#all the places mentioned above are 100% real you can google them you can follow his exploring on maps you can drop the little person down

[tylermagnusenvest]

He was spending more and more time in Manchester lately. Both of his jobs started in either the afternoon or the evening, for the better part of his day he didn’t have much to do, back at the castle he would’ve spent his free time curled up in the library with a stack of books and hours of quiet. Tyler didn’t read much at the house. He found he couldn’t concentrate, feeling sometimes as though he couldn’t sit still when he was there, settling filled him with an irritation he could only overcome if he pushed himself to be constantly moving or simply left. London was too known to him though, his family were deeply rooted in it, he longed to find places for himself where his mind was at ease and he could actually take in what he read. It seemed silly to work in a city that he knew next to nothing about, his family would never venture to somewhere that had such a reputation for disruption, and he had hours every day to himself that he saw fit to make better use of.

There was a different feeling to Manchester than London, one Tyler couldn’t quite put into words but one he liked. It was busy, the cities were the same in that respect, there was constant movement in every nook and cranny, the people never seemed to settle and even when they did everything around them moved at a continuous pace. He didn’t go very far on his first day, he walked the length of Canal Street, took in the array of buildings and their names, caught himself smiling when a rainbow tile in the floor caught his attention. There was a lot to take in on Canal Street if you looked closely, on the side of one building was a huge piece of art, it showed two heroes wrapped up in each other’s arms, he knew one to be Batman and perhaps the other Superman- he was not overly familiar with comics or their heroes- with the latter’s arms wrapped tight around the former’s neck. Their mouths were locked and beside them were the very bluntly put ‘kiss’, ‘kiss’ flashes. He’d missed it on the walk down the street, having started where Under Street began, but on the way back it caused him to momentarily stop and grin. The characters themselves meant very little to him but the unashamed display of their affection filled him with a comfortable warmth. It confirmed to him that his family wouldn’t find him here. It made him feel safe. That’s all he’d done the first time, walk all the way along Canal Street and back. The next time he went to explore he ventured off slightly, took the next bridge along Canal Street down to alongside the small park where the Alan Turning Memorial stood. It had Alan Turning himself (a statue of him, of course) sat upon a bench. Tyler had sat on another bench and read for a while, people passed through and by, sometimes they stopped by the memorial and Tyler would glance up when they did so. He didn’t know much about Alan Turning, only that he was a historically important gay man, he made a note to himself to do more research on him if he planned to keep sharing the park with him. It seemed only polite.

He ventured as far as Piccadilly Gardens the next time, he didn’t quite know what to expect from the name but it was different than he’d pictured. There wasn’t really too much garden to see, the space was surrounded by shops on all sides but opened up in the centre. A bridge ran through it, on the side from which he approached there was a round space set up with stone seating all around the edge, it might’ve been November but regardless the round stage surprised him when shoots of water burst from the stone and into the air. There had to be at least twenty of the fountains, reaching different heights, they’d shoot up from the stone for a while and then disappear to nothing more than soft bubbles at the base, only to shoot up again a few minutes later. He walked around to the bridge and watched them for a while. At some point a child and their parents passed, with some determination they asked if they could go into the fountains, the idea dismissed with a promise of returning when the weather was warmer. Huh. So people were actually allowed in them? Just on the other side of the bridge there was a space that, Tyler would discover a day or so later, was sometimes set up with temporary huts from which all kinds of food was sold to those who past. He had yet to figure out the pattern of when they would appear but whenever they did he liked to walk directly between them, it was busier to do so than to cut around, but when you did the air was sweet with everything the stalls had to offer and he enjoyed imagining what each think would taste like and promising himself he would actually stop and buy something one day.

Market Street ran directly off Piccadilly Gardens in an easy-to-navigate straight line. It was very busy on Market Street. The shops that lined either side were huge with two-three floors to each of them. Between every few there’d be a well-placed coffee shop or bank, both he imagined people needed a lot of in a place where there was so many options to purchase. Market Street is where he first saw the trams. Trams, Tyler decided, were completely bizarre and yet incredibly clever. They were like trains for the streets, every now and again you’d come across tracks sunk into the ground and would have to stop and check both directions lest you cause a commotion. Market Street had a large tram stop running directly down the middle, raised above the ground like some strange stage, where people mulled about and awaited their transport. He had yet to go on a tram- not really sure where they went or whether he’d ever need to- but regardless he thought they were brilliant when he came across them. In general, he had mixed feelings about Market Street. It was glaringly modern but not in a good way, the shops were all large chains and it wasn’t easy to walk at a consistent pace when people were cutting in and out of them every few steps. There were parts of it, however, that were oddly charming. Like how the walkway turned to cobble stone once you made it over the crossing, how there were often musicians busking in the centre, one moment someone strumming an acoustic guitar and the next another on a violin. He also liked the approach to the Arndale, it was not the prettiest of places from the outside but there was something amusing about the way an escalator reached down to the street and summoned people up towards the food court. He liked how if you continued past you were technically walking directly under it. There was a Costa there, under the shelter, that he grew fond of the moment he set foot inside. Unlike other locations of the same chain, it was not nearly as busy, the food and drinks were expensive but not as much as Starbucks and you got more for your money too. What he liked most of all was the downstairs, how the shop descended from street level to converted basement area that acted as a secondary seating area. It was always quiet down there, the colours were bold and modern but with a pot of tea and a slice of cake, he felt very at home when he went there. The first time he stopped by, he read for hours.

His favourite parts to explore, however, were a little diverted from the busy bustle of Piccadilly and all that spread from it. Technically it was only a few streets away but as you moved from the central shopping district everything changed. Once you hit Cross Street there were lots of new places to explore, going right would lead him down Corporation Street towards the Print Works and Exchange Square. The buildings there were equally as huge as the ones on Market Street but the architecture was vastly different, steering away from modern, industrial builds to large statements with stone carvings on the outside. Only a street away from there was Manchester Cathedral, grand and gorgeous, Tyler had never been drawn to any kind of religion but even from the outside there was something hopeful about the building. It felt safe. He could see why so many people would believe in something greater than themselves, something to guide them and something to talk to, with more answers and less worries than them. Alternatively you could carry straight on at Cross Street, not left down the street itself or right towards the Print Works, you could continue on and take the next left to cut through St Anne’s Square. It was a beautiful little spot, with a fountain and a statue, an entrance to the Royal Exchange Theatre and at the other end was St Anne’s Church itself. Everything here looked different, the buildings took upon a look of grandeur, when you cut down onto Deansgate it was clear that everything around the area was meant to be better here. There was a higher standard of stores, or architecture, the intense bustle of Market Street shifted to a consistent flow of people coming and going as they pleased but paying more mind to where they cut in or where they stopped to chat.

And, of course, Deansgate had the library. John Rylands Library. When Tyler walked past it the first time he thought it a church, that was the way the architecture seemed, with spires and dark bricks demanding attention in a street that already offered so much to see. He caught sight of the sign on the door as he passed and couldn’t quite believe it- a library, here?- and was disappointed to see the gates closed and the building seemingly inaccessible. A few strides later the pavement opened up to the side, he followed the new expanse of smooth paving and saw, to his pure delight, that attached to the side of the magnificent, old build was a slick, modern entrance hall. He walked along the sides of the building with butterflies in his chest, he wasn’t entirely sure how any of this worked, he’d never been to a library that wasn’t completely open to him and didn’t even know how to ask. The modern entrance wasn’t particularly large but it did have a welcome desk, a small area with items for sale (literature themed, of course) and a small area where you could buy coffee or a snack. He peered to the large square arch where instructions read ‘no flash photography’ and must have been looking particularly curious because a woman from the welcome desk strode around to meet him and assured him with a smile, “you can go right in, there’s stairs or an elevator, feel free to take pictures as you look around but we don’t allow flash photography in case it damages any of the exhibits.” Tyler nodded and thanked her and took the stairs around the corner. Crisp white walls, the structure of the modern extension, was suddenly replaced by dark brick. Tyler stilled on the threshold. It looked like Hogwarts. The curved windows, the old stone floors, the long corridors and intricate stone arches connecting in the ceiling above. He took a few careful steps and when he noticed a door in the corridor he went through it. It wasn’t just books, in the centre of the rooms were glass cases and within them were letters and notes and sketches from people long dead, preserved and kept safe in the heart of this beautiful building. He followed each room through, growing more pleased with each, stopping to read small snippets of information about where the displays came from, his curiosity never satisfied. The staircase was incredible, when he reached it he needed a moment to catch his breath, mouth agape as he tipped his head back and tried to take in each arch of the ceiling and spill of light from the windows. His favourite part of all was the main reading room. To reach it you had to ascend the stairs, you stepped through into a space much larger than any before it, display cases were set in the centre of the room but along each side were small reading alcoves, each had it’s own desk with every wall acting as a full book case. Above these alcoves was a second level, from the floor he couldn’t see into them but he longed to be up there, found his eyes drawn up to the expanse of ceiling as he walked along the length of the room. The details were too much to take in. There were busts of writers and teachers set into the architecture, quotes from them etched into the stone, at the far end of the room was a huge arched stained-glass window. It was a worship-place for reading. Tyler looked around it three times on his first visit and when he reluctantly had to leave he took an information booklet from the front desk and thanked them whole-heartedly for his visit.

He had a list now of places he intended to visit, he wanted to see Central Library too and the Town Hall, Albert Square and the Art Gallery. He wanted to explore the Arndale and it’s many shops and places to eat, walk through the Print Works and see a film at the cinema there. He wanted to find all the small bookshops tucked away down side streets, explore further and further each day until the city was not a stranger to him or him to it. He wanted to belong somewhere, to know it and be known, to not spend any more years of his life treading carefully and worrying about where he was allowed to go and what he was allowed to do. He wanted to be allowed to want for himself.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: August 8th

Well, doing big posts all together worked for a while but lately I’ve been putting it off because it takes a long time to get them done. I think I’m gonna try switching back to answering asks whenever I can fit it in and posting them one at a time instead of waiting until I’ve filled out one of these major collections.

But for now, here’s more ask answers! Thank you for the questions and for all the kind words along with them ^^.

Hello!! I'm here to ask if its possible to get  the game and its dlcs on steam and play it on android?

I’m afraid not. Steam doesn’t have Android builds on their own site and Steam is not cool with keys for other sites being given out for Steam purchases, so you don’t get the Itch version from buying on Steam.

Hello! Sorry to bother you but, I had a question, if we buy the Game on itchio do we get steam keys or would we need to purchase it twice? 

You would have to buy it twice if you want it in both places, I’m sorry. To repeat myself a little, Steam doesn’t like the key trading thing. Itch may support giving keys for another site, but the reverse isn’t doable with Steam and Steam doesn’t even really want you to get a Steam key for buying somewhere else either. So we just don’t mess around with that.

hey, sorry if this is frequently asked, but is step 4 free dlc or paid for? some of your sources are contradicting each other. 

It’s free! There’s a paid wedding DLC, but Step 4 itself is entirely unpaid.

Hello! I just had a quick question, for the Baxter and Derek DLC's will we be able to confess our feelings to them or let them confess to MC? or will it only be one way? (they confess to MC)

Both type of options will be available!

Hey there! I wanted to ask whether or not the Derek DLC is still on track to be released in August since on the steam discussion board it says it will be released mid 2021. I totally understand if it isn't, I'm just really looking forward to it! If you answer then ty! And keep up the amazing work :D 

It’s not, aha. Unfortunately, 2021 wasn’t easier than 2020 as we hoped so things are still slower than planned. It’ll come out late 2021 or early 2022.

Hi! Firstly I just want to say that I LOVE Our Life. I have played a bit of similar games but this one instantly wins for the best one! Everything about it is amazing! I just wanted to ask if Derek would ever lose feelings for MC, like if they make the deal and then MC gets with Cove would he move on? and even if you don't, after "losing contact" would his feeling fade or would he still like MC? 

If you don’t really keep in touch with him and clearly move on with your life, Derek will too and he’ll be over it. But if you are still close as best as you can be, he’ll still think the MC is special. Though, he’ll always support your relationship with someone else if that’s what’ll make you happy.

Hello! Sorry if you've answered this before but: 'How's Lee related to us? Though which momma? And does she share our player-chosen last names? Also, do you know if Noelani took Pam's last name or did it happen the other way round? 

She’s related to Pamela and Pamela’s last name is the one they use, so the MC has the same last name as Lee.

Will we be able to choose which (they or he) we tend to call Qiu by more often, or will it randomly change depending on the moment? 

Qiu knows which pronoun they’re comfortable with at a time and you’ll call them what they’re happy with. And it doesn’t change between lines, it takes multiple scenes or even full Steps for it to switch. So for extended periods Qiu will be totally a guy or fully agender.

Will Step 4 of OL2 have moments?

It’ll be an epilogue like it is in OL1, so it won’t have a bunch of different Moments.

Hello! Just a quick question, is Sunset bird from OL1 based on a real location? If so what's it called? I wanna visit it +_+

ps i love your games so much <3

It isn’t based on one specific town you can go to, but there are a lot of little coastal towns in Cali that have a similar vibe!

Heyaaa ( I hope you're all well ), umm… it might seem kinda stupid to ask but did Patreon members can have a key for the dlc's ( all the steps-released dlc ) even if they became a member this month or later ? (me? saying this cuz it's my case? maybe ;-;), and once again thanks for absolutely all the amazing works on all the games ! u-u 

You wouldn’t get the DLCs for backing there. The Patreon is for extra bonus content/early access, rather than being a storefront to purchase the normal DLCs. Rarely we give them out as a side gift, but it hardly happens and if what you want is the DLCs it’s best to ignore the Patreon and  buy keys for those directly from Itch or Steam. I’m sorry for the confusion.

Hey y'all, love what youre doing w/Terry. Trans rep outside of player customization is so rare and important to see more of so thank you so much. I do have a question and its that does he have a canon sexuality? I know Miranda was said to be straight ace but I dont believe anything was stated for Terry probably because he wasnt revealed to be a guy which changes things. Im also curious if well get answers on how long hes liked Miranda since he may have liked her in step 3 before she liked him 

Terry likes women and Randy likes men! And he did like Miranda back in Step 3.

Will the Wedding Dlc release at the same time as Step 4? 

They’ll come out separately with Step 4 releasing first.

I really love Our Life so much! I've spent over 20hours playing it even though I only got it a week ago! I was wondering if I could make a fangame for Our Life with a different love interest but same plot. Next-door neighbors romance, multiple steps, etc? I'll probably make it on Google Slides though- 

Sure! I hope you have fun with it and I’m glad you love the game.

How does Cove feel about poly relationships? 

He’s got nothing against them for the people they work for, but he’s 100% monogamous and would only be comfortable with a partner who was willing to be monogamous with him.

Idk if this has been answered before but will Step 4 include the option to advance your feelings towards Cove? 

Yep, you’ll be able to determine your feelings and what your relationship is.

In step 4 will there be a chosen to say we live with Cove even as just friends? 

Yeah, you can choose to live with Cove and that can be done when you’re friends.

I just played the game with the MC and Cove being best friends and omg it’s still so damn cute like the wholesomeness of it all is too much for my heart I swear ^.^  Now with that all said I was wondering can we still marry Cove? if we only love him as a friend like let’s say we’ve made deal with him similar to the one we can make with Derek because let’s real no one could compete with what the MC and Cove have even if they aren’t in love. 

It’s great to hear you enjoyed the friendship story! You can live with Cove, but you can’t marry him platonically. Cove has familial affection for the MC if they’re best-est friends. He wouldn’t think to marry someone he loves like family and even grew up with as though they truly were siblings.

Are you still going to be making a DLC for XOBD? :] 

Yes! We’re slowing adding voiced lines and fixing errors.

It makes me laugh that Shiloh's last name is Fields because that's what I put as my last name! So in Our Life when he talked about "Ms. Fields" picking him up I was extremely confused, lol. That dude mimics personalities so much that he stole my surname!

Oh, wow, that’s a very funny coincidence, haha.

hi !! i cant seem to be able to get the scene where mc is able to propose to cove despite being at the 'love' stage and telling him i'd want to get married, are there any other details that im missing out on? the options just dont appear at the end... 

Maybe you missed telling Cove you were in love with him even if you mentioned wanting to get married or you might’ve accidentally said earlier in the game that you don’t want to progress your relationship further with Cove. We haven’t removed them, so you can get the scene again. It’s just kind of easy to miss since there’s multiple requirements. You can read a little guide in the FAQ.

wait what di you need to do to be able to propose to cove? I've been trying but haven't had much luck 

You can check out the FAQ linked above!

does cove only develop a crush on the mc if the mc is also at crush/in love with him? 

Technically, yes. We treat the non-romantic relationship options as truly non-romantic since we don’t want to bait and switch people. But there’s nothing wrong with headcanoning that Cove does have feelings developing for the MC even before the MC has.

Is there a way to make/allow Lee and Baxter to date?

No, they just don’t have enough time together.

We also got a group of asks related to Tamarack in OL2, but I’m afraid the way they talked about people with larger bodies made me not want to post their words, even if the person didn’t say they’re trying to be hurtful. I will separate out the core question and answer it though, so people can know that info.

Does Tamarack lose weight in later Steps?

No, she doesn’t. As for the other questions included, to be honest, I don’t have to explain/defend having romance options of different sizes. I’m sorry if you’re dealing with unhappiness that’s connected to body image, if that’s where the negative emotions are coming from, but even so I can’t meet you on that level and pretend it’s a problem that needs an answer. A girl who simply isn’t thin being a main love interest is just not an unreasonable concept. Also, Tamarack isn’t a lesbian. Yes, she can date a female MC, but that doesn’t undo her actual sexuality, so I’m not sure where that one part at the end was coming from.

I wonder... can we "fight" with Qiu over leader status? 👀

Not really, haha. No matter how cool your MC is, they’re never gonna replace Qiu for the other kids around. So you can either partner up with him, follow him too, or not be a part of all that group politics stuff.

So when I play the game, sometimes I mentally call Cove “Covie/Covey” and that made me wonder, how does Cove feel about being nicknamed? Not like Romeo/Space Cadet/etc. but like pet names relating to his actual name

It’d depend on his age, personality, and your relationship with him! When he’s younger he’d probably be embarrassed, when he was grown he’d probably be more casual or happy about it.

will you be able to date baxter in step 3 while at crush with cove (but not dating him ofc) sorry if this has been asked already. i really love baxters step 4 design btw!! 

Yeah, you can be crushing on Cove and date Baxter if you weren’t already dating Cove. You just can’t be truly in love with Cove and then switch to Baxter.

I just got my friend into our life, and they adore shiloh and derek sooo will there be more of them in the second game? 

I’m afraid not. But you can see plenty more of Shiloh in XOXO Droplets/XOXO Blood Droplets, haha.

I see you haven't gotten any xoxo droplets asks recently but I'm still obsessed with these boys!! I was just wondering if Nate would curse under any circumstance? 

Yeah, Nate does use certain swear words (damn, hell, bastard) on very rare occasions.

Hi there! I have a question about the wedding dlc. Will we be able to plan a honeymoon during the planning stages of it or would it be something that Cove and the mc would rather plan later on? Thank you! Absolutly love the game by the way, definitely one of my favorite games! 

The focus will be on the wedding day itself. The topic of the honeymoon might come up a bit, but there won’t be any choosing of the exact location and such.

Hi! I have two questions and it's completely understandable if you only answer one/neither and I'm sorry if you've already answered either before! First, is there a set year in which OL:B&A takes place (ex: Step 1 being set in 2010 & Step 2 being set in 2016, etc.) or is it simply up to interpretation? Second, have you guys thought about doing a coming-of-age game where the MC has a tough home life or upbringing? (like one of their parents is an addict, a parent being transphobic whilst the player has the option to be trans, or having friends that are influencing them to do drugs, etc.) That's all! Thanks for making beautiful games. <3 

There is a set timeline!

Step 1: 2006 Step 2: 2011 Step 3: 2016 Step 4: 2021 

And we don’t currently plan on making a game like that. The Our Life series exists to be a safer environment for people to play around in and if we did do a brand new series that was harsher edged it’d be something more fantastical and/or plot-driven instead of a different type of modern day slice-of-life growing up story. I’m sorry.

i don’t know if you’ve already answered this, but do you have a guess on when phase 4 will come out? as well as ol2? i’m so excited for both of them, the inclusivity in this game is amazing, you guys should be really proud of it! 

Step 4 will be coming out very soon! OL2 is gonna take until 2023 to be anywhere near completion. But we might episodically release the Steps one at a time as they get done instead of waiting for three to be finished before launch like we did with the first game.

Hello, I was curious if there was an official or unofficial discord server for the game? 

We do have a discord! You can join by clicking this link HERE.

how long do you plan to keep ol's patreon running? 

Hopefully for at least a few more years.

Are you considering ever making merch? 

Yeah, but I don’t know when it’ll happen or what exactly we’ll make, aha. It’s something we want do, just nothing is set.

hi! i just found out about your game a couple of days ago on tiktok (so sorry if you’ve already answered this question) and i was wondering if y’all are ever planning to release it on iOS? 

I have no idea. It’s hard for a small group to get Apple approval and I honestly can’t say if it’ll ever happen or not. Maybe someday, though!

Hi, I love the art style of Our life and I would like to know if the artist has a Twitter? Also, could it be possible to fund more CGs for the game from him/her? So many times, I wish there was one like when the cutscene of the sunshower. 

That’s nice of you to offer. He doesn’t have a Twitter, at least not one that’s public enough to be shared with me. And I’m afraid not. The issue is that the CGs take huge amounts of time rather than there not being a budget for it. He’s gotta make CGs for Step 4, the DLCs, and new character sprites, too. There isn’t space in the schedule for even more. Sorry for that.

Hi, how are you?!

Are you planning on accepting new writers or is it always the same people who write your stories??

Thanks!!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t be getting new writers, but we will be hiring a new team of writers for Our Life: Now & Forever eventually!

perhaps this counts as nsfw and I'm sure it has been answered before but what does Cove prefer, chests/boobs or butts? or perhaps both :3c thank you for this wonderful game (and the patreon bonus moment, it was worth all the waiting and more ♥) 

He’s a “chests of all shapes and sizes” kind of guy, haha.

i was wondering- did any of the writers actually grow up by the beach? as someone who's lived in a beach town all their life it really did feel nostalgic to play through our life 1 

I was born and raised in Cali! Though, not right by the beach. We still had to make trips out, but the setting is based on my own childhood memories of small beach towns we went through.

In Derek’s upcoming DLC, will we be able to reference the pact we made as teens? (love olba and xod/xobd so much btw you’re literally amazing) 

Yep, you will be able to talk about that!

Oh, sorry about the Cole being secretly L ask, then!

If you wanted context: Death Note is about this one guy who finds a notebook that kills anyone who you write the name of in there. The guy eventually develops a God Complex and starts mass killing criminals and stuff. L is the one trying to find out who is killing all these people.

Me and my sister first joked about it because I couldn't remember how to translate a word about the way Cove was sitting, so I just did the pose, and it looked a lot like how L himself sits! Then we just snowballed from there, with more and more nonsense connections.

That’s okay! Thanks for explaining. I’m sorry I didn’t know what you meant.

[discarnateohio]

My friend and I have an interesting historical/paranormal excursion coming up this Saturday. We're taking self-tour of some local legendary historical and haunted locations I've been researching for some time...

THE POST BOY MURDER 1825:

Whoo boy, this is a good one - the story behind this alleged haunting is wild but it's 100% true!

There's so much more to this crazy story about the murder, and the trial and execution that followed, but here's a write-up from our local paper that will tell you enough:

Part 1

Part 2

The haunted part:

I've been researching this story for 3 years and by reading the court testimony and cross-referencing historical maps I've located almost every landmark mentioned in the witness accounts during the trial.

The entire length of Post Boy Road (red to red):

The key events and landmarks related to the murder that day stretch along the western half, in Post Boy Hollow:

We're going to retrace the key players' steps of that day leading up to, during, and immediately following the murder.

Also, just last week I FINALLY figured out exactly where both victim Cartmill's and killer Funston's gravesites are.  They both were buried in old family plots that aren't marked on any maps and their locations aren't mentioned in detail anywhere.  All I had to go on was that Cartmill was buried in the private Brown family farm plot "on the banks of the Tuscarawas", and that Funston was buried somewhere on or near his family's home - but there is no Funston name on any of the historical plat maps, so apparently they didn't actually own it, which really made things difficult.  It took me 3 years of scouring local history on the internet for clues and comparing historical maps to figure them out.  Funston is hidden away in the woods and Cartmill is in the front yard of a house a mile or so south of Stone Creek. We're going to visit those, too.

On a related note:  The railroad that ran through the tiny whistle-stop known as Post Boy Station that popped up with its arrival in the 1850's didn't exist at the time Cartmill was killed, but during my research I kept seeing mentions of a nearby railroad tunnel near the hollow called Post Boy Tunnel, and people today posting photos of their visits to a tunnel alleged to be PBT.  But the location of their tunnel wasn't making sense to me because look at this postcard:

It clearly says PBT was located south of Newcomerstown, and the one people have posted about isn't SOUTH of town, it's actually about 8 miles NORTHEAST by Stone Creek.  Why would that be PBT? There's also no curve at SCT. There had to be another tunnel.  So I started looking at Google Maps using terrain view to look for defunct track beds.  The tracks are long gone and thick woods completely cover most of the area, but on terrain view you can still see the track beds.  I followed the old track bed north from Post Boy Station and only a mile or so up, just south of town, you can see the tunnel, with a curve just outside the north end!  I found the ACTUAL, totally-forgotten Post Boy Tunnel. 

It's twice as long as Stone Creek Tunnel (about 1,000 ft. compared to SCT's 500-600 ft.) and completely hidden by thick forest.  I'm sure the entrances have been filled in, but we're going to hike down from the ridge above and take a look in person.

BONUS - Post Boy Sasquatch?? 🤔

I wonder if she was at the real PBT or actually at Stone Creek like the others. I kind of think she had to be at the real one because SCT is right next to a busy county road, with the freeway nearby on the other side. If Bigfoot exists, he's got no cover there.

OLD STONE FORT:

There's a tiny little 14'x14' stone stone fort halfway between Newcomerstown and Coshocton that nobody knows the exact origin of. It's just been there for at least as long as the land it's on has been farmed. Maybe much longer, since the time when the whole state of Ohio was nothing but untamed wilderness. Some experts think it could be the oldest building in Ohio, dating as far back as the 1600's. Others are of the opinion that it's from the mid to late 1700's. But it's for sure ONE of the oldest. Whichever the case, it's a fascinating and mysterious little structure.

It sat abandoned for over a century and by the early 1900's the door had rotted away and roof had colĺapsed. The stone walls remained solid, though, and in 1953 it was restored by the Coshocton County Historical Society and designated a historical site.

We don't know of any reports of paranormal activity happening there, but it's a cool piece of local history and as good a place as any for an EVP sesh and to practice with our equipment and new investigation ideas for future G.H.O.S.T. team investigations.

HAUNTED WINDING STAIRS ROAD:

Just south of Port Washington, Ohio is a reportedly-haunted winding, narrow dirt road, about 2 miles long. Very creepy, being totally enveloped by thick woods for most of its length, and so treacherous in winter the county closes most of it off.  There are a few homes on the very southern end where it hits a cross road - that section isn't ever closed down afaik but the other 4/5ths of it is just this:

People have reported strange, extremely-localized weather occurrences (heavy rainstorms when nothing was experienced in town just 1/2 mile north or any of the immediately-surrounding area).  Occult/Satanic rituals were supposedly held in the woods along the road in the 70's and 80's.  And "radios in vehicles traveling the road change stations on their own and cell phones ring to have either a demonic voice speaking or a high-pitched crackling. Strange furry creatures have also been reported to run in front of vehicles along the road."

HAUNTED CEMETERY:

Just across that crossroad at the south end of Winding Stairs is a very old, small cemetery surrounded by thick woods that's reportedly haunted.  The township still mows the grass there but the gravestones are crumbling and it's isolated and otherwise basically forgotten except by us creepy-locale enthusiasts.  People have mainly reported seeing black shadow figures rising up and wandering among the graves.

Can't wait, should be fun! I'll post pics and videos after.

[not-ur-normie]

Cristal witches, aka Sasha making headcanons for the world of Eldarya

I have this idea since forever at this point, so I figured it wouldn't hurt a fly to talk about it a little. It comes from years before when I wanted my OC to not be human but some kind of magic creature, so here we go.

English is not my first languange, so I am apologizing in advance.

Note: Throughout the post, the timespan is after the Blue Sacrifice, but I will talk about that too later on.

Who are cristal witches?

Cristal witches are witches who hold power connected to maana.

The bigger maana surronds them, the bigger their powers get

The reason they are called cristal witches is because they can form a connection with the Crystal

They are creatures with big potencial to play big roles in Eldarya, but that is exactly the point where things go wrong

More about witches

Most cristal witches are women, it's really rare when a male is born and inherits magical power, but there are cases when it happens

There were never any worry about them dying out, since the genes are VERY strong

When a male and female cristal witch have a child who is also one, they turn out way stronger then the others who only have one parent being one

Don't get me wrong, one parent makes the kid already strong as it is, but two parents are just a whole new level

Cristal witches all have tattoos, all in different colors. Most of the time the colors don't have anything to do with the powers they can hold, but lighter colors indicate lighter powers, meaning: lighter colors can't use magic that requires bigger maana usage, like black magic, or healing magic

(If you play the game, you sure know the voodoo outfit, I based the tattoos on those tattoos, so you can see the colors if you google it)

Since cristal witches are a heavily mixed community thanks to the overload of women, there are times where kids inherit both of their parents specific genetics

It's rare tho, because of the witch genes mixing up with other races' is not that common

But when it happens, it always gains attention

Cristal witches are not just cristal witches because they are connected to the Crystal, but because they literally have crystals all over their body

These crystals are mostly small ones and has the color of the tattoos

They are really human-like, so if they can hide their tattos and crystals they can perfectly blend in, which did come handy at some point

Their lifespan is about 150-200 years

They are able to open the portal to the human world

(here you can see the children of my OC [Chrystal] and Ezarel, who were lucky enough to inherit both of their parents genes, so they are witches with elf ears.)

How did they live?

Back then cristal witches lived in small communities, mostly small villages, but there where some communities living a full nomad life

Since they live so long, there were not many of them to begin with

These smaller communities lived close to each other way back then, but the nomad communities started to move around after a while

These are highly spiritual communities, especially that they are fully able to communicate with the Oracle if they wish so

They had special type of education, where witches were learning to use basic magic, while non-witches who lived with them learned alchemy

They had strict rules, that everybody needed to follow, they weren't allowed to use their power randomly

They needed to get an approval to use magic that requires more manna than your basic magic, and also to use dangerous or risky magic

If somebody went against this rule more than 5 times, they got their magic taken away

They choose new leader every year, although if a leader was good, they sticked with them and kept on picking them

The leader was not leading alone, although they made the final decisions

There were many smaller position available next to the leader, which are also chosen by the other witches

Overally they are really pieceful, so the conflicts are not that common

Cristal witches are able to do many things with magic, but it takes a lifetime to gain a really controlled power, so older, well-educated witches are highly respected and the leader was chosen from them most of the times

Some really strong witches are even able to bring back people from the death, but only if they're right there when the death happens

The Blue Sacrifice

The reason that Cristal witches were never part of the council that planned out the Sacrifice was that the races forming the council agreed that Eldarya could need them in the future (and they were damned right)

Before the Sacrifice taken place, witches were not that strong than after it happend

I imagine it the way, that once the sacrifice was made, Eldarya alone had more maana than when the two worlds were one and since witches' powers are mostly maana based, it made their powers grow way stronger than before

(I hope this makes sense lol)

Where things went wrong

As I mentioned before, they are creatures with big potential

When the Blue Sacrifice went wrong, the races in Eldarya needed the witches help the most

Almost every community, town, villige, whatever had at least one witch living with them to help out whenever there were high need

The problem is, that there was always high need; as we know Eldarya was in trouble

With the help of the witches it was easier to go for supplies to the human world, although only those communities could do this who had stronger, more experienced witches

There were even witches who were able to cast spells and make the field able to grow some edible plants

And this is exactly where things went terribly wrong

Since cristal witches have a high value, there were many who hunted them or tortured them for their powers

Why? Well, I know all the above reasons would be enough, but there are more to it

Cristal witches' blood is able to make the lifespan of whoever drinks it longer

And not just that, but it can completely function as food, it stops hunger for longer periods of time (weeks, sometimes months, depending on power) and makes the immune system 100% healthy

It was also used for really expensive medication

You know what else is really valuable? The tears of witches.

It can fasten healing and was used for many medication as well as their blood

But only tears that hold heavy emotions count, since the tear drops turn into little crystals

These informations spread real fast after a while and witch hunts became so serious that at one point several communities started to think that it would be better to sacrifice them as well so maybe Eldarya could gain its full balance [the Guard of El also wanted this, just in case you were curious]

Witches would've 100% sacrificed themselfs if they got asked by the time the Blue Sacrfice happend

But after all the terror they went through, their trust was completely broken

They did not want to die for all these selfish folks wanting to murder them, not thinking about their race for a single second

So one day they completely vanished

Nobody knows how exactly, the common guess was that they opened the portal and moved to the human world, giving up on their magic

I mean everything was better than dying for your murderers

After the vanish

Of course, not all of the witches vanished, but the witch communities that lived together

Those who lived in certain places helping out stayed there

Back then the Guard of El had a witch with them too

Sadly, they got scared of her possibly gaining control over the guard, since she was very much loved... So they decided to kill her [yes, they wanted to sacrifice her, and then killed her, way to go]

The last known cristal witch was a male, living with the Fenghuangs, but he died just before The Origins' story starts

But... Are they really all gone?

Okaaaay soooo I bet there are stuff in this which doesn't exactly fit the story and/or I remember incorrectly, but it is what it is.

On the very first art you can see my OC named Chrystal. Well, she arrives to Eldarya the same way Erika did in the original story, the main difference is that she turnes out to be a cristal witch and this fact leaves the guard in a numb shock. Suddenly the only living cristal witch is with them and that is changing their situation entirely.

I am sure I will write down Chrystals story with illustratons and whatnot, but currently I am working on my Moonligh Lovers' OC's illus, so that will take some time.

Anyway, this will have another part, I wanna at least introduce Chrystal so you can see a cristal witch in action, hurray.

Ah, yeah, if there are facts from the game messed up, feel free to tell me, I am not biting. You can also use this idea for your ocs, I don't mind. Hugs<3

[botwstoriesandsuch]

im loving the history lesson posts!!! what are you're thoughts on the ruins in Tabantha? based on the memory near the skywatchers and the shrine quests in the region, the stone ruins in tabantha existed about 10,000 years ago and were destroyed or vacated and left to crumble. but the stone structures contrast heavily with the wooden architecture of Rito Village? bUT if i'm remembering correctly the song lyrics go "pride of the rito/pillar to the sky" so the rito stone and tabantha itself has (1)

Ok first off, I AM SO SORRY! I read this ask months ago and I worked on it in my google docs and then I was going pure theory mode and then another person sent in another ask about ruins and I was getting all excited so basically long story short I got so caught up in making a masterlist of all the ruins that I completely forgot about this ask until now... So anon I apologize for the terrible wait but hopefully you’ll still enjoy what I have in planned. 

You’ve given me a lot to work with so I’m going to break this up into several posts based on your asks. I’m gonna post them on different days becauseeeee content management, schedules, things.....I’m lazy and also if I posted all my thoughts in one post it would be like a giant book with zero pacing so

[Today] Thoughts on the Ancient Columns and the Ruins of Tabantha

[Some time later idk when I post it I’ll shove the link here] The Effects of the Calamity on the Rito and People of Hyrule

The Relationship between Skywatcher Locations and the Cunning of Calamity Ganon

Buckled in ladies, lads, and gentlefolk? It’s time for a history lesson, Part 1 o’ Trois. So today here is

Ancient Ruins, Architectural Parallels, and the Probable Worship of the Fae

So! Let’s start with the ruins of Tabantha. Specifically, the Ancient Columns. 

Anon you’re correct in that these ruins are over 10,000 years old. We can not only gather this from the fact that their condition is the same even 100 years ago, meaning they have to be older than a century (see their crumbled state and similar moss patterns) but also from direct lines from the Creating a Champion (CaC) book itself. 

However, I’m inclined to believe (for several reasons that I’m going to get into) that these ruins have nothing to do with the “pillar in the sky” as mentioned in the Rito songs. For one, the pillar of Rito village is of an entirely different architectural style, given that it looks like the natural work of wind erosion. And for another, the existence of the Rito village pillar has to have been much younger, around 100 years old, in order to coincide with the Sheikah Shrine quest, as the Sheikah platform thingy has to correlate with the characteristics of the pillar’s shape. Ergo, ergo, ergo, the “pillar in the sky” isn’t 10,000 years old and has no correlation with the Ancient Columns.

Ok so! Back to the actual ruins themselves and what we can analyze from them. 

Circled above is every instance of ruins in the Tabantha region. Although I should specify that I’m talking about the Ancient Hylian ruins, as that is the type that is most notably scattered across this area. 

We know that all these ruins are off the same civilization because of their style and material. 

[Remember this picture for later^^]

In addition, we can also tell from ruin maps in the CaC book that these ruins are from the same Hylian civilization, as well as the important detail that these ruins were centered around the Goddess. 

Citing that other screenshot at the beginning on the Ancient Hylian Culture, these ruins were built around the same time as the Sacred Springs, so I think it’s safe to assume that these ruins had a religious purpose.  

But I can take this one step further! Up until now, all this information has been based on interpretations from the botw ruins and official info alone, but if we take into account the real life counterparts/parallels, I can prove the exact purpose to what these ruins are for!

Firstly, these ruins are obviously inspired by architecture in Ancient Greece, and other old Empires (like the Romans and Byzantines) across the Mediterranean. 

We also know that the ruins are constructed out of limestone. One, because moss is able to grow on it, so it is unlikely that it is marble. And two, we can see the actual limestone texture when seeing the broken parts of certain columns and walls. 

[and kinda quick side note here: but the existence of large limestone rich structures 10,000 years ago gives more credit to the theory that Botw takes place after a large flood, notably the events of Wind Waker. One, because limestone is a material mined near the sea, as seen with the Island of Paros and Naxos for the Ancient Greeks. And Two, this ancient sea was directly mentioned in the description for botw rock salt. And also Three, this explains the weird placement of certain structures, such as the buildings placed on suspended and isolated rocky plateaus like the ones I showed earlier by the Skywatchers. So there’s your mini theory which kinda proves that the Tanagar Canyon was probably an ocean trench at one point and it also still proves my connection of the Ancient Hylian ruins being parallels to the Ancient Greeks and all that because...ocean. Greece, peninsula, hundreds of islands, lots of quarries in Hyrule by the sea. Akkala is by the sea, there’s quarries, also the islands with mining equipment like Tingle Island. You get it by now right?]

Anyway. Greeks, Romans, polytheistic gods, temples for sacrifices, limestone, yadayadayada. Safe to assume that these Hylian ruins were of a civilization centered around a temple of some sort worshiping a powerful being, or beings, such Hylia. Hurray! Theory seems done.

BUT!

I can take it

A step FURTHER!!!

You see, I was originally gonna leave this post at that. The Ancient Columns are of an Ancient Hylian civilization 10,000 years ago that worshiped some higher powers. “Great!” I think to myself. “Time to get all my screenshots so that my ADHD followers wont die immediately” 

But but but! As I was spending an hour or so getting said screenshots, I took this picture right here and came across a revelation so bright you could have placed a light bulb over my head... 

A pretty enough capture, got a nice aerial view of the ruins, the suspended island thing in the middle of the path... nice view of Tanagar Canyon and the Ancient Columns, the sunset is all pretty and—Oh hey! The Great Fairy Fountain is there. Heh, that’s nice. You know it’s kinda weird that it’s just plopped right in the middle of all these Ancient ruin and temp—

BAadaBing, badaBoom, ladies, lads, and gentlefolk! I’m here to tell ya that these giant fae ladies were once worshiped by 10,000 year old Hylian civilizations. And not just this fairy mind you, but all four of them.

First piece of evidence? The proximity of 10,000 year old structures to every Great Fairy. Mind you, these are the most rare type of ruin in the game. 90% of the ruins are of settlements destroyed 100 years ago by the Calamity, and then the other 10% is still divide up between the Ancient Sheikah and Zonai. So I find it quite interesting that almost every case these special ruined civilizations are near a Great Fairy. [Uh, spoilers for all the Great Fairy locations btw]

First, of course, you got the Great Fairy in Tabantha. 

Then you got the one in Akkala, by the Torrin Wetlands (again, the highlights in yellow are of the canonical 10,000 year old Hylian ruins)

The Lanayru Promenade isn’t even up for debate at this point....I mean it was the parade ground for the ceremony up to the Spring of Wisdom. How much more “Ancient Hylian” can you get then that?

The only kinda iffy one is the Great Fairy in the Gerudo desert, but even THEN this fairy is by two out of the three only instances of 10,000 year old ruins in the entire desert, the third instance being the Zonai labyrinth. 

But, sure. Correlation might not equal causation. But I think the picture becomes all the more clear when you take a look at the timeline of events!

Note that no one in Hyrule really knows what the fairies are all about. Sure, you got that one researched in Tabantha that knew about one of them, and some of the elders in Kakariko had a sort of understanding that a fairy was their neighbor. However, their stance was that of wariness and caution, and they very much did not worship or give offerings to them. Dorian, for example explicitly shows suspicion towards the fairy, and thinks they might be dangerous. (Which, to be fair, is valid if you’ve ever read ANYTHING about the fae)

My point is, people don’t know what the Great Fairies are, or what their powers, motives, or *anything* really are. Sure, 100 years might have passed, but it would be pretty hard to forget something as eye catching as the fae. The people of Hyrule can remember century old white horses, cook books, treasure locations, ancient songs, and vague legends, but the majority of them don’t know about the Giant (seriously, it’s right in the name) Fairy Fountains?!

That is, of course, under the assumption that the Great Fairies existence was known 100 years ago. But what if it wasn’t?

You might be inclined to assume that the fairies lost their power because the Calamity prevented them from getting offerings 100 years ago, but in truth, there is no evidence whatsoever saying that their lack of power originated at the rise of Calamity. 

It’s entirely likely that they haven’t been sitting around for 100 years, but 10,000, or even more. It explains why no one knows anything about them, and also their proximity to the ruins. 

A beautiful spring you say? You power is directly correlated to offerings you say? 

Gee if only there was some ancient civilization that existed a long time ago, that has ties to old religious practices, temples, and polytheistic, which has parallels to the Ancient Greeks and Romans who build their civilizations centering around certain gods and offerings to said powers, and also if only these said civilizations were nearby to all of the fae oh WAIT!

Even when Link gives his offerings, the results are only that of the Great Fairy Fountain blooming, not an entire spring. Could an entire spring existed long ago, providing for the hundreds or thousands of people who worshiped the fae? Who’s to say that these old 10,000 year old civilizations gave offerings to the fae not only for the magic and all that, but for the vitality and life that they provide? Who’s to say that those earlier relief arts of warriors on chariots were of people with enhanced armour. Fairies that give you magic defense would be quit helpful for a civilization that liked to battle... the possibilities are endless....

TL;DR, the Ancient Columns, along with the other 10,000 year old Hylian structures, were constructed for religious purposes, centering around the Great Fairies, who accepted their offerings in exchange for the vitality of their springs, as well as their enchantments. 

So! That’s that. Can you believe this is just me tackling only one aspect of anon’s ask? I realize that the majority of the ask was about the Rito but...oops! That’s why I split it into parts. [When I post the other posts I’ll update the contents at the top to link to them]

A like and reblog is appreciated! I spent too long on this, including an extra week because tumblr deleted my original draft which was much longer... so if you liked it, let me know! It’d be nice to know that my time didn’t completely go to waste, :P Anyhow thanks for reading all this

[brainiuminfotech]

Xamarin Vs React Native: Choose the Right Platform For Your Business

Mobile phones are used by 5.22 billion people, while 4.66 billion people have access to the internet. The rush to develop innovative apps based on new concepts is greater than ever. Businesses of all sizes have set aside funds to develop the most relevant mobile applications to meet the demands and preferences of their consumers. React Native and Xamarin are presently dominating the scene, according to those who monitor the mobile app development industry's trends.

The developer community prefers both of these open source cross-platform frameworks for developing high-performing apps with minimal coding effort and time. Several businesses have made it a prerequisite to hire mobile app developers who know how to write code that works on both iOS and Android. It's no surprise that these frameworks have become quite popular.

When asked which of these two titans has the upper hand in the sector, however, individuals rarely have an answer. Both React Native and Xamarin have their own set of benefits and drawbacks, making it tough to choose between the two.

Today, we'll go over some major aspects that highlight the differences between React Native and Xamarin. But before that, let’s look at their individual characteristics. Let’s go

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin is an open-source platform for .NET developers, similar to React Native. The fundamental purpose of Xamarin is to keep shared code and platform code in communication. The ability of Xamarin to enhance the capabilities of the .NET developer platform with platform-independent tools and frameworks distinguishes it as a unique framework for app development.

Furthermore, Xamarin may take advantage of the entire functionality of the underlying platform. This means that when the app runs on Android, it will take advantage of platform-specific features to deliver the desired user experience. The same can be said for an app that runs on iOS devices. Its ability to take use of the hardware acceleration capabilities of the underlying platform is also due to Xamarin's ability to offer the necessary performance.

Benefits:

Below are some of the benefits of Xamarin:

Xamarin is an ecosystem of built-in technology that enables Xamarin developers to create cross-platform apps in a single step. Developers may reuse 96 percent of this code when using the C# language and the .NET framework. Building apps for all platforms necessitates the use of three technologies: C#, .NET, and Visual Studio.

Xamarin applications are designed to operate on a variety of platforms, yet they share a similar code base. Aside from that, their business logic, database access, and network connectivity are all the same. The developer's only responsibilities are to make improvements to the user interface. This is necessary to ensure that each platform retains its original feel and appearance. In the development world, Xamarin is recognized for providing a highly native but simple application performance. Xamarin has unrivalled performance as compared to other cross-platform programming tools. The picture loading performance of a native platform is just 14 percent quicker than Xamarin when compared to native application development and rendering.

Using Xamarin, you can create a fantastic user experience. It's a collection of standardized interface components and pieces with 100% reuse code. Developers may utilize the built-in Xamarin to change the components from either  Xamarin or iOS or Xamarin. Android to make the needed modifications.

Even for the most popular components, Xamarin did not have a large number of libraries available to developers initially. However, Microsoft's development team heeded this request and created ready-to-use components for typical scenarios and use cases.

Having read about Xamarin and it’s benefits, let’s see what React Native has to offer us.

What is React Native?

React Native is an open-source framework built and introduced by Facebook in 2015. It is based on JavaScript and JSX. The goal is to create native apps for both iOS and Android devices.

The React Native framework uses JSX, which is an amalgamation of XML-Esque Markup. React renders to the native platform of the device on which the app is executing.

This ensures that the app performs similar to those created with a native app development framework such as Java for Android or Objective-C for iOS. As they have a common code base, React Native mobile app development enables the creation of platform-specific versions of components that can be shared across platforms. React Native is used to create mobile apps such as Facebook, Walmart, Bloomberg, and Instagram.

Benefits:

Following are some of the benefits of React Native:

Developers built React Native, and they continue to support it with the same zeal. For this incredible community support, there has been a revolution in React Native mobile app development. The community generously distributes its vast expertise, and everyone gets free access to a plethora of free components for mobile app creation.

With live and hot reloading, React Native mobile app development improves itself. Both of these qualities are complementary, yet there is a significant difference between them. The framework can compile and read the changes performed by the developer in real time thanks to live reloading. When sending a new file to the simulator, the complete file is read from the beginning and the changes are updated. The goal of hot reloading is to test the application's modifications without actually reloading it.

React Native is the go-to solution for developers looking to save money because 90% of the code can be reused to build iOS and Android apps. Working with React Native saves a lot of time because it just requires small changes to add nativity and minor changes to create performant applications.

The React Native application developers may render the application for third-party support using the JavaScript-powered framework. Because React Native does not have all of its components in one place, it makes use of native and JavaScript modules to improve the application's functionality. Third-party modules may be used to integrate features like maps and two-factor authentication to the app.

The frameworks chosen to develop an application have a direct impact on its performance and capacity to deliver a better client experience. As React Native makes use of native modules and components to assist developers in creating a working application, it is possible to generate code for native APIs without causing any issues. As a result, performance-centric apps may be developed at reduced costs and in record time.

Now that we have some in-depth information about the two platforms, let’s do a comparative study between the two to help web developers choose the right platform.

Xamarin Vs React Native:

Direct comparisons are usually the most effective approach to choose between two options. Let’s have a look.

Performance: This area is critical to your ultimate selection because cross-platform and hybrid frameworks are renowned for sacrificing performance for convenience. Though both Xamarin and React Native provide near-native performance, Xamarin is faster on Android and iOS and provides a UI for utilizing native tools.

Popularity: Although popularity does not necessarily define the worth of software, it does have a significant impact on how other people engage with it. The popularity of the software is frequently associated with characteristics like a big skill pool, thorough tooling, and a vibrant community. React Native is more popular than Xamarin, maybe because it is open-source whereas Xamarin is closed-source and exclusively supported by Microsoft. This is evident in everything from Stack Overflow insights to Google Trends.

Community And Developer Ecosystem: You may expect React Native to have a larger and more supportive community than Xamarin for the same reasons mentioned above. React Native's community was small when it first started. However, as the framework develops in popularity and JavaScript frameworks in general gain in popularity, spotting other React Native developers has gotten simpler and easier.

Development Environment: Pre-built components are available in both Xamarin and React Native to improve speed and the developer experience. Despite the live reload functionality of React Native, the technology as a whole pales in contrast to Xamarin. Xamarin. Forms and  Xamarin.iOS as well as Xamarin.Android  gives developers the ability to design native UI components that are particular to the platform. Xamarin developers may get native-like performance in this method, which React Native developers may not be able to do.

Availability: The majority of open-source frameworks are free to use. Xamarin, on the other hand, is unable to claim that title. There is a free version of Xamarin, however it has restricted functionality. In general, more access equals more freedom, therefore React Native has the upper hand in this category.

Compilation: Just-in-time (JIT) compilation is used by JavaScript and its frameworks, notably React Native. Despite the fact that compiled languages are quicker than interpreted languages because they are translated to machine code before execution, JIT compilation may offer the best of both worlds. JIT compilation is used by JavaScript, Java, and C#. However, React Native's JIT compilation only works on Android, not iOS, causing performance issues for iOS apps. Both JIT and ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation are available in C#. In most situations, AOT compiled code runs quicker. Xamarin vs. React Native demonstrates that both frameworks have identical compilation techniques, but Xamarin has a compiler that works well on both iOS and Android.

Expense: Xamarin and React Native are both free to download. However, Xamarin is only available for free to individuals and small businesses. This, of course, makes React Native, which is completely free, much more enticing.

Wrap Up:

Finally, we can conclude that both React Native and Xamarin are robust frameworks that can be utilized to create high-quality apps. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and only you can choose which is the greatest match for your next project. For better results, hire professional mobile app developers as they can assist you in determining the best platform for the success of your project.

[asleepypisces]

A friend of mine recently shared how loud silence can be, specifically from her white friends following the murder of George Floyd. We might feel inclined to offer sympathy with statements like “I can’t believe this happened” or “this doesn’t feel real,” but it is the very privilege of being white that is causing us to feel shocked while this is an every day reality for black Americans. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the victims of police brutality and racism as well as all black Americans, but that is not enough. Thoughts and prayers are never enough. Now is the time for white Americans to reflect on our privilege and use it. Teach other white people about the barriers in society that exist for black Americans and call them out (this includes friends and family) if they are being racist, even when it’s uncomfortable to do so. Listen to and amplify the voices of black Americans - share their words, posts, work, businesses, art, etc during this time and ALL of the time. Lastly, learn! This is a result of a history of racism in the United States, the oppressive system that is the police, and an unjust justice system. What you shouldn’t do is share videos of these murders (share the graphics of artists instead), photographs of protestors (it can put them at risk), speak over black Americans, or be ignorant for the sake of blocking out negativity. You cannot and should not ignore this reality. What can you do, besides attending a protest (which you should if you are able)? See below!

There is a lot of information about contacting government officials and legislators, places to donate, and petitions to sign. I compiled the information I found. Know the words below are not all my own, with information gathered from a Medium article titled 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice and a USA Today article titled Resources, ways to donate: How you can take action from home after the death of George Floyd as well as information I found on my own.

Contacting legislators, lawmakers, and other officials:

* Google whether your local police department currently requires all on-duty police officers to wear a body camera turned on immediately whenever they respond to a call. If they don’t, email your city or town representative and police chief to advocate for it.

* Google whether your city or town uses evidence-based police de-escalation trainings. If not, again email your city or town representative and police chief to advocate for it.

* Call or email your federal legislators in support of the bipartisan (sponsored by Sen Lee (R-UT)) Smarter Sentencing Act (S. 2850) which reduces the length of federal mandatory minimum drug sentences by half, makes the Fair Sentencing Act’s crack sentencing reforms retroactive, and expands the “safety valve” exception to mandatory drug sentences. This is would reduce mandatory minimum sentences on a federal level! Obviously decriminalization is the goal, but supporting this legislation is a start.

* Call or email your federal legislators in support of the bipartisan(sponsored by Sen Rand (R-KY)) Justice Safety Valve Act (S. 399, H.R. 1097), which would allow judges to give sentences other than the mandatory minimum sentence for any federal crime which should again reduce mandatory minimum sentences! Again, a start.

* Call or email your federal legislators in support of another criminal justice reform bill, the Second Look Act, which would make reduced sentences for crack convictions from the previously passed Fair Sentencing Act retroactive, reduce mandatory minimums for people convicted more than three times for drug crimes from life without parole after the third offense to 25 years, reduce mandatory sentences for drug crimes from 15 to 10 years, limit the use of solitary confinement on juvenile prisoners, etc. Again, it’s a start.

* Call or email your your state legislators and governor to support state-wide criminal justice reform! This includes reducing mandatory minimum sentences, reducing sentences for non-violent drug crimes, passing “safety valve” law to allow judges to depart below a mandatory minimum sentence under certain conditions, passing alternatives to incarceration, etc.

* Call or write to state legislators, federal legislators, and your governor to decriminalize weed.

* Call or write to state legislators to require racial impact statements be required for all criminal justice bills. Most states already require fiscal and environmental impact statements for certain legislation. Racial impact statements evaluate if a bill may create or exacerbate racial disparities should the bill become law. Check out the status of your state’s legislation surrounding these statements here.

* Call or write to state legislators, federal legislators, and your governor to end solitary confinement in excess of 15 days. It is considered torture by the UN, and it is used more frequently on black and Hispanic prisoners.

* Write to the US Sentencing Commission (PubAffairs@ussc.gov) and ask them to:

* reform the career offender guideline to lessen the length of sentences

* change the guidelines so that more people get probation

* change the criminal history guidelines so that a person’s criminal record counts against them less

* change guidelines to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes

* conduct a study to review the impact of parental incarceration on minor children. With more data, the Commission could modify the Sentencing Guidelines and allow judges to take this factor into account when sentencing individuals for non-violent crimes.

* conduct a study to review whether the Bureau of Prisons is following the Commission’s encouragement to file a motion for compassionate release whenever “extraordinary and compelling reasons” exist.

* consider amending the guidelines to reduce sentences for first offenders.

* Write to your state legislators to end cash bail. Your wealth should not determine your freedom. Legally innocent people are in jail not because they’re guilty, but because they cannot afford the price of their freedom.

Petitions:

(If you need postal code for non-US people who sign 90015 is Los Angeles, CA; 10001 is New York City, NY; and 75001 is Dallas, TX.)

* Sign the petition here that aims to “reach the attention of Mayor Jacob Frey and DA Mike Freeman to beg to have the officers involved in this disgusting situation fired and for charges to be filed immediately.“ https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd

* Sign the petition here to “demand the officers who killed George Floyd are charged with murder." So far, the petitions has garnered more than 1 million signatures. You can also sign by texting "Floyd" to 55156. https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis

* Sign the petition here “demanding justice for George Floyd and his family by adding your name to our super petition. When you sign, our platform will automatically send your message to County Attorney Michael Freeman, who has the power to arrest and charge these police officers.” All officers must be held responsible. https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/#petition

Text:

* Text “Justice” to 668366.

* Text “Floyd to 55156 to sign the petition mentioned above.

Donate money:

* GoFundMe: Organized by Philonise Floyd, George's brother, the fund was created to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings and to assist the family in the days to come as they “continue to seek justice for George,” according to the description. A portion of these funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd, which benefits his children and their educational fund.” https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

* NAACP: Donations to the NAACP go toward: helping “win landmark legal battles, protect voters across the nation, and advance the cause of racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.” https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6857/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=15780&_ga=2.209233111.496632409.1590767838-1184367471.1590767838

* Black Lives Matter: You can become a "Global Member" by donating $5 to support their campaigns. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

* Communities United Against Police Brutality: A Minneapolis organization who accepts donations via mail or PayPal for “office costs, copwatch equipment, court filing fees and other expenses." https://www.cuapb.org/

* Minnesota Freedom Fund: An organization that helps pay jail bonds for those who cannot afford to fight discriminatory and coercive jailing. "Every dollar of financial donations to Minnesota Freedom Fund helps us help free people," the website states. https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/

* Reclaim the Block: A grassroots, Minneapolis organization that demands “that Minneapolis invest in real safety solutions like violence prevention, housing, responses to mental health and opioid crises, and protections for workers instead of 14 more cops.” They are focused on building community-led safety solutions. https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home

* Black Visions Collective: Aims “to shape a political home for Black people across Minnesota.” They are recommenced by the Minnesota Freedom Fund as they are out on the field right now. https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2

Donate Supplies:

* North Star Health Collective: Recommended by the Minnesota Freedom Fund as they are also out in the field right now. Accepts first-aid supplies. The link will take you to the website for information on what they need and where to send it. https://www.northstarhealthcollective.org/support-north-star-health

Where to shop:

* If you are looking for clothes, I linked Maya Rigby’s (aka @lovlae) Depop. 100% of her proceeds for the next week will be going to Reclaim the Block. If you don’t need clothes, she has cute scrunchies available! https://www.depop.com/mayarigby/

* Philadelphia Printworks “supports local and national organizations doing work in the areas of food security, police brutality, immigrant rights, tlgbq+ rights, mass incarceration, and more. Support is determined by the needs of the organization and may be financial and/or resource based.” For example, 100% of the profits from the National Bail Out shirts goes to the NBO. https://www.philadelphiaprintworks.com/

* @ghosttownusa is donating 100% of Depop proceeds (@ablesistersvillage) to North Star Health Collective.

*Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign is inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem and supports a variety of organizations including Essie Justice Group, Black Futures Lab, and Higher Heights (as well as many others.) https://phenomenalwoman.us/pages/about

Lastly, be politically active and vote in all elections! Following the recent twitter response of Trump towards people protesting police brutality and considering the future of The Supreme Court, this presidential election matters. Local elections matter too and directly impact our community in our everyday lives. They are the ones who can change policing in our communities. Stay informed on candidates and if you want to do more, canvassing and volunteering at the polls on Election Day are two ways you can volunteer. However, remember that the solution to end police brutality is not a simple matter of voting Trump out of office - consider the victims of police brutality before this presidency. This requires supporting the campaigns of black candidates, specifically women, through organizations like Higher Heights which is “the only national organization providing Black women with a political home exclusively dedicated to harnessing their power to expand Black women’s elected representation and voting participation, and advance progressive policies.”

Please feel free to add on or send me any suggestions/corrections, and may George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and all victims of police brutality and racism rest in peace and power. 💕🖤

[dsignk]

Bluehost Hosting  It Is Cheap, But Is It Good?

What is Bluehost and what type of hosting it offers? 🤔

go website

Over the years, Bluehost has grown to be one of the most popular hosting companies out there, especially for WordPress sites.

Just glancing at their homepage and all the different products that Bluehost offers tells you a lot about why it’s won so many users over. First off, Bluehost has numerous different hosting products in their portfolio – not just simple website hosting.

Second, their prices are really, really affordable. Plus, you also get a handful of bonuses thrown in for free. This makes your overall cost of launching a site much lower vs what you’d have to pay with the competition.

But let’s start at the beginning. Here are the different types of hosting that Bluehost has in store, including one that is likely going to be the pick for most users.

Let’s divide the list into a couple of categories:

Entry-level web hosting

This is the budget solution in Bluehost’s portfolio of web hosting. These plans are usually chosen by users who are new to the concept of owning a website and needing web hosting to make it happen.

Bluehost has two main offerings that fall under entry-level hosting:

Shared web hosting

Basic WordPress hosting

While it may seem like the latter is better if you want to use WordPress as your website engine, in reality, both are the same product. From what I’ve seen, this is simply a different marketing framing, but the elements on the inside are the same.

Managed WordPress hosting

The basic WordPress hosting plans mentioned above are just that – basic. However, Bluehost also offers a more advanced package called Managed WordPress.

Compared to the basic offering, the managed variety takes care of all the technical aspects of the hosting setup and WordPress maintenance for you.

In other words, when you’re on managed WordPress hosting, you don’t have to worry about anything related to keeping your site operational. Instead, you can just focus on creating content and promoting your site.

Managed plans also give you more power under the hood 💪, which is important for sites with an established position in the market that receive more traffic.

Bluehost also has a tailor-made offering for WordPress websites running WooCommerce – for eCommerce stores. Those plans come with some WooCommerce-specific elements pre-installed (WooCommerce itself, an optimized theme, payment processing tools, security, extras).

If you’re looking for a host because you are indeed going to be launching a WooCommerce store, this is probably the solution for you.

Professional hosting

The last tier of Bluehost hosting is what we can call professional-level hosting. Two main products here:

VPS hosting

Dedicated servers

The former is a very interesting concept that’s built around hosting virtualization. VPS stands for virtual private server. What you’re actually getting here is access to a web hosting setup that runs as a virtual machine on a bigger, physical server. It’s a setup beneficial when building web apps or other types of web-based products that are not necessarily standard websites.

If you do indeed need a whole physical machine at your disposal, that’s what dedicated servers are for. This type of web hosting is usually the most expensive and powerful hosting option available with most companies.

Bluehost hosting review: features and pricing ⚙️💸

As you read above, Bluehost has many different hosting plans and tiers available, and each of them delivers a slightly different set of features.

For the purpose of this Bluehost hosting review, we’ll look at the entry-level plan called Basic Web Hosting.

It’s the most budget-friendly solution in the lineup and, for that reason, also the most popular one among customers.

Here’s a snapshot of the pricing page at the time of writing:

As you can see, Bluehost has a very affordable offering that starts at just $2.95/mo. However, the first thing you must know about this price is that you have to sign up for a three-year contract in order to get it. It is also paid upfront, which means that you do have to shell out $106.20 on day one.

There are options to begin with shorter contracts, but the prices grow with those a bit. Here’s the full picture:

36 months: Basic $2.95/mo, Plus and Choice Plus $5.45/mo, Pro $13.95/mo

24 months: Basic $3.95/mo, Plus and Choice Plus $6.95/mo, Pro $15.95/mo

12 months: Basic $4.95/mo, Plus and Choice Plus $7.45/mo, Pro $18.95/mo

Bluehost doesn’t offer month-to-month payment options

Okay, but what do you get for these prices?

Overall, Bluehost focuses on delivering two things:

the basic set of features and server capabilities that most users will need,

making those features easy to use and accessible.

All the entry-level plans are very similar on paper, but there are a couple of fine differences.

First of all, none is “more powerful” than the other. Speaking in terms of computing power and the “scale of website,” they can all handle the same load. The differences are mainly in the size of website and number of websites you’re allowed to run.

On the Basic plan, you are allowed only one website. Your disk space is also limited to 50 GB.

All the other plans let you run unlimited websites and consume unlimited disk space while doing so.

This is great because what it means in practice is that if you want to build 2+ websites, Bluehost will only charge you $5.45/mo for that.

Here’s what else you get.

The Basic plan:

24/7 customer support via phone and chat (more on the quality of that later in this Bluehost hosting review),

access to custom themes from within the Bluehost panel,

a free domain name for the first year(!) plus access to a domain manager,

email hosting – albeit it’s kind of hidden in the panel,

a $100 Google Ads credit and Google My Business integration,

free CDN integration – a “content delivery network” hook-up means that your website’s data is served from multiple servers across the web instead of just one machine; this improves your site speed a lot,

free SSL certificates.

The Choice plan throws in a free Office 365 subscription for one month. The Choice Plus gives you additional access to free domain privacy (so that no one can check your personal data associated with the domain name) and free automatic backups. Lastly, the Pro plan offers an additional dedicated IP address (important when building web apps/tools, not so much for standard websites).

Overall, there really is nothing here that’s missing. Bluehost has put some real thought behind what the essential web hosting features are and then put them all together in this offering.

The free domain is a huge deal in particular! You’d usually have to pay around $15 for a new domain name registration. While it’s not a lot, it still adds up to your overall website launch bill. The fact that Bluehost throws that in for free is great.

⚠️ Note. Mind the renewal prices. Bluehost, like most hosting companies, will charge you a different amount when first signing up for their service vs renewing after a while. Those renewal prices are higher. Take a look at that pricing screenshot above one more time. See the crossed off price below the main price? That’s the renewal price – it’s what you’re going to pay after your initial contract is up.

Bluehost hosting review: ease of use 👐

Bluehost does a lot to make the signup and website launch process as smooth as possible. They realize that whoever’s choosing the entry-level plan probably doesn’t have a lot of experience with web hosting. Bluehost tries to make it possible for that user to configure everything on their own without outside help. All within the Bluehost hosting interface.

Once you get through the purchase process on Bluehost’s website and finalize everything, you’ll be invited to your new user profile page.

Right away, Bluehost will ask you how you want to go about building your website and if you want to have WordPress installed on your setup. They will even ask you whether you want to work on your site in the classic model (by picking a theme and modifying it) or use Bluehost’s new builder interface.

I went with the first option since it’s more common for WordPress users to do so.

Next, right in the main dashboard, you get a couple of suggestions as to what you should do to make your site better:

You can log into your WordPress site directly from the dashboard as well – just click the Log in to WordPress button in the top right corner.

My Sites. Since you can have more than one site on most Bluehost hosting plans, this is where you can see them all.

Marketplace. Bluehost makes it easy to integrate your site with other third-party tools, add-ons, and also upgrade your hosting tier if needed. This section is where you can purchase and install those integrations with a couple of clicks.

WordPress themes and plugins. This is a subsection under Marketplace, but I feel I should highlight it here. Bluehost gives you access to custom WordPress themes right from the dashboard. It also hooks up to your site directly, so that you can purchase and install those themes all from the Bluehost interface. This can be a huge timesaver.

Email & Office. Bluehost gives you an option to integrate your site with hosted email via Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. This is where you can enable everything.

Domains. This is where you can manage your website domain(s) and purchase new ones.

Marketing Tools. This section is all about making it easier to integrate your site with popular marketing channels such as Google Ads, Google My Business, and others.

Advanced. Go here if you want to access cPanel (if this doesn’t sound like English, then Advanced is probably not a section for you).

Let’s look into what’s possible when managing your site, since that’s what most of us will want to do.

When you go to My Sites and select your site from the list, you’ll see the following panel:

This is a nice view of your site’s status all in one place. From here, you can access the themes you have installed, your plugins, and even oversee your marketing promotions, backups, user accounts, security, and more.

What’s great here is that everything is presented nicely, and you’re spared all the server lingo. You don’t have to be a pro to know what’s going on.

And I remind you that we are dealing here with basic, entry-level hosting setup that did cost a mere $2.95/mo. So…impressive.

Bluehost performance and load times 📈

Okay, so we know that Bluehost is cheap. But is it fast? There has to be a trade-off somewhere, right? Is it performance?

Let’s find out:

We did a very simple test. We set up a site using Bluehost’s tools, published some dummy content on it, added images, picked a theme and configured it, and basically made the site look real.

Then, we also added a couple of plugins for good measure, like WPForms, Yoast SEO, Jetpack, and a couple more.

Below are the results of the tests – done from several locations:

Bluehost hosting review: PERFORMANCE

I have to give it to Bluehost…considering this is budget hosting, the results are more than impressive!

Going below one sec for US traffic is pretty much all you can ask for with any hosting platform – even the more expensive ones.

Bluehost hosting review: customer support 🚑

Bluehost offers 24/7 phone and live chat support. Apart from that, there’s also a knowledge base where you can find tutorials and answers to the most common questions people have about Bluehost’s platform.

You can access the support chat from the main contact page on Bluehost’s site.

Bluehost asks a couple of questions to identify you as a customer, and then gets you through to a support agent.

From our experience when writing this Bluehost hosting review, a support agent got to us pretty much immediately after starting the chat.

The interaction was positive, the agent offered advice and was willing to help. However, we seem to had hit a wall in terms of what they’re actually authorized to do.

Granted, I did ask him to do a fairly specific thing.

Pros and cons of Bluehost hosting 👍👎

Before we give you our final rating in this Bluehost hosting review, let’s look at a quick list of pros and cons.

Pros 👍

The entry price is more than affordable ($2.95/mo).

They give you a free domain for the first year.

The setup is really easy to do, especially if you want to use WordPress.

The user interface is great, making it easy to do simple modifications and/or maintenance tasks.

The load times are really impressive, managing to go below the one-second mark.

The support is quick to respond.

Cons 👎

The renewal prices are much higher than the entry-level ones. That’s why you’re better off going for the max-term contract right out the gate.

While you can set up hosted email on the platform, it’s a bit hidden. You have to go to the cPanel view and set everything up there by hand.

The reviews on the web are mixed. Some users seem to be having issues with their setups. However, many of those reviews are from a while back.

Bluehost hosting review conclusion: Why use it over another host 💪

At the end of the day, Bluehost looks like a great solution for the budget-minded person who wants to launch a new site as quickly as possible and also fairly cheaply.

Bluehost has all the basic hosting features you might expect, and the performance isn’t lacking in any way either.

Granted, the tests we did haven’t been carried out over a long period of time, so you’re mileage may vary, but the early indicators are certainly more than positive!

[thebrewstorian]

“Maybe you’ve heard of her husband? Finding Louisa Weinhard.” The Zoom 2020 PCB-AHA presentation.

Last week I was supposed to give a presentation for the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association conference. That didn't work out... For the COVID-19 reasons. But we did make it work a week later on Zoom and it was terrific!

My talk focused on Louisa Weinhard. Here’s what I said. 

I started OHBA in 2013, the first of its kind in the country. 2013 is also when I met Peter Kopp [see photo above left bottom - Kopp is the author of Hoptopia: A World of Agriculture and Beer in Oregon's Willamette Valley] and we’re old hats at presenting together. Though usually we are in the same room. This talk, “Maybe you’ve heard of her husband? Finding Louisa Weinhard,” is based on an article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly I’m working on revisions for right now. I’m going to talk about women in brewing in Oregon, but first I want to talk about silence.

Archives and records repositories are filled with voices. We visit them to learn about our families, past actions of governments, and the activities of private organizations. But they are also spaces that reflect power and document the dominant narrative. Decisions are made by creators, by archivists, and by researchers about what to include and who to exclude – the result can be distortion, omission, and erasure. And so, for all the voices recorded in an archive, there are also many that have been silenced.

As anyone who has done historical research on women knows, their stories weren’t actually hidden, more often they were simply not recorded. The history of nineteenth century women’s work is often told through the story of husbands and sons. They were categorized as wives and mothers rather than business partners or owners. One issue I always cite when talking about researching women is the complications surrounding names: if their first name was recorded in newspapers (not just “Mrs.”), actually finding a maiden name to track genealogy often feels like luck.

Most (all) brewers in nineteenth century Oregon were men, but as I explored beer history more, I found the stories of early Oregon women and their work in brewing fascinating. In my research I found most women linked to breweries weren’t making beer, but I suspected they played an essential role in the businesses success (for example in running the household, child-minding, doing the books, participating in community events, etc.), and I knew that several ran the brewery for a time after their husband died.

I was preparing for an oral history in 2016 with Dana Garves, owner of BrewLab and former brewing chemist at Ninkasi, and I found a blog post she’d written called “Oregon’s First Women Brewers [1879-1908],” which included names and locations. I have since found photos of three of these women: Left to right is Fredericka Wetterer from Jacksonville, Mary Allen from Monument, and Marie Kienlen from southern Oregon. Garves also wrote about Theresa O’Brien from the north coast and Mary Mehl from the south coast. I added names of own, including Catherine Stahl and Frances Kastner from eastern Oregon; Margaret Beck from Capital Brewing in Salem, and Louisa Kiefer from Albany – she’s also Fredericka Wetterer’s sister.

But is there a way to determine the jobs they did or the role they played? I did a lot of online newspaper searching and onsite research in the places these women lived, and the short answer is no. Variables in terms of family structure, geographic location, brewery size, and available documentation make generalizations and specifics quite difficult. 

But Henry Weinhard? His is a pretty familiar name and his business was extremely successful. And I was certain researching his wife would be a snap. An easy win and good practice for future work on the other women I’d identified.

I was wrong.

It turned out records for the Weinhards are scant, mostly limited to newspaper articles and ads, government records, lawsuits, and, for Henry, glowing biographies in “books about great men.”

And so I dug.

This is Louisa, who had that very famous husband. Although she was famous in her own right for generosity, as well as her involvement in local church and aid societies, her legacy is marked by both details and silences.

Not to jump to the end of the story first, but the fact that I have this picture is a true testament to my Googling superpowers. I scoured archival collections, newspapers, and books looking for a picture of her, only to fail. Finally, using a string of search terms I can’t remember, I found a 2015 reference to a portrait in an article about the Portland Community College remodel. Days before I finished the first draft of my article, I emailed their Community Relations manager and she sent me a picture of the portrait. It sat on my desk and I saved it on my phone to show people who I was writing about. We have signed the paperwork to have this transferred to the collections at OSU – I was due to pick it up the week everything closed…

Luise Wagenblast was born in Germany in 1832. She lost her mother when she was four, traveled to Missouri at fifteen, arrived in the Northwest at twenty-three, and married a man who would become famous when she was twenty-seven. By the time she died at aged eighty-five, she’d buried her husband and four of her five children.

Through online genealogy sites and local history sources, I pieced together details about Louisa’s family’s move from Waldrems, Germany, a small town about 300 miles southwest of Berlin, to Missouri to Oregon. Although she travelled to Oregon by ship, her brother Gottlieb journeyed with the 1855 wagon train led by Dr. Wilhelm Keil, founder of Christian communal settlements in Bethel (Missouri) and Aurora (Oregon) – thanks to Peter’s dad James for his work on utopian communities in Oregon because it helped me tease out whether they were part of the colony or not. They weren’t.

Through government records, I learned when she was married to Henry and when her children were born. Census records and newspapers documented the family’s moves back and forth across the Oregon / Washington border. Through the census, I also learned about her neighbors, the ages of her children, and if she had servants living in her home. While dates and names are recorded, what isn’t is the scope of her loss, which feels immense. Her son Christian Henry died in 1863 at two years old and daughter Emma Augusta in 1864 at 18 months. Her daughter Bertha Carolina (Bettie) died in 1882 of acute appendicitis at 13. Henry died in 1904 of kidney disease. Just over a year later, daughter Louise Wagner died of heart disease at thirty-two. Only daughter Anna Wessinger, who lived to 87, survived Louisa.

However, mentions in newspaper articles gave me a significant, and somewhat intimate, glimpse into her life through her community activities. She sent roses to the 1903 Portland Rose Society annual rose show and thirty pounds of sugar to support unemployed men at the Gipsy Smith Tabernacle. She donated $100 to a benefit fund to purchase artificial legs for Marjorie Mahr, an actress who lost both legs in a railway accident. When thirteen-year-old Ervilla Smith arrived at the Weinhard house in the middle of the night in 1905 after being assaulted near the Lewis & Clark Exposition fairgrounds and left on the street by a saloon; the family welcomed her, called the doctor and the police, while “Mrs. Weinhard got her something to eat and made her comfortable for the night.” She was a member of the Portland Women's Union and sent money to the Louise Home for Unmarried Mothers and Albertina Kerr Nursery Home. And during the last weeks of her life, she offered money to a woman whose husband was in prison in California so she could visit him.

I have lots of stories that could expand and fill the rest of my time: things I found out about Louisa’s siblings; brewery owners, saloon keepers, gambling, prostitution, and vice; women’s clubs in Portland; or family real estate acquisitions. But since it’s where I found the most detail, I’m going to tell you about how Louisa used that wealth and her position at the end of her life.

In the years following Henry and Louise’s deaths, it is difficult to determine how involved Louisa was in the brewery and family estate business, perhaps no more than in name as an executrix of the estate. What is clear is that she continued to support her German community. The most significant was her donation of a twenty-acre lot in Southeast Portland, worth $30,000, to build a retirement facility for elderly Germans to spend their final years “among their own people.” The Altenheim was to be the “most important of its kind in the U.S.” Newspapers reported that she wanted residents to take advantage of fresh air, good water, and rich soil; and because she valued work, also wanted “helpful occupations for charges” and imagined the home would be partially self-supporting through farming. On August 6, 1911, with 2,000 people present, the cornerstone was laid, which contained pictures of Henry and Louisa, as well as copies of Portland’s German and other daily newspapers. Louisa’s great-grandson talking later about a picture in the newspaper of Louisa at the May 1912 dedication, in an open carriage with the mayor of Portland, described her as looking like queen Victoria, “very short and very fat.” That’s the picture you see here – a find made possible by the University of Oregon’s Historic Oregon Newspapers site. I learned more about Louisa from the news coverage for the Altenheim than in most previous articles about Henry or the business. Beyond a tone-deaf comment about her appearance, I learned that she valued work, self-sufficiency, and cultural traditions, but also that she was part of a community that felt isolated from the rest of Portland. What we don’t hear are her words – in all the press coverage regarding the Altenheim there isn’t a single quote from Louisa.

The Altenheim was closed in 2003 and the building housed the German American Society offices until the property was sold to Portland Community College in 2010. And that’s where her portrait is waiting for me!

Louisa died in Portland on April 23, 1918 and was buried at the River View Cemetery. She was eighty-five years old, had been in America for seventy-one years and Portland for sixty-three. News of her death was carried in several papers.

W.G. Maclaren, General Superintendent Pacific Coast Rescue and Protective Society, wrote a letter to the editor that was an unfettered tribute to her good works and the hidden nature of her charity. He said that during the hard times of 1907, she bought $100 worth of tickets for the Portland Commons, and distributed them among “men who were out of work and in need of food and lodging.” He went on “She gave me orders that I was not to allow any unfortunate person to go away hungry and agreed to meet the expenses of feeding them.” He continued, “there never was a case of a mother or child in sickness or distress that Mrs. Weinhard knew of where she would not give assistance” and concluded she was a “good woman with one of the best hearts where human suffering was concerned that I have ever known. I believe that the people of Portland should know something of what she did during her long residence in this city for the benefit of Humanity.”

This last sentence feels like a final reminder that she gave freely to charitable causes and individual people, not for personal recognition (and maybe not for our historical record) but for the purpose of bettering others.

In researching Louisa, I found a handful of touchingly personal details that I couldn’t verify. The Weinhards supposedly had a house in Astoria and a farm of 620 acres in Yamhill County. An Oregonian article, written in 1954 when Louise Weinhard Wagner's home was being demolished, noted a 4-foot stained glass window with a woman sipping from a wine glass, said to have been installed by Louisa Weinhard as a gift with the house. The names Henry and Louise/a are handed down to subsequent generations in their family. And Louisa herself was immortalized in Brewery Block Two, a 242-unit high-rise residential building built on the location of the original Weinhard brewery in Portland.

But the last bit of sparkle to this story is a connection I made with one of her descendants on ancestry.com. I found Lizzie Hart, her great+ granddaughter, which had pictures of Louisa’s granddaughter and Lizzie’s grandmother. I wrote her and said “I’m an archivist. I have this picture of your relative and I’ve written this article about her, would you like either?” Fortunately, she wasn’t creeped out by this... 

Instead, through our ongoing correspondence she has given me a more personal perspective on the Weinhard family and validated my work in this area. My research has added a dimension both the story of the women in her family and in her own personal understanding of how she fits into it. Her family story was the story of men. 

I can’t end with a quote from Louisa, but I can end with one from Lizzie “What you are doing in your work -- the recovery of women's stories, painstaking as it may be to grapple in the dark room of the dominant narrative -- is such an important task to undertake on behalf of our futures.”

***

For more on archival silence, see 

Carter, Rodney G.S. 2006. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence”. Archivaria 61 (September), 215-33. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12541.

[stargazinggirk]

In response to PR, Lucy and Rami

Since another post directly referencing mine has been going around I’d thought I’d just clear up one of two points I guess I hadn’t well enough the first time around.

One I like Lucy and Rami both very much. If they are now dating or end up dating I’d be very happy. The man is 38 years old he deserves life partner or wife. And Lucy does too because we all deserve to be happy and loved. I shall never ever in a million years get the chance to meet or date either of them so why should I hate them if they are together? Why be jealous? if Lucy is the one than good she doesn’t seem like a bad or evil person she just seems highly career driven. Just like Rami was in his youth but when a woman show cases that we tend to cast her in a negative light that we don’t on men. That was the motivation for my post but I felt in order to express that I also needed to share what I have come to believe is the truth. Which is that the relationship is or mostly has been a PR stunt. Not talking about that fact felt wrong to me.

The reason for the PR stunt I gave was the nicest out of the three. Which was award season a little googling should explain that or maybe in the future I’ll write a non Rami related cliff notes post on how award season works in Hollywood and the millions of dollars that go into it and why. Because Oscars are still star makers and cash cows ( Bri Larson, Octavia spencer A24, Weinstein anyone) There are two other rumors flying but I don’t feel like they have enough ground or proof to bother writing about.

I came under fire for posting this as it was viewed as an attack on both actors privacy. Which depending on your definition of a public figure could very well be true. I’d normally agree 100% with that poster on this fact. It’s why I’ve with held my knowledge on their relationship and the PR rumors under wraps for sometime and the word in Hollywood till they made it quite clear that they are out in the public like this together and those public actions and comments in blogs,red Carpet interviews and speeches can be discuss and used as a point of reference. When you sit court side though you can get free tickets for more private places you want to be seen and don’t want privacy.

As for breaking rami’s privacy about the PR stunt it’s kinda all over and joked at among those close to a certain part of his inner circle. There isn’t much privacy left to be had. Why do you think almost right after it seemed like they were dating that there was a huge surge in people claiming it’s PR. No one claimed that when it Timmee and Lily Rose because Hollywood had known they were dating for months. No one within a ten foot radius of there social circle was shocked because it had always been tastefully known. There was no doubt they were a real couple. People date their co stars all the time and PR stunt rumors never spread because there is no grounds for it. It’s a when there is smoke their is fire moment and so far none of the smoke has cleared it’s only gotten thicker.

His acting coach ( current or former haven’t gotten a clear answer on that) is openly talking about it with many. If anyone has betrayed rami’s privacy it’s her. But maybe she didn’t really because maybe it’s not a secret Rami is too hot on keeping as it’s spread pretty far and the PR team is making basic moves. Play book moves on all of it. Their biggest mistake was the golden globes mini melt down which they’ve been correcting ever since.

As for why the press doesn’t ask about if it’s PR stunt? Oh my word. You do know how press for actors work right? It’s not journalists actors speak with. Their talking heads. Literally that’s what they are not so nicely referred to as because that’s their job. reps pick the questions. Anyone who is going to interview an actor is sent a list of no go questions and then submits their questions back so the actor can prep their answer. Why else do you think Live Aid is the main talking point of so many interviews? It’s been preplaned to be brought up. Also most of those people respect their guests and don’t want to shame them or make them uncomfortable by bringing up stuff they’ve been asked not to. It also a nice safety net if they get internet shamed for not asking questions. I couldn’t I was given orders not too.

So why doesn’t an interviewer break the rules? If you’re Ellen you can if you are a smaller red carpet person you get black balled. That PR team is never going on to let you speak to anyone of their stars again.

As for the London bffta comment which got mentioned in regards to my post rami is filming doctor doo little - or parts of it in London and possibly James Bond mostly at Pinewood in London. That sounds like a good reason especially given how much more layer back unhollywood like London is. Lucy could be a reason or it could be practical business investment most actors buy places where they film and then rent them out or make them over and sell them for a much higher price ( Angela Jolie’s Budapest short lived Budapest rel estates love affair anyone)

Look was my making the post or even the post the smartest choice of my life no. But the lack of understanding around Hollywood especially when it’s so easy to read the trades and follow key people on Twitter kills me.

So yes people of the internet doubt me. I am hidden behind a screenname and while I’ve made cases no solid proof has been offered. All I can encourage you to do if you want to argue or are curious is do research. Or better yet ask yourself what you are using to say if they are a couple or not. Or what you define as privacy. Or why you don’t like Lucy or don’t like rami or hate Hollywood. Think study learn and don’t consider not speaking on the internet till you can make sound well rounded response otherwise you are just adding to the noise.

And on a bottom bottom note time will tell us more about their relationship. How often she visits the mr robot set or hangs in New York how much he flies back to London over the 3 months after his Oscar win will let us know.

No they won’t break up right after. There will be a post Oscar honeymoon phase for at least a month and then Lucy is will slowly start a social media rebranding of sorts. Showing more of her life and career than she had before and rumors of power moves and the roles she is up for and in talks for will poor in. Then after about 3 months nothing 6 months they don’t be dating but with probably only one or two vague stories of them growing apart - but how successful they are either on E! Or entertainment tonight.

If none of the above follows then I was wrong and my sources mislead or mistaken and I shall be the first to congratulate Lucy and rami and cheers their loyalshippers. Because none of this is an attack against them it’s about the bs we force on movie stars as fans and what the industry does to them.

And on a petty note of this level of breaking down Hollywood and explaining all that I have at a university level with years of experience on this matter sounds like a 12 year old crap post out of jealousy to you then why are you on the tumblr fighting for moviestars honor when you clearly are too brilliant for the likes of this? Just saying that was a really dump attack against me and my credibility t - go on correct my English it’s not my first language nor my second.

[pirumxsim]

GET TO KNOW ME TAG

Thank you for tagging me @oaski and @tvansillaf !

RULES: Post a pic of your simself with your traits and answer the questions!

I will tag @ladykendalsims @seoulchii @rosepeachwater @honeybeqr @myopiccc @fashionista4sims @starry-eyed-simss @paulynsims

Questions:

1. WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME?  That’s a secret~

2. WHAT IS YOUR NICKNAME?  I don’t have any but, you can call me Piru or Rii here on Tumblr!

3. BIRTHDAY?  February 11

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK SERIES?  I love Julie Kagawa’s Unsterblich(I don’t know the original English title) series!

5. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ALIENS OR GHOSTS?  I want to believe in supernatural creatures,but no. I need more evidence

6. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR?  I don’t have any

7. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RADIO STATION?  I used to listen to Energy and Ö3

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ANYTHING?  Honey, yoghurt or cinnamon...?

9. WHAT WORD OR PHRASE WOULD YOU USE OFTEN TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING GREAT OR WONDERFUL?  I think my mouth would just stay open lol

10. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT FAVORITE SONG?  Every Queen song, because I watched Bohemian Rhapsody today with my mother lol

11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WORD?  As I have mentioned, some powerful words from a novel that said something like “it cost everything from my past to experience this beautiful moment”

12. WHAT WAS THE LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO?  Some Queen songs, of course lol

13. WHAT TV SHOW WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR EVERYBODY TO WATCH?  I don’t know, what should I recommend...?

14. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE TO WATCH WHEN YOU’RE FEELING DOWN?  I don’t watch movies when I’m really sad

15. DO YOU PLAY VIDEO GAMES?  Yes, ts4, Nintendo 3DS and ps4 games

16. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?  Now? I’m afraid of... my mother will notice that I became a very lazy student and throwing me away from home

17. WHAT IS YOUR BEST QUALITY, IN YOUR OPINION?  That I try to use different languages...?

18. WHAT IS YOUR WORST QUALITY, IN YOUR OPINION?  My social anxiety...?

19. DO YOU LIKE CATS OR DOGS BETTER?  Dogs

20. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?  I like fall here

21. ARE YOU IN A RELATIONSHIP?  No

22. WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU MISS FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD?  Have I even graduated from it yet?? lol

23. WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND?  I don’t know, I’m rather a lone wolf in real life, but I love my followers here!

24. WHAT IS YOUR EYE COLOR?  Light brown

25. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?  Dark brown

26. WHO IS SOMEONE YOU LOVE?  Many people!

27. WHO IS SOMEONE YOU TRUST?  Many people!

28. WHO IS SOMEONE YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?  My family?

29. ARE YOU CURRENTLY EXCITED ABOUT/FOR SOMETHING?  Giving my second followers gift to my followers~

30. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST OBSESSION?  ts4 and Tumblr

31. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW AS A CHILD?  I liked watching a lot of nickelodeon shows when I was in elementary school lol

32. WHO OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER CAN YOU TELL ANYTHING TO, IF ANYONE?  I don’t know

33. ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?  Not really

34. DO YOU HAVE ANY UNUSUAL PHOBIAS?  I have social anxiety...?

35. DO YOU PREFER TO BE IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA OR BEHIND IT?  Behind, of course, i’m too shy! lol

36. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HOBBY?  Playing video games and drawing

37. WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?  Something for college

38. WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?  Bohemian Rhapsody! lol

39. WHAT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS DO YOU PLAY, IF ANY?  I used to play the violin

40. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?  I like birds~

41. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5 FAVORITE TUMBLR BLOGS THAT YOU FOLLOW?  I like everyone!

42. WHAT SUPERPOWER DO YOU WISH YOU HAD?  I want to think about this if any will exist lol

43. WHEN AND WHERE DO YOU FEEL MOST AT PEACE?  In my room

44. WHAT MAKES YOU SMILE?  I don’t know, there are too many things lol

45. WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY, IF ANY?  None

46. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DRINK?  I don't know...

47. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WROTE A HAND-WRITTEN LETTER OR NOTE TO SOMEBODY?  I think I wrote a shopping list for my mother few days or weeks ago

48. ARE YOU AFRAID OF HEIGHTS?  Depends on the situation

49. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?  When someone looks at my face and treat me as a foreigner...

50. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO A CONCERT?  Yes!

51. ARE YOU VEGAN/VEGETARIAN?  No

52. WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP? A manga artist

53. WHAT FICTIONAL WORLD WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE IN?  In a world where supernatural creatures exist...

54. WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU WORRY ABOUT?  My future...!

55. ARE YOU SCARED OF THE DARK?  The darkness of space rather than  this planet! And I also don’t want to look at starry skys and a huge moon in the night sky lol

56. DO YOU LIKE TO SING?  Yes! Especially when I’m alone

57. HAVE YOU EVER SKIPPED SCHOOL?  Yes. I don’t want to and feeling so guilty

58. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE ON THE PLANET?  My room!

59. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?  In a more peaceful world where no prejudice or discrimination exist

60. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?  Yes, my cute bird!

61. ARE YOU MORE OF AN EARLY BIRD OR A NIGHT OWL?  Night owl~

62. DO YOU LIKE SUNRISES OR SUNSETS BETTER?  Both!

63. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?  No. Only Mario Kart lol

64. DO YOU PREFER EARBUDS OR HEADPHONES?  Earbuds!

65. HAVE YOU EVER HAD BRACES?  No

66. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENRE OF MUSIC?  Pop!

67. WHO IS YOUR HERO?  My grandmother...?

68. DO YOU READ COMIC BOOKS?  Sometimes

69. WHAT MAKES YOU THE MOST ANGRY?  I don’t want to become angry, because it makes me very tired and I will get headaches

70. DO YOU PREFER TO READ ON AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE OR WITH A REAL BOOK?  Real book!

71. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?  History

72. DO YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS?  Yes!

73. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU BOUGHT?  I can’t remember...

74. HOW TALL ARE YOU?  About 165 cm

75. CAN YOU COOK?  No

76. WHAT ARE THREE THINGS THAT YOU LOVE?  No school, playing video games, watching movies...?

77. WHAT ARE THREE THINGS THAT YOU HATE?  School, school, school lol

78. DO YOU HAVE MORE FEMALE FRIENDS OR MORE MALE FRIENDS?  Female

79. WHAT IS YOUR SEXUAL ORIENTATION?  Nothing...? I don’t know

80. WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY LIVE?  With my family

81. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TEXTED?  My younger sister

82. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?  I can’t remember

83. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE YOUTUBER?  That’s a secret~ lol

84. DO YOU LIKE TO TAKE SELFIES?  No. I have never taken any yet lol

85. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE APP?  YouTube and Tumblr

86. WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR PARENT(S) LIKE?  I hope it’s good...

87. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOREIGN ACCENT?  Hmm... British English?

88. WHAT IS A PLACE THAT YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO, BUT YOU WANT TO VISIT?  Taiwan! I have never been to other asian countries

89. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER?  I don’t know...

90. CAN YOU JUGGLE?  No

91. ARE YOU RELIGIOUS?  No

92. DO YOU FIND OUTER SPACE OF THE DEEP OCEAN TO BE MORE INTERESTING?  Why?? lol

93. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE A DAREDEVIL?  No

94. ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO ANYTHING?  No

95. CAN YOU CURL YOUR TONGUE?  No

96. CAN YOU WIGGLE YOUR EARS?  Yes lol

97. HOW OFTEN DO YOU ADMIT THAT YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING?  Many times, because it is part of the culture here

98. DO YOU PREFER THE FOREST OR THE BEACH?  Forest

99. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF ADVICE THAT ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU?  I don’t know...

100. ARE YOU A GOOD LIAR? No (Yes...!) lol

101. WHAT IS YOUR HOGWARTS HOUSE?   Ravenclaw...? I bought a scarf from an official Harry Potter store!

102. DO YOU TALK TO YOURSELF?  No, but I like singing

103. ARE YOU AN INTROVERT OR AN EXTROVERT?  Definitely an introvert! lol

104. DO YOU KEEP A JOURNAL/DIARY?  No. Only my simblr or Twitter

105. DO YOU BELIEVE IN SECOND CHANCES?  I want to, if I can think positive enough...!

106. IF YOU FOUND A WALLET FULL OF MONEY ON THE GROUND, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?  Nothing and ignore. It could be a bomb...!!

107. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF CHANGE?  Yes

108. ARE YOU TICKLISH?  At some parts...?

109. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A PLANE?  Yes. Many times

110. DO YOU HAVE ANY PIERCINGS?  No

111. WHAT FICTIONAL CHARACTER DO YOU WISH WAS REAL?  I don’t know...

112. DO YOU HAVE ANY TATTOOS?  No

113. WHAT IS THE BEST DECISION THAT YOU’VE MADE IN YOUR LIFE SO FAR?  Restarting this simblr, because I could meet so many nice people in this community!

114. DO YOU BELIEVE IN KARMA?  Maybe? I’m not sure

115. DO YOU WEAR GLASSES OR CONTACTS?  I wear glasses since I was 3 and they are my family too lol( I forgot to add them to my simself, oops)

116. DO YOU WANT CHILDREN?  No

117. WHO IS THE SMARTEST PERSON YOU KNOW?  My little bird?? lol

118. WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MEMORY?  Too many things... I’m veeery shy lol

119. HAVE YOU EVER PULLED AN ALL-NIGHTER?  Yes. 2 months ago when I played ts4 and it was my first time lol

120. WHAT COLOR ARE MOST OF YOUR CLOTHES?  Navy,gray or black?

121. DO YOU LIKE ADVENTURES?  No

122. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON TV?  Yes

123. HOW OLD ARE YOU?  19

124. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE?  I think I already mentioned this above

125. DO YOU PREFER SWEET OR SAVORY FOODS?  Sweet!

＊ And thank you for the support Google!! lol ＊

[putschki1969]

Japan ~ Summer 2018 #2 🎌🚅

Quick introduction: Hello my lovlies!! As most of you might already know, I went to Japan this summer. It was a rather spontaneous decision based on the fact that both Hikaru and Wakana had announced their solo lives. At that point I was suffering from a serious case of Kalafina withdrawal so I felt like I had no choice but to go. I just needed to see them. Also, it was my 30th birthday so I thought I would treat myself. You only turn 30 once, right? On a side note, the timing finally gave me the opportunity to do something I had wanted to do for a few years now. Climb Mount Fuji. o(〃＾▽＾〃)o So yeah, that’s the backstory of my trip. I stayed in Japan from July 30 till August 14 and pretty much my entire trip was dedicated to Kalafina Pilgrimage. Let me tell you this, it was by far the best summer vacation of my life, worth each and every penny! And believe me, there were a LOT of pennies involved XD

Notes: Once again this is coming pretty late but not as late as my previous travel report so that’s a good thing. It took some time to gather my thoughts and put them all into words. This report will be a bit different from the last one since I thought it would be nice to include some travel tips here and there. I guess you could see this as some sort of travel guide/Kala-guide. Many of my followers have never been to Japan so I guess some general info would be useful to make things easier for you if you ever decide to travel to Japan.

Please note that this is Part 2 of my report. It is dedicated to my time in Toyama. Part 1 can be found HERE!

Without further ado, let’s get to it 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Aug 4 (Sat) ~ Toyama Trip

I decided I would dedicate that entire day to a Toyama trip. I made the mistake of not reserving a seat in advance for the shinkansen. I usually always do that but for some reason I didn’t think the train to Toyama would be that frequented. Turns out I was wrong (at least when it comes to the fast bullet train - the Kagayaki). When I got to Ueno that morning I was planning to take one of the earlier trains but it was already completely booked out. Later on I found out that Aug 4/5 was the Toyama Matsuri weekend so it's really no surprise that all the shinkansen seats had already been reserved. I ended up getting a ticket for the 10:14 Kagayaki which meant I would arrive in Toyama around noon (a little later than planned but oh well, there was nothing that could be done about it). It was my first time taking the Hokuriku Shinkansen so I splurged a little on a fancy ekiben °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° For those of you who don’t know, ekibens are bento boxes sold at train stations. You can eat them on a long shinkansen ride. There are so many different types to choose from. But I’d personally recommend the one I got. The E7 Bento Box. Like many others, the Hokuriku shinkansen has a very distinctive look so of course, it also has its very own bento box XD And boy, is it a cute box! Perfect to keep as a souvenir. And the good thing about it, there’s mostly stuff in it that I actually eat (I am a VERY picky eater!). The special Ueno Coca Cola bottle is also cute as hell btw!

The ride to Toyama takes a little over two hours I think. I arrived around noon (maybe at 12:30 or something). Shortly before I arrived I realised that I had forgotten my USB cable. I brought my charging battery but it was useless to me without a USB cable At that point I had already used my phone quite extensively and my battery was at around 60%. I was already starting to panic a little because I had all these plans for Toyama but they required me to use google maps, without google maps to rely on, I wouldn’t be able to find ANY of the places I wanted to visit. When I arrived I was greeted by a gorgeous little street festival, right outside of Toyama Station there were lots of people gathering around a handful of dance groups. It was quite pretty and spectacular. But at that point I was already scared to use my phone for anything except google maps so I didn’t take any pictures. *sobs* Such a shame. First I made my way to the Nanakosi shop that sells those pastries Hikaru mentioned in the 10th Anniversary Film. It’s located inside the Sōgawa Ferio Grand Plaza which is about a 20 min walk away from Toyama Station. Usually 20 min is nothing for me and I always try to explore new areas on foot but man, it was hell to go there. It was really hot that day and my battery was dropping faster than expected in the heat. Google maps was constantly crashing on me and it didn’t seem to work properly. I kept going the wrong way (please note that I have no sense of direction whatsoever). So yeah, I was a mess. Frantically I was trying to find a shop that sold USB cables but for some reason I had a really hard time finding one. Usually they sell those in conbinis but I couldn’t even find one of those. Plus, I was scared to venture too far away from my route since I thought I might get lost. Thank God I eventually managed to find a 100 yen shop. They have everything, including USB cables. After that I was able to relax and focus on my Hikaru pilgrimage.

So yeah, like I said, I was walking towards Ferio Grand Plaza. On my way there I passed Toyama Castle. It’s a nice little castle with a small garden but nothing to write home about. When I arrived at Grand Plaza I was greeted by yet another festival. A nice little wind ensemble was playing popular songs such as “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid, it was quite epic. They were all wearing uniforms, it was some sort of commemorative event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Toyama police department band or something .

Grand Plaza is a really nice gathering place that’s protected by a glass ceiling but it’s still outdoors. It’s a wide open space and often used as venue for events like the one mentioned above. While enjoying the concert I bought myself one of those infamous Nanakosi pastries.

I got the one with custard because I am not a fan of the standard bean filling. I’ll be real with you, it wasn’t all that great (sorry, Pika-chan T_T). I think it might be more enjoyable in winter but during a hot summer day it was just too much (and that’s coming from someone who can usually eat a lot of sweet stuff). There was just too much filling. It was a struggle to finish it. Afterwards I walked around the Ferio Grand Plaza area a bit to find the Doutor Coffee shop that Hikaru had worked at in her student days. It’s very close to the Nanakosi shop so everyone should be able to find it quickly. It’s the Toyama Sōgawa shop in case any of you want to check it out ( 〒930-0083 Toyama-ken, Toyama-shi, Sōgawa, 3 Chome−5−４ アキオビル 1F).

My next stop was the Yamaha Music Center which was also mentioned in the 10th Anniversary Film. It’s only a 10-minute walk from Grand Plaza (although I took a lot longer because google maps was messing with me again or maybe I was just too stupid to follow the directions, I don’t know). At any rate, the center is a little hidden away in the backstreets of Toyama so it wasn’t exactly easy to find. Of course the heat made everything seem a lot worse XD. Here’s the address for those of you who want to go there one day => 富山音楽センター 〒930-0049 富山県富山市豊川町５-６

Then it was time to head north, to Kansui Park. You simply follow the river for about 30 minutes and then you are there, it felt really nice to walk along the riverside, the trees were providing some shade, there was a nice breeze so close to the water and you could listen to the cicadas singing. Oh boy, I underestimated how loud they could actually get. I had never heard them before because I always travel to Japan in the winter time.

Kansui Park is absolutely gorgeous! This is where Kalafina performed during the Stardust Illusion Festival. I summarised Hikaru’s blog post from that day. She talks about how that was one of the most special lives for her so of course I had to go and see where it took place. Hikaru also mentioned the infamous Kansui Park Starbucks which is known for its lovely terrace views. And really, it DID have some nice views. I took a little break there and tried to cool down with a cold drink. Afterwards I headed to Aubade Hall, the venue of Hikaru’s dreams. She has mentioned in a couple of blog posts that ever since she was little she always wanted to perform there. And Kalafina did end up performing there twice. Once back in 2015 for their fotw tour and then last year for their 9+ONE tour. It’s about 10 minutes away from Kansui park, pretty close to Toyama Station actually. Here’s the address => Aubade Hall (Toyama City Art and Culture Hall), 9-28 Ushijimacho, Toyama, Toyama Prefecture 930-0858, Japan

Then I wanted to have some dinner and I thought about going to the Izakaya that Kalafina always go to when they are in Toyama. It’s called Soratobu Usagi which pretty much means Flying Bunny XD. You can even check out their signatures at the bar. It’s quite cool. BUT I decided against it since they only have seafood and I don’t really eat seafood. So I slowly headed back to the station and ordered some gyoza (because I always crave gyoza XD) at a random restaurant. I finally got to relax after walking around in the heat (I didn’t really walk that much but it felt like I had run a marathon due to the humidity). While watching the sunset I ate my yummy giant gyoza and then I took the train back to Tokyo.

❗ Some tips ❗ 

Always bring your charging battery AND a USB cable

Conbinis and 100 yen stores have everything in case you are ever in need of a random product

Always reserve your shinkansen seat tickets in advance. It’s best to reserve them at least a day ahead if you are planning to travel during communiting hours or during the weekend.

Prepare an itinerary so you don’t waste your time going back and forth between locations. I started with the lower part of Toyama and visited all the places in that area. Then my plan was to head north where another bunch of places were located. Do your research before you travel and life will become so much easier. You can lose track of all the places you wanna visit if you don’t have an itinerary and then you might end up having regrets because you didn’t get to see everything you wanted to see. I mean, you don’t have to strictly stick to your plan but just see it as a sort of guideline.

When you are taking the shinkansen splurge on an ekiben. Yes, I know they are totally overpriced but really, they are pertty delicious most of the time and it’s just part of the shinkansen experience.

Aug 5 (Sun) ~ Lazy Shopping Day

I didn’t actually do much on that day. After all I wanted it to be a relaxing holiday and not just one exhausting trip after the other. Plus, the heat really took a toll on me so I felt like I needed some downtime. So yeah, I just did some shopping (mostly window shopping) and eating. I walked around Tokyo Station and happened across an IENA store. Guess what I found there? Yup, Hikaru’s blouse, right in front of me. In my previous post I mentioned that I originally wasn’t planning to buy it since it was just way too expensive. But after climbing Mount Fuji and after celebrating my 30th birthday I just felt like I deserved a treat. I realise I have said the same thing about my nail salon appointment but oh well, you only live once. So yup, that’s the story of how I ended up buying the blouse even though I was initially not intending to.

This was me during the entire trip.👇

The rest of the day was spent in all kinds of shopping malls in Shibuya/Shinjuku. I am actually quite proud that I didn’t buy anything else. But on this trip I really wanted to focus on Kalafina so I didn’t feel the need to spend money on random clothes or accessories. But I always enjoy just looking at stuff. We don’t have any of these malls here in Vienna (at least not in those huge dimensions) so it’s a cool experience to check everything out. To wrap up the day, I had some yummy dinner and then I headed back to the hotel to pack for my upcoming trip to Fukuoka.

[appmakeronlineandroid-blog]

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How can I develop an Android app? If you've come across this article, you're very likely to plan to create an app. Be it to increase the productivity of your business, to enter the mobile sector or other goals. But honestly, this is not an easy process.

In general, you have to be patient when starting a digital project like developing an Android app. Before you start, pick up pen and paper and take notes. Immerse yourself in the topic as deeply as possible before you start looking for Android developers.

Develop Android App

To help you, we've put together a tutorial with all the important information needed to Develop an Android App . Are you ready? We start in 3,2,1 ... and let's go!

Why should I develop an Android app? If you're one of those, who do not know why you should develop an Android app, be attentive. It's true that once you choose Android, you neglect iOS users. But the other way round you lose many possibilities. So ... an Android app? YES, for the following reasons:

Android has the higher market share in Germany . Although in the US iOS is ahead. The cost per hour for an Android programmer is cheaper than iOS. There is a wider range of terminals and therefore more opportunities to grow. Meanwhile, iOS only works with Apple devices. The operating system can be personalized much better. What are the differences between an Android app and other platforms? There are many small differences in app development. But the most important thing is the operating system in itself and the programming language. Every native development uses a code and a language. Accordingly, we have to employ different programmers, depending on whether we want to create an Android or an iOS app . Our estimate, our business model, our advertising strategy - all that is different. Let's take a closer look:

What should I watch out for when developing an Android app? Type of programming In the case of native Android development , the work only uses us for Android. But we can also opt for other types of programming , such as: multiplatform apps. With the multiplatform development, the work is also valid for iOS. However, the end result may suffer. Choosing the type of programming to develop on the Android app is important. If you do not choose the type that works best for your project, it may well be that you are not getting the result you want. Contact experts for information specific to your case. Every project is a different world. It may be that you do not need an Android app, just a hybrid app.

More:  The different app types The programming time Compared with iOS, there are no differences here. In other words, it takes exactly as long to create an Android app as it does for the iOS app development. The subtleties lie in the variety of programming languages ??and development types . A multiplatform app does not take as long as a native app for Android. Inform yourself well about the time that your programming process lasts. If you're in a hurry, you might want to look for an alternative to the native Android app.

The cost of development There are several tools to get an estimate of the costs . For example, you can track the cost of your Android app with our " How much is an app? "Calculate. Develop Android AppBut let's get to the data now. The same app may be cheaper for Android than for iOS. Even if the number of hours of development are more or less the same. This is - as mentioned - because Android developers are usually cheaper than iOS programmers .

App Maker Drag And Drop

Design Android apps Of course we also have to have the app design for Android on the bill. Although the look and functions are similar, the design is different. For the Android devices, we have buttons that we do not have on the iPhone. There are different designs for each type of development. Of course, if we want to develop an Android and an iOS app, the differences in design will also impact costs.

Profitability of an Android App Surely you have also wondered how to develop an Android app that is profitable. An app that brings in revenue. It is true that Android apps are generally less profitable than iOS apps. Several studies show us that iOS users are more willing to pay for apps . Meanwhile, Android users are more likely to want free apps. That's why it's a bit more complicated to make an Android app profitable. You need to work more on your business model and monetization.

The business model The business model of your Android app should have been in place since the project started. You can not create an app without knowing which business model you want to follow. What we mean above all is how you want to monetize the app. With the business model we want to say: What are the goals of your app? You can achieve this through leads, branding, etc. When we talk about monetization, we are talking about economic returns, There are many monetization techniques, but we should choose them according to our business model. It is often the case that paying to download the Android app does not work well. As mentioned, most users want to download the app for free. That's why the Freemium model is becoming increasingly popular.

Learn more: Earn money with your own app The competition This is a topic that you should always have during the development of the project. In September 2016, the number of published apps in Google Play exceeded 2.4 million. In other words, there is a whole ocean of Android apps. That's why we say you should keep an eye on your competition. There are many apps and of course many from your sector. Keep in mind that you need to have a good marketing and advertising strategy to drive your app forward. Investigate your competition before you program your own app and build your app against the background of your research.

How do I create an Android app step by step? Yes, we have already mentioned a lot of things that you need to keep in mind for an Android app . But surely you want to know how to build your app. All right, let's continue with our tutorial to develop your Android app. Step by step we guide you through the process of Android app programming.

1st start phase This first phase is the first contact with your idea, the sector and the mobile technology. Before you look for developers and designers, you have a lot of work to do. Let's start with a first real contact with your idea.

The idea for your Android app.  The first thing you need for an Android app is a good idea. It is best if the app covers a need or solves a problem that mobile users have. Examine your competition. If Android apps exist that meet this need, you'll develop a better app. Extend this idea until it is feasible. Mockups . If you are already clear about the idea, put it on paper. Do it easily and without a design concept. The mockup is only intended to show the basic functions and interaction of the user. Try to make the usage easy and understandable for the user. fase-inicial-crear-app para android

2. Business phase In this second phase we come from the idea to the project. We still do not touch the project. But we have to define the project in more detail and in more detail.

Android App Maker No Coding

Business model and Monetization of Your Android App . This is the moment to determine the business model for your app. Developing an Android app just to develop an app makes no sense. What do you want to achieve with the app? How do you want to do that? This and the monetization methods make up the business model. We add these parts to this phase because we need to be clear about it before starting the actual development. Definition of the Android App project.  You must create a document that summarizes all aspects of your app. From the most basic part, like the mockups, to the types of monetization and the colors of the brand's design, if you've already selected them. If you are not 100% sure, you can leave some details unmentioned. For example, if you need a separate design or advice. 3rd development and design phase This is the longest phase of the whole process of Android app creation and other OS. We start with the serious part: the development . We're one of those who think that if you're already in the pool of mobile development, you should get it right. An app that is neither well thought out nor well developed or advertised has no use. Let's start by finding the professional that best suits your project.

Team for the development of an  Android app.  Now that you want to create an app but do not know how it works, it's time to find someone who knows.

Android App Design. It is imperative that you have the design of your app project in mind. If you design native Android apps, you should also think about the features of the operating system. For example, the animations of the Material Design in the smart notifications etc. In general, you should focus on the visual simplicity in the design of Android apps. Work with a Project Manager.  You need someone to help you manage the process. Not because you are unable to lead the process. But because you can focus more on important things, beyond logistics.

When all the phases have passed, your app is ready for its publication . But before you launch the app, you'll need to prepare a few things to get the most out of it. In fact, the first week of the app in the store is critical to gaining visibility and positioning.

ASO, the SEO of mobile apps.  ASO is named after the abbreviation of the English term " App Store Optimization ". That said, ASO is the positioning of your app in the app stores. To get a good ASO for your app, we need to define the keywords well. It is highly recommended to hire an ASO expert. Because if you do not position yourself well, you will hardly get any downloads for your app. Prepare a Press Kit. Before publishing, you should create a press kit , which you can give to the media. Create press notes, promotional images of your app, and other useful materials. Spectacular publication. And now .. the publication of your app! Keep in mind that the app doés not upload immediately. In the case of Google Play, this should take a few hours, in some other stores, such as the Apple Store, sometimes several days. Synchronize your publication when you publish your app on different systems. And once you've uploaded the app, the marketing that you've already prepared for starts. 5. Marketing phase This phase is inevitable. Many people think that success comes mainly through the development of the Android app. But marketing is just as important and once again requires the same budget you invested in development. Without this phase, your Android app will go down in stores and disappear. In addition to traditional marketing, we recommend the following campaigns and ads for your app :

Specialized media. That means media that talk about mobile apps, but also media from your sector. For example, you can promote an Android app for cooking recipes in health or kitchen media. Influencers.  Build relationships with influencers in your sector. For example, if you have a fashion app, contact lifestyle or fashion influencers to try your app. If you like them, you can reach a large audience. Show.  You can always count on ads. I do not mean TV ads, posters, etc., which you can also use. But the nature of the apps that are perfectly suited to use online advertising through banners and ads on social media and in-app advertising through other apps.

[sparklyjojos]

.---[Disco Wednesdayyy 20/?] In which the narration Does a Thing, we get a cosmology lecture, and the man with the raven tattoo takes the scene [tw: lots of children death and mentions of child abuse, miscarriage mention]---

Last time we finished the second book, so it’s time to head into the third and final one, containing the part called simply “The Ark”. The book starts with our narrator, Disco Wednesdayyy--

Oh, pardon. Our narrator isn’t the 30-something American detective Disco Wednesdayyy, who we’ve last seen beaten up in a hotel room.

Our narrator is Odoriba Mizutarou, a Japanese teenager who grew up in an orphanage in Troy, Michigan after having been abandoned at birth. Mizutarou lives surrounded by alternate versions of people like ‘Norma Brown’ or ‘Sharon Styron’, is a lovable space nerd, and one of the first things we see him do is to fervently discuss how alternate universes and time travel may work.

In other words, HOLY SHIT WE JUST WENT JORGE JOESTAR.

Mizutarou tells us how weird his name is, and that while ‘odoriba’ literally means ‘dancefloor’, the word can also be understood as ‘the landing in between flights of stairs’, which sounds like it’ll be important symbolism. [Btw, I instantly like him. He’s a nice boy.]

When we meet him, Mizutarou is sitting in a high school cafeteria conversing with Norma Brown, who’s badmouthing another girl, Dana Sutoraimuzu [Strimes? Streams? I’m not sure how to write this surname in proper English, google only gives me Disco-related results]. Dana has a nickname ‘Chanel Chanel’, and Norma doesn’t like that since Coco Chanel did some highly problematic shit, although she recognizes that it’s just a random nickname that doesn’t have anything to do with Dana’s personality. Our narrator for some damn reason gets the following train of thought: ‘Coco Chanel’ -> the COCOC sequence of letters in that name ->  九十九十九. This is instantly dropped and stays unexplained (...for now).

---

Anyway, Mizutarou and Norma discuss different concepts explaining the birth and death of the Universe, drawing a space / time graph for each.

1) the steady state model (the Universe has the same density no matter the time and location, no Big Bang or any universal ‘death’)

2) the expanding universe model (the Universe began with the Big Bang and expands progressively faster, the possible outcome of this being the Big Rip, in which all existing particles and even spacetime itself will eventually be torn apart by the expansion)

3) the cyclic universe theory (there are multiple consecutive universes, each of them expands for a while and then shrinks back down in what’s called a Big Crunch, and from the resulting singularity the next universe expands)

[On the graphs, y axis = the size of the universe, x axis = time]

Norma has a theory of her own, but first she talks about the method for finding the sum of an arithmetic progression, or how can you find the sum of a giant sequence of consecutive numbers. You can use the formula n(a1+an)/2; take how many numbers there are in a sequence, multiply it by the sum of the first and last number, then divide by two. Norma actually takes the time to write out the entire reasoning behind this formula down. [Thanks for awakening my high school math class memories, Maijo.]

She brings attention to the fixed sums here (1+100, 2+99, 3+98... all equal 101). This observation inspired her to notice that if you took one of the universe charts given above, the expanding universe one, and divided it in half by drawing a vertical line crossing the middle of the x axis (‘time’), the latter half could be rotated and superimposed onto the first one. The Big Bang and the Big Rip (those sharp inclines at the beginning and the end) will then end up on top of each other. Norma claims that this means the size of the universe is, in a weird way, always fixed. [I think she means that the area under the curve in the first half is equal to the area above the curve in the second half. y axis = size of the universe, x axis = time.]

Norma claims that in her model, it’s not the ‘volume of space’ that’s oscillating, but ‘time’. Time at first flows forward, but after a certain point (the dotted line on that last graph) it starts reversing its flow. Norma thinks this may mean that two universes exist in parallel to each other, one in which time flows forward towards the ‘folding point’, one in which it flows backwards toward the ‘folding point’. If, say, Norma is in the time-forward universe a year away from the ‘folding point’, she would be two years younger than a ‘Norma’ from time-reverse universe who’s also a year away from the ‘folding point’. After the year passed, Norma would cross the ‘folding point’ and start living in the time-reverse universe.

[Here’s another graph. y axis = size of the universe, x axis = time, the ends of the curve are labeled ‘beginning’, and where the time ‘ends’ there are the ‘endings’.]

But in the end, Norma still thinks there’s just a single universe reversing in time, which would make time travel easier, since instead of jumping the border between the universes you’d just have to get to the ‘folding point’.

After they part ways, Mizutarou thinks about Norma’s theory. Maybe there were twin universes, born at the same time. He draws another graph of what he thinks is more probable here:

[y axis = size of the universe, x axis = time,  活宇宙 = ‘active universe’, 休宇宙 = ‘resting universe’]

Twin universes A and B both undergo cyclical expansion and contraction. When one is expanding, the other is contracting, so the sum of their sizes stays the same. The expanding universe is ‘active’ (things happen in it I guess?), the contracting one is ‘inactive’ or ‘resting’.

---

Mizutarou returns from school to the orphanage, a round two-story building called the Pineapple Home, in which there lives almost 50 kids of ages 0-12. High-school age Mizutarou is the only outlier.

A girl called Sharon Styron runs up to him and says that her cousin JJ has been kidnapped by Lord Whiplash [Maijo actually gives the English name as well, thanks dude], an evil guy who takes children to a dark place and beats them with a whip. Sharon claims that Lord Whiplash told her she’d be the next victim, and left a whip mark on her arm (she really has one). [Also, JJ is short for Joachim Joseph, we have an accidental JoJo here.]

Apparently Lord Whiplash told the kids some horrible things: that they’re somehow sinning by being weak, and that he’ll whip that sin out of them.

At first Mizutarou thinks it’s just Sharon making stuff up, but every other child is crying in distress. As it turns out two other kids went missing before JJ, and the orphanage staff wasn’t even interested. Not only that, it seems the entire staff went away somewhere and left all the kids alone, even the babies.

Mizutarou thinks that in that case, maybe the staff was always being abusive, and Lord Whiplash is a concept made up by the kids to help them deal with the neglect and abuse they received from the very people who should have protected them from harm.

Mizutarou gathers all the kids in the main room (there’s 45 of them all), and states that no matter what will happen, he WILL protect them. [I love Mizutarou, he cares so much]. Which is easier said than done: the phone doesn’t work, the kids are too young to send them to seek help, but he doesn’t want to leave them alone either...

...and then he realizes one of the kids is missing from the group, and at the same time, they hear screams, whipping sounds, and chilling male laughter from one of the rooms. Mizutarou runs in only to find the room empty, fresh blood staining the bedsheets. Whoever did this must have escaped through the window. Mizutarou runs outside to find him. Which is a mistake, because the door slams shut behind him. He desperately tries to break the windows or climb to the second floor, but nothing’s working. Lord Whiplash rampages inside the Pineapple Home, children are screaming, and Mizutaro discovers with dread that all the windows now have the following written on them with blood:

[弱悪強罰 = ‘weak’, ‘evil’, ‘strong’, ‘punish’]. Just like Lord Whiplash is yelling out in glee, weakness is evil, and the strong will punish it...

Mizutarou finally uses a car to ram through the door, which allows him to get inside. But the Pineapple Home looks clean and innocent like always. No sign of struggle, no children or Lord Whiplash around... at least until Mizutarou looks up at the round ceiling and sees the main room reflected in it upside down, but with a hellish twist: there’s blood and corpses of children everywhere. In the center of the mirrored room stands a half-naked, bespectacled man wielding a whip, a black bird-like birthmark or scar on his shoulder. The man is standing in the exact place where Mizutarou’s reflection should be.

Mizutarou realizes he has the exact same mark on his arm. Left over from when someone bit him--

The narrator remembers now: he’s Disco Wednesdayyy. [Here the narration swaps back from Mizutarou’s boku pronoun to Disco’s ore.] And the raven tattoo man is him.

(I know the real meaning of my name now, the narration makes one last quiet statement in Mizutarou’s voice. The name Mizutarou  (水太郎) may symbolize ‘the water child’, a reference to the term mizuko (水子), ‘a stillborn or miscarried child’. A child who was never born. Someone who never existed...)

---

“I am you,” the Black Bird Man says looking down at Disco as Disco looks up at him. “Me and the Nail Peeler both, we are your emotions. That means I’m on your side. It’s only natural; your emotions can’t betray you. Tell me, why did you really become a detective?”

“To save children!”

“Did you? Or was it because you wanted to see children getting hurt?”

“That’s not true! I love children! I don’t want to hurt them!”

The Black Bird Man sends him a gentle smile. “That much is obvious. You really do love children and would put your own life on the line to protect them. But that's exactly where the hate comes from. Because of your love, you start to suffer. After all, you're always surrounded by just poor hurt little children. You may have started your work full of virtue and love, but didn't it all turn bitter? (...) You create this suffering. You understand well the desire to somehow punish the weakness of those children who died [who were ‘too weak’ to survive the abuse from their kidnappers and so it was too late when Disco found them]. I am that feeling.”

Disco now realizes that all the children from the Pineapple Home aside from Sharon and JJ shared their names with all the children he’d found dead in his career. In the Pineapple Home, ‘he’ killed them the second time. Does it mean he hates his job? That he hates children...? “I would never kill a child!” he defends himself.

“And that’s why it’s not you who kills them. It’s your emotions given my shape who do that.”

“I don’t have any emotions about wanting to kill children!”

"Am I not the proof that you do? In the end, you feel fed up with all the pitiful children that had horrible things happen to them. There's no way to eliminate their weakness, but you’d still like it to cease. It's natural. And so, here I am. Not necessarily because you have a bad heart; it's just a normal human feeling. Kindness and love have their limits, and going beyond that, they turn into irritation. (...) You've found over 40 dead children, and over 200 that endured horrible events. (...) You got betrayed so many times, survived so many last-minute twists, got involved in car chases and shootings, you struggled through so much -- and it's only because of how weak children are! Of course you know you can't do anything about their weakness, but it still makes you feel sick! All the children in the world still and still continue to get kidnapped, used by their parents and relatives, exploited, molested, murdered. Every time, you risk your life, you lose friends and let people you care about be killed. You know this is still going to continue. (...) ...but you love them. Just like you said, you really love children. That is clear. It's precisely this love that causes the feelings of hate to surface."

“...”

“You're still hoping that I'm just a delusion of some scared children closed together in a room, are you? But these kids here have already moved to the  world of death. It's because of you. You created me, and used those children as victims for me. (...) You enjoyed the spectacle in plenty. Sitting in the guest seat, you raised your voice as if you really meant it, 'No, stop!'. (...) But this is the play you prepared. This is just but one scene acted out by me for your sake, pertaining exactly to your thoughts."

“...”

“I'm your emotions, and so I am your ally. (...) Emotions are a wonderful thing. I was born from stress to torment you, and you had me perform in such an extraordinary theater. ...I'm saying all this for your sake, you know? That suppressed stress of yours is what really hurts the children that are so dear to you."

“Kozue...”

“Her case especially is more than shocking to you. She turned your entire worldview on its head. Rather than the sense of tragedy that usually nestles inside you because of children dying, it was shock. You were plunged into chaos. Subconsciously, you created me to make Kozue feel that chaos too, to torment her.”

“...”

“I understand you don't want to accept that, but you’re a ruined man. (...) Even long before attaining the new worldview because of Kozue's case, you felt broken. You hated your job. That's why you never came back to America. You are already over. Through loving children, you started to hate them a little, eventually embraced this hate, and it's become quite terrible since then. You're already close to switching to the other side -- the one that abuses and kills children.”

“Don't say another word,” Disco speaks up. His body is trembling, but not with fear; a renewed will to fight is burning in him. “Your role came to an end.“

“Oh?”

“I really should thank you. It's fine now. It's fine for you to go away. ...when I look away now, you can disappear.“ A mirror reflects reality, but the things in the mirror aren’t real...

“You have to realize how horrible your situation is right now. No matter what, you can't follow from here in the same way you went about things before.”

“Well, then I’ll have to overcome you. Overcome my own consciousness.”

He looked away from what he now knew was his Feelings -- feelings of guilt. He transferred his own guilt into ‘Lord Whiplash’, and took a refuge in ‘Odoriba Mizutarou’. Then ‘Lord Whiplash’, or ‘the Black Bird Man’, helped him figure out his own feelings, served as his stepping stone.

If it wasn’t for Guilt cornering him, he’d still be running away, remaining in the comfortable fake world. Using his timespace-warping powers to run away was a mistake that his Guilt wouldn’t forgive. First the Nail Peeler followed him to the Pine House and scolded him for not caring about Kozue... then the Black Bird Man accused him of all those horrible things. Of course these accusations were overblown -- just like expected from Feelings of Guilt, they hyperbolized every little mistake -- but thanks to them he was able to contemplate his own identity. ...was what happened back there in the hotel room something his emotions made up, as well?

Alright, then. Let’s jump back into the fray. Somewhere, there must be the one who really attacked Kozue. Let’s go back to the real world and do what we can. The next clue was already given to him: the only people in the Pineapple Home whose names didn’t belong to dead children were Sharon and JJ Styron, so he’d have to investigate whatever events the real Styrons were involved with.

Everything has meaning, after all.