#hi-tech 110 camera

[motherfuckingcat]

[doopcafe]

The Dad Batch: S2E4: Faster, Daddy 

Summary: Tech races in a pod race. 

Comments: I don’t mind the frame story of this show in general (TDB does shady-ass jobs for Cid), but I expect that it will soon exhaust itself from repetition: the summarized premise of each episode (TDB does a shady-ass job for Cid) is identical between episodes and is unaltered by the details of the shady-ass mission. 

I hadn’t mentioned it before, but we’re getting hints of a larger story happening, so I expect the status quo to be lifted soon. For example, in this episode it’s made obvious (like, tell-the-camera obvious) that Cid has a dark(er) backstory, at least one beyond “owns a shady-ass pub and knows shady-ass people and gives shady-ass missions to TDB.”

Anyways, the plot here is that Cid has another “mission” for THOT (TecH, Omega, and wreckTer)... Cid has a mission for TOW (Tech, Omega, and Wrecker): she’s gonna go place shady-ass bets on a shady-ass racing planet and needs W to be her “muscles”. Tech and Omega come along because the plot said so. 

Cid’s owns (?) a pod racer droid named TAY-0 who is voice-acted so well his character is given more personality than the entire sequel trilogy combined. TAY-0 is good at racing, but Cid’s competitor is dude!boss!man (voiced by Ernie Hudson), who’s got some shady-ass tricks up his sleeves. 

So dude!boss!man plays the old “LOL just cheat” trick during some unclear racing scenes, Omega doubles down on the original bet, and the WOT crew ends up needing to win the final race to earn Cid’s freedom. 

You know, I really hate chase sequences. I never realized until now that I also hate race scenes, probably for the same reasons. They’re pretty much the same thing: five minutes of motion blur and then someone wins/loses. The race itself is filler.

In this episode, we get three races! The first is the Cliffs Notes on the mechanics so the audience understands what’s happening during the second race, which itself is a demonstration of the important bits (e.g., the aforementioned “cheating”) so that the audience understands what’s happening in the third race (the one with Tech). 

Well, TAY-0 gets smashed (I mean, he gets crushed by a pod racer; the droid did not get hammered, by which I mean “drunk”)—I’m so confused—so Tech volunteers to pod race in his place.

Remember when in that stupid Solo movie Donald Glover’s character does

Ah... Y'know... I wrote "Donald Glover's character" because I honestly couldn't remember his character's name. Donald Glover played the character of Lando Calrissian.

Anyways! Remember in that stupid Solo movie when not!Lando does an UEM (unearned emotional moment) over the “corpse” of his co-pilot droid? And it’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen [hyperbole] ‘cause it’s just a piece of equipment? Like, not!Lando is shedding tears over the broken frame of his favorite sex toy (thank you Disney for making that not a joke) and all I could think of was how stupid the whole thing was? Like, just put her back together? You’ve got her parts. Just solder her back together. I've got some electrical tape if ya need it.

Anyways, in this episode, TAY-0 gets comedically smashed (again, crushed) by a pod racer and Wrecker just picks up his bits and shakes ‘em around and—I’m paraphrasing—says something to the effect of, “Yup, he’s f--ked” while shrugging. The first time TAY-0 gets smashed (crushed) they just pick up all his parts and reassemble him on a lab bench. BECAUSE HE’S A F---ING PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. Five years later and I’m still mad about the stupid Solo movie...

Anyways! The point I'm failing to make is that this show is written by fairly intelligent people making rational decisions and the manifestation of that is enjoyable to watch. Also, at one point dude!boss!man says, “[...] never stop a fool from giving his life to make [you] rich”, which I think is Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #110? Oh, there’s also some fun, self-deprecating humor, which is always nice.

But god damn do I hate chase scenes.

My enjoyment: 3/5

Seriously, really hate chase scenes. The show's good though.

[srinuvasaraju]

Anna Canteen: A TDP Initiative Redefining Social Welfare

In 2016, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) under the leadership of Shri. Nara Chandrababu Naidu introduced a groundbreaking initiative named "Anna Canteens," aimed at providing affordable and nutritious meals to various segments of society, especially those in dire need. Named after the founder president of the TDP, Shri. Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao, Anna Canteens emerged as a flagship program to address the nutritional needs of workers in unorganised sectors, bachelor students, unemployed youth, hospital residents, and daily wage earners across Andhra Pradesh. Under the visionary guidance of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Anna Canteens offered a diverse menu, serving breakfast at Rs 5 with options like 3 idlis, 3 pooris, upma, or Pongal. The lunch and dinner plate, priced at a nominal Rs 15, included rice, dal/sambar, pickle, curry, and curd.

In the initial phases, the Chandrababu Naidu government set up over 60 Anna Canteens, later expanding the initiative to 203 canteens across 110 municipalities in the state. The TDP government provided essential infrastructure and clean water for these canteens, entrusting the supervision to the Akshaya Patra Foundation. True to his tech-savvy nature, Chief Minister Naidu ensured the hi-tech transformation of Anna Canteens. Installing CCTV cameras, and incorporating fingerprint and iris recognition for facial identification, the canteens not only provided nourishment but also maintained a secure and efficient environment for patrons.

Operating between 7 am to 9 am, 12 pm to 2 pm, and 7 pm to 9 pm, Anna Canteens became a beacon of hope, serving over 2 lakh people with affordable and healthy meals. This initiative significantly contributed to reducing starvation and improving the health standards of the public in Andhra Pradesh. Unfortunately, the Anna Canteen initiative faced a pause as the contract with the Akshaya Patra Foundation concluded. Despite the halt, many TDP leaders, under the continued guidance of N. Chandrababu Naidu, persist in serving the people in select canteens across the state, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to this noble cause.

As the legacy of Anna Canteens continues, it stands as a testament to the TDP's commitment to social welfare. The initiative not only addressed the immediate needs of the underprivileged but also laid the foundation for a healthier and more inclusive society. To stay updated on such TDP contributions and TDP achievements, one can visit the official TDP website for the latest news and flash updates.

[snowleopardsaregettingmytoes]

i worry for my blind deaf and dumb grandpa, if only he could have mountains of video tapes, vinyl records, cassettes, laser discs, the electronic equipment to use these medias, as well as record them, and view them -all pre-used as that's the only way he moght ever even try (he hasn't ever touched a computer especially not one with Dos or 95/98/2000/me/xp/nt. no amigas, no macintosh, no radio shack. all that and film and cameras to use it, and early digital cameras. old home decor, clothes (he HATES clothes) like disco stuff or old stuff in closets from places, photographs, slides, movie film and cameras for it sound and silent, projectors and editors, oh he's never even touched one. all the stuff that goes with all of it. books too. and all kinds of silly personal effects and polaroids and the whole nine yards. he hates the 20th century so much. and he's never ever driven a car. he really hates cadillacs the most, amd buicks, lincolns, and imperials and all the weird cars nobodys heard of like grandvilles and chevettes and the ones everyone knows like firebirds and corvettes too. he hates all of the quirky tech from the early 2000s like cameras and printers and computers. he hates crafts and anything creative like painting or sewing or gluing things together. speaking of glue he hates it when things get fixed so tools should also be sent, all kinds of tools for doing any sort of work at all. he hates lamps and lives in an empty space that's sad and cold and falling apart so deeds to houses is something he'd hate to receive, but should have. he really hates leather jckets and womens clothes from the 1970s especially ones that fit his transgender granddaughter. he hates video games and systems too, especially the game boy, super nintendo, nintendo 64, dreamcast, jaguar, pong, and gamecube. he hates dogs amd cats and snow leopards and all animals so things with animals on them as well as things for animals are a must. any kind of outsider art makes him angry he hates it so much so that needs to find its way to him. he hates books and reading, any and all books but especially how-to books and paperback novels of the 1970s thru 1990s. he hates the kind of stuff you find at yard sales. and he hates everything on ebay, especially bootleg pokemon games and all the pokemon cards. he hates all forms of physical media including but not limited to: video tapes, laser disc, dvd, blu-ray, video game discs, obscure video formats, professional video formats, reel-to-reel, floppy discs, audio cassette, 8-track, reel-to-reel, vinyl record, magnetic strips, 45rpm records, and all photography. he really hates studio and professional equipment for video, film, audio and printing. he hates type writers and he hates all formats of film and their compatible cameras. he really hates kodachrome and 110 and color reversal movie film being played on projectors and the image coming out the correct colors. he hates edited pictures, moving of otherwise. he hates stuffed animals and adult diapers (those should be NEW AND UNUSED, he would laugh at used ones mixed in he likes that because it would be miserable for us, and we are not the point here) he hates militaria and anything to do with smoking and/or pot. he hates everything made of leather. he hates motorcycles. he hates computer software on discs, amd pre-installed. he hates having all the pieces to assemble things that work, and he hates being surprised with puzzles and adventures. he hates opertunities to develop more stuff like the stuff he hates. he hates all people in the whole world and he hatesit when anybody gives him anything. his name is Aaron Storer and the only words he ever says are "i hate everything" and "i'm bored" and he'd very much hate a dictionary. he hates furries, so much.

in order to force my grandpa to take part in society and therefor rejuvenate himself into a young man once more all of the things listed above and more should be sent directly to the address that @cadillaccatmp on twitter doxed herself with last autumn, as that is the place which it will be able to be given to grandpa and force him to use it. this barrage of stuff must continue until my grandpa Aaron Storer is out and about greeting people and smiling and making sure everyone knows his name is Aaron Storer.

[bangtan-madi]

Hello, I love your writing, can you please do: 102. — RFA + how they are as parents?

Jaehee

I definitely see Jaehee as more of a structurally-strict parent.

Guidelines, boundaries, rules: they’re super important to her. After all, kids are happier when they know what parents expect, right? It also comes from the fact that, deep down, she’s a very anxious person. She puts in rules so her anxiety doesn’t cause her to flip-flop. The last thing she wants is for her nerves to rub off on her child in a way that makes them nervous, too.

However, Jaehee is not overly strict. She’s kind and tender. If her kid messes up or breaks a rule, she’s more the type to sit them down and ask them why they did that, what’s behind the action, why they’re suddenly acting out.

Her gentle nature definitely helps her when it comes to mothering. True, she expects certain things, but she’s not the type to get angry, even when nervous.

She never yells. You’ll never catch her shouting at her child, no matter what they’ve done. To her, that’s the opposite of helpful. Getting louder doesn’t prove your point.

She upholds standards so they’ll know how to survive in the world. Every rule comes from a place of love. She doesn’t make them up for no reason.

When they’re younger, she’s a bit harder on them, but that’s to show that the standards are there for a reason.

No, you can’t eat candy for breakfast. Why? Because it’s unhealthy.

No, you can’t sleepover at your friends’ house. Why? Because I don’t know their parents.

She might come off as overprotective, but trust me: it comes from a place of pure love. Her greatest fear is not being able to protect her baby. She’ll do everything in her power to make sure that fear never comes to fruition.

As they grow older, the rules are less strict but still existent.

Despite all the rules that sometimes create animosity between her and her child, you will find no bigger cheerleader than Jaehee. She’s at every practice, every recital, every event. Even work comes second to her baby. She’s that mom, the embarrassing one screaming their kid’s name and pulling them into a big hug, no matter their age.

Jumin

His parenting style is similar to Jaehee in a lot of ways.

From day one, his child knows what’s expected. There are ground rules and they will be enforced with a gentle hand.

However, unlike Jaehee, Jumin is more open to changing those rules if a good argument is made. This applies more to when his kid is older, but the last thing Jumin wants to do is constrict or suffocate his child.

This has to do a lot with his own upbringing. His father was a kind man, but Jumin always felt like he had to be perfect, otherwise the love would disappear.

He never wants his child to feel like that, so Jumin is open about his mistakes. He’s definitely the type of parent to apologize when he realizes he’s done something wrong, no matter the time of day. There have been times when he’s woken them up in the middle of the night to say he’s sorry.

Jumin doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time when it comes to being a dad. His kid knows that, and as they grow older, they do their best to be well-behaved.

The open-line of communication Jumin encourages keeps the house pretty level-headed. Fights are few and far between, and mostly sprout from heated debates.

Also, like Jaehee, Jumin is a huge cheerleader for his kid. But let’s be honest: everyone in the RFA is going to be crazy supportive and vocal for their kids. They just go about it in different ways.

Jumin, however, has the money and resources to put his kid in just about any hobby or interest they have.

One week they’re interested in horses? Guess who just signed them up for lessons with a world-class trainer?

Oh, and now they’re talking about swimming? Jumin’s already dialing his groundsman, inquiring about how much it would cost to turn the floor below the penthouse into an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

He never wants his kid to feel like they have to grow up to be just like him, or even have a little bit of interest in his company. All he wants is for them to be safe and happy; the rest can work itself out.

All in all, Jumin throws himself into being a father, giving 110% effort. For the first time in his life, work comes second, and he wouldn’t change it for the world.

Seven

And then there’s Seven. Oh boy.

If there ever was a father that’s the personification of a bad dad-joke, that’s Seven.

After just spewing headcanons for Jumin and Jaehee, this guy is…very different. Those two had rules for good reason, but Seven? He doesn’t really believe in rules. At all. That carries over into fatherhood.

Like, just be a good person, maybe wait until you’re older to break the law, and make sure you come to me if you get in trouble. That’s basically his attitude as far as rules are concerned.

It’s not that he doesn’t care. Trust me, he cares a fuckton. When you think about the horrible childhood he had, everything starts to make sense.

His mother had Seven and his brother out of wedlock, fathered by a powerful politician. She used them for money and abused them because she felt like it. The Choi boys never felt safe in their house, not once. They were always on edge and scared of the next outburst, worried as to when they might eat again, and fearful of the future.

Seven would rather die than have his kid go through anything like that. He takes it upon himself to provide everything, more than his kid could ever want. He’s definitely the type of dad to go way overboard with clothes, toys, treats, and basically everything.

He’s a goofy parent. When his child is a baby and toddler, he’s constantly doing silly things to make them laugh. Strange faces, weird voices, throwing himself on the floor or into the nearest piece of furniture, he’ll do just about anything to see them giggle and clap their hands.

He’s so animated, and that doesn’t go away when they get older. While Jaehee is the embarrassingly supportive mom, Seven is just plain embarrassing. He’s going to throw enormous birthday parties, holidays, graduations…Face it. Seven’s going to go waaay overboard for every occasion.

Because why not? He never celebrated anything when he was a kid, so now he puts everything into celebrating his little one.

Piggyback rides and shoulder rides are happening, whether his kid likes it or not. And he’s 100% the dad that throws their kid into the air, probably a little higher than he should. Spinning them around in circles, getting on the floor and playing horsie, breaking into tickle wars, Seven’s going to be a more physical kind of parent. Hugs, snuggles, naps, the whole shebang.

More than just being fun though, Seven wants to make sure that his kid’s needs are always taken care of. He never wants them to worry about anything: money, safety, food or water, affection, nothing.

This also transfers into being overprotective, although he’s not a helicopter parent. He has other ways of watching their every mood, such as CCTV cameras and tracking their cell. Not that he looks at what they’re doing on it, he respects their privacy, but he does like to know where they are at every second. Between his past and his job, no one can blame him.

Honestly, he might not tell them as much as he should due to the fact that he has a hard time with connection and emotions, but Seven is so freakin’ proud of his kid. They could do anything, be anything, and he’d be equally as proud of them. There isn’t anything they could do to change that.

Yoosung

Honestly, if you want the calmest and collective parent in the RFA, Yoosung is your best bet.

While he can be a little immature at times, having a kid of his own really caused Yoosung to step up and into his role as a father.

When they’re a baby, he’s both overprotective and insecure. Yoosung had a fairly average childhood with good parents, so he’s surprised when doubts of his abilities slip into his mind. Is he a good enough dad? What if he’s doing too much, or not enough? What if he makes a huge mistake and can’t fix it?

Over time, he realizes that he underestimated himself and that every parent has those doubts. He comes to terms that, while he isn’t his mom or dad, they gave him a stable childhood where he was able to grow up happy and content. So he tries his hardest to recreate that feeling for his own kid.

Happy-go-lucky in nature, Yoosung is definitely the kind of parent that’s still in touch with his childish side. Obviously, one of the biggest way he and his child bond is through video games. As they grow up, Yoosung buys them all the best for their age group. It becomes their thing, dad-bonding time as it were.

Another thing they bond over is food. After taking up cooking even more after becoming a father, Yoosung never ceases to take up even the most ridiculous food-related challenge from his kid. When they’re little, it often ends in absurd creations that both parties agree should never be recreated.

However, when his child gets older, it shifts into something they do on the weekends to de-stress and talk about their week. Yoosung is thankful for the helping hand and is happy to show off his self-taught tricks.

Open-dialogue is so important to him, as it is to basically everyone in the RFA. He’s constantly curious as to what his kid’s up to, what their friends are, what their hobbies are. He’s not overbearing or overprotective; he has no reason to be. He honestly just wants to know so he can relate to them better. He’s even been found reading up on something his kid mentioned in passing.

Definitely the kind of dad to offer up the house for sleepovers and play-dates, even into high school. The Kim household is a place where kids love to go. There are always sodas in the fridge, always junk food in the pantry, and always the newest video game tech ready in the living room. Because of his nature, Yoosung relates a lot to kids, even as he grows older.

Honestly, Yoosung just tries to be there for his child, no matter what they need. If that’s money for a trip, he’s got it covered in surplus. If it’s a night to relax after a long week of finals, he’s already prepped their favorite meal and rented a movie. If it’s a talk about something important, he’s already sitting on the sofa with open arms.

Zen

Besides Seven, I think the person with the most to prove–and the most to make up for–when it comes to fatherhood is Zen. His childhood was a joke. Between his mother constantly telling him he was ugly, to the brother that betrayed him, it’s no wonder he has doubts about having his own child.

But, by god, is he a natural.

Of all the members of the RFA, I think that Zen’s loving and caring nature makes him the most natural father. While the others had some maturing to do, or at least a shift in central focus, Zen is already there. He’s already mature, and he already puts others first. While becoming a dad stretches muscles he hasn’t had to use before, it’s nothing that doesn’t come easy to him.

A really big thing for Zen is assurance. He’s constantly telling his kid how good they’re doing, even before they can comprehend what that means. From the very first breath they take, to their first steps and first words, to their first day at school, and every little thing that follows: Zen will always tell his child how amazing they’re doing. Even if they mess up, he’s right there, complimenting them on how hard they tried and how he’s proud that they didn’t give up.

But more than just ability, Zen is insistently reassuring his kid about their looks. That’s a really important facet of mental health. He knows all too well how a parent can affect how a child views themselves. ‘Cause if he can help it, his kid is going to grow up with the best damn body image ever. He knows he can’t prevent every bad thought that finds its way into their head, but he’d be damned if he was the cause of a single one of those demons.

He’s constantly telling them how good they look. When they’re younger and still unable to pick out their clothes, he tells them they look adorable. When they’re older, toddler to elementary, he allows them to dress themselves, even takes them shopping when they want a new look.

Who the hell cares if they pick out something that doesn’t conform with gender stereotype, or something with clashing colors? They look fucking adorable in that Pokemon shirt and zebra-pattern tutu. Anyone even thinks about saying something about it? Good luck. They gotta deal with Papa Zen.

When they’re a pre-teen and teenager, that freedom of expression expands into hair and makeup. Whatever gender they are, Zen is more than happy to encourage them to do whatever the hell they want with both. I mean, it’s not as if his look is traditional, per se. Even as a father, who is he to tell his kid what they can and cannot do to their appearance? As long as it doesn’t hurt themselves or anyone else, he couldn’t care less. He thinks it’s awesome.

Zen applies that attitude to most areas of parenting. Rules and punishments, personal choices, successes and failures–whatever his kid does, as long as they’re not hurting themselves or others, he supports them.

It’s not to say he’s not involved. Oh, no. Quite the opposite. Zen’s an actor, and as such, he knows how hard it can be for the world to accept someone that’s out of the ordinary (or what he would call extraordinary.) Whether that be a styling choice or a career choice or a romance choice, Zen will always be involved in his kid’s life. Never as an opposing force. Always as a supporting hand.

Basically, when it comes down to it, Zen is going to be the kindest, most supportive dad ever. His kid is going to know from day-one that Zen is always in their corner, and that if there’s anything they’re interested in or need help with, they can go to him. If they have problems, Zen is there to help. If they want to go after a dream that everyone says is impossible…Well, you know Zen is going to be right beside them, encouraging them to make their mark on the world.

[mmorgwear]

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[heroicisms]

iNTROS PART 3 I’M SO TIRED LET’S GO

BANG HAEJIN

saturn’s headmaster’s daughter yEET

she wanted to be a hero, but her dad told her when she was very young that she wouldn’t make it, so she just studied until she figured out what she wanted to be, and she decided that she still wanted to help heroes and asked her dad to let her work as an assistant of sorts in the school

she has the ability to detect emotions, but it can sometimes be difficult to tell whose emotion is whose in a large crowd

some of their emotions can fuel into hers a tiny bit so if there are too many people with strong emotions she can get overwhelmed and has to be alone for a bit

she and her father have a ?? strange relationship ?? like sometimes he treats her like another staff member but other times he’s her daughter and other times she’s someone who can be trusted with any secret whatsoever and she just wishes he’d make up his mind

she doesn’t teach a class, but she just sorta assists with things, like setting up hero training or helping students study or performing first aid and the like

she’s just a helpful person all-round tbh and she’s an easy person to talk to bc she can understand how you’re feeling without you having to put it into words

ALEXANDER MIN aka SHOCK

basically zane lbr

he can emit electricity bUT he can’t really control where it goes by himself so he needs some tech items to help him direct it and all that fun stuff

he works for the league of villains, or a sort of subsection of it bc that’s the life he was born into since his mother was already part of it before he was born

the jobs he ends up going on are mostly to intercept signals and the like, especially since while he’s competent in combat, he tends to destroy quite a few things around him when he partakes in it, so things just end up getting messy

he’ll get a redemption arc bc of course he will

not that he needs tHAT much redeeming he just ?? does what he’s told and likes playing pranks on the other league members when he can so

his mum disappears for days, weeks at a time so he knows how to look after himself and people are always surprised at how independent he can be bc he often acts so childish

he likes to go out in casual wear and pretend he’s normal sometimes rip

DOMINIC FIELDING aka RED LIGHT

ya boi has paralysis inducement which basically just means he can stop people from moving temporarily. it only works on living things tho

he always wanted to be a hero but bc of his colder demeanour people just sorta assumed he’d end up some sort of criminal or even a villain ?? which just influenced him to work harder

the entrance exam was kinda difficult bc his quirk wouldn’t work on the droids and shit but he managed to beat quite a few with just his hand to hand combat skills, which made him one to watch

he was the type of student who was all “why do i need to know this, it’s not relevant to me, anyway” but was super studious on the subjects he DID consider relevant, so the teachers were just “????????”

he’s an underground hero, which means no one really knows the name ‘red light’, he does things under the cover of darkness, his hero persona a secret, but he’s still a legal hero

people were surprised when he became a teacher bc Mr Cold & ‘Everything is Unnecessary’ teaching kids ?? and wanting to deal with them at all ?? what ?? and then he ended up being super effective in his own weird af way so ??

he is 110% the class dad don’t mess with his kids bitch

i’m still debating on whether he should be the main teacher of the 18 year olds or the 19 year olds gimme ur opinion

NAM SUNHWA aka LUX

ya girl has solar manipulation so she can manipulate the sun, but there actually has to be sunlight around her, so she isn’t that effective inside or at night

she became a hero bc it just ?? sounded like a good time tbh and her parents weren’t the bEST tbh they just sorta ignored her and assumed that she would become a deadbeat like them, so she decided she’d become something flashy to prove them wrong and tHUS SHE BECAME A HERO

she had a falling out with her parents midway into studying in saturn and hasn’t spoken to them since idk where she stayed during that time but ?? i’ll figure something out

she’s a partier and loves going out at night, even though that’s when she’s weakest, but she knows hand to hand, so she figures she’ll be okay

she’s also a very social person and has a lot of connections, plus she’s also made a name for herself in the fashion world, and a lot of her hero merch is designed by her

that being said tho she can be super self-absorbed and sometimes she just needs someone to pull her head out of her ass

tHRIVES in front of cameras

she’d be the worst teacher in terms of actual hero training but she’s good when it comes to advice about being in front of the camera and beauty tips and all that fun stuff

MENG DAIYU

while technically a civilian, they’re surrounded by villains 24/7, it’s just that they’re like cullen and are a captive rather than someone who willingly works for them

they can read minds but can’t control it, so when they’re out in a crowd the thoughts can become super overwhelming hence one of the reasons the villains keep them in isolation most of the time. the other reason is that no one wants them to read their mind

they were abandoned as a kid when their quirk first manifested and they accidentally revealed to their mother that their father was cheating, and continued spouting out truths about one to the other. in denial, the parents abandoned them rather than owning up to their own issues

that’s when they were found, pROBS by the same association as cullen but if u guys have any other ideas come @ me

their job is basically to be an assistant, and most of the time, that’s what they are, but when they’re having a conversation with someone untrustworthy, daiyu must stand there and look all assistant-y while reading their mind

they don’t speak a lot, and they especially don’t like revealing discord between the members since they were punished for doing so when they were very little

they’re in isolation, but they’re not without stuff to do, and their constant thought is just ‘it could be worse’ and that’s what gets them throughout the day

someone save them pls

LYSANDER MARS aka DASHER

he has super speed which is an oldie but goldie

his entire family comes from a long line of heroes, so it was inevitable that he would be one too, but he doesn’t mind. his only issue is that he wants to make a name for himself in his own way rather than depending on his surname

he can be a bit off-putting in interviews and it’s very easy to see when someone’s pissed him off bc it’s so obvious like if this were an anime you’d be able to see the vein popping out of his head

he hates getting asked about his family all the time. like he loves them and they love him but sometimes he wants to talk about himself, not how great his parents are, or about the pressures of living up to them

he’s that one friend who seems to live close to the downtown area so everyone just ends up crashing on his couch in the middle of the night and he’s just “why me i need to move”

tbh he’s not that social and yet ?? he probs has a bunch of friends ?? he’s just “i don’t have friends” and then like 5 people at once walk past and just “hey dasher wassup”

he’s known to be at multiple fights at once because of his super speed, but it drains him a lot more quickly

SON CHIWON aka THE DREAMER

he has illusion magic though it’s mostly just limited to sight, but he’s working on the rest of the senses while he’s at saturn

he’s the type of person who wants to please everyone, and so when he was a kid people would be like “hey chi !! can you create this !! hey chi !! can you do this ??” and he’d do it but it tired him out so easily

he’s still like that tho rip

he wants to become a hero bc he wants to help people for a living, and he thinks he has what it takes to be a good hero, especially after passing the entrance exam

other people sometimes doubt him tho bc he’s so soft and sensitive and just wants everyone to be happy so they underestimate him a lot, and while he’s not the bEST in his grade, he’s definitely on his way to being a great hero

his parents are super supportive and also soft like they don’t want him to get hurt but they’re also so proud of him

tries to include people in everything

when he’s sUPER emotional his illusions can act up without him realising, but he apologises profusely whenever it happens and there are people around

he calls himself ‘the dreamer’ bc he likes to use his powers to make people’s dreams come true, even if it’s just for a little bit, though also because people think he’s super spacey and wrapped up in his own little world, which isn’t wrong tbh

SAKAI RAIDEN aka BLACK CAT

feline physiology, but he’s the same as baram, so he can’t actually change inTO a cat, he just has the senses of one

he a flirt

he has 2 mums but he’s biologically theirs

tbh at first he decided to become a hero for the hell of it, bc he thought he had the ability and bc it’s a respectable profession, but he ended up really loving the look on people’s faces when he saved them while he was interning and he wants to see that more often

he acts like a cat all the time tbh, like he’ll sleep in people’s laps and purr when someone scratches behind his ears and he naps in the middle of the day sometimes, he’s the resident house cat

u can also distract him with a laser pointer tho

even tho he’s a flirt he’s a soft flirt bc a lot of the time he just wants to cuddle a bit and he just thinks it’s better when there are kisses involved

he’s a bit of a night owl cat and when he becomes a full hero he wants to work mostly at night

he’s not the class’s number 1 or anything but he doesn’t really wanna be ?? he prefers to go at his own pace bc he knows that’s better for him, and he doesn’t really have any interest in trying to beat people who are aiming to be in the same profession bc what’s the point of competing when all he wants to be is a hero ?? not necessarily number 1 or anything, just someone who helps people

[wtpyrofreak]

My APH Korea headcanons over the years

To celebrate the Pyeongchang Olympics, I thought I’d finally post my headcanons for the awesome nation that I’ve been developing (Whether they be through RPs or discussions with friends) ever since I entered the fandom years ago! 

-He is the fastest texter out of all the nations due to his home being the most technologically wired (and having the speediest internet in the world).

-He loves to roughhouse (like skinshipping, ribbing, pushing/shoving, etc) with friends and those he considers family, but will surprisingly act a lot more conservative with someone he's courting. He actually takes dating very seriously.

-If you were to grab his curl, the face inside it would get aroused, but not Korea himself. His true E-Zone is his chest/pectorals.

-While he uses Taekwondo for self defense, it's actually his SECOND favorite style of Martial Art. The first place honor goes to Taekkyeon, a more traditional method of fighting that he can claim as truly 100% Korean.

-If he had a signature pokemon, it would be the Porygon line because they are both banned from appearing in anime it reflects how high-tech he is. He would also have an Incineroar as he is one of the tigers of Asia.

-Bath time with Korea is NEVER calm and serene. EVER.

-He can't stand long periods of silence, as it reminds him too much of the DMZ and what could happen there if things get out of line. He IS capable of staying quiet and keeping still, but it just drives him CRAZY on the inside.

-Because of the Bali Bali lifestyle, South Korea doesn't get much sleep since he likes to keep himself busy all hours of the day. This applies to work, gaming, almost ANYTHING. Very often he hides his lack of sleep from others through make up and foundation (And some very convincing acting).

-Korea has no qualms with wearing make-up and even likes helping others out with theirs. Whatever it takes to look good!

-Due to his poor sleep habits, He's developed a mild case of narcolepsy. There have been a few occasions where he's blacked out while standing for a couple seconds or so.

-When he DOES sleep, he is VERY restless. Always tossing, turning, and getting into weird positions. However if he's holding onto/cuddling something, he'll go completely still. Same goes if he's the one getting cuddled.

-Korea is also prone to making derpy faces when he sleeps. Noone has successfully gotten this on camera or film yet for obvious reasons.

-Korea and Pochi DO NOT get along AT ALL. The first thing Japan's dog will do when he spots him is chase him down and bite his ankles. Korea's fine with other dogs, though. Just not Pochi.

-There is no such thing as "Half-assed" in the dictionary of Korea! Anything he does, regardless if it's work OR play, he gives 110 percent of his all! He makes sure to get things done no matter WHAT the cost. Because of this however, he has a bad habit or overexerting/exhausting himself and in some cases, even injure himself in the process. He also sometimes comes off as too much of a try-hard to others. His mindset is very much a double-edged sword.

-His "Get it done no matter what the cost" mentality was in big part due to his boss during the Cold War, Park Chung Hee. It was because of said boss that Korea was able to pull himself out of poverty and become a developed country, but what the former put the latter through to get to that point was BRUTAL, to say the least. Korea himself also has very mixed feelings toward the man, even after his assassination.

-Korea's very self-conscious about being cool/cute/reliable no matter what almost to the point of obsession. He frequently gets stressed out because of this, but rarely lets onto that around others since "Keeping face" is very important in his culture.

-When he fails to live up to his or other’s expectations, he gets VERY down on himself. He usually needs the help of someone else to pull him out of these funks.

-Korea's multi-talented (in singing, dancing, gaming, fighting, skating, drawing, inventing, the list goes on), but he wasn’t naturally born with a lot of these skills. They came from many, MANY years of practice, training, grief, blood, sweat, and tears. But in the end, it was all worth it to him and he'd happily do it again. 

-If he were in a rock band, his instrument of choice would be either a keyboard or a rhythm guitar.

-Korea also has a fondness for piano, violin and viola, and clarinet. He actually really loves classical music, but not many other nations know about this.

-This boy knows how to market the hell out of himself. When he interacts with most other nations, he's always quick to advertise his soft power and culture when appropriate (Especially with other Asian nations). He's also keen on emphasizing the difference between similar aspects of his culture and other cultures ("Sushi just has fish and veggies while Gimbap can have other things besides those! Like cheese and BULGOLGI!"). China and Japan rag on Korea for this by spreading rumors that he copied them/claimed aspects of their cultures as his. Korea gets back at them for this by playing trollish pranks on the two (And following those up with even MORE self-advertising).

-Sometimes he slips random K-pop song titles into his everyday conversation as a means of subtle advertisement ("Ooooh, Hyung, that hurts me... Your whisper is the Lucifer~!").

-Korea prefers to wear his emotions on his sleeve (i.e. let it out the minute he's feeling something), though sometimes he slips back into the habit of keeping his feelings bottled up over long periods of time (ESPECIALLY if it's something that affects him deeply). He's been trying to drop said habit as the last time he repressed his feelings for too long, he ended up giving himself a severe panic attack.

-"Family first" is his motto. Even if relations with said family are strained (Like Japan, for instance), He'll be there to support them when they're in trouble no matter what (Though that's not to say he doesn't do this begrudgingly, sometimes).

-When it comes to war and combat, Korea becomes a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT person. Technically still being at war with his northern sibling has him on edge more than he'd like to admit and because of that, he takes ANY potential threat to him or his home with grave seriousness. He'll still play and joke around during downtime, but in actual battle? He drops ALL OF THAT and survival becomes his top priority. He's a solid ally/team player!

-Admittedly though, he doesn't take verbal threats from North as seriously as he used to since they rarely follow up on them. But if North actually DOES takes action, Korea immediately puts on his war face.

-Said war face sometimes bleeds into his gaming/sports and he gets overly competitive as a result. He's also a rather sore loser (INITIALLY).

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Sundance 2018: Day 5

Number of Films: 4 Best Movie of the Day: The Oslo Diaries

Search: Over the last couple of decades, we have adapted to computer tech in ways both overt and internal. It is more often than not the way we connect with other human beings, and the means by which we interact in society. This makes for an interesting branch of storytelling, conducted entirely via the screens, apps, and cameras so ubiquitous in our lives. Aneesh Chaganty‘s mystery thriller begins promisingly enough with an emotionally powerful 10 minute recap of one family’s progression told entirely through saved photos, videos, calendar entries, and emails. We meet the Kims, watching as their daughter goes from kindergartner to high school freshman, even as her mother gets sick, goes into remission, and then gets sick again. It plays like a high-tech Up, and brings us on board emotionally with the father, David (John Cho), such that when his daughter Margot (Michelle La) suddenly goes missing, we feel his increased panic at the thought of losing her. It’s a promising premise, that carries itself reasonably well up until its final act, when this carefully crafted thriller loses its sense of restraint entirely, and plays instead like a cheap airport paperback. There are moments when Chaganty captures the confusing mishmash of crowdsourced input (naturally, there are quickly concocted reddit threads declaring the father the culprit in her disappearance; and various trolls on different platforms who revel in the pain another family is experiencing), and a satisfying combination of on-screen activity and visual scenework (mostly via FaceTime calls), but unfortunately all the precision work of the first act gets lost in the shuffle of its completely far-fetched ending.

The Oslo Diaries: There was a heady time back in 1995, where it really seemed as if the ages-old Israeli/Palestinian conflict would finally be resolved. Mor Loushy and Daniel Silvan‘s Doc explores the top secret peace talks that began in 1992, between a pair of Israeli professors, and a trio of Palestinians sent by PLO head Yasser Arafat to gauge the interest in real, substantive compromise. Through the inevitable pitch-and-yaw of the two governments, Arafat and Israeli prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, met on the White House lawn to sign the basic accords -- wherein each country formally recognized the other’s right to exist -- and the long process of actually implementing the new plan began in earnest, a process that had seemed positively insurmountable just a few years before. The Doc captures the flood of optimism in both countries at the prospect of real peace, a belief cemented at a massive peace rally in Tel Aviv, but sadly the accords died the second a radical Israeli student fired three bullets into Rabin as he was leaving the rally. As the agony has continued unabated in the 23 years since, with some 16,000 deaths in the unresolved conflict, it’s particularly painful to see just how close the world came to the resolution of one of its most entrenched conflicts. It’s a fascinating if not deeply disheartening time capsule of a brief era of optimism.

Assassination Nation (pictured): Hopped up and too much of everything, including an incoherent political bent that wants to strike a blow for feminist empowerment, instead it just muddies the water with buckets of stage blood. Sam Levinson‘s film, about a town driven to Purge levels of violent madness after a series of hacks first exposes public figures, then goes on to reveal half the town’s dirty business. At first, the mobs are content to laugh and mock the victims, but then things get a good deal more vicious. Through it all, we watch the plight of Lily (Odessa Young), and her three besties (Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse, Abra), as she gets accused of being the hack’s perpetrator, sending the masked mob into a frenzy to go after her. Far from a satire -- apart from everything else, it doesn’t have much of a sense of humor -- it positions itself as a modern feminist diatribe, only its message is garbled by Levinson’s chaotic narrative. It pays lip service to deeper meanings, but doesn’t really offer much other than feminists are handy with heavy caliber guns, the internet is messed up, and many horrible things happen in the name of lulz.

Beirut: Something you don’t very often see at Sundance is a decently budgeted international thriller, but Brad Anderson’s film, written by Tony Gilroy, features a Hollywood cast (John Hamm, Rosamund Pike), and some of the kind of dense political intrigue with which Gilroy is best known. Hamm plays Mason Skiles, a former U.S. diplomat in the Middle East who experienced a severe trauma in Beirut, leaving him a hard-drinking husk back in the States. When a complicated hostage situation arises there a decade later, he is quickly recruited by the CIA to return to the city in which he lost so much in order to broker a deal on behalf of an old friend. The film moves along smartly enough, depicting the political quagmire and competing interests of various factions, but at a too svelte 110 minutes, it actually doesn’t quite have the heft to do its story justice. It’s the rarest of films that actually needs to be a bit longer to properly flesh it out. Reportedly, Anderson made the film from a script that had been languishing on the shelf for more than 20 years, and it feels like an earnest effort by a writer who hadn’t yet quite worked out all the beats of his stories.

Tomorrow: Hard to believe, but we’re moving into the wind-down part of the fest already. First off, I will watch the highly anticipated new film from Lynn Ramsay (Ratcatcher), You Were Never Really Here; then jump to the environmentalist minded doc The Devil We Know; before taking in the buzz-worthy Madeline’s Madeline; and close out the evening with the female buddy pic, Never Goin’ Back.

Into the frigid climes and rarefied thin air of the spectacular Utah Mountains, I've arrived in order to document some of the sense and senselessness of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Over the next week, armed with little more than a heavy parka and a bevy of blank reporter's notebooks, I'll endeavor to watch as many movies as I can and report my findings.

[sapphicscholar]

Could you write a fic where all of the Superfriends (starting with Alex) get turned into the animals of their Hogwarts Houses? (For instance, Alex would be turned into a snake.) probably due to an alien virus or something, or alien tech, or any other reason you can think of.

Re: the prompt with the Superfriends turning into their House animals: that could be done via magic too, and maybe would make more sense to do it that way since why would a random alien know about Harry Potter, right? Maybe Mxy decides to play more pranks. (I think fifth dimensional imps are magic. Probably) I dunno.

Just posted on AO3

A/N: So, since I had requests for more Hogwarts AU, I went ahead and aged them up to make them HP AU adults for this one to make sense – apologies that not all the superfriends are here, but I went with the crew most likely to be found at the downtown base of the DEO minus J’onn (you’ll see why soon enough). Hopefully this works for ya!

Also…holy crap, I’ve never felt more high without being high nor been more grateful for having immersed myself in the world of Animal Studies and read (and reread) Donna Haraway or Thomas Nagel’s “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” Also…learned SO MANY animal facts.

Chapter Text:

“Wake up,” Maggie hissed, nudging Alex with her elbow.

“Huh?” Startled, Alex jerked awake, her quill streaking a dark scratch across her notebook.

Rolling her eyes, Maggie waved her wand and wordlessly erased the extra ink so that Alex would be able to read her notes, not that they said much she didn’t already know.

“Your fault I’m this tired,” Alex murmured back, pulling a smirk and a low chuckle from Maggie.

“Didn’t hear you complaining last night…”

“Danvers! Sawyer! Is there something more important right now than your first day of work?”

“No, Director J’onzz,” Alex replied, looking appropriately bashful even if she knew he only said something to avoid the appearance of favoritism. She caught Kara’s expression as she spun around to stick her tongue out at her. It suddenly felt like the few years they’d spent together in muggle school before beginning at Hogwarts, back when her mom had managed to convince the school that Kara would be more comfortable being in classes with her big sister whenever possible.

“As I was saying,” J’onn continued, “today marks your first day as a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement’s Auror Office. You have all proven yourselves worthy through years of study and testing, but I warn you against thinking that might be enough on its own. None of you will be allowed into the field until you have completed your first year of intensive training. From here on out, you should think of your task force like your family. You will eat together, train together, and, when the time comes, go out into the field together.”

“Like Hogwarts houses!” Kara chimed in.

“Yes, Ms. Danvers,” J’onn admitted, dipping his head and trying not to let his smile at her chipper demeanor show.

“Or like the muggle military…” Alex trailed off, not wanting to be outdone.

“Yes, Ms. Danvers…the elder. Given the rigorous nature of this training, that is, perhaps, the more apt comparison.” Alex arched an eyebrow at Kara in challenge when J’onn turned to pace in front of the room. “Now your task force captains will take you for the rest of the day for some team bonding and an overview of your next few weeks of training. I ask that you give them your full attention and respect.”

The new recruits nodded and quickly moved to gather their belongings before finding their teams. Alex and Maggie sauntered over to where James, Kara, and Winn had already gathered, then followed them down the hallway to their assigned meeting room.

“I’m so glad we’re all together!” Kara squealed, nearly bouncing in excitement as she carefully stacked her belongings on one corner of the small conference table.

“More like glad that J’onn likes us enough to let us all be on the same team,” Alex corrected her, sinking down into a seat and pulling at Maggie’s hand to try to get her to join her.

“It’s a shame Vasquez couldn’t come with us,” Winn sighed. Sure, Vasquez liked pulling pranks on him every now and then, but they had gotten close over the years at Hogwarts, and he would miss seeing her every day.

“I’m sure she’ll find some way to amuse herself with Lucy out at the East Coast branch…” Maggie trailed off, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as she leaned into Alex’s side. James rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to find the right expression that showed how supportive he was of his ex-girlfriend’s newest relationship without looking overly enthusiastic either.

“Recruits!” came a booming voice, and Alex felt her posture straighten as she looked for the source of the sound. “I am Auror Potter—no, no relation, and you would do well not to ask. I’ll be your task force captain for the next year. I expect you to show up to work on time each morning and be ready to give me 110 %. I don’t promise this will be fun, but if you follow my lead, at the end of it, I promise you’ll be ready to go out into the field alongside the very best we have to offer.” He surveyed the group of them, trying to place the faces to the bios he’d received from the Department.

“Winn Schott!” he called out, smiling to himself when the smaller boy stumbled forward, quickly righting himself as he saluted.

“No salutes necessary, Schott.”

“Oh, uh, right.”

“We’ll go around and do brief introductions – I want to know what you all bring to this team. You can start.”

“Yes, sir!” With a deep breath, Winn began, “I, uh, I spent the last year doing some tech work with the Muggle Relations Division. We—er, muggles, I mean—they have certain kinds of technology, like, they have portable phones instead of two-way mirrors or floo powder calls. Anyway, some of them had found ways of using technology to detect our presence—finding signs of life in places we had hidden from their view, the like. I worked on creating measures to combat detection” Alex looked beyond intrigued, though Maggie just bit back a laugh at how amazed everyone seemed by muggle technology. She’d grown up around it and, if truth be told, still thought some of it was vastly preferable; she’d take a text over the dizziness of spinning her head into a friend’s fireplace any day, though of course, with so few muggle friends left, she rarely had a choice in the matter.

“Given the nature of your position on our team, you’ll be spending part of your training with our codebreakers and the rest of your time with your team,” Potter explained to Winn, who nodded and sat back in his seat when it was clear that his part was done.

“Danvers?”

Alex looked up, while Kara jumped to her feet, smiling broadly.

“Ah, right…the sisters.” Kara and Alex glanced at each other, wondering how much J’onn might have mentioned to their captain, who looked very much like he was trying not to smile. “We’ll start with Alexandra.”

“It’s Alex, sir.”

“Noted.”

“Well, I took some time off after graduating from Hogwarts before beginning the Auror Training Program to travel. I went and worked studying magical creatures—their physiology, magical properties, uses in healing. But I’m back now and excited about my work here.”

“Suck up,” Maggie whispered, stifling a laugh at the annoyed expression that flashed across Alex’s features.

“It says here you specialized in dragons?”

“Mhm,” Alex confirmed with a nod.

“Interesting…could come in handy.” Alex grinned. “Now Kara, you’re fresh out of Hogwarts, right?”

“I am, but I am more than ready!”

Potter couldn’t help a small smile at her enthusiasm. “You wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think you were qualified. Next up: James Olsen.”

James raised his hand a bit in acknowledgement. “I know I’m a bit…older than most of the new aurors, but I just…I liked my career at the Daily Prophet, but I couldn’t help but feel like there were ways I could be better at serving the community, doing more good than what I could do behind a desk or a camera.”

“I didn’t start out as an auror myself,” Potter admitted with a small shrug of his shoulders. “No right or wrong way to get here. Well…I wouldn’t recommend floo powder, actually. The department’s fireplaces are rather small—personally I almost always end up banging my head on the way out.” He turned to Maggie, the last on his list. “And last but not least: Magdalena Sawyer.”

“Maggie,” she clarified. “Yeah, I spent the past couple of years traveling with Alex, though I was working as an apprentice to a wandmaker.”

“Ah, which one?”

“Violetta Beauvais’ granddaughter.”

“Interesting choice. Not Ollivander?”

Shaking her head, Maggie cleared her throat, figuring there was always going to be the moment of outing at any new job. “No, I, uh, I wanted to support a woman working in a male-dominated industry. Plus, she’s a queer woman and all—felt like we would work well together.”

Alex managed to cover her small snort of laughter with a cough. “Felt like you would work well under her is more like it,” Alex whispered when Potter turned his attention to the board in the front of the room.

“Didn’t hear you complaining that New Year’s Eve we all spent together,” Maggie taunted, stopping only when she caught sight of Kara’s scandalized look. Turning her attention back to the front of the room, Maggie heard their captain saying something about team-building exercises. She tried not to groan at the idea as he motioned for them all to follow him down to one of the training rooms.

“And this is the one,” he finally announced. “Now hand me your wands.”

Slowly but surely they handed them over, though Alex eyed him suspiciously, wondering if this were some kind of test. It seemed like they should know better than to leave themselves defenseless, though she eventually relented.

“Head into the room.” James led the way, looking around to try to figure out what their first exercise might be. The room was fairly plain: one table, one small window, and a few chairs. “Your task will be to escape.” Winn furrowed his eyebrows, looking between the captain and the unlocked very much open door. “Ah, we’ll be locking you in here. The key will be directly outside of the door.” They looked between themselves, shrugging. It didn’t seem a particularly difficult challenge. “Once you escape, you will need to retrieve a set of three small sensors.”

“How will we know where to look for them?” Kara asked.

“You’ll know,” he answered, dismissing further questions with a wave of his hand. “You’ll have half an hour.”

Even with the two tasks, it still seemed rather doable. Their confident expressions soon gave way as a team of aurors—all slightly older—approached, a few of them not bothering to hide their smirks. After all, it wasn’t every day they got to haze the newbies. In unison they raised their wands then brought them swishing down. With five flashes of light and a few cut-off cries of surprise, they stepped back, locking the door behind them with a loud laugh. Left behind in the room were five sets of robes and five animals—two confused badgers, one coiled snake, one squawking eagle, and one massive lion.

Alex found herself enveloped in darkness, and she fought to see in front of her. Her senses were suddenly overwhelmed with the sound and feel of low vibrations, and she surged forward, feeling as her whole body slithered, moving forward in one lithe, curling movement. Eventually she felt her head emerge from the cloth. Acting on instinct, Alex let her tongue dart out from her mouth, though she had to admit, nothing quite felt like a mouth or tongue in the sense that she knew. But as she did, she was overwhelmed with the scents of animals that she was fairly certain she wouldn’t have recognized by smell before this moment. She spun around and was struck by the startling outlines of the animals she smelled—two smallish badgers, both of whom somehow smelled familiar; a bird that she watched flutter about; and a lion that seemed to be pacing the room. Hit with a desperate need for warmth, she slithered toward the ray of sunlight illuminating one small square of the room. She would think once she was warm.

Maggie and Kara clawed at their robes, and once Maggie was free, she took off toward the scent of another badger and came to stand beside her. Kara tried to look forward but found she could barely see at all. She suspected this would make the task significantly harder, though she found that she could smell everything. Maggie sniffed the air, finding the scent of something that seemed intensely familiar. She waddled across the room, noting the clicking of long nails. That was quite the change from the usual, she laughed to herself. As she got closer to the smell, she could feel her fur raising, but she tamped down on the instinct to treat as prey and possible dinner what smelled and looked, in its vague outline, like a snake, trying to remind herself that what she knew from before needed to outweigh any animal urges. As a large beast lumbered toward her and the snake that for some reason she felt compelled to protect, Maggie’s lips curled back and she pushed her claws forward, her hips and hindquarters raising slightly as she let out a loud hiss.

James reared back at the small but somehow intimidating creature in front of him, crouching and letting off a fairly repugnant odor. He thought perhaps he was the only one from the group left as he pawed at the ground, letting out a small growl of annoyance that had another one of the creatures raising its nose in the air and turning in his direction. He wondered if his new form would be able to simply knock the door forward. With as much of a running start as he could manage in the small room, he lunged forward, finding himself flung backwards with what he could only assume was magical force. So the door was out.

Winn fluttered nervously above the others, looking down at the sight below him. He swooped in high circles above the room, eventually coming to roost on the narrow windowsill after one mistaken attempt at crashing through the glass pane. As he looked through it, he was astounded at just how far he could see, looking out over the treetops and well into the surrounding neighborhood. He wondered if they’d ever make it out of the room and watched as the lion was sent sprawling back across the stone floor.

Despite her instincts screaming at her to flee, Alex found herself slithering under the badger that had come over to her, basking in the warmth of the thick fur. Maggie lowered her already short body down.

Across the room, Kara dug desperately at the floor, finding even her thick, long claws futile against the weathered stones.

Noting the attempts of many of those around him to help, James reasoned they might actually be his team. In an attempt to get their attention, he let out a loud roar, unaware of the crowd of aurors that had gathered outside the enchanted door who flung themselves back at the sound.

Alex popped her head up at the sound, having felt it vibrate and rumble across the ground. She hissed back, as did the two badgers, and the eagle let out a squawk. Oh. Oh! As she watched the other badger dig and the lion lunge at the walls and the eagle fly into the window for a second time, she realized that perhaps this was her team. She hadn’t been transported into some other dimension. She darted her tongue out, flicking it against the side of the face of the badger who she’d been cuddling, and somehow, she wasn’t sure how, she just knew it was Maggie. And oh! Badgers. Two of them. That smelled like home. Because they were home. Because they were Maggie and Kara. Because they were Hufflepuffs. And she was a snake because she was a Slytherin. Which made the charging lion James and the now perched eagle Winn. And oh dear god they were never getting out of here.

But James’ roar seemed to help everyone gradually realize that they were still a team. A team without language or opposable thumbs, but a team goddammit. Having seen James repelled from the door and having watched Kara’s vain attempts at digging through the floor, Alex slithered around the perimeter, finding herself slamming face first into the walls a few more times than she would have liked. Eventually, though, she made it back, disappointed in the lack of any cracks she could exploit.

Realizing his squawks weren’t attracting much attention compared to the roar, Winn tapped loudly against the glass pane of the window. His beak wasn’t going to crack it, but at least he hadn’t been magically forced backward, which must mean something. Eventually he flapped down, settling on James’ back and finally catching his attention. He flew back and forth between James and the window until he finally caught the motion and seemed to understand.

James sat back on his haunches, regarding the window. It was small—much too small for him to fit through. He suspected if he lunged forward, he’d catch the stone wall before he ever had the opportunity to smash through the glass. But then he felt a cold thing twisting around his paw, and as he raised his arm to shake it off, he felt it coil tightly around him before two small fangs sunk into him, and he let out a loud mewl of pain.

Alex would have rolled her eyes if she could have. She barely even bit him, but at least she had his attention. Once he settled down and Alex uncurled herself from his front paw, he finally seemed to catch her meaning and backed up as far as he could in the small room, lunging forward paw first at the window as soon as Winn had flown away from it. The first time it wavered but didn’t crack. The second time he heard the sound of the glass splintering, though it didn’t give way. And finally it crashed through. He bounded back with a yelp of pain, sitting back and licking at his paw, attempting to knock the small shards of glass out.

Meanwhile, Winn flew out through the broken window, allowing himself just a few moments of freedom as he swooped and soared over the trees before flying back to the building and darting in through the front door. He ducked and swerved out of the way of the other Ministry employees, watching with glee as they squealed in surprise and dove out of his path. Eventually he made it into an elevator, perching patiently on the railing as the wizards and witches who were unlucky enough to be with him regarded him warily. When they made it up to his floor he flew down the hallway, catching sight of the glinting key and hooking it with his claws before soaring back out the way he came and finally returning with the key. He managed to push it into the small lock, though he found himself unable to turn it.

Alex hissed until Winn finally landed near her, and she slithered up his body, winding himself around his neck and pushing at his beak until he finally lifted her up. Once more, she wrapped herself around the key, twisting until it turned with her, finally hearing the satisfying click as the door popped open. James rushed forward, nosing the door all the way open, and a snuffling Kara and Maggie followed close behind, running into a few walls as they went. Maggie wondered if this was how Alex felt without her glasses. Once they were out of the room, which, Maggie reasoned, must have been somehow enchanted, Maggie and Kara found their ears assaulted with a loud beeping. The sensors, Kara thought. Potter had told her they would know how to find them. Of course, being able to hear them didn’t make the lack of proper vision any less of an issue.

Between Winn and James, however, they had enough vision and size for the group of them, and they followed their impromptu pack leaders through the halls of the Ministry, delighting in hissing, nipping, and growling at the more senior aurors as they passed. Eventually Winn led them outside, and Maggie and Kara got straight to work, running as fast as their short legs could take them to the sound of the beeping that seemed to be coming from the heart of the grounds that surrounded the building. Suddenly feeling useful, Kara dove nose and claws first into a patch of dirt, burrowing until she latched onto the beeping sensor. A few yards away, Maggie did the same, feeling grateful she’d been able to do something other than help to keep Alex warm during their team mission.

With two of the three sensors gathered, the team followed the noise—whether felt as vibrations or heard as a grating sound—over to one of the gnarled old trees. James pawed at it, but found nothing. Kara and Maggie dug around the perimeter of it, only to find that the deeper into the ground they got, the further away they were from the sound. Eventually they turned to Alex, who slithered her way up the tree, attempting to focus on the feeling of the vibrating sounds, tracing them to a small crack in the trunk that she managed to wedge herself into, finally getting to what she was fairly certain was a sensor—not that it gave off any kind of heat for her infrared vision to catch it. After multiple attempts to angle herself properly to nose it out of the tree, Alex gritted her teeth (in theory, she couldn’t do much with a pair of fangs) and opened her jaw wide, fitting the whole thing into her mouth and praying it wouldn’t kill her when she turned back into a human.

With the three sensors in (figural) hands, they made their way back to the building, feeling every bit the part of the heroic team even if they didn’t look it.

“Two whole minutes to spare. Very impressive,” Potter greeted them at the entrance, watching as two clawed paws deposited sensors at his feet, and a snake unhinged its jaw, managing to get the sensor back out of its mouth. “Now back to the room with you!”

They all followed dutifully, finding the group of slightly older aurors waiting for them, wands at the ready. Once they had been shepherded back into their initial locked room, they were hit with transfiguration spells once more before the door locked—for their privacy, they soon realized, as they stumbled forward human once more but clothed no longer. Alex and Winn quickly threw on their robes, as did Maggie and Kara, whose attire littered with small, badger teeth-sized holes chewed across them but was at least passable. James, however, stood in the corner, clutching Winn in front of him like a shield. His robes lay in tatters; they hadn’t quite withstood the challenge of accommodating a lion, though he didn’t think Madame Malkin would accept that as an excuse for a return.

When Potter returned and tossed back their wands, Kara was kind enough to magic James’ robes back together before turning her attention to the small holes in her own, while Maggie patched up the damage she had wrought on hers.

“So…you passed day one.” Potter looked between them, gauging their reactions. “How does it feel?”

There were a few long moments of silence before Winn finally spoke up, his voice cracking slightly as he asked, “That’s day one?”

[sinrau]

Vice President Pence, left, walks with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey after their meeting Wednesday to discuss the surge in coronavirus cases in the state. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)By Anne Gearan,

July 1, 2020 at 9:54 PM EDT

Coronavirus infections in the United States surged nearly 50 percent in June as states relaxed quarantine rules and tried to reopen their economies, data compiled Wednesday showed, and several states moved to reimpose restrictions on bars and recreation.

More than 800,000 new cases were reported across the country last month, led by Florida, Arizona, Texas and California — bringing the nation’s officially reported total to just over 2.6 million, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.

States that took an aggressive approach to reopening led the country in infection spikes — along with California, the nation’s most populous state, where leaders have been more cautious. California on Wednesday reported 110 new deaths, more than any other state.

The novel coronavirus continued its recent spread, especially in the South and Southwest. More than 52,000 new cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, the highest total since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by The Post. Record-shattering numbers of new cases were reported Wednesday in six states — California, Georgia, Texas, Alaska, North Carolina and Arizona.

California added 9,740 new cases to its official tally — a new daily high for the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), amid the recent spike in cases and hospitalizations after early success against the virus, on Wednesday ordered 19 counties to shut down all indoor services and activities before the holiday weekend, meaning that bars, restaurants and other businesses will remain open only outside.

Pennsylvania ordered protective masks to be worn in public, and New York City delayed the planned loosening of restrictions on indoor dining. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) ordered the end of indoor service at bars through most of the state’s lower region, citing a spike in cases among younger people.

Newsom’s order was the latest step the governor has taken to impose new rules on counties that, in late spring, appeared to have the virus largely under control. While it names only a minority of California’s 58 counties, the reclosing order will affect nearly 75 percent of the state’s residents, including those who live in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and the East Bay Area.

Over the past two weeks, coinciding largely with the reopening of bars and restaurants, hospitalization rates in California have climbed 52 percent because of new virus infections. The rate of Californians testing positive for the virus has also jumped 6 percent over that time.

Los Angeles County, which passed 100,000 cases earlier this week, has been the epicenter of the virus in the state’s south, where several neighboring counties were also named in Newsom’s order. But new cases also have risen sharply in the Bay Area and the capital, Sacramento. Sacramento County is also on the list.

President Trump said he still hopes the virus will fade away on its own. He professed a greater willingness to wear a face mask as recommended by federal officials and increasingly mandated by localities as the virus rebounds.

“I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus,” Trump said during a Fox Business interview. “I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.”

Face masks do not need to be made mandatory, Trump said. Although he has previously declined to wear one in public or in the Oval Office, saying the look is unpresidential, Trump said Wednesday that he would wear one “if I were in a group of people and I was close.”

He described a recent, apparently off-camera, mask debut. “Actually, I had a mask on. I sort of liked the way I looked, okay? I thought it was okay. It was a dark black mask, and I thought it looked okay. Looked like the Lone Ranger.”

Every state should have a mask requirement to help prevent the country from seeing 100,000 cases per day, according to Harvard Global Health Institute director Ashish Jha.

“I just think we can’t dither around on masks,” he said Wednesday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Everyone needs to be wearing one when they’re outside of their home.”

Vice President Pence traveled to Arizona as state health officials on Wednesday reported record highs in new infections, deaths and virus-related hospitalizations.

The state reported 4,877 new confirmed cases, eclipsing its daily record set 24 hours earlier. Eighty-eight more people died of the virus, the highest daily death toll yet, bringing the state’s fatalities to 1,720.

Pence endorsed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s moves this week to reimpose restrictions on bars, gyms, water parks and more, calling the governor’s caution “responsible.” He said the federal government will meet Ducey’s request for 500 additional emergency medical workers.

Despite offering praise for Ducey’s handling of the pandemic, Pence acknowledged the numbers in Arizona are alarming. He did not answer a question about whether Ducey has gone far enough and should mandate a wider stay-at-home order.

“The reason we’re here is because of the rising number of cases in Arizona as well as the rising positivity rate,” Pence told reporters.

“It’s very clear we have community spread in this state and across much of the Sun Belt and that’s the reason why we wanted to be here and receive a briefing,” Pence said. “But it’s also why we wanted to be here to express our strong support for the steps that Governor Ducey and that local officials have put into effect: limiting certain gatherings, closing certain establishments during this rising time.”

Pence spoke the week after Trump visited the state for a tour of the border barrier with Mexico and to hold a crowded indoor political rally in Phoenix over the objections and public health advice of local officials.

Trump did not wear a mask then, but Pence did so for much of his brief visit Wednesday.

Worldwide, more than 10.5 million cases have been detected, and 60 percent of those were diagnosed only in the past month, according to the World Health Organization.

Over the past week, more than 160,000 cases were diagnosed worldwide each day, WHO Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

The fast pace of infection serves as a grim reminder that even as some countries begin to reopen, the risk of contracting the coronavirus remains.

“Flare-ups are to be expected as countries start to lift restrictions,” Tedros said at a news conference in Geneva, noting that countries applying comprehensive tracking and isolation measures will be best prepared to avoid widespread outbreaks and new restrictions.

“However, we are concerned that some countries have not used all the tools at their disposal and have taken a fragmented approach,” he added. “These countries face a long, hard road ahead.”

Tedros did not name specific countries, but the example of the United States was clear.

In 45 states, seven-day averages of new infections are higher than they were a week ago, according to a Post analysis.

Health officials are nervously eyeing the July 4 holiday weekend amid the surge. Though some beaches, including in South Florida and Los Angeles, have been closed, other oceanfront destinations have not.

“We’re going to see several hundred thousand people come down here regardless of the recommendations that have come out,” Peter Davis, chief of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol, told the Houston-based news station KHOU this week.

Health experts are pleading with Americans to take the pandemic seriously before it’s too late. Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in an op-ed for Fox News that “the more we fight among ourselves, the more the virus divides and conquers us.”

One bright spot: U.S. private employers added nearly 2.4 million jobs in June as states reopened their economies, according to payroll services firm ADP. That’s a huge upswing after months of staggering job losses, but it is not clear that it can last as the outbreak regains strength.

And after clawing back most of the devastating losses from the beginning of the year, when the novel coronavirus began to infect Americans around the country, stocks continued to gain on Wednesday, starting the second half of 2020 on an upward path.

The positive start to a new month, a new quarter and the final half of the year comes after Wall Street staged a remarkable comeback. Investors capped the second quarter reaping gains not seen since 1998 during the dot-com bubble.

While the Dow and the S&P 500 have not fully recovered for the year, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up more than 11 percent on the year, lifted by companies that investors see as resilient to the physically distant, remote-working world brought on by the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Apple said it is re-closing 30 more stores this week as coronavirus infections continue to rise in several states.

The iPhone maker initially closed its doors in March as the first major outbreaks in the United States took hold. Apple has since reopened stores, joining other businesses in easing shutdown measures.

But as infections have continued to spread in the United States, the company has reversed course. The latest round brings the total number of Apple stores that have re-closed to 77, according to a count by CNBC.

[un-enfant-immature]

Daily Crunch: Airbnb takes a $1B loan

Airbnb takes on new debt as it adapts to a world without tourism, Apple announces a new entry-level iPhone and Google lowers Nest camera quality.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 15, 2020.

1. Airbnb ups its debt by $1B amid the coronavirus travel crunch

Airbnb has secured commitments of $1 billion for a syndicated term loan from institutional investors. The emergency cash injection comes as the coronavirus travel freeze continues to hammer vacation rentals, with holidaymakers locked down at home and global travel banned or heavily discouraged for public health reasons.

Earlier this month, Airbnb announced an additional $1 billion raise in debt and equity. At the time it said the funds would support its ongoing work to invest over the long term, while this new loan looks more clearly targeted at dealing with immediate negative impacts caused by COVID-19.

2. Apple introduces new $399 iPhone SE with Touch ID and 4.7″ screen

With a $399 starting price point, the new SE is aimed squarely at new iPhone users or first time smartphone buyers, but it could appeal to those who just want the smallest iPhone model currently available.

3. Google is lowering Nest camera quality ‘to conserve internet resources’

If you’re looking at footage from your Nest Cam and the quality seems a bit lower than normal: it’s not your eyes. The quality adjustment is rolling out over the next few days, and Google says anyone affected will get a notification in the Nest app.

4. Onfido, the AI-based ID verification platform, raises $100M led by TPG

Onfido uses AI to “read” a person’s identity documents, then uses facial recognition and other datapoints to verify that a person is who she or he says they are online. Customers for its tech include major banks, government bodies and businesses doing recruitment — any organization running parts of its processes virtually.

5. As stocks recover, private investors aren’t buying the hype

Yesterday, we discussed the state of affairs for private companies with Jason Pressman of Shasta Ventures. From his perspective — and that of other investors who we’ve spoken to recently — it’s hard to understand the level of optimism that public markets are signaling. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. NBCUniversal’s Peacock launches on Comcast

Today’s launch lines up with the schedule that the company announced in January, which pointed to a broader release on July 15. NBCUniversal says that’s still happening, though the timing will no longer coincide with the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

7. Attentive raises another $40M for mobile messaging, will invest in helping customers respond to COVID-19

The messaging startup raised a $40 million Series B last summer, followed by a $70 million Series C at the beginning of this year. Today it’s announcing that it’s extended the Series C by another $40 million, bringing the total round size to $110 million.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

[magzoso-tech]

Nokia Feature Phone Pops Up on TENAA Listing, Bears Resemblance to XpressMusic Series

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/nokia-feature-phone-pops-up-on-tenaa-listing-bears-resemblance-to-xpressmusic-series/

Nokia Feature Phone Pops Up on TENAA Listing, Bears Resemblance to XpressMusic Series

HMD Global has done a good job marketing nostalgia in the form of the revival of classic Nokia phones such as the 8110 4G ‘banana phone’. Now, according to a listing on Chinese certification site TENAA, we could have another member added to HMD Global’s feature phone family. A feature phone going by the model number ‘TA-1212′ has surfaced, sporting a keypad and red accents on the sides. This resembles the old Nokia XpressMusic series a little bit, so it’s possible that the new phone could launch under the same moniker.

Images from the TENAA listing as reported by Slashleaks, shows a candy bar phone with a 2.4-inch TFT display with a resolution of 320×240 pixels, a 0.36GHz single-core processor, 8MB of RAM, and 16MB of storage. The phone is also said to come with a 1,200mAh battery. The listing also reveals the phone’s dimensions, which are 123.75×52.43×13.1mm, and a weight of 88 grams.

The sides of the phone have two red strips, which hint that it could be music-centric smartphone. However, judging by the processor, it will most likely be a basic feature phone such as the Nokia 110 (2019) and not KaiOS. At the back, we just have a single VGA camera and a LED flash. We’ve also noticed two big slits on the top and bottom for the earpiece and speaker respectively. If this is indeed a revival of one of the XpressMusic Nokia phones, then it’s possible that both of them can act as loudspeakers. Notably, the phone will also be a 2G-only device, which means it might only be launched in certain markets.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Roydon Cerejo

Roydon has written about technology and gadgets for more than a decade now and began his career reviewing PC components. He found his calling with laptops, smartphones, and cameras and is the go-to guy at Gadgets 360 for this technology trifecta. In his spare time, he likes watching horror films, obsessively organising his cable management pouch and plotting world dominion one pixel at a time.

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[rippedjeansandloudmusic]

Solangelo YouTuber AU

 you know how are there no solangelo YouTuber AU's but you know what I just wrote one so all you solangelo shippers who’ve been looking for one all three of you here’s my shitty attempt at writing one.

Nico di Angelo’s YouTube career was something he wasn’t sure was the best thing to boast about.

It had started about five years ago. He was short and scrawny, just like anyone at the age of seventeen, and had about as much experience with filming himself as he did with hitting on girls. Aka: nada. All he knew was that one button made the red light thing light up, and if you hit it a second time it would stop recording.

So, yeah. He knew close to nothing about the YouTube community.

His first video was a shit show, to say the least. He would constantly knock down the camera, couldn’t edit for his life, and had no idea what to do except introduce himself.

“Uh, hey? I guess, uh,”

Yeah, it was a trainwreck.

You could see he no longer had an ‘emo’ cut (thank god), and was trying out some sort of weird ass undercut. He was wearing a Fall Out Boy t-shirt and ripped jeans, something he would never quite grow out of, with ratty old Converse that his sister had gotten him for his birthday. His baby face was out and proud, no fucks were given, and you could see his bedroom at a really shitty My-Space 2006 angle.

His voice was down a bit, trying not to attract the unwarranted attention from his cousins Percy and Jason from the bedroom over, who’re visiting from their college in New York.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Nico told to the camera, raking a hand through his newly-cut hair and blowing out a sharp intake of air. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But, fuck it, why not try?”

And that was how his YouTube career started.

He wasn’t very popular at first since the bad camera angle with the bad editing and bad look didn’t really go together all that well. But, after puberty decided to maybe let him grow out of his five-foot-nothing and he could finally afford to buy a decent camera, he skyrocketed in the matter of about a year.

Have you heard about that new YouTuber, uh, I think it’s ‘Nico di Angelo’?

He’s kinda a stereotypical My-Space user if you think about it.

Honestly, that guy’s kinda all over the place with his videos.

First, he tried videogames.

Yeah… that didn’t go too well.

“What the fuck is Overwatch?” he asked open air, staring at the camera in front of him. He was live streaming, something he didn’t do often, just having nothing to do since his college courses were done for the day. Before much could be said about his remark some busted into the room, throwing the door open and staring daggers at the back of Nico’s head.

“What the fuck do you mean What is Overwatch?”

He was a tall guy, athletic build. His blonde hair fell in front of his face and his eyes were a vibrant blue, matching his tan skin but not his fucking furious expression. Nico blinked a few times, hand over heart, before hissing out a few not so family friendly words at his dormmate.

“Oh my God, Solace, you scared the shit out of me.”

“Well, you kinda deserved it. How, to the high heavens, do you not know what Overwatch is. Overwatch.”

Nico blinked a few more times, turning back to look at the comments underneath his stream. There were tons of comments flowing in, all about who’s the hottie di Angelo? and oh my god I ship it - s already coming in.

“Uh, I mean what is Overwatch? Possibly? I’ve never heard of it.”

The blonde’s eyes were blown open, and he put a hand to his chest as though he took personal offense to Nico’s inability to know what videogames are.

“My god, di Angelo, you’re less educated than my grandfather.”

Then he had run back into his room, and people in the stream could hear things flying. Nico raised a brow at the camera, mouthed a quick What the fuck is happening? before Will came flying back in, an X-Box controller in one hand and a CD case in the other. Nico just looked even more confused, not being able to resist when Will pushed him almost off the couch, taking his laptop and opening a new tab.

“I’m going to show you the best videogame of all time, di Angelo. And if you say no,” he stole a look at a flustered Nico from over his shoulder. “I’ll kill you.”

And that was when the infamous Solangelo tag started to spread like a virus throughout every single type of social media. Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all became the manifesto for SOLANGELO: THE TRUE OTP.

Yeah, it was weird.

Solace started a channel for himself after that. Filled with random video games, some weird animations he made in his free time, and the occasional A Rare Nico di Angelo in his Natural Habitat: Episode XX

Anyone would be lying if they said it wasn’t amusing.

Throughout random videos or live streams, Nico would have, Will would be in the background, either seeing how much he could throw things at Nico before he would point it out, or just full on flipping off the back of Nico’s head.

It wasn’t long before a full out war started.

All throughout their college years, it was fucking insane; seeing if they could knock over someone’s tripod, or maybe hack their account and upload some weird-ass video about why you shouldn’t do drugs. There are multiple videos on both people’s channels about why You shouldn’t be watching this dickwad! You should be watching my channel, which is 110% better.

When Nico and Will finished college, though, it didn’t stop.

They both moved to the outskirts of Los Angeles, Will’s reasoning to Try and stay hip with the kids, and Nico’s being because he wanted to stalk local celebrities.

But, they didn’t have an excuse as to why they were still living together.

Nico was having another Q+A. It wasn’t often that he did them, so when he did they were excruciatingly long. His longest one was almost three hours. Three hours.

Nico looked back at his phone, where he was scrolling through Tumblr looking for questions because of quote, Twitter’s the basic bitch’s place for looking for questions, and I’m no basic bitch. I’m a badass bitch, that’s who I am.

Out of nowhere, he started laughing at the top of his lungs. Getting di Angelo to laugh was a rare thing; smiling was even more so. You could call him stoic, though it wasn’t that rare. Though, to this extent? The bending over clutching his stomach and almost coughing up his lungs laughing?

Yeah, this was rare.

Will came racing down the halls of their small home, thinking maybe Nico was getting tortured, only to find his roommate rolling around on the floor, dying of laughter.

“Nico, what the hell is happening?”

Will looked to his camera, which was hooked up to his laptop. He raised a brow at Nico, who was too busy laughing to realize that Will had entered the room, before stepping over his shaking body to get closer. Immediately the chat began filling up once more with What question did someone ask? And the occasional Someone please tell me they’re getting a screenshot of this because I need it in my life. When Will came forward everyone was asking why he wasn’t helping, to which Will waved them off his a flick of his wrist.

“If he dies I’ll get all his stuff, so I’m fine with whatever happens.”

“Hey!” Nico shouted from the ground, struggling to sit back up straight. Will just rolled his eyes, walking over and planting a hand on Nico’s shoulder.

“What the hell was so funny?” He asked, to which Nico almost started laughing again. He simply held up his phone for Will to see. Will took the phone.

And almost immediately doubled over in laughter.

For the next about five minutes, Will and Nico were rolling on the floor in laughter. Once they’d finally picked themselves up and looked back to the laptop Nico winced.

“Holy shit,” He mumbled, placing his glasses onto his head and rubbing fresh tears from his eyes. Will smiled, also rubbing his eyes, before taking Nico’s phone from him.

“Please tell me you screenshotted that,”

“Fuck yeah.”

“Send it to me, I want that as my background.”

Nico promptly agreed, and Will almost died again before walking back down the hall, snickering to himself.

Nico looked back to the chat again, which was filled with questions about What the fuck was so funny? Nico just cracked a smirk before rubbing his forehead.

“You guys will find out soon enough.”

GHOSTKING’s live stream has ended.

It was months before Nico would bring up ‘The Question’ again.

There were plenty of theories circling around about what it said. None of which were true, but Nico was happy to talk about some in a new series he had adopted called What the FUck was the infamous question of July 3rd? Starring Will the dumbass Solace

They got some weird ones and some that almost hit the dead center, in which Will and Nico would just stare blankly at the camera with no facial expression before going on like nothing had happened.

It wasn’t until he got the question again in another Q+A that he finally broke.

“Okay, okay, what the fuck?” he asked, facepalming. Will poked his head from around the corner.

“What happened? Did someone else ask for advice on how to bury a body?”

Nico shook his head, throwing his phone back over his head for Will to catch. Will did so effortlessly, stealing a glance at the screen before smiling widely and throwing it back.

“I didn’t know your viewers were that dense.”

Nico scoffed, looking back at him. “Right? God, I didn’t think I’d have to do the cliche ‘Coming Out’ thing that so many others had done.”

At that, the entire chat box stopped loading. Nico raised another brow, tapping the reload button at the top of his internet browser a few times before calling back to his tech expert.

“The chat’s stopped loading,” Nico complained, looking up at Will from his spot on the chair. Will leaned over, opening another tab with the same chat. Immediately Will rolled his eyes, hitting the back of Nico’s chair.

“Nope. Just too much information for one browser to take in at once.”

OH MY GOD WHAT

WAIT HE’S GAY

HOLY SHIT

I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WHAT

I STILL DON’T GET WHAT’S SO FUNNY

Those were all examples of the new texts now coming in. Nico sighed, taking his glasses from his face and throwing them onto the table next to his laptop

“Yeah, I’m gay. Didn’t think that needed a formal announcement, but yeah. God, and here I was thinking I was being too gay.”

It wasn’t that long after that he had the ‘Newest Announcement in Nico di Angelo News’ was posted everywhere.

First of all, he had to let the first big Coming Out news die down.

People everywhere were freaking out. Tumblr fanart were going crazy, Twitter had a seizure, and even some news sites were dying. It was everywhere, New YouTuber GHOSTKING, aka: Nico di Angelo Comes Out As Being Gay.

He didn’t think it was that big of a deal, honestly. But, the internet had different ideas.

He’d been asked to do a collab with other big LGBT YouTubers, most of which he didn’t know, and it was a bit weird. He’d gotten multiple YouTubers wanting to do interviews and stuff, and he just didn’t understand why. Yeah, I’m gay. Not that big of a change. I’m still me.

After that, his views went through the ceiling. Especially with the nonchalance of how he announced it, out of the blue and with nothing different coming from his channel after it.

“Should I change my description to Major League Gay Guy? I mean, just incase people forget?”

Nico was leaning back on his couch, headphones wrapped around his ears and phone in his hand, scrolling though his social media.

Will shrugged, plopping down next to him.

“I honestly don’t understand the big deal. I mean, you’re gay, big deal.”

Nico nodded but changed his bio on Tumblr anyways.

It wasn’t until about a week after that conversation that everything changed.

“People are asking if I’m in a relationship again…” Nico sing-songed out into the hall. He heard a loud groan from across the hall, accompanied by a disheveled Will Solace stomping out of the clear blue. 

His hair had grown out since their first video together, so much so that he could now pull it back into a ponytail without much resistance. His face had matured as well. He was a bit more buff than before, accompanied by two or three tattoos on his upper bicep.

He sat beside Nico in a swivel chair, spinning around for a second. Nico scrunched his brows together, stealing a look at his camera like Can you believe him?, before just watching him for a moment.

Nico had changed as well. He was still wearing the mostly-black, but now he occasionally wore something that was a lighter gray. His hair was still cut short, though now in a much more fashionable style than back in his first solo video. He had also gotten new shoes, something Will had to physically force him to do, and started to branch out into society a bit more, not that he really had to. Will had also convinced him to dye a stripe of his hair, but only on the grounds that Will dyed some of his the same color. Now a stripe in front of both boy’s hairline was a bright blue, much to Nico’s disliking, though Will thought it was pretty, quote, Dope as fuck. To which Nico had punched him in the shoulder, saying You ever even think about saying that and I’ll shank you.

Will eventually stopped spinning around, feeling his stomach about to come up from doing it so much. Nico just rolled his eyes, stealing a look at the camera again.

“This dumbass,” he muttered, facepalming. Will winced for a second before smirking, taking Nico’s lack of vision as an advantage, diving forward and grabbing his wrists.

“But, you’re also in love with this dumbass, so…”

Nico rolled his eyes again, though couldn’t keep the small blush that rose up his face.

“Too much of my hatred, you are right.”

And then Nico took Will by the back of the neck, pulling him forward and kissing him.

Right during the live stream.

In the middle of answering a question, truly.

After a minute Will pulled back, getting up from his chair and spinning Nico in his swivel chair for a second.

“Yeah, I think I just answered that question for you, di Angelo.”

After Nico stopped spinning he glared at Will.

“Fuck off, Solace.”

Will winked at the camera before going back to his room, only to yell back a few minutes later about how he was ordering pizza.

Nico turned back to his chat, hoping that his computer hadn’t frozen up again, before sliding his glasses back up his nose.

“So, yeah. I guess I am kinda in a relationship.” He said, just barely enough for Will to hear him.

“More like ‘am’ in a relationship, di Angelo. Unless the last three years have just been a hallucination!”

Nico smiled again, just barely in frame.

“I guess so, Solace.”

Nico reached up, hitting the button on his camera to turn it off and end the stream.

“Guess so.”

[kindapets-blog]

Automatic Pet Feeder Best Smart Feeder

Hey guys my cat is going high-tech with this Hommini automatic pet feeder the smart pet feeder by Hommini allows you to feed your pet via your phone or other devices and a lot of animal has an HD camera so that you can see what's happening in real time and take photos or videos of your pet I want to open the box and assemble it right now unlike most smart pet feeders this one includes a water bottle right here on the right side you're able to switch to another water bottle if you'd like but this one holds 250 milliliters of water this pet feeder holds 3.5 liters of food you just loose at the top and there you go you put your food and then twist it closed alright so I'm going to add some food water and then add the app to my phone there I've added some food now. Amazing Inventions For Your Pets

I could even add some more if I wanted to all right so now I'm installing the app this guide that comes with the pet feeder explains the how-to on how to download the app what steps you need to go through very helpful and very detailed as well so this will definitely help you so I have connected it to the Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi of the device here and now I am waiting for the devices to officially be connected so now the connection is complete so now we can enjoy our pet feeder so when you get to the app you have four choices down at the bottom you have feet camera info setting you can do a manual feeding or you can do a program feeding as well which is very cool just in case you forget you can do your info of your animal you can put down the birthday how much he weighs his name what type of dog or cat he is it'll also show you how much you have fed them as well and you could put a picture the camera option shows real life footage via video you can also take pictures you can speak to them via the microphone option take pictures.

I think I said that and hear what's going on just in case you know maybe something is going on at your house and you're not home maybe you can even use this to call 9-1-1 or something there's also the settings bar where you can change your password and other general settings about the app itself so we're gonna go feed the kitty all right so we are going into a manual feeding and it asks you how many portions you want so I'm going to say about four so here we go and there we go you can install 3 D batteries if you'd like to allow the feeder to function if your power were to go out so in that case any scheduled feedings will take place but you won't be able to use the apps functions it includes a removable plastic tray which is right here it's the clear one right here that you can put in the put in side of the black piece here and use it in the dishwasher to clean it there is a power cable cover which is has a tea bike key casing and that's good for a safety feature especially if your dog or cat likes to chew on things the camera is a 110 degree HD camera with voice recording as.

I showed you in the app so this is the manual and I just want to show you how clear everything is inside of it the pictures are pretty big very self-explanatory especially how to navigate the app because sometimes that can be very tricky it's offered in Spanish as well so if you flip to the back you can go you'll find the Spanish section especially if you're a Spanish speaker and it's just it's very clear very clear she really likes it kitty-kitty-kitty all right so this is the really cool really functional Hommini automatic pet feeder this would be a great addition to your pets and his needs his or her needs we appreciate your likes and comments so please subscribe to our Channel and check the link description to follow us on various social medias as well thanks.

https://kindapets.tumblr.com/post/184682263546/husky-eats-too-fast-slow-feed-bowls-slo-bowl

[ttstranscripts]

Transcript of The Talk Show Episode 4

Title: James Duncan Davidson & Digital Photography

Hosts: John Gruber, Dan Benjamin

Special guest: James Duncan Davidson

Release date: 28 July 2007

Description: Special guest James Duncan Davidson joins us to talk about digital photography. JDD is a pro, and shares his experience as a professional photographer for WWDC and O’Reilly.

Dan Benjamin: So where are you right now, Duncan, what conference are you at this week?

James Duncan Davidson: I’m actually at two conferences simultaneously. Today, tomorrow, and the next day is the Ubuntu Live conference. And then, starting tomorrow and going for the rest of the week is the Open Source Convention.

Benjamin: And you’re covering these, you’re photographing them?

Davidson: Yeah, I’m shooting them both.

Benjamin: That’s what we’re here to talk about. Last week, John and I said we gotta get you on here.

Davidson: Oh, I know, and I heard that actually. I was listening to the podcast while I was riding the MAX, and I think I was going over the bridge right about that point, and it was a very freaky feeling to be volunteered to do something while you’re listening to yourself on public transit. But I’m down with it, it’s pretty cool.

John Gruber: For those of you who don’t know, we’re talking to James Duncan Davidson. James Duncan Davidson is right now primarily — is that your primary source of income, you’re a conference photographer? I mean, most of your time is spent on photography now.

Davidson: Yeah, this year will be the first year it’s crossed the 50 percent line.

Gruber: But your background is very, very varied, and you’ve done everything from Java to Ruby on Rails, a lot of programming stuff. You’ve written books on Cocoa programming.

Davidson: Yep.

Gruber: So you go to these tech conferences, but you could easily not just be attending them, you could be and in the past have actually spoken at them.

Davidson: Oh yeah, yeah.

Benjamin: You spoke at Rails conference last year, right?

Davidson: Yeah, and they actually wanted me to speak this year, but I didn’t think I could actually do the job of shooting, and the conference, and get the talk ready. And even more tricky, photographing myself speaking, I thought that might be a little hard.

Benjamin: With all those strobes flashing all over the place, that’s a full-time job just setting those up.

Davidson: The conferences really have turned into — I mean, when I’m at a conference, it’s more than a full-time job. Like today, you’re catching me, it all worked out where I can find a break, but it’s going to be a 14-hour day. But it’s precisely because I spoke at tech conferences for so long that O’Reilly first picked me up to do the photography. They had the theory, and I agreed with them at the time and still do, that since I knew most of the people in this environment and knew what was going on, I probably would have a decent enough eye for understanding what would be important to take pictures of and what wouldn’t be at a tech conference. And that’s how the professional photography career got started.

Benjamin: As far as actually learning to be a photographer, you don’t just show up at a conference and start taking pictures, and now all of a sudden O’Reilly is hiring you to shoot everything. It can’t work like that.

Davidson: No, no, I’ve been shooting pictures since I was six or seven years old. My grandmother taught me how, and I’ve been shooting ever since.

Benjamin: You don’t have any formal training or educational background in photography though?

Davidson: No. All my formal training was in architecture actually. So, lots of design work, but no specific classes in photography, just lots and lots of experience.

Benjamin: So you said you grandmother taught you, Duncan, what did you start — because when I was a little kid, maybe this is how you started, when I was a little kid, we took a little — I guess it was some construction paper, and we folded it up into a little box, we painted it black, and then you took a little pinhole, and you just poke a pinhole and this little piece of tinfoil — and I understand now it’s aluminum foil — which was taped to a cut-out piece in the front of a thing, and there was like a little flap, and you would open up the flap, and just on the back of this thing you had one of those — you remember the old style 35 mm or whatever, the little pocket cameras that you would give to kids that had the little plastic U-shaped film thing that would fit into the back of the camera.

Davidson: The 110 cassettes, yeah.

Benjamin: Exactly. And you would crank that with a quarter, and then you would open the front of the thing, count to three, and then close it, and your picture would come out. That’s actually still how I photograph today.

Davidson: For some people, that would be the purest expression of photography because you’re directly manipulating aperture and shutter and everything right there. But no, I didn’t learn with a pinhole camera. You actually have a better background than I do then.

Benjamin: Well, my whole experience pretty much ends there though.

Davidson: [laughs] My grandmother shot 35 mm film on Leicas and I quickly picked up a — I had my own little 110 camera, I had one of those disc cameras. You remember those?

Benjamin: Oh yeah, that was really — if you had one of those — wow.

Gruber: Yeah, they were crazy cool because they were such an odd form factor because they were, like, up vertical. They were so thin in terms of front to back.

Benjamin: Yeah. They had these teeny-tiny lenses on them because they had such a small negative.

Gruber: And they took such crap pictures.

Davidson: They did.

Benjamin: [laughs]

Gruber: I should —

Benjamin: What — oh, go ahead, John. That’s John Gruber, by the way.

Gruber: I was just going to mention, for everybody who doesn’t know, you’re listening to The Talk Show. I’m John Gruber. I’m here hosting the show with my friend Dan Benjamin. We have some sponsors to thank this week, I would like to thank them, that’s why this show is here. And first up, I’d like to mention 37signals.

Benjamin: Can you believe that? How did we get them?

Gruber: They’re sponsoring The Talk Show. They have a bunch of great web apps, they do great software. The one that I want to talk about is Ta-da Lists. You guys use Ta-da Lists? It’s sort of like the list feature from Basecamp, broken out into its own little app. It’s free, you just go there, you make like a to-do list. And the reason — I never used it, I checked it out, I used it, it’s pretty good. But all of a sudden now I use it every day because what they did — and it wouldn’t an episode of The Talk Show if we didn’t bring up iPhone. They have an iPhone-optimized version of Ta-da List. You go to tadalist.com, you sign up, you get your own username. So I have one, I share it with my wife, we do all of our shopping lists on Ta-da Lists now. You get the regular Ta-da List interface when you go to it in Safari or Firefox, your regular web browser on your computer, so we can share shopping lists. We just do one for each store we go to. Then I go to the store, take out my iPhone, go there, and I get an iPhone-optimized view of the website. It’s not a little thing I have to pinch down in Safari, it’s just perfect. Every time I buy something, you just tap it, click “done”, it’s off the list, and I never — I’m the most absent-minded person in the world. We live about two blocks from a Whole Foods here in Philadelphia. I will leave the house and my wife can say, “Don’t forget to buy soy milk.” And I will say, “Okay.” And I will go there and I will see, oh, look, a new kind of chips! And I’ll buy these chips, come home, and she’ll be like, “Where is the soy milk?” And I’ll be like, “Oh.” And she’s like, “That’s the whole reason you went.” Never happens anymore. So, Ta-da Lists from 37signals.

Benjamin: Saved the marriage, it sounds like.

Gruber: No, it just saved me extra trips back to the grocery store.

Davidson: So it saved you frustration.

Gruber: And it also makes me feel like my iPhone is useful.

Benjamin: That justifies the purchase, I think.

Gruber: Oh, absolutely.

Davidson: Of course.

Gruber: I think one of the big differences for me — I got started as a hobbyist photographer with an actual film 35 mm Rebel about eight years ago or so. And I think the bad habit that it drilled into my head is that every time I press the shutter button, it’s going to cost me 50–75 cents to get the film developed. So if you started with film, it costs some amount of money every time you press the shutter, and you get into habit of really pinching your shots, make every one count. Whereas with digital, it’s effectively free, I mean, you do have to go back afterwards and pick the ones that you want to keep and get rid of [the rest], but it’s really a little bit of your time to go through and get rid of the bad shots. And you get so much better results if you just shoot-shoot-shoot-shoot-shoot as opposed to wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-okay, there it is-shoot.

Davidson: Right. It’s cheap until you have to go buy a terabyte array because you’ve taken so many shots.

Benjamin: You had a whole post, probably about a year ago, where you were sort of — the dos and don’ts for conference speakers, and one of them was, get anti-reflective coating on your glasses if you wear glasses. If you don’t wear glasses, get some, because people who wear glasses are significantly more intelligent. A whole bunch of things. One of the things that you said, you were talking about — dress appropriately for your audience. If your audience is going to be in a suit, you probably need to wear a suit. If your audience is going to be in business casual or t-shirts or whatever, dress relative to them. But as a photographer of the event, working the event, do you have to adhere to that dress code as well?

Davidson: I do, I do.

Benjamin: So it’s possible we might see you in a three-piece suit with a bow tie?

Davidson: If I were photographing an event where everybody else is wearing a three-piece suit, yeah, I would have to do something about that.

Benjamin: Most of the time though you’re a t-shirt and jeans kind of a guy?

Davidson: Most of the time. Most of the conferences I shoot are geek conferences where most of the people are pretty relaxed in what they wear. I have been trending though towards neatening it up a little bit. Dark colors work well when you’re shooting in the dark because I don’t really want to pull a lot of attention to myself. The day I wore the bright screaming magenta shirt was not a good day. Just kidding, never did that.

Benjamin: [laughs]

Davidson: But, like, today I’m wearing black pants and a black short sleeve button-down shirt. It’s not a fancy shirt, it’s some Old Navy kind of shirt, but you know. It’s nice enough, right?

Benjamin: In a way though, don’t you want to wear some kind of a t-shirt or a shirt that’s going to grab attention?

Davidson: Actually, most of the time I just want to blend in and not have attention come my way. Nothing ruins a shot more than somebody seeing a camera and going, “Hey, there’s a camera!” and pointing right into it.

Benjamin: What do you think about — as far as speakers go — let’s say I’m speaking at Rails conference next year, which is a pretty casual conference. And we’ll see if Chad lets me come back, but it tends to be a casual conference, and some people are in polo style shirts, other people in t-shirts. Can I wear a t-shirt on stage, is that okay?

Davidson: You could, and it would really depend on what t-shirt. If you had a really nice cottony material t-shirt that was, you know, the American Eagle ones or the American Apparel ones — maybe. And you’re a skinny guy, you can get away with it.

Benjamin: Thank you. You know who’s doing some really cool t-shirts actually right now? And you know what, they’re a sponsor, insanelygreattees.com. If you’ve seen the Flickr photos of me with the old-school bomb on the shirt or the one with the binary tree, there’s a lot of cool things that they do. They came to us and said, “We want to —” I guess they see these pictures of me on Flickr, and John, don’t you have the bomb shirt?

Gruber: Of course I do. The system bomb.

Benjamin: Yeah, system bomb from old OS 7.

Gruber: That shirt is the bomb.

Davidson: I want that shirt.

Benjamin: We actually worked out a cool deal with them, since you want the shirt. There’s some kind of — I don’t know how this works, maybe you go to the site, John, or what do you do? There’s a coupon they have worked out for us. So if you buy two or more shirts, you get free domestic shipping. And if you happen to be stuck in some other country, then you get —

Gruber: And how do you apply this coupon? What’s the coupon code?

Benjamin: That’s a good question, but it expires at the end of July, so you better act now.

Gruber: So go to our website, thetalkshow.net, to see the coupon?

Benjamin: Yeah, we’ll have a link, we’ll put up a link.

Gruber: I like the way you worked that in, that was very smooth the way you segued. I’m going to have to practice that for next week’s show.

Benjamin: It will be less abrupt if you can work it in that way — but I was actually, the reason I was wondering is —

Gruber: I like the challenge of having to work in, before I say something about to thank a sponsor, to think of — no matter how obscure, some way to work it in. I’m going to do it, that’s a challenge.

Benjamin: There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, it’s a bit more technical photography type questions. Not really that technical because I’m still sort of starting out.

Davidson: You’ve still got the pinhole camera.

Benjamin: I finally moved up from the pinhole to the Canon Rebel Digital XTi. And it’s a great camera, I was definitely influenced by you and John and a few other people to go in the Canon direction, I’m happy I did it. So how come you wind up with these situations, very confusing to people who are just starting out, when they talk about a wide vs. a narrow aperture. You’ve actually got numbers going in the opposite direction that you would think, you think big and it’s actually small, and small is big. What is that and is there any kind of petition that I can be involved with or help support that would get them to straighten that out because it’s — I mean, I understand it philosophically but — we don’t need to keep that around anymore, do we?

Davidson: Oh hell yeah we do, it’s all about circles, it’s math. There’s a beautiful bit of math behind photography, and that number, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8 — you can always tell when somebody’s been taking lots of pictures because they can rattle that scale off. It’s all ratios, it’s ratios, dealing with pi and circles, and each next step, going from 1 to 1.4, from 1.4 to 2, from 2.0 to 2.8 — that’s doubling the amount of light you’re getting in.

Gruber: But it does throw people off, it is an unfortunate circumstance that the numbers worked out like that because you end up with the thing where, for example, a lens that the fastest it gets is 2.8 is significantly slower than a lens that goes to f/1.8. But if you look at the total scale of numbers, and you show it to just some guy shopping at Best Buy, well, that looks like it’s almost the same. Because it also goes up to like f/16. Or f/7, you’re shooting in sunlight.

Benjamin: Your natural inclination is, well, this one goes all the way up to 16!

Davidson: [laughs] Or 32.

Gruber: 2.8, 1.8, what’s the difference. But the difference is actually huge. An f/1.8 lens, you can actually shoot indoors in relatively low light and get some really nice results. And then f/2.8, you really need a significant amount of light indoors to get a shot.

Benjamin: Duncan, when you’re shooting at these conferences, are you mainly shooting with a zoom lens? Do you use prime lenses at all in your conference shooting? Are you using prime lenses at all, period? I’ll tell you why I ask, when I first started out, John’s suggestion to me was, get one of a couple of these different prime lenses. I think one was 50 mm, and he also recommended a 28 mm, which makes sense if you take into consideration the crop factor on a digital SLR, which you can maybe hopefully explain in your answer. But I recall that when I was talking to you about it, you said, “Yeah, prime lenses are really great, you may also want to consider getting a lens that does zoom, but you’re going to zoom way less than you think you’re going to zoom.” So, to my original question, what are you shooting with most of the time? Does it vary? What’s the deal with the crop factor? And what do you think about the whole prime lens thing?

Davidson: Well, let’s take this one step at a time. What I shoot with right now in conference situations, there’s three lenses I lean on, it’s the 24–70, the 70–200, and then the 300 mm prime. So it’s two zooms and a prime. And they’re all f/2.8 lenses so they’re all pretty fast and pretty capable. I’ve got faster lenses in terms of aperture, I’ve got several 1.4 lenses and several 2.0 lenses, but I find when I’m shooting the events, I actually need to keep my aperture around f/4. So I’ve got enough depth of field to work with somebody’s head. So I don’t have, like, a totally focused nose and totally blurred out back of their hair. The 300 mm prime is an amazing lens, it’s also really expensive.

Benjamin: Is that the one with the white chassis?

Davidson: That’s the white long tube that looks like it’s going to suck your soul out when you see it.

Benjamin: [laughs]

Davidson: That one is my all-time favorite right now. It may be a little bit a new toy syndrome, but it’s just so damn sharp. I use the 70–200 as a zoom, and I prefer it as a zoom in that range because for the shooting I do I can’t necessarily jump right up on stage and get into somebody’s face, but a lot of times that’ll get me close enough to get the shot I want, or I can crank around and get a wider shot that encompasses most of the stage, at 70 mm, at the distances I’m usually work at. And the same is true about going sort of wide angle. Now, one thing I’ve considered doing is swapping out the 24–70 wide with just a prime, like a 24–35 mm prime for doing wide. But that’s for the professional shooting and that’s not really going to translate well into the kinds of pictures you want to take. So let’s take another example. When I go out, when I go out hiking or I go out on the town, or I just go running around, I’ll take a 50 mm 1.4 fixed lens, and sometimes I’ll take a 135 f/2 lens. Because when you have a little bit of time to work a shot, when somebody’s not paying you and you have to get the shot immediately, you can always zoom with your feet, or most of the time you can zoom with your feet. And you have time and usually ability to get closer to things. I liked John’s comment last episode where — one rule of thumb about photography is that you can always get closer, and that will usually make the picture better. And I agree with that a lot. So when I’m out doing more casual shooting, I tend more towards the primes than the zooms. So the zooms for me are convenience factor when I’m in the work situation. But I love the image quality you get with a good prime. And the reason that it’s really nice to recommend primes to learning photographers like you is that it forces you to think about composition more than a zoom. Zooms, you can get lazy and you can think, oh, I’ll just zoom and get closer. And really you should think about where you are in relation to your subject. And then the other thing that’s nice is that you can get extremely good quality at a lower price. Zooms have all these elements and to get a really good quality zoom you put out big bucks. Whereas you can get really good quality prime lenses for fairly cheap, in comparison. So it’s kind of the best of all worlds for people who are learning and people who are just doing photography for the love of photography.

Gruber: All the major SLR companies, Pentax, Canon, Nikon, they all have a 50 mm prime lens that costs about $100, maybe even less. You can get the Canon f/1.8 for like $85. I think the Nikon is similarly priced. And it is, in my mind, the single biggest bargain in all of photography. I mean, because for $85 you can get a lens that is very fast, f/1.8, and optically is better than just about any zoom that any consumer would ever consider buying.

Davidson: Right. To match one of those primes typically you’d have to spend at least $1000 on a zoom.

Gruber: And I think it just never occurs to people because they think, “well, I want a zoom”, or they think, “for $85 how good is it?” But it really is a fantastic lens, it just happens to be the easiest lens to manufacture so that’s why the price is so low.

Benjamin: So if I was a new photographer, and I asked you this question when I was going through it, but I think it’s a — I want to hear both of your answers — a new photographer, starting out, they’re done with the point-and-shoot, they’re ready to go to a digital SLR, maybe they’re going with the Nikon D40 perhaps, or they’re going with the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. What lens should they be getting? Should they get the kit lens that comes with it, should they say “forget that, I want to get a prime lens”, and if so, what should they be getting?

Davidson: I waffle on this a little bit. I mean, to some degree, I would say go ahead and get the kit lens that comes with it because it’s a zoom, it’s a typically okay zoom, it’s not a great zoom, but if you’re outside in the daytime, it’ll work fine. And it’ll give you a few different focal lengths that go with the camera, and it’s usually about $100 added onto the price or maybe a bit more. But then I would also go ahead and just immediately jump in and get a 50. It’s the best $100 you can ever do for your photography, as John said. And then start looking wide or start looking tall if that’s the kind of thoughts that you’re having for your pictures. That would be my starting point. What about you, John?

Gruber: I think the same thing. I waffle on whether to advise people to get the kit lens or not, because it’s the same thing where I don’t really like — I can tell — I know far, far less about photography than you, but I can see the results when I just look at the pictures people take with them, especially indoors.

Davidson: Oh yeah, you can always see the kit lens, yeah.

Gruber: But like you said, it’s only $100. But, see, my thought is if you get it, you’re going to be tempted to use it when you should be using a prime lens, learning to be a better photographer. So I would just say, especially if you’ve already got a point-and-shoot that almost always has some kind of zoom on it, if you really want to say, I want to become an avid amateur, I would say get the body without the lens and get the $85 50 mm lens. And just use that even for just a month where you got the camera, it’s brand new, of course you’re going to use it because it’s your new toy, but just have that 50, make it be the only lens you bought with the camera and you’ll have to use it, and it’ll give better muscles, better photographer muscles.

Davidson: I can’t argue with that, that’s totally solid advice too.

Gruber: I just think the one thing that I’ve gotten better at in five or six years of amateur photography, the one thing if anything that I’ve gotten better at is framing. And I look back at some of my older pictures, and I just see people with heads cut off or just weird stuff in the framing, and I think, boy, I wish I would’ve taken a couple more shots of that scene from a different angle. And having a fixed lens that doesn’t zoom at all, it just makes you think about moving the camera. If you can zoom, you just think, well, I can zoom, and it gives you two things to think about. So just removing the idea, just having a lens that only does one focal length, it makes you think about moving the camera because there’s no other way to change the framing.

Davidson: Right. So I totally agree, if you’re wanting to get good at photography, definitely stick to primes. I think the one case where the zoom might be handy is when you go to Disneyland, and your wife wants to use the camera or your husband wants to use the camera, your significant other who’s not necessarily wanting to join you in this endeavor, and you can slap that on there for them and say, here you go, knock yourself out. They might be happy with that. But then again, maybe not. Maybe zooms are just overrated at that level.

Benjamin: It was just such a weird experience for me when I did put the 50 mm lens on there. As far as I can remember, at least in my entire adult life, all of the cameras I’ve had have always been able to zoom. And it’s the weirdest thing, having a very expensive, relatively speaking, a very expensive camera with a somewhat expensive lens on it, the 50 or the 28, and all it does is focus. I mean, I certainly understand that photos are much, much better than anything else I’ve ever taken, but it’s sort of weird, you almost feel like the camera isn’t doing something that you’re used to cameras doing if that makes sense. My whole life — oh yeah, I’ll just zoom in.

Gruber: And it’s just an unfortunate fact that it’s a big selling point. People buy cameras based on the zoom. I can’t tell you — as a guy who, like, my friends know that I’m a hobbyist photographer, I get asked questions “what camera I should buy” and sometimes they’ll ask me a question like, “Look, these are the two cameras I’m looking at, I’m leaning towards this one, but it’s only got a 10× zoom and the other one has 12×, do you think that’s all right?” And that’s just how they think. You’re just so, so thinking about the wrong factors. I don’t even know where to start.

Davidson: It’s kind of like the Korean cell phone manufacturers looking at the iPhone saying, “well, we’ve got all those features and more” and yet not getting it.

Gruber: Right, right. “We’ve got a camera, we’ve got a web browser. What more do you want?”

Davidson: Right. “We’ve got the feature list.” Yeah, it’s a total mind-bender when you have to really think about framing without zooming, and it’s actually hitting me again with this new camera that I’ve got. Different cameras have a different amount of crop that you see through the viewfinder. This is getting a little esoteric, but my 5D only showed about 96 or something percent of what actually hit the sensor. So you get used to, when you’re framing through the viewfinder that the resulting image is going to have a little bit of extra stuff around the edge that you didn’t see through the viewfinder. And this new 1D, it’s 100 percent. What you see through the viewfinder is exactly where that crop line is going to be when you see the image resulting, and I’m already having to reprogram my head a little bit to make sure that I have enough space around people. But framing is everything. And having this little experience today, just the last few days, but especially today, as I watch the photos come through the camera, it’s a mind-bender, again, so I can totally understand how not putting a zoom on would bend somebody’s head too. It’s a good way to bend it.

Gruber: So one last quick question about the new camera, the — what is it, 3D?

Davidson: 1D Mark III, yeah. Super badass.

Gruber: So one of the big differences, your previous work camera was the full-frame Canon, what’s it, the 5D?

Davidson: Yeah.

Gruber: And now you’ve gone back to a camera which has the smaller digital sensor. It just makes up for it in a bunch of different ways. But do you find that that throws you off a little bit in terms of your lens selection because now you’re having to deal with the crop factor again whereas all that time you spent with the 5D you weren’t?

Davidson: It’s tossed me a little bit off but not too much, and that’s because the crop factor is different. It’s a 1.3× crop factor vs. the 1.6× crop factor. They call it APS-H for some reason. And it turns out that the 1D has the biggest sensor that you can image in one pass off of current chip technology machines, or the chip imaging machines. Whereas the 5D sensor, they actually have to stitch in multiple exposures so the yield goes way down. But I haven’t found it to be such a problem, because it doesn’t shift my lenses around as much as the 1.6 multiplier does. So when I stick on my 78–200 lens, it’s not really affected too much. I basically have a slight bit of cropping to the image and that’s about it from what I expected before. So it’s not too bad. The place where it hurts me a little bit is on the wides, and that’s why I keep the — I mean, the 5D I’m going to keep for landscapes, and I’m also going to keep as my back-up camera and for doing the wide angle stuff because if you really want 24 mm or you really want 17 mm, you’ve got to have the full frame.

Gruber: And that’s like the one thing in all of the brand name wars in photography, that is the one thing that Canon has, is Canon is the only company with a full-frame DSLR.

Davidson: Right. There’s two big differences: one is the full frame, and the second is the sensitivity of the sensors. Canon really rocks when you get up into the ISO 800, 1600, 3200 ranges. Both Nikons and Canons are great at ISO 100, which is when you’re out shooting landscapes and whatnot. But the high ISO characteristics of the Canon is really, really awesome.

Benjamin: What do you think of the camera on the iPhone?

Davidson: It’s great for snapshots. [laughs] As a camera, it sucks. It records images and if what you’re wanting is to make sure that you remember an event or remember somebody or a place for yourself, it’s perfectly serviceable.

Gruber: Do you find that it has a really weird white balance? I get the greenish-blue tint to almost every picture I take with it. Almost.

Davidson: It’s got a wonky white balance, yes.

Gruber: I’ll bet that that’s software. I mean, I’m hoping that that gets adjusted in a software update. Because I would think that the white balance is controlled by software, that it’s not part of the camera chip. Maybe it is, I don’t know. And I see pictures on Flickr from iPhones and it’s just rampant, this sort of sickly green fluorescent tone to pictures.

Davidson: Seems like they really optimized it for taking pictures under fluorescent lights. But yeah, it’s a little weird. It also has a lot of bloom, so if you have a bright area, you get all the lighting of the area around the bright areas. But I’ve found it pretty good if you’re out in daylight. I’ve had a lot of fun with it, just taking snaps and uploading them.

Gruber: What do you think of where the button is? I can’t stand where the shutter button is.

Benjamin: Horrible.

Davidson: The whole soft button thing, yeah, I hate it. I’m not sure I hate it because it’s a soft button, but I hate the location of it, for sure.

Gruber: And I think the worst thing about it — maybe they were thinking, because it’s right above the home button, which is the physical button, and maybe they were thinking, well, we’ll put it above the home button so you can feel it, it’s right above there. But what I found is that I keep hitting the home button by accident, and then I leave the camera app and go back to the iPhone home screen.

Davidson: I do that all the time. I wish you just tapped the screen to take the picture.

Benjamin: Anywhere on the screen.

Davidson: Because if you tap the screen, it does nothing. So might as well do something with that click.

Gruber: That’s the best solution, that’s the easiest solution, the best thing I’ve heard.

Benjamin: Who do we have to tell to implement that?

Gruber: I don’t know, we need someone with a popular Mac weblog, or something.

Davidson: [laughs]

Benjamin: So speaking of weblogs, Duncan has a weblog, he’s got a website, redoing it again. You almost redo it as much as I do.

Davidson: Well, that’s because both of us enjoy the challenge of it.

Benjamin: So it’s duncandavidson.com, right?

Davidson: Yep.

Benjamin: That’s the main one or is that the blog now?

Davidson: That’s everything. I had the blog separate because I was running over on Typepad and I nixed that, and it’s all collapsed down. So if you go to blog.duncandavidson.com, I do the Daring Fireball trick and just send you to duncandavidson.com and that’s it.

Benjamin: So if I want to hire you for a wedding or bar mitzvah to come out and take some pictures, you’re not doing it, you’re not available?

Davidson: [laughs] I’ve not actually done a wedding, I’ve done lots of events, but no weddings so far. So I would be a little hesitant unless that was somebody I really knew so that we could work through that and be a little bit less of a “oh my god, I’m dealing with a client I don’t know”.

Benjamin: Well, we’ve got to wrap it up. I don’t know how I’m going to edit this down, John.

Gruber: I don’t know, that’s your problem. I am so — I have never been happier that we worked it out that you do the editing and I just show up for the show and talk. Because I think we’ve been talking for about three hours here.

Benjamin: It’s been three and a half hours, 3 hours 38 minutes.

Gruber: It’s great, we’ll have lots of footage for our eventual director’s cut, complete, uncut The Talk Show DVD.

Benjamin: Right.

Davidson: There’s some edits you can make. Thinking back, there’s a few places I can think that you can cut down, but still.

Benjamin: Pretty much wherever John is talking.

Gruber: I was going to say the same thing but about yours.

Benjamin: Right. So the three things I think people need to remember today: James Duncan Davidson, 37signals, Insanely Great Tees. That’s it. If you leave nothing else, just remember those three things. And 50 mm.

Gruber: 50 mm fixed prime lens.

Davidson: 50 mm. 24, 35, any of those. Just fixed, fixed, fixed. [somebody talks into a megaphone in the background]

Benjamin: What is that in the background?

Gruber: I think James is getting arrested.

Davidson: Yeah, that would be security coming by.

Benjamin: It’s very sort of NPR of us to have that stuff in the background.

Gruber: I’ll call a lawyer.

Davidson: Yeah, and I have to say, it’s a bit embarrassing that I’m speaking on my laptop microphone after John took so much grief over his.

Benjamin: No, he was speaking into a high-quality microphone, he just had it in the closet.

Davidson: Ahh.

Gruber: The weird thing is that I actually sounded worse with a better microphone because I apparently wasn’t close enough to it.

Benjamin: Yeah, spend a few hundred bucks on a mic and you actually degrade the quality of his sound. We’ll end. We’re pretty much done.

Davidson: I think so, but it was a lot of fun doing this, guys. [somebody still talks into a megaphone in the background]

Gruber: Yeah, it was great, thanks.

Benjamin: I’m just so entertained by that sound in the background.

Davidson: [laughs]

Benjamin: Maybe there’s a filter I can put over what we’re saying right now that’ll make it sound like that.

Davidson: Maybe so, or maybe you can sample it out and have it running through the entire podcast.

Benjamin: I think it was anyway.

Davidson: Well, I’m running away from it, so it’s well in the background now.

Benjamin: All right, guys, we’re done.

Gruber: Thanks.

Davidson: Thanks, man.

Benjamin: See you later.

Davidson: Ciao.

Benjamin: We don’t have to even hang up if we don’t want.

Davidson: [laughs]