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Democracy Now

Nearly five decades later, a new poll has found a clear majority of Americans still suspect there was a conspiracy behind the assassination. However, according to the Associated Press JFK poll, the percentage of those who believe accused shooter Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is at its highest level since the mid-’60s. The survey, conducted in mid-April, said 59 percent of Americans think multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president, while 24 percent think Oswald acted alone, 16 percent are still unsure. A 2003 Gallup poll found 75 percent of Americans felt there was a conspiracy.

We’re joined for the hour by three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter, Oliver Stone. A Vietnam War veteran, he’s made around two dozen acclaimed Hollywood films, including Platoon, Wall Street, Salvador, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, W., South of the Border and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. A commemorative edition of JFK comes out on Blu-ray next week as the 50th anniversary of his assassination approaches on November 22nd. Most recently, Stone has co-written a multi-part Showtime series called Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States, which is also available on Blu-ray and includes a companion book with the same name.

We’re also joined by Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, co-author of The Untold History of the United States.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Oliver Stone, let’s begin with you. As we move into this 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, your thoughts?

OLIVER STONE: Thank you, Amy, for having me back. It’s nice to see you again. Hello, Peter.

PETER KUZNICK: Hi, Oliver.

OLIVER STONE: My thoughts. I saw the film inside these last few days, and I’ve been able to assess it again, and I’ve followed the cases more or less from the outside. I haven’t been inside. It’s amazing to me that people still deny it. As you know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. I had a fair amount of combat experience. I saw people blown away in action. When you look once again at the basics of the film—the bullets, the autopsy, the forensics, the shooting path—and stay away from all the other stuff—Oswald’s background and Garrison, etc.—just follow the meat, the evidence, what you see with your own eyes in those six seconds, it’s an amazing—it’s all there. It doesn’t need to be elaborated upon. You can see it with your own eyes.

You see Kennedy make his—get a hit in the throat. Then you see Kennedy get a hit in the back. Then you see him essentially get a hit from the front. When he gets the hit from the front, which is the fourth or the fifth or the sixth shot, he goes back and to the left. That’s the basic evidence. You see a man fly back because he gets hit right here. Many witnesses at Parkland and at the autopsy in Bethesda saw a massive exit wound to the rear of his skull, to the right side. The people at Parkland, including the young doctor, McClelland, saw his cerebellum, his brain, go out the—almost falling out of the back of his skull. Later, when he gets taken—illegally—to the—to Bethesda, Maryland, the military—

AMY GOODMAN: Why illegal?

OLIVER STONE: Via what?

AMY GOODMAN: You said when he was taken illegally.

OLIVER STONE: He was taken immediately, I mean, within an hour or two, he start—but it takes four hours to fly there, plus the autopsy doesn’t go off until later that evening. And it’s manipulated. It’s—the doctors at the autopsy are not in charge of the autopsy. They’re naval—naval technicians, surgeons. The military is telling them what to do.

And when this whole thing emerges, what we have are weird shots of—the back of his head is patched up, basically. And the shot—they’re trying to justify the shot from the rear to the front. So they’re saying that the shot from the back came into his back and hit Connally. There’s—they talk about three bullets. One missed. The magic bullet, that was devised by Arlen Specter and others, devises a path that’s impossible. It’s seven wounds in two people, in Kennedy and in Connally. The bullet hits Kennedy—

AMY GOODMAN: This was John Connally.

OLIVER STONE: —in the back, goes out his throat, zigs to the right, hits Connally in the left, goes down to Connally’s right wrist. It bounces back into his left knee. It’s a farce. And they got away with it, because it’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo, and they used scientific evidence. But when people are in combat, they see things. They see people—they go with the bullet wound. It’s essential. And this was a—Kennedy was shot right before Connally in the back. Connally gets shot. Then Kennedy—

AMY GOODMAN: Governor Connally.

OLIVER STONE: —gets the head shot. So there’s at least five shots here. And this is what you have to go in—look at the Zapruder film over and over again, even if they altered it, which—

AMY GOODMAN: And for young people who don’t know who Zapruder was, and the film—

OLIVER STONE: Oh, Zapruder was a—was a local man who shot this film, that was taken by the CIA and the Secret Service, and it was altered a bit, I think. There’s a lot of evidence to that effect. You have to—you’re getting into scientific now. But the Zapruder film, even now, is the best signpost. It’s the timing of the—it’s the timing. It shows you the, how do you call, the time frame of the assassination.

And we have a scene in the movie where you see the man trying to do what Oswald did with a bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from World War II, which is a very bad weapon, Italian weapon, infantryman rifle. And you have to fire the shot, through a tree, at a moving—at a target moving away from you. You can’t do it. Two teams of FBI experts tried to do it, plus CBS, I believe, and various other organizations have tried to simulate that shooting in less than six seconds. It’s not possible. So, this was a sophisticated ambush. There had to be a shot from the front, from that—from that front, that fence, and at least one shooter from the front. At least one.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to a clip from your film, JFK, when former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison watches a TV news report about Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged killer. Then he makes a phone call to his associate and tells him to investigate Oswald’s connection to New Orleans a little bit further.

REPORTER: … of Lee Harvey Oswald.

MATTIE: [played by Pat Perkins] A fine man.

REPORTER: After a stint in the Marines, he apparently became fascinated by communism.

BOB: He is still believed to be a dedicated Marxist and a fanatical supporter of Fidel Castro and ultra-left-wing causes. He spent last summer in New Orleans and was arrested there in a brawl with anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

REPORTER: And apparently, Bob, Oswald had been passing out pro-Castro pamphlets for an organization …

JIM GARRISON: Hello, Lou? Yeah, sorry to disturb you this late.

LOU IVON: [played by Jay O. Sanders] That’s all right. I’m watching it, too.

JIM GARRISON: Yeah, a matter of routine, but we better get on this Oswald connection to New Orleans right away.

LOU IVON: Mm-hmm.

JIM GARRISON: All right, I want you to check out his record, find any friends or associates from last summer. Let’s meet with the senior assistants and investigators day after tomorrow, all right?

LOU IVON: That be on Sunday?

JIM GARRISON: Sunday, yeah, at 11:00.

LOU IVON: All right.

JIM GARRISON: All right, thanks, Lou.

LOU IVON: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Kevin Costner, who played Jim Garrison, who is actually the central figure in your film. Why Jim Garrison, the DA?

OLIVER STONE: Well, Jim Garrison was the only public official who brought charges in the case. He started this case. It was a very difficult thing to bring charges against the covert operations of a U.S. government, which he thought it was. You know, now that we’ve lived a little longer and we’re older, we know about how difficult that is. We know Snowden’s case. We know WikiLeaks’s case. We know Manning’s case. All these people have been—can’t get it out. I mean, they had trouble. People disbelieve it. When Garrison believed the story, as I did—I was younger—years go by, three years later Garrison—Garrison calls in David Ferrie. He—very suspicious things happened in New Orleans. But he was suspicious , but the FBI dismissed all—dismissed all the witnesses he called. Three years later, he got into the case because Senator Russell Long of Georgia told him that he didn’t believe this—this Warren—

AMY GOODMAN: Of Louisiana.

OLIVER STONE: So, Garrison started to read the whole Warren Commission, and he started to see all the inconsistencies of it, and he started to call in the witnesses. He got into some hot water. The CIA watched this thing very closely. We now know that they had files on Jim. They bugged his offices. They stole the files. They had informants on his staff. It was an impossible case. Three of his witnesses died. Others—others just were not called. They were—the subpoenas were denied, etc. He called Allen Dulles. He called several members of the CIA. That was not allowed.

AMY GOODMAN: Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, Allen Dulles had been the head of the CIA, had been fired by Kennedy and was the head of the Warren Commission and ran the commission, which is a very bizarre—

AMY GOODMAN: And the Warren Commission is the one that had investigated—

OLIVER STONE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —done the so-called independent investigation.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, you’re asking me to go through the whole case here. Yeah, the Warren Commission is the—is the Rosetta Stone of this country. It’s another one of these mists that covers up.

You know, look, this case is very similar, that scene you showed—when Snowden was first described as a lone, fame-seeking narcissist, you find very much the similarities to the Oswald case. Oswald was identified right away, on that Friday afternoon. They had the profile ready. This is a lone nut, Marxist sympathizer, who obviously was not only alienated, but disliked Kennedy—none of which is true, because he was none of these things. And we go—you can find that out by reading or looking at the movie. But the first label seems to stick, whether it was the WMD in Iraq, when you put that first story out there. And there’s something about that, whether it’s the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that kicks off the Vietnam War or the—for that matter, the blowing up of the Maine in the Spanish harbor. These stories spread, and that first impression stays. And that’s—it’s a shame. It’s like the Reichstag fire in Germany.

And Oswald has been—what bothers me the most is that people who are intelligent, The New York Times, the Vanity Fair fellow, the guy in The New Yorker, they write these long pieces, and they just—and they say, essentially, in the article, “Well, we—history has sort of shown us that Oswald is the—the consensus is that Oswald did it alone.” Well, but they don’t read the books by Bob Groden or Cyril Wecht or James Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable, or they don’t deal with the ballistics, which is very important because the argument—Bob Groden has done the best photographic analysis of the bullet wounds and the photography. And he can show, in his last book—his most recent book is called Absolute Proof. It’s coming out right now. Bob Groden has done—has been on this thing 30 years. He’s the best. Talk to the people who really have studied pathology, autopsies and photo evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Oliver Stone, why does this matter 50 years later?

OLIVER STONE: Ah, good question. Good question. What was Kennedy doing? Peter and I address this in a larger text in our Untold History of the United States. A very important president. Keep in mind, this is 13 years after the national security state starts. We are massively armed. Between 1947, Truman, and Eisenhower in 1960, we go from 1,000 nuclear weapons to 30,000 nuclear weapons. By 1960, we are supreme. We are the sole superpower, truly. We have the ability at this point, after many crises with the Soviet Union, many nuclear threats made by Eisenhower—several, five, six—John Foster Dulles believed in brinksmanship—you remember that policy?—taking things to the brink. We called it a containment of communism, but really we were forcing back, rolling back. We were aggressive. We wanted a war, basically, because we knew that the Soviets would arm up after 1960, they would catch up with us eventually. We feared that. They never did, but we feared it. We knew in 1960 that in a first-strike situation we could win, and we could—we could sustain the retaliation. So we had a very hopped-up Pentagon.

We saw in Berlin there was an anger at Kennedy for what they called being soft on communism, which meant that he allowed the wall to be built. Remember when the Berlin Wall went up, Kennedy had a great quote. He said, “I’d rather have a wall than a war.” And he was looked—he was looked on as a young man, not up to Eisenhower’s military status, not up to snuff. When Cuba came around, he failed to support the Bay of Pigs invasion. And then he failed to go into Laos, which was expected of him. And then, when the October crisis rolled around in ’62, he backed down. That was their viewpoint of it. He backed down, and he said no to invading Cuba, to going in and bombing the missile sites.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting, Oliver, when we put out yesterday that you were coming on, we were just inundated with questions and—

OLIVER STONE: It’s a very important issue.

AMY GOODMAN: On our Facebook page, Ronan Duggan posted this question to you: “Would you agree that much of the history of JFK has been romanticized and he has been transformed into a sort of liberal hero? The truth is he was a horrific warmonger,” said this person on Facebook.

OLIVER STONE: No, no. Kennedy, on the contrary, he did—had to—you could not become president in 1960, I mean, by being soft on communism. You had to be a hardliner. It was the only way to get elected. Yeah, he went to the right of Nixon at that point, true, and—but he did not know the missile gap. He believed the missile gap existed, that was being talked about. When he got into office, within six weeks, he hired Bob McNamara, an outsider from Ford, to be his defense secretary. He had McNamara go into the Pentagon and find out where we were. And he found out that it was all a myth, that in fact we were way ahead of the Soviets, on every level—on every level—and that we could have, unfortunately, a first strike against the Soviet Union. He realized, in that atmosphere, that his generals were up to—were really gearing up for a war, because if they didn’t fight the Soviets in 1960, their thinking was that the Soviets are going to catch up, and we’re going to have these crises in Berlin, Vietnam, Laos for the rest—it will—there will be a war sometime in the near future, by 1970. So they’re thinking about let’s do it, let’s do it now. And you remember the Dr. Strangelove movie about the whole thing about the retaliation? You remember Jack Ripper, the Sterling Hayden character? That’s based on Curtis LeMay, who was the chief of staff of the Air Force, and Thomas Power also, who was later the chief of staff. He was an Air Force general. These people wanted war. Or Arleigh Burke of the Navy, Lemnitzer, who was the chief of the—the head of the whole thing, chief of staff at the beginning. This new book, Bob Dallek, who’s an establishment historian, doesn’t agree with our assassination concept, he goes into detail in Camelot’s Court, this new book, about how Kennedy was fighting, for those years, with the military on all fronts.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going break and then come back. Our guest is Oliver Stone, three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter. Among his films, JFK. This month is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. When we come back, we’ll also be joined by Peter Kuznick, history professor at American University. Together, they did Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Our guests for the hour, Oliver Stone, many-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter; Peter Kuznick, history professor at American University. They co-authored the many-part series, The Untold History of the United States. It’s in both book form as well as DVD. It’s a Showtime series. I want to go right now to this clip from Untold History of the United States, which recalls a close call that happened October 27, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, when it was ultimately a Soviet colonel who averted nuclear war.

OLIVER STONE: On October 27th, an incident occurred that Schlesinger described as not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War, it was “the most dangerous moment in human history.” The Russian ships were heading toward the quarantine line. One of four Soviet submarines sent to protect the ships was being hunted all day by the carrier, USS Randolph. More than a hundred miles outside the blockade, the Randolph began dropping depth charges, unaware the sub was carrying nuclear weapons. The explosion rocked the submarine, which went dark except for emergency lights. The temperature rose sharply. The carbon dioxide in the air reached near-lethal levels, and people could barely breathe. Men began to faint and fall down. The suffering went on for four hours. Then, the Americans hit us with something stronger. We thought, “That’s it. The end.” Panic ensued.

Commander Valentin Savitsky tried, without success, to reach the general staff. He assumed the war had already started, and they were going to die in disgrace for having done nothing. He ordered the nuclear torpedo to be prepared for firing. He turned to the other two officers aboard. Fortunately for mankind, the political officer, Vasili Arkhipov, was able to calm him down and convince him not to launch—probably single-handedly preventing nuclear war.

AMY GOODMAN: Oliver Stone narrating The Untold History of the United States, which was co-written by Oliver Stone and our guest, Peter Kuznick, as well, history professor at American University. Just continue on this 1962 moment and how—

OLIVER STONE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —nuclear war was averted, Oliver.

OLIVER STONE: Well, it was during this crisis in October, it—Eisenhower told Kennedy, through an intermediary, to go, to bomb. But we had no concept of what the Russians—there was 40,000 Russian troops, hardened troops, under the command of the commander of the—of Stalingrad during World War II. There were a rough, tough unit. They would have gone the distance. They had a hundred nuclear—battlefield nuclear weapons. A hundred. We didn’t know that. McNamara admitted all this much later in his life. The Cubans were armed, like 200,000 Cubans, so that we would have faced far more significant casualties going in there than we thought. It would have evolved into a real nuclear confrontation in the Caribbean, and it probably would have spread, most likely spread quickly, because we had bombers armed to go over China, drop bombs on China, from Okinawa. We were ready to blow off the Soviet Union. That was Eisenhower’s plan, was essentially—because what Eisenhower did in his eight years of office was to make nuclear weapons a alternative to conventional weapons, because we didn’t have the size of the conventional weapons of the Soviets, so we were ready to use nuclear. We were ready to go, and Washington was in the sights. The whole world, I don’t—I think, would have gone up.

Khrushchev and Kennedy, at the last second, through their—through Dobrynin and his brother Robert, said no, basically, to their hardliners. And it cost both men dearly. The generals were furious with Kennedy. LeMay was raging at the meeting that was described by McNamara and others. They thought—LeMay said, “We lost. We lost. This was our moment.” And Khrushchev was criticized by his own people, but the Soviets were inferior in strength. And they—but they built up after that crisis. They built up significantly, so by the late 1970s they were almost achieving parity. So, in other words, Kennedy and Khrushchev saved—what we’re saying is Kennedy and Khrushchev saved the world at a very key moment. We owe him a lot.

AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kuznick, this is also the beginning of the Cuban embargo that exists to this day, 1962. Can you explain how that happened?

PETER KUZNICK: Well, the United States policy was really to overthrow the Castro government, to do everything it could to sabotage, undermine, overthrow the Castro government. The fear was that you were going to have similar kinds of revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, that they would stand as an example. The United States policy since that time has been not only to isolate the Cuban government, but to attempt to prevent similar kind of left-wing uprisings from occurring elsewhere.

We do overthrow other governments down there. For example, the way we treat Vietnam in our Vietnam episode, episode seven, is we put it in a different context. We want to show that Vietnam is not an aberration, so we begin with the overthrow of the government in Brazil in 1964. We then go to the overthrow in the Dominican Republic in 1965. We show the U.S. role in the bloodbath in Indonesia in 1965. We talk about the escalation of Vietnam. And we also talk about U.S. overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.

The big concern for the United States was not Cuba itself; it was the possibility throughout Latin America, in our own backyard, for a series of communist revolutions and for radical movements down there. We work, under Kissinger, with the right-wing governments in Latin America in something called Operation Condor, which was basically an operation to set up death squads throughout Latin America to kill not only revolutionaries, but reformers and dissidents. We see this policy continue through the 1980s under the Reagan administration throughout Central America, the U.S. working with the right-wing government in El Salvador, the U.S. role in Guatemala, the U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua. So Cuba is only a small piece in it.

But as Oliver is saying, the Cuban missile crisis is a crucial turning point, and it’s a crucial turning point in Kennedy’s mind and in Khrushchev’s mind. Khrushchev, afterwards, writes a letter to Kennedy in which he says, “Evil has done some good. Our people have felt the flames of thermonuclear war. Let’s take an advantage of this.” He said, “Let’s remove every possible area of conflict between us that can lead to another crisis. Let’s stop all nuclear testing. Let’s remove all the problems between us.” So, Khrushchev then says, “Let’s get rid of the military blocks. Let’s get rid of NATO. Let’s get rid of the Warsaw Pact.” He reaches out to Kennedy. This is actually a moment, as he says that, evil can bring some good, because what Kennedy and Khrushchev both understood from the Cuban missile crisis was that despite all of their efforts to prevent a nuclear war, when a crisis like this occurs, they actually lose control. They both—we came very close to nuclear war despite the fact that both of them were doing everything they could to avert it at that point. So Khrushchev says, “Let’s get rid of anything that could cause another conflict.”

And what happens over the next year, until Kennedy’s assassination, is they do begin to cooperate on a number of issues. As Oliver was saying before, Kennedy had a lot of enemies. And the reason why he had so many enemies is because he stood up to the generals, to the joint chiefs, to the intelligence community, to the establishment, time after time after time. And then, in this period, we reach out. We conclude the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty. The joint chiefs were furious about the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty. It was the first nuclear arms control treaty we had. He begins to reach out to Cuba for rapprochement with Cuba at the end of his life. Castro was very, very disappointed when Kennedy was assassinated. He talks about pulling the U.S. forces out of Vietnam. In NSAM 263, he wants to pull a thousand troops out by the end of the year, get all the troops out by 1965. His signature initiative, in many people’s mind, is the space race. Kennedy says, “Why should we be competing with the Soviet Union for who’s going to be first to get into space? We should work together jointly for a joint mission of space exploration and putting a man jointly on the moon.” And in his American University commencement address, he basically calls for an end to the Cold War.

So, the Kennedy of 1963, in response to that person who posted on Facebook, Kennedy of 1963 was really very much of a visionary. And Oliver and I believe that this was the last time we had an American president who was really willing to—wanted to change the direction of the country, stand up to the militarists, stand up to the intelligence community, and take the United States in a very different direction. So, the tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination is not just that we lost this one man, but it’s that the United States and the Soviet Union were both looking to take the world in a very, very different direction. And Kennedy is assassinated. Khrushchev is ousted the next year. And as we say—Kennedy, in his inauguration, says we’re going to pass the torch forward to a new generation, and we say that now the torch has been passed back to the old generation, the generation of Johnson, Nixon, Eisenhower, and the world goes back very heavily into Cold War.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back—

PETER KUZNICK: Johnson wastes little time.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip from The Untold History of the United States, where you look at the transition from JFK to LBJ.

OLIVER STONE: With the ascension of Vice President Lyndon Johnson, there would be important changes in many of Kennedy’s policies, particularly towards the Soviet Union and Vietnam.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: I will do my best. That is all I can do.

OLIVER STONE: In his inaugural address in the morning of that decade in January 1961—

PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.

OLIVER STONE: But with his murder, the torch was passed back to an old generation, the generation of Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, leaders who would systematically destroy the promise of Kennedy’s last year, as they returned the country to war and repression. Though the vision Khrushchev and Kennedy had expressed would fall with them, it would not die. The seeds they had planted would germinate and sprout again long after their deaths.

AMY GOODMAN: Oliver Stone narrating The Untold History of the United States.

OLIVER STONE: Yes, yeah. It’s five years of my life. It’s perhaps my most ambitious project.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is this so important to you? It begins actually in what, 1898? The year after my grandmother was born.

OLIVER STONE: It begins with—it begins with the Spanish-American War and the first, really, effort overseas by America to expand. We take the Philippines, and we basically take Cuba. This whole series, from 1898 to 2013 is—in a sense, it’s a mourning. It’s a mourning for a country that could, after World War II, have taken another direction. And if Roosevelt had lived a little longer, it may well have, or if Henry Wallace had been the—had been the real vice president. And when I think—what we’re doing, Peter and I, is we’re really—after George Bush had been in office two terms in 2008, we said, “What is—is he an aberration, or is he a continuation of a pattern?” So we went back to our early lives in the 1940s and studied this whole pattern. And we see a pattern. If you look at all chapters together quickly, in 12 hours, you feel the dream, the fever dream, the aggression, the militarism, the racism towards the Third World—it doesn’t end—the exploitation.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact—

OLIVER STONE: There’s good things, too. I’m not saying only bad things. We try to point out the hopes.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, didn’t this project start around you wanting to tell the story of Henry Wallace? Most people who are watching right now don’t even know who Henry Wallace was.

OLIVER STONE: Henry Wallace is a wonderful character, but not the only character in this thing. No, the—what for me was the important thing—I was born right after it—was the atomic bomb. I always had accepted, like I accepted the story of Kennedy’s assassination, I accepted that we needed to drop the bomb to win World War II, because the Japanese were fanatics. Well, we’ve got to go back to that myth, and we explore it in depth. And we have it—I think we show that our use of the bomb was criminal and immoral. And we proved to the Soviet Union, as well as to the world, that we could be as barbaric as the Nazis were.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain why you think the world would be a very different place if this vice president in the 1940s—

OLIVER STONE: Right, right.

AMY GOODMAN: —Henry Wallace, had actually continued to be the vice president under FDR?

OLIVER STONE: Yeah. Well, because he was a—he was a peace seeker. He was a man of international vision. He spoke of the century of the common man in—it was a counter to Henry Luce of Time magazine that made a speech about this is the American century. Luce talks a lot like Hillary Clinton these days. So, Wallace countered with, “No, America should stand for the common man throughout the world.” He was very much an internationalist—women’s rights, labor rights, believed in—hated colonialism, hated the British Empire and all of what Winston Churchill was fighting for in World War II. They were enemies. Roosevelt agreed with a lot of them, but Roosevelt was sickening and weakening, and the country was becoming more fearful of postwar issues. Wallace hung in there, although he had been robbed of the vice presidency by a fixed convention in ’44. He hung in there as secretary of commerce under Truman for as long as he could, fighting for peace after the war. Of course, he was called a communist and all that stuff, but he was really a liberal. And—

AMY GOODMAN: He ran for president in 1948.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, as a third party.

AMY GOODMAN: But in ’44, he was knocked out, and Truman was the vice-presidential candidate of FDR.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, and Wallace was the most popular man in the—at the Democratic convention. He had 65 percent of the Democratic voters liked him. And he almost won that first night, but he was blocked. The convention was closed down. Fire exits were closed, or something like that. Truman had 2 percent of the vote. Truman was a nonentity who overnight became—and didn’t know much about what Roosevelt’s plans were. But the—the Grand Alliance—

AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of the ascension of Truman after FDR died in office?

OLIVER STONE: Yes. And he—

AMY GOODMAN: He is the one who dropped the bomb.

OLIVER STONE: Truman, within two weeks of becoming president after Roosevelt’s death, insulted the Soviet foreign minister. I mean, it was—within 11 days, our policy towards the Soviet Union shifted and stayed that way. And, you know, if you read all the revisionist historians who have written about this in depth, the United States took a hostile—Roosevelt had a vision, and it was a Grand Alliance between the Soviets and the British. Perhaps that was very hard to maintain. It takes a big man. Roosevelt was that kind of thinker. Wallace was. And we’re saying Kennedy was. And I urge you to rethink your—the fellow who said he was a warmonger, please, rethink Kennedy and look at everything here we’re talking about. This is a big issue. But we’ve lost that Grand Alliance. We’ve lost that—we’ve lost that leadership that’s bigger than simply ideological economic factions, is what we have in the United States. We’ve given in to what Peter called militarism, as you know very well.

AMY GOODMAN: When we come back from break, I want to ask you about this next chapter of American history, about surveillance and drones, about President Obama and where you think he stands, and also about this next project that you’ll be working on around Dr. King.

OLIVER STONE: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! We’re with Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest for the hour, three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter, Oliver Stone, did Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon and Wall Street and Salvador and JFK, as well as a 10-part series for Showtime called The Untold History of the United States, now out in DVD form with two extra chapters. Our guest also, Peter Kuznick, who co-wrote the book and worked—co-authored the series, a history professor at American University. Peter Kuznick, what this next chapter looks like today, what we are experiencing today in the United States?

PETER KUZNICK: It’s a continuation of the trends that Oliver and I were talking about from the 1890s up to the present. We had a lot of hope for Obama when he was elected in 2008. I guess we were somewhat naive, because Obama, rather than breaking with the patterns of American empire and American militarism, has continued most of them. Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary, said that this is actually George W. Bush’s fourth term that we’re experiencing now. And in some ways that’s true, and disappointingly so. Obama, from the beginning, surrounded himself with very, very conservative advisers. His economic team was considered — The New York Times called them a constellation of Rubinites, followers of Robert Rubin. His military team, his defense policy, foreign policy, were mostly hawks—people like Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, General Jones—and his policies have reflected that.

Oliver and I see him as simply a more efficient manager of the American empire, not somebody who’s breaking with the empire. He doesn’t even think in different terms. For example, he recently called for a 13-year commemoration of the Vietnam War, in which we’re going to reposition our understanding of the Vietnam War. And that’s very, very dangerous. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds now think that the Vietnam War was worth fighting, see the Vietnam War as an American interest. Those people our age, about 70 percent say the Vietnam War was a mistake or even worse. But the fact that younger people are not learning history and are seeing the Vietnam War in more positive light is symptomatic of what Oliver and are concerned about, that people’s understanding of history is distorted in such a way as to perpetuate the trends that we find very, very objectionable.

Video link. From November 5, 2013.

#oliver stone #democracy now #jfk #untold history of the united states #video #audio #amy goodman #peter kuznick

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humanuser0613 · 9 months ago

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OHHHHHHH I AM GLEEFULLY JOINING THIS CONVERSATION! 💃💃💃💃💃

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

Does it logically make sense for Bighit to force two people to interact?

(lots of links coming your way because of image limits 😜)

I saw people talking on my twt tl earlier about this and this narrative about how they're controlled and can't make their own decisions, ESPECIALLY, concerning their personal lives is such 🐮💩! So laughably crazy! So unhinged! It speaks more about the people who believe that trite 💩 (they're crazy, racist, brainwashed, delusional, and in need of therapy and a personality reset) because the answers are all over the internet, in the way the members speak about each other, the company, how BH has revealed how their training is different from other agencies, and in the relationships they've been able to develop with us, because they had the freedom to do so.

So saying that two members are forced to interact together in ways that make them uncomfortable, make the fans uncomfortable, results in so much hate that people cancel orders, or never purchase something, trend hateful (👈HATEFUL so click with caution) hashtags globally, make dts 💀 to the members and mass email the company to keep them away from each other is illogical and asinine.

Big Hit capitalizes on what already exists. (👈NEW LINK) Bang PD has spoken on this many times. They see their role as refining and presenting what's already there. The members have also spoken out about doing what they want to do and not doing fanservice. 👈 (Example here of what they mean)

Let's look at different things BH has done that are all about the fanservice:

Vope kiss

Yoongi paper game

Jhope in AHL

Rookie Kings

Know what they have in common??? THEY WERE PRODUCED BY OTHER PRODUCTION TEAMS FOR OTHER TELEVISION SHOWS! NOT JUST BH!

Cause when BH does fanservice 😭😭😭

WE GET THOSE DAMN BT21 CHEST COVER EMOJIS! 😓

We don't get the full story of jikook jumping together in ITS, or cuddling in ITS2, or we get so much of their ATV travels edited out, or we don't get video leading to the April Fool's Day jikook cuddle, or that tracing body lines Run! BTS game where Jungkook was blindfolded and in front of Jimin and ✂️✂️✂️!

If the agency was controlling all of their personal time then how come jikook never did a welive together in 2023? We know Jimin and Tae were at JK's apartment because Tae went live and Jimin was there, but they didn't go live ALL TOGETHER. We don't get all their selcas together either. 😮‍💨 When the fanservicing ISN'T servicing...

Here, Jin is wearing a shirt and we still got a damn emoji! WITH A SHIRT ON! WHAT FANSERVICE?!? And Again.

Inconsistent fanservice and certainly not the kinda thing that would make BH money as it's more likely to make fans upset - taekook example . (Actually I'm wondering if this account is gonna get suspended soon 🙄. I clicked on the tag to see if it was jjks doing it related to this topic and....well found some examples to include instead.)

Now we have taekook ITS where they repaired their relationship when Jimin brought Jungkook to Taehyung. That's something they would have needed to feel comfortable to do in front of cameras. And people saying it's scripted have never understood how much BTS shows us 👈(NEW LINK) of themselves. They have never accepted how much freedom the members truly have. (They've also never accepted reality a day in their lives, 🤡 but....moving on.)

Now let's talk about BE and Namjoon objecting to showing so much of the process to the fans... BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE SHIT THAT HAPPENS ONLINE. What we got were the BE interviews and behind the scenes meetings about the album (infamous kitchen meeting 👀).

Here we have an example of Jhope ASKING FOR THE CAMERA AND STATING HE'S GONNA MAKE A BANGTAN 💣. The significance of the staff just handing over expensive equipment for the BTS members to PLAY with should not be overlooked. It's not the first time. This is also significant because it shows how the members DIRECT THEIR OWN CONTENT.

Now if Korea is as homophobic as people say, then why do we get two men and one camera and aborted kissing maneuvers POSTED? How do these examples differ from Sana and Jihyo? Or these?

👉Sana and Jihyo are IN FRONT OF FANS 🪭 - key difference right there (yes, this is queerbaiting). The guys all act EMBARRASSED AF afterwards. Taejin and this kiss is PURE LOVE AND FUN. Tae is smiling and Jin reacts without getting mad at Tae, but still making it fun for fans.

Jikook make it fun for themselves. They don't react like they're embarrassed. Their smiles get bigger. (And they don't stop or become more careful not to repeat.)

NOW more of the BH side.

Times Article 2019

Vox article highlighting the differences in training between BTS and other groups.

HYBE T&D stories training and development YT vids

Another video

Another Time article with Bang

Me letting the man speak for himself 😌

Suffice it to say that anyone claiming how controlled the members are and that they don't have freedom or choices is full of 💩.

They were taught the importance of certain things, but left to make their own choices. They were treated as a mentor would treat a mentee and not as an autocrat would treat those under their control.

There's give and take, compromise, but if you hadn't noticed 👉 I'll tell you how the members talk about THEIR OWN EXPECTATIONS when it comes to their performances. That the members even give their own creative input into choreography, music, ad libs, lyrics, etc. They have their own lawyers and even their families that will fight for their interests and they're encouraged to use those resources to settle contracts with the company.

And there's precedent of other groups leaving their companies and remaining together - Girls' Generation, GOT7 (who are friends with BTS so if they wanted pointers, they had help ready and available). BTS could have taken this option if they felt oppressed, ignored, used, mistreated, unfairly given divided resources, disgusted with the fanservice, harassed by other members, or if they disliked each other.

Instead THEY decided to enlist together. THEY decided to stay together as a group. THEY decided not to promote as a group without a single member (minus the time Yoongi had surgery, but NO ONE sang his part). HELL THESE MEN ALL GO TO THE BATHROOM TOGETHER!!! Seriously inseparable. 😒

They agonized over continuing as a group with all the pressure they face multiples times. They all re-signed their contracts EARLY. AGAIN. They constantly talk about wanting to remain together as a group.

So why are we still at a point where people on this planet exist as if their eyes and ears are constantly closed? With the same lies becoming stale AF 🐮💩? IT'S 2024 ALREADY! LET THAT SHIT FLOW OUT OF YOU ALREADY! Excrete it. ❄️Let it go. 🧘‍♀️Raise yourselves to a higher plane of existence. Elevate your brains. Evolve your thinking. Become better humans.

Unless you're not actually humans capable of growth and intelligence. ✨👽 Then we should probably talk about permanent placements in better fitting fandoms. 🪤

I can't believe I'm even making this post especially in light of the buddy enlistment...but this topic has gotten so loud lately...

Is JIKOOK the company "ship"? Do TPTB at HYBE/BigHit want JK/JM to act "close" to each other for business/profit reasons?

Obviously I have seen them called this all over the internet, but I never really took the time to ponder this because it just seemed crazy to me. I can't imagine a company based in S. Korea would actively try to promote 2 men in what could be perceived as a romantic relationship.

Now subunits are one thing...kpop...BTS members...the company all know that fans like the bonds between group members just as much as the music. And the companies do play into that and promote it. We see that in BTS with all the different combos of interactions we see in Run episodes or during Bon Voyage...BTS themselves have said that they know the fans like to see them with xyz member. That is one thing, but that is not what I am talking about in this post.

I am talking about "ear sucking"..

I am talking about hickeys...

I am talking about thirst trap bday greetings...

I am talking about weLives from a home couch dedicated to one member...

Tokyo...

THIS...

I could go on, but you get the point.

We have seen jikook be close since debut...and visibly "differently close" since 2017 (imo). Can we believe that the company orchestrated things all of these years?

Is the fact that these things happened on camera or have been featured in books proof that it is all JK and JM acting to help promote their group? And if this is all a promotional act....why not have TK and JK involved too, especially with their popularity? Or why not have some of the other pairings do more interactions together? The company could capitalize on them too.

I am trying hard to not let my skepticism of this topic bleed in here, but it is a struggle. I still find this almost unthinkable...homophobia is real.

But I am hoping that I can have a real discussion about this....asks...comments...I'd love to hear thoughts.

#asinine #your word for the day #look it up #fanservice #BTS #bighit #new links #updated #blue is new

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getyourblisson · 2 years ago

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New Moon - April 20th, 2023

April 20th New Moon

The New Moon energy always magnifies our opportunities, and always favors what provides us with greater freedom, self-sufficiency, and possibilities. The choices that we make during this time will impact all of our existences. As a result, it is important that we pay extra attention to what we choose and do.

This New Moon may come with a few ruffled feathers. Overall, there is plenty of good fortune and success for us to tap into. It is a time where we really need to find ways to enjoy life more; and to be successful in those things that give positive experiences to us. It is a time where we will naturally magnetize to those that can be of benefit to us. This can be a great time to take a workshop or course; or to do something to expand your skills and wisdom, which also helps to nourish your creativity.

This is a time where people want to see what you are putting out in the world, and what you are creating. It is likely that you will gain not only success in things, but also will receive recognition where you are doing things with integrity and producing quality work. A little creative thinking and taking the time to see where things went wrong, will help to find solutions. If you are willing to correct where you misgauged things, then you will end up creating something even better than what you had started to do.

There is a strong amount of abundance and good fortune energy present in this New Moon. That shows that your efforts could pay off at this time; or that it could be a good time to plant the seeds for future success. This is a good time to be involved in things that support and nourish humanity, animals, and the Earth itself. Remember, that if you are having good fortune come your way; then it is important to share with those that are struggling to help themselves.

Observation will be the key to creating success with others. You may be called to be in some sort of leadership position, or be a leader for others in some way. The key is to be the inspiration for them. This is a time for us to set aside our differences, and to work together as a true team. Some just need someone to be the first one in action. However, the key is that we are all contributing our skills where we can; and learning from the skills that others are strong in. This is where true success comes from. It is about being in the process of what you are doing; and not just creating an end result.

I welcome you to find ways to enjoy life more; and to be successful with things that create positive experiences for you. What if doing this, naturally magnetizes those that can benefit you and help you with what you are doing?

I welcome you to correct the things that you have misgauged. What if this is where true solutions and success come from?

I welcome you to be involved in something that supports and nourishes humanity, animals and the Earth. What if this creates abundance not only within you, but around you?

I welcome you to embrace any leadership positions or roles that you find yourself in. What if others will also step up, if you are willing to just get things going?

The Code Journey ~ 2023 Edition

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hideyseek · 2 years ago

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11.14.2022

mmm it went fine i think. writing my way through does seem to be working — oh! the thing that happened today was i wrote some words, entirely in the more pantsing way that i’ve been doing. then journaled about how unsatisfied i was. then remembered that i am, actually, allowed to fuck around with the words i put on the page a little to make my life easier later when i edit. so i did that, and … the scene cohered a little. that was very pleasant!

idk i had so many feelings and experiences in the two hours between when i wrote today’s b it and now. and right now im eating a cream bun with decaf instant coffee so all my writing trials and tribulations are so insubstantial to me.

hmmm i think it’s fine. i finally broke 5k, which is honestly kind of a relief. like there is genuine like, change (or like “improvement” in that i am moving toward the way i would like to be writing, not that writing more is inherently better) from when i did this last in april. like i don’t feel burned out, i can help recenter myself by reminding myself i only need to focus on this arc. i can PRODUCE DECENT WRITING at a pace that is … honestly pretty fast for me. i just was not built to be one of those fic writers who can do 20k in a weekend, but like. words sure can happen and this seems to be pretty sustainable for a long-term pace, which is a big relief. we’ll see what happens when i get to the more intensive stage of actually revising, i suspect my pace will slow WAY down then because i’ll have to think so much all the time. but .. maybe not! maybe i will be so comfortable in the scope of a single scene that i will be able to make one pass through a scene each day. but whatever i’m getting ahead of myself. (i figure i’ll leave arc and sub/plot revision to weekends … i am not above taking a day off work to revise a character arc…!)

but okay wow. simply: time can bring so much perspective huh. wild how that works (thank god it works that way).

#hidey does nano 2022 #narrative!fic #ok back to my coffee and bread #im gonna buy shokupan this weekend im giving in

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canary3d-obsessed · 3 years ago

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Tutorial: Batch Creating Animated Gifs in Adobe Premiere

I figured out how to make gifs with Adobe Premiere and the results, surprisingly, do not suck ass.

Here’s a gif from photoshop. No effects or lighting etc, just resized to 540 width and exported with Selective Color & Diffusion chosen for export settings.

Here’s the same clip done with Premiere + Media Encoder, bypassing Photoshop entirely. I used the Animated Gif preset when exporting, and only changed the size.

They look pretty much the same to me, which is not something I’ve found from experiments in previous years. Edit after multiple additional experiments: the quality is not predictable. Premiere offers no options for dither or optimization of your gifs, so based on lighting, how strong your highlights are, etc, you can get results that have a lot of artifacts; dark indoor scenes with brightly lit actors seem especially bad. I’m finding about half of my gifs look good, and half have annoying white dots in them.

But this is all so fast that it’s worth doing anyway; worst case I’ve done my lighting mods in premiere, which is fast, and just have to export half of the mp4′s from photoshop for proper diffusion.

Why Use Cruel, Unfriendly Premiere?

Premiere has a steep learning curve, but it is full of good features. Good-quality batch GIF exporting is basically the holy grail of gif-related features, at least when your hobby is making giant shitposts full of gifs.

You also can use Premiere to apply the same lighting effects and whatnot to a series of clips. That’s a bit more advanced than this here tutorial, however. This here tutorial will show you everything you need to click in order to clip and export gifs from Premiere, without learning anything else about it.

Version

This tutorial is for Adobe Premiere 2021, Version 15.1.0, released around April 2021 and Media Encoder 2021, also version 15.1.0. It should be the same or similar for any newer versions, but older versions may not have these functions. Or they might have them but produce terrible gifs.

The Illustrated Steps Are Behind A Cut Because I’m Not An Asshole

The Steps

Note: These gifs are generally cropped to the relevant part of the workspace only, so you can see what I’m clicking.

1. Open a new file in Adobe Premiere and save it to somewhere sensible, not the stupid location that Premiere thinks you want to save files in. You’ll probably never open this file again once you’re done exporting, but you should still save it in case the power goes out while you’re clipping.

2. Switch to the Assembly workspace.

3. Right-click in in the media area and choose import media, or just drag an MP4 in from your file browser.

4. Drag the media to the timeline.

5. Unlink the audio and delete it, since it’s not needed for giffing.

5. Pick up the razor (Keyboard shortcut C) and get cutting. Go to the frame AFTER the break point, then cut on the line. You can use the right and left cursor keys to move between frames one at a time, if you don’t want to use the mouse to click like I’m doing here.

Use the bar at the bottom of the timeline to adjust its scale while you work. This only affects the visual interaction with the timeline, not the clip timing.

6. After you’ve snipped stuff, pick up your pointer (Keyboard shortcut V) to select individual clips. Delete the clips you don’t want by selecting them and clicking the delete key.

7. If you don’t like gaps, choose “close gap” from the Sequence menu.

For individual gaps (or clips) you can right click on a gap and choose “ripple delete” which deletes the gap and moves the next clip into place.

You don’t strictly need to know how to close gaps in order to make gifs, but if you want to combine two into one, this is useful.

The Magical Command

In order for it to export your clips correctly as single files, instead of as one big file, here’s the trick:

8. Use the “Make Subsequence” command. You have to do this individually for each clip that you want to batch export. Select the clip, right-click, and choose “make Subsequence.” (Note: earlier versions call this “nested sequence”)

You can also combine two clips into one by selecting them together and making them a subsequence.

9. To speed things up, define a hotkey for this command.

Here’s how fast it goes when you have a hotkey.

Export

10. When you’re done making subsequences, select all of the subsequences in the media area. That means all of the items in the media area except the first item (which is the original video file) and the second item (which is the entire timeline). Right-click and choose “Export Media.”

11. In the Export dialog, choose the “Animated Gifs” format - but don’t take the original resolution, because that will be huge. Set it to whatever you want it to be. Tumblr compression currently (in 2021) likes things to be 540 pixels wide. You can tweak a lot of other settings if you’re feeling adventurous.

12. Once you have your settings the way you want them for exporting, before you do anything else, save an export preset with these tweaks that you can use next time. Note: The preset will save the height as well as the width, so you can only use it unaltered if the next project has the same aspect ratio.

13. Click “Queue” to send everything to Media Encoder for baking. Always use “queue” instead of direct export, even if you’re only exporting one clip. (With multiple clips, queue is the only option).

Premiere seems to forget my export settings if I export directly from Premiere, but if I choose “queue” it hands everything off cleanly to Media Encoder.

14. Hop over to Media Encoder (it will autolaunch when you click Queue). You can change the export location of the files here by right-clicking the file names in the queue. Even better, you can tell Media Encoder to always export things to the same folder, so that Premiere’s save location doesn’t affect it. Go to Edit menu --> Preferences to set this up.

15. Once the queue is loaded up in Media Explorer, click the green “play” icon to export the clips.

You can also set ME preferences to automatically run the queue after x minutes if you, like me, frequently forget to click “play” after queuing things.

16. While the queue is running, go back to Premiere and do another export; this time use the H.264 encoding preset to export (via the M.E. queue) a set of full-size MP4′s.

This way if any of your gifs look bad, you can use the MP4′s in photoshop to make better ones, or just store them for later adventures.

And that’s it! Happy giffing!

Bonus: Look at these dorks

#tutorial #canary3d-original #gifmaking #with a little wenzhou as a treat #adobe premiere

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chouhatsumimi · 3 years ago

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Hi! I am trying to become a japanese to English (& vice versa) translator. I can't find any sources to check the English to Japanese translation. It is difficult to get which grammar must be used since I am not a japanese native and don't know any natives to ask either. I have studied till N2 level but have no experience and must start freelancing to get experience so I need to figure out how to translate on my own. I can only use free translation software but I am not sure about it's reliability. I have seen questionable translations when it's for Japanese to English. Do think you can give any suggestions or anything that might be helpful?

Hi! I did put in a little time searching for the kind of tools you might have had in mind.

It seems that there are many that function in the exact same way but have different interfaces. Here are two of them. Many others can be found by searching "日本語文章校正ツール" or similar keywords. https://dw230.jp/kousei/

https://so-zou.jp/web-app/text/proofreading/

While they can point out some things to look out for, from the testing I did with them, they overlooked some pretty obvious errors, while also catching some things that I couldn't figure out why it thought it was wrong/sounded bad, or how to fix it.

There was one more I found that I didn't try, because it involves downloading software. This page explains the software, and another page on the site offers the download. The webpage is sponsored by a university, so I think it's safe to assume its trustworthy, but it might be a hassle and I can't say for sure if it works.

https://www.pawel.jp/outline_of_tools/tomarigi/

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

That said, it's most common for translators to work from one language INTO their native language. While interpreters often have to go both directions (J <--> E), translators typically work either (J -> E) [English native speakers] OR (E -> J) [Japanese native speakers]. If you grew up bilingual, maybe you can translate both ways. But if English is your native language and you learned Japanese as a second language (which is true of my situation), it's pretty much not going to be worth bothering to do E->J translation, unless there are extenuating circumstances. The reasons for this are 1) You can't be sure that the translation you produce reads smoothly or is error-free 2) While you might think, but yes, if I do a really thorough check and compare it against native Japanese examples, I can be pretty darn sure it's perfect, the amount of time it takes you to do that is not going to be cost-effective. Like anything else, people purchasing translation as a service usually want the end result to be done well, in a timely manner, and as cheaply as possible, so it doesn't make sense to hire you for E -> J when they could hire a native Japanese speaking translator, or send their work to an agency to find that translator for them.

If you ARE translating into Japanese and are not a native speaker of Japanese, it is a good idea to have a fellow translator who has the opposite native language you do (in this case Japanese & English), and ask them to check it over for you (which, considering that's part of their job, you'd probably pay a small fee for). They could do the same to have you proofread their translations into English. Some translators consult friends/spouses, etc., but I think this can get old for them sometimes, so it's advisable not to rely on them for your job. You mentioned not having any native speakers to ask right now, but this is still an idea you can file away for in the future when you meet more people and get to know other translators.

In short, if you're aiming to become a translator working with Japanese but are not a native Japanese speaker, don't worry about translating into Japanese. Just focus on translating from Japanese into your native language.

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Translation software: let me make a distinction here between "machine translation" and "CAT [computer aided translation] tools".

Machine translation is Google Translate, DeepL, anything like that. There are times when they work well, but particularly with a language like Japanese that likes to imply a lot of information instead of stating it directly (such as who is doing the action described in the sentence), they're pretty much always going to miss something. In any situation that someone is looking to pay a translator to do work, it's because they already know machine translation won't cut it. One thing that's becoming more common is MTPE (machine translation post editing), where a translator "fixes" what's wrong with a machine translation (or more often than not, just re-translates it from scratch because what the machine came up with is mostly useless).

CAT tools, on the other hand, are widely used by translators. Paid CAT tools such as Trados, MemoQ, Memsource, etc. can be very expensive, and are often provided by a translation agency to their translators. (Also, most of them require a PC operating system.) There's more I could say, but since I haven't been in any situations that require them, I don't have any personal experience. I do have experience using OmegaT (free, works on Mac) and Felix (free, I use it on Windows). They both take a little tinkering to figure out how to use effectively, but basically what they do is, once you've translated a segment of text, they store the original segment and the translated segment, and for each new segment you go to translate, the CAT tool compares it to segments that you've previously translated to see if you can re-use any of what you came up with before. They can also have a built-in dictionary function, but that's basically just having your typical web-based dictionary but more automatically and in a more convenient location.

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

For going into freelancing, I have a few recommendations.

Apart from CAT tools, some resources that I refer to frequently are http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?9T (basically looks up all the words in a sentence at once), http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/ (if you're doing anything with sound effects, like manga), https://tsukubawebcorpus.jp//search/ (this is a corpus, I have another post on how to use it -here-, it's probably going to be your best bet when it comes to checking grammar), https://books.google.com/ngrams (for when it comes to figuring out what turns of phrase are commonly used in English), and https://yomikatawa.com/ (for figuring out the readings of names in Japanese, though there are other sites that work similarly).

When it comes to practicing, contests are a good place to start. The two I know of now are run by JAT in October (https://jat.org/events/contests) and JLPP deadline of 7/31 (and they're long, so it's probably too late for this year unless you're free between now and then: https://www.jlpp.go.jp/en/competition6/competition6en.html ) You can also practicing doing translations for fun. Any kind of media you enjoy (manga, video games, variety shows, newspaper articles) is a good target for doing a practice translation. Just be wary that it's not a good idea to post your translation in a public location on the internet, because it could be infringing copyright/licensing agreements, etc. Finally, there are websites like Gengo, Conyac, Fiverr and others where you can do gig translation work. They can be useful for practice, but also have the pitfall of paying, like, 5% of the rate you should be getting. This is an ongoing debate because on one hand, you can get practice while still getting a little money for it, but on the other hand, if customers can get people to do that work for 5% of a livable wage, that makes it harder for aspiring and working translators to find enough work that pays well enough to support themselves doing only translation for a living. Entertainment (primarily manga) scanlation groups also a significant enough force to merit a mention here- many aspiring entertainment translators find themselves a part of such a group. Practice is practice and developing your skills is important, but they also have many many of the same problems associated with them as I mentioned above, namely infringing on copyright and contributing to the inability of anyone to turn entertainment translation into a livable full-time job.

Another recommendation I have is to join some J/E translation-focused groups. This page lists a number of them: https://shinpaideshou.com/translation/ I can personally vouch for JAT as I am a member and I got my current job by being part of their directory. They run an online training program (eJuku) once a year around April, and applications only stay open for a few days, so if you're interested make sure you keep your eye out. Another one not listed on that page is https://swet.jp/ which is not entirely about translation, but it is heavily related and they host some good events. Twitter is also a very good place to be if you're getting into J/E translation. I prefer to keep my tumblr and twitter separate but if you DM me, I can give you my handle so you can see who I follow and who among that seems worth following to you.

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In closing, I see you say "I have studied till N2 level but have no experience and must start freelancing to get experience so I need to figure out how to translate on my own." I'd say, give yourself some time. Even at N1 there's still going to be a lot you don't understand (or at least there was for me, that's why I started this langblr). I'm sure there are differences in our situations, but it was about five years ago for me that I started diving into translation- I think I was between N2 and N1 then. I've done a lot of translating and gotten a lot of experience since then, but I also have and am experiencing a lot of burnout. (In fact, I'm procrastinating right now by answering this....) Many translators have a job and translate on the side, and it's also common to gain experience with a company or agency before diving into supporting yourself on freelance work. I'd encourage you to take a breath, get experience when and where you can, and remember that if you keep at it long enough, you're sure to get there- just don't wear yourself out or worry to death in the meantime!

OH and definitely keep track of what projects you do, how long they are, and how long it takes you to do them! Knowing your speed is important when it comes to setting your working rates. I am always doubting these, and they differ from person to person, but my current estimates are that I can do 600 moji (Japanese characters) per hour, ~10 min. of audio per hour, and I try to aim for $45~$60 per hour. Generally the lowest acceptable standard rates are $0.05-$0.06 per moji and ~$5 per page of manga. You'll definitely get requests lower than that, so remember your sanity and don't be afraid to say no, there are plenty of opportunities out there!

#translation #Japanese translation #nanikanamae #JE translation #a day in the life of translation #day in the life of translation #if you or anyone has questions feel free to ask #I am absolutely swamped with things to do right now and this probably took over an hour to write so it might not be soon but I will see it

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spicyvampire · 3 years ago

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EVERY MONTH OF 2021 : MOST POPULAR/FAVORITE POSTS

Share your most popular and/or favorite posts from each month of 2021 (it’s okay to skip months)!

I was tagged by @liyazaki & @laowen thank you for tagging me! I might cheat a little and put more than one fav posts cuz usually I like the stuff I make a lot and can’t choose also let’s be real most of these are gonna be MoD/Woh and/or TDJ also sorry this is very long I might have gotten out of hand and also I did not reread this so goodluck

JANUARY : Most popular is “People are gay stevens” [x] which is valid but my favs of that month are “Truly there is a lot of ways to take care of someone” [x] cuz truly hilarious that Tan fell in love with Bunn and started protecting him in his quest of the truth instead of actually scaring him off the quest which is what I’m pretty sure is what Pued asked him to do and “Honey! where is my gun?!” [x] cuz Bunn is a dumbass why would he do that

FEBRUARY : Most popular “The sandwich saga” [x] of Leverage which is very funny indeed also I’m sure if Hardison asked for a sandwich Eliot would make it for him with a lot of love and my fav is of course a MoD post and it’s my boys coming back from the death in a very surprise bitch u thought u saw the last of me way to talk to Rung [x]

MARCH : Most popular “Sirs??? This is a McDonalds drive-trough??” [x] Shi De and Shu Yi powershifting of failed office sex of forgiveness in the 2nd season of WBL and my fav is “Can I offer you an egg in this trying time?” [x] YMMD’s obsession with eggs was frankly hilarious cuz I’m also kinda obsessed with eggs but that’s a story for another day I guess

APRIL : Most popular is “Red eyeshadow and black eyeline Lao Wen my beloved” [x] rightfully so cuz he is indeed my beloved and my fav post is “Ah Xu is the magic word” [x] very self explanatory from WoH really he is the magic work even for me, but also “This is 90% of their conversation” [x] aka Bunn being bitchy to M their cat and dog relationship is always funny in MoD

MAY : Most popular is “Lao Wen cannot resist his Ah Xu” [x] literally who wouldn’t be weak in front of that face? and my favs are actually very hard to choose cuz during that month I started experimenting with gradients & fonts & colors and started finding who I was as an editmaker (sure I can be funny but sometimes I need to be ready to tap into the emotional state I’m feeling reading a text that I wanna put in an edit and trusting my instincts yadi yada) more than a gifmaker and I’m very proud of most of my first edits my fav is/could be any of those 3 WoH posts [x] [x] [x] or this MoD post [x]

JUNE : Most popular is “Alexander, I’m fine.” [x] the start of the gifing Malec and I can understand it being popular as it is an important scene for their relationship & frankly one of my favs of them because I tend to do what Magnus did in that scene yadi yada self identification & introspection and my favs posts are the 2 WoH pride month posts about Wenzhou’s hate [x] and love [x] languages and again these are a little funny but let’s be real there is emotions hiding in this

JULY : Most popular is “Creative.” [x] Leverage we love an ot3 being sexy & saving each other and my fav post is “The little love story between xiao Yuzhen’s hand and Leilei’s face” [x] guess we are touching the touch starved part of the winter & pandemic which explains this one there but if u asked me this during summer I’d probably say it’s “Dumbass.gif” [x] xiao Yuzhen exhibiting brainless behavior

AUGUST : Most popular was the confused by thelepathie Kurosawa gifset [x] and my fav is Bunn + my brainrot gifset [x] because it’s truly is just producing all the reaction image of Bunn I wished existed with a mix of old Vines/funny videos and new tumblr/internet sayings truly just my brainrot and frankly what I learned to make gifs for

SEPTEMBER : Most popular is Yohan slamming Gaon into anything and everything [x] I mean huh yeah 👀 😳 and my fav is that very long MoD//TDJ parallel post [x] and Tan’s titties influence [x] (not mines but Tan Wirapong aafvdhfghjgfdf)

OCTOBER : Most popular is Leverage OT3 [x] of course and my fav.. ugh again it’s hard to choose for that month cuz I produced a lot of stuff that I think are good I think it’s the month where I really started to find my identity as a editmaker and leaned more into it also it was my first year anniversary as a gifmaker yadi yada emotions and who u are and so on so it could be any of these 5 posts MoD fav characters the ladies [x] & Halloween post [x] the MoD//WoH//TDJ [x] one which is still my pinned post from TDJ Sunah my beloved [x]

NOVEMBER : Most popular is “When you are in love with an idiot so you gotta baby proof your whole kitchen” [x] don’t think the best way to use ur head is to knock it in stuff mate and my favs well that month was the one that was leading to me saying goodbye to MoD at the end of it after gifing MoD for an entire year and it was kinda emotional for me because I was losing this thing that had been constant in my life for the past year every monday so a lot of my fav edits were emotional (well emotional for me anyways) we have “Start Here” [x] The TGD quote [x] the last one less emotions and more funny but yeah “Fuck it” [x] but even if they aren’t MoD related they were emotional TDJ "Do not fall in love with people like me" [x] which I love dearly

DECEMBER : Most popular is “Get you a man who will kill people for you without hesitation” [x] manslaughter is sometimes a solution and my fav posts is “#HateWins” [x] because it was produced out of horniness and that’s hilarious

Bonus JANUARY 2022 : If for some reasons I don’t do this next year I already know my fav post of this month is “Yok has a lot of skills, some of them are not like the others” [x] I frankly do think I might have peaked on this one like that’s insane I have not loved one of my posts like this in a while I’ve been staring at it for 3 days hence the reason why I’ve self reblogged it like 5 times already I am Narcissus and that gifset is my pond

Tagging : idk who has done this yet or not but @magnusedom @thelaziestmotherfucker @sunsetandthemoon @yohankang @badprophetvx @pran-pat @pavel-chekovs @intricatecakes @mymycorrhizae @punnweir no pressure to do this or put all that explication I put in, I was just feeling very chatty when I started filling up these for some reasons, also this can be gifs/art or text posts really idk why I focus on gifs but anyways that's it bye

#gifmaker tag

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thepermanentrainpress · 3 years ago

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THE PERMANENT RAIN PRESS INTERVIEW WITH NICK MARINI

Actor Nick Marini has been part of some cool projects over the years – musical comedy Hit the Road (opposite Jason Alexander and Amy Pietz), Netflix’s acclaimed Cobra Kai, and now the psychological thriller Night Night. With a tagline like ‘the truth will haunt you,’ viewers know they’re in for a wild ride. The film is the feature directorial debut for fellow artist/filmmaker Niki Koss, and produced by her multi-platform production company K Factor Films.

We chatted with Nick about the complexities of his character Robert and time on-set, being in the Karate Kid universe and constant fan support, catching a bug for working behind the camera, and lessons from co-stars Alexander and Pietz.

Thank you! My mom helped my brother surprise me all the way from New York! When he walked into her kitchen I teared up. We all had a lovely day thanks to the work of those two and my grandmother.

The night prior, you got to celebrate the premiere of Night Night with the cast and crew in California. How was it getting to reunite with everyone, and do the ‘red carpet thing’ again? (we even saw there was film-branded wine?!)

Yes the wine was flowing! It’s always nice to be able to celebrate with everyone. I missed a few lovely people but we were fortunate we had an outdoor space to gather. Was wonderful getting to see our work pre-pandemic finally come to fruition!

You star as Robert Mitchel. What drew you to this script and narrative?

I was told about the project by the amazing Theresa Picciallo who produced and edited the film. I actually was offered the role of Robert while flying across the Pacific Ocean with two days to prepare, so that challenge alone was enticing. It was a type of role I haven’t gotten to explore, so I leaped at the chance.

It’s a psychological thriller, which is often emotionally demanding of artists (and all involved in a production). Is this a genre that you enjoy being a part of as an actor, and as a viewer?

I enjoyed the demands of the genre very much. The nuance that comes with psychological horror is an exciting razor edge to try and balance on. I think the language of cinema really lends itself to the genre and that’s something I appreciate both as an actor and a viewer.

Tell us about your character. We know there was a short turnaround time for you after getting the part, but did you do any preparation for this role, or draw any inspiration from existing characters in film/TV?

Robert is a complicated guy, he has a lot going on, I don’t want to say too much but it was a fun role to tackle. As far as prep, with the limited time, I really just trusted my gut and jumped in. That said, I definitely had a trajectory I was imagining, I wanted to play into the genre and try and justify anything I was doing from multiple angles or viewpoints. I never wanted us to quite know his motivations.

Brenna D’Amico stars as the lead, April Davis. What can you say about Brenna’s performance and being able to share scenes together?

Brenna is a wonderful scene partner. She lights up any room she is in and was a constant fount of energy and positivity. She took her role as lead seriously, both as an actress and a leader, and it was a pleasure getting to work with her.

This is Niki Koss’ feature directorial debut. How long have you known Niki, and what was your experience working with her behind the camera, and her vision for this story?

This was my first time meeting or working with Niki. I never auditioned for Robert, and as a result felt like I was really trusted to just go out there and work, and not have any preconceived notions of what I ‘needed’ to do. That really freed me up make my own decisions and then just work with Niki to make sure she was getting what she needed for the film. It felt very collaborative which is a wonderful feeling for an actor to have.

Was it a collaborative set? If yes, how so?

Yes! I felt very trusted with the character, which in turn allowed me to really feel comfortable pushing my boundaries. As a troupe the actors all really trusted one another and so we were able to work incredibly well together.

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What is your favourite behind the scenes memory from your time filming Night Night?

I took one of my days off to see some family and my cousin showed me a song his daughter, Alaina, had written. It just seemed to fit the vibe of the film so perfectly and I was able to get her in touch with production who agreed! So there are not 1 but 2 Marini’s who worked on this film!

What do you hope viewers take away from this film?

Don’t mix pills and alcohol!

You starred in Netflix’s Cobra Kai as Twig, revealed to be a young Terry Silver. Tell us about the impact this part has had in your life and career since Season 3’s release last January. What has the fan support meant to you?

The fans have been amazing! They are so dedicated and respectful, and it has really been an incredible experience being a part of Cobra Kai. Terry Silver is a beloved character, so having the chance to show a different side of him was both exhilarating and terrifying. I felt truly honored to be trusted with the roll.

What was your experience working with Barrett Carnahan and Seth Kemp, as a young John Kreese and Ponytail, respectively?

So much fun! We get along incredibly well. They really brought it to the couple episodes we got to do together. I think a lot of people really didn’t see the reveal coming in large part due to the work those two put in!

I know you likely can’t say if a return was filmed, but would you be open to a return in Season 4 for any flashback scenes now that it’s official Thomas Ian Griffith is reprising his role (from Karate Kid III).

I can’t comment on that! Anything I get to do in such an amazing universe I’d jump on.

You filmed Audience’s Hit the Road in Vancouver a few years back. What memories do you have from your time in Canada and Vancouver specifically?

It was my first time as a series regular on a show, and getting to have that experience with a legend like Jason Alexander at the helm was such a dream. We felt like a little family and it’s an experience I will never forget. When we filmed the scene I did for my audition, I ended meeting my incredible partner Maddie Phillips, so Hit the Road plays a huge role in my life for many reasons.

You worked on that series with legends like Jason Alexander and Amy Pietz, what lessons did you learn (or advice they gave you) that has stuck with you as an actor today?

They are such pros. What we do on camera is important, and they crush that aspect of things obviously, but how we treat others off camera is equally if not more important. Watching the two of them navigate things that I was totally new to, with such grace and kindness really had a lasting impact on me.

You directed Dopico’s “Too Much TV” music video; tell us about this project, and working with Madeleine and the team.

It was my first foray into directing and will not be my last! Dopico is a dear friend and getting to help her on this video was a blast. I learned so much during the shoot and definitely caught the bug.

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Are you hoping to do more behind the scenes work in the future, such as more directing, writing or producing?

Absolutely. I have a lot of ideas that tend to simmer in my mind for a long time. It feels like many of them are ripening and I cant wait to get them on to paper or filmed and start running with them!

Aside from The Funk Hunters (Vancouver represent!), who are some musicians you’re listening to on your fall playlist?

Funk Hunters for life!!! I listen to a lot of throwbacks, but I’ve been rocking out to Remi Wolf, Cory Wong, Story Slaughter, and obviously Dopico!

Our signature questions – if you could be any ice cream flavour, which would you be and why?

Hmmm... I’d go mint chip, the white kind, so you can’t tell it’s minty till you taste it. I like things that are more than they seem.

Thank you to Nick for taking the time to chat with us about your intriguing new film, Cobra Kai and Twig, and more! You can follow Nick on Instagram to connect with his upcoming work.

Night Night (K Factor Films) is available to watch on demand.

Photo credit of first image to: Hernan Rodriguez (photographer) and Rick Goldsmith (assistant)

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spnfanficpond · 4 years ago

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Alpha Reader Program - April 2021

Our alpha and mentee from March are plugging right along with their fic, and we can’t wait to see what they produce! In the meantime, it’s time to start setting up for April!

Our alpha reader for April is @deanwinchesterswitch!

If you are a Pond member and are interested in working with this month’s alpha reader, everything you need to know about signing up is below the cut!

Click here to find out exactly what an alpha reader is!

Here’s how the program works.

(Everything is subject to change as we go if we find things that aren’t working out. If you have any suggestions, let us know!)

Below, you will find information from the alpha for this month. This information should help you determine if this month’s alpha is someone you could work with.

If you are interested in working with this alpha, you will fill out this application form. (Pond members only. Joining is easy! Check out the Start Here link!)

Only the Pond admins will be able to see your username. The alpha will not know who you are. We hope this brings together people who maybe wouldn’t otherwise find each other, so this application process will be blind.

Based on the application information, the alpha will pick a mentee. Only after the mentee is chosen will the alpha know who they have chosen.

The pair will decide if they want a list of prompts to choose from, or if they want to work on a story idea the mentee has had on the back burner.

Together, they will create beautiful words.

The mentee will post their work on their own blog and submit it to the Pond for posting and to be added to the Program masterpost.

If there are any questions or concerns throughout, @mrswhozeewhatsis will be the point person/mediator!

Story requirements/parameters:

Must be SPN fan fiction.

All ships/pairings/kinks/genres allowed. The only restrictions are those set by the alpha and the mentee.

Use a Keep Reading cut if your story is more than 500 words.

Tag your story with the appropriate trigger warning tags and list them in the author’s note.

Our preferred header format is here.

There is no minimum or maximum word count for this. We don’t expect a novel, but hope for a one-shot.

The story idea MUST be something the mentee has not written or posted, yet. Ideally, to get the most out of this experience, the mentee will only have a couple of sentences about a vague idea, at most. We will provide a list of prompts if you like.

We would prefer that this not be Part 1 of a series. We don’t want to ask the alpha to commit to something larger than a one-shot. If the idea turns into more, and the mentee is willing to continue without the alpha, or the alpha is willing to continue working on the story after the month is done, then that is up to the alpha and the mentee.

Use the hashtag #alpha reader program when you post your story and tag the @spnfanficpond, your alpha reader, and @mrswhozeewhatsis.

And now, a bit about our alpha for this month:

What is your username?

@deanwinchesterswitch

Are you a writer, yourself?

Yes

Are you an experienced beta? (Have you beta read for more than five people, reading more than one story for at least 1 of them?)

Yes

What is your turnaround time for a typical one-shot? (This will not be a typical situation, but this answer will give everyone an idea of how long to give you after they send you something.)

2-3 days

On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being “English is my second language,” and 5 being, “I have a degree in English or professional editing experience,” how confident are you with your grammar skills?

What time zone are you in?

US Central

Is there anything you won't read? Ships/pairings, smut, non-con, dub-con, slash, AU, etc.

I won't read(beta) non-con, any angel or archangel ships, or a/b/o(because I don't know enough about it to genuinely help)

On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being “Please don’t make me drink the demon blood again,” and 5 being, “Easier than Dean’s pie,” how comfortable would you be checking for story elements such as continuity errors, characterization, and canon compliance?

Brainstorming ideas will require you both to be free at the same time. When is the best time for you?

I work full-time during the week, so evenings and weekends are typically best.

How long of a story are you willing to read for this project?

Up to 50,000 words.

Do you use Google Docs?

Yes

Please write a couple of sentences to give writers a feel for your style and approach to alpha reading. For example, what is your main focus when it comes to storytelling (i.e. details, feelings, actions)? Are you willing to help with flow or pacing? If a writer is having trouble with a certain sentence, are you willing to offer rewording/restructuring suggestions? Do you feel comfortable offering notes on the story if you feel like something is missing or needs more work?

I like to read through the entire fic/chapter first to get a feel for the story; then, I’ll go back and start making suggestions and giving feedback. I am willing to help the writer with whatever they need. Details are what I typically focus on first and foremost, then feelings.

What do you feel your weaknesses are when writing or alpha reading? For example, do you have trouble with dialogue or action scenes? Is there a particular grammar aspect you have trouble with?

Writing smut. I can envision it and help critique scenes to ensure they are feasible, but I struggle with writing it. Sometimes tense can trip me up.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I am an Oxford comma proponent, so if you're not, let me know up front.

There you go! If you are interesting in working with our alpha this month, go fill out this application here and we will let you know if you are chosen!

If you have any questions or suggestions about the program, please send an ASK to the inbox or a private message to @mrswhozeewhatsis!

#alpha reader program

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dansnaturepictures · 3 years ago

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Quick note about a change of format to my end of year wildlife/photography highlights of the year blogs

People I have known for a long time on Twitter and Tumblr may recall that at the end of the year I always do a series of blogs exploring my highlights of the year and marking the year that has just unfolded in my wildlife and photography hobby. What many won’t know as much it that I write the blogs up over the course of the year, getting into a pattern year on year of starting as early as March/April and adding to the various highlights after each wildlife/photography trip from a certain point in the year onwards or this year with working from home and all the extra wildlife/photography trips on lunch breaks and in evenings making additions weekly on a weekend morning.

With the photos I produce on days going up and up and me branching out into other areas of wildlife a lot I have found over the past few months whilst laying the foundations for the 2021 edition of the highlights blogs, which I already expanded to fifteen themes from the usual ten based on working from home still and all the extra things to write about, this has taken up quite a bit of time and has started to feel a little chore like, and like I was repeating information already posted about to go out at a later date. Over the years whilst I have immensely enjoyed creating and sharing the highlights blogs, I do think they have got a bit long. So with whilst I don’t know how much or whether I will continue working from home going forward, signs that my high photo yields and multi bands of my interest being something that seems here to stay, I have decided to revamp the highlights blogs and make them a more reflective and concise exploration of the highlights and key points of my wildlife and photography year in December.

I shall detail the new format below, however since March this year I have spent considerable time writing up 12 so far of the intended highlights posts in the usual format for this December. I do not want these to go to waste and do want the format to have a swansong, but whilst I am still working from home daily the time it takes to contribute to the blogs on the days is heightened so I do need one less thing to do which not writing up and making notes to write up the bits each evening will allow for immediately. So in December and due to amount actually the tail end of November too this year is my plan it will be a hybrid highlights blogs, the 12 blogs (and some of them have part one and two so are the same theme) in the old format charting experiences in my year from January to early August, then (as I’ll still probably write up these new posts each November or bits of spare time from the summer onwards and time to go out) some of (eight maximum) the new format of things that happened August-November. There may be some currently shorter bogs where I combine the two a little. Plus the usual introduction blog on the first night which will also explain.

So in the new format I will strip it back to basics of what I wanted to do when I first had the idea to do blogs on my ten highlights of my wildlife and photography year in 2013. From next year, I will do ten blogs in which I will mention ten key moments of my year on a different theme. The themes will mostly be an area of my interest so birds, butterflies, mammals, flowers, etc. with also a summary of holidays that year and one for ten key day trips and there may be different themes year to year. Within the blogs it will just be a little bit of text about each highlight/moment, a picture I’ve taken in the photoset corresponding to it or for some a picture from the same day if more applicable (I may see a rare bird and have it as a moment and not photograph it for example), and also a link to the or a daily blog I did about the moment at the time. In addition, I will also have a summary/my wildlife and photography year in numbers type highlughts blog that may say some of the key themes etc. of the year and will definitely have summaries of how my bird and butterfly year lists went comparing to previous years, key themes and journeys and also the list of my key bird and butterfly species seen that year possibly mimicking the wildlife sightings summary in my daily blog more. I don’t want to make this too long and these are the main two year lists of mine so will spark most for me to talk about but there is potential for it branch into my other year lists. This is one of the bits I enjoy doing most in the highlight blogs each year and a bit I think I can keep concise.

These eleven posts will be alongside my end of year photo tweets on Dans_Pictures with four of my favourite photos across categories that I took that year which I do in December.

So like I said at the end of this year, it’ll be twelve with some quite long posts about different highlights of my year then eight with this new format, I shall just call them Wildlife/Photography highlights posts and not specify a number. But for the twelve original format ones I will call them The story of... and the other eight will say 10 key or 10 standout... to vary things maybe.

This feels very much like when I ended the highlights blogs’ former Twitter partner my photo of the year and week choosing in 2017 in that it was becoming chore like and taking up a lot of time. However for these what is playing on my mind slightly is each December I am humbled by the interactions I get during these. So for the latter half of this year’s posts and going forward I will still call them my Wildlife/Photography highlights blogs of the year for those that may enjoy this and that’s why and with me being how I am too and liking to send the years out with a bang and reflect they had to stay in some format. I hope the new format allows me to be more considerate of my year to help me remember it even more rather than just chucking endless bits of text together late at night after a busy evening of processing and uploading photos. I am clear that working from home every day heightens what I have now, but prior to that the photo yields increasing and exploring other areas of nature were happening maybe just to a slower rate and I felt for years the highlights blogs were getting a bit long and repetitive to my daily blogs. So I think if in 2022 I was to be back in the office fully, this format change would still be useful. I think this move shall also make me able to perhaps pump more time into my daily blogs and consider different ways to write things or even on busy nights whether I need to do them the same night etc. as I still love and am inspired by doing this and can possibly free up time for more wildlife/photography posts on subjects other than what I saw on my day in bits of downtime.

Thanks once again for all your support for my posts, photos and tweets.

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crazy-loca-blog · 4 years ago

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Personal thoughts on… 2020 releases (Part I)

Note: As the title says, these are just personal opinions on Choices books and chapters. Of course, you may agree or disagree with them, I only use this platform to express my thoughts on what I read every week.

So, I did this in 2019 and I had a blast doing it (you can see Part I, Part II, Part III and the Seasonal Books reviews), so I thought about repeating the experience because… why not? Of course, I had planned to post this during the holidays but my job barely let me some free time to eat and sleep. Better later than never, I guess.

In 2019, we read over 30 books and it was the busiest year for Pixelberry in terms of releases so far. During 2020, things changed A LOT. We didn’t have as many releases and the stories seemed to have a new focus, especially the romance ones. We said “goodbye” to the wedding books and welcomed some 30 diamond scenes that were at a whole new level. We also had many hiatuses and some books were so long that it seemed like we spent the whole year reading them.

This will be a three-part post and I will include current releases and books that were released during 2019 but were finished in 2020. The list is organized in alphabetical order, and it doesn’t include the VIP Books (as I’ll talk about them in a fourth post). The only books I will be skipping will be Desire & Decorum: First Winter and Bloodbound: Dark Solstice, as they’re seasonal books that I fully covered in the 2019 review.

America's Most Eligible: Wedding Edition (September 18, 2019 - January 22, 2020): As a person who really enjoyed the first AME book, I already thought it was unnecessary to have a second book. I mean… reality shows are repetitive, so why would we have two books that were exactly the same? Little did I know this series was so popular that we ended up having a third book with a wedding after dating our LI for like two months (because we did need another one last wedding book, right?). There were too many things that didn’t make sense to me. My MC never had a good relationship with Slater, so having him as part of my wedding party was annoying, I would have preferred to have Teagan on my side. Also, despite the fact that we finally got to know Ivy’s background and why she was so evil throughout the series, competing against her (and Vince) all over again was exhausting… I would have definitely preferred a normal wedding diary show or something like that. And last but not least, the fact that Jen was working on the show while being a competitor was so… I don’t think this is actually possible in a real TV show. But the award to the weirdest moment goes to what happened to those people who left their LI’s at the altar and married Bianca or Slater instead. Yeah, because after that super heartbreaking moment, Jen takes the MC, Adam, Derek and Mackenzie to the producer's room to watch some “never seen before” footage about their friendship throughout the series…. because of course… there is nothing weird about seeing your ex there, right after dumping them in the middle of the wedding. This series was good enough to deserve a way more decent ending. Baby Bump, Book 1 (December 9, 2019 - March 16, 2020): My overall impression about this book is “meh”. Even though a lot of people complained about how the pregnancy was shown, I think the writers did a pretty decent job. The experience is different for every woman, so I think that criticizing the focus the writers decided to give to our MC’s experience is just pointless and saying “it’s not realistic” is a little unfair. The same thing applies to the baby. A lot of people complained saying that the baby was “too big”. Guess what guys… that isn’t the actual baby, that’s just the cover of the book… if you buy the “baby basket”, you’ll get the right baby size throughout the story. As a personal opinion, I think the story has some good things (I really like the fact that it shows how hard is for pregnant women to get and to keep a job, even though the fact that the MC hid her pregnancy is very unprofessional, to say the least) but there are some things that make me feel uncomfortable. First of all… our gang. I like the characters as individuals, but when I look at them as a gang, the only thing that Luisa, Myles and Clint have in common is the MC… I don’t know what they’d talk about if they were in a room without her. There is also this very personal POV on dating Myles… I mean… maybe it’s just me, but it is kind of uncomfortable to see Myles dating a pregnant woman who actually got pregnant after a one night stand with the other guy in our gang (or with the only guy in the gang, if your Myles is a female). Baby Bump, Book 2 (November 20, 2020 - present): Well, if you collected every single piece of the blanket in Baby Bump Book 1, you already had little glimpses about this book. Our very pregnant woman not only discovered that she’s having twins, but she also has some new duties at the city hall. And even though there are some things about this book that still don’t convince me, I can see the efforts to make some improvements in the story. The fact that the plot is not only focused on the MC and her pregnancy, but also on Clint’s family issues, Myles’ reelection and the park not only are introducing us to new characters, but they’re also giving us plenty of material to make the story more dynamic and not only focused on one topic. I also like how the writers have been managing Cassandra’s arc of redemption. Despite her being the antagonist in the first book, you can tell she’s grown a lot as a character, to the point that she is willing to help our MC not because of her reputation, but because she genuinely seems to care. I don’t know if I expect a big plot twist coming in the next few chapters (and if it does, I guess it will be related to the MC’s health and the babies delivered earlier than expected) but even if it doesn’t, I can already tell this book is better than the first one. Blades Of Light And Shadow, Book 1 (January 29, 2020 - June 3, 2020): There is no doubt (at least not for me) that this was the best new release of 2020. We had been waiting for a new adventure book for a really long time, and PB delivered. Not only we had this super wide range of MCs to choose from, we had a book where our choices actually mattered. Because yes, you can buy every single diamond scene in this story and still, if you don’t make the right choices at the right moments, you won’t get all the skills at the end of it. And that’s probably what seduces me the most about this book. The characters in our gang are also very well written. Each one of them has a very different personality, they all have these very different backgrounds and burdens, but they still complement each other perfectly when it comes to work as a team. Now if I have to be completely honest about the plot, it took me a while to get into it, but I want to think it’s because I’m not very familiar with this type of stories, because it’s very clear that there aren’t any writing problems in it. However, if I have to criticize one thing, it has to be some people’s reaction: because yes, it seems like some people didn’t get the memo that this wasn’t a romance book and I must admit it disappointed me a little to see that most of the discussions were focused in the romance part instead of talking about the adventure itself. Bloodbound, Book 3 (November 9, 2019 - March 28, 2020): Last year, I already mentioned how happy I was with this book, especially because most of the times, the third book in a series is not as popular as the previous ones. We sometimes have that problem of writers dragging plots because they have nothing new to add and us, the readers, struggling to finish the story (because of course, after reading 2 books, no one gives up on reading the third one). Well, I still think this book is nothing but impressive. As a person who’s not into vampires at all, I can safely say this is the book that I enjoyed the most in the series. Even though I didn’t feel huge changes in our LIs, I loved the evolution of our MC when compared to the first book (her character development itself deserves a whole post) and even though there were some things that seemed predictable, there were some others that were completely unexpected. If I had to change something, I’d say we deserved two endings, the one that we had and a darker one, I think PB truly missed an opportunity there. But overall, I think the story came full circle. This is definitely one of my favorite releases in 2020. Distant Shores (April 3, 2020 - July 17, 2020): This book gives me all the “Nighbound” vibes. That is, it is a good story, it is well written, the plot is attractive and overall it was well received by the fandom; however, that’s not enough for it to get a second book (or in PB’s words, “it’s not as popular and profitable as we think”). I personally enjoyed the story, but I didn’t fall in love with it. My biggest complaint is that I kept constantly waiting for some HUGE plot twist, I did need that “I didn’t see that coming” moment to blow our minds… but that never happened and I ended up feeling that PB wasted a story that could have shown us one adventure after another and turned it into something “plain”. Also, even though we had a badass MC, three awesome LIs and an amazing crew, by the time I pressed the “End book” button, I felt I had more questions than answers… and I absolutely hate it when that happens. We never got a chance to know anything about Robert’s story, his background and how he managed to survive and go back and forth between the past and the present. Or we never knew what made him and our MC so special and why the compass helped them to time travel. I can definitely see the potential for a second (and even a third) book, it’s sad to know it won’t be happening.

#playchoices #choices stories you play #americas most eligible #americas most eligible 3 #americas most eligible 2 #ame #baby bump #baby bump 2 #babu #blades of light and shadow #blades #bolas #BloodBound #bloodbound 3 #Distant Shores

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rwbyconversations · 5 years ago

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Rooster Teeth Glassdoor Crunch/Overtime Accusations #AnimatorsFirst

EDIT: Georden Whitman, former creator of Nomad of Nowhere, has come out and publicly confirmed the Glassdoor reviews are true.

Original story:

Rooster Teeth’s Glassdoor reviews have recently made serious allegations against the company, with people who work for the company claiming that the company engages in practices involving heavy crunch periods, a resistance to providing benefits, eighty hour work weeks, a management team trying to justify crunch and unpaid overtime that, according to some, led to as much as a third of RWBY and gen;LOCK’s recent seasons being made effectively for free.

Below are screencaps and exact quotes from the pages. Any emphasis made is done by me.

From May 23rd this year, as written by an employee with three years experience at RT:

Cons

Program scheduling department has no idea how to time budget for animation, has resulted in unnecessary, preventable crunch Company takes on projects that are too big for it to manage effectively Not the highest pay compared to Anim Guild standards Open office space, gets noisy

Advice to Management

Management has been using a weird method to try and deescalate hard feelings about crunch. They’re acting like counselors who are “there to talk” and to try and find “coping mechanisms” to deal with crunch. This is a terrible idea considering that none of them are trained counselors as far as I’m aware, but more-so, they’re obviously going to be biased in favor of what they want from us. It makes me want to communicate with them even less. This past review, my manager criticized me for having “negative energy” during a terrible crunch period where we were working over 80 hrs s week, and told me I should “look for the silver lining” which is just bad advice. Advice to management is to stop pretending you know anything about mental health and also be less passive - fight harder for your team.

From May 13th, an employee with a year’s experience at Rooster Teeth:

Cons

The management is terrible. Artists are lead on with the promises of "full time employment and benefits" dangled in front of them without ever being addressed and ultimately are never given, there is no paid overtime, artists had to fight for their right to time off between productions, and good luck getting any form of benefits despite them being plastered on the wall.

Advice to Management

You're not a group of guys playing halo in your apartment anymore. Please run your business and look at what's happened to it.

From June 11th this year, from an employee who has been working at the company for five years:

Cons

- Extremely poor management (Some of it is negligence, some of it is just accidental from the sheer amount of work. Upper management is also extreme bro/friends club.) - Insanely high expectations (animate a 10-14 min episode in 2 weeks) - Very low compensation (I've worked here for years and make entry pay. Some people have gone MULTIPLE years with no raise) - No overtime pay (Every season of RWBY and GL gets about 1/3 or less made for 'free' because no one gets paid over time and it's not uncommon to work hundreds of hours of overtime) - Toxic work environment (there are a lot of cliques, complaining and even making fun of other people and depts here. It never gets punished so it always happens. Not professional) - You know something is going right when after many complaints HR reminds everyone you have "unlimited" mental health doctor appointments... I could honestly go on and on like an emo on Myspace in 2007 but I'll reign it in. I'll leave it at this since I've seen many fans read these and be skeptical. It's not great. You can deny it but there is a lot of evidence if you just accept it. And the reason you work here is cus you get stuck and are promised "It'll get better". The work is low quality (hard to get jobs elsewhere), pay is low (can't save money) and life/work balance is a joke. We have a bit of balance now but it's only for a couple months out of the year when production isn't in full swing. Then it's back in the meat grinder.

Advice to Management

You NEED to listen to the workers and make hard decisions and actually fight for better conditions. It's been far far too long of "it'll get better" or "we know what to do next year". This isn't sustainable and I think we all know it. But someone has to be the guy to say "no" when things aren't good enough. If you don’t say no, hundreds of people suffer. Please.

From May 18th:

Cons

Crunch has gotten to an unacceptable level. Productions have been completed with over half of total hours unpaid overtime, especially impacting the comp and editing department. Management cares more about their ego than the quality of the work they put out— letting the crunch caused by their irresponsible decisions fall solely on the shoulders of the artists while they enjoy a forty hour work week. Pay is laughable compared with the amount of mandated, unpaid hours of labor. No career advancement, and contract workers are given empty promises of full time employment before being shown the door once production is done.

Advice to Management

Stop saying the crunch issue is “getting better” or that you’re “working on it”, and start actually owning up to your mistakes.

From May 19th:

Cons

-A lot of employees brought on, if not all, before the last development cycle were promised permanent positions after a 90 day trial period. As those dates approached those artists saw no change, asking their leads what was going on. The guidance from higher ups was vague at best, and some felt like they had been forced to lie to employees during the interview process. - A lot of processes went over-scope due to poor planning. -Lack of actual production experience in the management side of things is no longer something that can be glossed over as the company tries to take on more industry vetted employees. -Crunch is extreme and overtime is not compensated for, nor is that time given back in any fair amount.

Advice to Management

-Clear and concise communication -Re-structure your upper level management

From May 12th:

Cons

Crunch here is out of control. No Paid OT. Expect to work A LOT for free. 70-80 hour work weeks. Mandatory 10-12 hour work days sometimes with no days off. Management is more interested in telling you what you want the hear as opposed to the truth.

Advice to Management

Fix the crunch issue and stop saying 'we're working on it'.... because you're not. Layoffs are certain. Will layoff bad employees and good employees in the same breath, completely eliminating any reason to work as hard as you're required to do. Fix your transparency issue and stop overworking your employees otherwise your reputation will severely suffer.

From April 5th:

Cons

-No paid overtime. -Crunch is a major problem in the animation department due to unrealistic deadlines, poor planning, and indecisiveness. (Mandatory 10 to 12 hour days for multiple months are common.) -Stress levels are often very high due to harsh deadlines -Some of the producers tend to lie. -Promotions are used as a morale booster, not actual career advancement. -Hardly any time for Professional Development -Professionalism can be a bit scarce (for example people would draw penises on the boards throughout the studio)

Advice to Management

-Management needs to seriously figure out how to deal with the crunch issue. A question was asked at an all hands meeting: "How are you going to handle crunch this year?" Instead of giving a clear answer, the head of the RT animation department completely dodged the question. If you don't know how you are going to tackle a problem, try saying, "I don't know. I will get back with you ASAP." Then actually pursue a solution to the problem. Dodging questions makes you look shady and untrustworthy. -Improve production plans and make sure you have enough resources to complete your projects. If you are going to work on two shows at the same time, then you need to double ALL of your teams along the pipeline, not just one. If you can barely get one project done with your current resources, you certainly cannot finish two. If you can't get the resources needed to complete the projects, then it's probably best to keep them small or to simply not do them at all. Pushing your teams beyond the breaking point is not the wisest decision. If you continue with your overambitious ways, it will backfire in the long run. Telltale Games' closure and Bioware's Anthem debacle are examples of what's to come if you do not improve your production practices and get crunch under control. -Get more training on how to manage people. There are plenty of programs out there that can help management understand how to work with various types of personalities. There were some situations where I noticed that some leads and producers simply did not know how to talk to a person when there was a problem. Despite all of the criticism I just wrote, I feel the majority of who work at Rooster Teeth Productions are decent people. However, the management is just terrible. Put some of that ambition you have into fixing your problems internally instead of putting it into meeting those unrealistic deadlines.

From March 25th:

Cons

- Massive amounts of unpaid overtime. All while touting the importance to the company of a life/work balance. They promise to give you the time back, but it will be impossible to take. - Management is just a joke. They can’t schedule or stay on track to save their lives. Total amateur hour. - Zero followthrough on promises made. How about a pizza party? - Pay much lower than standard. Don’t expect real raises. Promotions with increased responsibilities don’t come with comparable pay bumps. - Most promises of advancement and opportunities are hollow wishful thinking. - Almost zero followthrough with meaningful investment in employee education. You can access a Udemy account and that’s about it. - Management will blame the artists instead of taking responsibility and will even through people under the bus to cover themselves. - Internet celebs are more valuable than artists. - Their awards are called “cockbite of the month/year” and it’s what they call their employees. You may not want to be called that but that’s too bad. It’s their culture. A few guys draw penises everywhere to be funny. - Not very much diversity in management. Feels like you need to be a straight white male to be appreciated.

Advice to Management

Hire some actual seasoned industry professionals to upper management in Animation. And demonstrate there are some consequences for them, instead of taking it out on employees.

From April 11th:

Cons

-Overtime, and hours will cause any person to slowly become something they don't like. -Management is typically made up of "talent" and treats other employees poorly, not to mention 0 years of previous managerial experience. -Management also blames other employees for the problems they create, and don't show actual leadership. -Echo chambers within management. -Stress levels incredibly high -Lack of professionalism

Advice to Management

-Get rid of "talent" in managerial roles, it's clear they're costing the company serious problems and money. The ones who end up being hurt are the employees who knew and constantly warned about problems ahead of time that were ignored. If the company stays the same a huge incident is bound to follow. -Try to respect creatives that aren't "talent" within the company as well. It's clear management doesn't and goes against the entirety of the company's "core values." those who have had previous industry experience should be listened to and considered instead of being shrugged off and given responses like "Well that's just how we do things." -Collaboration doesnt seem to exist for a majority of managment here. If this one massive change happens the company could really grow far and do much more than create crude content with a lack of care/heart for the final product. -If people are able to sleep and have a normal schedule more thoughtful input will also happen, and your content can only get better. -A multitude of people and lives have been hurt from management at this company, from in house employees being mentally abused to freelancers that are ghosted. So many immature and poor practices have taken place within the animation department I'm amazed a lawsuit has yet to happen. -Management should be leaders not bosses.

It’s almost darkly funny that most of the positives are just “They give you free food on Mondays and the people are nice.”

But these are all from just the last year alone. Most reviews from before the start of 2019 don’t speak of crunch barring one from April 2018, one from March 2018 and one from June. This is a problem that has been affecting Rooster Teeth for at least an entire year, and since the start of the new year, the problem has magnified tenfold. Most reviews mention that the heads of departments are aware of the crunch and unpaid overtime but refuse to do anything about it beyond offering platitudes or dodging the question on what the company is going to actually do to fix the crunch problem.

Crunch is a problem plaguing many companies, especially in the western hemisphere. In gaming development there’s a story nearly every month about what apathetic upper management think they can get away with by forcing employees to spend dozens of hours every week slaving away on their product. I hoped that Rooster Teeth would not be one of these companies, but I am saddened to see that they were not.

Crunch’s negative effects on mental and physical health have been well documented, alongside the basic fact that crunch isn’t worth it and doesn’t work. Employees forced to crunch are unable to work as well as employees who are well rested and have time to go home to their families.

To anyone working these impossible crunch hours at Rooster Teeth right now, I hope your suffering ends soon, that eventually basic human empathy wins out and hours are lessened while you receive your just rewards for your work.

For @roosterteeth? This is appalling and a slap in the face to the fanbase you conned into thinking that you were a company that cared for everyone within as a huge family. Your entire management team should be ashamed of the environment you signed off on. No profit margin is worth the suffering you have subjected your crew to. Shame on you.

As a fan of RWBY, it disgusts me that a product I enjoy was made through blood, sweat and tears. And as a fan of RWBY, I wish to make a public call to the fanbase, be it on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter or Youtube. I want to make a public statement to Rooster Teeth that we are willing to wait longer for new shows if it means that they are made ethically. I can’t in good conscience support a product if it was made by putting the workers through hell. Maybe I can’t change anything on my own, maybe ultimately we’ll just be ignored, but I refuse to stand by and stay silent on the matter, maybe even get Rooster Teeth to make changes in their workflow (I won’t say “I hope they respond” because they seem to respond in-house to complaints about crunch without ever actually changing anything)

I encourage you to share this around as much as you can. Share the accounts of the Glassdoor reviews as far and as wide as you can. We love and enjoy media, we love the people who make it- the animators, editors, writers and voice actors, and we as a community want them to not have to resort to RT’s seemingly unlimited mental health coverage or “find a coping mechanism to deal with crunch.” As much as it pains me to admit, I’d rather see RWBY die instead of seeing continue to be made on the back of crunch.

Thank you for reading. Again, I encourage you to share this around as much as you can. Let your voice be heard if you stand against this.

#rwby #Rooster Teeth #Genlock #crunch #overtime #glassdoor #georden whitman #nomad of nowhere

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