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rainofaugustsith · 4 years ago

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Rain Plays SWTOR: Why Do We All Hate Makeb?

Viri has been going through the GSI dailies on Makeb to bump my GSI reputation up to Legendary, and it's given me time to really think about the planet, and the Rise of the Hutt Cartel story as a whole. I tend to take my characters through Makeb just to spend more time with them, and to enjoy the scenery. Having said that, most players seem to detest Makeb and skip it. It's weird. Makeb has: 1. Some of the most beautiful scenery ever seen in the game.

2. Some really stunning design for the houses and gardens. Seriously. Look at this.

3. Really, really nice decos available from the reputation vendor. 4. Other really nice decos' designs are based on Makeb. 5. A departure, mostly, from the Imps vs. Pubs!! storyline that some of us had grown so bored with. 6. Some interesting creatures such as the exoboars and underwalkers. We all love the exoboars in Vaylin's palace, don't we?

And yet, it's still loathed. The question becomes: why do we hate Makeb? There are a lot of very valid reasons. 1. We don't get to bond with the NPCs we meet, nor do they play any critical part in story before or after. With the exception of Doctor Oggurobb, Darth Marr and Chancellor Saresh, the NPCs with whom we interact in the entirety of the Makeb expansion are neither seen nor heard from again. We're kept at arms' length from them. This is different from both the class stories and Shadow of Revan, where the characters we meet become regular presences in our toons' stories. 2. The romances...aren't. When RotHC was first released, Makeb was called "the gay planet" and a lot was made of the fact that the expac contained the game's first same-gender romances. Considering LGBT+ players got absolutely nothing in the class stories, this was a Very Big Deal. However, the romances fall very flat. For one thing, they're restricted by class. If you're Imperial, there's no wlw for you. If you're Republic, there's no mlm. The moment that a male OC can have with Lord Cytharat feels like it can work - it's essentially an "I was so scared for you, and I care, and don't ever do that again" sort of moment. The wlw romance, on the other hand, really doesn't feel like one, at least to me. Lemda Avesta never seems particularly into the player's character. As a wlw, I usually avoid this romance because it feels so awkward and forced. 3. It's really grim. Almost the entire time you're on Makeb, you know the planet is about to be destroyed. Anything beautiful you're seeing is about to disappear. People have lost their homes. It's pretty grim. There's no happy ending on Makeb. Like, none. The planet dies. Even though it's physically saved, nobody can live there anymore for any length of time. Lots of people die, including some that work with the PC. There's no way to save them in some cases. Even though each side does have a win - the Makeb citizens escape in the Ark; and the Empire gets its isotope -5 - it's very empty because so much tragedy surrounds it all. While Star Wars isn't sunshine and rainbows, there's usually something positive to perk up a reader/player even in the darkest storylines. At the end of Revenge of the Sith, there's the promise of baby Leia and Luke, both being raised in safety. At the end of Empire Strikes Back, Luke's got a nice new hand, he's safe on a Rebel Alliance ship and he's reunited with Leia and the droids. At the end of SWTOR's class stories, the player has triumphed somehow in their own field, and they usually have controlled their own destiny in some way. Makeb doesn't have that, and I think it makes a difference for replays. 4. It may hit too close to home. Makeb is dying because people exploited its natural resources for profit. Hmmm. We've heard that before in our own world, haven't we? The mining causes groundquakes. In our world, fracking is said to cause earthquakes. Not only that, but seeing the houses crushed by groundquakes can hit a little close to home to anyone who lives in an area with lots of earthquakes, or has witnessed the destruction they can cause. While I don't think any sort of environmental message was intended with Makeb, I do think there are things about it that can, even subconsciously, make us feel uncomfortable. 5. The maps and mobs.

For me, the maps of Makeb are not nearly as frustrating as some of the ones on Taris, Balmorra and Hoth. For one thing, the land is divided into individual little mesas so you're not covering large swaths of ground the way you do on a planet like Alderaan or Tatooine. Having said that, they can still be daunting. And unlike other planets, there's often no real way to go off the beaten path. If you do, you just might plunge to your death over the edge of the mesa. Making this more problematic: the mobs. There are a lot of enemy NPCs, and they are everywhere, and you often have no choice but to plow right through them. This makes navigating very tedious. If you're a lower level, it can also make getting from Point Aurek to Point Besh very difficult. Also, if you have a fear of heights, you may really, really hate this planet. It's nothing but sheer drops and light bridges across chasms in this nook of the galaxy. 6. The gameplay can be very repetitive. A number of the quests just have the player doing the same or similar actions over and over again. It gets boring. 7. The heroics are hell. Makeb heroics are incredibly long, complicated and overly tedious. They can literally take as long as some of the very short flashpoints, with ridiculously high difficulty in some cases. I don't think most of us bother with them. 8. It feels very detached from the rest of the story. Nothing we do on Makeb matters. Or so it seems. What our characters accomplish in the class story, or Oricon, or Shadow of Revan seems to make an impact. RotHC, on the other hand, is something we can literally skip over without it having any repercussions. The only time it seems to come up with any significance is in Onslaught, where it's mentioned that the Empire still has some ships fueled with isotope-5. But even that is said in passing...and if your character never did Makeb, the ships are still fueled. If you're a Republic character, Oggurobb has very little to say to you about Makeb - except to tell you that you've aged badly since then (thanks, dude). 9. Some of the classes don't seem to fit. Oddly, you would think the underworld characters - the smuggler and bounty hunter - would be peas in a pod here. They're not. You really can't find much of a reason for the smuggler to suddenly be interested in saving a planet's humanity. The bounty hunter isn't given any clear targets to assassinate. It's one of the times where certain classes seem to be really out of place. 10. And there isn't much said about our individual classes. Each class does get an individualized intro cut scene, as well as some NPCs referring to them as Master Jedi or Dark Lord or whatever, but there's really not much difference doing this as a Jedi or a Trooper, a Sith or an Agent.

11. The Force isn't a part of things. It's weird. When things in SWTOR are entirely focused around the Force, it does exclude the non-Force using classes to some extent. When it's completely absent, though, it feels wrong, too. On Makeb, our little space wizards find that there's nothing specific to the Force for them to care about. The alignment of the planet isn't mentioned. No ruins. No weird artifacts someone's left in their mansion. Nothing. It feels slightly disconnected taking a Force user through these areas. To me, Makeb feels like it had more potential than it received. I've read more than once that there were several other planets intended for expacs that were scrapped; perhaps with them, and a wider arc, Makeb would have played differently. All the same - come here for the scenery. You probably won't want to stay for the gameplay.

#swtor #makeb #makeb spoilers #onslaught spoilers #rise of the hutt cartel #rise of the hutt cartel spoilers #rain talks swtor

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o-foramuse-of-fire · 4 years ago

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Surprise! There’s actually a PART TWO to your Secret Santa gift @ubilupus! I didn’t know whether you wanted an AH or canon story, so I wrote BOTH! The two go together, as they both concern Jasper and Alice passing notes at the Law Library at the University of Michigan.

Summary: Jasper’s studying is interrupted. Post-BD.

Title: Apricity

Words: 1,401

Rating: G/K+

Read on: AO3 or FFN

Jasper sat in the grand Reading Room of the Law Library, soaking in the other students’ anxiety and releasing tranquility. It was only a few days before finals at the University of Michigan, and the Reading Room was packed with students eager for a quiet place on campus to study, due to the strict no-talking policy enforced at the Law Library. Jasper had witnessed several students throw out one of their own for a stray cough or cacophonous giggle. Jasper was doing his best to ease the tension in the room and provide a bit of supernatural focus. He himself was very engrossed in his textbook for his torts class. There were so many new cases to read about since the last time Jasper had gone to law school.

When Carlisle had announced his intention to return to medical school himself, the family had quickly decided they would all enroll as students and--as Emmett would say--give it the ole college try. It had been a while since the family had all gone to college together. Renesmee had already gone to college once--on her own, to get the true experience as Edward had explained it (Bella had scoffed at that). The family was spread across the school, in different majors and years. Rosalie was a sophomore majoring in Business, whereas Emmett was a junior majoring in Economics. They were planning an elaborate classroom romance for next semester.

Bella and Edward had decided to start as freshmen like Renesmee, though they had agreed to give her as much space as she needed. Bella had returned to her comfort of English Literature, while Edward set his sights on a degree in Classical Studies. Renesmee had majored in Biology her first go around, and was planning on expanding her knowledge through exploring Biomedical Engineering this time. Jacob had thought it would be funny to attend a rival school--“Cause some things just never die” he had joked with a smug grin--and had instituted a year-long bet on the outcomes of every Michigan vs Michigan State game, no matter the sport. Emmett was thrilled by the idea, and he and Jacob spent many hours cheerfully ribbing the other over their school’s sports team’s various wins and losses. Rosalie and Renesmee, on the other hand, found the whole thing utterly annoying.

Esme had vacillated between several graduate programs, before ultimately selecting a path in social work. She adored her classes and the opportunity to be a GSI and return to her teaching roots, and spent her free time refinishing and reupholstering the antique furniture she had purchased for their new house. And Alice was busying herself as a junior in Art and Design, as well as delighting in telling people that she was Edward’s older sister, enjoying their confusion as they processed the height difference.

Like she knew he was going to think of her--which she probably did--Alice’s honeysuckle and lilac scent suddenly drifted into the Reading Room. Jasper breathed her scent in deeply as it swirled around him like a caress. Alice stood at the far end of the hall, her beauty striking him dumb as always. She was dressed simply, all in black. Her knee-length black coat was unbuttoned, flaring out at her waist, revealing a form-fitting black cashmere dress. It must’ve started to snow outside, for a light dusting of crystalline snowflakes coated her ensemble. Alice shook the snowflakes out of her hair with a gentle flick of her hand. She glided over to him, her high-heeled boots effortlessly silent as only a vampire could be. Jasper held up a finger in warning as she approached his table. Alice gave an inaudible sigh, sinking into the chair across Jasper as he wrote a message to her on his notebook.

What are you doing here? I thought you had claimed the kiln for the next several hours.

There’s going to be a blizzard tonight. Emmett’s planning a snowball fight in the Arb at midnight.

The Arb, formally known as the Arboretum, was a stretch of forest, fields, and flowers protected and cultivated by the University. A river ran through the park, and the acreage was enough that the Cullens could play baseball or any other game without disturbing the other students. Stepping into the Arb was like entering another world and leaving the University far behind. Almost like walking through the wardrobe to Narnia.

I’ll be there.

I know. Alice added a spiral flourish to the ends of her letters. But I was thinking we could head over to the Arb early, just you and me, and scope out the terrain.

Jasper could feel the innuendo through the subtle change in Alice’s emotions. He smirked as he jotted down his response.

I really should finish this reading.

Alice’s emotions turned towards annoyance.

Why? I know that you’re going to pass, whether you stay here and read or come with me. So why not leave this place and have a little fun? You’ve been here for hours.

I like the atmosphere. You should appreciate it, too. It’s very beautiful. Maybe it’ll give you inspiration for one of your finals.

Alice scoffed, but her eyes lifted to the high ceiling with its elaborate design. Jasper felt her appreciation as she took in the stained glass windows, the Gothic arches, the stone and woodwork that evoked a sense of arcane knowledge. He watched the subdued electric light that emanated from the chandeliers reflect and twinkle in her eyes.

See? Stay a while, darlin.

Alice read Jasper’s message with a furrowed brow. She briskly wrote him back.

Why are we even passing notes? We can speak so quietly that no one would ever hear us.

It’s the principle of the thing.

Alice rolled her eyes.

C’mon, Jazz. I’ve been handling clay all afternoon. I’d much rather run my fingers over...marble.

Alice’s dainty fingers danced over Jasper’s thigh. He stifled a groan he knew would get him kicked out of the library, and gingerly removed her hand. He gave an apologetic rub of his thumb across the back of her hand as he drew his back. Alice begrudgingly returned her hands to herself. She propped her elbows on the table, interlaced her fingers, and lowered her chin to sit atop her hands. She batted her dark eyelashes at Jasper and pouted.

Temptress.

Alice laughed silently. She radiated joy, and Jasper could not help softening under her gaze. Even now, decades after their first meeting, Jasper still felt the same sense of awe as he had in that diner in Philadelphia. Alice’s emotions were so wonderfully pure and magnificent; a dazzling light in a sea of darkness. They reminded him every day how lucky he was to have her. How lucky he was that she found him and brought hope and love and purpose back into his life.

Jasper unzipped the bag that sat at his feet, closed his textbook, and deposited it into the bag. Alice raised an eyebrow at the action. She quickly scribbled a message on the notebook before Jasper could pack it away.

So that’s a yes?

You know I can’t say no to you.

Grinning broadly, Alice swept the notebook and pen off the table, clutching them to her chest. She darted out of the library as fast as the human charade would allow. Laughing to himself, Jasper hoisted his bag over one shoulder and followed his wife out into the Quad.

Outside, Alice was gazing at a tree whose branch was curved, heavy with the accumulating snow. Icicles hung from the other branches like teardrop silver necklaces. The fresh snow sparkled prettily, as if thousands of minuscule diamonds were coating the ground.

“You know, maybe I will stay and sketch a while,” she teased. “Nothing like campus in the winter.”

Jasper swept Alice up in his arms, twirling her in a circle as snow flurries fell around them. He brought her close to him and kissed her deeply, her feet dangling in the air. Slowly, Jasper lowered Alice to the ground, but he didn’t break their kiss till her boots nestled in the snow.

“I don’t think so, ma’am,” he said cheekily.

And though the sun was hidden by a grey sky, Jasper could swear he felt its warmth spread through his body as Alice took his hand and skipped down the street.

#jalicesecretsanta20 #jalice fanfiction #jalice #my fic recs #twilight fanfiction #ubilupus #twilight renaissance #the twilight saga

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ffwriteradvisor · 5 years ago

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Self-Insert Characters And Their Sub-types.

Self-Insert (or SI) characters are interesting. They come around when a writer or artist decides to use the person they theoretically know best to act as the main character of their story; themselves.

There’s a few sub-types and, often, overlap between them. It’s not uncommon for a Self-Insert to qualify as more than one at any given time and a few cases might even go on to check almost every single box (this isn’t something you should go out with an intent to do, just saying). Seeing as I have an article on Writing Self-Inserts already, I’ll use this one to focus on the pros and cons of the various sub-types.

The Friend Insert (FI)

Slightly more removed from the self as your typical Self-Insert character, this is when the writer uses a friend of theirs as their story’s focal point. These are usually the stars of collaborative projects that take advantage of both the writer’s superior fandom experience and their friend’s fresh-eyed approach to the material.

These have an advantage of being less susceptible to the most common weaknesses of the Self-Insert in being too knowledgeable about the setting and ‘plot’ they’ve been inserted into and being able to side-step most of the temptation of immediate wish-fulfillment... though they have their own disadvantages in that, as a collaborative work, any upsets in the relationship can affect the story, and that schedule conflicts might cause update times to get pushed back.

The Self-Insert OC (or SI-OC)

Technically speaking, they’re not a Self-Insert proper - they’re an OC that functionally acts like a Self-Insert without betraying too many details about the Author’s actual life. They have the advantage of being less close to home in terms of personal issues and make it easier to deal with strangers reading your fic, but you also have to put more effort into them than you would with a regular Self-Insert because now you can’t just copy down your own personality and backstory now.

The thing about SI-OCs is that every Self-Insert becomes one sooner or later. Your SI is getting character development you’ll probably never get because you’re - hopefully - not going to actually go through the shit you’re putting them through.

The Connecticut Yankee (or CY-SI for convenience, because Connecticut is kind of hard to spell off the cuff)

One of the oldest sub-types, if mostly because Mark Twain managed to get the spirit of the Self-Insert with his story, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, back in 1889. The CY-SI is a character who’s main weapon is knowledge. Specifically, an encyclopedic expertise on... well, pretty much anything the author has an interest in, combined with the ability to make it, allowing them a ‘unique’ edge in the new world they’ve found themselves in.

Yeah, you can already guess at how easy it is for this one to go horribly wrong in the hands of a writer without a strong sense of restraint. Even Twain fell prey to this one with the original Yankee, allowing band of 52 boys and one average 19th-century dude military victory over 30,000 knights with the power of electrocuting the fuck out of everyone. Even the most clever ways of evening the odds can become really obnoxious in practice if taken that far... hell, even 52 versus 3,000 would have been unbelievable, even without taking into equation the actual science of why that wouldn’t have worked.

The most important thing about writing this sub-type is believability.

You need to do your research on what the technology and tactics your character is bringing to the table is really capable of. Twain’s work suffered from several misunderstandings, mostly on the point of how armor worked - not only was the armor he was using inappropriate for the period of time he was working with, he didn’t understand the weight and freedom of movement plate armor really had or that the leather and cloth layers separating a knight from his metal armor would have offered protection from electrocution.

Not only that, it has to make sense for the character to know these things. The average human being does not know the exact blend of ingredients needed to make gunpowder, what molds can be used to produce penicillin, how to make dynamite, or any number of other things, much less be a veritable encyclopedia on all of those possible subjects. However, if they are a highly specialized researcher or have structured their entirely life around a specific subject - gun history enthusiasts are a good example of this -, it makes more sense. There is also the merits of having some manner of computer or database to remember the finer details for them.

There is also the suspension of disbelief to take into equation. Like as was mentioned with the 52 untrained boys + 1 regular 19th century dude winning vs 30,000 trained knights thing mentioned earlier, there’s a balance between believable science and what you can believe as a reader if the narrative grants too much success to too small an effort. There’s a sense of proportion to be respected there and having a perfect, no-fail, flawless victory run isn’t reasonable or entertaining for a story.

I’m not saying your character has to fail constantly or regularly, but there’s no drama or tension in battles where there was only ever one contender on the field.

The Ghost Self Insert (GSI)

One of the rarer types I’ve personally seen is the Ghost. This is a Self-Insert who has little to no physical impact on the world they’ve been sent to because they don’t have a physical form. This can be because they are a ghost or, in other cases, a secondary personality for a canon character or OC.

Usually, they don’t have much ability to affect or change things, as they are limited to advising the few people - usually only one or two, with any others being a surprising revelation - that can perceive them, though a few have exhibited the ability to ‘take over’ their hosts/victims for short spans of time.

An interesting way to give a canon character or OC a sounding board for their plans or even a second hand source of common sense, this sub-type can also cross over with Reincarnation-type Self Inserts.

Reincarnation-type Self-Inserts (RSI)

Slightly trickier than the average bear. While the RSI neatly sidestep the usual issues of how the SI is able to adapt to the setting both socially and physically in the most natural way, often leading to them becoming SI-OCs thanks to either memory loss or character development especially if you pick the Reincarnated As Canon Character Sub-subtype, they often fall victim to other problems.

The biggest one is the threat of the Slow Crawl Start. Not every Reincarnation-type gets hit with this one, but there are enough that decide that the story has to start immediately before the rebirth of the character and cover the infancy and toddlerhood of the character. This is usually a pretty big turn-off for most readers unless you can make these relatively boring things more interesting... which I’ve seen done pretty much once by someone who decided a baby with the mentality of an extremely bored young adult would be a great person to give Killing Intent to.

They were right. It was hilarious. But I wouldn’t recommend this approach to anyone else except under very specific circumstances. Skip to an age where your character is speech capable and actually interacting with the world in a meaningful way, because spending multiple chapters following a very smart baby that is very much confused by their lack of mobility and sensory capability isn’t very interesting.

I’ve also seen variants where the SI reincarnates as an animal. This is even trickier, because it adds in a further aspect to the Slow Crawl Start - the process of learning how not to be terrible at being a dog/cat/lizard/dragon/owl/whatever.

#characters #self inserts #ocs

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ext1nctanimals · 5 years ago

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i’m listening to paper rings thinking about redacted and my astronomy gsi is trying to talk to me about why i skip class so much like shhhhh shhh i’m gay we don’t need to have this conversation

#ava.txt

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bearspraynew-blog · 5 years ago

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7 Tips Every Camper Should Know About Campfire Cooking

A little scared about cooking over an open flame? Try not to be. Open air fire cooking is simple with these privileged insights, beginning with: Pack a Dutch stove.

Manufacture the Right Fire

First of all: Never light a fire until you are certain you are building it in a protected spot. In the event that you don't have a flame pit, search for a detect that is free of free earth, grass, and garbage inside a 10-foot border of your site. Scout for any tree roots, as well, says Sarah Huck, coauthor of Campfire Cookery: Adventuresome Recipes and Other Curiosities for the Great Outdoors ($30, amazon.com): They can without much of a stretch burst into flames. Also, avoid low-hanging branches. A decent standard procedure is to have multiple times the stature of the flame in unhindered overhead space.

Following stage, says Huck: Determine the motivation behind your open air fire. On the off chance that it will be utilized distinctly for cooking, she prescribes "the tracker's flame": Position two lower leg thick bits of dead, dry wood in an unpleasant V shape, with the sticks six to eight inches separated at the top and three to five inches separated at the base. Spot tinder (Huck uses dry pine needles, greenery, or folded paper) in the V. Utilizing little bits of bark wood or twigs (between the thickness of a match and a bit of chalk), construct a teepee around the tinder. Light and gradually feed the flame extremely dry logs that are about the size of your arm (Huck's preferred kind of wood is maple or oak; she says they are the most steady when consuming).

In case you're hoping to cook over a flame that will later be utilized for amusement purposes (i.e., singing pit fire melodies, recounting to apparition stories), Huck prescribes the conventional teepee technique, which will consume longer and all the more relentlessly. Spot the tinder in your assigned flame zone and manufacture a teepee of bigger stays it. As the flame consumes, keep on including greater logs; cautiously position them with the goal that they edge toward the flares to abstain from covering the flame. Include each sign in turn, enabling it to consume a piece before including another; along these lines, you'll abstain from making a flame that all of a sudden ends up unmanageable.

Get the Right Gear

The conspicuous likely bears rehashing: Plastic can dissolve, so utilizing metal utensils is significant, says Julia Perry, an educator for the REI Outdoor School in Chicago and the Wilderness Medicine Institute. For a similar explanation, she prescribes skipping pots and skillet with elastic covered handles (rather, utilize an aluminum pot lifter, similar to Open Country Aluminum Pot Lifters, $4; REI.com). Your most logical option is to go with utensils that are explicitly made for the outside. Her pick: GSI Outdoors Pioneer Enamelware Chef's Tools ($25 for a spoon, scoop, and spatula; REI.com).

Hard core calfskin gloves and durable close-toed shoes that can take heat from nearness to an open air fire will likewise give a layer of assurance from hot surfaces, coals, and ashes.

Pick Your Cooking Method

There are an assortment of approaches to cook over a pit fire, contingent upon your nourishment decision. Stick to great good old stick cooking on the off chance that you are wanting to broil marshmallows or wieners. Need to grill? Swing an open air fire amicable metal barbecue grind over the blazes. (The Texsport Heavy-Duty Swivel Grill can without much of a stretch be staked into the ground and situated over a flame pit at a tallness that is ideal for safe open air fire barbecuing; $44, amazon.com.) Paul Kautz, maker of CampfireDude.com, likes cooking with a Dutch stove when outdoors; he feels the pot gives you about as much adaptability as cooking in the kitchen. Cast-iron Dutch broilers ($36, amazon.com) can be really substantial, so they are most appropriate for long haul stationary outdoors, he says. Pick an aluminum or hard anodized Dutch broiler ($68 to $140, amazon.com) for progressively easygoing excursions.

Comprehend What Not to Cook

Nourishments that can make hot, drippy fat as they cook—duck bosom, steak, bacon—may cause flare-ups and ought to be kept away from, says Huck, regardless of whether you're cooking them in a dish. In the event that conceivable, renounce nourishments that should be seared or require any sort of oil. In the event that you should sear around the open air fire, Huck proposes utilizing a Dutch stove, which offers more solid warmth than a skillet with included assurance from splatters.

Know the "Threat Zone," Too

Hauling crude meat or poultry out of your ice chest for your trip? Ensure you keep the nourishment all around pressed in ice paving the way to flame broil time: Bacteria can develop hazardously on nourishment that warms to between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, conditions that make a reproducing ground for nourishment borne pathogens. Make certain to pack up remains immediately, as well: Food ought to never sit out for over two hours—or 60 minutes, if the open air temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, says Shelley Feist, the official executive of the Partnership for Food Safety Education.

When barbecuing, consistently utilize a meat thermometer. Nourishment should be warmed to between 140 degrees Fahrenheit and 165 degrees Fahrenheit to slaughter any nourishment borne pathogens. "You can't tell if nourishment is cooked by seeing it," says Feist. For more in-depth information I highly recommend metal grill grate .

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blacksails2017 · 6 years ago

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my GSI gave me 19/20 for discussion engagement despite me only making two comments the entire semester and skipping half the meetings 😩👏🏻

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hypejust · 2 years ago

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So you see they are very important for average user. Gapps consist of various important packages like Google Play Services, Play Store, YouTube, Google Assistant, Chrome, and more. It needs to be flashed separately onto the custom ROMS using a recovery such as TWRP. Gapps, also referred to as Google apps, come as separate packages not pre-installed on custom ROMS due to licensing issues. Here we have listed Gapps from various developers compatible with the latest Android 12 builds. Most of the custom ROMS and GSI zips do not come with Gapps, also known as Google Apps. We will also seeing many developers releasing Android 12 based custom ROMS soon. GSI available from Google are vanilla or stock Android builds meant for developers for testing purposes. You need to flash separate Gapps packages into your ROM. If you don’t already know, most custom ROMS and GSI builds do not come with Google Apps pre-installed. As a result, Gapps, also known as Google Apps, for Android 12 are a necessity now. In addition to this, the search giant also released official Generic System Image (GSI) builds based on Android 12.Ī lot of official and unofficial Android 12 custom ROMS and GSI builds from various developers are now popping up. As Android is an open source operating system, Google also makes the AOSP sources available publicly. It’s a constant battle battle the two operating system Android and iOS which is good for everyone. Google’s ongoing Android 12 beta program for the Pixel smartphones is the most popular topic in the Android community, especially after Apple announced iOS 15 in the WWDC 21 keynote event.

#Syberia 3 apk

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thehiatusproject · 6 years ago

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We accompanied my father to England for two years from 1936-1938, while he was enrolled in courses through the Geological Survey of India (GSI). At the end of those two years, he received an MBE from the Crown for his work in Southern Shan States of Burma, and then we came back to India. We returned to Calcutta, where the head office of the Geological Survey had always been, and I was back at Loretto convent, where I was before we left. Oh, it was a wonderful time - I was the hopscotch and skipping champion of my class. But as a child, I’ve always been quite…puny, you know, because I was very short and thin and pale and all the time, I seem to remember, having nicknames like ‘Chutki’ and ‘Pidki’, everyone was always towering over me. When Mother Superior introduced me to all the students upon my return, she called me ‘her little Punjabi’, because she claimed she’d never seen a Punjabi that small!

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jinkiesravi · 7 years ago

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EXO: Final Exams + College life

Shoutout to the girl who did a shot in the library bathroom #FinalsWeek

Minseok:

caffeine overload and inverted sleep schedule

notecards notecards notecards

highlights his whole calculus textbook

takes exams in sweatshirts so he can use the hood to hide his tears

“I wish I started studying for my final exams last week but I was too busy studying for my midterms“

Junmyeon:

english major so he’s looking at about a billion rough drafts

reserves a study room at 6 o’clock so he can eat dinner and edit papers

has never had to take a science class in college yet he’s researching the effects of greenhouse gases on the planet

loses focus easily

like really easy

he’s been reading the same wiki article on carbon emissions for the past hour

Yixing:

gets to leave a week early for Winter break because he only had to take one exam

lots of lab practicals

mocks baekhyun for studying so hard

likes to watch netflix while jongdae tries to recite music theory notes

meditates to stop the stress of 12 chemistry credits get to him (see below)

Baekhyun:

needs a 150/144 on his Bio exam to pass the semester

skips his 8 am classes and still passes the finals

lives alone so no one can judge him for procrastinating so much

flowcharts, notecards, powerpoints, sticky notes are scattered around his room

pre-med student and ready to die

Jongdae:

trying to raise his GPA so he can audition for the Men’s Choir

loves his professors, hates his classes

parties on Thursday night before his exam

cries when he fails Psych 101

“Wore a Kobe jersey to my final bc I knew I wasn't gonna pass”

Chanyeol:

handles the stress well

visits the campus puppies to stay optimistic

lives for office hours

writes songs to remember economic trends

business major

“It’s finals week and I’m high. #LiveYourBestLife “

Kyungsoo:

sleeps in the library

poor time management

cram studies before the big test and gets a B-

drinks a lot of Mtn Dew and Coke to stay awake

final grade is a C+ in sociology

Jongin:

takes lots of literature classes so he can read often

in college with an athletic scholarship

stays on campus during Winter break to train

is able to read his notes once and memorize them

“I looked under my pillow for my pillow... It’s been a long day”

Sehun:

photography presentation goes well enough although his GSI told him to lay off the star wipes

finishes the semester with 3 A’s and 1 B

rest of the boys tease him for being a smartass

but he totally cheated on his humanities exam

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jenhikes · 7 years ago

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Holiday Gift Guide 2017

It's time again to start thinking about getting a gift for the outdoorsy person in your life! If you're at a loss for what to get the hikers you care about something unique, let my holiday guide help you.

STOCKING STUFFERS

GSI long-handled silicone spoon - VERY necessary for those who eat pre-made freeze-dried meals! This guy will get down into the nooks and crannies of even the longest bag meal. Hikertrash Stickers - I don't know a single hiker who doesn't love putting stickers on just about everything they own. Help them rep their Hikertrash status proudly! Sawyer Mini water filter - Being able to have clean water on the go is very necessary for anyone who spends any time outdoors. These compact filters are super easy to use and easy to clean. Klymit Pillow X - Makes a great pillow for backpackers and a good seat on a day hike too! Therm-a-Rest Z seat - In case your hiker isn't a fan of things that can pop on the trail, consider this Z seat instead of the Klymit Pillow. MSR Piezo Ignitor - If your hiker uses a canister fuel stove, this thing is amazing! Lightweight and doesn't require fuel like a lighter. Never worry about running out of fluid again.

Under $30

Road ID - Have piece of mind when your hiking buddy is out solo. These bracelets (or shoe charms) can hold emergency info and some charms too. Darn Tough Socks - The only socks I've found that can keep up with the abuse I put them through - and that's saying a LOT! A Scratch-off Map of the US - for the hiker trying to hit every state (or every high point!) this fun multicolor map is a great way to keep track of your travels in the US. A US National Parks Scratch-off Map - Just in case you're trying to get all those parks in there too ;) An Anker Portable Charger - A lightweight charger that won't break the bank. Great for those who use their phones to listen to music or podcasts in the tent at night. GSI Microflip Mug - This mug is vacuum sealed to keep your coffee or tea hot on the way to the trailhead on those early mornings.

Under $50

MSR Pocket Rocket 2 - A new stove is never a bad thing! This guy can boil water in 3.5 minutes. Black Diamond Storm Headlamp - 350 lumens to keep the trail bright when you're night hiking or getting in those before dawn miles. A Mountain Ring - Let's face it, sometimes lady hikers want to look nice (and sometimes we even have to go to places in the "real world"). This ring will let her take the peaks wherever she goes. White Blaze Pendant - This unisex Appalachian Trail pendant comes on polycord and is adjustable. In fact, check out ALL of Tarma's jewelry. Dirty Girl Gaiters - Keep debris from your shoes and look good at the same time.

Splurge Items

A Handmade Replica Trail Sign - Handmade to match nearly any sign, these will definitely make your favorite hiker's heart skip a beat. Suunto Traverse Series Watch - For the hiker who loves data and stats, this watch will leave a trail of breadcrumbs and show the trails in the area right on the wrist. Excalibur Food Dehydrator - For the hiker who loves eating well in the backcountry! This 9-tray dehydrator will make huge batches of jerky, meals, and more. Helinox Chair One - Because being comfortable shouldn't mean breaking your back trying to carry that chair to camp.

These are just a few of the things I'd love to see as a holiday gift this year. What are some of your favorite gifts to give?

#gift #gift giving #gift guide #small gift #large gift #hiking #backpacking

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rainofaugustsith · 4 years ago

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SWTOR: Galactic Seasons objectives

The objectives for Galactic Seasons have been datamined and meticulously listed by someone on Reddit. A few takeaways:

1. Every single weekly objective requires grouping. It's Ops, World Bosses, PvP, etc. They seem to even discourage playing with friends - the Veteran flashpoint objective specifically requires going through groupfinder, for example.

2. The daily objectives look a lot like conquest objectives.

I'm guessing a lot of people are going to be playing this and trying to get the objectives, at least at first. Unfortunately it means there might be more crowds which means more ninjas and mob thieves. For those of you like me who solo and like quiet areas, well, it's not our day.

Looking at the new GS objectives, it seems as though there might be a few very specific trouble spots. I'm listing the ones which seem to yell, "If you want a character to do these things without stress, do them NOW." I am not marking this for spoilers because there's nothing about story in here.

Areas with reputation that are being added as GS objectives:

1. Oricon

2. Yavin 4

3. Rishi

4. Iokath

5. Onderon

6. Ossus

7. Section X

8. CZ-198

1. Daily PO: Defeat Home World Enemies - Defeat non-player opponents across Hutta, Korriban, Ord Mantell, or Tython.

I dearly hope this objective is gated to the lower levels, because otherwise it's going to be a nightmare. The only starter planet that has fully instanced heroics (ie, an opportunity to kill mobs without interfering with other players) is Korriban. The other three? Nope. Most of the mobs are open world, and players just starting new characters need them - to level up, to fulfill their story and side missions, and often to practice a new class or advanced class.

I'd like to think the devs have had some foresight on this but, well, you know. If you have a character on a starter planet, you might want to finish up before 6.3 comes out.

2. Daily PO: Makeb Daily GSI Missions - Complete [DAILY] GSI Missions on Makeb

RIP to one of the most relaxing sets of missions in the game. The Makeb GSI dailies take you through waterfalls and bucolic landscapes, and there's little combat. The only trouble is that there are also very limited objectives in each area. If even three players are looking for them simultaneously, it can be tough to find what you need. Throw in players who have been specifically directed to the missions for GS? Yeah.

Between items 3 and 4, I think doing Shadow of Revan might suck for a while. I'm planning on trying to rush a few characters through, even if it means they need to go back and do Makeb and Ilum afterward out of order.

3. Daily PO: Yavin 4i Daily Missions - Complete [DAILY] Missions on Yavin 4. Daily PO: Defeat Seat of the Empire Enemies - Defeat non-player opponents across Oricon, Taris, Yavin, or Dantooine.

This, to me, is going to be a real problem. Yavin 4 is already very crowded - you have limited space, they never have enough instances, and you have both players completing SoR and players doing dailies/weeklies in both factions, ALL going for the same objectives. You need the mobs to complete one of the missions (both for story and the weekly/dailies) and now more people will be going after them. Great.

4. Daily PO: Rishi Daily Missions - Complete [DAILY] Missions on Rishi. Daily PO: Defeat Outer Rim Enemies - Defeat non-player opponents across Belsavis, Hoth, Rishi, or Tatooine.

Rishi isn't quite as much of an issue, but: there aren't very many clickable objectives for the missions here, and they're all open world. Also, the mobs needed to find the parts in Pieces of 8 are the same ones you need for a bonus mission in the SoR story, so there may be a clash here.

5. Daily PO: Oricon Daily Missions - Complete [DAILY] Missions on Oricon. Daily PO: Defeat Seat of the Empire Enemies - Defeat non-player opponents across Oricon, Taris, Yavin, or Dantooine.

The only reason these two are not going to be as much of an issue as Yavin 4 and Rishi is because a lot of people skip this one due to the forced Ops at the end. But you have the same perfect storm: a small area, not enough instances to accommodate them comfortably, both Imperial and Republic players going for the same mobs and objectives, and both story chain and weekly/daily players going for them, too.

6. Daily PO: Section X Daily Missions - Complete [DAILY] Missions on Section X.Complete Section X [DAILY] Missions

Section X is the only daily area I play now, because I actually enjoy it. It's quiet, it's usually not well populated, and it's fun for me. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can in these last few weeks before it's more crowded.

7. Daily PO: CZ-198 Daily Missions - Complete [DAILY] Missions on CZ-198. Daily PO: Defeat Unknown Wild Space Enemies - Defeat non-player opponents across CZ-198, Ilum, or Iokath.

If you've been to CZ-198 when there are even 15 people in the instance you know how annoying it can be. Adding more? Yep. Good luck ever getting that droid now. Of course we know the stock answers to anyone complaining about this will be "well, group!" and "well, go to the PvP instances," both of which place solo players in positions they might not want to be in. We also know that even though these concerns have been raised on the Public Test Server, there isn't a huge trend of the devs actually listening to those who have been gracious enough to test. So, do it now.

#swtor #swtor critical #rain plays swtor #solo swtor #6.3 #game updates

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celldeal57-blog · 5 years ago

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How Michael Rubin, Meek Mill’s Billionaire Bestie, Got Woke

City

The Lafayette Hill native’s path from e-commerce titan to Sixers co-owner to social justice crusader.

Photograph by Chris Crisman

“Did you see what’s on his phone? That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.”

Michael Rubin is wrestling with Joel Embiid in a losing attempt to steal the Sixers center’s iPhone and embarrass him about a particular snapshot Embiid is using as his home-screen pic. Or, to take a broader view, a billionaire businessman and a millionaire NBA All-Star are goofing around like 13-year-olds. We’re in a five-seat AW139 Agusta helicopter that picked us up at Rubin’s office in Conshohocken for a trip to Foxborough, Massachusetts, where Rubin, two business associates and Embiid will be guests of Patriots owner Robert Kraft for a preseason matchup with the Eagles. Embiid loves football, but he was mostly just up for a night out with Kraft, arguably the most powerful man in the NFL, and Rubin, who’s both his boss and his buddy. Embiid is rocking gray sweatpants, a white hoodie and suede Saint Laurent kicks; combined, the cost of the outfit probably exceeds my monthly rent. By contrast, Rubin wears Nikes, a charcoal tee, and jeans that are surely designer but could pass for the dad variety.

At 46, Rubin may not look the part, but he’s in peak baller mode — taking his heli to a game, then skipping over to the Hamptons for a weekend with Kraft and their girlfriends. Rubin is also a personal friend of Jeffrey Lurie, so it’s fortunate that tonight’s contest is meaningless, with no real rooting interests. The Super Bowl was a different story. If Rubin hadn’t needed to go there for business — his sports merchandise company, Fanatics, throws one of the biggest parties in a week that’s full of A-list blowouts — he would have avoided it.

“It was complicated,” he says. “Look, I love Jeffrey. Howie Roseman is my buddy. I’m friends with a bunch of guys who play on the team. But you can’t have one of your closest friends and then abandon them. It would be wrong.” The friend he’s referring to is 77-year-old Kraft.

“I generally don’t have a lot of fandom outside of the Sixers,” Rubin explains. “Fanatics takes the fandom out of you, it really does. You’re actually rooting for whoever makes you the most money.”

Such is the stuff of sports-talk-radio outrage: One of the Sixers owners cheers for the Pats? Boycott that crumb bum! But Rubin is a businessman to his core, hardwired for commerce in a way that’s different even from nearly anyone else who’s achieved this level of success. He’s been hustling since he left for sleepaway camp, a college dropout who’d been sued and gone virtually bankrupt before he could even vote. He’s also a true visionary — Rubin saw the potential for online retail while the rest of the world was still living the brick-and-mortar life and built GSI Commerce, a multibillion-dollar business. Now, his second 10-figure empire, Kynetic, consists of three e-businesses, including the crown jewel, Fanatics, which designs, manufactures and sells merch for all four major sports leagues and others to the tune of $2.3 billion in projected revenue this year. “It’s amazing,” Kraft says. “He’s basically built a mini-Amazon in sports merchandising. He used his vision and drive to develop a niche. He saw it before everyone else.” Did you buy a Ben Simmons tee for the Sixers’ playoff run? Do you own a Rhys Hoskins or Shayne Gostisbehere jersey? Eagles Super Bowl LII championship hoodie or jersey, underdogs tee, or autographed “Philly Special” framed photo? Fanatics made them and sold them to you.

“He’s an amazingly intense person and an amazingly competitive person,” says Josh Kopelman, founder of First Round Capital and a longtime friend of Rubin. “He’s probably one of the best strategic people I know in terms of playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers.”

Until recently, Rubin — with a net worth hovering around $3 billion — was among the most low-key Philadelphians on the Forbes 400 (number 278 on the 2017 list, 14 spots behind Phillies principal owner John Middleton and 110 ahead of Lurie). His role as the third largest shareholder in the Sixers raised his profile, but unless you’ve seen him courtside with Kevin Hart or Lil Uzi Vert, you probably couldn’t pick him out of a lineup or a paparazzi photo on TMZ Sports (though you may have read the news this summer that he purchased one of the most expensive penthouses ever sold in Lower Manhattan, for $43.5 million).

Rubin with Kevin Hart, Robert Kraft and Meek Mill just after Mill’s release from prison. Photograph courtesy of Michael Rubin

But Rubin’s public persona — and his life — has changed, thanks to his friend Robert Rihmeek Williams, a.k.a. North Philly rapper Meek Mill. When Mill was sent to prison last November, Rubin mobilized — launching the Free Meek campaign with Jay-Z and taking aim at not only the judge handling Mill’s case, but the entire criminal justice system. The luxe chopper we’re riding in is the same one that famously picked up Mill from jail in Chester and flew him straight to a Sixers playoff game in April.

Tonight, the activist/entrepreneur/ billionaire is focused on the fun stuff, like breaking Embiid’s stones constantly. Despite the nonstop clowning around, business is never far from Rubin’s mind, and neither is the cause he’s championing. His rise from business prodigy to sports mogul and Sixers owner is a story in itself. But then Meek Mill went to jail, Michael Rubin got woke — and a new chapter in his life began.

•

A few weeks earlier, Rubin greets me in his corner office at the Kynetic headquarters in Conshohocken for our first interview. He’s dressed summer-Friday-afternoon ultra-casual, in white cutoff denim shorts, a gray t-shirt and leather sandals, and flanked by his partner and his corporate PR chief. The “office” next to his is a playroom for his 12-year-old daughter, Kylie — it’s a concept he borrowed after talking to another CEO who wanted to find a way to stay close to his kids even when he was working, which for Rubin is seemingly always. While he flies to his Manhattan office weekly, his empire was built within seven miles of where he’s sitting, and staying close to his family is a priority. He lives minutes from his ex-wife and spends a few nights each week with his daughter, who inspired his company’s name; his mother visits his Bryn Mawr manse for dinner on Sundays. Rubin has a quick answer for how a kid from Lafayette Hill ended up becoming a titan of e-commerce: “I think you’re either born with the entrepreneurial bug or you’re not. I was a shitty athlete. I was a bad student. I wasn’t really good at anything other than business. Ever since I was old enough to make money, I wanted to do that.”

You’ve probably read stories about entrepreneurs who opened lemonade stands and whose proud parents instantly knew they were destined for big things. That’s fairly normal — a word no one would use to describe Rubin. Sure, he got into snow shoveling at age 10, but he didn’t break a sweat; instead, he rounded up five kids and paid them to do all the manual labor. Around the same time, his mother, Paulette, a psychiatrist, was cooking dinner one night when she overheard him on the phone with a friend of one of his two older sisters, asking about the teen’s baseball card collection. When her husband, Ken, came home, she asked, “Do you know how Michael knows what ‘consignment’ is?” Later, she gently informed her child that his plan to sell the cards at his sleepaway camp was flawed, since the other campers wouldn’t have any money. “I’m not selling to the kids,” he said, as if his intentions should have been obvious. “I’m selling to the dads on visiting day.” Sure enough, there was a line of fathers outside his bunk with cash in hand.

The rest of Rubin’s origin story is about as unbelievable as anything you’d see in a Marvel movie, if the superhero was a nice Jewish boy from Montco with a savant-like way of seeing the world. At age 12, he opened a ski repair shop in the basement of his parents’ house; two years later, his father, a veterinarian, co-signed a lease so Rubin could open his own store in a Conshohocken strip mall with $10,000 he’d made. Action News cameras captured a marketing stunt one summer as Rubin arranged to build a 142-foot ski slope in the parking lot with 45,000 pounds of ice. As a junior at Plymouth Whitemarsh High, the budding businessman would leave classes early through a co-op program to work at his shop.

It looked like Rubin’s career was over before it really began when he found himself in the red for $200,000 at age 16. He was being sued by a slew of creditors, who were stunned to learn that the hot shot they’d only spoken with by phone was a minor. Rubin hired a lawyer to settle his debts, got a loan from his parents, and eventually owned five ski shops with annual sales totaling $2.5 million. When his folks refused to lend him more money, he borrowed 17 grand from a neighbor for a new venture — buying closeout sporting-goods merchandise and selling it for a markup. Rubin’s parents made him agree to give college a shot. He lasted less than a year at Villanova. “For the first semester,” he says, “I was always in the parking lot with this giant phone — they were like a fucking brick at this point — and I’d be late to class because I’m buying something in Asia and selling it in England, wheeling and dealing like crazy.”

KPR Sports, the new business he named for his parents, led to the creation of an outdoor shoe company and a controlling interest in Ryka, a women’s sneaker manufacturer. At 23, the “Sneaker Stud,” as People crowned him, was generating $50 million in sales and preparing to build the next Nike or Reebok. But in 1998, back when Amazon only sold books, a Wall Street analyst asked Rubin what he was doing about the World Wide Web. “My first answer was, ‘Fuck this internet thing. Don’t waste my time. It’s all these young kids who don’t make any money. They all lose money.’”

The analyst persisted, and Rubin began polling the CEOs of all the sporting-goods giants he sold to about their plans for e-commerce. “They didn’t know how to do it themselves,” Rubin says. “If I could bring them to scale and do that myself … I saw the business opportunity.” Was Rubin at all afraid to tackle a business model with so many unknowns, including his own inexperience? “That’s what I think makes an entrepreneur,” he says. “I was probably too fearless then.”

To build Global Sports Interactive, Rubin needed funding, and a near-disastrous meeting in New York would change the course of his life. Masayoshi Son — CEO of SoftBank, a Japanese firm heavily invested in Yahoo and E*Trade — agreed to meet with Rubin and his small team, including Mike Conn, the analyst who pestered Rubin about the internet and then joined him at GSI. Rubin pitched uninterrupted for 30 minutes. Masa, as he’s known, responded by saying, “You’re the next Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell. I’m buying 30 percent of your company.” But rather than gladly taking any deal offered, Rubin began to grill Masa on SoftBank. “I was shaking,” Conn remembers. “I mean, our payroll was bouncing and Michael starts pushing back. I did the math, and this was an $80 million deal. There are many times in life with Michael when I wish I had a pause button — just freeze and say, ‘Wait a second.’”

Masa isn’t easily rattled, and eventually SoftBank closed the deal. Rubin’s ex-wife, Meegan, remembers another moment in the negotiation process, when she sat in awe during a dinner near Piccadilly Circus in London as her then-boyfriend and Masa — with input from another guest, Rupert Murdoch — worked out the details of their arrangement.

At the same time, Josh Kopelman created the e-marketplace Half.com in Conshohocken and found a kindred spirit in Rubin — two Philly founders during the late-’90s/early-aughts dot-com boom and the bust that followed. The two would meet for lunch at Rubin’s King of Prussia office or Stella Blu in West Conshy and talk shop about their increasingly fickle industry. One day in 2001, as GSI’s stock bottomed out at $3 a share from $33 two years before, Rubin spent a good portion of the afternoon curled up under his desk, contemplating his company’s collapse. “The mortality rate was high,” Kopelman says of the many ventures that folded. “It was a game of musical chairs. Michael and I were both lucky enough to have caught a chair before the music stopped.” (GSI’s stock rebounded within a few months.)

What set Rubin apart and set GSI on a course for unthinkable success is his long view, says Kopelman, who was briefly on GSI’s board: “What I see in Michael is an intense tolerance for delayed gratification. When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re sacrificing pain and suffering today for success later.” A key aspect of Rubin’s strategy was signing long-term deals, like an 18-year agreement with Sports Authority, at a time when anything longer than 10 years was unheard-of.

GSI grew rapidly, expanding across retail sectors by partnering with Ralph Lauren, Toys “R” Us, GNC and others. Rubin attracted a workforce of young, tech-savvy employees who were willing to work hard for relatively little compensation to be part of something big. Before he launched the Philly sports-gossip site Crossing Broad, Kyle Scott worked at GSI for two years, in the late 2000s. When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, Scott was on wi-fi at a sports bar, updating the team’s and MLB’s websites; he estimates GSI processed a few million dollars in Phils-related revenue in 24 hours.

After narrowly surviving some heady days, including the internet crash and the Great Recession, Rubin made his next earth-shaking move in 2011, when he sold GSI Commerce, as it was then named, to eBay for $2.4 billion. Rubin and Conn celebrated with burgers and beer at Champps at the King of Prussia mall on a Friday. Conn thought maybe they should take a year off to contemplate the future; Rubin was back to work on Monday and already had a plan. eBay wanted Rubin’s B2B platform to compete with Amazon, but it didn’t need his consumer businesses. So Rubin bought three of them back — the designer fashion site Rue La La, the members-only retail site ShopRunner, and Fanatics, the licensed-sports-apparel behemoth. When asked why he didn’t just retire, Rubin answered in typical Rubinesque fashion: “I will work at the same incredibly hard pace until I die. I love it. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had.”

Like his net worth, Rubin’s enthusiasm for empire-building keeps growing. Last year, he purchased the sports merch giant Majestic, and also flew to Japan to pitch his old friends at SoftBank — which now runs the world’s largest tech fund — for a new round of funding, walking away with $1 billion. With his eyes on expansion into European soccer and sports across Asia, Rubin predicts annual earnings of $10 billion in the next decade for Fanatics alone. He says his “v-commerce” model of vertical retail — designing, manufacturing, and selling merchandise directly to consumers — is what sets Fanatics apart and has helped him secure deals with the major sports leagues that average a whopping 15 years. “I feel like we’re just getting started,” he tells me. “Even though this has become a decent-sized business, we’re still in the first quarter of the football game.”

Sports are now threaded so tightly through all aspects of Rubin’s life that it’s impossible to untangle work from play, which is exactly how he likes it. His friendship with Kraft, his trips to All-Star games with his daughter or to the Super Bowl with his mom, partying with Embiid and Ben Simmons across the globe — he’s never off the clock, and business is never far away from the fun.

•

In the heli somewhere over North Jersey, I ask Rubin and Embiid what they have in common.

“I’m a great basketball player,” Rubin says, getting a laugh out of the fit professional athlete seated beside him. He has a slight middle-age paunch that contrasts with his boyish face. “Short, Jewish, out of shape — we have a lot in common. When did we start hanging out?”

“The first summer when I was hurt, not much,” Embiid says. “But the end of the season … I think it was in New York. We went out, and then we started hanging out.”

Rubin’s larger-than-life résumé and singular personality have a cinematic quality. Sportscaster Howard Eskin compares him to Russell Crowe’s character in A Beautiful Mind. On a personal level, Meegan Rubin jokes that her ex is Tom Hanks in Big — a child trapped in an adult’s body: “Michael definitely has a young vibe.”

His youthful exuberance is on display as Rubin and Embiid recall their trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas to celebrate the birthday of a model friend, Jocelyn Chew, whose Instagram account was once featured by GQ. Rubin posted photos of a petrified Embiid at the top of a gnarly 60-foot near-vertical water slide and a video of his reluctant investigation of a lazy river as inner tubes filled with vacationers leisurely passed by.

“When you see someone who’s seven-foot-two and can’t swim in a two-foot pool,” Rubin says, “it’s kind of hard not to make fun of them. That was honestly one of the funniest weekends.”

“We had so much fun,” says Embiid. “I would do everything else except for the slide. The slide was awful.”

“The scary thing was, Joel uses his hands on the side of the slide, holding on. He’s going to lose a hand or a finger. You’ll be the only person to get hurt in the history of the NBA on a water slide.”

Rubin, Embiid and friends in Miami Beach for the Sixer’s 24th birthday. Photograph courtesy of Seth Browarnik/WorldRedEye

Rubin is a social media newbie, but with some editing advice from his daughter, he’s begun to document his personal life (or at least the “G-rated version,” as he says). Whatever he omits, Page Six or TMZ is likely to cover: Embiid’s 24th birthday in Miami Beach, attended by models of the Instagram and Victoria’s Secret variety, or Rubin waving a giant Sixers flag at his 46th birthday in Las Vegas with Simmons, Mill and Kraft. (Rubin is well known for having frequented Atlantic City and Vegas in his youth. These days, he plays private high-stakes blackjack.)

Rubin’s favorite subject for ball-busting at the moment is Embiid’s girlfriend, a successful model — a silly video and a romantic photo with her are constant sources of blackmail threats. Rubin prods Embiid to explain why he owes so much to their friend Chew.

“She’s the reason why I’m in love,” Embiid says with a huge grin, as Rubin and the business associates whoop it up.

“He took her to Cameroon!” Rubin yells, referring to a trip Embiid made with his girlfriend where she met his parents.

Embiid looks at me and deadpans, “He’s jealous.”

When talk turns to Rubin’s current flame, new media coordinator for Major League Baseball and model Camille Fishel, Rubin clams up. Embiid rolls video to capture Rubin’s response as the tables turn, and another wrestling match ensues. Rubin retaliates by raising the stakes for his threats.

“Twenty percent reduction in your pay,” he says. “We’re making free-agency room.”

It’s hard to imagine Rubin’s fellow Sixers co-owners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, cracking wise about contract restructuring or popping bottles with their players. It’s also easy to jump to conclusions about Rubin’s joie de vivre. (Phone call for Mr. Rubin, midlife crisis on line one!) But Rubin had all the trappings of wealth decades ago; he had a Porsche before he had a driver’s license, and when he was 27, his garage housed a Range Rover, a Mercedes convertible and a Ferrari. He also had his girlfriend, Meegan, to keep him tethered to reality — or at least attempt to do so. In an interview with CNN back then, Rubin said they’d spend “a decent amount of quality time together … at least a couple hours during the weekend.” In 2009, then married with a three-year-old daughter, Rubin filmed an episode of Undercover Boss, epic-failing while trying to stack packages in a GSI warehouse and bonding with blue-collar employees. The most insightful scene was a brief glimpse into his private life — Meegan playing with Kylie in the background while Rubin scrolled on his phone. “He is definitely a workaholic,” Meegan said on camera. “Texting at three o’clock in the morning to Europe. He treats GSI as if it’s his baby.” Meegan tells me her exasperation wasn’t staged for television, and Rubin admits he isn’t a “zero to three” father: “Truth be told, I was not a baby guy. I connected with my daughter when she turned two and a half or three. If I had more kids, I wouldn’t be changing diapers. I could sit here and say I’m someone else, but I’m not.”

The couple separated in 2011, and Rubin dated cable news anchor and Rich Bitch author Nicole Lapin, reportedly only a month later. “It still makes me sad to this day,” Meegan says of their divorce. “We were going in separate directions. I was tired. I didn’t want the pressure — I’d already been so affected by people trying to get close to him for his money. I just have a different soul than he does.” Still, Meegan, an artist and a former Koresh company dancer who owns the Liberty Me Dance Center in Bryn Mawr, can’t say enough about her ex as a co-parent, businessman and human being. “He’s enjoying the fruits of his labor, as he should,” she says, adding, “Freedom is the foundation for happiness, and we both gave each other that gift.”

One of those fruits is owning a piece of the Sixers. (Rubin has also invested in Harris and Blitzer’s other teams, the New Jersey Devils and London’s Crystal Palace soccer club.) As Rubin tells it, his former neighbor, Ed Snider, approached him about buying the team after his eBay windfall, but Rubin passed without looking into it. “Josh and David are savvy,” he says. “They recognized the economics of the business were a lot better than I thought.” NBA commissioner David Stern recommended that Rubin get involved with Harris’s group, and soon the guy who’d made a mint with sports apparel was part of another elite group — pro team owners (and a ’Nova dropout among a group of Penn grads). Via email, Josh Harris calls Rubin “a great guy and a great friend … very creative, full of high energy.” His value to the team, Harris says, is “innovative thinking and his relationships.”

As for who’s responsible for the Sixers’ rise from paupers to playoff threat, Rubin insists that Harris and Blitzer make all the basketball decisions. Coincidence or not, the team has followed a playbook he’s most familiar with — suffering today in exchange for future success. “If you would’ve asked two years ago, when we were going through a really difficult time, people would say we’re a bunch of clowns,” he says. “Today, I think people would say we’re pretty smart, that we’re good owners, and you have to give that credit, first and foremost, to Josh and David. They’ve got the responsibility on their shoulders, and they chose to embark on a really long-term strategy.”

Asked about Rubin’s unusually close relationships with Embiid and Ben Simmons, Harris says it’s a benefit to the team: “I think it’s great to have a member of the ownership group who can relate particularly well to the players and be accessible for any questions or issues they may have. The old days of having a line of demarcation between the owners and players is long gone.” (Insert Colangelo Twitter joke here.)

Even longtime hater of the Process and Sixers ownership critic Howard Eskin doesn’t see a problem with Rubin mixing business and pleasure. “He loves being friends with the players, and I think it’s great,” says Eskin. “Why shouldn’t he enjoy his passion for the game? He doesn’t make decisions on those players. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Now Rubin has his sights set on the toughest and richest club in all of sports — owners of NFL teams. His bid to buy the Carolina Panthers ended when the asking price ballooned from steep to insane (final sale price: $2.3 billion), but Rubin is “pot committed,” to use a gambling phrase he appreciates. “I believe I’ll have my chances to own an NFL team, and I’m excited to do it,” he says. But the thrill of being close to the action is nothing new to him; his first date with Meegan was, ironically, courtside Sixers seats, and he’s been friends with superstars like Julius Erving for decades. He’s made a fortune, literally. Aside from winning a championship, what’s left to do? “There’s a typical cadence when people are laser-focused on their business,” says Kopelman. “When they hit their 40s and 50s, they widen their aperture. They see their ability to give back.”

•

Meek Mill told his pal Michael Rubin about a dream he had while in prison: Rubin would fly to Chester, land his helicopter in the yard, and carry Mill away to freedom. On April 24th, the day Mill was released, Rubin was determined to make that vision real — even though it was after 3 p.m., the Sixers had a playoff game against the Miami Heat in a few hours, and there was no place to land at the jail. Rubin called in a favor from Harris, who owns the Harrah’s casino across the street, and secured permission to touch down there. “We pick him up, go to the game, and we’ve got multiple news helicopters following our helicopter,” Rubin says. “He’s in his jail outfit, he goes in, hugs everyone, shaves, takes a shower, goes out and rings the bell” — a new Sixers pregame crowd-hyping ritual. “It was insane.”

On the surface, this is another curious Rubin relationship, two guys with seemingly little in common. They met courtside at the 2015 NBA All-Star game in New York — Mill with then-girlfriend Nicki Minaj, Rubin with Kylie — and what began with his daughter chatting the stars up turned into Mill asking Rubin a barrage of questions about the Sixers, sports and business. “I felt like I met a different version of myself,” Rubin says. “I’m a sponge, and he was doing the same thing to me that I do to so many other people. I loved it.” Their shared curiosity led to a fast friendship; Rubin estimates Mill has joined him on 50 separate trips across the country and beyond.

There’s chatter in some circles that the bond between the rich white guy and the ascending rap star is really little more than a branding opportunity, perfect for Rubin’s new celebrity-adjacent public image. But a story Rubin tells about Mill’s case suggests that their connection and his passion for Mill’s cause run deep. “If he wasn’t my boy, I would have never cared,” Rubin says. “I don’t want to seem like some great guy. If Joel said this happened to his friend, I would have written a check. Because it was my close friend, it’s as personal as it gets.” Mill and Rubin had a long-running argument, with the rapper insisting there were two Americas — a black one and a white one — and Rubin saying give me a break, you have a great life, there’s one America.

Mill went to jail in November for violating parole on much-debated gun and drugs convictions from 10 years ago. Rubin was in the courtroom that day, as confident that Mill would be let off as he’s been about any business deal he’s made.

“Michael,” Mill said through the phone from prison hours later, “this is what happens to black people.”

“You’re right, I was wrong,” Rubin said. “I will get you out of this.”

Mill’s incarceration lit a fire under Rubin that his friends say consumed him unlike anything they’ve seen outside his business and his family. Rather than sit idle as the wheels of justice creaked slowly, Rubin took the case to the court of public opinion, launching the Free Meek campaign on billboards and with hashtags with the help of luminaries including Dr. J, Kevin Hart, Allen Iverson and Jay-Z, head of Mill’s record label. (Sources say that between legal fees and other costs, Rubin and Jay-Z split more than $5 million in expenses on Mill’s behalf.) The Inquirer revealed that Ed Rendell personally called Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley to encourage a compromise on Mill’s parole restrictions. Rubin brought Mill’s case to Rendell’s attention, but he says he didn’t ask him to make that call. Still, he apologizes for none of his aggressive tactics, including his attacks on Brinkley. “My whole life, I evaluate people. I evaluated her, and she was psychologically crazy,” he says. “I wasn’t backing down to her or her broken system. I think a year from now, she won’t be a judge. I think she belongs somewhere between unemployed and being in jail.”

Rubin is applying his appetite for risk and long view in business and sports to the cause of criminal justice reform — not just here, but across the country. He’s announced he’s in the process of setting up a foundation to help people like his buddy, folks living in the other America he never knew existed despite his close proximity to athletes who surely knew otherwise. His goal: to bring “business sense” to a broken system, tackling everything from parole and bail reform and offender reentry to mass incarceration that disproportionately impacts minorities. Rubin won’t confirm who’s involved yet, but the coalition he’s building will be backed by deep pockets and A-list power, and Rubin is dedicating more than $10 million of his own money to the cause. Local political rising star Omar Woodard, director of the venture capital GreenLight Fund that Rubin has backed, says Rubin is uniquely positioned to turn what looks like a quixotic crusade into a victory. “This could change the lives of millions of people,” he says. “This is long-standing work. There’s going to be wins and losses. Who knows that better than entrepreneurs? The fact that he’s found a passion with this, I’m thrilled.”

Someone else who believes in Rubin’s world-shaping potential — and impacts his life like few others — is Robert Kraft. When Kraft’s wife died from ovarian cancer in 2011, Rubin could relate — he struggled after losing his father to heart disease. “I was devastated for a year,” Kraft says. “My kids thought I was not long for the world. Two people helped me a lot — a young lady who I still see a lot [38-year-old model/actress Ricki Noel Lander], and developing a relationship with Michael in both a personal and professional space. We’re both a little nuts — in a healthy way.”

Kraft somehow connects all of the dots of Rubin’s story at this moment in time. Both are considered kids at heart: For Kraft’s birthday in June, Rubin posted a photo of Kraft’s head on Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski’s ripped body; Kraft, in a backward Pats cap, posed for a Monte Carlo pic with Rubin and a tray full of hangover remedies. They bonded over grief for the loved ones they missed. They’re also time-shifted mirror images of each other — Rubin a younger version of Kraft, and Kraft a beacon on the far-off horizon, a life well lived with no signs of slowing down (and a hand with five Super Bowl rings).

Kraft was so taken by Rubin’s passion for Mill’s case that after the two men vacationed in Turks and Caicos with their girlfriends, he joined Rubin for a jailhouse visit in Chester. “I wasn’t really into rappers, but my girlfriend liked rap and exposed me to Rick Ross, and we had him perform at one of our after-parties at the Super Bowl,” Kraft says. “I realized that there’s a lot of messaging there that has a lot of depth and speaks to what’s going on in the inner city. … I told Meek, you have to have boundaries and be careful who’s around you. You can’t disappoint these kids who look up to you. He’s really intelligent and a good guy. That conversation really bonded us.” Kraft’s connection to Rubin is on another level: “He’s a very special person. He’s like a brother. He’s helped me be more open-minded about things. He’s very good at selling, but he has empathy.”

Rubin delivers his sales pitch regarding Mill’s future with conviction. He’s certain Mill has seen the last of prison, despite a setback in August as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a motion to remove Brinkley from the case. But when I ask about a nuclear option I heard he’s pursued — asking Governor Tom Wolf, a vocal Mill supporter, to recommend a pardon if Mill loses all appeals — Rubin pauses before speaking: “It’s never going to come to that, in my mind.” That rare hesitation suggests less a lack of confidence than a sign that Rubin’s already thinking ahead to his next moves.

•

Before we land in Foxborough about two hours ahead of the Birds-and-Patriots kickoff, Rubin finds a way to turn a Mill visitation story into Joel Embiid’s humiliation. When Kevin Hart joined Rubin at the state prison, they walked through crowds of inmates as the comedian shook hands and dapped with the starstruck convicts. For Embiid’s visit, they met Mill in a private room and made no contact with the prisoners. Still, says Rubin, “I’ve never seen someone more terrified in my life.”

“I was scared,” says Embiid, who’d never been to a jail before. “I was literally shaking.”

“Just to put this in perspective, Joel literally turned white as a ghost,” Rubin says. “Kevin Hart, who’s all of five-foot-two, was completely comfortable.” Months later, when Embiid learned Mill was about to be a free man, he FaceTimed Rubin as he jumped up and down on his bed: “I thought he was never coming out,” Embiid says.

When the subject changes to the upcoming Sixers season, Embiid flexes his usual confidence. “We definitely have to make it to the finals — that’s the first step,” he says. “Everybody’s getting better. I’ve gotten so much better. Markelle [Fultz], I’ve seen the videos, he’s got his shot back. Everybody looks good. … We felt like we could have beaten Boston, but every game was close. We just couldn’t finish. Next year is going to be even better.”

Rubin agrees but can’t resist another joke at Embiid’s expense: “He’s not going to be soft like he is in the off-season, when he’s in love and can’t focus.”

“I actually think being in love helps you focus,” Embiid says, deadpanning again. “It’s motivating.”

After 90 minutes, the Rubin/Embiid comedy show ends as the pair and their business pals hop off the heli and into a waiting golf cart that whisks them off to say hi to Lurie and hang with Kraft. The billionaire who horses around like a teenager is a bundle of contradictions: genius and dropout, family man and party boy, team owner and posse member. Framed that way, Rubin might seem like a long shot to own a team in the notoriously conservative NFL, and his chances to change America’s criminal justice system might appear even slimmer. But Kopelman’s analysis of Rubin’s bold predictions for his business could well apply to all of his endeavors. “He’s playing the long-term gratification game,” he says. “If you’re asking if I’d bet on Michael Rubin, I would.”

Published as “Michael Rubin Is Playing the Long Game” in the October 2018 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

Source: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/09/29/michael-rubin-meek-mill-joel-embiid-sixers/

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