#but no we have to have blinding white as the default background for some reason

[dravidious]

Love learning how to spell difficult words by memorizing how the letters looks like they should be pronounced. Beautiful -> beh-a-oo-tiful. Restaurant -> Res-taoo-rant. Nuisance -> new-i-sance. But for the longest time I kept forgetting that separate is se-PAH-rah-te and I'd pronounce it se-PE-rah-te. No, it's se-PAH-rah-te! PAH! I eventually beat it into my brain and now I can spell separate.

[blindbeta]

Exploring How Toph Beifong Could Be Played By A Blind Actress and Refuting Reasons Some People Believe She Couldn’t

[Image Description: Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender. She is waving her hand in front of her face after joking that she spotted the great library, tricking the Gaang only to remind them that she is blind. She rides on Appa who is flying above a desert landscape. End I.D.]

The live-action adaptation of season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is underway. This means people are discussing Toph again, much like they did during pre-production of season 1. I have seen and even participated in promoting the idea of Toph being portrayed by a blind actress. Similarly, I have come across push-back against the idea.

Instead of if Toph Should Be Portrayed by a Blind Actress, Let’s Focus on How She Could

(should and could are bolded for emphasis)

This post will address common misconceptions that serve as barriers to the idea of a blind actress portraying Toph.

A Few Notes Before We Start

These points come from posts on online forums, YouTube comments on videos related to the casting of Toph, and tumblr posts. No one will be specifically called out here, as while these points may be attributed to certain individuals online, they represent much wider views that are shared by many, even without malicious intent. These common misconceptions stem from unchecked ableism and general lack of information. Keep in mind that my intention is not to call out any individual person, as ableism is a widespread, collective problem. The reasons I refuted in this post showed up repeatedly and were not isolated opinions of one or two people.

1. No, it would not be too difficult to find an actress who is Asian, blind, and the right age

[Image Description: Toph as The Blind Bandit uses earthbending to create three pillars of rock that shoot at an angle from the ground and smash into her opponent, throwing him against the arena wall. End I.D.]

This point suggests that it is difficult to find candidates fitting Toph’s description. I suspect this is due to racism and ableism, in that a white and abled person is considered default and therefore believed to be more common, especially by Western studio standards. This is not truly the case. People of color and disabled people are auditioning, especially for the comparatively few roles that seek them out specifically, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Blind Asian people exist. Some of these people are also actresses. Some have backgrounds in dance or martial arts, especially because many actors do similar activities to increase endurance and versatility. Finding a pre-teen or teenager to play Toph would not be as challenging as many people believe, especially those who already underestimate the amount of blind people in the world and their abilities.

Those who argue this point may be under the impression that a blind actress would be out of reach due to low numbers and lack of interest in auditioning. Blind people are auditioning. The reason you don’t see them on screen is because most of them are ignored in favor of abled actors. For example, in this video, Molly Burke discusses not being chosen to play a blind character whom she was told was based on her own life. The actress chosen to play the character was not blind. You can watch it here.

Additionally, Netflix has the ability to hold a widespread casting call. They are not a tiny studio doing productions in someone’s backyard. They have access to a wider pool of actresses than the average person might think, particularly if said person is not familiar with the resources big studios often have at their disposal.

In fact, Netflix is doing just that. Below is a link to their casting call, which encourages blind and low vision actresses to audition.

Link to casting call here with alt text.

2. Some people believe Toph isn’t really blind and therefore the actress who plays her needs to be able to see

[Image Description: Toph as The Blind Bandit using bending, with shots showing her hands and feet. As her bare foot slides sideways across the ground, the camera zooms out to show her sensing vibrations. The image turns greyscale, with circles of white vibrations emanating from around Toph’s body, where they expand and flow outward. End I.D.]

The rationale behind this is probably the same as it is for Daredevil, meaning some don’t consider Toph to be blind because of the way she uses her bending.

An argument could be made that Toph’s powers erase her blindness or that her powerful abilities make her less relatable to the average blind person. However, I suspect that many sighted people engaging with these discussions of Toph’s casting are not also concerned with questions of erasure or relatability. In discussions questioning her blindness, the evidence given mostly centers on Toph’s physical abilities rather than relatability to real blind people.

Her bending aside, Toph is certainly blind. She experiences ableism from her parents and general community. Blindness shaped her life in a lot of ways, even with her bending, which is also influenced by her disability.

We see Toph being guided while running on the airship, needing assistance while walking on ice, and struggling to travel in a desert. She uses her other senses, including hearing and tactile senses. She has limitations regarding how she is able to interact with an unaccommodating world, such as inaccessible reading and writing systems.

There are also lifestyle and cultural implications of blindness extending beyond the inability to see. Being blind is not only about what one can and cannot do, which is true of Toph’s experience as well. Blind people may have different values, experiences with family and friends, different senses of humor, or may place higher value on other sensory experiences compared to sighted peers.

Whether or not Toph is good blindness representation can be argued. However, she is still a blind character. Her blindness influences her whole life, even as she is more than her blindness at the same time. Her life as a blind person is about more than limitations and abilities. Reducing her, and any blind person, for that matter, to only these facets of her experience oversimplifies what it is like to be a blind person.

Claiming that she isn’t a blind character because of her ability to do x, y, and z can be incorrect for a lot of reasons.

Blind people are more than what we can do or what we produce. Our experiences are rich and varied. Our lives are inherently meaningful no matter our abilities or limitations. It is both ableist and inaccurate for sighted people to attempt to put us all into boxes.

Additionally, blindness is a spectrum. [Bolded for emphasis.] You can read about it at the following posts on my blog:

here

here

here

and here.

Here is a good list of legally blind YouTubers with various types of visual experiences.

According to various sources on the blindness spectrum, about 85% to 95% of blind people have some remaining vision:

93% according to RNIB

This Perkins School For the Blind fact sheet estimates about 90 to 95% of blind have some remaining vision

American Foundation for the Blind estimates about 15% of blind people are totally blind and discusses the spectrum of blindness here

The spectrum of blindness is important because our experiences become even more diverse when the spectrum is considered. This means that assumptions about what we can and cannot do become even harder for sighted folks to guess accurately.

This accuracy is important if sighted people are going to try to put limitations on blind people, which they have no business doing anyway. They are not the authority on what blind people can do, what we cannot do, or what is good for us. Only blind people can answer that for themselves.

Lastly, blind people are already used to navigating and interacting with their surroundings. They have had anywhere from months to a lifetime of experience, which would translate better to Toph’s ease with her blindness and confidence in her bending.

While an actor wearing contacts to obscure their vision might stumble around and have difficulty on set, someone who is actually blind could lend Toph’s character a much more relaxed, confident attitude in addition to possessing experience navigating in a way that works for her. She is used to being blind. Therefore, an actress who is also used to being blind brings a lot to the performance in terms of physicality, attitude, and the ability to focus on portraying the character, rather than simulating blindness.

Which leads me into the next point.

3. The idea that Toph doesn’t move like a blind person relies on stereotypes of blind people

[Image Description: A GIF from the episode “The Runaway”. Toph, Sokka, and Aang all con some con artists and cheer after their victory, Toph raising her arms high before snatching the prizes. They all run away. End I.D.]

There is no specific way of moving like a blind person. Like sighted people, the way blind people move may be influenced by many factors, such as level of vision, how long they have been blind, their mobility aid, navigation techniques, familiarity with their environment, level of confidence, feelings of safety, other disabilities, energy levels, cultural factors, and more.

While there are mannerisms that are recognizable to blind communities, there is no one way to move like a blind person. Just as there is no one way to look blind.

The ideas of “not moving like a blind person” or “not looking blind” come from stereotypes of blindness. In fact, these ideas can be so pervasive that blind people who don’t fit stereotypes may be accused of faking. I explore this subject here.

In this video, Sam from The Blind Life discusses the experience of performing blindness or being pressured to act more blind than he is. Link here. He explains while he has some vision, he uses his cane to indicate to others that he is blind. This is one of the main functions of a cane. Sam explains feeling pressure to adhere to certain stereotypes about blindness or risk being accused of faking.

Similarly, in this video linked here, Molly Burke discusses the stereotype that blind people’s eyes look noticeably different from sighted eyes. This includes the inaccurate belief that all blind people have cloudy eyes, blank eyes, eyes that are always closed, or eyes that simply must be covered in dark sunglasses to protect the sensibilities of sighted people. Molly explains that while blind people can certainly have these attributes, not all of us do. Molly laments that the phrase, “You don’t look blind,” is either used to invalidate her or to praise her for passing as a sighted person, which is ableist.

Just as blind people don’t look the same way, we don’t move the exact same ways either. That applies to Toph as well. For example, she prefers to keep her feet on solid ground for bending purposes, orientation, and possibly due to cultural factors valuing stability and connection to the earth.

4. The idea that accommodations would be impossible to provide is rooted in ableism

[Image description: A GIF of Toph and Zuko sitting beside each other on the floor at the Ember Island theatre episode. Toph punches Zuko’s arm. Metaphorically for the purposes of this post, she is punching ableist ideas that have nothing to do with Zuko. End I.D]

Here is a thread I shared in the early days of this blog, wherein the topics of blind actors and accommodations are discussed. The entire thread might also be helpful for this post, as I explore the same points, which shows how common these misconceptions are. While this may seem to be an isolated online disagreement, none of these arguments are new. That is why I believe this topic is important— these arguments about accommodations being too difficult or a burden on others also pop up in conversations about other workforces and other disabilities.

A blind character not being played by a blind actor is one thing. A blind person not being hired for a job they are qualified for due to resistance to providing accommodations is not so easy to ignore, not so seemingly isolated a concern. These barriers don’t only apply to blind actors looking for work. They apply to all blind people looking for work.

That means most of this isn’t really about Toph, nor the opinions of random people online. Instead, I hope to highlight common patterns in ableist thinking and dispel these ideas using a character people care about. This is, of course, in addition to my own desire to have a blind actress play Toph.

With that said, let’s explore what work accommodations might look like using examples of blind actors.

Dionne Quan is a blind actress who has an extensive filmography for voiceover work, including popular characters such as Kimi from Rugrats. In this article from when the character was first introduced, she discusses how she performs. Link.

Quote from the article: “Most of the recording was done in a studio with just a mike and a stand for the script. I had the lines in braille, and I would read them on the way over to get into character. You have to have your bag of tricks ready to go.”

Most of the work Quan discusses involves typical acting stuff. The accommodations given to her are similar to adaptations that might be made in an office setting. Additionally, with all the technology available now, it is easy to make a script accessible through large print, VoiceOver and memorization, Word document instead of a PDF, a Braille display, etc.

And as of August 2024, Quan can add adult Toph Beifong to her list of characters. Which is super exciting and, I thought, an appropriate fact to include in this post. You can read more here.

To continue the discussion of accommodations for actors, I would like to discuss Ellie Wallwork. Wallwork is a blind actress who has performed on Doctor Who.

She describes her experiences on set, such as blocking scenes and using tactile accommodations in this short video from the SeeSaw podcast. Link here.

Transcript:

Elie Wallwork speaking:

“Obviously, markers are just normally flat bits of tape on the floor. I had to have some sort of tactile ones so I knew where I was stepping onto. And it takes longer. It definitely takes a bit longer. I guess the thing that frustrates me about the industry is that sometimes casting directors will think, ‘Well, how could a blind person possibly do this, do that? How could they do stunts? How could they even navigate around set?’ But it’s perfectly possible if you— for example, with the crew that I had on all the productions I’ve been on, they’ve all been really kind, really patient with me and able to understand that, yeah, okay, it might take me five minutes longer to block a scene, but that’s fine because it means it’s authentic.”

End transcript.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Lastly, I find that many sighted people are not generally knowledgeable when it pertains to what blind people can or cannot do. Examples of this lack of knowledge include frequent questions about how blind people read, exist in online spaces, cook, etc—and these are simply from posts on my own blog.

Here is a link to a discussion thread that explores ableist assumptions people often make what blind people are or are not able to do. It particularly relevant for this topic. Link can be found here. Please remember that while I did respond to some folks who expressed opinions colored by ableist assumptions, that post is not about them. Just as this post is about addressing ableism in general rather than from a specific source.

The point is: consider why abled people are so comfortable stating what blind people can and cannot do, when one of the most common questions about blindness is still “how do you use a phone or the internet?”

People who aren’t blind often fail to grasp what our limitations actually are. Many people are still surprised to learn that technology or accommodations exist for us, despite having access to various forms of technology themselves. They struggle to understand that we can live our daily lives, possibly because they personally cannot imagine themselves without the vision they rely on, such as that time a professor asked blind content creator Stephanie Renburg [quote] “How do you live?” when the conversation was supposed to be about school accommodations [Link here].

This brings me to an assertion that is often made when sighted actors obscure their vision in order to play blind characters. It is often noted that it was too hard for them emotionally, mentally, and physically. Because of this reaction, the assumption is made that a blind person cannot possibly perform the role.

For example, in the article linked here, this is stated about Jamie Foxx in his role as Ray Charles. “Some actors, including Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in “Ray” (2004, best actor) and Blake Lively in “All I See Is You” (2017), have chosen to wear ocular prosthetics, rendering them literally blind during their performances. But this creates a new problem: Unlike real blind people, who can spend years honing their orientation and mobility skills, the blindfolded sighted person becomes lost, confused and frightened with the sudden loss of sight — Foxx told interviewers he began hyperventilating as soon as his eyes were glued shut with the custom prosthetic eyelids that the filmmakers affixed over his eyes.”

Being blind is different from a sighted person temporarily obscuring their vision. Blind people have a better handle on being blind because we’ve been doing it longer. Blindness is part of our lives. Of course blind people are going to have an easier time portraying blind characters. This means most of the concerns people bring up when discussing sighted actors struggling with being unable to see won’t actually apply to blind people who have been at this for far longer.

I also wanted to address the idea that hiring blind actors would cost more, according to the assertion made in that thread about hiring blind actors, which you can read here if you haven’t already. While I can understand why someone might believe hiring a blind actor would cost more, I believe it would actually cost less.

Blind actors can use their own canes or other assistive devices used by the character, which saves money on expensive materials

Blind actors likely already have experience with O&M training, saving money and time that would otherwise be spent training a sighted actor, such as described here

Blind actors don’t need contacts or prosthetics, which may otherwise be used help an actor simulate blindness

And blind actors would have an easier time navigating sets, dancing, or doing required physical activities while blind, which reduces the learning curve that sighted actors with obscured vision need

A few Disclaimers:

1) Blind people learn from our communities and through life experience. While we naturally have more experience being blind, our knowledge is enhanced through learning from other blind people and participating in training designed to improve our life skills. I maintain that a sighted person obscuring their vision for a few hours will not have the same level of experience.

2) Reminder that blindness is a spectrum that a blindfold cannot replicate.

and 3) This post is not to say that sighted actors cannot do well or cannot put effort into their performance. According to the article above, Charlie Cox won an award from the AFB for his commitment to portraying Daredevil. However, just because there are sighted actors willing to put in the work does not mean blind actors can’t. I wanted to include this disclaimer in case someone sees the AFB article I shared and worried I’m trying to disparage actors who have already portrayed blind characters and happened to do a good job. After all, I love the original performance we received from Michaela Murphy, who originally voiced Toph. That doesn’t mean studios should not make an effort to cast more blind actors moving forward, nor does it justify any of the silly or explicitly ableist reasons people give for why sighted actors must be chosen over blind ones.

Let us return to refuting those excuses with the last thing I wanted to address.

5. Some people are concerned that a blind person might get hurt doing martial arts, but so can literally anyone else

[Image description: GIF of Toph dressed in Fire Nation attire. She punches through a rock.]

Kids can get hurt in any kind of sport, yet society doesn’t try to keep children from these activities for their own safety. However, disabled kids—and adults for that matter—are often reminded that we are being kept out of spaces for our own protection. Which we didn’t need, nor ask for.

This need to protect disabled people can be not only infantilizing, but hypocritical as well. For example, a blind person might be discouraged from playing recreational sports in a misguided attempt to protect them. Conversely, structures that keep blind people at risk are allowed to stay firmly in place, such as discrimination around transportation, inaccessible infrastructure, and poverty.

Blind people play sports anyway. Often, these sports carry their own risks of injury, as most sports do. Blind people have the agency to understand this and consent to it. Examples include blind football [link] and goalball [link].

Here is a video of Sadi the Blind Lady discussing goalball with Eliana Mason, a Paralympic athlete who plays goalball professionally.

Transcript: “Goalball is sport for blind and visually impaired athletes. It was created after World War II for blinded veterans and is now a Paralympic sport. The coolest thing about it is that everyone wears eyeshades so no matter what your level of vision loss is—because blindness is a spectrum— it equalizes it. The ball has bells in it and the court is straight with tape over it. It’s on a volleyball sized court. It’s three on three. And basically in offense, we are throwing the ball as hard as we can with a lot of technique involved, about 30 to 45 miles an hour to have it hit the ground and roll and hit the other players on their bodies. And on defense, you are throwing your body out and diving in front of this 3 pound ball and blocking it. So essentially you want to get hit with the ball.”

End transcript.

Getting hit with a ball, especially in the face or stomach area, is going to hurt. That is okay, because as long as safety precautions are taken, pain might be part of the experience depending on the rules and anticipated possibility of injury.

Martial arts and dance, which are backgrounds sought specifically in the Netflix Toph casting call, can also lead to accepted forms of pain or discomfort. While one could argue that sports injuries could and should be preventable, this post is more concerned with the expectation of pain, injuries, and what steps are taken to prevent them, such as protective gear or an experienced coach / teacher.

A blind person auditioning for Toph knows that martial arts will be involved. She will spend time learning choreography, building trust with co-actors, and figuring out works best for her. This structure is similar for blind people playing football or goalball or tennis or fencing or whatever else they want to do.

Lastly, people who aren’t blind also experience pain or injury during sports. Same with martial arts or dance.

The actress who plays Toph might get hurt. She might not. Some pain might even be an expected part of training. That is no reason to exclude a blind person from participating. That is no reason to say Toph couldn’t be played by a blind actress. [Bolded for emphasis]

Lastly, anyone training actors on fight choreography already knows how to do so safely. That fact that this is choreography is also helpful, allowing for memorization of actions and reactions. Conversely, the sports and physical activities I listed above are not choreographed, with the exception of dance, and are therefore less predictable. Therefore, if blind people can get head injuries playing on a recreational blind football team, a blind actress can handle fight choreography.

Closing

Thank you for reading all of this. My points still stand whether or not a blind person is actually cast for Toph.

Too Long, Didn’t Read:

Unchecked ableism can lead to oppression even if it is unintentional

Blind actors exist

A blind actor would better capture Toph’s ease and confidence with her blindness

Blind people can do a lot more than sighted people usually think they can

Blind people also face discrimination and limitations that sighted people may not have considered

Blindness is a spectrum and most blind people can still see something

There is no one way to look or move like a blind person

Accommodations are not that difficult to provide

Hiring a blind person would actually cost less money

Most of the popular reasons people believe Toph cannot be played by a blind actress are rooted in ableism

This post is not only about Toph or actors, but an example of how unchecked ableism can be harmful

For example, low employment rates for blind people, inaccessible online resources, or Toph-related posts shared without image descriptions

Toph Beifong could totally be played by a blind actress

[hypaalicious]

Why I think Nocturne is way better than the OG Castlevania series

Sorry, when I try to shut up about this show I be like

so here’s my unsolicited, highly biased word vomit that will contain spoilers at the end (but those will be under a cut) so read at your own risk! Okay, leggo

It’s actually diverse.

One thing about high fantasy is that it’s almost always Eurocentric. Even if it’s not set in Europe, the characters are gonna inexplicably have British accents because we associate that with high fantasy. We’re gonna have European style “old” clothing choices. And if everyone isn’t white, they might as well be because they’ll only throw in a couple ambiguously brown side characters and call it a day. Or if they make a main character a POC then best believe everyone around them will be white.

Nocturne, tho? Oh, you can tell it’s made with more than just a sprinkle of representation. They didn’t just make Olrox indigenous, they tied his Aztec lineage in beautifully. Annette was a slave but it’s not flattening her character because of it. Drolta came to slay but even she has her authentic background. Which leads me to my next point!

The Black characters especially are done tastefully.

Like… don’t get me wrong. I love Isaac. He was the only reason I stayed tuned into Castlevania past season 1, LMAO! But his backstory felt like straight trauma porn cooked up by a non-Black person who wanted an excuse to see a Black man whipped for character development.

Zodwa Nyoni wrote some episodes for Nocturne and she put her FOOT in it. When it came to addressing Annette’s time as a slave, her connection to the Orisha through her bloodline… I was gobsmacked at how accurate everything was and now I know why LOL! Like, for me, it’s always gonna be hard to see slavery in fiction but I can’t say shit bad about how it was tied into everything in this show. Annette’s ancestors play such a huge part in her growth and it just warmed my heart to see a Black girl whoop some colonizer ass without it feeling hamfisted. 🥹

The token relationship is the cishet one, everyone else is gay asf

I love that trope flipped on it’s head, ngl LMAO! I, by default, HC everyone as bi anyway but MAN was it nice to see Olrox and Mizrak speedrun enemies to lovers and a hint of Drolta’s devotion/gayness to Erzsebet.

I know the majority of my fictional character thirsting leans male but don’t get it twisted; I jump for JOY for gay shit in media 😂 The only reason I don’t thirst as hard for female characters is because I prefer my men fictional but my women real.

That being said, this series sent me into bi panic and I’d like to be manhandled in a room by Drolta and Olrox.

Nocturne’s first season plays out neater than the OG’s first season.

Like… okay. My main beef with the OG series was that after they defeated Dracula, the rest of the show felt like a meandering fanfic. Sure, there were a few badass moments, but the energy kinda faltered for me and I was bored with a lot of it. I hope they don’t do the same with Nocturne; they left off at a nice cliffhanger which builds anticipation for the next season and… idk it feels more cohesive already? They coulda speedran kicking Erzsebet’s face in like the OG trio did to Dracula but I’m so glad they left us a lil something to look forward to.

Alucard’s glow up >>>>>

I’m chronically online but I’m so glad I went into this series blind because the way I GASPEDT when he showed up at the end

Like damn for the past fifty-leven years he was in that castle by himself going “do I wanna talk to Sypha and Trevor plushies again or do I wanna make myself even more of a bad bitch?” Then he chose the latter, went to the salon, got his hair bleached platinum along with some sew in extensions for volume, beat his face with Fenty, and said “sorry Drolta but there can be only one vampire baddie on this earth and hunny I’m TAKIN IT”

He looks more like his video game design this way too, which I love! I hate that he took out Cuntress McSlay tho 😔 Drolta I will always love you!!

Mmkay. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start a cult to Olrox real quick. Erzsebet ain’t the only god walking the earth and I feel he just needs good marketing!

[runthepockets]

One of many reasons I'm baffled by trans men trying to deflect or shut down conversations about how we have male privilege is that the same argument could be made for pretty much every man. Black men have been arguing that they don't have male privilege for years because white supremacist patriarchy wasn't made with them in mind (a fair argument, but an incorrect one. We will still probably be picked for higher paying jobs and be taken more seriously than women, especially women of color. The way black women are routinely expected to show up for us in our time of need whereas the reverse isn't really the norm is also proof of male privilege. The way our mothers tend to be more lax and forgiving of us than our black sisters, the way we're more commonly seen as the "default" for black culture, the way black women are gatekept from the realm of mainstream black art ala Hip Hop, etc), men who present in gender nonconforming ways or fuck even do things socially perceived as "feminine" like staying home with the kids or being more emotionally open with their peers are probably looked down upon by employers and peers the same way a trans man is when people find out he's trans.

I don't think any of this negates personal suffering or even other forms of oppression, and I do think that leftist spaces and even some feminists have a bad habit of seeing maleness as infalliable, all encompassing, a sort of personal moral wrong, cus I really can't see any reason why any guy would have so many hangups around acknowledging responsibility and bias like this. That's all male privilege is, a social bias that leaves you with some blind spots, it's no different from white women who are ignorant to the struggles of black women or trans men who are ignorant to the struggles of trans women. Like it just is what it is. A lot of it is conditional and flippant but like, we all have it. I think it's foolish to imply any man of any class race or gender background is immune to having blind spots or societal advantages, no one knows everything.

What do you think of [TRANS MEN'S PRIVILEGE UNDER PATRIARCHY BEING CONDITIONAL]

The way I see it, all [MALE PRIVILEGE] is [CONDITIONAL].

[thedreadvampy]

The thing is, without wanting to once again embroil myself in this discourse (because I absolutely was in the wrong last time, no argument there), there is a reason that I can be quite bearish about hcing Jarchivist as white and cis and it's not because I want to take away representation or because I think being white and cis makes him More Relateable but it's about how I read the themes of the character and the overarching podcast

the thing is to me like a major theme of the series is Jonny reflecting on the experience of obliviousness, trauma and denial from his (Jonny, the author's) perspective as a white cis man with an Oxford education and how that's informed his perception and sensitivity to other people's experiences.

and I kind of feel like that's coming through explicitly in recent stories like 185 or 187 but also back throughout the podcast. that a major thread is the ability to ignore things until they're happening to you. and particularly with Jon's character like. his whole deal is that he's spent his life consciously embracing denial and closing his eyes because if he refuses to see it, it can't hurt him. and to me that is part of a broader and increasingly explicit theme about the privilege of choosing what to see, and about the blind spots of things outside your own experience. like to me a primary theme of TMA is the intersection of power, oppression and trauma and the...messiness of it, and I think Jon often represents hegemonic privilege (he's allowed to pass untouched through horrors unless he actively chooses to interrogate and challenge them; he has access to information but not necessarily to understanding; he can and does choose not to see people's suffering until it's pointed out to him (not just in the apocalypse but throughout, with the Archive staff etc)

like. I don't think this reading is exclusive to a Jon who's white, I have implied that in the past and I think that's a shitty take. Jon can absolutely play that role and be Asian at the same time and that brings a different texture to the story.

but it is a different texture and I think I resent the idea that a character can only be white as default or as a reaction to a prevalence of hcs of colour. like I think Jon is white because I think Jon being white has a significant impact on the reading of a story which to me is vastly about power, privilege and marginalisation.

it's significant to me to think of Jon as white in direct reference to the fact that he's canonically queer, had a difficult childhood and has PTSD and mental and physical health issues. whether you read him as white or not has a significant impact on what the story says about the intersections of power and disempowerment, and to me it's an engaging reflection of the tension of Jon's power and powerlessness as an Avatar of the Eye.

and like as someone rightly pointed out during the last barney over this - being a person of colour doesn't mean your life is Just Oppression And Pain. that isn't what I'm trying to pull out here. but the experience of privilege is different if you're seen as white to if you aren't and that makes a text about privilege and systemic traumas read differently. not worse or better. but different.

idk if this makes any sense. and the thing is it may be a totally shitty read of the text. but it is a significant aspect of my reading of the text and I find it? Odd? That in fandom that is treated as a non-negotiable. like that an analysis of the text with the supposition that Jon is white is a shallow reading. not just a different one.

like I see a lot of people treating Jon being white as a non-canonical, bad reading of the text and nobody has justified that to me at all beyond saying 'I am a person of colour and Jon being a person of colour is important to me' and that's a completely reasonable way to feel imo! like there are some really good and interesting readings of the text with that in mind! I think I've often come across as dismissive of that and I don't mean to.

My reading here doesn't have more grounding than yours bc Jon doesn't canonically have a race and Jon being Asian adds a lot. but it also takes away. it's a different text with different reads on power, obliviousness, guilt and trauma. like. I think because I've been quite bullish about it, I've left a lot of people hurt and feeling like I'm saying This Is The Right Reading, and that's a thing I feel really shitty about. because that's come from a very defensive place but that doesn't excuse it, it's a Bad Take.

but like. for me the Jon Being White thing fits into the nexus of a character not necessarily being an endorsement. like if you read Jon as white then to me that changes the read on things like him being promoted ahead of Sasha, on the assumptions he makes about other characters, on his responses to the police and authority, on how he responds to instability - like they're not textually there or not there but interpratively it makes a big difference whether he's benefiting from, assimilating into or operating despite hegemonic power structures.

and the reason I'm focusing on race here isn't because race is the Big Privilege Decider but because when it comes to hegemonic privilege, Jon's race is probably the most open to interpretation; he could be bi or gay but he's definitely mlm; we know he's ace or ace spectrum; he could be trans or nb but we know that he's percieved as a man by strangers and by close friends; we can make educated guesses about his class and social background from cues like his accent, backstory and education; we know about at least some of his physical disabilities and visible scarring, and about at least some of his neurodivergence and trauma. We've spent nearly 190 episodes in this guy's head - we have cues to go on for a lot of stuff. But his ethnicity is absolutely up for interpretation and to me that's interesting.

I favour white Jon as an interpretation because I think Jonny has written a lot of this podcast as a meditation on complicity and the complexity of power and that's interesting to me when I interpret Jon as white. because with that reading the podcast becomes very much about white guilt and the destructive responses we make to guilt, to having the power to change and destroy lives and the power to ignore it, and the struggle of benefiting from a system - even needing a system - that's built on the blood and pain of millions of other people. like, the fact that Jon may Literally Die without the Eye feeding and without the apocalypse fear machine, and has to at every stage make the decision to work to destroy it and live with empathy for those trapped in it anyway, has some resonance for me with the machinery of white supremacy. and patriarchy. and hegemonic power in general. and I think the degree to which Jon the Human Person was raised profiting from those systems informs the interpretation of how Jon the Eye Monster responds to a supernatural version

and like I'm just gonna say it. I think Jon's arc of Dealing With Cops is vastly different if he's white vs if he's Asian. like I can't pretend to be speaking from a place of personal experience but most of my British Asian friends expect their treatment by the police to be coloured by Islamophobia and an assumption of foreignness. and I'm not saying that's Every British Asian Person or that I really know what I'm talking about but it seems to me that the story of a white man who initially trusts the system being hunted by police who brutalise and threaten him carries a different meaning to the same story about a dark-skinned Asian man. like again. not necessarily a better one but a different one.

idk this is a long musing. I'm interested in having a conversation about this and like I said last time - if you think I'm being shitty I do want to be told and to explore why within the limits of your comfort with taking about it. I'm not trying to say This Is So I'm just wanting to get my own head straight.

[girldraki]

So sorry for your loss. Sending my condolences. Please take care of yourselves, alright?

I have some questions about to take your mind off it, if that's okay!

1. Brennedy lore?

2. Domestic GearsBerg? Who cooks, cleans, organises? Who has the better (or worse) fashion sense? Their tastes in music?

there is literally more brennedy lore than anyone outside of the server could possibly imagine and this is not anyone’s fault but the servers but here’s a tidbit: we’ve collectively hypothetically optioned it as a five-story epic loosely based on the kubler ross stages of grief (for mikells humanity as an o5 council member). brennedy proper is obviously denial and bargaining comes up when mikell tells gears about his decisions at some kind of function and because this largely parallels his own personal background and gears is accepting by default for other reasons he is the very first person to hear about this and be completely sympathetic. naturally, mikell falls wildly in love with him based on that conversation alone. (and then there’s some fallout because gears is. well. his coworker’s son very small, and it all falls apart because mikell isn’t properly communicating to gears that he staked his whole personhood on this relationship, and then we move on to anger and all, but that’s not important right now.)

bringing all this up bc the latest idea we dropped in the server thus far is that wrath of the termite king burn pygmalion scans very well as a council perspective on these events. we’d quote relevant lyrics but it’s literally…. 90% of the damn song. the important thing is his vengeful parasite is rearing its head again </3

gearberg…. uhhh gears’s place was so fucking empty before iceberg moved in that he functionally didnt clean at all but it turns out iceberg has lots and lots of shit and their apartment now seems almost like someone lives there. iceberg is kind of Mess Blindness but gears sort of compulsively picks things up so they’re like…. clean enough i guess. iceberg does all their laundry though his brain is aligned just so that he LOVES laundry (the fact that it comes out of the dryer so soft and warm doesn’t hurt)

gears’s wardrobe has since the age of relative-sixteen been designed entirely in accordance with lab safety procedure because he’s autistic and a fucking nerd. he also does not own anything in any colors other than white, black, grey, or earth tones (with the occasional teal now that he has a boyfriend) and therefore, despite the fact that iceberg is a man in his 40s who is so meticulous about keeping his roots dyed that his hair is brittle as fuck and who wears a labcoat to bed, he automatically wins on the fashion front.

hmmm gears’s musical base is probably uh. (1) incredibly archaic mekhanite music that functionally does not exist outside of his and his fathers knowledge base anymore (2) whatever tammy had stuck in faer head when fae was around him and (3) ~17-800s era french popular music from his Teenage Rebellion phase (did not stick). so i guess probably a weird amount of abba? iceberg on the other hand listens to (1) emo indie edgy bitch shit, (2) so much carly rae jepsen, adn (3) to much less of his shame than it really should be, musical soundtracks but specifically the not good ones. he is not allowed the aux on road trips with other staff members.

[violetsystems]

#personal

It was a pretty quiet September 11th around the city for a change. I took the train downtown for coffee near the river. I was all over the place yesterday. On foot, on skateboard, on train. On the platform, a woman who had been seated with her son approached me. She asked me softly what book I was reading. It was William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition." I had been carrying it mostly because I saw a woman holding a bag a few days prior with the words "always carry a book." You get clues from society sometimes of how not to be a douchebag. You learn to read the court. Know when to fake. Know when to pass the ball. Know when to dunk on a motherfucker. This was one time where I had a chance to follow through on that wager. I told her it was science fiction but written too long ago so that it just seems like reality. The least complex way I could explain it was science fiction meets advertising. I could hear her son groaning presumably in the background. Probably at me. But it was a thoughtful conversation. We both agreed that carrying a book was about as neutral as it gets. If someone wanted to talk to you they'd have to reference the literature you were holding. It beat doom scrolling through the news which we both agreed is always different but never changes. We also agreed books put us to sleep. I said that was probably why I liked to read them in transit so I could tune out the world. The train approached as she wished me a good day and I continued my journey of minding my own business. Chicago lately feels a little less intimidated by culture as it happens. Particularly in communities of color where I spend most of my time and foot traffic in. I don't really feel all that comfortable or at ease around white people for the most part. They're all too scared to be real and talk about anything unless they're drunk. One of my favorite white basketball players was inducted into the hall of fame. He's a cracker for sure but a Croatian American which is one third of my nationality. He was called "the waiter" in which he was famous for waiting to pass the ball at the right time. He won a game for the bulls with five seconds remaining. He could dunk from the foul line and so on. And he played on a team of athletes where he was the minority and got his due. He did well enough to get inducted in the Hall of Fame when all was said and done. But he achieved that through team work not through domination. I have all these situations where it might seem from a certain vantage point that I alone saved the day. That I'm some superhero. And my only power is getting along in the environment I'm in. An environment that people constantly report is unsafe, in flux and horribly toxic. It is when you don't do anything about it to change it And then again people are smart enough and connected enough to figure out ways to cope. That is if they talk to each other. It's not like New York or Hong Kong where everyone is so used to living side by side. Chicago loves to have space and defaults to awkwardness. It's gasping for air sometimes in that respect. You need to wear your heart on your sleeve at all times. What better than a good book?

It seems like I write one every week. There's so much to reference and yet it all seems like chaos to organize. I can get lost in my head for any number of reasons. The people I care about most are far away in some ways and not so much in others. But it is still all so very vague. Small interactions at least keep me from feeling attacked and isolated. I think we're all looking for a balance to be able to express what we feel out in the open normally. Everybody is so focused on crystalizing it online one sentence at a time. They react to a feed that's been frankensteined together for an ulterior agenda. You read it on the news and it must be true. And year after year it is never about you. They've since taken the model of activism and made it a fucking reality show with Usher. The prize culminates at the G20 where you face the secret tribunal and receive funding for your cause through some bizarre sectarian ritual. I'm sure this is not the truth of it. But activism like reading should be a passively active goal. It should be your compass on the high seas of adventure in a city like this. The reward should be the conversations you unlock. The things you can reflect on and write about. How I don't really feel self conscious talking to people on the spot anymore. If a member of the opposite sex came up to you and asked what you were reading what impression would they leave you with? I'm already changing the world around me. And there's things that I've done in the past that are great trivia but don't speak for the real me. I was invited to see some people dj down in Chinatown last night. It was by the river in a park. I had just gotten back from Little Italy to get Hong Kong style Indian food at a restaurant called Siri. All of this is within walking distance if you don't mind shin splints. Everybody can tweet away how they're afraid to visit Chicago for fear of getting shot by the gangs. I am on foot ninety percent of the time. There's crime and then there's crime. And then there's what five media conglomerates owned by five billionaires have to say about it. This is why I listen to publicly funded radio. I hurried back, burnt my mouth on dal makini and jumped back on the bus to the park. Everybody was there that I knew from footwork and magic the gathering. An impossible mix of people who nonchalantly know you as violet systems moreso than Tim. I hung out for an hour and left around eight thirty. I took another long walk home over an empty bridge overlooking the city. I did this all alone. Aside from the people I run into from the neighborhood on the block. I was free to do so. And Chicago is still that place no matter how mad I get at it. And it isn't going anywhere.

Seemingly neither am I. For all the bullshit I write about how frustrated I am with things, people do eventually get the message. Would you rather have them understand it organically or force your perspective? You can repeat the same thing over and over again and it becomes tired. About how you are so progressive that nobody in your city has actually heard of you. About how you are doing all these things to fix the future but aren't living life in the present. All it really takes is letting the world know you are stable. Getting your own chaos in order and operating from there. Maybe you inspire someone along the way. Maybe you start a conversation that has nothing to do with you. But it all starts with communication. Knowing when you've said enough. Knowing that simply showing people another side of you may change the dialogue. Living by example and not just talking about it. Maybe understanding that it isn't constructive to be fighting with the universe all the time. Maybe the peace we seek to achieve on the global level starts with the conversations within ourselves and not the society trying to galvanize public opinion. If we could just help people feel normal again maybe we would all deserve normalcy. September 11th was a horrible thing caused by an outdated mindset across the board. It is twenty years later and we still cower in fear. Mostly of our own country's shadow if we are Americans. We have since thought of our freedom as something to be shaken out of other people. To rattle and provoke each other to show our true selves like a bull in a glass house. We don't start small. We get egged on and thrown in such a paranoid mind state that we think everyone is out there just to roast us. We constantly feel we have to prove our patriotism to a peanut gallery of billionaire funded social networks. We chase money in the present instead of investing in better futures. We don't know when it's our time to pass the ball. Working as a team, you fear you will be forgotten. That somehow you won't get your slice of the bloated pizza pie and unevenly distributed future of the American dream. But we all live here oblivious to the freedom we have to build it back better ourselves. The billionaires aren't walking on these streets. They're blind to how it really works. Maybe it just starts with a book and an honest question. What am I reading these days? I'm reading into all the signals and they're coming back clear. Whatever I've written in the past is just context for whatever I write about in the future. And the future holds less terror because I am less fearful of being misunderstood. I still wear that bright pink heart on my sleeve. It's the team I represent. I'm just waiting for the right time to dunk from the foul line. For now I pass it back to you all until next week. <3 Tim

[kinetic-elaboration]

December 2: 1x26 Errand of Mercy

Errand of Mercy is truly a trip. I’m swiftly losing my ability to be coherent because I need to go to sleep but here are some attempts:

First of all this is, of course, a straight-up, pure, unfiltered Kirk/Spock episode with a tiny bit of unrequited Kor/Kirk on the side. Like, we’re not even going to pretend to find stuff for the rest of the crew today. I see you, Gene Coon.

This is the first Klingon ep. I just... the actual Klingon-centric episodes ARE good, but the Klingons in general are pretty boring and I legit don’t understand why they became the standard Star Trek villain. (DC Fontana apparently thought that it was because their make up was simpler v. the Romulans, acc. to Amazon trivia and....I’ll buy that.)

Is the “cultural scale” called the Richter cultural scale? I seem to recall another scale with the exact same name....

I get why there would be such a scale but they are dead wrong about where the Organians fall on it.

Anyway not to harp on this yet again but @ fanom this isn’t the military right?? Lol

Oh, no, it’s Code One! No idea what that means but the music tells me it’s a big deal and it’s bad!

“Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.” He’s talking about war but I can think of some other things that fall into this category.

I think it’s pretty funny that Kirk records his Captain’s logs in public.

CAPTAIN SULU.

“There’s a war happening, so Mr. Spock and I will just leave the ship... together.”

“You’ll get out of here, Sulu, and leave Spock and I... alone.”

“You’ll fall back to rendezvous with the rest of the Fleet in the Laurentian system.”

Why do these people show no interest in us beaming down into their village? Hmmm, I wonder. If the Organians really were what K and S think they are, beaming down in that way would be uh a bad idea.

Spock seems much less awkward at gesturing than Kirk does.

Finally, by the end of the season, they’ve figured out the context for the Enterprise: Starfleet, the Federation, etc.

I wish the Organians were our alien overlords and taylor.

So the Klingons are a military dictatorship.

Kirk finds them so frustrating. I feel like this ep falls into the genre “Kirk is frustrated by hippies.” All this generic peace talk and faultlessly chill attitudes are just not him.

“I’m a soldier, not a diplomat.” That’s why Spock likes him so much.

The Organians are trying to follow the Prime Directive but Kirk is making it SO HARD.

“Space vehicles.”

I know the Klingons are actually supposed to be in yellow face but you know what it looks like black face to me and I RE-ALLY wish they had not done that.

They look good in those Organian outfits. Love that they kept their command and science colors lol. I feel like this is the sort of outfit AOS Kirk wishes he had in that boring ass closet of his.

Mr. Spock does not look like an Organian.

I MUST know more about these “not uncommon” Vulcan merchants. “Dealing in kevas and trillium.”

KOR IS SO INTO KIRK. This flirting is the least subtle. “You’ll be taught to use your tongue.” “Where is your smile?” “You’re a ram among sheep.” “I need your obedience.” “You seem to be in command.” Is all of this supposed to sound sexual or...?

Right up there with “a stallion must first be broken.”

Whereas Kirk is so not into this. That expression says, “Don’t even think about talking about Spock’s tongue.”

The mind sifter is actually a crazy advanced sci fi machine and STID wanted us to think Klingons don’t have warp usdfsf go fuck yourself.

Kirk is so turned on by Spock’s mental strength.

Every spare moment of this ep is given over to K/S flirting. They legit act like an old married couple. “I thought you were going to fight that guy.” “I just might.” Or whatever.

I love that Kirk’s method of fighting is to literally launch his WHOLE BODY at enemies.

Whereas Spock’s there just running awkwardly in the background. He is Not coordinated friends.

Kirk’s speeches ARE admirable. He is lacking context here but in general if they WERE an oppressed people, this should be inspiring.

“For some reason, he feels as though he must destroy you.”

This Kor and Kirk scene... Kirk literally canNOT stop himself from flirting. His default smile is Charming. “Nothing...inconsequential [was destroyed] I hope...” Flirty smile, wink.

GO CLIMB A TREE I MEAN WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT.

We are the same species...tigers...hunters

Is this not the same cell they always use?

I feel an “and there was only one cell” fic coming on...

The Organians are actually kind of hilarious. They’ll basically let these rando aliens do whatever they want, as long as they do no violence. That’s it, that’s the one rule.”Your captors planned to do violence to you, and to that I said...naw.”

THIS is real Pacifism @ Commander Spock.

Kirk ready to go out in a blaze of fire for a bunch of annoying hippies like “I’m going to white savior you now, ungrateful Organians.”(I say this with love; I love him.)

Can you believe Kirk and Spock are about to die in an unwinnable fight of 2 against Lots of Klingons, and they’re using their last moments to FLIRT AGAIN?

Gene Coon loves writing dialogue in which Spock calculates statistics and Kirk is turned on.

Also can you BELIEVE he just pulls Spock along by the arm? Any excuse to touch him.

Okay the Organians are officially tired of your bullshit.

Too hot! Hot damn!

“We find interference in others’ affairs most disgusting.” Prime Directive! Like I said!

This is basically the plot of A Taste of Armageddon except in that ep Kirk was the Organians.

“People have the right to handle their own affairs.” Is he wrong though??

The Organians are like “okay, we all had our fun here, now get out. Seriously.”

Can you imagine how fucking weird it would be to just randomly see this alien dude materialize in the White House, or, like, Starfleet San Francisco HQ, or wherever the “home world” of the Federation is supposed to be? Just a little throwaway line in there.

By the end Kor is just straight up hilarious. He’s giving off real Ian McKellan in Vicious vibes when he says “I can handle them.”

“I guess that takes care of the war.” Yep! Very efficient!

The “it” in “It would have been glorious” is DEFINITELY not the war lol.

Good game, good game.

“I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn’t want.” I’m sorry but could not THAT have been the plot of STID?

“Spock, your math was wrong the whole time.” And now Spock and Kirk can BOTH sulk lol.

Those were all of my liveblog thoughts and it’s late but.... I had so many additional thoughts on this episode... Like a lot more.

First, I love when humanoids turn out to not be humanoids, that’s one of the best things.

Second, I think this is a very gutsy episode to air at the time, and that it would still be a gutsy episode to air now. I feel like it’s one of the peanut gallery’s favorite criticisms of ST nowadays to say it’s “colonialist” but this ep makes it pretty clear it’s not--that’s the opposite of the lesson of this story.

To attempt to explain better: I completely and unironically love Kirk but I do recognize that like all 3 dimensional characters he has flaws. In this ep, I thought that while his speeches and general point of view and strategic plan were definitely right for situations a population is oppressed--that people do have the power to fight back against dictatorships, even when the odds are bad, and that it is worth it to have the courage to fight back against such oppression--he was ultimately shown to be wrong in this instance because he wasn’t actually coming into that situation. He didn’t understand as much as he thought he did. He thought he was going to be the savior here: taking control for peoples who didn't know better, saving them from oppression, and then gifting them with technology and advancement as he understood it. The Federation wouldn't have enslaved them, but the Federation did want to use them. But the Organians really truly didn't need help--the native people understood their own needs better than the outside people. That's the lesson I took from the episode. Your intentions can be good but if you're coming into a foreign situation looking to control it, without understanding the actual people involved, you’re not being a true friend or ally, and you're likely to do no more harm than good. Opposition to tyranny has to come from the source, the oppressed peoples themselves.

When he refers to “weak, innocent people” standing in the way of superpowers in the beginning--he’s not attempting to derogatory, but that is a pretty demeaning characterization.

I also thought it interesting that the Organians can take any form they want and put their society at any stage of "advancement" they want and they chose a basic agrarian aesthetic. Cottagecore rights.

Kirk really had a confirmation bias when it came to the Organians. He had an image of them--innocent, weak, oppressed--and he only took information that fit with that characterization, rather than listening to them and what they were saying.

My mom and I also discussed whether this was IC or OOC of Kirk. I’m of two minds, myself. I think Kirk at his best is much more open-minded than this. His core morality is good faith, peace, friendliness, and care for all life forms, and there are plenty of examples of this (Charlie X, Mud’s Women, and The Corbomite Maneuver all immediately come to mind.) But he does have a blind spot that I think comes up often enough to be canonically part of his character: if something is threatening or killing his crew, or his people more broadly (the Federation), then ALL he cares about is neutralizing the threat. Rare alien? Possible scientific discovery? Might not have the full details of the situation? Doesn’t matter. I’m thinking The Man Trap, The Devil in the Dark, Arena. He wants to protect aliens, but not if the alien is killing his crew. He wants to make overtures of friendship, but not if the new being has already been aggressive.

I mean like I said... a part of me is like "no he is better than this!" but another part is like... well he does have that 'soldier' side of him, he is intensely loyal to his people. The “evil” Kirk of The Enemy Within. I think he just sometimes gets these blinders in certain situations when he's just sure he's right, which is very human.

Also although he's between McCoy and Spock on the continuum of "an objective right thing exists for all people and in all situations and we should always follow that morality" and "morality itself is relative, we should be respectful of alien ways of living even when we don’t understand them" I think in general Kirk and the show is more like McCoy. There IS a right morality here. (I’m thinking of The Apple or even A Taste of Armageddon.)

I also maintain that to say in 1967 "the very personality trait of being warlike is a common denominator between enemies at war" is a dramatic statement.

My mother suggested that Kirk was “strangely appealing” in his desire to save the Organians, with or without their help, and I do agree... I think that’s the complexity of the episode. The overall thrust of the plot is that Kirk was wrong--he’s left embarrassed at the end. I stand by what I said above. And they certainly go out of their way to show that the Klingons and Federation have something in common--namely, as I said, their very capacity to wage war, and interest in waging war.

BUT, as much as I get the point that they have certain similarities with the Federation--and I think this concept of 'these war-worthy disagreements seem trivial to an advanced and neutral species' is interesting, and even more so in comparison with A Taste of Armageddon which, as I said, is this same scenario from the Organians' POV essentially--at the same time it's a bit irritating to hear the democratic Federation compared to the oppressive dictatorship of the Klingons. Like yeah, okay, none of them are light beings and they both wanted to destroy each other--point taken. But would the Federation park itself on a random planet and kill 200 people the first day? I think not. So in this sense Kirk IS right. The Klingons are an adversary worth fighting, just not over the Organians.

I don’t know what I would think of his position if the Organians were being harmed but were also just...actually sheep. Like I guess I would say "well they have to have a reason.” And in fact they did--their bodies cannot be harmed, so they really don't care if the Klingons pretend to harm them. But I just can't comprehend people being like really honestly okay with that level of oppression, as opposed to too scared or too beaten down or too brainwashed to fight it, which is different.

...And from there we went into a discussion of curative v transformative fandom and yet more on what’s wrong with AOS sdfasfjsaldf it’s past 1 am I can’t be stopped BUT I SHOULD BE STOPPED.

[dokidokiliteraturegirls]

 Hello everyone! Yui here, with today’s special feature, DDLitG Behind the Scenes: What’s the deal with Ako?

In this special update we’ll talk about her character in general, design, her place in the story, and more! So get comfortable in your seat, get yourself some good snacks, and let’s delve into the background of DDLitG’s 1st-ish original character~

Who is Ako?

Ako, formerly known as “female student”, was originally one of the many NPCs used by the game’s engine to fill its world with nondescript background characters, so as to make it feel less empty. However, Sayori took a special interest in her, and decided to befriend her, following the steps of a young MC who befriended Sayori in a similar situation and ended up saving her life. This would in turn allow Ako to grow as a character beyond her 1 line of coding and get her own sprites, as well as being able to interact with the world. She would later go on to fall in love with Sayori and shenanigans ensue.

Ako was created with the purpose of telling the story of the Friendship arc.

Designing Ako.

Let me make one thing clear: I’m not a character designer. I don’t know jack about it besides the very basics. But I did try to make someone who looked mildly original and, most importantly, different from the other girls.

Originally, she was going to be the image of a shy, fragile girl who Sayori befriended out of pity, more than anything. Based on this initial idea, I made this beta Ako design on one of my copybooks when I should’ve been working:

As you can see, her very first sprite was the one where she’s shyly looking away to avoid eye contact (and to seem annoying, but more on that later). I was happy with the pose but not with her face, as it looked super unoriginal. She resembled Ochako Uraraka from My Hero Academia a bit too much, so I tried to change her hair to make her stand out more. Here is her second iteration:

This time, I felt like I cranked it up too much to the other side. Now she stood out TOO much. Her hair felt like it came more from a protagonist than someone who’s supposed to be a background character. I adopted a new philosophy after seeing this result: she had to look as bland as possible. She had to be the kind of character you see all the time in the background of an anime - those simple, unassuming designs you’d never look twice at because you’re too focused on the protagonists with candy-coloured hair. In DDLitG’s canon she’s a filler NPC brought to the forefront, and her design had to reflect that more than my desire to make her look “cool”.

With this in mind, we come to Ako v0.3

As you can see, this is much closer to her current design. But this was still a sketch (even the drawing above is very much unfinished). As you can see, I got closer to her 0.1 version with the hair, but changed the eyes to make them look more unique, giving her that more neutral, “nothing” expression. Having finally found some ground I was comfortable with, I redefined her design a little further, gave her some more details around the hair and clothes, adjusted the proportions of her body (because apparently I draw heads huge), and made her finalized design.

I was happy.

What’s with this sassy... monochrome child?

If there’s one constant to be found in the pictures above, is that she was always meant to be black and white. There are plenty of reasons, which I’ll list because, honestly, there are a lot.

1. I didn’t want to look her like the rest of the cast at fucking all. She is an OC introduced in a story with already established characters made by a much more talented writer. She’s an outsider, someone who doesn’t belong with this cast of colorful characters, and I wanted readers to be able to tell that at first glance. No, she’s not like the other girls. They don’t belong in the same place. She is not a member of the original DDLC cast, and it shows.

2. I know I can’t draw as well as Satchely, so trying to copy DDLC’s art style would just end up looking awkward and wrong. I had no choice but to do my own thing. And if I’m doing my own thing, why not take it all the way? I already gave myself artistic freedom, I might as well go crazy with it~

3. I just adore characters in a fictional universe that look different from the rest of the cast or have some strange design choice for literally no reason. Like Krillin from Dragonball, with his eyes that make him look like he belongs in an entirely different manga...

...or even Jotaro Kujo, whose hat merges with his hair because why not!

I live for dumb crap like that.

4. A huuuuuge inspiration for me while writing (besides my own uninteresting life) is music. Many times I listen to a specific track or imagine situations with specific background music to make them seem more real, and be able to better portray the feelings of a scene when writing [For example, I listened to My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parade a lot while writing Monika’s Death].

Ako’s creation was no exception. Her appearance was partially based on the cover for not only one of my favorite Vocaloid albums of all time, but one of my favorite albums period: Wowaka’s glorious Unhappy Refrain.

I’ve been writing stuff based on this album alone for years because it’s just so damn striking to me. The picture of the faceless schoolgirl falling into the unseen abyss, the background uninterested characters that imply they are used to seeing fellow girls suffer, the distorted world they live in, the album’s way to explore teenage depression, the freaking name of the album, EVERYTHING! IT’S SUCH A GOOD EXPLORATION OF THE DIFFICULT LIFE TEENS FACE THAT OFTEN GOES UNNOTICED!! AAAAAAHHHH IT’S SO GOOD.

5. Ako was also based on a previous design I made for another character meant for an original visual novel I was writing and I’m probably never going to finish, who was also going to be monochromatic to reference this album (in that context it made more sense though cuz every character was a musical reference).

This character, in turn, was based on Monoko from Yume Nikki, which is more obvious because of her crying eye and extra arm.

So basically at this point it would’ve been weird if I hadn’t made her monochromatic.

Naming Ako

This was one of the most difficult parts, ngl.

As I mentioned, Ako was originally going to be a fragile, shy girl. Based on this, her original name during the design face was Moromi, which is one more letter than “Moroi”, which Google translate promises me means “Brittle” or “Fragile” in Japanese.

However, after the philosophy change that happened during her conceptual stage, “Fragility” was no longer at the core of her character, as it was now “Nothingness/Blandness”. Because of this, I changed her name to “Ako”.

Many people have submitted their interpretations of the name, ranging from its meaning “To teach/to learn”, and “To yearn for”, which all fit better than the original tbh.

The intended meaning is for “Ako” to be read as “A-Ko”, which is a way by which Japenese media often refers to filler characters, as it translates to “Girl A”.

Examples of this can be seen in Super Danganronpa 2, where a character in a videogame is called “A-Ko” to hide their identity...

...and in a movie called “Project A-ko”, which was a parody of the anime tropes from the time, so they gave the protagonist the most generic name ever. The antagonist and side character, by the way, are called “B-Ko” and “C-Ko” respectively. This movie is fucking awesome.

This name also made sense in the context of the story, because we already had a character named “Student A”, so this goes to show that the game just gave Ako the default name it had stored for female NPCs.

Blinded Ako, or How I Learned to Convey Emotion Through Ahegao

When I came up with Ako, she was meant to have most of her character revolving around her infatuation with Sayori. She was, after all, written in the story with the purpose of falling in love with her, and nothing else. Her character, personality, likes/dislikes, and hobbies came afterwards. As the story progressed, however, I decided that she should have a personality separate from just being in love with another character. So to separate the actions she committed under the influence of her passion, I did a little design change in the middle of the arc: Blinded Ako.

In this version, Ako has been literally blinded by love and stops being rational. This is represented by the hearts covering her eyes, and clouding her judgement. This was done not only with the purpose of representing she was past her breaking point, but also to differentiate the Ako that makes mistakes with the Ako that was introduced in the beginning of the arc. Almost so as to make them two different characters, so when she is reintroduced as a regular character after Friendship, readers could think “oh, she’s not going to do dumb stuff again, she’s not blinded by love anymore.”

Many people compared the above panel with “ahegao”, a trope in hentai manga where a character does a silly face to represent them breaking from enjoying themselves so much. This was done partially on purpose. The main idea was to represent Ako being blinded by her infatuation for Sayori, not to equate her sate of being with anything sexual. It DID end up looking more hentai-esque than I expected though, as, well, Ako is in black and white, and the heart eyes are also a trope in ahegao. And she’s sweating. And she’s saying that she’s about to break....

.....

....well at least I drove my point home.

Ako’s musical influences

Above I mentioned how music was a big part of my inspiration, and how I listened to Welcome to the Black Parade while writing Monika’s Death, so the question in no one’s mind is: what music did Yui use as inspiration for Ako’s character and the arc? 🤔

Well, hypothetical reader, the answer is that since Ako was meant to be bland and flavour-free, her original depiction is not based on a song or anything. Her desperation towards Sayori and Blinded Ako, though, are based on TRONICBOX’s 80′s style remix of Ariana Grande’s Into You. And yes, this 80′s remix in specific. Not the original song. I highly encourage you to give it a listen and pay attention to the lyrics if you want an insight into how Ako was feeling during her breaking point.

Also, as a side note, no one has asked me this, but I imagine Ako’s voice to sound like the vocals of Panty and Stocking’s ending, Fallen Angel. It’s a truly beautiful song, and once again, I highly encourage you to give it a listen and pay attention tot he lyrics if you want an insight in Ako’s current feelings towards Sayori.

Ako’s reception

This is more something personal than an explanation of the character, but it’s something I want to share nonetheless.

Remember when I said Ako was meant to be annoying? Yeah... xD

When I decided to add a new character I did so under the idea that everyone was going to hate her, because it’s a purposefully boring OC made by some insane person with the sole purpose of being added to an already interesting and loved cast of characters just to fuck everything up.

The first scene I ever wrote for Ako was the part where Monika asked if she had hurt Sayori, and she said “Not intentionally...” while looking away, which is why her first sprite ever was in that position. She was meant to make people feel frustrated over this girl just looking away from her problems and avoiding responsibility, while also telling Monika to her face that she had done something bad to Sayori. Readers were expected to hate her. That’s why in the beginning she says she doesn’t like literature, to assure you that she’s not joining the literature club. That’s why there’s a scene where she gets punched in the face. That’s why she looks so extremely out of place.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DISLIKE HER!! omg I’m still surprised at how warm the reception was, you guys are just too nice for me~ ❤️

Because of the unexpected reception I had to change some parts of the arc, which were originally going to be much crueler towards her [I even questioned adding the punch at all, but it was an important part of Monika’s development so I felt it]. I also established her as a recurring character in spite of her dislike of literature, and did my best to make her less hate-able than she was originally going to be, even cutting some planned lines of dialogue that made her pretty irredeemable. Looking back, I am glad I did those changes, we ended up with a well-liked and pretty nice girl because of it~

Final thoughts

The introduction of Ako and writing Friendship in general was a very intense experience for me. It was very difficult to balance Ako as being both relevant to the story and moving the plot forward, but not make her the sole focus of everything and have her obscure everyone else, because OCs in established pieces of media tend to do that.

This arc also got a LOT of mixed reviews, some people liking it, some hating everything I did. This made me really question what I was doing and at many points even regret I was writing Friendship at all. At a certain point I lost almost 50 followers in a single update.

I also had trouble writing some parts because they were too sad. And that’s not my style! I like writing happy people being good friends, damn it, not everyone crying and hating each other.

But when all is said and done, I’m happy I wrote both Friendship and Ako into the story. I’ve received many wonderful, supportive messages telling me how much readers enjoyed it. Even some people saying they had been in a similar situation to the one depicted in the story, and were glad to see a story that showed a positive outcome.

Will I write more OCs into DDLitG?

Meh, who knows. I love writing more original stuff and expanding the world of DDLitG, but I also feel like if I introduce yet another OC, people will crucify me and hate me for flooding the story with too much stuff that’s irrelevant to the DDLC they’re used to. That being said, writing this blog is my first, and very possibly last chance to expose my stories to such a large audience. And seeing people like what you do not only because you’re riding the coattails of a recognizable brand, but because they like what you do with it, makes me pretty darn happy. Being completely honest, I’d like to add another character. But just one. And only if it’s something that will push both the story and the girls’ character arcs forward. Not just adding OCs for the sake of it.

Thanks for sticking until the end of this BTS, and I hope you found it an enjoyable read, or at the very least I made you a little bit less bored~ ❤️

Next time, in DDLitG Behind the scenes: What’s the deal with The Perfect Yuri?

[queenlnss-a]

ALTERNATE  UNIVERSE  :  Superhero  /  vigilante    (  tag  ). AGE  :  Twenty  to  twenty - five  years  old    (  default  ). SPECIES  :  Mutant. ALIAS  :  Mnemosyne,  The  Mnemosyne,  Cuimhne,  Ainigma. FACE  CLAIM  :  Dianna  Agron,  Stana  Katic. TRIGGERS  :  Blood,  sexual  content,  alcohol  consumption,  violence,  death,  expletives,  possible  torture,  weapon  use    (  firearms,  knives,  etc.  ).

P O I N T S    O F    I N T E R E S T

Quinn’s  mutation  is  MEMORY  MANIPULATION,  which  essentially  means  that  she  can  erase,  replace  and  suppress    (  more  explained  here  )    the  memories  of  herself  and  others  at  will.  It  manifested  at  the  age  of  sixteen  after  her  actions  caused  an  altercation  between  herself  and  another  student  resulting  in  their  injury  and  the  erasure  of  her  existence  from  her  town’s  memories.

Although  this  tends  to  vary,  Quinn  does  not  usually  like  to  join  superhero  groups  or  teams.  She  was,  however,  associated  with  the    X - men    for  a  short  period  of  time  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  nineteen,  a  fact  that  not  many  people  remember  as  she  worked  with  them  under  a  different  alias  during  that  period  of  time.  Despite  this,  she  is  open  to  the  idea  under  certain  circumstances.

For  the  most  part,  Quinn  is  NOT  at  peace  with  her  abilities,  and  for  the  longest  time,  she  was  in  a  very  deep  denial  with  what  she  was.  She  does  learn  to  be  more  accepting  of  her  mutation  over  time,  eventually  learning  to  live  with  the  idea  of  being  somewhat  abnormal.  Having  mental  abilities  does  it  easier  for  her  to  blend  in  and  pass  as  human,  which  she  is  grateful  for,  but  she  seldom  lets  people  into  her  life,  lest  they  find  out  what  she  truly  is.

It’s  important  to  note  that  quinn    does  not    fight  crime  to  be  a    ‘  hero  ’.    It  started  out  as  a  way  to  hone  her  powers  and  learn  some  control,  and  at  one  point  she  considered  it  a  potential  reason  to  become  make  a  name  for  herself.  She  does  not  consider  it  to  be  a  job,  rather  more  as  a    h o b b y.    Qhen  she  isn’t  fighting  crime,  she’s  studying  English  Language  at  college.

A R C S

PRE - POWERS  :  From  ages  14 - 16.  set  in  the  part  of  her  life  before  she  knew  about  her  powers,  Quinn  is  just  an  average  teenage  girl  trying  to  make  her  way  through  high  school.

SUPERHERO  /  VIGILANTE    (  default  )  :  From  ages  21 - 38.  Over  the  years,  Quinn  has  learned  to  control  and  contain  her  powers,  and  now  it’s  time  to  give  back.  the  media  knows  her  as  MNEMOSYNE,  named  after  the  Goddess  of  Memory  in  Greek  Mythology.  her  friends  just  know  her  simply  as  Quinn.

H I S T O R Y

EVERYBODY  REMEMBERS  THE  FIRST  TIME          their  powers  manifested.  It  hits  you  like  a    s l a p    to  the  face.  One  minute,  you’re  normal,  and  the  next,  you’re  thrust  into  the  world  of  the  unknown.

                    Quinn  never  expected  to  be  one  of  them.  It  was  just  a  story,  something  she  heard  about  on  the  news  that  was  usually  followed  by  her  father’s  SCOFF  and  a  prejudiced  comment.  They  were  an  average  family  in  an  average  town  with  regular  jobs  and  friends.  Her  sister  was  like  every  other  human  on  earth,  and  for  the  longest  time,  Quinn  thought  that  she  was,  too.  She  hoped  she  was,  because  the  world  wasn’t  ready  to  accept  just  yet  and  neither  was  she.

                    Her  community  wasn’t  particularly  WELCOMING  to  the  idea  of  mutants.  The  first  one  that  ever  announced  themselves  was    driven  out    of  their  home  and  forced  to  hide  away  elsewhere,  but  for  a  while,  it  was  okay.  Until  it  wasn’t.  Until  her  sophomore  year  of  high  school  when  she  became  head  cheerleader  of  the  school’s  cheerleading  team.  Her  parents  were  proud,  and  her  peers  had  nothing  but  positive  things  to  say,  but  all  the  while,  she  felt  something    b u b b l i n g    within  her,  cold  and  unwanted.  It  made  her  SHARP  and  quick  to  anger,  and  despite  her  growing  popularity,  she  found  it  harder  to  keep  her  friends.

                    Sometimes  she  still  can’t  decide  whether  it  was  because  of  her    powers    or  because  she  could  part  the  hallways  like  the  Red  Sea.

                    Mid - November.  Some  party  at  a  fellow  cheerleader’s  house.  Quinn  only  decided  to  go  because  all  of  the  other  COOL  KIDS  were  going  and  it  would  seem  out  of  place  if  she’d  turned  down  the  offer.  One  thing  led  to  another,  and  she  wound  up  having  sex  with  the  school  quarterback.  He  seemed  like  a  nice  guy,  like  someone  she  could  trust  and  maybe  even  date,  but  over  the  next  few  weeks,  nobody  could  take  their  eyes  off  of  her.  Wherever  she  went,  they  would  stop  and  STARE,  and  when  she  walked  away,  the  whispers  would  follow.  Quinn  was  used  to  people  looking  her  way,  but  their  eyes  were  judgmental  and  their  tones  were  mocking.  That,  she  wasn’t  used  to.

                    So  she  cornered  him  during  a  parent - teacher  meeting  and  demanded  to  know  what  he’d  done.  It  wasn’t  big.  Just  told  the  football  team  that  he’d  taken  her  virginity,  who  then  went  on  to  tell  the  rest  of  the  school,  but  it  was  enough  to  make  the  bubbling  rise  again  from  deep  within.  Betrayed  and  hurt,  she  wanted  them  to  forget,  to  make  her  classmates  forget,  for  everything  to  return  to  NORMAL  and  for  them  to  not  think  she  was  one  of  those  girls.  She  remembers  a    blinding    white  light  behind  her  eyes  and  a  heat  that  burned  like  FIRE  in  her  veins.  When  she  woke  up,  she  was  in  a  hospital  bed.  The  star  quarterback  was  in  a  coma,  and  her  classmates  had  forgotten  who  she  was.

                    At  first,  she’d  thought  it  was  a  joke  when  all  she  got  were  puzzling  stares  the  first  day  she  went  back  to  school,  but  it  became  more  real  when  her  teachers  began  to  ask  if  she  was  an  attending  student.  Every  time  she  reminded  them,  they  seemed  to  find  it  more    d i f f i c u l t    to  remember  who  she  was.  But  that  wasn’t  the  strangest  thing.  It  seemed  like  nobody  in  the  god  damn  TOWN  had  a  clue  who  she  was.  Not  even  her  family.  It  took  days  before  anyone  got  their  memories  back  and  it  all  mostly  returned  to  normal,  but  as  the  weeks  passed  more  phenomenons  started  occurring.  Old  memories  began  to  resurface,  images  and  scenes  from  her  earliest  years  that  she’d  forgotten  as  she  got  older,  and  every  so  often,  Quinn  could  look  into  someone’s  eyes  and  witness  an  EXPERIENCE  they’d  gone  through  in  the  past.  They  didn’t  have  to  know  each  other,  didn’t  even  have  to  know  the  other  person’s  name.  It  was  involuntary  and    p e c u l i a r,    and  for  the  first  time,  she  didn’t  feel  normal.

                    Because  being  a  MUTANT  isn’t  the  standard  ---------------  it’s  abnormal,  and  she  felt  like  a    freak.    Telling  her  parents  didn’t  make  her  feel  any  better.  They  shunned  her  out  of  their  lives,  letting  her  live  in  their  house  but  otherwise  ignoring  her  existence.  Up  until  that  moment,  they’d  been  nothing  but  warm  and  LOVING,  but  now  they  were  the  complete  opposite.  How  can  she  accept  when  all  she’ll  ever  be  is  an  outsider  ?

M A I N S & E X C L U S I V E S

MAINS  :

UNDEROOSED      ♡     Peter  Parker.

EXCLUSIVES  :

AGENTLEHEART      ♡      May  Parker.

A D D I T I O N A L    N O T E S

This  verse  is  an  amalgamation  of  both  marvel  and  X - men  universes,  but  mostly  centres  around  the    X - men  cinematic  universe    as  that  is  what  I  am  the  most  familiar  with.  As  such,  Quinn’s  background  has  been  written  to  work  with  the  X - men  movies  /  comics  in  mind,  but  it  can  be  adapted  to  fit  other  universes.  I  will  write  with  all  superhero  characters,  however,  just  bear  in  mind  that  I  haven’t  that  much  knowledge  of  DC,  and  I’ve  only  seen  a  handful  of  Marvel  movies.

Understandably,  any  power  of  manipulation  is  capable  of  crossing  into  godmodding  territory,  which  is  why  all  situations  where  quinn  uses  her  powers  on  someone  else’s  muse  will  be  talked  through  BEFOREHAND.  there  will  be  no  such  godmodding  or  power - play  featured  on  this  page,  regardless  of  my  muse’s  abilities  in  this  verse.

Please  do  not  immediately  assume  that  your  muse  knows  that  Quinn  is  a  Mutant unless  she  has  told  them  in  the  past  or  we  have  discussed  it  out  of  character.  She  is  under  a  secret  identity  and  very  rarely  shares  that  information  with  other  people  unless  she  feels  like  she  can  trust  them  completely.  The  majority  of  her  closest  friends  don’t  know  that  she  is  a  superhero  or  even  a  Mutant,  so  your  muse  shouldn’t  either.

[shirlleycoyle]

Dark Mode Isn’t ‘Easier on the Eyes’ for Everybody

In the earliest days of home computing, the much-hyped feature we now call “dark mode” was the default. Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, also known as monochrome monitors, got their Matrix-esque green-on-black look from the phosphor-coated inside of the screens.

It’s been a long time since manufacturers stopped painting monitors with phosphor, but some people still swear by dark themes for everything. The Verge keeps a running list of apps and platforms that offer a dark mode for fans, and Apple announced a dark mode feature for iOS 13 at the company’s annual WWDC conference this week.

“It’s thoughtfully designed to make every element on the screen easier on your eyes,” Apple claimed in its announcement of the feature. But there’s a wide array of human experience and physiology that keeps that from being true for everybody. For some people with astigmatisms (a common condition that most people are born with, to some degree), dark mode can be worse on their eyes, and, impairments that require it aside, the science showing that dark mode is any easier on the eyes than normal mode is still up for debate.

For a lot of users with vision impairments or disorders, dark mode offers a better experience and allows them to use technology they otherwise may not have been able to. Flipping the standard black-text-on-white color scheme has long been an accessibility option for Apple computers. But there’s little evidence suggesting that using dark mode during the day, in a brightly-lit office or on your phone, is better than the alternative for the vast majority of people.

Apple’s announcement page for the dark mode feature.

That dark mode is healthier for your eyes has become a bit of folk wisdom. Wired called dark themes “an eye-friendly alternative to the traditional blindingly bright user interfaces,” and Popular Science called them a “comforting alternative to the blinding white” of most websites. Experts say that’s not proven, however.

“I do not think dark mode affects eye health in any way given the data that is out there in the literature,” Euna Koo, an ophthalmologist at the Stanford Byers Eye Institute, told CNN Business. “The duration of use is likely much more important than the mode or the intensity of the brightness of the device when it comes to the effect of this dark mode on eye fatigue and potentially eye health.”

When we’re talking about the potentially damaging effects of white-background screens, we’re usually really talking about “blue light,” part of the light spectrum made of short, high-energy wavelengths. A 2018 study published in BMJ Open Ophthalmology notes that blue light could be a factor in eye tiredness, but cites dry eyes from not blinking for long periods as a more serious cause of eye strain, as well as too-small fonts, and conditions like uncorrected astigmatism.

Read more: America’s Television Graveyards

A 2018 study by researchers at the University of Toledo claimed that blue light could contribute to macular degeneration, and plenty of news outlets ran with that claim, writing that our phones are blinding us. But the American Academy of Ophthalmology denounced that study, because the researchers didn’t study real eye mechanisms, or cells taken from eyes.

Studies have shown that blue light from screens at night can mess with circadian rhythms and make it harder to get quality sleep, but whether blue light from our phones is causing eye strain is still up for debate.

There is a physiological reason why black text on a white screen is better for many people. I have severe astigmatism, meaning my corneas are irregularly-shaped, causing my vision to be a little blurry all of the time, no matter how strong my contact lenses are. Most people have astigmatism to some degree, but it’s usually unnoticeable, according to the American Optometric Association.

But when an astigmatism is bad enough to impair vision, light text on dark backgrounds aggravates the condition, making text harder to read—and therefore making people squint more to try to correct it. As Gizmodo wrote in 2014, citing research by the Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, at University of British Columbia, white backgrounds act as a “crutch” for astigmatic eyes:

People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the “deformed” lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.

My own very-astigmatic eyes are exhausted by dark mode, but for many others, dark themes are an accessibility benefit. White backgrounds emphasize floaters, those tiny spots of fibers that appear in some people’s vision. People with disorders like photophobia or keratoconus, conditions that cause high sensitivity to light, might read more easily with dark themes.

Dark themes are also commonly seen as less distracting, especially for platforms like Spotify and Steam: The designers want the outside world to fall away, so you spend more time in the app. That may also be why programmers use dark backgrounds for long coding sessions, to focus more easily on each line.

On one point, I must concede: Dark mode is good for battery life on the latest iPhones. According to iFixit, on OLED screens—which light pixels individually, meaning turned-off pixels don’t use any power—the swaths of black areas in dark themes conserve battery. LED screens light all pixels from the edges of the screen and use the same amount of power whether the screen is black or white. The newest iPhones have OLED screens, but any models before the iPhone X uses a LCD screen.

In the end, more display options are better, and people should use whichever lighting theme they want. It’s great that dark mode is coming to iOS for people who it helps, but there’s simply not evidence to make the blanket claim that dark mode is “easier on your eyes.”

If you enjoy pretending you’re a hacker, or just feel more comfortable using darker themes, use whatever screen style you want. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal preference and accessibility. But in most cases, what would really help your eye strain is to not stare at a screen all day.

Dark Mode Isn’t ‘Easier on the Eyes’ for Everybody syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Train attendant!MDZS AU (part 1)

So I’m currently reading a C novel called Card Room. Which is basically the MC and ML having to go through several survival/puzzle/escape/mystery rooms. And the arc I’m reading right now is about murders occurring on a three-days trip train and the two main characters have to investigate and solve them. In real life, one is a forensic doctor and the other one is a police investigator, so it’s pretty easy for them. In the context of the room though they are impersonating train attendants.

And at some point after discovering the first victim, the forensic doctor rattled a bunch of medical facts and the witnesses around him where like “???” and one of them even went like “Are train attendants really that amazing nowadays? You know medicine?!”

So then a plot bunny emerged in my mind about an universe where aboard a train all staffs are actually hidden (or not so hidden) badasses... Like if you’re familiar with the TV tropes terminology they are all either  Ambiguously Trained or Almighty Janitors.  And because my mind always come back some way or another to MDZS nowadays.

So imagine the MDZS characters... It might be that after canon, all of the characters for some reasons miraculously came back to life and all the cast managed to reach immortality. Or that all of them are actually the reincarnation of the canon characters and remember their past lives (and got the same skills/abilities). Anyway, no matter the reasons, they are all chilling in the modern areas and for some reasons are actually all ‘working’ as staff members of this special train.

Except none of them actually bother to hide their skills or even try to appear normal... Some do try to at least do their jobs but well, with more or less success depending on the person ...So of course pure chaos and mayhem follow!

[Note, this is written in a sort of outsider perspective... So most of the time I use identifiers while referring to characters. The parts in brackets are mostly the thoughts/reactions of the passenger witnessing the general craziness of the MDZS’s characters....

Note 2: Also this is supposed to be pure crack, so please do note take anything seriously. ] 

Coach 1 &16 - the Driver coaches

So one of the thing a passenger on the MDZS Express might notice that the driver carriages are actual very long compared to standard ones. They are like half the length of a passenger carriage, which can usually house up to twenty rows of seats. What does the driver needs such a huge space?  

It is a staff only area so passengers are not allowed to access it. But periodically passengers sitting near the door would able to hear a loud “swooshing” and “thumping” sounds, as if someone was violently swinging a baseball bat in there.

Only few staff members are seen venturing into there. And the driver is hardly seen by anyone.

Most of the time it’s a very handsome man wearing all white clothes with a constant serene smile on his face, who’ll gentle knock on the door carrying foods into the driving carriage. The 1m90 driver will then open the door and welcome the man in, a very soft expression on his usually stern and scary face.

Occasionally a short attendant with a vermilion mark on his forehead, wearing a crisp and sharp uniform (he is probably the only one wearing the proper attendant uniform) and looking very aggravated will knock on the door. Compared as to when the man in white walked in, the atmosphere was definitively full of aggression and tension.

The few times the driver decided to leave his coach, his default expression seemed to be “I’m going to beat someone to death” scowl or something... and the passengers will witness this huge ass man carrying an equally huge ass fake (”It must be fake right? Who’ll allow a driver to carry such a weapon?!”) saber on his back strode down the aisle....the first time it happens all the passengers collectively froze in fear... Random passenger A: terrorist?! Is this a terrorist attack?! Are we all going to die?!

But after a while they got used to it and soon realized that they were always two outcomes to this situation. The terrorist  driver will either disappear for forty to sixty minutes and then come back significantly less tensed. Or he’ll come back less than fifteen minutes later dragging with him a wailing man and muttering something about training. The door will close behind them with a huge slam and then screams of distress could be distinctively heard from inside. (”Is this a murder? Do we need to call the police?!!!”)   

If you’re courageous enough to try to talk to him, when you see him walk by... Don’t ask him for the arrival times, or information about the stations and so on, he’ll just look blankly at you and say “How should I know? Go ask the short bastard.” (Aren’t you the driver of this train?!!!) [By the way if you ask him where the train is going, he’ll answer something like “north”]

Coach 15 - the staff coach

This is also a staff only areas, containing the staff’s offices and beds.

According to some staff members the cabines are soundproof. When asked why they would need such a thing, most of the attendants would shudder violently and mutter something about “everyday”. 

What nearby passengers use to describe this coach is “excessively loud”, “occasionally explosive”, “might cause the entire nearby carriage to shake from the shockwave of whatever is going on in here” and “believe me you don’t want to know”.

So let’s keep it at that. 

Coach 2 -  first-class seat coach

This is actually one of the most low key coach? Apart from being next to the driver carriage (and the drama that comes with it) there isn’t actually much excitement there.

For some reasons this seem to be the less popular coach? Only first-timers (who can afford it) would usually buy those types of tickets.

Recurrent passengers would pick up other coaches, not because it’s too expensive but because this coach is “kinda boring” 

Coach 3&4 - business-class seat coach

Those two coaches are managed by three persons: a married couple and another woman (who seems to be a close friend/sister of the wife?). All of them are wearing Tang dynasty clothes and they looked so classy in it! As if coming straight out of an ancient period drama.

The wife especially is very beautiful, she looks to be in her thirties but she’s actually the mother of the restaurant cook and the scary guy who is always scowling and whose job is unknown, and the adoptive mother of the bartender of the bar. She is also the grandmother of the two young waiters... which made her closer to sixty(”?!” “what is this witchcraft?” “Actually what kind of supreme good genes go through this family?!”)   

By the way... the other female attendant, her close friend? She is the other grandmother of the rich looking waiter in the restaurant car. And of fucking course she looked to be in her mid-thirty. (WTF)

This coach is actually quite popular? One of the reasons is of course because the two beautiful ladies attracted a lot of admirers.

But really like 70% of them are here because they want to witness the show. This coach is known as the scums lashing coach. If anyone dares to do anything improper or is particularly misbehaving, the two kickass ladies will strike them down either with their sharp tongues or with their even sharper martial skills (if the person in question tries to use force) .

It doesn’t matter if the opponent is a 2 meter mountain of muscles, they will knock them down as if it was a troublesome fly.

Regulars with particularly scummy acquaintances  would book this coach tickets hoping that they will act out of hand and be taught a lesson.

Misbehaving and very rude passengers from other coach will also be bumped up or down to the business class by the other attendants. Some of them are probably thinking that they are lucky.... but oh boy are they wrong.     

Meanwhile the husband is just serenely drinking tea in the background... Occasionally he’d ask if they need help getting rid of the trash on the floor.

Coach 5 to 8 - second-class seat coaches

Those coaches’ attendants are probably one of the weirdest combination of personalities.

There’s one man dressed in white who looked super innocent and clueless about basically everything. He is very kind and nice... but don’t try to ask him anything more that the layout of the rows.

Everywhere this man goes, there is always going to be another man looming behind him. This man is dressed completely in black and looks very serious and sorta gloomy. However his face will soften significantly whenever the white dressed man looks at him.

Another attendant from this coach is a blind young girl, carrying a walking stick. She is irreverent sometimes downright rude with a huge potty mouth and for some reasons she’ll always manage to whack the legs of the people making fun of her with her stick. And no assholes she doesn’t care if you want to go complain to her boss. 

And then there’s the psychopath. For some reasons right in the middle of showing you to your seat, or answering one of your question, he’ll randomly take out a knife a play with it, while smiling creepily and staring at you, as if he was picturing how you’ll look with your intestine out of your body.

At this point, the blind girl would smoothly walk over apologize, “I’m sorry he didn’t take his medicine yet.” and out of the blue she’ll whacked him hard in the head with her stick (hard enough that he lost consciousness). “here you go, please enjoy your travel.” Then for good measures she’ll kick him when he’s still down and walk away.

Also because those four coaches house most of the train seats, statistically speaking this is also where the vermilion guy will be. And so, more often than not, you’ll witness the train driver stomping forward and start a fight with the short guy. And whoa is it wild and aggressive. Despite behind a whole head shorter than the driver, he’ll still bite back without fear and words like “strangling to death” or “dismembering” would be throw around.

When it happens the blind attendant would heave a huge exasperated sigh and take out an electronic device before making a general announcement via the train speakers; “To smiley face, meat-head and his royal pain-in-the-ass dimpleness are causing trouble again, please come to couch 5 and deal with them before someone lose their heads because of their bullshits.”

Then less than five minutes later, the man dressed in white would stride in very peacefully, smoothly insert himself between the two fighters and then easily pick them up by the back collar, one in each hand, like particularly misbehaving kitten. (”WTF?!!!! How strong is that guy?!”) He’ll then proceed to walk toward the nearest cupboard and throw them in before locking it and placing a weird looking talisman on the door. (”.........” “Are you exorcising them? What the hell?”)

And for twenty whole minutes no sounds could be heard from the cupboard despite the periodic shockwave on the door as if someone was violently knocking on it.

Two minutes after the ‘knocking’ on the door stopped and then it was cut neatly in half. (”.....”) Allowing the two previously very aggravated people to escape from the cupboard. For some reasons though they looked significantly calmer (”Maybe they fought it out?” “Yeah, sure, that’s what happened”).     

Of course before anyone could react, a youth wearing heavy make-up ran in and wailed, “Nie-zongzhu why do you keep doing this?!! Don’t you know how to use the door? This is the tenth one this week.” The so-called meat-head: Ah... My bad. His royal major pain-in-the-ass dimpleness: Don’t worry, Xuanyu, the cost of the door will be deducted from da-ge’s pay... Though to be honest, considering his destructive track-record... he’ll probably need to be working here for more than three centuries before he’ll actually get any salary. You’d think he’ll learn some restraint after a while. The meat-head: You - Smiley face, smoothly taking both their hands and dragging them away: Okay you two, let’s go eat something. 

The non-specific coaches staff members:

As mentioned before there is exactly one (1) attendants wearing the attendant uniform. He is the most competent and proper staff member (not that it’s very hard, considering who are the competition) and probably the most reliable too (when he is not busy picking fight with huge saber carrying men or being locked up in cupboards). For that reason he is not in charge of a specific coach, but of all the passengers of the trains. His efficient and memory are kinda super scary... If you’re boarding the train in the morning, then rest assured that in the afternoon this attendant will know and remember your name, age, seat numbers, tickets numbers, Id number (from the ID Card that you showed him for like two seconds when he checked your tickets)  and food preference.

The staff member with the serene smile and dressed in white doesn’t seem to have a specific carriage either. The most likely coaches you might find him in are the 2 or 14 coaches (depending on which is closer to the driver), the bar (where he’ll chat with his brother), the coach no.13 where you’ll see him drink tea with his uncle. (This seem to be a huge family business? What’s up with all the kinship between the staffs?! Are they all connected to one another?) Or alternatively you’ll see him accompanying the most perfect employee of the century.

He seems very idle and doesn’t have a specific job? [His official job description entails dealing with NMJ and JGY’s foreplay quarrels and to keep things from turning too R18 rated in the bar... because the bartender and the guqin player are not trusted to keep their wandering hands to themselves in public]  

There is an attendant who is officially in charge of coach 2 or 14 (whichever is further away from the driver) but you’ll never actually see him there. Like he’ll stroll around in every other coaches except the one he is supposed to work in. And because he is dressing very casually you won’t even actually identify him as a staff member. He’ll smoothly insert himself into your passenger group and then happily chat with you. It’s only when the driver will barge in, dragging the attendant out to either “go do your fucking job” or “It’s time to train!” that they’ll realize that the one talking to them was a staff member.

So this attendant will come chat with you and somehow he know private information about you that he shouldn’t possibly know about and casually mention it the conversation, like “Oh, I heard your father got admitted to the hospital, is he better know?” or stuff that even you didn’t know about “Your boyfriend is such a dickhead for shitting on you with your brother.”

Afterwards it will lead to conversation like this: after the attendant had been dragged away “Oh I didn’t know your friend worked on this train!” “My friend? I thought he was yours? I actually never met him.” “Eh? Then how come he knew about your sister going to that concert tomorrow?” “I thought you told him!” “No I didn’t!” “...” “...”  

So scary.

So words spread around about that MDZS Express attendant who seems to know a lot of things and that he can be found in the second-class seat coaches. And so some people specifically book a ticket there to track him down and ask him information.

 But once they managed to corner him, his eyes would get very huge and he’ll frantically shake his head before hiding behind his fan, all the while crying “I don’t know!!! I really don’t know!”

His reaction was so intense that some would actually be taken aback... “Did we get the wrong guy?”

Then the attendant would flee and rush towards another one, “San-ge, please help me!!! Those passengers are bullying me!!!”

He got a very flat look from the ‘San-ge’ in question that seemed to say ‘Are we really still doing this?’, but even though this San-ge showed no sympathy whatsoever he still came to the passenger and told them “We are very sorry for not being able to help you. How about I bump you up to the business class coach as an apology? As a lot of passengers have sneakily tried to enter the business class areas by claiming to being bumped up by our staff members, we have established a password of sort. Once you reach the coach please make sure to find the lady wearing yellow and tell her ‘Don’t you think the dishwasher is an incompetent moron?’... She’ll take care of you. ” 

------------------------------------

Right so this got way longer than expected, so you’ll get the rest of the coaches (restaurants, bar, infirmary, sleeper coaches) in another part.

Like I mentioned above I wrote this in an “outsider” POV so most of the time I didn’t mention any names.... But did you manage to identify all the characters?

Also a lot of characters ‘working’  in the second half of the train have already been mentioned obliquely before. So you know more or less in which coach they are. The only one I didn’t mention is the infirmary... but well I don’t think it’s hard to guess who work there haha.

[igeekphonedotcom]

Realme offers a cost-effective killer, which is the protagonist of this review Realme X50 Pro 5G. This is the first Snapdragon 865 flagship released by Realme in less than a year from the return of India to China. The price starts from 3599 yuan, and the entire series is equipped with a 65W gallium nitride charger as standard. “It looks similar, but the two are indeed in completely different positions.

The previous Realme X50 was a mid-range 5G sub-flagship, and this time the Realme X50 Pro is the beginning of Realme’s flagship in 2020, and its importance is self-evident. So how does it actually perform? Next, let’s enter this realme X50 Pro review.

Design & Appearance

Sandwich structures with double-sided glass and medium-frame metal are not uncommon at present. The realme X50 Pro 5G follows the design ideas of the realme x50 5G and makes a look that almost everyone can accept. This means that from a distance, the X50 Pro 5G does not look much different from the realme 5 Pro.

In the author’s experience, the most obvious change I can feel is that the grip of the realme X50 Pro 5G is much better than the previous realme X50 5G. This is because the back process is upgraded and the back cover uses a more expensive AG coating. The matte touch has less damping, making the back of the phone smooth and delicate. And it will not leave fingerprints easily during use, and keep the back clean at all times.

The realme X50 Pro 5G’s body is very round and there are almost no edges and corners. After the 8.9mm body has undergone a round transition, it is easy to ignore the thickness on the touch with a one-handed and two-handed grip, and the curved glass on the back fits the handgrip.

It is worth mentioning that compared to the X50, the X50 Pro also has an obvious change, which is the return of the screen fingerprint unlocking, eliminating the fingerprint recognition area that was “homestay” on the power button, and it is a step up in aesthetics.

What makes the realme X50 Pro 5G recognizable is the two new colors additions-red rust and moss. The inspiration is said to be from the Morandi color system. For the first time, the mature and restrained expression of realme is shown. , Low-profile matte, compared with the high-saturation flamboyant color matching in the past, it is much more durable.

These color changes also depend on the reflection of light on the mirror glass, which looks quite deep, which is the flagship temperament. The X50 Pro is equipped with a 6.44-inch Samsung Super AMOLED screen, E3 light-emitting material, and a maximum excitation brightness of 1,000 nits. This high-quality screen is regarded as the flagship standard this year.

Refresh rate

It also comes standard with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The most direct experience is smoothness, reduced visual lag when sliding, reduced text smear when reading, and very easy operation. It also has a touch sampling rate of 180Hz. The touch sampling rate affects the touch sensitivity of the screen. The higher the touch sampling rate, the higher the touch sensitivity of the screen.

If you are more concerned about realme mobile phones, you may find that why the real self X50 is equipped with a 120Hz high refresh rate screen, but when the Pro version refresh rate is changed to 90Hz? The reason is explained in detail in the experience section. The desktop default wallpaper just obscures the front dual camera opening in the upper left corner. If you change the interface on a white background, you can see the opening.

Thanks to the replacement of the screen from the X50 LCD to the OLED material, the area of ​​the double openings has been reduced. Naturally, the effect on the screen’s integrated look and feel has been much lower than the previous generation. When playing a game or watching a video, you can turn the direction so that the game/video control buttons avoid this area. There is no need to cut the screen to a 16: 9 ratio display.

The bottom of the phone has a USB-C port, a microphone, a main speaker, and a dual SIM card slot. There is a microphone on the top.

This time the Realme X50 Pro does not retain the 3.5mm headphone jack. On the one hand, it reduces the openings, and on the other hand, it allows more space inside the fuselage to accommodate other more important components. We must know that the Realme X50 Pro 5G machine The body size is smaller than the X50, which means that the space pressure will be greater than the latter.

Realme X50 Pro Screen

We just raised a question that realme followers may have in the external viewing analysis section. The real self X50 is equipped with a high refresh rate of 120Hz. Why does the Pro version become 90Hz?

The reason for this is not difficult to explain. The real self X50 and real self X50 Pro have completely different screen materials: the X50 uses an LCD screen, and the X50 Pro uses an OLED screen.

Especially in low-temperature conditions, whether it is the iPhone 11 up to nearly 6000 yuan or a low-end entry phone down to several hundred yuan, any LCD screen is relatively prone to smear, which is because of the screen response time Long, it is not a real stutter, but relatively slow response.

Here we must first talk about the response time of the LCD screen: the speed at which each pixel of the liquid crystal display responds to the input signal, that is, the time required for the pixel to change from dark to bright or bright to dark, that is, the liquid crystal molecules rotate and return to the original position. The time needed.

LED

At the same time, it is also necessary to understand the principle of the LCD screen: under the action of the electric field, the arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules is changed to change the transmittance of the external light source, complete the electrical-optical conversion, and then use the three primary colors of R, G, and B. The different excitations of the signal pass through the three primary color filter films of red, green, and blue to complete the color reproduction of time domain and space domain.

In other words, as long as the LCD screen uses liquid crystal technology, liquid crystal molecules cannot be deflected. The time required from receiving the driver chip command to changing the state can only be as fast as possible.

The OLED screen’s light-emitting principle is different. It realizes self-emission by driving the organic thin-film itself by electric current. Technically, independent pixels can be turned on and off, and the light and dark changes of the pixels can be directly controlled, which avoids the flow of liquid crystal molecules’ deflection. Therefore, the response speed is far better than that of LEDs, and almost no afterimage can be seen by the naked eye.

Therefore, in the author ’s actual experience, the real-life X50 at the refresh rate of 120 Hz and the real-life X50 Pro at the refresh rate of 90 Hz can hardly see the smear phenomenon, but the sliding speed of the X50 will be faster, and the overall visual performance no big difference.

In addition, the real-world X50 Pro’s screen color adjustment is more restrained. It only provides two options: “P3” and “sRG”. It does not provide a vivid but unrealistic “bright” mode. In other words, the X50 Pro does not show strong display effects due to the use of AMOLED screens, and the color adjustment tendency is as restrained as its back.

Example of a 90Hz screen versus a 60Hz screen

Finally, let’s intuitively feel the smoothness of the high refresh rate screen compared to the traditional 60Hz refresh rate screen.

5G experience

We have already briefly introduced the appearance part. The body size of the X50 Pro is even smaller than that of the X50. This also means that the machine is facing tighter space pressure for 5G function implementation. After all, 5G is not a plug A simple thing that an X55 baseband chip can accomplish.

Realme X50 Pro also has to deal with extremely complicated antenna layout and RF deployment. Realme X50 Pro 5G also chose a more difficult solution to challenge. Like the realme X50, this game is not missing in frequency band or mode, including n1, n3, n41, n78, and n79.

This means that whether it is domestic or in most parts of the world, you do n’t need to worry about the “mobile phone does not support this band” when holding the real X50 Pro. For this reason, the X50 Pro has paid a very high price. Realme designed 12 antennas for this phone.

Speed

For the heat dissipation problem faced by a more compact body, the realme X50 Pro 5G has a complete set of heat dissipation mechanisms, which is officially called a five-dimensional ice-cooled heat dissipation Pro. , Heat dissipation silicone grease and other multiple heat dissipation materials. Among them, the area of ​​VC liquid-cooled soaking copper plate is as high as 1821 mm2. Compared with the previous generation heat pipe, the area is increased by 339%, which can cover the core heat source 100%, significantly reduce the temperature, and greatly improve the heat dissipation capacity.

These are all necessary guarantees for the real X50 Pro 5G network experience. Next, in the area covered by the 5G signal, we use the mainstream test tool Speed ​​Test for speed measurement under the 5G network.

The realme X50 Pro 5G network speed is currently stable at around 487Mbps near the author’s home. This rate is due to the fact that I got early engineering machines and the operator’s network was not stable. Even so, the speed experience of the X50 Pro is still much faster than 4G. In particular, compared with the 24.9 Mbps downlink rate of ordinary 4G networks, 5G networks have almost increased to 20 times the former.

Not only that, but the latency under 5G networks is also lower.

As the current 5G networks of the three major operators have not yet achieved large-scale full coverage like 4G networks, there must be some 5G network signal blind spots (such as in underground parking lots and elevators), and 5G and 4G switching scenarios will be encountered. Realme X50 Pro provides Smart 5G technology to solve the network stall that may occur during the 4G and 5G mutual switching process.

The most obvious performance is that when the 5G signal is weaker than 4G, the real X50 Pro will automatically switch back to 4G standby. At the same time, the 5G network can also speed up the network when the Wi-Fi signal is not good. After enabling the dual-channel acceleration of 5G and Wi-Fi, it can provide “dual insurance” for daily use, especially mobile games. Features have covered mainstream applications.

Hardware & Performance

Realme’s fastness is not just related to high refresh rate screens. I can persuade you to buy a realme X50 Pro. The main reason is the core hardware configuration based on the starting price of 3599 yuan. The X50 Pro is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform. The most powerful mobile SoC.

At the same time, the Real X50 Pro National Bank Edition also provides a large memory starting with 8GB RAM, up to 12GB, and the specifications also use the top LPDDR 5 of the current Android camp. To match it is 128GB or 256GB of dual-channel UFS 3.0 storage.

These top-level hardware bases make this phone have the top speed and high performance of the Android camp. With the freshly released realme UI, it can be said that the X50 Pro is currently the fastest and smoothest mobile phone under realme.

Master Lu

Master Lu can evaluate and compare the five core hardwares of CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and display. It is more suitable for ordinary white users to understand mobile phone related information.

CPU

Compared with the Snapdragon 855 Plus, the top pillar of the Qualcomm camp in 19 years, the Snapdragon 865 powered by the X50 Pro is more direct on the CPU.

Specifically, the CPU core used by the Snapdragon 865 is the same as the Snapdragon 855 Plus with a 1 + 3 + 4 architecture, with frequencies of 2.84GHz, 2.42Ghz, and 1.80GHz, and the cache capacity has not changed. With the Coterx-A77 architecture, the L3 cache has doubled to 4MB, and the four small cores are still the Cortex-A55 architecture, with a frequency of 1.8GHz.

Although the core frequency and L2 cache have not changed, compared with the Snapdragon 855 Plus based on the Cortex-A76 core improvement, Qualcomm’s main change on the Snapdragon 865 is to use the ARM Cortex-A77 architecture directly on the CPU core.

In the GeekBench5 test, the Snapdragon 865 used by the X50 Pro benefited from the new A77 architecture. Both the single-core and multi-core performance tests have achieved very good results. Among them, the single-core is 18 times ahead of the Snapdragon 855 Plus. %, Leading 19% on multicore.

GPU

Next, we look at the changes in the GPU. Adreno 630/640 GPUs are 2-core GPUs, each GPU core has 256 and 384 ALU units, and the performance of Adreno 650 has achieved a 50% improvement, which means that it may Is composed of three 256-ALU cores or two 512-ALU cores.

In terms of texture filling, the previous generation of Adreno 640 has performed well. Each core doubled from 12 groups of TMU units to 24 groups of TMU units, for a total of 48 groups of TMU units. This also makes the texture fill rate: the pixel fill rate reaches a rare 3: 1 ratio. The Adreno 650 GPU brings a 50% improvement in pixel processing performance over the previous generation, and now its pixel fill rate performance is on par with ARM’s Mali GPU.

Qualcomm has pointed out that the Adreno 650 GPU has improved performance by an average of 25% in different tests and loads. It should be noted that Qualcomm clearly indicates that the performance increase will be higher in some loads, such as the high load test Aztec Ruins in GFXBench. At this time, there may be a performance improvement of more than 25%.

Dual-channel UFS 3.0

Thanks to the dual-channel UFS 3.0, in the AndroBench storage test, the sequential reading speed of the Real Me X50 Pro was 1715.51MB / s and the sequential writing speed was 685.41MB / s. The random read speed is 238.74MB / s and the random write speed is 233.93MB / s.

The test data in each sub-item is much higher than the previous generation UFS 2.1. Even if you ignore the paper parameters, you can feel the faster game loading brought by the Snapdragon 865 + LPDDR 5+ dual-channel UFS 3.0. Speed ​​and application installation speed.

It is worth mentioning that official news claims that the realme X50 Pro uses UFS 3.0 + Turbo Write + HPB flash technology. Specifically, the Realme X50 Pro uses Samsung ’s standard UFS 3.0 + Turbo Write technology. Which is technically consistent with the JEDEC standard UFS 3.1 (UFS3.0 + Write Booster), which maximizes sequential writing. In the performance speed, only the name is different. The X50 Pro has added HPB technology to the entire system. Which can further improve the random read performance after long-term use?

Antutu

Antutu introduces mobile / tablet hardware performance evaluation tools. Which can comprehensively inspect the performance of various aspects of the device? Including user experience, and perform visual rankings. Support multiple mainstream platforms, running points can be compared across platforms. AnTuTu’s running score will provide a total score and multiple sub-item scores.

Realme X50 Pro Cameras

In previous years, dual- and triple-cameras were rare. Now four-cameras will almost become the standard for mobile phones. The main purpose is to enrich the photography scene and bring a more comprehensive photography experience through multiple cameras.

The rear side of the Realme X50 Pro uses a four-camera combination of 64MP main cameras + 12MP pixels 2x telephoto lens + 119 ° super wide-angle lens + black and white portrait lens.

The main camera is our old friend Samsung ISOCELL GW1. This sensor has a 1 / 1.72-inch photosensitive area and can take 64MP effective pixel photos. It is an evolutionary upgrade of Samsung GM1. And it has more pixels (from 47MP to 64MP). ), Due to Samsung ’s DTI pixel segmentation and other technologies. The overall signal-to-noise performance and low-light performance will also be improved.

0.6x

1x

The 64-megapixel Samsung GW1 main camera also supports QuadBayer pixel 4-in-1 technology. A single pixel can reach 1.6 μm, which brings better resolution and low-light performance. The ultra-wide-angle lens in the four-shot can capture ultra-wide-angle images of 119°. It also supports 3cm macro photography; the telephoto lens supports up to 2x optical zoom. 5x hybrid zoom, and 20x digital zoom; as for black and white portrait lenses. They can also play a role in shooting portraits.

It is worth mentioning that in the shooting experience. The author found that when the realme X50 Pro 5G is in poor light. The main camera with a larger aperture will be used to crop the image to obtain a zoom proof. Only if the ambient brightness is acceptable, the mobile phone ’s telephoto head will be called.

Battery

Not only does the 90Hz screen make brushing the phone visually fast, but the Snapdragon 865 + LPDDR 5+ dual-channel UFS 3.0 is fast. This time the 65W flash charge used by the X50 Pro makes charging faster. 35 minutes full. This is currently the fastest 65W charging record in 5G mobile phones.

The X50 Pro is equipped with a 65W flash charge, with a maximum current of 6.5A. And the most important thing is that this machine comes standard with a 65W gallium nitride charger-this charger currently costs at least 149 yuan in China. It is still very sincere.

In terms of charging speed, realme said that the X50 Pro takes only 35 minutes from 0 to 100% full. Which saves half of the charging time compared to some 30W flagship phones on the market. The reason why it is so fast is that the battery capacity is 4200mAh. Which is not too high. Secondly. SuperDart technology further improves the algorithm. The charging power is more balanced, and the trickle charging speed is greatly improved.

Among the previous smartphones. The fastest from 0 to 100% full charge is OPPO’s Reno Ace, which can be filled with a 4000mAh battery in 28 minutes. But this is a mobile phone last year, and the battery capacity is relatively small.

With such a fast charge, the X50 Pro can achieve 100 minutes of movie playback. 4 hours of phone calls, and 40 songs of battery life after 3 minutes of charging. 100 minutes is almost the time of a movie.

Online video battery life

I use the Bilibili client to play online barrage videos, 20% volume, 70% brightness, turn on the GPS switch. And keep QQ and WeChat in the background. Use a WiFi network, and the data network is in 5G state, starting from 100% power. And after 1 hour, the remaining power is 92%. Power consumption is 8%.

Game battery life

Keep QQ and WeChat in the background, turn on GPS, start from 100% power, and after 1 hour. The remaining power is 85%. The power consumption is 15%, but it should be noted that the picture quality is HDR and the frame number is set to ultra-high. If adjusted to the limit frame rate, battery life may be further reduced.

Realme X50 Pro Verdict

If in 2019, if you ask me if I will consider buying a 5G flagship. And seeing a crowd of 5G flagships that have almost doubled in price. And are relatively unchanged from 4G phones except for the network, I will shake my head.

However, let me look at this problem again now, and I will be excited by 5G flagships like realme X50 Pro. Because even without considering the 5G network. Its high refresh rate screen. Top performance and experience have reached a level that is very different from last year’s 4G mobile phone. Reaching the level that a high-end flagship should have. Under this premise, the 5G network is integrated. Characteristics have a very strong appeal.

Read Also: Redmi Note 9 Pro Hands-on Review: 2020 Mid-Range Beast

In the context of increasing sales without increasing prices starting from 3599 yuan, it is difficult for people with related needs to refuse early adopters of 5G flagships. From its selling price, we can also see that as a realme with strong Internet brand attributes and positioning close to young people, it continues to focus on the less expensive strategy.

Of course, at the same time. Realme is also constantly approaching the top flagship products of giant manufacturers. On the realme X50 Pro, we can see the Snapdragon 865 top mobile platform. 90Hz high refresh rate Samsung AMOLED screen. 65W SuperDart super flash charge ( Or even give away gallium nitride chargers) and many other flagships.

Although the Realme X50 Pro 5G looks like an upgraded version of the Realme X50 in the name. The two are two completely different products in terms of experience. The convergence between the two is only a product idea without shortcomings and no mistakes. It can be said that the realme X50 Pro is a high-end “bucket machine” in the Android flagship camp.

Realme X50 Pro Review: Is This 5G Phone Worth For 2020 Realme offers a cost-effective killer, which is the protagonist of this review Realme X50 Pro 5G…

[lindawood]

How to Pull Off a Professional Video Call From Home

Like parsley in your teeth or a hole in your pants, a bad video-call setup is something you’ll hear about only from people who care about you. But even if you have the best webcam, there’s a good chance that your lighting, your backdrop, your connection, or even your unconscious habits are making your Web meetings less polished than they could be.

Nearly every meeting at Wirecutter is a Web-video meeting, and over more than five years of talking to one another through tiny cameras, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Here’s the best advice from Wirecutter staff, as well as from a few of our expert sources, for getting good video and audio. Whether you’re occasionally working from home, regularly meeting while working remotely, or preparing for a rare video job interview, these tips will help make your virtual presence pleasing and professional.

Check your settings

Zoom, our chosen Web-conference software, has good default settings, and so do most Web-meeting apps. No matter what app you use, though, we recommend checking its settings for these features:

Video: Enable mirror effect. When you raise your left hand, your hand on the left of your screen rises. This effect prevents confusion when you show people things, or when you have to hide something you notice in the video view.

Audio: Always mute microphone when joining a meeting. It can be annoying to start talking and realize that you have to unmute, but it’s far better than the alternative—everyone hearing you swearing because you can’t figure out why your headphones aren’t working.

Audio: Automatically adjust microphone or mic level. This setting is usually enabled by default, and fine to leave on, but if you hear complaints from others that your voice is fading in or out or echoing, try disabling this. Other software on your computer, or the microphone itself, maybe be applying changes or effects that are competing with the Web-conference software’s settings.

What a great home-office video-calling setup looks like. Illustration: Ryan Hines

Minimize network and computer disruptions

Close competing applications: The folks behind Zoom have tips for making the best Zoom calls that really apply to any video-meeting software. Key among them is limiting the applications that use the two resources precious to any Web-conference app: processor power and network bandwidth. As the writer for Zoom’s blog post puts it:

When streaming 30 frames per second, your camera is taking 30 pictures of you each and every second, then sending them to the processor with instructions to forward the images through Zoom. Zoom uses your processor to send the images to your network card, which transmits the data to its destination. This process requires the energy of your CPU. To engage in the smoothest possible meetings, close any applications you don’t need to use for the meeting itself. It’s that simple.

The best way to find the applications that are eating CPU cycles, bandwidth, and (to a slightly lesser extent) memory is to open your system’s task manager. On Windows, hold down Control+Shift and press Esc. On a Mac, open the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder. Chromebooks have a task monitor, too: Hold the Search button and press Esc. On each platform, you’ll get a window that lists your apps and background processes, with CPU and Network columns showing the percentages and amounts of each that they’re using. Close any app you’ve launched that’s consuming notable amounts of CPU (consistently more than 25 percent), bandwidth (any sizable chunk of what you know your connection speed to be), or memory (significantly more than other apps), unless you need that app for the meeting. Avoid shutting down anything you can’t identify, especially those items that seem like system processes.

Test Wi-Fi before the call: This is the most important rule, but also the most ignored. Your connection may seem fine for Web browsing, but that task uses a lot less network bandwidth than a video call. Head to Speedtest, the go-to site for seeing how fast your computer can transfer data across the wider Internet. Zoom uses 1.2 Mbps (megabits per second), both upload (from you to the Internet) and download (from the Internet to you), for a group video call, and 1.5 Mbps both ways if you want to see all the participants in a thumbnail video gallery. Skype and Google Hangouts suggest even more bandwidth for group video calls: 1 to 2.5 Mbps up and 2 to 8 Mbps down for a call with three to seven people. (FaceTime doesn’t specify a minimum bandwidth but is generally a lower-bandwidth service than full conference-call apps.)

If Speedtest shows that your connection isn’t fast enough, try some of the following fixes:

Try to get closer to your router, and try different rooms to see if interference from other Wi-Fi networks or other devices is a problem.

If your router supports two frequencies, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, try switching between them and running speed tests on each. The 5 GHz channel can be faster but has shorter range; 2.4 GHz generally offers better reception over longer distances, but a lot of devices (and neighboring routers) use 2.4 GHz, so trying both is always worth it.

If all else fails, use an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi to connect to your router, and see if your connection improves. If you’re at your house and too far away from the router to use even a long Ethernet cable, consider a powerline networking kit for your home office.

Use a good camera and the right lighting

Photo: Andrew Cunningham

Some computers have a decent built-in camera, but most are mediocre, and the angle from the laptop to your face often produces an inattentive, off-putting look. And if you use a monitor at your desk, with your laptop off to the side, the result is even worse. Buy a webcam, put it on your monitor, and look at the people you’re talking to.

But even with a good webcam, lighting is the trickiest part of setting up a home office or another room for a video chat. As with photography, it’s better to have the light source behind the camera, rather than behind the subject, but nobody wants to put their computer in front of their window. Here are some easy ways to improve your lighting.

Make use of lamps: You can angle and redirect LED desk lamps, and they have multiple brightness levels and color temperatures. Wirecutter photo editor Michael Hession suggests bouncing the lamp light off a nearby wall rather than pointing it straight at your face. If that doesn’t work, you could try taping diffusion material over your lamp, but you’re better off trying different lighting setups and angles at first.

Try not to mix light sources: Natural light is great for an office space, but for the light that’s reaching your face, stick to either a lamp setup or a window slightly off to your side—not both.

Don’t use venetian blinds behind you: The light streaming in through the slats will wreak havoc on many a camera’s automatic light adjustments. Better to use blackout shades or curtains, and to bring in other light (lamps).

Don’t buy specialty YouTube/vlogger gear: Nobody should buy a softbox just to impress their boss. But you can steal one idea from this Wistia tutorial and this podcast setup guide: Put your lighting at your eye height. Defining your eyes allows you to express more on video, to seem more like yourself. That makes a video call feel more like an in-person meeting, which is as good as a Web meeting can get.

Get good sound

Photo: Nick Guy

Just as important as being seen is being heard—in our meetings, audio problems are a much bigger obstacle to communication than video issues. Here are some ways to improve how you sound.

Use an external microphone: Almost any plug-in device—a desktop USB mic, a USB headset or wireless headset, or the built-in microphone on our USB webcam pick—will sound better than the built-in microphone on a laptop. Just make sure your add-on mic is selected in your meeting software’s settings as the input source.

Place your microphone 5 to 6 inches from your mouth: If you can’t get that close or don’t want to use a separate microphone, try to place your microphone in the path your voice normally projects during a meeting.

Use headphones whenever possible: Although some laptops and software can automatically mute the microphone when other people are talking, they’re not perfect. Headphones will prevent feedback loops that result from your mic picking up other people speaking.

Add fabrics to counter echo: If other people are hearing room echo on your calls, the most practical solution is adding fabric to the room to absorb sound. Area rugs, carpeting, drapes, and blinds are reasonable things to try before considering extreme measures like foam soundproofing.

Optimize camera position and backgrounds

Keep your webcam slightly above your eye level: Assuming you have your monitor set up ergonomically—with your gaze falling about 2 inches below the top edge of the screen—this means you’ll be looking straight ahead at people on the call, which feels more like an in-person meeting. You should also shrink your video window for the call and move it to the top of your screen, near your webcam, to keep your gaze there.

Not too personal, not too sterile: Dan Roche, a former VP of marketing for webcasting firm TalkPoint, told Liane Cassavoy of PCWorld that you should avoid a Web-call background that is too personal (dishes, dirty clothes, bed sheets), or too sterile and professional (an empty white wall). A bookcase or lightly adorned shelves work, as do houseplants.

Keep it professional

Minimize or eliminate interference: Avoid dogs, cats, children, spouses, siblings, or anything else moving behind you. Sometimes it’s cute, but it often derails a train of thought or undercuts a moment. To that end, try not to have a door behind you. If your office or room has a door you can close, consider adding a sign, or even a light, announcing when you are in meetings.

Don’t wear a strapless top or deep V-neck: Besides the potential appearance of being topless when cropped on video, you risk exposure because your video camera is (if you took our advice) positioned above you.

Avoid reflective or jangling jewelry: Also skip clothing with intricate patterns or notable sheen. This is standard stage and video direction that also applies to being on webcam.

Don’t spin or roll in your wheeled chair: The effect is disconcerting on video, and the resulting vibrations may sound louder than you realize when your microphone picks them up.

from DDigits WP Feed 2 https://ift.tt/2NyBQcY via IFTTT

[whatchamagadget]

How to Pull Off a Professional Video Call From Home

Like parsley in your teeth or a hole in your pants, a bad video-call setup is something you’ll hear about only from people who care about you. But even if you have the best webcam, there’s a good chance that your lighting, your backdrop, your connection, or even your unconscious habits are making your Web meetings less polished than they could be.

Nearly every meeting at Wirecutter is a Web-video meeting, and over more than five years of talking to one another through tiny cameras, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Here’s the best advice from Wirecutter staff, as well as from a few of our expert sources, for getting good video and audio. Whether you’re occasionally working from home, regularly meeting while working remotely, or preparing for a rare video job interview, these tips will help make your virtual presence pleasing and professional.

Check your settings

Zoom, our chosen Web-conference software, has good default settings, and so do most Web-meeting apps. No matter what app you use, though, we recommend checking its settings for these features:

Video: Enable mirror effect. When you raise your left hand, your hand on the left of your screen rises. This effect prevents confusion when you show people things, or when you have to hide something you notice in the video view.

Audio: Always mute microphone when joining a meeting. It can be annoying to start talking and realize that you have to unmute, but it’s far better than the alternative—everyone hearing you swearing because you can’t figure out why your headphones aren’t working.

Audio: Automatically adjust microphone or mic level. This setting is usually enabled by default, and fine to leave on, but if you hear complaints from others that your voice is fading in or out or echoing, try disabling this. Other software on your computer, or the microphone itself, maybe be applying changes or effects that are competing with the Web-conference software’s settings.

What a great home-office video-calling setup looks like. Illustration: Ryan Hines

Minimize network and computer disruptions

Close competing applications: The folks behind Zoom have tips for making the best Zoom calls that really apply to any video-meeting software. Key among them is limiting the applications that use the two resources precious to any Web-conference app: processor power and network bandwidth. As the writer for Zoom’s blog post puts it:

When streaming 30 frames per second, your camera is taking 30 pictures of you each and every second, then sending them to the processor with instructions to forward the images through Zoom. Zoom uses your processor to send the images to your network card, which transmits the data to its destination. This process requires the energy of your CPU. To engage in the smoothest possible meetings, close any applications you don’t need to use for the meeting itself. It’s that simple.

The best way to find the applications that are eating CPU cycles, bandwidth, and (to a slightly lesser extent) memory is to open your system’s task manager. On Windows, hold down Control+Shift and press Esc. On a Mac, open the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder. Chromebooks have a task monitor, too: Hold the Search button and press Esc. On each platform, you’ll get a window that lists your apps and background processes, with CPU and Network columns showing the percentages and amounts of each that they’re using. Close any app you’ve launched that’s consuming notable amounts of CPU (consistently more than 25 percent), bandwidth (any sizable chunk of what you know your connection speed to be), or memory (significantly more than other apps), unless you need that app for the meeting. Avoid shutting down anything you can’t identify, especially those items that seem like system processes.

Test Wi-Fi before the call: This is the most important rule, but also the most ignored. Your connection may seem fine for Web browsing, but that task uses a lot less network bandwidth than a video call. Head to Speedtest, the go-to site for seeing how fast your computer can transfer data across the wider Internet. Zoom uses 1.2 Mbps (megabits per second), both upload (from you to the Internet) and download (from the Internet to you), for a group video call, and 1.5 Mbps both ways if you want to see all the participants in a thumbnail video gallery. Skype and Google Hangouts suggest even more bandwidth for group video calls: 1 to 2.5 Mbps up and 2 to 8 Mbps down for a call with three to seven people. (FaceTime doesn’t specify a minimum bandwidth but is generally a lower-bandwidth service than full conference-call apps.)

If Speedtest shows that your connection isn’t fast enough, try some of the following fixes:

Try to get closer to your router, and try different rooms to see if interference from other Wi-Fi networks or other devices is a problem.

If your router supports two frequencies, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, try switching between them and running speed tests on each. The 5 GHz channel can be faster but has shorter range; 2.4 GHz generally offers better reception over longer distances, but a lot of devices (and neighboring routers) use 2.4 GHz, so trying both is always worth it.

If all else fails, use an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi to connect to your router, and see if your connection improves. If you’re at your house and too far away from the router to use even a long Ethernet cable, consider a powerline networking kit for your home office.

Use a good camera and the right lighting

Photo: Andrew Cunningham

Some computers have a decent built-in camera, but most are mediocre, and the angle from the laptop to your face often produces an inattentive, off-putting look. And if you use a monitor at your desk, with your laptop off to the side, the result is even worse. Buy a webcam, put it on your monitor, and look at the people you’re talking to.

But even with a good webcam, lighting is the trickiest part of setting up a home office or another room for a video chat. As with photography, it’s better to have the light source behind the camera, rather than behind the subject, but nobody wants to put their computer in front of their window. Here are some easy ways to improve your lighting.

Make use of lamps: You can angle and redirect LED desk lamps, and they have multiple brightness levels and color temperatures. Wirecutter photo editor Michael Hession suggests bouncing the lamp light off a nearby wall rather than pointing it straight at your face. If that doesn’t work, you could try taping diffusion material over your lamp, but you’re better off trying different lighting setups and angles at first.

Try not to mix light sources: Natural light is great for an office space, but for the light that’s reaching your face, stick to either a lamp setup or a window slightly off to your side—not both.

Don’t use venetian blinds behind you: The light streaming in through the slats will wreak havoc on many a camera’s automatic light adjustments. Better to use blackout shades or curtains, and to bring in other light (lamps).

Don’t buy specialty YouTube/vlogger gear: Nobody should buy a softbox just to impress their boss. But you can steal one idea from this Wistia tutorial and this podcast setup guide: Put your lighting at your eye height. Defining your eyes allows you to express more on video, to seem more like yourself. That makes a video call feel more like an in-person meeting, which is as good as a Web meeting can get.

Get good sound

Photo: Nick Guy

Just as important as being seen is being heard—in our meetings, audio problems are a much bigger obstacle to communication than video issues. Here are some ways to improve how you sound.

Use an external microphone: Almost any plug-in device—a desktop USB mic, a USB headset or wireless headset, or the built-in microphone on our USB webcam pick—will sound better than the built-in microphone on a laptop. Just make sure your add-on mic is selected in your meeting software’s settings as the input source.

Place your microphone 5 to 6 inches from your mouth: If you can’t get that close or don’t want to use a separate microphone, try to place your microphone in the path your voice normally projects during a meeting.

Use headphones whenever possible: Although some laptops and software can automatically mute the microphone when other people are talking, they’re not perfect. Headphones will prevent feedback loops that result from your mic picking up other people speaking.

Add fabrics to counter echo: If other people are hearing room echo on your calls, the most practical solution is adding fabric to the room to absorb sound. Area rugs, carpeting, drapes, and blinds are reasonable things to try before considering extreme measures like foam soundproofing.

Optimize camera position and backgrounds

Keep your webcam slightly above your eye level: Assuming you have your monitor set up ergonomically—with your gaze falling about 2 inches below the top edge of the screen—this means you’ll be looking straight ahead at people on the call, which feels more like an in-person meeting. You should also shrink your video window for the call and move it to the top of your screen, near your webcam, to keep your gaze there.

Not too personal, not too sterile: Dan Roche, a former VP of marketing for webcasting firm TalkPoint, told Liane Cassavoy of PCWorld that you should avoid a Web-call background that is too personal (dishes, dirty clothes, bed sheets), or too sterile and professional (an empty white wall). A bookcase or lightly adorned shelves work, as do houseplants.

Keep it professional

Minimize or eliminate interference: Avoid dogs, cats, children, spouses, siblings, or anything else moving behind you. Sometimes it’s cute, but it often derails a train of thought or undercuts a moment. To that end, try not to have a door behind you. If your office or room has a door you can close, consider adding a sign, or even a light, announcing when you are in meetings.

Don’t wear a strapless top or deep V-neck: Besides the potential appearance of being topless when cropped on video, you risk exposure because your video camera is (if you took our advice) positioned above you.

Avoid reflective or jangling jewelry: Also skip clothing with intricate patterns or notable sheen. This is standard stage and video direction that also applies to being on webcam.

Don’t spin or roll in your wheeled chair: The effect is disconcerting on video, and the resulting vibrations may sound louder than you realize when your microphone picks them up.

[awesomeblockchain]

Every Monday morning, artnet News brings you The Gray Market. The column decodes important stories from the previous week-and offers unparalleled insight into the inner workings of the art industry in the process.

This week, dissecting one subject to put an entire system in view...

Maecenas logo. Image courtesy of Maecenas.

EXECUTION STYLE

On Wednesday, art investment startup Maecenas opened online registration to participate in an event it is billing as -the world's first ever blockchain-based auction of fine art." But in my opinion, slicing into the details lays bare a number of deficiencies that also apply to much of the overheated art and blockchain space. (If you're not familiar with that space yet, check out my primer from earlier this year.)

Presented in partnership with Dadiani Syndicate, which brands itself as the first British gallery to accept cryptocurrency payments, the Maecenas auction in question will feature only one work: Andy Warhol's 14 Small Electric Chairs (1980). The painting will be divided into fractional shares collectively amounting to as much as a 49 percent ownership stake. These minority shares will be distributed to winning bidders paying in Bitcoin, Ether, or Maecenas's own cryptocurrency, the ART token. Sale and subsequent Wall Street-style trading of these shares will be tracked on a blockchain, allegedly creating what Maecenas calls a -transparent marketplace."

To Maecenas and Dadiani's credit, would-be bidders can only participate in the auction after submitting some basic -Know Your Client" and -Anti-Money Laundering" details, including proof of identity and current residence. In theory, this requirement at least prevents the auction from being converted into a washing machine for dirty cash-a legitimate possibility that dogs many crypto-ventures seeking an air of legitimacy and wider adoption.

But what about Maecenas's stated mission to -democratize access to fine art" via the Warhol auction and others like it? Does the blockchain element deliver the revolutionary promises central to the startup? And what do the answers tell us about the many other art/blockchain ventures swarming the industry like fruit flies to a poorly maintained winery?

Infographic on registration for Maecenas's first-ever blockchain-based art auction. Image courtesy of Maecenas.

THE PROPOSITION

In its white paper, Maecenas identifies the -fundamental issues of art investment" as -lack of transparency, lack of liquidity, and most importantly the fact that trust is centralized" with traditional entities like auction houses and galleries. (For the uninitiated, the masterminds behind every crypto-venture, including Bitcoin, write a white paper to detail their product, their goal, and how the former achieves the latter.)

By this logic, Maecenas magic-wands the industry by dividing artworks like 14 Small Electric Chairs into tradeable shares, then facilitating and tracking their movements via blockchain technology.

It's an appealing idea if you want to invest in art but can't afford a collection, right? Allow more people to buy in by lowering the cost of entry, and place the responsibility for monitoring the marketplace into the hands of infallible, incorruptible software rather than fallible, corruptible human experts.

However, in my opinion, this pitch represents a dramatic misunderstanding of blockchain-one that helps propagate myths about the technology that are driving the gold rush of misguided crypto-art startups.

REALITY CHECK

When people like me try to define the concept of a blockchain to the uninitiated, we almost inevitably fall back on some variant of the phrase -decentralized digital ledger." Once you explain that -decentralized" means -jointly maintained by different computers in different locations with different owners," this definition usually helps.

Why? Because a ledger, or an ongoing list of transactions, is a pretty relatable idea. People might picture an Excel spreadsheet tracking expenses or an itemized receipt from a grocery store. Simple, right?

The problem is that these images are somewhat misleading. It's true that a well-written blockchain tracks all the details of whatever transactional history it's recording. But it's false that the info is easy to read if you're just a skeptical customer without some hardcore software literacy.

A crucial point often lost in the analysis of many blockchain art ventures, and many blockchain ventures, period, is this: There is nothing inherently transparent about blockchains. Not all of their data is publicly viewable by default. The creator has some power to choose what to make visible, and who to make it visible to.

Although I didn't find the mechanism detailed in Maecenas's white paper, let's just assume that their blockchains will all provide maximum data visibility to investors. Otherwise, all the company's rhetoric about -democratizing access" and using an -open blockchain platform" would be nothing but chemtrails.

The larger, more important issue is that even an accessible blockchain is hard to review. It's not as if every one of them automatically generates a link to an easily readable table of transactions like the old school examples I mentioned above. The only way to check for accuracy is to do an independent audit of the blockchain at the level of code.

To give you a sense of what that task requires, take a look at the below excerpt from crypto-skeptic Kai Stinchcombe's essential essay -Blockchain Technology Is Not Only Crappy Technology But a Bad Vision of the Future." Here, he's talking about the alleged revolutionary potential of using blockchains to create truly free and fair elections in developing countries.

-Keep your voting records in a tamper-proof repository not owned by anyone" sounds right - yet is your Afghan villager going to download the blockchain from a broadcast node and decrypt the Merkle root from his Linux command line to independently verify that his vote has been counted?

If your response to the above was -WTF does any of that mean?" that's the point! Even a sharp citizen will be almost powerless on their own in this realm without a pretty rigorous coding background. Unless we're all intent on turning ourselves into characters from Mr. Robot, this is kind of a problem.

So what is the average person likely to do in a blockchain ecosystem instead? As Stinchcombe writes, probably something like -rely on the mobile app of a trusted third party - like the nonprofit or open-source consortium administering the election or providing the software."

In other words, any non-hacker buying into blockchain is just choosing to trust software rather than a person or traditional institution. But since software doesn't magically write itself, -trusting in the software" on some level means -trusting in the people writing the software." And unless you subscribe to some fringe Silicon Valley cosmology in which programmers are numbered among the saints, there is no reason to believe that people writing software are inherently more trustworthy than people working at auction houses or galleries. And that matters whether you're investing in fractional shares or hoping for bulletproof provenance verification.

THE TRUST PROBLEM

This leads us back to Maecenas's Warhol offer. In order to feel good about bidding in a crypto-denominated, smart-contract-activated, blockchain-tracked auction, you first have to trust that:

The artwork is authentic.

The owner is the true owner.

There are no other liens or ownership stakes against it behind the scenes.

The software has been written fairly and securely (again, unless you're willing and able to audit it yourself), and...

The certificate verifying your fractional shares in the painting is enforceable off the blockchain (meaning IRL).

About that last part: Maecenas's legal and compliance regime is not outlined in its white paper, either. Instead, you get a grand total of six sentences and one confusing diagram on page 10 that I would argue collectively amount to -just trust us, OK?"

In fact, despite the overtures made to -decentralized networks of trust" and the exclusionary inefficiencies of the traditional art industry, reliance on established art-world and business-world institutions runs rampant through Maecenas's pitch.

Their home page states that -Artworks remain in custody of trusted institutions, vetted collectors, and galleries." (The particulars of this vetting process are not detailed.) Similarly, both nearby and within the diagram I just mentioned, you'll find references to Maecenas's involvement with -art finance experts, law firms, and investment professionals," as well as unidentified -art experts" who verify every artwork's authenticity.

And as the diagram makes clear, guess who's standing at the (ahem) center of all these different traditional experts? Maecenas! Kind of odd for a business using decentralization as a pillar of its mission, no?

This points us toward something that needs to be said more broadly about blockchain ventures and their promises of decentralized disruption of the art market.

Mockup of the Maecenas trading platform. Image courtesy of Maecenas.

THE -PLATFORM" PROBLEM

Maecenas defines itself as a -platform," a word as pervasive in art/blockchain pitches as sad animals in budget petting zoos. Why is this a practical problem rather than a verbal annoyance? Because -platform" is a synonym for -middleman," and middlemen are inherently contradictory to any sincere effort to decentralize anything-at least, if they're charging a fee for their presence at the crossroads.

Maecenas is a perfect example of this. Their white paper states that they charge the consignor of any artwork a six percent listing fee and successful bidders on fractional shares a two percent transaction fee. (Fractional owners are allowed to sell their shares commission-free.)

Unless you've recently been slammed in the head with a frying pan, I can't really give you a pass for preaching the virtues of decentralization while simultaneously pitching yourself as a -platform" for transactions that takes a 2 percent to 6 percent cut. It's internally inconsistent. It's like saying, -I love nature, but I'm not wild about plants."

This brings us to another sirens-blaring, red-alert point about the big picture: Blockchain is a decentralized technology that can still be put toward centralized uses. It's no different than the argument you'll hear made about wedding rings by men living in the cesspool that is the pick-up artist -community": Wearing one can be just as useful for attracting extramarital action as for signaling that you're off limits.

In tech itself, there is no better example of this reality than the web itself. A technology developed to facilitate the free and fair exchange of knowledge without exposure to filters, discrimination, or tracking has today been transformed by various -platforms" into the most aggressive and extensive advertising, monetization, and mass surveillance apparatus in human history.

Say it with me: Technology is agnostic. Its effects depend on the people using it.

Which begs the question: What do the people behind Maecenas and the Warhol auction actually want?

The American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol with his paintings(1928 - 1987), December 15, 1980. (Photo by Susan Greenwood / Liaison Agency)

WILL THE REAL MAECENAS PLEASE STAND UP?

Maecenas's press releases and white paper alternate between two stated goals. One is to democratize access to fine art. The other is to democratize access to fine-art investment. Yet these are wildly different objectives, and the -platform" looks much more tailored to one than the other.

This is apparent even in Maecenas's name. Early in the white paper, they explain their choice of moniker as follows:

We are named after-and inspired by-an early patron of the arts. Gaius Maecenas helped democratize art in Ancient Rome by financing poor poets. We want to be the modern version of Maecenas... ensuring that fine art is available to everyone and not just the ultra-wealthy.

So how does this gel with auctioning off fractional shares in a select group of artworks that, according to the white paper, -will be kept in purpose-built safe art storage facilities" at freeports?

The answer is that -Maecenas, in its effort to democratize access to fine art, will allow investors and their nominated guests to arrange visits to appreciate the artworks" if they're ready to travel somewhere like Singapore, Luxembourg, Geneva, or New York.

Invoking Maecenas, the Roman arts benefactor, would make sense if Maecenas, the -platform," was actually, say, a crowdfunding venture that funneled money to working artists experiencing extreme financial hardship. Or, alternatively, if the historical Maecenas's arts -patronage" had consisted of building a private library of poems where the rights to individual lines or stanzas could be traded in the square, but only read by investors also willing to make an in-person journey to the archive.

But neither of those is true, so the name is ridiculous. To me, it misses the point almost as badly as if someone built a -platform" to invest in the worldwide expansion of British commerce and called it Gandhi.

SUMMING UP

I have a lot of other, smaller questions about both the Warhol auction and Maecenas more broadly. But the key point is that I don't see how blockchain technology actually solves the issues they want it to. For instance, other startups elsewhere in the world have managed to market fractional shares without blockchains. And if the goal is to make art investing more like investing in the traditional financial markets, well, it's not as if the likes of E-Trade, Schwab, or Robinhood needed decentralized technology to thrive.

Instead, Maecenas looks to me like a standard-bearer for so many of the art/blockchain ventures bombarding the industry: a monetization strategy with little genuine interest in art or artists, and no real solutions to the problems it's pursuing. I don't think they're evil, just misguided. But if we want this technology to make any significant changes in a troubled ecosystem, we have to keep asking hard questions about its true limitations and potential.

That's all for this week. 'Til next time, say what you mean, and mean what you say.

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