicide and Japanese horror, the latter of wich I’m REALLY excited about, can you imagine an entire season of stuff like the Chens? Creepy movement, strange animal sounds, weird and terrifying urban legends… I’m in love (plus it could be a good chance for there to be some more diversity for the mains of a season *cough*)

Season nine could be a found footage thing- and why I bring this up is because I’m talking specifically about the Blair Witch kind of found footage, amatuar stuff, not the reality TV stuff wich we keep seeing, a Blair Witch kind of thing could really be interesting and could easily involve the police too (even though we’ve already seen that before, we haven’t seen it MUCH and it could come out to play as a more prominant theme later)

Season ten gives us court and ghost hunting wich is obviously a weird combination, and to be honest? I’m not sure they could be connected, if they are, I feel like one would be ALOT more prominant than the other… but wich one?

Anyway, this gives me alot to think about Anon, I wish we had a little more info from the episodes theme wise but I realize also that any plans for seasons eight and beyond, at this point, are so loose that giving more info would be unreasonable of them, as unfortunate as that is

#American Horror Story

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haveclotheswilltravel · 5 years ago

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I’m sharing 7 of the craziest and most unusual things you can do in Moscow in this post. If you’re looking for a list of the top tourist attractions in Moscow (Red Square, the Bolshoi, the Kremlin, yada yada) – this isn’t the list for you!

Now, some of these things I have done myself while living in Moscow and can recommend them. Some are completely out of my price range, but I still think it’s cool that they’re an option and will be sharing them.

Without further ado, here are 7 crazy and unusual things you can do in Moscow.

7 Crazy & Unusual Things to Do in Moscow, Russia

1.) Visit Bunker-42 Cold War Museum (It’s 200+ Feet Underground!)

Going inside Bunker 42!

Bunker-42 was once a top-secret, Soviet military complex. Stalin had commissioned it to be made after the United States created a nuclear bomb. 65 meters (or about 213 feet) underground, was the desired depth to protect Russia’s top officials from a nuclear attack.

It became operational in 1954. Fortunately, it was never needed for its true purpose and was instead used as the command center of strategic bombers for nearly 30 years in Moscow. Now, it is a museum dedicated to the Cold War. It is a truly unique experience!

You can tour Bunker-42 with a guide or you can simply eat/grab a drink at its underground restaurant. (I, personally, recommend doing the tour and just grabbing a drink here – the food is pretty bad.)

Click here for more info.

2.) Ride a Real Soviet Tank

A T-34 Tank – You can actually ride this!

There are several different tour operators in Moscow that will take you just outside the city… where you can ride in or on real soviet tanks. I, personally, did the T-34 tank ride which also included shooting 10 blanks shots from the Soviet gun of your choice… along with taking shots of vodka. Only in Russia!

Click here for more info.

3.) Shoot an AK-47

If shooting blanks from an AK-47 during the tank experience sounded disappointing to you – fret not! You can shoot real ammunition from any gun of your choice (including the AK-47) at Labyrith Shooting Range. They also have an archery range and knife and ax throwing.

I recommend calling ahead to book the time you want to go – the underground range is not the friendliest place to sit and wait for your shooting time. (Although, there are many nice restaurants and bars nearby.)

Must be over the age of 18 and bring your passport too! No photos are allowed during the shooting – but you get to keep your target as a souvenir.

Click here for more info.

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4.) Take a MiG 29 Edge of Space Flight… and See the Curvature of the Earth!

Care to take a ride on a MiG 29, break the sound barrier and see the curvature of the earth? You can honest-to-god do just that in Moscow. Check out the experience in the video above, Granted, it costs a fortune (17,500 Euros!). But hey, if you have the money and can handle the G force – this would be quite the bucket list adventure!

Click here for more info.

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5.) Visit Star City – Take a Zero Gravity Flight or a Spin in the Centrifuge!

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve heard me talk about Star City – which is the facility where the cosmonauts train. Until the early 90s, it was a top-secret location, but now, you can tour it. That is cool in and of itself (in my opinion) but the fun doesn’t stop there!

Did you know you can also pay to take a Zero Gravity Flight from here?! Or how about taking a spin in the world’s largest centrifuge while here?! Or try on a real cosmonaut suit? Granted, all of these things are insanely expensive too, and I would have had to sell both kidneys to afford to do them – but, if you have the money, how cool would that be?

Click here for more info.

And click here for info on simply touring the facility.

6.) See the First Space Dogs

The Museum of Cosmonautics

If you’re interested in space exploration but a more budget-friendly option – head over to the Museum of Cosmonautics. Here, you can see a museum dedicated to space exploration that charts the history of the Russian space race and famous Russian astronauts and has an impressive variety of space equipment, suits, lets you sample space food…and even see some famous taxidermied dogs.

Oh yes, likely the first exhibits you’ll notice when walking in the museum will feature two taxidermied dogs. These are “Strelka” & “Belka’ and they are the first dogs to ever go to space and return. Strelka went on to have 6 puppies, one of which was given to President John F. Kennedy. This dog ended up having puppies with the Kennedy’s dog, Charlie. JFK jokingly called the pups “pupniks.” (I thought that was funny, personally!)

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

The museum itself is also located at the base of the monument “To the Conquerors of Space,” which is a 100-meter titanium obelisk erected in 1964 to celebrate the achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration. (Pictured above.)

Click here for more info on visiting the Museum of Cosmonautics.

7.) Lenin’s Mausoleum

Welp, and while we’re on the subject of preserving dead historical figures… you might as well head over to see Lenin’s perfectly preserved body!

Lenin’s Mausoleum, also known as Lenin’s Tomb, is located in Red Square. It’s a mausoleum that currently serves as the resting place of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. His preserved body has been on public display there since shortly after his death in 1924.

Photos are not permitted (that one of his body above is an embed from Flickr, and not mine), and the guards will keep you moving at a quick pace through the tomb. Lenin resembles more of a wax figure than a well-preserved body.

The tomb is free to visit, but it’s only open from 10 am – 1 pm, Tuesday – Saturday.

Click here for more info.

Bonus: A few normal yet unique things I also recommend you do in Moscow:

Do “A Gentleman in Moscow” Tour of the Metropol Hotel – click here for more info.

Visit Izmailvosky Market – click here for more info.

Experience a Public Banya – click here for more info.

Izmailovsky Market

I’m curious, which of these weird and wacky things to do in Moscow sounds the most appealing to you? Let me know in the comments! I’m also happy to answer any questions you have about visiting Moscow in the comments too.

Click here to see all of my blog posts from Russia.

Travel Insurance

It’s a good idea, no matter where your adventure takes you, to have travel insurance. You never know what might happen! Whether you get sick before your trip and can’t go, or you become sick or injured while on your adventure – being covered with travel insurance is a must. Some credit card companies do provide this service (check with yours), or you can get a free quote from travel insurance companies such as RoamRight. Get your free quote by clicking here.

Visa Requirements

To check if your country requires a Visa for traveling to Russia, click here.

*Disclosure: some of these links are affiliate links. Meaning, if you click a link and make a purchase, Have Clothes, Will Travel gets a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible! I am also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

7 Crazy & Unusual Things to Do in Moscow, Russia I'm sharing 7 of the craziest and most unusual things you can do in Moscow in this post.

#Bunker-42 #crazy and unusual travel #Moscow #ride a tank #things to do in Moscow

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talhaghafoor2019-blog · 6 years ago

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Sleeping With Sirens confirm “heavier and better than ever” music for 2019

A Sleeping With Sirens member has taken to Twitter to confirm their return. Guitarist Jack Fowler says that new music is on the horizon and that it is heavier than anything they have put out to date.

Yesterday, guitarist and vocalist for From First To Last, Matt Good shared a photo to Instagram of Kellin Quinn in the studio with the caption, “Just created some insane fire with @kellinquinn.”

However, following a story from Loudwire, Fowler confirmed the “heavy music” rumors.

“We are fuckin back babyyyyyyy,” the guitarist says. “Heavier and better than ever.”

We are fuckin back babyyyyyyy, heavier and better than ever https://t.co/4neMWWs2Xy

— Jack Fowler (@JackSWS) December 15, 2018

After perusing the comment section of Good’s Instagram post, reporters found that a fan who had a friend that worked at the studio had heard a few new Sleeping With Sirens clips. The employee claimed that what he heard was “really good and really heavy.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by mattg00d (@mattg00d) on Dec 14, 2018 at 12:32am PST

[Screenshot via Instagram]

Sleeping With Sirens teased their return at the end of their latest tour cycle with Good Charlotte. In a series of tweets sending off Gossip, rhythm guitarist Nick Martin said things were only going to get crazier.

Quinn also teased a new era for SWS, claiming that 2019 would be a good year for the band.

Additionally, Quinn teased that new music would have a lot of Let’s Cheers To This influence. After replying to a fan on Twitter asking for an era-revival, Quinn simply responded, “You got it.”

Back in February, Fowler said that he was in the mood to write some 2012-sounding SWS material, which also hints at their heavy return.

What are you hoping to get out of forthcoming Sleeping With Sirens music? Sound off in the comments below.

This content was originally published here.

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rebeccahpedersen · 6 years ago

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More MLS Musings!

TorontoRealtyBlog

This is slowly becoming a tradition; emptying my entire “Musings” folder into one epic blog post at year’s end.

That’s not to say that these are by any means “leftovers,” but rather I often try to come up with a “theme” in my MLS Musings, and sometimes, those really great pics waiting in the queue just continue to wait, and then wait some more.

If you’re a long-time reader, you know the things that really irk me.

Blurry photos, photos with people in them or reflections of the photographers, photos of inanimate objects like the microwave or a plant, bad staging, sideways photos, etc.

Then there’s all the craziness that doesn’t irk me, but puts a smile on my face. Agents that are too lazy to visit the property, so they screenshot a Google Maps image of the house, or how about the insane things that agents will write in the MLS description?

I hate it all. And I love it all at the same time.

So today, let me regale you with everything that I have left, and see if I can fit these into some themed sections…

–

First, let’s start with the MLS write-ups, shall we?

Call me a stickler for the details, but this is a classic example of inventing a phrase for your own benefit:

What is an “open concept, one-bedroom” anyways?

Is that anything like……………..geez……………..I dunno………………a bachelor condo?

Maybe!

Let’s take a look at the photo from this “Open Concept One Bedroom”

Well, I’m no real estate expert, but that is a bachelor condo.

Maybe this is all part of that trend toward not “labelling” people anymore. Like callling the homeless, “housing-challenged.”

–

Here’s another gem, although this one is a bit more honest:

True.

This unit does have an “unobstructed city view.”

For now…

But you could literally put a timer to this “unobstructed view.”

It looks to me like……..maybe………..another six months…

–

Tell me if you immediately understand this reference:

If you do, great. We can hang out.

If not, then you’re too old, or too young.

And no, I’m not going to tell you.

But in a related story, we had a class called “Vocal Music” in 1991 when I was in Grade-6, and Mr. Isman told me we would sing the lyrics to any song that I transcribed. So I wrote out all the lyrics to Sir Mix Alot’s “Baby Got Back,” and the poor teacher had no choice…

–

What a-hole wrote this, honestly?

I understand “marketing.” Yes.

But aren’t you driving away 99% of the buyer pool to catch 1%?

And this listing wasn’t anything special, nor was it screaming “cool, single guy.”

They would have caught far more flies with honey, in my opinion…

–

If this is actually permissible, then why do we even have listing agents?

–

Screw single people, right?

–

Before you suggest that this is a relgious thing, I can assure you there was nothing religious-sounding about the agent’s name. Just sayin’.

Maybe it’s just an agent whos’ being honest?

–

This is just really, really overselling…

This was at 1 Bloor, by the way. I get that 1 Bloor is “expenisve,” but that doesn’t make it luxurious, elegant, world-class, etc.

I’m so tired of people equating over-priced, expensive things as automatically being worth it.

–

Jesus!

How high is this condo?

No seriously, it’s not on the 188th floor of a Mimico or Oakville waterfront condo.

It’s on Homewood, near the Keg Mansion…

–

Is this meant to be facetious?

Spectacular view of the QEW? Is this a language barrier, sarcasm, or somebody that really believes looking at a highway is a selling feature?

Why not come up with some choice others?

“Fantastic sound of garbage chute at all hours of the day.”

“Wonderful smell of sewage plant.”

“Splendid taste of lead in kitchen tap water.”

–

How about some epic staging fails?

Let’s start with……hmmmm….

….ah, this one!

I’m a minimalist by nature, but that’s a little too bare for my liking.

–

One of the most difficult parts of an agent’s job is to show prospective buyers what various rooms are for.

Like, the kitchen! What do you do in there? Gymnastics? How in the world is somebody supposed to know that you cook in there?

Same goes for, say, a closet.

That’s why it’s so important to stage a closet with three hanging shirts…

–

Awesome outdoor space!

That turquoise rug really ties the space together!

Except…………how do you get in the garage, which is advertised as the parking space on the listing?

–

How about some design, layout, and feature fails?

I understand the “beer fridge” in the man-cave.

And I have a mini-fridge in my office.

But this just looks a wee bit out of place…

–

By the same token, I think this “renovated kitchen” as described in the listing might have benefitted from an architect, designer, and child with a ruler and calculator:

I guess nobody ever uses the staircase to the basement?

–

For this next one, let me say that I’m biased. I’m a huge fan of outdoor spaces.

I’m also a salesman, so let me put a positive spin on this….

….”Things like sunlight, air, space, and not feeling like you’re in an outdoor prison cell are overrated!”

–

Wine cellars are awesome!

It’s a great way for people who know nothing about wine to pretend that they, in fact, do.

It’s also the perfect place to store rainwater in your new $4,000,000 house…

–

This might be the saddest 2-person dinner table I have ever seen:

–

Now how about some people in our lives?

This one isn’t that bad, is it?

Either the owner locking up, while the Realtor takes a photo.

Or a Realtor-Realtor team showing that two heads are better than one.

Except, for the fact that this is the feature photo in a listing that has eight photos:

–

This one looks really suspicious. If the agent was taking a photo, and this really is his listing, then why didn’t he wait until the owner and her friend left the front door?

–

This one looks as though it’s by design:

But is there something I’m missing here?

Is this like showing the water flowing out of the kitchen faucet, like, “This is Todd, and Todd is opening the balcony door to let air flow into the condo.”

Is it part of the marketing? Well-dressed dude-bro lurking out over Liberty Village Parking lot, in front of large wall-art that his designer bought for him?

–

Beautiful house here, but can you see the owner inside?

–

I’m fairly certain this is a mannequin, and not a real person.

But either way, just……..whyyy?

–

And last but not least, are we really putting people out front of the house……….in artist’s renderings now?

–

Go ahead, be the person that says, “Buyers will look past it. Buyers aren’t looking at my stuff, or the colour of the walls.”

Tell me I’m wrong to clean, paint, and stage every one of my listings.

Then tell me you think this is the best way to showcase a condo:

–

How about a couple of photo arrays?

This is the very definition of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

It’s the same photo, three times.

We get it. The sun sets in the east…

–

As for the next one, at least they got 3 of 8 right.

I’m pretty sure in today’s public school system, that’s a passing grade!

–

And last, but certainly not least, I don’t know what it was about this photo, it just really made me laugh.

I could call this a “staging fail,” or a classic “design flaw.”

This could be like the fridge in the living room, or the fridge blocking the stairs.

It could be like a giant statue in the front foyer.

Whatever it is, I just can’t help but wonder why the agent didn’t think to mention this to the seller.

I also laugh picturing myself working out while my family eats dinner, so I can’t be accused of “not spending family time” with them.

Seriously, I can picture it.

I’m on the stairmaster, my wife and kids are having dinner, and I’m panting while talking to them.

“Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…..Billy………eat your peas…..heh, heh, heh, heh, heh………don’t talk back to your mother………”

I would try my hardest not to flick sweat in their mashed potatoes, but I’m a big sweater when I workout. If I’m not dripping, I’m not working hard enough.

I can see something like the above in my future.

Thanks to everybody who submitted a photo or listing caption for MLS Musings over the past year, and I encourage you to do the same in 2019.

Coming up next week, it’s my annual tradition: Top-5 Blog Posts of 2018, followed by Top-Five Real Estate Stories of 2019.

Have a great weekend!

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