#at first they had their respective phone colors but then was suggested to swap and then I decided Liam gets sacambaspis on my phone

[ryuusea]

Modern AU 🤝 for Day 6 of #SherliamWeek2024

Inspiration thanks to this post

But he wouldn’t take the xray with the ring on- AND? It’s funnier this way. Because I can. 🤣

[noyoucantpinmedown]

Springtime Swap

For this year's Springtime Swap I had to write for @totaldramablueyonder! This was a lot of fun. I've never written Katie and Sadie so it was good to try them out. I hope you like it!

Courtney didn't have friends. Never had. Never needed to. She got along well enough with her classmates to be somewhat popular, and that was all she needed to be named Student Council President.

But then Katie Ayala and Sadie Li joined the Student Council.

Those two were the chattiest girls Courtney had ever known. Whenever they bumped into each other in the hallways, they would keep her there for a good five minutes before she could excuse herself, and then she'd be late to wherever she was going. And Courtney hated being late.

So when she found out Katie and Sadie were being elected, she had to hold back the urge to slam her head against a wall.

But they impressed her. They showed up to the very first meeting in matching pink pantsuits- their outfits were always coordinated. They proposed doing a bake sale to raise money for homecoming, which Sadie made the budget plans for. Katie got half the school to buy something and charmed the other half into caving in and buying as well. In the end they raised a lot more money than they were aiming for. They were competent, and Courtney could always respect that.

"Courtney!" She heard Katie's high pitched voice from down the hallway, always distinct among the murmuring of the students. In a second, she and Sadie were standing by her locker. "Sadie and I were going to hang out at my house, do you wanna come?"

She blinked. "Oh, um...well thanks, but I have a lot of homework to do and--"

"Oh, that's okay, we do too!" Sadie piped up. "We can all do it together."

Shit. "I just--"

"Come on, it'll be so much fun!"

Courtney sighed and closed her locker. "Fine, okay, I'll come." The girls squealed. "But I can only stay until six, okay?"

Katie was already linking arms with her, Sadie on her other side. "Sure! We'll drive you home!"

The three climbed into Sadie's car, where the talking mingled with the music coming from the radio, which Katie had plugged her phone into.

Katie's walls were painted pink, and the white comforter on her bed was so thick and soft it almost looked like a cloud. "Do you guys want anything from the kitchen?"

Courtney sat down on the bed and began taking out her books. "I'd like some coffee, if you have any."

"I want coffee too!"

Katie nodded and left for downstairs, leaving Courtney alone with Sadie. Which was awkward, because while she wasn't close to either of the girls, she got on with Katie better. Sadie went quiet, so she guessed the feeling was mutual. She looked around the room, looking for something to make conversation with.

There were several posters of singers and bands on the walls. Courtney recognised Selena Quintanilla, One Direction and Little Mix among them. The desk by the window had been taken over by a sewing machine, pattern books and other sewing supplies.

"I didn't know Katie sowed."

"We both do. We make or alter a lot of our clothes", Sadie explained. She was laying down on the bed next to her. "That's how we always match. It's hard to find clothes that have both of our sizes, so..."

"That's really smart."

"Okayy, here's coffee!" Katie stepped through the doorway with a tray, which she set down on her nightstand. "I think we should start with math, just so we get it out of the way."

Courtney was worried that they would get distracted and not get any work done, but despite talking as they worked, they managed to finish all of their work, perhaps faster than Courtney would have done on her own.

When they were done, Katie put on some music and sat at her desk. She had brought a plate with cookies from downstairs. Courtney took a bite out of one while she checked her social media. Sadie was doing the same, and humming along to the music. The three weren't talking, but Courtney felt so relaxed. It really wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The complete opposite, in fact.

"Katie, I was thinking we could use the fabric from the pantsuits to make rompers, or like a cute top and skirt combo."

The taller girl looked away from the shirt she was replacing a button on. "What? But the pantsuits turned out so well! And taking the stitches out is going to be such a pain."

"Well, yeah, but when are we going to wear them? Like, we literally just made them for the Student Council, and the fabric cost a lot!"

Courtney locked her phone and put it down. "I think Sadie has a good point."

Katie sighed, looking over at the open closet where the hot pink pant and suit jacket were visible. "A top and skirt in this color does sound nice. Oh my God, if we work quickly we could wear them to Geoff's next party."

Sadie looked somewhat satisfied before the prospect of a party distracted her. "He's throwing another one? When?"

Of course he was throwing another party. Geoff was the star quarterback of the school's football team, and his parties were infamous. He was easily the most popular person in school- everybody liked him, and he liked everyone. If he had thought to run for Student Council President, he could probably have given Courtney a run for her money.

"DJ told me that two weeks from now, his parents will be out of town. Oh!" A sudden idea hit her. She patted Courtney's knees to get her attention. "Court, you never come, we should all go together!"

"Oh my God, you totally should! You're like, friends with Bridgette, right? I'm sure she can get you an invite."

Geoff's girlfriend was in the volleyball team with Courtney. They sometimes talked in the hallways, and she liked the girl's laid back, yet grounded attitude. "Yes, we're friend...ish, I guess. But my parents would never let me go. And I have a curfew."

That didn't phase Katie. "You can just tell them you're having a sleepover at my house."

Her eyes widened. "Lie to them? I can't do that!"

She had never lied to her parents, not once. She had never disobeyed them, either.

"It wouldn't be a lie, we'd actually sleep over here after the party." Sadie grabbed a cookie from the plate. "Come on, it'll be so much fun."

"Yeah! Who knows, you might even meet someone."

"Oh, stop!" Sadie rolled her eyes at the suggestive look her best friend gave her. "She's hellbent on finding me the perfect girlfriend." She explained to Courtney.

That made her smile. "That's sweet."

"Do you have your eye on anyone, Court?"

She thought back to Alejandro, the charming exchange student who was too much of a flirt and a sweet-talker for her liking. Then to Duncan, which her recoil- she would die if anyone knew she had ever been attracted to him. Finally they landed on the red-haired boy from shop class that had been so helpful during the bake sale. Just a few days before, she had opened her locker to find someone had slipped a daisy inside through the slits at the top. It was a little damaged from having to fit through such a small opening. She had turned around to see who it might have been, and he was watching her from the other side of the hall. When she caught his eye, he blushed as red as his hair then walked away as quickly as he could.

"Please don't tell anyone."

The girls squealed. "No, of course not!"

"Promise!" Katie offered her pinkie finger, and Sadie imitated her. Courtney pinkie swore with both of them, a giddy smile forming on her face.

"Okay, you know Scott? He built the food stands for the bake sale. Tall, ginger hair, a year below us."

"Oh my God! He totally did that because he likes you. I saw how he looked at you when you thanked him."

"Actually..." She told them about the daisy. The girls squealed again, and Katie reached down to squeeze Courtney's hands.

"That's so sweet!"

"Oh my God, that's so cute!"

"You guys think? I know I can come off a bit strong sometimes. He probably thinks I'm the annoying Student Council chick."

Sadie shook her head. "Why wouldn't he like you? You're, like, super smart, and super pretty too! And some guys like girls with strong personalities."

"Yeah, you're gorgeous. He totally likes you back. He'll probably be at the party, you know. He hangs a lot with Duncan, and Duncan and Geoff are super close."

Courtney cringed inwardly at the mention of the school's resident bad boy, but the idea of going to the party was getting more and more appealing. She could picture herself dancing with the girls, and maybe Bridgette too. Letting loose for once. Feeling as happy as she was feeling now. Maybe she could find Scott and talk to him.

She had been so wrong about these girls- not that she'd ever say it aloud. They weren't vapid, or stupid. They were geninuely kind and skilled.

"You know what?" She said, "the sleepover sounds like a good idea."

[alitheamateur]

The Grind- Chapter 16

Warnings: Language.

We parted ways in the café parking lot, only for a brief hour or so, giving me just enough time to swing by my building to swap into the proper apparel, and shove some small essentials into a ratty gym bag from high school.  I was whispering regretful murmurs to myself as I pulled into the lot of Temple Fitness.  I draped the bag over my shoulder, water bottle in hand, and hesitated towards the main entry. It was a newer structure, but it’s reputation of cleanliness, a well-stocked weight room, and a staff equipped to provide nearly any fitness services on the market had flourished by word of mouth throughout the tristate. The atmosphere of this establishment leaned way more pristine than the damp, mildewed basement ambiance at Mac’s place. Skylights haloed the front lobby with welcomed July sunlight, and I heard the whine of a juice machine in the corner where I turned to discover a small juice bar. Teal round arm sofas lined walls down each side, and what I would assume were artificial potted plants were carefully arranged about. Clearly, this place had a woman’s touch.  

“Hey Elliott, you showed,” I heard the familiar voice of the very person who had suckered me into this plan. “C’mon, I wanna introduce you to a few people.” 

She motioned me to follow, and we marched down a narrow, quiet hall that eventually opened up revealing what seemed to be a training room of some sort in the back of the building. There were a couple guys going through the motions of what my very amateur opinion would’ve gathered to be Muay Thai, or perhaps Jui Jitsu? I was clueless in that moment, but something told me by the time Tia and her crew were done with me, I’d be able to effortlessly distinguish the difference between the two, along with most likely being able to demonstrate them as well. I was lagging behind Tia’s strides trying to get a handle on all the yoga studios, and the saunas cutting the halls, as she greeted a woman, and two men she was waiting to introduce me to.

“Ok, so Austin, Cal, Willow, meet Liv,” she pointed down the line naming out the strangers. “Liv, meet my team.”

“Nice to meet you all,” I indirectly smiled, making friendly eye contact with each individual set of eyes, and wiping my clammy palms over the slick spandex of my joggers.

“I gave them a little play-by-play on our chat from lunch LC, and we decided it’d be best to stick you with Cal here first for a while. A while will be determined by how long you think you’re gonna stick this out, ya’ wuss. He’s my personal trainer. He’ll be essentially laying the ground work here to see what you’re made of. Doing some basic cardio, and weights, oh, and gettin’ a meal plan in place for you, too.” Tia’s laugh turned dark at her ending remarks, and mockingly menacing. She knew what a hopeless, dedicated foodie at heart I truly was, and that I wouldn’t take kindly to someone limiting my calorie and carb intake all the live long day. “How much do you weigh, anyhow?”

She didn’t waste any time, ay?

“Um, I don’t really know like, exactly. Around 130, I guess? And 5’3”.” I spoke back to the peanut gallery hanging on my every word.

“Okay, okay. So that’ll put her at bantamweight, I think. Right, Cal?” The sculped man towered over me by nearly a whole foot, dressed in black from dri-fit shirt to sneakers.

“That’s right. We’ll start there at least, then I’ll leave the final decision to you and Willow once you guys see what she can do in the ring. Liv, you feel comfortable with cutting some weight if need be?” Cal rubbed his palms flat together. These guys weren’t playing pretend with all this, it was clear. But, I elected if I was going to step into this world, I might as well commit fully, and skip the lazy dabbling. “You guys are the experts, I’m just the silly girl behind the computer.” I saluted them lightheartedly.

…….

The first two weeks I spent under the watchful eyes of Tia and her three ruthless minions wasn’t a walk in the park by any means, but I made it through with only two bouts of splintering muscle cramps, and one upchuck all over the crisp white tile floor of the weight room. My past in athletics familiarized me closely with cardio, so the 3 miles a day on the treadmill, along with 30 added minutes on the stair climber hadn’t killed me. Definitely wounded, and maybe caused me to develop asthma, but hadn’t killed me. My visits to the weight room however might as well have been sure fire, mortal combat. Cal had precisely mapped out a specific regime to suit me, and scheduled each day to target a specific area. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays were upper body strength, leaving us to work on muscles such as bicpes and traps, and some brutal core exercises as well. Wednesday and Friday, had very abruptly became the very most dreaded days of my always demanding week. Legs. Cal seemed to get particular delight in leg day. He and Tia would watch idly by and smile like Cheshire cats as I grunted, and sobbed my way through 3 sets of one-leg barbell squats, and 4 sets of lying leg curls.

“You’ll thank us when you’ve got a fine ass man pinned between those legs of steel, Liv.” Tia piped and cheered alongside Cal as he coached me through the punishing onslaught.

As much as I wanted to break both of their smiling jaws for dropping the bombs of leg day, I was very much mastering the 4,000 calories a day he’d laid out as my goal to keep building my muscle mass. It may not have been the ideal menu, but eating was one step in this whole process I felt I wouldn’t falter. I carried what felt like pounds of almonds in my purse to work daily, snacking them with the power bites I discovered online of peanut butter and oatmeal. I should’ve bought hefty amounts of stock in chicken farms considering the quantity of eggs I cooked for myself. Scrambled. Poached. Tia even pressured me into downing a raw one if I needed a quick intake.

My new team of the 3 amigos decided to settle with a game plan of at least a month of basic training with Cal before I was passed on Willow and her Muay Thia, and fight training. During the given time that had passed the first few sessions, I began to notice miniscule results as I dressed in front of my floor length mirror. Only a slight thigh definition, and a barely there tightening of fabric through the spans of my blouses over my biceps. I was happily surprised in the progress I was making in adventuring this previous unexplored territory. In the short days spent in shadowing Tia, the respect and admiration I already had for her, flourished immensely. And although I was losing sleep due to the nerves that had commenced in thinking about actually stepping into a sparring session possibly sometime sooner than later, was also a growing thrill in the thought as well. I contemplated what the danger, and power, and adrenaline, and ferociousness would feel like swimming through my own veins, and it caused carnal arousal to flicker to the center of my belly. I understood now the orgasmic energy of command that Tia and Colton must feel when they step toe-to-toe with an opponent.  The fuming high fell quickly at the thought of him. What would he think of me now? I blushed a little, and surging tears burned into my eyes wishing Colton was walking this quest at my side.

 It was day one of expedition with Willow and Tia on the mat. I made sure to fall into bed at a decent hour the Friday night before. We determined the Saturday day before a Monday holiday was the most appropriate day to dive into the more rigorous aspect of my training, in case I took a face to the mat, or hyperextended some sort of body part from incorrectly executing a kick to the punching bag. The long weekend would give me time to recover if necessary, and soak in lots of Epsom salt and ice baths, as Tia said I would definitely be needing it, along with making a trip to the market to hunt down some Turmeric, a natural inflammatory she suggested. I had taken a shopping trip earlier in the week only in search of some seemly attire for the kickboxing I gathered I’d be learning, and that particular morning I pulled on a thin gray spandex short, and tossed a lightweight zip up over my elastic sports bra. Chocolate almond milk protein shake in hand, I headed in pursuit of the Temple. It was barely 6 a.m., and traffic on the commute was next to none at this weekend hour, so the drive was soft and refreshing. The brown-noser in me, I arrived a little over half hour early, just minutes before Tia turned into the spot beside me. I gathered my necessities to head inside with her to the torture chamber, but halted opening my door when Tia jumped enthusiastically through my passenger side.

“Morning, you. Ready for this?” she sighed with a toothy grin.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure,” I cocked a look of genuine contemplation toward Tia. “But, I think I am. I mean, I’m excited, but I feel like a could hurl up those two raw eggs I smashed down this morning.”

“You’ll probably do that anyway before the day is done, my dear.” Swarms of busy butterflies flapped inside my nervous, roaring belly at her harsh truth.

“God, I saw Colt project some barely digested broccoli right in the face of his partner during an intense sparring session the before his championship match. I’ve hated the color green ever since.”

I reminisced aloud to my friend next to me swiping through her phone. She turned her attention to me at the mention of my missing other half.

“You heard from him lately? I mean, does he try to reach out to you?” she pried, more with concern than displeasure this.

“Nope, haven’t seen him since the conference that night. He doesn’t have any cards coming up though. News usually travels fast around the city when he’s got a fight. Why? I mean, is there something I shoud’ve heard?”

My peculiar, shaky tone didn’t go unnoticed by Tia, I’m sure. Did something happen? What had she heard, and why I hadn’t I heard it too?

“No. Not really, I guess. Cal…uh, he just mentioned that he ran into him at some bar last weekend. They apparently went to high school together, strangely enough.”

Then, she just, stopped. Didn’t make another peep, just peered blankly out the window, watching the parking spots fill up as the city woke up.

“Oh, gotcha. Well, did he say anything else? Like, did Cal talk to him? Was he alone, or…?” I was waiting timidly for my lecture, like a child who’d just said a curse word to their mother.

“He was with his trainer, and a couple other guys, Livvy. And yes, Cal said they talked briefly……” The look in Tia’s eye gave away that she had more to say, but she was stifling it with much reserve.“I don’t know that I should spill the rest though.” She chewed her lip.

“Oh no you don’t, ma’am! There’s no way you can’t finish what you started now. Go on.”

“I just, I don’t want you to get sucked in, Liv. You’ve seemed so clearheaded the last month. Happy, ya’ know? I don’t want you to get all heavy, and emotional again. You’ve worked hard to get things pretty close to normal.” She was fidgeting. The snarky, loud, poignant spitfire I knew, was brutally stammering on her words.

“Wait a minute, Tia. It wasn’t long ago that you told me, if I’m recalling right, that it was okay for me to love him still. You said that. Your words.” My rebuttal instantly sounded thornier than I had intended once I unleashed my tongue, but it was too late to pull it back in now, so I waited for her comeback.

Tia nearly snapped her head right off her shoulders when she threw her daggering eyes at me. “You’re right. And I meant that, but it doesn’t mean I want you running right back to him either, LC. He’s fucked up. That’s not news to you, or anyone else. He may have treated you like a queen in the beginning, but the way he dropped you, Liv? Damn it, you didn’t deserve that! I just don’t want it to happen again, okay?” Her angry, heeding eyes were visibly softening as she trailed on, the anxious hands that were nearly rubbing the hide right off her sculpted arms, had now slowed. “And I’m afraid once you hear all the shit he was talking to Cal about, you’ll peel outta this parking lot on two wheels to find him…” What could he have possibly said to my now trainer. I firmly settled on the fact that Colt must’ve been incredibly tanked for him to go spilling his feelings to some other dude in a bar. It was the only logic behind the scenario. He wasn’t the man always in touch with his feelings, and he certainly wasn’t the man to let outsiders be involved in his feelings. Unless his feeling being that he was seething, fuming and wanted to smash your orbital bone, he’d let you know that emotion one way or another. Rage and darkness were two emotions he was well acquainted with.

“Please, Tia. For the sake of my sanity, just tell me.” I took a much more pleading, and soft approach with her this time, partially because I felt shitty for being so short with her a moment ago, and partially because I knew she’d cave in.

“Cal just asked how he’d been since they hadn’t crossed paths in a while, then Colton dug into him about how he’d lost to Mendez, but he was keeping the ring hot with all the fights he’d had scheduled, the usual fighter talk, I guess. But apparently the small talk led to him asking Colt if he was with anyone, had kids, how his parents were doing, things like that…”

Okay, T, let’s get to the gist here.

“Cal said he went on for about 10 minutes, spilling about a girl he had fucked over, and he hadn’t been right ever since the whole thing went down. Said he scared the only good thing he ever had away, but she was probably better off. Something about him being too twisted, and mad all the time, and had too many issues to ever truly give any woman what she needed.”

Tia hadn’t looked at me until that second. She finished the details of what she knew, and now waited reluctantly to gauge my reaction. I could almost hear the prayers silently passing through her mind, hoping what she said hadn’t just sent me spiraling back into Colton Ritter’s black magic trance. I situated in the seat to face her, and nudged playfully at her left arm, I wanted to tell her that truth about how I felt hearing the news, and I intended to do exactly that. For the most part, at least.

“I mean, yeah, that tugs at my heart strings for sure. I wouldn’t be human if I said it wasn’t a relief to hear that the first man I ever loved, regrets stomping on my open heart then practically spitting on it. Yeah, it’s good to know he has the balls to finally say out loud what I knew was true all along. He did love me, and it scared the coward shit out of him. He let his emotions from the loss cloud his better judgment, and yours truly just happened to be the weakest link in the chain for him to place that anger on.”

I was muffling the cries I so, so desperately wanted to express, but I was finished, bound and determined to never shed another ounce of salty pain over him.

“BUT, he said those things to the wrong person, T. Where’s MY explanation? My closure? Colton Ritter is going to have to do a lot better than professing his apologies in regards to me, to some dude in a bar, babe. There’s a lot of love for him in here for that foolish asshole.” I stroked open palmed over my thrashing, unsteady heart, “but it’s been smothered and stoned with a harsh hatred. Hate that I don’t know will ever go away. And as long as I’m holding any hate for him, no amount of love can overtake that. And I won’t be with a man who I hold all this resentment toward.”

Tia seemed a bit cautious at my words, hasty to believe honestly what I had admitted to her, but her clouding anger seemed to have subsided.  

“Alright, alright. I’m gonna take your word for it. Only because I love you. And, as a matter of fact, I love you soooo much, that I’m ready to go inside and rip you to shreds in the ring with Willow. Hope you are your Wheaties this morning, Elliott. I’ve got 911 on speed dial for ya’.”

Tia exited the car as quickly, heading inside without so much as a glance back to me. I sat in the silence alone for a moment with the white noise. A smile had snuck like a thief in the night across my quivering lips. I’d never say it to Tia, or Sara, or anyone for that matter, but hearing then and there, receiving the needed conformation that Colton was still with me, heartstrings still intertwined with mine in a steadfast Fisherman’s Knot, made my body temperature rise with hope of what may come. But, the itching question of forgiveness was one that just wouldn’t go away.

TAGS: @torialeysha @eap1935

[iamrheaspeaks]

Write What You Want:

dancing with a stranger

The audacity of the one you gave your all to give away what’s yours the second he got some rank, to walk out on you after another argument had set you a blaze. At first. But now all you wanted was the thing he never quite cured your longing for. The realization hitting and causing you to sit up from your sunken position of your loveseat. Sitting blankly in front of a television you never turned on but stared at just the same, you found your way into the shower. Deciding to head out to temporarily cure the lonely.

The audacity of the one that was changing him to give away what was his the second she didn’t get her way in the entire time they’ve been together. The situation being work related making this completely out of his control. Her absence isn’t what bothers him, he’s glad she’s gone. It’s the fact that for the first time in what seems like forever he’s uncomfortable in the loneliness. “I don’t want to be alone tonight”. Sitting blankly in front of a television he never turned on but stared at just the same, he found his way into the shower.

You wore a simple black cocktail dress with a capped sleeve and flowing skirt that came up just above the knee. Perfect in every way. You planned on wearing it to your anniversary dinner in two weeks but “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans”. You made your way to the bar and took a seat. Quickly crossing your ankles, resting them on a peg of the barstool snapping a picture to post once you had your drink. Pushing the button on your phone darkening the screen before addressing the bartender who approached.

Tyche is a new lounge/bar that opened up recently. Named for the Greek Goddess of luck and chance, the interior definitely fit the bill so to speak. Everything was very era authentic with high ceilings and columns, solid wood furnishings and open seating. Put off on love you decide against getting the suggested ‘Aphrodite’s Potion’ which was basically their version of a ‘Shirley Temple’ but with gin not vodka. So you found yourself sipping the Tyche spin on the ‘Purple Haze’ which they titled ‘Realm of Hades’. You took a sip and hummed as it flushed through you before slipping the bartender a tip and sliding from the bar to a lounge chair near the dance floor. Retrieving your phone again and posting the earlier picture of your black lace wrapped heels on Snapchat with the caption “I wasn’t even going out tonight 🤷🏾‍♀️”

He decided on wearing black dress pants with the accompanying button down shirt. Swapping out the red cuff links that came with it to his coveted gold ones. He bought it on the way home, planning on treating her out to make up for missing her class reunion. He wasn’t going to return it just because she ruined everything by cheating when there.

The open concept made it hard for him to do what came naturally. Not able to find a dark and brooding corner to hide in he opted for getting a drink, presenting the opportunity to scope out the next best seating option. The drinks were pretty standard with a few having tweaks here and there. Two shots of ‘Poseidon’s Tears’ otherwise known as the ‘Black and Blue’ in before ordering his signature Hennessy on ice. His seat scoping had his eyes fixed on the choices near the center of the room. The purple light beam almost spotlighting an empty lounge chair near the dance floor. He gave the bartender his name as he handed over his card to open a tab, before pointing out the seat and walking away. Once in his seat pulling out his phone briefly recording the dance floor with the view of his drink in his lap framing the bottom of the screen. Posting the Instagram story with the added caption “Look what you made me do”.

The atmosphere of the dance floor changed with the slowing of the beat. As it called for a different type of dancing the crowd shifted as more pairs appeared. Looking up from putting his phone away he spotted you drinking in his energy.

Her eyes cut to the side for a second before refocusing on his face again. This time with raised arm, drink in hand just prior to nodding in his direction and taking a sip from her glass. The drinks dark purple hue swirling with specks of silver dust the only pop of color on her person.

Glancing upon the smooth exposed brown skin of your thighs just as you finished your drink deciding to get out of your comfort zone. Holding each other’s attention through passing glances as you strode your way around the floor until you were standing in front of him. You watched as he took in your frame with a slight curve to the corners of his lips shaking his head. Leaning back in the chair scanning you from your covered feet to your face. His eyes finally snapping up meeting yours “You don’t waste time”. You responded you were trying something new as you simultaneously crossed your left leg and arm over the other respectively. Settling with a raised eyebrow in your still standing position.

She giggled shortly at his reaction. Dimples and smile on full display as he repeated her request but accepted. As they swayed to the beat with her bottom curved to meet his front. His hands rested at her waist gripping ever so slightly every time she pushed back with the beat. With her hands placed on his right thigh and atop his left hand at her waist allowing her to feel the unique rise and fall of the skin beneath his shirt.

@cancerianprincess @savagesensitivity @another-imaginesblog @loosewindmill @bidibidibombaclaat @brownmuse @muse-of-mbaku

Dated: 02.20.2019

[sharengayonline]

LG’s leather-wrapped G4 is no dominatrix, but it does dominate

Sharengay Trang Tin Tức Độc Đáo VIDEO LG’s leather-wrapped G4 is no dominatrix, but it does dominate

“The LG G4 is the best smartphone of 2015, and it’s camera is so good that it often outperforms the iPhone 6 Plus.”

Pros

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Bright screen with gorgeous contrast

Excellent camera performance

Shooting in RAW and Manual mode

Removable battery and MicroSD card slot

Leather battery cover rocks

Cons

Still made of plastic

UX features are a mixed bag

Battery life is average

Speaker quality is weak

“Life’s Good” is LG’s tagline, but life has been tough for the company’s mobile division. Its archrival Samsung has captured a big chunk of the phone market, and LG has spent several years chipping away at Samsung’s mighty presence.

The Nexus 5 and G3 proved that LG could play with the big boys, and the G4 expands on that notion, improving features that optimize the user experience in tangible ways. With an impressive camera and more user-friendly software, the G4 makes a strong case for being the dark horse smartphone that could make waves and surprise many in 2015.

Do the right thing, choose the leather model

To own an LG G4 with a plastic rear cover should be a crime. It’s like ordering a new BMW with a cloth interior: a decision that’ll save you cash on the day, but one you’ll question every time you get in the car later on. Unlike Samsung and more like Vertu, LG has used real leather on the G4, and it feels fantastic; it’s warm, soft, tactile, and classy. It’s a world apart from the cold indifference you get from a plastic-backed G4.

It’s not annoying either. There are never any fingerprints to clean off, it doesn’t cling to the inside of your jeans pocket, and is apparently very hard wearing. For the past few weeks, the G4 has gone case-less in my pocket and bag, and the leather (and screen, actually) have suffered no ill-effects. The leather will undoubtedly bed in with age, but there’s no evidence of that just yet, and it hasn’t lost its sheen.

LG has got the colors right too. The brown leather complements the matt-silver rear controls beautifully, and the phone goes very well with the darker brown leather used for the strap on the gold Watch Urbane. Using the two together looks great, and is one of the first times I’ve ever matched two pieces of tech with each other based on color and material choice.

Showstopping camera

To give the G4 a thorough workout, it recently accompanied me on a long weekend away, where its photographic ability, battery, and general use could be explored in a variety of situations. There’s little to say about how it handles email, web surfing, and calls — because it does them effortlessly. The Snapdragon 808 processor is more than capable enough to keep up, although under heavy usage — I’ve used it for VR in a headset, for example — it can still make the device pretty toasty, but never to the point where it’s uncomfortable or a danger.

The camera is stunning, and did everything I could have wanted. There is absolutely no reason to carry another camera, or even choose a different phone, if photos are your priority. Day or night, inside or out, and in challenging environments it performed flawlessly. There were moments I wanted to capture during my weekend, and I’m pleased the G4 was my camera of choice to do so.

A small concert venue with bright stage lights looking out onto a dark auditorium isn’t the ideal place to take good pictures. Even without switching to manual mode, the G4’s auto settings and the laser autofocus made cool shots possible. Several are shared here, and come straight off the phone. With a little editing, each looks superb.

It’s the same with pictures taken around the city at night, and of sunsets. These were the times where it was possible to play with manual mode, which is hampered only by the fixed f/1.8 aperture — how great would it be to adjust this number? Using the G4 to shoot video did reveal the spot autofocus can be overzealous if left unattended, and results improved when the setting was turned off.

Ignore the slightly uninteresting design

The battery performance has remained steady at a little over a day, but the VR video really did suck the power, and could easily eat 20 to 30 percent in 20 minutes. I’ve also become used to using LG’s Smart Bulletin board, which slides in from the left of the main home screen and shows calendar entries, LG Health, and a music widget. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s attractively presented and easy to access.

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If there’s a problem with the G4, it’s that it doesn’t visually standout, despite the leather back and slight curve to the body. It’s very similar to the G3, and can’t quite match the Samsung Galaxy S6 in terms of cool design. Ignore this, choose a leather clad version, and revel in owning a fantastic flagship smartphone with a camera that takes showstopping shots with ease.

Original review continues below:

Curvy, not flexy

LG likes curves. Every phone it launches seems to stick to that design philosophy, and the G4 essentially maintains its predecessor’s overall look. The contoured back is the same angle, and while slightly taller and wider, the G4 doesn’t deviate from the angular top and bottom. The corners are less rounded and the edges slope outward just enough to give it a slightly inverted look upon closer inspection.

Unlike Samsung, LG hasn’t abandoned plastic, nor a removable back. The back is made of a metal and plastic compound mixture, except it’s clear this cocktail is skewed toward the latter. A patterned design is etched into the metallic and ceramic backs to add some flair. Since gold is in vogue these days, LG got into the act and dipped into that as well, along with white and dark gray versions.

The removable back does serve more than a functional purpose for what lies underneath (battery, SIM, and MicroSD), since it’s also used as a way to personalize and augment the phone’s appearance. The full grain leather battery covers are a stylish turn for LG — in a good way. At its launch event in New York, LG noted that it used the same vegetable tanning process for its leather that luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Coach are known to use. Using full grain, rather than genuine leather, also makes the G4 is more durable, so fading and age give it character. Brown, black, beige, and sky blue versions are already confirmed, along with the yellow and crimson red versions shown in New York.

Having all these back cover options means they can be swapped, so it would be no problem to buy a white G4 and tack on a blue leather battery cover later. My review unit didn’t include one, but after some hands-on time with a few of them in New York, I was impressed. The leather is smooth and silky soft. Every detail of the leather backing, right down to the stitching, is well executed. I would likely switch to the black one when given the chance, personally.

On the front is a 5.5-inch quad HD IPS Quantum Display with the same resolution of 2,560 × 1,440 pixels and pixel density of 538ppi as last year. LG gave the front a slight curve it calls Slim Arc, which is noticeable when looking at the G4 directly from its side. The slight curve makes the phone more comfortable to hold in your hand. The screen is also brighter, both by default and at full brightness, a necessary design tweak to rectify the duller output of the G3. LG says it also has 20 percent greater color reproduction and 50 percent better contrast. In our comparisons to the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 Plus, LG’s screen definitely held its own or outperformed the competition.

Under the hood

Playing it safe, LG opted not to go with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor, which has been dogged by concerns over excessive heating. Instead, it’s the Snapdragon 808 chip that’s inside — which is still a powerful hexa-core processor, though LG hasn’t really explained why it made the change other than to say the chipset is “optimized” for the G4’s features.

There’s no doubt the G4 is the best handset LG has made to date.

There is 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage to help the cause, along with a 16-megapixel rear camera with improved optical image stabilization (OIS) and a color spectrum sensor – more on that later. Interestingly, LG chose to go with a Micro SIM card slot, rather than use the Nano SIM the iPhone and other Android phone manufacturers are starting to embrace. There is also a MicroSD slot (not present on competing phones) that is technically capable of supporting up to 2TB cards.

I don’t know if the Snapdragon 810 processor would’ve made a notable difference in the G4’s performance, but I had little to complain about with the 808. The phone is brisk, speedy, and dependable. I had no problem doing anything I would normally do on a smartphone. Streaming video was fine, downloading and uploading content was fine, and switching between multiple apps was fine. The phone did get a little hot, but never to a point where I had to question why.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S6, which uses an octa-core processor, I didn’t notice a drop in overall performance. Both were equally fluid in the same respects, so LG may, in fact, be on the right track in suggesting users wouldn’t notice anything unusual. It’s also easier to compare the two because neither relies on gimmicky features, like they did in the past. Hardline smartphone users may notice intricacies and quirks that might set the G4 back, but I suspect the average person will carry on without missing a beat.

If I did have something to point a finger at, it would be the speaker, found on the rear. It’s easily among the weakest links of the phone’s design, and while the G4’s curved back helps the sound escape when laid flat, fidelity is not in the same league as the HTC One M9.

Software

The DT Accessory Pack

Up your game and the get the most out of your gear with the following extras, hand-picked by our editors:

Creative Sound Blaster Roar: Portable Speaker ($130)

SanDisk – Ultra 128GB microSDXC ($90)

LG G4 Spigen Case ($21)

LG has taken a restrained approach to its software this year, like Samsung. Running on Google’s Android Lollipop 5.1 operating system out of the box, LG’s UX 4.0 user interface features are blended in so everything remains simple. The idea was to include features that make life with the phone easier. Some of LG’s better ideas include faster scrolling through the Gallery app and Event Pocket, an app that can unify calendars from various apps into one place. Those who live and die by their calendars may find this a convenient way to aggregate Facebook event invites with details that can be dragged and dropped from other messaging apps.

Smart Notice is supposed to be more personalized and contextual, offering more than simple weather and traffic updates. By learning my habits, it would ostensibly know that I don’t have to commute to work (I work from home), and prioritize weather and phone usage alerts instead. Perhaps it needed more time to get to know me, because I found it to be too predictable every day, regardless of where I was or what I was doing.

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The Quick Help widget is found as a question mark next to Smart Notice. It’s designed to be a mini search engine for the G4 itself, but for whatever reason, none of the queries I tried yielded results. Simple things like “calendar” and “color spectrum” drew blanks.

The true value in LG’s software experience is the bare minimum of alterations it offers. Icons and menus clearly received the Lollipop treatment with flatter designs and vibrant colors. The Settings menus are clear, concise, and easy to navigate. There’s a level of simplicity here that’s easy to appreciate, even if it’s not always patently obvious. I liked the general look and feel of the software more than any features LG added because its apps and features didn’t impact on my daily usage like they were intended to, and tended to only work with other LG apps. Not everyone wants to use LG Health or LG’s Music app. Some of us use Moves and Spotify. In any case, if you ignore some of LG’s apps, much like you’ve ignored some of Samsung or Apple’s apps, you’ll be better off.

This might be the best smartphone camera

The G4’s camera is unquestionably its crowning feature — And it should be, considering that it sports a 16-megapixel sensor, an f/1.8 aperture lens with OIS 2.0 built-in, and a color spectrum sensor. The latter feature is unique to smartphones, and its purpose is to measure the ambient lighting conditions from both the source of the light and where objects are reflected in the scene. This is on top of the sensor’s ability to capture more realistic color tones.

The G4 has one of the best smartphone cameras on the planet.

These features, coupled with the excellent controls in Manual mode, give the G4 one of the best smartphone cameras on the planet. Focusing is very quick, particularly when conditions are bright enough for the lens and sensor to lock on. The Depth of field capturing is impressive, despite the lack of any real optical zoom. And yes, color composition is superb, producing not only vibrant images, but consistently good ones that maintain their tonality after being transferred or shared.

Low-light shooting is perhaps the best available on any smartphone at this point and time, but there is a catch. LG keeps things basic with three distinct shooting modes: Simple, Auto, and Manual. The first two are very similar, except that Auto shows the heads-up display options. White balance, ISO, and shutter are automatically chosen, like any other smartphone camera does. LG claims that users can still expect better results because the color spectrum sensor is still doing its thing. This is generally true, but to fully appreciate what the camera and sensor are capable of, it’s best to learn the Manual mode.

Here, I could toggle the white balance, ISO, shutter, metering, and choose between auto-exposure lock (AE-L) or manual focus (MF). Adjusting any of the settings shows what the photo would look like in real time. Users who might be intimidated by going manual may find that one factor to be the most inviting. Even someone with years of photography experience like myself very much appreciated seeing that.

The photos the G4 captured were impressive across the board. Being able to shoot in RAW was even better, given how much extra detail the sensor was able to take in.

Video capture in 4K or 1080p is fine. You can’t really tinker with image settings before shooting a clip though. I tried to set up a low-light video clip by toggling the different metrics, but once I tap record, everything went automatic, so it was all for naught.

Battery life

Samsung got some flak for not going with a removable battery, whereas LG may earn praise for sticking with it. That’s subjective, of course, since replacing a battery isn’t something every user feels the need to do. The 3,000mAh battery inside performs well enough, but I wouldn’t consider it to exceptionally good. Basic usage saps little, but once more intensive tasks come into play, the juice starts dripping noticeably.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Not to say that the G4 guzzles battery life because it’s not that bad, it’s only that intensive tasks seem to take more out of the processor than LG lets on. For example, streaming video remotely via Plex chomped on my battery life by a noticeable margin. Even when I initially set up the phone, I lost 20 percent in less than two hours because of everything that had to be downloaded and installed. Overall performance is fine, but for very intense processes, the G4 fares no better than its competitors.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt the G4 is the best handset LG has made to date, not just because of the components, but also because of the thoughtfulness that went into it. Little things, like a brighter screen with better contrast, prettier interface, and useful software tweaks, stood out because I interacted with them every day. For me, the curved back and edges made it easier to pick up the phone off the table, as well, and hold it. The Knock On double tap to wake from sleep has always been a useful feature. Double pressing the volume down button to instantly launch the camera was great for snapping selfies.

I can forgive the plastic design because real leather is an alternative. If not for that, I would dock LG for taking the easy way out. Using real leather in a way that doesn’t cut corners sends the right message, much like the other moves made with the G4. Whether or not consumers will take it to heart and splurge for the G4 is going to be interesting to watch, but we haven’t been this impressed with a smartphone, and it’s camera, for some time.

Highs

Bright screen with gorgeous contrast

Excellent camera performance

Shooting in RAW and Manual mode

Removable battery and MicroSD card slot

Leather battery cover rocks

Lows

Still made of plastic

UX features are a mixed bag

Battery life is average

Speaker quality is weak

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Nguồn: https://sharengay.online Danh mục: Công Nghệ

LG’s leather-wrapped G4 is no dominatrix, but it does dominate

from Sharengay Trang Tin Tức Độc Đáo VIDEO https://bit.ly/3jFLzlf via IFTTT

[littlebassoonist]

lacewoodshipping - oh the places we’ll go

Kanto is not my favorite region. In fact, it might be my least favorite. However, it is the region I am currently playing through and making the most headcanons for, so let’s pretend I like Kanto and get on with it.

i. Lumiose

Kanto is Serena’s home—Viridian, to be exact—but she has always felt a bit out of place. She lives in a quaint home with her parents in Viridian, takes classes at Kanto’s most renowned trainers’ school, and idolizes Professor Samuel Oak. But she never gets around to having a pokémon of her own, despite her dreams of hiking to Pallet Town and requesting a Charmander. She is too caught up in school and doesn’t feel ready, and then she’s sixteen, and then they’re moving across the globe to Kalos.

Kalos feels more like home than anywhere else, as it very well should; Serena helps dismantle Team Flare, befriends legendary pokémon, and becomes the region’s Champion. It doesn’t hurt that the friends she makes in Kalos mean more than her classmates back in Kanto ever did. Then there’s the matter of her heart irrevocably belonging to a certain Kalosian professor…

It takes many years before she goes back to Kanto. In the meantime, steps down as Champion to let Diantha take the job, she gets a degree, works with the brightest minds in the field of pokémon evolution, dates and loves and marries the aforementioned Kalosian professor. Three years into their marriage, when it has been nearly a decade since Serena has seen her hometown, the pair plan a trip to visit Samuel Oak. They need to visit Pallet to give Oak live examples of mega evolution when Augustine realizes that he has never visited his Serena’s home region.

“Show me around Kanto, Serena,” he says while they discuss airline tickets and hotels. “We have not taken much of a vacation since our honeymoon.”

Serena frowns. “Kanto is a bit bland once you’ve seen Kalos.”

“It cannot possibly be bland with you in it.” She lightly smacks his arm for being so cheesy. “What? I only speak the truth.”

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

 ii. Pallet

Augustine and Serena leave the Pallet Research Facility hand in hand. She’s a bit exhausted from repeatedly demonstrating her mega evolutions, but she knows Oak needs as much data as he can get. She wishes for a moment that she could show this to her younger self, the girl who thought each word from Oak’s mouth was gospel and that she could grow up to be, at best, one of his aides. She wonders briefly if she should thank Oak for creating the pokédex, as it was one of the founding pillars of her relationship with Augustine.

“The only other place of interest in Pallet is right down the road,” Serena says. “You can tell because there’s usually at least one paparazzi, plus people taking selfies in front of it.”

“It looks like a house to me,” Augustine replies, but she knows from his voice that he’s just trying to get her to talk more about her homeland.

“Red and Blue, pretty much the most famous trainers to come from Kanto ever, were neighbors growing up. Blue still runs the Viridian gym, and Red tends to make himself scarce, but fans still hope they might catch them coming or going. It’s silly, but it was also the sort of thing you dared your girlfriends to do. Go to Pallet, take a selfie, bonus points if it included Red or Blue or Daisy or even the Professor.”

Augustine puts on a face of mock shock. “You, mon ange, were a fangirl? I don’t believe it.”

“I was like fifteen! Give me a break.”

“Well, it seems to me that we have no choice but to do as the Kantans do and take a selfie of our own.” He leads her closer to the pair of houses.

“No, no, no, no, no—”

“What could possibly be the matter, Serena?” He stops dragging her down the block so that they are a comfortable distance from Red’s house. “It’s just a picture.”

“I never told anyone this, but…” Serena looks around shiftily, as though Red or Blue might burst from the shrubbery.

“What is it, mon amour?”

“IwantedtobelikeChampionRed,” she gushes. “It wasn’t even a crush, well, it was, but it wasn’t. I wanted to be him and be so in tune with my pokémon that I would barely need to speak in battle. And I loved that he had the respect of Professor Oak.” She can’t quite pinpoint why she is so ashamed of her childhood idol except that it all seems so foolish now. How could she have been so silly?

Augustine smiles and brings his wife into an embrace. “You are everything Champion Red is and more. You are a Champion and an expert trainer and have the respect  of everyone who meets you. In fact, Oak does not just respect. He needs you. That is why we are here, non?”

She thanks him with a kiss. “As usual, you’re right.”

“Come.” He once again pulls her towards the famous houses. “We will take a picture. Red could only wish that he could be so lucky as to have a picture taken with Champion Serena, hero of Kalos.”

The selfie they take soon becomes the lock screen on her phone and receives droves of likes on social media. Augustine insists that if you zoom in on one of the windows, you can see a red cap.

 iii. Viridian

“Here it is, my hometown,” Serena says, gesturing to the heart of Viridian City. They are walking from their hotel to the Trainers’ School. Upon learning that one of their own alumnae is returning to Kanto, the schoolmaster requests that Serena and her husband give a guest lecture on a subject of their choice. Serena thinks to herself that they make quite a dashing pair in their professional garb and makes a mental note to remind Augustine later of just how good he looks with a lab coat on (or with it thrown on the floor, as the case may be).

“The rhyhorn races are to the west, non?” He looks so wide-eyed and awestruck, taking in the city: the smell and colors of the floral arrangements that hang from every lamppost, the block that has no fewer than seven different restaurants that specialize in pidgey meat, the graffiti mural of a massive tentacruel, the ever-present silhouette of Blue’s gym in the distance.

“Yeah. Between here and Victory Road. They won’t be racing today, since it’s Tuesday, but we could watch some jockeys practice.”

“I would like that very much,” he says.

When they are just a block from the school, nostalgia washes over her. She remembers the coffee shop across the street and how it had pastries shaped like stylized fearow, the nearby meowth shelter they went to for service hours, the smell of the pavement after the rain. Then all that she knows is this bittersweet longing for the past and the urgent need to share it with someone she loves, and she finally gets it, why he wants her to take him around Kanto the way he has shown her Kalos because for once in their relationship, they are in her world and not his.

“Or maybe we can explore the city,” Serena suggests. “I know where to get good food, and I have a couple of places I’d like to visit. There’s always more rhyhorn races.”

Augustine sees the look in her eyes, the look that means she’s making plans and has some specifics in mind. He wants to be surprised.

“I know we said you’d take the lead on the lecture,” she says, “but I think I want to open. Before we blow their minds with the science of a trainer’s first mega evolution, I want to address the students not as a teacher, but as an alumna.”

“What about?”

“Beginnings.”

 iv. Pewter

Serena can’t remember much about her long-ago field trips to the Pewter Museum of Science, but she is fairly certain that it was about fifty times more boring a decade ago. She and Augustine can easily spend the whole day just on one floor. There are the parts she remembers—the life-sized model of an aerodactyl skeleton, the fossils, the aquarium of newly-hatched omanyte—and there are things she never would have dreamed of seeing.

Cinnabar Labs has partnered with Pewter to explain the science behind extracting DNA from fossils. There’s a touch tank with some adolescent kabuto like the ones at Ambrette, except this one has dinosaurs and not just huntail and gorebyss. An entire wing is made up to look like the caverns and craters of Mount Moon to show how paleontologists work, complete with a mock dig for children. There’s a new section featuring international fossil finds, and the information on aurorus actually teaches her some new things. To Serena’s surprise, many of these efforts are helmed by none other than Brock.

That doesn’t even address the second floor, the extraterrestrial exhibits on the cleffa family and deoxys and moon stone evolutions and staryu and lunatone and—

Serena and Augustine quickly agree that they would do best to split up and look at different exhibits. Over dinner, she hangs on his every word while he animatedly describes the latest research into moon stones. When they order dessert, it’s her turn to explain the fossil resurrection process. In their hotel bed that night, they’re still swapping facts.

“They’ve found that staryu naturally gather in the shapes of known constellations,” he says into her hair, lazily tracing Orion on her naked back.

“Oh?”

“The staryu might be mirroring sky. They’re still looking into region and time of year, which constellations are visible when…” He trails off, distracted by the gentle kisses she leaves on his bare chest. They might be in the shape of Aquila.

“That’s still pretty amazing,” she says between kisses.

Much later, when they have kissed entire star charts out of each other’s freckles and scars, they promise to never ever stop learning.

 v. Cerulean

They ride his charizard over Mount Moon National Park and appreciate the view from above. Craters seem to burst from ground, and Serena is fairly sure she spots a ring of grass in a perfect circle, a clefairy ring worn down by repeated use. And when they reach Cerluean, the change from rugged nature to amphibious cityscape surprises them both. The river wraps around the city with serpentine grace, almost coming full circle before heading east to the Cape. Canals run in even lines, a safeguard for flooding and a visual spectacle with goldeen and magikarp darting through like strokes of white and orange paint.

But Serena isn’t focused on Cerulean, per say. She’s more interested in them visiting the nearby Cerulean Cape State Park. In typical Kantan media, every happily ever after, every sappy romance includes a trip to Cerulean Cape. Boy meets girl, girl rejects boy, boy and girl fall desperately in love, boy takes girl to the Cape and professes his undying passion. It’s not without reason; the Cape is surrounded by the river to the south and the sea to the east. To the north, a stunning waterfall pours from a sharp cliff, making a small bay. Serena likens it to Lumiose Tower in that it’s a universal icon for Grand Romantic Gestures.

Grand Romantic Gestures are his area of expertise, not hers.

It shouldn’t surprise her, then, when they hike to the edge of the Cape at night. The moon leeches the world of all color, leaving them in a black-and-white dreamscape with the steady waves beating against the shore and the rushing waterfall in the background. It’s too beautiful to be real. This moment deserves to be on film and at the end of a period romance, not in her life—and Augustine is down on one knee.

“Serena, you are the most beautiful woman I know. You are brilliant in more ways than I can say. You bring joy and life and compassion wherever you are, and I do not want to ever be away from that. I want to learn with you for the rest of my life.

“Ma belle, ma vivaldaim, mon amour… veux-tu m’éspouser?”

She has heard that phrase before, and each time it manages to send her pulse racing. Everything is kissing and “oui, oui, oui” and experiencing the Cape with no company besides the waterfall.

It’s not the first time he has done this, and she suspects and hopes and knows it won’t be the last.

(yes, i have plans to continue, but i’m tired)

[shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl]

Prompt: Naegi and Nanami swapping hoodies. That’s all I have to say. Go nuts. @rpbattleman

A/N Well they do have the same height and I do have an unhealthy obsession with hoodies so why not? In hindsight, I don’t know what happened. The characters wrote this themselves.

Hoodie Swap - Naegi and Nanami ft the rest of the cast

Wearing a hoodie was so much like second skin that they didn’t notice that they were wearing different hoodies.

Naegi wouldn’t even have noticed it and he probably would have gone home wearing it if his classmates hadn’t helpfully pointed it out.

“Halt! Naegi, how many times must we go over this? A hoodie is not welcome in a school environment. You are in clear violation of the school’s dress code.” Ishimaru was quick to reprimand him as soon as he entered the classroom.

“Huh? But isn’t it okay when it’s functional? It’s been getting colder lately so I thought the extra layer could help.” Naegi explained his reasons.

“I must admit that it is actually allowed to wear jackets provided that they aren’t needlessly distracting.” Ishimaru corrected himself and then pointed in accusation. “However! Yours is unconventionally designed! And quite honestly, I am distracted enough!”

“What do you mean? I thought it was plain enough.” Naegi replied with a lost expression.

“Can’t say I agree with your tastes for plain.” Mondo said from behind him as he reached out and pulled Naegi’s hood over him. “Cat ears eh? And here I figured you were more of a dog person.”

“What are you talking about?” Naegi asked, now more confused than before.

“I think it’s cute.” Maizono shared with a smile. “It’s unexpected but that’s what makes him look even cuter!”

“Master Naegi, if you would kindly listen to my request…” Yamada popped up beside him and positioned Naegi’s hand so that it was closed like a fist and raised beside his face. “Like nya.” He instructed as he demonstrated the action.

“Nya?” Naegi pawed uncertain as he tilted his head in confusion which only added to his catlike performance.

“Hold that pose!” Enoshima expertly slid in front of him and raised her phone to take pictures. “Okay now do that again with voice so I can get this on video.” She smiled widely behind her phone as she laughed. “Upupu… This is priceless! But I am willing to negotiate a price to any potential buyer.”

“Wait, is there something weird on my hoodie?” Naegi asked again as he slowly began to piece what was off with his garment.

“Well it’s not like there’s something wrong with the hoodie itself.” Fujisaki timidly answered. “It’s just that it’s… different from what you would usually wear.”

“Or is this something like your secret hobby?” Kuwata interjected with a smirk. “Because if it was, it’s cool, man. We won’t judge.”

Okay now that last remark convinced him that he was definitely wearing the wrong hoodie. He filtered his memories for any embarrassing hoodies he owned that he may have worn by accident. None seemed to strike him that would stand out. Last time he checked, he didn’t own any with cat ears unless… His eyes immediately went towards his sleeves and upon the familiar color, he confirmed just whose hoodie he was wearing.

“I’m wearing someone else’s hoodie…” He mumbled his revelation.

“Oh my, you’re quite the bold type to wear your girlfriend’s clothes.” Celes commented with a giggle. “Although it’s quite unconventional considering it’s usually the girl who wears the guy’s clothes afterwards.”

“W-What?!” Naegi could only spluter at her insinuation. “It’s n-not like that! In the first place, she isn’t even my girlfriend!”

“Back the fuck up. How did our resident herbivore land a girl before I could? I mean, I’m way cooler than him!” Kuwata took offense to the new information.

“With that kind of attitude, it’s no wonder.” Maizono commented offhandedly.

“So this is the source of today’s commotion? How absolutely trivial. I suppose this is the gossip that you commoner enjoy.” Togami scoffed from his seat. “Very well, consider this an honor. I shall allow you to indulge us in such to pass time.”

“Oh! Oh! I definitely want to hear this one!” Asahina all but squealed in excitement. “Yeah, tell us more about your girlfriend!”

Naegi blushed at that comment. “She’s not my girlfriend!” He denied.

“Hmm? Is that so?” Kirigiri intervened and although her face was the picture of calmness, there was a certain sharpness inflected in her tone, an underlying threat. “The evidence suggests others. Please, explain that by all means.”

“I didn’t mean to. It was an accident, okay!” He blurted out words without much thought in his panic.

“Naegi, that’s not nice to say about your girlfriend.” Asahina frowned in disappointment.

“Whether intentional or not, one must be prepare to take full responsibility of one’s actions.” Sakura reprimanded him as well.

“No, that’s not it. You guys are misunderstanding.” Naegi raised his hands in an appeal. “I was hanging out with a friend who happens to be a girl but isn’t my girlfriend and then I may have accidentally picked up her hoodie instead of mine.”

“Then w-why are you so d-defensive about it, huh?” Fukawa accused with a disgusted expression. “Just because you have a g-girlfriend now you’re g-gloating her already.”

“So you have a girlfriend now…” Ikusaba quietly sulked at one corner.

“Did you not hear what I just said? This is all just a misunderstanding.” He insisted, practically pleaded at this point.

“Chill, Naegichi. I believe in you!” Hagakure gave him a thumbs up in support.

“Hagakure…” Naegi smiled gratefully towards his friend. “At least someone’s on my side.”

“There’s no way you could get a girlfriend so aliens must have abducted your hoodie and replaced it with theirs which is filled with all sorts of probing stuff.” Hagakure added from way at the back of the room.

Whatever hope he had been filled with was instantly shattered.

“Ah, I should’ve known. It’s Hagakure. Why did I even expect?” Naegi sighed as he sank his face into his hands, defeated.

And as they hounded him with questions and camera phones, he took comfort at the fact that at least the hoodie was comfortable and warm just like how it reminded him of its original owner.

Nanami wouldn’t even have noticed it and she probably would have gone home wearing it if her classmates hadn’t helpfully pointed it out.

“Hi, Nanami. Welcome back.” Koizumi greeted her as soon as she returned. “Hey, that’s a new color on you.”

“Yeah, what’s with the outfit change?” Saionji asked offhandedly but quickly narrowed her eyes as she felt something unusual about Nanami’s choice in clothing. “Hey, is it just me or is that color disgustingly familiar?”

“Huh, what are the odds of that?” Komaeda said from behind as he just entered the classroom too. He smiled at her. “Now it looks like we’re matching.”

Nanami stare at Komaeda’s hoodie and then back to her own sleeves which she was slightly surprised to find them as dark green like his. She could already piece what had happened given the owner’s luck but it hardly fazed her. She could always ask for her hoodie after classes or tomorrow so she had nothing to worry about. Oddly enough, it fitted her quite well so she had no qualms wearing this in the meantime.

It was strange to wear green instead of her usual brown or blue one but it was just a bit funny since it complimented Komaeda’s own hoodie. “I guess we do match.” She smiled lightly.

There was a peaceful lull in the room… until all hell broke loose.

“Wait! Wait! Waaaaait!” Souda yelled and ran towards them with tears in his eyes. “You guys are wearing matching clothes like what couples do? Someone please tell me this is a joke before I faint.”

“What dark sorcery is this indeed? To have enraptured a divine being without alerting my zodiac generals, truly only a fiend could accomplish such a feat!” Tanaka bellowed with his usual dramatic flair. “Tell me, mortal of unfortunate chance, what are your nefarious intentions with the holy one?”

“In my country, couples wear matching crowns. I now see that this is Japan’s equivalent.” Sonia said with practically sparkling eyes. “I will take note of hoodies when I return to inform my people of such cultural highlights.”

“Let’s not jump into conclusions just yet. We haven’t even asked them if they’re actually an item now.” Koizumi did her best at crowd control and when she was closer to the two, she whispered lowly, “Please feel free to deny all accusations.”

“Yeah! As if Big sis Nanami would ever date trash like Komaeda!” Saionji vehemently shouted “I mean just look at him! She could definitely do better than this hope fanatic!”

“Well you’re not wrong. I am just lowly trash undeserving of love especially from someone with hope as bright as Nanami’s.” Komaeda agreed with a cheerful laugh.

Nanami huffed at his self-deprecating comments. “Komaeda, you should value yourself more. Whether or not I’d want to date you shouldn’t be a standard for your worth.” She then smiled softly at him. “Remember, you are always worth it.”

“What’s with that moment? Surely it was charged with love!” Hanamura jumped at them. “Now tell me, what sorts of love have you two already engaged in? The more physical, the more details I’ll be needing.”

“I suggest you refrain your tongue from spouting any more.” Pekoyama intervened with her bamboo sword right at his throat. “It would do you good to hold back a bit more and respect their privacy on the matter.”

“Oi! Don’t think you can get away with harrassing them. It’s their choice if they want to share anything. So don’t go doing anything that I would need to silence you for, got it?” Kuzuryuu threatened Hanamura but it was all in good will. He then turned to the two still in the hot seat. “You two better start confessing if anything’s going on or else the rest of these guys are going to go off with crazy ideas.”

“An unexpected ship has sailed! Ibuki calls dibs on being the captain! And as captain, I will see to it that this ship reaches the shores!” Ibuki hollered as she strummed on her guitar. “Alright! Let’s sail this ship away!”

“A rarepair, huh. Well it’s not unheard of.” Ryotwo thoughtfully commented. “It’s just a bit suspicious that there weren’t enough flags triggered and there’s suddenly a development.”

“Ack! A critical hit!” Ibuki dramatically clutched her hand over her chest as if she was shot right there. “Not even an hour in and someone’s already attacking my ship! The sea is merciless as ever!”

“Attack? So there’s a fight, yeah?” Owari’s ears perked at the mere mention of the word. “Let me at them! I’ll be sure to fight and win for ya.”

“If it’s a fight you want then I won’t hold back either.” Nidai crackled with energy. “Looks like I have no choice but to do damage control again.”

For the two people who were the center of attention, they took it more calmly than most would.

“Ahaha, everyone’s full of hope like always. Truly, what a wonderful class this is.” Komaeda’s grin reached his ears.

“I’m glad that everyone’s having fun over this.” Nanami seconded with a smile of her own.

And as they hounded her with questions and camera phones, she took comfort at the fact that at least the hoodie was comfortable and warm just like how it reminded her of its original owner.

[babesboatsandbivalves]

Boat Life Lessons: Vol 1

First of all, I need to disclaim this entire blog as anything remotely close to a source of expert advice or opinion. It is not. For those of you with any experience with boats/sailing, please humor my ineptitude and laugh with me as I learn by doing. Writing things down helps me to remember, and my goal is to share with you in a way that's not technical, mostly topical, and at best, might make you smile the next time you find yourself in similar straits.

So now, I trust I will make at least one person #facepalm reading this list of 5 Things I've Learned Since Moving onto a Sea Cadillac with a Stranger Last Saturday (11/11).

Please let me know if you're that person.

5 Things I've Learned Since Moving into a Sea Cadillac with a Stranger Last Saturday

Said stranger seems to be (so far) a laid-back, kind, experienced captain... thank you universe

The day you think you'll leave port is not going to be the day you actually leave port

The importance (and volatility) of wind maps

The Boatyard has better oysters than McGarvey's

Do not flush tampons down the boat toilet

1.  Said stranger seems to be (so far) a laid-back, kind, experienced captain... thank you universe

There are a hundred really good reasons not to fly across the country to meet a complete stranger you found on a Crew Finder forum on Facebook, or to move onto a sailboat with that stranger after a handful of phone calls to sail said boat across the Atlantic... especially when your sailing experience is 100% limited to Lake Travis in landlocked Austin, Texas. 

So arguably the most important thing I learned this week is that Ben-- Captain Ben, formally-- is a kind, rad person; someone I already call friend.

Over beers and oysters and milling around in a boat together for a week in Annapolis, here’s what I can surmise so far (Ben, thank you for humoring me):

Ben grew up on a surfboard in Cape Town. He got started sailing ~12 years ago delivering boats around the South African horn, and has since racked up 160,000+ nautical miles at sea delivering, chartering, and racing boats around the Atlantic and Indian oceans. No big deal.

Through his job-- delivering boats around the Caribbean and beyond-- he's no stranger to skippering with novice crew. Even more, his crowd-sourced crew come from various walks of life: 52-year old ladies seeking adventure; 19-year-old boys seeking the same; military retirees, vagabonding couples, soul-searching singles... a revolving door of characters with whom he’s had to share limited space. So it's no small wonder that a marina regular described him to me as “a cross between Jesus and Captain Ron, yannoe?“.

Ben has dreams of buying his own boat, and making his way through Panama to the Pacific in the foreseeable future. His favorite show is Food, Booze and Tattoos on Netflix, because it reminds him of home. He spends about 1/4 of any sentence speaking in onomatopoeias ("we were trying to get there quick, right? Like tchk-tchk-tchk")... which he attributes in part to growing up near cultures where whistles and clicks are the language itself.

Other confidence-boosting details, Mom:

His first priority is safety. "We're not going out into fuck-all weather just to make dates work."

His #1 Rule: Don't fall off the boat.

We've had candid conversations about hard things: respect, trust, setting expectations, how we communicate/take feedback, personal space. Critical when your home is sub-300 sq ft.

This gig includes a lot of alone time at sea as we swap between watches. So it's been cool to be able to get to know each other before taking to the water... but for Ben, planning for a few days to acclimate/evaluate each other is just best practice; an MO that's helped him avoid some otherwise sketchy crew.

So, so far so good. Taking everything a day at a time. Especially because:

2. The day you think you'll leave port is not going to be the day you actually leave port.

It's only the second time this has happened to me personally, but the pattern seems apt (the first was when an imminent squall postponed our boat voyage from Whittier, AK to the oyster farm by a week). Now on this exceptionally gusty Sunday in Annapolis, we should have left 4 days ago.

But the more reliant you are on a boat, the more bound to favorable conditions your plans must become. Favorable conditions that must come into magical alignment include:

Legal conditions: For us, this means the owner of the boat closes on the boat, finalizes paperwork, makes sure that all the toys, bells and whistles are aboard

Mechanical/electrical conditions: We're prepping a brand new boat for it's maiden voyage. So making sure before we're out there in the middle of endless blue for the first time that the boat itself works and functions as it's been sold to.

Wind/weather conditions: Perhaps the most obvious, but also the most important. Favorable in our case means the wind itself is not going to be gusting at 40+ knots (like it is today), completely against you, or at least "off the beam", meaning the wind is at least coming at an angle that isn't diametrically opposite your heading (stay tuned for edits/corrections).

Our situation has been such that the most favorable few days of wind (that would have sent us safely cruising south through the open Atlantic) occurred while awaiting the first two conditions to be met. So although I arrived a week ago, only two days ago did the legal stuff get sorted, and only yesterday did we realize the port thruster wasn't working... yay new boats!!!

Today, Sunday 11/19 it looks like we won't be setting off 'til tomorrow, the 20th, when weather finally looks agreeable enough to scoot down the Chesapeake, then hug the eastern seaboard to the Carolinas. We'll wait out some ugly bouts of low pressure, and then set off south toward Grenada.

But again. One day at a time.

Looking at the weather charts, it looks like it's going to be a hell of a ride down... 

3.  Always do your research before you leave port... and do it often

On the boat, Ben checks the wind forecast every few hours on his iPad the same way that some people check Facebook. He's looking for critical changes in forecasts that dictate how and when we'll leave. But with everything being up in the air (lol)/anyone's guess, there are several apps in particular that he trolls regularly throughout:

Navionics - for plotting a course, navigating underwater channels and routes

PocketGRIB - for forecasting areas of Low and High pressure, wind, precipitation, etc.

WindFinder - another wind forecasting tool, different datasets

PredictWind Offshore - another wind forecasting tool, but my favorite... because color

I asked him to explain Sunday's PocketGRIB predictions along the route:

And another video of Ben purely to showcase him saying ‘Bahamamamas’:

4.  The Boatyard has better oysters than McGarvey's

In the 5 days of prep and idle time here in Annapolis, Ben and I may have eaten somewhere in the ballpark of 40-45 oysters between these two Happy Hour hideouts... for about $40-45.

McGarvey's (James River oysters, wild) - These wild harvested oysters are toothy to bite but almost bland, and definitely not briny (because a river, perhaps?)... their shallow, round shells don't retain their liquor well once opened, so eat hastily lest they get too dry as you admire them. Found a good few anemones still attached to the shells, a testament to their natural habitat of the shallow, brackish river estuary.  ​(That said, below is a picture of the... third... time we got oysters from McGarvey’s. This time, Ben ordered 2 doz to go, still in shells. And then magic

Boatyard (Chesapeake Bay oysters) - Also wild caught oysters, but the taste and presentation overall wins me over (I am a shucker, after all...) Clean cuts, light brine (further out into open salt water), and lots of liquor. These oysters tasted like kissing the Chesapeake itself. And the cucumber mignonette!!!!!

And last but not first:

5. Do not flush tampons down the boat toilet.

I repeat: do not flush tampons down the toilet. FYI, a boat toilet is called the 'head', so do not flush tampons down the head. So now you know. Just don't do it. Because then, you'd have to have that awkward conversation with the boat captain, whom you just met, at 9 in the morning over coffee, that not only are you on your period, but that your Shark Week weapon of choice is now jamming the brand new $800k cruising yacht's toilet macerator. And you've been here 1 day.

Luckily, this is not his (Ben, the captain's) first rodeo. On our way back to the boat, we pass a dock-neighbor who's getting rid of some coat hangers. Ben suggests using one to make a hook of sorts, and 5 minutes of fishing later, I triumphantly retrieve a *thankfully* white wad of cotton from the depths. At that moment I'm caught in a strange mix of feeling fucking awesome and fucking disgusting as I realize I now need to disinfect EVERYTHING around me in this tiny fiberglass bathroom.

And that's just Day 1.

Honestly, that should be the case for every toilet I KNOW. I KNOW. Never again.

Fuck tampons anyway (this girl gets it)

[marksilverman365-blog]

Some Quite Simple Locksmith Suggestions That Will Help

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[viralhottopics]

LG Watch Sport review: Turns out you don’t need LTE in a smartwatch

The LG Watch Sport is the first Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch with built-in LTE.

Image: lili sams/mashable

There are two kinds of people: Those who are fine with a smartwatch being a “companion” device for their phones and those who want it to replace their phones, at least in some respects.

I always thought I would fall into the latter group because, honestly, who would rather carry around a giant phablet instead of a do-it-all smartwatch? but after wearing LG’s Watch Sport for about a week, I realized I don’t actually need LTE in my smartwatch, and you probably don’t either.

SEE ALSO: 6 things Android Wear smartwatches can do that the Apple Watch can’t

The $349 LG Watch Sport goes on sale Feb. 10 and is one of two flagship smartwatches Google is launching with Android Wear 2.0. The other is the smaller and cheaper ($249) LG Watch Style.

Though there’s no Google branding on the watches (just an LG logo on the backside), they were very much designed with input from Google, kind of like the Nexus phones were.

As such, they’re unofficially the new faces of Android Wear and will lead the charge for all Android Wear smartwatches to follow this year.

Different, but similar

The Watch Sport ($349, bottom) and the Watch Style ($249, top).

Image: lili sams/mashable

Design and price aside, the two watches have some key differences.

Let’s start with the Watch Sport. It has a 1.38-inch round P-OLED display with 480 x 480 resolution for a total of 348 pixels per inch (ppi). The Watch Sport also has built-in LTE, GPS, NFC and a heart-rate sensor. And since it’s a larger, more powerful smartwatch, it’s got more RAM (768MB) and a bigger battery (430 mAh).

The Watch Sport has the “Rotating Side Button” a.k.a. Digital Crown clone and two buttons that can be customized to launch any app (by default, they’re set to open Google Fit and Android Pay).

Image: LILI SAMS/MASHABLE

The Watch Style is the smaller of the two smartwatches, but it’s thinner, lighter and comfier to wear. Shame it doesn’t have a heart-rate sensor, though.

Image: lili sams/mashable

In comparison, the Watch Style has a smaller 1.2-inch round P-OLED display with 360 x 360 resolution for 299 ppi. It has none of the Watch Sport’s aforementioned wireless capabilities, less RAM (512MB), and a smaller battery (240 mAh).

The Watch Sport is also slightly more weatherproof with an IP68 rating (submersible in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes) versus the Watch Style’s IP67 rating (submersible in up to 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes).

Another difference: The Watch Sport has a “Rotating Side Button,” which works just like the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown, and two buttons above and below it. The Watch Style, on the other hand, only has the Rotating Side Button.

LG Watch Style has interchangeable bands.

Image: lili sams/mashable

At this point, it sounds like the Watch Style is the inferior smartwatch. But that’s not true. As its name suggests, it’s more for the fashion-conscious you can swap out the straps, whereas the Watch Sport’s rubber strap is non-swappable.

Different as the two watches are, they do share some basics. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s 1.1GHz Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and come with 4GB of internal storage. Both smartwatch cases are also made of stainless steel and have Gorilla Glass 3 screens for increased scratch resistance. Of course, they have built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connecting to Android and iOS devices.

Leaving the phone behind

The Watch Sport’s (pictured) built-in NFC supports Android Pay; the Watch Style doesn’t have NFC.

Image: Lili sams/mashable

The Watch Sport looked great until I took it out of the box and chained it to my wrist for a week. The simple, minimalist unisex design caters to both men and women, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have mistaken it for a regular watch (especially with the always-on clock mode turned on).

The look screams big, bold and rugged, which I have no problem with, except it’s too thick. It feels really chunky thicker than the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier, which is already a big smartwatch.

The Watch Sport’s pretty chunky for a smartwatch.

Image: lili sams/mashable

Now, I’m not saying big, thick watches can’t be good. I’m just saying, for me, the Watch Sport is in a size class that looks ridiculous on my wrist and doesn’t fit comfortably. And for a smartwatch, comfort matters a lot.

Heck, in reacquainting myself with LG’s previous smartwatches, I came across my hands-on with LG’s second-generation Watch Urbane, and after a quick comparison, it’s pretty apparent LG used it as a model for this device. The Watch Sport’s case is simpler and the internal components are all new, but the fit is still painfully bulky.

Of course, not everyone will find its thickness a problem. I let a few of my colleagues with larger wrists try the Watch Sport and some of them told me it fit fine. Most of the women who tried it (with big and small wrists), however, said it was just too big for them. So take that for what you will.

The “Rotating Side Button” works just like the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown. It’s perfect for scrolling through menus and zooming and and out on things like maps.

Image: raymond wong/mashable

With LTE (works with AT&T and Verizon), the Watch Sport, like the Gear S3 Frontier, works as a standalone device no phone required. Sure, you can still tether it to your phone, but you’re not going to buy this baby to do that.

Aside from the obvious benefits of LTE, like making and receiving calls, and sending and receiving messages, cellular connectivity also lets you download Android Wear apps directly from the Google Play Store and stream music to your wireless headphones all without a phone or Wi-Fi.

For a certain type of user perhaps an athlete who’d prefer to work out or run without needing to strap their phone to their arm or waist LTE is a no brainer. And with NumberSync, AT&T customers can sync their existing phone number instead of needing a separate one for the Watch Sport. (Google told me Verizon will offer a similar service to NumberSync in the coming weeks.)

Cellular connectivity worked, but it was hit or miss for me. For some reason the Watch Sport Google provided us with never connected to LTE on AT&T’s network, only 4G HSPA+. As a result, downloading apps directly to the watch was slower than through the Android Wear app on my phone. On the plus side, battery life was pretty good: With cellular turned on, the Watch Sport lasted anywhere from a day to two days.

Android Wear 2.0

Google took a huge gamble delaying Android Wear 2.0 until this year. I don’t know what the reason was and I don’t really care, because it was worth the wait.

Right out of the gate, Android Wear 2.0 looks and works better on smartwatches with round displays, which means it works great with the Watch Sport and Watch Style.

Android Wear 2.0’s new menu UI works so much better on smartwatches with round displays.

Image: raymond wong/mashable

The menu of apps now has a circular-based interface that scrolls along the edge of the display with a swipe of your finger or a twist of the Rotating Side Button. The interface is also easier on your eyes and helps save power thanks to a darker color palette throughout the entire UI. Previous versions of Android Wear had brighter design, with in-your-face white in places.

Using swipe gestures to type out words on the Watch Sport’s small screen is surprisingly not terrible thanks to solid predictive text.

Image: lili sams/mashable

But those are only a few of the improvements you’ll find in Android Wear 2.0. Other neat features include the ability to customize watch faces with bite-sized info from third-party apps (similar to the “complications” on the Apple Watch and second-gen Moto 360) and app shortcuts (i.e. sending a text or calling an Uber); write out text either by pecking on a tiny keyboard (terrible) or with swipe gestures (awesome); quickly switch between watch faces with a swipe on the edge of the screen; and auto-activity tracking in the Google Fit app.

The Google Assistant works the same on the LG Watch and LG Watch Style.

Image: lili sams/mashable

There’s also the built-in Google Assistant, activated by a long press on the Rotating Side Button or with an “OK Google” voice command. As far as I could tell, the Assistant works almost exactly like Google Now did on previous Android Wear smartwatches, which is to say, it’s handy sometimes, but not something you’re going to be turning to much.

Full of compromises

I wanted to be excited for the Watch Sport and Watch Style if only because Google worked very closely with LG to fine-tune them, the Rotating Side Button is super slick, and Android Wear 2.0 is a better experience than before but I couldn’t.

Compared to the Apple Watch (Series 1 or Series 2), the two Android Wear smartwatches are still full of compromises.

Sure, the Watch Sport has built-in LTE, but do you really need it?

Sure, the Watch Sport has built-in LTE, but do you really need it? Ask yourself: How often are you without your phone? For me, it’s almost never, so LTE isn’t essential. Unless you’re without your phone for the majority of the hours in a day, it doesn’t make sense to pay more just to untether your smartwatch from your phone. Plus, the Watch Sport is just too bulky.

The Watch Style prioritizes lightness and design, and is the nicer of the two smartwatches, but how does it not have a heart-rate sensor, NFC, or built-in GPS? It’s 2017 there’s just no excuse. For an extra $20, you could get a 38mm Apple Watch Series 2 with all of those things.

After last year’s “break” (most of the flagship smartwatches that dominated 2015 didn’t have new models in 2016), Android Wear smartwatches had an opportunity to triumphantly return and up-end the entire smartwatch market, hitting the Apple Watch where it would hurt. The Watch Sport and Watch Style do no such thing.

LG Watch Sport & Watch Style

The Good

Excellent battery life (for a smartwatch) Awesome rotatable side button Android Wear 2.0 is so much better than before

The Bad

Chunky and uncomfortable to wear unless you’ve got large wrists No heart-rate sensor, GPS or NFC on Watch Style LTE isn’t a necessity

The Bottom Line

Despite the LG Watch Sport’s power and Watch Style’s good looks, both smartwatches are full of compromises that prevent them from competing with the Apple Watch.

BONUS: Google’s Android Wear 2.0 is independent of your phone

Read more: http://on.mash.to/2lo17wt

from LG Watch Sport review: Turns out you don’t need LTE in a smartwatch