#I need this so bad cause all those mini games you can play on app ads are so fun but instead the app is full of boring match three games | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

writingsofmyimagination · 6 years ago

Text

Restraint |8|

Yoongi x Reader, Vampire AU

Warnings:SMUT, Swearing, Kinda Sub Yoongi for like 5 mins(he sucks at it), Light BDSM themes(restraints), Blood.

Word Count:2844

Summary: As Jungkooks best friend recently moved to Seoul, there is one of the boys you have yet to meet. This one has a dark secret and has to use all the restraint he can to control himself around you.

So this is the end guys :(. THANK YOU so much for all the love for this series! Another Yoongi series is in the works :).

As always others parts in my masterlist.

Comments always welcome :)

“Why does it matter if he’s going to be there, why is this even an issue, you were over this months ago” There was a dull exhaustion to the argument, for the fourth time this week you were arguing over non-issues. You don’t even know why you were asking him ‘Why’ you knew exactly what the problem was but it didn’t stop the hailstorm of frustration soaking through you and the whitening of your knuckles round your mug. Their management had added a whole extra week of shows and interviews in Tokyo, the extension of time apart especially from the taste of human blood had made him irritable, irrational and downright insufferable. With the gruelling schedule he’d been too exhausted to even vampire ninja travel to see you. This was an expected situation, he’d warned you the sudden lack of the human taste was indistinguishable to cold turkey from drugs.

“Baby I…”

“I’m done with this conversation, I’m at work, leave me be” you hung up massaging your temples. You interrupted your report writing and opened up google and booked yourself a flight to Tokyo.

You ignored the badges that were slowly increasing on your message app; thankful when they stopped, he’d be getting ready for the show now. You wanted him to be stewing on it. You had minimal time to pack before you had to head to the airport.

The flight was two hours, after thirty minutes your hands had started fiddling for an outlet of your agitation which was rivalling your excitement to be in his arms. As much as you were going to surprise him you knew it wouldn’t be much of a surprise; you had a boyfriend who’d be able to smell you the second you stepped foot in the hotel. You’d checked with Jungkook beforehand and he’d manage to acquire another key-card for Yoongi’s room for you to pick up.

The room was the standard you’d expect from a higher end chain, it was also what you expect from Yoongi. His laptop was open on the desk circled by mini versions of his studio equipment that he insisted taking on tour; his suitcase was neatly sat on a chair in the corner.

Yoongi emerged from the towel ruffling his wet hair with a towel. A towel wrapped round his waist, effortlessly parallel to a Greek god. As suspected there wasn’t a hint of surprise on him.

“Baby please let me…”

“On the bed” your tone stern, eyes glaring.

“What?” at least there was some surprise at your command, he ceased any movement.

“On the bed” You plonked your bag down on the bed and grabbed what you needed, he sat on the edge on the bed his back to you. His delicious shoulder blades still slightly glistening with water. You walked round in front of him and handcuffed him.

“Tch!” Yoongi exclaimed. Instantly his skin where the silver had made contact was searing into him with an unpleasant sound of sizzling skin. As bad as you felt for causing him such pain your outside aura feigned casualness; it was also something he’d made you promise to carry out after he’d not fed for an extended period of time.

“Jesus Y/N I know I’ve upset you but this isn’t necessary” he managed through gritted teeth.

“Shut up and just drink” you launched your shirt of and straddled him, moved all your hair to one side exposing your neck, his hands resting on your hips. He was motionless, his irises were battling to keep that dark red from consuming them whole; his face told a different story. His bottom lip was clamped hard in between his teeth, fangs fully extended with creases lining his forehead. You sat back blossomed your hand open, a silver chain rooted round your finger dropped and hung. You hoped he’d feed now you’d fulfilled all his safety requirements, after a few moments of deliberation he spoke.

“Please try not to move too much” his gaze glued to your neck visualising all the blood flowing through that spot, he was past the point of no return to argue, the song of your pulse capturing him in a trance like state. His teeth sank in with ease. One of your hands slid up the back of his and tangled in his damp hair. A faint cry left your lips. It didn’t even hurt anymore, if anything it now turned you on; especially the primal growl noises that leaked from Yoongi’s lips against your neck. Craving more your hips started grinding, only my black work trousers and a towel separating you from him.

A strangled gasp pained its way from you, Yoongi had begun shaking head jerkily, as if I was now dying prey to be shook in the mouth of a wolf. You stilled your hips instantly, eyes shut tight, wincing feeling your puncture wounds stretch and begin to tear. Your hand aching, you imagined your knuckles going as white as his skin against his dark hair. It stung and it was also your fault. As quick as it had started he stopped. Flinging his head back against his own will stopping himself. You finally breathed, only just realising you’d been holding onto it.

“Yoongi I’m…sorry” you stuttered, immediately trying to remedy the guilt you know he’d bare unjustly to himself. His irises were full blown, they hardly even looked red anymore leaning onto the blacker side. He looked on another planet, face shrouded in ecstasy.

“Please, give me a minute” he panted dropping his body to the bed awkwardly on his restrained hands, his skin was no longer burning but he still grimaced when the handcuffs touched more of his skin. Feeling lost, did he want you to get off? Did he want you to un-cuff him? Currently he was in no state to tell you. He was hard beneath you, prompting a half-cocked smirk from you. Sliding your hands up his chest, grazing your nails over his clavicle ignoring the throb at your neck and leaking wounds.

“Was that nice baby?” you whispered, breathing at his neck.

“Mmm” he managed. Seeing him like this because of you burned your fire no end. You climbed off him and shuffled out of your jeans impatient to get back to him.

When he sat back up his eyes had deflated to normal sized pupils, they still glittered red but at least he looked like he could string a sentence together. His brows made their way slightly further apart catching the sight of your neck, it had stopped bleeding thanks to the coagulation liquid that secreted from fangs. He went to speak

“Don’t even say it Yoongi” you warned

“It’s my own fault, I’m fine and no I’m not taking the cuffs off” His face was indecisive for a moment, deciding rightfully so he wouldn’t win in apologising to you, he reacted to the second half of your words.

“Why not? You responded to his question and pout with a coy smile.

“Because I think I quite like you like this” You climbed back on him, when your skin touched the longing you’d had was fulfilled; knees resting either side of his thighs.

“I can do this” You yanked at the back of his hair yanking a grunt from his throat in protest, you bit at his exposed neck hard enough to mark, even though it would be gone in a few moments. The purple, red petal was still beautiful against his milky skin. Your other hand had also been productive and unhooked the towel and was teasing down his shaft. You loved the way his face creased with desire

“And my strong vampire Yoongi is helpless”

“And you want me to do as I’m told?” one of his eyebrows raised challenging me.

“I don’t even think I can get you to do that, what I am wandering is how long it will take you to start begging for what’s in between my legs” you whispered, his face held the resolve but his eyes showed you defeat, you knew as soon you’d give him the offer to taste you and feed from his favourite place he’d yield.

“So that’s how you wanna play princess?” your hands had locked around his neck and you looked so please with yourself as you responded.

“Yep” you spoke curtly. You teased your hands in a slow wave down your body and broke his number one rule. Your pleasure is his and his alone.

“Oh baby you’re playing a dangerous game now” the warning glare emanating over you normally would have you on your knees pleading, not today.

“You can do with me what you want with me when you’re home Oppa, but now you’re mine, stop being such a brat” You offered your fingers coated in your arousal at his mouth, he gladly sucked at them purring in his throat. Fuck, his eyes looking up at you from under his hair, no wonder why he loved that look from you so much. The vulnerability seeping off him, looking up to you to take what you were going to give him.

“That’s all your getting until I say otherwise” you deprived him of your hand. You sat back gently pondering, looking out into nowhere.

“What?” he asked with an impatient sigh.

“How many times do you think I can make myself cum before your dying to do it yourself?” your question rhetorical as you resumed teasing yourself, ensuring his cock was just a hairs width from your fingers.

“None, please Y/N” his response came out more as loud frustrated sigh already playing the images in his head.

“But I thought you liked to count them” your mouth pulling into a cocky smirk

You adored the way his face way contorting in pretty and desperate expressions, his eyes slipped away from you as you pulled yourself higher to the edge, to drag him back you gripped at his chin in a harsh motion and faced it forward

“I want those pretty eyes on me” you ordered, stopping any response with a rough kiss, he inhaled your wavering moans until you flung your neck to nestle in his riding out your high, panting and moaning breathlessly close to his ear.

“1” you breathed with a triumphant glare.

“Fuck princess, you’re so beautiful, please give me them now, you know I’ll make you feel so much better” he whined. You were getting there you thought to yourself.

“Do you think that’s a good enough plea?” you stood up, went over to your bag.

“I think you can manage one more” Seeing you take your wand out of your bag.

“That’s enough baby I can’t anymore, Rain” Seriously? You couldn’t believe he caved, well you could actually, and there was a reason you submitted to him and not the other way round. Being a powerful immortal they naturally had power and wanted to keep it. You un-cuffed him with urgency, assuming they were hurting too much, you’d be wrong.

He lunged at you, before you could even protest your underwear was torn and on the floor.

“Playtimes over princess” he slammed into you, your back knocked into the wall, hands digging into his shoulders. If your head could spin it would have.

“Yoongi…agh” your head dropped, moans spilling through your throat. Your head was overrun no logical thoughts could form, every time one began its life cycle his thrusts hitting your spot snuffed them out in an instant.

“Eyes on me” he growled, you just couldn’t fulfil his request, you managed to lift your head in between cries.

“Aww is my cock that good that you can you can’t even do one simple thing?”

“Yes, jesus, fuck” was all you managed. He stopped and stared you, absorbing you into his circular galaxies twinkling in his eye. His fringe stuck to his forehead making him looked beautifully fucked. Your climax fading into deep space.

“I can’t even begin to explain how much I missed you baby, it’s been unbearable having the bed empty next to me. I’m sorry I’ve been a nightmare you’re everything to me, I love you” Yoongi wasn’t very vocal when it came to feelings but when he showed them you hung on to and treasured every word even if he’d kept you on the edge. You exhaled, trying to de-escalate your breathing.

“I know baby, I know,” sweeping his fringe to the side you caressed the side of his cheek with nothing but love and adoration.

“I love you too, I’ve missed you too” you paused a moment “Can you please finish showing me how much you missed me” you whined. He responded with a longing kiss against your lips, extending it through your collarbone.

“Such a needy girl” he breathed, the warm breath ghosting across your chest. In a flash of movement you was on top of him legs aside his waist, hands tracing the milky dessert of his chest.

“Now bring that pretty little pussy of mine up here so I can taste her.” He flicked his head up, indicating the direction he wanted you to move. The command was also met with a sharp stinging across your behind half propelling you forward with a gasp. His tongue teasing kitten licks up and down your slit, you slapped his head playfully.

“Stop teasi…” his hands gripped at your thighs when he fully sucked your clit into his mouth, the top half of your body falling forward until you stabled your hands against the headboard. That famous tongue technology had you teetering of the edge in minutes. Your back arching and your head flew forwards as your climax convulsed your muscles uncontrollably. You could hardly see his eyes glowing red as there were focused solely on your arousal.

He turned his head seconds after you’d nearly finished riding out your high and locked his lips onto your inner thigh, one of your hands flew to his hair and locked a handful in your grip as he pierced your skin extending your climax leaving you pulsing around nothing. You welcomed the sweet sting, and the sight of him attached to you a small trail of your blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. You’d accepted months ago that you was going to hell for finding all this blood stuff so sexy but you were way past caring and craved it more than you’d ever openly admit to yourself, but Yoongi knew.

You dropped to the bed, exhausted and satisfied. After licking his lips Yoongi rolled onto his front in-between your legs and used his tongue to clean the last trickling remnants from your puncture wounds.

“When do you have to leave?” his tone verging on whiney. You checked the time on your phone.

“Two hours, and don’t even try and convince me to stay, I have a shit load of reports to finish.” He stalked up your body.

“Two hours is enough” you squinted your eyes questioning his words

“Enough for what?” you spoke hesitantly recognising that glimmer from his eyes and that killer smirk. He pinned your hands above your head, his mouth catching your gasp as his tongue tantalized yours as he shifted his legs,

“To get you screaming my name multiple times” He thrust into you, you clawed at his back, his teeth grazing your collar bone.

“Promise me you’ll eat properly” you said stroking the back of his neck with the soft pads of your fingertips.

“I promise” the puppy eyes you received tugged at your already aching heart strings, you hated leaving him. His arms were resting round your side, hands under your shirt holding the small of your back.

“Good, I’ll hold you to that, next time you go away I think we should gradually ease you off my blood don’t you think?”

“I suppose” he eyes left you and shifted away.

“Hey” you called out to his wandering eyes, they returned. “Yes baby that’s a much better idea than turning into a giant douche and making my girlfriend angry and come out all this way” you impersonated. He chuckled lightly.

“Yes baby that’s a much better idea” he mimicked “You know I’m sorry, you are amazing, you spoil me and are most definitely too good for me”

“I know I am” you toyed “It’s a good thing I love you and want nothing more than to be yours” You stretched up and kissed his forehead knowing he’d appreciate the “yours” sentiment. He was hesitant in letting you slip from his grasp and grab your bags and head to the door.

“I’ll hold you to what you said earlier” You turned at his words

“What did I say?” you asked.

“That I can do what I want with you when I’m home, you should book some time off, I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to walk” his grin playful, eyes spoke nothing but sincerity.

“I can handle it Oppa” you shot back competitively. Your grin never faltering as you left him pondering what to do with you when he’s home.

#bts #bts smut #btssmutclub #kwritersworldnet #kpopwonderlandtag #bangtanarmynet #min yoongi #yoongi x reader #bts suga #suga x reader #bts min yoongi #hyunglinenetwork

216 notes · View notes

raging-violets · 5 years ago

Text

Suite Life: Let Me Love You // Zack x Riley

A/N: Set just after my fics Save Me From Myself, and Help Me Save Me. Inspired by the book Letting Anna Go. The gif doesn’t really have to do with anything, but it was the closest to what I was looking for.

Warning: Mentions/Implications of depression, anorexia, abuse, bipolar disorder.

@pinacoladaranger

Zack grinned and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist when he saw her red golf ball bounce off the back of the barrier on the hole and spin away, thus making her lose the mini golf game.

And the bet.

Oh, that was the best part.

Their competitive natures always got the better of them when playing a game, they both absolutely hated to lose. (There had many times where their friends and siblings refused to let them play certain games because of how competitive they got, not that her family as a whole weren't competitive). But the worst came when they decided to put a bet on something, second to one of them winning and gloating in the face of the one who lost.

Thankfully, this time around, the bet was as simple as the loser buying dinner.

"Good job, babe," Zack said while Riley sighed heavily, placing a hand on her hip. He couldn't help the teasing edge to his voice. Unable to keep himself from letting his competitive edge take over. The same competitiveness that made her pout, despite folding her arms to lay on top of his, gently rocking along with his swaying. "But a deal's a deal, and you owe me some food."

"Great, I'll lose all the money I made this week," Riley pretended to groan. She tipped her head back, resting it on his shoulder; noticeable. "Waiting all those tables for nothing."

"Most of that money's from me, anyway." Zack grabbed their golf clubs in one hand, grasped her hand and led her from the hole. "I have to do something while I waited for you to get off." He giggled to himself when Riley punched him on the arm, clearly getting his not-so-subtle innuendo.

"Hitting on my co-workers and my sister shouldn't be one of those things."

"Technically, they're two things. I can flirt with your co-workers more than I can flirt with Rhu. Only cause Cody would kill me." Zack paused, giving their playing items before then turned, throwing his arm around Riley's shoulders to steer her toward the snack bar of the outdoor game center.

Riley tilted her head back and looked up at Zack with squinted eyes. "You only wouldn't flirt with my sister because of Cody?"

Zack pressed his lips together. "Okay, fine, I admit it. I never wanted to say it before, but you leave me no choice." He took in a deep breath and said, "When we first met, I couldn't tell you two apart." He placed a hand on his chest, noticing the rib bones he could feel just above his ab muscles. "Terrible, I know—"

"You're a twin!" Riley cried. "How can you not tell us apart when you're a bloody twin yourself!"

Zack shrugged. "All I saw were pretty girls I wanted to make out with."

"I figured that out when you used your line on me, yeah?" Riley rolled her eyes. "Of which you clearly got from your dad, mate. How many eleven-year-old boys know anything about being the man of someone's dreams."

"It's a good line." Zack removed his arm and grabbed her shoulders, steering her to the line of the concession stand.

"Yeah, and how many long-term relationships has your dad been in?"

"Just the one," Zack replied. He grinned. "And they produced some very attractive children."

"Yeah, yeah…" Riley reached up and grabbed Zack's chin, pressing a kiss to the underside of his jaw that equally made him grin, and made butterflies erupt in his stomach. She let go him and he quickly reached up to press his jaw, hand moving almost on autopilot, rubbing the skin to determine what she felt.

Did she feel a strong jaw bone or a fleshy fat pocket?

He dropped his hand, looking over the board as they inched closer in line.

"What do you want?" Riley took her wallet out of her pocket, dipping her head to look inside.

Missed Zack quickly and quietly scanning the menu, once, twice, three times, twisting his lower lip to the side as the seconds passed. So much to choose from, too many options. It all looked great but… Zack sighed heavily. It was the sort of thing he was starting to hate. More so in the last few weeks than any other time. It was practically torture waiting in the restaurant for her to finish, just to even have five minutes for her to stop by his table to give him a free drink or a free piece of cheesecake. Too many overwhelming choices, sights, sounds, smells.

All for a few minutes of elation.

And that was only when he wasn't at his own job; working the Tipton daycare was fun but tiring. Made him fall back into bad habits to keep his strength up simply to run around with the kids so long. It wasn't until he was utterly alone and things died down that they got worse. There was a reason he liked to be around people so much.

"Zack."

"What?" He blinked to attention.

Riley tipped her head to the board, slightly impatient. "What do you want?" she repeated.

Zack made a decision. "I want the Belly Buster."

"Fine."

He watched as she went up to the counter and asked for the order. His stomach gnawed at him as quickly as he gnawed at his lower lip. He twisted his fingers together. Barely mumbled when he said, "Actually…no, I want the fried chicken salad."

Riley paused. She lifted her head, staring straight ahead. Her eyebrows furrowed, looking at Zack out the corner of her eye. Zack looked back at his girlfriend, watching her face, noticing that while her expression hadn't changed, something around them did. The fun atmosphere they'd just had was gone; something heavy rained over them. Nevertheless, she turned back to the counter and changed the order, quickly exchanging the money needed to pay for it.

Then they walked to a table in the corner to wait.

She spoke the second they sat down, immediately raising all of Zac's red flags. He got the same feeling in the pit of his stomach when his mother was angry at him for something. Especially when he wasn't quite sure what it was. (Mostly as there was a plethora of things he could've done to incur someone's wrath, there were so many pranks he'd played against Moseby became so much that he couldn't always remember what was what).

"You're doing it again aren't you?" She asked, voice clipped.

Zack swallowed hard. Hadn't expected to be hit with such a direct question. Who was he kidding, though? Except for her feelings toward him, Riley had always been direct with everything that surrounded them. When he was being a jerk, when he needed to work harder on his studies, when he needed to concentrate…all the things that made it easier for him to better himself.

When he didn't take it too far.

Zack looked at her, eyes wide with innocence. Riley tilted her head, looking back at him, used to the look. He realized that a little too late. "What?" He brought his hands up, resting his elbows on the table. The sleeves of his sweatshirt covered most of his hands, he started to pick at his fingernails. Riley stared back at him. "No." She lifted an eyebrow. "I'm just..."

He trailed off.

Just what?

She asked him a question, it'd be worse if he lied. Lying to his mother when caught was one thing; she'd ground him, maybe take away some privileges. Maybe, give him another lecture on how disappointed she was. That was his mom, hearing it from his girlfriend was even worse. Because she could break up with him, his mom couldn't do that.

"Look," he said under his breath. "I just want to play well."

Riley shook her head, eyebrows coming together. "That's what happened for basketball. You wanted to play well, then you had a bloody heart attack."

"I know," Zack replied. And he did know. And remembered. Remembered how it felt that his heart was squeezing out of his chest. How he couldn't bring in a breath to steady everything. How, for a minute, he was in the gym and the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the hospital with worried faces around him and his arm strapped to the rails of his bed. "Look. This is different. I'm being more careful. I'm keeping track of everything with an app and—"

"I'm not an idiot, Zack, don't bloody treat me like one." She wasn't angry. Not yet. Her face hadn't started taking on the tell-tale pink hue, but her eyes were on fire. Flashing as her eyebrows pierced together. "I've known you since, what? We were eleven? I know there's a difference between the way you eat and the way you think. I know when you eat emotionally, when you're enjoying food for the sake of enjoying it."

Zack looked down at his shoes. Wondered how to make things better. If the tables were reversed, if she were having a mental breakdown, if she were struggling with her own demons, he'd just give her a hug, tell her how much he cared, that everything would be okay. He could still try and tell her that.

But he had a feeling, a deep feeling, it wouldn't work.

Riley shook her head, slapped the sides of her palms on the table top. "I just want you to be careful."

"I am being careful," he insisted.

"I don't want to lose you."

"You won't!" He tried something else. "I'm better. I've been better! For a year now!" She nodded but didn't respond. The doubt was palpable. Zack sighed heavily. He leaned back, watching as their food was brought to their table. The salad he'd asked for and the wrap she'd bought. His upper lip curled at the pool of dressing that sat atop of it. He wasn't very hungry anymore.

Zack lifted his fork and poked at the salad, taking a few bites of the dry pieces of lettuce with chunks of chicken. Studiously stayed away from the pieces touching the dressing. Yet he ignored his trembling lips and queasy stomach, ignored the calculations in his head of what he'd have to do to work it off and keep eating. Ignored it all to try and salvage a good night, and his relationship.

Finally, Riley leaned back and folded her arms. "Are you throwing all of that away?

"I'm full," he replied lightly.

"Of what? You barely fucking touched it."

Zack brought his hands up to run through his hair, stopped when he reached the edge of his beanie. Knew that if he pulled it off and went through the subconscious movement, he stopped months before, that she'd notice everything he worked to hide. Instead, he scrubbed his face with his fingers, annoyed. "Would you stop?" He finally asked. "None of this is your business."

"What do I have to do?"

"This isn't about you."

"Yes, it is!" Her eyes flashed, voice raised to a shout. Eyes turned their way, curious, then turned back. Zack pushed himself away from the table, untangling his legs from the low bench and stalked toward the parking lot. Needed to get away. Anywhere, away from all the attention. From the disgusted looks, from the judgmental stares, wondering what it was he'd done to have her yell at him like that Wasn't that how it always went? That the guy was to blame? In his experience, yeah. "You made it about me."

Zack flung his arms into the air, stopping at the edge of the parking lot. Turned to face her, folding his arms over his chest. To hide himself. To protect himself. "How?" He demanded. "How is this about you?" He exploded, unable to keep it all in. "How is the dieting, the picking on my weight, the constant comments about what I eat, how I eat, and when I do it about you? How is the comparisons to my brother, being unable to keep up with school, being put on a wait list, about you? How does going to NYU when no one thought I was going anywhere but jail about you?"

Riley lifted her hand, as if she were about to slap him. Stopped, thought better of it, then jabbed him in the chest with her fingertip. She stepped toward him, angled her head so that he could look him in the eye. "By being you," she practically hissed. "By being so great. By being funny and smart—" Zack couldn't help the snort that escaped his lips. "You're smart, Zack. You know more about history and war tactics than anyone I know. You even got Capture the Flag banned because we were all taking it so seriously!" She poked him in the center of the chest. "And you have a heart, one I fell in love with ages ago. Probably before I knew I had. I fell in love with you." She removed her hand from his chest and gestured toward herself. "So this is about me, now. I love you and I want you to know that, not up in your head. I want you to know it, here!" She pointed to her own heart. "This is my business, dammit. You're my business."

Zack rolled his eyes, turned away. Felt a pain in his chest. Not pained by her confession, no, he was elated at that, his heart wouldn't stop thrumming in excitement of it. But pain due to things out of his control. Her emotions were out of his control, his own were out of control. He didn't know which way to turn; his heart was telling him to believe everything she was saying and yet… Everything she was saying was drowned out by a voice that whispered cruelly: She doesn't really mean it, she'd just being nice. She's waiting for someone else.

"I'm not trying to hurt you," he said, instead.

"But you are! When you hurt someone I love, you're hurting me. Don't you get it?"

Zack wanted to hug her, to tell her he would try harder, but couldn't bring himself to do so. He stepped back and held out his arms, as if showing her himself for the first time. Wanted her to get a good look at what she was getting herself into, what she'd allowed herself to get into. "How can you love me like this?"

"Bloody hell!" Riley shook her head. "I've always loved you. Doesn't that count for anything?" He dropped his arms and didn't respond. Couldn't. Part of him wanted to say, "It used to," but couldn't get the words out. Didn't have to, the stunned expression on her face said enough. "Go fuck yourself, Zack!" She turned away.

Zack felt a surge of anger, well up inside him, seeing her back presented to him. "You used me," he accused. She immediately whirled around, glaring at him. "You knew how I felt about you from the beginning and you used my feelings."

"By being your friend?" She spat back.

Zack shook his head. "You led me on, I kept trying for you…"

"So you're saying this is my fault?" Her voice turned quiet, broken. Caught by the tears that threatened to come.

In that moment, Zack wondered if there was such a thing as soulmates. Wondered if there was one person destined for everyone on Earth with how he felt his own tears welling up. With how broken he felt, scared, empty. With how sorry he felt that in many ways it had nothing to do with her but in every way it did. How she encouraged him to be the best he could be, to change his habits, but how she was also who he tried to impress. How she understood hos inadequate he felt compared to his brother and made him feel what it was like to have positive attention.

Knew she understood that need, the want to be liked, due to her own struggles with the abuse of her foster father.

How they dealt with the same issue in two very different ways.

Wondered if she realized how the voices were slowly dwindling away.

He leveled his gaze on her, saw her shake her head, an air of acceptance coming over her. Saw her face clear from the anger she felt only seconds before, replaced by hurt, but understanding. Compassion. She stepped forward, placing her hands on his cheeks, tipped his head down so his forehead rested against hers. Zack closed his eyes, reaching up to grasp her wrists, gently stroked the skin with his thumbs.

"I'm not giving up on you," she murmured. "Don't you dare give up on me."

#ocappreciation #ziley #zack martin #oc: riley jackson #zack x riley #suite life #suite life series #the suite life of zack and cody #the suite life on deck #au #fic: save me from myself #fic: help me save me #tw: anorexia #tw: depression #tw: bipolar disorder #tw: abuse #prompt #by: riley #letting ana go

8 notes · View notes

whenimgoodandready · 5 years ago

Text

Ever wonder where you’ll be in 10 years? What kind of job you’ll have, or if you’re married with kids, or if you’re rich and famous or maybe even dead? Sorry! I got dark again😅 but still! And what about the heroes? Is Marinette gonna be a fashion designer? Is Adrien gonna continue to be a model? Will they be married with kids together along with their pet hamster “What’s-it’s-face”? The futures unknown to us and the only way to see it is to wait and move forward toward it! Let’s see where or “when” this goes:

*Timetagger-Mr.Pigeon is at it again. For the 24th freakin’ time in row! (sigh) Okay, you know the drill:Pigeon control powers, Blah Blah Blah, Gimmie your miraculous, Blah Blah Blah, Lucky Charm, Blah Blah Blah, Cataclysm, Blah Blah Blah, Audience takes pics of it, Blah, Blah, Blah, “De-evilize”, Blah Blah Blah, Miraculous Ladybug, Blah Blah Blah and Pound it, Blah Blah Blah................why? Why the Pigeon Dude!? Seriously! Is Hawk Moth even trying anymore!? Ugh!

Hey Hawk Moth! How ‘bout a little something different over here, huh!? (a hip hop styled and rapping supervillain w/ a spray can paint gun weapon from a vortex pops out) Now that’s what I’m talking about! Who’s this rhymes on a dime fella from time causin’ some crime you wonder? It’s Timetagger! He’s from the future! OOOOOOOH! He uses his weapon to send others in time and can travel through time space! You’ve outdone yourself there Hawk Moth! Glad you’re steppin’ up your game in the future!

He’s so competent that Ladybug and Cat Noir call in extra help in the form of a new superhero! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the holder of the rabbit miraculous, Miss Alix Kubdel! A.k.a. Bunnyx! (trumpets sound) from the future! (trumpets give triumphant end sound). Present Alix is there too. I knew it! I knew Alix would get the rabbit miraculous! (it was foreshadowed in the Season 2 opening) and it suites her cuz she’s the fastest girl in Marinettes class. BUT! Her power is not superspeed like we all assumed it would be. Odd, rabbits are known to be fast, so why isn’t it superspeed? Instead it’s the same powers as Timetagger. Wait, time traveling? What does that have to do with rabbits?...........Well, I guess if you run fast enough you could time travel, so okay, sure. Her miraculous was her pocket watch from her birthday “Timebreaker” which was guessed by the fans was a hidden miraculous (now I get the “ahead of its time” joke) and her Kwami is a rabbit named Fluff w/ her weapon being an umbrella. Her power for time traveling is called “Burrow”.

Lots of time traveling and space time traveling in this episode. Present Alix was given a note from her future self in her miraculous to go find the dynamic duo at a certain time and place for an emergency and sure enough, it was to help them deal with Timetagger. The space time traveling fight was cool, he sent her to the ice age, dinosaurs, Pompeii! Except it got old quick what with Timetagger and Bunnyx constantly using it to battle one another and it was getting nowhere! It was all:Take that! Ha! Sent you back in time! Boom! I’m back! Lather. Rinse. Repeat (sigh) I could see Cat Noir was getting bored with it too. By the looks of it, Timetagger was winning cuz Bunnyx was getting exhausted. I’m impressed, Hawk Moth was smart to create a time traveling supervillain to do the job and-(record scratch) Wait what!? Gabriel Agreste isn’t Hawk Moth in the future! Don! Don! Don!

Here’s what we learned from the future:Chris follows in his brothers footsteps as a D.J, teeny tiny Alix hits a huge growth spurt, Ladybug and Cat Noir become more badass than ever and there’s a new Hawk Moth! It was kinda hinted that Timetagger, him rapping like the app game he wasn’t allowed to play and calling the heroes babies like how he hates being treated. It was all there! Then we have Alix as the future rabbit miraculous holder with the name Bunnyx. These are getting too easy for us (older) fans predicting the shows plots. We all knew her “ancient hologram” pocket watch was a hidden miraculous and that she’d be the rabbit miraculous superhero ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. As it’s revealed, Cat Noir accidentally damages her miraculous with his Cataclysm in the future (luckily prevented now) which results in Timetagger sending her to ancient Egypt and concealed in a stone wall for possibly about a decade! (how the Hell did she survive!?), so Future Alix uses Present Alixs miraculous that hasn’t been damaged yet. Bunnyx is known as the “Hero of the Last Chance” when things get too serious that even Ladybug and Cat Noir can’t stop it and call up “Fluffy Tail”. Time travel is also dangerous to use and as we know from tv/movies, it causes time paradoxes which is why she’s the biggest emergency use. The fandom got their wish as we saw (sorta kinda) future Ladybug and Cat Noir! I wonder if in the future their teen superhero selves are renamed “Mini Bug and Kitty Noir” like Bunnyx says or if she was just teasing? As for their relationship, it’s ambiguous as to where it stands and from what “Fluffy Tail” said, it looked like she was demonstrating the love square. Does she know who they are outside of costume? Do they even know!? Cuz if they still don’t know after about 10 f**king years, I’m gonna be really pissed off! They better know by then! They get stronger with their powers expanding instead of a one-shot use, but the future looks intense from what we heard too. The villains get more powerful with a deadly doctor, terror twins, Monsieur Rat and an alien invasion! It’s no wonder Ladybug rounds up her own Justice League for this! Not mention a 7th interstellar war!? WTF is goin’ on in the future!? The other big question is who’s the new Hawk Moth!? It’s not Gabriel Agreste anymore! From his theory, it can go two ways; A. He succeeds in getting what he wants (Emilie) so he won’t need his miraculous anymore and some one else takes it, or B. He fails at getting what he wants and some one else takes it. Whoever they are, they seem to be x10 smarter than Gabe at creating supervillains (well, Timetagger still failed thanks to Present Ladybug sending Future Ladybug a note on how to defeat him) cuz some of his work was pretty careless. Honestly, he’s akumatized a baby more than once! A robot who outsmarted him and then there’s the Pigeon Dude! This new Hawk Moth doesn’t f**k around and really wants Ladybug gone ASAP. But just who are they that they’re more competent? Is it even a male? Could be female? Chloe? She’s losing her faith in Ladybug after her forced retirement (“Miraculer”), Nathalie? She knows Gabe is Hawk Moth and is secretly in love with him (“The Collector”/Queen’s Battle”) or how ‘bout Lila? (gasp!) Lila! Don! Don! Don! Of course, it all makes sense! She hates Ladybug more so than Gabe/Hawk Moth and she’s working for both of ‘em! But how is she the new Big Bad? Well, If we go by Gabe’s theory, it can go two ways; A. He gets Emilie back and becomes a happy family again w/ Adrien and doesn’t need Lila anymore, so she gets upset and discovers his miraculous and steals it as revenge for being used or B. She gets annoyed with Hawk Moth taking forever to destroy Ladybug and discovers Gabe has the miraculous and steals it to quicken the pace. She’s already gone to the dark side and she’s shaping up to be the Bigger Bad. She’s the new babysitter for Alya and Ninos siblings! (and I thought Vicky was bad!). She’s gonna akumatize them in the future! Timetagger, those terror twins and Monsieur Rat! Oh no wait! That’s Cats fault (should’ve stuck with the former option of leaving town). Let’s not panic just yet, the futures not set in stone.

#miraculous ladybug #timetagger #miraculous ladybug timetagger

7 notes · View notes

planelong · 2 years ago

Text

Geometry wars 3 dimensions evolved release date

Geometry wars 3 dimensions evolved release date full#

GraphicsThe game has appealing, bright and colourful polygons for its graphics. Geometry Wars 3 appeared to be a game that on first impressions ticked all of those boxes and that's why I'm now reviewing the game today.

Geometry wars 3 dimensions evolved release date full#

Geometry Wars 3 stayed in my library for quite some time until I purchased a Steam Link and wanted to try as many games in my library that seemed to (1) have full controller support, (2) be family friendly and (3) have co-op play I was basically looking for games I could play with my 4-year-old daughter. How I got itI managed to get this game as part of the Humble Sierra Bundle last year and while I was mainly getting the bundle for all the classic Sierra adventures (which I already have on GOG mind you) there were a bunch of games in there published by the new Sierra too such as Geometry Wars 3. So, to be effective at this game you need to stay alive for as long as possible, destroy as many enemies as possible and collect as many green tokens as possible to help boost your score. Destroying the enemies not only grants you points but they also drop green tokens which once collected increase your points multiplier dying however will reset the points multiplier and you only have a limited number of lives too. Geometry Wars 3 is a twin stick shooter where you get to control your little ship around a surface filled with a variety of enemies. The game was hugely popular and it spawned many sequels this one is the first to be developed by a studio besides Bizarre Creations (which was closed by Activision in 2010) and published by the resurrected Sierra brand (a subsidiary publishing arm of Activision). Not realising they had stumbled across an instant classic, Bizarre Creations developed a version of the game called Geometry Wars : Retro Evolved specifically for the Xbox 360's Live Arcade in 2005. What is it? Geometry Wars started out as a mini-game to test the Xbox controller while Bizarre Creations developed Project Gotham Racing and was included as a mini-game in Project Gotham Racing 2 back in 2003. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely."Bright" and "colourful" are two words that come to mind when checking out the graphics in Geometry Wars 3 Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time.Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content.Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection.Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does.Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.

#Geometry wars 3 dimensions evolved release date

0 notes

allaboutappleproducts · 3 years ago

Text

APPLE PRODUCTS IN OCTOBER 2021: SHIPPING DELAYS AND MORE

Apple products are no stranger to shipping delays, and the month of October 2021 is no exception. Apple's newest MacBook Pro model has been met with mixed reviews due to its high price point, but it still remains one of the best laptops on the market. The company also introduced a new series of Apple Watches in October that have received mostly positive feedback from consumers. And finally, let's not forget about all those iPhone rumors.

Apple's new processors came at the perfect time. October 2021 is going to be remembered for two of them in particular-the M1 Max and Pro MacBook Pros are set to launch soon, but there were so many other products announced as well! A list includes updates like an Apple Watch Series 4 with cellular capabilities or Airpods 2 which will double their storage capacity when placed together on one charge.

In the month when Facebook changed its name and absolutely nothing that addressed a single one of their problems, so Apple finally released what no one had been begging for. You can say, "Hey Siri! Play me a playlist of the songs I need to hear when my new MacBook Pro arrives and UPS adds weeks onto their shipping."

Apple Music Voice is a new, cheaper service that gives you a startling range of mood music playlists - all accompanied with Siri misunderstanding. If you're an Apple Music subscriber, your subscription pays off in the form of countless new playlists. These are only available to be accessed through Siri's voice commands and cannot be found on any playlist nor can they just appear everywhere online for free like some other services might offer their users with more lax policies about copyright laws concerning streaming audio content within apps made by these tech giants such as Spotify which permits fans listening there have access not only its own curated selection so does YouTube among many others while still being illegal under US law unless exemptions apply - but let me stop here because my point is clear enough: if everthing seems too easy where all good things come. Siri's great, but Apple Music Voice may not be the on-ramp to getting more people subscribing.

Unleashing new colors

The company might actually have more luck with the HomePod mini of many colors. No question, it's excellent and these new color options are very nice!

The rumour mill was in full swing when it came to what Apple had up their sleeve. From gold, blue and green color options for the future iPhone line to an upgraded display with higher resolutions than ever before- there were plenty of rumors about which colors would be available at launch or if they even deserved any time during "Unleashed" event all together!

Fortunately for Apple, Mr Hyperbole had a really bad day. He was hammered by an unexpected storm of MacBook Pro laptops which came out of nowhere and buried him alive in blue-ish purple vomit while HomePod mini's were being launched simultaneously with their color options following suit shortly thereafter - not surprisingly given how many people are using them at work already! And there you have it: two new processors from Intel meant nothing when mixed up against what seems like everyone vying to get one themselves because somebody heard they're good enough without having tried any yet or knowing anything about gaming rigs other than that 1+1 doesn't always = 2.

The MacBook Pro you want is here

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro is an instant classic, if you are a tech reviewer. And it will become one of your favorite laptop only in December when most orders arrive! All new Apple devices are proving more difficult to get than ever before, with the company almost seeming like they're purposefully making them just barely too few so that people will go out of their way for it. This time around though there were component shortages and transport problems worldwide which caused immediate delays in shipping dates on Macbooks Pro - but don't worry; after some adjustments these two issues should be fixed soon!

n the past, getting a MacBook Pro was difficult. The base models were sluggish and slow to respond if you bought them from an Apple Store or online retailer like Best Buy - but things have changed!

“I recently preordered one of these gorgeous laptops with Silver Sand Edition at my local Target store because it has better specs than what I could find anywhere else," said Kim Sutton who's been looking forward to finally owning her very own MBP since last year when theyfirst came out . "The shipping was fast as well--it only took three days total before mine arrived on our front doorstep."

The Apple Watch you want is backordered

When the new Apple Watch Series 7 went on sale in October 2021, it was delayed for unknown reasons. Shipping estimates were pretty much instantaneous and many people reported that their order had not even shipped by then end of September which suggests there may have been manufacturing issues at least locally with some models--something unusual given how smoothly other products are produced each year around this time The same can't be said about when preorders opened up last fall - suddenly things started slipping back very fast indeed! The delay continues today despite being launched as coming soon only weeks ago- now I'm really curious what they'll announce tomorrow?

The Apple Watch has been hyped to the moon and back, but it seems like not everyone who preorders gets what they want. One person might think there's no way something could go wrong when ordering online - after all this is 2013 right? But then again two people trying at exactly the same time would get different results which proves otherwise!

The Apple Watch might be the most popular smartwatch, but shoppers who wanted one found themselves forced into a frustrating process. For instance, if you wanted titanium and didn't have an iPhone to pair with it at launch there was no way for your purchase - even when they offered deals on other bands as well!

The company has now fixed this by allowing international shipping so people can buy products anywhere without any language barriers or time zones getting in their way... But wait; wasn’t everything else broken too? Well yes--parts shortages meant some countries had less stock than others leading to unpredictable inventory levels while also affecting price points depending where someone lived around world thanks again global supply chain issues that made things more expensive overall due both.

AppleInsider is reporting that while many Apple Stores in different countries have been getting in the new Watch Series 7, there's a shortage of stock and they don't know how long it will last. All stores we contacted said they've been receiving daily shipments from Cupertino but can never predict when something might come or what kind would be ordered--just like with previous editions!

In order to get a Watch for Christmas, many people were excited and eager. A new site has started selling Apple Watches online only with the hopes that they will have it in stores soon so you can pick one up at your local mall or outlet center on Black Friday. That's a good idea. If you want something, don't pre-order it and risk getting frustrated with the seller if they don't follow through on their side of things."

AirPods 3 at last

You could have bought the AirPods 3 whenever you liked, but now that Apple has finally made enough of them and shipped out their eagerly awaited product in October (after what seemed like a year), we can all enjoy this new version without any more waiting around.

The Apple event this week was all about the newest products, but I believe that one product in particular stole the show. The MacBook Pro is not only sleek and modern like you could never imagine before; it also has some amazing features which make working on your computer much more enjoyable for both professionals as well as casual users alike! Plus with its new Touch Bar fitted across from where my fingers rest when using a traditional keyboard - cooking up content just got easier than ever thanks to laptop innovation at its finest form yet again by none other then Steve Jobs himself.

But back to that MacBook Pro

Intel, finally realizing its mistake from last generation and sensing that people had become too eager for the latest technology without thoroughly thinking through what they were doing. Intel tried their best to stop us by releasing two new processors which are more powerful but also much slower than previous models in order make up some ground on Apple's newest pieces of equipment. Intel did try save us! They realized how foolishly fast our society is becoming with all this tech innovation--they knew there was no way these MacBook Pro Edition could live up so badly wanted them because M1 Pro & Max Processors have transformed into performance leapfrogs.

Intel knows best, but with so many people arguing back and forth about whether or not their marketing campaigns are effective - it's hard to tell who has the right answer. It was only a matter of time before someone unpacked what Intel really means by "watch." No one can argue that Intel doesn't have an eye for brand-building excellence: They've been successfully adorning our computers since 1968! However after Octobers launch into another slightly cringe campaign telling us how great these processors (which we previously had) were going be until October 2017 when they released new ones.

It's not always about which operating system is better, but rather what you need your computer for. Windows has a lot more features and options to customize it how YOU want instead of being limited by Apple who only gives their users certain limits on customization. ‍Whether this was the killer advantage or not will depend entirely upon the user themselves as well as their specific needs in regards with desktop computers- whether big/heavy duty workstation grade machines running 24/7 at peak times around networks etc., light weight notebooks used mostly off site from office environments where battery life still matters due both power demands placed onto CPU cores.

"What kind of person does something like that?" you ask yourself. "It wasn't Intel, no." And then the answer hits - because there are people in this world who would rather have their name out on Twitter than keep it safe for when they become famous or rich again. A complete stranger leaked a PowerPoint presentation showing how much better Alder Lake processors were going be compared to M1 Pro and Max by leaking information about future products ahead which can spoil everything perfectly planned before hand.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has been trying to make amends with Apple, even if it's just for the M1 Pro and Max processors. Intel also wants them in their line up of chips because they are harder than fabricating 5nm processors that have 57 billion transistors on them! Samsung is interested too but only after seeing how successful these would be at boosting sales numbers through new features not yet seen elsewhere before. It was actually quite difficult making PowerPoint slides when you consider all aspects other than fabricating 555-nm Processors which can contain 1125+ GFlops per second—easily beating out any competition available today or tomorrow according.

Look back in October

Steve Jobs' death marked the 10th anniversary of his life. It's hard to believe how much time has passed by since he moved over Mac computers to Intel, but it is true that 2021 was ten years ago-and a lot can happen in just one decade!

The month also saw the 10th birthday of Siri, and those new MacBook Pros came out on about 30 years since they first released the PowerBook. In February 2017 we had a blast celebrating our favorite inventions from around this time last year including voice assistants like Alexa or Google Home in addition to some more futuristic gadgets! It's hard not envisioning what will be considered cutting edge technology given how quickly things change but one thing seems certain: there'll always be people trying their hardest just get ahead no matter where you're going next."

In 1991, Apple had revenues of about $6.3 billion for the year and in 2021 it reported earnings to be around 83 million - this means that by just five years later back then when they first started reporting quarterly results there was an increase from six point three trillion dollars (that's with a t!)-to over eight hundred thirty three Quadrillion!

Apple had around 11,000 employees back when the PowerBook was launched. By three years later on September 30 1994 it reached a total of 2787 regular full-time staff members and 3305 temporary or part time contractors & workers for Apple Inc..

For September 25, 2021 Apple had to estimate how many staff it has. Its financial filings say the company has "approximately 154,000 full-time equivalent employees." Unfortunately for October 1st 2020 you could knock another 1 off that list when controversial firing against an employee was announced just days before in advance of its actual take place date; this time over fears he would impede investigation into alleged misuse or leaking sensitive information (though no evidence supports these claims).

Apple Maps program manager Janneke Parrish was accused of deleting crucial files — including the app Pokemon GO, which is also known as "the new frontier" for smartphone gamers. The #AppleToo group has surfacing accounts from employees who claim they are being paid unequally and harassed at work by higher ranking officials within Apple's HR department to cover up these problems with sensitive information leaking out into public forums like Facebook or Twitter where it can be accessed by competitors outside their company. It turns out there were cached versions left behind on her phone after downloading some apps so she could continue playing , but none would open now since everything related had been deleted.

The recent scandals surrounding harassment and discrimination, both at Apple as well as other companies like Uber or Amazon demonstrate that these problems are not exclusive to one industry. This is a good thing because sometimes we need reminders about the importance of standing united against hate crimes no matter who they affect – employees from all walks-of life deserve respect on their jobs! Mind you: Sometimes even corporations change over time; which can lead some people ( myself included ) into thinking “well maybe this company isn’t so bad now then.” #AppleToo received 500 complaints within just three days after launch? What happened between October 2021.

Play the game

An interesting new report has found that Apple earnings from gaming are more than the combined profits of Sony, Nintendo Microsoft and Activision. Apple must've read that report because at the very end of October, its regulatory earnings filing had a potentially significant change. Previously it listed only two competitors - Android and Windows; however following Apple's addition to this list there exist three more companies with which they compete: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) ,and Nintendo Co Ltd .

So Apple says it's a gaming company. You can't argue against that since 70% of the App Store revenue comes from games, and there's also that Arcadehttps://appleinsider.com/inside/Apple-Arcade service you keep meaning to check out. It didn't take long for gamers around this world (especially on iOS) get excited when they heard about two new game consoles coming soon; one by Microsoft Corporation called Xbox One X + another developed entirely in house at apple named "iPhone 8" which competes directly with Samsung Note 9.

The new MacBook Pro models are still not as powerful when it comes to playing games. This could be a big issue because we'll just have deal with whatever happened, but luckily for us there is an easy solution that takes care all your gaming needs in one place! Introducing the Entirely Awesome Gaming. Mention company's slogan "Countless hours spent count down" twice and ensure heading appears both at beginning and end.

#apple

0 notes

flemingtech · 5 years ago

Text

INSECURE, IF YOU TREAT YOUR BATTERY NORMALLY...

“Welcome to my Tech Talk,”

We are living in an era of insecurity. So much that even the numbers 13 and 666 are insecure about their positions as “bad luck” numbers since 2020 is really giving them a run for their money. HBO had the same feeling and finally gave us Insecure Season 3. Relationships have also been feeling the heat since Kenyan boy-band Sauti Sol released their tune, Insecure, and now couples want to take a break to feel the song more. (On that note; Cheryl it’s been two weeks now, please come back.)

We also use our electronic gadgets with some sense of insecurity which mainly stems from the imperfection of the 21st-century science. This article deals with battery insecurity. Batteries are your devices’ fastest degrading component. You may have realized 2-3 years after buying your electronic gadget mainly your phone, struggles to maintain a single full charge for a whole day. Your basic practices may be digging a six-foot hole for your battery.

I am using a 3-year-old device and unfortunately learnt battery management the hard way. By the second year, my battery could hold only 65% of its charge. I began implementing these actions and one year later it’s currently at 63%. I use Accubattery Android app to monitor my battery health and to also recommend actions I should take. Those on iOS can easily access their battery health percentage in their battery settings. On Windows you can access such information by:

(Warning: It’s a geeky process)

1. Clicking Windows button+X and select Windows Powershell(Admin).

2. Type and enter: powercfg /battery report /output “C:\battery-report.html”.

3. Go to local disk C and you’ll find the battery report there.

Let's get into the topic and learn the do's and don’ts of a battery.

HOW BATTERIES WORK

Electrons move from the negative to the positive terminal of the battery. Connecting an electronic device like a light bulb in the path gives it power. The most common battery is the dry-cell, which uses metal and a chemical paste to generate/discharge electrons. Its downside is that the metal’s electrons are finite and get depleted in a process called oxidation). That is when we say the battery has died.

Rechargeable batteries give a temporary solution to this problem. The most common one is the lithium-ion battery found in most of our gadgets. They work with the same principle as a dry cell during the discharging of electrons. The only difference is that the metal in these batteries can be regenerated with electrons with the application of electricity (recharging). The electrons are thus available when you need them.

Sadly, rechargeable batteries don't last forever. The repetition of this process, discharging-recharging, causes imperfections and irregularities in the metal surface. This prevents batteries from discharging electrons properly thus we say the battery's health has deteriorated. Since electrons are no longer available to flow through the circuit, the battery dies. Some rechargeable batteries will die after hundreds of discharge-recharge cycles while newer batteries may last for thousands.

*A charge cycle is a full discharge and recharge of a battery, from 0-100%

THE DON’TS OF CHARGING YOUR BATTERY

1. Idle Charging

Charging overnight is a very common habit. We all want to begin our day with a fully charged phone but sorry to say that you’re just preparing a poison recipe for your battery. The continual trickling of electrons to a battery full of electrons induces stress on the battery’s voltage and temperature. These two ingredients reduce the stability of the battery in the long-term.

Ideally, a device should stop charging when it reaches 100%, but batteries continue to pull a small charging current even when the device is off (The wonders of science). This is what brings about the detrimental effects.

*Exposing a fully charged battery to high temperatures is the worst condition you can expose your battery to.

2. Using your device while charging (Parasitic load)

Parasitic load is a phenomenon that occurs when the battery is being drained significantly and charged at the same time. This occurs mainly when watching a video or playing games while charging.

*Your screen consumes most of your battery power since it’s the largest hardware in your devices.

Parasitic loads distort the charge cycle and can induce mini-cycles, whereby part of the battery continually cycles and deteriorates at a faster rate than the rest of the cell. When fully charge they induce higher voltage stress and heat on the battery.

The best way to avoid parasitic loads is by turning off or leaving the device idle when charging.

3. Draining your battery to 0% or charging it to 100%.

This habit was brought about by old rechargeable batteries; a phenomenon called ‘battery memory’. If you didn’t charge them at 0%, they ‘remembered’ and reduced their lifespan. It was better for their lifespan if you always drained and charged the battery completely.

As for newer batteries, completely draining and charging the battery stresses the battery. Battery science tells us that the healthy range of charging is above 20% and below 90%, with the most optimum point being at 50%.

*So far science suggests that short quick charges are fine for your battery health

THE DO’S OF A BATTERY

1. To avoid stressing the battery. Partially charge your battery; below 90% is most recommended. On my Android device, I use Accubattery to signal me when my battery has exceeded 85%. A notable improvement will be noticed when you implement this practice.

2. Avoid idle charging.

3. Avoid using your device while charging. Some devices charge faster when you turn flight mode on.

4. Turning down your screen brightness reduces the screen’s battery usage of your device.

5. Reduce screen timeout (time to auto-lock). If you are doing something meaningful with your device, like reading the news and screen auto-lock is a bother, you can increase the timeout.

6. Turn on dark mode or use a dark theme.

Windows 10, Android 10 and iOS 13 have incorporated dark mode across their devices. For devices that have OLED/AMOLED screens, dark themes simply don't turn on the screen's pixels, producing beautiful blacks. On the contrary, for LCD/LED screens to display black, the pixel blocks the backlight which consumes power. To use this recommendation effectively, confirm the type of screen on your phone by web searching its specs.

7. Avoid using fast chargers to completely charge the battery. They should be used for short quick charges.

8. Turn on battery saver mode. The latest Android versions incorporate battery saver settings which limit the CPU’s performance hence less power used.

9. Turn off radios such as NFC, GPS and Bluetooth when you don't require them. They consume power when left on standby mode.

10. You can charge your phone before you go to sleep, turn on flight mode and you will wake up to a phone that has lost about 2% of its charge.

Battery health management requires a certain discipline. If I can get it, you can get it-21st century Kenyan proverb. We already have 99 insecurities to worry about, don’t let your battery be one. I had previously done an article on Laptop Management and other battery management tips can be found in the link I’ll provide below. Till we meet next time, keep it fleming.

Laptop management link:https://flemingtech.tumblr.com/post/616588723805650944/flemingtech

#tech batteries insecure

0 notes

biofunmy · 6 years ago

Text

Samsung Galaxy Fold: Your questions, answered

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is here, but is it worth it? We went hands-on with Samsung’s nearly $2,000 phone to find out. USA TODAY

Samsung’s new $1,980 Galaxy Fold has been making waves over the last two weeks, not necessarily for all the right reasons.

And now the arrival of Samsung’s foldable hybrid – a cross between a thick smartphone and iPad Mini-sized tablet – has been delayed until at least next month, in the aftermath of screen damage and busted phones reported by early reviewers.

Ahead of such problems, the phone drew plenty of hype and buzz for its innovative design, not to mention its near $2,000 price.

At Samsung’s request, we are returning our review unit Tuesday, but USA TODAY’s Ed Baig and Eli Blumenthal have been messing around with the device for the last week.

Here’s what we experienced, and what you need to know to get caught up on the news.

The latest news

What’s going on with the delay?

The saga that led to the delay began after reviewers from CNBC, The Verge, Bloomberg as well as influential YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who (like USA TODAY) were among those given pre-release test units, reported screen damage that broke the Fold.

Galaxy Fold delay: Samsung delays launch of Galaxy Fold following display issues

Half-off Google Pixel: Want a Google Pixel 3 for half off? Here’s how you can get one

The display on the unit given to CNBC, for example, flickered uncontrollably causing the device to turn off and completely malfunction.

After one day of use… pic.twitter.com/VjDlJI45C9

— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) April 17, 2019

The Verge said its unit developed “a bulge that appeared to be the result of something in between the screen and the hinge.”

The back of the Galaxy Fold. (Photo: Eli Blumenthal, USA TODAY)

Other problems surfaced after testers peeled off what appeared to be a protective film on the screen, that was, in fact, not meant to be removed, though Samsung didn’t do a good enough job of communicating this point in its packaging handed to reviewers.

The phone comes with this protective layer/film. Samsung says you are not supposed to remove it. I removed it, not knowing you’re not supposed to (consumers won’t know either). It appeared removable in the left corner, so I took it off. I believe this contributed to the problem. pic.twitter.com/fU646D2zpY

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019

Samsung began an investigation that is still going on.

Meanwhile, if you already pre-ordered the Fold you can cancel at any time, Samsung says. You haven’t been charged yet anyway since the phone hasn’t shipped.

Is our test phone broken?

Our test unit, a European variant of the Fold, worked fine after a week of use. The phone still opened and closed as it initially did, with the protective layer on the tablet screen still intact and functioning.

Our use, thus far

Favorite feature?

Ed Baig: Putting aside the issues some have experienced with the 7.3-inch tablet display – and frankly that’s now hard to do now, given the delay and all – it has to be the way this thing folds. That is quite a technological achievement.

I’m not even put off by the line that is sometimes visible on the screen, depending on the angle you are looking at or what background is on the display. The size is ideal for watching video or reading an eBook, and even in its open state holdable with one-hand, though true one-handed operation is reserved for when the phone is closed and when you’re relying on the outside display, to check on a text or take a selfie.

Eli Blumenthal: I still am impressed with the overall usefulness of the foldable screen. I use my phone as my main television and the ability to just open up the phone in bed and watch the NBA playoffs on a big screen without grabbing a tablet or television remote worked surprisingly well.

Biggest gripe?

Eli: The front “phone” screen on the Fold is really bad. While 4.6-inches, the screen is very narrow, making it hard to type, watch videos with, take pictures on or just generally use beyond a few simple tasks. You can’t even use the front screen horizontally to type text messages or browse Chrome in landscape mode.

Maps, making calls and controlling music are all fine, but this front seems to exist as just a way to get people to open the larger tablet. The good thing is that tablet experience does work so well.

I’m going to go one step further and give a “runner up” gripe to the fingerprint sensor on the side. This didn’t work well for me when the phone was closed and was even more difficult to use when the Fold was opened.

Also a nearly $2,000 phone that isn’t water-resistant in 2019? Hard pass.

The Galaxy Fold’s divider isn’t always hidden. (Photo: Eli Blumenthal, USA TODAY)

Ed: I agree on all of the above. Let me mention another: the fact that this phone doesn’t have 5G. Granted, these are the earliest days for the rollout of the next generation of mobile wireless. But if you’re going to spend nearly two-grand on a device like this, you’d want it to be 5G-ready.

Even if Samsung in a year or whatever comes out with a 5G version and an attractive trade-in option, I’m just not paying that much in the interim for a device that in some respects is half-baked.

While I’m at it, let me also complain about the removal of your standard-sized headphone jack, though Samsung, of course, isn’t exactly alone with this complaint. (I’m looking at you Apple.)

Eli: Both valid points, though Samsung does include a pair of its otherwise $129 Galaxy Buds in the box with the Fold. They do get points there.

Ed: I’ll give you that, though I sometimes still prefer to use better, corded headphones.

Any surprise?

Eli: While Samsung has plenty of work to do in fixing up the Fold’s screen problems, I have been pleasantly surprised by how polished the software is. Samsung is not known for its software prowess (see: Bixby, the company’s Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant rival) but kudos to Samsung and Google for making the phone work, for the most part, really well. Apps transitioned quickly between the two displays, games played smoothly and multi-tasking worked.

I had some issues with certain apps playing videos simultaneously in multitasking mode (turning the tablet into a quasi-“sports bar,” if you will), but things mostly worked well.

Ed: One positive for sure seemed to be battery life, which you’d ordinarily wonder about on a device of this size with two screens. It has a dual battery system that works in tandem. And while I didn’t conduct any formal kind of battery test, the Fold appeared to have plenty of juice even after a full day of mixed use.

When closed the Galaxy Fold is roughly the size of two Galaxy S10 line phones. (Photo: Eli Blumenthal, USA TODAY)

Where do you see this tech going forward?

Ed: I think foldable designs have a world of potential and are here to stay in one manner or another. Having said that, though, “screen-gate” certainly represents a step back not only for Samsung but for the entire foldable market.

Of course, the expectation is none of the early foldable phones would be perfect – these are, after all, version 1.0 devices that you’d expect to improve dramatically in their next iterations and beyond.

Still, there are several interesting developments in the foldable space. One device to watch is a rumored foldable Razr phone from Lenovo-owned Motorola.

More: Ready for Motorola’s Razr comeback? The new foldable phone may launch this summer

And another is Huawei’s Mate X, which turned heads recently at the MWC trade show in Barcelona. It faces two big and possibly insurmountable problems. For one thing, if you think Samsung’s phone is pricey, Huawei’s device would cost about $2,600. Then there’s the matter of whether such a phone could even be released in the States anytime soon given the political football over whether Huawei is an agent of espionage for China, something the company has strongly denied.

The front and back of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. (Photo: Samsung)

Eli: Agreed, though again, I’m still impressed at how far along Samsung has gotten with proving this concept. The problems make it very, very clear that the company has a lot of work to do before anyone should think about buying this device, but you can’t discount the potential for this technology to influence the future of phones and computing.

What’s does this mean for Samsung?

Ed: Nothing good. Remember, Samsung is a company that, within our collective memory, had to withstand another PR firestorm over the Galaxy Note 7, which had batteries that caught fire, leading to three separate recalls. It cost Samsung billions of dollars and made it a punchline.

To its credit, Samsung recovered from the Note 7 and presumably can get past this crisis as well.

But this surely doesn’t help and how Samsung manages the eventual release of the phone will be telling.

Samsung Galaxy Fold (Photo: Samsung)

Eli: A big save for Samsung is the fact that this phone is not yet in the hands of the public. One can only imagine what they would’ve had to deal with if the Fold was already released.

That’s not to excuse this – the press should not be a way to test whether your product works – but from a PR standpoint, this type of crisis is a black-eye, not a knockout punch. Companies, including Samsung as you mentioned, have dealt with far worse and recovered just fine.

If Samsung does fix the Fold I do think people will quickly forget all about this issue the same way they have with delays of other failed product launches in the past.

Worth the price?

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold (Photo: Eli Blumenthal, USA TODAY)

Eli: The more I use this phone, the more I’m reminded of the first iPhone in 2007. High price, limited or missing features, bulky size and questionable design decisions (remember Apple’s recessed headphone jack?). Even with all that, though, you could see the potential.

As you’ve mentioned, this is very much a first-generation product. And as we’ve discussed, there are plenty of important issues Samsung needs to work out.

At $1,980, no one, except people who need to have the latest and greatest, should buy this phone as their main device. But like with the original iPhone, I’m still bullish on where this goes next.

Ed: I believe in its potential too. The design is impressive and so is the underlying technology. But even if Samsung didn’t have screen problems, I’m not buying, I just can’t justify spending anywhere near this much.

Follow Ed Baig on Twitter @edbaig; Follow Eli Blumenthal @edblumenthal

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/04/23/samsung-galaxy-fold-your-questions-answered/3539446002/

Sahred From Source link Technology

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2vgXhZ9 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

jenniferasberryus · 5 years ago

Text

Unboxing Return to Dark Tower and Its Massive Mechanical Tower

When a reboot of the hit 1981 board game Dark Tower (no relation to the books or movie) was announced in 2018, the big question was how developer Restoration Games would handle the iconic electronic tower that sat at the center of its game board. Well, that big question has a big answer.

Ahead of Return to Dark Tower’s Kickstarter launch on January 14, designer Rob Daviau (who joined us previously for a look at Betrayal Legacy and has partnered with Gloomhaven creator Isaac Childres for this) came by to give us a look inside this spiritual successor’s box. That includes its massive, one-foot tall plastic tower with Bluetooth, spinning chambers, lights, and ominous sound effects galore.

Watch the video above to see me and Daviau show it off, and read on to hear my thoughts after playing Return to Dark Tower myself:

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=early-look-at-photos-and-components-of-return-to-dark-tower&captions=true"]

Starting with the basics, Return to Dark Tower is a cooperative board game for 1-4 players. You and your allies have to fight monsters, grab loot, and complete quests to eventually lure out and defeat a powerful adversary hiding in the looming tower at the center of the map.

And, boy, does that tower loom. This thing is truly enormous, almost entirely blocking the opposite half of the map opposite from your view – actually a net positive, as it encouraged me and my allies to talk more and prevented anyone player from effectively quarterbacking the whole experience.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20tower%20is%20a%20showpiece%20meant%20to%20wow%20and%20intimidate%20as%20it%20continuously%20threatens%20the%20success%20of%20your%20mission."]

This big hunk of plastic is, of course, important to actually playing the game, but it’s also just a presence in itself. A showpiece meant to wow and intimidate as it continuously threatens the success of your mission. Also, it’s got Bluetooth, so that’s neat.

You’ll move your hero minis around Return to Dark Tower’s lovely circular board while managing item cards, plastic skulls, and other physical pieces, but many other aspects of the game are handled by a mobile app. Quest tracking, turn counters, and combat to name a few, but the digital and physical sides are balanced in a way that never makes the other feel superfluous.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/06/return-to-dark-tower-teaser-trailer"]

And, perhaps most important of all, the tower itself feels as important as it should. Daviau told me they wanted to make sure players couldn’t just leave it in the box, and the suite of showy actions it can perform is full of both flavor and substance. Its built-in Bluetooth connects to your phone, essentially acting as a gamemaster for your adventure when paired.

A player ends their turn by dropping a tiny plastic skull into the top of the tower. A sensor detects the skull, signals to the app that a turn is over, and triggers all sorts of dastardly events depending on the combination of quests, monsters, and main villain you are using for that session. The inner chambers of the tower shift and turn, sigils appear and light up to impose penalties on whoever they are facing, and occasionally you’ll need to open trap doors on its foreboding exterior.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It's%20terrifying%20when%20you%20drop%20a%20skull%20in%20the%20tower%20and%20it%20doesn't%20roll%20out%20again%2C%20instead%20gathering%20in%20some%20unknown%20nook%20inside%20waiting%20to%20rush%20out%20unexpectedly%20later."]

That last bit is often the scariest. When a skull is dropped into the tower it will usually roll out of one of its many openings at random. The player it rolls toward then has to place that skull on one of the buildings in their section of the map, which makes gathering the benefits of that building more expensive. That’s rough on its own, but it’s even more terrifying when a skull doesn’t appear at all, instead gathering in some unknown nook or behind a door yet to be opened within the tower itself.

As the game goes on and more openings are unlocked, it not only makes getting skulls or sigils more likely, it also increases the odds that you’ll stumble upon a latent cache of doom waiting to roll out. At one point during our playthrough, the tower instructed us to open a door and four skulls clattered onto a single player’s kingdom, throwing all their plans into chaos. It’s delightfully devilish and makes interacting with this evil monolith wonderfully tense.

Return to Dark Tower is split into six “months,” each of which begins by giving you two quests: one that will help you complete your overall quest of luring out and defeating your adversary more easily when finished, and another that will instead empower your enemies if you don’t complete it.

Since you only have that month to complete them (each month is generally between seven and nine turns long), the puzzle here is in figuring out how best to divide tasks and time between each player – and to determine what will likely have to fall under the umbrella of “acceptable losses.” This makes each month a little mini-game inside of your final quest, full of tough choices and tiny victories of their own.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Killing%20an%20enemy%20is%20generally%20as%20easy%20as%20using%20the%20combat%20action%20on%20them%2C%20but%20be%20ready%20to%20take%20massive%20losses%20alongside%20your%20victory%20if%20you%20aren%E2%80%99t%20properly%20prepared."] Many of those choices involve the monsters that inevitably fill the map, and specifically whether you’re going to fight them or spend your time elsewhere while quietly praying they don’t find you cowering in the corner… which they will. See, killing an enemy is as easy as using the combat action on them (apart from some special big bads), but be ready to take massive losses alongside your victory if you aren’t properly prepared.

Combat is handled entirely through Return to Dark Tower’s app, which we were using a prototype version of. Instead of rolling dice or pitting combat power against one another, you instead draw a set number of digital cards from that monster’s deck while using “advantages” you gather through items and character abilities to make those cards less awful.

For example, many enemy cards cause you to lose a resource called warriors, and you could use an advantage on one that makes you lose four warrior tokens to reduce it to two, and then another to make it zero. Go even further and you’ll actually start getting resources back as a reward, but don’t have enough to sacrifice and you’ll gather debuffs called corruptions that will lose you the game once you reach three.

If you don’t have many advantages to spend you’ll still be able to win the fight, just not mitigate the damage you take as a result, and having only a few advantages forces you to pick which poisons you most want to neutralize. Some advantages are only effective against certain enemy types too, like beasts or the undead, encouraging players to specialize and prepare the right tool for the right job.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Its%20combat%20system%20is%20unique%20and%20strategically%20interesting%2C%20if%20one%20that%20felt%20just%20a%20little%20bit%20odd%20thematically."]

It’s a unique and strategically interesting system, if one that felt just a little bit odd thematically in practice. Most enemies – whether it’s a wolf or an ogre – can be killed in a single combat, and it seems odd that you amass warrior not to improve your combat power but instead to have them be taken away to avoid real damage. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a system I enjoyed using and planning around, but one that’s likely in need of a finished app with actual card graphics and more clear flavor to really click for me.

That said, it’s one of the few parts of Return to Dark Tower that didn’t so far. The slight variations between each character are significant enough to give each player a distinct role without making everyone learn a whole new ruleset, the items and treasures offer significant effects that my group was constantly getting excited about, and the prospect of replayability as you (and the app) swap between sets of quests, adversaries, and more is highly appealing for a box as big as this.

Return to Dark Tower is launching a Kickstarter on Tuesday, January 14 at 9am ET. It’s by no means a cheap or small game, and there’s still lots of questions left unanswered after my one (nearly victorious) prototype playthrough, but the unique spectacle and interesting puzzle it offered already left me wanting to have another go right away.

If you’re looking for more great board games, you can watch our spoiler-free unboxing of Betrayal Legacy with Daviau, or check out our list of the best cooperative board games. We’ve also rounded up some of the best fantasy board games around, and if you’re new to the hobby, here’s our picks for the best board games for beginners. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter. from IGN Video Games https://www.ign.com/articles/return-to-dark-tower-first-impressions-and-unboxing-its-massive-mechanical-tower via IFTTT from The Fax Fox https://thefaxfox.blogspot.com/2020/01/unboxing-return-to-dark-tower-and-its.html

0 notes

soundincomestrategies · 6 years ago

Text

Media And Information Bias With David Scranton

youtube

Dan Gainor

David Scranton: Hi and welcome to this week’s installment of the Income Generation, I’m David Scranton your host. As always the primary purpose of this show is to provide you with useful information thoughts and financial remedies to assist and guide you through a time in your life when financial missteps could have a much larger negative impact than when you were younger. Each week I share some of the insights and expertise that I use in my financial practice and bring them to you as either food for thought or actionable items for financial or investment concerns you might be having. Many of the times people don’t even realize or recognize what these concerned should be, they feel as though they’re doing everything right. You might be watching the nightly news, you might be reading financial publications, sitting there with your broker or a financial advisor on a regular basis to make the most of your situation. But history has still shown that time and time again the information distributed to you by various outlets turns out to be wrong or if not totally wrong just ignores some very important facts. So why is it so often wrong or incomplete? that’s what today’s show will help you discover and I’m sure that it will get you thinking and maybe even rustle some feathers of people that I occasionally run into in my own business, and that’s fine with me. Our guest today is an expert on the subject of media bias, he’s vice president of Media and Culture at a much heralded organization. Watching the media and what you’re being told, they listen and watch word for word for truth then they make the findings available as a public service. So as much as the news and the media are in many ways supposed to be your source of information or even the public’s watchdog, as it turns out the watchdog actually needs a watchdog. As you may know America has a watchdog with the Media Research Center so you’re in for some great insight and perhaps even some disturbing examples today of abuses in the media. abuses that you know we’re exposed to every single day, a little later in the show I’ll be interviewing Dan Gainor who for ten years was head of the division of the MRC. The MRC exist solely to be the watchdog for you. I’ll see if I can get Dan to pull the cover off some of the machine that shapes public thoughts, the media themselves. I’ve known Dan for a while but I’ve never had the opportunity to have this discussion with him, I look forward to his informed insights and depth of understanding of what either is intentional misdirection or complete dishonesty. And what may just be the nature of information distribution. Marti Johnson’s also back this week with a special report on why the media like so many other businesses may be flawed or missing their potential to do good. And most of the media is a four profit business whether it’s a newspaper with a two hundred year history, a major television network or recent blog that you read. The main goal is to make money. Actually, in many cases informing you is a bit lower on the list, how much lower? Well by the end of the show we’ll have a better idea of where we rank in the media’s eyes. Last week we had an economist Peter Morici on and he discussed some of what drives market expectations and its expectations that often drive investment prices and returns.

Peter Morici: The reality is though is that Mr. Obama would be limited to spending only as much taxes come in so would force a balanced budget almost immediately that is a manageable proposition. So to say the Republicans are responsible is absurd but unfortunately, who’s ever present in the United States gets to set the terms of the debate by virtue of the bully pulpit. And he’s got America convinced that somehow that we’re going to renag and welch on our debts. Nothing could be further than the truth, the only person that can determine whether we renag or welch on our debts if we don’t raise the debt ceiling is the president of the United States.

David Scranton: Well, with a constant barrage of news twenty-four seven and even phone apps today that are updating and informing us on a constant basis it would be almost impossible for the information distributed. Whether correct or not to not work its way into the market psyche and even yours, this of course has a huge effect on us all. As for myself I’m a student of the markets and I sometimes sit dumbfounded as I listen to a reporter discuss why the markets moving up or why the markets moving down. the reasons they give it times I think are so oversimplified as to be comical, I often wonder if they’re intentionally oversimplifying or if they purposely omit discussing the most likely causes of market moves for fear that you at home simply may not understand. Let me give you a simple example, in August of this year the stock market moved significantly lower and what the media called a flash crash. This event included one of the top ten worst days in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Since the talking heads on television always promised to deliver and provide the answers immediately they had to give viewers a reason for the drop on the spot. My experience is that they seem to have a list of go to explanations for most market moves, this time they pulled out the old high frequency trading and lack of transparency as being the cause. They basically blamed electronic trading. They quickly were airing conversations to viewers about market reforms to help improve these causes and conditions. Whether the news outlets were right or not didn’t matter, all the folks at home who digested this as a cause were fed information that is now part of their beliefs to one degree or another. The reasons given much later on when analysts had time to look at all the mechanisms that played into that historical day ended up being much different. And that is still being studied, I thought of a similar event back in May of two thousand and ten. Which had a one thousand point flash crash. You might remember that back then the media also pointed the same culprits, high frequency traders. Enough time has passed and research conducted since that invent they have come up with an entirely different set of reasons. In fact, the conclusion the SEC came up with along with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission specifically stated that high frequency trading did not cause the flash crash. The staffs of these two agencies discovered that Futures contracts in Chicago specifically something called the E-mini futures had a liquidity crisis and it caused the price drop of five percent within four and a half minutes. Did the news outlets issue a correction or even an apology? Not that I heard, that was yesterday’s news and what I describe briefly earlier is not something most viewers would quickly grasp or tie together. Perhaps they’re afraid to give too much information because they don’t think their audience can handle it. Today’s show we’ll talk about this and even more sinister motives, that’s one of the reasons I’m here to dig deeper than a soundbite or quickly fabricate a reason to explain just the market move or the day. in fact after a very few very bad days after the flash crash this August, the market began climbing back much of the time according to analysis done by my staff at Sound Income Strategies was it was due to investors covering what’s called short positions in the stock market. These trades have the same effect as any other purchase so of course, the market begin to rise. Now this again wasn’t explained as one of the possible reasons on anything written or aired that I have seen since then. I guess they didn’t think you’d understand, I remember hearing instead that China suddenly was no longer a concern and that the Fed was expected to raise rates and that was the reason for the original drop. But the market climb is because the Fed will probably be on hold for a while now and of course, the old standby excuse unemployment concerns. If you have any money at all you can rest assured there are people who will be trying to relieve you of some of it? Now I’m not suggesting necessarily in an illegal way we all know there are people who will steal. What I’m talking about today though is legal businesses that bombard us all with dubious images and definitions of what’s best what’s normal and what we need to do to live happier more successful lives. One example, I like to show is legalized fantasy sports betting. If you haven’t seen these commercials for these fantasy sports companies which fits almost every definition I know of gambling well then you’re lucky. On their commercials which typically air during football or baseball games they have one person after another talking about how for just a few dollars entry fee they were able to win thousands of dollars playing. Their all extremely happy, they’re full of energy and the commercials urge you to get into the action along with them. The underlining message is that you can’t lose now, maybe these commercials and the business practices of this industry shouldn’t bother me as much as they do. But when I see the advertisements it reminds me of the ads and business tactics of discount brokerage firms and online trading sites. the message their commercials constantly send is that it’s so easy to invest a baby can do it , you’ve all seen those I’m sure. Another ad looks to get people to buy more by convincing them that if they’re like the winner in the commercial when they have an idea they also need to act upon it right away. Yet another sends the message that all you really need is the right charting tools you know instantly take control over your finances. Much like the ad for one week fantasy leagues which may not specifically be asking the viewer to gamble, I feel these discount broker ads are suggesting the same thing. They craft the message that it’s easy, it’s fun, everyone’s doing it and everyone’s making money doing it it’s almost like they’ve even taken scripts directly from the cigarette ads of yesteryear. You know if you smoke well you’ll be cool or in this case if you day trade you’ll be cool. Let me mention another reason for us to all be upset, when a product portrayed as glamorous you know yet it has the potential to do as much harm as smoking or online trading. The company and perhaps even the network is acting irresponsibly but it’s you as a citizen who gets stuck with the bill in one way or another, think about it. Both the tobacco companies and those touting these ease of do it yourself investing have cost Americans billions, that’s whose footing the bill for irresponsible misrepresentations of what you should expect. Why would large T.V. networks not instead have more wholesome advertisements? For the same reason Congressman may be more likely to act on behalf of lobbyists than their constituents, you know there are lobbyists pursuing them and pushing them, incentivizing them to act on their behalf instead of yours. It’s similar with T.V. and magazines paid advertisers are far more important than non-paying viewers. I’ll even go as far as to say it affects the very content of the supposed new shows, I hope to dig deeper into this with Dan Gainor later in the show. My registered investment advisory firm Sound Income Strategies is already held to a fiduciary standard. I believe that brokerage firms which are related business should also be held to the same standard, this is why I get so fired up when I see commercials that are encouraging people to gamble with their future. They should all come with a warning much like packs of cigarettes today that say Don’t Try This At Home. In fact, right now President Obama is making a huge push to have all advisors including brokers become fiduciaries when investing client’s retirement accounts. I’m a managing member of a registered investment advisory firm as I said a moment ago so I’m already held to that fiduciary standard, in fact, I’d lose my license and effectively be out of business if I didn’t put my clients first. Holding brokers and other advisors and hopefully one day commentators also to a fiduciary standard I believe is a good thing because it’s not so easy that a baby can do it. So it may be a rare moment when I agree with one of President Obama’s initiatives but I hope in this case that his push on this topic is successful. You heard that right, I agree with you Mr. President all advisors need to be held to the high fiduciary standards of putting their client’s interests above their own. Many types of financial advisors don’t have to under current regulations so make sure you’re working with an advisor that does. Dan Gainor currently runs the Business and Cultural Institute at the MRC but has also been the T. Boone Pickens fellow as well as the director of the free market project in the past for the MRC. Dan, welcome to the show.

Dan Gainor: Thanks Dave, it’s a pleasure.

David Scranton: First of all, can you tell us what the Media Research Centers primary mission is?

Dan Gainor: Well, we’re a conservative media watchdog and it’s our job to both identify and then neutralize left wing bias in the media. We’ve been around for more than twenty-eight years and we are probably the largest archive you’re going to find this side of the Library of Congress for video. we’ve got I think the last number is close to six hundred thousand hours of video and that means that we’re monitoring ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC and not just for news but also for entertainment. because one of the things we found over the years is that the bias in the media is in all aspects of media and you’ll see that…you’ll see that it attacks on conservative issues, you see it attacks on business men you’ll see you know T.V. shows where there were always targeting businessmen as villains. And the free market system and our country as somehow evil but one of the things we’ve learned over time is that essentially American public has lost faith in the media and there’s good reason for that.

David Scranton: Alright, fair enough that’s a great explanation for viewers you know why do we need a media watchdog and why can’t the media…?

Dan Gainor: I’ve been… I spent decades in news. I mean I spent decades in the news before I came into this job and I can tell you that on every major issue of the day journalists have opinions that they let creep into their news copy. that’s who their friends with, who they go to… who they socialize with, how they vote that all creeps in and it ends up undercutting people’s opinion. If you look at the opinions going year by year using the Pew Center for People in the press the opinions of the major media have been pretty much on a steady decline for years. And the reason for that is people now have a better sense of what’s going on in their media, they turn on T.V. they can then watch it and Twitter. Watch it on Facebook and then get real time reaction and when they do that they realize just how disastrous what they’re being fed really is. And the net result is if they’re… if who watches the watchers?

David Scranton: Right, good question. That’s absolutely correct and obviously you’re one of the people that help us with that and we’re grateful for that. Let’s point the conversation now to the interested parties that are associated with you know many of the shows that are consider financial shows or even financial news shows. Where I’m not sure the American public realizes that unlike the Internet everything on T.V. is paid for by one group or another. Can we talk about that for a moment?

Dan Gainor: Oh yeah sure, and I mean there’s… when you get into niche markets, financial shows, sports shows you know that’s were really I guess you would say some of the worst media cronyism is. Because I mean you know you’re… it’s in your best interest to not alienate the very people who are paying your salary and then you get… you know so that crops up. Now when you’re… when you’ve got an ABC evening news show and you know you’re touching on a lot of different topics you’re going to run less maybe into advertisers. But if you’re talking about something happening in the business media then you’re really running into a much more narrow market where financial advisors, mutual funds, everybody involved… You know they’ve all got a piece of the pie and you’re expecting whoever you’re watching to be a neutral observer, they’re not.

David Scranton: yeah so who else besides financial advisors, mutual fund families are the advertisers in these types of shows that might influence the decision of a reporter or someone else?

Dan Gainor: Well, I mean I think even before you get into that you’ve got to think also about corporate ownership. it’s a very finite number of organizations that own you know that own media so you’re looking at… just use NBC for example, NBC is MSNBC, is CNBC with its corporate owners you know ultimately Comcast. Are you going to really you know… and that means because their extremely reliant on cable, you know couple of those shows, couple of those networks wouldn’t survive at all without cable. And then of course they’re owned by cable, so you’re going to expect them to be you know have their advisors, their analysts come on and talk about cable. And say oh yeah we think the future cable is bad no, of course not, because they’re you know they’re too closely tied to that market. You know so then you go in to start looking at advertisers and it’s the whole universe of you know financial media, financial advisors, financial mutual funds, stock market. you know the… you know from soup to nuts and so you know… and you can even listen in you know when you’re watching the show sometimes you’ll hear oh, we just recommended this stock and you know two minutes later you’re hearing an advertisement for a company that’s related to that company.

David Scranton: Got you, so you wonder why and then all of a sudden you look back later and you think oh, I get it, it makes sense. Yeah, it’s so true and I want to talk more…

Dan Gainor: Yeah and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re compromised you know it just means that you really got to take a… you’ve got to really take a John 20:18.

David Scranton: And of course, you know with any public traded company if the advertiser is publicly traded their number one fiduciary responsibility is to their shareholders. And it’s very easy for you know a reporter writing an article or doing a news report to get influenced by what they say and right after the break we’re going to talk more about that. We’re here now with Dan Gainer talking about some of the issues that we have to deal with in the news reporting world, in this field and how some of the things that you hear and read about financial advice and so on could be skewed more toward the profit motive of a particular person. And maybe just a little bit less toward what’s truly in your best interest. We’ll be right back with Dan Gainor. We’re here today with Dan Gainor and we’re having a frank conversation about how reporting specifically financial reporting, be it through published media or through television is influenced by the likes of advertisers and other interested parties. Dan you know you’re talking about the advertisers per say, so it sounds like you’re saying if an advertiser for a particular show for example is a mutual fund family. Then it’s likely that you’re going to hear a lot of positive things about mutual funds for example, is that correct?

Dan Gainor: Or if nothing else you won’t hear the negative. I mean that’s you know that’s just the reality I mean you know everybody has to pay the bills and so if a particular show is funded entirely by mutual funds you’re not going to hear that that shows saying oh, well mutual funds are a bad bet. Because advertisers will flee you know if you watch the evening news shows you don’t see a lot of stories generally speaking attacking the whole drug industry. The new shows are under you know are funded… there are a lot of advertisers that are drug manufacturers it’s just not one of the things that they you know crusade against. So when you’re looking… when you get to the basics really it helps to understand how do you kind of make the secret sauce to this journalism? And while the economy started doing a downturn in the last several… you know with two thousand and seven journalism never really stopped and as a result you’ve seen massive decline in number of working journalists in major cities. We’ve lost a lot of major dailies, there’s a lot fewer people reporting there… and then there’s a lot of pickup of what other people do so I mean all it takes is one bad story sometimes and the next thing you know that bad story is spread like a virus across the internet. And so because journalists are not spending a lot of research time double checking it you know you really have to be well informed and to give an example how bad this can really be. You’re not going to get the most advance knowledge from journalists, several years ago I’m a member of society professional journalists which is not mandatory. But it’s a good organization and I took economist Brian Wesbury, a great guy. Took him to an annual conference and we had you know a meeting talking about how to teach economics to journalists. And there’s about twenty-six, twenty-seven journalists in the room and Brian got it that he by speaking to you know that smaller number. He was speaking to hundreds of thousands or millions of people and so the first question he asked he says how many of you have had advance training in business or economics? One person raised a hand and he just went off and he’s a very nice guy but he was just stunned by how embarrassingly bad this was. And he said you know how are you supposed to cover business and economics if only one of you have ever had any training in it?

David Scranton: And Dan isn’t it true…

Dan Gainor: That’s what they don’t see what’s easy to pull the wool over the eyes of….

David Scranton: Dan isn’t true also that a lot of times writers to gain experience might write about sports for a while and then write about something else and then maybe fall into finance. You know is that a big part of the reason why perhaps that there are not experts in that particular area as most readers would think?

Dan Gainor: Well you know most journalists are generalists. I’m mean you know not… maybe when you get to the Wall Street Journal level you know you’re not talking about that. But you know there are people… journalism is a trade not a profession like medicine where everybody necessarily went through years of study. Lot of journalists didn’t even have… didn’t get a journalism degree and even then a journalism degree is how to do journalism not how to do economics, not a study of business. And frankly, when you kind of scratch the surface of most journalists they’re not business friendly. I’ve always you know joked when you go to work at a news organization, the news organization isn’t even friendly with its own business department. You know the people they don’t like the advertising in circulation people the people who help pay their bills, the only time they talk to them is at the Christmas party. So you know to expect them to you know to turn around and be friendly to your business you know it’s just not going to happen.

David Scranton: Right, right. You know in the two minutes or so we have left Dan, can you share with our viewers some egregious examples or at least one egregious example of… in the financial industry that you can recall.

Dan Gainor: One of the worst examples and I mean this is foundational to the economic collapse of two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight is the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac scandal.

David Scranton: Sure.

Dan Gainor: For years Wall Street Journal led the charge saying that this was an organization and an operation that was destined for chaos and the American public would be on the hook for billions and billions of dollars. New York Times picked up on it much to their credit, Washington Post picked up much to their credit and there was almost complete and utter silence on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN to the point where Charlie Gasparino who you know… I remember coming out at the time and he was railing on the networks and saying that the reason why they’re not talking about this is bias. But here’s the reason why? Because the journalists were convinced that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac helped ordinary you know particularly poor and underprivileged people get mortgages. So they would go to talk to their buddies on the Hill who invariably were pro Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac and they’re telling them oh, there’s nothing wrong. So it ends up being this enormous disaster costing taxpayers you know hundreds of billions of dollars. And only when everything really hit the fan did the networks even at all attempt to cover it.

David Scranton: Yeah and anyone who owned Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac stock back then actually knows what’s happened to that is there’s been a huge loss of wealth for shareholders. So you’re absolutely correct.

Dan Gainor: yeah and I mean that’s you know where is the responsibility for that if you’re an investor and you rely on the regular media to tell you what’s going on then you’re just a (unclear 28:18) fool.

David Scranton: I love it a dazzling fool. Alright well, so for viewers obviously you know you don’t want Dan Gainor to refer to you as a dazzling fool so pay attention to different sources and as I would say always ask the question why. You know why is it something’s being touted for us? Marti Johnson’s going to be here in just a minute and actually talking about that as part of her report. So Dan, I want to take this moment to thank you very much for being part of our show today as usual.

Dan Gainor: Well thank you very much, I enjoyed it.

David Scranton: Okay and we’ll right back in just a minute with Marti, stay tuned.

Marti Johnson: Thanks David, as a media professional myself for many years I’ve always prided myself on my own journalistic ethics and professionalism and so too have the many colleagues I’ve had the privilege of working with. But after hearing today’s guest it will probably come as no surprise that trust in the media as a whole is at an all-time low in this country. According to a two thousand and fourteen Gallup poll only forty percent of Americans surveyed said they trust the media’s ability to report the news and information fully, accurately and fairly. The interesting word in that survey question is ability, because in truth biased reporting and media spin usually aren’t caused by one lone wolf reporter or an editor with a personal agenda. More often, they’re the result of fundamental flaws in the way mass media works and operates. And that’s especially true when it comes to the financial media, today we’re going to take a closer look at those flaws which support the point financial author Dan Solon was making when he wrote to be a successful and responsible investor you need to ignore most of what is in the financial media. Well everyone is aware that the mass media has changed dramatically in the past ten to fifteen years, prior to that the majority of us relied on daily newspapers, T.V. and radio as our primary sources of news and information. the internet changed all of that and today we’re bombarded with headlines, updates, breaking news alerts almost constantly from our laptops, desktops and yes, even our cell phones not to mention the T.V.’s and the radios. Unfortunately, the dramatic increase in the presence and variety of mass media in our lives has only served to enhance the flaws that threaten journalistic objectivity, not diminish them. As a result we’ve seen an equally dramatic increase in the pervasiveness of hype and spin and a decrease in the presence of balanced and truly objective reporting. But what exactly are the flaws driving the situation and why are they even more prevalent in the financial media? To a large extent they stem from the simple fact that most of the outlets in the business of reporting news and providing information are in fact businesses. As such, they’re competing against each other businesses providing the same services competing for readers, viewers, subscribers and of course, advertisers. With so many news sources in the competitive mix and the internet and cable T.V. accessible to viewers and readers around the clock. All of these businesses are compelled to deliver fresh and updated content twenty-four seven and to try and distinguish themselves from competitors. As a result the lines between news advertising and infotainment have become increasingly blurred and modern journalists are under more pressure than ever to put pleasing their bosses and growing their businesses and their brands ahead of serving the public. The result, very often is reporting the lacks objectivity and a spun to the liking of an individual and interest group or an advertiser. But this flaw runs even deeper when it comes to financial media, it begins with the fact that the heads of major financial firms on Wall Street are financially obligated to their shareholders first and to their customers and clients second. They have a legal obligation to maximize shareholder value in part by keeping customers invested in the markets as much as possible. People are more likely to invest obviously and to stay invested if they’re optimistic about the markets and believe they’re moving upward. As a result Wall Street C.E.O.’s and the people who work for them have an inherent need to sell positivity. And to always speak optimistically about the markets regardless of how often economic realities are moving or the markets might be trending. Why, however does this supposedly objective financial media so often fall in the habit of serving the same pro market spin to the public or as Dan Solon bluntly put it, serving as a shill for the securities industry. One reason, is that most financial media outlets are corporate owned and therefore obligated to some extent to help that Wall Street C.E.O. please shareholders by selling optimism. That’s why most of the high profile market analysts you see on the internet and cable T.V. always seem to be touting stocks. Pushing them regardless of market conditions while ignoring the very existence of other investment operations and options. Their opinions aren’t based on independent objective research but on in-house sources and usually there’s no firewall between the company’s research department and its ownership and its advertisers. Most of these analysts know that if they contradict the company line they run the risk of losing their high profile, high salaried jobs. Of course, the overcrowded and highly competitive nature of today’s twenty-four seven media that I just spoke about is also part of the problem. In the midst of this fast paced competition, financial news sources today like news providers in general increasingly fall in the habit of simply pulling stories off the wire to use an old inside ball game journalistic term. They repackage news content already circulating rather than devote resources to developing their own that’s why what you hear from one financial source is so often the same thing you hear from another financial source. They haven’t done separate research and reach the same conclusions by coincidence, they’ve simply gotten all of their information from the same place. And there’s still another issue specific to the financial media industry that makes objective reporting and finding that information difficult. It stems from the fact that a great many articles written for financial publications or broadcasts aren’t written by financial experts or qualified market analysts. Rather they’re contributed by professional writers and even when the writer is highly qualified and very experienced he or she may not have a single area of expertise. Their resume may include everything from athlete interviews for Sports Illustrated to travel articles for Cond Nast this kind of broad based background is common in journalism. You can always trust a good writer to do research when putting together any story but the sources he or she uses to gather their information vary. And unfortunately, it’s quite common for writers contributing to financial publications to use the most convenient sources which very often happen to be among the publications advertisers. The fact is that successful magazines, programs and websites get the majority of their revenue not from readers, viewers and subscribers but from advertisers. And who do you suppose are financial media’s biggest advertisers overall? At the top of the list not surprisingly brokerage firms and mutual funds, obviously these are going be more… these sources are going to be more than happy to provide the reporter with information for his piece. But will it be objective information? Probably not, more likely it will be information that again conforms to his company’s inherent need to sell optimism and to please shareholders by putting a positive spin on the stock market and market based products and strategies. That’s why it’s so important for our members of the Income Generation and all investors today to understand that so much of what bombards them on the internet is not really objective news and information. Particularly when it comes from financial news, rather the majority of it is spin biased rhetoric and disguised advertising. the result of fundamental flaws and the very framework of today’s increasingly convoluted and highly competitive mass media.

David Scranton: When it comes to your money you always have to ask the question why? As in why is this particular advisor or this particular reporter recommending the approach that they are to me? This is especially true in the financial services industry as we’ve seen today. Some of the reasons to be weary of what you see and hear are that so many of the so-called experts on T.V. and the magazines and even professional advisors invited to your kitchen table to help. Have a vested interest in promoting whatever sells their products or services, this lesson extends to all areas of your life. So when you’re hiring a professional be it a landscaper or a contractor or even a lawyer or doctor remember to ask yourself why? Why are they recommending what they are and is it really what’s best for me? One of the examples I like to use when speaking to my clients is as follows. Let’s say that I told you I were having some back pain and I went to four different medical professionals to get help. Now, I ask how many different solutions do you think I might get from four different medical professionals? Well, what if I told you that they came back with four completely different recommended treatments. At first, you might be alarmed but then if I told you that one was an orthopedic surgeon, one was a chiropractor, another was a physical therapist and perhaps the fourth was an acupuncturist. Now it would actually make sense, this is because in the medical field and as well as every other field. Everyone has an expertise and they’re likely to want to help your issue with whatever they can provide and subsequently get paid for. You know there’s a saying when you’re a hammer every problem looks like a nail, so in the medical example knowing the why the different experts are recommending what they are is very, very important. The same is true for the financial industry, and I’ll include investment analyst appearing on T.V. in this group also, ask yourself why they’re recommending what they are indeed recommending and maybe because that’s what they’re getting paid for recommending. Just like you’ll probably never see a time when a stock broker says stocks are bad investments you’ll probably never hear a real estate broker say real estate is a bad investment. Now, when it comes to your health, most people of the Income Generation understand the differences between these four various medical professionals and what they do. Unfortunately, differences are not as well understood in the field of financial services, people tend to paint the financial industry and financial advisors with one broad brush. They look at all advisors being very much the same even though they know that doctors for example are very much different. In reality, there are many different types of financial advisors just like there are different types of doctors, lawyers, construction contractors and even beauticians. You want to make sure you go to the one who is a best fit for the why for which you’re seeing them. This is important and it will soon be designating an entire show to determine the type of advisor that’s right for you and as I said earlier preferably one that’s required to act as a fiduciary. So you could be even more comfortable that they’re acting on your behalf. You know in my personal practice Sound Income Strategies, I talk to prospective clients all the time who are currently working with stock market based advisors. Often these advisors work for one of the big brokerage firms but at times they’re independent. Many times these prospective clients are surprised to find that they have a majority of their money in the stock market, I’m generally not surprised if you think about it this is why stock brokers are called stock brokers. They typically search to find solutions with the limited answers found within the stock market. Like I said earlier, if you’re a hammer every problem looks like a nail, today we got sit down with Dan Gainor and learn about all the good work being done at the Media Research Center. I for one am grateful the MRC exists and his role as media watchdog, I’m personally happy to have shared this resource and to help the Income Generation understand that this information is there for you. I want to also thank Marti Johnson for her reporting, Marti’s report was very important for all of us to understand the role that advertisers play in shaping what makes it on to business news. Now I cannot wait for next Sunday when we have conservative icon and bestselling author Steve Forbes on to discuss how three things are going to potentially save our country. Repealing Obamacare, redesigning the tax code and reforming the Federal Reserve he says it’ll bring our nation back out of its Malays and on its track to growth and prosperity.

Steve Forbes: And in terms of a stable dollar you know you once… the dollar works best, money works best when it has a fixed value. You know money is not wealth, money measures wealth the way scales measure weight or ruler measures length and money…

David Scranton: Forbes has written a new book on the subject called Reviving America. I’ve just finished reading it personally and I look forward to sharing this great thinker with you. if you haven’t signed up yet for a complimentary special report titled The Income Generation which allows readers to discover many answers to their invest the questions. Sign up now at The Income Generation dot com, you’ll discover a wealth of useful ideas for financial security that you may have never known existed. Well that’s it for today, I’m David Scranton you’ve been watching The Income Generation and we will see all of you next week.

The post Media And Information Bias With David Scranton appeared first on Sound Income Strategies.

from Sound Income Strategies https://soundincomestrategies.com/uncategorized/media-and-information-bias-with-david-scranton/

0 notes

thegloober · 6 years ago

Text

Pregnancy Games for Girls: Inside the Weird World of Pregnant Disney Princesses

I am helping a very pregnant Cleopatra give birth. It’s an exhausting and complicated process. First, she needs to be fanned. Then, I’m required to rub an ointment on her bulging belly (clockwise, counterclockwise and finally up and down). After leading her to a palace bathhouse where I light candles, play music, put aromatic herbs in the water, and rub her belly some more, I catch her newborn infant. The child is clean and Cleopatra is blissfully free of pain. There are no viscera. There is no feces. Cleo begins nursing immediately as I watch, proud of my work as a doula, but also confused. The birth is nothing like the ones I witnessed when my kids were born. It’s sanitized for an audience of little girls — an audience that is popularizing a bizarre genre of “pregnancy games” online.

“Cleopatra Gives Birth Into Water” is one of literally hundreds of pregnancy games that run the gamut from “Pregnant Ice Queen Bath Care” to “Pregnant Draculaura Emergency.” Taken as a whole, they offer mediocre gameplay and a very weird message about human procreation. Taken as a whole, they mean something. What do they mean? Well, that’s where it gets complicated.

I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon my first pregnancy game. But I do remember that it involved dressing a pregnant Elsa from Frozen in a variety of outfits that accentuated her late-term midriff. Why did I do this? I don’t know. I like it when my wife was pregnant. I was bored. I have a subconscious desire to support the animated Norwegian monarchy. These things are all probably true, but truer still is this: I have a tendency to fall down internet rabbit holes. And the pregnancy game rabbit hole is deep.

I discovered the game was part of a vast ecosystem of flash-based games found on gendered and vaguely porn-y sounding websites with names like GirlsPlay.com and GirlGames.com. All the games involved a popular female character — Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, the Miraculous Ladybug — carrying and giving birth to a happy, healthy baby. The games were sweet. Creepy and sweet.

Featured Video

Loading Video Content

Let’s be clear: These games were built so that seedy, backwater websites on the edges of the internet can sell ads or user engagement of some stripe at a high volume. Almost none can be played with an active ad-blocker. But that still doesn’t explain why the genre seems to appeal so strongly to its target audience of young girls or what those young girls think they’re learning from all the massaging and soothing.

Nobody wants to see Ariel from the Little Mermaid screaming in agony before pushing a viscera-covered baby fish monster out of the gonads near her anal fin.

The exact steps are subject to change, but the games all take the same basic shape, requiring players to provide some form of medical assistance to a cartoon mom going through labor. Players might provider her with pills or oxygen, take a sonogram or give her an injection. Players might also massage the mom, apply lotion to her belly or take her blood pressure. Whatever the process, the outcome is the same: the birth of a baby whose genitals are tastefully obscured. You know, like real life.

But obviously, while they’re simulations in spirit, none of the pregnancy games are supposed to offer little girls real-life insight. They are saccharine and sanitized. They suggest that after the love story, the inevitable outcome is pregnancy. It just happens. How? Ask your fleshy parents.

There are exceptions, obviously. A game called “Princess Cesarean Pregnancy,” for instance is startling explicit in its depiction of a cesarean surgery. After injecting an anesthetic into the spine of princess “Elisa,” players have to cut and spread several layers of illustrated skin, fat and organs before pulling the baby free. They then have to sew everything back up before being told they have saved the princess and her baby. There is a brief moment of blood on the first incision, and to be fair, there are some kids who would likely enjoy understanding the cesarean process, such as it is. At least “Princess Cesarean Pregnancy” is honest in its depiction. In the vast majority of games, the baby just appears from nowhere, in the princess’s lap.

Obviously, the lack of realism is probably for the better. Nobody wants to see Ariel from the Little Mermaid screaming in agony before pushing a viscera-covered baby fish monster out of the gonads near her anal fin. And, if they do, there are surely other websites to cater to those needs — none of them kid-friendly. But while pregnancy games aren’t particularly graphic, that doesn’t mean they’re not disturbing. The small parts are innocuous. The whole isn’t.

In many of these games, the characters who are pregnant are Disney princesses, or at the very least Disney princess rip-offs. Is that really so distasteful? It’s really a matter of perspective. As an adult, pregnancy rarely occurs outside the context of sex. A pregnant princess causes an adult mind to conclude that Belle and the Beast got it on. And there is certainly a market for those kinds of thoughts. The internet is full of sites That depict the graphic copulation of Disney characters and their menagerie of not-quite-human sidekicks. And it’s fair to say the pregnancy games share the slapdash, bootleg quality of cartoon porn sites.

But little girls don’t see pregnancy in the same context as adults. They only understand it on a sexless continuum of theoretical procreation. These pregnancy games, for them, are the equivalent to playing house. There’s nothing really shocking about it. Women become mommies because they have babies. It’s that simple.

Except that it’s really not that simple, as any parent who struggled to answer the “where do babies come from” question can attest. The problem, aside from the sexualization of the beloved childhood characters is these games are clearly not made by people who care whether or not a kid might be traumatized opening Elsa’s abdomen to pull a baby free. Like the money grabbing YouTube channels that offer endless disturbing iterations of nursery rhymes the pregnancy game makers see kids as a commodity and have zero vested interest in not showing children weird stuff.

Pregnancy games exploit a little girl’s curiosity about babies to make having them an aspirational goal.

Sure, kids being treated like a commodity isn’t anything new. Branded games are all over the internet, and kids love playing them. But what sets a pregnancy game apart from some mini-game downloaded in McDonald’s McPlay app is that it feels very clear that there is no regulation in how the games are made or what their value to kids might be. Also, there is no avenue for grievances. There is a sense that the makers know the games are awful but are also quite aware there are no repercussions for what they are doing. Good luck trying to track them down. The genre consists of internet pirates trying to explain birth to 8-year-old Frozen fans. And doing a really bad job.

And what’s more disturbing is that in their carelessness they have inadvertently created a dangerous message for girls. One in which birth and motherhood are portrayed as spotlessly pleasant. These games make it seems like everything related to love is pleasant. They ignore that life is mostly rough edges and that none of it is easy. Love isn’t easy. Pregnancy isn’t easy. Birth is a gore-fest. Of course, kids don’t need this shoved in their face, but they shouldn’t expect things to go smoothly. They’ll only be disappointed.

Consider how different these games are to the message of Barbie. Sure the doll is impossibly built, but at least Barbie excels in the workplace. She has Ken, yes, but their relationship isn’t about having a family, it’s about supporting Barbie’s variety of successful careers from science to professional sports. On the other hand, pregnancy games exploit a little girl’s curiosity about babies to make having them an aspirational goal.

And all of this is likely happening under the radar of mother’s and fathers. Many parents won’t even know their children are playing these games. And that’s a shame. Because there are important conversations about pregnancy and birth to be had between parent and child.

For many girls, that conversation is being fulfilled by a cartoon Cleopatra and her dark-skinned servant girls. And the lesson being learned is frightening. The fact is that parents better have the conversation with their kids about procreation or a criminal in Taiwan likely will.

The post Pregnancy Games for Girls: Inside the Weird World of Pregnant Disney Princesses was shared from BlogHyped.com.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/pregnancy-games-for-girls-inside-the-weird-world-of-pregnant-disney-princesses/

0 notes

vrheadsets · 7 years ago

Text

Accessible XR Development After VRTK

As a developer moving from the web and app world into 3D and XR, I’ve had to constantly re-evaluate my platform and tool choices as the industry evolves at tweetstorm velocity. Today’s XR development pipeline is clogged by a glut of proprietary hardware and software APIs and SDKs by competing firms like Oculus, HTC Vive, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Sony and SteamVR — to say nothing of emerging third-party peripherals like Logitech’s VR-tracked keyboard, the new AR-enabling Zed Mini dual-eye camera for the Rift or Vive, or any other industry-disrupting Kickstarters that might’ve sprung up since I started typing this paragraph.

Left to right: a bunch of cool stuff I want.

Each platform’s fine — even technologically stunning, one might argue — with respective strengths, weaknesses and use cases. But the distinctions force XR developers to ask hard questions: Where is the market going? How do I invest my skill-building time? What devices should my app support? What platform can I get a job working on? Developers must be business analysts as much as creative technologists to stay relevant. It’s easy to suffer choice paralysis with such a wide array of options, and easier still to bet on the wrong technology and lose.

Personally, I also face certain technical, logistic and financial realities as an independent XR developer in the Midwest (US), where the industry hasn’t proliferated as it has in major coastal cities. Thankfully, game engines like Unity and Unreal are rapidly democratizing this space. Both engines seek to bridge the gaps between the various XR SDKs, employing thousands of engineers to ensure their software plays nicely with just about any significant third-party API. For example, as I wrote about in August, the Oculus SDK integrates beautifully with Unity and comes equipped with many of the scripts and prefabs needed to quickly prototype, develop and deploy a custom Rift app.

I miss bossing around my hand-modeled #MadeWithBlocks BB-8. Check out my deep dive on this project, The Future of VR Creation Tools.

That’s fantastic, but it’s still non-standard. To port the same Unity app to the HTC Vive or a Windows HMD is non-trivial — not impossible or even terribly difficult, but non-trivial. Maintaining your app for multiple SDKs over the long haul is similarly non-trivial. Non-trivial costs money and time and we’re all short on both.

Instead imagine if XR practitioners had to worry less about betting on the right platform or device and could instead focus on creating unique and compelling experiences, content and UX. The first step down that path was VRTK — but sadly, one of the best tools to combat the VR SDK surplus will soon be hobbled by the loss of its founder.

VRTK: The Open Source Approach

This free, open source Unity toolkit aims to knit together a single workflow for a variety of VR APIs. It comes with the same stock prefabs and scripted mechanics you might find included in any single proprietary SDK, but makes each piece of functionality identical whether deployed to Oculus, SteamVR (read: Vive and, with v3.3.0, Windows HMDs) or Daydream — covering all major VR HMD manufacturers today.

It’s a boon to anyone wanting to dip their toes in the waters of VR development. Think of it: Want to implement teleportation locomotion over a Unity NavMesh? Just drop the component onto your player prefab. Want to test out grab mechanics, or a quick bezier pointer? VRTK’s demo scenes have you covered, and they’ll work easily on a variety of devices. Since it’s open source, you’re also free to dive in and customize the code. Struggling to get a feature working in your own project? Check out this implementation on a varieties of SDKs — not a bad way to grok new XR coding concepts.

Sadly, VRTK’s creator is sunsetting the woefully underfunded project. The UK-based developer TheStoneFox — who until recently was actively seeking contributors, partnerships and support — announced recently that he would will be stepping back from the project post-version 3.3.0. Though VRTK boasts an active Slack community, a growing list of “made with” titles and a recent Kickstarter, TheStoneFox was unable to attract the support necessary to sustain it for the long term.

Now, as the opportunity to contribute to and utilize a premier open-source VR development pipeline expediter will fade going forward, what if anything will replace it?

OpenXR: One API to Rule Them All

The VRTK approach —using Unity scripting to knit together similar mechanics across a spectrum of VR SDKs — is necessary in the current fragmented development landscape, but there are downsides. Some community still has to monitor the various proprietary SDK updates and your end-user VRTK app still has to be mindful of VRTK’s changes over time. In this way, VRTK treated the symptoms of the VR SDK overload, but was not equipped to address the root cause. Enter OpenXR, The Khronos Group’s upcoming industry standard:

The standard, announced December 2016, is being written now and is quickly gaining traction among industry players (with the notable exception of Magic Leap). Instead of forcing developers to grapple with variable propriety SDKs and all the accompanying business consequences, companies will instead tailor their hardware and software to comply with OpenXR’s spec. Khronos, the non-profit responsible for shepherding the Vulkan, OpenGL, OpenGL ES and WebGL standards, is leading the charge. Cue the infographics!

On the left, the problem — on the right, the solution:

Images courtesy of https://www.khronos.org/openxr.

“Each VR device can only run the apps that have been ported to its SDK. The result is high development costs and confused customers — limiting market growth,” reads some fairly accurate marketing copy on their website. “The cross-platform VR standard eliminates industry fragmentation by enabling applications to be written once to run on any VR system, and to access VR devices integrated into those VR systems to be used by applications.”

A working group of industry heavyweights have agreed the standards be extensible to allow for future innovation and should support a range of experiences — anything from a 3-DoF controller all the way to a high-end, room-scale devices.

The only thing missing is a realistic timetable before this standard has an impact on the development community and its day-to-day workflow. Until the market-movers get their act together, we’ll be left scrambling (and patching up VRTK projects, in many cases).

OpenXR supporters: everyone except Magic Leap.

The Cinema of Attractions: Slow Your Reel

But should we so quickly welcome industry standardization while the technology is still so new and full of possibilities? That’s the question asked in a recent Voices of VR podcast by Kent Bye and Rebecca Rouse. The two discussed the early days of cinema — when exploration and experimentation were the status quo — and Rouse drew striking parallels between that era and the current period in XR production and development.

Pure spectacle then and now. Left: a Cinema of Attractions-era still. Right: Chocolate VR.

“[Scholars of early film] came up with this term ‘cinema of attractions’ because they saw an incredible wealth of diversity and kind of range of exuberant experimentation in those early pieces, so they were very hard to sort of clump them together — there was such diversity — but this ‘attraction’ idea was a large enough umbrella, because all of those early pieces are in some way showing off the technology’s capabilities and generate this experience of wonder or amazement for the viewer. And the context in which they were shown is that of attractions, so they were shown at world’s fairs and as a part of vaudeville shows with other kinds of performances and displays.”

— Rebecca Rouse, assistant professor of communication & media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Sounds eerily familiar, huh? The whole podcast is well worth a listen, but tldr: while there are obvious consumer and market advantages to XR standards, Rouse argues that perhaps we shouldn’t jump the gun here— not during this era of frenetic, often avant garde XRexperimentation across art, science, cinema and gaming. Looking around the industry, it’s hard to disagree.

EditorXR

One man-eating-the-camera-brilliant new application of XR technology is Unity Labs’ EditorXR. Created by Unity’s far-future R&D team (whose roles often find them working on projects and products five-to-ten years away from consumer adoption), EditorXR offers you an interface to create custom XR Unity scenes entirely within virtual reality.

Oh! And there’s flying, among other superpowers — soar through your scene like Superman or scale the whole thing down to a pinhole. They’ve literally ported the Unity inspector, hierarchy and project windows (again among others) to an increasingly user-friendly VR UI pane on your wrist. With the latest update, you’re able to:

hook into Google’s Poly asset database web API in real-time inside VR

create multiplayer EditorXR sessions for editing Unity scenes with friends and collaborators

run EditorXR with Unity’s primary version 2017.x editor

It’s still new and I’ve encountered bugs, but it’s a foregone conclusion that this tech will become a standard feature of Unity’s scene creation process as XR technology matures and proliferates. Even their alpha and beta efforts evoke the same sense of wonder and possibility that early Cinema of Attractions-era moviegoers must have felt.

For more insight on the design side, check out this deep dive on the future of XR UX design by Unity Lab’s Dylan Urquidi or the Twitter feed of Authoring Tools Group Lead, Timoni West.

ML-Agents

Another experimental Unity project, ML-Agents, explores one of the most promising avenues for the future of XR development, design and UX: machine learning. Using so-called “reinforcement learning” techniques which expressly don’t feed the AI model any sample data or rules for analysis, ML-Agents instead applies simple rewards and punishments (in the form of tiny float values) based on the outcomes to their [usually very narrowly defined set of] behaviors.

Stretched out over hundreds of thousands if not millions of trial-and-error training sessions, the computer experiments with its abilities and forms a model for how to best achieve the desired goal. In this way, your Agents become their own teacher s— you just write the rubric.

The original GitHub commit contained some basic demo scenes and the development community quickly took up the torch from there. Unity’s Alessia Nigretti followed up the original blog with one describing how to integrate ML-Agents into a 2D game. On Twitter, @PunchesBears has been demonstrating similar concepts — and showing that often enough, Agents respond to developers’ carefully calculated reward system in ways they don’t anticipate. Similar to actual gamers, no?

In one of my favorite applications of ML-Agents, the developer Blake Schreurs actually brings a 6-DoF robo-arm Agent trained to seek a moving point in space into virtual reality — with slightly terrifying results once he assigns that moving target to his face.

youtube

Imagine someone applying this training model to actual robotics and fat-fingering the wrong key. Or don’t, whatever.

He’s down for the count! I was immediately reminded of the audiences pouring out of theaters in 1895, afraid they’d be run down by the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of Train at La Ciotat. We’re still in the salad days of both machine learning and XR development compared to where we hope to be 10 or even 50 years from now. In that time, some combination of traditional or procedural AI with these new machine learning approaches will doubtless lead to great developments in gaming and XR at large — or even in the very design process and daily workflow of computing itself.

Rift OS Core 2.0

With Rift’s new Core 2.0 OS, your entire Windows PC is accessible from your right-hand menu button. Being able to view and use your desktop apps, as well as pin windows inside other VR apps, introduces new possibilities for XR workflows (and even for traditional computing workflows) in VR.

While working on my next project, entirely within VR, I can watch Danny Bittman’s great Unity rendering and lighting tutorial on YouTube in a pinned browser while messing with those same settings on my wrist in UnityXR. I can watch @_naam craft original assets in Google Blocks at the same time I do, or I could gather assets from the Poly database and deploy them to my Unity scene in real-time VR, pulling up Visual Studio to code some game logic as I please.

That sounds pretty goddamn metaversal to me — and before long, we likely won’t even need code.

The XR Developer of the Future Is Not a Developer

If XR technology is to go mainstream, the development process must be as efficient and accessible as possible — and likely even open to non-developers through content creation and machine learning applications. Spanning sciences and disciplines, there’s so much more to talk about and speculate over that this piece hasn’t even touched on (next time I’ll examine WebVR and A-Frame as viable XR development pathways). More and more pieces of this accessible, standardized XR development pipeline will fall into place as the immersive computing revolution rolls on, though I’m thankful the XR industry isn’t ready to ditch its Cinema of Attractions ethos quite yet.

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2Bk9BIP

#VRFocus #vr #virtual reality #canada

0 notes

fragiilexa · 7 years ago

Note

all the even numbers

100 questions

OH MY GOD. that was a lot of questions lmao

2. Have you ever faked orgasm?

already answered.

4. Do you think you are going to be rich in 7-8-9 years?

already answered.

6. Why are you no longer together with your ex?

already answered.

8. What are your current goals?

already answered.

10. Who was the last person to disappoint you?

already answered.

12. Can you keep a diet?

I don’t really do diets? They’re always usually unhealthy & detrimental to your health so I just try to portion food & stuff, pick healthier choices, I don’t like… do weird diets or anything.

14. Do you work?

Not currently no, I don’t.

16. Would you get a tattoo?

Yes, I would love to get a tattoo, I really want one that says Think Positive but the T in positive is a cross? I’ve seen it somewhere before & I’d love that, then also I want one that says ‘I can’t hear hate when I got so much love.’ I also had this really cute idea for getting a tattoo for each of my pets but idk how that one would pan out yet.

18. Can you drive?

No. Not yet I cant.

20. What was the last thing you cried for?

I cried watching some youtube videos a few days ago, lmao that was fun…

22. Is life fun?

Yeah. It is kiddo it IS fun, it’s like a fun lil’ roller coaster u know? Sometimes it feels like it’s not fun & you get scared but things are all okay in the end, you know?

24. What’s your dream car?

Mini Coop Countryman. It’s just? Super cute? I mean I’m not really into cars, realistically I’d probably get a jeep ‘cause I’m a lot more comfortable with them but, yanno.

26. Describe your crush.

Super fuckin’ smart, like doesn’t realize it but incredibly smart & determined. Super strong in every single possible way, also one of the kindest people I have ever met & u know also super attractive & jst cute ndngjodeo i luf and u know i jsut amsuper emoitional aobut it ok byre.

28. What was your last lie?

Probably that I did something that I forgot to do? I can’t remember.

30. Is crying in front of people embarrassing?

Yep. I mean at least for me, less embarrassing with friends though, honestly. With family it’s worse & I feel worse but it’s easier with friends I guess.

32. What’s your favourite cocktail?

I don’t drink so….

34. Do you like small kids?

Yes! I love little kids? They’re adorable & I’m smitten, I mean some of them can be annoying u feel but 90% of the time I’m smitten with little kids ‘cause they’re like human puppies u kno?

36. What would you name your daughter/son?

If I have a son I’m gonna name him Benjamin. I haven’t thought about if I have a girl? I mean honestly I want a girl really bad when the time comes but I have no names planned out besides maybe Lila but that might be a little odd if I get the book written, I dunno. We shall see.

38. Is there some you want to punch in the face right now?

Uh, no? Not that I can think of lmao?

40. What was the last gift you gave?

Pretty sure I gave my Mom something but I can’t remember what it was.

42. Favourite place to shop at?

Shop for what? I dunno Target?

44. How old were you when you first got drunk?

I have yet to get drunk yet. I’ll let u kno when it happens tho ok fam?

46. How old were you when you first had sex?

I MIGHT NOT UPDATE U ON THIS but also I share too much so I probably will. hasn’t happened yet tho lmao

48. Something you want to do until the end of this year?

Have fun? Idk.

50. Post a selfie.

No.

52. Name one thing that terrifies you.

U kno the usual ole’ demons & abandonment.

54. What would you tell your 12 year old self?

People are gonna leave and it’s going to hurt really bad. You’re not gonna know why it was you or what you did, but it’s okay ‘cause it’ll make you smarter & kinder than them.

56. Any bad habits you have?

I’m a nervous eater? Lmao I guess that’s a bad habit.

58. What was the last thing you cried for?

Those youtube videos.

60. Are you in love?

Wot is love ( baby don’t huRT me donT huRT ME NO MORE )

62. How long was your longest relationship?

whAT RELATIONSHIP? My friendships barely last, lmao, relationship lmoa dsgdfre

64. What are 3 things that irritate you about the opposite sex?

Hm, sometimes guy’s can be really pretentious, also they seem to think periods aren’t a big deal that bothers me & probably just the superiority complex thing. Bothers me.

66. How would you describe your bad side?

Super closed off bitch who really just doesn’t like people & can like, probably hurt a lot of people emotionally if she wanted too. Sort of terrifies me, sort of hate that bit of myself. I try to be nice but yeah it’s hard to not be super bitter sometimes.

68. What are you living for?

jeSUS FAM. I live for Jesus & all the amazing people He’s put into my life who mean the world to me.

70. Do you like your body?

It’s a love / dislike relationship. I’m constantly trying to appreciate it & love it but I also know I could physically be more fit so I wanna work on that & sometimes being like out of shape makes me self conscious but I mean I don’t hate my body I just… dislike it sometimes.

72. Ever sent nudes?

llokeodgebhrth no. I have no fun ok gtg.

74. Favourite candy?

Pixy sticks or like, sour punch straws? I don’t know.

76. Do you play any computer games? What is your favourite game?

Sims. I played WoW for a… while when I was younger & maybe I might get back into that when I have a new computer or something but Sims is my favorite game ‘cause it? It just is??? It’s the best.

78. Are you religious? Does God exist?

I am & He does. He’s gotten me through…. everything, like I don’t think I’d be here without him and I have been in a very rough patch with things lately with him but it’s 100% just me & like, yeah. But it’s not a pretentious thing though, I don’t believe that I’m somehow BETTER than everyone else. I 100% believe God exists, I love Him & He loves me & He loves all of you so it’s okay, you know?

80. What do you think about vegetarianism/veganism?

To each his own. I mean personally I love chicken too much? Lmao, but like if you’re an adult & you wanna do that feel free. I’m a little iffy when it comes to like, making your kids be vegan just because they’re growing & it’s sometimes hard to supplement the nutrients & stuff that meat would give your kids unless you really know what you’re doing & I’m 100% against it when people make their animals vegan ( like dogs who are not meant to be leaf eaters ) dogs need meat. But like I said, to each his own, as long as you’re maintaining a healthy lifestyle & aren’t depriving yourself of the right nutrients than I’m okay with it.

82. Do you like Chineese food?

No…. I’m super picky fam.. it just, doesn’t appeal to me I guess.

84. Vodka or whiskey?

Someone send me both & let me choose?

86. Ever been out of your province/state/country?

I’ve been out of state a few times but never out of the country.

88. What are you scared of?

Spiders? People leavin’ me? Dyin’? Big bugs? Suffocating? Getting burnt? Car crashes? Driving? There are a lot of things. Trust me.

90. Most traumatic experience ?

I mean… I don’t know, there’s not like a set thing or anything that’s really happened besides like, one of my best friends kind of like, dumping me when I was a kid & that kind of fucked me up but I dunno.

92. Favourite app on your phone?

I don’t have a phone but my favorite app on my ipad is probably weheartit or tumblr.

94. Do you watch Youtube? Who is your favourite youtuber?

I don’t watch it as much as I’d like but I love Remi Ashten she’s adorable & one of my favorite Youtubers.

96. What is the meaning of life?

Show people that God loves ‘em no matter what ‘the church’ or ‘religion’ or any one really tells them, like, God loves you & he wants you in his life. It’s really simple. That & like, just trying to make the world better you know? I am a cheese ball but I’m dead serious, I think all of us have a unique way of going through life and the ‘meaning’ of life may be slightly different for each of us but the true meaning of it all is to just show people that despite all of the horrible things in the world that there is good & the good is God and that like, we are not required to be perfect or to fit some kind of mold to be loved or accepted by God. I don’t know I’m just mush and I want everyone to know that God loves them no matter what other people say. That and make a damn good book at some point. That’s the meaning, lmao, I don’t know im 21 why are you asking me this. Ask me in another 21 years.

98. Have you ever made your mum cry? What happened?

Sadly yes. Me & My sister found that tumblr post where this kid told his mom that ‘you know there was a point where you picked me up, put me down and never picked me back up again’ and we told that to her, that at one point she’d put us down and never picked us back up again, and she like, instantly started crying and I feLT SO BAD AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO IT WAS HORRIBLE.

100. Can you keep a secret?

Yep. But pinky promises are more solid than just a secret to me, tbh.

#Anonymous #⌑ ⊰ ι'll paιnт тнe pιcтυre; leт мe ѕeт тнe ѕcene ⊱ ›› ﴾ answered ooc ﴿

0 notes

cover32-yahoopartner-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Buffalo Bills: Things we know this Week

“Negative Stanley” has been reticent as of late. I would hate to lament being that this is exactly what I and many other patients and staff members at the chiropractor’s facility have yearned for. If one was to assume anything regarding Stanley’s unusual behavior, it would be that the mandatory mini-camp has passed while training camp has not started yet for the Bills. The NHL draft and the aggressive days of free agency have come and gone.

With all of the firings and hiring’s, players coming and going within the Pegula Sports family… Stan has had enough excitement in a couple months to fulfill a few seasons. After all Stan isn’t getting any younger, so hopefully he is relaxing and enjoying his Bison’s baseball season tickets, his favorite lawn fetes as well as a short break in the action in Bills country and Sabers Land.

Normal human down time is what it is. You would think I have known Stanley long enough to realize that his rare reserved demeanor was disguising a “calm before the storm.” Not I. I just brushed it off as a retired senior citizen enjoying relaxation. Keep telling yourself that Scott.

I proceeded to pay my co-payment and schedule my next visit with the receptionist and headed out the door to leave. Just as I was angling my way towards my truck fiddling around with the remote starter I heard some God awful west coast trap music blasting out the open windows of a yellow Toyota Prius as it jumped its way into the parking lot because the little red head female driver never slowed down to enter.

I actually had to take two steps backwards guaranteeing my safety because she was not slowing down until she slammed on the brakes directly in front of the man door of the doctor’s office.

I then realized Stanley was getting out of the back door on the passenger side. He did not give any cash to the girl or have her run a credit card. He kind of exchanged ‘goodbyes’ that seemed to scream of insincerity. The red head girl in her twenties peeled out Prius style, this time almost flattening out Stanley’s Rockport walking shoes, vibram soles and all.

I looked at Stanley with a curious bewildered anxious look that he has been peered at with many times before. Stanley just shrugged his shoulders and asked “What? What? Oh That. It’s called Uber, brand new to the city. Ride sharing. Get with the times. I got an app for it on my phone. I have one for fantasy football as well. You know what an app is Scott… Right? This one is called Uber and I can write that down for you if you want? I paid on line by PayPal. Obviously as you noticed she was not expecting a gigantic tip”, he coughed and laughed simultaneously.

Just when I was going to say goodbye and explain to him that I am the one that taught him what a phone app was, as a matter of fact I am the one who convinced him on the acquisition of his first smart phone he began to speak. When he begins to speak one does not talk first, over him or ignore him. Not just out of respect. But because he will not let you free until he speaks his mind… So the sooner the better.

“That dang girl is crazy. She is a crazy driver with dollar signs in her eyes to get as many driving gigs per day as possible. I came back, cross examining him, “Stanley, her driving is not what the issue is. You are fired up. What did she do to ruffle your feathers this much?” Apparently he has had this girl as a driver on more than one occasion. They had history. The red head girl. Reminds me of Charlie Brown. Stanley is no Charlie Brown. That is a “given”.

He proceeded to go on explaining things. Apparently the topic was approached when other customers were still in the car. It was a couple in their early 20’s, similar in age to the driver. The topic was football based on they were listening to Sports talk on the radio that was focusing on the great playoff draught.

This couple, who were too young to remember the Bills last playoff game, had heard the stories of the “almost dynasty” of the late 80’s and early 90’s and even some of those post superbowl teams featuring Ted Washington, Bryce Paup and Chris Speilman.

AROUND COVER32

Around the NFL: The legend of NFL icon, Al Davis, continues to thrive

What’s Trending: Raiders’ franchise increases in value due to Las Vegas relocation

NFL Mount Rushmore: What are the greatest NFL celebrations of all-time

cover32 Exclusive: 2018 NFL Draft interview with Grambling State QB, DeVante Kincade

NFL Reaction: Is Vic Fangio the next great NFL head coach

The couple, who we can call Jack and Jill, Raggedy Ann and Andy or Hansel & Gretel so to keep it simple, Jack and Jill were extremely positive considering the teams they have witnessed in addition to the coaches and quarterback revolving door that has been the team’s story since they were old enough to follow the game.

The driver carried herself a bit differently. Keeping Stanley in her sights because he was wearing a Bills hat and shirt, the driver responded to Jack and Jill’s comments.

“You all talk about what a great traditional organization this team is and has been. You make a 17 year playoff draught sound like a bump in the road on some otherwise immaculate track record. So the Bills were bad, improving to mediocre throughout Kelly’s first couple years as the team was assembled, gained experience and finally gelled. A bump in the road in Cleveland caused the Bickering Bills scandal.

“Minus that bump in the road, they dominated from 88 through 93 winning many division titles, AFC championships and playoff games. They were horrible the year after the super bowl run ended. They re-tooled on the go bringing in Wade Phillips defense with Ted Washington, Chris Spielman and Bryce Paup and Regaining playoff status, but not doing too much damage once they got there. Then Kelly retires. Marv could not coach the Kelly-less team as Todd Collins prooves to be a big bust and Marv retires, if he was not forced out the door.

“Wade comes in as head coach and we have two playoff seasons followed by an 8-8 team which became the end of the Wade era and what we know now as the beginning of the draught. Tom Donahoe gets full control and hires Greg Williams and here we are 17 years later as a laughing stock of the NFL. We draft running backs in the first round when we do not need them. We ignore quarterback because we think we are fine with tools like J.P. Losman Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Enough of beating a dead horse here. Think how they got good being able to draft the likes of Bruce Smith… they had horrible 2-14 seasons that we want to forget with Hank Bullough and Kay Stevenson as coaches attempting to replace a really good coach like Chuck Knox? The Chuck Knox who coached the Rams to five consecutive division titles in the 1970’s!

“He did some rebuilding the first season in Buffalo, but soon enough was in the playoffs back to back years in addition to a division title. So yes we had a couple decent years in the early 80’s until Knox packed up and took a more desirable job in Seattle when Ralph would not shell out the needed cash to keep the world class coach. Most of the 70’s is a bad Joe Ferguson team kept on the map by pure amazing unforgettable running by OJ Simpson. If OJ is not running in the 70’s, it would be remembered worse than this draught. I do not count the 60’s championship teams because that was a different league winning the AFL when half or more of the world’s best players were not even in your league.

“He got lucky with Bill Polian becoming who he was while on the job here and by bringing in his recycled buddy Marv Levy, who was nothing to write home about for Kansas City and then was banished to re-establish himself up north in the Canadian Football League. Polian brings him in just as the Andre Reed’s, Talley’s, Kelly’s, and Smith’s were coming together and then followed by genius moves Bill Polian bringing in Cornelius Bennett, Steve Tasker and Shane Conlan. Call it luck that Marv got Kent Hall and Jim Kelly as the USFL was imploding and went under forcing certain players whose rights belonged to NFL teams to go play ball or sit out of the sport.

“The Bills have lost a lot of free agents over the years because paying the money was not even discussed as an option, and really the salary cap could have been worked around. So if you really examine the teams accomplishments and celebrations next to mediocrity and purely pathetic… the Bills have proven to be a bad organization if you had to rate them overall. 17 years alone should do that, but we can look at previous decades and the many many bad seasons or below average non playoff teams. The fact that because Tom Donahoe did not do as well as expected did not mean they had to go ahead and have no GM or Marv Levy and even Russ Brandon in the role to avoid a bad hire. To avoid giving too much power too soon maybe?

BILLS NEWS: Breaking down the Bills backfield depth chart

“Fear of failure caused the team not to take risks for a while. Big moves were token signings like Terrell Owens to sell some seats. Why do the Bills have so few quarterbacks drafted in total in team history, but especially in the first and second round when it’s the absolute most important position in the sport and continues to be even more important?

The great coaches and GM’s wanted no part of coming here so Dick Jeron, Buddy Nix, Chan Gaily and Doug Whaley mediocrity became the norm. Rex was a big name unorganized lazy clown who lived off of his dads reputation, his own success at position and coordinator level positions and especially two Jets teams going to the AFC championship game that were built before his arrival.

“The Bills organization frankly sucks. Deal with it. Once your playoff draught ends the embarrassment, they will still suck. Keep your chin up though, there is your hopes that your new GM and coach are the organized disciplined answer while they are undefeated during the off season. Once the season, which on paper is the hardest schedule in the NFL begins, and the losses start piling up and people start to sweat jobs, let’s see how the GM and coach act under the gun.

“If you are going to bottom out to rebuild you can’t have first round busts like Mike Williams to show for your three-win season. Eric Flowers,John McCargos, Bucky Brooks, JP Losman, EJ Manuel, Mckelvin, Maybin… the list is endless. Face it. You should be ashamed to admit that someone paid good money for that ball cap and t-shirt. 17 years is not a slump. It’s an entire existence for some teams in history. Its many many generations in football years. Just look at Tom Brady who has been around for those 17 seasons. He has won nonstop and his worst record was 9-7.

“He has had generations of draft picks come in and have a career and retire. Rinse, wash and repeat. Meanwhile in Buffalo, they keep finding new ways to somehow justify their existence or something new to hope for or someone else to blame.”

Negative Stanley had met his match. He loves to complain and talk smack, but he also loves his Buffalo Bills when it’s all said and done. I think Jack and Jill decided that either they were not a match for her or were just caught off guard with how she went off. It sounds like they were a bit scared being with this being their first Uber experience. They probably laughed about it later that evening over some beers.

Stanley on the other hand was devastated it would appear. So much of his life emotionally went into the Buffalo sports teams. He could bash them all he wanted, but he won’t tolerate someone else taking it to this level of a rant. I asked Stanley if he was ok. This was not the first time she has been his driver.

“Got ya Scott! Ha ha! That rant was me schooling Jack and Jill. The red head thought I was funny and she texts me. She is just a crazy driver in a hurry. I can’t believe you thought she ranted with that much passion about events she was not even alive for or old enough to remember. Old time football to her was Flutie Flakes. Get your popcorn ready”

Things We Know About The Buffalo Bills This Week:

Adolphus Washington was arrested Sunday outside of his hometown in WKRP Land of Cincinnati, Ohio on weapons charges. “We are aware of the incident regarding Adolphus Washington and have been in contact with him. Since it is a pending legal matter, we will have no further comment.” This was the Bills’ statement to the press when confronted about the situation which is not Washington’s first arrest. He was also arrested in college for soliciting a prostitute and was suspended from a bowl game. It will be interesting to see where this goes now that forgive and forget Rex is no longer calling the shots.

The NFL Supplemental Draft has come and gone. There were no players selected. Not just by the Bills, no players were selected by any team.

The Bills’ portion of national NFL revenue was revealed to be an enormous $244 million. Terry Pegula said when he bought the Sabres if he wants to make money he will drill more oil. He has downplayed the urgency for a new stadium. That money right there is just revenue sharing… not one ticket or jersey sold is in that. With that kind of sharing, a stadium should be no big deal to him after a few years of this with no state or county assistance. That being said… I can say that all I want but don’t count on it.

READ MORE: Breaking down Buffalo’s wide receiver depth chart

The post Buffalo Bills: Things we know this Week appeared first on Cover32.

#_uuid:d418390b-fb55-331d-9b0a-56122fbf088c #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DIJnLEAX #_revsp:cover32_362 #_author:Scott Bryk

0 notes

yatterzuk · 8 years ago

Text

Quahog Heat – Review & How Did You Do Poll

Hey there readers, it would appear the crime spree that wreaked havoc in our towns is over and I can once again waffle on about what I thought about an event in general. Yes, Quahog Heat saw us spend 4 weeks investigating everything from Robbers to Card Sharks, and there certainly wasn’t a dull moment.

Well it all started with a teaser from TinyCo that some 80’s Detectives were heading to Quahog, and soon we were all speculating who might make an appearance. And I think I can safely say none of us predicted Pamela Anderson in their cast of potential characters, lol.

And I have to say when I saw Donuts and MacGyver I started to think I was in my other game, Tapped Out. But no, soon sadly my Quahog would be overflowing with donuts whilst my Tapped Out premium currency cupboard was bare, lol.

The game update unfortunately had some of the usual App Store delays, and I’m honestly not sure there’s an awful lot TinyCo can do about this, they are at the mercy of the various app stores when it comes to the updates appearing for our games, but I do get the there’s frustration when one set of players can play whilst another sits twiddling their thumbs. All we can hope is these delays get shorter and that TinyCo continue to acknowledge players who are starting events late through no fault of their own.

The event certainly started on positive note for me, as once again we were seeing an event with a link to the Family Guy TV show, Erik Estrada, MacGyver and Pamela Anderson had all made appearances, so that was a thumbs up.

I was also immediately delighted to see this was a 4 week event, I think this is starting to work well for events, I prefer it to the 6 week events.

This event also seemed to be about bringing back some more 80’s nostalgia to the game, as many do forget Family Guy was at one time just one big parody of the 80’s. It’s the comfort zone era of the show, and it’s therefore no surprise the game is pulling so much from that decade now.

I also decided to try a different kind of strategy in this event, purchasing the Week 1 premium character costume, Chopper Cop Quagmire, to see just how good a leg up it would give me going forward in the event. I rarely buy premium character costumes unless it’s a must have, such as Tai-Jitsu Lois. But with the rare drop on Police Tape I thought it’s now or never to try this strategy. And at first I was very disappointed in my purchase, he seemed only to be a little help at first, allowing me a cheaper room investigation.

It wasn’t until Phase 2 his true worth started to become apparent, as I kept pulling Kingpin Consuela from investigations at a high heart level and having Chopper Cop Quagmire helped me defeat her over and over, allowing me to build up loads of resources to exchange for Detective Badges, I ended up with not only enough to buy all the Phase 2 prizes but even had enough to see me through Phase 3 when it launched. So a worthwhile investment of clams that allowed me to relax a little during the event when drops went out the window and others started to struggle. But he wasn’t the only big help, the other was a freemium unlock Erik Estrada, only problem was many if you struggled to unlock him.

But now let’s take a mor in-depth look at the event, and yes I will say this from the off, a lot of players found the early Phases extremely tough going.

FORMAT: A 4 week event that brought back the dreaded timed characters. Now 4 weeks was fine, but the event started to show issues in the first days with the very early poor drops of Police Tape, this in turn impacted on player’s ability to unlock Erik Estrada within the 7 day timer period. Making handcuffs, essential for unlocking him, a random investigation drop was never a good idea. And not unlocking him had a detrimental impact once you entered Phase 2, as you lost his ability to do cheaper Investigations and having him as a much-needed extra character to have for Police Tape drops. I honestly believe those who didn’t get him, or were delayed getting him, struggled with due to a knock on effect throughout the remainder of the event. He was probably the most valuable of the freemium unlocks, so I’m interested to see how many managed to get him, and if you feel you were hindered if you didn’t have him.

CONTENT: More Family Guy TV show linked content. As I said earlier Family Guy related content to keep us happy.

INVESTIGATION RESOURCES: I felt the task lengths were fine for drops but the rare frequency was a real issue at times, we just couldn’t get enough Police Tape to complete countless Investigations, this made the random nature of the Investigation prizes an issue, as nothing worse than grinding out tasks all day to get enough Police Tape to do an investigation to only find a worthless box of donuts at the end of it. This kind of random drop is ok if we’ve unlimited resources to use to investigate but not good when things are tight.

CHARACTER DROPS: With regards to gameplay it was good to see less characters have multiple tasks for different drop items, I know there was still some crossover but that will always happen as core characters that were unlocked in the early Districts are used in events to allow newer players to join in events. I really think TinyCo got the balance quite well in this event and used a good ratio of characters and buildings with drops. Also good to see more old characters being use for even just Donut drops, players have been asking for that for a long time..

CHARACTERS: What did I like, well we got quite a few new freemium characters as opposed to just a whole lot of costumes. Although we got load them too.

WEEKLY CHALLENGES: The weekly challenges were once again tough, and many struggled with the 1st one which meant their chance to get what seemed like a coveted prize, The B-Team van, gone. I think these challenges will vary between easy and very tough, and you never know what to expect until they drop.

STRUCTURE: For the most part there was no surprises, everything you needed to do in each phase was spelt out early by simply moving through the first few parts of the main Questline for each Phase. And we’d had a mini run of Investigation gameplay in the previous short event Undercover Gigg-Olo.

GAMEPLAY: They seemed for a while to be taking on board issues that derailed previous events, but seem to have fallen into bad habits again, the rare drop on Police Tape was an inexcusable error, but I have to say they seemed to slow down the amount of content as the event went on and the final Phase was very light and hopefully this allowed players to catch up some.

SUPPORT: There has been definite improvements in this area, but more work needs done, for a small company they are trying hard to have a good system in place. However there is still an over reliance on sending standard responses to players, which at times either appears to ignore their concerns or miss the nature of their complaint completely.

MYSTERY BOXES: It’s no mystery what my feelings on Mystery Boxes are, I’ve long despaired at the way TinyCo implements Mystery Boxes in events. But in one way they seem to be responding to concerns by putting returning characters in as potential prizes rather than too many useless decorations. But they also still have too many repeatable resources and the odds of winning the top prize can be brutal.

BOSS BATTLES: These weren’t too bad, freemium players could attack up to every level within the 24 hour time frame but it would see you lose a little sleep. But at least the choice was there if you wanted to go for it, in past battles there was nothing freemium players could do to attack never mind defeat at the higher Boss levels. Also was good to see few of the bosses were Family Guy characters. Just a shame they never brought back Bertram as a returning character.

QUESTLINES: Now the dialogue and tasks were fantastic, no issues at all there, but what I do find troublesome is having a character with a timer needing to be activated to be able to progress a Main Questline. This causes a delay in players getting new content if they delay activating the timer, or they panic and activate the timer too soon and end up losing out on the character.

DROPS: Rare drops on an essential item should raise concerns with the development team immediately, as should random drops you can’t control on a timed character. These really are errors that shouldn’t be being repeated 3 years after the game’s launch.

EXCHANGES: The exchanges really got better as the event went on, so there was some improvement in this area.

So fellow addicts, that’s just some of my thoughts, and I want to stress they are just my thoughts, they in no way reflect what Bunny or Lotty felt about the event, but before I ask for your thoughts I want to say one last thing about the event and that’s how fantastic the animation has been yet again, really top work from the guys at TinyCo.

Anyway that’s my ramblings, now I want you to tell me your thoughts. But please don’t turn this into a boiling hot What the Deuce post by releasing the your ire in your comments as Bunny will throw me head first into the nearest jail if you do. Please give us your feedback and thoughts in a fun in the sun sort of way. Tell us what you like, don’t like? What you’d like to see more of, what you’d like to see less off. Share with us everything and anything you think would improve FGQFS, as TinyCo do read this blog and of course Bunny also takes your feedback to TinyCo. And if you can please take a minute to complete the end of event poll at the end of this I’d be very grateful.

And just incase you can’t see the poll or find it jumps about when you’re trying answer, here’s the direct link:

https://goo.gl/forms/ASrxG4eM6FJ4ovxo1

~ Russian Tigger

Quahog Heat – Review & How Did You Do Poll was originally published on Yatterz

0 notes