#go play this demo asap!! it's great

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Since class plays a big role in this game - how would Marion's relationships change if she ranked even higher socially? Like, King Richard's much-younger sister?

Heh heh heh. This appears to be the week of asks that lead to long-ass lore answers!  I don’t mind... just hope you all don’t mind either!

Again, there are some spoilers for things in the demos here, as well as some lore that you can either learn right now or discover as you play through the game and its DLC.

Avalon’s nobility has a pretty flat structure as these things go... you’re either a lesser noble, a lord/lady of a holding, or a member of the royal family and its court. The politics around the court in Londonne are a totally different can of soup than they are for territory-ruling lords/ladies. The pressure to marry a man and have children would be very strong for Princess Marion. Until Richard’s disappearance, he would support a Princess Marion who didn’t wish to do one or both of those things. Prince John would probably not be so supportive. He’s a lot more conservative and rule-bound than Richard.

If Marion ran away from home (and that would take a great deal more work as princess than it did as a mere rural lady) and ended up in Sherwood, my plot would be very different. There would be a lot of fae politics involved as well, because the Sherwood gang operates under the auspices of the Fae Lords of Sherwood, the Rose King and the Wolf Queen.

Meanwhile, the Royal Family, the only druids allowed to live apart from the temples, are also the only druids bonded to Fae Lords rather than ordinary greater fae. King Richard was bonded to Titania, the (elfin) Fae Queen of Londonne, and Prince John is bonded to Oberon, the (oathkeeper) Fae King.  If Marion had been a part of the royal family, she would have had druidic powers and it’s possible that she would have bonded to Titania after Richard’s disappearance. As it is, Titania is MIA, which is a deep state secret and the cause of no small concern to the royals.

Sherwood Side

Soooo, if Princess Marion ended up in the Sherwood camp, Prince John’s involvement in the story would come around waaaay too soon, the camp would be discovered, and there would definitely be a kerfuffle between the fae lords and some massive issues because of [REDACTED REDACTED SPOILERS SPOILERS].

Robin would likely be re-arrested, and is the most likely to have a romance with Princess Marion as she attempted to free him.

John would be deported, as he’s not a direct blood relative of Robin’s family and he’s broken some pretty damn big laws with his outlawry.  Will might manage to escape the law thanks to his contacts with the Magpie’s gang, but he’d probably just go back to Sunjata with John.

How do these two escape that fate in the main game?  You’ll see!

Nottingham Side

Meissa might not attempt to recruit Princess Marion. The chances of a happily-ever-after for her as a princess are much lower and Meissa wouldn’t want to save Nottingham at the cost of her life or liberty. Meissa is not Spock. If they did recruit her, they’d do it knowing that they’d most likely be discovered and returned to Nibiru ASAP. No time for romance.

Geoffrey may have Prince John’s favor, but not that much favor. He would never be allowed to marry the princess of the realm... and he would never think to go against the royal family’s wishes.

Alanna is just foolish enough to try to run off with the princess, but unlikely to get the opportunity to even meet her.

As one of Prince John’s agents, Gui would know Princess Marion. Gui would also not be stupid enough to attempt to court Princess Marion. She’s so dizzyingly above his station that it’s not even funny.

And now I’ve written an entirely different otome with basically one love interest left. It’s the original Robin Hood except Marion is a princess.

[serenasolaris]

Well, might as well inaugurate this blog with something pretentious and philosophical.

Oh, by the way, if I ever misgender Aspen in this post, please do correct me. Although I've been speaking English fluently for years, my framework of reference is a language with no gender neutral pronouns, so I'm used to dumping people into categories. Do inform me and I will correct it ASAP.

MetaWare High School (Demo), and my paradox with mortality.

So let me start this by saying this is sort of a compilation of my thoughts on a game I recently played. If you haven't played MetaWare, I implore you to do so right now. It's definitely not the zenith of fictional media, and there's a load of things about it that I would have done differently, but it's a great game and one that you only really get to experience once. It's one of the most emotional experiences I've had in a while, as much as I hate describing things as "experiences" (or, for that matter and for those who don't know me that well, as "content"), and if you're the kind of person who it hits for, then it probably really really hits.

That being said, the basic premise of the game is that it's an incomplete visual novel in which every single character is aware not only of their own incompleteness, but also of their own fictional reality. They're aware that their existances sort of revolve around the player, and some of them even believe (or rather, are aware) that the arrival of said player will ultimately lead to their demise. The game on a superficial level feels like smiling on the face of an unbelievably bleak prospect, with most of the characters appearing to attempt maintaining a grip on reality, a reality that they cannot comprehend and which may very soon be gone, forever. And that theme in particular is what really stood out to me as my main contextualisation of the game, through the lens of my own life: living in an incomprehensible reality that seems cruel and strange and sometimes manipulative and repetitive, that at the whims of someone else could be cut short at any point in time, and how I've come to reason through it.

MetaWare High School is a game about a lot of things. It's about metafiction, which is frankly is the least appealing of its ideas to me, but which even then still shines among the heaps of worse uses of metafiction all across stories everywhere. It's about existentialism, about how we come to cope with reality, about free will, about how absolutely adorable it would be to feed your homosexual edgelord doomer girlfriend gummy bears. To me, however, to the great SerenaOculis and her history and context and general life, it's a game about the ultimate injustice.

To me, MetaWare is a game about death.

There's one particular thought experiment I'd like those who have played the game to make. If you were to replace "We are aware that we are fictional characters" with "We are roughly aware of the circumstances that will surround our death", would the story of the game really change that much? To me, the answer seems sort of obvious: No. These characters and their ficticiousness just mirror our perishability and absolutely diminute scale in a world that is real. According to the artbook, I've been told, every character is modelled around an "ideology" or concept of some sort. I am not going to discuss the accuracy of these portrayals: it is sort of obvious Nari is much more of a fatalist than a nihilist, and Aspen being associated with anarchy is honestly kind of confusing to me... But examining their points of view from what I can assume the author thought these concepts were like, it does feel like they strongly influence the way each character behaves upon realising the sheer crushing weight of their situation. Isadora freaks out, Aspen attempts to do everything they can, Hope resorts, as always, to looking for pleasure, Chris finds a certain level of redemption and hope in the finality of her position, and Nari does... Nothing. Nari does not care about her life or surroundings anymore. She does not care about her friends, or her world, and if she does she is utterly unable to spare enough energy to show it in any meaningful way, except for moments before her death.

I may be biased against her, mostly due to personal conflicts in ideology. But I believe Nari, and the way she copes with her reality, have failed. However, due to my interactions and experience with people like her and thoughts like hers, I believe she has every right to feel the way she does. Even if the way she's depicted may come across as unnecessarily edgy or trying too hard at times, even then, she still has a right to. Being relegated to a seemingly pointless existence of endings and loops and final death, one I have personally found myself stuck in too, does things to a person. It breaks them. The ultimate unfairness and meaninglessness of absolutely everything is a crushing prospect, and I can't deny that every single one of the best people I've ever met has been completely and utterly ravaged under its weight. Mortality does shit to people. Shit that, and you the reader may disagree with me on this, is completely unfair, gratuitous, and cruel. And while Nari's reaction doesn't help her find some shade to cover herself from this burning, red sunlight, it is absolutely justified.

Every other character encounters solace somewhere else. Chris, on some level, accepts her ultimate purpose as the ability to enrich the player, in some way. Aspen simply accepts things as they come, and finds solace in their own inner peace. Isadora... Well, Isadora doesn't find peace at all. It's kind of sad, actually. She freaks out a lot about everything and gets really jumpy with the prospect of the end. Which is, again, understandable. And Hope, on some level, reaches tranquility, but is still quite scared about the possible outcome or implications of her end. The end scene happens, the characters say their last few lines, and they're gone.

I am still kind of dealing with this ending. I understand that it's a fictional story, and it definitely doesn't hit me as hard as the death of a flesh being, but I still believe I caught a pretty bad case of [S] GAME OVER disease from it. These are characters deliberately designed to be people who deserved better, and my arrival to their world, their inception, also meant their departure from mine. The endless spawn of entropy eating every last part of their world, to dissapear and never be thought of again. On to the next thing. And that's the thing with MetaWare.

Because, this is going to happen to me too.

And if it does while I'm young, I need to accept it.

MetaWare got me introspective about my current measures towards death: it made me study myself to figure out how I really think. And I believe I have found a paradox, or rather, a circle, within my reasoning. An ouroboros of mortality, if you will, except we're not calling it that because Mothlass bullies me enough for constantly referencing whatever mythological concept I found about this week in Wikipedia already.

To me, death is not terror-inducing, in the same way that countless atrocities of history aren't that... Scary. Because it's not scary. It's tragic, and unfair. It's a tragedy so mundane that every reasoning being on this planet spends large portions of their time trying to bullshit themselves into thinking it's fine. Possibly, even beyond this planet. I'd have no way of knowing, though.

However, at the same time, it's not like I'm going to be the one to find the perfect solution to mortality complete with no drawbacks and free ice cream and everything. Much less entropy. It feels like you kind of have to cheat the laws of thermodynamics to fix that one. So, what can I do?

Well, I've come to this solution.

If I was a fictional character, if my words were on a script and my life determined by someone I'll never truly know getting me to act ways I don't truly have a say in?

I'd still do my best, as I always have. Tomorrow will be better only if we make it be, after all, and I can't make anything better if I'm too busy getting pissed about things that I absolutely have a right to be completely wrathful about but which I'm also not going to fix by causing harm to myself. I'd be the best person I can be, going out with the main character or not, having my game uninstalled or not, dying or not, because hope and progress and the betterment of things are what truly brings me joy and tranquility. I'll make things that, even if not indestructible, will still be meaningful to someone for at least a few days after I die, and as long as my memory outlives me, I would have won.

To Chris, Aspen, Izzy, Hope and Nari, to my fictional friends with scripted lines and an unfairly short lapse of time to live, thank you. Thank you for getting me to think about myself. You are not alone in your struggles, and I find myself having to reason through the same things as you. And, most importantly, a whole day has passed ever since I heard your last words. You guys won.

And just like the five of you,

I shall win too.

-SerenaOculis, Eye on the Sky.

P.D.: Shoutouts to the person who got me to play this game. You know who you are. You should also know that you're a really nice person too. :)

[gigslist]

46 Online Roles and Open Casting Calls - Work From Home - Paid

Company Video Voiceover

PAID WORK FROM HOME NONUNION

Brooklyn SolarWorks Francesca Ricotta, Digital Marketing Manager

1.5-2 minute audio recording. 450-word script. Looking for a welcoming, neighborly tone for a voiceover. We serve a Brooklyn audience, so hoping for someone with a little New York flair. This will be used for an internal video that will be shared with customers who have recently gone solar. The voiceover will outline what to expect during the solar process.

Voice Actor (Voiceover): All Genders, 30-58 voice actor for short informational voiceoverLanguages:

English

Accents:

Standard American

New York

Voice Styles:

Neighborly

Trustworthy

Cool

Friendly

Talent must have access to their own recording space and equipment and submit the final recording as WAV audio file. Ideal completion by Friday, September 10th.

Professional Pay: $70 - $200audio to be used as voiceover for an educational video

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

Attention FRANCESCA RICOTTA - info@brooklynsolarworks.com

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

====================

Event Sizzle Reel, Bold Inspiring Voiceover

PAID WORK FROM HOME NON UNION

Flightless Bird Creative Stephen Kipp, casting dir.

Casting a sizzle reel for a business event. Production states: "The event is focused on the theme of being 'bold.' To match that energy, we're looking for a bold voiceover read for this video. Kanye West is a good reference for the energy-level and style of delivery."

Roles

Voiceover (Voiceover): 21-35 WORK FROM HOME

Records Sept. 9 remotely.

Professional Pay: $100 - $150Pay TBD.

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

Attention: Stephen Kipp, casting dir. https://flightlessbird.tv/about-us/

Flightless Bird Creative

=============

Razor and Shave Care Product Promo

PAID WORK FROM HOME NON UNION

TubeScience

Hilal Narin, talent prod.

Casting outgoing Australian and British men and women willing to shave on camera, for demos and testimonials with a razor and shave care product. "The product is a popular razor and shave care products that are delivered right to your door. This is an on going project. We shoot a lot of these projects."

Roles

British or Australian Male Willing To Shave With Shirt Off Near Or In The Shower (Lead): Male, 18-54WORK FROM HOMEproduction states: "This project is remote and can be done anywhere in the world; this would be a director assisted remote shoot which you could shoot on a smart phone; male talent will be shaving on camera; we will send you a quick selfie audition; in the audition you can say what you feel comfortable shaving; it could be your beard, your head, your chest, or just cleaning up your beard."Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Video Reel

British or Australian Female Willing To Shave In A Bathing Suit In A Bathroom Or Shower Setting (Lead): Female, 18-40WORK FROM HOME "This project is remote and can be done anywhere in the world; this would be a director assisted remote shoot which you could shoot on a smart phone; female talent will be shaving on camera. We will send you a quick selfie audition; in the audition you can say what you feel comfortable shaving; it could be your legs, armpits, head, or toes; whatever you normally shave or feel comfortable shaving."Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Video Reel

Talent shoots remotely.

Professional Pay: $250/DailyPays $250 for day/all media buyout/non union.

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

casting@tubescience.com

============

Open Call

ACTOR / TALENT

Please submit via this link 

https://airtable.com/shrwe67h1SstvX8mV

if you would like to be cast in a commercial.

For any other questions about casting, you may email us at casting@tubescience.com

==================

DTC T-Shirt Brand Casting for series of UGC videos - Remote Production

Open Call

Common Thread Co. Ari Hayes, Lead Creative Producer

Casting a series of UGC videos for a high-growth T-Shirt brand in the DTC ecosystem. Looking for “everyday guys” - who are on the taller side (6’2”+). Ideal talent is someone who fits in both a regular and a tall tee.

 Preferably someone who "skinny-fit" who can express high energy and raw / honest testimonials about their experience with the products. Historically, UGC content from the client has performed best outdoors in good looking environments because the shirts feel grounded in reality and not just a studio or upscale apartment setting. So, if possible - please try to shoot outdoors in an appealing setting with good light that brings out the value propositions of the shirts and doesn’t hide or distort them with harsh light or shadows. iPhone 8 or Newer will be required for this shoot (for camera / audio purposes). Ring Light or Personal Lighting is required for this shoot. This will be a remote production to be shot at talents home or nearby exterior area (park, backyard, etc.) Looking to shoot ASAP based on talent availability!

Male Talent (Day Player): Male, 25-45WORK FROM HOME"Everyday Guy" Average guy who is "skinny-fit" or as close to that description as can.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/PhotoApply

Remote Production - Shoots Nationwide Must submit before 9/17

Professional Pay: $200/DailyPays $200 / day minus any pickups due to technical or human error. Paperwork will be completed through Wrapbook.

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arihayes

https://www.linkedin.com/company/common-thread-collective

https://commonthreadco.com/

==========================

'Talking It Out,' Virtual Arts Festival

THEATER: PLAYS

PAID WORK FROM HOME NON UNION

Piccione Arts A. Piccione, coord.

Casting roles in the Nov. 20 performance of "Talking It Out," a virtual play festival in support of mental health awareness.

Roles

Jane (Lead): Female, 25-45from the short play "Something Stupid." Young woman in her 30s being treated for cervical cancer.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Brie (Lead): Female, 25-45 from the short play "Something Stupid." Jane's close friend.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Thomas Brown (Lead): Male, 25-45WORK FROM HOMEfrom the short play "Warriors." An Iraq-war veteran in his 30s, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Dr. Gozlin (Lead): Female, 30-50WORK FROM HOMEfrom the short play "Warriors." A Veterans’ Hospital doctor, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from her own time in the military.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Matt (Lead): Male, 16-25WORK FROM HOMEfrom the short play "The Teenagers Aware of Death." Proud of his wrestling achievements.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Piper (Lead): Female, 16-25WORK FROM HOMEfrom the short play "The Teenagers Aware of Death." Loves to be comforted every moment.Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

Geraldo (Lead): Male, 16-25WORK FROM HOME

Killer (Lead): Male, 30-70WORK FROM HOME

Police Officer (Lead): All Genders, 25-70WORK FROM HOME

Hope (Lead): Female, 16-25WORK FROM HOME

Dr. Morgan (Lead): Female, 30-70WORK FROM HOME

Dad (Lead): Male, 30-60WORK FROM HOME

Protestor(s) (Lead): All Genders, 18+WORK FROM HOME

Mister (Lead): Male, 25-45WORK FROM HOME

Jude (Lead): Male, 16-25WORK FROM HOME

Ruthie (Lead): Female, 18-35WORK FROM HOME

Vera (Lead): Female, 18-35WORK FROM HOME

Ellis D. (Lead): Female, Trans Female, 18-35WORK FROM HOME

Rehearsal dates subject to actor and director availability. Tech rehearsals from Nov. 15-19 (each day from 6 p.m. EST onward0. Performance Nov. 20 (7 p.m. EST).

StipendStipend TBD. Production states: "Half of all donations go toward the National Alliance on Mental Illness, while the other half will be distributed evenly among the participating artists."

Seeking talent: Worldwide

piccionearts@gmail.com

https://anthonyjpiccione.com/

======================

Hiring Actors to Play Customers in Chicago

Open Call

PAID WORK FROM HOME NON UNION

The Center for Civil Rights/NCRC

Jake Lilien, Compliance Program Manager

Seeking actors to go "undercover" to determine whether businesses in the Chicago metro area are observing civil rights laws, as part of a civil rights enforcement program. This work will all be remote, and can be done from home. Company states: "To give an example of our work, we'll hire a white actor to contact a bank about a loan, then hire an actor of color to contact the same bank about the same type of loan, to see if the bank treats them the same way. We file complaints against businesses that show patterns of discrimination." "Assignments typically require about an hour of work, and participants will be paid $45 for each completed assignment. Hours are very flexible, but the work must be done during regular business hours (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.) "This is a great opportunity for actors looking for some extra income, and participants will have a direct impact on increasing fair and equal access to housing throughout the nation."

Roles

Civil Rights Tester: All Genders, 18+WORK FROM HOMEActors of all races and genders needed to serve as civil rights "testers." Actors must be 18 or older to participate. Company states: "Because of grant restrictions, we are unable to work with anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony, or any crime of dishonesty (such as perjury, fraud, or writing bad checks). We are also unable to work with anyone who has worked for a bank or a real estate agency within the past 12 months."Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesApply

Mandatory training session on Sept. 13 (6:00 PM -9:00 PM CST) via Zoom.

Stipend: $45Pays $75 for completing the three-hour training session, then $45 per assignment. Each assignment requires about an hour of work.

jlilien@ncrc.org

https://ncrc.org/

===================

Home Depot Design Center VO

PAID WORK FROM HOME NONUNION

Trade School Ben Tischler, sr. prod.

Casting voiceover for video showcasing the Home Depot Design Center.

Roles

Voiceover (Voiceover): 25-40WORK FROM HOMEFemale voice, clear, conversational, refined, positive/energized tone and attitude.Apply

Recording date TBD in the Old Fourth Ward area.

Professional Pay: $1,000One year - Broadcast, BTS, Social , Internet, New Media, OTT, Industrial, Historical for PR purposes

Seeking talent from: Atlanta, GA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tischler-0319829

============================

'By Mouth' Podplay

PAID WORK FROM HOME NONUNION

By Mouth -Martin Garrison, prod.-dramatist

Casting podplay "By Mouth," a podplay based on a classic novel. Production states: "Before auditioning, please listen to selections of our first two podplays at: bymouth.org/podplays."

Roles

Kira (Voiceover): Female, 20-30WORK FROM HOME20, British RP light, feminine with rare indomitable will more often found in a man. Doesn’t care what others think—tunnel-visioned—in her own world--certain about what she wants. Kind but not nice or phony. Sister to Lydia and daughter to Kira’s Mother.Accents:British

Andrei (Voiceover): Male, 25-40WORK FROM HOME 20’s, British or Scottish/Irish lower-class light, controlled intensity, highly intelligent, masculine. In love with Kira. Accents: Scottish

Uncle Vasili (Voiceover): Male, 45-60WORK FROM HOMEcountry British sialect, 45-60, from where folks in 1800’s hunted, fished and trapped animals. Self-made furrier to former czar. Salt of the earth type. No artifice. Up from bootstrap’s authority/confidence. Revolution has made him bitter but is naturally optimistic and still vital when excited. Father to Victor and Irina and husband to Kira’s Mother.Accents:British

Timo (Voiceover): Male, 45-60Scottish or Country British. Gruff, booming-voiced Scottish or Irish sea dog—a Blutto with a heart of gold. Accents: Scottish

Karp (Voiceover): Male, 45-6040-50’s, heavy British cockney, short, fat, ugly, pushed up pig nose, obsequious, ingratiating. Accents: English - Cockney

Kira's Mother (Voiceover): Female, 45-60WORK FROM HOME Accents:British

Required Media: Voice Reel

Irina (Voiceover): Female, 20-30WORK FROM HOME

Victor (Voiceover): Male, 20-35WORK FROM HOME

Sonia (Voiceover): Female, 20-30WORK FROM HOME

Marisha (Voiceover): Female, 20-30WORK FROM HOME

Lydia (Voiceover): Female, 25-35WORK FROM HOME

Kira's Aunt (Voiceover): Female, 40-55WORK FROM HOME

Tonia (Voiceover): All Genders, 35-55WORK FROM HOME

Vava (Voiceover): Female, 20-35WORK FROM HOME

Sasha (Voiceover): Male, 20-35WORK FROM HOME

Talent records voice-over remotely at home studio.

Stipend: $125 - $1,000Pay TBD.

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

Additional Materials

Website:http://www.bymouth.org/podplays

CHARACTER LIST_By Mouth podplay.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/69a0e328-26c3-43ed-9b52-0a7b38161c7d.pdf

KIRA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/f4026011-df2b-4d5f-9aeb-102c58f06daf.pdf

ANDREI_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/6dfbb1f4-534b-4839-b3ac-6b2072f2b5b2.pdf

UNCLE VASILI_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/9dd1f37b-8e09-4220-bc05-1417f50d77ea.pdf

TIMO_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/79f43f5a-782f-4334-b765-f3cc478aa5fc.pdf

KARP_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/518a744a-5066-43c5-9f7c-f30188fcd81e.pdf

KIRA’S MOTHER_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/f77be1a1-5afb-4497-81a3-df38fbf2b65b.pdf

IRINA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/f0cbae30-426c-4493-abc2-82ab26df1e73.pdf

VICTOR_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/6b50c51f-a069-4603-8c05-27d281150a10.pdf

SONIA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/05d21440-6fa4-40e3-ab19-3094b6102837.pdf

MARISHA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/fb422d34-a9dd-4bce-97ec-92232d802f74.pdf

LYDIA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/1ffa4b29-c822-4bc6-a974-8506f452f126.pdf

KIRA’S AUNT_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/4a493ce0-d001-432a-9234-4b3c8cbde213.pdf

TONIA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/c08abaa1-0956-456e-905b-6ccaf98652bc.pdf

VAVA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/9b8b5927-0ab3-4e25-9204-70f9aa00c892.pdf

SASHA_Lines_By Mouth.pdf https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/uploads/casting_call/d29ddfe8-ce97-4710-9387-b48d163d1096.pdf

https://bymouth.org/contact

=================

Covet Fashion, Models

MediaNug.com Matt, producer

Casting seven females to model fashion outfits to create digital ads. The company is not a clothing brand, but a fashion app called Covet Fashion. Models will select three-five outfits from your wardrobe to showcase.

REMOTE UGC - - FEMALE FASHION STYLING (Lead): Female, 18-30Ethnicity: All EthnicitiesRequired Skills:

Voice Style: Happy

Voice Style: Attractive

ON LOCATION (LOS ANGELES) - - FEMALE FASHION STYLING: Female, 18-30

Ethnicity: All Ethnicities

Required Skills:

Voice Style: Happy

Voice Style: Attractive

Some roles are remote UGC, others will be on location in Los Angeles., CA.

Professional Pay: $400 - $500/DailyRate: $400-$500 (depending on role)

Seeking talent: Nationwide (United States)

https://www.medianug.com/contact

==========

[daggerzine]

Sunday Runners.....the Corvair interview.

The music of Corvair fell into my hands recently thanks to Heather Larimer, who makes up one half of the band. The Portland duo, comprised of Larimer and her husband Brian Naubert (and drummer Eric Eagle for the recordings) haven’t been around for too long but being together a lot the past year or so gave them plenty of time to work on songs. I was a big fan of Larimer’s previous band, Eux Autres, and wondered if they were still around (see the first question) so was anxious to hear Corvair. I really liked what I heard. A healthy dose of all things 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s and not quite new wave, note quite indie rock but 100% deluxe. The S/T record, which was released in February, was a co-release between their own label and WIAIWYA label in the UK.  Read on and find out the history of the band, where they’ve been and where they’re headed. Oh and make sure you listen to their music.

 Heather and Brian and Brian and Heather 

Tell us about the end of Eux Autres. Why did that band end?

It actually has not officially ended. While Sun is Sunk was coming out, we left SF because it felt like that city as we knew it was dying—all the artists we knew were moving out, and I moved back to Portland and Nick to LA. Then I had a baby and then Nick had a baby and then soon we each had another baby. With 4 little kids among us, it became really hard to fly back and forth to work on new material. We tried it for a couple years and then one day we calculated that at our pace, the record we were making would take 5 years. So we just kind of gave each other permission to prioritize other projects. Nick is working on some songs I truly love right now. They’re a real gut punch.

 …and about the beginning of Corvair. How/when did the band form?

We had known each other for many years and then we got married three-ish years ago and suddenly neither of us had other musical projects going on. So we kind of shrugged and said, what if we worked together? We would sing in the car or while cooking or whatever so we knew our voices sounded great together. Then it was just a matter of figuring out what sort of project it would be. We went into the studio with a session drummer (Eric Eagle) in late 2019 and then a few months later, the pandemic suddenly gave as a LOT of time to make progress on the tracks. So the creative center of the record was defined in a weird apocalyptic bubble. But it was helpful to have that break with reality as we knew it, because we’ve both made a lot of records, and I suppose that could have somehow blunted our ambition or our edges. But we just hit the “fuck it” button and gave ourselves over to it completely. We were very nervous to mix, because no one else in the world had heard it, and we thought it was great, but we also could have been in a shared hallucination. Really, we’d be the last to know.

 The debut....

Who came up with the name? I have always loved those cars.

Brian’s mom drove a Corvair with a hole in the floor. They would drive it on the special outings to the beach, the weekend adventures. So it was a very romantic car, and the name is just very nice to say. It makes you feel good. Both of us had been in bands with names that were a nightmare to tell someone  in a crowded club, or really anywhere (Eux Autres and Ruston Mire). You’d have to repeat it 3 times, then explain it, and then they just kind of shrug with pity. We vowed to have a band name anyone could understand the first time.

 Did the WIAIWYA label approach you about releasing the record (or co-releasing it)?

John had approached Eux Autres right after our second record and so we did an EP (Strangled Days) with him and then we were on his label ever since. Late last summer, I posted a picture of Brian and I holding the CD Master on my Instagram and John said, what the hell is this? And then I emailed him the record and he wrote right back: “It’s RAD Heather!” I’m not sure if he was making fun of me by saying “rad”--probably, actually. I think I used to say it a lot. But he immediately wanted to put out the record. Nick and I had some really great times in the UK and Europe thanks to John and he has a very devoted audience, so Corvair felt it was a great fit for us.

 Is the Pink Room your own studio?

Yes, it is literally a room in our house that is pink. Brian has been making records at home for most of his life, since he was about 14. And despite having done fancier stuff like making studio demos for Columbia several times and recording with Peter Buck in a nice place, he really prefers to work at home because he likes to spend a ton of time on overdubs—they’re not even really “overdubs,” more like a second wave of writing for him. And I had found being in the studio very stressful in the past because I’m not a technically proficient musician and that makes me self-conscious. So I was grateful to be in the privacy of my own home, in my soft pants.

 Single from last year

Did the songs on the album come fairly easily or did you feel like you labored over them?

The initial writing of them came very easily and fast. Brian did a couple of 30 day writing challenges where he wrote several songs a day. But then once we laid down the basic tracks, we spent a ton of time building them and experimenting with them. We actually recorded probably twice as many parts as we ended up using. And half of what we did in the mix was kill things. In fact, we cut five totally finished songs from the record. 

 Tell us about making those videos? Were you freezing?

Consistently very very cold, yes. Ironically, the one in the snow (Green Mean Time) was the warmest because we were properly dressed. But the ocean ones were just brutal. Especially Sunday Runner. The video was Brian’s idea, he had a very specific vision and made it sound all easy: OK, just go down to the beach and dance for 90 seconds. And I was like, huh?!? And then I kept falling down and got absolutely soaked to the bone. When we finished shooting, I couldn’t feel my hands or feet and he was steering me down the beach with his coat wrapped around me and these little kids were staring horrified, like, Mom what’s wrong with that lady?

 Prior to the pandemic had you played out live much? Done any tours?

We have never ever played live as Corvair. Which is just wild. We will likely be recording this next album before we even have a line-up for performing. But we are very excited to play together. Likely this fall. Hopefully John will bring us to England soon so we will have a great excuse to get it together.

 What are your top 10 desert island discs?

 Brian:

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie - Low

Nada Surf - Let Go

Brian Eno - Another Green World

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon (yeah I know, but I don’t care)

 Heather:

GBV�� - Alien Lanes

Kinks  - Village Green

Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Radiohead - Kid A

Ruston Mire - Steady Jobs and Flying Cars

  Who are some of your favorite current bands, local otherwise?

HL: I’m interested in the Dry Cleaning juggernaut. And I really dig Deep Sea Diver, Cloud Nothings, Courtney Barnett, Big Thief/Lenker. And then, I’m also very ready to embrace a new angry band whose music makes you think your stereo is broken when you play it--I’m taking suggestions.

 BN: Alt J, Elbow, Doves, Metric, Foals, Snail Mail

 What’s next for the band?

HL: We are recording this summer and trying to put some sort of live outfit together ASAP. Trying to stay out of the ocean for a while. 

 Closing comments? Words of wisdom? Final thoughts?

Thank you so much for having us! 

 www.corvair.bandcamp.com

[cyberramblings]

Wii U: Let Us Play

I am aware that this is entirely uninteresting, but I am going to talk about it anyways. Let's dive in to all the games I played yesterday and how I acutely felt about playing them.

Splatoon

I feel like this game is perfect for playing just a match or two a day, but I do also like playing a mission of the campaign per day. I will likely continue this trend. I adore the aesthetic and vibe of this game, and I love a rare shooter where you can do more than just kill.

Skyward Sword

Again, this is a good game for chipping away at gradually because the motion control combat drives me nuts. I really love the time travel mechanic in the desert area, but I just hit a big, open section and noped out of there. I do want to see the whole story, so I should just dive back in ASAP and look up a guide if I really get stuck.

Severed

Booted it up yesterday. Love the aesthetic and tone, but I found the gameplay did not resonate with me. I should give it another proper try sometime but I was easily frustrated.

Mario Maker

I found the forced tutorial...odd. I much prefer the single player offerings of the Switch version or even the 3DS version, but it still seems like a must-own.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

I just did the boss of the first world yesterday (Gobblegut). I feel like this game can be great when the level design is really poping, but this fight just showed off the weakness of the camera. I will still be playing again though, slowly making progress towards catching up to my last playthrough.

Metroid Prime

This game just continues to cement itself in my mind as the greatest of all time. I am already dreading the endgame slog, and I am aware of the game's hyper-similarities to Super Metroid, but there is little else that I enjoy as much as playing Metroid Prime. I got the charge beam and morph ball bomb, so things are really heating up. I think part of my love for Metroid Prime comes from seeing a trailer for it on a Gamecube demo disc when I was like four or five. I really should track that down.

[sweethomelima]

Flashback Para || Goodbye || Samcedes

Who: Mercedes Jones, Sam Evans 

What: Mercedes tells Sam about her chance to record in LA and asks him to come with her. 

Where: Their apartment

Notes: none

Mercedes stood outside of her and Sam's apartment taking a few breaths before walking in, her news was life changing, it was amazing. This was a dream come true and she only hoped Sam would feel the same way. They had married young, right out of High School and it was worth it, she loved Sam truly did and staying in Lima to work on her music, while they saved up before moving to an unknown city was a smart call. This way they had the support of both his and her parents and they had each other.

The last year had been amazing, it brought them closer as a couple and friends, and it brought her closer to both his and her parents who were thrilled they were getting married. Though in order to get her to stay her dad did bribe her with a 2 bedroom luxury apartment but pretended it was a wedding gift. She always believed he agreed to her marrying Sam only because it kept her close to home. Walking in the house she placed her bag down. "Sam? baby you here?"

If you asked Sam, getting married was the best decision he made. There were people who told him not to propose while he was so young, but they didn’t grasp how much he loved Mercedes. She was it for him. There wasn’t anyone else who would make him feel this way. She was working on her music while Sam worked with the football team and tried to figure out what he was doing with his life.

Sam was doodling something close to comic art when he heard Mercedes. He left the spare bedroom and walked out to meet her. He put his hands on her hips and kissed her gently. “Hey! I missed you.” They haven't been apart more than a normal day, but it was the same thing Sam said each time he saw her — even in the mornings.

When Sam pulled her in his arms, she kissed him deeply, wrapping her arms around him. "Missed you too!" She kissed him once more before smiling. "How was your day? I hope it was as epic as mines," She said slowly pulling out of his arms and going towards the kitchen.

Washing her hands she went to the fridge to grab the chicken she took out of the freezer this morning. "When I say epic i mean EPIC!!!"

“Epic?” Sam asked. That sounded good. Maybe one of the local stations had agreed to play her demos. He was hopeful for her. Each step Mercedes made closer to success made him that much more proud of her.

He followed her to the kitchen. “Just worked on some new plays. You gonna tell me what happened or do I have to guess? I’m good at guessing games!”

Mercedes looked up at Sam and smiled. "You won't guess this, baby and I would love to see you try but its just... its everything." She giggled still unable to believe it herself. Going to the cabinet to grab her seasonings she glanced at him.

"Okay so you know I have been sending my demo out like crazy, wanting to get noticed for something. And it's been a year and still not bites. Well today I got bit!" She froze holding the lemon pepper in her hand then laughed. "That came out so wrong." She said as she continued to prep the food and talk. "So I am at the radio station you know doing my thing and humming while I work and this guy passes me. He goes, you have a beautiful voice." She placed the chicken in oven and washed her hands. "And I am like yeah thanks but humming is nothing wait till you hear me actually before you go saying that. He found it funny and said okay sing. now you know your wife is not afraid to drop a song anywhere so i bust out "And I am Telling You" and by the end of the song half the station is sitting there applauding and some were yes in tears."

He definitely knew about her sending her demo out. The longer it took, it seemed like the more discouraged Mercedes got. Sam would constantly tell her things would slide into place when they were meant to. It sometimes felt like he had more faith in her than she did.

Hearing her news, Sam bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. “What? I mean, I knew you could impress everyone, but...” Catching the attention of everyone at the station was another thing all together. It was big. He leaned against the counter. “Who was he?”

Mercedes smiled. "That is the best part. He owns this label called Epic Records, he was in from L.A. for some reason and when he heard me sing, he said I wow'd him. He had never heard such a voice that was not classical trained."

She moved over to him and sat in one of the stools by the island. "That's not even the best part, he did a video conference with his boss and had me sing for him and a few others at the label and they loved it! They want to sign me Sam, they want to sign me to sing for them."

Sam laughed as she mentioned the labels name. “Ah, no wonder you were saying epic!” He reached out, taking her hand which was lying on the counter. “I’m so proud of you, babe!”

In his head, he tried to figure out how things would work. “So what? You go to LA and record an album? Then come back?” He wasn’t sure the logistics of all of this.

Mercedes smiled with a nod. "Yep this who thing is Epic!" She felt on top of the world. And she just knew this was the beginning of great things for her, for them.

Hearing his questions she shook her head. "That's the thing, you know before we got married I had planned on moving to L.A. I mean that has always been our plan. So we would have to move there. But I am gonna have my dad and his lawyer look at the contract from what I see it's great, they will put us in one of the Label's Lofts, help us move out there and get settled and we would start working on my Album ASAP. I mean we would have to be there by next week but this is it Sam. My big break!"

Sam drummed his fingers on the counter. Sure, it had been their plan. Then they got married. They’d built a life here. Their families were here, and he might be a little more attached to his own than he should be.

“I mean... can’t it just be a trip? What’s so bad about Lima?” As long as he’d been here, he’d heard people talking about not wanting to ‘Lima losers’. Sam didn’t get it. Lima was nice.

Mercedes frowned. "Sam, it can't just be a trip, it takes a lot to make an Album, Lima is amazing Sam and its home, it will always be home, but this, Sam this is my dream. My Dream! It's everything I have ever wanted that wasn't you."

He shrugged. “A long trip? I can’t leave my parents or Stevie and Stacy!” Sam should have been expecting this, maybe even planned ahead. He knew she’d be a success but he hadn’t anticipated moving to LA. “Mercy, c’mon.”

"Sam, I am not saying you won't ever see your family they can come visit and we can come back here, Sam I love your family just like I love mines but this is the opportunity of a lifetime. I can't say no." She closed her eyes taking a breath. "Sam please. This is my dream. Please."

“I don’t see why it can’t be a trip,” he mumbled. She would have to go and record the album. Mercedes would have to promote the album. She would have to go in tour... but Sam didn’t get it fully. “This is our home!”

Mercedes went over to him and took his hands in hers. "This will always be our home, but I can't walk away from my one shot. And I can't do this without you.

“It doesn’t have to be forever,” Sam said. “It doesn’t — I’m not saying to stay away! I’m saying we can come back! It was different before, but...” But they were here now.

Mercedes shook her head. "Sam, I can't stay here. I can't grow here. In order for me to grow as an Artist I have to be there where the label can reach me, Sam this is a great opportunity for both of us."

Running a hand through his shaggy hair, Sam let out a sigh. “This is our home! It was different before, when we didn’t have any reasons to stay but look around!” He gestured around the room. “And I’m working with the team and talking to Mr. Schue about doing some things in glee! We’ve built this life...”

Mercedes let go of his hands. "Am I really hearing this correctly? You said that my dreams were your dreams and we would do this together. Sam I can't stay here. Every day I am in Lima, and not out there pursuing my dreams, i did a little. I am going to L.A. I am going to make my dreams, dreams I have had since I sang my first Chaka Khan Song with my mother's hairbrush come true. I can't stay here."

Sam didn’t know why things had gotten to this point with the conversation. “I’m still saying go to LA! You can — I just think it’d be nice to come back! What’s so bad about that?”

"Sam I will come back for a day or two, to see my family, friends but I am moving to L.A. I am living in L.A. My life is about to begin in L.A. and I need you there with me.  Lima isn't my life anymore. Please Sam."

His teeth sunk into his plump lower lip. Sam shook his head. “Lima is... why can’t we have both? It’s not like it would be impossible. It’s... it’s not.”

Mercedes ran her hands through her hair. "Sam once I start working towards this Album, once I start working towards making a name for myself, I can't just get on a plane and come back to Lima. I can't just pick up and come back here." She felt tears come to her eyes, because she knew that this conversation was taking a turn for the worse. "Sam please. We would go months, maybe even a year without seeing each other."

Sam shook his head. “Then I can come out and see you! That’s not...” he didn’t think he was cut out to be in LA. It wasn’t a place for him. “We could make it work, but... that’s not...”

"I don't want a long distance marriage! I didn't marry you to be apart from you!" She closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Sam, please come with me. Please."

He scratched the back of his neck. “I can’t give up my whole life. I can give up... there are parts but not everything.”

"You can't give up Lima, but you can give me up?" She turned towards him. "Is that what you are saying?"

Sam shook his head. “No! I’m saying we can make it work so we don’t have to leave Lima! I know everyone wants or leave but it’s... I think it’s a nice place. We could raise a family here!”

"I am not raising a family in Lima, I am not living in Lima! I am moving with you or without you Sam!" She said before she realized what she said. But she stood by it. "I am moving, I hope you are moving with me."

His face crumbled at the comment and he shook his head. “You know what? If you want to go without me, feel free, Mercy.”

Mercedes stepped back her heart dropping to the ground. "What?"

Sam shut his eyes. “I thought this could work. I could — we could come back to Lima and you said... you said you would go without me. I said fine.”

Mercedes nodded bitterly. "And that's it? You aren't even going to try in L.A.?

“We could make it work here. I don’t see why we can’t — why can’t we try it my way? If it doesn’t work, then we do your way!”

"Because it doesn't work that way Sam! Coming back here, after being there is like taking a step backwards and I don't want that."

“How? How is it backwards? You can do your album and I’ll come down a couple of weekends a month and then you come back! It’s not backwards!”

"Because that is the best way to have a marriage, seeing each other every other weekend. And when you do come down trying to fit time to see you, because I might have a session, or I might have a performance." She moved closer to him. "Sam please just come with me. Please."

Sam shut his eyes and shook his head. “You’re not working with me. This is... this is all about you, isn’t it? What I want doesn’t matter.”

"Yes it's about me! This is my dream Sam! My chance."

“It could work my way, but you won’t even try for me! I just have to do... whatever you choose.”

"You are naïve to think that Sam." She said walking out of the living room and the bedroom.

[Two Days Later]

Mercedes stared at the luggage in the living room. It seemed like her whole life was packed away in only a few short hours. She and Sam still hadn't spoken, and her heart was breaking. She turned to look around their apartment, then turned back to the door, waiting, praying for Sam to step foot back in the house so that she could see him, try to convince him before her flight to come with her. Both her parents and his said to give him time and she wanted too, but she was hours away from flying to L.A. she had no more time to give.

Sam had stormed out after the other night. He and Mercedes hadn’t spoken in two days. He knew she hadn’t left because she would have posted something about it online. Still, he walked through the doorway and spotted her ready to go. He cleared his throat “Uh, so you’re.... you’re really going.”

Seeing the door open, she looked up relieved that Sam was. She stood and nodded. "I am." She reached in her purse and pulled out a ticket. "You can still come Sam, we have to me."

Massaging his temples, he shook his head. “You don’t even want to try it my way? I’m just asking you to try.”

"And that's all I am asking you Sam. Just come to L.A with me. You might love it."

“I’m not saying I won’t, but why do we have to do it your way first? Why can’t we try... this?”

Mercedes looked at him. "Because I have outgrown Lima, Ohio." She said honestly.

“I haven’t!” Sam let out a soft sigh. “Maybe you’ve outgrown me too...”

There was a text to her phone and she sighed the car was downstairs. "Sam, I don't want this to be the end for us. I love you so much. But if I don't go and take my chance I will resent you for holding me back." She felt tears came to her eyes as she realized something else. "And if I make you come with me, then you will resent me."

Sam couldn’t look her in the eyes as she spoke. “Yeah, I love you too, but...” he trailed off as he moved away from the door. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Another text rang out through the room. "I guess not." She moved closer to him putting the ticket in his hand. "Its open ended. If you change your mind please." She couldn't even finish her statement. She kissed him softly on the lips then moved away from him grabbing her bags.

The ticket in his hand almost felt like it burned. As she kissed him, Sam could feel his own eyes tearing up. “Yeah, yeah. I — yeah,”

She went to the door, hoping he would stop her, but when he didn't she opened the door and left with tears in her eyes. She couldn't help but think that it was over between them.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

the sun smashers are important y’all

so i was rewatching bahroo’s zane stream please dont judge me i just wanted to see how he screamed when he got set on fire

and i noticed something funky about the main quests

tl;dr: the main quest levels are really weird, we go from a level 1 quest, to 2, to 2 (no that’s not a mistake), to 4, to 10!!, to 14, to 13. I theorize that either there is a hidden mission somewhere, or the quests were oddly leveled for the demonstrations and should have been spread out like so: (1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14) and give my reasoning for that. its still a pretty big jump from 4 to 7 and so on, but its more reasonable to think they wanted to fit in some side quests there

i then go talk about the Sun Smashers! and these guys are fun :)

y’all when we show up at the HBC, we’re already on a mission to “Find the Sun Smashers”. the first time we hear about them during the footage we’re shown is when Tyreen mentions them. The theory is that the sun smashers stole the vault key from the recruitment center (we offered them a place in our family = we recruited them) and they just wanted guns and cash (they betrayed the family = they stole our vault map) and Vaults are a source of both guns and cash

i think when we go fight Shiv, the room back there with monitors is going to give us information on who the sun smashers are and where the vault key is (the HBC) and lilith tells us we NEED to go get it. I don’t think there is any power stealing here and now. Probably later. but not now!

Tyreen also says in the hologram “Like i said, that vault map is super busted”. but she had never talked to us before in the footage we’re shown. I’m thinking there is a point where we do speak with the twins, or we “overhear” something and then they see us, etc, and that’s the reason they cut the footage.

so i think the timeline is: 

Get attacked by CoV, head to RC, save Clappy, meet Lilith, learn about Sun Smashers stealing key from RC, maaayybe some talk/introduction with the twins?? idk, head to the HBC, beat up Mouthpiece, get the Vault Map, Hologram time (hi again), Lilith gets her powers stolen and the Vault Map too, we get Sanctuary III (either we find the ship itself on pandora (my vote: we’re probably going to have to clear it of wildlife ew), or we take a shuttle up), head to Promethea to stop the twins cuz they got to teleport with lily’s powers and had time to set up that sweet alliance with maliwan because they have a grudge against atlas for experimenting on them while we’re fumbling on a sand planet looking for an escape

is that good? are we good?

i think we’re good.

so the first quest is level 1, that’s a given

second quest

level 2

also a given

the third quest???

also? level 2?

which is weird cuz im pretty sure the demo streamers were around level 4 for that quest, but the enemies were levels 6-7 so… i imagine the actual level for the quest is about 5?

the fourth quest is level 4, but it might actually be around level 7.

the reason i’m bumping the levels up is because when you get to the fifth quest in the game

the quests jump from level 4 requirement to level 10

and that’s one huge-ass leap to make all of a sudden

not to mention the jump from 10 to 14

slightly better than 4 to 10, but its still a big jump, especially since the characters are starting to level up more. I could believe there’s no gap between 5 and 6 because the streamers start the level at lvl 10, but then the enemies are scaled to level 10/11 so… what the heck. from the HBC footage it’s clear the enemies don’t scale directly to player level (as a lvl 4 amara was taking on level 6/7 enemies) so im wondering if they changed the levels to make it look earlier in the game than i actually is

it’s even weirder because the quest you get when you finish the demo is level 13

usually when you get mainline quests, they try to make it so that they’re in order level-wise. these two are… very much not in order. and i understand that Congratulations was put in solely for the demo players, but the fact that it’s actually a lower level than the quest preceding it is really bizarre. I think the quest log for Hostile Takeover was supposed to be scaled down to level 10/11/12 (take ur pick) for the demo and it wasn’t.

Same for Sanctuary. I think it was supposed to be scaled down as well. That would leave a smaller, less noticeable gap between quests 

So we’d have a level 1 quest, TWO level 2 quests, a level 4 quest, a level 8ish quest, then a level 11 quest. Not bad. There’s still the huge gap between quests 4 and 5 but it could be much worse. Could be the 6 level gap we had before.

I do think it could also be that the third and fourth quests were pulled forwards in level. Example being that the third quest isn’t supposed to be level 2, it should be level 4. Then the fourth quest would be around 6/7 and then we’d have 5 coming in at 10, which is just on the mark.

There’s still a lot of awkward leveling here and there but its borderlands? so it’s possible they wanted to fit in some side quests at this point to pad it out. I prefer the theory that there’s a quest that was taken out of the quest logs. 

so you’d have something like (and this is going by the original, demo-ordering of the quests):

level 1

level 2

level 2

level 4

level 7 (hidden quest)

level 10

level 14

i just don’t understand why from the ground up and cult following are apparently the same level. I suppose that’s where they’re making us believe Lilith gets her powers stolen so maybe its because we don’t get to do a lot of combat at the time so we’re still level 2 when we head over to the HBC? Which… is weird because when they get to the recruitment center, even though Cult Following is supposedly a level 2 quest, the player characters are level 4 while the enemies are ranging from 5-7

it’s possible they scaled this quest up since amara would later be playing with Zane (though she levels up to 5 almost immediately when entering), but i’m thinking of something else.

i want to propose something

I think the sun smashers stole the vault key from the recruitment center. the quest objectives for Cult Following are these:

“Find the Sun Smashers”

Tyreen talks about them a little bit when we first meet her in the hologram but we’ll get to that in a second

so obviously the sun smashers are those purple corpses we’ve been seeing all throughout the HBC. im uncertain if Mouthpiece is a part of their subsect of the cult or not (Tyreen didn’t kill him sooo), as the objective changes to “Kill Mouthpiece” once you enter the arena. I imagine if he is, maybe he’s their leader? Maybe he asked them to steal the Vault Map to prove themselves to the twins by opening a vault by themselves or some shit. I dunno if he is though. Maybe Tyreen left him alive to prove a point to us because she knew we were coming for the busted-ass Vault Map. Like she let him continue to protect it (even though it was broke) because she knew we’d come to get it and kill him on the way. I digress.

Mouthpiece says, when he dies: “I see it… The Great Vault” which I think is once again proving the theory that the twins are saying they’re going to lead the bandit clans to salvation through the Red Vault. Unsure if that’s the wicked Vault symbol we see in the trailers (you know, the biological looking one) or if that’s just a symbol for the first Vault on Promethea, or if they’re the same thing. I dunno, I can’t imagine we’d reach the so-called “Great Vault” by chapter 6/7/8 in the game, but its possible that Vault unleashes a wealth of alien horrors for us to defeat annnd, yeah, you know the drill. Twins either die or join our side to help us defeat whatever comes out of it. Or, the so-called “Great Vault” is a bust and it either can’t be opened yet and other Vaults need to be opened first, or some other inane shit to pad time. I am most curious as to why they’re going to the Vault on Promethea first, though. Randy says Tyreen wants to absorb the Vault Monsters’ powers so she can become the most powerful living being or whatever so going to a Vault that was (possibly) already opened by Atlas seems like a weird choice (still not sure if Atlas ever actually opened the Vault on Promethea or not. Never actually said if it was the Vault or just some Eridian ruins they found themselves that boosted their company up so high. We know Typhon found the actual Vault and Key, though!). Also going for the salvation bit ASAP when u kinda need ur cult to get the other Vaults is really weird.

anyway. I got kinda off topic here. … again.

i imagine our first interaction with the twins is in the recruitment center, but I don’t think they actually show up. More holograms, or an ECHO stream, or whatever. I’m gonna stand by what I said in that one lilith post (one of many ugh) that when we enter the room Shiv came out of, a broadcast is going to start.

I think maybe the twins (or mouthpiece) … (or both) will be broadcasting something detailing where the Vault Key went (stolen by the Sun Smashers) and where they’re all headed (the HBC). that would explain why Tyreen starts out with “did you come all this way just to see me?” and not some sorta greeting like “oh who the heck are you?” (also can I point out that she asks us to thank lilith for the Firehawk powers not during this scene, but during the Promethean scene. just another point in the “they steal lilith’s powers after we retrieve and fix the vault map” box). 

She goes on to show off her powers (yay for “we’ve never seen her use her powers before, not even on lilith”)

and then immediately goes on to say “so i offered the sun smashers a place in our family, but they just wanted guns and cash, they betrayed the family” then we get “Gods don’t negotiate” (hell yeah). She goes into this like we have context for who exactly the Sun Smashers are, which is where my theory comes into play. What was the betrayal? Well, we all know Vaults are (supposedly) a source of kick-ass loot. Of guns, and cash. They stole the Vault Map from the twins after they had let them into the “family”. That’s how we know who the sun smashers are before this demo. We have an objective to find the “sun smashers”. why do we need to find them? they took the vault key. lilith thought the vault key was in the recruitment center (where the sun smashers were being recruited!!!) but they had stolen it and brought it to the HBC. The twins show up to make a demonstration out of them and Ty rock-ifies all of them. She knows the Vault Hunters are coming to get the key, and that the crimson raiders were the ones with the vault key in the first place (from when Sanctuary had fallen… in theee upcoming dlc). she probably understands that we have a better idea of how to work it than she does. And I’m betting, the reason she decides to steal Lilith’s powers is because Lilith knows how to work it. So even if we do meet the twins in flesh-and-blood before the HBC? They wouldn’t have a reason to steal her powers then. It’s only after we fix the Vault Map that they decide to come get it back and get the key that will make it work (lilith’s powers. in case that part wasn’t clear lmao). 

oh and tyreen talking about the whole sun smashers thing in general is interesting:

Like, she hadn’t mentioned the sun smashers before so… I assume this was mentioned the first time we meet her (or at least during the climb up to the HBC). maybe we witness the twins in conversation (either in-person or through an ECHO stream/hologram/whatever) and they don’t realize (or don’t care) that we’re watching? and ty mentions something about being annoyed they have to get the Map back because it’s broken, anyway and then they’re like “oh! hello! we were waiting for you guys! that was quick!” but they totally knew we were watching because they WANTED us to get the Vault Key, its all part of their master plan

because Ty does say at the end: “go ahead and take it! I’ll swing by later to pick it up. you’re my most loyal follower, Vault Thief :) you just don’t know it yet :)”

i imagine she knows we’re a “vault thief” because we tell her we’re vault hunters and she’s all like “well… that sucks, those vaults are ours, they’re our birthright, you thief”

anyway

uh

i got a little into this lmao

ttyl

[remembermemorablememories]

Monday, November 5, 2018

post #301

condensed post:

super productive day today! plus also got my switch (it got here so fast??)

- woke up at 10am. addressed a text from sarah about potentially rearranging some workshops and got down to trying to figure out what i could shift around

- went to SAO around 11am to figure out the parking passes because we need them ASAP by this weekend. i talked to someone and she redirected me to someone else who was able to properly process my request. 15 minutes after i left the office i got an email with the confirmed request (thank god)

- went to warren to eat lunch around 11:30am. i had some pepper mac and cheese, noodles and a calzone. i watched an episode of S2E3 “religion” of masters of none. fun episode :)

- went to data science discussion early cause it was right there. i sat in the classroom and worked on my webapp from 12:30pm - 1:30pm, adding some styling for the demo later and cleaning up some of my work from last night

- went to OOP presentation at 1:40pm just down the hall. eric and nik were already there and we saw a bit of the group before us present. then we presented and i think we did really well. everything we discussed last night paid off cause it was buttery smooth today. the prof had just one question for us and the TA had just one question as well. so it seemed like everything was crystal clear. i got an email notification that my switch was delivered too!!

- went home and set up my switch. then whipped out breath of the wild and started playing :’) i chatted with some people on fb first but played on my switch from 3:45pm-6pm. tyrone watched and help give me some guidance on where to go. i was in the great plateau and going through the first four shrines, getting my runes

- went to eat dinner in warren 6-7pm. i got some more noodles and rice and a calzone. the food was mediocre :s watched another episode of S2E4 of masters of none “first date”

- went to hackathon organizer meeting. we ran through the schedule for this weekend. ironed out details in our group logistics meetings on judging and workshops and other things

- went to OW meeting from 8pm - 9:45pm. today was demos and it was a very long but pretty productive session. i think everyone demoing had a chance to answer some good questions and idk i really enjoyed the session. i feel like there was some really good discussion. we did go over time though but oh well. i demoed my basic lobby implementation 

- walked back home and worked on finding bus volunteers. i had to compile a list of emails from confirmed names and then send out an email draft to them. i took a mini break around 11pm-12am to play some breath of the wild with tyrone. he helped me get past the last shrine cause i needed spicy peppers to stay warm in the wintery mountains

- sent out the email and got two volunteers right away, which was dope

- worked on setting up the devpost from 1am-1:30am and then typing up a data science update submission for my professor until 2am

now i’m catching up on yesterday and today’s blog post

whew what a long and productive day

i’m gonna shower and go to sleep. also daylight savings ended today so yay we gained an extra hour

[schwermetallisch]

Artist: Sorcerer Title: Lamenting of the Innocent Genre: Epic Doom Metal Release Date: 29th May 2020 Label: Metal Blade Records Tonight I have the privilege and the pleasure to review one of the best Epic Doom acts since the first riff was played by the divine hands of our lord Iommi: SORCERER! SORCERER was formed in Stockholm in 1988 by Johnny Hagel (b), Tommy Karlsson (dr) and Peter Furulid (g) Anders Engberg (vox) and Mats Liedholm (g) joined the band in 1989 when the band recorded their first demo. Sadly, SORCERER disbanded after two glorious demos. It should take 18 years for them to reunite for the Hammer of Doom Festival in Germany, after this and the successful gig at the Up the Hammers Festival in Athens, Greece the band decided to give songwriting and world conquering another go. Fast forward: it is 2020 the year of the plague and SORCERER will soon release their third full-length record ‘Lamenting of the Innocent’ . Right after the first few seconds it is clear: this is Epic Doom incarnate - SOLITUDE AETERNUS and CANDLEMASS come to mind when listening to the sweet melodies and perfectly arranged transitions of the five-piece. Niemann and Hallgren on guitar duty are a revelation, newcomer Justin Biggs is an invaluable addition to the already impressive line-up and a real beast on the bass, Engberg on vocals is the epitome of the frontman captivating with every syllable leaving his lips and last but not least Richard Evensand on drums: always on point with his differentiated yet powerful style. Lyrically this is among the best stuff I had the honour to listen to in the last 12 months since my comeback as the best writer in a 3-miles radius (only joking it is 5 miles). My 3 personal favourites are: 1. ‘Lamenting of the Innocent’ (The Title track, he has it all: great melody and chorus) 2. ‘Where Spirits Die’ (this cuts a bit deeper, insanely catchy and a heavy hymn) 3. ‘Condemned’ (this is heavy as fuck and it has a chorus that reminds of 80s ballads but heavy) If you love Doom Metal get your hands on this masterpiece asap, SORCERER also has their discography on bandcamp #schwermetallisch #sorcerer #metalbladerecords #heavymetal #music #doom (hier: Neumühl, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAA2l9eiGR9/?igshid=gt03afdneunk

[exploringatlanta]

Celebrate the Holidays - 2017

It’s finally cooling down here in Atlanta after a long and steamy summer, so now that Halloween has come and gone, it’s time to look ahead to fun holiday events in Atlanta! Some are must-do decades-long traditions, some are new ones to add to your list. Light displays, shows, shopping, and more.

Atlanta has something for everyone, so don’t miss out this holiday season!

Light Displays:

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights - Atlanta Botanical Gardens. 11/11- 1/7/2018 5-10pm. $13+ (non-members). Over 1 million lights and 200 show-stopping color changing topiaries transform the garden into a must-do holiday event. Enjoy a new feature this year, Nature's Wonders, illuminating the world's natural phenomena through countless strands of synchronized dancing lights strung high over Storza Wood. Coming back this year are the Walk of Flame, Tunnel of Light, Orchestral Orbs, Glittering Galaxy, Radiant Rainforest, and Model Trains that continue to make the exhibition a must-see holiday tradition. Ticketing options include a Premium Ticket (3D glasses & drink ticket included) and a Flex Ticket, in case your plans change. For adults who can stay up a later, the cheapest ticket is a walk-up after 9pm for $13.95, but only gives you an hour to see everything. Highly recommend buying tix in advance to secure family plans on premium nights/weekends.

Magical Night of Lights - Lake Lanier. 11/17- 1/3/18. $35+ per car. This year the 25th anniversary display celebrates the 12 Days of Christmas!  7 miles of lights, Snowflake Bridge, holiday village, Santa, Petting Zoo, Carnival Rides, s’mores, and more. 

Fantasy in Lights - Callaway Gardens. 11/17-1/6/2018. $10.50+. Named “Top 10 Places to See Holiday Lights,” as named by National Geographic Traveler, experience an amazing light and sound show! 8 million lights, 15 scenes, Christmas Village with kids activities, Grinch Holiday Dinner Show, Character Breakfast, Story Time with Mrs. Claus, pictures with Santa, shopping, and train rides. Also check out the specialty nights.

Lights of Life - Marietta/Life University. 11/23- 12/31. $5-$10. One of the most affordable and always delightful light displays OTP, check out Life University’s iconic holiday scenes in lights. The 65 foot tall rendition of Santa and his sleigh is the tallest display in the Southeast!

Ice Skating Rinks:

Skate at Atlantic Station - 11/18 kick off. $10+. right in the heart of Midtown - enjoy the largest outside ice skating rink in town! Unlimited skating and skate rental included. Make a day of it with shopping, eats, Santa’s Cottage, and ice skating. The lighting of the AS tree happens on 11/18 to kick off the holiday season. 

Avalon on Ice - 11/19-1/21/18. $14+, includes skates. Spend the day shopping and skating at Avalon in Alpharetta! Holiday festivities kick off on 11/19 with the lighting of the tree and the arrival of Santa. Also offered, private skating lessons, skate school, private party rental, and a Disco Skate Party on 1/14!

Skate the Sky at Ponce City Market - 11/20-12/31. $15/$8 + rooftop admission. New skating rink opens this year at Skyline Park and enjoy games, eats and drinks.

St. Regis Astor Holiday Rink - 11/24 - 1/1/2018. $18-$30 per hour. Reservations recommended for this upscale skating experience with holiday tunes, s'mores, and hot chocolate.

Holiday Shows/Events:

Adults Only:

Invasion: Christmas Carol - Dad’s Garage Theatre. 12/1 - 12/30. $17.50+. The ultimate holiday improv experience, what happens when a new character gets introduced to a classic tale? With new characters added each night - each show is unique and will keep you laughing all month long!

Miracle on Monroe. 11/24-12/24. Holiday themed pop-up bar was a big hit last year and is back with TWO locations, one in Midtown and the new second spot in Buckhead! Fun cocktails, the bar’s ‘halls’ are decked to the max and patrons can enjoy themed cocktails in custom Miracle glassware including Santa’s Pants mugs and reindeer Collins glasses. 

The Santaland Diaries - Horizon Theatre. 11/17 - 12/31. $25+. Hilarious David Sedaris holiday play about the life of a department store elf. Always a fun night out - check out the cool VIP Experience offered that features reserved seating & holiday beverage.

12 Dates of Christmas - Aurora Theatre. 11/25-12/23. $20+. Laugh off the stress of shopping and family hijinks with this new comedy show about dating craziness & the holidays. Amazing one-woman show.

Atlanta Santa Speedo Run - Midtown. 12/9 2pm. One of the most hilarious ways to raise $ for an amazing local charity. Proceeds benefit Bert’s Big Adventure!

Family-Friendly:

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Center for Puppetry Arts. 11/7 - 12/31. $11.25+. One of the hottest tickets in town for families, don’t wait to get yours as they will sell out. This year also features a Create-A-Puppet Workshop™ to create a King Moonracer™ Rod and String Puppet. Your ticket also gives you access to the Worlds of Puppetry Museum.

Wake Up Santa - Georgia Aquarium. 11/18 9-10:30am. $9.95+. Kids can help ‘wake up’ Santa with fun activities, hot cocoa bar, cookies and of course photos with the Jolly One. Reserve your spot online! 

A Christmas Carol - Aurora Theatre. 11/24 - 12/23. $20+. Those outside the perimeter can also check out a local production of the classic holiday tale in Gwinnett! This performance is a one-man show starring Anthony P. Rodriguez. his 11th year using classical storytelling to bring you into the world of Charles Dickens. 

Madeline’s Christmas - Horizon Theatre. 12/2- 12/31. $12-$15. The little girl from Paris embarks on a holiday adventure! Family-friendly holiday favorite.

The Nutcracker by The Atlanta Ballet - The Fox Theatre. 12/8 -12/28. $21+. Classic holiday ballet that is a must-see every season! Stunning performance by Atlanta’s best dancers. Runs 2 hours with a 25 minute intermission.

A Christmas Carol - Alliance Theatre. 12/8 - 12/24. $24+. A performance of the classic Christmas tale that features live music and ATL-based actors that always deliver an amazing experience. Create a new holiday tradition for your family today, best enjoyed by ages 5 and up. Performances sell out quickly, so get your tickets ASAP!

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Venkman’s. 12/10 and 12/17 6-7p. $5pp. Get into the holiday spirit with this family-friendly live musical performance of the score for the classic Peanuts special. 

Mighty Mo' & Miracle on 34th Street - The Fox Theatre . 12/19 7:30p. FREE w reservation. Movie Screening, Snow on Ptree, Sock Donation, organ show and more. 

Atlanta Classics & Art:

The Pink Pig - Macy’s Lenox Mall. Now thru 12/31/17. $3 a ride, purchase tickets on-site! An Atlanta family tradition and a portion of the ticket sales goes to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. 

Stone Mountain Christmas - 11/11- 1/3/2018. $21.95+pp (Flash Sale Price- Christmas Adventure Pass). Enjoy the Rudolph The Red-Nosed-Reindeer 4-D movie experience and the Skylights Spectacular, which is a musical walk-through experience of lights! Also back are live performances of The Littlest Christmas Tree, Forever Christmas, Twas The Night Before… A Holiday Cabaret, and A Christmas Carol.  Ride the Sing-a-long Train and enjoy a nightly Christmas Parade, Snow Angel® Snowfall and Fireworks Finale. Named by USA Today as one of the ten best places in the country to catch Santa Claus, don’t miss out on meeting the man in red!

Winter Wonderland - Fernbank Museum. 11/17-1/7/2018. Free for members/included in museum admission. Exhibit features two floors of decorated trees that feature the cultures, holidays and traditions celebrated around the world. 

Festivity + Trees Reveal Party -  Colony Square . 12/1 4p. FREE! Get into the spirit of the holidays in the heart of Midtown as 25+ local artist trees are revealed. Also enjoy hot cider, live music and themed eats.

Cookies with Santa - Zoo Atlanta. 12/2-3. $12+. Sign up for one of 4 time slots each day - 8:30am (members only), 10:30am, 12:30p, 2:30p. $10+. Tix sell out fast, so get yours ASAP. Kids can meet Santa, enjoy cookies and hot cocoa!! Also, crafts, costume characters and caroling.

A Victorian Holiday - Oakland Cemetery. 12/2 11-4pm. $6+. Tickets go on sale 11/4. Enjoy a day in this historic park with a Holiday Artists Market, carolers, historic crafts (Victorian Ornaments) cocoa, and a special mausoleum tour. Attendees will have the chance to meet Saint Nicholas himself and also purchase one of Oakland’s signature Balsam fir wreaths. Step back into time with costumed characters that will bring the past of Atlanta to life.

Virginia Highlands Tour of Homes. 12/2-3. $25+. Children 10 and under are free. Tour 8 gorgeous homes and shop locally for holiday gifts. Also enjoy food tastings in John Howell Park from local restaurants including neighborhood faves Atkins Park, Highland Tap, Fontaine’s, Marlow’s Tavern, Press & Grind, San Francisco Coffee, Tapa Tapa and newcomers The General Muir & St. Germaine Bakery.

Candlelight Nights at the Atlanta History Center. 12/15 & 12/22. $20+. Candlelight tour of 3 historic houses, Christmas market with local crafted items, food/drinks, jump start that holiday spirit with this great event.

Holiday Shopping:

ICE Holiday Shopping Extravaganza - 11/18-19. $5. This is a very cool holiday expo featuring handmade gifts from 175+ local/regional vendors. Free swag bags for the first 250 attendees each day! Soaps, clothing, artwork, jewelry and more! Photo booth, local food vendors, gift wrapping station and all kinds of fun. A must in Atlanta! Holiday Pop-Up shop opens 11/9.

Christkindl Market at Atlantic Station - 11/24-12/23. FREE! Enjoy Atlanta’s version of a traditional German market with great holiday gift options, themed foods/drinks and holiday cheer. 2 hours free parking! 

Root City Holiday Pop-Up Shop - 11/25-12/23. Shop local this holiday season at this Decatur pop-up. Shop features gifts from local artisans and will feature maker demos, adult and kids workshops, and an opening night party.

Holiday Pop-Up Shop - 11/28. Small Town Creatives hosts 20+ makers with unique gifts at Reformation Brewery in Woodstock. Shop, sip and support local artists! 

Back to Nature Holiday Market - Chattahoochee Nature Center. 12/2 12-2p. Shop 40+ local vendors selling handmade and eco-friendly gifts. Skip the traditional retail options and get really unique gifts for family and friends.

Open Studios & Holiday Sale at the Goat Farm. 12/8-9. Meet artists in their studios and shop for locally crafted gifts at this annual open house event! 

Holiday Artists Market - Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market. Sat 12/16. Shop 30 local artists and vendors at this special holiday Farmer's Market. 

Holiday Craft Bazaar at the Grant Park Farmer’s Market. 12/17 9a-1p. #FREE! Stock up on locally made gifts, goods, and veggies for the holidays! Live music, more.

Don’t see your fave holiday events, shows, and local shopping on here, send me a note! This list will continue to grow as we get closer to the holidays.

Enjoy everything our city has to offer this holiday season!!

[t-baba]

The most popular JavaScript links of 2019

#469 — January 3, 2020

Read on the Web

JavaScript Weekly

The holiday season is rapidly coming to a close and we're looking forward to not only a new year but the entirety of the Roaring Twenties. Rest assured, the JavaScript world is not going to look the same when 2030 turns up so watch this space! 😄

We'll be back as usual next week, but this week we're taking a look back at 2019 and the most popular things you clicked on. If you didn't read every issue in 2019 (we wouldn't expect you to!) you'll hopefully find a few things worth revisiting here.

Thanks for supporting us — we look forward to keeping you up-to-date in the years to come.

— Peter Cooper and the Cooperpress team

📈 Our most popular links of 2019:

1. The TypeScript Tax: A Cost vs Benefit Analysis — As much as we love JavaScript, this was really a strong year for TypeScript, with it seeming to become the de facto way to bring strong typing to JavaScript. Back in January, Eric Elliott asked "is it worth it?" and presented some critical, data-driven analysis to establish its viability. It was your most clicked link of 2019.

Eric Elliott

2. New ES2018 Features Every JavaScript Developer Should Know — We're now looking forward to ES2020 and we've had ES2019 in 2019 too, but this post remains packed with interesting examples of spread properties within object literals, asynchronous iterators and asynchronous iterables, Promise.prototype.finally, and other features that are still not exactly common to see in the wild.

Faraz Kelhini

The Complete ⚛️ React Learning Path — Take your React to the next level to find out what it is fully capable of with this comprehensive learning path.

Frontend Masters sponsor

3. 43 JavaScript Questions, With Their Answers Explained — Whether for fun or a job interview, this remains an interesting set of JavaScript-related questions, complete with explanations of the answers.

Lydia Hallie

4. I Don't Hate Arrow Functions (But..) — Arrow functions (=>), as introduced in ES6, have generally been a much welcomed addition to JavaScript but Kyle Simpson reminded us they’re not suitable in every scenario and created an ESLint plugin to help you keep a handle on their use.

Kyle Simpson

5. Responsible JavaScript: A Three Part Series — We originally only linked to part one of this great series where Jeremy Wagner plotted a course to avoid the unnecessary bloat and inaccessible patterns of modern JavaScript trends.. but now you can enjoy part 2 and part 3 too, where he went into more technical depth on bundling and handling third-party scripts.

Jeremy Wagner

6. What’s New in JavaScript — At this year’s Google I/O ’19, Mathias Bynens and Sathya Gunasekaran of the V8 team gave a fantastic 30 minute ‘state of the union’ talk on the state of JavaScript as a language and what new features are being baked in.

Google I/O video

💻 Jobs

JavaScript Developer at X-Team (Remote) — Work with the world's leading brands, from anywhere. Travel the world while being part of the most energizing community of developers.

X-Team

Senior Software Engineer, Frontend — Use the latest tech to mold an innovative, empathy-centric experience for creators to order fast, high-quality parts (forging space robots to animatronics).

Fictiv

Find a Job Through Vettery — Vettery is completely free for job seekers. Make a profile, name your salary, and connect with hiring managers from top employers.

Vettery

📘 The most popular articles & tutorials of 2019

The Cost of JavaScript in 2019 — Addy Osmani presented a 2019 update to his Cost of JavaScript in 2018 article in both video and article forms. If you still want to get a feel for where the true bottlenecks are with JavaScript, this is a must read.

Addy Osmani

Should We Rebrand 'JavaScript'? — This thoughpiece provoked quite a bit of discussion in the community over the problems (or not) with ‘JavaScript’ as a name. I think we'll see more on this front in 2020.

Kieran Potts

First Online Mentored Software Bootcamp w/ Job Guarantee — Get a job or your money back with Springboard’s online bootcamp. Benefit from 1:1 mentorship, our exclusive curriculum, and top career coaching.

Springboard (Software Engineering Career Track) sponsor

When Should You Be Using Web Workers? — Web Workers provide a way to run JavaScript in background threads in the browser and you’d think using them as much as possible would be a good thing.. right? Current frameworks make this tough, says Surma, who shows us why we should be working to change this ASAP.

Surma

Practical Ways to Write Better JavaScript — You’re not necessarily going to agree with all of them (e.g. “Use TypeScript”!) but this is a reasonably solid batch of points to think about overall.

Ryland Goldstein

JavaScript Symbols: But Why? — Not played with symbols (a new data type introduced with ES6) yet? This is a gentle way to get up to speed with not only what they are but why you might use them.

Thomas Hunter II

Make 2020 the Year to Master MongoDB. Try Studio 3T Today — Generate driver code for JavaScript, Python, Ruby and more? Build queries fast with our drag & drop editor? Of course.

Studio 3T sponsor

Using Native JavaScript Modules in Production Today — “now, thanks to some recent advances in bundler technology, it’s possible to deploy your production code as ES2015 modules—with both static and dynamic imports—and get better performance than all non-module options currently available.”

Philip Walton

7 Tricks with Resting and Spreading JavaScript Objects — Using modern JS features to merge objects, organize properties, and more.

Joel Thoms

📺 The most popular videos of 2019

▶  Why I Was Wrong About TypeScript — Smells like an opinion-driven talk, but actually covers the history behind compile-to-JS languages, how we got to a point where interest in TypeScript is growing strongly, and why it’s worth taking seriously.

TJ VanToll

▶  Why 0.1 + 0.2 === 0.30000000000000004: Implementing IEEE 754 in JS — Head to your node CLI right now and type in 0.1 + 0.2. If the answer confuses you, this is the video for you. And even if you know why, working with the building blocks behind floating point representations is just cool anyway.

Low Level JavaScript

Video Developer Report - Top Trends in Video Technology 2019

Bitmovin sponsor

▶  Keep Betting on JavaScript — Kyle Simpson presents a history lesson of JavaScript, looks at how a variety of features were (or weren’t) introduced, and compels us to think about the future of the Web and JavaScript as we contribute and ‘place bets’ on technologies.

Kyle Simpson

▶  A Look at Deno: A New(ish!) JavaScript Runtime — Ryan originally created Node about ten years ago but over the past couple of years he’s been working on Deno, a non-Node compatible, TypeScript-focused runtime with some interesting features. (Note: Poor audio until a few minutes in.) I suspect we'll hear a lot more about this in 2020.

Ryan Dahl

🔧 The most popular code & tool releases of 2019

Svelte 3 Released: Rethinking Reactivity — Svelte is one of the most interesting UI frameworks out there as it’s not scared of taking a unique approach. Rather than running in the browser, Svelte runs at build time, compiling your app into more efficient runtime JavaScript. Svelte 3 took some major steps forward, particularly in helping you write less code.

Rich Harris

Mithril.js 2: A JavaScript Framework for Building Brilliant Applications — Mithril is a really neat alternative to things like Vue, React or Angular. It’s very compact and fast (so ideal for mobile), runs a bit closer to vanilla JS than the alternatives, and is great for tying together vanilla JS libraries rather than needing its own alternatives.

Mithril

RunJS: A JavaScript 'Scratchpad' Tool for the Desktop — Write and run JavaScript instantly. Useful for learning, experimenting, or perhaps even creating screencasts, tweets, or similar educational content. Originally macOS only but now supports Windows and Linux too.

Luke Haas

Pixi.js 5: Create Beautiful 2D Web Experiences — Boasts the ‘fastest, most flexible 2D WebGL renderer’ to let you take advantage of hardware acceleration without getting involved in WebGL or 3D concerns. Check out demos for what the code looks like and what you’d use it for. There’s also a Pixi Playground for quickly crafting your own experiments.

PixiJS

Babylon.js 4.0: The (Very) Powerful WebGL Graphics Engine — Such a significant release that they released a 2 minute video trailer for it! Want to play? Enjoy this editable live demo.

Microsoft

Postwoman: An API Request Builder and Tester — A free alternative to Postman, a popular app for debugging and testing HTTP APIs. Postwoman works in the browser and supports HTTP and WebSocket requests as well as GraphQL. Insomnia is a similar tool if you want to run something as a desktop app.

Liyas Thomas

FlexSearch.js: A Full Text Search Library — Claims to outperform all of the alternatives while supporting features like multi-word matching and phonetic transformations. Happy in both the browser and Node.js.

Nextapps GmbH

Just: A JavaScript Task Library from Microsoft — If you’re familiar with Ruby’s rake, it’s a bit like that. Define tasks in JavaScript, run them with just (which works fine without installation using npx) and you get a bunch of nice features like logging and task composition.

Microsoft

Node-RED 1.0 Released — Node RED is a flow-based, visual programming tool (aimed primarily at hardware automation) that’s built on top of Node.js. Despite only reaching 1.0 in 2019, it’s a mature project used in numerous real world IoT projects.

Nick O'Leary

by via JavaScript Weekly https://ift.tt/2QHifL3

[ameliaandfriends]

There’s a big progress (!) today but I have to say something to unhappy before moving on to the new (and exciting) adventure.

It turned out to be rather long...The troll story_(:з」∠)_

I mentioned a troll in the Tea Party art book review. It’s in Chinese so you can’t have the slightest idea how ridiculous and aggressive it is. The thing is, since I made the two versions of the game in both languages, it’s preferable (for me) to have as few changes as possible in both versions, therefore quite a few words (titles and decorative stuff) were kept in English because they’re simple enough to read, like “characters”, “rooms”, “outfits”…with the full content it’s no way to affect the understanding of the content.

Well, this person firstly expressed their anger because the chapter titles are in English. They “enlarged the page to see the title only to find it was in english” so that they were just "?????"......and complained the character names were in English and the content was missing in the Chines version.

Then I made a big mistake: I replied. (Valve told the devs not to, unless you have to clearfy anything, which I thought it was the case, because the Chinese version didn't have any content missing, and the Chinese names were next to the English ones. I was warned and I should have listened).

I expained the case, clearfied that there were Chinese names and nothing was missing, saying I'll update it if I've got the chance (the game was just released I was so busy and tired); if they were so unhappy about the reading exprience they may want to check if they still can have a refund. Then I saw---

They edited the review almost immediately, listing all the English words and their sizes in the book, and saying "the develper replied that no Chinese (for those words) was not contents missing, I should piss off if I don't want to play".

WHAT. THE. ****. IS. THAT.

As for the chinese names next to the character names, the problem was "the font was too small so you treated me as secondary".

I also explained T&T's art book was like that and nobody ever mentioned it (so I’m sorry I didn’t even realised it)...the most English words were decorative...like the "characters" in the upper left corner, or "profile" for the profiles (The free chinese fonts are very limited...). Then they accused me not taking it as an issue, and my "sincere reply" meant I didn't want to communicate with players.

(?????? It made me highly doubt my language ability, I think I'll never make a perfect chinese version for them).

I admit it was not professional to keep those english words, especially the content and the chapter titles, but I do explained and said I would fix it if there was an update in the future. And...to be honest, it was true that I didn't consider it as a big problem. It’s no good, but at least I wouldn’t consider it so urgent or terrible to be fixed it asap (because T&T was like that for almost a year...and T&T doesn't even have a Chinese title name. Some players also replied me it was not a big deal...)

Yet the replies I got were still rather aggressive.

They already knew they should piss off. Though I didn't, or didn't have the slightest idea to say that.

It's even more curious than frustrating that how and why they would find and play such a game...There are always English words kept in the games, in the demos, in T&T, in my blogs...the devs don't have chinese nicknames either. It's just...so curious.

And it's so frustrated that they just won't see the fact that it's an art book with 4000~5000 words and 100 pages, while the "English words" are less than 20, I'd say.

They also kept accusing me that "I didn't understand the feeling that unreadable was just unreadble, like messy codes". Well...I do understand what's unreadable, but I doubt people will go so crazy, aggressive and unrespectful even if they got a few messy codes in an art book.

I think it's just that other people can read it makes it hurt.

(FYI English is compulsory from elementry schools to universities in china...so I just really startled at this situation).

As for the sincere and piss off thing, I think probably nobody talked to them properly...

It was terrible.

I checked their reviews (four in total) and all of them are negative. Some reasons are quite ridiculous as well (like, the plot was nonsense, blah blah)...I then realised this was the kind of person that you couldn’t reason with (too late!)...They'll never, ever speak politely or show any respect or understanding, or yeilding. I didn't reply anymore and flaged it.

After it was unflagged (gee, even not for the review itself, vavle didn't do anything for the words...), they even asked (still aggressively), for what reason the review was flagged.

I didn't reply more.

That's the troll story. Sorry it's getting a bit long.

For now I think mostly the game dev experience has been enjoyable...tired, but enjoyable. I met new friends, I got fan art and lp videos...even my works are not too popular but I'm quite happy with it, and the community is great, too.

Accusing me of not wanting to communicate with players? NO. They don't understand that it's them that I can't talk with.

Emmm...I admit this hurted me a lot a little. I have to speak it out. If there's any useful experience that I could share, it'll be: litsen to valve, careful when reply (especially on Steam). Sadly, you can’t please everyone, and you have to free yourself from unfriendly comments. It’s not about taking advises or communicate with players. If it’s criticism for a project it would be respectful, otherwise it’s just selfishness and hate.

I hope this kind of things won't happen to any of you. (tho shit happens, we all know. don't be afraid or frustrated then, because there'll be people who get your back).

Trolls come sooner or later, as someone told me :)

And agian...to be honest...if they ask politely I probably will make an update in 2 to 4 weeks...I'd like to have things to be perfect, but...

I actually decided to add some new drawings before Halloween, and spent time on picking fonts, editing the pages. Then I hesitate (tho mainly because I found the new drawings were probably not even enough for two pages). I know he update was not just for them...but what if the update stired the situation? I doubt they'll still care about this game but I can't take it if they do. (I can't even imagine...OK, I shouldn't imagine).

A little GUILTY for unable to make a nicer version for all the other chinese players.

Sorry this became too long...it still gets me but...I think it feels better after talking about it.

And I cannot thank enough for the support you've given me.

Spread love, not hate. Respect the others. World peace.

May all of you have a great day<3

[rockrevoltmagazine]

Diamante - Coming in hotter than ever

Sporting bright blue hair and a leather jacket, someone not hip to the rock scene would imagine that Diamante is not someone to be trifled with, a badass who doesn’t want to talk to you because why should she care what you think? However, upon saying hello and being greeted with a hug instead of a handshake, it was clear that Diamante is, quite literally, one of the nicest folks one could have the pleasure of meeting. *Make no mistake, she is still very much a badass…*

I caught up with the pint-sized powerhouse at the Cleveland date of what is easily one of this summer’s hottest tours, where she finds herself taking the stage right before of her own musical influences (more on that in a second), Dorothy, and then kicking off the guys in Three Days Grace, Chevelle, and Breaking Benjamin. It’s hard to believe such a heavy lineup can exist on one stage, and to be in on the action, Diamante says, has been incredible.

“We have tailgate parties in the parking lots before shows. We make hot dogs, it’s all very wholesome,” she laughs as she eases back onto the couch in her dressing room. With this tour stacking the deck night after night, and kicking off with two female-fronted acts, it’s easy to see how it would be an incredible experience. She says she’s been a fan of Dorothy since she was 18, and that they hang out and do one-off club shows together off-tour as well. “It’s an insane honor being able to play alongside her,” she laughs. “Ben even said that the ladies are out here killing it way more than the guys on this tour.” It’s true – he did say that. And, those women are clearly kickin’ ass and taking names in each city they grace with their presence.

For anyone who hasn’t seen Diamante live, first of all, get that fixed ASAP. Second of all, be prepared to be blown away. Her stage presence is massive, and her sound fills the air all the way to the parking lot. “Though she be but little, she is fierce,” wrote William Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And it seems Diamante is the embodiment of that famous quote on every midsummer night (and winter, and spring, and you get the jist). When it comes to touring, Diamante says her favorite venues are either arenas or small club shows, as in both, she can see the fans’ faces and everyone is packed in. “Outdoor shows make you all feel too far away from me. I prefer to be able to see everyone sing every word, sweaty and having a good time.”

Diamante has known since she was ten that the stage would be her home. She’s always loved music and singing, but she was always super shy and “nerdy” (her words, and I don’t believe her). She discovered her passion for the stage during musical theatre. “I went on the stage with no mic, just my voice projecting in front of 200 people. And I realized, WHOA! I just discovered a whole new part of myself.” She’s known ever since she wanted to be on the stage, in front of as many people as possible, every chance she gets. “I love being on the stage because of the audience. I feed off of the energy. It is just one of the best experiences you can ever have. It gives you a different kind of high than you will ever have anywhere else in life.” In fact, her dream tour (aside from this incredible lineup she gets to be a part of every night) would include Papa Roach, Shinedown, Halestorm, Marilyn Manson, and Guns ‘N Roses. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?!

Lyrically, Diamante’s songs are incredibly relatable. From breakups to make ups, false friends and empty promises, Diamante sings the songs straight out of the hearts of her fans. She says it is important to give fans that because that’s the whole point of music. She sees music as a vessel for those emotions that some feel are hard to express. The music she listened to and fell in love with, she says, most of the time were songs that taught her to understand how she was feeling at the time.

“I was eleven, twelve at the time, and I knew what love was (laughs). I was feeling things for the first time and didn’t know how to put them into words. And then, I’d hear a song and it described it perfectly. And then, that song was my anthem. I want to put that into my albums – especially for the young people who want to listen to rock. I want to be that voice for them.” 

With that voice comes a responsibility of sorts to bring her fans the songs that they can feel in their guts, their hearts, their minds. Her ner song, “When I’m Not Around” is a beautiful example of that kind of song. Written by legendary songwriter Diane Warren (she also wrote Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” and Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me”…) and brought to life by Diamante’s haunting, gravelly voice, “When I’m Not Around” spells out, in great detail, a woman scorned’s promise to her former paramore: she will, quite literally, be everywhere they exist…

“It’s gonna rip your heart apart when you don’t have me You’re gonna wish for a different ending to the story You’re gonna see my face in every dream that you dream I’m gonna haunt your every thought, you won’t escape me You’ll wish you still had me”

Taking the work of such a prolific writer and making it her own was a challenge for Diamante, but one she was more than able to conquer. “She wrote the whole song, but I still felt like it was my story. I had gone through a pretty brutal emotional breakup a few months back, and just struggled to understand how I was feeling about it. So, I heard this song, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow! This is it.’” Having never recorded someone else’s song that wasn’t a cover, Diamante found lots of pressure to do the song justice, while also adapting it and making it fit her own emotions. “I pride myself on writing my own music. I just think it’s really important.”

When it came time to shoot a video at the famed Viper Room for the song, Diamante and her team came up with their own concept based on the lyrics. Taking each lyric damn near line by line, the video shows the basic premise of the song in Diamante’s own words, “You messed up, bro.” Showing up in every scene, Diamante says, “I am everywhere. I’m everywhere. There is no escaping me. We wanted to take the lyrics literally, and we did.”

Video – “When I’m Not Around” -Diamante

Once this tour wraps in the fall, Diamante will be back in the studio writing, beginning the demo phase of her new album – that is, provided she isn’t picked up on another tour! She says she new record will be an evolution of her debut, Coming In Hot, based on the songs she has written for it already. “I wrote most of my first album was I was nineteen. I feel like I have lived three lifetimes since then.” Being only twenty-two years old, she hasn’t quite lived three physical lifetimes, but it can be easy to see in anyone’s personal evolution how time passing and experiences mature us. She says, “I feel like my songwriting has gotten so much better.” She is going for the more personal, more vulnerable side with her new songs. “Being vulnerable is the scariest thing for me. But, if I want to be personal with my songs, I have to do it.” And there is a definite power in vulnerability that only Diamante can put her own touch on – I cannot wait to see what the future holds!

Interview by Devon Anderson, RockRevolt Managing Editor

Diamante – Coming in hotter than ever was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[knightenchancedtechnology]

Project Meeting - Damon Reid

In this meeting Will and I went to the media city campus to have a meeting with Damon about the projection mapping aspect and the space that we are presenting our project and how we can set up.

Damon started with showing us a projection mapping demo and how to set this up this was important for Will as he is doing the projection mapping for our project. 

The facilities that we can use is the eggspace if it is booked for the day of the project and if we are going to be using the 180 degrees screen for the animation we would need a day before the presentation to set the projectors, model and the digital display. 

Damon’s Meeting Notes:

Hi Will and Connor, good to see you both and looking forward to working with you on this project. This looks like really exciting stuff, and it’s a great use of projection mapping.

I’ve calculated from using the link below, that your map size would be 130 x 113cm based on mounting the projector in the rig and projecting on one of our tables, projecting at a 16:9 aspect 1920 x 1080 pixels. You could build a lower table more at floor level that would effectively give you a wider area. Use the link below, and adjust the throw distance which would be from the projector to the table. The distance from the mounted projector to the table is 1.89m the height of the current table is 0.83m, so work it out from there.

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Hitachi-CP-EX250N-projection-calculator.htm?add=8116

There are a few things to consider when scoping out your piece that no doubt Juan will be expecting of you:

Storyboard, mapping out your sequences UX and the flow of how the user will interact with the piece.

Identify your target audience which will dictate how simple the interaction has to be. Would the piece be in a public space open to everyone?

Have you thought of audio prompts and effects? These are just as important for a truly immersive piece. I think these can be queued in madmapper.

Assign a project manager/producer for the project and devise a schedule asap, those 7 weeks will go quickly. Bare in mind that I’ll only be able to advise and set up the equipment in the space. So I’ll need to know when you’ll need me and It’ll be up to you to spend the time familiarising yourselves with the software, which I can be available to go through with you on.

Book out some creative play time on this as soon possible.

Equipment wise the projectors are available to you through me, along with speakers and audio equipment, to be used here.  I can provide you with a laptop to use in the Egg but it would be better if you had a dedicated machine to your project, so that you can save base files. (Use MS Onedrive which should be part of your office 365 accounts). The machine would need to have 3-4 video outputs if you wish to use the curved wall projection as well. You can get away 3 outputs and have  a 1080 output for the curved wall which would be set up to project to the middle of the curve. You can still fill the projection with images either side of the animation by using our video switcher for the curved wall. I can demonstrate this to you in a later meeting to clarify what I mean.

For booking of the Egg Suite if Im not around speak to Tamsin Middleton our events officer +44(0) 0161 295 5114 t.middleton1@salford.ac.uk  room 2.24 who can ascertain when the space is free against all the events we have running. There a number of large scale events on the horizon over the next few months so it is imperative that you get booking this in and plan around that.

Sorry for the long email, but hopefully that’s a good amount of info to help you out.

[ncmagroup]

7 Elements Of “Insanely” Persuasive Sales Demos

  by Chris Orlob

Are you looking for tips & tactics that will help you NAIL your next product demo?

Say no more.

In this post, you’ll learn 7 tactics that will make your product demos devilishly persuasive.

5 Million Product Demos Analyzed

We analyzed 5M web-based sales demos using AI to understand what wins in product demos, according to data.

The demo meetings were all recorded on web conferencing platforms like Zoom, then transcribed and speaker separated.

We also analyzed the video recorded to see how sales reps use their screen (sharing slide decks, doing product demos, webcam).

The data tells a clear story:

1. Flip Your Demo Upside Down

What feels intuitive during product demos can cause you to lose deals.

Here’s an example.

Pretend you’re a sales rep pitching a politician on building a new city on top of an empty plot of land in South Dakota.

Most pitches would look something like this:

Mr. Politician, it all starts with this empty plot of land:

It doesn’t look like much, I know. BUT JUST YOU WAIT!

In a couple of years, we’ll have roads, sidewalks, and trees. HECK! Maybe we’ll even have a stoplight!

But we’re not stopping there!

We’re going to keep developing and building.

A few years from now, we’ll have some residences and local businesses. It’ll look like this:

I can SMELL the progress!

And you know what?

By year 10 or so, we’re going to have a thriving, BEAUTIFUL new city!

Let’s unpack that “product demo.”

The seller thought it was best to build anticipation and lead up to a grand finale.

But Mr. Politician is busy. It took 20 minutes to get to that point. All the while he was impatient and frustrated, waiting for the rep to finish.

Meanwhile, a competitor stole the deal by flipping the demo upside down.

It looked like this:

Mr. Politician, we can build a new city in South Dakota. We’ve worked the plans, and if we play our cards right it will look something like this:

I’m happy to walk you through the plans in as much or as little detail as you’re interested in.

See the difference?

The first product demo was all lead-up.

The second pitch started with the outcome, letting the conversation unfold from there.

We found this pattern in the successful demos we analyzed.

Winning demos mirror the same priorities raised during discovery calls, in priority order.

In other words, start your demo with the problem you spent the most time on during discovery.

Then move to the business problem you spent the second most time on during discovery.

And so on.

This is approach is called “solution mapping.”

Most salespeople do the opposite, saving the “best for last.”

Wrong move.

Solution mapping is counterintuitive, but that’s what works in product demos.

Understand that and everything changes.

2. Give Them A Taste, Not A Drowning

Sure, you love your product. You believe in it and could talk about it all day.

Most people tell their buyer everything amazing they know about their product.

This is a result of being too heavy on product training and not heavy enough on sales training.

But it goes further than that.

Even if you’re “talking value” (rather than features), most sales reps still cover too much ground.

They believe that the MORE they show, the VALUE they build.

It’s a misguided approach that can sabotage your deal.

We’ve found it’s much more effective to do “high-concentrate” demos.

That means you’ll keep your demo short and punchy.

The best reps spend far less time talking about features — 39% less, in fact.

Why? Because if you say less about features, your buyer has room to ask questions.

And top sellers know that’s a good thing.

In fact, their buyers ask 28% more questions than buyers in average reps’ demos.

Questions are a good sign you’ve interested your buyer (and that you haven’t bombarded them with too much).

Their heads are spinning (in the right way).

You’ve teased them and they want to know more.

We call this ‘peeling back the onion’.

YOU don’t decide how much detail to give during your demo.

Let your buyer decide if they want a 30,000-foot view or the details on every nook and cranny.

And whatever you do, don’t dilute your message with an endless number of value props (stick to one… MAYBE two at the most).

Too many are like watering down top-shelf whiskey.

If they’re qualified, they’ll want more.

3. Focus Your Demo On The Status Quo’s Pain

It’s so tempting to focus on your product’s benefits during a demo.

They’re positive and easy to talk about.

But remember: what feels intuitive during demos is rarely what works.

Focusing your message on the pain of the status quo is more persuasive than focusing on benefits.

If your buyer believes the status quo is no longer an option, they’re a step closer to investing in a new resource.

Your new resource.

So how do you blow up the status quo?

By using “loss aversion,” which is a principle founded in behavioral economics.

It’s the principle that people go to greater lengths to avoid losses than they do to gain benefits.

If your buyer believes that “status quo = more pain” they’ll run toward your solution faster than they would if you painted a vision of the benefits.

In fact, they’ll run twice as hard.

During your demo, be clear about the dangers of the status quo.

Show your buyer that their current state is unsustainable, and they’ll be willing to move away from it ASAP.

Think of it this way: It’s easier to convince someone to move away from a fire than to get them to move from a chair to a comfy sofa.

People are more motivated to NOT lose $25,000 they already have than they are motivated to earn an extra $25,000.

Use this psychological bias to your advantage. Your close rates will bump up if you do it right.

4. Maintain Control

Preparation is critical to a successful demo.

You want to have great answers to every tough question.

That said, solid answers alone won’t let you control the conversation’s direction.

And why is that control important?

Because timing is everything. You want to answer certain questions at specific points in the conversation.

It turns out the best reps control when certain topics are discussed.

They set the agenda.

Take pricing, for example.

When’s the best time to discuss pricing? Whenever your buyer raises the issue?

No.

It’s toward the end of the demo after you’ve established value.

By then, the buyer is “sold,” which makes them more likely to justify your pricing.

If you let them steer the conversation toward pricing early on, your chances of success drop.

Here’s another part of the discussion you’ll want to steer:

objection handling.

Hearing buyers’ objections can throw some people off their game. They panic over the unexpected conversational redirect.

Here’s our best tip for avoiding that scenario and staying in control.

Respond to objections by asking questions.

Top reps do that 54.3% of the time when they heard an objection, compared with 31% for average sales reps.

Responding with a question does two things:

It makes the buyer feel heard.

It gets your buyer to reveal their REAL concern, which helps you better address their objection.

If you can stay in control of the conversation without being domineering, you’ll win.

5. Avoid Generic Social Proof

Social proof (name-dropping customers) seems like an easy win. We’re all trained to use it.

But it’s not so simple.

Using endorsements from big customers might win credibility with a few buyers, but it’ll work against you if your buyer doesn’t “identify” with the customer you’re name-dropping.

It alienates them.

Here’s the data:

Sellers who use social proof techniques too much during sales calls have a 22% lower close rate.

Here’s another one:

If you use social proof techniques too much in early-stage calls, your close rate drops by a whopping 47%:

It’s confusing, right?

You’d think that name dropping a big customer would persuade buyers.

So why doesn’t it?

Simple: Most buyers won’t identify with big-name players.

If your product is perfect for the likes of Google or Apple, for example, then how could it be right for an SMB buyer?

They face completely different problems.

Buyers want to see themselves in a product, and they can’t do that if you keep citing A-listers.

They’ll think “This product isn’t designed for clients like me.”

Instead of naming a few big customer names, rattle off 5-7 names of customers that are from your buyer’s tribe — other companies in their industry, operating at their level.

Be sure the problems you solved for those clients to match your buyer’s pain points.

Then you’re golden.

6. Don’t Prove ROI (Do This Instead)

Proving ROI during your demo can be just as damaging as using untargeted social proof.

In general, attempting to prove ROI at any point in the sales process correlates with a 27% drop in your likelihood of closing a deal.

You read that right. Most attempts to show a customer how they can get an ROI from your product strongly correlate with deals going south.

Why is that?

When you show a buyer how you calculated their ROI, they’ll challenge your assumptions.

They’ll see your calculation as a weak argument unworthy of presenting to their CFO.

What’s a better strategy?

Tell customer stories that focus on ‘before and after’ (with the business case interweaved in):

When you build your business case with before-and-after customer stories, you’re bulletproof.

There are no ROI model assumptions for your buyer to argue with.

You’re simply telling a story of what one of your customers achieved.

There’s a hidden opportunity in here for you as well.

It’s tempting to focus on the positive outcome the customer achieved. (“It changed my life! Now every day is my best day.”)

That’s not what you want to do here.

Focus instead on the problem the client faced, and be sure it resonates with the buyer.

If your story describes their problem better than they can describe it themselves, they will automatically assume you have the best solution.

You won’t have to do much more than that.

The buyer will do the rest of the work for you, moving toward a sale on their own.

7. Solidify Next Steps At The Beginning And End

Want to close your deal faster than ever?

Spend 53% more time talking about the next steps at the end of your demo:

If you don’t talk about the next steps during your first call, your close rate will plummet by 71%:

Take that number in for a minute.

I’ll wait.

When the shock wears off, remember this key point:

Securing the next steps during a first call is the easiest sales process decreaser ever.

Sadly, very few sales professionals do this:

Here’s the secret to solidifying next steps every time:

Get agreement from your customer at the BEGINNING of the call to discuss next steps, rather than penciling them in at the last minute.

A scripted version might sound something like this:

“By the end of this call, I’d like you to be in a position where you’re either interested and we plan the next logical step, or you’re not interested, you tell me that candidly, and we avoid wasting each other’s time. Is that fair?”

That one sales tip will ensure you spend enough time getting the next steps.

Start every meeting that way.

    Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

7 Elements Of “Insanely” Persuasive Sales Demos 7 Elements Of “Insanely” Persuasive Sales Demos by Chris Orlob Are you looking for tips & tactics that will help you NAIL your next product demo?

[tyleroakley-obsessed]

Can you believe we are already halfway through June, Memphis? It’s going to be another great weekend, so here are the five things you won’t want to miss, plus a few extras. Let’s try this again with the puppy picture! There are two doggie events this weekend. Photo provided by T. Clifton Galelry on Broad Avenue. But first, be sure you didn’t miss anything on the blog: a brand-new Memphis Food News Update, a video interview with dance superstar Lil Buck, a list of places to see fireworks for the 4th of July, and the scoop on the Fringe Festival (continues this weekend). Plus, there’s always the Summer Events Guide, Kid-Friendly Things To Do, volunteer guide, and the live music guide. OK, here’s your weekend guide: 1. Pup Party On Broad, Broad Avenue, Friday, 5 p.m. – 8 p.m., free, all ages/kid-friendly This event was rescheduled from last weekend due to bad weather! The shops and galleries on the street are celebrating the First (technically, second) Friday on Broad with a special dog-themed evening with dog training demos, treats (for pups and people), and a pet-and-person lookalike contest, and more. See the whole schedule here. Dog costumes are highly encouraged, but the only things required are a leash and good behavior. 2. Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Levitt Shell, Friday, gates 6 p.m./show 8 p.m., $25+ fees, all ages The Levitt Shell’s shows are usually free, but this Friday’s special Shell Yeah! ticketed concert supports the rest of the year’s free music. For this one, plan to buy beer and food from vendors on site and leave your own coolers and pets at home. 3. Homeroom: A Comedy Show, Hi Tone, Friday, 7 p.m., $10-$15, 18+ This popular comedy show is back for one night only! This school-themed improv show encourages audiences to bring props for “Show & Tell” unusual textbooks for “Substitute Teacher,” and a cell phone to text in roasts for the “Virtual Yearbook”. One comedian will walk away as the comedy valedictorian. 4. Juneteenth Urban Music Festival, Robert Church Park, Friday – Sunday, free to enter, all ages Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. Celebrate Juneteenth with lots of live music, vendors, a car show, kids play area and much more. 5. Literatini, Novel Memphis Bookstore, Saturday, 7 – 10 p.m., tickets: $50 per individual, $75 per couple, 21+ Enjoy live music as you sample cocktails and delicious food from local bars and restaurants. Twenty percent of all bookstore purchases that night go to benefit Memphis adults struggling with low literacy. Plus a few extras… Puppypalooza #2, Crosstown Concourse South Loading Dock, Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., free, all ages Have a barking good time with live music from a gypsy-jazz trio, adorable doggie portraits, MEMPopS, face paint and henna, shopping for doggies items, and meeting adoptable puppers and doggos. Proceeds benefit Hearts of Gold Pit Rescue. High Cotton 5th Birthday Party, Saturday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., free to enter, all ages/21 to drink Beer! Food! Dead Soldiers performing! Transmission: 80’s Dance Party, P & H Cafe, Friday, 9 p.m. – 2 a.m., $5, 21+ Break out your dancing shoes and join DJ’s Plastic Citizen and Alpha Heather for New Wave, New Romantic, Post Punk, Synth Pop, Ska, Freestyle and more. Cloud 9 Memphis Presents Four Places, Theatreworks Memphis, select dates and times June 7 – 23, $20 adults/$15 seniors and students When Peggy’s two adult children take her out for lunch, they quietly begin to take her life apart. The drinks come fast, the tempers peak, the food flies. Hairspray, Theatre Memphis, all weekend and through June 30, times and ticket prices vary, all ages In 1962 Baltimore, Tracy Turnblad dreams of being on a local TV dance show. When she wins a role on the show, she becomes an overnight celebrity and meets a colorful cast of characters, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show’s integration. The Legend of Georgia McBride Opens, Playhouse on the Square, all weekend, 8 p.m. – 10 p.m., prices vary, adults Casey is young, he’s broke, his landlord’s knocking at the door, and he’s just found out his wife is pregnant. To make matters even more desperate, he’s fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a small-town Florida bar, and the bar owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act. For even more, check out the blog’s calendar.  Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout http://bit.ly/1B5z3Pc

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