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relationshipreboot · 12 days ago

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"Mom, I did it all by myself!" Four-year-old Marcus exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with pride as he successfully completed a challenging puzzle. This moment, witnessed in a developmental psychology study at Stanford University, perfectly illustrates the transformative power of engaging children in skill-building activities. Recent research reveals that the first eight years of a child's life represent a critical window where 90% of brain development occurs, yet surprisingly, 67% of parents report feeling uncertain about how to best support their child's developmental journey. Imagine your child's brain as a vast network of possibilities, with each engaging activity creating new neural connections that shape their future capabilities. Dr. Sarah Chen, a leading child development expert, notes: "What we often see as simple play is actually a complex process of skill acquisition that sets the foundation for lifelong learning and success." In today's fast-paced digital world, where screens often compete for children's attention, understanding and implementing effective developmental activities has never been more crucial. Let's explore seven research-backed, engaging activities that transform ordinary moments into extraordinary opportunities for growth. 1. Sensory Exploration: The Foundation of Learning Awakening the Senses Through Play Picture a child's hands deep in a sandbox, their face concentrated as they discover different textures and consistencies. This seemingly simple play scenario actually engages multiple neural pathways, enhancing cognitive development and sensory processing abilities. Dr. Michael Torres, a pediatric neurologist, explains: "Sensory play creates rich neural connections that form the building blocks of more complex learning." When three-year-old Sofia began regularly participating in structured sensory activities, her parents noticed remarkable improvements in her vocabulary, problem-solving skills, and emotional regulation within just two months. This real-world example demonstrates how intentional sensory play can catalyze multiple areas of development. Creating Enriching Sensory Experiences Effective sensory play extends beyond traditional sandbox activities. Consider creating a dedicated sensory space where children can safely explore various textures, temperatures, and materials. Research shows that children who engage in regular sensory play demonstrate: Enhanced fine motor skills development Improved spatial awareness Advanced language acquisition Stronger scientific thinking capabilities Better emotional regulation skills 2. Creative Movement: Dancing Towards Development The Rhythm of Growth When six-year-old Lily started weekly dance and movement sessions, her teachers noticed a remarkable transformation. Not only did her physical coordination improve, but her confidence and social skills blossomed. "Movement-based activities activate multiple areas of the brain simultaneously," explains Dr. Rachel Thompson, a pediatric occupational therapist. "This cross-hemispheric activation creates powerful learning opportunities." Research from the Child Development Institute shows that structured movement activities can improve cognitive function by up to 33% in young children. Through creative movement, children develop: Spatial awareness Balance and coordination Rhythm and timing Social interaction skills Body awareness and control Integrating Movement into Daily Learning Parents and educators can transform routine activities into movement-rich learning experiences. For instance, teaching basic math concepts through dance steps or incorporating physical movement into storytelling creates engaging, multi-sensory learning opportunities. 3. Language-Rich Play: Building Communication Skills The Power of Interactive Storytelling "Once upon a time..." These four simple words can open doors to extraordinary developmental benefits. Eight-year-old James struggled with reading comprehension until his parents introduced interactive storytelling sessions.

Within three months, his reading scores improved significantly, and more importantly, his enthusiasm for books soared. Creating Language-Rich Environments Dr. Elena Martinez, a speech-language pathologist, emphasizes the importance of surrounding children with rich language experiences: "Every conversation, story, and word game builds the foundation for future literacy and communication skills."Effective language development activities include: Interactive storytelling with voice modulation Word association games Dramatic play scenarios Rhyming activities Conversation-based play 4. Problem-Solving Adventures: Nurturing Critical Thinking Building Cognitive Skills Through Play Consider the case of five-year-old Alex, who transformed his backyard into a complex obstacle course. What looked like simple play actually involved sophisticated problem-solving skills, spatial planning, and creative thinking. "Children naturally seek out challenges that help them develop critical thinking skills," notes Dr. William Chen, cognitive development researcher. Fostering Strategic Thinking Research indicates that children who regularly engage in problem-solving activities show improved: Analytical thinking Decision-making abilities Creative solution generation Persistence in facing challenges Logical reasoning skills 5. Social Skills Workshop: Learning Through Interaction Building Emotional Intelligence The playground becomes a laboratory for social skill development, where children learn crucial life lessons about sharing, empathy, and cooperation. Seven-year-old Maya's experience in structured group activities shows how intentional social interaction supports emotional growth and relationship building. Cultivating Social Competence Structured social activities help children develop: Empathy and emotional awareness Conflict resolution skills Team cooperation Leadership abilities Communication skills 6. Fine Motor Adventures: Developing Precision The Art of Small Movements Watch as a child carefully threads beads or manipulates building blocks - these activities develop crucial fine motor skills necessary for writing, drawing, and daily tasks. "Fine motor development directly impacts academic success," explains occupational therapist Dr. Sarah Wong. Precision Through Play Activities focusing on fine motor skills help develop: Hand-eye coordination Writing readiness Manual dexterity Visual processing Tool manipulation skills 7. Nature-Based Learning: Outdoor Skill Development Connecting with Natural Learning Opportunities Research shows that children who spend regular time in nature-based activities demonstrate improved: Physical coordination Observational skills Environmental awareness Risk assessment abilities Scientific thinking Fostering Environmental Connection Through structured outdoor activities, children develop a deeper understanding of their environment while building essential physical and cognitive skills. Conclusion: Nurturing Growth Through Purposeful Play The journey of child skills development is both an art and a science, requiring patience, creativity, and intentional guidance. As we've explored these seven activities, it's clear that the most effective development occurs when learning is embedded in engaging, purposeful play. Dr. Martinez reminds us: "Every moment of play is a moment of potential growth. The key is creating opportunities that challenge and support children at their individual developmental levels." Remember, consistent engagement in these activities creates lasting neural pathways that support lifelong learning and development. Whether it's through sensory exploration, creative movement, or nature-based learning, each activity contributes to building a strong foundation for future success. As you implement these activities, observe your child's unique responses and adapt accordingly. The joy of discovery in their eyes, like Marcus with his puzzle,

reflects not just momentary achievement but the building blocks of lasting developmental growth. Start small, stay consistent, and celebrate the journey of growth and discovery. Your child's development is a remarkable adventure, and these activities provide the map for navigating this exciting path of learning and achievement.

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innertragedywerewolf · 13 days ago

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Swapping Smiles and Stirring Laughter: My Playful Dance with PTool's AI Face Swap

Once upon a time, in the whimsical world of digital shenanigans, I stumbled upon a nifty piece of tech wizardry known as PTool's AI Face Swap. It's like stepping into a funhouse mirror that swaps your mug with anyone's—or anything's, for that matter—without the hassle of learning some top-secret incantation or witchcraft. And I'm here to share my escapades in this hall of reflections, where laughter echoes and the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

So, imagine this: you're chilling at home, your cat's sitting on your lap, purring like a motorbike with a smooth engine, and you're thinking, "What can I do to pass the time without actually doing anything productive?" Voilà! You have your eureka moment. You grab your phone, download PTool, and voila! The digital playground is now at your fingertips.

The first swap I ever did was a wild ride. I took a selfie with my grinning face and swapped it with my dog's. The result? A creature that could only be described as auman—half dog, half me, with an unsettling amount of teeth. I couldn't help but burst into laughter. It was a mix of shock and amusement, a digital Frankenstein monster that wouldn't have scared anyone but made for a fantastic meme.

But let me backtrack a bit. Using PTool is simplicity itself. You don't need a degree in rocket science or an encyclopedic knowledge of Photoshop. Just pick a photo, choose your target face, and let the magic happen. It's like having a friend who's an ace at photo editing but doesn't mind you bossing them around for a change. And if you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can toggle on the NSFW mode (at your own risk, I must warn you). The internet is a treasure trove of... let's call them 'unique' faces. I won't name names, but I've seen myself with the face of a certain historical figure that shall remain unnamed. Let's just say, it gave new meaning to 'mad king.

The real charm of PTool's AI Face Swap, though, lies in the joy of sharing. Once you've created your masterpiece—or should I say, your 'face-terpiece'—you can't help but share it with friends. Imagine their surprise when they see your face morphed with their favorite celebrity, or even a cartoon character! It's a social icebreaker, a conversation starter. "Hey, did you see what I did last night?" becomes "Hey, check out my new alter ego!

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility—or so they say. The tool is so intuitive that even my grandma could use it (and she did, by the way. The family reunion photo with her face swapped with the family parrot was the talk of the year). But here's the thing: it's all in good fun. The key to making the most of PTool's AI Face Swap is to not take yourself too seriously. It's like a digital sandbox where you can play dress-up without having to clean up your mess afterward.

Now, here's a friendly piece of advice: don't go overboard. It's tempting to swap faces with every Tom, Dick, and Harry you come across, but remember, moderation is key. Also, always ask for permission before you swap someone's face. We're playing a game of digital dress-up, not pulling a fast one on an unsuspecting victim.

I've tried my hand at swapping with landscapes, too. Who knew trees could have faces? And what kind of expression does a mountain have? turns out, it's quite pleasant, actually. A mountain with a serene, contented grin—now that's an image that sticks with you.

So, dear friends, if you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands and a yen for some good old-fashioned fun, give PTool's AI Face Swap a whirl. It's the kind of tech that reminds you the internet isn't just for doom-scrolling and serious stuff. It's also a place where you can morph your face with your pet's and share a laugh with the world. After all, isn't life better when you're swapping smiles and stirring laughter?

#PTool #Faceswap #FaceSwapper #Deepface #AI #AIFaceSwap #FaceFusion

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cryptonewsroom · 17 days ago

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The Future of Digital Reality: Latest Metaverse News and Trends in 2025

In the ever-evolving international of blockchain era, the metaverse stands proud as one of the most promising frontiers. As we step into 2025, the Crypto News Room brings you the current updates and breakthroughs shaping the metaverse. From virtual real property booms to modern AI-driven avatars, the metaverse News is revolutionizing the way we've were given interaction, paintings, and make investments.

What is the Metaverse News?

The metaverse News is a virtual universe wherein customers will have interplay in real-time thru digital and augmented truth. It encompasses gaming, social networking, real property, or even financial ecosystems, all powered by the use of way of the usage of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Companies like Meta, Microsoft, and decentralized structures which include Decentraland and The Sandbox hold to innovate, making digital testimonies greater immersive and profitable.

Recent Developments in the Metaverse News

1. AI-Powered Virtual Avatars

One of the most important tendencies within the metaverse news is the rise of AI-powered avatars. These sensible, customizable virtual personas are improving person engagement in virtual regions. Companies like Ready Player Me and Synthesia are the usage of AI to create hyper-realistic avatars that could specific feelings, behavior business agency meetings, or even perform customer support roles.

2. The Virtual Real Estate Market Surge

Virtual actual belongings is booming, with digital land in structures like Decentraland, The Sandbox, and Otherside promoting for loads of thousands. Investors and types are purchasing plots to set up virtual places of work, enjoyment venues, and NFT galleries. In 2025, the decision for for metaverse news real belongings continues to develop, with predictions of an $8 billion market thru 2030.

3. Expansion of Play-to-Earn (P2E) Gaming

Play-to-Earn gaming remains a dominant strain in the metaverse news. Games like Axie Infinity, Illuvium, and Star Atlas allow gamers to earn cryptocurrency on the equal time as wearing out immersive reviews. The integration of NFTs in those games has added a current layer of ownership and monetization, with game enthusiasts shopping for and promoting uncommon in-task assets for extraordinary income.

4. Corporate Adoption and Virtual Workspaces

Global companies are abruptly integrating metaverse technology into their organization models. Companies like Microsoft Mesh and Meta Horizon Workrooms are maximum important the way in virtual workspaces, permitting an extended way flung groups to collaborate in sensible 3-D environments. This shift is reshaping the destiny of work, reducing prices, and developing productiveness.

5. Decentralized Metaverse Governance

Decentralization is a middle precept of the metaverse, and 2025 sees the upward thrust of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) governing digital worlds. These DAOs empower groups to vote on platform selections, making sure equity and inclusivity. Platforms like Decentraland DAO and ApeCoin DAO are major this initiative, allowing customers to have a right away say in metaverse development.

How Cryptocurrencies are Fueling the Metaverse

Cryptocurrencies are the backbone of the metaverse financial tool, facilitating transactions and permitting virtual ownership. Here’s how crypto is shaping digital worlds:

Metaverse Tokens: Coins like MANA (Decentraland), SAND (The Sandbox), and APE (ApeCoin) are used for transactions, governance, and staking inside metaverse systems.

NFTs inside the Metaverse: Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) represent virtual belongings along with digital land, wearables, and top notch art work. High-profile income, together with a $2.Four million plot in Decentraland, spotlight the fee of digital possession.

DeFi Integration: Decentralized Finance (DeFi) answers are being covered into metaverse systems, permitting clients to lend, borrow, and earn interest on digital assets.

Challenges Facing the Metaverse

Despite its fast growth, the metaverse faces several disturbing conditions:

Regulatory Uncertainty: Governments worldwide are however identifying the way to regulate virtual actual property, cryptocurrencies, and facts privateness inside the metaverse.

High Entry Costs: While loose-to-get admission to systems exist, buying virtual land or assets may be pricey, proscribing accessibility.

Technical Limitations: The metaverse calls for superior hardware collectively with VR headsets and effective computer structures, making it a outstanding deal less to be had to the not unusual customer.

The Future of the Metaverse in 2025 and Beyond

The metaverse is prepared to end up an vital part of virtual life. Key dispositions to check include:

Interoperability Between Virtual Worlds: Platforms are strolling inside the path of seamless transitions amongst precise virtual areas, growing a absolutely interconnected metaverse.

5G and AI Enhancements: Faster net speeds and smarter AI will enhance metaverse evaluations, making them greater interactive and practical.

More Institutional Investment: Tech giants and economic institutions are pouring billions into metaverse infrastructure, making sure lengthy-term development.

Conclusion

The metaverse is more than tremendous a digital playground; it's miles a cutting-edge-day shift in how we enjoy the net. With improvements in AI, blockchain, and VR, the possibilities are endless. Crypto News Room will preserve to deliver you the modern metaverse updates, supporting you live in advance in this rapidly evolving virtual panorama. Whether you’re an investor, gamer, or entrepreneur, the metaverse is a area complete of possibilities equipped to be explored.

#metaverse news

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smoothgeometry · 2 years ago

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Setting Info (accessible ver.)

[IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN KNOWING MORE ABOUT WHAT LIFE IN THIS UNIVERSE IS LIKE, THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE! WHAT YOU'LL FIND BELOW ARE DESCRIPTIONS OF THINGS PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING AND INTERACTING WITH IN THIS SETTING.]

Every Day Life

a summary

Obviously, culture is different across locations and people, but this is going to be a broad stroke sort of description centered mostly on the Big City that is the main focus of the sandbox. For a more in-depth look at "other places" and general culture, feel free to click the links at the end of each section below.

OVERVIEW

Day to day life for most is a mix of technology and magic present in almost every major city and accessible when interacting with public-facing tools and inventions even if not owned privately. Interactive holograms, clothing and material charmed for durability (or simply made of more durable materials) abound, though some come with a cost that isn't always accessible. Potions are regulated in a similar manner to medicine depending on the effect. Generally, financial class can be determined by where a person lives and the degree to which technology is present in their private life. Magical ability also plays into personal comfort, as sometimes capability with magic can make up for more expensive comforts in one-off circumstances.

Most of the persisting world infrastructure is modeled on pre-existing Human standards, though some things are augmented to take into account changes resulting from the The Great Reveal (what people call the event involving the merging of planes and large influx of magic and magical creatures to Earth in 2014). The event was not altogther a peaceful one, and there was systemic damage to cities and civilized areas that had to be rebuilt. Many major cities are unrecognizable from previous skylines. There are new islands, fault lines, mountain ranges, and some ecosystems have been forever altered for both better and worse due to the influx of magic and its effect on the earth. There are many locations that have still not been explored to the fullest, even if the most threatening dangers have been subdued; doing so is quite a lucrative (albeit risky) career path.

In general, buildings and locations are human-sized; more often than not, non-humans Glamour themselves when out and about for the convenience of others (certain body heights and shapes are outlawed in public, for example). This goes doubly or triply for slaves while out in public. There are some locations, districts, neighborhoods and grounds that are large and/or cater to the natural sizes of some creatures, such as demons and weres (those with 'blood curses'), but they and their perimeters are clearly marked and cost is certainly a factor in occupying these coveted spaces. It's very expensive to commission a building for these purposes, so many of these places are leisure resorts or businesses that cater to peoples of specific race or culture, to boast comfort and accomodation. (However, there are regulated limits for these as well, depending on certain factors like occupancy numbers, potential for collateral damage, etc.). While there are exceptions for calamitous events and self-defense, the cases in which someone could get away with this (especially in a public space) is extremely rare.

Due to the influx of population of other races and peoples to Earth during The Great Reveal, cities often have "Upper Levels" or "Islands" added to them to accommodate more people. These are floating districts that are akin to suburbs; they house some of modern architecture of the age in the form of homes, apartments, parks and office building. The style of these buildings are more modular and glossy. Actually owning real estate is a matter of wealth or extraordinary luck, and owning a home rather than staying in a massive apartment building is a slightly lesser flex.

Slaves and services rendered by them (under the eye of watchful masters) are pervasive, especially in the upper and lower most echelons of society. They are a class defined (using that term loosely) by four circumstances: 1) those captured during The Great Reveal, proven to have had intent to cause harm to the planet and its citizens during that time, 2) off-spring of those creatures, 3) those who "agree" to enter and be registered as slave status voluntarily, (unfortunately, this often includes children whose parents or guardians abandon or sell them), and 4) unprotected illegals; for these reasons, it's fairly rare to see Humans sold or traded on the market. They represent amassed wealth at least and are symbols of status at most. The acquisition and distribution of them are regulated, though not much else is (regarding personal treatment). Many fill service jobs and service families and estates, and usually regarded as an invisible part of the backdrop of life. They are a very controversial topic, of course, and they deserve their own post. It should be noted however, that worldwide, slavery systems are sometimes coded differently socially, and occasionally this causes culture clashes.

There's no shortage of vices to be found, of course, and the integration of magic and tech has been the catalyst for some interesting engineering with just about anything that can be imbibed. Clubs are lucrative, especially for elitist Masters who want to mingle with like-minded people and drown themselves in decadence while they flaunt their status. It's possible to find ones for any sort of theme or vibe. Some leisurely retreats are in fact segregated depending on the services that they offer, as there are some intoxicants that are either too potent or deadly for Humans to consume.

#setting info #background details #primer info #accessible version

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im-auntie-social · 4 years ago

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JB exchange recs part 3: now with themes!

(see part 1 for disclaimers/justifications and an uncategorized list of a few fics that seemed like they were written specifically for me, only one of which actually was)

(see part 2 for some angst, as well as some warm fluff)

I don’t know about you but I like grouping things and seeing patterns where there really aren’t any. And I saw a lot of probably-nonexistent patterns in the @jaime-brienne-fic-exchange fic offerings! For instance...

Vaguely WWII/postwar-flavored: however long the night, the dawn will break again (M, 3.6k) has Jaime and Brienne as ships passing in the night... ships with history. Coming Home from Lonely Places (T, 4k) declared war ON MY EMOTIONS as rival spies Jaime and Brienne come into contact at different points in the war(s).

A heaping helping of Cersei: I enjoy a good not-totally-crazy-and portrayal of Cersei, I’ll admit it. On the fun side, Cersei survives but is doomed to live as Aunt Celia (N, 2.6k) (also featuring a lot of good, practical women who don’t put up witih Jaime’s shit either). On the gothic side, I won’t give away what’s up with the Lannister siblings in the atmospheric-as-hell Half-Life (T, 19k) but it’s great. And on the deep-character-analysis side, I adore how in the dark, I thought I saw you (T, 17k) progresses in POV from Jaime, to Cersei, to Brienne.

Dream time: Technically I could list Those Who Favor Fire (T, 9k) under the space AUs, but the awesomely weird and dreamlike effects the mysterious planet has on our heroes is the best part of it. More on-the-nose for this section is To Sleep, Perchance to Dream (T, 3k) which has Jaime and Brienne sharing a strange liminal space in their dreams, even though they don’t know each other in real life. Both of these just nail the weirdness of dream logic and the outside-of-reality feel.

G-g-g-ghoooooosts: In a post-book Casterly Rock, Brienne is bothered by supernatural shenanigans In the Hall of Ghosts (N, 6k). From the post-show category, A Different Choice (T, 3.7k) has a particular spirit offering post-bricks Jaime a second chance. And in the modern AU Haunted (T, 19.k), Jaime is driven out of his apartment by what he swears is a ghost, forcing Brienne to let him sleep on her couch.

Food as a love language: Companion (T, 9k) explores Jaime and Brienne’s canon relationship through food-focused vignettes, which is a fantastic idea and extremely well-executed. The hot gold hush of noon (T, 1.5k) has Brienne taking Jaime through the Australian outback on a foraging trip, doing extraordinary character work in such a small space.

And then, two of my favorite tropes/themes/flavors:

Fun With Pantheons: I adore a good mythology. The Girl who had Two Gods (T, 4.4k, Jaime/Brienne/Arthur Dayne) is a beautiful story of Brienne being born at an inconvenient moment and getting assigned some lesser-known deities to be her patrons. The Jaime-Arthur dynamic is absolutely wonderful, and the absolute softness of Brienne being incorporated into it just made me melt. On the other hand, Brienne gets to be the deity in come in with the rain (T, 2.3k)-- in fact, as the goddess of Spring she’s the only one who responds to young Jaime’s prayers after he fails to kill Aerys’s pyromancers in time to stop King’s Landing from going up in flames. She wasn’t supposed to do that, and he’s, you know, a kingslayer, so they go on the run together. I loved minor-goddess Brienne standing up to the Seven (and the Seven themselves are really well done), and this one has I one of my favorite Happily Ever Afters.

Modern + Magic: Aw yeah, that’s the good stuff. On the shorter side, I love the deft way The Girl Who Painted Lions (T, 2.2k, and gifted to the same person as The Girl who had Two Gods, which doesn’t *for sure* mean they have the same author but it’s a fair bet) weaves the magic system into the story of Jaime and Brienne meeting, separating, and reconnecting (and something about Jaime being able to cast protection wards just makes me feel so warm inside). And I know I’m not the first to bring it up but electric boogaloo (T, 11k) is such a masterclass in worldbuilding, connecting the magic system and types to the factions and families from canon in a way that is absolutely perfect. And it takes place at a series of annual masquerade balls! And Brienne’s mask is made of lightning. Swoon.

So there you have it, an incomplete list of what I enjoyed over the last three weeks (god has it only been three? what even is time?). Hopefully more to come when I actually finish all the reading! And thanks, all possible thanks to the exchange mods-- @slipsthrufingers, @firesign23, @nire-the-mithridatist, and @samirant --who worked tirelessly and over many time zones to make all of this possible. And who also let me-- invited me to, even-- play in the sandbox of exchange data! (oh you can bet there’s some infographics incoming this weekend, just you wait....) (that’s a threat)

#jaime x brienne #jaime x brienne fic exchange 2021 #fic rec

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hpoelzig · 5 years ago

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Pondering GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019)

Director Michael Dougherty amply demonstrates his credentials as a Godzilla fan in bringing to the screen a film that lovingly references myriad aspects of the various Toho series since 1954. This lavish and detailed homage to the legacy of Godzilla is full of nods that aficionados will find delicious and our favorite daikaiju have never looked more conscious and gloriously alive. It is crafted in an American summer blockbuster style in its breathless pacing so that one has to be quite sharp to spot all the goodies he’s woven into this third episode of Legendary’s MONSTERVERSE. While Gareth Edwards’ 2014 GODZILLA employed a Spielbergian touch, Dougherty offers the most Toho-esque installment so far in this franchise.

Essence of Toho

In my review of the 2014 Edwards film, I had speculated that a MONARCH-centered approach would be best going forward, and indeed that has been the case with both KONG: SKULL ISLAND and this film. Dougherty has taken that Toho Showa series’ leap into “super science,” with defensive masers, secret bases around the globe enveloping recumbent daikaiju, and the ORCA device, meant to communicate with the Titans. This approach, sort of sci-fantasy, enlarges the sandbox in which he can play and recalls what has been part of so many prior Godzilla outings. MONARCH’s Argo, an immense flying wing, seems to echo the various “Super X” vehicles from the Heisei series, the Marvel Comics S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier Behemoth from their Godzilla: King of the Monsters series, as well as being a nod to both the flying wing from George Pal’s THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (the Northrop YB-49) and to the name of the ship from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, so well depicted by Ray Harryhausen. One particular delight for me was the Osprey’s arrival at the Castle Bravo facility, recalling the opening of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, where a helicopter descended into a similar circular vertical tunnel to reach the hidden base on Monster Island. And, as Toho had done with its production design, these MONARCH scientific/military installations are full of gigantic screens surrounded by flashing lights from which “officially concerned” humans can monitor the global monster action at a safe distance.

Eggleton’s Impact

I was impressed by the painterly cinematography in this most Eggletonian-looking of Godzilla films—I actually expected to see Bob acknowledged in the credits as his visual style so permeates many scenes. Fans of his paintings cannot miss how much of the imagery is flavored by this extraordinary artist’s numerous works. That impressionistic sensibility Edwards had captured in the HALO descent to San Francisco scene infuses much of this movie. And his method for viewing the Titans from human perspectives to make their scale apparent was also deliberately maintained by Dougherty. Despite so much care having been lavished on the sweeping imagery, these sumptuous frames fly by in fractions of a second, which has sadly become the standard action film approach to editing and pacing. That for me is a disservice to those who clearly worked diligently to craft impressive and iconic visuals—such splendor should not be snatched away so swiftly from our hungry eyes. Lingering just a bit longer on some of these fantastic moments would have been so much more satisfying. When King Ghidorah seizes Rodan’s volcanic aerie and regenerates his missing head in a very bizarre, placental manner, his dominance over a foreground cross suggests his demonic power, much as FANTASIA’s Chernabog perched atop Mount Triglav—a gorgeous and potent symbol. He then sends out a call to rouse the world’s Titans to do his bidding as their “usurper king.” That pivotal moment passes far too quickly. Would that the two flanking heads have paused and then looked to the central dominant head, who would return their gazes, then look skyward and begin voicing “the call.” Then the other two would join-in, very deliberately, with some unearthly new sound reaching out to be that irresistible global conscription summons. That could have kicked the scene up significantly. The triple voiced sound used in the film was less of a command, rather a sort of keening, which quietly lingered in the following scenes of the other Titans awakening. For my tastes it should have had more of a dramatic emphasis—and have been audibly unique to the moment. Even somehow having King Ghidorah take note of his new troops as they each arise and perhaps respond audibly to his summons would have made his dominance much clearer and more exciting—perhaps cutting back to him as his heads express a knowledge of each new disciple’s activation?

Daikaiju Design

The designs of the quartet of classic Toho stars move to the top of my favorites, as each are detailed, expressive, and dynamic. Tweaking Godzilla’s look to enlarge his dorsal plates and having them flicker even when not powering up for a blast of nuclear plasma works well—he crackles with latent energy. While the 2014 look is an excellent, naturalistic one, changing the primary row of dorsal plates to repeat the 1954 design and then bumping up the secondary rows to Heisei-styled size makes him more in line with earlier Gozilla incarnations. I’d still like him to sport a proper tertiary row of plates that are clearly defined, which has been a common aspect of many incarnations of the King of the Monsters. Taking those sauropod-esque feet and enlarging the claws for more of a predatory aspect looks fearsome, and I like the shortening of the whip tail of the 2014 version to be more like the standard Godzilla profile. And having a new climactic revival of “Burning Godzilla” was a fine choice, reigniting that concept from GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH. King Ghidorah is masterfully realized, a proud successor to DRAGONSLAYER’s Vermithrax Pejorative, who can fly, stride or wing-walk with sinuous beauty. That aspects of his wings echo a William Blake image of the Red Dragon really makes for such resonance. The three heads being somewhat independent with unique personalities was also a superb concept. Ghidorah’s condescending curiosity regarding those nasty, puny humans he was seeing for the first time—even to licking their corpses to explore them—brought forth his diabolically sinister consciousness. His gravity beams and the neck-glow charge-up are splendid. Mothra in her bioluminescent glory is stunningly conceived, from impressively carapaced larva to majestic moth-mantis-wasp imago—magnificent, mysterious, and with a feminine puissance. Rodan as the fantasy firebird, a magma-veined pterosaur, fiendishly skeksis-esque in angry avian awareness, has such presence. Bowing like a courtier to both the usurper and finally to the true king, he exhibits a calculating, conscious persona. His thrilling barrel-roll to take out the pursuing jets was about the most spectacular image we’ve seen of him, ever.

As Toho had done in SHIN GOJIRA, Godzilla’s roars from the various series were employed, as well as his roars from the 2014 film. I was hoping for more of the very deep vocalizations from the 1954 original. Mothra sounded as she always has, with plaintive chirrups and screes. The cries for both Rodan and King Ghidorah were not the originals, and were for me a bit more “generic giant monster” voices. I would have loved to hear new recreations of those readily recognizable Rodan yawps and cackles, and much more forward versions of KG’s triple toned “bidi-bidi-bidi” voice—rather than the faint references buried in the raucous sound design. I rather expected more original Toho monster sounds than were used for both of them, since Daugherty was employing past iconic sounds for both Godzilla and Mothra and seemed to be teasing that during the film’s production.

A Grim Setting

While there is some humor—not all of it apt— intended to break tension, the plot of this film builds upon the global revelation to the people of Earth that past super species were essentially their “gods,” knocking present day humans down a few notches on the dominance pyramid. The context is alarm and terror, though the MONSTERVERSE also offers awe and wonder as viewed through some of those studying the returning Titans. Serizawa remarks in a senate hearing that humanity should be viewed as Godzilla’s “pets”—and he means it. He respects “all forms of life” and sees our world as one that must have a balance which is inclusive of its natural organisms, regardless of where we might end up in Nature’s organic tapestry. Over the course of the film, much is learned about the fascinating past history of human societies who lived in harmony with the Titans. Toho implied some of this in their films—Mothra was regularly portrayed as an eternal goddess for the islanders she protected—but here it is made quite explicit and detailed. Godzilla’s temple lair in submerged Atlantis, with gigantic friezes and sculptures honoring him, is surely an enrichment of this ongoing saga. There is a dark side to this scenario wherein some see humans as being abusive to their world and thus in need of being forcibly “tamed,” and then there is the collective might of the military who want to subjugate these creatures and restore man’s preeminence—behavior that began in the original GOJIRA and sustained throughout most of the films.

Dr. Emma Russell is an oddly polarized primary character. To begin, she seems a concerned mother who has rescued her daughter Madison from her husband’s descent into alcoholism, which had been incited by the death of their son Andrew during Godzilla’s San Francisco battle with the Muto’s. An aside: That plot aspect is reminiscent of a similar character motivation in the third of Kaneko’s Gamera trilogy, wherein a young girl’s commitment to invoking the destructive daikaiju Iris is sealed by her parents’ collateral death during a monster rampage in the first film where Gamera, an Earth defender, destroys his adversary Gyaos. That Emma is no “mother of the year” is quickly exposed when Allan Jonah’s eco-terrorists arrive to snatch she and her daughter (and her Titan controlling ORCA device) after they execute the innocent MONARCH crew studying Titanus Mosura. Emma has indoctrinated her daughter to comply with her pursuit of shattering mankind’s toxic presence by releasing the Titans as “antibodies” to the virus that is human kind. And Emma is in cahoots with these extremists, her obsession being the first cause setting in motion the slaughter of her MONARCH colleagues in China, Antarctica, and Mexico as well as the other locations wherein the Titans are roused to destroy their containment facilities. And countless others then perish around the globe as the revived Titans rage. The script makes her somewhat sympathetic as a mother—she is shown to love and be concerned with her daughter and mournful of her son—but one could not give her a pass for the oceans of blood on her hands. Nor should she be forgiven for making Madison a victim of Stockholm syndrome. Madison, comprehending the grievous practices kindled by her mother’s theories, does awaken to reject Emma’s deeds and then she strives at great risk to use the ORCA to solve the global catastrophe wrought by both Emma and Jonah’s fanaticism. There is a cut scene in the video release of Madison training with the eco-terrorists which would have underlined her submission to her situation—I would have included that for the parallel with Patty Hearst it presents. Madison ultimately is heroic, and her father Mark renews himself by stepping-up to guide MONARCH’s efforts to understand and control the Titans. He provides some crucial insights based on his knowledge of animal hierarchy and behavior. Ultimately, Emma seeks atonement through her sacrifice, which brings some justice to her character’s story, while Mark and Madison are reunited in a world reeling from cataclysmic destruction. A rather “heavy” arc to this family’s journey, and properly symbolic in dealing with present social concerns. I think that it seemed to be missed by many viewers who were more concerned with the pyrotechnics of the battling Titans, but for me it is a properly grounded human story which offers a grave context to the monster spectacles.

Homages A Plenty

There are so very many references in this film, both visually and via dialogue—“Easter eggs” abound! I’ll touch upon a very few, leaving exhaustingly listing them to other obsessive fans. I enjoyed the numbered MONARCH outposts having significance—the release year of the film in which the Toho daikaiju there contained was a delight and also the fun nod to THE THING in the Antarctica outpost numerical designation. Modernizing the Shobijin by having Doctors Chen and Ling, and generations of twins in their family, as “priestesses” of Mothra is an excellent touch. The new Titans are gleeful references to mythology and cryptozoology, demonstrating that many cultures have embraced daikaiju throughout history. Intriguing archaeological mysteries are touched upon such as 12,000 year old Göbekli Tepe, hinting at past humans dealings with Titans. Even an article in the jam-packed end titles is authored by Steve Martin, the character played by Raymond Burr in the American version of the 1954 film which was first to be titled GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS.

MONARCH’s mission critical submarine is named USS Scorpion, after an American nuclear submarine which was lost under mysterious circumstances, and it has a Captain Crane, like The Seaview in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. Its conning tower likewise has Seaview-esque planes and shape. The skeleton of Anguirus has a cameo, briefly glimpsed outside of Godzilla’s temple lair, and if only we’d gotten a better look at more of the Atlantean art paying homage to Godzilla—there seem to be monumental figures with Godzilla heads atop humanoid bodies holding some sort of ceremonial weapons which Serizawa passes on his way to revive his “old friend.” A sculpture of Pazuzu is glimpsed atop a step pyramid in that lost city—such artifacts all sadly obliterated to revive Godzilla. Some more time to drink in this elaborately detailed majestic setting would have been appreciated.

Several key plot events here are reshufflings from past Godzilla films. The concept of one daikaiju sacrificing itself to revive another was pivotal in GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA 2. There, Godzilla is tortured to near death by electrodes from Mechagodzilla which pierced his body and fried his secondary enlarged ganglial areas. Fire Rodan, nearly expired from his conflict with Mechagodzilla, as a dying act drapes himself atop the fallen Godzilla, evaporating into a sparkling mist and then both healing and resurrecting Godzilla, who now has an even more powerful, red-tinged plasma beam. In GMK, Godzilla is the “heel” who fights the more positive trio of Baragon, Mothra and King Ghidorah. Godzilla seemingly kills King Ghidorah, so Mothra makes a direct, suicidal flight at Godzilla who evaporates her with his plasma breath—shared imagery with Daugherty’s film, though here King Ghidorah and Godzilla have reversed roles. In Kaneko’s film, Mothra’s energy descends upon King Ghidorah in a sparkling cloud, reviving him and enhancing his wings and gravity beams for the final combat with Godzilla. That Godzilla thrives on exposure to radiation has long been part of the basic lore of many of the films, and his revival and enhancement through extreme exposure was no surprise as being primary to the MONSTERVERSE’s mythology. And the scene wherein King Ghidorah “powers-up” via biting electrical cables in the Boston battle reminds me of Kong being electrically revived in the original KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. Godzilla’s expression as King Ghidorah takes that bite, and then the massive arcs of electricity that spread out from his wings to clear the attacking human’s jets are both such memorable moments—which could have been given just a bit more time to accommodate earned “oohs and aahs.”

The novelization of GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS goes into detail about some of the Titans only glimpsed or simply listed in the film, and one hopes they’ll emerge in the next or further MONSTERVERSE installments—if any. There is a beautiful, brief passage in the book which is told from Godzilla’s point of view. We see through his eyes his responsibility as the lord and protector of this world—the globe is his domain and he is aware of the entire planet, sensing time passing through the shifts in Earth’s tectonic plates. He is aware of the much younger Kong, but unconcerned as Kong is only responsible for Skull Island. We know Kong is the last of his kind, and Godzilla also seems to be as well, though in the comic prequel to this film the story of the Godzilla-esque skeleton infested with the two Muto spores was explained as being Dagon—perhaps his elder “cousin”? The Muto which killed him was vanquished by Godzilla between the 2014 and 2019 films in that comic, which also serves to explain the change in his dorsal plates, which Dougherty has said are continually growing, like antlers. It would be a delight if the Kraken, snoozing as it embraces a sunken nuclear submarine, and Mokele-Mbembe, designed according to the legends as part serpent and elephant, had scenes in the films to come. If Godzilla at some point must sacrifice himself to save the world, discovering another younger member of his species in the Hollow Earth regions would not be surprising and would also embrace that “son of Godzilla” concept used in Toho’s series. The sunken Atlantis being part of the subterranean world evokes Verne’s JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, and of course the 1959 film adaptation concludes with a gigantic lizard menacing the remains of the Lindenbrook party in its ruins. Perhaps there are other humans (humanoids) “down below” as well, in fascinating antediluvian cities, much as Toho posited with the Seatopians, or even like the subterranean Sumerians from THE MOLE PEOPLE? Possibilities abound!

The Score

We’ve been quite fortunate that the scores for Hollywood Godzilla films have been powerful, thematic, and thoughtfully composed works wrought by talented composers. Both Arnold and Desplat crafted magnificent music that expressively carried the action. McCreary’s is the first MONSTERVERSE score to incorporate iconic themes for both Godzilla and Mothra from the Toho scores, and these quotations were well-timed and heightened the drama. Additionally, his new themes are both strong and memorable. The thematic material for King Ghidorah constantly iterates the number three, and the general rising melodic line is even kin to that of Holst’s “Mars, The Bringer of War” from THE PLANETS. The chanting monks’ voices offer a mysterious sense of religious awe to support the diabolical “destroyer of worlds.” Rodan’s theme features whooping horns, as if to echo the “Samurai of the Skies” cries. Even the film’s opening quiet theme has that “Go-Ji-Ra” rhythm that was used in both the 1998 and 2014 films to craft memorable new musical signatures for the King of the Monsters. Most touching was the gorgeous choral music accompanying Serizawa’s Spock-esque sacrifice—which even visually rhymed the descent of the mini-sub with the photon torpedo casket sequence from THE WRATH OF KHAN. The MONSTERVERSE’s Serizawa is essentially a transmogrified Dr. Yamane from the 1954 GOJIRA, a man who studies and appreciates Godzilla as a living being. By having him sacrifice himself not to destroy Earth’s dominant Titan, but to revive him with a nuclear weapon and thus save humanity, works as a pragmatic inverse linking him to the original Dr. Seizawa, the self-immolating physicist who conceived of far too deadly a weapon in the Oxygen Destroyer. McCreary’s “requiem” suited that sequence to perfection. When Godzilla rises again and blasts forth his plasma beam into the sky, the Ifukube-based accompaniment was deeply moving, and the moment Godzilla looked to his human saviors was delightful. He seems to acknowledge their role, much as that of the people from a past civilization who had idolized him, and the soundtrack even has a fleeting phrase of Ifukube’s Godzilla theme much as it was scored for high woodwinds in the requiem from GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH—a very brief and subtle nod. McCreary’s triumphant symphonic apotheosis of his own opening Go-ji-ra theme over that concluding acknowledgment of the Earth’s true monarch brought me chills. Being followed immediately by McCreary’s magnificently over-the-top arrangement of B.O.C.’s song “Godzilla” to commence the end titles was fan service of the highest order. Its refrain, “History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man!” is of course the underlying theme of the Legendary MONSTERVERSE. “Bravo!” Maestro McCreary!

Could Be Bettered

Some minor cavils. I prefer to hear the word Ghidorah pronounced in the more euphonious Japanese manner, with the three syllables (ghi-do-rah) given equal emphasis and the first one slightly higher in pitch. One can hear it when watching Toho’s original Japanese prints with English subtitles. Americans emphasize the second syllable (Ghi-DOR-ah), and thus the middle one sounds like the English word door, while the Japanese put the R on the third syllable. I’d have dropped that weak gonorrhea joke, and the “very long fortune cookie” line was a tad clumsy, and a bit out of place for the dignified Serizawa. In this film he seems to take a bit of a back seat to Dr. Mark Russell, once he’s on the scene, which is a bit of a disservice to his character for me. And that his sidekick Dr. Graham is so quickly dispatched by King Ghidorah during his emergence seemed a bit too casual—her character was a fine one, and I’d have enjoyed more from her going forward.

The film brings back the Oxygen Destroyer, a wonderful nod to the original, and they hint at it being tested in the news crawl Madison and Emma have on in the background in their opening domestic scene at the China base. The news commentator’s reporting of “mass die-offs” must be from the military testing it. Rather than having it come as a surprise announcement when the incoming missile is announced by Admiral Stenz, I think that viewers should have been clued-in earlier, and rather easily. The audience primarily sees things from the point of view of the MONARCH characters. But if we go to that senate hearing scene, from which the MONARCH crew departs having been alerted to the eco-terrorist attack on their Mothra temple base—despite being warned that there will be consequences, that scene could have briefly continued. Admiral Stenz would reveal to the committee, once Serizawa and crew have departed, that the military now has a prototype weapon that they think could be used to exterminate the Titans. We’d cut from the blurred footage of the Mutos on the monitor to a graphic of the Oxygen Destroyer (what we saw later when Stenz alerts the Argo team), while Stenz declares this is their tested proposal for conquering the Titans. If one wanted to flesh it out, then perhaps running some brief footage of it killing fish or other forms of life with some dark accompanying music would be a strong punctuation. But even that wouldn’t be required, just that graphic and a Stenz voiceover would have done the trick. So, rather than ending on a weak joke about blurred Titan genitals, we’d have the Oxygen Destroyer’s revelation as added tension for its eventual use.

With such wonderfully detailed renditions of the Titans, particularly the four Toho guest stars, I think they went a bit too far in trying to fit them into their environments by surrounding them with clouds, mists, and fog. This gives the Titan scenes an overall soft and painterly feel, and I can enjoy that aesthetic choice, but seeing the creatures that were so very carefully designed, and whose movements are crafted in such a convincing manner, being obscured far too often I think was an error. Dialing that back somewhat would have been a wiser choice—show us what you’ve got! Particularly in the expert choreography of the battling Titans—which in some scenes appears to have been inspired by Matt Frank’s compositional style—being able to see how the tussles and tumbles progress with greater clarity would have enhanced the viewing experience.

Wishful Thinking

I would hope that there might eventually be a “director’s cut” in some future boxed-set home video release of the MONSTERVERSE films that would relax the pace of this film somewhat—taking time to linger on the beautifully crafted images so that we won’t have to freeze-frame to savor the glories on screen. And the storyboarded but unfilmed mid-credit scene of another Mothra egg being sung to by twin young girls in another hidden temple space beneath a modern city should be added-in or at least exist as part of the extras—possibly an animated version? If the box office returns from the next installment don’t justify further live action films, it would be fun to have a MONARCH-centered animated series exploring the numerous Titans and how humanity must deal with them. The cartoon series that followed the 1998 Emmerich GODZILLA film was quite an improvement over its progenitor, so I suspect something similar could happen with this franchise going forward once live action films are no longer produced.

The Coming Conflict

Daugherty has reportedly had some plot input towards Wingard’s upcoming GODZILLA VS. KONG, and so the end titles give us glimpses into what might be to come via various briefly shown illustrated articles. One explains that the newly emerged Titans were being drawn to Skull Island, so one has to wonder if that locale could at the conclusion become the “Monster Island” of the MONSTERVERSE? That it is a gateway to the Hollow Earth is an exciting prospect, for more mysteries abound there. Already the rumor that the APEX corporation, which funded Colonel Alan Jonah’s eco-terrorists, is now behind the construction of Mechagodzilla (the toys of this character have been leaked already), who will have an ORCA variant built-in to lure Titans to the slaughter.

King Ghidorah can regenerate in an unearthly manner and the director has mentioned in interviews that his consciousness is spread through his body. Daugherty has said that whatever might have fed on the carcass head could perhaps become some sort of mutating “legion,” perpetuating King Ghidorah, from flies to any sea creatures that took a nibble, if the series goes on. The rumor mill suggests that materials from the brain of this dead head have been used to create a bio-tech controller to enhance Mechagodzilla. Now that we’ve gone to a Showa series sensibility, the film makers have a great deal of latitude for referencing some of the more fantastic concepts from earlier films. With the biggest blockbusters today being super hero fantasies, one need not try to pretend that MONSTERVERSE films are bounded by the laws of our Universe. The relatively more “realist” approach of Edwards’ 2014 GODZILLA has been evolved into a broadly fantastic approach, which reflects much of what Toho had done in all of its series.

Fan Reactions

It seems some Godzilla fans on message boards are now turning on Dougherty’s epic—everyone seems to want each new film to be their vision of the perfect Godzilla film and then disappointment sets in when it isn’t. Yet so many of the films throughout the ongoing saga of Godzilla have been silly, cheesy, daffy, and sometimes just dopey—yet many of we aficionados embrace them all for their charms, after all, we get to see more of Godzilla and his fellow daikaiju. They appeal to quite a wide range of viewers of all ages, and as one ages, different films might head a favorites list based on one’s evolving tastes. Better that more Godzilla tales are wrought and released, regardless of whatever flaws we might find. In GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS the incarnations of our old favorites and some intriguing new Titans are truly extraordinary, brought to vivid life with contemporary effects capabilities. Never before have these sorts of films been graced with such mammoth budgets and been seen by such large audiences around the globe—a golden age for Godzilla is upon us.

Huzzah Daugherty!

Despite its flaws, I find so much to love in this film, particularly that final scene. After Godzilla has vaporized his age-old rival and literally “smoked” his final head, the Titans summoned by Madison’s activation of the ORCA in Fenway Park arrive. Godzilla, battered and weary from his strivings has exhausted the energy gifted to him through his ally Mothra’s sacrifice—like Heracles after his many labors. This unbowed victor is at last confronted by the other awakened super-species. It looks like a further battle could ensue, as Rodan swoops down at last. But, that canny firebird knows his place and thus submits to the true king, with a nod and almost a courtsey-like gesture of his cape-like wings. The other Titans then “bend the knee” and Godzilla bellows his triumphant “skreeonk” as McCreary’s music superbly supports this coronation scene. I felt such a powerful frisson at that moment and do with each repeat viewing. The Titans demonstrate their consciousness, intelligence, and their sense of natural hierarchy in what is one of my favorite conclusions in the entire canon of Godzilla films.

So, I salute Daugherty and all the others involved in what for me is a grand outing for all of the Titans and a very fine addition to the roster of Godzilla’s adventures. I’ve watched it many times since I saw that first Thursday night preview screening, and I continue to enjoy it immensely. Like all of the earlier films, I don’t dwell on what I see as flaws, but I celebrate the unique wonders that have been wrought, and these abound in this Toho-redolent GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS.

The bar has been raised. Batter-up, Adam Wingard—let the MONSTERVERSE continue!

—Peter H. Gilmore

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acallforadventure · 5 years ago

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Answering questions about the game #00

So question: what are the ultimate goals for the game specifically? Is this going to evolve into somesort of open world survival game with actual Dayz mechanics like blood type going into it or more of an MMO RPG. And if it's an RPG to what extent, something in line with Deus Ex featuring a very indepth story that's actually coherent or more into World of Warcraft vibe? How deep is the building and mining here compared to other games?

I would also like to see what lore this has that's unique to itself rather than Adventure Time. Have you thought up of any specific lore systems or anything? It's apocalyptic and since the main character is human already a massive change to Adventure Time in which humans were rare.

Sorry if these are questions way ahead of what you are doing yourself but figure asking, ya know?

I'll answer with what is already planned, and I'm willing to disclose, because I want to keep some mystery, and on the social networks where I can post static images and gifs, I'm actually publishing those with snippets of lore.

First question: MMO? RPG? The first draft of the game was a MMO, but after seeing for the millionth time how toxic people can become in MMOs, I decided that being a peaceful and nice experience was too important, so I decided to go for a normal multiplayer, so that you can choose the people, and play with your friends, or a restricted group of people, so that you can manage bad apples, instead of quitting the game for desperation. Talking about the kind of game, it will be a sandbox, but there is no digging: I find that leveling up the ground takes a ridiculous amount of time, and becomes a tedious mechanic, producing predictable and uninteresting results too often, while if you cannot dig, you’ll choose wisely where to build what, and you’ll include the natural landscape in the project, as you’d do in the real world, that makes everything more interesting and somehow challenging. I want building to be more relevant too, so there will be a “scaffolding” system that lets you build the skeleton of buildings first, so that you can visualize well your project before finalizing it, this aims to make destruction non trivial, as in Minecraft that you can just dig your way to the end to loot a dungeon, since hopefully people will create their own adventures to play with their friends by building castles, dungeons and such, and using the game as a D&Dish platform. Also, the only other reason to dig is mining, but considered the setting, and the fact that I want exploration and adventuring to be a bigger part or the game, and leave the survival mechanics as quite marginal, acquiring advanced materials like metal will be easier and more common with scavenging and dungeon looting. I will probably give the chance to mine somehow, but I haven’t yet finalized the decision on the “how”, because I want to be sure it won’t be a tedious task that takes up a lot of play time.

Also, since there is no digging, dungeons (ruins will often have ��dungeon” elements like monsters and loot too) will be found as entrances sunk in the ground: there is a widely recurring theme of relics from the past in the game, the car wreck is a good example of that, you can find ancient relics resurfacing, they spawn from time to time in random places, because that’s what buried stuff do, it resurfaces, I find resurfaced items from time to time in real life too while exploring the forest, and so dungeons will do the same, the sunken entrances will see light again, and you’ll be able to enter and explore them… At least the ones that don’t move by themselves...

For the RPG part of the question, I like the idea that skill is more important than playtime, so there will be RPG elements, but in a "soft" manner and amount, this means no TENS of stats and skills to buy for everything, and ability to have more diversified skills versus a very closed, focused skill tree, as it's common practice in more classic RPGs (also acquiring advanced equipment should be the difficult part imo, not using it). One specific element that I can already tell is the mana system: I imagine casting spells as a physical strain, as it is often described in books, so instead of having Health, Stamina and Mana, we have only Health and Stamina, because Stamina IS Mana, this means that wizards are people trained in extraordinary physical efforts to cast spells, and so, the usual unfair large step between warriors and wizards, that make wizards a not-very-loved class in many RPGs, is quite leveled out, since wizards will be able to dodge and escape more heavily armored warriors, due to their increased resistance to fatigue.

Second question: how deep and coherent the story? Well, I'm a fan of deep and coherent stories, but I also acknowledge the huge amount of work needed for a story mode, so, the plan is to make a sandbox mode as base, and if the kickstarter will work out, putting as one of the first goals the story mode, so that I will be able to spend all the time and work needed to develop it to the quality standard that I want to give to this game. The sandbox will still have a deep, coherent lore, scattered around to discover in the form of ruins, places hiding a story, old notes and messages, and the presence of objects that give clear clues of past events.

Also, it clearly can’t have the same lore as AT, that would be plagiarism, so I merged in part of the lore of a story I had written previously, that has a similar setting but a quite different lore, the resulting mix means that there are substantial lore differences, but a similar end result on the game’s world. I’m not willing to give the details like this, because I want to keep the lore more of a mystery to enjoy discovering by the players for the most part, and part of it I want to keep publishing with the gifs and pictures, that I find a more enjoyable way to deliver it.

I hadn’t given this much detail publicly yet, only some of you had heard this stuff by talking directly with me, so I figured these questions were a good time to publish this kind of explanations. Bye!

#youtube #answers #questions #faq #A call for adventure

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dotthings · 6 years ago

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SPN 14.20 HOLY F*CKING I AM BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS HERE THAT WAS A GOOD. And a great set-up for S15.

*SNAPS FINGERS*

Let me try for some coherency. I scribbled watching notes.

Cas. :( Well I am not a bit surprise he’s not own with this. I don’t see how else he’s supposed to feel. Or how else Dean would feel. Or how Sam would feel. Sorry if TFW is so inexplicable to some people but they’re all making perfect sense to me. It’s sad but they make sense.

That Dean and Cas argument with Sam in the middle like :0 :| poor Sam, poor poor Sam, imagine having to watch all this intense Dean and Cas, he hates it when they bicker, and this is a real argument.

“I know how much he meant to you. He meant a lot to me. But that isn’t Jack any more.” So there it is, the truth beneath Dean’s walls he put up. None of this is because Dean is cold or uncaring. He is, however, still very angry and still (thinks) that he has to kill Jack. The place Dean lands with Jack in this ep also doesn’t surprise me because I been knew and that makes sense too but it also makes sense that right up the line, he’d think he has to kill Jack and follow that anger. This is an extraordinary situation in fact. Even though TFW have been faced with not-versions of themselves before, they’ve never killed another family member while in that state. And I think Jack’s escalating danger levels in this ep pretty much vindicates why someone might think he has to be killed...even though Jack isn’t evil or malicious still (more on that in a moment).

“Nerds.” “Takes one to know one.”

I was just talking about this about Dean. About his facades and how he used to mock nerds and geeks--still does even now--but is actually the biggest geek and I love that Sam calls him on his nerd qualities. His nerd traits. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING.

So nobody at all can lie any more and the world, as a result, starts tearing apart at the seams. Look SPN, when I said I wanted more emotional honesty...lololol that’s not what I meant. Some lies are necessary.

Oh my god it’s God. Hi, Chuck. (I was spoiled for this, it was still really fun when Chuck just popped up in the alley).

“Jack. He’s a problem.” NO REALLY I HADN’T NOTICED YOU DON’T SAY

Cas was going to see about the cage in Hell. Was he thinking he could put Jack in it?? Was that his alternative to just killing him?

Jack visiting his grandmother and she calling Jack out on the fact that he lied to them. Oh snap, Jack. You’re sick of all the lies but you told one (for a kindness). Some lies are necessary. You lied to people too.

This episode has some realness here about what holds society together and different types of honesty. Lying is wrong...except 100% blunt honestly all the time would be a complete disaster and there are some lies we need to tell for the sake of kindness, for community, for forgiveness, or it all will fall apart. Which lies are too far and which are necessary. Can a lie hurt but also be for a kindness and be necessary? SPN has had its main characters lie for years. They lie with credit card scams so they can pay for gas and food and lodging. They lie about who they’re secretly working with behind each other’s backs. All of Team Free Will has lied to each other. Kept things from each other. It doesn’t go well for them. Yet here’s an ep showing that some types of lies are necessary as part of the fabric of society.

Dean is sooooo done with God’s bullshit I am laughing. This is also really subversive because yes we love Chuck and his guitar. Chuck singing Fare-thee-Well. Chuck as a likeable (if irresponsible deadbeat dad) figure on SPN. But how benevolent is he actually? And they don’t have time for a song right now, they just don’t.

Team Free Will are still speaking to each other after Cas stormed out. That’s a good sign!

“I built the sandbox. You play in it...but when things get really bad that’s when I step in.”

Uh...kinda. Sometimes, Chuck. Yes he’s intervened a few times. He put Sam and Dean on the airplane. He put Cas back together more than once. He stepped up when he needed do about Amara at the end of S11. So maybe a C+ on actually being there in a pinch.

“Jack is apocalyptic.” Which--self-evident right there in the ep, thanks, Chuck. Oh and can we stop pretending Jack isn’t incredibly dangerous at least? Oh he’s not just dangerous he is world-endingly dangerous. Note I rooted for Jack to be okay, and want him to be saved, but the situation is what it is right now.

It made a lot of sense to spec based on the ep title Chuck was going to show up to intervene and stop TFW from having to kill Jack, and I’m sure with a reference that blatant in that title, Dabb knew that would be the assumption. It made sense. The overturning of that is interesting here. Chuck didn’t show up and didn’t show up and when he finally does it’s to hand them the weapon to destroy Jack. Which at this point in the ep I’m still wondering--but it could be a test. Let’s see what happens.

Oh. Whoever shoots the gun, what happens to the target, happens to them. Aaaand we’re back to Dean with a self-sacrificing plan.

Damn Cas is so damn salty still about the Dean-in-the-box plan I love it. He hates that plan. Now he’s extra special plus cranky because he’s looking now at losing Jack and losing Dean simultaneously. I’ve talked a lot in my posts about Cas’s big love for both Jack and Dean. This is diabolical. Cas could lose them both with one gunshot. Of course he doesn’t want his son to die...but he doesn’t want Dean to die. Save Jack...means saving Dean too.

I really loved this Sam and Dean scene and while Cas doesn’t get to verbalize what’s going on in his head, Sam certainly gets to vocalize what Sam’s thinking. “I’m the one who brought him back. He burned his soul off to save you and me. You want me to say I’m okay with losing you and losing him all at once. I can’t do that. I’ve already lost too much.” MIC DROP SAM WINCHESTER.

“I don’t feel anything.” There’s the crux of the Jack Problem. He intellectually understands what’s “good” and what’s “bad” but he doesn’t, in his own words, feel it. He’s the most powerful being on the planet and he’s completely hollow inside, lacking true empathy, lacking instincts, strong attachments, an innate sense of right and wrong. That’s...really terrifying. It’s really not at all hateful to Jack to comprehend how scary that combination is. “I want to love you back, it’s just I can’t.”

This is. Damn. We saw AU Cas in ep 300, what happens when Cas never learned to access his emotions. As an angel, our Cas was taught that emotions were bad, they were a weakness. He was taught not to heed them. To control them. To never be led by his heart or his feelings. But instead of heeding that, Cas led with his whole heart, he often drowned in his own emotions, overwhelmed by them. He has intense attachments and pain and loneliness and fear and even moments of peace and joy. He feels it all. He’s the most feeling angel to ever feel, and how painfully on point is it that his son is now...emotionless.

“You’re my favorite show.” Wow it got super meta in here, Chuck.

“Why does it always have to be on us,” wonders the tormented characters. “Because you’re my guys!” gushes the enthusiastic Winchester fan, God.

I feel so called out right now. I do. While I am certainly in the camp that feels that too much torture porn angst without hope is a weaker story, like many fans, there is a certain catharsis and satisfaction in watching our favorite characters suffer and triumph and keep on going and not let the suffering defeat them.

In this ep Dabb is taking that idea and expanding it out to a walking talking metaphor, embodied in Chuck, who turns out to be a toxic wielder of suffering for his own amusement. Tying to Jack’s lack of emotions, Chuck seems okay with others suffering. It’s not that he lacks feelings, because he gets something from watching these “characters” suffer, but he’s lacking in empathy because he doesn’t seem to care that they’re suffering and in the world of SPN these are not characters, these are real people he’s jerking around making them dance to his angst-buttons for his own enjoyment.

Cas still is clinging on to hope that Jack can be fixed and my heart hurts for him. At this point, I’m still hoping Jack can be...but it’s not looking good.

Jack kneeling in front of Dean to be killed. Because while he’s dangerous, no he’s not evil or malicious. “I understand. You were right all along. I am a monster.” This is just...really sad. I’m sad.

Oh, SPN, you tried so hard, but I never thought Dean would be able to pull that trigger. Also the tragedy of Dean--he didn’t hesitate because Dean had a sudden revelation he wants to live so he’s not going to seppuku the problem after all. No, it’s because he just couldn’t do it to Jack in the end, to his son, who had earned his love and his trust after a rough start. Dean understands that this Jack isn’t the Jack he recently knew and Dean also understands how far gone Jack is and how dangerous. Yet he still can’t do it. This makes perfect sense to me. I could also see how he might have pulled that trigger (and that would have been horrible and it would have hurt Dean so much...and I don’t just mean because of the magic ricochet of that gun...it would be too much. And...it looks like this ep agrees with me on a textual and meta-textual level. Uh-huh.)

"This isn’t how this story is supposed to end.” Chuck, our author, isn’t enjoying the fact that his characters are doing things he didn’t plan on and didn’t intend (which happens during the creative process).

“Pull the trigger and I’ll bring her back,” Chuck offers. “No.” says Dean. “My mom is my hero and I will miss her every day of my life but she wouldn’t want this.”

And then Sam goes OFF. “over and over and over again...losing people we love.”

“This isn’t just a story. This is our lives.”

I am LOVING THIS. I actually clapped my hands with meta-ish glee.

THE CHARACTERS ARE REBELLING AGAINST SPN’S OWN RELIANCE ON MISERY PORN AND I AM LIVING.

This is so self-critical. On a story/character level, this is amazing for Sam and Dean, who are defying fate, refusing yet again to be jerked around by a cosmic puppetmaster. Sam goes as far as defying the idea that they don’t deserve to be happy. Not in so many words. But he is flipping off the concept that all they are good for is suffering AND I AM SO PROUD and I think Dean gets it too but oh my poor Dean was just willing to commit seppuku and while Dean is rejecting being puppetted around, not for anyone, not even to save Mary, I don’t know if he’s at the place where he sees it how Sam does--that screw you, I don’t deserve to suffer like this open defiance.

So Sam shoots God. lololol for a hot second there I thought Sam was going to kill God and welp that would have been a plot twist but no, just a flesh wound so Sam is wounded too.

Chuck’s not thrilled his favorite human pets aren’t playing along for his amusement.

“Story’s over. Welcome to the end.”

LIGHTS OUT.

Well. God was the big bad all along. GOD WAS THE BIGGEST BAD OF SPN ALL ALONG.

I was hoping Jack wouldn’t have to die. At least none of his dads had to kill him and the set-up with Jack landing in The Empty seems like he’s not gone forever. WHAT DID BILLIE MEAN “WE HAVE TO TALK.” About what. What is going on.

WHAT IS HAPPENING

IS THAT LA LLARONA

THAT’S BLOODY FREAKIN’ MARY

HOLY CRAP THE SOULS OF THEIR EARLIEST CASES ARE RISING FROM HELL

ALL THE SOULS ARE RISING FROM HELL

WE ALL SPECCED HEAVEN WOULD BREAK AND THE SOULS IN HEAVEN WOULD GET LOSE AND INSTEAD IT WAS ALL THE SOULS FROM HELL THIS IS AWESOME

SAM AND DEAN AND CAS!! TEAM FREE WILL ARE BACK TO BACK TOGETHER IN THE DARKNESS SURROUNDED BY ZOMBIES I WISHED FOR A MOMENT LIKE THIS FOR YEARS. TEAM FREE F*CKING WILL. ALSO A FINALE THAT HAD ALL THREE OF THEM UNITED. THANK DABB.

#Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Castiel #Jack Kline #Chuck Shurley #spn #supernatural #spoilers #meta #Team Free Will

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salvatoreschool · 5 years ago

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Legacies: “Screw Endgame” Writers Preview The Episode

Executive Producer Brett Matthews and Thomas Brandon are the writers of tonight’s game-changer episode of Legacies airing at 9PM ET/PT on The CW and both writers hopped on the phone with KSiteTV yesterday to preview this story which sees Hope and Lizzie teaming up in a very Eighties-like setting at the same time a dance is happening with a similar look.

“Screw Endgame” is the title of this one, and it picks up with Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) now being one of the only people who remembers everything about Hope (Danielle Rose Russell). Some minor spoilers for tonight’s show can be found within; you have been warned! A post-mortem discussing more spoilery topics will be up after tonight’s show has aired.

On to the interview!

KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Can you talk about the choice in the writers’ room to make Lizzie the first person to remember Hope?

BRETT MATTHEWS: Honestly, it wasn’t a choice. It was one of those moments where it was just our natural instinct and on an undeniable gut level, but it’s like when you put your writer hat on and you go, “well, who’s the best person?”

It’s her, because who is in the worst situation?

Obviously Lizzie’s blood allegiance is to Josie — they’re literally twins. Hope Mikaelson is her frenemy at best leading into this episode, so Lizzie is just obviously the ideal person to be put into the situation because it is the stuff of great drama.

THOMAS BRANDON: The dramatic fun of it is Lizzie has such a hard time keeping a secret. She’s such a declarative character; she just tells everyone how she’s feeling at all times. So the idea of giving her a secret, to be the only one in the world that knew that Hope was back and having to hold that from everybody, just seemed like it would lead to some great episodes, and it’s certainly something she will struggle within the next episode. “How do I keep this secret, the biggest secret of all time?”

What can you preview about the Hope and Lizzie reunion, for the people who haven’t seen the episode yet?

THOMAS BRANDON:

What we discover is after the events of Episode 4 where Lizzie remembers who she is, Lizzie and Hope are thrown together and working together to solve a problem that I don’t want to spoil. The problem demands that they fight the monster before they can actually talk about everything that’s happened. Fighting the monster is their therapy, and it’s their way to get through all the choices that have been made where Hope came back and chose not to tell everybody.

BRETT MATTHEWS: For Lizzie, it’s like, they are in a life or death situation and have to rely on each other, but she wants to know the fundamental question of the season up to this point, which is why. “Why didn’t you tell us you were back?” That’s going to be the answer she is trying to find, even as they’re trying to survive the monster of the week.

THOMAS BRANDON: The really interesting journey for Lizzie will be once she goes through this experience with Hope.

What if Lizzie, at the end, kind of gets it?

What if Lizzie understands why Hope did what she did, and what if going forward, they decided to keep it secret, and how will that go?

Can you talk about how then 1980s settings came up when breaking this episode?

BRETT MATTHEWS: Yeah, I mean, that’s just where Thomas and I come from. We knew we wanted to do a decade dance. We’ve been trying to do one for two seasons now, because it’s a tie to our past and sort of thematic of it being tied to the show’s past. I’ve probably written a handful of those over the years of Vampire Diaries.

It’s sort of a tie to our pasts. We’re products that generation. We saw Star Wars, we wanted to do what we do for a living as a result, and that’s just where our brains go when it comes to nostalgia, when it comes to specificity, when it comes to a a decade, we really wanted to explore this very vibrant time in our minds.

Our cast, mind you, has no idea what the Eighties were. That’s sort of the fun of it, to view it through that lens. I think our director Barbara Brown, and our editor, Evan Warner, latched on to a lot of those same elements, being products of that same generation.

It just gave the whole episode a wonderful specificity, and a zeal and a passion that I think was the right fit for us. And it’s also the other stuff of Legacies. It’s the ridiculous wardrobe and the jaw dropping soundtrack. It’s all the great things, and let’s be honest, it was about seeing Matt Davis in an Indiana Jones costume. That’s really all that mattered to us as writers.

When writing an episode like this, were any of the song choices in the script, or was that all picked later?

THOMAS BRANDON: I don’t think any of the song choices were in the script, but we talked extensively with our director because some of the time, you’re going to take us in post, but some of the time if there’s choreographed dancing, or if there are camera moves that are being tied to certain beats or rhythms, you need to know in advance what those are going to be so the actors and the camera people can all practice.

So, it was a little mixture of both. We have a phenomenal music supervisor, Chris Moliere, who got us a list of over 200 songs, both originals and covers. It’s kind of a wacky thing to listen to like four covers of the same song in a row, hearing four different takes on it. And it was about us finding the surprising version. You don’t normally necessarily think of Take On Me as a romantic song, but you find the romantic cover of it.

BRETT MATTHEWS: Chris Moliere is really one of the best in the business at what he does. He’s exceptional. You think of all of the great song placements we’ve had over the near decade of doing this together, and it’s just amazing.

Do you think relationships in life are now less complicated for Hope, since very few people remember their histories with her?

BRETT MATTHEWS: I think I think the problem is, she remembers her history with that. And I don’t know, once that elephant exists in the room, that anything’s easy. I think in some ways, actually, it might be a lot harder.

Because, you know, friendships, relationships, ups and downs, you at least have that mutual history, and she’s in a really terrible position in the season where the history is one sided, and the burden is hers to bear alone.

So if anything, I would say it’s more difficult.

What can you tell us about what Sebastian is up to and how MG and Kaleb factor into that?

BRETT MATTHEWS: This episode gets to the bottom of exactly what kind of vampire Sebastian is. He’s a vampire from sort of the Vampire Diaries universe set in the world of Legacies, and what does that mean? Kaleb and MG are really the perfect spirit guides to usher a Gothic vampire into the modern woke world of vampires that a Legacies vampire exists in.

Sebastian is somebody who would be really comfortable having a beer with Damon Salvatore. MG and Kaleb live a very different lifestyle as vampires. It really is an opportunity for sort of self examination and reflection on some of the stories we’ve told in the past and in the same universe, but in a totally different palette. The world has changed so much in the short time between The Vampire Diaries and Legacies that Sebastian really is a vehicle for us to explore all those issues, and what that means.

THOMAS BRANDON: The best vampire to to create that tension in that and that contrast with MG. MG has definitely been the vampire who’s the most evolved, and who wants to change the stigma of what vampires are, and to change the definition of what vampires could be, and here comes this black-clad Gothic vampire straight out of another show there to kind of reinforce stereotypes.

It’s almost like MG’s worried that Sebastian’s out here making us all look bad. So he’s struggling not just with Sebastian, who’s into the girl he’s into, but he’s struggling with the fact that Sebastian represents a point of view that MG is trying to leave behind.

What has been your favorite part of Legacies Season 2 so far?

BRETT MATTHEWS: For me, the show is a joy. It’s about good things, and friendship, and the occasional tragedy. But what I love the most about this show is that if you have a good idea, we can do it. The show is elastic in all the best ways. It’s lighter, it’s fun. The show is exactly what I want it to be, and so that’s one of the joys.

Julie [Plec] has really created an elastic sandbox, and it’s really fun. I love the monsters. I love the characters. I love what the show is saying about the world. I think it would be harder for Thomas and I to illuminate things we don’t like about it.

THOMAS BRANDON: This year, it’s been the cast. I thought the cast was really good in Season 1, and somehow, they stepped up for Season 2. I’ve seen them do some really extraordinary work, especially when you get to be on set.

I’ve watched them approach a scene, and they approach it so thoughtfully. The greatest joy you can ever have with a writer is to write a line and then have an actor come up and deliver it in a way that even better than what was in your head. You feel seen and protected and saved as a writer. It’s like, “oh, thank you. You took something that was an idea and you actually made it real and lived in, and to the point where you forgot that you wrote it.”

BRETT MATTHEWS: It’s the cast; it’s the crew. It is the greatest joy for a writer. You write something, you put your guts on a page, and then people come along, understand it, and make it better. That’s really been the joy. I’d [also[ say that’s the joy of Season 2 is we’re not finding it anymore. We know what the show is. The actors know who the characters are. The directors know how the show looks and moves and so hopefully, we’re just another year better at it. I feel that we are, and I certainly hope our fans feel the same.

I feel very strongly about Season 2.

I think if you liked Season 1, you’ll love Season 2. That’s always the goal; to just get better every year.

You can find a trailer for tonight’s Legacies episode “Screw Endgame” below; some preview images can be found here. Our thanks to Brett Matthews and Thomas Brandon for taking the time to do this interview!

youtube

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words4notes · 6 years ago

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Toni Morrison: 'Be Your Own Story', Wellesley College - 2004

I have to confess to all of you, Madame President, Board of Trustees, members of the faculty, relatives, friends, students. I have had some conflicted feelings about accepting this invitation to deliver the Commencement Address to Wellesley’s Class of 2004. My initial response, of course, was glee, a very strong sense of pleasure at, you know, participating personally and formally in the rites of an institution with this reputation: 125 years of history in women’s education, an enviable rostrum of graduates, its commitment sustained over the years in making a difference in the world, and its successful resistance to challenges that women’s colleges have faced from the beginning and throughout the years. An extraordinary record-and I was delighted to be asked to participate and return to this campus. But my second response was not so happy. I was very anxious about having to figure out something to say to this particular class at this particular time, because I was really troubled by what could be honestly said in 2004 to over 500 elegantly educated women, or to relatives and friends who are relieved at this moment, but hopeful as well as apprehensive. And to a college faculty and administration dedicated to leadership and knowledgeable about what that entails. Well, of course, I could be sure of the relatives and the friends, just tell them that youth is always insulting because it manages generation after generation not only to survive and replace us, but to triumph over us completely.

And I would remind the faculty and the administration of what each knows: that the work they do takes second place to nothing, nothing at all, and that theirs is a first order profession. Now, of course to the graduates I could make reference to things appropriate to your situations–the future, the past, the present, but most of all happiness. Regarding the future, I would have to rest my case on some bromide, like the future is yours for the taking. Or, that it’s whatever you make of it. But the fact is it is not yours for the taking. And it is not whatever you make of it. The future is also what other people make of it, how other people will participate in it and impinge on your experience of it. But I’m not going to talk anymore about the future because I’m hesitant to describe or predict because I’m not even certain that it exists. That is to say, I’m not certain that somehow, perhaps, a burgeoning ménage a trois of political interests, corporate interests and military interests will not prevail and literally annihilate an inhabitable, humane future. Because I don’t think we can any longer rely on separation of powers, free speech, religious tolerance or unchallengeable civil liberties as a matter of course. That is, not while finite humans in the flux of time make decisions of infinite damage. Not while finite humans make infinite claims of virtue and unassailable power that are beyond their competence, if not their reach. So, no happy talk about the future. Maybe the past offers a better venue. You already share an old tradition of an uncompromisingly intellectual women’s college, and that past and that tradition is important to both understand and preserve. It’s worthy of reverence and transmission. You’ve already learned some strategies for appraising the historical and economical and cultural past that you have inherited. But this is not a speech focusing on the splendor of the national past that you are also inheriting. You will detect a faint note of apology in the descriptions of this bequest, a kind of sorrow that accompanies it, because it’s not good enough for you. Because the past is already in debt to the mismanaged present. And besides, contrary to what you may have heard or learned, the past is not done and it is not over, it’s still in process, which is another way of saying that when it’s critiqued, analyzed, it yields new information about itself. The past is already changing as it is being reexamined, as it is being listened to for deeper resonances. Actually it can be more liberating than any imagined future if you are willing to identify its evasions, its distortions, its lies, and are willing to unleash its secrets. But again, it seemed inappropriate, very inappropriate, for me to delve into a past for people who are in the process of making one, forging their own, so I consider this focusing on your responsibility as graduates-graduates of this institution and citizens of the world-and to tell you once again, repeat to you the admonition, a sort of a wish, that you go out and save the world. That is to suggest to you that with energy and right thinking you can certainly improve, certainly you might even rescue it. Now that’s a heavy burden to be placed on one generation by a member of another generation because it’s a responsibility we ought to share, not save the world, but simply to love it, meaning don’t hurt it, it’s already beaten and scoured and gasping for breath. Don’t hurt it or enable others who do and will. Know and identify the predators waving flags made of dollar bills. They will say anything, promise anything, do everything to turn the planet into a casino where only the house cards can win-little people with finite lives love to play games with the infinite. But I thought better of that, selecting your responsibilities for you. If I did that, I would assume your education had been in vain and that you were incapable of deciding for yourself what your responsibilities should be. So, I’m left with the last thing that I sort of ignored as a topic. Happiness. I’m sure you have been told that this is the best time of your life. It may be. But if it’s true that this is the best time of your life, if you have already lived or are now living at this age the best years, or if the next few turn out to be the best, then you have my condolences. Because you’ll want to remain here, stuck in these so-called best years, never maturing, wanting only to look, to feel and be the adolescent that whole industries are devoted to forcing you to remain. One more flawless article of clothing, one more elaborate toy, the truly perfect diet, the harmless but necessary drug, the almost final elective surgery, the ultimate cosmetic-all designed to maintain hunger for stasis. While children are being eroticized into adults, adults are being exoticized into eternal juvenilia. I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, target of your labors here, your choices of companions, of the profession that you will enter. You deserve it and I want you to gain it, everybody should. But if that’s all you have on your mind, then you do have my sympathy, and if these are indeed the best years of your life, you do have my condolences because there is nothing, believe me, more satisfying, more gratifying than true adulthood. The adulthood that is the span of life before you. The process of becoming one is not inevitable. Its achievement is a difficult beauty, an intensely hard won glory, which commercial forces and cultural vapidity should not be permitted to deprive you of. Now, if I can’t talk inspiringly and hopefully about the future or the past or the present and your responsibility to the present or happiness, you might be wondering why I showed up. If things are that dour, that tentative, you might ask yourself, what’s this got to do with me? What about my life? I didn’t ask to be born, as they say. I beg to differ with you. Yes, you did! In fact, you insisted upon it. It’s too easy, you know, too ordinary, too common to not be born. So your presence here on Earth is a very large part your doing. So it is up to the self, that self that insisted on life that I want to speak to now-candidly-and tell you the truth that I have not really been clearheaded about, the world I have described to you, the one you are inheriting. All my ruminations about the future, the past, responsibility, happiness are really about my generation, not yours. My generation’s profligacy, my generation’s heedlessness and denial, its frail ego that required endless draughts of power juice and repeated images of weakness in others in order to prop up our own illusion of strength, more and more self congratulation while we sell you more and more games and images of death as entertainment. In short, the palm I was reading wasn’t yours, it was the splayed hand of my own generation and I know no generation has a complete grip on the imagination and work of the next one, not mine and not your parents’, not if you refuse to let it be so. You don’t have to accept those media labels. You need not settle for any defining category. You don’t have to be merely a taxpayer or a red state or a blue state or a consumer or a minority or a majority. Of course, you’re general, but you’re also specific. A citizen and a person, and the person you are is like nobody else on the planet. Nobody has the exact memory that you have. What is now known is not all what you are capable of knowing. You are your own stories and therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human without wealth. What it feels like to be human without domination over others, without reckless arrogance, without fear of others unlike you, without rotating, rehearsing and reinventing the hatreds you learned in the sandbox. And although you don’t have complete control over the narrative (no author does, I can tell you), you could nevertheless create it. Although you will never fully know or successfully manipulate the characters who surface or disrupt your plot, you can respect the ones who do by paying them close attention and doing them justice. The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who you are and what you mean. But then, I am a teller of stories and therefore an optimist, a believer in the ethical bend of the human heart, a believer in the mind’s disgust with fraud and its appetite for truth, a believer in the ferocity of beauty. So, from my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art. Thank you.

#toni morrison #Wellesley College #art #speech #happiness

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innertragedywerewolf · 1 month ago

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Face Swap Fenom: Is PTool the New Frontier of Self-Expression?

Have you ever wondered what the world would look like through someone else's eyes? What if you could actually see through their lens, quite literally? Welcome to the curious case of PTool's AI Face Swap, a digital wizardry that's turning heads and sparking conversations across the internet. Today, I'm not just going to talk about this fascinating feature; I want to challenge the conventional boundaries of self-expression and social networking. Let's explore in, shall we?

PTool's Swap Face feature is nothing short of a modern renaissance in the realm of digital alteration. It allows users to seamlessly Swap Faces in photos, blurring the lines between reality and virtuality. Imagine the possibilities: connecting with someone through a shared laugh as you both marvel at your new hybrid visages, or using it as a tool for storytelling, adding a twist to your online persona. But does this spell the end of authenticity in our digital lives?

Before we jump to conclusions, let's consider the art of conversion. For centuries, humans have donned masks, literal and metaphorical, to explore different facets of their identity. PTool merely offers a modern canvas for this ancient dance of self-discovery. But the question remains—does swapping faces alter the essence of who we are, or does it merely offer a playful mask to wear in the vast digital landscape?

I've experimented with PTool's Swap Face, and you know what I found? It's not just a fun tool; it's a mirror reflecting the multiple versions of ourselves that we often keep hidden. It's a way to say, "This is me, but also, this could be me." It encourages dialogue, prompts self-reflection, and yes, even a healthy dose of debate about identity and the face we present to the world.

Now, let's address the elephant in the room: privacy. With the NSFW mode toggled on, PTool's Swap Face feature does open a can of worms. It raises questions about consent and the potential for misuse. Can we freely Swap Faces without infringing on someone's privacy or personal boundaries? This is where the waters get murky, and the onus is on us, the users, to guide this new terrain responsibly.

But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The creative potential of PTool is undeniable. It's a tool that can help artists tell new stories, friends share inside jokes, and individuals explore their identity in a digital space. It's a platform where the mundane transforms into the extraordinary with a simple click.

What about the social implications? Consider the power of a face swap in breaking the ice. It can act as a bridge between cultures, generations, and social circles. It's a universal language, a shared moment of connection in an increasingly fragmented world. So, is PTool's Swap Face feature just a fleeting trend, or is it a harbinger of a new era of digital interaction?

I argue it's the latter. We're on the cusp of a new wave of self-expression, one that's not confined by the singular reflection in the mirror. PTool's Swap Face is a tool for exploration, a means to ask, "What if?" and "Why not?" It's a playground for our imaginations, a digital sandbox where we can all be kids again, experimenting with 'what if I looked like that?

So, I challenge you to consider this: as PTool and similar technologies evolve, how will you use them? Will you embrace the chance to explore new identities, or will you raise a cautious flag, wary of the implications? The beauty of innovation is that it's neutral—it's what we make of it that counts.

Finally, PTool's Swap Face feature is more than a simple face-swapping app. It's a mirror reflecting our collective curiosity about identity, a canvas for our creativity, and a platform for dialogue in an ever-connected world. It's up to us to craft the narrative, to decide whether it's a tool for expression or a privacy minefield. The stage is set—how will you play your part in this digital drama?

#PTool #Faceswap #FaceChanger #SwapFace #Deepswap #ChangeFace #AIFaceSwap

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ebola-kun · 5 years ago

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This Merely Induce 4 Easter egg tackles a timeless popular music online video - Polygon

This Easter egg is ... well, I don't understand what I'm to claim. Yet I'll state it anyhow: It is actually excellent.

Barrage Studios is actually understood to be actually lively through this collection of sandbox, mass environmental mishap simulations, as well as Simply Cause 4 is actually no different. But I picture this most recent exploration is actually far more acquainted to the typical passerby, many thanks to a clear stylistic change as well as the inclusion of an extraordinary tune.

Merely Trigger 4 gamers discovered that, in a specific location, Rico Rodriguez enters into a building that has a top secret second layer. It looks or else regular, go downstairs, and also the planet turns right into a living comic manual. The soft noises of the 1986 traditional "Handle Me" through a-Ha develop louder as Rico heads in to this ink-and-paper world as well as ends up being a black-and-white synopsis of themself. He even locates a woman dance to the song, as any good person would.

Scrub to the 51-second result in the video clip above to view this all in action.

Check out the words "Take On Me," and you are going to instantly possess a-Ha's one as well as only hit in your head. Its own online video helped popularize the track-- although this bop whacks hard enough to draw the masses by itself-- due to just how trendy it is. The band's extremely attractive lead Swede is actually the superstar of a comic manual; somehow, he deals with to stimulate within its own webpages and make a live-action, individual lady succumb to him. The two possess the energy to intervene and away from planets both flat and also three-dimensional.

The "Tackle Me" video clip is still beautiful much more than 3 decades eventually, so the referral Only Lead to 4 helps make to it likewise strikes a chord. I merely wish these clips won't be actually used a day or pair of-- because of copyright strikes and all that. I presume it truly is no far better to be actually secure than sorry; scream out to the users for sharing the affection with those of our company who possess yet to play Just Create 4, which is out right now on PlayStation 4, Windows Personal Computer as well as Xbox One.

This content was originally published here.

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rio-nilo · 5 years ago

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Top Best Minecraft House Ideas Secrets

It is possible to create plenty of cities based on distinct designs. You can opt to develop a city or create a farm. You are able to also build the cities dependent on the previous themes. In the Minecraft, as you are constructing your own town, you cannot lose out on the shops.

In order to have some practice, you should begin by building some basic houses in the game. It's not possible that you create a home without tools in Minecraft. There are many things which are very beneficial to include in your home in Minecraft. The Minecraft houses are available in assorted sizes. Then following a few seconds, the house is going to be created next to you. The Mediterranean home is built over the span of 6 videos that are approximately more than 20 minutes each. Finally, it's possible to never fail with a normal modern house that you may literally design however you'd like.

When you've made your banner, you don't need to go through the entire process again. Social networking websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a main role in popularising Minecraft. A vast array of user-generated content for Minecraft, like modifications, texture packs and custom maps, are offered for download on the Internet. Imagine when you have unlimited resources to construct the treehouse that you dream about. There are just a few instructions for playing the game that makes it unusual than other games.

The creative mode does not have any monsters in it, and it's free of threats like hunger. It allows the players to build magnificent buildings and structures. The game mode helps players center on building and creating massive projects.

Life After Best Minecraft House Ideas

For the Minecraft houses, you will see thousands of choices out there to pick, yet just a few will offer what you would like. Despite the fact that you have all of the barren land, it's literally possible to earn a house in Minecraft anywhere. The Farm is a wonderful LEGO set that delivers an outstanding 262-pieces environment on which you may build anything you want from house to a large garden that includes a cow, a sheep, and a skeleton. When you have dirt or stone near you, you can dig out two or three blocks there, and put your crafting table and furnace. If you're in a desert with just sand and cacti all around, and don't have another blocks readily available, don't utilize cacti (they'll kill you). Jungle, tall spruce, and big oak trees are advised. Or you might opt to fight creatures and get started building elaborate weapons and traps.

The next thing to do is to create a bed. A bed has many benefits in the game. Then, needless to say, a front door is imperative to craft one by utilizing the wood you've got in your resources. In addition, a grand staircase to a massive front entrance helps. It's possible to make a regenerating wall utilizing water and lava also. Make certain you bring plenty of wood.

The most important concept is exactly the same, an open sandbox world. So you need to have a good deal of ideas which you may use to design and personalize your home. One of the greatest things about Minecraft is the ability to construct something which's truly your own. Do not try if you're quick tempered. You don't need to be concerned about that. There is more you are able to create. It's possible to use both of them.

Some players come up with a few extraordinary architectural designs, and we'd really like to share a number of the things we found incredible with you. While they can move freely across the world, objects can only be placed at fixed locations on the grid. They can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various water bodies. In terms of the sound impacts of the game, it is straightforward yet powerful. The game gets quite simple and fun as soon as you learn the fundamentals of the mining, survival, and crafting. It is also feasible to see from the standpoint of some other player or creature. Following that, you have to expand the base so that it's actually beneficial!

You need to have a very good comprehension of the land you've got in your game. You will begin to have endless opportunities and decisions which are only restricted by your own abilities and imagination. The very first job you must do is to discover and punch down a tree to find some wood to create planks to create a crafting table out of it. The guy knows the way to build Minecraft houses! Regardless of what your kid is searching for, it's more than certain he will love a Minecraft house. Any kid will have the ability to craft any house or platform they want efficiently, while also having the capability to better their imagination to the limits. So, any kid can build any kind of fortress you need or a house for this issue.

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#minecraft house ideas #minecraft #minecraft houses ideas #cool minecraft house ideas

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rassilon-imprimatur · 6 years ago

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A Guide to “A Bloody (and Public) Domaine,” my contribution to Faction Paradox: The Book of the Enemy

Faction Paradox: The Book of the Enemy was released by Obverse Books in January 2018 (already over a year ago, sheesh), and it included my first published short story, A Bloody (and Public) Domaine. Last March, Andrew Hickey published a list of all the references to other stories (Faction, Doctor Who, or otherwise) in his Book of the Enemy story on his blog. Fellow Book of the Enemy contributor and good egg Nate Bumber followed suit with a rundown of references in his wonderful story, and the powerhouse that is Niki Haringsma has done the same with The Book of the Peace.

I’ve had a fairly rough year beside really struggling to find any merit in my Book of the Enemy and Book of the Peace stories (a writer really is his own worst critic), but finally felt the gumption to dive in! This is a mix of some (not all) of the references in my story, as well as just some general commentary. I’ll be making a similar post for my Book of the Peace and connecting Dossier material next!

Obviously, spoilers ahead. You should probably have read the story first. If you haven’t and still read through this, please purchase the book, available on the Obverse site! I’m not going through everything, just giving a little bit of commentary.

But first let me say, I will be forever grateful to the book’s editor Simon Bucher-Jones (@thebrakespearevoyage-blog), for taking such a big chance on me with this story, dealing with a rookie like me, and letting me play in his sandbox. An absolute gem of a human being.

Enjoy!

“The black lessens, crumbles, an Empire sky of temporal red focuses.” A nod to the Eleven-Day Empire and my own assertion of the typical “look” of a Faction alter-time realm, the sky color taken from the Empire’s appearance in the Faction Paradox comic.

“EXT: THE SHADOW SPIRE... (very Dr. Caligari meets Trying Too Hard).” I’m going to save most of what Auteur and his home Shadow Spire are references to for my Book of the Peace post, but, as a hint, basically picture a crumbling lighthouse as pencilled by the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip legend John Ridgeway... nudge nudge, wink wink.

Gideon exists as little more than the audience of Auteur’s madness (and to die at the end), but I had fun sketching out this character. He’s a member of the Faction who doesn’t care that he is, a renegade Homeworlder that just had nowhere else to go. I think of all the possible characterizations of various Faction members, the idea of a member of the Houses rushing into the ideology they don’t believe in, embracing the aesthetic because they have no choice, is my favorite. Gideon has more recently received something of a second life in White Canvas by James Wylder.

This story is set definitively before the Eleven-Day Empire’s destruction in The Faction Paradox Protocols. I felt this was the safer choice given the scope of the full anthology. I went the “definitely after the Eleven-Day Empire’s death” route in my Book of the Peace story.

“A few Loa, smears of age as twisted as the Spire, swarm the peak like vultures.” Key to Faction Paradox lore and a rather damning example of the Faction’s appropriation of Haitian voodoo, the term “loa” (spirits) refer to the alter-time structures and temporal processes the Faction claim to worship. I have always interpreted them as the familiar gobbledygook we’d hear as “time orbits” or “temporal loops” from the Doct-AHEM-a certain time traveler, but from the Faction’s POV, very much alive. Which POV is accurate? That’s up to you.

“A phonograph, straight out of Hammer, operating diligently on a shard of glittering sapphire.” Hammer Film Productions’ “Hammer Horror,” naturally.

“Godfather Morlock’s Personal Record, kept on Phonograph.” Morlock is a major character in Faction lore, appearing in The Book of the War and the BBV Faction Paradox Protocols. He comes across as something of a creepy Victorian taxidermist and scientist, with unknown plans for the Faction and the War. Recording his musings on a phonograph is a reference to Dr. Jack Seward from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Morlock’s account of Vlad the Impaler and the Celestis is all from The Book of the War, an earlier Faction Paradox use of the historic figure that rather interestingly asserts he can’t be Dracula. Believe it or not based on this story, I actually hate when modern Dracula adaptations or remakes try to make him Vlad directly.

Mention of the Impaler’s “history tangling with the Incremental Effect,” is a reference to the Iris Wildthyme novella The Found World, published in Iris Wildthyme and Friends Investigate, one of my favorite Iris collections. You’ll actually see a lot of crossing with Miss Wildthyme in my stories. I’ve always felt the two series shared a fascinating relationship and rather love what wonderful recontextualization can happen when you view them as partners in crime as opposed to rivals or strangers.

The “woman in a black dress and porcelain skin” is Lilith, and is, perhaps obviously, Lolita, the true villain of the series. More on her later.

The timeline Morlock describes, a “What If Dracula Won?” scenario, starts as a soft reference to Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula novels before literally launching into space to become a reference to Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D series.

“They embraced the flesh and blood and were proudly organic, with none of the clinical and pristine mathematics of the Ships of the Great Houses.” A lot of detail is often given to how the Great Houses despise their organic nature, and we know that the enemy have timeships of some fashion if we take Lolita’s word in Lawrence Miles’ Interference-interlude Toy Story as gospel.

The stuttered “Ghost Point” is the period in the early 21st century where mankind’s limitless potential ground to a halt, effectively killing the advanced civilization humanity should have been. An interestingly important part of the series lore.

“Plus, Morlock can baise lui-même on a candlelit evening.” He can fuck himself. My dear friend Liria has very happily and comfortably let me know that my French is absolutely atrocious. I merely look to The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and hold my head high for maintaining a Faction Paradox tradition.

I don’t know why the VHS tapes are “crumbling like mouldering Metsovone” because I swear I wrote that they were “crumbling like mortar” when sending my draft in. Either a) Simon has hidden a secret message throughout the entire book, b) I’m losing my mind, changed it and forgot it, or c) I’ve been infected by the either the enemy or the Houses in an attempt to replace my account of things with Grecian dairy. It is a more creative metaphor.

The “Homeworlder Observer Effect” is just a term given to the Faction Paradox assertion in The Book of the War and The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic that the Great Houses literally force potential into reality by merely observing (while I’m taking cues and terminology from the loose concept scattered throughout the works of Lance Parkin, Kate Orman, and Jon Blum, most notably the unwritten novel Mentor, where an insane Time Lord could literally observe his own will and madness into reality). This plays a major part in my Book of the Peace story as well, so I’ll talk a bit about it there.

I was a very late addition to the Book of the Enemy’s team, so literally any perceived intelligence and coalescence with my story’s metafictional take on Dracula and the rest of the book’s metafictional take on nearly every example of global literature and imagination is all Simon’s brilliance and the genius of the other contributors. I’ve probably shared a total of three words with anyone else in the book other than Nate. Simon turned all of this into a wonderful, organic unit, and it makes me absolutely proud to be a part, even if I’m still rather embarrassed by my contribution. Give them all the credit!

“Mina Harker,” the inarguable and objective hero of Stoker’s Dracula. Van Helsing who?

“Brides of Dracula.” Hammer made exactly three good Dracula movies, and this is one of them, despite not actually having Dracula in it. It’s pretty much a feature length “Look How Badass Peter Cushing Is As Van Helsing, Guys.”

“God’s gaze was nowhere near Bedfordshire that night.” As seen in The Book of the War’s superb take on Dronid (an element of the infamous serial Shada), things that remain unobserved by the Great Houses, either by choice or design, tend to become rather unhappy and miserable places (to put it lightly).

“Not quite the discrete puncture marks of legend” is a line said by Alan Moore’s take on Mina in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I then realized her crimson scarf could be seen as a reference to the comic as well, but I was actually intending to give a nod to the definitive Edward Gorey illustration.

“Something cruel, built by invaders of metal and spite, digging too deeply and too greedily into Earth’s crust.” An absolutely subtle and completely obscure reference to another Peter Cushing film.

“A History wrapped tightly into a coil of absence, locked in the rock and dark of the planet.” No comment other than a friendly reminder that the caldera, the lodestone of the structure of History, is described as an “absence” in The Book of the War, later clarified to be a “singularity” in Lawrence Burton’s Against Nature, invoking familiar thoughts of the mythic Eye of Harmony...

“The aliens were rejected by that History, blown to smithereens, left to die in the streets and in their echoing control rooms.”

“Because he’s fucking Dracula. He’s not some evil god, or conquering demon. He’s a parasite, torn between trying to leech off society’s elite and building a goddamn harem.” Dracula is absolutely one of the greatest villains in all English literature but he is also absolutely abhorrent and literally every attempt to romanticize or “Badass” him into anything other than a diseased and rotting rapist need to show themselves out.

“Lilith” again. A terrifying revelation in the Faction Paradox series is that the War between the enemy and the Great Houses is a distraction from the real threat to the universe. Her. This has, naturally, spurred theorizing and discussion over the years about whether or not Lolita created the enemy. That’s naturally what this story is implying, but this story is also a stapled together mess crafted by a mad Homeworlder. Lolita seemed very concerned about the enemy in her first appearance in Toy Story...

My interpretation of my story (and The Book of the Enemy as a whole) is that the enemy has so many identities and timelines and possibilities and metafictional infections that it has nonsense like this written around it as a sort of defense mechanism. Auteur’s bizarre narrative is an identity and story to be used as a drifting shield, a history the Houses could nuke to nothing and still leave the enemy happy and safe to continue Warring.

The “Very Fabric” is a cheeky nod to the “Very Fabric of Time and Space” from the Iris Wildthyme side of the universe, first seen in Paul Magrs’ Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

“’Yssgaroth,’ she hissed, her tongue sliding through her razor teeth behind her mask, ‘the Taint which boils within you.’” The Yssgaroth first appeared in The Pit and were always meant to be a retcon and redefinition of the vague history and lore of the Vampires seen in 1980′s State of Decay. This approach was massively improved by Interference and The Book of the War (though I still assert Philip Purser-Hallard’s Predating the Predators is probably the definitive take on the bastards).

“Queen Charlotte” was Lolita’s disguise and historical role in the Faction Paradox Protocols. The audios and other stories such as Hickey’s Head of State (and, I suppose, this one right here) show that Lolita takes on these “acting roles” throughout history. “Lady Waki” at first glance may, understandably, be seen as a misspelling of her role of Lady Wakai from The Book of the War, but “Waki” is actually the term for the antagonist/villain performance in Japanese “Noh” musical theatre.

The blood of the Earth is the same “green pus” from Inferno, later implied to be the Yssgaroth taint in Interference’s assertion that Earth is built around an Yssgaroth bolthole. So what, is the Earth somehow a link to the centre of History, or an Yssgaroth bolthole? Can it possibly be both?

Yes.

“A new kind of History.” The literal definition of the enemy in The Book of the War and Lolita in BBV Faction audios.

“Not like he has a copyright.” Hence the “Public Domaine” of the title. You are reading the work of a comedic genius. Though, the spelling of “Domaine” was Simon’s idea and I like it much better.

Biodata looking like silver threads pops up a lot in what I write and I completely blame Kate Orman and Jon Blum’s seminal Unnatural History. That book changes a man.

And there you have it! I’m still convinced that Simon Bucher-Jones is a wizard, as The Book of the Enemy somehow becoming centered on the idea of the enemy as a meta-fictional infection with dozens upon dozens of cobbled together narratives of myth and fact improves this mess of a story rather drastically, I think.

#Me #Faction Paradox #The Book of the Enemy #Obverse Books #Simon Bucher-Jones #Dracula #Count Dracula #The War in Heaven #Doctor Who

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andromeda1023 · 6 years ago

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Building the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope also means solving extraordinary technological challenges. (Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Ariel Davis A game of ‘Operation’ )

In a brightly lit clean room at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, engineers are building a car-sized digital camera for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

When it’s ready, LSST will image almost all of the sky visible from its vantage point on a Chilean mountain, Cerro Pachón, every few nights for a decade to make an astronomical movie of unprecedented proportions.

The camera is a combination of many extremes. Its largest lens is one of the biggest ever created for astronomy and astrophysics. The ceramic grid that will hold its imaging sensors is so flat that no feature larger than a human red blood cell sticks up from its surface. The electronics that control the sensors are customized to fit in a very tight space and use as little power as possible.

All of these specifications are vital for letting LSST achieve its scientific goals. And not many of them are easy to achieve. The LSST camera will do what no camera has been capable of doing before, and building it requires solving technical problems that have never been solved before.

“When you consider a project this complex, you can’t just dive in and say ‘Here, I’m going to design and build this in one shot,’ right?” says Tim Bond, head of the LSST Camera Integration and Test team at SLAC. “You have to divide and conquer. So you break it up into smaller pieces that individual groups can work on.”

One of those pieces is figuring out how to get the camera’s sensors into place.

The 3.2-billion-pixel LSST camera will be the largest digital camera ever constructed. Much like handheld digital cameras, the LSST camera will be made up of imaging sensors called charge-coupled devices—189 of them. These sensors and their bundles of electronics are arranged into 21 nine-sensor pallets called “rafts.” Each one weighs more than 20 pounds and stands almost 2 feet tall.

Each sensor is fragile enough to chip if it even touches one of the other rafts. And, to minimize gaps in the sensors’ images, all of the rafts must be installed two hundredths of an inch apart inside the camera’s ceramic grid.

The LSST engineers couldn’t possibly install the delicate rafts by hand without destroying them, so they took on the challenge of creating a device that could do this very specific task in their place.

They concocted one concept after another. Travis Lange, a SLAC mechanical engineer, created computer models of each to find a design that could both do the job and be built with the level of machining precision available.

“One of the bigger challenges for this is just the tolerance of all the individual pieces and how it corresponds to how much motion I am allowed to use,” Lange says. If a part is the wrong size by even just the width of a human hair, it’s a problem. "If you have many of those parts that are off by that much, those errors all stack up.”

One of the designs that the team drew up resembled a claw-machine game. The device would sit on a structure above the cryostat, the apparatus that keeps the camera cold. With a long arm, it would reach through to a raft waiting for installation below. Over the course of several hours, it would pull the raft up through a very precisely sized slot and into place in the grid.

Four specialized cameras pointing at the edges of the imaging sensors would help steer the raft into place without hitting neighboring sensors, and unique imaging software would measure the gaps between rafts in real time. “It’s a crazy game of ‘Operation,’” Lange says.

The team went with the claw-machine plan. In May 2018, they put it to the test with its first practice raft and a mock-up of the camera. After most of a day had passed, the raft was successfully in place.

The installation robot has since gone through several other successful test runs. Now that they’ve figured out the kinks in the process, installing each raft takes about two hours. Engineers plan to start the real installation process this summer.

The electronics and sensors crammed together inside the camera heat up as electricity runs through them. But heat is the enemy of astronomical observation. A warm sensor will sabotage its own observations by behaving as if it senses light where there is none. And as anyone who has ever heard their laptop fan working overtime before the computer crashed may know, heat can also cause electronics to stop working.

To keep the camera cold enough, the engineers needed to create a customized refrigeration system. They eventually made a system of eight refrigeration circuits—two for the electronics and six for the sensors.

Each of these systems works similarly to a kitchen refrigerator, in which a fluid refrigerant carries heat away from the object or area it’s supposed to cool. Networks of tubes carry the refrigerant into and out of the camera.

At first, the team used only metal tubes for this job. Metal is good at keeping moisture out, which is important because any water that gets into the tubes from the surrounding air would freeze and clog the system. At parts of the system where the camera would need to move around with the telescope as it points to different parts of the sky, the tubes were corrugated to make them into flexible metal hoses.

But there was a problem. The refrigeration system’s compressor, a device that forces the refrigerant to dump its absorbed heat outside the camera, uses lubricating oil to work smoothly. As the refrigeration system ran, some of the oil would leave the compressor and travel through the tubes.

This wouldn’t have been a problem if the oil had traveled at a consistent pace all the way through the circuit, back to the compressor. But that wasn’t happening; the oil was getting slowed down and sometimes trapped by the grooves in the corrugated metal hoses. The compressor was getting oil back in trickles or spurts rather than in a steady stream. This made the refrigeration system unpredictable and harder to maintain.

So the team switched to a different kind of hose for the refrigeration system’s “joints,” says Diane Hascall, a SLAC mechanical engineer on the LSST camera team. “You can almost think of it like a garden hose. But it’s a very special garden hose that’s made to work with refrigerants.”

The new hoses, called smooth-bore hoses, are made of layers of rubber, braid and other flexible materials, and they are smooth on the inside. The smooth hose lets oil return to the compressor more effectively, Hascall says.

But there was a trade-off. Unlike the metal hoses, the smooth-bore hoses do let some moisture in.

To deal with that, the team installed filter dryers that absorb moisture from the system. They are still figuring out how often the dryers need to be replaced to keep the camera in good shape.

Building each component of a piece of technology as sophisticated as LSST is a challenge in itself, but the challenges don’t end there. Engineers must also design specialized equipment, software and procedures to test different pieces; put the pieces together; and determine what maintenance the technology will need to run smoothly.

“There’s a huge number of subsystems,” Bond says. “All of those subsystems have to present their products. And all those products have to be assembled and tested and work in the final finished full product.”

Bond says working on the project has been a great boon to the engineering team. He says figuring out all of the unexpected challenges that have come with making such an advanced piece of technology has been a great experience, and he looks forward to seeing what future projects the team will tackle together.

“It’s like picking a bunch of players to set up a hockey team or something,” Bond says. “We’ve actually put together a very good team, and we’re just getting some of our younger people up to speed and trained for the next generation of experiments and projects that will come along.”

https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/engineering-the-worlds-largest-digital-camera

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