#but these videos are like the double digits of thousands

[petrichorium]

It’s his social media manager who sends Noa the video.

And typically that’s a bad sign, but this is through text—not an email with a subject line beginning with “URGENT”—and accompanied by a crying laughter emoji (he thinks, absentmindedly, of how he’d used that once in a text to you and you’d fallen off the couch in your tears of mirth) so he figures it must not be so bad.

The tiktok has views up in the eight digit range. It’s slow to load; Noa silently curses the existence of hotel wifi and opens the comments in the hopes of garnering some clue about the video’s content before it plays.

The first one is no fucking way. The second is NOEL NOA????? UR KIDDING.

The third is nothing but a string of the same emoji; a graphed line trending upwards. It has over seventy thousand likes.

Your voice speaks suddenly. Noa closes the comments, surprised to find that he recognizes the location of the video. It’s the living room of your best friend’s penthouse, four of your other closest friends lounging around with you. It’s clear that you’ve all been drinking wine, the flushed faces and hooded eyes all the necessary evidence (though the half-full glasses scattered about the room and held in hands would do well enough).

You sit against the side of the couch, legs thrown over a friend’s lap. The video has started halfway through a sentence.

“—just don’t understand it,” you’re saying, voice louder and energetic than he’s used to though it’s the only indicator of inebriation he can detect. “Like, no—no, I’m serious! He’s hot and all, y’know, that body, and like”—you wave your hand, mildly clumsy—“one of the greatest football players alive and all that. But they just don’t know how dorky my lame-ass nerd of a boyfriend is.”

Noa jolts up. He watches how all your friends giggle, how you take a sip of the wine in your hand and laugh yourself when a friend reaches over to smack your shoulder playfully. Something coils in the pit of his stomach.

Behind the camera, your best friend calls out, “Don’t be mean!”

“Oh, no, I’m not being mean. My boyfriend is so lame and nerdy and made a spreadsheet to ask me out and keeps another one of all our dates and it’s so fucking cute. He wears those hot old man glasses and he sits in front of his laptop to strategize about taking me to the beach. He might honestly have a spreadsheet for our wedding.” You pause, eyes glazing over, words slurring just slightly for the first time as you seem to lose your bearing. “If he does I might just sit on his face.”

There’s an immediate uproar. The camera shakes and then tumbles to the ground as your best friend doubles over with laughter. Over the din of glee and jokingly jeering remarks, you shout, “IT’S HOT! SPREADSHEETS ARE HOT! DON’T LIE IT’S CUTE—“

The phone shifts again and the video loops. Noa lays over the covers of the hotel room bed, staring at the repeating image of you and your words. He hears you mention him again—“my lame-ass nerd of a boyfriend”—and that low simmer burns hotter as his eyes are drawn to the sight of your bare legs, the way your hand curls around the bowl of your wine glass.

Lame-ass nerd of a boyfriend. Your lips are plush as you speak the words, quirked in a soft little smile that laces your tone with affection and crinkles the corners of your eyes.

His hand slips beneath the waistband of his sweats.

[world0fmadness]

⋆ ˚｡⋆ ୨୧ ˚ VIDEO GAMES I THINK SOME OF THE GRID WOULD LIKE ˚ ୨୧ ⋆｡˚ ⋆

i don’t know what this is to be honest! just games i think the grid would like and how they’d play them ^_^ don’t come into my comment section with “ tHeY wOuLdNt CrY aT a ViDeO gAmE ” i have seen the manliest men cry at deaths in games and so many other things, video games are so capable of making you sob your heart out because of how much time you spend with characters and how well the stories are told <3

warning: god of war ragnar��k spoilers, life is strange spoilers, red dead redemption 2 spoilers, telltales the walking dead spoilers

FERNANDO ALONSO

god of war - god of war ragnarök

i think he’d be SO into the story and would absolutely shed a tear or two when kratos calls atreus “ son ” for the first time instead of “ boy ”! he’d have the biggest crush on freya ( especially in god of war ragnarök when she has her valkyrie armour on and her wings back )

thinks faye was just an absolute poet and is very tempted to get “ to grieve deeply is to have loved fully ” tattooed on himself ( literally me )

loves angrboda and atreus, he thinks they are adorable, his digital children, cries AGAIN when atreus leaves at the end of god of war ragnarök

thinks all of the valkyries’ designs are GORGEOUS ( because they are ) but please don’t go near him with that sigrun boss fight

SEBASTIAN VETTEL

stardew valley - animal crossing

get this man a nintendo switch and some cozy games as soon as possible, he’d have the cutest animal crossing village and doesn’t go a day without talking to his villagers

LEWIS HAMILTON

red dead redemption 2

his arthur would be so dripped out it’s insane, he loves arthur as character, keeps arthur well fed, fucking hates micah with a passion ( don’t we all ) cries when arthur gets diagnosed with tuberculosis and honestly hates playing the last chapters with arthur because he can’t stand how deathly arthur looks, cries again when he dies but is so glad he was able to help john get out ( don’t tell him about the first game okay? )

thinks charles is the absolute best side character, loves his character, his loyalty, his words, and his backstory! might just get a bison tattoo to honour him… has a little crush on sadie and tilly ^_^

has the same horse throughout the whole game and treats it SO good </3 gets the braided mane and tail, feeds it so good, brushes it constantly… is beyond heartbroken when it dies

listens to unshaken by d’angelo from the soundtrack on the regular

telltale’s the walking dead

played every season when they first released, this franchise has caused this man so much heartbreak… thought lee, luke and kenny were the best characters until clementine was grown up! absolutely adores AJ too <3

had to pause and take a breath when clementine got bit, cried so much, took him right back to the first season with lee and he couldn’t handle it… thinks telltale are horrible people for baiting you like that

CHARLES LECLERC

life is strange - life is strange: before the storm

i can just see him really connecting with chloe in a strange way… absolutely hates nathan but feels a little bad for him at the end, top pricefield shipper, sacrifices arcadia bay every replay ( he sacrificed chloe once just to see and cried for half an hour at the ending )

would probably be so upset at chloe not being in the life is strange: double exposure trailer, wants to know where she is IMMEDIATELY, but is so proud of how grown up max is

toem

i don’t know… i can just see him really liking toem :,3 it’s relaxing

MAX VERSTAPPEN

stray

he plays it on pc, downloads a custom cat mod and makes it a bengal! refuses to show how much he loves it… meows at least one thousand times and scratches every surface when he’s given the option

absolutely bought the b-12 cat toy that annapurna interactive sold for jimmy and sassy

metal gear solid

i just think he’d be so good at stealth… has a HUGE man crush on snake, won’t ever tell anyone ( everyone knows )

GEORGE RUSSELL

L.A. noire

again, i don’t know how to explain this one but he’d play it and suddenly start using so many vintage words and slang and tries to over examine everyone’s body language, looks like a psychopath… would be a bit mad at the ending, wants a sequel

firewatch - everybody’s gone to the rapture

i can see him LOVING walking simulators with amazing stories… he especially likes everybody’s gone to the rapture because of the british village setting ^_^ absolutely loves the soundtrack for it too

OSCAR PIASTRI

devil may cry - gungrave gore

i feel like he’d just go crazy in fast paced games like devil may cry, especially devil may cry 5… is super unimpressed with himself when he gets a low score on a stage :(

had a crush on dante when he was younger, still has a man crush on him ( silver fox dante lovers where are you guys? )

LANDO NORRIS

until dawn - the quarry

i can see him just absolutely LOVING some of the characters ( emma, jessica, sam, ashley, matt, jacob, abigail and laura ) and just absolutely hating others ( josh, mike, emily, nick ) if any of his favourites die he’d probably be incredibly inclined to restart the game! thinks sam is the best character ever

is so good at the QTEs because of his f1 reflexes, it’s unfair

horizon forbidden west

i can just kind of see him geeking the fuck out about robot dinosaurs! he’d probably be hyped for the horizon lego game, wants to play it co op with oscar <3

bought the tallneck lego and built it SO quick, he loves it ^_^ top seyloy shipper and has a huge crush on zoe

[noxiatoxia]

Please do not take photos or videos of people without their consent. Even if they're your friends, even if they're your kids, even if you think they were being a jerk. And especially, do not post those photos online. Yes, filming (I will be using "film(ing)" as a catch all for photos and videos for simplicity) someone without their knowledge or consent is legal in many areas of the world. Just because it is legal doesn't make it correct. I'm sure you can think of several laws that exist right now, or are trying to exist, that you feel should not be made legal. Legality has nothing to do with if it's "good" or "bad".

Even if you think it is harmless, even if you yourself wouldn't mind being filmed in that position, respect other people's privacy. It is a matter of consent. It is not hard to ask somebody if you can film them beforehand. It is not hard to ask somebody if you can post or send a film of them to somewhere else beforehand. You want to capture a film of your friend reacting to a surprise without them knowing? Tell them as soon after you finish filming, and give them the option to delete it. Better yet, you can discuss with said friend how they feel about such an occurrence if a future situation like that were to ever arise.

It's a small thing, but a big one to a lot of people. Some people have religious beliefs when it comes to being filmed. Some people have mental disorders that can cause them to react violently to the idea of being filmed/watched. Some people just like their damn privacy!

I know I can't force anybody to heed this. It's just a suggestion. Just to make the world a little kinder.

I understand the importance in filming crimes. If you witness someone committing a crime, such as police brutality, or endangering another, there is a legitimate and enforceable purpose behind that filming. Being, "this person is committing a crime, this film is to be used as evidence to bring their crime to justice".

But a good 90% of films of other people posted online are not that. It is people who are doing something "weird" or wearing something "funny". It is the filmer bothering people in public. It is someone who is injured, in distress, or having a mental breakdown. It is someone filming another person yelling at somebody else.

Being an asshole isn't a crime, by the way. Yes, that person yelling at the McDonald's worker is an asshole. But realistically, what is filming them and posting it online going to do? It isn't "getting back at them" because having thousands of people harassing them is a worse act of assholery than what they had done. Besides, not to be that guy, but shit can be taken out of context. That "crazy lady" yelling at the waiter was maybe filmed 5 seconds after the waiter had said a very sexually harassing statement. Maybe the teenager yelling at the store clerk just lost his best friend. Of course, this is not an excuse for acting violently, but the point I'm trying to illustrate is neither is the violating of their privacy as a means of revenge. Two wrongs don't make a right, as they say. (And do you think the perceived victim in the situation-- the clerk, the employee-- want to be filmed and posted without permission as well?) And even if it happens to be a situation of an entitled asshole being entitled, filming will do nothing. Opposition will just make them double down. People who are entitled like that won't think twice seeing those videos online, because they think they're in the right. All this trend does is send innocent people into a panopticon.

Though it's just a public thread, I think hearing the words of everyday people with experiences like this can help illustrate how big of an issue this is within our current digital climate.

Again. I cannot force any of you reading to think or act a certain way, nor do I want to force anything. I'm just hoping this will, at the very least, make any of you inclined to film others think twice before doing so.

[beardedmrbean]

Prosecutors in California say the Romanian mafia has given a new look to an old scam — debit card skimming — by placing devices to steal personal information on self-checkout machines in grocery stores.

Debit card skimmers have long been problematic at gas stations and ATMs. Now a highly organized network of crooks is branching out. 

"They’ll have people sitting outside a Walmart or a Target, and it looks like they’re panhandling," prosecutors told Fox News Digital. "Sometimes they’ll have a couple of kids. And they are actually using Bluetooth technology that’s connected to the skimmers inside the stores. So it's like a two for one, getting cash that people give them and stealing the numbers off the skimmers."

Surveillance video obtained by the El Cajon Police Department shows suspects can place a skimmer over the checkout's credit card swipe in just seconds — and they look almost exactly like the real thing.

Police recommend tugging on a credit card swipe before inserting your card. If it wobbles or comes off, it's fake.

Authorities say they've already busted dozens of suspects, most of them with ties to organized crime in Romania.

And despite large busts in December and January of dozens of suspects in the U.S., Europe and Mexico, where they are teaming up with cartels in tourist hot spots like Tulum, the thefts are increasing as thieves double down on their efforts, authorities said. 

They could be raking in up to $9 million a month — much of it at taxpayers' expense.

The skimmers, which can target EBT card users as well, have allegedly drained accounts the moment that the state releases monthly payments, according to Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer's office, which announced a major crackdown on such crimes earlier this year. As a result, more than $100 million worth of thefts robbed taxpayer-funded welfare programs and their recipients.

"The victims are single mothers struggling to put a roof over their children's heads and food on the table and hardworking people who need a helping hand who find themselves standing at the checkout line with bags full of groceries only to be humiliated when they find that they have no money in their account because a thief has surreptitiously taken everything," Spitzer said in a statement. "Meanwhile, the thieves are using this money to fund organized crime, to buy luxury cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and to lead a life of luxury that the true recipients can only dream about."

On top of that, the porous southern border gives the mobsters a steady supply of new muscle, while a combination of lax bail policies and incomplete criminal records allow members to cut off their ankle monitors and flee justice if they get arrested.

"Thousands of criminals suspected to be tied to organized Romanian crime have been identified to be in the United States, with a large portion of them entering the United States illegally, mainly through the southern border," Kimberly Edds, the director of public affairs for Spitzer's office, told Fox News Digital. "A smaller portion of this population is entering as asylum seekers."

A group of Southern California counties, including Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, has seen about 15% of the Romanian mob's activity within the US., she said.

In addition to sending stolen money back to Romania to fund luxe lifestyles and European sports cars, the crooks are also trading in food stamps for baby formula and energy drinks, which are then resold in Mexico in an alliance with local cartels.

Many of them even flaunt their ill-gotten gains on TikTok, including a 14-year-old suspect who police captured driving a $250,000 sports car and wearing a Rolex.

One of the men implicated in the plot was already on Romania's most wanted list — Florin Duduianu.

The 39-year-old was convicted in January after police watched him make multiple withdrawals using different cards from the same ATM in Placentia, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. They caught him with four Visa gift cards that had been reprogrammed into clones of four different victims' debit cards.

Duduianu is expected to get 30 years in federal prison at his sentencing later this week, according to the Justice Department.

In December, the FBI announced it was partnering with Romanian police to raid dozens of locations in the European country connected to the California skimming thefts.

The joint operation resulted in 48 arrests and the recovery of more than $1 million and 11 luxury vehicles.

Many of the suspects arrested in Romania also had ties to Mexico's Riviera Maya gang, which itself is blamed for millions of dollars in skimming thefts in tourist hot spots that are popular with Americans, including Tulum and Cancun in Quintana Roo.

The gang's leader, Florian Tudor, is awaiting trial on fraud charges in Mexico and is wanted for attempted murder in Romania, as well.

[wafflebloggies]

the long con - part 1/7

a Don't Feed The Muse crossover story. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

*

The con was coming to an end.

DIGIVID, the largest annual convention for digital content creators in the Southern United States. Three days of booths, networking, merch, watchathons, speeches, special previews, presentations, weird food, crowded spaces, fun.

Fun in theory, anyway. For Mark Mayhew, it had been three days of a brand new kind of purgatory. Unavoidable, self-inflicted, endless.

“...honestly, we couldn’t choose, so like for our first video we just put all our favourite movies into a picker thing and it turns out Watchmen came out the exact same year as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and I know, they’re totally different movies, but then we were like, wait, there’s some parallels here...”

Mark was certain by now that the con had been a terrible idea. True, if he’d had the time all over again, there were several big, pressing reasons why he would still have made the same choice, but only a couple of them were fit to explain to anybody else. Even if he’d known how frankly- miserable- it was going to turn out to be, he probably still would have chosen to go, but knowing this didn’t make it feel like any less of a mistake, or change the fact that he would have given almost anything, right now, to not be stuck in the middle of it.

“...and the whole ship metaphor they cut from the movie, and like, Flint’s invention basically has the same thematic purpose as Veidt’s EDBE? We kept saying ‘eeby-deeby,’ it took us like, twenty takes…”

It was almost incredible to him, as he stood in silence, how alone it was possible to feel in such a big crowd. The main convention hall was hot, airless, busy. Even though some people were already packing up, here at the end of the third day, plenty of bodies still shuttled back and forth in clogged little streams whenever they found the space to move, elbow to elbow between the double rows of human backs shutting out the tables, the crowded booths. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer press of people, the talk and the noise. If Mark had only walked in alone, twenty minutes ago, and spent the time silently trying to make his way from one side of the massive space to the other, he would already have been more than a little agitated, ready to leave.

“...and he has all these shell companies, like all these theatres that play alien invasion movies all the time, to subconsciously prepare people? And when you look at Meatballs, you’re actually getting lowkey bombarded with fast-food imagery the whole time right up to when he turns on the machine...”

Mark had been in the hall for hours, and he was done. Currently, he was standing in a small pocket of space in a very nicely put-together booth belonging to a fairly well-known ASMR channel, watching a conversation happen right in front of him that he had about as much share in as an exiled Martian had in a conversation backstage at NASA. Yes, he’d started this conversation, he’d introduced himself, he’d started to steer the topic in a useful direction… and then Anthony had happened. Anthony Williams had turned up with his big, friendly grin and his busted paper carrier bag full of leaflets and merch which had been shedding everywhere since Friday and his completely distracting, distracted self, and now…

“...actually the biggest audio problem we have is my cat, Blaze, when we film at my house she’s got a real thing for the fluffy boom whatever on the mic, she wants to kill that thing on sight, right Mark?”

“Yeah,” said Mark, in the same way a corpse will twitch if you electrocute it. Anthony, who was too into the conversation to notice his friend’s thousand-yard-stare, carried right on going.

“Yeah, so we have to shut her in my parents’ room, but then I feel so bad, and she yells so loud in there it picks up on the video! So we usually record at Mark’s, but with our Parasite video...”

And so on. And on.

Not that the ASMR guys seemed to mind. People always seemed to open up and respond to Anthony quicker and with far more warmth than they did with Mark alone, which added another layer of frustration to the silent, invisible war he was fighting against himself. If Anthony could only have understood, and been focused, if Anthony could have been trying like he had been, these last three days, they might have found a sponsor already.

A sponsor, a partner, a collab, anything, anything to make the whole weekend feel worthwhile, instead of a painful waste of time.

Mark could tell that these guys had lost focus completely. One of them was still chatting quite happily with Anthony about God alone knew what, relaxed and disengaged, and the other was already moving away, eyes on a new bunch of visitors. There was no way Mark could steer this back the right way again now. Even though, at the bottom of his heart, he’d known it was a lost cause before Anthony had joined them, the tide of bitterness ebbed higher as he listened to the conversation wander so far wide of the point.

He must have looked distant enough for a party of people trying to use the booth as a short-cut to mistake him for an unconnected bystander, because as he stood there they pushed gently between him and Anthony, widening the gap as they passed through. On impulse, he went with it, let them nudge him and his whole parcel of garbage feelings to the side, let the general stream of the crowd push him out of the booth.

Without waiting to see if Anthony had noticed, he started shoving his way towards the main exit at a quicker pace. It was a relief to just move, without Anthony winding along just behind him, getting distracted at an average rate of once every four booths. Through the whole weekend, every time Mark was just trying to get from A to B, every time Anthony spotted something which made him want to stop and take a closer look, he would reach forwards and pat Mark on the back of his right shoulder. By this point, three days in, the feeling was starting to evoke a kind of Pavlovian response in Mark, knowing that every time he felt that light touch he would have to stop and stand and wait, getting hotter and more squashed and more impatient by the second, until Anthony was done, and by now just the feeling of Anthony’s hand on his shoulder had become a button that hiked his blood pressure, his heart, his temper.

By all appearances, Anthony had enjoyed the weekend a great deal. He got on with everyone he met, he was absolutely down for talking with new people on a vast range of subjects (with absolutely no practical application towards growing the channel whatsoever) and with his usual unbounded enthusiasm he seemed happy to keep going for as long as the con lasted.

Which wouldn’t be for that much longer. The hall was crowded now, sure, but already not as bad as it had been on the previous two days. Mark could see stalls and tables beginning to clear as their owners began to pack away. Pressing towards the main door, he had a sharp and ghastly vision of the convention hall as a vast interconnected series of nodes, bright and promising, each shutting down and turning black and dead as he touched them, came into contact, even approached them at all. Each booth, each prospect, each point of hope-

(nobody is going to want to work with you.)

He couldn’t feel normal, he couldn’t relax for a second, when on the one side the enormous thundercloud of dread loomed and on the other… something nobody here could understand, something he barely understood, something that lurked at the bottom of his stomach like a squishy leaden bowling-ball, the part of him that whispered that he really was just torturing himself for no reason, because what he had been granted out of the blue was, could be, his miracle. That it had been pointless coming here at all, that he was wasting time, wasting precious time not just ditching any other blighted and unreliable possibility and reaching for it with grateful hands-

“Mark!”

Unaware up until that moment that he’d stopped dead in the heaving crowd, Mark started and looked back as Anthony shouldered through the general stream of people, a small, willowy splotch of red flannel and concern. He felt Anthony’s hand on his shoulder again, guiding, steering him forwards and sharply left into a faster-moving stream of people that quickly swallowed them both and spat them out on the other side of the main doors. He wasn’t even aware of how much he’d just wanted the fresher air outside the hall until they were out in the gigantic hub of a lobby, the atmosphere so much lighter and cooler just from the fewer bodies and the bigger space, the vaulted metal-and-glass ceiling lined with great sheets of striped tarpaulins like a vast circus tent, shaded against the fading July sun.

He gulped several big breaths, realised his eyes were watering from the heat in them, the blur of colours and the crazy nimbus around each far-distant light, and angrily dragged his glasses from his face, looking down to clean them on his T-shirt as Anthony arrived by his side.

“Hey, you just dis- are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” said Mark, putting on his usual wry, flat, deadpan tone with difficulty, like a familiar sweater that suddenly felt too small. “You sure you’re done? You didn’t have any more hilarious cat stories to tell them? ‘Cause you all seemed to be getting on great.”

“Uh… yeah? They seemed like cool guys.” Anthony never usually minded Mark’s sarcasm, but finding the sharp end of it directed so pointedly towards himself clearly threw him. He shrugged, uncomfortably.

Good, thought Mark. Be uncomfortable. The thought wormed sharp and slimy through the back of his head, and it left him feeling ashamed. He didn’t want Anthony to be miserable just because he was, as if making Anthony feel awkward or hurt could make him feel any better about himself. He wasn’t that shitty a friend.

At least, he didn’t want to be.

Anthony looked down, shuffling through his bulging paper bag full of garbage, the thing he’d been stuffing every sheet, pamphlet, sticker and card he’d collected the whole weekend into as if it was as big as a lending library. He pulled out a couple of stickers from the top. “Here, they gave us a couple of these.”

Mark took the stickers. They were the window-clinger kind, for cars. He didn’t want to put any stickers on his car. They would be a pain in the ass to peel off, if-

(when)

-he had to sell it.

“Thanks, Anthony. Using my car to advertise someone else’s YouTube channel instead of our own, that’s a really proactive move there. Real four-D chess strats.”

“I, um… I just thought they’d look neat.”

“Yeah,” sighed Mark. “I know. Come on, let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

*

Even though it was getting towards evening, there weren’t too many people in the food court seating area, and half of the kiosks still had their metal hatches pulled down. At a long, near-empty table, sticky and spotted from a day of crumbs and wipe-downs, Mark dropped into a chair across from Anthony, always easy to spot in his bright red-check flannel, who was already halfway down a container of loaded chilli wedges.

He shrugged his backpack into the darkness under his feet and back-kicked it under his chair, and set his styrofoam carton on the table. Following the trend of the whole weekend, he hadn’t had as much luck with the food options as Anthony, whose potato wedges looked pretty good, apart from the whole ‘drenched in meat’ thing. His vegetarian lasagna looked like a slab of undercooked doormat in half an inch of thin red soup.

There were no real quiet places anywhere in the hall, but the food court was at least a little quieter, only a couple of other people at this table, eating alone. Mark tried to let himself relax, as much as he could, forcing himself to untense joint by joint as if his skeleton was an IKEA diagram strictly controlled by his mind, but only got about as far as his elbows before giving up.

Anthony grinned at him. Mark attempted to smile back, didn’t point out that he had a speck of chilli cheese on the tip of his nose, and ate a couple of bites of lasagna. The best that could be said about it was that it held no surprises- it tasted exactly how it looked. His phone buzzed, and he checked it hurriedly, trying to look preoccupied enough to dodge any conversation, to at least catch ten minutes worth of peace and silence while they ate.

He got maybe two minutes, because by then Anthony had wolfed down enough chilli to have taken the edge off his appetite, and wanted to talk.

“What happened back there, anyway? I just looked round and you were gone.”

Mark shrugged. “They weren’t going to give us anything,” he said. “Before you came over, I managed to give them our card, but really, I could just kind of tell they weren’t going to bite, so, like…”

With some trouble, he could make himself see that what had just happened wasn’t Anthony’s fault. He had known those guys weren’t interested, just like all the others. He’d known it in his gut before Anthony had even shown up, and with just a little distance he could see that clearly and admit it, and know that it wasn’t fair for him to put the blame on Anthony at all-

“Wait, that’s why you were talking to them?”

-for almost five seconds.

“Yes,” said Mark, trying to keep his voice, down, for all that it mattered. “Yes, Anthony, that is why I was trying to talk to them, before you-”

“But they’re nothing to do with our channel!” Anthony looked genuinely confused. “They do 3D print projects, they do that ASMR printing thing-”

“I know, what they do, Anthony,” said Mark, barbing every comma as if it was a physical thing, something pointy he could flick against Anthony’s forehead. “It doesn’t matter, they get two hundred K views per video, we could do something-”

“Come on, Mark,” Anthony drooped back in his chair, rubbing his face, obliterating the chilli cheese with his palm and pushing his curly mop of hair out of the way. His legs slid forwards on the tiles and his heels bumped into Mark’s toes. Mark pulled back and tucked his legs under his chair like a curling bug, hooking both feet tightly around its front legs. “You’ve been doing this the whole weekend, the mobile game people, the wallet people, the deodorant people, the freaking- weird pillow things people-”

“You think we can just wait for someone to come to us? That’s not how it works-”

“This isn’t how it works, Mark,” said Anthony. Now he leaned forwards, pushing his chilli to the side, all earnestness, his freckly face an open book urging Mark to hear him. “I’m just being realistic. We’re a really small channel, we don’t need sponsorships, it’s okay if none of these guys want to work with us yet. Maybe if we get bigger it’ll happen, fine, but you can’t force it, you’re just making-”

“When are we going to get bigger, Anthony? When? How long? When is our first sponsor going to come along and ask us? Another six months?”

“Maybe-”

“A year? Two years? I don’t have-”

“Maybe not at all!”

“-I don’t have that kind of time!”

Mark had almost yelled over his friend, but he’d heard him perfectly well. Although he knew exactly what Anthony meant, although it was only echoing his own thoughts, the words still stopped him dead.

“Maybe never,” said Anthony, quieter. “Look, you know I love our stuff, I love the channel, I’d love it if it got as big as those ASMR guys one day, are you kidding? But I’d be fine if we never got any more subscribers than we already have, I’d do it if we got like three views a video. It’s just supposed to be for fun, Mark! Remember the first time we uploaded and we got like, twenty views? We got pizza to celebrate!”

“That’s… that was different.” Mark did remember, and the memory made his throat tighten and his eyes prickle. It didn’t feel like a long time ago. The summer they started the channel, leapt into making videos as soon as term ended. That summer, back when his dad was only normal-crazy, back when Theo’s acceptance letter was stuck right on the front of the fridge all month, back when the thing that sucked the most in the world was the prospect of having to miss the second half of summer for some stupid family cruise.

That summer. Before everything went to shit.

Anthony pushed a finger against the smeary tabletop, drawing a big invisible circle, tapping a small dot next to it. “We have to think of it like, there’s hundreds and thousands of people here who have a channel, and you know it’s only a tiny, tiny percent of a percent that ever get big enough to get sponsorships and stuff. You know that. We were never doing this for sponsorships. I mean, I’m not, and- we’re on the same page, right? This is like when you wanted to do that video reading negative comments-”

“Okay, that? That stuff works. People love hate-comment videos. We’d easily get twice as many views as our last video, and we wouldn’t even have to write a script-”

“We don’t even get hate-comments- we’ve had like, one! Even if we did get a bunch for some reason, why would we even want to focus on that shit?” That’s just going to make it seem like we don’t care about the people leaving us good comments, and then we’d just look like assholes!”

“We don’t have to wait for real ones.I could make some fake accounts, or- or something. Who cares what we look like-”

“I do,” said Anthony. “And so do you, Mark.”

He sat back, as if he’d made a really good point, and gave Mark his best knowing look, which made him look about as sly and full of deep psychological understanding as a first-grader’s spelling primer.

“I know you, and I know the channel means way too much to you, for you to really want to screw it up like that just for a bunch of views.”

(It’s not about what I WANT!!)

In the real world, where screaming at the top of one’s lungs is unacceptable mealtime behaviour, Mark swallowed and looked down at his lasagna.

“It’s not like that’s why we’re here,” said Anthony. “This was just supposed to be fun. I mean… it was supposed to be.”

His tone of voice made Mark look up, quickly. Anthony was still watching him, and he looked worried. Not just worried, but uncertain, sympathetic. Mark felt his stomach lurch. He knew that look, because he’d found himself on the receiving end of it a lot lately, from a lot of different people, all for mostly the same reason. He hated it. He hated the pity, the pointlessness of it, the unwanted obligation of knowing someone felt bad for him when he never asked them to, wouldn’t ask them to, because they couldn’t do a single thing to help. Seeing it in Anthony’s guileless hazel eyes was worse than seeing it in the face of a stranger, because-

(he could help he just doesn’t want to)

-it cut deeper, somehow. Mark shut his eyes hard for a second. Hard white light, clean surfaces, the pervasive smell of disinfectants and sickness and waiting, and the voice, thin and drowsy and blurry with sleep and painkillers, but the same, the same well-loved voice-

(It sounds great, honey. You two go have a good time. You’ll have fun.)

“Sure,” said Mark, to his lasagna. “Fun.”

There was a short silence. Anthony clearly wanted to say more, probably to the same purpose, but he knew Mark well enough to recognize when he was being shut down. He shifted uncertainly in his seat, picking at a bit of cracked decal on the front of his t-shirt. Mark picked up his spork again.

“You know,” he said, casually, drawing small deliberate lines across the top layer of his gross lasagna, just like someone might do when they were absolutely unbothered and totally not trying to force the issue, absolutely not so wound up to the point that their usual sharp, smooth-running voice was fracturing into bits and pieces of sentences like grammatical shrapnel, “if you ever felt like- you were kind of done with this whole thing, with the- the channel, I’d completely understand. It’s been a... stressful weekend, right? It hasn’t really worked out like we wanted it to, and I can tell you’re not really into it, I... I wouldn’t be mad.”

He coughed, poking holes in the lasagna like he was trying to seed a miniature lawn. He hadn’t even eaten three bites, but it felt like it was stuck in a big ball in his throat.

“If- if you were feeling like, ‘You know what, I’m over this stupid YouTube thing, but I don’t want to disappoint Mark!’ I’d get it. Really, you wouldn’t be disappointing me, or- letting anybody down, I’d be- I’d be fine with just- running it on my own.”

He looked up, barely daring to hope. “If that’s how you were feeling... you could hundred-percent just tell me.”

Anthony leaned across the table, putting a hand on Mark’s arm, stopping the nervous movement of the spork mid-jab. His face was encouraging, wholly sincere.

“Mark,” he said, with serious emphasis, “I love our channel. I’m never going to be ‘done.’ I’ve got you, buddy. You don’t have to worry about me- I am never gonna just leave you to do it on your own. Okay?”

Mark looked at him, helplessly. Anthony smiled, his beautiful Anthony smile, nothing but sunshine and freckles, a smudge of chilli cheese and a total absence of doubt. He squeezed Mark’s arm, gently.

“We’ve had a long day,” he said. “I’m gonna go back to the room, get some packing done. Take your time, okay?”

And with that, and another quick, reassuring grin, he grabbed his raggedy paper bag and the rest of his chilli, and was gone.

Mark sat there for a little while as if he’d been hit with something heavy around the back of the head, looking at the place where Anthony had been. After a moment or two, he screwed his eyes very tightly shut, jabbed his spork into his lasagna so it stuck there like an upright little sail, put his face down in his hands and made a noise like a high, muffled nearly-silent scream.

[16magnolias]

9, 20, 40 for Lucía 😊

Thanks for the asks

9 Do you have a faceclaim / voiceclaim for your OC?

I confess I am terrible with actors and actresses and don't really know enough of any of them to try and match them up with OCs. Based on a quick google search and the soft quality of voice I imagine Lucía to have, maybe Salma Hayek or Sarah Ramírez for  Lucía's voice. I'm sorry I don't have a good answer for you 😥

20 If they came from their world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react? What would they do?

If Lucía were to come to our world - which mainly means 2023/modern times - she'd probably walk around in shock for a good day or two before even being coherent enough to ask questions, and then she'd be in absolute awe and wonder at modern technology - stovetops and electric ovens and microwaves and smartphones and music streaming and video calls and oh, what she wouldn't give to have a recording of her mother 😭

...and then would come the questions about how and how it works and eventually she would make it to the history questions and....keeping this light but Lucía would weep at a lot of it. Weep with sorrow for all that's been lost and weep with bittersweet gratitude at how hard people have worked to help and heal and save.

And after going through the 5 stages of grief and coming to grips with all that's happened in the world, she would explore more of it and learn - you can PUBLISH things DIGITALLY?!?!  Thousands and thousands of books available at your fingertips, and you can just - read them? And write them? There are sites where people write stories about things they love and expand on the stories they already know and love and share them and people talk about them and she can talk to people all over the world about her favorite books?!?! For real life?!

...I feel like Lucía would write fanfiction and she'd be darn good at it but she'd also be extremely shy about interacting with anyone online.

40 Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?

Oooh fun!

Who she's going with: Bruno

Where she's going: San Cristobál, to see a double feature playing 2 Colombian films: Antonia Santos, a 1944 drama about María Antonia Santos Plata, a peasant, Colombian rebel leader, and heroine; and Bambucos y Corazones, a 1945 musical comedy. (Based solely on limited google research.)

What she's wearing: Her green dress (the simple, off-the-shoulder olive green one with yellow-gold accents along the edges of the ruffles, waist, and hem) and a pair of comfortable alpargatas. Her hair is braided and wound into a bun at the back of her head and she's probably wearing her only pair of earrings - simple gold studs.

[avidtrader]

The Uber of Advertising Aims to Disrupt a $200B Industry!

The Uber of Advertising Aims to Disrupt a $200B Industry! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCmRdvEqaGY The Uber, AirBnb of Advertising Aims to Disrupt a 200 Billion Dollar Industry of Social Networking. Word of Mouth Selling Products And Services Has Never Seen a Disruptive Technology Like This. Enabling Everyday People to Become Content Creators or Earn a Second Income From Posting The Products They Love to Their Friends and Family. ✅ Subscribe To My Channel For More Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@AvidTrader/?sub_confirmation=1 ✅ Stay Connected With Me: 👉 (X)Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealAvidTrader 👉 Stocktwits: https://ift.tt/mAKYdNc 👉 Instagram: https://ift.tt/ukR6QJ9 ============================== ✅ Other Videos You Might Be Interested In Watching: 👉 The ULTIMATE Guide to Finding Hidden Gem Stocks | AvidTrader https://youtu.be/pZAKJLk9o0I 👉 🧨GameStop Short Squeeze 2.0 Incoming??🧨 https://youtu.be/XeFVaq4BHfU 👉 🙌💎 When Should You Diamond Hand a Stock? 💎🙌 https://youtu.be/ZO62i0cq0PQ 👉 This Penny Stock is a GUARANTEED Double!! https://youtu.be/Yx6wZNz95dM ============================= ✅ About AvidTrader: Value Investor. Discussing Day & Swing Trades Also Long Term Investments! Stock Breakdowns. Grow Your Trading Account Effectively. Technical Analysis and Pattern Recognition. How to Make Money, But More Importantly Learning & Having Fun in The Process! Avid Trader is not a Series 7 licensed investment professional, but a digital marketing manager/content creator to publicly traded and privately held companies. Avid Trader receives compensation from its clients in the form of cash and restricted securities for consulting services. 🔔 Subscribe to my channel for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/@AvidTrader/?sub_confirmation=1 ===================== #swingtrade #pennystock #stockstobuy #avidtrader #disruptive #advertising Disclaimer: Avid Trader is not a Series 7 licensed investment professional, but a digital marketing manager/content creator to publicly traded and privately held companies. This is not financial advice. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. AvidTrader has been compensated three thousand dollars USD by ACH Bank Transfer by BLSSM Communications for advertising Thumzup Media Corp (ZTUP). As of the date of this advertisement, the owners of AvidTrader do not hold a position in Thumzup Media Corp (ZTUP). This advertisement and other marketing efforts may increase investor and market awareness, which may result in an increased number of shareholders owning and trading the securities of Thumzup Media Corp (ZTUP), increased trading volume, and possibly an increased share price of Thumzup Media Corp (ZTUP), which may or may not be temporary and decrease once the marketing arrangement has ended. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use © AvidTrader via AvidTrader https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_XU3FW-ffEK8BG5EisnNA November 08, 2024 at 07:23AM

[sunnyworldwidelogistics]

Shipment from China to Saudi Arabia: A Typo Led to a Six-Figure Loss, But I Helped My Client Avoid Further Damage

Shipment from China to Saudi Arabia: A Typo Led to a Six-Figure Loss, But I Helped My Client Avoid Further Damage

A small error—a single wrong digit—led freight forwarder A company to cause their Saudi client, Khaled, a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Khaled, a procurement manager for a Saudi company, often collaborates with Chinese businesses. He entrusted freight forwarder A company, a *freight forwarder China to Saudi Arabia*, to ship a batch of factory equipment from China to Saudi Arabia. However, A company made a simple mistake: they entered an incorrect digit in the phone number, changing a “9” to an “8” on the shipping forms. They didn’t catch the mistake in time, and because of the wrong number, the shipment wasn’t delivered as scheduled. This mishap caused a significant delay in the delivery of the equipment, severely disrupting Khaled’s production plan and leading to losses exceeding $100,000.

After this incident, Khaled realized how crucial it was to find a reliable *freight forwarder China to Saudi Arabia*. Through a friend’s recommendation, he reached out to me at Sunny Worldwide Logistics.

Khaled was understandably shaken by his experience, explaining that he had initially chosen A company because of their lower quote, which ultimately led to much greater losses. I reassured Khaled, explaining that Sunny Worldwide Logistics is a professional *freight forwarder China to Saudi Arabia* with over 26 years of experience in international logistics. We specialize in this route and place great emphasis on attention to detail. At Sunny Worldwide Logistics, we create customized shipping plans based on each client's specific needs, with operational procedures in place to ensure every detail is properly handled. For example, we double-check all client information to avoid delivery issues, and we also conduct strict quality checks to ensure that shipments meet all necessary standards and requirements.

Khaled told me that the batch of industrial equipment he was shipping to Saudi Arabia was large and varied, including high-precision machine tools, automated production lines, and corresponding testing equipment. Given the precision and complexity of the equipment, he had very high expectations for the logistics service.

Understanding the challenges of this task, I worked closely with Khaled to develop a detailed shipping plan tailored to the specifics of his equipment.

We selected specialized heavy-duty containers and lifting equipment to ensure the machinery wouldn’t be damaged during loading and unloading. We also used customized packaging materials and techniques to properly secure the equipment, preventing any movement or collisions during transport.

In terms of routing, to ensure stability and safety during the long-distance journey, our team carefully planned the shipping route, selecting only the most reliable ports and shipping lines.

In the end, everything went smoothly. The equipment arrived safely at Yanbu Port in Saudi Arabia. After the shipment was completed, Khaled praised our service, expressing his gratitude for the timely updates and the clear photos and videos we provided throughout the process. The shipment arrived even earlier than expected, and all the details, including the address and phone number, were perfectly accurate.

Khaled has since become a loyal client, telling me that Sunny Worldwide Logistics is truly the professional *freight forwarder China to Saudi Arabia* he had been searching for. Now, whenever he has cargo to ship, he contacts me directly. Khaled has been working with Sunny Worldwide Logistics for over a year now, with total cargo value exceeding one  million dollars.

If you'd like to know more, feel free to check out my journal where I share more stories about international shipping and the meaningful connections we've built with our clients. If you need any assistance, don't hesitate to contact me!

[aidanleary]

Blog #2: The Importance of Social Media to Nonprofits

Social media is an effective way for nonprofit organizations to reach out to people. Not only are there millions of people that use these social media platforms each day but it costs absolutely nothing for an organization to create an account and start postingThis means that any nonprofit, no matter how small, can take advantage of social media to grow and raise money. 

The nonprofit organization I have chosen is St. Jude which focuses on researching and curing childhood cancer as well as other life threatening diseases at no cost to the child's family so they can focus on helping their child. 

St. Jude is active on various social media websites. On their Facebook they have 6.6k followers and 6.5k total likes across all their posts. They post regularly with very little interaction on their posts. The large majority of their posts have single digit likes and shares with no recent posts going into the triple digits. Most of their posts have zero comments. Their most recent posts are about the Walk/Run fundraising campaign and childhood cancer awareness month.

On Their Instagram they have a total of 584k followers and a total of 3996 posts. They post regularly and on their more recent posts the likes per post vary from 300 to 34k with the majority having around 1000-2000 likes. The comments per post also vary widely as some have as little as 7 and some have as many as 804. Most posts have around 25 comments. Their most recent posts are about them partnering with Chilis, childhood cancer awareness month, the Walk/Run fundraising campaign, a cute baby that is a patient at St Jude, the Pathway to Progress event, and artwork from the patients of St Jude.

On their Twitter they have 421.6k followers. They post regularly and interaction on their posts varies widely. Some posts have only 2k views with likes and shares in the double digits and no comments while some posts have up to 80k views with likes reaching well into the triple digits but with only a few more shares and only around 12 comments. These recent posts with high interaction are about the Polaris program. Other posts that only have to do with St Jude have much less interaction. Their most recent posts are about childhood cancer awareness month, the Polaris program, and other partnering with people and organizations

On Their YouTube they have 109k subscribers and have posted 812 videos. They don’t seem to post super regularly with only a few videos posted every few months. Their most recent videos only have a few hundred to a few thousand views with the most viewed video in the past year having 5.9k views. All of their videos in the past year also have very little comments on them. Their videos over the past year have been about various departments at the hospital, cooking videos, a fundraiser stream trailer, and videos about various patients and their experiences being sick or at St Jude. 

While most of these statistics aren’t terrible they could definitely be improved and I believe the best way to see what St Jude is doing right and doing wrong is to look at their best platform, Instagram and their worst platform, Facebook. On Facebook St Jude mainly posts about volunteering opportunities and fundraising events. But these are really their only posts on Facebook. On instagram however they do post about volunteering opportunities and fundraising events but they have other types of posts as well that get far more engagement. These are funny or cute videos that people would want to share with others and posts that involve other popular people. A video of something funny is much more likely to be liked and shared by people than a post about an opportunity to volunteer and posts that involve other popular individuals are more likely to be seen by those people's audiences. This is why St Judes instagram is so much more successful than their Facebook. They create posts that are more likely to be shared by others or viewed by other communities which brings in more viewers to their profile which means that more people are likely to see their posts about fundraisers or volunteering opportunities and participate in them. If St Jude wishes to be more successful on their social media platforms they need to make these types of posts on all of their platforms. 

Fundraiser streams would be another way for St Jude to get more attention and raise money. If St Jude collaborated with established content creators and set up a streaming event that could be hosted on their YouTube or Facebook. These events would bring in the communities of these content creators and give St Jude much more visibility as well as bring in a lot of money. People are more likely to donate to a nonprofit if someone they look up to is also donating as well as participating in a fundraising event. 

[marketing-technology]

An In-Depth Exploration of IoT Connectivity Technologies and Their Uses

Discover the top IoT connectivity technologies and their applications in this detailed guide. Learn how to select the right technology for your needs.

Imagine a world where everyday objects communicate seamlessly to enhance the efficiency and convenience of our lives. The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized how we interact with technology. By 2030, it's projected there will be over 32.1 billion IoT devices globally, nearly doubling from 15.9 billion in 2023. Examples include smart home appliances that adjust the temperature upon entry and wearable fitness trackers that continuously monitor health. These devices connect and exchange data thanks to IoT networking technologies. Let's explore these technologies further.

What Are IoT Connectivity Technologies?

IoT connectivity technologies encompass the various methods and protocols used to connect IoT devices to the internet or each other. These technologies enable communication, data transfer, and control for IoT devices, with over 29 billion connections anticipated by 2027.

Why Is IoT Connectivity Important?

The choice of IoT connectivity technology significantly impacts the performance, cost, and scalability of your IoT solution. High-speed, ultra-low latency connectivity is crucial for some applications, making 5G or 4G cellular IoT connectivity ideal despite higher costs and power usage. Conversely, simpler deployments might benefit from low-speed connections, which are more cost-effective and require less power.

Top 5 IoT Connectivity Technologies and Their Applications

Cellular Networks Cellular networks, essential in daily life for phones and tablets, provide wide coverage, reliability, and enhanced security. They are ideal for mobile IoT systems and serve as alternatives to LPWAN technologies like Sigfox and LoRaWAN.

Use Cases:

Point of Sale and Kiosks: Enables vending machines and kiosks to operate without Wi-Fi, expanding retail opportunities.

Delivery Tracking: Provides real-time shipment tracking across diverse environments, including remote or mobile scenarios.

High Data Rate Cellular (3G/4G/LTE/5G) With high Mbps speeds, these networks suit data-intensive IoT applications, mobile devices, and real-time video streaming. They support "massive IoT" deployments, connecting thousands of devices across large areas.

Use Cases:

Fleet Management: Real-time tracking optimizes operations, enhancing route planning and fuel efficiency.

Health Monitoring: Continuous health data transmission from wearables to healthcare providers ensures prompt intervention.

Ethernet Ethernet offers a reliable, low-latency wired connection, ideal where infrastructure is in place. It provides stable performance unaffected by physical barriers, suitable for stationary IoT devices.

Use Cases:

Security Cameras: Ensures uninterrupted video surveillance in homes or businesses.

Game Systems: Minimizes latency for gamers seeking reliable network performance.

Stationary Medical Devices: Facilitates real-time data transmission from medical equipment to centralized systems.

Wi-Fi Common in homes and offices, Wi-Fi supports secure, high-bandwidth connectivity within a limited range. It's ideal for localized IoT ecosystems where devices are confined to a specific area.

Use Cases:

Smart Gadgets: Integrates smart devices like TVs and appliances into home networks.

Digital Signage: Enables content updates and management in commercial settings.

Bluetooth Bluetooth excels in connecting small, battery-powered devices within short ranges, typically up to 30 feet. It offers low energy consumption, widely used in consumer electronics and small-scale IoT deployments.

Use Cases:

Smartwatches/Fitness Trackers: Syncs health data to smartphones, facilitating mobile monitoring.

Bluetooth Low Energy Sensors: Collects and transmits data from sensors in homes or small businesses.

These technologies cater to diverse IoT needs, each offering unique advantages in range, bandwidth, power efficiency, and scalability. The right choice depends on specific application requirements and environmental considerations.

Essential Requirements for Your IoT Connectivity Solution

Each use case has specific requirements translating into particular technology needs:

Technical Requirements: Consider data speed, latency, range, power consumption, and network coverage. High-speed applications might require advanced cellular technologies, while low-power long-range deployments might favor LPWAN solutions.

Commercial Requirements: Costs include initial setup and ongoing operational expenses. Technologies with lower power needs and simpler infrastructure can reduce costs, ideal for large-scale deployments.

Ecosystem Requirements: Compatibility with existing systems, availability of support and development resources, and integration with future technologies are crucial considerations.

Factors to Consider When Choosing IoT Connectivity Technology

Selecting the most suitable connectivity technology involves a careful assessment of each deployment’s characteristics. This strategic decision affects the immediate performance and cost-efficiency of your service and its long-term scalability and future-proofing.

Conclusion

The field of IoT connectivity technologies holds great promise. The IoT ecosystem evolves daily with advancements in low-power protocols, wireless networks, and emerging technologies. Significant advancements in connectivity technology, such as the implementation of 5G networks, will offer extremely low latency and fast speeds, facilitating seamless communication and new possibilities for real-time applications.

[jcmarchi]

PlayStation's PC Strategy Is Going Well As Ghost Of Tsushima Was The Best-Selling Game Of May 2024

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/playstations-pc-strategy-is-going-well-as-ghost-of-tsushima-was-the-best-selling-game-of-may-2024/

PlayStation's PC Strategy Is Going Well As Ghost Of Tsushima Was The Best-Selling Game Of May 2024

PlayStation’s PC efforts are paying off, if the latest U.S. Video Game Market Highlights report from analyst group Circana is any indication. That’s because developer Sucker Punch Production’s Ghost of Tsushima, which originally launched on PlayStation 4 back in 2020, was the best-selling game of May 2024 in the U.S. And that’s almost assuredly due to the recent PC release of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on May 16. 

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut hit PC almost four years after the game’s initial launch on PS4, which speaks to PlayStation’s PC release strategy it detailed last month. It said its live-service games, like this year’s Helldivers 2 or the upcoming 5v5 hero shooter Concord, will launch day-and-date on PC, but its tentpole single-player games, like Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut and God of War Ragnarök (hitting PC this September), will launch at later dates. 

[embedded content]

The rest of the top 10 for May 2024 looks like this: 

Ghost of Tsushima

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

Helldivers II

MLB: The Show 24

Sea of Thieves

Minecraft

Elden Ring

Hogwarts Legacy

Stellar Blade

And here’s what the top 20 best-selling games of the entire year look like: 

Year-to-Date Ending May 2024 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content) pic.twitter.com/Wnacwg4ixw

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 8, 2024

For May 2024, content spending fell 3% compared to May 2023, down to $3.6 billion, even despite a 13% growth in mobile content spending. However, that 13% increase in mobile spending was offset heavily by a 40% drop in console content spending, according to Circana executive director Mat Piscatella. He attributes the May 2024 console spending decline (compared to May 2023) to the strength of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s launch last year. 

Elsehwere in the report, Piscatella says video game hardware spending declined 40% as well when compared to May 2023, down to $202 million. “Through May, all current generation hardware platforms are showing double-digit percentage declines year-on-year in 2024, with Switch showing the most significant drop,” Piscatella writes on X (formerly Twitter). 

The PlayStation 5 led May 2024’s hardware market in unit and dollar sales, with the Switch in second for unit sales and the Xbox Series X/S in second for dollar sales. Throughout each console’s 43 months on the market, the PS5 is up by 8% compared to the PS4 and the Xbox Series X/S is down 13% compared to the Xbox One. 

May spending on video game accessories dropped 8% when comparing May 2024 to May of last year, and the PlayStation Portal was the best-selling accessory in dollar sales for the month – it’s also the best-selling accessory for the entire year. 

For more, be sure to check out the entire Circana report here. After that, read Game Informer’s Ghost of Tsushima review, and then check out this video for a look at how Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut runs on Steam Deck. 

Have you been playing Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC? Let us know in the comments below!

[3liza]

it's a valid question but there's no fourth wall in twitch streaming. that's sort of the whole point. TikTok skits yes, there's a fourth wall usually. a twitch stream is a performance, but it's more like a news broadcast, or standup comedy, than it is a play. and everyone isn't wrong to feel like they have an audience, they're correctly perceiving the panopticon lol. if you get up on a bus in 2023 and start delivering a comedic monologue, or having a panic attack, someone is going to whip out their phone. this is why Gen Z and Gen Alpha are living in absolute terror of "fucking up", in a general sense. if you'd seen thousands of Cringe Karen Totally Owned by Security at Walmart tiktoks before you hit double digits you'd assume you were always being perceived by a hostile and numberless crowd of consumers too, and you'd be right, and you would also know every single thing everyone would post about you maybe unwrapping your sandwich in a weird way at the airport before the video even went viral

I keep seeing the "chat is a fourth person pronoun" post and it's getting increasingly hard to avoid starting discourse in the notes of it. chat I don't think they know what these linguistics terms they're using mean

[georgemathew8899]

Beyond Luck: Skill vs. Chance in Modern Slot Games

Slot machines, a source of entertainment and temptation for more than a century, have now outlined into the digital realm of slot sites. These online platforms offer a thrilling array of games, from classic three-reel fruit machines to feature-rich video slots with intricate storylines and bonus rounds. The convenience of playing from your home computer or mobile device adds to the excitement, fueling the popularity of slot sites. However, it's important to understand the potential risks alongside the entertainment value.

One undeniable advantage of slot sites is the sheer variety of games available. Not a little piece like physical games with limited floor space, online platforms can host hundreds, even thousands, of slots from different developers. This vast selection licenses players to delve into diverse themes, mechanics, and bonus features, catering to a wide range of preferences. Whether you're drawn to the nostalgic charm of classic slots or the immersive experience of video slots with captivating narratives, there's a game waiting to be discovered.

Slot sites other than boast accessibility and flexibility. You can play at whatever point of day or night, with a few clicks separating you from the thrill of spinning the reels. This convenience can be a double-edged sword, as the ease of access can blur the lines between casual play and excessive gaming. However, many sites offer responsible gaming features, for instance, store limits and self-exclusion options, empowering you to control your gaming habits and mitigate potential risks.

Past the actual games, slot sites as sometimes as possible employ charming bonuses and promotions to attract players. Welcome bonuses offering free spins or matched deposits can be an excellent way to try out a new platform. Anyway, knowing the wagering requirements attached to these offers is essential. These requirements dictate how much you truly need to bet before you can withdraw any bonus winnings, and they can significantly impact the actual value of the promotion.

While the flashy graphics and potential for big wins can be captivating, it's vital to remember that slot games are designed for the game to get money throughout an extended time. They operate on a system of random number generation, ensuring fair play however guaranteeing that the odds are always stacked in the house's favor. This doesn't mean you can't win, however it bases on the importance of approaching slot games as entertainment, not a guaranteed path to riches.

Setting limits and sticking to them is paramount while playing on situs slot. Pick a tight spending plan beforehand and never seek after losses. Responsible gaming resources are readily available online and on many slot sites themselves. Expecting that you find yourself struggling to control your gaming habits, go ahead and help from affiliations dedicated to responsible gaming.

Considering everything, slot sites offer different entertainment options, from classic to cutting-edge games. However, it's crucial to acknowledge about the potential risks associated with online gaming. By understanding the mechanics of slot games, setting limits, and utilizing responsible gaming resources, you can ensure that your slot site experience stays enjoyable and made due. For extra data, click this link.

[desperateseatoad]

While I'm here, this guy Mark Rodeo on YouTube (darkrodeo on bandcamp) is so fucking criminally underrated it's insane.

The guy gets like double digit views on some of the most mind-bending, thousand-yard-stare inducing videos I've seen in recent years. They're sooo awe inspiring and the music is beautiful.

The source link is to my personal favourite of his works. If I can get even one person to check him out I'll be doing the world a favour.

[doesvpnunlimitedencryptedsecure]

what vpn works with amazon prime

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what vpn works with amazon prime

VPN compatibility with Amazon Prime

With the popularity of Amazon Prime's streaming services, users often seek ways to enhance their viewing experience, including using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for added security and access to geo-restricted content. However, not all VPNs are compatible with Amazon Prime due to the platform's efforts to block VPN traffic.

To successfully use a VPN with Amazon Prime, it is essential to choose a high-quality VPN service that can bypass Amazon's detection methods. Leading VPN providers offer dedicated servers optimized for streaming, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted viewing experience. Additionally, these VPNs regularly update their server IP addresses to avoid detection by Amazon Prime.

When selecting a VPN for Amazon Prime compatibility, users should look for features such as fast connection speeds, reliable server performance, and strong encryption protocols to protect their data and privacy. It is also recommended to choose a VPN with servers located in regions where Amazon Prime content is available to access a broader range of streaming options.

While using a VPN with Amazon Prime can provide added security and access to a wider selection of content, users should be aware that violating Amazon's terms of service by circumventing geo-restrictions may result in account suspension or termination. Therefore, it is important to use VPNs responsibly and respect the platform's content licensing agreements.

In conclusion, VPN compatibility with Amazon Prime is achievable with the right VPN service that prioritizes streaming performance and security measures. By selecting a reputable VPN provider and understanding the limitations of VPN use with streaming platforms, users can enjoy an enhanced viewing experience while protecting their online privacy.

VPN services for streaming Amazon Prime

Title: Unlocking Seamless Streaming: The Best VPN Services for Amazon Prime

In the age of digital entertainment, Amazon Prime Video stands out as a prominent streaming platform, offering a vast library of movies, TV shows, and original content. However, accessing this content can be challenging due to geo-restrictions and content licensing agreements. This is where VPN (Virtual Private Network) services come into play, providing a solution to bypass these restrictions and unlock a world of entertainment.

When it comes to streaming Amazon Prime Video, not all VPN services are created equal. To ensure a smooth and uninterrupted streaming experience, it's crucial to choose a VPN that offers fast speeds, reliable connections, and a wide range of server locations.

One top choice for streaming Amazon Prime Video is ExpressVPN. Renowned for its lightning-fast speeds and robust security features, ExpressVPN boasts a vast network of servers in numerous countries, allowing users to access Amazon Prime Video from virtually anywhere in the world.

Another excellent option is NordVPN, which combines exceptional performance with advanced security features like double encryption and a strict no-logs policy. With thousands of servers spread across the globe, NordVPN makes it easy to bypass geo-blocks and enjoy Amazon Prime Video without interruption.

For those on a budget, Surfshark is a compelling choice. Despite its affordable price point, Surfshark offers unlimited simultaneous connections and a network of servers optimized for streaming, ensuring a seamless viewing experience on Amazon Prime Video.

In conclusion, VPN services play a vital role in unlocking the full potential of Amazon Prime Video, allowing users to bypass geo-restrictions and enjoy their favorite content from anywhere in the world. Whether you prioritize speed, security, or affordability, there's a VPN solution out there to suit your streaming needs.

Best VPNs for Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video offers a vast library of movies and TV shows for streaming, but due to geo-restrictions, not all content is available in every region. To access a wider range of content, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can be a game-changer. VPNs hide your IP address and encrypt your internet connection, allowing you to access Amazon Prime Video libraries from different countries.

When choosing a VPN for Amazon Prime Video, there are several factors to consider. Firstly, speed is crucial for uninterrupted streaming in high definition. Look for VPNs with fast servers and unlimited bandwidth. Additionally, a wide server network across various countries will give you more options for content access.

ExpressVPN is a highly recommended VPN for Amazon Prime Video due to its lightning-fast speeds and reliable connection. It offers servers in multiple locations and robust security features to ensure your privacy.

Another excellent choice is NordVPN, known for its strong encryption protocols and user-friendly interface. NordVPN has a large server network worldwide, making it easy to bypass geo-blocks on Amazon Prime Video.

For budget-conscious users, Surfshark is a great option. Despite its affordability, Surfshark offers unlimited simultaneous connections and reliable access to Amazon Prime Video libraries without compromising on speed.

In conclusion, a VPN is a handy tool for accessing geo-blocked content on Amazon Prime Video. With options like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark, you can enjoy a seamless streaming experience while maintaining your online privacy and security.

Amazon Prime VPN recommendations

Title: Unlocking Global Content: Best VPNs for Amazon Prime Streaming

Amazon Prime Video offers a vast library of movies and TV shows, but its content varies depending on your location. Thankfully, using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) can help you access geo-restricted content from anywhere in the world. Here are some top VPN recommendations to enhance your Amazon Prime streaming experience:

ExpressVPN: Known for its lightning-fast speeds and reliable connections, ExpressVPN is an excellent choice for streaming Amazon Prime content. With servers in numerous countries, you can easily bypass geo-blocks and enjoy a wide range of shows and movies in high definition.

NordVPN: Renowned for its robust security features and large server network, NordVPN is another top contender for accessing Amazon Prime from anywhere. Its SmartPlay technology automatically connects you to the best server for streaming, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted viewing experience.

CyberGhost: Offering user-friendly apps and specialized streaming servers, CyberGhost is perfect for Amazon Prime enthusiasts. Its dedicated servers optimized for streaming deliver consistently high speeds and reliable access to geo-restricted content.

Surfshark: With unlimited simultaneous connections, Surfshark is a budget-friendly option for streaming Amazon Prime on multiple devices. Its CleanWeb feature blocks ads and malware, while its NoBorders mode helps you bypass censorship and access content from any location.

PrivateVPN: Despite its smaller server network, PrivateVPN punches above its weight when it comes to streaming performance. It offers excellent speeds and reliable access to Amazon Prime, making it a great choice for users seeking a hassle-free streaming experience.

Before choosing a VPN for Amazon Prime, it's essential to consider factors such as speed, server locations, and security features. By selecting one of these top VPNs, you can unlock a world of entertainment on Amazon Prime Video, no matter where you are located.

VPN solutions for Amazon Prime access

Title: Unlocking Amazon Prime: The Role of VPN Solutions

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, accessing geo-restricted content on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime has become a common challenge. Fortunately, Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions offer a reliable and efficient way to bypass these restrictions and unlock a world of entertainment.

Amazon Prime, like many other streaming services, restricts access to certain content based on the user's location. This means that subscribers in one country may not have access to the same movies, TV shows, or documentaries as those in another. However, by using a VPN, users can mask their IP address and appear as if they are browsing from a different location.

VPN solutions work by rerouting the user's internet connection through a remote server located in the desired location. This not only hides the user's true IP address but also encrypts their internet traffic, ensuring privacy and security while browsing. By connecting to a server in a country where the desired Amazon Prime content is available, users can effectively bypass geo-restrictions and gain access to a wider range of movies and shows.

When choosing a VPN for Amazon Prime access, it's essential to consider factors such as server locations, connection speed, and compatibility with streaming devices. Leading VPN providers offer a diverse network of servers across the globe, ensuring reliable access to Amazon Prime content from anywhere in the world. Additionally, fast connection speeds are crucial for seamless streaming without buffering or lag.

Moreover, compatibility with various devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and gaming consoles, ensures a hassle-free streaming experience across multiple platforms.

In conclusion, VPN solutions play a vital role in unlocking geo-restricted content on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms. By choosing a reputable VPN provider with robust security features and a global server network, users can enjoy unrestricted access to their favorite movies and shows from anywhere in the world.

[avidtrader]

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