#captioned it as “heavy and demo. both ways”

[dinanikto]

There's really no reason for Demo and Heavy to be together, but when you do pair them up? It's a match made in heaven.

Like, me and my partner have been roleplaying as them for two, maybe three years, and they are the cuddliest little guys you could ever imagine. Both are so broken deep inside, both are so unwilling to do any drama. They both not only love, but cherish each other so wholeheartedly.

Our versions of tavish and misha went trough lots of shit, hurt each other, were terrified by misunderstandings, but that's just made grow closer. They're clinging to each other like lil monkeys cling to their momma, and I think that's beautiful. They deserve this love.

Oh and Medic is also there. But that's a whole other story.

[mrsrcbinscn]

Franny Robinson HC Infodump #7: More Music Stuff

tw: mentions of psychedelic use (it’s clear it is in moderation but)

Cover Contributions To Tribute or Charity Albums (and other notable covers):

King of the Road: A Tribute to Roger Miller - Franny recorded a cover of The Moon Is High (And So Am I) for the album. There’s a really cute video uploaded on her YouTube channel of her recording the song and she’s playing acoustic guitar and dancing around in place as she sings in several takes. It’s one of the few internet videos where her husband is seen, because sometimes the camera pans to the sound engineer booth when he’s sitting next to Serghei, her go-to sound guy.

She participated on the charity album BBC Children In Need: Got It Covered, since England’s been her home from nearly twenty years now. She sang a slowed down, gentler version of Pat Benatar’s Shadows Of The Night. (inspired by that being a song I vividly remember my mom singing to my siblings and I lmao)

For the album The Music Is You: A John Denver Tribute, Franny sang Rhymes and Reasons.

On a John Prine tribute album released in 2017, Franny and the other half of the duo Dara & Danny, Daniel Maitland, recorded In Spite Of Ourselves for the album.

For a Connie Francis tribute album, Franny sang Where The Boys Are

Franny, along with black country singer Erica James, curated a Charley Pride tribute album, featuring solely country or country-adjacent singers of color. “Charley Pride, when I discovered a black country artist, as an Asian-American growing up in the 80s, that was amazing to me. Because little Cambodian me was like, ‘wow, so you don’t gotta look like Dolly or Willie to love this music.’ Everyone thinks country and bluegrass music is white people shit, but it ain’t. It was always a mix of folks influencin’ it. DeFord Bailey paved the way for Charley Pride, who paved the way for Darius Rucker, who paved the way for Jimmie Allen, Willie Jones, Mickey Guyton, Erica right here, and non-black POC like myself and Dan(iel Maitland). It was such an honor to get to curate this album with Erica. Amazing.” Franny recorded Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger for the album.

On the Tracy Lawrence tribute album Good Ole Days, she recorded As Any Fool Can See with him

She was featured on Brooks & Dunn’s Reboot, recording She’s Not The Cheatin’ Kind

During a SiriusXM session, she sang Gretchen Wilson’s When I Think About Cheatin’, and the performance w/ent viral

On a Leonard Cohen tribute album, she recorded A Thousand Kisses Deep and that cover also became popular

During a Spotify Sessions recording with Seoul Hanoi’d, Franny recorded a cover of Marcy Playground’s Sex & Candy, which also blew up, prompting Seoul Hanoi’d to officially release it on their 2018 album. It was the second of five singles off of the album, and Franny in the music video was Hot ™

During a Spotify Sessions recording as a solo artist, Franny recorded a cover of Kris Kristofferson’s From The Bottle To The Bottom

Khmer Music:

Franny, for the most part, does not record or perform pop music. However, she’s collaborated on tracks with Cambodian pop singers

She writes a lot of songs used in the soundtracks of Khmer tv dramas, and sings a lot of them as well

She’s known as The Soundtrack Queen in Cambodia

In addition to a lot of songs for film and tv, she’s released three albums entirely in Khmer. A jazz album comprised of original songs and Khmer language versions of classic jazz songs; and two in the indie/alternative style of music similar to Seoul Hanoi’d

And she’s recorded Khmer versions of several of her most famous songs

With other Cambodian diaspora musicians, she regularly collaborates on special covers of iconic Khmer 60s and 70s songs

Songwriting

Franny’s even more active as a songwriter than a recording artist. She’s got over 1,000 songwriting credits to her name.

She began writing songs “when I was 11, but they were atrocious, unsalvageable things. The first song I wrote that ever saw the light of day even after heavy edits was first thought up when I was thirteen.”

Franny is openly bisexual and explores that in her songwriting-- however, most of her songs about women or her sexuality that she wrote “pre-2009-ish” she’s scrapped or sold to other artists. Why? “Look, I’ve been married to my husband for almost twenty years now. And that doesn’t make me any less bisexual. But a lot of the songs I’ve written about women are from the perspective of a thirteen through twenty year old me, and at forty, I’m not the best narrator for those stories anymore.They are my lived experiences and my lived feelings, but I want to see how someone actually going through that will take it and interpret it. The songs I write about women loving women now are about characters I make up for the purpose of storytelling so they’re about women closer to my age, it’s about big girl love, not adolescent love.”

Common themes in Franny Sor Robinson songwriting: geography, vivid imagery like she’s showing you a picture of what she’s singing about, Buddhist themes, Christrianity (she’s a Buddhist but grew up in the Bible Belt so she’s very familiar with Christian themes), alliteration

Franny came under a degree of controversy in 2014 with the release of a song called “The Sabbath” because it was a tasteful song about how much she likes sex with her husband after they’ve been apart for a while, and Franny was like “you know you’d think the pearl-clutchin’ folks would be glad I practically worship my husband, but I forgot women ain’t supposed to actually enjoy sex.”

She's written another really sweet song about making love with her husband that did Not get hate because it was Acceptable TM and pretty romantic actually. Think along the lines of Josh Turner's Your Man or Dierks Bentley's Come A Little Closer. Songs deff about how they wanna get down but sweet.

After Franny retweet a clip of that Tyler Childers song in 2019 with the caption “big relate”, she was asked in a tweet if a follow up to The Sabbath was in the cards. Franny replied with “there’s a demo recorded for a song I wrote about six years back and that’s that on that.” Yes, Franny Sor Robinson indeed has written a song about masturbation. She’s performed the song live a few times, however, it is still unreleased officially

Franny’s written songs with lyrics alluding to her family’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge and escaping and resettling around the world, she cleverly hides them among her albums so people accidentally digest some education

Cornelius is the well-documented muse for “every love song I’ve written that I don’t specify in the album notes or an interview is written about a character. My husband is the love of my life and had given me twenty years and counting of great material to write about.”,

Franny’s been on both ends of this story. In 2019, a song Franny wrote but didn’t record became a smash pop hit after she and her producer sent it around to other producers. They recorded Franny’s demo in mid-2017 and they and the bigger pop producer that worked on the song with them listened to over 20 demos of the song until they found the right person to sing it.

And in 2013, Franny got a huge boost to her fame when she was the featured vocalist on a pop song that became a global smash hit. Franny doesn’t typically do like...super top 40 pop type music, but she liked the song so when her agent suggested she record a demo for it and send it back to the producer looking, she was like “sure, okay” and then was absolutely surprised that they chose her over some of the names she knew also recorded demos for the song.

Misc. Music facts

In 2019, a group of NYU students (where she did her undergrad) made a Franny Sor Robinson tribute album project; the majority of the students were Asian students in the university’s music programs who cite her as a big inspiration for them pursuing music. She 100% cried

For the Netflix show Just Trust Me that she co executive-produces, Franny is also one of the people who soundtrack the show

In 2020, to celebrate the 10 Year Anniversary of her biggest solo album’s release, she pulled a The Story And Cover Stories (we stan Brandi Carlile) where it was re-released along with cover versions of each song by other artists including some of Franny’s biggest living musical influences. All proceeds for the album were donated to Cambodian Living Arts.

Franny has openly admitted in interviews to using mushrooms, LSD, and DMT before in songwriting sessions. Her stance is Kacey Musgraves’ stance. Franny quote from 2019, “Used responsibly, I think psychedelics are a worthwhile experience to have. But safety and education are key. I truly don’t believe they are party drugs. Psychedelics aren’t a party, they’re a deeply spiritual and philosophical journey.”

[midnightswithdearkatytspb]

The Spark (CountryMusicStar!Bucky x OFC)

Pairing: Country Star!Bucky x Country Star!OFC 

Rating: PG

Warning(s): Angst & Fluff

Word Count: 2,954

Info: This series has been running around my brain for forever, like over a year, so here it is. This is for @the-omni-princess​ 1k Writing Challenge, I grabbed Celebrity AU. Please forgive me for having it be 2 days late, being sick and just having a laptop that doesn’t quite like me hasn’t helped me get this done on time. I do not know lawyer-speak or contract speak for that matter, so please do not come after me or my friend @stormygedd0nthespaz​ who helped me with this. Thank you! 

Synopsis: What do you do when the man who holds your career comes to you with an ultimatum, that not only affects you but the lives around you? That is what is happening for Sparrow Lake, she thought she would start 2020 with just her close friends and family, but when Tony Stark shows up at her family's Smokey Mountain home, with fellow country star Bucky Barnes and their manager, that was not going to happen. 

Thursday, January 9th E!News Online

Stark Record’s owner Tony Stark held a press conference Thursday morning in Nashville, to announce the engagement of two of his top-selling artist Bucky Barnes and Sparrow Lake. The couple first sparked rumors when they performed their new singles Center Point Road and I Will Fall, which both happen to be duets with each other, at Stark Records Take Over Grand Ole Opery. Fans of both Bucky and Sparrow took to Twitter with their speculations but were shot down by Sparrow Lake’s guitarist, Clint Barton, who tweeted; “What happened to the days when artists could collaborate and it didn’t mean they were in relationship?” It was quickly retweeted by Sparrow’s siblings Bey Lake and Peter Parker, as well as Bucky Barnes best friend Steve Rogers. 

Tony broke the news saying, “It is my pleasure to announce the engagement of two of my record labels artist Bucky Barnes and Sparrow Lake. The couple have worked hard to keep the relationship as private as possible for the past thirteen months, but know they are ready to share it with you all. As the fans have been speculating for a while they were together, both Sparrow and Barnes are open with fans, they felt it was the right thing to do. They are working on setting a date for their wedding and are happy to have their relationship out in the open. Stark Records, couldn't be more happy for Barnes and Sparrow, they make a great couple. I look forward to seeing what the future brings them. Thank you.” 

In Tony Stark fashion he didn't stick around to take questions from the press, but just hours later Sparrow posted to her Instagram, where she showed off her ring with the caption, “My soul said yes.” Just minutes later, Bucky Barnes posted a photo of Sparrow Lake makeup-free, with the caption, “So glad you said yes, so we can take over the world together.” If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what will!

Wednesday, January 8th, 10 AM - Great Smoky Mountains, Eastern Tennessee 

The house was alive giggles from Birdie as she ran after Jojo, who held her scrunchie in her jaw. Clint laughed at his daughter's antics reminding her to be careful between puffs of breaths. Bey sat on the couch, guitar in lap, phone beside them as they recorded a demo for a pop star. Sparrow sat with her mother, Maggie, sipping on a new tea she had gotten while in Canada with her father Bruce. This was how Sparrow imagined her break, before she hit the studio, with her family, her friends just relaxing. 

“Mr. Lake, Hayes is reporting that Mr. Stark is coming up the driveway, I wasn't aware we were expecting him today.” Kaius, frowned as he walked in listening to his Bluetooth earplugs. The security guard was known for not liking Tony Stark’s chaotic fits, as he liked to call them. Bruce looked up from his book, pulling his glasses off confused before shaking his head. 

“We weren't aware he was coming to visit.” pulling himself up from the chair, Bey followed suit laying their guitar on the couch. “Why don't you go ask Mags to put the coffee on and I’ll go see what Mr. Stark is here for.” patting Kaius on the shoulder, he made his way out the front door pulling his bomber jacket closer to his body as she black SUV came to a stop.

Bruce watched on as Happy Hogan opened the door for Tony Stark, followed by Sam Wilson, his daughter's manager, last but not least Bucky Barnes got out. Bucky looked annoyed as Sam spoke to him, but shook his head before he smiled when he saw that Bruce was watching them. Sam waved to Bruce as he took a bundle of bouquets from Happy, Bruce provided a head-nod of acknowledgment. 

“Good morning Bruce, would it hurt to get cellphone reception up here?” Tony climbed up the steps while gazing up at the maestro of recording music. “Also I hear a congratulation is in order, 4 grammy nominations, that makes what 60 in total your career so far?” Bruce shook Tony’s hand when they met at the top of the stairs. 

“Don’t go congratulating me just yet Mr. Stark, I haven't won yet. As for cellphone reception, my Verizon network works just fine, I was able to call my sister and heard her crystal clear.” Bruce peered down the shorter man, as they waited for the other two gentlemen to reach the porch. Tony scoffed as he pulled his cellphone out to see his name network only had two bars. 

“Is there a chance that Miss. Sparrow has risen yet from slumber?” stuffing his cell back in the pocket of his jeans, as both Bucky and Sam came up behind him. 

“She rose with the sun today. Mr. Stark, we weren't expecting you today, any of you. Not that I'm not happy to see you Sam or Bucky, but this Sparrow’s vacation as well as mine, so if you don't mind me asking, what is it your here for?” Bruce leaned against the banister his arms crossed over his chest, keeping the heat in. Before any of the visitors could speak, Sparrow had opened the front door, her mother's Mexican serape around her shoulders. 

“Sam, Mr. Stark, what a surprise, I just checked with Sarah, she said you didn’t call or e-mail to say you were coming by. Bucky it’s so good to see you.” stepping out onto the porch, Sparrow laid a kiss to Bucky’s cheek, before doing the same to Sam, her eyes staying on Tony the whole time. Clint and Kaius stood vigilant in the doorway. 

“I thought you’d give your team a break, we also needed to talk in person, at best interest.” Tony kissed Sparrow on the cheek as he took his sunglasses off and looked at her with a fond smile. Sparrow pulled away, taking one of the bouquets off Sam’s hands. The anemone’s stood out against berries, lilies, cotton, and roses. 

“Let's go inside then, it's warm and my mother put a fresh pot of coffee on and she’s about to take a tray of snickerdoodles out of the oven.” Kaius and Clint broke away from the doorway allowing the group to pass by, Bey was holding Birdie upside down by her legs, making the little girl giggle. Maggie stood in the entrance of the living room hands on her hip, an apron around her waist looking at the men. 

“You best remove your shoes before you mess up my house, I had these floors cleaned before Christmas so my angels could eat off them,” Maggie ordered the group, referring to Birdie, Clint’s daughter, and Jojo the family's dog, when she meant angels. Bucky made no protest and was quick to take off his worn cowboy boots, while Sam handed over the matching bouquet to her before he slipping his Timberlands off. Tony sighed before he took a seat at the bench in the entrance, pulling off his Adidas. Maggie kissed Sam’s cheek before she took both hers and Sparrow’s bouquets into the kitchen to put them in water.

Bruce leads the group into the dining room, sitting at his usual head of the table. Sparrow sat beside her father to the left, the windows casting a rainbow effect to her. Tony sat down with Bucky between him and Sam, facing Sparrow as Clint came in and sat down beside her. Sam opened his jacket to pull out a file and setting it on the table, immediately Sparrow's stomach dropped. 

“Sparrow, I assume you've seen the charts since you and Barnes put your singles out at the end of November. Well fans have been speculating that you two are together for awhile since photographers caught you both leaving the studio in New York.” Sparrow looked at Bucky who was staring at her, he winked but it did nothing to ease the monster sitting in the pit of her stomach, that felt like it was trying to claw its way out currently.

“So I got to thinking you know what would be great, if we could form the next Faith Hill and Tim McGraw!” Was she going to faint, was the room suddenly too hot? Sparrow threw the serape from her shoulders and covered her face with her hands. 

“Stark, you do realize they are always fighting? Just last year when I was backstage at their tour, Faith was kicking him out of their dressing room and they were spending the rest of tour in different busses. That marriage is in shambles.” Sam didn't think the Tim and Faith were a good reference at all, as he put his two sense in. There was no doubt the two loved each other but no one would want to put themselves willingly in their shoes. 

“Okay, so terrible reference, Sparrow Lake and Bucky Barnes could be the next Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. I bet they could even be the next Johnny and June Cash, I want to make it happen.” banging his hand on the table, Sparrow flinched back while Bruce glared at Tony. Tony was out of his mind if he thought he had the next big it couple, you had to have a couple for it to be a couple. 

“Just one problem Stark, last I checked Bucky isn't dating my daughter.” Bruce stood up from his chair, placing his hands on the table, making his annoyance ever the more known at the label owner and multimillionaire. 

Clint reached under the table grabbing Sparrow’s hand as her leg started to bounce up and down. Anxiety was heavy on her mind, Tony Stark had something up his sleeve she just knew it. Bruce sat back down just as Maggie came in with a platter of cookies along with mugs and coffee. 

“Mom, can you take Dad and Jojo out for a walk, he needs some air.” meeting her father's gaze as her mother placed a kiss atop her head. Bruce was up from his seat no argument as Maggie looked at him from above their daughters head. Placing a kiss on the crown of Sparrow's head, he sighed then proceed to follow his wife out of the room. 

Sparrow poured cups of coffee for everyone, buying time to be sure her parents had left the cabin. Bucky watched her closely, he could see the slight shake in her as she passed each cup out, how her left pointer finger plucked at the skin on the nail bed of her thumb. The door closing pulled everyone from their thoughts as Sam took a cookie from platter stuffing it in his mouth in one go. 

“Tony, as my dad said before, me and Bucky aren’t dating, I‘ve made no inclination that I was dating anyone since I broke up with my ex, so I’m just not sure what you are insinuating.” Clint and Sam’s eyes met while Bucky scratched at the stubble that had grown on his face over the past few days. 

“Well it’s simple really, Bucky and you have been dating in secret for the past 13 months, that give you what six months to get over what’s his face. Bucky over Christmas break proposed to you and well, you both just love your fans so much it’s now time for the two of you confirm that you have been in a relationship and you want to share this wonderful news with them.” Tony smiled at her while Sparrow’s jaw dropped, the monster was now raging and it was going to try and claw its way out of her. Clint well he was laughing, the man couldn’t be seriously insinuating a fake marriage was an amazing idea. 

“Stark you can’t seriously be thinking that a fake marriage is going to sell more tickets and records are you? It may work for a little bit but when TMZ finds out it’s fake because you can’t fake records like that, well it’s over their fans will hate them.” Clint got up from the table and started to pace the dining room, running his fingers through his hair. 

“No it will be real, they will be married till one of them doesn’t want to make music anymore. I’ve thought this out for weeks, they can tour together and support each other. They will be the next big thing. Sparrow if you don’t go through with this, I will terminate your contract with Stark Records.” It was getting harder to breathe, the air felt stifling, she could hear Clint calling Tony something before he stormed out of the room. Suddenly someone was beside her holding her hand, and she knew it was Bucky. 

“But what about my contract surely you can’t just take it away from me because I refuse to get married.” Sparrows’ voice cracked as she looked to Sam than Tony, as her pointer finger tried to make contact with her thumb, but Bucky held her hand tighter. 

“I looked Sparrow and in your contract under clause 12 article 1, it says at any point in which you don't fulfill any request or obligation given to you by Tony Stark or Pepper Potts, they have the right to terminate your contract.” Sam handed over the very contract Sparrow had signed at 21, without her parents beside her or a lawyer, for that matter. He had the part he was talking about highlighted in lime green. This was real, she could very well have her record contract taken from her.

“Sam, Tony can you give me and Sparrow a few minutes alone.” Bucky continued to hold Sparrow’s hand as she stared at the contract. His heart went out to her it truly did, he remembered what it felt to feel as if the world was out to get him when he was barely acknowledged by fellow country artist, producers wanted to control his sound. He found his backbone, kept his true friends closer and stood up for what he believed in, his family. 

When they were alone Bucky got up from the table and pulled Sparrow along with him, remembering the door Maggie Lake had come through, as the kitchen, he leads them through there. At the breakfast nook was leftover ice water from breakfast, he quickly pulled a chair out for Sparrow to sit, before pouring the water. Once he was sure they were alone and some of the color had returned Sparrow’s face he took her hand again. 

“Sparrow I need you to listen to me and I need you to listen to me well. I’m on your side and I know in the end we’ll make a great team but you just have to hear me out.” setting her glass down she turned her body so it was facing him and he had her full attention. “As much as the media likes to think I’m with every girl I’m seen with I’m not. I haven't been with anyone since Delores Smith, and she, she broke my heart, Sparrow. I haven't had time for anyone, I’m always on tour, in the studio recording or I’m promoting a single. I need someone who understands me and I think that if you give us a shot, a real shot to fall in love like I’m willing to try, I think we could have something.” pulling her hand from Bucky’s she started to pull her hair up but he got up and moved up behind her. Suddenly he was putting her hair in a French braid. 

Sparrow felt like she owed this to everyone in her life to do this. She owed this to her parents who worked so hard year after year, album after album of her own dads to this. She owed this to her siblings who cheered her on, but especially Bey and Peter who had known what it felt like to feel so lost. Scott, she for sure owed him, he had taken her song and put it on the airways of his music show, got her played all across North America, taking her directly himself to Tony Stark. Scott had helped her get signed. She really owed it to Clint, who took his only child on the road with them, looked out for her like a big brother did. He had given up so much to be her guitarist and he showed no signs of stopping. How could he let not only them down, the fans but herself? 

“I promise you Sparrow Lake we are in this as a team.” Bucky gave her his signature half-smile as held out his left pinky to her, biting her lip she hooked her right one with his. 

“Don’t make me regret this Barnes, and I hope you are prepared for this family because you have no idea what you have gotten yourself into.” talking as she watched Bucky get down on one knee, she laughed when he reached into his skin-tight jeans to pull out a purple velvet box.

“Sparrow India Lake, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife and my best friend, that drives Sam crazy with me?” opening the velvet box sat a beautiful ring that Sparrow recognized right away as a ring she pointed out to her sister-in-law when they were out shopping. 

“Yes, yes James Buchanan Barnes, I would love to drive Sam crazy with you as well as become your best friend and wife.” Bucky took the elegant celestial ring from its holder and placed it on her left ring finger, making it very official. Sparrow Lake was on her way to becoming Sparrow Lake-Barnes.

[tf2canons]

If the mercs had Youtube Channels

Spy - The most bitter advice channel you’ll ever see. He had to be talked into making the channel, but now he enjoys sassing strangers on the internet. “NO, you cannot pair that wine with pasta, what are you thinking??” “Dump him, he’s wasting your time.” “Yes, fool, you can still get a girl pregnant like that. I learned the hard way. Next question-“

Sniper - Sniping/archery trickshot videos. He’s alone most of the time, but still pretty proud of his skills, so he wanted to show off a bit. And the internet loves watching somebody hit an apple from 200 yards away with one arm tied behind his back while in a moving vehicle.

Medic - Recordings of surgeries. He explains what he’s doing and the science behind it, as well as telling cheesy doctor jokes and funny surgery stories. He actually gets a pretty good following, and people start wanting to know more about him personally, so he occasionally does videos answering questions or things like, “Meet my birds!” “Why I technically don’t have a medical license”

Scout - Vlogs and prank videos. His titles seem extremely Clickbait-y, saying stuff like, “MY DAD IS TOM JONES! NOT CLICKBAIT!” but they’re always somehow true. (Well, bad example, but he thinks it’s true.) He’ll sometimes start getting a little too deep and have to catch himself, like, “Ya know I think it really did a number on my self esteem as a kid, not having a dad... But, uh, sorry, anyway, I’m gonna put a ghost pepper in Heavy’s sandwich now.”

Pyro - Weird things like “Proving toilets are flammable” and “Burning building ASMR.” You never hear them talk or see them, except when they sometimes hold a thumbs-up in front of the camera before lighting something on fire. Even then, they’re wearing their gloves.

Soldier - 10-20 minute nonsensical, unedited rants about America. Sometimes he’ll invite Zhanna on and say things like, “Have you ever seen such a beautiful woman in your life, aside from Lady Liberty herself?! I think not!”

Heavy - He makes russian literature crash course videos and book reviews. He only records in Russian but he makes sure they are captioned in both Russian and English. Rarely he’ll post something he just found neat, like, “Very large bear outside my house.”

Demo - Only posts drunk vlogs with very bad image quality. He just rambles about whatever he feels like and sometimes will drunkenly show off his sword or explosive equipment. He gets a small following just because people think he’s funny, even though no one can tell what he’s saying half the time.

Engineer - DIY robotics/engineering videos. Half of his videos are very advanced things like, “Can my AI pass the turing test?” but the other half are very basic, easy to understand videos part of an “Introduction to Engineering and Robotics” series aimed at younger kids. He didn’t intend to make the series when he started, but he kept getting comments and questions from 10-13 year olds who were interested in it, and he couldn’t help himself from trying to teach them. He’s very positive and supportive, and replies to a lot of the comments he gets.

[joebustillos]

End of Week 7 Best Intentions/Best Laid Plans

2019-08-19 Documenting Your Journey

Damn. I really wanted to be better about the week-to-week communication and posting of the ongoing STEAM Lab stuff. Oh well. Life. Just not cooperative. So, in week two I discovered that it was better to list my curriculum as “units” and not “weeks” because some units/lessons took several weeks to happen. Anyway, during week two we began our “documenting your journey” exploration that began with a family history homework assignment (that required a photo of an important person in the family history and one’s self). Then we spent one week working on just logging into our google classroom accounts, another week navigating from google classroom to google slides, another week to enter text into a google slides template, and week six we spent creating a family/personal drawing to include in videos/presentation files. Then I discovered that I needed some extra time to figure out how to get images drawn by my student and scanned/digitized by moi into their google drive so that they could add the images to their google slides presentation files (something that I figured out today, but is very convoluted…).

This week, week 7, we did a unit on simple machines: lever, where we talked about humans not being the fastest or strongest creature in the forest and how the use of tools led to our survival and eventual dominance. Students K through five drew a lever device and labeled the fulcrum, load and force. We also “experimented” with lifting heavy objects and why using a lever might be better. I figured out how to do that without endangering elementary students with the difficulty of moving a “heavy load.” Doing the lever part didn’t really show how much easier it is to move things via lever versus just hefting heavy things, but I bet any of the volunteers who tried to lift my 30- and 60-pound boxes filled with paper will remember that part of the experience. I’ve taken their drawing and created a lever illustration with the load, force and fulcrum labeled.

2019-09-23 Simple Machines – Lever Demo

Over the next few weeks we have to go over a Latino-scientist bio for Hispanic-American month, run the fourth grade through another SLG Writing Prompt, create 30 iPad stands and create robotic mini-figs for students, both to be used when I teach them how to create stop-motion videos. Also, I’m a couple weeks behind introducing the WeDo robots across the grade levels.

Last year we worked across all grade levels, 5th grade through 2nd, giving them four weeks to use the WeDo robots, but I didn’t feel like they really got the hang of anything in those four weeks. It’s always a struggle between teacher-driven experiences and free explore experiences. Depending on deployment, I’d also like to have a few WeDos and EV3s set aside just for programming and “advanced explorations.”

2019-02-21_Allen’s-2nd-graders-WeDo

At the end of last week, week six, grades three through five still needed to complete our google slides presentation file and I still needed to edit primary student video interviews. I need more hours in the day to get all of this done. But, I’m loving the process of student “content” creation.

Last week I got to spend the week encouraging primary and intermediate students to draw their family and when they wanted to turn in their “stick figure” drawing, I got to encourage them to include ears and hair and draw clothing on their images. It was really, really fun. Of course, now I have to spend many hours inserting these images into video interviews (for primary students) and post images in classroom folders for intermediate students.

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We still need to finish (and find a way to post) these presentation files and videos.

As I build these interconnecting experiences, I feel pretty good about the program I’m putting together. It’s too bad that admin has chosen an assessment process that doesn’t take into account how much work it takes just to get a student login process to work. I believe that the “T” in STEAM stands for technology and Admin has no idea the step-by-step process it requires to get this generation of tech consumers to be tech-literate, to take advantage of the tools available for learning. Assuming that “if you build it, they will learn” is naive and doesn’t take into account the classroom dynamic that one or two students dedicated toward disrupting the process can easily derail the best planned lesson(s).

Here we are at the end of week seven, building all the connecting parts that should pay off over the following 30-weeks, but I do not anticipate being in this position for the 2020-2021 school year. Admin has made his desires clear and I’m not going to waste my time justifying my existence or efforts. If he can’t see it, then it’s time for me to move on. My responsibility is to my students and giving them the best I can do, if that doesn’t translate into whatever system is being used to measure my “effectiveness” that’s not really on me. It’s not as if the actual job isn’t difficult enough, but to then contort to some system created by non-practitioners is a fool’s errand and I’m done being anyone’s fool. I’ve long since paid my dues. Let’s just say that this is going to be an interesting year completing this chapter in my career and kissing it all goodbye. Oh, and I’ve been building a website for the STEAM Lab to better facilitate communication with parents at https://fitzgeraldsteamlab.blog/ The possibilities are incredible and amazing and worth doing, the reality is far less convincing and a bit sad. Let’s see how the next 30-weeks go.

Fitzgerald STEAMLab 2018-19 Kids and LEGOs

End of Week 7 Best Intentions/Best Laid Plans End of Week 7 Best Intentions/Best Laid Plans Damn. I really wanted to be better about the week-to-week communication and posting of the ongoing STEAM Lab stuff.

[blackkudos]

Biggie Smalls

Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie, or Biggie Smalls, was an American rapper. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time.

Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. When he released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he became a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene and increased New York's visibility in the genre at a time when West Coast hip hop was dominant in the mainstream. The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the growing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud.

On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc album Life After Death, released 16 days later, rose to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000, one of the few hip hop albums to receive this certification. Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow", dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities, sometimes changing his pitch on songs. Two more albums have been released since his death. He has certified sales of 17 million units in the United States.

Life and career

1972–94: Early life, arrests, career beginnings and first child

Wallace was born in St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, New York, on May 21, 1972, as the only child of Voletta Wallace, a Jamaican preschool teacher, and Selwyn George Latore, a Jamaican welder and politician. His father left the family when Wallace was two years old, and his mother worked two jobs while raising him. Wallace grew up in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn on 226 St. James Place near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, considered at the time to be within the latter neighborhood's boundaries.

At Queen of All Saints Middle School, Wallace excelled in class, winning several awards as an English student. He was nicknamed "Big" because of his overweight size by age 10. He said he started dealing drugs when he was around the age of 12. His mother, often away at work, did not know of her son's drug dealing until Wallace was an adult.

At his request, Wallace transferred out of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School to attend George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, which future rappers DMX, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes also attended at the time. According to his mother, Wallace was still a good student, but he developed a "smart-ass" attitude at the new school. At age seventeen, Wallace dropped out of school and became further involved in crime. In 1989, he was arrested on weapons charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to five years' probation. In 1990, he was arrested on a violation of his probation. A year later, Wallace was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine. He spent nine months in jail before making bail.

Wallace began rapping when he was a teenager. He entertained people on the streets and performed with local groups the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques. After being released from jail, Wallace made a demo tape under the name Biggie Smalls, a reference to a character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again as well as his stature; he stood at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and weighed 300 to 380 lb (140–170 kg) according to differing accounts. The tape was reportedly made with no serious intent of getting a recording deal. However, it was promoted by New York-based DJ Mister Cee, who had previously worked with Big Daddy Kane, and it was heard by the editor of The Source.

In March 1992, Wallace was featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype column, dedicated to aspiring rappers, and made a recording off the back of this success. The demo tape was heard by Uptown Records A&R and record producer Sean Combs, who arranged for a meeting with Wallace. He was signed to Uptown immediately and made an appearance on label mates, Heavy D & the Boyz' "A Buncha Niggas" (from the album Blue Funk). Soon after signing his recording contract, Combs was fired from Uptown and started a new label. Wallace followed and in mid-1992, signed to Combs' new imprint label, Bad Boy Records.

On August 8, 1993, Wallace's longtime girlfriend gave birth to his first child, T'yanna. Wallace had split with the girlfriend for some time before T'yanna's birth. Wallace wanted his daughter to complete her education, despite being a high school dropout himself. Wallace said that if his mother had promised him what he promised his daughter, everything she wanted, Wallace would have been not only a graduate but also at the top of his class. He continued selling drugs after the birth to support his daughter financially. Once Combs discovered this, he forced Wallace to quit.

Later in the year, Wallace gained exposure on a remix to Mary J. Blige's single "Real Love", under the pseudonym The Notorious B.I.G. He recorded under this name for the remainder of his career, after finding the original moniker "Biggie Smalls" was already in use. "Real Love" peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was followed by a remix of Blige's "What's the 411?". He continued this success, to a lesser extent, on remixes with Neneh Cherry ("Buddy X") and reggae artist Super Cat ("Dolly My Baby", also featuring Combs) in 1993. In April 1993, his solo track, "Party and Bullshit", appeared on the Who's the Man? soundtrack. In July 1994, he appeared alongside LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes on a remix to label mate Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear", reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1994: Ready to Die and marriage

On August 4, 1994, Wallace married R&B singer Faith Evans after they met at a Bad Boy photoshoot. Five days later, Wallace had his first pop chart success as a solo artist with double A-side, "Juicy/Unbelievable", which reached No. 27 as the lead single to his debut album.

Ready to Die was released on September 13, 1994, and reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually being certified four times Platinum. The album, released at a time when West Coast hip hop was prominent on US charts, according to Rolling Stone, "almost single-handedly... shifted the focus back to East Coast rap". It immediately gained strong reviews and has received much praise in retrospect. In addition to "Juicy", the record produced two hit singles: the Platinum-selling "Big Poppa", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. rap chart, and "One More Chance" featuring Faith Evans, a loosely related remix of an album track and its best selling single.

Busta Rhymes claimed to have seen Wallace giving out free copies of Ready to Die from his home, which Rhymes reasoned as "his way of marketing himself." Around the time of the album's release, Wallace became friends with Tupac Shakur, also a rapper. Cousin Lil' Cease recalled the pair being close, often traveling together whenever they were not active in furthering their careers. According to him, Wallace was a frequent guest at Shakur's home and they constantly spent time together when Shakur was in California or Washington, D.C.. It was claimed by Yukmouth, an Oakland emcee, that Wallace's style was inspired by that of Shakur. Wallace also formed a friendship with Shaquille O'Neal, O'Neal remembering his first time hearing Wallace, during listening to the song "Gimme the Loot", where Wallace mentioned him in the lyrics and thereby attracted O'Neal to his music. O'Neal requested a collaboration with Wallace, which resulted in the song "You Can't Stop the Reign". Sean Combs related that Wallace would not do collaborations with "anybody he didn't really respect", adding that Wallace paid O'Neal "respect by shouting him out." Daz Dillinger said in 2015 that Wallace and he were "cool". Wallace would travel to meet with him, and Dillinger recalled serving him cannabis and recording two songs with him.

1995: Junior M.A.F.I.A., Conspiracy and coastal feud

In August 1995, Wallace's protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. ("Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes"), released their debut album Conspiracy. The group consisted of his friends from childhood and included rappers such as Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease, who went on to have solo careers. The record went Gold and its singles, "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" both featuring Wallace, went Gold and Platinum. Wallace continued to work with R&B artists, collaborating with R&B groups 112 (on "Only You") and Total (on "Can't You See"), with both reaching the top 20 of the Hot 100. By the end of the year, Wallace was the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on the U.S. pop and R&B charts. In July 1995, he appeared on the cover of The Source with the caption "The King of New York Takes Over", a reference to his Frank White alias from the 1990 film King of New York. At the Source Awards in August 1995, he was named Best New Artist (Solo), Lyricist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, and his debut Album of the Year. At the Billboard Awards, he was Rap Artist of the Year.

In his year of success, Wallace became involved in a rivalry between the East and West Coast hip hop scenes with Shakur, now his former friend. In an interview with Vibe in April 1995, while serving time in Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur accused Uptown Records' founder Andre Harrell, Sean Combs, and Wallace of having prior knowledge of a robbery that resulted in him being shot five times and losing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry on the night of November 30, 1994. Though Wallace and his entourage were in the same Manhattan-based recording studio at the time of the shooting, they denied the accusation. Wallace said: "It just happened to be a coincidence that he [Shakur] was in the studio. He just, he couldn't really say who really had something to do with it at the time. So he just kinda' leaned the blame on me." In 2012, a man named Dexter Isaac, serving a life sentence for unrelated crimes, claimed that he attacked Shakur that night and that the robbery was orchestrated by James Rosemond aka Jimmy Henchman.

Following his release from prison, Shakur signed to Death Row Records on October 15, 1995. Bad Boy Records and Death Row, now business rivals, became involved in an intense quarrel.

1996: More arrests, Tupac Shakur's death and second child

Wallace began recording his second studio album in September 1995. The album, recorded in New York City, Trinidad, and Los Angeles, was interrupted during its 18 months of creation by injury, legal wranglings and the highly publicized hip hop dispute in which he was involved. During this time, he also worked with R&B/pop singer, songwriter and producer Michael Jackson for the HIStory album. Lil' Cease claimed in 2013 that Wallace denied his wishes to meet Jackson, citing that he did not "trust Michael with kids".

On March 23, 1996, Wallace was arrested outside a Manhattan nightclub for chasing and threatening to kill two autograph seekers, smashing the windows of their taxicab and then pulling one of the fans out and punching them. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. In mid-1996, he was arrested at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey, for drug and weapons possession charges.

In June 1996, Shakur released "Hit 'Em Up", a diss song in which he claimed to have had sex with Wallace's wife (at the time estranged) and that Wallace copied his style and image. Wallace referred to the first claim about his wife's pregnancy on Jay-Z's "Brooklyn's Finest" where he raps: "If Faye (Faith Evans, his wife at the time) have twins, she'd probably have two 'Pacs. Get it? 2Pac's?" However, Wallace did not directly respond to the record during his lifetime, stating in a 1997 radio interview that it was "not [his] style" to respond.

Shakur was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 7, 1996, and died six days later on September 13, 1996 of complications from the gunshot wounds. Rumors of Wallace's involvement with Shakur's murder were reported almost immediately. A two-part series Chuck Philips wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 2002, "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?", based on police reports and multiple sources reported that "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier" and that Wallace paid for the gun. His family publicly denied the report, producing documents purporting to show that the rapper was in New York and New Jersey at the time. The New York Times called the documents inconclusive, stating:

The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called Nasty Boy on the night Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace wrote half the session, was In and out/sat around and laid down a ref, shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. We would have heard about it, Mr. Alfred said."

Moreover, Philips' article was based on multiple sources. As the Assistant Managing Editor of the LA Times Mark Duvoisin wrote: "Philips' story has withstood all challenges to its accuracy, ...[and] remains the definitive account of the Shakur slaying." Faith Evans remembered her husband calling her the night of Shakur's death and crying due to him being in shock. Evans added, "I think it’s fair to say he was probably afraid, given everything that was going on at that time and all the hype that was put on this so-called beef that he didn’t really have in his heart against anyone." Wayne Barrow, Wallace's co-manager at the time, said Wallace was recording the song "Nasty Girl" the night Shakur was shot. Shortly after Shakur's death, he met with Snoop Dogg, who claimed that Wallace played the song "Somebody Gotta Die" for him, in which Snoop Dogg was mentioned, and declared he never hated Shakur.

On October 29, 1996, Faith Evans gave birth to Wallace's son, Christopher "C.J." Wallace, Jr. The following month, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Kim released her debut album, Hard Core, under Wallace's direction while the two were having a "love affair". Lil' Kim recalled being Wallace's "biggest fan" and her being "his pride and joy." In a 2012 interview, Lil' Kim said Wallace prevented her from doing a remix of the Jodeci single "Love U 4 Life" by locking her in a room and according to her, Wallace stated that she was not "gonna go do no song with them," likely because of the group's close affiliation with Tupac and Death Row Records.

1997: Life After Death and car accident

During the recording sessions for his second album, tentatively named "Life After Death... 'Til Death Do Us Part", later shortened to Life After Death, Wallace was involved in a car accident that shattered his left leg and temporarily confined him to a wheelchair. The injury forced him to use a cane. He and Lil' Cease were arrested for smoking marijuana in public and had their car repossessed. Wallace chose a Chevrolet Lumina rental SUV as a substitute, despite Lil' Cease's objections. The vehicle had brake problems before the accident but Wallace dismissed them. According to Lil' Cease, Wallace's leg was shattered when they hit a rail along with Lil's Cease's jaw. Wallace spent months in a hospital following the accident and had to complete therapy. Despite his hospitalization, he continued to work on the album. The accident was referred to in the lyrics of "Long Kiss Goodnight": "Ya still tickle me, I used to be as strong as Ripple be / Til Lil' Cease crippled me."

In January 1997, Wallace was ordered to pay US$41,000 in damages following an incident involving a friend of a concert promoter who claimed Wallace and his entourage beat him up following a dispute in May 1995. He faced criminal assault charges for the incident which remains unresolved, but all robbery charges were dropped. Following the events of the previous year, Wallace spoke of a desire to focus on his "peace of mind". "My mom... my son... my daughter... my family... my friends are what matters to me now".

Death and funeral

Wallace traveled to Los Angeles in February 1997, to promote his upcoming second studio album and film a music video for its lead single, "Hypnotize". The album, Life After Death, was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997.

On March 7, he presented an award to Toni Braxton at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience. The following evening, March 8, Wallace attended an after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Other guests included Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Sean Combs, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.

On March 9, Wallace left in a GMC Suburban SUV at 12:30 a.m. (PST). By 12:45 a.m. (PST), the streets were crowded with people leaving the event. Wallace's SUV stopped at a red light at the corner of Wilshire Blvd & South Fairfax Ave 50 yards (46 m) from the museum. A dark colored Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Wallace's SUV. The driver of the Impala, a black male dressed in a blue suit and bow tie, rolled down his window, drew a 9mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the SUV. Four bullets hit Wallace. His entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. (PST), six months after Tupac Shakur was killed.

Wallace's autopsy was released to the public in December 2012, over a decade after his death. According to the report, three of the four shots were not fatal. The first bullet hit in his left forearm and traveled down to his wrist; the second hit him in the back, missing all vital organs, and exited through his left shoulder; and the third hit his outer left thigh and left through his inner thigh. The report said that the third bullet struck "the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, 3⁄8 inch [10 mm] linear laceration." The fourth bullet was fatal, entering through his right hip and striking several vital organs, before stopping in his left shoulder area. That bullet struck his colon, liver, heart and upper lobe of his left lung.

Wallace's murder remains unsolved and there are many theories regarding the identities and motives of the murderers. Immediately after the shooting, reports surfaced linking Wallace's murder to the murder of Tupac Shakur, because of the similarities in the drive-by shootings and the involvement of Shakur and Wallace in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. In 1997, Los Angeles Times authors Chuck Philips and Matt Laitt reported that the key suspect was a member of the Crips acting in service of a personal financial motive.

Biggie's funeral was held on March 18, 1997, at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. There were among 350 mourners at the funeral, including Queen Latifah, Flava Flav, Mary J. Blige, Lil' Kim, Lil' Cease, Run–D.M.C., DJ Kool Herc, Busta Rhymes, Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Foxy Brown, Sister Souljah and others. After the funeral, his body was cremated and the ashes were given to his family.

Posthumous releases

Sixteen days after his death, Wallace's double-disc second album was released as planned with the shortened title of Life After Death and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, after making a premature appearance at No. 176 due to street-date violations. The record album featured a much wider range of guests and producers than its predecessor. It gained strong reviews and in 2000 was certified Diamond, the highest RIAA certification awarded to a solo hip hop album.

Its lead single, "Hypnotize", was the last music video recording in which Wallace would participate. His biggest chart success was with its follow-up "Mo Money Mo Problems", featuring Sean Combs (under the rap alias "Puff Daddy") and Mase. Both singles reached No. 1 in the Hot 100, making Wallace the first artist to achieve this feat posthumously. The third single, "Sky's The Limit", featuring the band 112, was noted for its use of children in the music video, directed by Spike Jonze, who were used to portray Wallace and his contemporaries, including Sean Combs, Lil' Kim, and Busta Rhymes. Wallace was named Artist of the Year and "Hypnotize" Single of the Year by Spin magazine in December 1997.

In mid-1997, Combs released his debut album, No Way Out, which featured Wallace on five songs, notably on the third single "Victory". The most prominent single from the record album was "I'll Be Missing You", featuring Combs, Faith Evans and 112, which was dedicated to Wallace's memory. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Life After Death and its first two singles received nominations in the rap category. The album award was won by Combs' No Way Out and "I'll Be Missing You" won the award in the category of Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group in which "Mo Money Mo Problems" was nominated.

Wallace had founded a hip hop supergroup called The Commission, which consisted of Jay-Z, Lil' Cease, Combs, Charli Baltimore and himself. The Commission was mentioned by Wallace in the lyrics of "What's Beef" on Life After Death and "Victory" from No Way Out but never completed an album. A song on Duets: The Final Chapter titled "Whatchu Want (The Commission)" featuring Jay-Z was based on the group.

In December 1999, Bad Boy released Born Again. The album consisted of previously unreleased material mixed with guest appearances including many artists Wallace had never collaborated with in his lifetime. It gained some positive reviews but received criticism for its unlikely pairings; The Source describing it as "compiling some of the most awkward collaborations of his career". Nevertheless, the album sold 2 million copies. Wallace appeared on Michael Jackson's 2001 album, Invincible. Over the course of time, his vocals were heard on hit songs such as "Foolish" by Ashanti and "Realest Niggas" in 2002, and the song "Runnin' (Dying to Live)" with Shakur the following year. In 2005, Duets: The Final Chapter continued the pattern started on Born Again, criticized for the lack of significant vocals by Wallace on some of its songs. Its lead single "Nasty Girl" became Wallace's first UK No. 1 single. Combs and Voletta Wallace have stated the album will be the last release primarily featuring new material.

Musical style

Wallace mostly rapped on his songs in a deep tone described by Rolling Stone as a "thick, jaunty grumble", which went deeper on Life After Death. He was often accompanied on songs with ad libs from Sean "Puffy" Combs. On The Source's Unsigned Hype, his style was described as "cool, nasal, and filtered, to bless his own material".

Allmusic describe Wallace as having "a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in quick succession". Time magazine wrote Wallace rapped with an ability to "make multi-syllabic rhymes sound... smooth", while Krims describes Wallace's rhythmic style as "effusive." Before starting a verse, Wallace sometimes used onomatopoeic vocables to "warm up" (for example "uhhh" at the beginning of "Hypnotize" and "Big Poppa" and "whaat" after certain rhymes in songs such as "My Downfall").

Lateef of Latyrx notes that Wallace had, "intense and complex flows", Fredro Starr of Onyx says, "Biggie was a master of the flow", and Bishop Lamont states that Wallace mastered "all the hemispheres of the music". "Notorious B.I.G. also often used the single-line rhyme scheme to add variety and interest to his flow". Big Daddy Kane suggests that Wallace didn't need a large vocabulary to impress listeners – "he just put his words together a slick way and it worked real good for him". Wallace was known to compose lyrics in his head, rather than write them down on paper, in a similar way to Jay-Z.

Wallace would occasionally vary from his usual style. On "Playa Hater" from his second album, he sang in a slow-falsetto. On his collaboration with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "Notorious Thugs", he modified his style to match the rapid rhyme flow of the group.

Themes and lyrical content

Wallace's lyrical topics and themes included mafioso tales ("Niggas Bleed"), his drug dealing past ("10 Crack Commandments"), materialistic bragging ("Hypnotize"), as well as humor ("Just Playing (Dreams)"), and romance ("Me & My Bitch"). Rolling Stone named Wallace in 2004 as "one of the few young male songwriters in any pop style writing credible love songs".

Guerilla Black, in the book How to Rap, describes how Wallace was able to both "glorify the upper echelon" and "[make] you feel his struggle". According to Touré of The New York Times in 1994, Wallace's lyrics "[mixed] autobiographical details about crime and violence with emotional honesty". Marriott of The New York Times (in 1997) believed his lyrics were not strictly autobiographical and wrote he "had a knack for exaggeration that increased sales". Wallace described his debut as "a big pie, with each slice indicating a different point in my life involving bitches and niggaz... from the beginning to the end".

Ready to Die is described by Rolling Stone as a contrast of "bleak" street visions and being "full of high-spirited fun, bringing the pleasure principle back to hip-hop". Allmusic write of "a sense of doom" in some of his songs and the NY Times note some being "laced with paranoia"; Wallace described himself as feeling "broke and depressed" when he made his debut. The final song on the album, "Suicidal Thoughts", featured Wallace contemplating suicide and concluded with him committing the act.

On Life After Death, Wallace's lyrics went "deeper". Krims explains how upbeat, dance-oriented tracks (which featured less heavily on his debut) alternate with "reality rap" songs on the record and suggests that he was "going pimp" through some of the lyrical topics of the former. XXL magazine wrote that Wallace "revamped his image" through the portrayal of himself between the albums, going from "midlevel hustler" on his debut to "drug lord".

Allmusic wrote that the success of Ready to Die is "mostly due to Wallace's skill as a storyteller"; in 1994, Rolling Stone described Wallace's ability in this technique as painting "a sonic picture so vibrant that you're transported right to the scene". On Life After Death Wallace notably demonstrated this skill on "I Got a Story to Tell", creating a story as a rap for the first half of the song and then retelling the same story "for his boys" in conversation form.

Legacy

Considered one of the best artists in hip hop music, Wallace was described by AllMusic as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop". The Source magazine named Wallace the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue in 2002. In 2003, when XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite MCs, Wallace's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, MTV ranked him at No. 3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, calling him possibly "the most skillful ever on the mic". Editors of About.com ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). In 2012, The Source ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 Lyrical Leaders of all time. Rolling Stone has referred to him as the "greatest rapper that ever lived". In 2015, Billboard named Wallace as the greatest rapper of all time.

Since his death, Wallace's lyrics have been sampled and quoted by a variety of hip hop, R&B and pop artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Fat Joe, Nelly, Ja Rule, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Game, Clinton Sparks, Michael Jackson and Usher. On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Sean Combs (then using the rap alias "P. Diddy") and Snoop Dogg paid tribute to Wallace: an orchestra played while the vocals from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 held its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Wallace headlining the show.

Wallace had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died. In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Wallace on them. A portion of the proceeds go to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2005, Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the estate's licensing efforts. Wallace-branded products on the market include action figures, blankets, and cell phone content.

The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner ("B.I.G. Night Out") to raise funds for children's school equipment and supplies and to honor the memory of the late rapper. For this particular event, because it is a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns".

There is an oversize portrait mural of Wallace as Che Guevara on Fulton Street in Brooklyn a half mile west from the star's old block. A fan petitioned to have the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, near Wallace's childhood home renamed in his honor, garnering support from local businesses and attracting more than 560 signatures. The Notorious B.I.G.'s children C.J. and Ty'anna are set to star in an animated series called House of Wallace.

Biopic

Notorious is a 2009 biographical film about Wallace and his life that starred rapper Jamal Woolard as Wallace. The film was directed by George Tillman, Jr. and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Producers included Sean "Diddy" Combs, Wallace's former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, as well as Voletta Wallace. On January 16, 2009, the movie's debut at the Grand 18 theater in Greensboro, North Carolina was postponed after a man was shot in the parking lot before the show. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $44 worldwide.

In early October 2007, open casting calls for the role of Wallace began. Actors, rappers and unknowns all tried out. Beanie Sigel auditioned for the role, but was not picked. Sean Kingston claimed that he would play the role of Wallace, but producers denied it. Eventually it was announced that rapper Jamal Woolard was chosen to play Wallace while Wallace's son, Christopher Wallace, Jr. was cast to play Wallace as a child. Other cast members include Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, Antonique Smith as Faith Evans, Naturi Naughton formerly of 3LW as Lil' Kim, and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur. Bad Boy released a soundtrack album to the film on January 13, 2009; the album contains hit singles of B.I.G. such as "Hypnotize", "Juicy", and "Warning" as well as rarities.

Wikipedia

[operationrainfall]

Metroidvania style games are something I always adore playing due to their heavy emphasis on exploration and finding your way once you obtain new abilities. From the very moment I laid eyes on Sundered I knew it was going to be awesome. Little did I know that it would dramatically exceed my expectations. I was lucky enough to spend a little bit over 4 hours with the second stage of Sundered and I can safely say that this is one of my most anticipated games of 2017.

One thing that immediately stuck out to me was just how beautiful the game looked. Very smooth hand drawn animations blended perfectly with the detailed otherworldly backgrounds I explored. While searching through the level I was thrown into, I was impressed with just how foreign everything felt. Tentacles would appear and disappear randomly on platforms, the backgrounds of the stage would glow yellow, strange purple waterfalls would push you downward, and everything about this world gave off an eerie vibe that I was really into. It also helps that the sound design is equally eerie. The ambient music helps set an unsettling mood that helps convey the atmosphere, while the almost painful sounding screams of the enemies you’ll be fighting can be heard in the distance. As you get closer to them, however, their screams go from sounding like they’re in pain to sounding like more like a sinister monster that wants to kill you.

The one level that was available in the build I played was massive, and really scratched an itch I had for this kind of exploration. The whole experience was mostly nonlinear and allowed me to go almost anywhere I wanted to, save for a few sections that required finding a power up at first. Tons of branching paths led to all sorts of goodies like extra abilities, skill tree perks and even some very dangerous enemy ambushes. One of my favorite parts of the level was finding all the different shortcuts to earlier areas after running around for a long time, which made backtracking following death so much simpler.

The combat in Sundered is a very satisfying hack and slash. You have your melee attack to slash through the weird tentacle enemies you’ll fight, as well as a gun weapon with limited ammo. The melee attacks are fast and feel great, and never grew stale or boring in my 4 hours spent with the game. It especially felt great when the game throws hordes of enemies at you, which gets really intense. Whenever the game throws a horde at you, they really mean a horde. There were times when I was fighting what felt like 20 or more enemies at once, which can be difficult, but once you get good with dodging and mixing the melee attack with your gun, it just felt so satisfying. The gun weapon is powerful, but uses your stamina bar, and has a great amount of recoil. There were times where I was careless and used the gun and was pushed back in to a thorn bush and lost a lot of health, so being careful and actually thinking about what’s behind you is very important. The only complaint I can really think of is that fighting flying enemies can be annoying as they constantly would go inside the ceiling or floor, making it impossible to attack them, but they could attack me. This is pre-alpha though, so I assume this stuff will be worked out in the final release!

From time to time, Sundered will throw massive hordes of enemies at you.

There were two special abilities that I found in the demo, the empowered attack and the power dash. The empowered attack allows you to charge your melee attack to do more damage, and also destroy purple barriers that block your path. The power dash, once found, replaces your regular dodge roll with a very fast dash attack. This dash attack can also be used in succession to extend your jumps over large gaps, leading you into some new areas. Both abilities felt familiar and great to use, especially the speed dash. Nothing felt more satisfying than dashing around and fighting enemies when they would attack in hordes.

The way your health works in Sundered is you have a set amount of health represented by the red parts of your health bar, and a shield that regenerates over time that’s represented by a blue bar that overlaps your health. The shield is a very welcome addition, as I think battling hordes of enemies may be a little too tricky without it. It also added a layer of adrenaline to battling enemies when I had almost no health left. There was just something really exciting about having almost no health left and using the super dash to frantically maneuver around while hoping my shield would regenerate in time before dying. Luckily the continue system was very generous and allowed me to start back at the beginning of the area with everything I had collected before dying.

There also is a skill tree at the beginning area of the stage where you can purchase upgrades with gems that enemies drop for things like your health, shield and attack power, as well as being able to equip perks that you find hidden throughout the stage. Perks add a lot of useful abilities to your character, things like being able to be revived with a tiny bit of health after death, greater attack power, holding more ammo for your gun and so on. The perks don’t come without any strings attached, though. Some, but not all, come with a disadvantage to your stats as well. Some of the perks I found had disadvantages of enemies dropping 20% less gems, 50% less gems and so on. By far the most useful perk that I found was the one that makes enemies drop more health regenerating items. It really helped my travels a lot, especially when hordes of enemies were attacking and I was on the verge of death.

The demo ended with a huge, memorable boss fight. The battle started off easy enough, jumping around on platforms the boss makes, attacking its weak spots. As it goes on it becomes more and more difficult as more turrets start to spawn on its body, and those purple waterfalls that push you down also start making an appearance to hinder the jumps you need to make to attack the weak points. My initial reaction to it was that it felt really overwhelming at first, as the turrets can get really insane if you let them continue to spawn without killing any. The camera also zoomed out during portions of the boss fight which I wasn’t expecting, and I actually lost track of my position. This only happened the very first time however, as I quickly got used to it.  Once I continued practicing the battle, it becomes a lot more manageable, while still maintaining a great challenge.

Seriously, this boss fight was intense and awesome.

For being just a pre-alpha demo, there sure was a lot of polish and excitement to be had with the time I got to play with the game. I’m eager to see more of Sundered between now and when it’s completed. If you’re a fan of the developers’ previous work on Jotun, or are just looking for a solid Metroidvania style game, then I highly recommend putting Sundered on your radar. Sundered will release on PC, MAC, Linux, and PlayStation 4 in July of this year.

  #gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

PREVIEW: Sundered Metroidvania style games are something I always adore playing due to their heavy emphasis on exploration and finding your way once you obtain new abilities.

[kadobeclothing]

A Crash Course on Proper Messaging

Earlier, I was scrolling on LinkedIn and came across this ad.

Instantly, I was impressed with the effectiveness of the language. The language, concise and clear, offers up the benefit of the product being marketed in a way that stops scrollers in their tracks, including me.

Source Qordoba is an IT company that helps companies stay consistent with communication through AI technology. The company’s ad caught my eye by communicating the benefits reading the report will have when it comes to customer-facing content, which does interest me. ‘How are tech companies managing their voice, tone, & writing style guides across their various types of customer-facing content?’

After reading this caption, I knew exactly what I would gain from this product, and why it was worth my time. The beauty of proper messaging is that by communicating either the benefits or features of your product or service, you can tell customers what they need to know in a clever, concise way. As a marketer, you’re likely wondering when you should use benefits versus features in your content. We’ve got an answer, and we’re going to dive into that in the next couple of sections. Features vs. Benefits What exactly is a “feature” or “benefit,” anyway?

Features vs. Benefits

Features describe what the product does, setting it apart from the competition. Benefits describe how the product can help the audience. For marketing messages, it’s typically better to go with a benefits-heavy approach, because benefits are what makes consumers purchase.

Both methods are useful and give customers important information they’ll need during their buyer’s journey, such as design, price, and real-world relevance. Ultimately, however, the benefits of having a product or service are what make consumers purchase. If you do decide to highlight features, you’ll want to make sure consumers understand how they’ll benefit from those features. Let’s look at another example of features and benefits at work. This is a marketing email I got this morning from Marriott hotels: This ad starts with the benefits of becoming a Marriott member — ‘yes to vacation views’ — while the rest of it explains the features of the program, including ‘no annual fees’ and ‘3X points per $1 spent at more than 7,000 Marriott locations. Emphasizing that Marriott members enjoy free perks, then expanding on how this is done (by earning rewards points), is a really effective way to explain the benefits and features of the rewards membership. Which is relatively straightforward — but what if you have multiple products being sold at once? If you’re working with more than one campaign at once, remember the “Features or benefits?” the answer can change depending on the product. If you’re unsure whether you should list features or benefits for a given product, consider this — features are an optimal choice in a saturated market. For instance, a small business making a meal-delivery kit would have some competition (such as HelloFresh or Home Chef), so they would have to communicate their service’s competitive advantage by naming one-of-a-kind features. This would include price, dietary restrictions, menu configuration, etc. Benefits, on the other hand, are the way to go if your brand exists within a niche market or a “drier” topic. You’ll want to answer the following questions with your benefits: How does it work? How does it make a consumer’s life easier? To resonate well with an audience who perhaps haven’t heard of your product or service before, try to include benefits in your demos, ebooks, and other marketing content.. Now that we’re more clear on features vs. benefits, let’s explore some examples to see both in-action. Features and benefits: Examples For the visual learners like myself, below are some real-world examples of how to work features or benefits into ads, product pages, email, or any other marketing materials: 1. Calm This email about an exclusive deal made me excited, which is another way highlighting features in your marketing material can be beneficial — to build excitement. Here’s how sleep meditation company Calm did it: Framing singer/songwriter Lindsey Stirling’s work as an exclusive feature improves customer relationships and makes them feel special. Opening this email made me think about how glad I am to be an email subscriber (especially since I grew up watching Stirling on YouTube) because of cool offers like this. If you’re running a promotion or want to improve customer relationships, consider sending them an offer that reminds customers of your product or service’s unique features. 2. HubSpot Academy In this product page for HubSpot Academy’s social media course, three benefits are listed at the bottom, so prospects can see how completing this course will be worth their time:

Source Benefits don’t always have to be short phrases – in fact, on product pages, more is often better. On web pages, it’s critical you give your customers the helpful information they need — including cost, structure, time required to complete, and a description on how your products or services’ benefits outweigh the benefits of competitors’. 3. Arcadia Can you spot the benefits energy company Arcadia used in this promoted tweet?

Here’s the easiest way to save on your utility bill and get clean energy. — Arcadia (@arcadia) February 18, 2020

If you chose the entire tweet, you’re right! Almost every word helps describe to the reader why they should open the linked website. As a consumer, I would think, “Well, what is the easiest way to save on my energy bill at no cost? That thing is sky high!” Words that help the consumer are going to resonate with those who are just mindlessly scrolling and not necessarily looking to buy anything. To build interest in their promotion, Arcadia’s use of benefits to entice prospective customers was a good choice on Twitter. Impress a scroller by using benefits in marketing messages. You have a few seconds to leave a mark. 4. Airtable Beautiful, descriptive features in this Facebook ad told me exactly what Airtable is and what their software does, despite having no previous knowledge. In less than thirty words, I know that Airtable must be a product or service that makes dull spreadsheets a thing of the past — for free.

Source Marketing teams that don’t have the budget to spend on a full suite of fancy products might come across this ad, see the features, and think “Flexible, beautiful, and fun? Spreadsheets? For free? I should look into this,” and immediately hit that CTA. Many of us use spreadsheets that are mostly text and less colorful, so Airtable does a good job detailing how they’re different from Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, and helps them seem like a game-changer to consumers. 5. KeVita Kombucha is a fermented tea drink with probiotics, which aid in helping digestion and improving energy levels. So, when marketing their kombucha on Instagram, the KeVita brand wanted to show that kombucha isn’t just a summer drink, contrary to popular belief.

Aesthetically pleasing, benefit-enforcing GIFs like this make visual platforms like Instagram a perfect canvas for an ad that displays benefits. Animation often stops scrollers — especially animation paired with bright pink text. The backdrop, a ski lift covered in fresh snow, (“powder” to skiers), shows the accessibility of the drink, while the caption alludes to kombucha-fueled energy to get through a long ski trip. Two benefits that instantly stuck out to me about this post are accessibility and energy. On snowy mountains, those two functions are going to be essential when thinking about snacks. Consider a scenario-based ad if your product is like KeVita, commonly perceived as a summer drink. From phones to shampoo, , the features/benefits marketing method can be applied to almost anything. As we saw, it’s important to know the distinction so audience members can deliver a clear marketing message. Asking yourself, “Does this ad convey features or benefits?” and structuring accordingly is a simple thought to consider when creating copy that could improve the interpretation of product pages or ads by the public. What do you want to say, and which messaging method will be best for that?

Source link

source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/a-crash-course-on-proper-messaging/

[vikihabercom]

  Link: Ürünü Satın AL

  Squaretype. Modern WordPress Theme for Content-Based Blogs & Magazines

Squaretype is a modern and clean WordPress theme for modern content-based blogs and magazines.

9 Beautifully Designed Demos in One Theme

Thanks to our signature feature, the Demo Switcher, you may apply a new demo any time without affecting your content. If you feel bored with one of the demos, simply apply a new one and get a completely different appearance of your blog or magazine.

Hero Section

Display featured posts in multiple layouts and variations on your homepage. Select a matching background and appropriate sidebar content.

Sidebar Options:

Numbered or Simple Post List

Custom HTML Content (Ads or Shortcode)

Any Widget

No Sidebar

Background Options:

Rock-Solid Color

Beautiful Gradient

Engaging Post Preview Image

Heading Size

Small

Medium

Large

Category Filters

Enable sub-categories filter on category pages for content-heavy websites. It will help your visitors navigate between categories and sub-categories and find the post they’ve been looking for.

Multiple Page Header Types

There are three different page header types for your posts and pages. Display your featured posts’ header with an image overlay or a smaller page header.

Smart Colors

When you select a dark background color for your header or footer, the text and links color will automatically change to white. You don’t need to set up a lot of color option, as most of them will work automatically based on your selection.

Customize with Instant Live Preview

All theme options can be configured with the native WordPress customize feature. Forget the outdated settings pages and manually refreshing your page to see the changes. Preview all the changes live while configuring your perfect blog or media.

Multiple Archive Layouts for Homepage and Archive Pages

Choose from different post archive layouts for your homepage and archive pages. Display your posts in grid, list, full, timeline or masonry layouts.

Multiple Page Layouts

Select the matching page layout for your homepage, archives, posts, and pages. Display a sidebar on either the left or right side or use the full-width page layout for your content.

Super-Fast Mega-Menu

Showcase your recent posts with a thumbnail right in the menu dropdown. Don’t worry, the menu will not slow down your website, as the content is requested dynamically, only when a user hovers over the parent menu item.

AMP Support

We have added styles for the AMP pages to match the main styles of your website. Simply activate the official WordPress AMP plugin to enable Google Accelerated Mobile Pages on your website.

Exclude Featured Posts from the Main Archive

Everybody knows, and Google, in particular, that duplicate content is bad. Avoid having duplicate content on your homepage by excluding featured posts from the main archive with a single click.

Google Fonts

Create different styles with 800+ Google Fonts supported. Simply select the desired font from the dropdown and preview it instantly on your website – no more confusing CSS rules or code snippets.

Additional Content

Ever wanted to place an ad spot underneath your header? Or a short description before the featured posts section on your homepage? A subscribe form below post content? With our signature feature you may insert any content into different template parts without changing template files or overriding templates with a child theme.

Smart Sticky Navigation

Increase mobile users’ viewport by displaying the main navigation only when they scroll up. Or force the menu to stay sticky all the time. Or disable the feature completely, it’s up to you! Enable either of the three options in theme settings with a single click.

Sticky Sidebar

Make your widgets sticky when scrolling the page. Select from two options: either stick to the bottom edge of your sidebar or the top edge of the last widget. Increase your ad’s conversion by setting the ad as your last widget and selecting the latter option. Unlike other theme’s sticky sidebars, ours is enabled and doesn’t flicker on tablets or mobiles. By using the native browser’s sticky positioning, we created a sticky sidebar that animates gorgeously not only on desktops but mobiles too.

Smart Multi-Level Menu

It’s you who decides how to structure your content. Our theme supports unlimited levels in your main menu. If there’s not enough space in the viewport to display a dropdown submenu, it will appear on the opposite side instead. And it supports mobile touch devices, too.

Mobile Slide-Out Menu with Widgets

Display the mobile menu upon clicking the hamburger icon on mobile devices. You may also place social links, subscription form, Facebook fan page or any other widget on your mobile menu, just as in a regular sidebar.

Smart Featured Post Sources

The featured post section can have different post sources. You may filter posts by tag or category and order posts by date, post views or even specify the timeframe when the posts were published.

Paginated Posts

Divide your posts into multiple pages and add properly styled pagination at the bottom of your posts.

Guest Authors and Multi-Author Posts with Co-Authors Plus Support

Involve guest authors without creating separate user accounts or add multiple authors per post with the integrated Co-Authors Plus plugin support. All post authors, including contributors and guest authors, can have social accounts and a bio too.

RTL

Built-in support for RTL (right-to-left) languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or any other RTL written language.

Numbered Pagination, Load More, and Infinite Load

The “Load More” button and the Infinite Load feature will encourage your users to stay on your website longer by browsing through your post archives without refreshing the browser page.

We use the new REST API for instantly fetching posts, which is the fastest way to dynamically load posts in WordPress.

Post Views Counter Support

Display number of post views among other post meta with the integrated Post Views Counter support.

Post Reading Time

Easily add post reading time to encourage your users. The reading time is calculated automatically based on the average reading speed of an adult.

Retina-Ready

Your website will look amazing on Retina screens thanks to vector scalable elements, clear Retina-ready images, and typography.

Adaptive Optimized Image Sizes

A small number of generated thumbnails will save your disk storage space on your hosting provider and make the thumbnail regeneration process quick.

We never downscale images and serve them in the original size or close to it, so that users will not download more than they need. Google likes optimized image sizes too.

Ultra Responsive

We tested our theme on multiple physical devices and emulators to make sure we deliver the best quality.

Feature-Rich, yet Simple

Despite a lot of great built-in features, it’s extremely easy to use. All options support live-preview, and you may instantly see all the changes before saving them.

We made sure that all theme options and features are seamlessly blended into the WordPress user interface and feel very natural and intuitive.

Of course, no coding is required to setup up your website.

SEO by Yoast Support including Breadcrumbs Styles

Activate breadcrumbs, a powerful SEO addition to your website, with a single click in SEO using Yoast plugin and it will automatically appear in the right place with the right styles.

Live Search Results

Get instant search results while you type the search request and easily navigate between them with keyboard support.

Built-in Styles for WordPress Galleries

The default WordPress galleries (or the #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

shortcode) will look nice right out-of-the-box thanks to the integrated gallery styles.

Contributors Page

Display list of all site authors on a single page. Each author is displayed with an avatar, name, bio, and a list of recently published articles.

Related Posts

Increase the page per visit ratio by enabling recent posts beneath your single posts. Related posts will appear automatically, as soon as there’re enough posts in the same category.

Optimized CSS without Dependencies

There’re no dependencies (for example Bootstrap), so no extra bloat or third-party assets. Your users and Google will love the loading time of your website pages.

Coded with WordPress Coding Standards

WordPress Coding Standards help developers maintain a consistent style so that the code is clean and easy to read at a glance. We keep it in mind when writing code for our WordPress themes.

Super-Fast

Enjoy the fast browsing experience with performance optimization. We check our theme with the Query Monitor plugin to avoid excessive requests to your database.

Google Structured Data Support

We make sure that the structured data is correct by adding special classes to elements. It helps Google understand your content better and rank your website higher.

Built with Hooks & Developer Friendly

There’re numerous actions and filters, which enable you to hook into theme functions from a child theme to create awesome custom solutions for your clients and make the website update-safe.

Translation-Ready

There’s a .pot file, included with the theme, that allows you to use POEdit or Loco Translate to easily translate our theme into your native language.

WPML and Polylang compatible

Would you like to have a multilingual website for a broader audience? Our theme supports both WPML and Polylang plugins and allows creating a multilingual website in no time.

Numerous Ads and Banner Spots with built-in AdSense Support

Easily monetize your blog with versatile ads and banner spots available right in the WordPress Customize section. Place your ads or banner snippets in several predefined template locations without ever touching the template code.

One-Click Demo Import and Demo Switcher

Feeling like you need a change of your website design? Apply a different demo anytime, even if you have existing content, without getting numerous duplicate copies of dummy posts and pages.

Of course, you may import the demo posts too, a useful feature when starting a brand new blog.

Made by Elite Author with a Featured Item

Since 2017, when we created Authentic, it has been featured on the homepage of ThemeForest by the Envato stuff, gained more than 3000 sales, and has been mentioned by WordPress’s online publishers. By purchasing a theme from Code Supply Co. you will get timely support and regular theme updates guaranteed.

Powered by Powerkit

Powerkit is our in-house plugin for extending our theme features. You don’t need to search for compatible plugins for all the basic components of your website: share buttons, social links, author and about widgets, newsletter opt-in forms, slider, and tiled galleries, lightbox, lazy load of images and other great features that every blog or magazine needs. Powerkit seamlessly integrates with our themes in terms of features and site appearance. It has a modular design and you may easily disable different modules without slowing down your website.

Share Buttons

Make your content go viral by enabling share buttons on single post pages.

There’re three locations available: before and after post content and in the floating post sidebar for better user engagement.

Choose between 15 social accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, VKontakte, and email.

Customize the order of your share buttons: place the higher priority share buttons first, based on your country and content specific traits.

Choose between four color schemes: standard, bold, light background, and bold background.

Enable share buttons in three locations: before post content, after post content, and in the floating post sidebar. Shortcode.

You may also enable counts for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest share accounts, as well as the total number of shares per post.

The share buttons are ultra-fast and fully support all caching plugins. The count data is fetched dynamically via REST API; thus, it won’t create a bottleneck in your website’s performance.

Social Links

Help your visitors easily find and follow you on your social media with built-in social links with counters.

Easily integrate social accounts into your website header, footer, and sidebar widgets.

Choose between different layouts: inline, horizontal list or columns. Select the color scheme that suits your taste and blog design: clean or bold, with light or bold background.

Enable the counter feature and display number of your followers on different social networks right on your website. Higher numbers will motivate your new visitors to follow you on social media.

Just as the share buttons, the social accounts fully support dynamic fetching of your social media followers count, resulting in a fast performance of your website and compatibility with caching plugins.

You may place social links in your sidebar by using a widget, page content with a shortcode or in the pre-defined theme locations.

Facebook Integration

Easily embed and promote any Facebook fan page on your website by placing it in your sidebar or post content.

Light up the post discussion by replacing WordPress comments with Facebook comments widget or appending the Facebook comments widget to the default WordPress comments.

Pinterest Integration

Let your users pin images from your blog to their Pinterest boards by adding Pin It buttons on all single images and galleries, with captions supported.

Add a special class to an image inside your post content and Pinterest will fetch this particular image when sharing via the Pinterest share button. Super useful for creating Pinterest optimized cover images to gain a lot of social media traffic.

Twitter Integration

Embed your Twitter feed in a widget or post content via a shortcode.

Instagram Integration

Display your Instagram feed in your sidebar with a widget, in post content with a shortcode or site footer. Every image in the Instagram feed also comes with a number of likes and comments for better user engagement.

Opt-in Forms

Integrate subscription forms on your website and grow your subscribers’ list. The MailChimp module supports one-click subscriptions via AJAX and the MailChimp API. Add a caption regarding personal data and make the opt-in form GDPR compatible.

Basic Shortcodes

Extend your post editing experience with 10 additional shortcodes with friendly UI and shortcode generator right in the WordPress editor toolbar: vertical and horizontal tabs and pills, accordions, separators, buttons, progress bars, and others.

Retina Images

Make your website look crisp on Retina screens by enabling the Retina Images module. It will automatically create 2x image sizes for high pixel density screens.

Lazy Load with Low-Quality Image Placeholders

Speed up your website and increase Google PageSpeed Insights score by enabling the Lazy Load module. It will make your images load only when they’re near the user’s viewport.

You may also serve the so-called LQIP (Low-Quality Image Placeholders) before the main images have been loaded. It will add a beautiful blur effect on images while loading.

Lightbox

Enable the option to enlarge your images in post content or post galleries in a sleek lightbox instead of opening them in a new window. The module supports all gallery types and images in post content. And it’s responsive too.

Adobe Fonts (Formerly Typekit)

Enhance your blog or magazine design by adding support for Typekit fonts. Control your fonts right in the WordPress customize section with live preview. No more CSS selectors or custom code for your Typekit fonts.

Custom Fonts

Upload custom fonts right in the WordPress dashboard and add them to the list of supported fonts in the WordPress Customize section. No coding required.

Contributors Widget

Display a list of the website contributors (authors) in your sidebar.

Author Widget

Display author’s information in the sidebar, including author avatar, description, and links to social accounts.

Justified Galleries

Create greater stories with beautiful justified galleries. Creating a justified gallery feels as natural as the default WordPress ones.

Slider Galleries

Insert responsive and Retina-ready slider galleries in your post content with mobile touch and swipe support. Enable slider pagination, bullets or navigation arrows with just a few clicks.

Featured Posts Widget

Display your featured posts in the sidebar. Choose between different layouts: standard, large or numbered. You may filter posts by category, tag or post IDs and order them by post views or date.

Table of Contents

Easily add a table of contents for your longer blog posts, so that your users can easily navigate to the post section they’re interested in.

Numbered Headings

Create popular list articles (listicles) with the built-in numbered headings feature. It’s a well-known fact that posts with lists (“Top 10 Things to See in Rome”) are the easiest way to gain more viral traffic.

Disclaimer

Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit)

Some demos use Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit). If Adobe Fonts fonts aren’t available, they will be substituted with default fonts or Google Fonts. See our documentation for more details.

Site Specific Options

While demo content looks as close to our demos as possible, there’re a few site-specific settings, that need manual configuration for your convenience, for example, links to your social accounts, widgets and some others.

Image Credits

The sample images viewed in the live preview are for demo purposes only and are not included with your purchase.

These images have either been purchased by us at Shutterstock or GPL & Creative Commons licensed.

Landing Page

The starting preview is a landing page to promote our product and showcase different demos. It’s not included in the theme.

Page Speed

The page speed score mentioned on the item’s page is for reference only and depends on the selected demo, theme and server configuration and the content itself. Some theme features may negatively impact page speed scores.

Integration with External Service Providers

There’re a few features, that rely on communication with external service providers, for example number of social followers, share counts, Instagram feeds, etc. As these service providers are beyond our control, your purchase decision should not be based solely on these features.

Thanks for checking out Squaretype

Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have via our e-mail.

And, if you love Squaretype as much as we enjoyed developing it, please remember to rate it.

Support

We provide support through our ticket system. We do not generally provide support via e-mail or comments on ThemeForest. Therefore if you would like your issue to be reviewed as soon as possible, please open a ticket at codesupply.co/support.

We try to respond as fast as possible, generally within 24 hours, however on holidays and weekends, it may take up to 48 hours.

Squaretype – Modern Blog WordPress Theme   Link: Ürünü Satın AL   Squaretype. Modern WordPress Theme for Content-Based Blogs & Magazines Squaretype is a modern and clean WordPress theme for modern content-based blogs and magazines.

[bishal-06]

15 Online Advertising And Social Media Solutions İn 2020

1)      Wask

Wask has created to maximize your ads’ efficiency for you. You can connect all your different accounts into one platform. You can make special ads for your needs with the help of our experienced advisors. Always updated unique AI program that Wask use to manage your ads is provide you to manage your budget and time in the most efficient way. Compare your results, control your ads automatically daily/weekly/monthly, start/stop/delete your ads at any time with Performance Comparison, AutoPilot and Scheduler to increase your efficiency.

https://www.wask.co/

2)      Sharekit

ShareKit lets you easily customize how your link will appear when sharing it on social media, without the need to get your IT team involved. When using ShareKit, we'll provide you with a new link to share on social media. This link redirects to your original link, but you're able to customize the link's title, description, and image

https://www.sharekit.io

3)      Linkmy.photos

Link My Photos helps you monetize your Instagram by getting your followers from your photo feed to your awesome content. Get started today for free. Instagram photos and captions are currently not linkable. The only place where you can add a link to your website is through the URL in your Instagram bio. Link My Photos has created the ultimate destination for your Instagram bio. Your personalized Link My Photos page displays all of your clickable photos to help your followers get to the content and products that you post on Instagram.

https://linkmy.photos/

4)      PromoRepublic

Thus AI for small business social media is now a thing, in the shape of PromoRepublic , a startup which has now raised a investment round. It competes with visual design companies like Canva, Stencil, Adobe Spark, and DIFM companies like Main Street Hub, Boostability and RevLocal who do custom social content for SMBs. So, when to post, how often, what copy, design, call to actions and hashtags to use on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. PromoRepublic will post automatically at the right time and frequency, thus doing the heavy lifting for business owners who really wouldnt know where to begin in terms of creating and sharing content about their business

https://promorepublic.com/en/

5)      Meet Edgar

One of the most frustrating aspects of any social media update is how quickly they get buried under new social media updates. Add the fact that your followers, fans and connections check their social media accounts irregularly and it’s actually amazing that your updates are seen by anyone at all: Meet the “disappearing updates” dilemma. One solution to this “disappearing updates” dilemma is to each of your social media updates multiple times, upping the odds that it will be seen by your targeted prospects. Unfortunately, adopting this tactic can be very time consuming, even if you use a social media management solution to schedule your updates. If you’re frustrated by the fact that few people see your social media updates and you’re too busy to schedule those updates to up the chance that they’ll be seen, it’s time to meet Edgar . When it comes to automation however, Edgar leaves the rest of the pack behind. Using an library, update categories, and scheduling, Edgar helps your social media updates, as well as any content to which they may link, get the attention they deserve. Edgar’s setup process is an easy way to become familiar with the tool.

https://meetedgar.com/

6)      Everypost

Everypost is a critically acclaimed social media tool utilized by digital agencies, SMBs, content professionals, and firms. The app makes it simple for a user to construct, schedule, customize, and post content on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and others. Social media marketers and content professionals have made Everypost a priority tool for getting content out in the internet across social media platforms. It also facilitates media content upload via One of its biggest strengths is its capacity to deal with a wide range of social media networks as a standalone tool. It can reverse its role by limiting Twitter texts and giving a user the option to choose which social media platforms to blast to. It comes with a support for extracting videos from YouTube, audio from Grooveshark, and images from Flickr. A user will be highlighted with social media networks at the top of the screen, a middle area for inputting text, and list of media format to import from the bottom. Clicking on any social media network will prompt the user to sign in, and if the login is successful, the button will light up.

http://everypost.me/

7)      Social Flow

SocialFlow stretches across our business touching both the editorial and the ad sales sides. It's been a solution that allows us to scale what we do from an organic social publishing perspective, but also has allowed us to unlock incremental revenue.SocialFlow allows us to work from one central platform for multiple teams, across the world. For me, it meant no more sleepless.

http://www.socialflow.com/

8)      Kenshoo

Kenshoo is the technology platform looking to plan, activate and amplify effective marketing across the most engaging digital channels. Kenshoo offers the only marketing solution that provides data-driven insights and optimization technology to help make informed decisions and scale performance across critical publishers, including: Kenshoo’s machine-learning algorithms and cutting-edge AI enable companies to predict and keep in-step.

Kenshoo provides a variety of different products: Kenshoo Social (for search engine marketing campaigns), Kenshoo Local (for individual stores, dealers, or franchisees), Kenshoo Search (for social media marketing campaigns), and SmartPath (for analyzing your campaign from the consumer interactions point of view). For each of those services, you can request a demo trial.

https://kenshoo.com/

9)      OPTMYZR

Optmyzr motto is "PPC Management Made Smarter." When you launch an ad on the platform, you instantly get alerts and suggestions based on your goals and previous campaigns. The automated report delivers you to share it with your team and bosses.

This tool also supplies the clients with pre-written AdWords scripts, forecast about budget usage, and customised workflow. They have trademarked some of their unique software:

One-Click Optimisation™, it's based on automation. Your keywords and goals are only 1 click away;

Enhanced Scripts™ (it works just for AdWords) supplies the tool to write and store for you the Google AppScripts code.

It's possible to request a demo and start a free trial.

10)  AdEspresso

One platform, multiple channels. You can create campaigns on Facebook, Instagram or Google using AdEspresso. The multivariant technology from AdEspresso makes it simple to test and optimize ads increasing ROI of your campaigns. You can test multiple variations of your Facebook Ads based on your targeted audience and find out which one is generating the best result. On top of that, you can generate fully customized PDF reports of your Facebook Ads.

https://adespresso.com/

11)  Contently

In November Contently was named by Advertising Age as one of the best places to work in media and. Contently has a lot of clients , and we rely on freelancers like yourself to staff projects for them. We have an algorithm that combs through users’ portfolios and pushes forward relevant candidates. So when you’re setting up your portfolio, make sure you focus on the kind of things algorithms like: namely, keywords that highlight your expertise and skills. In the headline section, be sure to specify whether you’re a writer, videographer, designer, and so on. We’d love to provide assignments for

12)  Keyhole

Keyhole is a real-time hashtag tracker for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Its visual dashboard is simple, beautiful and shareable! Keyhole's real-time dashboard shows how many people posted with your hashtag, along with the number of Retweets, Likes and Impressions your campaign is generating. Keyhole tracks the most influential people engaging with your brand. Reach out to them to promote your content and increase your brand's reach.

http://keyhole.co/

13)  Sprinklr

Sprinklr provides a unified platform for customer experience management (cxm). Our customer experience & social media management software guides enterprise businesses through and digital transformation.

https://www.sprinklr.com/

14)  AdNabu

AdNabu is an AdWords optimiser in partnership with Google. On this platform you can create an ad or a campaign (using customised templates) and correct your bid in real time (following the tool suggestions), AdNabu supports different types of ads: 

Regular search ads (aka text ads);

Shopping ads (the useful resource for e-commerce sites);

Call only ads;

App install ads, for promoting an application on Google Play or Apple Store.

https://www.adnabu.com/

15)  Invoca

 is a tool that offers a variety of solution for marketers and sales reps who need to know more about people calling to them. The platform is not geared only towards the paid advertisement, but it has an extension for Google AdWords. 

Indeed Invoca gives you tons of insight into which of your paid search efforts are driving people to call. The platform allows you to track and analyse billions of calls and understand how to spend your budget more effectively.

https://www.invoca.com/integrations/google-ads/

[riffrelevant]

Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker, Senior Writer/Journalist ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway, Owner/Chief Editor

The roots of extreme death metal band CADAVER begin in the townships of Råde and Fredrikstad, Norway with founders Anders “Neddo” Odden (guitar, bass, vocals) and Ole Bjerkebakke (drums, vocals) in 1988.

The duo released a demo ‘Into The Outside‘ that same year, sparking local interest in them. The following year, they were joined by bassist René Jansen. CADAVER, as a trio, recorded and released a string of demos over the next two years, which included ‘Abnormal Deformity‘ and ‘Sunset At Dawn‘ in 1989, and ‘Demo 2‘ in 1990. These helped the band land the attention of Carcass’ Bill Steer and Jeff Walker, who soon signed them to their Earache Records imprint label, Necrosis Records.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:album:2vuqiDxklYV9DPbASxSlhn”/]

The year 1990 continued to be productive for CADAVER, eventually they recorded their début album, ‘Hallucinating Anxiety’. The record is a raw, vicious onslaught of down-tuned, sludgy grindcore issued as both a split release with the Carnage album ‘Dark Recollections‘, as well as its own stand alone album. Shortly after the album’s release, René Jansen was replaced in the band by Eilert Solstad.

CADAVER released a second album in 1992, ‘…In Pains‘, that fans felt was a much more technically progressive album than its predecessor. This was a growing trend in death metal at this period in time, with bands like Death and Cynic paving the way with more atmospheric qualities in their music. Unfortunately, some type of dissension within CADAVER caused the band to fold in 1993, and remained that way until resurrected by Odden (using the name Neddo) in 1999.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:album:7GQHStSODHXghzlxfJ8TF9″/]

As a quartet completed with new members – drummer and multi-instrumentalist Czral (aka Carl-Michael Eide), bassist and guitarist L.J. Balvaz, and multi-instrumentalist Apollyon (Ole Jørgen Moe) – the band tweaked its name to CADAVER INC. Under this name, they issued a demo, ‘Primal‘, in 2000, with a live outing ‘Live Inferno‘ and studio album ‘Discipline‘ both in 2001. A tour supporting Morbid Angel and Extreme Noise Terror followed, but so did controversy when apparently a website that accompanied the band’s return claimed to sell “alibis” for murders. The negative attention this drew inspired the band to return to using the more simplified CADAVER once again. In 2004, we saw the issuance of their final album, the Candlelight Records release ‘Necrosis‘, followed by the band’s last show in 2005.

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Alas, not everything stays dead and this holds true in death metal itself, or even if your band’s name is inspired by something no longer alive. In this case, the very idea of this band would not die a quiet death, no way, and in 2014, Anders Odden decides to resurrect CADAVER. Since that decision, things have been as quiet as a graveyard until recently, when Odden revealed that an all new chapter in the book of CADAVER was being written.

Not only are they active, but Odden recruited some amazing collaborators, both in CADAVER, as well as upon the first new song from them in 15 years! First, Anders “Neddo” Odden is joined by drummer extraordinaire Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Satyricon live, ex-Soilwork / Powermad) as the official kit-man for the newly reincarnated CADAVER. You can hear them both today, along with the iconic guest vocalist appearing on that new track, “Circle Of Morbidity” – none other than Possessed’s Jeff Becerra.

CADAVER has just issued the new song in an official video clip with both Odden and Becerra sharing some insights about how this all came to pass. Odden is the first to comment, saying:

“When I heard Possessed for the first time in 1985, I knew this was my kind of music. To have the original creator of death metal on our comeback single is huge for me, I am beyond thrilled to show everybody what we have been cooking up this time around.“

Becerra picks things up, adding:

“It was a great honor being asked by Anders to sing backup vocals on “Circle Of Morbidity.” Of course, working with Anders Odden & Dirk Verbeuren is like a fantastic nightmare, brutal and heavy as hell. Congratulations to Anders Odden and Cadaver on this brand new single. Amazing song, thank you!“

  Dirk Verbeuren (L) & Anders “Neddo” Odden (R)

Odden continues on how Dirk Verbeuren was brought into the fold:

“In my heart I have always had the notion that Cadaver exists somehow. Dirk played session live work for Satyricon on the 70.000 Tons Of Metal cruise in 2014 and we got to know each other then. He talked about how much he loved Cadaver and I then told him that I had been recording demos for 10 years without a drummer….so, being the guy he is, he then says, ‘Send the songs to me!‘”

We now know further results of this unexpected union, with Anders’ confirmation that he is in talks with several labels about releasing a new CADAVER album, ‘Edder & Bile‘. The album is anticipated to arrive before the end of this year.

Oldschool Sunday: CADAVER [Resurrected After 15 Years Via New Video] Article By: Pat 'Riot' Whitaker, Senior Writer/Journalist ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway, Owner/Chief Editor The roots of extreme death metal band…

[theleaderdotinfo-blog]

Little Governmental sympathy for latest Costa Demo has been published at http://www.theleader.info/2019/03/24/little-governmental-sympathy-for-latest-costa-demo/

New Post has been published on http://www.theleader.info/2019/03/24/little-governmental-sympathy-for-latest-costa-demo/

Little Governmental sympathy for latest Costa Demo

There seems to be little sympathy from the government once again for the latest in a multitude of protests organised on the Orihuela Costa in support of better services and funding for it’s residents. On this occasion it was led by the Parents Association of the IES PLAYA FLAMENCA, who are asking for nothing more than the safety of their children as they enter and leave the school. Currently they are forced to do so along a road that has seen absolutely no maintenance in years. It is filled with craters and potholes, there are no kerbs to the road as it drops off quite alarmingly at the edges and in the few short minutes that I watched protestors at the school entrance it was quite scary to see drivers of motorcycles, cars, coaches and other heavy vehicles winding their way along the road, zigzagging around the holes in order to avoid the many ruts and depressions. [caption id="attachment_28995" align="aligncenter" width="3456"] Little Governmental sympathy for latest Costa Demo[/caption] As they did so during the mass exodos from the Institute on Friday afternoon, pedestrians on the side of the road, both young and some quite old, were having to step back, often quite sharply, in order to avoid confrontation with oncoming transport. The holes and potholes in the road leading to the school have already caused serious damage to several vehicles, as well as a number of accidents. "A bus forced me into a huge hole and I scraped the side of the bridge rail. If someone been walking I would have killed him, this is not acceptable", said Román, one of the protesters. Another said that only last week he had been forced to replace a tyre after his car hit one of the holes causing the rubber to split and although he denounced the town hall for the damage he has absolutely no hope whatsoever of reclaiming any of the cost. Of course they are just a couple of many as governmental action continues to be totally insufficient in meeting the needs of the Orihuela Costa, with many roads suffering such a level of deterioration that they have long posed a risk to road safety and to the safety of the general public, as well as presenting a very negative image to the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come into the area every year. The president of the Ampa explained that "5 buses and 500 families drop off children every morning during which time the cars have to leave the road so that the coaches can pass. It is also extremely dangerous for those on foot as there is no pavement, and at 2pm, with children leaving the school en masse, the road is filled with vehicles travelling in all directions, as witnessed on Friday by THE LEADER NEWSPAPER. "We ask that the road be properly repaired and if it is a private plot the council must expropriate it, but do not continue applying patches which seems to be the only thing that the City Council does", said Yolanda Fernández. Over two years ago the FAOC submitted a list of priority actions required to be carried out as a matter of absolute urgency, one of which was the access to the Playa Flamenca Secondary School and the bridge over the AP7 (zone 4). Two years on not a single metre of road has been improved.

[lovemycart]

Buy Avon online from your home in the USA with an American Avon rep. Looking for a local Avon Rep?  You can buy Avon online here. 

BUY AVON ONLINE USA

CURRENT AVON BROCHURE

AVON ONLINE BROCHURE 2019

Shop Avon from my estore and buy Avon as a local customer and I’m able to give you free samples and special discounts. Even better, contact me to join my Avon email list if you’ve lost contact with your Avon rep and want to buy Avon online. 

NICOLE MAE, NATIONAL AVON REP

If you’d like to know a little more about me, you can read more here. 

BUY AVON ONLINE USA

You probably already do a lot of online shopping for makeup and beauty products. But what if you could earn the money for your beauty budget while you’re asleep though?  With the price of everything going up, think about your beauty budget. So here’s the news, when you become an Avon Influencer online, you get paid 2 days after each order ships to your customers. Directly into your bank account. 

   START SHOPPING AVON ONLINE WITH NICOLE MAE, USA AVON REP☺

BUY AVON MAKEUP ONLINE

Buy Avon makeup online sale and experience quality at a fraction of what we pay compared to other name brands. I happen to have this mark by Avon touch and glow contour and highlight square and I adore it. It’s lasted me over a year and still a big staple in my makeup collection. Even better, I’m able to use the blush with the highlight cubes for a finished sheer look. Highly recommend! 

BUY AVON BRONZER & CONTOUR ONLINE 

Buy the Avon bronzer and Avon dazzle drops online for a tanned, sheer glowy look to your makeup. The bronzer compact is perfect for outlining your jawline as well as contouring your concealer. Furthermore, the entire set of 3 Avon products costs less than $20 at any given time from my Avon estore. Pair it with an Avon foundation, Avon Haiku Kyoto perfume, Avon eye shadow, and Avon mascara and spend about $50. Get free shipping and win free Avon just by shopping with me. 

BUY AVON MOONLIT HIGHLIGTING POWDER

Buy Avon highlighting powder online and finish your on the go look without heavy foundation or blush. Highlighting powders are the way to enhance your cheek bones, contour your nose, and give your skin a summer glow in the dead of winter. After all, every girl needs a little help accentuating our best points. I buy the Avon highlighting powder in both colors. Avon highlighting powder in Topaz is used to frame my jaw line. I buy Avon quartz highlighting powder to contour my cheeks and down the middle of my nose. Another highly recommended Avon buy with great reviews. 

BUY AVON MASCARA ONLINE & AVON LASH SERUM

Buy Avon online Love at First Lash Mascara and Avon Anew Lash Serum from my estore and you will be buying the most popular duo of 2019. If you don’t have the time or patience to deal with false lashes, or maybe you just haven’t gotten into the false lash trend…this duo is for you. I buy the Avon Mascara online and use the Lash Serum in the evening to grow my natural lashes. Avon actually shipped me a set of both for free as an Avon Influencer. Check it out online here.

Check out more about Avon’s Lash Serum and why it’s beating the competition.

  BUY AVON EYE SHADOW ONLINE

If you’ve never tried Avon, I recommend you buy Avon eye shadow online first! Highly pigmented colors that don’t crease and last all day. What I used to hate the most about cheap eye shadow was how it flaked up as soon as I put a shadow brush to it. It was always a mess! Eye shadow goes everywhere and the palette looks like it’s been used 10 times after just one use. The texture for Avon eye shadow is smooth and thick. No worries about what we call “fallout” because it doesn’t crumble up very easily at all. I use our Avon setting spray as a primer and my shadow has deep, rich colors that last all day. More colors are coming soon! 

    SELL AVON ONLINE AS USA INFLUENCER

Become an Avon rep in the U.S? Are you looking to make extra money for a utility bill or a car note? You can join my team and add members to your own team. Avon makes you money while you’re asleep with your estore. 

GO TO STARTAVON.COM & USE REF CODE NICOLEMAE

  SELL AVON ONLINE ONLY USA

Become an Avon Rep and join team GORGEOUS AVON REPS as an Influencer This team is nationally recognized by Avon Insider & Avon USA Reps. Check out the #gorgeousavonreps on Instagram and you’ll see. 

SELL AVON ONLINE AS A USA AVON REP

Since there aren’t hundreds of Avon reps in your local area, you can easily earn a living from your Avon business by sharing your estore, growing your email database online, starting a Youtube Channel, and being consistent. There aren’t any viral Youtubers in your area. The opportunity is yours to create something special and unique. 

BEST HOME BASED BUSINESS FOR AMERICAN MOM’S 

Whether you live in the city, rural, or tourist town, with restaurants & bars all over, there’s still money to be made working from home. I created a group on Instagram by rounding up the beauties that I found across the country. Beauties that were selling Avon as a home based business. This group of ladies has been dubbed the Gorgeous Avon Reps. 

AVON SECRETS REVEALED FOR 2019

So now you’ve read about the tips to start Avon for free in 2019, and it’s time to decide of this is something you can actually make money doing. I need to share a little secret with you though…you’ll have to be focused on not spending your Avon income on yourself. And online sales will now be generating the most money in 2019.

DON’T SPEND YOUR EARNINGS 

With the amount of discounted product and samples available to you, it’s encouraged that you try Avon products so that you can recommend to your customers what works best for you. In doing so, don’t be tempted to blow all of your earnings and max out your Avon credit. 

THE BEST TIME TO BUY IS FROM AVON WHAT’S NEW 

The Avon What’s New brochure has demo products that not only show you what’s coming up but they’re stacked with other perks as well. I’ll only say this…buying demos makes you more money in commission. 

AVON BENEFITS ARE SO STACKED, YOU WON’T BELIEVE YOU’RE IN BUSINESS FOR YOURSELF 

From wireless discounts, to contractor health insurance, tuition reimbursement, free beauty certifications, easy promotions & a forever sisterhood…there’s more to gain than you’d know becoming an Avon rep. 

SELLING AVON IS ABOUT TO CHANGE…BIG TIME 

Avon realized that selling techniques are moving more and more to social media. By just allowing others to get to know you and opening your cameras and videos to the world, it is just as personal as walking up to someone and saying hello. The people who will be doing the best in Avon sales for 2019 will be the ones who know how to let down their guard and practice the art of no selling sales. 

AVON QUALITY MAKEUP AND SKINCARE IS BETTER THAN MOST PEOPLE KNOW 

My skin has been an awful mess for a long time. I’ve tried multiple products to reduce the scarring, even skin bleaching. I started using Avon Skinvincible and my Mom started Avon Ultimate. We’re both hooked and our pockets don’t feel a thing. My products are always almost free when I buy them with big orders. And I purchase my Mom’s for 50% discounts. We’re talking less than $20 a month for skincare….top of the line skincare. Avon also has a new lash serum that’s blowing other competitors out of the market. Our company has a board member who used to work with Rodan & Fields. Talk about the best of both worlds coming together. 

BUY AVON ONLINE USA

      BUY AVON ONLINE WITH A USA REP AVON BROCHURE ONLINE CAMPAIGN 5 Buy Avon online from your home in the USA with an American Avon rep. Looking for a local Avon Rep?  

[xsrock-blog]

Geoff Tate seems to be sort of an enigmatic person for a lot of people. Always a bit mysterious and probably often misunderstood. Prior to meeting Geoff for the first time, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I have been a longtime fan of his work, first in Queensryche and now on his own. Geoff has just finished his latest album under the Operation: Mindcrime moniker, The New Reality, which is set for release on December 1st through Frontiers Music. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Geoff is a very friendly, intelligent and articulate guy that has a tremendous amount of respect for his fans, the press and other performers. During our interview, I found him to be humble, honest and quite interesting to speak with. I hope you will enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Bobby Caughron Senior Editor XS ROCK

XS ROCK: So, I really like the latest and final chapter in the Operation: Mindcrime trilogy, The New Reality. To me, it seems much closer to the classic Queensryche sound that you helped create. Was that by design? It almost seems like, in many ways that on the first two albums, you were almost trying to distant yourself from sounding too much like your former band.

Geoff: Umm, I don’t know if I was really trying…..I’ve written the majority of the material over the years for Queensryche and now my own. There’s a similarity  that you have as a writer that you can’t get away from you. It kind of follows you. Even though I’ve collaborated with a lot of different people on this project, there’s still a lot of things that are similar in the musical passages, the melodies, and the lyrics. It has a familiarity to people, I guess.

XS ROCK: So you just kind of did what you wanted to do and that’s just the way it came out in your work, correct?

Geoff: Yeah. I kind of always follow that plan. I don’t know any other way to go about it, you know?

  XS ROCK: So, now that Operation: Mindcrime has come to an end, what’s next for Geoff Tate?

Geoff: Well, really touring. I’ve got quite an extensive tour itinerary coming up. I’m going to be starting my tour in Ireland and then kind of spreading out across Europe.  After that, I’ll be jotting back to North America sometime in the Spring and South America after that and then probably Asia after that. So it’s going to be a pretty full year of touring for me.

XS ROCK: Musically, as far as recording, do you have anything beyond Operation: Mindcrime planned? More solo work or a possible new band?

Geoff: I don’t. I really don’t have a set musical plan. I’m constantly writing, jotting down ideas and creating demos and things like that, so I have a lot of, as yet, unreleased material that I suppose I could make something out of, you know? I haven’t really decided on what I want to do or how I want to go about it as of yet. I’m really kind of just getting finished with the Operation: Mindcrime projects. It was really, really intense. It was a long project. A three year project and I kind of want to take just a little bit of a musical breather. Recharge my batteries a bit and see where the touring leads me.

  XS ROCK: Which do you prefer? Writing new songs and recording or playing for a live audience?

Geoff: I like both for different reasons. I love being in the studio. My wife actually has a hard time trying to get me out of the studio, actually. It’s kind of my office, my think tank. It’s where I go to organize my thoughts and write down new ideas. I love being there. But, I also love traveling.  I love going around the world to different places and visiting friends and there’s so many countries that I like to visit and while I’m there, I may as well play a show, you know? (laughs). I try to gather different groups of people together to play my music with me and that’s always fun. That’s kind of what we’re doing over the next month, rehearsing for this upcoming tour. I’m going to put together a real interesting set list for the people. I think it will really please a lot of people who may have seen me perform over the years. I’ll be doing some really deep cuts off of some albums that often times don’t get a lot of attention. I’m looking forward to playing some of that material.

  XS ROCK: Starting with The Warning album, Queensryche seemed to have a really solidified sound and direction (a thinking man’s heavy metal, if you will) that was quite different from most metal bands at the time. Was this  pre-planned or was it just the results of the chemistry of the band members together?

Geoff: I think that’s collectively where our heads were at. We were dealing with a lot of doomsday type stuff. That was 1984. A lot of our albums had to do with the times. That was a very radical time in my life. I was really at that point, exposed to international politics and the first time that the band had gone overseas. It was really an eye opening experience, seeing the world in an entirely different perspective from what I had.  I think that really is reflected in the music.

XS ROCK: I usually don’t ask questions about politics, but a lot of your material seems political in nature at times. What do you think of the current U.S. President, Donald Trump?

Geoff: I haven’t been a fan so far. I think the worst president in my lifetime has been George W. Bush. Just a horrible presidency.  and I think President Trump will probably beat that record and be the worst president in history (laughs) . I wrote an interesting piece on this recently. We are stepping into a period of growth. As Americans, we are facing a full frontal discussion on who we are. We are able now, with our advancements in communications to communicate everywhere in the world all at once now.  So we are witness to situations that are occurring everywhere and we’re commenting on them testing our own perspectives and our belief system. We’re questioning it and drawing new lines. I think it’s a healthy thing, but it’s very frustrating because we don’t really have an American identity. We came from all over the world from different countries and nationalities and we came to this country to worship the god of our choice and make lots of money. Those two situations don’t really align themselves to fulfill one’s identity.  But here we are…trying to figure out who we are., what we believe and what’s right and what’s wrong. We’re now redrawing the lines for sexism in the workplace and those lines needed to be redrawn for a long time. In my lifetime, black people were persecuted, segregated and couldn’t vote. And in my grandmother’s lifetime, people were still slaves. At that time it was okay to own somebody.  Now, we look at that and say well that’s ridiculous. How could that be? How could that have happened? How could people believe that? Go back even further to England an France and millions of people used to think that the King or Queen were holy. They believed that god, a god, some god, spoke to these people and told them that they were holy and that they needed to lead those people. And they somehow convinced millions of people that it was true. Now we look at it with 21st century eyes and say what a bunch of idiots. How could they believe that stuff? Well, we’re in that same place now. We’re questioning our actions and belief systems and it’s testy. A lot of people say freedom is a right. It’s not a right. It’s a choice that we make.

XS ROCK: A lot of your lyrical content is quite intellectual in nature, what influences you creatively when writing new lyrics?

Geoff: Well, all kinds of things really. I guess it kind of depends on what I’m writing for. The trilogy project was a story. I was creating the lyrical direction out of the outline of the story. Other times it’s events that are happening around me. World events. It’s a fantastic time to be alive right now. There’s so much information out there and so many inspirational situations, every day. Also, I’m at a point in my life now, where I’m pushing 60 and I have a real opportunity to look at things in retrospect. People that I’ve known for a long period of time are going through changes in life and that’s an interesting bunch of topics that I can pull from.  I have my ears open and my eyes open right now. I’m in what I call the sponge mode, where I sort of pick up a lot of different things, feelings and observations and kind of catalog them in my memory banks, before I make something new.

  XS ROCK: So, the record industry has changed dramatically since the 80’s, what do you think the key to survival as a recording artist is today?

Geoff: Is there an industry? I think that depends on who you’re talking to. For myself, I’m a pretty established artist, I’ve been doing it for a long time, so I have an audience.  I can plop down in most cities, at least in the 65 countries that I tour in, I can go there and put on a show. A lot of new bands starting out don’t have that audience yet. And I don’t even know how a young band even gets an audience anymore because it used to be that we heard about new bands and artists from the radio and we don’t have that anymore. So I guess for a time, it was YouTube, but if the FCC has their way and they stop net neutrality, then wow!, I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be a bloodbath for a lot of businesses, small businesses and a band or young artist is really a small business.  It’s really difficult times.

  XS ROCK: Over the years you’ve toured with a lot of different bands. Which band treated you the best and who was the worst?

Geoff Tate in the Queensryche times.

Geoff: I toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and they treated me like gold. It was fantastic! It was champagne nights and caviar dreams. I was just in Sao Paulo Brazil, and I did a show with Angra, which is the biggest metal band in Brazil, and I did a special guest thing with them and I sang some of their songs with them and they sang some of my songs with me. It was really, really beautiful. A really great audience. I’ve been in a lot of situations where bands have treated me really, really well. The majority of them were really helpful. Especially in the early days. Iron Maiden was really great. Judas Priest were fantastic. AC/DC was just over the top cool and nice and welcoming. Ronnie Dio was exceptional. He was actually my first experience with touring. He kind of set the bar. He treated Queensryche really well as the opening act. He gave us sound checks, lighting and all of the sound we wanted. You could go anywhere on stage and had freedom backstage to move around and I thought that was just the norm. Later, when we toured with some other bands, you couldn’t even look at the guys in the band (laughs) without getting kicked off the tour. I won’t say who that was. That will be in my book someday.

  XS ROCK: Do you have any outrageous tour stories from the road?

Geoff: Hmmm. Well, I’m not really sure what’s considered outrageous, because my level of outrageous is set pretty high (laughs). Around 2004 or 2005, when I was in Queensryche, we were opening for Iron Maiden, we had a day off somewhere in Texas and a bunch of us all went out golfing. That lead to a lot of drinking and that lead to us all getting kicked out of the country club where we were staying…for different reasons, public drunkenness, nudity, profanity, things like that (laughs).

  XS ROCK: What’s the strangest request that you’ve ever received from one of your fans?

Geoff: Wow! Strangest request? Well, I’m really interactive with my fans. I actually really like talking to them and listening to what they think and how they interpret lyrics and so forth. It’s interesting to hear their perspective. You know, I’ve done things like visiting people in the hospital, blood drives, I’ve done several lectures at schools in regards to music. I’m active in a charity called Save The Music which helps put musical instruments in kids hands at an early age and gives them musical instruction. It’s a really wonderful organization and they do great things. I was always glad that I grew up in a school system that supported the arts. I was in school band all of my school life. I try to give back to that whenever I can.

  XS ROCK: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment both musically and personally so far?

Geoff: Oh gosh, you’re making me to dig deep here.  I think being around and making music for the length of time that I have is pretty amazing.  This new album is my 18th album. I think that’s like 216 songs that I’ve written.  A lot of content. I’m pretty proud of that. I think that I’ve been married to my wife Susan, for 23 or 24 years now, we both forget exactly how long it is. I think that’s pretty impressive. I’m very happy in my personal life with my family and my life. We have five beautiful daughters and now grandchildren. I feel very blessed. Every day, I open my eyes and I’m thankful that I’m still alive.

  XS ROCK: If you weren’t performing in a band what kind of career do you think you would have?

Geoff: I never had a backup plan. I’ve always been a musician. When I was nine I started listening to music and starting shaping myself a s a musician even then.  I figured out what I wanted and systematically went in that direction.

              Geoff back in the day

XS ROCK: In the age of fake news, similar to Axl Rose, there is a lot of negative comments about you posted in various places on the web. I wonder if you’d address that by giving me your take on things. Do you personally think that you’re a difficult or arrogant person as many people have posted?

Geoff: (laughs) I think those things that are written about me on the internet are written by people who don’t know me, honestly. The whole Queensryche break up was a pretty nasty thing and I think it’s pretty well known, that in a lawsuit situation, there’s a lot of negativity that’s spread around.

XS ROCK: Do you think that’s what drives most of it? Like kids of divorced parents choosing sides with one parent over another?

Geoff: Oh, I absolutely do. I’ve worked with way too many people and have way to many contacts with people for a personality like some people try to paint for me. So, there you go. Also, if you’re an artist that sort of breaks the rules, like myself, I tend to draw myself outside of the box. I challenge my listeners musically quite a bit. And I think that’s upsetting to some people who want me to conform to some sort of standard that they’ve invented. That becomes frustrating to some people.

    XS ROCK: What do you think of the current music scene? Any new bands out there that you really like?

Geoff: Yeah. I’ve been  listening to all kinds of new music lately. There’s a band that I’ve been listening to called Vancouver Sleep Clinic. I really like their music. It’s very unique and beautiful. Kind of sadly beautiful. It’s fitting for today. It’s rainy and dark. Very introspective.

  XS ROCK: For anyone that doesn’t know you, what would they be surprised to know about you?

Geoff: I have no idea.

XS ROCK: I guess it would be a surprise to you as well?

Geoff: Yeah. (laughs) I guess it would.

  XS ROCK: Is there anything that you’d like to promote or say to your fans out there?

Geoff: I’ve got really wonderful fans and I’m very thankful that people will come out and spend their evenings listening to me and what I have to say.  They continue to come out and they bring their kids and their friends and it’s really become a unique thing that and I’m really grateful for this life that people have allowed me to live. So, I guess I would say thank you. Thank you so much for that.

  XS ROCK: Thanks again Geoff for taking the time to talk with us at XS Rock, I know you have quite a busy itinerary at the moment with tour planning and all!

Geoff: Thank you Bobby! Thanks for the interview. Good questions. I appreciate that too.

The Operation: Mindcrime Trilogy

The Key

Resurrection

The New Reality

You can buy them on Amazon by clicking here.

http://geofftate.com/

https://www.facebook.com/GeoffTateOfficial/

  XS ROCK Interview With Geoff Tate Geoff Tate seems to be sort of an enigmatic person for a lot of people. Always a bit mysterious and probably often misunderstood.

[lovelaughwoof]

Collar Safety Awareness Week: The KeepSafe Break-Away Collar

by Lynn Stacy-Smith

  Earlier this year, I shared with you the importance of ensuring that the information on your dog’s identification tags is up to date in case he or she is lost. Later in the summer I also shared some important information on pet collar safety, common dog collar and dog tag hazards, and my own approach to when my dogs should wear their collars and when they should not wear them, in the post Dog Collar Safety: When to Let Your Dog Go Naked. 

A few weeks ago I was thrilled when PetSafe contacted me and told me about their upcoming Collar Safety Awareness Week and asked if they could send me one of the KeepSafe Break-Away Collars for me to test. PetSafe is known for products including wireless and in-ground fences, automatic self-cleaning litter boxes for cats (something else I would happily test), digital feeders, electronic pet doors, and a variety of other products for cats and dogs. Of course I replied that I was happy to test out a collar, given my obsession with pet safety and my recent post about collar safety in particular. I was thrilled when not one but two collars arrived last week. 

Tinkerbell looks stunning in the pawprint KeepSafe Break-Away colla

According to the PetSafe website, over 19 million dogs wear collars every day, and more than 26,000 collar related injuries happen each year. There are 71 incidents a day and over 50% of pet professionals have experienced a collar related incident. In my own blogs I have shared the personal stories of Jackson and Tinkerbell, both of whom have gotten their tags stuck in the wires of the dishwasher while sneaking a lick off the plates, and the story of when Tinkerbell’s tags became caught in the heating/cooling vent one night as she enjoyed her habit of snoozing on top of the air conditioning vent. 

Last summer we had a scary incident in the middle of the night when Tinkerbell woke me up by standing and whimpering next to my side of the bed. She had a habit of sleeping on top of the air conditioning vent and her tag had gone down through the slats while she was laying down and twisted. As a result, the entire metal vent cover came off of the vent when she stood up and was dangling awkwardly from her collar, the corner of the metal poking her in the neck slightly.

Since I was sound asleep it took me a minute to figure out what was attached to her and I quickly released her collar. Free from the metal grate, she jumped up into our bed and squirmed into my lap, her tail wagging furiously in fear and relief. After that I began to remove both dogs’ collars at night, although I have not seen her sleeping on top of the vent since.

In my post Dog Collar Safety: When to Let Your Pet Go Naked, I mention a variety of collar hazards including playtime between two or more dogs, crates/kennels, the dishwasher, and heating/cooling vents. In addition to those, the PetSafe also lists the slats of your deck, fences, and shrubs and bushes as potential choking hazards. Both the tags on the collar and the collar itself pose a risk that can turn deadly quickly, particularly as the dog begins to panic and try to pull or run away even more. 

Dog owner Tenney Mudge invented the KeepSafe Break-Away Safety Collar after the tragic death of her beloved Samoyed/Australian Shepherd named Chinook, who she lost to a collar strangulation accident. In order to prevent similar tragedies, Tenney developed and patented the special safety buckle on the KeepSafe Break-Away Safety Collar that releases when pressure is applied. The safety buckle is designed so that it will release, the collar will fall off, and the dog will be free of the hazard. 

Photo source: https://store.petsafe.net/keepsafe-collar

I could not wait to try this out on Jackson and Tinkerbell. The collar is excellent quality, made of a strong but silky polyester fabric. I received the limited edition Bones/Paws pattern which has brightly colored bones on a black background on one side and paw prints on the other, so that when you size the collar to fit your dog, you can see both prints. I love the way the aqua, coral and yellow print pops against their black fur but will also look adorable on any color fur. It also comes in a nylon fabric in black, orange, red, blue and purple. 

There is a regular heavy plastic buckle for regular use as well as the special breakaway buckle. There is also a small plastic tag holder to which you can attach your dog’s tags. 

Photo source: http://www.breakawaycollar.com/pics/collarclosed2.jpg

So how do you keep this collar on if you have a dog who pulls on the leash? That is where the genius of the two metal rings comes in!

The emergency release buckle is located behind the rings, so to attach a leash you just need to hook the leash to both rings, taking the pressure off the buckle and making it so that it will not release if your dog pulls on the leash.

It is important to note that you should never leave a leash or tie-out attached to your dog when you are not present and awake regardless of which collar you use. 

Photo source: http://www.breakawaycollar.com/pics/leash2.jpg

I definitely love this collar, the ingenious design, the nice quality materials, and I am extremely happy that PetSafe reached out to me to test it. I will also share my review of it via video so that you can see it with a leash attached and show you the safety release by pulling on it. Of course I will not put Jackson or Tinkerbell in harm’s way for a demo, so I will also try to recreate the situations in which they became entangled to the extent possible without their involvement. 

Even with this great safety feature, I will still continue to recommend that you remove all collars when putting your dog into their crate or kennel or if your dogs are about to start a game of what we call Zoomies or Bitey Face. However, this collar offers a  potentially lifesaving release in case someone forgets to remove a collar before the dogs go into their crates or if they become entangled while their humans are asleep, in the shower, or simply elsewhere in the house. 

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Safety release function

Use both rings with a leash

Regular buckle for taking collar on and off

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Collar Safety Awareness Week: The KeepSafe Break-Away Collar Collar Safety Awareness Week: The KeepSafe Break-Away Collar by Lynn Stacy-Smith Earlier this year, I shared with you the…

[ergohacks]

The Ergohacks Verdict

With a tagline like Try Something New, you might correctly imagine that here at Ergohacks we’re always on the lookout for the next thing. Trying something new doesn’t necessarily mean something new for everyone but it might. For me, VR isn’t something new but it’s something that’s been almost there for a long time. I’ve been going to gaming shows for years and I first saw a DK1 model 7 years ago. In the time since it’s gone through the DK1, DK2, Release, Touch and with every version it’s evolved slightly and got easier to use, lighter and had better abilities. This summer the price came down to £500 – £400 for a few weeks – and that added to the fact that there’s now a decent range of titles means that my excitement about the Oculus Rift has finally hit fever pitch. It was my first time not pushed through a particular demo or surrounded by hundreds of people in a cavernous warehouse and even three weeks after we’ve gotten it’s living up to its potential.

Once you get it on your head the headset is comfortable and does a decent job of blocking out the rest of the world. The Rift’s screens are high enough resolution that unless you really look for it you can’t see the pixels and with a decent PC behind them, the refresh rate is fast enough that you don’t get any lag or choppiness in what you see as you move around. In other words, it’s really, really immersive. The integrated earphones surprised me with their quality and I also found them more comfortable than they looked to be. When you’re in VR the tracking both of the headset and the controllers are good with the occasional glitch if you managed to get the controllers hidden behind your body. The Rift isn’t perfect – it’s not heavy but it does weigh a reasonable amount and that plus the cable that you pull behind you mean that you almost always know it’s there.

Once you’ve got your Rift setup what can you do with it? The software available comes down to three things. Games, experiences and everything else. The obvious thing to try is games but when the Rift came out the consensus was that the games weren’t quite there. There were a lot of demos and some Indie stuff but full AAA games? No without the market they hadn’t been developed. In the year and a half, that’s changed. I don’t think that the killer game has quite come out yet but titles like Robo Recall, Star Trek Bridge Crew and Lucky’s Tale make great use of VR in their own ways and more importantly are fun to play. Even better there are new games being released on a consistent schedule and with the back catalogue now fleshed out, there’s enough to keep you busy and playing quality games as much as you want.

The experiences are mainly 360 videos and virtual environments. They’re fun and great to introduce people to VR but they aren’t that replayable and there just isn’t enough content available. It’s also possible to watch normal content on a virtual screen that you can make as large as you like which is a surprisingly good experience.

Finally, you’ve got everything else. This is thing’s like Google’s Tilt Brush painting and Sculpting to a Virtual Desktop and many social apps.  So far Tilt Brush has been favourite with everyone who’s tried it and Virtual Desktop lets you see your PC screen in VR and make it as large as you like. If you’re a touch typist and your mouse is close at hand this works really well and combined with a ‘normal’ non-VR game can work really well.

The big question is should you invest in VR? I have absolutely loved having the Oculus Rift around for the last few weeks. It’s an amazing piece of technology which has come farther than I expected it to in a relatively short amount of time. There are some genuinely fun and impressive games and software on it and if you’re the right person its ready for you. You need to have some tech skills and space near your gaming PC but if you’ve got that it’s an amazing device. If you consider that a large gaming monitor can easily reach six or seven hundred pounds the Rift is well priced and you get a quality product for your cash. If you get a chance to try out a Rift go for it – it’s an experience everyone should have. If you’re a PC gamer or an early adapter get one. Highly recommended.

Buy it from Oculus  + 

Price: ±  £ 499 Paid extras: The Rift comes bundled with some games and there are a number of free games available in the store but many are also paid. It will also require a powerful PC. Discounts: Oculus just ran a summer sale discounting by £100. The likelihood is that they will do so again the future.

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Features

The Rift isn’t just a headset but rather a way to interact with a virtual environment. That means a headset with eye cover and integrated earphones but also two controllers and a couple of sensors that track where you and the controllers are in space.

Setup is not anywhere near as complicated but that’s not to say it’s straightforward. Your first step is to get a powerful PC with a modern graphics card and a fair amount of hard disk space. It also needs an unused HDMI port and at least three unused USB ports. Then you need a decent amount of space around the PC without any furniture, tripping hazards or random cats. When you’ve got all that you set the sensors up to cover your space as best you can and run through several calibration routines that tell the Rift how big your space is and (theoretically) make it far less likely you’ll trip out of it. If the sensors move you’ll need to do this again and if you’re having the Rift in on place for a long time it makes sense to mount the sensors somewhere they won’t get knocked – some people have had a good experience with mounting them upside down from the ceiling.

Once you’re setup and put the headset on you need to adjust it to make it more comfortable. Think of putting the headset on like a pair of goggles. Cover your eyes first then pull the strapping back over your head and tighten the three pulleys. Then adjust the focal width with a small slider. If you’re like me and really, really need glasses then it’s a bit more complicated. You can put glasses on under the headset but you need the right frame shape to fit comfortably. My daily wear glasses turned out to just be too wide to be comfortable but an older pair with solid round lenses fitted acceptably if not perfectly. It’s been the first thing in years to make me seriously consider getting contact lenses.

Requirements

The Rift needs a PC with at least  NVIDIA GTX 960 4GB / AMD Radeon R9 290 or greater,  Intel i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350 or greater,  8GB+ RAM, Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output, 1x USB 3.0 port, plus 2x USB 2.0 ports and Windows 8.1 or greater. I’ve also noted several games that require Windows 10.

About Oculus VR

Oculus VR is an American tech company started in 2012 by Palmer Luckey. They got their initial financing via a hugely successful Kickstarted and went on to produce two versions of the Rift – the DK1 and DK2. Before they released the consumer version Oculus VR got acquired by Facebook in 2014 and still operating independently released the Oculus Rift in March 2016.

 We based our Ergohacks Verdict on three weeks of tinkering, testing and using the Oculus Rift loaned by Oculus VR during September 2017. This article was first published on 28 September 2017.

Oculus Rift The Ergohacks Verdict With a tagline like Try Something New, you might correctly imagine that here at Ergohacks we're always on the lookout for the next thing.