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gamebird · 4 months ago

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Murderathin Rec List

Revised for fall of 2024

As compiled by the denizens of the New Tideland MB/G channel! The greatest hits of TMBD's most popular frenemy ship - the fics that got us into it, and the fics we made because of it. "PR" are quotes from us as we talked back and forth about what was awesome about the fic, or from AO3 comments. All works are complete except Enemies, Closer and If Statements.

The Long Emergency by murderbot Words: 56,866 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Trapped on the survey planet when the last emergency beacon fails, Murderbot and the PreservationAux team scramble to survive deadly fauna, cruel weather, scarce resources, and GrayCris's armed hunting parties. In a grueling ordeal spanning two planetary years, Murderbot becomes closer to its humans than it ever thought possible. PR: “the absolute ur-Murderathin fic”, “an absolute stunner”, “that’s the one that got me into the ship”, "This fic is amazing! Murderbot's voice and everyone's characterizations were so on-point, and all of the details of their survival on this planet and the action scenes were so well-fleshed out.", "The first MB/G fic on AO3!"

Recollection by murderbot Words: 30,753 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: SecUnit and Gurathin agree to be married, temporarily, for ease of travel during an assignment. After a violent encounter and a bad wormhole jump, they crash land on a habitable planet and discover their entire ship is suffering from amnesia. Nobody remembers anything from their past. The ship's records are badly scrambled. The planet is too far for anyone to reach safely. When Gurathin and SecUnit find the record that indicates they are married, they build a life together as marital partners, not knowing their union is based on a lie. PR: “I love pain”, “It absolutely broke me”, “still haunts me”, “wonderful”, " I'm so full of bittersweet emotions", "I was this close to crying for a few chapters, and the ending was perfect."

Enemies, Closer by Abacura, Gamebird, IHopedTheredBeStars, opalescent_potato, Rosewind2007, theAsh0 Words: 134,190 (WIP) Rating: Teen and Up Summary: When a Combat SecUnit with identical genetics to Murderbot is sent to Preservation Station to commit a massacre, the delicate balance between Murderbot, ART, and Dr. Gurathin shifts, putting all four of them on a collision course. PR: “a wonder and a delight”, “my favorite one”, "Rock-Paper-Scissors dom dynamics in which ART is the secret fourth option, Dynamite", "Can't wait for more!", "A monumental collaboration!"

Boots by opalescent_potato Words: 5,762 Rating: General Audiences Summary: Murderbot learns a little more than it wanted to about Gurathin's mysterious past. PR: “such a great, quiet study in emotional intimacy and shared trauma. Also has an absolutely amazing Oh. Oh no moment.”, "this feels like the realest depiction of poverty trauma I've ever seen in fanfic", "Info dumping as a love language. Learning self care from the most particular human."

No Peace/No Rest by IHopedTheredBeStars Words: 4,363 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Though Dr Gurathin eventually accepts the addition of SecUnit a.k.a. Murderbot to PreservationAux, and even assists in its recovery & rehabilitation after the corporate gunship debacle, he never warms up to it like the others do—at least according to our unreliable narrator, Murderbot itself! Let’s assume Murderbot is right this time. So what’s up with that?? This story takes place (chronologically) after Fugitive Telemetry and just before Network Effect. PR: “an excellent MB&G fic”, "So many fantastic ideas in here", "This is such a great look at grappling with the guilt of having taken a life, and being stripped of that comforting denial that it wasn't a person."

The Last Client by Gamebird Words: 70,290 (series) Rating: Explicit Summary: A series with the premise of 'What if GrayCris had attacked PresAux first instead of DeltFall?' In the first, Last Client Standing, Dr. Gurathin is the only PresAux survivor, with Murderbot protecting him from GrayCris' continuing efforts to eliminate them entirely. In the second, Who Guards the Guardian?, they return to Preservation where they must come to terms with how much they, and events, have changed. PR: “Gah! Gurathin and Sec having to navigate ALL the emotions. I’m… (no better way to say it) ded. I am ded. De d ded." "Man the image of Murderbot dragging itself along with no working legs almost this whole fic and still managing to fight off a good chunk of GrayCris." "So many emotional moments, happy, sad, bittersweet, as they worked through their grief and what they mean to each other."

Gurathin’s Side of the Story by Gamebird Words: 51,849 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: A retelling of The Murderbot Diaries from Gurathin's point of view. PR: “An incredible character study that adds so much depth to Gurathin. The reader falls in love with him every step of the way (and Murderbot does too)”, "There are so many moments where this story just drop-kicks me with how real it is.", "a lovely view into Gurathin‘s CR background, augments, and his soft belly under that armadillo shell."

Faking It For Real by Gamebird Words: 1,571 Rating: Explicit Summary: Murderbot does a bad job of pretending to be Gurathin's ComfortUnit on a mission, until it figures out how to be better at it. PR: “the one where everyone's playing it cool but the feet are paddling madly beneath the surface" "I know this is a cracky premise but it sure is hot!" "the sexy frisking is definitely hot" "HOT DAMN"

Boots by Gnomeskillet Words: 2,797 Rating: General Audiences Summary: "I'm going to fix your boots," he explained, talking to me like I was a small human child that didn't know anything. At least he kept his eyes on the floor while he did it. "They're a mess and if you want them to last longer, then you need to take care of them." PR: “this entire fic got me", "Omg who knew shoe shines could be so full of tension??", "This was sort of in kink no man's land, in between the barbed wire embankments of desire and fulfillment."

It Was Only A Kiss by Gnomeskillet Words: 2,102 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Frustrated and desperate, Murderbot hauls Gurathin into an alleyway and makes out with him in order to avoid Station Security. Hey, it has a 100% success rate in media! PR: “excellent”, “Incredibly sexy and very sweet.”, "Dom Murderbot absolutely wrecking Gurathin while not really knowing what the hell it's doing is my favorite flavor"

Pressing Down On Me, Pressing Down On You by Gnomeskillet Words: 1,061 Rating: Not Rated Summary: I was just thinking about MB pressing down on Gurathin's augments like how ART presses down on MB in the feed, and I like thinking about MB being tsundere about taking care of its least favorite augmented human. It doesn't LIKE Gurathin, he's just less annoying this way. PR: “ahhh yes this one was absolutely one of the ones that made me go OHHHH. It made me so invested in their relationship”, "Poor Gurathin doesn't know what he's getting into, good thing Murderbot is so nice XD", "I love the idea of cuddling in the feed."

Just to Suffer the Pressure by Chyoatas Words: 2,113 Rating: Explicit Summary: He was already out of breath when he let his hand press to his throat. (That hadn’t been in the original plan. This was already too close- too fraught. It was already embarrassing enough (and hotter for it, but he wouldn’t admit it.)) PR: “Okay we were all thinking it. There are not nearly enough fics where Murderbot erotically asphyxiates Gurathin.”, "this is insanely good holy shit", "unhinged screaming I can't form words, this is everything I want it to be"

Murderathin NSFW Zine Comic by Chyoatas Words: 1,069 Rating: Explicit Summary: My NSFW comic from the Murderbot Diaries NSFW Zine! Alternative text description of the comic is embedded in the images. PR: "So hot!", "sweet, naughty, and snarky", "So much thought went into this. The closer I look, the more details pop out at me!"

Purr by Rosewind2007 Words: 3,448 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: I saw a post by someone saying: “Wouldn’t it be nice if humans could just purr, like cats. You could let people know you were happy without talking about your feelings or anything...” And I thought: it’d be nice if Murderbot could purr. So, here you are. PR: “Ah yes, my favorite trope. Murderbot purring when it's happy!”, "MB your friends care about you!", "This was adorable and I loved it"

Sex Pollen by Rosewind2007 Words: 7,240 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Atypical human and para-human courtship behaviors and coitus triggered by xeno-floral microgameteophytes Abstract: Twenty four (24) subjects were exposed to xeno-floral microgameteophytes (XFM). Atypical behaviors were recorded by all but two (2). PR: “the yearning”, “I love watching Murderbot and Gurathin dance around each other in this. Both trying so hard to be normal and just internally yearning to be close to each other. The longing is so palpable!”

Bundling by Rosewind2007 Words: 18,348 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: It was a stupid accident. We’d identified the presence of space debris in this sector, including pieces large enough to deflect the course of a small transport; but my Risk Assessment Module was happily burbling in the low teens (it really needs replacing, but I’m quite fond of its optimism now) and ART had calculated the risk of an actual collision as approximately 1 in 159,753. But of course we were that one. And of course the client I was with would be that one. PR: "And thereby, Murderbot, SecUnit, discovered it loved itself.", " A wonderful story", "That last line is just so perfect"

That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a SecUnit by Rosewind2007 Words: 14,918 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: What it says on the tin. PR: “amazing, showstopping" "oh yess oh yess oh yesss" "Murderbean. Murderbaby. You're killing me ❤️❤️❤️ Ahhhhh the ending to this was so sweet and so perfect, I'm all up in my feelings now"

The Corporate and the Construct by beeayy Words: 87,919 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Bots and constructs have taken over the Corporate Rim. When PreservationAux is captured sneaking into AI-controlled space, someone must stay behind with the sophisticated bot-pilot that remembers a lot less than it thinks it does, and the rogue SecUnit with more anxiety and depression than anyone knows. PR: “my favorite AU”, “fantastic”, “An amazing AU. Great marriage of Fairy Tale elements with Robot Overlords.”, "This fic was such an amazing ride", "I had emotions and cried at the last chapter. Good job!"

I Hate The Way I Don’t Hate You by beeayy Words: 53,345 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: Murderbot hates Gurathin, though the reason changes on a daily basis. PR: "I love this whole thing", "These two ridiculous assholes *always* end up meeting in the middle", "I love fake marriage fics especially when it's enemies to lovers."

Wrinkles by beeayy Words: 1,405 Rating: General Audiences Summary: There is a disavantage to being a rogue SecUnit in the long-term. Gurathin helps Murderbot through it. PR: “'my face is falling off' will stay with me forever" "This is the sweetest! I love depictions of them in an established relationship where they are clearly happy together, but also true to their nature (AKA assholes)." "This is so fricking ardorable!!!!!"

ComfortUnit!Gurathin by beeayy Words: 29,278 (series) Rating: Mature Summary: Gurathin tries to keep a secret from Murderbot while on a mission in the Corporate Rim. Or, "Heartbreaking: Your Least Favorite Co-Worker Is Secretly Hot". PR: “honestly top tier ending lmfaoo, and top tier fic" "I loved this whole damn fic and you nailed the ending." "This story was loads of fun, and the chemistry between them was so effective!"

Maintenance Protocol by Abacura Words: 5,762 Rating: Explicit Summary: I’m worried about SecUnit. This isn’t the first time I’ve caught it making a face that looks like it's in pain. I worry that it isn’t taking care of itself, that without a cubicle, it needs maintenance that it isn’t telling us about. I wish it would tell me. I wish it would let me take care of it. I could take such good care of it. PR: “smoking hot, I wholeheartedly recommend”, "The maintenance was so perfect and then it was done and I figured so was the fic but holy fuck (literally)", "This is the good stuff. This is perfect."

Fuckboy Strategy by The_Onion Words: 6,203 Rating: Not Rated Summary: 'Can you know you don’t like something without trying it?' I'd texted Ratthi. He responded, 'Sure! But trying things out is always a good idea :D' which I am sure he would not have said if he’d known what I was talking about. // Murderbot explores idioms, the ethics of ghosting, and its own sexuality. PR: “Ah yes, my favorite trope. Murderbot being an absolute bull in the china shop of Gurathin’s heart.”, "so good and so funny i am beside myself", "made me laugh out loud"

Construct, Social by kiwisson Words: 1,852 Rating: General Audiences Summary: Late-night human behavior discussions with your favorite deadly weapon. PR: “the vibes are really good”, “Perfect tag is perfect: You Jerks Talk A Lot For People Who Hate Each Other”, “a fascinating example of the first tagged MB&G which shows many themes already emerging!”

Imperfect Reactions by xianvar Words: 1,324 Rating: Teen and Up Summary: It’s a normal evening with friends – easy laughter, Bharadwaj stopping by to chat, Gurathin and Murderbot sniping at each other, Murderbot letting Gurathin tease it… wait, what? PR: “exterior POVs are always SO good”, "there's so many little characterizations in this fic and its really delightful!", "Adorable!"

If Statements by the_moonmoth Words: 36,683 (WIP) Rating: Explicit Summary: Without a cubicle to reset its endocrine system, Murderbot goes into heat. Gurathin would normally be the last person it would turn to for the kind of help it now needs, but he smells so good. PR: “hot, sexy, omegaverse action! Full of luscious art, too!" "Oh my LORD joining the freak train because this is fantastic!" "Aaaaaaaaaah *scream* *squeeeal* asddsgdhfthfj"

Recharge Cycle by SeeMaree Words: 5,023 Rating: General Audiences Summary: Murderbot just needs a quiet, comfortable place to run a recharge cycle. PR: “the one with the slippers" "i love this!!! Asshole friendship my beloved. U write them so good im soft" "I can’t believe you’re making them actually TALK to each other lmfaoooo"

Mixed Signals by firefox49 Words: 6,099 Rating: Mature Summary: While Dr. Gurathin is repairing some of Murderbot’s circuits, Murderbot makes a discovery about itself. PR: “the one that blows my fuse every time" ""Ahh I love how secunit is just like. Sex is a competition and I am going to win it" " I am that "sickos" meme going *yes hahaha YES*"

Plus One by musicofthespheres Words: 14,587 Rating: General Audiences Summary: Murderbot needs Gurathin's help, but he's busy. Turns out he has... other friends? Besides Ratthi and Pin-Lee? That doesn't sound right. Murderbot needs to get to the bottom of this. PR: “Murderbot being indignant about Gurathin having other friends is a fave" "Awwwwr i loved this so much its definitely one of my new favorites!" "Ohhh I just adore this whole thing" "they’re such a great little grumpy team"

#the murderbot diaries #murderathin

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imitationgame77 · 7 months ago

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Musings on "(Faked/Temporary/Apparent) Death of A Significant Other" in Fiction

[Mentions contents from Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries), Sherlock Holmes, BBC Sherlock, and House, M.D. (Season 8), Good Omens. So, potential spoiler]

Losing someone you love is probably the most traumatising experience that can change you forever. In "Life Change Index" by Holmes and Rahe which gives a score (max=100) that indicates how much stress a mojor/minor change in life causes. Since even potentially good change, like starting a new jow, can cause some stress, it includes both positive and negative life changes. But "Death of a Close Friend (37)", "Death of Close Family Member (63)" have high levels of stress, with "Death of Spouse" comes to the top with 100 points.

It is also stressful to experience loss vicariously through books, dramas, and films. Even when they are fictional. When it comes to a temporary loss, however, it is a different matter altogether, I think. I may go as far as to say we actively love it. Pain of loss, anguish, followed by joy of reuniting with the loved one - which we probably do not get to experience (even vicariously) in real life.

The most classic example of "turned out to be actually alive!" is, Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes leaves a farewell letter to Watson, with forensic? traces indicating he fell into the Reichenbach Falls with Moriarty. Watson being a Victorian gent, he does not describe how he fell to pieces. But when Holmes dramatically re-emerges 3 years later, Watson promptly faints. Then

Watson is delighted! He does not seem to mind that Holmes had led him to believe that Holmes was dead for 3 years, without a single note to say otherwise.

In BBC Sherlock, John Watson living in the 21st century was not so stoic in his response. At Sherlock's "death", John first fell to pieces, requiring him to go to see a therapist where he admits that Sherlock was his best friend. When Sherlock reappears with awkward cheerfulness, John punches him in the face after recovering from the initial shock. And stays very angry for a while, feeling betrayed by having been left to grieve for so long (2 years).

In House M.D., which is basically a medical drama version of Sherlock Holmes, with his best friend James Wilson, House also fakes his death. At his funeral, everybody tries to say something nice about House, but Wilson, angry with grief, calls him arrogant, accuses him for never caring for his friends. Then, gets a text message from House, "SHUT UP YOU IDIOT". House had to go to jail over petty crime for 6 months, when Wilson had only 5 months to live due to cancer. House sacrificed the rest of his career to spend the rest of Wilson's life together.

In Good Omens (Netflix version), when Aziraphale got inconveniently disincorporated, Crowley falls to pieces. Giving up on the idea of running away from Armageddon, he tries to drown his sorrow with drinks. When Aziraphale manages to find him there, Crowley immediately notices and gets delighted, even though Aziraphale was still without body and invisible.

~~~~~

The point I think I am getting to here is that "apparent death of a character, followed by a sort of resurrection" seems to be done in fictional creations when the said temporarily-deceased-one has a significant other that would take us (reader/audience) through anguish, followed by almost painful joy.

Thus, it makes sense to me that in Network Effect, it is Perihelion (aka ART) that would make the protagonist Murderbot go through grief by its apparent death. (Well, it was a death, for a while.) Obviously, MB would be devastated if it lost any of its humans. It cares for the PreservationAux colleagues deeply. But in addition to the fact that it would be a lot harder to resurrect a human (augumented or not) in a story later, it had to be ART, because as the author herself said in her interview, it is probably 'the love of Murderbot's life'.

It is noteworthy to say that MB itself did not give name to its emotional experience, because it probably did not know except that it was a very strong, very negative emotions. Its instant hatred towards those who killed ART and subsequent crippling grief become apparent to the readers through what Amena notices. Its pain is strong and raw, so much that even when MB is simply saying, Ugh, emotions, we feel its grief. And when finally we get to the part with:

All the lights in the control area went dark, then blinked back to life. Simultaneously all the display surfaces around me flickered, went to blank, then flashed reinitialization graphics.

And ART's feed filled the ship. In the pleasant neutral voice that systems use to address humans, it whispered, Reload in progress. Please stand by.

[ ..... ]

Then ART's voice, ART's real voice, filled the feed. It said, Drop the weapon.

Relief and joy we experience is almost heart-skippingly painful. Even though MB's response is more BBC Sherlock's John than the original John Watson, we know how much it must mean to MB. I re-listened/re-read that part at least 10 times.

It is also worth noting that ART also seems to love "pain of loss followed by joy of reunion/resurrection". In Artificial Condition, when a major character died in Worldhoppers, MB had to pause seven minutes while ART sat there in the feed doing the bot equivalent of staring at a wall, pretending that it had to run diagnostics. Then when the character came back to life 4 episodes later, ART was so relieved that they had to watch that episode 3 times before going on!

After long ramblings, my conclusion is, temporaly death of a significant character in fiction is good. More significant the character to the character we can emphasize with, the more painful the loss, and more delightful the reunion. John Watson is the love of Sherlock Holmes's life. Aziraphale is Crowley's. ART is Murderbot's.

#tmbd #murderbot #perihelion #bbc sherlock #sherlock holmes #good omens #faked death #house md #murdermetamay #the murderbot diaries #murderhelion

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space-blue · 2 years ago

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1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 11

Great selection, this took me a long while to hunt down the answers! From the Fandom end of year ask.

favourite fandom you joined this year

Bit of a cheat because it's a 'sub' fandom, but I'll say Andor (star wars). Avatar is right there, yes, but it doesn't have the oomph of Andor. Avatar has a ton of missing character development, and if the world were more approchable, I'd see myself doing a lot of fix its and missing scenes. Andor is difficult on the other hand because it's so perfect. Hard to feel like I have anything to add to the fandom. But it's the one show I've been rewatching to death and having so much respect for.

favourite fic of the year

This is basically impossible to piiiiick.

I'll mention Fathers & Daughters, even though it's my own, because you have to goddamn love a fic to spend more than a year slaving over it. And I dooo, and yes I AM working on the final chapter still, soz lol

The hottest smut I've read was Boundaries by Spiced, and well, I did nag about it when we discussed the idea, and it's a gift, but that doesn't change the fact it's the best :3 Very happy with it. It's hot by my ace standards. Basically very mindfuck focused. Fandom is Andor!

And then for multi chapter, I'm going to mention this absolutely insane and amazing FE3H complete fic To Those Who Are Never Going Home by MadameHyde. It's set after the game in an Empire win, where a lot of the Blue Lions find themselves teaching at Garrech Mach. I didn't read the tags so some reveals blew my little brain out of the water, it was amazing. Super prose, very character driven, really enjoyed it.

favourite fanart of the year

I thought this would be hard to answer, and then I realised it wouldn't be, actually, even if I'm cheating. BOTH these Maliketh fanarts have been my screen backgrounds for MONTHS. This one is on my phone and on my better Discord :

And this one is my laptop background :

They're dope and Maliketh is top pubber and I'm still obsessed with him. He's peak design and radiates blorbo energies. He's broken and I wanna fix him and pet him and--

favourite author of the year

@spicedrobot That one isn't too hard. I've read a LOT of their work this year, by vertue of doing a lot of beta swaps, and because they write some very delicious ships. They are responsible for 99% of my smut intake in 2022. Also I think it says a lot about an author that you can beta them every other day and never get tired of their unhinged content. They're just that good. (They are in a constant state of wrangling me over my terrible comma game, so they're also very patient and could have strangled me a long time ago, yet they didn't!)

favourite creator of the year

Very hard choice, especially when it's so broad and I've already struggled with the fanart one… But I'm going to go with :

@aromansoul. I just really love their art, and finding them through a shared Silco obsession was delightful. They have a very unique style, with colours that seem to float and come in and out of focus. You'll be staring at a super rendered area and it's perfect, and then you look elsewhere and realise half the drawing is just broad strokes… Absolutely tricks my mind, it's delightful. Also they have some fantastic unique designs of their own content that I think are dope.

favourite OC you met this year

Ah, finally an easy one! Meet Rain Drenched Mountain. He's @scuttlebuttin's Predator OC and he's very sweet. I love his design, his lore, and I think he has great taste. Very handsome lad and each time I see more art of him I feel like a little kid. I mean, Scuttlebuttin is a big favourite artist, and where they're not in a very very distressing blood-gore-clown period, I'm always thrilled to see what they post. Just check out their Odin fanart for the new God Of War, it's out of this world!!

#phew lots of gushing #fandom #fanfic #fanart #anon ask #ask game #fandom ask game #fic recs #art recs #predator #elden ring #maliketh #rain drenched mountain #silco #andor #fe3h

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sharengayonline · 3 years ago

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‎Hay Day

Sharengay Trang Tin Tức Độc Đáo VIDEO ‎Hay Day

Welcome to Hay Day. Build a farm, fish, raise animals, and explore the Valley. Farm, decorate, and customize your own slice of country paradise.

Farming has never been easier or more fun! Crops like wheat and corn are ready to be grown and even though it never rains, they will never die. Harvest and replant seeds to multiply your crops, then make goods to sell. Welcome animals like chickens, pigs, and cows to your farm as you expand and grow! Feed your animals to produce eggs, bacon, dairy, and more to trade with neighbors or fill delivery truck orders for coins.

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Build a farm and expand it to its fullest potential, from a small-town farm to a full-blown business. Farm production buildings like Bakery, BBQ Grill or Sugar Mill will expand your business to sell more goods. Build a Sewing Machine and Loom to create cute outfits or a Cake Oven to bake delicious cakes. The opportunities are endless on your dream farm!

Customize your farm and decorate it with a wide variety of items. Enhance your farmhouse, barn, truck, and roadside shop with customizations. Decorate your farm with items like a panda statue, a birthday cake, and instruments like harps, tubas, cellos, and more! Decorate with special items – like flowers to attract butterflies – to make your farm more beautiful. Build a farm that shows off your style and inspires your friends!

Trade and sell items in this farming simulator by truck or steamboat. Trade crops, fresh goods, and resources to in-game characters. Swap goods to gain experience and coins. Level up to unlock your own Roadside Shop, where you can sell more goods and crops.

Expand your farming experience and play with friends in the Valley. Join a neighborhood or create your own and play with a group of up to 30 players. Exchange tips and help each other create amazing farms!

Download today and build the Best. Farm. Ever!

Hay Day Features:

Build a Farm: – Farming is easy, get plots, grow crops, harvest and repeat! – Customize your family farm to be your own slice of paradise – Enhance your farm with production buildings like a bakery, feed mill, and sugar mill

Crops to Harvest & Grow: – Crops like wheat and corn will never die – Harvest seeds and replant to multiply, or use crops like wheat to make bread

Animals: – Quirky animals are waiting to be added to your farm! – Chickens, horses, cows, and more are waiting to join your farm – Pets like puppies, kittens, and bunnies can be added to your family farm

Places to Visit: – Fishing Lake: Repair your dock and cast your lure to fish the waters – Town: Repair the train station and go to town to fulfill town visitors’ orders – Valley: Play with friends in different seasons and events

Play with Friends and Neighbors: – Start your neighborhood and welcome visitors! – Trade crops and fresh goods with neighbors in-game – Share tips with friends and help them complete trades – Compete in weekly derby events with your neighbors and win rewards!

Xem thêm: Hướng dẫn chọn Smartphone để Chơi Game – Đừng chỉ chọn "CẤU HÌNH"

Trading Game: – Trade crops, fresh goods, and resources with the delivery truck or even by steamboat – Sell items through your own Roadside Shop – Trading game meets farming simulator

Download now and build your dream farm!

Neighbor, are you having problems? Visit https://bit.ly/36keT8Q or contact us in-game by going to Settings > Help and Support.

Under our Terms of Services and Privacy Policy, Hay Day is allowed for download and play only for persons 13 years or over of age.

PLEASE NOTE! Hay Day is free to download and install. However, some game items can also be purchased for real money. If you do not want to use this feature, please disable in-app purchases in your iOS device’s settings. A network connection is also required.

Parent’s Guide: https://bit.ly/3ALxZD4

Jul 1, 2021

Version 1.51.90

Our next FARMtastic update is here, just in time for summer!

Introducing a bigger farm and lots of new animals: • New farm expansion areas! Grow and decorate your dream farm even more! • Check out the special expansion areas with unique decorations! • New pet: we welcome our new Guinea Pig overlords! • New pet: Round out your stables with the new Appaloosa horse! • New sanctuary animals: the baby Reindeer are here!

Features & Improvements requested by YOU: • New production machine: Make a wide range of delicious donuts with the new donut maker. Yum! • Buy a second sugar mill to help with your sweet needs! • 9th birthday: New birthday products to celebrate! Cotton candy, colorfun candles and the birthday bouquet. Also stay tuned for new time-limited birthday customizations from Maggie! • Love trains? Grab the new train track decoration from the Wheel of Fortune, and design your railroad path! • Squashed loads of known bugs and issues.

Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube, to share your thoughts and help us make Hay Day even better!

Ratings and Reviews

4.5 out of 5

23.9K Ratings

Editors’ Notes

Running a farm is hard and often thankless work—unless that farm happens to be an adorable piece of virtual land overseen by a helpful, chatty scarecrow. Swiping across plots of land to harvest crops, feed livestock and manufacture goods is pleasantly relaxing, and growing your tiny farm into a booming business is a hugely satisfying achievement. Silly characters, cute critters and a variety of things to plant, reap, build and sell make Hay Day easy to pick up and tough to put down.

Dear team

I wanted to say dat i really luv dis game n njoy playing it … since one week d game is giving some problem , in d start as i use to open my daily dirt book d game use to back offf … n now since 2 days d game is not starting … it is loading but not getting started … wat am i soppose to do nw uninstall d game or d team will do something about it … bcz i am really not lyking it nw.. not njoying at all… dis is d only game i play … i will really appriciate it if u guys do something regarding dis 🙏🏻

Wheel of Fortune

Dear Team, I love the game. I would be more than happy if I can fetch your esteemed considerations towards my suggestion and get it done. I want to suggest you that the wheel of fortune must deliver good rewards rather than those regular farm products as those products can be produced any time by us but there are things which we can not produce but only get as a reward hence I want to get it amended that the wheel of fortune must only give us the things of high importance like land tools, barn or silo tools, mining tools or any other decorations rather than giving one tomato/sugarcane or any such crop or a product from our machines. I would be highly delighted if this can be done. And I’ll find it more fun and fruitful than the present scenario and I am sure other players would definitely like it too.

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caesarsme · 4 years ago

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creativitytoexplore · 4 years ago

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Every Possible Landform and Weather Condition and Natural Disaster: An Interview with Matthew Baker https://ift.tt/3j3hMzr

Matthew Baker’s second collection of short stories, Why Visit America (out now from Henry Holt), takes ambitious aim at this country’s societal and political systems. Each story arrives through some manner of warped lens—a lens in which America, at first, appears very unfamiliar. New technologies, new borders, new pandemics. But the deeper into these stories you read, the more you recognize similar dangers at play in our own United States. The stories quickly cohere into a comprehensive map of current anxieties and existential interrogations. And that’s where the collection’s genius becomes most apparent: when you suddenly realize your expectations and assumptions about core American values have been constructively turned upside-down. I had the pleasure of interviewing Matthew Baker about his new collection over email in July.

Alexander Lumans: Let’s start with the collection’s title, Why Visit America. Since it shares titles with one of your stories, I’m curious as to when and how you arrived at this particular title. What kind of mood or impression do you hope it casts over the entire book? Does this intention reflect any of your current feelings about our country and its fractured state?

Matthew Baker: The concept for the title story came to me in 2012. At the time, I had recently moved to Ireland; I had never lived in another country before, and the subtle cultural differences between the United States and Ireland illuminated certain characteristics of the United States for me with sudden clarity. At that point I’d already written “Fighting Words” and “Appearance” and “To Be Read Backward” and had been thinking about the possibility of assembling a collection of speculative fiction. And then one night the premise for “Why Visit America” came to me. I didn’t actually write the story until years later, but to me that title seemed like the perfect organizing principle for the collection. I realized that the collection itself could function as a guidebook.

AL: Can you talk a little bit more about this notion of the collection as a “guidebook”?

MB: Each of the stories in the book is set in a different parallel-universe United States. I loved the idea, though, that over the course of the book the stories could form a composite portrait of the real United States: a Through The Looking-Glass reflection of who we are as a country.

AL: Your stories contain many elements that feel perfectly prophetic, as if they came from a more speculative-natured DeLillo. For example, in “Lost Souls,” there’s a worldwide pandemic of infants born without souls (which causes them to die), and right now our world is living through a life-threatening viral pandemic. While writing these stories, how much were you imagining the probability of these fictions becoming reality?

MB: Zero, honestly. I wasn’t trying to write prophetic fiction. Then again, I was born on an election day—maybe that gives me some seer-like ability to peer into the future of the nation.

AL: When you write, what are you searching for? Or another way to put it: from which anxieties, observations, and/or experiences did these stories rise?

MB: For this book, although all of the stories are speculative, I was specifically looking for concepts that would give me a way to write about the social and political systems of the real world. I wanted to examine the fundamental assumptions underlying the structures of American society. Take “Life Sentence,” for example. That story didn’t start with the question, “What would be an interesting way to use a technology that can erase memories?” The story started with the question, “What’s an alternative system of punishment that could be used to replace prisons?”

AL: When I first talked to you about this collection a year ago, you mentioned that one of the “rules” you gave yourself was that you had to name all fifty states somewhere in the book, and (if I remember correctly) you wanted to name them only one time. Are there other easter eggs we should look for or “rules” you worked within for the collection?

MB: Yeah, because the collection is meant to function as a guidebook of sorts, I’d decided that all fifty states needed to be included, and also that each of the stories should be set in a different city or region of the country (although there is some overlap, for instance in that “The Sponsor” begins in Massachusetts but ends in DC and “One Big Happy Family” begins in DC and ends in Florida). But that was only the beginning. I’d also decided that the collection should include as many native species of flora and fauna as possible. As many classic American foods, American sports, American styles of clothing, American genres of music. Every possible landform and weather condition and natural disaster that one can encounter in the continental United States. I had a lot of fun with that detail work. But there are some things I never found a way to include—mountain goats, or chowder, or dodgeball, for example—which haunts me.

AL: It’s immensely clear from the work how much fun you must’ve had creating these stories. When you’re writing, how do you best encourage or create the space for fun to become part of the storytelling process?

MB: It’s not always fun, to be honest. Some days—many days—are just grinding. I’ve found that reading for a while before writing can help spark that playful spirit, though. Like how watching somebody else doing tricks on a skateboard can make you want to hop onto a skateboard and try to do some tricks too.

AL: This collection absolutely demonstrates your love of lists (and I love your lists so much!). Some of them are prodigious in size (“The Tour,” “Lost Souls,” “One Big Happy Family”) while others are small and spare but then accumulate over the course of a single story (“To Be Read Backward,” “Rites,” “Life Sentence”). What is it about lists that excites you?

MB: For better or worse, I think that’s just the way that my brain operates. I love programming languages, and when I first began to code, I was amazed to discover that every programming language has a fundamental data structure—what in many programming languages is called an “array”—whose sole purpose is to store lists of information. I was so excited by that—I felt an immediate affinity—I think because lists are so fundamental to how my brain organizes and processes information about the world around me. I can’t possibly express how much that lists delight me. In prose, I especially love when a list somehow builds to a climax or a sudden subversion of expectations, like a sequence of music notes building to a finale or a sudden change of key.

AL: In many of your stories, the point of view was one step removed from the character that other writers might choose as their storytelling lens. For example, there’s the large cast of POVs (most inhabited only once) in “One Big Happy Family”; yet, even though the detective appears in essentially every scene, we inhabit his POV for only a small part of the story. What is it about these “once-removed” POVs that appeals to you? What do they allow for?

MB: That’s thanks to Gabriel García Márquez. I first read his stories at the age of twenty, and was immediately fascinated by what to me was an entirely new genre of storytelling—not the genre of “magical realism,” although that’s the category that his stories are often assigned to, but instead the genre of the “community spectacle.” Maybe the quintessential example is “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.” Initially the most interesting character in that story might seem to be the very old man with enormous wings, and yet it’s not a story about him at all—instead it’s the story of the community in which he suddenly appears, and the various ways that the community reacts to and is changed by the spectacle of his appearance. I noticed García Márquez returning to that narrative formula again and again and again—the story of a community reacting to and being changed by some spectacle—and eventually came to realize that there was something about that setup that was profoundly compelling to me. For Why Visit America in particular, I found that “community spectacle” setup to be the perfect angle for exploring the conflict between individualism and collectivism in the United States, and the self-declared American POV of “We the People.”

AL: Gertrude Stein said that “A sentence isn’t emotional, a paragraph is,” which has intrigued me in terms of a paragraph’s various potentials. Furthermore, I’m always interested in how a writer uses their paragraphs; and I don’t think I’ve read a collection that employs paragraphs to the wild range that your collection does. You have a lot of single-line paragraphs throughout “Life Sentence,” and then you have stories with multi-page paragraphs (“The Tour,” “One Big Happy Family,” “Testimony of Your Majesty”). How exactly do paragraphs function in these stories—do you find any overlap with Stein’s quote? To you, what can a very long paragraph achieve?

MB: Maybe I do have a philosophy similar to Stein’s. I think of storytelling in terms of “units.” To me, a sentence is a unit comparable to a comic book panel and a paragraph is a unit comparable to a comic book page. In comics, as a creator, you want every panel to contain a certain amount of narrative energy, but what’s crucial is the page: you need every page to end on a panel that somehow provokes an emotional response in the reader—curiosity, fear, anger, joy, arousal, whatever—in order to entice the reader to turn to the next page to continue reading. I think about paragraphs like that: a paragraph should have a narrative arc that concludes on a sentence that provokes an emotional response in the reader, propelling the reader into the next paragraph at maximum velocity. And for that sometimes what you need is a small paragraph—even a one-liner, like a comic book splash page with a single image—but sometimes what you need is a long paragraph. There are situations in prose storytelling where that much space is required. When an editor tries to chop up a long paragraph into a bunch of smaller paragraphs simply because of some eldritch publishing superstition—“long paragraphs are bad”—it’s horrifying to me. You can kill a story that way. All of the narrative energy will bleed out through those breaks.

AL: You’ve mentioned programming languages, Gabriel Garćia Marquez, and comic books as meaningful influences on this collection. I’m curious as to what other spheres might have left their impressions here. Are there other writers or texts that, in a sense, gave you the permission to write Why Visit America?

MB: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go both had a tremendous influence on the stories in this book, along with Ursula K Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. Honestly, though, maybe the biggest influence was American Short Fiction. Of the thirteen stories in the collection, “To Be Read Backward” was the first to be written, and was the first to be published in a literary magazine. I was at AWP when I got the acceptance email from American Short Fiction—I remember standing there in the middle of the book fair, staring down at the email with a sense of astonishment. I was stunned that a literary journal of that stature would be willing to publish this weird sci-fi story that I’d written—an overtly political speculative fiction that devotes entire pages to conjecture about the nature of the spacetime continuum. I’d thought of the story as an experiment, as a risk, and so the enthusiasm of the editors was profoundly encouraging. Getting to do this interview with you is special to me for that reason. In a sense, American Short Fiction was what first gave me permission to write this book.

Named one of Variety’s “10 Storytellers To Watch,” Matthew Baker is the author of the story collections Why Visit America and Hybrid Creatures and the children’s novel Key Of X, originally published as If You Find This. His stories have appeared in publications such as New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, One Story, Electric Literature, and Conjunctions, and anthologies including Best Of The Net and Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy. Born in the Great Lakes region of the United States, he currently lives in New York City.

Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Grant in Fiction. He also received a fellowship to the 2015 Arctic Circle Residency, and he was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. He teaches at University of Colorado Denver and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. He’s currently at work on a novel set in the Arctic.

#American Short Fiction

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tutorofenglishtokoreans · 7 years ago

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And so I boarded that midnight bus to Singapore from Melaka after waiting for almost 2 hours for the bus to come as scheduled. Yes, expect delays and sleeping late when traveling on the road. It was the same thing during my land trip from Butterworth, Penang to Melaka about 2 years ago. What I liked about the night trip this time was that I chose a 27-seater bus, and since it was the last trip out or a late night trip for that matter, it wasn’t a full bus.

And it turned out that it was just all right that the bus was delayed. I arrived in the vicinity of the Golden Mile Tower at about 6 AM, just a few minutes before the Singapore sun finally brightened everything. Except for that inconvenience of a delay, my road trip to Singapore went very smoothly this time.

I booked online and took a Starmart Ekspres. The bus from Melaka to the Singapore border wasn’t really a new one, but the interior was good enough. From the border to Kampong Glam Park, we were given a much better bus, still a 27-seater. (No, I’m not advertising; they didn’t pay me for this;~~ for illustrative purposes only)

This time’s border control was superb! Or was it just because I arrived at the border very early in the morning and maybe we we’re one of the first of many buses to have arrived. Whatever the reason may be, it was easy-going compared to the last two year’s. It used to be that one had to queue at a designated bus stop and hop on any or the next available bus from the same company that parked at their designated stop.

I totally liked it this time around: Bus passengers just have to take note of the plate number of the bus they’re taking (and is waiting for them) after they’re done with Malaysian immigration stamping.

This new bus takes a few minutes to reach the Singapore immigration. This time I didn’t have to go up an elevator. Just fill out an entry and exit card and give the immigration officer an address to wherever you’re staying in the country. The same bus will be waiting for you at its designated stop. I didn’t see any queue waiting to embark on their bus anymore. It was that smooth.

The drop-off point was at Kampong Glam Park, about 50 meters away from the Golden Mile Tower. I discovered later after having a quick tour of the park and its neighborhood.

Our drop off was here in this park nearby Masjid Fatima, at the center of Kampong Glam residential buildings

Since my goal was to enjoy this Singapore trip as cheaply as I could, I had to take advantage of the freebies the Lion City has for me. First in my checklist is getting a Singapore Tourist Pass good for 2 days and I had all convenience of the public rides for free. Click this link to know other options available.

Taking my time, I went around the area of the Golden Mile Complex. Since I wanted to have an early breakfast, I tried to find the Hainanese chicken meal (a popular chicken dish in the Malay peninsula) in the Golden Mile Food Centre.

Unfortunately for me, the shops that serve it were not open yet. Only the noodles were available, and I was not keen to have some despite the time of day and the long bus ride. I just took my time to freshen up a bit at the public restroom here.

Having stopped close to the Golden Mile Tower Complex, the nearest MRT station with a Transitlink booth I could go to for my tourist pass was Bugis MRT. However, the Translitlink office there doesn’t open until 10 AM.

(I think you can also get the tourist pass at 7-11 shops, but I just wanted to check the area along Beach Road to Bugis, and that was just what I did.) I simply considered it my early morning walk.

Here are the free things I did:

Enjoy the cool morning breeze at Kampong Glam Park while sitting on a bench fronting Masjid Fatima. This religious site reminded me to do my morning prayer, too.

Masjid Fatima @ Kampong Glam Park

Visit the Malay Heritage Center and its vicinity~~

You don’t have to go inside the museum, though. The area around it and the streets are instagrammable enough. I went there early in the morning, so I couldn’t go in the museum even if I was curious to. If I am allowed a longer time away from work and visit Singapore again, with not just a weekend getaway, I will go back to this area to experience it more.

Stop by Masjid Sultan~~

Walk down Beach Road and turn right at Sultan Gate St. Just go straight and you won’t miss the arch of this impressive mosque on the left. Its magnificence yelled at my hunger pangs to scram! Entrance is free, but then again I was there too early when the morning was still busy for prayers.

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Check out the colorful life (and bustling nightlife) at Haji Lane and Arab Street~~

Instagram fanatics and selfie addicts celebrate! I didn’t take a lot of selfies but took a lot of pictures as I went around. Boy, I was sure glad I went to this place which is not always included in many tour packages of Singapore. The vicinity itself is a museum full of relics and artefacts. If you pay a visit to the Malay Heritage Centre Museum of the Children Little Museum, the experience will be like going to “a museum within a museum”. That’s why I didn’t feel bad about not having gone inside a real one.

One of the mesmerizing murals at Haji Lane

I hoped to show that I was as ecstatic as this woman on the mural…

I had a Singapore traditional kaya toast for breakfast at The Fun Coffee at the ground floor of Raffles Hospital. I couldn’t recall eating a hearty breakfast for the longest time. Beside the coffee house is a Starbucks.

MUST EAT!!!

Here’s how you order your coffee in Singapore. I chose Gula Melaka coffee and the traditional kaya toast. Lovely combo!

For lunch I had beef rendang, and this dish has been my ultimate favorite of all beef dishes. This is like quoting Sylvia Plath when she said

“I craved him constantly, so deeply it was a physical ache”

I’ve ordered beef rendang from a Singaporean restaurants but not in Singapore or Melaka. I’ve cooked it at home, but I couldn’t tell if there was any difference, so I wanted to go for the authentic, yeah. Time allowed me to enjoy it in the Terminal 1 departure lounge of Changi Airport. I went to Changi from Bugis MRT. That quick. I had to explore something at Changi at this time.

I wish I were always a big eater, but it’s very seldom that I am. There’s a long list of food to eat when I visit a place, but sadly for me I couldn’t get to try everything on the list for fear of upsetting my tummy. So I went hungry after all that walking of course, so it was time to stuff my hungry worms. It just so happened that I came across this 1983 Taste of Nanyang bistro, and to my huge delight they have my deeply craved for beef rendang.

MUST EAT!!! beef rendang @1983, Level 3, Departure Transit Lounge, Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1

5. Pay a visit to the Civilian War Memorial Park~~

After Changi, I went to this park in search of something free to see. The park was not crowded despite the day being Saturday and Christmas eve, so I liked it. It drizzled for a few minutes, so it wasn’t a hot afternoon to say the least. There were some couples, some families having an afternoon picnic in some spots, others were just lazing around just passing time. I saw another tourist like me who’s busy taking photos here and there, too. It was a rare moment in my life to sit by a park bench and watch a kit of pigeons. That was the best part: me bumming around aka resting (ho-ho-ho)! I never knew I could miss parks like that, haha!

This can be an interesting tour to do in the future.

The Four Chopsticks

6. Book Fair @ Suntec~~ I wanted to go early to the Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay, but lo and behold a book sale. Another weakness of mine I couldn’t let pass. Entrance was free of course. I spent my late afternoon here after sitting a while at the park. I thought I’d get some novels for me and some friends in Saigon but the queue for those paying in card was terribly a kilometer long, so I forgot about buying more for friends. I opted to pay in cash (for which I didn’t bring enough S$) so I had to prioritize buying only a Murakami and 2 laptop bags. It was fun going around a gigantic book sale, though. No regrets!

7. Gardens by the Bay~~It was Christmas eve, but Singapore doesn’t really have a fancy celebration for Christmas. However, I underestimated the crowd here at this time of year. I enjoyed the night view for a while, but seeing that crowd stressed me out, so I didn’t stay long. I would’ve loved to stay longer because the trains were good until 1:30 AM anyway, the Christmas morning. Going to the Gardens and back to the MRT, I got caught in a sea of human traffic. I regretted going there that time.

8. Chinatown~~ The first time I came to the People’s Park Complex and its vicinity, I sort of liked it. But this time most shops were closed when I arrived there, so I didn’t bother going around the area much, as I got tired from that agonizing crowd at the MBS. I planned to buy trinkets here, but I thought I could just do it the following morning. Tt didn’t happen; here’s why…

Well, maybe I would just cut my 2nd trip experience to Singapore to a day because on my second (and last) day there, I OVERSLEPT! My plan to go to more places that morning was ruined all because I woke up late. All that walking must have made me dog-tired that I didn’t notice.

I could have done more free things like visiting the Botanic Gardens and the Changi Point Coastal Walk. Yeah, regrettably. I will definitely do more on my next visit.

After taking a quick shower and saying goodbye to my uncle and family at Sembawang Close, I quickly headed off to the airport. It just dawned on me that it was Christmas Day and the airport could have long queues, but I was wrong. Everything was smooth-sailing. So I had plenty of time to burn at the airport, getting a S$10 refund for the tourist pass, and used it well at a souvenir shop, and having late lunch of nasi lemak.

Incredible? Yes, very much I guess.

Here’s how I did it: (computed in USD)

Saigon to Kuala Lumpur (via AirAsia): $43.40

Airport breaky (NZ Curry House) about $2.50 with mee goreng and teh tarik

JR Cawangin: about $13 for the big serving of asam pedas fish and lime juice

Panorama (old, red bus): about 37 cents

McDonald’s Dinner: about $3.70 for ayam goreng spicy chicken and cappuccino

Melaka to Singapore (bus): about $6.15 (I booked it here.)

Fun Toast breakfast: about $4.11 for the traditional kaya butter toast and Gula Melaka coffee

Starbucks: $3.37 for a tall serving of mint tea

1983 Lunch: about $5.08 for beef rendang set meal and milk tea

Singapore Tourist Pass: about $19.43 (S$26 with a $10 deposit for the card)

Airport dinner: about $4.60 for nasi lemak with coffee

Singapore to Saigon (via Vietjet): $78

Grand total: $201.20

Less: about $7.47 (refund for the STP deposit)

NET TOTAL: $193.73

Click her for the Melaka walking tour! Please keep posted!

Let’s go places!!

Mabuhay! 🙂

Incredible 3D-2N Melaka and Singapore in under US$200 (Part 2/2) #soloSaturdate #soloSundate And so I boarded that midnight bus to Singapore from Melaka after waiting for almost 2 hours for the bus to come as scheduled.

#budget trip #incredible #melaka #singapore

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gamebird · 1 year ago

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Murderathin Rec List

Enemies, Closer by Abacura, Gamebird, IHopedTheredBeStars, opalescent_potato, Rosewind2007, theAsh0 Words: 104,478 (WIP) Rating: Teen and Up Summary: When a Combat SecUnit with identical genetics to Murderbot is sent to Preservation Station to commit a massacre, the delicate balance between Murderbot, ART, and Dr. Gurathin shifts, putting all four of them on a collision course. PR: “a wonder and a delight”, “my favorite one”, "Rock-Paper-Scissors dom dynamics in which ART is the secret fourth option, Dynamite", "Can't wait for more!", "A monumental collaboration!"

Boots by gnomeskillet Words: 2,797 Rating: General Audiences Summary: "I'm going to fix your boots," he explained, talking to me like I was a small human child that didn't know anything. At least he kept his eyes on the floor while he did it. "They're a mess and if you want them to last longer, then you need to take care of them." PR: “this entire fic got me", "Omg who knew shoe shines could be so full of tension??", "This was sort of in kink no man's land, in between the barbed wire embankments of desire and fulfillment."

Mutually Trusted Network Affiliates by Gamebird Words: 16,517 Rating: Explicit Summary: Murderbot finds itself in a dilemma. It has discovered Gurathin likes it and decides it has to do something about this. This one's for the shippers. PR: “a cornerstone Murderathin fic, but it low-key requires reading pretty much the entirety of the Gamebird cinematic universe”, "MB a chapter ago: Ew, no! We didn't have sex! MB now, gazing derisively at Gurathin's sex toy suggestions: What is this shit? Are we fucking or are we fucking?", "using these characters to explore alternate modes of sexuality and explore what intimacy means, as itself, when divorced from the usual biological drives and cultural frameworks is brilliant"

#the murderbot diaries #murderathin

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anissapierce · 5 years ago

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wwdits the show! and also superstore

WWDITS

Favorite character: Guillermo all the way, harvey really shines and i love the godamn buckets of emotions that he conveys , i love how hes learning to stand up to nandor in his own way.

though lord as far as one of characters in the background, i want to know more abt Konstantine ? The dude in the gimp mask, is he a vampire, why didnt he eat guillermos friend if he is a blood sucker ? Also jeremy o harris's character who runs a familar union ?

Second favorite character: I loved jenna so much shes so funny and Beanie godamn Killed it. I love the fact that she kept going to community college after being bit and freaking her roomates out.

Least favorite character: god idk i dont Dislike colin robinson or laszlo theyre just dnt like them tht much ? I think they can b fun generally but ... Id say mb theyre tied ? Oh wait nvm Simon the Devious no cintest, tbh in general i get anxiety wrt Any storyline where one character tries to turn someone in the group against the others abd though that's not exactly whts happening in the episode its close enough. Nick krolls just got a h8able face too

(simons fun too but .... Yeah )

The character I’m most like:

I meeeeeeeean my high anxiety lvls, general fussbudget energy, and pushover nature...... Makes it hard to decide btwn jenna guillermo and nandor. But i dont have nandors confidence and guillermo literally became a servant to a vampire n i dnt like risks so most like Jenna tbh. I too would continue going to class just thinking my body was being weird, blaming it on something i ate or how i slept.

Favorite pairing: 🤫 (guillermo n nandor but not rn i only rlly endgame ship it but i love this delightful deconstruction of 'foppish evil guy and his fat sidekick' and the homoeroticism inherent in all tht. Its just so fun and the ending of episode 1 makes me lose my godamn mind every time i watch bc of the lightning n music r so clearly staging this romantically. Rlly my biggest ship is guillermoxhappiness though)

Least favorite pairing: nadja x jenna, full fucking stop. Like i get it jenna def has a crush but nadja views her maternally and also jennas not even old enough to drink lbrh.

(And again mb tht makes me a bit of a hypocrite bc if guillermos the same age as harvey then tht would mean that he became a familiar at 19 but we dnt know exactly if guillermo is intended to be older or not. And we only know guillermo as he is now in his 30s at the very least, but jenna were introduced to her as a niave college student, so yeah ....)

Favorite moment: god that fucking baitand switch with the glitter potrait is unbelievably good but also nandor implying he fucked george washington is too fucking funny. Id say glitter portrait bc its a longer scene and every part of it is godamn gold. (Its y its my mobile bg)

Rating out of 10:8🦇ahaha 9🦇 ahaha 10, 10🦇🧛‍♀️🦇 ahaham thats 10/10, the rating of the day is 10!

(im so sorry for the terrible attempt at a joke)

---------------------------------------

Superstore

Favorite character:Mateo 110% hes so fun and so layered and as a midwestern i live vicariously thru his bitchy shalloweness.

Second favorite character: Sandra, honestly shes such a godamn funny character and i find her very sad in a lot of ways but im always rooting for her. Though if Sayid got more screentime it would b him ngl.

Least favorite character- Elias probably but holy shit i just checked his wiki page to double check his name and hes jerushas brother ? Holy shit. Yeah but on second thought after reviewing the wiki its 4sure Jeff, Elias is just kinda pathetic but jeff is weasly n slimey.

The character I’m most like: lol sandra all the fckn way. I am a ethnically ambiguous (i use this phrase bc theres jokes early on abt ppl assuming sandra is sth other than indigenous Hawaiian) doormat who when yelled at will just duck her head and nod. Also b4 fluoxetine i was a total crybaby.

Favorite pairing: Mateo and Eric is so godamn cute, theyre rlly the only tht i wholeheartedly ship. Theyre cute and imo pretty good for each other? Plus i do love george salazar

Least favorite pairing: jeff n mateo tbh bc jeff is a corporate shill !

Favorite moment: i love all of the break scenes but my favorite scene overall might be cheyenne dina and amy chopping down a tree

Rating out of 10: 9.5/10

#asks #jojorabbit2019

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diabolikpersonals · 7 years ago

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Like, what do you think of them generally?

alright alright alright alright alright thank u for the opportunity to talk about diaboys!!! I appreciate it ! under a read more bc I ranted forever

LAITO:

My first exposure to dialovers was the anime so my first impression towards Laito was like “oh, he’s the flirty one - oh shit he’s banging her in a church, you cant do that, thats nuts lol” but as I got more into the games, Laito became SO IMPORTANT TO ME??? especially like his relationships, w/ ALL the characters like his brothers and yui and the other families and everything! I especially love learning more about his relationship with Ayato and Kanato because it’s so dang complex. His feelings towards his triplet bros is really complicated because he loves them and you know he loves them but his trauma w/ his mom sort of fucks it all up so he’s got like this genuinely nice and kind and loving personality fighting against this trauma and warped view of the concepts of love and family that Cordelia gave him, and what you get is, “I love my family and I hope they die” and throughout the games u learn more about the reasons why he has those world views and it’s SO GOOD Laito is such a well thought-out character!?! As a writer Laito delights me but as a fan, his whole deal makes me so dang sad djhfghjdkdfd

That’s why I was so fucking satisfied w/ Laito in the Laito vs Shin cd because you got a bunch of the darker stuff surrounding him (his tendency to push people off of buildings, that FUCKING VOICE DROP he does when he’s genuinely mad) and Laito was like...he was SCARY. And he was scaring YUI and he was scaring HIMSELF, too, which made me so sad!! Laito was like crying and punching walls and being like “why am I acting like this??” and it fuckin broke my heart dude. He’s a genuinely good person, he’s so wonderful, but he’s recovering from some really really nasty stuff. So that cd really gave me a sense of like, “Man, Laito hates this just as much as I do.” It makes me want to...idk...it makes me want to give him more opportunities to be good. He really is good!!!

KANATO:

As for my first impression, I think Kanato turned me off right away because I could instantly recognize all the tropes they were gonna use when they were designing him. You can look at him and tell that he’s gonna be the ~yandere~ character (I hate using that word but u know what tropes I’m talking about). As soon as they showed him eating a bunch of sweets I was like “yep.” When they showed us his room full of wax dolls, I was like “uh huh, that seems about right.” And then he yelled a lot and tried to stab Yui for making him french toast or whatever and I was like “ok.........I’ll go start ayato’s route” u know??? just super not my type, and the Kanato vs Azusa cd was torture because Azusa’s so soft-spoken but Kanato’s always yelling at the top of his lungs. I had to keep messing with the volume and it bugged me.

I think I would like Kanato a lot more if he...had a...friend. I think rejet kinda realized that he needed one and they had that in mind when they were introducing Azusa, but that ended up being a pretty bad failure I think. Kanato doesn’t really get along with anyone and he’s pretty open about admitting that he doesn’t like anyone particularly well. I’m glad to see him starting to love Yui genuinely but...idk I feel like every other diaboy has another diaboy(s) that he gets along with really well and it’s always nice to see them acting friendly and even encouraging each other sometimes! Kanato doesn’t really have that kind of relationship with anyone. When Ayato tried to reach out and apologize in LE, Kanato was like “lol kill yourself” and I was actually so fuckin mad at him, I was like “boy if you don’t fix that attitude of yours-”..........I guess I just wish that he had more character development by this point. That scene really hurt.

RUKI:

Basically the WORST first impression ever...my first Ruki scene that I ever saw was when he broke the cat’s neck and I was so pissed. I was like “immediately fuck this guy” and he became my least favorite character right away. And on top of that he was really elitist and one of those jerk intellectuals “ohhh solve this puzzle or STAY OUT THERE IN THE COLD you big dumb idiot. im smart and you’re not” and I was like FUCK this guy, how does yuma put up with him with HIS backstory?

But I hella warmed up to him during MB, like especially during Reiji’s route where Ruki was like “...uh...okay” the whole time jhdghdj that shit was hilarious. Ruki started feeling really real. And I think that like...hm...like if Laito is a genuinely good person surrounded by bad influence, Ruki is the opposite - he’s a bad personality surrounded by good influence. Ruki’s a jerk and he’s been a jerk his whole life but he has these wonderful brothers who love him so much and this lovely angel Yui and he’s just got all these good people who look up to him and he has to be good. This little asshole kid who treated all his servants like shit is now cooking dinner for his three adoptive brothers every day and they love him so much and they love him so much. It’s so fucking satisfying. I love seeing him supporting his brothers even though it conflicts with his personality and his main drive, like letting Kou run away with Yui even though Kou couldn’t become Adam. Ruki’s most important thing in MB was making one of the Mukamis become Adam but he gave that up to let Kou be happy. That shit is so important. Ruki was such a fuckin turnaround for me, I hated him at first but now I love the hell out of him and what he represents for the Mukamis.

KOU:

Kou is great!! I think he’s affected lots of characters in really positive ways, and he’s been affected in positive ways by different characters and it’s really nice to see. For sure he’s still got that trauma from his past but I really appreciate that Kou is in an environment that doesn’t have a lot of reminders of the bad stuff from his childhood. Like, how Kou was sought after for being such a beautiful child, and how he was trapped in a dark place for such a long time. There’s none of that shit when he lives with the Mukamis. Rejet could’ve easily put in tons of haunting reminders about Kou’s whole “too beautiful for his own good” thing but whenever he gets complimented, it’s usually for something different. Azusa will talk about how talented and amazing he is, and Kino’ll be like “idol clothes are pretty nuts huh? lol” and Ruki will be like “you’re working properly after all” and I fuckin love that shit...They could’ve made it so dang hard for Kou, but no, he’s in a much happier place now. He’s nice and comfortable being with these people. That makes me feel relieved lol

I already talked about how he helped Ruki but I think the most important relationship with a diaboy that he has is SUBARUUUUU cuz like, when you look at Subaru’s route you’re like “oh he definitely needs a friend, I’m glad he has a gf but he was so dang lonely and self-deprecating that he DEFINITELY just needs a genuine good friend” and then Kou showed up and he was like “guess what subaru? we’re gonna be friends, I’ve decided” and subaru was like “???” and MB happened and by the end of it Subaru was like “I took everything you said really seriously and I do want to be friends with you..............im not gonna say it out loud tho. let’s just shake hands ok” and I was like AW HECK YEAH!!!!! And then you keep seeing nice little reminders that they’re friends in other games, like in either LP or VC (Im sorry I literally cannot tell these two games apart) they were picking out hair accessories together for Yui, and in the Subaru vs Kou cd, Kou asks Subaru at the end if he had fun, and in LE Kou gave Subaru that pep talk and made Subaru laugh, and Subaru was like “Kou if I’m gonna die then I want you to kill me” and Kou was like “But I don’t want you to die!” and Subaru was like “you dont??? you actually care? about ME???” ITS SO FUCKING GOOD DUDE Subaru needed Kou so badly. Thank god for Kou honestly

KINO:

It was weird like...I was so mad at him during certain routes but I could never actually dislike him. It’s because he’s so dang funny tbh. He literally killed some of my favorite characters but then he would say a funny line and I’d be like “haha, I’m glad kino is here!” like it’s almost scary how charismatic he is towards both the other characters and to me, the player. He asked nicely if he could kill Shu and Shu was like “ok, sure.” Kino is hands down my fav villain because of this. Especially because you can really tell that deep down he wants to be a real member of the Sakamaki family and like he genuinely wants to be friends with people like Yuma and Kou, and he’s got the whole villain-turned-awkward-family-member trope which I LOVE. Like especially in that drama cd where he was like “I never get to go to school so I want to do home ec with you guys! Let’s make donuts!” and Kou was like “ok!!!” and kou tries to be super positive and encouraging the whole time even though Kino was actually secretly plotting to blow the place up. Kino looks like an idiot but he’s a genius tbh

and and and and and and I want him to kiss yuri. I think yuri is super in love w/ kino too, despite the fact that he’s. annoying. thats all I got dhgfdjskj...I love the childhood-friends-to-lovers trope so fuckin much

CARLA:

hey carla fuck you

I was really mad at him for his actions in DF mostly ^^; And tbh it’s really hypocritical because it was a group effort between both of the Tsukinamis, but I ended up loving Shin and hating Carla. Kino also did similar bad stuff to Carla, but I ended up loving him while hating Carla. So, why?

Well here’s fuckin why. Shin and Kino are cute & funny. They have their nice little payoff moments - maybe Shin hurt one of my favorite characters, but then you get to see how bubbly and energetic he gets around his big brother. He was walking one of his wolves around christmas time while wearing a red jacket and a random kid approached him thinking he was santa claus. That’s adorable! For a long time, Carla didn’t have anything like that. And he was a jerk to absolutely everyone, including Shin, who was so dang devoted to him!! Like remember in the DF cds where he was like “hey shin, the plan is we suck her blood until she’s purified from the vampires” and shins like “ok nii-san got it” and he started sucking her blood, exactly like he was ordered to, and then carla came in and STABBED HIM and was like “hey dont touch my property” like SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK CARLA U TOLD HIM TO DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! IT WAS THE PLAN

And he fucked Ayato up real bad in DF so I was so mad...;; I only recently started forgiving him once diatwitter and LE started up. Diatwitter let us see his cute old grandpa side where he fuckin wanders around amusement parks by himself like some kind of cryptid and kou keeps being like “wait was that carla? what the heck??” and LE gave us some pretty nice stuff like carla being like “ur definitely my brother, shin” so...carla is ok I guess...but then again LE also gave us some bad carla moments like “if ur not actually a founder then u lied to me and im gonna kill u” so basically uh?? carla’s just a jerk I think. I’m warming up to him at a snail’s pace but he’s still a jerk. sucks about the endzeit tho, I hope he’s like permanently ok now

#text #Anonymous

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celeryw · 7 years ago

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word count: 1.1k

fandom/relationship: MB/CF/BD/AF/SB, naruto online

Summary: 6 weeks after Midnight’s 18th birthday, he loves his friends and they love him too

Takashi is the one to hint at something happening on Shun’s birthday. He’s excited about it. He has a great time but there’s no real life changing gift or news that shocks him. The others are all constantly whispering to themselves in the day that follow. He’s a little bit confused and he hates that he’s not being included but he can wait until Kazue breaks or Takashi tells him outright (he’ll wait it out even though it hurts to be excluded)

Kazue is 5 minutes from pulling all his beautiful long blond hair out, all of it. The preparations for the surprise have taken too long. The packages that were meant to arrive three weeks ago haven’t arrived (let it be known that any and all grass trading services should be severed if this is the kind of thing that would happen) Shun’s been really shifty and Kazue is finding it hard to not kiss him and be over with it. Hiroko knows and she always glares him down from doing anything “”stupid””

Hiroko thinks that this is a fantastic idea but honestly feels really bad about not telling things to Shun, like what a fantastic start. Shun knows the four of them are in a committed relationship but he probably doesn’t suspect that they’re planning a huge ‘go out with us’ party. It’s going to be fun, and such a big moment that Hiroko will be so happy to finally be together with her team.

Takashi is extremely sure that the Uchiha Clan from Before are supremely disappointed in him. He doesn’t really care though. He, at 19, has everything he could possibly want. He has his team. They have each other’s backs and they’re so strong together. Shun is the last of them to turn 18 and everyone already knew (villagers of Konoha included) that something would happen and they’d go from four to five.

Rikuto is so pleased. He’s made a huge feast, the package from Kusa had arrived last night and he’d hurried to hide it away from the others so they wouldn’t spoil the surprise (he honestly wouldn’t put it past them so he’s taken this into his own hands, Kazue and Takashi had already done most of the preparing. Rikuto is planning to get Hiroko to help him set the table and move food). He tells Shun and Kazue to go shopping for some supplies, because Takashi has run out of ink and Hiroko had expressed interest in the really pink flowers!! Kazue knows what they look like go, gO!

-~-

Kazue and Shun walk to the stationery store first, Kazue goes for the sparkly pens and Shun goes to find three bottles of ink. He’s in front of the home brand ones that are always significantly cheaper when Kazue starts squealing with delight. He has a huge eraser, it’s pink and is the size of his hand. Shun is impressed despite himself and lets Kazue bring it to the counter. Shun grabs three bottles and pays for the ink and eraser.

Ino is the one behind the desk at the flower shop. Which is unusually, because her mother is normally in store. Ino greets them with a cheeky grin and asks questions about how training is and giggles with Kazue about who her latest squeeze is. Shun is Uncomfortable so he looks around the shop for a little bit. He finds a cute cactus that Hiroko might like as well and picks it up, inspecting it further (it’s so small and cute and green with little spikes in strange patterns).

Kazue laughs loudly at something Ino says and their voices soften to whispers as they talk conspiringly about the daimyo and his new consort. Shun withholds a sigh and looks around for the pink flower that had caught Hiroko’s eye. She no doubt wanted to draw it or something, or it would look pretty on display. Shun doesn’t think he finds it inside the store and wanders back to where Kazue and Ino are now talking about how Sakura has no tact and will always be somehow unable to win the heart of the boy that sells the woven baskets in the marketplace honestly Shun have you seen her she never shows interest in anything but work and when she flirts its terrible ugh. Kazue has opinions and Ino apparently shares them.

Shun manages to get them away from gossiping about everything under the sun and reminds Kazue about the flower Hiroko wanted. Ino, perking up glides to the backroom with a flick of her hair and comes back with a huge flower pot and dark pink flowers flowing out of it, Shun doesn’t really get the appeal but he pays for them and the cactus with a lot of groans from Kazue (he complains that Shun spoils them too much and that he should allow some of Kazue’s money to go towards the happiness of his teammates, Shun likes to ignore this and always swats Kazue’s hands away with increasing difficulty)

Kazue and Shun walk home with a small plastic bag and two flower pots. Sometimes Kazue likes to pretend that he’s a normal non-shinobi and wander around the village with an air of nonchalance, even though they’re both well-known to be part of team 20 and are quite the bounty hunters.

It’s almost dark by the time they actually reach home, Kazue had gotten distracted by a playground and they’d stopped sit on the swings and push each other down the too small slide.

Rikuto opens the front door, taking the flowers and the plastic bag from Kazue’s hands and ushering them in.

“I made dinner and everyone else is ready to eat” He says pushing them gently inside, the two allow themselves to be guided into the dining room. The room is candle lit, Hiroko and Takashi are talking quietly and smile at Shun as he walks in. Kazue and Rikuto are grinning at each other and Shun moves towards his seat when he sees Kazue fist bump Rikuto.

“Hey, Shun, Shun,” Hiroko says gesturing him at the food. “Eat up” She says with a wink. Shun looks at the food on the table and it’s all his favourites. Rikuto laughs heartily.

“This was the surprise but it’s really late” Takashi says with a huge smile and Shun honest to gods giggles a little hysterically. He’s definitely surprised he does not expect Kazue to come up behind him and hug him. He rests his chin on his shoulder.

“Nakamura Shun, would you like to date us?” Kazue asks. Shun smiles harder and turns his head to kiss him.

“Of course” He says and Hiroko cheers happily and Takashi whoops as well. Shun is really happy, he realises that this was the thing they had been keeping secret and he can’t help but laugh as well. He loves them, he really does, he has since he was sixteen and they’d been a proper team.

#cel writes #naruto online #naruto #lmao lol #i wanna write when they get their titles #but im also terrible at fight scenes #team 20

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albacorehero-blog · 8 years ago

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Gambino’s: A Reunited Love

GAMBINOS: 4.7

LOCATION: SF FINANCAL DISTRICT

WWW.GAMBINOSNYSUBS.COM

Captain Babs on the bridge.

On our maiden voyage, we came across the small Financial District shop known as Gambino’s New York Subs. This mom and pop spot caters to the mainly 9-5 worker bees in San Francisco’s downtown heart. The place is simple and offers a variety of your classic deli sandwiches and salads with simple, yet high quality taste on its side. I walked in expecting standard deli fare and was blown away by a flavor explosion so delicious, I feel bad for any sandwiches that come after this. It left an indelible mark on my soul. One that whispers softly against the waters of the deep, “TUNA...”

I had been to Gambino’s many a morning as it is one of the few places in the area where you can get a tasty bagel sandwich and coffee for under $5. I had always noted with a slight nod of appreciation their variety of vegetarian and pescatarian friendly sandwich options sharing space with the same love as the beloved MBS of many a sandwich afficionado. One day after we had embarked on the quest for the elusive tuna sandwich, my stomach growled in turmoil. It was only a matter of time before the hanger set in. Time was running out. As luck would have it, Gambino’s had no line and offered respite for the weary traveler. I entered seeking in earnest, would they have the tuna salad I so desired?

They did. Called Montauk, which I assume is a reference to the quaint sea village located at the end of Long Island. Within about five to ten minutes, my sandwich, along with a cup of tomato soup, was called and handed to me in a white paper bag, containing the paper-wrapped sandwich, the cup of soup, a spoon, and two napkins.

I thanked the tuna gods for smiling upon me and went along my merry way.

BREAD: 5

Gambino’s offers the option of a soft roll, an Italian roll, or a wheat roll for their sandwiches. Mine was on a fresh Italian roll. It was a delightful balance of a slight crunch on the outside, with fluffy goodness within. With rolls, the tendency can be that the ratio of bread to sandwich is dissapointingly overpowering. However, Giambino’s clearly knows what they are doing. The roll offered a way to hold onto the sandwich and caught all the goodness inside, without containing too much bread.

TUNA QUALITY: 5

I couldn’t tell what kind of tuna it was, but nothing about it stood out in a bad way. The tuna was fresh and I get the feeling it came from an oil-packed can or glass as opposed to water-packed. IMO, this is vastly superior to water-packed cans. It manages to preserve the essence of the tuna and bring out its flavors.

MIX: 5

The deli’s own tuna salad was composed of tuna, olive oil, fresh herbs, artichokes, and capers. A very Italian version of the classic tuna salad we hold so near and dear. This salad is also offered by the half pint, which is a wonderful option for those avoiding bread. The capers and artichokes were a welcome touch and provided something a bit different than your standard pickle relish or celery which most places do when they add in ingredients to the tuna salad. The mix itself was well-balanced and though it used olive oil instead of mayo as its binding agent, I found it to be lighter and more refreshing and SUBSTANTIALLY less mushy than most mayo-based mixes.

Now at Gambino’s, you have the choice between an East Coast or West Coast styled sub. East Coast provides your shredded LTO along with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and herbs. With West Coast, you get your LTO with mayo, mustard, and pickles. Given that the place was called NEW YORK subs, I opted for East Coast and was pleasantly surprised by how the combo of vinegar and olive oil highlight the flavors of the sandwich and soaked into the bread. It also came with provolone cheese. One subtle aspect that I would be remiss if I did not highlight, was the fact that the sandwich was evenly composed so that from start to finish you received a bit that gave you a bit of the bread, the condiments, and the tuna. It was clear I was dealing with an EXPERT SANDWICH ARTIST

AMBIANCE: 3.5

Giambino’s is in the SF Financial District, so there’s not much in terms of space and casual eating experiences that they can really offer, however, I believe their charm comes from recognizing that and keeping it simple and the prices reasonable. In SF, you can walk into some places who will charge you $15 for an “artisanal sandwich”. This is pretentious crap. Artistry comes in all forms, my friends, and simply because they are standard or classic, doesn’t mean you can overlook the details. And here’s what I liked:

A) My to-go bag had exactly what I needed - no more, no less. Now, they didn’t use compostable materials for their utensils, which I would have prefered, but I appreciate that they didn’t give you a small book’s worth of napkins with your order. There’s no need for that.

B) the condiment station - should you choose to adulterate your sandwich - was neatly organized and well stocked.

C) For a quality sandwich, I was in and out of there in no time. They know what they’re doing.

D) Kind and no fuss service. The people who work at Giambino’s are straight forward, but always kind and get you exactly what you need without a lot of fuss. It’s all about the sandwich.

BONUS: They are across the street from a POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Space), which provides a quiet spot to enjoy your sandwich when the weather is nice.

Still, at the end of the day, Giambino’s is an average hole in the wall deli. I appreciate its simplicity, but would need to leave room for places that offer a nice eat-in experience.

ORIGINALITY: 5

You don’t need to make huge waves in order to impress me. The salad mix with artichokes, capers and olive oil base was delightful and I appreciate all the subtle extras from the to-go bag with no more and no less than what was needed and the option to go East or West Coast. This place meets the mark.

OVERALL:

I would be hard-pressed to find a better classic sandwich place that makes a good tuna sandwich - remember, not all delis can do this. Great mix without loading you down with mayo and cheese. Well done, Giambino’s, you’ve left a mark to beat. Thank you for such a wonderful tuna sandwich and I will be back to try it West Coast Style!

SCORE: 4.7

#makeway #getreadybitches #tuna #sandwich #albacore #review #giambinos #newyorksubs #eastcoaststyle

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free-courses-blog · 5 years ago

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Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn’t Cook from Scratch — Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods

Book details

File Size: 3.27 MB

Format: epub

Print Length: 306 pages

Publisher: Atria Books; Reprint edition (October 18, 2011)

Publication Date: October 18, 2011

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Language: English

ASIN: B004T4KXMS

When Jennifer Reese lost her job, she was overcome by an impulse common among the recently unemployed: to economize by doing for herself what she had previously paid for. She had never before considered making her own peanut butter and pita bread, let alone curing her own prosciutto or raising turkeys. And though it sounded logical that “doing it yourself” would cost less, she had her doubts. So Reese began a series of kitchen-related experiments, taking into account the competing demands of everyday contemporary American family life as she answers some timely questions: When is homemade better? Cheaper? Are backyard eggs a more ethical choice than store-bought? Will grinding and stuffing your own sausage ruin your week? Is it possible to make an edible maraschino cherry? Some of Reese’s discoveries will surprise you: Although you should make your hot dog buns, guacamole, and yogurt, you should probably buy your hamburger buns, potato chips, and rice pudding. Tired? Buy your mayonnaise. Inspired? Make it.

With its fresh voice and delightful humor, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter gives 120 recipes with eminently practical yet deliciously fun “Make or buy” recommendations. Reese is relentlessly entertaining as she relates her food and animal husbandry adventures, which amuse and perplex as well as nourish and sustain her family. Her tales include living with a backyard full of cheerful chickens, muttering ducks, and adorable baby goats; countertops laden with lacto-fermenting pickles; and closets full of mellowing cheeses. Here’s the full picture of what is involved in a truly homemade life—with the good news that you shouldn’t try to make everything yourself—and how to get the most out of your time in the kitchen.

Reviews:

“A great read for cooks afflicted by curiosity about the do-it-yourself movement in food. Ms. Reese goes beyond jam and chutney into pasta, pastrami and graham crackers. Even her failed experiments, like homemade hot dogs, are entertaining.” – New York Times

“In a time when the pressure’s on to be green, organic and homemade, food fans and cooks will appreciate a book that encourages balance: Make your own hummus, yogurt and dill pickles, but buy sashimi, baguettes and corn dogs.” – USA TODAY

“I knew this important, original, and necessary book would be informative–and it is, very. What I didn’t expect: pure entertainment in an original, fresh voice that will make readers feel they have a smart new best friend. I lapped this up in one sitting, learned a bunch, laughed out loud – and am about to try several of the recipes. You nailed it, Jennifer Reese!”–Mollie Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook

“Here is a book that is going to take a treasured place in my kitchen bookrack. Part memoir, part Consumer-Reports-style testing, this book is chock-full of recipes and good advice in the kitchen. There are a few things Jennifer Reese does in this book that make it particularly indispensable: before each recipe, she tells her story of why she wanted to tackle it. Her recipes are easy-to-follow, and often include diagrams and pictures to get through the more difficult parts. I would highly recommend this book if you are thinking about embarking on the adventure that is backyard chicken raising. Here, Reese offers a humane and very funny look at what that project brought to her family. I would recommend this book if you, like me, spend a lot of time thinking about what goes into your body and wondering where did so many of these so-called “conveniences” come from, and are they really worth it? I’ve suspected making my own bread is the way to go for a long time, but in this book, Jennifer Reese cements it for me. Her recipes are tried-and-true, her reasoning makes sense to me, and her personality makes it believable. Buy this book, give it to a friend, make these recipes and watch your world get a little better.”–The Tattered Cover

“From hot dog buns to Pop-Tarts, she reveals whether it’s better to buy it or make it, accounting for the cost, hassle and rate of success. Happily, she dispenses this practical know-how with a crackling sense of humor, making this book a fun read. The scope and utility of this book make it worthy of space in your collection, especially this time of year when you’re looking for fast and interesting gifts to make in the kitchen. Plus Reese’s honesty is refreshing and inspiring; she goes from a hilarious review of the 1970s Earth-mother bible “Laurel’s Kitchen” to making a modern-day case for baking.”–The Oregonian

“Now that Michael Pollan has made us all aspire to be politically correct foodies, a certain angst has cast its shadow over the average American home. One of the big issues is, should I make my own food and thus assure myself that it contains only the healthiest and freshest of ingredients, or is it more practical to just buy it somewhere. Reese tackles this question for a number of common foods and she writes in a witty, conversational style that wins you over right from the start.”–Sacramento Bee

“I’m always interested in what Jennifer says about food, and about how to retain the pleasure of eating it in an increasingly confusing world. Plus, she’s convinced me to try making my own Camembert. Jennifer’s is a journey I’m thrilled to embark upon.”–Julie Powell, author of Julie and Julia

“Her experiences led her to create a great blog, Tipsy Baker, and this awesome book. She’s very sarcastic, which makes me happy. Jennifer tells it like it is, from a simple bread recipe to raising chickens, and breaks everything down by price, reward, and hassle factor.”–TrueFoodMovement.com

“I loved this book. In her inspiring and hilarious voice, Reese reminds me why I actually should take the time to make from scratch things that I buy and giving me a pass on those things that I really don’t want to make myself anyway. I laughed out loud.”–Carla Hall, Top Chef All Star, Co-host on The Chew, and founder, Alchemy by Carla Hall

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

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The Mortgaging of Sierra Online

The Sierra Online of the 1980s and very early 1990s excelled at customer relations perhaps more than anything else. Through the tours of their offices (which they offered to anyone who cared to make the trip to rural Oakhurst, California), the newsletter they published (which always opened with a folksy editorial from their founder and leader Ken Williams), and their habit of grouping their games into well-delineated series with predictable content, they fostered a sense of loyalty and even community which other game makers, not least their arch-rivals over at LucasArts, couldn’t touch — this even though the actual games of LucasArts tended to be much better in design terms. Here we see some of the entrants in a Leisure Suit Larry lookalike contest sponsored by Sierra. (Yes, two of the contestants do seem suspiciously young to have played a series officially targeted at those 18 and older.) Sadly, community-building exercise like these would become increasingly rare as the 1990s wore on and Sierra took on a different, more impersonal air. This article will chronicle the beginning of those changes.

“The computer-game industry has become the interactive-entertainment industry.”

— Ken Williams, 1992

Another even-numbered year, another King’s Quest game. Such had been the guiding rhythm of life at Sierra Online since 1986, and 1992 was to be no exception. Why should it be? Each of the last several King’s Quest installments had sold better than the one before, as the series had cultivated a reputation as the premier showcase of bleeding-edge computer entertainment. Once again, then, Sierra was prepared to pull out all the stops for King’s Quest VI, prepared to push its development budget to $1 million and beyond.

This time around, however, there were some new and worrisome tensions. Roberta Williams, Sierra’s star designer, whose name was inseparable from that of King’s Quest itself in the minds of the public, was getting a little tired of playing the Queen of Daventry for the nation’s schoolchildren. She had another, entirely different game she wanted to make, a sequel to her 1989 mystery starring the 1920s girl detective Laura Bow. So, a compromise was reached. Roberta would do Laura Bow in… The Dagger of Amon Ra and King’s Quest VI simultaneously by taking a sort of “executive designer” role on both projects, turning over the nitty-gritty details to assistant designers.

Thus for the all-important King’s Quest VI, Sierra brought over Jane Jenson, who was fresh off the task of co-designing the rather delightful educational adventure EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus with Gano Haine. Roberta Williams described her working relationship with her new partner in a contemporary interview, striking a tone that was perhaps a bit more condescending than it really needed to be in light of Jenson’s previous experience, and that was oddly disparaging toward Sierra’s other designers to boot:

I took on a co-designer for a couple of reasons: I wanted to train Jane because I didn’t want Sierra to be dependent on me. Someone else needs to know how to do a “proper” adventure game. We’re all doing a good job from a technology standpoint, but not on design. In my opinion, the best way to learn it properly is side by side. Overall, it was a positive experience, and it was very good for the series because Jane brought in some new ideas. She learned a lot, too, and can take what she’s learned to help create her new games.

There’s something of a consensus among fans today that the result of this collaboration is the best overall King’s Quest of them all. This strikes me as a fair judgment. While it’s not a great adventure game by any means, King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow isn’t an outright poor one either in terms of writing or design, and this is sufficient for it to clear the low bar of the previous games in the series. The plot is still reliant on fairy-tale clichés: a princess imprisoned in a tower, a prince who sets out to rescue her, a kingdom in turmoil around them. Yet the writing itself is more textured and coherent this time around, the implementation is far more complete (most conceivable actions yield custom messages of some sort in response), the puzzles are generally more reasonable, and it’s considerably more difficult than it was in the earlier games to wander into a walking-dead situation without knowing it. Evincing a spirit of mercy toward its players of a sort that Sierra wasn’t usually known for, it even has a branching point where you can choose from an easier or a harder pathway to the end of the game. And when you do get to the final scene, there are over a dozen possible variants of the ending movie, depending on the choices you’ve made along the way. Again, this degree of design ambition — as opposed to audiovisual ambition — was new to the series at the time.

The fans often credit this relative improvement completely to Jenson’s involvement. And this judgment as well, unkind though it is toward Roberta Williams, is not entirely unfounded, even if it should be tempered by the awareness that Jenson’s own later games for Sierra would all have significant design issues of their own. Many of the flaws that so constantly dogged Roberta’s games in particular were down to her insistence on working at a remove from the rest of the people making them. Her habit was to type up a design document on her computer at home, then give it to the development team with instructions to “call if you have any questions.” For all practical purposes, she had thus been working as an “executive designer” long before she officially took on that role with King’s Quest VI. This method of working tended to result in confusion and ultimately in far too much improvisation on the part of her teams. Combined with Sierra’s overarching disinterest in seeking substantive feedback from players during the development process, it was disastrous more often than not to the finished product. But when the time came for King’s Quest VI, Jane Jenson was able to alleviate at least some of the problems simply by being in the same room with the rest of the team every day. It may seem unbelievable that this alone was sufficient to deliver a King’s Quest that was so markedly better than any of the others — but, again, it just wasn’t a very high bar to clear.

For all that it represented a welcome uptick in terms of design, Sierra’s real priority for King’s Quest VI was, as always for the series, to make it look and sound better than any game before. They were especially proud of the opening movie, which they outsourced to a real Hollywood animation studio to create on cutting-edge graphics workstations. When it was delivered to Sierra’s offices, the ten-minute sequence filled a well-nigh incomprehensible 1.2 GB on disk. It would have to be cut down to two minutes and 6 MB for the floppy-disk-based release of the game. (It would grow again to six minutes and 60 MB for the later CD-ROM release.) A real showstopper in its day, it serves today to illustrate how Sierra’s ambitions to be a major media player were outrunning their aesthetic competencies; even the two-minute version manages to come off as muddled and overlong, poorly framed and poorly written. In its its time, though, it doubtless served its purpose as a graphics-and-sound showcase, as did the game that followed it.

My favorite part of the much-vaunted King’s Quest VI introductory movie are the sailors that accompany Prince Alexander on his quest to rescue Princess Cassima. All sailors look like pirates, right?

A more amusing example of the company’s media naiveté is the saga of the King’s Quest VI theme song. Sierra head Ken Williams, who like many gaming executives of the period relished any and all linkages between games and movies, came up with the idea of including a pop song in the game that could become a hit on the radio, a “Glory of Love” or “I Will Always Love You” for his industry. Sierra’s in-house music man Mark Seibert duly delivered a hook-less dirge of a “love theme” with the distressingly literal title of “Girl in the Tower,” then hired an ersatz Michael Bolton and Celine Dion to over-emote it wildly. Then, Sierra proceeded to carpet-bomb the nation’s radio stations with CD singles of the song, whilst including an eight-page pamphlet in every copy of the game with the phone numbers for all of the major radio stations and a plea to call in and request it. Enough of Sierra’s loyal young fans did so that many a program director called Ken in turn to complain about his supremely artificial “grass-roots” marketing strategy. His song was terrible, they told him (correctly), and sometimes issued vague legal threats regarding obscure Federal Communications Commission laws he was supposedly violating. Finally, Ken agreed to pull the pamphlet from future King’s Quest VI boxes and accept that he wasn’t going to become a music as well as games impresario. Good Taste 1, Sierra 0. Rather hilariously, he was still grousing about the whole episode years later: “In my opinion, the radio stations were the criminals for ignoring their customers, something I believe no business should ever do. Oh, well… the song was great.”

The girl in the tower. Pray she doesn’t start singing…

While King’s Quest VI didn’t spawn a hit single, it did become a massive hit in its own right by the more modest sales standards of the computer-games industry. In fact, it became the first computer game in history to be certified gold by the Software Publishers Association — 100,000 copies sold — before it had even shipped, thanks to a huge number of pre-orders. Released in mid-October of 1992, it was by far the hottest game in the industry that Christmas, with Sierra struggling just to keep up with demand. Estimates of its total sales vary widely, but it seems likely that it sold 300,000 copies in all at a minimum, and quite possibly as many as 500,000 copies.

But for all its immediate success, King’s Quest VI was a mildly frustrating project for Sierra in at least one way. Everyone there agreed that this game, more so than any of the others they had made before, was crying out for CD-ROM, but too few consumers had CD-ROM drives in their computers in 1992 to make it worthwhile to ship the game first in that format. So, it initially shipped on nine floppy disks instead. Once decompressed onto a player’s hard drive, it filled over 17 MB — this at a time when 40 MB was still a fairly typical hard-disk size even on brand-new computers. Sierra recommended that players delete the 6 MB opening movie from their hard disks after watching it a few times just to free up some space. With stopgap solutions like this in play, there was a developing sense that something had to give, and soon. Peter Spears, author of an official guide to the entire King’s Quest series, summed up the situation thusly:

King’s Quest VI represents a fin de siecle, the end of an era. It is a game that should have been — needed to be — first published on CD-ROM. For all of its strengths and gloss, it is ill-served being played from a hard drive. If only because of its prominence in the world of computer entertainment, King’s Quest VI is proof that the era of CD playing is upon us.

Why? It is because imagination has no limits, and current hardware does. There are other games proving this point today, but King’s Quest has always been the benchmark. It is the end of one era, and when it is released on CD near the beginning of next year, it should be the beginning of another. Kill your hard drives!

Sierra had been evangelizing for CD-ROM for some time by this point, just as they earlier had for the graphics cards and sound cards that had transformed MS-DOS computers from dull things suitable only for running boring business applications into the only game-playing computers that really mattered in the United States. But, as with those earlier technologies, consumer uptake of CD-ROM had been slower than Sierra, chomping at the bit to use it, would have liked.

Thankfully, then, 1993 was the year when CD-ROM, a technology which had been around for almost a decade by that point, finally broke through; this was the year when the hardware became cheap enough and the selection of software compelling enough to power a new wave of multimedia excitement which swept across the world of computing. As with those graphics cards and sound cards earlier on, Sierra’s relentless prodding doubtless played a significant role in this newfound consumer acceptance of CD-ROM. And not least among the prods was the CD-ROM version of King’s Quest VI, which boasted lusher graphics in many places and voices replacing text absolutely everywhere. The voice acting marked a welcome improvement over the talkie version of King’s Quest V, the only previous game in the series to get a release on CD-ROM. The fifth game had apparently been voiced by whoever happened to be hanging around the office that day, with results that were almost unlistenably atrocious. King’s Quest VI, on the other hand, got a professional cast, headed by Robby Benson, who had just played the Beast in the hit Disney cartoon of Beauty and the Beast, in the role of Prince Alexander, the protagonist. Although Sierra could all too often still seem like babes in the woods when it came to media aesthetics, they were slowly learning on at least some fronts.

In the meantime, they could look to the bottom line of CD-ROM uptake with satisfaction. They shipped just 13 percent of their products on CD-ROM in 1992; in 1993, that number rose to 36 percent. Already by the end of that year, they had initiated their first projects that were earmarked only for CD-ROM. The dam had burst; the floppy disk was soon to be a thing of the past as a delivery medium for games.

This ought to have been a moment of unabashed triumph for Sierra in more ways than one. Back in the mid-1980s, when the company had come within a whisker of being pulled under by the Great Home Computer Crash, Ken Williams had decided, against the conventional wisdom of the time, that the long-term future of consumer computing lay with the operating systems of Microsoft and the open hardware architecture inadvertently spawned by the original IBM PC. He’d stuck to his guns ever since; while Sierra did release some of their games for other computer platforms, they were always afterthoughts, mere ways to earn a little extra money while waiting for the real future to arrive. And now that future had indeed arrived; Ken Williams had been proved right. The green-screened cargo vans of 1985 had improbably become the multimedia sports cars of 1993, all whilst sticking to the same basic software and hardware architecture.

And yet Ken was feeling more doubtful than triumphant. While he remainedr convinced that CDs were the future of game delivery, he was no longer so convinced that MS-DOS was the only platform that mattered. On the contrary, he was deeply concerned by the fact that, while MS-DOS-based computers had evolved enormously in terms of graphics and sound and sheer processing power, they remained as cryptically hard to use as ever. Just installing and configuring one of his company’s latest games required considerable technical skill. His ambition, as he told anyone who would listen, was to build Sierra into a major purveyor of mainstream entertainment. Could he really do that on MS-DOS? Yes, Microsoft Windows was out there as well — in fact, it was exploding in popularity, to the point that it was already becoming hard to find productivity software that wasn’t Windows-based. But Windows had its own fair share of quirks, and wasn’t really designed for running high-performance games under any circumstances.

Even as MS-DOS and Windows thus struggled with issues of affordability, approachability, and user-friendliness in the context of games, new CD-based alternatives to traditional computers were appearing almost by the month. NEC and Sega were selling CD drives as add-ons for their TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis game consoles; Philips had something called CD-i; Commodore had CDTV; Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, had split away from his old company to found 3DO; even Tandy was pushing a free-standing CD-based platform called the VIS. All of these products were designed to be easy for ordinary consumers to operate in all the ways a personal computer wasn’t, and they were all designed to fit into the living room rather than the back office. In short, they looked and operated like mainstream consumer electronics, while personal computers most definitely still did not.

But even if one assumed that platforms like these were the future of consumer multimedia, as Ken Williams was sorely tempted to do, which one or two would win out to become the standard? The situations was oddly similar to that which had faced software makers like Sierra back in the early 1980s, when the personal-computer marketplace had been fragmented into more than a dozen incompatible platforms. Yet the comparison only went so far: development costs for the multimedia software of the early 1990s were vastly higher, and so the stakes were that much higher as well.

Nevertheless, Ken Williams decided that the only surefire survival strategy for Sierra was to become a presence on most if not all of the new platforms. Just as MS-DOS had finally, undeniably won the day in the field of personal computers, Sierra would ironically abandon their strict allegiance to computers in general. Instead, they would now pledge their fealty to CDs in the abstract. For Ken had grander ambitions than just being a major player on the biggest computing platform; he wanted to be a major player in entertainment, full stop. “Sierra is an entertainment company, not a software company,” he said over and over.

So, at no inconsiderable expense, Ken instituted projects to port the SCI engine that ran Sierra’s adventure games to most of the other extant platforms that used CDs as their delivery medium. In doing so, however, he once again ran into a problem that Sierra and other game developers of the early 1980s, struggling to port their wares to the many incompatible platforms of that period, had become all too familiar with: the fact that every platform had such different strengths and weaknesses in terms of interface, graphics, sound, memory, and processing potential. Just because a platform of the early 1990s could accept software distributed on CD didn’t mean it could satisfactorily run all of the same games as an up-to-date personal computer with a CD-ROM drive installed. Corey Cole, who along with his wife Lori Ann Cole made up Sierra’s most competent pair of game designers at the time, but who was nevertheless pulled away from his design role to program a port of the SCI engine to the Sega Genesis with CD drive:

The Genesis CD system was essentially identical to the Genesis except for the addition of the CD. It had inadequate memory for huge games such as the ones Sierra made, and it could only display 64 colors at a time from a 512 color palette. Sierra games at the time used 256 colors at a time from a 262,144 color palette. So the trick became how to make Sierra games look good in a much smaller color space.

Genesis CD did supply some tricks that could be used to fake an expanded color space, and I set out to use those. The problem was that the techniques I used required a lot of memory, and the memory space on the Genesis was much smaller than we expected on PCs at the time. One of the first things I did was to put a memory check in the main SCI processing loop that would warn me if we came close to running out of memory. I knew it would be close.

Sierra assigned a programmer from the Dynamix division to work with me. He had helped convert Willy Beamish to the Genesis CD, so he understood the system requirements well. However, he unintentionally sabotaged the project. In his early tests, my low-memory warning kicked in, so he disabled it. Six months later, struggling with all kinds of random problems (the hard-to-impossible kind to fix), I discovered that the memory check was disabled. When I turned it back on, I learned that the random bugs were all caused by insufficient memory. Basically, Sierra games were too big to fit on the Genesis CD, and there was very little we could do to shoehorn them in. With the project now behind schedule, and the only apparent solution being a complete rewrite of SCI to use a smaller memory footprint, Sierra management cancelled the project.

While Corey Cole spun his wheels in this fashion, Lori Ann Cole was forced to design most of Quest for Glory III alone, at significant cost to this latest iteration in what had been Sierra’s most creative and compelling adventure series up to that point.

The push to move their games to consoles also cost Sierra in the more literal sense of dollars and cents, and in the end they got absolutely no return for their investment. Some of the porting projects, like the one on which Corey worked, were abandoned when the target hardware proved itself not up to the task of running games designed for cutting-edge personal computers. Others were rendered moot when the entire would-be consumer-electronics category of multimedia set-top boxes for the living room — a category that included CD-i, CDTV, 3DO, and VIS — flopped one and all. (Radio Shack employees joked that the VIS acronym stood for “Virtually Impossible to Sell.”) In the end, King’s Quest VI never came out in any versions except those for personal computers. Ken Williams’s dream of conquering the living room, like that of conquering the radio waves, would never come to fruition.

The money Sierra wasted on the fruitless porting projects were far from the only financial challenge they faced at the dawn of the CD era in gaming. For all that everyone at the company had chaffed against the restrictions of floppy disks, those same restrictions had, by capping the amount of audiovisual assets one could practically include in a game, acted as a restraint on escalating development budgets. With CD-ROM, all bets were off in terms of how big a game could become. Sierra felt themselves to be in a zero-sum competition with the rest of their industry to deliver ever more impressive, ever more “cinematic” games that utilized the new storage medium to its full potential. The problem, of course, was that such games cost vastly more money to make.

It was a classic chicken-or-the-egg conundrum. Ken Williams was convinced that games had the potential to appeal to a broader demographic and thus sell in far greater numbers than ever before in this new age of CD-ROM. Yet to reach that market he first had to pay for the development of these stunning new games. Therein lay the rub. If this year’s games cost less to make but also come with a much lower sales cap than next year’s games, the old financial model — that of using the revenue generated by this year’s games to pay for next year’s — doesn’t work anymore. Yet to scale back one’s ambitions for next year’s games means to potentially miss out on the greatest gold rush in the history of computer gaming to date.

As if these pressures weren’t enough, Sierra was also facing the slow withering of what used to be another stable source of revenue: their back catalog. In 1991, titles released during earlier years accounted for fully 60 percent of their sales; in 1992, that number shrank to 48 percent, and would only keep falling from there. In this new multimedia age, driven by audiovisuals above all else, games that were more than a year or two old looked ancient. People weren’t buying them, and stores weren’t interested in stocking them. (Another chicken-or-the-egg situation…) This forced a strike-while-the-iron-is-hot mentality toward development, increasing that much more the perceived need to make every game look and sound spectacular, while also instilling a countervailing need to release it quickly, before it started to look outdated. Sierra had long been in the habit of amortizing their development costs for tax and other accounting purposes: i.e., mortgaging the cost of making each game against its future revenue. Now, as the size of these mortgages soared, this practice created still more pressure to release each game in the quarter to which the accountants had earmarked it. None of this was particularly conducive to the creation of good, satisfying games.

At first blush, one might be tempted to regard what came next as just more examples of the same types of problems that had always dogged Sierra’s output. Ken Williams had long failed to install the culture and processes that consistently lead to good design, which had left well-designed games as the exception rather than the rule even during the company’s earlier history. Now, though, things reached a new nadir, as Sierra began to ship games that were not just poorly designed but blatantly unfinished. Undoubtedly the most heartbreaking victim of these pressures was Quest for Glory IV, Corey and Lori Ann Cole’s would-be magnum opus, which shipped on December 31, 1993 — the last day of the fiscal quarter to which it had been earmarked — in a truly woeful condition, so broken it wasn’t even possible to complete it. Another sorry example was Outpost, a sort of SimCity in space that was rendered unplayable by bugs. And an even worse one was Alien Legacy, an ambitious attempt to combine strategy with adventure gaming in a manner reminiscent of Cryo Interactive’s surprisingly effective adaptation of Dune. We’ll never know how well Sierra’s take on the concept would have worked because, once again, it shipped unfinished and essentially unplayable.

Each of these games had had real potential if they had only been allowed to realize it. One certainly didn’t need to be an expert in marketing or anything else to see how profoundly unwise it was in the long run to release them in such a state. While each of them met an arbitrary accounting deadline, thus presumably preventing some red ink in one quarter, Sierra sacrificed long-term profits on the altar of this short-term expediency: word quickly got around among gamers that the products were broken, and even many of those who were unfortunate enough to buy them before they got the word wound up returning them. That Sierra ignored such obvious considerations and shoved the games out the door anyway speaks to the pressures that come to bear as soon as a company goes public, as Sierra had done in 1988. Additionally, and perhaps more ominously, it speaks to an increasing disconnect between management and the people making the actual products.

Through it all, Ken Williams, who seemed almost frantic not to miss out on what he regarded as the inflection point for consumer software, was looking to expand his empire, looking to make Sierra known for much more than adventure games. In fact, he had already begun that process in early 1990, when Sierra acquired Dynamix, a development house notable for their 3D-graphics technology, for $1 million in cash and some stock shenanigans. That gambit had paid off handsomely; Dynamix’s World War II flight simulator Aces of the Pacific became Sierra’s second biggest hit of 1992, trailing only the King’s Quest VI juggernaut whilst — and this was important to Ken — appealing to a whole different demographic from their adventure games. In addition to their flight simulators, Dynamix also spawned a range of other demographically diverse hits over this period, from The Incredible Machine to Front Page Sports: Football.

With a success story like that in his back pocket, it was time for Ken to go shopping again. In July of 1992, Sierra acquired Bright Star Technology, a Bellevue, Washington-based specialist in educational software, for $1 million. Ken was convinced that educational software, a market that had grown only in fits and starts during earlier years, would become massive during the multimedia age, and he was greatly enamored with Bright Star’s founder, a real bright spark himself named Elon Gasper. “He thinks, therefore he is paid,” was Ken’s description of Gasper’s new role inside the growing Sierra. Bright Star also came complete with some innovative technology they had developed for syncing recorded voices to the mouths of onscreen characters — perhaps not the first problem one thinks of when contemplating a CD-ROM-based talkie of an adventure game, but one which quickly presents itself when the actual work begins. King’s Quest VI became the first Sierra game to make use of it; it was followed by many others.

Meanwhile Bright Star themselves would deliver a steady stream of slick, educator-approved learning software over the years to come. Less fortunately, the acquisition did lead to the sad demise of Sierra’a in-house “Discovery Series” of educational products, which had actually yielded some of their best designed and most creative games of any stripe during the very early 1990s. Now, the new acquisition would take over responsibility for a “second, more refined generation of educational products,” as Sierra’s annual report put it. But in addition to being more refined — more rigorously compliant with established school curricula and the latest pedagogical theories — they would also be just a little bit boring in contrast to the likes of The Castle of Dr. Brain. Such is the price of progress.

Sierra’s third major acquisition of the 1990s was more complicated, more expensive, and more debatable than the first two had been. On October 29, 1993, they bought the French developer and publisher Coktel Vision for $4.6 million. Coktel had been around since 1985, unleashing upon European gamers such indelibly (stereotypically?) French creations as Emmanuelle: A Game of Eroticism, based on a popular series of erotic novels and films. But by the early 1990s, Coktel was doing the lion’s share of their business in educational software. In 1992, estimates were that 50 to 75 percent of the software found in French schools came from Coktel. The character known as Adi, the star of their educational line, is remembered to this day by a whole generation of French schoolchildren.

Sierra had cut a deal more than a year before the acquisition to begin distributing Coktel’s games in the United States, and had made a substantial Stateside success out of Gobliiins, a vaguely Lemmings-like puzzle game. That proof of concept, combined with Coktel’s educational line and distributional clout in Europe — Ken was eager to enter that sprawling market, where Sierra heretofore hadn’t had much of a footprint — convinced the founder to pull the trigger.

But this move would never quite pan out as he had hoped. Although the text and voices were duly translated, the cultural idiom of Adi just didn’t seem to make sense to American children. Meanwhile Coktel’s games, which mashed together disparate genres like adventure and simulation with the same eagerness with which they mashed together disparate presentation technologies like full-motion video and 3D graphics, encountered all the commercial challenges that French designs typically ran into in the United States. Certainly few Americans knew what to make of a game like Inca; it took place in the far future of an alternate history where the ancient Incan civilization had survived, conquered, and taken to the stars, where they continued to battle, Wing Commander-style, with interstellar Spanish galleons. (The phrase “what were they smoking?” unavoidably comes to mind…) Today, the games of Coktel are remembered by American players, if they’re remembered at all, mostly for the sheer bizarreness of premises like this one, married to puzzles that make the average King’s Quest game seem like a master class in good adventure design. Coktel’s European distribution network undoubtedly proved more useful to Sierra than the company’s actual games, but it’s doubtful whether even it was useful to the tune of $4.6 million.

Inca, one of the strangest games Sierra ever published — and not really in a good way.

Ken Williams was playing for keeps in a high-stakes game with all of these moves, as he continued to do as well with ImagiNation, a groundbreaking, genuinely visionary online service, oriented toward socializing and playing together, which stubbornly refused to turn a profit. All together, the latest moves constituted a major shift in strategy from the conservative, incrementalist approach that had marked his handling of Sierra since the company’s near-death experience of the mid-1980s. From 1987 — the year the recovering patient first managed to turn a profit again — through 1991, Sierra had sold more games and made more money each year. The first of those statements held true for 1992 as well, as sales increased from $43 million to within a whisker of $50 million. But profits fell off a cliff; Sierra lost almost $12.5 million that year alone. Sales increased impressively again in 1993, to $59.5 million. Yet, although the bottom line looked less ugly, it remained all too red thanks to all of the ongoing spending; the company lost another $4.5 million that year.

In short, Ken Williams was now mortgaging Sierra’s present against its future, in precisely the way he’d sworn he’d never do again during those dark days of 1984 and 1985. But he felt he had to make his play for the big time now or never; CD-ROM was a horse he just had to ride, hopefully all the way to the nerve center of Western pop culture. And so he did something else he’d sworn he would never do: he left Oakhurst, California. In September of 1993, Ken and Roberta and select members of Sierra’s management team moved to Bellevue, Washington, to set up a new “corporate headquarters” there; sales and marketing would gradually follow over the months to come. Ken had long been under pressure from his board to move to a major city, one where it would be easier to recruit a “first-rate management team” to lead Sierra into a bold new future. Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle that was also home to Microsoft, Nintendo, and of course Sierra’s own new subsidiary of Bright Star, seemed as good a choice as any. Ken promised Sierra’s creative staff as well as their fans that nothing would really change: most of the games would still be made in the cozy confines of Oakhurst. And he spoke the truth — at least in literal terms, at least for the time being.

Nevertheless, something had changed. The old dream of starting a software company in the woods, the one which had brought a much younger, much shaggier Ken and Roberta to Oakhurst in 1980, had in some very palpable sense run its course. Sierra had well and truly gone corporate; Ken and Roberta were back in the world they had so consciously elected to escape thirteen years before. Oh, well… the arrows of both revenue and profitably at Sierra were pointing in the right direction. One more year, Ken believed, and they ought to be in the black again, and in a stronger position in the marketplace than ever at that. Chalk the rest of it up as yet one more price of progress.

(Sources: the book Influential Game Designers: Jane Jenson by Anastasia Salter; Sierra’s newsletter InterAction of Spring 1992, Fall 1992, Winter 1992, June 1993, Summer 1993, Holiday 1993, Spring 1994, and Fall 1994; The One of April 1989; ACE of May 1989; Game Players PC Entertainment of Holiday 1992; Compute! of May 1993; Computer Gaming World of January 1992; press releases, annual reports, and other internal and external documents from the Sierra archive at the Strong Museum of Play. An online source was the Games Nostalgia article on King’s Quest VI. And my thanks go to Corey Cole, who took the time to answer some questions about this period of Sierra’s history from his perspective as a developer there.)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-mortgaging-of-sierra-online/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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jesusvasser · 7 years ago

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2017 Los Angeles Auto Show Hits, Misses, & Revelations

LOS ANGELES, California—This year’s Automobility/L.A. Auto Show was much like the last couple of years, only more so. Which is to say that on paper, there were a number of significant reveals, led by Fiat Chrysler’s very important and very profitable JL Jeep Wrangler.

Still, at the end of the day, the 2017 L.A. Auto Show left us, at best, whelmed. Perhaps it’s because more and more, the auto show plays second-fiddle to the advanced technology that is the centerpiece of Automobility, which wraps discussion of autonomy and electric-powered vehicles around reveals of the shiny new cars and trucks.

If you attend the public Los Angeles Auto Show, December 1 to 10, you might see things a bit differently. Here’s what we saw this year…

HIT: JL Jeep Wrangler

It’s lighter by 200 pounds, it’s more easily convertible, and it is extremely Jeep. The all-new two-door and four-door 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL models will please the marque’s faithful and entice four-wheeling neophytes. The four-door has a power top that removes very quickly and easily, there’s an optional open-air pass-through in the middle of each front door, and the windshield folds down for the full open-air experience.

—Kara Snow

I’m no off-road outdoorsy type, but the latest iteration of this American classic makes me want to convert. As typical for Jeep, there are so many surprise-and-delight features that I can’t guarantee my introductory news story of the debut is comprehensive. Hardcore fans will love the new Wrangler’s interior spec plate, recalling the original Willys MB’s dash plate, the fold-down windshield and the door hinges stamped with the tool number needed to remove them. The masses who bought the first-generation Wrangler Unlimited will want to trade in for easy-to-lower tops and subtle refinement that doesn’t at all diminish its hard-core image.

—Todd Lassa

MISS: JL Jeep Wrangler pricing

Although Jeep promised to give us prices for the new JL models at the show, they weren’t ready to reveal just yet. Naturally, we’re fearing a big increase.

—K.S.

HIT: BMW i8 Roadster

There wasn’t a whole lot that BMW could do to make its i8 PHEV GT coupe cooler, but converting it into a roadster by ripping out the vestigial rear seats and dispensing with the fixed roof is a great way to do it.

—Kirill Ougarov

HIT: Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman GTS

Its 2.5-liter turbo H-4 makes 365 hp, and top speed is 180 mph.

—Robert Cumberford

HIT: 2019 Lincoln Nautilus

The name may be a bit too dramatic for a fancy Ford Edge, but not only does the arrival of the 2019 Lincoln Nautilus signal the end of the brand’s confusing MK_ naming scheme (it’s the artist formerly known as the MKX, in case you’re one of the five people out there that could keep track), the midsize crossover wears the best interpretation of Lincoln’s current design language to date, suffering none of the proportional indignities of the Continental, Navigator, and MKC.

—K.O.

MISS: 2019 Lincoln MKC

The looks for the facelifted 2019 Lincoln MKC are a bit wonky, but that’s not the miss here. The miss is the missed opportunity to do away with the MKC name, as was done with the Nautilus, née MKX. This likely means that the Ford Edge-based compact crossover will be the last Lincoln to get a proper name.

—K.O.

MISS: Volvo XC40

I just can’t warm up to the new compact Volvo SUV. It looks short, stubby, and inelegant compared with the longer, nicely proportioned XC90, which I think is still the best SUV in its class. Though the interior is appropriately premium and well-designed, with excellent fit and finish, from the outside, the Volvo looks no more upscale than the Nissan Kicks.

—T.L.

REVELATION: Subscription is the new lease

This week at the L.A. show, Volvo announced its new “Care By Volvo” plan, a “subscription” program that it is rolling out nationwide on its consumer Web site volvocars.com/us, starting with its new XC40 compact crossover. The concept is simple, you choose either a Momentum or R-Design trim XC40 that you can configure, and everything else is covered: insurance, maintenance, payment, down payment, etc., and they deliver the car to you—no dealer required. The term starts at 24 months, but you can switch cars in as little as 12 months if you like. Mileage is capped at 15,000 a year. All for $600 a month to start. There is some fine print, namely around insurance (Liberty Mutual is the partner) and it’s fun to hear Volvo Cars global CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, and newly minted Volvo Car USA CEO, Anders Gustafsson, use the word “lease” a couple of times as they did in describing the program to me.

—Mike Floyd

HIT: Reds a.k.a CHTC Redspace

Chris Bangle is thinking inside the box for a change. Reds is one of the most refreshing concepts to emerge in a long time. It’s not made for Americans and most folks will hate it, but I love its childish, Toontown looks and the idea of a car that’s designed from the inside out—definitely next level stuff. A woman at the show told Bangle it was beautiful and he was taken back—he doesn’t think it is but appreciated the comment. Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder.

—Ed Tahaney

MISS: CHTC Redspace

It lacks charm, beauty, grace… most of the attributes we tend to seek in cars, but the Redspace city vehicle is the most interesting device in the L.A. Auto Show, apparently all about maximizing interior volume to enhance comfort while its occupants are stuck in traffic, which is estimated to be about 90-percent of the time the thing is in operation, at least in such target-market cities as Beijing. Chris Bangle’s return to car design shows us why he should have foregone the opportunity. Dreadful object. Not a car, a street fixture. Most massive A-pillar ever.

—R.C.

REVELATION: CHTC Redspace is an appliance

It looks like a huge, rolling coffee grinder. That’s not necessarily a criticism; I love coffee.

—T.L.

HIT: Volkswagen I.D. Crozz EV Crossover Concept

Volkswagen’s autonomous I.D. concept looks like a cloud with wheels. And although it’s just a concept, it’s easy to believe a ride in this all-electric vehicle would be as silent as a fluffy altocumulus. Big points for the airy, spacious interior (although it’s 6 inches shorter than the Golf) with futuristic seats, a panoramic full-glass roof, and a steering wheel that folds forward into the dash when the driver isn’t needed. Look for it in 2020.

—K.S.

HIT: Jaguar’s show stand

Jaguar pointed its upcoming i-Pace electric SUV and related spec series electric racer, parked in parallel, straight at the Tesla Model 3 on its stand across the aisle. The Jaguar i-Pace is scheduled to go on sale late next year. Wonder, which EV will reach full production first.

—T.L.

MISS: 2018 Chrysler 300

Seems to have lost all the charm it once possessed. Too bad. This nth reskin of an ancient Mercedes chassis was costly.

—R.C.

REVELATION: The Multilink from Infiniti’s Variable Compression Engine

On the surface, Infiniti’s sculpted QX50 has been received as a design hit. But beneath the crossover’s wavy sheetmetal is a deeper story: the world’s first series production variable compression ratio engine. Christian Meunier, Infiniti’s VP Global Marketing and Sales, shared his thoughts with Automobile on the 2.0-liter VC-Turbo engine’s unique bits, which he compared to “parts of a Swiss watch” while flashing an elegant Jaeger-LeCoutre Reverso on his wrist. Case in point: the palm-sized multilink component, which serves as the lynchpin for altering piston clearance and varying the compression ratio from 8:1 to 14:1. “The manufacturing tolerance on it is greater than anything we’ve ever done,” he explains. “It’s one thing to produce it, and another to mass produce it.” While the QX50 on display drew the attention of onloookers, this small hunk of steel tells the arguably more intriguing story of the 20-year struggle to bring a variable compression ratio engine to market.

—Basem Wasef

HIT: Kia lineup

Kia is a surprise to me. Stinger is quite good looking, and Kia’s number-one rating in initial quality is excellent. Obviously European stylists have made a major contribution to the current status of the make.

—R.C.

MISS: Toyota FT-AC concept

I really wanted to like it and make it a “hit.” But I find it an overdrawn take on the new Subaru Crosstrek. Toyota’s Jack Hollis describes it as a crossover, though it has torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive with front and rear lockers. It’s a tweener, size-wise, bigger than a RAV4, but not quite a mid-size vehicle. One of its best features is a built-in rear-bumper bike rack that can accommodate just one bike, though it isn’t any different from this SUV-concept trope we’ve seen at auto shows for years. Plus, the rack is probably three-times the weight of the Specialized mountain bike attached to it. Meanwhile, there are huge, 20-inch tires mostly filling large Crosstrek-style black plastic overfenders, though these overfenders extend out from the bodywork, which doesn’t seem very aerodynamic. While Toyota hints the FT-AC is headed for production, the concept doesn’t have an interior. Toyota’s TJ Cruiser at October’s Tokyo Motor Show came with an innovative interior, and though bigger, boxier and more minivan-like, that concept was one of my hits.

—T.L.

REVELATION: Land Rover’s 1 Percenter Drafting

The likes of Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini are making it a lot less lonely at the top of the SUV pyramid, but you needn’t shed a tear for O.G. luxury offroad manufacturer Land Rover. “You wouldn’t have bought a Range Rover for more than £90,000 ten years ago; now, we sell quite a lot of £160,000, £170,000 Range Rovers,” Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicles Operations boss John Edwards told Automobile. “Customers are coming to us and spending another £30,000 on top of that bespoking them. We’ll do probably 250 bespoke cars this year.” Can we expect a new Super SUV from Land Rover to play with the (even bigger) boys? Edwards was mum on future product, but emphasized that competition has made business better than ever. “People always used to tell me, particularly when Bentley was going to be introducing an SUV, ‘You must be really nervous, this is terrible news.’ I’d say, ‘This is fantastic news because it’s going to grow the market; I’m very respectful of Bentley but what they’ve done is expanded the marketplace and provided us with an opportunity. Our business has benefitted massively from that marketplace growing. It is crowded and becoming more crowded, but it’s becoming stronger.”

—B.W.

HIT: Sonders electric three-wheeler

This is probably another pipe dream, but it’s really well styled, very professional, has a believable layout (unlike tandem two-seaters) and could work. But the $10,000 price? That’s a pipe dream.

—R.C.

MISS: Ampere 1 three-wheel electric sports car

A very crude prototype that should never have been presented in public. “With a range of up to 100 miles.” Yeah, sure.

—R.C.

HIT: Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class

With their overwrought side surfacing, the first- and second-generation Mercedes CLS-Classes looked especially awkward where the rear haunches met the rakish four-door “coupe” profile. The new CLS, like the E-Class on which is based, has a much cleaner profile, resolving the issue. And now there’s room for three, not two, in the back seat.

—T.L.

HIT: 2019 Subaru Ascent

The last time Subaru tried to make a three-row SUV, things didn’t work out too well—but the less said about the bygone Tribeca, the better. The automaker did a good job of scaling up its current design language for the Ascent, which looks like a meatier Outback. Now, Subaru owners with growing families will no longer be forced to look elsewhere, so Subaru’s absurd streak of increasing sales for 71 months in a row is nearly certain to continue.

—K.O.

Hit? More like a home run for Subaru.

—E.T.

REVELATION – Mercedes-Benz’s (Inscrutable) 48 Volt Inline-6 Engine

Mercedes-Benz’s arc-shaped CLS has long been considered the sleeker (and less functional) cousin to the workaday E-Class. But the CLS 450 unveiled at the L.A. Auto Show packs a secret weapon that should appeal to anyone with an appreciation for mechanical elegance: Daimler’s latest, greatest, 48-volt-equipped inline-6 powerplant. I was smitten by the mild hybrid engine’s smooth power and imperceptible start/stop action during our first drive of a Europe-only S-Class. Using an integrated starter/generator, the powerplant produces a baseline of 362 hp and 369 lb-ft, adding another 21 hp and 184 lb-ft when electric assistance (aka, EQ Boost) kicks in. But how will Benz pull in non-techy, design focused consumers towards the advanced powertrain? I posed the question to Dietmar Exler, Mercedes-Benz USA’s president and CEO, who answered, “We have to find a way to communicate what the technology really does. When you ask a non-gearhead ‘What’s a Hemi engine?’ I’ll bet you 90 percent of consumers don��t know about hemispheric combustion chambers. But they all know it means more power.” Until Mercedes comes up with a one-word answer to that marketing conundrum, I’ll say this: driving is believing.

—B.W.

HIT: Ram pickup and Chevrolet Silverado High Country backup cameras

If you’ve ever towed a trailer or had a payload in the back of your truck that necessitated leaving the tailgate down, you know how that ordinary backup cameras can be useless. That’s why it was good to see on display with Ram and Chevrolet some well-developed trailering camera systems. The Silverado High Country on the show floor featured a standard three-camera trailering system by EchoMaster. Cameras on each side mirror activate with the turn signals and display on the infotainment screen. There’s also a wireless backup camera to place on the back of your trailer. Options include a front camera kit, a second wireless camera, and a third brakelight camera kit.

—K.S.

HIT: Bollinger Motors B 1

Stupidly primitive as is its styling, it’s full of interesting ideas on storage in an electric 4X4. And like the original Land Rover, it should be easy to repair.

—R.C.

REVELATION: Reports of the death of the conventional car are greatly exaggerated

For the last few years, the Los Angeles auto show had largely focused on green cars, with some self-driving car chatter thrown in for good measure. That went out the window this year despite increasing proclamations about the looming deaths of the internal combustion engine and the human-driven automobile. Instead, we were treated to hot convertibles, brawny sedans, and gas-chugging SUVs, none of which have any plans on driving themselves. Maybe we should focus on improving driver training after all.

—K.O.

HIT: JL Jeep Wrangler press kit

For at least 20 years, Chrysler/DaimlerChrysler/Chrysler Group/Fiat Chrysler has created the best traditional press kits, even as everyone else migrated to thumb drives, then to special websites. A thick booklet describing all the myriad features of the new Jeep Wrangler comes in a wood-and-brass box, with a brass-colored thumb drive and a Jeep grille-theme mini-speaker. You can probably find them offered up on eBay, but not from me. I’m keeping mine.

—T.L.

REVELATION: Mitsubishi Mirage hatch is cute

…but not too impressive on fuel mileage.

—R.C.

HIT: Dodge Durango SRT

Dodge agrees with those of us who believe SUVs can be slow, boring blah-mobiles. Just because you need a seven-seater doesn’t mean you don’t want a little power. That’s why they stuck a 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 in the new Durango SRT with 475 horsepower, 470 lb-ft of torque and—get this—a 0-60-mph time of 4.4 seconds. Pile all of your friends into the luxe interior of this beast and show them that bigger is indeed better. But where is our Durango Demon?

—K.S.

REVELATION: Car magazines can’t wait to write the first-drive headline, “Nissan Kicks Ass”

There. We’ve done it already.

—T.L.

The post 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show Hits, Misses, & Revelations appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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