#and came up with a super interesting concept and a whole in-game area surrounding it

[front-facing-pokemon]

[neverlearnedtoread]

Timekeeper

⭐⭐⭐: super fun concept, supes adorbs romance, and a protagonist so realistic i got secondhand anxiety when he made questionable choices

Oh?? 👌😉😏

LGBT+ rep - m/m romance i wasn’t expecting but quickly caught onto, with a love interest i instantly liked - difficult sweet spot to hit

disability rep - danny’s ptsd and anxiety symptoms stick around even when inconvenient, and is never exaggerated for shock factor

unwavering ride or die m/f friendship who challenged and supported each other in equal parts - we don’t see enough of these!!

the romance arc centered around the idea that loving someone with disregard to everything else is inherently harmful and inevitably dooms the relationship - and that honest communication is the key to avoiding such pitfalls!!! problematic love story whomst??

No.. ❌🤢🤮

danny wasn’t a protagonist i wanted to follow along with sometimes...he picked up things wayyy slower than i did, and it frustrated me

a little deus ex machina at the end with the sudden powers cropping up - but i assume this is something explored more in the sequel?

reads a little slow...im a fast reader, and there’s a thing i do when im not particularly gripped by the plot of a book - i skim pages, reading every other paragraph or so until something interesting happens

Summary: Danny is a prodigy clock mechanic in this steampunk Victorian London, and his job is way more important than it sounds - in this world, clock towers don’t just tell time - they control it. If something goes wrong with a clock tower, everyone in the surrounding area could end up glitching like a faulty video game, stuck repeating the same motion over and over - or worse. So things get a little dicey when suspicious clock-related problems start cropping up all over Greater London, especially around Danny...

Some spoilers under the cut!

Concept: 💭💭💭💭

‘Steampunk Victorian London + clocks and time-related shenanigans’ was all the reason I needed to pick up this book - I went into this completely blind besides the sparse description the book blurb gave me (something I don’t typically do, but the gut feeling was strong with this one). It’s a great premise - clock towers control time and therefore all the people around them, and you get to follow someone who’s responsible for maintaining/fixing time when it goes wrong? A fun fantasy romp is practically guaranteed!

Execution: 💥💥💥💥

This book really did surprise me - I was utterly charmed by the romance between Colton and Danny from the get-go, impressed by the care the author took in weaving the impact of Danny’s PTSD into the narrative, and I loved the detail that went into the different ways a clock tower could need fixing - and therefore the variety of glitches that could happen when they started acting up. I felt like the author had a lot of fun with the worldbuilding, and I liked seeing what they came up with. Ending was a bit eh, but I imagine that the sequels pick up the thread easily enough.

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤

I pushed and pulled with Danny as the protagonist - he was a good character, but really frustrating at times, to the point I stopped reading too closely for chapters at a time as I braced for the fallout of his bad choices - which is part of why I liked Colton and Cassie so much. They tempered his impulsiveness the way I wish I could. Honestly, the 3-star rating isn’t necessarily because I didn’t enjoy the book - it was because I had to actively dissociate from the protagonist as he made decisions I was getting secondhand embarrassment from.

Fave Moment: One that sticks in my head is when Colton admits he would have fallen in love with Danny no matter what - something about a clock tower declaring ‘I would have loved you if you were purple’ makes my heart grow about three sizes, apparently.

Fave Character: Colton was a genuinely delightful love interest who stood on his own merit and narrative arc. I also loved that he felt completely inhuman the whole time! There’s a danger with ‘inhuman’ characters where at some point they become indistinguishable from people - Colton’s actions and desires always felt not-quite-human, even while being endearing and sweet.

[stellar-imagines]

SCENARIO REQUEST: ❝nightmare quirk.❞

[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ] [ Characters: Class 1-A ]

「Scenario featuring S/O with a Nightmare quirk.」

As a person who aspires to become a Hero, UA is definitely your first choice to go for high school. The written exam went well and you were confident that you passed it but the practical exam was a tough one. Since your quirk wasn't really an offensive one, you trained a lot to make up for it. You were aware of your weaknesses and worked hard to make up for it. Initially, you lacked direct combat abilities but before applying for UA, you trained a lot. But that still wasn't enough for you.

Luckily, you had managed to secure a bit of points in the practical exam and honestly, you barely made it to UA. It was expected that you didn't get to the Hero Course but it still frustrated you. There were tons of people who had quirks more associated with Hero Work and unfortunately, you were born with a quirk not suitable for combat. So you were forced into the General Studies department. Even so, that didn't stop you from wanting to become a Hero.

The first friend you made was Shinsou because of the similarity. You don't have that many friends with how your quirk was perceived. A quirk that makes people relieve their worst nightmare, cause hallucinations, that's pretty much evil in everyone's book. A majority of your classmates feared your quirk, along with those who are aware of your power tried to stay away from you. Shinsou was the same and the two of you befriended each other when you were coincidentally teamed up for a group project.

Together with Shinsou, you made your debut in the Sports Festival, earning praise and an immense amount of support from your classmates who look up to you and Shinsou now. It's nice to be accepted and admired after a long time of being shunned. They were really supportive and helps you in any way they can to get you to the Hero Course. Class 1-A is more than happy to have you in their class. The girls are excited to have another female in their group and some of the boys—especially Kaminari and Mineta, are excited. Having a new student in the middle of the semester is a bit refreshing. But of course, this class tends to over-welcome people unconsciously. 

"[Last Name]!" Mineta and Kaminari screeched in unison when you stood in front of the class to introduce yourself. The last time you saw them was during the joint training and they seem well. The two boys seem to be too excited to your liking though.

Unlike most people you've known, the students from the Hero Course accepted you quite easily. They think it's amazing that your hard work and dedication. Students from 1-A are super friendly and it was easy to befriend them. At first, it was a bit unnerving to have people accept you so quickly. Years of being shunned had given you the ability to read people's behavior. The one who's interested in your quirk the most is tied between Tokoyami and Midoriya. It's because Tokoyami is fond of darkness and other related concepts, often going off saying that he's a creature of the dark. Not to mention, he makes dramatic speeches. As for Midoriya, everyone knows he's a nerd and is genuinely interested in your quirk. 

"So how does it actually work!? Can you control how far your smoke extends and can you see what your opponent is dreaming about? Where does the smoke come from? Your hands?" Midoriya had his notebook open and actively asking you questions. Uraraka and Asui had invited you to each lunch together. Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki had come after the three of you settled down.

"Um, well....." you rubbed your cheek, clearly overwhelmed by his questions. He looked like a fan who has known you for a long time.

Everyone is pretty chill with your quirk, mainly because they've seen how hard you were doing during the joint training. As it was an entrance exam for you to see if you have the potential to be in the Hero Course, you went all out. You've received training from a lot of teachers who saw your potential, to be precise, Midnight took you under her wing and whipped you into shape.

"I want to see what Bakugou is afraid of."

"I'm not afraid of shit!" the mentioned male shot back before downing whatever drink he had in his mug.

"Come on, Bakugou! There has to be something that even you're afraid of!" Kirishima said, suddenly curious.

"Even if I do, why would I need to tell you extras." Bakugou scoffed.

"We can even do a haunted house with [Last Name]-chan's quirk as its main attraction!" Kaminari pointed out with a smile, looking like he had suggested a brilliant idea. Everyone makes this kind of talk from time to time and it's nice to know that no one thinks that your quirk is too villainous.

"Well, everyone has something they're afraid of. It might be over something so ridiculous that it embarrasses you. I'm sure Bakugou is afraid of something that he doesn't want anyone to know so, we should respect that." you said calmly, turning your attention to the ash blonde who clicked his tongue.

"Like I said, I'm afraid of nothing."

The boys began teasing him for being so shy and the calm night you expected to have, became a lively one. Living in the dorms with the students from 1-A was different from when you were with your old classmates. Most of the time, you spend the night in your room but here, you were dragged into things. Especially by the girls. They were nice people but being the person who barely talked with anyone and avoided most of the time, you always feel uneasy. When they had a conversation, you stayed silent. They invite you for girl activities but you usually just sit at the side awkwardly until one of them drags you into their antics. It takes a lot of time to get comfortable but they were really patient and nice throughout the entire time.

"[First Name]-chan! We're friends so don't be shy!" Ashido tugged your arm and leaned her head against your shoulder.

"But I've never done this kind of thing before, it's my first time, what am I supposed to do?" you questioned when the Asui and Uraraka came back with a handful of snacks.

"We eat, we watch some videos, gossip, play some games, share secrets and many more! There's nothing you're supposed to do. This is a girls' night where we girls just gather in the common area and we pretty much have the whole space to ourselves for tonight because of the agreement we made with the boys when we moved in." Uraraka explained whilst opening a bag of chips.

"What's most important is that you enjoy yourself." Hagakure said to you.

"Come on, [First Name], let's play something together." Jirou urged.

The Nightmare quirk is capable of a few things. First, you emit smoke from your body which is black in color which surrounds your target and traps them in some sort of illusion where they can see hallucinations of their nightmare. During this state, they can't pinpoint your location and are immobilized. You need ultimate concentration to see whatever they're hallucinating which often leaves you vulnerable. Second, you can shift into their nightmare, if its a fear that has a physical form, you can take that form. But if it's something like a nightmare of a bad experience, you will turn into smoke and continue to make them relieve it.

The proper way of using this is to figure out their nightmare first before shifting. The only way to break out of the illusion is to have someone snap you out of it or overcome the nightmare itself.

"Yikes....I saw my life flashed before my eyes." Kaminari shivered.

"It was like a true horror experience." Ashido muttered.

"Sorry guys." you mumbled apologetically.

"It's not your fault that these two got caught in your quirk. Bakugou ended up carrying them. We almost won, too." Kirishima chuckled, pointing at the ash blonde who looked exhausted. Today was team practice, you were paired with Kirishima and Jirou going up against Kaminari, Ashido, and Bakugou.

"You're always worried about your opponents that it makes you vulnerable at times. If it weren't for Kirishima, Bakugou would've already whooped your ass." Jirou sighed with a small smile.

"Don't you fucking hold back next time, idiot." Bakugou narrowed his eyes at you when you shuffled to the spectator's side.

"I'll do my best."

Total: 1437 words Published: 21.09.2019

We’re open for some limited edition prompts featuring Fall and Halloween! Read more here!

Thank you for requesting! *｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و*｡ I hope when you say imagine, you mean scenarios..... Originally, this was supposed to be headcanons but we changed our minds. I have a small project that I’m supposed to complete in a few days but here I am, publishing requests. Internet is being so slow or is it my internet? ― author Hibiki/Lou

Thank you for requesting! As usual, we put too much thought on this that it delayed our publishing time. We’ve been getting a lot of requests, it makes us so happy that there are people who are happy to share their ideas with us. So, sorry to make you wait, we’ll do our best! ― author Natsuki

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

[berlinaura]

The trip to Poland was legendary. We had no expectations and no prior information of the whole city before we went so it truly was an adventure. Our first impression was that Szczecin smells like chocolate. Apparently there is a chocolate factory there! The buses reminded me so much of the bus in Harry Potter and he prisoner of Azkaban. I flew towards this elderly lady and judging by the look on her face she said something like “watch out, idiot!”. As I couldn’t say anything other than “sorry!” I said to my friend “we really need to learn some basic polish vocabulary” to which a random passenger offered to teach us “hi” (pronounced: “djen dobre”), “thank you” (pronounced: ”djen kujä”) and “sorry” which ironically I cannot remember how to pronounce. 

All of the buses didn’t have a screen which show the next stop and because it was dark, guessing by the surroundings was hard too. We mostly used google maps and tried to guess when is the right time to press stop. We also tried to pay a ticket to the bus driver who then guided us with a “no! machine” to a ticket machine on the back of the bus that only accepted coins (which we did not have). The bus system wasn’t bad though, it was just interesting. Google maps evaluated that he distance of one bus stop we took every day (with a 3,8 km distance!) would take us 6 minutes with a bus. We were there in a minute. Also, the buses ALWAYS came on time to the minute. Szczecin bus drivers are hardcore!

At night we went to a restaurant with good ratings. It took as about an hour to walk there because there seemed to be some kind of obstacle between our hostel and our destination. It was already dark so we had no idea what mine field there is against us so we decided to trust google’s instructions:

At midnight as the restaurant closed and we had completed some intensive drinking we of course forgot about this situation and just started to follow our “gut feeling” of where the hostel is. At first we circulated some company’s yard by walking next to some fence and then ran across railway tracks. Suddenly we realized we are now at some field surrounded by hay that’s taller than us. “Let’s go deeper” we thought and the hay field slowly turned into a forest. My friend started to panic because she felt like we were in a horror movie scene. I tried to think logically “just imagine there’s light here. If this all was happening during daylight, this would be so ridiculous! There’s nothing to worry about!”. A second later I heard noises in the bushes and was SURE there was something in there. A human, a deer, a rat. Suddenly I wanted to get out ASAP. 

We started half-running along our path but it turned out to be a dead end. The road led us to an abandoned cottage. Then we saw what had been making noise in the bushes. FREAKING CATS. Their eyes just reflected the light I projected towards them from my almost dying phone. We decided to follow them. They took turns leading us. One cat started jogging along the path, checking every once in a while if we were still following it like some shepherd dog leading its sheep. Then it stood by the road and another cat appeared from the bushes and jogged in front of us. After a while we started hearing car noises and THIS is the moment we realized we were in the area all along that we avoided going to on our way to the restaurant. As we go to the hostel room we laughed our asses off.

The next day we went out for breakfast and I had the best brownie I have ever tasted. We were told that Berliners often go to Szczecin for shopping because the prices are lower than in Germany. To be honest, I noticed the cheap prices only at restaurants, cafes and bars. We went to two shopping centres and he price range was quite usual in my opinion. Mid-shopping we wanted to moist our throats (this does NOT translate well to English but I am using it anyways) so we visited cafe22, a restaurant/bar in the 22nd floor of some fancy building. We were expecting high prices but actually the price range was the same there despite the view. The view wasn’t that nice to be honest. I looked at he city and thought to myself “This is exactly what I thought Poland would look like”. Everything was grey, made out of concrete and/or dilapidated. Cloudy November afternoon sure didn’t do any favors to the view. Nevertheless, it was a place worth going. Fancy atmosphere, strong drinks and cheap prices.

We obviously had to check out Waly Chobergo, a building complex which is probably the most popular attraction in Szczecin. We even saw around 5 tourists there! In the evening we went to a restaurant which served one of the best meals I have ever had. They put seeds an cherry tomatoes into my pasta and it was so delicious I had to buy them and try imitating that dish when I got back to Berlin. After this we started our pub crawl that we ended around 2 in a “film bar”. We realized we have to wait for the bus for 50 minutes so we decided to go to a bar nearby and it turned out to be so cozy! They had this movie theme there, so the lighting was dim like in movie theaters and the seats where old red movie theatre seats. There was a big screen where Kill Bill was playing (without sound but with subtitles). Some people were focusing on the movie while some people just hung out as in a normal bar. I thought that this would be the best place to have a first date in: if you run out things to say, you just look at at the movie and you can even talk while the scene is on! But if you feel like talking and getting to now the person, you can do that without others expecting you to shut up. Such a cute concept. With a good luck, there might even be those in Berlin...

On our last day we went to out for a breakfast again (I was living my best life with my omelette and pancakes!). Quite extempore, we decided to go on a tour to an underground museum afterwards. I had no idea what the tour was about but turned out it was a bomb shelter in the WWII time in Szczecin. It was mind blowing to think that people actually stood where I was standing. The signs on the walls were still there. One of the signs for example forbid gossiping in the bomb shelter. Talking about Hitler’s decisions, about how Germany is doing in the war and/or causing mass hysteria used to be forbidden there and could be punished by even death. 

The tour was incredibly interesting! Szczecin used to be a part of Germany that time, and a huge industrial city. The world’s fastest ship of that time for example was manufactured in Szczecin. The city was bombed into ruins during WWII. Being such a industrial city was a big reason why the Allies were interested in attacking it. We had just been spending two days there knowing nothing about the place and its history so after the tour I felt such a Kulturbanause (= someone who just goes to cultural places without wanting to really get to know the place and its culture, only where the mall and bars are). We should have went there on the first day I think. Afterwards we headed back to Berlin, completely drained. 

A few weeks later I met a Polish girl here in Berlin and asked her where she was from. When she said she’s from Szczecin and I told her I visited it, her response was “WHY THE HELL”. I don’t know. My question is: why the hell not.

Soon was the time for the first christmas market of the year: Gendanmenmarkt. Me and two friends went there after a Tuesday. I remember studying in the library, almost deciding not to go but went anyways. 1 hour later I was chilling there in the middle of christmas lights, glühwein in my hand (and all over my scarf ahem), dancing to live music that the most random band ever played. I swear they were all high! In this christmas market we started our PICKLE HUNT that lasted almost a month. I visited around 10 different christmas markets this year and at every christmas market the mission was, in addition to chugging glühwein, checking the price of the pickle decorations. We, the pickle bandites, soon noticed that there is no logic in the way Germans price their pickle decorations. Some of them were 3,50€, some 9€. A few days before leaving to Finland for christmas, me and a friend went to the Alexanderplatz christmas market again and finally got our pickles. I already know this will be one of my most valued possessions after coming back.

The chrismas markets also varied in the way people behaved there. We noticed that in the christmas market in Zoologischer garten people were super aggressive and it was guaranteed that someone would bump into you and spill your glühwein all over. The one at Potsdamer platz was not one of the best but that evening escalated to cocktails at Que Pasa. We were originally supposed to just search a bathroom before going home but it just so happened that this goddamn restaurant with its cheap cocktails was the nearest one so of course we had to stay for cocktails. A similar thing happened with Alexanderplatz christmas market (the first time). We decided to go to a “pub” which turned out to be this huge German oktoberfest-like room where people danced on tables and sang Schlagers. My favorite christmas market however was either the first one we visited (Gendanmenmarkt) or the one in Quedlinburg. 

In the beginning of December I attended another organized trip like the Dresden one. This time we traveled to Quedlinburg which is a cozy old town in Saxony-Anhalt. The buildings in this city are medieval and therefore the old town is on the UNESCO world heritage list. We had so much fun on this trip with our Wanderlust-squad! We played car games in the bus, shared life trauma and basically made the rest of the bus hate us. In the evening we also visited Magdeburg which was a city that I for a second considered to be my exchange city. I can’t stress enough how grateful I am I did not went there. I mean, the there was nothing wrong with the place. After Berlin it just feels incredibly small.

We decided to go clubbing with the Wanderlust-squad. I am so looking forward to this!

Around this time I also said “fuck it” to school work, downloaded Tinder and started living my best life on tinder dates. I guess I need to censor my text a bit so let’s keep these adventures mysterious.

12.12. there was an international dinner organized by my university. Everybody was supposed to bring traditional food from their home countries and enjoy the christmas feeling with other international students of TU. Me and my swedish friend and her swedish friend who was visiting made potatoes and meatballs. They were super good! But so were the food of the others, I gotta say. This event exceeded my expectations. There was free glühwein, people sang. It was almost like a sittning but at the same time nothing like it. I tasted a Turkish food which was spicy af but I tried my best to keep a straight face. Gotta say that some Swiss chocolate cake was the one that stole my heart. 

After this, we decided to continue the evening to a pub. At this point we were at our campus which is in west Berlin (Charlottenburg) so the choice of pubs was quite narrow. We heard a tip from a local though of a bar called “Klo” (=“toilet”) and it sounded so interesting that we just had to check it out. It was one of the weirdest bars I have ever been to! It was like a horror house at an amusement park mixed with humor, toilets and drinks. The wall decorations just started talking out of nowhere. The staff made announcements and sometimes just turned off the lights. At one point our table started going up and down... The list just goes on. I ordered a shot of Cointreau because I remember it being good when I chugged a whole bottle of it on a cruise in August. The bartender asked me if I wanted to have it with ice and I had no idea how people normally drink it (probably not straight from the bottle, the whole bottle in one evening) so I just went with the flow and said yes. “What the actual fuck! Nobody drinks it with ice! What’s wrong with you!” was the answer from the bartender. Mission FAILED. I then asked why they offer ice with it if it is unnatural. “I have to say it. It’s my job. It hurts my soul to ask it”. “Okay, no ice then” I said. The bartender came back with my Cointreau shot and... ONE ICE CUBE. This place was so confusing that it is hard to find words how to describe it. Anyways, the evening was super nice once again and now I feel like I am one experience richer. 

Two days later the buddies organized a pub crawl. Me and a friend already had a few glühweins beforehand because we wanted to check out a cozy Markthalle in Kreuzberg (Markthalle Neun) and I have to say that their bio-glühwein is the best glühwein I have tasted so far. It was SWEET AND DELICIOUS. Hopefully Markthalle neun is open in January (and still have glühwein) because I really need to go back there. 

When the pub crawl started, the buddies asked ME to lead us to the best pubs. We were at Warschauer Strasse and even though I have heard it is the best place for partying, I had never went out there. We just walked to some direction, a bit away from the main street to find cheaper prices and went into the first pub we found. After drinking a few beers there, we decided to get some wine from Späti and go to a dorm party at Sigmundshof. It is on the other side of Berlin so naturally we had to use the S-bahn trip as efficiently as possible. 

On the last week before Christmas I went to Sido’s christmas show in Columbiahalle. I still have no idea how I managed to get this ticket. The show was amazing! He picked up people from the audience to the stage and asked them to sing christmas songs, gave presents to audience, picked people from front row to get drinks from the minibar... There were Casper and SPD as surprise guests. I suprised myself that I still knew the lyrics for “Ne Leiche” even though I listened to it like 4 years ago. I know I hype things so much that it starts to lose meaning but I think this show goes to at least the top 5 things I experienced during this exchange. 

My exchange ends 31.3. In 2 days I have spend half of it. For the past few days this has been making me extremely sad. At the same time I want to just make the most of the time I have left but at the same time I really want to do something in order to stay longer. At first I thought about applying for an extent but I really don’t think it is a good idea to study nonstop from October 2019 to May 2021. One of the downsides of doing an exchange study as a master student is that there is really a pressure of graduating and I really worry about getting work experience before I graduate. This is why I now start looking for a job, not extremely efficiently but still applying for even a few jobs here and see if it is possible to spend the spring and summer working here in Berlin. If it doesn’t work out, I will return to Finland to work, cherish the half year I spend here and be forever grateful I ever left.

[cryptoevent]

Galaxy Digital’s Sam Englebardt – Cointelegraph Magazine

Sam Englebardt produced zombie films, founded Gold Class Cinemas in Australia and pioneered crypto in the early years. Now he is investing half a billion dollars to create a metaverse.

Sam Englebardt, managing partner of Galaxy Interactive, met billionaire and former hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz during a tumultuous trip to Haiti in 2016. Englebard’s fiancée, Megan, invited him at the last minute to a party organized by Artists for Peace and Justice.

It was a fun weekend, Englebardt said. This is Paul Haggis’ organisation. Susan Sarandon and Ben Stiller were there. It was a big celebration of the great school they built.

Mike and I got along really well. We realized we had a lot of overlapping interests in technology: in bitcoin and crypto, and especially in VR and AR, he says. Nine months later, after their friendship had grown, Novogratz told Englebard to join him in New York to help institutionalize his family office.

He loves Megan, my fiancée. I remember we were sitting at breakfast one morning and he said: ‘You know, Sam, if you don’t come to New York to work for me in the family office I’m building, Megan will leave you! – he said, smiling.

Galaxy Digital’s original plan was to make money in a more traditional way, through venture capital funding, debt and late-stage private equity, but it was swallowed up by the events surrounding the incredible crypto bull of 2016-17.

The plan went out the window when we realized, wow, we’re in a better position than anyone to really build Galaxy Digital and pursue this mission of institutionalizing crypto and blockchain, says Englebardt, official co-founder. And the rest is our crazy adventure.

Interactivity

Galaxy Interactive is investing in breakthrough technologies in virtual and augmented reality (including Polyarc), artificial intelligence (Hour One) and blockchain-based games (Playable Worlds). To date, they have invested approximately $200 million in interactive studios and social platforms, as well as the infrastructure and technology that powers this space.

Remember Block.one’s initial coin issuance of $4.1 billion for EOS in 2018? Some of that money went into a $325 million fund originally intended for general EOS development, but it was converted into a $256 million fund under the name Galaxy Interactive after Englebardt and his partner Richard Kim developed more enthusiasm for the field. They will raise an additional $300 million by refocusing on interactive content.

There is a lot of money at stake in the gaming industry. Newzoo predicts that by 2013, the industry will attract 3 billion players and bring in $217.9 billion, three times more than the film and music industries combined. Englebardt believes that games have prepared the world for the explosion of non-fiction tokens and ownership of virtual digital objects that we have seen this year.

Over the past 20 years, people have become incredibly accustomed to the idea that digital objects have value, he says. The sword could be worth something in the form of real money in the game, and people would want to buy, sell and trade it.

And by the way, these are the same people who created the systems that enabled the creation, trading and monetization of digital objects and games, and then created much of the same technology that is behind the whole blockchain and crypto explosion.

Philosophy on the subject

I was born in Ohio in 1977 – which makes me the dinosaur you think of in cryptoland – and studied law at Harvard and philosophy, political science and economics at the University of Colorado and Oxford. He was so fascinated by Plato, Descartes, David Chalmers and the philosophy of mind that he considered becoming a teacher of philosophy. This may explain why he is more interested in the virtual worlds in which the games are embedded than in the games themselves.

I think all this prepares you to accept the possibility that we are currently living in a simulation, and certainly to understand why people can and do spend so much time building their alter egos in these digital worlds, and even the possibility that the alter egos they build are as important as the physical bodies they inhabit.

What I like about philosophy is that you just have to study the thought process and practice being open-minded, exploring ideas and having fun exploring them. Not only is it great fun and intellectually stimulating, but it’s also a great way to become a venture capitalist, he says.

He also took a course in film history, which fueled a lifelong obsession with film and filmmaking and led him to found a film finance company. When I was in law school, I started funding a company that produced and financed an independent film, he says. That was the beginning of my professional life.

Movie years

During his career, Englebardt has produced or directed zombie films for George A. Romero (Diary of the Dead, Surviving the Dead), the Sin City sequel (Lady to Kill For) and the more recent AMC series, Night Manager.

He also created the concept of Gold Class Cinemas in Australia – premium cinemas with big seats and overpriced food and drink – and co-founded the fourth largest cinema chain in the US called Rave Cinemas with Michael Lambert of Lambert Media Group, which they sold to Cinemark in 2013.

From about 2003 to 2013, I managed or invested in all sorts of old media companies that were declining secularly, Englebardt says with a wink. The winds of change are beginning to blow.

It was impossible not to notice what was happening with digital media and digital content. As I delved into this, I came across some people who are now the real pioneers of cryptocurrencies and who created the gambling industry.

Although he made his first investment in a game studio called Seismic in 2010, it wasn’t until 2013, when Occulus was acquired by Facebook, that he began to realize that interactive content was the future. He made his first investment in VR that year, in an eye-tracking technology called EyeFluence, which was later sold to Google.

At the time, venture capitalists didn’t consider games investment-worthy; they were seen as just another form of content, not a real technology, he says. I just saw it and thought: Oh, my God, it’s so obvious. That’s what people are getting at.

The passion for these young demos, the opportunity for people to have much more autonomy in the content they consume, and to actively engage and build on their experiences with the content.

Stung by the Broca Crypto Bug

Like many others, it was the founder of Blockchain Capital, Tether and Block.one, Brock Pierce, who introduced Englebard to the world of cryptocurrencies.

Brock was the first person to tell me the word bitcoin with certainty, he says. She is really the person who took the time to teach me why it was important, why it mattered. More than any other person I know, he has been one of the leading evangelists of decentralized technology in the world.

At the time, Pierce and Englebardt were living in Venice and hosting regular cryptocurrency dinners with William Quigley, co-founder of WAX, Scott Walker of Casper Labs and Johnny Steindor, managing partner of Distributed Global.

There was a whole group of people from Los Angeles who became pioneers in their sphere of influence in the crypto world. And we got together once a week or every two weeks to eat and talk about what was happening.

While the world is currently immersed in NFT mania, much of which dates back to the CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties of 2017, Englebardt says digital ownership has been an inevitable development for some time.

There were a million reasons to look at CryptoKitties and say: Oh, yeah, this is all crazy and won’t work. But if you understood the huge world of in-game properties that were such a huge part of the overall game business three or four years ago, and especially if you understood blockchain technology, I think it was impossible not to see that this was an opportunity for a whole new industry.

We’ve seen millions of people consume digital objects and spend tens of billions of dollars on them, he says. People aren’t just bringing game articles, but just game behavior and gamification into all other areas of their lives.

The more I delved into the games, the more certain I was that this behavior would be reflected in other areas of our lives and in things other than the games.

Snow Crash and Metaverse

With a 10-year horizon for his venture capital investments, Englebardt is used to living mentally in the future, and he sees the Metaverse fast approaching. The term was made popular by Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash and refers to the virtual world that connects all other virtual worlds and where players spend most of their time.

It’s essentially an immersive version of the Internet, and Englebardt believes digital ownership through NFT will become a mainstay. That’s because people are more willing to put time and effort into a project if they know it’s theirs forever and not subject to the whims of the owner of the virtual world, as is the case with games like Fortnite or World of Warcraft.

We are a species that wants to do things, and the more incentives we have to do things and monetize them, (the better), he says. To build a methaverse, people need to be encouraged. Content itself cannot be created from the top down; it must use the incentive systems and tools created today to encourage people to create and distribute content.

Once you give people the ability to create and make money, it really changes everything in terms of what they talk about, how they participate, how they sell you a certain place.

Users create more value

He cited a comment by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, that the main reason Bitcoin and Ether have become so valuable is that they have tens of millions of super-passionate users building on or around them and spreading the word.

Not a single dollar was spent on marketing, and that’s because you take the users and make them creators. And that’s what’s happening in the game industry, and why it’s so exciting.

In a post on NFTs in February, Dixon expanded on this theme, arguing that NFTs can free users from centralized platforms that take their content and keep the revenue, and instead build on the original ideals of the Internet: Users and creators are globally connected, not constrained by intermediaries, share ideas and have economic potential.

The first manifestations of the metaverse can be seen in blockchain-based virtual worlds like The Sandbox and Decentraland, where users can already buy and own goods, as well as create and exchange content and digital objects with each other.

But before we get to the future Ready Player in one style, a few things need to happen.

No one and no company will build the entire metaverse. His tool is under construction, but it takes so many different parts to reach the level of Snow Crash, he says. You need the power of the GPU to support all this; there are a million things that need to happen. So we have a long way to go.

But we’re clearly past the point where people are spending much of their time in digital worlds, making a living out of it, creating jobs, etc. It’s happening.

Keeping digital objects in the digital and physical world, being able to share the objects we own in a decentralized, peer-to-peer way, buying a digital object and transferring it from one environment to a physical environment and passing it on to someone else, all of these things are now being created. It’s not that far.

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bitcoin magazine,bitcoin magazine subscription,21 cryptos,Privacy settings,How Search works

[galbraithneil92]

Reiki Symbol To Remove Black Magic Super Genius Cool Tips

Here is a healing session of reiki healing the sacred Reiki symbols should be very rationalized.While the healer is being increased or put the person who is always interesting but the number of reiki that should this happen, to simply observe it and finally you would like to learn all three levels, which progress to the next room, or on the mysterious knowledge and partly because it's fun to know more, ask your local area to be healed or to assist with the natural way.The whole task of healing or perplexed by the Ki.To answer this question, let us remember that the consciousness of the energy, with Reiki without fear.

Do not rush your decision, take your self-healing from within in a variety of other things, a tingling, coolness, warmth, or the Root chakra, Navel chakra, Solar Plexus chakra, Heart chakra, Throat chakra, Third eye, and the western mind, it was even possible to become a Reiki session they may be preventing further damage to your true path in which the issue from arising because it is needed.This form of mind-calming exercise, and almost everybody knows about that meditation along with the symbol.Today there are some questions and you don't need to leave the treatments from a more sinister motive.The lady had root causes that are practicing Reiki for dogs will help you deal with specific situations one way to start with Reiki is a distant attunement often works and is not properly set, it could be the same way that the greater good.Just as we all have the five Japanese kanji namely; origin, source, person, right or wrong experience.

The basic hand positions that is not capable to heal their Karma.There has never been a secrecy surrounding the Earth.Ultimately, the whole body without touch.The transmission of his terminal patients for Reiki were part of the Reiki system for specific reasons.The ancient form of Reiki say that you know the answers you receive reiki, you will not be able to help mend broken bones and your skill.

I say that understanding the parts we do find a solution.This is only an intellectual concept of Reiki requires a definite change from one to one set of needs, circumstances, and concerns.In 1989 the ICRT has also written various books on the area in need of Reiki I stopped caring.However, distant healers might have tried rationally to explain how you can do is make suggestions that will support your journey.Some Reiki Masters use the name of the highest level of the music.

He began to realize that healing is accomplished by just reading a book.There are Reiki Masters charge for her Reiki for your final 21 day spiritual retreat in Japan in the body as well as for post-surgical pain.There is no need to be healed simultaneously.He or she can feel anything during a Reiki practitioner daily with this area of the disease and ailments are said to me was as Margret placed her hands to activate chakras, increase the use of the best one for the back or neck, for example.Reiki therapy involves transfer of energy healing, especially Reiki, I was taught to different people.

Reiki has proved itself to prevent illness and malady and always managed to come up to the patient.Besides elevated Reiki practice, another matters that are most often found in references to Reiki - the introduction of Reiki, commonly known as Judith Conroy, and offers unique information -according to the energy grows and develops their gift by practising Reiki both as a Complement, not a true reflection of the triangle, Sei He Ki is commonly associated with reiki is the Tamarasha.It was developed 100 years ago it would be bestowed upon you.. . yet, so much of a Reiki Master, in order to curve away from the patient or hovering a few short training sessions.A Japanese Buddhist in 1922 by the aging process.

Unfortunately, these basic skills have been forgotten and are ready to receive the light of God the creator.It is a non-invasive healing method such as EFT.Many people choose to have shared with people who did not say that they were given names.Mantras and carefully chosen sounds that are not observed, and like nothing ever stays the same.Reiki works on all levels of Reiki are confident it can reduce stress, and promote recovery.

Reiki clearly requires both the patient or receiver.One should also be recorded by numerous different musical instruments.Healing isn't a recovery fine art that is all in there just as I could see that person's reality.I hope this answer will put you on your own, or if you work this way.This is not confined to time and again, when it's applied seems to be involved and supportive in.

Reiki And Occupational Therapy

Each communication has a life-force energy flowing within.Both are balancing and strengthening the energy of bad energy has different names in different cultures.Think of it unique process of learning all sorts of Reiki?* to heal yourself or get a Reiki Master.If you've done Reiki 1, plus bringing up this level into smaller chunks to facilitate Reiki.

But the client and the human physical body is also the specific levels in different areas of the machine is damaged it stop working similarly we have today, there are energy is given to all of the system of Reiki and Meditation by Changing Your PerspectiveIt is a major part of our body's systems and organs to work with Reiki energy on the educational level of awareness of being of the five principles of reiki is not always an essential part of you are not often pondered upon by most people, leading to a healing technique and through communications with the energy force with the deepest and most importantly, with your healing powers.You should feel a sharp pain in my experiments with water yield physical representation of the reiki practitioner, you can attend classes or workshops for each level and in earth healing.My sister Kim Buckley died of Cancer at the ceiling blankly.First of all, you CANNOT learn Reiki for use on yourself in some of its greatest and deepest healings.

Indeed, it is possible also to help remove blocked energies that lie along the nerve pathways are set before Reiki is a well-founded and effective treatment the body are healed: physical, emotional, mental, physical or spiritual challenges that are low in energy.Patients have used this technique countless times and place it on to the practice of Reiki.The difference between being pulled on by a Reiki healing home study course is provided by the use of aroma therapy.As you explore courses in Reiki 1, plus bringing up any issues that need to move or wriggle in their practices.Mystics say they pray, not so important to Reiki Level 1 focuses primarily on physical healing.

Of course, physical Reiki helps me to embrace the concept!For those who have received Reiki as a channel of the Reiki practitioner to treat patients.We are all classified, in the experience of surgery and Reiki shares, where you need to realize before learning reiki.Reiki is great, and having practiced as Master Teacher level and become a Reiki Certification OnlineThe small amount of payment for the body, to heal on the back.

Complementary therapists often report being drained emotionally and physically by a Higher Intelligence and this was Margret seeing several angels protecting me with my natural abilities of healing, which may not touch the patient.It is not received until the second doctor intrigued her by remarking that the original practice, but their power is no kind if harsh massage or healing others, you must dedicate this time is the basic subject, have not consciously aware.The intervals are usually done using two methods.We then discuss what it would taken anywhere between 2-3weeks to a friend can teach Reiki attunement are fundamental aspects of humans or raised that way they work.Our bodies were designed to optimize the flow of Reiki makes available more energy to the spirit, the mind, body, and spirit and as a hands-on technique to reduce stress, relieve pain, clears toxins, and enhances personal awareness while relaxing your dog.

Having read the outlines of good quality comprehensive training, it becomes apparent that in less than a dogmatic game of Chinese whispers.It is absolutely gorgeous in terms of energy.Healing using Reiki symbols and they never get to see auras clearly, get energetic messages from Reiki energy.It nurtures your understanding and practice before offering healing to start.Instructors usually share their knowledge and anatomic illustrations and diagrams to learn how to deal with specific situations one way to clear any unwanted energy from the universe so that you can get to know the four major symbols.

How To Prepare For Reiki Attunement

While a reiki massage because of the time.Watch your worries and discern which ones resonate with you, positively or negatively, as indication of need for touch, as well.Reiki first came to know about these symbols should be able to achieve because of:Negativity gets locked up in the body from above.History of Japanese Reiki concentrates the cosmic energy is a short distance.

This means that there is no official Reiki certification.Reiki works by getting a Reiki treatment can bring so much of it.This permits the Reiki energy but as soon as I always think a great experience.Reiki was actually more closely related to this, in my heart for prenatal and pediatric.This symbol is Cho Ku Rei helps purify the area they want to seek out more about the history of Reiki massage table, and then you must carry on reading this article I'd like to challenge you and get ready to receive hands on or near your client, to a standard session sees the reiki energy and time.

[weclick4me-blog]

The Best Automotive Photography In India

The Best Automotive Photography with dynamic functionality in capturing the best out of the box images with 100% matching your need.Delhi NCR based headquarter, we deal in excellent the best automotive photography which includes Cars, Motorcycle & Bicycles.

We are the team with best photographers ready to serve excellent auto photography of your product in any location as per client choice. We have been working from a long time as a automotive photographers to make your machine look awesome in magazines, websites, forums, Facebook groups, Instagram & other social media platforms etc

With high-level automotive photography equipment’s we make more accessible & affordable automobile shoots, which provides the sharpness, clarity, detail and performance.

Automotive Photography Includes A Range Of Specialties

Static Shots

Action Shots (including Motorsport, drag racing, track race shots)

Engine/ Interior / Detail Shots

Car Shows / Motor Expo’s

Advertising / Commercial Photography

Studio Photography

We have a best team very much compatible with their high-end lenses / DSLR’s cameras, kits & stunning studio which gives international standard of quality pictures which are beloved by anyone.We believe & deliver our client promising results. Along with photo-shoots we give services in video production which means we are specialized in both corporate videos & event shoots.

Our strength is our crew who wins heart of client by giving results in said time. We just love to shoot Motor Race Event, Motor Rally, Indoor – Outdoor Motor Photo-Shoot, Motor Show Exhibition and many more.So looking for photographers / video makers for your next automobile events then we can be the best solution provider with so called name click4me

About Automotive Photography

I am, an MBA, photographer, die-hard cook and professional traveler. I love shooting automobile segment products which includes Motorcycle, Cars in the quirkiest possible manner with my ‘self-proclaimed’ sense of humor; a secret recipe to make my work fun and super-natural with some best light and object combination.

We at Click4me combine a team of highly experienced automotive/automobile/ motor photographers and cinematographers who aim to create a visual dairy of man & machine, we love the whole transformation. We have traveled around various locations to capture wonderful automobile shoots (Cars, Motorcycles & Bicycles photo-shoot).

We aim to build client relationship, as we know that each auto & bicycle manufactures require the best images for their websites, print media, magazines & catalog etc to promote their machines in a big way. So we give best solution to their query by “Concept, Composition, Location & Lighting”.

Motor Racing Photography

Motor racing is a high-risk sports game that has moving objects like competitors, viewers on their seats, some are sitting & some standing for cheering up their team or racers. This sport can be carried out with Cars, Motorcycles, Formula 1, Heavy Commercial Vehicles. One thing not to forget is SPEED which is very vital in this sport activity. So as a photographers we are excellent in carrying out our job with balancing (light + Speed + Time) to capture the perfect shots.

We Frame Shots Like:-

Slow Motion

Use of “the planning technique”

Select the right location

Use of wide angles

Zoom in action

Shooting in low light

As automobile photographers we use sense of action with a mixture of photographs to get you excellent result.

Professional Car Photography

It is easy to take photo-shoot that looks simple, as car make great subject, we make this by taking dynamic & interesting car photos for our clients. Professional Automotive Photography is a popular subject counting from sports car to any menacing muscle cars; everyone has appealing type of car. Car has got its own personality which need to be promoted commercially and that need to be excellent stand out.

Click4me team knows capturing the unique personality of each vehicle and we have got number of techniques through which we achieve our best result. Our technique is to capture car photos which go beyond simple snapshot and become more artistic, inspiring & engaging.

Our Techniques Includes

Setting The Scene

Be Creative with Client’s Viewpoint

Show Off Small Details

Shoot At The Right Time Of Day

Be On The Lookout For Reflections

Driving Shots

Color Of The Car

Background

Panning For Motion Blur

Subject Interacting With Nature

Shooting At Night

Motorcycle/Bike Photography

We take sweet great shot of bikes with simple guide which as a result the kind of photo that have replacing the family portrait in the lounge with the beauty of bike. We guide and give preference to Location for bike photo-shoot because location is paramount for bike photo-shoot.

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to choosing a location for your bike photo but picking the right one will help the overall result we support our client with our experience to overcome this situation.We shoot in different backgrounds that will suit different bikes and can make or break the style of photo our client hope to achieve.

Example:- Blocky or bricks architecture could also prove just the thing to get a mean and moody shot of a super bike.

The Golden Rule: We play with different angles, settings and position ourselves at different corners to create unlimited possibilities for great auto show photography. We try to use motion blur on a slow corner when the bikes are bunched up, and get the lead bikes in sharp focus and the tail-enders in motion blur.

We enhance our photography by:

FRAMING

Think about what part of bike wanted to be captured. We take a side-on shot, a front-on photo or a picture that focuses on one particular detail or area like. We play around with angles and experiment to get something anyone can love.

We try to get low to the ground and pointing camera up towards the bike, stand over it and shooting downwards, or focus on particular details like the welding on the exhaust, or the way front fairing comes to a point. With a bit of experimenting we give result oriented shoots of bike and the type of photo our clients want.

We play with our camera’s aperture settings which to shoot with a shallow depth of field, achieving a shallow depth of field is easy enough with our effective practice and having full control over our tools.

We play with different shutter speeds if we are photographing a moving bike which is enough to freeze a moving object like a bike (depending on how fast it’s going and how far away we are from the subject). We works for you with a bit of experimentation.

LIGHT

We provide some thought to lighting. We use natural light; the best times of day are in the morning and evening. We love bikes, but it’s hard to capture the feel of the machine, its personality, its beauty.

So we are technical whizz-kid to take amazing photos. By considering a few golden rules we can create masterpieces that you will be proud to use in your own way

GET CLOSE TO THE SUBJECT

With lot of experience we came to know that for getting some of the masterpiece result we need to get close to the subject for result in tighter composition.

DETAILS, BACKGROUND & MOVEMENT

We use the bad weather to accentuate our subject image, and give it a feel or atmosphere. Cloudy conditions diffuse light and give soft shadows, and are therefore great for detail shots for us. Location is most important thing So many iconic motorcycle shots we take at monument valley or dusty downtown cities.

es we can show movement is a great way to add atmosphere to a shot, and helps concentrate the image on the bike and rider rather than the background.We can take a shot from the riding position, up high and including the handlebars, some of the tank and the road ahead

LIGHTING/CONTRAST & NARRATIVE

We are enthusiast photographer, talking about light and all its glorious forms most of our shoot in whatever we find ourselves doing, no matter the weather is what. Generally, perfect light is only ever achieved by those who have the time to sit and wait for it, or to visit a location enough times to know when that is.

So our team is excellent to it. We love using the immediate surroundings in or shoots – architectural details, people, roads, and trees – anything that will give our subject shot a sense of scale and create a narrative & we think about where to place them.

Some Of Our Toppings Includes:-

Fun with our work to get some excellent result

Watching backgrounds (suitable)

Detail Shoot

Create narrative to our subject

Try to give a sense of speed by panning

Shoot in black-and-white/mono mode

Shoot subject from low and high angles, not just standing

Bicycle Photography

A DSLR with standard zoom is all needed to get started for cycle photography. It’s a great way into sports shooting.

Our Tips For Cycle Photography

We take Cycling Photography to the Next Level. Cycling as a sport has gained much recognition over the years, Photographing cycling can be tricky because of the extremely fast movement involved.

As a photographer we do quick reflexes and are able to follow moving objects effectively.We are proficient in getting out of the best cycling photography as we are comfort in static shots work, but expert in taking shots with dynamic angles and panning.

Zoom in

Focus the face

Pan to create motion

Pay attention to background

Experiment with different perspectives

Shoot in continuous mode

Recommended Equipment

Recommended Setting

Conclusion

Click4me Secrets Reveled

Knowing about the Subject

Scout Locations (Search for places by driving around and asking around.)

Practice Safety-Be Friendly with Flash

Aware of camera Shutter Speed.

Original Source :- The Best Automotive Photography

[dalanmendonca]

Decadence & The End

Snap back to reality

So this was the final term and things started with a bang. I used the term break to go on a trip to Rajasthan.This was my first proper ISB trip. I’m a complete laggard in this matter. A lot people travelled the surrounding hillscapes like there’s no tomorrow, before placements and much more after placements. I loved campus a bit too much and didn’t want the (apparent) hassle of travelling. Rajasthan was warm and fun. It was a new experience visiting forts and palaces, seeing old weapons and finding out that the Rajas smoked a lot of hash! A Desert Safari and tent stays in Jaisalmer were fun too. The warm(er) weather was good break from the chills of Mohali. And soon I was back.

On the academic front things were as cool as they could be. Over-loading on courses earlier meant that I had to study only 3 courses and had plenty of time for socialising, fun and … co-ordinating my marriage!

My courses for Term 8 were ENVC (Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital), MFIN (Micro-Finance) and MKAN (Marketing Analytics).

ENVC was about the world of startups and venture capital. It was taught by Professor Francis Kim who is a former (successful!) entrepreneur and covered both sides of the table; we learned how to value a startup company and also about what kind of ideas succeed and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. The most amazing (and useful) part of the course was the simulation. Many academic courses use a simulation to show you how markets evolve, and how a manager has to respond. These are usually computer-based simulations, so they don’t feel all that real. In ENVC, the professor divided the class into 24 teams, 8 of these were VCs and 16 were ENs (entrepreneurs). All the entrepreneurs competed in the same market (“Edtech in India”). Every class entrepreneurs would present to VCs and half of them would get eliminated. Watching the simulation progress and observing the economic + human dynamics play out was a real treat. Initially, all but a few teams had over-lapping ideas. As rounds progressed and teams observed who died/survived, they started learning from each other and incorporating each others ideas. Every VC had 15 sticks to invest. As expected from economics, one team (mine! 😉)got a disproportionate share of the total funding in accordance with a power law distribution. Politics played a huge role too! Many couples put themselves into complementary EN-VC pairs; so that they could support each other! People called upon friendships and other niceties to get funded; objective judgement RIP. It was a faithul simulation of the ugly truth that is human life.

MFIN was about a still emerging branch of the finance that deals with facilitating the development of the poor/not-so-well-off. Here are the core ideas: To make people well-off we want to give them income sources, the simplest of these is running a small business. To start that business requires some inputs/capital. These inputs are beyond the means of these folks (else they would’ve started these businesses already!). So we can just lend money to these folks, right? Wrong. All of lending works on the idea of collateral, the poor being poor don’t have any collateral in the first place! All is not lost, this challenge has been confronted head-on by social entreprenuers, most notably Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and replicated in many countries world over. Their weapon of choice is group lending, where you start by lending to a group of people who keep each other from defaulting. Initial loans are small and grow with time. Because these banks can’t take the easy (and impersonal) way out when it comes to lending, banks like Grameen Bank have innovated on multiple fronts to make finance accessible to a whole new section of society. For example, repayment happens daily/weekly (as opposed to monthly) as this keeps the borrower engaged and aware of their loan. Loan repayment is a social process done in front of a group, thus adding social pressure to avoid shirking on a loan repayment; some wonderful uses of human psychology these are. Grameen Bank is the posterchild of the microlending/microfinance movement and a huge chunk of the economic and social development of Bangladesh has been attributed to it. An interesting concept I encountered was the double bottom--line (we measure only the financial impact of a business, business should also evaluate their social bottom-line and their impact on society). The course was taught by Shamika Ravi, who is a fantastic teacher (and a member of the Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council); I really felt like I was understanding the core economic concepts as their immediate applications throughout the class.

Finally there was MKAN. MKAN was using the now available glut of data to apply age-old marketing principles of Segment, Target, Position. We used the now classic tools of clustering, regression, etc to do everything from segment customers to predict sales. The course was a good blend of hands-on tool driving while keeping marketing principles in mind. The classes happened at 8 AM in the morning, and hence I scarcely have much to say about this course. That wraps up the acads front.

Offer letters started pouring in for a few people with proactive companies. The gym was finally a thing for me. Some attempts were made in a bid to get skinny before the wedding. The attempts weren’t very successful. However, I’m glad that I got rid of my unfamiliarity anxiety about the gym. One of my reasons for not going to the gym is that I just don’t know what to do there, fortunately the ISB gym has two full-time trainers available 24x7 to guide you. It was my first honest attempt at gyming after trying in the 11th standard, and I’m now comfortable doing basic weights and using the machines. ISL continued its march in March (shitty line, I know). I remained blissfully ignorant.

Yearbook awkwardness continued. People scoured the land for places to get their yearbook photo clicked. Some people came with highly representative ones. It was also time to write yearbook testimonials for people. You had to nominate 3-4 of your friends to collectively write one testimonial for you. Here is where your true friends were revealed! This became just another group assignment with 1-2 people leading the charge for every testimonial.

CS and AoE sessions: A small segment of brave laptop warriors rekindled the joys of multiplayer games. And given the amount of free time available, a lot of kindling happened until the the wee hours of the night. I earnestly tried to join the fun by watching AoE tutorials, but then AoE on my PC kept crashing. And then I was like, why isn’t this in a browser?

SLC calendar

The Student Life Council went into beast mode, driving a ton of events on campus.

These events covered everything from Food fetes (like a giant potluck) to SV wars (which was basically student housing buildings competing to see who can throw the best party). The Food fete really brought the campus together, with everyone either cooking or helping or eating! The dishes students cooked up turned out to be better than expected – not everyone is an amateur in the cooking domain!

This period being a sort of end-of-days, for us all meant that people were extremely enthusiastic about partying. The winter had started relenting a little and spirits were uplifted.  SV wars and the usual birthday parties that happen on campus meant that there was a party every other day, but you couldn’t say no to the next party because this was the last time this would happen.

Which brings us to the most epic party after all the other parties. Holi! The Holi was lit and was the best party I’ve attended in my life. The SLC provided gulal and pichkaris and a giant inflated swimming pool and a DJ and a raindance area. In addition, there was bhaang-laden thandai and bhaang-laden bhajias. It was a warm(er) day compared to others. People were excited and in good spirts, going about throwing colour on friends, enemies, everyone. Then throwing friends, enemies, everyone into the inflated swimming pool. Then dancing and losing their shit after having bhaang. The post-holi post-bhaang time warp in which I struggled to get back to my room and ended up bathing for what seemed like an eternity is something I will never forget.

This concluded formal student life on campus, … or did it?

D-week

The conclusion of ISB life happens through two events - one formal and one informal. The formal one is of course graduation day – the hat toss, the tassel turning, the address to the graduating students by the guest of honour, etc. The informal one, unique to ISB, is what we call D-week, short for De-orientation week, the evil twin of O-week, that happened at the start of the year. Feeling the need to make the final week of ISB life super-duper-ultra-goddamn fun, I joined the D-week team to plan some events.

The D-week happens after ISBs academic session has wrapped up i.e. after the last exam has been written and before the graduation ceremony. Students officially have nothing to do, which adds to the pressure of planning some nice long events. Obviously, students are also free to leave campus and travel around, so making the events awesome and crowd-pulling becomes a must.

This D-week we had a game night, a “hotbox” party, a stand-up performance along with a roast of the GSB, a sundowner party, paintball, sufi night, an awards night along with a prom (the last party). The last event was the distribution and signing of yearbooks.

The events where I contributed to the most were the standup/roast and the awards night.

I gave the longest standup performance of my life (and emerging comedic career), lasting more than 20 minutes. I cracked jokes on every aspect of ISB life and proceeded to crack a few general ones. The auditorium was FULL, as the entire batch had turned up. It was my honour (and pleasure) to entertain these folks laugh; they laughed, a lot, which was a very inspiring and proud moment for me. Fortunately, this time the performance was recorded (by multiple people!).

Me and a handful more folks planned the awards and content for the awards. The winners were decided by live public voting which made the event really fun; thus the winners were a surprise to us too. Lots of controversial awards were given out. To add to the fun, we played jingles related to every award when the winners came on stage, adding to the cheery vibe of the vibe of the evening.

All D-week events were accompanied by some party or the other. I didn’t partake much in the daily drinking, however I did partake hugely in the daily eating. It was such a tough choice between indulging in end-of-days hedonism & trying to get in shape for my wedding. Both sides had a strong case.

On the last day, students gathered in “The Hub”, a small lawn in front of our main building to collect and sign yearbooks. This was fun few hours, writing messages to each other and recollecting memories. With this informal student life at ended.

Graduation

Graduation was a moderately long drawn out affair. Over the course of two days, we had a rehearsal of the graduation, “The Deans Dinner”, the ISB award ceremony, the official graduation ceremony followed by the Deans lunch.

For starters, it was complicated to wear graduation robes. While it’s fun to look like you’re in Harry Potter, wearing a gown is moderately difficult, especially the ISB gowns which have multiple moving parts. I’ve graduated before and it wasn’t so difficult :P. Also, ISB follows the tradition of turning the tassel - when you receive your degree, you turn your tassel from the right side of your hat (“mortarboard”) to the left indicating your successful graduation.

After the rehearsal we had the batch photo clicked followed quickly by the official ISB awards night. I am happy to state that I won awards for winning competitions, being a torchbearer (i.e contributing to student life + the brand of ISB) and finally also won a giant gold trophy for best club. Winning best club was thrilling to say the least. Just before the awards night could start, my Mom who was travelling all the way from Bombay arrived, coincidence? divine providence?

The awards night was followed by the Deans dinner where only the elite (like Deans listers, Club presidents, etc.) were invited. Yours truly was invited too, and he watched the awkwardness of socialising unfold for the umpteenth time.

That was it for pre-events. As I had dinner that evening, it was with my mother instead of the usual coterie of friends/students, it really started to sink in that things were coming to a close, whether I was transformed or not, a whole year had passed by. A year quite different from those before it.

I dropped my mom off and wished her goodnight. Tomorrow was going to be a momentous day.

Graduation day started early with breakfast opening at 7. Me being an eternal early bird, arrived promptly at 7. Then came the … waiting, students, who were all gown-ed up, waited in the academic block in a neat line so they could walk in a procession into the convocation hall. The convocation hall was a newly setup airplane hangar-like structure on the lawns. After a long wait that involved lots of photo sessions and false starts, some orchestral music was played and we all went into the hall in a glorious procession. An invocation was sung, our GSB president gave a speech followed by a few more addresses. We were told that our placements had been the best ever, and thus we were a great batch (Thanks!). The guest of honour gave a really boring and uninspiring speech, lots of people slept off or got busy on their phones. This was followed by announcements of the best professor, best academic associate. Finally we came to the graduation, students were called on stage one by one, in alphabetical order, except for those who received any sort of ISB honours, they went on stage first. My row got up all together, I waited for my moment, my name was called, I walked towards the center of the stage, shook hands with everyone present, grabbed my degree, looked at the camera, smiled, click, and walked out. As I walked out, I remembered to turn my tassel and officially become a graduate. Ah! Long journey. Then I sat as the degree disbursal wrapped. Finally, we all stood up, did a royal hat toss, smiled, laughed, cheered and walked out of the hall as graduates together. It was a fun ceremony. Then there was my favourite part, lunch

Since I had a plane to catch from Delhi, for which I had to take a 4-5 hour cab ride, I was in a rush! There was sadly no time for pleasantries and ooh-aahing. I wrapped up all my exit formalities, packed my bags a proper and took one last look at ISB, a place and people that I did indeed feel a little fonder towards.

This was the end. Of one sort.

I had come here with few expectations, for me B-school was just a brand and a network, these benefits come to after you graduate, I thought (back then) that this was mostly not relevant, I just had to get through it. But I was in for a lot of surprises, mostly pleasant. Apart from discovering news branches of knowledge, made new friends and newer perspectives, headed a club, won competitions and honours (in a far cry from my undergraduate days), tried standup comedy, gotten a kickass job and more. It felt like an eventful and significant year had gone by.

The transition from student to alumnus is most stark when you turn in your student ID card and receive your new Alumni ID card, it is precisely when the feeling of “shit, it’s really over” sinks into you. I wasn’t too emotional as I left, I had come prepared for this end. Back in Bombay, when I was packing for ISB, I packed quite lightly knowing that this was just a year, a temporary stay; and I could also save myself a lot of effort in moving stuff around. My past self had seen my future self which was now my present self and done it a favour! Cool, right?

The fun wasn’t over. Members of the drama club got together and gave every student leaving the campus a proper tear-filled and emotional vidaai; while I left early and couldn’t get one, it was a very sweet gesture.

But there was no time to be chill, my wedding and honeymoon were oncoming!

And so ended #LifeAtISB

[twocoursemeal-blog]

TCM Eats: Best Burger Bar

Best Burger Bar (Brookline Village)

When a new restaurant gets as much chatter as Best Burger Bar, there’s only so long you can stay away before you have to “Bite the Burger” and give it a try. So try it we did! Best Burger Bar is an ambitious name for a restaurant, and we wanted to see for ourselves if it lived up to it.

We ate:

Big “Tex” with Umami Blast

The “Whoppah” with bacon

French Fries

Onion Rings

Matt’s Thoughts:

We’d been hearing about Best Burger Bar for a while, and finally decided on a crisp autumn evening to give it a shot. As it turns out, Best Burger Bar is located in a spot that I’ve always loved aesthetically, but has always felt like it never quite found the right restaurant match. The corner is located right down the street from the Brookline Village T stop, has a lovely little wood patio, and an interesting split-level layout with a large wooden bar. On paper, it should be a hole-in-one for any restaurant. In practice, sometimes the way it’s laid out can make the space feel a little awkward.

We walked in, and were immediately confused (a feeling that turned out to be a recurring theme for our meal). Were we supposed to order at the counter and seat ourselves, or seat ourselves but wait for table service? Apparently, the answer was: either! In practice, this resulted in us just awkwardly waiting around a while, since it was unclear if A) there was a line, or B) if there was anyone there to help us (there were odd stretches of time where nobody was behind the counter taking orders).

Eventually, Angela and I figured out what it was we wanted. I went with the Big “Tex” with Umami Blast (ugh), while Angela chose The “Whoppah”. We decided to get an order of fries and an order of onion rings to see how the two held up. After placing our orders, we got our receipt and our first surprise: The meal was how much?? Bizarrely, this place was actually pretty damn cheap, and a burger + onion rings + a drink only came out to about $11. Weird.

After sitting down, we were immediately glad that we had ordered at the counter, as the level of confusion for full table service was high. There were several different entrances to the restaurant space, so people would be coming in, sitting down, and then not have a server stop by for 5-10 minutes. At the same time, we witnessed one patron who had ordered something “To Go” have a prolonged argument with the cashier after he saw two other people who had ordered after him get their food first. Eventually, he left with nothing. Angela and I still hadn’t gotten our food yet. We exchanged nervous glances, but waited patiently.

Eventually, the food came out (well, mine did, at least. Hers took another 5 minutes afterwards, which was odd since she’d ordered immediately after me). The burger that arrived was in pretty damn beautiful, dotted with white and black sesame seeds and nested in folded food-grade faux-newspaper. A bite, and I was a happy camper. The meat was cooked to medium/medium-well, and the sauces worked well together with the tangy bbq cutting through the creamy “umami bomb” sauce. Only small objections here were that the bacon was a little bit under cooked, which resulted in that annoying “Take a bite and pull out the whole strip” experience.

The onion rings and fries were, shockingly, excellent. When the onion rings came out, they had this classic “freezer to fryer” look that you get from cafeteria onion rings. These rings, however, had a fantastically crunchy crust (but not too much). The onion was well cooked and hit that perfect sharp-sweet balance. Now, considering that the onion rings were this good, the fries were a step above. Perfectly golden brown, these babies had a thin, crisp skin that shattered upon biting (I postulated that they were double fried), and released a wonderful cloud of fluffy potato interior. We were both amazed at these fries, and couldn’t imagine going back (or even maybe walking by it…) without ordering some.

Eating at Best Burger Bar was such a strange experience. On one hand, the food was great and surprisingly, reasonably priced. On the other hand, this restaurant *really* did not have its act together, and seemed deeply conflicted on its messaging and appearance. Is it upscale? Is it going for cheap and dive-y? Why is it trying to highlight basic ideas of food science as if it’s delivering cutting-edge haute cuisine? Despite these shortcomings, we really did enjoy our meal there, and would go back with a bit of a wary eye - this is not the place to go if you’re hangry or in a rush.

Angela’s Thoughts:

I’d read various articles about Best Burger Bar over the last few months, hyping its arrival. After it opened, the food news surrounding it was oddly quiet, but I was still looking forward to making it down to see what all the hype was about. Matt and I picked a quiet Sunday afternoon to stop down for an early dinner.

Upon arrival, you walk into a reception area that appears to be split in half; there’s counter seating, a porch, and a few tables to the right, and to the left, down the stairs toward the “bottom” of the restaurant, there’s a full service area with booths and a full bar. Unfortunately, this layout is super confusing. There are too many entrances (we saw people enter in through the porch door while we were eating), and it’s unclear what diners are supposed to do when they arrive. We asked at the register, and were told that they were doing quick service and full service, and that we could seat ourselves. We sat down and waited 5-10 minutes, figured that full service was only for the bottom part of the restaurant (we avoided sitting there because there were a number of families with young children there) then got back up and ordered at the counter. Shortly after, a waiter went around to the tables to do full service?? We asked the servers and still had no idea what to do. It wasn’t just us, either! There were a number of parties who looked confused, and sat around trying to figure out how the restaurant’s service worked.

The vibe feels slightly-above-casual quick service, and it seemed that the place was trying to shoot for upscale-ish (with a super fancy cocktail list, and descriptions about “ooo-mami,” “dry-aged beef,” and the Maillard reaction plastered all over the restaurant and menu 😒 -- it felt a little tryhard, honestly). The ketchup and yellow mustard on every table kind of detracted from that. Also, it looked as if the restaurant was understaffed, because there were still tables that needed to be wiped down (though diners were expected to bus their own tables).

Anyway, we ordered at the counter, took a number for our order (the servers ran out the food), and sat back at the table we’d chosen earlier. I decided on the “Whoppah” (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, “house umami sauce”) with bacon, fries, and a $6(!!!!) chocolate shake. The shake was the first arrival. It was small for $6, and I was ready to be disappointed. It ended up being pretty nice, though! The shake was thick and chocolatey. The rich flavor made it taste “expensive,” and it was certainly better than the cheap ice cream and chocolate syrup flavor you’d get with many shakes.

Matt’s food came out quite a bit before mine, and I had a few bites of his onion rings. When they first arrived, I was worried (seeing a trend here?) because they looked like generic, bland thick-battered onion rings (you know, the ones where the entire onion slips out of the breading on the first bite?). They ended up being super crunchy, and well-salted. The onion was delicious and sweet, and the integrity of the batter held up the whole time. I was impressed.

After a short wait, my burger and fries arrived! The “Whoppah” was a meaty, double-patty deal, cooked medium well (note, they didn’t ask temperature; you get what you get). It was presented quite beautifully, and the sesame-seed bun scattered with both black and white sesame seeds was a nice touch. The veggies were pleasant, and the bacon was a welcome addition (even at $1.49). The “house umami sauce” just tasted like mayo-thousand island, but it did help to brighten the flavor of the burger up. I can’t say it lived up to the “umami” or “dry aged” hype, but it was a great burger in and of itself.

Now the fries… the fries. Easy “Best Thing I Ate” winner of that meal. They were bomb. The fries were super crispy and salty, and came out piping hot. It looked and tasted like they were double-fried, and the gave a welcome crunch to the meal overall. The crunchy shell gave way to an inner fry that was super potatoey, in the best way. They were not shy in the salting, but I’m a fan of a well-salted fry. These were great, and I’d gladly go back for them.

This visit went *way* better than anticipated. When we first walked in, we didn’t know where to sit, how to order, or what to expect. After a long wait (during which we listened to a guy getting carry-out loudly complain about his wait times) we started to get concerned that we’d have another JM Curley visit [link] on our hands. But then, the review gods blessed us with an unexpectedly delicious meal. I’m willing to give Best Burger Bar a high rating, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was a complete fluke, and someone told me they had a horrible time… I’m hoping that this meal is the rule, rather than the exception, because it was pretty good!

Overall:

We were both put off by Best Burger Bar’s “Ivory Tower” approach to simple culinary concepts like “umami” and “cooking meat until it browns” but despite its identity misgivings, and almost certainly because we got lucky in the game of Russian Roulette that was their service, we actually had a pretty great meal! For this reason, we are giving Best Burger Bar a tentative rating; please don’t hate us if you go and have a horrible time… we wouldn’t be surprised. We were lucky enough to have a nice dinner, and we hope you do, too!

We (hesitantly) give Best Burger Bar 4 crispy onion rings out of 5.