#f2f: take a break

[irisbleufic]

Hi iris, I love your iwtv fics and thanks for still telling us stories every day even though everything went to hell this week. I’m here to pitch you smth that you totally don’t have to do but which I’m desperate to see- namely the Harvey Milk interview that Daniel has scheduled at the time your just-finished 1973 story ends! It wouldn’t have to be the whole interview, even just a scene where they’re wrapping it p. They only interact on the phone in your story, but I so, so want to see them f2f!

Anon, thanks so much for letting me know you’re enjoying the stories. I rarely stop writing just because the day-to-day gets rough, as those are the times I need storytelling most, and I’m sure lots of you do, too. It’s not to say taking breaks isn’t important, but getting myself to do that is difficult. I prefer to stay busy.

As for what you’re asking here: oh, I knew this was going to come up. I’ve been nagging myself about it, too, because the phone interactions alone left me regretting that I ended it without a face-to-face. When is a cameo no longer a cameo? I so rarely push historical figure appearances in to major-character territory, and I feel like I’m borderlining it with this one. He’s…okay, fuck, he’s worth it, though, who am I kidding.

So, okay, you’ve convinced me I can probably add one more chapter to “Trade the Game You Know for Shelter” and still have it feel like the chapter I currently have sitting as the ending chapter was meant to be a penultimate one. Plus, plus—if I add one more chapter at 3,000 words, that means I can kick it up to 40,000 even, and my gremlin brain is going to be happy about that word count. Hey, anon, you can walk away from this negotiation feeling proud of yourself.

(Downside: Caldera boys get blocked another day or two, and I get sarcastic commentary at the back of my head. Hey, guys, how about telling your younger selves to stop being so fascinating? That’s how we got into this mess.)

[giselle-archive]

spilling tea over coffee // f2f ⬌ danselle

To say that Giselle was already stressed out over her studies would be an understatement. She was still failing at learning when to take a break to do absolutely anything that would get her out of her dorm room, which was why she'd been holed up in here since getting out of her last class of the day. Luckily an opportunity presented itself when Dani offered to buy her coffee, which she was in desperate need of at the moment anyways, so it only took a minute or so for her to say screw studying and agree to it. Though, there was an incentive here: the other woman was going to reveal who she thought was the best looking person on campus, and she was all for getting it out of her.

With this being a quick trip over to the Lima Bean, she'd chosen not to change out of her leggings and sweatshirt but she did take the time to run a comb through her hair at least. God forbid I be caught on campus looking a complete mess. She thought to herself as she made sure she looked decent enough at least. Once she was sure her hair was fine, and then her make up, she slipped her feet into a pair of Nikes before heading out.

Giselle had only been to the Lima Bean one other time since arriving on campus and while it hadn't been her personal favorite, it would do for tonight. It didn't take long for her to make it there, and she managed to spot Dani almost instantly. "Hey, cutie." She teased, smiling as she approached her. "Ready to get this coffee and tell me your secret?" @daniwmu

[thistleandthorn-events]

It's that time of year again, ghouls and goblins, for your favorite institute to put on your favorite event - THE HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE! So come join us on October 31st for a night of food, fun, and mystery! (Everything below the cut is IC knowledge unless otherwise directed).

RULES

Attendance is mandatory for all students. Townspeople are optional.

All attendees must wear a costume complete with mask.

YOU CANNOT TELL ANYONE WHAT YOUR COSTUME IS.

Marks are on hold for the party, however, the headmaster and guards will be around so don’t be ridiculous about it.

ACTIVITIES

Dancing - Great Hall

Escape Room - First floor classrooms (4 rooms designated for different themed escape rooms)

Photo Booth - Great Hall

Snacks and Punch - Great Hall

Halloween themed Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (8-10am, 12-2pm, 5-7pm respectively) - Cafeteria

Movie Viewings - Auditorium (10am - Halloweentown 1pm - Haunted Mansion, 4pm - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, 7pm - Poltergeist, 10pm - Scream)

Pumpkin Carving, Pumpkin seed spitting, Pumpkin Painting, Halloween Crafts - Art Room

Thriller Dance Instruction and performance - Dance Studio

Punkin’ Chunkin’ - Court yard

Haunted Maze - Hedge Maze (like a haunted corn maze with characters, spooky music and guards dressed in costume chasing people. They cannot touch or harm students)

Mad Science Lab - Cafeteria (snacks themes as science and laboratory - eyeballs that are grapes in jello, intestines that are spaghetti noddles, etc)

Potion making - Cafeteria (alcoholic and non alcoholic choices)

Bobbing for Apples - Court Yard

‘Ghost in the Graveyard’ Game - Court Yard

Horror Movie Trivia - Ipads in Great Hall

COSTUME CONTEST

There will be a costume contest BUT it is slightly different from what you’d expect. The object of this contest is to try to be as convincing as your costume character as you can. Everyone will vote for the top 3 costumes - again, the voting criteria being that you had NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE. We’re looking for the best actors here and the top 3 winners will win 200 points each!

OOC INFO

Alright, so here’s how it’s going to work - create a side blog for each of your characters’ costumes. THE URL SHOULD HAVE NOTHING IN IT about your actual character. Remember, you don’t want people to know who your character is. This goes for IC and OOC. PLEASE, don’t break the game. It’s not fun if you break the game.

On your sideblog for your character’s costume, post a photo of your costume including the mask. Once the blog is built and photo is posted, add the URL and costume to THIS GOOGLE DOC. Also, posting throughout the party will be done all F2F. There will be no online or tumblr based starters.

Ok, this part gets a little confusing. IC - this event only happens on Saturday, November 2nd. BUT, OOC we’ll be ‘freezing time’ to allow this event to be played out for a weekish (November 1st - November 9). Again, it’s all happening IC on Saturday. Please keep the dash strictly Masquerade during the whole event.

The other part of the “don’t think about it” part of this is we need to kinda fake things about our characters to avoid being discovered. For example, since this takes place AFTER locktober, no one's locked for this. Or, Austin won't show his accent to avoid knowing who he is, etc. So just kinda suspend your disbelief, please. This goes for physical attributes, accents, etc.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER when making your blog:

Take off auto-tags if you have a way you tag things regularly, or just tag differently

Don't post photos or manips displaying your face claim in your costume, EVEN IF YOU'RE TRYING TO HIDE THEIR FACE. We know, I assure you.

Don't talk OOC about what costume your characters are wearing

If while playing, you miss something please utilize tumblr's asks/messages and message from your sideblog, not your main.

Don't reuse former Masquerade side blogs (not everyone deletes people)

Look out for OOC traits/behaviors which might identify you

Any triggering plots or plots involving a lot of people need to be approved.

If your student character participates they will receive 50 points. Participation will include at least some decent activity (just a post or one/two replies will not count.) Gimme at least one thread and I’ll count it.

VOTING - once we get closer to the event we’ll let you know how this will go but it will be dependent on NOT LETTING ANYONE KNOW (Ic or OOC) WHAT COSTUME YOUR CHARACTER HAS. Please, again, Don’t Break the Game. These things are only fun when the rules are followed. Vote per character, however, even if your character doesn’t interact with them. So, you can use some OOC knowledge for voting ONLY.

We allow costumes to double. Make sure you're paying attention to the URL name when you're voting.

If you have questions please feel free to ask but make sure it’s not already answered in this post please and thank you.

[muniimyg]

+

playlist 

jungkook’s songs for oc

cardigan by taylor swift

closer by rm (with paul blanco, mahalia)

is there someone else? by the weekend

jin’s songs for oc

mary jane (all night long) by mary j. blige

anniversary by mulherin

seesaw by suga of bts 

oc’s songs for jungkook

f2f by sza

bad habit by steve lacy

something about you by the 1975

oc’s songs for jin

kiss it better by rihanna

space for you by avenue beat

honeymoon avenue by ari 

thank you note

this fic has been an absolute experience y’all... i don’t know why it took me so long to complete it. i literally went through so many breaks and random updates even though the plot and the notes were prepared before i posted it LOL. i guess life is jus life,, and with that being said i want to thank u for ur patience and interactions with this story! it was filled with so many ups and downs,, and i hope u were able to laugh and even stress with the characters. 

i want to thank @geekwang, kamlc, and my cousin rc for helping me with the plot LOL,, @pamzn, @avtrns, @joonsjuice​, and @floweryjeons for the constant love nd support ,, @jeonqkooks-main/ @jenrecs​ and @firesighgirl​ for freaking out in the cutest way possible in their thoughtful responses ,, and @boraength​ for reaching out when i went on a mini break huhuhuuuuhuuu. u have all made updating paraluman so much more exciting !!!

and an obvious thank u to everyone else not mentioned. from the anons to my regular readers and other moots <3

authors cut

oc did have feelings for jungkook in the past but they were more childish in a sense where it was formed out of comfort and familiarity. her confusing personality and inability to choose him roots from her parents leaving her. she has a people-pleasing aura and is constantly afraid of being abandoned. therefore, she attempts to maintain her friendship with jungkook while in a “secret” relationship with jin. as she begins to realize that her same best friend boundaries with jungkook do not mix well with her love life boundaries with jin, she begins to slip and get sloppy amidst her distress. 

yoongi and oc’s relationship ended in good terms. they try to give each other space in order to move on and the purpose of the two was really to emphasize on a first love’s impact. i thought it was important to incorporate their dynamic as yoongi provides insight that all the characters lack. along with hoseok, nam joon, taehyung, and jimin; yoongi is a static character. also, shout out to mfking hoseok for being oc and jungkook’s unpaid therapist! 

jungkook and jin’s tension and love triangle was my playful version of a classic love triangle. love triangles consists of person a and b both obtaining something that person c needs/is after. the catch, obviously, are the scarifies made. it’s choosing one or the other and the miscommunication, betrayal, and humane reactions that stir the story up. hence, jungkook, the childhood best friend who provides oc emotional security, and jin, the new mysterious love potential who tends to oc’s romantic physical needs, fall under “competition.” when jin begins to open up to oc and tries to make their relationship work, he begins to take on what jungkook offers. when jungkook realizes this, out of desperation, he oversteps and confesses his feelings; followed by a kiss. the kiss throws oc off as it translates to jungkook pressing on her romantic physical needs. the complexities of being childhood friends, growth, and circling with toxic habits are what makes paraluman, in my opinion, even more annoying and tension filled. 

there’s not much to say about jin or jungkook as most of their characteristics and insight were expressed throughout the fic. i think it’s important to note that in this au, all of them are supposed to be nepotism babies. jungkook’s jealousy stems from jin being the ideal son. also, since jungkook grew up challenging the world; i thought having (jin) a simple contrast would be someone who accepts his fate and grows from it. oc sees stability in jin and is ultimately attracted to it because it fills a void and helps her inner child heal. whereas with jungkook, she feels love and acceptance but has difficulty growing up. 

symbolism in this fic was so fun to write around. the vase, something jungkook handmade and shatters himself, represented his and oc’s friendship. keep in mind, when it shatters, it was jin who got hurt. the vase was always filled with flowers jin would gift oc. the vase was practically a reflection of jungkook. jin and oc’s peaches... yes, it was half-assed. literally because it was her underwear! but i chose peaches because it presents a warm feeling that connects to a summer love. oc and jin began hooking up in the summer. jin posting the peaches, obviously means he’s thinking of her, but it also indicates his longing for her. peaches in general symbolize longevity and immorality; somewhat depicting his patience and love for oc. 

the written itself… hmmm. i think after writing please love me, i knew that paraluman would have a more simple and underlying slow rising tension tone. i think my biggest thing about paraluman was to get readers to really think and not know who they want. aside from bias, i wanted to show that jin and jungkook had something significant to offer. i was particular with my word choice especially when it came to jungkook. moreover, i tried to add a lot of foreshadow for those who like to reread and notice details. the constant lines “if it’s not _____,” and lines that imply oc never chooses xyz... idk. i can’t remember all of them buT they are there! also,, yoongi calling oc “my love,” jungkook calling oc “my you,” and jin calling oc “my everything,” ..... BROOOO <3 

for the ending, i thought of making one of each scenario. a) oc ends up with jin, b) oc ends up with jungkook, c) oc does not choose any of them. the story went the way it did because i asked on my instagram close friends story so if you want to blame someone for the ending,, you can blame my irl besties <3 but in all seriousness, i really saw the ending go either way. i think i favoured this ending the most because everyone benefits. jungkook grows, oc grows, and even jin. in a sense, jin’s slow and steady change makes all the difference. 

in closing, i don’t think i’ll ever write a fic this long or “serious” again LOL. the fic timeline and character complex just seemed too complicated to turn into a lighthearted fic. i found that embracing it’s faint sadness and desperation from characters would be better told through multiple events and character arcs. it was nice to get this concept out there so regardless, i’m thankful for this journey <3

if you made it this far, thanks for reading my note! what about you? what were your thoughts? what were your favourite parts of the fic? let me know! i’d love to hear about them!

[just-jammin]

things i (re)learned after a few weeks in college:

i should take my assignments LESS seriously

but also start doing assignments earlier bc deadlines would kick me in the ass

for the love of god START MAKING TO-DO LISTS AGAIN <- (probably would forget to do that)

one f2f college day goes by TOO fast for me so spend as much time as i can w/ friendos

i should use the school pcs for any hws i can already finish in breaks & after classes till it closes tho

my friends have other friends & lives after school (and i should learn to be ok w/ it)

touch is one of my love languages apparently

i tend to make more positive physical contacts with girls rather than boys (mostly bc most of the guys i know are more averse to physical contact)

getting attached to at least one person in every milestone in my life is pretty much inevitable at this point

i know i want/have someone who i can ramble my thoughts to but MAN i should allow THEM to ramble to me next time—

[inklore]

hi laur! for your sleepover - what are 3 songs that you’d never skip if they came on? (Hope you have a great night & weekend!) 💖

hi j darling <3 this was sooo hard since i have so many favorites or ‘cannot skip’ songs and i had to break it down to such a small list ahh. but definitely the three below, for sure!! are constant bangers that brighten up my day when i hear them. (and i hope your weekend is going amazing bby, stay safe and enjoy yourself 💖)

F2F by sza

take me where your heart is by Q

ordinary superstar by rina sawayama

sleepover weekend!

[delqcate]

Cee if you need to take a break then take one! If you need to leave the app then leave! I’d hate to see you go but you need to do what’s best for you

If you leave and wanna come back I’ll be right here ready to bring you back into the club

I’m always here for you if you need to talk and I will support what you need to do for your mental health. 💜💜

thank you so much love this means so much to me :')

I don't want to leave per say, i'm just feel bad that i'm not active as much anymore cause i'm unmotivated and i'm busy with school now

and then sometimes i'll end up feeling lonely because most of my friends are obviously busy so i don't talk to them as much, i'll only actually be able to be surrounded with my irl friends when i'm on f2f (which is usually thursdays and fridays)

anyways sorry for that small rant i couldn't help it 🥲

(i actually started crying when i read this🧍‍♀️)

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGaDay2024

Classic campaign

Until I began running online seriously, most of the games I’d run had been long, multi-year campaigns. I’d had the extreme luxury of having a large group of f2f gamers in my area pretty much from Middle School onwards. I went to college locally and even though I lived on campus, I still ran. When I was assistant manager for a local game store & game room, I ran upwards of five campaigns at the same time. 

Mind you we f*cked around and wasted time– but we also played super late. I do think we probably got as much done in an extended session as I do now in a tight, three-hour online session even with breaks. Some of that savings comes from not running multi-hour combats. Even online I still like long-form from time to time. I’ll take credit for establishing quarterlies as a thing here in the community. But they’re also exhausting. 

So I have a lot of longer campaigns to draw from– including recent multi-arcs of Trail of Cthulhu, Hearts of Wulin, and The Veil. The campaign I want to talk about is one of those earlier f2f games– one which landed 95% of the time and taught me an important lesson. 

We called it Last Fleet, and we started it back in 2011. The basic premise was “Fantasy Battlestar Galactica”-- I had a strong idea for a starting incident and built from there. It was an entirely self-built game: set up, adventures, system. We started with a session of Microscope to establish the world we’d be destroying. The end point of the history would be that destruction and departure. You can see that timeline here. From that timeline we set several of the setting premises (you can see that here). 

I encouraged folks to build in the peoples and cultures they had interest in playing. After that I gave them homework: doing a “What My Senior Told Me” sheet for their character’s background. Here’s an example of that. I had each of them give me their character concept and then I translated that into the system. We were playing Action Cards, so each character had a unique deck of cards for resolution. I built their decks based on those choices and then they tweaked them. I wrote up a unique set of abilities for each PC they could pick from– broken into paths like a skill tree. Every couple of sessions I asked them where they wanted their character to go. I would then write up two new abilities, built onto their existing paths– some with prerequisites. 

This was a ton of work, but the payoff felt great over time. They had hard choices and could always develop their character in ways they wanted. That included in new directions, for example the Orc player originally saw themselves as a classic fighter. But over time they took more of a leadership role and wanted abilities and gear which supported that.

The game started off with a bang: we played out the final flying ships of this world trying to escape out through barriers to avoid the big bad pursuing them. In addition to the PC vessels I had a bunch of NPC peoples– made up whole cloth or drawn from the Microscope timeline. And then I started killing everyone– ships fell, PCs lost portions of their people, hard choices had to be made. This ended up being one of the most intense sessions I’d ever run and everyone dug how it set things up. 

The campaign which followed split into two halves. In the first they travelled through a toxic void trying to find a safe haven. They came across lost things: enemies, people, relics. It paralleled the original BSG and its searching journey story. Then at the mid-point, the story shifted. The PCs manage to break through a barrier into another land of floating islands and people. However the folks there were caught up in their own factional struggles and possessing different magics. The game became about trying to find a way to settle with the established peoples and create harmony with destroying them or being destroyed.

The final arc turned on the arrival of the BBEG pursuing the PCs in the first place. It led to a battle which required them to choose how to rebuild the world: including destroying it so that it could reform as it was before the sundering. 

It ended up a great campaign with superb arcs for every PC, fun mechanics, and tough choices for the resolution. One of the absolute best. It’s the kind of lightning in a bottle experience I don’t think I can replicate. 

But I said earlier that it landed 95% of the time. We obviously had a few clucker or slower session, but the big problem was of my own making. Let’s call in an unforced error. We got to the final session, had the huge climax, and had our characters in this new, reconstructed world. 

And that’s where I stopped. I had managed to exhaust myself and I ended everything on that scene. I told myself and everyone we were done– in my hubris I thought my narrated closing was dynamite and closed everything out. I didn’t want to go on any further– for fear of breaking the high we’d ended on. 

So our PCs got no epilogue, no statement of the future, no real closure. By the time I realized how stupid and empty that was, enough time had passed that I couldn’t really offer a chance for final stories. It absolutely detracted from the game as a whole– and purely because I’d had a GM vision of my story and how it should end. 

So there’s my cautionary tale.

For a collection of posts and details from that campaign, see here.

[chandrandeepesh72]

Storytelling for Change Management: Implementing HR Strategies in Pune’s Evolving Work Environment

Let’s assume there is an IT company in Pune named Baxbo. Baxbo is a 7-year-old company with 500 employees. It has a decent work culture and healthy attrition rate.

However, let’s assume there is now a bigger company (let’s name it Haxembur), which is a 50-year-old company with 10,000 employees.  Within a deal between both the top management, Haxembur is now taking over the small sized Baxbo.

This is a big type of change management for Baxbo and its 500 employees as now the culture will change, so might be the technologies used, work policies and even organisational structure. 

Role of the HR in change management 

HR is the flag bearer of the culture for any organisation and the bridge between the employees and the management. 

Here in Baxbo, every HR person is facing the biggest challenge of their career. There is now huge anxiety and fear among each of the 500 Baxbo employees, as they fear change of role, responsibilities change, change of work location and loss of colleagues & friends. Worst – they all fear the loss of their job.If you are in the market for superclone Replica Rolex , Super Clone Rolex is the place to go! The largest collection of fake Rolex watches online!

Team HR Baxbo needs to make the transition of Baxbo into Hazembur happen smoothly

Importance of Storytelling for HR

Storytelling for the HR team in Pune of Baxbo is all about proper communication. They need to ensure passing the message completely happens without any gap to every single employee. 

Storytelling is not just about telling motivational stories to the Baxbo employees at this time of anxiety. It is all about WHAT you say and more importantly, HOW you say.

Here are few things they should be doing:

Step 1 – Have a town hall meeting

Messaging and presentation by the top management boss is almost make and break here. As it is an IT company, all employees have gathered over a zoom call. 

Step 2 – Perfect explanation of the merger and its effects 

Ideally the top boss’s talk should cover the topics like why they decided to go for this merger. Show the company and employee growth that can happen post this merger. Brief on the various formal transitions that all as a team have to undergo like training for the new technology to be used, new headquarters, new possible job location opportunities, etc. Lastly, has to openly and honestly also tell about the down side of this merger as well. Never hide any secrets with their loyal employees. 

The flow of this talk needs to be like a good story structure. 

Step 3 – Take an online survey, feedback and QnA and addressing all concerns 

In coming days, continuously take feedback via online surveys or F2F interviews on the various concerns of each employee. 

Operationally, it is going to be very tough for the HR and even communication wise as well. HR needs to be composed himself. This is where the prowess of storytelling of the HR comes into the picture.

Step 4 – Training the mid-level managers 

Step 5 – Continuous training to all employees

This training can’t be a one-off activity. It has to be done on continuous basis for coming months, till the smooth mental transition happens into the new company culture

Why every HR in any organisation needs business storytelling training? 

Business storytelling for HR helps the HR to communicate the most critical news in a lucid and comforting way. The other benefits include art of communication, engaging any person in an interesting manner, maintaining good relationships, etc 

We provide workshops of Business Storytelling for the HR team in Pune and many cities in India.

To Know More: https://deepeshchandran.com/storytelling-for-change-management-implementing-hr-strategies-in-punes-evolving-work-environment/

[idontknowisenough]

Forever my Forrest

I'm kind of sad. I was dating this guy and there's something super special about him. There's nothing like trauma bonding over being culture bullied that brings two POC together. There's no need for an oppression Olympics- it's just an opportunity to look into the eyes of another and congratulate them without saying one word. His eyes saying "You made it" and me reflecting back that I'm so proud he didn't take the easy way out by becoming like them or trying to escape the pain since we both know those were the 2/3 options that exists in surviving intercultural bullying. But healing and work looks different for everyone. My healing demands that I speak up and acknowledge my non negotiables (which feel silly when he's away but mega important when we're f2f) not only to myself but to the person who has the power to make the proposed change needed. His healing demanded he make no changes that don't align with the idea of who he envisions himself to be... And so we sit in silence.. hoping each second could turn into a new lifetime because this could be our last time staring into each other's eyes. And that death seems unbearable because it took so long for us to find the life force of each other.

So today I've allowed myself to feel the sadness within the gratitude of learning what home base feels like... After a lifetime of striking out we have to go our separate ways because our growth dictates that my next task to master is his healing's responsibility to refute.. And maybe that's why he's home.. Because with him speaking my truth was safe. And for him denying my needs didn't feel like the ultimate disappointment . We saw each other and knew what it took to meet each other just in time to practice breaking apart.

[thistleandthorn-events]

It's that time of year again, ghouls and goblins, for your favorite institute to put on your favorite event - THE HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE! So come join us on October 28th for a night of food, fun, and mystery! (Everything below the cut is IC knowledge unless otherwise directed).

RULES

Attendance is mandatory for all students. Townspeople are optional.

All attendees must wear a costume complete with mask.

YOU CANNOT TELL ANYONE WHAT YOUR COSTUME IS.

Marks are on hold for the party, however, the headmaster and guards will be around so don’t be ridiculous about it.

ACTIVITIES

Dancing - Great Hall

Escape Room - First floor classrooms (4 rooms designated for different themed escape rooms)

Photo Booth - Great Hall

Snacks and Punch - Great Hall

Halloween themed Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (8-10am, 12-2pm, 5-7pm respectively) - Cafeteria

Movie Viewings - Auditorium (10am - Hocus Pocus 2, 1pm - Ghostbusters, 4pm - The Skeleton Key, 7pm - Friday 13th, 10pm - Saw X)

Pumpkin Carving, Pumpkin seed spitting, Pumpkin Painting, Halloween Crafts - Art Room

Thriller Dance Instruction and performance - Dance Studio

Punkin’ Chunkin’ - Court yard

Haunted Maze - Hedge Maze (like a haunted corn maze with characters, spooky music and guards dressed in costume chasing people. They cannot touch or harm students)

Mad Science Lab - Cafeteria (snacks themes as science and laboratory - eyeballs that are grapes in jello, intestines that are spaghetti noddles, etc)

Potion making - Cafeteria (alcoholic and non alcoholic choices)

Bobbing for Apples - Court Yard

‘Ghost in the Graveyard’ Game - Court Yard

Horror Movie Trivia - Ipads in Great Hall

COSTUME CONTEST

There will be a costume contest BUT it is slightly different from what you’d expect. The object of this contest is to try to be as convincing as your costume character as you can. Everyone will vote for the top 3 costumes - again, the voting criteria being that you had NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE. We’re looking for the best actors here and the top 3 winners will win 200 points each!

OOC INFO

Alright, so here’s how it’s going to work - create a side blog for each of your characters’ costumes. THE URL SHOULD HAVE NOTHING IN IT about your actual character. Remember, you don’t want people to know who your character is. This goes for IC and OOC. PLEASE, don’t break the game. It’s not fun if you break the game.

On your sideblog for your character’s costume, post a photo of your costume including the mask. Once the blog is built and photo is posted, add the URL and costume to THIS GOOGLE DOC. Also, posting throughout the party will be done all F2F. There will be no online or tumblr based starters.

Ok, this part gets a little confusing. IC - this event only happens on Saturday October 28th. BUT, OOC we’ll be ‘freezing time’ to allow this event to be played out Monday-Sunday (October 23rd-29th). Again, it’s all happening IC on Saturday. Please keep the dash strictly Masquerade during the whole event.

The other part of the “don’t think about it” part of this is we need to kinda fake things about our characters to avoid being discovered. For example, since this takes place AFTER locktober, no one's locked for this. Or, Austin won't show his accent to avoid knowing who he is, etc. So just kinda suspend your disbelief, please. This goes for physical attributes, accents, etc.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER when making your blog:

Take off auto-tags if you have a way you tag things regularly, or just tag differently

Don't post photos or manips displaying your face claim in your costume

Don't talk OOC about what costume your characters are wearing

If while playing, you miss something please utilize tumblr's asks/messages and message from your sideblog, not your main.

Don't reuse former Masquerade side blogs (not everyone deletes people)

Look out for OOC traits/behaviors which might identify you

Any triggering plots or plots involving a lot of people need to be approved.

If your student character participates they will receive 50 points. Participation will include at least some decent activity (just a post or one/two replies will not count.) Gimme at least one thread and I’ll count it.

VOTING - once we get closer to the event we’ll let you know how this will go but it will be dependent on NOT LETTING ANYONE KNOW (Ic or OOC) WHAT COSTUME YOUR CHARACTER HAS. Please, again, Don’t Break the Game. These things are only fun when the rules are followed. Vote per character, however, even if your character doesn’t interact with them. So, you can use some OOC knowledge for voting ONLY.

We allow costumes to double. Make sure you're paying attention to the URL name when you're voting.

If you have questions please feel free to ask but make sure it’s not already answered in this post please and thank you.

[scandaloushq]

I was never in the celeb rp before, the characters would make actions? like smile or hug each other? or only talk?

hi! the interactions are mix up the following things - text messages, paras, f2fs, and regular dash interactions. i'll try to break them down for you below. :)

f2f - face to face. the fcs are interacting in person. this is usually a short reply with a gif added.

paras - an interaction with another fc in paragraph form. mostly written in third person & past tense. these are optional here and are mostly used for character development between a ship or friendship. it gives writers the chance to go into detail and lets the other members get a glimpse into their specific situation.

text messages - like a regular text message. it takes place between two fcs and they text like one would on a regular cell phone.

regular dash interactions - here's an example of one. it's an interaction that takes place online or just in general, with not specific setting. these can center around any conversation and are one of the most popular forms of interaction!

i hope this helps you!!

[vellewis]

🎧 Taking a lunch break today? Tune in to this podcast episode and discover the incredible work Vel Lewis and the F2F Music Foundation are doing for deserving music students. 🎶 #MusicEducation #Podcast #F2FMusicFoundation

[nickgerlich]

So Burritoful To Me

Food. It’s something we have to have in order to stay alive. Unless you eat only raw foods, there is always going to be some degree of preparation involved. And if we dine out, there’s the added service element to consider. It’s just that for the last 125 years or so, we have been trying diligently to take a lot of the labor out of the food equation, either ours or the company selling it.

The Automat is one of my favorite restaurant concepts. Basically, it was a huge vending machine. It debuted in Berlin in 1895, and spread to the US in 1902. Imagine your meal sitting in open air for who knows how long, waiting for your selection from a wall-sized array of small doors.

Skip forward to 1953, and TV dinners hit center stage, offering consumers frozen, ready-to-heat meals that could presumably be consumed while the family stared at a screen. Hmmm. That almost sounds like a prediction. The food was nasty—trust me, I ate more than I wish to report, because these were a novelty still in the 1960s—but people ate them up. Because convenience.

Today we see restaurants trying to automate their processes, from French Fry machines to drink dispensers. And now along comes Chipotle, testing its new robot that will assemble burrito bowls and salads.

I suppose it is only fitting that these efforts apply only to digital orders. If you would like to see a human assemble your order, you’ll have to step inside for a F2F experience.

It is understandable why Chipotle and many other fast food outlets would like to automate entree production. Labor shortages are one thing, but so also are cost control measures. Food costs alone clock in between 28% and 35% of revenues, and during prolonged inflation, any place you can save a nickel, it starts to add up. Robots help ensure consistency across every item sold. Speed, too, is another benefit, because robots don’t take breaks or get tired.

It’s just that there are drawbacks. You may get consistency in matters such as serving size, ingredients, and so forth, but a robot probably cannot distinguish between a withered piece of kale that is primarily all stem, from one that is leafy and fresh. The robot can “see,” but it can’t really see like a human can see. So while there may be quantity control, I am not convinced that quality control will be concurrent. It also cannot respond to spontaneous requests for “just a little more tomato, please.”

Then there’s the hefty price tag of these robots. Employees are paid by the hour; robots are purchased with a huge up-front expense. It may take a long while for cost savings to accrue. It’s almost like installing your own wind turbine or rooftop solar array. Sure, your power bills go down, but how long will it take to recover the initial expense?

The current installations at selected Chipotle outlets are the result of the fast-casual chain’s investment in Hyphen, a restaurant automation company. That’s another way of saying that Chipotle will likely experience a quicker than normal ROI than others buying Hyphen’s equipment. For the sake of analogy, Amazon recently invested $4 billion in Anthropic, one of many AI startups. It’s just that Anthropic will then lean on Amazon’s AWS division for cloud computing.

It’s a nice eco-system when you can create it.

According to news reports, Chipotle has two food production stations. The first is front-of-house where employees craft items to a customer’s specifications. The second is back-of-house in the kitchen, where digital orders are assembled. But since two-thirds of digital orders are either a burrito bowl or salad, it just made sense for Chipotle to try to automate those. The partnership with Hyphen is a match made in fast food heaven.

My reluctance is not the result of being a crusty, old curmudgeon, though. I just need to try this once to see if the system can be trusted. Because in my mind, I am seeing 1950s-era TV dinners and turn-of-the-century Automat fare. I want something a little better than that, even if it is a tasty burrito bowl.

Dr “Pick My Kale Carefully” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[cythoughtsnmemories]

18.06.23

Going office on a Friday cos meeting friend going chinatown for dinner...and also for a f2f meeting. Somebody 'Eh' me when I walked out the lift...I turned back n saw hubby standing there. Weee~ hubby sending me to work! Get to have breakfast tgt! Hmm...friend texted and said she can't leave home cos MIL is sick, can't take care her baby. Although I don't think is true, cos her hubby was home. 🙃

Went to visit my friend to catch up, but mostly is to let her rant hahaha~ Have not met her since my wedding and she gave birth 2 mths ago. Aww...her baby is so adorable and I'm so glad I made him giggle. Such a happy boy!

Had early father's day lunch w fam at feather blade. Would say once is good enough. Just find it a little overpriced. Hubby is so sweet...cos I tot that's all for going out but we headed home for a rest before heading out again to the gastrobeats and ilight showcase. Knew the food is going to be overpriced but many pple still Q and buy from the stall. $4 korean fishcake, $12 yakisoba and waited for 45mins for a $9 grilled squid. By the time we start to look at the ilight exhibit, hubby was all sweaty already. Poor hubby! Went mbs for toilet break n seat down for awhile to rest. So grateful to have this hubby. Hehehe~

MIL nvr fail to surprise me. Today is chi yi so have to eat vegetarian. She said lunch we will be having durian w rice. What?! I searched it up and looks like it started from Malaysia. Pple even have durian fried rice w sambal chilli. Had been eating heaty food lately, so not interested to try this dish. Heng~ MIL took 2 dumplings from a temple back for us as lunch. Phew~ Yea, it's a day I nap n eat whole day hahaha. I tried! Watch some showing Netflix while hubby took nap.

Meet my parents for dinner. I guess I'm having my PMS. Got another both parents talking to me at the same time and both talking abt different topic. Complaint abt steak was heaty for her but she requested for a beef burger (we were at five guys for milkshake) after the lunch celebration. She said there's no fish option. 🙄 There's food court at the mall.

Guess, no more fam dining for occasion since mum kept highlighting abt her leg n hemorrhoids issue. Fine~ Can't tahan she kept repeating herself and being passive aggressive again. "You dw let me live anymore right" Cont nagging after I came out from the toilet. I had to remind her that she has made her point. Sis really is not in the mood for all d nagging.

[neemmiieee]

ES302: Technopreneurship (Weekly Blog)

FINAL TERM Week 5: Campus Intramurals Week

The university supports this concurrent celebration of a Wellness Week from May 22 through May 26, 2023, in connection to the University Student Government-USTP CDO's approved request to hold a Campus Intramurals. Students and professors are expected to put off their academic duties for the length of the wellness week. This indicates a temporary suspension of (synchronous/asynchronous/F2f) behavior.

Campus Intramurals week is an exciting time for students and an integral part of many educational institutions. It typically involves a series of athletic competitions and recreational activities held within the school or college community. It promotes team spirit- intramurals week fosters a sense of unity and camaraderie among students. It brings together individuals from various backgrounds and interests to compete and collaborate as a team. This team spirit can have a positive impact on the overall school environment and contribute to a sense of belonging. Provides a break from academics- it serves as a refreshing break from the usual academic routine. It allows students to take a break from their studies, relax, and engage in recreational activities. This break can help reduce stress and improve overall well-being, contributing to a more balanced and holistic educational experience. Lastly, celebrates diversity and inclusivity- intramurals week often features a wide range of sports and activities to accommodate different interests and abilities. This inclusivity encourages participation from students with varying skill levels and backgrounds. It promotes diversity and fosters an inclusive environment where everyone can feel welcome and valued.

Overall, Campus Intramurals week is a highly anticipated event that offers numerous benefits for students. It combines physical activity, teamwork, and friendly competition to create an enjoyable and enriching experience within the school community.