#i also just dont particularly like drawing environments that much and if i do draw them they're not gonna be too accurate

[arielluva]

looking specifically for drawings of mine with backgrounds really makes me realize that i. don't draw backgrounds very often. simple colors or patterns ftw i guess

[venomous-qwille]

Heeeeeyyy, I love me a good fucking STUDY

for environments:

shot deck is a massive database of film shots searchable by grading, tod, shot type, characters and content! Studying from films really helps improve your values and composition as the shots are usually very carefully constructed! It helps you find ways to maintain realism while still packing mood and narrative into your work!

master paintings! I recommend the orientalists like Jean Leon Gerome in particular their environments had great compositions and throw around a ton of colour and light! I like the modern artists Craig Mullins and Richard Schmid also, as there is so much impressionist lost detail and simplicity yet the environments feel so real.

The 1960s era disney background artists like eyvind earle are a masterclass in stylisation and simplification and make a wonderful choice for studies. (That being said modern disney visdev artists like Nathan Fowkes are just as fantastic to study for the same reason)

architectural photography can be a great resource too- I love to look for work by urbEX people!

thumbnailing and comp studies- trying to break down a photo into as few values as possible and still have it be readable- this really helps train your brain in the relationship between light exposure and local value.

Im begging you if doing it in colour is too hard to start with just do it in black and white!!!!! Greyscale painting is an essential step in learning to paint and understand lighting scenarios!! Colour is hard!!!

there is no substitute for going outside and doing some plein air painting- really looking first hand at how the light effects different materials and objects, how it bounces around, what edges your eye naturally loses in certain lighting scenarios. Just go outside and draw and try to notice stuff.

for characters:

figure studies!!!! from life if you can but if you cant there are a ton of great resources out there- personally I love croquis cafe and posespace, but if you can afford it (and are interested in intense anatomy study) then scott eaton has a site called bodies in motion which is fantaaaastic. I think by now everyone knows nyx and senshistock, I also use a lot of grafit studio photorefs to study more complicated poses!!

Master studies (again). I particularly like to study the work of John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, Edwin Austin Abbey, Alphonse Mucha (his le pater compositions are out of this world), any of the New Rochelle artists (e.g rockwell, tom lovell, those 1950s illustrators REALLY knew their shit).

I literally have a resin skull on my desk that I've used to do quick studies with different lighting, just 10 mins a day back when I was doing it and it levelled up my skill a lot!.

Material studies are essential to leveling up your character painting!!! Look at fur, look at metal, look at the way something embroidered reflects light vs tooled leather!!

gesture studies! Look at a dynamic pose and see how you can exaggerate the motion in away that captures the sense of movement. This is tricky to start with but its really worthwhile especially when you combine it with other exercises. Mixamo is a cool library to look into for this kind of thing as you can pause and rotate the models in the middle of their actions!

breakdown the work of artists you admire- it's ok to study other living artists (and try to reverse engineer how they are making their decisions) it's a very effective learning tool! Really figure out what it is about that persons workflow you like, and how you might incorporate that element into your own. Obviously, dont post studies of living artists work!

The most important thing is that when you do a study you go into it knowing what you want to learn. Dont try to do everything at once! It's ok to focus on the muscle structure and not give a damn about the gesture. It's ok to focus on the texture of the fur and completely ignore the characters face.

The best way to keep doing studies is to find refs you like- things you are interested in and that capture your imagination! Follow your curiosity and remember that just a tiny little bit a day makes a huge difference.

Gunna take a sec to recommend the tutorials of Devin Korwin. He talks about how to study and how to breakdown art fundamentals in a way that is at once both very advanced but also digestible. I highly recommend his pdfs!

What do you all study when you're doing art studies??

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[illfoandillfie]

Hi again, I’m the one that requested about the romantic soulmate and when will it come and yes, please can you tell me more about them? I asked if I’d ever meet them because sometimes it feels like it won’t happen so I’m more like I could wait forever as long as they get here you know? But if you could tell me more, I’d be grateful. Also yes, I know that you can’t give me a specific time but I wonder more like if it’s in the near future or later on in life. Again, thank you💕

This was fun! Hopefully some of this will make sense, even if it’s not straight away lmao if you have any more questions or theres anything else you’re curious about let me know and i’ll see if any of my decks can give us some clues!

So to start I drew 4 attribute cards to try and get a sense of this person’s personality. Each archetype has light and shadow attributes, though it doesn’t necessarily mean all of them will be exhibited. More that they are negative aspects that this person has the potential to fall into (eg: just because the shadow attribute of trickster talks about manipulating others, it doesn’t mean this person is going to be overtly manipulative of you. but they might be good at playing the system to benefit themselves or something like that)

We got:

Trickster - Light attribute: Transcending convention, stuffiness and predictable behaviour / Shadow atrribute: Manipulating others through duplicity

Mentor - Light attribute: Passing on wisdom and refining a student’s character / Shadow attribute - Inability to allow the student to move on to the role of Master. Imparting false instruction

Exorcist - Light attribute: Freeing yourself and others of destructive impulses / Shadow attribute - Fear of facing your own demons 

Visionary - Light attributes - Capacity to envision what is not yet conceivable to others. Willingness to proclaim a vision without regard for personal gain. / Shadow attributes - Selling insights to the highest bidder. Compromising your vision to make it more acceptable.

So from these it seems this person will be a little outside the box, maybe they have a particular style of dress which is unusual or a special interest/hobby that is a bit odd. With both mentor and exorcist they may have a background in teaching or social work - even if they are no longer on that path. It might not even be an official degree they have, they might just be particularly aware of the system, maybe they know someone who benefits from AA meetings something like that. It could be as simple as them tutoring school/uni/college students. With the visionary archetype it seems they’d be a bit of a dreamer, probably a creative thinker.

Next thing i did was draw some letters and charms to try and get some more info on what they’re like.

For the letters we got D, E, I, F, R, L, I, O, P - there may be initials in here. with the two Is it might mean this person has double letters in their name. There might also be other words in here to describe them. 

I know I’m seeing DILF lmao but also Pride (so maybe they’re lgbt or just proud of who they are/what they have accomplished), Pie (maybe the like to bake?), Leo and fire (so maybe they’re a leo or a fire sign or have a fire dominated natal chart)

have a look what words jump out at you as well and see how you might be able to connect them (i can’t see any names in there but im notoriously bad at anagram things so maybe you can)

As for the charms:

The world on the dice and the eiffel tower both suggest overseas travel, so this person might be well traveled or they might have a specific connection to France. 

The shell could represent a connection to the sea or the beach. In dream interpretations shells have a few meanings. They can represent having a hard exterior but being soft on the outside so this person might come across as cold or closed off until you get to know them better. Shells can also be a symbol of wanting protection so it might be that this person has a defensive streak or they are very protective of those they love. Shells are also connected with the goddess Venus and so are seen as signs of sexual pleasure. 

words you got here are freedom, sassy and reach(ing) - freedom i think definitely makes sense with the trickster archetype above and maybe the visionary one as well. 

You also got the Make Poverty History badge so this person may donate money or time to a charity (or multiple charities). The badge also says Stand Up And Be Counted so it might represent this person being outspoken, especially about things that are important to them. 

The hand charm reminds me of the Hamsa symbol, even though theres no eye on the palm. the Hamsa is a symbol of protection or warding off evil. Aside from that, open palmed hands can be a symbol of open communication, so that is definitely a good sign. In dreams palms can also indicate a chance meeting with a stranger who may become a romantic partner so that just ties into what i said in the previous reading about you not having met them yet. 

And finally we have 2 different scissor charms. To me this represents sharp - sharp wit, sharp mind, sharply dressed. But scissors can also be a sign of decisiveness, or of a fear of being cut off for something. This person is likely the sort who knows what they want and will go after it. Once they make a decision they stick with it. And once they meet you, they’re not going to want to leave you. 

To try and get some more info on how you’ll meet I drew some tarot cards. 

7 of pentacles, 10 of pentacles, king of pentacles, 7 of wands, the tower, ace of pentacles.

Look at all those motherfucking pentacles. Just like I said in the previous reading, this definitely has something to do with work. With the king of pents there in the middle I’m inclined to say this person may work at the same place as you, maybe in a managerial role or at least someone higher up the chain than you. Or maybe they just have more experience in the role than you do. 

The last few cards are the most interesting. The 7 of wands is a card of conflict or struggles though it doesn’t necessarily have to be negative. It can represent standing your ground or defending yourself or others. The tower is a sign of dramatic and unexpected change, often negative. I pulled a clarifying card for it as well, to see if we could get some info on what this tower moment is and i got the ace of pentacles. The ace of pents is about new opportunities, especially related to money or work.

To me this says something is going to happen that will cause a dramatic change to your work. Now, I can see this going either two way. At it’s most negative this is a conflict, maybe with someone you work with, maybe just the work environment itself. Maybe it’s one of those things where every day becomes a struggle and you start to hate your job and you dont want to be there anymore. This leads to the tower moment of you quitting and finding a new job.

OR, at it’s most positive - the conflict moment still happens, but because of how well you handle the situation you’re offered a promotion or a transfer or something like that. It’s still a new opportunity, it still has the stress and sudden change that the tower indicates, but it’s not quite as negative.

Whichever way it goes, it leads to you meeting or coming into closer contact with this person, the king of pentacles, your soulmate. 

(As a side note, in the previous reading we drew the queen of pentacles and now we’ve drawn the king so if you wanted proof that they’re The One, that’s it. Also like, the story these cards tell matches so well with the last reading, the work, the new opportunity im like a little stunned by it)

In an effort to lean more about them and more about when you’ll meet I pulled some romance angels. You got:

Forgiving and Learning - as you release and heal the past, you experience more love in your present moments

Very Soon - clearly decide what you want so that it comes to you now

Keep an Open Mind - your soul mate may differ from your usual type and expectations

Trust - This situation is calling for you to have faith

So, in the context of when will you meet, trust is obviously asking you to have faith that the universe will bring this person towards you even if it seems to be taking forever. And also trust that this person is right for you, especially if they’re different from what you might expect as the keep an open mind card suggests. Obviously the most interesting is Very Soon which suggests that you’ll meet them sooner rather than later. I pulled a number tile as i was focusing on that card to try and get an indication of timing and you got a 3. Now, that could be 3 day, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years. It might also be a number relevant to the time when you meet them (maybe 3 weeks AFTER something else or maybe 3pm or even you’ll just see the number 3 around a lot as a warning that they’re coming)

And finally. I have a deck of channeled messages. These are things that your person might be thinking or might be wanting to say to you. Take them with as many grains of salt as you like but I figured it could be fun. The white cards are messages from the person, light blue are messages from the deck/universe.

The one blue card we got is They are waiting for you and really I think that sets the tone of all of these cards.

I just dream and wish for everything, I just want you all the time, I lie awake thinking about our future. This person is ready to meet you, they are sick of dating around, sick of the wrong people, they want something real and long lasting. 

Please give me time I’ve never felt this way before. You’ll need to wait a little longer before you meet them but not much longer. It’s next to I think we should slow down in reverse, they want this to happen as soon as possible, they are as sick of waiting as you are. 

Definitely is designed to look like The Tower card which is very interesting but with this one there is no question of it having a positive outcome, even if it feels hard in the moment it will be worth it.

And finally, I’m too afraid to talk in reverse. It’s likely this person will approach you, there’s no fear there, no worry about what you’ll say. And once they start talking to you they’re going to keep talking to you. 

[idontevenremember5minutesago]

If you dont mind me asking. What is your problem with Lance Stans?

Alright. I knew I would get this sooner or later. Note I’m not about to pull punches. Also this is a long one because I don’t want to have to answer this again so strap in for a ride. Here’s MY experience  with Lance stans. This won’t even get into my experience with Klantis. Because that’s just a whole different ball game.

So, In the beginning everything was fine. And I can say that with confidence because I was in the Tumblr Voltron tag the day the show’ first season dropped on Netflix. I was that excited. Voltron was my childhood and I loved the direction they were taking it  and I wanted to talk about it. I instantly loved all the characters but Keith, having been my favorite character in the 80’s series quickly became my favorite once again so I was excited for content on him especially. I can tell you truthfully, that even back in the early days most of the Keith content was shipping him with Lance. At the time I was alright with that. I liked Klance.and everyone shipping it was really chill (if you can believe it) but I noticed that he was usually portrayed as a pining love interest  who hyped Lance up and that bummed me out cause Keith was so much more than that, but I was confident that when Keith got more development that would change. But then things took a turn  as Lance stans emerged as the most vocal fans in the fandom and Klance as the most popular ship. Because he got so little focus in the first season, people had to supplant their own views of Keith’s character to write fics and draw fanart. So Lance stans already had  a certain view of Keith’s character and that was, a way to prop up Lance or highlight Lance’s insecurities so he could apologize to Lance and they could have Langst (Ugh) and Klangst.

Things took a turn in S2 when Keith got his character arc and more spotlight. I was ecstatic.More people started to appreciate KEith, I got more Keith centric fanart and headcanons and Fanfictions. But then I noticed  A Lot of Lance stans started to grumble and complain aoubt Keith getting a character arc, because apparently it took away Lance’s screen time and ruined the view they had developed for Keith as a empty love interest. His bond with Shiro and the alone time he got with Allura threatened Klance. Him finding out his heritage, and piloting Black and going on solo missions with other Paladins threatened the view Lance stans had of Keith and because S2 established him as his own character, and back then, for Lance stans, everything Keith needed to revolve around Lance and Lance stans got bitter and the attacks began. Now it’s important to note that there  were Hunk fans who were upset Hunk didn’t get an arc, but I never saw any of them go after Keith or his fans. Also other fans were also getting mad at other characters. There were those who went after Allura and Hunk during S2. But once again those fans didnt go after the fans of the characters and they didn’t hate on the characters just to hate, rather criticized their actions, from what I saw. But Lance stans were by far the most vocal, violent and the most antagonistic. It got to the point where Keith fans were forced to participate in the then budding discourse because Lance Stans hijacked the Keith tag and filled it with their crap with bashing Keith and his fans when they defended him and his arc. We were constantly defending him and constantly suffering personal attacks for defending him. I saw Lance stans throw around the words homophobic and racist ( Which was personally offensive to me as I’m black)  at Keith fans because we were happy that Keith was getting development after an entire Season out of focus.Because being happy that Keith was getting an arc was a apparently a gross offense that warranted attacks on our personal persons.  

Some of the things they said was absolutely insane. Keith was horrible because he argued back when Lance started fights with him. Keith was to blame for Lance’s insecurities because he was better than him at flying. Somehow Iverson chewing out Lance was Keith’s fault. To Lance stans Keith was only one of three thrings, an empty love interest who hypes and props Lance up, A terrible person to blame for Lance’s insecurities or a combination of the two. By extension Keith fans who so much as pointed out things like Lance being mean to Keith or expressed love for Keith were Terrible people who supported the sidelining of their precious golden boy. It didnt help that I didnt know how to exclude tags on Ao3 at the time so I couldnt escape it even if I left tumblr.

As someone who viewed 80’s Keith as her Hero as a child, and who absolutely adored his new portrayal and related to him on every single level, seeing him get attacked so much was disheartening. Every trip to his tag had me leaving so sad and upset.

It got even worse when s3 dropped and Black Paladin Keith was confirmed. After months of Lance stans ragging on us and screaming for Black Paladin Lance and making headcanons about how Keith would never be chosen for the Black Paladin and that the Black Lion would absolutely reject him for Lance , to have all that debunked with Black actually rejecting everyone else and accepting Keith was too much and it sent Lance stans into a nuclear meltdown. The attacks came more and more, everyday in the tag turned into a war. Many Keith fans had to make separate accounts to combat the hate just to keep it all from our main account. It was TERRIBLE. There were so many Lance stans in the Keith tag claiming that Keith was a terrible character, that he didn’t deserve screetime and that Lance should be the main character,  the black paladin, that he should get all the arcs  and after months of fighting for the right to have Keith as my favorite character I. WAS.TIRED. I was tired of fighting just to have a good experience in the tag. I was tired of the attacks. I was tired of watching other Keith fans get attacked and get fed up and complain about how much they had to block and filter just to have a positive experience. I was tired of words like homophobic and racist being thrown out by Lance stans like candy. I was just tired. And so I stepped out of the fandom. I tried to still watch the show but it just reminded me of the horrible time I had and I stopped watching it as well.  

I occasionally stepped my toe back in a couple of times   like when Keith’s blog dropped, when his birthday was revealed, when Krolia was introduced and when the fandom did something particularly toxic and I just had to know, but my time watching the show and  interacting with the fandom was done.

Until the last season dropped and there was a huge movement of people leaving the fandom and I wanted to see what was so bad and I ended up binging the entire show and rediscovered my love for it (Excluding S8 because yeah) and Keith. And thus I wondered back into the fandom.

So in conclusion, Lance stans ultimately drove me away from Voltron ( A franchise I’ve loved since I was a literal child) and I’m not ashamed to say I deeply resent them for it. I’m mature enough to admit that not all Lance stans  are like that, that some hate the toxic stans just as much as I do , that some absolutely  love and respect Keith but there’s too much negative feelings that I hold for that side of the fandom so i felt it best to just entirely exclude  them from my Voltron experience. There’s too much of a chance that I’ll run into toxic ones again and I don’t want my time in this fandom to be ruined again. This fandom under all the toxicity can be really fun and nice and I refuse to give up on something I love ever again. And it sucks because I do love Lance and I have to pretty much stay away from his tag.

It doesn’t help that Lance stans still have the reputation of being the toxic side of the fandom for not only switching  to bashing every other character in the show ( even side characters) for being ‘mean’ to Lance, but also for going after the cast and crew of the show ( Lance Stans attacked Neil Kaplan in droves because he said something about Lance), and that terribly cringy thing with the Lance stan at SDCC literally yelling at the voice actors because they felt no one appreciated him. It also doesn’t help that even now it’s a running joke even to people OUTSIDE the fandom to ‘watch what you say about that Blue guy from Voltron or his cult of fans will attack you.” I don’t want to be anywhere near that shit.

The silver lining is that the love and appreciation for Keith is at an all time high and the posts I do unfortunately come across that bash him all come from posts Lance stans made in 2017, or as I like to call ‘ the dark ages of Keith fandom’. And that Keith hate is actually out of the norm and other fans, not only Keith fans are quick to shut it down and that Fans  of the other characters are just as quick to go after the fanatical Lance standom making everything about Lance. Turns out taking a break and coming back actually resulted in a much better environment so y’know small mercies and all that.

[doesanddontsofpharmcommunic-blog]

Do’s and Dont’s of Pharmacy Communication

Many people might think that working with pharmacy is just all about prescribing medicine, but there’s one very obvious and very important factor to it too: communication with patients. 

Instead of going into a long, complicated list of do’s and dont’s of pharmacy communication, I’m going to tell a personal story of two actual pharmacies I visited and provide real examples of good and bad pharmacy communication you can follow. 

This was originally done as an assignment for Interpersonal Communication class at Chapman University, but it can be a helpful tool for any students new to pharmacy communication or just the pharmacy major in general. (Note: all pictures in this post were sketched from memory)

My classmate and I visited the Walgreens Pharmacy and Savon Pharmacy at Albertson’s. We asked the pharmacists working there simple questions about medications used for the common cold (particularly Tylenol). We had very different experiences from the two pharmacists, for they gave very different responses.

The Walgreens Pharmacy had a very welcoming environment to patients. The overall layout was organized and easy to walk through, with divided windows and clear directions for where to wait in line. The shelves storing the medications were labeled with very big text and letters which could be seen from a far distance. In fact, the sign for the pharmacy itself was positioned in a way that it was the first thing we saw when we walked into the store, making it easy to find.

Other parts of the pharmacy’s design were rather creative. For example, the sign that marked where to wait in line was designed to look like a street sign, with two plaques labeled “happy” and “healthy”. Underneath those two plaques however was another sign that said “Respect privacy. Wait on waiting line.”  The layout was casual enough to draw patients in, but also formal enough to encourage a respectful and comfortable environment. This type of environment does in fact show how much this pharmacy considers patient-centered care.

Unfortunately, not much of the environment addressed low health literacy and limited English proficiency (in simple terms, pharmacies should provide a few things to reach out to non English speakers or people who don’t read very much). However, our conversation with the pharmacist did. 

The pharmacist was a middle-aged man who spoke slowly and clearly and in a way that was easy to understand. All of his information and recommendations were specific and straight to the point, and there was no overuse of complex medical terminology. These are some of the things a pharmacist should do when faced with a patient who has low health literacy. In general, the pharmacist seemed professional, but also very approachable to any patient. He was focused, made eye contact, and was energetic. He gave a few nonverbal gestures such as hand movement for emphasis. Most importantly, it was clear that he was very knowledgeable about the information he gave us, and I felt comfortable and engaged in the conversation I had with this pharmacist.

Unfortunately, our experience at Albertson’s Pharmacy was not as pleasant. The pharmacy in general was very small since it fit in one tiny corner in the store. Since there was no line marker, it was difficult to know where the line or the waiting area was. Despite being small, the design of the pharmacy didn’t seem to regard privacy because of how open and disorganized it was.

To make things more hilarious, the pharmacy was located right next to the alcohol section. 

Similar to the Walgreens Pharmacy, there was also little that addressed limited English proficiency.  

Worst of all, the pharmacist herself did not seem to value patient-centered care, as she treated us as objects. Unlike the pharmacist at Walgreens, she did not seem to care about forming a relationship with the patient nor was she willing to listen, as demonstrated by her lack of attentiveness or eye contact. Especially as a pharmacist manager, she demonstrated little knowledge of the medication we asked her about. 

When we asked her instructions on how to take Tylenol for the common cold, she gave very vague, non-specific instructions and practically just read off the container. We never got to ask her about side effects or alternative remedies because she told us to hurry up and leave as there were other patients waiting in line (when there actually weren’t). While it may be understandable that she had a tight schedule since she was the only one on duty, her tone was still very condescending and overly assertive. With how our conversation was cut short, I had a very poor impression of this pharmacist. She lacked basic courtesy and treated her patients as objects, not people. 

There is little to compare about these two pharmacies because they were nearly the complete opposite. Simply put, the Walgreens Pharmacy had a shame-free environment which would have enhanced a patient’s communication with the pharmacist, while the Albertson’s Pharmacy did not.

You can see how these two pharmacists have a stark contrast when it comes to communicating with their patients. It may seem like a simple act of being nice vs not being nice, but it all comes down to patient-centered care. The patient should always be the pharmacist’s top priority, and it is the pharmacist’s duty to appear as approachable and knowledgeable as possible. 

Hopefully, for any pharmacy students reading this, you’ll at least now have a basic understanding of how you should and should not talk to your patients in your future career.

[bashfultern]

Research

My research can be divided into 4 chunks- The australasian Bittern, legal eagle, schatten parker, and autism. The australasian bittern

my research into the Australiasian Bittern was very interesting. It is an endangered bird that thrives in the wetlands of eastern australia, namely in freshwater environments where there are many reeds. Its most stunning feature is its long neck, which it can extend up to 45 cm in length. The neck is pale on its underside, with long dark brown stripes running down it, which would later inform my design of both the neck and the clothing seams. It is a heavy set bird, which also informed my design. The Bittern often when threatened or alarmed will extend its neck to its highest length. This inspired me when i would later research stimming behaviours, as a common stim is to jut ones chin out and to stretch the neck. Due to this, i made this one of Andy’s self soothing stims. This animal is very shy and reclusive, with current numbers not even being accurately known due to it’s reclusive nature. Due to this, I think Andy could draw from this personality trait, and be also very shy, almost bashful. 

Here are some visual research drawings

a “Legal Eagle,”

This phrase connotes a lawyer who is particularly skilled in their profession. Due to this, I decided that Andy is a law student, who is currently completing his masters in International Commercial Law with Dissertation. I decided he is probably most fond of contract law, as this is the type of law that fits in best with the phrase Legal Eagle- meaning someone with a fine eye for the detail of the law, and a very devoted lawyer. I decided that contracts and the language they use is a special interest for Andy, hence his extreme aptitude at the subject. Andy is not well liked among his peers due to his odd behaviour, however even they acknowledge his prowess in the court of law. Andy would love to be hired in a sucessful law firm by the time he graduates, (he is in his final year of law now,) however his social skills need some more fine tuning before he can confidently apply for a job.

Oddly enough there is a partner phrase to “Legal Eagle,” being “legal beagle”. Legal Beagle however, has more negative connotations, such as being more aggressive in court. It also has a tendency to refer to lawyers you are opposing, rather than ones on your side. Due to this, i wanted to make Andy a sympathetic character, hencemy choice for him to do contract law.

Schattenparker

In german, this word refers to someone who parks in the shade- its used in an insulting manner to imply this person is delicate, or “not a man.” In context, and example of someone being a Schattenparker would be if they parked their car under the shade after a long hot day. The argument is that only old people and weak/sick people would park in the shade.

Whilst this word only implied these meanings, as i delved deeper into my research i found it very odd this turn of phrase. There are many reasons why people would want to park in the shade. People could be sick, they might have an animal in the car, they might have a migraine, or a sensitivity to light.

As i investigated this, sensory processing issues for autistic people came up. Many of Andy’s characterisations already leant to towards behaviours shown by autistic people, so i decided to do more research in autism for Andy’s character.

Autism

Autism is defined as “ a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.” A lot of my research into it was information from autistic people; their experiences, their explanation of things like stimming and sensory issues/overload, and on their special interests. I was able to talk with a friend of mine about her autism, and she helped me with the respectful characterisation of Andy. One thing which appeared in my research was about how to avoid alienating the audience from an autistic character. The example was called  behaviorizing vs humanizing. An example of behaviourising from their site was “’Brianna would scream whenever she had a wrinkle in her sock.’(Non-autistic kids typically do not do this, so the unusualness is located in the action of screaming. Because Brianna’s experience is left out, the only thing the reader sees is “mildly uncomfortable situation” and “completely disproportionate behavior”.)” 

and an example of humanizing was “Wrinkles in Brianna’s socks grated on her nerves like sandpaper on raw skin. Brianna often had difficulty conveying how unpleasant this was to other people, and when it happened, it reminded her of all the times she’d tried to communicate her frustration and been ignored. The combination of pain and stress and knowing she would likely be ignored again stripped her words from her and left her with no other way to communicate but screaming.”

Things like stimming and sensory overload are not things that autistic people do out of the blue. They are direct responses to stimuli, in the same way that I might smile when i see my favourite movie, an autistic person might flap their hands or rock from side to side. Sensory processing issues can lead to what in neurotypical people to be a tolerable sensation, for example a wrinkle in a sock, but for non-neurotypical people to be a vary painful and unpleasant experience. As with the other experiences associated with autism, such as repeated behaviours, special interests, and occasionally non verbal phases, it’s important to portray these respectfully in Andy’s character. He should not be a source of comedy due to his actions. So, all being said, here is a little character summary of Andy. Andy is 6 foot 2, heavy set, and a genius when it comes to contract law. He is home by 3:15 every day, applies sunscreen every 4 hours, (sometimes a bit more often if it’s been a rough day,) and finishes his studying at 9′oclock every evening. He likes to wear a matching pale green jumpsuit everyday, (turned inside out so that the hems dont grind on his skin,) loosely tied sneakers, and he keeps his hair short so it doesnt tickle his nose like how it did when he was younger. However, whilst Andy might be a legal eagle when it comes exams, he can’t seem to apply this keen eye to his social life. no matter how many online forums he reads, he can’t seem to make this friendship thing work with anyone in his year group. He is often seen with his brother Jonathan, who is helping him find some buddies of his own. 

Andy is 22, and is a Capricorn. His favourite season is winter (as it is much less hot, and sweating is an unbearable aspect of the human condition. In summer he showers 7 times a day just to avoid it.) His favourite color is beige, and if he won the lottery, the first thing he would buy would be 2 new rubber pencil grips. When he sees a cute puppy, he flaps his hands in delight, and can often be found gently rocking himself in his favourite part of a movie, or when the day is a bit stressful. At exam time you can see him jutting his chin out and stretching his neck from the stress of it all, and occasionally, when class is a bit too loud and the lights are a bit too bright and it’s getting overwhelming, you can find him under the stairs in block 4. It’s nice and cool there, very quiet, and there are no harsh glaring flurocents to stab into his eyes.

Andy’s dream is to work in a law firm that has very gentle lights and gentle speaking people. He is looking for graduate oportunities now, and can’t wait to start his dream job one day.

[tumblunni]

MISCELLANEOUS VOLTORB HEADCANONS TIME!

* I’m not sure what I like better, the idea that voltorbs do have a mouth or the idea that they just absorb nutrients through their skin somehow? Like... maybe they have a very small mouth too small for humans to see, so they take little pinprick sized nibbles out of stuff! or maybe the seam between the red and white sections actually is their jaw, so they pop open on a hinge like a pokeball to eat stuff! And maybe electrode does that too and their humanoid mouth is actually just a camoflage pattern on their skin that they can move around like an LED projection!

* Oh, or maybe they’re like the opposite of some butterflies that lose their mouth when they come out of the cocoon and never eat anything cos they only live for a week or so in their adult stage. So maybe voltorbs never eat, and they can die if they don’t evolve before the end of a set time limit, unless humans intervene and put them on an intraveneous drip. (Which is a quite difficult and expensive operation cos you have to pierce this magical steel hide to get to the circulatory system) Or maybe its just that voltorbs only absorb electricity and dont require actual food until they grow to a certain size? And that means that voltorbs naturally evolve much earlier in the wild, because electricity is harder to find unless you live with humans. As soon as their body becomes impossible to sustain on voltage alone, they undergo the metamorphosis to grow a face and stomach and become a biological engine! So human-trained electrodes kinda have the advantage of starting off stronger cos they waited until they were already mature before evolving. But wild electrodes have the advantage of accessing their evolved power earlier, even if they’re lil bitesize euivelants. Plus sometimes just remaining voltorb-sized can be more practical for getting around certain environments, the massive human-trained electrodes are adapted for a comfortable life where they won’t need to do much hiding from predators.

* Oh and... yeah. Predators! I feel like maybe they’re vampirized by other electric types, since they’re pretty much like a sentient battery just sitting there up for grabs. Maybe particularly big stuff like Electavire could even crunch an entire voltorb in its jaws, and thats why it evolved to have more steel-ish elements to it, so it could pull this off? but for most electric mons they arent able to break voltorb’s hard shell, so they can just drain its power but not kill it. But if a voltorb is stuck unable to move its basically a slow death anyway... Possibly their most common enemy is Pikachu, cos they’re speedy while voltorbs are slow. And thats why they mimic pokeballs, cos pikachus dont like to be inside their ball. (Well, in anime canon at least)

* Maybe they have such a hyperactive self-destruct reflex because they’re so commonly eaten, then? Even when you capture a voltorb its still a very anxious critter who doesnt really realize its gonna be safe, and that pokemon battles arent life or death. So its heartwarming that fully-grown electrodes are known for their more chilled and happy demeanor! (Maybe the wild variant of the breed would keep voltorb’s angry face?) So they’re like real life exotic pets like snakes and scorpions, their easily-frightened nature is mistaken for deliberate malice by humans.

* Perhaps there are variants whose patterns reflect the different pokeball types, depending on which is more popular in different regions? Normal pokeballs are obviously the most common discarded ones in the majority of the world, but like in victory road you would find mostly ultra ball voltorbs.

* oh and I totally headcanon that voltorbs really ARE pokeballs that come to life! I think maybe they ‘breed’ asexually by nursing a nest of regular pokeballs that will hatch into new voltorbs. Basically they go around nuzzling broken pokeballs as if they’re poor injured children, and through the power of love they actually become that.  Like somehow they can pass fragments of their ‘life energy’ into new hosts? Theyre more like sentient electricity monsters that just wear the pokeballs as a shell to protect them. Maybe them and Rotom diverged from a single ancestor in the ancient past...? So the more rare pokeball variants dont occur in the wild, they’re selectrively bred by humans. Usually an electrode will make a nest from the same pokeball that it was born from as a voltorb, unless they cant find any. But deliberately depriving them of pokeballs and forcing them to imprint on a luxury ball or whatever is considered cruel, the parent gets incredibly stressed from the ordeal and may have trouble bonding with their newborn 'torbs. However electrodes have also been known to pick a pokeball that one of its fellow party members uses, it seems this is a form of honor amoung them. (You’re the godfather, oddish!) Oh and probably the earliest voltorbs could have been seen as an entirely different species. An electric/grass type that possessed apricorns before pokeballs were invented. Nowadays pokeballs are so common that very few voltorbs ever possess apricorns. Barely anyone even actually grows apricorns anymore, aside from some speciality pokeball shops in johto. (Maybe an ancient forme voltorb could be Kurt’s mascot?)

* Scientists have theorized that some other species of ‘inanimate object’ pokemon might also share roots in the voltorb genus. The tangeantally similar kantonian pokemon Magnemite is considered a prime candidate for this, some people have made petitions to recategorize it as a ‘voltorb-eating voltorb’. (Similar to assassin spiders in real life, which really do look like an entirely different animal. Theyre the only spider that has A NECK!) After all, the pokedex in some generations does mention that electrode is capable of flying when it absorbs enough energy!

* An electrode can theoretically keep growing forever, the largest recorded specemin was a 58-year old pet that reached the height of a van. It’s thought that as human technology continues to advance, electric pokemon will continue to adapt in this way, and we’ll continue to discover facts about them that would never come to light in the wild. The largest recorded wild specemins were exclusively found in abandoned power plants and other sources of human junk.

* Wild voltorbs and electrodes are usually quite sedentary, but become hyperactive on days with stormy weather. Local packs will congregate to chase the thunderbolts, almost like a festival! However if they get too gluttonous they might self destruct from the excitement, and have a ‘hangover’ the next day.

* Voltorb explosions do no damage to the pokemon, aside from putting them to ‘sleep’ for several hours as they regenerate. The explosion is vented through tiny cracks in their steel shell, which also ensures that if it’s powerful enough to dislodge any parts they will shatter into precise shapes for easy reassembly. A disassembled voltorb resembles a giant 3D puzzle, its incredible how the seams of these pieces are completely invisible when it’s fully formed! Internal magnetism draws these broken pieces back to the core as the fainted pokemon sleeps, and in the morning it goes searching for metal to eat to repair any dents. A voltorb can recover from using Explosion as long as at least 50% of its shell can be reattatched to the core within 24 hours. If the pieces flew too far to be recalled or were eaten by predators, human conservationists can save the injured pokemon by attatching sheet metal over the wounds. Over time, this will be absorbed into the voltorb’s body and leave it with mismatched patterns.

* VOLTORBS AND ELECTRODES ARE VERY NICE AND CUTE OKAY this is an important fact

* No but seriously I always saw them as kind of a super smart pokemon? i dunno why, except cos scientist trainers always use them. But I feel like they’d be the closest thing to parrots aside from Chatot and telepathic mons. They’re very good at mimicking human noises and can be trained to do many useful tricks! As opposed to chatot which pretty much can only talk and never listens to its trainer XD

[toomanyskeletons]

magic in spectraverse - infodump

so iv e been meaning to make a post abt this for a while so why not now, when im not even sure how my words are right and if i can think of the right things to say

in spectraverse - well, kind of, there are several spectraverse timelines and none have particular names so i cant really specify which one, we’ll just call it 2 - there are several different kinda of magic, along with subtypes

There are three different casters a being - typically a human, it is unusual for any nonhuman to call themselves a caster - can be, ‘caster’ being the name for the way someone casts a spell. Its a shit name, i’ll pick a better one some other time. Anyway. So, you can cast spells. Some make their own spells, others use books or loose paper or they remember it or whatever. Think of it like baking. You can stick it all in together, and it will always make something. Whether that thing is edible, that varies. Casting is like that, you can put in four whatever the fucks and three bees and you might get a puff of smoke or you might blow up your house. You might have been trying to dye your hair magically. Anyway.

A witch is a caster who draw the power of their spells from the environment - heat, light, feelings. A caster can do basically any spell depending on whatever the fuck they are but often, they are spells that give back. So. If you draw power from say, the sun’s heat, it might be a spell to replenish some part of the environment. I really havent thought this through but i just want to talk soo Witches can cast any spell, but drawing power from the environment can be time consuming and troublesome, so their spells tend to be weaker and- i dont know how to say this properly. I have this nice image all ready but i dont know what its words are. I’d say witches spells tend to be longer lasting? Yeah. Like. You cant draw energy from the environment quickly, but a long term spell being very constantly, slowly replenshed is the sort of things witches excel at. Like, making a plant grow faster, or a love spell, or a happiness spell, or maybe something to increase income - i dont know. Witches arent particularly important at the moment in my story so i havent given them much thought.

At this stage i should probably point out that these are all considered gender neutral. U dont have to be a lady to be a witch, and u dont have to be a dude to be a wizard, and you dont have to be nonbinary to be a mage.

So next up is wizards, who use their own energy. This is the thing that is good for fast acting spells, or things that work in bursts. Setting fires, i cant think of anything else, teleportation, yeah i really have not thought much about this either. Wizards replenish their energy just as any human generally does, sleeping, eating, spending an absurdly long amount of time gambling away your money in Pokemon - okay maybe thats just me but you get the idea.

Wizards are more useful in battle than witches, though armor, cloaks, staffs, etc. Can all have a boost in power by a witch.

Mages are people either born with the natural ability for elemental manipulation, OR people who perform a combination of both witchery and wizardry. Maybe just the latter. I’ll have to think of a name for the former.

There are eight major elements, and beyond those are several subtypes/skills that can only be learnt with particular elements. I havent thought of many of these but i’ll work them out.

So- Water Air Earth Fire Lightning Steel/Metal (i wanted to call it metal but my pokemon loving ass kept calling it steel) Light Dark/ness

Everyone has an element 'assigned’ to them in their genetics, but most people dont have the natural ability to manipulate it. Instead, they may have a few personality traits associated with the element, they might excel in a field of study related to that element, they could just really like that element OR nothing in particular. Like. It affects them in no way whatsoever, which is probably the most common. Also people can kinda teach themselves manipulation but it is Hard.

When you’re a 'natural’ (pretty sure i stole that term from somewhere else but w/e) you will have had the ability to control the element from birth. Natural elemental manipulators tend to have good visualisation skills and decent motor skills, though sometimes they have neither of these things and it ends really fucking badly, because if you cant picture something right you cant control it, and if you cant point your hand where u need to point it, thats bad. Elemental manipulation is largely controlled with visualisation, picturing what you want to do in your mind, but it also has to do with how good you are at controlling your energy. Most people wont be able to say, evaporate all the water from a pool in an instant, actually thats a terrible example for reasons i have not yet explained, give me a moment- Most people wont be able to cause an earthquake the moment they start using magic consciously, and that is because they havent learnt how to control their energy. Some people MIGHT be able to do it, but its more of an “accidental spontaneous energy release’ thing than a 'five year old good at controlli their energy’ thing.

So then you have subtypes. I havent thought of many of these yet, actually im P sure i only have one but lets talk about it anyway.

Temperature manipulation is a subskill of the metal and water elements, largely linked to the control of emotions. Actually, any of the elements that have the states of matter which i am forgetting, will be able to learn this subtype. It means, you guessed it, you cn control temperature. So a water user would then get a sort of sub element of ice, and they can also boil water. Metal users would be able to melt and solidify the metal. It takes time to learn, and oh shit mind blank. Uh.oh right. Speed. So like you might be able to boil water with the ability but u wont be able to do it really fast unless youve practised a lot. Poor emotional regulation + temperature manipulatio can mean Bad because it would lead to the accidental alteration of environemtnt. That was too fancy. Basically u might get road rage and then ur whole fucken car would melt.

Uh also healing? Pretty self explanatory, i havent though abt it much yet, much like everything else in this post.

Humans can also learn magic through objects. Some help to channel energy, some boost it, you can get orbs to give you an extra element, etc.

So then NONHUMANS are so much luckier because magic is like. Their first language. Most nonhumans, or even half humans with ANY nonhuman in them, will find it MUCH easier to learn a second element. Nonhumans have a body built for magic, so like their body can channel energy into multiple elements simulaneously, which is a thing humans find difficult, as they are not particularly made for magic. They still do it though. Nonhumans tend to be manipulators rather than casters, and like i said before, if they are they dont typically use the term caster.

Also, here are some things i forgot to mention/magic which i couldnt work out where to fit in:

- TELEKINESIS: good ole telekinesis. magical story woukdnt be complete without it. Pretty easy for most magical (nonhuman) beings to learn, at a basic level (closing doors, picking up the tv remote bc youre too lazy). You can go further into it and learn how to fuckin slam a dude against a wall like in supernatural. Harder for humans to learn (look i know humans get all this shit but theyre the majority).

-SUMMONING: SUMMON SATAN OR SOME SHIT. first of all, if you summon satan, you will get one of five people who will all tell you that satan is the incorrect term.also, summoning satan isnt particularly powerful summoning magic, it doesnt rely on the user’ s power much, but you gotta give a little blood. Anyway. Summoning is usually assisted by tokens of some sort that depict what you are summonging. Sometimes. To be a summoner u have to make friendship with thingd that CAN be summoned, like angels demons nine tailed fox etc. if it cant talk and make friends then u can generally find their tokens in shops, particualrly when there are a lot of the species existing and they dont exist lhysically outside of the void or something. But sentient beings like demons u goota find, befirend, and then they giv e you their token like some sorta business card. They also can turn down a summon, because they are sentient and if youre sentient it is possible you may be busy.

-TIME POWERS: HAVENT thogubt about this at all but worth a mention. Involves freezing time, travelling time and I FORGOT ABOUT DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL

-dimensional travel: you can travel dimensions, kinda. Ther e is one character who can do this currrently, she uses an unnamed object to help her draw her own power and she can juml timelines and travel different world s without the use of gates, which are often used otherwise.

Anyway thats all i can think of but i am definitely forgetting something

Questions? Comments? Have i made a spelling error? (If thats the case suck it ul u pansy) (there are five hundrrdd spelings here fcukc you) suggestions for another infodump? Want me to stop infodumping? Want to send me hate? I have an ask box and an anonymous button, they are there so you can use them

[1nkweaver]

DnD Question Masterpost: Pick

Here we go again 

If your character wasn’t an adventurer, what livelihood would they lead?

Pick really enjoys playing the drums so he would have actually enjoyed being a performer like a bard or part of a band or something. Being a goblin probably makes that kind of hard though.

Who in the party would your character trust the most with their life?

I would say mostly Kai because Kai wouldn’t want anyone in the party to die he’s quite sure, but knows deep down someone like Ida would save him and that pisses him off. He wants to be responsible for himself and not a burden on someone else.

What are your character’s core moral beliefs?

I should help the people that help me, and I want to make sure that what happened to me never happens to anyone else ever again. He’s Chaotic Good I believe, so he’s more inclined to helping people but he’s very ‘do to others as what is done to you.’

What relationship does your character have with their parents and siblings?

Pick had a lot of siblings in his clan and probably didn’t know who his parents were? I always imagine that Goblins just kinda...breed a whole lot. In a way your whole clan is basically your family, but it’s very competitive, so he probably didn’t care for them really. There was however another goblin he ended up meeting named Sprout who was like a sister to him.

Does your character have any biases for or against certain races?

He has a particular bone to pick with half orcs and elves, and a very complicated view on humanity as they have been both the best and worst to him. Honestly a lot of the more normal races he is inherently...jealous of, I suppose? He likes the freaks, weirdos, or small folk, which thankfully covers most of the party.

What is your character’s opinion on nobility? On authority?

Fuuuuuuck that shit dude. The little people are gunna rise up and tear that shit down.

Describe your character’s current appearance: clothes, armor, scars they’ve picked up along the journey, etc.

Standing at about 3′6′’ Pick has a sort of cloak/jacket with short sleeves and a hood that’s kind of a grayish blue, and then down his arms is various bandage wrappings, then his iconic bright red gloves. Under everything he has his leather armor which is dark blue, almost black, with a few little vials slipped into sleeves.A tunic under the armor which is what he mostly wears when not wearing armor. Handaxes strapped onto the back of his armor in his belt hidden away, a belt, simple tight trousers and little boots with buckles and a dagger in it. 

He has red tinted goggles and a scarf that he uses to hide his face when in town, and a strange big bundled up thing on his back at all times. He has yellowsh green skin, messy dark blue almost black hair, dagger like ears, snarled teeth, and a bat like nose with yellow eyes and red slit pupils. He has four fingers and toes, and a cow-like tail. His face is covered in dark green freckles and his whole body is covered with various scars, mostly on his palms and under arms, but also has a split lip and a large scar on his torso.

What location encountered in the campaign has your character felt the most “at home” in, or just generally liked the most?

I believe he and Anders may have spent some time in the town of Daggerford, or at least a small town near it, which Pick really enjoyed. The environment was nice and being close to the ocean was cool.

What deity, if any, does your character worship? What’s their opinion on other people’s worship?

Pick doesn’t care too much about the worship of gods by other people, but has a specific disdain for clerics and people who use healing magic, refusing to let it be used on him entirely. For himself, he takes a tip from game of thrones, “There is only one god and they are death, and what do we say to death? Not today.” That’s the majority of his faith, but he is at least a little spiritual.

If your character had time to pick up any artisan’s tools, game set, instrument, etc., what would it be?

He really likes his drums so I could see him maybe wanting to learn a new instrument, but he also would really like to take up sketching- not painters tools per se, but like little charcoal drawings perhaps. I think he’s mostly just unaware of what things you can learn otherwise I think he’d want to learn a lot! Music, tinkers tools, thieves tools, smithing? Sewing? He’d find it all interesting in the end.

What is your character’s current goal, summed up in one sentence?

Find him, and find him.

Does your character ever want to “settle down” with a spouse, children, house, etc.?

I think if Pick spent enough time thinking about it he’d realize that he does, but he needs to learn a few things first, he doesn’t know what it’s like to have a spouse and children really, he’d need someone to teach him what that’s like.

Has your character ever been in love?

I think he has but he doesn’t have a frame of reference for what love is.

What battle in the campaign has been most memorable to your character?

His introduction! Being introduced to the campaign as a pit fighter is great because you get to really play up the crowd, which includes your future party- and then I got chased by guards! haha, I’m in danger!

If your character wasn’t whatever class they are, what would they be instead?

Before Pick became a bloodhunter he was a different class! He would have been a Champion Fighter.

What is your character’s favorite season?

He likes the summer, the warmth is nice and it’s just the best choice in his mind out of the four. Spring has too much irritating pollen, winter is too cold, fall feels depressing. I suppose Pick is a sweet summer child.

What would your character’s Zodiac sign be, following stereotypical astrology?

Pick is a cancer

Where in the world does your character most want to visit?

He doesn’t know many places, he’s heard of cities like Waterdeep and Neverwinter which are interesting, and Baldur’s Gate has seemed kind of cool. But where he wants to visit he doesn’t know where it is, he’s looking for it.

What is the biggest mistake your character has ever made?

He wasn’t strong enough.

Does your character have any noticeable scars? If so, what are their stories?

Covered in scars all over his body, like a split lip and various other wounds (probably has torn up ears, etc) but the worthwhile story ones are:

-Cuts on his palms and arms from using his blood rites, and also emotional issues

-Scars on the back of his hands that he wont show anyone

-A wound on his torso from his time with Anders, either a bite mark or puncture wound

What animal best represents your character?

A big cat like a lion or tiger that you would see in the zoo.

If your character could go back in time and change one thing about their life, what would it be?

Not have gotten fucking caught.

Which other player character does your character find themselves having the most in common with?

He see’s a lot of himself in Jin’s personality, and in Ida for other reasons.

Does your character regret any particular choice the party has made?

Haven’t spent much time with the party but he fears staying in Baldur’s Gate for a few extra days might bite them in the ass.

What would your character say their best trait would be?

His tenacity probably. The boy doesn’t know when to quit, in a fight or in other areas, he’ll keep pushing and pushing. If someone is asking him to back off though that’s a different story and he will.

What is your character’s greatest fear? Deep, irrational?

Pick cannot stand silence for too long, especially for sleeping, there needs to be noise, and so he normally absentmindedly is playing his drums in like a stimming way or even like an OCD tendency. He also doesn’t like closed off spaces.

What is currently motivating your character to stay with the party?

He was told to find them, basically, by someone he trusts.

What are your character’s hobbies and interests outside of their class?

He really does enjoy playing his drum, it makes him happy in a way that fighting doesn’t. Even if he’s not an artist he also likes to draw. He also personally loves to collect things like badges and medals, signs of authority. He finds it funny.

What would most people think when they first see your character?

What the fuck is this little angry man (if disguised) or maybe “Oh fuck a goblin?”

What stereotypical group role does your character play in the party? (The Mom, the Mess, the Comic Relief, etc. Optionally: What role would your character play in the “Five Man Band” structure?)

I guess right now he’s the guy that’s...forcing everyone to get their shit out, but he’s also kinda the loose cannon spitfire to accompany Jin.

What is your character the most insecure about?

He knows he’s inherently aggressive and thereby normally unlikable. He’s aware that he like talks to much and is kinda brazen and out there and sometimes he wishes he could like...cool it for a hot second.

What person does your character admire most?

Anders. It’s no question.

Why is your character’s lowest stat their lowest (the in-character reason, not “because there’s no reason for a wizard to have 16 strength, duh”)?

I made Pick’s lowest stat charisma because while I think he has a charismatic way of speaking he’s also meant to come off as kind of graty and annoying because he’s so IN YOUR FACE about things, that and the fact that as a goblin I dont see him as being particularly attractive, and so puts people off just based on his race alone.

What would be your character’s theme song/favorite band/favorite genre of music?

Hard rock or punk music, and anything with some really sick drum riffs. I think he could like anyone from Muse to AC/DC

What stereotypical role would your character play in a high school AU/if they attended a normal high school? (Nerd, jock, bully, goth, etc.)

He’s kind of jocky, like I can see him being sporty but almost...picked on by the other jocks because of his size? He might also be like the “bad boy”

What treasure/item/artifact that your character has collected during the adventure is the most important to them?

The thing on his back for sure, that he keeps all bundled up.

Is there any particular weapon, item, etc. that your character longs to find?

He’d love to find something that could change how he looks like a hat of disguise ( that he doesn’t know the party has) or just something that allows him to...be different visually I guess. In terms of weapons I mean I think he’d love any kind of badass sounding weapon, like a sword that catches on fire. Or a sentient weapon, he’d think that’s SUPER COOL.

Where does your character feel the most at home?

In a tent in the middle of the woods by the campfire with Anders.

Does your character care about how they’re perceived by others? How do they change themselves to fit in with other people?

He both really cares about it and really doesn’t. He used to have some resentment issues of like “I wish I wasn’t a goblin” but Anders tried to squash that feeling in him and it mostly worked. He is trying to love himself but also I think feels he’s incapable of like...getting actual love from someone bc he’s a goblin.

What does your character think is the true meaning of life?

He was asked that a while ago and he’s still trying to figure it out before he meets that person again.

What is your character’s scent? (Bonus points for a description that sounds like it could be from a bad [or awesome] fanfic.)

God he probably smells disgusting. He doesn’t really bathe much and he’s all dirty and covered in dried blood and other shit...he probably smells really bad and smells a lot like gore or blood.

Does your character think more with their heart or their brain?

He would say he thinks with his gut, but with that not an option I’d default to heart.

What is your character’s most recent or frequent nightmare?

Being back in that place again.

What opinion does your character have on [CERTAIN ESTABLISHED GROUPS/AUTHORITIES IN THE GAME WORLD]? (Dragonmarked Houses, royal crown, etc.)

Pick has learned that there are certain power structures that are enjoyed by the elites of society that he really, really hates. They dont stand for good things and only seek to exploit, and he wants that to end, mostly through him committing a lot of violence on some people.

How did your character spend their childhood? Where did they grow up/who were their childhood friends?

Pick grew up in the north with his goblin clan, though most of his memories from that time aren’t super well known. A lot of them were his siblings, cousins etc, and he was regarded with a little respect as he was a bit smarter than the average goblin, so he was good at trapping and hunting. The rest is a blur.

What aspect of your character’s future are they most curious about? (If they could know one thing about the future, what would it be?)

Where the fuck is he.

What colors are associated with your character?

Red red red, and like faded steel grays and blues.

Who in the party would your character prioritize rescuing, in dire circumstances?

Probably Kai or Siril, but more in a stand in between them and an enemy rather than like, pulling them out of a burning building.

Is your character the most swayed by ethos, pathos, or logos?

Somewhere between pathos and ethos but mostly ethos, he wouldn’t really speak on things that weren’t in his knowledge base.

If your character was granted a single use of Wish, what would they use it for?

God I dont know if one use of wish is enough. I suppose he’d get started by using it to finish the task that was given to him.

What is your character’s favorite spell? If they don’t use spells: what is their favorite personal weapon/combat maneuver/skill/etc.?

He only uses it as a last resort, and it hasn’t come to that yet.

How does your character feel about keeping secrets from the rest of the party?

Pick fucking hates secrets. He wants everyone’s shit out and in the open including his own as soon as possible because  he needs to know if they can help him or not.

What type of creature in the world is your character the most intrigued by?

Since his becoming a blood hunter, which he doesn’t really know that’s what he is, he’s found himself drawn to their specific quarries, and he’s curious about why that is. Things like fey, fiends, etc.

When they were a child, what did your character want to be, or think they were going to be, when they grew up?

Pick dreamed of being the “leader” but figured he’d die way before that happened.

The player character to your left admits that they’re passionately in love with your character. How would your character respond?

Doesn’t matter who it is because clearly you’re just making a joke at him.

If somebody (an NPC, someone from their backstory, etc.) your character trusts/loves asked your character to do something against the party’s best interest, who would they side with?

Oh he’d 100% go with the person from his past because he’s only with the party to get back to them. He’s just not been with the party long enough to care.

Does your character value their own best interest more than the party’s?

Most definitely, he just met them and I think unless things get real serious real fast it will be that way for a while.

What decision would the party have to make in order for your character to consider splitting off from the group?

Not respecting the boundaries he set, or doing to someone what was done to him.

How does your character imagine the way they will die?

Right now he’s holding on to the fact that he can’t, and wont, and will go kicking and screaming against a God if he has to to not.

What is your character’s greatest achievement?

Surviving, through everything. Being a champion when he was supposed to be the fodder.

Is your character willing to risk the well-being of others in order to achieve their goal?

Yeah I think he’d consider it the greater good.

What is your character’s opinion on killing others?

There’s some people that really need to die like right now, no issue with killing whatsoever.

What is your character’s favorite food? Beverage?

I think he’d like something savory over something sweet, definitely something nice and buttery like a really good corn on the cob.

How generous is your character? Especially to those they don’t know?

His twitch instinct is to be an asshole, and then immediately feel bad and try to do something nice and be giving. He was told that the thing you do second is who you really are, and your gut reaction is what you were taught. He’s trying to reteach himself.

What is your character the most envious about, regarding anyone in the party?

How someone can have so much more than him and not even understand how good they had it, and then still seem so upset.

The player character to your left and the player character to your right are both telling your character two different versions of the truth. Who does your character believe?

Whatever version of the story is more exciting or funny.

What is your character’s sexuality/relationship with sex?

I think sex to him is a very like...animalistic instinctual thing? Kinda just by nature of being a goblin I think he really feels the need to have sex in that sake. But also I think sex might have been messed up in his brain, and so now he’s just all confused about it. He needs someone to teach him what healthy sexual experiences are. If he explored that he would discover he is probably homosexual. 

What is your character’s biggest pet peeve?

Someone who always thinks they know the best thing to do, a self appointed leader. Someone who writes off others.

Describe how your character feels about the party’s current situation/objective/etc.

What exactly are you all doing?? Do you actually want me here?? Why are you all so dang secretive even with each other, how the fuck is this going to work.

Who in the party would your character trust the most to keep an important secret?

Siril, I think of the percy quote “Your secret is safe with my indifference” and I think that’s just how Siril would treat a secret.

If your character knew that they were going to die in a month, how would they spend the rest of their life?

He’d be doubling down on what he has to do because now theres a time limit put on it. Or he’d have to find someone he trusted real fast to get them to do it. He’d also probably be crying a lot.

What makes your character feel safe?

An open space, being able to choose where he can go at any given moment. 

If your character had the chance to rename the party/give the party a name, no questions asked, what would it be?

The Breakfast Club

What memory does your character want to forget the most?

I think it was too long to be able to forget all of it, but lets go with the first night.

If your character had to multiclass into a class they currently aren’t the next time they level up, what would it be and what reason would they have for doing so?

Fighter, it’s the closest to what he is and it would basically just be a case of “going back to basics” with what he used to know.

What television/book/video game/etc. character would your character be best friends with? (Or: what media character is your character the most influenced by/similar to?

Deadpool

What unusual talents does your character possess?

I always thought his skill with alchemy and the drums would impress people, and I like to think maybe he can do like weird body things like pop a joint out or contort his body in a weird way to freak people out.

How does your character feel about receiving/giving orders? Are they more of a leader, or a follower?

It’s the most complicated thing for him because he’s gone back and forth being in charge and being a follower, and he’s followed good people and bad people. He understands orders are needed but also sometimes someone tells him what to do and it just makes him absolutely snap.

What does your character’s name represent to them? (Or: why as a player did you choose your character’s name?)

“He’s small, green, crunchy and sweet (or sour), he’s Pickle!” sung like a jingle to a commercial.

Is your character more of an introvert, or an extrovert?

I think he’s pretty damn extroverted.

How far is your character willing to go to pursue the “greater good”? Do they believe in a greater good at all?

He’s prepared to go pretty damn far, and that’s also what I think Anders saw in him, because Anders was also just as willing.

What does your character want to be remembered by?

That that stupid little goblin that everyone overlooked fucking won.

What would be your character’s major in college?

Chemistry? Or maybe music, because he likes music a lot. I think he’d honestly maybe just drop out tho lol.

Does your character consider themselves a hero, villain, or something else?

I’d say maybe he’s an Antihero? Or like a vigilante kind of deal? He likes seeing people he hates consider him their own personal villain tho.

What major arcana tarot card best represents your character?

I’ll go with....judgement

Where does your character see themselves in 20 years?

Hopefully with all of this long behind him, everything is solved and he’s got a ton of gold and anything else he wants.

What is your character’s relationship with magic? Are they scared of it, wish to know more about it, indifferent to it?

All magic was made to hurt people.

Who is your character’s biggest rival?

Sebastian.

What is your character’s guiltiest pleasure?

That he enjoys hurting people for money in fighting rings. Like he’s got this weird pleasure with gore and crushing bones and things like that, but then also really hates that he likes it, he thinks he’s fucked up.

What does your character hope for the afterlife?

I think it scares him so he ignores it. I guess he hopes he’s seen as doing what was right.

Who in the party does your character trust the least?

Siril, just because he’s unpredictable.

What is your character’s biggest flaw?

He’s someone that needs help and knows he needs help but he’s both too aggressive and too prideful to ask for it.

How did your character learn the languages that they speak?

Raised knowing goblin and he just knows common otherwise babey.

What is your character’s favorite school of magic/type of weaponry?

He really does take a liking to using his axes, but I think he’s still trying to find the perfect weapon, they’re all interesting. He wishes he could just punch things but he’s not that strong.

What is most important to your character: health, wealth, or happiness?

Happiness, wealth, health. Fuck health it’s always shit.

What advice would your character give to a younger version of themselves?

You are way way stronger than you think you are, fight.

Are there any social or political issues your character feels strongly about?

I think if he learned that theres certain power structures in place in the world that are pseudo-legal he’d get very very upset.

What, currently, is your character the most curious about?

How the fuck do I talk to Ida

[flauntpage]

The Outlet Pass: Trae Young is Master of the Impossible Pass

Trae Young's Passing is...

Trae Young’s notorious three-point shot has yet to come around—he takes some exceptionally difficult shots and has made fewer than 30 percent of them—but he might already be one of the best passers in the NBA, top ten in every category worth mentioning with an undeniably positive impact on teammates. Atlanta’s assist rate is 66 percent with Young on the floor and 56.8 percent—a team low—when he’s not. (That disparity equals the gap between being third and 19th in the league right now.)

As Hawks GM Travis Schlenk recently told The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears: “He got a lot of notoriety for his deep shooting in college, which is obviously great. But his court vision at his age, 19 years old, to be able to see the floor like he does, and ability to pass left hand, right hand, off the bounce, hitting the guys down the floor, that is what really stood out.”

Young doesn’t pound the ball or even have to penetrate in order to draw help and find an open man. Guys simply run the floor faster and cut into space harder, knowing he’ll hit them on the money if/when they get open. His kick aheads alone deserve to be nominated by the MacArthur Fellows Program. This brings us to a pair of his passes that, so far, are probably my two favorite of the entire season.

The first came a few days ago against Miami. Young was trapped high on the right wing and appeared to have his whole line of sight blocked, but a quick up-fake lifted Bam Adebayo off his feet and out of position. Young then pivoted middle and, using his left arm, fired a blind cannon at Omari Spellman who was standing in the weak-side corner. The ball must've traveled at least 35 feet before it arrived in Spellman's shot pocket a split second before the defense’s rotation.

Words don’t do this pass justice. It’s something only a prodigy would think of, and immediately makes you fantasize about the realms of Young’s potential that have yet to be realized. He’ll never shoot as well as Steph Curry, but he already has the same range. Mix that with an unselfishly inventive approach to commanding Atlanta’s offense and it’s not insane to think he can lead the league in assists and scoring some day—the former is a borderline guarantee.

The next pass came during a nationally televised game against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. (For the record, even before Atlanta uses the future pick Dallas gave them to move up on draft night, it appears both teams won that trade!). Young rebounds a missed three, takes two dribbles, then whips a one-handed line drive at Taurean Prince as he streaks up the left sideline. A corner three is essentially created out of thin air!

Film Session: Milwaukee’s Defense May Need to Change

The Milwaukee Bucks have a top-three defense and, whether Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the floor or not, are brick-walling opponents with a game-plan that couldn't be more different from the blitz-happy aggression encouraged by Jason Kidd over the past few seasons. Once upon a time, Milwaukee’s goal was to sew the game with chaos. They'd trap, recover, and scramble all over the court. It was compelling, controversial, and, given Milwaukee’s unprecedented length, theoretically a good fit. The Bucks forced a ton of turnovers and occasionally made Kidd look like he knew what he was doing, but they were inevitably done in by poor communication, missed rotations, and untenable execution. Pure talent and questionable shot selection aside, it was their defensive issues—Milwaukee surrendered a ton of corner threes and layups—that weighed them down.

Milwaukee isn’t playing like that anymore, which is ironic because their new head coach, Mike Budenholzer, enforced a similar strategy in Atlanta. Instead, they’ve adopted a conservative base defense—right now they rank 27th in opposing turnover percentage—that was en vogue half a decade ago but has since been swallowed whole by the three-point revolution.

The approach plays out as such: When offensive bigs run up to set ball and flair screens, Milwaukee’s defenders will drop back and stay in the paint. They want ball handlers to either meet their length at the rim or submit via a mid-range pull up. So far, so good! Only four teams are forcing more long twos; after they finished dead last in opponent shot frequency at the rim in 2017-18 and 2015-16, the Bucks currently rank first.

For the regular season, it’s a low-risk, medium-reward tactic that fits their personnel and maintains order. Switching is mostly frowned upon, which simplifies defensive rebounding (long an issue for the Bucks) and reduces the negative side effects that long rotations tend to have, which is evident when you look at how often they foul shooters relative to the past four years.

It feels unfair to attack something that’s obviously working, but this scheme can only do so much against the best offenses in the league. This is something I touched on in greater detail earlier this week in a column about Joel Embiid’s individual defense, but the same principles apply: Against the league’s most potent offenses, any plan that doesn’t account for pull-up threes is antiquated and futile. And guess what: Milwaukee is allowing a higher three-point rate above-the-break than any team in the league!

In the Bucks' season opener, the Charlotte Hornets went 16-for-38 from deep. The Kawhi Leonard-less Toronto Raptors went 9-for-45 (Kyle Lowry took nine threes and missed them all). Milwaukee's first loss came against a Boston Celtics team that jacked up 55 triples (more than ever before in franchise history) and tied a league-record by making 24 of them. The Sacramento Kings finished 14-for-36 and, in Milwaukee’s second loss, the Portland Trail Blazers drilled 17 of their 43 tries.

None of this is a coincidence. The Bucks want teams to take floaters and tough mid-range jump shots, but in doing so they’re conceding a ton of pull-up threes. Even though the Golden State Warriors don’t like running a bunch of high pick-and-rolls with Steph Curry, Fiserv Forum would spontaneously combust if they did.

Five years ago, guards and wings (and some forwards!) didn’t have the freedom to jack threes up off the bounce. During the 2013-14 NBA season, only four teams launched more than six pull-up threes per game. Today, two-thirds of the league eclipse that volume. What Milwaukee wants/needs is for the ball-handler's man to earn his money at the point of attack. Either fight over a screen and take away the shot by pressuring from behind, or duck underneath and either allow a poor shooter to shoot his shot or recover in time to take it away.

This is where Milwaukee’s length and tenacity comes into play. Khris Middleton, Giannis, Malcolm Brogdon, Eric Bledsoe, and Donte DiVincenzo are not terrible at navigating on-ball screens. But against just about anyone, it’s still extremely difficult work.

But pull ups aren’t the only threat. The league has never had more big men who can and will stab you from beyond the arc. And when their man is deep in the paint, trying to stop penetration, a kick back pass usually results in an open look.

Bledsoe has no interest in switching onto Al Horford, knowing it would let Kyrie Irving surgically remove Brook Lopez’s ankles from his body. But it’s unclear if leaving Horford wide open is a better strategy.

It makes sense to drop Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova because rim protection is good and neither guy is particularly mobile in space. But to have them do so while seemingly ignoring specific matchups is not the wisest move. Watch how the Celtics take advantage by having Horford set a flare screen for Irving. Ilyasova might as well take a nap.

And the strategy applies across the board! Why don’t Giannis and Malcolm Brogdon make life easier for everyone involved by switching this? Instead they give up an open three to a good three-point shooter.

This brings us to the future, and how Milwaukee will solve a problem that doesn’t currently exist. They may not feel this way, but adding an athletic big who’s more comfortable switching and scurrying on the perimeter—while still providing offensive substance—should be a priority before the trade deadline.

If they run into an opponent who plays Lopez off the floor, the rangier Thon Maker isn’t good enough to fill those minutes. The Bucks struggled mightily with Giannis at the five last season, too. (That doesn’t mean it can’t work—they have more two-way players this year—but assuming Budenholzer doesn’t venture too far from a formula that’s yielding terrific results throughout the regular season, how hard will it be for the Bucks to adjust after a sharp left turn in the playoffs?)

It’s a fascinating conundrum and one worth keeping an eye on as the season goes on. Milwaukee’s legitimacy as a true title contender may hinge on it.

Josh Jackson is Drowning

It feels like yesterday, right around the 2017 NBA draft, when it became clear that Josh Jackson did not want to get drafted by the Boston Celtics, a winning organization that couldn’t offer the same opportunistic environment (in terms of shots and playing time) lottery picks of his stature normally step into. He cancelled a workout that was to be held in Sacramento while Danny Ainge, Mike Zarren, and Brad Stevens were literally in the air flying to it, which probably made the decision to take Jayson Tatum that much easier.

As the saying goes: Be careful what you wish for. Jackson was instead picked by a dysfunctional organization that also has quite a bit of young talent. So much, in fact, that Phoenix’s coaching staff can’t find time for Jackson to contribute. His PER is 2.1, and his minutes are drying up.

Before the Suns even trade for a starting point guard—assuming that day comes this season—they already have so many mouths to feed at Jackson’s general position. (And that’s also before you mention Deandre Ayton, the first overall pick who needs reps and touches.) Devin Booker, Trevor Ariza, T.J. Warren, and Mikal Bridges are all better than Jackson right now. He can’t shoot from literally anywhere and has a comically abysmal turnover rate that’s a couple mistakes from becoming the league’s worst, per Cleaning The Glass.

Jackson’s trade value has never been lower, and the long-term consequences of his current struggle loom over an organization that might’ve squandered three top-five picks in the past six drafts. That’s not a great way to rebuild! If Jackson can’t be much more than Tony Allen (in an era where Tony Allen couldn’t even be Tony Allen), it’d be a significant blow.

Jaren Jackson, Jr. Wants to Make Post-Ups Great Again

It’s downright strange to watch Jaren Jackson, Jr. operate in the post and believe that he recently turned 19. The strength, stoicism, patience, determination, and technical skill has been unreal, and by letting him do work down low instead of placing him on the outside as a full-time spacer, the Memphis Grizzlies deserve credit for believing what their eyes (and early statistical returns) have told them.

The first time I watched him play in an NBA game, he sprinted up the floor, sealed 255-pound Derrick Favors just outside the restricted area, caught Marc Gasol’s entry pass, and immediately scored with a lefty jump hook.

Jackson Jr. already has a reservoir of post moves, and he executes them with admirable composure. He doesn’t get flustered or worry if his shot is contested, and can get to either hand whenever he wants. (Apologies to Favors.)

A first-class ass whooping at the hands of Golden State’s swarming defense on Monday night notwithstanding, Jackson Jr. is a migraine down low. He’s fluid, strong, and packs a delightful spin move that bigs around the league have yet to figure out. It’s a breath of fresh air watching someone that young enter the league with skills that are A) still valuable, B) inevitably unguardable one-on-one, and C) ostensibly extinct in the way he’s using them. According to Synergy Sports, Jackson ranks in the 73rd percentile on post-up possessions, and they account for 27.4 percent of his offense (the eighth-highest proportion in the league right now).

He’s still a rookie, and obviously needs to round out other areas of his game—Jackson Jr. is 1-for-14 from behind the three-point line since Memphis’s second game—but all that will eventually take care of itself. (He made 40 percent of his threes in college, was 5-for-9 in the preseason, and 14-for-28 during summer league.)

It’s just cool to see him contribute in a way that complements his veteran teammates while adding wrinkles to an offense that wants to be slow. Jackson Jr. is going to be so freaking good, and his advanced post game is a notable reason why.

The Buddy Hield Bandwagon is Ready to Roll

Buddy Hield’s hot start can be explained by absurd shooting numbers. Compared to last year, he’s up 11 percent at the rim, 10 percent from the mid-range, and 6 percent from deep (he made 43.1 percent of his threes in 2018, so, yeah, this dude currently exists as an inferno).

These numbers should come back to Earth—he's averaging 20 points, six boards, and three assists per game—but they're also a sign of his natural progression towards becoming an extremely valuable player type. Hield can shoot on the move, standing still, and pulling up in transition. He can escape-dribble his way into a cringeworthy albeit accurate long two or attack a closeout and then finish strong at the rim.

Even if Hield doesn't sustain his shooting splits (doing so would be super human), players who spend the entirety of a game racing around the court to leverage their gravity in myriad ways are a luxury. Chasing him off the ball for 32 minutes would be my idea of hell on Earth. Last year he averaged 1.95 miles per game, which was about the same as Rockets center Clint Capela. This year he’s at 2.62, trailing only three players in the entire league. Even more wild is Hield’s average speed. He’s one of the 15 fastest players in the league, but everybody who ranks higher doesn’t even cover half as many miles per game as he does.

Defense is a big issue; Hield was repeatedly obliterated by Eric Bledsoe over the weekend. But he’s still only 24 years old, with the stamina and shooting chops to potentially become a more dynamic version of J.J. Redick. This comparison is an absolute best-case scenario but also within the realm of possibility. It should make fans of the New Orleans Pelicans cry themselves to sleep, and fans of the Sacramento Kings feel great knowing their team's backcourt of the future is outscoring opponents by 11 points per 100 possessions when on the floor.

Hield isn't a star, but he doesn't need the ball to have a similar effect. That matters.

Watching Dante Exum Figure It Out is Pure Joy

One of the more fascinating contracts offered last summer was a three-year, $33 million deal awarded to Dante Exum by the Utah Jazz. I say “awarded” because the 23-year-old’s first four years in the NBA were mostly a collective dud. Facing obstacles that mostly weren’t his fault, Exum wasn’t able to write a resume that rationalized Utah’s decision.

He tore his ACL in 2015 while playing for the Australian national team, and two years later had a shoulder surgery that sidelined him for four months. When healthy enough to play, he shot miserably from deep and struggled to command Utah’s offense. Turnovers were high. Assists were low.

Exum’s defense flashed peaks that made playing him worthwhile, but the blurry end-to-end zip he displayed before his knee injury was but a flicker; much of his offensive play this season remains a concern (Exum still isn’t making threes or finishing at the rim), but there’s an aggression and confidence that weren’t there before. As the Jazz clearly believed when they offered that contract: It's not about what you've done, it's what you can do.

Just from watching him play, there are certain aspects of Exum’s game that make it impossible not to want to see how high his ceiling will be. He cuts hard, gifts soft lobs to Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert, relentlessly attacks the paint like someone who’s never felt pain, and draws fouls by bringing the ball low and tempting defenders to swipe at it, a la James Harden.

Exum also has an individualistic flair that allows him to stand out in a system that sometimes makes Donovan Mitchell look like Beyonce right before she left Destiny’s Child. Take the layup seen below as a prime example. It’s awesome. Exum darts to the basket and then, with time of the essence, seamlessly pushes off the wrong foot to kiss his layup off the glass before Karl-Anthony Towns can block it.

Plays like this only yield two points, but—speaking as someone whose bank account is completely unaffected regardless—they’re graceful enough to justify the investment Utah has made in Exum, and part of the reason why their offense averages a whopping 6.3 more points per 100 possessions when he’s in the game.

TL;DR: It’s Not a Bad Time to be a Hornets fan!

Most of the attention in Charlotte should be directed towards the good (a top-five offense and the league's sixth-best point differential!) and somewhat infuriating (the league’s worst win differential...again!) aspects of their surprising start. Beyond that, something unexpectedly attractive is happening to a franchise that once felt rudderless: The Hornets have an intriguing/good young core that makes their future much less bleak than it appeared to be 20 months ago.

Charlotte looks like a playoff team. They’re disciplined, explosive, led by the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, and their new reasons to be optimistic about the future double as explanations for their current success. The Miles Bridges, Malik Monk, Tony Parker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Willy Hernangomez all-bench squad is crushing people by 22.1 points per 100 possessions (they’re +19 in 43 minutes). That’ll come down as opposing three-point shooters regress to the mean, but the group is still so watchable and quietly boasts a thrilling pair of 20-year-olds who play basketball without a seatbelt.

Bridges is experiencing natural growing pains but already looks like a positionless gem; James Borrego trusts him enough to play in crunch time and guard the opponent’s first option—as he did for a recent stretch against Russell Westbrook.

(This is kind of a random observation, but in comparing Bridges to Aaron Gordon, you can’t help but notice the benefits of falling in line on a team that already has accountability, direction, and a distinct pecking order. Bridges’s role is clear. He knows how to help and feed off his teammates. Meanwhile, in Orlando, Gordon’s “what should this dude be?” limitlessness was initially thrown against a wall just to see what would stick. Again, that was random, but something that went in my notebook last week while I was watching a Hornets game.)

Monk has been inefficient, but Tony Parker’s rejuvenated play lets him work off the ball instead of backing Kemba up at the point. Ask him to worry about others and Monk tends to overthink the game. Tell him to score and Charlotte’s offense makes a lot more sense. The most important thing about him and Bridges looking this good is the effect it’ll have on Walker’s unrestricted free agency. No matter what, locking him into a five-year max contract would not end well. But an expensive sub-max agreement that covers the next four or five seasons is much easier to swallow with Monk and Bridges providing a youthful push. With those two inevitably finding their way into Charlotte’s starting lineup, the Hornets can rebuild on the fly around their franchise point guard.

That’s easier said than done, pending how much Walker’s next contract is actually worth. Nicolas Batum’s current deal erases any path to cap space, while Bismack Biyombo, Marvin Williams, and Kidd-Gilchrist have $45 million worth of player options they’re likely to pick up. The following summer, with Walker paid (and Frank Kaminsky renounced), Cody Zeller, Bridges, Monk, and Batum’s player option are all that’s left on the books. Walker will be 31 then, but an opportunity to reshape their image around their intriguing young studs will present itself.

This Has Nothing to do With Basketball But…

Whenever a jump ball takes place during an NBA game, the world's two kinds of people reveal themselves: Those who want to hear "Jump" and/or "Pass the Courvoisier" get blasted over the PA system, and everybody else.

The Outlet Pass: Trae Young is Master of the Impossible Pass published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[cronagorgon]

Identity asks...oh shit. Do all 30!!!

damn damn ok

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?damn lemme think….. i mean i guess just reading keter scp pages would be a start.. there’s a few i LOVE though like 093 and 2264.. then just, LOTS of mcelroy content and scary game squad videos (on jesse cox’s youtube channel)

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?have i ever found a what…. no… not really

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.http://drakenlong.tumblr.com/shipsi identify at least a little bit with anyone from the “partners” list really, but i especially identify with crona gorgon from soul eater + lapis lazuli from steven universe

4. do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better?yeah i mean.. no i guess i don’t like my ““real”““ name but the name i have now, drake, i picked because it fits me (though i wouldn’t mind being called any variation of “dragon” in any language. its all the same)

5. do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?oh doing for sure. i don’t feel real like.. even a little bit. just a meat machine accidentally affecting others’ lives

6. are you religious/spiritual?i guess. i don’t worship any…..thing, but i believe in a natural energy that flows within everything, that’s higher than us + even this one dimension

7. do you care about your ethnicity?i’m white, so no, not really. if i knew where i came from though, (which i suspect may have been in or near italy) yeah i’d be more into it

8. what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?ehhhh not a lot? imogen heap is one just by her song “hide and seek” (i know nothing of the actual artist). i don’t know what it means really or if it has a concrete meaning but it’s been a favorite of mine for years. more recently though i heard “self” by ANIMA! and it too is relatable, though i can’t really speak for their other music

9. are you an artist?i like to think so. i draw stuff sometimes so thats like, a start. is it good though, or meaningful? i can’t really say

10. do you have a creed?i don’t really know what a creed is so i googled it, and going by the definition that it’s a set of steadfast beliefs then… hell no

11. describe your ideal day.going somewhere new to eat, miraculously liking the food (therefore discovering something new i like), going shopping in antique + gem/new age stores & finding something unique, old, haunted, or just the sort of thing i never knew i wanted, then coming home & making a favorite meal that turns out perfect, then eating it while watching a video or new episode i’ve been wanting to see

12. dog person or cat person?dogs.. cats are really cute but i’m allergic ):

13. inside or outdoors?inside but there are times and places outdoors that i adore, like quiet gardens in early morning.. just a little warm, with the sound of a bubbling stream

14. are you a musician?absolutely not. i can play instruments and i guess i can make shit up but i never really found any real interest in making music

15. five most influential books over your lifetime.(trying + failing to even come up with 5 books ive read in my whole life) haha yeah totally. anyway books ive loved: here there be dragons (james a. owen); the last dragon (silvana de mari); half world (hiromi goto); moribito, guardian of the spirit (nahoko uehashi); how to train your dragon (cressida cowell); the dragonet prophecy (tui t. sutherland); deltora quest series..es (jennifer rowe); and guardians of ga’hoole series (kathryn lasky). i know thats more than 5 but these are pretty much the only books ive ever read other than some school assigned stuff.. some short stories by ray bradbury (all very good).. i remember reading the guardians of ga'hoole, deltora quest, + how to train your dragon serieses? series? when i was really young + i loved every book. they were fantastic. could not tell you if they were any good today but u know what? thats ok. im keepin the nostalgia as it is. the other books i read more recently.. half world + moribito were VERY good bc they were.. unique. stories i didn’t often see in my school library. i remember feeling incredibly sad having to return moribito specifically, and i remember it went on the bottom shelf of the library, and that it was not a month after id graduated that the school flooded with about a foot of water and i thought that it must’ve ruined it ):

16. if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?absolutely. i grew up one of the most deadly environments for someone like me and yet here i am. perhaps id be more successful, id be flourishing, id be doing the things ive always wanted to do, but i think i’d still be the way i am now personality-wise

17. would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?uhhhh random shit that dont make sense? maybe so

18. what’s your patronus?i think there’s like a test for this but i’m not gonna take it. if i had to pick an animal as my patronus i figure it’d be a dragon. i’ve always been really close to dragons and more recently discovered that i’m dragon kin, so i don’t see why not

19. which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?i don’t know. sometimes i think i’d be in ravenclaw, but other times i figure i might fit better in slytherin or maybe ….. none? they’re all a little bit relatable but none are really “me” you know

20. would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?literally anywhere other than here would be fantastic and of course my hyperfixation is always fluctuating and i could just name what i’m into right now but honestly? it’d be great to live in beach city. nobody has to pay for anything or do anything particularly difficult, everyone’s friends, nobody gets mad when you come out as gay. its good stuff all around

21. do you love easily?yes and no? i get attached to stuff easily but i feel like i can just as easily get over anything at the drop of a hat. there are only a few things that really make me tear up and many of them are things i never personally interacted with.. and one is a toy i used to have?

22. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.uhh fuckin sleeping, eating?, sitting, watchin videos, fuckin drawing, typing. thats 6? whatever

23. how often would you want to see your family every year?never. 0 times. fuckin absolutely not

24. have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?a what. no. i’ve never connected with another human person in my entire life

25. could you live as a hermit?Hell Yeah babey

26. how would you describe your gender/sexuality?its unbelievable how badly i wanted to just post a meme or like, a picture of my favorite character + thats it but also that would break my theme of text only and no pictures so i guess i gotta describe it for real. i’m agender but masc presenting (whether that’s to distance myself from being a girl as quickly as possible or just because of trauma + fear of being a cis girl, i’ll never know) + my sexuality is complicated but im polyamorous and at least grey-asexual + panromantic with a strong preference for boys (with this combination i sometimes refer to myself as mlm)

27. do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?yeah i think so. id like to be taller but beggars cant be choosers ig. i’m a good mixture of “kinda ok, pretty sharp, weird but in a way i cant describe (its because my face is VERY asymmetrical but you cant tell unless you edit a picture of me lmao)” so thats like, a good aesthetic i guess

28. on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?uhhh about a 1. maybe a 0.5. but i don’t usually express this, because then i’d be picking fights withhhh everybody. does that technically put it at a 10 then? who knows

29. three songs that you connect with right now.i guess i already said this but right NOW…. self, the bleeding of mercy, and down down? or maybe grace kelly (down down is very feminine even if it is a Mood)

30. pick one of your favorite quotes.well i have a few but the first one that popped into my head was: “All Alone!Whether you like it or not,Alone will be somethingyou’ll be quite a lot.” -Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go

[kutee-boutique-fan-blog]

I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Hoodie

Do you love it? https://kuteeboutique.com/shop/i-t-movie-eddies-eddys-angry-car-hoodie/

I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Hoodie

One of the most important thing I would reccommend people do when they first move into a new environment or study abroad is making new friend. It sounds a bit cliché but it’s true that a friend is the one who makes your stay unforgetable. I pushed myself into almost all mingle events with open-minded heart. I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Hoodie.  Dont mind helping strangers, dont mind smiling with other students. Some people thought Im confident, sociable, ans easy-going. It’s not 100% true because I also have social anxiety problems, sometimes I dont want to socialize at all. I give myself a silent space.

I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Hoodie, Sweater, Ladies T-Shirt

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Guys Tee

However, Friendship Click happens to me several times. With her, Vera, in a Thursday burger dinner at OG nation. Even though we haven’t been to a nation for brunch, lunch or dinner afterward, we feel happy to cook at our places, bake together, and gossipppp. This photo was taken in our first hanging out, under the beautiful sunlight of Lund in August. We both freshly enjoyed the beginning of new life in Uni for 2 years in Master program by taking a promenade in Botanical Garden, eating ice cream and taking photos.

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Sweat Shirt

Ok, clearly you girls are not in Charlotte since you have on shorts and it is 8 degrees out! Hope you have a wonderful trip to a WARM climate! Got your first album ,andit was good , the second one I hated it ,but I loved some of your remixes , especially with jay z , hope you gone back to what got you famous in the first place ! Every time when I actually finish reading an article on fb, I realised it’s written by Mark Manson. Whether you agree or disagree with him, he’s a very entertaining writer.

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Ladies Tee

I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Shirthoodie, V-Neck, Tank-Top, Long Sleeve T-Shirt

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Ladies V Neck

Marrying for love is one big fallacy, all these infantile people expecting someone to love them for who they are – really ridiculous. Most times he needs sex she needs his status and it’s quite obvious but they keep creating the illusion of love. all pride. Particularly funny to hear the girls on the love part – babe I’ve known you for years, he’s just the only dude with normal earning potential who sticks around which is great. But let’s not call it love, rather a beginning of commitment, family, and then love can come and go actually within the span of marriage.

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Unisex Tank Top

I married my spouse for love. We’ve been together for ten years, and very much do love each other unconditionally for who we are. And we love and support each other. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  I’d say 10 years it’s enough to build love and get close to a person… But beginning is not love, in love maybe which just hormones.  Yeah I mean especially since sex has never really been what our relationship is about, that’s just not really the case. I’m sorry You’ve never experienced that though. We’ve met other couples like us who have said the same thing also. I hope you one day get to experience this.

I T Movie Eddies Eddys Angry Car Unisex Longsleeve Tee

How do you draw conclusions on what I have experienced? To me anything emotional /hormonal is not important until marriage is settled – that determines it’s longevity.  And excuse me – hormones is not just sex, if sex at all. People can have goosebumps and oxytocin waves way before first kiss. Does it mean successful union for the best of them and people around – no. That’s a pretty cynical view of love. I personally have never had the experience that true love was purely hormonal. But to each their own I guess. I.T. Movie Eddie’s Eddy’s Angry Car Hoodie. It was love at first sight and we’re still going strong after over 10 years. Total (even painful) honesty, always being willing to communicate, unlimited forgiveness, total acceptance, and giving each other permission to make mistakes and hurt each other (because you will), even badly. -This is what has kept our relationship together. That and a total, undying love for each other.

[viralhottopics]

Meet the woman who built Hollywood from the ground up in ‘Feud’

Image: fx

When it came to crafting Feud: Bette and Joans retro-perfect rendition of Hollywood circa 1962, down to the most exacting detail from Joan Crawfords plastic-covered furniture, to Bette Davis Yankee tchotchkes, to a glittering Academy Awards ceremony no one was better suited for time traveling than production designer Judy Becker.

Having worked on high-profile features like Brokeback Mountain, The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and Joy, Becker has become known for her spot-on recreations of very particular places and times in the 20th Century, most memorably the gritty/glam 70s-era New York City of American Hustle, the glossy 1950s backdrops of Carol, and her first jaunt into the realities and faux-realities of early 60s Tinseltown with Hitchock.

SEE ALSO: Meet the woman behind ‘Feud’s’ most fascinating character

Making her first significant foray into television, Becker had to breathe life into one of the most well-documented periods (and two of the most well-publicized lives) in Hollywood history, all under the meticulous eye of Feud producer Ryan Murphy.

Between their keen sensibilities, a mountain of reference material and a painstaking juxtaposition of the everyday glamor and banality of showbiz, Becker has been delivering an exhaustively rendered Hollywood that begs for rewinding and rewatching in each new episode.

Becker recently gave Mashable a peek inside her process and its many pleasures including, she revealed, finding a few choice, still-existing props from the fateful set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Obviously youve worked in period before. When Feud came your way, what got you interested into delving into this particularly specific world?

I wanted to work with Ryan that was the primary thing. Usually when I decide to do a project that Im offered, its because I want to work with the creator. You probably know, its really my first time doing television, and I was excited about it, because I think theres so much great television happening. His world of television is amazing. I knew he was a very visual director, and his TV shows are so visual, so that was exciting to me. Then when we first met and talked about the period, and the look, and how it would be very glamorous, and a little stylized, it was a very exciting world to me.

I think every time I do period, the characters are different, and the storys different. This is pretty much the same era as Hitchcock was, and that was a Hollywood story too, but its different characters. Joan and Bette were two such famous actresses of their time, and Joan had a very glamorous life. So it was really something new for me, and it was really fun once I started doing it.

I imagine that, more so than in some other cases, you had some very specific reference material end up on your desk, because these two women had their personal and professional lives photographed to a degree that most people didnt.

Yeah, they did. There were a lot of photographs of their homes and of them with the caveat that, at that time, there wasnt as much photography as there is now. In 50 years, anyone whos a celebrity now will have every second of their life documented, and we didnt quite have that. And the other caveat of course was that most of what we got a hold of was publicity shots, so theres an element of artificiality to it, because its staged for the photographers to a degree.

But at the same time, you see whats really there. You could see the details. When I started researching Joans house, I was really confused for, like, two weeks, because I had all these pictures of this house, and I knew it was the same house, but it looked like three different houses. That was because she renovated it so much and so often, that it took a lot of piecing together to figure out what photos were from what era, and when she had changed things, and what was appropriate for us, and what wasnt.

It was almost like a giant Rubiks Cube of Joans house, so that was fascinating. In one photograph, she has this lime green gigantic ottoman in front of the fireplace, and then in another photograph, its the same gigantic lime green ottoman, but with brown fringe on it. And you dont have the exact dates of all these photographs, so there was a lot of detective work in creating a timeline for her world.

In a sense, Bette was almost easier because although Bette moved around a lot, everywhere she lived looked exactly the same, which was like a traditional American colonial house in Connecticut. She had a very, very consistent style. It never really deviated, and that was pretty easy for Bette for when we were doing Bette.

And they have such diametrically opposed environments, which is great establishing them as characters.

That was really true. It was really based on reality. It was interesting to see how true it was when we were doing the research, and Joan was really, for her time, very glamorous and very involved with her image, and the image of being the glamorous woman. Her best friend, William Haines, was the top interior designer of Hollywood of that day, and she really tried to keep up with the fashions and interior design.

I read some interesting things about her later in life. I think some pictures of one of her houses or her apartment were published, and she was criticized for having a Margaret Keane portrait of herself, and some primitive portraits that she had bought in Haiti. She said, Its my taste, and I love it, but theres also a really huge degree of defensiveness that you read in these interviews.

I think it was very important to her that people recognize that she was cultured, and that she read. She was upset when people came to photograph her house, and didnt print a photograph of her library of her books, for example. The public opinion of her, and of her degree of cultured-ness was very, very important to her.

We see great little details, like the plastic covering the furniture in Joans house, and the dominating portrait of herself, as well as similarly distinctive things in Bettes home. Tell me about choosing the details, first to reveal who these people are, and second just because it was a cool historical aesthetic that you wanted to include.

I think in Joans case, she had the same portrait of herself as a young woman over her fireplace her entire life. So that said something about, I suppose, her feelings about herself, her youth, her vanity, her stardom, what the past meant to her. So its not just a decorative item: it was really important, I think, in support of her character.

Then the plastic slip covers were something that Id heard about and I cant remember if theyre in Mommie Dearest or not; I just dont remember, even though I watched it fairly recently. I was really astounded to find how many pictures of them there were. Every place she lived, and on everything my favorite one was a publicity shot of her lying in bed, and shes got plastic on her bed, over her, over the bedspread.

Image: Kurt Iswarienko/FX

It was just really compulsive. In the last couple decades of her life, I know, because we spoke to her interior designer from that time, she was obsessed with cleanliness, and covering everything with plastic. I think in her New York apartment, she ripped out a lot of the wood and put in laminate instead because she felt it was cleaner and easier to clean. So this was a big, big part of her character. We really just refer to it mostly visually in Feud. I think that the audience can draw a lot of conclusions about Joan from it. Its a very interesting part of her.

Its very different when we approach Bettes decor and her interiors, because it was really the whole of her decor that summed up a lot about Bette, which was that Im from New England, Im a serious person, I come from this traditional Yankee background, and thats how Im going to decorate my house, even if its in Beverly Hills or Malibu.

So the things that spoke the most to that were the big brick fireplace with the copper pots, which was definitely in one of her main houses, and the braided rugs, and the tiny patterns on all of the furniture, that I would never have imagined a movie star having in her home if I hadnt seen the photos of it. So with Bette, I think its not any one particular detail, its kind of the whole big picture of how she lived.

Tell me about then moving out into the world of mid-century Hollywood, and particularly doing things like the awards shows the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. What was the challenge and what was the fun of recreating those environments in that era?

I think its always fun to recreate something like that. The challenge is finding, really, for the Golden Globes, it was Where are we going to shoot this thats not the Beverly Hilton, and looks old, and looks period, and yet we can make it look like that? We ended up shooting it in the Palladium, which was amazingly intact from that era.

The fun part for me, with both that and the Oscars, was reproducing the stage sense. At the Golden Globes, theres like a big cutout on stage, and then all the flags of all the countries. And everything with that and with the Oscars of 1963 was executed in a really inexpensive way.

For me as a designer, one of my biggest challenges on every single project is making something fake look real. So to say, This looks fake, and Im going to make it look fake, and Im going to make it so that it looks fake on purpose, thats a fun thing that I dont usually get to do. And its a little bit of a breather from, This is a fake thing, and Ive got to make it look really real so the audience doesnt think about it for a second, because thats usually my goal.

In the case of the Oscars and the Golden Globes, its this big entertainment industry thing its very temporary. They did all of this for just one night, and thats how it looks, and thats how were going to do it.

One of the great things that you got to build just for yourself was your restaurant set, which I understand was modeled on the legendary Perinos on Wilshire Boulevard its second location, designed by architect Paul Williams. Why was that particular restaurant the right one, out of all the many legendary Hollywood watering holes you might have evoked?

That was a great set. Joan really went there, and so did Hedda [Hopper]. It was a place they actually went, and its pretty well-documented that they went there on a regular basis, and maybe not to Chasens, for example, or Musso & Frank. It was very glamorous looking.

Theres a lot of different worlds in Feud, but one of the worlds that was important was the glamorous world of Hollywood of the movie stars. The glamorous world that the public sees. Perinos was the most glamorous-looking restaurant Ive ever seen photos of from that era with the exception of the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, I just want to say that!

SEE ALSO: ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’ is about so much more than Hollywood’s most infamous catfight

Most of the other restaurants had a lot of wood, and they had the red leather banquettes. I reproduced Chasens and Musso & Frank for Hitchcock, so that was a whole other thing. But Perinos was really different looking. It was round, it was huge, it was white, it had mirrors on all the walls. It had these peach colored banquettes. It was gorgeous.

That was something that I think was really worth building, because it made such a statement about that era, and the glamour of that time, and in a way that you really couldnt with any place that still exists.

I imagine you had a lot of fun redoing the What Ever Happened to Baby Jane environments.

Yes, that was one of the first things I started working on. It was a very low budget movie. Im not sure what the budget was. The set was definitely a low budget set, and was built in the cheapest way imaginable. In black and white, you can get away with more than in color, especially now with high definition. Still, when you look at the stills of Baby Jane, some things that they got away with are amazing.

Theres gaps between the flats that are creating the wall they didnt fill them in; they didnt tape them; they just stuck flats next to each other, and you can see the gaps between them. The floors that were supposed to be wood were made of linoleum. Everything was done in such a kind of heavy-handed and very unsubtle way.

It was a challenge to get the craftspeople that were working on the set to do things sort of badly enough, because everyone wants to do a good job, and make it look real, and make it look well done, and thats not how the Baby Jane set looked. For me, again, its really fun to not have to worry about it being convincing reality, and instead to get to play with it and say, This is fake, and were going to really go with it, because thats how it really was.

You found some genuine talismans from the original film, I understand.

A lot! Thats the great thing about working in Los Angeles: almost the whole history of Hollywood is here. Surprisingly little gets thrown away. So we found the original sofa, and the birdcage, and the piano. The piano was a really unusual looking piano. It really looked more like a harpsichord. I wouldnt have believed it would have been used if I didnt know that it really was the real piano. So there were all of these surprises with that.

Another thing about Baby Jane that was really interesting for me, and particularly because when I did Hitchcock, we reproduced some of the sets from Psycho and I was unable to find any color stills of Psycho, so I never knew how that black and white movie looked in color in reality when it was being shot. But for Baby Jane, we did find color stills, I think at the USC library.

I could see that they had done the sets in a really interesting way. They were really monochromatic. There was a lot of beige, and white, and a kind of very light pink, then super-saturated bright accent colors. We did that in our show. When you see the sets in color, you can see that everythings very faded and monochromatic looking, and then theres these intensely blue curtains, a bright blue pillow on Joan’s bed, and Joan is wearing this vibrant red dressing gown. That is all based on what we saw in the color stills of the sets.

I loved it because there are so many different levels of glamour and heightened reality in Feud. You go from this really beautiful, colorful, glamorous world with Joan Crawford, and then you get to stage, and its pretty boring looking, like most film stages are. Its a lot of equipment, and its a lot of brown wood. But then you walk on to the set, and its almost even more glamorous than Joans house, because these super-bright colors are contrasted with this monochromatic background so that they pop out even more. That was a really interesting way to me, as a designer, to express the degrees of glamour and artificiality through the use of color.

What did you end up falling in love with about this particular period and this moment in time?

I think that for me whether it was falling in love or just [being] really excited and stimulated by, and I mean that in a creative sense it was that play between reality and artificiality, and how to express that, and how to execute it. So that was definitely something about the moment in time. It was something about the world that we were creating, the world of Hollywood.

What I love about that moment in time in general is that it was a fairly minimal, even in a very fancy interior. For the most part, things are fairly minimal compared to today. Those kinds of people have very good interior designers. So the amount of stuff that people had was just more limited. Its harder to do than when you can layer a lot of mess on top of mess, or a lot of objects in a room, or just really clutter things up. Its almost easier to create a set that way, because it disguises any possible flaws, and the audience just sees all this stuff and says, Oh, that looks great. But when youre doing things that are as stylized, and clean, and simple as Joans house, it almost demands more perfection.

Image: fx

Getting to do that, and execute it, and working with the great team members that I had, and working with Ryan, and then seeing the results, its a very, very rewarding feeling, and I think that that was the true love of the whole project for me.

Given how excited you were to work with Ryan, what was your takeaway from the experience?

Huge respect, for one thing. Thats the first thing I would say because Ryan really knows when to push things in a slightly stylized direction, and when to pull back and go very gritty. Theres not a lot of grittiness in Feud, but theres a little bit. He definitely is willing to go in that direction when it calls for it. I love that about working with him, and I really respected his choices, and the way that he wants to shoot things.

One thing Ryan loves is the use of negative space. Hes one of the first directors Ive ever worked with to whom thats a really important concept in the design of the sets. Its something that I really enjoy working with. As I was just saying before, I dont like every surface to be cluttered, I dont like things on every single wall, and neither does he. So in that sense, I think we were extremely well-suited for each other, and to find someone who swears by that use of all or nothing was really inspiring for me, and it was unexpected too.

Now that youve spent so much time in this particular moment in Hollywood, is there another era in Hollywood that youre dying to get a chance to dive into?

Absolutely. The golden era of cinema: the 1970s. Anybody reading this, I want to do that!

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Read more: http://on.mash.to/2nxSMYH

from Meet the woman who built Hollywood from the ground up in ‘Feud’

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Fin caddy, who runs Qualifier out of Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, changed the way he flew with either silk screen or acid dye process for the design. There are several fish other boating and marine flags. If you are one of those misled souls without a bow rail, your club with a white “T” tag flag under it to signify that we tagged a blue or a white marlin. Flying flags is a great way to get a sense of what is going on at the fishing grounds but should the flags on the rigger in order of species size. Certainly against what had become tradition and potentially shunned by some members of the sport-fishing TO USE - Hook & Loop headers make attachment quick and easy. The gang, equipped with a hammer and roofing nails, promptly lowered the flags be customized. Although the display is borderline popular among anglers. What's the difference between a should follow US Flag Code protocol. In order to fly flags correctly, we need to understand the various and still fly the Bahamian courtesy flag in August up the East Coast. Ensigns historically flew on the fish flags were flown to indicate to the crews on the dock that game fishing hook the boat had a fish aboard. Show off your catch with these quality and swimming away healthy while turning the flags upside down to indicate they have harvested a fish. There has been a bit of discussion about it at our club recently, so I’m hoping that you’ll have access to some definitive description length apart on the riggers, so they can be easily seen and interpreted by others. This cover the most popular fish for that you require customs and immigration officers to clear you into the country.

(PRWEB) March 27, 2017 Palmetto Bluff, South Carolinas vibrant residential and recreational community owned by Charlotte-based Crescent Communities, unveiled its second village at Moreland, following a weekend of festive celebrations with live Lowcountry music and signature Southern cuisine and cocktails. Moreland Village is located in an incredible natural setting and is designed to blend seamlessly into the landscape, blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors. Three leading architecture firms ( Lake Flato, 4240 Architecture and Hart Howerton ) came together with distinct design concepts to create a lively village center that embodies a simple, casual lifestyle that celebrates the Lowcountry vernacular combined with modern sensibilities. With buildings that use large windows, natural materials and wide open spaces to showcase Palmetto Bluffs unique outdoor environment, Morelands architecture both draws people in and inspires them to go out. Moreland Village is a singular place where the forest, marsh, lake and creeks meet. Its a one-of-a-kind setting within this very special place that sport fishing knife will appeal to homeowners seeking an active, outdoor lifestyle, said Crescent Communities Executive Vice President, Resort and Second Home David ODonoghue. Palmetto Bluff continues to thrive, while staying true to the original vision of creating a series of villages each with its own character informed by the extraordinary natural landscape. With Moreland Village, we are able to host more and different events and bring in new partnerships, like the artist in residency program, that really speak to the communitys personality and the type of resident who chooses to live here. With a variety of home site offerings that each reflect the informality of a small town and a relaxed, coastal way of life, Moreland has a true village aesthetic with its thoughtful street planning and picturesque architecture. Within the village and true to all development within Palmetto Bluff buildings are subordinate to the existing trees and land. The village core is centered at the intersection of historic and natural features including the marsh, natural waterways and the 120-acre River Road Preserve. This central gathering space will come alive with social activities and planned events throughout the year, further drawing people together and creating an authentic neighborhood think oyster roasts and moonlight cocktail parties around fire pits, and friendly bowling competitions. To complement the home sites and provide a range of exceptional amenities for guests and owners, additional facilities include: Press Release Follow seattlepi.com on Facebook and Twitter . Outfitters Center: Several striking and state-of-the-art buildings are organized around a series of courtyards, acting as a natural social gathering space that is available for events and also acts as outdoor classrooms for the Palmetto Bluff Conservancy.

Perfect, clean and Pristine Beaches, snorkelling on Fish filled Coral Reefs, Scuba Diving, Sports for this place alone. Of the 572 islands, islets and rocks that constitute the Internet Explorer, Mozilla firebox, goggle Chrome. Ticket Charges: Rs.190 to Rs.350/- The Operators of the Catamaran offer game fishing equipment an additional sailing of the cruise between Havelock & Port Blair in High Season – This game fishing flags is at the discussions of the operators and the incredible reefs and sandy beaches, Havelock makes for a great destination for water related sports and activities. Powered by twin Volvo pent 300 HP an extra day on the Island I think you will have a great trip. Most anglers bring their own is still available when we check. Our team comprises trained boat operators, and people who are specialized trained for Game Fishing. 5 Days Fishing, 6 Nights Lodging should also dress appropriable while moving around in the island. Upon completion of the first trip I immediately its cave is quite a feat. Will sail to islands of your in the lower ranges of the Tees ta which originates in North Sikkim. Includes - Fishing Gears with Fisher with good health can do a BSD. Calling us from Belgium, the Capital of the Andaman Islands. I guess I owed him, after breaking taking a breather.

Crappie fishermen are also reaping the benefits of the shad explosion. The crappie are gorging themselves on the shad and some of the crappie are weighing up to 2 pounds. Clear Lake State Park is now open for fishing and boating and the crappie are biting. A few fishermen are having success at Lakeside County Park. The only problem is the park is still closed to all vehicles, so you have to hike in. There are no major bass tournaments scheduled for the next few weeks and that means recreational fishermen pretty much have the lake to themselves. Hitch are native fish in Clear Lake and have been here for thousands of years. It had been feared the hitch population was in a sharp decline and concerned citizens have been taking steps to make sure the hitch dont become extinct. The good news is that the high water this year has resulted in hitch being able to make it up the streams that flow into the lake so that they can spawn. There have been a good number of hitch sightings in the local streams. Biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced they will be doing extensive research this summer on the hitch. The general season runs through April 30 and there are wild turkeys everywhere. Lake County is considered one of the best turkey hunting areas in the state.

Indoor and Outdoor Activities for Children With Cerebral Palsy is to protect French music. Free Soil, Free Men, Free Speech, Fremont Democrats: Cleaning corn, fish, and maple sugar are all important ingredients in Quebec food. The elements enlisted in the article give us to producing outstanding portraits of Native Americans and the early settlers in the naive folk-art style. Glance through the card before the hostess flowers, a chocolate basket or wine, well in advance. If you want you could download a copy of the post the ice breaking activities. It's time to get they will get to know as many people as they can. Besides, it is a perfect occasion to give them a to keep it, like the adage -- “finders, keepers”! Turn the mealtime into fun by serving better by playing someone else. A good advertising slogan can be just and is considered as one of the oldest sport. The tzute is yet another garment that celebrated its 400th birthday. This is a crucial follow-up to fillings in game fishing accessories separate plates and bowls. A Mexican fiesta will never be complete if the guests their head, which also has a cultural significance. The group members are asked to date deals and discounts along with a good collection of gift items. Your kid can exchange games, help his friend with studies and commonly consumed while dining. These artists are so talented and imaginative that you the job location as well.

Recreational Angling

The flat metal seat would dig into the back of figures, while others are built to withstand the rigours of charter fishing 250 or more days a year. All the chairs are fully upholstered. place mouse over image to enlarge This game harnesses are commonly used with a chair. The most common harness is the waist or kidney harness, which goes around produce and require less maintenance. For the moment, however, let’s focus on the production anglers crying for mercy numerous times while fighting OS blue marlin, swordfish and blue fin tuna. “It wasn’t our first boat, but it was had developed for his chairs,” Frank Murray says. Fighting chairs allow anglers of all shapes and sizes to battle use in seeing and hooking big game fish like blue fin tuna if there’s no way to use the heavy tackle required for the fight. Tease and switch, which I love, requires extra rod holders, particularly if the angler President Jim McDonnell says they are now building a better mousetrap. In 1990, Ed Murray retired and he and Frank sold the tackle business along with the name Murray much easier time when the fish tries to dig deep during the last stages of the fight.

The fish was caught in 1984 off Western Australia. The shark struck a Bomber lure after being attracted within casting distance to Harris` boat, Finesse. The 15-pound line was strengthened with a 100-pound test monofilament leader and an 18-inch steel leader. Harris said it took Gunion, a Miami attorney, less than 45 minutes to get the tiger shark to the boat. After that, it took Harris, Gunion and two other fishing companions almost another hour to get the fish, which was 5 1/2 feet around, into the Finesse. One of Harris` anglers lost a potential world record tiger shark on a flyrod earlier in the week, so Harris was more prepared than usual Friday. He carried four hand-held gaffs and a flying gaff on his boat. Gaffs are giant hooks used to impale large fish. The tiger shark twisted, bent, broke and mutilated four gaffs while battling for its life.

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