#but the amounts and combinations vary incredibly wildly

[viric-dreams]

Right, yes, the morality post. For brevity's sake, I'm going to leave this for the more developed characters here, but with the exception of Graham, nobody should be easily answerable in a binary "yes/no" poll whether or not they're a good person.

Ockham is not particularly kind. Heshethey does not go out of hishertheir way to be cruel to anyone without direct provocation (petty is still on the table, mind you), but Ockham is primarily concerned with Ockham. Ockham is relatively steadfast with people heshethey favours, but at the end of the day, the selfish option will always win out. Ockham has low emotional empathy and tends to feel a degree of distance from others (a mixture of the surface sailor living a relatively unattached life and the parabolan elements comprehending existence on an entirely different plane of reality). Heshethey doesn't actively get involved in any broader causes or try to influence things on the macro scale for better or for worse, unless it somehow directly affects himherthem. Ockham has a relatively good degree of self-awareness about it: Ockham's not trying to be a good person or a bad one, heshethey're just trying to be.

Roberts initially started out willing to step on whomever he needed to (himself included) in order to secure comfort for himself. But despite that, if it won't impact him negatively, his instinct is still to be kind (how he's received is a different story). These are traits that carry over to Nite. Being dawnpilled, however, seemed to have turned his priorities onto a grander scale. It's no longer primarily about him, but about the New Sequence and their goals. He's working towards a greater good here, but is also more likely to do smaller acts of individual kindness, unrelated to the grand scale of things. On the other hand, he has absolutely committed several atrocities in the name of that greater good. He does recognise them for what they are and holds negative feelings over them, but is still able to write it off as something that had to be done for the net benefit. This is also a mindset that carries over to Nite, who believes that the steep cost of the LoN is a necessary one for the overall greater good. Both of them want to be a good person, and think they're doing it as best they can. Roberts does acknowledge that he's made many unpopular decisions, and is also at peace with playing the villain if that's what it takes to achieve the overall good. Let his subordinates hate him. Let him dirty his hands so that the Commodore doesn't have to. It's all worth it in the end.

Jones wants to believe that he's a good person. He thinks that he used to be, back when he could actually stand for something he believed in. Nowadays, he feels more like a husk. He's done awful things for the Great Game, and would do them again. But for as many things he's done that have caused harm, there are things he hasn't done, paralysis and indecision, also causing harm. Those are the ones that weigh on his conscience--when his fear, his inaction, have negative consequences. Maybe if it were for something that he actually believed in, it would be easier. But there's nothing left in him to keep that flame alive, were it ever rekindled. His favourite part of the job is administering the Rites of St Joshua. At least he can feel like he's done some good, unburdening someone of their troubles or secrets. He wants to be a good person. He hopes that he is.

[musical-chick-13]

Hey, I saw your post about female characters being ignored and not cared about, one thing I know and tha I've seen is that; even if the female characters and side characters were all female—they would still genderbend them, or latch onto two male characters who have done no shit and give them better characterisation, the fandom will also flatten, cut out, and remove important characteristics of the important female characters, while giving important hc canons and what not to the two male characters.

It is plain old fandom misogy and has always been there from the beginning.

"Even when women and girls are at the forefront of the story, men will always be seeked out in whatever ways possible, and centralised—female characters on the other hand, will always be judged or ignored; people do not want to admit it, but they still have internalised misogyny to worked on, 'fandom is not activism' gives them an excuse and cover to not examine, women's stories or inner lives don't and have never mattered to a lot of people in varying degrees."

Overall, I just resonate with your frustrations and thought I was the only one . . .

Oh, you have come to the RIGHT place, my friend, I rant about this every other day at minimum.

FEMALE CHARACTERS!! WILL ALWAYS!!!! BE JUDGED OR IGNORED!!!!!!!!! Like. Chainsaw Man and Game of Thrones/ASoIaF have been praised significantly for letting all of the women in them be extremely flawed and complicated in differing and interesting ways, and I STILL see people not engaging with them and/or reducing most of them to one (1) characteristic. (Cersei is a "crazy bitch," Sansa is "stupid" (??), Catelyn is a terrible mom, Melisandre is...there; Kobeni is obnoxious, Makima is hot, Himeno is the Worst™, etc. etc.) And there should be an overwhelming abundance of increasingly implausible f/f ship content, right? (There isn't.)

(And ohhhhh, people want to erase the importance of women to the overall narrative and its themes (and their canonical importance to other-usually male-characters) so bad, see: Cersei, Himeno, Irene Adler, Mary Morstan, MCU Natasha, Camille O'Connell, Bonnie Bennett, Lizzie Saltzman, Mai from AtLA, Martha Jones, tbh even River gets a fair amount of this. And then some of this is obviously combined with racism when the character is a WOC.)

And I don't have a problem with genderbending characters-gender is complicated, and exploring different facets of how a character might interact with the world if their gender identity changed is incredibly interesting!! But it's...very telling that, historically, I have seen this happen a lopsided amount in one direction, where the female characters are reimagined as men and not vice versa. (Remember when a not-insignificant number of people could only stomach BBC Sherlock/Irene if they reimagined Irene as a man? And then got mad at Elementary for CANONICALLY reinterpreting Watson as a woman? Good times. 🙄)

Just...so many of these wildly-hated or ignored women are...not any less complex than a lot of fictional men who get popular. (I'm sorry, you want to tell me that Misa is not at LEAST as interesting and worthy of sympathy as K*lo fucking Ren? When she has the backstory she does and presents an engaging dichotomy of "bubbly/silly yet murderous" and deconstructs the idea of extreme single-minded devotion NO I'M NOT MAD ABOUT THIS WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT)

And the idea of "fandom is not activism" is supposed to be used in the sense of "Liking a pRoBLeMaTiC dynamic/character in a story doesn't mean you think that behavior is okay in real life" (finding a fictional war criminal interesting doesn't equate to supporting genocide, exploring a toxic dynamic in fic doesn't inherently mean you hate victims, etc.), and "Paying lip service to marginalized/mistreated fictional characters is not the same as helping and supporting actual marginalized/mistreated people in real life." It doesn't mean, "We ignore obvious examples of misogyny and racism and ableism and transphobia and all other prejudices just because this is supposed to be fun." Biases are systemically ingrained, and any given person will bring those biases into all facets of their life; that doesn't just magically stop happening because one of those life facets happens to be a hobby or form of entertainment. Breaking down and dismantling prejudice has to happen on every level, including the """small""" ones.

The only time I have ever seen people engage with multiple female characters on a regular basis while admitting to their importance and narrative complexity and actually creating fanworks about them is Noir (2001). And that's because there are a whole 10 people in this fandom and the show has no men. (Okay, not literally, but you know what I mean.) And it's just so incredibly frustrating that that's the point we have to get to just for it to be possible for people to bother with a work's female characters on an enthusiastic, regular basis. (Because, as you said-that doesn't always happen even when those conditions are met.)

ANYWAY, I'm so sorry for making this response so lengthy, but genuinely I have been holding this in for a long time. TLDR, you're right and you should say it. You definitely aren't the only one, and I'm so, so glad that somebody Gets It.

[rpgse7enx5]

Endless runners, video game research and how gameplay loops influence their designs; an explanation - By RPG.

1 - Temple Run 2

Temple Run 2 is an endless-runner video game developed and published by husband-and-wife team Imangi Studios in 2013.

Players are expected to overcome a variety of different sections and hinderances whilst being chased by a single giant monkey called Shushank (unlike the original Temple Run, where you are instead chased by a group of 3 monkeys).

The core gameplay loops, and what dictates as the main objective, is that the style of level practically stays the same; with the player having to collect a score that is based solely upon both the distance and amount of coins you have collated. Additionally, this could also be down to the fact that you will encounter the same or similar obstacles in each level; with the positioning of them changing.

Its USP (Unique Selling Point) could be the fact that it is the advancement to the already wildly popular first rendition in the Temple Run series; as was mentioned by the developers and critics of the game, and the fact that said critics noted that it featured everything that was "missing" from the original game.

2 - Robot Unicorn Attack

Robot Unicorn Attack is a 2010 endless-runner video game developed by Spiritonin Games and published by Adult Swim Games.

In the game, the player is expected to collide into crystal stars by dashing into them and to not fall off the edge or crash into the edges of platforms. As the player advances into the level, the speed of which the unicorn moves increases.

The main core gameplay loop is that the level stays the exact same in principle, and the movement doesn't change in any way. Points are collected by the player by collecting pixies, and by running into crystal stars without dashing into them.

Its USP (Unique Selling Point) could be that its stylisation, and its quirky nature, appeals to a certain type of audience; bringing a unique approach into a genre that is otherwise completely dominated by the same generic style of endless runner.

3 - Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird is a 2013 casual endless runner created by solo indie Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen and published by .Gears, his studio.

In the game, the player is expected to dodge long green poles by going in between them; these green poles can vary in height and the singular level can get more difficult when the bird you control becomes quicker.

The main gameplay loop is that there is only one singular level, and the navigation around that singular level; the player having to dodge the exact same obstacle, just in different heights and distances whilst also balancing in the speed of which the level is progressing at.

Its USP (Unique Selling Point) could be that the game was supposed to be marketed as "everything pure, everything extremely hard and incredibly fun to play" as quoted by his studio. Its critics mentioned its addictive nature, and Nguyen was quite to follow up on this by removal of the game on all devices citing that he felt guilty about the game's addictive nature.

4 - Punch Quest

Punch Quest is a 2012 (iOS)/2013 (Android) endless runner/beat-em-up developed by Madgarden published by both RocketCat Games and Noodlecake Studios for both iOS and Android respectively.

In the game, the player is expected to punch through as many monsters as possible whilst collecting score points (called punchos).

The main gameplay loop is that there is one objective, and that is to beat up as many monsters as possible in order to achieve a high score; along with the collecting of punchos along the way.

Its USP (Unique Selling Point) could be that the game features a unique take on the endless runner genre; combining both beat-em-up style combat games with endless runners, creating some sort of workable hybrid variety. Additionally, the game also features a unique variation from all of the other styles of endless runner; incorporating 2D pixel art into its design.

5 - Google's Dinosaur Game

The Dinosaur Game, otherwise known colloquially as Chrome Dino or Google's Dinosaur Game, is a browser game/endless runner/side-scroller that was created by Google that is built into the Chrome browser in 2014.

In the game, the player is expected to dodge obstacles (like cacti, clouds and flying birds) whilst also covering distance to score points.

The main gameplay loop is that there is one objective, and that is to dodge obstacles whilst ducking and jumping; and as you progress, balancing out correct movement with the speed of which the t. rex is going at.

Its USP (Unique Selling Point) could be the that the game was initially designed as something you could play whilst your computer/browser wasn't connected to the internet when trying to browse, but later transformed into something that became an instant hit because of its simple yet impactful nature. Its unique hybridisation, between three genres crossed together, makes this game a very unique piece in the endless-runner puzzle.

RPG-7

[howtofightwrite]

Equipping and Using Armor

How long should armour/costumes take to put on? Also it seems from films, there are so many complaints about such being ill-fit, and taking a long time to wear, movement restricting, too heavy. I get it’s filming but we’re expecting the characters are able to freely fight in them and get in and out at ease. In other words, what we see is too impractical and unrealistic in reality. So what is actually realistic and something you could really see working?

So, there’s a huge difference between armor and costumes. There’s also a wild difference in the amount of time (for either) based on what you’re talking about.

Something like a gambeson or breastplate could be put on fairly quickly. Somewhat similar to putting on any other article of clothing (though, admittedly, the breastplate may be a poor example here depending on the design.)

On the other end of the spectrum, something like full plate would require a second person to strap the wearer in, though I’m not sure on exactly how much time it would take. A modern reenactor can get into plate in ~10 minutes, though that number will vary based on the armor in use, and it’s likely that a professional combatant in the era could have easily shaved a few minutes off that time. So, it’s not an incredibly drawn out process, but it is still something you’d need to do before combat began.

As he demonstrates, getting out of your armor is considerably easier than getting into it, but there are still going to be buckles in hard to reach places that will require assistance. His estimate of it taking about a third as long to get out, is probably a pretty sound guess.

Too heavy is a very subjective criticism; it is entirely dependent on the wearer’s conditioning. Historical armor weights vary wildly depending on the style, and material. The video example above weighs just under 60lbs, which is slightly lighter surviving historical examples from the 14th century.

Ironically, soldiers today tend to have heavier carry loads than someone armored in full plate with their kit.

The reality was that fully articulated armor offered the wearer a lot of mobility, and combined that with protection. While it is, “heavy armor,” that is weight that a professional combatant could condition themselves to, and wouldn’t really interfere with their ability to move and fight. If you have armor that seriously impairs your ability to move, that’s just going to get you killed.

Ironically, the bigger issue wasn’t the weight of the armor, it was the way the armor could trap heat, and exhaust a combatant who didn’t have the conditioning for it.

This is where you’ll get into a specific problem that’s basically impossible to lock down because it’s going to depend on the individual. If you’re putting actors in period appropriate reproduction armor, they might find that very uncomfortable, and may not have the condition (or the desire to build up the conditioning) to be effective in it. They’re not going to need to actually fight in the armor. Additionally, it’s entirely possible that the costume designers created armor that isn’t really functional. This is a weird edge case, because at that point you do have a costume, not armor, and it doesn’t matter if it would be impossible to actually fight in armor designed to those specifications, because the actors are going to do what the script tells them to.

There’s actually a lot of examples of downright terrible armor designs in films, that would be more dangerous to the wearer. Any armor with, “boob plate,” come to mind off hand, but that’s an entirely different topic.

Now, having just dunked on that, there are a lot of films, and TV where the production team takes the time to make functional armor designs, or use historically accurate(-ish) reproductions. (Sometimes you’ll see some anachronisms. Post-gunpowder armor designs in a pre-gunpowder setting is a very common example.) The considerations of filming work better if your actors can move and interact with their environment. If they’re comfortable and mobile, then that’s not problem for the production.

One of the biggest examples of armor that simply doesn’t work which you’ll see frequently in pop culture, isn’t heavy at all, it’s leather. While leather was used as a component of armor (such as the straps in the example above), nobody was making armor out of leather. The image of a stealthy knife fighter in bondage gear has the same historical authenticity as Leonidas’s leather speedo crew. Which is to say: None.

Leather was used in clothing (just like it is today), and if you’re looking at a character like Aragorn (and, I mean, specifically Aragorn, as in the creepy murder hobo wandering around in the forest), then leather clothing makes a lot of sense. But that’s not armor.

When it comes to armor weight, most of it is going to come from the chain. Chainmail is excellent protection. It has its weaknesses, but it’s a very solid starting point. Padded armor gets a bad reputation in modern pop culture, but was also shockingly effective. It’s easy to forget, but that was armor, and it did work. Plate was an effective outer shell, protecting your chain from the worst of the abuse you’d take.

So, in asking, “what works?” Historical armor worked. It worked very well. Even things like full plate (when they’re based on historical examples) were things you could actually move and fight in. Now, you needed training, you needed the conditioning to effectively function in that armor, but real people did that.

-Starke

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Equipping and Using Armor was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[ipatrichor]

c!wilbur? for teh ask game. if he's already been done than c!tubbo?

c!wilbur it is ^^

favorite thing about them

the mental illness /j no but actually my favorite thing is how much he cares. like... he has this incredibly warped perception of himself, but he cares soso much about everyone else that he tears himself apart for them and convinces himself it’s what they want/what he deserves :’ he’s given up everything for his friends time and again, and even when he self-destructed a large part of it was because he thought it was what was best for them i’m going to scream

least favorite thing about them

ok this is gonna sound weird but i don’t have very many disliked things abt him so,, i guess the nsfw jokes? idk, i’m ace and closer to sex-repulsed on the spectrum so rlly it’s just a personal thing that makes me a little uncomfortable sometimes jkgbfh :’ like just saying ‘kinky’ or w/e i literally don’t care abt, i’ve made those jokes, but when it gets to like borderline roleplaying something sexual i get uncomfortable :’’

favorite line

i’m not gonna be able to explain this one very well but the one that hasn’t left my head is something along the lines of “i know what i’m like. that’s the problem” because. fuck, dude. yeah. if i said i don’t feel that on a personal level, i’d be a fuckin liar :’’

brOTP

crimeboys. there are a lot of duos w wilbur i greatly enjoy (tubbo, niki, techno, fundy, phil, etc), but nothing will ever hold a candle in my heart to crimeboys

OTP

none really. idk why, like if it’s because of how much i relate to/project on him or something, but i just don’t see him in a romantic relationship :’ like i’ll write him post-sally, sure, but not really in a relationship

nOTP

any of the minors, full stop. i’ve Seen Things when i don’t filter ao3 tags carefully enough, and i hope to never see anything of the sort again. other than the obvious, i guess... any? like sally is canon and i don’t rlly mind that bc it’s a past relationship, but again i don’t really like shipping c!wilbur and idk why :’ it’s just not my thing lmao

random headcanon

i think he stims a lot. like, he probably masked a fair amount the first time he was alive, but even so he never really sat Still until sometime during potopia. he’d always be like. flicking his wrists, or holding his arms a certain way, or messing with his hair. during pogtopia i think it was a combination of masking bc he was desperate to be ‘taken seriously’ and him not having the energy to stim very much anymore (it’s canon he didn’t eat much and malnutrition is a bitch). so, i think it varied wildly between bursts of stimming and complete stillness, much like his mental state varied between high and low energy. and then after revival, i think he stops caring about masking so much and just goes fuckin wild (as he should)

unpopular opinion

idk how unpopular it is,, but i really hate the zombie wilbur stuff people have been doing since his revival. like, it rarely comes with a body horror tag, and even on stuff done by sympathizers there are still these massive stitches and patches of rotting flesh and it’s just so uncomfortable both to look at and because it’s only ever wilbur. like, tommy was revived too, but people don’t draw him as a Stinky Gross Rotting Zombie Man- no, it’s just wilbur. like, the implications are just. not good once you actually think about them, and it seems to have become part of the most popular/widely accepted fanon design which means i can’t avoid it bc people don’t even tag it or anything. idk it just feels like yet another unintentional dig at mental illness, and i’m just genuinely so tired

song i associate with them

there are. so many. i’m just gonna go thru my c!wilbur playlist and pull out a couple that rlly resonate ok :’’ a terrible ride from lizard boy, villains pt 1 by emma blackery, the village by wrabel, dancing after death by matt maeson, it’s called: freefall by rainbow kitten surprise, burned out by dodie, and liar by the arcadian wild ^^

favorite picture of them

i was abt to say i don’t have one but ykw i actually do- it’s this art piece my friend wil @gremling4mer drew for a fanfic i wrote. i still have it as my lockscreen, and the sheer cozy vibes + it being a gift from a friend have it ranked firmly as my favorite picture of c!wilbur ever :}

[pumpkinpaix]

HI! I'm new to the MDZS fandom and I fell in love with Suibian, but you don't see it that much. I seen somewhere that it would burn out a weaker core and I cried cause I wanted to see that, and as far as I know it doesn't happen anywhere. I'm wondering if you could tell me anything and everything you know about Suibian. I'm starving for anything about it

hi anon! ahahah, it’s always a dangerous thing to ask me about “anything and everything” on a topic because I usually have too many thoughts, most of which are unorganized. but! if you’re interested in that, then here we go!

First, re: your comment about Suibian burning out a weaker core: I am not aware of this theory (or is it something from an interview?? if someone knows, please say so!), but if it brings you joy, then it’s certainly an interesting one to consider! Unfortunately, I don’t have much more to say on it because I’m unfamiliar with it, but I do have quite a lot to say on some other Suibian concepts!

ask and ye shall receive (a very jumbled heap of thoughts as i spiral further and further out of control):

[all rough translations are mine, and thus all mistakes are mine. I am using the version of the novel that is available on luoxia because I can’t be bothered to go flipping through my print edition ahaha.]

the questions about Suibian that interest me the most are why it sealed, when it sealed, when Wei Wuxian began to wield it again, and what that might all mean. I’m going to be talking about novel, CQL, and audio drama canon all together, because I think looking at each canon alone and in combination can raise a lot of very different points!! (I have not watched the donghua or read the manhua yet, so forgive me, I have nothing to say about them. /o\)

So! the one piece of information that we’re given consistently throughout all three of the canons is that Suibian was sealed after Wei Wuxian’s death and that no one but Wei Wuxian himself (and Jiang Cheng, by proxy) could draw it from its sheathe. Thus, Wei Wuxian’s identity is revealed and the golden core swap comes to light. Wei Wuxian is surprised by this, and asks Lan Wangji, “Did it really seal itself?” (novel, chapter 63; CQL, ep 42; audio drama, S2E15).

The novel and audio drama both include a line from Wei Wuxian that emphasizes Wei Wuxian’s surprise, implying that sword-sealing is very uncommon:

万中无一的大好事竟然让我给撞上了

Something incredible that happens less than once per ten thousand times, and I actually encountered it.

the irony, of course, is that this incredible thing is what ended up blowing his cover. rip Wei Wuxian.

but what I think gets really interesting is comparing different points at which Suibian sealed itself and what that might imply in conjunction with other information. Jin Guangyao says “shortly after” his death, but CQL includes a scene in episode 19 that implies that Suibian actually sealed itself much earlier.

[ID: Gif from episode 19 of the untamed drama. Lan Wangji attempts to draw Suibian after he and Jiang Cheng storm the Nightless City and retrieve their swords. He cannot pull it from the sheathe. /end ID]

(in case anyone is curious, it’s about 30 minutes in. I spent the effort to make the gif, so I might as well give you the timestamp lol)

this scene takes place during the period of time when Wei Wuxian is in the Mass Graves (aka the Burial Mounds) after Wen Chao cast him down and left him for dead, right near the beginning of Sunshot. I’m fairly certain it’s not mentioned in either the novel or the audio drama, so this is a CQL-only detail. (please correct me if I’m wrong; I get my canons muddled all the time //hides face)

CQL basically does nothing narratively with this scene other than giving us some sad shots of Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng (honestly, valid ;A;) but!! if we decide to accept this scene as our jumping off point, we can get to some interpretations about Wei Wuxian using information from the other canons!

take this exchange from chapter 57 of the novel (immediately prior to the massacre at lotus cove):

江澄道：“还不是又为咱们的剑的事去温家了。一想到我的三毒现在说不定被哪只温狗握在手里，真是……”

他面露嫌恶之色，魏无羡道：“可惜咱们的剑还不够灵，要是能自动封剑，那就谁也别想用了。”

江澄道：“你再修炼个八十年，说不定可以。”

Jiang Cheng said, “He’s gone to the Wen sect regarding our swords again, hasn’t he. Whenever I think that my Sandu might even now be in some Wen-dog’s hands, ugh…”

His face filled with loathing, Wei Wuxian said, “What a pity our swords don’t have enough spirit. If they could seal themselves, then no one could even think about using them.”

Jiang Cheng said, “If you kept cultivating for another eighty years, maybe.”

from the novel, it seems clear that sword-sealing is something that only happens when a person’s cultivation level is exceptionally high. if this is true, and we go with the CQL timeline of Suibian sealing itself long before Wei Wuxian’s death, it means that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation level wasn’t just high, it was leagues above pretty much anyone else when he was still a teenager. (In fact, Suibian had most likely already sealed by the time this conversation takes place.)

If we don’t go with CQL’s timeline, however, I think we could make a very different argument. It’s a bit of a reach, but I think it’s a lot of fun, if you’re willing to come with me on this journey!

Jin Guangyao says Suibian sealed itself “shortly after” Wei Wuxian’s death, but we don’t really have external confirmation of that. For all we know, someone only bothered to test it sometime after his death, and Suibian had been sealed for some indefinite amount of time. All we can say for sure is that by some point shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian was already sealed and resisted being drawn by anyone who tried it.

We’re told over and over that one can only wield a spiritual sword effectively if you have a golden core/the spiritual energy to match it. Wei Wuxian stops carrying/using Suibian because he knows that in his hands, it will act as nothing more than an ordinary sword. His method of cultivation is no longer suitable for the sword. Suibian is tied to both Wei Wuxian’s soul and his golden core.

If sword-sealing only happens when the cultivator’s level is unbelievably high, then I think we can make the argument here that by the time of his death, Wei Wuxian’s core was likewise unbelievably strong – but Wei Wuxian is no longer the one developing his core. Jiang Cheng is.

I know it’s a ridiculous reach. To be clear, I don’t think the text actually intends this or supports this in any meaningful way, but I do think that it gives us some very tasty potential!! If Suibian sealed itself sometime after the core transfer (which, honestly, we wouldn’t know – after all, who’s been trying to draw Wei Wuxian’s sword?), but just if, I think we can plausibly make the argument that Jiang Cheng’s cultivation is truly extraordinary.

:DDDDDDDD

It’s fun right?? It’s a fun concept!!! Even if it’s nonsense, even if it’s not that deep, even if this was an unintentional coincidence, I think it would be interesting to look at this as being some kind of measure of Jiang Cheng’s accomplishments. On the flip side, I also think it’s very important thematically that Jiang Cheng’s value as a person has nothing to do with his cultivation, that he is, in fact, always second-best, but that doesn’t make him any less worthwhile or deserving of love. Maybe I’m just projecting lmao. Of course, being extraordinary doesn’t preclude him from still lagging behind Wei Wuxian–Wei Wuxian might have just been more extraordinary ahahah. We can have both!!

Now for a totally different thing! Interestingly, this conversation about cultivation levels and sword-sealing (the one with Jiang Cheng) also happens in the audio drama, S2E12 (about 15 minutes in, since I just checked), but Wei Wuxian adds an additional comment:

(don’t have the transcription of the original chinese, I’m just going to translate it as I hear it)

“But maybe you don’t need to cultivate to a certain level to have your sword seal itself. What if there were some other way?”

these two versions of the conversation actually imply pretty different things, I think! this addition opens the possibility to the audience that sword-sealing is possible even without an extraordinary level of cultivation, and I think lends credence to the idea that Suibian is just an unusually loyal sword, regardless of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation level. Whether that’s something inherent to Suibian’s “personality”, or whether this says something about how Wei Wuxian inspires loyalty wherever he goes, or whether it just speaks to the strength of their bond remains to be seen.

(obviously, this could imply any number of other things as well, but I find this to be the interpretation that makes me happiest.)

If we go with “Suibian seals itself after Wei Wuxian’s death” in this canon, I think this emphasizes the loyalty aspect with a touch of grief.

If we combine this with CQL and have “Suibian has been loyal since he was a teenager”, that also emphasizes the loyalty aspect – just in a different way.

Of course, doing meta combining unique details from different canons is largely pointless in terms of crafting any real “analysis”, so I’m mostly saying all of this because I enjoy the process of building the supercanon in my head that brings me the most joy! To summarize the varied interpretations I’ve brought up in this post:

CQL-only: Suibian sealed itself when Wei Wuxian was a teenager, at latest, by the time he was thrown into the Mass Graves.

Novel-only: Sword-sealing is very rare and achievable only through extraordinarily high cultivation. Shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian is discovered to have sealed itself, so Wei Wuxian’s core, by the time of his death, was extraordinarily powerful.

Audio drama-only: Sword-sealing is considered very rare and achievable only through extraordinarily high cultivation, but might also be accomplished by other methods. Shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian is discovered to have sealed itself. If Wei Wuxian’s core is not wildly and improbably powerful, this implies that Suibian has become an exceptionally loyal sword by the time of his death.

CQL/novel: Wei Wuxian was already incredibly powerful by the time he was a teenager.

CQL/audio drama: Suibian has been exceptionally loyal to Wei Wuxian since at least his teenage years.

Novel and audio drama-only have a much wider range of when Suibian could have sealed itself, as mentioned, so there are further variances within those interpretations.

there’s a lot of potential here!! with my personal feelings regarding the story, I like novel-only with Suibian sealing post-core transfer, audio drama-only with Suibian sealing post-Wei Wuxian’s death, or CQL/audio drama with Suibian sealing as a teenager pretty much all equally. I think the CQL/novel interpretation gets too close to casting Wei Wuxian as a hyper-special and innately noble individual in a way that undercuts the strength of his character arc, but that’s my opinion. (As an aside, this is actually one of my major complaints about CQL in general, independent from what I’m talking about here. But that is a topic for another day ahahaha. To be clear, I still love CQL very much, despite my many frustrations!)

As for what I think is the most “likely” to be the “right” interpretation (whatever that’s worth), I would probably say the one that emphasizes Suibian’s loyalty with Suibian sealing post-death, because I think it’s the most thematically cohesive and has the textual support to back it. (I think it’s a valid interpretation even using novel-only text; it’s just slightly less explicit without the additional comment from Wei Wuxian.)

A final detail:

We don’t get anything from either CQL or the novel that explicitly addresses when/if Wei Wuxian is able to wield Suibian again, but the audio drama’s rendition of the “Yunmeng” extra very subtly indicates that by the time that extra takes place, Wei Wuxian has cultivated a golden core and is carrying his sword once more. You only get it at a couple of moments, but Suibian sometimes clinks when Wei Wuxian moves or when he bumps into something. The two instances I can remember specifically are when Lan Wangji tosses the ring onto him (the ring hits Suibian), and when he’s rowing the little boat onto the lotus pond and the motion makes a sound. It’s!!! Extremely good!!! It makes my heart very full!!!!!

ANYWAYS, if all of my scattered rambling didn’t fill the Suibian-shaped hole in your heart, I would also like to recommend @zeldacw‘s wonderful WangQingSuiChen series of comics, featuring anthropomorphized versions of Wangji guqin, Chenqing, Suibian, and Bichen. I believe the most recent comic is here, and there are links to the rest of the comics in the post. If you just want her general tag for the AU (which is more than just the comics), it’s here!

If you have interest in listening to the audio drama yourself, you can purchase it through the MissEvan app (Mao’er FM). There are buying instructions linked in this post! If you need English subtitles, @suibiansubs is the group that does them. :)

I really can’t recommend the audio drama enough, tbh, it’s really really dear to my heart, and the team clearly worked so hard and cared so deeply for the story they were trying to tell. Consider this my regularly scheduled plug for the audio drama ahaha.

As always, my meta is my meta and if you don’t vibe with it, that’s chill! I change my opinions constantly (I think I changed them like three times in the course of writing this ahahaha), and I know some of my older meta has been making the rounds and every time I see it I think about all the ways my views have shifted since I wrote it rip. For this post moreso than usual, I want to emphasize that pretty much all of the meta included in this is meant to explore intriguing what-if possibilities, not for serious literary analysis purposes. I am aware that a lot of this is reaching/overinterpreting into implications that probably aren’t there. I just think they’re fun to consider!

so this was a mess, but I hope you or someone out there enjoyed it anon!!

(ko-fi, if you’re so moved)

[emsartwork]

Do you care to do wizard uniforms/outfits and the power scales for those?

Yep! So the Masculine Magic styles aren’t exactly comparable to the feminine styles/transformations. They’re closer to the witch practices than fairy but Masc magics depend primarily on how they channel magic rather than what they specialize in but there are some commonalities. They can also mix and match styles as they need (also i didn’t want to draw a whole new figure so i just genderswapped my winxsona lmao)

So much like fairies and witches the first three stages of a masc magic user are basic building blocks, slowly increasing the mage’s power. Masculine magic styles are very loose with the “uniform” aspect, most of them just wear whatever they want, but one of the common aspects is a sash. first three stages are white, gray, and black sashes, and once the mage chooses their specialty or just gains a little more confidence they usually have a sash that matches their core color. It’s also common for masc magic users to dress a little more traditionally(according to whatever their culture is) once they reach the black sash stage but it’s not necessary. (my winxsona is from Koyu so traditional koyu clothing will be featured here)

Wizards are characterized by absorbing magic from where-ever, and storing it/channeling it through a signature item (examples: wizards of the black circle, tritanus originally, Acheron partially) often their attack magic isn’t as strong because they often have a weapon for their signature item and rely on that to deal damage. they are also known to have a decent grasp of elemental magic as they deal a lot with physical substances. One of the most common styles.

Sorcerers are characetrized by absorbing magical energy from where-ever and storing it within their own body. which this gives them certain advantages, like always having their magic supply within reach and being able to pour magic out in incredibly powerful and direct bursts, it can sometimes overload the magic user and leave them drained. Sorcerers often deal a fair amount with consciousness, in themselves and others, as their magic is grounded in their own body. One of the most common styles.

Alchemists are a very rare style to pursue, they absorbs their magic from potential energy in minerals/chemicals, and from the magic expelled from chemical reactions. they are expert potion makers and can pursue healing, building, destructive, or research careers. due to the unstable nature of some of their elements, the danger is relatively high, though your mostly at risk if you don’t take proper precautions. they usually wear thick clothing and gloves/boots, and when seriously working with have a physical mask but if working in the moment will generate a mask with magic. they also carry a kit personalized to their element preferences with them. 

Shamans are weird. They absorb their magical energy from their surroundings, and then channel it back through their environment (think earth or plant bending by those swamp ppl from that one episode). This route is primarily pursued by hermit types who live on their own in one specific place, but can also be used in semi developed villages as well. They have a decent grasp on the elements and natural/wild magic, but because of their intense connection to their environment they can run into problems. If a shaman is confronted on their own turf, they can seem to double their core magic output, and gain additional attack and defense capabilities (that magic bar should also be a little higher sry) but if away from their territory, they loose half their core for a while and loose some attack and defense. because of these limitations, and because of the inherit danger that comes with living in the wilderness the danger is a little high. Shamans usually dress to blend into their environment. They’re fairy rare.

Necromancer are also weird. Necromancers absorb their magic from death/decay and store it in their tattoos.(example: my nex get oc Aidan) Basically what happens is they take the potential magical energy from a thing before or as its being released, either causing it to die/decay or benefiting from it. Fungi are popular among Necromancers as they are a living embodiment of decay. Necromancers often lean towards Unconscious and time related magics but its not always the case. The tattoos also function as “dead material” being scar tissue and magically conductive ink. Some tattoos are specific runes that activate at a trigger word or action to do specific things (like a protection spell that is activated by physical force) but most are just personal symbols/imagery relating to the individual or their culture. Necromancers can go down a dark route pretty easily and using magic related to death often has side effects which is why the danger is fairly high. Though it’s not technically necessary, its traditional that Necromancers don’t wear sleeves, some prefer to go entirely shirtless but vests are also common.

Magicians are popular with the younger generation who tend to combine sorcery, wizardry, and necromancy as they like(example: Nabu). Their stats can vary wildly, and they often counteract the weakness of the other styles by mixing in the strengths of others. This requires a fairly flexible working style, as practitioners need to switch from absorbing into their body/tattoos to channeling out of their body/tattoo/signature item as the situation evolves. Magicians can tire out easy if they don’t keep up constant practice and meditation.  

[fabercastellcn]

What Determines the Price and Quality of Colored Pencils?

Colored pencils have become wildly popular in recent years. Artists have rediscovered their creative potential with better quality, more permanence, and more variety available. Many non-artists have discovered the benefits and joy of coloring books for adults leading to the rising sales of colored pencils.

But what determines the quality and price difference in colored pencils? It is not the range of colors in packs of 12, 24, 36, or more pencils. It is the amount of pigment used in the mixture that ultimately becomes the “lead” in the pencil. This is known as “pigment load”. This term is used in all paints as well as colored pencils and is the factor that drives cost more than any other.

Another big factor is the lightfastness of the color, or permanence of the color. It took many years of testing, but in the late 1970s, lightfastness standards were written for oils, acrylics, alkyds, and watercolors. The organization responsible for this testing is the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). These standards led to ratings of I and II (today there are V) with I being the colors not likely to fade over time. This gives artists the option of selecting materials that have gone through rigorous testing for lightfastness. In the 1990s, this same testing began for colored pencils and by 2003, ASTM D6901 has created — — the standards for lightfastness for colored pencils. Also marked I and II are those pencils made in compliance with the highest standards of ASTM D6901. In fact, one brand is the Caran D’Ache Luminance 6901.

So, the cost is driven by pigment load, quality and type of binder (the stuff that holds the pigment together inside the casing), and the casing itself. Better quality pencils have cedar wood casings and professional pencils like the Luminance 6901 have somewhat heftier casings, thicker and more substantial, and some artists believe a nicer feel when grasped. Cheaper pencils use molded wood fiber and sometimes mysterious materials which do not sharpen well.

For the most part, binders are secret formulas that companies protect, especially in professional-grade pencils. Binders not only hold the pigment together but play a big role in how the pigment goes down on the surface and how well colors layer and blend. The combinations of wax, resin, oils, and/or gums vary, and watercolor pencils, for example, contain gum arabic as a binder because it’s water-soluble.

Colored pencils with a primarily wax binder can be very soft and care must be taken when laying down the color in order to avoid a burnished surface. Also, some wax pencils leave a wax “bloom” where white specks of paper show through the color. Resin binders are more common in less expensive or student-grade pencils making them harder. Combined with less pigment, very inexpensive pencils can be frustrating to use breaking easily and not putting down the lower pigment levels very well.

There is actually a good variety of colored pencils at your local, independent art supply store. Some dealers will even let you try before you buy. I would recommend trying before you buy if at all possible so you can see the difference in the performance of the different pencils.

Good quality paper, covered in another of my articles, also plays a role in how well the colors apply, layer, and blend.

One final note. There is an organization called the Colored Pencil Society of America. It’s a great website to learn more about colored pencils, compete in their shows, and see some incredible colored pencil art.

While you’re surfing, find more information on art supplies at https://fabercastell.net

[thelonecoyote]

At the Mountains of Madness

By H. P. Lovecraft

I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic—with its vast fossil-hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap—and I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain. Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible there would be nothing left. The hitherto withheld photographs, both ordinary and aërial, will count in my favour; for they are damnably vivid and graphic. Still, they will be doubted because of the great lengths to which clever fakery can be carried. The ink drawings, of course, will be jeered at as obvious impostures; notwithstanding a strangeness of technique which art experts ought to remark and puzzle over.

In the end I must rely on the judgment and standing of the few scientific leaders who have, on the one hand, sufficient independence of thought to weigh my data on its own hideously convincing merits or in the light of certain primordial and highly baffling myth-cycles; and on the other hand, sufficient influence to deter the exploring world in general from any rash and overambitious programme in the region of those mountains of madness. It is an unfortunate fact that relatively obscure men like myself and my associates, connected only with a small university, have little chance of making an impression where matters of a wildly bizarre or highly controversial nature are concerned.

It is further against us that we are not, in the strictest sense, specialists in the fields which came primarily to be concerned. As a geologist my object in leading the Miskatonic University Expedition was wholly that of securing deep-level specimens of rock and soil from various parts of the antarctic continent, aided by the remarkable drill devised by Prof. Frank H. Pabodie of our engineering department. I had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this; but I did hope that the use of this new mechanical appliance at different points along previously explored paths would bring to light materials of a sort hitherto unreached by the ordinary methods of collection. Pabodie’s drilling apparatus, as the public already knows from our reports, was unique and radical in its lightness, portability, and capacity to combine the ordinary artesian drill principle with the principle of the small circular rock drill in such a way as to cope quickly with strata of varying hardness. Steel head, jointed rods, gasoline motor, collapsible wooden derrick, dynamiting paraphernalia, cording, rubbish-removal auger, and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to 1000 feet deep all formed, with needed accessories, no greater load than three seven-dog sledges could carry; this being made possible by the clever aluminum alloy of which most of the metal objects were fashioned. Four large Dornier aëroplanes, designed especially for the tremendous altitude flying necessary on the antarctic plateau and with added fuel-warming and quick-starting devices worked out by Pabodie, could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the great ice barrier to various suitable inland points, and from these points a sufficient quota of dogs would serve us.

We planned to cover as great an area as one antarctic season—or longer, if absolutely necessary—would permit, operating mostly in the mountain-ranges and on the plateau south of Ross Sea; regions explored in varying degree by Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd. With frequent changes of camp, made by aëroplane and involving distances great enough to be of geological significance, we expected to unearth a quite unprecedented amount of material; especially in the pre-Cambrian strata of which so narrow a range of antarctic specimens had previously been secured. We wished also to obtain as great as possible a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks, since the primal life-history of this bleak realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the earth’s past. That the antarctic continent was once temperate and even tropical, with a teeming vegetable and animal life of which the lichens, marine fauna, arachnida, and penguins of the northern edge are the only survivals, is a matter of common information; and we hoped to expand that information in variety, accuracy, and detail. When a simple boring revealed fossiliferous signs, we would enlarge the aperture by blasting in order to get specimens of suitable size and condition.

Our borings, of varying depth according to the promise held out by the upper soil or rock, were to be confined to exposed or nearly exposed land surfaces—these inevitably being slopes and ridges because of the mile or two-mile thickness of solid ice overlying the lower levels. We could not afford to waste drilling depth on any considerable amount of mere glaciation, though Pabodie had worked out a plan for sinking copper electrodes in thick clusters of borings and melting off limited areas of ice with current from a gasoline-driven dynamo. It is this plan—which we could not put into effect except experimentally on an expedition such as ours—that the coming Starkweather-Moore Expedition proposes to follow despite the warnings I have issued since our return from the antarctic.

[booksandchainmail]

nanoha vivid liveblog: episode 11

Time for Corona vs. Einhart!

ok, i know wendi is referring to teo, but i did misinterpret at the start as einhart has been nicknamed kitty cat

... still better than most of the other contestants

attacking from the start, before corona can summon. it’s the obvious weakness of anyone who needs prep in the way she does

but shes ready for this it seems, and starts summoning while still in the air, which is pretty cool

oooh, i don’t think anyone else has used the terrain like this. makes you wonder how corona would fare in a larger or varied arena

damn. the goliath packs a punch

Einhart know the first rule of fighting someone with a summoned creature: directly attack the controller

Or in this case, separate her from the golem to where she’s vulnerable

Oh, seems like goliath needs pretty active instructions at all times, which means with corona knocked away, he just kinda stands there and gets hit

the most brutal attack of this match

I think we’ve seen elements in this in how corona started planning from the assumption that einhart could beat her: she’s very level-headed. That extending into combat is valuable, especially in a setting like this where her opponents are also amateurs and likely to falter under pressure. Though einhart might be less vulnerable to that, due to her war memories

her strengths fit her powers well. She literally creates in order to fight, and she needs to be strategic in order to get time and space to summon.

is she gonna stab einhart

This is a very calm match, in comparison to the others we’ve seen. It’s partly that theyre friends, and there’s no grudge driving them, but also just a lot who they are as people. Einhart and corona are both relatively quiet, but also self-assured. They have good understandings of their own abilities, and you can see that here in how calmly they return to the ring, theres no worry about running out of time or how theyre going to continue

flashback time!

I really love the range of motivations and backstories this show gives the contestants. You do have people with tragic backstories, or who want to prove themselves, or have a deep passion for martial arts, but you also have those who just value the connections it brings, or for whom its just an extracurricular. You don’t need to be deeply motivated to do something, it can still be a meaningful part of your life, and you’re not lesser or shallower for it.

I also like the idea (idk if this is canon) that Corona sought out summoning because she recognized that she couldn’t keep up with normal fighting. It’s a unusual thing in a fighting show to have a character who isn’t at the same level as everyone else, and who finds their own style that draws on different strengths.

this is a great summary of everyone’s motivations, but also einhart is hilariously incongruous with the others 

OH SHIT I THOUGHT THE PARTIAL SUMMONING WAS HER NEW TECHNIQUE

HOLY

FUCKING

CHRIST

shes just knocking einhart around effortlessly

ooooooh

This makes a lot of sense for Corona’s character! She’s a clever and observant fighter who’s willing to innovate but not particularly talented, and who takes motivation primarily from her friends. Of course she studies their techniques, and of course she copies them

And no wonder einhart was caught off guard, it’s like she was suddenly fighting a different person

but einhart gets up

she’s spent her life struggling with hundreds of years of guilt and grief, and just keeps on going through all of that

i think klaus may have been defined by his loss, but einhart is defined by the strength it takes to carry that loss

…y’know, you could have rested a little bit before forcing yourself up, there was plenty of time

oh this is tricky. Can corona press an attack, which is definitely outside her normal mode of fighting, or does she give up the advantage she’s won here?

The other question is if corona also learned anything from rio, or from einhart herself, though I think using her own style against her could backfire badly

… if that’s based off vivio, it’s primarily a counter, and using it for a direct attack might not work as well

ducking like that is both well suited to the height difference, and one of vivio’s signature moves

most of how corona’s moving here fits vivio, or any of the more close quarter fighters we’ve seen, but that arm sweep looked new to me, and seems very indicative of corona’s fighting style. Calm, collected, redirecting the opponent.

and in contrast, you can see how panicked einhart looks, which is very unusual for her

Okay, things are looking bad for einhart here. But she’ll have a chance to heal, and I think the next round will go differently. A lot of corona’s success here is she’s brought out completely new techniques and styles, and einhart’s just been reeling most of the bout: all her fighting’s been very basic hand-to-hand, with basically no hegemon style attacks or more elaborate moves. But with a chance to collect herself and replan, I think einhart’s experience will let her adapt to this fairly quickly. Additionally, a lot of corona’s new moves are based off vivio, who einhart has fought (and beat) before.

so she has copied from rio as well

OH

that’s a neat twist. It explains how she was able to pick these moves up so quickly, and how she can handle without any particular skill at martial arts. This also explains why Nove disapproved: I can’t imagine using techniques meant to control large amounts of stone on your own body is particularly safe.

That’s fucking cool. 

And also a massive weakness, because it makes her predictable. If einhart can figure out what triggers one of those moves, then immediately counter based on knowing how corona will respond, she can retaliate very quickly

from your own memories, or klaus’s?

this is the complete opposite of how I’d expected an einhart vs corona fight to play out

yeah, she’s not just copying specific moves, but entire fighting styles. that is honestly incredible, especially when you consider she had to pre-program them all herself

awww, i’m glad to see she’s in there too

Having multiple settings gives corona a lot more flexibility…

...but einhart’s already figuring out the pattern

I can’t help but think this technique would work a lot better on anyone else. Corona has the disadvantage her of her opponent already knowing all the sources of her automated moves, but imagine a fight where one side keeps pulling out new completely unknown styles every couple of hits.

I guess that’s why this isn’t common

Oops

Yeah the other reason einhart can deal with this is she has a completely ridiculous level of knowledge about this one particular style

And corona is starting to fight wildly, while einhart remains calm. This is a complete reversal of the previous round

Holy fuck is that blood

~tempting faaaate~

and yup, automation is weak to feints from people who know the moveset.

Though to be fair, I don’t know if a non-automated fighter would have dealt with that any better

DOES THIS TOURNAMENT FOR CHILDREN HAVE SAFETY STANDARDS

PLEASE DO NOT MAGICALLY PUPPET YOUR OWN ENTIRE BODY

i feel like that would go badly

fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

theres some excellent and creepy puppet imagery going on here

And einhart mostly just looks sad here. I’m guessing with memories of actual war, she’s not that happy about her friends pushing themselves this dangerously for a competition?

OR ITS ABOUT OLIVIE AGAIN

because this is einhart, and everything always comes back to olivie

But yeah, the puppet connection would be a bad reminder. And corona’s whole  feeling weak compared to her teammates, and wanting to be able to stand next to them, seems like it connects pretty strongly to olivie’s story 

she just looks so tired and sad here, and i’m remembering how happy she was at the idea of a way to fight without stakes, and she’s just now realizing that even if they aren’t lethal, there are still consequences to these matches

at this point, einhart is pretty in control of the battlefield. she’s brilliant at this kind of fighting, and corona doesn’t have any moves that einhart hasn’t already fought against

I’m starting to think this fight won’t end with an attack, but with corona just collapsing when her magic or body wears out

another connection to olivie with the damaged arms. this must be hell for einhart to have to fight

gods

just, can someone stop this match please? are there any kinds of precautions?

and here’s the hardest part for einhart. Because of her memories, she has a pretty unique first-hand perspective on war. I don’t think mid-childa has had a war, and certainly not recently enough to still have wartime soldiers around. And even with all the pain they cause her, there must be some comfort in the fact that olivie’s dream of peace was achieved, even at the cost of her life. But here, even in this peaceful world, there are still children willing to hurt themselves terribly in order to have the power to fight. And this must feel like such a failure and betrayal of the world to einhart. 

THEN STOP

NO, GIVE UP PLEASE

THAT IS A MAJOR PROBLEM

i want nanoha to show up to stop the match and yell at everybody about techniques that excessively strain your body

THERES MORE?!!!??!!

ok, that’s a fair point. Corona has pulled out some really impressive moves here, but she hasn’t done much in the way of golem stuff. I wonder if in her rush to make up for her weaknesses, she’s discounted her own techniques too much?

finally

corona has amazing terrain manipulation abilities. combine that with her summoning, the automated moves, and even i guess the full body technique, and she’s maybe the most versatile fighter we’ve seen. In a larger area with unfamiliar opponents, or as support for a team, she’d be devastating.

all those anime characters who dramatically slice rocks in half with a sword have nothing compared to einhart

ooh, nice feint using the partial summon as well as the big one. even here at the end, corona continues to fight smart

and now she has a ranged attack as well. no matter the outcome of the tournament, i’m voting corona for mvp

awwwwww

and she uses binding magic as well, because apparently corona reacted to not being as good at punching people as her friends by learning EVERYTHING ELSE

bit of tonal dissonance, but awwwww kitty!

and her golem can reassemble itself.

corona is amazing

but einhart is the martial arts master, and she just stops it stone cold

what a hell of a match. this was definitely my favorite fight so far, and the finale’s gonna have a tough time topping that. The variety of techniques and strategies used, as well as the brilliant character work on corona and einhart, made this incredible to watch. 

it was hard fought, and corona pulled out ten times what anyone expected from her, but in the end einhart managed a victory

but in the aftermath, she just looks defeated

this was a hard match emotionally on all sides

(i count myself as a side)

[testbaboon3-blog]

Searching for Artist Manager - Whenever and How to Find Representation From your Specialist Supervisor For Your Music

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[s-c-i-guy]

Troubled Times for Alternatives to Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

New observations of extreme astrophysical systems have “brutally and pitilessly murdered” attempts to replace Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Miguel Zumalacárregui knows what it feels like when theories die. In September 2017, he was at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Saclay, near Paris, to speak at a meeting about dark energy and modified gravity. The official news had not yet broken about an epochal astronomical measurement — the detection, by gravitational wave detectors as well as many other telescopes, of a collision between two neutron stars — but a controversial tweet had lit a firestorm of rumor in the astronomical community, and excited researchers were discussing the discovery in hushed tones.

Zumalacárregui, a theoretical physicist at the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, had been studying how the discovery of a neutron-star collision would affect so-called “alternative” theories of gravity. These theories attempt to overcome what many researchers consider to be two enormous problems with our understanding of the universe. Observations going back decades have shown that the universe appears to be filled with unseen particles — dark matter — as well as an anti-gravitational force called dark energy. Alternative theories of gravity attempt to eliminate the need for these phantasms by modifying the force of gravity in such a way that it properly describes all known observations — no dark stuff required.

At the meeting, Zumalacárregui joked to his audience about the perils of combining science and Twitter, and then explained what the consequences would be if the rumors were true. Many researchers knew that the merger would be a big deal, but a lot of them simply “hadn’t understood their theories were on the brink of demise,” he later wrote in an email. In Saclay, he read them the last rites. “That conference was like a funeral where we were breaking the news to some attendees.”

The neutron-star collision was just the beginning. New data in the months since that discovery have made life increasingly difficult for the proponents of many of the modified-gravity theories that remain. Astronomers have analyzed extreme astronomical systems that contain spinning neutron stars, or pulsars, to look for discrepancies between their motion and the predictions of general relativity — discrepancies that some theories of alternative gravity anticipate. These pulsar systems let astronomers probe gravity on a new scale and with new precision. And with each new observation, these alternative theories of gravity are having an increasingly hard time solving the problems they were invented for. Researchers “have to sweat some more trying to get new physics,” said Anne Archibald, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam.

Searching for Vulcan

Confounding observations have a way of leading astronomers to desperate explanations. On the afternoon of March 26, 1859, Edmond Lescarbault, a young doctor and amateur astronomer in Orgères-en-Beauce, a small village south of Paris, had a break between patients. He rushed to a tiny homemade observatory on the roof of his stone barn. With the help of his telescope, he spotted an unknown round object moving across the face of the sun.

He quickly sent news of this discovery to Urbain Le Verrier, the world’s leading astronomer at the time. Le Verrier had been trying to account for an oddity in the movement of the planet Mercury. All other planets orbit the sun in perfect accord with Isaac Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation, but Mercury appeared to advance a tiny amount with each orbit, a phenomenon known as perihelion precession. Le Verrier was certain that there had to be an invisible “dark” planet tugging on Mercury. Lescarbault’s observation of a dark spot transiting the sun appeared to show that the planet, which Le Verrier named Vulcan, was real.

It was not. Lescarbault’s sightings were never confirmed, and the perihelion precession of Mercury remained a puzzle for nearly six more decades. Then Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, which straightforwardly predicted that Mercury should behave the way it does.

In Le Verrier’s impulse to explain puzzling observations by introducing a heretofore hidden object, some modern-day researchers see parallels to the story of dark matter and dark energy. For decades, astronomers have noticed that the behavior of galaxies and galaxy clusters doesn’t seem to fit the predictions of general relativity. Dark matter is one way to explain that behavior. Likewise, the accelerating expansion of the universe can be thought of as being powered by a dark energy.

All attempts to directly detect dark matter and dark energy have failed, however. That fact “kind of leaves a bad taste in some people’s mouths, almost like the fictional planet Vulcan,” said Leo Stein, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. “Maybe we’re going about it all wrong?”

For any alternative theory of gravity to work, it has to not only do away with dark matter and dark energy, but also reproduce the predictions of general relativity in all the standard contexts. “The business of alternative gravity theories is a messy one,” Archibald said. Some would-be replacements for general relativity, like string theory and loop quantum gravity, don’t offer testable predictions. Others “make predictions that are spectacularly wrong, so the theorists have to devise some kind of a screening mechanism to hide the wrong prediction on scales we can actually test,” she said.

The best-known alternative gravity theories are known as modified Newtonian dynamics, commonly abbreviated to MOND. MOND-type theories attempt to do away with dark matter by tweaking our definition of gravity. Astronomers have long observed that the gravitational force due to ordinary matter doesn’t appear to be sufficient to keep rapidly moving stars inside their galaxies. The gravitational pull of dark matter is assumed to make up the difference. But according to MOND, there are simply two kinds of gravity. In regions where the force of gravity is strong, bodies obey Newton’s law of gravity, which states that the gravitational force between two objects decreases in proportion to the square of the distance that separates them. But in environments of extremely weak gravity — like the outer parts of a galaxy — MOND suggests that another type of gravity is in play. This gravity decreases more slowly with distance, which means that it doesn’t weaken as much. “The idea is to make gravity stronger when it should be weaker, like at the outskirts of a galaxy,” Zumalacárregui said.

Then there is TeVeS (tensor-vector-scalar), MOND’s relativistic cousin. While MOND is a modification of Newtonian gravity, TeVeS is an attempt to take the general idea of MOND and make it into a full mathematical theory that can be applied to the universe as a whole — not just to relatively small objects like solar systems and galaxies. It also explains the rotation curves of galaxies by making gravity stronger on their outskirts. But TeVeS does so by augmenting gravity with “scalar” and “vector” fields that “essentially amplify gravity,” said Fabian Schmidt, a cosmologist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. A scalar field is like the temperature throughout the atmosphere: At every point it has a numerical value but no direction. A vector field, by contrast, is like the wind: It has both a value (the wind speed) and a direction.

There are also so-called Galileon theories — part of a class of theories called Horndeski and beyond-Horndeski — which attempt to get rid of dark energy. These modifications of general relativity also introduce a scalar field. There are many of these theories (Brans-Dicke theory, dilaton theories, chameleon theories and quintessence are just some of them), and their predictions vary wildly among models. But they all change the expansion of the universe and tweak the force of gravity. Horndeski theory was first put forward by Gregory Horndeski in 1974, but the wider physics community took note of it only around 2010. By then, Zumalacárregui said, “Gregory Horndeski [had] quit science and [become] a painter in New Mexico.”

There are also stand-alone theories, like that of physicist Erik Verlinde. According to his theory, the laws of gravity arise naturally from the laws of thermodynamics just like “the way waves emerge from the molecules of water in the ocean,” Zumalacárregui said. Verlinde wrote in an email that his ideas are not an “alternative theory” of gravity, but “the next theory of gravity that contains and transcends Einstein’s general relativity.” But he is still developing his ideas. “My impression is that the theory is still not sufficiently worked out to permit the kind of precision tests we carry out,” Archibald said. It’s built on “fancy words,” Zumalacárregui said, “but no mathematical framework to compute predictions and do solid tests.”

The predictions made by other theories differ in some way from those of general relativity. Yet these differences can be subtle, which makes them incredibly difficult to find.

Consider the neutron-star merger. At the same time that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) spotted the gravitational waves emanating from the event, the space-based Fermi satellite spotted a gamma ray burst from the same location. The two signals had traveled across the universe for 130 million years before arriving at Earth just 1.7 seconds apart.

These nearly simultaneous observations “brutally and pitilessly murdered” TeVeS theories, said Paulo Freire, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. “Gravity and gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, with extremely high precision — which is not at all what was predicted by those [alternative] theories.”

The same fate overtook some Galileon theories that add an extra scalar field to explain the universe’s accelerated expansion. These also predict that gravitational waves propagate more slowly than light. The neutron-star merger killed those off too, Schmidt said.

Further limits come from new pulsar systems. In 2013, Archibald and her colleagues found an unusual triple system: a pulsar and a white dwarf that orbit one another, with a second white dwarf orbiting the pair. These three objects exist in a space smaller than Earth’s orbit around the sun. The tight setting, Archibald said, offers ideal conditions for testing a crucial aspect of general relativity called the strong equivalence principle, which states that very dense strong-gravity objects such as neutron stars or black holes “fall” in the same way when placed in a gravitational field. (On Earth, the more familiar weak equivalence principle states that, if we ignore air resistance, a feather and a brick will fall at the same rate.)

The triple system makes it possible to check whether the pulsar and the inner white dwarf fall exactly the same way in the gravity of the outer white dwarf. Alternative-gravity theories assume that the scalar field generated in the pulsar should bend space-time in a much more extreme way than the white dwarf does. The two wouldn’t fall in a similar manner, leading to a violation of the strong equivalence principle and, with it, general relativity.

Over the past five years, Archibald and her team have recorded 27,000 measurements of the pulsar’s position as it orbits the other two stars. While the project is still a work in progress, it looks as though the results will be in total agreement with Einstein, Archibald said. “We can say that the degree to which the pulsar behaves abnormally is at most a few parts in a million. For an object with such strong gravity to still follow Einstein’s predictions so well, if there is one of these scalar fields, it has to have a really tiny effect.”

The test, which should be published soon, will put the best constraints yet on a whole group of alternative gravity theories, she added. If a theory only works with some additional scalar field, then the field should change the behavior of the pulsar. “We have such sensitive tests of general relativity that they need to somehow hide the theory’s new behavior in the solar system and in pulsar systems like ours,” Archibald said.

The data from another pulsar system dubbed the double pulsar, meanwhile, was originally supposed to eliminate the TeVeS theories. Detected in 2003, the double pulsar was until recently the only binary neutron-star system where both neutron stars were pulsars. Freire and his colleagues have already confirmed that the double pulsar’s behavior is perfectly in line with general relativity. Right before LIGO’s October announcement of a neutron-star merger, the researchers were going to publish a paper that would kill off TeVeS. But LIGO did the job for them, Freire said. “We need not go through that anymore.”

Slippery Survivors

A few theories have survived the LIGO blow — and will probably survive the upcoming pulsar data, Zumalacárregui said. There are some Horndeski and beyond-Horndeski theories that do not change the speed of gravitational waves. Then there are so-called massive gravity theories. Ordinarily, physicists assume that the particle associated with the force of gravity — the graviton — has no mass. In these theories, the graviton has a very small but nonzero mass. The neutron-star merger puts tough limits on these theories, Zumalacárregui said, since a massive graviton would travel more slowly than light. But in some theories the mass is assumed to be extremely small, at least 20 orders of magnitude lower than the neutrino’s, which means that the graviton would still move at nearly the speed of light.

There are a few other less well-known survivors, some of which are important to keep exploring, Archibald said, as long as dark matter and dark energy remain elusive. “Dark energy might be our only observational clue pointing to a new and better theory of gravity — or it might be a mysterious fluid with strange properties, and nothing to do with gravity at all,” she said.

Still, killing off theories is simply how science is supposed to work, argue researchers who have been exploring alternative gravity theories. “This is what we do all the time, put forward a working hypothesis and test it,” said Enrico Barausse of the Astrophysics Institute of Paris, who has worked on MOND-like theories. “99.9 percent of the time you rule out the hypothesis; the remaining 0.1 percent of the time you win the Nobel Prize.”

Zumalacárregui, who has also worked on these theories, was “sad at first” when he realized that the neutron star merger detection had proven Galileon theories wrong, but ultimately “very relieved it happened sooner rather than later,” he said. LIGO had been just about to close down for 18 months to upgrade the detector. “If the event had been a bit later, I would still be working on a wrong theory.”

So what’s next for general relativity and modified-gravity theories? “That question keeps me up at night more than I’d like,” Zumalacárregui said. “The good news is that we have narrowed our scope by a lot, and we can try to understand the few survivors much better.”

Schmidt thinks it’s necessary to measure the laws of gravity on large scales as directly as possible, using ongoing and future large galaxy surveys. “For example, we can compare the effect of gravity on light bending as well as galaxy velocities, typically predicted to be different in modified-gravity theories,” he said. Researchers also hope that future telescopes such as the Square Kilometer Array will discover more pulsar systems and provide better accuracy in pulsar timing to further improve gravity tests. And a space-based replacement for LIGO called LISA will study gravitational waves with exquisite accuracy — if indeed it launches as planned in the mid-2030s. “If that does not see any deviations from general relativity, I don’t know what will,” said Barausse.

But many physicists agree that it will take a long time to get rid of most alternative gravity models. Theorists have dozens of alternative gravity theories that could potentially explain dark matter and dark energy, Freire said. Some of these theories can’t make testable predictions, Archibald said, and many “have a parameter, a ‘knob’ you can turn to make them pass any test you like,” she said. But at some point, said Nicolas Yunes, a physicist at Montana State University, “this gets silly and Occam’s razor wins.”

Still, “fundamentally we know that general relativity is wrong,” Stein said. “At the very core there must be some breakdown” at the quantum level. “Maybe we won’t see it from astronomical observations … but we owe it to ourselves, as empirical scientists, to check whether or not our mathematical models are working at these scales.”

[ketohc]

Sugar Alcohol On Keto

Sugar Alcohol On Keto  

While you may be familiar with the Keto diet and the low carb philosophy, you may not be familiar with sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols are a certain type of carb. There are several sugar alcohols and that leaves many wondering whether or not sugar alcohols are fine for a low-carb Ketogenic diet. As always, we are here to walk you through what sugar alcohols are, what their carb content is, if they are suitable for a low-carb Keto diet, and what the effects are of them on your health. Finding out what food to eat on Keto and a carb free diet can be really tricky. Everything you eat has an impact on your blood, fat, and your body in general. Since the Keto diet is so wildly popular in 2018, we have found it necessary to walk you through every aspect of the diet including what foods and recipes you can or cannot eat on a Ketogenic diet.

Sugar Alcohol On Keto: About It

Sugar Alcohols are a type of carbohydrate that your body can use for fuel. Sugar alcohols include several different types of carbohydrates. Sugar alcohols are commonly used in foods as artificial sweeteners. This has people wondering if they are safe for our body and for Keto. We have done extensive research into each of these sugar alcohols and are ready to present the results. We’ll go over each sugar alcohol, what the carb content is, and if it is suitable for a low carb Keto diet.

Erythritol

Erythritol is the first of the sugar alcohols that we are going to examine. Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is low in calories and acts as an artificial sweetener. It is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that has no side effects and tastes pretty much exactly like real sugar. The difference is that this sugar alcohol has almost no calories. It’s no secret that we all love food with sugar, but it’s also not a secret that sugar isn’t the best thing for you to consume in large amounts on a consistent basis. This makes Erythritol an incredibly appealing sweetener that has a lot of the benefits of real sugar without a lot of the negatives that sugar has on your health and body.

Erythritol, like other sugar alcohols, is a great, naturally occurring sweetener used by many food producers to simulate real sugar without the health consequences. The sweetness of Erythritol and other sugar alcohols has a lot to do with the shape of them and how the receptors on your tongue react to that shape. While sweet like the other sugar alcohols, Erythritol is much lower in calorie content than all of them. Regular table sugar has 4 calories per gram while Xylitol (another sugar alcohol) has 2.4, and Erythritol has only .24 calories per gram. This is shockingly low calorie content while you still get that sweet sugar taste.

Glycerol

Glycerol does have a naturally sweet flavor like sugar, but it’s not as sweet as other sugar alcohols. Instead, Glycerol is used to add texture, not as a sweetener substitute for sugar. Glycerol has slightly more calories and carbs than some other sugar alcohols and isn’t as sweet, making it a less appealing option for your Keto diet.

Isomalt

Isomalt is one of the sugar alcohols and it is made primarily in beets. It’s about half the sweetness level of sugar and half the calorie content of sugar as well. This doesn’t make it a more efficient sweetener than regular sugar, but it’s often used in baking to add bulk to different things. It’s can be used as a sweetener but is usually mixed with other sweeteners to achieve a sweet taste like sugar but with lower calories.

Lactitol

Lactitol is like Isomalt in that is has half the sweetness and calories of regular sugar. It is often used as a low-calorie sweetener in some baked goods and can also be used as treatment of constipation due to its laxative effects.

Maltitol

Maltitol is used very often as a sweetener in sugar-free chocolates, candy, and ice cream. It’s just as sweet as regular sugar but has far fewer calories. It’s a very popular sugar alcohol and almost perfectly imitates sugar.

Mannitol

Mannitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that can be found in fruits and vegetables. It has about half the calories of a regular sugar but also is half as sweet. Mannitol is used in a similar way to powdered sugar and is used to coat some candies and chewing gum.

Polydextrose

Polydextrose is not one of the pure sugar alcohols. It is created by combining sorbitol and dextrose. Polydextrose has a high fiber content and is only mildly sweet. Polydextrose is commonly used in baked goods to increase bulk and add some fiber into the nutrition.

Sorbitol

Sorbitol is naturally occurring in fruits such as apples and pears. It has about half the sweetness of regular sugar and about 2/3 the calories. It’s commonly used in gum, mouthwash, and toothpaste. It has a natural cooling effect in your mouth, which is why it is used in dental products.

Xylitol

Xylitol is one of the most popular sugar alcohols out there and it’s made of plant fiber. It is just about as sweet as regular sugar but only contains about 70% of the calories, which makes it a great option for an artificial sweetener and it’s also found in cosmetics and medicines.

Now that you have a brief overview of each of the most popular sugar alcohols, we can go into what the benefits are, if they are low carb, if they are good for your health, what foods you can eat with them, if they are friendly to your Keto diet, what impact they have on your blood and body, and if they are going to help you burn fat in 2018. You’ll also need all this information if you want to include sugar alcohols in your everyday recipes and diet.

Sugar Alcohol on Keto: Good and Bad

When you eat sugar alcohols, there are both good effects and bad effects on your body, health, blood, and ability to burn fat. That’s why you should understand these effects before you start including sugar alcohols into your Keto diet and any recipes that you might want to try them out in. Understanding the pros and cons and benefits of sugar alcohols is vital to determining if you should be consuming them on a regular basis. We’ll go down the list of the most common sugar alcohols and determine what effects they each will have on your health, body, and Keto diet.

Erythritol

Good:

It has a low laxative effect that is much lower than the other sugar alcohols in our list

It doesn’t have a bad effect on your dental health and can in fact sometimes help to prevent tooth decay

It doesn’t have a bad effect on your blood sugar or insulin levels

Bad:

It can sometimes cause an upset stomach, hives, or nausea when eaten in excessively large amounts

It has a cooling effect when eaten that can also be interpreted as minty (this can also be a benefit depending on if you enjoy it)

Xylitol

Good:

It does affect your blood sugar levels, but has only a low effect

Can prevent cavities and is overall good for your dental health

Could help increase bone density and prevent eventual osteoporosis

Can sometimes help with skin appearance, but studies are early on

Can help your gut bacteria

Bad:

Xylitol has a heavy laxative effect

Can kill dogs if consumed—highly toxic to dogs

Sorbitol

Good:

Has no effect on your blood sugar levels

Does not damage your dental health at all

Bad:

Is known to cause bloating and gas at times

Has a very powerful laxative effect and is known to cause diarrhea

Has a cooling, minty effect in the mouth when consumed—this can interfere with the taste of the foods you are trying to eat

Polydextrose

Good:

Great for colon health, similar to vegetable fiber

Slows down blood sugar reaction to carb intake

Does not negatively affect your dental health

Bad:

Has a bad laxative effect if eaten in excess

Mannitol

Good:

Has a low glycaemic index so it has a very low effect on your blood sugar

Great option for diabetics

Consumption will not cause any tooth decay

It is also useful for various health and medical purposes like the treatment of renal failure, cystic fibrosis, head trauma, and a medically purposed laxative for children

Bad:

Not suitable as a sweetener since it has just as many calories when used proportionally to the sweetness

People are commonly allergic to this sugar alcohol and it can have severe side effects

Consuming it in excess can cause diarrhea, cramps, and nausea

Maltitol

Good:

It has no negative effects on your dental health or teeth

Is great as a sugar substitute in recipes since it behaves in many of the same ways

Bad:

Has been known to raise blood sugar levels

Can sometimes cause mild digestive problems—gas and bloating, for example

Lactitol

Good:

Has no negative effects on your dental health

Helps it increase the number of good bacteria located in your gut

Bad:

Has a significant laxative effect when eaten in large amounts

Can cause digestive issues like diarrhea, cramps, bloating

Isomalt

Good:

Little or low effect on blood sugar levels

Not bad for your dental health

Bad:

Can cause problems in your gastrointestinal tract when consumed in excess

Glycerol

Good:

It is water soluble

No bad effects on your dental health

A low effect on your blood sugar levels

Bad:

It is not suitable as a sweetener to be used regularly in your diet or recipes since it is less sweet than sugar but also has more calories

Can cause a slight change in blood sugar levels if you consume a lot

As you can see, the various sugar alcohols can have varying degrees and severities of effects on your body, health, blood, and ability to burn fat. You should become accustomed to each of these sugar alcohols and how they can be included in a Keto diet, recipes, or a low-carb journey.

Can You Have Sugar Alcohols On A Keto Diet?

The answer to this question depends on which sugar alcohols you want to include in your Keto diet. Some have side effects that make it not worth it to include them in a regular Keto diet, while others serve as great alternatives to sugar and can be used to sweeten up a dish or your favorite recipes. This is all going to depend on which of the sugar alcohols you are looking at. There are a few sugar alcohols that are great for Keto while there are even more that can have bad side effects and could endanger your ketosis, even.

  For the Keto diet, we definitely recommend Erythritol as one of the best sugar alcohols to use while on the Keto diet or any other diet, for that matter. When consumed, Erythritol is then completely excreted during urination. It has little to low effect on blood sugar and has less calories than sugar while being almost just as sweet as regular sugar. It also doesn’t have bad effects on intestinal systems. Because of all this, it is the most highly recommended of the sugar alcohols to include on a low carb Keto diet. You can use it as a sugar substitute in your Keto desserts and recipes!

  We can also recommend Xylitol, albeit with a little hesitation. Xylitol has a sweetness that is close to that of sugar and affects blood sugar levels far less than regular sugar. Of the sugar alcohols, this is the one that we recommend second most, right behind Erythritol. Xylitol can help with dental and tooth health, increases good gut bacteria, and can also help to increase collagen production. The flip side of Xylitol is that is has been known to cause gastric problems from time to time. Because of this, you should use it very sparingly and only for small desserts or to sweeten your tea. You should take very great care to not expose it to your dog or leave it within reach of your dogs because it is very toxic and can even kill the animal.

  We don’t recommend that you use Maltitol, because it can cause large spikes in your blood sugar levels which makes it not suitable for a low carb diet like the Keto diet. Among the other sugar alcohols that we wouldn’t recommend as sugar substitutes are sorbitol, lactitol, glycerol, and isomalt. You should consider these as they have a considerable effect on your blood sugar and health and are not great options for a low carb or carb free lifestyle. They won’t help your body burn fat through Keto and you shouldn’t look to include these in your everyday meals or recipes.

  So, to recap, you can have some sugar alcohols on a Keto diet, but you should make sure that you know which sugar alcohols are suitable for consumption on a low carb diet and which ones are not. You should look to include those that offer near the same sweetness but far fewer calories and a low effect on blood sugar. The best sugar alcohol for this would definitely be Erythritol as it has no effect on your blood sugar and health. You can use this in food, desserts, and other recipes to sweeten something up with you need something that is low calorie and just as sweet as sugar. You should stay away from any sugar alcohols that are not low in calories, are bad for your dental health, don’t fit with a Keto diet, or affect your blood sugar levels heavily.

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Does Sugar Alcohols Count As Carbs?

All this information about sugar alcohols is great, but as a Keto dieter, you want to know if you can fit these sugar alcohols into your Keto diet plan. If they do fit into your Keto diet plan, you also want to know how they count against you as carbs, since the goal of the Keto diet is to drastically reduce the amount of carbs that you eat. The calculation for sugar alcohols carb content is rather simple. If on the nutrition label you see that there are 15g of sugar alcohols, you simply divide that number by 2 to see your carb intake from that sugar alcohol. So, the amount of carbs that you would count against your carb limit for the day from 15g of sugar alcohols would be 7.5g of carbs.

  You should always check the nutrition facts of the foods and recipes that you eat to make sure that eating it won’t mess with your carb limit for the day and endanger your health or your Keto diet. Because the calculation is so simple, it should be no problem at all once you know how many carbs you can eat for the day!

Can Sugar Alcohols Kick You Out Of Ketosis?

As with our answer about which sugar alcohols you can eat on a Keto diet, it will vary based on which sugar alcohols you are wanting to include in your food, diet, or recipes.

  Ketosis is a process that takes place in your body when you don’t eat a lot of foods that have a high carb content. Since carbs are your body’s main source of energy, it needs to turn to something else to get some energy. This is one of the main benefits of a carb free or low carb diet. Instead of the easy-to-burn carbs, your body turns to fat to burn. This can promote weight loss in your body and have numerous other health effects.

  One of the health effects of ketosis is that it will produce ketones, which can also be used for energy and has several health benefits, specifically in the treatment of neurological disorders. A Ketogenic diet plan is a known effective treatment for epilepsy in children and is used quite commonly by the Mayo clinic and other hospitals that specialize in this sort of treatment. Ketones also have a long-lasting positive effect on your brain health and function. It can help prevent brain decay and help you focus on tasks and increase your brain capacity.

  However, all these great benefits of ketosis cannot be achieved without eating a low-carb diet and making sure that your body is getting the right balance of Macronutrients in your daily diet. Since you are going to be taking close stock of each and every nutrient that enters your body while on a Keto diet, even the smallest discrepancy or body change can throw you out of ketosis and you will lose the fat burning qualities of being in ketosis. Sugar alcohols are definitely a factor here and if you consume them the wrong way, you can get kicked out of ketosis.

  If you consume sugar alcohols in foods or recipes that have a heavy effect on your blood sugar and you consume a lot of these alcohols, you can consider yourself to be in danger of being kicked out of ketosis. This is bad and you can lose a lot of progress.

  However, if you consume the right sugar alcohols that we recommended that don’t affect your blood sugar as much and that also have a low carb content (this can be seen on nutritional labels), you can stay in ketosis and also benefit from the numerous health benefits (and taste) of these awesome sugar alcohols. As with all things in Keto, it’s just about finding the right balance for you and enjoying things in moderation. If you can’t find the right balance and frequently consume sugar alcohols that are high in blood sugar and affect your body in a negative way, you are sure to get kicked out of ketosis.

  So, be sure to enjoy these sugar alcohols in the right way and enjoy the awesome benefits of them!

References

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/InteractiveNutritionFactsLabel/sugar-alcohol.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756564/

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/glycerol

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5093271/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21510584

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/maltitol

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/D-mannitol

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=16cc9d47-5382-4237-ab84-f22c5436fe2e

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[thehallofgame]

Review: Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2

Release: 2001

My Rating: 8/10

Hi guys! I’m back after my much needed break. I hope to provide a more consistent and hopefully better quality review experience going forward. However, I did also start a new career during January (now how’s that for a New Year’s Resolution?) so I may have some awkward moments while I’m getting my footing there. Nevertheless I hope for the best. And the income to buy some new games. Please find my review of cult classic (or maybe just straight up classic) Silent Hill 2 after the cut.

              There’s such a huge gap in fan perception between the first Silent Hill and its follow-up that I expected the gap in quality to be just as huge. Thing is…. It’s not. While Silent Hill 2 is considerably less lethal than its predecessor, it retains the same awful controls (now more egregious as they’ve come to a console generation where controlling like a blimp isn’t the norm), the story is even more abstract and lacks a compelling conclusion. It’s a good game but also most certainly a case of firmly affixed nostalgia goggles by the fan base because it’s aged like milk.

              Silent Hill 2, despite taking place in the same titular town of Silent Hill, has no concrete connection to the previous entry in the series. The new protagonist, James, arrives in the fog-drenched vacation town in search of a lost loved one. James’s wife has been dead for three years and yet he recently received a letter from her asking him to come find her. Unfortunately, the town is sealed off and seemingly abandoned except for a few other visitors.

              The plot quickly unravels into artistic vignettes, vague dialogue, and narrative inconsistency after that. It’s a little difficult to critique this confusing mush as, on one hand, it’s clearly an artistic choice that stems from the first game’s similar dream-like haze of a story. On the other hand, James is a totally untrustworthy narrator, the Japanese to English translation is clunky and James’s voice actor is so bad it seems like nothing he says is serious. This contrasts badly with his much better written and acted co-stars who provide the best tragedies, horrors and reveals of the game. Silent Hill 2 also occasionally undermines its own pacing with badly placed boss encounters and laborious backtracking that leaves the game feeling like it was padded out or hacked together from a bad film. That’s a shame because for as many awkward moments as there are, there are equally many triumphs of design provided by clever imagery, writing, and sound design.

              Gameplay is very much a mirror of this. At once some gameplay features immerse the player deeper and deeper into Silent Hill while others are so jarring or frustrating they can tempt the player to just give up.

              James begins the game plopped down just outside town and must navigate toward a park he guesses his wife might be at. For some reason, however, James’s default is walking speed and using the analog to stick to steer him is incredibly awkward. The controls still feel like they’re stuck in the previous console generation. And, much like many PlayStation titles that supposedly support analog sticks, the player is better off using the directional buttons to move the character. Likewise, they’ll also need to hold down the square button almost the entire game to run, both to cover the large, empty spaces of the game and to avoid the enemies always bounding out of the shadows. Amazingly the sidestep buttons, which are mapped to the left and right shoulder buttons, are smooth and useful. These allow James to dodge incoming attacks, as well as shuffle left and right to try and find the right angle to interact with objects, which somewhat helps with the abysmal detection range of said objects. Any player of Silent Hill 2 should resign themselves to missing at least a couple items and having to go back for them simply because when they stood there and mashed the x button several times previously the game simply didn’t realize you wanted to look at the incredibly obvious plot item directly in front of you.

              The game has little direction most of the time, which allows the story to unfurl organically and lends a sense of being lost, but can also be frustrating to many players who feel like they’re wandering blind. Careful exploration will reveal that the game is built to funnel players in the correct direction. There are often rewards for exploring thoroughly, but whether or not they’re worth going for is up to the player’s discretion as the town is absolutely infested with an endless supply of enemies. These have been tweaked since the first game and are now much easier to outrun, but also enjoy a much longer range of attack on average. Meanwhile, to combat this, supplies of both ammunition for guns and health restoring items are vastly more numerous. Unlike in the original Silent Hill, using guns regularly is actually a viable strategy though it’s still smartest to hoard some bullets away for bosses.

              Unfortunately, where combat struggles is… well, everywhere. It’s honestly a little nightmarish all on its own. For some odd reason, the camera tends to face James as he explores, meaning the player can’t see an enemy until they’re right on top of him. Having the radio making noises to indicate how close an enemy doesn’t help much, either, as it will also go off if the enemy is safely on the other side of a wall. Depth perception is a real nightmare and it can be impossible to tell if an enemy is close enough to hit James or vice versa. Melee weapons have wind-up times of varying length and can’t be corrected once the player starts swinging if the enemy moves out of the way. Guns are more accurate because they auto-aim but still provide an opening for the enemy between shots. Even after an enemy drops, they aren’t necessarily dead. Releasing the ‘ready weapon’ button, the right trigger, will allow James to use the attack button to stomp on a downed enemy to do major damage and usually take the enemy out of the fight permanently. However, this system happily gets confused if there are two enemies attacking James at once or if the downed enemy starts to wriggle away and results in James swinging or firing his weapon wildly. The wriggling damages James so it’s hardly worth it to go after these enemies, even knowing they’ll just get up and come back later.

              Between that, and the fact there actually fewer than ten enemy types in the entire game, combat ends up feeling like a pointless and needlessly punishing slog. Enemies also deal out some pretty nasty attacks and the player can’t tell how James’s health is doing without opening the inventory menu to study an odd screen that shows a grainy image of the paused game. The color of the image starts at beige and fades into red as James loses health. It’s probably deliberately engineered to be ambiguous but is a torment when the player is trying to save health items and can’t tell if James needs healing or not.

              Boss encounters are, thankfully, better because they usually have a lot more maneuvering room than the usual hallway based encounters. This cuts down on deaths by terrible controls, as well as imparts tacit permission to use firearms and healing items with abandon until the horrendous and gut-wrenching monstrosity stomps moving. These enemies, in contrast to the disappointing generic encounters, are presented and designed in such a way as to imply a backstory the game will never give. I can’t stress enough that the way these bosses are designed, presented and framed within the story does most of the game’s narrative heavy-lifting and make for some epic moments.

              Like many survival games, Silent Hill fills the time between boss battles with puzzles and riddles. Most of the puzzles are solved by finding a series of what are basically keys and putting them into the correct lock. A lot of these are dressed up cleverly or creepily but several have bizarre combinations of items or solutions that feel needlessly difficult to figure out. Some of these puzzles are based on riddles, however, which can be a delight to match wits against if the player is into word games. A difficulty choice at the start of the game offers at least the illusion of control over how difficult the riddles are, though those on normal difficulty felt like just the right amount of challenge to me.

              Silent Hill 2 is a very specific type of experience more at home in a thriller movie than in a video game. It works, sort of, but only for a very specific subset of gamer for whom psychological horror and a multifaceted puzzle of a narrative are a more powerful draw than the often awful gameplay is off-putting. Silent Hill 2 has many iconic moments to offer but, like so many ground-breaking works before, it has seen these moments reimaged endlessly in tighter and better-made packages. As a survival horror fan, and lover of the first Silent Hill game, I found myself underwhelmed. Yet there is also a thriving community of gamers out there who consider Silent Hill 2 the pinnacle of psychological horror gaming. This game is such a subjective experience I wouldn’t know whether to recommend it to someone without subjecting them to a questionnaire on their personal tastes first. Ultimately this comes down to what a player values in their gaming experience and what they’re willing to endure to access an impressive example of art in gaming.

[btssavedmylifeblr]

BTS Fic Recommendations

There seems to be a weird divide in this fandom between reader x member and member x member stories, but I’m just here in the middle like “all Bangtan smut is good smut!” A good story is a good story and good writing is good writing. Some of these have no smut at all and some are so filthy that I can’t believe I’m recommending them, but, you know, BTS ruined my life and I have no shame anymore. 

I’ve probably read hundreds of BTS stories by now and these are the ones that I go back to over and over. I tried to pick only one per author, but all of these authors are amazing and you should go check out their whole masterlists. These are the authors that I personally fangirl over and stand in awe of. None of these are particularly similar to mine (eg. they are way better) and none of them are particular similar to each other. These are the fics that, for whatever reason, I couldn’t forget about after I read them.

Warning: Some of these are very explicit, so use caution. Anything marked with an M is definitely NSFW. 

Hope you enjoy!

New Recs! 

New as of 4/30/18

same damn hunger (M) by marienadine - Yoongi X Hoseok - I am weak for Yoonseok and this fic does an amazing job capturing the push and pull of their relationship. I think this might be my favorite fictional Yoongi I’ve yet read, striving so hard to be tough, but secretly and vulnerable softie. 

Dig Deep (M) by @johobi - Yoongi X Reader - Tentacle kink is not in my usual list of things I am interested in, but this was so enjoyable and weird and sexy and compelling that I actually sat in my car for 15 minutes not driving anywhere just so I could finish it. I love the level of world building in this tentacle porn. There are real characters and backstory and whole alien species with foreign biology. It is awesome. And the ending is so surprisingly sweet. I love how Jo kept all the things that can be sexy about this genre but made it all consensual and fun.

Completed Stories

All of these are stories that I’ve read more than once, and I am sad every time they are over. 

Transference (M) by @jeonjagiya - Hoseok x Reader - There is not enough Hoseok fiction in the world, but this story’s tantric therapist Hoseok goes a long way to making up for that. Probably my personal favorite male lead in a reader-insert story. Such an incredibly sexy story that feels real. I am madly in love with Iris and have read all of her stories more than once. Her sub!Jungkook story almost killed me.

In the Twilight Air (M) by @trilluvium - Yoongi x Jimin - Yoongi and Jimin are dorky best friends who lose their virginity together.  I don't think I've ever read a one-shot that made me feel so many emotions! It was so cute and sweet and felt authentic to what a good first time would actually be like. Originally this was a one-shot but Trill has expanded it and I am loving every new chapter. I have read Trilluvium’s whole masterlist and am in love with everything she’s ever written.

Good Boys Like Bad Girls (M) by @wildernessuntothemselves - Reader x Taehyung - I read this story and was hesitant to recommend it for a long time because it is so incredibly intense. All the characters are terrible people and the smut is both exceedingly hot and exceedingly disturbing. I cannot stop thinking about this story. It remains one of the stories that has stuck with me the longest after reading it. I care about all of its messed-up characters so much and the ending is devastating in such a perversely satisfying way. But seriously, don’t read this if you want all of your protagonists to be good people and do good things. This is not that story. I admire Moe so much for how unique and unapologetic her ideas are and have enjoyed a lot of her other writings as well, even if they all unsettle me in different ways.

Jasmine (M) by @btssmutgalore - Reader x Jungkook - Jungkook x noona is my favorite thing ever and he’s so well-captured here: nervous, but sexy at the same time. I’m also a huge fan of Business which is a very very sexy threesome with dom!Tae and sub!Jungkook. 

Playing to Win (M) by @tayegi​ - Taehyung x Jungkook x Reader - I am such a sucker for Taekook threesomes, but I particularly love this one because of “I hate you but you’re so sexy” thing going on with the reader and Jungkook. I haven’t a chance to read all of Lu’s astoundingly large masterlist but some of my other favorites of hers are her new MadScientist!Tae story, her Jungkook wolf stories, and this awesome fuck-or-die Jungkook story. Lu has an amazing ability to come up with such clever and unique fic ideas and all her stories are hilarious in addition to sexy.

Milage May Vary (M) by @crossfilth - Taehyung x Jungkook - Rix is the reason Taekook is my OTP (I have two OTPs and two biases, can’t help it). I love every single one of her stories. They are so incredibly sexy, but also so full of real emotion and great dialogue. This is Rix’s longest work so far and it is phenomenal, really sexy, but also really interesting character development and compelling love story. Her entire masterlist is amazing. 

Love at First Touch by @bagelswrites - Jimin x OC - I am such trash for soulmate AUs and this is my all-time favorite. The OC is so well-realized with her own flaws and struggles and you really feel for her throughout the story. This also has my absolute favorite fictional depiction of Jimin. I personally find Jimin very hard to write and he is so often written out-of-character, but this story really nails his signature blend of insecure, vulnerable manliness. The author did so much research to make sure this story lined up with BTS’s actual timeline in real life. Bagels is my hero. 

Thursdays are for… (M) by Arguileless - Taehyung x Reader x Jungkook - My favorite story in the “dating one member but really want to fuck a different member” genre. It’s all smut, but manages to reach 17,000 words. This version of Taehyung who is wildly adventurous and dominant is incredibly sexy. This story started my Taehyung as bias-wrecker problem.

tear the moon from the stars tonight (M) by euphoriae - Yoongi x Jimin - Historical AU with so much real research behind it, I’m blown away. At first, the “jimin is a slave” premise sounds ridiculous, but the rich context, attention to detail and world-building quickly make you forget about it.  I learned a surprising amount of Korean history because of this story, and the love story here is beautiful. One of the very first fan-fictions I read and it showed me how literary fan-fiction could be. 

Inc. (M) by @park-loins - Seokjin x Yoongi - BTS meets The Office. Had me cackling over and over, but also desperately rooting for the love story. Can’t believe this is the same author that also wrote the heart-breakingly beautiful Reprise.

you have 1 new message by bazooka - Namjoon x Jin - I think everyone in this fandom has already read this story, but on the off chance you haven’t, you should. It’s starts as totally hysterical and then becomes amazingly sweet. 

Love is not possession (M) by kuragecharms - Jungkook x Jin - More A/B/O because I am trash. I really love all of kuragecharms’ wolf stories. This author was also the first to sell me on Jin x Jungkook as a ship and now I’m a big fan.

Bloody paws in the snow (M) by pandorasumbrella - Yoongi x Hoseok - My all-time favorite A/B/O story. Does such a great job building an incredibly detailed world. This is the first work in an elaborate trilogy that is so beautiful it breaks your heart. 

Nirvana (M) by syubology - Jimin x Hoseok - Jimin and Hoseok struggle with their feelings for each other. One of the first fics I ever really loved. This story does a terrific job of depicting BTS as BTS and the possible ramifications of a relationship within that dynamic. 

In Progress

For where there’s sun you’ll find a moon by @bulletproof-dork-boys - Yoongi x Taehyung - I am huge a greek mythology nerd and I am super excited to see where this Taehyung as Hades, Yoongi as Persephone story goes.

SAVE ME (M) by agnes_viviane - Jungkook x OC - Adorably awkward OC befriends Jungkook on accident, then falls in love with him. Makes me cackle with glee and second-hand embarrassment every time I read it. Full of all my favorite things: awkwardness, angst and Jungkook. Agnes is the sweetest and taught me a lot of important things about the correct ways to address people in Korean and how to properly use Korean in my stories.

Touch Me, Touch You (M) by @deathbyyoongi​ - Yoongi x Reader x Hoseok - Yoongi + Hoseok + smut + angst + mild D/S… it is all the things I am weak for in one story.

The Fitting (M) by @noona-la-la-la​ - Jungkook x Reader - Noona-la-la-la writes really excellent, realistic but still super sexy smut and all of her reader inserts are adult women, often older than the boys. I also really really enjoyed Unexpected which is Yoongi smut and Conditioned featuring sub!Taehyung.

Grey Area (M) by @blushoseoks - Yoongi x Reader x Jimin? - Soulmate AU where everything is more complicated than it should be and so wonderfully angsty. Such an interesting take on the Soulmate AU.

The Purge by @jungblue - Hoseok x Reader - I just found jungblue and everything I’ve read from them so far is phenomenal! I love this fic in particular because it is such a different idea than anything I’ve seen before and stars Hobi!

The Unwanted Alpha (M) - by RedPantherVitality8 - Jungkook x Reader - Combines A/B/O with noona x Jungkook angst. No faster way to my heart.

Leave your mark (M) by @inarsics - Jungkook x Jimin - A/B/O is my big weakness/guilty pleasure. I love this story in particular for its interesting take on the genre, where all the alphas have gone extinct. Also, Jimin has a little brother and it’s incredibly sweet and adorable.

i like how desperate you seem (in the way you look at me) (M) by fatal - Jungkook x Jimin - A “classic” of BTS A/B/O subgenre. Super slow-burn that keeps you on the edge of your seat and desperate to know what happens next.  

your taste is so sweet on my lips (M) by @pinktteokie - Hoseok x Taehyung x Yoongi - My favorite polyamorous story. The slow-burn is so good and the way the relationship moves from a relationship between two people to a relationship between three people is fascinating.

read between the (panty) lines (M) by @lunaticmyngi - Yoongi x Jimin x Jungkook - I fangirl so hard about everything from TheHalesNyx. How she manages to write so many different requests and have them all be so well-done, I have no idea. This prompt started off so filthy, and became such an intensely emotional story. You feel so much sympathy and angst for all three members in this story. Her entire masterlist is amazing.

Obviously, there are many other amazing fics that I just haven’t read yet, or accidentally forgot about. As I find more, I’ll add them to this tag #fic rec.

[webart-studio]

UX/UI Kits to Pace Up Your Design Course of

An unique design could make your net tasks stand out. Nevertheless, crafting every design ingredient from scratch could be a very time-consuming course of. When you will have deadlines to satisfy and a pile of labor ready for your consideration, it’s not at all times probably the most real looking method.

That’s the great thing about UX/UI kits. They provide units of elements that you possibly can simply customise and combine into your personal design work. The proper equipment may help to extend effectivity and prevent from reinventing the wheel.

At this time, we’ll share some examples of varied components that can profit from using a UX/UI equipment. Each is accessible along with your subscription to Envato Parts–house to over 4,200 kits. You’ll even have limitless entry to tons of of 1000’s of different top-quality design sources. Let’s get began!

Flick thru 1000’s of UX and UI kits on Envato Parts

1. Slides

Slideshows proceed to be a wildly in style characteristic on the net. We see them in all places, but we don’t at all times see particular person slides that emanate a complicated look. A part of the explanation for this will likely simply be that designers don’t have a lot time to spend on this space. Plus, it’s typically simpler to only use a photograph. That is the place a UX/UI equipment that includes enticing slides can add some further bling to your design with out requiring lots of effort.

Health Slider

It’s even higher if you will discover a equipment that falls inside your web site’s area of interest, corresponding to Health Slider. Right here, you’ll discover ten stunning, easy-to-edit slides in PSD format. Every file is layered, takes benefit of Photoshop sensible objects, and makes use of free fonts.

2. eCommerce Layouts

An eCommerce store ought to characteristic a clear, colourful look, and supply an intuitive UI. In spite of everything, the last word purpose is to transform guests into clients. In the case of design, nonetheless, you don’t must begin from floor zero. A UX/UI equipment can function an important beginning level, permitting you to customise issues to match your wants.

Ecommerce Store Playing cards

Ecommerce Store Playing cards features a choice of attractive layouts for particular person merchandise and a “Greatest Sellers” itemizing. Every part you want resides inside a single Sketch file, with components which are simple to tweak.

3. Touchdown Web page Property

Touchdown pages are a terrific solution to deal with on-line promotions and even function a short lived ‘coming quickly’ placeholder. As such, it could not at all times make sense to take a position lots of time in one thing that received’t be round for the lengthy haul. Accessing some frequent design belongings right here can get you up and operating rapidly.

Singleton UI Pack

What’s nice concerning the Singleton UI Pack is that it offers varied choices for almost all the pieces a touchdown web page may need. The equipment features a collection of ‘playing cards’ that may be blended and matched, corresponding to headers, footers, weblog areas and portfolios. Every of the included PSD and Sketch information include a number of types for every kind of card.

4. Web site Flowcharts

One of many earliest phases of the design course of entails mapping out the construction of your web site. Flowcharts are an important selection for illustrating how issues match collectively in a highly-visual approach. The problem is that you just need to create one thing enticing for purchasers to assessment, whereas not expending an excessive amount of of your treasured time. An incredible UX/UI equipment will assist to satisfy each of these wants.

UX Flowchart Playing cards

With UX Flowchart Playing cards, you’ll have all the pieces it’s good to create professional-looking charts briefly order. Included are 296 playing cards that cowl all kinds of use instances for each desktop and cell. Information can be found in vector codecs for Adobe Illustrator and Sketch.

5. Banners

Design doesn’t finish with the web site itself. There are quite a few marketing-related gadgets that require our consideration as properly. For instance, banners are at all times in demand to be used in promoting and social media. That’s why having a library of pre-sized belongings is so vital. It could preserve you cranking out stunning graphics as rapidly as your purchasers want them.

Product Banners Advert – 45 PSD [03 Sets]

Product Banners Advert is a equipment that features 45 PSD banners that cowl a variety of makes use of. You not solely have entry to plain advert sizes (skyscraper, leaderboard, and so forth.) but in addition in style social media codecs as properly.

Nice Design, Higher Effectivity

When you consider it, UX/UI kits are half of a bigger set of instruments designers can use to construct web sites extra rapidly. They share the identical house as inventory pictures and even code frameworks. The thought is to supply prime quality work with out spending a second greater than you need to in placing it all collectively.

One of many actual benefits of utilizing kits just like the examples above is that they put you nearer to the end line, however with out taking away from the originality of your design. As a result of you possibly can simply edit these belongings, they supply an ideal match for almost any venture.

Extra Wireframing and UX/UI Package Sources on Tuts+

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source https://webart-studio.com/ux-ui-kits-to-pace-up-your-design-course-of/